Waiter, bring some jaffas, the pro-lifers are at the door again ...

(Above: found here at a aph paper on conscience voting in the federal parliament 1996-2007).

I’m sure all ALP members appreciate it when people outside the party lecture them about party policy.

Outsiders? Lecturers?

It seems you can only be an insider if you want to lecture the Labor party about party policy. One of the chosen few, one of that happy band of brothers and sisters who can wander along in their very own policy cloud of paranoia and exclusiveness. Even if the party policy being proposed belongs to a clique of the most regressive kind ...

The latest example? Simone McDonnell scribbling I'm Labor, I'm pro-life and I'm no political hypocrite.

But if not a political hypocrite, then at least a political user of cliches, with 'pro-life' perhaps the most offensive of all. Is anyone out there 'pro-death'? Can anyone be rustled up who is 'anti-life'?

When after all 'pro-life' is just a fancy way of evading the truth, which is pro the right of others, usually a bunch of bees in bonnet crazed men, to tell women what they can and can't do with their bodies ...

Yep, we're back with the infiltration of the ALP by a bunch of Catholics, as if the stomach-gouging of the DLP in the great split of the nineteen fifties had never happened, and now we need a new world of Catholic-derived social policies. It sounds very grand and very noble:

I believe that life begins at conception and that it ends at natural death. I’m also fundamentally opposed to the death penalty and the loss of innocent life in war and conflict, and believe that we should do everything within our power to help those who are marginalised within our society.

Uh huh. But let's burrow down a little. What's actually happening?

Labor for Life is simply a group of ALP members with pro-life values. We are a new organization, only formalising our structure at the ALP National Conference in December. There are strong branches operating in the ACT and QLD. As within all democratic bodies, members are entitled to hold and express their own views.

Uh huh. Pro-life values, which is to say anti-death and against pro-deathers. And it's a new organization, a democratic body, within a democratic body, which just so happens to accord with the thoughts of Joe de Bruyn, one of the most regressive forces of all within and without the Labor party:

The group also has links to the largest union, the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, and its staunchly anti-abortion boss Joe de Bruyn.
In 2008, Mr de Bruyn described abortion as the "deliberate destruction of human life" when he clashed with former prime minister Kevin Rudd over a decision to drop a ban on foreign aid funds spent on family planning services. (Pro-life push in Labor's ranks)

And we catch a whiff of Joe de Bruyn's democratic style at his very own wiki:

At a quarterly SDA members meeting in February 2011, de Bruyn moved a resolution against gay marriage, without giving any members a chance to speak or vote on the issue. This led to the first instance of members of the SDA speaking out and challenging de Bruyn on his stance on gay marriage. 83 SDA member signatures in support of gay marriage were presented to the SDA Queensland branch quarterly meeting, shop steward Duncan Hart said SDA national secretary de Bruyn’s staunch opposition to gay marriage did not reflect the feelings of its members. Former ALP Prime Minister Gough Whitlam once said "Joe de Bruyn is a Dutchman who hates dykes."

Dear old Gough? Yep, this particular set of smelly prawns has been going around for a long time, as recorded in Rubbing shoulders with royalty - ALP royalty back in 2003:

Mr Whitlam also baffled many in the room when he launched into a curious attack on the conservative Catholic head of the shop assistants' union, Joe de Bruyn, who is known for his staunch opposition to abortion, stem cell research and lesbians having access to fertility treatment.

"Joe de Bruyn is a Dutchman who hates dykes," he said.

The centrepiece of Mr Shorten's speech was a lighthearted tale about geese. It was not an insult to be called a goose, he insisted.

"For the AWU, the attributes of a goose are important because of the ability to stick together and fly in formation.

Speaking of geese flying in formation, let's get back to Simone McDonnell, and get a detailed explanation of what it means to be anti-death:

I understand that we cannot remove access to safe and legal abortions, especially in circumstances of rape or where the mother’s life is in danger. We cannot go back to a society where backyard abortions take place. What I want to see is a debate that is centred on why unwanted pregnancies occur in the first place.

Fine words, but not so fine when it comes to extending the thoughts, deeds and policies of Brian Harradine, which ensured that AusAID couldn't provide any funding internationally to any organisation which provided any abortion training or services or research, trials or activities which directly involved abortion drugs ... even where it could save the life of a woman. The sort of policy that would have a Rick Santorum nodding in approval ... (Wrath over Rudd aid for abortion)

And if that's the attitude to international aid, McDonnell must really think she can sell pups if she thinks she can sell the idea that all Joe de Bruyn wants to do is focus on why unwanted pregnancies occur in the first place. Because when it comes to that, there's not much to talk about.

People fuck. They always have fucked, and they will go on fucking into the future. It's what people do, and if you don't take precautions, if there's a woman involved, she can get pregnant.

The best ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies involve sex education, and contraceptive devices.

Oh wait, that brings us full circle, back to the reprehensible attitude of the Catholic church in relation to sex education and contraception. And to women being fucked in more ways than one ...

Which is why McDonnell wins 'goose of the week', for flying in such steady formation so early in the week:

Prevention is always better and, in my opinion, education is the key. The mental and physical trauma that abortions cause to the mother and father are not easily healed and the questions we must all ask ourselves is why, in a community where contraceptives are so readily available, do women find themselves in a position where they need to terminate an unwanted pregnancy?

Pure roll the jaffas in the aisle gold. Why it's up there with Phillip Jensen's assertion that everything went wrong because of Virginia Woolf and that crowd ... (here)

And it reminds us of what Cardinal Pell dubbed the Donald Duck heresy:

A new book called 'God and Caesar" by Cardinal George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney is to be published this week. The book deals with a widespread 'heresy' among Catholics which permits approval of contraception and even abortion by way of "primacy of conscience".

Borrowing from Oxford Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Pell calls it the "Donald Duck heresy" referring to the Disney character who "knows it all", and "has an unshakeable conviction of self-righteousness." The self-indulgent duck, explains Pell is well-meaning but "his activity is often disastrous for himself and others."

So too with Catholics who practice and indeed promote a disordered vision of human sexuality, with contraception, abortion and even embryo-destructive research suggests Pell. With claims to "primacy of conscience" they falsely believe themselves in the right, while they thus distort the image of God which the Creator intended to convey in the fruitful sexual union of husband and wife. (here)

And so on and on and on, yadda yadda, until the cows and the unwanted pregnancies come home ...

"There is very little understanding in the public mind - even within the Catholic community - of the connection between 'the Pill' as the trigger of a contraceptive mentality, and the evil consequences for society of this contraceptive and irresponsible mentality," he said. "So a major task for the Church is to encourage people more and more to see the wisdom, human and divine, of this particular teaching."

Meanwhile, the Donald Ducks of the world are supposed to swallow this wrap-up by Simone McDonnell:

Labor for Life is not aiming to embark on some sort of Tea Party-inspired take over of the ALP.

Well that's a relief, but maybe it'd be better to have a Tea Party-inspired take over than a Joe de Bruyn, Cardinal Pell and ACL-inspired takeover.

It is simply a group of people who, as with all members of the Labor Party, support the Union Movement and believe that the Labor Party is the best party to lead our country. We also believe that all aspects of life should be treated with dignity and respect.

Oh spare the pond's days. More gilding of the Joe de Bruyn lily.

Well talking of treating all aspects of life with dignity and respect, we know what happens to heretics who happen to disagree with Cardinal Pell. They're off to an eternity of hellfire. That'll teach them dignity and respect ...

It so happens that the pond thought it would be a cold day in hell before the pond would publish an approving link to a Tory Shepherd piece, but here it is: Beware the pro-lifers doing hard Labor on abortion.

In it, Shepherd notes that Labor for Life has been approved by the Australian Christian Lobby, and that they've already managed to get together a disingenuous Facebook page, which has already sent a shiver down the spine of Tony Bourke by claiming him as sympathetic to their cause.

So here's the thing. Why on earth does McDonnell think Labor for Life is some wonderful democratic growth within the Labor party, as it goes about the business of subverting current Labor party policies and replacing them with sundry Pellist and ACL doctrines worthy of the DLP in the old days?

There's already a political leader who's fully sympathetic, and in his glory days, maintained a ban on RU-486, a ban which he promoted while distorting best medical advice and best medical practice (Abbott rejects abortion pill).

I guess there's method to the madness, because McDonnell's mob is doing its level best to devalue the Labor party.

In the usual tweedledum and tweedledee way of the two big parties, McDonnell's mob is ensuring that it'll be a cake walk for Tony Abbott, because her mob provides conclusive evidence that a vote for the Labor party should in effect be a vote for Tony Abbott's world view...

Yep, if a vote for the Labor party is a vote for Joe de Bruyn and the ACL and the Pellists, why not just vote for Tony ...