Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

In my day, never was longer.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Everybody saw this coming.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You cannot shame the shameless.

We still have time to mess this up!

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

This really is a full service blog.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / Contraception Clusterfuck / President Obama Stands Up for Women’s Health… AGAIN.

President Obama Stands Up for Women’s Health… AGAIN.

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The contraception coverage debacle has been nothing short of ridiculous.

For the past couple weeks, we’ve been treated to scores of Republican men (primarily — and even a couple Democrats) using women’s health as a political football. Suddenly a decision to permit women free access to birth control became a War on Religion, as the GOP decided to up and move to Crazytown (population: them) in order to avoid talking about the issues that people actually give a shit about — jobs and the economy.

Today — whether by design or brilliant post-Crazytown strategery, President Obama “accommodated” the Catholic Church and the bishops who had been trying to convince us all that permitting women free access to contraception was a harbinger of the end of days.

Initially, I thought that the Administration, after instituting the rule, was taken aback by the right-wing freak out, but managed to strategize and negotiate its way around it. Others have since convinced me that this was the plan all along — to force the Republicans to show their asses thereby demonstrating to Democratic and Republican women alike (as well as those crucial independents) that what Republicans really want to do is install a tiny government in to every women’s vagina and arrogate complete control over women’s sexuality and health.

Either way, once again, President Obama stood up for American women (as he has done time and time again) and made Republicans look like jackasses. The “accommodation” (which, actually, is no accommodation at all because the Church’s position was nonsensical to begin with) is brilliant:

From Raw Story:

The “accommodation” being made will remove the burden of paying for contraceptives from religious employers, placing it entirely on health insurers instead.

“Women who work at these institutions are going to have access to these free contraceptive services, that’s guaranteed,” the official said.

The Catholic Church, which considers use of contraceptives a sin, had been pushing back against the new rule, calling it an attack on their religious liberty.

The Obama administration had initially given Catholic non-profits a one-year grace period to implement the rule, whereas all other private health insurance plans will begin offering free contraception by August 1.

An exemption for religious non-profits that hire exclusively within their faith remains in the rule, officials said. Religious groups that receive an exemption must also provide their employees with information on how to obtain contraceptive coverage.

It’s a win for women. Hands down. Even Planned Parenthood thinks so. And you know what they say, “As Planned Parenthood goeth, so goeth the Uterati”:

“In the face of a misleading and outrageous assault on women’s health, the Obama administration has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring all women will have access to birth control coverage, with no costly co-pays, no additional hurdles, and no matter where they work.

“We believe the compliance mechanism does not compromise a woman’s ability to access these critical birth control benefits.

“However we will be vigilant in holding the administration and the institutions accountable for a rigorous, fair and consistent implementation of the policy, which does not compromise the essential principles of access to care.

“The individual rights and liberties of all women and all employees in accessing basic preventive health care is our fundamental concern.

“Planned Parenthood continues to believe that those institutions who serve the broad public, employ the broad public, and receive taxpayer dollars, should be required to follow the same rules as everyone else, including providing birth control coverage and information.

“As a trusted health care provider to one in five women, Planned Parenthood’s priority is increasing access to preventive health care. This birth control coverage benefit does just that.

“The birth control benefit underscores the fact that birth control is basic health care, and is fundamental to improving women’s health and the health of their families.

“That’s why women have consistently applauded the Obama administration for one of the greatest expansions for women’s health in decades.

“Unfortunately there are significant and immediate threats to women’s health and access to birth control in the House and Senate that would completely take away access to birth control and severely undermine women’s health.

“One bill, the Rubio-Manchin bill, would allow any business or corporation, on the basis of personal religious belief or moral conviction, to take away birth control coverage from their employees.

“Employers should not be allowed to impose their personal beliefs on employees regarding birth control coverage or basic health care.

“Another bill, sponsored by Senator Blunt (R-MO), would drastically undermine women’s health and allow any employer or health plan to refuse to cover any health care service they object to on religious or moral grounds.

“That’s why Planned Parenthood, and women across the country, won’t let up for one minute in our fight to protect the birth control benefit and women’s health.”

This is a victory for women. Without question.

The right-wing is predictably butt-hurt about it, and advocates for the true victims of this horrid policy refuse to be silenced:

 

My God! Think of the insurance companies! Who will speak for them? (Besides, like, everybody.)

