The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    THE FETUS AND THE FETTERS

    By Richard Day on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 7:22pm |

    File:Daressalaamconvicts.jpg

     

    UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES, PROFANITY PROVIDES A RELIEF DENIED EVEN TO PRAYER.
    Mark Twain

     

    In the past, Assemblywoman Jane Corwin (R-NY), the GOP nominee for the special election in New York’s 26th congressional district, called attention to her economic views by declaring that, “we need to create an environment conducive to job creation, that means lowering taxes and removing the shackles on upstate businesses.”

    But her colorful language about taxation strikes a stark contrast with her position on another type of bondage. She was one of only a handful of lawmakers to vote to preserve a practice that allows prison guards to literally shackle pregnant inmates while they give birth. 

    http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/13/jane-corwin-shackle-women/

     

    My buddy Jon Wisby sends me little tidbits from all our this great country from time to time and he sent me this gem today.

    Notice that the vote referred to was not some new initiative.

    The vote was to continue an existing practice!

    I mean talk about enhanced interrogation techniques!

    Makes one wonder what kind of classes are available to our pregnant female prisoners. I mean are there birth education classes such as Lamaze the Bradley Method and Brio Birth classes to prepare for a natural_childbirth ?

    And even with this practice of chaining a woman to her bed in the delivery room, what if the drug addicted woman carrying this new example of humanity is sneaking candy bars in the laundry room or toking on a doobie from time to time during her walk in the exercise enclosure or even (perish the thought) eating canned foods containing MSG or even corn syrup?

    Which reminds me—you think Arpaio is feeding green bologna to pregnant women in the 115 degree heat?

    And speaking of Arpaio, maybe these women could be put in pre-birthing cages so that the guards might better monitor the lassies behavior on a 24 hour basis! http://www.dungeonsteel.com/html/human_cages.html

    I mean you have to be very careful about issues relating to pregnancy.

    Hell, some of the fathers of these godly fetuses might be guards working in our prisons having taken advantage of some informal conjugal visitations.

    Even though these fettered deliveries appear to have been around for sometime, the practice seems the logical conclusion of some of these new legislative measures being offered and even passed in several states across this great nation!

    Doctors are directed under penalty of law to read statements drafted by some legislature to any woman inquiring into a possible abortion. Of course the 'statements' were not drafted by some legislature but rather some committee who simply cut and pasted some oration written by some Christian political front organization.

    http://www.slate.com/id/2194605/pagenum/all/#p2

    Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota all require this Sermon Following the Mount!

    Ultrasounds/Sonograms are being mandated in 12 states or at least the mandate is being considered.

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-08-abortion-laws_N.htm

    Everybody knows about the proposals for a 72 hour waiting period that could become a week. http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_b6cac5c0-4521-11e0-9512-001cc4c03286.html

    Now how this new legislation will affect some teenager's ability to get a morning after pill following some yoga instruction sessions with her uncle Jerry Lee is anybody's guess.

    The Rape of the Sabine Women by Johann Heinrich Schönfeld.

    Speaking of rape—statutory or otherwise—did you know there are 14,000 pregnancies related to rape or incest in this country every year? So if one does not become pregnant every time one is raped; how much rape and incest is going on in this country every year? http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Mar/29/abortion-right-when-pregnancy-due-rape-or-incest/

     

    And of course, if anyone in our great nation needs an abortion they might have to rob a liquor store or start living on the streets because she is going to have to pay for it herself. http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14401

    And what if the doctor is worried that carrying the child to term might kill the mother? The right says that 200 women die a year as a direct result (or let us just say during) an abortion procedure.

    Well 300,000 to 500,000 women die during child birth in the world every year.

     

    “…women in the USA have a greater lifetime risk of dying of pregnancy-related complications than women in 40 other countries. For example, the likelihood of a woman dying in childbirth in the USA is five times greater than in Greece, four times greater than in Germany, and three times greater than in Spain. More than two women die every day in the USA from pregnancy-related causes. Maternal deaths are only the tip of the iceberg. Severe complications that result in a woman nearly dying, known as a “near miss,” increased by 25 percent between 1998 and 2005.

    During 2004 and 2005, 68,433 women nearly died in childbirth in the USA. More than a third of all women who give birth in the USA—1.7 million women each year—experience some type of complication that has an adverse effect on their health.”

    http://www.drmubbashir.com/2011/05/10/dying-in-childbirth-in-the-usa-is-five-times-greater-than-in-greece/

     

    I am no expert on this subject. I so not wish to be an expert on this subject.

    But it strikes me as someone who does not like the idea of abortion—I was raised a Roman Catholic—that the new maelstrom encompassing a limited medical procedure represents the height of republican hypocrisy.

    The GOP will do anything to stop abortions and WILL DO NOTHING TO SUPPORT THAT FETUS ONCE IT ENTERS THIS OH SO CRUEL WORLD!

     

    If I should fall from grace with god
    Where no doctor can relieve me
    If I'm buried 'neath the sod
    But the angels won't receive me

    Let me go, boys
    Let me go, boys
    Let me go down in the mud
    Where the rivers all run dry

    THE POGUES

     

     

    http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Mark_Twain/61

     

    Comments

    When I think of the irrational crazed mindset of the wackjobs of the right, I imagine anti-abortion restrictions that they may yet propose:

    Safe and Sound Baby Act:

    (1) Banning the sale of over the counter pregnancy tests, or allow the sale only of tests that always test negative until the third trimester.

    (2) Banning a doctor from telling a woman she is pregnant until the 24th week of pregnancy or later, when abortions are no longer allowed in most states, as a means to save the unborn.

    (3) OR instead of (2)  legislating a 24 week waiting period after a doctor's office pregnancy exam during which the doctor cannot reveal if the woman is pregnant.

    The GOP has already entered into telling doctors what doctors can say to patients, this would just be an extension of that precedent!


    by NCD on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 8:49pm

    God placed his thumb on the baby's tummy and said:

    YOUR DONE!

     


    by Richard Day on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 9:25pm

    As is so often the case, our female prison population has been chosen to be part of an involuntary pilot program to encourage the shackling of women to prevent abortions.  If the program proves to be successful, the shackling of potentially pregnant women will become permissible in all states where abortions are still currently attainable, and the governor is a Republican.  The shackling, of course, will have the added advantage of making it a lot easier for disabled men from both political parties to get laid ... 


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 1:44am

    you know Smith, this is all so absurd to me that no wonder you and NCD attack it satirically or sardonically.

    I have never heard about fetters during delivery in my entire life.

    It was like i was living on another planet.

    People are so goddamnably cruel at times. That I already know.

    But to codify it?


    by Richard Day on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 2:00am

    DD, the world has become so absurd, that sardonic satire is often the only way a sane person can react other than literally running into the streets screaming and futilely lashing out at strangers.  

    It's getting harder and harder to write satire these days as reality keeps upping the acceptable level of absurdity.

    I agree, cruelty is sad, but cruelty codified is horrifying.

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 8:28am

    Isn't fettering women a basic principle of Sharia Law? Hoods, no leaving the home, no education...maybe our own wingnut fundamentalists should think twice about banning Sharia, if they read it they might embrace it!


    by NCD on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 10:38am

    I see your point, NCD.  In other words, Sharia Law: Try it, you'll like it.   LOL


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 05/14/2011 - 1:49pm