Turns out they also did late term abortions because of “mental anguish”? If that is so, then no, I do not support that. There is no circumstance imaginable where mental anguish from giving birth to a baby would be crippling to the mother.

Jillian also brought up a point. It is pretty darn near impossible to get to the late term with a pregnancy that could seriously hurt the mother. With even basic prenatal care, the assumption is that any complications that would risk the mothers life would be found much much much earlier than “late term”.

In that case… the question becomes: if the mother neglected to get proper care early in the pregnancy, should she be allowed to terminate the pregnancy in the late term in order to spare her self a crippling/fatal injury.

My gut tells me no, it’s her fault for choosing not to get prenatal care. But I’m sure there’s probably some hypothetical situation where it was not the mother’s fault. It doesn’t seem to me that there could be a straight answer to this. It’s never going to be 100% OK in all cases or 100% not OK in all cases. Almost feels like it should be a case by case decision.

So, I have no answer. But if people are getting proper prenatal care, it shouldn’t be a big issue.

I hate that everyone tries to categorize people in to two groups. It feels like a “with us or against us” mentality in all that we do. Either you’re a republican or you’re a democrat. Either you’re liberal or you’re conservative. Either you’re pro-life or you’re pro-choice. Everyone wants everything to be black and white. But they forget about the grays.

Just as political opinion has a bit of a sliding scale, I think abortion rights views should too. And so I decided to try and determine where I sit between pro-life and pro-choice. Near the middle? Mostly pro-life? Mostly pro-choice? A little of one or the other?

And I failed. I’m really not sure.

I support what Tiller stood for. I know that he was going to trial over allegations that he did things beyond what he said he stood for. But, innocent until proven guilty. So I can say that I support what Tiller did at his clinic. Not what he allegedly did. I support what he and the various other doctors supporting him claim he did.

I saw an interview with his colleague who will most likely be taking over the practice. His colleague stressed that they perform late term abortions for only a handful of reasons. Things like: the baby is already dead, the baby has a condition that is not compatible with life, the pregnancy has a complication that threatens the mother’s life or a major function of her body. Not only do they have strict requirements for even beginning to talk about a late term abortion, they regularly and often turned mothers away. They determined that abortion was not medically needed and told mothers outright “no”.

Sure, there were some people who argued against him. They said things like, “I had a baby with a condition that was not compatible with life. I chose to give birth and the hours I had with my baby were wonderful and I’d do it again if I was in the same situation.” And good for her! But that doesn’t mean everyone is capable of dealing with the situation in that way. Everyone is different. The key words there are that she chose to give birth to a baby who would only live for a couple of hours.

So, I am for late term abortions, if there are medical reasons for it. Does that make me pro-choice? Some people would think so.

Also, I am for emergency contraception. People do stupid things in the heat of the moment. Especially when alcohol is involved. Or, there are cases of sexual assault. These moments are perfect for emergency contraception.

So there you go. I’m pro-life, except when you should be able to choose.

• First black president
• No more Bush
• No Sarah Palin
• And I’m kinda a liberal, so yeah… I also think it’s great for those reasons too.

The internets are filled with all sorts of reactions.

I loved this article from L.A. Times: World reaction to Obama victory: Elation. So full of hope…

And then there’s humor: Black man given nation’s worse job.

And I saw this on my co-worker’s blog: … all men are created equal.

But of course, there’s the scum of the internet that are bitter and try to make this amazing historical day tainted: Warning, really offensive and just plain idiotic.

I think it’s amazing that I got to witness the first election of a black president. At the same time… it is still a bit sad that it took SO long for it to happen. Again, from my co-worker’s blog: If you think yesterday was not historic….

With such progressive movement… it was sad to see that gay marriage took hits in 3 states, including the famous proposition 8 in California. Jillian said it best today, “Why is it OK for them to even VOTE on this? We don’t vote on the rights Catholics have.” And she’s right… there is no non-religious argument that holds any water to be against gay marriage.

From the wikipedia page on proposition 8: “The campaigns for and against Proposition 8 raised $35.8 million and $37.6 million, respectively.” Yes, that’s right, $35.8 million was spent to deny equal rights in the state of California. :/

Since I subscribe to digg.com’s popular stories rss feed, I’ve been bombarded by anti-palin articles. It’s relentless. Most arguments are ridiculous, as that daily show clip points out. They attack someone with X and when their own candidate gets attacked for X they defend with Y. But Y is not a valid defense against their attack of X to the other candidate.

