"We can, and should, support trans men and other gender-non-conforming people. But we can do that without rendering invisible half of humanity and 99.999 percent of those who get pregnant. I know I'll offend, hurt and disappoint some people, including abortion-fund activists I love dearly. That is why I've started this column many times over many months and put it aside. I tell myself I might be wrong...."
For the annals of hand-wringing, I offer you this, from Katha Pollit in The Nation.
You know, if you're going to fret about "erasure" in the context of abortion... well, good lord, how blind can you be?!
याची सदस्यत्व घ्या:
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा (Atom)
पोस्ट्स
८१ टिप्पण्या:
Well, I wouldn't be doin' my job if I didn't ask about the other .001.
deniers of the science of biology
Althouse: "You know, if you're going to fret about "erasure" in the context of abortion... well, good lord, how blind can you be?"
The leftists have succeeded in convincing their fellow morons that human babies developing in the womb are discardable irrelevant flesh blogs with consideration due them.
This is inevitably extended to other humans based on other criteria which, from their point of view, is fine and dandy because thats the requirement that leads to the Killing Fields and the establishment of ever more "perfect" left wing societies.
> well, good lord, how blind can you be?! <
so many lies so little time
blobs, not blogs.
I can assure Ann that her blog is eminently non-discardable nor eraseable, despite what the lefties would love to have happen.
"deniers of the science of biology"
Exactly. Also deniers of vaccination, energy production, climate reality, etc. etc.
"In an era where politics is all about identity, as a tool for organizing and claiming public space, are women about to lose theirs? Because after all we're all just people now."
Radical thought: maybe politics shouldn't be "all about identity"?
Of course, Progs have to be careful with that inclusion stuff. Before you know it, white men will claim to be "people" too.
In the meantime, may the handwringing continue.
Can I please get a rocketship ride off this rock? This planet is so over.
It took her a long time to get to her point: "In an era where politics is all about identity . . ."
Well, for one side anyway. Ideas tend to dominate the other.
1. Pro-choice vs. Pro-life
2. Gay marriage vs. marriage defined as between a man and woman
While I know what I personally think about each, those remain the two cultural issues about which I can truly see both sides of the argument.
Found it.
South Park was way ahead of the curve on this one (as it often is) - wherein Mr. Garrison, after receiveing a rather superficial gender-reassignmen, decided he needed a pregnancy termination.
http://southpark.cc.com/clips/104426/scramble-its-brains-or-vacuum-it-out
Fund Texas Women, which became Fund Texas Choice. ("Choice" is a problematic word too, but that's a subject for another day.)
Hahaha. It never ends!
These left-tard idiots are beyond all parody.
Katha Pollitt has long been one of the progressive democrats reliably incoherent demagogues. I remember hear appearance on the Hugh Hewitt show a decade ago or more, and Hewitt's logical and precise evisceration of her nonsensical politics.
Add this one to the little Pony column below and it is quite clear that a segment of the world's population has lost their minds.
I wonder if my South Park link comment on The Nation will survive their comment cencors?
While there, I also perused a remarkably ignorant and short-sighted column on the future of fossil fuels - of course the cowards had locked the comments on that one. Those commies sure know how to avoid contradiction where they cannot persuade.
I don't get the 0.001 part. Is she saying that a woman's right to choose should extend to those who choose to be "women"?
Anyways, incisive annalysis, Althouse.
Oh, we were so smug when we were young! We saw scenes like this from Monty Python's Life of Brian & we laughed, thinking, "Oh, what clever satire! Things'll never be like that!".
Little did we know we weren't watching satire, we were watching a "How To" manual.
chickelit said...
"I don't get the 0.001 part. Is she saying that a woman's right to choose should extend to those who choose to be "women"? "
Other way around.
It's biological women who self-identify as male, but go on to get pregnant. Such pregnant "men" should have just as much access to abortion providers as pregnant women do.
