Obama plans to announce an accommodation to the Catholic Beanie Boys on birth control. He’s going to propose the Hawaii solution:
Emulating Hawaii, where the rule is in effect, would mean that employees at religious institutions that do not offer free contraception in the health insurance plan can get birth control through side benefits, which the employees nominally pay for but which often end up being free.
Hey! Why don’t we emulate Hawaii all the way and make all employers cover every employee by offering them a few standard, reasonably priced insurance plans? It’s like the Massachusetts plan but with different public options. No? *dang!*
OK, why not propose the Duggar Rule. NO one should get any assistance in having pleasurable sexual experiences outside the matrimonial covenant. That goes for boys and girls. Your first kiss should be at the altar where you can swap spit, french kiss and grope your newly wedded spouse in front of all of your friends and family.
Got an ED problem and you’re not married? No prescription. You should be forced to carry around your marriage license at all times and pharmacists will be instructed to look your name up in a database to make sure there are no divorces pending. You can have the prescription but you will need to submit to the oversight of two chaperones, one of which will sit between you and your intended.
It goes without saying that condom makers will be put out of business because why would you ever need one? If you’re not married, you can’t have sex. And if you are married, you need to let God decide the size of your family.
I’m SURE this will work. All people need to do is exercise some self-control. That’s the problem with kids today. No self-control. Why, when *I* was a child…, er…, abortion was paid for by the state if you were too poor to get one and birth control was dirt cheap at the local family planning clinic. Nevermind.
When my MOTHER was a child, nobody had premarital sex, abortions did not exist and birth control was completely unnecessary because everyone practiced self-control. Everyone was happy and fulfilled and there was much singing and rejoicing throughout the land as men and women, sons and daughters, children and grandparents, ran through fields of daisies after a day of joyful toil and devotion and never questioned their own freshness. Yep, that’s the way it was back then.
Of course the most ridiculous thing about the Obama admin’s compromise is the part where they say that there would be a nominal cost for the side benefit but that it would be free in the end anyway. This is the part that troubles me the most. Is it still free or isn’t it? And if it isn’t then does a woman get money back for some other service she won’t need like prostate screenings? Do Cafeteria Catholics get ala carte choices?
Or is this all a bunch of stupid posturing and wordsmithing? The Beanie Boys need a compromise to not lose face with the vatican. They cook something up that doesn’t really deprive women of birth control but they have to make it look like they are upholding some moral value that even those of us who are not Catholic must submit to, like kissing some dirty, germy ring or something.
How about Obama tell them to cut the crap and treat all women like adults? Can we expect Obama to do that?
Apparently not.
If you didn’t see this coming four years ago, you weren’t paying attention. Are you progressives or not? And if you are, why aren’t you mobilizing your forces to push the beanie boys back and make Obama work for YOU? Oh, that’s right, Democrats don’t care about women when they have a chance to win big. Isn’t it funny how the right keeps pushing this Religious Liberty thing this election year? It forces Obama to choose to pander to the evengelicals or support some principled, enlightened position. And the Republicans KNOW he doesn’t have a principled worldview so religious liberty is a perfect opportunity to separate him from his Democratic base who actually does. Some Republicans really do believe in this religious agenda; others just like the prospect of the Democratic party tearing itself to pieces trying to be all things to all people while completely lacking a coherent worldview even if that worldview would be wildly popular. I can’t think of a better reason to abandon the Democratic party and vote for an emergent third party. Progressives and liberals have been rolled again and will continue to get rolled as long as the Democrats fail to shore up their foundations with a coherent worldview and value system.
Now is the time for all good women to remember what Violet Socks said about Archimedes Lever.
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The Confluence 
The Beanie Boyz are against artificial means of conception so that should mean no more Kate + 8 or Octo-mom reality shows. If the republicans didn’t have their free stiffy pills perhaps the men’s room trysts would cease and I could pee in peace.
Yes, we should have some consistency here or it’s not really the rule of law, is it?
The war on women has surged and Obama’s on the verge of surrendering us to the Christian Taliban in exchange for another four years in the Oval Office.
Get your plaid skirts and knee socks out, ladies. We’re all Catholics now.
