Why Obama’s Promotion of Oral Contraceptives Guarantees the Spread of Lethal STDs
Dear Belladonna Rogers,
My health insurance premiums are going to pay for free birth control pills for others insured by my company — pills which I never took, and my daughters refuse to take. Is it right that I should have to pay for women to get something for nothing that I would not use myself, or ever recommend?
Troubled in Tulsa
Dear Troubled,
No, it isn’t right that you – or any American – should underwrite oral contraception — the world’s single most dangerous form of birth control — for anyone else. Just because contraception is legal doesn’t mean that by paying for private health insurance we should subsidize it in any form, not to mention in its most hazardous form.
THE COERCIVE POWER OF OBAMACARE
The Affordable Care Act, the anodyne-sounding name for what the rest of us call ObamaCare, seeks to coerce a divided nation to provide oral contraceptives to women who’d rather not spend their own earnings or savings to buy them.
This abomination of a law is objectionable on at least two grounds. First, it forces those who are morally or religiously opposed to contraception to pay for what they regard as a sacrilege. Similarly, it forces those who believe that sex outside the marriage is wrong to subsidize it and by doing so, to support the federal government’s favoring — even enabling — such behavior by making it free.
Even if you have no argument with birth control, abortion, or sex outside marriage, you could still consider ObamaCare reprehensible for requiring all citizens to underwrite the cost of the recreational sex of others, and to do so using the single method most deleterious to women’s health, as well as the most expensive one.
PAYING FOR RECREATIONAL SEX IS THE OBLIGATION OF THE INDIVIDUALS ENGAGING IN IT
Recreational sex is an optional way to pass one’s time or express one’s affection. It is not related to the medical healing of disease (the presumptive reason to favor health insurance for all).
Everyone who’s physically able and unbound by moral or religious beliefs is free to indulge in recreational sex, but no one else should have to underwrite it. Why not have insurance bankroll the hotel room and room service while we’re at it? Car service? Flowers? Champagne? Chocolate-dipped strawberries?
We do have legal requirements that all citizens underwrite activities from which they, personally, derive no direct benefit, but which are deemed public benefits.
UNDERWRITING THE RECREATIONAL SEX OF OTHERS versus CHILDLESS COUPLES UNDERWRITING PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Compare the requirement that we all pay for oral contraception for tens of millions of women through our health insurance premiums to the obligation of single individuals and childless couples to pay local taxes that fund public education. All citizens have a stake in assuring that the next generation is as well-educated as possible. The nation gains when our children can read, write, and are mathematically and scientifically educated.
But exactly who benefits from the recreational sex of unmarried or even married people? At the very most, only the individuals engaging in it.
Thank you. An excellent analysis.
1. Gov. not paying does not block “access.”
2. The Pill is dangerous to health — though, if not paid for by Gov., women are still free to choose to use it.
3. Gov. paying for the pill will interfere with pharma’s development of new and better pills.
BUT — maybe the one argument that would attract attention of the lefties — since they have so much hatred for the eeevil corporations … is that
4. Big Pharma has “forced” and “coerced” the “innocent” and “good” government bureaucrats to promote their pills!!! Don’t get me wrong — this really IS and has been Gov. collusion with Big Pharma — no doubt of that … but … the point is …
They (the left) might just listen to that … a little anyway … since when the “evil” corporations are cozying up to the Gov. to promote whatever it is the left likes, they don’t seem to mind the “evilness” so much.
But … it’s a good point to keep making. Bad Big Pharma!!!
Actually, since there is no copay, price is no object to the pharma companies and the women who use their products. I predict that not only would the pharma companies increase the prices of their brand name contraceptives (due to increased demand), they’d quickly produce new and even more expensive versions.
After all, if someone else is paying the bill, why not demand the most expensive stuff? If you were offered a “free” Toyota Corolla (a prefectly serviceable small car) or a “free” Lexus, which would you choose?
Limbaugh was right; Fluke is a slut, a whore of the Left.
Agreed Carla;
I just had an epiphany. Why don’t we call Planned Parenthood what it really is? You know,,, like, the ASPCA has hundreds of Nationwide programs for your pets, (Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Programs), we need to recognize that Planned Parenthood is nothing more than a spay and neuter service to that segment of society that can’t seem to keep their clothes on in mixed company.
Planned Parenthood is in the business of destroying families and murdering babies. I could even see myself support their activities if they would spay every female who comes in wanting a tax payer supported abortion. At least then it would be a “one-time” expense.
… and she does it for free.
If I were a man, I would not touch her and get her STD.
STD’s would not be a problem if today’s generation understood what we did way back then. I’m 70 years old, my wife is in her 60′s, ( I’m not allowed to reveal her exact age), we agreed back then we would not exchange bodily fluids with anyone else. Period. We got married,,, we vowed to be true to each other, end of story.
This simple act of faith has served us well. We’d like for the new generation to wake up and smell the roses, get back to basics, and stay true to the one sleeping next to you.
It would solve a lot of problems.
i was wondering if anyone was ever going to mention the fact that oral contraceptions can kill you. a fact the left seems to have forgotten
If they ever knew.
They know. They just don’t care. They are in the murder business, after all.
“wondering if anyone was ever going to mention the fact that oral contraceptions can kill you”
Driving can kill you. The government should stop building roads immediately.
It’s fascinating to see so many bogus arguments employed to undermine anything that makes access to effective birth control easier for women. Not men – just women. No other “elective” cover is even raising a debate. Just this one. This really is entirely about women’s access to effective contraceptives.
That’s a bit messed up. No other western country would even THINK of having this argument. You really are all trying as hard as you can to make that right to choose just that little bit less available. For women, of course.
And why is everyone assuming that students are all swinging, randy teenagers? You don’t think there are ANY married women at universities? Is there any interest at all in addressing reality? Does every argument against this measure HAVE to be ridiculous?
This doesn’t even deserve to be called a debate. This is just a bunch of kids sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting “do not want!”
“This is just a bunch of kids sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting “do not want!”
Or a bunch of Techno-types sticking their hands into other people’s pockets and shouting, “PAY FOR IT!”
The problem I have with the whole issue is that off-label use of birth control pills is never discussed honestly. Many women, including myself, use or have used birth control pills to control disabling periods, prevent migraines and seizures and to treat low blood pressure that leads to fainting.
It is frustrating that something like Viagra is covered when medically necessary hormone treatments are not, simply because they ‘also’ prevent pregnancy. If insurance companies allowed doctors to prescribe off-label use, much of the left’s argument would lose steam. Some of these prescriptions do cost up to $100 per 30-day supply, so while the “$9.00 Target prescription” may be available, it’s not necessarily the right one for someone who suffers from debilitating migraines.
catamenial ( sp?) migraines are awful! My sympathy to you!
you might want to look up magnesium supplementation, to smooth out your pain. there are books, usually with really excited titles (magnesium miracle, and so on)
magnesium is “calcium pore channel blocker.” Magnesium is a macronutrient- there are four:calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium. Magnesium balances calcium. The molecules are about the same size. they fit the same pore channels. Calcium is an excitor, while magnesium is a sedator. Aspirin works by pulling magnesium from your bone matrix and dumping into your blood serum. A balanced diet does not contain enough magnesium, according to nutrition textbooks. Vitamin D works to keep the two in balance.
Magnesium pills are cheap- $3 for a bottle, generic. It’s sparingly soluble, so it doesn’t really matter if you take the cheap or the expensive one- they both work the same. Magnesium is a soporific, and a purgative. Take it at night, with dinner, and then some more before bedtime, for a deep sleep. You can take more than 100%, if you space it. You don’t go into seizures when you drink two cups of milk, rather than one. same thing. A regular, easy visit to the bathroom is also near-guaranteed.
it stops migraines, most pain, seizures…it’s hard to have high blood pressure or a stroke, when taking enough. If you are deficient, and you take Vitamin D with it ( highly recommended,so you don’t mess up your teeth) you might experience bone pain at first. This is normal- your bones are re-mineralizing, and getting bigger, pressing on the nerves surrounding your bone tissue.
It’ll take about six weeks to really notice a difference,so I’m told. People who are, you know, sensible about this stuff, notice in six weeks. Heart palpitations, seem to be affected positively. I don’t know- not my heart.
