Republican or Taliban?

I have had a few posts in the past where I've singled out one of the Republican Presidential candidates to occupy a far more ignoble position--the Daily Dog Pile. Today, we have a first for my blog. Not just one person in the pile, but a large group. In fact, its the entire Republican Congressional membership that has decided to jump right in and roll around for a bit.

What's it all about, you ask? The recent hearing in Congress on separation of church and state. At issue is the fact that organizations are allowed to refuse to cover contraceptives as part of their health care package due to religious beliefs. If churches were just churches, that wouldn't be a real problem. But churches are far more than that. They're colleges and universities, they're non-profit organizations, they are lots of things are not churches. And these organizations have employees. Employees who are women and these women will not be able to receive contraceptives through their insurance plans.

At the Congressional hearing that took place this last Thursday, there were 10 individuals who testified before Congress. Not one woman was on that panel. NOT ONE! Who picked the panelists? The Republicans did. They were the group supporting the hearing and they chose the panelists to participate. Now the hearing was, ostensibly, about the separation of church and state. But the true issue was the inclusion of contraception as part of insurance packages for church-supported organizations. This issue touches deeply on the lives of women and their health, yet not one woman was allowed to testify. Shameful!

Still doesn't sound like such a big issue to you? Well, let me ask you this. What if the issue wasn't contraception. What if it was another health issue. Take cancer. There are still some churches who believe that diseases and disabilities are punishments from God. What if these churches decided they would not pay for cancer treatments for employees of their institutions such as colleges and universities because they believe cancer is God's way of telling a person they have committed some wrong in their life? Let this stand, and I'll bet there are a lot of employers from small to global corporations that are suddenly going to find religion and declare all sorts of things that aren't to be covered under their insurance plans under the veil of religious beliefs.

Ohh, and speaking of veils, let's get back to the title of this posting. The actions of the Republicans in Congress clearly indicate their belief that women should be dictated to and have no role in deciding their own fates. More than one of them this week has declared that the best contraceptive is abstinence. Ohh brother! They sure talk the talk, but darned few of them seem to be able to walk the walk. Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich are two prime examples of how abstinent Republican men are. One idiot, a major supporter of Rick Santorum, made the comment that the best contraceptive is an aspirin the woman holds between her knees.

And what does Rick Santorum, himself, have to say about it? Here it is in his own words. "I support Title X, I guess it is, and have voted for contraception and although I don't think it works, I think it's harmful to women, I think it's harmful to our society." Hey, Rick. You know what IS harmful to women? Having a dozen or so kids because they can't get birth control. That's what is harmful. We've greatly decreased the death rates for women and infants, in large part because women aren't having so many children anymore. And how is that accomplished? Here's your first big clue, it's not by holding an aspirin between your knees.

Ladies, does all of this sound to you like Republican views or Taliban views? Are we looking at a poorly-concealed attempt to instill Sharia law in the U.S. and by none other than the Republican party? Next thing you know, Republican candidates will be handing out free burkas at their fund-raising events. You know what? You boys stink. You smell just like the offal you've been rolling in. And its the biggest dog pile I've ever seen!