The White Papers

I hate it when I feel like I must write about something stupid a Republican has done.  I’m a Republican – proudly so – and feel like conservative principles are the best thing for getting this country on the right track.  So when a Republican does something that even for a moment takes away from getting the conservative message out there to the American population, it ticks me off.  And today it ticked me off in a big way.

Meet Congressman Todd Akin from Missouri.  He’s running against Claire McCaskill in the upcoming election.  Before today, I hadn’t even heard his name.  Congressman Akin is a staunch defender of the pro-life movement and this I have no problem with at all.  But I do have a problem when a man such as Congressman Akin makes a comment that is so stupid and so insulting as he did today.

Congressman Akin said in an interview that if a woman is “legitimately raped” that her body has the ability to shut down any potential pregnancy. Um, what?

First of all, let’s tackle the sheer insanity of this comment.  This man apparently believes that a woman has some sort of super-power that allows her to prevent a pregnancy from occurring when they are raped?  And that this super-power only kicks in when they are “legitimately raped”? This guy is 65 years old and he really doesn’t understand how pregnancy occurs?  Really?

But let’s not forget the “legitimately raped” aspect of this comment too.  This insinuates that many women aren’t really raped.  That most of them just make it up or are misinterpret the guy’s intentions.  Because God forbid that we ever stop and consider the sheer amount of sexual predatory crimes in this country and how women are being not only violated but then shunned or ignored when they dare to bring up the attacks and ask for justice.

I have known several women in my life that have been violated by a man.  Some have actually believed that the attack wasn’t really an attack, that somehow they were to blame for it.  In the last 5 years, I have watched a church turn a blind eye to a young child molester and then completely shut out families of the children molested when his crimes came to light.  I have watched another man go to jail for trying to abuse his step-daughter and that same church’s leaders were uncomfortable with reporting the attempts of this man.  When this guy was finally reported, the preacher actually told me he hoped the mom would not do the “wrong thing” and divorce him, because you know, divorce is a sin (and apparently molesting your kid is ok, I guess). And I know of another man who did horrific things to his daughter and before he went to jail – I know that the church that guy went to actually raised money for his defense.

We live in a society where like or not, men attempt to control women through sexual violence.  Churches can be a haven for this unfortunately because many churches teach women that men are in charge – no matter what.  But they aren’t the only place where this is a problem.  And for a man like Congressman Akin to insinuate that some rapes aren’t “legitimate” is a slap in the face to every women who has ever been violated or controlled by a man through sexual means.

Of course, this man did come out and “apologize” today.  He claimed he misspoke.  That’s not an apology.  For years after I got married, when my wife would apologize about something she didn’t really think she was wrong about, she’d say, “I’m sorry I made you mad.”  We joke about it now that it took me so long to realize that what she was saying wasn’t really an apology.  That’s what Congressman Akin just did.  He looked at his constituents and said, “I’m sorry I made you mad.”  He didn’t apologize or admit to anything he did wrong.

Until he truly apologizes, anything he said will not be good enough. Congressman Akin was ignorant and insulting and quite frankly a disgrace to the Republican Party.  We deserve a better representative for our party in Missouri. And if that bothers you, well, then “I’m sorry I made you mad”.

Note: And in case anyone thinks I may have misinterpreted Congressman Akin’s comments, here they are in all their glory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdisTOKom5I&feature=player_embedded

 

Well, here we are again.  Another horror, another tragedy for this country to face.  A man decides to go into a movie theater where people were doing nothing more than slurping down a soda and munching on some popcorn while watching the exploits of Batman and start shooting.  Twelve people dead, nearly sixty wounded.

Why did he do it?  He apparently dressed up like the Joker, so is that the reason?  Is he nuts?  Just evil? Knowing the why isn’t going to matter.  He did it and people are dead.  The why of that won’t make it better, it won’t bring them back.  It just answers an unanswered question.

As typically happens with something like this, my mind focuses in on the children.  I think of the 6 year old girl who died.  I imagine a girl who was enjoying the summer before she starts 1st grade, waking up Thursday morning super-excited because her Mom was going to take her to a midnight showing of a super-hero movie.  My two girls would have been the same way.  And evil has taken away that young girls future.

I read several things the following day that while depressing also no longer surprise me.  First one was the number of people who tried to blame the shooting on Rush Limbaugh.  Why? Because Rush a few days prior made a ridiculous comment that the movies villain was named Bane as a left-wing conspiracy to reference Bain Capital which is a sore issue in the Romney Presidential campaign.  This was a dumb thing to say because Bane has been a villain of Batman’s since 1993.  But did this make Rush culpable? No, and the accusations had no staying power because that kind of stupid had already been worn to death when a former Governor of Alaska was accused of being culpable in the shootings done by another evil man in Arizona a year or so prior.

