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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / Vagina Outrage / The Thought Police Are Here

The Thought Police Are Here

by John Cole|  March 14, 201111:09 am| 57 Comments

This post is in: Vagina Outrage

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Perusing the new and improved Great Orange Satan this morning (I’m finally used to the re-design and I like it now), and this alarming story caught my eye.

It really is crazy how the wingnut GOP has become everything they claimed to fear. Remember the hate speech debate, when the Republicans opposed hate crimes because they were against “thought crimes?”

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57Comments

  1. 1.

    General Stuck

    March 14, 2011 at 11:12 am

    I don’t think False imprisonment is a thought crime. What do you thought?

  2. 2.

    Persia

    March 14, 2011 at 11:15 am

    it’s only a thought crime if you’re thinking the wrong thoughts, duh.

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    March 14, 2011 at 11:20 am

    Depends on the thoughts, doesn’t it?

  4. 4.

    Chris Grrr™

    March 14, 2011 at 11:21 am

    Thoughts that are in concert with Pat Robertson’s thoughts are fine. Why is this so hard for godless hippies to understand?

    /s

  5. 5.

    Merkin

    March 14, 2011 at 11:23 am

    I would think the police could not arrest her until the hospital did a psych exam to determine that she was not of sound mind and could have or might attempt to kill the child.

    I mean there’s no way a nurse’s assumption is enough evidence to bring charges on someone.

  6. 6.

    Redshirt

    March 14, 2011 at 11:25 am

    No joke, we’re getting close enough to where a machine might be able to read the general content of one’s thoughts. Wait to the Freedom Loving party gets their hands on that tech. Freedom for all!

  7. 7.

    General Stuck

    March 14, 2011 at 11:27 am

    @Redshirt:

    Yea, the red light will light up when it spots the 50 foot naked woman in Newt’s beady little lizard brain.

  8. 8.

    jrg

    March 14, 2011 at 11:33 am

    It really is crazy how the wingnut GOP has become everything they claimed to fear.

    They only claim to fear things so that when they turn around and do it to someone else, they can pretend like there’s a precedent for it.

    …kind of like how they try to prevent people of different faiths from building houses of worship with private funds because some ACLU librul once told them they cannot build a 300 foot tall statue of Jeebus using tax dollars.

  9. 9.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    March 14, 2011 at 11:34 am

    I saw a new species of wingnut bumper sticker about 2 weeks ago that said “Abortion is the ultimate terrorism”. What is the problem with policing a little thoughtcrime when you are protecting the nation against Wombs of Mass Destruction (which apparently are worse than OBL)?

  10. 10.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    March 14, 2011 at 11:51 am

    Is it any wonder why they haven’t actually gone meaningfully after Roe v. Wade all these years? They never had to, they’ve managed to successfully marginalize the practice of abortion by personally destroying the clinics where they’re performed and legally defining a pregnant woman as nothing more than a babytank, thus not able to exercise basic human rights. Because, after all, once a baby’s in there, it’s obvious the woman ceases to be human anymore.

    And they keep fucking winning…

  11. 11.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 14, 2011 at 11:53 am

    @ThatLeftTurnInABQ:

    This reflects a serious misunderstanding of “terrorism”. Terrorism, in its most classic sense, is the use of violence to modify other’s behavior. You know, like killing a doctor who performs abortions to persuade other doctors not to perform them. That’s terrorism in the classic sense.

    These people are the ones Orwell was warning us about.

  12. 12.

    Uloborus

    March 14, 2011 at 11:55 am

    We are hitting not merely IOKIYAR, but the very basis of that attitude. They want the world to work their way. Period. Things like gay marriage or the building of mosques oppress them because it provides an alternative to their way. Anything you do that curtails their freedom to do things their way in even the tiniest fashion is morally wrong. If the same thing is done to curtail the freedom of others to not do things that way it is morally right.

    This is tribalism. It is a basic human thought process that it is difficult to break out of. If a freedom is not going to be used to do things their way, it’s not a freedom. It’s not a conscious decision. It’s incomprehensible to think that you could describe, say, being gay as a freedom. That claim just doesn’t make sense to their mindset.

  13. 13.

    ruemara

    March 14, 2011 at 11:59 am

    They keep fucking winning because more than half of America doesn’t vote and the ones that do are mostly uninformed with a narrow band of interests. And I include left and right in that. You get the government you deserve. These women need to sue, I can’t understand what the hell women are thinking when they just submit to these outrages with barely a whimper. I don’t get you lot up here and I’ve lived in America for 99% of my life. Now I think I just want to abandon this psycho factory, except there are far too many weapons and power sitting around to not do the responsible thing and get this country back into some sort of common sense mode. This is just seriously fucked up shit.

