Whose Rights?

Abortion is often defended in terms of the woman’s right to choose.   I agree fully.

A woman has a right to make many choices regarding her own body.  She can choose not to have unprotected sex.  She can choose to use contraceptive medications.  She can choose to abstain from sex completely.  But she cannot choose to deny the rights of another for her own convenience.

Rights come with responsibilities.  The free exercise of my rights stops at the point where it would interfere with your rights, and vice versa.  Abortion doesn’t affect only the woman.  It involves two people, the woman and her child, as any simple DNA test will show.  The rights of both must be considered.

As an individual, a woman has the right to make choices about her own body.    The pro-abortion argument that “a woman has a right to choose what to do with her own body,” is not an accurate description of the debate.  As a parent, the woman even has the right to make choices about her child.  She does not, however, have the right to end the life of her child.

Abortion advocates understand this.  They intentionally pull on your emotional heartstrings with pleas of “women’s rights.”  In doing so, they completely ignore the rights of the innocent child who’s life they seek to end.

Are women’s rights more important than children’s rights?

It Depends On Your Beliefs

A phrase often heard in controversial discussions as an attempt to find some type of middle ground is “it depends on your beliefs.”  But what does that really mean?

If I believe the sky is purple, and you believe it is orange, does agreeing to disagree by saying “it depends on your belief” change the fact that the sky is actually blue?  Of course not.  We are both free to believe whatever we want, but society as a whole will still call the sky blue and if we choose to engage in activities requiring factual knowledge we better be prepared to call it blue as well.

Most often, the phrase is heard in political debates.  But do those uttering it, really mean it?  I would venture to guess that most of the time the answer is no.

Would anyone seriously argue that laws regarding murder, rape, assault, or theft should “depend on your beliefs?”  Of course not.  Regardless of ones’ personal beliefs, there is one common principle that the law applies in these situations.  Individuals are free to hold their own beliefs, but they are not free to act on them in a way that would infringe upon the rights of another.

Suppose someone says, “I don’t believe that brunettes are people,” or “I don’t believe that children under the age of five are people.” Does that make it true?  Of course not.  People, are people, and the law is there to protect the rights of all.  Certainly no one would argue that Hitler had a right to kill Jews  because he believed they were not people, or that the Klu Klux Klan has a right to kill African Americans because they believe they are not people.

Why, then, do some of us stubbornly cling to the idea that it is okay for a woman to murder her unborn baby if she doesn’t believe that it is a person yet?

Houston Toddler Dies of Swine Flu!

So screams the alarmist headline.  What they don’t tell you, is that the boy was from Mexico.  His family took him to Brownsville, where they then sought medical treatment for him.  Medical authorities in Brownsville transferred the boy to a Houston hospital, where he sadly lost his life.

I fully expect to see the city of Houston badly over-react to this, shutting down schools and possibly instituting involuntary quarantines (incarcerations) of persons presenting with symptoms of influenza, as they have done in other states.  Maybe they’ll even officially declare a state of emergency here because of this report.

The interesting thing is, out of more than two thousand confirmed cases of swine flu around the globe, there have been only 160 deaths.  All but one of those, occurred in Mexico.  Meanwhile, plain old garden-variety influenza ordinarily infects up to 20% of the population, causing 200,000 to be hospitalized, and killing 36,000.

So, why don’t we hear about pandemics, quarantines, and emergency drug rulings every year?

TEA (taxed enough already) Party Pictures

I promised Tea Party pics… here you go!  These are from the Tea Party in Clear Lake, Texas on 4/15/09.  Ron Paul was the featured speaker, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to get close enough to the podium to get any good pics of him.  There are a couple of pictures that look like I dropped the camera or something…. those would be where I almost fell off of the bulkhead trying to lean out around the crowd to get some shots of the barrel of tea being dumped into the water.  Click the thumbnails to see full-size images.

Did you attend an anti-tax, anti-bailout Tea _arty demonstration / rally?

Christians & Veterans = Terrorists?

What do Christians and veterans of the Iraq war have in common?  According to a new report by the Department of Homeland Security, they’re both signs of a potential terrorist.

Remember the stir over the MIAC reports labeling supporters of third-party candidates as domestic terrorists last month?  Remember the public apologies issues by officials who were not sorry for writing it, but rather for getting called out on it?  Remember the bloggers who warned that was the case as the rest of the country chose to go back to sleep and accept the fake apologies?

Well, here’s the same implication, issued this time by the federal government.  I wonder if they’ll pretend to apologize, too?  And more importantly – I wonder if, again, most of you will choose to  believe that they didn’t really mean any harm.

Wake up, people.  Wake up, get your head out of the sand, and look at what is going on in the world around you.  Your government doesn’t care about you.  Your government isn’t even yours anymore.  You lost control of it along time ago, because of your apathy, and now they have one goal – power.  They will continue to increase their power over you at any cost, until there is no one left to control and no power left to gain.

Do you think I’m overreacting?  Ask the decorated war veteran who finds himself on the no-fly list because his military training defines him as a security threat.  Ask the Christian grandmother who finds herself in a similar predicament, because her faith defines her as a right-wing extremist.  Ask them if they still believe their government has their best interests at heart, and then let me know if I’m overreacting.

It is time to stand up and say “ENOUGH.”  It is time to take back our government, and throw all of the self-serving, anti-freedom, anti-american politicians that have done this to us out on the streets on their arses.  I hope and pray we can do that through organized political action within the established system, but I am beginning to fear that will not be the case.

There is something you can do to help. JOIN THE CAMPAIGN FOR LIBERTY today – And remember – even if you’re not in the groups being persecuted now, you likely will be tomorrow.  If you don’t stand up for others’ freedom today, who will stand up for yours, then?

Edit to add:  Think you’re safe if you’re not “right wing?”  Think again.  “Left wing” folks are terrorists, too, according to this DHS report.

IS FREEDOM IMPORTANT TO YOU?  WHY OR WHY NOT?