http://youtube.com/v/RP2jFn9Zk-U
(teaser trailer for the next Batman film, “The Dark Knight.”)
Why? Because it’s my blog and I can.
2008 Food for Thought
Dick Morris explains why Fred Thompson (who, it turns out, did lobby for abortion) doesn’t have much credibility when he claims to be an “outsider” who can change the DC culture.
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Meanwhile, the Democrats seem to be focusing the bulk of their attacks on somebody else…
Around the Web
A few points of interest from around the Web (No, I haven’t forgotten about the blog or the work-in-progress case for life):
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North Korea’s nuclear reactor might have been shut down. Maybe some good will come out of Bush’s remaining years after all…
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The parents of Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt are demanding Jack Murtha be censured for prematurely accusing their son, among others, of atrocities in Haditha, Iraq. Hmm…I thought there was a word for conduct like Murtha’s…
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Tension with Iran heats up. Where’s PETA?
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Jonah Goldberg provides some interesting reading on the death penalty.
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And this is what passes for intellectual heft in the world of atheism. Sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be throwing away my crosses anytime soon.
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North Korea’s nuclear reactor might have been shut down. Maybe some good will come out of Bush’s remaining years after all…
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The parents of Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt are demanding Jack Murtha be censured for prematurely accusing their son, among others, of atrocities in Haditha, Iraq. Hmm…I thought there was a word for conduct like Murtha’s…
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Tension with Iran heats up. Where’s PETA?
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Jonah Goldberg provides some interesting reading on the death penalty.
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And this is what passes for intellectual heft in the world of atheism. Sorry, but I don’t think I’ll be throwing away my crosses anytime soon.
The Case for Life – Part II
THE VALUE OF LIFE
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Personhood
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Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft writes:
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[T]he essential pro-life argument is as follows. The major premise is: “Thou shalt not kill”—i.e., all deliberate killing of innocent human beings is forbidden. The minor premise is that abortion is the deliberate killing of innocent human beings. The conclusion is that abortion is wrong.
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There are two significantly different pro-choice answers to this argument. The more radical, or “hard” pro-choice position denies the major premise; the less radical, or “soft” pro-choice position denies the minor. “Hard pro-choice” denies the sanctity or inviolability of all humans; “soft pro-choice” denies the humanity of the fetus.
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Christian philosopher Peter Kreeft writes:
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[T]he essential pro-life argument is as follows. The major premise is: “Thou shalt not kill”—i.e., all deliberate killing of innocent human beings is forbidden. The minor premise is that abortion is the deliberate killing of innocent human beings. The conclusion is that abortion is wrong.
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There are two significantly different pro-choice answers to this argument. The more radical, or “hard” pro-choice position denies the major premise; the less radical, or “soft” pro-choice position denies the minor. “Hard pro-choice” denies the sanctity or inviolability of all humans; “soft pro-choice” denies the humanity of the fetus.
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Part I was in response to “soft pro-choicers.” The following is intended for “hard pro-choicers.”
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Incredibly, we are told that being alive is insufficient to justify protecting unborn humans from deliberate killing, because personhood develops by degrees. Their theory says the unborn are partial humans at different stages of development, so their moral worth increases gradually. This is also described as weighing two conflicting sets of interests, or claims to rights.
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There are glaring problems with this theory, however. The ideas of which gradations of development merit what treatment & protection proposed by pro-choicers always have an unmistakable quality of arbitrariness to them. As Kreeft writes, “It looks very suspiciously like the category [of human non-persons] was invented to justify the killing, for its only members are the humans we happen to be now killing and want to keep killing and want to justify killing.” The various qualities preborn humans lack, supposedly making them less worthy of protection, all fluctuate not only in the womb, but well after our births as well. For example:
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Consciousness: We are not conscious when we sleep, suffer a severe concussion, or are in a coma. Do we cease to be persons under these conditions?
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Pain: Anesthesia and painkilling drugs take away our capacity to feel pain temporarily, as do severe injuries to our nervous system. Is killing us more permissible if our murders will be painless?
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Viability: Just as all of us required natural life support—umbilical cords to nourish us and wombs to protect us—in our earliest stages of growth, many need artificial life support—pacemakers, iron lungs, oxygen tanks, dialysis machines, feeding tubes, etc., to say nothing of various life-saving drugs—in their later stages. Are people who aren’t “viable” without such aid less deserving of protection against homicide?
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We would never dream of applying such standards to born children or adults (well, most of us wouldn’t); why should we take them as persuasive guides to treatment of the preborn? Furthermore, we know that, even after we’re born, we still are not completely developed. Kreeft points out, “If it is more permissible to kill a fetus than to kill an infant because the fetus is less of a person, then it is for exactly the same reason more permissible to kill a seven-year-old, who has not yet developed his reproductive system or many of his educational and communications skills, than to kill a 27-year-old.”
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(And again, those who defend abortion this way, if they are intellectually honest, have no choice but to acknowledge that at least some abortions, and many motives for abortion, are indefensible by their own standards, because all these qualities develop well before birth.)
