I've have my attention pulled around to the abortion debate.
Mostly Christian groups Abort67 and 40 Days To Life have upped their picketing of British Pregnancy Advice Clinics, stopping women going in and coming out and offering them leaflets and waving pictures of dead foetuses in the hope of what they believe is saving a life.
Roman Catholic Tory MP Nadine Dorries has tried to slip in a law that makes pro-life pregnancy counselling the only counselling allowed.
I know, I know what I should say. I'm not a Christian. I should pull out that old chestnut 'it isn't alive till it's born' and insist on calling it a 'foetus' instead of an 'unborn baby'. But, well, I have more than one team in this game.
I was born with a life-threatening condition for which there is no cure. In the early 60s when I was born it was still in the guinea pig stage, out of the animal testing and into people testing. That is, I spent almost all of the first five years of my life in hospital, sometimes due to the effects of the treatment fed me to keep me alive. Up to being five, the doctors didn't know if I would survive beyond a certain age.
In fact, I remember, very vaguely, being on the ward in a hospital gown in a cot and attached to a drip feed and a little lad coming up to me and saying he had this illness (can't remember what it is) and knowing he would be dead before he reached his early twenties, and I would probably be, too. Because I hadn't been told any different.
I used to mention it a lot to my Mum, 'will I die before I'm old' and my Mum used to say 'no one know when they are going to die', that is, she wasn't going to lie to me because she didn't know because the doctors didn't know.
Now, today, it is possible to tell the parents of one born with my condition that they will live a normal life span, so long as they put restrictions on their behaviour, the first one, always remember to take your tables at eight am every morning, for ever.
God, that was drummed into me, so much so that I instinctively wake at eight am to swallow my life-giving tablets, even if I've just got into bed a couple of hours before. If I get in from work at seven I can get ready for bed, see to my cats, and then get my head down and I will wake, a silent alarm drummed into me, at eight, for my tablets. My ex was fascinated by this.
Even today, they can't make this condition go away, can't even promise to cut down the number times it will threaten my life, but they can monitor it. And they can test for it while still in the womb.
My point, if you're still with me. Suppose medical science was as it is today but my condition was at the same stage of understanding it was in the 60s. Suppose a pregnant woman, first time mother, is examined and told by a grave faced doctor that the foetus she is carrying has this mysterious illness, barely named, and they can't say if it will be born health and live and thrive, and it will need constant care and medication and be in hospital more than it's out and it could die early and it will die without treatment.
What is to stop that woman aborting someone like me? Getting the disability out of her and then catching again in the hope of replacing me with a healthy baby?
I can function, I'm more or less healthy, I've a good brain, I can contribute. If I could step out of this genetically deficient body and into one that works, like Jake Sully in James Cameron's Avatar, I would, so I could be well, but I'm alive, and can live a life alone, without having to constantly rely on others. But medical science could not have predicted, then, that I was going to be here now.
You see what I'm getting at.
Abortion is not cut and dried, and those who say 'it is murder, there is no excuse' have as much right to have their as those who say 'it's up to the woman'. They aren't doing it to annoy people, they genuinely believe it, just like 'it's up to the mother' also believe it.
Neither side in the war is fully right.
But you can't tell one side that about the other. Not if you want to be accused of being for the other side and words like 'insane' 'fanatical' 'lefties' 'fascist' 'feminist' 'misogynist' are more penetrating than bullets, and the blood spilled is in the soul and the wounds make the injured more enraged, more sure of their righteousness in this case.
The pro-lifers, well, you're all right so long as you are in the womb. Soon as you're born, you can shift for yourself. Those who are pro-life are more often than not anti social care programmes to give the kid a chance once it comes out screaming into the cold world. No disabled baby can hope for the money provided to make the necessary medications to maintain life.
The pro-choice lot, it's all about 'a woman's right to choose', 'she hasn't to carry it, she can get rid of it if she likes', 'it's a painless, five minute process'. 'Maybe, if it's not going to survive, better if you get rid of it.'
Then they pull out the emotion-primed 'in the case of rape or incest' or 'the mother's life in danger' card, flinging it at the stone hard inexorable 'abortion is murder' 'she should have kept her legs closed' opponents.
But both sides are so lost in a blizzard of words and accusations and lies and hysteria they have forgotten the foetus itself.
If you're reading this, and you are disabled, when you get the chance, if you don't already know, and you feel comfortable doing so, ask your Mum what would she would do if you'd been conceived at a time when medical science was up to date with everything except your disability, and the doctors discovered you had this disability and suggested an abortion.
Me? My Mum would have kept me. A life is a life, after all. Even if it's a potential life.
