Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) spoke to a group of constituents this week in Iowa, one of whom asked, in all seriousness, whether the government is going to put microchips in Americans, "starting in pre-school." The Republican senator assured the man that this isn't true.
For those who can't watch clips online, Grassley told the constituent, "No. First of all, nothing can be done to your body without your permission. So, it'd be a violation of the constitutional right to privacy if that were to happen."
That is, of course, correct. But as Kaili Joy Gray noted, there is a certain irony in hearing a conservative Republican lawmaker with a 100% rating from the National Right to Life Committee talking this way.
Indeed, listening to Grassley argue, "Nothing can be done to your body without your permission," it's awfully tempting to respond, "Tell that to folks in Indiana, where a measure requiring two medically-unnecessary, state-mandated, transvaginal ultrasounds are under consideration."
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Also tell that to women in Virginia & other states where those "transvaginal" medically unnecessary ultrasounds are being mandated......
You hit the nail on its head! Grassley wasn't prevaricating, he was merely responding to a question by a fellow man, and for men, in his mind, "Nothing can be done to your body without your permission!"
As for women, well, Grassley's gender understanding and social development isn't quite up to the same speed, and it's showing! -Kevo
Both men failed to remember the "other" gender, rendering half of "we the people" invisible and politically mute.
Okay now let's be reasonable about this.
First off you not only listened to him prattle,which is totally unexpected, but now you want to use his own words against him!
Why must you continue to make it hard for them to speak without thinking?Why must you make a big deal out of such little mishaps? The liberal media is once more trying to force these guys to keep quiet as they attack the constitution while waving it around as if it were their personal bible.
Shameful!
What is shameful is that these Republicans can find all the time in the world to be obsessed with women's genitals, and how they can use the threat of vaginal torture to dissuade them from making a personal choice about their own bodies. The pursuit of happiness shouldn't include having a probe shoved up their vagina's in a medically unnecessary procedure at the whim of a bunch of perverted old white men, voted into office by a constituency of misinformed, backwards minded, religious zealots who want to relive the Salem Witch Trials. Instead of coming up with a plan to make America a better place for all. And furthermore nobody should ever speak without thinking.
I disagree to a point. Being a long time member in good standing of perverts U.S.A. I see no harm in obsessing with a woman's genitals! However I can see how it could be offensive when such constant attention is followed with attempts to control and rule over the object of obsession.
After long sessions pondering this in the bathroom I conclude that the problem might well be Vagina envy or fear of the power of the Vagina.
I must say it is a hard nut to crack.
So, who takes this to court first?
The truly sad part here is that he sees absolutely No kind of logical contradiction in this at all...to him this makes perfect sense
Personally I think he should be forced to receive two colonoscopys before his next meal...you know just to make sure there aren't any potential medical complications...and then ask him how he feels about having things "...done to your body without your permission."
Well, the statement by Grassley fit his need at the time. Change the subject to right to choose, and he'd spin it a different way, probably along the lines of protecting the rights of the unborn child.
I used to have a small amount of respect for Grassley - he used to actually represent the interests and needs of Iowans. Now he only votes the GOP party line, on absolutely everything.
Grassley just left out a couple of words. What he meant to say was, "nothing can be done to your white, male body without your permission."
I can't wait for women to take over government so they can force men to have a proctology exam before they get their cialis or viagra.
Nothing can be done to your body without permission, unless you're a woman - then all bets are off.
He is correct.
But in regards to abortion and how this differs when a woman is pregnant, is that some point and time the baby growing inside of her becomes an individual that ALSO has the same rights. The debate is when does that fetus become an individual protected by the same constitution as his/her mother.
1. Is it when the mother says so?
2. Is it when the doctor says so?
3. Is it the same for every baby?
4. Can you point to a "time" when this occurs?
He's not inconcistent. He just extends that right to the baby before you or others might.
Um, that's an easy one. When the baby is born.
Oh wait... I forgot, to you 'right to lifers', once a baby comes into the world and takes it's first breath, that's where it's rights stop.
Quit trying to legislate morality. Keep the government out of peoples' private lives. Hard stop. End of debate.
Does not the bible state "At first breath"?
It does I believe. Technically, the unborn child is still part of the mother though, right? Without the umbilical cord providing nutrients the child would die. Once a child is born, it can be cared for in any number of ways, surrogate family, formula, etc.
Gregg, why don't you look it up and tell us whether and where the Bible states that? :P
madmikesamerica.com/2012/05/bible-life-begins-at-first-breath/
In Genesis the passage reads that God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and it was then that the man became a living being.”
So, first breath is the standard.
No more double homicide if someone kills a pregnant lady. Abortions can be done anytime right up until birth.
No we know where you stand. Thanks.
