Posted on 03/09/2012 7:24:44 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It has been one week since Rush Limbaugh first called Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute," but the controversy shows no sign of dying down.
Now University of Rochester economist and former Slate blogger Steven Landsburg has jumped to Limbaugh's defense.
In a blog post, Landsburg argued that while the talk radio host's language may have been off-color, Limbaugh's logic was analytically shrewd. Fluke, Landsburg writes, "deserves only to be ridiculed, mocked, and jeered" for saying that women should have access to contraception." He adds that Limbaugh's demand that Fluke and other Georgetown students post online sex tapes in exchange for contraception was actually a "spot-on analogy":
"If I can reasonably be required to pay for someone else’s sex life (absent any argument about externalities or other market failures), then I can reasonably demand to share in the benefits. His dense and humorless critics notwithstanding, I am 99% sure that Rush doesn’t actually advocate mandatory on-line sex videos. What he advocates is logical consistency and an appreciation for ethical symmetry. So do I. Color me jealous for not having thought of this analogy myself."
Unsurprisingly, Landsburg's arguments sparked a mini-firestorm at the University of Rochester, prompting the school's president to issue a public dissent. Landsburg has resoundingly dismissed his critics as "contraceptive sponges," and devoted another blog posts to rebutting their arguments in favor of contraception access.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
they’re s/b their. duh.
Fluke's Testimony: "Without insurance coverage, contraception can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school. For a lot of students who, like me, are on public interest scholarships, that’s practically an entire summer’s salary. Forty percent of female students at Georgetown Law report struggling financially as a result of this policy."
Fluke did talk a lot about certain medical cases wherein contraceptives would help. However, if her intent was to focus only on the medical benefits of contraceptives, she undercut herself by bringing up the figure of 40% of female students who struggled financially." She forgot the lesson of Upton Sinclair's book "The Jungle." It intended to extoll the virtues of Socialism, but society focused on the dreadful conditions of the meat packing industry.
Sandra Fluke:
"You might respond that contraception is accessible in lots of other ways. Unfortunately, that’s not true. Women’s health clinics provide vital medical services, but as the Guttmacher Institute has documented, clinics are unable to meet the crushing demand for these services. Clinics are closing and women are being forced to go without. How can Congress consider the Fortenberry, Rubio, and Blunt legislation that would allow even more employers and institutions to refuse contraceptive coverage and then respond that the non-profit clinics should step up to take care of the resulting medical crisis, particularly when so many legislators are attempting to defund those very same clinics?"
This gets back to the argument of contraceptives in general. It has been demonstrated that there are a number of contraceptive devices available over the counter. If a woman can't afford those, or will not ask her partner to use a condom, it supports the argument that a woman is asking someone else to pay so that she can have sex.
JMO, but is has been amply demonstrated that birth control devices are readily available, and contraceptive pills can be obtain cheaply or even free. And Fluke has not clarified what "vital medical services" the clinics provide that women so desperately need.
Never really watched his show. I don’t plan to now either.
Sponge worthy! *snicker*
(I didn’t like the way Rush went about this -it was overly crude with no explanation or regrouping that Friday- but I guess the shock-jock way is fast becoming the only way in this society)
Not to be confused with the late Steve Landesberg (1936-2010), best known for his role in the show “Barney Miller.”
“contraceptive sponges”
Now that’s an instant classic. Thank you Professor Landsberg. Well shut my mouth, there is at least one decent professor in the United States after all.
Of course I don’t know the rest of this guy’s story, but on this issue he nailed it.
They’re contraceptive sponges. Love it.
I'd sooner call him a libertarian. He's rather well-known in economics circles. Has several books in print.
I read his Armchair Economist. Not exactly my cup of tea, but entertaining.
It did get their attention - everyone’s attention:)
I don’t know if Rush intended to generate that much attention and the form that it came in as - from all sides.
If he was fully aware of the backlash against him - then kudos to his plan...but as a Rush listener and Conservative I am getting the backlash from people who know I am - it’s taken way-too-long for this to come full circle to the meat of this ‘free for all’ crap that Fluke spouted. Heck, I’m making up my own talking points to put this in prospective (as I ‘thought’ he was doing) - something that I didn’t hear Rush do until too late.....(everyone had their own version of what Rush was doing - it was a mess - he didn’t control it - and that, I think, was his mistake - a press release on a Saturday sort of confirms that to me)
In this day-and-age everything needs to be in fast, complete packages of information or it can go haywire - it didn’t have to.....
Fluke’s years of liberal activism. Add her ties to the LGBTQ and her efforts to:
” force schools to pay for sex change operations”.
http://voices.yahoo.com/sandra-fluke-liberal-lesbian-activist-secret-11062294.html?cat=9
Sandra Fluke — Liberal Lesbian Activist on a Secret Mission ...
Consider also the little matter of Fluke’s efforts on behalf of the activist group called Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Questioning.
Review — titled Employment Discrimination Against LGBTQ Persons.
“A prime example of direct discrimination,” the “gender law” article claims “is:
denying insurance coverage for medical needs of transgender persons physically transitioning to the other gender.”
Rush has always had a great talent for making tasty omlets from a bunchh of broken eggs...
“Contraception in the courts of the Bourbons—a vinegar-soaked sponge used like an IUD.”
Better than the Ancient Egyptian equivalent, which relied heavily on crocodile dung!
Like when they call anything limiting abortion an assault on women's "reproductive rights", as if people are trying to deny them the right to reproduce.
“BOY, I sure hope this professor has tenure...”
And Kevlar.
So, Ms Fluke is a . . . DYKE? :-)
[T]here is at least one decent professor in the United States after all.
Beaming-alums-of-University-of-Rochester ping.
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