Additionally once the name of the shooter was known, ABC news could hardly hold back their glee in reporting the fact that the individual was a member of the Tea Party.  Only he wasn’t.  The man of the same name though that was of the Tea Party has now had to deal with death threats because the media is ever trying to prove that the Tea Party is an evil organization out for blood.

Then of course you have the people who want to use a tragedy like this to prove that guns should be banned.  That certain weapons or ammunition should be banned.  Because when no one has the ability to defend themselves against a freak like this, only then we’ll all be safe.

Finally, to top it all off – the faux-church known as Westboro has decided to come to Aurora and protest the lives of innocent people yet again.  I will never cease to be amazed by the capability of this group to do the work of the very entity they say they are against.

But you know what?  All of this means nothing. No matter what we do, people are going to kill other people.  People are going to blame others for it.  Presidents and Presidential candidates are going to be “deeply saddened” by it.  And people are going to use these tragedies to shove their political agenda down our throats.

We always spend the first several days of a story like this in shock.  Why did he do it?  How could God let this happen?  Who’s to blame?  What do we change?  And then we go back to our lives as if this horrific thing won’t ever happen again.  Heck, I do that too…in fact I was in the theater today watching the very movie these people died trying to go see.

Truth be told, I really believe there isn’t any real solution here.  I know how depressing this sounds – but I don’t think there’s answers.  People kill others.  All the time.  For no reason.  And they’ve been doing it forever.  And while most of us don’t want that to happen so much anymore, it will keep happening. Sadly, I don’t think there’s a lot we can do to prevent it.

James Holmes just reinforced to me today that our society is not as civilized as we fake ourselves into believing.  That saddens me deeply.  I’m sure in a few days I’ll have moved on to something else more important in my life, but for now, I’m really unable to shake the feeling that I may no longer ever feel safe in my “civilized” country anymore.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I have not ever been a fan of ObamaCare.   Before today’s ruling, I understood the implications of the Supreme Court deciding to uphold the law based on the idea that the individual mandate could be accepted as a part of the Commerce Clause.  I didn’t like that idea, but I understood and made my peace with that possibility.

I was not prepared emotionally I guess for the idea that the Supreme Court would define it as a TAX.  It may be splitting hairs, but I guess that one decision hit me harder than anything else.  It seems so…dishonest.  “No, it’s not legal for government to order you to buy a product, but it is legal for government to tax you in order for the product to be bought.”

I’m struck by the absurdity of this.  For months before we got this bill that even today – almost no one ON THE PLANET knows what is in it – we were told that this mandate was not a tax.  They argued in court that it was not a tax.  And yet it’s now decided by a court of 9 people that it is a tax.

That fundamentally changes what this country’s government is able to do.  We have now set a precedent that any product can be forced upon the citizenry because we can be taxed to have it provided.  I know people scoff at the idea of being “forced to buy broccoli”.  But are you ok with a tax to ensure that everyone drives a “green-car”?  What about an “obesity tax” – which exists in other countries?  How about changing that “obesity tax” into a tax for gym membership?  After all, not everyone currently has access to a good place to exercise productively.

I’m not overly familiar with all tax laws, but I’m curious…is there any other tax we currently have that is taken by the government but turned around and given to a business (i.e. insurance companies)?  I don’t honestly know but I can’t think of any.  This seems completely new to me.  How is that not forcing us to buy a product?

So many questions arise from this.  We’re now forced to buy insurance.  What if we aren’t employed?  How do they force a person to pay then?  How about churches? Aren’t they tax-exempt?  If this is a tax, can they be forced to provide health care insurance for their employees – or even be forced to pay the fine?  Has anyone thought any of this through?  The implications of this now being classified a tax are in my mind just overwhelming.

I also can’t tell you how tired I am of the argument of “well, you’re forced to buy car insurance” argument.  You aren’t forced to buy insurance if you don’t own a car! The argument is not equitable and it is foolish in its entirety.

Many people on the left classify those on the right as being against taxes.  That’s not true at all. Taxes are a fundamental need of any government.  But our country has become a parasite in its need for more and more taxes.  And for those who think this tax will be strictly for health care need to look only at the “locked-box” known as social security to see that our government will not honor the commitments it makes with us.  Social security is no longer used for just the purposes it was intended.  50 years from now neither will the ObamaCare tax.

The mandate is a tax.  A tax that was sold to us as not a tax is now a tax. How can anyone hear that and find that an acceptable answer for any solution from our government?  I understand the hype of this next comment, but I truly believe the America I woke up to this morning is not the same one that exists now as I go to bed tonight.