Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Murder in the name of political expedience

Hi.  Miss me? I've missed you.  I've missed having a place to express my thoughts since almost no one I know in real life has the passion for politics that I do.  Or that you do.  So before I get to my point I want to thank you for reading.  I sincerely appreciate it.

Tomorrow is election day.  Correction: it's 12:15am so today is election day and, as always Americans are being told they to make the biggest choice of their lifetimes, that no other election has mattered as much as this, that the future of the galaxy teeters on the brink.  Who knows - maybe it's true.  But I doubt it.  Whether or not it's the most important election of our lifetimes, though, I do think it's probably the first time we've had the option to vote for someone who advocates murder, by his own definition.

No, I haven't fallen prey to conspiracy theories a la Vince Foster (look it up.) and I'm not talking about Mitt Romney, at least I don't think I am.  Then again he's taken so many different views who knows what he really believes in his heart of hearts.  If he has one.  I mean a proverbial one - not like Dick Cheney who doesn't have a real one.

In the 112th congress Paul Ryan sponsored HR 212 which declared that human life begins at conception, meaning that killing it any time after that instant is murder.  Ever.  For any reason.  If the mother's life is in danger I can see an ardent anti-abortionist asserting that killing the fetus to save the mother is good old fashioned self defense and, seeing it from their standpoint, I can't really disagree.

But what about allowing exceptions for rape and incest?  Anyone who believes that life begins at conception yet accepts abortion in those instances is advocating murder in response to what they must view as a lesser crime.  The GOP's candidate for Vice President believes that abortion at any stage is murder, yet he allows for the rape and incest exception.  Using his definitions, that are entered into the US Congressional record for all time, he accept murder as does the rest of the hard-core GOP who claim the same faith-based belief.

And this is a person and a party that (hopefully less than) half of the voting public is likely to choose to guide this country for the next four years???

Look, there's some maniacal sense of consistency to those who want to ban abortion in all cases except self defense.  I think it's a consistency born out of an utter lack of understanding of biology, but at least it's consistent.  But the "murder is OK sometimes" crowd?  I don't get them.

I've studied biology, including my own biology so I realize I have absolutely no right to tell a woman what to do with her pregnant body unless I'm the one who made her that way and even then all I can do is drop a note in the suggestion box and hope she takes it.  That's not to say we shouldn't do everything we can to reduce the need for abortion, but banning it treats women like children who aren't capable of running their own lives.  The civilized world put that behind us years ago.

Romney and Ryan are right about one thing:  They really do want to take this country back.  wards.

Look, I grew up in the South.   I've lived the bigoted, sexist past.  It sucks.

I choose a future where the Vice President isn't the kind of person who thinks something is murder yet approves it anyway.  It's a future where Barack Obama's second term sees job growth second only to Bill Clinton's.

Going back-wards is almost as absurd as advocating murder.  Don't drag us with you.