Oct 04 2008

John Mark Reynolds on Roe and abortion

Category: abortion — harmonicminer @ 8:25 am

Advance Liberty, Overturn Roe! | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow

Every aborted baby looks alike, but every child allowed to live becomes absolutely unique. Abortion crushes liberty for the sake of a single choice—it ends possibility with the cruel actuality of murder.

Roe should be overturned because by judicial fiat it hallows killing the innocent as part of our Constitution. In a just society there can be no right to do evil. Not every evil should be illegal, but no evil action should be hallowed as a constitutional right.

It took years and much horror to remove slavery, another soul crushing immorality, from the Constitution, but at least the Founders authored this bad law. The court imposed a “culture of death,” to borrow a phrase from John Paul the Great, on our nation, contrary to our oldest traditions, our best moral impulses, and the gradual expansion of liberty and justice to all Americans.

Yes. Read it all.  And consider how Jesus of Nazareth would vote in the matter.

It seems likely that the next president will be appointing judges who will decide if Roe v. Wade is to be overturned.  If it is, abortion will not end, or suddenly be illegal, it will simply be returned to the states, where, presumbably, normal legislative processes will occur that actually represent the will of the people.    It does seem certain that abortion will be significantly reduced, if Roe is overturned.  That means that those who claim to “dislike abortion” but say “we can’t criminalize it” or “prolife is a seamless garment” are putting up a smokescreen to obscure the fact that they don’t want a legal change that is guaranteed to save many, many, many lives.

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Sep 17 2008

A unique perspective on abortion

Category: abortion,Obama — harmonicminer @ 9:23 pm

Born Alive Truth

Can you imagine not giving babies their basic human rights, no matter how they entered our world? My name is Gianna Jessen, born 31 years ago after a failed abortion. I’m a survivor, as are many others…but if Barack Obama had his way, I wouldn’t be here.

Check the link.

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Aug 24 2008

What They Say vs. What They Mean II

Category: abortion,election 2008,legislation — amuzikman @ 9:19 am

California has enacted a law called “The Safely Surrendered Baby Law”. Mothers who give birth but do not want to keep the infant can simply drop their newborn off at any hospital or fire station and walk away. Los Angeles County has a public awareness program in conjunction with this law called “Safe Surrender – Don’t Abandon Your Baby”. LA county vehicles such as maintenance trucks and police squad cars can be seen sporting bumper stickers. And…

What they say: Don’t abandon your baby.

What they mean: A million and a half babies are aborted each year in our country, so it is no wonder we have come to place such a low value on human life. Rather than aborting babies, some women apparently would rather just carry them to term and then drop them in the nearest dumpster after they are born. This is bad, please don’t do that. Instead either have the abortion or leave it someplace safe after giving birth.

Does this offend you? I hope so. Is it so hard to see the connection between abortion and the value we place on life? In our quest to ensure a woman’s right to “choose”, is it possible unforeseen and undesirable societal consequences have resulted?

Oh, and by the way, leaving your baby in a “safe” place may not include hospitals in Barack Obama’s state – stay tuned!

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Aug 21 2008

Above his pay grade?

Category: abortion,election 2008,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 8:56 am

Much has been made of Obama’s response to Rick Warren’s question on abortion, in which Obama said that deciding when a baby gets human rights either theologically or scientifically is “above his pay grade”.

Of course, this was not a particularly smooth evasion. The question was obviously about how Obama would govern, not so much about what was in his inner soul, interesting though that may be. And we know the answer to that question: Obama will govern as if a baby has no human rights until it is born to a mother that wants to give birth.

So even though the answer is “above his pay grade”, he will govern as if it is not. That is, he will not be able to avoid making a decision about it, even if he thinks he isn’t really able to do so (if you buy his presentation of being in great personal doubt about it).

There is a lesson here, a very important one, on the limits of agnosticism on any topic. There are decisions a person must and will make, and that society must and will make. It will almost always be a sham to take refuge in claiming not to know enough, and employing some rhetorical slight of hand to pretend not to be making a decision. It is not “deep”, or “nuanced”, or “thoughtful” to pretend to be so mired in uncertainty that no decision can be made, when in fact you’re making one. It’s simply dishonest.

Agnostics about theism make a decision about whether or not God exists by how they choose to live, whatever their self-talk.

Similarly, Obama has made the decision about when a baby should have human rights, and knows he has, regardless of his “nuanced thoughtfulness”. He has decided that no baby has human rights of any kind until it is born to a mother who wants to give birth (i.e., not an accidental survivor of an abortion, whom Obama believes has no rights, based on his voting record). He will govern that way. How much does his inner dialog on the topic matter?

