The local newspaper reports on efforts to collect 16,728 signatures to put the Mount Rushmore State's exciting new to-hell-with-everyone-who-isn't-an-unborn-child abortion law to a public vote in November. From that article, here's a swell quotation from a particularly venomous local anti-abortion shill who has spent more years than I care to count trying to cram her opinions down everyone else's throat:
"Do not make it easy for them. Make them work for every little signature they can get," said ban supporter Leslee Unruh, president of the Alpha Center crisis pregnancy clinic.
Now, what do you suppose Unruh means by this?
I can only conclude that her statement is a coded message to her minions: Get out there and terrorize would-be petition signers just as we've been terrorizing people in front of women's clinics all these years.
This indicates to me that Unruh realizes, perhaps subconsciously, perhaps consciously, that her extremist stance is not share by the majority of South Dakotans...and that she must work overtime to make sure the people never get to vote on it.
What else could statements like "Do not make it easy for them" and "Make them work for every little signature they can get" mean?
I guess she must figure it's going to be harder to hoodwink an entire state than one little state legislature and a governor.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
They're Making Fun of Us Again (Still)!
A friend of mine sent me the following, from Slowpoke Comics. His subject line pretty much sums it up: "Sigh........"
Moral Superiority
Once again, a prominent conservative demonstrates his moral and ethical superiority. This from yesterday's Daily Kos:
Washington Post's Jim Brady: He Can't Google, So He Should Be Replaced
by DHinMI
Fri Mar 24, 2006 at 10:50:09 PM PDT
Poor Jim Brady, sharp people like Brad DeLong give him lots of clues, but Brady chooses to remain clueless:
A 24-year-old blogger for The Washington Post, Ben Domenech, resigned yesterday after being confronted with evidence that he had plagiarized articles in other publications.
His resignation came after writing six blog items in the three days he worked for Red America, a blog that The Post created to offer a conservative viewpoint on its Web site...
But by late Thursday, the bloggers had found instances of what appeared to be plagiarism, including an article by Mr. Domenech in The New York Press that contained passages resembling an article that ran on the front page of The Washington Post.
Evidence of one instance of plagiarism first surfaced on the liberal blog Daily Kos on Thursday. [Kudos to Oregon Guy for getting the plagiarism search started.] A comment posted on the blog said a passage from an article by Mr. Domenech was nearly identical to a chapter from P. J. O'Rourke's book, "Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People."
Other articles that contained passages that appeared to be copied were published in National Review Online, The New York Press and The Flat Hat, the student newspaper at the College of William and Mary, which Mr. Domenech attended.
...And more, which you may read for yourself.
Although the gist of the remainder of the post is to take Jim Brady (executive editor for the Washington Post web site) to task for hiring Domenech in the first place (and for some rather puzzling statements as the plagiarism story began to break), I find it amazing how huffy and morally self-righteous so many right-wingers can be regarding, say, Bill Clinton, while at the same time blithely practicing theft and lying (which is what plagiarism is, after all).
Strange, no, that they have such a reputation for moral uprightness when so many of them prove to be so morally compass-less.
Washington Post's Jim Brady: He Can't Google, So He Should Be Replaced
by DHinMI
Fri Mar 24, 2006 at 10:50:09 PM PDT
Poor Jim Brady, sharp people like Brad DeLong give him lots of clues, but Brady chooses to remain clueless:
A 24-year-old blogger for The Washington Post, Ben Domenech, resigned yesterday after being confronted with evidence that he had plagiarized articles in other publications.
His resignation came after writing six blog items in the three days he worked for Red America, a blog that The Post created to offer a conservative viewpoint on its Web site...
But by late Thursday, the bloggers had found instances of what appeared to be plagiarism, including an article by Mr. Domenech in The New York Press that contained passages resembling an article that ran on the front page of The Washington Post.
Evidence of one instance of plagiarism first surfaced on the liberal blog Daily Kos on Thursday. [Kudos to Oregon Guy for getting the plagiarism search started.] A comment posted on the blog said a passage from an article by Mr. Domenech was nearly identical to a chapter from P. J. O'Rourke's book, "Modern Manners: An Etiquette Book for Rude People."
Other articles that contained passages that appeared to be copied were published in National Review Online, The New York Press and The Flat Hat, the student newspaper at the College of William and Mary, which Mr. Domenech attended.
...And more, which you may read for yourself.
Although the gist of the remainder of the post is to take Jim Brady (executive editor for the Washington Post web site) to task for hiring Domenech in the first place (and for some rather puzzling statements as the plagiarism story began to break), I find it amazing how huffy and morally self-righteous so many right-wingers can be regarding, say, Bill Clinton, while at the same time blithely practicing theft and lying (which is what plagiarism is, after all).
Strange, no, that they have such a reputation for moral uprightness when so many of them prove to be so morally compass-less.
Monday, March 20, 2006
Another Batch of Quotations
More quotations that have been piling up for awhile. As usual, most if not all of them came to me via A Word a Day.
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. -Anne Lamott, writer (1954- )
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)
When we have the courage to speak out -- to break our silence -- we inspire the rest of the "moderates" in our communities to speak up and voice their views. -Sharon Schuster
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)
I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center. -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., writer (1922- )
It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world. -Will Durant, historian (1885-1981)
Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but only the wretched and wonderfully diversified human race. -Jacques Barzun, professor and writer (1907- )
I am malicious because I am miserable. ... If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundred fold (words of Frankenstein monster). -Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author (1797-1851)
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president (1809-1865)
A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free. -Nikos Kazantzakis, writer (1883-1957)
Half the truth is often a great lie. -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790)
As the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence. -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
War, at first, is the hope that one will be better off; next, the expectation that the other fellow will be worse off; then, the satisfaction that he isn't any better off; and, finally, the surprise at everyone's being worse off. -Karl Kraus, writer (1874-1936)
People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools. -Alice Walker, writer (1944- )
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws. -John Adams, 2nd US president (1735-1826)
God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist. -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary. -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)
We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian and writer (1906-1945)
It does not require many words to speak the truth. -Chief Joseph, native American leader (1840-1904)
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence. -Henri Frederic Amiel philosopher and writer (1821-1881)
Lying is done with words and also with silence. -Adrienne Rich, writer and teacher (1929- )
Why should I give them my mind we well? -Dalai Lama, when asked if he wasn't angry at the Chinese for taking over his country. (1935- )
I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies. -Pietro Aretino, satirist and dramatist (1492-1556)
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