New Abortion Ban Lawsuit Places Black Georgians Squarely at the Center of the Fight

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New Abortion Ban Lawsuit Places Black Georgians Squarely at the Center of the Fight

A new lawsuit filed last week could eventually force the U.S. Supreme Court to examine how laws that attack abortion access disproportionately affect Black women and other women of color.

Centering the conversation on some of the state’s most vulnerable people was the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU’s) motivation for naming SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging HB 481, Georgia’s six-week abortion ban.

“I think the ACLU was very intentional,” Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, told me in an interview. “The way that they wanted to approach this particular lawsuit was to make sure it was rooted in reproductive justice.”

Reproductive justice centers “three interconnected human rights values: the right not to have children using safe birth control, abortion, or abstinence; the right to have children under the conditions we choose; and the right to parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments.” Black women coined the term in 1994.

Women Have Been The Fueling Energy Of Christian Right Demands For Decades

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Women Have Been The Fueling Energy Of Christian Right Demands For Decades

By Emily Suzanne Johnson, Assistant Professor of History, Ball State University. First published on The Conversation

Alabama’s new abortion restrictions were signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey. But more has been said recently about the fact that the bill was passed by 25 white men in the state Senate. Media reports have pointed to how this law will disproportionately affect black and poor women.

Only four women currently serve in Alabama’s state Senate. Three voted against the bill, while one abstained.

In response to the Alabama vote, Democratic State Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison compared men’s votes on abortion legislation to “a dentist making a decision about heart surgery.”

“That’s why we need more women in office,” Coleman-Madison said.

Across the country, women are underrepresented in legislatures. But the question is: Would voting more women into office necessarily shift the politics of abortion?

Naomi Wolf's 'Outrages' Book Exposed On Air By BBC As Full Of Major Errors About Victorians

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Naomi Wolf's 'Outrages' Book Exposed On Air By BBC As Full Of Major Errors About Victorians

Author, activist Naomi Wolf is living the worst nightmare for a writer. She did not properly investigate the term "death recorded", a key research term in her new book 'Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love, '

The error is a whopper, one that goes to a core premise of her book, which deals with people not only being imprisoned for 'illegal love acts' but -- according to Naomi -- being executed.

Wolf was interviewed on BBC Radio Thurs. where she apparently sat with interviewer Matthew Sweet , as he read to Wolf the definition of “death recorded,” a 19th-century English legal term. “Death recorded” means that a convict was pardoned for his crimes rather than given the death sentence.

The legal term means the exact opposite of what Naomi assumed. The error speaks volumes about her lack of scholarship and a book that is on sale as we speak.

Obscenity Charges Dropped Against Egyptian Actor Rania Youssef Over Red Carpet Dress

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Obscenity Charges Dropped Against Egyptian Actor Rania Youssef Over Red Carpet Dress

Actor Rania Youssef said she didn’t mean to offend anyone with her Cairo International Film Festival ensemble, after walking the festival’s red carpet last week in a black leotard layered underneath a sheer, beaded black gown. “It was the first time that I wore it and I did not realize it would spark so much anger,” said the 44- year-old, citing the influence of celebrity stylists. “I reaffirm my commitment to the values upon which we were raised in Egyptian society.”

Three Egyptian lawyers — Amr Abdel Salam, Hamido Jameel al-Prince and Wahid al-Kilani — known for using the courts to engage in moral vigilantism, according to The New York Times, filed a lawsuit against Youssef, accusing her of wearing an outfit that constituted “incitement to debauchery.”

The lawsuit was dropped on Monday and it appears that the actor will not face further charges, despite our first finding news of the lawsuit on Vogue Arabia Tuesday morning.

The actress’s gown “did not meet societal values, traditions and morals and therefore undermined the reputation of the festival and the reputation of Egyptian women in particular,” complainant Samir Sabri, The supporter of Egypt’s Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi, Egypt’s current and sixth president, claims to have filed over 2,700 lawsuits over 40 years, targeting actors, clerics, politicians and belly dancers. 

Moral Crusader Roy Moore Sues Four Alabama Sexual Harassment & Teen Assault Accusers For Defamation

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Moral Crusader Roy Moore Sues Four Alabama Sexual Harassment & Teen Assault Accusers For Defamation

Former Alabama  Senate candidate Roy Moore, a man with notoriety on multiple fronts including wanting to govern America as a theocracy, filed a lawsuit on Monday in the Circuit Court of Etowah County, Ala. where he lives with his wife Kayla, writes The New York Times. 

Defendants in the suit are Leigh Corfman, Debbie Gibson, Tina Johnson and Beverly Nelson, charged with defaming and conspiring against Moore and his wife Kayla, and of committing libel and slander “by making statements which were false, malicious, and made with intentional or reckless disregard of the truth and with the intent that those statements be published to others, including through state and national media.”

“Those statements caused harm to the reputation and character of Judge Moore and also to his wife Kayla, lowered their standing in the community and discouraged members of the community from associating with them,” the lawsuit said.

Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

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Religious Groups Tried To Block Rihanna's Senegal GPE Global Education Conference Visit

When 10 current and three former heads of state and more than 100 ministers gathered at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Financing Conference in Dakar, Senegal, the conference marked the first time an education financing conference has been hosted by a developing country. 

President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal and President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic welcomed the more than 1200 participants including leaders from UNESCO, UNICEF, the World Bank, civil society, philanthropic foundations and the private sector. Rihanna, GPE’s Global Ambassador supported by Global Citizen, also participated.

