Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Religion at work.
This:
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller, a prominent advocate for abortion rights wounded by a protester more than a decade ago, was shot and killed Sunday at a church in Wichita where he was serving as an usher and his wife was in the choir, his attorney said.
Tiller was shot during morning services at Reformation Lutheran Church, attorney Dan Monnat said. Police said a manhunt was under way for the shooter, who fled in a car registered to a Kansas City suburb nearly 200 miles away.
National anti-abortion groups had long focused on Tiller, whose Women's Health Care Services clinic is one of just three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy.
Someone has been arrested. Who wants to bet that they did it "in the name of Jesus!"? To "save the little babies!"? To "stop the holocaust!"?
Yeah, I am painting religion as responsible. Because the belief that the Sky Daddy blesses your crime is what makes this sort of thing happen. And until religion stops telling people that they are exceptional and only answerable to God, this kind of insanity will continue to happen.
If I'm wrong, I'll apologize.
But I bet I'm right.
Jim Downey
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Oh the hypocrisy
Oh great. Talk about hypocrisy; a pro-lifer killing an abortion Doctor. What we really need to make this even more ludicrous is to give the killer a death sentence.
I can only imagine that the man who shot Tiller was acting under his own distorted version of beliefs being fed to him by his religion and whatever media outlets that may have coincided with those religious beliefs.
In my opinion; he acted no differently that an Al Qaeda follower or suicide bomber might have acted.
I'm not blaming religion per se, but sometimes when you mix ideology with an unstable mind these things happen.
Ironically, this does nothing to promote the so-called "Pro-Life" movement.
Whether you believe in a woman's right to choose or not; this is not the answer.
Depends on the question
If you actually believe that abortion is the exact same thing as baby killing, the killing of Dr. Tiller makes sense. I mean, wouldn't you shoot a killer to save a baby's life? He was one of only three doctors in the nation who performed abortions after the 21st week. Killing Dr. Tiller will actually prevent late term abortions from occurring, because there isn't any other doctor in the country who will perform abortions as late as Dr. Tiller would, and the remaining two doctors who perform late term abortions may quit out of a very rational fear for their lives (I know I would). The rhetoric of the prolife movement leads inexorably to the conclusion that killing abortion doctors is a good thing.
Prolife Killers
And yet you can't escape the fact that the prolifers are desperately, viciously wrong, on so many levels. Rationalizing murder steps outside the bounds of what the rest of us can allow.
I came across the definition of the word "sedition" recently. I'd been hearing the word all my life, but it just didn't register with me. It's something like "inciting the overthrow of the government." So in some circumstances, vocally encouraging the overthrow of the government is a crime equal to the act of actively working to overthrow it. In other words, talking can be the same as shooting.
This is some iffy ground to all us free speech advocates, but we've all heard this type of thing on a smaller scale — a recent story had a mother standing by and screaming "Hit her! Hit her!" as her daughter fought with another girl.
Free speech is just about everything in an open society, but it's based on the premise of freedom to be who you are and freedom to seek your own goals, not freedom to harm others. Your freedom is limited by the freedom and well-being of those others. (This is exactly why godders have so often represented a social threat: They don't stay home and pray, they attempt to subvert the government, laws and social rules to gain an unfair advantage for themselves over everyone who doesn't belong to their church or religion.)
Another recent story had a woman tormenting a young girl online, so much that the girl finally committed suicide. The woman overstepped the line of freedom of expression, contributing to the death of a vulnerable teenager. It wasn’t exactly murder, but it was also definitely not an accident. The girl died as a direct result of the woman’s words. I didn’t pay close attention to the story, but I think I remember the woman being charged and tried for something akin to negligent homicide, and I felt that was well justified.
In my mind, these examples are clear representations of the situation in which Bill O’Reilly and right-winger Christianists have placed themselves in verbally attacking this doctor for so many years. You can’t say any one comment resulted in the doctor’s death, but this shooting is clear evidence to me that the atmosphere of hate O’Reilly and company project into society goes beyond freedom of speech and brings about real harm.
In my mind, O’Reilly (and a lot of others) should not get away with this. If he’s free to target any person and ramp up the rhetoric until some crazy commits murder, nobody is really safe.
Having a peaceful society requires that the peace be enforced. Hate speech that results in murder needs to be curtailed.
If Janet Jackson’s bare tit appearing on TV for half a second can bring a multi-million dollar fine (or whatever it was), the hate speech of O’Reilly and company deserves at least that.
I'm just curious
Would you hold Keith Olbermann and others on the left who use the same rhetoric about Pres. Bush being a murderer and killing innocent Iraqis?
Oh, right, that's different because Olbermann is only telling the truth. Isn't that right, Hank?
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
Is there a question?
I dunno - I think that if we kill off the nuts who are doing this, even if it doesn't deter the other nuts, it takes the perps out of the process. And maybe at some point knowing that you will die for such things would be a deterrent. Merely asking the guy to leave the premises isn't enough to protect the doctor. Apparently these kooks think that God's law works only one way, and that they are not required to adhere to the no-murder commandment.
freeze their assets?
Does this give the FBI enough to freeze the assets of Operation Rescue as a terrorist organization?
Yes, I see where the weasel snuck the word
in there, probably on the advice of his lawyers. It does not modify the clearly legible directive of the message.
You won't have to apologize Jim
From the New York Times...
This act of Christian terrorism is no different than Muslin terrorism that is justified by the Koran.
to the eternal shame of Kansas
It happened about a dozen miles from my home. It's a good thing the right managed to get the Obama administration to pull back on the "right-wing terrorism" report a couple months ago, after all, these good and loving christian people would never do such a thing least of all in one of their fictional god's houses. Culture of life, my ass. Former Prick General Phill Kline should be charged as an accomplice, too. Sorry, I don't have anything coherent to say, just venting at the fuck-all these simple-minded busybodies are unleashing on this country. This has to be stopped, this is not the America in which I grew up and it is not the America in which I want to live.
Furthermore...
Some six hours later, and a chance to consider/read/reflect . . .
Good piece on this via Sully, here's a quote:
And right on cue:
"Even their churches." How very - Christian - of you, Mr. Terry.
Jim Downey
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
If it's the Law of God, let God issue the penalty.
I don't think those protesters have every done it "peacefully", so there's no reason to think that these words are anything but empty. Whitewashing so transparent it could be in those glass cleaner commercials. Shouting at people, blocking access, cursing them - these are NOT peaceful activities.
And maybe they should take a token from the words of the one they believe to be their saviour, something about "what is God's render unto God and what is Caesar's render unto Caesar"? So if it's God's law, let God mete out the punishment. Men such as Mr. Terry and That Ilk should only try to enforce, in the ways allowed, the laws of man.
Which, last I checked, permit abortions.
The Rude Pundit sezzit