The Republican Party, ladies and gentlemen. They're the party of "freedom" and "liberty" and "rights". They want these things for rich white people men. For everyone else they want to make sure that you are living in the way that they feel is appropriate and righteous and gods forbid (God forbid, I suppose) that your life doesn't fit into their narrowly conservative cherry-picked literal(ish) interpretation of Christianity then you aren't a patriotic American. Quite frankly I'm sick and tired of hearing incessantly about liberty and freedom and democracy and then in the next sentence hearing how other people just living their lives is an impediment to someone's freedom.
Today I read an article at Politicus USA wherein we find that craven, fear-mongering, hate-filled, bible-thumping, evangelists of dickery claim that if God-fearing Christians can't discriminate against gay people and if America is going to allow gay people to get married then America will "descend into paganism". This Reverend, whose name you will have to check out the Politcus article to learn as I will not darken my blog with it, claims that allowing same-sex marriage will lead to Christian persecution. Does that sound logical to you? It's not. Why am I worked up about this? Two reasons and their names are Daryl Metcalfe and the Pennsylvania Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.
Let's start with Daryl Metcalfe, who is introducing, or reintroducing a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. For those of you keeping score, same-sex marriage is already not a thing in Pennsylvania. Marriage is already not available to same-sex couples, but Daryl Metcalfe thinks that there is nothing more important to do than to double ban it. Well, maybe double-banning same-sex marriage is only slightly more important than wooing gun makers with the false promise of a state that ignores federal gun laws. That's just a close second to making sure that same-sex couples are being actively discriminated against.
Next on my list the PA Senate Banking and Insurance Committee who recently approved a bill which would restrict insurance companies on the insurance marketplace from covering elective abortions. Let's just rephrase that in a really clear way, shall we? The insurance marketplace is where people can go to buy their own insurance from a nominally competitive marketplace. It's where people can go to buy their own insurance. With their own money. They buy insurance with their own money. And now, the people who insist that we can't stop people from buying whatever gun they want do insist that women who spend their own money to buy their own insurance cannot have coverage for the possibility of an abortion. There will be exceptions for rape and incest, but not for instances where the life of the mother is at risk. If you keep up with international news at all you may remember (or should certainly read and learn about) the case of Savita Halappanavar who died needlessly and in excruciating pain because Ireland doesn't allow abortions except maybe possibly in the event that the mother's life is in danger, but what doctor is going to take a chance on a maybe exception?
Do I sound angry? It's because I am.
Edited to add:
A little bit ago I got an email from Equality PA which contained this awesome quote from Daryl Metcalfe...
It’s been traditionally looked at as morally repulsive to talk with someone about our sexual behaviors,” said Representative Daryl Metcalfe, who added that he couldn’t think of a reason to “provide protection in statute so that people could go about offending their neighbors.”
Yeah. Awesome.
Today I read an article at Politicus USA wherein we find that craven, fear-mongering, hate-filled, bible-thumping, evangelists of dickery claim that if God-fearing Christians can't discriminate against gay people and if America is going to allow gay people to get married then America will "descend into paganism". This Reverend, whose name you will have to check out the Politcus article to learn as I will not darken my blog with it, claims that allowing same-sex marriage will lead to Christian persecution. Does that sound logical to you? It's not. Why am I worked up about this? Two reasons and their names are Daryl Metcalfe and the Pennsylvania Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.
Let's start with Daryl Metcalfe, who is introducing, or reintroducing a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. For those of you keeping score, same-sex marriage is already not a thing in Pennsylvania. Marriage is already not available to same-sex couples, but Daryl Metcalfe thinks that there is nothing more important to do than to double ban it. Well, maybe double-banning same-sex marriage is only slightly more important than wooing gun makers with the false promise of a state that ignores federal gun laws. That's just a close second to making sure that same-sex couples are being actively discriminated against.
Next on my list the PA Senate Banking and Insurance Committee who recently approved a bill which would restrict insurance companies on the insurance marketplace from covering elective abortions. Let's just rephrase that in a really clear way, shall we? The insurance marketplace is where people can go to buy their own insurance from a nominally competitive marketplace. It's where people can go to buy their own insurance. With their own money. They buy insurance with their own money. And now, the people who insist that we can't stop people from buying whatever gun they want do insist that women who spend their own money to buy their own insurance cannot have coverage for the possibility of an abortion. There will be exceptions for rape and incest, but not for instances where the life of the mother is at risk. If you keep up with international news at all you may remember (or should certainly read and learn about) the case of Savita Halappanavar who died needlessly and in excruciating pain because Ireland doesn't allow abortions except maybe possibly in the event that the mother's life is in danger, but what doctor is going to take a chance on a maybe exception?
Do I sound angry? It's because I am.
Edited to add:
A little bit ago I got an email from Equality PA which contained this awesome quote from Daryl Metcalfe...
It’s been traditionally looked at as morally repulsive to talk with someone about our sexual behaviors,” said Representative Daryl Metcalfe, who added that he couldn’t think of a reason to “provide protection in statute so that people could go about offending their neighbors.”
Yeah. Awesome.