Abortion and Health Insurance Reform

 Posted by  Abortion, Healthcare, U.S. Politics  4 Responses »
Nov 102009
 

Abortion is a complicated issue. Even the most ardent pro-choice advocates have to deal with the fine line between abortion and infanticide, while the most ardent pro-life advocates have to deal with the fine lines between abortion, contraception, and miscarriage. The current debates focus on ease-of-access debates (government subsidies, parental consent, etc.) none of which have simple answers, at least not for anyone who seeks to be simultaneously compassionate for women stuck making hard choices and their offspring who have no choice in the matter at all (not to mention the even more complicated rights of fathers and the parents of under-age mothers). So generally speaking, I tend not to vote on abortion, other than to respect those who view the subject with both thought and compassion–traits that the most ardent politicians (pro-choice or pro-life) tend to lack.

Case in point: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, one of the people running for Ted Kennedy’s old US Senate seat, fully and completely lost my vote yesterday. Continue reading »

Fox Fiction

 Posted by  Disasters and Tragedies, The Media  No Responses »
Nov 062009
 

We don’t yet know what happened yesterday at Ft. Hood. We don’t know why a psychiatrist started shooting people. We aren’t even sure that he was the only gunman involved. We don’t know what, if any, warning signs there might have been.

Oh, there is certainly speculation. There are reports that the psychiatrist shouted “God is Great” in Arabic before opening fire–but those are unconfirmed reports and should be taken with a large grain of salt. We know that the FBI awhile back was investigating a man who had the same name as the psychiatrist who posted some remarks that were favorable to Palestinian terrorists, but they were never able to demonstrate that the postings came from the psychiatrist and we certainly have no further evidence of a connection right now. There are reports that the psychiatrist was troubled by all the things he heard from returning Iraq veterans; but that only makes him human. We heard that he was trying to avoid being shipped out to Afghanistan… but it’s a long way from “doesn’t want to go to a war zone” to “shooting everyone around you”.

There are a lot of suspicions flying around, but we really just don’t know a lot right now, as any and every responsible media outlet will tell you.

And then there is Fox News.

Fox & Friends this morning was quick to place the blame for the tragedy on liberal political correctness. Continue reading »

What I Learned Yesterday

 Posted by  Homosexuality, U.S. Politics  1 Response »
Nov 042009
 

Pundits will spend the next week or so trying to figure out the larger meaning of yesterday’s elections. Does this mean that the Democrats are in trouble for 2010? Or 2012? Will this scare moderate Democrats away from Obama’s policies? How much solace can the Democrats take from their victory in the NY 23rd?

Well, I have no idea what the overriding message was, but I did learn a few things:
Continue reading »

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