Transterrestrial Musings

Comments

Toni, 35, should watch the first ten minutes of the movie Idiocracy.

Posted by rjschwarz at November 23, 2007 06:46 PM

Ok, so you don't like woman who don't have babies because they're not eco-friendly (a pretty dumb reason in my book, but heh, it's their reproductive system).

What about people who just don't want kids?

I have to admit that I find the idea behind the article, especially the line "most young girls dream of marriage and babies" to be pretty insidious myself.

Especially as I know plenty of women who didn't dream of that including the one I married. As it happens we can't have kids anyway, and didn't really want them. But that would have been our choice and absoltely nobody elses.

Perhaps you should rephrase your article.

Btw... do you have kids?

Posted by Daveon at November 23, 2007 07:17 PM

How can super-genius Toni believe that having children is selfish, but maintaining her own life, at the "expense of the planet", is not? Do the right thing, Toni! Do it for "the planet", whatever your hilariously irrational mind understands that term to mean.

I do like her addled boyfriend's idea of the congratulations card. Another niche for Hallmark to exploit. Happy Sterilization Day! Wonder if Toni celebrates the anniversary of her descent into pure satire?

Posted by Crispytoast at November 23, 2007 07:26 PM

Ok, so you don't like woman who don't have babies because they're not eco-friendly (a pretty dumb reason in my book, but heh, it's their reproductive system).

It has nothing to do with what I "like" or not. I was simply agreeing with you. It's a dumb reason. The race won't miss people who don't propagate themselves for dumb reasons.

Btw... do you have kids?

Not that it's your business, but only stepkids. But not for her "dumb reason."

Posted by Rand SImberg at November 23, 2007 07:40 PM

People like Toni are dangerous. With her "healthy hatred" of humanity she is only one or two steps away from espousing or becoming actively involved in ridding the planet of it's human infestation. Somebody needs to watch that one very closely.

Posted by bindare at November 23, 2007 08:10 PM

Lots of people don't want kids, for lots of reasons. Fine: that's how natural selection works.

However, what raises the red flag is their Gaiaolotry: the belief that people are a kind of plague that needs to be suppressed. It's one small step from rendering yourself sterile to mandating sterility for others.

Sterilization for eugenic purposes was, I'm sorry to say, quite common in the US up through the 1960s: it was "scientific", you see. As "science" and "religion" fuse into Gaiaolotry, I expect that sort of thing to come roaring back.

Posted by Brown Line at November 23, 2007 08:58 PM

Good analysis Mr. Simberg! It's just another Utopian movement doomed to failure, only without the skill or aesthetics for fine furniture.
This kind of stupidity deserves to be mocked.
Hmmmm.
How does mocking people who forego children for the sake of 'the planet' as a political statement and wearing it like a badge of honor (it's a new source of SMUG!) translate as criticism for not having children for any other reason?
A: It doesn't.
Methinks there be thin-skinned people with issues out there!

Posted by SMSgt Mac at November 23, 2007 09:13 PM

Of course, that won't prevent her from having other people's children pay for and look after her in her old age.

Now who's selfish?

Posted by Noah Nehm at November 23, 2007 09:19 PM

It's the idiotic condemnation of self-awareness which is fundamental to their outlook that most annoys me. To these people, human actions are foreign to 'nature' for essentially no other reason than the human experience of self-awareness -- i.e., simply because human beings are aware of their own existence at a certain higher cognitive level, everything they do is therefore 'un-natural' or 'against' nature.

Press them long and hard enough and it eventually comes out -- either that, or their flatly nasty urges towards totalitarian control of other people's lives are revealed.

Posted by Acksiom at November 23, 2007 09:57 PM

More reason we need to conquer Mars.

Posted by rjschwarz at November 23, 2007 10:31 PM

This is a slippery slope. How long before some Columbina/VTech-style mass-murder is praised as an act of culling the herd before their reproductive years? How long before some activist left-wing judge pardons such a mass-murderer for this reason.

This whole thing is just 1 step away from justifying the killing of other people's children. What's next - genocide against families?

Posted by Tood at November 23, 2007 10:35 PM

These people are the creepiest thing that has come along in ages, if not ever. Even the Stalinists and the Nazis claimed to be killing in order to someday have a happier, better life for that part of the human race that survived their kind attentions. Every religion has claimed to be concerned about saving immortal souls, or achieving nirvana, or some good end for people.

This is truly a death cult.

Posted by Jim Bennett at November 23, 2007 11:02 PM

Yes, very creepy. Hard to be human when you're against humanity.

OTOH, there can't be many people like this woman, or no one would have written about her. The Shakers didn't go very far either, come to think of it.

Posted by Jonathan at November 24, 2007 12:04 AM

Where this particular variety of creeps meet to bleat:
http://www.vhemt.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_Human_Extinction_Movement

Posted by F Meyer at November 24, 2007 12:07 AM

I think people like that are one step away from becoming what was called "Goodlife" in Saberhagen's Berzerker series. This fool is just an inactive Goodlife. If she is truely foolish enough to do that to herself its not much of a reach for her to pick up a gun, bomb or something else and get rid of the badlife.

