Mark Steyn: Go forth and multiply

National Post (Canada) ^ | 01/28/03 | Mark Steyn

[steve-b]

It was a poignant sentence to illuminate the article's whole point.

Some people base public policy on rational thought. Others base it on "feelings".

[91B]

Oh please, if we didn't share the "collective, accumulated wisdom" that individual rights and liberties are important and worth defending the loopy lefties would have been able to completely socialize our nation.

Traditional authority is an important source of liberty. One that conservatives should appreciate more than anyone else.

[Varda]

"But, if you think a nation is the collective, accumulated wisdom of a shared past, then a dependence on immigration alone for population replenishment will leave you lost and diminished."

Steyn is confusing a nation with a tribe. America is not now and never was a tribe. (Of course it doesn't help that we don't teach American history anymore but that's a different gripe)

Otherwise good post.

[steve-b]

Consider decaf.

Never touch the stuff, and anybody who sullies my cup with it ain't getting a tip, be they pregnant, club-footed, hunch-backed, or two-headed.

[Do Be]

You're a hard hearted man, Stevie B.

Sounds like you're cheap, too.

You are also personally responsible for the amount of charity in your heart.

[steve-b]

Certainly not. I am rationally charitable -- to people in trouble for reasons outside their control.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

Some people base public policy on rational thought. Others base it on "feelings". 21 posted on 01/28/2003 10:19 AM PST by steve-b

Others seem to think that tipping your waitress is somehow related to "leftist public policy". Which is absurd.

It's also absurd to say that tipping your pregnant waitress is "rewarding irresponsibility". Numbers vary from household to household but the estimated "average" cost of raising a child from infancy to adulthood is something like a total expenditure of $100,000. I doubt you'll be leaving that large a tip, so the Pregnacy is still a net financial cost to the waitress. Your tip is just easing the burden a tad.

Consider it to be your little way of saying "Thank You for upholding the Classical moral belief in Inalienable Rights such as the right to life, and not endorsing the immoral Hitlerite view that certain classes of humans are just disposable trash to be killed".

[netmilsmom]

He never said that eighth month pregnant waitress was unmarried. Maybe she is working with a husband and although they are not in the best financial state she chose not to abort. I think that's what he is trying to say.

[OrthodoxPresbyterian]

He never said that eighth month pregnant waitress was unmarried. Maybe she is working with a husband and although they are not in the best financial state she chose not to abort. I think that's what he is trying to say.

Doesn't matter... even if she is unmarried, she is still making the right "choice".

I think that Steyn is not so much advising his gentle reader to reward the woman for getting pregnant at 17, as for having had the moral fortitude to make the right decision after becoming pregnant. "Thanks for not killing your baby".

[steve-b]

You are also personally responsible for the amount of charity in your heart.

Tips for services rendered have nothing to do with charity, and blending the two concepts is an insult to people who earn a living by providing personal services.

That's one reason (besides the notion of rewarding poor personal decisions) I find the comment offensive. Mixing charity with payment for service dilutes the reward of earning a large tip by providing excellent service, in much the same way that (to use an example beaten to death on FR) "affirmative action" dilutes the recognition of excellent performers who just happen to be members of a preferred class.

[steve-b]

Nice attempt to evade the fact that I was referring to the silly notion that I ought to pay a tip larger than what I would normally pay for the quality of service I received.

[netmilsmom]

This is very true, but I think the poster was saying she was irresponsible i.e. knocked up. All I'm saying is that no matter what it seems, one cannot assume that if she is pregnant and working, she is alone. Give her kudos no matter what.

[steve-b]

I think that Steyn is not so much advising his gentle reader to reward the woman for getting pregnant at 17

The "crank 'em out for the Fatherland" ideology of the preceding paragraphs indicates otherwise.

[Taliesan]

We'll read your column next week. Or maybe not.

[Thorondir]

Your post here is a non sequiter.

It has no readily discernable relation to the article or discussion at hand. What am I to take from it?

[Orangedog]

You want a higher birth rate? Then the government, courts, and industry need to stop using people's children as tools for exerting power over parents and their resources. Sure, abortion contributes to the lower birth rate of westerners, but government agencies, courts, lawyers, and a growing prive sector industry has managed to turn children into the easiest way to gain power over the lives of tens of millions of people. I don't like abortion, but if it were ended tomorrow the disincentive to have more children would still be around.

[Thorondir]

The "crank 'em out for the Fatherland" ideology of the preceding paragraphs indicates otherwise.

Now, there's the rub isn't it? It is exactly what I expected your, heretofore hidden, agenda was all about. It took a while, but you showed your color.

[arthurus]

that I ought to subidize personal irresponsibility

Thus, I take it that you define pregnancy as "irresponsibility".

[steve-b]

This from somebody who tosses out accusations that another post is a "non sequitur"? LOL!

[arthurus]

you seem very touchy about the size of your tip. I bet you harumph a lot.