On Pseudonyms

A couple of days ago, Andrea Mrozek, the faux feministe, mused on why pro-choice bloggers and commenters do not use their real names. She thought it might have to do with employment. You know, because Canada is such right-wing nut-job country, pro-choice people would be shunned. Or something. (Delusional much, Andrea?)

SUZY's 24-hour Fetus Fest took a more confrontational position.

The social consensus on legal abortion is so strong,that they have to hide behind a pseudonym to say what they say. #irony

I also think they're anonymous so they can spew any kind of libel they want about pro-lifers without fearing any legal consequences.

In other words, they're cowards. They don't have the guts to stand by their words.

http://www.bigbluewave.ca/2012/07/prolifeprowoman-asks-why-are-so-many.html

I commented at both blogs, citing small concerns about rape threats, stalking, murder, arson, and terrorism fetus fetishists are so quick to resort to.

Read the comments. I won't recount them here. It's the usual BS.

One thing amused me. Mrozek responded to my taunt about not having to worry what an employer thinks when one is paid by them to blog.

Her reply.

Andrea Mrozekon 13 Jul 2012 at 9:10 am
Oh, and please let the record stand. I don’t get paid to blog. When I started ProWomanProLife of my own free will, instigation, idea, I specifically told my employer that it would be independent of work, and they didn’t want to be affiliated with it, either. This was important to me, because I did not want to need to confirm, ever, anything, with a higher up.

From her bio:

Andrea currently works at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada as Manager of Research and Communications.

What is that, you ask?

It's a creature of Focus on the Family Canada, 'a Canadian affiliate of the American evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family'.

The organization has funded efforts in the courts and in its media broadcasts to help "preserve traditional values and the institution of the family." It has focused its efforts on the following areas: same-sex marriage (and homosexuality in general), abortion, pornography, premarital sex and child discipline. Focus on the Family supports the continued legality of spanking as a form of discipline for children.

Focus on the Family Canada has also established the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada/Institut du Mariage et de la Famille Canada (IMFC). The IMFC is located in Ottawa, Ontario, near Parliament Hill, where the staff conduct and compile social policy research from Canada and around the world. The IMFC’s mission is "to positively influence public opinion and promote public policy that values human life, the pre-eminence of marriage and the institution of the family." Its involvement in social issues is not limited to activism, as it has intervened in court cases such as one case in 1999 where it supported denying same-sex couples the right to apply for alimony from one another. The organization had intervenor status in the precedent setting case of Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (Attorney General), in which the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the legality of child spanking in Canada.

So, while there may not be a box labelled 'anti-choice blogging hours' on her pay stub, it's pretty clear her blog fits rather con-veeeeniently into her employer's mission.

And I do mean mission.

AFTERTHOUGHT: Wouldn't be a hoot if Mrozek were, let's say, *dissembling* in her day job and is actually, secretly pro-choice? Maybe I am Andrea Mrozek. Maybe deBeauxOs is Andrea Mrozek. Maybe ALL Canadian pseudonymous pro-choice bloggers are Andrea Mrozek!


UPPITITY DATE: JJ has some thoughts on the subject.

Chocolate Milk Martyrgasm!

Waaah!

“We are disturbed that this man would bully and assault young women trying to speak up for other women as well as children,” said Stephanie Gray, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform.

“But we are inspired by the calm response of our team members who refuse to fight violence with violence.  By their actions, my courageous colleagues echoed the sentiment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who once said, ‘We will match your ability to inflict suffering with our ability to endure suffering.’”

Saintly, I tells ya, they're saintly.

I just love chocolate milk as a 'weapon'. Sticky, non-toxic, non-staining. Tasty even.

Unlike the preferred weapons of the fetus fetishists: handguns, sniper rifles, fire bombs, and, as JJ added on Twitter, garden shears.

Pro-life Death Threats

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Vandalism and death threats.

Democratic lawmakers have received death threats and been the victims of vandalism because of their votes in favor of the health care bill, lawmakers and law enforcement officials said Wednesday, as the Congressional debate over the issue headed toward a bitter and divisive conclusion.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, said at least 10 House members had raised concerns about their personal security since Sunday’s climactic vote, and Mr. Hoyer characterized the cases as serious.