I absolutely agree, It is absolutely against my religious principles to be forced to contribute to a system where unmarried men are given prescriptions for ED meds AND I think all married men should need a signature from their wife to receive such meds. I demand the government health care accommodation my deeply held religious beliefs. And since 2008, I’m a Republican
Just sent a letter to my Senator pointing out the hypocrisy of providing coverage for stiffy meds but not contraception.
Stiffy meds…LOVE IT
As the Persian proverb says: “Dogs bark, the caravan passes.”
What does that mean? That the process is going forward no matter how much noise we make?
No. Actually what I had in mind was that it appears women actually won a victory for no co-pay contraceptive coverage, no matter their employer. Obama’s little “compromise” had obviously been in the works for some time and it gave the liberal Catholics. like Sister Kaheen head of Catholic Health Services, the cover they needed to support the policy.
It has the additional advantage of isolating the USCCB from the rest of the church and they are the “Dogs who bark” while the caravan passes them by. If Obama planned this thing to happen like this, it was marvelous politics. At the same time he was announcing the compromise, Romney was at CPAC promising to completely defund Planned Parenthood. I don’t like Obama but I admire a game well played and good policy came from it.
>> it gave the liberal Catholics. like Sister Kaheen head of Catholic Health Services, the cover they needed to support the policy.
THIS is the problem, Ralph. Women should not need the permission of liberal Catholics to get no-pay birth control. Liberal Catholics have a problem with their church and should not be dragging the rest of us into that fight.
By giving them “cover”, Obama has declared that there is a problem here that needs a solution and he has chosen to interfere on behalf of liberal Catholics. This is not a victory for women when their president has pretty much caved on whether the religious need to be acknowledged at all in matters of contraception. Everyone’s conscience needs to be appeased except women’s consciences.
By the way, this is not the end of the matter. It was a trap and Obama stupidly fell right into one , again. He’s a danger to himself and others and really needs to step aside.
Here’s a Catholic website that’s a good window into the fight within the church. Most of the articles are against the coverage, a few are pro-contraceptive — but most of the comments are very much against the bishops and against the anti-contraceptive policy in general.
http://ncronline.org/news/politics/obama-administration-went-too-far-contraception-ruling
Whether liberal Catholics should have needed cover not doesn’t really matter if you’re going for a win now and just trying to make some point.
Sister Kaheen did need cover and she got it, so Catholic Health Services got behind the policy. It also looks fairly immune to legal challenge at this point.
Just in case there is any doubt this is a win. Before this 20 states had no mandate for contraceptive coverage and no state had a mandate for no co-pay. The mandatory no co-pay coverage should help a lot of poor women get better health care and BC services. I thought that was the point of the whole thing. If it wasn’t, then screw it, the ladies who lunch can buy their own BC pills.
I’ve been thinking about the Duggards all week…. That photo of the family at the top of the page. I see the parents of large families as thieves of childhood. They’re following some dream-fantasy of family life with no concern for the realities of life as a child in a large family.
The oldest kids are used up before their teenage years are over and the youngest kids have half a dozen parents to rebel against … not just two.
There’s nothing happy about it.
You speak from experience.
Also too, being a firstborn is never a picnic.
That photo had a real impact on me too, and I’m glad I’m not in a position to follow the family on screen, as I probably would if I could. Admitted with sadness.
For a while I had TLC on my network as a trial/ teaser. You know, like: “Come buy me, come buy me”. Well, I didn’t. It sort of provided a peek into some peoples’ lives that I would much rather do without: The “other” octomom, the hoarders, the polygamist, the little girls made up as beauty “queens” – complete with sexual undertones. To me it all seemed to come down to someone being abused. First the abuse by parents and polygamist husband, then the abuse by the tv-production company.
I can’t deny it has huge fascination potential, and I myself am not above “peeking” … but I would much rather that those people got help.
I had TLC for years and never watched it. I only checked out the Duggars in the past week on youtube. I get the feeling that the producers are making them look too good and that the series is heavily edited, probably as a condition of the Duggars.
