God the Abortionist, Plus Minutiae

I don't resent a lot of things, but I do resent being compelled to think about stupid things. 

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade today. An inevitable result, yet still pretty shocking.

Abolish the filibuster today and codify Roe vs Wade tonight. Simple, done, they've had months to prepare. Actually they've had 50 years to prepare. Government inaction is not the scapegoat. I'll never relinquish the belief that I share with the founders of the country that the people are the government. "Government inaction" is our inaction. We have nobody but ourselves to blame. And nobody but ourselves to credit when we set things right.

Anyone who agrees on the common ground that we are a country where there should be legal abortions for rape victims, is against the Supreme Court ruling. I'm guessing that's 80-90% of us. I'm also guessing it's 100% of the people in that position, or love somebody in that position. Once that gray area is accepted as black and white, we can weigh others on their merit. So let's finally get this done.

For what it's worth, here's a smattering of old thoughts and quotes on abortion.

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Testimony from someone on the Planned Parenthood website:

"When we make this illegal, we are just talking about making it unsafe. Because I would have done anything to get an abortion. I would have gone to a back alley if I had needed to. I believe it is my obligation as a mother to do whatever I can to make a terrible situation [for my children] better. I did that for my daughter. I resent it very much when politicians try to force me to carry a very sick baby to term and watch her die a slow and tortured death just because it fits their – and not my – religious sensibilities."

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All these new laws restricting abortion, even though it's legal...the mandatory fetus funerals, the heartbeat law... they've got me thinking. I'm fine with the government punishing women for getting abortions, but only after God gets the same punishment for all the miscarriages he had the power to stop.

December 23, 2016

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"I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."

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While I'm solving problems, here's another. Make abortions illegal, but with the only consequence that you have to accept God's punishment after you die. And if he doesn't exist, no punishment. Sorted. Now what else?

September 26, 2017

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I understand a lot of the nuance surrounding the abortion debate, but there's one thing that's never made sense to me. Before a fetus even has brainwaves and the ability to feel pain, it seems as equally non-existent as the infinite humans that were never even conceived. I don't see how this is even up for debate. To take it a step further, if the soul is the issue, and God cares about the souls of beings that don't even know they exist, why would he sit idly by with the power to prevent miscarriages of the children who are wanted and refuse to save them?

So to sum up- a being that has never been aware of its existence is no being at all, and if God cares about fetuses becoming people he doesn't act like it and we have no reason to believe it's true.

May 18, 2019

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I forget the precise details, but I once got somebody who strongly believes in abortion to except as a starting point, abortions being legal if they take place before the fetus can feel pain or even before it had brain waves. He agreed without realizing that he was all of a sudden in favor of something like 95% of all abortions, then quickly backtracked.

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George Carlin

Conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no daycare, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.

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Edward Abbey- "Abolition of a woman's right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsory maternity: a form of rape by the State."

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Louis CK's absolutely genius intro to his Netflix special, 2017:

