Sanctimonious Pricks

That would be who is running our country right now. A group of overwhelmingly white, male, wealthy and religulous bastards have shown their fortitude and conviction of principle by stonewalling any attempt toward a functional Federal budget over the issue of... drumroll, please... Planned Parenthood.

Now I can understand that they don't like abortion. I can understand that, because neither I nor anyone I've ever discussed the issue with "likes" abortion. See, I like puppies. I like kitties. I like ice cream, coffee, pizza and on and on. There are literally uncountable numbers of things I really enjoy as improving my life and my perception of it. Abortion is not one of those things. But sometimes it may be the least painful choice among many, and as a male, I simply do not feel it is my place to make such a choice for someone else by removing that option. I do not feel it is my business at all, beyond advocating for those for whom it may be an option- a painful, sad option, to be sure, but again, perhaps the least painful.

Given that these same sanctimonious pricks also want to remove services for post-fetal human beings, such as WIC (Women, Infants, Children- a food benefits program), and have shown less than interest or concern for access to health care services by ex-utero (even in-utero, for that matter) individuals, their level of concern for the viability of what, let's face it, is tantamount to a nine-month infection by a parasite that plays sheer havoc with a woman's physical and mental health, is puzzling to say the least. But consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, as they say, which I suppose indicates that modern conservatism is all about fat heads.

But what really got my panties in a knot this afternoon was this, from The Daily What:(according to Wikipedia, Planned Parenthood's annual budget is $1.04 billion, not $11.4 million) And here's an excerpt from the post with the above graphic:

Despite the paltry sum (the US spends nearly twice that much on war every day), and the fact that it is illegal under Title X for any federal money to be used to fund abortions, Republicans insist that no federal funds should be appropriated to organizations that perform abortions.

But, according to Planned Parenthood’s 2009 report (as illustrated above), abortions accounted for 3% of all services performed — far outweighed by vital, lifesaving cancer screenings and STD examinations. Also, as Ezra Klein notes, cutting funding for family planning will ultimately result in additional spending to offset the taxpayer cost of unwanted pregnancies “among people without the means to care for their children.”

So abortions amount to 3 whole frakking percent of Planned Parenthood's exorbitant $1.04 billion dollar budget? Gee, that's $30,000,000! That's about half the cost of the hundred or so cruise missiles fired into Libya during the opening hour of the recent and ongoing festivities there! Now in fairness, I'm sure that GOP cruise missiles rain down puppies, kitties and ice cream, so this might not be an appropriate comparison. And anyway, those are brown people over there, and those don't really count.

As I tweeted a little bit ago, "Well," said Ford, "the Thumb's an electronic sub-etha signaling device..." Get me off this crazy planet.

Today's GOP: Nothing a Vogon Constructor fleet couldn't fix.