Shire Network News #177: Guy Earle

Shire Network News #177 has finally, after a longer than expected hiatus, been released. The feature interview is with Guy Earle, a Canadian comedian who is being dragged in front of one of Canada’s bogus "Human Rights" kangaroo courts for the hideous sin of…well, telling jokes apparently. Now you and I and certain other head-in-the-clouds no-hopes might cling to the charmingly antediluvian notion that it’s not all that unusual for a comedian to tell jokes, but under close, time consuming and massively expensive legal scrutiny, this turns out not to be the case. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by subscribing with your podcatcher of choice.

Below is the text of my commentary.

Hi, this is Doug Payton for Shire Network News, asking you to "Consider This!"

Back in January, for the 37th anniversary of the Roe v Wade US Supreme Court decision which federalized all abortion law in the country, tens of thousands of abortion protestors descended on Washington, DC.  For such a large protest, the US media was on the top of it’s game, reporting that …

>cue crickets<

Public broadcasting outlets, however, did manage to touch on the subject.  The PBS NewsHour did give it 3 or 4 sentences.  National Public Radio, rather than covering the abortion protests, instead interviewed Serrin Foster, President of Feminists for Life, and abortion doctor Leroy Carhart.  (Please don’t look at the crowded mall in DC, just listen to one on one side of the issue, one on the other side, and we’ll call it square.)

Carhart was asked to describe the horrible, horrible things that anti-abortion protestors do to him.

MARTIN: And when you say protests, what are you talking about? I mean, Dr. Tiller, for example, before he was murdered was – had been shot before. When you say protest, what do you mean? What are some of the things that you experienced…

Dr. CARHART: Well…

MARTIN: …in course of your work?

Dr. CARHART: It’s not protesting. It’s actually bullying. And it’s the extreme bullying that we know and wouldn’t even tolerate with high school children or grade school children. You know, yelling at patients; calling, telling them they are murdering their babies; blocking, actually physically blocking the patients from getting out of their cars. It’s blocking the clinic’s doors so patients can’t enter. They protest at the schools where the provider’s children go and yell to all the students that John’s daddy is a baby killer or a child killer. I mean, it’s just extremism; it’s religious terrorism.

"Religious terrorism?"  Y’know, I think long-time, or even short-time, listeners of Shire Network News have a slightly different opinion of what constitutes "religious terrorism" than Dr. Carhart.  When 3000 people are killed, that’s religious terrorism.  When Navy ships or embassies are bombed, that’s religious terrorism.  When buildings are burned and people die over cartoons, that’s religious terrorism.  That’s extremism.

When you have to put up with "bullying" — the horrors of being yelled at and the audacity of protest blockades — well, you have no idea what the term "religious terrorism" really means, sir.  (And apparently Ms. Martin doesn’t quite get it, either.  She blithely moves on the next softball question.  Oh, that liberal media.)

These "bullies", as you call them, believe you’re killing children, and in protest they’re merely yelling and blocking.  Sounds more like incredible self-control and restraint, if you ask me.  If Islamic radicals ever decide abortion is one of their issues, you’ll find yourself pining for the good old days. 

And a short P.S.:  If 11 abortion clinics were set on fire in one state during one month, don’t you think it would make the national news, repeatedly?  Yeah, me, too.  It should.  But did you know that 11 churches burned down in Texas last month?  Yeah, me neither.  Consider this.

Hat tip: NewsBuster.

Filed under: Abortion • Humor • Podcasts • Shire Network News

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