Dialing down the rhetoric

In a previous post I referred to some idiotic comments made by anti-choice extremists following Dr. Tiller’s murder.  I suggested that common sense would seem to indicate that this might be a good time to cool off on the hateful rhetoric, since it undoubtedly played a significant part in inciting the murder.  But these people just can’t help it, they’ve spent so long spinning themselves into a feverish frenzy of stupid hate, they can’t stop themselves from making stupid outrageous statements.  Right on cue, they puke up another prime example of the seething stupid:

STOP! A MAN IS DEAD because of your deranged paranoid raving.  For the love of whatever hateful god it is that you offer your spittle-flecked prayers to, STOP!!

Tiller murder suspect found

Surprise surprise, he’s an extreme right-wing anti-choice nut who’s posted at Operation Rescue’s website:

According to the Associated Press, police have identified the man suspected of murdering abortion provider George Tiller as 51-year-old Scott Roeder of Merriam, Kansas. He is in custody but has not yet been charged with the crime. [...]

Various Internet sleuths have discovered two comments Roeder left on Web message boards about Tiller. In one, posted to Operation Rescue’s Web site, he wrote:

Bleass (sic) everyone for attending and praying in May to bring justice to Tiller and the closing of his death camp.

Sometime soon, would it be feasible to organize as many people as possible to attend Tillers church (inside, not just outside) to have much more of a presence and possibly ask questions of the Pastor, Deacons, Elders and members while there? Doesn’t seem like it would hurt anything but bring more attention to Tiller.

Gee, I wonder if that has anything to do with this:

Bye bye, dickheads.

Unbelievable

I just got home and was trying to get some more on the 5 W’s of Dr. Tiller’s murder this morning, and one of the first articles I surfed on to just stopped me in my tracks, astonished.

I would have thought that at this point, knowing that their violent rhetoric is what made this happen, even the batshit insane anti-choice freaks would know enough to dial it down a little… wrong.

Today Randall Terry (head of anti-choice terrorists Operation Rescue)  stepped up to the plate to say:

“George Tiller was a mass murderer and we cannot stop saying that,” Terry said. “He was an evil man — his hands were covered with blood.”

But the real insanity is that Terry’s worried about a backlash against anti-choicers:

Terry said he was now concerned that the Obama administration “will use Tiller’s killing to intimidate pro-lifers into surrendering our most effective rhetoric and actions.”

“Our most effective rhetoric and actions” — which is to incessantly scream “baby-killer, Tiller the Killer, mass-murderer, blood on his hands” until some rabid, spittle-flecked, scripture-screaming psycho, whipped into a Jesus-driven frenzy, takes that rhetoric to its ultimate conclusion with a high-powered rifle.  How could it possibly play out any other way?

Oh, and this is really rich:  “Priest for Life” and Operation Rescue hangaround Father Frank Pavone (much-beloved by fetus fetishists everywhere including our own SUZANNE), had this to say:

“I am saddened to hear of the killing of George Tiller this morning. At this point, we do not know the motives of this act, or who is behind it, whether an angry post-abortive man or woman, or a misguided activist, or an enemy within the abortion industry, or a political enemy frustrated with the way Tiller has escaped prosecution. We should not jump to conclusions or rush to judgment.

Well, somebody “rushed to judgement” this morning, and made themselves not only judge, but jury and executioner.  And somehow I don’t think it was an “angry post-abortive woman”, but nice try, Father Frank.  IDIOT.

If these two quotes are any indication, in the coming days it should be interesting, if nauseating, to see what kind of  outrageously stupid and delusional statements the anti-choice whackjobs make about this tragedy.  For so long, they’ve been whipping themselves into derangement of such brain-damaged magnitude that they can’t help themselves.

I only hope that, the real face of anti-abortion terrorism having been revealed once again, anti-choicers will be more marginalized than ever as the sane and rational recoil from them in loathing and disgust.

Meanwhile, I still shoot back.

Dr. Geoge Tiller shot to death this morning

…as he was on his way into church.

Anti-abortion extremists Operation Rescue, who have harrassed Dr. Tiller for years, claim they’re “Shocked, I tell you, shocked!“

I say:  fuck you, motherfucks.  At the very least, your rhetoric contributed to this.  Fuck you!

