Call the WAAHmulance!

When pesky fetus fetishists chalked up the sidewalk outside his Toronto business with anti-choice glurge, Imperial Pub owner, Fred Newman, told them to knock it off. They refused so he got his staff to wash it away.

Well, of course they wanted to provoke something, so they redid it.
Here's how LifeShite is reporting the incident.

Newman then became aggressive towards the group, shouting and waiving his arms.

Footage filmed by Golob shows Newman demanding the pro-life activists leave the area. Golob can be heard saying to her companions: “You don’t have to engage with him [the owner], I just want to make sure nothing violent happens.”

At that point, footage shows Newman turning towards Golob and launching himself at her with raised fists shouting: “This is violence.”

Golob escaped injury by ducking away from his blow.

(IANAL but a bit of advice: perhaps LifeShite would be well advised to add an 'alleged' before that 'blow'.)

It goes on. (Dig the language.)

“[This is just] another example of the pro-‘choice’ movement violently attacking women in attempt [sic] to take away their choice to publicly demonstrate,” said Golob at the time to LifeSiteNews.com.

When Golob reported the incident to police, she was disturbed when the officer appeared to take the side of the pub owner. Police refused to pursue the matter further.

“When I called the police, Officer Humphreys told me that since the pub owner didn't ‘touch’ me there was nothing they could do," she said. "They said that if I go back a second time, and the police get called, then I would be to blame because I would be ‘disturbing the peace.’"

Officer Humphreys is right. That's exactly what they were doing -- shit-disturbing.

Fetus fetishists have an odd fascination for that corner. That's the site of their annual creepy xmas crying toy-soldier billboard.



On Twitter, we were speculating why that corner is so attractive to them. Targets may be a nearby public health clinic (that doesn't do abortions obviously) perhaps serving Ryerson students or just Ryerson students in general.

In any case, it's a good pub. The Library upstairs is very comfy with a fairly quiet patio. So, if you've worked up a thirst in the Yonge/Dundas neighbourhood, drop in and show your support.

@fernhilldammit oh, I am going to ask if there is a legal defence fund jar I can drop a 20 in ;)

— TheGrumpierHobbit (@AGrumpyHobbit) August 30, 2013

The Imperial Pub is on Twitter too. Another way to show them some love.

UPDATE: Best notion on why that corner.

@barb_hill @AureliaCotta @trapdinawrpool @fernhilldammit the Campaign Life Coalition national office is on Bond, steps away from the pub

— Mary (@marykilmer) August 30, 2013

Ted Cruz, future candidate for US prez ...

will renounce his birthright to "soshalist" benefits and advantages that his family members fully exploited when they lived in Canada, where little Ted was born.

Senator Cruz is leading a crusade to repeal Obamacare because it smacks of socialism even though it expands health-care insurance coverage to millions of Americans.

The petition on his website reads: “I do NOT support socializing health care in America. I understand that, in every other nation that has socialized health care, the result has predictably been poorer quality health care, a crushing tax burden, scarcity and rationing, and complete government control of individual medical decisions.”

You’d think that a Canadian citizen who was born in a Canadian “socialist” hospital would know better.

By late 1970 when Ted was born, Alberta had finally joined the national medicare plan. The Cruzes would have received all medical care, including delivery of baby Ted, for next to nothing. Even before 1970, the Alberta government had provided free maternity care under a version of health-care insurance known at the time as Manning Care.

And despite what Cruz says about complete government control of individual health decisions, I am sure his mother got to choose the obstetrician and pediatrician she wanted and that no one would have interfered with the decisions taken by her and those doctors.

But then again if you were born in Canada but you want to be president of the United States it’s important to shuck that left-wing taint.

And you certainly wouldn’t want anyone to know that you actually benefitted from all that socialism.

So, renouncing one's Canadian citizenship is easy-peasy, not so much US citizenship which is time-consuming and requires a lot of form-filling as well as forking money over to Uncle Sam.   

Less facile for Cruz is that inconvenient bit about NOT being physically born in the US, which is constitutionally required of all presidents.

Among critics of Barack Obama, there is a whole lunatic contingent known as "birthers" because they claim that the current POTUS isn't a legal natural-born citizen, that his birth certificate is fraudulent.

Confused yet?

This should be helpful, for understanding the issues.

Many hope that the place of birth question will disqualify Cruz, as some think that he's a more dangerous Joe McCarthy.


 

Cross-border Right Wing Nut Job Gathering ...

to be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario in early September.

This. Warning: mute sound on your laptop or device unless glurge-y music and a sermon about the Virgin Mary is your thing.

It appears that Roméo Dallaire's staff didn't bother to google "Fatima: the path to peace" when the invitation for the senator to speak came into the office.

Had someone done that, they would have discovered the deeply gynophobic, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic ideology this organization promotes.

From here:

Beyond the obvious, what do a far-right Italian politician, the president of the John Birch Society and former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul have in common?

In early September, the men are all scheduled to speak – along with a lengthy list of archconservative clergy, lawyers and academics – at a conference in Canada sponsored by the Fatima Center, part of the “radical traditionalist Catholic” movement, perhaps the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in North America. 

Senator Dallaire has withdrawn from the conference.  I'm ambivalent about that.  He should have gone ahead and spoken to the religious RWNJ audience before him, and excoriated their medieval asses.

Fishing Trip Nets Unexpected Prize

RH Reality Check has performed a great service in documenting the total waste of time perpetrated by the US House RAPEublicans' latest fishing expedition.

In May, Republican members of two congressional committees—the House Judiciary Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee—wrote letters to the departments of health and attorneys general in all 50 states, asking for thousands of pages of information about how each state monitors and regulates abortion.

“By now you are surely aware of the trial of Kermit Gosnell, who is charged with the serial murder of infants, the murder of a female patient, and other felonies committed in the operation of his abortion clinic in Philadelphia,” wrote committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Trent Franks (R-AZ), chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, in the letter sent to all state attorneys general. “We are seeking to find out if state and local governments are being stymied in their efforts to protect the civil rights of newborns and their mothers by legal or financial obstacles that are within the federal government’s power to address.”

With the implied threat -- 'and if you are not sufficiently stymying women seeking abortion and the medical staff who serve them, we'll help you with that'.

The RAPEublicans were seeking to bolster with facts -- FACTS! -- their federal bill banning all abortions in all 50 states after '20 weeks post-fertilization'. (The bill has zero chance of passing in the Senate.)

Well, that didn't work out very well. In fact, I believe this is a sterling example of being hoist on one's own petard.





RH Reality Check obtained these documents from the various states and analyzed them. The data base is here.

An analysis of these documents shows that congressional Republicans will find no support for their arguments in favor of new restrictions on abortion care in the evidence presented by the states. In particular, to the extent that anti-choice advocates claim that women are being put at risk by abortion services, these documents—from the very state entities charged with overseeing and regulating abortion—show the contrary. They show that abortion in the United States is highly regulated and overwhelmingly safe.

Lots of details at the link and in the data base. RH Reality Check plans further analyses and reports.

I want to highlight just one of their findings: the myth of the 'born-alive' fetuses.

On the issue of infants being “born alive” after a botched abortion, Pennsylvania was the only state that reported such conduct. That was in the case of Kermit Gosnell, who has been convicted of murder.

The “born-alive” fetus is a favorite theme of the anti-choice movement, which has perpetuated the claim that a large number of viable fetuses are born alive after failed second- and illegal third-trimester abortions as a way of shifting public opinion on abortion. This claim has been heavily criticized by public health experts who say this is an exceedingly rare occurrence and is in any case already covered by existing law and regulation. Nearly 90 percent of all abortions occur within the first trimester of pregnancy, the majority of these before nine weeks. In short, the vast majority of abortions in the United States occur at the embryonic stage, prior to the fetal stage. Since only a small share of all abortions are late second-trimester (after 20 weeks), and since third-trimester abortions are illegal in all but the most exceptional circumstances, it is not surprising that state records show that the myth of “born-alive” fetuses is, indeed, a myth.

Doncha just love it when dimwits try to be smart? It just about always blows up real good. On them.

ADDED: Media Matters for America demonstrates how thoroughly MSM in the US has bought into the lies surrounding the 20-week ban.

Autism is NOT the new "orange".

This hateful diatribe was surreptiously left by a pathetic creature.  She claims to be a mother.  From the vile tone of her letter, one might also suspect she's a "pro-life" zealot, one who wants government to police women's uterus as though they were public property, but doesn't want her taxes supporting pre-natal health care, or anything in support of children's well-being once they're born and dependent upon adults' care.

Since the letter's writer suggests that the child she calls a hindrance should be euthanized and "whatever non retarded body parts he possesses" be donated to science, his family have contacted the police to investigate, and hopefully, lay charges.

Autism is a different way of being human.  Scientific and educational research is evolving; neurological differences that once were labeled "abnormal" are now accepted as one manifestation of how the brain is organized.  Adaptions are still necessary for autistic persons to be be able to navigate a world that is geared to the neurotypical.

The ugliness of that woman's letter harkens to the violence and persecution that albino folks still suffer in regions of the world, for example.

Superstition and ignorance are an affliction; autism is not.

Grand merci to @matttbastard for link to news story.

ADDED by fh: Reaction from someone who knows whereof she speaks.

UPDATE:  People rally from all around Oshawa and Newcastle in support of the autistic boy targeted by the letter, and his family.

What's Missing from The Star's Latest on Ford's Felonious Friends?

The first sentence from The Star's latest story on Rob Fucking Ford and his criminal associates:

Toronto police are investigating attempts by associates of Mayor Rob Ford to retrieve the crack cocaine video.

Notice anything missing there?

No?

Compare to this poll being run by NewsTalk 1010 at the moment, which, by the way is running 84% 'yes'.

The Toronto Star reports that police are looking into Rob Ford's buddies' attempts to get their hands on an alleged video of the mayor smoking from a crack pipe. Do you believe the footage exists?

The Star has abandoned the use of the word 'alleged'.

The crack cocaine video.

No one, not The Star, not the cops, not a significant majority of NewsTalk's audience doubts.

Most significantly, The Star's lawyers do not doubt its existence.

I might blog on the story itself, with its plethora of sketchy characters, most of whom live in their parents' basements while driving pricey cars, later.

But for now, I just wanted to point this omission out.

Practice Makes Perfect

Gwen LanDOLT is trying to walk back her most recent imbecility.

Speaking to LifeShite, she claims her views were misrepresented in the CBC article that implied she was okey-dokey with the death penalty for homosexuality.

Then there's this paragraph with a rather breath-taking phrase.

Last week REAL Women criticized Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird, a practicing homosexual, for imposing what it called “his own perspective on homosexuality” in foreign countries such as Uganda, Kenya, and Russia that have passed laws aimed at preserving the traditional family structure.

Heh. I just googled 'practicing homosexual' and got pages and pages of Why Practicing Homosexuals Can't Be Christians. Must be a Christian thing.

Oo. Looky here. On page 7 of the November/December 2012 REALity(pdf) (newsletter of REAL Women):

It is common knowledge that John Baird is a homosexual, and, apparently, his personal support for homosexuality overcame any reluctance he had about being up close and personal with his political rivals—the Liberals.

So, this isn't a first. Seems REAL Women keeps hoisting this flag and no one salutes it.

Pity poor Gwen. Must be soooo frustrating to be a galloping homophobe in a country that doesn't give a shit about a politician's sexuality.


h/t Big City Lib

PSA: Complain about fetal gore pr0n

In the comments here Alison reports that the Fetal Gore Porn Gang has struck again, this time in Brampton.

And the reaction -- again -- is predictably revulsion and outrage that children are exposed to this crap.

The FGPG don't get it. Fetal porn does not work and simply reeks of desperation.

Joyce Arthur advises:

If you or your family has been victimized by being forced to view CCBR's graphic imagery, please complain to your city council and to police, describing what happened and the resulting harms, and email a copy of your complaints to ARCC. Even if the city or police don't respond or refuse to act, more complaints mean more pressure, and it builds a case for future regulation.

Email is info @ arcc-cdac (dot) ca

It's NOT their fault. Abortion makes them do it.

From the You-Can't-Make-This-Shit-Up file: Fetus fetishists want to shut down Dr Tiller's recently reopened clinic because. . . .

it attracts noisy, violent, disruptive nutbars.

Now, anti-abortion groups in the state have come up with a new argument for closing South Wind Women’s Center: They’re claiming it’s a disruption to the community because it attracts too much noise. On Tuesday, several anti-choice groups submitted a petition asking city officials to rezone the area as “non business” so South Wind isn’t allowed to perform abortions anymore.

According to the Wichita Eagle, abortion opponents are citing several reasons that the clinic shouldn’t be allowed to operate in the community: several gun incidents that occurred when Tiller practiced there, the lack of communication between the clinic’s security staff and the anti-abortion activists to “defuse violence” before it occurs, the level of “antagonism” between the the clinic’s escorts and the anti-choice protesters, and the fact that it may be “inappropriate” for school children to see graphic signs and protests affiliated with the clinic.

Or, as Wonkette puts it:

Gun-Toting ‘Pro-life’ Thugs Want Abortion Clinic Shut Down To Keep Away Gun-Toting ‘Pro-life’ Thugs

ADDED: Wait. It gets better (or worse, depending on your insanity level).

Mark Gietzen, chairman of the Kansas Coalition for Life, said in a recent news release that the threat of shootings at South Wind Women's Center in Wichita was enhanced by the Republican-led Legislature's adoption of conceal-and-carry law expanding ways for people to take concealed handguns into public, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported (http://bit.ly/19k28Xs ).

Gietzen said an influx of advocates with concealed guns around the new Wichita clinic meant homes would "continuously be in the line of fire." Both Kansans for Life and Operation Rescue decried the remarks.

So, is he's threatening 'continuous fire'?

Seems so. But just like 'provocatively' dressed rape victims, clinic escorts are PROVOKING violence.

"With the new conceal-carry laws enacted since the closure of the Tiller abortion facility, the number of armed people present on site will likely be higher — not lower," Gietzen said. "South Wind escorts antagonize and provocatively taunt the pro-life volunteers on the site in ways that make serious violence more likely."