Doonsebury and abortion

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Michael

Since a number of newspapers are refusing to run the Doonsebury comic strips which address abortion this week, I am following in the footsteps of Jerry Coyne and posting the strips.

(Apparently, posting the strips like this deprives the artist of syndication money. Or so it goes. Keeping in step with Jerry, I am also posting the link to the main website for the comic so that the artist will get “click credit”.)

(Click to enlarge.)

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The Tea Party summarized

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Michael

2009: No more government waste! Cut spending! Lower taxes! Stop giving money away to lazy (colored) people! (And please keep my social security flowing.)

2012: Taxes? lol wut? No abortion!

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Ohio abortion bill on hold

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Michael

Anti-abortion advocates have caused the “heartbeat” bill in Ohio to be put on hold:

Fear of expensive legal battles over the law may have prompted a wave of amendments by Senate backers to the bill. But the wording of the bill has split anti-abortion backers.

“Supporters of the bill delivered more than 20 amendments on Wednesday, asking us to make changes after months of deliberation in both the House and Senate,” Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus, a Republican, said in a statement.

“These eleventh hour revisions only serve to create more uncertainty about a very contentious issue. We’ve now heard hours of testimony that indicate a sharp disagreement within the pro-life community over the direction of this bill, and I believe our members need additional time to weigh the arguments. Therefore, I have asked the committee chairman to suspend hearings on the bill,” Niehaus said.

Basically, they’re afraid the Supreme Court will rule against them. It’s funny because the whole strategy of the anti-abortionists for the past 10-15 years has been to push the boundary of Roe v Wade, even flagrantly ignoring it, in order to force a SC showdown.

At any rate, I’m glad to see this has been set aside from now. The entire premise was just silly. A heartbeat does not somehow convey special importance onto a fetus. In fact, it is a whole confluence of factors which contribute to what we define as being important in humans. It cannot possibly be clear when it is that enough of those factors have come together in order for us to draw a line; the best we can do is seek a reasonable point during pregnancy (a point which we laden with necessary exceptions). I think Roe v Wade actually found that point.

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Thought of the day

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Michael

Here’s what I don’t like about the abortion debate: One side says it is about controlling women whereas the other side insists it is about murder. There is plenty of truth from the first side, but that truth is concentrated amongst a minority of Christians and Muslims in the US. The second side, of course, is entirely wrong. But regardless of whether either side is right or wrong on these claims, I still don’t like anything about it. So what if the other guy has shitty motivations? That doesn’t make him wrong.

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Higher gay marriage/abortion support among younger generations

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Michael

Support for gay marriage is significantly higher among younger generations while support for abortion rights is significantly higher among those under 65 (pdf):

I can’t say I’m surprised. Christians like to spend a lot of time making up lies about gays, but as time and people progress, these myths are being knocked down. In fact, I would be interested to see a survey that asked if homosexuality was all or mostly about sex. I suspect similar generational gaps would be present.

Another significant effect here is that it has become more and more acceptable to be critical of religion. This has brought atheists out of the religious closet. In fact, those claiming “None” when asked what religion they hold constitute the fastest growing proportion of the population. Of those, a significant number are atheist or agnostic. The gross grip of religion is loosening and we’re seeing the benefits of that. For this, at least in part, we have those evil Gnu atheists to thank.

I’m glad that even if there are bumps along the road, I can be confident this positive trend will continue in marriage. It’s just wrong that we deny civil rights to a group (didn’t we learn this 60 years ago?), and it’s even more wrong that we allow the religious to impose their unconstitutional ‘morality’ on the rest of us (didn’t we learn this 235 years ago?). Just as bad is their unscientific positions on abortion (didn’t Terrance promise a response “in a day or two”?). Somewhat surprisingly – and fortunately – the generational divide is not there for those under 65. Yet despite this fact, I’m less confident we can get a positive trend going here, especially with political ‘justices’ like Scalia and Thomas on the Supreme Court. But at least public opinion and the law are on the right side of the issue right now.

