Examiner columnist blasts "FreeRepugnant.com"

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."

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.

BTW, Debby Morse is, I believe, the wife of San Francisco Chronicle bloviator Rob Morse. When the Examiner printed the story about John Walker Lindh's father Frank Lindh leaving his family to go gay (he moved in with the gay owner of a gay bathhouse), poor Rob got his panties severely twisted. The Examiner had taken criticism of the poor Lindhs "to a new and disgusting level", he whined. Debby's spousal unit would seem to be more PC than a lot of gays are.
From:
"A v-chip for plays" by Rob Morse
San Francisco Examiner
Tuesday, November 7th, 2000

"...My wife hated "The Vagina Monologues." I accept her review because she's an expert on the subject, not simply because I'd rather put my hand in a blender than see the show.
By the way, my wife is no prude. During the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, Debby wrote a newspaper column arguing that we all should get used to the word "vagina," which had been printed in the nation's newspapers when the Starr report was released.
I wrote a dueling piece arguing against using the word. As you can see, she won..."

San Francisco newspaper writer Rob Morse's wife's first name is also spelled "Debby," and she writes for a newspaper.

And they seem to disagree often in print, enough so that they no longer both work for the SAME paper.
QED. It appears that you are correct. ;)

"I do care, however, that some of the 'loose cannons' around here may have given us ALL a bad name by sending her some poorly-considered inflammatory attacks" - RonDog
"If she'd have received 1 nasty email from a 'loose cannon' and 99 others from sane, reflective, intelligent Freepers, she would have focused on the one as representative of what goes on here. That's just the way it is, and we all know it. Freep on, folks!" - bloodmeridian

I fear that you are correct, bloodmeridian. ;(

This controversy DOES, however, give me the opportunity to share a WONDERFUL explantion that I found recently about the ORIGIN of the term, "loose cannon," from the Historical Maritime Society:

Nelson and His Navy - Loose Cannons

You are at: Home : Nelsons Navy : Loose Cannons

The following excerpt is taken from a translation of Victor Hugo's "Ninety-Three" and gives a graphic, if rather flowery description of what happens when a cannon breaks loose on a man-of-war.

"... Boisberthelot did not have time to reply. La Vieuville's words were suddenly cut short by a desperate cry, and at the same time the two men heard a noise unlike any noise that is normally heard. The cry and the noise came from inside the ship. The captain and the lieutenant rushed toward the between-decks, but were unable to go down.
All the gunners were frantically coming up. A frightful thing had just happened. One of the carronades of the battery, a twenty-four-pounder, had broken loose. This is perhaps the most frightful of all accidents at sea. Nothing more terrible can happen to a warship on the open sea and under full sail. A cannon that breaks its moorings suddenly becomes a kind of supernatural beast. It is a machine which transforms itself into a monster.
That mass speeds on its wheels, tilts when the ship rolls, plunges when it pitches, goes, comes, stops, seems to meditate, resumes its swift movement, goes from one end of the ship to the other with the speed of an arrow, spins around, slips to one side, dashes away, rears up, spins around, slips to one side, dashes away, rears up, collides smashes, kills, exterminates. It is a battering-ram which attacks a wall according to its own whim. Add this: the battering-ram is made of steel, the wall of wood. It is matter's entry into freedom. It is as though that eternal slave were avenging itself.
It seems that the spitefulness in what we call inert objects suddenly burst out of them, that they have lost patience and taking a strange, obscure revenge. Nothing is more inexorable than the anger of the inanimate. That frenzied mass has the leaps of a panther, the weight of an elephant, the agility of a mouse, the stubbornness of an axe, the unexpectedness of a swelling sea, the swift blows of lightning, the deafness of the tomb. It weighs ten thousand pounds and bounces like a child's ball. It moves in whirls abruptly cut by right angles.
And what is to be done? How can it be overcome? A storm ceases, a cyclone passes, a wind dies down, a broken mast can be replaced, a leak can be stopped, a fire can be extinguished; but what is one to do with that enormous bronze brute? How is one to deal with it? You can reason with a mastiff, astonish a bull, fascinate a boa, frighten a tiger, move a lion to pity; with that monster, a cannon on the loose, there is no resource. You cannot kill it, for it is dead; and, at the same time, it is alive. It lives with a sinister life that comes to it from the infinite.
The deck beneath it swings to and fro. It is moved by the ship, which is moved by the sea, which is moved by the wind. That destroyer is a plaything. The ship, the waves, the wind, all these things control it; hence its horrible life. What can one do to that mechanism? How can one fetter that monstrous shipwrecking machine? How can one foresee its comings and goings, its returns, stops and impacts? Any one of those blows may smash a hole in the planking. How is one to guess that frightful, wandering course?
One is dealing with a projectile that changes its mind, seems to have ideas and constantly alters its direction. How can one stop something that must be avoided? The horrible cannon flings itself about, advances, retreats, strikes left and right, flees, passes, deceives one's expectations, breaks down obstacles and crushes men like flies. The terror of the situation lies in the mobility of the deck. How can one combat an inclined plane which has its caprices? The ship has, so to speak, lightning imprisoned in its belly, trying to escape; it is like thunder rolling above an earthquake ..."

from
www.AboutNelson.co.uk

LOL! That colorful description reminds me of a LOT of posters around here. ;o)

"she points out something that's I've seen a lot of around here lately--anger."

And why shouldn't we be angry? We have been railroaded and lied to and for all intents and purposes gagged and enslaved by these liberal thugs in the name of "diversity" and "tolerance." Well, bulls**t. When the majority of Americans have their sensibilities offended and assaulted everyday at every turn and we see media and the politicians swallowing the bitter pills of outrage and ignoring dissenting voices no matter how many or how justified you're d**m right we're gonna be angry. Maybe we'll eventually get angry enough to do something about it as the forefathers intended and take our country back.

Admittedly some of us get a bit out of control at times and say things that do nobody any good. I know that I have a very hard time being civil to some people on this forum, although thankfully they are the exception, but I too have seen some vicious battles here and at such times I feel that we have lost because we can be so easily diverted from our purpose of promoting conservatism and the Constitution.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.