An Argument Against Abortion

When I hear anyone (especially Christians) defend the legality of abortions in America (or anywhere else) I want to puke. We have this idea in America that even though the vast majority of us don't think abortion is right, it's not really our place to tell someone else they can't have one (and by "have one" I really mean kill their baby). This is a ridiculously weak argument though. The vast majority of Americans believe raping their neighbor is wrong and the state should act by throwing rapists in jail. We all made a moral judgement about rape and realize rape deserves jail time. Abortion is no different. If we shouldn't make abortion illegal because other people might not think it's wrong, then murder, rape, theft, etc should not be illegal. We should have no moral laws.

I also hear the argument that making abortions illegal would cause many women to die in "back-alley" abortions done by non-professionals. Sure, that would happen. But since abortion was legalized in 1973 over 50 million American citizens have been slaughtered before they were even allowed to leave their mothers' wombs. That's over 5 times the amount of people killed in the Holocaust. As I recall, we don't take the Holocaust lightly. Neither should we take abortion lightly.

Another argument is that abortions don't kill living human beings; humans aren't alive and viable until they exit the womb. The problem with this is that children have been born exceedingly early and have not immediately died. There is no particular date that scientists can set as the ALIVE moment. We know that beginning at conception new cells are created and compounded. Thus, life begins at conception.

The idea that children in the womb are not viable is also a terrible argument. By viable I mean that they could live without help from the womb. In that case, yes, unbirthed babies are not viable. But then again, neither are birthed babies. Leave any baby alone without supervision for a few days and it will starve to death (or freeze, etc). A two year old cannot take care of itself. It is certainly not "viable". Beyond the spectrum of babies, some severely disabled people are not "viable". Some mentally and physically handicapped people are unable to feed themselves, clothe themselves, or find shelter. Without outside help, these disabled people would certainly die quickly. Yet, do we consider these people to not be alive because they are not "viable".

Anyway you look at it, abortion is cruel, immoral, and disgusting. And anyone who supports killing babies should be ashamed and change their ways. Just 150 years ago slavery was widely accepted as a normal practice. Most in the South enjoyed the use of it and many in the North didn't think it was their place to stop the practice. Yet looking back on it, we would be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't think slavery was despicable. Hopefully it won't take 150 years and hundreds of millions of babies to come to the same conclusion about abortion.

An Audacious Take on Barack Obama

It’s difficult to sit back and listen to Big Media laud Barack Obama for his campaign of “change”. If an alien from outer space turned on a TV today, it could legitimately come to the conclusion that Obama is an American messiah. Few critiques of Senator Obama can be heard or seen on major “news” networks or national newspapers. He is promoted by Oprah and others as an “agent of change;” a fresh perspective for Washington. As many accolades as he receives, you might assume he really can change the way Washington runs. Then again, if you look at his record and his positions, you might see that he is the same as every other Democratic candidate in recent history.
Obama’s views are not new. They are not fresh. They are not Washington-changers. And they are surely not views that will facilitate bipartisanship between 1600 Pennsylvania and democrats and republicans on Capitol Hill.
Here’s a quick list of Obama’s views, see if you think these are issues republicans will work with after bipartisan talks. He supports socialized health care (which will cost trillions to overhaul the current system and get everyone covered), he supports killing innocent unborn babies (liberals call this aborting a “pregnancy”), he will lower taxes on the middle class and then raise taxes on the wealthy (Robin Hood was a good movie, but that doesn’t work in actual government), he wants to increase the role of FDR’s outdated New Deal programs, he wants to raise the minimum wage (subsequently raising unemployment), he is pro-Big Labor, he’s anti-corporations, and he has voted to make it easier for individuals to file for bankruptcy.
Honestly, is that a list of stances that would facilitate success in bipartisan talks? Obama is not going to change the face of Washington. When we get through all the political muck, it is absolutely obvious that Obama is only going to further the strife between the two parties. He is certainly no messiah.

