2/27 - Colbert Report

With the Oscars coming up, the Daily Show is in repeats this week, but the Colbert Report Colbert Report still has new episodes.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 2/28/2006 08:53:00 AM   

2/23 - The Daily Show and Colbert Report

Here are some screen grabs from Thursday's episodes of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 2/24/2006 09:12:00 AM   

2/22 - Daily Show and Colbert Report

The recent controversy over a deal in which a company controlled by the United Arabs Emirates would acquire a firm that operates ports in the United States was covered in both the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report on Wednesday. Here are some screen grabs from Wednesday's episodes.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 2/23/2006 08:49:00 AM   

2/21 - Daily Show and Colbert Report

The Olympics have made this February a lot quieter than usual in terms of the site, though I continue on with footnotes for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Colbert Report. Here are some screen grabs from Tuesday's episodes.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 2/22/2006 09:10:00 AM   

2/14 - Boston Legal - Smile

Last night's episode of Boston Legal centers mostly on a new Massachusetts law (on-line here), which was enacted in 2005 and which requires all medical facilities that provide care to victims of sexual assault with information about emergency contraception (EC), and requires all medical facilities provide emergency care to offer emergency contraception "promptly" to any female rape victim and "shall initiate emergency contraception upon her request."

The law actually does NOT include an exception for religious or private hospitals as was stated in this episode. According to reports, Public Health Commissioner Paul Cote proposed regulations in December 2005 that would have created such an exemption; Governor Mitt Romney initially supported such regulations but ultimately did not support them.

Besides Massachusetts, seven other states (California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Washington) have enacted laws to ensure that sexual-assault victims receive access to EC in hospitals (source: here). In addition, Illinois and Texas have enacted laws that require emergency rooms to provide information about EC to sexual-assault victims.

Debates over access to EC have become widespread and have also focused on access in pharmacies. Some states (Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota) have explicitly allowed pharmacists to refuse to fill such prescriptions, whereas one state (Illinois) has explicitly required pharmacies that carry birth control to carry EC. Massachusetts' pharmacy board reportedly ordered Wal-Mart on February 14, 2006 to carry EC in its pharmacies; Wal-Mart reportedly carried EC only in Illinois before the order.

EC pills (sometimes known as the "morning-after" pill, though they can be used for up to 72 hours after sex) contain stronger, concentrated doses of the hormones used in regular birth-control pills and prevent a pregnancy from developing; they are not the same as RU-486 (also known by its scientific name mifepristone), which terminates a pregnancy that has already begun. EC pills have been available in some parts of the world since the 1980s, but were not available in the United States until 1998, when the first pills were approved for the market.

For more footnotes on this episode, go here.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 2/15/2006 08:21:00 AM   

2/4 - Saturday Night Live - Steve Martin

New footnotes for Steve Martin's episode of Saturday Night Live.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 2/05/2006 11:37:00 AM