(h/t Canadian Cynic)

More douchebaggery from Donohue

Shorter Bill Donohue:   “Not all the priests raped little kids, so SHUT UP, rape victim!   You’re hysterical!“

If you feel the need to shower after listening to that clip, you’re not alone.

Unfortunately for Donohue, the Catholic church itself doesn’t agree with his sentiments.  Neither do a lot of Catholics.

(via pharyngula)

Lazy Saturday

…for someone

… but not for me.

Consider this one “open” — post comments, questions, red alerts, love notes, hate mail, rants, raves and links (so I have something to read as soon as I get home from work).

Or not.  It is, after all, Lazy Saturday.  Later, kids!

There’s a storm gathering

…and it’s yet another American conservative political group whose sole purpose in life is to rant and rave about abortion and gay marriage. Because there aren’t enough of those already, right?  The latest entry in the “Batshit Insane Conservative Political Groups” category is “the American Principles Project”:

The group’s website says it will hold Republicans to account on conservative positions:

The message of the 2006 and 2008 elections is not that the American people want to be governed by the ultraliberal and statist ideology of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid; rather it is that Americans will not tolerate Republicans and “conservatives” who refuse to honor in practice the principles they purport to affirm—Republicans and “conservatives” who expand government, spend our tax dollars wantonly, do nothing about out-of-control judges who undermine democracy, and sit idly by as marriage is redefined and further weakened.

The key difference between this group and others cropping up to chart a course forward for the GOP is that the American Principles Projects counts opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage among its top priorities.

Well that’s new and different.   We can only hope that their videos are as parody-worthy as NOM’s.

(via rightwing watch)

Casual Friday

It’s Casual Friday for the fetus fetishists — what other explanation could there be for posts with cryptic titles and no details:

Huh!??

SUZANNE has already “fixed” it (fern hill, pick up the courtesy phone), but let’s not let that stop us from having fun.  Because fun is what it’s all about, and the more uninhibited and out-of-control the better, right folks?

Here’s the challenge:  in the comments, write-ur-own post to go with the title

“Extremist Canadian Feminist Pro-Abort Runs”.

It could be  something like…

“…organic grow-op in the Kootenays, product tests with highest THC levels ever recorded!”

or

“…fetus fetishists out of town on the end of a remington 12-gauge shotgun!”

Have at ‘er.  Or not.  It is, after all, Casual Friday.

Gud speling, NOM

NOM, of “The Gathering Storm” (most parodied video in history) fame, has a couple of new ads that remind us of the benefits of home skooling.  BWAHAHA!!

Olbermann on federal Prop8 challenge

It’s significant and encouraging that two highly-esteemed lawmakers from different sides of the political spectrum would join together in an effort to overturn the execrable Proposition 8.   Here Olbermann talks to John Dean about it:

A-Man and V-Lo

The world’s longest-running comic menage a trois may finally be coming to an end during an upcoming 6-issue Archie Extravaganza, when Archie dumps the sweet and loyal Betty for good and pops The Question to perennial cocktease and rich-bitch Veronica Lodge.

It’s true:

In what’s being billed the “Archie Story of the Century,” perennially indecisive loverboy Archie Andrews has finally chosen the raven-haired Veronica Lodge over sunny girl-next-door Betty Cooper, according to the official Archie Comics website.

Ah well, even at the age of 10 I knew this wouldn’t end well for Betty. Unconditional loyalty in love only gets you so far, especially when the object of your ardor is a depraved, brain-damaged slut like Archie. Besides…

… after 67 years, it’s unlikely that someone as tenacious as Betty would let a little thing like a marriage proposal take her out of the picture. While she might not be breaking into the newlyweds’ rose-covered cottage to leave boiling bunnies on the stove, she’ll be around, waiting. Waiting for the inevitable marital strife that will occur when Archie’s insatiable animal lust drives Veronica back to Daddy’s mansion. And Betty probably won’t have to wait long… especially if the band stays together!

UPDATE: Bruce thinks it’s wrong, all wrong.

