When I was a kid, my mom sometimes threatened to sell me to the gypsies. I didn’t know who or what a gypsy was, but I knew that I didn’t want to be sold to anyone, and it usually got me to behave better. Not so, Misty VanHorn’s children, whose mother actually tried to sell them. VanHorn, of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, allegedly wanted for $1,000 for her two-year-old and $4,000 for her four-year-old, and wanted to use the money to get her boyfriend out of jail.
And here’s the kicker…
Nothing is quite so entertaining as people who don’t recognize their own hypocrisy, huh? Recently, our hero, Oklahoma State Sen. Constance Johnson (D), introduced an “Every Sperm Is Sacred” law to try to outlaw male masturbation. Legislators in OK have been concerned with banning abortion rights, including a “fetal personhood” amendment which would define a fertilized egg as a person, thereby criminalizing all abortion and IVF treatment. So, Sen. Johnson thought politicians should turn their attention to all the poor little spermies being spanked out in the shower. ”If we’re taking about protecting life, then let’s talk about life at it’s very basic beginning,” she told “The Daily Show” last night. Keep reading »
Following in the footsteps of Janet Howell, the Virginia state senator who added a rectal exam amendment to a bill that required women to get an ultrasound before having an abortion, Oklahoma Senator Constance Johnson found a clever way to protest the controversial “fetal personhood laws” cropping up in conservative states. Senate Bill 1433 says “the unborn child at every stage of development (has) all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this state,” which would legally make it damn near impossible for a woman to get an abortion. Johnson’s “Every Sperm Is Sacred” amendment, which she voluntarily withdrew but not before emphasizing that her point was to draw attention to the sexism inherrant in these “fetal personhood laws,” would have added language stating “any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.” Because every sperm that dies in a dude’s balled up dirty sock technically could have been a baby.
Constance Johnson, hero of the week. [Care2.com]
“Women usually don’t want to work as hard as a man. Women tend to think a little bit more about their family, wanting to be at home more time, wanting to have a little more leisure time. I’m not saying women don’t work hard. Women like … to have a moderate work life with plenty of time for spouse and children and other things like that. They work very hard, but sometimes they aren’t willing to commit their whole life to their job like a lot of men do.”
Wow. These are the comments made by Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern during a debate on affirmative action. I would love for Kern to have the ovaries to say this in the face of a single mom who is working three jobs to keep herself and her kids housed, clothed and fed.
Oh, but wait! There’s more! Rep. Kern also had the racist idiocy to explain why black people deserve be on unequal footing in society, too. Keep reading »
