posting fiend

courtesy of madeyouthink

a little gross, but you have to admit it's quite hysterical. this article provides a little more background. basically it's a public art project with a political message. see those germans can be creative!

anyway, i'll use this as an entree to the political discussion of the day. with so many hot topics, where does one begin? despite my political outspokenness (and occasional vulgar imagery), i really do want to understand the other side's point-of-view. i even took to checking out redstate.org a couple of times and surprisingly didn't find my blood pressure rising out of normal range. (then again i limited these visits to five-minutes apiece.) i agree that we should "value every human life," but i don't understand why "the sanctity of the unborn" should have more value than the "individual freedom" of a living, breathing human being? i agree that zygotes, embryos, and fetuses are lives and i agree that they shouldn't be dispatched without thought for the consequences. i feel the same way about animals... no animal's life should be taken without consideration for it's being. but i'm not a peta freak. i think that animals can be eaten, i think it's okay to keep birds in cages (so long as they're given ample social interaction and time outside of the cage), and i even think that it's okay to test products that can save human lives on animals -- but the suffering of these animals should be limited as much as possible. on the other hand, i don't think non-life-saving products should be tested on animals (mascara comes to mind). i don't think animals should just be killed for their hides, and i don't think animals should be kept in unhealthy or confined conditions. at the same time, despite what i see to be serious issues with the treatment of animals, i value the human life more highly. just as i value it more highly than a fetus. i think those folks who spend time and money to fight against fur coats would be better served to fight for humane treatment of human beings. just as i feel those individuals who fight so stridently for the sanctity of the fetus at all costs, should keep in mind that full-fledged human beings suffer great hardship as well. human beings who suffer mental illness and starvation in the streets of my own city. human beings who are kept in git'mo for years without being charged. children who are provided with a shabby excuse for an education and then blamed when they drop out. children who are not provided with adequate sexual education and get blamed when they find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy at 12 or 13. civil liberties being trampled in my front yard as politicians argue for racial profiling. with so many wrongs going on in the world -- n. korea developing nuclear weapons, the sudanese fighting for their lives in darfur, american troops sacrificing their lives in a distant desert... why are we worrying about unwanted, unborn fetuses -- according to a 1995 georgetown study 77% of abortions occur before the embryo even becomes a fetus, and 94% of abortions occur before the fetus is said to feel pain -- when there are fully formed, fully-functioning human beings who need our love and help. is there some religious significance of the fetus that i just don't understand? what if that fetus grows up to be a woman who wants an abortion? should we have aborted her before she had a chance to become a murderer?