I'm listening to last week's This American Life episode. The show is one I'm hopelessly addicted to and am of the opinion that everyone else should be too...but you know...some people think public radio is evil. Not me...I just don't think Garrison Keiller is funny...I know...blasphemy. Guess that's why I don't have any friends. Ha! Anyway, this site, iraqbodycount.net, has a running body count (obviously) of Iraqi casualties that can be confirmed...though the real number is probably nowhere near this. Can I just say, I'm thrilled that we've finally got some people in office that might keep this country from becoming the willfully ignorant, bigoted social trainwreck it's so close to being. But most of all...I hope they do something about this FUCKED UP WAR that our PITIFUL EXCUSE FOR A PRESIDENT started. I'd liked to think we learned something from Vietnam...but I guess for some people it's hard to learn from a war that they successfully evaded.
The Lancet Report has a much scarier number of Iraqi casualties. Read it. We owe it to these people to read it. Here's a quote:
Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Guess that will teach them to attack us with our own airplanes. Oh no wait...that wasn't them, was it. Damn.
(I'll post more levity later this week in the form of other peoples dumbass bike stories. Now I have to go...I'm going to print out a picture of Rumsfeld's face and step on it with my left saucy, black-booted, pointy kitten heel.)
32 keep(s) me blogging:
Even though you're an athiest, pray for Democrat Jim Webb to take Virgina without a recount. God Bless America.
Everyone together now with me!:
Hey Rummy! Na na na na! Na na na na! Hey hey hey! GOODBYE!!!!
Yes. Today is a good day. We here in Missouri...wait, I mean MissourAH...wait...we here in the State of Misery are welp, in less misery now! We're Talentless and gots Stem-Cells!
Um...Virginia's possible recount...keep Katherine Harris away!
Thank you for the body count and This American Life websites. I lost the latter.
It's kind of hard to count bodies when they have been blown into itty-bitty pieces and strewn all over the place!
... Wow, what a violent image! I am hereby rating this comment PG-13. So for all you young'uns out there, don't read what you just read.
Have a nice day.
It's disconcerting to go from bike wrecks to train wreck wars but I'm dealing with it. The Dems have been given the chance now, let's see them do something with it. How long before the hanging of his creepiness occurs? I wonder how much that will help or hurt the situation. Hmm, none of this is funny?
i don't blog about political things, so i'm just going to keep re-reading your entry to make up for that. :)
hopefully, things are going to be a-changin'.
maybe i'll come back to a country that's not headed for the hills. :)
-macoosh:)
I am just as fucking left winged as anyone, but I think I'd want to know if my kid had an abortion. it emotionally fucks a person up, they could use help, instead of being encouraged to hide what they did. i wrote my final research paper in grad school on the effects of abortion. 82% of woman consider suicide after they have an abortion. Can you imagine how it would effect a teenager?
I don't support the war, but this war will not even come close to the casualties in Vietnam. don't try to compare the two.
wow. k2... you've really rubbed a couple of people the wrong way. i'm very proud of you.
please send candy.
Jen - and he did!
ax - anytime, friend
mycaelus - you descriptive writer, you
anonymous 1 - we can't always be funny, can we. and yes, it will be interesting to see if anything changes.
macoosh - i'm sure there are more poltically savvy things you could read besides this post over and over.
anonymous 2 - I'm sure you would. But some parents would beat their teenagers over such information...some would throw them out...some are responsible for the condition...not every one is as good parent as you will be, and the measure doesn't take any of that into account. That's why it's dangerous, that's why it should not pass.
annieb63 - I will infer that you only consider American soldiers as noteworthy casualties. This is a shame. However, the numbers don't have to be equal to show that the war we're in now can and probably will be just as drawn out, dangerous and tragic as the one we started so many years ago. If nothing else, you should be proud that someone who didn't live through that generation recognizes the importance of not repeating it. I'm not calling the war with Iraq the new Vietnam...but it's just as pointless, and therein lies the comparison. I don't want to lose a reader, and other opinions are always welcome, but don't presume to tell me what to say on my blog like I'm not educated enough to know what I'm talking about.
d - my comments will probably make it worse
Kara, you know where I stand on abortion and nothing I can say will change how you feel. We've already done that dance a few too many times. I just hope I don't have to find out years later that my daughter had one. As for abusive parents, that's just a lame excuse. I'm fully in support of that measure and am terrified that it didn't pass.
On the other hand, the lesser of the two evils won for governer. Yay.
oh, that would be governor, not governEr. I should have gone to college...
what do you mean "sucking on #1" (don't anyone else take that out of context... it was a comment she put on my site). i've posted five times since then. do you need to refresh?
Of course, Kara is right on the war thing. Everyone knows this is a huge waste of life, money, time, safety etc...
As far as the abortion thing goes, of course teenage girls should be encouraged to talk with their parents about something so serious as an abortion. Any medical procedure this involved takes some serious thought by everyone involved.