Oh, and by the way? Insurance companies aren’t going to be mad at the president. But it’s good to know that god-fearing Christians are on the side of big business and not on the side of women. Hey Bryan — Jesus’s mom was a woman! Think about that!

There is something wrong with conservatives. Seriously and deeply wrong with them. Luckily the Uterati escaped unscathed — this time.

[via Raw Story]

[cross-posted at ABLC]

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  5. 5.

    Soonergrunt

    “the Uterati”
    Awesome. I don’t think I even want to know what the other one is…
    “the Penitia”?

  9. 9.

    fasteddie9318

    Oh, and by the way? Insurance companies aren’t going to be mad at the president. But it’s good to know that god-fearing Christians are on the side of big business and not on the side of women. Hey Bryan—Jesus’s mom was a woman! Think about that!

    Not so! Jesus Christ, Inc. was a subsidiary of Moses, Inc., although it took mergers with Greco-Roman Mystery Cult, LLP and Zoroastrianism, Inc. to really bring the project to fruition.

  12. 12.

    elmo

    And am I the only one who thinks the timing of the whole freakout was NOT overlooked by the Machiavellians in the White House?

    Just as Newt’s hope of derailing Romney the Inevitable had begun to flag, here comes the Great Contraception Freakout — right before the voters in Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado Springs have a chance to register their horror and dismay by voting for Rick “Every Sperm is Sacred,” Santorum, and pumping new air into the tires of the clown car.

  13. 13.

    henqiguai

    But but but! With all the hoopla about the Catholic Church up in arms over this unprecedented abrogation of their rights (except for the 28 states that already require them to provide such coverage), heard on the radio-box in my car that this was a major miscalculation by the Obama team. Pure political amateurism or something! Surely you’re not saying that WGBH (Boston Public Radio) was in error, are you?

  15. 15.

    Betsy

    Jesus’s mom was a woman! Think about that!

    EXACTLY. And if being impregnated with no say in the matter was good enough for Mary, it’s good enough for you bitches godfearing women. /bishops

  16. 16.

    Maude

    I think that the opposition to Obama just learned the meaning of stove, hot.
    I was using gobsmacked every day for a time. Had to stop it.

  17. 17.

    Patricia Kayden

    Good to know that the Administration didn’t completely cave to the right wing and religious zealots.

  18. 18.

    elmo

    Oh, and “the religious liberty of insurance companies” is about the most mockable concept since “keep the government out of my Medicare.”

    Can we haz “Trampling the religious liberty of insurance companies” as a tag, plz? kthxbai.

  19. 19.

    MosesZD

    Obama 4, Republicans 42… It’s a close game… :rollseyes:

    Thank Ceiling Cat for Planned Parenthood…

  21. 21.

    Dennis G.

    And this is a beautiful way to bigfoot GOP candidate’s day at CPAC and force the wingnut elite to make opposition to contraception the latest litmus test of “CONservative values”.

    This is like watching Bugs Bunny take on a room full of low-functioning Yosemite Sam clones…

  25. 25.

    Raven

    @scav:

    superficially skillful, witty, or original in character or construction; facile: It was an amusing, clever play, but of no lasting value.

    showing inventiveness or originality; ingenious: His clever device was the first to solve the problem.
    adroit with the hands or body; dexterous or nimble

    From watching Bleak House, Little Dorrit, three versions of Oliver Twist, South Riding and Luther it seems to me that the Brits use it more just to mean really smart.

  26. 26.

    gypsy howell

    You know, once they start in with “jack booted thugs ordering around insurance companies” I think they’re going to lose people.

    Does ANYONE like insurance companies? Is there anyone who hasn’t been jacked around by their medical insurer, at some time or another?

  27. 27.

    g

    Now just tramples on religious liberty of insurance companies instead.

    Yes, insurance companies are, after all, such sticklers for morality and compassion.

  28. 28.

    Svensker

    @Betsy:

    EXACTLY. And if being impregnated with no say in the matter was good enough for Mary, it’s good enough for you bitches godfearing women. /bishops

    Actually, the angel did tell Mary first and she could have objected but she didn’t. Just to be accurate and stuff.

