You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2013.
One of the cheap rhetorical tricks that forced birth advocates often use is the idea that somehow “Science” (ya know science, that vast shadowy monolithic structure) supports their crappy arguments and thus lends weight to their assault on women and their rights. One of the easiest tells illustrating the rhetorical, rather than scientific vein of this particular argument, is that idea that we have a definite grasp of when “life” begins. Unsurprisingly, the anti-choice position relies on a gross simplification of what the bio-medical position actually is on when life begins. The irony is very rich as fetus fetishists often assign the label of “anti-science” to pro-choice people arguing against them and their misguided campaign for life.
I’m not really a fan of arguing from authority (This introduction is a perspective from an evolutionary biologist, for the record.), but I swear, if see one more out of context reference to a embryology text during an argument, I will practice immediate defenestration of the offender in question.
This next quoted section is from Blazer S, Zimmer EZ (eds):The Embryo: Scientific Discovery and Medical Ethics. Basel, Karger, 2005, pp 1– 20 (ed. minor formatting changes for effect)
”
[…]
This chapter began with the central ethical question of ‘when does life begin?’ The evolutionary answer to this question makes it devoid of ethical
implications concerning the sojourn from conception to birth (although it has other, profound ethical implications). Instead, the evolutionary and
genetic arguments presented in this chapter indicate that a more meaningful ethical question is:
Where do we place ethical thresholds in the continual process of human
individuality?
Biology provides no clear defining event to answer this question because diploid human individuality arises gradually during the mitotic phase of our life cycle and not at fertilization. Perhaps there is no single ethical threshold in dealing with the mitotic continuum and the attendant gradual emergence
of functional genotypes and individual traits. Although modern biology does not provide an answer to the above question, knowing what the question should be and what it should not be is the critical first step in any debate. Thus, modern biology, and particularly evolutionary biology and genetics, can play an important role in the ethical debates concerning the passage from conception to birth.
[…]”
So let the record be set straight that science doesn’t not precisely know when “life” begins and that very possibly it is the wrong question to be asking.
You would think that god would have a fairly good grasp of equality, being final arbitrator and high mucky-muck an all that bally-ho. Apparently not, as it would seem that none of the major religious texts seem to think that men and women are (or should be) equal, and in fact, most advocate for women being in a subordinate position relative to men.
So the real question is that, if you happen to be female, why do you subscribe to a mindset that explicitly marks you as inferior class of people. People spend a lot of time trying to mask the fact that religion is a stinky shit sandwich. Certainly apologists can bleat about *interpretations* and what the words *actually* mean…
But really, no matter how much mayo you add, you’re still left with the steamy religious-turd-surprise of a shit sandwich that is undeniably, corrosively, wholeheartedly misogynistic to its very core.
Horizontal hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is fighting with coal mining for the title of worst possible method of resource extraction. Fracking ruins the environment and kills people. It is profitable at the moment though, so you can guess why it is so darned popular. Plus, in the US, people are desperate to feed their families and will take the dangerous jobs to make ends meet. Walter Brasch from Counterpunch writes about the consequences of fracking in his article titled “Life and Death in the Frack Zone”.
“José Lara just wanted a job.
A company working in the natural gas fields needed a man to power wash wastewater tanks.
Clean off the debris. Make them shining again.
And so José Lara became a power washer for the Rain for Rent Co.
“The chemicals, the smell was so bad. Once I got out, I couldn’t stop throwing up. I couldn’t even talk,” Lara said in his deposition, translated from Spanish.
The company that had hired him didn’t provide him a respirator or protective clothing. That’s not unusual in the natural gas fields.
José Lara did his job until he no longer could work.
At the age of 42, he died from pancreatic and liver cancer.”
For capitalism to work, a desperate exploitable class of people is needed. The fracking industry and exploitation were made for each other. But more on exploitation later, as the terribly toxic teat of fracking has much more to offer in the form of damage to human beings and the environment.
“Of the 750 chemicals that can be used in the fracking process, more than 650 of them are toxic or carcinogens, according to a report filed with the U.S. House of Representatives in April 2011. Several public health studies reveal that homeowners living near fracked wells show higher levels of acute illnesses than homeowners living outside the “Sacrifice Zone,” as the energy industry calls it.”
Here is a hint, when your industry’s nomenclature includes terminology like “Sacrifice Zone” its probably not a good industry. And what makes a bad industry worse? No unions. Unions are major drags on profitability, and thus unsurprisingly have little to no representation in the Fracking industry.
“The drivers, and most of the industry, are non-union or are hired as independent contractors with no benefits. The billion dollar corporations like it that way. It means there are no worker safety committees. No workplace regulations monitored by the workers. And if a worker complains about a safety or health violation, there’s no grievance procedure. Hire them fast. Fire them faster.
No matter how much propaganda the industry spills out about its safety record and how it cares about its workers, the reality is that working for a company that fracks the earth is about as risky as it gets for worker health and safety.”
But hey, its all okay, because the right class of people are getting richer and the right class of people are getting cancer and dying young.
Today’s disservice is a little rough on the language side, so consider yourself warned, as DarkMatter2525 explores the lovely RAA of who created god.
If you have not checked out Captain Awkward, I command you to do so now. CA is a great place to learn about the difficulties people encounter in life and how to deal with them/help others deal with them. From the Darth Vader is tricksy Hobbit thread I gleaned this quote:
“One of the most heartbreaking truths is that feeling love, hearing all the words you’ve ever wanted to hear someone say to you about love, having the most intense sexual chemistry, being able to stay up all night and have long, deep, intense conversations about the things in your heart do not necessarily mean that you can build a happy life with someone. They do not necessarily guarantee that the person who generates all those feelings will be kind to you and treat you as you deserve. ”
Ouch. But then again, who said reality was all fun and games?
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
Your opinions…