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How Abortion Became Fashionable
Campus Report Online ^ | 4/6/09 | Joe Sobran

Posted on 04/12/2009 10:33:08 AM PDT by wagglebee

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA—In his tremendous novel War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy observes that some men “choose their opinions like their clothes—according to fashion.” He adds that no matter how derivative their views are, such men may hold those views with all the passion of partisans.

How true. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people parrot clichés as if they were voicing their own hard-won, independent convictions. In college, I had more than one professor whose political ideas seemed to have been culled from the bumper stickers in an academic parking lot. (They weren’t grateful when I pointed this out.)

A free mind is a rarity, really. I was reminded of this sad truth by the news that Notre Dame University plans to award an honorary degree to Barack Obama this spring. The ostensible meaning of this gesture is that a Catholic university plans to honor our first black president. Seems simple, no? But another way to look at it is this: A nominally Catholic university is honoring America’s foremost apostle of abortion.

The devil must be cackling. As the great French poet Charles Baudelaire put it: “Satan’s cleverest wile is to make us think he doesn’t exist.” Most educated people nowadays assume he doesn’t exist, which makes them easy prey for him.

Obama is a clever fellow. He realized some time ago that if he wanted to be the first black American president, his best bet was to seek the nomination of the Democratic Party; and in order to do that, he would have to be pro-abortion.

Now of course most blacks don’t like abortion. They know, or at least sense, its reality: white abortionists getting rich killing nonwhite babies. The profits are so big because the overhead is so low. Aborting a child requires very little medical skill, and most doctors won't do it. Yet this aspect is rarely discussed. To hear liberals talk about it, you could get the impression that abortion is just an abstract matter of individual rights, or “choice.” But back here on earth, its net result is to depress the nonwhite population in this country. Some of its supporters also argue that it depresses the crime rate too, but they seldom refer to the racial angle, at least in public.

So our first black president got where he is by taking a profoundly antiblack position in order to gain the favor of liberals in his party. After all, liberals don’t call the killing of the unborn “racism” or “genocide”; they don’t even call it “killing.”

In any case, when it comes to abortion, Obama’s conscience seems to be quite untroubled. He makes no concessions to the humanity of the unborn, even if they survive attempts to destroy them in the womb.

When I was young, not a single American politician would endorse legal abortion; the subject almost never came up in public. But as soon as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in an incoherent majority opinion, that all laws in all 50 states restricting abortion were in violation of the Constitution, public opinion began to conform to the new fashion. Millions of people seemed to change their deepest convictions in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.

To be sure, politicians, especially Catholics, often professed to be “personally opposed” to abortion while voting to promote it, but that was a transparent fig leaf; in practice it meant nothing. The phrase “personally opposed” must have warmed many an abortionist’s heart.

Someone has suggested that Notre Dame, which is named after Our Lady, cease calling itself a Catholic university. It is about as Catholic as, say, Ted Kennedy.

Which reminds me: I am so old I can remember when some people feared that the pope would control America through the Kennedy clan. They stopped worrying about that some time ago. No pope can control even the Kennedys.

Most people, like animals, are at home in their environment and don’t question it; they merely conform to its pressures, including the pressure of circumambient opinion. They accept what they suppose are the prevalent beliefs and attitudes without question. As far as they are concerned, fashion is virtual truth. Public opinion may be defined as what people think other people are thinking.

Tolstoy would understand.

Joe Sobran is an author and a syndicated columnist. See his latest writings at http://www.fgfbooks.com/ and see him on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NJZ3FZ4iiw. 



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; bhoabortion; catholic; moralabsolutes; obamatruthfile; prolife; radicalleft; sobran
The devil must be cackling. As the great French poet Charles Baudelaire put it: “Satan’s cleverest wile is to make us think he doesn’t exist.” Most educated people nowadays assume he doesn’t exist, which makes them easy prey for him.

Perfect!

1 posted on 04/12/2009 10:33:08 AM PDT by wagglebee
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To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; Salvation; 8mmMauser

Pro-Life Ping


2 posted on 04/12/2009 10:33:50 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; 50mm; 69ConvertibleFirebird; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee or DirtyHarryY2K to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]


3 posted on 04/12/2009 10:34:48 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee

To the pro-choice I ask; How do you feel about taking the life of a year old infant?

