What's the Rush?

One has to wonder whether Rush Limbaugh is popping pills again, or is just completely meshugana - still. Third-year Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke recently testified about the need for health insurance to cover birth control medication for women. Fluke testified to a Congressional committee on Feb. 23. The previous week, a Republican-controlled House committee had rejected Democrats' request that she testify on the Obama administration's policy requiring that employees of religion-affiliated institutions have access to health insurance that covers birth control. Instead, Representative Darrell Issa of California, the committee's chair, summoned a men-only panel of so-called experts representing a variety of faiths to make the dialogue purely about religion, not birth control or women's access to medication covered by their health insurance.
Fluke said that Georgetown, a Jesuit institution, does not provide contraception coverage in its student health plan and that contraception can cost a woman more than $3,000 during law school. She spoke of a friend who had an ovary removed because the insurance company wouldn't cover the prescription birth control she needed to stop the growth of cysts.
Following her reported testimony, Limbaugh proceeded to call Ms. Fluke a slut and a prostitute, demanding she produce videos of herself having sex. The saddest part is not only is this guy a complete pig, a disgrace to humankind, a buffoon with a microphone, but people actually listen to his misogynistic tirades and corporations pay to support his continuing to unapologically berate anyone who does not agree with his warped views. As do many men in positions of self-ordained power that feel threatened by the mere existence of a sex that can give birth and nurse and nurture their offspring. Men typically want to take that power away from women - men will decide when and how women have sex and if they become impregnated, they'll decide, through the government, that she must carry to term - no matter the circumstance or medical conditions of the woman or fetus. Men are now even trying to rewrite science, claiming a zygote is a person. A zygote? The big bang? Do people realize that by declaring a zygote a person, laws can be written to make it a crime to destroy any fertilized eggs held in petri dishes and fertility clinics?
I remember being groomed to be a Catholic and being told that masturbation was a sin because I was releasing my sperm somewhere other than in a vagina, with no chance of procreation. Sad to say, masturbation is the only sex most boys and many men are going to have. As Woody Allen says, at least masturbation is having sex with someone you love. This pious declaration comes from the same people who brought us alter boys - misspelled purposefully. I have had recent conversations with Catholics who are not worried that their priest is gay - doesn't bother them. However, no way should a woman be ordained or should priests be allowed to marry - after all, the vow of chastity is sacrosanct. Give me a break. As a recovering Catholic, I am disturbed that Newt Gingrich tauts his religiosity after his actions with his current wife - another Catholic who knowingly committed adultery with him - this is like the political tiffanys of sin because it involves a lot of lying to maintain the relationship.
Then there are the other political wannabes - Rick Santorum, one of the Republican presidential contenders seeking to oppose Obama, commented to CNN about Limbaugh's remarks. "He's being absurd," Santorum said. "But that's, you know, an entertainer can be absurd."
So, afraid to disturb the status quo, Santorum tucks his rebukes of Limbaughs inane and disturbing remarks under his sweater vest and quietly waves to his supporters who agree that contraception should not be allowed under any conditions. And, since he wants to bring his faith to the Washington political arena, he must, to be a good and faithful Catholic, agree with his leader, the Pope, that there should be no in-vitro fertilization allowed. The Pope considers it selfish to want to bear children if nature has made it medically impossible. How dare you? Just take somebody else's unwanted child. Will Santorum bring this religious righteous indignation to the White House were he to be ordained? And since Gingrich has converted, he would need to bring the same rules and regulations with him in order to be a good Catholic.
Then there is Mitt Romney. While campaigning in Ohio for the Republican presidential primary, Romney was asked about Limbaugh's comments and craftily (for him) steered his answer away from the uproar.
"It's not the language I would have used," Romney said after a campaign event in Cleveland. "But I'm focusing on the issues that I think are significant in the country today and that's why I'm here talking about jobs in Ohio." So, Romney would not have called Ms. Fluke a slut or prostitute - perhaps jezebel or floozie or just a loose woman - something more retro.
Limbaugh continued to ramble for days, shoveling his drivel to his, hopefully dwindling, audience without realizing he had absolutely no clue what female contraception is. He assumed that each time a woman had sex, she had to take some type of contraception - like it was Viagra or something. What a moron. Speaking of Viagra, isn't that medication to make men stiff covered by most insurance plans, including Medicare? Thank goodness Limbaugh didn't make an appeal for nursing homes to release sex tapes of men showing off their proud Viagra-aided johnsons. Perhaps his ubiquitous cigar is his personal phallus to comfort him when he is alone on his sound cloud. No videos, please.

Peace - Ho'oponopono . . .