Bill Maher calls out conservatives for unprecedented attacks on Obama

Bill Maher, who is not particularly my favorite person, astutely notes that the incredible disrespect shown by Republicans toward President Obama is completely unprecedented. Never has a sitting president been so belittled, taunted, insulted, and disrespected, right to his face. What's the difference: yes, race. It's no different from the way that black people have been taking crap all these years and just putting up with it. In Obama's case, he doesn't have much of a choice or he'll be labeled an "angry black man."

But there is something about this president that makes conservatives think it’s okay to go ape shit in his presence. They didn’t do this Carter, an actual pacifist, or Clinton who really did have a plan for universal health care, or LBJ, who actually made it easier for poor people to vote and eat. All of them clearly, evil America haters, but they got treated with a modicum of respect, at least to their faces.


Not Obama. What can it be that’s different about him?

It’s either his race, or it’s your brain chemistry, or it’s something that happened when you dad spanked you and liked it, and you were looking at a box of Cream of Wheat. I don’t know. I’m not a therapist. Maybe, it’s not race? I don’t know what’s in people’s hearts. Except Newt Gingrich, I know what’s in his heart, lust and cheese fries.

But this type of in the room, in your face, in your space respect disrespect is new. Admit that, and I will admit that of course, something like impeaching Clinton was far more serious, but it was also at least in some ways more respectful. It was done with high pomp through official channels. It was all about the rule of law, and the Chief Justice wore a special robe he got from a musical, or something, and somehow that is a lot more respectful than this.

Not that if Obama ever did anything like Clinton did, he would even be alive. Can you imagine what they would do if they ever found out Obama had sex with a White House intern on Easter? Talk about colored eggs. He would have been impeached two times, one for each testicle. This president has had to be the Caesar’s wife of Pennsylvania Avenue, the Jackie Robinson of American politics, never reacting to the taunts from the stands. But after you do this to try to get his goat, what’s next? A wedgie? A purple nurple?

Gov. Brewer said she did this because she felt threatened. Right, like Obama ran his finger down his blouse and said, ‘you my white princess.’

Show some respect, people!!

More Santorum craziness...

From Charles Blow in the New York Times:

• “I’m not about equality of result when it comes to income inequality. There is income inequality in America. There always has been and, hopefully, and I do say that, there always will be.” (said in Detroit, no less, with the highest poverty rate of all U.S. big cities!) He went on, “We should celebrate like we do in the small towns all across America — as you do here in Detroit. You celebrate success. You build statues and monuments. Buildings, you name after them. Why? Because in their greatness and innovation, yes, they created wealth, but they created wealth for everybody else. And that’s a good thing, not something to be condemned in America.”
   
• Last week, he said that the president was arguing that Catholics would have to “hire women priests to comply with employment discrimination issues.”
   
• "(Liberals and the president)...are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine.”

Blow also points out that charitable giving (living a Christian life, anyone?) is not high on the list of Santorum's priorities: "He has given the least amount to charity of the four presidential candidates who have disclosed their tax returns. (Ron Paul has not.) His charitable giving was just 1.8 percent of his adjusted gross income. The Obamas were the highest, giving 14.2 percent, even though their income was second lowest. Maybe that’s the imbalance we should praise."

 

And we all know how he feels about women...he's made that perfectly clear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santorum's hate for mainline protestants

In this 2008 speech at Ave Maria University, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum speaks disdainfully about mainline protestants:

"We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it. [...]


Whether its sensuality of vanity of the famous in America, they are peacocks on display and they have taken their poor behavior and made it fashionable. The corruption of culture, the corruption of manners, the corruption of decency is now on display whether it’s the NBA or whether it’s a rock concert or whether it’s on a movie set."

Peacocks on display. And he's trying to get votes? This man scares the crap out of me. People are actually voting for him?

Rep. Issa's religious liberty circus

Idiot Issa

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa (R-CA) held a hearing on religious liberty and the birth control rule on Thursday. The morning panel consisted of all men, all religious conservatives. All one viewpoint and all incredibly politically partisan.

