Sunday Open Thread
You guys sure are chatty this weekend. Here’s a fresh thread for you.
Is the Delaware Democratic party’s website fubar-ed for you as well?
An excellent diary on anti-vaccine hysteria from Daily Kos.
Some on-line activist started a website called Republicans For Rape after
30 Republican senators (all men) voted against the Franken amendment.
The Franken amendment closes a loophole which allows defense contractors to dismiss serious crimes like rape through an arbitration clause. It doesn’t outlaw arbitration, it simply states that the U.S. government contractors can not use arbitration for crimes like rape or kidapping, only for things like contract disputes.
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” Speaking on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken said:
The constitution gives everybody the right to due process of law … And today, defense contractors are using fine print in their contracts do deny women like Jamie Leigh Jones their day in court. … The victims of rape and discrimination deserve their day in court [and] Congress plainly has the constitutional power to make that happen.
Watch Franken’s speech:
On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) spoke against the amendment, calling it “a political attack directed at Halliburton.” Franken responded, “This amendment does not single out a single contractor. This amendment would defund any contractor that refuses to give a victim of rape their day in court.”
29 other Republican senators agreed with Sessions.
The website features some classy Republican figures like professional anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly:
Then, a year later, she granted an interview to a Washington University in St. Louis student newspaper, it went like this:
Could you clarify some of the statements that you made in Maine last year about martial rape?
I think that when you get married you have consented to sex. That’s what marriage is all about, I don’t know if maybe these girls missed sex ed. That doesn’t mean the husband can beat you up, we have plenty of laws against assault and battery. If there is any violence or mistreatment that can be dealt with by criminal prosecution, by divorce or in various ways. When it gets down to calling it rape though, it isn’t rape, it’s a he said-she said where it’s just too easy to lie about it.
Was the way in which your statement was portrayed correct?
Yes. Feminists, if they get tired of a husband or if they want to fight over child custody, they can make an accusation of marital rape and they want that to be there, available to them.
So you see this as more of a tool used by people to get out of marriages than as legitimate-
Yes, I certainly do.
Tags: Open Thread
To be fair, she probably meant to say, “I think that when you get married – IN 1870 – you have consented to sex.”
Yeah, she said this in 2007 and 2008.
Just wondering now – who does a woman’s body belong to when she is an adult and not married in Schlafly’s opinion?
Jesus.
UI asked Just wondering now – who does a woman’s body belong to when she is an adult and not married in Schlafly’s opinion?
Her father. Geez, that was an easy one.
You’re right nemski because in the eyes of some conservatives women are really children that need to be protected from themselves.
An adult, unmarried woman is not a real woman because she can’t get a man.
Nemski,
Too true and it wasn’t that long ago. When I got married, in the late 1960’s, my father took my groom aside and gave him a folder with my birth certificate, immunization records, stocks and bond certificates, and all my legal documents, because I had just changed hands. At the time, I saw nothing wrong with this. Wow how times change. Thank the goddesses.
Damn… Times change. When I got married in the mid 90’s my Mother took my bride aside and gave all of those things to my wife. She was afraid I would lose them. Thanks Mom!
🙂
So maybe Michelle has Obama’s birth certificate.
R. Crumb illustrates the Book of Genesis.
Cannot wait for the christianist reaction to THIS one.
Yes, Cass, but has it been purged of all the liberalism?
Yes, Cass, but has it been purged of all the liberalism?
Were you expecting the Sodomites to emerge from the city in a giant conga line dressed in drag and roast weenies and sip Bellinis over pools of burning brimstone?
Cool pumpkins and here. I love the Death Star pumpkin.
Axelrod says that Fox News isn’t really a news channel.
Axelrod is correct. And Phyllis Schafly is not. And it’s too, if not exactly nice a day at least not totally storming, to argue with anons about Dubya. But i wanted to pop in and say “hi”. Easier to build an actual deathstar than carve that pumpkin, I think. LOL.
