Rants from Nowhere


As long as we've kick-started the old blog and found out it still runs, I thought I'd make use of the Blogger "pages" feature and see how that works out.

Today's rant concerns the two things I most frequently rant about -- the unholy union of politics and religion.

Consider today's assault on reproductive rights, the Kansas Heath Care Rights of Conscience Act, and Arizona's Bill on Contraceptive Coverage, both signed into law by their respective governors, Brownback and Brewer. The Kansas law allows pharmacists and physicians to deny access to contraception if they "reasonably believe it might result in the termination of a pregnancy." The Arizona law allows some religious employers to "opt out" of providing contraceptives in their health care plans unless the employee can prove they are for medical and not contraceptive purposes. 

I say why stop there?  If we're going to be a nation where religious law supersedes secular law, let's go all out and include all the religions.  If your employer is Jewish, you can be forbidden to eat a ham sandwich on company time -- or cream of chicken soup -- and no buying bacon with the salary he pays you.  If your employer is a Christian Scientist or a Jehovah's Witness you won't get any health care at all, but your boss will pray for you, so you should be just fine.  Hindu boss?  No beef for you.  It could be worse ... the Jain office is swarming with cockroaches you aren't allowed to kill. If, on the other hand, your employer is a Pagan, you can have all the health care you want, swat flies and eat anything you like, but you will be required to attend the company Beltane fire, preferably in the nude. Hey, it's about fertility, right?  So what's the problem?  This is America, damn it, and we like our women-folk fecund.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the blog and the rant section! Glad to see someone giving our little town a fabulously positive bit of web presence!

Ev said...

We've been here for almost five years now, and moving here was probably the best decision we've ever made. Although looking at our decision-making track record, that's a somewhat less stellar endorsement than I meant it to be. But we're very happy here, happy to know there are even more gay folks and happy that someone actually found their way to this moribund corner of the interweb to say hi. Hi!

Kwach said...

Thanks, I wanted love the rant section, too. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually function as a separate section, so there's just the one rant. Which is too bad, because I have a LOT of rants!