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Incredibly, we are told that being alive is insufficient to justify protecting unborn humans from deliberate killing, because personhood develops by degrees. Their theory says the unborn are partial humans at different stages of development, so their moral worth increases gradually. This is also described as weighing two conflicting sets of interests, or claims to rights.
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There are glaring problems with this theory, however. The ideas of which gradations of development merit what treatment & protection proposed by pro-choicers always have an unmistakable quality of arbitrariness to them. As Kreeft writes, “It looks very suspiciously like the category [of human non-persons] was invented to justify the killing, for its only members are the humans we happen to be now killing and want to keep killing and want to justify killing.” The various qualities preborn humans lack, supposedly making them less worthy of protection, all fluctuate not only in the womb, but well after our births as well. For example:
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Consciousness: We are not conscious when we sleep, suffer a severe concussion, or are in a coma. Do we cease to be persons under these conditions?
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Pain: Anesthesia and painkilling drugs take away our capacity to feel pain temporarily, as do severe injuries to our nervous system. Is killing us more permissible if our murders will be painless?
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Viability: Just as all of us required natural life support—umbilical cords to nourish us and wombs to protect us—in our earliest stages of growth, many need artificial life support—pacemakers, iron lungs, oxygen tanks, dialysis machines, feeding tubes, etc., to say nothing of various life-saving drugs—in their later stages. Are people who aren’t “viable” without such aid less deserving of protection against homicide?
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We would never dream of applying such standards to born children or adults (well, most of us wouldn’t); why should we take them as persuasive guides to treatment of the preborn? Furthermore, we know that, even after we’re born, we still are not completely developed. Kreeft points out, “If it is more permissible to kill a fetus than to kill an infant because the fetus is less of a person, then it is for exactly the same reason more permissible to kill a seven-year-old, who has not yet developed his reproductive system or many of his educational and communications skills, than to kill a 27-year-old.”
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(And again, those who defend abortion this way, if they are intellectually honest, have no choice but to acknowledge that at least some abortions, and many motives for abortion, are indefensible by their own standards, because all these qualities develop well before birth.)
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Women’s Autonomy over “Their Own Bodies”
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It is also claimed that, because an unborn baby is inside of and dependent upon a pregnant woman, the mother is the dominant party in the relationship has a basic right to dispose of her child. First, this argument ignores the fact that unborn humans are individual, separate human beings. That they are connected to their mothers does not change this—a fetus’ unique genetic identity is his/her own, not the mother’s; a fetus’ developing bodily systems are his/her own, not the mother’s; etc. To say abortion is about control over “women’s own bodies” is simply a falsehood (a falsehood which Kreeft lightheartedly demonstrated as follows: “if the fetus is a part of the mother, then the parts of the fetus must be parts of the mother. But in that case, every pregnant woman has four eyes and four feet, and half of all pregnant women have penises!”).
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Second, why does a fetus remain in his/her mother’s body for nine months? The umbilical cord supplies the fetus with oxygen and nutrients. He/she remains inside Mom’s body for protection from the outside world while developing. The means of delivery may be different, but the needs themselves do not differ from the basic needs of any person: food, air & protection from the elements. Obviously, these differences between pre-birth & post-birth are too small to constitute differences in moral worth.
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Third, babies cannot seriously be said to be “imposing” themselves upon their mother because no human being asks to be conceived in the first place. Coming into existence is completely beyond his/her control. Doesn’t the act of creating a new human life come with any obligations to that life? To say it does not carries an unmistakable air of narcissism.
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It is also claimed that, because an unborn baby is inside of and dependent upon a pregnant woman, the mother is the dominant party in the relationship has a basic right to dispose of her child. First, this argument ignores the fact that unborn humans are individual, separate human beings. That they are connected to their mothers does not change this—a fetus’ unique genetic identity is his/her own, not the mother’s; a fetus’ developing bodily systems are his/her own, not the mother’s; etc. To say abortion is about control over “women’s own bodies” is simply a falsehood (a falsehood which Kreeft lightheartedly demonstrated as follows: “if the fetus is a part of the mother, then the parts of the fetus must be parts of the mother. But in that case, every pregnant woman has four eyes and four feet, and half of all pregnant women have penises!”).
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Second, why does a fetus remain in his/her mother’s body for nine months? The umbilical cord supplies the fetus with oxygen and nutrients. He/she remains inside Mom’s body for protection from the outside world while developing. The means of delivery may be different, but the needs themselves do not differ from the basic needs of any person: food, air & protection from the elements. Obviously, these differences between pre-birth & post-birth are too small to constitute differences in moral worth.
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Third, babies cannot seriously be said to be “imposing” themselves upon their mother because no human being asks to be conceived in the first place. Coming into existence is completely beyond his/her control. Doesn’t the act of creating a new human life come with any obligations to that life? To say it does not carries an unmistakable air of narcissism.
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Furthermore, no responsible observer could pass judgment on the proper treatment of human beings without seriously considering the thing which makes all the difference in the world between a worthless collection of molecules and an individual of incalculable worth: the soul. If humans are endowed with souls, then their unique moral worth is tied to them, not to any particular trait or ability. Secular pro-choicers will try again to play the religion-in-politics card, or mock the very idea of considering the soul. The religion angle is addressed in Part I, and the fact that belief in the soul has a long, rich and thoughtful history, combined with its centrality to the issue of human moral worth, demands that we take the possibility seriously. And nobody but the most fanatical atheist could conclude there’s zero chance of the soul’s existence, so basic moral responsibility demands that we err on the side of caution—life—in such a serious matter.
