Cory writes: "This has nothing to do with a war on religion or religious freedom. This is all about attacking, blocking, and otherwise hindering President Obama from accomplishing anything that could be interpreted as successful or popular with the people. This is politics, and politics trumps God in this country."
President Barack Obama in Tucson, Arizona, 01/12/11. (photo: Jewel Samad/Getty Images)
What It's All About
15 February 12
Reader Supported News | Perspective
an we stop the nonsense about contraception and morality and call this crap what it is? Politics.
Attack Obama.
This has nothing to do with a war on religion or religious freedom. This is all about attacking, blocking, and otherwise hindering President Obama from accomplishing anything that could be interpreted as successful or popular with the people. This is politics, and politics trumps God in this country. Mitch McConnell made it perfectly clear when he said that the priority of the GOP was "for President Obama to be a one-term president." Everything else is just tinsel.
These people are shills for their own self-interests and political gain. It's all a scam, a game of Three-card Monte on the corner of Church Street and Pennsylvania Avenue run by Bible-thumping Bunco artists looking to fleece the voting public.
Maybe it's just me, but getting lectures on morality from the Catholic Church is like getting cooking lessons from cannibals. The broth smells so good until you realize that you are the prime ingredient.
Let's be honest, all these voices howling about "freedom of religion" are the same shrill voices that denounce mosques in America. These are the same folks who claim that the religion of a billion people in this world is not a "religion" at all, and see nothing wrong with allowing one group of citizens to vote on whether or not the other citizens should be allowed to build a house of worship in their city. Religious freedom? Really?
These are the Grand Poobahs of Piety and their sanctimonious Sisters of the Smelling Salts running hither and yon as they flap their lips and arms to draw nearer, not to heaven, but to the holy wallet of Our Lady of Campaign Cash in order to vanquish that heathen radical liberal centrist Obama.
This is shadow theatre - sleight of hand and misdirection - with a twofer value. While the holier-than-thou players shout and jump for Jesus onstage, the real show is backstage. Attack Obama and put women in their place. Is God great, or what!
These heroic hypocrites battle big government and valiantly strive to shrink it down to a size that will fit in your bedroom, or more importantly, in a woman's uterus or other lady parts. Of course, they fight equally hard (forgive me) to free penises everywhere in order to preserve a true manly America. Viva Viagra!
The right-wing Christian conservative movement has been courted and embraced by the GOP. United, they move forward to weaken the Violence Against Women Act, push state laws to loosen domestic abuse and defund Planned Parenthood. And, on a subtle and chilling note, consider how Ron Paul recently responded to Piers Morgan when questioned about rape and medical treatment to prevent pregnancy. Paul said: "No. If it's an honest rape, that individual should go immediately to the emergency room ..." And no, Piers Morgan never asked Ron Paul to define what he meant by "honest rape," or what constitutes an "honest rape."
Most Americans have more common sense than the holy trinity of politicians, pundits, and priests. Just look at what happened recently with the Ellen DeGeneres fiasco. If you saw Ellen defend herself on her show, it was a moment of class and humor and humanity. The audience roared approval. Damn those suburban lesbian housewives! Damn tolerance and equality!
JC Penney refused to buckle to the One Million Moms (not really one million), and publicly stated that Ellen shared their values and their employee's values and they looked forward to a successful partnership with Ellen. Fans inundated the One Million Moms with indignation and disgust, so much so that apparently that hateful group has now taken down its Facebook page and skulked off to dark coven meetings in search of their souls. (One Million Moms is not the same as or affiliated with Million Moms Challenge, which is a worldwide health-oriented endeavor to help moms around the world.)
Damn the free-market!
And what about Obama? He announced a compromise on this contraception brouhaha as of Friday. How's that working out? Everybody feel better? Didn't think so.
It doesn't matter what President Obama tries, concedes, or compromises on any issue. The hucksters of hypocrisy will turn out to cast stones because that's what they do. They think that the spelling of G-O-D and G-O-P is divine intervention and not merely the separation by ten letters of the alphabet. It is a heavenly omen that designates them as the only and righteous descendents of power over our world. No one else is ever allowed to touch the throne.
This is about power and greed and the hypocritical call of freedom to force others to live and think and do as instructed by those who have elected themselves as the Chosen. Obey without question. God only speaks to me, and those who fund my politics. You have freedom of choice - as long as you choose the right way.
The fear of true democracy, equality, tolerance and choice has never been so obvious as it is today. There is panic in the golden streets of DC.
Washington State just passed marriage equality. The California courts ruled Prop. 8 unconstitutional. More and more Americans don't believe that one group of citizens has the right to limit the unalienable rights of other citizens or to define them as less than. The military has overturned Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Churches are opening their doors to gay members and allowing marriages.
Women are slowly winning the battle for equal pay for equal work. They are uniting in the belief that they own their own bodies, not the state or the church or the man in the gray flannel suit. Women are finding ways to run for public office and to become part of the political process so they can have an equal say in how this country works.