Even if it's old demmick, innocent victim of a cluster of enzymes that didn't switch on and missed a hormonal connection when the body was being formed.
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Sunday, 18 March 2012
ACTS OF TRUTH
The massive mega church was packed to the gills.
The pews were full, people raising their hands and singing praise to their god.
Outside, in front of the marble steps, on the pavement, sat a small scruffy boy, crying.
A gentle bearded man came and crouched by him;
"What is upsetting you so, little one?"
"Oh, sir." The little boy lifted his tousled head and turned his dirty face up to the man, "them in that church won't let me in."
The man stood and gazed over the building, the marble trimmings, the smooth brickwork, the Ten Commandments picked out over the oak door in gold letters.
He shook his head and smiled and rested a hand on the small boy's head.
"I know, son. They haven't let me in there for years."
And Jesus turned and walked away.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. - Mahatma Gandhi
The pews were full, people raising their hands and singing praise to their god.
Outside, in front of the marble steps, on the pavement, sat a small scruffy boy, crying.
A gentle bearded man came and crouched by him;
"What is upsetting you so, little one?"
"Oh, sir." The little boy lifted his tousled head and turned his dirty face up to the man, "them in that church won't let me in."
The man stood and gazed over the building, the marble trimmings, the smooth brickwork, the Ten Commandments picked out over the oak door in gold letters.
He shook his head and smiled and rested a hand on the small boy's head.
"I know, son. They haven't let me in there for years."
And Jesus turned and walked away.
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. - Mahatma Gandhi
Saturday, 17 March 2012
REDEFINING THE ISSUE
And the number one secular* argument against the coalition's plan to allow civil marriage in the UK;
We mustn't allow gays to redefine marriage.
?
How?
How do two adults who just happen to be of the same gender making a commitment to one another in front of their friends and family redefine marriage?
I know the classic term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the union of a man and a woman, but well, how many people use (or even think of) the classic terms for wallpaper, sweep and physician?
That is, words evolve, but not in a Darwinian way, more of a Lamarckian way, that is, they alter to fit in with their surroundings and then pass that meaning to the next generation.
If the meaning of marriage is expanded to cover any type of consenting adult couple, then humanity will settle in with it, just like when they talk about a corner they don't mean someone who represents the crown in criminal proceedings, rather like a barrister today.
(Note : I have purposefully avoided taking the well worn defence paths of, 'how will redefining marriage effect your marriage?' And, 'just because same sex marriage is legal doesn't mean you will have to get divorced'. Because not only have those paths been worn down so nothing fresh grows on them, that technically isn't what is meant by those who claim 'same sex marriage will redefine the meaning of marriage').
*Yes, secular. Because you don't have to be a theist to think that those disgusting poofs shouldn't be allowed to mix with decent people.
We mustn't allow gays to redefine marriage.
?
How?
How do two adults who just happen to be of the same gender making a commitment to one another in front of their friends and family redefine marriage?
I know the classic term, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the union of a man and a woman, but well, how many people use (or even think of) the classic terms for wallpaper, sweep and physician?
That is, words evolve, but not in a Darwinian way, more of a Lamarckian way, that is, they alter to fit in with their surroundings and then pass that meaning to the next generation.
If the meaning of marriage is expanded to cover any type of consenting adult couple, then humanity will settle in with it, just like when they talk about a corner they don't mean someone who represents the crown in criminal proceedings, rather like a barrister today.
(Note : I have purposefully avoided taking the well worn defence paths of, 'how will redefining marriage effect your marriage?' And, 'just because same sex marriage is legal doesn't mean you will have to get divorced'. Because not only have those paths been worn down so nothing fresh grows on them, that technically isn't what is meant by those who claim 'same sex marriage will redefine the meaning of marriage').
*Yes, secular. Because you don't have to be a theist to think that those disgusting poofs shouldn't be allowed to mix with decent people.
Monday, 5 March 2012
NOT IMPOSSIBLE
In an alternate universe;
Churches go out and picket and demonstrate at funerals and political and social meetings with their signs;
GOD HATES GOATS.
GOD HATES GOAT-ENABLERS.
LEFT HANDERS ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE GOATS.
Christians (and to a smaller extent non-theists) set up groups where left-handers can find healing and freedom from their sinisterist orientation.
It can't be easy being a left-hander. We must reach out and help them into freedom, to find their potential as the right-handers they were meant to be.
After all, the opposite of 'right' is not 'left' but 'wrong'.
Let's look at the facts, shall we?
Left-handers die earlier than right-handers.
They suffer from more fatal conditions,.
