2014.07.11 AUGMENTATION: Another confession – to borrow the words of the immortal Bob Ross, this article is a “happy accident.” What I should have said is that the Supreme Court decision “isn’t about contraception,” instead of “it isn’t about “abortion.” As it turns out, it isn’t about either one. The media has used the two interchangeably, and last week was harried and a distraction for me, hence the unintended difference in perspective. However, there are some things that needed to be said in the article and conceptually you can read it to say “contraception” and it all boils down correctly. So, I kinda like the little rascal, and rather than make any changes, I decided to let it stand on it’s own – as brilliantly scathing satire. – JIM
“Baby Killer! Baby Killer! Just look at that title, you must be one of them baby killers!” Not hardly. In fact, my short lived political success was in fact based on my pro-life stance. My election to the Madison County Republican Executive Committee in 1986 was at a time when local Republican Party officials didn’t really want abortion to become a primary issue for them. They were more involved in their personal aristocratic business agendas and wanted to maintain a more narrow focus and allegiance for their followers.
My political participation helped to realign the local republican party – into the monster that it has become today – infiltrated with fundamentalist TEA Party Zealots. So, I have confessed. But, let it be known. I publicly renounced and denounced the Republican party when “W” Bush was in the throes of his first election, and while I am not and never have been a democrat, I have never looked back at the convolutions involved in republican affiliation, and as an independent independent, don’t ever foresee doing so.
These days I am less dogmatic about pro-life. Largely because of the overall extremism and lack of constitutional regard by the Republican zealots. And because, during my participation in the pro-life movement, I became increasingly aware that only about half of pro-lifers are actually concerned with the well-being of the unborn – or the born, for that matter. The other half sees anti-abortion as a method of social, occupational and political control, to the point of subjugation, that is in their best economic or political interest. They are motivated by greed. And because, if not a “necessary evil,” abortion is legal and will ultimately prove to be an unassailable reality – even if subject to varying degrees of regulation from state to state. Finally, there are other important issues that are being overshadowed and neglected.
Where does Hobby Lobby fit into the equation? Suffice it to say, the Supreme Court decision isn’t about abortion, or Hobby Lobby’s inanimate “religious freedom.” To begin with, since when do benefits belong to the employer? Benefits belong to the employee as part of their compensation. Benefits are part of your paycheck. If an employer says he will not allow you to have health insurance that pays for abortion, will he also say you cannot use your vacation time to travel to Las Vegas? Will the employer then assume the same control over how you spend your hard earned cash money as well? Will you be allowed to visit a nice restaurant and drink wine with your steak dinner? Can you enjoy a six pack watching the game on Saturday, or if you live in Colorado or Washington, can you fire up a hooter to watch the sunset on Friday evening? If the wine is taboo for one religious zealot employer, then don’t vegan employers also have a right to outlaw your carnivorous habits as well? And since the employer apparently has ownership of your benefits, your money, and your time, can’t they then engage in surveillance of your activities even when you are not at work – in order to protect their ownership – of your life?
Where does Hobby Lobby fit into the equation – “a method of social, occupational and political control, to the point of subjugation, that is in their best economic or political interest.” Why do you think they call it the “Hobble” Lobby?
Now take a look at the precedent of ownership and control, and apply that across the board to socialized healthcare. Obama is going away soon, I can assure you that socialized
healthcare, like “unassailable” abortion, is not. Crop chopping Obamacare is the worst possible conclusion to healthcare. You are being indoctrinated. Once the exceptions and special provisions begin, they will be never ending. Little by little Obamacare will apply one more restriction, one more exception, one more food you can’t eat, one more activity you can’t participate in, and one more requirement for activity you do participate in. Next thing you know, the Scientology employers will want to implement their test tube procreation requirements through the required healthcare benefits that you pay for. Then suddenly, Scientology will see an upsurge in membership by corporate executives.
So once again, while it seems that the conservatives have won a battle, they haven’t. Because once again John Roberts has provided the swing vote to rip apart and dissolve the true intent of the United States Constitution. You would have to be a total moron or a social fascist not to realize that this Supreme Court decision is the very definition of violating the separation of Church and State. John Roberts said it himself, Obamacare is a tax. Since when are taxes levied and spent based on the whims of individual religious zealots?
The John Roberts Handover(s), facilitated by the Supreme Court Chief Justice, will be regarded as the most destructive policy changes in history, leading to the decline of the United States and constitutional democracy as we know it.
There are other implications as well. The precedent allowing employers to run their public, for profit business, in any manner they choose, no matter how large or how many employees, has potentially serious and unconstitutional ramifications. You may have noticed that Target chimed in immediately after saying that customers were prohibited from carrying guns into their stores. Very shortly after that statement, Target issued another statement to clarify their intent saying that customers were not banned from carrying guns but that it was a “request.” I think they realize that when a store is open for business, it has to meet certain standards for public access. If you want a business license to do business with the public for profit, you must obey the laws of Uncle Sam and the constitution – it is the domain of Caesar. The right to keep and bear arms is pointless if you cannot do so in public – and the constitution wasn’t meant to be a pointless joke.
More implications. We live in a time when we all know fossil fuels are limited, and will eventually begin to diminish. Some states are already beginning to grapple with the reality that virtually all roadways are built using the tax dollars collected on the sale of fossil fuels. As those sales diminish, so will the tax dollars. New methods of taxation including assessment of mileage on electric cars and toll roads are being considered and implemented. The public infrastructure of roadways in the United States is without question the greatest and most economically empowering example of “common welfare” in US history, if not world history. And yet there are already indications that some would like to create a system of individual taxation and toll roads that would slice up the roadways into a territorial matrix that only the wealthiest could afford to traverse from coast to coast. If religious cults are allowed to determine how their tax dollars are spent, as opposed to providing for common welfare, will Utah control access to state roads for Mormons only? Will the public infrastructure in Florida become accessible only to retired Jews and illegal Cuban immigrants? Will the gays monopolize public access in San Francisco, and will the Klan once again take over Alabama?
I don’t like abortion. However, the United States Constitution is all about maintaining INDIVIDUAL liberty, freedom, and independence for EVERYONE, not the cultish demands of the Hobble Lobby. Without it, eventually, you will have NO religious freedom… or freedom of any kind for that matter.
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© 2014 – Jim Casey
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