On Marriage

Some day, some day, people will really get it.

They will understand that their concept of marriage is cultural, as in the 'wedding industry' that lures couples into spending thousands of dollars they do not have for an evening, whereas those of us who counsel said couples are more interested in five to ten years down the line.

They will understand that their concept of 'biblical' marriage is totally wrong, that this notion of one man/one woman more often than not does not show up as the norm in the bible (try Salomon and his gazillions of wives and concubines or Levite marriage).

They will understand that their concept of the actual rite involves both state and church and perhaps, it would be better to separate church from state in this case, as it is in all other rites.

They will understand that the concept of samegendermarriage is incredibly conservative and traditional and is not going to tear apart their (fragile) heterosexualmarriages.

They will understand that the sex lives of gays and lesbians are boring, and not cracked up to what their fantasies think they are, that the gays and lesbians are not out there 'doing it' all the time but actually are quite bogged down in the mundane tasks and responsibilities of daily life.

End rant.

In the meantime, the arc toward justice is incredibly long and slow.

Shame on Texas

From the NY Times in an article about Texas slashing funds for women's medical care

But the clinic closed in October, along with more than a dozen others in the state, after financing for women’s health was slashed by two-thirds by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The cuts, which left many low-income women with inconvenient or costly options, grew out of the effort to eliminate state support for Planned Parenthood. Although the cuts also forced clinics that were not affiliated with the agency to close — and none of them, even the ones run by Planned Parenthood, performed abortions — supporters of the cutbacks said they were motivated by the fight against abortion.

Now, the same sentiment is likely to lead to a shutdown next week of another significant source of reproductive health care: the Medicaid Women’s Health Program, which serves 130,000 women with grants to many clinics, including those run by Planned Parenthood. Gov. Rick Perry and Republican lawmakers have said they would forgo the $35 million in federal money that finances the women’s health program in order to keep Planned Parenthood from getting any of it.

In what year are we? You say 2012? Really? I'd say it is more like the 1950s or 1960s. Depressing.

Still hanging in there

So, the herminator is still staying in the race. Oh well.

And I am keeping up with my photoshopping abilities or lack thereof.

Exemplar of a boor

November 10, 2011, 9:56 pm
Cain on Camera Joking About Anita Hill
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR (NYT)

Even as he is facing his own sexual harassment scandal, Herman Cain was caught on tape Thursday joking about Anita Hill, the college professor who lodged similar accusations against Clarence Thomas decades ago.

The exchange between Mr. Cain and a supporter was caught on tape by a Fox News camera at a campaign stop in Kalamazoo, Mich. It first aired Thursday night on the network’s “Special Report” program.

According to the video, a person in the crowd mentioned Ms. Hill to Mr. Cain, who responded, jokingly, “Is she going to endorse me?” prompting laughter.

J.D. Gordon, a spokesman for Mr. Cain, said simply that “it was a joke,” and added that the Republican presidential candidate was simply “repeating what a supporter said.”

The exchange comes just a day after Mr. Cain, a former talk radio host, had to apologize for calling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “Princess Nancy” during Wednesday night’s debate.

+++

That man has shot himself in the foot so many times and yet his numbers still remain high. What is it with people? I don't know which is more discouraging: his sexist remarks or people's blowing them off as jokes.

Never believe the woman

When a woman comes out with an accusation of sexual harassment, the accused always will blame the woman, question her financial motives, her sexual life, basically do everything possible to discredit her.

I am jaded enough to think that these words are posturing because they follow a script we know too well. On the other hand, I don't think people have a clue what it takes to come forward with such an embarrassing truth of having had her personal space violated. Nor do I think people have an understanding of what it takes to have one's space violated. It does not have to be physical; it can be emotional and verbal. If the aggressor consistently brings sexual content into the conversation, that is as much harassment as having someone grope her.

With the accusations coming forward against Herman Cain, the posturing has started and his supporters are attacking her motives, her financial past and her lawyer. It is the usual modus operandi.

All I can say is that despite the occasional accusations that do not pan out (we will never really know the truth about Dominique Straus Kohn in NYC this May), there are far many more who speak an uncomfortable truth. There are far many more who speak out for their sisters who cannot or dare not speak the truth. They speak because they don't want someone else to go through what they have had to endure. Not all of them want recompense. They just want to be heard, to have their dignity restored, to assure themselves that the perpetrator will not be able to continue to violate people's space. One person speaks out and it unleashes the confessions of others because they understand that it is isolating to make such accusations alone and, moreover, if there has been one offense, often there are others.

