Drexel law professor David S. Cohen was on radio with me to discuss his book Living in the Crosshairs that studies abortion providers and those who harass them. Cohen interviewed nearly 90 people in 35 states and concluded that those who attack centers like Planned Parenthood should be considered domestic terrorists. Alan and Cohen discussed why… Continue reading “Some anti-abortion types are really domestic terrorists” →
Category: Theocracy
Duggar madness
The Family Research Council is one of the more extreme right-wing orgs, and even they couldn’t tolerate this. I don’t think this guy was unusual; from what I’ve read, such behavior is very common in these sexually-repressed, fundamentalist families — and the Quiverfull people are even crazier than your typical fundies:
Josh Duggar has resigned as Executive Director of the Family Research Council, acknowledging he sexually molested underage girls including some of his sisters, calling his conduct inexcusable.
Josh just told People, “Twelve years ago, as a young teenager. I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret.” He continues, “We spoke with authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling.”
The molestations occurred in 2002 and 2003, when he was 14. He fondled the genitals and breasts of the girls, some of whom were sleeping.
Josh’s wife Anna says he confessed his “past teenage mistakes” to her 2 years before he asked her to marry him.
The incidents were not reported to police until 2006, and the statute of limitations has now long since passed. But Josh says he believes God has shown him mercy and given him redemption.
‘Abstinence-only’ high school in Texas has a chlamydia outbreak
Crane Public Schools in West Texas sent out a letter to high school and junior high parents last Friday regarding a breakout of chlamydia confirmed in the district.
The number of cases has been widely reported at 20, though the school’s superintendent and the Texas Department of Health Services told BuzzFeed News that there have only been three confirmed cases in the district.
So far only high school students have allegedly been affected; the letters were sent to junior high parents preventatively.
The letter began with “Crane Independent School District would like to make our parents aware … of a problem that has been identified in our teenagers…” but was otherwise a brief sexual education pamphlet about Chlamydia.
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease that is on the rise. Several cases have been reported. It is a reportable disease that is mandatory to report … The number of cases reported from Crane and Upton County have been significant.
With this being said, we feel we need the parents to be aware of this growing problem and pass along some information regarding the [STD].
Chlamydia – most common [STD] in the United States.
Cause – Bacteria that is transmitted during sexual intercourse.
A person can have chlamydia without even knowing it. If not treated, Chlamydia can cause painful infection that can lead to the inability for women to conceive. The risk for boys/men include painful infections.
‘Sincerely held religious beliefs’
https://youtu.be/2A-2lEZ7x5c
This is kind of awesome:
A Missouri Satanist plans to challenge her state’s 72-hour waiting period for abortions by claiming the delay violates her religious beliefs.
The woman, identified only as Mary by her local Satanic Temple, said she regards the waiting period as “a state sanctioned attempt to discourage abortion” and plans to challenge the law on religious grounds, reported the Friendly Atheist blog.
The waiting period places an “unnecessary burden” on her religious belief that her body is subject to her will alone, she said.
“The waiting period interferes with the inviolability of my body and thereby imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my sincerely held religious beliefs,” she said.
Her statements echo language in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, under which Hobby Lobby claimed protection in its successful U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate.
Under the law Mary plans to challenge, she would be required to wait three days between her initial appointment, where she must undergo counseling, and the abortion procedure.
The Satanic Temple set up a GoFundMe page to help Mary pay transportation and lodging costs to travel hundreds of miles to St. Louis, where the state’s only abortion provider is located.
This stuff is not new
“We believe that certain aspects of Revivalism can bear examination … We believe that everyone has a right to worship according to his conscience, but — Freedom of Religion is not license to abuse the faith of the people!” –Intro scroll to the 1960 film “Elmer Gantry”
“Elmer Gantry” is a classic movie for a reason. If you’ve never seen it (it’s the film adaptation of the Sinclair Lewis novel, back when they actually used to make movies with meaning), you can find the full version on YouTube.
Marco Rubio can’t even commit to a church
Yes, the senator Formerly Known As Mark is torn between two lovers. Probably because both churches account for a sizable number of Republican primary voters? Or am I too cynical?
As detailed in a report for Truth Wins Out by researcher Bruce Wilson, Rubio has been, in an act of meta-pandering, pretty much every kind of Christian there is. Follow this bouncing Jesus ball if you can: Rubio was baptized Catholic, cheated on the Catholics with the Mormons as a kid, but turned back three years later. Then he cheated on the Pope again sometime just before 9/11, for four years, with an insanely conservative Baptist church, but then he went back to Catholicism. But he never stopped two-timing the Virgin Mary with the Baptists. Make sense? Not really!
