47 Thoughts to “Glenn Beck crawls out from under rock to join the pig club”

  1. Cindy B

    At least five advertisers, including Oreck, have pulled advertising from Rush Linbaugh’s radio show. That’s the only thing that matters. If you don’t like it, don’t listen and let the advertisers know why you aren’t buying their products/services.

    Noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.

    1. Advertizers won’t respond unless those aware of the remarks make them aware. We have come full circle.

      Slimball can say what he wants if he is man enough to take the consequences.

      He really is just an aging opportunistic egomaniac who has made his money off of having everything BUT family values. In my world, part of the family values paradigm includes civilized manners and treating others as you would like to be treated. He wouldn’t know family values if they bit him on the nose. He mistakes quantity (4 marriages) for quality.

  2. kelly_3406

    I am still waiting for some “grown-up” discussion of this topic. Rush’s attacks were clearly over the top and juvenile, but women have not behaved much better. They demand coverage even though it violates their employer’s /organization’s religious beliefs, which I find to be offensive also.

    If women are truly independent and equal, they should stop whining about their lack of contraception at religious institutions. Instead, they should pay for it themselves, get their partners to share the cost, get it at reduced cost through planned parenthood, or go work/study someplace else. Bottom Line: they should be responsible adults who avoid imposing on anyone else.

  3. “Women haven’t behaved much better.” Surely you are kidding me. You are comparing the testimony of Sandra Fluke, given in a factual, non-hysterical fashion, to a bunch of imbeciles sitting around a table making sexists jokes unworthy of a middle schooler? The fact that you can’t see the difference is truly astounding and certainly doesn’t speak highly of your ability to discern the difference in appropriate behavior.

    Access to health care should not depend on who you work for nor where you go to school. DePaul shouldn’t have greater access to health care than Gerogetown. As for changing jobs, where on earth have you been? Most people cannot afford to change jobs. Some people are deansMost students and some people work in food services and the laundry rooms. You have missed all the news about the high cost of college and that often students go tens of thousands of dollars in to debt? You aren’t female so you probably haven’t paid much attention to the fact that hormonal contraception is expensive out of pocket and that Planned Parenthood isn’t close by for everyone. Furthermore, you all are the very people trying to close it down in most states.

    When functioning in the secular world as an employer, take off the religious hat. That is such a bogus, cheap stretch to say one’s religious convictions are violated, especially when the church teaching is about USE to prevent conception. If we are talking about the Catholic Church, as make no mistake, we are, I find it offensive that some folks are allowing one religion to set what amounts to policy for a nation.

    Kelly, I have not heard one woman ‘whining.’ I find your remarks to be extremely offensive and uninformed. Expect the same respect in return.Karma is a bitch.

  4. Here is an example of the ‘immature behavior’ described by Kelly:

    Huffington Post:

    WASHINGTON — Officials at Georgetown University came to the defense of Sandra Fluke on Friday, criticizing radio host Rush Limbaugh for calling the third-year law student a “slut” and a “prostitute” after she spoke out on birth control insurance coverage.

    John DeGioia, president of Georgetown, sent a letter to students and faculty praising Fluke’s congressional testimony. “She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction,” he wrote. “She provided a model of civil discourse. This expression of conscience was in the tradition of the deepest values we share as a people.”

    In contrast, DeGioia had harsh words for Limbaugh’s attacks on Fluke, saying they “can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.”

    At Georgetown Law, 137 professors and staff members have signed a letter in support of Fluke. “As scholars and teachers who aim to train public-spirited lawyers, no matter what their politics, to engage intelligently and meaningfully with the world, we abhor these attacks on Ms. Fluke and applaud her strength and grace in the face of them,” the letter says.

    Kelly, did you see her testimony? Its on this blog. The congressional hearing only had MEN respresenting various orthodox religious groups. How can men be the only point of view on women’s contraception? Do you also set yourself up as one of those who can tell the little women what they should or should not be doing?

  5. Second Alamo

    If access to healthcare must be universal independent on personal situations, then how long before other ‘necessities’ in life are brought on board under the same logic? Houses, automobiles, TVs, computers, etc. etc. It could be argued that in this day and time all those items are required to sustain an ‘equal’ lifestyle. Does one not see the socialist leaning to this, and never mind that only half of us are working to pay for it all.

  6. Emma

    So sad, that Catholic institutions will have to consider closing their doors to the “secular world” rather than compromise their core beliefs, the most important of which is providing vast amounts of free “stuff” to the needy, in the form of quality education, housing and healthcare. Oh, well, let’s just throw out the baby with the bathwater, why don’t we?

  7. Emma

    “Noisy gongs and clanging cymbals.”

    Amen to that. I can’t take five minutes of that guy’s rants. Sean Hannity is no better. I like programs where listeners get to call in and provide more input, not when these guys blab and rant for 10 minutes straight,and then cut over to another 10 minutes of continuous advertising.@Cindy B

  8. kelly_3406

    I saw her testimony but was completely unmoved by it. I simply do not believe her statement that contraception costs $3000. She and her partner(s) could buy condoms for about $1 each, so she is clearly exaggerating.

    Here is where we disagree: institutions do not give up their first amendment rights just because they employ someone. At the intersection between the secular and religious, rights guranteed under the first amendment should always take precedence. Whether the cost is $3000 or $365, a woman’s desire for contraception does not mean that an employer (particularly religious affiliated) should automatically have to provide/cover it.

    I have no problem with this woman or 137 professors airing their views on this subject or Rush’s treatment of her. As I said, his attack on her was over the top and offensive. I also view the demand to ignore first amendment rights of employers to be offensive as well. And much of it does sound like whining to me ….

  9. @Emma

    Probably the closest we will come to that is on c-span…and even then…

    It is truly amazing how rudely people are treated on some of those shows. The 2 people I find most respectful of guests are Greta and Rachel.

  10. @Kelly, institutions don’t have first amendment rights. People do.

    Had you listened to her testimony instead of sneering, you would have heard that she spoke of students…collective. She wasn’t speaking only of herself. Birth control pills are often between $50 and $75 dollars per pack. Depro even more. Implants, ditto. She specifically said over 3 years. You have taken math before. You also understand generalities.

    There is no need to comment on her number of partners in a snide manner. None at all. In the first place, you don’t know. Secondly, the number could be zero, a husband, 1 or 100s. Regardless of the number, its none of your business.

    Adult women can and will have sex with whom they want without our permission. By the same token, they can NOT have sex if that is their choice.

    It isn’t up to an employer to decide what product we use. People like you have pushed me over solidly into the Obamacare camp. It is obviously needed.

    Actually, you didn’t disavow Limbaugh or Beck’s comments. You said women whined and behaved almost as badly. This ‘as I said’ must have been said somewhere else. I sure didn’t see it.

    Let’s just be real blunt, if the Catholic Church wants to keep its no contraception edict, it needs to do it with its own flock and no one else. That is its right. However, when it comes out in public (like universities that admit non-Catholics, hospitals, publishing houses, etc.) then it needs to put on its employer hat and act accordingly. No special privileges.

    So as to not pick on the Catholic Church as an institution, let’s include all the other churches who have strange regulations like no blood transfusions and no meat and no medicine. If you work for the Christian Scientist Magazine, I have a sneaking suspcion that the employees have health care benefits. I haven’t heard them whining.

    Most importantly of all, over 90% of all American Catholic women, according to polls, have used contraception at some point in their lives. This is one of the dumbest arguments I have ever heard of and one that the Church and its old moss back priests, bishops, cardinals, etc. will not win.

    Religion is a secondary culture. Those hopping on the Pope mobile will not get to their political destination. Not even close–especially with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as the official alter boys.

  11. Emma

    So Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, has no 1A rights? So Muslim students who choose to go there have the right to demand that they remove the crosses in the classrooms because they find them offensive? Why the hell do they even go to a Catholic institution in the first place, if once they get in they try to subvert the institution’s central philosophy? We’re on a slippery slope.

    I suppose the best solution would be to shake off federal funding, so these institutions can do whatever the hell they want. But since this contraception mandate even reaches beyond that, how long before the crosses and chapels have to go away because they “offend” some student?

    1. I can’t imagine why a Muslim student would chose to go to Georgetown but I am sure stranger things have happened. NO one is asking that any parochial school change its stripes. However, there is a human resource element that has nothing to do with the goals of the institution.

      I wasn’t aware that Georgetown got federal funding. It will still be an employer.

      The way I see it, and this is from a person who attended public school before Madyline Murray O’Hare hit the Supremes, private schools can preach what they want to their students. They can put up flags, prayers, etc. However, they have to abide by employment guidelines.

      Unless I seriously misunderstood about 20 sermons many years ago, the contraception ban was about not using artifical means to prevent conception. No one ever said no birth control pills for endometricosis, menstrual cramps or zits. No one ever said to shun latex. They said not to use it to prevent pregnancy.

      The entire argument on not providing any kind of birth control to anyone is rather bogus.

  12. Emma

    A poster had hung in a RI high-school auditorium since 1963. It was a gift from the senior class that year, and was a version of the Lord’s Prayer that had to do with studying hard and becoming successful. The ACLU last year put some 16-year-old up to forcing the school to remove the sign, because it “offended” her. Really? This wasn’t some official school endorsement of religion, but student speech, and a little piece of school history that many alumni treasure, and the court forced the school to take the sign down. Again, I ask, how far is this going to go? Added bonus was that the student was rewarded with scholarship money for her good deed–as if we didn’t know that would happen.

    1. That is a separate issue and really has nothing to do with contraception. It also is hard to comment on sight unseen. Public school? Lord’s Prayer? Catholic or Protestant version?

  13. kelly_3406

    Moon-howler :
    People like you have pushed me over solidly into the Obamacare camp. It is obviously needed.

    I am shocked, truly shocked ….. by the revelation that you support Obamacare.

    You’re right … I did not explicitly say that what Rush said was offensive. I typed it, but then must have deleted it. His statement was offensive. I do not really know what Beck said … I do not really pay much attention to what either Rush or Beck say.

    If the cost for BC is down to $1000 per year, why is it that she can’t get a summer job or bus tables to pay for her own contraception (or whomever she is REALLY talking about)? Or perhaps use less expensive contraception. Why is it that someone else is expected to pay for her? You know, back to that anachronistic idea of personal responsibility and independence.

    I would also argue that institutions are composed of … people … and so the first amendment does apply. The fact that 90% of American Catholics use contraception (if that is indeed true) does not change the argument at all. It shows that contraception is indeed freely available and there is nothing the church can or should do about it.

    But it is quite a different matter to force a religious organizations to provide coverage for or otherwise subsidize it. And before you bring it up, the supposed compromise dictated by BHO is pure and utter nonsense.

    1. Kelly, I see a tremendous need to uniform health care in this country. Why? Too many people are left out. What about the mother who had her children on her policy. When the daughter had a baby, no maternity or newborn coverage. That can cost thousands of dollars. Do we just call the daughter a slut assume she isn’t deserving of coverage?

      How about the family with an austic child? Until very recently the family couldn’t get treatment for the autism–until the Virginia legislature MANDATED certain coverage. How about the man who needs expensive heart medication but can’t get it because his policy won’t pay for a tier 3 and suggests other medication that are literally poisonous to him. On the other hand, his wife’s policy will cover the drug.

      These are all common inequities in health care. “Obamacare” attempts to correct the disparities.

      There are approximately 50 million uninsured people in the United States. What should those people do? Many jobs don’t carry insurance coverage, especially part time jobs. Unpaid medical expenses are killing us as a nation.

      Your mock shock doesn’t fool me. I remained neutral. Now I support it. I expect it will become as popular as Medicare.

  14. Elena

    Obama tried to find a reasonable solution, but apparently in this climate, as demostrated by Snowe choosing to leave congress, that is impossible.

    Do I agree that BC should be completely free, I don’t know, don’t see why a 10 copay would not be reasonable.

    However, contraception benefits all of society, in every society, as demonstrated by the countries that do NOT have access to affordable birth control. That we are arguing how accessible BC should be in a civilized progressive society is simply unfathomable to me.

    I think the Church’s position, being that they pay for viagra is ridiculous. Are they ensuring that all men use to procreate???????? Not likely, not likely at all.

  15. Elena

    Moon-howler :Kelly, I see a tremendous need to uniform health care in this country. Why? Too many people are left out. What about the mother who had her children on her policy. When the daughter had a baby, no maternity or newborn coverage. That can cost thousands of dollars. Do we just call the daughter a slut assume she isn’t deserving of coverage?
    How about the family with an austic child? Until very recently the family couldn’t get treatment for the autism–until the Virginia legislature MANDATED certain coverage. How about the man who needs expensive heart medication but can’t get it because his policy won’t pay for a tier 3 and suggests other medication that are literally poisonous to him. On the other hand, his wife’s policy will cover the drug.
    These are all common inequities in health care. “Obamacare” attempts to correct the disparities.
    There are approximately 50 million uninsured people in the United States. What should those people do? Many jobs don’t carry insurance coverage, especially part time jobs. Unpaid medical expenses are killing us as a nation.
    Your mock shock doesn’t fool me. I remained neutral. Now I support it. I expect it will become as popular as Medicare.

    Moon, I could not agree with you more. Let’s not leave out how expensive NOT being insured is for the rest of us who are insured! I guess as long as it isn’t you or someone you love suffering who gives a sh%t.

  16. Elena

    Kelly,
    Why have any medication coverage? We can all get summer jobs to pay for our medication.

  17. Emma

    Employers use benefits to entice employees, which is why they have medication coverage. But the government forcing them to provide specific drugs in their healthcare plans is a huge overreach. Where does that stop?

    And the Obama “compromise” is not reasonable considering that Catholic institutions are often self-insured. And this false argument that “if the Church is going to be an employer, then it has to suck it up” is so utterly nonsensical. How can any organization exist without employees? This is all nothing more than coddling of the left-wing, Church hating base. Birth control is readily available. Or did Planned Parenthood and various area free clinics just suddenly wither up and die?

    1. “Coddling of the left wing” Flap flap. Right wing folks also use birth control. Cahtolics use birth control. Baptists use birth control. Mormons use birth control.

      “Church hating base” What a paranoid statement. I don’t hate any church until they try to influence public policy. Then they right into the hopper with everyone else. Birth Control isn’t readily available. That is the entire point. Emma, you don’t live in a cave. There isn’t a planned parenthood on every corner. Not everyone is eligible to use free clinics and health departments. Money, access, transportation, all have bearing on this subject.

      To someone opposed to abortion, I would think you would advocate everyone ‘suiting up’ by whatever method was effective.

      To advocate for no abortion and no birth control is just plain stupid and denies the human condition.

  18. Emma

    Does anyone have statistics on how many women are being deprived of birth control because they work for Catholic institutions? Given the coverage of this issue, it must be astronomical!

    1. @Emma, I believe that we can take Georgetown as an example of a microcosm. I don’t think numbers really matter if you are the one who cannot afford birth control or birth control that meets your needs.

      Why would you, as a woman, be willing to accept this ‘do as you are told’ mentality? I don’t think you have probably ever ‘done as you were told to do’ a day in your life. (pointing back at myself also) Why should be accept such poppycock? Supposedly, men can get viagra. Women can’t get the pill. What’s wrong with this picture?

      I have enjoyed traveling the blogs and seeing the reactions of two very different types of men. Some were outraged. Others were You go Rush…you tell them thar wommin folk sluts off. The reactions spoke volumes and I could clearly see which men lived in this century and which did not.

      I had to stop my travels though. A slow burn was coming on me. At what point are momen not going to be expected to do what men tell them to do? Should I just reread Cave of the Clan Bear instead of the blogs?

