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
Maybe if we saw her body, we may just ask her to keep it private, too- please!!!! Do we need a road map to find her knees?
Who is this person, and how did she get to know Satan so well?
The ad hominem attacks were perfected under Klintoon and his administration. It became the "norm" for "dialogue." Anyone who disagrees with the liberal/socialist agenda has something "wrong" with them. Rather than accept the fact that dissenters can reason and form their own opinions based on moral convictions and logic, the liberal/socialists blame the dissenter's "wrong thoughts" on "inflamers" the dissenter listens to, i.e., Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, Michael Savage, Michael Reagan, etc.
Of course, those "inflamers" also have something "wrong" with them which is why there is a tremendous effort underway to shut down the conservative talk shows.
By making ad hominem attacks, the liberal/socialist diverts attention away from (another tactic the socialists use) the inherent right and wrong of an act.
I would have much better luck communicating to my dog my desire for him to sit than converse with her.
Dear Debby:
As a balanced independent conservative, I read your FreeRepugnant.com article. Pretty sweeping generalization I'd say, and a very selective use of the comments you decided to publish. Of course there are extremists in any group, and nobody should apologize for their excess. I certainly don't endorse those you decided to publish.
One thing Free Republic has done is provide a gathering site for conservatives to share articles, news and thoughts that, more often than not, the liberal media decides to exclude from their lofty, condescending, receding circulation. Perhaps there is an element of truth to the purpose of this site that so offends you. When I read a supposed authoritative, and balanced (we'll pass on objective) being "unsettled by "Hoo-yah!", I can picture the trauma.
You know what would be nice, is for someone like you to do a "let's listen in" on former President Clinton when lizards in his inner circle worked it to assassinate the character of Juanita Broaderick and Jennifer Flowers. Listening in on how to control the spin when 100 laptops containing information on US intelligence up and walked away would have been fun too.
Yes, a conservative website that includes god knows who contributing must be simply appalling and repugnant to you. Perhaps your paper has a generous disability program for the mental anguish you have suffered. And I do look forward to you publishing a similar article from some of the more Hoo-yah liberal websites, but won't hold my breath.
PS: you'll get over it, even while watching thousands more abandon brain dead papers like the Examiner for other more effective sites in pursuit of the truth. The truth is starting to win some batles these days, or haven't you noticed.
Regards, Boo!
Welcome to the Internet. People like that are hardly unique to Free Republic. Go to any discussion forum and you'll find them there.
Boy, if that's what she calls hate mail, she's been living an overly sheltered existence.
To a liberal pro-death supporting woman who's biggest concern is self , any truth is considered hate mail.
It has little to do with "logic" and everything to do with what is "Correct" in their "Politics".
In 1939-1945 German culture, not favoring killing "das Untermenchen" was considered hating "das Vaterland" and was considered hating "der Volk".
Such dogma is not open to logical discussion in a culture that proclaimed "Ein Reich, Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer". Such dogma is not open to discussion in a culture that proclaims one flavor of Politics to be "Correct".
As I noted on another post, I am not a religious person and I consider myself to be Agnostic.
As an Agnostic physician-in-training in medical school, I held a severely pre-mature female infant smaller than my hand in the Neonatal I.C.U. that the Nursing Staff had nicknamed "Minnie Mouse". Society considered "Minnie Mouse" a "human baby girl". As a radiologist, I now rountinely view "fetuses" on ultrasound that are of greater gestational age and much greater estimated fetal weight than "Minnie Mouse" was. However, they can be killed legally by partial birth abortion.
Leaving religion completely out of the equation, as an Agnostic I see absolutely no logic as to why "Minnie Mouse" was a "human baby girl" whose deliberate killing would be legally considered "murder" while the deliberate killing of a gestationally older "fetus" by partial birth abortion is considered "a woman's right to choose".
I especially do not see any logic in this when it is far more dangerous to the mother to introduce instrumentation into the vaginal canal to crush the fetal head than it would be to let the "fetus" squirt out all in one piece.
There is no medical reason to perform the risky crushing of the fetal head rather than let the fetus squirt out in one piece. The only reason the mother is subjected to the risky fetal head crushing instrumentation is so that, at the end of the day, the "fetus" will be legally considered "tissue" in a red "Biohazard" plastic trash bag rather an a "premature infant" in the Neonatal I.C.U.
If there is a God and if there is a Judgement Day, I feel that I can logically defend my Agnosticism to God but I have a hard time seeing how Debbie can logically defend her abortion dogma.
An individual relying solely on Religious Dogma has no need for logic. The argument simply boils down to, "Believe as I believe or you will burn in Hell for all Eternity".
Likewise, Debbie has no need for logic. Debbie simply relies on nothing more than her own Political Dogma: "Believe as I believe or you hate women".
Consider that only those posters on Free Republic that make dogmatic statements are quoted by Debbie in her Examiner article while everybody else who may resort to logical debate is completely ignored by her in order to paint all of Free Republic as "FreeRepugnant.com".
Pretty dogmatic and "repugnant" tactic, don't you think?
Ignore her.
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