They are more likely to drink and do drugs.
The majority of young left-handers commit suicide because they hate themselves and their left-handed lifestyle.
Even non-theists insist what the media have been feeding them;
Left-handers are disgusting perverts and shouldn't be allowed to teach children.
They recruit normal, healthy right-handed youth with promises of freedom from parental oppression.
Left-handers are unnatural. They take over the streets in their filthy Sinisterist Pride parades with their pens in the wrong hand, shouting;
SINISTERISM IS NOT A SIN.
When it is, it is a perversion against God and human nature.
NO ONE IS BORN LEFT-HANDED.
It is a condition, an illness, brought on by childhood abuse, neglect, a lack of love and warmth, being loved or hated by the wrong parent.
We must not hate the left-hander, but we must not encourage him in his behaviour.
For a person to be allowed to give in to his left-handed nature and pick up that pen is to allow them to overeat, to drink alcohol, to do drugs.
Of course, there is no such thing as left-handed. It's just righties doing it to rebel, or they're going through a phase.
It's a choice. Whoever says no one would choose to be left-handed because of the persecution and abuse has not met the all pervading Hollywood anti-family idea pedalled to our youth;
Left-handed is fun.
Left-handed is free.
To be left-handed means you are able to break every taboo.
We must not allow the left-hander to find acceptance. They must be forced to see their perversion will never be accepted as normal.
In some countries, left-handedness is a capital crime.
A good warrior of Lord God would kill a left-hander and make the world cleaner.
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF SERIAL MURDERERS WERE LEFT-HANDERS.
Left-handers are murderers, killers of the soul, of families.
Left-handedness is contrary to nature, or all that is good and clean and moral and healthy.
LEFT-HANDEDNESS IS NOT FOUND IN NATURE.
No left-hander can be truly happy, aware of how they are different, wrong, abnormal, in a right-handed world.
Left-handers are looking for an equality they were never find. It is a right-handed world, sinisterist, live with it. Change or die.
THERE IS NO LEFT-HANDED GENE.
Silly, eh? Annoying? It would never happen here. I'm glad I don't live in that universe where such stupid prejudice happens.
Now, read through it again and change every example where left-handedness is mentioned, or a slang word like 'goat' or 'sinisterist' and change it to 'gay' or 'faggot' or 'poof' or 'queer' or something.
Doesn't sound so silly and impossible now.
Are you glad to live in a universe where that kind of prejudice and hatred does happen?
If you think 'that's different.' ask yourself, honestly, why is it different? Why do you have no problem with picking on LGBT people and not left-handers?
Churches go out and picket and demonstrate at funerals and political and social meetings with their signs;
GOD HATES GOATS.
GOD HATES GOAT-ENABLERS.
LEFT HANDERS ARE ON THE SIDE OF THE GOATS.
Christians (and to a smaller extent non-theists) set up groups where left-handers can find healing and freedom from their sinisterist orientation.
It can't be easy being a left-hander. We must reach out and help them into freedom, to find their potential as the right-handers they were meant to be.
After all, the opposite of 'right' is not 'left' but 'wrong'.
Let's look at the facts, shall we?
Left-handers die earlier than right-handers.
They suffer from more fatal conditions,.
They are more likely to drink and do drugs.
The majority of young left-handers commit suicide because they hate themselves and their left-handed lifestyle.
Even non-theists insist what the media have been feeding them;
Left-handers are disgusting perverts and shouldn't be allowed to teach children.
They recruit normal, healthy right-handed youth with promises of freedom from parental oppression.
Left-handers are unnatural. They take over the streets in their filthy Sinisterist Pride parades with their pens in the wrong hand, shouting;
SINISTERISM IS NOT A SIN.
When it is, it is a perversion against God and human nature.
NO ONE IS BORN LEFT-HANDED.
It is a condition, an illness, brought on by childhood abuse, neglect, a lack of love and warmth, being loved or hated by the wrong parent.
We must not hate the left-hander, but we must not encourage him in his behaviour.
For a person to be allowed to give in to his left-handed nature and pick up that pen is to allow them to overeat, to drink alcohol, to do drugs.
Of course, there is no such thing as left-handed. It's just righties doing it to rebel, or they're going through a phase.
It's a choice. Whoever says no one would choose to be left-handed because of the persecution and abuse has not met the all pervading Hollywood anti-family idea pedalled to our youth;
Left-handed is fun.
Left-handed is free.
To be left-handed means you are able to break every taboo.
We must not allow the left-hander to find acceptance. They must be forced to see their perversion will never be accepted as normal.
In some countries, left-handedness is a capital crime.