Methinks he doth protest too much.

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Aug 16 2008

Rick Warren, Obama and McCain to talk

Category: abortion,election 2008,McCain,Obama,theology — harmonicminer @ 1:51 pm

On Friday evening, Hannity and Colmes on FOX (with Michael Steele subbing for Hannity) interviewed Richard Land and Tony Campolo in preparation for Rick Warren‘s Saturday interview with Obama and McCain at Saddleback Church.

Land was representing evangelicals from the Right, and Campolo from the Left. This is being written before Warren’s interviews of the candidates. I’ll probably follow up with further comments. But, to set the table:

Warren is a strong evangelical pastor and author who is known for adding more traditionally “liberal” concerns to his list of issues, including the environment and poverty, without releasing his traditional commitments. He is, I suppose, a moderate, politically. He signed the Evangelical Climate Initiative, (The entire statement is here.) If Warren has endorsed a candidate, I don’t know about it.

Land did NOT sign the Evangelical Climate Initiative. One presumes this is not because he does not care if the world melts, or boils. He is generally conservative on most social issues. He is generally not in favor of starving the poor, or bombing the capital of any nation that annoys the USA.

Campolo did NOT sign the Evangelical Climate Initiative. That could be because the second paragraph begins with this line, “We are proud of the evangelical community’s long-standing commitment to the sanctity of human life.” Campolo could not credibly sign such a statement, being a very-Left liberal Democrat, even though he probably does agree with the eco-panic expressed in the Evangelical Climate Initiative. He is a member of the Democratic Party platform committee for 2008.

Here is what I’ll be watching for:

Continue reading “Rick Warren, Obama and McCain to talk”

Aug 16 2008

Signals, hopefully not smoke, on judges and other matters

Category: abortion,election 2008,judges — harmonicminer @ 9:07 am

This is an election in which the “values voters” of yore are mostly being ignored.

In recent presidential elections hot-button social issues like abortion and marriage played a prominent role. In 2000 the candidates hotly debated the impact of the next president’s Supreme Court picks on abortion rights as pro-choice activists attempted to galvanize voters with the prospect that George W. Bush’s election would result in limits on or even outlawing of abortion. In 2004 an Ohio state referendum on gay marriage helped turn out religious conservatives who may have put George W. Bush over the top in the decisive state. After the 2004 election, pundits and activists debated the role of “values” voters and Democrats committed to reaching out to these voters in the future.

But this year, the most remarkable thing about the two most prominent social issues,abortion and gay marriage– is how little we have heard about them.

There are several reasons for this, but the main one is John McCain.  McCain, for good or ill, has positioned himself as more “moderate” than “conservative”. Compared to Obama, he is quite conservative, of course, but he is significantly to the left of, say, Ronald Reagan.  He signals that “moderation” in several ways.  He makes noises about maybe selecting a pro-choice running mate.  He takes the occasional, obligatory swipe at big oil.  He talks about “corruption in both parties”.  And he avoids talking much about hot button issues for conservatives, like abortion and gay marriage, because he thinks anything he might say will either offend conservatives, or “moderates”.  Since he believes he can’t please both, he says little.

  Continue reading “Signals, hopefully not smoke, on judges and other matters”

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Aug 08 2008

Brutal Peace Lovers

Category: abortion — harmonicminer @ 8:56 am

Signs on the back of a compact car in Riverside, California, Aug 7, 2008.

No War For Oil

War Is Not The Answer

Imagine World Peace

Bring Our Troops Home!

Proud Member ACLU

War Is Terrorism

Abolish The Death Penalty

There were more, but these are all I could remember.  And the last one (appropiately on the far left of the trunk lid as seen from behind the car):

Keep Abortion Legal

The Left is simply incoherent.  The lives of terrorists and assorted murderers matter more to the Left than the lives of the most innocent and powerless among us.  The level of moral confusion this represents is simply beyond belief, as is the inability of the bumper sticker driver to see the irony of having put Abolish The Death Penalty immediately adjacent to Keep Abortion Legal.

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Jan 06 2008

Abortion and the eugenics movement

Category: abortion — harmonicminer @ 10:10 am

I’ve already recommended Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg, for many excellent reasons.  Now, you can read a provocative excerpt here.

All you pro-choice folk need to learn just exactly who your intellectual progenitors are.  Aren’t you proud of your heritage?

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