At least two Congressional district offices were vandalized and Representative Louise M. Slaughter, a senior Democrat from New York, received a phone message threatening sniper attacks against lawmakers and their families.

Ms. Slaughter also reported that a brick was thrown through a window of her office in Niagara Falls, and Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona, said Monday that her Tucson office was vandalized after the vote.

The Associated Press reported that the authorities in Virginia were investigating a cut propane line to an outdoor grill at the home of a brother of Representative Tom Perriello of Virginia, after the address was mistakenly listed on a Tea Party Web site as the residence of the congressman. Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and a central figure in the measure’s abortion provisions, reported receiving threatening phone calls.

And more. Read the whole litany.

Arson and Abortion

I'll see your fake pregnancy clinic arson (completely unwarrantedly attributed to some unknown pro-choicer), and raise you two vandal attacks on California synagogues.

Vandals have hit two Sacramento synagogues -- including one that had previously been destroyed by arsonists and rebuilt.

But what does that have to do with abortion, you ask?

The [Kenesset Israel Torah] Center reopened in 2006 after being destroyed by arson in 1999. Two brothers, Benjamin and James Williams were convicted in that attack as well as fires at two other synagogues and an abortion clinic.

Oooh. Quelle surprise. Anti-choice and anti-semitic. Probably with a couple of white sheets in their trunk. All purpose haters, those people.

And paranoid too.

Forsaking the Symmetry of Sin?

While I correctly predicted the immediate shrieeeking over the shooting of a
supposed Michigan anti-abortion activist by a seemingly distressed and poorly medicated man, I was holding fire over this event.

Just before eight this morning a woman was going into the building for women on 1st Street in Duluth when she was met by a small group of pro-life supporters.

The protesters urged the woman not to get an abortion when the woman pulled a knife on one of the protesters.

No one was injured in the altercation.

More details here:

Duluth police arrested a 25-year-old woman this morning after she allegedly brandished a knife and threatened two anti-abortion demonstrators outside the Building for Women, 32 E. First St.

The incident occurred at 7:47 a.m., according to demonstrators who said the suspect was on her way into the building and had a verbal exchange with them before pulling a knife. The suspect reportedly held the knife to the neck of one demonstrator and told her to stop speaking. When the second demonstrator reportedly went to help the first, the suspect allegedly threatened her with the knife, as well. Neither demonstrator was injured, and the suspect reportedly went into the building.

Duluth Police arrested the suspect inside the Building for Women. Police report finding a knife in her purse. She was taken into custody and sent to the St. Louis County Jail, where she is being held pending charges of second-degree assault.

Slight digression: I wondered about 'building for women' in the first report, capitalized in the second. So, I googled (emphasis mine).

The Building for Women is a home for organizations and activities which promote the safety, dignity and empowerment of women and others in our region. Our mission is to provide safe, accessible and affordable space in which organizations and individuals, serving primarily women, can grow and thrive. Our goal is to support the women of this region by enhancing the long-term financial stability of the organizations that serve them. The Building for Women serves more than 30,000 women, children and men from northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan and from western Ontario each year. It is a local and regional model for cooperative capital efforts, shared resources and coordinated service delivery.

The Building for Women houses 23 tenants, among them:

League of Women Voters
Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault
Women's Health Center
Institute for a Sustainable Future
AFL-CIO Duluth
American Association of University Women
Aurora: A Northland Lesbian Center
Boyz II Dadz
Chiropractor
Adeline, hair salon and art gallery

According to the comments at the second news link, the building is regularly picketed, because, presumably, of the presence of a clinic offering abortion services along with the usual health services to women like birth control and cancer screening. Or, maybe, it is picketed simply because it is dedicated to women's lives and work.

So, maybe the woman was going in for rape counselling. Or to get her hair done. We don't know yet.

In any case, I waited to see what hay the fetus fetishist shrieeekosphere would try to make of this act of pro-choice violence. So far, there's just this rather bland report, largely a quote from a news source prefaced by:

As sidewalk counselors "demonstrated" outside of a Duluth abortion mill they were given a frightening reminder of the violent nature of abortion.