But here's the reason why that measure was bullshit and why it luckily didn't pass. Government can not force families to communicate, nor should they. This was a measure put forth to do nothing more than chip away at woman's rights. It is funny that generally traditional conservatives want to keep government out of their private lives but the shift is towards more government control.
If "values voter" types want to lower the number of abortions happening they should be fighting as hard as they can to get REAL sex ed into public schools, make the morning after pill as widely available as possible, and be tithing part of their income to planned parenthood as well as the church of their choice. 43 was nothing more than a stepping stone towards taking away a woman's control over her own body and luckily Oregonians saw that.
sarah - i hope your daughter feels she can come to you in any situation. i hope you wouldn't need a impersonal medical notification. if i become a parent, that's what i'll hope for too. as for abusive parents being a lame excuse, well...i'm certianly glad you come from a loving, non-abusive family. but not everyone does, and i don't think you should be able to speak for them. i shouldn't either. that being said, I think it's awesome we can talk about these things. cheers to you.
d - your blog sucks because it's the only one i have to do this strange "refreshing thing" for. that said...my friend has yet to go to a game...your pic is still coming
devon - of course i'm right. and you are too, but sometimes things have to be put in more personal terms to have an affect...you brilliant boy, you.
hey! don't take it out on the blog. take it out on blogger. it's not like i specifically set it up to require people to refresh. i specifically set it up so that YOU would have to refresh.
uh oh... i've said too much.
Alright, I can see that I'm the only one who feels this way (at least here on Kara's blog). The major point that I think we differ on is not that parents should or should not be informed when their child is having an abortion. We all wish that our children will feel safe coming to us with such a big decision. My point is that we're so worried about that teenager that we forget about the BABY living in that teenager's body. We're more concerned with whether or not that girl gets in trouble, maybe physically abused than the death of an innocent child. AS A PARENT, a woman should not have legal protection to kill her CHILD anyway. There, let them come at me with the pitchforks. I know you all think I'm completely irrational and conservative and that I'm probably a Bush supporter. Just to save your time and mine, I'm not.
A one seat advantage in the senate isn't nearly enough to give the Democrats full control. They've still got a handful of dudes who vote with the Republicans most of the time. They really need a ten or twenty seat advantage!
.... um, so we're not talking about "The Vampire" any more??
1) I don't like politics much
2) I'm not American
3) Why does America have mid term elections half ways during their term? Wouldn't it make more sense just to either have the elections more frequently or not have the elections at all ... ?
Please answer these three questions, ie one question
Wow, lots of comments/recomments stemming from your post, Kara. I must say, after reading all of them, and your replies, I'm agreeing with you on all points.
From a government saying it's not big government, and then presumes to tell us what we can do in our personal lives, well, pooey on them. Are they raising all the unwanted children that are born because of pro-lifers? Uh-uh. AND, many of the pro-lifers are men. Ick. Any hoo, great post.
d - yes...you HAVE said too much.
smokey - yes well...the debate is whether or not a zygote is "living"...and that debate rages on
sarah - there's no need to get defensive here...no one is going to come at you with pitchforks...i won't let them...why? because I'M THE DECIDER! Ha!(lame Bush joke). It's like what I said to smokey...you consider a zygote to be a human being...many people don't. It's there that I fear the issue may never be settled.
cyberoutlaw - it doesn't hurt to be thankful for small steps in the right direction, though, does it?
anonymous 3 - no...we are SO over him
niall - i'm not going to go into that here, no room...find it on wikipedia
inamini - thanks, friend. it's nice to have support. i too, believe that anyone who is pro-life should actually prove it by adopting an unwanted child...heaven knows there's enough of them to go around.
My dear Sarah, you've prooved my point beautifully. This messure was ALL about limiting abortions and NOTHING about protecting teenagers who are pregnant. The Yes on 43 are lying about who this benefits and why they want it passed.
I'm sorry but I do not believe the end justifies the means. If you want to get rid of abortions, at least go about it in an honest way rather than trying to dupe people into thinking you're after something different.
But lets consider WHY anti-choicers go about their strategy in this way (chipping away little by little.) It's because the honest way doesn't work for them. Around 2/3rds of the American public wants abortion to be legal in at least SOME circumstances, so they don't have the people on their side. Roe v Wade ruled it was unconstitutional to ban abortions, so they don't have the constitution on their side.
Anti-choicers are sort of backed into a corner, but they're clever. They're trying to get little victories here and there to build a foundation to go after roe v wade now that the supreme court has been stacked in their favor. But I'm going to make a prediction, ROE V WADE WILL NEVER BE OVERTURNED. Supreme court justices don't realy overturn previous supreme court decisions. It just doesn't really happen. Especially one that has been on the books for over 30 years.
This issue is the same as the gay marriage thing, its a wedge issue that motivates like minded people to get to the polls and help keep them in power.
