Thursday, June 30, 2011

Two Parties

I brought up the question of abortion and as usual the usual pointless discussion ensued. A couple of my conservative friends chimed in and all they could talk about is philosophy and morality. I, being a more practical sort due to my engineering training, would prefer to talk policing. Or if you will: what can government really do (besides being a criminal organization I mean)?

I'm going to start here with my own bit of philosophy. Political Philosophy.

There are two parties in America today. Those that trust government and those that don't. The trusters are all the Ds and half the Rs.

And then there are the rest of us.
Yeah. The R trusters are different. "We only trust government for some things. Far fewer things than the Ds - that is for sure." Forgetting the problem of mission creep. How did fighting drugs morph into peeing into a bottle for a job? One of those unexpected mysteries of life to be sure.

Back to the morality question.
The morality is obvious. (In rich countries with plenty of food anyway).

What is also obvious is that policing such a ban will get very ugly.
I can't wait to see what the Pregnancy Enforcement Administration (PEA) will look like. It will be staffed with PEA brains to be sure. But will they require women to pee in a bottle weekly for the PEA? The Drug War precedent says yes. I'm not totally against such a move. It will be a great libertarian recruiting tool.
There is only one (so far) Pro-Life Organization I have found that says it is not the business of government to change hearts and minds on this subject. It is theirs:

Rockford Pro Life
I'm hoping this attitude will catch on.

Addressed to my pro life friends:
The government is barely able to keep order on the streets. And you want them to police the most intimate (available) part's of your or your mate's and daughter's anatomy?

Are you nuts?
Well not nuts exactly. It is a mental illness though. Faith in Government.

Again to my Pro-Government friends:
I worry about fellers like you. You have the best of intentions. And then the Democrats get in and use every power you have given government against you.

Idiots.

Or perhaps I should rephrase that. Government lovers. There is some evidence it is a genetic defect. Currently uncurable. My condolences.
And a parting thought. But first a little background. I had been discussing with one of my pro life friends the escalation of the Drug War to the point that SWAT Teams are going after defaulters on student loans. My friend said it was not about vaginas and vagina police (people who believe in government seem to have very limited imaginations).
Of course you are right my friend. It is not about vaginas. But if you get your way it will be.

The scene of the crime will need to be searched extensively by those forensically trained and if not the trained then who ever is available. Murder is a very serious crime and the evidence in this case is the body of the perpetrator. Police will at least need to watch the evidence being gathered to insure the chain of custody. This is some serious s***. You don't stint on murder investigations. Especially with 100 million potential criminals to keep an eye on.

And what happens when police go into the crime prevention mode?

What happens if the woman decides not to eat right and there is nothing where there was once something. There will need to be a law. And watchers. Perhaps a special badge for pregnant women so we can all be our sister's and children's keepers.

===

Are you forgetting what the Drug War has done for SWAT teams? Watch those student loans buddy. You don't want the 3 AM knock followed by the flash bang grenades and possible accidental discharge of automatic weapons just because your student loans are not up to date.
The Government starts with a mission and then the mission creeps. And pretty soon the power you gave to government to protect you is being used against you. Best to give them as little power as possible. The same attitude you would have towards any Criminal Enterprise.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

3 comments:

RavingDave said...

You are misstating our position. We don't have faith in government, we realize that it is a tool that has a necessary purpose and must occasionally be used.

As James Madison said:

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary."

APL said...

"And you want them to police the most intimate (available) part's of your or your mate's and daughter's anatomy?"

A mis-statement of the alternatives.

Like the War on Drugs, I want the government out of it altogether. The WOD has been used as a trojan to infiltrate totalitarianism into every aspect of our lives under the pretext of protecting us from drugs.

It has been a abject failure in terms of 'protecting' the population from drugs. But it has served the totalitarians very well indeed.

Well, first - who is the government to tell me what I should or should not do with my own body?

In terms of abortion, well it should be available, but it shouldn't be *promoted* by the state. Instead if the state has a role at all, it should be to promote a more humane alternative, for me that would be adoption.

In the UK, the '67 abortion act was put on the statute book on the pretext of protecting the health of the mother and abortions would be on very exceptional occasions.

Since '67 abortions have rocketed, in total for the UK there have been 6 million abortions carried out since.

It is not a coincidence that we are now importing migrant labour and our demographic is tilted dangerously toward the elderly, so there is more than just the moral reasons to discourage abortion, the demographic and actual societal stability is a good reason to do so too.

M. Simon said...

Dave,

Of course you don't want more government. It will just be the direct result of what you want.

A distinction without a difference.

I have proposed a non-governmental solution (change hearts and minds) and so far as I can tell not one of the usually totally committed on this issue has ever said in a comment: "it would be bad to get the government involved in any way in this issue."

What this all boils down to is that the anti-abortion folk have lost faith in the Maker (they have faith in enforcers) AND their self reliance.

I blame the schools. Collectivism has gone so far that it has infected the conservatives. No surprise there: in the early 1900s they were very much in bed with the Progressives.

Now a days they revile the Progressives and embrace collective solutions. Nice cover.