Harper marked by McVety

No, not that way, in case you were visualizing a morbidly obese pitbull wild-eyed with fear and a heart full of hate (no lipstick, at least not today, sailor), lifting a leg and leaving his “mark” on a blue sweater-clad fire hydrant.

Nope, we’re talking “A to F” marks, like the ones you get in school. On the January 4th episode of his critically-acclaimed “Word.ca”, our favourite religious right assclown, Charles McVety, “marked” Stephen Harper‘s performance on issues of interest to, well, Charles McVety:

1. MARRIAGE - Better late than never. The fundies have finally figured out that Harper pulled a fast one on them 2 years ago with his motion to vote on voting on whether to vote on a vote on voting to re-open another vote on voting on same-sex marriage, and they’re laying their vengeance upon him with a big fat *F*

2. PROTECTING CHILDREN – Age of Consent was raised from 14 to 16, hideous news for all those 16 year old boys with 15 year old girlfriends, but great news for the girls’ vengeful Christomaniac parents. Jailbait! Just like the good old days! *A*

(EDIT – On a more accurate and serious note, RB explains the full repercussions of the age of consent law in the comments here.)

3. UNBORN VICTIMS OF CRIME – Again, McVety’s got the feeling that he’s been scammed. Harper initially voted in favour of the infamous Bill C-484, but widespread negative response to it clued him in that this vile back door anti-abortion bill wasn’t the back door to a majority. Therefore he *quashed” C-484 right before the election, indicating that a bill protecting pregnant women would be considered instead. Putting pregnant women before fetuses earned Harper another *F*

4. CRIME – Screaming about “baby-rapers”, McVety makes it clear that Law-and-Order Harper doesn’t prosecute criminals to a full enough extent of the law (and beyond). Maybe the use of thumbscrews and jumper cables in rehabilitative therapy might score Harper something a little better than an underachieving *C*

5. CHILD PORN – Harper isn’t down with McVety’s crusade to give the state the power to force ISPs to block porn sites, probably because there are teams of police officers already tackling this job and, done properly, the websites kind of die on their own. The cops don’t need any help from censorship fetishists, and the internet doesn’t need to set off on this slippery slope. Allowing the cops to do their job unimpeded by blithering porn-obsessed religious crackpots earns Harpie another *F*

6. FUNDING ARTS DEEMED MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE BY CHARLES MCVETY – I’m sensing a definite pattern here in terms of what occupies Charles McVety’s mind most of the time, and I get the sense that looking inside it would be something like staring into an abyss of madness and depravity so deep and dark that — never mind, I’m going off on a tangent. This is about McVety’s censorship wet dream, Bill C-10, which would have prevented tax breaks for indie movies like McVety’s favourite, “Young People Effing” (which isn’t even about effing). Since there’s already a system in place that keeps porn from being funded, McVety must be envisioning a Ministry of Virtue & Vice (with himself in charge) that would spread the pornography net a little wider, maybe to include suspects like SpongeBob and Tinky Winky. Harper actually supported Bill C-10 but apparently with insufficient orgasmic zeal for Chuck, who gave him a milquetoast *C* for his efforts.

7. ISRAEL – Israel? Huh??

8. FREE SPEECH, HRCs & FREEDOM OF RELIGION – F, F and F!!! Harper apparently doesn’t buy into the idea that “religious freedom” includes the right to slag minorities, so all the bigots can relax, the persecution party is still rockin’! But Harper’s marks suffer the consequences.

There’s more of course, bringing Harper’s overall average mark to a “C-minus” — “not very good” in McVety’s words.

One shudders to think what kind of world it would take to qualify for straight “A’s”.

It’s called “freeping”

… and it’s how a scientifically pig-ignorant climate change denialist blog could win the “best science blog” category in the 2008 Weblog Awards. It’s also why online polls aren’t worth shit.

Welcome to my world, Kevin. Take it with a grain of salt and a sense of humour.

Meanwhile, voting ends at 5pm EST today –  everyone go vote for PZ.

