Ragbag Headliners

House Republicans Plan To Redefine Rape

Drugged, Raped, and Pregnant? Too bad -- Republicans are Pushing to Limit Rape and Incest Cases Eligible for Government Abortion Funding

Rape is only really rape if it involves force, according to the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

For years, federal laws restricting the use of government funds to pay for abortions have included exemptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, with another exemption covering pregnancies that could endanger the life of the mother.

But the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," contains a provision that would rewrite the rules to drastically limit the definition of rape and incest in these cases. The bill, with 173 mostly Republican co-sponsors, has been dubbed a top priority in the new Congress by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

With this legislation, which was introduced last week by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Republicans propose that the rape exemption be limited to "forcible rape." This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible.

For example, if a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion. Rep. Smith's spokesman did not respond to a call and an email requesting comment. –Read more at ABC News

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To Reduce Wireless Bills, Some Try An 'iPod Phone'

Brennan Stehling's phone looks just like an iPhone, but his bill is nothing like the ones most smartphone customers get in the mail each month.

His costs $40, but it can dip as low as $30 on months when he uses the phone sparingly.

The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, man's Apple device isn't a phone, exactly. It's an iPod Touch, a touch-screen gadget that contains most of the features of an iPhone except for the earpiece and cellular chip.

Use of the iPod Touch as a makeshift smartphone is an endeavor reserved mostly for a small niche of enterprising techies. Many of them share phone-related strategies, usually involving use of Skype or Google Voice, on internet message boards. –Read more at CNNTech

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The Internet Has (Kind Of) Run Out Of Space

On Thursday, the internet as we know it ran out of space.

The nonprofit group that assigns addresses to service providers announced that, on Thursday morning, it allocated the last free internet addresses available from the current pool used for most of the internet's history.

"This is an historic day in the history of the internet, and one we have been anticipating for quite some time," said Raul Echeberria, chairman of the Number Resource Organization.

But fear not. The group has seen this coming for more than a decade and is ready with a new pool of addresses that it expects to last, well, forever.

John Curran, CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, said the old pool of Internet Protocol addresses had about 4.3 billion addresses. –Read more at CNN Tech