Read this on Feminists4Life (the prolife group on Facebook):

First time posting here, hi *waves*. So, I logged on livejournal yesterday and everyone was posting about the abortionist who got shot and killed. It was the typical responses, about how all of us pro-lifers must be rejoicing in the streets because the abortionist weas dead, and look at all the innocent babies who had been saved *headdesk* or just the typical ranting about how the pro-life position sucks in general. Ofcourse, I thought it was reprehensible that the abortionist was killed and I hope the lunatic who did it gets locked up for the next 25 plus years, but you know, I just keep scrolling through my FL until I get to an entry that: says that all pro-lifers deserve to be round up and gassed. WOW. I really could not believe it. The girl who posted this isn't a casual friend. She's someone who I pray for on a regular basis and that I post really long comments to, give advice to, I've told her about my life, so on and so forth. I was really disgusted that a so-called 'friend' would even say something like that, so I did comment her entry.

I told her I was a member of Feminists For Life, what the organization does and why I think abortion is wrong. I also told her I thought we could respect each other and agree to disagree, but that is clearly not the case. She then proceeds to write me a lengthy reply in which she says I can't be a feminist and be pro-life (heard that one before) and that I don't give a damn about childfree woman, yadda yadda yadda. Newsflash, I actually am childfree and never want kids. It's interesting how many assumptions people make about me based off the fact I am pro-life. So, I wrote her a somewhat angry reply.

Turns out, another LJ friend of mine is friends with the girl who thinks I should be gassed, and replied to my comment that, yeah it is pretty hard to respect pro-lifers because we want to impose our views on people and force women to go through unwanted pregnancies even though it's mentally and physically traumatic and we don't give a damn about that. To which I kind of just replied with what I said to the girl who made the original entry.

Anyway, it was just really disappointing. Most of my LJ friends are pro-choice but I wasn't expecting to read something like that.

Just wanted to say thanks that none of you are giving me undeserved crap. For the record I am not happy that Dr. Tiller was killed, and also that the killer was a paranoid schizophrenic and can't be said to accurately represent the pro-life camp (it's also been requested that I strees that paranoid schizophrenics rarely become violent, and if they do it's usually against themselves).

On a slightly happier topic, I am mucking my way through Chapter 7 2.0 of gift fic. It's taking a long time because I had no idea how embarrassing having a beta is, especially for pr0n (there was one comment I just flat-out skipped reading because I knew there was no way I could change what I had initially written, not out of pride but out of embarrassment). Times like this I curse being a Virgo; our perfectionist streak makes taking even concrit gracefully pretty difficult.

So right now it's me quibbling with myself, because on the one hand I want to write it the best that it can be, and on the other I'm like "Jeez, Luna, it's just porn; you've read the crap that others shit out and they get rave reviews; why are you worried?".

I've also been distracted by ATWT and the loffly Luke/Noah. It's good to know that I don't have a "type" of OTP, because they are nothing like TsuSoka or even Duo/Hilde (my first OTP of OTPs). Well, at times they can be Duo/Hilde-ish, mainly in how they watch each other's backs. If anyone wants a real quick, rather tongue-in-cheek summary of the relationship, here:



(Many thanks to G for sending me this video). One of these days I'm just gonna do a videospam of my favorite moments. Probably soon.

I'm giving blood again later today so I better start eating and drinking now. Was gonna go pick up my diploma and get my final transcripts sent to Uni but I'll do that tomorrow. Today is Twitchy and Kevin's birthday; I think I'm seeing them on Sunday so I gotta do something nice for them.

Look what I found! Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians.

So nice to know I'm not the only pro-life queer ^_^

Well now I am arguing with Shae about the abortion issue and the Shae-going-out-with-Tony-and-I-don't-trust-him-as-far-as-I-can-throw-him issue. According to Facebook (which, as we know, never lies), she wishes I would "shut up and accept things [I] don't like and can't change!" Though of course she says "people" and "they" so it doesn't mean me at all :P Nice. You know, I've been honest with her about my feelings, but never once have I told her to shut up and accept them. Fuck, I even told her that if she can't handle me not being friends with them anymore then we can part ways, even though doing so would practically rip my heart out with a spoon.

