From the TOTA File

I have the WIST file (Wish I'd Said That), the ITIMTU file (I Think I May Throw UP), and now I'm adding the TOTA file (Theater of the Absurd).

The first entry from the TOTA file is a political cartoon by Jimmy Margulies. He shows the newscaster with a map highlighting Syria and Iraq behind him. The newscaster is saying that a religious state has been declared in Syria and Northern Iraq. The frumpy tv viewer holds a newspaper with the headline, "Hobby Lobby Birth Control Ruling." She says, "and the U.S. workplace."

Seriously? He's comparing muslim rule to Hobby Lobby's right to decide whether or not to pay for certain forms of birth control for its employees?  He's comparing beheading women for getting an education to Hobby Lobby paying for only 16 kinds of birth control instead of 20? He's comparing stoning women for being Christian to some woman buying her own morning after pill? I'm not sure, but I suspect that Islam allows no birth control at all. He's comparing that to U.S. employers exercising their religious liberty?

Think about it this way: with the court's ruling, Hobby Lobby has a choice, as do its employees. If the ruling had gone the other way, Hobby Lobby would have had no choice. Quite possibly, their employees would have also lost any choice as far as working for them, because the owners had intimated that they might close rather than compromise their principles.

Which of those sounds like an extremist religious state to you?