Pregled posta

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Oh wow. Thanks flickr sharpening. You're totally awesome. (If there was a sarcasm font, that would be in it.)

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I went to see The Merchant of Venice at the RSC last night. It was quite a good production, with very few issues for me to complain about. I mean, honestly, it wouldn't go into my "Top 5 Productions of All Time", but it was good. And it had Patrick Stewart in it at Shylock. And he had hair! (I was talking to my Dad last night about how I wished I'd seen him in Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellan, and then my Dad wryly observed that they'd both been in X-Men, and somehow that gave Waiting for Godot greater meaning. =p) The ending was interesting. I mean, usually, the play ends with them all going in to talk about the shenanigans and explain everything, but in this case, the dialogue was the same, but they had Portia kind of have a breakdown, and Bassanio reject her. Oh, and I really liked how they characterised Gratiano. He was a lot tougher than I'd seen in previous versions, and when Nerissa explained that she'd been with the clerk I remember thinking "I would expect Gratiano to get violent at this point, otherwise this interpretation will fall a little" and then he did. The Gratiano character was probably my favourite. & I've always felt so sorry for the Shylock character, and it doesn't matter how I look at this play I just can't help feeling really awkward when Antonio forces Shylock to become a Christian. But yeah, it was good.

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Seriously, before anyone gets upset, this is just my view, and you'll most likely disagree. I tend to take down posts that could cause a reaction about 24 hours later, because by then my feelings about what I was writing about have calmed, and I no longer feel I need it in my diary. It also prevents unnecessary hassle when someone comes across the post and gets upset about eleven months after I'd written it, and I no longer feel like arguing it.

So, my Mom called me just as I was reading an article in The Times online (seriously, I check it every few hours and am ridiculously up to date with the news), and it was about how the government are now having Life advise them on the Sexual Health Forum. You mean the group that is opposed to abortion, contraception, and sex education? Oh yeah, that sounds like a swell idea. Apparently it's because all views should be represented, but I think views that appear to actively be trying to send women back into the sexual dark ages is a bit counter-productive (and that's putting it lightly).
Now, my Dad is all about being fair and playing the Devil's advocate to my views (even if he actually agrees with me), and he was saying to me that some people genuinely believe that the moment of conception is the moment life begins. Now, life. Technically I would say a plant is living, but if you pull it out of the ground, even if I think you're being a yob, I'm not going to feel like you killed something. It's the sentience that I care about. I agree that at a certain point the foetus will have sentience, and that at a certain point I think the idea of killing it is wrong, but I am pro-choice and don't believe that one day after conception the seed/egg combo can feel pain. I just don't. & I think it's saying something that people who are overtly religious are more likely to.
I'm not into bashing religious beliefs online, though I will quite happily say in person that some views are freaking crazy. However, I'm not really into sitting back and not saying something because I don't want to offend someone. So, excuse me, but I'm probably going to offend certain branches of Christianity.

Frankly, I'm going to largely ignore the point about conception being life/sentience, because, for those who believe, that's not going to change. I will talk about the attitudes that piss me off though.
So, I was innocently browsing the comments of this article and was really pissed when I saw this comment from a Mr Gareth Barnes:
"The solution to the ever increasing number of abortions is surely better contraception, perhaps all young women should be consulted at say 15 as to the long term options available to them."
Thankfully, someone replied asking if it was just the woman's responsibility then. Why not all teenagers have these options made known to them at 15? Because the woman is saddled with the child? That's practically preaching to boys that they don't need to take responsibility. It's like the female MP who recently proposed in parliament that young girls should be taught abstinence. TLW and other such American groups preach abstinence, and has shown that it doesn't work. These groups refuse to teach sexual education and instead preach abstinence, which means that when teenagers then end up in a position where they're going to have sex, (and believe me, lots of them do - religion has very little to do with it) they don't know how the hell to have safe

For Flickr's "A Message For Obama" group.

FYI, if you can't comment respectfully and intelligently, don't bother. you'll be deleted and blocked, so what's the point?

1. Existing fetal homicide laws make a man guilty of manslaughter if he kills the baby in a mother's womb (except in the case of abortion).

2. Fetal surgery is performed on babies in the womb to save them while another child the same age is being legally destroyed.

3. Babies can sometimes survive on their own at 23 or 24 weeks, but abortion is legal beyond this limit.

4. Living on its own is not the criterion of human personhood, as we know from the use of respirators and dialysis.

5. Size is irrelevant to human personhood, as we know from the difference between a one-week-old and a six-year-old.

6. Developed reasoning powers are not the criterion of personhood, as we know from the capacities of three-month-old babies.

7. Infants in the womb are human beings scientifically by virtue of their genetic make up.

8. Ultrasound has given a stunning window on the womb that shows the unborn at eight weeks sucking his thumb, recoiling from pricking, responding to sound. All the organs are present, the brain is functioning, the heart is pumping, the liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are cleaning fluids, and there is a fingerprint. Virtually all abortions happen later than this date.

9. Justice dictates that when two legitimate rights conflict, the limitation of rights that does the least harm is the most just. Bearing a child for adoption does less harm than killing him.

10. Justice dictates that when either of two people must be inconvenienced or hurt to alleviate their united predicament, the one who bore the greater responsibility for the predicament should bear more of the inconvenience or hurt to alleviate it.

11. Justice dictates that a person may not coerce harm on another person by threatening voluntary harm on themselves.

12. The outcast and the disadvantaged and exploited are to be cared for in a special way, especially those with no voice of their own.

13. What is happening in the womb is the unique person-nurturing work of God, who alone has the right to give and take life.

14. There are countless clinics that offer life and hope to both mother and child (and father and parents), with care of every kind lovingly provided by people who will meet every need they can.

15.Jesus Christ can forgive all sins, and will give all who trusts him the help they need to do everything that life requires.