D.C. is the only burg in America, I'll warrant, where political opinions are regularly the subject of subway advertisements. (Also: attack helicopters. Never saw an ad for attack helicopters on the NYC subway, but then, the NYC subway doesn't stop at the Pentagon).
Anyhoo, the D.C. metro has this week been buried in a crazy confluence of anti-abortion ads. ("Myth: Abortion is legal only for the first three months of pregnancy. Fact: it is legal at any time for virtually any reason"). Yeah, if you're rich enough to afford to travel to the only abortion clinic left in your damn state, wait five days because of mandatory waiting periods and/or because, given that there is only one clinic in the state, there's kind of a backup, and then wade through a pile of sign-waving, screaming kookoobirds to get to the damn doctor -- then yes, I suppose it is legal for "virtually" any reason. Only, have they tested that? Have they sent people in to say they would like a third trimester abortion because the baby is a moon man? I mean, "virtually" any reason? Any reason? Shut up, stupid sign!
Now is the time for all good men to procure a Sharpie and indulge in a little citizen "rebranding" of the aforesaid advertisements, methinks.
In other news, I have procured two new goldfish, Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. They also hate the signs on the subway. They are joined by a large snail who shall be known as "The Late Justice Potter Stewart," after the Supreme Court justice who famously said that he knew pornography when he saw it, except that he didn't, because he was BLIND. The Late Justice Potter Stewart reserves judgment on the signs on the subway -- his dissenting opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut (the case legalizing birth control, and paving the way for Roe v. Wade by determining that there was just some shit the government had no business dealing with) was that outlawing birth control was really really stupid, but not unconstitutional. Thus, he falls into the camp of people who know injustice "when they see it," but would prefer to sit back and clean their robes (and/or a fish tank with their tongues).
posted by Reen |link| 0 comments
