I’m loving Devendra Banhart’s Little Boxes.
The first post at Everyday Politics. It’s a textbook blog, so please don’t comment. It’s really supposed to be for students.
New websites that I’ve been playing with: Quantcast for statistical information about blogs and websites. And Hulu for catching up on House.
Palin and RapeKitGate. I first read about it on the blogs. But now it has made national news. Score one for the blogosphere.
Apt. 11d 
Rachel Larimore, Slate’s copy chief, thinks that the Wasilla story is a myth, and compares it to the persistent Obama-is-a-Muslim stories.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/xxfactor/archive/2008/09/26/debunk-a-bunk.aspx
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Larimore seems to be making sense about details that should be part of the story (i..e it’s hospitals that charge the patients, not the city, which, after all, doesn’t provide the service). But, it doesn’t change the overall tenor of what was happening (including the police chief’s unwillingness to pass along the cost to the taxpayer, even in favor of passing them along to insurance companies). Rape kits are not a medical service — they’re evidence gathering in a potential criminal investigation. Presumably one does not charge for that in other instances (i.e. dusting for fingerprints).
I’d also like to know more what the laws say — do they impose the cost on the hospitals? or do they require the taxpayers to pay (the right solution, as part of general criminal investigations).
So, it’s not comparable to the “he’s a muslim story” and Larimore lost me in making the comparison. There’s nothing to that story.
BTW, the taxpayers don’t have to pay for the morning after pill — that’s health care, and I don’t think taxpayers (and criminal investigations) pay for the health care of a victim of a crime.
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