May 16, 2006 · While the Northern Marianas Islands are a U.S. territory, they are exempt from the usual American laws regulating minimum wage, tariffs, quotas and immigration. Yet clothing sewn in the sweatshops bears the "made in the USA" label. To further complicate matters, the Marianas were a client of Jack Abramoff, who, with the help of Tom Delay, blocked legislation that would have eliminated these exemptions. Sweatshops, slave wages, human trafficking, forced abortions, women pushed into the sex trade - all on American territory, all with the consent and support of lobbyist/puppetmaster/convicted criminal Jack Abramoff and stooge/thug/not-yet-convicted criminal Tom DeLay. Another proud moment for Republicans everywhere!John McCain has nice, cozy ties to Jack Abramoff. When it comes to the Northern Marianas Islands deal, what did he know and when did he know it? And what has he done about it since then?
So on the one side you have a party that wants to keep abortion safe, legal, and - most importantly - rare. Abortion, they maintain, is the worst possible form of birth control. But outlawing it will force women to resort once again to back-alley abortionists and home-brewed abortificants. (Pennyroyal oil, anyone?) Women will die as a result - with a not-insignificant number of people who call themselves "Pro Life" sneering "Well, good for them."
On the other side you have a party that has no problem with a cozy little setup that involves women forced into the sex trade and forced to get abortions. But, hey, they're just a bunch of Chinese imported as wage slaves in a U.S. Territory that nobody's ever heard of, right? Who the hell cares about them?
So I guess Bishop Martino says you can't vote for either the Democrat or the Republican this year.
- Paradise Lost: Greed, Sex Slavery, Forced Abortions and Right-Wing Moralists by Rebecca Clarren
- AmericaBlog: So McCain has no problem with forced abortions and child prostitution. Nice.
- TPM Muckraker: Schaffer: What Forced Abortions? I Didn't See Any Forced Abortions
- TPM Muckraker: McCain's Moneyraiser Worked For Mariana Islands
(Shameless self promotion warning).
ReplyDeleteDropped you a link on this topic DB. Look at the end of 10/6 post for a link to a book where I get mentioned in the acknowledgments (I helped brainstorm/provide examples for the book cover - which isn't too exciting visually but has meaning for statisticians).
The book looks too dense for me to actually read, though I did make a suggestion relating to a probability discussion.
Super G
I know you've pushed hard for Obama and the Democrats, but it's been a surprise to me that you're arguing the pro-choice stance, since there is no pro-choice argument that isn't ultimately morally incoherent.
ReplyDeleteBottom line:
People aren't property.
All our natural rights come from God, not from our mommies. Our rights and freedoms are not granted by the government, and they are especially not granted by our mothers or any other human being. If our natural rights can be severed from their source via abortion, then all the rest of our rights are vulnerable, too.
Killing the most innocent and helpless members of our society is evil and barbaric. As Mother Theresa said (paraphrasing), if mothers can kill babies in their womb, what's left of Western Civilization to defend?
In a pro-choice society, men have no reproductive rights whatsoever, even in marriage. A wife can simply turn to her husband and say, "I'm aborting this baby" and the man has no recourse at all.
Abortion is not rare, is not becoming rare, and used for emergency contraception in the vast majority of cases.
Abortion is ultimately a value judgment involving three people -- an unborn child, a mother and a father -- and when there's a dispute among a group of people, the community is required to get involved, but Roe v. Wade and subsequent decisions eliminated the possibility of crafting federalist and legislative compromises that reflect the values of the American people and local communities, disenfranchised two of the three people involved (one in fact dies), and the court decided the issue by judicial fiat. It's not a "woman's choice" alone; others are involved, and many people are involved, including grandparents, cousins, etc.
A pro-choice position makes you a card-carrying member of the Culture of Death. There is a generation of people missing in Western Civ. and it's starting to affect us now.
Most important, you don't need to try to argue with me or anyone else on this earth -- you'll have to make your case, ultimately, to those who are aborted, face to face, in the afterlife, in the presence of the God of truth, and explain to them why they had no right to life. To paraphrase last week's episode of The Unit, all things end in judgment.
If you wanted to make your point about the Catholic Church v. McCain, you should've brought up:
(1) embryonic stem cell research
(2) torture, and
(3) just-war doctrine.
The GOP failed on 2 and 3, and while the policy of the GOP on 1 is correct, McCain's position isn't. There is a robust debate within the Catholic blogging whether or not a vote for McCain is acceptable because of these issues; however, the bishops have weighed in and concluded that one may in fact vote for the lesser of two evils. And the bishops have stated that 2 and 3 are not as important as 1, and that in fact there are no "imaginable" proportionate reasons for voting for an unapologetic pro-choice candidate, especially one like Obama, who has promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act.
You also may want to google and check out the arguments of Doug Kmiec, a controversial Catholic commenter who has attempted to make an anti-abortion, proportionate argument in favor of Obama. In other words, I'm asking you to consider severing your support of Obama from any position you might hold on abortion.
You're a gentle soul, DB, a man of conscience, who sincerely wants to do what is right. You struggle with killing tent caterpillars and vicious hornets. On this pro-choice issue, though, I'd strongly urge you to reconsider. Please please please open your conscience up to this issue again -- think it through from the beginning (even prayerfully reflect -- ask God to show you the truth and be open to the answer), and consider these other points of view. Scientifically, morally, religiously, legally -- it all comes down unequivocally on the pro-life side.
Don't allow yourself to get bamboozled by Pro-Choice propaganda or allow partisanship to blind you to right-to-life truths. Don't get tricked by taking the most extreme cases (rape, incest, etc.) and arguing that all abortions are OK because of these minority of issues.
I know you well enough to know that deep down you're not quite convinced in your own mind and soul on this one.
Pax Christi, Bill @ BN
Bill, you sure throw a lot of words out there. Unfortunately, I'm aware that - unless things have changed dramatically in the past month or so - as a matter of policy you don't stand by them. Which is why I've been avoiding your site, and will continue to do so until after the election: because I have a limited amount of time to blog and comment and read blogs and read comments, and I do not have time or the energy to be drawn into sophistic arguments where statements made by either side can be edited or deleted at any time. (Not to worry, I get a copy of every comment e-mailed to me to let me know that it's there - and for safe keeping.)
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is all going according to Karl Rove's script - though it follows the same basic outlines that Pat Buchanan employed when he was helping Nixon run a dirty tricks campaign against McGovern.
"Pro-choice" does not mean "pro-abortion," any more than "anti-abortion" means "pro-life." "Pro-Life" is a loaded political term with specific connotations and meanings, much like "Even-handed approach" in terms of Israeli-Palestinian relations, as Wesley Clark discovered to his regret back in 2003.
The only acceptable number of abortions each year is zero. Anything more than that indicates a failure on society's part: a failure to educate our children, to provide them with the means of prevention, to keep predators contained, to create a society in which personal responsibility is not trumped by either whim or grim reality. Your arguments, and those used by Martino and others, do not lead to a world without abortions. Instead they lead back to a time of back-alley abortions, of a patchwork of laws where women who could afford to (or whose parents could afford) could travel to other states, or even other countries, to get abortions, while those who could not afford to make the journey, sould not.
Abortions, like the poor, are something that will always be with us. The goal should be to minimize their frequency, not to engage in political posturing and grandstanding as your strings are pulled by political puppet masters. So far I have heard no ideas from the Anti-Choice movement that will get us there.
ive been youtubing up a storm in lue of the upcomming election. ive stumbled upton some really shocking information about McCains connection to Abramoff. you should check it out
ReplyDeletetheres alot more if you just do a youtube search for 'gary chafetz'