It’s a bipartisan affair, according to Kristen Powers. Prosecution is rather spotty, however:
Did you know there is a war on women?
Yes, it’s true. Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Bill Maher, Matt Taibbi, and Ed Schultz have been waging it for years with their misogynist outbursts. There have been boycotts by people on the left who are outraged that these guys still have jobs. Oh, wait. Sorry, that never happened.
Boycotts are reserved for people on the right like Rush Limbaugh, who finally apologized Saturday for calling a 30-year-old Georgetown Law student, Sandra Fluke, a “slut” after she testified before congress about contraception. Limbaugh’s apology was likely extracted to stop the departure of any more advertisers, who were rightly under pressure from liberal groups outraged by the comments.
Limbaugh was at once too clever by half and vulgar when he analogized Ms. Fluke as a “slut” because of her desire to have strangers pay for her to have sex. It was a big, juicy trap and he walked right into it. Because there are certain words that simply aren’t used in polite conversation, words which demean the user more than the target.
The White House had been on the ropes for its assaults on freedom of religious conscience, one of our country’s foundation stones. Now the media is using Limbaugh’s provocations to paint conservatives as culturally out of touch. With the economy still stagnant, foreign threats looming and unsustainable burdens of debt being shifted from a spendthrift generation to its innocent successors, the media has shifted the dialogue to the critical issue of contraception.
At least Newt’s not having any:
This is the Newt that I admire more than any other speaker I can think of. I go out of my way to make time to listen when I know he’ll be speaking, whether it’s on politics or another topic. The message is clear and simply put and he speaks without notes as if full paragraphs and lines of thought and argument are fully formed immediately as he gives them voice. It’s his genius, or a major part of it anyway.
The rest of us need to figure out how best to control and utilize that genius to help change and direct those who govern us and to limit and change the direction the government and our country has taken. Newt’s most obviously not perfect, but he’s got a gift that few others have demonstrated. IMHO.
Anyone who thinks this debate is about access to contraception, reproductive rights, or a “war on women” is a full-bore, unadulterated, high-test idiot.
It is possible that Ms. Fluke is promiscuous to the point of disrepute. It is certain that she is mendaciously innumerate to the point that she should be expelled from Georgetown, polite society, and the gravity well.
I’d be glad to chip in on the gravity well part. You could establish the “Expel Fluke From The Gravity Well” foundation and get tax exempt status.
I just want to make sure the gravity well you are talking about is the Milky Way’s well. Anything else is too close.
To really make it go, include Fancy Nancy Pelosi as well.
“Anything else is too close.”
I disagree. Stupid is like alpha radiation: Terribly damaging if you’re exposed, but trivially easy to block. In the case of stupid all you need is a couple of inches of hard vacuum.
It’s more like Gamma radiation. Distance is, by far, the very best shielding.
A middle-aged, activist-feminist law student with an extensive sex life is either a miracle of biblical proportions, or a product of inordinate faculty attention.
One could guess top tier law school grades have never been in question for this particular student.
I’m going with option 2: a product of inordinate faculty attention
She is most obviously a plant, and now we are talking about a subject that goes into the GOPs weakest territory, social conservatism. Because financial conservatism is the most valuable capability of the GOP that this country needs. When the GOP talks about social issues, they too often fall inline with Democrats in that legislation, or federal law via other means, can solve the social injustice.
If Ms. Fluke can afford to attend Georgetown, or even afford to live in the community near Georgetown; then she most assuredly can afford her birth control. If she cannot, then Georgetown should consider making basic finance classes part of their curriculum. If this woman by age 30 can’t work out a budget for birth control, she shouldn’t be allowed in a program for legal scholars.
That’s the part that really irritates me – obviously, she has the $$ to attend a good school, so why does she expect someone else to pay for her roll is the hay? I don’t care one way or another about her sex life, I just don’t care to pay for it (via higher insurance rates). Alternatively, she could try abstinence, it’s free.
