43 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
43 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
Wal-Mart and the morning after
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<p>Politics is nasty enough when it’s about real issues, because it<br />
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always reduces to somebody holding a gun on somebody else. But<br />
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somehow I find it hardest to take when it’s about faux issues, all the<br />
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machinery of coercion enlisted to no purpose other than for fools to<br />
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posture at each other.</p>
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<p><span id="more-261"></span></p>
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<p>Here’s a perfect example. The state of Massachusetts, responding to<br />
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a lawsuit backed by abortion-rights groups, has <a href='http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/02/14/D8FP75783.html'>ordered<br />
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Wal-Mart to sell emergency contraception, the so-called “morning<br />
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after” pill that prevents implantation of a fertilized egg in the<br />
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uterine wall.</a></p>
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<p>Leading off the parade of morons in this little drama is the<br />
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Religious Right, for huffing and puffing that the action of this pill<br />
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is tantamount to killing a human being. Way to go, guys! Keep those<br />
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women barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen where they belong; perish<br />
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forbid they should be allowed any control over reproduction just<br />
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because pregnancy can easily kill them. Your new slogan, I guess, is<br />
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“Every child of rape is a child of God.”</p>
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<p>No less idiotic are the three women who sued. Hello, girls? The<br />
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effect period on the pill is less than the amount of time to ship the<br />
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little suckers from Canada. Order on-line and save. Better yet, show<br />
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a little forethought: buy in advance from some local pharmacy that<br />
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wants the business Wal-Mart isn’t getting and keep ‘em handy.</p>
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<p>Ahhh, but <em>that</em> sane and sensible course wouldn’t do anything<br />
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for the public visibility and fund-raising of the groups backing them.<br />
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The First Law of Victim-Group Politics is: You can never have too many<br />
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victims. If they don’t occur naturally, you must create them.</p>
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<p>Bringing up the rear, and the worst of the lot, is whatever meddler<br />
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in the Massachusetts legislature thought it was a peachy idea to<br />
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mandate what Wal-Mart sells. Repeat after me: it isn’t <em>any of your<br />
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damned business</em> what Wal-Mart sells. There’s this concept called<br />
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“free enterprise”. Maybe you’ve heard of it?</p>
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<p>And all this foofaraw is completely meaningless. Because the bluenoses<br />
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can’t actually prevent anyone from buying morning-after pills, there is<br />
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absolutely no point in political mandates intended to ensure that they can.<br />
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But Wal-Mart does its propitiatory dance to the right, and Massachusetts<br />
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politicians do their propitiatory dance to the left, and nobody anywhere<br />
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gains a damn thing.</p>
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<p>Nobody, that is, except professional busybodies — people who want<br />
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to politicize <em>all</em> choices. A swift death to all such vermin would<br />
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leave the rest of us far better off.</p>
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