Face it, anti-choice, anti-gay people are being used by the republicans because that's the only way the republicans can win.
Devon, please don't assume I fall into the anti-gay category. I am not against "choice" either. I just don't think that murder should be protected under the law. I believe abortion is murder. That's where we differ. I don't believe it's all that complicated. Like Kara said, I believe the "zygote" is a baby. Babies are people, no matter how small.
Smokey, as for the argument of how many women commit suicide when they are not allowed to have an abortion. Ugh, that one just doesn't do it for me. First of all, who ISN'T allowed to have one in this "free country"? Second, I happen to know first hand how devastating it is to have had an abortion and regret it later. It goes both ways. (no, I didn't have one, but someone very close to me has. She will never get over that.)
I feel like I've just watched Crossfire on CNN. Lots of energy here. One of the most fortunate things about America is that we are allowed to have our own opinions and to share them. One of the unfortunate things about human nature in the extreme is the need to be right and the unwillingness to accept different viewpoints. I think each of us has this tendency around one subject or another. Abortion is a decision best left to the person whose body is impacted. Why does anyone else know better than that person what they shoud or shouldn't do (unless it is a very young girl who has been raped - who should absolutely have an abortion)? If my child had an abortion without telling me then shame on me for not keeping the communication lines open to reassure her she could tell me anything and not be judged or condemned in any way.
For me, letting the government make a decision like this, about my or any other woman's body, is ludicrous.
Here is the only problem with what everyone here is saying.... It isn't the woman's body that we should be worrying about - but the innocent baby that is growing inside of her. Whether she wants it or not - she made the choice to have sex and this is what it can lead to. And for the rape/incest cases - think about how much more guilt/horror/pain/stress that person is going to feel after realizing that not only did someone do something horrible to her but now she has done something horrible to someone else. I know many people view a baby not a baby until it is delivered or until a magical week in development - however I am a mom of an extremely premature baby and let me tell you - from day one that little girl was thriving and was no less a person than you or me - just very small. I saw an ultrasound at 3 weeks when I was pregnant with both my girls - there was a heartbeat. It is a powerful thing to know that almost instantanously it is a being. I understand the arguement of letting it be up to the person having the abortion - but the problem is that NO ONE speaks up for that baby that is being killed because someone made a bad (sometimes very bad) decision. I just get chills thinking about the way people view this subject - like it's just going to make the problems in thier life go away or somewhat lessin by killing the baby growing inside of them. Ask any woman that has had an abortion and now has living children - ask her if she wishes she had done something different.... I can almost guarantee she would say yes. I just feel like Sarah is the only one sticking up for the baby in this case and I felt like it's my right to stick up for it as well (fiction or nonfiction).
You're mixing up the word "baby" with the word "embryo." It's OK. It's a common mistake.
Lastly I'll just addTHIS. Just click the "donate online" link and send the good people at planned parent hood some money... they could use it. They're doing the lord's work.
No, devon. You're the mixed up one on that count. Oooh. burn.
And if you mean killing babies, then yes, they're doing the Lord's work. How about donating to http://www.crn4kids.org/ instead. Help those who are unable to help themselves.
Please don't call it an embryo - atleast not to me. I am seriously the last person you want to call it embryo to. I would love for you to just visit a NICU for an afternoon - then tell me that it's an embryo - some of those babies come earlier than the late term abortions are allowed. I don't care what you call it - it's a baby and we all know it....
Oh and Sarah - Amen Sista!!
hey guys...enough. it's starting to get personal. it's apparant that all of you feel strongly about this issue...but here's an idea...since you all have your own blogs, i suggest you continue this there. - peace.
ok, so i should just let this go but i'm not capable of that... i'm not going to comment on abortion in general but just correct one thing that i think is important.
An embryo is the first stage of development in the womb. As you can read in the link, it only lasts the first 8 weeks, at which point the embryo becomes a fetus. The referrence to premature babies is pointless because there hasn't been a premature birth that early... not even close. Here is a fun little bit of trivia which i haven't verified but I'm sure the truth is not far off.
This is important to note because about 88% of all abortions are done during the first trimester (see the 2nd paragraph of the "results" section in the preceding link) so it would stand to reason that most are done during the embryonic stage. Exactly zero premature babies are born out of the embroyonic stage.
The important thing to note here is this. We can have disagreements about the morality of abortion... that's fine. Anti-choice folks will say "the label embryo and fetus doesn't matter, they're all innocent babies from the moment of conception." Fine. I wholeheatedly disagree but it's their perogative to believe what they'd like. But lets at least have our terminology straight as we debate this subject.
I don't mean this as an insult. It's just a fact (not mearly opinion) I thought needed pointing out.
Kara- Sorry for dragging this out. This will be my last post on this blog about it. ON TO THE BICYCLE STORIES!!!
It is so sad to think there are even sites like IraqBodyCount.net.
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