>He also mentioned that he and his wife of 24 years, with whom he has two children

After 24 years, with Pete's beliefs, don't you think that he should have a whole host of kids? Is he not aware of the "be fruitful and multiply" injunction? Is he not aware that the use of condoms is simply a repetition of the sin of Onan?

Why doesn't he have a dozen or more kids by now? Clearly, he's no Christian!

Sounds like a pretty swell guy, if he didn't hold such repugnant and anarchoristic views!

Just, wow. Somewhat mind-boggling, really. Oh, I can understand that if one has never heard of the Onion, and maybe if one wasn't terribly familiar with the topic at hand, it could be taken as some fringe whack-job site that was serious. I guess all I can see here is someone who is so thoroughly polarized in his opinion that he'll find anything he can to support his point. I mean, how sick in the head do you have to be to invent a line like "I meet women who think like this every day" within the context of that article?

Maybe someday when the pro-birthers decide to allow that women aren't necessarily just apartment buildings for fetuses, there'll be a little more flex to the thinking. Of course, that's quite a pipe dream I can hold to. I don't seriously expect people as sick in the head as that guy to disappear - there'll always be that fanatical edge to every cause.

But I can hope.

T

I'm totally psyched that a pro-choice blogger thought one of the most classic Onion pieces of all time was for real! It was also interesting to read he is anti-contraceptive, as well.

...but nonetheless, Traister gave him a forum and some sympathy. A lesser pub would have repeated the joke and left its readers to pick over the bones. Great treatment of a poor subject. Bravo.

you just let this stand as if it were true? Must be this American satire striking again!

The funniest thing about the whole ordeal, said Pete, is that "I come from Germany -- a German economy, a German culture, German friends. And Germans have no humor." When he first came to the States, he said, he worked at Wells Fargo, where he befriended "a bunch of good old boys" who used to prank him. "They'd tease me to the point where I'd say, 'Really?' and they'd say, 'No, you idiot! When are you going to get it?' So I've been struggling with this kind of thing for a long time." Satire, he said, "is an American humor. Saying something but not really meaning it and egging a person on to see if they believe it so you can say, 'Dang, you're dumb!' I'm kind of used to people laughing at me." He said his father and brother used to do this to him as well. "What I didn't know was that there was a whole country of people doing this."

IANAG, but talk to your international (including German) friends and ask them about their experiences trying satire on ye average American, you just might hear some good stories.

You're so right, Pete. The Brits, the French, the Italians... they have no tradition of satirical humor at all. It's purely an American thing.

I guess it's understandable. Fellow goes out, makes a total ass of himself, and then tries to make up a story, any story, that explains and justifies his actions. The being German angle so I don't know humor seems like the lamest excuse, but as we know, just one of many. But really now Pete, do you really know plenty of women out in the field (what the hell does that mean anyway? Out in the Field?) that are just like the fictional writer of the article? Just who discusses their abortions with you anyway? This guy truly is a dumbass.

I don't know. When I was in high school, I harped relentlessly on someone who told me that his favorite metal band was Spinal Tap. In retrospect this is not something I feel particularly good about. So I'm glad that this person took the event with such good humor.

The pro-abortion movement is "psychotic"? Doesn't that mean "unable to distinguish fantasy from reality"? As in, foaming at the mouth about obvious satire? Or believing contraception is the same as abortion? I was once engaged to someone I later chose not to marry. So the marriage was prevented. Does that mean I'm actually divorced?

"I know the average person is going to say I'm a religious wacko," he laments. I disagree. I'm sure below- and above-average people feel that way as well.

Another once-happy leftist who found religion and lost his mind.

A few years ago, when the Onion was first being published, I was flipping through a Reader's Digest. There was a letter to the editor by a reader who was thoroughly incensed the magazine had published a piece on J.K. Rowling, because, "J.K. Rowling worships the devil and makes no secret of it. I read her interview in the Onion."

Now, back then, I found that hilarious. This, however, is rolling on the floor hilarious, since the onion is so well known, and one who was a blogger should surely verify something like this before throwing it up on his website.

Great article, I've forwarded it to all my friends for a chuckle. Although we aren't laughing much to read the guy's assertion that oral contraceptives = abortion. I love these types. Why isn't his home filled with adopted kids, if he's so concerned? Because he's only concerned with telling other people what to do. I disagree with the previous commenter who said he sounds like a swell guy "except for his views." He doesn't sound like a swell guy. He sounds like a psychopathic, controlling freak who can't handle his own life and wants to turn it over to a fairy in the sky.

Whenever I hear a man rail against abortion, I just want to kick him in the nuts as hard as I can.