She stated that she is attending on a “public interest” (do I have that title correct?) scholarship, so she might not be paying for her education. I’d re-listen to her testimony to get the right title but don’t have the stomach for hearing it or seeing her face. What a disgusting point of view from someone who will, no doubt, end up as a government employee supporting ultraliberal causes, or working for some “public interest” lawfirm doing its best to screw this country. How apt.
“do I have that title correct?”
You have one “L” too many.
Jeff, took me a minute, but I finally got it…
Well played, sir.
In fact, Ms. Fluke is on the record with Ezra Klein:
Fluke came to Georgetown University interested in contraceptive coverage: She researched the Jesuit college’s health plans for students before enrolling, and found that birth control was not included. “I decided I was absolutely not willing to compromise the quality of my education in exchange for my health care,”
So it would seem that Ms. Fluke knew going into Georgetown University that their policy was not to offer access to birth control to their students.
Which means Ms. Fluke is, quite likely, a fake. Either she opted for education over sex or she choose Georgetown for the express purpose of targeting their policy. She is a hypocrite, at best.
As for Rush – he saw a duck so he called it a duck. I have no problem with that.
“I decided I was absolutely not willing to compromise the quality of my education in exchange for my health care.”
Since *when* is contraception health care? Since when is *access* being denied? And while we’re at it since when did it become a right to have *convenient* access to something? When did all this come to mean somebody else has to pay for it?
Were I in Congress I’d introduce the Equalization of Contraception Act which would establish that a portion not to exceed 2% of the Federal welfare budget that directly supports single mothers be directed to provide vasectomies for males living within areas where those payments are to more than 10% of the population. Further, to ensure that access is convenient, I’d base the service out of the same bus that any hospital accepting Medicare or Medicaid payments uses for mobile mammograms. I’d whip up a batch of popcorn and take notes on how the Democrats are going to oppose that one.
I’ve news for you, Ms. Fluke. You’ve not been denied a damned thing except a need to take responsibility. You’re young, your health care costs are the lowest they’ll ever be. I’m betting you don’t even budget for it. Your betters are paying your way through school, and your living expenses are the lowest they will ever be. If you think you can pick and choose what services you want the rest of society to pay for so you can live the lifestyle to which you’ve come to expect, let me be the voice of the rest of society: We are subsidizing your education in the hopes you’ll graduate, get a job, pay off your loans, and contribute about 40% of your income to the tax base. We’re not doing this because we want you to be empowered or to feel fulfilled, we’re doing it because we need your money to shore up our promised retirement benefits.
You seem to think we work for you. On the contrary, you work for us. We’re your parent’s generation, we vote, and sixty years ago we wrote a check you’re going to have to cash. It’s at $5.3 Trillion over the next 75 years, $15.1 Trillion overall, according to the government. That’s just Social Security and Medicare. If you want to count unfunded Federal pensions, service on the national debt, all the rest there’s $62 Trillion you and your generation are going to be on the hook for.
(http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-06-us-owes-62-trillion-in-debt_n.htm).
I hope that law career pays well — we’re taking a third off the top and if that won’t pay for our retirement we’re going to vote for more. Or we’ll stick your kids with the bill. Doesn’t matter to us, really.
And did I mention health care costs are rising between 8% and 12% per year and it’s only those of us who need care later in life who are driving it? Your condoms or birth control pills are pocket change in the cushions compared to what replacing hips, knees, hearts and kidneys cost. Then there’s treating cancer, which if you get old enough you’ll likely have some day.
By all means fight the good fight and insist upon your right to have somebody else pay for an $8/mo pill now so you can enjoy your right to live your lifestyle without obligation.
Some day, at some point on the Laffer curve, society will decide to deny that subsidy for contraception. My gut tells me they’ll do it because they’re tired of paying for you to live as you think you need to and the costs they are tired of paying.
The other reason is that being $62 Trillion in debt we simply can’t afford for you not to have kids to pass that debt on to. We may have to levy a tax on being child-free to boot.