I did the high-dose version (I’m curious) and had unbelievable bone pains, mental fog, and a metallic-tasting slick on my tongue every morning for a week. Then my teeth felt “fat” and I didn’t have cramps or headaches, even when swiling coffee and alcohol and parmesan. It was beautiful. I could drink ice water again.
Hold to about 200%. over that, you’re scaring pharmacists, and enterring dangerous “depressed breathing rate” territory.
Thanks, Ari, for your thoughtful post. I’m well acquainted with the ‘four horsemen’ and take supplements to relieve exercise-related leg cramps. My migraines are manageable since I avoid my triggers. A friend needs hormonal treatment for hers (I will share your thoughts on magnesium with her). I was on BC pills for years though, due to disabling periods and fainting, even though my partner at the time had had a vasectomy.
My point simply is that to many women, birth control pills aren’t used for birth control.
oh- I’m not saying quit your regimen. I’m saying this could help. Viagra is used for ??COPD??something to do with arterial relaxation rates. there are kids taking viagra to stay alive.
and, yeah, catamenial migraines are the worst!
personally, I’m like, why can’t I get some afghan poppies for my backyard? I’d use them responsibly once a month! I mean, I’m so- the afghan farmers can grow rocking poppies? organic poppies? wasn’t laudanum a grandma’s remedy? I’m like that about once a month. I tell a bedtime story to my kids that has a poppy enthusiast who shows up about once a month, just so I can get the placebo effect.
As I’ve written elsewhere, in the cases like you mention where birth control pills are prescribed for medical reasons, I believe they should be covered like any other prescription medication and with the appropriate copay. It is a legitimate medical expense just like my wife’s blood pressure medication and should be treated exactly the same.
“Just because contraception is legal doesn’t mean that by paying for private health insurance we should subsidize it in any form, not to mention in its most hazardous form.”
Utterly ridiculous.
We already pay to subsidize the treatment of many high-risk lifestyle choices:
We pay to treat the addiction and liver disease of alcoholics.
We pay to treat the chronic bronchitis of smokers.
We pay to treat the sports injuries of those who freely choose to engage in high-risk sports like bungee jumping or skydiving.
We pay for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs and for heart surgery of those who freely chose to stuff their face with fatty hamburgers and other fatty foods.
Now a triple-bypass operation is MUCH more expensive than birth control. All but the very poorest can afford to pay for birth control pills. But only the wealthy could pay for triple-bypass heart surgery out of pocket.
Nevertheless, we all pay. We don’t–because we can’t–refuse to pay for the health consequences of other people’s lifestyle choices.
We don’t demand that everybody become vegetarians and take up aerobic exercise, so that the incidence of cardiovascular disease will fall and health care costs will decline. We don’t demand that people stop bungee jumping and skydiving and skateboarding, so that we wouldn’t have to pay for their sports injuries.
And we wouldn’t like it if Michelle Obama proposed such a thing.
The Republican Party has COMPLETELY gotten off message here.
The ORIGINAL–and VALID–message was that the Establishment Clause should protect RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS from being forced to subsidize practices against their religious beliefs.
NOT that the practice of birth control is cheap enough to obtain elsewhere (the Bill of Rights is not subject to cost-benefit calculations), not that the practice is associated with medical risks (so do many other prescription drugs).
And certainly NOT that you may be personally offended by young unmarried women who sleep around and depend on birth control to avoid getting pregnant. The Constitution does not guarantee you the freedom to not be offended.
You have missed the point. This article was not about being “offended” or sleeping around–the point was clearly that oral contraception is physically dangerous for women, so if the government REALLY wanted to help women, it would promote another form of birth control.
Also, your examples are inapposite. This issue is about GOVERNMENT-MANDATED coverage. The things you listed are covered by insurance companies by their own choice, and consumers can choose whether to purchase that coverage (if plans without those options are offered). Right now, there ARE plans that don’t cover oral contraception, or cover it with a co-pay, so if I wanted to, I could choose not to pay more and get that coverage. After this rule, I don’t have that choice.
Sinz says insurance should pay for birth control and that one man, who thinks he has the power to order that insurance companies do so, is right to command obedience with the force of law. Let’s ask sinz if he thinks Obama, or the next president or any president, should issue the following diktats:
-Health insurance must pay the divorce costs of women who claim their husband physically or psychologically mistreats them (and if women, men in that situation as well).
-The Leftists like sinz maintain that alcoholism is a disease, and so insurance companies must pay all traffic fines and court costs caused by driving drunk. Same for road rage and drugged-up drivers (more new diseases).
-Many states have laws to make bikers use helmets. Insurance must pay for the helmets and for all other safety equipment of any type whatsoever.
How about it Sinzie? We on the same page?
sinz you are way off-base with your comments. did you even read the article? it isn’t about Rush or anyone being offended by anyone else’s sex life. it is, as haruka understands, about how hazardous birth control pills are to the women who take them. that’s belladonna rogers point, which you succeeded in missing.
I don’t agree, har. Rogers makes several points about this outrageous issue. She has, conveniently for us, put them in boldface. May I suggest you go back to her piece and read the boldface remarkas[sp intntl]?
When it comes to sports related injuries, I’m sure Skydiving is virtually unrepresented among the list of activities that cause them.
Ah, but that’ the point most people skip over. Once the government starts overseeing health care, it feels empowered to dictate lifestyle choices and does so according to its preferences. The British NHS is now often denying treatment to those who smoke or are overweight.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2111109/NHS-patients-refused-treatment-unless-change-lifestyles.html This is true regardless that those denied care have paid into the NHS all their working lives. OTOH the NHS just announced it would treat HIV sufferers ho showed up on their shores no matter whether they are there legally or not.
One can imagine what restrictions would be placed on here and what would be covered–with the latter whoever most gets the ear of Congress.
@ #5, sinz54:
For whatever reason, you’ve misconstrued Belladonna’s argument, with the result that the argument you spent so much time striking down happens to be not an argument she made.
In particular, Belladonna’s point (among others) was that health insurers shouldn’t be forced to cover contraception, NOT because taking the pill and having recreational sex are risky behaviors (which is how you mischaracterized her argument); but because they’re RECREATIONAL; and because the government shouldn’t be FORCING health insurers (and their customers) to pay for people’s recreation.
As a result of your mischaracterization of Belladonna’s argument, your list of risky behaviors that cause medical conditions that we DO insure against, is irrelevant. A more useful exercise would have been to list other recreational activities, and whether or not health insurance pays for them. For instance:
Weekly Target Practice at the Firing Range: This is truly a thrilling recreational activity. Some people who engage in it even compare it to sex. Moreover, just like regular use of birth control, engaging in regular target practice at the firing range substantially REDUCES the likelihood of one’s incurring major medical expenses in the future. This is because studies show that having a firearm for self-protection actually makes it less likely that one will be shot, stabbed or beaten in the future. But despite all these health-enhancing and downward-cost-curve-bending attributes of weekly target practice, for some reason medical insurance does not cover the costs of one’s firearm, ammunition, or even the nominal weekly range fee. (E.g., the range I use only charges $15 for the entire day, meaning that my annual costs for weekly target practice are substantially LESS than Ms. Fluke’s annual birth control expenditures!)
Sky Diving: Much like target practice at a firing range, sky diving is also a very thrilling recreational activity that some compare to sex. Unlike target practice, however, it is NOT correlated with a reduction in future medical costs, especially when one’s parachute fails to open. On the other hand, since surviving parachute failure is highly unlikely, and since burial expenses are substantially LESS than the cost of months in the hospital, one COULD argue that sky-diving does in fact reduce the likelihood of future medical expenses. Regardless, for whatever reason, medical insurance does not cover the costs of one’s parachute, special sky-diving clothing, or pilot fees.
Wind Surfing: This is another very thrilling recreational activity that some compare to sex. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, health insurance does not cover the costs of one’s board, sail, wetsuit, booties, or even the gasoline required to drive to the beach. This DESPITE the President’s recent expressions of empathy for consumers who are now forced to pay through the nose for gasoline because he wants us to.
Riding a Motorcycle: By now you get the idea. Riding a motorcycle, especially a powerful one that makes lots of noise, is a major rush. Plus motorcycles are much more fuel efficient than cars or trucks, with the result that riding a motorcycle helps shrink our carbon footprint, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and contributes to the fight against worldwide terrorism. Indeed, the benefits of riding a motorcycle are so significant, one wonders why the government hasn’t already mandated that EVERYONE must ride one. Nevertheless, for reasons known only to our betters in the bureaucracy, health insurance does not cover the cost of one’s motorcycle, helmet, gasoline, leather jacket, riding boots, or even noise pollution citations that police in my town like to give so often to motorcycle riders.
