Road Apples, #51

Got Dem Cosmic Car Blues - Well the car is still in the shop, although I figure that there is about a 40% chance that the repairs might be completed today. I say 40% because they said it "should" be done today, which in the parlance of autobody shops translates to either...

"Yes, it will be ready, if for no other reason than the fact that we are tired of you calling"

or

"Nope, not a chance, but we will tell you that if it makes you feel better"

Regardless, not having a car is getting old. Strange in that I technically own three of them, but yet when I need one other than the one I normally drive there isn't another one to be had.

Another Side Effect...of not having a car is that I have to wait to get a ride to work, which I absolutely hate. I'd much prefer to get there now and get ready for this class I have to teach this afternoon. As it stands, I will probably not get into the office until about 7:45am.

Abortion Coverage, Part 1 - Up until this past week, it seems that the healthcare plan offered by the Republican National Committee (RNC) actually provided abortion procedure coverage. Hmmmmm, very interesting. Upon this being pointed out, RNC Chairman Michael Steele immediately:

1. Apologized to Rush Limbaugh (I know, he didn't, but I just couldn't help myself)
2. Took steps to have coverage for abortions removed from policy

What's interesting here is the hypocrisy of it all. While Republicans are quick to point out the hypocrisy of the likes of Bill Clinton & Ted Kennedy (for support of female causes while simultaneously having "spotted" records with the opposite sex), they themselves show us once again that disconnects between "saying" and "doing" are not unique to liberals.

Abortion Coverage, Part 2 - It is my personal option that healthcare coverage provided by any governmental entity (either as a employment benefit OR through a subsidized welfare benefit) should not provide for elective abortions. Now I am not suggesting that every time the government spends money that such spending needs to go through a taxpayer popularity contest. I am, instead, suggesting that there are many, many reasonable individuals who pay taxes that find this kind of coverage morally offensive. Forget the fruitcakes out there from Operation Rescue; I'm talking about average folks who pay taxes and believe that abortion is murder. Effectively forcing these individuals to pay for something through their taxes that they believe is murder seems unreasonable.

Note that my opinion above exists in an environment where abortion is still legal. If someone who becomes pregnant wants to have an abortion, I would not stop them, but I would not pay for it either. If this is something they want to do, this is something they should pay for themselves. "Personal responsibility" is more than 2 words and 21 letters.

Hypocrisy or Urban Legend? - While I am on the subjects to hypocrisy and healthcare, once in a while you hear/read stories about how many healthcare plans provide for E.D. coverage (i.e., Viagra) but do not provide for female contraception coverage. Now to be fair, I conducted a quick article search on this topic before I started to write this and couldn't find much that was current and which pointed to a wide-spread application of what I consider to be this blatant hypocrisy. Maybe this really isn't an issue any more. Hopefully this isn't an issue anymore. While I acknowledge that some may object to artificial contraception, I don't view those objections as having the same weight as, say, opposition to abortion. Why? Well first because this is my blog and my opinion, and second, the vast majority of Americans believe that artificial contraception isn't the same as abortion. In fact, polls show that a majority of Catholics...in a Church that opposes all forms of artificial contraception...believe that such contraception should be allowed (one of many citations here). Finally, I am not claiming that all forms of artificial contraception are created equal (that's another post for another day), but clearly some barrier forms of contraception do in fact prevent a pregnancy from ever occurring, which prevents the need to even think about abortion...and there is nothing hypocritical about that.