Roe to Nowhere

Originally I had been slotted to speak at Joerg Haider's funeral today, but being the impulsive scamp that I am, I blew it off to check out the latest flummery from The Corner.

These people never quit with their obsession, and now it comes full circle, in imputing a blasé, cavalier attitude about abortion to Obama -- or indeed, any pro-choice person. This sort of characterization is necessary; were they to acknowledge that it's an inherently difficult decision and that people ought at least have the expectation to be left the fuck alone to make their own life decisions, they'd be done.

Obama's position is roughly the same as Bill Clinton's, which was roughly the same as Poppy Bush's, which is likely not far different from Junior Bush's, the latter's hortatory rhetoric notwithstanding. So Whelan's messy little discursion is really just a cheap excuse to lob ridiculous scuds at Obama's "character". It's the usual base-shoring exercise. Good luck with that.

It's understandable that the Cornerites and their audience would be slow on the uptake, but this country is in deep financial shit, and no longer has the luxury of veiled racism or false pieties. People don't want to talk about Bristol Palin any more than they want to talk about Joanne Goldwater, if they've got any sense. Which explains the self-selecting nonsense emanating from the bowels of what passes for "conservatism" these days.

As it stands though, perhaps Whelan and his ilk should just step up and take their constant whinging to the logical outcome: if abortion is in fact murder, then one assumes they suggest that both the doctor and the patient -- who is, let's recall, complicit in making this decision -- be prosecuted for murder. Perhaps lesser charges for the willful, if emotionally fraught, removal of a life, such as negligent homicide or a gradiated manslaughter rap. Why, a whole new Law & Order franchise could open up, with wisecracking cops pursuing back-alley butchers and frightened college girls with equal gusto.