Although democrats had requested that a third-year law school student testify on behalf of the president's policy, Issa refused to let her participate, claiming that she was not qualified or appropriate. The student, Sandra Fluke, has supported the administration's decision not to exempt religious employers from having to offer birth control to their employees through health insurance. She has a personal story to tell, too. When Delegate Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-D.C.) and other democratic delegates walked out of the hearing in protest, she encouraged Fluke to talk to reporters.

"Fluke began to cry as she told the story of her 32-year-old friend who was diagnosed with ovarian cysts and prescribed birth control pills as the only remedy for her condition that could save her from becoming infertile. Because her student insurance did not cover contraception, Fluke's friend could not afford her medication, and she eventually lost her ovary and began experiencing symptoms of early menopause. 'Those are the consequences of this policy, and those are the voices the chairman silenced today,' Fluke said." (Huffington Post)

All male religious panel

As Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) demanded to Issa before walking out, "What I want to know is, where are the women? I look at this panel, and I don't see one single individual representing the tens of millions of women across the country who want and need insurance coverage for basic preventative health care services, including family planning. Where are the women?"


Are you incensed like I am? Make your opinions known by sending Issa an e-mail. This is the one I just sent:

You've got to be kidding me. Convening a hearing on "religious liberty and birth control" without including one single person to represent the "minority" position? You are supposed to be representing your constituency, at least 1/2 of which are women. The Guttmacher Institute has determined that 99 percent of American women, including 98 percent of Catholic women, have used birth control. Your "hearing" is completely biased and unfair to all Americans.

Birth control should not be discussed exclusively by MEN!!! Women are the ones who take primary responsibility for birth control and they certainly are the ones who have their lives changed if they have no access to affordable birth control and health care.


What century are you living in, exactly?

Is none of our food untainted?

Organic brown rice syrup has been found to contain dangerously high levels of arsenic.

That's right--those of us who are trying faithfully to avoid high-fructose corn syrup often choose products with brown rice syrup, especially energy bars. Clif bars are my favorite meal replacement, such as on Sunday mornings when we race out of the house without time for breakfast.

Environmental chemist Brian P. Jackson and his team found dangerous amounts of arsenic in brown rice syrup, which is used as an alternative sweetener in a variety of products. The research is published in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Apparently rice (especially brown) picks up more of the arsenic in the ground than other grains. Organic natural forms of arsenic are found in the soil, while traces of arsenic-based pesticides (banned in 1999) can also still be found in the soil.


The worst of it is that this also applies to two brands of organic toddler formula made with brown rice syrup--these formulas had 20 to 30 times more arsenic than the other formulas. Given the small size of a toddler, that level of arsenic is dangerous. Ironically, this formula company's web site touts, "Following breast milk, parents can continue providing organic nutrition with Baby's Only Organic^® Toddler Formula. Nature's One^® scientifically designed the first organic formulas using ingredient standards that extend beyond 'organic,' insuring (sic) the highest quality nutritional formulas available." My #1 question is this: why in the heck are parents giving toddlers formula with sweetener in it, anyway? Why not cow milk, soy milk, or some other form of milk?

This news does not come completely out of the blue. In 2010, Consumer Reports found high levels of heavy metals, including arsenic, in protein powders and protein drinks. I hope you're reading this, Nadine and David! Scary. Is nothing safe?

Obama's forcing priests to hand out condoms during mass...

Or so says Stephen Colbert. I highly recommend watching Colbert's coverage of the "Contraception Crusade." It's hilarious and incredibly wise, as always.

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And Jon Stewart addresses Christian conservatives' "religious persecution" and the "Holy Sausage Fest" held by Sean Hannity, an expert on birth control if I've even seen one.

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And then he calls out Rick Santorum and Catholic church leaders in "The Vagina Ideologues"--Newt Gingrich claims that Obama will "wage war on the Catholic church" the day after his re-election. I look forward to that.

