- Representative Brian C. Liss (R-13/Sioux Falls), our great leader in the coming baby war with China
It takes real work to distinguish oneself as the worst legislator in Pierre. Congratulations, District 13 voters: your man Brian C. Liss is doing it.
Seeing that House Bill 1217, the coercive pregnancy counseling bill, doesn't have enough misogyny, patriarchy, and bad logic behind it, the gentle representative from Sioux Falls volunteers this "completely secular" reason to support making abortion practically impossible in South Dakota:
Rep. Brian Liss, R-Sioux Falls, who voted for the bill, said he thinks the measure would help ensure a thriving U.S. population.
"The United States is in a strategic competition with China. China is a country which has a military which teaches its soldiers to hate America, it's a country that grows 10 percent a year economically, it has something like 1.4 billion people, and I think that we need to safeguard our economic growth and our population in order to compete with China," Liss said, adding his argument for the bill is "completely secular" [staff, "House Backs Abortion Counseling Bill," that Sioux Falls paper, 2011.02.22].
I can't make stuff like this up. I also can't think of enough ways to explain the myriad flavors of stupid Representative Brian C. Liss is peddling.
- On the sheer dumb side, Brian C. Liss thinks the key to beating the next superpower is for South Dakota to have 800 more unwanted babies a year.
- On the politically dumb side, Brian C. Liss gets off message and admits this bill is about preventing abortion, which Rep. Manny Steele insisted on the House floor Tuesday it is not.
- On the chauvinist dumb side, Brian C. Liss views women as vessels for childbirth to be placed in the service of the state. Come, Winston: making a baby is our duty to the Party.
- Gravy: On the factually dumb side, China's population is 1.3 billion. (If you're going to play Spock and cite decimal points, you have to get them right.)
Remember, Brian C. Liss is the same character who wants to tax food to fight obesity. Now he wants make babies to fight China. How pro-life is that?
It's time to consider a far broader approach: The United States of North America.
The United States, Canada, and Mexico actually have higher rates of birth per woman than China. The USNA could beat China!
My question in all of this is why would want to bring a child into a country/state that does not value education as an investment? We will be beaten by the Chinese not because we did not produce enough babies, but by not providing adequate infrastructure and education for our future generations.
Remember back to that time in the 50's that so many Republican would like to take us back to? Like China is today's target of competition back then it was the former Soviet Union. When they launched Sputnik, America came together and invested in education, science and technology to overcome the Soviet advantage. Not to mention the economy thrived, even with what would now be considered treasonous tax rates. Back then we all pulled together and not apart.
Today, our best and brightest in Pierre don't share that same passion to compete.
Of course back then you didn't confuse patriotism with narcissism.
I sent the Liss comment around to all my friends and had people laughing about it all day. Too awesome.
I don't have as much issue with Liss getting the 1.3B wrong, but does he realize that the US has only 300 million? Hilarious.
Let's see: 1 billion people to catch up, 800 babies a year saved by HB 1217... We beat China in just 1,250,000 years. Enjoy it while you can, China!
Okay, while I try to restrain myself from rolling around on the floor laughing over my rep.'s foolish ideas, if we take it seriously for a nano second( can't contain it any longer). It would certainly be a strong justification for the Affordable Care Act. Women would need preventative care, prenatal, postnatal, ob/gyn as if they don't need that now. Planned Parenthood better hurry up and run with this, once they stop laughing. Gosh, I thought just about every great teacher I had said lay out your argument and support it. But I could drive a convoy of wide loads through Liss' argument. Couldn't resist that last part since he was a truck driver before he decided to legislate our lives.
This scared the %$#! out of me. This man is obviously insane. When you say crazy %##%! like this you should automatically lose your ability to participate in the government and be regarded as a protected class.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0314/opinions-paul-johnson-current-events-secret-weakness.html
Interesting article about China. I'm getting tired of all the talk from my neighbors and friends about China eclipsing the USA. I know we owe them a lot and I'm not thrilled but I am tired of all this talk.
Representative Liss should be made aware that, due to advanced technology, bombs now exist that can kill millions of people at a time. In fact, the U.S. has so many of these bombs that it could destroy the world many times over. If, heaven forbid, there should come a day when there is war between the U.S. and China (which also has some of these bombs), the winner won't be the country with more people.
Someone should let Representative Liss know that.