The debit is simple numbers. Surely you learned of a sinking fund in your advanced education. Well, we’re sinking, and we’re passing the funding on to you. You, in turn, will sink your children with it.
Enjoy the decline.
– Max
I read an article today where Ms. Fluke said she would not be silenced.
As a conservative, I certainly hope that’s true. The absurdity of her position is a gift to anyone challenging Obama’s health care policies.
Her position is so absurd, I wonder if she’s a *Republican* plant…
Either way, the Left has bent over backwards defending her absurd position.
Game on.
I think Ms. Fluke achieved what she was instructed to do …. distract the American public from the oncoming tidal wave that is Obamacare. Kris is right. Fluke is supposed to be a distraction which will keep the subject focused on Catholic institutions being forced to provide contraception. If you noticed the info about Fluke, she’s no spring chicken and her undergraduate work specialized in things like Gender Studies, which courses usually end up being a list of grievances of the instructor against the males in our society. The gender in the Gender Studies courses is always the female gender. The male gender is only there to provide the punching bag for the instructor.
If you want an easy A grade, you only have to parrot back to the instructor the prejudices he/she has listed in lectures.
Marianne
I think you can assert that lawyers in general are sluts. That excludes, of course, the ones you might have to hire to represent your interests. But then lawyers are amoral from the git-go: The will argue any side of a case they’re paid to argue.
We attorneys prefer the term “whore” to “slut” when used by the common people. A whore takes money to do something either immoral or without honor; a slut repeatedly does whatever ‘it’ is that is objectionable without the need for money. Attorneys believe that the money is important as it gives justification, which word attorneys spell “just cause” to any number of otherwise objectionable, foolish, or scummy actions.
When I was much younger found the word “courtesan” in a novel, my father told me it meant lawyer.
That clears that up. Thanks for parsing that in lawerly style. It just crosses my mind, however: Does being a third year law student entitle Ms. Fluke to legally accept compensation for rendering her expert opinion like that?
It’s all a distraction, planned that way, and successful beyond the left’s expectations.
Back to the core issues.
It’s the economy, stupid!
It’s healthcare, stupid!
It’s the corruption, stupid!
It’s the future Supreme Court appointments, stupid!
The constant theme in the media is that the Republicans want to “Deny women their rights.”
What? All I remember is the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Now it’s the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and free condoms.
Wait, I forgot. All the above and all of the top one percent’s wealth.
As Noot pointed out, Oweblahblah apologizes to the Muzzlems about their Korans, don’t want to offend that group, but on the other hand, take that, you Catholic institutions.
The media is actively aiding and abetting here, no one ever asks the White House blunt questions such as “Where in the Constitution does it outline the President’s authority to regulate the insurance industry by decree? And part two of the question, Mr. President, aren’t you interfering with a church in doing so?”
Didn’t we have an altercation with King George about this kinda ruler not too long ago?
Just askin’.
I’m a little curious. How many of you still watch the news? I gave up a decade ago. It’s why I don’t comment anymore about bias. How would I know?
I do know that I would rather change a tire in a wet ditch during a blizzard than watch the news I knew.
A year without TV or radio or time. Good for the soul.
I am proud to claim Instapundit and Theo Spark as my “newspaper” these days Curtis.
Be Breitbart!
I don’t. I find the desire of sensationalism and “if it bleeds it leads” to be too depressing. My real life just isn’t as tragic as newsies want it to be. On the other hand, take this blog. Even with a guy went on a shooting spree in Norway, Lex managed to find a way to inject a little levity and perspective, while not belittling the victims. The next day, we didn’t get story after story of the shooters life, while completely forgetting the story of the lives the guy took. The event didn’t directly effect us, and so the proper attention level was given to it.
That’s how I get my news today, and this is just one of many good sources. I use my work day commute to listen to good audio books.
Leland,
I’m house sitting for a relative and her family. They arrived in Norway one week before that foul disaster.
I stay on top of the news but I don’t watch it anymore.
