Monday, May 18, 2009
Legislature Am I Beast or am I Human? Am I Just Like You?
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Mon, May 18, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Woods is already all over the SJR127 vote, but in case you missed it, it passed 76-22. And
Fine.
If you look at it by itself, it is. But if you're concerned about whether women can be actual full citizens of the State of Tennessee, this is just the culminating piece of legislation that answers, "No, women are lying bitches out to ruin your life and it's up to the State to protect you from them." Most of the "women are lying bitches" legislation has been about protecting men from us and this differs slightly in that it's about protecting fetuses from us, but the effect is the same, to establish women as something other than regular citizens.
We're a special class of citizen, who must have special scrutiny and whose behavior must be specially monitored and legislated over. (Yeah, I'm the crazy feminist, but take a look at the Browse by Subject. Notice how there's not one for "men." Hmm. Wonder why that is?)
Of course everyone wants to frame it as "We must save the babies," because framing it as "Your state legislators think they have the right to force you to give birth against your will, even if it kills you" is so gruesome. Who wants to think about dead women? Who wants to think about what a colossal expansion of Government Rights it is to say that the State can force a woman to give birth, that, in effect, if the State wants to reserve the right to commandeer a woman's body for nine months and force her to do what the State wants, then we're not free?
"Oh, but Betsy, we just want to control your life if you get pregnant! See, just in that special case, then you have to turn your body over to the State. Just don't get pregnant, and you'll be fine. Um, unless we need to check occasionally to make sure that you're not lying about being pregnant. Or something. It's hard to say. You women are so tricky."
You can make me your brood mare, Tennessee, but I won't go quietly.
So, let's call the two biggest jackasses of the evening out, shall we?
First up is Brian Kelsey, the Republican from Germantown, who got his law degree from Georgetown. After tonight's little adventure, I dare say that Georgetown clearly either owes him or the State of Tennessee an apology because he came up with this little gem, "[In this case] Courts put some rights into the Constitution. It's the People's job to put rights into the Constitution."
Kelsey, did you bother to even read our State Constitution, ever, even once before you decided to become a politician? What about the Federal Constitution? Or are those pesky pieces of paper just in the way of you making shit up?
The State Constitution, which you might want to familiarize yourself with before trying to amend it in the future says, and I quote, because I've bothered to read it, "all power is inherent in the people." The Courts cannot "put" rights in the Constitution. Rights in this country and specifically in this state reside with the individual and the people sometimes cede the exercise and enumeration of those rights to the Government.
If you think that a person in this State has no rights until either the legislature or the courts specify them, you should be retroactively failed out of law school. The Courts didn't "put" any rights in the Constitution, they specified some rights that women in this State ALREADY have, and which you are moving to strip us of.
Either you're playing dumb or you are dumb.
But, sadly, that's nothing compared to Mike Turner's (Democrat, just east of here) bizarre, cowardly, racist diatribe about how he was going to vote for the legislation no matter what, but "I have three daughters and I'm concerned that if one of those young ladies got in this situation of being brutally raped by some gangster or some hoodlum, they should have choices."
Yes, he wants his daughters to have choices, but not enough to put his ass on the line when it counts. Or, I guess, he can afford to take his daughters to an abortion-friendly state. Screw the rest of us.
But second, what's with the "gangster" and "hoodlum" bullshit? Or is this supposed to be another case where all we white folks sit around and talk about "gangsters" and "hoodlums" and we all know we mean "scary black guys" but we all pretend we don't? Well, I know what you mean and I'm, for one, not going to play stupid.
And the "brutally raped"? So, what, if your daughter was just drugged and raped by a nice college boy, that would be one thing, but if she's brutally raped by a thug of some sort, that's another?
Nice.
Maybe we can set up some kind of public council to decide if a woman has been raped brutally enough to deserve our sympathy. You could chair it, since you apparently already have some ideas about what counts as raped brutally enough.
Jesus Christ.
Anyway, Kleinheider's got the names of the twenty-two people in the legislature who don't think they know better than you how to run your life (although I should qualify that statement because Hardaway has had some boneheaded legislation this session). And I would like to salute them. I know the State has made it as clear as it can that my own opinions about my life don't count for as much as real citizens, but maybe if I could get three or four women together to salute these folks, it would count almost as much as a salute by a real person.
click to enlarge
yes, Woods is right. For all practical purposes, really, all anyone got out of this whole thing was a new position from which to posture when he or she campaigns.
Fine.
If you look at it by itself, it is. But if you're concerned about whether women can be actual full citizens of the State of Tennessee, this is just the culminating piece of legislation that answers, "No, women are lying bitches out to ruin your life and it's up to the State to protect you from them." Most of the "women are lying bitches" legislation has been about protecting men from us and this differs slightly in that it's about protecting fetuses from us, but the effect is the same, to establish women as something other than regular citizens.