  30. 30.

    g

    Obama’s “compromise” is totalitarianism on hormones. Now jackbooted thugs are ordering insurance companies around.

    My god, really? Is Obama forcing insurance companies to follow “rules” and things, for the very first time in our history?

  31. 31.

    Jim C.

    No doubt about it. Obama owned this issue. Whether you feel he riled up the batshit crazy nest deliberately or whether or not Republicans did so for their own reasons, this is a neat little solution with no easy way out for Republicans.

  32. 32.

    Martin

    Jesus’s mom was a woman! Think about that!

    Which only proves that contraception doesn’t work and is an economic boot on the neck of the free market.

  33. 33.

    scav

    @Raven: Funny, I grew up with it meaning smart, sly as a fox variant, but without the superficiality slant. Must be too much of a reader and I did stick more to English authors. The people I must have confused over the years . . . (as though that was the only source of confusion!)

    ETA: oh yeah, TA! to continue in BBCese.

  34. 34.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    My husband is well versed in “Englishisms” it cracks his students up when he uses “Bloody hell”. Perhaps you Americans can translate “cheeky” (as in “you cheeky devil”) for me, I have never been able to come up with an American term that compares to it, perhaps there isn’t one.

    Oh and “gobsmacked” really has no equal I love it.

  36. 36.

    seanindc

    you know they know he outsmarted him and are going to hate him all the more for it. This shit is so much fun to watch. It’s like these idiots are bringing super-soakers to a gun fight.

  38. 38.

    Martin

    Obama’s “compromise” is totalitarianism on hormones. Now jackbooted thugs are ordering insurance companies around.

    See, now THAT’S overreach.

  39. 39.

    JGabriel

    … what Republicans really want to do is install a tiny government in to every women’s vagina …

    “And now we welcome the Senator from the great state of Vaginia …”

    .

  41. 41.

    kay

    I love “the religious liberty of insurance companies”

    Conservative men are beyond parody.

    I want it made clear that not one of these Right wing assholes is “paying” for any working woman’s contraception.

    Outside a fucking think tank, normal working people consider health insurance part of compensation.

  44. 44.

    scav

    @Soonergrunt: I was working with Lippy (with humor) as my Cheeky stand-in. Better? We seem to be in the same ballpark.

    ETA: what about Sass? Sassy? Not that it explains, but it might at least cover the cheeky girls.

  45. 45.

    Raven

    Dickensian terms

    “Wellerism, from Sam Weller, Mr. Pickwick’s servant (in Pickwick Papers), meaning making fun of clichés often by taking them literally. For example (when serving lunch): “Now, gen’l’m’n, ‘fall on, as the English said to the French when they fixed bagginets.”

  46. 46.

    WyldPirate

    “….to force the Republicans to show their asses…”

    I thought they already did this as a matter of course. No inducement seems necessary as this comes as naturally as breathing to them.

  48. 48.

    David Koch

    Digya notice, the only “reporters” who were outraged about contraception lived in Washington.

    Not a single reporter (Catholic or not) outside the Village gave a shit.

    Reporters in New York, or Boston, or Atlanta, or Philly, or LA didn’t give a shit.

    It is beyond strange how Washington based reporters are so different then the rest of the country.

  49. 49.

    GregB

    Republicans want to get the jack-booted government thugs out of the business of hunting down militia men with illegal firearms and get them back to trampling on women’s vaginas. You know, the good old days….

  50. 50.

    Linda Featheringill

    I don’t know how the Administration felt about the latest conflict but I was certainly taken aback by the intensity of hurt and righteous indignation. Over contraception? What the hey?

    Howsomever, our man did good. :-)

  52. 52.

    John PM

    (In my best 1920s reporter voice): “You know, that Obama fellow might just know what he’s doing. Certainly the ladies think he is the bees’ knees!”

  55. 55.

    rpl

    Insurance companies are about the bottom line. It’s cheaper for them to provide contraception than it is for them to provide services for pregnant women and babies. They are not into religion, except for their worship of money.

  57. 57.

    Bulworth

    Initially, I thought that the Administration, after instituting the rule, was taken aback by the right-wing freak out, but managed to strategize and negotiate its way around it. Others have since convinced me that this was the plan all along—to force the Republicans to show their asses thereby demonstrating to Democratic and Republican women alike (as well as those crucial independents) that what Republicans really want to do is install a tiny government in to every women’s vagina and arrogate complete control over women’s sexuality and health.

