Bravada In Nevada ...or Send In the Clowns

Watching the Bravada in Nevada the other night, I was seriously confused. The barkers were talking outta both sides of their mouths so fast it was Exorcist quality head spinning; all that was missing was the pea soup. Without exception, they all promised to shrink government while getting rid of all those pesky environmental regulations that get in the way of job growth. They said there was too much government, that government has to get out of the everyday lives of Americans, and get out of the way of our pursuit of life and liberty.....

Except if you're a woman. Then, it's government's job to be wedged between your legs and totally telling you what you can and cannot do with your body

According to some Republicans, if a sperm happens to have a successful run-in with an ovum inside your uterus, you HAVE to have that baby.  Even if it puts your life is at risk, that fertilized egg takes precedence over your life. This new drive to control women's reproductive function is called "personhood," and it refers to a fertilized egg, not an implanted one. That speck is more important than the woman who is host to that run-in. A "personhood" amendment is currently on the ballot in Mississippi.

This is one very slippery slope. Superficially, the law appears to be a backdoor way to stop abortion, but conferring "personhood" on fertilized ova also runs the risk of criminalizing any hormonal birth control method that inhibits or prevents implantation of an egg. And, it could potentially be used to criminalize miscarriage and stillbirth. The law could require any miscarriage to be investigated as a possible homicide. That may not be the intent of the amendment, but it can be subverted to do just that.

Now, two tangents come to mind here. First, the only people who should be in a conversation about reproduction should be the woman and anyone she wants to include. As soon as you grant personhood to an egg, the government becomes an active participant. Of course, is it possible these fanatics are really saying “no sex unless it is a bona fide to attempt to conceive.” Gee, isn’t that awfully papist for some of those evangelical folks?

The second tangent hearkens back to this huge disconnect I’m having with Republicans saying government is too invasive in our lives, yet they are willing to invade my bedroom. Come to think of it, they want to tell me what I can and cannot do with my body at all times... so long as they don't have to pay for any of it. This circles back to the health insurance issue; I keep wondering why they want to force women to have babies but they don't want to help provide any mechanism to protect those children. 

You gotta pony up something if your're gonna sit at this table. Whether it's medical insurance or education funding, you cannot force us to breed unless you intend to support the result. If you wanna talk about getting government off our backs, I would suggest you begin by getting government out from between our legs. 

The more these clowns yammer, the more disheartened I become. I listen to the cheering audiences and I read other points of view, all in an effort to understand how whole segments of the population come to support a Perry or a Bachmann, a Cain, a Paul, or a Romney. Don't they understand that they're not going to get Social Security or Medicare either? Can it be they think that because they support this or that candidate they will be exempted?


The fornicating we're getting has to be worth the fornicating we're getting. So far, the Republicans are telling us how to fornicate, without donating much of anything to the cause. Not good enough. Put up or shut up, but either way, get the hell outta my bedroom.

Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Birth and death are highly personal experiences.

Unless you are intimately involved with either process at a given moment,

your opinion is probably not desired by those who are.