SOPA Sucks

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Government Funded Abortion

(Originally posted on the Young Americans for Liberty blog)

The confirmation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, as is the case with most confirmation hearings, has devolved into a series of useless ad hominem attacks based in partisan politics.  In this case, the noise is destroying the signal, and some very important information has simply slipped through the cracks.  One of the most important issues with Sotomayor hasn’t come up in the confirmation process at all:  In a recent interview with the New York Times, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talks about how Sotomayor’s appointment would affect the way the Supreme Court treats abortion.

Although Sotomayor has never directly ruled on whether the Constitution protects abortion, Ginsburg has high hopes that she will be a staunch advocate not only for abortion, but for government-funded abortion.  Ginsburg says that the Roe decision created “a policy that affects only poor women” and bemoans “the lack of Medicaid for abortions.”  Ginsburg’s hope is that Sotomayor’s nomination will help to “straighten out” abortion policy.

If history is any indication, government-funded abortion is only one small step away from government-controlled abortion. The government already takes a keen interest in controlling our bodies, mandating vaccinations and restricting our intake of certain substances.  If some government health czar were to decide that recent advances in genetic testing would enable us to “kill off inherited illnesses” at the price of only a few  thousand abortions, we might well find ourselves in a situation where so-called “reproductive rights” become reproductive privileges.

Obama Abandons Diplomacy

(Originally posted on the Young Americans for Liberty blog)

Perhaps feeling pressured by the recent Congressional condemnation of violence in Iran (a resolution which passed with only one dissenting vote, cast by Congressman Paul), Barack Obama has seemingly reversed himself on his policy toward the “Green Revolution.”

Obama’s most recent statement about the violence surrounding Iranian president Ahmadinejad’s reelection contains some strong criticism of the Iranian government. The (admittedly hawkish) Wall Street Journal is apparently hopeful that this statement marks the beginning of a move toward a more aggressive White House foreign policy:

Mr. Obama’s comments could mark the beginning of a significant shift in the White House’s broader Middle East strategy, which has largely been framed around a desire to hold direct negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program and its support for militant groups.

If this does indeed indicate a permanent change in Obama’s thinking about Iran, we should get ready for another Middle East quagmire.

Spelling Reform by Executive Order

(Originally posted on the Young Americans for Liberty blog)

If you’ve ever wondered why American spelling differs from that of British English (and perhaps mourned the unfortunate spellings of words like “gray” and “saber” in American English), here’s your answer.

In one of my personal favorite abuses of executive power, Theodore Roosevelt (who was apparently extremely bored at the time) released an executive order in August of 1906 mandating an alternate spelling of 300 words.  His changes included those now familiar to us (”catalogue” to “catalog”) as well as some that seem completely ridiculous (”missed” to “mist”).

The British press had an absolute field day with this ridiculous executive order, treating it with a complete lack of deference which journalists today would do well to emulate. As a New York Times writer in London reported:

President Roosevelt is the laughing stock of literary London to-day on account of the cabled announcement that, having nothing of much importance to do just now, he has undertaken to reconstruct the English language. Hardly a serious word has been employed in the discussion of his order to the Public Printer.  The British press replies to Mr. Roosevelt with an outburst of ridicule.  It is to laugh rather than to argue soberly has evidently been the mot d’ordre in editorial offices.  The humorists have been turned loose, and have been allowed to say anything they liked.

You can read the rest here, in pdf format, including excerpts from the excoriating and uproarious British response.

Animal Farm on Capitol Hill

(Originally posted on the Young Americans for Liberty blog)

The recent flu scare is a classic and amusingly blatant case of how government and the mainstream media use fear and panic to control the population.  Such tactics are the best tool in the box for any government official with an agenda to push: the best justification for government power, says the fear-monger, is a situation which is completely out of the control of private citizens.  This attitude has lately been expressed best by Rahm Emanuel, and his disgusting “never waste a crisis” axiom.

Today we are expected to live in constant fear, to hand over our civil and economic liberties…for what exactly?  What are these unthinkable horrors with which we cannot possibly deal on our own? The fumes produced by our automobiles. The importation of sugar. An elderly Muslim man living in a cave in Pakistan, hooked up to a dialysis machine, or perhaps not living at all.

And now the government has declared a public health emergency for 20 admittedly mild cases of the flu. This is apparently a routine procedure, which allows the federal government to ship 12 million stockpiled influenza vaccines to the various states affected by the “outbreak” (presumably purchased with your dollars for just such an emergency).  The 24-hour fear cycle seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

All this talk about pigs reminds me of the similarities between the ones we have in Washington and the fabled swine of George Orwell’s excellent Animal Farm. On the subject of the individual’s ability to take care of his own problems, our leaders seem to take a page straight from Squealer’s book:

Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. [We] would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?

Where would we be, comrades? Presumably we would live in a nation of self-sufficient adults, people who wouldn’t run crying to a government official every time they stubbed a toe, or got a tummy ache.