How about one that is 15 seconds old?
How about one that has only partially left the birth canal?
What about one that is a month or two away from delivery?
How about one that is just two month from conception?
How about one just a few days past conception?

Tell me, just where on this scale do you find it palatable to kill?


4 posted on 04/12/2009 10:40:45 AM PDT by umgud (I'm really happy I wasn't aborted)
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To: umgud

For that matter, what about when the become teenagers and really drive you crazy.

The culture of death’s desire is to be able to kill ANYONE they want for ANY reason they want at ANY point they want from conception onward.


5 posted on 04/12/2009 10:50:53 AM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: umgud

Is there something about closure of the ductus Botalli that confers personhood?


6 posted on 04/12/2009 11:08:55 AM PDT by Peelod (Preserving, protecting and defending are beyond his ability.)
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To: wagglebee

The height of fashion? Maybe to Satan and his minions.

I remember seeing that feminazi bimbo, Naomi Wolf on cspan a few years ago.

She said baby-killing was a "right of passage" for college girls.

Tragic.

7 posted on 04/12/2009 11:12:39 AM PDT by bimboeruption (Clinging to my Bible and my HK.)
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To: Peelod

Not for me. It happens long before that.


8 posted on 04/12/2009 11:13:22 AM PDT by umgud (I'm really happy I wasn't aborted)
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To: umgud

i agree

my comment was an additional ? to the list

the followup ? is “does an entity with a patent DA have personhood.... if not, why not? if so, how does closure confer personhood?

iow, there is really nothing about birth that fundamentally changes.

the identifiable, fundamental change is the diploid #


9 posted on 04/12/2009 11:22:03 AM PDT by Peelod (Preserving, protecting and defending are beyond his ability.)
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To: Peelod

I’m slow and don’t understand all the med terminology.


10 posted on 04/12/2009 11:26:54 AM PDT by umgud (I'm really happy I wasn't aborted)
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To: wagglebee

Yes. Perfect!


11 posted on 04/12/2009 2:03:27 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: wagglebee
Photobucket

12 posted on 04/12/2009 5:30:20 PM PDT by Salvation ( †With God all things are possible.†)
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To: wagglebee
“Obama is a clever fellow. He realized some time ago that if he wanted to be the first black American president, his best bet was to seek the nomination of the Democratic Party; and in order to do that, he would have to be pro-abortion.”

And before that he realized if he wanted to rise in Chicago politics he needed to sit in “Reverend” Wright's church. I doubt he really cares one bit personally about abortion and is probably an agnostic (at best).

13 posted on 04/13/2009 3:26:29 AM PDT by Red Dog #1
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To: Salvation

That is fantastic!V’s wife.


14 posted on 04/13/2009 4:00:12 AM PDT by ventana
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To: umgud

I can think of a few people I’d take that argument further with...

If you think abortion is fine, what about killing your daughter killing your grandson when she gets tired of him? He’s still a toddler and dependent on her for everything, why was it okay then but not now?


15 posted on 04/13/2009 10:24:27 AM PDT by Jaded (No act of kindness, no matter how small, ever goes unpunished. -THFG)
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To: All
Pinged from Terri Dailies


16 posted on 04/13/2009 4:51:46 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
The devil must be cackling. As the great French poet Charles Baudelaire put it: “Satan’s cleverest wile is to make us think he doesn’t exist.” Most educated people nowadays assume he doesn’t exist, which makes them easy prey for him. Perfect!

Perfect indeed! I might humbly add the old story that he doesn't come to us in an ugly form, but as a handsome, well dressed man (or woman).

In his tremendous novel War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy observes that some men “choose their opinions like their clothes—according to fashion.” He adds that no matter how derivative their views are, such men may hold those views with all the passion of partisans.

Tolstoy is remarkable, one of my favs. We certainly conducted this election 'according to fashion'. And our partisans are excellent cheerleaders, whipping up one great pep rally.

17 posted on 04/16/2009 7:53:29 AM PDT by fortunecookie (Please pray for Anna, age 7, who waits for a new kidney.)
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