Are employment benefits a gift? or are they earned?

At the core of the debate about birth control
and whether or not a company
can dictate the medical care choices of their employee
on religious grounds

should be a discussion of the nature of employment benefits.

Are the medical benefits your company offers you

a gift from the employer?
or

are they a part of your compensation.

Did you earn them?

Most companies require employees to pay a portion of the premium.
as well as deductables and co-pays

it's a nominal percentage of the cost of healthcare for the employee
usually 30% or less of the total cost of care.

Mine comes to about $1100 a year for my part
so yes -- my company pays a huge amount of my premium

in addition to that

we are self insured -- which means that if I go to the doctor and services are covered
the company picks it up

but that doesn't answer the question
of

is it a gift
or is it compensation

If it is a gift
I can understand the company wishing to dictate the exact nature of the gift

but as compensation
how does the company dictate how I use it?

the company doesn't ask me for a list of my receipts
and the end of the month
to see how I spend my paycheck

it does not provide me with guidelines
it does not require me to give a percentage of it to charity
or save in my 401k
although it encourages me to do so

So why
do we think it's ok
to remove legitimate heathcare
from the table.

healthcare which is
by the way
universally considered preventative care?

If I earn my benefits
then they should be mine to do wish as I wish

and if I share in the cost of the benefit
then
I should be able to do as I wish with it as well.

companies
even religious ones
do not belong in medical choices

this is a benefit we've earned
once we've earned it
you don't have a say in it.

I'm a liberal - not a libertine

It's an old fashioned word

Libertine

it means to be morally dissolute
to be morally or sexually unrestrained.

and I think the Religious Right Republicans don't quite understand the difference

I can be liberal
and make personal conservative choices

I can be a liberal
and be moral

I can be a liberal
and be fiscally responsible.

being a liberal
doesn't make me morally bankrupt.

the Religious Right want to legislate morality

to make it illegal to sin

which I find interesting.

Does God want me to be obedient to His will because I have to?
or because I want to?

Am I following God's will?
or the will of the state?

Am I a good Christian?
or just a good citizen.

Back in the day
God created a world
where there was no knowledge of Good and Evil

He eliminated it from choice

well to a degree

that darn apple

but once man chose knowledge

then the ability to sin existed

Now -- I don't subscribe to the idea that the earth is 6000 years old
and in that time we all came from one man and one woman
but I do believe in the parable.

Jesus spoke in parables
why not God?

God didn't legislate Good and Evil
he gave us free will to choose what we will.

so here we are 6000 (ahem) years later
trying to legislate morality

trying to

lol

trying to un-eat the apple.

but we cannot.

we live in the world that God intended for us

a world with choices

we can choose
to love our neighbor
or curse him because he is gay

we can choose
to feed the poor
or walk by him and call him lazy

we can choose
to care for the sick
or deny him medicine and medical care

you see

we all make choices
to be godly or not

and being a libertine -- a morally dissolute person
is a choice we were given

just as being a good Christian
one who follows the path of Christ
is a choice

no legislation can un-eat the apple
and it shouldn't try.

An apology

Once upon a time
one of my peers at another office
called me up
and asked me to
send her all of the dates of birth
and social security numbers
for every employee at my site.

To which I said
"why do you need it?"

she said,
"I just need it"

I joked and said,
"I can't just send you confidential information
without a reason"
and
um
I may have made a joke about identity theft.

she didn't give me a reason
I didn't send the information

what she did do
was hang up
and burst into tears
she called the boss-of-us
and told him I was mean.

He called me
and although he agreed with my protection of the data
told me I needed to apologize.

So I called her
and said,

"I'm so sorry that what I said made you cry, but....."
and repeated my original case

I've referred to this as a "Gina-apology" ever since
(and she actually was happy with the apology -- and somehow failed to notice that I never sent the information she requested)

This Mr. Limbaugh
is a bullshit apology

apologies do not include the word "but"
they do not defend our actions
those are called excuses
or defenses

or in your case
"complete crap"

but they are NOT apologies

you did not mean your apology
any more than I meant mine all those years ago

you do not intend to change your ways

because it would be the death knell for your career

you have made a career out of being
shocking
horrifying
and
misogynistic

so I'm so sorry to not accept your apology
but...

Promiscuity and Name Calling

My goodness

we really have entered the playground edition of Decision 2012

haven't we?

all the name-calling really must stop

I understand that the religious right wants to make a case
that sexual promiscuity has toppled American society

that we have brought the country to its knees through
with the power of the vagina

and there can be a case made for that

that children were better off being raised by two parents
that divorce is destroying the family

that civil rights
led to women's rights
led to gay rights

so we should not have tampered with that
because weren't we all better off when everyone knew their place?

that the world was blissfully happy
in the 50's
before we women ruined it all

with our promiscuity
because clearly we're luring men astray with our lascivious ways

we were all better off before
women became more independent
made it more possible for them to exit
horrible marriages
increases the rate of divorce
and therefore the rate of single families

introducing the idea to men
that it's ok to take no responsibility
for their children
and leave their families to fend for themselves

introducing the idea to men
that it's ok
to father children they don't
plan to raise

yes

one can make an argument for it

but we're not making arguments about sociology on the other side of the aisle

are we

no

we're name calling

SLUT

if you believe that I am the cause of the downfall of western civilization

argue your case

BRING IT

I'm happy to debate it with you
civilly

which by the way

was what Sandra Fluke was meant to do
provide another side of the argument

but when you disparage
when you throw mud
when you name call

when you SILENCE us

you demonstrate that you do not have
a logical argument
that you do not have
anything
other

than you loathing
for me
as a woman

so know this

when you call us names
when you drag us through the mud?

I will smile a smug smile

knowing

that you have nothing
else
on your side of the argument.

Rush to Attack

So we're all in a rush to attack Limbaugh

but being horrible isn't new to him

I can remember listening to Rush ages ago
calling us all Feminazis

afterall

he has to attract listeners somehow
since he isn't likely
to get strippers on his show
to allow him to motorboat them

Rush is no Howard Stern.

instead

he peddles hate.

and his listeners lap it up

which is not to say that if you like Rush that you're evil

but rather
that you're willing
to take in that filth
for entertainment.

and yes

it's filth

listening to Rush makes you insensitive
to the wrongness of his message

it makes it more normal
to dismiss a woman as a slut

as we listen to this poison
or watch it on Fox News

how can it not leach through our skin
and poison our hearts

how can it not
damage our souls

we are what we read
and what we watch
and what we listen to

it forms who we are
it forms how we see the world.

it changes us.

as I read so many
cursing his name
calling him all sort of horrible things

I think

no

it's not right
I will not stoop to his level

Will I boycott his show?

lol -- he will not miss me -- I am not a listener

but I can
never support any business that continues to support him

and remind them all

that we sluts
make 85% of the purchasing decisions in America