A good warrior of Lord God would kill a left-hander and make the world cleaner.
THE GREAT MAJORITY OF SERIAL MURDERERS WERE LEFT-HANDERS.
Left-handers are murderers, killers of the soul, of families.
Left-handedness is contrary to nature, or all that is good and clean and moral and healthy.
LEFT-HANDEDNESS IS NOT FOUND IN NATURE.
No left-hander can be truly happy, aware of how they are different, wrong, abnormal, in a right-handed world.
Left-handers are looking for an equality they were never find. It is a right-handed world, sinisterist, live with it. Change or die.
THERE IS NO LEFT-HANDED GENE.
Silly, eh? Annoying? It would never happen here. I'm glad I don't live in that universe where such stupid prejudice happens.
Now, read through it again and change every example where left-handedness is mentioned, or a slang word like 'goat' or 'sinisterist' and change it to 'gay' or 'faggot' or 'poof' or 'queer' or something.
Doesn't sound so silly and impossible now.
Are you glad to live in a universe where that kind of prejudice and hatred does happen?
If you think 'that's different.' ask yourself, honestly, why is it different? Why do you have no problem with picking on LGBT people and not left-handers?
Thursday, 23 February 2012
SIN!
I've been having a think about these right wing followers of Jesus who use their Bible to justify their cry;
"HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN!"
And the amount of ink and paper and web space taken up arguing over this statement, using the Bible to defend or attack this point.
Well, here is something for you Christians;
Maybe you can interpret the Bible to say homosexuality is against God's plan and therefore 'a sin', but do you know what else the Bible states?
Clearly, unambiguously, without need for interpretation, from the Words of Jesus Himself?
Feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, help the sick, love your enemies, go the extra mile.
How many of you who say 'I AM A CHRISTIAN AND I AM PRO-FAMILY AND ANTI ANY RIGHTS FOR THE GAY?' Could also say, 'I AM A CHRISTIAN AND I AM GOING TO HELP OUT AT A SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS, OR PRISON VISIT, OR OFFER TO RUN ERRANDS FOR MY DISABLED NEIGHBOUR?'
Or are Jesus' actual words a bit too liberal for you?
"HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN!"
And the amount of ink and paper and web space taken up arguing over this statement, using the Bible to defend or attack this point.
Well, here is something for you Christians;
Maybe you can interpret the Bible to say homosexuality is against God's plan and therefore 'a sin', but do you know what else the Bible states?
Clearly, unambiguously, without need for interpretation, from the Words of Jesus Himself?
Feed the hungry, visit the prisoner, help the sick, love your enemies, go the extra mile.
How many of you who say 'I AM A CHRISTIAN AND I AM PRO-FAMILY AND ANTI ANY RIGHTS FOR THE GAY?' Could also say, 'I AM A CHRISTIAN AND I AM GOING TO HELP OUT AT A SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS, OR PRISON VISIT, OR OFFER TO RUN ERRANDS FOR MY DISABLED NEIGHBOUR?'
Or are Jesus' actual words a bit too liberal for you?
Saturday, 11 February 2012
EQUAL TIME (LONG SENTENCE ALERT)
How come those who lobby for Intelligent Design to be taught as equal to evolution in schools so the kids can choose what makes most sense are those who cry persecution and insist on the right to alter the curriculum or if not to be informed in advance so they can pull their kids from lessons in which a school teaches LGBT people are equal with straights so the kids can make their minds up as to what makes most sense?
Saturday, 4 February 2012
AGEING DYKE PERVERT ALERT
I know I shouldn't say this but the US Tory politician Christine O'Donnell drives me wild.
I know it's wrong, and I'm not about to turn in my liberal deist fair-goes-for-all card for her, but there is something about her.
There is a picture of her I've seen with her mouth open and a bit of tongue showing, like she's been delightfully surprised and, well. . .
Next subject.
A lot of Christians and right-wingers and anti-gays claim it's possible to convert straight people to gay, which is why it can't be taught in schools that gay is equal to straight, just in case a 100% hettie university student with no thoughts in that direction at all is in a lecture room listening to the words of someone of the same gender who happens to be gay and instantly changes 180 to bat for the other side.
If this had any basis in truth, I wonder how much work it would take from an undersized middle-aged Brit woman with a bad haircut and no style at all to convert Ms O'Donnell to her way of thinking.*
Still, I can dream, can't I? In the words of Frank Loesser, you can't go to jail for what you're thinking.
*Or any way of thinking. I've read about her and reading between the lines she seems asexual, no interest at all.
UPDATE : Ms O'Donnell is in fact not a Tory politician but a Republican. Keep forgetting there is a lot of difference. The fact she isn't a Brit being number one.