So either they’re idiots who don’t realize they’re being massively stupid, one part of their brain refuses to communicate with another part of their brain. Or, they’re evil and they’re hoping that most of their audience are idiots and don’t recognize their double standards.

I’m guessing it’s the evil one.

But of all the articles trashing Palin… one stuck. From time.com. In it we learn that Palin attempted to ban books from the public library. There aren’t many details there… but even having the smallest connection with an utter failure in an attempt to ban even one book… She should not be in politics.

I ran out late for my cheap hamburger lunch today to hopefully wait less for it. And I won, it was super fast.

I also got to see some other protests. One for stopping haggis. On one corner you could hear being shouted in a round-robin fashion:

“Gays! You only have 1 life, don’t waste it! Jesus saves! You’re going to Hell!”

“McCain is an admitted bird watcher! Democrats for stopping bird porn!”

“SHOESHINE!” <-- the resident 16th street mall shoe shiner.

It made me laugh out loud. While eating a hamburger.

But anyway, this came on digg today: http://drunkatdnc.blogspot.com/. It’s a bit of a photo journal dramatizing (or exposing, depending on your view of it all) the police force at the DNC.

There are a few photos that are great though… My favorite being this one. Shotgun Willie’s is a strip club in Glendale. Glendale is a tiny area between Denver and Aurora that consists mainly of a strip club, adult novelty store, and the only Target near by with a liquor license. It also just happens to be the Target we shop at too.

Here’s a picture of one of the swat cars driving around with cops pouring out of it.

And here’s a picture from basically right across the street on the way to the bus station.

I swear the cops outnumber the DNC goers.

I think the most amusing protester I saw was a guy in a suit holding up high an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper with the words “I NEED A BIGGER SIGN” on it.

Then of course, there were the surprisingly large group of people against bird porn.

And a couple of kids rolling around on skateboards with big signs protesting protesting. “STOP PROTESTING NOW!”

There was a large group of scary looking people marching by at lunch. They all had black bandannas on their head and their face, they were numerous, they had loud things to pound on. They were surrounded by cops, in front, the sides, and behind. And there were 3 swat cars following it all with cops in swat gear literally spilling out of each one.

What were they protesting? No freaking clue. They were too loud and too fast. I don’t think anyone understood what they were there for.

What is it about protesters not realizing the futility of protesting if their message is taken as a joke or just not heard at all?

Oh, and Green Peace almost got me! *shakes a fist at Green Peace* I thought I was safe from your annoying ways this week.

The Clintons are staying at the hotel across the street from our office building.

There are a ton of people along the 16th street mall. And for every civilian, there is a cop or private security guard walking amongst them. There are packs of 10-20 cops on bikes/horses that seem to go up and down the street.

The booths… all over. They’ve all got some political purpose… Except maybe the Obama Jama booth that just seemed to want to play Reggae music and chill. One strange one seemed to be preaching the joys of magnetism? There has to be more to these, I just know what I’ve seen while walking to/from the bus station with my iPod music going.

I haven’t been hit up once (which is amazing for 16th street mall! I’m looking at YOU green peace!) yet for saving trees/children/homeless. And I haven’t been hit up for spare change, something to eat, or even caught sight of anyone who would want to beg for such things.

But today, I saw on the corner, surrounded by a pointing/laughing/giggling crowd (and a ton of bicycle cops), a group whose sole purpose seems to be to hate.

But… given any political position that you want to rally for… let alone a position that is deeply rooted in ugly hatred… wouldn’t your message be completely lost if the reaction of the majority of your audience was laughing? Not laughing with you. Laughing AT you.

Yes, I’m talking about pure righteous Christian hate. Is there any other kind of political protest that is rooted in ugly hatred? I really can’t think of any that doesn’t have something to do with Christianity (at least here in the US). And with Christian ugly hatred protests, you know it’s most likely about homosexuality.

There was a man standing on some kind of soap box, attempting to shout things. But they were lost, completely, on everyone watching. Everyone was cracking up, pointing, laughing, and getting out cameras, because the biggest most profound sign in the group said “Homo-sex is a threat to national security”.

Flickr photo found from Just Back’s photo stream, click the photo to view the stream:

So I applaud these protesters, for they have successfully failed at spreading their message. If anything they have just convinced masses of people walking by on the 16th street mall today that they themselves are idiots and should not be listened to.