Isn’t this all funny? Nobody wants to opt out because their tax dollars go to pay for war. But heaven forbid we risk killing a “supposed” unborn child. I am constantly amazed at the extent of the convictions of the Christian fundamentalist conservative far right and how their thinking is so illogical and fixated on dogma. Who needs facts when you have faith? The anti-abortionist stance of the vocal minority defies belief as their proposed means for achieving their goals actually makes matters worse. We have the means to reduce the rate of abortion to almost zero through sex education, distribution of condoms, and a health care system making contraception available to both men and women, but the anti-abortionists stick to their guns, an abstinence-only approach to dealing with pregnancy. If everyone would only have sex in the confines of a monogamous marriage strictly for purposes of procreation, nobody would need contraception. Oh, I forgot. We want to outlaw contraception for women but not for men. As Forrest said, “Stupid is as stupid does.”
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” -Mark Twain
I have to shake my head. We’re still talking about the same issues over and over and over again. These people are going to just wear me down. At what point as I going to throw up my hands and exclaim, “F**k! Do whatever you want!” Of course, if I do that, if I give up, they win. And we can’t have that, can we?
Just how ingrained is sexism in our society?
The Supreme Court. Yes, all the way up to the Supreme Court. I’ve read the decision. I’ve looked at the arguments. While following along with the logic sort of makes sense, it’s like we all skip over the one point which defies logic. Yes, the Earth was created six thousand years ago if, and only if, you believe the Bible is the word of God and you interpret it literally. My beliefs trump your beliefs. My beliefs trump your rights. My beliefs impose themselves on everyone else. It is not enough to be free to believe what I want to believe, I must make you believe them too.
Sex: Men good; women bad.
Slut shaming is so embedded in our culture, we no longer have a conscious idea this is going on. Rush Limbaugh, voice of the far right, reiterates his position first indelibly expressed about Sandra Fluke: women should not be given contraceptives because it is their mature and moral responsibility to not have sex. If they have sex outside the confines of a monogamous marriage expressly for procreation, they are sluts and they deserve, no they must suffer the consequences of their actions. You will note that women must suffer the consequences while men are let off scot-free. Is there anything more indicative of the traditionalist patriarchal sexist view of the world?
Huffpost Business - Jul 2/2014
Hobby Lobby Still Covers Vasectomies And Viagra by Alexander C. Kaufman
The answer on Viagra coverage is usually yes, Catholic leaders say. And they argue that's neither hypocritical nor sexist. Procreation is something the Catholic church encourages. And Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs can be of help.
Abortion: What do women think?
Ah, Jesus. How many times are we going to have to go over this?
my blog: Abortion: If we make it illegal, the problem will go away - Jun 26/2010
I watched a news item on television last night which stated that every year 25,000 women die from unsafe abortions in Africa and 1.7 million are injured. Due to the restrictive laws governing abortions in almost all African countries, virtually all of the 5.6 million abortions performed annually in Africa are unsafe. Apparently only about 100,000 of them are performed by trained professionals in a safe environment.
Think about that for a sec. Women, yes women, the women who are going to be mothers, the women who are already mothers, are prepared to risk their own lives to stop their pregnancy. I can't think of anybody on the planet other than a mother or a woman as a potential mother who is more protective of children. Isn’t it obvious they are pro-choice? Isn’t it obvious they don’t think of abortion as murder? Isn’t it obvious they think abortion is better than the alternative? Where did the anti-abortionists get the idea they have the correct interpretation of this issue?
Rights for the foetus then you’re on your own
The Conservative spectrum of the American electorate is off on a tangent about preserving the rights on the unborn child. However, what happens after birth is another thing. Aid programs like unemployment or food stamps are looked upon as entitlement. No, we are not going to help our fellow citizen to rise up out of poverty. No, we perceive any help as encouraging people to not to work. Yes, these people want to be poor. Yes, these people want to live in marginalised circumstances and just “get by”. And if you get pregnant, it’s your own damn fault and you must be made to suffer the consequences. Another poor mouth to feed in the 51st state of poverty.