(I guess demonstrated is in quotation marks, because they weren't demonstrating, they were 'counselling', as in 'harassing'.)

Why isn't the forced-pregnancy gang all over this? As they were with the Michigan shootings, the flying fetus fetish fancier, a (SHRIEEEK!) pregnant anti-choice harasser attacked by a clinic worker, and the terrible crime of egging the home of Cheryl Sullenger a few years ago. (Yes, that's the convicted terrorist Cheryl Sullenger, who pals around with Scott Roeder, confessed assassin of Dr George Tiller.)

Among other heinous acts of pro-choice violence, there are also allegations of drivers aiming cars at clinic harassers, rude language directed at them, and even -- gasp! -- spitting!

One would think that an actual weapon being brandished would elicit an immediate and martrygasmic outpouring of 'See, see, see? The pro-choicers are just as violent as the lone nutbars who have absolutely no, zip, zero, nada connection with the anti-abortion gang!!1!!'

You think the fetus fetishists are giving up on what the Washington Post calls the 'symmetry of sin', or, more commonly, false equivalence?

A comparison predicated literally on duplicity, i.e. on the shifting, imprecise, or tactical (re)definition of a linking term.

Nah, me neither.

UPDATE: Ah, here they come: SUZY ALL-SHRIEEEK and LifeShite. The LifeShite link isn't working for me, so, gee, I guess we have no idea what they have to say about this. I'll check back later.

MORE UPDATE: From LifeShite. A rising tide of pro-choice violence:

A Minnesota woman faces assault charges after she allegedly pulled a knife on a pro-life advocate who encouraged her not to have an abortion. The assault follows a shooting that took place in September in Michigan that saw local pro-life advocate Jim Pouillon shot and killed as he protested abortion.

Because pulling a knife on somebody who is screaming at you not to kill your bay-bee when you may be going to a rape counselling sesssion is EXACTLY the same as a disturbed man shooting a fake abortion protester. Right?

New York Gets Tough on Anti-Abortion Violence

Here's a direct result of the assassination of Dr George Tiller -- a tough new law in New York intended to protect abortion clinic workers, patients, and volunteers.

Lynne Slepian picks her public appearances carefully — and sparingly — since she was thrown into the public eye after the slaying of her husband, Dr. Barnett A. Slepian, by an anti-abortion activist with a rifle in October 1998.

But she did not hesitate to attend Thursday’s news conference trumpeting the enactment of a law toughening state penalties for violence committed against reproductive health care workers.

“It’s extremely important,” she said of the new law after the news conference. “This is the crux of the whole issue. It’s going to set a precedent for the whole country, we hope. The issue [of clinic violence] is not going to go away. The issue will never go away. Hopefully, strong penalties will decrease the violence.”

The law was championed by Buffalo Assemblyman Sam Hoyt and was passed quickly with support from both parties in the Assembly and the State Senate.

The main provisions of the new law include:

• Causing physical injury to someone at a reproductive health clinic rises from a misdemeanor to a new Class E felony that can lead to a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

• Causing serious physical injury becomes a Class C felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

• Repeat offenders can face more serious charges and longer sentences than they now do.

• Volunteers are explicitly covered under the new law, in addition to people providing or obtaining reproductive health care.

And police are taking it seriously.

More than 80 law enforcement officials, reproductive health care providers and advocates from across New York last Wednesday held a conference at state police headquarters to discuss how to better protect reproductive health care workers from anti-abortion terrorism.
. . .

Reproductive service providers such as Planned Parenthood find themselves targeted by anti-abortionists, even if they do not provide abortions, said [deputy secretary for public safety Denise E.] O'Donnell.

"The employees and volunteers who provide reproductive health services face violent rhetoric and threats far too often," Hoyt said. "[The bill's] purpose is to penalize criminal, violent conduct that causes injury to these health care providers and patients."

Some reproductive health care workers shared their stories with police at the conference.

"We had a long history of dealing with harassment," said Paul Drisgula, co-president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson in Schenectady County. "We know what works and what doesn't work.

"Over the years, we have developed an incredible communications network," he added. "We wouldn't be able to have the communications that we have without the state police intervening for us."

Maybe the cops in Kansas will get the message.

