Saturday, March 03, 2012

My Sunday Feeling. But On Saturday.



A law student at Georgetown named Sandra Fluke wanted to testify before the House Oversight Committee.  She wanted to say that students such as herself were paying too much of the out-of-pocket portion for prescription contraceptives.  According to Rush Limbaugh, this makes Sandra Fluke "a slut."  "How ya figure?" Sane America might ask.  So here you go.

"It makes her a prostitute.  She wants to be paid to have sex.  She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception."

Now this is breathtakingly stupid.  Even for Rush.  Let me count the ways.

In the first place I seriously doubt that he knows Ms. Fluke or any of the details regarding her intimate personal life.  Not that Rush is about the facts.  It's easier just to haul off and libel someone.  It's better for ratings.

Secondly, there are numerous men out there who have to take Viagra because they are not able to function due to underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease or prostate surgery.  So by this logic these guys are every bit as slutty as the young Salome from notorious party school Georgetown that Rush maligned.

Thirdly, wanting contraceptives to be covered by insurance is no more wanting "to get paid to have sex" than my wanting coverage for Xopenex and Singular equates to me wanting to get paid to breathe.

Finally, and you ladies out there feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but most birth control pills are taken once a day.  This is true whether you are abstemious or whether you are clunking along aboard stiletto heels out on East Roosevelt Road after dark.  It is a false equivalence.  You don't pop a birth control pill every time you have sex.  Having said that, I do recall a couple of instances when a lady friend said, "Oops.  Hang on.  Be right back.  I need to take something."  But that was pretty much superstition as I understand the medical science."

Maybe Rush has pills and condoms confused.  That would be hard to believe given his past relevant experience with the former.  But who knows?

Again, I don't get it.  Most women I know have used contraceptives.  And I know a LOT of women.  Granted the economy issue is not working as well for the Repubs as it once did.  Ditto with National Security seeing as how Barack has seen to it that a whole passel of his Muslim brethren got an early trip to Paradise courtesy of Uncle Sam.

But this is 2012.  Women are a permanent part of the workplace.  And a whole lot of them view their sexual health to be a matter between themselves, their doctors and their significant others.  Just like any health issue me and Rush Limbaugh might have.

Besides, and I say it again and again, did they not see what happened when the Komen Foundation cut off Planned Parenthood?  Do they think pissing off women who take the pill is smart politics?  Do they?

Anyway, I don't think that Rush Limbaugh really believes a third of the shit he puts out there.  He's just making money.  Reprehensible as that is, the amusing side effect of these scurrilous pensees might be to cost the GOP many voters in the election.

Good work, Rush! 

Anyway, I wish Ms. Fluke well.  This is a fight she did not pick.  I doubt that she's having so much sex that she can't afford contraceptives.  Mainly because it is a ridiculous statement.  And Georgetown being Georgetown, the likelier guess is that she's too busy studying to have near the lurid sex life Rush Limbaugh imagines.

Or maybe even dreams about.

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