I've never been able to figure out why people can't understand how irrelevant "when life begins" is to the discussion. You could implant Mahatma Ghandi in me, and it wouldn't take away my right to say "get him out of there!"
I think that's an important example (despite being superficially ridiculous) because it goes beyond the question of when life begins, and even beyond the question of when "personhood" begins.
If we had time machines and could prove that a foetus was going to grow up into a serial killer or a horrific dictator, I think most of the anti-choice crowd would make an exception. Hell, they'd obviously make an exception if we could show it were going to grow up to be a--gasp--horrible abortion doctor!!!
But many of them argue that one could unknowingly kill a person like Gandhi (or even someone valuable, like the next Jerry Falwell!) via abortion. Your example implies it doesn't matter: nobody has the right to live inside another person without permission (as Dr. Dawg pointed out recently too).
Aw, what a let-down! Where's the actual Hall of Fame? I was really looking forward to reading those!
I'd never heard of that "parrot-in-a-cage" (and something about a car?), and why would the protester need to be cut *open* to free the politician? Wouldn't the chain be cut, leaving both parties unharmed? Then again, I guess that goes along with what you were saying: there ARE no analogies that make sense.
Hehe! I hope somebody does compile all the failed analogies in a Hall of Fame page sometime. That would be great.
Oh, that looks good; but yeah... Insightful, but not funny. Not far off, though! Merely changing the font/layout and taking out some of the commentary would almost do the trick. Add a few more examples along with a couple of tablespoons of snark, and we've got a winner!
The headline was funny, but the insidiousness of the issue (Bill C-484) turns the laughter sour rather quickly. Anyway, I'm glad I saw that. I've been kind of living under a rock, in case you couldn't tell.
@ Ruaidhri (that is an extremely anti-intuitive string of characters, BTW): That *was* clever. Usually, it goes: 'Well, what if Gandhi's mother aborted him?' I've never seen Gandhi implanted before. :D
@ GN: I'm working on a round-up for you and all the other newbies to the Fucking Abortion Debate that looms. There will be INCOMING lame abortion analogies enough for all.
It's my cat's name. It's Irish for Red King, and he's a great bit red Maine Coon cat. It's just pronounced "roory".
I hope you find a new aggregator, by the way. I used to visit Progressive Bloggers because it was a nice quick way to get the latest from - well, from the people who've left.
(And I've often noticed a distinctly illiberal tone to the moderation)
That's becaus 'mh' is more like 'vh' and 'dh' is more like a soft 'th' in the brythonic vocabularies built by Victorians. I keep tellin' yaz, linguists are cunning.
That reminds me. Someday I gotta tell the story of the fake candidate we ran in for highschool president.
Name: Kenny Lingus.
Signs: Kenny Lingus is good for you. Etc. (Failing memory.)
Nobody in authority twigged until final speech was submitted for mandatory pre-delivery vetting. Speech was totally over the top. (Result of much weed-fuelled giggling conspiracy.) Admin went looking for Kenny.
Hah. I think Ms Fern and I went to the same happy hour at the local pub. Slainte.
It's hard to to take the fact the pro-diploid-American politician seems to suffer from such serious irony-lack.
Doubly so, when you realize people will be up in arms about the Poe's Law motion the anti-masturbationist is.
Still, we are talking about the descendants of people who patented anti-masturbation torture devices to stop boys from self-degradation, when actual incarceration in mental hospitals wasn't enough. I've seen the drawings. It ain't pretty.
Sloooowly, people realize virginity laws are as bad for men as women.
I spent some time reading some old threads on Free Dominion and one *extreme* religious zealot had this to say:
Masturbation teaches boys that sex is empty Once they learn that sex is empty, they have sex with every teenage girl on the block Once boys and girls learn that sex is empty they use contraception which leads to more empty sex When contraception fails they fall back on abortion and murder 50 million 'babies'
so the solution 1 ban masturbation 2 ban contraception 3 and then you ban the worst of all..abortion
That's the great thing about the human sex drive authoritarian leaders figured out loooooong ago. If you can convince people their sexuality is yours to command, you've got them by the short and curlies, pretty much literally, to control their behaviour on everything else.
