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Saturday, November 28, 2015

Miscellany: 11/28/15

Quote of the Day
Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.
Arthur Helps

Tweet of the Day
Image of the Day
She's changed her mind since then

Apparently it's not green enough--or looks like it came from your pooper scooper



A Note on the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood Shooting

There was a kerfuffle a few weeks back involving whether if you had the power to kill baby Adolf Hitler, would you do it? Jeb Bush said, "Hell, yeah".  (The assumption is that without Hitler, you could have saved the lives of 6 million Jews. Of course, Hitler did not act alone. We could well ask what would have happened without harsh sanctions against Germany at the end of WWI.) Ben Carson more consistently reflected the pro-life view of not killing an innocent baby.

The alleged murder of 3 people and 9 others injured by Robert Dear at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility is a tragedy. Now as a pro-lifer, I have major issues with Planned Parenthood being the largest provider of elective abortion, which I consider to be an abomination, a form of generational genocide. For the government to subsidize this organization (money is fungible) goes beyond free market objections: it is the unconscionable aiding and abetting the destruction of innocent human lives. If and when government fails in its primary objective, to secure the natural rights of citizens, it loses its legitimacy.

I do understand there are differences of opinion on this issue. In fact, I earned my bachelor's degree at a Catholic college and found myself rebuked for being overly strident on the issue (I did course papers on the topic, which is why I've known the consistent Catholic teachings condemning the practice of abortion and infanticide, common Roman practices, since the Didache.) But as any familiar reader knows, my moral objections stem from the scientific fact that human life begins at conception, with DNA distinct from his or her parents. I've generally tried not to preach on the topic or be personally judgmental on the issue; I think in the history of the blog I've rarely embedded in-your-face videos or images. I try to persuade, focus on the positive side of choosing life. There are some pro-lifers who have a harder stance; I've had an arrogant nephew-in-law accuse me of being pro-life-in-name-only after I friended him on Facebook and found myself swamped with in-your-face rants from an abortion abolitionist group. I gently warned my niece that he needed to tone it down; he responded by defriending me after posting a personally obnoxious rant. I've occasionally posted images or comments from Feminists for Life and Pro-Life Libertarians.

I am not and have not been affiliated formally with any pro-life groups. I have known many other pro-lifers (one of my little sisters used to work with an abortion alternative center) and I've never heard any discuss the use of violent means to advance pro-life objectives; I've never heard any of them suggest the incarceration of pregnant or formerly pregnant woman. (In fact, we have missions like Rachel's Vineyard to counsel women coping with the death of their aborted child.)

We cherish all life, born or preborn. What happened in Colorado Springs was wrong and in our judgment counterproductive to the cause. In fact, an ironic fact is the first known murder victim was a pro-life cop. The last thing we want is for the evil organization Planned Parenthood to play the victim card, using the attack to fund-raise for killing more children.

Guest Post Comment: Gun man arrested at abortion clinic after 3 killed
Officer Swasey was a pro-life co-pastor of his church. None of the victims were patients or clinic staff. 
Facebook Corner

via Pro-Life Libertarians

[Extract of a thread also joined by the moderator.]
How are pro-life laws enforced?
By persuasion.
So why condemn violence against PP?
The Non-Aggression Principle. Look it up.
So state violence against abortionists is cool. Non-state violence is aggression?
If you are a minarchist libertarian, like me, you believe in the use of state force to protect natural rights of life, liberty and property. For those of us pro-lifers, that includes the rights of the preborn. Now short of a police state, we can't stop those who are determined to violate the rights of others. Most of us would focus on the perpetrator of violence against the child for criminal sanction.

Political Cartoon

Courtesy of Milk Pie via Alex Nowrasteh on Twitter
Musical Interlude: Christmas Hits

Rob Thomas, "A New York Christmas"

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