How many ways does the National Post get it wrong?

Exhibit A

The headline: "quandry"? Is that something like a quandary?


Exhibit B

The photo: its caption reads "Anti-abortion protesters attend the March for Life on Jan. 25, 2013 in Washington, DC." 

Were the excitable young Canadian people who staffed the FetusMobile (aka the Whine-a-bago) Gore Tour across Canada last spring not photogenic enough for the National Post's exacting standards of attractiveness?


Exhibit C

The content: facile misdirection, truthiness and glib obfuscations faxed directly from the Fetus Lobby HQ aka MP Maurice Vellacott's office.

One physician, a medical specialist in obstetrics refuted the assumptions made by the three con MPs in their letter to the RCMP.  He asked for anonymity; antiChoice zealots have a history of directing violence against health care professionals who don't share their views.

If newspapers could be charged with committing crimes against journalism, the National Post's lawyers would be very, very wealthy.

If you repeat a lie often enough ...

Why do zygote zealots and fetus fetishists lie and lie and lie and lie?

Self-righteous pricks like Con MPs Woodworth, Vellacott and Warawa claim they want to *open the debate*.  The sixth estate exposes their lies; these rightwing religious fundamentalists want to pass laws that criminalize abortion.

With the help of paid propagandists like Jonathan Kay, who can't be bothered to present accurate and correct facts in his odious piece of obfuscating glurge.

My first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.

It required a medical intervention to prevent an infection that could have killed me, which happened to Savita Halappanavar in similar circumstances, and to facilitate healing so I might become pregnant in the future, as was my desire.

Now imagine what that would be like if abortion were criminalized at 19 weeks? 

Documentation and evidence would have to be gathered - just like a rape kit - to prove that I hadn't "provoked" my own miscarriage, and then hauled myself to emergency while something bigger and more intense than four menstruations' worth of blood gushed forth. 

At the hospital, I (and my husband) would be subjected to an interrogation from the cop on duty, just to satisfy prurient, sanctimonious crotch-sniffers like Babs Kay, Woodworth, Vellacott, SUZANNE and Maggie Somerville - that it was "really and truly" a miscarriage. 

Health care professionals providing the necessary emergency dilation and curettage would have to complete numerous forms as proof that this health crisis wasn't a "homicide", and that none of us deserved to be jailed, as the fetus lobby would like to see happen.

As fern hill said, there is no LAW regulating abortion but there are medical protocols, procedures and RESTRICTIONS that our public health care system has established with regard to the termination of gestation.

Disgusting tactics that vilify and demonize women and their physicians only serve to provoke acts of violence from mentally unstable people who believe such lies.

Do Canadian doctors, or perhaps a surgical team providing a life-saving procedure to a pregnant woman need to become the target of an abortion vigilante before people like Jonathan Kay take responsibility for publishing LIES?

Illustration above from here.

Beck directs hate campaign towards Piven.

Canadian-born Frances Fox Piven has the odd distinction of being a progressive septuagenerian for whom FauxNews infotainment jockey Glenn Beck displays a hate-on.

In terms as florid as they are vitriolic, Beck directs a campaign of naming and blaming Piven for a multitude of *sins* as defined by his extremist rightwingnut perspective. Remember, this is the guy who uses his pulpit at FauxNews to drive his 9/12 Pledge down the throats of moderate and rational Republicans. More here.

There are a number of reasons that Piven has become an emblematic target for Beck: she is not an ivory-tower intellectual/academic (she has solid activist creds as photo below taken at Columbia in 1968 demonstrates), she defends the rights of poor, disenfranchised US workers (Beck services wealthy corporate interests) and she is a Jewish peacenik who supports the campaign to pressure Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories.



How will Beck's verbal violence and invective against Piven end? While she is a worthy and feisty adversary who vigorously and lucidly opposes the mendacious values Beck champions, why doesn't he bully someone his own size instead of this petite 78 year-old widow?

Someone like Lush Bimbo, for example?

h/t

Wikileaks is vital.

In a world where this kind of bald-faced lying and covering-up has become the standard modus operandi, where our own public broadcaster is subverted by the odious antics of millionaire spouting his vile rightwing spleen, Wikileaks is vital.

