The Hidden Threat of Religious Exemptions from the Health Care Law

Mr. Blunt and Cranky has written on the Constitutional aspects of religious entities cramming their beliefs down the gullets of their employees, the economic aspects of getting rid of the free riders from churches who hide behind their tax-exempt status, and so on. All good stuff, and important facts to know.

However, there is a very scary paradigm emerging amongst the Religious Right.  Example: Hobby Lobby tried to claim a religious exemption in order to undermine the care that their employees could get under the ACA. They said that the owners of the company had a religious objection to certain kinds of gynecological care, and so should be able to opt out of providing them to their workers. The courts have shot them down like bible-shaped skeet. So far.

Consider a more extreme (but highly probable) scenario: the First Church of Christ, Scientist. These people do not believe in medicine: they are faith-healers. So if your employers were Christian Scientists, they could deny you any and all health care coverage. You’d get nothing.  Except, perhaps, for a bunch of nimrods praying by your bedside as you died of appendicitis. This is a legal church, as legal as the Catholics, Babtists, Methodists and entitled to the same tax and legal benefits as any other religious entity.

If employers are allowed to use their personal beliefs to avoid paying for health care that they find objectionable, this writer submits that many tightwads will quickly “convert” to some sort of faith-healing sect in order to save money by denying their employees the care that that need. Soon, there would be few, if any, people covered by employer-based health care plans.

Think it couldn’t happen? Think again. In a society that rewards greed and glorifies ignorance, it is not only possible; it is predictable.

Mr. B & C

The Bulls*** People Say About Barack Obama

A two-post day in honor of tomorrow’s election: this post about the Prexy, the other about the man who would replace him.  Each man has said some bull*** of his own, or course.  Today, Mr. Blunt and Cranky  shall talk about the stuff  that others say about them.  So grab your nose as we dive straight into the manure pile that is political “discourse” in these degenerate times:

“Obama will take away your guns”: there is no evidence of this. No laws, no proposals, no regulations have come from the White House on this topic during Obama’s time there. This bit o’cowflop comes from the people who make and sell guns and ammo: if you’re scared that the evil Obaminator will take away your guns tomorrow, why, you’ll buy lots and lots of them today. That means big bucks for the gun industry, and less money in your pocket.

“Obama is Bad for Business”: look at the numbers from Wall Street, Congress, and any other non-partisan business metrics indicator you care to cite. The numbers tell you the truth: The past 4 years have kicked a lot of ass for corporate profits, across all sectors.

“Obama’s War on Fossil Fuels”: America is now the world’s number-two producer of oil, right behind Saudi Arabia; we have drilled for so much gas the past three years, the price has hit the floor; and coal jobs are heading back up as we develop export markets for our black gold. If there were such a war, we wouldn’t see these numbers.

“Obama’s War on Religious Freedom”: absolute codswallop. ObamNeyCare does not infringe on the religious freedoms of American citizens in any way, shape or form. It does require certain religious organizations to obey the law, but that’s church hierarchies, not the rest of us. Natch, said hierarchies are screeching like demented, meth-addicted owls; but that’s them, not us.

And so on. So far as this writer can tell, the worst thing Obama has done has been to trust a lot of people he shouldn’t have.

Mr. B & C

Two Strong Arguments for the Separation of Church and State:

This picture taken at the Marengo Christian Church in North Wherethehell, Ohio:

This church has a shooting range out back, which is crazy enough right there: also, it freaks out the neighbors and has raised their homeowner’s insurance premiums (and lowered their property values into the bargain). But that’s all OK by the Marengo Churchies, because evidently Jesus wants us all to pack hidden heat so as to blow each other away. Mr. Blunt and Cranky has read a good deal of Bible, and cannot find any verse in which He said that.

Do you really want to have a government run by a load of homicidal, fundagelical loons?  Because this Christian Patriot Militia would dearly love to run your life. If that doesn’t scare you, you’re pretty much in a coma.

This picture taken at the Bible Baptist Church in West Wherethehell, Ohio:

Evidently, they don’t read enough of the Bible they named their church after: anyone who has knows that God has not governed in person since Adam and Eve got evicted from Eden. Every ruler since who claims to be ruling according to God’s will (like Jim Jones, Pope Innocent III, Khomeini and so on) is just another schmuck like the rest of us. So there really isn’t any way to have God rule us here on earth (which, by the way, Jesus Himself said).

These people really need to have their legal wings clipped, and kept from imposing their Sharia-On-Steroids laws on the rest of us.

