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Gordon1 commented on the blog post NC: Marriage amendment sponsor State Sen. James Forrester passes away
I am a lifelong atheist, but things like this make me wonder if I might have been mistaken all these years.
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Gordon1 commented on the blog post Mississippi womb controllers: kiss your birth control goodbye as ‘personhood’ amendment vote looms
From a 1965 song by Phil Ochs. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Or plus c’est la même merde, as frequent commenter TechBear puts it.
And here’s to the laws of Mississippi
Congressmen will gather in a circus of delay
While the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
Unwed mothers should be sterilized, I’ve even heard them say
Yes, corruption can be classic in the Mississippi way
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of -
Gordon1 commented on the blog post Catholic Church is overstepping its bounds against marriage equality in Minnesota
Regarding onitgoes @51, Archbishop Nienstedt is an agent of a foreign government and should be required to register as one. I invite anybody who doesn’t think so to read the Foreign Agents Registration Act at
http://www.fara.gov/Influencing legislation is not a religious activity and should not be exempted under section 613(e).
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Gordon1 commented on the blog post Endless womb control: Mississippi’s personhood amendment
People hear the term “moment of conception” bandied about so much, they start thinking there really is such a thing. Here is a more biologically realistic take.
Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition, 2001, pg 8
“It needs to be emphasized that life is continuous, as is also human life, so the question “When does (human) life begin?” is meaningless in terms of ontogeny. Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a “moment”) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.”No doubt a few people reading this would start braying about the unique combination of genes being the sole criterion for “human being”, as if they had never heard of identical twins or chimeras. For a thinly disgused fictional jab at this kind of “thinking”, see my short story “Thumbs” at http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7355/full/475260a.html
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Gordon1 commented on the blog post Will the Catholic Church declare war on Obama over gay equality?
Back in ancient times (I was in high school), one Estelle Griswold challenged a Connecticut statute which forbade physicians to dispense, or even discuss, birth control. Connecticut had (and still has) a very large Catholic population, so naturally the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford got involved. Someone started some nasty rumors that the Archdiocese was trying to impost its will on all citizens of Connecticut, regardless of whether they were Catholic. In response, the Archdiocese did everything in its considerable power to convince people the rumors were true.
If the Archdiocese had made any attempt at compromise, taking the position for example that physicians could dispense birth control only to married women, and the Church would deal with its own members privately, Ms. Griswold would have never gotten her day in court. Instead, the Archdiocese dug in, insisting to the bitter end that the secular government of Connecticut forbid access to birth control to all citizens regardless of church membership. The result was the U. S. Supreme court case Griswold v. Connecticut, which eight years later formed the basis for Roe v. Wade.
Some people just never learn.
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Gordon1 commented on the blog post Family Research Council prevented liberals’ pushing open homosexuality in the military. Really!
Is Tony Perkins delusional? Surely that is obvious to anyone who has read more than one or two of his missives. I’m not a psychologist, but I really wonder if these people understand that there is a difference between fabrication and reality.
