Thursday Night DL at the Whinery

Sex is Good

I’ve been following the outrage that is one of the latest insults to reason and decency perpetrated by the extremist right in this country:  the fake controversy over contraceptive coverage in insurance plans.  I even listened to a streaming broadcast of the Idaho legislature last Wednesday as they debated a bill introduced by Rep. Bilbao (R–Wingnut) to prevent any requirement that health insurance plans include contraceptive coverage.  There were about two dozen people who testified in front of the Health and Welfare committee (chaired by Rep. McGeaghin, by the way).  And about 95% of them spoke against the bill – including the Boise DL host, Alexander Grad.

As I listened, I commented on FB that all the opposition voices were great, but that I wished they would base their arguments less on health reasons (e.g., treating acne, alleviating pain from menstrual cramps and endometriosis, etc.) and more on the general principle of freedom:

Littman was good.  Although I do think that there are too many arguments based on medical bases.  I hope more people stand up to oppose the bills just on the basis that women should be able to fuck when they want to.

The point I was trying to make is that we should not be arguing for contraceptives because there are some medical conditions that are helped by contraceptives.  We should be arguing that it is simple human freedom.  When we argue from the medical basis alone, we are allowing the wingnuts to define recreational sex as a shameful act.  Then I saw Amanda Marcotte’s excellent commentary:

We need to frame our arguments as a full-throated, unapologetic belief that sex is good, women are good, and women’s right to enjoy sexual pleasure without shaming or government interference is good.  Unfortunately, I’m not seeing enough of that.  Instead, the most important argument – that a woman has a right to be a sexual creature and that sex is good – being abandoned by all sorts of liberals and feminists.  The most common form this concession takes is well-meaning, and often person conceding the argument that women who have sex for pleasure are somehow less-than don’t intend to concede it.  But that’s nonetheless what they’re doing.  That concession looks like this:

“Some women aren’t even taking the birth control pill for contraception!  They need it for cramps/endometriosis/etc.”

Every time you say this, a right winger wanting to imply that women who have sex for pleasure are sluts gets his wings.  This statement and all variations on it feeds into the right wing claim that a) contraception is not health care and b) that women who have sex for pleasure are so indefensible that you have to lean on off-label uses for a contraceptive drug to justify its existence.  It also does absolutely nothing to defend the non-pill contraception that’s covered by the health care act, such as IUDs or sterilization.  Plus, that gives them an easy out, which is to say that they’re fine with insurance covering pills that are prescribed for non-contraception use, but just object to prescriptions for women who use them to prevent pregnancy.

It’s like that phrase regarding abortion that you hear from liberals:  “safe, legal, and rare.”  As PZ Myers says, “I want abortion to be safe, legal, and available as often as women need or want it.”

We sometimes give away half the battle in the way that we frame the issue.  So go forth and defend the pleasures of sex for its own sake.  Then come join us Thursday and tell us how it went.

Cheers,
Dan

Newspaper journalism is important.  So this is a bad sign.

Here are a few things that happened on this day (i.e.,  the day of our next Drinking Liberally meeting) that might serve to motivate you to attend.

In 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute juveniles found guilty of murder.  And that, folks, is what makes us better than Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen.  But nobody else.

In 1961, President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

In 1781, the Continental Congress adopted the Aricles of Confederation.

“I’m against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections, but as long as it’s doable, I’m going to do it.”
– Sheldon Adelson, who is Newt Gingrich’s sugar daddy, and nearly his only contributor

“Your parable about the kosher deli, while delicious, makes no fucking sense.  Nobody’s forcing the kosher deli owner to serve ham.  In the metaphor, it’s more like the owner of the kosher deli is refusing to pay taxes because his money could go to food stamps, which someone might theoretically use to buy ham.”
– Jon Stewart, explaining why the analogy of a kosher deli owner being forced to serve pork does not apply to the contraception manufactroversy

“In the Netherlands, people wear different bracelets if they are elderly.  And the bracelet is:  ‘Do not euthanize me.’  Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands but half of the people who are euthanized – ten percent of all deaths in the Netherlands – half of those people are enthanized involuntarily at hospitals because they are older and sick.  And so elderly people in the Netherlands don’t go to the hospital.  They go to another country, because they are afraid, because of budget purposes, they will not come out of that hospital if they go in there with sickness.”
– Rick Santorum, who really is as creepy and stupid as you think

“… Most importantly, perceptions of the economy are improving.  With the ‘OMG we’re ruined!  Ruined!’ narrative unworkable and the GOP’s savior in 2010, the Teabaggers, nowhere to be found, the party is going to turn 2012 into an endless parade of 1980s-style Culture Wars bullshit.  They’ve spent the past two weeks crusading against birth control.  Some nitwit labeled the Girl Scouts a radical group on Monday.  We’ll get a healthy dose of anti-gay marriage stuff before long, and the GOP House will undoubtedly hatch some dead-on-arrival legislation related to abortion over the summer.  Who knows what other Falwell-esque gems they might dust off.  School prayer?  Creationism?  Heliocentrism?  Only time will tell.  But the Planned Parenthood/contraception fiasco is but a preview.  We have nine solid months of these pointless, dead-end spectacles ahead of us.  None of it will accomplish anything except to be excruciating to sit through.”
– Ed

“Listening to anti-choice nuts talk about sex is like listening to Mitt Romney explain hip-hop.  They’re so painfully out of the loop you can’t decide if you want to laugh at them or cringe in embarrassment for them.”
– Amanda Marcotte

Same Sun Same Moon Same River

It is easy to imagine Heraclitus
walking stone streets witnessing
life in Athens with no permanence,
stopping strangers to explain about the river,
being laughed at as they moved
from point A to point B fearing Apollo
and Hades then at dusk drinking wine,
waiting for the happy obliteration alcohol brings,
not realizing how lucky they were
to be stupid and so deep
in their bodies even the sun
and moon trading places over and over
meant nothing.

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