Foreign Aid to Promote Gay Rights and More in Chad’s Steaming Pile

Here are just a few things in Chad’s Pile that you will hear on Lubbock’s First News this morning. Give Chad your feedback on the steaming topics.

1. Gay Rights $$ (link)

Foreign Aid has been a big topic lately in the GOP primary battle and this is likely to stir things up even more. Should the United States pay other countries depending on where they fall on homosexuality?

The Obama administration is announcing a wide-ranging effort to use U.S. foreign aid to promote rights for gays and lesbians abroad, including combating attempts by foreign governments to criminalize homosexuality.

In a memorandum issued Tuesday, President Barack Obama directed U.S. agencies working abroad, including the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, to use foreign aid to assist gays and lesbians who are facing human rights violations. And he ordered U.S. agencies to protect vulnerable gay and lesbian refugees and asylum seekers.

"The struggle to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons is a global challenge, and one that is central to the United States' commitment to promoting human rights," Obama said in a statement.

What do you think about this?

2. Morning After Pill (link)

Just when you thought there weren't enough battles in the Presidential race...

The Washington Post reports that, under President Obama and his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the Food and Drug Administration is considering letting “anyone of any age buy the controversial morning-after pill Plan B directly off drugstore and supermarket shelves without a prescription.”  The Post writes,

“The Food and Drug Administration has until Wednesday to respond to a request from the drug’s manufacturer to make the pill as easy to get as toilet paper and toothpaste....

“Opponents, however, say such a decision would expose girls and women to potential risks from taking high doses of a potent hormone, interfere with parents’ ability to monitor their children and make it easier for men to prey on vulnerable minors….

“[The] pill would move out from behind pharmacists’ counters, eliminating the requirement that women produce a prescription or prove that they are at least 17 years old to get it without a doctor’s order. Instead, Plan B would be available on store shelves, along with condoms, contraceptive sponges and spermicides.

“‘Hopefully, it will be right on the shelves between the condoms and the pregnancy tests,’ said Kirsten Moore of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, a Washington-based advocacy group

Should the Morning After Pill be more accessible? Do you have a problem with it?

3. TV habits (link)

Do TV viewing habits lean left or right? The folks at Entertainment Weekly say that those who lean left prefer different shows than those who lean right.

Republicans don’t watch MTV’s Jersey Shore. But they dig ABC’s Castle.

Democrats don’t like Discovery’s Deadliest Catch. But they swoon for NBC’s Parks & Recreation.

Those are a few of the findings of an annual research survey by Experian-Simmons that measures the consumer preferences of various political ideologies. In a report prepared exclusively for EW, the company calculated some of the favorite — and least favorite — TV shows of political partisans (specifically: the report measures which shows among the survey group were watched by the highest-concentration of self-identified “Liberal Democrats” and “Conservative Republicans”).

In the findings, “sarcastic” media-savvy comedies and morally murky anti-heroes tend to draw Dems. While serious work-centered shows (both reality shows and stylized scripted procedurals), along with reality competitions, tend to draw conservatives.

You can check out the list of shows that Democrats and Republicans enjoy. If this list and survey is accurate, which I'm not sure it is, then Republicans need to get a sense of humor and Democrats need to watch something smart every now and then. Still, I think the list is BS and people watch what they are in the mood for. Two of my favorite shows are Always Sunny and Modern Family. I also enjoy American Pickers and Top Shot.

These and many more topics coming up on Wednesday’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App.