Mad Dogs And Congressmen!

His name was "Tim Johnson". He was a favorite character of mine when it came to teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. (Will they still be able to read and teach that in the Sweet Potato Hitler era?)  The reason is he's not a person but a dog, and not just any dog, a mad dog. And he's significant because it falls to Atticus Finch to put him down when he's roaming dangerously in the road. It's a necessary job and Atticus does it. Just as he defends a black man falsely accused of rape. I loved that dog because his name was an ideal reading-check question and only those who read the book got it -- ever. But these days, Tim Johnson is so much in my memory that I'm constantly calling Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House by the mad dog's name. And you know, I'm trying to do better...really I am. 

The current Speaker is one of those Christians who knows what's best for everyone else. He perfectly okay with telling men to stay off porn and women to stay out of abortion clinics. He's not so good at telling the Orange One much of anything at all, though you can often see he really, really wants to. It probably galls him in his quiet moments when he's at prayers that his soon-to-be-boss is a philandering asshole. But then I'm sure Tom has met a lot of Baptist preachers, and they are not a particularly reliable lot either in this regard. Every few years one or more of them has a scandal and prays for forgiveness, gets it and moves ahead with his life. (Notice I said "he" as far as I know there are women in the pulpit in Baptist churches and when they fall from grace, they generally have to leave town in shame.)

Anyway, back to my main point. Tim...er...Mike Johnson (Sorry.) has a hang up about pornography. He doesn't like it, he doesn't like so much he has his son keep tabs on him. That seems reasonable...not! And because Tim...er...Mike (Sorry again.) doesn't like porn so much, he doesn't want anyone to have it either. I don't think he proposes his son keep tabs on all of us, but I don't rule it out. Let me quote from the Project 2025 document itself, the anticipated framework for the incoming administration. 

        "Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned.

         Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And 

         telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered."

That seems a little screwy to me (no pun intended) that Tim...er...Mike (Goshdarnit! I did it again.) and his ilk are that into what I do in the privacy of my home (not that I use porn mind you).  Since this same section on pornography is critical of "the misogynistic exploiters of women", I do hope to see his strident and loud denunciation of the rank harassment women are suffering since the election of a certain longtime friend of Jeffrey Epstein and former boyfriend of Stormy Daniels. 

But as it turns out I guess, Tim (I give up.) will be downright doggedly determined to wander down the public street roughshod and getting into everyone's private business. I wonder what Atticus might do in situation. I bet I can guess and so can you. * 

Rip Off

* No animals were harmed in the making of his essay, even human ones.