Other Examples: I could go on, but you get the drift.
In conclusion, as you can see, once the birth control and recreational sex are compared to other thrilling recreations that aren’t covered by health insurance, it becomes EXTREMELY difficult to understand why the Obama administration not only is forcing insurers to cover birth control, but also making them pay 100% of its cost! It ALMOST makes one think that the Obama administration is trying to bribe women voters in an election year, pay back Big Pharma big time, and/or put Catholic hospitals and schools out of business. Though I’m sure their motives are pure….
That DC crowd of ignoramuses is following in the tradition of the organization begun by eugenicist extraordinaire Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood today is essentially an abortion mill, while alleging that all the federal dollars they get don’t finance that aspect of their “work”.
Right, sure, uh huh.
The unspoken public policy argument that we should underwrite birth control through our insurance payments is that if we don’t, we’ll end up paying for baby food and maternal care, which on balance would cost more than the $1,000 per year…
Last week, Sebelius testified before a House committee that the reduction in births that would flow from universal, free oral contraception would compensate insurance companies for their increased costs of paying for the pill.
A sample of the “logic” going on between Kathleen & friends’ ears. Senators Patty Murray and Barbara Boxer are similarly ideologically fixed and, dare it be said, brain dead.
birth control pills increase a woman’s risk of deep-vein thrombosis, stroke, and heart attack.
The United States has the highest breast cancer rate in the world. The big increase in certain forms of breast cancer relates directly to “the pill” (which has been around 50 years) and hormone replacement therapy (which has been around since the 1940′s), as well as being linked to other cancers. HRT was finally declared carcinogenic in 2002, when the Women’s Health Initiative study involving thousands of women in HRT “research” was brought to a screeching halt.
Doctors prescribing this stuff have fed the army of lawyers who are now feeding off litigation.
In pushing “the pill”, Kathleen and friends are recommending a Group One carcinogen for American women.
The whole crowd you mention are closet eugenicists, as opposed to out-of-the- closet eugenicists, like Obama’s science Czar, John Holdren.
Excellent points. Add to that research that shows how none seeking an abortion at the planned parenthood offices cited ‘lack of access to birth control’ as the reason for their unintended pregnancy.
There are really two issues:
First, forcing the various Religious institutions to violate their faith exemplifies the quote “Medicine is the keystone in the arch of the socialist state.” Once you control who gets treated then you own the people. You can force them to do anything. I await the Muslim reaction to the “Pulled Pork Tuesday” mandate.
Second, subsidizing treatment for other people is the nature of our heavily regulated insurance industry in general and group insurance plans in particular. In most states you can’t just buy “health insurance”, you buy plans that have been approved by the State which likely contain coverage for items that you’ll never use. Consequently, you’re subsidizing those who do use them. If you’re in a company group plan then you’re subsidizing the smokers, the obese, those with risky sex lives, people who don’t wear seat belts and those with pre-existing conditions. And if you’re single, and in particular a healthy young single guy, they you’re subsidizing everybody.
I hate to say it, but work-based insurance has already culled the herd.
Employment isn’t at 100%, even at the best of times. People have to get up to go to work. They have to hold onto their job-they aren’t showing up half-ripped, still. They have to be productive. They have to go to doctors to stop problems early. They can smoke on breaks, but they probably aren’t chain-smoking cheap cigarettes, three packs a day,every day.They aren’t drinking beer for breakfast.
To access that, you have to be working, or married to that working person. It’s hard to stay married when you are out partying at all hours, or drinking alcohol for breakfast. It’s hard to smoke at the park tending the baby- the other mothers might get upset. Single mothers don’t bitch- they light up with you. Married mothers are bitchy protective clean-cut sorts. (I’ve been called bitchy and judgmental for moving my kids away from moms acting out selma and patty’s smoking habits) (single moms)
The kids- see their parents married and working. that’s practically the formula for a clean-cut, high achieving, healthy child. That’s the kid on the family insurance policy.
I live in a mixed neighborhood. Section 8 housing one block that way, apartments three short blocks thataway, million dollar estates two blocks that a way. You can tell who’s who: who is smoking? who is drinking beer for breakfast, who is standing upright? who is bathing daily? who has a job, basically, versus who doesn’t. Who works out? Who takes vitamins? Who goes to the park after being released from the ER for pneumonia, still coughing out visible green drops? Who brings their child infected with influenza to the park, b/c the kid is lonely and misses their friends- the kid kicked out from school the day before for having a 102 fever?
O’care takes these people who are on gov’t medical care, and dresses them up in fine clothes that just plain don’t fit. they have to “call a doctor and make an appointment” rather than just show up at an ER. Okay, well, did you know that department stores that cater to poor people only bring in clothes for inclement weather right when there are storm warnings? They can’t sell stuff ahead of time, b/c these aren’t people planning ahead of time. Why would they make a doctor’s appointment, rather than go sit in an ER and get immediate treatment?
ari,
What does this post have to do with anything Belladonna discussed? Where is the reasonable & compassionate voice I’ve come to associate with you? This post is little more than nasty, judgmental ripping on single moms, especially if they’re poor, and gawd help us if they also smoke (if/when they can afford it). All single moms smoke and are trashy people? No married moms smoke or ever drink, and spend 24/7 bathing? WTH?
Hey, I’ve BEEN in that situation, and not by choice. I raised two fine sons essentially by myself. I counted 6 hours sleep as a very lucky night. Worked 8-5, M-F, well, that was the paid job. Worked another 3 hours before the “day job” started and 5-6 hrs. after. So we could, ya know, continue eating, having shelter, clean clothes & bodies, supervised homework while getting dinner & running laundry … And yeah, once in a while I loved the chance to sit down, relax for 10 minutes with a cigarette. That was probably after the nightly baths, story-time, & bedtime, and then more kitchen-cleaning, floor-mopping, etc., etc.
How DARE you look down your nose at single moms?! Do you really — SERIOUSLY — think they all wanted things that way? Or even most of them? Or maybe they were just too damn stupid to say no, even when it WAS their husband? You’re way over the top on this one.
I’m not hacking on you. I’m pretty sure you don’t breathe it all over your kids, three packs a day.
I live in a shitty neighborhood, okay? There are hard-working, decent parents here. some are single, some work part-time. One of the dads at the park who is a really really great dad is a clerk at a gas station, part-time. there’s another dad who runs the bread route. He’s illiterate. He was shamed as sh** to be illiterate, until the park families said “Hey, you’re raising your kid! You’re a great dad!” I’d bring books to the park about dads to read to these guys, okay? At least two of the mothers were illiterate. One learned to read at her church. It was a big deal that she could read an exciting adventure- her sons’ first grade chapter book. These are not the winners in life’s lottery, okay?
I don’t even have a brief against the housing project. I’d be thrilled if the dog of choice wasn’t pit bulls. But- my oldest son has three groups of friends. One of those groups is guys from the project. My husband deliberately set up a football game at the park after-school- other dads joined in to coach- other moms refereed, in a a floating pool- to proof him when he went off to this rather violent middle-school we are zoned for. His geeky friends are getting beat up, already, in sixth grade. My kid is fine, and headed off to the football team with his project brothers. I spent two hours a day after school, every day for over a semester watching kids play football. We had three picnic tables full of parents and grandparents watching the kids play. They learned a lot, they invented plays, they showed what they were made of. I’m proud of those kids.
I have problems with the single moms who aren’t functional. I have problems with moms who bring sick kids to the park- gone directly from the ER to the park. They don’t have a g**d*** clue about hygiene. A sick twelve year old coughing right in the face of a three year old—-that’s a one month illness to my family- it gets passed around. That’s the margin in our budget for the month-if in particular one of my kids get sick. $80 a bottle abx, with insurance. He needs to not need ABX. He’s one iteration away from being SOL on ABX. I have problems with that mother. I have problems with her friends doing the same thing. If you can see visible green spray coming out of the kids mouth- stay home. If your kid is running a crazy high fever- stay home. If your kid has swine flu- stay home. How hard is that?
