07:58 – The lead article in our morning paper is about the efforts of local Republican state legislator Debra Conrad (formerly Conrad-Shrader; apparently she’s gotten a divorce) and a large group of other Republican state legislators to pass a bill that would (a) allow medical personnel to refuse to participate in performing abortions, and (b) allow employers to exclude contraception coverage from the health insurance they provide to employees. In other words, they’re striving to make North Carolina just like North Dakota, which has, de facto if not de jure, outlawed abortion.
Conceptually (so to speak), I have no problem with either of the measures in their bill. Medical personnel should be free to refuse to perform abortions, just as their employers should be free to fire such people, who are refusing to do their jobs. And employers should not be forced to provide medical insurance that covers contraception. Indeed, they should not be forced to provide medical insurance at all. I’m all in favor of personal freedom. But this bill isn’t about increasing personal freedoms. To the contrary, it’s all about restricting personal freedoms.
This bill is really about forcing women to have babies whether they want to or not. What these maniacs would really like to do, if they could get away with it, is outlaw contraception and abortion, period. In fact, I suspect they’d like to make it illegal for women to refuse to have sex. The only purpose of women, as far as they’re concerned, is to produce babies. Lots of babies, who can then be raised to be good little Christians. Preferably Southern Baptist.
13:03 – I’m glad someone said it: Godless in Boston mourn, too
16:20 – Oh, my. Cyprus has now decided that their bailout isn’t a done deal, but requires approval of their legislature. It’s anyone’s guess what the legislature will decide, but anti-EU feeling is certainly rampant among the legislature, reflecting the feelings of the general population. From the point of view of many Cypriots, dealing with the EU after the bad faith the EU has shown them is simply feeding the hand that bites them. If Cyprus decides not to participate in the bailout, the ECB can no longer legally support Cyprus, which then crashes out of the euro in a matter of days. That’s assuming that Merkel doesn’t order the ECB to continue supporting Cyprus until after she’s re-elected, or so she hopes. In reality, Merkel’s re-election is by no means certain.