Call to Action

As we approach the year two thousand and ten, we approach the year of the Personhood Amendment. With activity in 32 states, at least one is likely to pass, but fight vigorously anyway to make sure.

But don't let this very important issue mak e you loose track of the bigger picture. Fight for the unborn, yes, but also fight for the poor, the young, the old, the gay, women, et cetera. Fight for free speech, freedom of religion, for the separation of church and state, for school reform, for a more reasonable language (Esperanto), for a more reasonable numeral system (dozenal), and for logical arguments.

Fight against euphemisms, restrictions on freedom, and unequal treatment.

The "Kill the Gays" Bill

Okay, Uganda is now considering the death penalty for homosexuality. Now, I think that Uganda is in Africa (I'm too lazy to look it up).

Regardless, this is just freaking stupid.

Fluffy Language

Any position can be made to sound good by dressing it up and dancing around the issue and insulting the opposition.

Those against gay rights speak of "defending marriage" and "protecting children" and "supporting traditional marriage".

Those against youth rights speak of "for their own good" and "parental rights" and "protecting children".

Those against prenatal rights speak of "women's reproductive rights" and "no forced parenthood" and "every child a wanted child" and "deciding whether and when to reproduce" and "Get your laws off my body!" and "Against abortion? Don't have one!".

Those in favor of slavery spoke of "property rights" and "privacy" and "constitutional protections" and "legislating morality".

Those in favor of rape speak of "men's sexual rights" and "no forced celibacy" and "opposing rape is telling those conceived of rape they should not exist" and "the right to one's own penis" and "Get your laws off my body!" and "Do not force your morality upon others!" and "If you are against rape, you are free not to rape anyone.".

Okay, I made that last one up but you get the point. I believe that the personhood movement will ultimately succeed because it forces people to look at the essential issue: Do all human beings deserve human rights?

No Texan Marriage?

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/18/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5700676.shtml

I LOL'd.

"Wait, there's a debate over ______?": gay rights

Really? There are some people who honestly think sexual orientation is a qualifier for rights? Some people think that there should be "separate but equal" marriage laws depending on your gender?

How exactly are anybody's rights threatened by gays? At all?

Appeal to society

This is not a common or official term, but I'm using it to encompass ad populums, ad antiquitatems, and appeals to common practice.

Those attempting to initiate social change often see this. Those in favor of youth rights hear appeals to society frequently. Being against the current state of traditions, social morres, social structures, or society in general is framed as being anti-society, with a negative connotation.

History has taught us that society can be wrong. The Colonists faced capital punishment for High Treason if they failed, but I'm sure my American readers will recognize they did the right thing. Rosa Parks keeping her seat was not immature. The early feminists were fighting against society. They were probably seen as having some sort of pathological disregard for simple social structures. But they were far from evil and any inability to function in the "real world" (i.e., the social structure they were attempting to fix) was not their fault, but that of society.

This happens so often we have a term for it: "ahead of your time". Anyone who is ahead of their time would seem dysfunctional. Imagine if you were transported back in time, or to anywhere with ancient barbaric practices. You may be seen as dysfunctional if you refuse to burn a girl for going to school, or refuse to stone adultresses, or refuse to throw disabled infants into a Spartan cliff, or if you dare to speak out against sexism, or racism.

Those attempting to initiate social change do so of their own free will. No matter how much an opponent may like the status quo, the revolutionaries are "controlling themselves", and do not by default have to be reigned in by The Powers That Be for the crime of Free Will.

An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear Barack Obama, 

I would like to congratulate you on your historic inauguration, and hope you will continue advocating social change, though I am more a Green myself, and supported kat swift(1) until she lost the nomination. 

The mark of the left has always been its defense of the underdog. The unborn child is much more vulnerable than the farm worker or the single mother welfare recipient. I've noticed change.org has a section for animal rights but not one for prenatal rights. You said that abortion is not something decided lightly, and, while that may be the case, it does not mean abortion should be legal; a poor man deciding to kill his daughter to collect on the life insurance may be making the hardest decision of his life, but that does not mean no one should stop him, though it doesn't mean he shouldn't be given welfare either. While we should continue fighting poverty and other societal ills, we must eventually stand up as a nation and as a party and declare that all are equal: male or female, young or old(2), black or white, gay or straight, born or unborn, theist or atheist, rich or poor, American or foreign. Because of this, I strongly urge you to support a Constitutional Amendment defining "personhood" as beginning at fertilization, at which point modern medical science tells us a unique human individual is present. I also suggest you abandon ESC research in favor of the much more promising adult stem cells, or iPS cells (equal in all regards to ES cells, but with the added bonus that they do not involve the distruction of human embryos).

