Comments on: Spinster aunt publishes post on godly football player without titling it first

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:03:07 +0000

Hey, Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D.: http://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/anti-tales.shtml

By: Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D.

Virginia S. Wood, Psy.D. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 01:29:33 +0000

“the only moral abortion is my abortion” stories that have been bouncing round the intertubes forever

I have blessedly lived 57 years without any awareness of this phenomenon. Could somebody point me a link? I feel the need for a little self-abuse coming on.

By: Citizen Jane

Citizen Jane — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:45:58 +0000

Banshee, I usually consider IBTP to be a place where science is respected. Therefore, I wouldn’t expect it to be a place where Mr. Freakonomics would be brought up for any reason other than to laugh our butts off. Same for anyone else whose claim to fame is finding a correlation and using it as proof for whatever causal relationship he made up.

Besides, whether or not abortion prevents criminality is completely irrelevant to the choice debate no matter what side of it you are on.

By: Ignorant Super Bowl commercial « Chez Alex

Ignorant Super Bowl commercial « Chez Alex — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:21:10 +0000

[...] 14:21 (random, spirituality) Tags: Focus on the Family, football, religion, Super Bowl I recently read on I Blame the Patriarchy about a Super Bowl commercial that noted right-wing fanatic group Focus on the Family is making [...]

By: norbizness

norbizness — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:55:34 +0000

What was the effect of miniature American flags for others on the development of the PG-13 movie rating? ASK A FREAKANOMIST!

By: nails

nails — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:16:03 +0000

I don’t really dig the freakonomics dude. The shit he says about global warming is way off base.

I don’t know if you could isolate a variable for women in the 70’s, many things improved for women during that period of time. When conditions improve for women they improve conditions for their children. The birth rate drops along w/that because women wait longer and have fewer children (not just because of abortion). I also wonder what crimes dropped and how much. How the police choose to enforce laws and how the law changes can make equally shit conditions seem dissimilar.

By: Banshee

Banshee — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:06:23 +0000

In Freakonomics, they link the unexpected drop in crime in the 90’s to the legalization of abortion in the 70’s. The idea is that before, only wealthy women could afford illegal abortions but by making it cheap and legal, women who weren’t rich were now able to have abortions. Many of these kids would have grown up in unfavorable situations, and some would have gone on to become criminals in the 90’s.
I know, it blames the poor and assumes poor women will raise criminals, but they argue that statistically speaking, these kids would have been more likely to commit crimes as young adults.

By: Ayla

Ayla — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 04:31:42 +0000

“This reminds me very much of “the only moral abortion is my abortion” stories that have been bouncing round the intertubes forever.”

It seems I am forever seeing references to this, but I have never actually seen/heard someone try to spin the “only *I* had a good enough reason to have an abortion” yarn. Not that I doubt it, I’d just love to actually hear about it through some other method than “the grapevine.”

By: Princess Rot

Princess Rot — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:05:23 +0000

What it mentions in the article Jill linked to is that Ms. Godly Fetus Mama had round-the-clock, state-of-the-art medical care and an ability to take two months of bedrest in order to birth the Godly Fetus Footballer, presumably free of any other bother such as the need to earn a steady income and/or be there for existing family members.

It would seem that the takeaway message of this boils down to: if you have a ruptured placenta and are not from a wealthy white godbag family and you do not have the privilege of access to all of the above, you’re shit out of luck.

This reminds me very much of “the only moral abortion is my abortion” stories that have been bouncing round the intertubes forever. Privileged honky makes a choice concerning her body, comes off lucky mostly due to unrealised privileges 99.9% of others do not have, then superciliously decides that it is best if everyone else doesn’t get the option. Internalized misogyny, indeed.

By: jael

jael — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:15:20 +0000

Comrade PhysioProf –

Here’s the deal: As soon as the motherfucking jeezus-, abraham-, mohammed-, and other-fucking god botherers shut down their fucking churches, shut the fuck up about their fucking stupid deities, stop maiming, killing, and opporessing, and otherwise leave decent people alone, then I assure you, the “militant atheists” will concern themselves with them to the same extent they do leprechaun enthusiasts.

could the statute of limitations on militant atheism perhaps be limited to the cessation of maiming, killing, oppressing and leaving people alone? i appreciate the standard is the above can’t be ended without the ending of the actual beliefs that are used to justify them, but eh; that’s a position without evidentiary support. it’s also a situation that large numbers inside god-botherer communities desire (and, rumour has it, work towards) also.

i suspect it’s the desire to “convert” the world to a “religion/church/conversations about god free” state of being (as opposed to a state of being sans oppression, irrespective of ones belief in a sky fairy or not) that brings forth the calls of hypocrisy.