Pro-Birthers Lack Heart and Smarts with Heartbeat Proposal

Ohio Abortion bill would radically change the landscape in the fight for choice for women.

Later today, so called socially conservative Republicans will introduce a measure into the Ohio House that would make a legally defined and protected human being out of a clump of cells in the womb of any woman finding herself pregnant. This magical transformation would happen 18 days into the pregnancy, or as soon as doctors can detect a heartbeat.  There is no regard for the woman who carries this legalized fetus, no concern for how she got pregnant, nor whether she is able to care for the child and raise it properly.

No, 18 days into her pregnancy, whether she knows she is pregnant or not, the woman is reduced to a walking, talking incubator.  Her life, her body suddenly and now completely snatched away from her control, subverted in favor of nurturing a possible human being.  At 18 days, the fetus is not viable. Hell, it's not even recognizable as human, more resembling a tadpole( that's a baby frog for you biology-fearing creationists) than a baby, save that it has a heartbeat. Well, so do other types of clumps of cells. An amoeba can have a heartbeat or heartbeat-resembling pulse, but that doesn't make it viably human.

This conundrum is not a  concern to the pro-birthers. The fate and well being of the woman does not concern the pro-birthers.  Only the tiny clump of maybe-a-baby concerns the pro-birthers, and only then until it gets born. It's viability, its mental health and well being outside the womb are never a concern for these people.  Once it's born, the legalized human being becomes society's problem. 

This is not pro life.  This is a return to women as property...property of their husbands, fathers, brothers and in current modern, 21st century America...the government since most births these days are to single, unmarried women.  The government takes care of these maybe-children...only now...under this bill...it would start 18 days after consensual or otherwise conception, and well before it can take care of itself.

What happened to "get the government out of our lives" or does that only apply to humans born with a penis?  What happened to fiscal responsibility and shrinking government spending? Can somebody please tell me how this "heartbeat bill" is fiscally and morally responsible. Because the truth of the matter is that this measure is neither....fiscally nor morally just.  The bible does not say "love thy brother as thy love thyself with the exception of women."  There is no clause anywhere in the bible that elevates giving birth above the life of the mother. There is not an ounce of responsibility built into this proposed law. It is a measure designed only to control fully half the world population through bad law. 

And it presents other fiscally irresponsible problems. For instance, who is going to enforce this bill? More important, who is going to pay for the enforcement of this bill?  Are women going to be arrested and jailed for exercising their human rights as citizens of the United States and fully functioning viable human beings?

Are doctors going to be deputized and forced into reporting pregnant women to the state, like they already have to report gunshot wounds? Are pregnant women going to be forced into incubation concentration camps to ensure they carry to term? 

Will the President create a cabinet level post called the Department of Fertility designed to oversee and control women from puberty through their most fertile years to make sure that any potential maybe-babies make it through the birth process? Will the Department dispense medical and financial care before, during and after pregnancy to the female and her child?

Sounds like someone is attempting to make Margaret Atwood's novel, THE HANDMAID'S TALE, come to life, except given the social right's abhorrence of all things academic, I doubt they've even heard of the book.

Enslaving women....legalizing rape and incest.....what else do the socially conservative teabaggers have up their collective sleeves....They literally lied to the American people in order to get elected by running on a platform of financial governmental responsibility.

Now that they have revealed their true agenda of morality engineering....how long do you think they will stay in office?

Abortion Reality Show?! WTF!

I really thought when I stumbled across this article, that it was a joke. Some writer didn't have anything else to do, so they made something up. It happens. Not all written stuff should be taken seriously, even if it is real.

However, this is not a joke. Two guys, mind you, have created a reality show, with three women contestants who go on the show and let viewers decide whether or not to have an abortion. You can read the article here.

I really try not to judge people, unless they repeatedly demonstrate their mindless ignorance, and even then, usually my judgment is to decide not to personally watch or read or patronize them in any way. I can't control your world, nor do I want to, but I can certainly control mine.

This, however, crosses all lines of respect for women, morality, decency and just plain common sense. There is absolutely nothing funny or remotely entertaining about a woman making a life altering decision like this.

Abortion or the decision making leading up to the choice. is not a spectator sport for the hyper-testosterone, all life is sport competition junkies tired of their murder/death/kill video games.

And attempting to couch it in pseudo acceptable Obamaspeak...as in "we need to find new ways to dialogue about old and touchy subjects.." wreaks of tasteless, immature hypocrisy.

Some of us older than 18 spent a couple of lifetimes getting the discussion to where it is today......a discussion between the woman and her doctor...rather than to have it relegated to a gossip topic on a reality show with an audience of nitwits dying to play fly on the wall during a serious situation..

Call it what it is.....two guys looking for another way to update and present their lesbian sex fantasy to the world with hopes of cashing in.....wink, wink!

Brainless guys and the low self esteemed women who love them will run to tune in...

Truly loving someone...means not denigrating them in anyway...These fools need to think about what their reality show says about their respect for their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, girlfriends and female friends...I know they have mothers, but I wonder if they have girlfriends, brainless or otherwise..

And before you ask.............No I haven't seen this show....And No, I won't ever see this show...

The idea from jump is bad, and doesn't deserve the light of day, ever!

Consorting with the Enemy

The LGBT community and other political activists are hyperventilating about President-elect Obama’s choice of the Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration on January 20th. Warren is aligned with the far right wing of the republican party. Click here to read more.