Being pro-life is not merely a stance of "the religious right", as is so wrongly believed by many. We are much more diverse than that. I, myself, am at once pro-life, liberal, feminist, and an atheist. I am anti-war, pro-universal health care, pro-ERA (The ERA's original author was pro-life, by the way), pro-gay marriage, pro-comprehensive sex ed, and anti-religion. 

I would also like to discuss the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). The only good thing about it is its abolishment of parental consent and notification laws; it is insulting, when millions of young children are being denied equality, to turn around and strip older, biological adults, of equality as well. Ignoring the issue of abortion's immorality, FOCA completely deregulates abortion, and, thus, puts the lives of mothers in danger. It allows doctors not trained in the practice to perform abortions, abolishes laws requiring operational emergency equipment standing by, abolishes informed consent laws, and even allows unsterilized equipment to be used. Not to mention it would also force doctors to perform abortions, regardless of their moral convictions. Catholic hospitals have threatened to close before performing abortions, and will follow through on it.

Instead of signing FOCA, I suggest signing the Pregnant Women Support Act, which is endorsed by Democrats for Life of America, does not restrict abortions, and would dramatically reduce abortions by providing support to pregnant women; sadly, many women feel abortion is their only choice, and college campuses often default to directing pregnant students to abortion clinics because the colleges do not know what else to do, a fact lamented by Feminists for Life of America. 

This is one of the main reason Crisis Pregnancy Centers exist, supplying everything from ultrasounds to baby clothes free of charge. We need more federal funding for these charitable organizations if we really want to decrease the abortion rate. These are needed because women do not want abortion like a kid wants a candy bar; they want it like a bear in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg. 

I would suggest that you read Democrats for Life: Pro-Life Politics and the Silenced Majority by Kristen Day and The Liberal Case Against Abortion by Vasu Murti. 

If you've read this far, or even read this post at all, I am extremely grateful and sincerely apologize for this post's length. 

Yours in the fight for freedom, fairness, and equality, 

Nulono

(1) That's how she writes it, not a typo. 

(2) Youth rights is a bigger topic not discussed here, but I suggest you look into the National Youth Rights Association and read their arguments. I was disturbed, yet not surprised, by your statement on the drinking age. Youth rights was a main reason I support(ed) kat swift.

Responding to Christian [nonsense] 0001

Here I'll respond to some t-shirts form Virtuous Planet.

First, I'll let Snopes deal with the laminin molecule.

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/laminin.asp

We'll start, of course, with the homophobic propaganda.

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I support Civil Rights! Blacks should have the same right as whites do to marry someone of the same race!

See this comic from I Drew This.

This was listed under "Funny"!

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Christians: Strenghtening marriage by protecting it from people that want to get married. Although, if you aren't changing anything, wouldn't that technically be keeping its strenght the same? And if we'd never redefined marriage, interracial marriage would still be illegal. Hell, blacks wouldn't've been allowed to marry at all!

This is strengthening marriage the same way genocide strengthens the human race: eliminate a whole class of it.

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We do not live in a theocracy. Your particular God's law does not apply here. Some churches are fine with gay marriage, If you want to get your way, you must present it in a secular manner. 

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Who's keeping score? Evolution's winning everywhere:

in the Supreme Court

in schools

in the genetic record

in the fossil record

et cetera.

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They already have.

...

Wait, I didn't see that human print in the middle; black doesn't show on dark brown. The "finders" of that example admitted to faking it to con tourists out of their money.

Though, even if humans and dinosaurs walked together, they could've done so millions of years ago. False dichotomy!

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Okay... Let's see...

My God, The Almighty Grxfg'ftevgë, has a bigger penis than your God. She also has the power to defy all laws of the Universe. Necromancy is not a very impressive feat for a God. And, no matter how powerful you imagine your God to be, he is still imaginary.

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And:

Only one road leads to Muhammad.

Only one road leads to Thor.

Only one road leads to the Invisible Pink Unicorn.

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I assume you're referring to the Scientific Method? Perform repeatable experiments that support your idea, use it to make predictions, submit it for peer review, and we'll see if it stands up to scrutiny. If it does, you'll probably win the Nobel Prize! Since your claim is supernatural and basically equates to "Magic Man dunnit", it will not last long.

Your idea is not even useful. How did Magic Man do it? Many Christians think God did it through natural processes. That's because 100% of the evidence supports the current scientific explanation. If we found any contrary evidence that couldn't be explained by the current theory, we'd alter the theory. That's how science works.

Also, "Darwinism" does not exist. If it does, then I am a proud Newtonist.

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Technically, humans are apes. This isn't evolution; this is basic taxonomy. We are all members of the Hominoidea superfamily.

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Oh, come on!

This is based on an ancient three-tiered vision of the sky. If this were true, spacecraft would've flown through a magically floating ocean and ended up in heaven. What did they find instead?

The firmament does not exist.

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Science is, by definition, the study of the observable, the knowable, the repeatable, the explainable, the demonstratable, the natural world. The supernatural is not science by definition.