Some aspects of the older kids’ lives seem unusual. You hardly EVER see the older boys on camera except for Josh, the oldest. Presumably, John David, is busy with a towing company but it’s just weird how little they seem to participate in family life. The older girls on the other hand are always on camera and when they’re in the background, they are indistiguishable from au pairs, scullery maids and cooks. Jessa seems to be the most interesting to me. Her parents have channeled her personality into teaching the younger children. But I get the sense that she is hiding a wild thing beneath the skin. I don’t mean a wild and crazy out of control girl. Quite the opposite. She just has a certain intensity about her and I detect a whiff of anger as well. Jana and Jill the oldest girls seem to be the quiet, good and modest types. Jinger would be a typical teenager in any home. It is Jessa they’re going to have to contend with someday. Her parents *think* they have her tamed but I don’t think they do. Pretty soon, they’re going to run out of things to keep her entertained and pacified and then all hell is going to break loose.
Do you ever get the feeling that access bloggers and ‘serious’ writers are reading your stuff but are too chicken to add you to their blogroll?
Would those access bloggers and ‘serious’ writers be reading stuff to gather intelligence for Obama to use against his targets and potentially lucrative voting blocs? If so, would it be worthwhile figuring out how to deny those access bloggers and ‘serious’ writers from accessing your blog from their normal and accustomed computers? Making them take the bus to their local neighborhood crappy library computers instead?
Knowing that you’ve been laid off and will be reaching the end of your COBRA health insurance you should be very glad you don’t live in Massachusetts where you are required by law to buy the most expensive health insurance in the country. The least expensive plan for a single person costs $580/month. There is MA subsidized care for low income but you’re not eligible if you have a 401K regardless of your income or the pitiful size of your 401k. Welcome to Obama Care idiots.
My COBRA is already more than $600/month for me alone. With my daughter and dental, it’s almost $1k/month.
Yes, it sucks.
Yes, I blame the Democrats.
oh, and i forgot to mention that if you don’t buy that insurance that you can’t afford because you’re putting together two part time jobs and early social you’ll be fined $90/month. Thank you ever so much.
The Forced Mandate will engender a rising tide of slow-building hatred, as well it should.
I will risk losing whatever predictive credibility I have (if any) by predicting that the Roberts Supreme Court will decide that the Forced Mandate is PERfectly constitutional, thank you very much. The “liberal” justices will confuse the Forced Mandate with “broadened healthcare access”, and support it for “liberal” reasons. The two corporate fascist FedSoc (Federalist Society) embeds Roberts and Scalito will support it to enrich and bail out Big Insura.
Scalia and Thomas will vote against it to burnish their “ornery conservative” image. The Prima Kennedona will vote for whatever side strokes and feeds his flattery-hungry ego the most effectively.
( That should be “Alito”, not “Scalito” …)
The two Fascist Society [oops, Federalist Society 😉 ] embeds, of course, wouldn’t BE there if their fascist predecessors hadn’t stolen the 2000 election for the Chimperor and Darth Cheney (whom I suspect was the actual president during that grim period).
The Oborg, of course, will roll out the judicial appointment argument to try to browbeat us into holding our noses and voting for Obummer. News flash, Oborg–it’s too late. Fascism already holds a majority on the Supreme Court (as does, by no coincidence, the Roman Cult of Pederastic Rape).
Looking at what the Rep. are doing seems like a contest with Obama who sucks more. The more people are turning away from him the more their primaries become absurd. In 2008 they wanted him to win and now obviously they are doing it again. The question is for how long people are willing to play this game. Forget about the people why not the real power just have them all in one entity and stop this theatre. It’s just becoming tiresome and insulting
Yup
In Colorado, ONE PERCENT of Reg Repubs voted in Caucuses.
Did you notice how very few of us even really can muster enough interest to do much of anything in this Absurd Theater anymore?
Obama?
Jeesh….crazy making….what is his Job, again?
“Voting” is sheer muscle memory for many of you but just use it to Vote outside the Big Two, if you must Vote!
But no…we must either be Dem or Repub/
Pfffttt……
Imagine if they held an Election and nobody showed up.
“Dogs bark and the caravan passes”!?
Hell, the dogs are so tired of the stupid caravan called the USA, they are almost silent these days. The Caravan is almost totally composed of Clowns anymore (and those who get their paycheck from them) that we have forgotten that there is a Circus in our midst.
This is what happens when Both Sides have these basic assumptions that are irreconcialble and are such adolescents that they forget how to live like decent neighbors….keep shouting, it will never work out.