I have problems with the mom who had her kid declared cerebral palsy. She was cartwheeling, she was doing gymnastics. She was healthy, but the mom threatened to sue SSI. Her whole house is on some form of government assistance. That’s a global complaint, not a personal one. She’s just a welfare queen. Reagan could get my vote talking about her.
I have problems with the single moms who called me a baby for staying home and taking care of my two children under the age of two. I can live with it, b/c my mom was calling me a zero and a fat cow for staying home and nursing and washing dishes by hand. My dad was, um, making clever nasty comments, as well. I was getting screamed at by my MIL when I got pregnant a third time. So, there’s a big thing about only having one child. I started looking it up- there’s a book ” something Conceptions”- a history about all of this.
But women who (1) had an affair with a married man and smoked pot through her whole pregnancy and (2) the woman who left her husband after she had a child and was “bored” and now calls her daughter a “fat hick” – she’s seven, and not fat- who called me a baby for not cheating on my husband b/c he was working late on a Friday night? Yeah. I have a lot of problems. LOTS of problems. I was nice, and they were complete bitches.
change that, one was nice. until her explanation on why her daughter beat up my son- “well, she’s in daycare, and she’s going to need to be tough. he’s a boy, he’ll get over it.” She’d cracked his rib, stomping on him. My son doesn’t need to get beaten up by girls. That’s not his job in life. A four year old girl was trained to stomp on a boy who had been her loving, gentle friend from the day she’d come home from the hospital b/c she went to the Mad Max affordable daycare, basically.
AHanson isn’t the only one going ” I’m with the grandmothers.”
And, right now, I have to go take a girl home. She’s a latchkey kid who’s legitimately afraid to walk across the small park where two homeless guys live under a bridge. She walks home with my son, hangs out for a while, and then I drive her home. Her mother is a lovely human being.
the moms with the sick kids…..they thought all medical care was free. they did NOT get that we would have to pay for the kids to go to the doctor. that we would have to pay for medicine. They didn’t pay- why would we? It literally did not occur to them that anybody paid anything for medical care. That’s why they were totally careless, slovenly, menaces to society. they thought every disease-you go sit in the ER until the doctor sees you, you flash your medical card, you get medicine.
The whole- Hey, we pay $40 a visit, and then we pay for medicine. My kids are in competitive classes- even in elementary- and they need to be in school- and they have brothers and sisters- and me- and their father who holds a job- he works on commission- he doesn’t go to work- we don’t eat——that did not ONE MINUTE make sense to them. They thought- I have an insurance card that pays for everything. Who cares if they are sick- go to the emergency room…..
That level of carelessness about their own health- drinking beer for breakfast in the park is pretty memorable- three pack a day cigarette habits- lighting the next cigarette with the lighted butt of the current one- cupcakes and giant size soda pops despite having diabetes- the level of carelessness that extends to letting your kid infect other children—swine flu kills kids–one of my kids has already had a tour of the children’s hospital from pneumonia—–I already live with it. Those are the people who can’t hold a job, can’t stay married b/c of grotesque character flaws- that aren’t in commercial insurance plans at this time. They are on government-care. Mixing the two, in order to strangle private care, a la flood insurance’s death- is an out and out evil thing to do.
Russia has universal health care. People have short, painful, humiliating lives. Hong Kong has private health care. They live nearly a century, in flashy, wealthy good health.
and your house is probaby cleaner than mine. I forget to mop and have a relationship with my vacuum that ought to be in Intolerable Cruelty-the vicious divorce, not the vacuum sex-toy. I wash dishes by hand, and I’m grateful when DH wakes me up from dreams about endless folding of laundry. The living room is finally clean b/c I insist the boys clean it before they use the x-box.
Your kids should probably kiss your hands and call you blessed, b/c your dedication to them rings from your letter. They make you proud. It shows.
I’m not talking about you.
LAURA INGRAHAM VERSES SANDRA FLUKE
Laura Ingraham and Sanda Fluke are called ‘sluts’ by notable media personalities. Sincere, heartfelt, gentlemanly apologies are offered to both. One is mature enough, big enough, woman enough to forgive and forget and puts the insult behind her. The other is too childish, immature and small minded for such things. One is a strong conservative Christian woman standing on the moral high ground; the other is a weak, pathetic, secularist putz launching a lifelong vendetta. Integrity verses lack of dignity that’s what distinguishes the two.
VERSUS
“The unspoken public policy argument that we should underwrite birth control through our insurance payments is that if we don’t, we’ll end up paying for baby food and maternal care,”
As if that baby then does not become a net contributor to society. If Steve Jobs’ mother had aborted him, that probably would have been cheaper than giving birth plus the expense of his adopted parents raising him. But America would not be as wealthy a country without him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?pagewanted=all
It’s a long interview. the money-shot line is in the middle. she gets towards- that abortion was legalized so that less-desirable people wouldn’t be born and live on the public purse. I think someone who knows people with european number tattoos might not be a fan of the idea of “less desirable people” getting killed. But, apparently, between her and peter singer, I would be wrong.
I think she was thinking of people living their whole life on the gov’t dole. Not, like, you know, Newt gingrich, but, say, the sort of people who end up on “live from the ER at charity hospital”- the sort of people who keep mayor bloomberg up at night, trying to ban sugar and salt from his city. It’s how GBush, 41, had signed for sterilization services for American Indians and Puerto Ricans, earlier in his career.
It’s why I’m against O’care. It’s not proofed against tribalism and barbarism. Scientists think they are a tribe. Gov’t liberals think they are a tribe. Tribalism means they try to kill off “the other.” That would be, you know, appalachian residents, for John Holdren, for one. the government should never be involved in preventing new citizens from being born. that’s what enemies do: “nits make lice” was the catchphrase from the first Roman conquest of an Iberian city. It still shows up- tweeters talking about “right wing lice.” The Soviets wiped out cities that were there from the beginning of recorded history- cities mentioned in thucydides ‘history of the pelopennesian war.’ I never underestimate how evil government policies can be.
Do not fear, Obamacare covers STDs too.
Just think if some of these STDs actually killed some, then there would be less people to cause global warming, less payout from insurance companies. Win-win for everyone including the short sighted meanies who do not want to pay their fair share for other people’s pills and condoms.
awww….you left out the best part………
black women are vulnerable to strokes at some crazy higher rate than white women. they are also more likely to smoke, more likely to be obese, less likely to be married, more likely to have more lifetime partners carrying diseases, statistically more likely to undergo an abortion- with bleeding, have heart disease at a spectacular high rate……
You couldn’t come up with a better way to kill off all the black people in America. There’s a joke in there somewhere. I’m not sure where. but it’s an awful joke. I mean, come on, the kinder, gentler KKK…..bka democrats…..
If the Democratic Party reall is built on blacks, single mothers, and government employees, you really have to admire their confidence- trying to kill off their base, one mandate at a time. I’m still not sure why they are fans of abortion: 60% of all black pregnancies get terminated in New York. They have a law requiring crisis pregnancy centers put up signs saying ” we don’t perform abortions.” Ugh, yeah. I’m wondering how they get rid of those icky Republicans first, and invent robots to work, before the few remaining gov’t employees enjoy a fully empty, oil-rich continent.
They have the same law in Austin. The law was spear-headed by a guy who had been adopted at birth by a devoutly religious, world-travelling, stable, happy, millionaire family. I honestly wonder why he’s got it in for the next adoptable infant. Is he worried they’ll adopt again, and he’ll lose his trust-fund? Or was his life in the lap of luxury so hellish? I’ve met his parents. They are tickled pink by his talents and gifts. They love him. They support him. I’m really missing what makes him be so certain that abortion is a great idea and adoption is for fools.
I don’t know that vulnerability to diseases isn’t a feature. I’ve read the biographies of Louise Bryant ( john reed’s “wife”)John Reed wrote Ten Days that Shook the World. Louise Bryant and John Reed lived in Greenwich Village. They had an open arrangement. LB walked in a naked Edna St Vincent Millay waiting for John to come home. LB also writes about packing cold washcloths onto her private parts to calm down the fire from a STD she’d picked up from, probably, Eugene O’Neill. Them’re high-class cooties, collectable items. Angela Carter has a story about the prostitute who delivers Gauguin cooties to her paying customers in her short story collection that gets taught on campuses all the time.
