If you have been reading my work for very long, you know I am not what anybody would consider a rabid feminist. Yet, I do most vehemently believe that women have the same inalienable rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as men.
We live in sad and pathetic times for women in this world.
The Taliban are still executing women in Afghanistan. At this rate, they will have committed self-genocide within a generation and a half. In fact, I am utterly amazed they still have women to murder. (Warning! That link does include pictures and video!)
Darfur is still a terrifying mess of rape and murder, and there is little hope the man in charge will be brought to justice.
France has decided you can’t be both French and a devout Muslim woman.
Honor killings are news in the United States, but pathetically common in some areas of the world.
The Republican candidate for President voted against a bill that would allow women to actually sue when they find they aren’t getting paid as well for the same work a man does.
And now, the federal Department of Health and Human Services has decided that they know better than actual doctors, and is attempting to redefine pregnancy in such a way as to magically turn the use of hormonal birth control into an “abortion.” This would of course free up pharmacists and doctors to refuse allow women to get it on “moral” grounds. It would also effectively prevent any public health system from dispensing birth control. This, ironically, will raise the number of unwanted pregnancies, which will in turn raise the numbers of abortions out there. Bizarro Government.
There’s just no using logic with some people.
In closing: couldn’t everyone use a patient advocate; I need a Hello Kitty Disaster Kit; Look who got mentioned in The Week Daily; 5 reasons $4 gas might not be all bad; inflation at its worst level since the Original Bush Adminstration; Jill could use a job; and finally, another stupid approach to “universal” health care. The first nail in the coffin is that it still involves primary care being paid for by for-profit insurance companies. Second, it involves a VAT. Third, it assumes — and concedes it might not work out that way — that employers will pass on the savings of not buying insurance policies by giving everybody a huge raise. Can I have a ticket to his fantasy-land? It sounds like a better place than here for a the-center-is-progressive lady like myself.