Friday, March 2, 2012

What the World Needs is a Pill to Control Stupidity

If there exists, as my parents said, a special angel for drunks and dingbats, that angel is unbelievably busy this week. I realize that everyone has opened mouth, inserted foot. We’ve all said and done stupid things that we would take back in an instant if we could, making amends to those wounded by our misguided ignorance. I admit that I’ve done it, too. There have been times in my village when I have realized that yes, I’m the idiot. But the realization and regret that come with this usually carry with them a valuable lesson, and a desire to be less fatuous the next time.

The pity is that many among us don’t possess a sense of concern about how their cruelty and derisive value judgments not only hurt others but serve to damage the speakers themselves. And in the case of Rush Limbaugh, I would scarcely have thought it possible to see him in a worse light, but it has happened. To say that I am shocked, dismayed, and disgusted, well, these words hardly do justice to how I feel about this cretinous, pompous ass.

Recently, a young law student testified before the House Democratic Steering and Policy committee. She is a scholarship student at Georgetown University Law School, and her testimony described how the high cost of contraceptive care, because of lack of coverage through insurance, impacts many women. In her statement, she spoke not only of contraceptives as birth control, but as needed treatment for women with serious gynecological health issues. These issues include the treatment of polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, and amenorrhea.

After providing her testimony to the all male panel, a literal firestorm was ignited when her remarks earned her the ire and disdain of Rush Limbaugh. Rush decided to weigh in on his radio show by stating, “What does it say about the college co-ed…who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex — what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute.”

WHAT?!

Then Rush the swine followed up with this pearl of wisdom. “If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.”

First, no, I don’t want to watch. I find it worrisome and perverse that Rush, the misogynistic miscreant, would want to watch. Second, this clueless, vitriol-spewing, moral mutant has no business attacking this young woman, or any woman. He has a record of several failed marriages behind him, and I am guessing that his exes not only used birth control during their relationships with him, but considered douching with Drano once they came to their senses and the divorces were final. This is the same wanna-be pundit condemned drugs and anyone using drugs, only to admit that he was hooked on pain killers and later, was arrested for doctor shopping. Talk about a glass house for the stoned.

This Georgetown student doesn’t owe anyone an explanation of her personal life or her actions behind closed doors. The fact is that over two-thirds of the insurance carriers in the United States cover abortions, some of those include late-term abortions at 20 weeks or later. Why should prevention be looked upon as such an abomination? When my husband and I conceived our second child, we were delighted to be adding a loved and wanted baby to our family. At 4 months, we lost our baby. Because of the danger to me, my doctor explained to my husband that there was no chance that our baby would survive, but without emergency surgery, I would likely die. After my surgery, my husband and I agreed with our doctor that my body needed a break, and that we should take preventive measures to ensure that I was healthy enough to attempt another pregnancy. I guess in the eyes of Rush, that makes me a slut and a whore, since my health insurance covered my surgery and contraceptive care. What a bunch of rubbish.

I am sorry that this young woman, a student and private citizen, has been thrown into a political maelstrom, and has been simultaneously insulted and lionized. I hope she knows that there are people who embrace her and support her. As for Rush, he is the personification for the need to keep contraception legal. And as far as my personal experiences and support for this issue make me a slut? Well, Rush, there are millions of men in this world. You’ll be the LAST to know!

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