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You are here: Home / More Free Speech

More Free Speech

by $8 blue check mistermix|  March 30, 20128:56 am| 53 Comments

This post is in: Flash Mob of Hate

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Petula Dvorak must not report to Fred Hiatt, otherwise I have no way to explain this excellent Washington Post piece on the ways that anti-choice protesters targeted the children and neighbors of an reproductive health clinic’s landlord:

The tactical decision to focus on a clinic’s landlord was a clever move, although Stave could handle it. He’s pretty tough after all the years in this fight.

But his tormentors crossed the line last fall when a big group showed up at his daughter’s middle school on the first day of classes and again at back-to-school night. They had signs displaying his name and contact information as well as those gory images of the fetuses.

Stave started a group called Voice of Choice that responded to phone calls to his home by having thousands of people call back with a thank you for the prayers.

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53Comments

  1. 1.

    geg6

    March 30, 2012 at 8:59 am

    Stave started a group called Voice of Choice that responded to phone calls to his home by having thousands of people call back with a thank you for the prayers.

    Bwahahahahahaha. I love this guy.

  2. 2.

    Linda Featheringill

    March 30, 2012 at 9:01 am

    I read that article. I think the message, “Thank you for your prayers” is downright cute.

  3. 3.

    El Cid

    March 30, 2012 at 9:04 am

    Well, no matter how distasteful the tactics of the anti-choice protesters might have seemed, it was the right thing to do, because God told them so.

  4. 4.

    bemused

    March 30, 2012 at 9:08 am

    They are the direct opposite of being Christians, they are cultists. There should be an easily identifiable name for them like “Moonies” is for Rev. Moon Unification Church zombies.

  5. 5.

    dr. bloor

    March 30, 2012 at 9:13 am

    by having thousands of people call back with a thank you for the prayers.

    Excellent. At last, something for me to do instead of watching infomercials for Midnight Special DVDs when I can’t get to sleep. At 2:30 AM.

  6. 6.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    March 30, 2012 at 9:14 am

    @bemused: I believe the term is Baptist.

  7. 7.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2012 at 9:18 am

    McClatchey article today: Conservatives have lost faith in science

    …trust in science among conservatives and frequent churchgoers has declined precipitously since 1974 … At that time, conservatives had the highest level of trust in scientists.
    __
    Confidence in scientists [sic?] has declined the most among the most educated conservatives, the peer-reviewed research paper found, concluding: “These results are quite profound because they imply that conservative discontent with science was not attributable to the uneducated but to rising distrust among educated conservatives.”
    __
    “That’s a surprising finding,” said the report’s author, Gordon Gauchat …
    __
    …Gauchat pointed to results from Gallup, which found in 2012 that just 30 percent of conservatives believed the Earth was warming as a result of greenhouse gases versus 50 percent two years earlier. In contrast, the poll showed almost no change in the opinion of liberals, with 74 percent believing in global warming in 2010 versus 72 percent in 2008.

    Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/29/143519/conservatives-have-lost-faith.html?storylink=MI_emailed#storylink=cpy

    Seems conservatives were fine with science when it was fixated on rockets and weapons and catching up with or beating the Russkies. When it turned to the environment, like that pesky EPA? Not so much.

  8. 8.

    Liquid

    March 30, 2012 at 9:20 am

    Bah, the only “Dvorak” I am familiar with is from Splinter Cell 3. No, wait…

  9. 9.

    Elizabelle

    March 30, 2012 at 9:25 am

    Good catch, mistermix.

    I wish we had the home phone numbers and cells of that nice Phelps family.

  10. 10.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    March 30, 2012 at 9:31 am

    @Elizabelle: Talk Show host Norman Goldman, has a term for them. HOMO IGNORAMUS

  11. 11.

    beergoggles

    March 30, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Umm Rachel Maddow covered this ages ago. This is a prime example of why bullies need to be bullied back.

  12. 12.

    Punchy

    March 30, 2012 at 9:42 am

    @Elizabelle: Can you really call them “educated” if they dont believe in GCC, carbon dating, and the like? I mean, a degree from Liberty University in Godbothering means you have a college degree, but there’s no way I’d call them educated.

  13. 13.

    revpaperboy

    March 30, 2012 at 9:44 am

    @bemused: there is a name for the fetus fetishists. They are called “arseholes”

  14. 14.

    mardam

    March 30, 2012 at 9:44 am

    I love this. I’m volunteering.

  15. 15.

    rjv

    March 30, 2012 at 9:45 am

    I recall a scruffy looking hippie sorta dude once attended church donning a dont taze me bro hoodie. Both sides do it.

  16. 16.

    Culture of Truth

    March 30, 2012 at 9:47 am

    Because the Beltway values “civility”

  17. 17.

    Satanicpanic

    March 30, 2012 at 9:50 am

    Good for him, I want to join this too.

  18. 18.

    Culture of Truth

    March 30, 2012 at 9:52 am

    Seinfeld to telemarketer:

    “Give me your number and I’ll call you back. Oh, you don’t like people calling you at home? Well now you know how I feel.”

  19. 19.

    amk

    March 30, 2012 at 9:55 am

    first amendment + second amendment + lifetime sc judges = decline of america

  20. 20.

    Schlemizel

    March 30, 2012 at 9:58 am

    @Elizabelle:
    I’ve mentioned it here before but it fits. A religiously insane co-worker of mine told me that “This country started going down hill when we put science above God and the only way we are going to get it back is if we put God above science!”

    Yeah, we’re screwed as long as thats the official position of one of the two major political parties.

  21. 21.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    March 30, 2012 at 10:06 am

    @amk: So, we’ve been in decline since the constitution was written?

  22. 22.

    Culture of Truth

    March 30, 2012 at 10:11 am

    Didn’t god create science?

  23. 23.

    amk

    March 30, 2012 at 10:17 am

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Since the twisted combination of the three. You think everything is hunky-dory now ?

  24. 24.

    Jerzy Russian

    March 30, 2012 at 10:19 am

    @Schlemizel:

    I’ve mentioned it here before but it fits. A religiously insane co-worker of mine told me that “This country started going down hill when we put science above God and the only way we are going to get it back is if we put God above science!”

    __Jesus, Maria, & Jose. That is depressing. I assume she means it is the Christian god whom I should place above my profession? The only semi useful thing religion has given us is more creative ways to swear. If we have to replace science with it then I am leaving for the Moon.

  25. 25.

    JoyfulA

    March 30, 2012 at 10:20 am

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Or Southern Baptists? “American Baptists” are northern Baptists who are primarily pro-choice, and there are “National Baptists.” But then you leave out all the Catholics, whose clergy typically spearhead these activities, and the lesser known nuts.

    We need a more generic name.

  26. 26.

    Culture of Truth

    March 30, 2012 at 10:22 am

    America should be above god unless you’re some kinda america-hater

  27. 27.

    Democratic Nihilist, Keeper Of Party Purity

    March 30, 2012 at 10:27 am

    A religiously insane co-worker of mine told me that “This country started going down hill when we put science above God and the only way we are going to get it back is if we put God above science!”
    __
    Yeah, we’re screwed as long as thats the official position of one of the two major political parties.

    @Schlemizel: It was the official position of both major parties until the 1950s.

    There’s no reason that couldn’t be the case again. There are as many crazy “woo” believers on the left as there are on the right, the ones on the left just don’t feel quite as confident letting their freak flags fly.

  28. 28.

    rlrr

    March 30, 2012 at 10:29 am

    @Punchy:

    I’ve encountered two Liberty alumni; you will not find two more pig headed ignoramuses (and total assholes, too).

  29. 29.

    Satanicpanic

    March 30, 2012 at 10:32 am

    @Culture of Truth: But America isn’t going to guarantee me an eternity of relaxing cloud-sitting and harp lessons. Or punish me in a burning lake of fire FOREVER.

  30. 30.

    Lancelot Link

    March 30, 2012 at 10:42 am

    I think we can all learn a lesson from what Jesus Christ said about abortion;
    NOTHING.

  31. 31.

    rlrr

    March 30, 2012 at 10:51 am

    @Lancelot Link:

    Oddly enough, the same as what he said about homosexuality…

  32. 32.

    Brian

    March 30, 2012 at 10:53 am

    This is why this is a hard fight to win. The opponent have no moral and there are no lines they are not willing to cross. It is like struggling to get a B in a class… you can only get so good of a grade to bring it up, but you sure as hell can get a 0 to drag it down.

  33. 33.

    bemused

    March 30, 2012 at 11:11 am

    @Schlemizel:

    So science and God are incompatible. Funny, I’ve always thought if there is a God, the all knowing is waiting for foolish humans to get edjumacated on all this sciency stuff.

  34. 34.

    Smedley the uncertain

    March 30, 2012 at 11:11 am

    @Schlemizel: god created religion to explain the unexplainable and it was good for the priests for a few thousand years. Then the masses began to figure things out on the own; a consequential result of the tree of knowledge debacle. And soon logical and empirical explanations appeared and science arose…
    It’s been down hill ever since for religion.