We're a special class of citizen, who must have special scrutiny and whose behavior must be specially monitored and legislated over. (Yeah, I'm the crazy feminist, but take a look at the Browse by Subject. Notice how there's not one for "men." Hmm. Wonder why that is?)
Of course everyone wants to frame it as "We must save the babies," because framing it as "Your state legislators think they have the right to force you to give birth against your will, even if it kills you" is so gruesome. Who wants to think about dead women? Who wants to think about what a colossal expansion of Government Rights it is to say that the State can force a woman to give birth, that, in effect, if the State wants to reserve the right to commandeer a woman's body for nine months and force her to do what the State wants, then we're not free?
"Oh, but Betsy, we just want to control your life if you get pregnant! See, just in that special case, then you have to turn your body over to the State. Just don't get pregnant, and you'll be fine. Um, unless we need to check occasionally to make sure that you're not lying about being pregnant. Or something. It's hard to say. You women are so tricky."
You can make me your brood mare, Tennessee, but I won't go quietly.
So, let's call the two biggest jackasses of the evening out, shall we?
First up is Brian Kelsey, the Republican from Germantown, who got his law degree from Georgetown. After tonight's little adventure, I dare say that Georgetown clearly either owes him or the State of Tennessee an apology because he came up with this little gem, "[In this case] Courts put some rights into the Constitution. It's the People's job to put rights into the Constitution."
Kelsey, did you bother to even read our State Constitution, ever, even once before you decided to become a politician? What about the Federal Constitution? Or are those pesky pieces of paper just in the way of you making shit up?
The State Constitution, which you might want to familiarize yourself with before trying to amend it in the future says, and I quote, because I've bothered to read it, "all power is inherent in the people." The Courts cannot "put" rights in the Constitution. Rights in this country and specifically in this state reside with the individual and the people sometimes cede the exercise and enumeration of those rights to the Government.
If you think that a person in this State has no rights until either the legislature or the courts specify them, you should be retroactively failed out of law school. The Courts didn't "put" any rights in the Constitution, they specified some rights that women in this State ALREADY have, and which you are moving to strip us of.
Either you're playing dumb or you are dumb.
But, sadly, that's nothing compared to Mike Turner's (Democrat, just east of here) bizarre, cowardly, racist diatribe about how he was going to vote for the legislation no matter what, but "I have three daughters and I'm concerned that if one of those young ladies got in this situation of being brutally raped by some gangster or some hoodlum, they should have choices."
Yes, he wants his daughters to have choices, but not enough to put his ass on the line when it counts. Or, I guess, he can afford to take his daughters to an abortion-friendly state. Screw the rest of us.
But second, what's with the "gangster" and "hoodlum" bullshit? Or is this supposed to be another case where all we white folks sit around and talk about "gangsters" and "hoodlums" and we all know we mean "scary black guys" but we all pretend we don't? Well, I know what you mean and I'm, for one, not going to play stupid.
And the "brutally raped"? So, what, if your daughter was just drugged and raped by a nice college boy, that would be one thing, but if she's brutally raped by a thug of some sort, that's another?
Nice.
Maybe we can set up some kind of public council to decide if a woman has been raped brutally enough to deserve our sympathy. You could chair it, since you apparently already have some ideas about what counts as raped brutally enough.
Jesus Christ.
Anyway, Kleinheider's got the names of the twenty-two people in the legislature who don't think they know better than you how to run your life (although I should qualify that statement because Hardaway has had some boneheaded legislation this session). And I would like to salute them. I know the State has made it as clear as it can that my own opinions about my life don't count for as much as real citizens, but maybe if I could get three or four women together to salute these folks, it would count almost as much as a salute by a real person.
Comments (7)
Showing 1-7 of 7
Ugly as it is, get used to the rape baby argument, because when this turd of a legislative accomplishment is put to the people, it'll result in a landslide against.
like
dislike
Posted by
DG
on May 19, 2009 at 7:22 AM
Mr. Campfield says it's actually 21 people. Apparently Rep Hackworth thought about it for awhile and changed his vote.
Posted by
W
on May 19, 2009 at 7:59 AM
Nice Danzig lyric in the headline. "Am I Demon," right? First solo album - and the last good solo album from the Evil Elvis of Metal.
Posted by
Great Pretender
on May 19, 2009 at 8:05 AM
Yeah, bless Glenn's heart, he's never quite lived up to his potential. Have you heard Will Oldham's cover of "Am I Demon"? It's a treat if you're into weird acoustic covers of Danzig. I may be the only person in America in that market, though.
DG, I hope you're right.
Oh, Hackworth. Blah.
Posted by
Aunt B.
on May 19, 2009 at 9:17 AM
If you want to hear more about this legislation, and what we can expect next year, Hedy Weinberg from the ACLU is going to be the guest speaker at Cocktails for a Cause tonight at Mad Platter at 5:30p. It's a Planned Parenthood event. $25 for drinks and snacks and good people!
Posted by
C
on May 19, 2009 at 11:05 AM
