The 33 miners trapped underneath a Chilean mountain are safe. The most challenging task now is making sure the miners don’t lose their sanity as they await rescue.The number of illegal immigrants living in the U.S. shrank 8 percent to 11.1 million in 2009 from a peak of 12 million in 2007.A heated U.S. debate over a planned Islamic center near New York’s World Trade Center site is seen by Middle East media, scholars and citizens as more of a domestic American issue than an attack on their faith.Coming fresh off of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” reunion (did you all catch that horror show? One word: cray-cray) is the announcement that Bravo is set to release yet another Real Housewives franchise, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” next month.Most coastal city-dwellers who are familiar with the grittier, busier side of life, relationships and indie-rock bands will love “Going the Distance”; the rest of America, not so much. From Baltimore to Lancaster avenues and along Market Street in between, University City is abuzz from the arrivals of college students and professors back after summer vacation.Tiger Woods fans have put up with the philandering, the text messages and the domestic spats. Now comes what may be the hardest thing of all to tolerate: losing.While breast-enhancing surgery has become almost a norm for American women, men are also heading to the plastic surgeon’s office more often — to have their man-boobs (moobs) removed. If you are what you eat, then most Cape Codders would be a clam — or maybe a lobster roll A land named for a type of fish should abound with chances to sample tasty seafood, and Cape Cod does not disappointSo you squandered an estate note on a bachelor’s degree, then trudged through more entry-level hardships and thankless internships than should be legally permissable, only to backslide into a self-esteem shattering, résumé-derailing grind, several tax brackets below your dignity. 
Back when the debate over health care reform began — I believe it was a Tuesday, in the late Pleistocene — nobody expected that it would end up reviving the memory of Henry Hyde.
For those too young to remember, Hyde was a Republican Congressman whose career highlights included trying to impeach President Clinton over Monica Lewinsky at the same time as he was admitting to his own extramarital affair. Where his name will live on, though, is in the Hyde Amendment: Passed in 1977, when the paint was still wet on Roe v. Wade, it declared that though abortion might be legal, Congress wasn’t about to let Medicaid pay for any.
For more than 30 years since, the Hyde Amendment has been quietly forcing countless women to weigh not just whether to become moms, but whether to forgo food or rent that month if the decision was “no.” Studies show that when abortion funding is unavailable, about one in every four poor women instead end up going through with unwanted pregnancies. Over three decades, that comes to about one million women who’ve been forced to have kids because they couldn’t afford not to.
Now we have the Stupak amendment, tacked on to the House health care bill by an anti-abortion Democrat to “preserve the right of conscience” established by Hyde. Even leaving aside whether everyone should get a moral veto over use of their tax dollars — does that mean I can defund the Iraq War, or Jim Lehrer? — the government already subsidizes some abortions: If you’re flush enough to have a flex spending account, for instance, you get a tax break on all medical bills, abortion included.
Like Hyde, the Stupak amendment is a “compromise” that throws poor women under the bus to placate anti-abortionists without enraging the kinds of women who might have time to march in the streets. If the Democrats have any guts, they’ll ax Stupak — and then turn their sights on Hyde. If safe and legal abortion is the law of the land, then it needs to be so for all women — not just for those who can afford it.
– Neil deMause can be contacted at demause.net and on Twitter @neildemause.
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In the July MMMpod, Young Veins talk about breaking away from Panic! at the Disco, Keith Lockhart talks about Buckwheat Zydeco throwing the Boston Pops for a loop, Zooey Deschanel talks about how Roy Orbison inspired a She & Him song, Derek Miller of Sleigh Bells talks about how awesome Funkadelic is, and we talk about how awesome Jimmy Cliff is, who in turn talks about Sam Cooke and divine intervention. An explosive show for July! Oh yeah, and we also test your knowledge of America songs in the MMMPod medley.
