The political propaganda machine is (once again) hard at work. Birth control "outrage" sweeps the nation. But why? Is it women's right's, is it overstepping? Is it even worth discussing?
Love it or hate it, somebody in a big-government seat (and generally somebody with a penis) is telling you what to do with your uterus --and you are understandably incensed over it. Even so, I'd wager a dollar to doughnuts that you're not seeing the ovaries for the intrauterine device --or forest for the trees, if you need a more literal layout.
The "importance" of the issue at hand depends entirely upon whom you ask. If you ask your rank and file Democratic stalwarts, the Republican Party is adjudging warfare on women. Ask a conservative, and she will tell you that the Dems are stomping all over the 1st amendment, by telling Catholic-owned businesses that they have to offer employees birth control free of charge (despite the fact that Catholic dogma declares birth prevention a mortal sin.)
Where do I stand on the issue?
I sincerely and categorically believe everyone still talking about it is a half-wit.
And this is why...
Any and every woman employed by Catholic-owned businesses who want family planning services have never been barred from getting them. In point of fact, these gainfully employed gentlewomen can march on down to our friends at Planned Parenthood, where they will be privy to a mixed bag of oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices, prophylactics, shots, implants and all other FDA-approved methods of anti-pregnancy products for a nominal fee. At full price, anti-ovulatory drugs at Planned Parenthood run approximately $15 a pack --a rather standard co-pay for a drug purchase with no insurance-- so the price is not the issue. After all, these women are gainfully employed, remember? You'd pay $15 for aspirin.
As an added benefit, should these women choose to acquire birth control services at Planned Parenthood, they know that they are supporting a local agency committed to women’s healthcare. That's a obvious win/win.
So, why is the birth control mandate a newsworthy issue?
It isn't. It never has been. And, I will tell you why. This nonsense is the very same cookie-cutter governmental smoke and mirrors game that it has always been: Look over there, while we screw you from back here. (ACTA, anyone?) And if you are buying into the rhetoric from Dems or the GOP, you are more of a problem than you are a solution.
Whilst all of this hollow public debate carries on during prime time, the U.S. is (today) engrossed in numerous different conflicts throughout the Middle East and now Africa, Congress is salivating over the thought of invading Iran and our economy free falls into financial desolation --ask anyone who isn't Ben Bernake. And even though all of this is going on right under your nose, you are still hung up on $15 packets of anovulants, claiming that women’s rights are being slashed or bitching about the disregard of the 1st amendment. Thankfully, you don't require birth control for the pounding you are fetching from both sides of the policy-making palisade when you take up this banner of utter bullshit.
The last time I checked, I lived in the U.S.A., dear Comrade, and I (for one) am sick of hearing about government issues that are authentically dead letter; watching taciturnly as those issues are slung to front page news over and over again. It's a dead issue --or, at least, it should be.
To take this ridiculousness even further President Obama is now back peddling on his mandate, supplying “waivers” to Catholic establishments and giving them a choice of opting out of participating in the mandate, making this front of a "triumph" a tiger without any teeth. The entire scandal is little more than a President with crappy approval ratings pandering to an estrogen steeped base, adding fodder to the re-election cannon. It is matched equally by idiotic Republicans who are trying to spin this the other way. Both sides are wrong, and supporters equally. The fact that this non-issue was even allowed to become an issue baffles my mind.
Show me a man (or woman) who would like to serve the people rather than a human being who is only interested in making his or her political mark and earning a place in the history books and I will show you someone worth voting for. Unfortunately, he is most certainly not in the White House, and my ideological candidate (as far as I can tell) is not running in 2012, but I have hopes that he (or she) is out there and will make an appearance before long. From there, I only hope that the public stops being so stupid that they are able to recognize a true leader as opposed to another bullshit maestro and puppet master.
Complex problems are not complicated problems unless we make them that way. If our government is going to bamboozle you into believing that it's somehow your responsibility to financially support someone else's sex life (please ponder on that one), entertain what else they might be hoodwinking you on before you get your panties in a knot over it. Get concerned about what is going on behind the curtain and quit worrying about what politicians want to make center stage and you will find a whole lot more valid issues to be upset about. And then, just maybe, you'll do something about it.
Won't you?
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