Fatwa Flanagan continues to perform his stupid aw-shucks schtick.

As Buckdog said:

If Mr. Flanagan joked about a bomb in his shorts at the Edmonton Airport, should we expect the security guards to merely laugh and slap good old Tom Flanagan on the back for being such a funny joker?

Fatwa Flanagan and other members of the Old Con Boys Club keep behaving like this because their sense of entitlement ensures they can get away with hoodwinking the public.

Until Wikileaks pulls back the curtain and the whole world can see the 'bomb' Fatwa Flanagan's concealing is a smelly old dud that a mega-dose of Viagra couldn't revive.

Here's one blowhard who's really funny and who gets what's comin' to him.



Bonus: Go read Alison at Creekside. Now.

Extra bonus added by fh: Go sign another fun Avaaz petition. Because it gets up the rightwingnutz's noses. Organizers are aiming for one million signatures this week.

Go to hell. Go directly to hell.

According to this recent Gallup poll,

About one-third of the American adult population believes the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally word for word. This percentage is slightly lower than several decades ago. The majority of those Americans who don't believe that the Bible is literally true believe that it is the inspired word of God but that not everything it in should be taken literally. About one in five Americans believe the Bible is an ancient book of "fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by man." [...]

Some denominations hold the belief in a literal Bible as a hallmark of their faith. The statement of "Faith and Mission" of the Southern Baptist Convention, for example, states that: " The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. ..."

Nice - and profitable - scam you've got going there, Pastor Steven Anderson.

In trash news, Caribou Barbie Junior Miss - Bristol Palin - takes on Margaret Cho by snarking about KD Lang and Indigo Girls. The whole WTF? 411 here.

My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma.

'Blogging Tories in Their Own Words' highlights this typical fundamentalist christian view about yoga.

Not news to us; we've known for years that Blob Blogging Whiner practices dogma, not yoga. The twisty positions SHE assumes occur in HER mind.

SHE is currently shrieeeking about objections raised regarding the charitable status and tax exempt status of these homophobes.

SHE seems perfectly aligned with the haters of the Faithful Word Baptist Church.

The church is not new and the controversy surrounding the beliefs of its leader are not new. However, a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center gives the church a new label. The SPLC is now listing the church as a hate group targeting homosexuals in a list of hate groups operating in Arizona. [...]

"Do I hate? Absolutely," said Faithful Word Baptist Church Pastor Steven Anderson. Anderson said. "I do hate homosexuals and if hating homosexuals makes our church a hate group then that's what we are." The church leader, with a Bible in his hand during the interview, said he preaches his hatred for homosexuals and wishes death upon them.

"Should I be a Baptist Pastor if I don't believe what the Bible says, if parts of this book offend the Southern Poverty Law Center then it should label it a hate book."

From here.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has no issue with the bible - its focus is identifying the hate groups who justify their pathological venom by using selected Old and New testament quotes. More information about SPLC and its work, here and here.

fern hill ADDS link to slapupsidethehead's campaign to get charitable status revoked.

And. Also too. LuLu writes a letter to Fred Phelps & his acolytes - The Galloping Beaver: Dear Westboro Baptist Church:

In the US, Tea Party Hatriots are setting the tone - and more.

Things are not looking very good south of the border. DJ! first reported on the Harris poll earlier this week. Now, a second survey published in Forbes confirms the first results - that the majority of Tea Party Hatriots, aka Teabaggers are willfully ignorant.

Tea Partyers also seem to have a very distorted view of the direction of federal taxes. They were asked whether they are higher, lower or the same as when Barack Obama was inaugurated last year. More than two-thirds thought that taxes are higher today, and only 4% thought they were lower; the rest said they are the same. As noted earlier, federal taxes are very considerably lower by every measure since Obama became president. [...]

In fact, 40% of Obama's stimulus package involved tax cuts. These include the Making Work Pay Credit, which reduces federal taxes for all taxpayers with incomes below $75,000 by between $400 and $800. According to the JCT, last year's $787 billion stimulus bill, enacted with no Republican support, reduced federal taxes by almost $100 billion in 2009 and another $222 billion this year. [...]

No taxpayer anywhere in the country had his or her taxes increased as a consequence of Obama's policies.

Clearly, politicians such as Michele Bachman are either lying to their Tea Party followers or choosing to ignore the facts.

Also, from here:

These polls show more than a basic lack of understanding about the facts on the ground, the irrationality of the respondents leads one to get an overwhelming sense of foreboding—all I have to say is that if someone gets hurt the blame will rest squarely with the Republican Party members who have cheered on these opinions and the conservative media outlets that have provided the platform for vitriolic speech to thrive. I would never tell them what they can and cannot say, freedom of speech is a fundamental right that I cherish, but the responsibility for harm done in support of their rhetoric is undeniable.

While Republican officials, such as House Minority Leader John Boehner, have finally come out against the actual violence if not the rhetoric, it may prove a little too late. Especially since just last week he insinuated that Representative Driehuas "may be a dead man" if he voted for health care reform. Granted it could be argued that he was speaking metaphorically but considering the inability of the current conservative base to understand any type of nuance I am inclined to believe they would miss that it was a metaphor. But the truth is, once you’ve told your fans or constituents that Obamacare will bankrupt the nation and bring about the end of democracy, capitalism, liberty and grandma how else do you think they will react?

With foaming-at-the-mouth hate for anything or anyone that challenges their beliefs.

This will probably escalate. The Repulsicans provoking these hatriots may soon have blood on their hands. But you can expect they won't take responsibility for the violence they've been encouraging through their words and graphics, such as the crosshair targets that appeared on Sarah Palin's website and her urging that it's time to "re-load".

Linky goodness: As posted at CC, Dr Dawg and JJ, this open letter to conservatives covers it all, regarding the rapid, furious descent of rightwing zealots in the US.

Hate Speech: The Beat Goes On (with update).

CC has a number of good points in his post The unbearable vacuity of Ann Coulter.

As for the cancellation of Coulter's lecture at the U of O, I call bullshit. There was actually no physical threat, only heated, emotional outbursts from a crowd that had been whipped up to a frenzy by the inflamed publicity her entourage had stoked.

Coulter should have thanked the students protesting outside Marion Hall. Their performance has raised Coulter's profile in the US. Media networks that had stopped inviting her to their talk shows are likely swamping her agent with booking requests.

Yesterday I mentioned that Coulter's popularity at rightwing events had been eclipsed by Palin and Bachman.

Le Cirque de Coulter has left the city and its main event, a skankily-dressed, scrawny faux-blonde is laughing all the way to the bank.

Check out balbulican's blogpost. It has the money shot.

More here, including a choice quote from Coulter: "I think I’ll give my speech tomorrow night in a burka. That will protect me." Sorry, Ann. A popular stand-up comic who performs at Juste pour rire - Lise Dion - already works that corner.

Why does Coulter dress like a skank?

It's okay to look like a skank if the other part of your act is to trumpet your fundamentalist rightwing Christian creds, declaring that Jews need to be perfected.

That's how a performance artist like Ann Coulter can afford an apartment in Manhattan and a house in Palm Beach. Though she's probably not getting the big munnee - $250K per public appearance that Sarah Palin demands.

She could crank up her wardrobe by selecting this brassiere style, popular in Joe McCarthy's time.

Why is Coulter doing a lecture tour in Canada, anyway? Has her stand-up routine become passé in the US? Are Teabaggers Tea Party Patriots not offering her gigs?

It's ironic the US neocon palate for vile trash talk that Coulter cultivated has shifted even further right and left her in the dust, opting for the batshit crazy ranting of someone like Representative Michelle Bachman instead.

Oh, and go read what Dr Dawg says about Coulter and her supporters' success in spinning a mild letter from a university official into yet another purported censorship VS free speech confrontation. Is it kosher to mention Ezra Levant's involvement in this attention-mongering circus?

ADDED by fh: Cancelled skank.

Here, let's make that broad broader.

The fashion police or more properly, vigilante stylists have taken it upon themselves to loudly shame women who have the nerve to appear in public with visible curvaceousness.

