Links and Minifeatures 06 29 Friday

Hugh Hewitt Contributor Dean Barnett on non-religious opposition to abortion. I take a more libertarian stance: that seeing as we cannot prove it is human life, we do not have the legal or moral justification for dictating the woman's decision. However, because it is at the very least potential life, abortion should be as strongly discouraged, socially, as possible.



If this was a convicted felon we were talking about, instead of something that's going to be a human being someday if they aren't aborted - a human being who has done nothing illegal, unethical, or immoral - before they were executed, wouldn't we be talking about removing the last possible shreds of doubt, appeals that go on for years making certain the law was applied in an absolutely even-handed manner, and all sorts of humanitarian appeals? Wouldn't they have years, at a minimum, to attempt to justify their continued existence? As opposed to thirty minutes of no communication whatsoever while the would-be mother decides that being pregnant would be inconvenient?



Next to that, seems to me that social stigma is an awfully low price to pay for terminating a potential human life that's done nothing more than have the misfortune to be conceived by a woman who doesn't want to be pregnant (and that is how low we have set the threshold). I think legal abortion is necessary. But I don't have to think it's in any way laudable. And I think that the social stigma should apply to both people that were involved in that act of procreation. If you aren't willing to be a dad if that's what happens, no matter what precautions you take, you shouldn't engage in sexual behavior that could result in pregnancy. The situation for women is no different. If you're claiming the ability to give informed consent to sex, you are claiming to be an adult, and should be prepared to deal with the responsibilities involved. There are extenuating circumstances such as rape, but abortions are never something to be proud of. The thing to be proud of would be being a parent to the child despite the circumstances. There's no shame or stigma in not being a hero. But there's nothing that should increase anyone's level of esteem, either.

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Socializing the Free Market of Ideas, or free speech for me, but not for thee.



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Explosives-packed car defused in London



In a nightclub district. With thousands of random people who could have been anyone from anywhere in the world.



Just to remind you, Tony Blair is no longer their prime minister, or even involved in their government, after his long-promised resignation. Effectively torpedoes the "it'll go away when Bush and Blair are gone" pie in the sky.



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Michael Barone on how we pick Vice Presidents and how it is evolving.