Hello. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Um… – So, you know, I think abortion is, um... I… Here’s what I think. I… Here’s what I think. Here’s what I… This is what I think. Here’s what I think. I… I think you should not get an abortion unless you need one. In which case… In which case, you’d better get one. I mean, seriously. If you need an abortion, you’d better get one. Don’t fuck around. And hurry. Not getting an abortion that you need is like not taking a shit. That’s how bad that is. It’s like not taking a shit. That’s what I think. I think abortion is exactly like taking a shit. I think it is 100% the exact same thing as taking a shit. Or it isn’t. It is, or it isn’t. It’s either taking a shit, or it’s killing a baby. It’s only one of those two things. It’s no other things. If you didn’t like hearing it’s like taking a shit, you think it’s killing a baby. That’s the only other one you get to have. Which means you should be holding a sign in front of the place. People hate abortion protesters. They’re so shrill and awful. They think babies are being murdered. What are they supposed to be like? “Uh, that’s not cool.” I don’t wanna be a dick about it, though. I don’t want to ruin their day as they murder several babies all the time. I don’t think it’s killing a baby. I don’t. I mean, it is, it’s a little bit… It’s a little bit killing a baby. It’s a little bit… It’s 100% killing a baby. It’s totally killing a whole baby. But I think that women should be allowed to kill babies. That’s what I think. They should be allowed to kill babies. Yeah. Whoo! We get to kill babies! Let’s do some shots and kill some babies. I killed like four babies last night. It was fucking retarded. It has to be one or the other. You know, like, when people say, abortion should be legal, safe and rare. Why rare if it should be legal? If it should be legal, it’s… [blows raspberry] It’s shitting. If it should be rare, it’s murdering babies. But, again, women should be allowed because… Two reasons I think women should be allowed to kill babies. Number one, I don’t think life is that important. It’s just not. It is not. People get too excited… about life. “Oh, life.” Fuck you. It’s not that… Make a list of every shitty thing ever, that’s in life. Life is okay. I like life. I like it. I don’t need it. I’d be fine without it. I like life, though. I do. You know how much I like life? I have never killed myself. – That’s how much I like it. That’s exactly how much I like it, with a razor-thin margin. I like it precisely enough to not kill myself. It’s an option, though. It’s totally an option. I mean, I’m 49. I have two kids. I’ve flipped through the brochure a few times. I’ve thought of killing myself just to win an argument. Not supposed to talk about suicide, even to your shrink. You ever go to a shrink and they’re like, “Have you had thoughts… of suicide?” And you’re like, “No, because if I say yes, you’ll press a button”, and folks will run in and hold me… “Hold him down!” You should talk about it. The whole world is just made of people who didn’t kill themselves today. That’s who’s here. It’s all of us that went, “Okay, fuck it, keep doing it.” It’s an interesting thing about life. Life can get very difficult, very sad, very upsetting. But you don’t have to do it. You don’t have to do it. You don’t have to do anything. You never have to do anything because you can kill yourself. If they send you a letter from Motor Vehicles, come in and: “No, I don’t. I’ll kill myself.” You can do that. You can do that once. But you can do it. It’s interesting because even when life gets bad, people choose it over nothing. Even the worst versions of life, even a shitty, shitty life, is worth living, apparently. ‘Cause folks are living the fuck out of them. Have you ever seen somebody, you’re like, “He should kill himself. Why did he not… that dude…” Ever been driving and you look in the next car, you’re like, “Ugh, shit.” I wish I hadn’t looked in that car. That was difficult to glance at… “let alone being it.” Just a guy in a… In a tan car. Nobody chooses tan. Nobody picks tan for their car. They give you tan. “Is that mine?” “Yeah, it’s yours, fucking loser. Made it tan.” They shouldn’t even make tan cars. It’s mean to make them. You look over, you see a guy in a tan car with dents all over it and a garbage bag for a window. [mimicking bag flapping] What is holding up his suicide? What is delaying it? What is keeping him from stopping being that? And what would it take? What would it take? What would it take? Both windows are garbage bags? Is that…? Seriously, do you know how much misery is involved in a garbage bag for a window? Do you know how many separate moments of shit misery? “They canceled my insurance. I broke my window. Duct tape.” [ripping noise] Here’s the truth. Running away will not solve your problems. That’s totally true. But killing yourself solves all your problems. It actually does. It even solves world’s problems. For you. “Hey, what about ISIS?” “Kill yourself. Then they’ll never get you.” Seriously, if everybody who’s afraid of ISIS kills themselves right now, then ISIS loses. Because they live in a world of people that don’t give a shit. “We’re gonna cut his head off!” “Yeah, okay.” “It’s not fun now.” I think the worst part of being beheaded… – If… The worst thing about being beheaded is that you look really dumb right after. That’s the worst part. They go like that, and you’re like: “Duh.” Just that fucking dopey… I don’t think they like beheading bald people ’cause they can’t do this… [mimicks holding up a head by the hair] That’s the best part. They got to go like this. [Mimicks holding a head.] It’s not as cool. So, just shave the top of your head, and you won’t have to worry about it. So, that’s the first reason. That’s the first reason I think women should be allowed to kill babies. ‘Cause life is not so important. The second reason is because that’s their job. Women have to decide who lives and dies. That’s because they’re the female of the species. In the reproductive arena, that’s what the female does. They are the selectors. They have to decide this. We give them this responsibility when we fuck them. We go, “Here, you decide what to do with this shit.” See you later. She has to figure out if you should have kids, if she should have them. That’s her job. Because women have judgment. They have judgment. Men don’t have judgment. Men have intent. Men just want to spray the world with their cum, just mist. “More of me.” [mimicking explosions] “More of me.” [continues mimicking explosion] It’s her job to go, “That’s enough of you, I think. No, that’s really enough.” I don’t think that face needs to repeat. I’ve seen your father, and it’s not getting better. She doesn’t realize this until after you fuck her. That’s actually when she really knows, is when you’re like, “Yeah!” And she’s like, “I’m not having this piece of shit’s baby.” And that’s why abortion is the last line of defense against shitty people in the species. So, we need them to abort every shitty baby. I mean, all animals do this. Animals do it late. They have the baby. Then they’re like, “You know what? It’s cold. I’m gonna eat this one.” But when is it okay? When should they be allowed? When it’s in their pussy. That whole time. It’s in her pussy. If there’s a dude in your pussy, you get to kill him. I think that’s pretty fundamental. You’re allowed to kill people if they’re in your house.

