And here I’ve been kidding myself that I live in a civilized state. Stupid, stupid Clarissa. Mississippi, South Dakota and our friends from across the river have nothing on us in terms of barbarity. Yippee. (Emphasis in the article is mine).
An Illinois House committee that normally deals with farm and wildlife issues passed two controversial anti-abortion measures this afternoon, before a packed room that included opponents wearing t-shirts that stated: “Women are NOT livestock” . . .
The House Agriculture & Conservation Committee overwhelmingly passed both bills, after emotional testimony from both sides.
That particular committee often gets assigned legislation dealing not just with hog farms and irrigation issues, but also gun-owner rights, abortion restrictions and other hot-button conservative causes that have nothing to do with the stated purpose of the committee. Sponsors of those bills often request that committee because it’s made up primarily of lawmakers from rural agricultural regions of the state, which also tend to be among the more socially conservative members of the Legislature.
I think that the message “You, women, are all just brainless cows who are good only for breeding” could not have been delivered any clearer.
Read more:
Clarissa's Blog 
Thank you for not breeding.
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I guess this political cartoon wasn’t so far from the truth after all:
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Crap, I wanted to post that, but Nomina was faster.
Anyway, Matt Bors is awesome!
http://www.mattbors.com/archives/849.html
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“Sponsors of those bills often request that committee because it’s made up primarily of lawmakers from rural agricultural regions of the state….”
This kind of corruption makes me feel total despair. Sponsors of a bill can request a particular committee based on who is on that committee, not because it is a topic that the committee is supposed to deal with. How do you fight something like that? What action can possibly be taken??
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I don’t know, Isabel. I still can’t get over the shock of the entire thing. But I agree that corruption is the word for it.
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What?! I am shocked. (But thanks for not letting it pass in silence.)
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That bill was assigned to that committee by the powerful speaker of the House Mike Madigan, a Chicago Democrat.
What would the bills chances of passage be if referred to some other committee? Are you hoping that members of some other committee would be more favorable to that bill? Isn’t that just as ‘corrupt’?
You do realize that members of the Conservation and Agriculture Committee are allowed to serve on other committees and vote on bills that come before the full house, don’t you? Or are you one of those people who believe “Downstate” legislators and their constituents belong to some inferior class with fewer privileges?
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“Or are you one of those people who believe “Downstate” legislators and their constituents belong to some inferior class with fewer privileges?”
– I really don’t enjoy it when people ascribe their strange fantasies to me. If you don’t see why it is extremely offensive to women to have this issue debated in the agriculture committee, then I don’t think I can help you.
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If you want to be offended, go ahead. But all legislators have pretty much the same qualifications regarding their review of legislation, regardless of how a committee is titled. They are not experts, they are representatives of the voters.
If you live in Illinois, people make assumptions about you based on where you live in the state. Get used to it.
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I live in Southern Illinois and I could care less about anybody’s assumptions about me or about anything. I care about women’s rights which are being trampled on by stupid freaks and vile religious fanatics.
This is supposed to be a good, progressive state. And look what a bunch of idiots are turning it into. This is a disgrace and we should not tolerate it.
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This commenter reveals his/her belief that corruption is the only way government can operate. I suppose they are right. 😦
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Loved this comment from Pandagon:
http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/fighting-the-mansplaining-anti-sex-police
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People experience exactly the same feelings of shared emotion at sports games. Yet, we are not seeing any conspiracy to overtake society organized by sports fans, do we?
There is a great number of experiences where people get ecstatic enjoyment from diluting their individuality in the group experience: concerts, sports games, shared instances of violence, political manifestations, religious experiences. This is not unique to religion at all.
Individuality is a huge burden and humanity has worked out many ways of shedding it at least for a while.
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Very true. Maybe this explains the popularity of hockey in Canada. Because we don’t go to church much. Hockey has already taken over Canadian society! I think churches feel themselves threatened by the growing secularity (if that’s a word) of society.
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