Filed under: Politics and Social, Rights, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

This is why you’re single

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Michael

Greg Fultz is an overweight, unattractive, greasy-haired middle-aged man with bad taste in clothing. One would think those things would be cause enough to keep a man single for more years than not. Yet despite these obvious shortcomings, Fultz managed to date someone. He even managed to have sex with her. For the sake of the poor girl, one can only hope Fultz’s full-body hygiene was not reflected in his hair.

But then Fultz had to go ahead and do something monumentally stupid. After getting his girlfriend pregnant, he took out a $13,000 billboard ad ranting against her:

Fultz said the billboard was inspired by a real-life experience.

The so-called father’s perspective on abortion was even endorsed by New Mexico Right To Life.

“I wanted to get out this message. I felt it was important and powerful enough to maybe sway one person’s mind from having an abortion,” Fultz said.

New Mexico Right To Life said this was the first time it ever agreed to endorse a billboard, and it will be the last.

“We contacted Greg and asked to have our endorsement removed from the billboard,” Betty Eichenseer, New Mexico Right To Life, said.

Eichenseer said one of the reasons the group wanted to pull the endorsement is because Fultz’s girlfriend might not have had an abortion. Fultz admits that he has no idea how his baby was lost but said the message on his billboard stands.

According to various reports, it looks like the girl had a miscarriage. Not that that is especially relevant. It just makes Fultz look all the more like the stupid ass he obviously is.

I’m not the sort of person to take the wild stance that a pregnant woman shouldn’t consider discussing her decision with the man who got her pregnant. I think it’s entirely reasonable, especially if the couple plans to remain together. That isn’t to say the man’s input is equal to the woman’s. It’s her body. But if she’s going to make a decision that affects another person, it isn’t some crazy thing to say it’s fair to consider that other person. It would be as if a man in a relationship decided to get a vasectomy. Sure, he can do that if he wants. He can even be secretive about it and never mention it to his girlfriend or wife. But that doesn’t mean he should.

But all this qualification obviously isn’t important to a piece of shit like Fultz. The guy believes his position is more important than hers. He’s a selfish, stupid ‘man’ who doesn’t have an appropriate perspective. Even if he had his facts straight and his ex-girlfriend did have an abortion, it is her right to destroy what constitutes a set of cells with potential. After all, that’s exactly what Fultz is doing every night now that he’s rightfully all alone.

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A lowly challenge

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Michael

After proving to everyone that there really are misogynistic asshats out there who believe that women are morons, Terrance H. has challenged me to a shoot out:

I challenge the guy to a debate. We each make an opening statement and issue three replies. Our blog readers can determine the winner. I don’t normally do this, but I’ve taken an extreme dislike to the fellow. Not only that, but I wouldn’t mind rattling off like I used to in college. It should be fun.

This stems from the fact that I don’t think women are stupid, but he does:

…I don’t for a minute believe that most women realize the implication of their decision to abort. Not for a minute.

Women also don’t realize the implications when they decide not to put on make-up in the morning, amirite?

I can’t say I’m particularly interested in a formal debate. I find them to be stuffy and they tend to let a lot of incorrect statements slip through the cracks. What’s more, I don’t want to clutter up my blog with a series of posts that don’t particularly cater to my main audience. That said, I will accept a debate that takes place within the comment section of this post.

Of course, it will help if Terrance actually knows where I stand. He seems to prefer to pretend like he knows, reflecting his tendency to act like he understands other things, such as basic biology (he doesn’t). I mean, I’m willing to repeat my positions for this bag of piss-poor rhetoric, maybe teach him a little Bio 101, but it gets tedious. Regardless,

You shoot first, Terry.

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Proven right in mere hours

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Michael

It was only a few hours ago that I wrote about the condescension being expressed towards women who decide to have an abortion. The Republicans just don’t get it. Women aren’t getting abortions because they haven’t seen their ultrasounds. They aren’t making these decisions lightly. In short, women are not stupid. It’s crazy, I know. But one pseudo-libertarian right winger wants to make sure you all know I wasn’t just creating a strawman:

The pro-choice lobby has spread so much anti-science garbage over the years, I don’t for a minute believe that most women realize the implication of their decision to abort. Not for a minute.

Well, I never did expect someone from the right to believe in facts. Not for a minute.

