John Sherffius by John Sherffius

Tags: hate, murder, Abortion, Pro-life. Add Tags

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fennec said, 5 months ago

Sherffius is amazing in his distillation of events. I stand in awe.
believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

excellent once again, Sherrfius
cdward said, 5 months ago

Succinctly shows the negative power of hateful words.
Greeneyed Texan said, 5 months ago

If talk radio is supposedly this powerful then WOW I am surprised there are not thousands more people dead. Never knew they could brainwash others into becoming murders.
jkshaw said, 5 months ago

Thank you John Sherffius. Your cartoons are always telling comments on the day’s events. Especially this day’s events.

You don’t need to brainwash nutcases to become murderers, Green. You just need to tip the ones that are ready to murder off the deep end. And there are plenty of them populating the country right now. The election didn’t go their way after eight years of riding high. No, after more than thirty years.

They’re blindly angry. They’re feeling put upon – there’s a man in the White House who, in their minds, should still be under the lash on a southern plantation. How dare he be the president of the United States and lord it over more deserving white men? Talk radio has always played a dangerous game, agreed, but it’s many times worse right now.
dtroutma said, 5 months ago

Iraq, Afghanistan, back to the extermination of the Canaanites- hateful words are not just spread on the radio, and the billions who have died over the centuries at the hands of zealots of all stripes prove the rocks thrown in the name of words, are only secondary death.

The innocence of “faith” is the growth medium of fear and hate.
deadheadzan said, 5 months ago

This cartoon distills the essence of how it went down. You just have to tip one crazy and that’s what they did. Dig deeper and you might also have a conspiracy in this particular case.
M Kitt said, 5 months ago

DHZ, you giving some credit to the O’Really factor? I do.
Michigander said, 5 months ago

Great toon.
cdward said, 5 months ago

Greeneyedtxn, I remember arguments by conservatives about rock n’ roll music being a bad influence on young people because the words encouraged them to be disrespectful. Somehow, I imagine words do matter….
deadheadzan said, 5 months ago

MKitt, by all means, O’Reilly relentlessly vilified this doctor.
M Kitt said, 5 months ago

Yep, but his faithful listeners and readily available programming platform will play it down endlessly, politics and caustic media influence at their worst, same nasty combination that caused the damage (or certainly contributed). Won’t change opinions either for those of us not among his doting listeners…..he’s got a LONG history.
segamon said, 5 months ago

Dr. Tiller was a murderer of unborn children.

Mr. Roeder is a murderer of an abortion doctor.

Both are murderers and I do not condone either one of these murders. I have not heard of any pro-life person advocate for Dr. Tiller’s death. All that I have heard is that he kills babies and that we hope he stops doing it. I guess that makes pro-lifers… responsible…? Huh?

Makes just as much sense as blaming those who were against the war in Iraq for the actions of Abdul in his murder of a military recruiter. Would that make any more sense? Uh…
cdward said, 5 months ago

segamon, there actually are those who condone violence against abortion providers. However, the murder of the military recruiter was not done by those who oppose the war, rather by a, dare I say it, Muslim extremist. Two different groups.

Having said that, you are correct that most in the anti-abortion camp do not condone murder of abortion providers.

We will have to disagree about whether what Dr. Tiller did was murder. And as there is no way to prove it, we’ll probably have to wait for Glory when I’m sure God will let us know. But in the meantime, I get frustrated by those who say they want to reduce abortion by punishing those who are involved in it. If you want to really reduce the number of abortions (they will never be done away with entirely), then we know what works. Education above all. Proper birth control next. Economic opportunity as well. (studies showed – and I’ll have to look up the source – that simply helping a teenage girl open a checking account and teaching her how to use it reduced the number of teen pregnancies). Making it illegal will only punish the poor who will either risk dangerous back-alley abortions or have children they can’t support. The rich have always bypassed the laws – quick trip to Canada and you’re done.

So, I don’t think Dr. TIller killed babies. You do. Stalemate. Unless we can find common ground to make those abortions unnecessary (or at least less necessary) in the first place.
redtail10 said, 5 months ago

Very well said cdward! Thank you.
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

Hey, cdward, are you of the opinion that the Bible’s perspective is that life begins with the first breath and that breath and soul are synonymous? As in “the breath of life” into Adam’s nostrils (and when the patriarchs die, they “breathe their last”)?
Riley_SHeehan said, 5 months ago

Kill all Humans
M Kitt said, 5 months ago

RS, nice icon. Is that from Boondocks, right?
IrishEddieOHara said, 5 months ago

Guess what?

TILLER’S BABY KILLING PLANTATION IS CLOSING FOR GOOD!!

No more little hands and feet in dumpsters. No more little heads severed from bodies after their brains have been sucked out of the cranium.

