George F. Will: Lap dancing may become next right

Union Leader ^ | 6/27/03 | George F. Will

[IncPen]

Boo hoo.

You make the mistake of thinking this is about 'privacy'. Please show me where the constitution guarantees privacy.

This is in fact about legitimatizing and mainstreaming destructive thinking and behavior, which will force out and marginalize civilized and productive behaviors. To you, the high road in this matter is to step back, put up your hands and claim moral superiority in doing nothing . To my view, that is an act of treason. You lack the vision to realize that the celebration you're enjoying is being hosted by liberals who can't wait to enslave you in their corrupt and morally vacant world.

The question of what kind of society we want to live in is drowned out by people such as these, who are getting not just status as a protected class, but entitlement to stomp the rights of those who disagree with them.

The question is not whether states are wise to criminalize this or that sex act outside of marriage. Rather, the question is: Once the court has said that some such acts are constitutional rights, by what principle are any of the myriad possible permutations of consensual adult sexual activities denied the same standing?

Once consent — “choice” — supplants marriage as the important interest served by cloaking sexual activities as constitutional rights, by what principle is any consensual adult sexual conduct not a protected right? Bigamy? Polygamy? Prostitution? Incest? Even — if we assume animals can consent, or that their consent does not matter — bestiality? By what has been called “semantic infiltration,” seemingly bland language stealthily permeates discourse with ideology. So it is with the now commonplace locution “sexual preferences.”

Will underscores the point. In your world, _eno, if I murder someone and cover it up, I'm not guilty because it was a private matter. Same with rape, incest, pedophilia...

No thanks.

[Beck_isright]

Look for all the churches to be taxed soon. Very soon.

[Skywalk]

Jeebus, will you people let up on this "where does the constitution guarantee privacy?"

None of the Founders went around saying "the only rights you have are those specifically listed in the BoR" if they did they wouldnt have put the friggin 9th amendment in there! If privacy isn't a right, something AKIN to privacy is--and not just from the 9th but the 4th.

Please name for me rights that would fall under the 9th amendment that are not listed in 1-8. If you can name me ONE, you get a cookie. But if you do name some, please tell me why those are part of the unenumerated rights, but 'privacy','sexuality,' etc are not?

I don't understand people who claim to be for limited government power in their lives clamoring for the state to come barging into someone else's.

[DManA]

If the Constitution guarantees privacy, why can't I give my son a gift without reporting it to the Federal Government?

[motzman]

It has been clearly demonstrated that there are no limits to the restrictions that this clown shoes government can put on a business

That's really, really, good.

[DManA]

Privacy in this country is NOT a right. It is granted by the state on a case by case basis, only to groups that raise enough hell.

[AmishDude]

What happens if the lap dancer is invited to one's home? I.e., a bachelor party

Why stop at lap dances? Prostitution must be legal now, as long as it takes place in one's home.

[IncPen]

Nice try.

[Helms]

"George F. Will: Lap dancing may become next right"

Poor George (yet I generally don't have a problem w/ him) but if you have heard some of his kernels of wisdom, he blames Nietzsche for the negative turn of Western Civilization. There would have been no Nietzsche without others before him.

George is often in love with his own perceived eloquence.Krauthammer is still The Man.

[Normal4me]

If the lap dancer consents to have sex in the home, why should you or the government have any say?

[Skywalk]

So then we have no rights under the 9th amendment, even though we clearly do or it wouldn't have been included?

Please enlighten me further.

[Skywalk]

Hey, you can't quote the 4th or any amendment that clearly leads to a right akin to "privacy!" That's not allowed here.

You must do a word search of the Constitution according to these geniuses. If the word you look for isn't there, it's not among your rights, dontchaknow?

[AmishDude]

What is it about a commercial transaction that makes prostitution capable to be banned but "free" activity is not. The Constitution does not distinguish between commercial and non-commercial activity.

[aristeides]

That's an argument for the Texas law being a bad law, not an unconstitutional law.

[Arkinsaw]

My wife, unabashed liberal that she is, thinks George Will is the sexiest guy on earth. I don't get it either. But it probably explains why she married me.

For mine its 900 year old Sean Connery. An old man in a kilt who talks funny.