This latest in a very long line of ridiculous bills and proposals serves to highlight not only the insanity of the conservative fundies, but also the madness inherent in our interpretation of democracy. I'd like to call your attention to this sentence from last week's coverage of the bill:

"On Wednesday, the House will vote on legislation that asserts that fetuses feel pain"

Does anyone see anything wrong with that? Congress will VOTE on asserting something that is a FACT (to correct a common misconception: a fact can be either true or false). Either fetuses feel pain, or they don't. Common sense would dictate that it should be doctors and scientists who decide this by doing things like brain or nerve scans...you know, like, science-type things. But instead, the issue gets thrown to a pack of slick-haired, special interest-loving suits, many of whom don't appear to know a chromosome from a nucleotide. This reminds me of the valiant efforts of our beloved congressmen last month to actually understand what the hell partial-birth abortion entails or means - you know, beyond 'evil godless murder of babies' (you can catch the coverage on Slate). Hours into the hearing, they still didn't appear to have the foggiest idea of the basics of the procedure.

Of course, anyone who suggests the common-sense approach - that is, appoint a panel of doctors to decide medial legislation, scientists to decide research legislation, etc. - will be seized on by the right as an 'elitist' in a display of the same sort of twisted Feyerabendian anti-intellecutalism that claims the masses must have the final say in all matters, even those which they know nothing about. Moreover, it will be protested that the above-mentioned groups have a 'liberal bias', as has been asserted about professors, jounalists, historians...basically anyone that has expertise in anything. But has anyone wondered exactly why people who are educated tend to lean disproportionately to the left? Is it possible that it is precisely because the current conservatism relies on an ideology of ignorance and deceit? Just a thought.

I am confused as to why this bill would require a two-thirds vote in favor of passage, unless the proponents would rather have a recorded vote than he passage of the bill; that is, the Republican leadership would rather have the issue than the resolution.

You seem so very glib in your assessment of whether a fetus causes pain when it's being killed during an abortion. Have you ever seen a six-month-old "premie" being injected with a needle to keep it alive? They cry-out in pain as you would expect a baby would. Why in the world don't you seek the middle ground limit of a three month pregnancy limit, where the fetus is really not developed enough to feel pain, but the mother still has time to make a decision? Why take such a harsh stand of, presumably, letting the pregnancy go up until birth? Honestly, have you never held a baby? Many of my male friends are much more compassionate about unborn babies than the feminist women that are given the blessing to carry these wonderful people to birth. Perhaps the only thing that can be done, if a reasonable compromise such as a three month limit comes along, is to develop science to the point that a woman that no longer wishes to nurture her unborn baby has the option of having the development take place in a laboratory somewhere. What exceptionally bleak choices humanity gives to each other! Can you please think of someone, or some group, other than yourselves?