To my knowledge, no one in the media has stated that this whole debate is really about the erosion of the 1st amendment. Once the gov’t gets its nose under the 1st amendment tent it is Katie bar the door… What else will the gov’t decree in blatent disregard of our 1st amendment rights?
I don’t much care what the Catholic church wants or doesn’t want. I am more concerned with my 1st amendment right to free speech which is now teetering on the edge of a cliff.
Be a good scout, be prepared. Invest in precious metals, lead and brass.
Paul
However, the bottom line is that Rush crossed the line of common and civilized decency and should be held accountable for his vulgar choice of words. That being said…I agree with Newt that this smacks of an attack against the rights of the RCC.
Just sayin,
MikeyB
And the whole thing was pathetically transparent. A testifier to support obama’s decision to ignore the separation of church and state. Add to this that the girl surely spends more money on food and other life sustaining expenses and that she chooses to ‘want her sex paid for’ as priority one is absurd! It’s as absurd as nana pelosi herself. No shocker she was presiding in some fashion over this idiotic audio/visual display of absurdity.
What’s even more absurd are all the people who are in lockstep with this D minus daily soap opera.
The whole thing is a bullfight.
Her testimony started off with the “birth control costs $3000″ bit. That’s the cape. Hidden behind it was a sympathetic story about a woman who was denied treatment for cysts, because the treatment was the birth control pill. It’s barely even the same issue, but it’s enough to serve as the sword. So: the bull charges, the sword strikes, the crowd roars.
The whole thing looks so choreographed that you have to wonder if Rush was in on it. Maybe he’s just living up to his name.
The rest of her testimony was ridiculous, not that it matters. University health insurance is “a bureaucracy focused on policing [women's bodies]“, but the proposed solution is government regulation. Apparently the irony is lost on her.
Also, the solution to this problem is buying birth control for everyone. Let’s apply that logic more broadly, and next time someone drowns everyone gets a boat!
Bah, whatever. The appropriate headline for this mess is:
Fool calls other fool a slut!
Nation thoroughly distracted from actual issues
Sometimes I think Rush is in league with the other side. Not to be a Coast to Coast-type conspiracy theorist, but this non-scandal is giving Obama a ton of cover from the gas prices, debt crisis, Obamacare, Solyndra, Light Squared, etc. Instead of talking about his failures, they’re talking about mean ole Rush calling a poor, innocent co-ed a “slut,” even though by any accepted means, she probably is. According to this old helo pilot’s math, that equates to 3.7 times a day. Dang!
Obama said that her parents should be proud? Proud? Proud she exposed her sex life on national TV in front of Congress? Proud that she’s trying to co-opt the First Amendment rights of a Catholic institution by forcing them to pay for birth control, which goes against Church doctrine?
It’s all a clever dodge, a slight of hand. And Obama is playing the Republicans with the square, fuddy-duddy, hayseed, moral police card like fools. I’m glad Newt wouldn’t have any of it. Good for him.
It’s pretty bad when one side owns the language, the umpires (the media) and the academy. And we wonder why we’re going straight to the seventh layer of Dante’s Hell.
No, gc, Rush just stepped on his tallywhacker, that’s all. Happens to the best of us.
Certain people set up traps like this in the hope a Republican (or at least a social conservative) would stick their foot in. Alas, Rush did so.
So, if Rush had said “she is a promiscuous woman who wants the government to support her serial fornications” that this would have just gone down easy?
What if he had just quoted a Bible verse, like the prophet Ezekiel (23:20) “There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.”
And we are supposed to be more concerned with words describing her actions, rather than her actions?
Ms. Fluke is demanding birth control as a health care benefit. Apparently her active sex life is necessary for her good health.
I am an active fisherman. My fishing provides relaxation, stress relief and other health benefits. Therefore I should be able to obtain roughly $1000/year in fishing expenses from my health insurance plan.
For those who can’t understand how I can conflate sex and fishing, well, you don’t know many dedicated fishermen, do you?
George V.
I will say this: The lines are clearly drawn. Come November, we find out if there is more of us or more of them. Of course, election fraud of the several types the democrat party is known for skews the tally. Weapons if you do not already have them, ammunition and non-perishable food are things I suggest. Plant a garden if you’re able. Buckle your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.