In my view, the problem is that Both Sides do not have irreconcilable basic assumtions. Both sides share the same set of Corporate Fascist Republican assumptions. The Democrats pretend otherwise to trick voters into voting for them. The shouting is just theatre designed to obscure the fact that the Democratic Party is a velcro decoy roach motel designed to lure in millions of activists, supporters, and voters
and waste their lives and energy on millions of tiny little hamster wheels.
Real political irreconcilability between two Enemy Parties is what I WISH we DID have. A genuine zero sum fight-to-the-death wherein one side functionally exterminates the other side. Hopefully a legitimate liberadical New Deal 2.0 Social Democrat side would be the side which “exterminated” the DLC Republican-Corpocrat side. Then we could finally have nice things.
That’s the sort of thing which got me banned by Digby and her little MiniMe (guess who).
RUR, I get the impression that Atkins (I assume that’s whom you mean by “MiniMe”) is actually directing Digby. Digby used to be willing to let Obummer opponents comment. The purge didn’t start until the Dinocratic thug Atkins came aboard.
M ft I,
I left a lengthy reply and then I hit a button wrong and erased it and now it is almost time to get back to work.
In briefest, I don’t see how a cruddy little twenty-something punk could push around a Fifty-something A-list Senior Blogger. I may be wrong but my tinfoil antenna tell me that the banning and censorship and the bringing in of Atkins are all facets of the One Same New Policy.
How do we get dissenting opinions to the info-deprived captives behind the Digby Curtain?
RUR: First, I hate those “extra” functions on keyboards, too. I sometimes hit the wrong thing and kill a reply or do something else unintended. 😛
Second, OK, you’re probably correct about Atkins not being the power behind the throne. IIRC, doesn’t Digby’s husband have a career out there in Hollyweird? Maybe the Dinocratic thugs threatened that career if she didn’t toe the party line. After the, ahem, questionable nomination of 2008, I no longer labor under the delusion that the Dinocrats are any less unethical than the Reptilians. 😡
Oh, as for smuggling dissenting opinions to the Hullabazombies, your guess is as good as mine. I think Riverdaughter is still allowed to comment there; maybe she could post links to The Confluence?
An interesting theory, Mr. Monster. In these times of economic danger, applied blackmail could indeed silence someone whose freedom-from-starvation depends on silence. How would we ever know? If it were that, it would be a heightening of the shutdown pressure against independent voice organizations which Yves Smith has alluded to the Obama Administration as orchestrating over the last few years. That would be a kind of shadow fascism. And Digby could be forgiven for giving in to it, IFF! that is what has caused it. But how would we ever know?
Certainly, nobody has silenced Yves Smith as of yet, and she has been putting out material of significant potential danger to the Obama-FIRE Sector industrial complex and its Yeltsinization plans for America.
Now . . . if I ran a blog and I was not yet banned on another blog, and I wished to open lifelines to the readers of the anotherblog without getting banned on the anotherblog, how would I do that? I might experiment with sometimes posting inoccuous comments on nonpolitical threads ( such as when Tristero offers an occasional post about food) and I would leave a link to my relevant blogpost in that inoccuous comment. I would then “only hope” that any followers of that link might start reading the rest of my material. But that is all theoretical thinking. Since I don’t have a blog, I don’t really know what I woul do if I did have a blog and decided to consider that possible project.
TLC and reality shows.
Think they would ever do one about a health care clinic in the U.K. or our neighbors to the North?
Give people a glimpse of how others do health care?
There would be riots in the streets when folks find out how bad screwed they are by Big Insurance and their lackeys in Congress.
1k per month times all the people who were laid off from your company, RD, that is a good chunk of change going into some MBA suit’s pocket to live large. How much of it do Pelosi, Reid and Obama skim?
I dunno. At the present time, my unemployment checks are going to pay COBRA and my property taxes. I am essentially living on my liquid assets right now.
Yes, it sucks. And Yes, it is totally unnecessary. When the recession finally ends, there will be a huge strata of people whose careers and livelihoods will be totally ruined for no good reason but the country will have a lot fewer scientists to kick around.
and the drama from Washington just keeps coming. 😦
So much for “No-Drama” Obama. Politics sometimes requires confrontation.