Fox News’ chief medical expert, Dr. Keith Ablow, says that while he believes the government should “get out of the marriage business,” if same-sex marriage becomes legal, polygamy will be next. “Five men and a woman” marriage could happen — “why not?” the anti-gay activist asks Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who had goaded him into the polygamy conversation. Ingraham has a nasty, anti-gay, anti-trans record, despite having a gay brother.
There are times when I find it difficult not despair over the future of our Republic. I find it difficult to be optimistic about the prospects of a nation in which a significant portion of the population eschews facts and empirical truth to construct their own reality. It’s not about the way things are for these folks, it’s about the way things ought to be. It’s not about facts and truth, it’s about what religion and ideology dictate said facts and truth to be.
The past few days have provided us with a few more bricks in the wall Conservatives have constructed to shield themselves from inconvenient and comfortable truths. It’s like one long face-palm moment.
“Five men and a woman” marriage could happen:
I’m not certain where Keith Ablow got his M.D. (I’m guessing from a box of Screaming Yellow Zonkers), but he’s clearly no less prone to silly arguments than Joe Sixpack. In their desperate efforts to stem the tide of history that will eventually make marriage equality a basic human right, Conservatives have vomited up all manner of silly, pointless, and brain-dead arguments. Five men and a woman? Hell, what’s to stop someone from marrying their dog? Their lawnmower? Their F-150? Or their AR-15? I mean, when there are no limits, ANYONE will be able to get married…TO ANYTHING. Right??
Exactly, Einstein. The LGBT community isn’t looking for special rights, merely the same ones heterosexuals take as their birthright.
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If the only way you think you can win an election is to cheat, your ideas suck:
North Carolina’s Republicans, who hold a veto-proof majority in both houses of their legislature, are contemplating a scheme to keep college students from voting. The fact that young people, particularly college students, tend to trend decidedly Democratic has NOTHING to do with it, of course. It’s ALL and ONLY about protecting the integrity of future elections by making sure the “right” people win preventing voter fraud. That what North Carolina Republicans are proposing is an unconstitutional poll tax seems to bother them not at all. They’ll do what they want to do because they feel bulletproof. And they might just get away with it.
Constitution? We don’t need no stinkin’ Constitution. Unless we can use it to our advantage, of course.
It used to be that cheaters at least made a minimal effort to fly under the radar to avoid being caught and shamed. These days, Republicans can’t even be bothered to do that. They’re actually quite open and rather proud of their efforts to subvert democracy. Attorney General Eric Holder has said that the Justice Department won’t idly stand by while Republicans work to rig the Electoral College in their favor. That remains to be seen, but DOJ may have trouble figuring out where to start. North Carolina is merely the latest of several red states where Republicans have decided that cheating is WAY less work than trying to convince voters of the correctness of their ideas.
Yeah, if you have to cheat to win your ideas really do suck.
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When economic decisions are based on ideology instead of reality, you end up with Wisconsin:
It seemed too good to be true…and in the end it was. All we have to do to fix the economy, so the Right-wing dogma goes, is tighten our belts. Cut spending. Eliminate the deficit. Cut services we can no longer afford. Do that, and VOILA!!, before you know it, we’ll be back on the past to prosperity. Except that’s not at all what’s happening. As most competent economists (see Krugman, Paul) will tell you, austerity is exactly the WRONG path to take. When all you do is cut, cut, cut, you end up leaving even more people without paychecks. When people don’t have paychecks, they can’t pay for goods and services. And when people can’t pay for goods and services, companies begin to go out of business. It’s a vicious cycle that the Right-wing ideological commitment to austerity is aiding and abetting.
Exhibit A is Wisconsin, where Gov. Scott Walker’s unspoken operating philosophy appears to be to kill the patient in order to heal him. Of course, the people of Wisconsin elected Walker, whose promises of job creation are evaporating in the same smoke and mirrors he used to convince voters to elect him. Anyone with a sense of history knows that it’s simply not possible to cut and save your way out of recession…and yet Conservatives refuse to learn that lesson (cue the Georges Santayana quote).
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Debtor’s prisons: Who says history isn’t circular?:
Leave it to the fine upstanding folks in Ohio to creatively bring back an idea that didn’t work in the 17th century: debtor’s prisons. If you owe money- which pretty much makes you like every other American- and you don’t have the money to pay fines or court costs, you could find yourself behind bars…which is a perfect way to ensure that someone can earn the money they need to pay their debt. And Ohio’s not alone; other states have been heading down the same path.
What’s next? Putting people in stocks in the village square? Making adulterers wear scarlet letters?
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Because Bushmaster and Glock are the official arms of the truly Godly and righteous:
At Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia (God U.), students can’t can’t see R-rated movies, they can’t listen to music “not in harmony with God’s word” (What? No Rage Against the Machine??). They also can’t dance, kiss, drink alcohol, or wear skirts whose hemlines are above the knee. What they CAN do is carry loaded firearms on campus. You can’t sip on a Bud Light, but you can carry a lethal weapon on campus? Smooth move; cue the friendly fire casualties in 4…3…2….
If that doesn’t make for a trip down the rabbit hole, I don’t know what would.
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Welcome to North Carolina: Kindly check your civil liberties at the border crossing:
While we’re on the subject of North Carolina and rabbit holes, it turns out that the Tar Heel State’s Republican-dominate legislature won’t be declaring Christianity to be the official state religion (I was hoping for Zoroastrianism). Nor will they be declaring the 1st Amendment to be null and void in North Carolina. Evidently, trying to do all that AND cobbling together legislation designed to keep them damned Librul collidge stoodents from votin’ was too much of a stretch.
