And now politics!

First up, a new And Magazine article out.
•I’ve noted before that the more emphasis we place on the rights of the fetus, the less rights women get. Echidne looks at how mother-blamers keep piling it on, including the idea that as many pregnancies are unplanned, fertile women should always care for themselves as if they’re pregnant (as pointed out at the link, women who use birth control have relatively few unplanned pregnancies). As Echidne points out “don’t drink while pregnant” isn’t based on medical evidence. It’s a)heavy drinkers can cause problems for the fetus; b)we don’t know what the minimum level is; c)therefore any drinking in pregnancy is dangerous and women wind up getting arrested for it, even though they haven’t committed a crime.
•Right-wing philosopher Ludwig van Mises argued Christianity is inherently anti-capitalist.
•Calls for deference and good manners are a useful tool for keeping people in their place. Oh, and McDonald’s is helpfully giving workers advice on how much to tip the pool boy and the au pair.
•Some very good links from Slacktivist on why the poor can’t simply save their pennies until they’re rich. More criticism of richsplaining here.
•Rick Santorum says Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid is just like the Republican fight against the Affordable Care Act.
•The federal government protected wolves and the US wolf population grew. Now it’s pulling back in the face of Western opposition and wolves are being slaughtered.
•A speech from the late Nelson Mandela.
•I’m less surprised than Digby that conservatives (or some of them) are disenchanted with Pope Francis’ liberal comments. We’ve been here before. Back when John Paul II came out against the war in Iraq, right-wingers were loudly denouncing him and explaining the church had lost all moral authority. Christianity is what conforms the Republican Party platform (Rick Santorum’s disagreements with his church all coincide with things were the party disagrees with the church).
•If you have a baby, the government gives you free college—apparently one of the things crisis-pregnancy centers tell women to discourage abortions.