THE CURSE OF ABSOLUTISM IN A RELATIVISTIC UNIVERSE -
We live in a relativistic Universe where the various claims of “absolute truth” are not verifiable by logic. Claims to “absolute” truths are nearly always justified by questionable facts---which must themselves be defended, in turn, by deliberate falsehoods.
To maintain a façade of absolutism it is necessary to be deliberately and relentlessly ignorant---the most evil lies and the slightest mistruths must be defended with equal enthusiasm. People of reasonable intelligence must work hard to maintain their deliberate ignorance. Some do it by becoming self-righteous and aggressive like the religious right. And now that the religious right is becoming the government it has become part of the problem.
Politicians courting the absolute believer vote have to say crazy stuff. Like Missouri’s Rep. Todd Akin, who said that women who get raped don‘t get pregnant.
What’s this? A “Tea party favorite” spouting pseudo-science about sex? A right-wing, “unapologetic pro-life” Christian politician with a degree in divinity uttering fool nonsense about the Human reproductive system? What are the odds?
The notion that rape makes no babies is a fantasy! But this “legitimate rape” thing is more than just a “gaffe” or a “misspoke” (as the achin’ Mr. Akin put it)---it is something the Tea-Taliban are required to believe in order to preserve the appearance of absolute absolutism.
Rep. Todd Akin said that the reproductive parts of a genuine female rape victim have some sort of natural mechanism to prevent the host from getting impregnated by an unwanted intruder. Some anti-abortionist group is promoting this cracked concept---that if you, as a woman, are really-truly raped, you won’t get pregnant because the female Human reproductive system was designed to “shut down.”
The reason for this nonsensical statement is to justify the religiously-cloaked, absolutist stand that there is no need or justification for abortion at all---not even in cases of rape---because, as if by magic, no pregnancies occur in these cases!
A TEST FOR “WITCHES” -
Akin‘s “Legitimate rape” fantasy is vaguely couched in terms of pseudo-medical science (some doctor told him!) but it is all about “religious convictions” and is pure, perverted ignorance.
This no-child-from-rape concept has been around since well before medieval times. The resurrection of this bit of superstition by the religious right and the Tea-Taliban reminds me of when “ducking“ or “dunking“ a suspected “witch“ in deep water was a method to establish whether or not she was actually a witch. According to Wikipedia, “…the victim's right thumb was bound to her left big toe. A rope was attached to her waist and the ‘witch‘ was thrown into a river or deep pond. If the ‘witch’ floated it was deemed that she was in league with the devil, rejecting the ‘baptismal water‘. If the ‘witch’ sank she was deemed innocent.”
According to Tea Party logic, if a woman winds up pregnant that proves she was not really raped. Then as now, the system of false absolutes is rigged so the woman always loses.
THE CREATION “SCIENCE” CONNECTION -
“Conservatives” also think it is a swell idea to politically require, force, allow or encourage public school science teachers to question and cast doubt upon the legitimate science of evolution during the course of “teaching“ actual public school science courses. The hope, of course, is to promote the fantasy that their particular religious creation myth might actually be seen as real “science.” That the integrity and meaning of actual science is destroyed in the process is exactly what the absolutists want---there is nothing more dangerous to absolutism than science.
Anchorage Daily News columnist, Elise Patkotak, made the “science” connection between creationism masquerading as “science“ and “legitimate rape“ as medical fact:
“Because of the hue and cry over creationism versus any actual scientific theory of the universe, we are raising children being taught religious beliefs in science class as a viable alternative” (“Don't confuse religious myths and science,” 8-28-12).
“Legitimate rape” is no more a “viable alternative” to real science than religious creationism or intelligent design---but America has let the religious right get away with promulgating their crackpot “alternative theories.” And dumping all over women. “Real conservative” politicians are now defended when they deny the science of how babies are made.
RALLYING AROUND “MISTAKEN-AKIN” -
Now that the Republican “establishment” has dared ask “Todd the Clod” to abdicate his US Senate race, the “real conservatives” are circling their Conestogas around Rep. Akin. According to a Christian Science Monitor article, Missourians don’t want to get rid of “one of their own” (“Why Missouri conservatives are rallying around Todd Akin,” 8-24). Here’s part of the Christian Science Monitor article:
“The gaffe has put at risk what was considered a likely Republican pickup of a Democratic-held seat in a state becoming more conservative. Republicans need a net gain of four seats in the November election to ensure they gain a Senate majority.
‘At first I felt (Akin's comments) were offensive to women and insulting to my intelligence,’ said Lisa Payne-Naeger, a member of the conservative Missouri Grassroots Coalition, who has an online political radio show. ‘What changed it for me was the Republican establishment's effort to chop him off at the knees and install one of their own in the race.’ Payne-Naeger said she was so angered by the ‘onslaught’ from party leaders that she donated to Akin's campaign… Nearly two dozen Missouri Republicans [interviewed]… expressed similar views.
Akin has seized on this theme, launching a ‘Help Todd Fight Back Against the Party Bosses‘ fundraising drive that his campaign said netted $100,000 in small donations this week.”
Mike Huckabee is also “rallying” around the dummy:
“’This is unprecedented, to see to this orchestrated attempt to humiliate and devastate a fellow Republican,’ Huckabee said of Akin, who has deep ties to the Christian conservative movement.”
So, Teabaggers not only think it’s okay for a politician to be offensive to women, insulting of one’s intelligence and grotesquely ignorant of science---these are job requirements!
