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.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , | 32 Comments »

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.

Filed under: Politics and Social | Tagged: , , , , , | 5 Comments »