The bottom line about the abortion issue is that I cannot compromise on this. Just because it's a friend and she's only 18 doesn't mean I can say, "Well, her abortion's okay, but no one else's is!" This issue is too important to me. I cannot have arbitrary morals. And I'm a little disappointed in Shae because back before we knew Becki she agreed with me that abortion was selfish and senseless.

"All I need to do is be a friend", she tells me. I'm sorry, I thought being a friend was about not letting people you care about do terrible things that could hurt them or others, not about going along with everything they decide to do. Unless "friend" and "yes-man" suddenly became synonyms without my knowing.

Do you think I'm too judgmental? Sorry for that sudden change of tone, but I've been wrestling with judgment and forgiveness lately. Like, I already know I still want Becki and Tony and Liz (my ex who treated me like shit) to be happy, and that if their hearts suddenly stopped I'd perform CPR until my own heart burst out of my chest. Or the paramedics arrived, whatever comes first. But I don't feel like we can be good buddies and share our lives anymore. And I'm wondering if that's...I hesitate to say "a sin" but that's exactly what it is. I figured out awhile ago that it isn't even Christ's blood that matters, it's Christ's forgiveness. And I know that in the end we judge ourselves and assign ourselves to Heaven or Hell or whatever. We've all been forgiven our iniquities already. But I still want to be someone God can be proud of. I want to demonstrate forgiveness, so I'm wondering, is my caring about them and wishing them well not enough? To really forgive them, do I have to accept them back into my life the way they were before, ignoring the fact that I'm going to think "murdered her baby" when I look at Becki and "broke my best friend's heart" when I look at Tony (or for that matter, "broke my heart" when I look at Liz)?



Mood: sad, and pensive
Music: "Quiet" by Rachael Yamagata

Posting to let you know that I have not been neglecting everyone for the LULZ. I have been super mucho busy and worried for the past four days or so. Last night was the first night I went to bed before 2 AM.

List of upsets:

1. Laugh For A Cure - Our charity show is tonight so we've all been running around trying to prepare for it. Also, the portion I'm directing was neglected, so most of our practicing has been gotten done this month, and last night at dress rehearsal I had to change the script because someone couldn't get their lines. *Desk* I love directing but we definitely needed more time. Next semester, when I'm on officer (Treasurer!), I will definitely be on top of everything.

2. A friend/acquaintance of mine, who is 18, is pregnant and planning on getting an abortion. If you've known me for any length of time you know I am dead set against this. She doesn't want to get one but she refuses to talk to anyone about it, so I sent her an e-mail on Facebook basically telling her as nicely as possible that having an abortion would be nothing but violence committed against an innocent, and furthermore would just be her running away fom her responsibilities. Because I mean, she made her choice to have sex. She might have been emotionally impaired at the time (she was raped--I think, she only said something once on it, in passing, so I might have misheard her), but she still chose to go to her boyfriend and have sex. (And he chose to have sex with her, too, so don't think I'm laying this all on her. They're called condoms, people. And if she was raped and he knew about it, he should not have gone near her sexually. Even if she was emotionally ready to be sexually active--which she shouldn't be in any case, she's freaking 18 years old--any of her sexual organs might have been damaged.) As far I understand it isn't the alleged rapist's baby because no one's thrown that at me as an excuse.

