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conuly
I know some of you, because I friended you first (at least, I know who you are), but others... not so much. And I suspect I have people reading who haven't friended me.
So, guess what time it is? Yes, it's time for Connie's periodic Statement of Principles!
On Abortion
I firmly support the right of every woman to have an abortion if she wants, for whatever reason. Even though there are some reasons I disagree with (say, having an abortion because it's the wrong sex), I fully support your right to get that abortion, and unless you ask me what I think, I won't tell you.
I also firmly support the right of every woman not to have an abortion unless she wants to. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that the abortion rate in this country went up during Bush's term. I think it's a crying shame that people who want children feel they can't have them because they can't take care of them.
Autistic things
I do believe that mercury should be taken out of vaccines. This is basic.
I do not believe that mercury is related to autism.
While I support the rights of people to chase after mercury all they want (and, indeed, almost prefer it, as it means they're moving farther away from the idea of a "cure", I don't like how this means they spend a lot of money on pointless and dangerous treatments for a problem that doesn't exist.
I don't know enough about ABA to actually comment, and I'm aware that there's a lot of spread in that area. However, if you are being violent to your autistic child, or emotionally abusive, or if you're telling them that it's not all right to be them, or that they are picked on because they're autistic, instead of because the other kids have problems, I don't support this. Normal doesn't mean better, it means average.
I fully believe that we'd all be better served by some people learning a little thing I like to call tolerance.
BSG
New one, definitely.
Religion
I'm an agnostic. This is the position that seems most logical mihi. However, the concept of God that some people have frankly scares me. If God is inclined to send people, good people, to Hell for not worshipping him, then, as a matter of conscience, I would have to go to Hell myself, no matter what I believed. Of course, I never *did* like it when people used the "because I said so" argument on me...
My father outwardly said that everyone has a right to be religious, and that we should respect that, but in retrospect it's clear that he was really very much anti-religion. This has influenced my thoughts. Consciously, though, I feel that if your religion makes you feel better, and helps you to be a better person, then it's all for the good.
I'm very interested in the religions of other people. However, I don't anticipate that I'll ever believe any of them.
Gay rights
Remember what I said about tolerance up there? Yeah. I mean it.
Race, gender, all that good stuff
TOLERANCE, EXPLETIVE PROFANITY!
I'm not saying it again. If there's no good reason to care if somebody is gay/white/female/left-handed, then I don't want to hear about it. And, wow, there's never a good reason. Well. Sometimes. But not often.
Linguistics
Firmly non-prescriptivist. That seems most logical.
Star Trek
DS9 rocked, never liked TOS, I can take-or-leave the rest of them.
Latin
Won't be dead until there are none left here who are faithful to it. Anybody wanna start a Latin-speaking commune?
Death Penalty
I won't even discuss this until there is no chance, ever, of a wrongful conviction. Then, maybe, maybe we can have a discussion on it.
Breastfeeding
Best thing for the kid except in a minority of circumstances. Cheaper, easier, better. And no, the "I wasn't breastfed, and I turned out okay" argument isn't helpful. Not only are you comparing yourself primarily to other people who weren't breastfed, but you have no way of knowing how you would've turned out if you'd been breastfed. Anecdotal evidence is crap.
I'd much rather see more milk banks than more subsidized formula.
If you are incredibly against nursing in public, I don't want to talk to you about it. If you try, there will be words. By words, I mean insults.
However, if you formula-fed your kid, I promise not to randomly call you a crappy parent. Hell, even if you bring it up (though I would rather you didn't, because it makes me feel as though you think you need to justify your actions to me, when you really don't), I won't. Even if I thought that were true (and I really don't, seeing as how there's a lot more to life than infancy and toddlerhood), telling you so would be counterproductive. My goal isn't to make everyone go into their little holes, hate me, and be less likely to breastfeed. Seriously.
Routine Infant Circumcision, earpiercing, etc.
Cosmetic surgeries should only be performed on people who are able to give consent. Infants aren't. Period, end of discussion. All the evidence shows that the foreskin, unlike the appendix, is there for a reason, therefore, except in a minority of cases, circumcision is unnecessary.
