dude. can you all just STOP attacking everyone's (mainly mine) grammar?! thank you. pretty soon no one will post for fear of having one's mistakes pointed out for all to see. besides, sometimes people just don't care. (i'm all about proper grammar, but not necessarily on a freakin' blog!)

Who gets to go to heaven?

One day two people die and are standing at the gates of heaven waiting to be judged. One is an elderly nun, who was raised in the church and spent her whole life in ministry. The other is a teenaged boy, who was an athiest.
As they stand before the gates, Jesus approaches them, and tells them with sadness that they only have room for one more person in heaven.
The nun falls to her knees and exclaims "Oh most holy king! I have been your servent all my life. I attended church every sunday, yet I still am not worthy to enter your kingdom without your mercy"
The young boy also falls to his knees and said "God? I never knew you. I haven't once stepped foot in church my whole life. Surely I don't deserve to enter your kingdom."
Then God said "I have made my decision, Adam (the teenaged boy) you may enter"
The nun stood up smiling and started walking towards the gates till she realized what God had said.
"What!?" she exclaimed "God, I have no right to question your judgement, but I don't understand? I have done your work throughout my whole life. I prayed to you daily. I kept your holy day. God why was I not chosen?"
God replied, "You were selfish in your work. You looked upon others as less than you. Your work was for the eliete. A begger once came up to you and you turned him away. You stayed shelterd inside your community.
This young man has given freely to everyone he could in his short life. He gladly gave money to organizations, and helped out in local community services. He gave shelter to a homeless man, he bought another food. He went and visited the sick in the hospital. This young man never even knew me and yet did my will"

Jamie, if there were a Nobel Prize for missing the point, you would be a hands down winner. In no way was my post advocating the procedure. I'm merely pointing out where so many of our problems come in - we don't use accurate language. We use inflammatory rhetoric. It doesn't help the debate move in a constructive fashion, it pours gasoline on the fire.

President Bush has used inaccurate, inflammatory language when referring to this procedure. He said, the bill would "protect infants at the very hour of their birth." If you paid attention to Senator Santorum's remarks in the debate, though, you would have heard him say the procedure was performed "at least 20 weeks, and in many cases, 21, 22, 23, 24 weeks [into pregnancy], and in rarer cases, beyond that." How long does a pregnancy last? 40 weeks. We're not "at the very hour" of birth. We're half way into a pregnancy. The procedure in question is an abortion that sort of looks like a birth, not a birth interrupted by an abortion. (Slate.com)

Now, I'm not advocating abortion here. It's horrendous and it hurts women and propagates violence. It should be banned. What I'm saying is that since there is a high moral ground here, there shouldn't be a need to resort to such linguistic duplicity.

Happy Friday to you all!!

Jon posted a dissertation on "partial birth abortion" on his blog. Read it here, and then return to read my response below.


You may be surprised to hear that I would agree with my friend on his first statement (“The first casualty of an ideological conflict is always language.”), however, perhaps not in the way that he had in mind. One of the things we have indeed lost is accurate language. Please read the following quote from my friend; “So what do we term the medical procedure just banned in Congress? Is it partial-birth abortion? I don't think that's accurate terminology.”

I respectfully and strongly disagree with this statement. Allow me to explain. He says: “It's not a birth that's been interrupted…” It most certainly is. Your first description provided by the abortion doctor is NOT a partial birth abortion. I wish you would accurately describe the procedure that you are referring to. Please allow me to provide an accurate description of the procedure that was banned recently. You will find that the term “partial birth abortion” is precisely the best way to describe the procedure.

Partial birth abortion: The baby is partially delivered. Most of the baby is removed from the mother, but before ALL of the baby is removed, a sharp instrument is stabbed into the back of the baby’s head and its brains are sucked out with a vacuum tool. This kills the baby (of course) and it is then removed the rest of the way from the mother.

This is the description of what a partial birth abortion is. The term “partial birth abortion” is precisely what it is…The baby is “partially birthed” and then “aborted”. This is a perfect definition. It troubles me that my friend feels the need to defend the language of the supporters of this act.

Let me address a second point. My friend also presented what I can only perceive he believes is the reason behind why someone would support partial-birth abortion. He gives the following quote: “The focus isn't on the child, it's on the well-being of the woman.” This, unfortunately is precisely what those who support abortion would have the public believe, but this is simply false. Now, I will acknowledge that there may be some individuals that would support abortion because they honestly believe that they are furthering the well being of women. However, these people, while well-intentioned, are simply misguided. There is overwhelming evidence that never does an abortion (and especially this gruesome variety) further the “well-being of women”. The pro-abortion lobby would have you believe that you will be better off after an abortion. This is not true. Abortions harm women, not help. And the pro-abortion crowd knows this. Partial birth abortions are never medically necessary. I repeat, they are never medically necessary. Even the doctor credited with creating this technique has been quoted saying this very thing. They are simply sometimes the easiest and most convenient way to end the life of the child and therefore end an unwanted pregnancy.

I could go on and on regarding the rhetoric that is used to defend this procedure. However, I will refrain. I will close in saying that while I don’t doubt for a minute my friend’s sincere disdain for the ending of a human child’s life through abortion, (although you can’t tell that from his post) I would offer that dissertations such as his, are hindering the ending of such violence on the most innocent members of our society by confusing and diluting the issue. The true travesty in this discussion is that we have lowered the discussion to the level of discussing it as a medical procedure. We need less of the politically correct and comfortable terms that have crept into this discussion and more terms that describe abortion for what it is.

