The Irish Are Revolting

Not that they are alone in this nor just at this time. They have had a share of the great Revolutions that have swept the west over the past several hundred years and will no doubt march in the streets again banging drums and blaming people who are long dead and buried.

And this time it is the same cobbled-together crowd of atheists, marxists, me me, me narcissists, and alphabet-soup weirdos etc who are intent on riding roughshod 'through the Institutions' as has become so much the malaise of the increasingly Anti-Christian, anti-moral, anti-Law west.

And the tactics have become so well practiced and banal. 

Kill the Baby Instead.

They rise in their arguement cogency all the way up to swearing and cursing, demeaning and dismissing their oppositions. Crikey, they may even have some Mensa members on their side, as  I have noticed a significant deterioration in the sort of person let through the 2% gate.  

Just as an aside from the Irish issue that someone came in to talk about, the Tavern's conversations have been denounced and this old Tavern Keeper called all sorts of rude names by some ( a few) Mensa Members on Face Book, who do not take kindly to anyone having an opinion different to their own strange and violent ones. Apparantly I am a disgusting racist (private lady part). 

Thank goodness they cannot as yet use kow-towed 'Law' to inflict punitive fines on any who hold a different opinion. Whoops, I spoke too late. 

But back to the issue at hand. America has seen a slow revolt that has been going on for a decade. It swings this way and that. 

Notable is the vitriol, filth and violence which comes predominantly from one side. Despite that side demanding the overthrow of their own Constitution, or Amendments to it,  in accord with their marxists instructions, and their 'opposition' who want to keep the Amendments - Free Speech, Guns etc - intact and operative, they have all, so far, remained relatively slow to go into gun battles over them.  Perhaps that is because the vitriolic side have far fewer guns than the Second Amendment types.

It is fortunate that guns are less common in Ireland.  Not that they are totally free of them.

Nor is the Irish Constitution free of Amendments. Here is one that is in contention - by you know who. It is 'The Eighth'. For some, the Eighth Amendment protects and serves the unborn, for others it is a restriction which pits the rights of a woman against the right to life of the unborn.

But what precisely does the Amendment say?

"The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right."

 This is the phrasing exactly as it appears in the constitution and there can be no changes made to it without a referendum in the Republic of Ireland.

Looks like equality to me. 

But then the Irish may see things differently.

So, of course, the usual mob are demanding it be changed. 

We can't have Irish babies being seen as Human Beings. 

No 'Rights' for them.

The Abortion Rights Campaign and coalition of pro-choice groups in Ireland are gathering signatures to call for a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland. 

The Eighth Amendment equates the right to life of a pregnant woman with that of an embryo or foetus. 

In doing so it criminalises abortion in all cases except where to continue a pregnancy would result in death.

This 'archaic and dangerous law', as its detractors call it: 

- infringes on the human rights of women in Ireland and goes against international human rights norms
- denies access to basic health care, forcing over 154,000 to travel overseas to obtain an abortion since 1980
- criminalises those who self-administer abortion pills in Ireland 
- maintains a false and medically dangerous distinction between risk to health and risk to life 
- discriminates against those who cannot travel to obtain abortions 

- does not reflect present public opinion in Ireland.

Hmmmm. Where have we heard all this before?

Phelim McAleer stopped by on a trip out of L.A. to have a swift pint and a chat. You could hear the brogue cut through the throng and carry us along.

Repeal campaign making the same mistake as Hillary Clinton

Pro-abortion activists not addressing the concerns of people who want to be convinced 

Campaigns with contempt: “If they ever get their referendum, their contempt may lead to the same type of shock result liberals have just experienced here in the US.”

 http://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/repeal-campaign-making-the-same-mistake-as-hillary-clinton-1.2870909

Sitting at my computer, there in Los Angeles, I want to tell you about a very contentious and divisive political campaign. One side seems to have everyone on their side – establishment politicians from all parties, the radical left and every actor you have ever heard of and many you haven’t. 

Almost all the major newspapers are on board – including the women, fashion and lifestyle magazines that don’t normally take political stances.  

It’s a movement that has the support every celebrity, writer, poet and thinker. 

