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If it Saves One Life and Other Meretricious Lies
American Thinker ^ | 10 Sep, 2023 | Clarice Feldman

Posted on 09/10/2023 4:25:40 AM PDT by MtnClimber

It’s not unusual that power-mad politicians justify depriving us of liberty using the appeal to emotion:“If it saves one life.” Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo justified the statewide shutdown with this poppycock: “And if everything we do saves just one life, I’ll be happy.” Former president Obama said “If we save even one life from gun violence, it’s worth it.” Then vice president Joe Biden endorsed that: “As the President said, if your actions result in only saving one life, they’re worth taking.”

This is not justifiable constitutionally any more than it is factually: These actions often cost far more lives than the theoretical one life saved. Everything in life is a tradeoff:

If we really believed that any law is justified if it saves just one life, we would require all Americans to pass a mental health evaluation on a regular basis or be institutionalized (more than 38,000 Americans commit suicide annually). We would outlaw all motor vehicles (almost 35,000 Americans die in vehicle accidents annually). We would require all houses to be single-story structures (more than 26,000 die in falls annually). We would ban alcohol (almost 17,000 die annually from alcohol-related liver disease). We would require people to be certified as swimmers before allowing them into any large body of water (more than 3,500 die from drowning annually). We would prohibit women from getting pregnant unless they had no family history of birth complications (more than 900 American women die in childbirth annually).

Of course, none of these things will ever happen, nor should they. Life is full of dangers that cannot be legislated away.

My online friend Alex Bensky nailed it:

They don't mean "if it saves just one life" anyway… and nobody does.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: communism

1 posted on 09/10/2023 4:25:40 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

What if we got rid of the warmongering politicians? What if we banned Communism?


2 posted on 09/10/2023 4:25:50 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

How many lives have to be spent to save one?


3 posted on 09/10/2023 4:30:02 AM PDT by depressed in 06
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To: MtnClimber

The *saving lives* argument is used to justify abortion, too.

Problem is, it doesn’t save lives. It kills at least one.


4 posted on 09/10/2023 4:55:05 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.)
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To: upchuck

Clarice ping


5 posted on 09/10/2023 5:02:32 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber
What if we banned Communism?

We have. It’s called the Communism Control Act of 1954. Lot of good it’s doing us.

6 posted on 09/10/2023 5:07:37 AM PDT by liberalh8ter (Ephesians 6:10 - 18)
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To: MtnClimber

I have come to assume, on its face, that everything the government announces and more recently, anything that “medical experts” say, is a lie ... or at least an exaggeration. It’s a lie because these people damn-well know what they are promoting is not true in most, if not all, respects ... but they are so very good at it and they have absolutely no second thoughts about lying, usually because they believe they have “good intentions”.


7 posted on 09/10/2023 5:09:13 AM PDT by glennaro (Never give up ... never give in ... never surrender ... and enjoy every minute of doing so.)
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To: MtnClimber

“It’s for the children”


8 posted on 09/10/2023 5:15:36 AM PDT by Jonty30 (If liberals were truth tellers, they'd call themselves literals. )
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To: MtnClimber

9 posted on 09/10/2023 5:18:38 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: MtnClimber

Good piece.


10 posted on 09/10/2023 5:30:04 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: MtnClimber

Iwo Jima shows we don’t put life ahead of freedom.


11 posted on 09/10/2023 5:31:16 AM PDT by TalBlack (We have a Christian duty and a patriotic duty. God help us.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; BraveMan; cardinal4; ...

12 posted on 09/10/2023 5:32:45 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: MtnClimber

So, if FDR had simply surrendered to the Japanese it would have been worth it since my uncles life would have been saved. Got it.


13 posted on 09/10/2023 8:23:49 AM PDT by muir_redwoods (Freedom isn't free, liberty isn't liberal and you'll never find anything Right on the Left)
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To: muir_redwoods
since my uncles life would have been saved

Because the imperial Japanese army was very solitous of the well-being of the miliary age populace in conquereed territories. Nubile women too.

14 posted on 09/10/2023 8:51:36 AM PDT by AndyJackson
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To: MtnClimber

Every time some idiot politician or pundit uses the phrase “if it saves one life”, they should be laughed at with big gut-busting guffaws. This is the only solution to the problem. You can’t argue with people willing to put such an asinine proposition forward because logic and reason mean nothing to them. The only proper response is laughter.


15 posted on 09/10/2023 7:39:13 PM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: MtnClimber

Prove to me that masking has ever saved a single life from COVID.


16 posted on 09/10/2023 10:35:37 PM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: MtnClimber

mer·e·tri·cious.
.

[merəˈtriSHəs]

ADJECTIVE

1.apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity:

“meretricious souvenirs for the tourist trade”


17 posted on 09/10/2023 10:49:05 PM PDT by MileHi ((Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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