I thought this was an interesting read: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Bageant1116.htm
old article, but it explains a lot of what is going on in the USA right now regarding the religious right calling all the shots!
"But to be more serious for a moment, and a damned brief one I promise…You cannot talk to these people and you cannot reach them with words or language. Not unless it is Biblical or Koranic or otherwise scriptural. Dialogue is impossible even though, publicly at least, they claim to want dialogue. (Take it from me. What they want is to convert you. I’ve wasted years on that dialogue gig.) Their only language is religious rhetoric and that’s damned narrow stuff. Combined with the emotionalism of the born-again consciousness state, it reduces them to incomprehensible psychotics, especially when they feel threatened, which is constantly. Calm psychotics, but delusional and unreachable people nevertheless. I have hundreds of emails from liberals who were born into fundamentalism whose parents have cast them out of the family, so be assured they will have no trouble persecuting secular humanist strangers, given the chance. "
Ok, I'll see yer masturbation and up you 'holding hands and kissing'. This isn't even for yelling about PDAs from gay couples, this is Tennessee Christianity advancing sex-ed in the state.
28 comments:
I've never been able to figure out why people can't understand how irrelevant "when life begins" is to the discussion.
You could implant Mahatma Ghandi in me, and it wouldn't take away my right to say "get him out of there!"
I think that's an important example (despite being superficially ridiculous) because it goes beyond the question of when life begins, and even beyond the question of when "personhood" begins.
If we had time machines and could prove that a foetus was going to grow up into a serial killer or a horrific dictator, I think most of the anti-choice crowd would make an exception. Hell, they'd obviously make an exception if we could show it were going to grow up to be a--gasp--horrible abortion doctor!!!
But many of them argue that one could unknowingly kill a person like Gandhi (or even someone valuable, like the next Jerry Falwell!) via abortion. Your example implies it doesn't matter: nobody has the right to live inside another person without permission (as Dr. Dawg pointed out recently too).
For Godel Noodle: The Lame Abortion Analogy Hall of Fame.
Aw, what a let-down! Where's the actual Hall of Fame? I was really looking forward to reading those!
I'd never heard of that "parrot-in-a-cage" (and something about a car?), and why would the protester need to be cut *open* to free the politician? Wouldn't the chain be cut, leaving both parties unharmed? Then again, I guess that goes along with what you were saying: there ARE no analogies that make sense.
Hehe! I hope somebody does compile all the failed analogies in a Hall of Fame page sometime. That would be great.
Too much work. Too much head-desking from hanging around fetus fetishist sites.
Maybe someone has done it though. I'll look.
I googled 'abortion analogy' and got several bootsfuls.
Try this one for starters, GN. It's rather more earnest than a DJ! treatment.
I feel a blogpost coming on.
Ah, yeah, I know what you mean... The end product would be hilarious, but producing it would exact a terrible price of rage-headaches and nausea.
Thanks anyway. At least there are a few nuggets in the blog post and the comments.
Oh, that looks good; but yeah... Insightful, but not funny. Not far off, though! Merely changing the font/layout and taking out some of the commentary would almost do the trick. Add a few more examples along with a couple of tablespoons of snark, and we've got a winner!
I've been looking some more but it's hard to beat this one from JJ's Way Back Machine. Justice for Unborn TV Sets.
The headline was funny, but the insidiousness of the issue (Bill C-484) turns the laughter sour rather quickly. Anyway, I'm glad I saw that. I've been kind of living under a rock, in case you couldn't tell.
Oh, dear! And here I thought I was being all clever and original and everything.
regarding the upcoming personhood discussion...
once Harper appoints conservative judges to the supreme court won't it be super easy for him to simply re-criminalize abortion?
@ Ruaidhri (that is an extremely anti-intuitive string of characters, BTW): That *was* clever. Usually, it goes: 'Well, what if Gandhi's mother aborted him?' I've never seen Gandhi implanted before. :D
@ GN: I'm working on a round-up for you and all the other newbies to the Fucking Abortion Debate that looms. There will be INCOMING lame abortion analogies enough for all.
It would take a very peculiar reading of the Charter to allow Parliament to recriminalize it.
But perhaps not so peculiar to allow restrictions. And that's where the Slippery Slope® begins.
