I had suspected that your intellectual fastidiousness was reserved only for conservative ideas. Now there is evidence.

The Nazis killed 6 millions Jews.
They also killed 6 million Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Gypsies,homosexuals, mentally ill and developmentally disabled, and other dissenters.

But, um, after the first sentence, who cares?

That’s great Frank. From the article you cited:

“Few historians would dispute that during the Plains Indian wars, selected U.S. military forces did perpetuate massacres that can easily be construed as genocidal in intent … But did the U.S. military ever deploy smallpox blankets?”

Um, after the first sentence, who fucking cares? And BTW, all the talk that the Nazis killed Jews with axes at Auschwitz is crap because everyone knows that they used gas. So there.

Some people have doubted these stories; other people, believing the stories, nevertheless assert that the infected blankets were not intentionally distributed to the Indians, or that Lord Jeff himself is not to blame for the germ warfare tactic.

As for surviving “the numerous other legal challenges being mounted against it,” you can rest easy. The slaughter will probably continue. YaY!

Furthermore, it is well-established that the British general Lord Amherst at least considered distributing smallpox-infected goods to Indians in 1763 with explicitly genocidal intent and that his plan was carried out independently by his subordinate, Captain Ecuyer.

So, obviously, the use of smallpox infected blankets against American Indians is categorically NOT bullshit. Whether it was ALSO used later in the mid 1800s on a grander scale (as cited in the article in reference to Ward Churchill, whom I will posit is a loon), may be debatable, but to simply state that any mention of this despicable act is “bullshit” is an attempt at a sweeping historical whitewash cum right-wing apologia.

And, to reiterate, my implication is that I fully expect to see the religious “war on poor women” crowd to begin demanding punitive legal action against any Indian tribes that use their special reservation status to work around their abortion ban, should it somehow manage to survive the numerous other legal challenges being mounted against it.

Meanwhile, lawsuits are in progress, and I think the courts have already put a hold on closing PP clinics

BTW, even I thought this was funny&

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/03/23/comic_advises_women_.html

SD can close down any clinic opened by non-natives on native land, can prohibit them from hiring any non-natives to work in the clinic, and can prosecute the patient and the doctor if the patient is not native American.

cleo, don’t tell me what I do, “as usual.” Half the time, you don’t what you’re doing, let alone what I’m doing.

Whether or not the government was committing “genocide” against the Indians, there is historical data, and there is myth. The smallpox blankets business is bullshit.

And I didn’t bring it up for any reason, Rheinhard brought it up. For whatever reason (his totally gratuitous) “little snark” was made up about someone who wasn’t even involved in this, and, as far as I know, has never had a word to say about Indians.

What does this have to do with abortion in SD? Ask Rheinhardt.

And before any of you lefties even think it, No, I have nothing against Indians, but I do feel that keeping them on reservations now is just about as horrible as anything that may have attempted against them in the past. There should be no reservations. and I say that without reservation.

For a glimpse of South Dakota s future we need only to look across the Atlantic at Portugal, which has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe (although, it should be noted, at least Portugal s abortion prohibitions provide for an exception in the case of rape).

Today, roughly 40,000 Portuguese women have illegal abortions each year, according to women’s rights groups. Thousands more go abroad for the procedure, including to neighboring Spain, where the abortion law is interpreted far more liberally.

Moreover, pro-choice groups assert that hundreds of Portuguese women end up in hospitals each year because of complications resulting from illegal abortions. “The women who have abortions are the poorest, the youngest, the oldest, the violence victims,” said Maria Jose Magalhaes, a Porto-based member of UMAR, a women’s rights lobby group. “The others — the middle class, the literate women — they have other possibilities,” including access to private clinics staffed by competent medical personnel.

http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20050218-010804-3725r.htm

Cecilia Thunder Fire is doing an admirable thing, stepping up to the plate in an attempt to assist the South Dakotan women who would suffer most from the abortion ban: the socially and physically disadvantaged, and the victims of violence and abuse. But she should not be forced by the state of South Dakota to bear that burden alone.

South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, in his statement accompanying the signing of the anti-abortion legislation, said the following:

In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society. The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them.

It s an admirable goal, to protect  the most vulnerable and most helpless in society, and it is one that South Dakota is failing at. Miserably.

As usual you dismiss the entire premise when you find one falsehood
to hang your hat on.

Are you going to tell us you think there was no attempt by the U.S.
government at genocide?

Maybe you can show us all how the federal bounty paid for each
bison tongue, was not designed to wipe out a primary resource
for plains indians.

I’ll leave aside the fact that your pathetic little attempt at a “gotcha” ignores the main implication of my little snark; that I expect to see the mighty Wurlitzer of the religious right cranking into high gear any moment now demanding new laws and punitive actions against the uppity Injuns who dare defy our good white Christian legislators.

Frank_D: Not sure where you get the ‘lone voice’ meme, but it is worth noting that there is currently only ONE clinic in the whole state of S.D., and the abortionist has to fly in from another state.

Respectfully,
a fellow citizen

Why is is that when liberals object to anything, there’s always the accompanying idea that they are some kind of lone voice crying in the wilderness, when they are always supported by a vast array of political, Hollywood, and journalistic cheerleaders?

BTW. Rheinhard: The “smallpox blankets” story is a myth
Read it and weep.

“Smallpox Blankets: An Idea Ahead Of Its Time”.