What is a Gallbladder?

If I had been born about two generations earlier, I would have died at the young age of 47. At that age my gallbladder ceased not only to function as a gallbladder, it ceased to function in any capacity and became a lump of rotting meat in my abdomen, poisoning me slowly. A couple of generations ago, the gallbladder was not known to be “optional” and people died from such a catastrophic failure.

Fortunately for me, medical science learned that a person can live, and live right well, thanks, without the gallbladder. Huzzah for the medical profession, and for me!

I have dear friends who are pro-choice concerning abortion.

Recently, it occurred to me to ask one of them a question I felt might be too touchy for our friendship, but the question would not let go and, in order to discharge the load like a build-up of static electricity, I am writing the question here.

What is a fetus?

If a fetus is a human, abortion is a “choice” to commit murder. Period. To justify abortion choice as not being murder, then the procedure of abortion must be defined as a medical procedure on . . . what?

Is a fetus a tumor? Is it a cancer? Is it an appendage? Is it an organ? Is it a cyst?

At some point a fetus becomes a child, and there is no definition of this amazing threshold, but there must be some description of what the fetal tissue is that makes it liable to surgical removal.

Is it a vestigial twin of the mother?

There is no concrete proof that a fetus is, or is not a human being. Yet, unless pro-abortion advocates are just sociopathic monsters, the fetus must be classified as . . . something other than a person.

So, what is it?

If abortion is moral and ethical, then removing the fetus is, essentially, clipping a hangnail or shaving unwanted body hair. Abortion is supported on the grounds that it is the woman’s choice about her own body . . . but if a man chooses to destroy the fetus he contributed to spawning, it is murder. A woman is not supposed to torture a pet, or even kill it if it is viable and not critically injured or ill, so a fetus is not even as much as a “pet.”

I have a position on the abortion issue that says it is foolhardy to destroy a fetus until it can be defined as something other than human. Until it is clearly categorized as some sort of waste byproduct of the body, or other offending, but unnecessary or unwanted object, it might be a child, and reason cries to err on the side of safety. People are thrown in jail for child endangerment, after all.

So, is a fetus a segment of “stool”?

Until society can prove beyond a reasonable doubt (and please note, there are always unreasonable doubts!) that a fetus is something other than human, the destruction of this undefined tissue is irresponsible and criminally short-sighted.

Confession of an End-of-the-World Junky

I believed that Ronnie Ray-Gun was going to push the Red Button. Didn't happen.

I read the lips of George the First about "No new taxes" (although I thought it was a ridiculous statement, far too unlikely to stick). Didn't happen.

I was constantly preparing to hide in the hills if the Reds got a few nukes through. Didn't happen.

I made some modest preparations for the crash of Y2K. Didn't happen.

There is a psychological predisposition among some people to obsess over and believe conspiracy theories and slanted news reports. This occurs on both sides of the fence. I admit to having been among the ranks of the extremists who have cried warnings against this or that entity, and literally on both sides of the bi-polar fence. I have learned and repeated the buzz-words and Names to Drop since Richard Milhouse Nixon (LBJ was just slightly before I started paying attention to politics).

Over time I have recognized that the emotional kick and intellectual high I get from doom-saying is not worth the embarrassment when my predictions continue to fail to manifest.

There is room for argument of principles. By all means, people who genuinely care about ideals and issues need to discuss them!

My "issue" is with myopic, adolescent extremism that constantly looks for, accepts, and often invents mud to sling at the Other Side. There is a sort of person that cannot perceive negativity in their own camp, and which sees only evil in the other camp . . . and magnifies (distorts) the bad aspects of the other above the current and former bad aspects of their own.

Again, it is not just Democans, but Republicrats do it, too.

"Only we have the true knowledge, the true faith! All others are false and wrong and to be eliminated!"

And if you pay enough attention, and watch long enough, you see the recurring patterns and the repeating plots.

It is said that expecting different results from consistent actions is insanity. Oil was going to go over $1 a gallon and it would mean global war! The faithful were going to be raptured into heaven and leave the non-elect to sweat it out on earth through all sorts of nastiness!

When Y2K failed to materialize, a switch flipped in my mind, and for the first time in my life I saw that I had fallen for just about every gloom and doom scenario spouted by mental-adrenaline junkies since the 1970's. Over three decades of watching for Catastrophe helped me to discover "perspective." Having seen the other side of terrible pronouncements that never showed up, I finally had to face the fact that I got a thrill from scaring myself and others over Dire Events, but that the cost of the thrill was intellectual dishonesty. I had to sell myself on shoddy evidence and the cardboard credentials of people who suffered from the same fright-aholism and "Chicken Little Disease" as mine.

Hurricane Katrina sent me back into readiness mode again, surprising me that I could still trick myself into just knowing that oil was going to become non-existent in the vicinity of the Gulf strike, that refugees were going to swamp the peripheral infrastructure, and that spin-off weather was going to ravage the territories including where I live. (I admit this so others might recognize the same trend in their own thinking . . . but the sad fact is, too many of us never outgrow this pitiful malady.)

