When the Right Word Just Isn't Enough

A few days ago, I sent out an email suggesting everybody take a deep, calming breath, and get ready for the SC Senate round of "Let's Pass this Awful Anti-Abortion Bill."  The one that I was referring to was Wendy Nanney's pet, the 20-week abortion ban, that didn't make it through last season.  Wendy can't sleep till this bill gets passed, in spite of her contention that people have been just plain mean to her because of it.  Poor Wendy.  You might almost think that she is the one whose welfare is being threatened by the provisions of the bill.

Anyway, no time to take a breath, because that bastion of freedom for old white men, Kevin Bryant, has just sponsored S 531, a bill to ban "dismemberment abortions."  Or as those gentle folk at "Life News" would say, "Bill to Ban Dismemberment Abortions Tearing Babies Limb from Limb."

They may be barely literate, but they make up for it with hysteria.

As you may recall, fanning the flames of hysteria with misinformation and outright lies was a rousing success in the misnamed "partial birth abortion" battle.  This was thrilling for those whose grasp of science is conveniently misplaced but whose imaginations run to the wildly gruesome.  Personhood may not be as successful because it is too extreme, or it may just be that it doesn't raise the hackles as do phrases like "fetal pain" and the more objective sounding yet nonsensical "pain capable."  Giant paintings on the sides of buses, trucks and billboards may not actually represent scientific accuracy, but they certainly can produce Heironymous Bosch chills up one's spine.

In fact, the obsession with the gruesome, in spite of the professed concern for life, pretty much describes the anti-abortion battle.  Much like those so opposed to gays co-existing in their world that baking a wedding cake sends them into frenzies because of the portent of gay sex, the anti-abortion fanatic can't seem to stop seeing dead things.  Tiny dead things.

In this country, theoretically at least, self-appointed messengers of God are still unable to force people to their will based on warped ideas about religion.  So they are forced to resort to gumming up the works with the pretense of science, gussied up with horrid images.

And it works.

I believe it's time we fight hyperbole with hyperbole.  We need our legislators to get out there and write some bills that really, really stand out.

For example, for some inexplicable reason, domestic violence just doesn't have an emotional impact in our red state.  So, to take a cue from those far more adept at inflaming the masses, how about we call it the "Punching and Gunning Down Women Prevention Bill?"

Or the "Don't Starve Our Toddlers Act" in support of expanding food stamps (can also be used for minimum wage).

If that is too coarse for legislators on our side of the aisle, how about a "Prevention of Medical Surveillance" bill to counter the anti-abortion bills?  After all, we here in SC fear being spied upon almost as much as having our guns taken away.  "Death panels" was so effective in revving up fear of Obamacare that perhaps it could be taken out of mothballs and brought back for a bill to actually regulate insurance companies when the Supremes kill the ACA.  Or it can be used here at home against opponents of Medicaid expansion.

I do think we are too timid, and that is why we are constantly in the position of defending ourselves from the onslaught of rabid verbiage that takes center stage in a battle for our civil liberties and safety.  Until we are able to flood Congress and the State Legislature with equally dramatic bills full of fighting words, we will be at a disadvantage.  Thus far, the twenty-first century has not been the time for a reasoned approach.  To anything. 

The Last Gasp of the Columbian Mammoth

I don't want to suggest that making the Columbian Mammoth the state fossil wasn't a hard fought victory; after all, it came to having to decide once and for all whether the earth is 6,000 years old.  But we managed a compromise between religion and science and we can rest easy about our State Fossil.  Which thankfully continues to make science in this great state a matter of opinion.

But still on the horizon are some horrendous and stinky bills, that are being pushed through in the last weeks of the session.  This week coming up are anti-abortion bills that masquerade as anything from protecting women from assault to protecting 20-week-old fetuses from feeling pain that they are physiologically incapable of feeling.  And just added to the roster is a bill that would add regulations to birth centers that would restrict the practice of midwives.  And another bill proposes to protect the rights of public schools to display religious symbols that represent holidays, once again keeping Christmas safe.

So here is a brief rundown:

In the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, Thursday 4/10, 9:30, 407 Gressette:

S 83 is the personhood bill, stating that life begins at fertilization. 

S 457 is pretty much the same nonsense, as far as I can tell. 

S 527 pretends that it wants to protect pregnant women from violence by allowing them use deadly force against an assailant.  THE TRICK IS THAT THE FETUS IS DEFINED AS AN UNBORN CHILD, WHICH SETS THE PRECEDENT FOR PERSONHOOD IF PASSED.  Nice try, sleazoids.

 Subcommittee members are:   Campsen (ch), Hutto, Gregory, Allen, Hembree.

* * * * *

Also in the Senate, the Medical Affairs Subcommittee Wednesday, 4/9, at 9 a.m., will hear debate on H 4223.  This is the 20-week abortion ban, falsely called the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act."  THIS BILL HAS PASSED THE HOUSE.  It is crucial that we be heard in the Senate on this bill.  Members of the subcommittee are:  Ray Cleary (ch), Hutto, Bright, Tom Davis, Kevin Johnson.

* * * * *

H 4458 will be heard by the House Committee on Education and Public Works.  This bill, which goes by the inoffensive title of "Winter Holidays" opens the door to religious symbolism in public schools, pretending that all religions would get equal representation, and that this is for the purpose of education rather than indoctrination.  This meeting will be held on Wednesday, 4/9.

* * * * *

H 5002 is a late-to-the-party attempt to restrict midwives through "accreditation" and "addressing professional requirements for staff members (at birth centers) who provide patient care."  You can't convince me that this doesn't also have an anti-abortion/contraception hidden agenda, although I can't prove it.

* * * * *

At the risk of sounding like Pollyanna, I am going to end with some potentially good news.

H 3435, the Comprehensive Health Education Act, has had its first reading on the House floor and could be called up for a vote as early as Tuesday.  This bill proposes upgrading school standards for health education to "medically accurate."  This is a good thing, and it seems to have a bit of momentum.  Which means you should call your legislators in the House and give them that little extra encouragement to vote yes, and bring our health education system out of the Stone Age, which is even older than the age of our State Fossil.

Finally, I would like to apologize for any errors.  I find this whole process terrible confusing, and wonder if that is part of the grand plan.

When Born Children Are Dying

The pompous idiots at our SC State Legislature have been going at it with gusto again this year.  Liston Barfield of Horry County has introduced H 3324, which would create a commission to study the creation of an "unborn children's monument."  We might consider this an adjunct to the ever popular H3323, Barfield's House version (same as the Senate version) of the Personhood Amendment.

Before we get all paranoid about the expansion of the right-wing-nut arm of the Christian movement, let me explain that these dudes have been offering these amendments every year for some time now.  In fact, in 2009, our own Wendell Gilliard cosponsored the monument bill.  Let's all hope that he has matured and understands the difference between right-wing-nut "freedom" and democratic "freedom."

The personhood bill would guarantee the right to life for all born and "preborn" human beings.  Unlike a "preowned" used car, a "preborn" human being is a fetus without any miles on it.  Basically, it's a ridiculous made up word to try to justify the belief that life is the same before birth as after birth.  Be aware that the only thing this bill promises is the right to life.  Not health care, not a roof over a woman's head while the fetus is growing, not a nutritious diet.  Just "life."

The Post and Courier headline yesterday tells us that in Greater Charleston black infants died at a much higher rate than white infants in 2011, which researchers attribute to poverty and other sociological factors.  The article talks about the number of children that die before their first birthday.  For the state, there are approximately 8 deaths per 1,000 infants under one year of age.

Isn't it appalling that Barfield and the other idiots who brag on their Christianity are wasting so much of their positions of responsibility working to shame women who choose not to bear a child, rather than improve and maybe increase the chances of life among those babies who have been born?

Pomp and Chauvinism

Okay, I admit that I got teary watching the Inauguration.  And the Battle Hymn is one hell of a song and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir gave me the chills.

