- Moore: God is Punishing America for the Sins of Abortion and Gay Marriage
- Romney: Hospital Visitation For Gay Couples Are ‘Benefits’ Not Rights
- Is This Milk Carton An Example Of ‘Gay Propaganda’?
- Italy Finds Scientists Guilty Of Manslaughter For 2009 Earthquake Forecast
- Skeptic receives death threat over piece critical of “psychic” Caputo
- Sharia courts ‘as consensual as rape’, House of Lords told
- Richard Mourdock On Abortion: Pregnancy From Rape Is ‘Something God Intended’ [UPDATE]
- Pennsylvania Bill Would Reduce Welfare Benefits For Women Who Cannot Prove They Were Raped
- North Carolina Church Accused Of Imprisoning Man Because He Is Gay
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I have to say on your “big government” comments on conservatives:
Most conservatives are authoritarians. They want small government for *themselves*. They want big, authoritarian government for people they don’t like. I’ve mentioned the base’s drive towards “punishment politics” before. They are often people who either want to be lead, or want to be part of the goon squad so they can give a beating to “those” people. They have made themselves the hero of their invented past of lies for so long, and everyone else the villain, that they really believe that God Himself will make sure they and they alone are on the right side of the gated fence and the right side of the billy club. Remember that with Bush’s election they were promised a thousand year reign of Good Christian Conservatives, and so they already think their ascendance to power was stolen by hippies and uppity women and minorities and gays.
This is part of why they will applaud torture and applaud the thought of leaving someone to die. They are OK with sending their children to war, knowing some will die, as long as more brown people and unbelievers die than their own. They are fine with back ally abortions, as long as they can buy their own daughters an airline ticket and that more poor and colored die than their own. They were fine with the dismantling of unions, as long as it was laborer-class jobs sent overseas. They are fine with pissing away billions on a war on drugs, as long as more of “those” people get swept off the streets.
Movement conservatives have traded truth for certainty. As a result, words no longer have meaning. If you don’t understand talk of “big government”, it’s because you’re trying to make sense of the lyrics of Wingnut Jazz. It doesn’t make sense because it doesn’t make sense. It just scares you with big government spending by big government democrats for big government liberals to re-educate your children with socialist indoctrination, think of the children!, until Sarah Palin gets up on stage wrapped in a flag and brandishing her Bible, her hair did up and her tits nice and bouncy under her big big smile (just for you!), spinning a soothing chord of the Jazz, about the Founding Fathers and their Common Sense Constitutional Freedom Solutions based on Conservative Values and the Christian Bible of Jesus.
And then you write her a check.
Awesome rant.
I especially like: “conservatives have traded truth for certainty”
Thanks.
The hospital visitation right thing really bothers me. Shouldn’t it be unless the patient is somehow susceptible to disease, or indeed is a carrier of disease, hosptial visitation is up to the closest family members in the vast majority of cases. Certainly I have been allowed to see family members and indeed friends of the family in the hospital with permission of the family of the patient. Maybe things are just more open here, which is wierd since I come from a “socialized” country.
Quaz,
In the U.S., if a person goes into intensive care, hospitals will generally allow immediate family, which is parents, siblings, and children, and *legally* married spouses. The patient can request someone be added to the list, usually clergy.
The problem is, if the person cannot speak, the choice goes to immediate family, I believe in that same order. So, if your parent’s don’t approve of your “deviant lifestyle”, they can deny the partner access.
Further, if the patient cannot speak, the hospital will wait for a parent or sibling to be contacted and show up to give consent for the partner to be allowed in. Due to HIPPA and safety regulations, most hospitals want to see ID before they let you take medical decision making power over someone.
There have been many cases where a person in the hospital takes a sudden turn for the worse, or is in an accident, and his or her partner is denied access because the family denied it, or family could not be contacted to give permission, and the person died with the partner not being there or being kept away.
With legal marriage, that can’t happen anymore.
