Please insert metaphor for being really, really busy …

As the explanation for another linkpost:
•As someone who’s blasted the religious right for sexism often enough, it’s worth noting that atheists can be sexist pigs too.
•There’s a common view that if the Supreme Court hadn’t found a right of abortion in Roe vs. Wade, legal abortion would have won through the legislatures and we wouldn’t have the right to life movement we have today. This Yale Law Journal paper argues convincingly that this isn’t so: The Catholic Church was mobilizing against abortion in the late sixties precisely because it saw legalization as a possibility, and Nixon believed making abortion an issue could swing Catholic voters to the Republican side.
•An argument why dreams of forming a third party that actually wins elections are just dreams. I’m not entirely convinced by his arguments, but they’re stimulating reading.
•For a change, I’ll let someone else rip into David Brooks and Charles Murray.
•Why the forced-birth movement (I think Digby coined the phrase for anti-abortion, anti-birth control groups) hates Planned Parenthood. Meanwhile, in my former home state, Sen. Marco Rubio continues the war against birth control. Rightbloggers join in the war! Digby predicts Democrats will fold if it keeps up.
•The Tea Party fights a Communist plot to improve our roads and build bike lanes! (I may have linked to this before).
•In defiance of facts, our government whips up fears of homegrown terrorist attacks, while the media worries that if we attack Iran, they might fight back!
•Even without the war on terror, there might not be much support for civil liberties.
•A Staples executive explains that giving female employees room to breastfeed will bankrupt American business.
•Crooked Timber scoffs at the supposed importance of candidates being “authentic.” David Brooks offers his own theory: Mitt Romney should prove his authenticity by telling the voters he’ll do things they don’t support.