After impassioned, often personal speeches from lawmakers in both parties noting the emotions that have followed House Bill 2 through the legislative process, the Texas Senate approved the omnibus abortion measure late Friday night.
The measure restricting abortions in Texas is now headed to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk, having passed as thousands of protesters who opposed the measure chanted in and around the Capitol. The crowd outside the chamber erupted after HB 2 passed with a vote of 19-11. But inside, there were none of the eruptions that helped kill the abortion bill in the first special session.
“This is a very difficult, emotional bill that we have dealt with,” said state Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, the sponsor of HB 2. ...Texas Tribune
State Senator Glenn Hegar is an active kind of guy. Not so very long ago he sponsored Texas law that allows Texans to carry concealed guns... anywhere. Guns, aborting abortion -- it's all part of the Republican "value" system with Hegar leading the way.
But being a female between the age of about 11 to the age of about 50 in Texas can be awkward. Men can outlaw anything they find embarrassing about women including women's hygiene materials.
Among the latest updates from the Unwanted Texas Efforts To Pass Stringent Anti-Abortion Legislation came the gem that the state senate security was confiscating tampons from spectators entering the gallery to watch debate on HB 2. Guns, of course, were still allowed in the gallery for those with concealed carry licenses. The difference between guns and tampons is that if you walk into a crowded locker room waving one of them aloft, every man there will run away screaming in fear for his life, and if you walk into that same locker room with the other one, everyone will just shrug and say, “Oh, hi, Gilbert Arenas.” ...WaPo
Just to show you the level of debate current in Texas, the senate security guys also found “one jar suspected to contain urine, 18 jars suspected to contain feces, and three bottles suspected to contain paint.” That stuff some kind of weapon? Or just lunch for hubby down there on the Senate floor, lunch prepared by the ol' ball 'n' chain up in the gallery?
Iowa Supreme Court justices found that a male dentist did not discriminate against a female employee "when he fired her out of fear that her good looks might prompt him into an extramarital affair," the Des Moines Register reports. ...Political Wire
I know, I know. That's where Muslims are so smart -- keeping your women in a hot sack year-round is certainly preferable to being punished for rape. Wait. What was Trayvon wearing?
