Not willy-nilly Alan, there was a willy…silly!

February 4th, 2005

I can’t believe that this is not a spoof!

What is this man being paid to do, I hope his only responsibility is to untangle coat hangers in the parliament’s cloakroom, because he is beyond clueless!

The only way to counteract this level of incredulity is to visit Crikey, where this opening line greeted me

"Mungo MacCallum memorably describes John Howard as an "unflushable turd". Will the unfolding abortion debate turn out to be Howard’s turd?"

and somewhere a rebalancing occurs.

I am not concerned about the access Australian women enjoy to abortion in this country with MP’s such as Cadman opening his mouth on behalf of the pro-life lobby.


With special thanks to the girl-child for finding this image.

Jon, Bob, Clare, the uteri in the house applaud you!

February 3rd, 2005

The ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope, says,

“I won’t supply statistics on abortions so the data can be used as part of some subterfuge to restrict a woman’s right to choose.”

Bob Carr had this to say,

“Now is there a case for a change in the way we handle abortion, in those figures? I think not. Laws in the state will not be changed.”

Clare Martin, the NT’s Chief Minister says,

“I think that the people who are opening up the debate want to close down the option of women to have abortions and I do not support that.”

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Image from here

So Joe, what’s the going rate for a womb?

February 2nd, 2005

Joe Hockey has made the statement that,

"We need to look at ways to restructure the taxation system or restructure so that people if they choose to have another child, or maybe if they don’t, we can give them an incentive."

Seeing it’s the ‘taxation system’ Joe wants to restructure, I’m assuming it involves more dollars not more daycare places.

Perhaps Joe is applying the principle of libertarianism to the abortion debate?

The following was found here written by Russ Nelson.

"A standard principle of libertarianism is that the best solutions are discovered when people have the most control over their own lives. Given private property and free markets, people will negotiate and trade to improve their circumstances. A difficulty with applying this principle to abortion is that neither a zygote, a fetus, nor a baby are particularly at will to enter into these negotiations. There are enough people who have an interest in protecting a baby’s rights that they can act as a reasonable proxy for the baby’s interests.

The libertarian problem here is that the baby has, without any intention on its own part, found itself at risk of loss of life without cooperation from the owner of the womb it needs for its nurture. What is clear is that the mother does not wish to cooperate, and history has proven that cooperation cannot be easily coerced.

Pregnancy is similar to other legal quandaries. Let’s say that a person needs to use the resources of another to save their life, and cannot negotiate the use of those resources. A reasonable law will let them use those resources, as long as they "make the owner whole". That is, they must restore the owner’s property to its original condition, and compensate them for the use of their property.

I think, then, that a libertarian solution to abortion is to allow a mother to rent her uterus to the baby. On a practical basis, that is what many parents do. Parents expect that their children will take care of them in their old age, just as they took care of the children when they were helpless and feeble. The trouble comes when a mother doesn’t want the baby. Of course, there are these days any number of parents who are unable to have their own child and are willing to expend resources to adopt a baby.

So, you have a willing buyer, and a willing seller. Why not sell babies? Or, rather than buy and sell babies, perhaps anti-abortion groups could act as baby brokers. They could take a payment from someone who wanted a baby, be responsible for the actions of that person, and use the payment to compensate someone who didn’t want their baby and wanted to give it up.

This would work just fine if there were no unwilling sellers. That is, if every woman had a price for which she would allow her womb to be used, then it just becomes a matter of finding enough money to clear the market. Doubtless, some women would be unwilling to allow their womb to be used for someone else’s nurturing. In this case, the whole problem comes down to eminent domain. Would it be possible to "take" a woman’s womb for use by a baby (that is, for public purposes). Clearly, if there were enough willing sellers of "womb services", it would be possible to establish a fair market value, and compensate women for the use of their womb.

Basically, then, the failure of current and past abortion laws to make enough people happy comes down to the confiscation of private property for public purposes without due compensation."

Please Joe, consider the usual and known implications of coercing women to give birth to unwanted, purchased babies.

A mother rages and buries her only son…

February 1st, 2005

When her son didn’t call her to wish her a happy 72nd birthday, Margaret Pardoel thought he might be in the Middle East.

She was right.
He was one of the British military who died when their C-130 Hercules crashed.

Margaret Pardoel, says she opposed the invasion of Iraq and was always fearful her son would be killed.

"I don’t think this should have gone on,"

she said.

"I think it’s just cold-blooded murder. Look at all those young American boys that have been slaughtered."

Mrs Pardoel says her son often spoke of his fears on the job.

"One night he phoned [and] he said, ‘Mum there’s nowhere to hide here, it’s just so dangerous, there’s nowhere to hide’,"

she said.

"He said it’s so dangerous, that’s all he said."


Image from here