Women Are People, Corporations Are Not People

I like to listen to Thom Hartmann on the radio (around lunchtime or rebroadcast in the wee hours of the morning) and more often than not I am in agreement with his progressive views. Hartmann has a background that is conducive to honest thinking about the state of the country that is so refreshing in contrast to the right-wing conservative bubble which denies and distorts reality.

Hartmann has an entry in Wikipedia of you are curious. One thing you should notice is the extensive and varied list of books he has written through the years (see list below).

The latest Supreme Court ruling have been prime topics for Hartmann these last couple of days. Here is his op-ed on this subject from Nation of Change which you will certainly want to read in its entirety:

The Supreme Court Thinks That Corporations Are People, But Women Aren’t
The outcome of the Hobby Lobby case was a victory for
corporations and wealthy CEOs and a loss for everyone
else who consider women to be actual people.
As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, we’re still in the 19th century when it comes to women’s rights. In a 5 to 4 decision, the Supreme Court today ruled that for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby can discriminate against their female employees by denying them birth control coverage as required under Obamacare as long as those corporations believe that doing so “violates” their religious beliefs.

According to the Court, “closely-held” corporations like Hobby Lobby are protected by a 1993 law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – a law that protects people – let me repeat, PEOPLE, as in homo sapiens sapiens – from having “substantial burdens” placed on their religious beliefs.

There are a lot of things to talk about when it comes to the Hobby Lobby case – the fact that Hobby Lobby’s arguments weren’t based in scientific fact, the fact that Hobby Lobby actually invests in companies that make the very same birth control it says goes against its religious beliefs, the fact that it’s more than ready to pay for male birth control procedures like vasectomies, the fact that much of what they sell comes from China, the home of forced abortions – you name it.

All of these things are important and show just how insane and fundamentally hypocritical the Court’s decision really was. But in the end, the most damning thing of all about today’s ruling is that it shows that one branch of our government, the Supreme Court, believes that the “rights” of non-breathing, definitely-not-alive corporations trump the rights of the 51 percent of the population which has a uterus. …

But I won’t mince words. The Hobby Lobby ruling was a loss for everyone who thinks women are actual people and a win for everyone who thinks that corporations and rich bosses should dominate society at the expense of everyone else.

Read the entire op-ed piece over at Nation of Change.

Books by Thom Hartmann (from Wikipedia)

2013: The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America—and What We Can Do to Stop It.
2013: The Last Hours of Humanity: Warming the World to Extinction
2011: Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country
2010 (second edition): Unequal Protection: How Corporations Became “People” – And How You Can Fight Back.
2009: Threshold: The Crisis of Western Culture
2008: Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination [by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartmann]
2007: Cracking The Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America’s Original Vision
2006: Screwed: The Undeclared War Against The Middle Class and What We Can Do About It
2006: Walking Your Blues Away: Practical Bilateral Therapies for Healing the Mind and Optimizing Emotional Well-Being.
2005: Ultimate Sacrifice: John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK [by Lamar Waldron, with Thom Hartmann]
2004: What Would Jefferson Do?
2004: We the People: A Call to Take Back America
2004 (revised ed.): Unequal Protection
2004 (revised ed. – first ed. 1998): The Prophet’s Way
2004 (revised ed. – first ed. 1997): Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight
2003: The Edison Gene
2000: Thom Hartmann’s Complete Guide to ADHD: Help for Your Family at Home, School and Work
2000: The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century
1998: Healing ADD
1996: Beyond ADD
1996: Think Fast! [by Thom Hartmann and Jane Bowman, with Susan Burgess]
1995: ADD Success Stories
1994: Focus Your Energy: Hunting for Success in Business
1994: ADHD Secrets of Success: Coaching Yourself to Fulfillment in the Business World
1993: The Best of the Desktop Publishing Forum on CompuServe
1992 (first edition): ADD: A Different Perception