During his Protestant years, Rubio revealed in his 2012 memoir, he nonetheless “craved, literally, the Most Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion” (of the Catholic Church.) So, the rising GOP star found a practical, buffet-style solution. Rubio divulged that on Saturday nights he brings his family to worship at Christ Fellowship, and on Sunday the Rubio family attends St. Louis Catholic Church.
He craved it! LITERALLY! This is probably because Catholic Jesus does this fancy thing where He turns the wine into His own blood during Mass, whereas the Baptists just have to suck on some grape juice and pretend it even counts. So we see that Rubio is in an open relationship with the Lord. He’s married to Catholic Jesus, from whom he gets his legislative inspiration, but he gets Saturday nights with the hot, demon-wrasslin’, gay-bashin’ young earth creationist Jesus, at the Christ Fellowship in Miami, to which he has reportedly given over $50,000 over the years.
If you have a streaming device, check out Amazon Prime’s “Alpha House,” in which a thinly-veiled veiled Sen. Andy Guzman is strongly suggestive of Marco Rubio. Great show.
NC wants to prohibit med students from learning how to do abortions
Rep. Pat McElraft cares so much about the wee babies.
And also want to prevent anyone who isn’t a board-certified OB-GYN from doing abortions. Because they care so very, very much about the medical qualifications of whoever is performing the still-perfectly-legal procedure. You know, Wisconsin gets a lot of press, but North Carolina is the Koch Brothers’ favorite wingnut incubator:
RALEIGH, N.C. — Doctors working for the medical schools at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or East Carolina University would be prohibited from performing elective abortions under a bill filed Wednesday.
House Bill 465 would also require women seeking abortions to speak with a doctor or other “qualified health care provider” three days before undergoing the procedure, tripling the state’s current 24-hour waiting period.
“We do not want state funds being used for abortions,” Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, saidWednesday. “Our constituents have made that loud and clear from all over the state of North Carolina.”
McElraft is one of a quartet of Republican women who filed the measure. She is joined by Reps. Jacqueline Schaffer, R-Mecklenbrug, Rena Turner, R-Iredell, and Susan Martin, R-Wilson.
McElraft said there is data to show that the 24-hour waiting period had led to fewer abortions. Making that wait three days, she said, could lead to even fewer abortions.
“There’s no effort here to try to restrict a woman’s right to have an abortion,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is make her care competent.”
Although McElraft pitched the bill as a measure that would help protect women as well as curb the use of taxpayer money, the topic of abortion is always a volatile one. An abortion measure passed in 2013 sparked protests at the Legislative Building and garnered national attention.
The bill would “prohibit two of the finest medical schools in the the country from providing doctors with the training necessary to provide safe abortion care,” said Melissa Reed, a vice president for public policy for Planned Parenthood, a women’s health care nonprofit known for its advocacy for abortion rights.
Reed said a third provision of the bill, requiring that any physician performing an abortion be ob-gyn, rather than just any doctor, ignores current practice and creates more of a barrier than is necessary.
“The politicians supporting this bill completely disregard the complex decisions women and their families face every day,” she said. “It is shameful that North Carolina legislators continue to sacrifice women’s health in their ideological attempts to take this state backwards.”
The House measure is the second abortion measure filed at the General Assembly this year. Senate Bill 604 would place more requirements on clinics where abortions are performed.
Pat Robertson: Gays will force you to have anal sex, bestiality
These rightwing pastors always spend a little too much time obsessing about deviant sex, don’t they?
Poor oppressed Huckajesus
Big Gay has mobilized the forces of evil under the pretext of discrimination:
“It’s been manufactured by the left, just as was the war on women,” Huckabee said. “There was no war on women. The left has gotten very good on creating a crisis, something to divide the country, something to create this sense in which ‘we’ve got to go after these conservatives because they are trying to trample over our rights.’”
He added that the LGBT rights movement is like something out of George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”: “It is a classic example of — really a page out of ‘1984,’ when what things mean are the opposite of what they really are. And that’s what I’m seeing here is that in the name of tolerance, there’s intolerance. In the name of diversity, there’s uniformity. In the name of acceptance, there’s true discrimination.”
Perkins contended that gay people who are denied service by a business should simply try to find another shop that will serve them rather than filing a lawsuit against discriminatory business owners. “Where will it stop?” he asked Huckabee.
“It won’t stop until there are no more churches, until there are no more people who are spreading the Gospel,” Huckabee replied, “and I’m talking now about the unabridged, unapologetic Gospel that is really God’s truth.”