  14. 14.

    keestadoll

    March 14, 2011 at 11:59 am

    Question: has there been a suit of violation against doctor-patient confidentiality as a result of this case or similar cases? For that matter, a suit for violating the Hippocratic Oath? Oh, on that by the way, there is an excerpt in Wikipedia regarding the Oath which states:

    “Contrary to popular belief, the Hippocratic Oath is not required by most modern medical schools.[citation needed]”

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    March 14, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    @keestadoll:

    Question: has there been a suit of violation against doctor-patient confidentiality as a result of this case or similar cases?

    I don’t think a lawsuit like that would get very far, because it’s probably considered to be a mandatory reporter law, like suspected child abuse.

  16. 16.

    soonergrunt

    March 14, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    Somehow, this is Obama’s fault. Or the sick military mind did it.
    I’m getting the hang of blanket statements! I feel so powerful, now!!

  17. 17.

    Dr. Squid

    March 14, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    @soonergrunt: Waiting for the inevitable firebagger post on that.

    Besides, we already know about the other branch of the
    Thought Police. You might have heard of them, police Chief is named Breitbart, and top deputy is James O’Keefe.

  18. 18.

    Corner Stone

    March 14, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    @soonergrunt: One of us! One of us!

  19. 19.

    PurpleGirl

    March 14, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    @ruemara: I think most of the women who are caught in these traps can’t afford to sue and they are in areas unlikely to have free legal services which could handle the case. Even if they talked to a lawyer in a clinic, it is probable that the clinic couldn’t afford the time and effort to service the case. As with most everything else, federal support for legal services for the poor have been cut for years.

  20. 20.

    General Stuck

    March 14, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    @soonergrunt:

    Somehow, this is Obama’s fault. Or the sick military mind did it.

    The day is young, and tin foil hats are in need of recharging after last night. the little firebagger darlings are all tuckered out. They’ll be back though.

  21. 21.

    soonergrunt

    March 14, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    @Corner Stone: You love me! You really love me!

  22. 22.

    gene108

    March 14, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    @ruemara: It’s not just voting. The Right has waged a long and steady campaign to push their agenda through. There are people with very deep pockets, on the Right, who just keep pushing and don’t let pesky things like public opinion or losing the occasional election deter them.

    The Left groups, who were once successful in raising issues about reproductive rights, seem to have less influence. NOW and NARAL aren’t king makers in the Democratic Party.

    Anti-abortion is a litmus test for any Republican wanting to get elected in most states and the ones, who were able to win as being pro-choice, have to walk back their earlier position, should they seek higher office, i.e. Mitt Romney.

  23. 23.

    soonergrunt

    March 14, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    @General Stuck: I should’ve been a little broader (or more broad, for the grammar cops) and included more of those blanket thoughts. That behavior is not limited to only one group or person here.
    I have to fight it in myself more often than I’d wish.

  24. 24.

    soonergrunt

    March 14, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    @Dr. Squid: Yeah, but EVERYBODY here hates them, so that doesn’t count.

  25. 25.

    Tim F.

    March 14, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    They always do whatever they accuse you of. Part eleventy million.

  26. 26.

    jayjaybear

    March 14, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    @Tim F.:

    This. The one absolute, fundamental, almost-never-broken characteristic of the modern GOP, and the right-wing in general, is projection. If they’re accusing a political opponent of doing something, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find them doing it back behind the curtain. At least since Nixon.

  27. 27.

    Tim

    March 14, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Wow. The freakishness of the anti-choice zealots never ceases to amaze.

  28. 28.

    David Hunt

    March 14, 2011 at 12:53 pm

    I wish these creeps could get it through their heads that 1984 was not an instruction book

  29. 29.

    piratedan

    March 14, 2011 at 12:59 pm

    @David Hunt: the scary thing is, they’re using it as one and its working.

  30. 30.

    Jamie

    March 14, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    funny thing is whenever you don’t think things could get any weirder they usually do.

  31. 31.

    Matt

    March 14, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    Wow, the bit about Samantha Burton (forced admission to the hospital) sounds like it was cribbed straight out of “The Handmaid’s Tale”…

  32. 32.

    neff

    March 14, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Don’t see anything about this on http://www.aclu-ia.org/ or on http://www.plannedparenthood.org/heartland/ … hope they’re watching!

  33. 33.

    Alwhite

    March 14, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    Whats so hard about this? “Abortion is murder!” thats right Alice, and how do we deal with murderers? “We Kills them dead!” Thats right! But, of course, we can’t kill the fetus so we have to wait until the vessel has given birth – *then* we kills ’em.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    March 14, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    @Uloborus:

    We are hitting not merely IOKIYAR, but the very basis of that attitude. They want the world to work their way. Period.