You know, I really have to wonder something?

WWJD?

Yeah, Jesus. What would HE do if He were alive on this planet and was watching babies be slaughtered wholesale by people who want to rut like animals and then kill the results of their sin?

I think He’d burn them down – one by one. Remember, this is the same Jesus who made a whip and drove out the Capitalists from the Temple!! He does have a temper when He sees wrong doing.

Oh, and BTW – all you know it all atheists and others who think you are so smart. You will meet Him one day and explain why you were so in favor of killing innocent babies. Better try to get together at least a semblance of a more cogent answer than a da a da a da a da!!
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

Wonderful fantasy world you live in there, Irish’. Have you always had such a wild imagination?
M Kitt said, 5 months ago

Irish is on a rant, not the most cogent human being but certainly animated. Hey Irish, ever consider what God may think about you speaking for him/her/them so often? Maybe wonder if the term “sanctimonious” might have been coined to match your’ behavior? Suppose being so busy and all he/she/they may not mind you making his or her decisions, a lot of people seem to be doing that these days…:-) Since there are so many denominations even among Christians you might stop to think that they can’t all be right and maybe he or she is not paying attention to or in agreement with the one you support, and since you can’t belong to them all you may just have to burn in hell along with the rest of us “blasphemers”. Good luck with that.
danielsangeo said, 5 months ago

“unborn babies” “unborn children”

How about “unborn adults”?

Heck, let’s not stop there! Let’s start calling everyone “undead corpses”.

I’ve always wanted to shamble.
KelleK said, 5 months ago

Yeah, but those babies weren’t given a CHOICE

I highly recommend watching this video. This guy makes great points against abortion, he’s very entertaining:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93cFOjDG-Ks&feature=channel_page

http://abortionno.org/
cdward said, 5 months ago

Dr. Canuck, I don’t know. Wish I did. Nobody but God does, however, so we work with what we’ve got.
KelleK said, 5 months ago

I believe that the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who are least able to defend and to speak for themselves.

The truth of the matter is that Dr. Tiller performer over 60,000 abortions. He was only 1 of 3 Dr’s in the country that would perform late term abortions (and making millions doing it!). Does that mean he should have been gunned down in his church? Absolutely NO!!! He’d been under investigation before so he was doing something suspicious. He should have been arrested and taken to court and explained his records. I do think he is a murderer. His recorders show that he would give a woman an abortion because of her “mental” state, like a head ache or because she was upset over a break up. These women didn’t need an abortion. What they needed was some serious counseling. What about the emotional scars these women will carry with them for the rest of their life?

What shocks me is the hypocracy. The same people that are against the waterboarding at gitmo and against capital punishment are for abortion. Abortion is fatal. These innocent babies are killed in the most “tortuous” manners possible. The end result looks like something from a war zone. Anyone with half a heart can’t possibly support this barbaric act. Yet we have to make sure that convicted felons, serial killers, child rapists and terrorists are made comfortable. Access to free health care, cable, gym, college education….. (Heaven forbid the detainees get cold or go without their koran). Even if a prisoner is killed by lethal infection, that’s less painful that being pulled limb from limb or having their head crushed and their brains sucked out.
motivemagus said, 5 months ago

KelleK, some of your points may be true for late-term abortion – which, for the record, I do not support – but your generalizations of abortion are simply not true. Millions of women have miscarriages every day, which are also technically known as “spontaneous abortions.” Will you convict them of murder?

For most of the first three months of development, we are basically talking about a smudge of cells with human DNA. You shed more skin cells in a week – those have human DNA, too, and life. Pluck an eyebrow, you’ve removed a living cell with each hair.

Besides, torture doesn’t apply if there’s not an active nervous system to detect it.
Speaking of hypocrisy, true pro-life organizations are wholly against capital punishment, too.

And if you really think that convicted felons are “comfortable,” go visit a prison sometime. Also ask yourself how you’d like to sit in a five-by-five metal cell with no privacy, no control over your life, and only occasional, monitored contact with the outside world. Deprivation of freedom is one of the worst punishments I can imagine, especially if you believe in an afterlife. After all, isn’t “freedom” the reason we supposedly went into Iraq?
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

cdward said, 20 minutes ago

Dr. Canuck, I don’t know. Wish I did. Nobody but God does, however, so we work with what we’ve got.

DrCanuck responds: Oh, c’mon, cdward, no copping out on me now! I wasn’t asking for YOUR perspective but what you think the BIBLE’S perspective was. Earlier, you had said that the Bible has to be interpreted from a basis of reason and developing cultural values. Please do so.
Corosive Frog said, 5 months ago

Little hands and feet in dumpsters? Come on! I had a miscarriage at ten weeks pregnancy an I didn’t see no hands and feet. just a huge blood clot.