The majority of the rest of this guy’s post is just projection – he knows the right has no grounds for claiming the side of science in anything, and he knows the entire point of all the ultrasound laws being proposed or passed in recent months is to be emotionally manipulative – plus he has a healthy does of red herring in there, but I am interested in one thing he said:

There is no debating that unborn children are human beings. Period. Science is clear on this issue. So, why are you being so anti-science by hinting toward a philosophical argument?

This reminds me so much of Punching Bag Neil. “Science is clear! Humanity begins at conception!” Except it doesn’t. What starts at conception is a process of development. Where that development starts to matter is a complicated issue – so complicated, in fact, that we can’t really begin to talk about it when people on the right don’t even understand the basic biology behind the issue.

Update: I noticed that one key part of my post wasn’t reposted by this guy. It was this picture showing the breakdown of what Planned Parenthood does. It shows that only 3% of their services are directed towards abortions. But do these facts matter? Of course not!

Why can’t you people just admit the facts? Why can’t you admit that Planned Parenthood’s livelihood is abortion services? Why can’t you people just admit that the trumpeted Hyde Amendment is utterly meaningless, because money is fungible!

Support abortion if you so choose, but for God’s sake, quit lying!

So when the facts are inconvenient, the other side is lying. Got it.

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Defunding health care for women

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Michael

I find myself more and more torn. On the one hand, it’s so hard to say Republicans are motivated by a hatred of women. There are legitimate arguments to be made in some of their actions. But on the other hand, the majority of their actions are asinine and condescending, backed by no grain of rationality or intelligence:

Last week, Indiana lawmakers voted to approve a measure that would defund the state chapter of Planned Parenthood by $2 million, the amount the group gets each year in federal dollars. The bill would also ban abortions following the 20th week of pregnancy unless a woman’s life is in jeopardy. The measure would also require abortion providers to tell women seeking abortions that life begins at conception, that the procedure is linked to infertility, and that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks or earlier…

The bill’s author, state Rep. Eric Turner (R), defended its passage, telling The Indianapolis Star Thursday that it means “pregnant ladies will have a better-informed decision to make.” Representative Turner also said, “The net result will be less abortions in Indiana, and I’m pleased about that.”

First, I’ve never had a problem with recognizing that Republicans are by-and-large anti-science. That’s a given, and this requirement to force doctors to make up stuff to tell pregnant women only confirms it. Second, women are NOT children and they are NOT making these decisions lightly, you condescending piece of shit, Eric Turner. Unfortunately, this douche isn’t alone in not getting that. Pick any random inbred state that’s been attempting to destroy individual autonomy and the idea that sexual maturity is a good thing: invariably there will be some ass who pretends that his motivation is to make sure women really know what’s going on. “Make them look at an ultrasound! Clearly women have no fucking clue what’s going on inside their bodies!”

No, you anti-abortionists, get it through your thick fucking skulls: People aren’t rejecting your shit arguments out of ignorance or a desire to murder babies. We aren’t rejecting it because we’re in the dark about all the emotionally manipulative (and emotionally false) images. We’re rejecting your horseshit because human beings – real live persons – are not defined by merely being cells. We’re rejecting it because consciousness matters, and making up that fetuses can feel and understand anything, including pain, is fundamentally dishonest. We’re rejecting it because it devalues human life to lie and claim a ball of developing cells is on the same playing field as someone who is 2 or 122 or anything between. Get better arguments.

The only glimmer of hope I can see in all this is that the Republicans, despite being the cause of much of our economic woes, were only elected to deal with the economy. Now that they’re showing their true colors, hopefully their human-hurting agendas will be rejected next time around.

Update: Oh, and a helpful reminder:

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Sad lulz

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Michael

Arizona has enacted a stupid new law that bans abortions that are done for the sake of selecting race or gender. This is the part that really got me:

Backers of the measure said the ban is needed to put an end to sex- and race-related discrimination that exists in Arizona and throughout the nation. They insist the issue is about bias rather than any broader stance on abortion.

Lulz. Arizona wants to put an end to race discrimination?

Bahahahahahahaha

Filed under: Humor, News | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

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