“We’re seeing this new government activism, paternalistic, arrogant, political philosophy that puts new government-granted rights in the way of our constitutional rights.”
See, the Constitution is not a document of government. It was handed down from God to Moses on Mount Sinai. Unfortunately Moses lost it in a craps game, but centuries later an angel appeared to James Madison and told him he could find it buried under Plymouth Rock.
Here’s the broader context:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday blasted the Obama administration’s moves to mandate religious affiliated groups to provide contraception coverage as “paternalistic” and “arrogant.”
“What we’re getting from the White House on this conscience issue, it’s not an issue about contraception, it’s an issue that reveals a political philosophy the president is showing that basically treats our constitutional rights as if they were revocable privileges from our government, not inalienable rights from our creator.” said Ryan on NBC’s Meet the Press.
You want to talk “paternalistic,” Mr. Ryan?
But in the Wacky World of Wingnuts, providing women with full coverage for contraception is paternalism and trampling on our gawd-given rights, whereas religious dogmas that demand women be barefoot and pregnant are not.
Meanwhile, Rick Santorum wants to protect us from elitism by denying coverage for prenatal screening tests.
He lambasted the president’s health care law requiring insurance policies to include free prenatal testing, “because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.”
“That, too, is part of Obamacare, another hidden message as to what President Obama thinks of those who are less able than the elites who want to govern our country,” Santorum said.
In other words, Frothy wants to be sure prenatal testing is not covered, because some women who discover their babies will be born with major disabilities might choose to abort instead, and he knows better than they do that God doesn’t like that, so he wants to step in and protect women from the elites who think women should be allowed to decide some things for themselves.
GOP POV:
‘Women, we’re here to protect you from Democrat government activism, and the Democrat paternalistic, arrogant, political philosophy that puts new government-granted rights in the way of all of our constitutional rights.
It’s your constitutional, and MORAL, right to bear children. What else did our God, and his son, Jesus put you on this earth for, but that?
Oh, hey, sweetheart, can you go the fridge and grab me a beer? And maybe you can whip up a quick little snack. Oh, and after my beer and snack, how about ‘a quickie? God put you one earth for that too.’
There’s no better group than an all-male panel to determine what’s good for the little ladies.
“Senator Santorum, prove to me that you’re not working with our enemies.”
It can not be repeated too often – so I will. This quote of Thomas Jefferson immediately precedes the words carved in the Jefferson Monument. I include without omission so there is no distortion of the context.
“… successful experiment made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of the constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity thro’ the US; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians & Congregationalists. The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. ”
This is the famous quote so rarely presented in context…
“And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god,eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Read this in context – Jefferson refuted the idea which is the centerpiece of the wingnut opposition to contraception, specifically that it’s embedded in the first amendment. There can be no doubt that it’s the clergy and their ‘schemes’ which Jefferson has sworn hostility to.
What I would not give to hear Obama run this full quote by the press for discussion. File under ‘Deja vu’ all over again’.
The arrival of Mardi Gras makes me very concerned and leaves me in need of clarification.
I mean, if it is a heinous violation of religious liberty for an employer to provide payments for insurance coverage which could then later be used in part on birth control, shouldn’t the employer also get to dictate whether the paycheck dollars they pay can be used to buy meat during Lent?
And what about for the rest of us, is it just mammals and fowl that we need to eliminate? How about the fish on Friday thing, is that enough? Is Dairy OK? And is it only until Good Friday, or Easter Sunday? Seriously, they have a lot of education to do!
I wouldn’t want my ignorance of their rules to accidentally force me into cruelly oppressing the poor Bishops, forcing them to live in a nation where they didn’t get to determine the rules for everyone.
In 1960. JFK had to give a speech assuring the people of the US that he wouldn’t be taking orders from the Pope, Cardinals, or Bishops.
In 2012, Rick Santorum, and others, are saying that they’ll be proud to make it a national policy to take orders from the Pope, Cardinals, and Bishops.
FTW?
Well, Frothy is not outlawing prenatal testing, just making it more expensive for women to buy. So that the working class and poor will have all the damaged babies, which we will care for with our tax dollars. Plus ignoring the fact that some damage can be mitigated if caught early.
[S]houldn’t the employer also get to dictate whether the paycheck dollars they pay can be used to buy meat during Lent?
Oh, excellent. I hadn’t thought of that.
“Senator Santorum, prove to me that you’re not working with our enemies.”
Well if the enemy is birth defects, then I think we can prove he is working with them, because he is one.
Ricky sure is a sweetheart, isn’t he? He focuses like a laser on prenatal care leading to more abortions, and manages to miss all that making sure proper nutrition helps avoid disabled and low-birthweight babies in the first place, and the whole early diagnosis of pregnancy-induced diabetes or hypertension, or any number of other things that might cause mommy and baby to die or be disabled.
Wouldn’t want any of that secular medical science interfering with God’s Will, now would we?
And stupidly inconsistent. Why, if that little bunch of cells in there is a real, live human being with rights and all, don’t we want to make sure he/she is in good health and getting proper care? Seems like Ricky, et al. should be on the side of forcing prenatal care, not opposing it.
He really is a vile and loathsome creature.
Santorum should ‘check’ with his god who/which, if he/she/it is responsible for our creation, created us to be autonomous, thinking, reasoning, creatures free to make decisions, right, even wrong – obvious, since otherwise in the case of procreation, God would have made us egg-layers.
Again, thanks Doug Hughes.