Monty Python had these SJWs down 35 years ago.
https://youtu.be/Dgp9MPLEAqA
It's biological women who self-identify as male, but go on to get pregnant. Such pregnant "men" should have just as much access to abortion providers as pregnant women do.
Ah, the same sort of woman who would insist on legally being a father instead of a mother. What a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world.
YoungHegelian beat me to it by 20 minutes.
>Those commies sure know how to avoid contradiction where they cannot persuade. <
ask the proggtards about the 'hitler-stalin' pact. see:
Hollywood Traitors: Blacklisted Screenwriters – Agents of Stalin, Allies of Hitler Hardcover – January 5, 2015
by Allan H. Ryskind
buy via althouse @ amazon
When you find yourself apologizing for implying that men don't get pregnant, you should probably take a hard look at your life and try to figure out where you went wrong.
Deep in the weeds of the Nation... wait.
The best part of that article is in the first two comments:
This is, honest to god, the dumbest thing that I ever read. No hyperbole.
Brilliant article. Thank you for writing it, Katha!
Ha ha ha. The first, a non-insane Nation reader. Hoodathunk? The second, the expected insane Nation reader.
But why has out-and-out-insanity become the norm with these people? Silly, yes, there were always silly, not too bright leftists. Idealists who were intelligent, even brilliant, but cocooned and dangerously naïve? Yes, plenty of those. But mentally weakened to the point of complete looniness like cult victims kept for months on no-protein diets and not allowed to sleep? No. Twenty, thirty years ago, even Katha Pollitt sounded like an intelligent, educated, civilized woman who occasionally said things worth hearing. She was a lefty, yeah, but still recognizably whole and sane. Now she's wandering around babbling about "cissexism" like the rest of the broken zombies littering the landscape, and not just lefties, either.
One can only hope that this spasm of insanity, this ascendancy of utter dumbfuckery, is not some harbinger of worse mass craziness to come. Surely it's all just too damned moronic to develop into a Terror or Great Cultural Revolution? Surely?
So a FTM transsexual might ... oh, I don't know, somehow get pregnant. Possibly by messing around with a MTF transsexual. Possibly by engaging in some not-quite-gay-enough-for-prime-time shenanigans. Possibly even by being raped (which is surely the Katha Pollitt scenario). But the point is that men -- er, "men" -- can and do get preggers, occasionally. So take that, you troglodytes!
It really doesn't matter how you "identify", if you are pregnant, you are a woman. If you think otherwise, you are insane.
An insane woman.
I'm just sick to my stomach thinking how much pain this hate speech crime has caused .
The Nation must fire this writer and she should be tried and convicted of a crime.
Angelyne,
Twenty, thirty years ago, even Katha Pollitt sounded like an intelligent, educated, civilized woman who occasionally said things worth hearing. She was a lefty, yeah, but still recognizably whole and sane.
I know what you mean, because "twenty, thirty years ago" I subscribed to The Nation. Pollitt then was brash and mouthy, but nothing like she is now.
Oh, dear God. Anglelyne. Sorry.
I never realized how unfair it is that trans womyn can't have abortions.
Now, for a Teaching Moment:
Women -- and this includes all variations under the rather large umbrella: ANAL SEX WILL NOT GET YOU PREGNANT. EVER.
I understand that some women tie blow-jobs into oppression from the Patriarchy: to them, I say, sure, take it an inch at a time, no worries, someone will probably be waiting, maybe.
But: you want sex? You want wild hot oiled non-committal sex-slathered-on-sex? I repeat" ANAL SEX WILL NOT GET YOU PREGNANT. EVER.
If you are TRULY Pro-Choice then you would choose ANAL and there would be NO ABORTION PROBLEM. You can fuck every day, every night, you never need to suck a patriarchal cock and YOU CAN STILL HAVE SEX WITHOUT GETTING PREGNANT.
I have been leading the way for all you people and yet you ignore the obvious:
ANAL SEX WILL NOT GET YOU PREGNANT. EVER.
