Quote :

"Most of all, however, I'm disgusted by the the worship of retardation exhibited by Christians in response to Trig's rise to national prominence, as in this National Review article by Michael Franc: "Children with special needs," Gov. Sarah Palin said during her acceptance speech at the Republican convention, "inspire a special love." As someone who grew up alongside a brother with Down Syndrome, I can attest to that observation. But these special children, and the special adults they grow up to be, inspire something else of equal importance. When these little, unexpected ambassadors of God enter our lives, they offer us the opportunity to rise to that greatest of all challenges — to treat others as we would want to be treated. Their presence, in short, elevates all of us. That's a good expression of the mind-set of so many of today's devout Christians. They are not content to limit reason to make room for faith. They go further: they laud retardation as a virtue. In the process, they must -- and do -- disparage normal human intelligence as a vice. Such people are not motivated by a soft heart. If they were, they would adamantly defend abortion as a moral means of freeing parents from the prospect of endless sacrifice to a retarded child. They would regard abortion as a moral way to prevent the infliction of a miserable, degraded life on the person that will emerge from the womb. Instead, they want to create more mentally defective and perpetually dependent children by outlawing abortion. The people who worship retardation reject human reason as a value. They're as anti-man as the deep ecologists who regard mankind as a cancer on the earth. Frankly, one wonders why such people don't lobotomize themselves, if retardation is such a boon to their fellow man. "

http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/2008/09/worship-of-retardation.shtml


LOL

9/17/2008 12:03:36 PM

what the fuck trigness is that?

9/17/2008 12:05:49 PM

I give up; I am tired of tring to figure out the christian right. Had a liberal said the quoted Palin comments the conservatives would have just brushed it off as more left-wing hippy shit crying over equalness for those of mental handicap much like for all the other minorities.

Same goes for her daughter's pregnancy. I grew up under the moral structure that having a child out of wedlock as a teenager was a disgrace and deplorable; surpassing that of getting caught doing drugs. We have all heard the Christian Right's argument to many socially liberal policies on how it leads to an immoral society and your daughters will be pregant at 16 blah blah blah.

Yet they can somehow can re-rationalize their approach and applaud Palin's daughters bastard baby b.c at least we know she is against abortion! What would the media spin have been had her daughter had an abortion against her mother's wishes. Would evangelicals still have been supportive?

9/17/2008 12:13:39 PM

I despise palin, but that article was retarded.

9/17/2008 12:45:13 PM

I was unaware Trig had a "rise to national prominence", I guess I dont watch enough TV

Quote :

"They go further: they laud retardation as a virtue. In the process, they must -- and do -- disparage normal human intelligence as a vice. "

WTF? no one is saying "YAY!! My newborn is retarded" or "Look at that retarded man, I want to be just like him when I grow up." Not even devout christians.

Quote :

"They would regard abortion as a moral way to prevent the infliction of a miserable, degraded life on the person that will emerge from the womb."

I have a cousin with Down syndrome and to say that her life is miserable and degraded is frankly pretty offensive. Does she face more obstacles and have a harder life than most of us? well duh, But she is still happy and capable of all the emotions and thoughts that "normal" human beings have. Its obvious that the author hasnt had much interaction with the mentally handicap other than his former job flipping burgers.

Didn't the Nazis also support killing the mentally handicap?

There are so many reasons to attack Palin, but attacking her because she supports her mentally handicap child is pretty weak and his assertion that Devout Christians worship the retarded is laughable (we all know they worship power)

9/17/2008 12:53:51 PM

Quote :

"There are so many reasons to attack Palin, but attacking her because she supports her mentally handicap child is pretty weak and his assertio"

I will concede this is pretty weak by the liberals. If she wants to fight that battle then so be it; that does not mean she should be able to make this choice for everyone else. Personally if my wife felt as I did I would rather "retry" than have to make the necessary time and financial concession required to raise a down syndrome child.

9/17/2008 12:59:49 PM

Quote :

"WTF? no one is saying "YAY!! My newborn is retarded" "

not directly, no - but there is undeniably some kind of sense among hardcore Christians that being "blessed" with a handicapped baby is some kind of sacred right that only the strongest can survive. The whole "God would never give us more than we can handle" train of thoughts. It's almost as if they think god has to dole out a certain quota of retarded babies a year, and he only chooses the most faithful to give them to because they are the only ones that can handle it.

9/17/2008 1:03:10 PM

i thought this thread was about

9/17/2008 1:04:19 PM

^^^Yeah, I wanted to attack his idea that the religous right worships retardation and that the mentally handicap are miserable and useless not really his stance on abortion.

[Edited on September 17, 2008 at 1:07 PM. Reason : ^^]

[Edited on September 17, 2008 at 1:08 PM. Reason : ^^^]

9/17/2008 1:07:34 PM

^^^ That's pretty cynical. The mindset you're referring to is nothing more than a coping mechanism for dealing with unfortunate circumstances.

9/17/2008 1:11:59 PM

^ yeah, well..... isn't that all religion is anyway?

9/17/2008 1:16:45 PM

Sure. I just don't think anyone is hoping to receive one of God's special little full-retard gifts.

9/17/2008 1:28:27 PM

Quote :

"Didn't the Nazis also support killing the mentally handicap?"

fallacy much?

9/17/2008 5:23:18 PM

^ not really. Why does it matter when you kill the mentally handicapped?

9/17/2008 5:29:09 PM

why does it matter that Nazis did it?

9/17/2008 5:47:19 PM

This article reminds me of A Modest Proposal except without the sarcasm.

9/17/2008 6:00:04 PM

Yikes. Well, Palin sort of offends me because of her extreme abortion stance and the fact that I'm not entirely sure what I would do if I found out I was pregnant with a handicapped child, the reason being I'm not sure I could live with watching people make fun of/subject my child to humiliation(and we all know that children with down syndrome get made fun of much too often), and while my personal opinion is that people like Sarah Palin are ridiculous for many, many, many reasons, her decision to have a child with down syndrome is definitely not one of them. See Sarah, I can respect your decisions, how about you do the same for the rest of us?

9/17/2008 9:14:33 PM

liberals are cold hearted

they care nothing for love or life. they believe in survival of the fittest, yet when it boils down to reality they avoid even survival of the fittest at all costs and try to disperse the taxes evenly b/c they wouldn't survive in a survivalist world.

hypocritical liars.

[Edited on September 17, 2008 at 11:08 PM. Reason : ,]

9/17/2008 11:07:24 PM

are humans not naturally cold hearted animals?

we exploit and kill each other at the drop of a hat.

we have no common enemy/enemies like most animals.

9/17/2008 11:29:06 PM

This article was not written by a liberal BTW.

9/17/2008 11:29:44 PM

WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING..

AM I RITE!

9/17/2008 11:30:24 PM

Quote :

"liberals are cold hearted they care nothing for love or life. they believe in survival of the fittest, yet when it boils down to reality they avoid even survival of the fittest at all costs and try to disperse the taxes evenly b/c they wouldn't survive in a survivalist world. hypocritical liars."

The level of competition in "liberal academia" is echelons higher than you will ever experience or will ever be capable of excelling in

just an F Y I

9/18/2008 1:04:18 AM

Quote :

"liberals are cold hearted"

Didn't you say that you are a liberal?

Was it a lie when you said that you were?

Or have you gone from liberal idiot to neo-con idiot in the past 20 days?

9/18/2008 5:00:19 AM

Quote :

"The level of competition in "liberal academia" is echelons higher than you will ever experience or will ever be capable of excelling in "

Until you get tenure.

9/18/2008 9:42:46 AM

Good luck getting tenure

Besides most professors I know (at respectable institutions) with tenure are precisely the ones that remain productive past receiving tenure. It's selection bias -- the ones who actually get it aren't the type to sit around on their asses afterwards. It takes a monumental amount of effort between the end of high school and the beginning of tenure, not to mention a slew of ever-increasing bars to jump over (while other people try to elbow you out of the way).

In many cases, tenure serves as a good relaxation of prior concerns so that they can research precisely the issues they feel interesting and important. In other words, it's more for academic/intellectual freedom and less for laying out in a hammock like you imagine it as.

[Edited on September 18, 2008 at 9:46 AM. Reason : .]

9/18/2008 9:43:42 AM

hey look, mcdanger is masturbating his ego again.

9/18/2008 9:51:23 AM

No way dude. Grad school makes you feel stupid. If I had an ego it's long gone by now.

[Edited on September 18, 2008 at 9:53 AM. Reason : .]

9/18/2008 9:52:26 AM

Quote :

"they care nothing for love or life. they believe in survival of the fittest, yet when it boils down to reality they avoid even survival of the fittest at all costs and try to disperse the taxes evenly b/c they wouldn't survive in a survivalist world. "

You can't make the conclusion that liberals are these things due to the statements made in this article because the author is NOT a liberal. This author advocates survival of the fittest in a world without taxes and is a laissez-faire capitalist.

It's fallacious to make broad conclusions about liberals based on an article written by a non-liberal.

9/18/2008 11:15:47 AM

Quote :

"It's fallacious to make broad conclusions about liberals based on an article written by a non-liberal."

It's similarly a fallacy to make broad conclusions about liberals based on one's imagination but that doesn't stop him either.

9/18/2008 11:25:47 AM

Quote :

"It's similarly a fallacy to make broad conclusions about liberals based on one's imagination but that doesn't stop him either."

LOL

9/18/2008 11:28:21 AM