A week before Dr Tiller's murder, accused assassin Scott Roeder was recognized as a 'regular' and chased away after trying to glue the locks shut at an abortion clinic in Kansas City. The clinic worker properly informed the FBI because damage or destruction at clinics is covered by the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). But there was no follow-up.

Remember that Roeder was well-known to the Kansas City FBI. In 2000, he was strongly suspected of glueing locks at the same clinic several times. The vandalism stopped then after the FBI had a word with him.

Lynne Slepian is probably right -- anti-abortion violence will never go away. But cooperation and vigilance from police plus stronger penalties would go a long way to help reduce the potential for it.

Couple of Updates

I've been remiss. There have been developments in two stories I was following here at DJ!

First, the bizarre case of self-abortion in Australia. Some charges were dropped and I was hoping the rest would be too. But, sadly, no. The young couple will face trial at some unspecified date. They are out on bail.

Next, the very sad case of Harlan Drake, who shot and killed two men in Michigan, one of them -- to the delight of the pro-liars -- an anti-abortion zealot, is back in the news. A month ago, he had been found not competent to stand trial, and was sent to a psychiatric institution for treatment. Apparently, he has responded well. He has now been deemed competent.

The prosecutor says that a notice of insanity defense has been filed.

I want to hear his reasons, such as they might be given his disturbed state of mind, for shooting a gravel-pit owner and an anti-abortion nut.

The fetus fetishists are having parties in their pants anticipating any suggestion that the accused holds 'pro-abort' views. Because, you know, that would totally and absolutely even things up on the 'who's more violent than who?' debate.

Charges laid in anti-abortion violence incident

Remember the assault on the clinic defender in Akron, Ohio, by an anti-choice biker?

A man has been identified and charged.

Nathan A. Chesley, 38, is charged with one count of felonious assault in the beating of 50-year-old Charles Wright.

Chesley is being held in the Summit County Jail.

Two eyewitnesses identified Chesley as the man who assaulted Wright on July 18 at the Akron Women's Medical Group at 839 E. Market St., police said.

The report doesn't say how big Mr. Wright is, but describes the assailant as 6 foot 2, 250 pounds. Mr. Wright spent two nights in the hospital as a result of his injuries.

I wonder if he has good insurance.

BREAKING! Pro-liars accept blame for anti-abortion violence

. . . in the comments to a blogpost on the stigma of abortion affecting the supply of abortion providers at SUZY ALL-CAPS.

Some commenters were pointing out that the supply of abortion providers might be just a tad influenced by the violence whipped up by the demonization and dog-whistles perpetrated by so-called mainstream anti-abortion activists and media.

Frequent commenter Ken owns up: Yup, stigmatizing R us.

If it wasn't for the resistance from pro-lifers the whole matter would be ignored.

I took a screenshot of my reply being held (forever?) in moderation.



Anybody wanna bet Ken's comment will go bye-byes too?

UPDATE: Oh. Look. Ken is still there. And one with a date-stamp after mine. Gee. Colour me gob-smacked.


(Edited to remove fetal porn redirect.)

More anti-abortion violence, Oz-style

Those peace-loving, violence-abhoring anti-abortion zealots strike again.

THE couple charged with breaching Queensland's century-old abortion laws, triggering the first prosecution of its kind, have told of how they were firebombed out of their home near Cairns.

Sergie Brennan, 21, who is facing up to 14 years' jail for attempting to procure an abortion for his 19-year-old girlfriend, said their former home south of the city had been hit by a Molotov cocktail, and his car was vandalised in a separate attack.

"It was pretty bad," he said in his first interview since being charged with partner Tegan Simone Leach, who is accused of procuring her own miscarriage. "Everyone in Australia knew who we were, and where we lived."

Mr Brennan, a quietly spoken mechanic, said his girlfriend was "coping" now they had moved to a house with security cameras and dogs. "We are OK now because nobody knows where we live ... we just have to get through the court case," he said.

Mr Brennan said he had been told by his lawyer not to discuss the case, set down for committal proceedings in the Cairns Magistrates Court next month. But he said he and Ms Leach, who faces seven years' jail if convicted, were hopeful they would be cleared.

Some background here and here.

