Babies in the news

Conservative Republicans (CRs) almost always describe themselves as God-fearing. That's an accurate description, but doesn't go far enough. These folks fear God and damn near everything else you can name. Liberals, Mexicans, Muslims, and homosexuals are a few things that come to mind. There's not a bigger bunch of wussies and wimps on the planet than CRs.

I discussed the fear of Mexicans with some members of my family recently. One of the big fears that CRs have is that illegal Mexican immigrants will gobble up all the public welfare benefits so that good God-fearing citizens won't be able to get any. My experience in the welfare business was that illegal immigrants didn't qualify for benefits, but their child might if he/she was born in the USA. This led to a heated discussion over the merits of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which I've subsequently learned has been under attack by flavor-of-the-day Hucklebuck.

The 14th amendment was ratified in July 1868; it was one of the "reconstruction" amendments proposed after the Civil War. Among its provisions, the amendment basically established the rule that if a person was born in the US, he was a citizen with equal protection under the law, the intent being to resolve the status of former slaves and settle their legal rights.

Now we have the "anchor baby" phenomenon, where illegal immigrants have babies here who are considered US citizens and are sometimes eligible for various government benefits. This has the CRs in an uproar, and Hucklebuck, in another example of blatant pandering, has suggested that the constitution be amended to take care of the problem. The fact that this position seems to contradict his earlier utterances shouldn't be alarming: this bunch of GOP candidates has a record of flip-flopping that makes John Kerry look like the model of consistency.

It's a good thing the native Americans (Indians) were too busy hunting for food to hold conventions and pass laws. They'd have had one hell of an illegal immigration problem, and it would've been a lot worse than the one the CRs have.

One other news story that caught my eye: The anti-abortion crowd has a new gimmick, involving the exploitation of men who have been traumatized by abortion. These men have had their lives destroyed because their sexual partners chose to have abortions. I haven't yet figured out how this meshes with other segments of the morality agenda. Here's my recommendation: Guys, avoid trauma....wear a condom.