Fly, Fetus, Fly!

This will go over well. Literally!

A national group that opposes abortion says it plans to fly a billboard-sized picture of an aborted fetus over Cleveland.

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform says the banner will be the most graphic picture ever displayed from the air, starting Monday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

The image will compare an aborted fetus to a second graphic image related to the war in the Middle East, a center spokesman said.

If you're just now hearing about the CBR, you can get a sense of their activism in their "Choice Blues" videos (top of the page). Why are "blues"-themed videos soundtracked by jazz and John Carpenter-style horror music? Good question.

Comments

[Jeff P.]

Am I the only one hoping that some clever artistic soul will craft a giant coat hanger and send it aloft on balloons?

[Rich Ard]

Not any more.

[Timothy]

Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It's SUPER FETUS!

[Curious]

Cleveland?

[John]

Its a free country. More power to them. If people are disturbed by the images tough shit. Free expression sucks that way sometimes. What kills me is the same people who have a fainted when they cut off tax subsidies to some bullshit art project because it might "chill free speech" will now demand the Air National Guard come out shoot down this plane. If people want plaster the walls with aborted fetuses, more power to them. If it causes someone discomfort, well, sometimes life is like that. Get the fuck over it.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

They should get some giant, inflated fetus and fly it over a power station like Pink Floyd's "Animals".

That would be cool.

[corndog_johnson]

I don't know if it was the same people, but something similar flew over minneapolis a few weeks ago, it flew so high and the banner moved around so much that you really couldn't tell what the hell it was about.

And to John, I think you need an abortion. Settle down! Seriously dude, go have a cigarette or something.

[John]

corndog.

People who claim to be so committed to free expression until it gets to something really unpopular with the elite, like anti-abortion and then demand their tender sensibilities be protected piss me off. Those lousy bastards would turn this country into a gulag in the name of political correctness. I could forgive them for that if wasn't for the fact that would do so all the while claiming to be champions of free speech.

[Qbryzan]

Mr. Nice Guy,

Good idea, or they could draw that giant fetus using lasers. That would be cool, too.

Side question: During which song should the fetus appear? I'm thinking during "Mother"

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Q:

Brilliant song suggestion.

Mother, did it need to be so high?

[mediageek]

Yet another reason for why Cleveland rocks.

[Davebo]

John, unless I'm mistaken you've constructed a brilliant straw man here.

Where in the article or in the post and comments did anyone act disturbed or suggested preventing free speech?

I'm happy the group is doing this, just as I'm happy when the KKK gets on TV. People need to be reminded about what these folks are all about.

[Qbryzan]

"Mother will they put me in the firing line?"

[Leigh]

People who claim to be so committed to free expression until it gets to something really unpopular with the conservative elite, like pornography and then demand their tender sensibilities be protected piss me off too. Now how is a disturbing picture of an aborted fetus more acceptable than erotica? Think how bent out of shape the same group people who support this image would be with an erotic image in its place....

Hmm, seems to be a case of freedom of expression for me and not for you.

Personally, I say bring it all on. My kids can take it, can yours?

[Doctor Duck]

Great, now I can't stop hearing Chrissie Hynde singing 'Day After Day'...

[John]

Leigh,

The difference is that conservatives get called out as hypocrites and the liberals laud themselves about how wonderful and progressive they are. Further, I don't necessarily have a problem there being some sort of stadards of decency for both public pornography and anti-abortion protests. The problem is that the stardards are invaribly applied to one side and not the other, depending on who is in charge. I just being more of a smart ass in my first post rather than being serious.

[mediageek]

"People need to be reminded about what these folks are all about."

Brazen, antagonistic publicity stunts in a puerile attempts to get attention because they were never properly potty trained?

[Jon h]

"They should get some giant, inflated fetus and fly it over a power station like Pink Floyd's "Animals"."

Nah, they should fly a giant inflatable penis and a giant inflatable vagina.

[The Silver Convention]

Up, up to the sky!

[Mo]

John,
Who are you arguing with. No one here has opposed it. They've mocked it or come up with ideas to spice it up a bit, but no one has said, "They can't do this."

[AML]

I think they should do the same thing with a giant picture of a dead Lebanese baby. Maybe fly it over Washington.

[thoreau]

Yes, the cutting edge of modern media is obviously the airborn banner.

[wingnutx]

I'm waiting for a giant fetus balloon to appear in the Macy's parade, in between Snoopy and Bullwinkle.

[tobycat]

A giant floating penis would be more interesting... And a vagina. They could stage a mid-air "collision."

[val]

Am I the only one hoping that some clever artistic soul will craft a giant coat hanger and send it aloft on balloons?

Now thats a cause I can get behind. Just tell me who to make the cheque out too.

I think they should do the same thing with a giant picture of a dead Lebanese baby. Maybe fly it over Washington.

Good lord, get of your fuckin soap box, and stick to the topic. How about some Israely babys?, maybe some African ones?, Chinese?, fuck lets all fly a balloon over AML's house

[Stanley Kubrick]

Giant flying fetus?

Been there, done that...

[Jeff P.]

How about an even bigger banner of the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang chasing the fetus around?
"Aaaaaalllll freeeeeee todaaaaaaaaay."

What was that Massive Attack video with the singing fetus?

[smacky]

A national group that opposes abortion says it plans to fly a billboard-sized picture of an aborted fetus over Cleveland.

Sweet! I can't wait to see this. Maybe I'll take a bunch of drugs beforehand to enhance the experience.

Am I the only one hoping that some clever artistic soul will craft a giant coat hanger and send it aloft on balloons?

Jeff P,

Why must you tempt me so? I do have a lot of vacation time accrued...if I had the proper funding, I would be happy to do this. No, I would be utterly jazzed to do this.

MNG + Jim Walsh,

LOL. You are all too much. This thread is great.

[Mike Laursen]

Can't wait for the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform Blimp flying over the Superbowl XLI halftime show!

[chris]

Is that what I saw flying too far away to see as I sat in traffic heading west on the I-90 shoreway?

I can barely read the banner which flys around for "Christie's Cabaret" and I've pretty good eyes.

[VM (once of Chagrin Falls, OH)]

jeez. These "Cleveland Beautification Projects" (beginning with the appalling "Cleveland's a Plum" campaign of the early 80s (IIRC)) are going a bit far.

At least the "Fun With Afterbirth" campaign was mercifully rejected.

[dagny]

I once met this bus driver who felt the need to advertise to random college kids that he had a website to show off this photo he took of a cloud that looked like a fetus and all the great metaphysical things that that meant. (This, in my mind, is one of the great reasons why we should support public transit).

And is if that isn't bad enough, my ex's dad, who likes changing around the lyrics of songs, decided that Journey should have sang "Fetus in the sky keeps on turnin' "