Let's face it, women have power and should be feared. It was Ida Tarbell who exposed the unfair market practices of Standard Oil and helped force the Trust-Busting of President Roosevelt. Emma Goldman took on the causes of poverty and child labor and union issues. Suffragettes brought women the vote. Harriett Tubman, Rosa Parks, Betty Frieden, Germaine Greer and Gloria Steinem and Angela Davis and Billy Jean King and Oprah. >From 1900 to the present, women have moved American politics and culture and art. Woman Power is real.
And this sends a ripple of fear through the great patriarchal order of things. That is why these yahoos of masculinity and righteousness push so hard for the spiritual enslavement of women while pretending to be the protectors of the feminine citizen.
Power and politics. That's what all this mess is about.
I think America still has more good, more empathy and compassion and tolerance than these guys want us to know. Knowledge is a dangerous thing, my friend.
And there is nothing worse than someone with enough knowledge being able to point at the naked emperor in all his shortcomings and say: That guy is naked! And he's no emperor!
-PEACE-
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It's funny how all of those against big gov't and for personal rights when it comes to government, are so willing to abdicate those rights to the 80 year old men who run the church.
Why not let those getting the insurance decide
Being a high official in the Roman Catholic, however, *is* a liability because you have never raised a child, sweat out a job interview, scuffled to make a loan payment, divorced, remarried, and so on. In other words, your knowledge of life is all vicarious and theoretical and based on dubious scriptures written by committees of God-intoxicated Semites in the forever insane Middle East.
Remember, the generation that is currently over 80 is the last generation to produce and follow through on successful liberal policy.
I agree with bugbuster's comment 100% and I think it was taken out of context. There are good guys and bad guys in every age group. Right now, our side needs more alies and fewer divisions between us and voters.
You no playa da game, you no makke da rules.
It is my firm judgement that in attacking contraception and women's health issues, the GOP & the Catholic Bishops have trod firmly on their collective dick.
Good on you, guys! Bravo!
Now, someone please tell me how the Virginia legislature could pass a bill requiring all women seeking an abortion to submit to a trans-vaginal ultrasound — without their or their doctor's consent! — and Virginia's governor, Bob McDonnell, says he will sign it. The FBI, by the way, defines any vaginal penetration without consent as rape. Virginia is therefore about to legalize a form of rape.
And who pays for this big-government fiasco? Tea Partiers should be screaming in self-righteous indignation, but where are they? They're the ones who love to shout, "Get the government out of our lives." Really? What a bunch of hypocrites.
Bob McDonnell is seriously being considered as a front-runner for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination. I've given up trying to understand anyone who votes Republican.
Their distaste for the left is just as strong as that of the left for the right. In that sense, we are all the same, just mirror images of each other.
The blinder for both sides is ideology itself. It is the real enemy. It doesn't matter *what* ideology. Ideology is a selective fact filter that makes all ideologues selectively ignorant. Clear thinking can only go on in its absence.
I'm not accusing you of squishiness, by the way. I just notice that a lot of people make the mistake of taking what you said to the next level and coming to the conclusion that it doesn't matter, or that there's no difference between the choices we face.
There's a HUGE difference between agreeing with the Seperation of Church and State and disagreeing with it. If you can't see that difference, there's no point in arguing.
"That's what the right wants to create in the disguise of 'personal freedom' and I don't think it's wise to give another inch, because gaining liberty is usually done through a much bloodier process than losing it was"
If we get out and vote in 2012 (unlike sitting home as we did in 2010) to vote in Democrats and Independents - I believe some big changes will bring us back to square one. As Clint Eastwood said on Super Bowl Sunday "let's start the second half" (I know his ad was about cars and taken out of context by the GOP - and their rhetoric hurt them)
Contact your local Democratic headquarters and find out how YOU can get people to vote (etc) -
For those who are disappointed in the President to date - re-read this article and also go on the W.H. Web site to see "what" the President has accomplished rather than listen to the lame street FAUX (etc) news.
It is not the right time to think about voting 3rd party - a vote for a 3rd party is deducting a vote from President Obama (in simple terms - it's a give away TO THE GOP/TP)
Notice that it is "men" who are screaming about women's issues and rights. They don't offer ideas to fix the economy BECAUSE they have no intention to do so. Norquist publicaly stated that Mitt will "do as he's told"
The GOP/TP should use their time fighting for tougher outcomes to rapists and to those who abuse women and children - for these people have (UNBELIEVABLY true) lighter sentences (consequences) than even drug users (especially black people who get 2x the sentence for same crimes committed by a white) -
They are ALL puppet clowns hanging by their strings.
Figureheads; bought servants of the REALLY powerful. Politics is a meaningless side SHOW. A game for us to play at. Just like the entertainment industry; another "opiate of the people."
Religion and even religious arguments too.(I've practically given them up) All distractions so we don't even wonder who's pulling OUR strings.
Anyone who has not observed the GOP's conduct for the last three years has to be oblivious. The GOP's main goal is to prevent any and all Obama successes. They care not about success for the people and the country, and focus on discrediting the President at all costs. They would even have let the country default last August when they created that shameful scene over the debt ceiling.