I’m thinking maybe it’s like “dish-pan hands.” I use rubber gloves to wash the dishes- five kids, cooking from scratch- I’ve got an hour of handwashing, daily, right now. My friends dislike the feel of rubber gloves- and, well, isn’t that the advertising slogan of a dish-soap? Palmolive? Soak your hands? Conceptually, you get used to one idea, one way, and features and benefits another way aren’t as obvious?
And, goodness, the Catholic Church has certainly done yeoman’s work on the reliability of condoms. In case your readers were wondering- doing nothing, you have an 15% chance of getting pregnant, in any given year. With condoms, you have a 17% chance of getting pregnant. Now, the argument goes- so, more risky behavior? less marital relations versus wild-monkey single people sex?
It helps, of course, to know the failure rate on PP condoms, gov’t condoms, private company condoms…..you’d be better off sieving water through a gov’t issue or pp condom, than using them for their stated purpose. Fantastic rip rates. Almost comedic. Some people think it’s a plot to gin up business for their abortion services,once the condom fails.
I’d like to point out that some very practical business people put their minds in service of their libido, and come up with really entertaining condoms. And condom jewelry. My friend had earrings that were totally cute- and useful!- Set a condom package on it’s edge, so it’s a diamond. Pink the edges of the package, for decoration. Glue on seed beads. Stick onto earring hooks. They’re big, they’re flashy, they’re cheap and they get the point across. Totally cute for bar-hopping.
There are neon ones, flavored ones, textured ones. You get to indulge in a sort of voyeurism when you make embarassing comments to the poor teenage clerk who rings up your purchase……it’s a big declaration that you’re getting some, and s/he isn’t, not right then. Private companies make ones that are more durable than gov’t ones.
Also, if a woman is on the pill, and the couple isn’t using a condom- then isn’t the guy getting a better ride? It might be anti- woman, but it’s pretty pro- guy, right? And we’ve learned, pro-guy is the real femininism. Bill Clinton didn’t use condoms, and he’s a femininist hero.
Hillary Clinton advocates for prostitution in the rest of the world, and she’s a real femininist. Sebelius took money from a guy who had a third-trimester baby incinerator in his basement. He’d whistle while loading it up with bags of “medical waste”- chopped up dead babies. This still gives me nightmares on a near regular basis. All of them were what- girls or boys? I can’t tell which is more feminisistically heroically correct. Maybe they’d be people, and, as Elaine Bennis on Seinfeld says “People– they’re the worst!”
There is the possibility that O wants more food-stamp babies. Pills- low-dose ones- aren’t particularly effective. I know there’s at least one Pick-Up-Artist who advises carrying condoms and a little bottle of tabasco sauce with you at all times. After filling the condom, peel it off, and shake in Tabasco sauce to kill all the swimmers. He’s pretty convinced that the girl would fish his used raincoat out of the trash, and then try to inseminate herself after he leaves her apartment. I’m thinking that maybe having sex with girls you distrust this much is maybe not as much fun as he thinks? and that maybe he ought to be aiming for a higher class of girl? one who doesn’t think rubbing a used condom on her hoo-ha is a good idea? I could be wrong. Maybe distrust, strangers and skanky ho-ettes is the recipe for a really good time. But- the guy is in control of his fertility. He’s not trusting the girl to be on the Pill.
And, goodness, the Catholic Church has certainly done yeoman’s work on the reliability of condoms. In case your readers were wondering- doing nothing, you have an 15% chance of getting pregnant, in any given year. With condoms, you have a 17% chance of getting pregnant. Now, the argument goes- so, more risky behavior? less marital relations versus wild-monkey single people sex?
While my memory may be faulty, I seem to recall reading many years ago that the pregnancy rate for women who engage in frequent unprotected sex over the course of a year was about 80%. Maybe I remember incorrectly but that number came to mind when reading your post.
from your mouth, to God’s ears. I want a new baby.
I wasn’t looking this up, when I wrote. It might be 15%/17% per month, but the condom rate for pregnancy was higher than freestyling it.
Gerard Nadal has all sorts of entertaining charts in his blog archives. I don’t understand the catholic stuff, since I’m not catholic and I don’t really care, but the charts are really entertaining.
And useful. I pulled up his “cootie rates” chart for genital warts, to show my boys when they had warts on their arms that weren’t responding to the OTC treatments, and said ” Don’t f*** around. You can marry early, that’s fine- but wait until your wedding night, and then go have a good time all you want.” I was in New Orleans in the eighties, living between the two largest gay-bars in the south, so I thought I’d seen cooties. OHmygoodness. The things that kids have to go through today. Yikes. Bad advice in health class, near endemic rates on some cooties, bad logic processes……I’m not an old-school religious fundamentalist, but I think my kids would be safer under that idea regime, than what’s taught now.
Well put. Annnnnd, coming soon to a Georgetown coed near you:
Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Have fun, folks.
This is all a dog and pony show orchestrated by the Obama Chicagoian WH…..Wolf Britzer sprung this on the Republican candidates and the audience hissed and booed while the candidates were dumbfounded…..Blitzer knew what was coming down the pike and he wanted first crack at it but he sprang it too soon as no one knew that the Obama administation was out to attack the Catholic Church and their affilated businesses….Also Ms. Fluky who’s an innocent-looking female was about to make a name for herself with pushing from the left that she take issue with Georgetown College for not having a contraceptive clause in their insurance policy……Like this gal couldn’t find another insurance policy holder that would……She claims she can’t afford $9 a month for birth control pills……Heck….College students spent this much per day on junk food and drink…..It was all a Set Up by the Democrats and Russ Limbaugh got caught in the trap……Most of us are now asking the question…..What is it with this bimbo? Does she actually believe we should should pay for her sexcapades?
And,while I’m thinking about it, there’s the possibility of ‘conceptual brain damage.” Like, condoms are associated with gay guys trying to prevent HIV infections. With the slight problem that government judgment-free condom education has worked out about as well as their anti- obesity campaign. There are now parties where the guys deliberately don’t wear raincoats, and they know (THEY KNOW!!!!!) that some participants have AIDS. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around that particular sexndeath combo platter.
A really jarring number of CDC STD researchers are gay. They aren’t thinking about women at all. They think women’s parts are kind of gross. They might think the very matter-of-fact squooshiness of, of, sponges shoved up your hoo-ha before sex, or spraying out a bowlful of what looks like whipped cream, or clear toothpaste, onto a rubber disc with a springy rubber edge, before shoving said mini-frisbee up your business, or using a suppository- it drips out in a chemical ooze for about a day…it’s just gross. They wouldn’t think of handling lady parts. They can’t believe women would be so matter-of-fact about handling their own parts, or shoving stuff up in there….
I was a peer educator in high school. My dad’s best friend was in medical school. She stayed once when dad was doing his two week in the national guard service thing. she bought, quite literally, every over the counter birth control item you could have- I had an entire drawer of my chest of drawers- sweater- drawer- big- BIG- full to the brim with every last single…….words still fail me. It was enough to f*** a regiment without getting knocked up. Her words. Armed with that and a copy of “The New Our Bodies, Ourselves” I taught all my friends about their cycle, birth control options…they’d try stuff out and tell me about it….cheap suppositories sting your parts, for instance. More expensive ones don’t. They both smell bad, and kick off infections. Sponges rocked- and then got pulled from the market. Elaine Bennis was right to try and corner the market on them. The new ones suck raw eggs- too small, no loop to grab, ugly, smells bad, leaky-ish….
I knew more about birth control for women than the lead CDC researcher in New Orleans. He also dressed up in Esther Williams-style swimsuits on weekends. Just saying.
Abstinence works every time it is tried with the added bonus of no annoying little germs along for the ride.
it could be a beta-male love line?
Ya’ll-help me out here. I keep tripping over people explaining game theory to me, and Pick Up Art Theory to me, and I really think I’m missing out on some key things. Care to help sister with the cogitating?
I mean- I’ve read one blog, and the guy is a nurse, claiming to be a pick up artist? A nurse? Is he picking up, what? catsick in room 2.01? Why isn’t he working on getting into med school? or Tucker Max? He was picking up girls while he was in law school? A student? What am I missing here? Do guys really think of themselves as “BETA” or “ALPHA”? Are they right? Is this some weird sled-dog thing I’m not seeing? I could win the Iditarod from a group of guys at a bar?
