Don't Blink. Don't Even Blink. Blink and You're Dead.

Because if you blink, you might miss the moment where "conservative politician" went right over the line into "dangerous asshat."

Yes, it is a political post by Jenn, which only happens a couple times a year, but this time it's gone beyond the pale into Nehemiah Scudder territory. And the post has very little to do with Doctor Who, in spite of the title.

I mean, most of the things I've seen happen in the last few weeks - by the far, very political right, mind you, I'm not talking about people I know who are actually voting on the politically conservative side instead of being grandstanding, pandering-to-the-highest-bidder idiots - go against common decency and common sense.

The God I believe in does not want you to take it upon yourself to decide that this child built a bomb, that this couple of perfectly nice guys should not marry in "your" district, or that the will of the actual voters in this country should not prevail.

Today I went to Panera Bread, and I asked how the turkey chili was. The cute young lady behind the counter said she hadn't tried it because she's a vegetarian, but she hears it's as good as the steak chili was before they switched. I asked her if she had a problem serving meat to customers and she laughed; she'd apparently been asked more than once. But she did tell me that she's not a fan of getting gay married eating the stuff, but it's not her call as to who else eats it. Lookie there; common sense, and actual good behavior. In a nineteen-year-old girl.

Imagine that.

My twelve-year-old is horrified that any child would be assumed to be bringing a bomb to school (even though you know that if they really had thought it was a bomb, they'd have evacuated the school, or confiscated the so-called bomb, moved it off the premises, and locked down the school. But nooooooooo... they had to humiliate a kid because he's different). And now that other, more rational people have pointed out publicly that they were wrong by standing behind the kid? They're playing the old, tired Muslim = Terrorist card. Gimme a fucking break. And yes, I said fucking on my blog. Deal with it.

I think anyone reasonable knows that if this kid was white with a name like Bobby or Mark, he'd have been heaped with praise. I wonder what would have happened if he was a white Muslim. Or a black Christian. Or an Asian. Hmmm...

Then there's Planned Parenthood. I think that the hysteria involved indicates that the vast majority of the Republican in Congress need a Valium. But now Planned Parenthood can't afford to supply them, because they have been defunded. Never mind that anyone who actually checks facts instead of going with the loudest shouter sees that abortion services are around 3% of all the services provided. And federal funds aren't used for those services anyway. And abortion is legal in this country. And - just in case you missed this bit - the recordings were heavily edited. Research, people; it's your friend. I've never needed Planned Parenthood's services for anything, and I hope I've instilled enough trust in my girls that they will come to me, but this... this is wrong. And it's a manufactured crisis, presumably to take attention of actual wrongdoing by hypocritical asshats.

(Edit: It has been brought to my attention that PP can't actually prescribe anything but birth control, but hey, call it artistic license on my part, k?)

What I truly do not understand, and I hope that my conservative friends will forgive me for saying this, is how any of you - anyone outside of rich white male Americans - could ever vote for one of these people. They don't like you. If you are female, or a person of color, or not a Protestant, or deity forbid you should be different in some way they don't understand, they want to hurt you. At the very least they see you as a lesser being, not worthy of their time.

Unless you're a fetus.

I don't know why you can't see that.