I’m blogging about Politics, Religion, and Abortion today. If the topics make you queasy, come back tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have another recipe.

I have no patience for extremists of any stripe. Period. If you can only see the world in terms of black and white, “right” and “wrong”, you have no place in my personal universe. Please don’t cry.

The cold-blooded murder of Dr. George Tiller in church last Sunday in Kansas, at the hands of a so-called “Christian“, pushed me over the edge. Dr. Tiller, in case you hadn’t heard, was one of like 3 doctors in the country who would perform late-term (last trimester) abortions. I have no children and I’ve never had an abortion, so why should I care? Because I’m a woman. Because I’m an American.

Because abortion is legal in this country and unless you’re a pregnant woman, it’s none of anyone’s business. Any woman who sought Dr. Tiller’s help was already in desperate straits, and should not have been subjected to the terrorist methods of abortion opponents. You have no right to interfere in private medical decisions between a woman and her doctor. You have no right to terrorize medical people in the performance of their obligations to their patients. You don’t know the inner turmoil of a woman in that position. You don’t know her mind, or her medical condition. And by God, you have no right to kill a man because you don’t like his profession and call it “God’s Will”.

The hypocrisy in this is a stench not to be tolerated. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If men got pregnant and had to carry children in their bodies for 9 months, this wouldn’t be an issue. Religions run by men have never been friends to women. Women are either subjugated and treated like chattel, or raised on pedestals so high the air is too thin to breathe. In either case, women are considered incapable of making their own decisions.

It is historical fact that the Christian New Testament was assembled by the pagan Emperor Constantine in 325 CE and the “Council of Nicea” in an effort to keep the burgeoning faithful from killing each other over conflicting dogma and destabilizing the empire. Many texts and “gospels” written by other apostles and leaders of different sects were tossed out and destroyed as “divisive”. This was when the concepts of Jesus as “God” and Mary as “Virgin Mother of God” were canonized. By a bunch of guys sitting around a table, half of whom didn’t believe it themselves. You base your faith and “moral authority” on this.

You say that you’re protecting life. I’m sorry, that should be Life, with a capital L. Really? I have never met a “Right to Lifer” that wasn’t also in favor of the death penalty. So you take another life as retribution? That’s when you choose the Old Testament “eye for an eye” thing, right? I do not respect your position, and can not until you pick one. Either all Life is sacred, or it isn’t. Guess what? You don’t get to choose. We are a nation of laws. You don’t like the law? Protest. Not at women’s health centers, but at your legislators’ doors.

I’ll repeat myself yet again: If every single one of you who believes that you are saving children’s lives by this kind of emotional and physical violence commits to adopting each and every one of the babies you “save” – regardless of color, health issues, mental and physical deformities, and handicaps, I might change my mind. But you won’t.

You people are a dichotomy of hypocrisy: Government should stay out of our business, but legislate morality. Support our Troops, but bully mourners at their funerals declaring their deaths are punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality. Get out of our lives, but monitor our bedrooms.

No one wants an abortion. It is a painful and intensely personal decision. But it’s not your decision to make. Once you threaten, harass, bomb and kill law-abiding fellow citizens – and encourage others to do so – you’ve lost the “moral high ground”. You are nothing more than religious terrorists, seeking to impose your beliefs and will on the rest of us. You are our very own Al Qaeda.

This is my favorite type of méme – I totally stole this from Dianne at Dianne Moving On with a couple of modifications (I hate redundancy – remember the book meme?). I wasn’t even tagged with it, or anything. Although, I may tag you, so pay attention!

Link to the person you got this from (see above)
Bold the things you’ve done
Italicize the things you’d like to do
Underline the things you wouldn’t do on a dare

1. started your own blog
2. slept under the stars
3. played in a band
4. visited Hawaii – I don’t think a 2-hour layover at Honolulu Airport counts
5. watched a meteor shower
6. given more than you can afford to charity
7. been to Disneyworld
8. climbed a mountain
9. held a praying mantis
10. sang a solo
11. bungee jumped
12. visited Paris
13. watched a lightning storm at sea
14. taught yourself an art from scratch
15. adopted a child
16. had food poisoning
17. walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. grown your own vegetables
19. experienced a natural disaster (hurricane, tornado, etc.)
20. slept on an overnight train
21. had a pillow fight
22. hitch hiked
23. taken a sick day when you’re not ill – be honest!
24. built a snow fort
25. held a lamb
26. gone skinny dipping
27. run a marathon
28. ridden a gondola in Venice
29. seen a total eclipse
30. watched a sunrise or sunset
31. hit a home run
32. been on a cruise
33. seen Niagara Falls in person
34. visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. seen an Amish community
36. taught yourself a new language
37. had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. seen the leaning tower of Pisa in person
39. gone rock climbing
40. flown in a hot-air balloon
41. sung karaoke
42. seen Old Faithful Geyser erupt
43. bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. visited Africa
45. walked on a beach by moonlight
46. been transported in an ambulance
47. had your portrait painted – does a caricature count?
48. gone deep sea fishing
49. seen Mount Rushmore
50. been to the top of the Washington Monument
51. gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. kissed in the rain
53. played in the mud
54. gone to a drive-in theater
55. been in a movie
56. visited the Great Wall of China
57. started a business
58. taken a martial arts class
59. visited Russia
60. served at a soup kitchen
61. sold Girl Scout cookies – I was never a Girl Scout, but I have 3 nieces
62. gone whale watching – you know, I’d like to, but I hear that it’s not very good for the whales
63. received flowers for no reason
64. donated blood
65. gone sky diving – I used to think I’d like to do this, until I discovered that I’m afraid of heights.
66. baked your own bread
67. bounced a check
68. flown in a helicopter
69. saved a favorite childhood toy
70. visited the Lincoln memorial
71. eaten caviar – ewww.
72. pieced a quilt
73. stood in Times Square
74. visited the Everglades
75. been fired from a job
76. seen the changing of the guard in London
77. broken a bone
78. been on a speeding motorcycle
79. seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. published a book
81. seen Michelangelo’s David in person
82. bought a brand new car
83. walked in Jerusalem
84. had your picture in the newspaper
85. read the entire Bible (Old and New Testaments)
86. visited the White House
87. killed and prepared an animal for eating – I’m sorry, I just couldn’t kill and/or eat anything I’ve known personally, no matter how briefly.
88. had chickenpox
89. saved someone’s life
90. sat on a jury – been called, but never taken.
91. met someone famous
92. joined a book club
93. lost a loved one
94. had a baby
95. seen the Alamo in person
96. taken a road trip
97. been involved in a law suit
98. owned a cell phone
99. been stung by a bee
100. met the love of your life

– and with any luck, I’ll have been married to him 20 years, this March.

Okay, so I won’t tag anyone, but you are most cordially invited to play — let me know if you do, so I can visit yours!

There are so many potential posts rattling around in my brain at the moment that it’s difficult to pick one topic. But there are lots of things that probably don’t justify an entire post to themselves, or maybe do, but right now I just want to throw some stuff out there. And so, the first Bits ‘n Pieces for 2009:

Most particularly, I like the stripe in the upper right-hand corner. The man admitted his crimes regarding complicity in the use of torture on detainees, and how nobody gave a rat’s ass whether or not the intelligence was good about WMD’s in Iraq – we were sending troops there – in media interviews. What I have said since before the 2000 election – “If Bush becomes president, we will be back in Iraq. Mark my words.” Nobody listened to me. He confessed. Without the kind of torture he was responsible for inflicting. “Cheney Begins Prison Term” Sweet dreams.