Saturday, November 7th, 2009

Being a woman compared to being a smoker

here:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2009/11/7/101418/596/253#c253

The above links to a seven-second clip. To put the clip in context, here's a larger section of the debate, transcribed (bolded is what's in the clip):

In promoting the House health bill, New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone made reference to discrimination by insurance companies, citing their reluctance to insure people with preexisting conditions and differences in costs based on gender. "But that's not against the law," Texas Republican Pete Sessions said.

Pallone replied, "No, but we would make it against the law. Why do you have a problem with that?" he asked. "Why should a woman pay more than a man?"

"Well, we're all different,"
Sessions explained. "Why should a smoker pay more-?," he said before getting interrupted by a burst of chatter throughout the room.


... so it's women's fault that insurance companies want to charge them more for insurance, and men shouldn't lose their discounts. In other words, it would be unfair for men to lose their discounts, in the same way it would be unfair to make it illegal for a nonsmoker to get a discount.
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Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

A Rescue the Heartland "pro-lifer" said this:

“A protection order is used to protect someone from real violence,” he said, “not to protect someone against First Amendment-protected actions.”


http://www.omaha.com/article/20090817/NEWS01/708179958/-1/FRONTPAGE

Now that Dr. Tiller has been assassinated, anti-abortion groups are planning to put additional pressure Dr. Carhart, who also performs late abortions, some at Dr. Tiller's former business. Anti-abortion groups mentioned in the article are

More from the Omaha World-Herald:
[Vanessa Klinetobe] makes the following claims in her petition for a protection order: Donlan once followed her home from work in 2006; he sent a letter to her home demanding that she resign or face protests near her Bellevue house; and he recently shouted outside the clinic: “Vanessa, you are next. We plan to exploit you.”

Donlan said Sunday that he knew nothing about the protection order and had not been served as of Sunday afternoon.

He denied any wrongdoing and said he was surprised because his group had been looking for alternative employment for Klinetobe. He did admit to following Klinetobe a few years back in his red van, but said it was only for a few blocks and to get an idea of where she lived for protest purposes.


Here's the apparent game plan, which, so far, is working well for Operation Rescue and fellow travelers: be obnoxious and verbally threating [legally, that's "assault"; if it becomes physical then it becomes "and battery"], get arrested or sued, counter sue and (since they have deep pockets full of money) win the countersuits. Thereby making legal precidents that their intimidation is acceptable behavior and protected speech -- even though an average sane person would consider yelling "baby killer" and following you home and publishing your address or such stuff harassment.

I don't want to shut down protests -- "free speech zones" 2 miles away from reporters of the last administration -- that's unacceptable. But there has to be a way to insist that "peaceful" protests are that -- peaceful. Also, local community standards (& anti-fraud) should prevent the mega "bloody fetus" posters -- the photos often of late miscarriages or photoshoped.
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Angry at the presumption

This crime, as reported by the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/nyregion/09wesleyan.html

I gather the victim "knew" her killer. After (or before) a few interactions (dates?) he decided, since he wanted her, then she belonged to him. Male entitlement behavior. Since she rejected him, after a few years of (my guess) stewing over this injustice, he tracked down and killed her.

OK, I'm extrapolating from a news report that doesn't know everything and there's no way to be "sure" ... but the story happens again and again. And I'm already feeling fragile/besieged because of debates with people who are only looking for "reasonable" restriction on abortion -- as if it's perfectly OK & not sexist to have women's human rights voted on by male entitlement people, instead of trusting it to the woman & medical standards. Then there's all the advertising industry & Hollywood sexism (not to mention Focus on the Family, etc.) trying to enforce gender roles. It's getting worse. Repeating my earlier rant, 30 years ago contraception wasn't controversial. The goal is to shift the Overton Window for how women are expected to act and "choose".

Maybe there are women who stalk men & kill them if they don't cooperate -- the "femme fatale" is a Hollywood cliche. From what I've seen, in the real world the white murders get the airtime on TV news, and it's usually a white guy killing a white woman who wouldn't submit to being his property. Maybe the frustrating abortion discussions I've had makes me overly sensitized to "male entitlement behavior" but it sure feels like the trend is real.
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