tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87150512852280572352024-03-13T23:43:06.265-05:00Pro-Life AmericanThe blog of a politically incorrect pro-life politics-geek child of God.Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-14490576543504634282012-08-17T22:29:00.001-05:002012-08-17T22:29:44.669-05:00Of Love and Dictionaries<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LO-ecLN7f9I/UC8KyDJ5IKI/AAAAAAAAAVM/nM1xAV3Y-O0/s1600/dictionary.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LO-ecLN7f9I/UC8KyDJ5IKI/AAAAAAAAAVM/nM1xAV3Y-O0/s1600/dictionary.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am now completely, totally, fed up. There seems to be a vast number of people who have a wide vocabulary, but little comprehension of what their wide vocabulary actually means. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Allow me to give you a definition of a word from <a href="http://onelook.com/">OneLook.com</a>:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hate</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>noun</strong>: the emotion of hate; a feeling of dislike so strong that it demands action</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>verb</strong>: dislike intensely; feel antipathy or aversion towards</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now let me give you a quote:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Guilty as charged. We are very much supportive of the family -- of the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unless you have been totally out of the loop this past month, you know exactly who I'm quoting: Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A. Could you please point to the part of this statement that suggests Cathy hates homosexuals? In fact, let me broaden that. Could you please point to <strong>any</strong> of his statements or actions <strong>anytime</strong> that suggests Cathy hates homosexuals? (Believe it or not, when Cathy made this statement, he actually </span><a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2012/07/wheres-the-beef-what-the-chick-fil-a-boss-really-said/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wasn't</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> talking about homosexuals; he was talking about people who opposed CFA's support of the traditional family.) If you want, you can say that Cathy is discriminatory/bigoted towards homosexuals. Go ahead. But he (and Chick-fil-A) most definitely do not <strong>hate</strong> homosexuals! Got it? Chick-fil-A serves homosexuals just like they serve heterosexuals and every other kind of sexual of which you can think. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's true that CFA donates to organizations that are against gay marriage. (For information on the infamous anti-gay Ugandan bill, please read the last paragraph from </span><a href="http://www.snopes.com/politics/sexuality/chickfila.asp"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this article from Snopes</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.) If <strong>that</strong> is the reason you want to boycott CFA, that's fine with me. It's a free country. I'm not mad that you want to boycott CFA. I'm mad that you want to boycott CFA because of something that doesn't exist. You can hate homosexuality without hating homosexuals, just like you can hate premartial sex, abortionists, and every other sin, without hating the person themselves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not convinced?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you hate cancer?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most people have lost a family member or a friend through cancer. There are several different kinds of cancer in my family. Most recently, I lost my grandfather. However, I did not hate my grandfather. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We bigoted Christians hate sin because it destroys individuals and society and hurts God. That doesn't mean we want sin to be illegal (this is America), but it does mean that we don't want to be forced to recognize sin as something good. (Though, obviously, there are some sins that have to be illegal, and are illegal because their results are so obvoiusly horrific that even we humans usually won't allow them.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That being said, there are so-called Christians who do hate homosexuals. They're the people with the "God hates f---" and "Kill the f---" signs. There are also Muslims who hate homosexuals. Look back up at the "hate" definition. SHAME ON THEM.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dWx-5obq2I/UC8LbCEY8_I/AAAAAAAAAVc/kjvWCR_Iejg/s1600/no+hate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dWx-5obq2I/UC8LbCEY8_I/AAAAAAAAAVc/kjvWCR_Iejg/s200/no+hate.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am against homosexuality. It is sinful and harmful, especially to the homosexuals themselves. If it isn't a lifestyle choice (like most vehemently say), then it's a disease; the brain thinks it can reproduce with a member of the same sex. I understand why people are offended by that; I mean, it's pretty obvious. I would be offended if someone felt sorry for me because I have the disease of religion. Or the disease of liking red. But that doesn't mean they hate me. And I can choose to brush off the offense. The offender doesn't get to choose what offends people. I can get a thicker skin. Nobody should be so sensitive that a pebble feels like a boulder.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mHMuDcTQiq8/UC8K8x43_HI/AAAAAAAAAVU/TuoNv7wV1dg/s1600/gay+bullying.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mHMuDcTQiq8/UC8K8x43_HI/AAAAAAAAAVU/TuoNv7wV1dg/s200/gay+bullying.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realize that many people don't give themselves thin skins: if somebody has been told all their life that they are worthless, disgusting, or whatever, then it's perfectly understandable when they conclude that everybody hates them. It's obviously an unreasonable claim, but it's an understandable one. Lots of homosexuals go through bullying. That's wrong. But it doesn't make my support of Chick-fil-A and traditional family wrong because it hurts the homosexuals. I'm more at fault for what I <em>don't</em> do in this case than what I <em>do</em> do. If homosexuals think that all Christians hate them, then clearly the Church has not been showing them love. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That's also what allows the pro-abortion movement to claim that pro-lifers hate women. How many protests have YOU seen this week with "stay locked up in your house", "Stupid ****", "Women are worthless" signs? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apparently actual acts of hate aren't necessary to elicit claims of hate anymore. The lack of (obvious) love is enough. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a solution to that, of course.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Showing obvious love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-80067472786822503792012-07-30T10:13:00.000-05:002012-07-30T10:13:18.653-05:00Voter ID<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The cartoon strip "</span><a href="http://doonesbury.slate.com/strip"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Doonesbury</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" has taken an interesting topic this past week. Now, I normally enjoy reading "Doonesbury" because of its political jokes, even though the swipe is usually pointed at the right. Because, hey, politics is messy and pretty ridiculous. I enjoy laughing at what I...well, enjoy. (Plus, the illustrations of Donald Trump crack me up.) But I really, truly, do not understand all the fuss over voter ID laws. They are being called anti-American and a tactic used by the right to prevent minorities from going to the polls. Huh?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, first, what's anti-American about being required to have an ID? A political cartoon in my obviously left-tilted local newspaper this morning had a picture of a Nazi labeled "photo ID" welcoming a voter to the land of the free, and asking to see his papers. Um...no. Making sure you are an American citizen before you vote is not being a Nazi, and it's not infringing on freedom. If you're an illegal immigrant/not a citizen of the US of A, you aren't allowed to vote. Sorry. And you're not allowed to vote twice, whether you're a citizen or not. That's cheating. IDs are ways of the government keeping track of the people. I don't mean in a creepy "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Children_(series)">Shadow Children</a>" way--I mean in a make-sure-you-follow-basic-rules-of-the-republic way. It's like the census; we need the census to calculate how many representatives each state is allowed to have, how to distribute funds, etc. Is it annoying? Sure. But it's a necessary annoying.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ale-Y_sU8c/UBaj3DaDxjI/AAAAAAAAAU0/yAOA4vhi1t0/s1600/rules.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1Ale-Y_sU8c/UBaj3DaDxjI/AAAAAAAAAU0/yAOA4vhi1t0/s1600/rules.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...please?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently wrote a </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/06/in-which-were-my-blog-better-known-i.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">blog post </span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">on racism hype. This is a perfect example of why I'm so exasperated. Me? Racist? Because I want people to follow the rules? It's the left that's being racist. Aren't they insinuating that minorities aren't smart enough to get their own IDs? Getting an ID is <em><a href="http://www.dmv.org/nc-north-carolina/id-cards.php">not hard</a></em>. You show up and fill out an application and present proof of your age and identity. </span><a href="http://www.ncdot.gov/dmv/examples/default.html#identity"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This can be</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">: a birth certificate. Your social security card. School documents. Marriage certificate. U.S. government documents. In North Carolina, the fee is $10. That is not a lot of money. If you are living in poverty, of course, then it can be. But most people can afford $10. </span><a href="http://newsroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/11/poverty-in-america-if-poor-people-own-luxury-items-are-they-really-poor/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most people 'in poverty'</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> have Cable TV, a car, air conditioning, and other modern luxuries, for crying out loud! My family for <em>years</em> could not afford Cable, and there was a point in time where we lived on oatmeal, beans, and the kind of popcorn that you get in a plastic bag and pop yourself on your stove. And yet, had it been necessary, we could have afforded the $10 dollar photo ID fee. I'm not trying to be insensitive to people who really do have money problems--even if they have luxury items. I just want to point out that most do not have a reason they can't get an ID.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's true that I don't want <em>illegal</em> minorities to vote. But that's not because they're one of the groups most likely to vote for President Obama. It's because they're illegal. I want people to follow the rules. Is that too much to ask?</span> <br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">All images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-82494330890271656972012-07-19T20:41:00.000-05:002012-07-19T20:41:26.600-05:00Defining Person (Part 3)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RGZO93LyXiI/UAiuNaQLN9I/AAAAAAAAAUU/2Im5DLQVBpU/s1600/reality.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RGZO93LyXiI/UAiuNaQLN9I/AAAAAAAAAUU/2Im5DLQVBpU/s1600/reality.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many people place the definition of "person" on whatever the mother/woman decides. Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics use this tactic all the time. It's a no-no to call the woman's pregnancy a "baby" if she's going to abort--or if she isn't sure. Use "pregnancy". "Fetus". "Products of conception". But not "baby". Only use "baby" if the mother is accepting of her pregnancy and entirely sure she wants to keep it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's this way with our culture. We have Facebook pages for unborn babies, complete with ultrasound pictures and development timelines. We have baby showers. We talk all about the baby. Have you ever heard anyone say, "How's the fetus doing?" to a pregnant woman? Yet we don't make a peep (if we're good little politically correct citizens) if a baby--sorry, fetus--is quietly aborted.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet when you think about it, this is quite the bizarre mentality. What if a woman aborts, but regrets her decision later (as many do), and wish she had kept her fetus? Does that mean that it's a baby now, but wasn't when it was aborted? Is the woman delusional? Are all pregnant women delusional when they call their pregnancy a "baby"? Can you turn personhood on and off like a switch?</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_lSaUGXeg7k/UAi1tbrTP3I/AAAAAAAAAUg/y9uoY0BQ_GI/s1600/no+responsibility.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_lSaUGXeg7k/UAi1tbrTP3I/AAAAAAAAAUg/y9uoY0BQ_GI/s320/no+responsibility.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Maybe not," some may say, "but when a woman faces an unplanned pregnancy, she hasn't accepted responsibility for it." Oh? So personhood relies on dependence? If nobody wants to take care of you, you're now disposable? Sometimes you automatically have responsibility, whether you have "accepted" it or not. What happens if a woman decides to keep her baby, but then later changes her mind and decides she wants to abort him? Is it too late, since she had already accepted responsibility for him earlier? If there's nothing wrong with that, why do we have abortions at all? Let's let all the women carry their fetuses to term, and then simply kill them after their born. It's safer for the woman. Or why stop there? There's no reason she can't order the death of the fetus when it's, say, seventeen, or as long as it's dependant on her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I suppose maybe this scenario is a little unfair. A seventeen-year-old can take care of himself if he has to. The fetus--and children up to a certain age--certainly can not take care of themselves. The fetus is the most helpless--if it's taken out of its mother's womb before 23 weeks, it'll most likely die.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kPsvXfbtnB4/UAi11KePLAI/AAAAAAAAAUo/kqDBir7Tx_E/s1600/sad+three.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kPsvXfbtnB4/UAi11KePLAI/AAAAAAAAAUo/kqDBir7Tx_E/s200/sad+three.png" width="133" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But wait a minute. Since when does "helpless" make us care <em>less</em> for individuals? Which scnario gives you the strongest feeling of revulsion: a man raping a 30-year-old woman, or a man raping a 3-year-old girl? Both crimes are terrible, but there's more outrage over the 3-year-old girl, because she <em>could not defend herself</em>. The woman could have been threatened with a gun; she could have been killed. But she still had the chance to run away. The 3-year-old physically had no possibility of escape by herself. The child's helplessness makes us more determined to make the criminal take responsibility for his actions--and possibly greater responsibility. The same goes for the elderly and the handicapped. </span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The weaker someone is, the <em>more</em> we are obligated to take care of them. If a twenty-one-year-old barges into his mother's home and demands that she make him lunch, she can refuse him if she wants. She can even turn him out of the house. However, if a two-year-old askes his mother for food and she refuses him, she will be accused of child abuse. We automatically strive to protect those who are weaker than ourselves. Only with abortion is this supposed to not be the case.