Last week, North Dakota enacted three of the most extreme anti-choice laws in the United States. But you’d never know that from watching Fox & Friends this morning when Judge Andrew Napolitano and the Curvy Couch Crew extolled a study by “a libertarian think tank” placing North Dakota as one of the “freest” states in the union. (H/T Bemused)
According to Napolitano, the “most free” are North Dakota, South Dakota and Oklahoma, Tennessee and New Hampshire. Napolitano explained:
They gauge this by the laws that the states impose, that regulate personal, private behavior. In the most free states, that behavior, the size of the container in which you drink your soda pop is unregulated by the government and you are free to make choices.
Even worse, Napolitano said that the people who conducted the study are “good friends” and are “serious academic scholars of freedom and they do this every year.”
As the segment ended, everybody joked about moving to a North Dakota bureau. “Hello Fargo!” Steve Doocy exclaimed.
Fox News: where a woman’s right to choose doesn’t count as a personal freedom.
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mlp ! commented
2013-04-04 22:58:24 -0400
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Kevin gets the “LIKEY BUTTON”.
If there’s anything worth adding, is that sometimes I fear that while we are winning battles, we just may be losing the war…albeit only temporarily.
These RW/Religious evangelists remind me of a swarm of ants, that takes advantage of every crumb or crevice in order to ooze into spaces that they don’t belong. They aren’t going to give up…until they are firmly discouraged. (I don’t believe in extermination….even for ants.)
If there’s anything worth adding, is that sometimes I fear that while we are winning battles, we just may be losing the war…albeit only temporarily.
These RW/Religious evangelists remind me of a swarm of ants, that takes advantage of every crumb or crevice in order to ooze into spaces that they don’t belong. They aren’t going to give up…until they are firmly discouraged. (I don’t believe in extermination….even for ants.)
Aria Prescott commented
2013-04-04 22:14:34 -0400
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I don’t wish violence on anyone, visitor. There’s a few people that I couldn’t feel bad for them after the fact if I tried, but I don’t hope it happens… nor do I celebrate if it does.
Don’t sink to the teabagger level with thoughts like that, you’re better than those- your sometimes hyper-emotional take on things aside.
Don’t sink to the teabagger level with thoughts like that, you’re better than those- your sometimes hyper-emotional take on things aside.
Aria Prescott commented
2013-04-04 20:06:19 -0400
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You’re kidding, right Visitor? If they became their own country, trying to police the rest of the US would result in them being on the wrong end of that military action they’re so fond of.
About the only brains the far right has shown since 1996 was figuring that out. Of course, they cancelled it out every time they raised the flag again anyways a month later.
About the only brains the far right has shown since 1996 was figuring that out. Of course, they cancelled it out every time they raised the flag again anyways a month later.
Bemused commented
2013-04-04 16:32:58 -0400
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Sheeesh. How do those idiots plan on enforcing such laws anyway? Video cameras in every room of the house? Those idiots are certainly a cause for dispair.
A query: are those laws making the missionary position obligatory still on the books in some American states?
If yes, do they mention the need to separate the bodies with a sheet having only a hole in the strategic spot?
A query: are those laws making the missionary position obligatory still on the books in some American states?
If yes, do they mention the need to separate the bodies with a sheet having only a hole in the strategic spot?
Bemused commented
2013-04-04 16:32:58 -0400
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Sheeesh. How do those idiots plan on enforcing such laws anyway? Video cameras in every room of the house? Those idiots are certainly a cause for dispair.
A query: are those laws making the missionary position obligatory still on the books in some American states?
If yes, do they mention the need to separate the bodies with a sheet having only a hole in the strategic spot?
A query: are those laws making the missionary position obligatory still on the books in some American states?
If yes, do they mention the need to separate the bodies with a sheet having only a hole in the strategic spot?