    Yeah me too. Also, too, Marcotte’s column really kicks ass.

  58. 58.

    Davis X. Machina

    “Surely you’re not saying that WGBH (Boston Public Radio) was in error, are you?”

    Could be them, could be the audience. It’s hard to hear anything clearly with a tote bag over your head.

  59. 59.

    Martin

    Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said Friday that he doesn’t believe birth control pills prevent pregnancies — and suggested that they’re a form of abortion.

    Steve, you maybe want to focus group that line before you run with it?

  60. 60.

    JGabriel

    Bryan Fischer:

    WH “compromise” totally bogus. Now just tramples on religious liberty of insurance companies instead.

    So Prudential, Allstate, and Geico walk into a Catholic church, go to the back vestibule room, take all the wafers, and start arguing over how to divide them.

    President Obama walks in, looks at them suspiciously, and says, “Hey, guys. Whatcha doin’?”

    Prudential turns to Allstate and Geico and says, “Watch out for that guy. He’s tryin’ to take all our religious liberties.”

    .

  63. 63.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @scav:

    Neither work for me because “cheeky” can be used in all sorts of ways depending on what it is followed with. (Hmmmmm I feel a blog post coming on.) For instance “nice blouse Mrs. Smith, can I help you out of it?” “oooooh you cheeky devil you *giggle*” Whereas “cheeky sod” is used in a completely different context, and “I’ll have none of your cheek” in another. I ask because when my sister was visiting one year she said to one of my friends “you’re cheeky aren’t you”. Later my friend said “what does cheeky mean?” and I swear to the FSM that I still haven’t come up with an answer ten years later.

    Sorry for the thread jack but ABL started it :)

  64. 64.

    Jay C

    Yeah, right: Bryan Fncking Fischer…

    Now just tramples on religious liberty of insurance companies instead

    As the “religious” sensibilities of insurance companies couldn’t be encapsulated in a simple rubric:

    WWMD *

    * (What Would Mammon Do?)

  65. 65.

    taylormattd

    and let me quote noted Obot Amanda Marcotte here:

    It’s all so perfect that I’m inclined to think this was Obama’s plan all along.

  66. 66.

    Culture of Truth

    “compromise” is totalitarianism on hormones

    Blimey, that sounds right worse than regular totalitarianism it does

  68. 68.

    slag

    @Svensker:

    Actually, the angel did tell Mary first and she could have objected but she didn’t.

    Well, with the power differential being what it was, Mary was–at minimum–sexually harassed.

  71. 71.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    My greatest joy in this episode has been – apart from seeing Obama do the right thing – seeing the egg on the face of the rightards.

    Second greatest? The walking back by lefty people who pre-emptively complained about the cave. Some have been gracious about it (e.g. Amanda Marcotte), others are still fishing for ways to say “I was *right*, but argle bargle blah.”

  74. 74.

    not motorik

    “Others have since convinced me that this was the plan all along”

    I’m sure this was very difficult!

  75. 75.

    Culture of Truth

    Actually, the angel did tell Mary first and she could have objected but she didn’t

    Mary: Maybe I should discuss this with Joseph when he gets home

    Gabriel: screw that loser – yes or no

  77. 77.

    FlipYrWhig

    I still think we’re overdue for a fight about what “religious liberty” is. Because you can tell from Fischer that he has completely redefined the term beyond all recognition. And, after that whole “Ground Zero mosque” bullshit, which was literally about the rightfulness of taking away other people’s rights to build a prayer space, the country needs a bit of a refresher course.

    Whatever it means, it damn sure does NOT mean the right to demand that employees abide by the consciences of their employers. If that really were a right, this would be the fucked-up-ed-est theocratic country in the world.

  78. 78.

    gex

    These “insurance companies of faith”. Are they also the ones whose practices included rescission of pregnant ladies?

  79. 79.

    JGabriel

    Culture of Truth:

    Gabriel: screw that loser – yes or no

    I’m never sticking up for you ever again.

    (Brought to you by the The Unintended Consequences of Ambiguous Pronouns Department.)

    .

