contrasts

U.S. readers, your tax dollars at work:

Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

"If we're not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation," said Wynne. "(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press."

The Air Force has paid for research into nonlethal weapons, but he said the service is unlikely to spend more money on development until injury problems are reviewed by medical experts and resolved.

A public relations problem. Yes. (Thanks to Redsock for the story.)

Elsewhere, tax dollars actually put to good use.

The Chilean government recently decided that contraception will be publicly available for all women over the age of 14. According to IPS, all public health centers must dispense birth control, including emergency contraception (EC), free of charge. The decree also ensures that younger women can without authorization from their parents obtain a prescription for birth control pills.

The Catholic Church and conservative politicians are already criticizing the decision that aims to give women of all ages and incomes control over their sexual and reproductive lives. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, a pediatrician, responded, saying to the Santiago Times, "The obligation of the state is to provide alternatives, and the obligation of families, of each one of us, is to communicate with our children, explain things to them, and to teach them."

Emergency contraception, or the morning-after pill, was finally approved for over-the-counter use in the United States, in response to a massive feminist and public health campaign. In the US, however, EC will only be available through a pharmacist, and only to women over 18 years of age.

The morning-after pill is a safe, highly effective method of preventing pregnancies, and is not an abortofacient. The use of the morning-after pill, however, does mean that sex has taken place. And sex, as we know, is evil. If society doesn't provide the means for pregnancy-free sex, teenagers will simply stop having sex. Right?