Because of the so-called “historic” vote that will take place tomorrow, I decided I would pretend to be in the Obama administration. This means I have a post up that claims tells you to discuss any topic that you want, however, I get to dictate what topics you will talk about.
I believe that because of this historic takeover vote I have put up some video’s that use statistical information from states that already have government controlled healthcare. It is what we have to look forward to if the dems pass this bill. (The first video is up because it is funny but a little too close to the futuristic truth.)
So, feel free to discuss what you want – as long as it is approved topics.
Seems a deal may have been reached with Stupak that includes the House passing some sort of Resolution telling the Senate clerk to include Stupak’s language concerning abortion in the Senate bill:
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2010/03/20/deal_with_stupak.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=political-wire
Dan,
Hmmmm…the plot thickens!
MK –
Not really. If you read the article its the Stupak amendment being brought up for a vote. OH, and its the amendment that had the strictest language in it. The one that even Republicans thought was too strict.
Val-
You mean the amendment that had large bipartisan support in the House?
The Senate is less conservative on the issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes it through reconciliation because the Senate needs to keep the Stupak bloc in the House to pass the bill.
Bipartisan support? That must be why it hasn’t been seriously considered until now because of all the bipartisan support. Oh, and all that bipartisan must be why Stupak won’t answer his home phone because of all the phone calls he’s been getting with people threatening his life.
Is anyone watching 16 And Pregnant on MTV? I don’t know when it’s on – probably constantly, in re-runs – because I Tivo it, but this is the second season. Basically the show follows one girl each episode, from midway through her pregnancy up until a few weeks after birth. They also did a couple follow-up episodes with the girls and guys from the first season, so you can see a bit longer-term as well.
I think three of the featured families this season have explicitly or implicitly mentioned being pro-life; I don’t remember any mention of the pro-choice/pro-life thing in the first season. (That I’ve seen, two families thus far have specifically said they’re pro-life; one said that because of their “beliefs,” ‘making it go away’ was not an option.) I don’t know what the reason for this is – whether maybe footage mentioning political/moral beliefs was edited out of the first season due to concerns by MTV; whether the girls and their families simply didn’t consider it a major factor in their decision; etc. I also wonder if maybe pro-life families, after seeing/hearing of the first season and seeing that the show is not just crap reality TV exploitation but moderately thoughtful and sensitive, figured that it would be a good way to speak out in support of continuing a pregnancy and being pro-life, once they found themselves in the difficult situation.
This morning I watched an episode featuring a Catholic high school student from Kentucky, who was adopted herself and whose parents mentioned being pro-life. In that episode, both her mother and father admitted that when she first told them of her pregnancy, their immediate urge was to just “make it go away,” but that they knew they had to be stronger than that. I thought that was a pretty brave thing to admit on national television, and a humanizing way to present themselves as pro-life.
They actually did some other things that made me uncomfortable – the girl became the second on the show to choose adoption, and I felt that they coerced her a bit; she kept saying, “I have no other choice.” I’m of the opinion that, while adoption is often in the best interests of the mother and child in certain situations, it should ALWAYS be a choice the parents make not out of lack of resources but out of love. So I had a problem with that. The couple who chose adoption in the first season was much harder to watch, emotionally, but much easier to accept ethically – they chose it themselves, against their families’ wishes.
BY FAR the most difficult part of the show for me to accept is the way that almost every guy is a complete and total scumbag, and almost every girl is desperate to hang on to him. To be honest, the ONLY boy I would ever want my daughter to date is the one who chose adoption in the first season; the rest are basically losers. The second-best was a guy who moved a few hours away and took a job to send money back – at least he removed himself from the relationship in every way except financially, whereas so many of the other guys make all these empty promises, and then stick around but contribute absolutely nothing. Some of the girls are immature and stupid teenagers themselves, but some are remarkably intelligent and self-aware, and it makes me ill to see them indulging the selfish whims of these boys even during the hardest weeks and months of their own lives. It infuriates me to watch and I actually sometimes have to turn the TV off.