  19. Elena

    http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/calculator-birth-control-expensive-really-cost

    According to the Center for American Progress, even women with private health insurance often shoulder a significant portion of the cost for their prescription birth control needs. That’s one of the reasons women of reproductive age spend 68 percent more on out-of-pocket health care expenses than their male counterparts do. And contrary to Rep. Price’s claim, surveys show that women do indeed forgo contraception—or use it inconsistently—when they’re in a financial crunch. According to a 2009 study from the Guttmacher Institute (PDF), 23 percent of middle- and low-income women said they had a harder time paying for birth control in the current economy and 24 percent put off a visit to the gynecologist in order to save money. A recent Hart Research Associates survey found that one in three women voters—including 55 percent of young women—have struggled to afford birth control. In fact, the high cost of birth control is exactly why the Institute of Medicine recommended that it be covered without a copay.

  20. Emma

    You can get birth control pills at Target or Walmart for $9 a pack. That doesn’t come remotely close to the GROSSLY exaggerated 3K that Ms. Fluke is crowing about. Come on, people spend more than that on two packs of cigarettes.

    1. @Emma

      Is that everywhere? Target and Walmart aren’t often real close by. But, that is good to know. I am assuming you can get those without the medical visit? There’s a good $300 right there. Will Georgetown physicians even write an RX?

  21. Elena

    Emma,
    Maybe you could comment on the study I posted.

  22. Emma

    I did. Hence my comment. Are law students too good to shop at Walmart?

  23. Elena

    Emma,
    They offer two types of birth control pills. What about the multitude of other contraceptions that women use who cannot take pills. I thought you were a nurse? You know all this stuff so why are you defending prevention medicine?

  24. Emma

    You’re conflating issues. Of course I believe in prevention. I also have no issue with birth control. What I do have issue with is the gross exaggeration of the number of Church employees who are directly impacted by the Church’s moral stand on contraception, so that they have no access to birth control. Really? I’m just not believing that the problem is so large scale and so threatening to the general population’s “reproductive freedom,” whatever that means.

    The left doesn’t give a rat’s ass about anyone who works for the Catholic Church. This is nothing more than an attempt to aggrandize Obamacare and to force the Church’s hand in abandoning its principles. Planned Parenthood and their supporters would have done everything to destroy the Susan B. Komen organization if they had not backed down. Right now, it looks like the Church is also being Komen’d, so to speak. And Catholics do not like to see their Church under attack, even if they themselves don’t follow every rule.

    1. @Emma, I am having a hard time digesting all that you have said. I have heard so much Church paranoia in recent weeks, I am trying to make sense out of it.

      I honestly don’t care whether the Church abandons its principles or not. The only people I would think who had a vested interest would be Catholics. I am not Catholic. That ship has sailed.

      Do you not think that most Catholics would like to see rules relax? It would sure make it easier for them. Also, can you see that Americans can attack practices without attacking the Church? The Church rule is that the individual is not use artificial means to prevent conception. That is a rule for Catholics. It doesn’t say that you can’t take certain medicine or that non-Catholics are to adhere to a Catholic rule.

      As long as the Catholic Church speaks to its own flock about tules, that’s one thing. When they move past the flock and out into the general population, then they will get told to mind their own business, and rightly so.

  25. Censored bybvbl

    Emma, so what should the Church do if it offers prescription drug coverage to its employees and some of those employees’ doctors prescribe birth control pills for non-sexual problems?

  26. Emma

    @Censored bybvbl Interesting question. Why don’t you get back to me with an answer?

  27. Elena

    Emma,
    That was a relevant question that Censored asked, why the snotty response?

    Preventative care is a critical cornerstone policy of the Affordable Healthcare Act. The reason it is critical is because the premise is based on prevention of unwanted pregnancies but also a host of other issues that arise in the female reproductive system that have nothing to do with sex OR procreation.

    There are 244 universities/colleges in this country and more than 400 catholic hospital or health facilities. Yeah, I imagine ALOT of people will be affected by their unwillingness to provide comprehensive health care for everyone.

  28. Emma

    Because I feel no need to justify my church to someone with such an obviously visceral hatred of it. Pearls before swine, so to speak.

  29. Censored bybvbl

    @Emma

    I don’t care enough about your church to have “such an obviously visceral hatred of it”. But I do expect it to abide by the state employment laws in the jurisdictions in which it operates and I don’t expect to have to obey YOUR church’s mandates.