Hell I sure wouldnt want that Mark Hudson (health care worker) in the story to be anywhere around me in a hospital. Who knows if he'd go angel of death to reduce the carbon footprint.

Posted by Sultanofsham at November 24, 2007 12:11 AM

Generous of her not to declare humanity a infestation deriving sustenance at the expense of the planet. Oops, I guess that WAS what she meant!

Posted by Thomas Hazlewood at November 24, 2007 12:33 AM

My experience with this goes back to the "Population Bomb" days. In 1968, a physicist friend declared to me that it was immoral to have children because of the inevidible, horrific over population crisis which would soon doom most of the humans on the planet to starvation and death by pollution. Unfortunately, he forget to sufficiently indoctrinate his wife, who proceeded to "accidently" have 3 children over the next 5 years. Of course by that time, strangely enough, the crisis seemed to have passed for some reason or other.

Posted by K at November 24, 2007 01:50 AM

It has always struck me that there's a certain self-loathing that seems inherent to being a person of the Left. If you think about it, the causes they take up are almost always antithetical to their own interests, and as the left has gotten kookier and more extreme, the causes it expouses become more and more in conflict with who they really are. Now we see some extreme elements of the Left making common cause with Islamic radicals woud would stone or hang them for living the lifestyles they lead. "Animal rights" are clearly misnamed - when you speak to an animal rights activist and really get down to what they believe, what they are for are "anti-human" rights. And now you have them at least being honest with themselves and admitting that they despise all of humanity.

What could account for this? It seems to be that a deep pathological hatred of self is the motivating factor behind Leftist thought and activism. I suppose that's to be pitied, really.

Posted by Smaack at November 24, 2007 03:42 AM

Evolution in action... too smart to breed, too dumb to pass on a legacy. Please *do* remove such genes from the gene pool.

Posted by ajacksonian at November 24, 2007 04:08 AM

Nominate her for a Darwin Award, quick!

She does have a point, though. Malthus will win, eventually - even if we do colonise the solar system, it will just take longer. A finite environment can't accommodate exponential growth indefinitely.

One problem with her approack is that the IQ

It will come to birth licenses eventually.

Posted by Fletcher Christian at November 24, 2007 06:02 AM

The gremlins ate part of my post!

One problem with her approach is that neither the IQ

Posted by Fletcher Christian at November 24, 2007 06:05 AM

Mark Steyn puts it best -- the future belongs to those that show up.

People might also want to consider the following:

The Plague

Posted by Mark L at November 24, 2007 06:21 AM

The logical conclusion of her thinking is for her to kill herself. Think about it -- if having a child is bad for the planet, then her being here is also bad for the planet. If she argues that she's already here, then she's conceding that the marginal person isn't harmful ... therefore, the marginal person she aborted isn't harmful either.

But of course she's not thinking like that. What's she's really doing is trying to appease the god of her mind, which is the god of eco-environmentalism.

Posted by Don in AZ at November 24, 2007 06:30 AM

TO: All
RE: Such Is the Madness of Modern Times

Some Wag, around 2000 years ago commented...

Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

And I'm reminded of another think some earlier wag said...

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Those whom God would destroy, He first makes mad.]

Posted by Chuck Pelto at November 24, 2007 06:32 AM

Why should this seem so strange? We accept it when women and men become nuns and monks or celibate priests. Here they aren't even giving up sex :) Some certainly have a religious sensibility, a feeling that they are avoiding a moral equavalent of sin. I wasn't surprised when I read:

"But nothing in Toni's safe, middle- class upbringing gave any clues as to the views which would shape her adult life. The eldest of three daughters, she enjoyed a loving, close-knit family life.

"She excelled at her Roman Catholic school ..."

Tori's "campaigning" certainly sounds like missionary work, and her group of like-minded friends like fellow members of an evangelical congregation.

Posted by Roger Sweeny at November 24, 2007 06:47 AM

Come now, sounds like a perfectly delightful group of people, the let's-go-camping sort, or backyard BBQ enthusiasts. I think dinner together would be great and then maybe a hot tub?

Posted by bour3 at November 24, 2007 06:47 AM

I sincerly worry that in 10-20 years, much like the "Save the Whales" crowd, the anti-animal experimentation crowd, and other eco-terrorists will believe it is acceptable not just to encourage VT/Columbia school shooting among highschoolers who could theoretically fight back, but to "Save the planet" by going after day care and elementary schools.

Do not think it is possible? We had said that about alot of things that have come to pass in the last ten years or so...

Posted by Nick M at November 24, 2007 08:21 AM

Sounds like just another nutty nun in Al Gore's church!

