Archives for 2009

By ordering your very own People for the Ethical Treatment of People T-shirt. (I’ll be reminding about these periodically.)

Hitting it on the nail:

ANGOLA, March 23, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an address to the civil authorities of Angola on the last day of his trip to Africa, Pope Benedict XVI noted the “bitter irony” that, in the light of the “the crushing yoke of discrimination that women and girls so often endure,” including “unspeakable” sexual violence, abortion should be presented as a solution by international “human rights” groups.

“How bitter the irony of those who promote abortion as a form of ‘maternal’ healthcare!” the pope said. “How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health!” Pope Benedict said.

I’ll say.

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Andrea adds: And let’s be honest, it helps when non-Catholics stand up and say he is absolutely right. So let me add my voice of agreement to Brigitte’s!

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Tanya says: Make that 3 non-Catholics agreeing with the Pope right here. Very well said, indeed.

I’ve been thinking about political correctness lately. A lot. And in this context: When, as a civilization, we finally understand that abortion is a violation of human rights, what will we call unborn children?

You know what I mean. There are many things we don’t call people anymore. If you’ve watched The Wizard of Oz lately, you’ve likely had to shield your child’s eyes as the credits rolled. Do you know how they referred to those actors who played the Munchkins?

I think fetus will be the new F-word. I also think I have too much time on my hands.

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Rebecca adds: Claude Lantzmann’s Shoah, a very long documentary about the Holocaust that included many interviews with perpetrators (not all of whom knew they were being filmed) contains many fascinating and frightening insights. One of the smaller, but telling, details is that the workers in death camps referred to their victims as figuren – my professor translated that as “mannequins” or “dolls”. It conveys the physical shape of a person, but ascribes no value, soul, or life to it. For all but the most evil Nazis, this sort of reification of humans was necessary if they were to carry out their grim tasks.

Unborn children don’t even get the courtesy of an acknowledgment of their basic nature. They’re called “products of conception,” or “a cluster of cells,” the latter as apt a description of a tumour, or an unsightly mole, and by implication something to be disposed of as readily as a tumour or mole. I don’t think “fetus” is necessarily problematic – my doctor calls it a “patella” even though almost everyone thinks of it as a “kneecap” – but there’s no question the word is often used to achieve distance. How about even referring to them as “human fetuses”? A fetus is a developing life; we use the same word for all mammals in utero. I’d settle for that small step towards taking an honest look at what it is that is being destroyed in an abortion.

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Andrea adds: I have heard someone else use the terms “embryonic child”, “fetal child”, etc. which I like. It’s scientific, accurate and personable–allows us to consider that’s how we all began… we’re all people in different stages of life. We evolve, so to speak.

Practice every day:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) – The top bowler for the Special Olympics looks forward to meeting President Barack Obama in an alley.”He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily,” Michigan’s Kolan McConiughey (KO-lahn Mc-KAHNA-he) told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.

The athletic-minded president made an offhand remark Thursday on “The Tonight Show” comparing his weak bowling to “the Special Olympics or something.” He quickly apologized and told the Special Olympics chairman he wants to have some of its athletes visit the White House to bowl or play basketball.

McConiughey, who is mentally disabled, is just the bowler for the job. He’s bowled five perfect games since 2005.

The 35-year-old McConiughey has been bowling since he was 8 or 9. His advice for Obama? Practice every day.

[h/t The Corner]

Remember this? That classy Dr. Lalonde, worrying Sarah Palin might cause fewer abortions? Well, this might too, and that’s why I gladly post it. (Sarah Palin address for the 2009 Idaho Special Olympics.)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izn63SHXPMw]

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Rebecca adds: What incredible grace. I understand how people can disagree with her politics. What I can’t fathom is the intense personal hostility so many expressed towards a woman who lives her values, no matter how difficult they may be, no matter how much easier a quick “solution” to a baby with DS or a pregnant teenage daughter would be. That’s admirable in anybody. If the Obamas or Bidens or any other big-government, post-modern squishy politicians on the left bore equal burdens with equal grace, I hope I would respect them for it, no matter how much I might abhor their political agenda.

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Andrea adds: Some disagreed with her politics, and on fair terms. Others had a visceral hostility because she made them feel bad (for being stronger). All those women who abort because of Downs–she tells them “you were wrong” without saying it. One last point–it is strong women who don’t abort, but I’d wager that most every woman can be that strong. Just one more reason why I think people working in abortion clinics are preying on a moment of despair and fear.

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Brigitte says: Joe Biden lost his wife and baby daughter in 1972 (car accident). He then raised his sons as a single dad, commuting every day from Washington D.C. to be with them as much as possible, for a few years before marrying Jill Tracy Jacobs in 1977. I am not a fan of Joe Biden, not at all. I dislike his politics, and I find him phoney and ridiculous (FDR on television after the Crash, remember that one?). But he didn’t give up even though he was tempted, and raised his children as best he could.

Since when are we all this easily offended? Far be it from me to act in President Obama’s defence, but I am not offended by this:

President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled. Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he’s gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley. He bowled a 129, the president said. “That’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically. It’s “like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.

Call me callous, but here’s why. Though I remain unsure as to why our political leaders should show up on comedy shows–something about prepping funny lines doesn’t go with, oh say, staving off terrorist attack–once on a show with someone like Jay Leno, it’s bound to be all about the banter, and we can’t assess each quip behind steely politically-correct visors, brandishing our laser beams to strike at the first offence.

Then there’s the fact that I hardly think Obama meant anything at all by it, other than to be self-deprecating. I am quite sure a Special Olympian can bowl much better than I, but if I made the comparison, it would be to make fun of myself, not a disabled person. And if we can’t make fun of ourselves, then what can we do?

The Special Olympics are important. And the people who compete–valuable and important. But what about “throwing like a girl” jokes? Are those out too? (I, er, throw like a girl. But swim like Michael Phelps!–in my mind…)

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Patricia adds: Sorry, Andrea. I have to disagree with you again. I don’t know how “offended” I am by Barack Obama’s facile humour. “I am offended” is an over-used complaint. And the fact is that, as a pro-life mother of a child with Down Syndrome, I don’t have high expectations of Obama, so what he has to say is unlikely to affect my feelings one way or another. But making jokes at the expense of the marginalized is uncharitable, to say the least. Actually “marginalization” is over-used as well, but in this case, boy, does it apply! As I’ve pointed out before (I know, a few times) 8 out of 10 children diagnosed with Down Syndrome are aborted. (That’s a conservative estimate.) I can’t think of any form of discrimination harsher than that. Of course, if you’re radically pro-abortion, this is not a form of discrimination that you accept as real.

But what about radically diminished access to life-saving health care for children with disabilities? Surely that is a form of discrimination most people would be willing to acknowledge as such. Here’s a telling little anecdote for you: “Nine-year-old Daisy [born with a “broken” 21st chromosome and severe disabilities] entered hospital in 2005 with a tooth infection, which turned septic. The hospital failed to supply the most basic medical care, giving Daisy neither food nor liquid in sufficient quantities. When she began gasping for breath the hospital told the parents that she would be transferred to intensive care, but this never happened.” Daisy subsequently died of a pulmonary haemorrhage. (From The Sunday Times, rch 1, 2009, “Ivan Cameron and the meaning of life” by Dominic Lawson; the whole article is well worth reading.)

Despite the best efforts of organizations like the Special Olympics, people with disabilities still live in a brave new world that is not interested in the less than perfect. To make that same group the butt of idle banter intended to bolster the “cool” factor of a politician is contemptible. And for that, Barrack Obama should be called on the carpet.

I know that he apologized almost immediately and I am trying to accept that at face value,  but it seems to me that gaffes like this are a result of a complete failure of imagination.  If you’ve ever imagined that you would be a parent of a child with special needs, you probably don’t find yourself making off-hand comments like this.   But I suspect that in Barack Obama’s world, only people like Sarah Palin find themselves actually cheering on their children at the Special Olympics.

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Brigitte just wonders: What do you think would have happened if George W. Bush had made the same “joke”?

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Tanya adds: Had Obama made the comment, “I throw like a girl,” he would not be living it down too easily right now.  I’m not one to get up in arms about this sort of thing, but if you’re going to be a politician (president of the US, no less) you should at least be able to manage basic political correctness.

He might swear in the privacy of his home, but it’s doubtful he’d ever let slip an F-sharp on TV.  Obama doesn’t have a solid enough respect for the mentally challenged to hold his tongue when a joke like that comes to mind.  Offended-shmoffended.  But it’s telling.  Very telling.

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Andrea again: Surely, had a Republican made this comment, a thousand angry commentators would have swooped down like buzzards. Look, I don’t desire to be calculating and compass-less like Obama. But I also don’t want want to be like those infernally wounded politically correct types–tsking tsking at every word.  I believe we’ve hit a point in this culture where whether you can “play politically correct” matters more than what you do. (Of course, for Obama what he does and what he says appear to match. And that’s not a compliment.)

Planned Parenthood–wow, they sure do offer choices–especially in a bad economy:

Family planning centers and clinics where abortions are performed see firsthand the effects of the economy on women in all age groups and income levels. Some noticed greater numbers seeking help in January.

Yes it is scary to lose your job and figure out you are pregnant. No, offering an abortion is not helpful, sensitive, or appropriate.

We don’t kill to solve our problems. (Or do we?)