In a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right, the Department of Health and Human Services Monday released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman’s access to contraception. In order to do this, the Department is attempting to redefine many forms of contraception, the birth control 40% of Americans use, as abortion. Doing so protects extremists under the Weldon and Church amendments. Those laws prohibit federal grant recipients from requiring employees to help provide or refer for abortion services.
Thousands of members of the international media will have to walk past it when they land at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul at the end of the summer.
Many will feel obligated to stop and file a story. For the party that bills itself as stronger on family values than the Democrats, it likely will prove an unwelcome distraction.
Craig responded that he just had a “wide stance,” was “not gay” and only pleaded guilty to avoid a spectacle that would spread from Minneapolis to Idaho. Craig tried to withdraw his guilty plea, but an appeals court turned him down. The Senate’s ethics panel reprimanded Craig for his conduct and said it did not believe his denials.
It will be great to see a nice MSM roundup of the tinderbox of GOP sexual hypocrite scandals that blew up in the party’s face, particularly since Mr. Toe-Tapper and Mr. Pampers are co-sponsors of Craig/Vitter Marriage Protection Amendment.
One of the most interesting parts of this review by Louis Bayard of Dagmar Herzog’s book Sex in Crisis is an examination of how fundamentalists have resorted to using promises of the best sex you could ever imagine if you just wait until you’re married to do it. Bayard suggests liberals should go on the offensive on this tactic, which made me happy, because it just so happens that this liberal is. On this week’s podcast, I talk about the evangelical promise of ecstatic sex and suggest, yep, that it’s actually about being dutiful and substituting quantity for quality. I didn’t want to push it on the podcast (limited time to make a point), but there is a sense in all the lavish erotic writings of evangelicals that are meant to lure you into the fold that the reality is more that women should learn to view themselves as masturbatory devices for men to keep them from self-abuse. Bayard talks about that briefly.
A Christian wife, if she wants to keep her husband’s mind off porn and his hand off his own penis (onanism is still a big no-no), will have to be a 24/7 tootsie. She is advised to wear sexy lingerie and to keep her legs shaved and her nether region douched at all times. (“Wives,” as Jack Jones once crooned, “should always be lovers, too.”) And she has to give it up whenever her man comes calling. The example of a woman named “Ellen” is approvingly cited. “[My husband’s] purity is extremely important to me, so I try to meet his needs so that he goes out each day with his cup full. During the earlier years, with much energy going into childcare and with my monthly cycle, it was a lot more difficult for me to do that. There weren’t too many ‘ideal times’ when everything was just right. But that’s life, and I did it anyway.”
The book I talk about on the podcast demonstrates this attitude. It’s hard to explain how frightening the dutiful leg-spreading wife sounds; seriously, just listen to it. But I give you a clip from a video I use in the podcast, which I warn you is scary, because it’s Ted Haggard getting young men to talk about how much fucking they’re doing.
The summer heats up as pols and pastors get caught with their figurative pants down.
Milwaukee: Deacon exposes himself to undercover cop while cruising for homosex
Here we go again—another moral leader of his religious community lands in the pokey for a lewd act. Jerome Pitchford, 48, a youth counselor and deacon of Milwaukee’s Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ was caught in a police sting in a park known for cruising. (WISN):
Police said Pitchford apparently does not practice what he teaches in Sunday School. Police say after church at the Holy Redeemer Church of God in Christ on Sunday afternoon, he was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious behavior at Milwaukee’s Estabrook Park.
The criminal complaint says he was looking for sex with another man. He exposed himself, to what turned out to be an undercover police officer. “They initiate either by you know grabbing the officer, which is fourth-degree sexual assault or exposing themselves, which is lewd and lascivious behavior,” said Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Deputy John Nelson.
One neighbor had this reaction, laying the groundwork for a “the devil got into me” defense: “I can’t believe it, but I hope that he will get … a little therapy and get himself straightened out.” The video report is here.
Drudge turns on the tired old police siren for breaking news—here it’s time to flip on the rainbow siren!
Now that the Florida governor’s found that “special someone,” you know, the adulteress he’s been allegedly boinking for sometime now, he’s making his “union” legal—something gay and lesbian couples in the Sunshine State cannot do. Obviously, Charlie Crist wants that McCain VP slot so badly he can taste it…
Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome.
“She’s special in every way. She’s brilliant, beautiful and sweet. I’m very, very lucky,” Crist told the St. Petersburg Times in an exclusive interview.
Crist said he picked out the sapphire and diamond ring on Wednesday at the Gold and Diamond Center in St. Petersburg’s Northeast Shopping Center.
...And his engagement is likely to reverberate well beyond Florida because the popular governor is widely viewed as a contender to be likely Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s running mate. Not since Franklin Pierce picked William King to be his running mate in 1852 has America had a bachelor vice president.
Best wishes to the happy couple…I wonder if the McCain campaign will have a congratulatory press release out soon.
Click on the screenshot for the Sun-Sentinel video report. The anchor is so giddy. Oh, and the readership of the paper doesn’t buy this one either:
Why do we need GOP elected fundnuts when we have the likes of Dave Obey (D-WI), who is promoting bogus, dangerous abstinence-only ed programs in schools by upping funding to the garbage?! What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi—why is she enabling Obey, who is House Appropriations Committee. Firedoglake‘s Blue Texan:
Progressives and health care advocates had hoped that when the Democrats took control of the House, one of the first things to get scrapped would be the disastrous abstinence-only education [sic] programs, which blossomed under the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress. Their hopes were misplaced. Obey actually increased the funding to the programs, and Nancy Pelosi did nothing to stop him.
The bible-beating moralists of Bushworld have had their heads in the sand, choosing to believe that virginity pledges, Jesus-head chastity rings and scare seminars on the evils of sex will stop teens from knocking boots. Now we have Obey and Pelosi ready to fund it yet again. Abstinence-only education deprives young people of facts they need to know about contraception and sexual health. The ACLU is all over this BS.
“There is no question that all programs offering young people education or guidance about human sexuality should urge them to delay sexual activity. However, federally-funded programs focusing exclusively on abstinence are at odds with good public health policy and raise serious civil liberties concerns. Congress should not support programs that censor medically accurate information, reinforce gender stereotypes, provide inaccurate or misleading information, promote religion, serve a narrow ideological agenda, and jeopardize the well-being of young people. But despite the overwhelming evidence that abstinence-only programs don’t work, Congress remains in the grip of proponents of this failed policy and seems unable or unwilling to disengage itself.
“Young people deserve the truth. At some point, everyone is faced with important decisions about their sexuality. We do young people no favors by censoring information and failing to give them all the tools they need to make well-informed decisions. More than anything, we want them to have all the facts, and we want them to be safe.”
Seriously—why do we bother putting Dems in when they cannot even shut down one of the most outlandish domestic giveaways by the Bush Admin to the religious right? This was a no-brainer to deep six. Perhaps someone should send Obey and Pelosi a copy of the documentary The Education of Shelby Knox. It reveals the ignorance perpetuated by these programs in the Texas schools (it’s set in Lubbock), and how that “education” has resulted in higher STD rates and teen pregnancies. Perhaps Obey is in favor of those infamous virginity rings as well.
Ever since Florida Governor Charlie Crist helped ace Florida for John McCain, the rumors have been swirling that the tanned, dapper very single Crist is on the short list for VP. Unfortunately for Crist, there were already more rampant rumors already out there about his allegedly selectively padlocked closet door.
The NYT magazine this week featured a Q&A with Crist by Deborah Solomon, and yes, Charlie’s dating life came up.
You were married nearly 30 years ago, but the marriage lasted less than a year. Do you prefer living alone? I got married and divorced because it didn’t work out. I haven’t found the right one since. It’s really that simple.
You can’t find one woman in all of Florida? Maybe I have. Stay tuned.
Or would the right one have a schlong? Please. What kind of Q&A is this? You mean the NYT can’t just ask The Question? His orientation is relevant given his record, pro and con:
* Crist signed an inclusive anti-bullying law, but…
* Crist opposed a bill that would have overturned the ban on the ability of gays to adopt in the state…but…
* Crist said he was ‘not moved’ to support the marriage amendment that will be on the ballot this fall.
Unlike the NY Times, the folks at the Green Iguana bar in Tampa and the Broward-Palm Beach New Times seem to pretty sure about the governor’s same-sex attractions based on his social activities back in the 90s. Hey, Crist could be bi for all we know.
Anyway, the homo buzz had gotten to such a fever pitch that a couple of weeks ago news broke that GOP sleazebag consultant Roger Stone was shopping around a tape of Crist “fooling around in a hotel elevator with his [still married] girlfriend” to prove Charlie’s a raging heterosexual. Surely Ms. Solomon could have asked the governor whether canoodling with an adulteress is the kind of activity supported by the party of family values.
A couple of times a year you see a rash of news articles about some institute or scientists trying to prove there’s a way to tell whether someone is gay by one trait or another. In the LA Times we have a nice listing of some of the proto-scientific gaydar crap out there—it’s pretty amusing.
Wow, people really suck. Look, I can understand why people can rationalize their antsiness about their teenage children’s sexuality, even as they know full well that they were having those feelings and screwing around at that age and managed to survive intact. You’re never going to be young again, so you’re not putting your own interests in jeopardy by resenting and trying to control the sexuality of teenagers. But resenting and trying to control the sexuality of the elderly seems self-defeating to me, because, Disco Ball willing, you’re going to be an old person one day with a lot of time on your hands, and having Teh Sex might be a fun way to pass that time. I know I hope to be randy into my twilight years.
But apparently, my entirely rational position on this is lost on a whole lot of people, who think it’s perfectly acceptable to interfere with the sex lives of elderly people living in nursing homes. The story in this case is about “Bob,” 95, and “Dorothy,” 82, both widowed and living in this nursing home. Both have dementia. They started a love affair, and at first, everyone thought it was cute how they were dressing up to see each other, and getting excited and lively in each others’ presence. All cute, right, until we remind ourselves that outside of fairy tales and what the counselors chaperoning the Christian summer camp dances would like to believe, romance is that heady combination of Teh Sex and Teh Love. And the former makes people all sorts of upset and controlling.
Naturally, the dating couple did what dating couples do, and got it on. It seems the nursing home, realizing that it was making both patients healthier and happier, tolerated it as long as it was during the daytime, and not at night when the night nurse needed everyone in their own beds. In fact, they did more than tolerate it; their reaction was a lot like mine—-it gave them hope about their own demented old age.
Yessssss…it’s nice to see the case of Glenn Murphy, Jr. resolved during the campaign season. It’s a reminder that the GOP ranks are rife with Republican Sexual Hypocrites, perpetrating their sexual and criminal deviant behavior while presenting a pious, judgmental image to the public. (Courier-Journal):
The former chairman of the Clark County Republican Party pleaded guilty today to criminal deviate conduct as part of an agreement that could result in two years behind bars.
Glenn Murphy Jr. was arrested after authorities said he performed oral sex on a sleeping man following a July 28 party at a home in Jeffersonville.
...Murphy, who was also chairman of the Young Republican National Federation, resigned from both posts when the allegations were made public in August.
At the time of the criminal sexual activity, Murphy was at a party and spent the night on the top bunk in one of the bedrooms. At some point the predatory former Republican official decided to take advantage of the 22-year-old man in the lower bunk and
The man said he awoke at 6:40 the next morning and found Murphy performing oral sex on him, according to the document.
The man told Burton that he pushed Murphy away and left. Two days later, the affidavit said, the man met with Murphy and secretly taped a conversation during which Murphy apologized and begged him not to report the incident to police.