I know it's wrong, and I'm not about to turn in my liberal deist fair-goes-for-all card for her, but there is something about her.
There is a picture of her I've seen with her mouth open and a bit of tongue showing, like she's been delightfully surprised and, well. . .
Next subject.
A lot of Christians and right-wingers and anti-gays claim it's possible to convert straight people to gay, which is why it can't be taught in schools that gay is equal to straight, just in case a 100% hettie university student with no thoughts in that direction at all is in a lecture room listening to the words of someone of the same gender who happens to be gay and instantly changes 180 to bat for the other side.
If this had any basis in truth, I wonder how much work it would take from an undersized middle-aged Brit woman with a bad haircut and no style at all to convert Ms O'Donnell to her way of thinking.*
Still, I can dream, can't I? In the words of Frank Loesser, you can't go to jail for what you're thinking.
*Or any way of thinking. I've read about her and reading between the lines she seems asexual, no interest at all.
UPDATE : Ms O'Donnell is in fact not a Tory politician but a Republican. Keep forgetting there is a lot of difference. The fact she isn't a Brit being number one.
Sunday, 29 January 2012
JUSTICE AT LAST?
The murderer has been found guilty of killing fifteen human beings.
He stands in the dock flanked by several large security guards in front of the judge ready to here his sentence.
The victims families stand in the public seating waiting to hear the sentence.
"Prisoner at the bar," The judge begins, "you have been found guilt of fifteen murders. Heinous, cruel, sadistic crimes, tailored to make your victim suffer as much agony as possible for your own pleasure before eventually, sometimes after many hours, sated at last you finished them off. You killed both men and women. Three of your victims were under ten when you kidnapped them. You will be punished according to the full force of the law. Do you have anything to say before I pass sentence?"
"Only one thing, sir. I believe you killed your son for me."
"You do?"
"Yes, sir. I believe you killed your son, who had never broken the law, to take the punishment of people like me."
"In that case, you are free to go."
Horror. Consternation. Cries of 'no!' and 'why?' from the public section of the court. 'He killed my baby!' 'He can't go free!' 'He'll do it again!'
The judge turns to the horror stricken family members as the smiling murderer shrugs off the security guards and steps out of the dock and out into freedom.
"This is the law. If a person, no matter what they have done, believes I killed my innocent son they are allowed to go free."
The forewoman on the jury cries out;
"This isn't justice!"
Everyone in the land cries out, 'this is not justice!'
Christian, do you agree that this is justice?
If not, then why do you accept it from your god?
He stands in the dock flanked by several large security guards in front of the judge ready to here his sentence.
The victims families stand in the public seating waiting to hear the sentence.
"Prisoner at the bar," The judge begins, "you have been found guilt of fifteen murders. Heinous, cruel, sadistic crimes, tailored to make your victim suffer as much agony as possible for your own pleasure before eventually, sometimes after many hours, sated at last you finished them off. You killed both men and women. Three of your victims were under ten when you kidnapped them. You will be punished according to the full force of the law. Do you have anything to say before I pass sentence?"
"Only one thing, sir. I believe you killed your son for me."
"You do?"
"Yes, sir. I believe you killed your son, who had never broken the law, to take the punishment of people like me."
"In that case, you are free to go."
Horror. Consternation. Cries of 'no!' and 'why?' from the public section of the court. 'He killed my baby!' 'He can't go free!' 'He'll do it again!'
The judge turns to the horror stricken family members as the smiling murderer shrugs off the security guards and steps out of the dock and out into freedom.
"This is the law. If a person, no matter what they have done, believes I killed my innocent son they are allowed to go free."
The forewoman on the jury cries out;
"This isn't justice!"
Everyone in the land cries out, 'this is not justice!'
Christian, do you agree that this is justice?
If not, then why do you accept it from your god?
Saturday, 14 January 2012
TRADITIONAL TRADITIONS
Did you know that traditional families are the best for bringing up socially, morally healthy children?
You know, where Dad goes out to work and Mum sees the kids off to school and then takes the younger ones out shopping with her and comes back in the afternoon to meet the kids coming home and then makes the tea for Dad and when he comes home they all sit around the table and eat and at night watch telly or play board games together till bed time? Just like Fred and Rosemary West.
You know, where Dad goes out to work and Mum sees the kids off to school and then takes the younger ones out shopping with her and comes back in the afternoon to meet the kids coming home and then makes the tea for Dad and when he comes home they all sit around the table and eat and at night watch telly or play board games together till bed time? Just like Fred and Rosemary West.
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