Most of all, to come forward with such an accusation is not something taken lightly or frivolously. It is far, far too costly to do so precisely because she will be accused of trying to 'destroy his career,' or bringing it upon herself and on and on. To come forward takes guts... and a lot of support so that when the system closes around the accused and spins the stories, the accuser does not feel as though she is losing her mind because the system is going to want to make her think she is crazy.

How many times do we have to go through this — a powerful man (again, in most cases) infringing on the emotional and physical space of someone without power — to get it that there usually is a grain of truth in such accusations? On the twentieth anniversary of Professor Anita Hill (whom I believe) speaking in the hearings against the actions of Judge Clarence Thomas and subsequently being dragged through the mud and then some, things have not progressed at all. If anything, they have gone backward. Pretty sad.

And, in case you are wondering, I will believe the women until proven wrong. Why? Because I have been there, done that, and what I have described was my experience twenty-one years ago. The perp got off the hook, the system closed around him and we were simply worn down and too small to take on the system. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

I just don't get it

'Herman Cain's tax plan, picked apart by rivals and independent analysts, would wallop the middle class and benefit the rich.' from the NYT 30 October.

WHY????? are middle class people supporting someone who is going to do them in further than they already have been hit? Will someone please explain what goes on in people's minds?

Or is it that there is nothing going on in there?

Here's a clue from the same article: '“The way he words things, he doesn’t make it real complicated,” said a woman who declined to give her name.'

I just don't understand.

I still don't get it

From Bill Keller's article today, Is the Tea Party Over?

Perry is the most ardent of Tea Party ideologues. His book, “Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington,” is a manifesto of 10th Amendment hyperfederalism and radical individualism, assailing the constitutional basis of Social Security, the income tax, the Federal Reserve, consumer protection, and “federal laws regulating the environment, regulating guns, protecting civil rights, establishing the massive programs and Medicare and Medicaid, creating national minimum wage laws, establishing national labor laws,” and so on.

So, why pray tell, if he is so against any federal laws regulating this list of things, he and the Tea Party ilk are so obsessed with regulating marriage and reproductive access?

Sadly, the answer is too clear, so clear I don't even have to state it.

God help us.

The resurrection and all that

From a New York Times article on increases in health insurance costs:

'The increase in premiums was striking because in a poor economy, many people put off going to doctors, to avoid co-payments and higher deductibles. Despite a decrease in the use of medical services, companies have defended higher premiums — and their high profits — reasoning that their costs would rebound once the economy recovered....

'The increases now under consideration in New York would affect 1.3 million of the 3 million residents in individual and small-group plans; the amounts vary considerably depending on the type of policy. The increases requested by Aetna, for example, range from 8.9 percent to 53.6 percent, while those from United Health Group/Oxford range from 13 percent to 34 percent, according to the State Insurance Department....'

This is obscene.

They just want us poor suckers to die early. They'll get their wish as the practice of medicine continues to respond to crises rather than preventative and the great masses put off the preventative tests that could save lives.

'Since last year, the Insurance Department has posted more than 4,000 policyholder objections online. In one typical letter, a small businessman, citing six years of annual increases of more than 15 percent, raged, “There are no words to express how utterly greedy and unconscionable another double-digit increase in health care costs are to the world of small companies and those employed by them.” '

No kidding.

It makes me spit nails when looking at the cost of premiums. It is nothing short of highway robbery. (Why should a bunch of lab tests which consist of taking some blood cost more than $1000? But they do and I respect the people who read them, but still... insurance covered $200.)

Add your caption

Meanwhile, in the House follies, H677 passed with a whopping eight-vote margin, hardly a whopping mandate. Here is what we look like today... there is a lot of red between the coasts. How much does this mirror the church today?

Is it or isn't it?

Even with the presidential seal smacked on the lid of the laptop, I don't think it's a Mac. Oh well.

So the President tweets. I still am not there.

So scary

This trio strikes fear in my heart and mind.

Dream Team for Dems?

Doncha think, wink, wink?

Great but sad line

'The 2012 presidential election already promises to be an exercise in bedlam...'

The rest of the article, The Mad Genius of Donald Trump is also interesting and, at times, funny.

Looks like....

Does this look like a donkey or what?

Oh, oh, oh. It is going to be a very long 18 months. If only we would limit the electoral season to three months as other countries — El Salvador for one — do.

As goes NH, there goes the nation?

NH Republicans elect Tea Party activist to lead them to 2012.

At least there is the Connecticut River between the two states to distinguish us... VT gets thinner at the bottom, NH thinner up at the top. Make of it as you may :)

Lord have mercy on us all.

Venting

So the conservative block in the House wants to cut education, Amtrak, foreign aid, the Washington Metro... cuts that would put Amtrak out of business and education???

And people wonder why the US falls behind so many other countries in educational standards and has such feeble public transportation?

At least there still are the Senate and President to put an end to such nonsense... if the House Republicans are serious about cutting the deficit they can take the symbolic step of cutting out their health insurance and cutting their salaries to levels that most people get.

What is beyond me is why people vote for quacks like this... just where and when did the deficit come from? Hm?

Pathetic. it is going to be a very long two years.The old depression pre-2009 is back again full force.

Is this any surprise?

No point in wasting energy or emotion in invective. Suffice to say that I think the party in the majority is way, way, way off course. Next they will vote to reinstate DODT. After that, make sure all those people who make a ton of money get more tax breaks... and on and on. Pathetic.

Still alive

Just not posting all that much...

A grey day in Vermont after a mid-week snowfall — not nearly as much as folks got down in Connecticut or even southern, southern Vermont (Wilmington VT got 36 inches whereas we got 10 or so). There is talk of rain next week, oh joy.

Ruminating on the events of the past week, realising that Vermont only gets a score of 8 from the Brady Foundation (as in James Brady's group for gun control), thinking that trying to have a reasoned, sane and non-visceral conversation about gun control is about as successful as having one about marriage equality.


I think about how such carnage could happen anywhere, here in Vermont. Here's a photo taken last July of my talking with Vermont's lone representative, Peter Welch. Given how loose Vermont's gun laws are, the same sort of thing could have happened, though the rhetorical temperature is much lower here than in Arizona.


What a difference several thousand miles make. Both states are border states but there is nowhere near the anxiety about it because it is true, who wants to come into Vermont? I still marvel at the open border that we crossed when we walked into Canada in September.

In any event, I don't hold much hope for the tenor of political discourse cranking down. And off on a slight tangent, I don't know how I am going to be able to stand two years of the Speaker of the House boohooing all the time. Get a grip.

Oy veh

From the NYT:

Republicans gained more than 690 seats in state legislatures nationwide in the November midterms, winning their strongest representation at the state level in more than 80 years.

God, have mercy on us all.

Why? Where to begin? I can't.

Immigration.
Choice.
Marriage equality.
Health insurance.
Deficit and taxes.
Muscular Christianity.

That is just what comes to the top of my head.

May God have mercy on us in 2011.

Plus ça change...

From an article on censure in today's NYT:

Violence was hardly routine in 19th-century Congressional disputes, but there was enough to make it interesting. In 1856*, as divisions over slavery intensified, Representatives Preston S. Brooks and Laurence M. Keitt, Democrats of South Carolina, strode to the Senate, and Mr. Brooks severely caned Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, an anti-slavery Republican.

When other senators tried to intervene, Mr. Keitt brandished a pistol and shouted: “Let them be.” Mr. Brooks survived an expulsion vote and resigned his seat. Mr. Keitt resigned to protest his censure. Both were re-elected — Mr. Brooks with a supply of new canes sent by constituents.

In 1858, Mr. Keitt started a donnybrook on the House floor. After an exchange of insults in a debate over the admission of Kansas as a slave state, he leaped up and tried to throttle Representative Galusha A. Grow, Republican of Pennsylvania. Supporters on both sides jumped into the fray, and a melee involving dozens of congressmen broke out.

The speaker shouted in vain for order. The sergeant-at-arms rushed in. Representative Cadwallader Washburn of Wisconsin tried to grab Representative William Barksdale of Mississippi by the hair, but came away with a toupee. Mr. Barksdale retrieved his wig, but put it on backward, and the fighting ended as both sides dissolved in laughter.

* the year of the consecration of the church building where I formerly served...