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A vagina-friendly mayor?

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What does one say to this?

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says he is “a vagina-friendly Mayor.”

Nagin made the remark while welcoming the author of the Vagina Monlogues, Eve Ensler to the city to promote the “V-Day” celebration in New Orleans next month.

You will also, no doubt, be thrilled to hear that according to Mayor Nagin, Ms. Ensler is “doing God’s work.”

[h/t Michelle Malkin]

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Andrea adds: Brigitte, your post spurs me to reach for Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I don’t know why.

Finally!!! (Another view)

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My, oh my… The Ottawa Citizen’s front page about Catholic politicians being refused Communion in light of their public pro-abortion positions. But this is not what I’m shaking my head about. As with many newsworthy Catholic positions, who would you think the paper would ask for commentaries? Not the Catholic men and women who support the Archbishop’s position (there are at least a couple). No, the coordinator of Catholic for Free-Choice Canada and David McGuinty, a pro-choice Catholic (writing these two words together feels very weird in the fingers, not to mention the brain) politician.

In a bid to gain better understanding, I have a few questions for pro-abortion Catholics who might be reading this blog. When Rosemary Ganley writes that Canada is a country “with a Charter of rights that has been interpreted to protect a woman’s right to choose” does she mean that immoral laws should never be challenged? Whether or not you consider abortion immoral is not the point. The point is about the incontestability of law. I’m asking because abortion used to be illegal and abortion laws were successfully challenged by abortion advocates who thought it was immoral to impose one’s pro-life views on women. According to Ganley’s myopic view of law, women shouldn’t be persons and we should be allowed to own black people (oops, my mistake, blacks wouldn’t be people…). Or is there a point in history where law, who has always been malleable, became fixed? Maybe the day it coincided with Ganley’s personal views? Just trying to understand here…

My second question concerns the separation of church and state, on which I am no expert. But, if there is indeed a separation of church and state, wouldn’t that be an argument upholding Archbishop’s Pendergast’s position? There are state positions (abortion is a legitimate personal choice in a free and democratic society) and church positions (life begins at conception and belongs to God). Who gets an abortion is state matter. Communion is a Church matter. I don’t understand why Ganley thinks the State should be allowed to meddle with who is receiving a Catholic Sacrament… not if she wants to declare in the same breath that the Church has no business meddling with who is receiving an abortion.

Finally, my last question maybe should have been the first. Why care so much about the Catholic Church? With the number of Christian churches and denominations that support abortion, contraception, women pastors, divorce and same-sex marriage, why so upset about the Catholic church? I just don’t get it. Don’t you want to be happy when you go to Church? Spirituality through disgruntlement. Never heard of it.

Finally!!!

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Something I’ve been wanting to see for a while:

Ottawa’s Catholic archbishop says he will refuse communion to any politician who “obstinately” supports access to abortion, but only if he or she cannot be persuaded to stand down.

No, I am not religious. I am in fact something of an anti-Catholic, in good part from having grown up in Quebec (long, dull story). But it bothers me no end to see politicians profess to be good Catholics, then publicly support positions, like abortion and same-sex marriage, that are clearly against Church teachings, insisting that they have the right to interpret their religion as they see fit. No they don’t. Not in the Catholic Church. I’m glad to see the Ottawa archbishop is ready to crack down. It’s about time.  

Oh, and please spare me ridiculous lectures about the separation of Church and state. First of all, it’s an American concept. There’s no such thing in Canada, where the preamble to the Constitution (the 1982 one, not the dusty old 1867 document) says: “Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law”. And second, the archbishop isn’t trying to change Canadian laws – he may be advocating for changes he’d like to see, but we all have the right to do that, religious or not. What he’s doing is trying to apply his own religion in his own church, and last time I checked there was no constitutional right to communion.

Religion and motherhood

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Here is an interesting article on National Review Online about women and religiosity.  Of particular interest is this comment about why, contra today’s feminists, Judeo-Christian religion empowers and dignifies women:

Judaism’s view of women departed sharply from that ancient model. The practice of “holy prostitution” so common in the ancient world was renounced, as was the image of the pagan goddess as sexual ideal. The Hebrew Scriptures revealed a personal God who had created men and women in his image. Women now were connected to the realm of the spirit, not just the flesh, and motherhood was seen as a personal event in the life of the mother and a blessing from God, not merely a woman’s duty-bound contribution to the increase of the tribe.  The Gospels continued on this trajectory. They depicted God taking flesh in the womb of a woman, a woman who was free to accept or reject her role as the mother of Jesus. […] Although Christians themselves often have failed to live up to Jesus’ example regarding women, Gerl-Falkovitz said, feminism is an outgrowth of Christian ideas about women’s equal dignity: “Only in Judeo-Christian culture sprang up this humanization of women.”

Hmm, prostitution and pagan sexuality as the paradigm for women’s worth, that doesn’t have anything at all to do with today’s secular culture, does it?

So much of the abortion debate abortion rhetoric takes it for granted that pregnancy and motherhood is inherently a blight, a burden and a hardship that should only under very narrow circumstances be borne by a woman.  How inhuman this is compared to the “unenlightened” religious view of a child as a blessing and a gift, and of motherhood as sanctified, and especially in Christian thought, even miraculous.  I believe that the Woodstock generation sincerely thought they were creating a utopia, but the secular leftist world is becoming increasingly joyless and grim, as well as misogynistic.

You call that sympathy?

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Re.: Bill C-484, the unborn victims of crime bill, this column about sums up how much sympathy a pro-abortion advocate is prepared to have for women murdered when pregnant.

…the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a woman and her fetus are considered “one person.” That means there are no “unborn victims” of crime…

There you have it. There are no unborn victims. And “unborn victims” gets quotation marks, just to highlight how delusional a pregnant woman really is.

Don’t get me wrong, I like charades–have played it many times. But really, how long can women like Antonia Zerbisias keep this up? 

Meanwhile in the cynical community…

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Folks ain’t none too pleased with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion’s non-position on C-484.

Sir, while you were absent from the House of Commons today, a vote was held. The vote in question allowed Bill C-484 to pass into committee. Because you saw fit not to whip your party’s vote, because it did not interest you sufficiently to attend, your leadership will now come under harsh scrutiny. This Bill is an insult to the intelligence of Canadians and a blatant attempt to undermine the ability of women to maintain the right to bodily self determination and personal autonomy. This Bill is a bald faced attempt to enshrine in law a definition of life that precedes birth and creates criminal precedent for ending that newly defined life. Mr. Dion, while I sincerely hope this Bill is killed in committee, your inaction and abandonment of Canadian women’s rights has defeated any faith I might have had for your growth as a leader. You are clearly unfit for the job.

[…]

Mr. Dion please step down. This nation will not elect you Prime Minister. You are a non-entity, a milquetoast and a flop. The Liberal Party might as well appoint a traffic cone to the leadership. At least people will take notice of a traffic cone. As for the members of the Liberal Party who saw fit to vote for the travesty that is Bill C-484, you will not be forgotten come the next election cycle.

There are others, as listed here. Whoopee-dee-doo.

I’m gestating on this one…give me a moment

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What a letter.

I wasn’t sure how to title this post: “No need to debate abortion, but a definitive need to speak clear English” or how about “Pro-choice letter writer admits we are all just in various states of gestation…the quintessential pro-life point” or finally, “Yes! I’m in a state of gestation too.”

One small point on this letter to the editor: A debate can’t occur in isolation, in someone’s mind. That’s not a debate, that’s solitary contemplation. And women and men don’t contemplate abortion unless they are challenged to do so. Let me reiterate a point I’ve made before: An unexpected pregnancy is a very bad time to contemplate one’s views on abortion for the very first time.

Muriel Beauroy’s views are profoundly anti-woman, and I might add, contrary to making an informed choice.  

But keep up the good work, incoherent pro-choicers! Only makes my job a whole lot easier.

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Brigitte scratches her head in acute puzzlement:

To those who bemoan the conscience of many women on this matter, I would simply remind them that at any given moment vast numbers of women are in a state of gestation, visibly or not, to term or not. This is quite natural and private.

So we don’t need to bemoan the conscience (or, more aptly, lack thereof) of women because vast numbers of them are gestating even as we speak? Well, if that’s the pro-choice position, things are looking up indeed.

Celebrating the tube

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Most debates on futility considerations revolve around mechanical feeding and ventilation. If I had a dime for every time I heard “feeding tube” and “futility” in the same sentence, I would be laughing at my student loan by now. This is why I was compelled to share this little nugget of everyday life with you.

One of my friends suffers from a degenerative disease that attacks her muscle tissues. She has difficulty feeding herself since her caloric intake is entirely consumed by her degenerating muscle mass. I recently asked her husband how she is doing this winter (the cold season is never a happy time for people who have a hard time breathing) and he got really excited telling me about her new feeding tube. She gets all these extra calories with the push of a syringe; she’s getting better colour and putting on weight. She hasn’t been that sick at all this winter.

Quality of life improved by feeding assistance… Think about it, it happens.

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