In response to your response to me, Jon, she really doesn't need the comma after lovingly. "Lovingly" can not be describing "way" because "lovingly" is an adverb, which must be describing an adjective. you can be "lovingly peaceful," but you can not do something in a "lovingly way." Therefore the comma after "lovingly" would be incorrect, since "lovingly" is describing "peaceful" and not describing "way." Now if the phrase were, "loving, peaceful way," a comma would be necessary.

Quoting Jesse:

Quoting Amanda, "(in a lovingly, peaceful way, i mean)"

you don't need a comma after lovingly. "...in a lovingly peaceful way..." is fine :)

Also, for whoever needs to learn this: pluralized words do not have apostrophes. For example, "...after I popped a few Prozac’s I'm doing ok now..." should be, "...after I popped a few Prozacs I'm doing ok now..."

You do need a comma after "lovingly." She wasn't using "lovingly" as a term to describe "peaceful," she was using it to describe "way." Therefore a comma is needed. Also, I believe we are both mistaken as to the use of an "s" in Prozac. The term Prozac is itself plural and singular, simultaneously. One wouldn't say "Take two Advils," one would say "Take two Advil." The sentence should read "Anyways, after I popped a few Prozac I'm doing ok now."

Rebecca, I'll give you a hint: He'll be telling the same story from his own point of view tomorrow at school, and his classmates' jaws will drop in awe and wonder at his courageous and hilarious act. That's worth a bottom-baring to me.

Kristen you are amazing i think i am going to have to try that one! thanks! :)

Oooh! Another quiz!

Common Misspellings

14/15 means I know how to spell :)

Wow...it has been quite a while since I have contributed to this rather intriging experiment in the communication of modern society. Most of that was due to my knee surgery (which interestingly enough was exactly the event which I thought would have let me contribute more). However, while I have not been posting lately, I have caught up on all that was written since I last posted.

Oh so much to respond to...and so little time. Until after November 4th, life will be very crazy, I will offer no promises on my rate of contribution to this blog until then, but I will do my best.

There are a couple of things which I must respond to when I get the time. One of which (as you expected Jon) is Jon's dissertation on political parties. I must say, the dialogue on that topic was very interesting to read. I (again, as expected) have some opinions on the matter, and would love to offer some thoughts on the subject.

On a related note, it has been great to read Bec's contributions to the blog. Finally another voice of political sanity on this wonderful blog. Bec was mostly right most of the time in what she said. I am sorry, Bec, that I abandoned you to Jon without any backup. Jon can be dizzying in his intellect (as in, I get so dizzy that I can usually only read so much before I have to get off or I'll throw up. ;-) ) Sorry Jon, I couldn't resist. :) [chuckle]

So, stick around Bec...it is good to have your thoughts on stuff.

Another thing that was interesting was the decision to play mafia via a blog. Jon...SIGN ME UP. I think it sounds cool. The first time may be a little rough, but lets give it a try.

Lastly, I say we crumple up Taco into little pieces and cover him with chili, cheese, and lettuce.

but what to do with that soup Jesse?

Shauna, it should definitely involve soup, possibly chicken noodle, but tomato might work as well.

guys i need help! what would be a really good prank to play on some people at college. this means it shouldn't include cars, basically because i do not know what cars are these peoples. and also the persons i am needing to prank back live with my ALC (like an RA for apartments) so i cannot enlist help with getting into their room, so it has got to be creative! i know you guys are amazing at this stuff so help me out!! that would be great! thanks!

it sounds like a fun expirament, and Id love to be part of it, but im not sure it would work unless everyone had a certain amount of patience.

and i often don't check email on the weekends.

Now for my next trick... a cool template. Yeah, right...

I just started a Mafia blog....

we can have a rotating narration schedule.... I'm going to send out invites. If you want to play, e-mail me jon@thepipeline.org (with the e-mail account that you use for Blogger.)

ooo...ooo...ooo! Mafia + Blog = great fun. :)

and Kairsie dies in the middle of the night... due to a random encounter with a reckless yogurt delivery truck...

I think mafia on the blog could only work if everyone checked the blog everyday. Otherwise it could take fo evah.

But if we can get 7 people total:

1 narrator (i nominate myself :) )
2 mafia
1 doctor
1 detective
2+ townspeople

I can start a new blog for it and send out emails

My name's Kairsie.... and it doesn't matter if I'm the mafia, a townsperson, the doctor, or the detective.... because no matter who I am I am ALWAYS the first one to be killed

Dude... I wonder if this seriously would work.... with a combination of public discussions over the blog.... and everything that happens over nighttime would be done over e-mail..... of course, it might suck. anyone interested in trying?

I'm not in the Mafia. I can't tell you exactly why, but you'll regret it if you kill me later.

JON'S IN THE MAFIA!

Jon!

Oh yeah? name one!

No it doesn't! I'm sure there are plenty of non-tacos in the mafia!

Sure it does, ask anyone!

Well, okay, but that doesn't mean you're not in the mafia!

Yeah, you heard me, I'm not a Taco!

What?

Hi, my name is Taj, and I'm not in the mafia 'cuz I'm not a taco.

I had gotten all ten right in that 8th grade math quiz too. I'm proud that I've still retained my mathal abilities :) Maybe I'll be taking Calc II sometime soon?