Kitteh break

We interrupt this program for some cozy kitteh pron:

Ooops!  Flash woke ‘em up:

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled ranting raving bitching bellowing blogging.

Plumbing the depths

When future historians dust off the archives labeled “2008″, they’ll be struck by one thing — the unprecedented proliferation of suckholes, crybabies and 15-minutes-of-fame chasers that accompanied the foul exercise in batshit craziness known as the “US Presidential Election”. Sarah Palin and “Joe the Plumber” are but two examples.

Both still cling to the media like suckling pigs. But while Sarah is mostly complaining about the media, Joe the Plumber has taken things one step further and become the media, having been hired as a (stand back!) war correspondent covering Gaza for right-wing nuthouse “PJTV”. Today, JTP issues his first Dispatch From The War Zone:

Joe the Plumber called on President-elect Barack Obama on Monday to help Israel in its campaign against Hamas.

The plumber-turned-war correspondent has been unabashed in his support of Israel’s two-week campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and has been touring the Gaza border region and Israeli towns hit by Palestinian rocket fire.

“President Obama has already spoken about what he would do here. That if his daughters were living here he would take whatever means necessary to protect his daughters. So I just hope he carries through with it, but that is going to be up to him,” said Joe, whose real name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher.

Well that’s special. Joe The Plumber goes to Israel to ask Barack Obama to help Israel. Huh!? Well, what did you expect: his job description is probably something like “Report on how Hamas rains death from the sky on Israel”. Don’t hold your breath for any “Joe The Plumber” reports from utterly devastated Palestinian Gaza, where it takes more than a plunger to defend oneself.

What about polygamy?

Joe The Polygamist

My previous post about Bountiful has made me wonder about polygamy. It’s an odd issue with weird alliances — in general, feminists are likely to be opposed to it, but so are social conservatives, albeit for vastly different reasons.

Presumably most would choose not to engage in polygamy — it’s just not a concept most Canadians are comfortable with. But notwithstanding Bountiful, where polygamy is rife with extenuating abuse issues, consider the regular run-of-the-mill Joe the Polygamist living down the street with his wives (none of whom is abused or exploited): Awesome set-up? Nobody’s business? Or a gang of perverts to be shunned and vilified and driven from the neighbourhood like rabid dogs?

And what about women? Is it even possible for a woman to survive having 3 or 4 husbands at once?

Giggedy!

Polygamy/polyandry (thanks, deBeauxOs) is definitely not my bag. I find it almost impossible to live with even one guy on a full-time basis, and my past experience with simultaneous multiple boyfriending has taught me that it’s a confusing and time-consuming endeavour at best. Plus, unlike men, I think women probably have more of a biological imperative to be monogamous, if only because of the childbearing aspect of things.

On the rare occasions when I’ve thought about polygamy, which only happens when Bountiful is in the news, I usually conclude that apart from abuse issues, it’s nobody’s business. What say you, thoughtful readers?

UPDATE: In this post at Rusty Idols, Cliff pretty well sums up my feelings about polygamy in general and the Bountiful arrests in particular. Well said.

We got trouble

…trouble, my friend, right here in Outrage City. Something’s got the wingnut-o-sphere just torqued, and that starts with “T” and that rhymes with “P” and that stands for “Polygamy”.

Everyone’s heard about the polygamy bust this week in Bountiful BC. Like many small, isolated BC towns, Bountiful is a weird place and its inhabitants do weird things.   In my neighbourhood, we swig chianti from the bottle while riding motorcycles in our pajamas.  In Bountiful, they practice polygamy.

But there are also stories of abuse and exploitation of women and minors in Bountiful, which is why the BC government finally decided to clamp down. Conveniently, there just happens to be a law against polygamy and incontravertible evidence that it’s being broken, so that’s the approach the government is taking in its investigation.

