Saturday, September 03, 2011
The rooms of your house
Cartoonist Henry Payne, a college acquaintance of mind -- perhaps even a friend back in the day -- pretty much nails the busybody question. We need to marginalize both versions.
More where that came from. Keep scrolling.
6 Comments:
By 
Assistant Village Idiot, at
Sat Sep 03, 11:38:00 PM:
It is not merely a silly technicality to point out that abortions don't take place in bedrooms. The phrase has been a PR move to distract people into thinking emotionally rather than logically on the issue. It is deeply related to the insinuation, and sometimes explicit statement, that forbidding abortion is akin to rape, not because it is in the least like rape, but because, you know...my body, and... it feels intrusive, and...you just don't get it, do you?
We will draw some line, somewhere, between what is and is not a human being. Someone's POV will be enshrined in law. It is reasonable to discuss various break points, and try and decide which is the most defensible and wisest. But there is no way that the question is not ultimately a philosophical (and thus religious in some sense) one.
I write this as one who does not believe that life begins at conception. But I can recognise who has a grasp of the question and who avoids it because it is uncomfortable
Note additionally that prochoice arguments have their mirror in the 19th C discussions of whether blacks were humans who deserved rights, and who got to decide that.
By 
, at
Sat Sep 03, 11:43:00 PM:
Abortions happen in the bedroom? That sounds . . . unsanitary.
By , at
Sun Sep 04, 12:44:00 AM:
"We need to marginalize both versions."
Yeah, I would agree. But let us think about the bedroom example you just put there. Lets say it was not abortion, something that happens in a medical room, but the other aspects of the bedroom, can you name one single instance of the government getting a warrant to see what is going on "in the bedroom"? I have never of any such thing happening. So, that means the first version is already accomplished. On the other hand, those things that the left persist in fighting to control at the federal level have a public presence. Want to buy a happy meal? That is in the public. Want to buy a light bulb? That is in the public. Want to buy an SUV, that is gonna cost ya, and it happens in the public. Same goes for the shower heads, you just cannot buy one out in public, but if you hack one to be a full flow shower head, they are not going to be entering your home to find out. At least not yet.
Last I heard, Americans do have some say about what other people do that affects the public at large. You cannot walk down the street with your dick hanging out.
And finally, just to be clear, MURDER is a SOCIAL issue. As is assault, rape, robbery, fraud and pretty much every aspect of the law that I am quite convinced you find perfectly appropriate to be regulated through the government.
By W.LindsayWheeler, at
Sun Sep 04, 07:20:00 AM:
Societies everywhere throughout history have legislated morality. So a bunch of leftists/atheists are up in arms?
Just proves the rule that "Birds of a feather flock together". This idea of a 'melting pot' is verifiably false. Christians and Atheists can not live together. Either one must be a minority and subjugated or the other is, but you can't have both.
Societies always engender their religion be it a true religion or secularism. Henry Paine is disingenious and a clod to boot. Christianity has always, always legislated morality. If he doesn't like it, he needs to capture the government and legislate his non-morality and persecute the Christians. What he is attempting to do is to shame and ridicule Christians. He is an atheist, secularist with a propaganda agenda.
No society runs on secularism.
By TigerHawk, at
Sun Sep 04, 08:57:00 AM:
I agree that the cartoon above would have been much better served if the cleric had been sitting between two men or two women, for instance.
As for the idea that the other examples happen "in public," well, so does everything, essentially, that touches commerce at any moment. But those of you who think that these things do not involve an invasion of privacy have never dealt with the Princeton Borough building inspector.
By , at
Wed Sep 07, 09:52:00 AM:
Yes, because sex is obviously on par with light bulbs and low flow showers.
