I just don't understand people sometimes.

That's "if you oppose the president, you hate America" stupid right there. I managed a few years in the pro-life movement without killing anyone, and I know a lot of people who have too.

But hey, I guess "tolerance" goes as far as your agreement with it. Which really doesn't make you different from those you mock.

 

ZING!

Score one for MM.

 

Lunatics are lunatics no matter if they are right-wing nuts or left-wing nuts.

To lump an entire movement together with the actions of the insane few is ridiculous.

 

The other thing is smallpotatoes and ADifferentOkie are right to a degree -- a lot of us would see an abortion clinic as a killing field. But we understood that saving the lives of the unborn and bombing or shooting up clinics are counter-productive. To effect actual change, we needed to work within the confines of the laws, and since bombing clinics was both wrong and illegal, we avoided the temptation and didn't do it.

And yes, there were some (Operation Rescue comes to mind) that tried to be more in-your-face about it, and when they trespassed, they got arrested. Which happens with the fringe of a lot of your causes. And yes, there's the occasional nut that does something like this. But using them to judge the entire anti-abortion movement is akin to condeming liberalism for the actions of the Weathermen.

 

I didn't have a problem with the sit-ins and whatnot, that is something the left used to get their point accross and it is what it is.

It is the violence that crosses the line.

 

Similar to the typical rant about "Where are those tolerant Muslims preaching against the suicide bombings"...

I understand that you didn't kill anyone. But there are plenty of those with murderous inclinations in the organization.

 

But that's just my point. If one of the hardline conservatives here were to post

... you don't think there'd be a hue and cry? And Fen (and you) wouldn't be in the first wave?

And I'm not sure where you get "plenty" from re: pro-lifers with murderous inclinations. I don't think Mason-Dixon's done a poll that asks pro-lifers "aren't you so angry at abortion doctors that you want to stab them in the face?". From antedoctal experience, I'd be absolutely floored if the percentage of people in the movement with "murderous inclinations" was more than %.05, even factoring in the ultra-fringe.

 

It has been done. It has been done over and over and over again. And everytime some bomb goes off in Iraq, the cry comes "When are the Muslims going to speak out." Well, I don't see a lot of speaking out from pro-lifers when it comes to these bombings.

I think the paucity of outspoken critics to such actions speaks for itself.

 

Jesus Christ, Pastor. You're seeing it RIGHT NOW on this board from the pro-lifers!

I'm pro-life and don't condone abortion at all unless the life of the mother or child is in danger (I guess that means my liberalism -- which is virulent in every other way -- will be questioned), but these bombings are absolutely reprehensible and the people who do them should be cast directly into the sodomite wing of a pound-me-in-the-ass prison. They're a fucking embarassment to people like me, who have a level-headed moral problem with abortion.

So I'm not down with painting everyone who is pro-life (or anti-abortion, I might as well stop couching my language) by its lunatic fringe.

MM's example is dead on. I'd be the first to jump on someone for slamming Muslims that way.

 

Again, there is a lunatic fringe on both sides that unfortunately bring down the sensible people on both sides.

 

For one thing, bombing or attempted bombings have been relatively rare in recent years; in fact, this is the first I've heard of one happening in some time. I do remember someone shooting up an abortion clinic in my hometown when I was a teenager, and the local National Right to Life chapter spoke out against it.

Meanwhile, though this is 10 years old, it didn't take much time on the Google to come up with this press release from National Right to Life about the abortion clinic bombing in Atlanta:

See above, and I can probably hit The Google for more examples.

So it's inappropriate for people to condemn moderate Muslims for not coming out against its radical element1, but perfectly acceptable to cast the whole of pro-life advocates as "murderous bastards"? Some consistency would be nice.

1 -- I don't hold the whole of Islam responsible for 9/11, the USS Cole or any other radical atrocity. But that's the most obvious parallel in a discussion on this board about letting bad apples spoil the bushel.