In the upside-down world of Republican anti-abortion extremists, accepted medical standards constitute malpractice while lying to patients does not. That's inescapable conclusion from the latest torrent of draconian abortion restrictions now pouring out of GOP-controlled state legislatures. While Kansas has banned lawsuits by parents against physicians who refused to inform them of catastrophic fetal disorders, […]

The state of Georgia this week began offering a new version of its vehicle license plate featuring the Confederate battle flag. Sponsored by the Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (to whom a portion of the purchase price and annual registration fees will go), the revised design has many people inside the state […]

"The doctor-patient relationship." For over 20 years, conservative propagandists and their Republican allies have used that four-word bludgeon to beat back universal health care reform. In 1994, GOP strategist Bill Kristol warned that "the Clinton Plan is damaging to the quality of American medicine and to the relationship between the patient and the doctor." Kristol's […]

For the first time since its passage of draconian curbs on the state's abortion clinics, Texas stripped the medical license of a physician for failing to obtain admitting hospital admitting privileges. With a third of the state's clinics already shuttered due to the TRAP law which went into effect on November 1, 2013, access to […]

Long before he became America's preeminent conservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer was a practicing physician in Boston. Now, the psychiatrist turned commentator is offering a prescription for his Republican Party suffering from the blowback of its war on women. The antidote to the yawning gender gap expanded by GOP proclamations about "legitimate rape" and other "gifts […]

During the 2012 presidential campaign, GOP nominee Mitt Romney declared that discussion of the nation's record-high income inequality should be left to "quiet rooms." As their casual comparisons of modest tax increases to the Holocaust show, conservatives would do well to heed his advice. After all, before Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins warned that […]

This was not the best of weeks for once and possible future GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. First, the Fox News host doubled-down on his "Uncle Sugar" charge that the Affordable Care Act's conception coverage mandate showed that Democrats believe women "cannot control their libido or reproductive system without the help of the government," only […]

One man is the star of reality television show with 12 million viewers. With over 1.2 billion followers worldwide, the other may now be the hosting the greatest show on earth. Yet for American conservatives, Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty clan is being silenced for "a point of view that is traditional, that holds […]

After watching Americans engage in a week of national self-flagellation over Duck Dynasty and its controversial patriarch Phil Robertson, I decided to watch something else. Passing up ersatz conflict for the real thing, I put on Ken Burns' unforgettable documentary, The Civil War. But my escape from the Daily Mail's latest "exclusive" from the Robertson […]

Former Arkansas Governor and Baptism Minister turned Fox News regular Mike Huckabee has had a very big week. On Monday, his son David announced his father would be launching his own news and culture web site--Huckabee Post--in January. That same day, Governor Huckabee announced he was "keeping the door open" to a run for the […]