Here it is! What everyone has been waiting for….A Republican’s View! Okay, here is a brief overview again of the rules and etiquette of these postings.

1. You will most likely find that your opinion is not the same as what is expressed in these blogs.

2. Be open to other opinions. I’m not saying you have to agree, but make sure you are respectful when responding. If a story upsets you, let it be known! But, please refrain from any personal insults to our Republican guest.

3. Argue your opinion, but argue in a respectful manner. Stick to the facts. Trust me when I say, that the writer of this blog is fully prepared to take on any argument you throw out there. So, bring it on! If you have a point to make, then make it!! RomeyRome can take it!

Okay, so here we go with the first Republican’s View blog….and believe me, its gonna rattle your cages!!

Michael Vick “Chooses” to Fight Dogs

First and foremost, I’d like to thank Juliet and Juliette for allowing me the opportunity to add an alternative viewpoint to their blog. As a life-long conservative, I look forward to writing about my opinions with which many of you will not agree, likely most of the time. However, in the interest of educating ourselves about both sides of the many issues that we as a society face today, I see this as an exciting sidebar to the everyday J-n-J blog.

I’m excited about writing a regular article and hearing feedback from the other side of the aisle. Hopefully, I may open your eyes at times to a viewpoint that you may not have previously considered. Conversely, I look forward to your responses explaining where I may be off base. This should be an educational experience for both of us. That’s why I also expect this to be a civil exchange of opinions and ideas without lowering our standards to name calling or personal attacks.

On that note, on with the inaugural article…

Like all of you reading this now I’m sure, I have been shocked by the story about Michael Vick and his involvement with dog fighting. This has been a constant topic of discussion on ESPN, talk radio, and even main-stream news programs. The thought that the face of the NFL could be involved in such a sadistic “hobby” seems to have grabbed the national attention and has not let go for the past several months. First, he pled guilty to a slew of federal charges. Now Michael Vick faces even more charges on a state-level from a local prosecutor for his misdeeds, and the state-level punishments will likely be more severe than those expected for the federal charges. The outrage for his horrible actions does not seem to end.

I agree that the public outrage and demonization of Vick for his treatment of those dogs is well deserved. It is inconceivable how someone could hang, drown, or electrocute a dog to death simply because he/she didn’t fight well enough.

These stories are appalling to me, not only for the inhumane treatment of these helpless animals, but also because of the extreme hypocrisy of the American public in response to this story.

I find it tremendously ironic that so many people in America would be so outraged by Vick’s treatment of these dogs that they would call for his expulsion from the NFL, the forfeiture of his 9-figure, multi-million dollar contract, and the cancellation of all of his numerous endorsement deals. However, I would guess that most of these same people, perhaps yourself included, are just as virulent about fighting for the continued legality of aborting unborn children. They are, in effect, demanding the continuation of the multi-million dollar salaries of abortion doctors that are performing far-more heinous procedures under the guise of a woman’s “choice”.

The hypocrisy of these arguments is astonishing to me. Are you for treating ALL living creatures humanely or are you not? Do you really know the procedures involved with aborting an unborn child and how “humanely” that is done?

I have two direct emotional connections to this Michael Vick story. One is my own four-year old chocolate lab that I’ve had for two years now and love dearly. Although I’ve wanted a dog for as long as I can remember, Jake is the first dog I’ve ever had in my life. He’s been a joy every night when I come home from a long day at work. No matter how bad my day may have been, all of that is quickly forgotten when I see that wagging tail through the frosted glass window next to my front door as I am putting my key in the door. I can’t even imagine putting my dog into a closed ring and watching him fight for his life, until he or the other dog bleeds to death.

I also have a 13-year old niece who was adopted days after birth from a 19-year old single mother whose boyfriend ran off as soon as he heard his girlfriend was pregnant. My niece Kelly is as precious to me as anything else. She is a smart, fun-loving teenage girl. I can’t imagine our family without her.

Her biological mother could have easily decided to end her pregnancy because that would have been more convenient for her. Instead, she made a loving choice to give up her baby girl to a married couple that was having trouble conceiving. They have now raised her and loved her more than life itself. It sickens me to think about how different our family would be today if that mother had made the other choice. It sickens me to think about what my beautiful niece would have had to endure in the last moments of her life if that mother had made the other choice.

Planned Parenthood has done a phenomenal job of keeping the facts of abortion out of mainstream America’s consciousness. Instead of debating the facts and letting our society decide which side is right or wrong, they have clung to the buzz-word “choice” and avoided all discussion of actual facts related to abortion. They want you to believe that it’s a “fetus”, not a baby, in order to protect the multi-Billion dollar industry that they have built in the last three decades.

You won’t hear discussion of when that child’s heart starts beating, that child’s brain starts functioning, that child’s limbs finish forming, that child’s finger prints stop developing, and most importantly, when that child begins to feel pain. All of these, by the way, are early in the first trimester. You will never hear mention of the emotional trauma that follows an abortion for months or years for many women. You don’t hear mention of the numerous medical studies that have shown that women who have had an abortion have nearly a 30% increased risk of breast cancer. You don’t hear mention of the tens of millions of children that have been aborted in the last 30 years.

Do you realize that 1/3 of our generation, that is 1/3 of your what-would-have-been graduating high school class, did not have the opportunity to walk down the aisle because their mothers chose to abort them?

Considering how outraged you may be with Michael Vick’s drowning, electrocuting, or hanging of the dogs in his backyard, how much more outraged would you have been if he had used one of these three commonly used abortion techniques to kill those dogs?

· Suction-Aspiration Procedure – a hollow plastic tube with knife-like tip is inserted into the uterus to slice and suck apart the baby’s body.

· Dilation and Evacuation Procedure – a pliers-like instrument is inserted into the uterus to grab hold of an arm, leg, or any other piece of the baby and with a twisting motion tear the baby apart in pieces. The nurse actually has to re-assemble the baby on a table to be sure that there is nothing left in the womb! Sometimes, pieces are missed; only to be found by the mother at a later time in what must be a horrific scene…

· Partial-Birth Procedure – the baby is born breech - legs, arms, shoulders, up to his neck outside the mother’s body, then a pair of scissors is jabbed into the back of his neck, opened, and then the brain is vacuumed out.

Of course, none of these procedures involve any type of anesthesia because it’s not a baby; it’s a “fetus”, right?

I know, I know, abortion is a right because it’s your body, your decision. Unfortunately, that’s not a “fetus” that you’re carrying, it’s a “baby” who has a heartbeat, fingerprints, and feels pain all within the first trimester after conception. Unfortunately, that baby also has no choice whether it will live or die, just like Vick’s dogs had no choice whether to fight or not once thrown into the ring. Sorry, that is not a “glob of flesh” as Planned Parenthood would like you to believe. That is a living and breathing human being.

I think it’s a travesty that such an important issue as abortion is being decided in the court of public opinion when only half of the argument is being told in the mainstream media. The descriptions of the procedures I described above are facts. Do your own independent research.

So, please tell me…which is more inhumane? Dog Fighting or Abortion?

–RomeyRome