Really,clueless. I’ve got a daughter. I could use a clue, so she’s forewarned.
Anyway, taking the pill blunts your nasal pheromone sorting system, and you end up going for less-suitable genetics guys. The idea is that “kind, nurturing stable males” don’t smell as good, subliminally? That’s what I keep reading. So, second-rate guys- that would be Democrats, nearly by definition- blunt out the mating instincts of high-class women- so that they fall vulnerable prey to the weak charms of loser-half-predators? The predators that couldn’t hunt without crippling their prey first? The sort of guys who would be in government jobs in the first place? Not military- just regular bureaucrats? It’s a bureaucratic dating scheme?
This is all pretty abstract to me, so I can make jokes. Mom and grandmom both had “arterial events” when they went on the pill- phlebitis landing one in the hospital, and a major series of strokes for mom- so I knew I couldn’t take the pill. That is- I could look up my risk rates in “NOBO” b/c the doctor at the student health center, and then others following, were pretty sure I should be on the pill while in college.
Oh- women’s stroke rates have “mysteriously” tripled in the last few years. It’s in fashionable magazines- marie claire, or glamour, or something like that. It puzzles doctors, since it’s young, single women with no risk factors. ahem. none.
Hey, my youngest stepson is a Navy nurse. He’s an officer (O3) and works very hard at it. He has been in the Navy almost 19 years and worked his way up through the ranks. At his graduation, he introduced me to a friend of his that was a year behind him. The dude was a former Navy SEAL. After graduation, he was assigned to work in the ER at the Marine base where my stepson worked. One night, a big, drunk and mean Marine was brought in. He was a mean drunk and hit several people. The ex-SEAL dropped him like a rock. The word got out on that base not to mess with the male nurses. They can hurt you and then patch you up.
Cool!
I will not talk smack about military male nurses!
congrats on raising a good guy, too! You sound proud of him!
(in a tiny little voice- I’ll still talk smack about pick- up artists who aren’t any good at it, though)
Yeah, I am proud of him. He was a poor student in high school* but has done very well in the Navy. He started out as a Corpsman working in the hospital and then became and ENT surgical tech. After a few years of that, he became a surgical tech instructor. He married a fine woman who supported him going to night school. The Navy sent him to nursing school and he became an officer. He as assigned to the ER at a Marine base and worked there for a few years. Today, he’s in the final 6 months of schooling to become a psychiatric nurse practioner. He’s a good dad to his two young sons (7 and 3) as well.
He’s done a lot of cool things in the Navy. One of the coolest happened when he was working in the ER on a night shift. A paramedic worked a shift with him to keep his skills sharp. His name was David Lee Roth (yeah, that one). He’s a dedicated and skilled paramedic and as I understand it, he’s even been trained to work with SWAT teams. My son said, “Having David Lee Roth follow you around all nigh and call you sir was really cool.” I have a photo of them together. Big hat tip to David Lee Roth – he didn’t have to do that and being a paramedic is a tough job. My respect for him went way up after hearing that.
*His grades were so weak that when he was handed his diploma at the graduation ceremony, I was tempted to yell “Run before they realize they made a mistake!”
oh, golly, that is so cool! He’s from the ground up! The Surgeon General was like that. I ( big heart) cool nurses! I will never, ever, ever talk smack about military male nurses.
That’s pretty cool about DLR! Calling him SIR! We love DLR around here- I’ll tell the sposo and the singing daughter about his skills.
I am so jealous! I wanted to go to nursing school- I still do- and DH had to lay out class-times, and kids, and my health issues…..I have to wait, basically, until I’ve done right by the kids. I’m a terrible mom- I want the oldest to go to med school, just so there’s a medical degree on the wall! and, well, he’s level-headed, and calm, and has sharp eyes and steady hands, and is good at science….he’s planning on the military. both the boys are. It’s kind of eerie, really. The second boy- Navy recruiters will walk by his classmates, and walk right up to him and start talking- even when he was a little boy- three years old. He’s pretty “yup, I’m going” like it’s not even a debatable subject.
Thank you for telling me more about him- I can imagine what he’s like. You must be so proud! that’s funny-the graduation thing. oh gosh- would he have been mad if you had said “Run!”?
Thank you, Belladonna, for writing such a clear column on such an important subject. It surprises me although it probably shouldn’t that no one else is writing about or talking about the health hazards of these pills and how they expose women to such diseases. Why do you think Obama and his HHS secretary don’t think about issues this way? And where is the FDA, now headed by a woman, that could have come forward with warnings to women but hasn’t?
If Obama and the Dems are so woman friendly – why don’t they recognize the peril to women of their policy on this issue?
Great column
Mark, it is not about women. It is not about birth control. It is not about choice. What it is about is forcing all private insurance carriers to offer the exact same coverage as Medicaid and Medicare.
As soon as they can force all private insurance to offer everything the government does which they know private insurance cannot do without drastically raising the premiums, they can then demonize private insurance as expensive and uncompetitive. The end result the democrats hope for, is of course, single payer socialized medicine which has been the goal of Obamacare all along.
Yes, along with the poster above, I’m glad someone is talking about the health issues related to the pill. I think that for the past forty-or-so years, women have been sold a bad product and inaccurate information. For those who don’t know how the pill works: it tricks the body into thinking it is pregnant by releasing hormones that stop ovulation and thicken the uterine lining. When a woman takes a few days off each month (or takes the placebo pills) in order to have her period, she is not really having a “period.” She is having a “withdrawal bleed” in which the drop in hormones allows some of the cells to shed. So if you are on the pill for years and years, that is years in which your body thinks it is pregnant. This can’t possibly be good.
Every time I went to the gyn for my annual exam during my twenties, the doctor tried to put me on the pill. I wasn’t even sexually active. The doctor goes on about the benefits: decreased chance of ovarian cancer, regulates periods, eliminates PMS (well, duh, because you don’t really have a period on the pill), clears up acne, etc. Sometimes I think the doctors are in cahoots with the pharma companies to sell more drugs.
In any case, I’m tired of hearing about the “GOP war on women.” I’m not at war with anybody. And I wish that women my stepmother’s age would stop griping about the fact that my generation of women doesn’t care–that her generation broke the glass ceiling and forged new territory in the areas of work equality and women’s health. Geez–as if they are such great heroes. When I think of her generation, I think of: latchkey kids, divorce, millions of babies lost to abortion, angry man-haters, and a generation that has bankrupted the country by chasing after selfish wants it can’t afford, a generation that mine will have to pay for. I admire much more my grandmother’s generation. And my grandmother went to college, helped my grandfather run a business, and contributed in many ways to the happiness of her family and society.
your doctor viewed it as preventative medicine. Most pregnancies of women in their twenties are “unintended.” Women who are religious are more likely to be “swept away” by passion. They are also more likely to be ashamed to go buy birth control in a pharmacy setting. Condoms used to be sold behind the counter. There were stories about moralizing clerks lecturing single women, and so on. Your doctor was trying to keep you from “being punished with a baby.”
Of course, this total mania for birth control has now extended into marriage. I got the same lecture when I was married, and I knew my chances for getting pregnant- who cares? I was married, so what if we don’t have a five year plan for when to produce factory-quality infants?
That’s why there were “condom-friendlifying” events around the time they were telling all sorts of straight people to “wrap that rascal!” There are embroidery kits, and little knit condom holders…..the earrings I mentioned earlier….
Statistically, most women are likely to sleep with, at most, three guys in their life,total. That unintended pregnancy is probably with the guy who is willing to marry her, and is probably a suitable human being, anyway. People date and marry close to work, or within three miles of their domicile, usually. Real estate alone is a suitable mate sorter. Or unsuitable, if you live in the wrong neighborhood. It’s a tragedy of housing projects- acres of unsuitable mates, every direction, with not much escape velocity.
If there’s ‘sweeping’ off her feet- there’s a chance it’s her ovaries lungeing after a histo-compatible mate for the best possible infant- think of two big dogs on a leash, pulling the little brain along. The ovaries were asleep during childhood and the first part of adolescence- those ten thousand beady little eyes in her ovarian egg supply, peering over her waistband, looking at his block and tackle, have never, ever had a manners lesson. It’s why I think Ashton Kutcher had unprotected sex a nubile, obviously probably fertile 20something young lady. His manly parts were saying “Need to BREED!!!!NEED to Breed!!!”