  81. 81.

    scav

    @Litlebritdifrnt: It’s hardly fair when they’re so context dependent like that — may be why I could only come up with multiple options (well, that’s what I’ll be pleading in court). What always amuses me is is watching a scene, hitting a word I don’t know and yet knowing exactly what the meaning is (even if I can’t translate it into my own English). Eerie. Probably time to end the sidetrip, but ABL did start it and I don’t meet enough gobsmacked fans elsewhere.

  83. 83.

    Rawk Chawk

    what Republicans really want to do is install a tiny government in to every women’s vagina

    Yeast Timor.

  84. 84.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gex: Yup, that’s part of the liturgy. Other prayer book pages include the prescribed language for how to foist treatment onto a holy preexisting condition and how to spot errors on the sacred claim form.

  88. 88.

    MikeJ

    @Soonergrunt: And smartass is almost always a negative but cheeky isn’t. There was actually a segment on cheeky on A Way With Words sometime in the past few months.

  89. 89.

    Schlemizle

    The Nice Polite Republican on my radio this afternoon carried the story & added at the very end “This has many wondering why he didn’t propose this in the first place”

    Assholes

  92. 92.

    Marcellus Shale, Public Dick

    ok, so basically we have health care policy that resembles cable television regulation.

    i am glad that women’s health and birth control made it onto the basic tier regardless.

    anyone think, maybe this is why there wasn’t such a push for universal health care, after all?

    can you imagine the fight if it was all or nothing, the government pays or you are on your own, on contraception? a lot of things, but contraception?

    this is just making the employers pay for mtv so they can show fox news in the break room.

  93. 93.

    Amir Khalid

    @Martin:
    This statement sounds like a factual claim about how birth control pills work. If that’s what Steve King is asserting, then he’s wrong. Per Wikipedia, they were originally developed with the aim of preventing ovulation.

    Of course, the above assumes that, rather than putting out the A-word just to inflame his fellow right-wingers, King is arguing in good faith. It occurs to me that this might not be the case.

  95. 95.

    Suffern ACE

    @Martin: I’m dying. Flummoxed even. Scared of Muslims King. Scared of reparations King. Scared of the pill King. I know I shouldn’t read too much into it, but based on who they vote for, I swear that section of Iowa must just be bomb shelters and haystacks to hide behind.

  100. 100.

    David Koch

    Win-Win

    3 positive Obama diaries on GOS’ recommend list and not a single negative.

    Even his majesty Kos, himself, is praising the deal.

    And just now, Tweety is hailing Obama.

    Cool Hand Obama — nothing but net.

  101. 101.

    Jesse Ewiak

    Anybody who doesn’t think this is a win, go read the Corner. They’re going apocalyptic over there.

  102. 102.

    Jamey: Bike Commuter of the Gods

    what Republicans really want to do is install a tiny government in to every women’s vagina and arrogate complete control over women’s sexuality and health.

    When you put it that way, it almost sounds fun…

  103. 103.

    taylormattd

    ok, so my iphone sees 275 responses to this article, where as the tubes see only 102 responses.

    How do these internets work?

  104. 104.

    Svensker

    @slag:

    No, TNC did a thing about JFK and his “affair” with his young intern and there was a whole big discussion on power relationships and sex. Thassall.

  108. 108.

    Redshift

    @b-psycho:

    At this rate I half expect to hear that having eggs with your breakfast is abortion.

    I have friends who have been known to announce breakfast at weekend events with “Come and get yer chicken abortions!”

  109. 109.

    NineJean

    Don’t know about the rest of you, but I just sent a great big sloppy kiss to Sister Carol Keehan. [Yes, I kept it clean, and was very respectful. Duh!] Probably not the first person you’d think of to register approval to, but I’m thinking she may need it the most.

  110. 110.

    rikryah

    Greg Sargent: ….. anyone who comes out against the proposal Obama outlined today will be asked a simple question: Are you saying that employers should dictate to female employees whether they should or shouldn’t have access to birth control coverage?

    …. What kind of impact do you think GOP opposition to free contraception for female employees of these institutions will have on that gender gap?

