I am always quite staggered at how some newspapers can pay good money to columnists who consistently dish up some of the most silly, illogical, uninformed and misleading commentary out there. They actually pay people to write such foolishness?
I guess so. Plenty of suitable candidates come to mind here. But one who always can be counted on to cough up the goods is Herald Sun columnist Susie O’Brien. One could easily teach a course on logical fallacies and specious reasoning just based on her columns alone.
Consider her piece in today’s HS – it is a real doozey. It is another incredible performance by the resident secular left pro-deather. Her article has to do with Kevin Rudd’s new front bench. It seems that Attila the Hun has just been appointed to a position, and ol’ Susie is spitting chips about it.
Yes, one utterly evil and reprehensible character has managed to get a position in Rudd’s team, and Susie is just not gonna take it. She is demanding her head – all in the spirit of love, acceptance and tolerance of course. I refer to Victorian Senator Jacinta Collins, who has been given the role as the new Mental Health Minister.
So what is so bad about her? Is she a neo-Nazi? Is she with the KKK? Is she an axe murderer? Nope, she is far worse. You see, she is actually pro-life and pro-marriage. That makes her absolutely unfit for the job, and she of course must go at once.
You can almost hear the steam pouring from her ears as she lays into poor Jacinta. Wow, what a withering attack on a decent woman. For simply believing that it is wrong to kill defenceless unborn babies, and for daring to believe that marriage is to be between a man and a woman, she is treated worse than Jack the Ripper.
Most of the piece involves rehashing some of her pro-life and pro-family statements. Yep, this is one terrible Senator to care about unborn babies and families. How evil can you get? Susie tears into her over her pro-life stance, and informs us for example: “We must remember pregnant women who are considering termination” – they are “vulnerable members of our society”.
And those babies about to be ripped to pieces, or about to be burned to death, or about to have their brains sucked out, are somehow not vulnerable members of our society? It seems Susie and I are reading from some very different dictionaries here.
Her uninformed and loaded remarks about homosexuality fare no better. Consider this whopper: Jacinta’s pro-marriage position makes her untenable as a Minister because of “clear links between discrimination of gay people and depression”.
Um, no Susie – wrong again. As I carefully document in my book Strained Relations, this is one big myth pushed by the activists. But it is without any evidence. Indeed, simply take the most pro-homosexual cities on earth, such as Amsterdam or Sydney or San Francisco; homosexual rates of depression and suicide there are just as high as in Hoboken or Horsham.
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And get a load of this one: Jacinta is a hate-filled bigot for daring to suggest “that ‘stable, biological parenting’ should be fostered ‘as a social norm’.” Wow, Jacinta actually said that? That is dreadful! Imagine actually saying children need a stable family, and it is in their best interests to have their own biological parents! Whoa, Jacinta, where are you getting all that intolerant poison from?
Another absolute howler is this one: “Yes, we want more women on the front bench, but we also want people – men or women – who are going to promote fair, anti-discriminatory attitudes. And in my book, that means pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.”
Yes, I also took a while to stop laughing at that one. According to the divine Ms O, the height of fairness and non-discrimination is to unfairly discriminate against unborn babies and the institution of marriage. Right, gotcha. Nice to have all that so nicely cleared up.
But her clear winner of the day surely must be this gem: “Either there needs to be a portfolio reshuffle, or Senator Collins needs to pledge that she will not let her personal views get in the way of her management of the portfolio.” Did you just read that? Can you believe she actually wrote that?
Please tell us all young Susie, just what exactly was Julia Gillard doing as Prime Minister for the past three years? You mean to tell me her personal views on abortion for example never once got in the way of her management? They never impacted her performance, and never once impacted her decision-making and policy suggestions?
Indeed, do you mean to tell me that her very last act as PM – getting the pro-abortion drug RU-486 slashed from up to $800 down to a measly $12 a pop – had absolutely nothing to do with her personal beliefs? You mean being a founding member of Emily’s List, and even its Constitution author, had nothing to do with her time in office and her stance on issues?
Puh-leeese Susie. But wait – there’s more. She closes with these words of wisdom: “I think some of her views are dangerous and antithetical to a just and fair society.” Yep, caring about the most vulnerable members of society – the unborn, and children and how they are raised – is dangerous and unfair. I see. Thanks for that Susie.
The simple truth is this: in this perverse and twisted column, we actually learn a whole lot more about Susie than we do about Jacinta. And in my books, I will take Jacinta and her views any day of the week. She clearly loves life and family, while Susie hates both.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/senator-jacinta-collins-must-tell-us-where-she-stands-on-abortion-and-gay-marriage/story-fni0fhie-1226672808013
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/nsw-act/julia-gillards-cut-price-abortion-drug-as-ru486-slashed-to-12/story-fnii5s3x-1226671939686
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