Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) has a new motto. He’s even made it into a bumper sticker. “If babies had guns, they wouldn’t be aborted.” This is obviously an effort to get attention. It’s supposed to be provocative. But it’s actually quite stupid. By definition, babies have not been aborted. What he should have said is that embryos and fetuses would not be aborted if they were armed with guns. But the problem here is that they aren’t developed enough or strong enough to smart enough to load a weapon and pull the trigger. The other problem should be obvious but apparently is not. If “babies” had guns and they used them to protect themselves, their mothers would die and then so would the babies. So, in fact, if babies had guns, they would discover that guns are useless.
The train of thought underlying this motto is remarkably myopic. The absurdity of its logic highlights the dependency of the fetus. The futility of its logic highlights the error of thinking of a fetus as a separate entity that can survive without its mother. The more you think about Stockman’s motto the more obvious it becomes that a woman should be considered autonomous. Her health and well-being should come first and her consent should be required if she is going to share her blood and her minerals and her space with another being. What she definitely doesn’t need is for her “baby” to hold her at gunpoint.
Lets see if I can continue along this logical chain for Rep. Stockman, Texas Philosopher.
If my teeth had guns, they’d shoot the dentist before they could be pulled. That would really raise my dental bills. If my fingernails had guns, they’d shoot me before I could clip them. Ouch! Fortunately, they don’t and also, they are not sentient. Neither is a 3 month old fetus.
We should have just let Texas secede when we had the chance.
Texas has more than its fair share of idiots, but be fair. I recently did a geographic survey, and came out with Republicans who’ve said or done outrageous things that got national attention in every single state outside New England and Hawaii. Even unlikely places like Delaware (“I am not a witch”) or North Dakota (recently banning abortion after the sixth week). Every. Single. State.
It’s not a Texas problem, or a South problem. It’s a national problem. We have a noisy, nationwide movement of hate-spewing imbeciles on our hands, and it’s large enough to cause national political paralysis and untold misery on the state and local level. Teh Stupid really is epidemic at this point, and while they don’t have the numbers to take the White House easily, at the state level all of the Republican officeholders now being elected in those 43 states are spewing more or less idiotic versions of this nonsense.
If the Republican Party is serious about reforming itself, it’s still going to take at least a generation to flush all these people out. More likely, it isn’t or can’t, and the best we can hope for is to ridicule it into political irrelevance.
Minor correction: even in New England, New Hampshire and Maine qualified. So it’s 45 states. And I’m sure if I had more local knowledge I could come up with examples in the other 5 (VT, MA – Scott Brown doesn’t quite qualify – RI, CT – neither does Lieberman or McMahon, though the state legislature refusing gun reform after Newtown is awfully tempting – and HI).
Bqhatevwr.
LePage says or does something stupid at least once a day.
The stupid is strong with this, well, country, but Texas does have more than its share, as you said. Plus, the Texas form of stupid seems to be a particularly in-your-face kind of cowboy stupid, and it just rubs me the wrong way in politics even though it can be endearing in old movies and bugs-bunny cartoons. Sorry, I think I’m being fair to point that out.
If morans had brains, they wouldn’t elect Republicans. But they don’t, so they do.
Merriam Webster:
Perhaps this Stockman bozo meant to say that “babies with guns” could prevent infanticide because like infanticide is rampant and wing-nuts spend day and night protecting babies from their murderous parents and their elected wing-nut pols drone on endlessly in the halls of government about the scourge of infanticide.
(Note: while I seriously doubt that nurseries in the future will be kitted out with little pink and blue baby guns, it’s probably best not to underestimate merchants of death and the stupidity of American consumers.)
“The train of thought underlying this motto is remarkably myopic. The absurdity of its logic …”
Booman, as little credit as you’re giving this person, it’s too much.
The “train of though” undoubtedly went something like:
Of course, few people will actually be pissed off by it … as you point out, it’s supposed to be provocative, but it’s just stupid. But it will be seen as provocative by his base, so the real mission is accomplished.
yes, Booman already subjected this slogan to a hundred times more thought than its author. Or team of authors, as this Tex-ass Congressturd likely can’t write a sentence.
But the word “baby” was essential to the slogan because the wingnut dictionary doesn’t include “fetus”. It just says, “see baby”.
Really, to make his base voter happy, Stockman didn’t have to go past your #2, so it’s understandable that he wants extra credit.
Yee Haw! My middle child bruised my ribs from the inside because he was kicking and I don’t know lap swimming or something in there. Thank goodness he didn’t also have a gun in there.
Never thought I would ever be reading about let alone commenting on the idea of arming fetuses. We are talking pre-natal weapons now?
Crazed lib’ruls play Mozart for their pre-borns.
American Rightists fantasize about fetal gun play.
Tell you all you need to know about American politics…
Ok it was Rachmaninoff and Bach etc–not so much Mozart but yes I’m well placed in the lib’rul camp.
Makes for some nice sci-fi plots, though. Doc tries to save the baby by caesarian section, BLAM — a roomful of corpses and blood splatter like a scene from alien.
Surgeon attempts microsurgery to correct lethal fetal defect — Yippie-yi-yo-ki-yay!
Fetus gets pissed that mommy ate that nasty sushi — USA Number One with a Gun!
Next NRA campaign: Guns don’t kill people, fetuses kill people.
Midwife: uh oh, the kid seems to be twisted around somehow. Looks like the arm is coming out first….Arggh.
Trial of the year: was it suicide/murder or an accident? Was the perp capable of understanding the consequences of her action? If it was suicide, can the cell-clump be given a Catholic funeral? Can the bereaved sue the clump’s estate?
So c’mon guys — admit that the world would a lot less funny if not for all the dumbfuck christianist fools.
I forgot — think of the good times if the unaborted were quintuplets!
Ya gotta love it.
And since the “baby” would be heavily outnumbered by its evil maternal foes, only an assault weapon could satisfy its need for “personal protection”. Anything less potent is unthinkable. Of course, in utero background checks and burdensome registration are just the kind of unworkable gub’mint regulayshun that lib’ruls would impose! On even the helpless unborn babies!
But demonic lib’ruls just can’t empathize with ANY Traditional American awash in mounting danger from sea to shining sea! Like the isolated and heroic Wyoming ranchers and the ocean of violent crime they bravely face ev’ry day!! Without complaint!
I happen to be in Texas this week and the bumper sticker makes perfect sense here. You can put it next to the “show us you titties” sticker I saw this morning. It was on a clean upscales F150 with a Dallas Cowboys and NRA sticker.
Seen any “trucknuts” yet?
Giving new meaning to the term enemy within.