Saturday morning musings

I'm technically on vacation but felt moved to post with a few things in the news. Plus, I just miss my good friends at Speaking Freely, like anonymous, anonymous, and anonymous.

• With emergency contraception now available over the counter, sales for 2007 will likely be twice what they were in 2006. And this has groups like the Family Research Council aghast. "This is very concerning," said Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council, which is among several groups suing the FDA to reverse the decision. "We think this is putting women's health at risk." Right. The FRC would rather these women get pregnant and have an abortion than prevent the pregnancy in the first place. That makes no sense.
• On Thursday night, more than 150 people attended a public hearing on prisoner abuse at Dauphin County Prison, which was sponsored by the Harrisburg branch of the NAACP. All participants who gave testimony took an oath to tell the truth, and the stories were compelling. At times, you could hear a pin drop. One woman witnessed another woman being held over a railing on one of the upper tiers of the prison. Several men told of being attacked while handcuffed and laying on the ground face first. Based on the evening's testimony, common practices at DCP include banging an inmate's head against the wall, walking on an inmate's achilles heels, legs, and back, and punching and macing an inmate while he/she is incapacitated in some way, e.g. handcuffed, shackled, strapped to a chair. The Breaking News Blog of The Patriot News is usually pretty quiet, but it has attracted an outpouring of comments on this issue, here and here.

Andy in Harrisburg