The side issue is that if the charge is successfully challenged, the polygamy law (which isn’t stopping anybody who’s interested anyway), could be struck down. Predictably, it’s this little factoid that has social conservatives pissing themselves with outrage. “WE TOLD YOU SO,” they shriek. What?  yes, seriously: It’s All Because The Gays Are Getting Married.

Never mind that Bountiful was practicing polygamy decades before marriage was even a gleam in the Gay Agenda’s eye. Forget about the fact that these polygamous sects are all made up of extremely conservative religious nuts.  And by all means, disregard all that “consenting adults” crap. Make no mistake:  Canada is about to be overrun with polygamy, and it’s because of gay marriage, feminists, liberals and the war on Christmas. But don’t take my word for it, check out this explosive and outragegasmic verbal diahhrea quoted at SUZANNE’s:

SHRIEEEK! SHRIEEEK! SHRIEEK! SHRIEEEK! SHRIEEEEEEEEEEK!  SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

If a socon’s level of distress can be gauged by their use of “Quotation Marks”, this one’s clearly having a nervous breakdown.   Let’s hope the polygamy law holds up, because if it doesn’t, they’re likely to use up all the quotation marks in the world, and there’ll be none left for us when we really need them.  You know, like when we write “pro-life”.  Or for that matter, “conservative”.

Mmm-mmm good grief

After that bust of a war on Christmas, frustrated shrieking fundies needing to get their persecution rocks off have returned to hassling companies that have the impudence to promote diversity in their advertising. Picking up where they left off with McDonalds, the latest food company they’re targeting is the Campbells Soup Company, which is running an ad in the Advocate that features a lesbian couple and their son. (Campbells doesn’t fuck around about it either, as the ad’s accompanying text identifies them as such.)

Outrageous! Everyone knows gay people don’t eat soup and TV dinners! That’s “Normal People” food! So the “American Family Association” issued a panicky Calling All Cretins alert, urging their followers to TAKE ACTION:

Campbell Soup Company has openly begun helping homosexual activists push their agenda. Not only did the ads cost Campbell’s a chunk of money, but they also sent a message that homosexual parents constitute a family and are worthy of support. They also gave their approval to the entire homosexual agenda.

TAKE ACTION

How freaking nosy ARE these people?? The Advocate is a GLBT publication, and the ad is what’s known as “target-specific”. It’s not in a mainstream publication, and it’s unlikely to be seen by anyone who isn’t already at least gay-friendly. (Ah well, except for the thousands of fundies who determinedly plow through such publications in search of things to be outraged by and companies to boycott.)

Fortunately, according to Advertising Age, Campbells is unimpressed by all the hysterical shrieking and not about to cave:

Campbell made no apologies for the series of ads, which it said is its first in any LGBT publication, and instead took a decisive stance on the criticism. “Our position on this is pretty straightforward,” said company rep Anthony Sanzio. “Inclusion and diversity play an important role in our business, and that fact is reflected in our marketing plan. For more than a century, people from all walks for life have enjoyed Campbell’s products, and we will continue to try to communicate in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them.”

He added: “Our plans for the Swanson brand include additional placements in The Advocate.”

Either get with the 21st century or get familiar with cannibalism, assholes, ’cause that’s where this is going.

UPDATE: Right on schedule, one of the Soconitwits serves up a nice hot bowl of Stupid:

I hope they feel the indignation of normal families who don’t appreciate their children being ambushed by ‘gay soup’ commercials in their prime time viewing.

Uh yeah yeah, gay soup on prime time TV, outrage, yada yada.  That’s all well and good, except the ad in question is a print ad, and as such it ain’t on TV, prime time or otherwise.  So unless the Advocate jumps off the newstands, breaks into houses and slyly opens its double page spread, face-up, on god-fearing living room floors across the nation, I doubt it’ll come to the attention of any kids watching American Idol.

Sled dog races canceled: too much snow!

The “NASCAR of Sled Dog Racing” held in Minnesota has been canceled due to too much snow, yep that’s right, too much snow:

Here’s another entry for the annals of noteworthy winter weather: The dogsled race near Frazee, Minn., has been canceled because there’s too much snow.

Too much fluffy snow that keeps drifting and therefore made it impossible to maintain a groomed trail.

That poses a safety risk to the dogs, supercharged canines whose mushers need a groomed trail to drop a hook to stop when necessary.

“We can’t pack it,” race organizer Eddy Streeper said Monday. “We just can’t get it packed. We had to speak up on behalf of the dogs.” [...]

The National Weather Service doesn’t tally snow accumulations and moisture content for Frazee. But snowfalls in Fargo, 54 miles to the northwest, have totaled 39.3 inches since October, with 2.37 liquid inches.

And it’s all Al Franken’s fault! (I mean, Senator Al Franken.)

Well, 39.3″ is a lot of snow, almost as much as the 48″ that we got here. Those armchair athletes are so critical and unforgiving.

Those free market conservatives

Always supportive of free enterprise… unless…

I guess the free market, like free expression, is kind of a contextual thing.

Last train to SoreLoserville

Someone needs a lesson or twelve in the fine art of accepting defeat (also known as “losing”) gracefully.

No, idiots, “the media” didn’t do it. This did it. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And this. And thisandthisandthisandthisandthis… ahhh, what’s the point? They’ll just say the media made all that stuff up.

UPDATE: Hahahahaha…eeeeeevil! (h/t sassy in the comments)

Vomitorium revisted

In which balbulican breaks his New Years Resolution (we knew you were just  kidding), turns over another slimy, shit-encrusted right-wing rock and finds —   what else?  Hate.

Free speech?  Oh sure.  But within that broad definition there’s also the subcategory of feverishly picking one’s psychological scabs in public until they fester and ooze and teem with maggots.  Most sane people can make the distinction.

On the upside, the internet has a long memory.  At some point, the only people interested in this shit will be prospective employers, people who won’t just “send money” no matter how much someone begs and whines and wheedles.

Proportionate response

An AP Gaza reporter watches his home being destroyed on YouTube:

After days of Israeli shelling, the city and life I have known no longer exist.  [...]

Three days after Israel began its air strikes on Gaza on Dec. 27, my apartment building was shaken by bombs aimed at a nearby Hamas-run government compound.

My brother took a picture of the room where my boys, two-year-old Hikmet and six-month-old Ahmed, once slept. Their toys were broken, shrapnel had punched through the closet and the bedroom wall had collapsed. I don’t know if we will ever go back.

The Israeli army issued a video of the bombing of the Hamas compound, which it posted on YouTube. I can see my home being destroyed, and I watch it obsessively.

I can’t stand this shit anymore.

Right wing email forwards

They’ve got a lot of class, and it’s all low.

MyRightWingDad is a site that collects conservative email forwards — you know, those political “jokes” that make the email rounds via the “forward” button and turn inboxes into hazmat-worthy sludge traps. Here’s a recent example of the kind of humour that’s burning up the wingnut webs:

Sore loserville or what? I wonder when these clowns will figure out that this kind of mindset is precisely what got them “where they are today”: irrelevancy?

(via pandagon)

FTD – Update

That last post, as well as CC’s post today on the topic of “The Debate”, reminded me of something I wanted to check back on.

As I pointed out in a previous post, one need only scan the comments with last week’s Cosh article about Rod Bruinooge to see why an “abortion debate” will never happen — because it can’t.   Just look at that combox — it’s like a snakepit of insanity.

Let’s tally it up here.  We’ve got abortion referred to as “infanticide”, “murder”, “babykilling” and “baby-murder”, that tired old canard about abortions “moments before birth”, and the ever-popular “fetuses as collateral damage in The Feminists’ war for equal rights”.  One half-bright nitwit calls pro-choicers “abortion salespeople”. (Where’s my commission?) The hysterical hyberbole goes on and on at mindblowing velocity. But most tellingly, when an infamous anti-abortion terrorist shows up to drop this turd of a comment,

not one “pro-lifer” denounces him.  And this is what I wanted to check on, because they’re always telling us that these violent extremists aren’t welcome in the “pro-life” movement, so surely they’d welcome the opportunity to denounce one of them.  But four days and fifty-odd comments later, not one of these rotten douchebags has told this scum:  “That’s out of line. That violent language doesn’t represent the pro-life movement.”

