Kirk, as you link back to that ROT13 entry from April 2001, how do you feel in retrospect about some of the statements you made in the "Bad News of the Moment" section, especially your statement that the House passing the fetus protection bill "might truly makr the begining of the end of abortion rights?"
Whoops. The first typo is mine (makr) and the second is yours (begining).
Obviously nothing drastic has changed, but with some new Republican Surpreme Court folk and a gung-ho view on States' Rights, I think there's a possible scenario where it will be put in the hands of state legislatures, many of which will create wide bans (The Atlantic had a decent piece on that recently, "The Day After Row")
The view of an infant as not independently conscious strikes me as going a bit too far, beside being completley politically untenable. (I don't think I ever meant to take that stance, just was admitting to it as an implication of my other positions) Still, I don't think life begins at conception or even implantation.
Oh, yeah, I think it's pretty likely that it could end up back in the States someday, but I think that's where it belongs. That is, I can't think of a good Constitutional reason why it belongs under Federal gov't.
I'm still weirded out by laws that vary so much from state to state. And in general I'm for less regulation than more.
I consider myself more American than Massachusettsian.