Thirty-two-year old woman: ANAL SEX WILL NOT GET YOU PREGNANT. EVER.
Thirty-two-year old man: ANAL SEX WILL NOT GET YOU PREGNANT. EVER.
Sixty-two-year old man OR woman: ANAL SEX WILL NOT GET YOU PREGNANT. EVER.
Sixteen-year-old girl: YOU GET THE PICTURE.
Society: choose your Hierarchy of Distaste.
I AM LASLO.
Michelle Dulak Thomson: Oh, dear God. Anglelyne. Sorry.
This is insufficient groveling relative to the insensitivity you have shown to my avatar.
I know what you mean, because "twenty, thirty years ago" I subscribed to The Nation.
Ha. That would make an entertaining thread - "publications I once subscribed to that I'd be embarrassed to 'fess up to now". But The Nation!? Surely I never sank that low. (Well, um, actually, probably lower. And a lot more pretentious.)
If I was the kind of guy who would write """drop the Mic"""" I would assuredly do that now.
I am Laslo.
Thousands of Althouse readers around the Globe too timid to type the words:
"You know? Laslo is right."
PRO-CHOICE = PRO-ANAL: the only bumper-sticker that makes sense.
I am, always, Laslo.
The ironic thing is, there are plenty of men who do "get pregnant" -- in that they impregnate their girlfriends, or, let's say, sex partners, and then "need" an abortion just as much as the woman. Because, let's face it, abortion is only minimally about avoiding the physical experience of pregnancy, and largely about disposing of the offspring so as to avoid being pregnant. And men can be just as determined to avoid parenthood as women, springing for the abortion cost, pressuring the woman, insisting that if she doesn't abort they'll refuse to pay child support, etc.
I never realized how unfair it is that trans womyn can't have abortions
There is a doctor in Italy planning to correct this inequity. He has announced that he intends to pioneer the art of transplanting human heads from one body to another. He has further stated that one of the intended purposes is to allow the transgendered to truly switch their gender.
And men can be just as determined to avoid parenthood as women
The difference is, women can avoid it, men can't.
The appropriate term to indicate disposal of underperforming or unwanted assets in the context of corporate relationships is liquidation, which accurately describes both the method and means of the choice. Although, erasure may be adequate, since liquidation is rarely complete and will leave traces of forensic evidence.
Finally: you cannot get pregnant from a cucumber inserted into your ass.
I realize you probably wouldn't get pregnant from a cucumber inserted into a vagina, but why take unreasonable chances?
I am Laslo.
men ...impregnate their girlfriends
Exactly. This implies that both women and men must accept responsibility for their behavior -- the conception and evolution of a human life -- in order to practically enjoy optimal degrees of liberty in a civilized society, without sponsoring corruption of individuals, society, and humanity.
Sometimes I feel like I may have wandered into the wrong room.
An anal sex joke there, probably.
I am Laslo.
Anglelyne, at the same time I subscribed to The Nation, I also subscribed to National Review. We had one seriously confused mailman.
Laslo,
Anus/Rectum is a do not enter/ enter at your own risk zone.
Years ago I subscribed to Mother Jones, The New Republic (my favorite) and National Review. My mailman wasn't confused, I was.
"insisting that if she doesn't abort they'll refuse to pay child support, etc."
Good luck with that one bucko - tell it to the judge. You know, the sort of judge who orders a man to pay for his ex-girlfriend's child, which child was fathered by the man she was cheating with.
Women have choices and responsibilities. Men just have responsibilities.
Well after Ellen Barkin, and nutso movie star said in a tweet, “News flash…a fetus cannot talk. It is not a person. Not even a baby, not even an infant. Nope. Sorry.”
Yea I guess that also means if the baby grows up a mute he/she can be aborted anytime.
ISIS will get alot of recruits with people like these examples of the West.
the comments at the Nation are extremely funny to read.