We could reduce the rate abortion to almost zero today
As I said above: sex education, condoms in schools, sex education, contraception for everyone both men and women, and sex education could almost completely eradicate abortion. Think about that for a second. Today we have the means of reducing the rate of abortion to (almost) zero. Abstinence? Just abstinence? Hey, how’s that workin’ for ya? How many times are you going to fail before you realise your approach ain’t workin’? What are you, a f**kin’ idiot? It’s in the Bible? What are you, a goddamn f**kin’ idiot?
Biblical reference: God damn it!
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here.” This quote from Dante’s Divine Comedy neatly sums up the lose-lose situation we collectively find ourselves in. We propose a democratic society with everyone free to believe what they want but beliefs seem to come with built-in imperialism. A belief must impose itself on people and those who believe have the obligation to bring their beliefs to others whether they want it or not. After all, if you don’t believe, it’s because you haven’t yet seen the light; you haven’t seen the error of your ways.
Hobby Lobby is Christian?
Just how holier than thou is this business and its owners?
Hobby Lobby stores and facilities are open for business every day except for Sunday. Green, a devout Pentecostal (he comes from a family of Assemblies of God pastors), wanted his employees to have more time to spend for worship and family, even at the expense of lower profits. He claims to have built his business squarely on biblical principles: "We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles." That claim is disputed by Jonathan Merritt, senior columnist for Religion News Service.
This Week - Jun 17/2014
Stop calling Hobby Lobby a Christian business By Jonathan Merritt
"We're Christians," Hobby Lobby's president Steve Green proclaims, "and we run our business on Christian principles."
That is music to the ears of many conservative Christians, who rallied around Hobby Lobby when the retail chain argued at the Supreme Court that ObamaCare's contraception mandate unlawfully burdened their religious beliefs. But a closer look at Hobby Lobby's actual business practices reveals this claim to be as hollow as a flute. Turn over just about any trinket in a Hobby Lobby store and you'll find a gold oval stamped with "Made in China," a country that is one of the worst offenders of human dignity, unborn infant life, and economic justice anywhere in the world.
Huffpost Business - Jul 1/2014
Christians Call Out Hobby Lobby For Hypocrisy by Kim Bhasin
Then there's China's controversial record on abortion. The country's one-child policy was slightly relaxed in 2013, but the family planning bureaucracy still exists. Since the government instituted the policy 40 years ago, there have been more than 330 million abortions in China, according to health ministry data cited by the Financial Times. Though fewer instances of forced abortion, infanticide and involuntary sterilization now occur because they're banned by the government, they still happen, The Washington Post reported last year.
This week, Hobby Lobby's crusade against contraceptives scored it a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, the court ruled 5-4 that so-called "closely held corporations" don't have to provide certain kinds of contraception for employees.
"Being Christians, we don't pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don't cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill," Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green wrote in an open letter in 2013. "We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs."
Yet the company is happy to profit from the business it does with China, critics argue, even though political conditions in that country have led to hundreds of millions of abortions.
Final Word
I must admit to getting tired of going over these issues again and again and again. And again. The old world just won’t stop. They are not going to stop arguing the old points. They refuse to see that the Earth is not flat. They refuse to accept the Earth was not created 6,000 years ago. They refuse to see “rights” as the rights of all people, male or female, black or white, straight or gay, and Christian or Muslim. They are going to persist in trying to keep us collectively in the Dark Ages and they adamantly refuse to move forward.
I am now convinced that the only way we are ever going to collectively improve is that the old guard is going to have to die off. People have their opinions, their take on the issues, their worldview and they are unable to change. If they grew up sexist, they can’t change. If they grew up thinking homosexuality was unnatural, a choice, and a sin, they can’t accept it otherwise. If they have been taught forever that abortion is murder, women can only have sex in marriage, sex is not for pleasure, they can’t see it otherwise. Only when these people die and a new more progressive generation comes into power will we be able to move into the light.
In the meantime, we can all hunker down. Yes, we’ll keep debating, arguing, and fighting for our rights. Yes, we’ll keep voting for a better world. But individually we are but one voice in the uproar of the vocal minority, what I think and what I hope is a shrinking minority. Nevertheless, it is going to be an uphill battle between those who don’t want to change and those who do. Eventually, change will occur as you can only stop change for so long. Eventually, the old guard will die off. R.I.P. Rush Limbaugh.
