Rampant Hypocrisy

I keep running into atheists…

Who are absolutely, one hundred percent in favour of abortion when discussing the edicts of various religious sects, yet cheer for a president who has pledged to appoint pro-life judges to the supreme court and who, on his first day in office, reinstated the Mexico City policy, a policy which, says Wikipedia, "blocks US federal funding for non-governmental organisations that provide abortion counselling or referrals, advocate to decriminalise abortion or expand abortion services."

Who are oh, so quick to comment on the morals of clergy and other religious figures who commit sex-crimes, yet cheer for a president who, amongst many, many other misogynistic statements and actions, openly boasted of having sexually assaulted multiple women.

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On Glamour Magazine & Bono

"Bono Just Became Glamour's First Man of the Year," exclaims the headline at Glamour Magazine. Note that it does not say, contra to the claims of reporters and commentators seemingly everywhere, that he's been named Woman of the Year, and most definitely not the Woman of the Year.

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Regarding The Ched Evans Rape-Trial

No one should need to say this. It should be blindingly obvious.

It should not matter a jot if the complainant in a rape trial has had consensual sex with the entire football league, the band of the grenadier guards, the Pontypridd male voice choir and a handful of randomly chosen bishops—or if she's never had sex before.

The question in hand at such a trial is not—or at least should not be—"How many times has this person given consent?" It is "Did the person give consent on this occasion?"

Next week in Statin' The Bleedin' Obvious, we answer the question, "Should a driver's twenty-year history of not drink-driving be taken into account when they're put on trial for killing a pedestrian whilst driving drunk?"
—Daz

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The Holy Foetus

In Northern Ireland, two hundred and five women have signed an open letter admitting to having broken Northern Irish law by either taking abortificients or obtaining them for others. This in response to the planned prosecution of a woman (unnamed, to protect her daughter) who obtained such drugs on behalf of her young daughter.

For those who don't know, Northern Ireland's abortion laws are just about the most restrictive in Europe, with abortion only being legal in cases where the pregnant woman's (not 'mother,' thank you—that word does not apply until after the birth) health is at risk, or in cases of foetal abnormality. Well, technically legal. In practice, even that isn't guaranteed. As Amnesty International puts it…

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Two Parts Bigotry, Two Parts Noodle-Patery & One Part Essence Of Pure Ignorance. Add A Pinch Of WTF, & Simmer

Take a gander, Gentle Reader, at the face of a complete and utter prat.

Says the Daily Mirror…

Susan-Anne White is running for election in West Tyrone, Northern Ireland, as an independent candidate. Her manifesto has appeared on social media in the last few days and it's pretty shocking.

And I suppose it is to anyone whose capacity for shock at the words of right-wing evangelist noodle-pates hasn't been raised through constant exposure to same. I really do wish I still found crap like this shocking. I still find it awful, but sadly there's nary a shock to be found.

As posted on her blog, The Truth Shall Set You Free, here's her manifesto:

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Misogyny In The Twenty-First Century; An Ever-Repeating Cycle Of Irony, In Four Sentences

A woman says there is a problem with misogyny in 'name of sphere of interest.'

Thousands of tweets, facebook posts, blog posts, discussion threads and what have you explode into a veritable firestorm of misogyny, including rape-threats and dismissive comments to the effect that the alleged ugliness and unsexiness of every part of the woman's body means her opinion is invalid.

Self-described cooler calmer heads then quibble the original announcement that there is a problem with misogyny in 'name of sphere of interest.'

Face, meet Palm; Palm, meet Face.
—Daz

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PS: This one's dedicated to Fojap’s sister, who was worried by my recent lack of bloggyness. It’s nice to be cared about.

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The Double-Hypocrisy Of The ‘Pro-Life’ Argument

Okay, so here's the 'pro-life' premise:

A foetus is a person, and abortion is therefore murder.

Which doesn't really get us very far, as it doesn't address the pro-choice premise, which is:

Even if we were to consider the foetus to be a person, no person has the right to the use of another person's body, even in cases where they need it in order to survive.

So in order to balance this, we need to add the unspoken but implied clause into the 'pro-life' argument:

A foetus is a person whose right to life trumps the right to bodily autonomy of its host. Killing this person is murder, therefore, even if the host cites her own right to bodily autonomy.

Now both statements are addressing the same problem. But here's where we hit a snag…

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Woman Blasts Anti-Abortion Protesters Outside A Clinic In London

This, Gentle Reader, is a truly righteous rant. Power to that lady's elbow, I say!

The background, however, is sadly much less inspiring:

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On Winning

I had an email a couple of days back from a certain evangelical personage. Apparently, he's "won," as I've been too busy to address some puerile rantings he's made on the internet. I didn't know we were engaged in a competition, but okay:

Dear fundamentalists and would-be theocrats of every stripe…

Your Christ was never in my Christmas,
I never took him out.
The Qur'an tells you to draw no pictures,
I don't need obey its strictures.
For me they hold no clout.

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Damnit, USA, It’s “Oestrogen,” With An “O” On The Front

I have discovered a new illness. It's possibly the illness with the narrowest—you might, if you believed in intelligent design, call it targeted—effect ever seen in a disease affecting human beings.

For starters, it only effects women.

Secondly, it only effects them in very specific circumstances.

It's called "oestrogen vibe," and it causes women to be less inclined to argue, but only if the subject under discussion is atheism.

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