Archives for 2010

Well done!

The headline could be “Majority backs abortion rights” *or* “Liberal pollster needs a competing headline.”  

“Would you call yourself pro-choice or pro-life?”

versus

“Is abortion morally wrong?”

These are two different questions. Many who would say abortion is morally wrong would also say they are pro-choice. (This is the rather large “wrong for me but I can’t tell others what to do” category.)

What is legal is not always moral and what is moral is not always legal.

Political parties on abortion: Let us pretend there is no issue, until such time as we want to make it into a wedge for our opponents.

Today on Parliament Hill, Conservative MP Helena Guergis faced a barrage of criticism during Question Period over a letter-writing campaign initiated by one two of her constituency staff. You can read about the incident here. Among the niceties heaped on Guergis during QP were accusations of shaming all women by her callous behaviour. I don’t remember who these “questions” came from but they were from the general vicinity of the cheerful abortion bunch. You know, the “abortion-saves-lives” ladies?

Am I ashamed to be a woman because Helena Guergis has well-meaning-yet-misguided staff? Not really. Am I ashamed to be a woman because Helena Guergis had a hissy fit at an airport? Bah. No. There is more to being a woman than getting a grip on one’s temper. I mean, is a man with bad B.O. a dishonour to all men? Didn’t think so.

But if you want to speak about women doing disservice to all women, why don’t we look at more substantial issues. Like last week’s comments by Carolyn Bennett, And if you think that this attitude is isolated, what do you think of this one by Ontario MPP Cheri DiNovo:

… look at the vast majority of folk who take time off on leave to look after their children. The vast majority of them are women. In their most productive professional years they have to take a year off, or sometimes more-many women take more-when men are still working. And those productive lags are what hurt women.

Thank you for reiterating that motherhood is not real — productive — work. Maybe what hurts women more is not the productive lag but the people, like MPP diNovo, who keep reminding the world that mothers are only worth as much as their paycheque.

I totally agree with Dan Gardner’s column today about demographics.

And I too am at risk of being slapped with that undesirable fanatic label.  I’m working to take back the term. Enjoy it. Feel it. Live it. Breathe it. Soon I’ll never be invited anywhere.

Anyhoo: You can’t talk about demographics without talking about fertility. And you can’t talk about fertility without talking about abortion. And you can’t talk about any of this without talking about an anti-child culture. And, for good measure, women waiting to have children.

Never miss a chance to be fanatical, I say. Life is short.

Wow. People dream of having spare time to call around like this. And all this to convince people who are decidedly “anti-life.” (Sarah McLachlan who started Lilith Fair is pro-choice.)

When a pro-abortion politician demands “abortion rights” as part of maternal health, it’s predictable like a “please play again” in your Roll Up The Rim to Win Tim Horton’s Coffee Cup.

You always hope for more, like a computer, or perhaps, $10,000 bucks! but what you get is a call for abortion rights. Predictable.

There are days, I swear, when the world looks very bleak. Even when the sun is shining.

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) — The game begins with a teenage girl on a subway platform. She notices you are looking at her and asks, “Can I help you with something?”

That is when you, the player, can choose your method of assault.

With the click of your mouse, you can grope her and lift her skirt. Then you can follow her aboard the train, assaulting her sister and her mother.

As you continue to play, “friends” join in and in a series of graphic, interactive scenes, you can corner the women, rape them again and again.

The game allows you to even impregnate a girl and urge her to have an abortion. The reason behind your assault, explains the game, is that the teenage girl has accused you of molesting her on the train. The motive is revenge.

It is little wonder that the game, titled RapeLay, sparked international outrage from women’s groups. Taina Bien-Aime helped yank the game off store shelves worldwide.

My first reaction was: “I sure hope it’s not just ‘women’s groups’ that are outraged, otherwise we’re doomed.” (Women’s groups being, on the whole, remarkably useless except when they’re worse.) But then I had a sip of coffee and reminded myself that maybe now we’ve reached the point where it can’t get any worse and that things are therefore bound to improve.

Is it possible, you think?

___________________

Andrea adds: Darkness comes before the dawn.

It’s true. Men are wimps.