Comments on: The Israeli Settlement Policy is Demographic Suicide. Now Get Over It.

By: Pete

Pete — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:32:37 +0000

Mark,
I wonder if you could please help me understand why most of European countries have number of abortions at 20-30% of ours. The same goes for the number of divorces. Is it because of different education system, different healthcare or secularism.

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:26:04 +0000

Mark, a woman has no responsibility for anything residing in her body unless she chooses to give birth. Parts of another’s body can have no rights that supercede the owner of the body. After birth it is much different, a separate entity is in
existence and then any obligations start. But there can be no such thing as a right to birth. And since women are the only ones who can give birth, they are the only ones with
any say in the matter. The “pro-life” movement is as misnamed as the “civil rights” and “peace” movements.
It is certainly anti-the woman’s life movement since compulsory pregnancy is the most hideous invasion of a person’s life imaginable. You are really enslaving a person for the next quarter century in most cases, not merely nine months.
A fetus is not a human person. That comes with separation.
And even if it was such that would still not give it the right
to supercede the rights of the person inside whose body it
resides. Birth is the only objective indicator here so your attempted analogy fails. Abortion in the case of people unwilling or unable to raise a child is the responsible thing to do. The irresponsible thing to do is to bring such entities into the world where it then becomes everyone’s problem. In our
Oakland neighborhood we see the results of this every day.
If you are going to use that grotesque murder language then
call it justified homicide. The idea that a one inch fetus is
equivalent to a regular human being is just nonsense or
worse. “Unborn child” like “partial birth” abortion is simply
demagoguic rhetoric intended to inflame, not enlighten.
You haven’t made the case that a woman has any responsibility to her fetus.

By: John

John — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:57:45 +0000

William in Orange County-excellent post.

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:03:56 +0000

Michael,

A fetus is a child in an early stage of development, just as an infant is a child in a comparatively later stage of development. In other words, one can be both a fetus and a child just as one can be both an infant and a child, or a toddler and a child. Abortion “prevents a fetus from coming to term” by killing him or her.

If you want to argue that abortion should be legal because no human being has the right to reside inside another, you should be aware that the pro-life ideology is only partially based on the idea that human fetuses have the same rights as any other class of human. The other half of the equation is the belief that parents have a moral and legal responsibility to care for their children. You can kick anyone you want out of your house, but you can’t kick out your three year old son and watch him starve on the street without the state stepping in. The same applies to an unborn child. A mother’s right to do whatever she wants with her body does not supersede her responsibility to provide for her unborn child, just as a father’s right to do whatever he wants with his money does not supersede his responsibility to shelter and provide for his children.

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:36:24 +0000

John, abortion is about preventing a fetus from coming to term, not “killing a child.”
But I didn’t have Mexicans in mind when I wrote about it.
We have a very large homegrown lumpen class.
People who here illegally should be sent back.

By: John Schwenkler

John Schwenkler — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:58:26 +0000

MH: I have no problem debating abortion rights, but I won’t tolerate people claiming that we ought to pay for poor Mexicans who “shouldn’t be giving birth” to kill their children so they don’t come over here. Sorry if you don’t like that policy, but it’s my blog.

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:54:26 +0000

Oh, come on ! A great many libertarians and non-religious
conservatives support abortion rights. Murray Rothbard
put it best of all when he stated that no person has the
right to remain inside the body of another against that
person’s will. There is no right to birth and no right of
parts of a body to supercede the whole person carrying it.
And it is a tragic fact that many of the people who shouldn’t
be giving birth do because of stupidities like the Hyde Amendment. If TAC is going to enforce some fundie party
line here then those of us who disagree will have to stop
reading it.

By: William in Orange County, CA

William in Orange County, CA — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:06:42 +0000

Since I am of European-American descent, I have an obvious vested interest in whether or not British, French, Russians, Americans, Australians, or whoever, “let themselves go.” They are my people, anywhere and everywhere.

For years I have noted that conservatives of Jewish descent indulge in hand-wringing over Israeli demographics. To some extent I can sympathise. I really do. I only wish the same treatment were extended to white Americans who are concerned about the demographic transformation of our own country, aided and abetted, in many cases, by these same Israelist Neocons.

Why the double-standard?

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:14:44 +0000

Is the USA a Gentile or Christian state because Jews are only 1.58% of the population ? Why should Israel be a Jewish
State when at least 20% of the population are non-Jews ?
Frankly, I’m getting tired of all this handwringing about the various populations that choose not to reproduce themselves.
If the Russians go, good riddance. Ergo for the Germans, after seeing the police state there, I think the Turks would be an improvement. And so on for the Brits, French, etc.
If we let the Mexicans take over we have ourselves to blame.

[Remainder of comment edited for what ought to be obvious reasons - JS.]

By: SorryPeople

SorryPeople — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:47:01 +0000

Part of our problem is too much attention given to Israel. Israel and the Palestinians are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t want any refugees from that area thinking they can come to the US.