Bayeaux Tapestry: Cleric slaps Aelfgyva. It’s just tradition.
So, I read this the other day at Eschaton:
Obama Administration: Defense of Marriage Act is Unconstitutional
Marriage is, of course, a vitally important institution, and one supported by the federal government through benefits and other programs that rely on marital status. An interest in preserving marriage as limited to heterosexual persons, however, does not justify Section 3. Tradition, no matter how long established, cannot by itself justify a discriminatory law under equal protection principles.
Then, I remembered that it was only about two weeks ago that the White House did THIS:
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday proposed yet another compromise to address strenuous objections from religious organizations about a policy requiring health insurance plans to provide free contraceptives, but the change did not end the political furor or legal fight over the issue.
The proposal could expand the number of groups that do not need to pay directly for birth control coverage, encompassing not only churches and other religious organizations, but also some religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service agencies. Health insurance companies would pay for the coverage.
The latest proposed change is the third in the last 15 months, all announced on Fridays, as President Obama has struggled to balance women’s rights, health care and religious liberty. Legal experts said the fight could end up in the Supreme Court.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said the proposal would guarantee free coverage of birth control “while respecting religious concerns.”
Now, I am delighted that the LGBT community’s argument that traditional marriage is just “traditional” is getting the recognition it deserves. That tradition is usually based on religious principles that many of us don’t subscribe to and in actuality, those religious principles undermine marriage and family integrity.
But I can’t for the life of me figure out why women are so damn powerless with the Obama administration and why the argument “Tradition, no matter how long established, cannot by itself justify a discriminatory law under equal protection principles” gets no traction with the White House when applied to over half the Americans in this country . Tradition is destiny for women in Obama’s America.
Where is NOW now that their Feminist in Chief is traditionalizing the religious role of women in American society? And why are people like Culture of Truth mum on that subject?
Just askin’.
Filed under: General | Tagged: ACA, Catholic bishops, contraceptive coverage, Culture of Truth, DOMA, exemption, NOW, obama administration, women |
The Confluence 
One of the most disappointing aspects of BO’s presidency…all those groups are either extremely quiet or get virtually no media attention when they do protest…this group of so-called “democrats” are the biggest hypocrites around. It makes me deeply ashamed.
Many people who should know better, such as Driftglass, still defend Barack Iscariot Obama, at least by repeating “But the GOP would be so much worse!”. (How?)
2008 really opened my eyes. Before then, I thought we liberals were too smart to be herded into a bleating flock, unlike those silly bigots, chickenhawks, Randroids, and Bible-thumpers on the Right. Then I saw many of my fellow liberals meekly fall in line behind Barack Iscariot Obama, the Judas goat.
After that, I saw many of the same liberals who were smart enough to shun the Blue Obummer Kool-Aid step right up and drink the Red Wingnut Kool-Aid (I’m looking at you, Crawdad Holers). 😛
I fear that psychological manipulation has become such a precise technology that human liberty is essentially dead. 😦
Recently Yves Smith explained in a comment on Naked Capitalism why she feels Vichy Left is a better term than Vichy Democrat. She explains how Vichy Left refers to all the Left Wing and Liberal spokesfolk who explain why voting Democratic at the national level remains so very necessary, and why the Democrats should be viewed as trying to represent our interests as best as they can against the handy-foil Republicans.
So I will start training myself to use the phrase Vichy Left wherever
useful..
Just searching here for a reason.
Gays claim that without their votes Obama would not have won. It is a somewhat debatable claim. The math does not work but that never hindered the Obamanites.
It is clear that without women, Obama was dead in the water. Gays are seen as wealthier and more likely single issue voters. Gays are , as a group, looked at more favorably by the corporate crew (apparently).
I think, like most things with Obama this comes down to the wealthy and the corporates.
Obama lost evangelicals and Mormons as well as white (non-hispanic) Catholics. Opinions about abortion (never mind contraception) was a pretty reliable indicator on the vote. Contraception was so main stream, just like Social Security in 2000, that the Establishment cried out whenever it was claimed that Republicans might restrict it.
None of this makes sense except that Obama and friends don’t care about your opinion or mine, just the opinions of a select few. If he really cared, he would offer a sequester alternative full of cuts in subsidies to oil companies and agriculture and the Department of Defense, particularly mercenaries.
Obama engineered the sequester for the precise purpose of using it to extort cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Obama will keep dividing and extending the sequester into mini-sequesters and stop-gaps and delays in hopes to eventually extort the cuts to Social Security and Medicare which were his Prime Directive as soon as he took office in 2008.
It won’t cost us very much time or money to let our Dparty officeholders know that we will never vote/call/give/anything else Dparty related if any changes whatsoever are made to SS/Mcare. And given the trillions of our pre payed dollars at stake, a few dollars worth of time and money and stamps are a small sum to spare in the effort to save those trillions of dollars from the Catfood Obamacrat conspiracy to steal those trillions of dollars.
equal protection principles” gets no traction with the White House when applied to over half the Americans in this country.
Sorry to be yelling but this is the thing that I just don’t get. I want to scream it on the street corners.
Guess the post White House job offers for Barry and Michelle are drying up so he is preparing for doing the rubber chicken circuit. But then he is no Bill Clinton.
This. Over and over – but – you look at every “minority” group and they are behind the cause if they are going to matter. If a minority “youth” gets shot by police while holding a stolen TV and a gun – there are communities that will scream about police excessive force or lack of cause.
Women hold each other to impossible standards and then sneer at the clothes or hairstyle followed by shredding over differences in opinion.
Seriously, women are completely divided so nobody with power has to give two shits what *some* women think because other women will help mow them over. I am so frustrated with the way we women participate in our own situation.
It would also be helpful if the men on our side would speak up. But not so much – and this IMO, is the other part of problem. The professional left is all about pursuing gay marriage or protecting minority groups by noticing statements that are harmful to whatever minority community and showing up in support. But they don’t seem to come out in force on issues that concern women.
NOW? They are too busy helping every other cause on the planet – oh, that and fundraising. They just don’t have time to focus on these little things.
Know what I think? I think it was a mistake for women’s groups like NOW to lend so much effort to fight for the LGBT community without asking for much of anything in return. Just look at NOW’s home page over the last decade. It completely lost the plot and asked for very little from every minority group and special interest while those same special interests demanded and got NOW’s support without question.
That’s got to stop. I’m not saying we shouldn’t fight for each other but there has got to be a reason why NOW exists and it should be women above all other things. Just women. Not latino women and not gay women. Just women.
Yes. I agree. We need to do more than be the “helpmate” of everyone but neither getting nor giving help to ourselves.