I hadn't been following the furor over the pro-life Tim Tebow Super Bowl commercial too closely, but then came across this on a sports site:
Behar continued, saying, "In this case, he [Tebow, that is] turned out to be great; but it's not an argument about abortion or not abortion..." I suppose she is correct in the sense that she actually didn't offer an argument or anything resembling coherent, post-first-grade thought. Instead, she suggests that killing an unborn child can be justified on the grounds the child might turn out to be a "rapist pedophile." Which suggests the following:
The Tim Tebow Super Bowl Ad controversy is heating up with women's groups across the nation. So naturally it was not surprising that it became a topic on conversation on Tuesday's edition of The View.Sure, and Ms. Behar could have been a productive, intelligent, helpful member of society, but instead she is on "The View." Well, at least she inspires viewers to think, "Wow, if she can hold a job, the sky is the limit for me!"
What was surprising was Joy Behar's comments regarding Tim Tebow, including the following quote:
“The only argument against any of it is, that, you know, he could just as easily become some kind of a rapist pedophile. I mean, you don’t know what someone’s going to be,”
Behar continued, saying, "In this case, he [Tebow, that is] turned out to be great; but it's not an argument about abortion or not abortion..." I suppose she is correct in the sense that she actually didn't offer an argument or anything resembling coherent, post-first-grade thought. Instead, she suggests that killing an unborn child can be justified on the grounds the child might turn out to be a "rapist pedophile." Which suggests the following:
1. She implicitly admits it is a child who is being aborted, as even rapist pedophiles were once unborn babies, who are then born, grow up, etc.But, to be fair to Ms. Behar, her remark is built, however pathetically, upon prevailing pro-abortion "wisdom", which includes (but is not limited to) the following assumptions:
2. She apparently believes those who choose to have abortions also have psychic abilities, able to peer into the future and see what awaits their unborn child.
3. But, then, she immediately admits, "you don't know what someone's going to be." A classic "covering-all-of-my-confused-and-contradictory-bases" move.
4. Which means she believes (or feels?) it is alright to kill an unborn baby based on the completely subjective notion that the child might turn out to be a "rapist pedophile."
5. Of course, if that is the case, what would be the argument against killing a three-year-old who is mean to the house cat, or the nine-year-old who yells at you for no good reason, or the fifteen-year-old who plays rap music really loud despite your pleas to "Kill the beat"?
6. And, taken further (logically, that is), it follows that if it is alright to terminate someone because of what they might do, it is arguably alright to kill anyone at anytime on the basis that they might rape, murder, or molest small children.
1. There is no truth, and that is the truth.By the way, the controversial commercial, which was produced by Focus on the Family, hasn't even been made public yet. But that didn't stop Jehmu Greene, President of Women's Media Center, from going on "The O'Reilly Factor" in order to prove that she is just as witless and soulless as Joy Behar:
2. There is no actual right or wrong, and I'm right when I tell you how wrong you are to think otherwise.
3. Unborn babies aren't really human, especially if they might grow up in poverty, which no human should have to do.
4. "What I do with my body is my business alone and no one can judge me or my actions, you sanctimonious, narrow-minded, fundamentalist jerk!"
5. I have the right to kill a baby. You have no right to question my choice. None. Shut up. Now.
O'REILLY: Why would it do that though? If it's a positive ad that I made my choice and it was the right choice and I'm happy we made the choice and Tim obviously is happy, why is that trying to take anything away from anybody? It's a positive statement.Oh, now I get it: "women's groups" are upset that if CBS airs a commercial with a woman expressing happiness that she didn't kill her son when he was a baby, it will take away the right of homosexual men to have abortions when they get pregnant. Got it. Why didn't she just say that in the first place?
GREENE: This is clearly a thinly veiled attempt to undermine a woman's right to…
O'REILLY: How?
GREENE: ...make decisions about her reproductive decisions.
O'REILLY: How? How is it though? I don't understand how it undermines anything. It just tells their story.
GREENE: I think it tells a story of a woman who had that right…
O'REILLY: Right.
GREENE: (INAUDIBLE).
O'REILLY: Exercised it and it came out well for them.
GREENE: Yes, it did turn out well for them. But taking that choice away from American women who have…
O'REILLY: But they're not trying to take it away.
GREENE: Clearly, clearly Focus on the Family has an anti-choice agenda. They also have…
O'REILLY: Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's true, Focus on the Family's…
GREENE: ...a homophobic agenda.
O'REILLY: Wait, wait, wait.
All this anger and consternation about a 30-second commercial that tells a happy story. These women are pathetic.
