Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How to Stop a Liberal from Talking
Townhall.com ^ | January 15, 2012 | Mark Baisley

Posted on 01/15/2012 11:51:16 AM PST by Kaslin

In his book How to Stop Dialogue In Its Tracks, Sacha Baron Cohen provides three awkward statements for guys that can be employed to bring a lousy date to a quick conclusion; “I just believe that environmentalists should mind their own business.” Or, 2. “Don’t you find the obsolescence of the slide rule to be terribly regrettable?” And, 3. “Does the Roe versus Wade decision trouble you as much as it does me?”

In recognition of the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling this week, I am going to jump right on topic number three. OK, there is no such book calledHow to Stop Dialogue In Its Tracks. But if there were, Sacha Baron Cohen surely would have been the author.

In spite of there having been a Supreme Court ruling in 1973, the pro-life versus pro-choice political debate remains unsettled in America after all these years. There are three good reasons for this.

First is the abject sloppiness of the Roe versus Wade legal ruling. The majority opinion, delivered by Associate Justice Blackmun, cited a right to privacy given to pregnant women by way of the due process clause in Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Here is that very wording of the amendment:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The reason that you don’t see the word “privacy” anywhere in there is because Section 1 was written to eliminate the practice of slavery in the privacy of the plantation. The notion that behavior done in private should be exempt from state laws is a Pandora’s Box that could apply to the worst of domestic behavior if carried to its logical conclusion. Harry Blackmun did not pull the idea of privacy out of sound jurisprudence. He pulled it out of his own jurist posterior.

Judge Robert Bork wrote this about the Roe v. Wade ruling in his landmark book, The Tempting of America, “Unfortunately, in the entire opinion, there is not one line of explanation, not one sentence that qualifies as legal argument.”

The second reason that the abortion matter is not settled is that it is disquieting to people of good conscience. And to my fellow pro-lifers, I will assert that we need to mature our side of the debate to a point where pro-choice proponents do not feel like we are casting judgement against them. Please understand that they are dealing with a personal uneasiness in their own lives. We should be about winning their hearts rather than defeating their priorities.

I believe that the primary reason that settling answers about abortion are so elusive is that the wrong questions were asked by the Supreme Court in 1973, led by Chief Justice Warren Burger. During the Roe v. Wade hearings, the justices posed questions in an attempt to establish conclusions about when life begins in the development of an unborn human. The prosecution provided expert testimony, presenting the latest scientific guesswork of the period. All of the phases of in-utero fetal development were described to the court.

Out of that conversation, the notion of trimesters was adopted in the majority opinion. The court reasoned that during the first trimester, the fetus was not to be considered a person. With that understanding, the Fourteenth Amendment wording, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life” would not apply.

As the fetus develops, states are allowed to add restrictions on abortions up to the point of birth. But no personhood is assumed until a live birth is complete. Even the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 merely outlaws the procedure. It does not attempt to outlaw the destruction of the fetus, which is likely how the law was possible to be upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007.

The mess that will not be resolved began with the assumption by Justice Burger that the Supreme Court had the authority to determine when life begins; that they owned the role of assigning personhood to the fetus at a point in development; that the Supreme Court Justices could endow people with the right to life.

The problem is that the Burger court forgot that the Supreme Court is an instrument of the government, instituted by the people and deriving their just powers from the consent of those people. A branch of that government should not even entertain the idea that they are in the position of the Creator.

As the founders realized and recorded, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

The Supreme Court does not endow us with our rights. They merely secure the rights already endowed to us by our Creator.

So, when does life begin?

Interesting conversation for a good date, but not the business of government employees; even those employed as Supreme Court Justices.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: abortion; prolife; roevwade
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 last
To: circlecity

“How to Stop a Liberal from Talking”

Grab em by the throat and punch their teeth out.


41 posted on 01/15/2012 6:02:42 PM PST by DarthVader (That which supports Barack Hussein Obama must be sterilized and there are NO exceptions!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ROCKLOBSTER

Throw in some of the private quotes by LBJ regarding his motives for the “Great Society” program.


