Last week, America's preeminent talk-show blowhard made on-air remarks which not that long ago would have ended any broadcaster's career in a hurry. And he made them over the strains of Peter Gabriel's 1986 hit single, Sledgehammer. (I wonder what Rush would say if he realized that Mr. Gabriel was a major donor to England's Labor Party, currently supports the Green Party in that country and is vehemently opposed to the Iraq war?)
Now, it's one thing to rail against contraception, something which people in civilized nations now take for granted and which the governments of every advanced nation (and many developing ones as well) have permitted if not actively promoted for decades. It's quite another to wantonly slander an innocent woman who was merely trying, in a very civilized manner, to explain to a congressional committee (which had shut her out for no particular reason) that health insurance should be required to cover medical contraceptives because, as in the case of a classmate of hers, they are often used “off-label” to treat serious medical conditions.
Thus far, Rush's oral flatulence has cost him two key sponsors.
Meanwhile (with the emphasis on “mean”), the Virginia legislature recently passed a bill requiring every woman seeking an abortion in that state to submit to a vaginal ultrasound rather than the external kind which has been used in maternity clinics for years. In other words, the Commonwealth of Virginia believes it's not enough to simply shame and humiliate a woman who is making one of her life's most difficult choices. She must also be bodily violated, i.e. legally and medically raped. The fact that the Virginia state senate at the last minute deleted the odious vaginal-probe provision from the pre-abortion ultrasound bill headed for governor Bob McDonnell's desk changes nothing. The message is still plain as day: Virginia is no place to be female.
And in other news, the New York State legislature is considering a bill which if passed would allow people who were victims of sexual assault to take civil action against their attackers, even if the assault happened decades ago when they were children. Everyone seems to think this bill is a good idea. Everyone except, according to the Albany Times-Union, the Conference of Catholic Bishops. You'd think the Conference would welcome a tough new law meant to make it easier to bring civil action against sex criminals. Instead, the Times-Union article continues, it fears that lawsuits arising from clergy sexual abuse in the past could cost the Church millions.
Now, whose fault would that really be?
By way of wishing to end this posting on a more positive note, I offer this emotional display from a Republican member of the Washington state legislature. She is seen here pouring out her heart about the legalization of same-sex marriage.
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Comments
Did you know that the woman who introduced that bill argued against mandating Gardisil because it was too intrusive?
The world reeks of irony.
The yeats thing about the best doing nothing..
U say “ the Commonwealth of Virginia believes it's not enough to simply shame and humiliate a woman who is making one of her life's most difficult choices. She must also be bodily violated, i.e. legally and medically raped. “
That is Southern living.
Or is it?
I dunno ..i wish licoln was here to advise us. Oh wait, there he is. Obama.
Bah bah blah. If he aint lincolnesque in his 2nd (inevitable) term, then I say, you blew it baby.
He took on osama and killed him.
He took on Libya .
He took on rush.
He is a contender, this guy.
To lincolln’s throne.
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right — stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.
Reported as an inscription quoting Lincoln in an English college in The Baptist Teacher for Sunday-school Workers : Vol. 36 (August 1905), p. 483. The portion beginning with "stand with anybody..." is from the 16 October 1854 Peoria speech.
@phyllis - That sonabitch's wife has guts and principles, telling her hubby that he can sleep on the living room sofa until he stops sponsoring bad laws. Personally, I think she should seek out a good divorce attorney.
It was a woman introduced that obscene vaginal-probe bill? She should be burned at the stake.
@Oryoki - It is encouraging watching people pushing back against the Regressives' agenda (my catch-all label for the political Neanderthals from both parties who have been promoting the radical/"religious"-right's agenda over the last three decades). It's too bad things had to get this crazy before the previously-silent majority finally said "enough is enough", but better late than too late.
Oh, by the way, that representative in that video is from Washington State. I myself cannot picture anyone in the Georgia statehouse making such statements on the record, though I can always hope.
@James - It's not tough to win an election against a field of clowns! If Obama does win, will his final term see him making more positive, fundamental change a la Mikhail Gorbachev, as some have suggested he might do? Stay tuned...