He is pro birth (my term for pro lifers). He is against allowing gays and lesbians to marry. Those two stances have angered many of Obama’s supporters, who are now questioning Obama’s stance on those two agendas.

This argument points out one of the things that has gone really, really wrong with America. We refuse to listen to people who disagree with our chosen stances. Every debate is not a war. Every argument or disagreement is not the end of a friendship. Differences of opinion don’t mean that you must hate the person who has those different feelings.

What it is, is a learning experience, a chance to expand your thinking. Talking to someone with different ideas forces you to find ways to strengthen and reinforce your own beliefs, or to question them, and maybe, to see the error of your ways. Either way, you learn something.

One of my closest friends is a member of Right to Life, and has been since it was founded in the 1970s by the Wilkes, here in Cincinnati. In fact, she was the one who first told me about the pro life organization. I have never agreed with anything that Right to Life stands for. Ever. We wrote letter after letter to each other and spent hour after hour, over the phone (she lives in Boston) talking and attempting to convince each other. It sometimes got heated. Sometimes, we took a week or two time out, between communications. But nearly 35 years later, we’re still friends, who still argue. We just agree to disagree.

I have similar arrangements with my sisters, my siblings. There are things we can’t talk about to each other. But my sisters are my family. They can tick me off royally, but hate, not listen, can’t do it.

Another pet peeve is the current fad of shouting down the other person or of not waiting for them to finish their point, before you’re jumping in their face. Nobody wins in the crosstalk. It’s a lost conversation....a lost opportunity to learn something, maybe. You can’t always assume that you know more than the other person to whom you’re talking. It's also extremely rude and disrespectful. There is a reason why teachers made you raise your hand before speaking in class.

And that is what drew me to Obama, one of the main things, actually. He listens, to everyone. Then he makes up his mind.

He does not fear hearing something different than what he may believe, even after he has taken a public stance on the issue. We should not fear difference of opinion, either. Because it is simply that.....a difference of opinion. You can still be friends if you want, or not. But you can and should work to implement your beliefs. In the end, however, everybody goes home a little better for the effort.

Bottom line, you learned something....isn’t that what life is all about anyway?

Cincinnati: Home to Many Fruits and a Whole Lot of Nuts

Cincinnati, The Queen City, is aptly named. It is home to many queens most of whom proudly marched in Sunday's Pride Parade through Clifton and Northside much to the delight of a similarly fruity throng of rainbow clad happy people. I was one of them. It was a fun day.

Despite the sometimes oppressive and downright discriminatory nature of the city, fruits have always thrived here. The city is a veritable orchard when it comes to growing fruits. And with the city now making strides to leave the 19th century and enter the 21st by doing away with outdated draconian laws, it can only get more festive in coming years.

But the climate around here is also great for growing nuts and that's not necessarily a good thing. Some of the more harmless but fun nuts have gone national, like Jerry Springer, or Morganna the kissing bandit. . Some are just locally famous like Fife, rest in peace, lady, or the late Charlie Taft or Marge, no last name needed. There was a vibrancy, an aliveness, if you will in their nuttiness. They provided a spark and twinkle that is missing today from this once great city.

Others, however, are more dangerous in their nuttiness, like The Wilkes, husband and wife, Phil Burress, and lately, one Tom Brinkman. The Wilkes founded "Right to Life." Phil Burress is a reformed porn addict who campaigns for "community values." Tom Brinkman sponsors legislation aimed at women. He is the man behind a proposal in the Ohio State House that would ban all abortions, even for rape victims. There is a hearing today on the issue.

Were I living in a more enlightened State than the Great State of Ohio, I would not be too concerned about this piece of legislation making it into law. After all it completely contradicts federal law on the issue. But this is Ohio, home to a convicted Governor who is nephew of the aforementioned Charlie. It is home to wannabe governor Ken Blackwell, who uses his powers as Secretary of State to steal elections for the GOP among other seemingly questionable actions, and he is also from Cincinnati.

Considering Ohio was the swing state for re-electing Dubya to the White House for four more years of "compassionate conservatism," well you can understand my reticence for assuming that common sense and logic will prevail in knocking down this insidious measure.

Women have a right to choose, period. I get angry just having to feel that I have to justify my rights on any level to anyone other than myself. I, and I know there are other women who refuse to be returned to being second class citizens. I grew up back in the day of back alley abortions where women died after being violated by hacks with coat hangers. I remember that. It's not some history lesson for me. We ain't goin' back there.

This whole anti abortion movement is based on two premises that date all the way back to when men figured out how to write. One, that men need to propagate and live on, preferably thru their sons, and two, that women need to be protected and have decisions made for them by right thinking upstanding individuals, namely their husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers. Get the picture ? We haven't been property for a very long time, guys.

I don't know any woman who chooses routinely to have an abortion, or even wants to have one. I certainly don't know any women who enjoy getting raped.

The right to a safe abortion is simply one of many choices available, or would be available if this same movement and the Tom Brinkmans of the world would stop fighting sex education and knowledge about contraception in schools and on the internet.

One of the most horrendous things that this White House has done is to erase sex education information from all government websites. It has also successfully withheld federal funding in the fight to keep women safe.

The Tom Brinkmans of the world are not pro life or they wouldn't be about getting laws passed that kill women.