Commenter Archive

Comments by Cascadian*

On “The Short, Happy Life of Ad Hoc Reasoning

Oh goody, a post on the Fourteenth. I think article five of the constitution supersedes the fourteenth. An amendment can't be ratified without three fourths of the states assenting and no state shall be deprived of representation.

One of the broad theories of justice set out by the framers was that the states would provide a check on the federal gov. The Fourteenth, in conjunction with White v. Texas, wipes this concept off the books.

On “No, I am not Frederick Douglass

@Cascadian, I think a pre-viable life could be worth saving, but not at the expense of someone else's freedom. People die all over the world all the time. If I enslaved you (to keep with the spirit of the post) in order to save these poor souls, wouldn't it be a moral trade off? You just lose your freedom. They are allowed to live.

If the little tadpole is a comparable life then why make an exception to rape or incest? Maybe I don't understand your argument.

On “Hippies with iPhones

This makes no sense. What's a Hippie anyway? Back to earth? Someone who appreciates paisley? Steve Jobs a Reed drop out? Hippie as a coherent notion is about as real as its counterpart..... Ozzy and Harriet.

On “No, I am not Frederick Douglass

@Nevertaken, This still doesn't change the fact that people can relinquish responsibility for their children if they are unable, or unwilling, to care for them.

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@Nevertaken, Nope, You've got me there. Certainly, if someone is willing to take up the mantle, the man can get away from his responsibility... the mother's new husband wants to adopt. Otherwise, the guy is stuck. Even this isn't as I would want it. If you have some schmuck that doesn't want to be a part of a child's life, I would prefer that the state intervene and provide support, provided that the guy buggers off and leaves the children alone. Perhaps this is an unexplored avenue for families. Perhaps it could work like big brothers, where a woman agrees to let a family or individual adopt an interest in the child and the dead beat gets out of the picture. It could be a win win situation.

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@Nevertaken, You could also call up children's services, tell them you can't get your shit together to take care of your little one and have someone take her off your hands. If you choose to parent, you have responsibilities. No one should be forced to parent or carry a fetus they don't want or can't handle.

There are those in the community that are all too willing to adopt. The same should be true for fetuses. For those crying about the loss of life, they should scrape up their communal disposable incomes and invest in R/D on new preemie technology.

On “Anne Rice quits Christianity

@Richard M, That's truly funny. It needs to be a New Yorker cartoon or some such.

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@Jaybird, This has been my thought. My god favors dancing naked around bonfires with a good rutting afterward. When do I get to use government to enforce my beliefs and preferences?

On “Abortion, slavery & personhood

@North, This is where the Christian Hospitals should put their money. If you agree not to abort, we'll pay to keep the tyke alive for another twelve days.

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@Mike at The Big Stick, So, you do think the abortions in the debate, the late ones, are the result of carelessness. That seems counter-intuitive to me. I would imagine the late ones are where circumstances have changed drastically. "I thought I was in a stable marriage with an income to support a child but my husband left and I got laid off." Or, "I desperately want a child but I've found out the fetus I carry has severe defects." These seem much more likely, though who knows. Even in these cases, wouldn't it be better to offer early adoption?

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@Mike at The Big Stick, Are late term abortions the home of the careless? Are these really women that just didn't get around to doing it in the first trimester? If so, are these the people you want parenting? Would you sign up for early birthing instead of abortion, and make it broadly accessible?

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@Mike at The Big Stick, How do you come down on the Christian Science folk who deny health care to their little ones? Parental privilege?

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@ThatPirateGuy, I've long thought the solution to this problem is to separate the interests. Instead of "abortion" women should birth the fetus. Let the little tadpole have a go at it. Perhaps the Catholics could invest money in the science to grow preemies instead of telling others how to live.

On “Anne Rice quits Christianity

@Anne Rice, Walking away from the church is all well and good. Walking away from your Beauty books is quite a different matter.

On “One last salvo on immigration

@Jaybird, It depends on how you define your multiculturalism. If we restrict for socio economic factors with some general agreement on freedoms/culture, we can have people of all colors that roughly share our priorities. Limited multiculturalism, or non diverse multiculturalism perhaps.

On “Sam Smith’s Progressive Populists

@Mike at The Big Stick, Socialism at its worst. Smaller government cut services to those that can't pay. That's the mantra in these neighborhoods isn't it?

On “A Few Things to Add to Jason’s List

Related to the Obama military point. The left is largely responsible for state-ism and the introduction of the military complex, (good intentions, I'm sure). Bush/Cheney may have pulled the trigger, but it was the left that forged the gun.

On “Sam Smith’s Progressive Populists

@Mike at The Big Stick, I think this is a function of playing the get elected game instead of playing the governance game. This is one result of centralization. If all of the important decisions are made on a national level and there is no real possibility of getting local interests met on that level, then cynicism about real solutions runs rampant and all that is left is partisan demagoguery.

On “The US: A Special Case for Open Borders

The fact is that what worked for the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is not necessarily applicable today. We've had a "jobless recovery" last go around and what appears to be fewer jobs for the future. It's simply not the case that the US is still a vast region waiting to be beat into submission by waves of laborers.

Though immigration is part of the broader myth of America, it's not true across the board. Oregon has been for managed growth and insular since the first farmers started arriving. Today, the NW has a strong culture of secularism with a strand of environmentalism that values sustainability. Reclaiming urban agriculture and creating a sustainable society is more important than rampant growth.

For all the talk of diversity, it should be admitted that it has limits. It seems that we are migrating within the US to live with others more like ourselves. With our recent culture wars, I'm not sure that an influx of religious immigrants are going to be welcomed simply because they're brown and have cute accents.

The US is indeed huge. I'd argue that it's grown too large to function politically or socially. Many states are comparable to Western European countries. One could argue that a shot of fresh blood might be the answer. I'd say that until we get our house in order and functioning again we should avoid additional challenges.

On “Bleg/Open Thread

@Mark Thompson, I'd love that. Even, an open thread on the subject with a few of the directions posted for discussion could be fun.

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You're joking... right? Hows about the piece on the Fourteenth you've promised a couple of times?

On “A Sin Prevention Machine

@Rufus, Damage with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.

On “A Blog of Fire and Ice

@North, Another Jordan fan. I got sucked into those, way back when. I rather liked the poly aspects.

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