Now, a while ago I promised to punch Florida in the neck if it spat one more attention-grabbing dysfunctional headline out on to the rest of the country while we were busy doing grown-up things, like trying to figure out how to pay for a war with immense tax cuts for the rich. Florida is that dick of a drama-queen cousin at the family reunion dinner of America.
Texas, today ... I'm not going to threaten Texas. This story is so weird, so sad, so broken, so goddam terrifying that it's happening in this country in the 21st Century ... this is when you realize that unlike fussy little Florida, Texas is just mean crazy and back away reeeeaaaal slow-like, no fast moves with the hands, and promise yourself to change your locks and phone numbers at the earliest opportunity.
14 comments:
Oh my god. That is fucked up beyond words. They put the girl's boyfriend in jail for FORTY FREAKIN' YEARS!?!?
This has got to be one of the most backwards, regressive, and dangerous state laws passed in recent memory.
That's so sad and awful.
This is a worst case scenario when you have lack of access to proper medical care and crappy abstinence based sex education wrapped up in right wind zealotry. What the boyfriend did wasn't right, but it certainly wasn't worth 40 years in jail.
Do you think Mexico would let us give Texas back: "Sorry! Our bad! The whole Alamo thing just really pissed us off. What're you going to do, huh? Hey, where are you going?"
Dude,
That story was so crazy I had to stop for cry (inside of course).
I noticed most of the "pro-life" comments are based around: how could this be their only option. But we have to assume that these kids weren't near the top of the socio-economic scale. Teenagers have sex, they have unwanted pregnancies; you're not gonna stop that in the near future.
Also, being married would not have helped things. Some married couples don't want kids either.
16 weeks is a long time but it is not that unusual to go for an extended length of time before realising that you are pregnant (as a virus or inflamation can cause disruption to the menstral cycle).
I also don't believe that the guy, Gerardo, happily stepped on his girlfriend. I imagine that it was a much more emotional affair than that.
We had a similar (but opposite) event with crazily different outcomes here in New Zealand. A rugby league player and his mates attacked his pregnant girlfriend (who wanted to keep their baby, but he didn't). They repeatedly kicked her in the stomach in attempt to induce miscarriage (which failed). There were sentenced to a short jail term which was mainly home detention. He and his friends have recently been allowed to continue their (most likely) lucrative rugby league careers at the end of this month.
Christ-on-a-stick!
It really angers the blood
Naku noa nā
ps. Sorry about the long comment
Try to remember that there is one blue island in Texas. It's a place where you see Kerry stickers 10 to 1 over Bush stickers and almost everyone has a No W on their car.
So, Texas, yes, bad, right now anyway, but there are those of us in Austin that don't agree with anything our idiot ex-governor does.
Or his henchmen.
Like Tom Delay who took away our votes by redistricting five years early.
Pray for us, we're surrounded.
In related Texas news: Nooooooooo!!!
Fucked. Up.
What you guys need is a nice civil war... oh hang on... those fuckers have got all the guns... crap.
Just come and live in London.
You can all stay on my couch.
We'll watch Dr Who and eat chocolate biscuits.
Things like this make me feel very small and ineffectual as I watch my country disappear.
This shows the evils of minimum sentencing laws. I consider myself solidly pro-choice but at some
point the fetus becomes a human. Four months? I don't know.
But in no fracking way should the boy go to jail any amount of time, let alone fourty years. Evil, just evil. Let the judge decide the penalty based on the specifics of the case, don't have the government dictate the sentence from afar. Just makes me sick.
That is so freaking stupid.
There are also laws people are trying to put in effect that prohibit more than ONE embryo being created in the case of in vitro fertilization. (Most couples create as many as possible and freeze the rest for future tries if this round doesn't work.)
Also, they made a vaccination for HPV (human papilloma virus) which is the sexually transmitted disease responsible for causing most cases of cervical cancer. The Family Research Council is trying to ban it because it would make teens want to have sex more (???) or some stupid reason. HELLO, a way to FIGHT CANCER?! Some people drive me batshit crazy with their religious BS.
Absolutely crazy. Laws with minimum sentencing wreak so much havoc in people's lives because you cannot (as a lawmaker) concieve of every possibility.
Now instead of one life gone, it's effectively two.
A more detailed article on the case.
I'd pay particular attention to the parts where she had other bruises, some older than the stomping, the boyfriend comments that he hit the girl to get her to leave him alone, and the repeated comments that the pregnancy was making her crazy.
And, uh ... hadn't they heard of coathangers? Drugs? Why was the only choice physically violent and risking severe non-womb-related injury to the girl?
Yes, now that the details of the case are coming out, it's soooo much better. Even WITH her family's support and permission, she couldn't get an abortion in Texas. Muuuuch better.
You're right, though. If only she'd had the decency to find an illegal drug, or overdose on a legal drug to create a miscarriage, or the old-school gumption to use a coat-hanger, none of this would have happened. No tragedy here.
Sweet fuck.
This is a great inspiring article.I am pretty much pleased with your good work.You put really very helpful information. net worth
Post a Comment