Thankfully, Senegal's President Sall didn't bow to the generally unreported but very real protests in Senegal, demanding that Rihanna be banned from the event because of her involvement with the 'Illuminati'. 

Snopes writes that activist celebrities like Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Madonna and Katy Perry are common targets of Trump's friends -- the conspiracy theorists -- who argue that these pop culture leaders are either Satanists or part of the Illuminati. This top conspiracy theory about the Illuminati posits that ultra-wealthy celebrities, bankers, billionaires and politicians are all globalists who secretly rule the world, putting their party above countries or religion. 

Hillary Clinton is considered to be among the most dangerous of the Illuminati, as Alexandra Petri wrote for The Washington Post in October 2016, three weeks before the election in: "The hideous, diabolical truth about Hillary Clinton".  

The Illuminati is believed to include many Freemasons. Although the two groups are believed to share many members and common values, they are historically separate.

Massive Splits Between Clinton & Trump Voters Show Diametrically Opposed Views On Cultural Issues

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Massive Splits Between Clinton & Trump Voters Show Diametrically Opposed Views On Cultural Issues

Yet another new poll explores the massive fault lines between Democrats and Republicans, and between Clinton and Trump supporters. NBC's headline sums up yet again the fundamental argument that cultural attitudes -- and not economic forces -- distinguish Democrats from Republicans.  We recap revelations in the new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. 

More than 8-in-10 Clinton voters are comfortable with a changing America. Change comes in many forms, but most Clinton voters are not only positive -- but excited -- about an American experiment that see self-perceived whites as no longer being the majority of Americans. By contrast, only one quarter of Trump voters welcome these changes. 

“The ‘Culture Wars’ have been with us forever, and they remain today,” says Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.

Listen Up Dems: Repressive Societies Prioritize Controlling Women's Reproduction

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Anne of Carversville has tracked the Republican War on Women in-depth since 2007. The assault on women has gained huge momentum under Trump, and this 2007 essay written by Steven Conn, now the W.E Smith Professor of History at Miami University, is more relevant today than ever. 

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico lit a bonfire among Democrats when he said earlier in August that abortion rights shouldn't be a "litmus test" for Democrats. 

Abortion rights activists including myself erupted, imploring leaders like Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, to remain defiant with the Democratic Party. Richards couldn’t be clearer on how wrong she thinks Luján is, telling Politico.“It’s a shocking sort of misunderstanding of actually where the country is … which is overwhelmingly supportive of abortion rights and also, who are the ground troops that kind of fuel the election of candidates.” 

Milo Yiannopoulos Loses 'Dangerous' Book Deal & CPAC Speech. Is His Breitbart Job Also On The Line?

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Milo Yiannopoulos Loses 'Dangerous' Book Deal & CPAC Speech. Is His Breitbart Job Also On The Line?

Breitbart's controversial editor Milo Yiannopoulos has enjoyed a very bad day. The controversial provocateur was trying to clarify past comments on relationships between 13-year-old boys and older men after a conservative site Reagan Battalion posted a collection of edited video clips that blew up in the pretty boy's face. 

The website took this action not only posting but tweeting the video clips Sunday in which Yiannopoulos discusses Jews, sexual consent, statutory rape, child abuse and homosexuality. The action is generally believed to be in response to the alt-right hero becoming a keynote speaker at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. 

Arise! Will Young Women Join Anita Hill, Gloria Steinem & Eve Ensler in the Republican War on Women?

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Anne here, very excited to be on my way to New York. Have my press credentials & laptop for ‘live’ blogging from the media pool. Simply can’t believe that I will be in the media room w/Gloria Steinem, Eve Ensler, Anita Hill and all these great women who have fought so hard for women’s rights.

It’s perfect timing, as the Republicans pass a 7th bill that says pregnant women having a miscarriage — who are already distraught over their health emergencies — can die in the emergency rooms of American hospitals.

Our nation no longer has an obligation to save its women, say the Republicans.

Eye | Angelina Jolie | Apostle Paul | Daniel Pearl | Daisy Khan | David Brooks | Hillary Clinton | Chris Matthews

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Living | Angelina Jolie on Family, Film & Philanthropy | Vicki Woods & Mario Testino | Vogue US December 2010

Writer Vicki Woods did a superb job of creating a multi-dimensional Angelina Jolie in the Vogue interview. Did you know that Jolie has a “seriously filty laught”. Her piece is great writing about a woman much admired a AOC.

It was Angelina Jolie’s Esquire interview that launched Anne of Carversville in June 2007. The themes of that essay, including our collective global responsibility not only for dialogue, but understanding of global issues that promote warring points of view, remain richly embedded in our editorial policy.

A humanist, Anne wept over the beheading of Wall Street reporter Daniel Pearl, who was taken hostage in Karachi, Pakistan, following a story.

Jolie became friends with Daniel Pearl’s wife Mariane Van Neyenhoff, who channeled her grief into a positive dialogue with Muslims through the Daniel Pearl Foundation. The two bonded when Angelina played Mariane in “The Mighty Heart”.

Ironically, it seems that Mariane Pearl also read the Esquire 2007 interview, because Pearl contacted the actress about playing her in the movie.

Angelina Jolie and Mariane Pearl

Angelina Jolie & Mariane Pearl Talk with Charlie Rose about “The Mighty Heart”. This short clip is taken from Angelina’s longer interview with Charlie Rose on June 19, 2007.

Short Clip of Angelina Jolie and Mariane Pearl on Charlie Rose, June 2007

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