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Posts published in July 2014

Birth Control, Enjoyable and Intentional Sex, and Female Empowerment

Following our extensive discussions of the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision, and amidst the heat and bother over Gordon Howie's statement that life begins before sperm meets egg, Larry Kurtz sent me an essay by the Guardian's Jessica Valenti arguing…

Google Generates $55.6M in Economic Activity in South Dakota

KELO notes Google's claim that the search giant helped generate $55.6 million in economic activity in South Dakota in 2013. According to Google's nationwide economic report, that's the third-lowest amount of Googly economic activity, behind only Alaska and North Dakota.…

Senate Candidates Weak on Summarizing Positions Online

Did I miss a memo from the political science department declaring issues irrelevant to U.S. Senate campaigns? I check the websites for our four contenders—Marion Michael Rounds, Rick Weiland, Larry Pressler, and Gordon Howie—and find that not one of them…

South Dakota Keeping Its Racism Offline

Here's a low ranking in which South Dakota can find relief: South Dakota is among states with low participation in the white-supremacist hate forum Stromfront. Stephens-Davidowitz found 12 South Dakotans participating in Stormfront's particularly vile community of loathing of "the…

California Judge: Delays Make Death Penalty Unconstitutional

An Orange County, California, judge has ruled the state's death penalty unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Cormac J. Carney says California's death penalty inflicts cruel and unusual punishment, not because state-sanctioned killing of captive convicts is abhorrent, but because California…