It's my cat's name. It's Irish for Red King, and he's a great bit red Maine Coon cat. It's just pronounced "roory".
I hope you find a new aggregator, by the way. I used to visit Progressive Bloggers because it was a nice quick way to get the latest from - well, from the people who've left.
(And I've often noticed a distinctly illiberal tone to the moderation)
@GN: I'm working on a round-up for you and all the other newbies to the Fucking Abortion Debate that looms.
Cool! I'll stay tuned.
There will be INCOMING lame abortion analogies enough for all.
Um... Yay?
Maybe not so much. :-/
Oh. One of those sneaky Irish names with a buncha irrelevant letters while missing some rather vital ones. And accents.
Siobhán.
On the aggregator thingy, stay tuned.
My favourite is Caiomhín. It's "Kevin" ... or close enough...
Thanks for the tip o' the hat! I about pissed myself watching that Senator squirm!
That's becaus 'mh' is more like 'vh' and 'dh' is more like a soft 'th' in the brythonic vocabularies built by Victorians. I keep tellin' yaz, linguists are cunning.
That reminds me. Someday I gotta tell the story of the fake candidate we ran in for highschool president.
Name: Kenny Lingus.
Signs: Kenny Lingus is good for you. Etc. (Failing memory.)
Nobody in authority twigged until final speech was submitted for mandatory pre-delivery vetting. Speech was totally over the top. (Result of much weed-fuelled giggling conspiracy.) Admin went looking for Kenny.
Not to be found.
Signers of nomination papers nailed. Ouch.
Bonus: Principal was former Latin teacher.
Oo. Seems I just did tell story of fake candidate.
Hah. I think Ms Fern and I went to the same happy hour at the local pub. Slainte.
It's hard to to take the fact the pro-diploid-American politician seems to suffer from such serious irony-lack.
Doubly so, when you realize people will be up in arms about the Poe's Law motion the anti-masturbationist is.
Still, we are talking about the descendants of people who patented anti-masturbation torture devices to stop boys from self-degradation, when actual incarceration in mental hospitals wasn't enough. I've seen the drawings. It ain't pretty.
Sloooowly, people realize virginity laws are as bad for men as women.
I spent some time reading some old threads on Free Dominion and one *extreme* religious zealot had this to say:
Masturbation teaches boys that sex is empty
Once they learn that sex is empty, they have sex with every teenage girl on the block
Once boys and girls learn that sex is empty they use contraception which leads to more empty sex
When contraception fails they fall back on abortion and murder 50 million 'babies'
so the solution
1 ban masturbation
2 ban contraception
3 and then you ban the worst of all..abortion
I AM NOT MAKING THIS SHIT UP!
"Anonymous" - we know that the Freaked Minions board allows pond-scum eaters to leave those comments.
It's that kind of place, and worse, as Mandos pointed out.
That's the great thing about the human sex drive authoritarian leaders figured out loooooong ago. If you can convince people their sexuality is yours to command, you've got them by the short and curlies, pretty much literally, to control their behaviour on everything else.
I thought this was an interesting read:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Bageant1116.htm
old article, but it explains a lot of what is going on in the USA right now regarding the religious right calling all the shots!
"But to be more serious for a moment, and a damned brief one I promise…You cannot talk to these people and you cannot reach them with words or language. Not unless it is Biblical or Koranic or otherwise scriptural. Dialogue is impossible even though, publicly at least, they claim to want dialogue. (Take it from me. What they want is to convert you. I’ve wasted years on that dialogue gig.) Their only language is religious rhetoric and that’s damned narrow stuff. Combined with the emotionalism of the born-again consciousness state, it reduces them to incomprehensible psychotics, especially when they feel threatened, which is constantly. Calm psychotics, but delusional and unreachable people nevertheless. I have hundreds of emails from liberals who were born into fundamentalism whose parents have cast them out of the family, so be assured they will have no trouble persecuting secular humanist strangers, given the chance. "
Ok, I'll see yer masturbation and up you 'holding hands and kissing'. This isn't even for yelling about PDAs from gay couples, this is Tennessee Christianity advancing sex-ed in the state.
gateway sexuality
Because everyone knows sex is an addiction. Just ask all the 'virtuous' Republican politicians who keep getting caught at it.
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