And while Katrina was bad for NOLA, et al . . . I dumped my flush-water a week later and wondered if I, myself, would ever grow up.

There is a sort of person that likes to be the prophet of grim tidings, even if they do not come to pass. Over time I have grown tired of being that kind of person, and do what I can to keep my own disease in check, and shining the spotlight of "Here's Your Coffee, Smell It" to others similarly afflicted.

There will always be Jeremiah's whining about "The End Is Near," and other exaggerations.

As long as there are tabloid sooth-sayers, I will refute the distortions and unfounded biases. Tunnel-vision is bad for humanity, and I resist it when I stub my toes on it.

Smear Not, Lest Ye Be Smeared

Smearing is what one does when their own Side doesn't have anything (or much) to brag about.

Last time I advocated a candidate I applauded their positives, and "smeared" the positions of opponents.

"My guy ended state income tax in his state, and revenues increased! He wants to do the same thing in Washington, D.C.!" I crowed. "The other folks worship the IRS that most Americans don't like, trust or understand."

Smearing is personal. "So-and-so is a fink!" Making it personal is one of the most tremendous parts of the bi-polarization of politics in the U.S.

If the readers of this blog met face-to-face at a grocery store, nine out of ten times we would get along well and politely. But Reader A calls Reader B's "representative" a liar or a murderer or a tyrannt or a crook . . . and Reader B becomes either a fool for supporting the person, or is a liar, murderer, tyrannt or crook as well.

So, I don't go for "smears" on any Side. Tell me what they have accomplished, and what their plan is to accomplish further, don't show off how good they are are making someone into a "villain." That's beauty pageant cat-fighting and doesn't belong on an elementary school playground, let alone in the halls of government, in the media, or on friendly forums.

The Latest So-Called "Constitutional Crisis"

I distrust many of Mr. Bush's advisors and ideas. I'm looking forward to a change (although not just any change) in naught-eight. Bush is an administrator, and I actually like that sort of executive . . . but he is an emotional administrator, and that keeps me nervous.

But, further to the "Constitutional crisis" point . . . the spirit of the Constitution is to restrict government. The assorted branches of U.S. government do, indeed, collude, on both sides of the aisle, in swelling the perpetuity and scope of intrusiveness of the central, federal juggernaut. Any Dem or Rep who denies that they and their party are foaming at the mouth to have a big enough "branch" to demand and get their own way on the Big Issues is either a professional liar (aka "politician") or a myopic rube (aka "wild-eyed dreamer").

The triune branches of the government are not the checks and balances, and the Big Two Partays are not the checks and balances.

American liberty against government domination and undue interference in essential, individual liberty (as "guaranteed" by the short-circuited, undermined Constitution) is assured in Three Boxes. (Google up the origin of this statement if you have the time . . . it is a fascinating story.)

The Ballot Box: where informed Americans send a 'peer' to speak for them . . .someonee they know, even if only by a reasonable local reputation. This is where laws are supposed to be made. (This box isneglectedd by Americans acquiescing to the Big Party plan where professional liars nominate one of their own peers to run against the Big Liar from the other professional liars' union, and every election one of the two people who are massively out of touch with the majority of their constituency go and speak for the Big Partay system they truly represent.)

The Jury Box: where informed Americans sit and hear the case of a "local boy" and decide if that "peer" did what they were accused of, and if what they were accused of doing was wrong in the first place. This is where laws are reviewed at the operative level, and where they are confirmed and enforced, or vetoed by the people. (Here is where checks and balances wither as jurors accept the bald-faced lie that they are not to judge the law in the case. The Jury system provides a way to undo ridiculous legislation made by runaway legislators. This is a check to apply until the next election when the pinhead[s] that came up with the stupid-ass law can be replaced.)

The Cartridge Box: where informed Americans keep a reasonable and watchful eye on their own property, and help their neighbors watch there's, until the cops or troops can arrive to help . . . even against the cops and the troops if they are being directed against the legitimate will of the people by an executive or legislature gone out of rightful control. This is where the rule of law is defended. (This box is busted flat by media hype on both sides of the Second Amendment issue. The fact remains that, of all the "Do Overs" the Bill of Rights was penned to supply, the second most important was the maintenance of civilian baseline defense in a "militia." If the founders and authors had intended this to mean the army or navy or police, they would have used the terms "army," "navy" or "police." The "national guard" of the day was composed of civilians, armed and ready to be called up by local authority to deal with local defense against violent aggression. These were not sworn professionals. To infer that today's para-professional National Guard personnel are the "militia" is to bolster the domination of a central government over individual and local freedom and abdicate personal responsibility for taking care of one's own affairs, and lending a hand with the troubles of the immediate community.)

You want checks and balances? Stop sending trained assholes to state and national legislatures (and executive service); stop sending local pot-smokers to jail, and setting known sex-offenders free because of too many pot-smokers in the system; and stop whinging about how there's never a cop around when you need one to stop the violent aggressor at your home or office because they are off busting down the door of a non-violent pot-smoker.

You check. You balance. Expecting Big Brother to do it is why some deity invented tyranny . . . and why Americans suffer under a veiled tyranny today . . . .