Examiner columnist blasts "FreeRepugnant.com"

sf examiner ^ | Feb 15, 02 | Debby Morse

[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

[RonDog]

LOL!! For the "Royal Irish" version of that invitation, see www.FiremanSong.com

[BJungNan]

Sounds like a clever rationale to curb free speech.

Well, talk to the big boss on FR then 'cause he's been know to curb free speech every now and then. Your reaching for a point. If you don't think so, try testing the waters with a post you think will get bumbed off of here.

Now, do you want to have a serious discussion or are you going to play like a liberal and keep changing the subject?

[MHGinTN]

Please add my 'hehe' to yours! FR rocks, bigtime!

The people like Debby 'dubious journo' will never comprehend that every living human individual began their life in their body at conception, then a woman's body gave life support while that individual body underwent the earliest living functions, functions which continue along a progressive trail of individual life with hallmarks such as puberty, etc. Individual human life begins at conception ... for my brainy friend, supercat ... even if a second or even third individual human life branches off of the initial human life begun at conception; does that mean even a zygote can 'beget'? Hmmm ...!

[MHGinTN]

Ping

[Urbane_Guerilla]

Actually, considering all the stupidity which gets posted on FR, it was wonderful to see that every single thing this columnist quoted from here was very good and insightful. It made me proud by the high level of articulation. Folks, you are so good.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Hi Marvin!

Bump!

[Harrison Bergeron]

"Where she sees "a bloody image meant to shock" you and I see a tiny baby struggling to hold on to its life - a life that the writer denies exists, and the writer wants to deny legal protection."

What you said.

[Harrison Bergeron]

"Unfortunately, it's hard for outside observers to get any idea of how [liberal] things are filtered; since such a small fraction of e.g. Rush Limbaugh's [liberal vs. conservative] listeners get on the air it's tough to know how the [liberal vs. conservative] sampling that do get on compare with the audience at large."

From my about once weekly listen to the Limbaugh show, including "open mike Fridays," I'd say that, like most talk radio hosts, he goes begging for liberal callers who can hold their own. At Philly's WPHT talk station, the hosts consistently take extra trouble to ask for listeners who will, for example, take the liberal side of the "Mumia" issue or the public schools issue. Invariably, when they get a taker, it will be some hotheaded liberal racist claiming vast right wing conspiracies by the "white establishment."

[Angelique]

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 - in the name of Free Republic - that can be used against the good name of this noble endeavor.

Thank you for the ping to this article. Upon reading the orginal column, I understand that there would be a lot of venting about the criticism of Bush, and, of course, the ensuing comments about abortion. However, this is a lib columnsit, writing for a VERY liberal paper, and there is not one comment that could persuade her to a pro life position. I believe on this topic, the following quote is applicable:

"It is as useless to argue with those who have renounced the use and authority of reason as to administer medication to the dead."--Thomas Jefferson

[Mercuria]

Say it with me, sisters:

"DEBBY MORSE, BRING ME A BEER!!"

And now, a favorite quote from one of my favorite paleo-feminists:

When we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

[sweetliberty]

Has the troll raised it's ugly head since the beginning of this thread or are we to wait for next week's column?

[MissAmericanPie]

Mrs. Stanton sounds like good people to me.

[fineright]

"I only buy the Examiner during fishing season."
LOL

[Fraulein]

Bump!

[Caleb1411]

BTW, what does Caleb1411 mean? Caleb from Joshua's time???

Precisely. The same Caleb (my OT hero) who in battle claimed his inheritance at the age of 85 because "he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel." There's a guy worth emulating.

[colorado tanker]

Thanks for the ping RonDog and ditto regarding MissAmericanPie's comments. The irony of Debby's claim of "privacy" for her uterus is overbearing on the heals of what NOW and Planned Parenthood call V-Day, Vagina Day, when we are treated to public performances of the Vagina Monologues and public displays of female private parts as "art." "Privacy" is only invoked when they want to do something very bad to someone very innocent that even they are ashamed to make public.

[RonDog]

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Mrs. Stanton sounds like good people to me.

From http://www.americaslibrary.gov/pages/aa_stanton_friends_1.html:

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at work

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

In 1851, Stanton started working with Susan B. Anthony, a well-known abolitionist. The two women made a great team. Anthony managed the business affairs of the women's rights movement while Stanton did most of the writing. Together they edited and published a woman's newspaper, the Revolution, from 1868 to 1870. In 1869, Anthony and Stanton formed the National Woman Suffrage Association. They traveled all over the country and abroad, promoting woman's rights.

LOL! They worked together sort of like a certain modern day duo.

[MissAmericanPie]

Abbot and Costello? LOL

[RonDog]

LOL! Them, too!
But I meant the "Dynamic Duo" over at www.UnSpun.web.com