Posted by: maria horvath | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 04:21 PM
I'm happy that a pro-life message might be played during the Super Bowl, but on a side note, I'm sick of the Tim Tebow praise. He and his family are anti-Catholic bigots. Period. His father's "ministry" in the Philippines is aggresively trying to break Philipinnos away from the Church. He claims that 75% of the country has never even been exposed to the Gospels. Funny, since 80% of the country is Catholic.
Posted by: Thomas | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 04:46 PM
Actually they are right, to a degree:
FOF thinks abortion is wrong. Gay sex is wrong. It should be discouraged. Period.
That is what makes them hysterical.
We should stop pretending we have reasonable common ground. We do not. We are against sin. They are not.
Posted by: Joe | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 06:31 PM
I first need to state that I am a recovering cynic. That being said, the fact that the pro-choice lobby is frothing at the mouth over a thirty second commercial being aired during the Super Bowl amidst thousands of other adverts which denigrate women (I'm basing this on previous adverts, oops there I go with my prejudice) and are calling for market censorship while being unable to offer a coherent arguement for their side gives me little hope for the survival of our nation past this next generation. I can only hope that we millennials see the silliness of the Boomers and finally say, "Enough is enough."
Posted by: M. Jordan Lichens | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 06:46 PM
This is clearly not about choice, and it never has been.
That is why the movement is properly called the pro-abortion movement.
Posted by: LJ | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 08:11 PM
First I would like for M. Jordan Lichens to help ME become a 'recovering cynic.' I am most certainly not in recovery.
Posted by: Kay | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 08:24 PM
If men had a right to murder, and if the embyro wasn't a person, than she'd have a point.
Posted by: Nick | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 11:26 PM
By the way, I included the wrong link in the above comment. Here is the one I meant to include:
http://theimmaculateconception.webs.com
Posted by: Nick | Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 11:27 PM
Joy Behar and her ilk are at best a herd of braying asses, and at worst to depraved to endure.
Posted by: J D Hill | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 01:40 AM
I am glad that the Tebow commercial is taking that angle. The only reason I didn't abort my oldest two children is because I did not have the money for abortions. (I was a fallen away Catholic then and pro-abortion). They were born under really bad circumstances - I was not married, my boyfriend was an abusive alcoholic who was perpetually unemployed so he could hang out in bars as much as he wanted, I had a low-paying job, I felt hopeless and depressed all the time. The children have grown to be very intelligent, talented and beautiful, kind and thoughtful teenagers. (My daughter sends me a bouquet every Mother's Day). Probably a thousand times I have superimposed in my mind torn, broken, aborted little bodies and my lovely children as they are now, as opposed to what they might have ended up as and it just horrifies me to tears. Circumstances can and do change. I'm married now to a great guy and we have a nice family. And the oldest are a big help now with my little ones, babysit, etc. Feminism can and does take an ugly turn, and Joy Behar wants us to be able to kill our babies and then live with that (because it allows us to be immoral with impunity). Rather than the happy and fulfilling choice that God is offering us. We Catholics are not miserable or misguided as she thinks we are and I think that angers her.
Posted by: Julie | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 05:05 AM
While I do not support abortion, I think you misinterpret Behar's position. I don't think she is implicitly or explicity suggesting that it would be alright to abort "rapist pedophiles."
I think her point was that the Tebow add presents a consequentialist argument against abortion. In other words, the fact that Tebow is a decent person has no bearing on whether his mother should or should not have had the abortion. To a degree, I think Behar has point. It does not matter if the life in the womb is going to be a future Tebow or a future Obama or a future Stalin. That is not the point or even a consideration when considering the morality of abortion. The Tebow add is making an emotional appeal against abortion rather than a strictly logical or moral one. That is fine with me. I've never met an argument against abortion that I didn't like. Be that as it may, I don't think you construal of Behar's comments is a fair one.
Posted by: crazylikeknoxes | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 05:31 AM
Hey, don't blame ALL us Boomers for this silliness. Some of us were on the front lines long ago saying, "But...but..." We just got outshouted by the coat-hanger crowd, and the next thing you know, brainless and spineless folks were voting to kill babies because of something that MIGHT happen if they weren't allowed to do that.
But it's unfair to blame it all on Boomers, either. We Boomers were propagandized by people older and "wiser" than we were--in other words, the generation ahead of us. I have great hope that Millennials will erase much of this nonsense...if they've been lucky enough to be raised by Boomers who actually taught them right and wrong. And we ARE out here, folks. We're getting laughed at, ridiculed, and shoved in the corner as irrelevant, but we're still out here, and it's as unfair to paint us all with the same brush as it is for Tim Tebow's father's ministry to assume that they're actually bringing the Gospel to the Philippines. Propaganda is propaganda. Let's try not to blindly repeat one lie while decrying another...
JB
Posted by: Janny | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 06:35 AM
Thomas is correct about the Tebow family. I grow weary of the fundamentalists and Non-Denoms who travel the world to bring Jesus to Catholics.