Why not?

I rest my case.

Spin to win (or not)

Good grief. I’ve seen some feeble attempts at spin, but this takes the cake.

The ladies at ProWomanProLife are still gnawing away on that disagreeable article by Colby Cosh that ran last week in the NatPo, “Rod Bruinooge and the Pro-Life Absurdity” (of kidneys, fetuses and mouthy MPs). Always a big hit with the fetus fetishist crowd, Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition has them foaming at the mouth (yet again) with some of her contributions to the comment thread with the article, particularly this one:

Yes Matt W, let’s err on the side of life – WOMEN’S lives. Because the right to abortion is not about a woman’s right to choose, it’s about her right to LIFE – which means far more than just mere physical survival.

Behind your view is the assumption that women are obligated to have babies just because they are capable of it. Not so. Women can never enjoy full human rights or equality unless they can control their fertility. That includes the right to have sex for pleasure, which carries a risk of pregnancy regardless of use of birth control. So abortion must be available as a backup.

Got that? Now check out how PWPL spins Joyce’s statement:

Who is honestly going to stand up for our “right” to casual sex (and hey, while we’re at it, can we enshrine that it be really good sex too?) over someone else’s life? Guess Joyce Arthur just did.

“Guess Joyce Arthur just did” — guess again, dumbass.

The writer, Andrea, either (a) has reading comprehension issues or (b) is deliberately misrepresenting Joyce Arthur’s comment in a sleazy attempt to discredit her. Because Joyce didn’t say anything about “casual” sex — she said “sex for pleasure”. Which, astonishingly, can be had in committed, long-term, anything-but-casual relationships… hell yeah, even marriage! Take my word for it.

Of course, there might also be a (c) — that Andrea genuinely conflates “sex for pleasure” with “casual sex”, and her statement above wasn’t spin at all but some kind of weird Freudian slip. Which would say a lot more about Andrea than it says about Joyce, but it’s none of our business, so we won’t go there.

UPDATE : Joyce responds at PWPL, or tries to (but keeps getting rejected as spam… Hmm.). Here’s her comment, fortuitously saved:

It’s always impossible to predict what ridiculous misinterpretations anti-choicers will come up with in response to pro-choice arguments, and this time is no exception. It didn’t occur to me that anti-choicers are so opposed to sex for pleasure that they would actually ridicule the concept in public! You’d think they’d be embarrassed to expose their bizarre view of “proper” sexuality – i.e., only for procreation, with pleasure secondary or irrelevant. Of course, hardly any humans have that kind of sex, probably because it violates our nature!

I also couldn’t have predicted the glaring logical errors. Obviously, “casual sex” is clearly not the same thing as “sex for pleasure.” Casual sex can be unpleasant, and “meaningful” sex (or “procreative” sex? – whatever is allegedly the “right” kind of sex!) can be pleasant – with pleasure its main or only goal in fact. Second, whether a woman chooses abortion has nothing to with whether the sex itself was casual, meaningful, pleasant, or unpleasant, or even whether she was trying to get pregnant (since she may change her mind).

Sexual pleasure is pretty much taken for granted as a sexual right by human-rights NGOs (except conservative right-wing groups), and even by the UN and WHO. The concept has been around since at least the 1970’s, I didn’t invent it, LOL. Just Google “sexual rights” to find many declarations and documents that define pleasure as a sexual right – one among many other sexual rights. So my anti-choice detractors have blown things out of proportion and created a straw man by implying that I think sexual pleasure is the be-all-and-end-all of sexual rights.

Well said, Joyce!

