DR. ROBIN McFEE: NIKI TSONGAS, NANCY PELOSI AND THE LEFT- STOP DISTORTING THE TRUTH!
It appears most everyone today is practicing what Pastor Gil referred to in a recent sermon – “situational ethics” – truth and right get to be bent to fit our agenda, instead of following a Higher Truth that compels us to do what is right, including being honest, even when it is inconvenient.
Perhaps someone might want to send that sermon as a reminder to our elected officials, most notably the hysteria mongers who are claiming women’s movement, freedom of choice, and reproductive rights have been undermined because of the Supreme Court decision freeing Hobby Lobby from a few of the Obamacare mandates that are in contradiction with the company owners’ religious beliefs (abortion).
The truth – the inconvenient truth? Hobby Lobby still covers the majority of contraception options most women select, just not all of them. Hobby Lobby’s owners, on religious grounds, don’t support abortion, certain forms of contraception. That is not the same thing as denying their workers a variety of viable options. It just means that some options are not being paid for by their healthcare benefits.
Stop the presses! Oh my gosh…someone might have to pay out of pocket for something they want. The world is coming to an end!
Who says you have to work for Hobby Lobby? If their benefit package isn’t what you want, you have the option to work for someone else, or pay for what you select. But in the purple dimension of Obama where unicorn ponies take us to the land of wishful thinking, individual responsibility is akin to a four letter word. How unpleasant indeed!
In Obamaland where we are owed something by someone else, and where affinity anarchy is alive and well – using gender and ethnicity issues to rev up the base, anyone in disagreement with the narrative must be challenged.
I’m a feminist and make no apologies for being one. I’m also a “personist” respecting the rights, concerns and value of all people – regardless of gender, orientation, politics, ethnicity or wealth. But being a feminist does not qualify me to distort the truth, regardless of my underlying beliefs as pertain to abortion, tattoos (best left to Navy Seals), contraception, speed dating (racing Porsches is more fun), miniskirts, equal pay, going bra-less, men holding the door open for me (good idea) or the fashion value of Capri pants (bad idea).
Do I think in certain situations there are glass ceilings against women, unequal pay compared to male counterparts, inadequate resources for domestic violence, and challenges we face that men don’t? As a security professional and female who worked in the land of terrorism, did I have to overcome challenges my male colleagues (most of whom were gracious, professional, helpful, and wonderful to work with and for) did not have to address? Yes. But like Aerosmith wrote in their song, Sing Women “everybody’s got their dues in life to pay.” And only the village idiot or the most ardent chauvinist would argue such inequalities haven’t or in some cases still don’t exist. From my world view …we overcome, we help others, we get stronger, we fix the inequality, and we move on. We ‘man up’ so to speak! But do I believe women have a responsibility to tell the truth, and not build cases for better opportunity based upon distortions, hysteria, rhetoric and deception? Absolutely! To do otherwise only cheapens us as people and undermines our credibility.
Well, tell that to the DNC.
Just this afternoon I received one of those blast emails we all get from politicians; this one from Niki Tsongas, a democrat congresswoman from Massachusetts, and widow to the late Paul Tsongas. The subject line said “You’ve got to check this out.” So I opened it up. In the email I was greeted by a full color photo of the five Supreme Court Justices who voted in favor of Hobby Lobby, which fought against some of the fiats embedded in Obamacare. Across their chests was a text box containing in bold writing “Last week, these five male justices voted against a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions”
Of course the inference that five women wouldn’t have come to the same ruling only cheapens the argument. Let me stop right there for a moment. I find it objectionable when newspapers, the media in general or anyone single out a professional with a gender or race qualifier if it doesn’t add to the story. Tsongas’ inference that somehow five women Justices would not have come up with the same conclusion is a bit over the top. Now imagine if a controversial decision did come down from women instead of men. How would NOW, and other women’s group appreciate singling out Justices on gender? I recall when living in south Florida a tazer incident; it was not the first in the region but the reporter highlighted it was used by a woman cop. The future times that tazer deaths or injuries occurred, the media merely wrote “cop” or “officer.” To distinguish that police officer by gender, when it is a female creates a bad subtext. As if somehow a male officer might not have gotten shot, or used a tazer. In that same spirit of fairness, I find it cheapens the argument when Niki et al highlight the Justices by gender. Just as a point of correction, and a reminder against vilifying based upon gender or ethnicity is a dangerous act….what gender was on the Supreme Court in the 1970’s that voted for Roe v. Wade? Hold the phone…five guys could support women’s rights? Boy does that spoil the narrative used to besmirch the Supreme Court and Hobby Lobby.