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">*Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-62516991680390881962012-07-05T17:55:00.001-05:002012-07-05T17:55:06.027-05:00Extreme Bigot...Yup, That's Me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-01hO5KiZFgQ/T_YV3-YkwEI/AAAAAAAAAT0/_g4WxiJOPVQ/s1600/morality.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-01hO5KiZFgQ/T_YV3-YkwEI/AAAAAAAAAT0/_g4WxiJOPVQ/s1600/morality.png" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I believe in (mostly) black and white. There's quite a bit of grey area, and there are some places where something could very well be "right" for one person, and "wrong" for someone else. But there's a whole lot of black and white. And I see more and more black and white as I get older and learn more about the world. It's most inconvenient. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently, I've been thinking a lot about contraception, primarily because of the HHS mandate. I've been fairly ignorant about it though, since I'm a virgin and, thus, have never used it. Until recently, I've had a fairly "moderate" view of contraception. I come from a large family and I currently have seven siblings (yes, that number will likely go up). We're not Catholic or Mormon. We're just Christians who know that children are a blessing and who don't use contraception. Simple as that. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vyuigs70o30/T_YWlL8cMCI/AAAAAAAAAT8/YL2pRrRnS-A/s1600/evil....jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vyuigs70o30/T_YWlL8cMCI/AAAAAAAAAT8/YL2pRrRnS-A/s200/evil....jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contraception = Evil?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, I hadn't ever really considered contraception wrong. I don't plan to use it, because...well, I'm not scared of having a family, I guess. I viewed contraception like a lot of people view abortion: "I don't like it, but you can use it if you want." Or perhaps like drinking a lot of beer or smoking: it isn't a good idea and is bad for your health, but it isn't<em> "wrong"</em>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I still have no problem with the idea behind contraception: preventing conception. You can avoid children if you want. It's none of my business. But, I have now discovered the fine print of contraception, and my nice little un-bigoted viewpoint kind of just exploded. Basically, I can no longer call myself pro-life and support most contraceptives. Because of abortion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, abortion. The vast majority of the time (ninety-something percent, generally), contraceptives prevent conception. But if you read <a href="http://www.americanpregnancy.org/preventingpregnancy/birthcontrolfailure.html">the fine print</a> on the back of the pill bottle or other packaging, the secondary method is to prevent the embryo from implanting in the uterus. Thus, a very early abortion. This goes for the very common contraceptions, such as IUDs and the Pill, as well as the vast majority of other contraceptives. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This view probably appears extreme, even to other pro-lifers. But, frankly, putting a stop to the loss of human life is <u>never</u> extreme, or bigoted. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q1GFcXchdwE/T_YZtc_swzI/AAAAAAAAAUI/bsYjNVQT9eo/s1600/fanatic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q1GFcXchdwE/T_YZtc_swzI/AAAAAAAAAUI/bsYjNVQT9eo/s1600/fanatic.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow creatures<br />
is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics <br />
ever permitted to be at large." ~ William Wilburforce</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some people protest this view because contraceptive pills are sometimes used for health purposes, not to prevent conception. This is regrettable, but also kind of silly. Contraceptive pills treat the symptoms of these diseases; they don't treat the disease itself. For example: <a href="http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/ovarian-cysts.cfm">ovarian cysts</a> are (appropriately) painful cysts that form as a result of ovulation (when a woman's ovaries releases an egg for possible fertilization and pregnancy). Birth control usually prevents ovulation and, thus, <a href="http://women.webmd.com/birth-control-pills-for-ovarian-cysts">prevents ovarian cysts</a>; however, it does not cure the disease. The birth control serves as an extreme kind of pain-killer. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, unfortunately, a practice that our culture has deemed normal and harmless, is anything but. It's always uncomfortable when we realize we've been wrong. It certainly isn't fun for me (my thought upon discovering this was 'Shoot, <u>another</u> thing I have to oppose.'), but to oppose abortion and not oppose chemicals that cause abortions would simply be hypocritical. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">*Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-66964822730542200592012-06-08T11:15:00.004-05:002012-06-08T11:15:33.795-05:00In Which, Were My Blog Better Known, I Would Be Called Many Uncouth Names<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, that title is a little sarcastic. This is a bit of an off-key post for this blog, but it's a subject that has been gnawing at my mind for quite a while now. All of this below is my opinion, gained and crafted by my own observations and--to put it fancily--philosophy of the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Racism. Today, being a "racist" is one of the worst smears that can possibly be added to your name. If you're a politician, you have to be extra careful whenever you allude to minority groups (on any subject), because your speech could be twisted into racism. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wonder, though, what would happen if the world started treating racism like it is. I mean, we all call it horrible, degrading, dangerous, discriminatory, and other such things. And racism IS horrible, degrading, dangerous, discriminatory, and other such things. But there's always one adjective missing from the list of things describing racism. Why don't we ever use it? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Racism is horrible, degrading, dangerous, and discriminatory. It's also really, really...stupid. I can still remember my reaction when I first found out about modern-day racism, which actually was kind of late in my childhood. I'd always thought of racism in terms of slavery and the civil rights movement. I knew that there were still some racist people in the world (there will always be nutters we have to share the Earth with), but I really didn't think about it. I'm a caucasion girl who, for a long time, lived in a wealthy county (though my family certainly was not wealthy), where there weren't many minorities and no racial tension. I don't remember how exactly I found out about prevalent modern-day racism, but it was an accumulation of events, I think: a conversation with my mom about racial tension in the south, a page in a history book, and other things. I didn't feel horror, disgust, anger, or other motions you might expect. I distinctly remember my feeling of surprise when it finally dawned on me: "Well that's...dumb." </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Racism exists? Huh?</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I shall, predictably, now turn to the recent case of Martin and Zimmerman. I will say right up front that I do not know of what Zimmerman is guilty. A life has been lost, and that is tragic. However, I would like to know how this particular case made the news. Never mind. I do know. The guy who killed was white. The guy killed was black. And our beloved media pounced: obviously, this is a case of RACISM. The public will love it, in all its terrible glory.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wait, what? A </span><a href="http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/04/10/black-arizona-man-kills-white-man-claims-self-defense-escapes-arrest/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">black guy killed a white guy</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> a while back, also claiming self-defense. Why didn't <em>that </em>make the "big news"? In my opinion, there's more evidence supporting Zimmerman's story than the black guy's story. However, I'm not a member of the police force or the judiciary, and I don't have all the facts. It's not my place to decide. What disturbs me is how much people pretend to know about the case, when we don't really know anything. There were people calling for "justice for Trayvon" before the whole story even came out. All that the racism hype is doing is stirring up the possibility for some sort of explosion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Affirmative action isn't helping anything either. Hey, it was necessary for the short time when there was prevalent racism. However, now all it does is give unfair advantages to people who, many times, do not deserve them. Colleges and workplaces are so frantic to appear modern, anti-sexist, anti-racist, and politically correct, that they bring their own quality of education and products down if they do not hire the best people to fill a government-imposed quotia. Let's say a black woman, of moderate capabilities, applies for a job. A white woman, of bad capabilities, also applies. A white man with excellent capabilities applies as well. Who's going to get the job, if the workplace's female-and-black quotia isn't filled? The company, and subsequently, all of its employees, suffer a loss when the best person is not hired. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am a great believer in the power of expectations. As long as we, as a society, expect people to be racist, that is exactly what we will get: racism. I'm not saying that we should ignore racism. I'm saying that we need to keep racism in a balanced perspective. For example, calling a murderer racist when there's, you know...actual evidence that it was race-driven. That includes both white AND black killers. Think about it: you are more likely to be called "racist" if you're white, which is racism in itself: setting expectations on somebody because of their race. All of these accusations breed racism and resentment: blacks may think all whites are racist, and whites, annoyed with the unfair handouts minorities recieve because of their race, may brand all minorities as lazy slobs leeching off of their tax-dollars.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c1oaqWuOD8o/T9Ikph_S1II/AAAAAAAAATo/Ydnzvxe9rZs/s1600/racist+dog.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c1oaqWuOD8o/T9Ikph_S1II/AAAAAAAAATo/Ydnzvxe9rZs/s1600/racist+dog.png" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the results are things like </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYTVyHpLmX0"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Seriously? GROW UP, people. Argue that the signs are in bad taste. That our president is awesome. That his policies work. You know, a conversation that is actually logical. But no, clearly, we must jump to the assumption that the man who put up the sign is racist. Obviously, those signs are extremely disrespectful, and I do not approve of them, but where did some of those protestors get the idea that they were race-driven? I don't like our president. I also forget that he's black most of the time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When it's plausible that one of </span><a href="http://www.juliansmith.tv/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Julian Smith's</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> make-believe scenarios could take place in the future, there's definitely something wrong.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">All images found via Google Imates. Video taken from Julian Smith's YouTube account. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-67482654506133194432012-05-30T12:38:00.000-05:002012-05-30T12:38:00.865-05:00Defining Person (Part 2)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In part 1, I began examining the differences between this human being</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and this human being.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mere appearance and location does not qualify a human being as a person. The next obvious difference is level of development, and this difference is what most abortion advocates rely on. Abortion clinics tell women that abortion is okay, because the fetus "isn't really a baby", or "it's just a blob of cells", or "it's just a clump of tissue".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I could get into the hard, scientific facts, and list all the "human" characteristics of a very young human embryo, but that would just feed the idea that, as a human being, you have to have certain physical characteristics to be qualified as a person. For example, saying that brain waves are detectable at six weeks and two days, only implies that the fetus is a person at six seeks and two days and beyond, but not necessarily before.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The human brain </span><a href="http://www.edinformatics.com/news/teenage_brains.htm"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">doesn't finish developing</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> until a young adult's mid-twenties. Obviously, a thirty-year-old isn't more of a person than a newborn, even though his brain may be more developed. After we are born, society doesn't attach our personhood to the level of development in our brains. When someone is completely brain-dead, they are just that--dead. They can physically be kept alive by machines doing every single bodily function for them, but there is no recovery (unlike people in a coma, or </span><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/brain-dead-woman-recovers-after-husband-refuses-to-withdraw-life-support/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">false brain death</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, who can recover).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously, a day-old embryo does not yet have brain waves. However, the brain <u>is developing</u>. When a person's brain dies, the person is officially declared dead, because there's no coming back. However, you can't declare a healthy, growing embryo as not alive. The embryo does not yet have a functioning brain, just as a three-year-old girl does not have a functioning reproductive system. She is still developing that. Development takes time. Not having a functioning body part does not mean you are less than a person. Brand-new embryos have absolutely everything you do. The only thing they lack is time: time to grow into an adult. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"But thinking, rationalizing, being aware that you exist, is what <u>makes</u> a person," it might be argued. (And at this time we can point out unconciousness and NREM sleep as points in everyone's lives where you don't rationalize, think, or be aware that you exist.) In other words, the brain is too important to be simply considered "a body part". This is, in part, true. The ability to rationalize, philosophize, and build civilizations is one aspect that separates human beings from animals. There's a reason humans are at the top of the food chain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's what separates human beings from animals. All human beings are included in that category. Embryos, five-year-olds, and adults alike. So tell me this. Sit down with an average five-year-old boy and give him a piece of paper with an algebraic problem written on it. Will he be able to solve it? No, of course not. Why is that? Because he doesn't know how. He isn't yet capable of learning how. Will he be able to solve it eventually? Yes. But he needs time. Time to learn basic arithmatic first, and to understand the basics concepts of mathematics. Stand a newborn baby up and let go. Will he stand and walk? Will he sit down? No, of course not. He topples over. Why is that? Because he doesn't have the motor skills necessary to stand, walk, or sit. He is not ready.