Mr. B & C

Faith Must Be Used in its Proper Time and Place

If someone built a bridge of twigs and mud, and told you it was an Interstate Highway bridge, Mr. Blunt and Cranky hopes you would not drive over it; (if you would, he shan’t ride in a car with you). Oh, the person might ask you to “trust them”, to “have faith”, and urge you to drive over the bridge despite the obvious weakness. But no one possessed of even a moiety of their marbles would be fool enough to do so. Faith is a wonderful thing in its place, but one must not let it be used to enable folly or to cause harm.

A pity, then, that so many people put their faith in structures of similar weakness; theories of economics, political party affiliations, and the like. These are matters of propaganda, philosophy and convenience, but still subject to validation by evidence. And, regardless of what we might wish to believe, facts will have their way in the end, regardless of how earnestly we might wish otherwise.

Because Faith, by definition, is reserved for things that may not be proven or disproven: one can have (or not) faith in a God or Gods, for instance (as Mr. Blunt and Cranky does, stubborn old Presbyterian that he is). But how can have faith in something like a theory of economics, which can be proven right or wrong?

Things of the real world are solid, and not subject to alteration by our wishes, no matter how passionately we may believe them. Put another way, we are all entitled to our opinions and beliefs, but not to our own set of facts. Disagree? Then let’s see you walk through a solid granite wall, defy gravity, or overdraw your checking account. No matter the depth of your faith, you’ll wind up sorry and sore in the end.

When politicians ask us to “trust them” as they keep secrets from us, we are being asked to use faith in the wrong place: because their secrets will come out in the end, and their follies will hurt us and break our hearts. Politicians CAN give us information if we demand it. They are not suitable objects for our faith, and we do wrong when we give it to them.

As the parties build their flimsy structures and ask us to drive across them, we owe it to ourselves and each other to look upon them with clear eyes; yes, and to use our brains, too. Because if we all drive across their flimsy bridges based on mere faith, we and our fellows are quite likely to come to a very bad end.

Mr. B & C

Thought for Your Sunday: Theocracies Suck

As has been writ before, Mister Blunt and Cranky does not like Theocracies. His ancestors fled two of them to get here, where (among other things), there would be no government sponsorship of religion. And a few years later, when the government’s founding documents were written, they expressly forbade any state sponsorship of any variety of sky pilotry. Whew. Finally, safe to worship (or not) in any manner we choose.

Today, a load of Christians (mostly from Johnny-come-lately denominations) are working to undermine the law of the land, as laid down in clear, unambiguous language by the Founders. Other term for these activities include “sedition”, “treason”, and “crooked”. The people who promote these activities are then, seditious, treasonous, lying, cheats. They are also stupid f***s who apparently  cannot read history books.

Other notable societies who thought they enjoyed  the endorsement of God (by whatever name): Crusaders, Ancient Egypt and Babylon, Kings Solomon and David, the Nazis and the Russian Empire, to name but a very few.

None of these nations/states/empires are recalled for their piety. Rather, they are remembered for the atrocities and crimes they committed, and the horrible, fiery, bloody manners in which they collapsed.

So as you go to church, remember your history. And please, don’t try to tell the rest of how to worship: there is nowhere left to run, and we will have to make a stand right here. And that would pretty well destroy the nation that promised us freedom of worship.

Mr. B & C

P.S. But then, the same people who propose to limit our religious freedoms also propose the unilateral abrogation of other aspects of the social contract, so it should not surprise us that they have no respect for law or existing agreements. More on that during the week.

Lying Sack Of S*** of The Week: Geese and Ganders

The Crown O’ Polished Turds for this here week goes to the Romney Campaign. In a truly epic bit of fertilizer-slinging, he claims that ObamaCare (nee’ RomneyCare) is a war on religion, and that RomneyCare (now ObamaCare) is not.

This is such an enormous heap of bulls***, Mr. Blunt and Cranky is inserting polished bull turds into this week’s crown. Massachusetts had requirements for churchish organizations to provide birth control, and ol’ Willie M. Romney made no fuss: nor did he screech when the Bushies enforced the same rule during the early Oughts.

If the rules are essentially the same, then the effects are essentially the same. And that means: if that nasty dark-skinned socialist Prexy is a-wagin’ war on religion; why then, so too were the idiot coke-head fake Texan, and the mutant-haired Mormon tax-shelter junkie.

Somebody goose that gander Mitt, and let him know that he is a fierce anti-Christian warrior, too. Onward, lying soldiers, marching…

Mr. B & C