I wrote the following in response to an invitation to join in requesting the censorship of AFN.
I normally do not respond to email requests for action on the part of any entity, left or right.
However, as a combat veteran, I must respond to this request to join a group promoting the censorship of content provided by the Armed Forces Network to the men and women fighting in our overseas commands. Radio, television, and now the internet are the main sources of news from back home for the people separated from loved ones while they uphold their oath to defend the Constitution of these United States. I have taken that oath twice in my adult life and I consider it to be second only in importance to my reliance upon the finished work of Jesus, the Christ. I have fought in an unpopular and possibly unjust war, I have been flipped-off and worse by leftist peaceniks, wreathed in flowers and reeking of patchouli. I have a strong love of Country and particularly the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I do not like action which could lead to censorship in any form outside of the will of the people.
I will agree that in some cases, “community standards” must be used to limit freedom of speech and expression. You can believe me, however, when I say that the “standards” of communication shared by men and women in combat are not offended by the unfortunate and inexcusable words uttered by the “best conservative money can buy”. I’ll ask where is similar outrage at Bill Maher’s choice of words when describing Sarah Palin? And don’t talk about the innocence of one and the power of another.
Do not be fooled into thinking that this is an issue about a woman’s right to have unprotected sexual activity without consequence, underwritten by taxpayers. Taxes are collected by the government to pay for the Constitutionally delineated expenses incurred in the out workings of the wishes of the populace as they are represented in the various houses of government. This is about liberty, nothing else.
Do not demand that there be an increase in censorship. Do not fall into the leftist trap of thinking that this is about so-called reproductive healthcare. This is about your freedom, being taken away once step at a time.
I really like Newt’s no-nonsense approach. To bad the media’s decided we are going to nominate Romney. Can’t you just see a Gingrich/Obama debate?
It would never happen. Obama’s not that stupid. There would be one, maybe two pro forma debates run by Obama’s political allies. The questions and rules would be rigged to minimize the damage to Obama, and the footage would be cut to make Obama look like the winner in the post-debate coverage.
This election isn’t going to be decided by debates. The only way conservatives get their message out to the general public is through paid advertising. That means fund-raising, and in the GOP nobody beats Romney at that.
I would like to see Gingrich as press secretary. I’d also like to see Santorum at HHS and Paul at Treasury.
JeffG/
And Giuliani as Attn Gen. Put Perry at Dept of Energy and Palin at Dept of Interior. Were *I* President I’d put Romney at Homeland Security to straighten out that organizational mess viz Santorum, whom I believe would be better suited as Congressional liaison or in Domestic policy or even better as head of HHS.(sweet revenge) S.E. Cupp would be my choice for press secretary, with Gingrich in Domestic policy. Put John Bolton at Sec of State. Defense? Not sure…Max Damage for Sec. of Agriculture..
Just saw this, Virgil. My thanks for a chuckle during this horrible week. Ah, me as Secretary of Ag…
(wrings hands)
Alright boys, listen up. The Department of Agriculture doesn’t care if you make a profit or not. No other small business in this country gets a government guarantee against losses, except solar panel companies, and you won’t be exceptions to this rule. We are going to push for carbon tax credits for any farmer that grows something green, but don’t hold your breath on that one.
Crop insurance phases out over 5 years. You insure your home with State Farm or Farmers Mutual, if you can’t insure your crop with them maybe they know something you don’t.
There will no longer be a floor value for crops. Instead we’re working with the Department of Energy to classify several coal-burning plants as capable of burning corn, soybeans, and many other crops. This should be a carbon-neutral fuel (carbon from burning corn can only be equal to the carbon it consumed while growing that crop year) and hence of value to the power industry. You will be paid fair market value for the energy of your crop when nobody wants to eat it. Rather than pay for a surplus in a market we prefer to open up new markets. Relax, at least the lights will be on and you won’t starve. Maybe you can grow pot or start up a meth lab in the machine shed over the winter as a cash crop. And you know it wouldn’t hurt the kids any if they drank more milk instead of Coke, Pepsi, or Mad Dog 20/20.
