He who lives by the micro-parse, dies by the micro-parse.

Do you remember Polaroid cameras? You know, those cameras that took pictures which developed before your eyes? They would start out as a white square, and slowly you begin to see the picture.

Barack Obama is a lot like that. He has tried desperately to keep himself a blank slate, but slowly, the picture is beginning to develop. I can understand how a man who voted against the Illinois born alive infant protection act, and appears to support unwanted babies who survive abortion to be left to die on the table would consider an out of wedlock baby a “punishment”.

Well, this one statement, like his comparing Rev. Wright's opinions to those of the black community at large speaks volumes as to the kind of man he is.

plus, in my own opinion, there are more than a few religious conservatives that actually do see a baby as punishment for out of wedlock sex.

Then came Media Matters for America. I always thought its volunteers had to be mad…sitting and monitoring targets they despised day in and day out…waiting for right-winger gaffes to promote in UPPER CASE FONT. But MMA was a successful model, widely imitated by left and right.

Every day another outrage. Most are absurd. But, if you throw enough sh*t at the wall…some of its is bound to stick eventually.

Now the slightest gaffe of any of the 3 candidates is exposed as being revealing of …well, whatever the smear meme of the week happens to be.

I wish someone would declare a ceasefire…and get back to arguing about policy instead of Obama's daughters, for god's sake.

For years I was in contact with an orphange, full of cast-aside chilfren. That adoption is a readily available option is a myth, considering the numbers in orphanages and foster care. That any woman, particularly when she herself is a child, can be a fit mother is a myth, considereing the cast-aside children in our society.
Babies don't ask to be created. They are forced into this world by the decisions of others. Rather than making that decision a more serious one for the adults in the room, all the attention is on just getting that baby, any baby, into this world.
Why? So we can feel good about ourselves as we shed tears over a few cells in a petri dish?
Then, when the unwanted, uncared for baby grows up to be an unwanted and deficient adult, we are aghast. How did this happen in the land of opportunity?

Amen to T-Steel and Polimom/
.

One cannot refer to a baby as anything other than a blessing that will enrich one's life, no matter one's circumstances, or one is blaspheming.

Similarly, one cannot criticize say… Mahmoudiya, or notice Abu Ghraib, without being called out for attacking the troops. (i.e. not patriotic)

And this unhealthy tendency to bury dialogue in shrieks and shouts is not limited to one side or another of the political aisle. All of it is of a piece with discussions of inner city poverty, and/or race relations. There are places one cannot safely travel, verbally, without being attacked.

It's part and parcel of what's killing our ability to “come together”, politically or socially, as a nation.