If access to abortion is a constitutional right — as the Supreme Court ruled many years ago — it seems, writes Linda Greenhouse, that some constitutional rights are more equal than others. In striking down an Alabama law that would have shut down three of Alabama’s five remaining abortion clinics, U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson asked what would happen if Alabama wrote a law that limited the purchase of guns so that only two gun shops were left in the state. Myron knows what would happen. In his opinion in Planned Parenthood Southeast vs. Strange, he wrote “The defenders of this law would be called upon to do a heck of a lot of explaining, and rightly so in the face of an effect so severe.”
What happens when you raise the minimum wage? It’s an argument that economists and politician have been having for years. Here are a few early attempts at answering the question. Via the Washington Post.
The war on whites? Yes, the war on whites. Some people, including a Republican congressman, think that’s the issue of our day. Via the Washington Post.
Love, lies, luxury goods and a governor. The story of the trial that has everything. Via Bloomberg.
Ted Cruz is different. He thinks being really, really different is how you become president. Via the New Yorker.
The Ebola question that everyone is asking – and Obama didn’t really answer: Why did the two Americans get the serum when Africans were left to die? Via the New Republic.
The world-wide multi-billion-dollar messaging industry is not known for its scruples, but here’s news via the Guardian: “Public relations firms have played a critical role over the years in framing the debate on climate change and its solutions – as well as the extensive disinformation campaigns launched to block those initiatives. Now a number of the world’s top 25 global PR firms have told the Guardian they will not represent clients who deny man-made climate change, or take campaigns seeking to block regulations limiting carbon pollution.”
Here’s a list, courtesy of Colorado Biz magazine, of the state’s top professional communication firms. Which ones among them are the best corporate citizens? It’s a tough question to answer. But a good beginning might come from asking which of them are committed to doing business with climate-change denying clients, companies and people that embrace the contemporary version of “cigarettes are good for your throat”?
New York Times media columnist David Carr is teaching at Boston University. He posted his syllabus on Medium — or better to say he wrote his syllabus in Medium? So it’s more than a syllabus. It’s a first lesson in the “don’t tell me, show me” line of instruction.
Yeah, it’s just the movies, but why does Hollywood insist on pretending that ancient Egypt was full of white people? Via Vox.
[Photo by Tommaso Galli via Flickr/Creative Commons.]
