On the use of the term "infanticide"

A while back I was listening to an episode of Fresh Air on NPR and the host, Terry Gross, had as her guest some guy who used to be a leader Jesus-freakery movement, that is until he went and learned to think critically and came to the realization that the Bible was a bunch of fairy tales on the level of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. I can't recall the guy's name off the top of my head, and naturally I'm too lazy to go digging around for it, but it doesn't really matter anyway...What does matter is that the guy, along with his father and Jerry Falwell, were guys who were largely responsible for the whole anti-abortion movement that latched itself onto the Republican party in the late 60s and early 70s, more out of a desire to increase the political power of religion and churches than it was out of any higher moral calling or anything. Anyway, part of that interview that really stuck with me was when the guy, whatever his name was, talked about the movement's use of shocking images and coded language to really hit people in the gut with what it was they were selling. These guys apparently spent a good deal of time sitting around a table and honing their message, reinforcing it with words and images that resonated on a subconscious level. And to their credit, they were enormously successful.

It's with this in mind that I've taken note of the increasing popularity of the word "infanticide" in the place of the word abortion whenever talking heads for the right-wing are making their case in the media against abortion. Some of them, Mark Levin is one, rarely, if ever, even bothers to use the word "abortion" anymore, but he'll froth at the mouth for hours each day over how Barack Obama is the the devil incarnate because he is pro-infanticide.

So what is infanticide exactly? Well according to Dictionary.com, infanticide is defined as "the act of killing an infant." Now, last time I checked, an "infant" was a human being who'd been born and was engaged in life outside of the wound. So can someone please point to me where Barack Obama has publicly advocated killing babies as a means of population control or whatever, because I sure as shit can't recall it? I had a anti-abortion friend tell me the other day that I was pro-infanticide because I was in favor of the morning after pill. Go figure.

You see, it appears as though the word "abortion" just doesn't pack the subliminal wallop that it used to inside the wee brains of average Americans they hope to indoctrinate into their woefully-misguided worldview, so the leaders of the wingnuttery gathered together and decided to up the ante so to speak with this "infanticide" horseshit, just as they've done, if you've noticed, by replacing the term "liberal" with "socialist," and when that didn't seemed to resonate, they replaced "socialist" with "communist." Scary! And round and round and round the idiot merry-go-round we go.

I don't really have a greater point here, other than to share a trend I've noticed. I wish more responsible members of the punditry would call the wingnuts out on the use of the term "infanticide" and at least attempt to stop it dead in its tracks, because it's actually a pretty fucking revolting exhibit of rhetorical gymnastics when you try to connect the dot of terminating a pregnancy when the lifeform is merely a blob of goo, to the dot where the lifeform is actually cooing and smiling for mommy and daddy and grabbing toys and all that. It's intended to appeal viscerally at the base level of the brains and souls of the weak-minded, obviously, and it pisses me the fuck off. Why can't these assholes just engage in an honest debate? Oh, that's right...BECAUSE THEY LOSE EVERY TIME!

And can someone please explain to me why those in favor of "the culture of life" aren't out there railing against men who masturbate, because everyone knows that human life actually begins in a man's nuts.

That is all.