Smart people saying smart things

Gabrielle Giffords: “A Senate in the Gun Lobby’s Grip”

Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, six of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.

… If we cannot make our communities safer with the Congress we have now, we will use every means available to make sure we have a different Congress, one that puts communities’ interests ahead of the gun lobby’s.

Sarah Posner: “‘People of Faith’ Want … Guns?”

Five years ago, [Arkansas Sen. Mark] Pryor was trotted out by Democratic activists as a great supporter of what was then a new effort: a political action committee named for a Bible verse, specifically Matthew 25. You know, the the one about caring for the least of these? Because with the families of the slaughtered children at Newtown on hand, Pryor voted to protect his own hide, so his constituents who fall for NRA lies won’t drive him out of office.

Just in case I’ve never made this clear before, legislation shouldn’t be based on the Bible. But if you’re going to co-chair the National Prayer Breakfast, and give a big speech about how pious and wonderful you and your praying Congressional colleagues are, you can’t also run around acting like a bought and paid for coward without people reaching for their Bibles to search for where you might have found the scriptural basis for your self-serving gutlessness.

William D. Lindsey: “Catholic Rhetoric About Abortion and Serving the Common Good”

Many of us who are Catholics have long since departed from the realm of rationality when the topic of abortion comes up. We now imagine that simply brandishing the word “abortion” and the phrase “baby killer” in the face of opponents is morally self-justifying discourse that ought to stop any and all rational interchange about the complex issues regarding the topic of abortion.

What we’re interested in, quite simply, is stopping conversation, not facilitating it. We’re not interested in convincing others of the rightness of our position. We’re interested, instead, in ramming that position down their throats, in bullying and coercing them — and in calling this pre-moral or outright immoral behavior “the” moral position.

We behave this way, in part, because we really don’t have a sound moral basis for our position. We haven’t given much thought at all to it. We haven’t studied the issues. We haven’t listened carefully to a variety of well-grounded positions about the issues.

Why would we have to do this, when it’s about killing babies, for God’s sake?! How can anyone begin to imagine that killing babies is worth discussing?! What’s wrong with you people?! It’s about killing babies! It’s about abortion!

Elizabeth Kaeton: “Plan A: Pay Attention”

Plan B is an emergency contraceptive. It is used to prevent pregnancy.

It does not “abort” a fetus because, 72 hours after unprotected, unplanned sexual intercourse, there is yet no fetus to abort. Plan B prevents pregnancy from happening in much the same way that other oral contraceptives do.

… It’s not rocket science. It’s biology. It’s the way the reproductive system has worked since the beginning.