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No more need to raise funds? But not because we found a cure

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My friend muses:

So I was watching the kids out doing the Shinerama today, raising money for cystic fibrosis research when it dawned on me. They are raising money for this cause, to find a cure for an awful disease, while also supporting strongly the death of such children before they are born through their student governments and unfettered access to abortion. CF rates fell from 1/2714 before pre-natal genetic testing to 1/3608 in 2000. It could be even lower now.

I’m grateful to disability rights folks for raising these points–it’s incumbent on the rest of us to connect the dots between abortion and the effects it has on the differently-abled around us. Or not around us, as the case is more and more.

I chuckled, anyway

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This is not a post about why men don’t propose, or gender warfare, or whether too many 30-something men are too busy playing Xbox these days or whether feminism caused too many 30-something men to play too much Xbox. Please hold your angry comments–maybe save them for a non-holiday weekend.

I just thought this was quite a funny ad.

Back to school–how much do you know?

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I cannot lie. I am friends with the author of this piece. (At least, I think I am, and hope she feels the same way.) That said, it’s a very good piece. Most Canadians would indeed fail an “abortion quiz.”

Now this topic doesn’t “just come up” very often (unless of course you socialize with me, and then it comes up more often than I am comfortable with. “What did you do today?” “I blogged…” “What’s your blog?” “Er, it’s a home decorating thing…” No, it’s not, it’s called ProWomanProLife. I advocate for the position that being pro-life is very pro-woman. This leads to a quizzical and concerned silence. At that point I usually wish I had a home decorating blog. Or perhaps a cake baking blog. There’s a blog for everything, and I could certainly use some advice on how to successfully create these for an upcoming baby shower I’m planning.)

I digress. Where was I? Abortion doesn’t normally come up very often. When it does, or if it does, take a casual poll of whether people know it’s legal all nine months in Canada, and I will bet all 14 dollars of my savings on the fact that no one will, and they will be aghast. Try it and let me know how it goes.

(Tips on the baby block mini cakes also most welcome.)

Overheard on an Ottawa bus

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I have been taking the bus a bit more lately, don’t ask me why. Recently, I sat next to a dapper-looking young man, who was talking loudly on his cell phone.

This is a post about relationships. Sometimes relationships break up, and we just don’t know why. I know I have a tendency to blame myself.

But something tells me that when a relationship breaks up for this young man on the bus (and trust me, it will happen) he should blame himself, but won’t.

Here we go—overheard on an Ottawa bus:

Did you really check the web site? … Did you check the web site? …No really check it. I don’t believe you. …Did you type in “Sri Lanka”? …S-R-I-L-A-N-K-A. It’s not coming up?… “Sri Lanka” is two words, stupid. … (longer pause)…Wow, that was, like, totally unnecessary. You shouldn’t talk to me like that … ok, so go to Bloomberg.com… Bloomberg.com… are you there? I need you to read me that article. … Well how am I supposed to know it if you don’t read it to me? …I really need to know this. … (long pause as apparently she reads him an article) … What do I think of you? We’re good friends … ya, we’re good friends. …Oh no no no. I won’t categorize. … we won’t be categorized. …

Best wishes to you, my friend, in your future romantic endeavours.

Yes we can! (include abortion coverage in public plans)

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As a former fulltime factchecker, I enjoyed this analysis of the ongoing feud between the Obama administration’s health care plans and pro-life groups.

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Brigitte would like to bring some inside baseball into the mix and warn anyone not to ask Andrea to fact-check your stuff. She’ll find plenty of mistakes and other inconsistencies, and then you’ll have to work way harder and longer than you thought just to make sure you have your facts straight. It’s a pain… But hey, when she fact-checks other people’s stuff? That’s just grand.

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Andrea adds: I am sorry for how, er, fastidious I was about that. But fact checking can be brutal work, tedious and boring, and the only way I could think of to make it interesting was to challenge myself to really find errors. (Talk about poor incentives, a successful fact check was one where I actually corrected something.) Fact checking Miss Brigitte rarely uncovered errors, I might add. Very disappointing!

A new book about the Pill

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We had our colloquium, here. Now a new book asks even more questions about The Pill regime:

The Pill: Are You Sure It’s For You?, a new book out next month, queries why the Pill is so readily prescribed across the developed world when its negative side- effects are so frequent and sometimes fatal, and its effectiveness in preventing pregnancy less than perfect.

This line of questioning is not new, incidentally. It’s something the late Barbara Seaman pursued vigorously.

Questions worth asking.

The Kennedys on abortion

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This article compares and contrasts Eunice Kennedy Shriver with Ted Kennedy on abortion:

For abortion opponents, cruel ironies abounded in this sibling disagreement. Because of Eunice Shriver’s work with the developmentally disabled, a group of Americans who had once been marginalized and hidden away — or lobotomized, like her sister Rosemary — was ushered closer to full participation in ordinary human life. But because of laws that her brother unstintingly supported, that same group was ushered out again: the abortion rate for fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome, for instance, is estimated to be as high as 90 percent.

In 1992, Eunice participated in the last significant effort to push the Democratic Party away from abortion on demand, petitioning her party’s convention to consider “a new understanding” of the issue, “one that does not pit mother against child,” but instead seeks “policies that responsibly protect and advance the interest of mothers and their children, both before and after birth.” That same summer, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Supreme Court upheld a near-absolute right to terminate a pregnancy — a decision made possible by her brother’s demagogic assault on Robert Bork five years earlier, which helped doom Bork’s nomination to the court.

Some will be surprised it was a Kennedy woman who supported life, a Kennedy man who supported death. I am not. In fact, I am currently preparing a talk on why abortion constitutes a significant injustice for all women, not just those who choose to have one.

That’s a whole lot of comments on breastfeeding in public

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From time to time I check The Shotgun. This week, I note that their most highly commented post is about breastfeeding in public.

Interesting.

I suppose I should have an opinion on this. I figure a baby’s got to eat, and if the mom is comfortable doing it in public, go for it. We don’t live in a modest age, and if I’m going to see nudity everywhere I look, I’d rather it be because a mom is feeding her baby than the reasons I see it now.

Nothing new here

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So a Czech broadcaster takes it all off because she lost a bet? When I lived in Prague, there was a standard clip on the nightly news involving a naked man or woman (it’s not degrading if both genders do it) who would then put on the clothes you needed to wear, depending on the weather. Get it? Very instructive.

(I’m not kidding–the word “počasí” (pronounced “po-cha-si,” means “weather”) would appear amongst seductively swirling clouds. I will add that not all Czechs think this is a great idea. Though my sister wanted me to tape it, because she was very incredulous that a news broadcast would feature such a stunt.)

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Brigitte would like to put on her famous crusty old goat hat: And remark that nowadays, it seems like you need an excuse to keep your clothes on, not to take them off in public.

Whatever you say

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Sure thing. I’m sure this is how the new gene-replacement technology will be used:

The only way to treat these defects is to replace the genes,” he said. “This is gene transfer involving the germline, which is a concern, but we are pursuing it not for general use but for patients with mutations they will pass to the next generation. We believe this technology will prevent that.”

Just like abortion is only used in the most rare and extreme circumstances, and invitro fertilization is only used for patients who had to undergo chemotherapy… (Filing this one under “Eugenics” for your further reference…)

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