Rebecca–too funny, what just seemed normal. We have the grandparents’ wedding certificate, which lists grandma’s occupation as “spinster”…mind you, she had travelled, schooled, and was gainfully employed before saying “I do” to that itinerant sheepherder! I think she was around 25-26.
When my mom went to college, all the women had to apply through the Home Economics department.
Oh yea–and on your anti-vaccination hysteria note in regards to Swine Flu–what about the “vaccination hysteria”? You bet I want ’em for devastating diseases like polio and smallpox–but open-minded, reasonable me can ride out an inconvenient infirmity, should it hit the household. No hysteria here. Just a choice. And boy, you pharma hating posters seem to be all okey dokey I guess w/ Sebellius’s full legal immunity granted to pharma w/ this particular innocculation. Can I invoke my woman’s right to choose on this one :)?
Hang onto your hat, Joanne. I’m working on an H1N1 post as you type. Although, it will take me a while since I’m getting all my facts together. And I don’t recall anyone writing that they hate pharma, just that we want a level playing field. 🙂
Pandora sweetie, it’s not level if there is no accountability. Not one shred–full pass. Heck, I’m probably more accountable as one who administers the injection/spray!
On another note, I’m cooking an uncooked ham today and it really smells like bacon.
And lastly, break a leg Smitty’s wife!
Joanne, you’re mixing up my statements. I never implied that pharma shouldn’t be held accountable. But you, and your children, are entitled not to vaccinate. If I believed in god, I’d offer to keep you in my prayers. 😉
Joanne,
I’m not sure what your issue is with the H1N1 vaccine. It’s made the same way as the yearly seasonal flu vaccine and it was tested on more than 3000 healthy volunteers. Click on the link above for more info. As for pharma, I think like any other industry they think of profit first. They actually spend more money on advertising than on research but they do real research. I think they’ve spent too much time making “me too” drugs and blockbuster medicines.
Also, the vaccine is voluntary. Joanne, what is your problem with the vaccine – scientifically speaking?
Balloon Boy officially a hoax! Sad. (link)
First off–my problem is the hype–not the science. WHO has quit tracking this disease, unless there are pockets of abberrent “typical flu like symptoms”. There has not been any. Next, while I applaud the willingness of the US to dispense freely to schools, and other organizations–why the heck this bugger, and not any other flu shot? People are shelling out 25-40 bucks for the seasonal flu shot–but this one is thrown in like fortune cookies w/ your order? But again, w/ a bunch of drama and hype. I don’t like being made to feel not getting the “shot”, aligns w/ hysteria. When actually in my POV, those outside of high-risk advised populations are the hysterical ones. We are going to vomit, cough, and fever in our lives, all in good order. Our immune systems need to be trialed at times, to prep us for those greater diseases around the corner, and the ability to fight off the everyday viruses and bugs that we come in contact with–that don’t necessitate a vaccination. We can’t hermetically seal our existence, and struggles. This disease we can ride out, albeit inconveniently. And a word from science….the epidemilogical studies from polio did demonstrate direct correlation of increased chilhood outbreaks to higher socio-economic status vs. lower SES. The reason? Higher SES did not have the same target immunity–clothes were clean, water always fresh, access to antibiotics, etc., etc., etc.. Essentially, their immune systems were not up to the fight of polio, as a lower SES counterpart who had endured “teases” of immune strength either thru non-potable water, outhouse usage whatever. Big difference in diseases I know..but still in the scope of things…I think this household can weather a different flu. FYI though, my niece was hospitalized in Colorado last week w/ complications of H1N1. She has severe special needs and falls into a demographic that should avail themselves of this program. Was not available yet…and interestingly enough, the rest of the household was tested, with a negative result. All is well.
So in conclusion…not hysterical…just not getting it.
More children have died from this flu than die every year. It’s especially harmful for children.
From the CDC via dkos: