Posts

Posted on

It’s safe and legal abortion that bothers them

A while ago, Erick Erickson, a Republican strategist, expressed the view that liberals should start stocking up on wire coat hangers, because that was the only way they would get an abortion when more states follows the lead of Texas. It made me immediately feel queasy, since it shows so clearly that it’s not the abortion per se that is bothering republicans. It’s more the fact that it can be performed safely and cheaply in clinics that listens to and respect their patients. Considering that most abortion providers don’t get any money from the government for performing abortions, it cannot be because of cost to tax payers.

Another interesting effect of the Texas legislation, is that people living near the Mexico border will on a practical level not have access to any abortion provider. Considering that many of the people getting abortion right now are migrant workers, their only choice would be to go to Mexico to get the care they need. However, the ones with questionable legal status to be in the United States don’t have that luxury, if we call it that. Their only choices are to get an illegal abortion, which is dangerous and increases the risk that they will end up in emergency care, which does end up costing all of us money, or to have the baby, which of course means that they give birth to another American citizen. Yes, the much reviled anchor baby. Hopefully one of them grows up to become President of the United States.

Posted on

AL QAEDA DISBANDS – From BOROWITZ REPORT

This made me laugh.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The international terror group known as Al Qaeda announced its dissolution today, saying that “our mission of destroying the American economy is now in the capable hands of the U.S. Congress.”

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2012/12/al-qaeda-disbands-says-job-of-destroying-us-economy-now-in-congress-hands.html#ixzz2GOCIPovq

I just wish is wasn’t so close to the truth.

 

Posted on

Follow up on gun control

After I posted the article about gun control the Australian way, I had a quick chat with a friend of mine who is a big gun proponent.

I said that I could understand why somebody would want a rifle or a shotgun for hunting purposes, and why you might want a hand gun for protection. But then I asked why anybody would need an assault rifle like the Bushman that was used in several recent shootings, and is now flying off the shelves like a new product from Apple. The answer surprised me. “Nobody really needs them, but they are a lot of fun to shoot.”

If that is the case, then I don’t see why you cannot have them in special ranges and you can only shoot them there. If you want to own one (rather than rent one) then you would need to lock it at the premise or have special containers for transport and storage. Kind of like how somebody who likes to drive really fast will do that on a race track, and not in normal traffic.

It is a complex and thorny issue, but I think we need to get to a point where people cannot get their hands on the most destructive weapons, and people who are not mentally sound should not have access to guns legally.

Posted on

Guns And Control – The Australian Way

Over the week-end I watched Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. I guess I’m becoming an #upper, albeit online after the broadcast. It’s a great show, but not 5 AM great on the week-end. But I digress.

The last two week-ends the show has been about gun violence and what to do about it. I know as a European, I don’t get the gun culture that I see organizations like the NRA and certain libertarian groups want to defend. I cannot see why somebody would need a military style semi-automatic rifle. I don’t understand why somebody would need more than a couple or so handguns, unless it’s for something like target shooting competitively.

Continue reading “Guns And Control – The Australian Way”

Posted on

Warning to the Democrats and the undecided

I did not pen these words, but they are so true:

Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them- we will do more of them we will do them better; and, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.”

But, my friends, these evaders are banking too heavily on the shortness of our memories. No one will forget that they had their golden opportunity—twelve long years of it.

Remember, too, that the first essential of doing a job well is to want to see the job done. Make no mistake about this: the Republican leadership today is not against the way we have done the job. The Republican leadership is against the job’s being done.

The most astonishing fact to  me is that this is from a Democratic Convention speech that Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered in 1936. And it still rings true today.

My warning is, beware of the republicans offerings when it comes to budget work. They don’t want to save Medicare. They want it to fail fast. They don’t want to spread financial opportunities across the population. They want to institute a class system akin to the old British system, with Lords and Dukes and other nobility. Not in title, but in practice. Bu having an elite of people who owns close to everything, means that the rest of the people will become vassals with no chance to move into the owning class.