Categories
Politics

A clear argument for unlimited pro-choice policies

Like Amanda at Pandagon, I think this is the bottom line. She snaked this from BitchPhD

The bottom line about abortion is this. Do you trust women to make their own moral judgments? If you are anti-abortion, then no. You do not. You have an absolute moral position that you don’t trust anyone to question, and therefore you think that abortion should be illegal. But the second you start making exceptions for rape or incest, you are indicating that your moral position is not absolute. That moral judgment is involved….

Let me unpack a bit, because I know this sounds polemical, since I am clearly stating a bottom line. When pro-choice feminists like Wolf, or liberal men, or a lot of women, even, say things like, “I’m pro-choice, but I am uncomfortable with… [third-trimester abortion / sex-selection / women who have multiple abortions / women who have abortions for “convenience” / etc.]” then what you are saying is that your discomfort matters more than an individual woman’s ability to assess her own circumstances. That you don’t think that women who have abortions think through the very questions that you, sitting there in your easy chair, can come up with. That a woman who is contemplating an invasive, expensive, and uncomfortable medical procedure doesn’t think it through first. In short, that your judgment is better than hers.

Think about the hubris of that. Your judgment of some hypothetical scenario is more reliable than some woman’s judgment about her own, very real, life situation?

Categories
Politics

Capt. Mbaye, hero

Hilzoy writes an inspiring memorial for Capt. Mbaye, a man who risked his life many times to save victims of genocide.

Read it all.

He was a courageous man, well worth calling hero. I’ll look into his story further, and certainly watch Ghosts of Rwanda if I can find it.

Categories
Politics

Threatening Judges

This is all from Obsidian Wings. Sebastian tackles Senator Cornyn in another courageous Police Your Own post.

Mostly though, I wanted to link to Katherine R’s comment. There’s no way to hop straight to her comment, so I’m quoting it here.

Categories
Politics

More on torture

From Body & Soul, Jeanne keeps us up to date with the current rash of torture scandals.

The Beast in US does a great job of laying out all of the torture information that’s currently bubbling over.

Categories
Politics

Parental Consent

Amanda sums up my thoughts perfectly, in her post

If you think minors aren’t fully capable of deciding to have an abortion, why do you think they’re capable of being mothers? Must not think much of motherhood, if that’s the case.

The whole article is very good; read it.

Categories
Politics

Social Security, Home Values, etc.

Lefties were good at ending fights. An interesting look at the prevalence of violence and the proportion of lefties. Now I know why Eric was so powerful…

Clear Skies Not as bad as we think. That’s good to hear; the way it got so demonized is just depressing though.

For sillyness: Giblet’s practical plan to balance the budget.

Leguin on race & the (really bad) adaptation of Earthsea. Her interview.

An analogy Dad will appreciate: Schools & dentists.

Ampersand summarizes the current status of Roe in a good summary post.

Are we in a Housing Bubble?

Really, you thing social security is the biggest problem? (from Brad DeLong).

Categories
Politics

Quite an article

Wow, I can’t imagine I’m writing the word wow. This article is very very interesting.
What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

Categories
Politics

Stereotypes

(From a commenter, PD Shaw, on Dan Drezner’s site)

On stereotypes, I like the article I read the other day (sorry don’t remember where), which said:

Republicans fear that a Kerry presidency will lead to endless appeasement of terrorists and the French, culminating in the subsequent presidential election of Hillary Clinton.

Democrats fear that a second Bush term will lead to a state of endless war and the introduction of an economic system known as feudalism.