I don't see the sense in a waiting period for any of the procedures mentioned. It seems insulting in all those cases, for the same reason: why not think about it before requesting it?

Mexican or otherwise. Stop blaming the victims of imperialistic American policies. Every year, billions of dollars of your tax money flows to agribusiness. This welfare-for-the-rich keeps prices of crops artificially low, and then the surplus is dumped on other countries, destroying local economies. Thanks to NAFTA, there's not much those on the receiving end can do about it, short of a revolution. This forces people off the land, and sometimes over the border. When people (like Hugo Chavez's government and many others)fight back, they are called "anti-American," "communist," "dictator," et cetera. When people flee to the US and elsewhere, they're stigmatized as "illegal aliens."

Coincidentally, there's a once-in-five-years chance to change the Farm Bill, and possibly change this situation. www.oxfamamerica.org.

Wouldn't FGM, and the circumstances surrounding it, make anyone a candidate for asylum? Forget the numbers, I'm talking about right and wrong. The other circumstances of this woman's case would seem to seal the deal for her, but I'm curious about other cases.

How did you skip days like that in high school and then not get swamped by make-up work? How did you get into this mysterious university where you like your professors and classes? I guess I'm glad that such a place exists. It's like the way I always imagined university life would be, unlike the miserable truth I experienced.

but I have to make it clear: There is no god. All this conflict between religious groups is excellent news, until civilians get caught in the crossfire.

If you're getting the Sith involved, you have bigger problems than harassment.

I don't know if these requirements of priesthood are spelled out in the Bible, or any affiliated text. In any case, don't Catholics believe that the Pope and his agents are God's representatives on Earth?

Either your holy books and holy men are holy, or they aren't. If they aren't all right, they're all wrong. If you decide to pick and choose what to believe and what to follow, you're acting in bad faith.

If you were never born, how could you care? Besides, don't you religious types think the "souls" of the aborted go to some perfect, eternal "heaven?"

When kindness and those other adjectives don't make a man "faggy."

Does the grandfather in Little Miss Sunshine have good advice? If so, what course of action do I have, as I fear that I missed my chance?

Many of these debates are really red herrings. There are schools of thought that oppose abortion, but want no part of efforts to criminalize it. They aim to prevent it through contraception and education and such. That seems like a sensible approach, unless one really wants (consciously or unconsciously) to punish anyone who has sex without intending pregnancy.

Some earlier messages referred to life expectancy. Life expectancy is calculated by including/estimating all deaths at all ages. In settings with high infant (and maternal) mortality, life expectancy will be skewed very low. At some point in Roman antiquity, life expectancy was only about forty, but all the senators were in their fifties and sixties. Seventy was old and eighty was ancient, but in general if one lived past childhood one would probably live for a while.

Religion stops a thinking mind, once again.

I hate this. Our media lambasts any democratically elected leader who does a damn thing for poor people, even smearing them as "dictators," but a dictatorship our government supports can do anything.

People presumably care about droogoy. They would be affected badly if he/she committed suicide. Similarly, he/she presumably wants to live. Without those factors, you might have a point.

Can you not see the difference between droogoy and a hypothetical future child, or a fetus for that matter?

It happens over there, it happens over here. We atheists aren't angry, we're exasperated. If it's not scientific, if there's no evidence, if your only reason for belief is "faith," then it's a delusion!

Oh, and mock the delusions of Wiccans all you want, but that "dirty hippy" slur is really mean-spirited.

In the not too distant future...

"Big McLargeHuge!"

"Splint Chesthair!"

"Bob Johnson! No, wait..."

Since you asked, the U.S. was heavily involved in prolonging Angola's civil war. For one thing, the U.S. supported South African attacks on the country, with severe consequences. Fidel Castro sent forces to try to defend Angola, and they did their best, though they weren't nearly as successful as he claimed.

Speaking of Sarajevo, I wonder if the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia had results similar to these land mines.

Also, who won't sign the treaty banning land mines, all because they might somehow come in handy in Korea?

Let's take responsibility for our own actions.

Disabled people in Norway probably get vastly more help than in Angola.

If Christians and Muslims (and others) really believe in their religion, and really believe that their "holy books" are indeed holy, then they will in fact behave like the worst of the fundamentalists. Otherwise they act in bad faith. One can't pick and choose what to believe, if one his honest. It's either all right or all wrong, and it's all wrong. There is no such thing as god.

The media/Congress/et cetera almost never talk about how Washington supports one (actually several) of the most vile regimes in the world, but they are so quick to demonize anybody (particularly in Latin America) who does a blasted thing for the poor.

Birth rates are falling in most of the world, not just the developed world, for various reasons. Won't this eventually result in a falling population? Don't forget things like the "male pill." If that thing works, and is manufactured generically, think of the impact. Even without it, the trends seem clear, right?