However, as with the breastfeeding, unless I think you circumcised your kid because you thought it was the wrong thing to do (which is unlikely), I promise not to insult you over it. Really. Because that's counterproductive. I'd rather people didn't try to justify their decisions to me, because, honestly, they're not changing my mind, and all that justification makes me more judgmental, but really, I'm never going to blame people for making what they consider to be the right choice, even though I freely admit that I consider it the wrong choice, and am not changing my mind over that unless I see some serious new evidence.
(And it's amazing, on these two issues, the number of people who try to explain things to me. Dudes. I'm not your priest, nor your kid. If you made the choice you thought was right, honestly, I'm not criticizing you for that decision, even if I think there were other choices. And if you're about to say "but for me there weren't", well, that's great. I don't need the explanation from the entire population of LiveJournal, especially if I've heard and commiserated with this story before, and if you think that means you, that's 'cause it does.)
Weather
I like it. And isn't it more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be?
I prefer the rain to the heat, and the fog to the snow, and that's about it.
People
Eh. I can take 'em or leave 'em.
Harry Potter
Good books, but not great. JKR needs an editor or two, one to go over her writing, the other to make sure she doesn't make major continuity errors.
Bush
Sucks.
War
In general, sucks. In specific, the war in Iraq is illegal, immoral, and wasteful.
Kids
I like them well enough when they're little, though as they get older and turn into people, it depends on the people they become. Don't want any of my own, because 1. don't want to be in a relationship long enough to get pregnant 2. don't want to be pregnant or give birth and 3. am still not convinced I'm all that responsible. If I were to have kids, I'd adopt.
That said, I'd be more than willing to take in any young family members of mine if I had to, because I suspect I'm better equipped to be responsible than I give myself credit for being.
Latin (again)
Eats brains and is evil. This is a change from what I said earlier, I know, but I just found myself thinking that credit is in the third person....
There's more, I'm sure.
If you think you're only going to argue with me on a lot of these, and don't like arguing, here's your warning. If you like arguing, but are more into flaming than discussion, go away now, please. If you agree with most of these, or you like arguing with what you don't agree with, great. Nothing I love better than a good discussion. Hi, welcome!
So, guess what time it is? Yes, it's time for Connie's periodic Statement of Principles!
On Abortion
I firmly support the right of every woman to have an abortion if she wants, for whatever reason. Even though there are some reasons I disagree with (say, having an abortion because it's the wrong sex), I fully support your right to get that abortion, and unless you ask me what I think, I won't tell you.
I also firmly support the right of every woman not to have an abortion unless she wants to. It doesn't surprise me in the slightest that the abortion rate in this country went up during Bush's term. I think it's a crying shame that people who want children feel they can't have them because they can't take care of them.
Autistic things
I do believe that mercury should be taken out of vaccines. This is basic.
I do not believe that mercury is related to autism.
While I support the rights of people to chase after mercury all they want (and, indeed, almost prefer it, as it means they're moving farther away from the idea of a "cure", I don't like how this means they spend a lot of money on pointless and dangerous treatments for a problem that doesn't exist.
I don't know enough about ABA to actually comment, and I'm aware that there's a lot of spread in that area. However, if you are being violent to your autistic child, or emotionally abusive, or if you're telling them that it's not all right to be them, or that they are picked on because they're autistic, instead of because the other kids have problems, I don't support this. Normal doesn't mean better, it means average.
I fully believe that we'd all be better served by some people learning a little thing I like to call tolerance.
BSG
New one, definitely.
Religion
I'm an agnostic. This is the position that seems most logical mihi. However, the concept of God that some people have frankly scares me. If God is inclined to send people, good people, to Hell for not worshipping him, then, as a matter of conscience, I would have to go to Hell myself, no matter what I believed. Of course, I never *did* like it when people used the "because I said so" argument on me...
My father outwardly said that everyone has a right to be religious, and that we should respect that, but in retrospect it's clear that he was really very much anti-religion. This has influenced my thoughts. Consciously, though, I feel that if your religion makes you feel better, and helps you to be a better person, then it's all for the good.
I'm very interested in the religions of other people. However, I don't anticipate that I'll ever believe any of them.
