Religious right to cyclone victims: "Have more babies!"

Disgusting.

The decision by the UNFPA to send thousands of condoms and contraceptives to Burma in the midst of one of the region’s worst cyclone and food crisis, however, was immediately criticized by pro-family groups.

Linda Klepacki, sexual health analyst for Focus on the Family Action, was incredulous as to how the group could reason that condoms and contraceptives were more valuable than food.

“Only a world nearly devoid of God could give supplies denying life before necessities to sustain life,” she said in a statement.

There's nothing pro-family about wishing unwanted pregnancies and STDs on desperately impoverished people whose homes have been demolished by a natural disaster.

Senseless? Sure. Heartless? Absolutely. Monstrous, repugnant and immoral? You betcha.

Pro-family? No fucking way.

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Macy's advertises same-sex wedding registries

Oh my god, this is so amazing!



"First comes love. Then comes marriage. And now it's a milestone every couple in California can celebrate." That made me a little teary-eyed.

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Colbert interviews Tony Perkins

MADE OF WIN



(Via.)

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Is Barack Obama a Muslim?

http://isbarackobamamuslim.com/

(Via.)

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Abortion science fiction

The future of the abortion debate? Don't count on it.

I predict that what we now think of as the abortion debate is going to radically change within our lifetime in a way that makes many of the strategic gambits employed by both sides irrelevant, or at least beside the point.

Specifically, I think that technology is going to make fetuses viable outside the womb earlier and earlier. In fact that is already happening.

No, it isn't. Survival rates for premature babies born before 24 weeks haven't improved since the early '90s. Technology is improving outcomes for viable babies, but it's not pushing viability earlier.

It gets stranger:

And eventually there will be artificial wombs, enabling doctors to extract a fetus from a pregnant woman during the first trimester with a procedure no more invasive or dangerous than abortion, and to keep that baby alive in an incubator.

Maybe I'm just unimaginative, but I really can't figure how it could ever be possible to remove an embryo the size of a pea and the consistency of jelly from a woman's body, without damaging it or killing it in the process, AND "with a procedure no more invasive or dangerous than abortion." How would that work? How would the doctors avoid destroying the placenta? You can't just unplug an embryo from a uterus like a lamp from an outlet. How would they prevent the embryo from suffocating and bleeding out as soon as the placenta disconnected? And how would they do all this through a minimally-dilated cervix, in ten minutes, in a clinic? I just don't see it happening in the foreseeable future.

But wait, it gets weirder still.

It is conceivable that adoptive parents would step in to raise children who would've been aborted prior to artificial womb technology, though it is unlikely that enough adoptive parents could be found to raise all the children now aborted. It is possible that society's views about killing fetuses would change in the pro-life direction once that change didn't entail forcing women to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, and that the government would be in the business of funding large scale orphanages.

Large scale government-funded orphanages? Seriously? Wow, what a horrible idea.

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Pro-choice Dream Veep, indeed!

I have to agree with Steve at CBR, Robert Novak just did Kathleen Sebelius a huge favor with this tirade against her for being pro-choice.

[Archbishop Joseph F.] Naumann also took Sebelius to task for her veto April 21 of a bill, passed by 2 to 1 margins in both houses of the Kansas Legislature, that would strengthen the state's ban on late-term abortions by authorizing private lawsuits against providers.

Holy shit, thank God that batshit crazy anti-choice bill got partial-birth aborted! Can you believe the nuts actually want to make it legal for your parents or your boyfriend to sue your abortion provider for giving you an abortion? If that doesn't convince you that the Pro-Involuntary Gestation movement sees women more as property than people, I don't know what will.

Last year, she vetoed a bill requiring explicit medical reasons for a late abortion, and she vetoed other abortion legislation in 2006, 2005 and 2003.

Huzzah!

Those positions are necessary for Democratic politicians to pass their party's pro-choice litmus test, but Sebelius's connection with abortion is more intimate. She is allied with the aggressive Kansas branch of Planned Parenthood in a bitter struggle with antiabortion activist District Attorney Phill Kline.

I love how Bob isn't even ashamed to admit that Phill Kline is an "antiabortion activist District Attorney" who is (ab)using his office to harass legal abortion providers. Anyone willing to stand up to that witch-huntin' lunatic has earned my vote!

Yes indeedy, this all sounds very good for Governer Kathleen Sebelius.

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What part of "choice" don't you understand?

Rock Star Courtney Love Resisted Coerced Abortion, screams the headline at LifeSiteNews.com. So someone tried to force Courtney Love to have an abortion?! Um, not exactly:

The staff arranged a meeting with a physician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's chemical dependency program.

The doctor "tried to give clinical advice, suggesting to Courtney that it was not a great idea to have a baby while dealing with addiction," Goldberg wrote.

He says the idea for the abortion outraged Love, who takes a pro-abortion stance.

"'You're not telling me to have a [bleep]-ing abortion, are you?'" Love asked, according to the book. She reportedly responded: "I mean I'm pro-choice, but that doesn't mean that anyone has the right to tell me to have a [bleep]ing abortion."

Goldberg recalls, "[He] suggested that it might not be safe for the baby, and Courtney, who was only six weeks pregnant, went into a confrontational mode."

"'Is that a medical fact, or is that just your opinion? I want to see it in a medical book,'" she added, according to Goldberg.

"She was interested in medical facts, not a sermon. [He] sheepishly acknowledged that at this early stage of pregnancy a woman could discontinue heroin use with no physical or psychological damage to the fetus. Courtney looked triumphant as she towered over the doctor seated at his desk," he explained.

Love eventually stopped using heroin and Frances was born in August 1992.

It sounds to me like they sent her to rehab, not an abortion clinic, and the rehab doctor told her what she needed to hear. She didn't want to have an abortion, so she quit using and had a healthy baby. Where's the coercion?

I don't understand why this is supposed to be news to pro-lifers. Pro-choice women have babies all the time. I did it; my mom did it four times; millions of pro-choice women do it every year.

And how in God's name can they call this a "pro-abortion stance?" Refusing to have an abortion is pro-abortion? We're called pro-choice for a reason.

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How To Never Get Married Again

Oh internets, you sure know how to bring the crazy. And it's not even hard to find. Most of the time, it finds you. You'll just be minding your own business, doing Google News searches for articles with the word "feminist" in them, and before you know it you're knee-deep in the craziest anti-feminist horse shit the internet has to offer.

Take, for example, this incredibly tl;dr article intended to help woman-hating jerk-offs find "a good wife." And when I say tl;dr, I mean it: the checklist alone is more than 2,000 words long, and considering the content, I think a better title would have been...

How To Never Get Married Again

Step 1: Assume that all women are liars:

If she is divorced, does she always talks badly about her ex? If she does, get to know him. If he’s not a jerk, run!

Step 2: If you are dating a woman who has kids, attempt to assert "equal parental authority" over them even though you are not their parent, ensuring that they will hate you right off the bat:

If she has children, does she insist on handling all discipline, and undercut you when you need to act? Is she willing to let you play a serious role as a parent, or is she just looking for a babysitter with no authority? (Note: you do not have to pretend to be the “real” parent. Both parents in a marriage must have equal parental authority, and both parents must uphold the other parent’s authority, otherwise children will “triangle” the parents off each other and manipulate them to get what they want, causing serious friction between the parents.)

Step 3: Insist that her anger and hurt feelings are her problem, not yours:

Does she take responsibility for her emotions, or hold everyone else responsible for them?

Step 4: Tell her that you believe women are inherently inferior to men, and insist that she respect you anyway:

Does she respect you for not subscribing to feminism?

Step 5: Ignore her pleas for decent and kind treatment:

Does she ever say “If you loved me, you would _____, to manipulate you into doing what she wants?

Step 6: If she happens to have a timid or shy pet, blame it on her:

Is her dog or cat friendly and well-balanced? If the animal spends a lot of time hiding and avoids her — pay attention to what the animal knows.

Step 7: If she's divorced, blame it on her and require her to explain how she "killed her last marriage:"

If she was previously married, is she openly able to admit her mistakes that killed the last marriage? Is she repeating them on you?

Step 8: Insult her trashy female taste in TV, books, etc.:

When she has free time, does she prefer watching Oprah, Jerry Springer, feminist entertainment, or other trash TV? Are there trashy love novels laying around her house?

Step 9: If she's neat, criticize her for it. If she's not neat, criticize her for that, too:

Is her house a messy disaster area, or does she keep it insanely clean?

Step 10: Insist that she has no right to her own private thoughts:

Does she spend a lot of time writing in a diary that nobody is allowed to see?

Step 11: Demand unconditional love:

Is her heart constant, or does she practice “conditional love”.
Does she expect a conditional relationship: “If I do this, then you must do that”, or “if you don’t do this, then I will ____ ?

Step 12: Demand complete devotion, but don't feel obligated to give the same:

Does she freely give to the relationship, while graciously appreciating your willing contributions?

Step 13: Refuse to apologize:

Does she demand apologies when you have done nothing wrong?

Step 14: If she feels ignored, tell her she just needs to accept you the way you are:

Does she demand that you love her “her way”, or does she let you love her as you are naturally capable and demonstrably appreciate it?

Step 15: If she wants children some day, RUN!

Does she appear pre-focused with having children – and you simply being a means to accomplish that end?

Step 16: Assume that sex is a given that women have no reason to ever refuse:

Does she withhold sex to get what she wants?

Step 17: Never take advice from a woman:

Does she accept you for who you are today, or is she always saying things like “you should ______”.

Step 18: If she is an atheist, require her to believe in religion:

If she is atheist, does she believe in a power higher than herself, and trust in that higher power to help her through difficult times?

Step 19: And above all, if she seems to be well-informed about the law, domestic violence or her own rights, RUN!!!

Does she work for a women’s abuse center or similar volunteer service?
Is she an attorney or work for one as a paralegal?

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Why does the US Treasury hate blind people?

I can not believe the Treasury Department has been fighting this in court for SIX YEARS!

The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills' varying values, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling upholds a decision by a lower court in 2006. It could force the Treasury Department to redesign its money. Suggested changes have ranged from making bills different sizes to printing them with raised markings.

The American Council for the Blind sued for such changes but the Treasury Department has been fighting the case for about six years.

"I don't think we should have to rely on people to tell us what our money is," said Mitch Pomerantz, the council's president.

The U.S. acknowledges the design hinders blind people but it argued that blind people have adapted. Some relied on store clerks to help them, some used credit cards and others folded certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

The court ruled 2-1 that such adaptations were insufficient. The government might as well argue that, since handicapped people can crawl on all fours or ask for help from strangers, there's no need to make buildings wheelchair accessible, the court said.

Look, this is just common sense. Blind people can't tell which bills are which, and it needs to be fixed. They shouldn't have to rely on the kindness of strangers to count their money; that leaves them vulnerable to theft. Fixing this problem is just the right thing to do, and it's appalling that the government has been fighting this for SIX YEARS now! How many changes have they made to our money in six years?? And they couldn't add a few raised lines or holes or something? I don't believe it.

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Iceland: Happiest Place on Earth

Highest birth rate in Europe + highest divorce rate + highest percentage of women working outside the home = the best country in the world in which to live. There has to be something wrong with this equation. Put those three factors together - loads of children, broken homes, absent mothers - and what you have, surely, is a recipe for misery and social chaos. But no. Iceland, the block of sub-Arctic lava to which these statistics apply, tops the latest table of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index rankings, meaning that as a society and as an economy - in terms of wealth, health and education - they are champions of the world. To which one might respond: Yes, but - what with the dark winters and the far from tropical summers - are Icelanders happy? Actually, in so far as one can reliably measure such things, they are. According to a seemingly serious academic study reported in the Guardian in 2006, Icelanders are the happiest people on earth. (The study was lent some credibility by the finding that the Russians were the most unhappy.)

Oddny Sturludottir, a 31-year-old mother of two, told me she had a good friend who was 25 and had three children by a man who had just left her. 'But she has no sense of crisis at all,' Oddny said. 'She's preparing to get on with her life and her career in a perfectly optimistic frame of mind.' The answer to why the friend perceives no crisis in what any woman in a similar predicament anywhere else in the western world might consider a full-blown catastrophe goes a long way towards explaining why Iceland's 313,000 inhabitants are such a sane, cheerful, successful lot.

There are plenty of other, more obvious factors. Statistics abound. It is the country with the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world; where people buy the most books; where life expectancy for men is the highest in the world, and not far behind for women; it's the only country in Nato with no armed forces (they were banned 700 years ago); the highest ratio of mobile telephones to population; the fastest-expanding banking system in the world; rocketing export business; crystal-pure air; hot water delivered to all Icelandic households straight from the earth's volcanic bowels; and so on and so forth.

But none of this happiness would be possible without the hardy self-confidence that defines individual Icelanders, which in turn derives from a society that is culturally geared - as its overwhelming priority - to bring up happy, healthy children, by however many fathers and mothers. A lot of it comes from their Viking ancestors, whose males were rampant looters and rapists, but had the moral consistency at least not to be jealous of the dalliances of their wives - tough women who kept their families fed in the semi-tundra harshness of this north Atlantic island while their husbands forayed, for years at a time, far and wide. As a grandmother I met on my first visit to Iceland, two years ago, explained it: 'The Vikings went abroad and the women ran the show, and they had children with their slaves, and when the Vikings returned they accepted it, in the spirit of the more the merrier.'

Read the rest of it. It goes on to explain that divorce is accepted, "patchwork families" are tradition, and young motherhood is typical, thanks to paid maternity and paternity leave. (Via.)

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YouTube: Damian Marley - Confrontation

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Pre-Roe illegal abortionist dies

I never knew about this guy until today.

Harvey Karman, a flamboyant psychologist whose invention made a key contribution to women's reproductive health, particularly by making abortions simpler, cheaper and less painful, died May 6 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. He was 84.

The cause was a stroke, said his son Kenneth, of Los Angeles.

Activist, inventor, educator and rogue, Karman was drawn to the plight of women facing unwanted pregnancy in the 1950s, when abortion was illegal. While training in psychology at UCLA, he started an underground abortion referral service and eventually performed abortions himself, for which he was convicted and sent to state prison for 2 1/2 years.

In the early 1970s he developed a soft, flexible tube, or cannula, for a device that was widely adopted in the United States and developing countries to perform early abortions. He freely demonstrated its use for doctors and other medical professionals and in 1972 was part of a humanitarian mission to terminate the pregnancies of 1,500 Bangladesh women and girls who had been raped by Pakistani soldiers. His cannula is still widely used today. [...]

He became interested in abortion when he was conducting research at UCLA on the emotional aspects of therapeutic abortion. During this time a student with an unplanned pregnancy committed suicide and another died from a botched abortion. Karman responded by helping women obtain illegal abortions in Mexico. Unhappy with the high prices and poor care some of the women received, he began performing abortions himself.

His ultimate goal, according to Darney, who met Karman in the early 1970s, was to "make it possible for women to safely do their own abortions using the simplest possible equipment."

(Emphasis mine.) When I read stuff like this, it's hard for me to understand how anti-choice groups can promulgate the lie that legal, safe abortion is part of a "culture of death." Illegal abortion killed more women and fetuses than legal abortion ever could.

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Men at Work - Land Down Under

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Newt's plea to the GOP = FAIL

I read in the New York Times this morning that Newt Gingrich -- father of the Contract on America -- has a new plan to help the GOP get it together before they all get shit-canned in November, and it's a hoot! If this is the best the Republicans can offer, it's fantastic news for the Democrats.

Newt's first two proposals deal with the gas crisis.

1. Repeal the gas tax for the summer, and pay for the repeal by cutting domestic discretionary spending

This idea is a stinker, and I know I'm not alone in thinking that. A recent CBS/NYT poll found that most Americans think a gas tax holiday is a bad idea, and that McCain and Clinton are only using it for political gain.

2. Redirect the oil being put into the national petroleum reserve onto the open market. That oil would lower the price of gasoline an extra 5 to 6 cents per gallon, and its sale would lower the deficit.

This is just insulting. Five or six cents? Newt thinks the GOP can placate the angry masses calling for their heads on a platter by tossing shiny nickels?

Next is some kind of energy/environmental/national security smörgåsbord:

3. Introduce a "more energy at lower cost with less environmental damage and greater national security bill" as a replacement for the Warner-Lieberman "tax and trade" bill

And if that doesn't work, they can always reach for the "more ponies for every American with less horse shit and free cupcakes, too!" bill.

Before you read Newt's last six proposals, take a look at the latest polls on Americans' top priorities this election season. Most of them show that Americans are overwhelmingly concerned about the economy, the war in Iraq and health care, with issues like the gas crisis, terrorism, immigration, government corruption and the environment bringing up the rear. But this is what Newt thinks the GOP should focus on to win our hearts:

4. Establish an earmark moratorium for one year and pledge to uphold the presidential veto of bills with earmarks through the end of 2009.
5. Overhaul the census and cut its budget radically.
6. Implement a space-based, GPS-style air traffic control system.
7. Declare English the official language of government.
8. Protect the [union] workers' right to a secret ballot.
9. Remind Americans that [appointing right-wing] judges matter.

Earmarks? The Census? Union secret ballots? It's like he's not even on the same planet as the rest of us.

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Unicorn Museum

This is pure genius!

The Unicorn Museum presents a walk through history. Designed by a noted fantasy author, this state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot museum brings the fantastical and highly implausible to life.

A fully engaging, sensory experience for intellectually undiscerning guests. Murals and realistic scenery, computer-generated visual effects, over fifty exotic animal-like replicas, life-sized giant and hill troll animatronics, and a special-effects theater complete with elven air conditioning and dwarven hand-crafted drink holders. These are just some of the impressive exhibits that everyone in your family will enjoy.

Based on the idea of 'if it's in the Bible, it must be true', The Unicorn Museum promotes belief in the Biblical Truth of unicorns, a creature mentioned nine times in the KJV Bible.

The best part:

Our goal is to raise donations from the human population sufficient to place a Unicorn Museum billboard near the site of the Creation Museum. This will help build awareness in the human community of alternative fantasy creatures and help us regain our rightful place among the human pantheon of gods and monsters. Please Donate and help us reach our goal.

Bwahahahahahaa!! Oh, I hope they do!

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