pantoum's Diaryland Diary

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CAUSE AND EFFECT

268.

A writer in The Nation pointed out that, while we focus our attention on whether or not Supreme Court nominees will overturn Roe v. Wade, Bush is stacking the courts with pro-business judges. I worry that, as a culture, we have such a short attention span that we have already forgotten the Hurricane Katrina debacle because, hey, Brittany Spears had a baby! Yet the debacle made clear the folly of giving precedence to private financial gain over human lives (and at so many levels).

And speaking of giving less than a shit about people living in poverty (or sliding into it as the middle class vanishes), Company Bush has allowed Florida to limit Medicaid benefits. The approved plan says that �the state will set aside a specific amount of money for each person enrolled in Medicaid,� based on the citizen�s medical condition and their historical use of health care. And the state can limit the �amount, duration and scope� of the services.

Pick up on that historic use of health care? That�s cause and effect, baby, from a White House that makes value judgments on human lives. You�re a poor black New Orleanian? Well, you probably live a sinful life in that den of iniquity and voted Democrat, so you are expendable. And if you didn�t drown, then now we�ll decide which benefits you get for the rest of your life.

Let�s see, your historic use of health care indicates that you have been treated for bronchitis and you smoke. So, as Jesse Helms is my witness, I hereby rubberstamp a big fat NO! on your request for treatment.

Ah. I see that you chose to eat the starchy food that poor people can afford instead of the grilled salmon that we recommend twice weekly, so we choose not to pay for your insulin or pacemaker.

GOP cause and effect never extends to exacting payment from the corporations that pollute our environment and make us all sick though.

So my question is this: Now that Florida can legally set a ceiling on insurance spending per person per year and per lifetime, what will JEB and W do with the next Terry Schiavo when she meets her insurance cap?

Company Bush is making it harder and harder to declare bankruptcy too, so I suppose Schiavo�s spouse (unless she�s queer�hmmm, there�s a reason not to get married!) will be stuck with the bills and a vegetable wife he cannot put out of her misery.

�

One of my former roommates�a public-health advocate�decided to go to medical school because she saw the writing on the wall about Roe v. Wade and wanted to be in a position to set up illegal abortion clinics a la the Redstockings when the time comes. Well, I�m beginning to believe I will wind up in law school yet with a focus on battling these Christianists who want to rewrite our constitution to match their book of myths.

(And please remind me to send more money to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.)

Meanwhile, Steve Satterwhite of The Texas Observer interviewed some of the Christianists who want a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages and civil unions (AKA codified discrimination against a portion of the citizenry) and it�s astounding what they said.

These people really do want to replace our constitution with their book of myths. The writer points out the echo-chamber phenomenon I discovered with the Christianists in my grad. courses�they use the same words and the same statistics to argue their points (which some liberals do too, of course). Specifically, they quote �widely discredited reports by Paul Cameron��the man who started the urban legend about queers inserting hamsters into their rectums.

This doctor was dropped from membership in the American Psychological Association in 1983 because he did not meet professional codes of ethics and conduct.

Mary Ann Markarain from Sugar Land said

...sin is sin. We're not animals. We're people, and I do not believe that you're born homosexual. They only have two signs over at the hospital: blue ones for the boys and pink ones for the girls. God knows when we're born what we're supposed to be.

The proof is in the pudding. Ninety-two percent of all gay males engage in rimming, the process of licking the rim of the anus and ingesting various amounts of fecal matter. Forty-seven percent of all males engage in fisting, the act of placing their fist in their partner's rectum for sexual pleasure. Twenty-nine percent of all homosexual males engage in golden showers�the practice of lying on the floor, typically nude, and allowing their partner to urinate on them. This is abnormal. These are things I've never read in the newspaper. This isn't something you hear about on CNN. But this is something that is taking place.

Now I know this is not real pleasant, but the truth needs to come out. When we say the word "gay," we're really just hiding because we're really not understanding what that word really entails�what it means, what people are doing, and why this can hurt society as a whole. It's never been an accepted lifestyle. If we allow this to become accepted, then the numbers will grow astronomically. Now they want to take it into the classroom, to teach our children that this is okay. Our society is two to three percent gay, but if you teach children that homosexuality is okay, then we're going to have a lot of problems.

The median age of homosexual men dying with AIDS is 39 years old; that's wrong, not natural. The median age of all other homosexual men dying from other causes is 42. Do you consider 42 young? I consider it extremely young since I'm one year away from it. The median age of death for lesbians is 45 years old�of lesbians. That compares to 75 years old for heterosexual men and 79 for heterosexual women. Only one percent of homosexuals die of old age; only three percent ever live to age 55. Think about it, and then tell me that Gawd doesn't have some problem with this whole thing�that Gawd isn't speaking. It's unnecessary to put my name in the paper�you can just say that "God said," and here's the statistics.

Just where did these ridiculous statistics come from, when even AIDS didn't drop our life expectancy that much?

Monte Watkins from Houston said

A few years ago, my husband and I were at one of the [Gay Pride Week parades]. After the parade broke up, some of them walked by us, talking to each other, but I heard them look around and say, "Mess with us, and we'll rape your kids."

And Alan Ward of Stephenville said

There is a natural way that human beings are crafted to operate, and that is on a heterosexual basis.

We had a homosexual in my family, a young man. During high school, he learned to be gay; he wasn't before that. Was that different for my family? You bet it was, because we are a family of heterosexuals who really believe in being heterosexual. About two years ago, that young man learned not to be homosexual, and he has a girlfriend now. Right in the midst of all this social controversy, he learned to be gay, and then he learned not to be. I've seen him changed, and I've seen two or three or four changed.

Logically, [policing sexual behavior] is out of the reach of the government, but I'm not saying that I believe it should be. There is not enough manpower�not enough people working for the government�to go into every home of every professing homosexual to put eyes on them and watch to see that they do not commit homosexual acts. That's not possible. There is not enough manpower.

I�ll say! Of course, many Christianists deny scientific evidence, so it doesn�t matter if homosexuality exists throughout the species, that's it's a naturally occurring deviation from the norm. And it wouldn�t occur to them that maybe their gawd made some people homosexual on purpose just as he made some of us, say, left-handed�that maybe it�s a gift, as my friend Shakespeare calls it. Nope it�s a choice, pure and simple.

But so is believing in myths. And you don�t rewrite a nation�s constitution based on superstitions.

All right, time to grab lunch and get ready to hit the road. I can hardly WAIT to get to the mountains!

BEST-OF SPAM: Just a reminder; Our University Enrollment department has been trying to contact you. The date for enrolling in our 2 week degree program is ending on Friday, October 28, 2005. As of now we can only offer you a BA, BSc, or a MA. If you enroll by the due date then your degree of choice and transcripts can be sent to you within 2 weeks.

11:31 a.m. - 2005-10-20

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