Confessions Of A Negligent Blogger

Hello. My name is George, and I'm a Facebook addict.

When I revived this blog back in February I told my Facebook friends I would be using it rather than replies to their posts to express my lengthy opinions.

I lied.

More accurately, I have found it difficult to keep my promise.

A Facebook thread provides a ready-made framework onto which it is easy to graft a comment. Unless something like a comic strip or a news article exists to use as a springboard, writing a blog post requires the creation of that framework from scratch. For me, that often takes more time than I have available, and I have suffered a setback.

Confession being good for the soul - even the souls of bloggers - and in response to a severe Facebook relapse, I offer some of what I've written there while neglecting this blog for the past two days.

Note: I have removed all names to protect my fellow addicts.

1. Facebook Thread - Sunday, March 24:

I posted a link to the following article from Talking Points Memo to my Facebook page.

The Danger Of Giving Science And Religion Equal Weight On Birth Control Cases

Link to Source

A friend shared it on his page.

One of the respondents said this:

 let women and men buy their own birth control as was done in the past.....then there will be no more confusion!

At that point, I entered the fray.

 Confusion isn't the issue. Equality of access is the issue.

You are making the "good old days" argument without admitting that the good old days weren't nearly as good as folks like to claim they were. Back in the good old days women of means could quietly travel out of the country to get an abortion. Women of little means went to a back-alley "clinic" and a "doctor" with a coat hanger.

Birth control and a whole lot of reproductive science evidence exists that didn't exist in the "good old days." You can't put that genie back in the bottle, but plenty of people keep trying because it asks them to question their romanticized memories of those "good old days" as well as the myths they were taught as children and to which they turn for easy answers to complex problems.

 Birth control is not the same as abortion. Nothing in the ACA requires insurance companies to provide abortion services. Do not confuse the two.

 Of course they're not the same, but tell that to those currently working to restrict birth control in any number of states.

If only those who can afford birth control can get it, guess what will happen with the unwanted pregnancies, especially in states where the rabid-right has imposed its idea of morality on everyone, is working to defund Planned Parenthood, and has shut down women's clinics that offer abortion as one of their many services.

I'm not in favor of abortion, but I'm even LESS IN FAVOR of having a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites telling women what they can and can't do in order to keep them from making a choice that conflicts with their narrow interpretation of a book which they find more useful as a weapon to enforce compliance than as a source of inspiration and personal fulfillment.

2. Facebook Thread - Wednesday, March 26:

 I have a lot of friends who are different parties, politically. i spoke to one today who lives on the opposite side of the fence as i do. he told me that he was disappointed in the administration, and probably would not vote along party lines again, if given the chance. i thought it was refreshing...and i too confessed my second term woes from MY last candidate. isn't it nice when people think instead of just reacting??? feel free not to just react in my comments. THINK.

 I know it is and I don't know how to fix it. The first thing that comes to mind is to completely revamp how campaigns are financed. The basic problem is that you can't legislate morality - any list of rules is simply going to be manipulated and twisted. And you can't keep people from lying (and others from believing those lies.) I wish there was a way to actually hold politicians to their promises, so they wouldn't make outrageous promises in the first place.

 Drop the money. Drop the perks. People who want to do it because they want to do it and not for the money. That would be a start.

 with great power comes great responsibility and well...humans suck at that

 Those who are disappointed with the current administration need to stop looking at the top. Look at what happens at the bottom. That's where the corruption starts.

At the local level people look the other way when injustices occur which give them an advantage over their neighbors. Then they elect the candidates who promise to work to maintain that advantage - not directly of course, but in campaign rhetoric that is clearly understood by those who enjoy the advantage. The local officials then support those above them in the political pecking order who promise to keep them in office. It percolates up from there.

Any elected official, who tries to change the system, meets resistance from those up and down the chain of corruption who fear the loss of their personal fiefdoms.

Currently - I use that term to indicate this is not exclusive to any particular political party - that scenario is playing out in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives which has voted more than fifty times to repeal Obamacare while neglecting our nation's crumbling infrastructure and the high unemployment rate. Meanwhile in the Senate, presidential appointees, who could take action to address these and other problems, languish in political limbo.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again about American's experiment with democracy:

1. We get the kind of government we deserve.
2. The Constitution gives us the right to make fools of ourselves.

I wish we weren't working quite so hard at proving that we can do exactly that.