July 1, 2003
SAVING YACKEY DOODLE
My great buddies at NPR had a delicious, giggly, picaresque story on the saving of a momma duck and her babies on All Things Considered this afternoon. It seems one Pat Getter saw the ducky troupe crossing K Street in rush hour DC traffic, and leapt to save the fuzzy family. Ms. Getter actually stood in front of traffic yelling "STOP! STOP!" Chuckle.
Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO had the deeper story earlier, however. It seems right after Ms. Getter's heroic efforts one Jennifer Helburn threw herself in front of a bus at I Street to prevent mallard mayhem. Ms. Helburn's job? Communications director for the National Abortion Federation. This is an interesting take on the value of a life. Fortunately I'm a post-ironical kind of guy, so this kind of shit doesn't bother me too much, although I'm tempted to wonder how many times Ms. Helburn has used the "health of the mother" in advancing her cause.
Actually, I never discuss the A word here (not Adultery. Hell, I love talking about that. It's especially cool when someone you know gets caught in flagrante delicto by their spouse. Fucking great water cooler conversation, that). No, the other A word. Because I really don't give a shit what other people do. I just found the story illuminating, that's all. Actually, I'm beginning to lose my earlier convictions on the sanctity of human life. We're a pretty flawed species, in all, especially if no one in that rush hour traffic bothered to squash those ducks for the greater cause of expeditious traffic, and commit those insane bitches to the rubber room. I think I'll just protect the sanctity of my loved ones' lives to the best of my ability going forward. Everybody else is on their freaking own.
Final thought: I wonder if these women would have risked life and limb to save a family of rats? I'll bet they're rodent-bigots.