From: root@netmail.austin.ibm.com (Chris Moller)
Newsgroups: tx.politics
Subject: Re: fetus vs. baby
Date: 13 Aug 92 17:17:37 GMT
Reply-To: moller@netmail.austin.ibm.com
Distribution: tx
Organization: As little as I can get away with.

In article <21292@rpp386.lonestar.org>, jfh@rpp386.lonestar.org (John F. Haugh II) writes:
|>> In article <1992Aug6.151114.8975@awdprime.austin.ibm.com> moller@netmail.austin.ibm.com writes:

[...]

|>> 
|>> 
|>>                                  I see you are a Democrat ...

I was just going to let this pass, but I see JFHII has at least one mistaken
impression about me, not that that's particularly important, and perhaps about
a lot of pro-choicers.

First, I'm not a Democrat.  Never have been, never will be: I find their 
economic and social policies to be simplistic, irresponsible at best, 
pernicious at worst, and reflect no small contempt for the people to whom
they pander.

Likewise, I'm not a Republican.  I once agreed in large measure with their
positions on many issues, but I am seeing increasing tendencies on their part
to transgress the boundaries of intrusiveness into private affairs I find
tolerable.

Both parties, as well as all other "major" political parties of which I am
aware, have this in common:  they believe they have The Truth and seem to
be quite prepared to impose this truth on everyone else.  The Democrats seem
ready to impoverish the nation in their endless campaigns to "abolish poverty"
and any other conditions they deem unpleasant.  The Republicans more and more
seem to espouse a common ethos of self-righteousness and cultural intolerance
and seem ready to ruin lives and reputations in that pursuit.

Between the "do gooders" of the left and "do righters" of the right, there is
no room for me or, I am beginning to suspect, for a lot of other people.

The common collective belief underlying the philosophies of political parties
and the governments they engender is that it is the prerogative of one group of
people to impose their beliefs, because of their innate "rightness", on another.
In particular, political parties and governments seem to think that their
collectives goals have primacy over the interests of the common citizen.  The
relevance to this is that the anti-abortion contingent seems to want to use
the -- ultimately lethal -- power of governemnt to impose their beliefs on
those who do not agree with them.  There is no word for this other than tyrany,
and this I find anathema.

|>> 
|>> If you want to choice, I suggest you kill yourself and leave other human
|>> lives out of it.  It is so interesting that this is the one issue where
|>> liberals DON'T protect the "rights of the individual."  Actually, there
|>> are NO issues where liberals protect the "rights of the individual."

Probably true, but their indifference is matched by that of the conservatives.

|>> 
|>> Right to life and gun control are certainly two issues that you should be
|>> climbing all over.  Both are plainly enumerated in the Constitution (2nd
|>> and 5th Amendments).  So where're the protest marches demanding that the
|>> 5th Amendment be upheld?  Where is the Outrage!  Have you no Compassion,
|>> Man?

Presumably your reference to Fifth Amendment is with respect to its injunction
that "No person shall ... be deprived of life ... without due process of law..."
The underlying assumption of all pro-lifers is, of course, that the little glob
of cells in a woman's womb is a _person_ from the moment of conception, and
therefore entitiled to the protection offered by the Amendment.  I, and a very
large fraction of the population, disagree with this assumption.

(Concerning JFH's reference to the Second Ammendment, as an aside, as a state-
ment of personal beliefs -- I don't want to start the gun control thread again
-- I would not greatly appreciate the intrusions of what I consider to be an
irresponsible and inept government into my decisions on the best way to defend
my property or the lives of my family, should the need arise.)

Outrage?  Yes, I've plenty of that.  Directed primarily at those who would try
to compel me, and the rest of the country, to follow their agendas, in pursuit
of their goals, regardless of our own desires.  As to compassion, I'll save that
for beings, human or otherwise, who have the capacity to be aware of any good
that I may do.  Offering compassion to an insensate blob of cells is a waste.
That blob, being scarcely aware of its possession of life, will scarcely note
its passing; it needs no compassion.

|>> 
|>> Thought so.  You've got yours - you've been born - screw everyone else.

Yes, I have a life, but, no, I've no desire to "screw everyone else".  The great
amorphous "they" seems to be quite capable of screwing itself without my help.

|>> -- 
|>> John F. Haugh II                   | Life's Little Instruction Book:
|>> Ma Bell: (512) 251-2151            | "#138.  Learn Spanish.  In a few years,
|>> UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh |  more than 35% of all Americans will speak
|>> Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org      |  it as their first language."

-- 
IBM pays absolutely no attention to my	|   "There is no greater crime than to
opinions, ergo the foregoing cannot	|   force a man to pay for something he
possibly represent its position.	|   does not want simply because you 
					|   think it will be good for him."
Christian H. L. Moller			|     -- Robert A. Heinlein