NewsBusted

The Ever-Uniting Topic of Global Warming

What a great way to end my semester in International Relations. We talked about global warming and the Kyoto Protocol, which thankfully the US has not signed. So, as my second installment of correcting poor political positions, I will write on the topic of environmentalism and the role it should play in government. The fact is, regardless of what CNN and NBC and CBS and Al Gore might tell you is that global warming is a debatable theory. Yes, ice is melting off of Antarctica ... in one isolated area! What pro-global warming activists won't tell you, or might not even know, is that much of Antarctica is actually GAINING ice. It's not like the entire continent is about to melt. Also, in an Inconvenient Truth by the NOBEL PRIZE winner Al Gore (are you kidding me?) he quotes a study saying that a valley of, I believe, California is going to be under water in the future. However, he fails to say that the study says that there is an equally probable chance that that valley could be a desert at that same time in the future. Thus, my point is that you can't trust these pro-global warming activists-->they will never give you the full truth. Also, the founder of THE WEATHER CHANNEL, John Coleman published a blog for ICECAP (http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/comments_about_global_warming/) saying: "It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus." Need I say more? I'm not sure about you, but I'm going to trust John Coleman over Al Gore. Coleman has no stake in whether global warming is occurring, Al Gore has a nice chunk of change invested in this idea. I'd urge any of you who are still avid proponents of global warming to check into some more conservative sources than CNN and the national news outlets. Get a fair and balanced view. Finally, I'd just like to say America has bigger things to worry about than this issue. Because it is such an unproven idea, the federal government needs to be worrying about a war, economy, healthcare, national debt, etc. Those are the things the government should worry about. It shouldn't sign the Kyoto Protocol which costs America billions and billions of dollars each year and only makes 36 countries make significant changes. It is an unfair resolution. The point I'd like to leave with you is that whatever environmental issues are serious, those are up to you and me individually. Recycle when you can. Use fluorescent lights. Don't buy gas-guzzling vehicles. Be green individually. Don't complain that the government doesn't have a comprehensive "green" policy. Clean the world up individually.

Political Cheap Shots in Good Movies

One of my favorite movies is V for Vendetta. The plot is compelling. The score is great. The theme resonates with viewers. The acting is above average. It's based in London (I love movies set in England). The writing is spectacular. Everything about it makes it a fantastic movie that I would recommend to any movie fan. However, this makes it all the more frustrating that it is smeared throughout with political jabs at President Bush and conservative values. It takes only the tiniest of brains to realize that Adam Sutler, the dictator, is supposed to be an exaggerated Bush and his government is the result of what could happen if we give him too much power because we are afraid of the outside world. His logo is even somewhat similar to a swastika. It's frightening to think the movie might be comparing Bush to Hitler. One ironic bit in the movie is that there is a national television station (the only viewable station for citizens) that resembles CNN, but it is portrayed as propaganda for the conservative party. Funny, though, that CNN is JUST THE OPPOSITE in real life. It is the station one would turn to if they only want to hear one side of an issue. Another anti-conservative theme is that the dictator has all homosexuals taken from their homes and put into one of Creedy's black bags (which means they will eventually die. This is what happens to all of those who revolt against the dictator.) The hero of the movie, because she inspired V, is a lesbian who was black-bagged for being homosexual. I'm not saying we should throw homosexuals in prison, but it seems like this movie is trying to say that Bush's anti-gay-marriage policy will lead to killing gays because it is not tolerant. The problem is that liberals like to say being tolerant means that you have to agree with them. That's actually an intolerant idea. Real tolerance is allowing someone to have a differing view from yourself and agreeing to disagree. Not necessarily agreeing. All in all, this is a great movie in a theatrical sense. I just hope that as you watch it you can filter out the repeated political potshots.

Chavez's Proposal Fails

Big news out of South America. Hugo Chavez's addendum to Venezuela's 1999 constitution did NOT pass due to a 51-49 vote by the people. One of the possible amendments was that the president would be able to be re-elected an infinitely. There would be no two-term limit. Hopefully this result is an accurate view of how Venezuelans feel about the socialist leader Chavez. This guy is in the loon clique along with Castro, Ahmadinejad, and bin Laden. Thankfully he will not be an infinite dictator like Castro. We already have the problem of crazy leaders in four different regions of the world at the moment. It is comforting that at least one of these four leaders will be out of power in four years.

BCS needs to be ammended or eliminated

Missouri beats Illinois in St. Louis. Missouri beats Kansas in Kansas City (with a 60/40 fan split in favor of KU). Missouri is ranked higher in BCS than the Jayhawks and Illini. Kansas goes to Orange Bowl. Illinois goes to Rose Bowl. Missouri? The Tigers get the Cotton Bowl. This doesn't make sense at all. Let the only BCS bowl be the championship game if this kind of result happens. BCS is only here for a 1/2 matchup. That's why it was instituted. To have rules governing four other bowls is silly. It only makes for unnecessary controversy. Or college football could go to a playoff system. Each BCS conference gets one team in the bracket. Top two ranked teams get a bye. Fight for the championship. If you can't win your conference, you don't deserve a shot at the National Title. But ALL conference champs should get a shot. The only hitch in this argument is what to do with a Hawai'i or Boise State. Possibly then, any non-BCS conference champion that is ranked higher than the lowest of BCS conference champions gets into the playoff. If this causes the bracket to be uneven, one at-large bid will be given to the highest ranked team not currently in the playoff. Wow, that sounds WAY more fair than the current BCS system.