References
Wikipedia: Shm-reduplication
Shm-reduplication is a form of reduplication in which the original word or its first syllable (the base) is repeated with the copy (the reduplicant) beginning with shm- (sometimes schm-). The construction is generally used to indicate irony, derision or skepticism with respect to comments about the discussed object.
Wikipedia: Hobby Lobby
Hobby Lobby is a privately held corporation based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, formerly called Hobby Lobby Creative Centers.
The Guardian - Jun 30/2014
The Hobby Lobby ruling proves men of the law still can't get over 'immoral' women having sex by Jessica Valenti
Thirty-five years ago, cultural critic Ellen Willis wrote, "it is depressing to have to insist that sex is not an unnecessary, morally dubious self-indulgence but a basic human need, no less for women than for men". If it was depressing in 1979, it looks downright miserable today. Because let's be clear: While Monday's US supreme court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby was officially about religious freedom, the real issue at stake is sex – namely, if women should be able to have it as freely as men.
...
More than 30 years after women thought the right to birth control was fought and won, we are still having to justify why we'd like to have sex – and why that doesn't make us bad, immoral or disgusting people.
Forward Progressives - Jul 2/2014
SC Restaurant Owner Refuses To Serve Blacks, Cites Religious Beliefs by Manny Schewitz
In South Carolina, a BBQ restaurant owner claimed that he was within his rights to refuse service to blacks based on his religious beliefs. In the case brought before the Supreme Court, Maurice Bessinger stated that his religion required him to keep black people from eating in his restaurant, although he was perfectly OK with taking their money, so long as they ordered their food to-go.
...
This case was heard by the Supreme Court in 1968.
Charleston City Paper - Feb 24/2014
Maurice Bessinger, BBQ baron and unrepentant racist, dies by Chris Haire
In case we forget, Bessigner reportedly protested desegregation by putting a sign up in his Piggie Park restaurant that read: The law makes us serve niggers, but any money we get from them goes to the Ku Klux Klan.
He also offered a tableful of racist tracts, print outs, and pamphlets at his Columbia restaurants. One in particular argued that the Bible condoned slavery, and, as such, American slavery was not only just, but Almighty approved. Lovely.
Think Proess - Jul 1/2014
Fox News Host: Hillary Clinton Needs Support From ‘Beyoncé Voters’ Who Want Free Birth Control By Tara Culp-Ressler
Discussing Hillary Clinton’s reaction to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Hobby Lobby, Fox News host Jesse Watters suggested the presumptive presidential candidate is simply attempting to win over single female voters who want the government to pay for their birth control. He referred to that voting bloc as the “Beyoncé voters.”
Waters is relying on the common conservative assumption that insurance coverage for contraception is a frivolous government handout for promiscuous women.
...
Although Watters suggests that women could simply get married and rely on their husbands to pay for birth control, one of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is to eliminate this gender imbalance in health costs altogether. By requiring employers to offer birth control coverage without charging an extra co-pay, the health law is trying to prevent women from paying substantially more for their preventative health care simply because of their gender. If birth control costs are no longer a burden on female employees, there will be no need for either them or their spouse to pick up that extra tab.
My Opinion
Watch the following video. These people don’t “get it”. Women are not equal in our society. They do not deserve the same rights as men. They should not have the same rights as men. Yes, men and women are different: women can get pregnant and men cannot. But as individuals, we do not all have the same rights for health and for sexual freedom. In the same way we sit around and laugh at how our ancestors thought the world was flat, are future generations going to be chuckling over what we’re doing right now? “You mean that men and women back then didn’t have equal rights? What were they thinking?”
Published on Jul 1, 2014 by ThinkProgress Video
Fox News on Beyonce Voters
Some miscellaneous points
I apologise for any copyright infringement. If you contact me, I will remove the cartoon immediately.
Published on Jul 3, 2014 by Sandy and Richard Riccardi
Hobby Lobby Crafts (Make Your Own IUD!)
Miss Sandy from the Hobby Lobby Craft Hour shows you how to make your own attractive IUDs out of materials from the store!
2014-07-05
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