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"You are allowed to kill people if they are in your house." Wow.

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Sam Harris, Letter To a Christian Nation- “It has been estimated that 50 percent of all human conceptions end in spontaneous abortion, usually without a woman even realizing that she was pregnant. In fact, 20 percent of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage. There is an obvious truth here that cries out for acknowledgment: if God exists, He is the most prolific abortionist of all.”

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Would it be preferable for a fetus with no thoughts and the inability to feel pain to die or an adult? Obviously the fetus. What about a million fetuses or the adult? The million fetuses, no doubt.

A fetus is a potential person, not yet a person. Certainly the ability to think and feel is integral to being a person.

People can be cloned, the same as Dolly the sheep. It just hasn't happened yet that we know of. Therefore every skin cell is a potential human, the same as a fetus. We lose a million skin cells every time we take a shower. They were a million potential people, yet we don't shed a tear.

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Sixty-five years ago today, June 24, 1957, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roth v. United States, that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. What a bunch of assholes! Good thing that the times change.

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Changing gears...

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The government's UFO report gets released tomorrow. I'm not expecting any bombshells. And anyway, it seems vastly more likely that there are aliens, so I'd be more shocked if there weren't. 

Nevertheless, we could be alone... maybe every civilization that gains the power to destroy themselves makes use of that power pretty quickly. 

Strange that both options are mind-boggling. We either share the universe with other intelligent beings, or of the hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, we are alone.

June 24, 2021

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Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot- 

"There are 400 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Of this immense multitude, could it be that our humdrum Sun is the only one with an inhabited planet? Maybe. Maybe the origin of life or intelligence is exceedingly improbable. Or maybe civilizations arise all the time, but wipe themselves out as soon as they are able. 

"Or, here and there, peppered across space, orbiting other suns, maybe there are worlds something like our own, on which other beings gaze up and wonder as we do about who else lives in the dark. Could the Milky Way be rippling with life and intelligence—worlds calling out to worlds—while we on Earth are alive at the critical moment when we first decide to listen? Our species has discovered a way to communicate through the dark, to transcend immense distances. No means of communication is faster or cheaper or reaches out farther. It's called radio."

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"Our dreams are firsthand creations, rather than residues of waking life. We have the capacity for infinite creativity; at least while dreaming, we partake of the power of the Spirit, the infinite Godhead that creates the cosmos." -Jackie Gleason, who left us on this day in 1987

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Haha! Wow that's a zinger.

Phiankhi M.A. (on the Confederate flag)- "Irony is telling people to go back to their country, while flying the flag of a country that doesn't exist, in the country that defeated it.

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George Godwyn, June 24, 2020- "Five years ago, if someone had told me that in the year 2020 death cultists all over the country would be offering their lives at great public ceremonies of ritual human sacrifice in worship of Donald Trump, I would have told them a freshman film student from 1994 was on the phone and they wanted their satirical critique of late American capitalism back."

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From Skeptic Magazine

Top 10 myths of popular psychology

Myth #10: A Large Proportion of Criminals Successfully

Use the Insanity Defense

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The Ultimate Warrior- I LIVE FOR YOUR FRUSTRATION! COMBAT IS WHERE WE'LL BE!