Here’s the thing that bugs me. No one is going to pay for contraception if they don’t want to. So, that objection is gone. But, wait – they don’t even want to pay for an insurance policy that, indirectly, will let someone get free contraception? Fine – *they can stop offering health insurance*. There will be exchanges in place! People can buy their own policies!
Of course, they’ll have to increase salaries – people are going to expect higher compensation if insurance isn’t included. But if it’s not the money, it’s the principle of the thing, then why is that a problem?
This problem is entirely their own choice. They have other choices to make, and they’re whining that the government won’t cover them. Well, too fucking bad. Ryan, especially, should be called out as stupid (I’m *sure* he’s no hypocrite, so he must be too stupid to have thought of this) since he thinks putting people into exchanges is such a fine idea.
OT – but worth a look. This is from an obscure site, but (hat tip) this story is great news.
http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/02/17/video-minnesota-governor-mark-dayton-calls-out-alec-by-name/
The quotes are Governor Mark Dayton, chanelling Huey Long, IMO.
“So exactly who did the Republicans in the legislature listen to?†Dayton asked, as he held up a thick document.
“Three of the four bills come right from this manual. Tort Reform Boot Camp, published by the American Legislative exchange council, or ALEC.â€
“It is an extremely conservative group funded largely by large corporations, big business associations, insurance companies and very wealthy individuals,†Dayton remarked…
“I’ve found that Minnesotans do not want their laws written by the lobbyists of big corporations.â€
How about an amendment to the Virginia trans-vaginal ultrasound bill. A woman seeking a legal abortion will have to submit to an invasive and useless procedure to satisfy the fetus people. Well, recent testimony in Washington proves that men get prostate cancer from harlots who use birth control. So a mandatory part of a prostate cancer examination in Virginia should include a similar procedure – with imaging. I suspect the pictures would resemble one of several prominent republicans.
I never thought things would get this wacky.
I’m just fine with religion so long as the practioners don’t start forcing their ways on others.
The more extreme of our brothers and sisters have worked themselves (aided by the likes of Glen Beck and the queen of Alaska) into thinking they are under assault.
I passed a car yesterday with a bumper sticker that read “Take our country back!”
They left off “to 1900”.
It seems that there is a certain group who longs for the time of Dickens .
OT – but a cute, short read. “Four Reasons Why Lincoln Wouldn’t Win the GOP Nomination:”
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0220/4-reasons-Abraham-Lincoln-wouldn-t-win-the-GOP-nomination-in-2012/Lincoln-invented-income-tax
I’ll add a fifth – ‘He Wasn’t A Howling-at-the-Moon Loonie-tune, Determined To Control the Lives of Others, Especially Women, By Combining Government and Religion.’
I love the picture of the Council of the Righteous..Guardians of the Womb. Hearings on birth control wouldn’t be nescessary if women would heed the biblical admoniton..“Women,know thy place.”
I wonder how it is that someone who has had the amount of personal tragedy that Rick and his family have had, a fetal demise and a young child with trisomy 18, cannot summon the compassion to consider what might happen if the same tragedies occurred to someone without platinum health care insurance. Observing this inability, I wonder how he could consider himself a Christian other than that he believes he is part of “God’s Elite”.
The Santorum family’s birthing problems might be age elated, but clearly some genetic testing and couseling is indicated. Since they would refuse to use birth control, I suppose a counselor would suggest abstinence, which would be more to the Santorum’s liking.
I truly regret the personal pain that these tragedies have caused the Santorums, but tragedies can offer some opportunity for insight and growth. I think he would be a better person if he could benefit from the lessons of his family’s experiences.
I think this does an excellent job of illustrating just how much Santorum cares about human life:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/rick-santorum-uhs-hospitals-patient-rights_n_1276403.html
Only if there’s profit involved, in other words.
The latest Gingrich pander – “You cannot put a gun rack on a Volt.” (Huzzahs from the audience.) He prefaced this odd remark – given that a Volt is an American car, etc. – with “Obama wants you to buy small cars.”
By now it’s obvious that this entire Republican campaign is directed at garnering the votes of the crazies (the opposites of elitists?)
Since they would refuse to use birth control, I suppose a counselor would suggest abstinence, which would be more to the Santorum’s liking.
Ricky would be doing straight hard abstinence (priest like) if he does any at all…Bible doesn’t allow for carrot pulling,even with extenuating circumstances, that’s considered Onanism…And Jesus frowns on Onanites.
Oh, I think the use of Altar boys as a buffer against the burning desires that accompany abstinence is OK in Santorum’s religion..That seems to be the rule rather than the exception.
That’s actually hard to say. I did see a Christian themed site that seemed to have no problem with that, though I could only verify acceptance if the woman was doing the carrot pulling or, uh, tasting.
Personally, if it’s okay for the woman to do it, I think it takes a very strange religion to say it’s not okay for the man to take matters into his own hand. But, it is the nature of religion to be strange, sometimes.
LongHairedWeirdo …Ricky’s religon subscribes to the sex is for procreation only camp( missionary position only to boot..how boring!)…He should have been a Baptist, or even a Whirling Dervish, this way he could enjoy some receational sex within the confines of Holy Matrimony.
Michael Lind perhaps said it best, the wingnuts have applied the principles of biblical inerrancy to sacralize a particular constitutional viewpoint and laissez-faire economics. Ron Paul is perhaps the best example of this merging of religious and political fundamentalism, but Santorum comes in a close second.