washington post

The new Howard Stern on the old one: ‘I don’t know who that guy is’

The bold new strategy in the fight against abortion rights

For years, antiabortion advocates have tried to chip away at Roe v. Wade incrementally. They pushed legislatures to impose waiting periods and mandate hallway widths in clinics and generally make it more onerous for abortion clinics to operate and for women to access the procedure.

Now, the pretense is being thrown out as states such as Georgia and Missouri impose much more restrictive bans. In Alabama, a law passed that outlawed the procedure almost entirely, without exceptions for rape or incest.

Aaron Blake is a senior political reporter for The Fix. He explains the thinking behind their strategy — and how it could backfire.

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The new Howard Stern says the old Howard Stern makes him ‘cringe’

Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed “King of All Media,” was mostly known for mocking everyone and objectifying women on his TV and radio shows. But, he told The Post’s Geoff Edgers, that’s all behind him now.

“I tried to watch some of my old Letterman [appearances],” Stern said during an interview at his SiriusXM radio studio. “I couldn’t get through two minutes of it. It’s just not me. I don’t know who that guy is.”

In a new book, “Howard Stern Comes Again,” Stern hopes marks his evolution from an impatient and often nasty blabbermouth to a master conversationalist.

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The art world is out of touch

A rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons just sold for $91.1 million — a record breaking figure. When an artwork fetches that kind of price at auction, the first question everyone silently asks is: “Could it really be worth that?”

“The first and best answer, obviously, is no,” says Post art critic Sebastian Smee. He sees the sale as evidence that the art world is increasingly untethered from reality.

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