See the above? That's not a 'before and after' photo-shopped slenderized model.

The photo on the right was the original picture taken on the red carpet. The one on the left was distorted, perhaps to reinforce the point the NYT flak was trying to make about 'big-boned' gals.

Here's a phenomenon we've noted, that shows itself in the outright attempt to humiliate women who don't and won't obey the imperative of "You can never be too thin ...."

We wrote about it here. Jezebel has been documenting the revisionism, calling it The Photoshop of Horrors, when images are manipulated to turn models into stick figures.

Hopefully, Brigitte - the German magazine which made an editorial decision to no longer use models in its pages (not sure if the ban applies to advertising too) but rather to photograph real women with their flaws and natural beauty, without any digital embellishments - will be successful. Then perhaps girls and women will no longer torture and starve their bodies.

“Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.”

That statement comes from Don Schmierer, an evangelist anti-gay militant who now claims that he and his fellow US fundamentalist crusaders were "duped" by Ugandan officials who invited them to express their views last year. Their teachings about “curing” homosexuality - which have been widely discredited in the US, were presented in Kampala over three days to audiences of thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers, politicians and legislators.

The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, [...] and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive, saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence for homosexual behavior. One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician, who boasts of having evangelical friends in the American government, introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result, has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.

Donor countries, including the United States, are demanding that Uganda’s government drop the proposed law, saying it violates human rights, though Uganda’s minister of ethics and integrity (who previously tried to ban miniskirts) recently said, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights.”

The Ugandan government, facing the prospect of losing millions in foreign aid, is now indicating that it will back down, slightly, and change the death penalty provision to life in prison for some homosexuals. [...]

The three Americans who spoke at the conference [...] are now trying to distance themselves from the bill. “I feel duped,” Mr. Schmierer said, arguing that he had been invited to speak on “parenting skills” for families with gay children. He acknowledged telling audiences how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals, but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death penalty for homosexuality.

“That’s horrible, absolutely horrible,” he said. “Some of the nicest people I have ever met are gay people.” Mr. Lively and Mr. Brundidge have made similar remarks in interviews or statements issued by their organizations. But the Ugandan organizers of the conference admit helping draft the bill, and Mr. Lively has acknowledged meeting with Ugandan lawmakers to discuss it. He even wrote on his blog in March that someone had likened their campaign to “a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda.” Later, when confronted with criticism, Mr. Lively said he was very disappointed that the legislation was so harsh.

From here. Scott Lively "was very disappointed that the legislation was so harsh" - what the hell did he expect his hateful, biased, screed would produce? A "nuclear bomb" is not an instrument of peace - some might call it religious terrorism.

The discourse these three homophobic hatemongers gave was an incitement to violence against gay men, lesbians and transgendered people. And now they claim no responsibility for the response their privileged audience members had, and the actions they took.

Remember, these theocrats have an agenda, and in spite of their lying protestations to the contrary, they are positioning themselves to influence legislation and elected officials in Canada also.

But, but, the mooz-lims!

Shrieeeeeekkkk!!! From C. C. - Sometimes, accuracy is inherently unattainable. Logic and honesty also appear to be other traits that are inherently absent from rightwing, religious fundamentalist, islamophobic zealots.

One of the most vile accusations that islamophobes like Kathy Shaidle and Mark Steyn level at secular and religious muslims and communities is that they do not work with authorities to prevent terrorist acts.

Yet Dr Umaru Mutallab, father of the alleged terrorist who set off an explosive device in a plane about to land in Detroit on Xmas day, did bring notice to the US authorities that his son might be a security risk.

As usual, the mooz-lim haters are silent on this point, since it contradicts the party line.

Compare and contrast: reason and zealotry.

It's not every day that you get a chance to observe up close the clumsy cogs of the fundamentalist religious zealot "thinking" grind and slip.

This offers an excellent opportunity to do so.

