Monday, June 30, 2014

There goes the slippery slope, right off the cliff.

So, the SCotUS tossed out a ruling that will once again give a corporation the same rights as we the people have.  Sooner or later, this is going to become ugly.

SO in a 5-4 ruling the Supreme Court took it upon itself to rule that contraceptives can be opted out of by a company, a privately owned company, if it shows a religious belief that precludes their use.   In simple terms, if your boss says birth control is morally wrong, you can't have it, neenerneenerneener...  Supporters of the Hobby Lobby kind are praising religious freedom, and women and employees with an ounce of sense are screaming bullshit.  Which it really is.

So, way back when money was equated to speech, later companies were given the freedom of speech.  Now they have essentially been given freedom of religion.  So, whats next.  Well..  I must give all do credit to the Honorable Justice Ginsberg:
"Would the exemption…extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah's Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations[?]…Not much help there for the lower courts bound by today's decision."
Right off the slippery slope of Citizens United and off the cliff of Hobby Lobby religious insanity.  Libertarians for their part are happy.  No more will employers be mandated to pay for insurance to cover contraceptives.  But whats next, can we expect the things quoted above.  Oh yeah, and then some. 

See, what I fear now is discrimination, the precedent is set.   What happens when the day comes that some company screams "I don't want to offer healthcare to same sex partners," or "children born out of wedlock", or even unmarried couples.  What will be done when women, who are already discriminated against, find it harder to get work, or better wages because women are supposed to be at home in the kitchen barefoot and pregnant?  Sure, they can sue, all those people can sue, but how will that play out, remember our Supreme Court conservative/Libertarians just gave private corporations freedom of religion.  They can claim religion now, and then all hell is going to hit the fan.

What else could there be?  Maybe a corporation can no longer prohibit firearms in their establishment?  Paying people more based on religion?  Well until some Jewish or Muslim guy pays a christian less money.  You do know that Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in many of the modern medical practices, and what happens when a Jehovah's Witness decides that they won't pay for insurance that will pay for blood transfusions, and well, they get a bad wrap apparently, I just did some digging and outside of faith healing that is their only hang up.  Go figure.  But other christian faiths are worse.  Say the Christian Scientists..  Yeah, those are the jokers that think you can pray away illness.  Imagine taking some severe illness and your employer has refused to cover anything. But never fear you can get your own insurance, which I recommend, but its going to be more expensive.

But this is the thing that really pisses me off about this.  Hobby Lobby invests in contraceptives.  Well the companies that make them.  So, they can invest all they want, they can shove their religion down your throat, and you can do nothing about it.  In time we will see if I am correct in my paranoia about the other things, but just to give you a heads up, I can usually call these things.

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