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Is there anything wrong with the children described above? No. They are perfectly normal. They are just as developed as they should be. We accept that and care for them. Why do we try to categorize some (or all) of the unborn as less than people, when we don't do so on the born? Human embryos are also perfectly normal. They are just as developed as they should be. Why do we not accept that and care for them? Is it becuase they are unable to protest? Can you imagine trying to expain this to an unborn child? "I'm sorry, three-week-old embryo, I'm aware you're Michael's sister, but as you are not as developed as other human beings, such as a 23-week-old fetus, I don't think you're a person. I also don't want to deal with another child right now, emotionally or financially. Therefore, I shall abort you. Cheers."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">We can't logically have this double standard. Either all human beings are persons, or none of us are. </span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-65293502228773289082012-04-17T15:54:00.000-05:002012-04-17T15:54:29.154-05:00How (Not) To Vote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RPlvniRVKnM/T43YJQI5FcI/AAAAAAAAAS0/_F264huhIao/s1600/voting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RPlvniRVKnM/T43YJQI5FcI/AAAAAAAAAS0/_F264huhIao/s1600/voting.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's something fun for today. </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/blimeycow"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BlimeyCow</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is my favorite vlogger--if that's the right word for his videos--and also, the only one I, uh, watch. Unless </span><a href="http://www.juliansmith.tv/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Julian Smith</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> counts, but I don't think he does.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And by the way, I finally got to go see </span><a href="http://www.octoberbabymovie.net/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">October Baby</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (yay!) and it was amazing. Is it the greatest movie ever made? No, it's not. But it's a beautiful story, and the quality was very good, even if it wasn't up to the level of "The Lord of the Rings" or "It's a Wonderful Life" (two of my favorite movies right there). As another indicator, it was a heck of a lot better than the "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" flop (sorry, Narnia). It also was not pushy about abortion or religion; it wasn't saying "Christianity is right and abortion is the most ultimate evil ever!", but rather "Here's a conflicted young woman who needs to re-discover who she is and how to forgive". As a plus, most criticisms of the movie (coming from the Left) aren't about the quality, but screaming about how the movie dares to oppose abortion. Which pretty much guarantees that the movie's going to be good.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Without further ado, here's </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/blimeycow"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BlimeyCow</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and "The TV Tells Me How to Vote".</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://1.gvt0.com/vi/KKZ_2l_GyME/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/KKZ_2l_GyME&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/KKZ_2l_GyME&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-59279601573205643302012-03-30T22:27:00.000-05:002012-03-30T22:27:41.035-05:00My Letters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OJNYiJQxgps/T3Z3jFll89I/AAAAAAAAASk/WUVCM0q0jUU/s1600/soul+on+paper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="124" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OJNYiJQxgps/T3Z3jFll89I/AAAAAAAAASk/WUVCM0q0jUU/s320/soul+on+paper.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
There's still a chance to help send <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-million-letters.html">one million letters</a> to the White House and Supreme Court! Here are a few that I've written. You are free to adopt them, but please <u>adopt</u> and do not copy; add your own heart to your letter.<br />
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#1<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">To whom it may concern:<br />
I am writing to voice my concerns about abortion. An abortion clearly violates the fourteenth amendment: "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws". Every single abortion kills a human bing, violates the fourteenth amendment, and the very foundation of this nation: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Some may argue that the unborn, while human, are not people, but that is a dangerous road to take: who are we to define what a "person" is, if not a human being? We have tried that before, with blacks here in the U.S., and with the Jews in Nazi Germany; both of these led to terrible injustices. And now we are attacking the unborn, stripping them of their personhood, with no logical foundation for our claims except our own selfishness. This hidden holocaust is hidden no longer: the American people are waking up, and are horrified to realize their is the blood of over fifty million children on our hands. I urge you to join the fight against abortion. <br />
Please, I am **** years old and this is not the country I want to inherit. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Sincerely,<br />
Grace *********</blockquote>#2<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">To Whom It May Concern:<br />
I am writing to voice my concerns about abortion. <br />
Abortion advocates claim that abortion is about women's rights, but that does not make logical sense. Sexism has been dead for decades in the U.S. I am not against women having equal rights: I myself am a young woman, and an ambitious one! Abortion is not about women's rights. Women are physically different from men, and thus able to bear children, but being "different" does not mean they are legally "unequal". Even if we pretend that Nature has made women "unequal" (the ability become pregnant is not an inequality), that does not mean we are obliged to try to erase Nature's "mistake"--ESPECIALLY if it comes at the cost of a human life. <br />
Abortion itself is sexist. It is insulting to women to tell them that they have to be "fixed"; that they need the right to murder their own children in order to be "equal" to men. Our fertility is not a curse. Children are not a curse. If a woman does not want to have children, that is her decision. I will not stop her. However, once a woman becomes pregnant, it's too late to choose to not have a child--she already has one, and it should not be legal for her to kill her own offspring, born or unborn. It is her responsibility to carry the child, give birth, and then, if she wishes, put the child up for adoption. I urge you to stand up against this new Sexism in America, and stop the murder of our children.<br />
Please, I am **** years old, and this is not the country I want to inherit.<br />
Sincerely, </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Grace *********</blockquote><br />
#3<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">To Whom It May Concern,<br />
I am writing to voice my concerns about abortion.<br />
Abortion is the greatest tragedy to ever occur in all of human history. The death casuality is enormous, 50,000,000+ in the U.S. along in the last few decades, but worse than that, the deaths are legal, by our own hands, and the slaughter doesn't even fix the problem it claims to need fixing: instead, it creates dozens more, and hurts everybody in the world, not just the life that it brutally ends.<br />
The first obvious victim is the woman who undergoes the abortion. She is lied to about the humanity of the unborn, is not given all of the facts, and is frequently denied her right to see the ultrasound before her abortion. She is fed propaganda, in a bizarre new kind of Sexism, that says she can't be equal to a man unless she has the right to murder her own child, within her own body. She is not told about the possible increased risk of breast cancer, increased risk of miscarriages and premature births, post-traumatic stress disorder, or any of the other risks. <br />
Abortion also victimises the father, who gets no rights. He has no say in whether his son or daughter lives or dies.<br />
Abortion victimizes the aborted child's siblings, or future siblings; what would have been her best friend, her cousins, her husband, every life she would have touched. Gone. She leaves a hole before she is even born.<br />
Abortion victimizes the abortionist and the abortion workers. They are deceived into thinking they are doing something wonderful for women, and by the time they find out what they've done, it's too late: they have partaken in the slaughter of millions. It must be horrific to suddenly realize what evil you have caused.<br />
I urge you to join the fight against this terrible holocaust that is ripping apart the fabric of our nation. Please, I am **** years old and this is not the country I want to inherit.<br />
Sincerely,<br />
Grace *******</blockquote>Notice I looked at abortion from three different angles. That's easier to do than trying to write a concise letter touching on all of them. Also, I obviously left out my age and my last name. That's in case any internet creepers happen upon my blog. :) (Note to the internet creepers: obviously my age does not have four digits, and that is not the length of my last name. The number of asterisks was completely random, so don't waste your time.)<br />
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If you hurry, you can still have them postmarked in March! The instructions for mailing them are <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-million-letters.html">here</a>. (By the way, the <a href="http://www.standupforreligiousfreedom.com/">Stand Up for Religious Freedom</a> Rally I <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/02/sometimes-god-opens-doors.html">co-organized</a> was awesome. 250+ people showed up for my local rally, which was more than I expected! And last I checked, over 60,000 people showed up to rallies nation-wide--they're still counting! I hope you were able to attend one...NOW GO MAIL A LETTER!)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a7EkWjubQQ4/T3Z3_ia8eDI/AAAAAAAAASs/g-lZaKzlsMs/s1600/hurry!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a7EkWjubQQ4/T3Z3_ia8eDI/AAAAAAAAASs/g-lZaKzlsMs/s1600/hurry!.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HURRY!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: xx-small;">All images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-81043462523932930292012-03-20T09:04:00.000-05:002012-03-20T09:04:57.775-05:00Life Is Beautiful<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My excitement just shot up to here! (Imagine my hand high in the air.) There's nothing like growing anticipation to heighten anticipation even more. This is a beautiful song.</span> <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ezrM69rlDU?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here for more information on <a href="http://octoberbabymovie.net/">October Baby</a>.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-26550084121778159402012-03-17T09:22:00.000-05:002012-03-17T09:22:06.702-05:00And We're Paranoid?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7FEvdA1bcs/T2ScGdM-xfI/AAAAAAAAASM/9XwsmB6VxNo/s1600/first+rights.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7FEvdA1bcs/T2ScGdM-xfI/AAAAAAAAASM/9XwsmB6VxNo/s1600/first+rights.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must say, we saw this coming. I didn't expect it quite so fast, but here it is. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Direct taxpayer funding of abortion is now in place. I know, it was supposed to be illegal, wasn't it? But hey, who cares? The Obama administration sure doesn't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is (surprise, surprise) responsible for this. It is also responsible for the HHS contraception mandate. Gasp! </span><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/obama-health-care-rule-final-1-abortion-surcharge-from-every-premium-payer"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As explained on LifeSiteNews</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Department of Health and Human Services this month issued a </span><a href="http://www.ofr.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2012-06125_PI.pdf"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">final rule</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> regarding the exchanges required under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The rule provides for taxpayer funding of insurance coverage that includes elective abortion through a direct abortion subsidy. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To comply with the accounting requirement, plans will collect a separate $1 abortion surcharge from each premium payer. As described in the rule, the surcharge can only be disclosed to the enrollee at the time of enrollment, and insurance plans may only advertise the total cost of the premiums without disclosing the abortion surcharge. </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What really gets me is the last sentence. You can't disclose the abortion surcharge? You aren't allowed to know you're paying for abortion? Excuse me??</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The pro-abortion side likes to tell the pro-life side that we're all paranoid. Hahaha, legalized contraception won't lead to abortion on demand! What religious idiots! </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah. Except that happened. And infringing on freedom by forcing payment for contraception also lead to infringing on freedom by forcing payment for abortion. DIRECTLY funding abortion. THIS is why we have to continue to protest the HHS contraception mandate, and any infringement on freedom. Don't expect the government to just stop there. They're going to keep going. Guaranteed. Proven by history. You have to actively fight for your freedom if you expect to keep it. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And by the way, the Obama administration has now </span><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-obama-admin-widens-abortifacient-birth-control-mandate-to-college"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">broadened</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the contraception mandate to include college insurance, as well as employers. And, you guessed it, there's no conscience exemption. </span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VAC3nDjv90s/T2ScWisuyoI/AAAAAAAAASU/oa8ROEVmLQ0/s1600/STAND!.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="96" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VAC3nDjv90s/T2ScWisuyoI/AAAAAAAAASU/oa8ROEVmLQ0/s320/STAND!.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I encourage you to find a local </span><a href="http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stand Up For Religious Freedom</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> rally to attend on March 23. There are </span><a href="http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/locations/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">over 100 locations</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> now. There's even one in Alaska and one in Hawaii! All you have to do is go stand there with a sign. The bigger the crowds, the bigger the impact. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the bright side, the Obama administration is digging its own grave. I have to wonder what the heck they're thinking. I, and everybody else I know, is absolutely LIVID. We don't want to pay for other peoples' sex lives, and certianly not for murder! If there is anything that will get people out to the polls come November, this is it! I almost hope the administration continues to do such stupid, un-American things. It could be a blessing in disguise.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uP3jIg4RutU/T2ScjrOm9CI/AAAAAAAAASc/dmFUiYq8dcM/s1600/don't+tread+on+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uP3jIg4RutU/T2ScjrOm9CI/AAAAAAAAASc/dmFUiYq8dcM/s1600/don't+tread+on+me.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the way, <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/03/one-million-letters.html">have you sent a letter</a>?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">All images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-36739492980152969022012-03-13T15:30:00.000-05:002012-03-13T15:30:01.140-05:00October Baby<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r5eWZC4MwrU/T1-uJWfKJtI/AAAAAAAAASE/glRaJa2rgkc/s1600/october+baby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r5eWZC4MwrU/T1-uJWfKJtI/AAAAAAAAASE/glRaJa2rgkc/s200/october+baby.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm giving the folks over at the "October Baby" HQ some free advertising. This is the trailer for the pro-life movie "October Baby", in theaters March 23. It's been released to select theaters already, but I don't live anywhere near one of those, so I have not seen it. However, the reviews so far are positive. You know the somewhat cliche story plot about somebody finding out they were adopted and then hunting for their birth parents? Well, this movie comes with a twist. Adopted? Yes. Looking for birth mother? Yes. Why was she adopted? Her birth mother tried to abort her.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ouch.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm looking forward to seeing it!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/L52Lciaui4o?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-69689800615389634812012-03-06T17:16:00.001-06:002012-03-06T17:17:13.950-06:00One Million Letters<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9pvEw3x-dUE/T1aabAQe4hI/AAAAAAAAAR8/MtU2YwGtK4c/s1600/letter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9pvEw3x-dUE/T1aabAQe4hI/AAAAAAAAAR8/MtU2YwGtK4c/s1600/letter.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<a href="http://theteenagelifeclub.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012-pro-life-letter-campaign.html#!/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Teenage Life Club</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (of which I am not a member) is doing a campaign this month. The goal is 1,000,000 pro-life letters sent to the White House/Supreme Court during the month of March. My understanding is that you can write and send more than one letter per person, as the survey they ask you to take has an option for more than one letter. Here is the </span><a href="http://theteenagelifeclub.blogspot.com/2012/02/2012-pro-life-letter-campaign.html#!/2012/02/2012-pro-life-letter-campaign.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">description</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> on their website:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year, The Teenage Life Club has decided to host a 2012 Pro-Life Letter Campaign. Our goal is to send 1 million letters to the White House and the Supreme Court, voicing the pro-life opinions of our nation. It is crucial to send the letters and make an impact at this time, especially as elections are not too far off.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The purpose of The 2012 Pro-Life Letter Campaign is to open up an opportunity <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">for people who are pro-life</b> to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">express their opinions </b>on the matter of abortion and to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">make an impact </b>in the constant fight for life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are asking people to send letters to the White House and to the Supreme Court during <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>March 2012.<o:p></o:p></u></b></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The addresses:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The White House<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20502<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Supreme Court<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">East Capitol Street, NE and 1st Street NE <br />
Washington, DC 20002<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">People of any age can send letters. Adults and teens can write actual letters, while children are welcome to draw pictures and write a few phrases like “life,” “save the babies,” etc.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you are not sure what to write in a letter, here are three general ideas that may help you start out:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><ol><li><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Abortion violates the Fourteenth Amendment, of which the second half clearly states: “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Abortion is murder, and it kills over 1 million babies every year in the United States alone.</span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am speaking on behalf of those who have not had the chance to speak for themselves, and I will not stop until unborn babies have their equal share of rights.<o:p></o:p></span></span></li>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></ol><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After sending a letter to the White House or to the Supreme Court, please contact us so that we can know how many letters were sent. You can do so by taking this survey: </span><a href="http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3N57QY5"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to take survey</span></a></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We hope you will join us in our goal to reaching 1,000,000 letters sent to the White House and to the Supreme Court by people of all ages. In doing so, we hope to raise more awareness towards the issue of abortion and to help people see the injustice of the act.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at </span><a href="mailto:contacttheteenagelifeclub@gmail.com"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">contacttheteenagelifeclub@gmail.com</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">and if you are planning on participating in this project, please contact me as well.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thank you!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sincerely,<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Angie<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">President of The Teenage Life Club</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will definitely be sending a letter, and probably more than one. </span><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/teenagers-launch-campaign-to-send-one-million-pro-life-letters-to-the-white"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a small, six-member club</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and I greatly admire their effort.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-82479975220031941212012-03-02T22:24:00.002-06:002012-03-02T22:40:47.761-06:00Defining Person (Part 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qn6MJrix99w/T1GgyrOOk8I/AAAAAAAAAR0/a310Cn5IFpk/s1600/Philosophy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qn6MJrix99w/T1GgyrOOk8I/AAAAAAAAAR0/a310Cn5IFpk/s1600/Philosophy.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/07/life-begins-now-part-1.html">I have dealt before</a> with the concept of personhood and how it relates to abortion (if fetus=person, abortion=murder), but after reading more materials I wanted to get a little deeper and a little more organized in discussing personhood. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before you can decide if a fetus is a person or not, you have define "person". </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everybody (except perhaps weirdly twisted philosophy students) would call this a person.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77Iu4A-dA00/T1Encs9D93I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/cx7WK7ifrSY/s1600/business+woman+person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77Iu4A-dA00/T1Encs9D93I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/cx7WK7ifrSY/s200/business+woman+person.png" width="149" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Smart, Pretty, Successful </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Businesswoman</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is also a person.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vpxR0i_QuA4/T1EoW9zK3fI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/QMnlK--u188/s1600/homeless+drunk+person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vpxR0i_QuA4/T1EoW9zK3fI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/QMnlK--u188/s1600/homeless+drunk+person.png" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Homeless Drunk</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even this is a person.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R1tYKtilen0/T1Eof3pZMvI/AAAAAAAAARE/zkRSznWggGc/s1600/Hitler+person.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R1tYKtilen0/T1Eof3pZMvI/AAAAAAAAARE/zkRSznWggGc/s1600/Hitler+person.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Hitler</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How does Dictionary.com define "<a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/person">person</a>"? (So sophisticated, I know.)</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="dnindex"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">1.</span> </span></span><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #0055bb; cursor: pointer;">human</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">being,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">whether</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">man,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">woman,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">child:</span> </span><span class="ital-inline"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword">The</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">table</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">seats</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">four</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">persons.</span> </span></span></span><br />
<div class="luna-Ent"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="dnindex"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">2.</span> </span></span><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">human</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">being</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">as</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">distinguished</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">from</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">an</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">animal</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">thing.</span> </span></span></div><div class="luna-Ent"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="dnindex"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword">3.</span> </span></span><span class="labset"><span class="ital-inline"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">Sociology:</span></span></span><span id="hotword"> </span></span><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">an</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">individual</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">human</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">being,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">especially</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">with</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">reference</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">to</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">his</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">her</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">social</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">relationships</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">and</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">behavioral</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">patterns</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">as</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">conditioned</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">by</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">the</span> </span></span><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">culture</span></a><span id="hotword" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. </span></div><div class="luna-Ent"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="dnindex"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword">4.</span> </span></span><span class="labset"><span class="ital-inline"><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">Philosophy:</span></span></span><span id="hotword"> </span></span><span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword">a</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">self-conscious</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">or</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">rational</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="color: #333333; cursor: default;">being.</span> </span></span></div></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If we relied on the first three definitions, there would be no argument. Human being = person. But we've become too smart to be satisfied with such a simplistic definition, and thus we must get into the abstract (and often arbitrary). I say "abstract", because there are multiple definitions of "person", both current and past definitions, that don't just stop at "human being". In other words, person = human being, but human being =/= person. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are many, many different definitions of "person" other than "human being", which, frankly, gets into the realm of the ridiculous. But I will be covering many of them, starting with the simplistic, then going into the more convincing, and then into the ridiculous. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's the difference between this human being</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77Iu4A-dA00/T1Encs9D93I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/cx7WK7ifrSY/s1600/business+woman+person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77Iu4A-dA00/T1Encs9D93I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/cx7WK7ifrSY/s200/business+woman+person.png" width="149" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Smart, Pretty, Successful</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Businesswoman</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and this human being?</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PbZT5f-KP_8/T1Eo7HFnHCI/AAAAAAAAARM/I1-OUdA4UC0/s1600/embryo+person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PbZT5f-KP_8/T1Eo7HFnHCI/AAAAAAAAARM/I1-OUdA4UC0/s1600/embryo+person.png" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">3-Day Old Embryo</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first obvious difference is the physical appearence. However, while physical appearence may indicate a difference in personhood status (as the physical appearence of a daisy and a rose indicate different species), physical appearence or physical facts does nothing to prove the personhood of one or the other, because personhood does not have to do with the physical world. Personhood is an abstract concept. A rose is a symbol of love, but love is an abstract concept. In our minds, a rose = love, but in the real world a rose is nothing but a rose. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djTxxGpRtks/T1EqtslG77I/AAAAAAAAARU/24I1YmO87ZQ/s1600/Cassandra+person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djTxxGpRtks/T1EqtslG77I/AAAAAAAAARU/24I1YmO87ZQ/s1600/Cassandra+person.png" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Lady Cassandra (Doctor Who)</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and this</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XrhowZ4YLfE/T1Eq1JsogUI/AAAAAAAAARc/nMwveOnLOQM/s1600/Horta+person.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="222" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XrhowZ4YLfE/T1Eq1JsogUI/AAAAAAAAARc/nMwveOnLOQM/s320/Horta+person.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Horta (Star Trek)</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">look vastly different from this</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77Iu4A-dA00/T1Encs9D93I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/cx7WK7ifrSY/s1600/business+woman+person.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-77Iu4A-dA00/T1Encs9D93I/AAAAAAAAAQ0/cx7WK7ifrSY/s200/business+woman+person.png" width="149" /></span></a></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span> </>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Pretty, Smart, Successful</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Businesswoman</span></td></tr>
<><><><><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but that means nothing to the abstract concept of personhood.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another difference is their environment. A fetus is in her mother's womb. A businesswoman moves all around, going into many different environments and doing many different things. Our current laws, illogically, follow this mindset. A 23-week-old premature, but otherwise healthy, baby can be born and immediately taken into intensive care and everything done to save her life. A 23-week-old "unwanted", but perfectly healthy, fetus (notice the difference in the terminology) that poses no danger to the mother, can be aborted. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TXhO3IT6UV4/T1GbQvoGg5I/AAAAAAAAARk/NS6HXZ7UywE/s1600/23-week+preemie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TXhO3IT6UV4/T1GbQvoGg5I/AAAAAAAAARk/NS6HXZ7UywE/s1600/23-week+preemie.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">23-Week-Old Preemie </td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It gets even more confusing. Sometimes, if a 23-week-old fetus survives the abortion, attempts are made to save her life...and succeed. Why? All that changed was the fetus's location. At least be consistent, abortion advocates. If there's nothing morally wrong with aborting a 23-week-old "unwanted" fetus, logically, there's nothing morally wrong with killing a 23-week-old "unwanted" fetus. The fetus did not change. The mother did not change. The staff did not change. The only thing that changed was that the fetus is now one foot away from where she was five minutes ago.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my next post I will get into deeper definitions of personhood that branch off of the two addressed here: namely, level of development and dependency.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I have also decided to, for now, go to one written post per week, on Fridays. Tuesdays may feature videos, suggested articles, or short news updates. This will allow me to organize my time better and have higher-quality posts.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">All images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-21185269652150961462012-02-28T19:58:00.000-06:002012-02-28T19:58:15.911-06:00Return of the Pro-Life Feminist<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SBWTFKXV5FA/T02FQvtd6LI/AAAAAAAAAQs/KUhlztYsHrE/s1600/Sarah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="126" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SBWTFKXV5FA/T02FQvtd6LI/AAAAAAAAAQs/KUhlztYsHrE/s320/Sarah.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><3 Sarah!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Did you know that feminists used to be pro-life? Prominent names like Susan B Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Mary Wollstonecraft were all pro-life. Abortion used to be viewed as a tool men used to abuse women. 'Cause it's sex without consequences. If you can get your girlfriend to abort every time she gets pregnant, there's no reason to not abuse her if you can always erase your mistake. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From Dictionary.com:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Feminism: <span id="hotword"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">the</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">doctrine</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">advocating</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">social,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">political,</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">and</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">all</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">other</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">rights</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">women</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">equal</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">to</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">those</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">of</span> <span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="cursor: default;">men.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Somewhere along the legitimate path to equal rights, we got the notion that "equal rights" means "same results". But it doesn't. There will always be a greater percentage of men in Congress than women. Why? Because there are more men running for Congress. Why? Because men and women are different.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shocker, I know.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm a bit of a tomboy. I like to be "tough" and typically am more comfortable around a bunch of guys--whether we're playing hacky-sac, talking politics, or watching football (which I actually don't like, but whatever)--than I am around a bunch of girls. I want to have a career and, once I'm kicked out of my shell, I like to lead. (I struggled for a long time with the concept of men taking biblical leadership, but that's a topic for another time.) I am, at first glance, the stereotypical example of the modern-day feminist. Except for my horrific beliefs that women shouldn't be allowed to dismember their own children (le ghasp). And that I actually like it (or, more accurately my heart <u>melts</u>) whenever a gentleman opens the door for me, whether he's a burly truck driver (true story) or a four-year-old boy (also true). And that I will not kiss any male except my brother and father before my wedding day (suppression, suppression!!). And that I do want to get married and not use birth control and have kids (some perhaps by adoption) and homeschool them (horror, destruction, meyhem, overpopulation, brainwashing!!!). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, so I'm not the stereotypical example of a modern-day feminist. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I should be, though. Women and men should (mostly--there are some messy exceptions) be given the same options. But being given the option doesn't mean you are capable of following that option. A woman can choose the option of graduate school without having kids--unless she gets pregnant. Once you've screwed up your own option, you can't hurt someone else to get it back. That <strong>should</strong> be illegal. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't confine people to stereotypes, but don't expect the stereotypes to not exist in the majority. There's a reason the stereotype became the stereotype.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We tell men all the time to "man up". You were made to lead. Now stand up and LEAD. Why don't we tell the women to "woman up"? You were made to nurture. Now stand up and NURTURE.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I leave you now with one of my new favorite comedians, Brad Stine. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/S0cB5kqAAp0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-36616171988092503092012-02-26T09:24:00.000-06:002012-02-26T09:24:44.190-06:00OnethingWhy am I sharing this? I don't know. This inspires me, and the song that comes after the scripture reading is awesome. (Did you catch the reference to abortion?) Gotta love the International House of Prayer!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/7PTJpq8OHts?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-45039507491978137362012-02-17T20:48:00.000-06:002012-02-17T20:48:47.462-06:00Sometimes God Opens Doors...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FsIDdJc5B8s/Tz8PwOgu_kI/AAAAAAAAAQk/EC3T-GbUYJg/s1600/open+door.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FsIDdJc5B8s/Tz8PwOgu_kI/AAAAAAAAAQk/EC3T-GbUYJg/s1600/open+door.png" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...and sometimes He picks you up and tosses you through the door almost before it's open.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got wind of the "<a href="http://standupforreligiousfreedom.com/">Stand Up for Religious Freedom</a>" movement yesterday. Rallies protesting the HHS mandate are going to be held in cities across the nation on March 23. I looked at the locations on the website and discovered the one nearest me would be held an hour and a half away.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shoot.<br />
<br />
I emailed the link to my mom anyway. She answered back this morning with, "Why don't you organize one for [my city]? <a href="http://www.therebelution.com/blog/">Do Hard Things</a>." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well then. Okay. I sent a tentative email to the people in charge asking what organizing a rally would take, as I've never had any experience in that area. They emailed me back quickly, informing me that another lady had just emailed them asking the same thing, for the same city!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coincidence? I prefer to think of it as Divine Intervention.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, this woman has more experience than I do. Long story short, we now have a permit, a flyer, a Facebook page, and I've sent recruiting emails to approximately a billion people (okay, not really. But to every acquaintence/homeschooler I have so far in NC...which is actually quite a few). As if that wasn't exciting enough, she told me about a pro-life student group on Facebook for my area. YES. I have been starved for such a group! Since moving from Kansas, I'd lost all of the connections I had with pro-life people. But even in Kansas I didn't have an activist student group. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When did I find out about this movement? Yesterday. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, I am the youth coordinator (un-officially/according to myself :)) co-organizer (officially) of a genuine protest rally for my city as part of a national movement. And a member of a pro-life student activist group.<br />
<br />
I. Am. PSYCHED.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You know, I kinda wish God'd throw me through open doors a little more often.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-22286595072048896482012-02-15T06:59:00.000-06:002012-02-15T06:59:49.485-06:00Hitler Would Be Proud<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yccIjO1UvSE/TzupAbUZwMI/AAAAAAAAAQc/B2XsHbLYJfU/s1600/contraception+mandate.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yccIjO1UvSE/TzupAbUZwMI/AAAAAAAAAQc/B2XsHbLYJfU/s1600/contraception+mandate.png" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It would have been hard to miss the storm over President Obama's birth control mandate. You know, the new law that will begin forcing employers to cover contraception costs in their employees' health insurance. So if you didn't miss it, and you don't want to hear my rantings, please just read the following paragraph.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The outrage over the mandate erupted because it ignored any conscience rights of religious institutions, such as Catholic hospitals, who don't want to be forced to provide contraception. After the pressure was put on the Obama administration, they "revised" the mandate, so that instead of the employers paying for the contraception, the insurance companies are forced to provide it for free. Except this doesn't fix anything. Because the employers are still paying for the insurance. They are <strong>still paying</strong> for their employees' access to contraception. THIS FIXES NOTHING. Don't be fooled by this false revision. Keep the pressure on Washington. </span><a href="https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/rescind-hhs-mandate-requiring-catholic-institutions-provide-insurance-covering-contraception-their/mG8SwXxj"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can sign a petition here.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (If the petition gets 25,000 signatures by March 12, then </span><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/opponents-launch-new-white-house-petition-rejecting-obama-rewrite-of-birth"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Washington has to give an official response</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">!)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main problem with this mandate is that it violates the first amendment right to freedom of religion. You can't order people to give away carrots to anybody who wants them if carrots violate your religion. This doesn't just go for "religious institutions" either. This goes for all employers who don't like birth control.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Naturally, there is a limit to religious freedom. If, for example, your religion requires you to sacrifice virgins to your god every year, you have to be stopped. Or if your religion requires you to not perform a life-saving heart transplant...too bad. But contraception is not life-saving or necessary. It is <strong>not</strong> a right. There is no reason to force people to give contraception to others. There's no reason to prevent people from getting contraception either, as long as it isn't an abortifacient. I don't like contraception myself, but I don't mind if you use your <strong>privilege </strong>to access and use it, so long as it doesn't impede another's <strong>right</strong> not to provide it or another's <strong>right</strong> to live.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If, in a very rare (and perhaps bizarre) circumstance, some contraception or abortion is necessary to save someone's life, then their <strong>right</strong> to life is trumped by another's <strong>right</strong> to not provide these now life-saving services, as the normal intent for both contraception and abortion (preventing having babies and killing babies) have changed into "preventing dying". </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Even if this didn't impede first amendment rights, this doesn't even make sense economically. Forcing insurance companies to provide "free" contraception </span><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/expert-under-accommodation-religious-institutions-may-pay-higher-insurance"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">just makes the price of the insurance in total go up</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. The employers still have to pay for the insurance, so the employers are spending more on their employees' insurance, which tightens financial strain on the workplace, which, eventually, coupled with other things, leads to laid-off employees. </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/08/yay-government.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Government mandates forcing themselves into the free market system always have bad results.</span></a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2012/02/10/will-obama-next-force-insurance-companies-to-fund-abortions/"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, President Obama had the gall to say that the birth control was "free" because it costs less than the babies that would result, therefore saving us money.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> WHAT?!? Since when were human lives worth only as much as the money they require?! Is abortion next, then? What about disabled people? I mean, hey, if it saves us money, why not go around killing people that cost more than they provide? That's called eugenics, and sounds quite a bit like </span><a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005200"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hitler's euthanasia program</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. And if it contradicts your religion to provide euthenasia for expensive less-than-worthy people, too bad, because we have a <strong>right</strong> to kill people over whom we have control.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-78726125645245621272012-02-10T20:14:00.000-06:002012-02-10T20:14:29.477-06:00Refuting Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (Part 9)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HJM5Q3uZOzQ/TzXN5Fz6RnI/AAAAAAAAAQU/Tex9MobpBPk/s1600/Judith.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HJM5Q3uZOzQ/TzXN5Fz6RnI/AAAAAAAAAQU/Tex9MobpBPk/s1600/Judith.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judith Jarvis Thomson</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span></em><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/09/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 1</span></span></em></span></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span></em><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/09/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons_15.html"><em><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 2</span></span></span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/11/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 3</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense.html"><span style="color: #235fa3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 4</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_21.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 5</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_30.html"><span style="color: #235fa3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 6</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/01/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #235fa3;">part 7</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/01/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_31.html">part 8</a>.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>T</em><span style="color: black;"><em>his is the continuation of my dissection of the "ultimate pro-abortion argument". If we can prove this argument wrong, we can prove <u>any</u> pro-abortion argument wrong. This is the last segment in this series.</em><em> My comments are <u>(in parentheses and underlined)</u>.</em></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><em>In this section, Ms. Thomson sums up her previous arguments which, since I have refuted them in previous sections, are still invalid.</em></span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion</span></span></span></b></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From <i>Philosophy & Public Affairs</i>, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971).</span></span></span></span></span></div><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Reprinted in "Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics," 5<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> ed., ed. Ronald Munson (Belmont; Wadsworth 1996). pp 69-80</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;">...</span></em></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My argument will be found unsatisfactory on two counts by many of those who want to regard abortion as morally permissible. First, while I do argue that abortion is not impermissible, I do not argue that it is always permissible. There may well be cases in which carrying the child to term requires only Minimally Decent Samaritanism of the mother, and this is a standard we must not fall below. <u>(But where is that mark? I think that you're a Minimally Decent Samaritan when you don't kill your unborn children for convenience. You can't just point to your own version of Minimally Decent Samaritanism and declare that's the right thing. If something directly hurts someone else (like abortion, born murders, rape, robbery, beatings, sexual abuse, etc.) then it's wrong. Period.)</u> I am inclined to think it a merit of my account precisely that it does not give a general yes or a general no. It allows for and supports our sense that, for example, a sick and desperately frightened fourteen-year-old schoolgirl, pregnant due to rape, may of course choose abortion, and that any law which rules this out is an insane law. <u>(No it's not. A law outlawing murder is not insane in any circumstances.)</u> And it also allows for and supports our sense that in other cases resort to abortion is even positively indecent. It would be indecent in the woman to request an abortion, and indecent in a doctor to perform it, if she is in her seventh month, and wants the abortion just to avoid the nuisance of postponing a trip abroad. <u>(It would be just as indecent to perform an abortion on the terrified, raped fourteen year old girl, because in both cirtumstances the result is a dead baby.)</u> The very fact that the arguments I have been drawing attention to treat all cases of abortion, or even all cases of abortion in which the mother's life is not at stake, as morally on a par ought to have made them suspect at the outset.</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Second, while I am arguing for the permissibility of abortion in some cases, I am not arguing for the right to secure the death of the unborn child. It is easy to confuse these two things in that up to a certain point in the life of the fetus it is not able to survive outside the mother's body; hence removing it from her body guarantees its death. But they are importantly different. I have argued that you are not morally required to spend nine months in bed, sustaining the life of that violinist, but to say this is by no means to say that if, when you unplug yourself, there is a miracle and he survives, you then have a right to turn round and slit his throat. You may detach yourself even if this costs him his life; you have no right to be guaranteed his death, by some other means, if unplugging yourself does not kill him. <u>(Totally unrelated, as abortion when the fetuses do not survive are wrong. However, why not turn around and slit the baby's throat? There's nothing different between a 23-week-old fetus being killed in an abortion, and a 23-week-old fetus surviving an abortion and then having his neck slit. The result is the intentional slaughter of an innocent life. THERE. IS. NO. DIFFERENCE.) </u>There are some people who will feel dissatisfied by this feature of my argument. A woman may be utterly devastated by the thought of a child, a bit of herself, put out for adoption and never seen or heard of again. <u>(But, naturally, she'll be completely at ease if she makes sure her kid dies.)</u> She may therefore want not merely that the child be detached from her, but more, that it die. Some opponents of abortion are inclined to regard this as beneath contempt--thereby showing insensitivity to what is surely a powerful source of despair. All the same, I agree that the desire for the child's death is not one which anybody may gratify, should it turn out to be possible to detach the child alive. <u>(So remind me...why do you say abortion is okay?)</u></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At this place, however, it should be remembered that we have only been pretending throughout that the fetus is a human being from the moment of conception. A very early abortion is surely not the killing of a person, and so is not dealt with by anything I have said here. <u>(No it's not. There are very clear arguments for the personhood of the unborn, which I will probably delve into soon.)</u></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">Image found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-12922090943968808762012-02-07T20:04:00.000-06:002012-02-07T20:04:08.034-06:00Compare and Contrast<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've noticed a striking difference in the reactions of pro-"choice"ers for two different stories lately. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Senario 1:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part I:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/01/non-choice.html">A family trying to force a teenage girl to abort.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part II:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/state-drops-request-to-force-mentally-ill-catholic-woman-to-have-an-abortio">A mentally ill woman dead-set against abortion because of a previous abortion that left her traumatized, and a judge ruling that she should be forced to abort (because it's in her best interests).</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reaction of pro-"choice" Side to Senario 1:</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VD0bBP-vuXw/TzHQTgGVutI/AAAAAAAAAP0/P1ZhOGoLNw4/s1600/white+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VD0bBP-vuXw/TzHQTgGVutI/AAAAAAAAAP0/P1ZhOGoLNw4/s1600/white+2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(By the way, since <u>you're</u> probably worried about that teenage girl and that mentally ill woman, know that as far as I know the family has not yet been able to force the girl to abort, and the judge's decision was later revoked.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Senario 2:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.jillstanek.com/2012/02/decoding-komens-supposed-cave/">Susan G. Komen foundation announces changes</a> in policies that will give grants to organizations that directly help with breast cancer research and screenings, and thus inadvertantly cuts off 5% of a certain organization known as "Planned Parenthood"'s yearly profits (yes, PROFITS), since said organization does not do any breast cancer research and merely provides referals for mammograms and performs the "manual" breast exams (that I do on myself in the shower) and then charges for it (yeah, really non-profit and helpful to poor women, isn't it?).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Reaction of pro-"choice" side to Senario 2:</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0pi_L7BcZK4/TzHQ3-U6wwI/AAAAAAAAAP8/0O8boiQ0ysQ/s1600/angry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0pi_L7BcZK4/TzHQ3-U6wwI/AAAAAAAAAP8/0O8boiQ0ysQ/s1600/angry.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nuuuuuuuu!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then:</span><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT19kn5qqSI/TzHR2-ScWMI/AAAAAAAAAQM/171IpgUtIyE/s1600/boo-hoo+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT19kn5qqSI/TzHR2-ScWMI/AAAAAAAAAQM/171IpgUtIyE/s1600/boo-hoo+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waaahh! Need emergency donations to replace Komen! (Ignore our fat annual surpluses.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you smell that? Methinks 'tis the scent of hypocricy. It's funny. All the pro-aborts complained that Komen broke ties with Planned Parenthood because of political pressure from anti-choicers. But then Komen joined back up with Planned Parenthood a week later because of all the pressure from the pro-aborts. Which sounds more like giving in to political pressure: making a perfectly logical choice with off-the-radar complaints (since the mainstream media pretty much never covers the pro-life side, so as to convince everybody that we're a pro-abortion country), or reversing that perfectly logical choice when barraged with pro-abortion complaints, hacks, and downright nastiness? Which, naturally, was all covered extensively by the media (minus the hacks and nastiness).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the way, here's what the media DIDN'T tell you: thousands of pro-lifers rallied behind Komen after this decision. Their donation income increased 100%. They recieved thousands of emails from pro-lifers thanking them for this decision (I was one of them) and encouraging comments on their Facebook page (I was also one of them). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good grief. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(This is actually an optomistic post. I'm hoping that this wasn't a scheme by Planned Parenthood and Komen to increase both of their donations. They both made an incredible amount of money from this. Rather convenient, isn't it?)</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-76489339784783609802012-01-31T07:05:00.001-06:002012-01-31T07:06:57.321-06:00Refuting Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (Part 8)<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(I apologize for the missed posts. My school kind of took over last week. And I actually didn't realize I'd skipped two posts when I got on today - I had it in my head for some reason that I'd only missed one. In the future, if I don't post, you may assume it's because school is taking up all of my time.)</span></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judith Jarvis Thomson</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span></em><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/09/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 1</span></span></em></span></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span></em><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/09/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons_15.html"><em><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 2</span></span></span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/11/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 3</span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense.html"><span style="color: #235fa3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 4</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_21.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 5</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_30.html"><span style="color: #235fa3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 6</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2012/01/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 7</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>T</em><span style="color: black;"><em>his is the continuation of my dissection of the "ultimate pro-abortion argument". If we can prove this argument wrong, we can prove <u>any</u> pro-abortion argument wrong. This series will probably have roughly nine parts to it, because it is naturally divided up into sections.</em><em> My comments are <u>(in parentheses and underlined)</u>.</em></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><em>In this section, Mrs. Thomson is continuing to attempt to redefine morality so she can get rid of morality and justify abortion.This in itself is a great indicator that her overall argument of absolute bodily autonomy (covered in previous sections) is bogus, because if it were true, she would have no need to try to erase our morality. It would already, morally, make sense. This section, specifically, tries to dispose of personal responsibility.</em></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></em></span><br />
<em></em></span><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></em><br />
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<em><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion</span></span></span></b></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From <i>Philosophy & Public Affairs</i>, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971).</span></span></span></span></span></div><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Reprinted in "Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics," 5<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> ed., ed. Ronald Munson (Belmont; Wadsworth 1996). pp 69-80</span></span></span></span></span></span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;">...</span></em></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following the lead of the opponents of abortion, I have throughout been speaking of the fetus merely as a person, and what I have been asking is whether or not the argument we began with, which proceeds only from the fetus's being a person, really does establish its conclusion. I have argued that it does not. <u>(You haven’t proved anything because you’re assuming that people have an absolute right to bodily autonomy, which we do not, so the argument that abortion should be illegal because the fetus is a person still stands. But whatever.)<o:p></o:p></u></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But of course there are arguments and arguments, and it may be said that I have simply fastened on the wrong one. It may be said that what is important is not merely the fact that the fetus is a person, but that it is a person for whom the woman has a special kind of responsibility issuing from the fact that she is its mother. <u>(This is true.) </u>And it might be argued that all my analogies are therefore irrelevant--for you do not have that special kind of responsibility for that violinist; Henry Fonda does not have that special kind of responsibility for me. <u>(This is also true.)</u> And our attention might be drawn to the fact that men and women both are compelled by law to provide support for their children. <u>(Indeed they are.)<o:p></o:p></u></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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</div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have in effect dealt (briefly) with this argument in section 4 above; but a (still briefer) recapitulation now may be in order. Surely we do not have any such "special responsibility" for a person unless we have assumed it, explicitly or implicitly. If a set of parents do not try to prevent pregnancy, do not obtain an abortion, but rather take it home with them, then they have assumed responsibility for it, they have given it rights, and they cannot now withdraw support from it at the cost of its life because they now find it difficult to go on providing for it. <u>(No, they took responsibility for the child when they risked bringing the child into existence.)</u> But if they have taken all reasonable precautions against having a child, they do not simply by virtue of their biological relationship to the child who comes into existence have a special responsibility for it. <u>(Yes they do.)</u>They may wish to assume responsibility for it, or they may not wish to. <u>(It doesn’t matter what they “wish” to do. You may “wish” to leave your infant in the woods so that she dies if you wanted an abortion but were not able to get one, but the law does not care what you “wish” to do. It never matters what you “wish” to do; we’re talking about right and wrong.) </u>And I am suggesting that if assuming responsibility for it would require large sacrifices, then they may refuse. A Good Samaritan would not refuse--or anyway, a Splendid Samaritan, if the sacrifices that had to be made were enormous. But then so would a Good Samaritan assume responsibility for that violinist; so would Henry Fonda, if he is a Good Samaritan, fly in from the West Coast and assume responsibility for me. <u>(You did not bring the violinist into existence, Henry Fonda did not bring you into existence, and you and Henry Fonda are not directly responsible for the intentional killing of your own offspring. </u></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hard truth, Mrs. Thomson, is that the world doesn't let us choose our own responsibilities. Some responsibilities are more or less optional, like taking the responsibility to turn in schoolwork assignments on time, but we can't pick and choose all of our responsibilities. It doesn't work like that. You can't say, "Well, I didn't ever take responsibility for this girl's well-being, so there's no reason I can't rape her." Similarly, you can't say, "Well, I never took responsibility for this baby (either 'because I was raped' or 'because I didn't mean to get pregnant' will do here), therefore there's no reason I can't kill her." Like it or not, the stability of the world depends on morals, including responsibility.)</span></u></div></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-63602754184088360042012-01-22T11:49:00.000-06:002012-01-22T11:49:32.940-06:00Roe vs. Wade<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qQdFKRZOZH0/TxxKpwoyqBI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/pFSNG59yHBo/s1600/roe+v+wade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qQdFKRZOZH0/TxxKpwoyqBI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/pFSNG59yHBo/s1600/roe+v+wade.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lord, forgive us, for we know not what we do.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">50,000,000 dead</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-85172744454913664452012-01-20T17:50:00.001-06:002012-01-20T19:48:18.294-06:00Feminists Are Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1hfkPE1rVQQ/Txn8EXMG7TI/AAAAAAAAAOw/X1v1ZRVkrk4/s1600/evil+feminist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1hfkPE1rVQQ/Txn8EXMG7TI/AAAAAAAAAOw/X1v1ZRVkrk4/s1600/evil+feminist.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, not really. But there is more than one thing that really irks me about feminism. Or, actually, not "real" feminism. But this other weird religion-like blame-game-thing that people have assaigned to the name of "feminism" and then kicked "real" feminism (which can no longer be called feminism because "feminists" stole the name) out the door.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Confused yet? Sorry. I'll back up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would it surprise you if I told you I was a feminist? What pops into your head when you hear the word "feminist"? Most likely a pro-abortion pro-welfare anti-death-penalty pro-Obama leftist. If that isn't what popped into your head, PLEASE hold onto your own idea of a feminist. You are a jewel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Feminism used to be a truly pro-woman movement. I would have loved to live in the time period where women were fighting for suffrage and the like--I betcha I would've been marching alongside them all. I believe with all my heart that women should be given equal opportunities and not discriminated against because of their gender. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that's no longer what the feminist movement is about. You remember this poster?</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-trlLXp3MJhU/Txn8NmKp41I/AAAAAAAAAO4/YD_8kLWv0R0/s1600/women-smart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-trlLXp3MJhU/Txn8NmKp41I/AAAAAAAAAO4/YD_8kLWv0R0/s1600/women-smart.png" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, it's no longer about "We Can Do It". The feminism machine has turned into a roaring monster. It's turned from "We Can Do It" to "You'd Better Help Us Do It Or Else". </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mPl-2QJxwdQ/Txn88HH-7PI/AAAAAAAAAPI/UbzQ1qKJfzE/s1600/sorry+boys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mPl-2QJxwdQ/Txn88HH-7PI/AAAAAAAAAPI/UbzQ1qKJfzE/s200/sorry+boys.jpg" width="147" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh please. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take maternity leave, for example. You know, the few weeks off your bosses can give you when you give birth. I'm not sure if there are laws that require employers to give women maternity leave, but I do know that feminists are fighting for them. And they don't want discrimination against women? It's perfectly valid to not want to hire a woman if she plans on getting married and having kids soon. It makes sense. It isn't discriminating against women. It's a legitimate business concern. This is called C-A-P-I-T-A-L-I-S-M. You don't always want to hire people who will need extra time off because they're busy having babies. All I ask is that women aren't discriminated against...because they're women. Not because of nature. If the employers hire women and give them maternity leave, fine. But don't force them to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And abortion. Is there a more insulting law in existence? People will call me anti-women because I hate abortion (which can't possibly make sense unless I have really low self-esteem as to hate my own gender) , but they are the anti-women people. In order for women to "succeed in the world" they have to be allowed to kill their own children?</span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E1U6_217VMA/Txn8tGCvrMI/AAAAAAAAAPA/wdjNV4GYpw4/s1600/feminism.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E1U6_217VMA/Txn8tGCvrMI/AAAAAAAAAPA/wdjNV4GYpw4/s200/feminism.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NO.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Feminists are now the anti-women people. How ironic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Besides, who decided that "succeeding in the world" means you have to have a career? There's nothing wrong with just getting married and having kids and being a stay-at-home mom, but somehow feminists have managed to twist motherhood into something less than a career. It's not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I want equality, people. Not special benefits. That's called sexism. Only this time it's directed at men. Especially if they're white.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-51034666406969897142012-01-17T14:40:00.001-06:002012-01-17T14:45:06.001-06:00Non-Choice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLSGRlEIZlI/TxXbzK_1yGI/AAAAAAAAAOg/qmjN6cdA8ow/s1600/no+choice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="109" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mLSGRlEIZlI/TxXbzK_1yGI/AAAAAAAAAOg/qmjN6cdA8ow/s320/no+choice.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many women get abortions, not because they have a choice, but because they feel like they have no choice. So it's a rarity when stories like this one come up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fourteen-year-old girl from Texas is pregnant. And she wants to have her baby. Her parents do not.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This girl has been all over the pro-life news lately because her parents are trying to force her to get an abortion. Luckily, she sued them, and the court has given her parents a temporary restraining order. There will be a hearing this Thursday, January 19, to decide whether her parents can force her to have the abortion or not. You can see the details <a href="http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/texas-teen-spared-forced-abortion-for-two-weeks/">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apparently, the parents say that the girl is mentally unable to make the decision in her best interests. Her family in fact was so concerned about her welfare that they physically assaulted her to try to make her get the abortion. (Yes, this is me being sarcastic.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First-off, I want to say kudos to the true pro-choicers out there who are horrified about this. Good for you, and thank you! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But that being said, <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/11/pro-what.html">where is all the pro-"choice" concern</a>? You can bet that if parents were trying to force this same 14-year-old to not have an abortion that horror and anger would explode all over the internet and pro-abortion blogs. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But where are they? Why the silence? If they were truly concerned only about choice (and not "choose abortion"), they would lobby for this girl as perfectly capable of deciding "whether or not to have a child" (of course, she already has a child, but I digress). They fight so adamently against parental consent laws for abortion, why aren't they furious about this parental concent for having a baby? Not even necessarily *keeping* the baby, but just allowing the child to LIVE? Why? </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yqZ8hmjZRxg/TxXb_gfBu3I/AAAAAAAAAOo/3K7LdnbM5Cw/s1600/jezebel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yqZ8hmjZRxg/TxXb_gfBu3I/AAAAAAAAAOo/3K7LdnbM5Cw/s200/jezebel.jpg" width="155" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The nauseating magazine "Jezebel" (yes, I think it is named after the Biblical Jezebel), which is self-described as "gossip, culture, fashion, and sex for the contemporary woman" (aka, leftist feminist and pro-abortion) wrote an article on this, but instead of focusing on the girl, it mostly talked about how pro-life groups were using this particular story to make "pro-choicers look like hypocrites". </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Why would this narrative be so appealing to an anti-choice group? Because it makes pro-choicers look like hypocrites."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yep. We are, Jezebel, and you just proved our point. You showed no concern for this girl. You talked about her plight, and then complained about the pro-lifers...not the people who are infringing on this girl's "right to choose". </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Continuing her pregnancy may well be what the girl wants, but it's a little disturbing that the TCDL's narrative is the only one out there. Her family doesn't have legal representation, so it's been difficult to get their point of view."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah. I'm sure this girl would go through the trouble of suing her own family just for kicks. </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"As of now, I've been unable to confirm from any outside source that the girl's family is actually trying to force her to have an abortion — the only source for this story is the TCDL, which has an obvious vested interest in painting itself as the defender of a mother and her baby against an abortion-hungry family."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks, Jezebel, for your touching concern. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One more thing.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Really, no responsible pro-choicer should support a family's right to force a teenager to get an abortion. It might not be especially comfortable to think about a 14-year-old making a decision that will affect the rest of her life...But taking that decision away from her is way more upsetting..."</span></blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Which do you think would be more upsetting: carrying a baby unwillingly to term, perhaps with shame, some health problems, and some angry family members, or a forced abortion which leaves you with the haunting trauma of having murdered your child (whether or not the fetus is a "child" or not isn't the debate here--to the woman who was forced into the abortion, that child was her child.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'm sorry if this post is a little sarcasm-heavy, but I'm so infuriated about the complete dismissal of this girl's situation in the pro-abortion camp that I can't bear to write a calm, logical, "you're wrong" post like I normally try for. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please pray for this girl and for all the girls out there who think they have no choice.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: xx-small;">Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-15934559756963091492012-01-13T15:02:00.000-06:002012-01-13T15:02:24.273-06:00Refuting Judith Jarvis Thomson's "A Defense of Abortion" (Part 7)<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HTXs3KNT87w/TxCbYEVlh7I/AAAAAAAAAOY/RzKZcBwdmCk/s1600/Judith.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HTXs3KNT87w/TxCbYEVlh7I/AAAAAAAAAOY/RzKZcBwdmCk/s1600/Judith.bmp" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judith Jarvis Thomson</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></em><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/09/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 1</span></em></span></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span></em><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/09/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons_15.html"><em><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 2</span></span></em></a><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/11/refuting-judith-jarvis-thompsons.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 3</span></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Click here to read </span><a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense.html"><span style="color: #235fa3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">part 4</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span></em></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Click here to read <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_21.html"><span style="color: #235fa3;">part 5</span></a>.</span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;">Click here to read <a href="http://prolifeamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/refuting-judith-jarvis-thomsons-defense_30.html">part 6</a>.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>T</em><span style="color: black;"><em>his is the continuation of my dissection of the "ultimate pro-abortion argument". If we can prove this argument wrong, we can prove <u>any</u> pro-abortion argument wrong. This series will probably have roughly nine parts to it, because it is naturally divided up into sections.</em><em> My comments are <u>(in parentheses and underlined)</u>.</em></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><em>This section is, put lightly, sickening. Mrs. Thomson is attempting to redefine morality, therefore get rid of our sense of morality, therefore justify abortion. This in itself is a great indicator that her overall argument of absolute bodily autonomy (covered in previous sections) is bogus, because if it were true, she would have no need to try to erase our morality. It would already, morally, make sense. </em></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></span></em></span><br />
<em> </em><br />
<em><div align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion</span></span></b></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From <i>Philosophy & Public Affairs</i>, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Fall 1971).</span></span></span></span></div><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Reprinted in "Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Medical Ethics," 5<span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-size: xx-small;">th</span></sup> ed., ed. Ronald Munson (Belmont; Wadsworth 1996). pp 69-80</span></span></span></span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: black;">...</span></em></span></span><br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b>6.<o:p></o:p></b></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">We have in fact to distinguish between two kinds of Samaritan: the Good Samaritan and what we might call the Minimally Decent Samaritan. The story of the Good Samaritan, you will remember, goes like this <u>(It makes my blood boil when people use the Bible when arguing for abortion. But I digress.)</u>:</div><br />
<div style="margin: 5pt 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 5pt 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 5pt 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 5pt 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he saw him he had compassion on him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 5pt 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.<o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div style="margin: 5pt 0in 0pt 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, "Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee." (Luke 10:30-35)</span></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">The Good Samaritan went out of his way, at some cost to himself, to help one in need of it. We are not told what the options were, that is, whether or not the priest and the Levite could have helped by doing less than the Good Samaritan did, but assuming they could have, then the fact they did nothing at all shows they were not even Minimally Decent Samaritans, not because they were not Samaritans, but because they were not even minimally decent.</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">These things are a matter of degree, of course, but there is a difference, and it comes out perhaps most clearly in the story of Kitty Genovese, who, as you will remember, was murdered while thirty-eight people watched or listened, and did nothing at all to help her. A Good Samaritan would have rushed out to give direct assistance against the murderer. Or perhaps we had better allow that it would have been a Splendid Samaritan who did this, on the ground that it would have involved a risk of death for himself. But the thirty-eight not only did not do this, they did not even trouble to pick up a phone to call the police. Minimally Decent Samaritanism would call for doing at least that, and their not having done it was monstrous.</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">After telling the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus said, "Go, and do thou likewise." Perhaps he meant that we are morally required to act as the Good Samaritan did. Perhaps he was urging people to do more than is morally required of them. At all events it seems plain that it was not morally required of any of the thirty-eight that he rush out to give direct assistance at the risk of his own life, and that it is not morally required of anyone that he give long stretches of his life--nine years or nine months--to sustaining the life of a person who has no special right (we were leaving open the possibility of this) to demand it. <u>(So you are suggesting that you don’t do anything wrong if you just stand there and watch someone be stabbed to death? There’s a difference between legally required and morally required, lady!)<o:p></o:p></u></div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">Indeed, with one rather striking class of exceptions, no one in any country in the world is legally required to do anywhere near as much as this for anyone else. The class of exceptions is obvious. My main concern here is not the state of the law in respect to abortion, but it is worth drawing attention to the fact that in no state in this country is any man compelled by law to be even a Minimally Recent Samaritan to any person; there is no law under which charges could be brought against the thirty eight who stood by while Kitty Genovese died. By contrast, in most states in this country women are compelled by law to be not merely Minimally Decent Samaritans, but Good Samaritans to unborn persons inside them. <u>(There’s a difference between <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>deliberately murdering someone and standing by and letting someone be murdered…as is obvious from the fact that the murderer was prosecuted but the onlookers were not.) </u>This doesn't by itself settle anything one way or the other, because it may well be argued that there should be laws in this country as there are in many European countries--compelling at least Minimally Decent Samaritanism. But it does show that there is a gross injustice in the existing state of the law. And it shows also that the groups currently working against liberalization of abortion laws, in fact working toward having it declared unconstitutional for a state to permit abortion, had better start working for the adoption of Good Samaritan laws generally, or earn the charge that they are acting in bad faith.</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0pt;">I should think, myself, that Minimally Decent Samaritan laws would be one thing, Good Samaritan laws quite another, and in fact highly improper. But we are not here concerned with the law. What we should ask is not whether anybody should be compelled by law to be a Good Samaritan, but whether we must accede to a situation in which somebody is being compelled--by nature, perhaps--to be a Good Samaritan. We have, in other words, to look now at third-party interventions. I have been arguing that no person is morally required to make large sacrifices to sustain the life of another who has no right to demand them, and this even where the sacrifices do not include life itself; we are not morally required to be Good Samaritans or anyway Very Good Samaritans to one another. <u>(Morally, yes, we are.) </u>But what if a man cannot extricate himself from such a situation? What if he appeals to us to extricate him? It seems to me plain that there are cases in which we can, cases in which a Good Samaritan would extricate him. There you are, you were kidnapped, and nine years in bed with that violinist lie ahead of you. You have your own life to lead. You are sorry, but you simply cannot see giving up so much of your life to the sustaining of his. You cannot extricate yourself, and ask us to do so. I should have thought that--in light of his having no right to the use of your body--it was obvious that we do not have to accede to your being forced to give up so much. We can do what you ask. There is no injustice to the violinist in our doing so. <u>(Certainly not as much injustice as done to the unborn child, as we’ve already established, since the parallels between the hypothetical violinist situation and the real woman-child situation do not line up.)<o:p></o:p></u></div>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8715051285228057235.post-33616434193309129982012-01-10T18:23:00.000-06:002012-01-10T18:23:58.569-06:00It's About to Get Real<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BngxHnLWtpo/TwzUz4TP3wI/AAAAAAAAAOI/X2nyxGkYyk4/s1600/Volunteers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BngxHnLWtpo/TwzUz4TP3wI/AAAAAAAAAOI/X2nyxGkYyk4/s320/Volunteers.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I just sent in a volunteer application to my local crisis pregnancy center. This makes me a little giddy. I have never volunteered at a CPC before, but I have wanted to for several years. At the same time, it's a little surreal. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hear about abortion from blogs, websites, news stories, books, testimonies, pro-life booths at fairs and conferences, talks, fundraising events, YouTube, <a href="http://lifechain.net/">Life Chain</a>,and once a <a href="http://bound4life.com/">Bound 4 Life</a> protest. But I've never really...encountered it. Not for real. I haven't seen any "major" protests; none of the really big, hundreds-of-people marches, not even a protest standing outside an abortion clinic. I haven't met any obviously post-abortive women or abortion workers (though, considering about 1 out of 3 women get abortions, I've probably met several). What's it going to be like, working in a place that deals with abortion so closely? A place that is saving lives? The closest brush I've had with abortion happened like this:<br />
<br />
I was going to participate in my first Life Chain. At this particular Life Chain, there was also going to be a diaper drive. Come to the Life Chain, drop off diapers, and stand for an hour or so with a sign. When I got to the Life Chain, there was a small pro-abortion group doing a counter-protest on a corner, along with their own personal food drive to give to the charity group <a href="http://www.harvesters.org/">Harvesters</a>. Their idea was "let's go take a stand for women and do some REAL good by getting food for REAL people". (Yes, they were complaining about our diaper drive. Uh...yeah. I couldn't make it make sense either.) That was the idea. Now, I like Harvesters, and I played with the idea of walking over with my pro-life sign and giving them some. I ended up just donating food to my then-local crisis pregnancy center instead. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyway. Before the Life Chain, I took some money and drove to Wal-Mart (it was my first solo drive :)) to buy a bunch of diapers. In line at the cash register, the following conversation ensued:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cash register lady: Wow, what are you doing with all these diapers?<br />
Me: *explain*<br />
CRL: *few seconds of silence* *good-naturedly* I hate you, by the way.<br />
Me: *laugh* Uh...okay...that's fine with me.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">CRL: *still good-naturedly* 'Cause, I don't know if you have kids or not, but they're expensive. I have three.<br />
Me: Um, yeah, that's why I'm buying the diapers...? I'm [my age], actually, and I have seven siblings, so yeah.<br />
CRL: Well, get married and don't have kids! *laugh*<br />
Me: Awww, but I like kids!<br />
CRL: Well, adoption, then.<br />
Me: I've thought about that, actually. I think I'd like to adopt. But we'll see.<br />
CRL: *weird semi-long monologue about how her kids like her to pretend she adopted them* *finish check-out* Have a nice day!<br />
Me: You too!</span></span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, that was interesting. Looking back, I would have said some things differently, but considering I wasn't really expecting that, I think I did okay. But I really don't know what to expect going into the battle zone like this. It may be very anti-climatic since I doubt I'll get a very exciting job, but who knows. Thank God for sidewalk counselors, CPCs, pro-life lawmakers, Abort73, LifeNews.com, Tim Tebow, Justin Bieber, and the rest. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soon, I hope this is me:</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hgwbQKD3Oho/TwzVUHBZK3I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/bADBTcwptrs/s1600/more+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hgwbQKD3Oho/TwzVUHBZK3I/AAAAAAAAAOQ/bADBTcwptrs/s1600/more+me.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">*Images found via Google Images. No copyright infringement intended.</span></span>Gracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05592300451188026245noreply@blogger.com0