ProWomanProLife

Here is the Tim Tebow ad that ran during the Super Bowl last night.

That’s it? I don’t mean to sound like an impossible-to-please critic, but that’s not exactly a very controversial ad, is it? But it was enough to cause panic among pro-choicers? Wow. They really are a fragile bunch.

For what it’s worth, I found this ad, for Google, more pro-life than the Tebow one:

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Andrea adds: It’s amazing to behold. NOW is absolutely intent on helping get further traction and positive exposure for Focus on the Family:

NOW president Terry O’Neill said it glorified violence against women. “I am blown away at the celebration of the violence against women in it,” she said. “That’s what comes across to me even more strongly than the anti-abortion message. I myself am a survivor of domestic violence, and I don’t find it charming. I think CBS should be ashamed of itself.”

(h/t)

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Brigitte can’t believe it: That’s a joke, right? NOW can’t be that dumb? Can it?

I don’t follow figure skating and the name “Johnny Weir” means nothing to me. But I like how he handles annoying critics. Go Johnny!

p.s. think we should send him a t-shirt?

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Andrea’s favourite part of what this figure skater says:

There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.”

He concludes by saying:

Every skater is wearing skates made out of cow,” Weir said. “Maybe I’m wearing a cute little fox while everyone else is wearing cow, but we’re all still wearing animals.”

Bump+. Will she abort? Or won’t she? And the audience gets a say, of course. Ain’t that America: A democratic say in whether or not a gal kills her child. What hootin’-hollerin’ fun!

In related news, tonight, I will throw my large-decidedly-not-a-flat-screen-television off my fire escape. Then, after writing a short but poignant goodbye note to family and friends, I will move to a small uninhabited island. I will be Prime Minister there. There will be no abortion, no attempts to pander to abortion-rights groups, and most importantly, no reality TV.

At the risk of dating myself and alienating older (the 1970s, ew) and younger (techno 1990s? please) readers, I would like to say how pleased I am to hear news like this:

The 1980s are taking over the cinemas of North America and the UK. Upcoming remakes of ’80s franchises include The A-Team, The Karate Kid, Clash of the Titans, Nightmare on Elm Street and the ultimate Reagan/Thatcher-era movie, Red Dawn. It used to be that the ’80s was “the decade everyone was a bit ashamed of,” with its terrible hair and pop music dominated by synth and saxophone. But after the depressing experience of the ’00s and ’10s, people are starting to feel nostalgic for the greater certainty of the ’80s, not to mention songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Besides, the executives who are running studios today grew up watching the “irony-free” movies of the ’80s, and now they’re trying to re-create their youth. Does this mean that there will be a remake of Mr. T’s Be Somebody Or Be Somebody’s Fool? One can only hope.

Though of course nobody can replace Patrick Swayze…

A playwright seems annoyed by some of the criticism aimed at her play:

A Calgary playwright says her play about abortion aims to bring the two sides of the contentious debate together, not create more controversy.

[...]

Cawthorne is pro-choice, but hopes her play will make people on both sides of the abortion debate rethink their beliefs and develop empathy for women making a very difficult decision.

[...]

The president of the University of Calgary’s anti-abortion club said the play sounds “a little bit bizarre and tragic.”

Leah Hallman of Campus Pro-life said she respects Cawthorne’s artistic right to tell a story, but feels the Abortion Monologues is like telling the story of slavery without hearing from slaves.

“Because it’s forgetting the victims of abortion and that is the unborn,” she said.

Cawthorne counters that her pro-choice play includes the stories of women who choose not to have an abortion.

If that isn’t good enough for some, they should write their own play, Cawthorne said.

I don’t know anything about this playwright and her work, other than what I read in the article. I have no idea whether I’d like it or not. But it doesn’t matter what I think, does it? Because ultimately, if pro-lifers really want to influence the culture, they need to get in there and start creating their own plays. Or write their own blog posts. Or paint their own paintings. You get the point. I’m not sure I’d say it quite as, er, strongly as this blogger did, but I share the sentiment.

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Andrea adds: Yes, she has a point. However, it’s almost inconceivable that a pro-lifer writing an abortion play would get the stage on any university campus.  I suppose one could argue that almost every other play out there is a pro-life play, too, insofar as good theatre rarely celebrates death, but rather points to how we endure the struggle, aka life. I don’t mean to beat people over the head with my pro-lifeness, but really, when’s the last time you saw a great movie that started with death in the first minutes–and that’s all there was? What’s the old saying–all pro-choice activists are alive? Anyhoo. I’m quite sure pro-abortion activists probably don’t see it that way.

My other point would be that under duress (and media interviews always involve duress) Leah Hallman may not have come up with the world’s best quotable quotes. We do the best we can, under the circumstances.

The Post explains their use of graphic images from Haiti:

We recognize that these pictures are disturbing. But we think that they are also a necessary — indeed, a central — part of telling this story completely. They communicate in a powerful manner the true horror of what has taken place in that country. And understanding that horror is necessary, we think, in order to galvanize as swift and powerful a response as possible to help the people of Haiti.

Or you could just say it sells papers. But my point here is that when pro-lifers use graphic images to show who dies in an abortion they are held in absolute revulsion by some. Not me. It’s a tool that won’t work for everyone, but for some it will “communicate in a powerful manner the true horror of what [is taking place] in [our] country. And understanding that horror is necessary, we think, in order to galvanize as swift and powerful a response as possible to help [Canadians].”

Or so it seems. Claudia Schiffer, 39 and still working as a professional model, is pregnant with her third child. Good for her (and hubby, of course). Here’s the part of the story I like best:

The 39-year-old catwalk star – who is one of the world’s most successful models – has previously spoken about how motherhood changed her entire attitude to her career.

Claudia – who married Michael, 38, in May 2002 – said: “I used to work every single day and travel round the world. I worked weekends, I never took one second off. When I met my husband I said, ‘You know what, this is important. I’m not going to work weekends any more.’

“And when I had kids, I became even more careful. Modelling work is fine because you can do one day here, two days there, you’re never long gone.”

Friends don’t let enemies see Up in the Air either. (Robert Fulford’s review is way too kind.) Friends don’t let haphazard acquaintances even mention the possibility of seeing Up in the Air. If you overhear someone on the bus saying they might go see it, stop and talk them out of it. A film so flat, so boring, so nihilistic, so uninspiring, so depressing–it’s the movie Nietzsche would make if he came back from the grave but that is actually giving it too much credit… You would prefer root canal, a tax audit, even divorce proceedings.

You have been warned.

It’s a state, and now it’s a movie about abortion, too. Read about it here, and watch the trailer, here.

The news article describes how some feel it is a pro-life movie. I’d say that’s probably true, because it’s usually pro-lifers who want to draw attention to the pro-abortion status quo we live in and promote debate. But there’s always the question of how that is done, and whether it is an intellectually honest film or not… and I can’t tell that from the trailer. (As a side note, I’ve always quite liked the Cranberries and now I learn Dolores O’Riordan, lead singer, is critical of abortion. Good news. We need more movie stars, singers, and generally famous people to stand up and act as role models, thereby empowering more young women to also say–hey, I’m against abortion.)

A hard look at the sexual revolution of the 1960s and how it has led to the degradation of women. [Warning: contains awful ugly pictures of naked hippies.]