YET, O'Reilly is adept at what is going on. The Tebows had their baby. They made a choice for life and they are happy. The pro-abortion group is incensed that anything good could come of having a baby in the midst of a difficult pregnancy.
Posted by: Fr Eric | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 08:12 AM
That ending was hilarious Carl!!! All of this just shows how these women know they are wrong about what they believe. They are afraid of a little commercial for a reason. They know people are starting to see through them. I'm so sick of these hard core feminists acting like they care about women. They do not speak for me. If it were up to them, children would not exist and men would probably all be gay, yuckk!! A baby is never a choice, it is a life. The choice was deciding whether to have sex outside of marriage or not.
Posted by: Maria | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:04 AM
If the Superbowl can run Scientology commercials, why not pro-life ones? Oh, that's. . . different.
Posted by: Sandra Miesel | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:27 AM
I fired Joy Behar years ago. The fact that this woman was a teacher makes my blood run cold. For a former Catholic or however she couches it, she is grossly uninformed and unqualified to speak on Catholicism. She makes outrageous remarks and assumes that her status as a comedian gives her the right to do that, yet wants people to take her seriously. In short, she wants to have her cake and eat it, too. Well, she stopped being funny, if she ever was, a very long time ago and is the reason I do not watch The View any longer.
Posted by: Linda DeMerle | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:30 AM
Imagine the commercial featured two men engaging in an open-mouthed kiss and Focus on the Family objected. Behar would call them narrow-minded intolerant bigots.
In this commercial, Mrs. Tebow explains why she believes the human community you ought to love is wider than the set of people you choose. And Behar objects. I guess that would make her the bigot.
Joy Behar, an irony rich environment.
Posted by: Francis Beckwith | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:55 AM
"She makes outrageous remarks and assumes that her status as a comedian gives her the right to do that, yet wants people to take her seriously."
Behar is a comedian? Wow. Didn't know that. I find quite a lot that she says to be funny. But, I'm sure she doesn't intend as funny what I laugh at. And my laughter is not the same as it would be were I reading Wodehouse. I'm also sure, were she to read this post, that she'd not understand what I'm talking about.
And I think so very many folk will have egg on their faces after they've actually SEEN the ad. But I'd lay money they won't ever bring it up again! Especially not Behar & her ilk.
Posted by: Gene Branaman | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 02:08 PM
She said more than the baby might be a rapist. A few moments later she said abortion "is just a procedure".
Like removing a mole or having liposuction, I guess.
Posted by: Liam | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 04:20 PM
"...gives me little hope for the survival of our nation past this next generation. I can only hope that we millennials see the silliness of the Boomers and finally say, "Enough is enough." - M. Jordan Lichens
Right on, MJL. I am a fellow Millennial (born 1986) and whether the world likes it or not, I am a completely satisfied Catholic. I wouldn't have it any other way. And I'm glad to hear you're a recovering cynic; I hope you'll let it die for good. The truth is, Christ Himself is the death of our cynicism. In Him our hope is boundless. Our generation is going to mirror every generation that preceded it: there will be those who protest, those who don't care, and finally there will be those who in every way possible strive to make available the light of Christ to all people everywhere, knowing that all people were made, ultimately, to enjoy the unparalleled love God has for us. Whether as friends, lovers, or martyrs, we will walk in the footsteps of the Christians who lived before us, and we will pass on the Faith to the next generation. Why? 'Cause that's what the Church does.
Julie - may God bless you abundantly, and may He bless your children abundantly, too.
Posted by: David Casson | Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 09:43 PM
Why are we so concerned today with something that has been going on since time began? We are so caught up in entertainment that we have no life of our own. This subject of life and death is not entertainment. It is a way to make money (lots of it) at the expense of fools. By the way, WE HAVE MET THE FOOLS AND THEY IS US!!!
Posted by: Jay Everett | Friday, January 29, 2010 at 08:11 AM
As you can see we are reacting exactly as they want us to. You only have to read the comments. Why not avoid the occasion of sin by not watching or listening to this dribble on the TV? Jay Everett is right not only are we being fools but they know it and without our complaints they would have no show. So turn your attention to the Church, whichever denomination, and look at all the blessings that can be obtained. AVOID EVIL and live in the light of GOD.
Posted by: John | Friday, January 29, 2010 at 01:17 PM
it is not the pro abortion movement. It's the right to chose movement. The decision is between a woman, her family, and her doctor, not anyone else. No one has the right to decide for women. you pro life people are too much, you don't want any babies killed , but you will commit cold blooded murder of anyone you don't agree with, such as doctors.
Posted by: c marks | Tuesday, February 02, 2010 at 12:14 PM