There have also been cases where palimony contracts and inheritance has been voided by family, and upheld by the judges claiming that such contracts would replicate same-sex marriage rights, which is illegal in their state. (Read that again. You read it right.)
There was even an infamous case in New Jersey where a judge denied a woman’s name change so she could have her (not legally married) partner’s last name.
Hi guys
Re. religious nutters and beating children, have you heard of Babywise by Gary Ezzo?
http://www.ezzo.info/index.php
It’s a serious of books by a fundamentalist nutball who advocates beating children from an early age (babies! ). If a baby accidentally bites while breastfeeding you’re supposed to “swat” them to teach them not to do it. It’s also chock full of bullshit medical claimes which they back up with abolutely no evidence. Their suggested feeding schedule, which they promise will have babies sleeping through the night by eight weeks (never mind that sleeping too deeply that young is a SIDS risk) could lead to dehydration, delayed development, slower weight gain and a drop in the mum’s milk supply.
There’s a lot of crap about how this will instill discipline in the baby and help them on the path of Christ.
I found a copy in my local library and I have never in my life been tempted to burn a book before but I came close.
Anyway, I just thought you might be interested. Thanks once again for another great show.
I used to work for the county library. You are a better person than the nutters, who would occasionally burn library books. They got pretty brazen, and would tell the librarians, “Mark it lost now. Our church is burning it this weekend.” On a related note, I’ve long been a fan of enforcing late fees and lost book fees.
Also, ask your librarian if there is a form to have a book reviewed for removal. Most library systems have ways to remove books. Avoid comments on religion, as that usually goes nowhere. However, if you document points that the book makes that reference sources can refute (*always* reference, librarians *luvz* reference!), and even point that the suggestions endanger the child, you can probably get the book removed.
We actually worked with a doctor who came in and complained about our medical books referencing “flint arrowheads and whiskey”, and disposed of about 10% of the medical collection at the main library.
So…satan’s been trying to destroy everything god created for how long now???
About 6000 years.
Many hospitals are becoming focused on a program called Patient and Family Centered Care. With this program, the patient controls who has access, not the hospital. If the patient has a medical power of attorney assigned then they can speak for the patient if the patient is unable to do so. Best advice is to establish the legal documents for medical power of attorney so nobody is cut off.
Yes, and this initiative also protects abused spouses. It is a very good thing all around.
The main issue with same-sex marriage is when one partner is unconscious. The spouse is not the default surrogate if the marriage is not legal in the state. The only solution is to carry small-print copies of the medical surrogate forms in your wallet at all times, as opposed to simply saying “we’re married”.
First: I recently discovered your podcasts and I love them! It’s nice to hear someone focus mainly on news – that’s really what I’m always curious to hear. You’ve definitely gained a listener in me.
It was so funny to hear about the Christian Democrats from Sweden – being from Denmark, we also have a Christian Democratic party… but they didn’t get enough votes to get into government last election. (Their party is also grounded in helping the weakest in Danish society and not too much else, which probably makes it a lot different from American parties…)
Also, I agree with Jakob that you are quite loud – it seems to be an American thing (both good and bad – it’s really nice and energizing to hear some passion when people talk but at the same time some of those shows where people ‘debate’ by seeing who can shout the loudest are horrible) when compared to at least Scandinavians who are often pretty quiet in nature.
The Italian scientists story is really horrific – and I hope it’s something that will come up again in the near future and be overturned. Otherwise the Italians seem to be going towards a bleak future for their scientific community…
Sorry guys but western australia is so much fucking better than the fucking east coast. Sydney is a fucking shit hole Melbourne has the worst fucking weather in Australia. Do some fucking research into it you fucking fucks! Fucking good podcast by the way.
Although hospitals typically allow both parents to stay with a child during treatment, in this case, the second parent was forced to stay in the waiting room. An Oregon man whose registered domestic partner was unconscious was told to leave the hospital room because it was time for family members to make decisions about his care. He was forced to plead his case before hospital administrators before being allowed to stay with his partner, who was dying.