Much fuss has been made lately of the contraception fiasco, especially the statement by Republicans that contraception is not a big issue for women.  But if that were true, why doesn't the issue go away?  Why does it continue to dominate women's thinking and actions in a way that no other political issue has come close?

For women, contraception is like oxygen.  In our day to day lives we don't think about it much.  How often do you think about the air you breath?  How many millions of breaths do you take without thinking, expecting the oxygen to be there for you when you need it, one thoughtless inhalation after another?  The oxygen is there doing it's job, allowing you to focus on your life.

Contraception is like oxygen for women.  As long as it's there it allows us to focus on our lives.  Whether that focus is currently on furthering our education, our careers, figuring out what we want to do about an aspect of our lives, or on the child or children we already have, contraception gives us room to breath.

And just like the air we breath, contraception is not something women focus on all that often.  We don't want to focus on it.  We don't see why we should have to focus on it.  It should be there in the background so we can make other things a priority.

But what happens when something threatens your air supply?  Suddenly nothing is more important than drawing that next breath.  Nothing focuses a person's attention so swiftly and thoroughly as not being able to breathe.  Panic sets in, followed by an adrenaline surge.  Nothing is more important than removing the obstacle which threatens your breathing.  And nothing makes you angrier than the possibility that someone took away your ability to breathe deliberately.

That is the kind of reaction a threat to contraception sets off in modern women (and smarter men).  And that is why women won't stop until the threat is ended, and until they can once again breathe freely and get on with the rest of their lives.

For those of you living under a rock or working for DC Comics, Wonder Woman is a superhero invented by a psychologist to help women and girls feel good about being women and girls.  That is her prime directive.

Anything that makes women and girls not feel good about being women and girls does not belong in a Wonder Woman comic.  Simple, no?

Even with literally dozens of misogyny articles appearing every day, this crap came the closest to making me want to throw up.

There is only one place in government where sick perverts who force doctors to rape their pregnant patients should be, and that's under the federal penitentiary.

A well-dressed woman introduced herself the other day, gave me a card and a pen, asked me to vote for her in the upcoming county election, and immediately began backing away.

"Thank you!  We can always use pens.  But what will you do if elected?"

"Oh!"  The woman stopped dead in her tracks.  "Well -- I'm going to run government like a business.  That's what we need!  My husband and I run a business in the next town.  We took over my parent's sales business when they retired.  Do you know where so-and-so is?  That's our business."

"Oh," I nodded.  The place she mentioned appeared from the road to have been closed down for several years.  "What would you say our biggest problem is?"

"It's that we don't run government like a business."

"What about unemployment in the county?"  The county's unemployment rate is around 14%.

"That's because we don't run government like a business.  But I will look into that if elected."

"Do you know about the weekly anti-poverty meetings?  My husband has been going to them."

"You mean so-and-so's group?  I've heard about them.  If they come up with any good ideas I'll look into them."  She leaned in closer to me.  "But you're new to the area.  I've been in people's houses around here.  You can tell some of them aren't really poor, they've just made bad choices."

I refrained from commenting on relative values (would my books count as 'bad choices'?) or asking her what she would do to educate people on how to make better choices.  Or if she would do something useful and bring in more jobs.

I realize the term "running government like a business" became a meaningless catch-phrase almost 30 years ago but let's look at one of the more annoying false assumptions behind it.  Implicit in the conceit is the idea that every businessperson is in such a cut-throat competative  environment that in order to survive they must be good at their job.  Hah!  Maybe in Silicon Valley or Wall Street, but not around here.  In the sluggish economy of small-town America, many businesses survive based on good fortune, a combination of luck, inherited capital, and the occassional act of collusion.  Let's look at some real-life examples of businesses whose business experience makes their owners supposedly the best qualified to run our governement.
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