Thank God you don't live in Oklahoma

[ensho]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/05/28/notes052810.DTL&nl=fix



There's a touching scene in "The Dildo Diaries," a sweet 'n' slippery little documentary released way back in 2002, in the very beginnings of the Dark Days of Bush, in which we as viewers are privy to a truly hellish hallucination, a series of images that, should you ever choose to bear witness, will haunt you for the rest of your days.

-long snip about Texas govt. debating where a penis can and cannot go-


Fast forward nearly a decade. I am right now imagining no less a lurid, brutal scenario taking place over in the Oklahoma state legislature, equally surreal and lacking in grace, but unfortunately not the slightest bit absurd or funny, insofar as it is far more threatening to -- and threatened by -- sex and female power.

To this particular scene, to this roomful of angry, sad, Bible-thumping women and men, I am adding in a large farm animal, various pitchforks, some violent self-flagellation, a burning witch or two, assorted spitting, and a great deal of hatred and pain.

And why shouldn't I? Why not allow such cliché and violent stereotyping? For this drama is about nothing as benign as watching Texas dolts blunder on about where man should or should not be allowed to insert a penis. This is something far uglier.

This is about how the Oklahoma state legislature, as previously mentioned but not nearly sufficiently disgraced in this very column, has forced through three of the most appalling anti-choice, anti-woman, anti-motherhood laws in modern history.

One would require women seeking an abortion to fill out an exhaustive, 20-page questionnaire about all aspects of her personal life, which would be then given to a government agency for "analysis" and posted online. Another would force them to get an ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the fetus before getting the procedure. Another would encourage doctors to lie to expecting mothers. Still another would tie women to a pickup truck and drag them screaming through the streets for ever daring to have a vagina in the first place. I might be exaggerating that last one. But not by much.

It is not for this space to delineate all the ways these laws are an obvious abomination. (There were actually eight abortion-related laws slithering through OK's legislature. The state's Democratic governor, Brad Henry, has only vetoed three of them. Each time, the Oklahoma legislature overrode his vetoes).

-snip-

So I suggest we offer up a moment of gratitude to Oklahoma (and Arizona, and Kansas, and Nebraska, et al) for reminding us of exactly that fact: that the grand dance, the eternal struggle of enlightenment over ignorance never really ends. The Great Work is never finished. Spiritually incompetent or no, their cries echo even now, and will continue to do so into the future.

But with any luck, as generations fall and new understanding emerges, the wails of ignorance and misogyny will slowly get fainter, until one day they simply fade away completely.
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hugs and kisses for Mark

and may the Fates and Muses deal with the misogynists

[BlueJazz]

1. Damn...Why don't they just go one step further. It would fit right in with these Nuts >>>

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I think the GOP House caucus is working on a bill ....

[Enthusiast]

6. Don't think they wouldn't

burn atheists, heretics, gays, Muslims and liberals at the stake if given the opportunity.

[classof56]

3. Appalling.

One more reason I'm grateful my parents left OK within two years after I was born there. Sadly, my relatives still living there would likely go along with these laws. And I'm pretty sure they'd have some Bible verses to back 'em up. Go figure!

Thanks for posting.

[Myrina]

4. duplicate discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8436238


:hi:

[mimitabby]

5. i do. almost every day

I also thank god i have sons....