Thank you Belladonna, very educational. I can’t speak for other men but my knowledge on this was very limited. My doctor dedicated little time on this subject.
Are there any physicians reading these articles and discussions? Can any of them talk to this?
Just curious.
Here’s what you need to know: Birth control comes in two categories. There’s the stuff that doesn’t work, and there’s the stuff that’s bad for you.
The Pill is bad for you.
Dear Belladonna,
The main point of the questioner is: “Is it right that I should have to pay for women to get something for nothing that I would not use myself, or ever recommend?” Now obviously, you prob. have some info you didn’t divulge in your column — perhaps moral/religious convictions conflicting with this proposed policy. Otherwise, the question would be, “Why should I have to pay for ANYONE wanting something for nothing I wouldn’t use or recommend?” Such as alcohol, tobacco, oodles or salt, eating fried food every meal, etc.
The correct answer, as you said, is “no”. And to my way of thinking, repealing Obamacare is the correct way to handle this problem. But we do need to fix the broken health care system in this country. To my way of thinking, that’s allowing insur. across state lines, so people can buy plans that include/exclude lifestyle choices. We choose, not the govn’t. (example: right now each state sets their insur. mandates; in CA, providers MUST include aromatherapy) You don’t exercise, don’t plan to ever, and eat high fat food every meal? There’s a plan for you. Need contraception for recreational sex, but willing to risk no major medical? (as long as it’s understood the person will be responsible for payment if something bad happens, G*d forbid) There’s a plan for you. Anyone currently paying insur. premiums *already* subsidizes many things we prob. don’t like, don’t agree with, and wouldn’t be caught dead with/doing. Heck, even one of the “extra” charges on my internet bill is to fund access programs for those that can’t afford … the internet.
Obamacare is coercive in many ways, and as such will likely be found unconstitutional this summer (I hope!). However, I think this contraception hullabaloo is 1) red herring, keeping us from focusing on main issues like the economy, wasteful spending, ever-ballooning debt/deficit, etc., and 2) ignoring the abuse of 1st Amendment religious liberty rights. It’s not so much about contraception per se as it is being forced into paying for something you disagree w/on religious grounds. But if Dems can force taking our eye off the ball … to continue with sports analogy, you can’t make the play w/o the ball in hand first.
Since the consequence of Obama’s “free birth control pills” policy will be a greater proportionate reduction in pregnancies among poor and minority women, it will slow down the relatively higher population growth rates among the poor and minorities. In my view, this reduces the growth rate in the constituency of the Democrat Party, which can’t be all bad. Further, had Republicans proposed this policy (to garner Big Pharma largess), Democrats would have pounced on this greater proportionate reduction to pronounce the policy both racist and a war on the poor.
Unlike a condom, which you can easily see and feel whether it is where it is intended to be, when a woman taking birth control pills inadvertently forgets a day or a week, or misplaces that month’s entire supply, she could easily get pregnant.
With all medications, buying them is only the first step! After buying them, you have to take them as prescribed, and not misplace them or forget to take one on an all-important day or week.
Anyone who assumes that every woman who receives a “free” month’s supply of 30 birth control pills and assumes that that woman will take one pill every single day is making an assumption with which I cannot and do not agree.
I include Ms. Fluke and every woman on the planet.
Young and older people whose lives depend on their taking certain medications daily forget, misplace or lose the bottle or container for their medications. Many of them die for lack of even one day’s dose. And they weren’t demented. They were human.
No, no, no! Don’t you see that 50 years of the Pill has caused the number of “unplanned pregnancies” to plummet? If we hadn’t had birth control available, it would have skyrocketed. And now, in order to continue to decrease the number of out-of-wedlock births and abortions, we need the magic kind of birth control that’s paid for by Catholic money.
“nits make lice”? That’s barbaric. That’s what democrats think- kill off black children.
Republicans…….The Republican Party was founded to combat the evil that was slavery. Republicans LIKE live babies. Republicans spent, proportionally, more American blood so that Black Children could be born free, could be educated ( Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock) Republicans sent Clarence Thomas, a qualified, dignified jurist to the Supreme Court, Republicans promoted Herman Cain- a qualified,dignified executive as a presidential contender.
They’re Americans. They deserve a chance at life, education and dignity. Approving of stopping them from existing? B/c they might make foolish political choices? For real?
And Republicans ought to be making a better case about why black people ought to be Republican. I don’t get why every hip-hop mogul isn’t up on the platform-they made millions out of nothing. They built businesses selling cassettes out of the back of their cars. They wrote poetry despite being handicapped by incredibly bad schools. They are aiodic bards- homer praising warriors- them praising gangsters defending territory- who aren’t being handed the tools to succeed- and yet, some of them do, over and over and over. The head of the Detroit School system is barely literate- and yet they still have young men making a living rapping. Professors make recordings of Homer, rap-style, and somehow they are “transgressive” and “fresh.” They are copying the skills of young men who have clawed a living out of their meagre skills.
and, yes, I know some of them are sucky, and the lyrics are misogynist, blah blah blah—but it is an industry that was made out of crappy bedrooms in housing projects, or by kids raised by their grandparents ( that’s ???not Ice-T–one of the bigs) They are American success stories.
I loooove your posts here, but…just how much caffeine have you had today?! lol
honest to God, not enough.
this is where I go to talk or write. This particular subject- it was my job for a while, basically. Do you think (male) CDC researchers swan around in vintage women’s swimsuits from the 1940′s in front of just anybody?
I don’t know anything about risk management- an earlier post, and my eyes glaze over on budget cut stuff, and frankly, I’m not in the “winning millionaire raised right and religious” category. But- trashy ho-ettes having sex with multiple unsuitable partners? I’m there- that’s my background. My innovation was teaching a lot of my friends how to not have consequences, in non-clinical language.
It was possibly one of the shi***est days of my life, age 18, when I had to take my friend to the blood bank to donate- this was 25 years ago, when an AIDS test cost over $300- and this was a 17 year old boy who’d gone on the streets at 11 years of age b/c the beatings at home were so bad. You get that you have to have a basic level of trust in society to willingly go to a homeless shelter? Do you get that putting a kid who’d been molested into a foster home is…..not always the best choice,as far as that kid is concerned?…that whole “social distrust” thing, again? Okay, so this really- I’m writing a book about teen books, right now- when someone suggests that I write a teen romance, I laugh like a hyena- this was the hottest guy I’d ever met in my life. He was 17, he was in love with one of the other hookers in this one pimp’s stable, who was pregnant by some unknown john- and he got his test results back. they called them into the payphone at the gay bar that was his business phone, basically. I stayed up at his little rented room, rent paid daily- $7/night, $9 with guests, and held his hands and we cried. And he’d take smoke breaks, and then come back to bed, and we’d hold hands some more. This guy who is so seductive- he had to be, to eat- in a wife-beater white tank-the ones with ribs-suspenders, baggy work pants, doc martens, muscles, smoking on the balcony while jazz musicians warmed up for the tourists, in one of those great high-ceilinged upper rooms, breeze coming in off the mississippi, evening soft air, lilacs on the breeze, “blueberry hill” playing- and this guy- (1) I couldnt’ sleep with him and (2) he’d never, ever get to have sex with someone he wanted to have sex with. ever. He was dead inside of one year. and not b/c he was dedicating his sexuality to some higher purpose. He’d been used for his whole life. Okay? That’s my baseline. I think Brett Ellis Easton writing tender, sensitive books about rich rent boys is a namby-pansy wet kleenex drip. Most people think he’s Satan. I think he’s a Hallmark Card.
