Wrist Surgery Yesterday
ArchPundit
I’m in pretty good shape, but the wrist is a bit sore so it’ll be light for a couple days at least.
February 2012
Oh Mitt!
Rick Santorum doesn’t think any insurance should cover contraception. Wanta join the crazy train? Good, I knew you would…
Santorum, of course, isn’t the type of person that the president is likely to persuade on topics of contraception coverage. The former Pennsylvania senator is a renowned culture warrior, who has risen back to the top of the Republican primary polls by appealing to social issues. Elaborating on why he opposed the revised version of the Obama contraception rule, he explained that he didn’t believe insurance companies should cover contraception at all.
“This has nothing to do with access,” he said. “This is having someone pay for it, pay for something that shouldn’t even be in an insurance plan anyway because it is not, really an insurable item. This is something that is affordable, available. You don’t need insurance for these types of relatively small expenditures. This is simply someone trying to impose their values on somebody else, with the arm of the government doing so. That should offend everybody, people of faith and no faith that the government could get on a roll that is that aggressive.”
That’s Not A Compromise on Birth Control Coverage
That’s the nitty-gritty. The fun part of this is that Obama just pulled a fast one on Republicans. He drew this out for two weeks, letting Republicans work themselves into a frenzy of anti-contraception rhetoric, all thinly disguised as concern for religious liberty, and then created a compromise that addressed their purported concerns but without actually reducing women’s access to contraception, which is what this has always been about. (As Dana Goldstein reported in 2010, before the religious liberty gambit was brought up, the Catholic bishops were just demanding that women be denied access and told to abstain from sex instead.) With the fig leaf of religious liberty removed, Republicans are in a bad situation. They can either drop this and slink away knowing they’ve been punked, or they can double down. But in order to do so, they’ll have to be more blatantly anti-contraception, a politically toxic move in a country where 99% of women have used contraception.
Because It Makes Me Giggle Like Alan Keyes in the Black Cowboy Hat
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OqHhoF1XAM&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
More Like Quigley Please
Missed this the other day. He addresses the contraception issue well:
Protection of religious freedom means considering the faiths and beliefs of everyone involved. Just as the beliefs of Catholics at Catholic institutions must be respected, so too must we respect the beliefs of other religious and non-religious followers. Take for example a Catholic university where Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and followers of other faiths work – should these individuals be denied access to contraception even though their religions do not oppose contraception use? If we expand the religious exemption too far, and allow religiously-affiliated institutions to deny contraception to their employees regardless of their religious beliefs, we begin to see the beliefs and rights of those who support and require contraception infringed upon.
A balance must be struck between protecting the rights of religious followers and others who may be impacted by a religious exemption. The Supreme Court, in Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock, explained that religious exemptions should be tailored so they do not “impose substantial burdens on nonbeneficiaries.” Denial of contraception to women without the financial means to afford it could cause substantial economic burdens, and even greater burdens if the lack of contraception results in an unintended pregnancy. Further, a lack of access to contraception could also be a substantial burden for women who rely on oral contraception for noncontraceptive benefits such as reduced pain and severity of symptoms.
Quigley quoted on Talking Points Memo
Quigley cautioned his pro-choice colleagues against that.
“Look, this is the right thing to do, and it’s the politically correct thing to do,” he told me. “Rarely do you get both of those on the same page.”
It’s not hard and only old white guys seem to not get it.
The Men Who Stare at Zygotes AKA The Ignorance of the Pundits
Nothing new to readers here, but a very good summary of how old white guy pundits are amazingly out of touch.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
O’Donnell is the exception who also tore up the issue last night.
Done for the Day
Off to have my eyes dilated and be annoyed that I can’t focus on anything for the rest of the day.
Good News for Kirk
He seems to be recovering well and that’s great news. I look forward to the day he’s well enough for me to get mad at him again.
Daily Dolt: Mark Rhoads and the Illinois Review
Q&A
QUESTION: How do you starve an Obama supporter?
ANSWER: Simple: just hide their food stamps under their work shoes.
Gee, what is he trying to say?
Maddow On Contraception
The Republican candidates are running to the right of Alan Keyes on contraception. If you recall, I tried to get him to come out for a prohibition on contraception in 2004. He wouldn’t go for it even.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy