Hey everyone. Hope you are all warm and dry. We experienced our second straight school-closing blizzard today. This one turned out to be rather mild, and OU is back to work in the morning. I am going to make some posole tonight and we will enjoy the warm soup during a cold night and get ready to go back to work tomorrow. Contrast that with 4 straight school closings last week, and this is just a mild day.
So, while I have been working on lectures (trying to make Jamestown interesting) and doing some grading, I have also been watching the blogs. I see that Republicans are doing everything they can to undermine abortion access. What is weird to me about that, is that just about every pro-lifer I have ever met has admitted that there are situations where they would not fight it. They might not personally choose to abort, but they can see why, in those situations, someone would. Yet the GOP works incredibly hard to make sure that even in those situations, people without means would not have access. As we talked about the other day, that included trying to redefine rape. Or now, they are talking about removing the tax break for healthcare for any plan that funds abortion. That means that not only federal plans, but any private plan would have to drop abortion coverage or see their federal tax break cut.
Again and again, I am reminded that only the poor will really hurt from this. John Wayne, of conservative fame, once took his wife to Mexico for an abortion. The conservative attack on the poor continues, and in this case, will succeed because so many people are both squeamish about abortion, and simply don't care about things that don't effect them personally.
And then there is the American Family Association. To be fair, they are usually on the wing-nut side of things, but this one latest is a real doozy. Turns out that idiot and racist Bryan Fischer believes that Native Americans not qualified for sovereignty because they rejected Christianity.
Reading his rant, I am reminded of the lecture I just gave on the Puritan attack on the Pequots where they quoted from the OT story of the Amelekites to justify their slaughter. Only among the far religious right do you hear those stories retold--but retold as a good thing. It is truly unbelievable, and is the worst example of American Exceptionalism you can find. This simplistic, racist and simply stupid take on history is appalling, especially from people who claim to be Christian.
10 comments:
Isn't posole great? I can't make it for myself but some friends of ours who are originally from Mexico make the most divine posole. Perfect for cold weather too.
After hearing about the latest anti-abortion push on the radio yesterday I've decided it all boils down to rich white men telling poor nonwhite women what to do with their bodies. (And it's a political distraction.)
Wow - how opportune. I lectured on the Doctrine of Discovery today to my American West to 1849 class. You know the time period you cover in one lecture in your West classes. Anyway, it is stunning how these ancient (500 years at least) ideas and phrases are still being used in contemporary society. You can literally put Fischer's comments side by side with Europeans from the late medieval period and they will be nearly identical. Thanks for sharing Streak. I will send the link to my class.
-- CIL
Natalie, nice to hear from you. I only hope that my posole is good. It is one of my favorite dishes, and usually good, but I never know how it matches up.
And I completely agree with your take on the GOP and abortion. And it sells with the base, who, as I note, don't care because it doesn't effect them.
CIL, I love the line, "you know the time period you cover in one lecture." Heh. As if. That is called the introduction, but to be fair, my West class experience has been subordinated to survey after survey. You know, that class that you haven't taught in years. :)
But yeah, I am glad I can help. The language of these guys (and I can maybe find you some other stuff) is amazingly antiquated, and they are amazingly unaware.
The depths of the Christianist's pursuit of their own dark, superstitious occult practices know no bounds. They ignore the light, and work tirelessly to mold God in their own image.
The most insane, paranoid, lunatic rantings on the interwebs come from those who consider themselves the most pious.
Nathan Bedford Forrest LICENSE PLATES???
Yeah. There is something very odd about the behavior from those who consider themselves the most pious--good line.
Hey, Smitty, did you pull that comment with the Klan founder license plate? It came through my email, and I have already sent it on.
No, I didn't pull it. I was worried I did something untoward and you pulled it. I was all set to be apologetic, but I thought it was relevant to your overall blog idiom. I love at the end how one of the racist's defenders said "hey, this is all about Christian redemption, and if we believe in that at all, then we see Forrest made amends" or something along those lines, which made me do some serious LOLZ.
Figured it out. Blogger thought it was a spam comment and you were trying to sell Klan license plates. :)
you were trying to sell Klan license plates
Damn. Found me out. Guy's gotta make ends meet, you know?
Here's another fun takedown of Forrest, using actual...ummm...oh, what's the word for it...history.
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