News of the world angries up my blood
A couple of news stories from Thursday's Arizona Republic caught the wife's eye, and she pointed them out to me. And then I got angry.
The first is, of course, the abortion decision. I'm not going to write too much about it, because I'm sure others have done so and it's a "rare" form of abortion, but let's be honest: once the anti-abortion people gained the upper hand in the terminology wars by calling this a "partial-birth abortion," you knew it was getting banned at some point. Nobody cares to examine the procedure, and when it's called "partial-birth," people get visions of doctors sucking a newborn baby out of a womb and chopping its head off. Don't say they don't! What anti-abortion people (I refuse to call them pro-life, because they don't care about the babies once they're, you know, born) understand is the power of words, and once the opponents of a partial-birth abortion ban started calling it that, the battle was lost. The only thing people who are pro-choice can hope for now is that a blanket abortion ban doesn't get in front of the Supreme Court before a few of its current members die off or quit and that Bush is no longer around to appoint someone new. If it gets to this current court, Roe v. Wade is gone. The good news about that is that American women will all leave the workplace and raise big white families again, and the country will return to those idyllic days when women weren't running around murdering tiny clumps of tissue and causing all the ills of modern society. Won't that be nice? Remember before Roe v. Wade, when no children were ever beaten or sexually abused and the world was a better place because no women were making actual decisions? Good times.
The other story was a bit more interesting, just because it didn't make the front page. On page 8 of the front section was this story, which is just astonishing. I don't watch the news, so maybe this is a bigger story than I know, but let's just look at the headline: "White House pursued legal efforts to limit voter turnout in key states." Here's the first paragraph:
Arrrrgggghhhh! What, indeed, the fuck? If you read the article, none of the dirty pool they have pulled is against the law, but (surprisingly) the Administration has claimed fears of voter fraud lead them to enact tougher laws, which almost always discriminate against the poor, who are more likely to vote Democrat (whether they should or not is incidental). Cases of voter fraud are very rare, but that hasn't stopped Bush and his cronies to use it to work things in their favor. Does this remind anyone of, maybe, the War on Terror™? This is just another underhanded, shitty thing for the party in power to do when they realized that their "message" wasn't resonating anymore because people didn't want to hear their shit. Krys was stunned this isn't getting more play, and so am I, because of the "liberal media." Oh, wait a minute - the media isn't liberal, they're just lapdogs for anyone in power, and right now that's a conservative. This kind of thing doesn't really surprise me anymore, but it does still piss me off. When is the revolution coming?
On the front page of that particular issue of the Republic is the story of Cho Seung Hui sending his video to NBC News. As I mentioned in my last post, I don't want to denigrate the memories of the dead, and what happened at Virginia Tech is a horrible tragedy. But why are they running big stories about a crazy man, plus showing a despicable picture of him holding two hand guns? As has been brought up before, what does this show all the other crazies out there? That they too can shoot up a school and get a front-page photograph! Sure, they'll be dead, but they're crazy - maybe that doesn't matter, as long as they get their fame! And, again, not to belittle the massacre, but both the abortion decision (which was on the front page) and the election shenanigans (which wasn't) affect far more people than the deaths in Blacksburg. I understand it's on the front page because it's a visceral story of a great tragedy, but down at the bottom of the first page is a story about John Edwards' haircut (I wish I was kidding) and at the top of the front page, above Cho's awful photograph, is a story about how NASCAR is trying to attract more female and minority fans (it's race week in Phoenix). That is, if you'll pardon my French, fucked up.
I just love to get reminded about what's important to a majority of people in this country: NASCAR and how much John Edwards pays for his haircuts. And we wonder why our country is in the shitter.
On a more positive note, if you haven't read my daughters' blog recently, I put up a nice post about Mia and the progress she's made over the past year. She's doing very well, and we have no reason to think she won't do better once she gets to kindergarten. So if you're interested, check it out.
The first is, of course, the abortion decision. I'm not going to write too much about it, because I'm sure others have done so and it's a "rare" form of abortion, but let's be honest: once the anti-abortion people gained the upper hand in the terminology wars by calling this a "partial-birth abortion," you knew it was getting banned at some point. Nobody cares to examine the procedure, and when it's called "partial-birth," people get visions of doctors sucking a newborn baby out of a womb and chopping its head off. Don't say they don't! What anti-abortion people (I refuse to call them pro-life, because they don't care about the babies once they're, you know, born) understand is the power of words, and once the opponents of a partial-birth abortion ban started calling it that, the battle was lost. The only thing people who are pro-choice can hope for now is that a blanket abortion ban doesn't get in front of the Supreme Court before a few of its current members die off or quit and that Bush is no longer around to appoint someone new. If it gets to this current court, Roe v. Wade is gone. The good news about that is that American women will all leave the workplace and raise big white families again, and the country will return to those idyllic days when women weren't running around murdering tiny clumps of tissue and causing all the ills of modern society. Won't that be nice? Remember before Roe v. Wade, when no children were ever beaten or sexually abused and the world was a better place because no women were making actual decisions? Good times.
The other story was a bit more interesting, just because it didn't make the front page. On page 8 of the front section was this story, which is just astonishing. I don't watch the news, so maybe this is a bigger story than I know, but let's just look at the headline: "White House pursued legal efforts to limit voter turnout in key states." Here's the first paragraph:
For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.
Arrrrgggghhhh! What, indeed, the fuck? If you read the article, none of the dirty pool they have pulled is against the law, but (surprisingly) the Administration has claimed fears of voter fraud lead them to enact tougher laws, which almost always discriminate against the poor, who are more likely to vote Democrat (whether they should or not is incidental). Cases of voter fraud are very rare, but that hasn't stopped Bush and his cronies to use it to work things in their favor. Does this remind anyone of, maybe, the War on Terror™? This is just another underhanded, shitty thing for the party in power to do when they realized that their "message" wasn't resonating anymore because people didn't want to hear their shit. Krys was stunned this isn't getting more play, and so am I, because of the "liberal media." Oh, wait a minute - the media isn't liberal, they're just lapdogs for anyone in power, and right now that's a conservative. This kind of thing doesn't really surprise me anymore, but it does still piss me off. When is the revolution coming?
On the front page of that particular issue of the Republic is the story of Cho Seung Hui sending his video to NBC News. As I mentioned in my last post, I don't want to denigrate the memories of the dead, and what happened at Virginia Tech is a horrible tragedy. But why are they running big stories about a crazy man, plus showing a despicable picture of him holding two hand guns? As has been brought up before, what does this show all the other crazies out there? That they too can shoot up a school and get a front-page photograph! Sure, they'll be dead, but they're crazy - maybe that doesn't matter, as long as they get their fame! And, again, not to belittle the massacre, but both the abortion decision (which was on the front page) and the election shenanigans (which wasn't) affect far more people than the deaths in Blacksburg. I understand it's on the front page because it's a visceral story of a great tragedy, but down at the bottom of the first page is a story about John Edwards' haircut (I wish I was kidding) and at the top of the front page, above Cho's awful photograph, is a story about how NASCAR is trying to attract more female and minority fans (it's race week in Phoenix). That is, if you'll pardon my French, fucked up.
I just love to get reminded about what's important to a majority of people in this country: NASCAR and how much John Edwards pays for his haircuts. And we wonder why our country is in the shitter.
On a more positive note, if you haven't read my daughters' blog recently, I put up a nice post about Mia and the progress she's made over the past year. She's doing very well, and we have no reason to think she won't do better once she gets to kindergarten. So if you're interested, check it out.
Labels: Culture, George Bush, John Edwards, Politics, This insane world, Virginia Tech
posted by Greg | 5:14 PM
3 Comments:
There has been a major push by Repubs to disenfranchise voters. See 2000 No, not just FL, Tennessee. If TN had gone for Gore, and it could have but for some treachery, Gore would have been Prez without Florida.
Greg, if you run for office, I will write you a check. I promise.
The problem with the far left is they need to attack these so-called pro-lifers not by saying things like, "my body, my choice." but by saying things like, "we'll worry about the children in the womb, once we find food, shelter, and loving homes for the children in the room!"
Ok.. maybe not that exactly... but... you know... a 'save the children' type ad, only it needs to be filmed predominately in the US with flashes of butchered babies in Sudan.
Thank you, Ashley. I may have to take you up on that offer!
It's strange that pro-choice people have allowed the anti-abortion people to define the terminology. Words are important, and too often people don't recognize that.
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