Marching in the Oval Office

Saletan explains some of the ambiguities I wondered about in the SD anti-abortion law, which basically allow the use of morning-after pills to destroy what the bill calls “a living unborn human being” after conception, so long as the woman doesn’t know to a scientific certainty that she is definitely pregnant. Saletan says, “Welcome to world of ambiguity, pro-lifers.” Oh, nonsense. As long as pro-lifers were willing to prosecute doctors and not their patients, that ambiguity was always there.

Also, the law itself says that scientific advances since Roe show that “life begins at conception.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean, it’s obviously based on deep, willful ignorance, but does anyone know what it is supposed to mean?

There was a story about Bush’s visit to India that was supposed to be in the Times of India, but I couldn’t find it. Harper’s has it: those sniffer dogs that spiritually fouled up the Gandhi memorial. There were 65 dogs on the detail, and they were put up in the expensive hotel the White House took over completely. Staff were told to address the dogs as sergeant or major. Sir, arf, sir!

Bush celebrated International Women’s Day the same way he spends every other day: fantasizing about Condi. “The struggle for women’s right is a story of strong women willing to take the lead.” I’ll bet. “My administration is better off to have really capable women who feel comfortable marching in the Oval Office and giving the President their frank advice.” So there’s marching involved. Kinky. He says of Jenna and Not-Jenna, “And we are raising two young women to become independent, capable risk-takers -- (laughter)”. I guess alcohol poisoning is a risk, and it’s one they take boldly. He refers to some of the people present as “ambassadresses.” He then delved into history, informing us that, “We weren’t always an equal society in America”. As opposed to now, presumably. About sexual trafficking, he says “It breaks our hearts, our collective hearts, to realize many young girls are sold into sex slavery and we will use our prestige to stop that evil process.” That’s assuming Bush has more “prestige” in the world than Gary Glitter.

Alberto Gonzales, in Britain says that, at least according to the military’s investigation of the military (and who is better qualified to investigate the military than the military, I ask you?) there have only been five cases of torture in Guantanamo. So that’s ok then. He also muddied the definition of torture even further, saying, after refusing to pronounce on whether water boarding and other techniques fell under his definition of torture, “If we went around this room, people would have different definitions of what constitutes torture, depending on the circumstances.” Depending on the circumstances? Evidently the meaning of the word torture is situational. As for extraordinary rendition, “We do not render individuals where we believe it’s more likely than not that they will be tortured.” Count the number of weasel words in that sentence.