Getting back to the Tsongas email….When you scroll down a bit, you see democrats to the rescue, with a large text box “This week, Niki Tsongas is co-sponsoring a bill to reverse that decision”
Well thank God there’s Niki Tsongas to fight against religious freedom, or the right of people to decide for themselves or their corporations, when it challenges potential voters.
Back to the email! Niki to the rescue is followed by another full color photo. This one is Speaker Boehner – with the following text in bold next to his face (an unflattering photo to complete the propaganda) “But John Boehner called the Hobby Lobby decision a ‘victory for religious freedom.’
The propaganda ends with one last text box “If we don’t take a stand, we let these guys win. Stand with Niki and fight back! Stand with Niki to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision. Then there’s a hot link to sign a petition or donate to her campaign.
So now the DNC is employing gender warfare to add to its arsenal of divisive weapons, and profligate use of race baiting and class warfare. Liberalism and progressivism revealed in their unbridled glory or unmasked ugliness where pretty words belie dangerous actions.
Niki Tsongas as a decent person, and relatively effective representative of her district, knows better – this is a blatant distortion of the facts to anger the base, and create the misconception that Hobby Lobby is against women. At a time when liberals foster the notion – you know the moral relativists…‘right and wrong’ are laughable remnants of an arcane past, and religion is merely a security blanket to clutch onto by people wedded to the past – I would argue there is a role for integrity, rare though it is in contemporary politics. But the women of the DNC leading this fight know it is merely another opportunity to conflate the ills of the past that women have endured, with images of conservatives and the GOP, in order to garner votes.
Nancy Pelosi, Debbie Democrat, the chair of the DNC and others would have you believe women are being denied proper medical care and that Hobby Lobby has all but sentenced women to back alley butchers for illicit abortions and black market medical care. They know better, and should be ashamed of these practices just to get reelected! This has nothing to do with women’s rights. If it did, I would be in lock step with Niki et al, sending checks, marching, organizing protests, and writing about it with full fury. But having reviewed the list of options, along with an attorney friend, we both came to the conclusion there are still lots of contraception options for women employees of Hobby Lobby.
The sad reality – Nancy, Niki and Debbie Democrat are fighting the wrong battle for women’s rights. And in so doing, resemble the little kid crying wolf. When a real issue, worth their efforts arises, they will have cried once too often. The DNC is painfully silent about the atrocities carried out against women in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. Female baby genocide in China is not something this administration cares about. Or genital mutilation or human trafficking, or rape of teenage girls by war lords. But force a woman to pay for a form of contraception when there are other outlets that provide them, or you may have to choose to cost shift within your budget, like most of us do when we want or need something, and the DNC goes nuts.
But what really frosts my pumpkin is the underlying subtext omnipresent in Obama’s rhetoric, and that of his followers – someone else is responsible for supplying me with my every want and need. That Hobby Lobby is paying for most of the contraceptives available, but not all of them, Niki, Nancy et al suggest half a loaf is not better than none, that they demand it all!
The flawed logic that only the left could come up with conflating paying for something as if that is the same things as not having access to something – that because Hobby Lobby won’t pay for something is supposed to be interpreted as not being available, is just not true. The reality, what isn’t covered, women who choose that form of birth control, morning after pill, or abortion, will have to obtain those either paying out of pocket, or through medical venues that will help them.
