Me and My Wheelbarrow, Squeakin' Around

I did a Twitter gag on Saturday.

By the way, someone said "You should put this in a post." Let me mention why I didn't.

A post is an investment. It feels more substantial. I feel like when I do a post, I have to turn in a Real Essay or something. Or in this case, a real comedy bit. Like edited.

Twitter isn't like that. There's no investment in a 140 character joke. It doesn't need to be good. I can stop whenever I like. I don't need an ending.

Anyway, a lot of people liked this gag so I'll post it.

The background, the thing I'm spoofing, is Sandra Flake's claim that some woman she heard from -- some "voice" -- told her that she had been raped, but she knew Georgetown's insurance did not cover birth control, so she assumed -- assumed, her word -- that the insurance would not cover rape.

Wouldn't cover a check-up afterwards for STD's. Sandra Fluke said that herself -- this "woman's voice" told her that she assumed that there was a special provision in Georgetown U's insurance stating something like "We don't cover rape. You're on your own."

I find that rather implausible, and to the extent it's plausible at all, I find it to be absurd to claim that because someone assumed that Gerogetown had a special "Screw you, rape-victim" rider that they should be denied their religious liberty to not cover birth control.

Their religious liberty must fall so that people don't make erroneous "assumptions" like this?

Another story was of a woman who got a birth control prescription and then was embarrassed and shocked when she went to CVS (or wherever) and was informed, for the first time, that she'd have to pay for that out of pocket.

That huge $9/month cost.

So she left the pharmacy, shocked, embarrassed, victimized, and traumatized.

In both instances the trauma attached due to a misunderstanding about what Georgetown covered. And the correct position, Fluke maintains, is that the Jesuits should abandon their religious scruples, not, say, that people might pick up a phone and call to inquire about the coverage. Or, say, ask a Reproductive Rights advocate like Sandra Fluke what the insurance covers.

Or that they should actually read the policy.

I almost don't even want to mention that because at this point in our nation's trajectory most people will laugh at this possibility.

And yet, in both cases, simply finding out the terms of coverage would have avoided the traumatization. Shock in one case, forgoing necessary post-rape treatment (including STD testing) in another.

And the media, of course, permitted these silly claims to go forth into the public square as we debate a very serious principle, that of religious liberty, and the proper role of the state in intruding into personal choices.

Personal choices by employers, too. Funny how that part always gets left out.

So if you go here and scroll down to where I first mention "Wheelbarrow," you can read my own testimony, about how I was hit by a car but didn't call the doctor because I assumed, wrongly it turns out, that gross physical injury sustained by truck wasn't cover. It's in reverse order, so once having found the wheelbarrow post, read up, not down.

See, I assumed some things.

Damn confusing coverage!

I too have a tale of Woe, and no one seems interested in it.

Why is my voice to be Silenced by a World Waging War on Women? And also, me?

posted by Ace at 03:27 PM

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