Blob Blogging Wingnut attempts to deconstruct and refute Jacob M. Appel's arguments. It would be comical, were it not more of the same-old same-old witless wombie zombie dissembling. Appel writes about Stephanie Gray - yes, that Canadian fetus fetishizing propaganda queen who claimed there there was an "open season on prolifers" shortly after an Operation Rescue acolyte publicly executed Dr Tiller in his church.

The reality is that few (if any) sane people, however strong their views regarding the morality of abortion, sincerely believe that abortion clinics are like death camps. They just say they are, because it's easier - and far more dramatic - than explaining what they really mean. I have witnessed surgical terminations. I have also seen the mounds of human hair and baby shoes at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Most strikingly, I have heard first-hand horror narratives of deportation and starvation from elderly survivors, stories that my own relatives never survived to share. Any reasonable person who has any knowledge of the Nazi death machine should find the comparison of Planned Parenthood to Auschwitz-Birkenau an unacceptable affront to common decency. This is not to say that the legacy of the Holocaust needs to be preserved as "unique": To my thinking, those who try to finesse the argument that the slaughter of Europe's Jews was somehow morally distinct from the Cambodian or Armenian genocides, for example, have lost the forest for the trees. But that does not mean that any perceived moral wrong can reasonably be described in such terms. ...

I do not mean to suggest that abortion opponents have no legal right to use such incendiary analogies. But if these activists want to be taken seriously, and if they wish for a meaningful place in the public discourse, then they should eschew them. Ms. Gray has questioned why many reproductive rights supporters refuse to debate her. I assure her that it is not because we fear her ideas or public engagement -- but because some forms of argument are too repugnant to be indulged. Nobody questions Gray's entitlement to believe that abortion should be illegal or to further her case in the marketplace of ideas. As far as I'm concerned, she can believe that the earth is flat and roam the streets preaching platygaeanism. The hallmark of an enlightened society, after all, is agreeing to disagree.

Go read all of Appel's thoughtful, lucid, fact-based and empathetic opinion piece. It helped flush from my brain the ludicrous twists and snarls SHE posted.

O! Say can you hear that choking shrieking Right?

The mellifluous stylings of Pat Robertson, no less.

"The noose has tightened around the necks of Christians to keep them from speaking out on certain moral issues. And it all was embodied in something called the Hate crimes bill that President Obama said was a major victory for America. I’m not sure if America was the beneficiary. [...] We have voted into office a group of people who are opposed to many of the fundamental Christian beliefs of our nation."

Yesterday on the Christian Broadcasting Network, televangelist Pat Robertson aired a segment slamming President Obama for signing the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. Extending hate crimes protection to the gay and transgendered community, Robertson argued, was a targeted attack on homophobic Christians like himself.

From here.

eh. Some of those comments are funny - unless you suffer from a religious zealotry sociopathy or the related fundamentalist persecution disorder.

If the noose fits ...

Jill Stank: Now Without the Shrieeek?

At first I was puzzled. The byline attribution was hers, but where was the screeching, the fabrications, the hyperbole, the vile and odious propaganda? It seemed deceptively mild, for the operator of a blogsite that JJ at unrepentant old hippie has dubbed "Nurse Stanek’s Psych Ward" and other appropriate epithets.

Ah-ha. It appears she craves credibility. So she cranked down the religious rightwingnutter zealotry in order to pass herself off as a sane opinionator for Opposing Views.

But try as she might, she still couldn't resist a number of jabs and thrusts at pro-choicers. The mask slipped, and the habitual hostilities were expressed.

If you'd prefer to read a more balanced review of Irene Vilar's memoirs 'Impossible Motherhood', one can be found here.

As press on the book has begun to leak out, Vilar - a literary agent and editor - says she has already sensed "an inkling of hatred."

Vilar has scheduled only closed-door interviews and will not do a book tour. At the urging of her husband, they have made sure all public property records do not reflect her name, so she cannot be targeted at their home. "I am worried about my safety and the hate mail," she told ABCNews.com in a telephone interview as her home-schooled children were at work on a painting project.

Vilar's book sounds excruciatingly painful. Not every woman who has endured a love-hate relationship with her body is capable of rising above the forces that have tormented her and in addition, write about these life experiences with the lucidity and compassion that others may find comforting and inspiring.

Oh! Looky here, Nurse Stanek. I blogged about Vilar's forthcoming book. Cue the shrieeeking!

ADDED: LifeShite adds its SHRIEEKINESS.

But dig the title: 'Hispanic Author's New Book Reveals Terrible Addiction, She's Had 16 Abortions'. WTF does her ethnicity have to do with it? Hispanic = catlick = even WORSSSSSE!

I sense a new totally made-up syndrome is in the works: Abortion Addiction!!11!!!!!11!!

To Blob Blogging Wingnut: 3 Words.

Ladies Against Women.

We Truly Tasteful Ladies Do Hereby Demand:

Repeal the Ladies' vote. It is suffering and not suffrage that keeps us up on our pedestals. And if God hadn't wanted us up on pedestals, He wouldn't have make us shorter than our husbands.

Abolish the environment. It takes up too much space, and is almost impossible to keep clean.

Free Ladies from wage slavery. The 60-odd cents we earn for every manly dollar is entirely too much. It is unladylike to accept money for work.

Maintain illiteracy as a high school graduation requirement. An uninformed populace is an obedient populace, and a self-censoring one, too. After all, ignorance is a virtue: what you can't read, can't hurt you.

At Canadian Cynic: Ah, the irony. our favourite anti-feminist hater is held up for consideration, a prime example of the "impeccably civil" blogger who lets commenters like the odious gynophobe 'Ken' and anti-abortion terrorist enabler 'Jill/bayouchild' do HER dirty work.

From a recent SUZY ALL-CAPS jeremiad:

I make no secret of my hatred of feminism. I am sick and tired of the feminist claim that they represent women; the implicit message that they speak for all women and know what's best for them. I'd like to start a movement called "free women". Free women oppose feminism, because as far as the West is concerned, women are free. The point of this movement would be to call feminists on their claims that uphold "the truth" about women. Feminists like to conflate their movement with women, and their ideology with what women want or need.

And Blob Blogging Wingnut and HER fundamentalist religious zygote zealot cohort aren't claiming to speak for The Fetus©™ in every woman's womb? Do tell us more about that conflation you so despise.

Not like the other.

This may well turn into a series about the ongoing lies and stupid propaganda by infuriated rightwing zealots and their pathetic attempts to show moral equivalence.

Gateway "Miss The Point Much?" Pundit compares and contrasts photographs. The first shows a view of lawn around the Mall after the 70,000 Teabaggers March on September 12. The other depict Washington streets after the US presidential inauguration in January 2009.

The difference is that presidential inaugurations are events open to the public. There is a budget allocated for clean-up afterwards, and the crowds are messy, regardless of which party owns the presidency. Those pictures could have been taken after the Santa Claus parade, in any major US or Canadian city.

The Teabaggers shindig likely needed a demonstration permit, and those responsible would have had to post a bond worth several thousands of dollars to cover clean-up after the crowds disperse. If the organizers convince the participants to clean up their litter, they get the bond back.

Is that simple enough for you? It's all about the money, thus not evidence that Teabaggers are "cleaner" or less filthy, though commenters at GP seem to think so.

The whining and the shrieeeking continues unabated.

At Canadian Cynic we learn that it's the

"Lefties" who are manipulating Sarah Palin into acting like a whiny, petulant, irresponsible spambrain. I had no idea we had that kind of power.

Mudflats of course has a crisp and witty response to that rightwingwacko view.

[Ziegler's] primary assertion is this:

"I strongly believe that no public figure in modern America has ever endured more stress, pressure and unfair scrutiny in a more dignified fashion than she has over the past year."

That’s right. Just this week, a gubernatorial candidate in Idaho said we ought to go out and buy “Palin tags”. You know, the $11 hunting tags that you get when you want to go out and kill a wolf with a rifle. He basically said he was all in support of people going out and hunting Sarah Palin like an animal. Then he said it was just “a joke.” Ha ha.

And then there was the pastor who declared in his sermon entitled “Why I Hate Sarah Palin” that he was actually praying for Sarah Palin to die and go to Hell, saying that then she’d get what she deserved. One of his parishioners then went to a Palin speaking engagement with a loaded rifle slung over his shoulder, and walked through the crowd of people. “Good for you,” said the pastor.

And who could forget all the people who called her a Nazi, and the people who showed up outside her speaking engagements with signs saying she was the Anti-Christ?

Oh wait. Those things happened to Barack Obama. Oops.

Go read the whole hilarious blogpost.

Uterus or Brain?: Choice for Zygote Zealots.

Over in the comments after unrepentant old hippie's blogpost regarding a zygote zealot who advocates violence against abortion providers, The Fetus©™ fetishist in question, bayouchild/Jill, offers herself up as "proof" that as Gawd gave women wombs so must they breed.

It's strange, isn't it? Neither my father nor my mother made me feel that I had to choose between using my brain or my uterus. But then, I didn't grow up in a familial environment that supported fundamentalist religious gynophobia.

Thus it was possible for me to choose to give life without having to abandon the ability to reason and the capacity for rational compassion.

It appears that choice was not available for bayouchild since she utters predictable, programmed pro-natalist glurge and fundamentalist Catholic dogma. No need to engage the brain, the default propaganda simply spews out.

It's no wonder that fundamentalist Catholic men, like John "Mr Kicking Abortion's Ass" Pacheco, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and Pope Benedict prefer women who are certifiably brain-dead but still able to breed.

The zealots' hate rages on.

Anger is not a "bad" emotion; it is in fact the necessary fuel for social change. There's an Anglican community in Ottawa that displays inspiring quotes and thoughts outside the church for all to see. This one in particular caught my attention: "Hope is the daughter of anger and courage." Yes, it's a transformation of the original St Augustine aphorism; I find it so much more relevant these days.

Celia Murray is a columnist writing for the Morgan County Citizen in Georgia. She was attacked - verbally - for the views she expressed after the public execution of Dr George Tiller. This, in part, is her response:

The retaliation for expressing my opinion was swift and vicious. Last week, in two published letters, I was accused of “spewing hatred,” of being full of “anger and bitterness,” and the question was posed as to whether I should be labeled a “terrorist.”

There are two distinct issues presented by these letter writers – the abortion issue and what I will call the “debate” issue – and I want to address both, after which I will say no more on this subject. First, with regard to the abortion issue and those who consider it a moral and/or religious issue, I encourage them to read the opinions of Rev. Carlton W. Veazey, who for more than a decade has been president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Based in Washington, D.C., the coalition advocates for reproductive choice and religious freedom on behalf of about 40 religious groups and organizations.

Prior to joining the coalition, Veazey spent 33 years as a pastor at Zion Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Surely we all agree with Rev. Veazey when he states that “men and women are moral agents and equipped to make decisions about even the most difficult and complex matters.” Rev. Veazey goes further: “We must ensure a woman can determine when and whether to have children according to her own conscience and religious beliefs and without governmental interference or coercion. We must also ensure that women have the resources to have a healthy, safe pregnancy, if that is their decision, and that women and families have the resources to raise a child with security.” ...

Although the decision to terminate a pregnancy is a very difficult one, it can be a responsible decision. Depending on the circumstances, it might be selfish to bring a child into the world. Pat Gillespie and Brenda Thompson undoubtedly believe that every child conceived must be carried to term. It has been my observation that many like them are 100 percent supportive while the child is in the womb, but as soon as the child is born, their support disappears. Too often those who are most vocal in their “pro-life” positions are also those who oppose taxpayer funding for healthcare, education, housing, family assistance programs and other anti-poverty programs. Essentially, in the words of Rev. Veazey, they “abort” that child by driving him or her into generational poverty, drugs or the criminal justice system. It has often appeared to me, based on fiscal policy, that the Right’s concern for the “unborn” ends at the birth canal.

Murray's original column was Politics of Hate.

There's a big difference between anger and hate. Anger can be channeled into community-building, into respect for others who are also angry for different reasons, yet wish to work to find solutions to the situations and problems that provoke anger.

Hate is cowardice, it is passive aggressiveness that explodes in violence, propaganda used to demonize and destroy those who are cast in the role of the enemy.