The Human Sacrifice Encouragement Act of 2011, Daily Kos, February 5, 2011, by dengre, quoted verbatim: This is the kind of indictment of the Right that I can really get into (the indictment, not the “human sacrifice” LOL) ~ Paul Evans

There really isn’t any stopping the extremists in control of the Republican Confederate Party anymore. Every week and almost every day they can be counted upon for some new crazy in their never ending quest to move the Nation backwards as they pursue fantasies of a ‘better time’ that never existed.

These romanticized ‘Good Old Days’ were a time of clear and undisputed White Male Exceptionalism and everybody knew and accepted their roles in society. Rich white men were on top followed by other white men in order of their class. Woman knew their place and had power in any area where the fellas let them play. Foreigners, people of color, LGBT, etc. did not matter. And all of this was blessed by a specially constructed White Male God—a God who oddly enough always wanted to do what these White Males wanted to do—from buying and selling slaves, to child labor, to endless war, to predatory capitalism, to contempt for the poor, to control of women as birthing machines.

And it is hardly surprising that the 112th Congress is not only pursuing a White Male Exceptionalist agenda, but also claiming that each and every piece of Legislation is blessed by a version of a ‘divine’ God that they have carefully constructed in their own image.

Their God is an angry and vengeful God. Their God is a God that demands retribution upon sinners and punishment of all nonbelievers. Their God is a God impressed by violence and a God that demands human sacrifice. And like Jephthah of old, the Republicans Confederates in the 112th Congress intend to keep their vow to their God and ensure that the required human sacrifice is made.

And so it is sadly predictable that they would introduce HR 358, The Human Sacrifice Encouragement Act of 2011.

It might be worth a moment to consider Jephthat, who could easily be the patron Saint of Wingnutopia.  He was a bastard who grew to great power because of his violent nature. According to the myth (or the indisputable WORD OF THE LORD—if you prefer), Jephthat launched a war against his neighbors and promised his God a human sacrifice if he was victorious. His God blessed him with “great slaughter” and upon his return home Jephthat kept his promise to make the first person to greet him into an offering for his blood thirsty God. Turns out that person was his daughter, but a promise made is a debt unpaid and so he killed her. And his God continued to bless him with more blood. When some allies in his earlier slaughter asked for a bigger share of the plunder Jephthat marched against them and killed more than 42,000 Ephraimites—many lost their lives just because of their accent (Judges 12:5-6).

Like Jephthat, the wingnuts base their hate on superficial markers to define their enemies—language, custom, looks. Like Jephthat they have recently ‘won’ a victory and seek to offer their God a sacrifice. And not surprisingly they have also decided that women should have the dubious honor of dying to sate the blood-lust of their imagined God.

Last week they were trying to protect rapists. This week it is trying to ensure that women with medical complications that force the hard choice between death or an abortion can be legally turned out into the streets to die. In short, it is a way to force these women to become human sacrifices just to appease the imagined desire for blood of the God they have created in their image as a reflection of their own hate, ignorance and fear.

As always, they give their Legislation an odd life-affirming title (the “Protect Life Act” in this case) that is at odds with the actual impact of the Bill were it to ever become law. The impact in this case will be that women will die—the law will guarantee it. But like Jephthat, the Sponsors of the Legislation view the certainty of these deaths as just a sad by-product of keeping your promise to a vengeful God.

Perhaps some of these folks pushing this Legislation will share in the blessings of Jephthat. Perhaps a just God will see to it that it will be their daughters who get to die. And if the fetus or zygote dies with her, then they can pretend that their daughter was a virgin just like Jephthat’s daughter and celebrate her memory in the way that Jephthat’s daughter is remembered — by erasing her name and erasing her from history as anything other than a human sacrifice.

Perhaps a just God would make this happen, but in reality we all know that they will pay for their daughters to get an abortion in a private clinic if that procedure is needed to save their child’s life. You can be certain that as they draft this legislation they are reserving the role of human sacrifice for children of somebody else.

One wonders what new horrors the Republican Confederate Party members of the 112th Congress will come up with next week.

Cheers

Reposted from Balloon Juice.

In a hat tip to Tom L. the art is: “The Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter” engraved by J.Opie, published in The Pictorial History of the Bible, 1834. Steel engraving.

