In An Era Of Abortion Restrictions, Should Viagra Be Restricted For Men?

Fed up with restrictive abortion laws,
a Kentucky lawmaker wants to require men to
have a written note from their spouse
before they can obtain Viagra 

A Kentucky lawmaker is introducing admittably somewhat tongue in cheek legislation that would create some uncomfortable conversations about Viagra. according to a recent article in the New York Times. 

All this has to do with abortion laws.

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Like many conservative states with majority Republican lawmakers, Kentucky has been passing more and more restrictive abortion laws.

The new Republican governor, Matt Bevin, recently signed into a law a requirement that women have a medical consultation 24 hours before an abortion.

Another Kentucky bill, likely to be enacted into law soon, would force women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound and listen to a doctor's description of the image.

All this is couched in language that indicates that they're just trying to protect the health of women. But obviously what's really going on is to make the abortion process so onerous and difficult and expensive and emotionally charged for women that they don't actually go through with the abortion.

I get it that anti-abortion lawmakers' hands are tied because of Roe Vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that granted women the right to abortions. But these laws are disingenous. If you're opposed to abortion, say so. Fight Roe V. Wade is you are anti-abortion. Don't be sneaky with these weird laws.

Kentucky Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Democrat, wants to make that point, so she's introducing legislation regarding Viagra. Her bill would require that men who are seeking Viagra receive written permission from their spouse before getting the drug, reports the New York Times. 

"I thought if we're going to insert ourselves into women's most private health care decisions, then we should insert ourselves into men's most private health decisions as well," Marzian said. "As a woman and a pro-choice woman and as an elected official, I am sick and tired of men - mostly white men - legislating personal, private medical decisons.....It's none of their business."

Marzian's proposal echo a 2012 Illinois lawmaker's bill that would have mandated men seeking Viagra watch a video detailing some of the possible side effects of the drug, like a prolong erection of the penis lasting several hours that can cause permanent damage.

Yes, Marzian's bill is a stunt and lawmakers should be doing serious work instead of jokes like this. But if you can't get through with reason, sometimes you've got to get goofy, satirical and weird.

It looks like Marzian reached that point. I think many of us of all political stripes have with ineffective, grandstanding politicians.

Anti-Gay County Clerk Is Milking The Martyr Bit For Fun And Profit

Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis
is enjoying her role of rubbing her
"religious" convictions in all of our faces.  

UPDATE: 

This dumb clerk said she would wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule all the lower courts that have in recent weeks ruled against her efforts to not issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

The U.S. Supreme Court basically blew her off Monday, so now the ball is back in her court. She has vowed to go to jail rather than comply with court rulings.

The Martyr Complex again.

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A county clerk in Kentucky named Kim Davis is really milking her 15 minutes of fame, extending that 15 minutes longer and longer for the fun and profit of martyrdom.

Her schtick: Refusing to obey orders to marry same sex couples along with straight couples to comply with the June U.S. Supreme Court ruling saying there is a Constitutional right to gay marriage.   

True, not everybody likes that ruling, but if you're a sworn government official, you have to uphold the law.

Davis said God's law is more important, or at least her interpretation of it is. It goes against her religious beliefs to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples.

Fair enough. If her religious beliefs bar her from issuing such marriage licenses, then she shouldn't. However, even though she considers God's law more important, she still has to comply with U.S. law.

The solution would be to resign as county clerk if her religious beliefs conflict with her job. Several clerks across the nation have taken that route. Those clerks, I support. I don't agree with their stance on gay marriage, but they took the honorable way out. They can't do their job because of their religious beliefs, so they found other jobs.

The clerks who resigned stayed honest and true to themselves. Can't argue with that.

I CAN argue with Davis. Courts have repeatedly ordered her to issue licenses, but she still won't.

(In a funny side note, Davis recently issued a marriage license to a straight couple. But what she didn't know was the male half of the couple is transgender. His birth certificate lists him as female, and Davis failed to check it. Ha Ha!!!)

Still, Davis is having her fun with her anti-gay lawyers.

As Michelangelo Signorile notes, Davis' intractability is a win/win. She gets to be part of the Conservative Martyr complex, in which you win notoriety and probably money for being "persecuted" by those "awful homo-fascists"

The right wing politicians win, too. Because if Davis ends up facing criminal charges or is forced out of her job as county clerk, they can point to the false notion that Christians are being persecuted in this country, religious liberty is under assault, yada yada yada.

Which is bullshit, of course.

Judge David L. Bunning of the U.S. District Court for Kentucky's Eastern District said this about Davis' religious rights:

"The state is not asking her to condone same sex unions on moral or religious grounds,  nor is it restricting her from engaging in a variety of religous activites. ....She is even free to believe that marriage is a union between one many and one woman, as many Americans do. However, her religious convictions cannot excuse her from performing the duties that she took an oath to perform as Rowan County clerk."

An editorial in the Lexington, Kentucky Herald-Leader said it best about Davis and her lawyers from the conservative Liberty Counsel:

"Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Staver continues to insist that elected public officials have a constitutional right to pick and choose which of their government duties they will perform based on their religious beliefs - in other words, that public officials can use religion to discriminate against certain citizens. 

Nothing could be more un-American. What he is advocating would destroy the rule of law, a foundation of our republic. And imagine the chaos, given the wide range of religious beliefs."

But Davis, the Liberty Counsel and their minions don't believe in America as it is. They want us to live in a theocracy, fashioned on their stilted, weird Biblical beliefs. They will not be happy unless everyone in the nation has the same religious beliefs that they do.

That means Davis and the Liberty Counsel really are un-American, as that Kentucky newspaper suggests.

However, most Christianists never take not for an answer, so Davis and the lawyers backing her will keep pestering us.

Sigh.

Veteran Worried Nobody Would Show Up At His Funeral. He Needn't Have

People made sure to remember Roscoe Cassidy, Kentucky's
oldest World War II veteran, who died
last month at the age of 107. On this Veterans Day
thanks and gratitude go out to all veterans.  

I figured Veterans Day, today, is as appropriate a day to post this as any.

Last month, Kentucky's oldest World War II veteran died. Roscoe Cassidy, 107, had said he basically outlived everyone, so he didn't expect anybody to be at his funeral.

Turns out Cassidy was wrong, big time.

The Kentucky chapter of a group called the Patriot Guard Riders and people on the web site Reddit who saw Cassidy's story turned out for the funeral.

Several dozen people were there to remember Cassidy, says television station WKYT. 

As divided and nasty as this country can be sometimes, it's always nice to see people unite to remember our veterans.

Cassidy's son, Mike, said his father "loved his shot of Moonshine every day and he said that was his secret to life."

Friends said Cassidy's sense of humor, dancing and standing up for a cause, especially his country, contributed to his long life.

We salute you, Roscoe Cassidy, and all veterans, living or passed on.

Special thanks and gratitude to my dad, Henry Sutkoski, now 94 and a World War II veteran, and my father in law, Don Modereger, another World War II veteran, who passed away in August at the age of 92.