5 to 4 Against the Rights of Women

In a 5-4 decision the Scalia Court, nominally headed by Roberts, sided with Hobby Lobby in denying women mandated access to certain kinds of birth control on the grounds that it violates the rights of family owned, for profit corporation to exercise religious freedom.  Apparently, the religious freedom of female employees, and their partners if any, who believe that they have a moral imperative – that does not conflict with their faith or spiritual ideals – to control their reproductive lives and not to have more children then can feed is moot.  Once again it seems to me that Scalia and the other boys in the band have proven that Jesus saves; but Cash is God.  Corporations trump individuals every time.

The most egregious piece of this theocratic tyranny is that it is based upon the same kind of pseudo scientific brain damage that denies climate change.  The birth control options now denied to women are the Plan B or the so-called morning after pill; an emergency contraceptive known as Ella, also considered a morning after pill although it can be taken up to five days after intercourse; hormonal and copper IUD’s.  NONE of these are abortive; they either prevent contraption or implantation.  The idea that they cause abortion by interfering with a fertilized ovum is based upon a religious belief that life begins at conception.  It cannot be proven by science empirically.  My religion teaches no such thing, but clearly my religion is not covered under the Freedom of Religion clause.

As a woman and a citizen I am tired of third rate intellects proffering second rate ideas as first rate fact.  The glorified ambulance chasers on the right side of the high court need to stick to the law.  They are not physicians, and they are not particularly concerned with the effect their rulings have on the average person or the Republic if Citizens United is any example. 

Now that we have seen the bias of some corporations written into law it is time to take the fight to them.  It will be interesting to see if the loud, vicious coalition of religious zealots currently running the Congress and the Supreme Court can pay the freight on their demands.  Most Americans are opposed to Hobby Lobby’s position, most women are as well.  A goodly number of their consumer base is women.  Let us boycott and resolve that from this day forward not a dime will go into their coffers.  As far as I know, Justice Scalia and his Four Horsemen haven’t yet determined that women are incapable of deciding where we will spend our non-healthcare related dollars. 

Ask Yourself Why

In 2008 George W. Bush signed a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq.  Such agreements are signed between sovereign nations and other countries seeking to station military troops on their soil.  The agreement Bush signed mandated that all U.S. troops be withdrawn from Iraq by December 31, 2011.  Accordingly, they were.  Bush signed it; Obama honored it.  Anybody who tells you differently is lying.  Ask yourself why.

The bottom line is that the Iraqi people didn't want us there.  We, the American people, didn't want to be there.  The removing of troops from Iraq was mandated and everybody in the media and in Congress currently running their mouths on cable knows this.  If they fail to mention it or deny it, they are lying to you.  Ask yourself why.

Further, all this malarkey about having won the war makes my teeth ache.  We roared in, took possession of a country, installed a handpicked bigot to run the country - into to the ground as it happens - and roared out again.  We didn't win crap.

To me the whole goddamn mess felt and feels like a Jacobean revenge drama.  Cheney and his co-conspirators didn't get Saddam in the early '90s.  When Scalia appointed Crawford’s Village Idiot president that gave them a second bite at the apple.  Over 3,000 dead on our side, Goddess knows how many Iraqis, millions upon millions spent or lost and for what?  So a bunch of dried up dinosaurs could experience a last hard-on taking out an old enemy.  Let us call it what it is – bullshit. Let us not confuse it with fact, and above all when someone insists that it is fact let us know that they are lying to us and asks ourselves why.

Pathetic Little Man

Paul Ryan is a pathetic little man, and I mean little in every sense of the word.  He informed the IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen, that he didn’t believe him during a hearing of the Ways and Means Committee on Friday, June 20^th.  That is rich coming from a politician, any politician; particularly this quasi-Randite, sort-a-kind-a Catholic politician who once presented a budget in the very same chamber where the hearing took place that could have been penned by the Marquis de Sade then ran like hell from it during the 2012 Presidential Election.  This pathetic little man who sat screeching, “I control the time,” and “I don’t believe you,” appears to think of himself as a lord of the realm, much like the Marquis, wielding the power of his Congressional seat like a bludgeon and owing no one respect or courtesy be they the Director of the IRS, the Secretary of Defense or the President of the United States.  Mind you, Congressman Paul Ryan is a member of a body that enjoys a 7% approval rating currently, making him and his butt buddies only slightly more popular then herpes and botulism.  Accordingly, it is not beyond the realm of reasonable possibility to suppose that this arrogant man enjoys so little professional credibility as to make his impugning anyone else’s a bloody joke.

Why do we tolerate monsters like Ryan?  What are they but striptease artists peeling off their ethical responsibilities for the price of a campaign contribution stuck in their political G-string? Who are they but bullies, pandering to bullies and in the employ of bullies?  It is a foregone conclusion that our government is bought and paid for; that Ryan and his ilk serve the special interests that make their miserable existence possible.  However, must we suffer the indignity of watching a cabal of moral invalids presume to instruct this nation on righteousness, honor and decency?  

The Smug and the Arrogant

In my estimation, A.B. Stoddard of “The Hill” is as smug and arrogant a creature as ever learned to run a keyboard. Saturday morning she informed some guy on MSNBC that Hillary Clinton should not be arguing with the media. Really? I don’t care who likes Clinton and who doesn't; personally she is way too far to the right for me.  Her fitness or lack thereof to be president isn't what I am on about just now. The very idea that the media must be submitted to like some all powerful warlord in an ancient city is beyond conceit and boarding on pathological narcissism. 

One must ask what part of the common good the media serves with its corporate agendas, gotcha games and propaganda. What gives Stoddard the right to demand that the press’ questions, no matter how stupid, inane, incompetent and immaterial they are, must be answered with a respect that she and others of her ilk seldom extend to anybody?  The bottom line is that Secretary Clinton doesn't like the media. Hell most people don’t. I was happy to see her callout a “reporter” for attempting to twist and reinvent the facts. I for one believe that this country would be much better off if more public figures kicked the ass of a Stoddard, a Todd, a Gregory or any number of self appointed deciders of public opinion.

Anniversary

Today is the 70^th Anniversary of D-Day – the invasion of Normandy and Hitler’s Europe.  Our boys, and they were boys, stormed Omaha Beach in a great wave of courage, patriotism and determination to defend a nation and way of life they loved and that they believed was being threatened by the madness of one of the greatest monsters history has ever known.  Yes, the war was a long way from our shores, and yes we went in following Pearl Harbor after trying to stay clear of the conflict.  Nonetheless, by the time we hit that beach everyone knew that if Hitler took England the Atlantic sure as hell wasn't going to stop him.  Well, that was my dad’s story anyway, and he stuck to it.  He’d earned the right.

I've been wondering today if he would recognize our nation and way of life.  There has always been corruption, malfeasance, greed, bigotry, hate, stupid leaders, abusive judges, corporatists, lobbyists and other assorted pimps, panderers and wastes of protoplasm.  Still it seems that these abominations define our national landscape, dialogue and body politic these days. 

I really question whether or not this is the world and future he and all the others fought and died for before, during and after D-Day.  Sadly, I don’t think so.