Also recommended: Ketchup Is a Vegetable & Other Republican Myths – Remember Reagan, Daily Kos, February 6, 2011, by H. Scott Prosterman.

Examining Rape, Incest and Abortion
as to Morality and Legality
with Commentary on a Caring Society

Commentary by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: A legal requirement that victims of rape and incest be forced to carry their unborn children/fetuses to term (especially if the mother’s life is in question, but really, in any case) is extreme. Conservative Republicans I have talked to are split on the issue, but most of my conservative friends and acquaintances (and I do have them) are against forcing rape/incest victims to carry such fetuses to term. And I think that many reasonable people would say that forcing a 15 year old to bear a child because of an unwanted pregnancy is a harsh legal requirement too. Should that not be between the child, the child’s mother and father and their doctor or pastor?

The advocacy of legality for first trimester abortions is the usual position of liberals, but here Evans Legal Politics has usually come out on the side of unborn human life, although we are torn by the whole issue. It is a fact that developing fetuses have a scientifically measured, recognizably human brainwave at eight days after conception. Thus, most first trimester abortions involve taking human life. On the other hand, making first trimester abortions illegal involves dumping at least 300,000 unwanted infants into the social services system. If human life is so important to the pro-life Republican congress, let them pay the economic costs for the existence of these infants, or else allow first trimester abortions, not have a two-faced holier-than-thou total anti-abortion stand and yet not be willing to pay for the social costs of life.

In any case, we are for programs for free condoms, realistic sex education, and free use of the morning after pill. (See Conservatives Freak Out Over MTV’s “Skins” — Teenagers Have Sex. Get Over It., AlterNet Sex and Relationships, January 24, 2011, by Julianne Escobedo Shepherd.)

Caring, Christian and Liberal

The unwillingness of Republicans to pay for a social services safety net in general is in my opinion an uncaring and un-Christian position. Did Jesus ever turn anyone away who needed help? No, not even Cornielius the centurian who was a pagan and a Roman soldier, and thus theoretically an enemy of the Jewish people. Jesus helped and cared for all who crossed his path in his life. I am basically liberal in my positions and beliefs precisely because of the example of the caring life Jesus led and what he taught. In other words I am liberal because I take Jesus’ teachings to heart. That is far more important to me than the ancient customs of the Hebrew people as reported in the Old Testament. I’m basically liberal because I follow what Jesus taught. And He left us with the command given to Peter and repeated three times, saying, (paraphrase), “If you love me, feed my sheep.” (And Jesus was no hypocrite who meant “feed my sheep” only metaphorically. He meant it both ways, and you know that in your heart, both spiritually and in terms of nourishment and generally taking care of the flock.) This is the last thing Jesus left us with before he left this earth. Do you think it might be important??

An Uncaring Society is Wrong

As a Christian man, yet one who has only been really Christian for about two years (does Jesus care how long you’ve been a “member”?), I have in recent years come across a hardening of attitude among many conservative Christians and the public in general. It’s not just this “root, hog or die” mentality regarding the social services safety net, although that is part of it. What I mean is that in public, in Wooster or in Akron, people seem more uncaring and judgmental to me in the last few years. And people seem more ready to judge you, or react negatively on the basis of religious conviction or teaching — I think because their preachers are telling them that people on welfare or disability or people with no money or who are not educated are not as good as they are. Some people, perhaps especially conservatives, act like it is OK to spit on (figuratively) or shun such people. People in general are sooo willing and ready to judge someone. People, there is only one Judge, and He ain’t us, just keep it in mind. Judging people is not what Jesus taught, either.

Back in the seventies people seemed more open and caring. All of this that I see around me truly disturbs me and saddens me and it seems to be getting worse. I think it must make Jesus sad and upset too. All are equal in God’s eyes. Does it not say that somewhere in the Bible, I believe? Certainly that is the way Jesus led his life, according to the Gospels.

Finally, I wanted to say that abortion is a very difficult issue and not one for hatred or the spilling of blood, if one is reasonable, and to hate people for their beliefs is, in my opinion, not very Christian, as a matter of fact. Well I have got on my soapbox a bit today so I can say now, “thus concludes the sermon.” ~ Paul Evans

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Rush – Closer to the Heart

From the Rush in Rio Concert

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