Give Unto Woman What is Woman's

A woman must have control over her own body. But the anti-abortionists will never be satisfied with that. I am sickened to learn of this 40-day campaign of self-righteous busy-bodies, bent on harassing women at abortion clinics across the United States and Canada - even here in Montreal.

From Antonia Zerbiasis:

The birds of `pray' who will be targeting women's clinics in Canadian cities for the next 40 days really don't care about saving lives.

If they did, they wouldn't be so much about intimidating the desperate women and girls who are seeking abortions.

That's because, no matter how much they will attempt to cloak their vigils outside two Toronto clinics with solemn vows to "never stop defending life," their true agenda is unveiled by their lack of support for babies once they're born, their often impoverished mothers and the kind of sex education and contraception accessibility that would avoid abortion in the first place.

Nowhere on 40DaysForLife.com is there any discussion of any of these matters.

Of course not. I wonder what these people would have had Mackenzie Phillips do if abortion wasn't an option for her after being impregnated by her own father? There are more than enough unwanted children in this world. And when safe abortion is not an option, the result is that women die. Needlessly.

As for our governing Conservatives, Zerbisias goes on to remind us of where they stand:

There are reports in the blogosphere that Harper will replace Status of Women minister Helena Guergis – who hasn't done much for women, but that's another column – with the anti-choice Cheryl Gallant, who has fought against gay rights and even parental leave.

It just gets worse.

Last weekend, a prominent American anti-choice activist made a speech at the "Value Voters Summit" where she proposed that abortions be performed "in the public square."

This is the true backlash against feminism, whose second wave became a tsunami after the pill became widely available in the late 1960s.

It's all about keeping women down to those Biblical depths where they are little more than breeding stock, born to serve their masters.

...

No wonder Harper boasted two weeks ago, in a closed-door meeting of the party faithful, that he killed the mechanisms for women to protect their constitutional rights.

Zerbisias signs off her blog post saying she worries about the prospect of a Harper majority government.

Antonia, let me just say this: As a Canadian; as a proud father; as a feminist; as a humanitarian, I couldn't agree more. This is a public health issue, and it's also about protecting women's rights, and protecting the integrity of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That's why we can't get these Harper Conservatives out of power fast enough.

- 30 -

Canada: Fighting for Afghanis' Rights to Hang Christians

While Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay frets that Canadian troops would be demoralized if the House of Commons were to have a debate about our UN-sponsored NATO commitment to ISAF, I am sure they can all take heart in this news highlighting the kind of freedom Canadian troops are defending in propping up Karzai's government:

An Afghan who has renounced his Islamic faith for Christianity faces the death penalty under Afghan law in a throwback to the brutal Taleban regime.

Abdul Rahman, 41, is being prosecuted for an "attack on Islam", for which the punishment under Afghanistan's draft constitution, is death by hanging.
...

"The Attorney General is emphasising he should be hung. It is a crime to convert to Christianity from Islam. He is teasing and insulating his family by converting," Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawlawy Zada, who will be trying his case, told The Times.

"He was a Muslim for 25 years more than he has been a Christian. We will request him to become a Muslim again. In your country two women can marry I think that is very strange. In this country we have the perfect constitution, it is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished," said the judge.
(Emphasis mine)

Hooboy, can't you just hear them in forty years' time, bragging to their grandchildren about their courageous exploits to save the fledgling Afghanistan government that bravely sought the most brutal punishment to stifle basic religious freedom, and promoted poppy growth to feed the world heroin market? Doesn't it make you wish you were young and idealistic and had a chance to better the world by signing up for duty yourself?

Ah, what stories they will tell...

- 30 -

My condolences to the Women of South Dakota

I am profoundly sorry to hear that your Republican state legislature and governor don't feel you deserve rights over your own bodies. To these bozos and all anti-abortionists out there, it's refresher time:

1. Abortion is a medical procedure. By criminalizing abortion, the government of South Dakota presumes to know more than the American Medical Association about how doctors should treat their patients.

2. A foetus is not a viable living entity. It has no rights if it resides in the womb. It is a part of the woman who is its host. If it is living outside the womb, its umbilical cord severed, then it is a human baby.

3. It's a pretty strong indication that you're not ready for motherhood - which is an incredibly huge undertaking, let's not forget - if you're seeking an abortion. A lot of mothers get uncerimoniously ditched by Daddy and then are left on their own with the children. Where's the law forcing men to take the responsibiliy of sticking with fatherhood for the long haul? We don't need any more unwanted children in this world.