Now allow me to revert back to my true nature.

I was more aware than ever today of how our country drips in the words of Christianity.  Which leaves me, a non-Christian, unimpressed with the rhetoric that pretends to include the rest of us.

I do not take the Pledge of Allegiance.  Have not done so for I don't know how many decades.  I do not take pledges.

I am proud of the fact that I live in a country where, despite what some think, we are not forced to pledge allegiance to the flag.

Our greatest goods and our greatest evils come from the kind of chauvinism that occurs when people pledge to God and country.  We need to unite to perform the greatest good,  but these days, some of the groups that are most united do so in the name of power and greed for the purpose of coercion.

The National Rifle Association will have us all armed presumably to protect ourselves and our property, but in reality to increase profits and corporate power.

Anti-abortion groups have taken the great feminist Susan B. Anthony and sullied her name by forcing their cause on her. Where irony knows no bounds, the narcissistic Paul Ryan who has again co-sponsored the ever-so-ironic "sanctity of human life act" will be keynote speaker for the anti-abortion group which I just learned is called the "Susan B. Anthony List."

In the name of corporate freedom, governors and legislators from states like ours are joining forces with groups like ALEC to make certain that our workers will always work cheap, our taxes will be too low to provide good education and health care to its citizens, and the wealthy will continue to be in charge.

And every one of the people who are responsible for the damage done by their work takes the Pledge of Allegiance, proudly, publicly, and as often as the cameras will allow.

It's good that today we are inaugurating a president who fights for the people of this country.  I am cynical (of course) about just how strong his allegiances are to the 98 percent vs. Wall Street and PhRMA, ExxonMobil, and the others of great wealth and privilege.  I wonder if he has further entrenched the spy and war machines into our lives in the name of security rather than take the riskier path of fighting for our individual freedoms while working to keep us safe.

And yet he has fought for equal rights and equal opportunity in a way we had not seen for eight years.  So for that, when he was sworn in today, I was proud and yes, even shed a tear at the pomp and pageantry, though not the chauvinism.

Distractions

Our legislature here in South Carolina can't get those personhood bills out fast enough.  They don't much give a damn what happens when a baby gets born, but they stay up nights wondering how they can make a woman keep that fetus under their control for as long as it takes.  And then once that woman has an actual baby, they won't have to worry about keeping her under their control.  All they have to do is make sure she is totally, 100% on her own.

I wish these "personhood" schemes were actually funny.  But they come from unbalanced minds that believe that the word "freedom" means they get to control others, and the word "religion" means theirs.  As with the gun "debate," there really is no debate.  The people who believe in life at conception to the point where they obsess over making laws about it are not willing to share ideas.  Nor are they ever going to share a penny to be sure that a pregnant woman has health care and a healthy diet.

Take, for example, Liston Barfield, who proudly sponsored H 3323, companion to the Senate bill S 83.  To look at his background, you would not come away thinking the man had a whole lot of understanding of biology, but he does know his own religion and he does know how to network.  In fact, he happens to be Secretary on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

If you are wondering where you have heard of ALEC, this is the powerful corporate lobbying group that has its dirty fingerprints not only all over state and federal bills, but all over our politicians.  ALEC works for folks like the Koch brothers, ExxonMobile, and PhRMA, to make sure  that bills get written just the way they like them.

If this sounds like a strange alliance for someone who is concerned with "personhood," it all comes under the heading of power and hypocrisy.

I'd like to be able to at least leave you with a chuckle.  The "word" "preborn" should crack me up the way I used to enjoy the invented word "preowned" when car dealers started substituting it for "used."  Except that "preowned" became an actual part of the vocabulary, and damned if I know what people think it means.  I fear that "preborn" is just about to become another one of those invented words that scare and confuse people.

As distasteful as this whole thing is, though, I believe we need to know about all the corrupt legislators that keep our minds off our pocketbooks by keeping them focused on a woman's vagina.  So maybe I started with "personhood" and ended up with ALEC.  The fact that the whole way our government works is so convoluted is why it doesn't work for us at all.