    ….. a new poll came out just today illustrating how perilous this position may be ….. It found that a big majority, 61%, approve of “requiring employer health plans to cover birth control for women.” Only 34% disapproved. Independents approve 58-34; women, 67-29 …. The polling organization that published these findings? Fox News.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/birth-control-may-now-be-wedge-issue-against-gop/2012/02/10/gIQAbzVO4Q_blog.html

    BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA AH HA

  111. 111.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Litlebritdifrnt:
    ‘Impudent’ or ‘irreverent’. The common slangy words in American English don’t have the same implications ‘cheeky’ does in British English, but ‘impudent’ and ‘irreverent’ do. They’re just not in common use.

  112. 112.

    Citizen Alan

    @Svensker:

    Actually, the angel did tell Mary first and she could have objected but she didn’t. Just to be accurate and stuff.

    Riiiiight. Imagine that an honest to Bieber Archangel showed up in your bedroom tonight and said “Fear not, for the Lord thy God has chosen you to be raped with a Celestial Dildo! Unless you think you’re too good to be raped by God or something!” What sort of objections would you raise?

    Also, primitive Bronze Age myth. Just to be accurate and stuff.

  114. 114.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Bryan Fischer is a C-list troll. Just because TPM likes trolling its own readers by featuring him and Steve “White Supremacist” King every other day doesn’t mean that “ignore the troll” doesn’t apply.

  118. 118.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I love watching Obama play chess with the wingers. They think they have him cornered, yell CHECKMATE! and then…

    he calmly moves his King forward one square, sits back and smiles at them.

    I was wondering where Obama was going with this right before an election, not worrying, just wondering. I think this was another rope-a-dope move; he doled out the rope, the Catholics and wingers gladly wrapped it around their necks and now he yanks back on the line after hooking a mess of suckers on it.

    This, with the news about the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the massive numbers of child rape victims and incidents following it, is just sweet timing for Obama and everyone he is fighting for. Go ahead conservatives, align yourself with an organization whose members have been raping thousands of children for decades.

    They’re your kind of people, aren’t they? You can have them.

  119. 119.

    harlana

    i am really pleased about this. the republicans started this shitstorm about birth control – thanks republicans, we need to have this discussion! because it’s so important to YOU, we should find out how the general public feels about it, don’t you think? i think you are getting a taste of that and the President has reaped all the benefit. :)

  120. 120.

    Tight white Pussycat

    Brilliant! Legitimizing religious kkkrazies by coaching them that everything is “on the table.” Simply saying “no” would have been a terrible mistake.

  122. 122.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tight white Pussycat:

    Legitimizing religious kkkrazies by coaching them that everything is “on the table.”

    They demanded that birth control coverage be taken off the table, and the answer was, “Fine, we’ll put it under this napkin so you can’t see that it’s on the table. Happy now?”

    Still trying to figure out why a cosmetic, Jesuitical change of language that still gives all women access to free birth control is somehow capitulating to the crazies.

  125. 125.

    Soonergrunt

    @Mnemosyne:

    Still trying to figure out why a cosmetic, Jesuitical change of language that still gives all women access to free birth control is somehow capitulating to the crazies.

    That’s because you’re not a firebagger.

  126. 126.

    Dan S.

    Speaking of Mary and angels and all, there’s a pretty awesome modern-day re-imagining of that -with a few twists- in Leah Bobet’s short story The Parable of the Shower:

    YOU WOULD SPEAK WITH ME? [the new angel] saith.
    There is an angel of the LORD in my shower, thou imploreth, and he keeps saying he’s supposed to knock me up, and I’m only twenty-three, I can’t raise a kid right now—
    THOU CANST USE DAYCARE, the angel boometh.
    —and I thought you were against single-parent families, thou finishest.
    DO YOU NOT TRUST IN THE POWER OF THE LORD TO BRING YOU A HUSBAND?
    That’s not the point, thou repliest, shrinking down unto Missus Van Metre’s carpet. It is not thy job to tell an angel of the LORD that thou likest not the boys.

  127. 127.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Svensker:

    Actually, the angel did tell Mary first and she could have objected but she didn’t.

    Gabriel was all like “You’re going to have a baby and his name is going to be Jesus” and Mary was all like “WhatEVer.”

  129. 129.

    Brain Hertz

    Hey Bryan—Jesus’s mom was a woman! Think about that!

    Yes, but she wasn’t a slut, you see?

  131. 131.

    imbrium

    National Organization of ‘Vigilance Against Government Intervention to prevent a Non-sectarian Autonomous Society.’

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