4. You can't legislate against abortion. You only drive it underground and create more pain and misery in the world by doing so. And some of your daughters will be victims of this policy who will die bleeding out from using a coathanger in a state of panic because they're ashamed to even talk about it to their doctor or their friend or you because they know society has deemed it immoral.

5. Something to think about: Lot's more women die in child-birth - or of complications from pregnancy - than men. I'd say, ballpark, 100% or so.

6. Read this at firedoglake to understand how bizarre anti-abortionists become defending their illogic:

I brought up one of my favorite forced birth conundrums the other day, guaranteed to make wingnut "life begins at conception" heads explode. If a fire breaks out in a fertility clinic and you can only save a petri dish with five blastulae or a two-year old child, which do you save?

We just love Mike Stark, who takes this stuff to the streets. He called Andrew Wilkow's radio talk show and put the question to him, and Wilkow's head did, in fact, explode. He was reduced to a sputtering rage, screaming that he would not, in fact, save the two year-old child.

7. I'm getting sick of this. Just read the Cider House Rules and A Handmaid's Tale. Then rent the DVDs. Then almost die in childbirth carrying a rapist's last sick laugh. Then raise some rapist's child as a single-parent. Then you can come back here and tell me why abortion should not be a woman's choice.

- 30 -

PEI potato warning: halucinogens may be present

CTV ran the story. They were a little more delicate than I was with this headline. Anyway, I see a face too.

And it's Miss Piggy. Go have a look and tell me I'm wrong.

- 30 -

Catholic Smackdown on the Christian Fundies?

It's not every day you'll see me championing an opinion from within the Roman Catholic church, but credit where credit is due, eh? This is from Cox News service:

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have published a teaching document that insists to worshippers that the Bible falls short in historical accuracy.

"We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision," the Catholic bishops of England, Wales, and Scotland say in the recently released "The Gift of Scripture."

...The bishops pointed out that in general, biblical material often went through long periods of oral tradition before reaching written form.

Even in Revelations, the final book in the New Testament, the bishops assert that many passages related to the end of the world are symbolic in nature and should not be interpreted literally.

"We should not expect to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about how many will be saved, and about when the end will come," the bishops say.

..."The underlying message is accurate, but people have to realize the writing is in human form and that it had to be in human form so that God can communicate his word to us," he said.

"There are different ways of presenting truth, and not everything should be taken as scientific," he said.

Lord almighty! Sounds like a pointed challenge to the creeping popularity of so-called "Intelligent Design" as some sort of science.

- 30 -

Did someone say "wiped off the map"?

Well, at least it looks like the Iranian Foreign Ministry is trying to soften the blow after their President's call for Isreal's er, non-existence.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is committed to its U.N. charter commitments. It has never used force against a second country or threatened the use of force," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday...

While not specifically refuting the president, the Foreign Ministry said Tehran had no intention of launching an assault on the Jewish state and would back whatever course the Palestinians chose to resolve the Middle East conflict.

Perhaps it was determined that President Ahmadinejad’s original remarks were ill-considered, given how forcefully they undermine the Iranian position on their nuclear ambitions - that they are only for peaceful purposes. After all, it seems to defy logic that raising the tension in the region - so incredibly volatile right now - could work in Iran’s favour.

We have to wonder what Iran is after, and where they’re going with this super-heated rhetoric and subsequent step back. Does this point to divisions within the government between hawks and doves? Are there some who see this as a chance to make a big move, geo-politically? Blair’s alarm is not entirely out of place. But he’s in a difficult position because he has blown his country’s moral capital with the Iraqi fiasco, and he’s got an historical stake in Israel - an ally the UK cannot abandon.

How else is the rest of the world supposed to take this, but seriously? May cooler heads prevail on all sides.

- 30 -

Update [Oct. 30, 4:00 p.m.]: Peter Beaumont from the Observer provides some excellent analysis on the matter. Check it out.

Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster, Batman!

Tip of the hat to Cathie for highlighting this story about a saucy new religion conjured up to add spice to the Intelligent Design "debate".

Soon after reading about this, I was actually visited by the Spaghetti Monster's spirit, which used me as a channel for dissemination of this prayer (please rise):

Our spaghetti
Who art in the colander
Hallowed be thy sauce
Thy serving come
Thy strands be wrung
On forks as they are on spoons
Give us this day our daily meatball
And forgive us our starchiness
As we forgive those who are starchy against us
And lead us not into Kraft parmessan
But deliver us from Chef Boy Ardee
For thine is the garlic
And the onion and the bay leaves
For ever and ever.
Ramen

I am so filled with the Holy Spice, I think my tongue is on fire!

- 30 -