The US is on a very special wavelength, one which I like to call "full blown batshit crazy." It is a nation where a movie can be PG-13 if it depicts the murder of a human being, but must be rated R if it shows a nude female body in any context. It is a country where parents campaign to have educational material removed from their children's schools because their kids might learn something. It is where you can choose to get married up to 7 years before you can legally drink champagne at your wedding reception, and where you can choose a President before you can choose a beer at the pub. America is where the word "intellectual" is an insult, "elite" is a smear, and a word that used to mean "happy" now refers to the most miserable and abused minority in the developed world.

Now the US is a place where a majority of 77% claims it is being oppressed. I guess having a nationally-recognized holiday that is promoted by every major corporation isn't enough for the Christians, because they feel seriously Grinched by the perceived bigotry of the hellbound non-Jesusites of America. Shockingly, it turns out the Christian alarmists are full of crap.

Twenty seven major newspapers have covered the apparent anti-Christmas rule (allegedly forbidding the use of "Merry Christmas" in ads for holiday sales) instituted by Macy's Department Stores, despite the fact that Macy's doesn't actually have such a rule. Some 25 papers covered the City of Denver's refusal to allow a Christian float in the city's holiday parade, but the fact that religious floats have been excluded from that parade for a decade was somehow lost in the shuffle.

The Bible can easily explain to us why Christians need to feel martyred, and history can explain why organized religion would encourage a feeling of "us versus them" to increase its power over believers, so this seasonal spike in the Christian persecution complex is not really that surprising. What is surprising, and embarassing, is that this disgustingly selfish whining is given actual press time because our predominantly-Christian public audience is (aparently) comfortable with their own hypocricy. Wouldn't it be more Christian to devote a little attention to the 1.1 million American children who don't have homes this holiday season? Wouldn't Jesus be more devoted to feeding the 36 million Americans who live in households unable to purchase sufficient food, rather than feeding the egos of millionaires like Jerry Falwell?

Or would thinking about actual problems, and perhaps even giving a moment of thought to those who are in need, interfere with the "gimme, gimme, gimme!" spirit of this O-so-holy holiday?

As a human being, I have the right (at least in my country), to refuse to donate my blood, organs, tissues, or life to any other being. I have the right to refuse this even if I not longer need them (am dead). I have the right to refuse them if the being in question is my wife, parent, best friend, and even my own child. I have the right to refuse them even if the need was caused by my own negligence (a car accident for example). I have the right to refuse even when that negligence is criminal (drunk driving). And most importantly, I have that right even when I intentionally cause the damage that creates the necessity in a purposeful criminal act (I.E. If I shot you).

My question, then, is why abortion rights should be the single case where these rights are denied. Honest question, really, I simply have yet to hear a convincing response to this.

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else. "
- Theodore Roosevelt, on criticizing President Wilson during WWI - May 7th, 1918 - Kansas City Star

Just something to chew on.