Just When You Think Something MIGHT Get Better

So the House passed its healthcare reform bill, while selling out women … with 64 Democrats, for reasons that pass understanding, vote with the GOP to effectively strip meaningful access to abortion from the bill.  Disgusting.  I am sick at heart about this last bit of inexcusable and incomprehensible pandering to the right.  What the hell are the Dems so afraid of?  Boltgirl has written eloquently on the subject … check it out.

Meanwhile, here’s a sample of the level of debate that the process involved … as a series of Republican lawmakers “object” meaninglessly and make it impossible for a series of Democratic Congresswomen to speak.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMdlcnK_MI4

The behavior is childish and obstructionist … and reflective of the desperation of a bankrupt party whose members see the writing on the wall (I think).  That makes it all the more frustrating that those 64 Democrats would walk over to the dark side.

Okay, so enough about healthcare.  I feel like the groundhog … poke my head up into the “real world” of politics and such, see my shadow, and retreat back to more manageable (and arguably more interesting) fare … like the A-Rod as Centaur story.

Just when I had started to think maybe he wasn’t as empty and ego-maniacal as I’ve generally surmised … I learn that he’s got not one but TWO portraits of himself as a centaur  in his bedroom.  The story comes complements of an ex.  Even factoring in the likelihood that she has an ax to grind … it seems unlikely that it’s complete fabrication.  Hell, even one Centaur-portrait is weird, don’t you agree?  Kate Hudson … what the hell are you thinking?

Moving on, I am late in stating my sadness and frustration at the repeal of Maine’s Gay Marriage bill, having really thought the great State of Maine would turn the tide on that one … and the polls apparently did, too.

On the whole question, however, I think that we are taking the wrong tack entirely.  There should be a push, in EVERY state, to make Civil Unions the government-sanctioned method for hooking up for life.  Period.

The government has no business sanctioning or not sanctioning marriages.  Let marriage be entirely the purview of religious organizations.  Then the f–cking fundamentalist hoardes can deny marriages to whomever they hell they want to.  That way the sanctity of the holy rite can be protected from all manner of despicable folks … and meanwhile, the government can offer equal rights and the pursuit of happiness as the Constitution demands, without upsetting the holy-rollers.

Why do we keep walking into this meaningless squabble with religious bigots?  It’s a power struggle over a prize that we should just let them keep.

Marriage schmarriage.  In fact, I really do think that government having anything at all to do with the word is an artifact of this country’s Judeo-Christian heritage and should be put down.  Seriously.  Civil unions for everyone – take the damn word out of our laws entirely.

It makes me crazy!

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4 Responses to Just When You Think Something MIGHT Get Better

  1. JordanCornblog says:

    You are most welcome to “blow it up” all you want – the insights (and videos) are great.

    On the marriage/civil union front I’d go with civil unions for all (straight and gay) – and “marriage” for those who want the union sanctified somehow. From a legal point of view, marriage would be a meaningless word. I’d just yank it right out of the debate entirely and let the churches do whatever they want.

    Ours is such a reactionary and unsophisticated country … and yet we are so terribly full of ourselves. It would be laughable, if it didn’t wreak so much havoc in the world.

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  2. AMR says:

    I’m not going to even touch on the abortion issue as it’s difficult to manage emotions when two things you wanted to pass, did (Boehner Amendment shot down and health care bill passed) but at what cost to us???

    As for the term “marriage”, I agree with you 100% on just going with civil unions. Apparently, a few years back, NH tried to do just what you are saying but the “other side” (gays, straights, everyone else) felt like marriage should be the only term to be used for “straight” couples and civil unions had the stereotype of “gays only” attached to it. I, personally, would rather have a civil union as long as it afforded me the same rights as marriage. And that, unfortunately, is usually where the roadblock comes in.

    If it’s only about the word but the rights are the same, who cares?? But, rewriting all the laws to incorporate the same rights as marriage is, apparently, too much of an effort for folks. So, we must seek the word marriage as if it is synonymous with equality.

    PS – my apologies for blowing up your blog as of late. I am surrounded by conservatives from almost every angle so it’s nice to be able to have a place where I can express my thoughts without too much push back 🙂

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  3. JordanCornblog says:

    Excellent points, Alice. I wish that logic carried weight in these arguments. And I wish that I had faith that our NH Senators had the same values (Gregg) and backbone (Shaheen) that our Reps do. Neither one of them inspires my confidence. I miss Teddy Kennedy this morning …

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  4. Alice says:

    So those who decry government involvement in health care have manipulated the system to have government further restrict women’s access to the most basic of legal, safe health care, namely abortion. It’s so illogical as well as outrageous and, for me, leeches any pleasure in the House’s passage of a healthcare reform bill. I stayed up late last night and watched some eloquent arguments opposing this travesty, but the gloating of the so-called pro-life coalition of House members is what resonates this morning after, leaving me depleted, depressed and spent. Can the Senate version reverse and/or revise the House’s powerful anti-choice statement? One can only hope, get up off the floor and begin making calls to argue the obvious: without access there is no choice!

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