A blood clot that could have become a human, though.

By the way, what would you answer if the doctor had to ask you that question; “should I save the mother or the child?”
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

I would be thrilled to hear other folks’ interpretation of what they think the Bible’s perspective is on the beginning of life. Be sure to back it up with appropriate passages and account for contradictions.

(Yes, I know it’s weird to be actually ASKING for someone’s opinion in this blog where the standard behaviour is to loudly proclaim YOUR opinion and ignore everyone else’s.)
M Kitt said, 5 months ago

That would pretty much be the point, I think, DrC. If everyone wears around a religious (or simple life experience, whatever) filter to screen or interpret their opinions thru then what’s in the bible is completely speculative, mired in and inseperable from opinion, subjective. Seperation of church and state is my own remedy, I don’t claim to be completely objective tho.
fennec said, 5 months ago

DrC, I don’t know about you, but I learn a lot from the folks posting here. It is not all just opinions but often facts and useful links.. And as far as opinions go, I learn from them too, especially from those who give the reasoning behind their views (besides just seeing the diversity of views).
IrishEddieOHara said, 5 months ago

Hello Frog – The answer is that the MOTHER’S life ALWAYS comes first. That said, 99.9% of abortions have absolutely NOTHING to do with medical necessity. They have to do with CONVENIECE.

Case in point: My wife and I were informed that because of her adult onset diabetes, there was a high probability of the twins she was carrying being born with spina bifida. This is common in diabetic pregnancies.

Convenience (i.e. not going bankrupt or crazy caring for disabled children) would say “Get the abortion”.

We chose life. Before the boys were even born. I didn’t care what inconvenience came with it.

Abortion is a result of selfishness, pure and simple. First, the selfishness of YOUNG MEN pressuring women for sex when they have no business doing so. Sex is for marriage and is not some toy so that some boy can get his “jollies”.

And second, the selfishness of women who do not wish to be inconvenienced by a baby.

MKITT – The Bible is not subjective. What part of “THOU SHALT NOT MURDER” do you not understand? What part of “THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY” do you not understand?

The Bible is pretty clear on most things regarding our behavior. The fact is that most people want to follow their disordered passions rather than do the strenuous work of changing into holy people.

KelleK – Thank you for pointing out the hypocrisy of the left. They get crazy over waterboarding (which I OPPOSE ALSO) but have absolutely no conscience regarding the dismemberment of babies who are almost ready to be born. We live in an extremely sick country, and people both on the RIGHT and the LEFT are part of that sickness!!
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

MKitt and fennec: I agree with what both of you are saying. But you haven’t answered my question. Go for it! I expect your comments will be thoughtful (not like some on this blog).
M Kitt said, 5 months ago

DrC, I’m much newer to this format than many here, I don’t typically “blog” or shout my opinions (figuratively) to be heard above the crowd, I certainly appreciate the opinions given and respect (nearly) all who give an honest statement of their viewpoint, however much I may disagree with (or perhaps rant at) the person making that proposal. In keeping with my last entry, “Seperation of church and state is my own remedy”, if you disregard the religious aspect of the decision for or against an abortion all that’s left is making the choice, and the right to do so. The rest is really parsing, much as it may be difficult to define “Where does life start”. I’m closer to being an agnostic than an atheist, I really just accept what I don’t know rather than stating that I know more than others about scripture, again leading to it being “Their Choice”, and I respect that too. :-) Could lead to some disagreement tho…or several.
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

OK, OK, OK. I get it.

But when does the BIBLE say life starts?
IrishEddieOHara said, 5 months ago

Dr Canuck – Hey! You really from Canada?

There are some things that the Bible does not clearly teach. Your question is one of them. Therefore, God has established the Church as the interpreter of moral and doctrinal teachings. The Church speaks for God on these issues.

And the Church teaches that life begins at conception.

Roma locuta est. Causa finita est
fennec said, 5 months ago

DrC, I am a biologist. My viewpoint is heavily weighted by this fact. To be honest, I do not know what the Bible may say about your question nor do I really care. As my belief system is more based on Quaker thought than anything else, I rather think cdward is a better source for biblical content than I could ever come up with.
cdward said, 5 months ago

Dr. C, I misunderstood your question. Before I answer, let me say that the Bible may not be the best source for knowing when the fetus becomes a person. In regard to the womb, the bible mostly speaks in poetry, so it will not give a pat answer. However, the most compelling verse for the fetus being a full person might be Jeremiah 1:5:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

There’s also Psalm 139:13, but it’s more just about who made us.
“For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

Of course, then we have Psalm 137:9 to balance that out: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!”

You will find several passages where infanticide is acceptable and where it does not fall under the category of murder. So it’s much muddier than we might like.

