Are you telling me you don't see the connection between government and laughing at people?

[vovat]

I have two political issues to address in this post, the first of which is no joking matter, and the second of which is. Literally. Anyway, the first is that there's a movement in the Department of Health and Human Services to define many methods of contraception as abortion. At one point, I thought that the sponsors of this idea should be forced to adopt the unwanted children that such a policy would produce. But that really wouldn't be fair to the kids, especially if they happen to be female. So instead, maybe they should be made to pay the costs associated with other people adopting these kids. That's only fair, right? Some of the comments on that post express the idea that the Religious Right wants more children so that they can grow up and fight in the nation's never-ending wars. I really don't believe that most of them are thinking that far ahead (indeed, that's part of the problem), but that does kind of seem to be the logical conclusion of the pro-war and anti-birth-control position.

Another thing I've seen mentioned a fair amount recently is how it's hard for comedians to make fun of Obama. I don't really know that that's true, but I think a lot of political humor is kind of lazy. I mean, how many "hey, McCain is old" jokes have you heard? Not to say that it isn't a problem that there's a good chance our country will elect a president who's too much of an old fogey to know how to use the Internet, but aren't a lot of those jokes the same ones that everybody made about Bob Dole? (Fortunately for McCain, he has the good sense not to refer to himself in the third person.) A lot of the "gee, isn't this guy dumb?" jokes about Dubya are pretty similar to Dan Quayle jokes, too. And that's just going by my own narrow frame of reference. I'm sure a lot of those jokes are much older than that, as are the "What a lech!" jokes most recently applied to Bill Clinton. Sure, it's fine to use the classics on occasion, but can't we come up with any more original political jokes?

Oh, and happy belated birthday to jenhime!

Comments

[k1cup.livejournal.com]

Another thing I've seen mentioned a fair amount recently is how it's hard for comedians to make fun of Obama.

I don't understand the difficulty except in the minds of the media. From Day 1, seems like they've been star-struck by his obvious charisma. But charisma can only get him so far if he becomes president. I think the amusing thing about him is how he called his autobiography The Audacity of Hope and not The Audacity of My Delusions of Grandeur.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Some of the comments on that post express the idea that the Religious Right wants more children so that they can grow up and fight in the nation's never-ending wars.

OMG seriously one of the things that bugs me most as someone who truly considers herself Pro-Life is the hypocrisy among others who use the term Pro-Life to mean Anti-abortion and obviously not beyond that. WAR IS TOTALLY NOT PRO-LIFE. Unless in defense of course, and by defense I don't mean "the best defense is a good offense." That is so why I hate political parties! I truly believe you cannot be a moral individual and hold tightly to either political parties ideals! Also you can't say "I'm Pro-Life and I believe in Capital Punishment" in your stupid political ad! *ahem* Anyway. That said I guess I don't even hold exactly to the official Catholic definition of Pro-Life (which does include anti-capital punishment and other such positions the Political Right isn't so keen on) since I'm not sweepingly against artificial birth control. I will say I did decide not to go with an IUD when I found out how they worked-- technically, they DO have the potential to work like an abortion each month, since they don't prevent CONCEPTION-- but to call the Pill abortion is definitely going too far. Granted, if you're big on Living the Natural Life or just prefer not having your body chemistry messed with that's not so great either, but I also wouldn't call it abortion!

Seriously, the McCain is old jokes ARE, um, old. And not even that astute. When I look at McCain Decrepit Antiquity is not the first thing that comes to mind, really. You're right, the Dumb Dubya jokes DO recall Quayle jokes. For Clinton I thought the pigging-out-on-fast-food jokes got old real fast, but then I guess that one isn't Old when it comes to the Entire History of Political Humor. Anyway, isn't the point of political humor to make you think seriously about issues, not to laugh at juvenile things?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

OMG seriously one of the things that bugs me most as someone who truly considers herself Pro-Life is the hypocrisy among others who use the term Pro-Life to mean Anti-abortion and obviously not beyond that.

I'm not so keen on the term "pro-life" anyway, because I would argue that pretty much everybody is in favor of life. But we're generally also able to make exceptions in certain cases. I do think, however, that caring more about the lives of the unborn (and, apparently in some cases, not even conceived) than the already living is a difficult position to take seriously.

Anyway, isn't the point of political humor to make you think seriously about issues, not to laugh at juvenile things?

I guess it could go either way. I think some humor regarding politicians is basically just because they're people that your audience is likely to recognize, so a "he's old" joke about McCain would go over better than one about your octogenarian neighbor. But is that really true political humor? I'm not sure.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I think of Pro-Life as a philosophy for living, choosing the most creative rather than destructive option whenever given an option. Of course, then I really ought to be a vegetarian too, but I just don't like beans enough. Anyway, that's justified by a certain amount of death being part of the food chain (even plants have to die occasionally). ;)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

So sort of like the principle of doing as little harm as possible? I can see that.

I would kind of think that anti-abortion advocates would favor birth control, as reducing the number of undesired pregnancies would obviously reduce the number of abortions. But I get the impression that there are still a fair number of people who think (or at least claim) that any sex not for the purposes of procreation is bad.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I agree, especially when pro-choice people fight for abortion AS a form of birth control. There is so much difference between avoiding pregnancy and killing a human being, an underformed human being but still! But there's a lot of those little hypocrisies in the strict traditions of Proper Sexual Behavior. And I think part of the reason these issues never seem to get anywhere are that people get so polarized on the issues. I am firmly anti-abortion, but because that's what I've decided on THAT ISSUE, not because I am blindly holding to tradition. People ought to decide on specific issues.