    I’ve been reading a lot about Pre-Code Hollywood films lately, and though I can’t find the page on Google Books, Mick LaSalle’s book Dangerous Men has an interesting quote from a movie with George Raft as a gangster talking about the difference between conservatives and liberals. I don’t have the exact quote, but it’s something along the lines of, “The difference between liberals and conservatives is that liberals know that vice exists and want to control it. Conservatives want to turn their backs and pretend it doesn’t exist.”

    They never change.

  35. 35.

    elm

    March 14, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    I thought that Boner was the Great Orange Satan.

  36. 36.

    Mnemosyne

    March 14, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    @elm:

    He’s the AOC — the Actual Orange Satan.

  37. 37.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    March 14, 2011 at 1:55 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    That doesn’t quite work for modern conservatism.

    It’s more like “Liberals know that vice exists and wants to control it. Conservatives want to accuse Liberals of vice so they themselves can revel in it without consequence.”

  38. 38.

    Svensker

    March 14, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    @ruemara:

    I don’t get you lot up here and I’ve lived in America for 99% of my life.

    Where’s down there?

  39. 39.

    Ella in New Mexico

    March 14, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    Just like everything else in the recent “throwback to the dark ages” the Right is getting away with, these stories are just another example of Liberals being so smart and well-informed they end up becoming immobilized, ineffectual “the world is going to hell in a handbasket!” victims.

    What needs to happen in this country is for the frigging “Pro-Choice” and pro-civil liberties organizations get off their collective asses and start doing something with all the Goddamned money they get through their massive direct mail begging and start aggressively filing legal challenges in state and federal courts against the states and individuals violating women’s constitutional and human rights.

    These two cases alone appear to be blatant constitutional violations that should be relatively easy to use to overturn these shitty laws. If morons like Orly Tate can abuse the system over and over again to challenge Obama’s citizenship, surely NARAL, ACLU’s-Reproductive Rights Fund or NOW could find a way to set up a fund to do this by hitting up the millions of upper middle-class yuppie types on their mailing lists.

    Instead, they sit around, whining and fear mongering, sitting on their hands and telling us how important it is to send them big bucks to pay their six figure executives and vote Democrat in hopes things will change.

    So much power in our collective hands, and yet no ability to use even an ounce of it to push back against these bullies. We should all be ashamed.

  40. 40.

    Ella in New Mexico

    March 14, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    @Matt:

    No kidding. So do the laws coming out of several state legislatures this year.

    Again, the only answer is legal challenges. Individual cases need to be picked up by pro choice organizations and used to max out any and all legal repercussions for the states and individuals responsible for these actions. Samantha Burton alone should be getting a mulit-million dollar financial settlement for the violation of her civil rights.

    If “women’s” organizations REALLY gave a shit about real women, she’d have em lining up outside her trailer door. They need to stop giving Hilary campaign dollars and use their money where it will do the most good.

  41. 41.

    Mark S.

    March 14, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    Geez, this story is also insane from the post:

    After questioning her for more than an hour, the judge decided that she couldn’t have the abortion, ruling she was not mature and capable of making an informed decision about the procedure. The decision surprised her lawyer, Randall McKinney of the Allegheny County Office of Conflict Counsel, because bypass petitions are rarely denied. In his March 24 opinion, Judge Ignelzi wrote that he found the teenager wasn’t mature because, among other reasons, she had used bad grammar and had not asked her parents for permission.

    The teen was three months shy of her 18th birthday, but she also used bad grammar. Seriously, what is the logic behind this bullshit? She’s not mature enough to decide to have an abortion, but she’s mature enough to raise a child?

  42. 42.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    March 14, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    @Mark S.:

    Silly hippie, thinking women actually have rights when they become pregnant.

    Besides, we already contend that you’re old enough to die for your country at 18, but you can’t drink legally. Cognitive dissonance is as essential to GOP thought as racism and classism.

  43. 43.

    Mnemosyne

    March 14, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    @Mark S.:

    She’s not mature enough to decide to have an abortion, but she’s mature enough to raise a child?

    Didn’t you know? Giving birth automatically makes you a rational, mature person — it’s something about the hormones. So even if she thinks she doesn’t want the baby now, she will magically transform and become a good mother once it exits her body.

  44. 44.

    DBrown

    March 14, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    Folks, I’m as left wing nut as its gets but this article is not as far out nuts as many of you say – yes, it isn’t right but shades of gray it is and the legal system does at times fail in those areas. This is more like the one-in-a-thousand strange rulings that is based on some solid legal bases (through miss-applied.) Not sure this is what you should fear comopared to the current crop of thugs in the us congress – those are dangerous wingnuts.

