Thanks so much you guys for wishing Lukas a happy birthday.  I’m so blessed to have you guys in my life. I have the best friends ever.  BUT, I’m not going to write a blog right now.  It’s 11 p.m. and I’ve been working (yes WORKING) for the past three hours and my brain is fried.  Lukas has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, but I’ll find time to write and catch up. Thank again you guys.  You’re so sweet.  There are about 400 new pictures on Flickr of today.  Check it out.

Yesterday I was so glad that all of the cheese popcorn was gone.  At last I was free.  Last night, Jessie bought another bag.  Damn.

Down Syndrome:  An Abortion Controversy

The statistics in this stunned me.  I was literally floored.  When I was pregnant with Lukas, I was urged to take the blood test to check for DS, but I refused.  I didn’t want to know.  I just wanted my baby to be born and that was all.  Sure, I prayed that he would be healthy, but I would have loved him regardless.  On the flip side, I can also understand a woman fearing that she would be unable to love a child with DS so she aborts the pregnancy to spare herself.  I just couldn’t do it.  But that’s my opinion on abortion, period.  I am FIRMLY pro-choice, but I don’t think that I would be able to do it myself unless the circumstances were very extreme (rape, AIDS, etc.). 

I couldn’t help but think of the German Nazis while reading this.  They, too did a cleansing.  Mentally ill people were killed, sure after being tortured and inhumanely studied, but killed nonetheless.  Himmler wanted the Arian race to rule and all other "lower forms of human life" were to be extinguished.  Is that what people are doing now?  Cleansing the gene pool by refusing to have a child with a genetic disorder?  Again, I understand their point of view, I just couldn’t do it myself.

Also, as a pro-choice supporter, I don’t think enough people understand the gravity of an abortion.  I don’t know how I feel about making a pregnant woman wanting an abortion look at an ultrasound of the baby about to be aborted, but I do feel that these women need to understand the true weight of what they are doing.  It’s not just like getting rid of an infection.  It’s not a "no thanks" kind of thing.  We were all in the same position as that fetus once.  Maybe we were all considered a burden in our mother’s wombs.  I’ve never had the courage to ask my mom if she ever considered an abortion with me…..I think partly because I don’t think I’d believe her.  I mean, come on.  She was a teenager, and probably scared to death.  I would have considered it.  So as a person who was THEORETICALLY almost an aborted fetus, I just wish some people would really take to heart that action.  If, after long thought they still believe it is the best choice, then go for it.  I truly believe in a woman’s right to choose.  I just want the choice to not be made lightly.  It is, after all, a human life. 

I also don’t think politics have any place in such a personal matter.  This is what bugs me about the Republican party.  Homosexuality is not a battle ground.  It’s none of their business!  Abortion…a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body, is also none of their fucking business. 

Speaking of Politics, is it me, or does anyone else get the feeling that both McCain and Obama are WAITING to see what becomes of this whole bailout thing to speak up?  Neither one has said which way they would vote.  I really think they want to see if it’s a big fuckup or a success.  If it’s a good thing, they’ll both praise Bernanke and Paulson, but if it fails, McCain will preach that he could have had a better idea and Obama will use it as an opportunity to bash the Bush administration some more.  Sheesh.

UPDATE:  Ok, McCain just put his campaign on hold because he says he is needed in Washington.  Smart.  I wonder if it’s sincere or calculated.