I think the point is that an ethical standard has already been established by the AMA. The Bible indicates life starts at first breath, well that's one extreme parameter, the pro life lobby thinks it starts at the moment of conception, that's the other extreme parameter. The AMA thinks abortion is ethical some time in the first trimester, it's also legal and should be a matter of choice. It is unreasonable to force one extreme group's views on other people.
mark t k, very, very well stated. I (personally) am pro-life and have long said that if the leadership on both sides (maybe extremes) would come together they could find ways to do what both sides say they want, fewer abortions. Not because pro choice thinks it is wrong but it should be the last resort not the first choice.
Thanks for your comment.
And both sides need to mind their own business about what women do with their bodies.
It is none of their business. And it is none of YOUR business, robtroll.
Women have no say in what "women do with their bodies?" How ridiculous. Your gender doesn't give you any extra rights or magical powers. If you want to abort your babies, Donna, go ahead...its legal. Pardon me for expressing concern for the unborn.
You think my post is ridiculous. I think your post is bullsh*t..
Do you have uterus? No. Then shut the f*ck up.
And your gender doesn't give YOU any extra rights to control women's bodies.
And if you think "my gender" doesn't give women any extra rights then how about this(and even a troll like you should be able to get this):
Women have the RIGHT to control their OWN bodies.
And you can say that women abort babies, but that is your opinion based upon your limited knowledge of science.
But using your f*cked up logic: It is none of your business if a woman wants to abort babies. That is between her and her body and her belief system. Period.
If you want to force everyone to live the way you live, robtroll, go ahead. its not legal. Women have the RIGHT to make their own choices free from idiots like you "concern trolling" about unborn babies.
And you are not "pardoned." You are just another narrowminded troll who thinks that he has the RIGHT to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.
Doubling down on the controlling women and micro-chipping would be wrong, but forcing ultra sounds is hunky dory. Wow, we have some real problems in this country and people continue to allow these idiots to do such obviously invasive and unconstitutional things.
Yes, repeal that Voting Rights Act. That is what the public is behind, that and mandatory ultra sounds for women.
damskippy, Phenner and Katherine have it right. If the question was microchipping preschool girls, that would have been allowed as a consideration and probably advanced to keep tabs on them.
You know, while they've got the woman on the table, they might as well get that microchip in there to track her and make sure she doesn't go somewhere ELSE for an abortion. amirite?
</snark>
Well, since they're already on the table . . . a frontal lobotomy would sure stop all them women from having them pesky independent thoughts and wanting all them rights and stuff.
Sometimes I get so tired . . .
It's things like this that kind of give me the mental impression of the more sane(lucid) Republicans being like the guys in the medical tent at Woodstock talking down the tweakers who took the brown acid.
If I'm not mistaken, Inserting a foreign object into a woman's vagina against her directly stated will is called RAPE. In all seriousness, these people are trying to push laws that establish state mandated rape. The utter hypocrisy of the "freedom" and the "keep the government out of my life" party (GOP) is gotten to the point unbelievability.
Maybe if these "wands" were made to look even more like soda pop bottles, or like a broomstick with a little brush at the back end, then maybe your point would be more easily grasped by our legislators.
Holy Crap! these idiots just lost the Presidency and seats in both houses, and the beat goes marching on, I guess they hate their Government Jobs,, suits me, fire every one of them!!!
Also notice he mentioned "the constitutional right to privacy" which every Republican since Robert Bork disputes. Whoops!
From @robdelaney awhile back:
I was considering voting for @MittRomney, but then I remembered I ENTERED THE WORLD THROUGH A VAGINA.
He's perfectly consistent. He was talking to the man. Nobody can violate a man's right to privacy. Women are an entirely different subject.
Buerre Says:
"You liberals are all the same! Don't you have anything better to do than write on a blog all day, waiting for your disability checks to arrive in the mail? There's nothing wrong with you! (Mocking tone) "Give me money! Give me money! I don't want to work!" Let me tell you something...Senator Grassley (R) doesn't smoke the grass. He doesn't have his head in the clouds. No sir...his feet are planted firmly on the terra firma of the good ol' USA. He knows a thing or two about contraception, as I am sure he's been married for at least 35-40 years, and is a master at the rythm method. (A Catholic concept, to be sure, but a Protestant way of life.) Listen up! The Grassmeister doesn't know anything about tranvestite's vaginas, and he don't want to know, either. What he wants to know is that you know that, as a woman, you don't have to worry about anything, but I'd get a second opinion on that. The "MotherChucker" is a righteous dude, and if you lily-livered, knee-knocking left-leaning liberals don't start singing a different tune, he ain't-a gonna bother asking for permission. He'll knock you right on your welfare-cheating, unemployment siphoning, lazy, good-for-nothing Birkenstock sandal-wearing behind. Senator Grassley is working his gnarled fingers to the bone on a daily basis, and people want to ask him about space aliens and implanted computer chips? "Grassy-G" is going to implant a chip in your backside if you don't get up and get to work!"
Red States get more welfare funding, while Republican voters oppose the welfare state.
To save space below, “pension benefits” include both Medicare and Social Security; “anti-poverty aid” includes Head Start, Low Income Home Energy Assistance, Food Stamp and nutrition programs for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and several school-lunch-style benefits.
