You might have heard recently that the noted neurosurgeon and best-selling author of books about himself, Ben Carson, took to the podium at the nation's celebrated "prayer breakfast" or whatever it's called to speak on behalf of his aggrieved class of fellow high earners and privileged religionists. Rather than afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted the good doctor agitated for a flat tax, because the slightly higher tax rates that the upper middle income and wealthy pay on a fraction of their generous income is incredibly burdensome and so terrible unfair, even though marginal, not to mention average, tax rates in this country are still lower than they've been since the Great Depression, not even accounting for the multiple tax deductions most of us fortunate householders and charity givers are allowed to take, drastically reducing the ultimate tax incidence any of us are subject to, but let's not discuss that here. He also called attention to the unconscionable oppression suffered by well to do Christians from sea to shining sea who suffer under the lash of having Happy Holidays said to them instead of Merry Christmas while shopping for unneeded goods during the nation's grotesquely commercial and materialistic year-end celebration of itself and all things bought, produced and sold.
God, what a sorry spectacle we've become, this nation, it's so-called Christian class of value warriors. It's small wonder that more and more Americans affiliate with no religion and are abandoning the Christian world. Pathetic.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Sunday, February 10, 2013
An Open Letter to Hobby Lobby, Opus Dei Catholics and Other Conservatives having Butthurt over the Contraception Mandate
It didn't have to be this way.
You could have played a constructive role in the healthcare debate. You could have helped ensure increased access to healthcare for many millions of Americans, and on terms that were preferable for you. Americans who, by the way, support the current taxpayer subsidized, employer-based healthcare system but don't get anything in return for it. And yes, anyone who works and draws a paycheck in the economy pays taxes. No matter their earnings level, federal income taxes are taken out of every employee's paycheck every time they get paid, and those taxes help subsidize health insurance for many working Americans.
Politically, you also enjoyed the benefit of having a new president who campaigned on the basis of changing the political culture and reaching out to members of the other party and to those with different ideas. You might not have believed this of him, but you could have pursued the olive branch he was extending and participated in a process that aimed to establish, finally, a universal healthcare system, or something much closer to it than we have ever had before. And even if taxpaying Americans weren't "worthy" of better, or any, healthcare, and even if the president wasn't agreeable to you, universal healthcare access is a goal you should have supported as your Freaking Christian Duty anyway. And I shouldn't have to remind you about that.
Instead, you, by your silence or active contrivance, helped incite the mob of John Birchers who raged at congressional town hall meetings across the country about "Socialism", "death panels" and "2nd Amendment solutions". Remember that? You either acquiesced or zealously supported the hateful and deceitful vitriol spewed forth about healthcare reform (not to mention everything else) by the conservative media complex of talk show radio hosts, cable television pundits, and "family" research institutes. Maybe you hoped this mob would successfully intimidate the president and members of Congress into not doing anything.
But you fucked up. The healthcare law passed without you and because you didn't help or participate, you got nothing.
So how's that workin out for ya?
I'm real sorry for your precious religious liberty you now say is being violated. But you had your chance to exercise your Christian Liberty in a helpful way that would have generated good will and helped many vulnerable Americans. Now, you have to hope the courts will yet rule in your favor. But if they don't, you will have gotten what you deserve.
You could have played a constructive role in the healthcare debate. You could have helped ensure increased access to healthcare for many millions of Americans, and on terms that were preferable for you. Americans who, by the way, support the current taxpayer subsidized, employer-based healthcare system but don't get anything in return for it. And yes, anyone who works and draws a paycheck in the economy pays taxes. No matter their earnings level, federal income taxes are taken out of every employee's paycheck every time they get paid, and those taxes help subsidize health insurance for many working Americans.
Politically, you also enjoyed the benefit of having a new president who campaigned on the basis of changing the political culture and reaching out to members of the other party and to those with different ideas. You might not have believed this of him, but you could have pursued the olive branch he was extending and participated in a process that aimed to establish, finally, a universal healthcare system, or something much closer to it than we have ever had before. And even if taxpaying Americans weren't "worthy" of better, or any, healthcare, and even if the president wasn't agreeable to you, universal healthcare access is a goal you should have supported as your Freaking Christian Duty anyway. And I shouldn't have to remind you about that.
Instead, you, by your silence or active contrivance, helped incite the mob of John Birchers who raged at congressional town hall meetings across the country about "Socialism", "death panels" and "2nd Amendment solutions". Remember that? You either acquiesced or zealously supported the hateful and deceitful vitriol spewed forth about healthcare reform (not to mention everything else) by the conservative media complex of talk show radio hosts, cable television pundits, and "family" research institutes. Maybe you hoped this mob would successfully intimidate the president and members of Congress into not doing anything.
But you fucked up. The healthcare law passed without you and because you didn't help or participate, you got nothing.
So how's that workin out for ya?
I'm real sorry for your precious religious liberty you now say is being violated. But you had your chance to exercise your Christian Liberty in a helpful way that would have generated good will and helped many vulnerable Americans. Now, you have to hope the courts will yet rule in your favor. But if they don't, you will have gotten what you deserve.
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