The right to keep kids ignorant

Ignorance is not only bliss, but to a few half-witted cheeseheads in Alberta it appears to be a virtue so worthy of aspiring to that parents will soon have the right to ensure their kids can wallow in err, strive for it, unencumbered by confusing concepts like respect for diversity. The province’s Bill 44 of the Human Rights Act, including a contentious Parental Rights provision which would allow parents to pull kids out of class if the subject matter was too SHRIEEEKy for their tender sensibilities, passed yesterday:

By the time politicians wrapped up debate of Alberta’s Human Rights Act Wednesday morning, nearly eight hours had passed — and critics were charging that Premier Ed Stelmach’s promise to allow government MLAs to vote freely had proven meaningless.

After the overnight debate ended shortly before 3:30 a.m., the controversial parental rights provision remained a part of Bill 44. [...]

Enshrining parental rights in the Human Rights Act means parents of students will be notified whenever issues of human sexuality, religion and sexual orientation are on the agenda, so children can be pulled from classroom discussions when parents feel it is necessary.

That means the “Hunters” of the world get to make sure that all those good old-fashioned values they’ve instilled in their kids will be unchallenged by anything so base, crude and obscene as critical thought.

It’s astonishing when you think about it: this is the kind of thing the religious right in the US has spent decades fighting for, with limited success, and it just blew right through the Alberta legislature virtually overnight and after one more reading, will be law.

Well, Alberta is home to Canada’s only Creation “Science” Museum…

Stay classy, wingnuts

SCOTUS nominee Sonia Sotomayor:  “Che Guevara in robes”??

Yep, they went there.

Apart from her qualifications for the bench, which appear to be ample, the Sotomayor pick is a stroke of pure, unadulterated political genius.  She has virtually no background in either of the most incendiary judicial issues — abortion and gay marriage — so those are off the table.  All that’s left is gender and race, and the shrieks of “reverse racism!” (Save the white males!) have already started. Which should go over well with the Hispanic electorate.

Good times, good times.  It’ll be a fun summer watching the GOP repeatedly shoot itself in the foot with the gun Obama’s handed them. 

(Sotomayor image from dependable renegade)

Pay to Tweet?

Oh no, it’s a Twitter shakedown!:

Twitter Inc.’s co-founders say the rapidly growing online communications company will eventually charge fees for its services, but it’s unclear which ones and what will drive revenue.

“There will be a moment when you can fill out a form or something and give us money,” said Ean Williams, co-founder and chief executive officer.

Hopefully they’re only considering fees for corporate tweeters and not the Twit-and-file, because according to this CBC poll:

I hardly ever use the thing (see my last twitter update from about 5 weeks ago, ha) so I’m definitely in the 94% who wouldn’t fork over one red cent for it.  But a lot of people seem to be quite prolific twitterers, so who knows — they might be addicted enough to it that they’d pay for it.  More power to Twitter if they can make money, it just won’t be any of mine.

How about it?  Would YOU pay a Twitter Toll?

Here come de judge

… and she’s a pro-choice liberal. SURPRISE!

President Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as his first appointment to the court, officials said Tuesday, and has scheduled an announcement for 10:15 a.m. at the White House.

And of course…

Conservative groups reacted with sharp criticism on Tuesday morning. “Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important than the law as written,” said Wendy E. Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network.

If “conservative groups” are clutching their pearls over it, that’s a good sign.  Hmmm, “the Judicial Confirmation Network”: sounds like a long-standing, non-biased group.  NOT.

Sotomayor appears to have some bipartisan cred, having been appointed to the district court without dissent by Bush 41.  Fat chance of the GOP borking this one… but that won’t stop them from trying.  Just for the fun of it!

Worst Canadian voted Best PM

That’s right — according to a recent (unfreeped) Angus Reid poll, 39% of Canadians think Pierre Elliott Trudeau was just all that, Canada’s best “recent” Prime Minister:

Two-in-five Canadians select Pierre Trudeau as their favourite recent head of government, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies released by the Toronto Star. 39 per cent of respondents think Trudeau has been Canada’s best prime minister since 1968.

Well, la-di-dah! Not bad for a guy who was voted “Worst Canadian in Teh Wurld!!!11!” in an unscientifically-freeped online poll in the Beaver a couple of years ago. The Beaver learned the peril of online polling the hard way when its innocent poll was savagely violated by freep-frenzied fetus fetishists in a quest to see some evidence that the rest of Canada agrees with their brain-damaged worldview. They then inexplicably went on to hold this out as a “Great Pro-Life Victory!!!!” of the magnitude of their “Great Facebook Victory”.  YAWN!