Predictably the left goes into a tailspin whenever the notion individuals aren’t given something by big business or government is juvenile, but it sells to the base, and generates affinity groups built on the politics of division, jealousy, and hate. The fact remains – sometimes you have to actually pay for something on your own if you want it. Duh!
Anathema to the left is the notion of free will and responsibility. Like minimum wage – everyone gets a raise without doing anything to earn it. Used to be a time when you worked harder than everyone else you either got promoted or found a better job elsewhere. Obama et al believe in the government model of employment – seniority and patronage, not achievement as a means of employment. Doubt me? Check out the list of braniacs working in government bureaucracy. I was raised in an entrepreneurial family. If you don’t like the pay scale or benefits package where you work – look for another job. Although to be fair, finding a non government job or non welfare revenue stream – i.e. private industry job – in Obama-land that is difficult, given this so called recovery is the slowest in modern day history, and probably the most inefficiently crafted, expensive, and government dependent ‘recovery’ ever conceived. Our economy is doing worse than Russia! Their first quarter GDP was better than ours. And more of their people work in industry/manufacturing. But I digress.
Discussion
Affinity Anarchy – distorting the truth to ensnare voters and supporters.
In the latest of invented crisis the DNC has tried to exploit is the Hobby Lobby challenge to Obamacare, claiming it is setting women’s’ rights back to pre 19th Amendment days.
Check please! That would be a no!!!
Ignoring the fact that that dog just won’t hunt after several days of being a yawn inspiring story for all but the most rabid leftist media outlets, especially against the backdrop of the latest Obama Follies – the real crisis at our Southern border, some folks in the DNC, either out of boredom, panic that people are starting to pay attention to the real problems we face that are worsened by the President and his democrat team, or need to rev up their base, have started sending emails to alert women about the calamity that has befallen us – Hobby Lobby won’t pay for abortions. But the dishonesty offends me, and the folks trying to benefit from it need to be called out!
Hoping this non starter will distract people from the economy, illegal immigration, higher prices at the gas pump, rising costs, more insidious taxes, a huge illegal alien population already in Massachusetts (many of whom receive government benefits) and the disaster known as Obamacare, they bang the drum in the hope women will become outraged. From my perspective…Hobby Lobby won’t pay for an abortion? Big deal. Neither will my clients. I’m on my own if I want one of those. I’m also on my own if I want a BMW or vacation, or a daily virgin colada from the local fusion restaurant.
In the 18th century some of the founding Patriots questioned the value of distorting the truth to enrage the public. It is not a new notion – there are always truth stretching rabble rousers and fact loyal cerebral inspirations within any movement. But at the end of the day, Samuel Adams -the rabble rouser – is remembered more for the brand of beer bearing his name, while John Adams or Thomas Jefferson, the cerebral inspirations, are remembered as father’s of our country.
What future generations remember, and history say about the names Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, or many of the current group of democrats who have misled the public based upon rhetoric and the politics of jealousy?
Niki Tsongas, Nancy Pelosi and the Left: Stop distorting the truth!
Dr. Robin McFee, MPH, FACPM, FAACT, is medical director of Threat Science – and nationally recognized expert in WMD preparedness, who consults with government agencies, corporations and the media. Dr. McFee is the former director and cofounder of the Center for Bioterrorism Preparedness (CB PREP) and bioweapons – WMD adviser to the Domestic Security Task Force, numerous law enforcement and corporate entities after 911, as well as pandemic advisor to federal, state and local agencies, and corporations during the anthrax events, SARS, Avian and swine flu epidemics. Dr. McFee is the former chair of the Global Terrorism Council of ASIS International, and is a member of the US Counterterrorism Advisory Team. She has delivered over 500 invited lectures since 9-11, created graduate level courses on WMD preparedness for several universities, authored more than 100 articles on terrorism, health care and preparedness, and coauthored two books: Toxico-Terrorism by McGraw Hill and The Handbook of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Agents, published by Informa/CRC Press.
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