Here’s Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, who apparently has some sort of direct line to God, talking about abortion and rape at a debate earlier tonight:
I just struggled with it myself for a long time but I came to realize: Life is that gift from God that I think even if life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.
Mourdock has now put out a statement trying to sort of retract what he said, and a spokeswoman for Romney, who has endorsed Mourdock, has distanced the presidential contender from Mourdock’s remarks. See Politico for more details.
Not that Mary was given a whole lot of say in the matter …
I can’t think of Yahweh without thinking of the Great God Om now. All praise to Pratchett!
I’m not religious; but it seems to me a lot of religious people really don’t think much of their God.
And again with the Pratchett. Which book was it where he was going on about how people end up with the gods they deserve? Angry people have angry gods, gentle people have gentle gods…and American fundamentalists have a good who appears to be a sociopath.
Or a god, even. Definitely not a good. God may work in mysterious ways, but “I wanted that lady to have a baby so I decided I’d have someone rape her to impregnate her” isn’t so much “mysterious” as “WTF is wrong with you?”.
I think that anyone who’s seriously convinced that a) abortion is murder, and b) preventing murder is more important than bodily integrity (you gotta agree with b if you’re gonna ban abortion), should seriously promote a policy with forced sterilisation of all boys at a young age (say, thirteen or something, before most get sexually active). Everyone could donate sperm before the sterilisation, and then all planned pregnancies could happen through insemination. (The reason for boys rather than girls getting sterilised would be that it’s really tricky to get a sterilised woman pregnant.)
I mean, that would pretty much put an end to abortions! Something we know that simply banning abortions doesn’t.
(Note to all trolls: I don’t belong to the group who think abortion is murder and more important than bodily integrity, and I don’t think we should do this.)
@Ozymandias
I agree with you. If God had intended me to spawn, I would not be tokophobic, the sound of babies and small children crying would not cause me extreme pain (I did once scream at a small child who screamed in a shopping centre because I was having a really, really bad day*; apparently the child looked terrified and ran off), and I would not have the nurturing instinct of a laundry basket.
I am amenable to the idea of robot children with a series of upgradable chassis. You can turn them off if they get too annoying.
* Yay anxiety, yay recent breakup! I’m ok now though. 🙂
I can’t recall, but it sounds like it might be either Small Gods or Monstrous Regiment.
I’ve mentioned that the literalist, OT-heavy God is a psychopath when arguing with fundies. Didn’t get me anywhere, of course. 😉
@CWS that’s why evolution invented kittehs, so the rest of us wouldn’t need to go through pregnancy and childbirth. I’ve always said I would have children if it would be a cute litter of fur babies. 🙂
@Kiwi Girl
I’ve often thought I’d be more amenable to infants if they were fluffy. Small, bald and loud just makes me want to hide.
@Kiwi Girl
Kitties and puppies are adorable. 😀 And less likely to act like me as a teenager (I was an ANGSTY TERROR).
@thenatfantastic
I think the worst is when you get parents who have no idea that bedtime is not an appropriate public dinnertime, or think that kids don’t need entertainment at restaurants. I’ve been tempted to go up to tables and donate all my writing paper and pens just so I can have dinner in peace…
Also, you forgot stinky. Small, bald, loud, and stinky.
@CWS
I’ve actually done that. I used to keep paper and felt tips behind the bar when I worked in a pub for that exact purpose. It’s a weird thing to get into though, because I don’t want to sound like I’m advocating that people (specifically women, since statistically they do most of the childcare) shouldn’t go out in public once they’ve had children. Children can be unpredictable little bastards at the best of times, and there’s nothing their parents can do about it. My youngest sister, TinyFantastic is 8, and because she’s so much younger than the rest of us, she’s been brought up in mainly adult environments. I don’t have a problem taking her to ‘grown-up’ places at ‘grown-up’ times, because I know she’ll be entertained perfectly well by having a conversation with me or our sister or mum. But she is a wee oddity, and I wouldn’t take my niece (who is the same age as Tiny) to the same places, because she’s an attention-seeking little nightmare.
I think the problem is when you get more than one child, and for the parents it’s so novel to be out that they start letting the children entertain themselves so that they can actually have a conversation, and it’s easy to forget that when children entertain themselves, it will get VERY LOUD. So, like, don’t never take your children out, but do bring books/felt pens and a stern glare along with you.
Kiwigirl – yeah, I’ve always said the only way I’d have children is if they were kittens. Can’t abide human babies/toddlers/children generally but kittens? Yes please! 🙂
@thenatfantastic
I have a cousin (5) who is adorable and very well-behaved in restaurants and pubs. Some of that was her being good, but some of it was preparation: not taking her out too late, providing quiet toys for her to play with etc.
I mean, some days I feel like “BAN CHILDREN FROM PUBLIC FOREVER”, generally in the presence of loud, painful children, but then I realise I am being unreasonable.
And this is a very good reason for me to not have kids.
Oh god this. One group (presumably multiple families), six kids under the age of 10, all bored, all overtired, all screaming and crying and banging on the table. This was around 8:30pm. I had to wear headphones and listen to loud rock music all the way through my mother’s birthday dinner. I value time with my family greatly. I was not happy.
But, but, but… what if you don’t want kids and are asthma triggered by kitties and doggies? ;_;
Get a pet turtle. Turtles = awesome. Or maybe a snake?
Oh sure you struggled with it for a long time, being someone who can never get pregnant. Fuck you.
I would suggest an adorable reptile (lizards!) or I know some fur problems are only triggered by some types of fur, so maybe get a pet with different fur? (I know very little about asthma specifically.)
I think that one of the problems is that as a parent you learn to tune out the madness to a degree. Sometimes it’s a necessity for the sake of one’s own sanity, especially in larger families when the sound of little shrill voices is always present. However as parents we may forget from time to time that other people haven’t had the luxury of adapting coping mechanisms for the horrible noise children can produce. Luckily, I’ve only had a few bad days with my kids in public. Most of the time, my little ones are well behaved and quiet when we go out.
Cassandra: Point of information, the only fibers you can’t mix are linen and wool. Cotton/poly, or Cotton/wool, or Acrylic/wool, etc., ad infinitumperfectly kosher.
His retraction is even worse.
“God creates life, and that was my point,” Mourdock said in the statement. “God does not want rape, and by no means was I suggesting that He does. Rape is a horrible thing, and for anyone to twist my words otherwise is absurd and sick.”
Bud, when you say that a pregnancy conceived through rape is God’s will, then by logical extension you are saying that the rape itself was God’s will. No word twisting required, douchecanoe.
I deeply wish these jackholes would shut up completely on the topics of rape and abortion. You have a dick? You get no say.
I second the vote for snake! I want (but don’t yet have) kids, and i’m allergic to fur, so in the meantime i got a sweet little hognose who has become the light of my life.
BoyFantastic is allergic to cats, so I’m not allowed kitties, but we are still thinking about getting rat-babies. Unfortunately none of our local friends could look after them properly if we both went away for a few days so that’s something we need to find a solution to first 🙁