Gay rights
Remember what I said about tolerance up there? Yeah. I mean it.
Race, gender, all that good stuff
TOLERANCE, EXPLETIVE PROFANITY!
I'm not saying it again. If there's no good reason to care if somebody is gay/white/female/left-handed, then I don't want to hear about it. And, wow, there's never a good reason. Well. Sometimes. But not often.
Linguistics
Firmly non-prescriptivist. That seems most logical.
Star Trek
DS9 rocked, never liked TOS, I can take-or-leave the rest of them.
Latin
Won't be dead until there are none left here who are faithful to it. Anybody wanna start a Latin-speaking commune?
Death Penalty
I won't even discuss this until there is no chance, ever, of a wrongful conviction. Then, maybe, maybe we can have a discussion on it.
Breastfeeding
Best thing for the kid except in a minority of circumstances. Cheaper, easier, better. And no, the "I wasn't breastfed, and I turned out okay" argument isn't helpful. Not only are you comparing yourself primarily to other people who weren't breastfed, but you have no way of knowing how you would've turned out if you'd been breastfed. Anecdotal evidence is crap.
I'd much rather see more milk banks than more subsidized formula.
If you are incredibly against nursing in public, I don't want to talk to you about it. If you try, there will be words. By words, I mean insults.
However, if you formula-fed your kid, I promise not to randomly call you a crappy parent. Hell, even if you bring it up (though I would rather you didn't, because it makes me feel as though you think you need to justify your actions to me, when you really don't), I won't. Even if I thought that were true (and I really don't, seeing as how there's a lot more to life than infancy and toddlerhood), telling you so would be counterproductive. My goal isn't to make everyone go into their little holes, hate me, and be less likely to breastfeed. Seriously.
Routine Infant Circumcision, earpiercing, etc.
Cosmetic surgeries should only be performed on people who are able to give consent. Infants aren't. Period, end of discussion. All the evidence shows that the foreskin, unlike the appendix, is there for a reason, therefore, except in a minority of cases, circumcision is unnecessary.
However, as with the breastfeeding, unless I think you circumcised your kid because you thought it was the wrong thing to do (which is unlikely), I promise not to insult you over it. Really. Because that's counterproductive. I'd rather people didn't try to justify their decisions to me, because, honestly, they're not changing my mind, and all that justification makes me more judgmental, but really, I'm never going to blame people for making what they consider to be the right choice, even though I freely admit that I consider it the wrong choice, and am not changing my mind over that unless I see some serious new evidence.
(And it's amazing, on these two issues, the number of people who try to explain things to me. Dudes. I'm not your priest, nor your kid. If you made the choice you thought was right, honestly, I'm not criticizing you for that decision, even if I think there were other choices. And if you're about to say "but for me there weren't", well, that's great. I don't need the explanation from the entire population of LiveJournal, especially if I've heard and commiserated with this story before, and if you think that means you, that's 'cause it does.)
Weather
I like it. And isn't it more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be?
I prefer the rain to the heat, and the fog to the snow, and that's about it.
People
Eh. I can take 'em or leave 'em.
Harry Potter
Good books, but not great. JKR needs an editor or two, one to go over her writing, the other to make sure she doesn't make major continuity errors.
Bush
Sucks.
War
In general, sucks. In specific, the war in Iraq is illegal, immoral, and wasteful.
Kids
I like them well enough when they're little, though as they get older and turn into people, it depends on the people they become. Don't want any of my own, because 1. don't want to be in a relationship long enough to get pregnant 2. don't want to be pregnant or give birth and 3. am still not convinced I'm all that responsible. If I were to have kids, I'd adopt.
That said, I'd be more than willing to take in any young family members of mine if I had to, because I suspect I'm better equipped to be responsible than I give myself credit for being.
Latin (again)
Eats brains and is evil. This is a change from what I said earlier, I know, but I just found myself thinking that credit is in the third person....
There's more, I'm sure.
If you think you're only going to argue with me on a lot of these, and don't like arguing, here's your warning. If you like arguing, but are more into flaming than discussion, go away now, please. If you agree with most of these, or you like arguing with what you don't agree with, great. Nothing I love better than a good discussion. Hi, welcome!
