Reason #47,832,907,204 Why I Have Problems With The Fervently Devout

[filkertom]

huskiebear found this one, at Rolling Stone. Un-frickin'-believable.

Comments

[channe.livejournal.com]

For the most part, yes, that's not the right way to go about convincing people that abortion is the wrong thing to do...

[cheshyre]

One of the scuzzier tacticts anti-choicers have been using is to set up shop as a prenatal clinic promising to help women get abortions. Then they use stalling tactics to delay the women past the trimester when things are safest and most legal.

Link:

[cheshyre]

http://amptoons.poliblog.com/blog/000989.html

[channe.livejournal.com]

'Anti-choice.' I hate that word.

[batyatoon]

Appropriately enough, today's quote from the A Word A Day mailing list:

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
-Susan B Anthony, reformer and suffragist (1820-1906)

The "fervently devout" thing? If this schmuck Newman weren't religious, he'd have found some other career that let him harass and intimidate people from behind a veneer of self-righteousness. (Possibly that of public-school gym teacher, or cop.) It's a personality trait, not a tenet of the religion.

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing Operation Rescue's founder, Randall Terry here in Chicago many years ago ... he struck me as a borderline psychopath just waiting for an opportunity. Batyatoon is right -- it seems to be more of a personality trait than an actual part of being devout.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a particularly obnoxious Ultra-Conservative type I ran into on the El one day. After hearing a few of his positions, I asked if he was a supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. When he acknowledged that he was indeed (one of the conservative positions I agree with, in fact), I said "That's great. I think with people like you running around, people like myself need to be well armed." He probably continued to talk for about 30 seconds before what I had said really sunk in ... then stopped talking to me and changed seats.

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

If the anti-choice people really want all those fetuses to continue, they ought to volunteer to take care of them.

[channe.livejournal.com]

http://www.birthright.org/htmpages/
http://www.adoption.org/
http://www.nurturingnetwork.org/
http://www.feministsforlife.org/
http://www.ccomaha.org/pregnancycounseling.htm

Sorry, just being the devil's advocate here, because many prospective adoptive parents align themselves with the pro-life position, as you said earlier, and volunteer to take care of them.

[rollick.livejournal.com]

That article has got to be one of the creepiest and most depressing things I've ever read.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Be strong, buckeroo. Everything these yahoos try what they consider to be brilliant tactics, it backfires as soon as the greater public hears about the details... like in this case.

[brianh]

I remember reading about this earlier. What bothered me is the 'can't do anything' part- I mean, can't she get a restraining order against these folks? Or is that *only* for situations where there's a threat of violence? I'd like to see them, as fast as possible, restrained, sued, and otherwised legaled out of existence. Demonstrating your political principles is one thing; deliberate campaigns of harassment are another.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I don't believe so. Freedom of speech and all that. There are certain lines they are careful not to cross.

I really wish the Op: Rescue folks would very carefully re-read the First Amendment, though, because the same sentence that guarantees their right to do this to people also guarantees the rights of those people not to have Op: Rescue inflict their religious beliefs upon them.

[poltr1]

Stepping my way into the fray.....

I'm a man. I won't ever know what it's like to have an unborn child inside my body. Has anyone noticed that many of the more fervent anti-abortion crusaders have been MEN?

There were two great Tom Toles cartoons years ago. I wish I could find them online.

One showed a pergnant woman in the center, surrounded by a few pro-life protestors. With each trimester, the number of protestors grew. The fourth panel showed the monther with the baby, and the protestors gone, leaving their signs.

The other was a two-question quiz. I forgot the questions, but many anti-abotion folks would answer "yes" to both. The third panel said, "Alrighty, then" and showed a back alley. (Which is what would happen if Roe v. Wade is overturned -- it won't stop the killing.)

Oh yeah....Operation Rescue is only part of a larger operation called Operation Save America. Their scopes have widened to include Muslims, gays, and psychic shops.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Absolutely right. Men who oppose abortion should absolutely not have one.

Would any older minority child even want me for a parent? We are kind of weird sci-fi fan people and there are frightening amounts of books in the house. More sinisterly: would weirdoes like us pass muster with the people who regulate adoption? I fear that we might not, despite empty arms and love to give.

Pro-choice means supporting all kinds of choice.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Mmmm. Discrimination, harrassment, denial of health care, violation of civil rights. Sounds American to me. :-7

warning: enraged female

[sylverwolfe.livejournal.com]

kinda wish i hadn't looked at that website right after lunch. asshats. it's right up there with people trying to stop same-sex marriages and other such infringements on an individual's moral stance. they want to save souls,. they should save their own by shutting the hell up. 'cause if i ever find myself in a position where i have to decide between my life and the life of my unborn child, i'm gonna choose me, because the baby wouldn't survive without me. and if these pro-baby lifewreckers try any of these stunts on me, i'm gonna go get my abortion and then beat the unholy hell out of them. they have a right to their beliefs, says so in the rulebook. but so do i, dammit, and until they make abortions illegal, i'm sticking to my belief that it is the choice of each individual woman to weigh the matter and make a decision based on what feels right in her heart. 'cause really, a girl who gets an abortion is gonna have to deal with that for the rest of her life. don't they realize that if she takes it as the easy way out, that guilt will eat at her and tear her up more than any graphic pictures and protests they can do?

Re: warning: enraged female

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Nope, none of that matters. All that's important is their faith.

[Evil Grin]

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Say, do you suppose if I pointed out to these guys that they breathe the same air as the abortionists, that they'd stop?

We should be so lucky!

Re: [Evil Grin]

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

More likely, they'd hyperventilate -- gotta deny those Evil Babykilling Commie Bastards as much oxygen as possible, right?

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Old news, but very discouraging. A lot of these tactics are actually illegal (going through someone's trash, for instance), but it's hard to get police and prosecutors to act on those laws. I also find it discouraging that shredders seem to have become necessities of life.

With apologies to Mel Brooks...

[hitchkitty.livejournal.com]

When the Mindlessly Devout get something rolling, you can't Torquemada anything.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

That is beyond disgusting. I can't believe there isn't a way to legally leash these creeps.

[seanmonster.livejournal.com]

If this isn't 'terrorism', I don't know what is...

[(Anonymous)]

Me neither, but try to convince Tommy Ridge... *sigh*