42 posted on 01/15/2012 6:42:12 PM PST by Fred Hayek (FUBO, the No Talent Pop Star pResident.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Steve Van Doorn
"why does socialists (leftist) believe in taking from the working class and poor to give to the rich?"

Socialists system takes as much as it can from the working class and distributes it through big business.

The thieving commucRATs take as much as they can from the working class AND any business, and then handsomely redistribute it to themselves through corporate government.

43 posted on 01/15/2012 6:59:17 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER ( Celebrate Republicans Freed the Slaves Month.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: ROCKLOBSTER

I leave any part out that even sounds like it might come from the right. if they think you are on their side they listen


44 posted on 01/15/2012 7:03:57 PM PST by Steve Van Doorn (*in my best Eric Cartman voice* 'I love you, guys')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

If you want to piss off a conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to piss off a liberal, tell him the truth.


45 posted on 01/15/2012 7:34:02 PM PST by MNnice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
And to my fellow pro-lifers, I will assert that we need to mature our side of the debate to a point where pro-choice proponents do not feel like we are casting judgement against them.

Killing innocent pre-born babies = getting judged.

Just the way it needs to be.

46 posted on 01/16/2012 12:09:45 AM PST by DNA.2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

This is an excellent piece.


47 posted on 01/16/2012 12:26:27 AM PST by Lancey Howard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

/bump


48 posted on 01/16/2012 12:45:23 AM PST by MaxMax
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

“So when does life begin?”

When brilliant, really-really smart, intelligent, superior, Progressive geniuses say it does.


49 posted on 01/16/2012 5:48:58 AM PST by ripley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
I heard a very liberal woman talking about the need for the EPA. That before the EPA hundreds of thousands of "children" died due to pollution and that new regulations are necessary due to the goal of "saving children's lives!"

I wanted to scream at her that since Roe v Wade THIRTY MILLION + children have been murdered in the womb. It just floors me that these people with a straight face want all their liberal/Marxist ideas to be about saving the children yet millions are killed every year by their own mothers for God's sake.

50 posted on 01/16/2012 8:51:18 AM PST by thirst4truth (The left elected a mouth that is unattached to an eye, brain or muscle.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thirst4truth

she would never understand your argument. she would dismiss it as religious “blah blah blah” and would just cite the worldview that nothing is “alive” until it is born and independent of the womb.

You need an argument that goes to her, not comes to you. the left will never come out of the wilderness knowningly. you have to find that argument that speaks to them.


51 posted on 01/16/2012 9:00:44 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: thirst4truth

she would never understand your argument. she would dismiss it as religious “blah blah blah” and would just cite the worldview that nothing is “alive” until it is born and independent of the womb.

You need an argument that goes to her, not comes to you. the left will never come out of the wilderness knowningly. you have to find that argument that speaks to them.


52 posted on 01/16/2012 9:23:48 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: ronnie raygun

I shut liberals up very easy when it comes to this.

I just tell them “I am pro-choice and I choose life. I guess you choose death.”

They get tongue tied and eventually the Nazi, intolerant and racist comments come into play. At that point I mumble something about being a useful idiot and move on.


53 posted on 01/16/2012 9:39:36 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Most Conservative in the Primary, the Republican Nominee in the General.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: circlecity

I was thinking giving them a revolver, on a deserted island and one round of ammunition...

Eventually, the odds will be in our favor...


54 posted on 01/16/2012 9:54:21 AM PST by stevie_d_64 (I'm jus' sayin')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]




Click the Pic

End Freepathons!
Sheesh!! Do It Now!


Donate today
SIR! MONTHLY, SIR!

Sponsors will donate $10
For each new monthly sign-up

55 posted on 01/16/2012 10:06:22 AM PST by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I was just going to order this book! I need this book!
Maybe 6 copies. .... Then I thought I’d look at the FR
comments.


56 posted on 01/16/2012 4:32:09 PM PST by cycjec
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson