Enemy of Entropy
Archive for politics
Why make an exception for rape and incest?
I always look forward to Dr. Marty Klein’s Sexual Intelligence newsletters, so I was tickled to see one in my inbox today. But one of the headlines took me by surprise: End Rape & Incest Exceptions to Stupak Abortion Ban. Dr. Klein always has excellent analyses, and this one is no exception.
If you’re against reproductive choice for so-called “moral reasons” (as if anyone getting an abortion or supporting its legality isn’t “moral”), be consistent. If killing a fetus or even a fertilized egg wandering around a woman’s body is the same as killing a person (the position of every anti-choice activist), why should it matter how the fetus or fertilized egg got there? Why is a fetus’ right to live diminished because its father was a rapist or a sadist? After all, we don’t say the children of such men have fewer rights than other children.
Stupak is back! Time to call your legislators again!
This time it’s in the Senate, folks. In case you just crawled out from under a rock, I’m talking about the Stupak-Pitts amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act that was originally introduced in the House of Representatives by Democratic Representative Bart Stupak of Michigan and Republican Representative Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania, along with a long list of Congresspersons. The bill tried to keep any federal funds from being used to pay for an abortion, but was also worded in such a way that it would have prohibited women from purchasing private coverage to cover abortions. That’s a ridiculous restriction on the reproductive freedom of every woman who needs health care, and an even further economic restriction on what private citizens can purchase with their own funds. Women would be losing coverage they have now!
The letter I sent to my Senators last month was, like everything I send to Senator Isakson, not read as far as I could tell, because his office just responded with a form letter babbling about his religious beliefs. That’s a bit better than Senator Chambliss’ office, at least, which doesn’t even do that much. Still, that form letter was something of a straw breaking this particular camel’s back, and it inspired me to write another letter back to Senator Isakson, one that he hasn’t responded to at all. I’m not terribly surprised, as I asked that he not respond at all if his only response was going to be another form letter. Still, writing it prepared me, to a certain extent, to respond to the alert going out about the renewed Stupak amendment, which is why I mention it here.
Happy November!
I figure it’s past time I check in again. Obviously, I’ve given up on the Blog365 thing. I did make it 9 months or so, at least.
Katie turned 18 at the end of October, so she voted in the election for the first time. I’m really tickled that her first time was so historic! We’ll all be voting in the Senate run-off too, of course. I really hope Jim Martin makes it.
I turned 42 this week. I never do understand people moaning about getting older, reaching a particular age. It’s certainly better than the alternative, right?
I haven’t been reading near as much lately, because my eyes don’t want to focus and I have trouble concentrating. I’m re-reading C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series, since it’s easier to follow something familiar.
I fell into watching NCIS somehow, probably because I got all caught up on all three CSIs. I’ve watched True Blood, but I don’t like it nearly as much as the original novels by Charlaine Harris. It’s much darker, and nobody is nearly as nice/sympathetic. I don’t even like Sookie much, Sam Merlotte is an ass, and Jason – goddess, why give that waste of flesh so much screen time? Why all the added emphasis on sex and substance use? As usual, the Southern accents are abominable.
I started watching season 3 of Dexter, but I’m just not enjoying it as much as the first season, for some reason.
So then I was lured into watching Criminal Minds, largely due to Elizabeth Bear’s regular episode reviews (posted to her LJ).
At this very moment, Sam and Katie and I are watching the first DVD of Carnivà le. That is one weird, but beautiful, show. The preacher character looks a lot like our friend James Jowers.
Sam and I watched Iron Man Friday night, I think it was. It was fun, but loud. Good thing I didn’t try to see it in the theater!
Not Dead Yet
I’ve been almost wholly AFK1 for a bit, due to feeling even worse than usual. I’ll be entering “make-up posts” tonight to catch up. Usually, I’d do them in order, but this one is too topical for that.
I realize that McCain has claimed to have already won the presidential debates tonight. Wow, his truthiness is spectacularly crappy, isn’t it? But for those who plan to watch anyway, FactCheck.org has a nice little Debate Spin Antidote. It’s worth the few minutes it takes to watch it.You might find the FactCheck Wire handy during the debate, too.
1 Away From Keyboard
McCain Blogger Flubs His Roll
If you’re a gamer, you’ve probably heard the hoorah by now. Michael Goldfarb, a blogger on McCain’s official campaign site added a lame anti-gamer slur to his rinse-and-repeat “but he was a POW!” bullshit. Sam (and many others) responded to the twit (who keeps comments disabled on his blog – afraid of a little commentary, Goldfarb?). This isn’t the first time McCain’s people have attacked their opponents with comments about D&D, either, as some of the folks on Boing Boing have pointed out.
Goldfarb was responding to a post on the Daily Kos that called McCain on his plagiarism during a media event this weekend. The DK blogger has a nice response.
Goldfarb has supposedly apologized, but oddly enough, his “apology” isn’t posted on his blog, or anywhere else on McCain’s site as far as I can tell. If he isn’t man enough to make the apology in the same venue in which he posted the attack, that says a lot about him and the entire McCain campaign.1
1 None of it is surprising to me, but it is still telling.
