Posted on 02/15/2002 10:23:06 PM PST by churchillbuff
FreeRepugnant.com
By Debby Morse Of The Examiner Staff
AFTER MY COLUMN last Friday about President Bush's decision to classify fetuses as children, I received a spate of angry mail. One kind soul e-mailed me an alert that the column had been posted on FreeRepublic.com, "The Premier Conservative News Forum," and predicted that I'd be getting "an onslaught of hate mail from rabid right-wing freaks."
(Quick glimpse at some of the messages I got: "Is that the way you spend all your time? Hating people?" "Would you look down from Heaven and defend your mother if she had aborted you?" "Your panic and fear is obvious by the way you write.")
So I thought I ought to pay a visit to the Web site. On the FreeRepublic home page, I was welcomed thus: "We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah!" No objections there from me. Freedom of speech; gotta love it. And who's in favor of political fraud and corruption? Not I. Still ... I don't know why, but that "Hoo-yah!" unsettled me. (Maybe because it's like "yahoo" backwards?)
Anyway, the site is a collection of forums and postings on various umbrella topics such as foreign affairs, activism and philosophy, with links to sites like the Cato Institute (a libertarian forum on public policy), the Drudge Report, the Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank), the Rush Limbaugh show and the Linda Tripp Defense Fund (with a post-make-over photo -- hey, why not?).
And here's the best part: It's a great opportunity to "eavesdrop" on the conversations of people who chat there, seemingly secure in the belief that they are among friends and can say whatever they want. They can! First Amendment! But, boy, a lot of what they said there about my column is even nastier than what they e-mailed to me. * * *
LET'S LISTEN IN. Breakem writes: "Come out with your legs up and let the baby go and nobody gets hurt." Clintonh8r says: "Debby's a little crampy today, huh?" MissAmericanPie wishes me this fortune: "May her uterus be as barren as her soul. I pity the unlucky man that finds his way there, or the baby that tries to find warmth, love, or life in that cold, void, steel locker she calls her uterus."
Some of the postings were so bizarre that saner heads felt obliged to butt in and warn them to cool it. Following a useless exchange of comments that fetuses are "respiring" beings, Hank Kerchief pleads: "These continued ignorant arguments are playing right into the hands of the pro-choice movement. Please think before helping to increase the number of abortions being performed every day."
One of the shoddier bits of logic came in an e-mail: "You hate President Bush because he is a conservative and a Republican. I despise you because you are a traitor to this country. You tear down a president during wartime with false charges. You may be a citizen of this country, but you are not an American. You are also a pretty lousy feminist; you promote an outdated, divisive political agenda that does not serve women. You want to deal in reality? Here is the scoop. Most of my friends and I have concluded that being home is a fabulous choice. We choose our families. You liberals choose an outdated, dangerous political agenda which certainly contributed to the 9-11 horror. Liberals elected President Clinton who 'fiddled' while bin Laden plotted. You mock the victims of 9-11 with your despicable column."
Honey, I'm going to have to revoke your license to argue.
I also received an e-mail with a photo of a very mature fetus' arm protruding through -- what? -- a hole in a pregnant belly? A bloody image meant to shock. Turns out the same photo is posted on the FreeRepublic thread about my column, but the contributor, calling himself Revelation 911, confides that it's actually a picture of in-utero surgery and that the gestation went full-term. * * *
THESE PEOPLE SEEM to hate women. Even MissAmericanPie says, "No doubt her kind are very odd, the Jane Fonda militant female type. I've always kind of pictured Eve as being like that, more feline than female, resentful and rebellious against everything she was meant to be, finding no satisfaction in anything else either."
There are a couple of ugly remarks regarding anatomy and even rape, and a bunch of digs at San Francisco. A few people suggested it was time for another earthquake here. It was supposed to be funny, but it amounts to a wish for my death. There's a lot of that among pro-lifers, I guess. Someone suggested advocates for choice should commit suicide!
After reading "arguments" like that, I'm more dedicated than ever to wanting to keep my body private.
E-mail Debby Morse at dmorse@sfexaminer.com
Read the postings at : www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/624590/posts
I wonder if it's because she hates the military that defends her?
Where did that come from? Isn't that typical of these people? You oppose abortion, and that means you "hate women." Or you simply disagree or have an opinion that differs from that taught at the Womens Studies department at your local college, and it means you "hate women." Kinda like if you oppose racial quotas and affirmative action, it means you "hate blacks."
They really do a disservice to their argument by such hyperbolic, hysterical mischaracterizations of those who disagree with them. (Some FR poster earlier tonight told me, simply, "You're insane...you're stupid" because he disagreed with something he THOUGHT I'd said (basically I'd posted something from MEDIA that he disagreed with.)
Point is: when these people lack the ability to cogently advocate their positions, and when their positions are indefensible, they INEVITABLY resort to, "well, if you disagree with me, it means you hate women."
As if the saintly Debbie Morse would not hurl a few barbs this way. But really, who cares what she has to say anyway? What else could one expect from a rag like the Examiner? Any excuse to bash people on the side of the political spectrum opposite her will be taken with relish. It is just a dumb game. Nobody cares. Nothing changes. All is a blur of gray. Or is it grey? I always forget which is the color. But then, maybe they both are.
(to the author)I don't wish anything evil or harmful on you. I just hope a change takes place in your heart and you realize that life doesn't begin when you decide it does. No matter what the supreme court may have said in Roe. It begins at conception.
Isn't that what she's accusing us of??
Their was her trashing of the nutty women hating element of FR. and then she showed the good side of FR, that tried to keep the nutty side from going over the edge in their criticism of her.
See how good balanced jounalism can be?
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