I have restrained myself from commenting on the nonsense that one branch of one party put us through with 16 days of what amounted to extortion, but there is at least one incident about the recent craziness in Congress that I have to comment upon: Stenographer in U.S. Congress disrupts debt ceiling vote to rant about Jesus or House Stenographer Seizes Microphone In Bizarre Rant.
So this woman, whose job it is to record the official things said in the House of Representatives, at the end of a 16-day fiasco that cost taxpayers billions of dollars, put hundreds of thousands of people temporarily out of work, cost the economy much more, contributed to some needless deaths, and very nearly put the credit of the entire nation in jeopardy, in the moments before a last minute vote to bring said idiocy to a close, she rushes the microphone and begins ranting about Freemasons and how the country ought to be a Christian nation but isn’t and “praise Jesus!”
When I say “rant,” I mean that it was, vehement, immoderate, and exceeding normal parameters of behavior. Rushing to the speaker’s podium was a violation of the rules of the House, a violation of the duties of her job, and a violation of common courtesy and decorum. Furthermore, the content of her speech was nonsense. The individual sentences don’t add up to any sort of coherent message. It is a weird mix of out-of-context religious statements, an old conspiracy theory, and two assertions not supported by the rest of her statement.
Members of the Sergeant-at-Arms staff removed her from the room, and she was taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.
Enter Fox News, where, on Fox and Friends, they tried to make the case that this woman was being persecuted for her religious views. That’s right, being taken for psychiatric evaluation after behaving in a crazy manner, doing something that even her husband agreed was completely out of character is the new definition of persecution.
There are things that qualify as persecution. Being arrested for wearing a pro-Democrat t-shirt while standing in line for a public appearance (not even a party event, a public event) of a Republican President is persecution. Being arrested for just talking about gay rights is persecution. Being a lesbian who is correctively raped to try to turn her straight (and a government official saying that raping school girls is preferable to same-sex love) is persecution. Having a bar raided and customers beaten, harassed and humiliated by police without probable cause, then the commanders lie to try to cover it up just because it’s a gay bar is persecution.
When you cause a disruption on the floor of the House of Representatives, violating the rules, your job guidelines, and decorum in an act that members of both parties present all referred to as “out of character,” “disturbing,” and “an episode” being taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation is the kind thing to do.
Be glad she did it in the House of Representatives, rather than, say, in the street in front of her own house if she happened to live in Dallas, because she might have been gunned down (and then have the police lie about it after).