Just before visiting the Althouse blog I was re-reading Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, specifically the penultimate chapters about severely retarded persons who nonetheless exhibit remarkable gifts, such as a set of twins who could instantly give a day of the week for any date in the past or future as far as a hundred thousands years in either direction. As well as performing astonishing calendar tricks these two young men could also determine prime-ness for virtually any given number. Their abilities were all the more remarkable in that simple arithmetic was beyond their comprehension. Dr. Sacks uses the frank and unfashionable term "idiot savant" as shorthand for one who is a part of this mysterious phenomenon. Dr. Sacks is an elderly practitioner (81 years) and his venerable eminence discourages those who would have him use the politically correct terminology. Not so those young men and women studying neurology today. They must use “savant” by itself without the qualifier, otherwise they risk unpleasant consequences.
The literal and historical meaning of savant is immaterial to the myrmidons of progress. That a modern student will be utterly misguided by the appearance of savant in connection with men like Voltaire and Descartes troubles them not. Just like Orwell's fictional New Speak, the real New Speak seeks to alter the unalterable, to flatten the orb of the world. More and more our language is being shackled to euphemisms and arcane formulae. And yet the world remains stubbornly round.
"We can, and should, support trans men and other gender-non-conforming people. But we can do that without rendering invisible half of humanity and 99.999 percent of those who get pregnant. I know I'll offend, hurt and disappoint some people, including abortion-fund activists I love dearly. That is why I've started this column many times over many months and put it aside. I tell myself I might be wrong...."
For the annals of hand-wringing, I offer you this, from Katha Pollit in The Nation.
I think a man must have invented feminism, as a way to make women even more amusing.
All shit; real knowledge repeated indecently.
Undecently though is the thing.
Let's in fact all repeat positive ecumenuliasm; scratch that I meant epistemological optimism.
And, for maybe once, I thank Steve Jobs. A great man. Not good, but great, in the sense an asshole but of such proportions as to warrant respect.
Unlike Cunt Gates. Grifter Extroirdnaire in leaugue with Bill Clinton and no others in the Western Hemisphere.
Too stupid to know, NotquiteunBuckley has buckled me to the most unimaginable line of thoughts I must stop thinking in order to avoid embarrassment.
Unless as privledged my Whiteness blinds seeing: by here is intended the Alfor (it's actually alfor without the Capitol e) alfor (They let me do it! They let me write Alford Alford Alford Alford They aren't ,eating me no more write a l f o r Alford Alford a l f o r
Always formidable I meant? I don't know what I meant because I wasn't allowed to write it. autocorrect
Is more convenient.
What in Christ did Alford a-l-f-o-r mean?
I have hard certainty a-l of the a-l-f-o-r-d meant along the lines of "almost". and I feel then therefore, perhaps just to end this thing, I lost it all.
This train of thought will not exist.
Man this shit pisses me off.
Alreafy formed.
Almost formerly.
Almond forest.
Altered foments.
Ferments? foment?
Alas, my questions provide you all the answers you need.
Like Everest Hillary has killed men better than you could dream.
Hillary Clinton has murdered so many people the idea she won't be Don is preposterous.
Looks like I am gonna get Ina fiery car crash. It was worth it.
I reget nothing I've written indicting the fucking bullshit Clintons.
God bless you all. Your truthful search for knowledge has been in my mind Barnhardt approved.
You'd rather be Carlos Slim than Bill Clinton?
Bullshit.
NotquiteunBuckley-
You drink too much. Ask anyone.
She wasn't named after the asshole climber; she's the deathly rock.
There before Eddie; thereafter.
Hillary's Step.
Oops.
Kill me Clintons it's what we know you do.
Hillary is correct to claim deadly teraign throughout this globe as her own; with cause.
Hillary has forgotten more about anything than anyone has ever thought about anything. Capiche.
I deserve I ain't never been no blessed saint.
Do it again Bill-you act as one who knows no other.
Foremost'y first, ...