    You obviously must realize that birth control pills have more uses than just preventing pregnancy and that the issue requires a more complex response. Oink. Oink. (But I’m not so sure you’ve offered any pearls of wisdom.)

    There are so many cafeteria Catholics out there that I think this issue of birth control pills was merely chosen so some with a particular political bent could whine about the “War on Christians”. Wah. Wah. It’s just more hyped up political theatre. It’s funny how I haven’t noticed a big brouhaha about making the flock forego birth control until just recently when big, bad President Obama wanted it to be covered for all women. Why hasn’t the whine been non-stop since the Church lost in NY state as well as other states. I guess it’s because there’s a Democratic Prez.

  30. Who does get to criticize policies of THE Church? Ex-members? current members? no one ever?

    Churches that keep their rules to their own flock tend to get less criticism than those who attempt to set public policy. You can’t have it both ways. Either stay out of public policy setting or get used to public criticism. No one gets a pass here. That goes for ALL churches.

  31. SlowpokeRodriguez

    $3000 / year on contraception? I hope she writes a diary! I wanna read it!!

  32. Emma

    That $3,000 is a bunch of BS. What a lie. Ms. Fluke is the left’s new Cindy Sheehan.

    1. Reread what she said. She said $3000 over the course of law school. $1000 a year. Now we are going to vilify the poor woman because you didn’t read carefully?

  33. Censored bybvbl

    @Moon-howler

    The Dittoheads are out in full force on a variety of message boards and comment sections in newspapers. Not only is “slut” repeated ad infinitum but Ms Fluke’s age is given as older, she’s described as a Democratic operative, the $3000 cost is misquoted, etc., etc.. The hate machine is in full operation. The party of family values and religious freedom is cranking up the rhetoric and emailing the loonies.

    1. Every once in a while truth, justice and the American Way wins out, Cindy B. I am hoping this is one of those times where capitalism rules. Limbaugh has a 25 year track record and I think this time his big mouth will bite him in his own a$$.

  34. SlowpokeRodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Reread what she said. She said $3000 over the course of law school. $1000 a year. Now we are going to vilify the poor woman because you didn’t read carefully?

    So OK, why not ask the guy to pitch in a few bucks? Maybe investigate writing it off as a business expense? I’m just saying, if I’m being asked to pay for it! Maybe go to a less expensive law school? Maybe don’t have the new iPhone every six months, maybe cut out a few of the “spicy” movie channels (oh I suppose we’ll be forced to foot the bill for THAT too as part of the whole thing). What is required? And what is not required?

    1. Pokie, you are assuming you know someone’s lifestyle. You don’t. Let’s move Ms. Fluke out of Georgetown and put her at UVA. Hold her there a minute.

      Not to get personal but I haven’t bought contraception in decades. Remember what I said about real men and vasectomies? I sure wouldn’t have wanted to pay for that out of pocket. It would have been thousands of dollars. Our insurance paid for it no questions asked. I had to sign papers which I thought was a bit much. They weren’t MY nads being snipped. I don’t think in modern times spouses have dominion over their mates reproductive organs. Male or female.

      So Mr. Howler’s company provided the insurance for the vasectomy. What if someone in a decision making position hated vasectomies? How do we feel about that company being allowed to opt out, maybe just because they didn’t think men should get snipped? Maybe it gave the owner the willies. I just don’t think employers should get to decide things like that.

      Back to Ms. Fluke. Student health services should be pretty standard for all colleges. If Ms. Fluke were at UVA, this would not be an issue. It wouldn’t be an issue at DePaul University either. When shopping for a college, Do you get to know what medications are provided and what services the dispensary has? I haven’t seen that on any websites. Full disclosure is needed. Furthermore, law school and grad school are for adults. Unless the university is going to only serve people of its faith, shut off federal aid, then it just needs to comply and stop relying on its religious end to manipulate the business end of running an institution. The church is trying to weara two hats.

      What was the policy when you were in school? Conviction isn’t very strong when it varies from institution to institution.

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