DOMINATION -
The Tea-Taliban cannot understand why women would not wish to subjugate themselves to their patriarchal will. Nor can they comprehend why the rest of us would not want to rush right out and subjugate ourselves to their “absolute” truths.
These Tea-Taliban types don’t care about women, science or the political process. They are using religious influence to gain political power in order to impose their religion.
It’s all part of a crazy little thing called “Dominionism”---a term the Dominionists have been instructed not to use for fear of revealing their true motives (to themselves as well as others). Dominionism is where the country will be governed/ruled by “Christian principles”---a theocracy. The Palins are heavy into this neo-Puritanism as are the right-wing militia groups. Look it up!
The absolutist antics of Rep. Akin and his supporters give a realistic picture of what these fanatics have in mind for America---especially for women. The Tea-Taliban do not yet have the absolute control they seek---but just look at them go! With no sense of irony whatsoever, they will rally around a deliberately-ignorant politician while shouting: “He is one of us.”
Indeed!
The very fact that we are even debating this raging piece of intellectual garbage---to the exclusion of things that really matter like global climate disruption---indicates we are helping ourselves to a fall. And where is all this useless, time and energy-wasting distraction coming from? The religious right! Leading us to our doom and all the while casting the blame on everyone else.
THE INMATES TAKE OVER -
The first “establishment” Republican to suggest that the party recruit the religious right vote must have seemed like a political genius. But there was never any love lost between “establishment” Republicans and the religious right---for both it was a marriage of convenience. Now those old Republicans (but not their quaint little “dirty tricks”) are about gone. Driven out by the religious fanatics they so cleverly invited into the fold.
- Rudy Wittshirk
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WEAK TEA
I’m not hearing from the real Tea-Taliban of which I spoke in this blog---just five old Republicans posted “weak tea” comments. The hardliners are keeping their most radical thoughts to themselves just before the elections…lying low. And why not? Just as the money-changers for the Tea-Taliban, the rich, have already taken over the U.S. economy, so too have the Tea-Taliban already taken over the Republican party. And, after they have achieved their purpose, you old, leftover, “moderate” Republicans are next!
THE “PHILOSOPHERS” -
What I’m reading in these here five comments is essentially a bunch of anonymous guys or girls failing to take responsibility for the society-rending, far-right, radical leaning elements of their Tea-publican party. They think the Republican party still exists---but it is now the Gone Old Party.
These commenters are playing with words---like college freshmen in dorm room bull-sessions after attending their first few philosophy classes. The one guy or girl repeating my name three times as if chiding a child is just in lieu of content.
I accused the religious elements of the Tea-Taliban party of taking over the Republican party and these five focused on peripheral tidbits so they could make semi-cute comments. It’s all to make themselves forget that America is being torn apart by the so-called “conservative” but-radical-extremist elements among them.
As the current Republican party platform clearly reveals, the religious far right---meaning the sex-obsessed Tea-Taliban elements---have taken over the party. The five commenters here are trying to appear Moderate-like-Mitt, who swears up and down he has some position on anti-abortion that doesn’t completely eliminate all abortion. But his party thinks differently while he tries to thread two needles with one thread.
NO WAR ON WOMEN? -
Just because there are Republican women doesn’t mean the Tea-publican party is not at war with women. After all, American Indian scouts once worked for the U.S. Cavalry hunting down other Indians---yet the U.S. was still at war with Indians.
The abortion funding thing mentioned is just part of the war against women---poor women. These rightists always go after the weakest among us. After all, “What would Jesus do?” Why, go right after the poor, the weak, the outcast and the downtrodden!
The religious right-Tea-Taliban-Tea-publican party is at war with everyone including each other. This is tearing the Nation apart. Not even Mitt can please them. No one can please them because they are religiously and sexually frustrated at the same time. They resent others having sex and the essential “miracle” parts of their great spiritual predictions just never come to pass. Even their own children are leaving for less radical congregations. To radical extremists “moderation” is a weakness---useful only to exploit as an expedient.
Of course there are moderate elements within what‘s left of the old Republican party---but they do not have the awareness, the will or the wherefore to control the radicals among them. The only function of “moderate conservatives” is to make people think that the radical “conservatives” are at least tangentially amenable to reason.
The Islamics have the same problem (only worse) with their “blasphemy-seeking” hard-liners effectively in charge of non-democratic Nations.
Sure, the tendency is for us to lump them all together---the “moderates” and the “extremists”--- but there is a reason for that. The hard-liners are in charge! The rest is all pretense. Because of their clueless-ness, the moderate elements are doomed to become subsumed by the radicals and are only being kept around for the moment.
You five “weak tea” commenters: They are coming for you next!
- R.W.
PS to “alaskalad2“:
Few ask these days before copying or linking Internet articles. I appreciate that. Sure, go ahead and do what you want. The Daily News does like to be cited as the source. This is their blog site.
- R.W.
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Phe0nix:
After a string of celebrity quotes and misbehaviors alleged to be “Examples of Democratic Sexism” you expect me to name Republican politicians “who support [Rep Todd] Akin.” [And by the way, “twat” doesn’t rhyme with “thought.”]
Hey, I don’t get paid enough to do research---especially when the Daily News “lame-filter” on comments isn’t working.
As to “substance,” I don’t give a damn about petty “sexism”---I am obviously talking about an organized, political, Tea-publican effort to make laws so they can crawl right into women’s wombs and direct traffic.
Phe0nix, you are one confused lady…you’ve posted on the wrong blog site---celebrity gossip belongs in the entertainment section.
- R.W.
