Letters to the Editor
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I don't believe in Dorothy
Of course, one thing Karslake’s documentary will likely demonstrate (unintentionally) is that the only way faith reconciles itself with homosexuality--especially Christianity, Islam, and Judaism--is by becoming a little bit less of a faith and a little bit more of a modern set of beliefs based on humanist ethics and evidentiary reasoning: the twin pillars of the Enlightenment that so influenced America’s founding fathers, among many other men and women of influence in the 1600's and 1700's. To find homosexuality intrinsically, essentially “bad” may not require religious faith, but it sure helps.
(And this quibble: I've always found the phrase "friend of Dorothy" odd, at best. As a label for an entire category of humanity, it really makes as much sense as calling all Christians "friends of Falwell," all citizens of South America, "friends of Simón Bolívar," or all people who happen to have black skin, "friends of watermelon." Beyond it being offensive, it's actually just stupid: After all, most gay 20somethings and teens don't even know who Judy Garland was, and plenty of gay people--regardless of age--who do know who she was really couldn't care less about her.)
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Kick their Fundie A$$e$ to the Curb!
If I see you beating your child in a supermarket and make you stop, that means I must now raise your child for you? I think not.
This isn't a good analogy. If you, personally, prevent someone from beating a child, that is not a mandate from the state. The state has no responsibility. However, were it a mandate from the state, the parent could be brought before a judge in family court and their parental rights terminated. At which point the child may become a ward of the state, with tax payer dollars going to the child's care.
So, yes, it's entirely logical to expect tax dollars to go to the care of indigent children, in the case where all or most abortions are illegal.
The time has come for the fiscal conservatives to recognize the Religous Right for what it is: a liability to the Republican Party. Kick their fundie a$$e$ to the curb!
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Purity Balls?
ROFL!
...wow...
Good to glean a laugh out of here somewhere
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Get your laws off my body!
When I was a kid, I had braces. I had to go to my orthodontist to get my wires tightened, etc. several times within 3 months. Usually, these visits went without incident until I saw an angry mob holding signs of babies in utero, shriveled up dead babies on a slab, and other horrific images that you wish you never saw. There was an abortion clinic that had just moved into the building. I was fourteen when I saw these images. It repulsed me. And I had to see it every time I went there. I had my braces on for 9 months, and when I went in to get them taken off, I was attacked by a zealot who screamed at me, "don't kill your baby!" I screamed back at her, "I'm just getting my braces taken off!!!" It really shook me to the bone.
Now, as a much more informed woman, I am infuriated by this bullshit sensationalism with these fanatics leading the way. If I choose to have an abortion, then who the fuck are you to tell me I can't have one? It's my body! I was a practicing Catholic then, and I'm sure as hell am not anymore. I couldn't belong to an organization that dictated what I could and could not do with my body. And these people getting all freaky on you because they think what you're doing is wrong... am I forcing you to have an abortion? No, I'm not... so you can't dictate to me what I can and cannot do.
And don't get me started on the pro-lifer men who criticize women who want or do get abortions. You don't know DICK about what it means to become pregnant or giving birth. (When a watermelon gets pushed out of your urethra, then we'll talk.) You don't know what a woman has to go through, so don't pretend or dare to imply that you do. When a woman decides to have an abortion, she's not at the counter at Starbucks asking for a grande soy latte, no foam, with chocolate shavings and a touch of nutmeg... oh, and an almond biscotti. It's a major decision!! It's what she does when she's at the end of her rope. She doesn't want to do it, but the point is, it's her choice. And God bless Roe vs. Wade for allowing her the option of making that choice.
Just worry about yourself and your own life. And pray that no one tries to keep you from doing something that you want or don't want to do.
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Q: How disgusted am I to find myself agreeing with Alan Dershowitz?
A: Very. But you know, he's right.
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Question for pro-choicers
Would you support ANY restriction on abortion? Even up to the moment of birth?
If so -- why?
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Clockwork Smurf and all
I've seen what an early fetus looks like. I've had a miscarriage and I had an ectopic pregnancy. So, I'm speaking from first-hand experience. (I've also given birth.) I don't need a film with all the exaggerations of film (scale in this case) to create something that isn't. Yeah, if you angle your camera and zoom up the magnification, you can emphasize the baby aspects of something that does not, in fact, look much like a baby.
In reality, early miscarriages look like bloody pink blobs. So do early abortions. Really early miscarriages look like heavy periods--most women don't even realize they were pregnant.
As for the earlier comment from someone else that most pro-lifers are women. First, most pro-choicers are women. Furthermore, pro-choice groups are nearly all headed by women while the anti-abortion groups are headed by men. So, I'm not buying the notion that women are the big opponents to abortion. I haven't noticed women lawmakers being the ones trying to pass anti-abortion laws in South Dakota.
So quit being disingenuous.
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most pro-lifers are women, most pro-choicers are men
That, over the decades, women have been, by a slight margin, more pro-life than men, is one of the most rudimentary facts about the abortion issue.
See polls cited in the wikipeda artcile on "Abortion in the United States".
Among Latinos, the gender gap is significant. 66% of men are pro-choice, while only 51% of women are. See gaston.umb.edu/publications/gr/5xxnl/5nl.articles/505research.html .
In the U.K., there is no overbearing (and hypocritical) fundamentalist group that pushes otherwise freethinking women into the pro-choice camp. So the gender gap there is slightly greater. See a poll commissioned by an abortion providers group at abortionreview.org/index.php/site/article/103/
"Women are more likely than men to disapprove of abortion where a woman does not wish to have a child (42% compared
with 34% of men)."
Nat Hentoff's writings contain more extensive documentation.
Single men are quick to realize that, if you don't proclaim yourself as pro-choice, you don't get laid. Pro-choice women might feel comfortable with a guy who apparently respects her right to control her own body (as she might put it). Actually they're being played for fools.