We don' need no steenkin' humour

Not long ago, elsewhere, I bailed out of one of those pointless "debates" about abortion. The interloping anti-abortion type claimed to know someone "who had had an abortion for the fun of it."

Even if you don't have a vagina, a bit of sensitivity and elementary medical knowledge will inform you that abortions may be many things, but fun isn't one of them. This outre remark interested me enough to google it in search of its ultimate origins.

It began, evidently, on The Onion. Riffs on the idea have spread around the Web since, but we have once again evidence that the one thing that escapes ideologues (especially religious ideologues) is humour at the expense of their pet belief.

Taking a Web rumour and passing it off as one's personal knowledge used to be called lying. Now it's called faith.