Meanwhile, Blob Blogging Wingnut continues to insist that women don't talk about their abortions because -- whatever the women themselves might say -- they are deeply wounded/shamed by them. Um. No. Many women don't talk about their abortion because they're afraid of the violent reactions whipped up by people like SUZY ALL-CAPS.

Self-abortion case gets weirder

Remember this bit of Australian idiocy?

Well, it gets stranger.

CAIRNS teenager Tegan Leach, facing up to seven years' jail under Queensland law for procuring her own abortion, came to the attention of police with her 21-year-old boyfriend during an unrelated murder hunt in the northern city.

It seems there was a MASSIVE (I can't use that word anymore without CAPS ;)) murder investigation going on, involving interviews with at least 200 potential informants. Somehow along the line -- police decline to be specific -- the illegal, self-induced abortion came to their attention.

Detective Senior Sergeant Ed Kimbacher would not reveal the source of the tip-off to police about the allegedly illegal abortion, but said the information that prompted police to raid the couple's Mount Sheridan home on March 30.

But what on earth -- other than commmon, or garden-variety panty-sniffing -- caused the cops to charge the young couple?

Meanwhile, allegedly, they have left their house after a fire-bomb was thrown at it and anti-abortion fundy nutbars stood outside and chanted 'abuse'. But noooooo, that wasn't the doing of the good, peaceful nutbars.

Teresa Martin, president of Cherish Life Queensland, yesterday distanced the group from any violence. . . . "If that was the case," she said, referring to Dr de Costa's uncorroborated claims of a firebombing, "certainly in no way shape or form would any of these people be members of Cherish Life."

Abortion is illegal in the state, unless women leap through various stooopid hoops, which this couple found a way around.

They both face prison sentences.

The case has renewed calls to decriminalize abortion as sensible and humane jurisdictions like Canada have done. It has also sparked stories about other Australian women taking matters into their own hands and getting the abortion drugs themselves.

Trial starts September 3. It'll be a corker.

Some good may come of this, but it's such a shame these young people have to be put through all this crap.

Yikes! Anti-Choice Bikers!

This isn't funny but the title made me laugh.

CHOOSE LIFE OR I'LL KICK YOUR ASS

Pro-choice activists are calling for a rally at an Akron abortion clinic this weekend. Earlier this month, weekly protests turned violent when a volatile and colorful crowd clashed just outside downtown, at the Akron Women’s Medical Group.

July was a busy month. Regular attendees say the anti-abortion side has been unusually rambunctious and aggressive since the May assassination of Kansas late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller. And the usual screaming suburbanites were joined by Jericho Riders Motorcycle Ministry, a Missouri-based Christian motorcycle group. The Jericho Riders had the clinic on their schedule of missions for the month (in addition to gay pride events from Missouri to Las Vegas).

The pro-choice counter-demonstartors were outnumbered. Charles Wright, 50, a former vice-president of Akron’s National Organization for Women, was one of them on Saturday, July 18. He didn’t want to be there. But his longtime partner, Thomas Reke, is friends with people who work the pro-choice side. Reke knew numbers were down. He was afraid somebody could get hurt. He was right.

Witnesses say that when screaming lead to face-to-face confrontation, a biker hit Wright with a crushing blow that sent him crashing to the sidewalk, breaking six ribs. As the crowd backed away from the fallen protester, the biker rode off on his motorcycle, barely stopping to let his companion climb aboard.

Jericho Riders president Jim Carroll (pictured) says the man that hit Wright wasn’t a member of his group, and claims the blow wasn’t an assault.

And he further claims that the other guy started it and the dog ate his homework. Police are considering it an assault, but not a felonious assault, so it 'doesn’t warrant active investigation'. Huh?

Those 'peaceful' pro-liars. . .

At LifeShite just now, I clicked a button that said 'Convert the Abortionists' and got sent to Human Life International, fundy catlick pro-lie organization.

It is running a 'prayer campaign' called Saint Michael the Archangel Prayer Campaign whose aim is, yeah, you guessed it, to convert the abortionists. A person is to pray, sign a petition, and send out prayer cards (whatever they are).

Here's the image on the prayer card.



Hmmmm. St Mike is slaying converting that dragon-abortionist real good, isn't he?