That Liberal Media….

Living in the south is a challenge. You have beautiful Tennessee mountains and lakes, wonderful food, usually pleasant weather, and people are super friendly. So many things to do….just be careful to keep your politics to yourself……and be able to quote the Bible.

The news channel of choice in homes and restaurants, banks and bars (when it's NOT football season) is FOX news…..or MSNBC for the stock market crawl along the bottom while "contributors" are spewing nonsense.( We do live in West Knox.) The Knox News Sentinel, like all papers these days, prints day-old stories and opinions usually taken from somewhere else. Just lifted and never background checked as is the preferred method of journalism these days.

Today, for example the Why Clinton's Email Trouble Matters, a page long opinion piece was taken from a several day-old Los Angeles Times article. The author, John R Schindler, bills himself as a security consultant and former NSA officer. He forgot to mention this:
http://gawker.com/nsa-spook-turned-twitter-pundit-goes-dark-after-dick-pi-1594848048

Then there is the third-of-a-page long Liberals Hypocritical On The Subject Of Constitutional Tinkering by Jonah Goldberg….of the National Review and the American Enterprise Institute, two of the most influential conservative outlets….next to the Heritage Foundation. (Think school vouchers, government censorship of the arts, welfare reform, prayer in schools, lower taxes on business, anti-Obamacare and conservative corporation CEOS on its board of trustees.)

Of course, there was the expected 8 Thumbs Down For The Iran Deal article from the GOP legislators this state is so proud of. And you don't want to forget the "Take America Back" Tump-the-Bombastic Tour in Nashville that had Tea Partiers from all over the state in a tizzy.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/dispatches/2015/08/30/the-classiest-political-ad-ever-made/

Letters to The Editor make you want to tear your hair out…..can people REALLY believe what they are spewing?
"I will never support a politician who promotes gun control or patronize any business that discriminates against the Second Amendment. When seconds count, help is minutes away." 
or

"The world is indeed getting better because of liberty and freedom, but it does not come from the left. In the future when the world celebrates its freedoms, the left will be left out."

Guess the writer forgot about the Right's views on women's reproductive rights, freedom from fundamentalist religious views, voting rights, a living wage, economic inequality, gun control, social contracts…..and a livable planet. But hey, you can "study it all out" in your daily newspaper.

UPDATE

Some other little known facts regarding the Greens of Hobby Lobby fame. First, selling religion through crafts. Then using religion to discriminate. Lastly, pushing their view of history and the Bible in YOUR schools. (Not to mention  the Museum of the bible in DC.)

http://tinyurl.com/k479nc7

In case there are any of you out there that still believe that the SCOTUS's decision was strictly (or "narrowly", as they have said) on certain women's health/reproduction options……..think again.

Their "Founding Fathers and Freedom of Religion" schtick is beginning to crumble and be exposed for exactly what is it: an inroads to a sort of fundamentalist taliban. (I am not even going to dignify them with capital letters.)

The originators of such things as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were a varied bunch, with differing views on religion and its role beyond personal belief. One quick source on the subject is http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/annotation/2002/2002-mar.pdf.

"As mentioned previously, most of the Founders were associated with and/or attended Christian  churches.  But the Founders were a product of not only Christianity, but also the political ideologies of the Enlightenment.  They read scripture, but they also read the philosophies of John Locke, Voltaire, and Montesquieu. As Frazer says in his book The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders, theistic rationalism was “a belief system for the educated elite.”  Educated elite describes not only founders such as Jefferson, Adams, and Madison, but also many of the Revolutionary Era’s preachers and seminary professors." http://greatamericanhistory.net/blog/the-religious-beliefs-of-americas-founding-fathers-christians-or-deists/

Nowhere in the list of the religious affiliations of these men is Baptist or Pentecostal or Fundamentalist even listed…these were later incarnations of Protestantism. (Notice the base word here….) Is it too far a stretch to see the beginnings of "free market" take root in some of these later denominations?  I apologize in advance for offending anyone. But, there used to be an old canard that went along the lines….."The missionaries went out there to do good, and they did very well."

And don't forget the Green's attempt at getting a Bible-based view of history pushed in our public school system.
" I am skeptical, however, that the scholars that Green has assembled for this job — a group that tilts like a listing ship toward evangelicals working at evangelical institutions — are capable of producing a textbook beholden to facts rather than faith." http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/05/11/green-hobby-lobby-bible-course-textbook-column/8974511/

But Hobby Lobby's latest win (or stunt) isn't being hailed as a success by all on the religious Right. http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2014/07/03/3456438/religious-exemption-letter-pushback/

You will notice that no large corporations jumped on the bandwagon in support of this. (And it is NOT only about contraception.) There is a reason for that:

"After all, incorporation’s basic purpose is to create a distinct legal entity, with legal rights, obligations, powers, and privileges different from those of the natural individuals who created it, who own it, or whom it employs.

That separation is what legal and business scholars call the "corporate veil," and it's fundamental to the entire operation."

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/07/hobby-lobbys-other-problem

So let's get down to the real nitty-gritty of what's going on here:

“Because I’m a man, number one and it’s really none of my business what women do,” Potter said. So, then, why bother suing? “Because I don’t care if the federal government is telling me to buy my employees Jack Daniel’s or birth control. What gives them the right to tell me that I have to do that? That’s my issue, that’s what I object to, and that’s the beginning and end of the story.” 

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/eden_foods_ceo_digs_himself_deeper_in_birth_control_outrage/

And it's all about sticking it to the "arrogant" President…the one that is actually getting things done in spite of their hatred for him and those on the left. I do not think they have thought the consequences of this move through very well……as Justice Ginsberg has so eloquently stated.

Color me surprised……the conservative SCOTUS led by Judges Scalia and Alito,  ruled again for the corporations of this country. At least the fundamentalist Christian ones. And not helping women again. On one issue, but just wait for the flood gates to open when all these lawyers (with the sign of the fish at the bottom their yellow page ads…) get ahold of enough clients who are being "forced" to go against something-or-another.

While those on CNN, FOX and all the other rightwing outfits are hooping and hollering about "beating down that Obama"…their main aim all along anyway….there is another side to all of this.

“One way to look at it is this: The whole point of establishing a corporation is to create an entity separate from oneself to limit legal liability,” he  (David Gushee) writes. “Therefore, Hobby Lobby is asking for special protections/liability limits that only a corporation can get on the one hand, and special protections that only individuals, churches and religious organizations get, on the other. It seems awfully dangerous to allow corporations to have it both ways.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/30/3453598/no-a-win-for-hobby-lobby-is-not-a-win-for-religion/

"..might be good news for the wealthy private business owners like the heads of Hobby Lobby, but for millions of religious Americans sitting in the pews....their sacred and constitutional right to religious freedom just became compromised."

Just one more step in erroding the rights and privileges of many of us in this country, but maybe it will also make people take another look at how they view the role of corporate/religion in their everyday lives. Seems like all the "democracy and liberty" the Repubs want to risk more lives for in the Middle East are slowing being yanked from us here at home. It is one thing to believe, pray, and worship a certain way. (I was raised a Southern Baptist myself…) It is quite another to think everyone else must do so also. 

To quote Justice Ginsburg in her dissent: “Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community,” Ginsberg pointed out. “Indeed, by law, no religion-based criterion can restrict the work force of for-profit corporations.”

Another insightful take on this subject: http://southernbeale.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/religion-is-dead/