This is what drives me up the wall about abortion...over 90% of the time it's women refusing to take responsibility for themselves or their actions. It's different when a woman won't be able to survive if the pregnancy continues, or if the baby will be born with Tay-Sachs or AIDS and won't survive to its fifth birthday. I don't have problems with self-defense or euthanasia abortions. But the stats are out there that 93-96% of abortions are not for health and compassionate reasons; they're because a woman for whatever reason doesn't want to deal with the baby she's made because, woe, life is SO HARD. Grow up. Life is always hard. I had a cry-fest last night, and a headache to show for it, on how hard life is. But you don't see me saying, "Y'know, I think I'll skip the show, and flunk out of Astronomy and take it again next semester. I don't give a shit that our advisor died earlier this year and this is highly upsetting to everyone in the cast (including me); I barely knew him, so what're you all crying for, anyway? I don't care about who's working the curtain or moving the props or that Tony doesn't know his lines; hell, who cares if you're even off-book? I'll stop trying to negotiate with work...actually, I'll quit before I have another job lined up! And you people don't need your gifts anyway."

In the immortal words of David Bowie: "Well, all the people have got their problems. That ain't nothing new."

Okay, to be fair, pregnancy is harder than any of those things. But I look at it this way: my dirt-poor mother had her first baby at 19, married but with an absentee father and later abusive husband. 30 years later both my mom and Warwa are happy, healthy, well-adjusted, financially secure as far as we can be at this point, and looking forward to the new baby. It's not like my acquaintance is alone or doesn't have resources. Hell, in the aforementioned e-mail I sent her information on New Jersey Safe Haven, a recent law stating that you can leave an infant up to a month old at a hospital or police station without fear of legal reprisals. She can even call for information to ask about things like open adoption or resources for young mothers.

I told Shae-chan about this and she's like "she doesn't think she could give the baby up". Christ! There are mothers who can't see their children at all because they're sitting in a tank in Iraq or were kidnapped or murdered or left behind at embassies in wartorn areas in the hopes they'd be taken care of in a different country. With an open adoption the girl could see the baby any time she wants and not be responsible for it. And, what, you couldn't give it up so you'll kill it instead? Hello? McFly?

The whole mess was just so freaking irresponsible and now she's taking the easy way out of it. No matter how much she doesn't want to do it and how much it hurts her, essentially an abortion is the easy way of fixing things. She'd rather destroy the problem and rob someone looking for a child of the chance to have a baby and risk breaking her own heart, than carry through with the pregnancy and give someone the baby in an open adoption. And THAT paradigm is what is wrong with the world. We have wars because people are selfish and would rather destroy what bothers them than work peacefully to ensure the problem is fixed fairly. People are constantly running away from their responsibilities, be it keeping promises or raising a child or ensuring a just and fair government, and that's what's wong with the world.

There's a Jewish teaching that Adam and Eve were charged with being responsible for the planet, because there will be no divine intervention if they fuck it all up. This world is ours. We're accountable for happens to it while we're still on it. (And yeah I know when the sun explodes there won't be any Earth anymore but that's in 4 million years. We've got time.)

I'm ranting here now because I didn't in the e-mail, in case you're wondering. My first reaction to bad news is to be numb. Then I get really angry or sad in private, but try not to flip out on anyone else affected. So if this tone seems harsh to you, I didn't take it with the girl, so don't worry.

ALSO! I don't care to debate this above rant. This post is about getting stuff off my chest. I don't want to go into "is a fetus really human?" (it is) or "women's bodies women's choices!" (except she's destroying a fetus, not her uterus). I'M NOT INTERESTED IN ARGUING THIS.

3. Astronomy final. Worried. No energy left to rant.

4. Work 12-8 tomorrow.

5. Party on Sunday :) that I have to cook and clean for. :(

FUCK POLITICS.

FUCK OBAMA. FUCK McCAIN.

FUCK ARIZONA. FUCK FLORIDA. FUCK ARKANSAS. FUCK SOUTH DAKOTA. FUCK COLORADO. CALIFORNIA IS OFF THE FUCK LIST RIGHT NOW BECAUSE OF THE CHICKEN FARMING THING, BUT THEY WILL BE RIGHT BACK ON IT IF PROP 8 PASSES.

