Open Thread January 24, 2023

Yesterday was a good day to play the New Yorker’s “Name Drop” quiz. The first two clues were obscure but suggestive – but any one of the last four would bave been a dead giveaway to me. So I would think that at least one of them would be a dead giveaway to anyone in my generation. Oddly, my cartoon today is a clue of a sort as well. I doubt whether the author knew that – if he had, he might have rescheduled it a day.  (And p.S.  – first new Randy Rainbow in 5 months in today’s video thread!)

Cartoon –

Short Takes –

The New Yorker – When an Anti-Abortion Activist Calls
Quote – I asked for her phone number and said I would call her right back. I dialled the number, and reached a recorded message from a movie theatre. Then I called my doctor, and he told me that anti-abortion groups pay nurses for lists of women who have had abortions, the same way diaper companies used to pay nurses for lists of women who had given birth.
Click through for story. This is a reprint. It’s from 45 years ago. But it could easily have happened yeaterday. And it’s as infuriating, to me at least, as if it did.

Wonkette – How Are We Flaunting Our ‘Qualified Immunity’ Today?
Quote – Scott County immediately and grossly retaliated with an investigation into the molested boy’s parents. Just three months after the boy’s father threatened a lawsuit, a Missouri Department of Social Services manager, Spring Cook (no apparent relation to Brandon), showed up at the family’s home. And so began the harassment campaign…. A lawyer defended the parents pro-bono, and in August 2019, the Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board (CANRB) found that the charges of neglect were “unsubstantiated under a preponderance of the evidence standard.” The nightmare didn’t end here, though. The parents contend that Cook contacted the FBI, which led to a federal investigation into the charges that CANRB had dismissed.
Click through for details – it’s ugly, but shouldn’t be ignored.

Food For Thought