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I used Stephanie, the macaw from Costa Rica, for this post because in some weird way, I think this bird understands what it means to climb that volcano in the distance. And that’s what is happening to women now.  We’re having to move up ridiculously high mountains once again.

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Many decades after women won the right to vote, to use contraception, to have abortions, many decades after Roe v Wade legalized abortion, U.S. politics is once again embroiled in legislation that attempts to control women’s bodies. The updates on this story smack of the trickster, I think, and are attributable to the fact that we have a lot of women in politics now.
On  March 2, 2012, State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) announced legislation “that would protect men in Ohio from the risks of PDE-5 inhibitors, drugs commonly used to treat symptoms of impotence. Turner’s legislation would include provisions to document that the symptoms are not psychological in nature, and would guide men to make the right decision for their bodies. Physicians would be required to obtain a second opinion from a psychological professional to verify that a patient has a true medical malady before the medication could be prescribed.”

Interesting to see the tables turned, particularly in light of the fact that some years ago, Limbaugh was stopped at Palm Beach International Airport because he had a bottle of Viagra with him, except that it wasn’t in his name.

How would Rush feel about a rectal exam before obtaining Viagra?

Probably not so good. But Virginia State Senator Janet Howell proposed on Monday an amendment that would require men to take rectal exams and cardiac stress tests prior to receiving prescriptions for erectile dysfunction medication.

Ouch. Howell proposed the amendment in response to Virginia’s recently passed legislation that necessitated an ultrasound for women who are seeking abortions. After all, if women should have to adhere to certain legislation concerning their bodies and choices, why  shouldn’t men  be required to undergo similarly inconvenient rectal exams and cardiac stress tests at their expense? As Howell told the Huffington Post:

“If we’re going to do that to women, why not do that to men?”

Her amendment was rejected, which Howell expected. The vote – 21-19 – indicates that she isn’t alone. “This is more of a message type of amendment, so I was pleased to get 19 votes,” Howell said.

As I followed this story on the news this evening, I started laughing and realized that’s a much healthier  response than anger. Nothing bad can survive in the presence of laughter. So now when I watch these Republican candidates, when I hear about their attempts to legislate women’s bodies, I laugh until my ribs ache. These guys are bozos. They belong in a circus.

Even the women who are married to these men must be having second thoughts. One representative already admitted on the floor of Congress that his wife refused to have sex with him because he supported Virginia’s proposed legislation to require a transvaginal ultrasound if she sought an abortion. It may be the cheapest trick the book, but it apparently worked in this instance.

We suspect this issue will only proliferate in the days leading up to the November 2012 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Stephanie the macaw gazes out at that volcanic mountain with a measured perspective. Really? We’re back at square one?

Take a look at this man. Look closely. What do you see?

Here are the facts. Rush Limbaugh has a radio audience estimated to be 20 million. He reportedly makes upward of $35,000,000 a year. He lives in Palm Beach with his fourth wife.  He is the mouthpiece of the Republican party, but has never been elected to office. He has made his millions as a hate monger and his most recent hate speeches have been directed toward women.

Recently, Georgetown University law student, Sandra Fluke, was turned away from a Congressional committee (of five men) when she sought to offer her testimony about a fried who lost an ovary because she was denied birth control pills by her insurance company. As a result of her being turned away from testifying to the committee, the media picked up on the story and she is now something of a spoke person about a heinous movement- the banning of contraception.

Limbaugh called her a “slut” and a “prostitute” for publicly advocating that employers cover contraception in their health plans.  He’s employing the oldest trick in the book – ridiculing the representative of a group –in this instance, a rather large group, women – in an attempt to silence them.

Back in 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, 19 men and women who had been convicted of witchcraft were taken to Gallows Hills, a denuded slope  near Salem, to be hung. Another man of 80 plus years was crushed to death beneath heavy rocks and stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced witchcraft charges, and 88 percent of them were women. Women judged by men.

In retrospect, the Salem trials are often referred to as a case “mass hysteria.” In the 21^st century, the kind of incendiary rhetoric against women that has been part of the Republican primary might be compared to a kind of mass hysteria propagated by individuals – mostly men – who are apparently threatened by the foothold women have gained since the 1960s and 70s. It seems to be part of an emerging paradigm – confront these old, profoundly outdated attitudes, deal with them, and move on.

But Limbaugh personifies how the old paradigm clings to what has worked  in the past – hate mongering, trying to instill fear and more fear – and was referred to by one news moderator as “too big to fail.” Heard that one before, right? About the banks.

Limbaugh has an employer – Clear Channel – and they should fire this bovine blowhard. But guess what, one of the primary owners of Clear Channel is  Bain Capitol, the company that Mitt Romney,  Repub candidate and the paragon of flip-floppers – ran for so many years. Romney, though now retired from Bain, supposedly still owns a financial stake in the company.

Clear Channel owns more radio shows in the U.S. – 850 – than any other entity.   They not only host bovine Rush, but all the other hate mongers as well, like Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck – who are/were employees of Fox News.

So, if Rush’s radio audience of 20 million is any indication of the numbers that still cling to the old paradigm of racism, intolerance, inequality, and white male, heterosexual dominance (yeah, no surprise, they also denounce gays), then we’ve got a ways to go as a nation.

Fox News owner Rupert Murdock seems on a downward spin with  the dishonesty and amoral practices of his British rags. But how do you counteract someone like Limbaugh? Well, first of all, you laugh, you laugh hysterically at everything he says. A mindset as dark as his can’t endure laughter or ridicule. Then you look within and ask how you can be an agent of change in the world.  You might write to Clear Channel and demand that Rush be fired. Or you might instruct your cable channel to remove Fox News from your package.  Or you might  just ignore the issue completely. After all, when our attention is removed from something, it becomes less powerful.

I’m well past the years of childbearing and would probably opt for ignoring all this rhetoric if I didn’t have a 22-year-old daughter whose health may be impacted by the extreme ideas being put forth by Republicans in many states. Once you grant an insurance company or an employer, pharmacist or physician the right to deny treatment because they are “morally against” that treatment,  you are entering dangerous territory. Democracy goes south, the right to make your own choices about your body is delegated to politics, you are living smack in the middle of The Handmaid’s Tale. No, thanks.

It appears that the Obama administration has responded to Limbaugh. The president also called the young woman.