Sorry about being MIA

But things have gone a little sideways lately and my attention was needed elsewhere. The snow continued to fall relentlessly until this morning. Below is what’s going on in my driveway right now. That’s a friend of mine with a bobcat digging out the end of the driveway, which has become an almost insurmountable ice-bound slope, courtesy of passing snow plows and my own foolish belief that I wouldn’t have to shovel it yet again because it would soon melt.

Instead of melting away like it usually does, like it was supposed to, all the snow from the last 3 weeks (120+ cm/25″of it) froze into this rutted, slippery, rock-solid snow-cement that’s causing utter devastation on roads and in driveways (at least mine). Don’t be fooled by the visible blacktop in the picture: it’s crusted with frozen slush that feels like lumpy, snot-covered concrete. Which last night was coated with another few inches of soft slushy slop. This is what is meant by “treacherous road conditions”. The roadway is lined with abandoned vehicles, 2 and 4-wheel drive alike. But not mine.

No, my vehicle had other plans. For reasons I’m only just beginning to understand, my truck decided this would be a splendid time to get weird. I suspected transmission problems and for a while I was shitting myself accordingly. But after spending a couple of days under the beastly vehicle (on the dirty ice-concrete, “uncomfortable” with a Capital “U” and a Capital “NCOMFORTABLE”), I figured out that it’s probably just the fuel pump. A $200 problem, but I was ecstatic to find out that what I thought might be a $2500 problem, or maybe even a push-it-off-a-cliff-and-report-it-stolen problem, is somewhat less catastrophic. Better yet, knowing what the problem is, I was able to figure out how to keep the thing going when it gets balky, by doing a little stomping and tapping dance on the gas pedal, while shouting “Come on, you motherfucker, MOVE!”. Works every time. However, I’ve only been driving it for emergencies (like going to work), and it’s going into the Truck Hospital tomorrow for a transplant (parts available on EBay).

Lack of reliable transportation creates problems in itself. Suddenly a lot of things I had on the agenda had to be delayed — you can’t pick up firewood in a truck that only has enough power to float it down the road a few miles. Any further load would be an unacceptable trauma to its system at this point. So I ran out of firewood and had to turn on the electric heat. Considering the number of people that have no heat at all, I can hardly call this a disaster, but it does piss me off. Compared to a woodburning airtight stove, the quality of hydro heat is so lame that it has to be cranked at all times. My last hydro bill was $48 for 2 months (including the cold snap we had in December). My next one won’t be.

I finally got someone to deliver a half cord of soaking wet wood, but to get it to burn it’s necessary to get at the dry stuff inside, which means it needs to be split, a pretty time-and-labour-intensive endeavour. Great exercise and usually I enjoy it, but not when I’m doing it in the dark after work.

These and related issues have not only used up my time, but contributed to a malaise that’s given me Blogger’s Block for the last few days. But now that things seem to be coming together, my interest in the world beyond my driveway is slowly returning.

Sometimes life just can’t help getting in the way. Oh well, shit happens. Onward.

Hey ho, way to go, Minnesota

Congratulations to Senator Al Franken. SENATOR Al Franken!:

Minnesota’s state canvassing board certified results showing that Democrat Al Franken has won a vote recount for that state’s open U.S. Senate seat, according to the Associated Press Monday.

I was really hoping this would happen — mostly because I like Al Franken, but also because the wingnut reaction to a Franken win would be a guaranteed comedy gold mine. From the above Marketwatch link, behold the exploding heads:

“Blatant theft”? “Cheating”?? “Re-writing history”??? Do these people even think about what they’re saying? And furthermore… oh, boo hoo hoo! What a bunch of cry-babies! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Fuck the debate, and here’s why

If anyone still wonders why pro-choicers are so reluctant to “engage” in any kind of “debate” about abortion, look no further than the combox at yesterday’s NatPo piece by Colby Cosh.

