Weightier Matters

Let me link to Shakesville once again. There's an open letter to President Obama about the murder of D.r George Tiller.

There's not much I can add to that. Here's the comment I left:

Thank you. Thank you for once again refuting the position that this is a debate between two equally valid positions, in which extremism on both sides prevents the reasonable moderates from finding a solution. When one side argues that women haven't the right to control their own bodies, when they favor intimidation over peaceful protest, when their rhetoric, even when distancing themselves from acts of violence, is laced with hatred and with smug satisfaction, it seems to me that those reasonable moderates should be asking themselves how a cause that is served by such methods can be worthy of debate.

Perhaps then, the reasonable and decent people who oppose abortion (and, because of incidents like this, I found it hard to believe that they existed until I met some of them) can focus their efforts, not on limiting the choices of women, but on improving them, on working to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

I was raised by liberal parents in a very Catholic family, so I've been spoon-fed both sides of this debate for pretty much my entire life, and even as a small child it was obvious to me that the solution was simple. If you don't approve of abortion, don't fucking have one.

I can't even begin to tell you how much it pisses me off that these people get to go around calling themselves pro-life.

Just A Little Note, A Couple of Days Late

Dear America,

Please stop bitching about having to pay taxes. It's part of living in a society. Get over it.

Love and kisses,
Kitty Pimms

Messed Up

Shakesville has some good stuff to say about the Bush torture memos, which basically covers how I feel. I agree that people shouldn't be punished for doing what they were told was legal (though evidence of how easily people can be convinced to do that sort of thing always disturbs me), but I think there has to be some accountability somewhere up the ladder.

To ridiculously over-simplify, when one of the daycare boys got in trouble for throwing a rock at a passing car, the first thing he said was "I'm never going to do it again!" and he clearly thought it was unfair that he had to have a time-out for something he'd already agreed not to do again. But whether or not a deterrent was necessary, the rock had already been thrown, and the act itself was bad enough to warrant punishment. Even if you have such a Utopian vision of humanity that you believe that no future US administration will sanction torture, that we've learned our lesson, that doesn't absolve those who gave the orders from responsibility for the past.

Not to mention I'm sick to death of seeing people in power get away with shit. In my fantasy utopia, the people who have the means to do the most damage are held to higher standards or accountability than regular people.

All that aside, this quote, excerpted from the Washington Post, is messed up:

Some techniques were simply bizarre, such as placing a caterpillar into a confined box holding Mr. Zubaida -- who was believed to be afraid of insects -- as long as the insect did not sting and Mr. Zubaida was not led to believe that it was capable of stinging.

Whenever I feel like vast conspiracies are going on to oppress me, I take a moment to remind myself of things like this:

"Place guy in confining box for hours" = totally acceptable

"Sleep deprivation" = no problem

"Water-boarding" = so awesome

"Allow guy to falsely believe non-stinging insect might sting him" = morally objectionable

Because bureaucracy breeds ineptness as much as evil, I at least can hope to outwit them.

Got 8 Minutes?

Why not spend them enjoying this:



A briefing on American imperialism delivered in the soothing, sexy voice of Viggo Mortensen.

Mmmmm... Viggo...

Political Blogging

I mean linking.

Because this Shakesville post is so, so right on.

I’m going to memorize it and recite it the next time anyone mentions anything, since it is what I’ve been trying to articulate since this whole stimulus/budget foofara began.

Seriously, whenever anyone mentions anything.

Like, the weather even.