  45. 45.

    soonergrunt

    March 14, 2011 at 3:54 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Giving birth automatically makes you a rational, mature person

    That’s actually the law in many jurisdictions. Upon giving birth, girls are automatically emancipated minors.

  46. 46.

    Hob

    March 14, 2011 at 4:19 pm

    @DBrown: Care to elaborate? What you just said doesn’t seem to amount to anything but “You’re all overreacting because I say so.”

    And you’re incorrectly assuming that (a) we can only be afraid of one thing at a time, and (b) these cases are entirely unrelated to the dangerous wingnuts in Congress, rather than examples of the kind of thing the dangerous wingnuts want to see more of.

  47. 47.

    Hob

    March 14, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    @Mark S.: What the fuck?! The judge used the fact that she hadn’t gotten her parents’ permission to get an abortion as evidence that she wasn’t mature enough to get an abortion without her parents’ permission? Did he cite Catch-22?

  48. 48.

    The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    March 14, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    Oh, on this note…Say goodbye to abortions in Virginia.

    Now, they aren’t actually OUTLAWING it, of course. Just making it prohibitively difficult for 1) clinics to operate, and 2) anyone actually looking for an abortion to receive one even at the clinics that won’t be totally shuttered. But I’m sure they’ll take care of those last few clinics soon enough, once they find another reason to declare a ‘financial emergency’.

  49. 49.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    March 14, 2011 at 5:26 pm

    @soonergrunt:
    .
    .

    Somehow, this is Obama’s fault.

    Of course not. But President Obama will figure out a compromising solution, possibly of a historic nature.
    .
    .

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 14, 2011 at 5:27 pm

    Okay, I’m not even going to comment on this until Angry Black Lady has a chance to FP the story. That’s gonna be one BITCHIN rant, and I for one can’t wait.

  51. 51.

    Corner Stone

    March 14, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    That’s gonna be one BITCHIN rant, and I for one can’t wait.

    THAT MAKES TWO OF US!

    Oh, sorry about that. That makes two of us! Just gettin’ in the proper mood for a high quality post.

  52. 52.

    Karen

    March 14, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    @Matt:

    Wow, the bit about Samantha Burton (forced admission to the hospital) sounds like it was cribbed straight out of “The Handmaid’s Tale”…

    Oh I knew it was “A Handmaid’s Tale” months ago.

    Now I’m way past “Handmaid’s” and up to “Minority Report.”

    Call me a conpsiracy theorist but I believe that the reason they’re trying to gut education is to make the population as dumb as possible. Look how successful they’ve been so far. The more stupid the population, the more they’ll believe anything.

    I honestly believe that the Koch Brothers and other plutocracists have gotten so impatient that instead of the sabre rattling they’ve done over the decades, they’ve just decided to just take over the country. Oh it’s piece by piece because it gets them off to do that and they’re showing how much the mainstream media is in their pocket and proving how much they own politicians. The naked grab for power by these Tea Party/John Birch/Repubicans is because those lapdogs think that if they act like the plutocracists, they’ll become then.

    Silly peons. They never will.

  53. 53.

    Karen

    March 14, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    You think that parents will be jailed for beating a child to death or starving a child to death next.

    I’m not going to hold my breath.

  54. 54.

    LikeableInMyOwnWay

    March 14, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Being lazy and shameless as I am, I will just paste in this comment I made in another venue a while ago. Recycling posts is the new hip:

    The remedy lies in grassroots politics. Not necessarily “netroots” politics, which has enjoyed spectacular failure in the last few years, after showing great promise. Proof? Voter turnout in 2010 in the forty percent range. That isn’t p…athetic, that is catastrophically bad.

    An example of the epic fail? Daily Kos, which promotes “netroots” politics and then devotes huge chunks of bandwidth to bashing Dems and fellow progressives, instead of promoting effective measures. Kos actually lobbied to kill the ACA bill before its passage because it wasn’t progressive enough for him! The greatest progressive advance in the last 35 years and they came out against it! No wonder our voters were confused and dispirited.

    Ignore the negative bullshit and keep eyes on the prize. The prize is a Democratic congress, and Democratic state legislators. Not progressive ornaments on an occasional tree, but an orchard of progressive trees providing the material for a secure future.

  55. 55.

    Chris Grrr™

    March 14, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    @Uncle Clarence Thomas:

    Of course not. But President Obama will figure out a compromising solution, possibly of a historic nature.

    Ouch.

    OUCH.

    It stings…

  56. 56.

    Corner Stone

    March 14, 2011 at 6:18 pm

    @LikeableInMyOwnWay:

    Recycling posts is the new hip

    Should I start referring to you as Angry Likeable Lady?

  57. 57.

    Thymezone

    March 15, 2011 at 2:23 am

    @Corner Stone:

    Sure. Or ALL for short.

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