The Cattleman’s check-off ends now. If you want to market your cattle go right ahead, but we’re not going to obligate you to pay for somebody else to do it for you. Nobody is forced to pay a buck a bushel to sell corn, we’re pretty certain people aren’t going to stop eating burgers if Sam Elliott doesn’t narrate some beef commercial on the radio.
After careful consultation with the Department of the Interior we’ve decided the National Parks are enough non-edible green space for the public to pay for. If you wish to idle acres that are prone to run-off, topsoil erosion, or otherwise unsuitable for row-crop, we suggest planting alfalfa. Cows and horses gotta eat too. You might even make a buck off of it. We further will offer to give a tax credit equal to 10% of the costs of planting and maintaining a cover crop and/or trees or edible shrubs such as berry bushes for at least ten years. This improves wildlife habitat, conserves soil, and fights erosion. Talk to your state legislature about your property taxes on that land – that’s not our problem. Also, terraces have been known since before Julius Caesar, so we’re sure you can figure out how to make them on your own if you have to plant row-crop to cover the taxes.
Our national agricultural policy can be summed up in one phrase, “So as you sow, so shall you reap.” If rapeseed doesn’t pay squat and you can buy cotton from Brazil cheaper than you can raise it, plant something else. If the ethanol plant pays more for corn than North Korea, sell it for ethanol. The US Government is no longer in the business of picking winners and losers with the public fisc. We’re here to keep stats and provide those statistics to the markets so they can do their jobs.
Speaking of statistics, over the coming two years DoA is going to take a careful review of its infrastructure and start ditching a lot of software and hardware contracts. This department is about data, and quite frankly data doesn’t care if it’s on a server running Microsoft Datacenter, IBM’s i5, MVS, or even some flavor of Linux at a considerable cost savings. Likewise, statistical analysis can be done with commercial software such as SAS or it can be done with open-source software and some man-hours in conversion. Our goal is to provide data, both our own conclusions and the raw sets, to the market. What platform and vendor does that will be based completely on overall costs versus performance. I’d rather pay people to learn new software and skills than have their job performance dependent upon a tech support line.
Folks, we’ve a lot of people who used to sit by phones and wait for you to call asking how to farm better. Or for reporters to call asking how America can farm better. These people will be made available for occupations directly in the agriculture industry over the coming three years. Please consult the DoA website at http://available.usda.gov before choosing your next hired hand — we’ve a lot of folks here who can run a calculator with the best of them, and maybe having *them* handle your futures marketing makes sense while you concentrate on welding up the damage to the combine from last fall. As always, consult your county agent.
Also, it is our opinion that “dinner” is the mid-day meal and “supper” is the evening meal. This shall be the standard usage during any interaction with DoA employees. If chairs are not available, squatting shall be perfectly acceptable, provided spurs are not worn, during meetings in any DoA office or assembly. Finally, unless it can haul 9000lbs in the bed, it is to be referred to as a pickup and not a truck.
Thank you. That is all.
(wrings hands, gives a hearty evil laugh like in the Warner Brothers cartoons)
On second thought, I think I’d have to decline the nomination. First, there are probably people who have actually farmed in the past 20 years who might know a great deal more than I, and second, well…
I’m on my second Guinness, thinking of Lex, and the above is just what I came up with in the last 20 minutes. Put a man like me in charge and you can bet chaos will follow. I’m not the right man.
Also, no way in hell am I placing myself and my family in that spotlight for the measly pay it offers.
Fix that last problem, either paying a percentage of what I save the taxpayers or keeping my family out of the spotlight, and I’d at least consider it. If only for the chance to standardize the language on pickups versus trucks.
– Max
[...] not sure that Neptunus Lex had the best post on the topic, but it’s perhaps the most poignant because he just died. Limbaugh was at once too clever by [...]
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