Thursday, November 06, 2008

Sounds Like a Plan

Predictions* from Focus on the Family for an Obama administration (my editorializing in color):
  • From the end of 2009, Justices Roberts, Thomas, and Alito have been constantly outvoted 6-3 and they are essentially powerless. (Awesome!)
  • The most far-reaching transformation of American society came from the Supreme Court’s stunning affirmation, in early 2010, that homosexual marriage was a “constitutional” right that had to be respected by all 50 states because laws barring same-sex marriage violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. (Yes, I think that is where the interpretation is going. Oh, and get over your bad selves and stop using scare quotes already!)
  • Boy Scouts: “The land of the free”? The Boy Scouts no longer exist as an organization. They chose to disband rather than be forced to obey the Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys. (Remember, homosexual == pedophile. Oh wait, no it doesn't! Sounds fair enough to me. And they can't discriminate against atheists anymore if they're shut down.)
  • Adoption agencies: “The land of the free”? There are no more Roman Catholic or
    evangelical Protestant adoption agencies in the United States. Following earlier rulings in New York and Massachusetts, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 ruled that these agencies had to agree to place children with homosexual couples or lose their licenses. (Providers of public adoption services are no longer allowed to discriminate against people? Awesome!)
  • Doctors and lawyers: “The land of the free”? Physicians who refuse to provide artificial insemination for lesbian couples now face significant fines or loss of their license to
    practice medicine... (Doctors have to do the jobs they're hired to do? Outrageous!)
  • Homosexuals in the military: One change regarding the status of homosexuals did
    not wait for any Supreme Court decision. In the first week after his inauguration President Obama invited gay rights leaders from around the United States to join him at the White House as he signed an executive order directing all branches of the military to abandon their “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy... (Well, I think this is where public sentiment is going anyhow. Sounds great to me!)
  • The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard a new challenge to the phrase “under God” in the pledge, and, as it had in 2002 in Newdow v. United States Congress, Elk Grove Unified School District, et al., it held the wording to be unconstitutional. Now the Supreme Court has upheld this decision. (Sounds awesome. There's no need for those words in the pledge, which was originally written without it.)
  • Congress lost no time in solidifying abortion rights under President Obama. In fact, Obama had promised, “The first thing I’ll do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act” ... (Awesome! Finally, a president who thinks that I know better than anyone else does when it comes to the contents of my uterus!)
  • Nurses and abortions: “The land of the free”? Nurses are no longer free to refuse to
    participate in abortions for reasons of conscience. (Forcing nurses to do the job they're hired to do? Awesome!)
  • Terrorist attacks: “The home of the brave”? President Obama directed U.S. intelligence services to cease all wiretapping of alleged terrorist phone calls unless they first obtained a specific court warrant for each case. Terrorists captured overseas, instead of being tried in military tribunals, are now given full trials in the U.S. court system... (Oh no! Treating terrorists like they're actual human beings? Godless forbid!)
  • The new Congress under President Obama passed a nationalized “single provider” health care system, in which the U.S. government is now the provider of all health care in the United States, following the pattern of nationalized medicine the United Kingdom and Canada. The great benefit is that medical care is now free for everyone -- if you can get it. [Some blathering about ridiculously long waiting lists...] (Sounds about like things are now, except that instead of waiting lists, we have price lists. Instead of out-of-control wait times, we have out-of-control prices that are unaffordable for most people with serious diseases. Either way, people who need medical help can't get it. But I doubt that this would happen should we have national medical care; it doesn't work that way in Canada despite what these people would have you believe.)
I expect President Obama to get right on it. Sounds like a plan to me!

* Except that they're not actually predictions, because, like, predicting stuff is witchcraft and shit. Except, yeah, they are, by any normal definition of prediction, predictions.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

And because you NEVER have any wait times in the US, right? The doctors all see you instantaneously! In fact, they see you before you even know you're sick! They're just that good!

Anonymous said...

If something is wrong you shouldn't do it. Being `hired' implies you agreed to perform abortion services, you are trivializing this issue. If you study biology you learn human life begins sometime before birth, it is reasonable to assume the unborn have human rights.

Madeleine said...

Woohoo! We have a plan.

Laura said...

I think what disturbs me most about the document is the unexamined connection they make between greater freedom for gays and lesbians to marry and lesser freedom for Christians to continue to hold their views. I don't think freedom is a zero-sum game! Just because they abolished prohibition doesn't mean everyone has to drink; they don't even have to "teach drinking" in the schools. To make that leap with gay marriage is disturbing.

For that matter, I don't think that the freedom to marry whoever you want is the same as the "freedom" to shield your child from certain ideas. And I'm not so sure that Christianity is always on the side of civil liberties, anyway, frankly. I mean, most Christians support civil liberties, but the only freedom our faith really talks much about is the freedom from anxiety about whether we're right with God.

In any case, though, I do think that health care professionals should be allowed to opt out of performing any procedure they have a moral objection to. If this makes things hard on a certain population (e.g. it's hard to find an abortion clinic in a heavily pro-life area) then the federal government should send in people willing to provide that service. That's what I think.

Tegan said...

Wow, I approve of every prediction! Go Obama!

EcoGeoFemme said...

I love this post! Even more after reading the post that follows.