Gilead Goes International

Proof that Margaret Atwood is not so much talented as she is prescient is beginning to pile up in the United States, but with the Bush administration's "global gag rule" already killing uppity poor women all over the world, conservatives feel it's time to really get moving in the *Christian* third world. (Remember the womb wars are between the Muslims and the Christians now, rather than between brown and pink people like they used to be. Brown people who wear crosses are OK now. Mark your charts.)

From the NYT article Conservatives Step up Activities Overseas:

"...U.S. advocacy groups are now waging their culture war skirmishes worldwide as they try to influence other countries' laws and wrangle over how U.S. aid money should be spent.

''We don't expect to see the United Nations change, or Western Europe change,'' said Joseph d'Agostino of the Population Research Institute, a Virginia-based anti-abortion group. ''But with the Bush administration, pro-lifers feel there's a real opportunity to stop the U.S. government from promoting abortion and sex education and population control in the Third World.'' "

That's right, not only is abortion and population control wrong, but so is sex education. Because giving people accurate information about the way their bodies work is unacceptable. If one develops a boil on one's ass, one should be told it's a punishment from God. For Jesus' sake we must never tell them that they've been sitting too long and their sweat glands have become clogged. It's not as satanically scientific as that, but rather all their evil has been concentrated in one area by God's command.

"Activists on both sides trace the rise of overseas conservative action to the mid-1990s, after anti-Communism faded as a cause and anti-abortion, anti-feminist groups began engaging in major U.N. conferences -- often taking stands in opposition to the Clinton administration.

Now, with Bush as president, they feel empowered. Carmen Barroso, director of International Planned Parenthood's Western Hemisphere Region, said conservatives have been particularly active in Latin America.

''They are very organized, with lots of resources and powerful allies in the White House and the Vatican,'' she said. ''Whenever there's a major initiative to liberalize laws, they marshal their forces against it. In the past, it was one or two isolated efforts. Now it's a massive effort.'' " (Emphasis mine)

That's right. With most of the Native Americans dead, most of Europe allied to the United States, and nearly dead communist ideology, the conservatives were searching about for an enemy. Just like Jesus told them , they began throwing stones at women. You know, now that I think of it, there may have been a condition placed on that Jesus-approved stone-throwing, but we know that conservatives aren't much for inconvenient details.