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"Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Those who do study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it."

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I just enjoyed one of parenthood's lesser-known perks... foregoing the dispenser and tossing a whole pack of Pez in your mouth at once. What does that cost, like 8 cents? We don't do that enough.

June 24, 2018

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Existential Threat:

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Sharks have existed on Earth for 420 million years. That is longer than trees have existed.

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First some lunatic stole our trashcans. THEN that lunatic BROUGHT THEM BACK.

June 24, 2015

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Something's wrong with my brain... I just tried to write "wants," but I wrote "once." How does that happen???

June 24, 2015

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Remember Jesse's idea in Before Sunrise for a public access show about people simply living their lives? I believe that will be the between-the-lines premise of third film in the series which simply follows them around for a day, allowing us to soak in their daily interaction- but there's no camera in their world and they don't know we're watching.

June 24, 2011

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Strange how a boring baseball game in which neither team has any hits through 5 innings suddenly becomes an exciting baseball game, in which neither team has any hits through 5 innings!

June 24, 2011

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A sudden outbreak of St. John's Dance on this day in 1374 caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion. Imagine that you're living in the 1300's and something like that happened! All of my ancestors are from germany. I wonder if any were there.

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On this day in 1947, Kenneth Arnold coined the term "flying saucer." He was in a plane flying near Mount Rainier and described flying objects in the sky moving like a saucer skimming on water. It caught on and a couple weeks later people thought one of them crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.

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On this day in 1975, Eastern Air Lines Flight 66 encountered severe wind and crashed on final approach to New York's JFK Airport killing 113 of the 124 passengers on board, making it the deadliest U.S. plane crash at the time. This accident led to decades of research into the effects downburst and microburst phenomena on aircraft.

Every day since, about the same number die in car crashes.

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American short story writer, essayist, and journalist, Ambrose Bierce, was born on this day in 1842. He was author of The Devil's Dictionary and was somehow also the little drummer boy at the Battle of Shiloh. Here's some world-class advice:

"Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect — don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security; it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he shall prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be."

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Other notable birthdays- Jack Dempsey (1895), Al Molinaro (1919), Robert Reich (1946), Hope Sandoval (1966), Mindy Kaling (1979)

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Another notable deathday- Grover Cleveland (1908)

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Hey, I always wondered about the third guy in the black power Olympic picture. Now I know. He was the number two runner in the world, but Australia blacklisted him from any future olympics, and sent nobody in 1972. "What, because he didn't do the white power salute in response?" That guy got a bad deal.

https://www.cracked.com/article_20513_6-images-that-ruined-lives-people-they-made-famous.html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

June 24, 2014

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Jesus... Petraeus's "red flag" when under consideration by Trump for Secretary of State was that he was OPPOSED to torture.

http://esqr.co/9biEnIS

June 24, 2019

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French director, Claude Chabrol, was born on this day in 1930. 

"Stupidity is infinitely more fascinating that intelligence. Intelligence has its limits while stupidity has none."

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Bierce again- "Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."

And more Bierce- "Egotist, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me."

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I was 19 when Conan O'Brien took over for David Letterman and I was so ready to hate him, but I loved him from the first second.

Late Night began with him taking a cheery walk into work on his first day. Everybody in the community reminded him how much pressure was on him. He got to his dressing room, put on his makeup, stepped on a chair, put a noose around his neck, and then was interrupted by being called to the stage. Perfect.

Somehow now I'm 47 and tonight is his last episode on late night TV. Job well done!

https://youtu.be/_q471WB5Tgw

June 24, 2021

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Hey Maurice Gatto, our tarantula shed its skin.

June 24, 2019

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Werner Herzog- "Those who read own the world, and those who watch television lose it.

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Epictetus- "You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be."

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Albert Einstein- "Adversity introduces a man to himself."

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Jung- "People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."

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Adam Smith- "Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all."

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Marcus Aurelius- "The nearer a man comes to a calm mind, the closer he is to strength."

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H.L. Mencken- "It is now quite lawful for a Catholic woman to avoid pregnancy by a resort to mathematics, though she is still forbidden to resort to physics or chemistry."