Thomas Jefferson once said, "Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions." It's nice to see that the spirit of Jefferson lives on in halls of legislation (even though many conservatives would like to forget about him). Take Yasmin Neal of the Georgia House of Representatives. In response to the insane attacks on women's reproductive rights, she authored a bill that would ban vasectomies.
"Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies," wrote Neal in a statement. "It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such maters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women's ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States."
Beautiful.
Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams added, "What is more deplorable is the hypocrisy of HB 954's author. If we follow his logic, we believe it is the obligation of the General Assembly to assert an equally invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of men and substitute the will of the government over the will of men."
This came on the heels of another bit of legislation-as-ridicule, this time out of Oklahoma.
State Sen. Constance Johnson proposed an amendment to Oklahomas' personhood bill. The amendment was referred to as the "Every Sperm Is Sacred" Bill, after the brilliant Monty Python song from 'Monty Python's Meaning of Life.'
The amendment states, "[A]ny action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child."
It's a slippery slope.
I certainly agree with you about the inanity currently in play. I think ridicule is all we have left, considering that our votes do not count. I have voted against this inanity since I was legally able to do so, but here it is, about to take over the planet by assuming control of the most powerful nation on earth.
ReplyDeleteHowever, biologically your graphic doesn't wash, my friend. A chicken egg, if fertilized, can only become a chicken, and an human ova, if fertilized, can only become a baby. It cannot become a watermelon, or a dog, or a horse (well, maybe a horse's ass).
The problem is making biology pay for all. Biology has oppressed more than half of the human race for at least 90% of the 200,000 years we've survived on this rock. Arguing biology with evangelical Christians, however, is a waste of time. The only thing they understand is scripture, as they define it. So the ONLY answer can be: "Love one another, that is the whole of the law." - Jesus, in Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Oppression is hate. Poverty is hate. Ignorance is hate. Usury is hate. And all of this legislation is about control of the masses, not about their salvation. It is as Pharasaical as the crucifixion and just as vile.
True, but to these folks, the mere potential of a human being is a human being, and therefore the blastocyst's (those defenseless blastocysts which, like acorns, can't speak up for themselves) survival trumps the rights or treatment of any living being who has made it through the birth canal.
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