  35. 35.

    bemused

    March 30, 2012 at 11:13 am

    @JoyfulA:

    And more attention catchy.

  36. 36.

    Jay in Oregon

    March 30, 2012 at 11:22 am

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):
    @bemused:

    If you want to go old school, “Pharisees” also works.

  37. 37.

    gene108

    March 30, 2012 at 11:34 am

    The hardest people, I’ve ever had to deal with regarding Global Warming/Climate Change skeptics are engineers. It has little to do with their politics, but the fact they know enough about math and science to feel they are entitled to an expert opinion on the subject, even though they don’t know much about geology or meteorology per se, they feel they know enough about statistics to argue about the assumptions made in graphs, charts, etc.

  38. 38.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    March 30, 2012 at 11:45 am

    WaPo is on a roll this week — check out their picture gallery of a Smithsonian Exhibition which features the ‘E” word – evolution: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/x-ray-vision/2012/03/28/gIQAQf6pgS_gallery.html

    Disclosure — I am a member of the team which organized the exhibition, so this is also a commercial. The exhibition text uses the “e” word as well. No complaints after a month on display.

  39. 39.

    Svensker

    March 30, 2012 at 11:48 am

    @JoyfulA:

    And I just met with a guy from the Canadian Baptists — totally lefty antiwar church.

    The Southern creeps get a lot of attention.

  40. 40.

    mikeyes

    March 30, 2012 at 11:54 am

    It’s good to know that someone is reading Saul Alinsky.

  41. 41.

    lou

    March 30, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Yep, Petula doesn’t work for Fred. Works for the Metro section.

    Unfortunately, usually her columns are often drecky. This is the best one I’ve seen.

  42. 42.

    liberal

    March 30, 2012 at 12:38 pm

    @gene108:

    The hardest people, I’ve ever had to deal with regarding Global Warming/Climate Change skeptics are engineers.

    There’s a name for this, I can’t recall—something like “The So-and-so Effect.” Can’t recall the name. Engineers are overrepresented among creationists, too, IIRC. Maybe even among Al Qaeda members at the top at least.

    (Yes, I know—there are plenty of non-crackpot engineers out there.)

  43. 43.

    liberal

    March 30, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    @Punchy:

    …they dont believe in GCC…

    They don’t believe in the Gnu Compiler Collection? What a bunch of asshats.

    :-)

  44. 44.

    liberal

    March 30, 2012 at 12:41 pm

    Stave started a group called Voice of Choice that responded to phone calls to his home by having thousands of people call back with a thank you for the prayers.

    Too bad he doesn’t live in FL. Could just shoot them dead. Problem solved.

  45. 45.

    Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey

    March 30, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    @liberal:

    Salem Hypothesis

  46. 46.

    liberal

    March 30, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    @Mobile Grumpy Code Monkey:
    Yeah, that’s it. Thanks.

  47. 47.

    JoyfulA

    March 30, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    @Svensker: I’ll make a note for any further defenses of non-Southern Baptists that may be required. The American Baptists I have known have been very lefty and simultaneously very devout, but they have a congregational structure, where different congregations may differ in their opinions and no bishop issues orders—like the Southern Baptists used to be before the takeover.

  48. 48.

    JoyfulA

    March 30, 2012 at 12:57 pm

    @bemused: Homunculi?

  49. 49.

    Ruckus

    March 30, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    @Culture of Truth:
    I’ve used the Sienfield technique and it works.

  50. 50.

    Mike S

    March 30, 2012 at 3:44 pm

    @liberal: You might bethinking of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. The tendency of unskilled people (in a given subject) to over estimate their expertise.

  51. 51.

    humbert dinglepencker

    March 30, 2012 at 3:50 pm

    Foetusists

  52. 52.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 30, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    @Jerzy Russian:

    Jesus, Maria, & Jose.

    Just FTR in da parta Joy-Z where la mia famiglia lives, that’s Gesummariagiusep’! Get wit’ da pogrom, ya Red! ;)

  53. 53.

    Uncle Cosmo

    March 30, 2012 at 4:48 pm

    @gene108: Overrepresented in the glibertarian ranks as well. Same cause as doctors who specialize in “diseases of the rich”:

    Since I was intelligent enough to learn how to [insert specialized engineering/medical skill here], I can understand everything without any specialized background–so if I can’t understand it, or don’t like the implications, it must be wrong. Oh, and I’m also so smart I should be allowed to take advantage of anyone I want to whenever I want to, and not only should I not have to pay taxes, you people ought to have to pay me for the privilege of having me in your society.

    At best, antisocial idiots savants. At worst, overeducated imbecile sociopaths.

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