On the other side, there appears to be a few relics from a long time ago. According to these journalists, poets and thinkers, their opponents are a bunch of religion-obsessed, misogynistic neanderthals who, according to one actor, just want to keep women in chains. 

Basically, everyone who is against them is labelled hateful, uncaring and much more besides. 

And no, I’m not talking about the Donald Trump shock election campaign and result – 

I’m actually talking about the Repeal the Eighth campaign. 

The vitriol and contempt from the Repeal side towards their opponents is a sight to behold and, if it continues, and they ever get their referendum, it may lead to the same type of shock result liberals have just experienced here in the US. 

If you only read the quality newspapers, listen to RTÉ and follow the cultural “elites” and their hangers-on in Ireland, then it is clear what side all “right-thinking people” are supposed to come down on. 

Just as it was in the recent US election. 

The message is very clear that if you don’t support the Repeal the Eighth campaign, you are, as Hillary Clinton would say, an “irredeemable deplorable.” 

Just have a quick glance at the terms used by Repeal the Eighth supporters. According to Repealers, their opponents cannot be motivated by a sincere belief that babies in the womb are humans and deserve to be protected from killing.

No, Repealers know that even though much of the leadership of the anti-abortion movement is female – they are just motivated by their hatred of women. 

Similarly, those who want to protect children with Down syndrome or girls from selective abortions are throwbacks to a time when all decent Irish people should be ashamed. 

According to a prominent Repealer – who is also a doctor – abortion survivors, a group of people who survived their own abortion, should not be listened to because they are “Jesus freaks” and “Bible thumpers”. 

Thanking God for a remarkable survival story is now no longer allowed in official Ireland. 

And just like the Clinton campaign, Hollywood has piled in.

Not your first choice as baby-sitter

Actor Liam Neeson has recorded a video lecturing Irish people that their reluctance to allow abortion is part of a “a different time we’d hoped we’d left behind.” The abortion ban has us “chained to the past,” he states.

Clinton represents the future – everyone from Lena Dunham to George Clooney to the New York Times and Cosmopolitan magazine told us so. And Trump represents a shameful past that no one would want to return to.  

Well, we saw how those student union labels worked out. 

Liberal America is in shock. 

It turned out people didn’t like being insulted for their genuinely held beliefs. 

It also turned out people didn’t like snobby superior types saying they were a throwback to a shameful past. 

And, shocking as it may seem, it turns out that insulting people was a very poor way of gaining their political support.

The Repeal the Eighth campaign is heading in that direction with their celebrity endorsements and disdain for the very real concerns of those opposed to abortion. 

Repealers have been slow to address real concerns from real people who want to be convinced on an issue. 

What are the time limits they would want after a successful abortion referendum? Will it be 12 weeks or 24 weeks like it is across large parts of America? Or will it be nine months as it is in five states in the US? And, if not, why is nine months unacceptable but six months okay? Will sex selection be allowed? And, if not, how will they stop it – if it is a woman’s right to choose? 

And what about “Comfort Care” – an established abortion practice where babies who are still alive after the procedure are set aside with a blanket until eventually they die from neglect. Will this be part of Ireland’s abortion regime? 

After they have finished insulting those who disagree with them, perhaps Ireland’s actors, poets and thinkers might like to address these questions. 

But they probably won’t. 

It seems that, just like American liberals, Irish abortion campaigners are in a metropolitan bubble where maybe people do believe you should be allowed to have an abortion up to nine months. 

I doubt any significant portion of the Irish electorate agree and the attacks and insults certainly won’t convince them otherwise.

So, the Repeal the Eighth movement has a choice. 

They could try and convince Irish citizens from outside their bubble about the validity of their position. If they don’t, just like US liberals, they will wake up after the referendum whining. 

And, this being Ireland, they will write interminable think pieces that usually start with a clichéd Yeats quote. 

I want to be spared the whining but I really want to be spared the Yeats quotes. I think we’d all vote for that.

Phelim McAleer is an Irish filmmaker and journalist based in Los Angeles. His book Gosnell: America’s Biggest Serial Killer about Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell is due out in January.  It is published by Regnery, gosnellbook.com. Along with his wife Ann McElhinney, he is co-producer of the Gosnell Movie, gosnellmovie.com . 

We thanked him and plied him with Irish Whiskey.

Pax