For what it’s worth, Christian tradition has the moment of quickening as the point where the soul enters the developing body.

Not sure you’ll be any happier with this answer, but it’s the best I can give you.
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

So, Irish’, what you’re saying is that the Church could be teaching something contrary to the Bible and you wouldn’t even know it? But whichwould you follow if you DID find a contradiction?

(Yup, a proud citizen of Soviet Canuckistan)

And cd’, the Jerimiah states life begins BEFORE conception. Could also refer to a soul existing before the body, and says nothing about when they are conjoined, so that one is no good. Psalm139 is better, but still not convincing. Could be refering simply to the body.

And have you discounted my breath=soul (=life) argument above, even though the words are the same in many ancient languages?
acellist said, 5 months ago

Staves off the guff…
motivemagus said, 5 months ago

DrCanuck - I don’t defend IrishEddie’s views, but I’m Catholic, and the answer to your question is that the Church doesn’t take the Bible literally at all, and part of the purpose of the Church is to deal with the changes in society, in the same way that the God of the Old Testament is clearly leading His people differently than the God of the New Testament. In the past, the Church has mostly done this by resisting the changes, but, you know, most of the issues of the Reformation were eventually addressed, oh, 300-400 years later!!
cdward said, 5 months ago

Dr. Canuck, I don’t mind the breath of life argument – in a way, you could say that the person only becomes a living human being at the point they are safely delivered by the mother into the world.

Yes, Jeremiah was talking about the soul - not that I think that’s “no good.”

What I was trying to say is that the bible does not tell us what you want to know. And our church does not depend on scriptural evidence for that bit of information. Some of those things we have to sort out on our own using the other faculties God gives us. At the least, for now, I would say that a fetus is potential life, which is different but also precious and to be handled carefully. This doesn’t preclude abortion but makes the decision somber and serious.
danielsangeo said, 5 months ago

cdward: As an atheist, may I be the first to say that you’re spouting some extremely honest truths?
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

And here comes the punch line: I think the Bible IS quite clear on the “life begins at first breath” idea. Extrapolation is, of course, necessary.

This is, of course, a legal issue, not a biological one, for the Israelists, as it is for us primarily. They didn’t say life begins at conception; they didn’t understand how babies happened at all. (They had no conception of conception.)

So reference the Old Testament law (Exodus 21) of an “eye for and eye” or making the punishment fit the crime. If one kills, he is to be put to death; if he damages someone’s property, he is to be fined. Like for like. If one kills a woman, pregnant or otherwise, he is to be put to death; if he knocks out her tooth, he is to have his own tooth knocked out. If he kills a man’s cow, he is fined an equal amount, because a cow is property.

If he causes a woman to miscarry or abort, he is to be fined (Exodus 21:22). Hence, from a Biblical perspective, a fetus is property. If the fetus were a life, the penalty would be death, and it’s not. Life begins at birth.

What say y’all?
cdward said, 5 months ago

Dr. Canuck, I think your Exodus citation is perhaps one of the most relevant here.
DrCanuck said, 5 months ago

Oh, nuts; I was hoping you could prove me wrong so I could learn something.
believecommonsense said, 5 months ago

very interesting discussion between cdward and canuck and I appreciate reading it. thanks
oldlegodad said, 5 months ago

They could both use a little counselling from Bishop John Howe, Diocese of Central Florida.
cdward said, 5 months ago

oldlego, I have my own bishop, thanks. In our church, there are many bishops, and each has his/her own perspective. There are many, undoubtedly, who disagree with me. Should I cease to believe and act in accordance with my understanding of the Gospel because one bishop sees this issue differently?
KelleK said, 5 months ago

‘For most of the first three months of development, we are basically talking about a smudge of cells with human DNA’

Corosive Frog - sorry about your loss

http://pregnancyandbaby.sheknows.com/pregnancy/baby/Week-10–What-your-baby-looks-like-now-3087.htm

This link shows a “normal” pregnancy at 10 weeks gestation. 12 weeks is the end of the first trimester. That looks more than a “smudge of cells” to me!

Speaking as a mom of 3 kids, the moment that I found out I was pregnant I loved that tiny bundle of cells unconditionally. As a human being I can’t fathom the idea that someone would want to harm their child. For me it has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with knowing whats right and whats wrong. I feel terrible for women who feel that they have no other choice but to terminate a pregnancy. Maybe they are ashamed, maybe they have no way to support a child, maybe they are just too selfish to raise a child and don’t want to give up their life for someone else? I don’t know, I do know that raising 1, let alone 3, is tiring and a completely selfless job. That being said, why should that baby pay by penalty of death for the mother’s mistake? I don’t get it how killing a child is so much better than giving it life and a family that will love it?