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Links in this episode:
Rachel Maddow on the teabaggers
Sean Hannity lies about John Holdren
On this episode of Reality Cast, I'll be interviewing Tiffany Campbell about NOW's clinic protection counter protests at Dr. Carhart's office. Also, people are calling out the anti-health care crazies, and more reasons health care will improve your sex life.
So, here's the good news that we've been hoping to hear for awhile.
- hpv *
Sadly, most of the mainstream media coverage of the HPV vaccine that I've seen has been about raising unnecessary alarms. I can't help but think people are having paranoid reactions, because it's about female sexuality. Now that it's about young men as well as young women, maybe people will calm down.
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The public debate over health care reform gets crazier by the minute. On one hand, this could be a good thing, because the more that the opposition reveals themselves to be unmoored from reality, the less esteem their arguments will have. On the flip side, the crazier the right wing nuts act, maybe the more reasonable unreasonable things like the trigger option will seem. I suppose we'll just have to see how things shake out.
But before that, I have to share a clip from a song that our own Jodi Jacobson sent by a musician called Paul Hipp.
- health care 1 *
Number 37 refers to where we rank in the world in terms of health care systems. Richest nation in the world. It's shameful.
As expected, the rumors and lies continued to fly around, but I want to concentrate this segment on the pushback, which is beginning to grow. One thing that inspired a lot of mainstream media pushback were the 9/12 protests in DC, which were awash in racist signs and very little coherence in meaning or argument. Rachel Maddow had a dead-on segment.
- health care 2 *
Maddow also dedicated huge portions of her show to asking the question of whether there were any non-nutty conservatives left, and when they were going to take on the responsibility of pushing back against this nonsense. She's had on guests who have this goal in mind, but by and large it's been a failure, because they're too eager to use the "both sides" tactic, which disinclines me to think they're interested in discussion so much as doing image control for the right.
Bill Maher is just as freaked out as Rachel Maddow, though of course he tried to take the more humorous approach.
- health care 3 *
The 9/12 anti-health care rallies were expected to be an outpouring of racist resentment, but I think even the most cynical of us were shocked at how bad it was. I saw an endless stream of signs that made fun of immigrants, black people, anti-racist activists, and our President for being black. To my great delight, CNN is acknowledging the racism of the health care opposition, and they're using Tim Wise as a guest expert on this issue.
- health care 4 *
The host Don Lemon wondered if they were being wittingly or unwittingly racist, and Wise wisely said that it doesn't matter, that results matter. I see why he said that, since it's pointless to get into a debate about what's in people's hearts when you can judge them by their actions. But still, I think they're being cynically and wittingly racist.
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- insert interview *
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- no sex 1 *
Before I finish playing this clip that I found on MSNBC, I have to say that we health care proponents have not been working hard enough to find sexy angles to promote health care reform. The opposition works the sexy angle, well, sort of it. They use the angle of telling people that if they aren't getting it, no one else should be either, though I suppose the way they do this is by screaming about abortion. But most of us are more interested in bridging the have and have not sex divide by getting more, and not by making other people have less sex.
With that in mind, perhaps an important thing to highlight is how increased health care coverage will mean the potential for increased sexual activity for you personally. This is true even if you already have health care coverage that pays for your contraception, Viagra, or medications that keep you healthy enough to keep doing it. Because besides U.N.-approved masturbation, you usually need a partner to have sex, and if more people are healthy and using contraception, that just increases your pool of potential partners. That is, if you're looking. But even if you've got one at home, there is a reason lack of health care might mean less booty knocking for you.
- no sex 2 *
Yes, allergies! It makes sense that hay fever would lay ruin to many an unfortunate sufferer's sex life. There's the obvious, which is that no one wants to have sex with you if you're dripping snot and you've rubbed your face red. Well, maybe a few folks with fetishes, but I imagine the hay fever sufferers outnumber the hay fever lovers exponentially.
But I suspect there's more to the story. It's not just that you're dripping snot. Some hay fever sufferers don't drip snot, after all. Some are just so plugged up that they have to breathe through their mouths. And that, my friends, is a sure fire way to turn from a good to mediocre lover to bad in bed. There is a lot of nose-breathing in good sex, is all I'm saying.
The point is this: Clearly, we are a nation of snifflers who need to get laid more. And health care access could help with this problem. Because while a lot of allergy medications that are effective without knocking you out cost a fortune over the counter, if you have a low co-pay, you can get a prescription and knock yourself out. You could even put your allergy meds with your contraception, and call them the fun pill twins.
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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, they're not even trying to sound rational edition. The wingnuts got Van Jones, and the Obama administration is learning that throwing one to the wolves doesn't satisfy them, but just makes them hungrier for more. So here's Sean Hannity, going after John Holdren:
- holdren *
Oh yes, he accused him of pushing compulsory abortion. You can check the show notes for why this is a lie, though it seems obvious on its face. But why is Sean Hannity so angry at the science and technology advisor? Is Hannity trying to prove science isn't real? Well, They Might Be Giants has an answer to that:
- science is real *