It started heating up as soon as the word “abortion” rippled its way through the Canadian internets, causing spastic twitching and jerking in the collective anti-choice lizard brain.  The first commenter screeched in, spraying virtual gravel and firing off the opening shots in the “debate” — “infanticide” and “murder”:

Child, embryo, fetus — the word is CHILD, motherfuckers!  Say it! (And while you’re at it, say “MERRY CHRISTMAS“!!)

Along those same semantic lines, the clearly off-his-meds “rightiscorrect” chimes in:

“Tiller the Killer”!  Now that’s what I call thoughtful, reasoned debate.

This guy makes an early prediction:

And “Claymore” is quick to live up to it, thoughtfully copy-pasting a huge rambling article full of half-truths, lies and other gibberish about death, breast cancer and insanity from some anti-abortion website.

He then follows up with responses to other commenters:

Stop killing BABIES!!!  Way to contribute to the “debate” there, “Claymore”.

Then, right on schedule, “Saint Nobody” (aka SUZANNE) weighs in and, enraged by a comment from Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition, goes full-metal batshit:

Ouch, Joyce! Feminist empowerment!  Teh Feminists = >than others! It’s  notable that Cosh’s article made no mention of feminism or anything even remotely resembling it, yet in SUZANNE’s rat’s nest of a mind that’s where all abortion-related discussions begin and end.  Just add it to the mounting pile of evidence that SUZANNE’s real reason for hating feminists is their part in achieving abortion rights.

Lastly, the good reverend Spitz shows up to spit this out this hunk of phlegm:

Ahh… yeah.  It’s exactly like that, you fucking douchebag.  Now let’s see how quickly the “pro-lifers” jump in to disown this scumsucking piece of shit.

There were a few commenters who didn’t sound as if they were posting to pass the time while they waited for Nurse Ratched to show up with their Thorazine, but sadly, hardly any of them were anti-choice.  As in, maybe one.

And people wonder why we don’t want a “debate” with these idiots?

Kidneying around

Rod Bruinooge’s exceedingly weird “selling kidneys on EBay” foolishness is getting some more attention in the same daily that first  published the scandalously stupid analogy in his “Why I am Pro-Life” opinion piece.

In today’s National Post, Colby Cosh rightly points out that apart from whatever goofy connection  Bruinooge was trying to make between kidneys and fetuses, since our kidneys belong to us and us alone, it should be legal to sell them on EBay if we so desire:

Of course we should be able to have our kidneys removed and sell them on eBay. It is outrageous that the state claims the power to interfere in such a transaction; ownership of our own bodies is the paramount principle of bioethics.

I totally agree:  Why shouldn’t I be able to sell a kidney?   It’s mine, and it’s none of the government’s business what I do with it.

It’s interesting that Bruinooge seized on a point of law governing our personal lives to justify calling for more law governing our personal lives.   One of the unintended consequences of Bruinooge’s “kidney analogy” is that it highlights the fact that we already have too many idiotic, intrusive laws governing our persons.  Only a social conservative could think that makes the case for even more stupid laws.

But this is what I mean when I refer to socons as “nanny statists”.   They might like lower taxes and they might be down with less government funding for social programs, but when it comes to laws dictating how we run our personal lives, they can’t get enough o’ that funky nanny state stuff.

How cats celebrate New Years Day

The same way they celebrate the other 364 days: by curling up on the bed and cuddling.

But look at this — awww! Mr. Black gives Mr. Blue a bath:

“Huh? What are you lookin’ at?”

That’s a nice change, since he’s usually chasing her and beating her up.

Happy New Year

A quick surf around Left Blogistan reveals a few headaches, a clear indication that  some were out last night abusing themselves (and probably drinking, too).

But not me.

I had other issues on my mind last night. So I unplugged the phone, closed the curtains and spent the evening hunkered down with a Haynes manual, reading about 4-wheel-drive transfer cases and differentials — I think I might have blown out my rear end yesterday, which sounds like a lot more fun than it really is.   I was gently weeping myself into a desperate slumber by 10:30pm.

So allow me to live vicariously… what did you-all get up to last night?  Spill yer guts! (No, not that way!)