Oh, wait a minute… aren’t we forgetting someone?  How’d Steve do?

Harper was picked as the worst prime minister by 22 per cent of respondents—up seven points since June 2008—followed by Mulroney with 19 per cent, Chrétien with 12 per cent, Trudeau with 10 per cent, Campbell with nine per cent, Martin with six per cent, Clark with four per cent, and Turner also with four per cent.

…and only 10% picked Trudeau.  Tru-D’oh!

Free speech

— I do not think it means what the fetus fetishists think it means:

I attended this year’s pro-life rally on Parliament Hill for the first time. I saw the thousands of people, but I sure didn’t see much media presence. [...]

It’s ironic that the subject for this year’s press conference was “pro-life free speech suppressed in Canada.”

Now that’s an understatement.

With the press’s little to no coverage of the pro-life rally or caucus press conference, this all seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So wrote an indignant fetus fetishist last week in a letter to the Ottawa Citizen, one of the few media outlets that actually did cover the March for Mandatory Childbirth. The writer seems to be under the impression that if the media doesn’t cover an event, it amounts to suppression of the free speech of those who took part in the event.

Um, no. “Free speech” is the freedom to protest — there’s no guarantee that people will be interested in the protest, or that the media will deem it a compelling story. For most people in the real world this issue isn’t even on the radar, and the media responds to its market accordingly. It’s not suppression of free speech; it’s the Invisible Hand of the media market, flipping fetus fetishists the bird.

But Campaign Life Coalition, mad as hell that CBC didn’t give their little shindig the coverage they felt entitled to (therefore censoring their free speech), has filed complaints to the CBC Ombudsman and the CRTC demanding a full investigation of CBC’s liberal fucking bias:

A letter signed by CLC president Jim Hughes was sent to the CBC Ombudsman today, suggesting that CBC willfully “ignored” the 12,300 people who convened on Parliament Hill two weeks ago to protest the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion. This despite the fact that CLC provided CBC with information about the massive pro-life event well in advance, and the fact the station has reported on much smaller protests on the Hill in the past.

“How is it that CBC’s national news desk has in the recent past given lengthy coverage to a paltry 200 individuals at a pro-marijuana rally on the Hill,” asks the letter, “but fails to notice 12,000+ prolife citizens overflowing the grounds of Parliament Hill?”

“Is this not proof of a double standard which favours ‘socially liberal’ causes?”

No, it’s proof of the media favouring causes that might actually be vehicles for change, thus making them newsworthy. Sorry to say (okay, not really), that doesn’t include the anti-choice cause.

“We believe the evidence is overwhelming to support our claim that the CBC has discriminated unfairly against our massive National March For Life in that it gave no national television coverage whatsoever to this historic event,” says CLC in that letter. (emphasis added – heh)

Oh boo hoo hoo… all this whining about entitlement to media coverage reminds me of another little tantrum from the fairly recent past; how’d that work out again?

Ooohhhhhh!

The irony, it burns

The UK has passed a new equality law that means churches can no longer discriminate against gays when hiring. In religious rightspeak that somehow translates to meaning churches will be “forced” to hire gay (maybe even all-gay, all-singing and all-dancing like a Broadway musical) staff:

Religious groups are to be forced to accept homosexual youth workers, secretaries and other staff, even if their faith holds same-sex relationships to be sinful.

Christian organisations fear that the tightened legislation, which is due to come into force next year, will undermine the integrity of churches and dilute their moral message.

Since we’re supposedly all sinners anyway, I don’t see what the big deal is if “their faith holds same sex relationships to be sinful”.  But the perpetually-whining Catholic Church is worried that this new law means they won’t be able to practice their religion, presumably since they’ll be breaking the 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not hire gays”.

Always thinking of the children, the church is also worried that they might have to hire gay youth workers — not sure why exactly, but they seem to think this might put kids at some kind of risk, and — look out! Whew. I hope nobody got hit by any flying fragments of exploding irony.

Here’s an idea: maybe some well-muscled “gay youth workers” can act as bodyguards to protect the kids from Father Fiddleabout.