Quaestor,
Re your comment about "idiot savants" perhaps you would enjoy this article about an Indian mathematician who was working as an accounting clerk, and who made some fantastic discoveries in 1913 that are still providing foundation of the modern quest for the deepest understanding of physics. [He] credited many of his discoveries to the goddess Namagiri, who appeared to him in visions
"Ha. That would make an entertaining thread - "publications I once subscribed to that I'd be embarrassed to 'fess up to now"."
Rolling Stone
"Front Hole" is the preferred nomenclature to some trans?
Thanks Althouse for this mornings entertainment.
Annals of hand-wringing should be a tag!
That would make an entertaining thread - "publications I once subscribed to that I'd be embarrassed to 'fess up to now"
There was such a thread.
chickelit said...
I don't get the 0.001 part.
Thomas Beatie
holdfast said...
Women have choices and responsibilities. Men just have responsibilities.
Only women have choices; men have only responsibilities.
I can't wait for the first man to get pregnant exclusively for the purpose of getting an abortion.
Tim,
Thanks for the link. Very interesting. I've very lightly skimmed it, but I'll take time this evening to read it in depth. I did notice that these moonshine functions (?, not clear on that yet) take a modular form, which is very cogent in relation to the idiot savant example I mentioned earlier. Modular maths are about relationships in repeating patterns. One of the most simple and obvious examples is the clock modulus where 11 + 6 isn't 17, but rather 5. Another example is the Mayan calendar round which is a third degree nested modulus.
The "calendar calculator" twins documented by Sacks probably weren't calculating at all in the normal sense of the term since calculation, per se, was evidently beyond their abilities. Instead they may have been visualizing. These date calculations can be thought of as a second degree nested modulus, one of seven entities and another of 365.
To visualize this think of two meshed gears -- one with seven cogs, the other with 365. If the cog called Tuesday is meshed with the cog called One on the big gear, then Tuesday will also be meshed with the Eight cog, and so one. It's much more complicated than this because that simple modulus will only last for a maximum of four rotations before being out of synchronization. The twins evidently visualized a modulus that allowed for leap years. I can't do it, so I'm no "savant".
This ability to visualize is the real key to genius. I can stare at an equation all day. I understand the terms, sort of, and I understand the functions. Give me some values and I can calculate a result. But except for the simplest Newtonian mechanics I can't visualize what's going on. So just staring at a page or a whiteboard isn't ever going to give me the insights of real genius. The real geniuses do this all the time, and then they formalize what they have already visualized. Einstein worked out Special Relativity completely in his head long before formalizing it for his paper. Feynman did the same think with his quantum diagrams. Imagining the unimaginable -- I'm blown away every time I consider this. BTW, this is why I'm not impressed with Big Bang Theory. Sheldon and his buddies just don't strike me as using or having that ability. They're all big into the maths, but that's not really where it's at.
They're all big into the maths, but that's not really where it's at.
Then you would like this post, where I got the other link, BTW.
Ideas vs Execution
Or maybe you won't, since it is an in - depth discussion of an episode of the Big Bang Theory where Sheldon gets credit from Scientific American for doing the math where Leonard had the idea. ;)
A post like that suggests that we have reached the final days of the Roman Empire.
The idea that removing women from the language of abortion is a mistake is one that is almost comical to contemplate.
Who else but women can get abortions? Transgendered men who get a fake vagina can not get pregnant. So they dont have to be a part of any discusssions on women and pregnancy.
"When the actress and feminist advocate Martha Plimpton organized an abortion-fund benefit lightheartedly named "Night of a Thousand Vaginas," some activists were outraged, because some trans men don't like that word ("birth canal" or "front hole" are favored alternatives to the V-word)."
Now saying women have vaginas is offensive? The only positive about this is that its liberals twisting themselves into knots about insensitive language and calling out other liberals for said language.
Far be it for me to defend the use of the word vagina from the intolerant feminist daring to use basic biological terms to describe a womans "front hole"
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा