Population Control I can Get Behind!

Louisiana Republican State Rep. John LaBruzzo is in a little bit of hot water for his ideas on population control, though they seem pretty rock solid to me. If you are a poor woman, you can make one thousand dollars the hard way (whore), or the easy way (get your tubes tied!). If you are a poor man, you can make a cool five hundo the hard way (find a job), or the easy way (vasectomy!). If you are a college educated couple, you can get tax incentives the hard way (donate to charity), or the easy way (make a supergeniusbaby!). Annnnd we're off!

As Hurricane Gustav loomed off the coast of Louisiana, thousands of impoverished people flocked into shelters, where some of them seemed unprepared to take care of their young children's basic needs, forgetting to bring along diapers or medicine.

Solution: Don't have babies in the first place, you mo-rons!

That heartbreaking scenario inspired Louisiana Republican State Rep. John LaBruzzo to start thinking about ways to stem generational welfare, in which many welfare recipients have children who also end up dependent on government assistance, according to the representative.

His idea -- giving $1,000 to poor women to undergo reproductive sterilization by Fallopian tube ligation -- is stirring up controversy among some medical professionals, who say that the proposal is offensive and smacks of long-discredited eugenics programs.
LaBruzzo has also suggested other controversial ideas: paying poor men to get vasectomies and giving tax incentives for college-educated wealthy couples to have more children.

What is most astounding is that I am willing to bet one months salary (roughly 3$) that this is also a man who is against sex ed being taught to teens and against condoms being distributed in schools. Any takers?

And for those of you who don't know eugenics, here's a little background
:

Beginning with Connecticut in 1896, many states enacted marriage laws with eugenic criteria, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded" from marrying. In 1898 Charles B. Davenport, a prominent American biologist, began as director of a biological research station based in Cold Spring Harbor where he experimented with evolution in plants and animals. In 1904 Davenport received funds from the Carnegie Institution to found the Station for Experimental Evolution. The Eugenics Record Office opened in 1910 while Davenport and Harry H. Laughlin began to promote eugenics.

So essentially separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were. It must suck to think about having a baby and then finding out you're too feeble-minded to be allowed to have one. Or maybe not. I guess if you are that feeble-minded, when you get the news you probably just go, "I can has a cookie now?" Or whatever.

LaBruzzo, who claimed that his constituents have complained about food stamp recipients driving Mercedes and Lexus luxury cars, denied that his idea was similar to eugenics, policies of selective breeding that were used in Nazi Germany and were popular in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Oh, well shit I didn't know you guys were going to clarify. Don't make me have to start reading entire articles before I start writing, motherfucker. This shit's like three pages long. THREE!!! Anyway, luxury cars and welfare, luxury cars and welfare... why does that sound... OH YEA!

Sorry, anyway.

"I don't know how it's eugenics if it's voluntary, and how can it be racist if the majority of people on welfare are white?" he said.

Except it's not really voluntary is it? You think some poor woman who could desperately use a thousand bucks isn't going to do it? Even though let's say her dream is to one day be a motocross racer and raise a brood of children and live on the moon. You think she's not going to take the grand? And also you don't know how giving tax breaks to college educated people who have children is eugenics? What if there's a multi-thousandaire who only has his GED but runs a successful chain of car washes. Does he get a tax break too? Am I being serious about this article? Even I don't understand my tone at this point.

"Such bribes don't work," says Julie Mickelberry, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta. "It doesn't solve the underlying issues -- access to health care and paying jobs. If he'd like to ensure that men and women aren't having too many children, then he should propose legislation to make sure that health care and education to prevent unwanted pregnancy is available to everyone."

Julie then added, "Yes, my name is Mickelberry. Please stop giggling, what are you, fucking five?" But still though, nice burn.

"I've never heard of such a program. One of the countries that has the most Draconian policies is China, but that's with the stick rather than the carrot," she[Emily Jackson, a professor of law at the London School of Economics and the author of "Regulating Reproduction." ] said. "Regardless of whether it works, it's such a massive interference with people's right to make decisions about their own bodies."

I'm not sure how it's an interference on people's rights to make decisions about their bodies, really though. I mean, one time my friends paid me 8 dollars to eat some goose shit. It's my body and I can do what I want with it. This is pretty much exactly like that. Except that the goose shit and I never even tried to make a baby together, so I guess if there's any difference at all it's that.