Top Ten (Source: Tax Foundation):
1. New Mexico Indian reservations, military bases, federal research labs, farm subsidies, retirement programs
2. Mississippi Farm subsidies, military spending, nutrition and anti-poverty aid, retirement programs.
3. Alaska Per capita No 1 recipient of federal benefits; infrastructure projects, DOT and pork projects.
4. Louisiana Disaster relief, farm subsidies, anti-poverty and nutrition aid, military spending.
5. W. Virginia Farm subsidies, anti-poverty and nutrition aid.
6. N. Dakota Farm subsidies, energy subsidies, retirement and anti-poverty programs, Indian reservations.
7. Alabama Retirement programs, anti-poverty and nutrition aid, federal space/military spending, farm subsidies.
8. S. Dakota Retirement programs, nutrition aid, farm subsidies, military spending, Indian reservations.
9. Virginia Civil service pensions, military spending, veterans benefits, retirement, anti-poverty aid.
10. Kentucky Retirement programs, nutritional and anti-poverty aid, farm subsidies.
Now consider the bottom 10, i.e., the ones that give more to the federal government in taxes than they get in return. From 1 to 10, they are:
New Jersey, Nevada, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Illinois, Delaware, California, New York, Colorado.
Anything strange about that list? Yes, they are all blue states (or the deepest of purple).
Adding to this fallacy are the assumptions surrounding Mitt Romney’s now infamous comments about the indolent “47 percent” of Americans who regard themselves as victims and therefore pay no taxes. As the American Conservative magazine (no less) pointed out recently, nine of those 10 states are in the red-as-ruby Old Confederacy.
Grassley told the constituent, "No. First of all, nothing can be done to your body without your permission. So, it'd be a violation of the constitutional right to privacy if that were to happen."
Every once in a while, Republicans get so confused by their own bulls%%t, that the truth randomly slips out.
Let's see? If these legislators in EVERY state had some SERIOUS activist feminists SUE ALL those VOTING to impose a medically unnecessary, vaginally invasive procedure, we'd see some real concern generated about this issue. The coercion and damage that would be termed "rape" in a technically legal world where going into a woman's vagina against her wishes IS RAPE, would carry the day, and major financial penalties to people who just can't stand to see anything happen that's outside their narrow belief system, would totally change the conversation. Even in Mississippi, citizens really DON'T want cops and legislators governing what happens in their doctors' office or their bedrooms. They won't stop until their pockets and ears are both really hurting. They can still pray, they will still picket, but THEIR rights and freedoms are NOT worth more than those of someone else. And the rights of the "unborn"? They are not worth more than those of infants and children needing health and well-being. THESE strident voices are amazing, the UN-BIRTHERS, who only care for humans in the womb, not for people already born.
The reason God gave women the ability to bear children was because men are idiots. Who is going to pay for these tests- the legislator's?
As for the question of making abortions illegal, that is a fool's answer. Wealthy women can & will go to a state that allows them. The poor have only 3 choices: illegal butchers, trying to use a coat hanger, or having a child they can't afford- all 3 of which will cost the taxpayers more- in hospital costs for botched abortions, or welfare funds for the extra children. Men just don't see the "Big Picture".
The problem is one of ignorance. A man believing the government is going to implant chips into children. Just one of hundreds, indeed thousands of nonsense rumours started deliberately to sow fear and mistrust. Then people don't take the time to even consider if such things are possible. Like the UN takeover of the USA. Absurd on the face of it. Absurd if you consider how such a thing could even happen. Yet a number of Republicans and Tea Party congressmen believe it. It's frightening. It's frightening the number of congressmen who believe the earth is between 6000 and 10,000 years old. What's worse is they don't even understand it doesn't say any such thing in any Bible. It was just some nut who made up a bunch of numbers and made up a formula, and pretended it all meant something. It didn't. It still doesn't.
Meanwhile they think that a woman's unfertilized egg has got a soul and is equivalent to a born full grown woman. It's not. Nor does an embryo have a soul. The brain IS the person. An embryo without a brain is just a collection of cells. But many of these people would rather have a woman die then have a medically necessary abortion on a fetus that could never become a human. They cheer for people without healthcare insurance to die, and call themselves "right to lifer's". They are unthinking and hateful.
If embryos are persons, does that mean they are all going to hell, since they aren't baptized before they die? Miscarriages are all going to hell?
Everyone knows that conservatives only agreed to giving women the right to vote...not any of the other rights enjoyed by men. Scalia has said as much and suggested that the ERA might change this discrepancy. Why Dems are not advocating just that is beyond me.
What is it with these guys in business suits, you know, plastic hair politicians like McDonnell of Va and from my State of Indiana, Gov. Mike Pence--why do they seem to obsess with a woman's vagina??? Gov Pence is in favor of not one but TWO, yes TWO vaginal probes. Gov Pence, have you bothered to read the Constitution and the 14th amendment, abortions are legal????? Are you plastic haired guys only concerned with the 2Amend? Guns and vaginas, guns and vaginas---think about something else!!!!!