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Mississippi using tax funds for religious abstinence-only programs
Byron York stokes fears about health care
Arthur Laffer thinks you're stupid
On this episode of Reality Cast, I'll be interviewing Abby Kincaid about Deflowered, a project about losing your virginity. Also, an investigation into the religious freedom issues of the no no square, and anti-choice lies about health care, and this time they're trying to control not just when you give life but how you die.
I almost don't want to link this discussion between a bunch of really funny women of Hollywood about getting older, because it's so depressing. But being comedians, they have a good attitude about it, because they can make jokes.
- old ladies *
Let's just hope this isn't a moving trend, or soon love interests will be required to be played by women that are not old enough to vote.
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I won't lie. The greatest thing about hitting the internet, listening to audio and video and researching the segments for this is how completely off the wall funny some of the things that the anti-sex crew will say or do. And this just say no rally hosted by Mississippi's Department of Human Services' Abstinence Before Marriage program made me laugh out loud.
- aclu 1 *
In case that wasn't perfectly clear, the cheerleaders said, "Stop, don't touch me there -- this is my no, no square." Which is one of those statements that brings up more questions than it answers. If women have a no-no square, what do men have? The forbidden pole? And how do you work that into a chirpy, mindless cheer? So many questions.
The big question isn't all that funny, and it's the one that the ACLU is asking the Mississippi Department of Human Services. Why on earth do they think that it's even remotely appropriate to have a blatantly religious program funded by taxpayer dollars, one that spreads misinformation about condom use to boot? Because that's what's going on.
- aclu 2 *
That's Shawna Davie from the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. Watching the news video, you don't really get a great idea of how completely awful this rally was in terms of both having illegal religious endorsement by the state and also just plain lying to kids about measures they can take to keep themselves safe. Luckily, we live in an era where you can just go to the ACLU's website and look the original video that Stuart Productions gave them yourself, and it's quite revealing.
First, you have the religious content.
- aclu 3 *
Seriously, it even looks like a church altar inside this rally. And you even get a sermon.
- aclu 4 *
Remember, this is being done with your tax dollars. This is expressly forbidden in the Constitution, using federal taxpayer money to fund what is essentially the promotion of fundamentalist Christianity, both in content and in form.
That's one issue with the whole struggle for reproductive rights that tends to get overlooked in general, and that's how much this is about the freedom of religion that's enshrined in our First Amendment. We focus a lot on accuracy in information, women's rights and all that, and we may even point out that women of all faiths use contraception and abortion, and that's all very important. But at the end of the day, it's important to remember that abstinence-only education, limits on contraception access, and bans on abortion are all attempts by certain religious groups to have their dogma endorsed above others by the government.
But it's not just about promoting naked religious dogma using our tax dollars. It's also promoting scientifically unsound nonsense to kids, lies that could lead to them getting sick or pregnant.
- aclu 5 *
It's interesting how abstinence-only proponents have come to focus on hating condoms so thoroughly. They've really decided that beating back the evil threat of latex has become a number one priority. Jessica Valenti has been tracking it, and now the strategy for pushing abstinence-only is to a) lie about the content of the courses and b) focus on the evils of condom usage. Leslie Unruh of the Abstinence Clearinghouse has taken to calling pro-choicers condom worshippers and Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association calls comprehensive sex education "condom-only", which makes no sense at all.
Meanwhile, condoms are still 98% effectiveness with perfect use and 85% effectiveness with typical use. Calling your vagina a no-no square has not been shown to work as a barrier to HIV, gonorrhea, syphilis, Chlamydia, or eager sperm.
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insert interview
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Boy, the mainstream media has decided to run with every BS anti-choice lie imaginable in a bid to kill health care reform. On an earlier podcast and in my RH Reality Check column, I talked about how abortion is being used as a scare tactic, even though there is not and will not be any such thing as taxpayer funded elective abortions. And now the anti-choice nuts are moving onto their other, less sexy attempt to control your most personal decisions and raising a stink about the end-of-life provisions. They're upset that the health care bill is likely to include access to free voluntary counseling about your options, and they don't want you to have options. So of course, they're going to lie and claim that the government is grinding up the elderly for dog food.
- end of life 1 *
Of course this rumor is completely ridiculous. I wouldn't be surprised if this was something floated secretly by the insurance companies that are desperate to say or do anything so they can continue taking your money and refusing your coverage in peace. What they're exploiting is a provision in one version of the bill that would make senior citizens who want to write a living will to have the right to free counseling and services to do so, if they request it. Look, the government isn't interested in forcing you to use expensive services you don't want. This is an entitlement, a response to a stated need.
But anti-choicers are great at scaring people by waving their hands and obscuring issues of choice. Which is what they fully intend to do with this. Byron York just up and promoted this lie on Fox News.
- end of life 2 *
Here's the reality: Anti-choicers actually want to get between you and your doctor on this issue, because they want there to be a blanket no to living wills, no to the right to pull the plug and die in peace, no right to say no to heroic measures and instead go to hospice to die in peace. They don't want you to have the choice about how you die anymore than they want you to choose how to conduct your private sex life. And they resent the government extending people the right to choose how they want to die. And so they're lying about what's in the bill, and getting a big assist from insurance company defenders who will use any tactic imaginable to kill health care reform.
But don't believe a word of any conservative who is suddenly acting concerned about you and your continued breathing and moving. They're falling all over themselves to defend the status quo of health care, where people die every day because they don't have insurance, or they do have insurance that won't pay for their health care, because they found some small print somewhere to weasel out of saving your life. They don't want you to live. They just don't want you to be able to choose how to die once living's not really an option. That's what the Terri Schiavo thing was about, and that's what this is about. Sometimes anti-choicers like to imply they've figured out the secret to keep you from ever dying, but I'm here to tell you that they haven't. Everyone goes at some point, but this is a matter of whether or not you get to decide how you go.
Unfortunately, Chris Matthews is giving air time to the lie.
- end of life 3 *
You aren't going to get visits. Repeat: you will not get visits. This is about allowing people who want to write living wills, who ASK if they can get help. The reason that they're putting it in now isn't because they think a lot of younger people want the service. It's because a lot of elderly people on limited budgets want the service but can't afford it. Under this, the government will help them. If they want it. If they ask. No knocks on the door. Period.
Not that this will stop the lies, of course. Conservatives are remarkably good at pushing people's buttons about sex and death and shutting down rational thought altogether.
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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, I don't want the government running the courts or building the roads either edition. Here's Arthur Laffer, who we're supposed to believe is a serious economist with lots of brains and stuff, on universal health care.
- medicare *
Okay, obviously, Medicare and Medicaid are already run by the government. But I can't stand these swipes at the Post Office any longer. I love the Post Office. You give them a letter and they mail it and it gets where it's going for cheap. I can neither find nor afford Fed Ex, and I've easily had 100 times more headaches with Fed Ex and UPS for getting packages, since they want you to drive 20 miles out of your way to pick them up if you weren't home at 2 in the afternoon when they tried to drop it off.
