Cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[Erin Elizabeth]

You've all heard that phrase, right?

Cutting off the nose to spite the face is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive overreaction to a problem. "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" is a warning not to act out of pique or pursue revenge in such a way as to damage yourself more than the object of your anger.

Origins
The phrase is believed to have originated from a (probably fictional) event that was said to have taken place in AD 867: Viking pirates from Sjaelland and Uppsala landed in Scotland and raided the monastery of Coldingham. When news of the raid reached Aebbe the Younger, the Mother Superior, she gathered her nuns together and urged them to disfigure themselves, that they might be unappealing to the Vikings. In this way, they hoped to protect their chastity. St. Aebbe accomplished this by cutting off her nose and upper lip. The nuns proceeded to do the same. The Viking raiders were so disgusted by the scene that they burned the entire building to the ground.

Although the nuns believed their actions to be justified (indeed, Aebbe was canonized), the expression has since come to refer to pointlessly self-destructive actions motivated purely by malevolence. For example, if a man were angry at his wife, he might burn down their house to punish her. Of course, this would be an example of cutting off his nose to spite his face, as in the process of burning down her house he would also be destroying his home, along with all his personal possessions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_off_the_nose_to_spite_the_face

What SOME Hillary supporters are threatening to do now (vote for McCain) is the most perfect illustration of cutting off your nose to spite your face that I have EVER seen in my life.

Hillary supporters claim to be in support of women, women's rights, reproductive freedoms, right? Here's something I found on McCain and his stances on reproductive issues:

"What scares me most about McCain, beyond our 100-year presence in Iraq, his itchy trigger finger relative to other foes, and his enthusiasm for tax cuts for the rich, is his fiercely conservative record on women's reproductive freedom. Here, there is no moderate McCain or reach-across-the-aisle McCain. On issues related to abortion and even birth control and sex education, McCain is as ideological as any Operation Rescue activist crawling around in front of an abortion clinic.

You want to know what's coming with a McCain presidency? How about the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I'm not kidding. The latest case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion made it clear that the two newest justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, will vote for substantial incursions into abortion rights, if not their outright elimination. It turns out that Roe isn't a "super-duper" precedent after all. It's now hanging by the thread of 87-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens' continued vitality."

SNIP

"What scares me most about McCain, beyond our 100-year presence in Iraq, his itchy trigger finger relative to other foes, and his enthusiasm for tax cuts for the rich, is his fiercely conservative record on women's reproductive freedom. Here, there is no moderate McCain or reach-across-the-aisle McCain. On issues related to abortion and even birth control and sex education, McCain is as ideological as any Operation Rescue activist crawling around in front of an abortion clinic.

You want to know what's coming with a McCain presidency? How about the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I'm not kidding. The latest case to reach the U.S. Supreme Court on abortion made it clear that the two newest justices, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, will vote for substantial incursions into abortion rights, if not their outright elimination. It turns out that Roe isn't a "super-duper" precedent after all. It's now hanging by the thread of 87-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens' continued vitality."

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/03/09/Opinion/Why_McCain_should_wor.shtml

He's also notoriously against sensible family planning and effective sex education. And these are just small examples.

But these people are talking about voting for a guy who represents EVERYTHING they are against on these issues OVER a candidate who AGREES with them on these issues purely out of spite.

Hillary supporters thinking about voting for McCain: don't hate your face. I said this weeks and weeks ago, but I believe if I felt the same way you guys do, I'd have to step back from all this for a moment or two. Or a week or two. I'd have to take a breather, get some balance, then see how I feel. If I were still very angry, I might vote third party (though not for Nader, LOL) or just skip the presidential race and vote in all the down-ballot races. But I could never cut off my nose just to get even with my face.

I say that as one human to another, not in the spirit of any condescension whatsoever. If you feel you must cut off your nose, then you must. And we will all suffer as a result--you, me, all of us.

[neverforget]

1. McCain will thank their support with one of these

[Erin Elizabeth]

2. Ouch.

But...yeah.

I watched some youtube videos of women who got ejected from the DNC meeting yesterday and they were yelling about voting for McCain and I thought about all the right wingers out there just rubbing their hands together and going "oh YEAH, that's right, keep it up!"

Ug. :puke:

[neverforget]

3. It's unbelievable that there are people like that who are married to a

candidate instead of the philosophy of the Party.

[OwnedByFerrets]

4. K and R

[boppers]

5. McCains a flopper/panderer on this issue, not a hard supporter.

I used to live in Arizona, and for a while, he was "the lone pro-choice republican". His stance has shifted numerous times, depending on the political winds of the day.

[Erin Elizabeth]

7. Which is, in its own way, even more worrying.

[WeDidIt]

6. Roe v. Wade is only the starting point

The TRUE goal of this barbaric and absurdly mysogonistic group of theocons is the overturning of Griswold v. Connecticut.

IF you don't know what that one is, you haven't a clue about the struggle for equal rights for women.

[stray cat]

8. How can you not vote for four more years of this