Aria Prescott commented
2013-04-04 16:06:47 -0400
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Here’s another nice little Republican action that I’m sure Fox News will have nothing but approval for when/if they ever start bringing it up:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/04/03/republican-attorney-general-oral-and-anal-sex-should-be-crimes-against-nature-in-virginia/
To paraphrase Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam: Ken Cuccinelli is in more dire need of a blowjob than any other politician in American history.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/04/03/republican-attorney-general-oral-and-anal-sex-should-be-crimes-against-nature-in-virginia/
To paraphrase Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam: Ken Cuccinelli is in more dire need of a blowjob than any other politician in American history.
Kevin Koster commented
2013-04-04 15:40:36 -0400
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It’s always been fascinating to me to see the double standard for conservatives between what they hold as a libertarian ideal (no government) and what they hold as a “family values” ideal (laws that set their personal preferences in stone for everyone else.)
The anti-choice laws being promulgated around the country are unfortunately nothing new. The real reason they are put forward by GOP state legislators as happened in Dakota a few years back as well has been openly, brazenly stated: they want to get another case to the Supreme Court, hoping to get Roe v Wade overturned. Hope springs eternal on this idea. They keep thinking that if they can just get enough right wing justices up there, they can eventually pull the lever and have the slot machine give them the jackpot. They never seem to keep in mind that even if they had the full majority they want (rather than the 5-4 one they currently have), there’s no guarantee that one or two of the justices like Roberts or Kennedy wouldn’t just vote to uphold Roe, specifically to avoid a massive political fallout – the same way that Roberts voted against the grain regarding the ACA.
As for libertarian thought, as it is spread around right wing radio and Fox News, I heard a very interesting analysis of it just this past weekend by left economist Doug Henwood. He was asked about the rationale behind libertarianism, and he defined it succinctly as “I’ve Got Mine, The Hell with You”. He described it as an economic philosophy for people with lots of money (or for people who hope to have it someday), as a philosophy of individualistic selfishness that works for people who have poor social skills. Which explains the idea of privatizing everything – why pay for other people’s education, health, safety? Henwood summed it up as “a very gruesome hyper-competitive, hyper-individualized, atomistic vision of life.” It’s a sobering picure of it, particularly when you hear it being espoused every day by right wing radio hosts advocating for cutting public funding, cutting taxes and essentially telling everyone to take care of themselves and not be part of a community. It’s born from an instinct not to help others (which you would think the “family values” crowd would embrace) but instead to hoard for ones’ self instead. For that reason, I tend to receive libertarian arguments with an extremely quizzical ear.
The anti-choice laws being promulgated around the country are unfortunately nothing new. The real reason they are put forward by GOP state legislators as happened in Dakota a few years back as well has been openly, brazenly stated: they want to get another case to the Supreme Court, hoping to get Roe v Wade overturned. Hope springs eternal on this idea. They keep thinking that if they can just get enough right wing justices up there, they can eventually pull the lever and have the slot machine give them the jackpot. They never seem to keep in mind that even if they had the full majority they want (rather than the 5-4 one they currently have), there’s no guarantee that one or two of the justices like Roberts or Kennedy wouldn’t just vote to uphold Roe, specifically to avoid a massive political fallout – the same way that Roberts voted against the grain regarding the ACA.
As for libertarian thought, as it is spread around right wing radio and Fox News, I heard a very interesting analysis of it just this past weekend by left economist Doug Henwood. He was asked about the rationale behind libertarianism, and he defined it succinctly as “I’ve Got Mine, The Hell with You”. He described it as an economic philosophy for people with lots of money (or for people who hope to have it someday), as a philosophy of individualistic selfishness that works for people who have poor social skills. Which explains the idea of privatizing everything – why pay for other people’s education, health, safety? Henwood summed it up as “a very gruesome hyper-competitive, hyper-individualized, atomistic vision of life.” It’s a sobering picure of it, particularly when you hear it being espoused every day by right wing radio hosts advocating for cutting public funding, cutting taxes and essentially telling everyone to take care of themselves and not be part of a community. It’s born from an instinct not to help others (which you would think the “family values” crowd would embrace) but instead to hoard for ones’ self instead. For that reason, I tend to receive libertarian arguments with an extremely quizzical ear.
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2013-04-04 14:55:32 -0400
Fox News: where a woman's right to choose doesn't count as a personal freedom.