Beck pwned on The View

Do these right-wankers ever stop lying?

psa speak

You listen.

Another damn fine rant. We’re on a roll. W00t!

AND FURTHERMORE: Dave speak (to the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue).  You eavesdrop.

Diversion tactics

When the going gets weird, the slimy point and scream “SECULARISSSSSTS!!!”:

In his installation service as the new leader of Catholics in England and Wales, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols called for a greater respect of religious belief.  [...]

Secularists, such as Richard Dawkins, who try to rubbish religion are encouraging intolerance, the archbishop told a congregation of 2,000 at Westminster Cathedral.  [...]

He urged that there should be “respectful dialogue” and that this needs to go “beyond the superficial and slogans”.

Because nothing says “respectful dialogue” like…

The archbishop played a leading role in fighting the introduction of gay rights laws in 2006, which now make it illegal to discriminate against gay couples when placing children for adoption.

Given the choice between leaving kids in the care of a gay couple I know or leaving them with a priest and a nun, I know which option I’d feel most comfortable with (talk about a No-Brainer).   But speaking of kids, while the Archbish was running his yap about atheists and secularists undermining society, did he have anything to say about the latest report of (the seemingly endless list of) Catholic school child abuse?  Not a thing.   Although he did mention it earlier, in passing:

Earlier, the new Archbishop risked controversy on his first day in office when he said a report exposing decades of systematic child abuse by Catholic priests and nuns in Ireland would “overshadow” the good they had done.

He said it took “courage” for Catholic church members who abused children to face up to their actions.

Made the church look bad, ooh.  The child abusers were courageous, oh yes.   And… something’s missing here… hmm… uh… starts with “K”…oh! Yeah!  Kids!  Anything about the kids?  Hello?   Oh right, they weren’t fetuses at the time, so too bad so sad, I guess.  SILLY ME!  What was I thinking?

Killer chip

If this doesn’t give you The Creeps, nothing will:

A German newspaper reports that a Saudi Arabian inventor applied for a patent for a device that, once implanted,  could not only track fugitives, but kill them on command.

The tiny electronic device, dubbed the “Killer Chip” by Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger, would be suited for tracking fugitives from justice, terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals, political opponents, defectors, domestic help, and Saudi Arabians who don’t return home from pilgrimages.

Political opponents?  Domestic help?? This is sick sick stuff.

But why not?  If it’ll help Fight Terrorism and Keep Us Safe, it might be a good idea to implant everyone with these things at birth.  If someone’s even considering doing something Wrong, knowing that their every move is being tracked and they can be neutralized with extreme prejudice from a great distance at any time might make them think twice, eh?

Remember, if you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.

Can we finally stop pretending

…that religion has anything to do with morality?

No sooner does this evil odious shit about Catholic institutional sex abuse in Ireland hit the fan, than we have this, from Seattle:

A 44-year-old man who sued the Catholic Archdiocese in Seattle over alleged sexual abuse by a priest has settled his case for $700,000, his attorney says.

and this, from the UK:

A Catholic priest has been jailed for sexually assaulting three boys in County Durham during the 1980s.

Father David Taylor, 59, of Bedlington, Northumberland, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years at Durham Crown Court.

and this, from Milwaukee:

It’s been 40 years since Jerry Kobs and Jim St. Patrick roamed the halls at St. Patrick’s grade school on Milwaukee’s south side, but they said the pain of the sexual abuse they endured at the hands of their teacher Sister Norma Giannini is still fresh.

and this, from Minneapolis:

A Roman Catholic brother who taught at Cretin High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s has been accused in a lawsuit of sexually abusing a teenage boy who attended the school.

and this, from Wisconisn:

An appeals court on Wednesday upheld the 2006 conviction of a once-prominent Jesuit priest on charges he abused two students during retreats in Wisconsin in the 1960s.

…and these stories are all from within the last couple of days. And there’s more — way more — just google “Catholic” + “sex abuse”. Clearly, if it’s a day that ends in a “Y”, it’s time for more news about more diddler priests and the rotten stinking shit-eating scum that cover up for and enable them. Does the expression “systemic rot” come to mind?

If only all those abused kids hadn’t had the bad luck to have already made it out of the birth canal, maybe we might see some outrage from the church rank and file.

Damn good rant

What stageleft said.