FUCK EVERYONE WHO VOTED THAT IT'S A-OK TO FUCKING KILL BABIES BUT BAD BAD EVIL OMG TO GIVE GAYS THE FUCKING RIGHT TO MARRY.

FUCK FUCKING EVERYTHING THAT HAS FUCKING ANYTHING TO DO WITH FUCKING POLITICS. FUCK IT IN THE ASS WITH A FUCKING BUTCHER KNIFE.




Mood: pissed off, and pessimistic, and irate, and infuriated, and frustrated, and enraged, and cynical, and angry
Music: "It's All Because (The Gays Are Getting Married)" by Oded Gross

PS: Massachusetts remains awesome. Gays can marry and dog racing is now illegal.

So, I was reading some things over at fandom_wank, went through a link to a link, and became captivated by someone's flash LJ icon. Mostly it was just cute little slogans wanking at Republicans (which I can get behind because I also like cute little slogans wanking at Democrats), things like "If gays and lesbians get civil rights than everyone else will want them too", "Think education is expensive? Try ignorance!", and "Sex education is birth control". So I was totally digging it, until this little gem came up:

"Don't want abortion? Don't get one!"

Boner automatically harshed. Not only because I am both pro-gay and pro-life, I of course noted the similarity to "Don't want gay marriage? Don't get one!" and was offended on several levels, because the two aren't the same issue.

The right to gay marriage deals with the ability of two consenting adults making a life-altering contract together. The right to abortion deals with the ability of one adult making a life-ending decision for a baby. Gay marriage does not consist of one person making a decision for another person, but of two people making a decision together. The right to enter into a contract DOES NOT compare to the right to kill something because "its JUS a PARASITE!!!111oneoneone1!"

Let me get this rant out of the way: Over and over again I've seen people argue that a fetus being unable to survive on its own makes it somehow sub- or non-human. Well, congratulations, genius. A severely autistic person can't survive on his/her own, does that mean its caretakers get to make the decision to kill it? "But an autistic person isn't technically a PARASITE!!!11!!" you say. Everything that exists in the physical plane is a parasite. Fully functioning humans cannot exist on their own; they must depend on animals or plantlife for sustenance. The Earth cannot exist on its own, it depends on various astrophysical forces. "None but God(s)" can exist completely independently of anything else. If you're gonna bitch about parasitism, be consistent.

Right, back on topic...

People who mock homophobes are usually either mocking religious convictions or mocking their ignorance. But for whatever reason, homophobes are inherently prejudiced. They don't want equals rights for gays because they believe gays are "below" them, and the only reason to be homophobic is because of your prejudice (regardless of whether your prejudice is religiously or culturally based). Contrarily, pro-life people have a multitude of reasons why they are pro-life that can't be boiled down to one root cause. Sure, some pro-lifers are women-subjugating members of TEH PAYTREEARKY, but there are just as many, if not more, who are pro-life for religious reasons, or secular ethics reasons. I for one am not prejudiced against women. Would suck if I was, since I've had enough reasons to be self-hating in my lifetime without adding that to it. I am pro-life because I think it is inherently wrong to purposely take life without the consent of the one dying, the same reason why I am vegan and against the death penalty (but pro-euthanasia if the patient specified the desired use thereof). Don't try simplifying why people are against abortion. You just look like an ass.

And for the love of all things holy, or "very important" if you're non-theistic, don't tell people to not protest the legality of abortions the way some protest gay marriage. The right to take life does not compare to the right to enter into a contract. Repeat this as many times as needed until you get it.

Addendums, disclaimers:
--I of course do not expect a woman to carry an ectopic pregnancy, or any pregnancy that threatens her life. An abortion, in this case, is the lesser of two evils, because instead of one dead person you'd have two.
--If you want to argue that a fetus isn't a person, go right ahead. It doesn't change the fact that abortion is still taking life, the same way animal slaughtering is taking life. If you think animal slaughtering and/or abortion is fine because animals/a fetus isn't a "human", that's your business, but it still isn't the same as entering into a contract.