There really isn’t any stopping the extremists in control of the Republican Confederate Party anymore. Every week and almost every day they can be counted upon for some new crazy in their never ending quest to move the Nation backwards as they pursue fantasies of a ‘better time’ that never existed.
These romanticized ‘Good Old Days’ were a time of clear and undisputed White Male Exceptionalism and everybody knew and accepted their roles in society. Rich white men were on top followed by other white men in order of their class. Woman knew their place and had power in any area where the fellas let them play. Foreigners, people of color, LGBT, etc. did not matter. And all of this was blessed by a specially constructed White Male God–a God who oddly enough always wanted to do what these White Males wanted to do–from buying and selling slaves, to child labor, to endless war, to predatory capitalism, to contempt for the poor, to control of women as birthing machines.
And it is hardly surprising that the 112th Congress is not only pursuing a White Male Exceptionalist agenda, but also claiming that each and every piece of Legislation is blessed by a version of a ‘divine’ God that they have carefully constructed in their own image.
Their God is an angry and vengeful God. Their God is a God that demands retribution upon sinners and punishment of all nonbelievers. Their God is a God impressed by violence and a God that demands human sacrifice. And like Jephthah of old, the Republicans Confederates in the 112th Congress intend to keep their vow to their God and ensure that the required human sacrifice is made.
And so it is sadly predictable that they would introduce HR 358, The Human Sacrifice Encouragement Act of 2011.
It might be worth a moment to consider Jephthat, who could easily be the patron Saint of Wingnutopia. He was a bastard who grew to great power because of his violent nature. According to the myth (or the indisputable WORD OF THE LORD—if you prefer), Jephthat launched a war against his neighbors and promised his God a human sacrifice if he was victorious. His God blessed him with “great slaughter” and upon his return home Jephthat kept his promise to make the first person to greet him into an offering for his blood thirsty God. Turns out that person was his daughter, but a promise made is a debt unpaid and so he killed her. And his God continued to bless him with more blood. When some allies in his earlier slaughter asked for a bigger share of the plunder Jephthat marched against them and killed more than 42,000 Ephraimites—many lost their lives just because of their accent (Judges 12:5-6).
Like Jephthat, the wingnuts base their hate on superficial markers to define their enemies—language, custom, looks. Like Jephthat they have recently ‘won’ a victory and seek to offer their God a sacrifice. And not surprisingly they have also decided that women should have the dubious honor of dying to sate the blood-lust of their imagined God.
Last week they were trying to protect rapists. This week it is trying to ensure that women with medical complications forcing the hard choice of death or an abortion can be legally turn out into the streets to die. In short, it is a way to force these women to become human sacrifices just to appease the imagined desire for blood of the God they have created in their image as a reflection of their own hate, ignorance and fear.
As always, they give their Legislation an odd life-affirming title (the “Protect Life Act” in this case) that is at odds with the actual impact of the Bill were it to ever become law. The impact in this case will be that women will die—the law will guarantee it. But like Jephthat the Sponsors of the Legislation view the certainty of these deaths as just a sad by-product of keeping your promise to a vengeful God.
Perhaps some of these folks pushing this Legislation will share in the blessings of Jephthat. Perhaps a just God will see to it that it will be their daughters who get to die. And if the fetus or zygote dies with her, then they can pretend that their daughter was a virgin just like Jephthat’s daughter and celebrate her memory in the way that Jephthat’s daughter is remembered—by erasing her name and erasing her from history as anything other than a human sacrifice.
Perhaps a just God would make this happen, but in reality we all know that they will pay for their daughters to get an abortion in a private clinic if that procedure is needed to save their child’s life. You can be certain that as they draft this legislation they are reserving the role of human sacrifice for children of somebody else.
One wonders what new horrors the Republican Confederate Party members of the 112th Congress will come up with next week.
Cheers
In a tip to Tom L. the art is: “The Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter” engraved by J.Opie, published in The Pictorial History of the Bible, 1834. Steel engraving.
daveNYC
Unfuckinreal.
Rev. Miller
Part of me wants to treat this like the side show it is. I’m pretty sure that most of the GOP knows this is a ploy to keep itself in the news and to appeal to a voter base with a certain, um, antebellum flavor. I don’t have much trouble imagining that they don’t give a shit if it passes, so long as the rubes keep voting for them and the money keeps coming in.
On the other hand, shit like this has consequences. Or it can, at least. All this shark-chumming could lead to a bill or two that actually passes and actually hurts people.
How many Congressional Republicans actually care about this redneck, corn pone horseshit and how many are content to pimp it toward reelection? I honestly don’t know any more.
Ash Can
My guess is that education will be the next target — outlaw public education, make the study of creationism compulsory in the schools that remain, that sort of thing.
Fencedude
Funny how you never seem to hear about those parts of the Bible.
The Dangerman
Will this House ever pass a bill that isn’t red meat for its base?
Allan
I finally figured out what’s going on here. They’ve apparently concluded that the abortion of white babies is hastening the decline of the Caucasian majority, and this is all a desperate, desperate attempt to stave off the inevitable white slavery that is waiting for them when the browns outnumber them.
Redshift
But remember, they’re doing what the American People™ voted for, and the media told us that the Tea Party people care about the economy and the deficit, not social issues.
Chris
You know why these motherfuckers keep bitching about their fear of Sharia law coming to America?
Copyright infringement.
James
If Jesus returned tomorrow he would be arrested by homeland security. Someone would mistake him for Osama Bin Laden.
Mike in NC
AKA their Holy Trinity
Time to paint a bullseye on every union-related activity in the country. Teachers, cops, auto workers, fire fighters, bus drivers, you name it. The GOP hates unions (except for those between a man and a woman, of course) and will do anything they can to make them suffer.
aimai
Here’s the thing, however–if you are really having an emergency and need an emergency abortion there aren’t going to be any “private clinics” for their wives, daughters, and daughter’s in law. I’ve just had an emergency medical situation: you go to the nearest hospital emergency room and if the hospital can’t treat you and refuses to transfer you somewhere else swiftly (which given how clumsy hospital emergency rooms are would be a miracle in and of itself) you and your fetus are going to die. Especially in the middle of the country or in rural areas where there is only one health provider.
Of course they know this will never become law–that’s why its a standalone bill that won’t get attached to anything bigger. It makes ordinary cynicism look naive. But if it did become law there is no way in hell it wouldn’t impact their own voters regardless of how much money those voters have.
aimai
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: Heh. U made a funny. Nope. They’re gonna keep sucking up to their base more and more and do nada to actually fix things for two years.
scav
They’re not even pretending it’s about the life of the fetus anymore.
Tulip
@Chris:
+10
Dennis G.
@Chris:
Now that is funny. Thanks
Shalimar
@Allan: But, if that’s true, then isn’t it really short-sighted on their part? If you let the white woman with the womb die, then you don’t get to use her as a baby factory to make more white offspring who can fight back against the heathen horde invading real America. Just because she has complications during one pregnancy doesn’t usually mean she won’t be able to have children.
Kryptik
The most horribly depressing thing about this is, considering the ley lines for the ’12 Congressional elections, they’ll probably end up with precisely enough votes to actually pull this shit off and turn America into their fucking Galtian Wingutopia, at the horrible cost to every single fucking person in America.
Fuck, it’s like God deciding to try and send a message to Liberals telling them “FUCK YOU FUCKING FUCKERS, THESE GUYS ARE MY CHOSEN PEOPLE AND YOU FUCKS ARE GONNA SUFFER FOR CHOOSING WRONG!”
Yutsano
@Shalimar: But see, if she were actually a True American, then she wouldn’t have had a complicated pregnancy in the first place. Therefore by the rules of
CalvinballCalvinism, she deserved to die for not being a pure Real Merikan baby factory. See how this works?scav
@Mike in NC:
You want funny? The Torys are going after May Day in the UK. They claim that October (in the UK) is better for the tourist season and besides, it might stop shops from hanging up the Xmas decorations too early.
The Dangerman
@Yutsano:
I truly don’t get that strategy given the only people that this will placate are their troglodyte 27% and extremely low information voters that won’t figure out that this House won’t have done shit for 2 years. Can that get to 51%? Or are they conceding that they can’t beat Obama in 2012 and just want to muck things up for as long as possible…
katjam
If the baby is born after the mother dies can it be charged with manslaughter–or would it be woman-slaughter?
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: The argument then becomes “We tried to do the will of the people but that ebil sociallist in the White House stopped us so LYNCH THE…I mean, vote him out of office!” In a way their passing nothing works for them as well, at least in the very short term. Me personally I’m looking forward to the forced vacation in a few weeks.
Janus Daniels
“… God is a God impressed by violence…”
Republicans Explain: Why God Ended the Great Depression for WWII.
scav
@katjam: I’ve always wondered about the rapist manslaughter possibility in these cases. Not that the wingalings are going to go after alleged sperm donors.
Ash Can
@Mike in NC:
That’s a good one too. Maybe we should start a pool on who the House GOP will attack next, and call it the Republican Ameri-geddon Sweepstakes.
Citizen_X
@Chris: But don’t call them the American Taliban! That would be uncivil, you know.
Lesley
If I could be their God for half a sec, I’d rape and impregnate every old testament Republican. Yeah, and because I’d be their God, I’d make all those old white racist sexist fuckhead males impregnable. No epidural when they come due, either.
The Dangerman
@Yutsano:
Sure, but the will of the people was most surely either jobs or cut spending; I don’t see how this can even be close to being dressed up as will of the people stuff.
Yeah, a Government shutdown seems assured now that the debt limit stuff is off the table per Orange Julius Caesar.
Lesley
@Chris: right on!
Freya
This is one of those “careful what you wish for” moments.
I talked to the pro-lifers crowd at the health care town hall meetings.They were mostly Catholics who didn’t want tax dollars to be used for abortions.I know quite a few Catholics and some ex Catholics as well.I don’t believe that they would be comfortable with this bill.They need to be made to understand what this would mean to their daughters and wives.
They aren’t fanatics.Most of them use birth control.”We have to because we can’t afford to raise 10 kids.”I was told.
PurpleGirl
When I read about this earlier today, the scenario that immediately came to mind is the woman with an ectopic pregnancy. If she can not have the surgery to remove the embryo or get the drugs to effect an abortion, she and the fetus will die as it grows too large for the fallopian tube. This is a medically necessary procedure, the woman can not not have it. They really are evil creeps.
Ruckus
@Lesley:
I like your idea but could you impregnate them with a rusty chainsaw? I think that would be better. And we wouldn’t have to listen to them whine for nearly as long nor would they have spawned.
Ruckus
@Chris:
I second or third or whatever this comment.
Joey Maloney
@Lesley: If I could be their God for half a sec, I’d rape and impregnate every old testament Republican.
With black babies! Black and Mexican!
JPL
@scav: It depends on whether or not they are females.
JCT
If only the Dems could get it together and mount their own “death panels” offensive, maybe “die slutty bitches, die?”
Of course the difference would be that there were no real “death panels” and this little piece of legislation would kill women AND their fetuses.
And PurpleGirl is correct, ectopics would fall under this. And they are more than “medically necessary” they are a true surgical emergency up there with a hot appendix.
I wish that I had the capacity to be surprised any more.
300baud
For those who don’t read Slacktivist, I think his post “‘Pro-family’ means anti-families” is a great examination of this phenomenon from the perspective of a Christian who is also a reasonable human being: http://goo.gl/EZyS6
As an atheist, I really appreciate reminders that not all Christians are the mean-spirited loons you see in the Republican leadership.
Tom Levenson
I just saw this over at Kos, and then read this.
I keep hoping that what looks to me, secure in my nice little bubble here in Boston, to be hopeless overreach, will in fact stick to the GOP, securing them in their 27%er status for years to come.
Hope, but do not expect. Arrgh.
VidaLoca
I wouldn’t expect it either, I’m too cynical for that; but it’s not a forlorn hope. Remember what happened with Terri Schaivo. This kind of overreach is their trademark.
Alan in SF
The Confederate party can stake out the most insane, murderous, anti-woman position they want, and Obama will meet them halfway.
piratedan
@katjam: guessing the inclination of our Galtian overlords, it would simply be termed collateral damage.
piratedan
whatever happened to that Bible that taught concepts like charity, compassion, tolerance and living by example…did these guys get a different version than I did?
PPOG Penguin
So, to recap. Republican health plan, 2009: “Don’t get sick.” Republican health plan, 2011: “Don’t get sick, or be female.”
Short Bus Bully
Dennis, when you bring it against the Confederates you REALLY bring the thunder. Keep bringing it please.
Nadnerb
@piratedan:
That’s in the “Heathen Democrats” version of the Bible…
Jill
PurpleGirl @#31: My sister-in-law had an ectopic pregnancy once, and my wingnut Fox News watching father-in-law referred to removing at as her abortion. I guess they’d rather see women die of a ruptured tube. After all, if they weren’t filthy sluts and instead lay back and think o’Jesus, they would have had a nice normal pregnancy.
All this is really about forcing WHITE women to have more babies in order to fend off what they see as marauding hordes of people whose pigmentation is unseemly.
Ella in New Mexico
@katjam:
If this crowd of clowns had the least bit of capacity to maintain any consistency in their “conservative principles”, they would.
And while they were at it, they’d also push to prosecute the kid as an adult since they’re trying to lower the age limits on that every year.
I mean, if a 5 year old can be jailed for spitting on his special ed teacher, why shouldn’t a newborn get the death penalty after he selfishly achieved life by killing his own mother?
polyorchnid octopunch
@piratedan: They ignored all the words in red, because red is the colour of soshulism, doncha know.
debbie
That comment upthread about copyright infringement is right. A Georgia state legislator wants to end the practice of calling the receiver of a rape a “victim.” The “accuser” will have to wait for vindication by a jury of (white male) peers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/04/georgia-lawmaker-redefine-rape-victims-accusers_n_818718.html
gelfling545
@PurpleGirl: Last year my daughter who thought she might be pregnant awoke with bleeding & great pain. The only hospital at all close ( about an hour’s drive) to her was a Catholic hospital. She was told that she might be having a miscarriage but it MIGHT be an ectopic pregnancy so they couldn’t do anything for her. She had to travel over another hour by car, still bleeding and in pain to get to a hospital that was not Catholic where they decided she was having a miscarriage and treated it appropriately. She got no care at all just because it might be a totally unviable pregnancy. They are perfectly willing to see a woman die to protect their bizarre definition of life. People who are actually, unquestionably living just don’t count.
PurpleGirl
Jill (@46) and gelfling545 (@50): I am sorry for the experiences of your relatives. I don’t know anyone who has experienced an ectopic pregnancy but it sprang to mind this morning as an example of who could be grievously harmed and potentially allowed to die by such a law. And I know of the problem with Catholic hospitals. It staggers my imagination (and soul) that such situations exist, that others could allow them to happen and still profess to be followers of Christianity.
Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)
@Chris: You win.
Nutella
Nope, their god thinks Vitter, Ensign, Gingrich, Hyde and all the other white male sinners should be rewarded for sinning.
Dennis G.
@Nutella:
It really depends on who gets to define ‘sinner’ and for these guys that is a free floating target is it is one of them behaving badly. And their God will endorse what ever they want their God to bless–that is after all why they invented him.
Cheers
Jeanne ringland
This goes in the “What Fresh New Hell is This?” file.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
It’s a good thing our wise President Obama will meet them only half way, and absolutely no further.
.
.
Kristine
@gelfling545: My mother worked in Catholic hospitals in the 50s/60s, and told me that the unofficial policy was that if it came to a choice between the baby and the mother, the baby would be saved. Not all the doctors went along with it.
We’re nothing but incubators to them They’ll legislate it if they can. I can’t believe they’re doing it, but I shouldn’t be surprised. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that other women to go along with it as well.
scav
@Kristine: Well, if they’re going to hold a strict line on divorce, this policy does clear out the older models so the guys can bring on the trophy wives. One would like to think better of people but they do make it hard sometimes.
Kristine
@scav: My grandmother–my mom’s mother–had 10 children. Not sure when over the course it happened, but she did have some sort of household accident that resulted in a miscarriage. Again, Catholic hospital, and one of the nuns demanding that my grandmother swear that she wasn’t trying to abort before they would treat her. Credit the doctor for going all explodey and saying how he had known my grandmother for years and she had 10 children and would never do anything like that and so on. And while I can feel some relief that he stuck up for her, I have to admit that it was just another case of the white man in authority saying it was all right. If he hadn’t been there, if he had been held up, would my grandmother have been able to convince the nun?
I don’t know when this was, and there’s no one left to ask. The 30s? Those are the Good Old Days they want to bring back? Words fail.
Pat
I would love to visit Joe Pitt’s neighborhood back there in PA, just to take a look at the hateful assholes that keep voting this tick into office. Regarding their darling offspring’s future abortions, I’m positive that would call for a private Swiss clinic with recuperation on some tropical island. Nothing but the best for America’s finest and whitest!
Graham
Dennis G., your posts are always spot on. The analogy between Confederates and modern Republicans rings so true as to be absolutely accurate. You, sir, are my fav FPer here at BJ.
Chris, thanks! Every attack made against liberals is projection writ large. Everything Beck and ilk accuses the left of, is something that the right is actually doing.
TenguPhule
Wars have been started over less.
Hell, brutal suppression has been done over less.
Where the hell are our Imperial Stormtroopers when we need them?