Mattsapundit

Well isn’t this interesting:

Proponents of laws requiring a waiting period before a woman can receive an abortion argue that these cooling off periods protect against rash decisions on the part of women in the event of unplanned pregnancies. Opponents claim, at best, waiting periods have no effect on decision-making and, at worst, they subject women to additional mental anguish and stress. In this article, I examine these competing claims using adult female suicide rates at the state level as a proxy for mental health. Panel data analyses suggest that the adoption of mandatory waiting periods reduce suicide rates by about 10 percent, and this effect is statistically significant. The result is robust to various attempts to control for unobservable heterogeneity and simultaneity.

[Hat-tip: The Volokh Conspiracy]

Matt Bramanti | October 31, 2005 at 4:17 pm
Posted to National, Abortion

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As I’ve been reporting over the past couple months, Chron editor Jeff Cohen has been dodging questions from his customers. When I asked Chron reader representative James T. Campbell about it, he had this to say:

Well, since agreeing to do it, we’ve had two hurricanes and a World Series. I know he was close to finishing the questions I submitted to him but he got sidetracked by work.

I’ve got news for you, James: Keeping up good, honest relations with the people who keep you in business is work. It’s certainly part of your job, and Cohen ought to consider it a big part of his job, too. It’s not incredibly convincing to say “Gee, news got in the way.”

It’s just bad business to promise something to your customers and fail to deliver. Besides, it’s not like the questions were all that hard. Here’s a smattering of the readers’ inquiries:

• Why doesn’t the Chronicle have an on staff convervative columnist to balance liberal Casey?
• why is it that the water level of the main river is never posted? Rio Grande River!!
• Why is it that the majority of business stories are AP/syndicated and not about Houston or written by Chronicle writers?
• Why don’t you have someone in Iraq covering the war? Seems like a pretty Big Story.

See, those aren’t too tough. Not a single math question in there.

CORRECTION: The original headline misidentified Cohen as the Chron’s publisher. Cohen is actually the editor and executive vice president. The real big enchilada is publisher Jack Sweeney. Sorry ’bout that, and thanks to Evil D. for setting me straight.

Matt Bramanti | October 31, 2005 at 2:22 pm
Posted to Houston, Media, Business

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Sharif don’t like it:

Death threats to the Egyptian-born actor Omar Sharif have appeared in Islamist forums on the Internet, after Sharif’s appearance as a Christian, Saint Peter, in an Italian biblical epic for television. A threatening message from user ‘bachirma1′ on one of the forums used by jihadi groups linked to al-Qaeda, reads:”In my view Omar Sharif is an infidel - enter here”. Inside it continues; “He is a crusader who offends Islam and Muslims and is applauded by the Italian people. I give you some advice, my brothers, you should kill him.”

I recommend that all appropriate Casbah-rocking action commence immediately.

Matt Bramanti | October 31, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Posted to International, Islamofascism, Terrorism, Movies

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Happy Halloween, folks, from all of us at Mattsapundit Central Command.

Time to scare the piss out of you. Look at this.

Yikes.

Matt Bramanti | October 31, 2005 at 11:23 am
Posted to Holidays

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Wes D got totally shot down by a fairy chick. And yet, he ‘don’t give a damn.’ What a weenie.

Matt Bramanti | October 30, 2005 at 1:38 am
Posted to Out and About, Friends

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After being stunned and impressed with the journalistic quality and unimpeachable integrity of Lone Star Times, the Speaker of the House of Representatives decided to take a shot at this whole blogging thing:

This is Denny Hastert and welcome to my blog. This is new to me. I can’t say I’m much of a techie.

You’re kidding. Hastert goes on to attack those EEEVIL oil companies who dare to charge us $2.55 for an explosive product that’s extracted from a two-mile-deep hole in a politically unstable country, shipped halfway around the world, taxed exorbitantly and run through a heavily regulated billion-dollar refinery:

Speaking of the Hurricane season, renewed attention has been brought to the way we refine gasoline in this country. Today, energy companies started reporting their 3rd quarter earnings, and while Americans paying were record prices at the pump, energy companies were making record profits.

This is America. And Republicans don’t believe in punishing success.

You know what’s coming next. The “But…” Monkey:

But what are these oil companies doing to bring down the cost of oil and natural gas?

Hastert, you’re a Republican. Try rewording that statement with other commodities.

• “But what are these farmers doing to bring down the cost of sugar?”
• “But what are these lumber mills doing to bring down the cost of two-by-fours?”
• “But what are these gold miners doing to bring down the cost of gold?”

The speaker ends by threatening promising to send us more pearls of wisdom:

I’m going to keep updating this from time to time. It’s not that bad.

Trust me, Denny, it was a lot worse from this end.

Matt Bramanti | October 28, 2005 at 1:04 pm
Posted to National, Politics, Stupidity, Blogging

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