More from Bizarro World

Rightards are saying that the guy who shot up the Holocaust Museum is a lefty.

I thought that was terrifying and hilarious at the same time.

I just saw something funnier and Canadian to boot.

Over at Freak Dominion, someone put a link up to an article in the Notional Pest about the 'radical' (NattyPo's term) anti-abortion group, Signal Hill, formerly Pro-Life BC.

Some of the freaks are taking exception to the Signalers' 'new' approach -- stop trying to recriminalize abortion and work on 'hearts and minds' instead.

Here's what one genius said (I'll save you a click and quote it in its entirety):

These "pro-life" groups are leftist trojan horses. Prolifers who support their agenda are $&%(*# heads.

Maybe she or he was kidding. You think?

Nah, me either.

On Common Ground

William F. Harrison, gynecologist, abortion provider, and diarist at Daily Kos writes: There Is No Santa Claus, No Easter Bunny, and No Common Ground!.

On the subject of Reproductive Freedom, there can be no common ground between the militant anti-abortion religious right, including the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and those of us who believe that people have the right to use any method of birth control they choice, up to and including safe, legal abortion.

I agree and I'm getting damned sick of all the triangulation and Third-Way hand-wringing bullshit over reducing abortion.

Or, looked at another way, we pro-choicers already occupy that middle ground. Most of us support all the measures that have been bruited about to reduce abortion.

Wide access to affordable, safe birth control, check.

Age-appropriate, fact-based, comprehensive sex ed, check.

Financial and other support for pregnant women, check.

Financial and other support for individuals and families with children, check.

Quality, affordable daycare for parents who want to or have to work or go to school, check.

Making adoption easier, sure, why not?

If the militant anti-abortion religious right won't budge on so-called artificial contraception and fact-based sex ed -- and I highly doubt they will -- there is NO middle ground.

In related news, there's a search for common ground elsewhere. SUZY ALL-CAPS takes issue with those uber kool kids at The Signal Hill, a.k.a. Pro-Life BC. SHE asks: What about common ground on fetal rights?

See, in the attempted rebranding of Pro-Life BC into something normal people would pay any attention to, the Signalers claim to be moving away from trying to legislate restrictions or prohibitions on abortion and moving towards changing the 'culture'. You know, that Culture of Death we sensible people supposedly inhabit.

Well, they might be claiming that -- and in the process getting up the noses of militant anti-abortion fundies, wot fun! -- their website contains links to all the usual bullshit, like 'abortion causes breast cancer' and a newish site set up to whine about 40 years of sexual liberation in Canada. There, the splash page has a photo of a very pregnant woman with ghostly fetus showing through her abdomen and clothes with the timeless shrieeeeek 'Have we gone too far?'

Nope. We haven't gone far enough. When every woman in Canada -- I'm looking at you, New Brunswick -- has access to safe, legal abortions, then we'll have gone far enough on the abortion issue.

Hip-i-tude to the MAX, Baby!

OMFG!!!! I am laffing my ass off.

Remember a while back when JJ sleuthed out that a seemingly new anti-choice org, Signal Hill, was really just a re-branding of BC Pro-Life? We blogged about it too: here and here. In that second link, we were wetting ourselves giggling over Signal Hill's avowed intention to be 'hip' -- something nobody had ever accused anti-choicers of before.

Well. Signal Hill is going for the the last word in hip-itude and ultra-cool. They've snagged that icon of all that is trendy and to-die-for hip . . .

Wait for it . . .

Master P.DaddyManning!!!!!

Get a load of this from Terry O'Neill in the Pest today:

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Preston Manning, the newly emerged champion of a B. C.-based group called Signal Hill. The fast-growing organization intends to help Canada reconsider its acceptance of abortion. Signal Hill's strategy is to put aside impassioned political and moral arguments in favour of service, education and compassion. You might say the group is aiming, not for Canadians' minds, but for their hearts. And Manning couldn't be more pleased.
. . .
Pro-lifers in B. C., on the other hand, decided to adopt a different approach. Building on the success of their compassionate Focus on Life television campaign, they made some creative changes last June. They adopted a new name, Signal Hill, and featured a woman-and family-friendly look to their Web site and printed material. It all goes along with a new educational and service-oriented approach to help women make informed choices when they are in a crisis pregnancy.

The Signal Hill moniker was chosen as a way of telling Canadians that the group intended to take the high ground in the abortion debate and that it aimed to separate truth from falsehood. (Full disclosure: I sit on the board of Signal Hill.) Response in the Canadian pro-life community (yes, there is a widespread and active -- although somewhat aged -- one) has been largely positive. Indeed, some groups in other provinces have requested permission to adopt the Signal Hill brand.

Enter Manning. Back when he led the Reform Party of Canada, Manning always worked hard to keep the hot potato of abortion (opposition to which is closely linked with Christian groups) from landing in his party's hands. Today, with his Manning Centre for Building Democracy sponsoring such offerings as a "faith-politics interface program," Manning is freer to speak his mind on such big questions. But it doesn't mean that he's in favour of using religious or moral arguments in the public square..

Utter bullshit. The Signal Hill is BC Pro-life with a new website but all the old links to fetus fetishist codswallop about the risks of abortion in general and to breast cancer in particular.

But now they got Presto! Ooooo, I'm feeling the coolth all the way from BC to Tranna.

h/t to Antonia at Broadsides.

Fetus Fetishists: 'We Can Haz Hip-itude'

I am laughing my ass off. Again. In the comments to this post about The Signal Hill/BC Pro-Life, a newish, seemingly 'reasonable' outfit supposedly dedicated to women's health, JJ reveals that it is actually a re-branding of Pro-Life of BC.

But they don't want us to know.

Pro Life BC has undergone a name change, one that may forever change the image and general perception of the pro-life organization.

Only time will tell whether the name Signal Hill has the impact members are hoping for: to break through the obstacles that keep pro-life messages from being heard.

[snip]

Natalie Hudson of Signal Hill said "the name is non-specific and has no direct association with any pro-life-related agenda. It represents an idea of clarity, poise, singular intent, and mission; while at the same time drawing enquiry, and promoting open dialogue with the population."

Terry Williams, chairman of the board, said during the introductory speech that "the main mission of Signal Hill has not changed: we hope to change a culture of death to a culture of life."

The organization hopes that the re-branding will open doors that have formerly been closed. It hopes to eliminate the barriers that arise from preconceived misconceptions so that the message of life can be heard and understood across all levels of society.

Borkowski said their objective is to work with every group and every pro life person to actually get the message to the people who need it the most.

"It's the great undecided that we are trying to change," he said. "They are the friends of strangers who don't quite know where they sit on these issues. After all these years it may sound strange that people haven't made up their minds, and depending on who they are talking with, can sound either sort of pro life or sort of pro-choice."

Signal Hill believes that with a language that is reasonable and "hip," intelligent, and compassionate, they can win the space and help teach others how to get there.

OMFG! Reasonable and 'hip'!

I tell you, these fetus fetishists are a laff-riot.

UPPITY-DATE: In the comments, JJ suggests we refer to this gang as 'The Signal Hill/BC Pro-life' for purposes of truth in googling. ;)

MORE UPPITY-DATE: Go read the Super Sleuth, JJ herself on this. Wot fun!

YET MORE UPPITY-DATE: Canadian Cynic weighs in. :D

Fetus Fetishists: 'Canucks MASSIVELY Stoopid'

The fetus fetishists are getting 2009 off to a roaring start. Remember the MASSIVE poll of last year? Now they're shrieeeeking that a 'vast majority' of Canadians are pig-stupid.

This outfit, which appears to be rather new, seems to have commissioned a poll and put out a press release on it via CNW Group, which used to be Canada News Wire, you know, a wire agency that one pays to run one's press releases. (Of course, LifeShite went for it and, a little more surprisingly, the stenographers at the Glob did too.)

An Angus Reid poll has found that a vast majority of Canadians do not know, under the country's current legal situation that abortion is permitted at any time from conception up to the moment of birth.

The poll results have been made public on the heels of a late-December declaration by Dimitri Soudas, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, that the Conservative government has no intention of reopening the abortion debate in Canada.

The Angus Reid poll found that 92 percent of the respondents did not know abortion was available to a woman throughout the full nine months of gestation.

It goes on to refer to this Angus Reid poll from last summer that found a majority of Canadians are fine with the status quo.

Well, shrieeeeek! Dumb-fuck Canadians don't know what the status quo is!!!

The press release gives no links, no wording for the question(s), no dates, no number of respondents, no statistical error. We are really looking forward to seeing all that facty stuff.

Meanwhile, what the heck is The Signal Hill?

From the first link up there:

Welcome to Signal Hill - a vibrant new voice advocating for women, children and the family. Signal Hill's mission is to deliver clear and supportive education on life issues to all people, helping them make informed and life-affirming decisions. Our resources reflect the best and latest academic research, and are non-judgmental, compassionate and understanding. We welcome people of all backgrounds and convictions.

Doesn't that sound nice?

Again, their links give them away. Yup, links to all those known lying liars about abortion and breast cancer and abortion and instant insanity.

Then I googled the two names given as contacts in the press release. Oh, look: Natalie Hudson is the director of education for Pro-Life BC and Yvonne Douma, Executive Director of The Signal Hill, seems to moonlight as a personal chef.

A new year, a new set of lying liars, a new poll. *sigh*

They'll never stop, will they?