I don’t know what Murphy thought was going to happen; after all, it wasn’t the first time Murphy’s mouth ended up on someone’s privates while they were asleep. He had a prior arrest for sexual battery. Here’s the 1998 Clark County police report for your perusal (click to enlarge):
The beauty of blogging is when you get a chance to make those connections that you’d otherwise forget right after they occur to you. Just such a connection happened for me this week. On this week’s podcast (listen today! subscribe!), I interviewed Sharon Camp, the CEO of the Guttmacher Institute, about recent research showing that a huge percentage (half) of women who are trying to avoid pregnancy in any given year because of inconsistent contraception use. A lot of the findings were pretty predictable stuff, like how women forget to take pills when they have life changes, or how problems with the method discourages use, such as when you hate condoms and find ways to justify skipping them. But what I found intriguing was that women’s ambivalence was cited as a major reason that women might have inconsistent contraception use.
Ambivalence: Nearly one in four women who are not trying to become pregnant say that they would be very pleased if they found out they were pregnant. Women who are the least motivated to avoid pregnancy are also the least likely to be using oral contraceptives or to be using the method consistently.
Listen to the interview; I press Sharon on this because I’m honestly confused. It’s not that some women are ambivalent and act out their ambivalence by screwing around with contraception, but that 25% of women are in this area. That’s a huge number, in my opinion, considering that ambivalence is such a strange thing to feel. I just thought people were more self-aware, and that the people who can’t make up their minds and screw around hoping that nature decides for them would be a small percentage. But nope, it’s a ton of people, women at least.
Luckily, there is an interview at Broadsheet now with a woman who, in my opinion, fits directly into this category of ambivalent contraception avoiders, and the interview is pretty enlightening as to her thought processes. As you can guess, my conclusion was that feminism has a lot of work to do in this area. It’s a matter of just common sense, but also a health issue, because planning to get pregnant and adjusting your habits with that plan in mind is healthier for the baby than just half-assing it and hoping that nature decides for you.
OMFG. Echidne posted a link to blinkytreefrog, who found a book from about 1951 called “On Becoming A Woman”. Which is very fortuitous, as the Human Life Alliance has put a PDF of their abstinence-only rags “Just For Girls” and “Just For Boys”, which are similar to this 1951 book to the degree that they could be plagiarists. Except I think that woman-hating, sex-phobic nuts basically eat and shit this stuff, so it’s less plagiarism and more the fiber of their beings. Shall we do a dance of comparison?
There’s a new magazine out that’s pretending to be a general interest teenage magazine, but is actually an abstinence-only propaganda rag. Guess what it’s called?
That’s right. Abstinence: It’s just for girls. I know the law makes them say otherwise when they’re peddling this shit in the classroom, but it’s good to know they don’t even try to hide their beliefs when it comes to non-government funded materials.
I love that one headline is “Top 8 Come Backs 4 Come Ons”. I’m pretty sure, “Daddy and Jesus have first dibs on my hymen,” is the only one you’ll ever need.
Update:Eh, they have one for guys. Interestingly, the cover of the guys’ magazine has them jumping around and doing stuff, whereas the girl in the cover of the girls’ one is just throwing you a “come hither” look. You know, like committed virgins will do.
When I clicked over to Jesus’ General the other morning, I should not have been eating breakfast. Guest poster “John McCain” shared his trip to show how he knows how to “connect” with young voters in the virtual world known as Second Life. See his pasty virtual tattooed posterior below the fold.
Thousands of members of the international media will have to walk past it when they land at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul at the end of the summer.
Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome.
Ever since Florida Governor Charlie Crist helped ace Florida for John McCain, the rumors have been swirling that the tanned, dapper very single Crist is on the short list for VP. Unfortunately for Crist, there were already 
The beauty of blogging is when you get a chance to make those connections that you’d otherwise forget right after they occur to you. Just such a connection happened for me this week. 