Posted by boisebb at November 24, 2007 08:31 AM

Sounds like just another nutty nun in Al Gore's church!

Posted by at November 24, 2007 08:32 AM

TO: Nick M
RE: That's....

...Columbine, Nick. Not Columbia.

Regards,

Chuck
P.S. My church, in Littleton, is four miles from there. We had casualties in the congregation.

Posted by Chuck Pelto at November 24, 2007 08:50 AM

Toni, Thank ___? that you're free to tie your tubes and to worship this little planet --- but don't forget that our nuclear sun is gonna go down hard and when it goes, it won't matter a whit about you, your lack of offspring or this speck of dirt.

Posted by Arturo at November 24, 2007 08:51 AM

I've personally known several hard core enviro types who have gone around the bend from "lets not have any kids" to "we should actively lower the population". (they also get really freaked out if you start talking about space travel/colonization - they're pretty explicit in their desire for the human race to die out on this here ball of rock lest we go out and "exploit other planets". right. ) Most of these people went into education specifically so they could get at your children; they proudly admit it if you ask.

I also know a hell of a lot more nutters who stop short of wanting to actively start offing people, but who celebrate whenever natural disasters kill large numbers of people. After all (and I quote), "There are too many people, and it's not like it's anyone I know".

Thank you, public education.

Posted by Tim in PA at November 24, 2007 08:51 AM

Roger Sweeney wrote

"Why should this seem so strange? We accept it when women and men become nuns and monks or celibate priests."

Nuns view children as a blessing from God, and they value and often support the work of parents who are raising children. This young woman sees children as a blight on the planet. Not only does she not choose to bear children, she sees those who do as selfish.

The scary part here is not her personal choice, but her condemnation of others who make a different choice. I grew up in the sixties, and most of my life I've heard people argue for acceptance of individual lifestyles, but it seems that we are just substituting a new set of "sins" for the old fashioned, traditional ones. For Toni, having children isn't about personal choice- it's so selfish it's evil.

Posted by JeanE at November 24, 2007 09:00 AM

If they were so concerned about the planet, they wouldn't be taking one long trip per year on that evil gas guzzling plane - they're using "no children" as a carbon offset.

In reading the whole article, it sounds to me like someone worked really hard to come up with a "social" justification to use when Mom and Dad asked about grandchildren.

Look, if you don't want kids, don't have any. Have a tubal and get on with your life. You stay out of my life, and I'll stay out of yours.

Posted by at November 24, 2007 09:10 AM

Look at it this way. When these people have shuffled off this mortal coil, the quality of the gene pool will be enhanced exponentially.

Posted by RebeccaH at November 24, 2007 10:18 AM

Evolution in action.

Posted by Charlie (Colorado) at November 24, 2007 11:04 AM

TO: Charlie
RE: The REAL Quote Is...

"Look upon it as 'evolution in action'."

I see it as a self-inflicted wound.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Children, n., messages we send to a future we shall never see.]

Posted by Chuck Pelto at November 24, 2007 12:50 PM

Actually, Chuck, the real quote is "Think of it as evolution in action."
Larry Niven, Oath of Fealty

Posted by Math_Mage at November 24, 2007 03:04 PM

TO: Math_Mage
RE: The Quote

Thanks for the correct.

It's been over a decade since I read the book.

However, Charlie can tell us all about Denver's effort to build such an edifice between Broadway and Lincoln, north of 8th.

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Posted by Chuck Pelto at November 24, 2007 03:48 PM

TO: All
RE: Additional Information

It seems—according to Fox News—that Toni actually murdered her unborn child as part of this protest....see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312779,00.html for the verification.

My point, here, is...how long until she succumbs to breast cancer?

Regards,

Chuck(le)

Posted by Chuck Pelto at November 25, 2007 03:46 PM

"More reason we need to conquer Mars.
Posted by rjschwarz at November 23, 2007 10:31 PM"

More reason we need to conquer Toni's nether regions. Now she can be turkey basted all she wants with no consequence.

Posted by Josh Reiter at November 26, 2007 12:39 AM

I've known several people my age (30s) who say they won't have kids because raising kids is scary, difficult and expensive (all true, but beside the point). At least they're honest about it. This woman has come up with a brilliant excuse that makes her look heroic and self-sacrificing.

Posted by Artemus at November 26, 2007 06:01 AM

To be honest there have always been folks that don't want children. Tony has simply converted the standard "selfish" reason (time & money invovled cutting into livestyle) into a noble sacrifice for the world which is a brilliant bit of rationalization.

Posted by rjschwarz at November 26, 2007 08:34 AM

"... a brilliant bit of rationalization."

Indeed.

Like rich kids who brag about how they only buy "fair trade" goods and only eat organic and don't shop at Wal Mart: they've found a politically correct way to flaunt their wealth.

Then they grow into adults who fly private jets to global warming conferences. Priceless.

Posted by Laika's Last Woof at November 26, 2007 10:47 PM

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