CDeb

Unfortunately, there are many children born into terrible circumstances. However, I find it frightening that we as human beings have set ourselves up to make value judgements as to which lives of our fellow humans are worth living. (I don't think you need me to go into the proverbial slippery slope that this presents.) When we make such judgements, we are making the worst of bad situations. Killing such children doesn't undo the horrific acts that led to their conception, all it does is end the life of a person who had no "choice" in how they were conceived. Besides, as you say, God lets everything happen for a reason. Perhaps there is a reason he allowed those children to be conceived in the first place. I know of such children. I know a pretty little girl who was a crack baby. She wasn't blind but had severe health problems, requiring much hospitalization. It was a trying time for her adoptive parents, but she is an amazing little girl now. I'm glad that someone did not decide for her that her life was not worth living. To answer your question, I know many couples that would like to adopt children. Some would take on such challenging circumstances, even seek it out, some would not. This is where our disconnect is. Admittedly, I may have some ignorance here, but I cannot see where killing a child as a matter of convenience is the lesser of two evils. Yes, it is an extremely difficult act to commit. And I used the word "convenience," one of the definitions of which is something that makes ones life easier. (That does not mean it is an easy decision and I never meant to imply such) And, in essence, that is what an abortion does. The mother is making a decision about what she believes will make her life easier. Some may misguidedly THINK that they are also saving the child from a terrible life. Pity that the child never gets to make the decision for themselves. Yes, I know a couple such women, and my heart aches for them.

Good question, and I'm glad that you want to have an intelligent discussion. While my faith no-doubt buttresses my personal position on abortion, said position is built on a foundation of logic and science, not religion. In brief, there's no doubt that children in the womb meet the scientific standard of life (we can discuss more if you wish). I come by that stance not based on my faith. But to answer your question, I have already forgiven them. I do not stand in judgement of fellow humans faced with difficult decisions in an honest attempt to get themselves out of it. I pity them and wish that they could see that there is another way. I do not hate such people, I only wish for their act to cease. If that "choice" doesn't include preventing another human being from making the same choice about their own body, I'm in agreement. Problem is, she's not only making that "choice" for herself. If we're going to be religious, yes, we ALL get our judgement for our sins. However, that doesn't mean that we allow an evil to exist just because "they'll get their's in the end."

PP aimed it at themselves. Do you mean to tell me that such a product does not indicate that one is in favor of abortion? Why would one produce or wear such an article otherwise? nmainguy, quite frankly you're stretching the bounds of human reason. Regardless, you accuse me of diversion, yet this whole line of thought is merely a diversion created by YOU over my choice of the term "pro-abortion." You have yet to provide me with any FACTS in support of it, so until you do, it's not factual, it's your opinion, a red herring attempt to hide the truth of what an abortion really is. A scare tactic perpetuated on the American people to distract them from the reality of this "choice." It's not demonizing, it's calling this "choice" what it is. Again, it is a FACT that a living human being is killed in a quite brutal manner for the sake of another human's convenience. If you want to call that "demonizing," then go right ahead, but I have said nothing ill regarding pro-abortionists, only their indefensible position. If you and those of your ilk, be they the majority or not, don't like those facts, that's not my problem. And you'll be more credible when you stop accusing me of things I haven't done. Can't say I blame you, as I am having one right now.

Planned Parenthood themselves, a couple of years ago began producing "I had an abortion" shirts. http://archive.salon.com/mwt/feature/2004/...s/index_np.html Yeah, I doesn't say, "I'm pro-abortion" or anything as such, but it certainly implies a matter of pride, a matter of being in favor of what one has done. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything different from PP. Now I personally know a couple of women who have had abortions and their feelings about it are anything but proud, and personally I feel that the vast majority of women who've had one probably feel the same way. This logic is quite fallacious. Our society will always have lots of ills, that doesn't mean they should be legal just because a law won't totally eliminate them. And I would hardly call 4,000 a day in the United States (200 in Texas alone) "rare." You can darn near eradicate it if you provide a support system to women who feel that an abortion is their only choice. I would not be in favor of banning it outright without that support system. While I think that many pro-life organizations do a good job of this, I think they should focus more on it. A woman in this position is very vulnerable and scared, and needs good advice, medical care, financial assistance, and possibly protection from others. My hope is that our society can give them a chance to give their child a chance. I am a huge advocate of education and alternatives to abortion. There are millions of couples (yes, millions) in the U.S. who would love to adopt a child, for starters. The demand well exceeds the supply (to put it not-so-delicately) of children in the U.S. Not to mention the others that I mentioned above. Ah yes, that's all it's about, isn't it? Forget the fact that a living human being is killed in a quite brutal manner for the sake of another human's convenience. You can spin it any way you want to, and make it sound as oppressive as you like, but that fact doesn't go away. Such as how Sens. Gore and Leibermann used to be in favor of laws limiting abortion until they became national candidates?

Oh really? Silly me, I keep forgetting that for some people, comparing the quite large portion of the American citizenry that would like to see an end to the killing of children in the womb with a regime that murdered non-believers by the thousands is not only un-childish, but quite civilized. Just enjoying a laugh at your expense. The rabidly pro-abortion crowd is heavily invested in villification of its opponents to justify its unjustifiable position and your word choice throughout this thread is indicative of such. My word choice was a satire of your own, which, in hindsight, didn't translate well in this medium.

Good to see that the baby brain suckers have been practicing their inane rhetoric.

My parents took us to Hanah Barberra Land around 1984 when I was 6-7 years old. They had a place where you could stand in front of a blue screen and have a VHS made of you with different characters in it. Me, my younger sister, and my dad did one where we were in a haunted mansion with Scooby Doo and Shaggy. One of the park workers would be off camera telling you what motions you had to do at different times and then you got to see the film at the end. My parents still have that tape, it's hilarious. I also have some of the same memories of Games People play on 1960. It's hard to believe that nothing has been done with that property. GPP closed around 1990-ish, and the place still has many remnants of the old park.

Whew! For a moment I thought they had signed the Coal Miner's Daughter!

I love 'em! >

You gotta get up in time to wake the roosters, that's fo' sho'.

Some memories of Astroworld: * Doing the previously-mentioned quarter trick on the Sky Screamer (although we only used pennies, quarters being too valuable). It was fun to watch them float there for a second or two then fling off to oblivion when you hit the curve at the bottom. * Figuring out where the camera was that took your picture on the Viper and flipping it off (dumb kids, we were). * Taz's Texas Tornado's restraints sucked. The g-forces at the bottom of drops were so bad, your spine would compress, further retracting the restraint and leaving your back crunched for the rest of the ride. Agony even at 20 years old. I only rode that ride once. *The two strategies for riding the Bamboo Shoot: either piling everyone in the back so the boat would skip across the water at the bottom or piling everyone in the front so the boat would plow through the water and drench us all. * I remember being afraid of Excalibur (Excalibur for goodness sakes!) as a child, but then riding it a few years later thinking, "Geez, I could practically stand up and ride this thing!" So what was the nature of the disagreement regarding parking with Harris County?

I must say, I have a vested interest in this decision, as I own a house in Villa Forest off of Forestwood. The proposed location may be a bit far to have a significant impact for my property, but it's a lot better than being in CS. From an access standpoint, I think the chosen location is a great one.

Wow, they do Area during the week now? It was always on Saturdays before. -- Westfield Band, c/o 1995

A previous Eagle story said that it was on the west side of Bryan.

It's amazing how much Westfield HS has changed. I grew up in Olde Oaks (parents still live there) and graduated from Westfield 11 years ago. It was a pretty solid school then. I would have put the top of my class up against that from any other public school in the area. There was some gang activity around, but it was pretty easy to avoid and I never felt unsafe at school. I guess being in band helped a lot as well. Nowadays, from what I hear, it's a pretty scary place. A good friend of mine, who actually graduated from Klein HS the same year, ended up teaching at WHS and just left last year to teach at Klein Oak. She had plenty of horror stories, results of changing demographics and incompetent administration. It will be interesting to see if the new high school changes things at Westfield for the better, if at all. Man, you have no idea how right you are. Even in the early 90's, when Westfield was still a pretty good school, we always had a lot of contact with kids from Klein ISD schools through church activites. It always pissed me off to hear some of my classmates whine about how much they wish they went to Klein instead. It was pretty sad.