4086

Go play Anachronox. That’s where I picked it up.

4087

Yes, in the episode about the Chinese musician who wanted to defect, I believe.

Edit: close.

4088

That’s the one, but that is that one about Chinese Musicians? I thought that the Musician episode was about North Korean defector?

4089

No, I was wrong. Got confused.

4090

Thats okay. The show is almost 2 decades old and many of us still wish it was a reality.

Also, wasn’t Tom in an episode of West Wing? Can I be jealous about that?

4091

If you don’t care what happens to a child after it’s born, then why should I care what happens to it before it’s born? It’s not my responsibility.

4092

This seems like a contradiction. If illegal abortions are known to be dangerous, then they will contain an intrinsic deterrence unlike the Prohibition. This would match the positive correlation between illegality and fertility rate observable in Ireland and Poland, among others.

4093

Err… Abortion isn’t illegal in Germany, despite being technically illegal under their Constitution.
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/ab-frgermany.html

They had like 100k abortions least year.

4094

What do you think is the difference between “illegal” and “technically illegal”? It’s illegal, but there is no punishment under certain conditions.

4095

Hopefully none of the dead were future Einsteins. 😢

4096

Have you honestly not considered how this directly contradicts your abortion views in practice?

Here, you are admitting that you don’t actually care about the well-being of any of those people. They, to quote you, “aren’t your responsibility”.

And that’s fine. A coherent view could be built up that. Of course, as a libertarian, I can admit that pragmatic considerations make your view fairly naive when implemented in practice. The reality is that taking care of other people ends up saving money overall, since you are going to end up paying one way or the other, either for social assistance or prisons… But that’s neither here nor there.

But you are going a step further beyond naivete, into incoherence and contradiction. You are saying that those people aren’t your responsibility, but also you are saying that a cluster of cells must be allowed to develop into a full human, and that someone (but clearly not you) must then take on the costs of caring for that person.

And in reality, doing so will clearly result in a degraded quality of life for all involved. The parents (generally, just the mother in this case) will have their life derailed. The child will live in poverty. Ultimately, you will end up paying for it anyway, as it contributes to crime that you will need to address.

And the end result isn’t even that you will have more people… Because the chances are that even after an early term abortion, that woman probably would have had a child anyway… They just would have done it later in life, when ready for it, and everyone’s lives would have been better.

There’s no coherent view that places value on a cluster of cells, while placing none on actual human welfare. If you care about the sanctity of life because you are a Christian, that’s fine. But then you need to actually embrace the teachings of Christ.

Matthew 25
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

John 4:20
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

If you call yourself a Christian, in order to defend the sanctity of a cluster of cells, then you can’t say, “They’re not my responsibility.”

They ARE your responsibility. The welfare of all men is the responsibility of every Christian. And God himself told you this.

4097

At least some of them were probably Hitlers, so it’s a wash.

4098

I think you are using the fake ‘libtard’ version of the bible. I prefer rural, white, meth-addled jesus.

Note that this is sarcasm. Christians who actually follow the teaching of Christ are few and far between in my experience, and are generally wonderful people. Like this guy: https://www.npr.org/books/titles/563737535/barking-to-the-choir-the-power-of-radical-kinship

4099

So, illegal but not enforced, doctors aren’t losing medical licenses nor are women punished if done within the first trimester, do I have it right? This essentially makes the law a dead letter. I lived in (West) Germany in the late 70’s/mid-80’s for about a year and a half all told, and I knew that abortions were performed, and that some were against them, but it was nowhere near the issue there as it is here.* I’m personally not crazy about late term abortions, but the vast majority happen within the first trimester or soon after, as I understand it. I’m all for measures that keep unwanted pregnancies from happening in the first place like easy and inexpensive/free access to various birth control methods.

* The cynic in me makes me believe that Roe won’t be entirely overturned because it’s way too useful as a wedge issue.

4100

It’s very unlikely that RvW gets overturned, despite what the extreme partisans say.

Even if it were, it wouldn’t make abortions illegal.

4101

Yes, it would let states make them illegal within their borders. Although I wonder how crazy they would get in terms of trying to punish women who crossed state lines to get abortions (not rich daughters of well-connected families, you understand, God forbid).

BTW, re: the idea that there’s one law for the rich and another for the poor: I read somewhere that (at least a certain brand of) Conservatism consists of having “some whom the law protects but does not bind, and others whom the law binds but does not protect.”

4102

And the states that do it will basically just create a drain on their funds, as the reality is that they do in fact have to pay for those kids.

As a political issue, abortion is useful for the GOP.

As a matter of practical application? Not so much. The faith that drives their vote disintegrates if there is even the smallest cost.

4103

Not only will it be a welfare drain on those states but it’ll have an exorbitant cost beyond that when companies / organizations punish them (rightly) to Hell and back. Got a taste of that here in NC with the bathroom bill – organizations canceling conference visits, pro-sports moving tournaments / all-star games, companies not relocating.

4104

And the Federal government will totally leave states that allow abortions alone, just like they do with states that legalize marijuana and create their own environmental regulations!

4105

I keep looking for the fuck the poor and losers Bible the Republicans use, but I’ve yet to find a pristine copy. If anyone finds one please let me know.

I believe a lot of Christians feel this way, and despite the GOP’s attempt to claim otherwise, they do not own Christianity nor speak for all Christians. I suspect a lot of people have engaged with Christians whom they don’t even know were Christians.

We’re not required to shove our faith down the throats of others as violently as possible.