I live in a neighborhood where the house next door….the current resident has five different babies by five different men. One of the baby daddies shows up every few months to fix the stuff at her house. He’s got six different baby daughters by six different women. And his son- his son he keeps track of. He just goes in this circuit around the US, checking on his baby-mamas,every few months. The one before that- three different baby-daddies, three different kids, and…best of all….her best friend is the guy who proposed to her when she was 16. She said no- she wanted experience. How much experience does she need? One of the baby daddies was rich. One of the baby daddies was in prison. One of the baby daddies was a guy in a bar, name unknown. That’s a lot of experience. then she went gay with a mexican gang girl. her lifestyle included two SUVs, a two week trip to DisneyLand, and eating out four nights a week, courtesy of the US taxpayer, b/c she’s a single mom. Did I mention- her job was telling Mexican illegal immigrants how to game the system for their new baby? She’d get them hooked up with benefits and apartments. They’d show their gratitude by doing yardwork (immaculate) cleaning her house ( immaculate) fixing her fence ( perfect) and washing her SUVs( spotless). I live in the neighborhood that every last single right-wing pundit goes “THOSE PEOPLE@@#$%” And you know? She was a nice person-bubbly, positive, happy, generous…we were friends, sort of. She gave us her couch when she got bored with it. And love-seat. Nice ones. And these are the women who have it together enough to pay rent on a house. They’re the winners in their world.
the welfare moms who bring sick kids to the park? They literally don’t get that for our family to go to the doctor- $40/visit, five members of the family- that’s $200 just to get a diagnosis. Now add antibiotics- from $2 for generic penicillin, up to $80 for the third generation abx for the kid who did the children’s hospital tour for pneumonia. That’s my family. Multiply it by all the other families whose kids are playing in the pickup football game. There are weeks that 1/3 of the classroom at this school is out, usually on the class that those kids are in. You don’t think the teachers are a little freaked out- their funding is based on passing tests. They can’t teach if the kids aren’t there. The parents- who calls in sick. The welfare queens? They aren’t working. It literally DOES NOT compute for them. It took repeated, repeated!, conversations with other parents- “Hey, your kid got my kid sick-go home!” and “hey, don’t breathe smoke on the baby- go over there!” for them to get that, maybe, they might want to behave like civilized people. the school nurse had done her part- send the kids home, after the baby medicine had worn off and their fevers went back up- but is the school nurse going to imagine that some crazy B***** is going to take a kid running a 101+ fever b/c of swine flu to a park full of other, healthy little kids? Nobody imagines that. That’s where I live right now.
We’re here b/c of one teacher- priceless- youngest daughter gets out of her class in May. After that- we’re so out of here. husband is in financial services, so it might take a republican victory, to stabilize house prices to sell- but….there are reasons that people go home at the end of the night, after working with welfare cases all day, and go light up a cigarette. And why they burn out within two years, mostly. Michael Savage is crazy bitter about this. Adam Carolla talks about this, in kathy shaidle’s video link…..
“If Republicans had proposed this, the Democrats would….”
Not possible. No way, no how, would Republicans have proposed this. And folks say there is no difference between the two big Parties.
Besides, folks really do not understand Dems. This policy seems to be self-contradictory. It is not.
Dems like minority votes. They like welfare people votes. They just do not like the minorities and welfare PEOPLE. They just like their votes. Open borders? Sure. Just please breed as little as possible when you get here. We need the grunt labor. We need the housekeepers and nannies and landscapers at reasonable prices. Just do not breed.
Elite Dems like to live in pricey, toney neighborhoods, because the minorities cannot afford to live there, generally. 99% white. Keep them dumb and poor, and you do not have to live with them. Were it not for contraception and abortion, we would be overrun with the pequeninos.
“But they will reduce their own voting Demographics!” Dems know they will never run out of greedy, fat, lazy, welfare queens, nor will they run out of minorities, nor will they run out of suckers. There is one born every minute. Stupidity is an endlessly renewable resource. As is greed. And sloth. And gluttony. And lust.
The Devil is a connoisseur of sin. He knows exactly how it works. Every variation.
hey- I’m okay with the kids. I’m up at my kids school- if those kids were dropped onto a desert island and given grow drops- they could form a fully functional small town. They want to be all the elements of a functioning society. I think they could marry the next school over, and they’d be a complete town. Their ambitions are various. Doctor, nurse, fireman- the usual, right? Okay- there’s a “pet store owner,” a mommy, an engineer building buildings, electrical workers, a restaurant owner- a restaurant worker (that one puzzled me- but he held to it) a Catholic priest, an office manager, a librarian, a children’s book author, a few classicists- seriously, a little group of guys thought Percy Jackson was great- and they went to the library and checked out books on myths, then history, then started sending notes to each other in Greek letters- their teachers’ comment was “hey, they do my work, and then I ignore them while they do their own work.” The kids are great.
They are very ill-served by their official textbooks: “planes were made” “trains were made” “coal was transported” “Cesar Chavez MADE life better for families.”
Some of their parents are ill- served by really bad social ideas. I can’t fault a high-school graduate for believing what she was taught in health class- “experience” is important, that never mentions HOW to get married, that “love conquers all,” that “as long as we both shall love” is a hideous invention of soap opera writers…
Good stuff gets through- Adam Carolla is married with children. He’s committed. The family next door I described- the oldest kid married his girlfriend and is working towards an electrician’s license. His mom was very understanding of him dropping out of school, getting his girlfriend knocked up, and who knows what else. Her mother pitched a fit- and they are married, he finished high school, he’s working on a career. She moved them in, right after the wedding, and schooled them on how to succeed in life. Down the street- same thing- the family moved the guy in when the girl got knocked up. He went from, well, shiftless, to responsible dad, good career, he’s got a promotion at his hard as hell job…..it’s possible. It’s totally possible.
I wanted to let people know about an STD dating site for people who’ve got herpes, its Herpesmate.com.
Belladonna Rogers – This is what it has come to from a federal government that has the burst the bounds and bonds of the Constitution: we are arguing about whether we should subsidize someone’s sleeping around (and don’t dare use the S word; not PC). Frankly, it should not be my problem if Ms. Fluke, and others like her, needs to be bedded nightly. It should be her problem and her problem alone. If her insurance doesn’t pay for what she needs, she should take it up with her insurance company. I should not have to be concerned. But I am because our federal government seems to ignore the strictures of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Trust me; the contraception issue is but another nail in the coffin of republican democracy in America. Like republican Rome, whose government became too dysfunctional to govern the republic, our government by being so big will also become dysfunctional (as it indeed it is becoming). We will wake up one day and wonder, where did our freedoms go?
This should be required reading.
Well done, Ms. Rogers.
I sent this to several liberals without the first snarky, smart-alec remark.
Belladonna — This is a great column, and you exhibit tremendous courage taking on so many sacred cows of the left in a single column. Well done!
My only other thought right now is to recommend the 2 more articles to Belladonna’s readers:
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/contraceiving-truth-catholics-pill/372401
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/daily-contraception-mandate-lie-free-pills/413006
In addition to Belladonna’s column above, these 2 are “must-reads” for anyone who wants to understand the nasty game being played here by the Obama administration and its supporters in the media.
1) Condoms fail.
2) Women are at high risk of STDs if they have sex with multiple partners who have sex with multiple partners. Chaste women are at low risk of STDs – but may still want to avoid pregnancy.
3) Condoms don’t protect completely against herpes. Many herpes carriers have lesions on the skin of the groin around the genitals, which contacts the partner during sex.
4) Condoms interfere with sexual pleasure.
5) All barrier methods are no more reliable than the user.
Between 4) and 5), there is continued reason for R&D of of improved non-barrier methods. Eventually, 100% reliable non-barrier contraception will exist. At that point, the battle for monogamy and sexual restraint will have to be fought and won for its own sake.
Relying on the threats of unwanted pregnancy and STDs to discourage sexual debauchery is an intrinsically weak position – as defective now as it was when physician Paul Ehrlich was criticized for developing a cure for syphilis.
Exactly! It’s RECREATIONAL SEX everybody! Don’t ask the voters whether the Constitution is being violated. Ask them if they believe they should have to pay for the unintended consequences of RECREATIONAL SEX because that’s precisely what’s at the heart of the debate about contraceptives AND abortion. The voters will better understand if it’s put in these terms.
Great points, Belladonna. I do want to make another point that needs to be raised and that is, by shifting the focus of providing free condoms to males to free birth control pills to women, the Government shifts any and all responsibity of preventing pregnancy on women.
As an attorney for a state Department of Children and Family Services, I can promise you that fatherless children make up the majority of children in foster care. President Johnson’s War on Poverty created this nightmare by providing handouts only to women who had no male head of household in their home, and the amount they received each month depended on the number of children they had. The number of single women with numerous children exploded in this country – and the foster care system boomed as a consequence. This program resulted in generations of men having children with multiple women and no sense of obligation to emotionally or financially support their children.
Now that the pill will have to be provided free of charge, it completely absolves men of any sexual responsibility in addition to any parental responsibility.
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