From the Affordable Care Act to the Payroll Tax Cut issues, the Republicans continue on the one path that Mitch McConnell so shamefully and unprofessionall y declared--to "make President Obama a one term president."
They deserve to be voted out en masse in November!
http://feministsforchoice.com/womens-history-month-anti-choice-women.htm
Homophobia is also not a male-only domain as the above One Million Moms organization domain attests, even if the numbers of this organization is far less.
The Catholic Bishops not only did not object to the mosque but they actually supported President obama's health care act.
I am secular and pro-choice so I have some sympathy for Obama's values and I certainly think the Catholic Church does not take the correct position with regard to abortion, but the complaint of the Catholic Bishops (and some Jews, fundamentalist Protestants and others) clearly has nothing to do with "politics" and everything to do with their religious beliefs and their defense of the first amendment.
Saying otherwise is a smear.
Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts
You had me until you claimed that forcing others to agree with your opinions is a First Amendment right. This isn't about being required to use rubbers. This is about being ALLOWED to make personal decisions. Right-wingers, such as yourself, want to take away that choice from other people, because it offends you.
Pretending this is about anything other than taking away the First Amendment rights of people who want access to the family planing options their insurance pays for is disingenuous
Billy Bob
USA
The most telling line in the email was this one:
"This mandate forces virtually all insurance plans to offer such services"
That just cracks me up. The operative words here are, "OFFER" and "SERVICES". The email heading was, "HHS Edict Will Force Catholics to Violate Conscience".
What we're discussing is "violating the conscience" of people who want to take away other people's ability to exercise THEIR conscience! No one is being forced to have an abortion. Non-Catholics who work in hospitals and universities are being allowed to make their own decisions.
By the way, I wish this wasn't perceived as an exclusively Catholic issue. Right-wing protestant groups are just as rabid as the Council of Catholic Bishops. In fact, the bishops are FAR to the right of the majority of actual American Catholics.
I would URGE my fellow liberals to NOT fall for the bait of attacking Catholics. If you can avoid it, PLEASE resist that urge. If Catholic lay people don't feel attacked, they will mostly vote Democratic in the next election, regardless of what the bishops want to shove down our throats.
Just think about it.
Right wing fanatics have all kinds of sacred props: crosses, flags, guns, to drag out as needed.
If santorum was an atheist, he'd find another excuse for many of his beliefs. The fault wouldn't be with his atheism, but with himself. Sometimes the agendas are not what they're presented to be. Organized religion in this country is under attack, but not from the people who believe in the REAL First Amendment, but from the right-wing that wants to hijack it for political purposes. Even atheism is affected, as you may be aware, if you've ever argued against a libertarian who claims to be an atheist.
First:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Second:
es·tab·lish·ment (-stblsh-mnt)
n.
1.
a. The act of establishing.
b. The condition or fact of being established.
2. Something established, as:
a. An arranged order or system, especially a legal code.
b. A permanent civil, political, or military organization.
c. An established church.
d. A place of residence or business with its possessions and staff.
e. A public or private institution, such as a hospital or school.
3. often Establishment An established social order, as:
a. A group of people holding most of the power and influence in a government or society. Often used with the.
b. A controlling group in a given field of activity. Often used with the.
During the epidemic that killed so many, that body was in the forefront of providing palliative care to the afflicted , while it's leaders denounced homosexuality. There is no black and white, much as one wants it.
I think the Catholic church in NYC actually has experience with mosques and the believers who attend as opposed to polemicists who have neither.
I believe Mr Nasson has the humanist view correctly, Christian, Jewish, secular, Muslim or otherwise, but humanist.
Voters should consider that!
If they turn to Rick Santorum to do their dirty work his impression of a character in the movie The Hand Maid's Tale is not going to resonate with a lot of us too well.
Ann Coulter said it: The religious right versus the secular left.
Or, since he says the top priority is to limit Barack to one term, maybe there's a plaque on Mitch McConnell's desk that says
G.O.P. = "Guillotine Obama's Presidency"
What about: Grouchy Oligarchy Promoters
It's an analogy for their corruption and its drain on our collective freedom.
Giant Oppressive Piranhas
Gorging Offensive Predators
Greying Obnoxious Primates
Going-Out Party
Granting Open Pardons
Greatly Over-Played
Grabbing Other’s Paychecks
Guzzling Octane Pushers
Ghools Opposing Pleasure
Grifters Oozing Petroleum
Goofballs On Parade
Giving Out Poison
Grazing Off Public
Generating Obscene Prayers
Grooming Oval Poodles
Glad Ocean Poluters
Getting Only Pampered
Someone had to be the first one to call them "repugs", or to call bush jr. "the chimp". Nothing like the satisfaction of a job well done. So, don't quit yet.
I'm partial to a few already.
What's your favorite one of mine? My favorite one of yours is probably "Grumpy Obstructionist Poops".
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