Well, well, well... A writer that doesn't get metaphor. The last person here who would diss what you actually do for a living, is me. As cake changer for a frathouse, dear buoy, you have been assigned that position by other fratbuoyz who have found that you fail to meet even their level of high moral standards. Do you get it yet? Or do I have to type more s l o w l y? I can do 100 wpm, instead of 180 wpm if you need.
Let's get one thing clear: what you are doing above and in the abortion debate is reserving for yourself the right to use flamboyant metaphor to get a rise out of the crowd while denying it to others. As you said, as soon as someone says ""I'm all for colorful speech, *but* . . ." the game's up."
Similarly, if the fingernail clipping crowd wants to advance _their_ own colorful metaphors designed to incite and, yes, accurately describe exactly how they feel about abortion, then to cry foul and accuse them of lacking morals is to reserve for yourself a mode of discourse you deny them: as soon as someone says ""I'm all for colorful speech, *but* . . ." the game's up."
In the end, you're advance the same claims as the religious right where your view of what abortion is all about is assumed to trump their opposition(s)'s view. You cannot, however, actually defend this claim because you have no god to call on, do you? It's your morality against others's morality.
"Carrol's grotesque description of living fetuses as hangnails" is an intolerant moral judgment. It is a claim that you assert ought to be a universal understanding of what happens during abortion.
For you, it is a grisly fact. For others it is a fact.
For you, it is a living fetus, a potential life. For others, it is a growing mass of cells that delimits their freedom, just as cancer is a growing mass of cells that delimits their freedom.
If you really want the free flow of conversation, then it's not just your view that everyone must accept in order for this to be a fully encompassing pro-choice politics. You also have to extend the same dignity to Carrol and Yoshie who really do believe that it is like fingernail clipping. And so do I, sometimes. (nods to Jenny)
If you don't want to be like C and Y, then don't insist that your view is a "grisly fact" and, indeed, don't even insist it is a fact. It is not.
And if you'd read the links I pointed you to, then you should realize that I'm practicing what I preach. I'm supporting the right to advance a view of the world that I don't always agree with. That is, when not faced with pregnancy, then I view abortion quite sanguinely: big whoop. I've been pregnant more than once, given birth, and had an abortion and haven't viewed it sanguinely at all.
Kelley
Stick that in your ass and whiff it: http://www.mintyass.com/