Do-it-yourself abortions in Texas

Texas passed restrictions on abortion clinics supposedly to make the procedure safer to women. As a result of these restrictions, the number of abortion clinics dropped from 42 to 18. These restrictions are going to be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Funny, the rules don't apply to dentist's offices which have similar risks, in my opinion.

But the law of unintended consequences has reared its ugly head. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 240,000 women in Texas have tried abortions on themselves, using drugs, alcohol and, yes, punching the fetus in the womb. It is not known how many of these abortions have been successful and how many women and fetuses have been injured as a result.

Once again, the fanatics of the religious right are doing more harm than good. It's amazing that any woman today would want to have a baby with the increasing restrictions on her pregnancy and the very real chance that she will die in the process.

Here's the Bloomberg article this post is based on.

Steve Ballmer: Dragging MSFT down by $20 billion

We knew that Steve Ballmer was dragging down Microsoft, but now we have a value on it. He announced his retirement today and MSFT went up $2.37 per share today. With 8.33 billion shares outstanding, he's been dragging the stock down by almost $20 billion.

Sorry, Steve, about the dissing by Wall Street but at least your stock and options will have appreciated too.

When someone posts a chart showing the performance of Microsoft's stock under Ballmer's tenure, I'll link to it. I'm not expecting much gain, if any. Bloomberg has given us some numbers: "An investment of $1,000 when Ballmer took over is now worth 13 percent less, including dividend returns, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Since Microsoft’s 1986 initial public offering through the end of the Gates era, $1,000 turned into $554,464."

Here's a Fortune article on this, written before the market closed: Steve Ballmer: The $16 billion drag on Microsoft.

Updated Aug. 24: Added quote from Bloomberg.