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Jesus would NOT be interested in my uterus!

Four relevant anecdotes about birth control:

1. I remember Mike sharing his surprise when he was watching a TV show about overpopulation with his cradle Catholic dad...who made a comment to the effect of "that's what birth control is for!"

2. In 1990, Mike and I attended a Catholic "Engaged Encounter," at which a couple did a (PG-rated) presentation on "natural family planning" (NFP, otherwise known as the rhythm method) and said it was the only form of birth control for married couples and "the use of NFP raises the dignity of persons from mere toys for sexual pleasure to co-creators of human life." I'm guessing I was one of few non-Catholics there. Later on the issue of birth control came up again, and I stood up and stated the fact that the "NFP is not a reliable form of birth control." I think I shocked everyone, because no one responded. Yes, I was a young interloper and was probably forever banned from Catholic Engaged and Married Encounters (not like I would ever have gone back)!

3. In 1993, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America issued a 21-page social statement (The Church and Human Sexuality: A Lutheran Perspective) on sexuality and invited churches to have dialogue. This was a radical notion for the Catholics in our Lutheran-Catholic community. I still remember Wynn, an older, very conservative Catholic (who must have been a spy...why else would she worship with such heretics?) making a comment about sexuality only being for procreation. Mike laughed out loud and proclaimed that it's too bad he and I couldn't have sex, since we were not ready to have children yet. According to the Catholic Engaged Encounter site, "the three reasons why people do not use NFP are 1. ignorance 2. lust and 3. fear," and "some unnatural forms of contraception actually cause early abortions." Oh, and "fornification is a mortal sin," but we knew that, didn't we?

4.When I was in my late 20s, a few female coworkers and I wrote a memo to our firm's benefits director (and copied the CEO), demanding that our medical coverage include birth control benefits. We solicited scads of other employees to join us in including their names. We were upset to learn that our benefits covered fertility treatment but not birth control. (Little did I know I would avail myself of the fertility treatment 10 years later.) Now many insurance plans cover Viagara, but not the pill or other forms of birth control.

Cue the Catholic/Conservative War on Women

Last weekend I found myself listening to a traditional Catholic who asked us what we thought about Obama and the birth control issue. She said she'd heard that Obama plans to force Catholic hospitals to offer abortions, too (from her very reliable source--a friend). (In fact, the conservative web sites are all touting this, claiming that the morning-after pill is abortion pure and simple.)

Sarah Palin will "fight to the death to stop birth control coverage." Newt Gingrich claims Obama has declared a "war against religion," very convenient for him as a newly minted Catholic. Rick Santorum believes that a president should preach about the sanctity of marriage (no birth control) and contraception is "a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." He abhors the "radical feminist pitch" that "men and women be given an equal opportunity to make it to the top in the workplace." This man scares the sh_t out of me.

As Nicholas Kristof writes, "The cost of birth control is one reason poor women are more than three times as likely to end up pregnant unintentionally as middle-class women." Yes, that's right--better access to birth control = fewer abortions. This has been proven! I think that one of the roots of this conservative Christian war on women is they do not want unmarried women having sex (because it's a mortal sin, don't you know?).

The Catholic bishops are out to lunch. Nearly every American woman has used some form of birth control, according to this informational Mother Jones article about Catholic women and birth control. They're so busy waging a war on women and reproductive rights that they can conveniently avoid the molesters and mutineers under their noses.

Percentage of American women
who have used birth control (Guttmacher Institute)

All I know is that Jesus would not care one bit about women's reproductive organs and how they choose to plan their families (or lack thereof). Jesus would not be spending all this time ranting and raving about birth control. He would be caring about the poor, feeding the hungry, and preaching justice.

I don't need birth control anymore, unless you count permanent sterilization, which my health insurance covered--just wait until they start on that!!! But I want the damn politicians to get their noses out of my uterus and start focusing on the true meaning of Jesus' life and prophecy...peace and justice for all.

Apologies for the punctuation error--grr!!