A divided view of life

Currently I have two ways of looking at whatever is going on in our country. The two views alternate-- from total frustration to a sense of serenity.

How can any woman not be furious reading that Rush Limbaugh said women who want to use birth control are sluts. He didn't even add when not married, but I am pretty sure it's what he meant-- maybe. What I have to wonder after hearing him double down on this-- is he back on drugs? But then why did Republican politicians add to it? None had the guts to stand against him. It was pathetic how they kowtowed.

Limbaugh appeared to think women need to take more birth control pills if they  have more sex... So he thinks it's like Viagra (which he likely knows something about)? Could he be that ignorant of how birth control pills or an IUD work? Incidentally do you suppose he and his ilk (most Republican politicians and rightie commentators like O'Reilly) think Viagra should be covered by insurance?

Basically by Limbaugh's slander of this young woman, he just also named Gingrich's current wife as a slut; and I wouldn't be surprised if his own current wife would fit his category as not too many married couples haven't had sex before they marry. Using contraceptives to avoid pregnancy in that situation is slut behavior?

More than who Rush is, what I want to know is who are his audience, those supposedly twenty million who daily listen to his radio program.  That he has an audience bothers me more than what he says. He's just one man, but who all does he influence?

Worse in this case was knowing that with the evening, I'd not only have read what he said but then listen to it on my favorite leftie news program. Do you suppose Fox also had it on or do they just want to forget he said it?

But there is a bright side to it. So often when you hear something like this, there is the other side of the coin and it's uplifting. In this instance is the quality of the woman Rush called a slut. (Who evidently the right wing is investigating now to try and find something evil in her background to use against her. Uppity women... cannot have uppity women!)

For anybody who has been in a vacuum recently, the lady in question had been refused a chance to testify before Issa's lynching panel when they were discussing the need of the religious right to mandate that everybody follow their legalistic dictates. It mattered how the religious pharisees saw it but not how the women impacted by it saw it. Argh and why the first picture here!

But the bravery of that young woman who wanted to testify, to talk about the need for contraceptives for women like her friend who lost an ovary because she couldn't afford to take the pill and did not have insurance to cover it. The pill is as much medical as a supposed free pass to have sex. Birth control even when it regards sex is about responsibility. Women like that young woman give me faith and hope for our future.

Mostly, as I have mentioned before, it's in nature that I find the greatest comfort. Nature and our need to protect it, to value it. For another upbeat story, I just read that the federal government will stop charging user fees for hiking on federal lands. ☼ No more 'adventure passes' needed for a spontaneous walk in the woods or up a desert canyon (if it's national forest). If more people got out and did that, I think we'd have a lot less Rush types...