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The folly of soft pro-choice is very easy to demonstrate objectively, since it is based on nothing more than ignorance and/or lies. Hard pro-choice is a different animal—it doesn’t claim to accept the same starting premise (that deliberately killing innocent humans is wrong). Unlike pro-lifers, who place moral worth in what something is (a human being), hard pro-choicers place moral worth in what something can do and what qualities it possesses. I must confess that I find their utilitarian philosophy on life so bizarrely alien and incompatible with mine that I can’t even begin to imagine the mind which could adopt such callous & repugnant beliefs. Because of that, I’m somewhat at a loss to dissect it further myself. Fortunately, others have done so far better than I ever could. Everybody with a sincere desire to find the humane, just, and intellectually-honest answer to the issue of abortion really ought to read Peter Kreeft’s two painstaking essays “Human Personhood Begins at Conception” and “The Apple Argument against Abortion”, as well as Ramesh Ponnuru’s aforementioned book The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life. Also, thanks to G-Man’s spirited challenges, the comments section explores the issue in further depth, too.
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Lastly, we’ll return to the matter of doubt. Even if one is ultimately unconvinced by the case & evidence for life, any rational & objective pro-choicer who examines it should at least be able to recognize the possibility, however slight, that pro-lifers are right. So, as President Ronald Reagan said:
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[A]nyone who doesn’t feel sure whether we are talking about a second human life should clearly give life the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn.
Furthermore, no responsible observer could pass judgment on the proper treatment of human beings without seriously considering the thing which makes all the difference in the world between a worthless collection of molecules and an individual of incalculable worth: the soul. If humans are endowed with souls, then their unique moral worth is tied to them, not to any particular trait or ability. Secular pro-choicers will try again to play the religion-in-politics card, or mock the very idea of considering the soul. The religion angle is addressed in Part I, and the fact that belief in the soul has a long, rich and thoughtful history, combined with its centrality to the issue of human moral worth, demands that we take the possibility seriously. And nobody but the most fanatical atheist could conclude there’s zero chance of the soul’s existence, so basic moral responsibility demands that we err on the side of caution—life—in such a serious matter.
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The folly of soft pro-choice is very easy to demonstrate objectively, since it is based on nothing more than ignorance and/or lies. Hard pro-choice is a different animal—it doesn’t claim to accept the same starting premise (that deliberately killing innocent humans is wrong). Unlike pro-lifers, who place moral worth in what something is (a human being), hard pro-choicers place moral worth in what something can do and what qualities it possesses. I must confess that I find their utilitarian philosophy on life so bizarrely alien and incompatible with mine that I can’t even begin to imagine the mind which could adopt such callous & repugnant beliefs. Because of that, I’m somewhat at a loss to dissect it further myself. Fortunately, others have done so far better than I ever could. Everybody with a sincere desire to find the humane, just, and intellectually-honest answer to the issue of abortion really ought to read Peter Kreeft’s two painstaking essays “Human Personhood Begins at Conception” and “The Apple Argument against Abortion”, as well as Ramesh Ponnuru’s aforementioned book The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life. Also, thanks to G-Man’s spirited challenges, the comments section explores the issue in further depth, too.
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Lastly, we’ll return to the matter of doubt. Even if one is ultimately unconvinced by the case & evidence for life, any rational & objective pro-choicer who examines it should at least be able to recognize the possibility, however slight, that pro-lifers are right. So, as President Ronald Reagan said:
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[A]nyone who doesn’t feel sure whether we are talking about a second human life should clearly give life the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t know whether a body is alive or dead, you would never bury it. I think this consideration itself should be enough for all of us to insist on protecting the unborn.
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With that in mind, here’s a challenge to all pro-choicers: just how certain are you that you are right and we are wrong? Concerning uncertainty, there are two obvious moral principles. First, while people can take risks for themselves based on personally weighing the evidence & choosing what they feel comfortable with, they are most certainly not entitled to take risks with other people’s possible lives or well-being. Second, the amount of caution & restraint one must exercise is dependent upon the consequences of being wrong. Taking a chance on a brand of TV you’re not familiar with is one thing. Taking a chance on the fate of over a million humans annually is quite another. Consider the following two scenarios:
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First, let’s say pro-lifers are ultimately wrong, but win the Culture War.
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That means about 1 million additional births annually. Hardships will be attached to each, of course, but most of those new lives will also enrich the future in ways too numerous to mention. In addition, no abortions would mean no dangerous consequences of abortion.
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Embryo-involving methods of research have been banned, maybe leading to a delay in medical advancements, but (despite liberal lies) adult stem cell research would still be vigorously supported. Plus, drawing a line in the sand at embryo experimentation would also be likely protect ethical lines which many pro-choicers would agree shouldn’t be crossed, such as giving birth to children for the sole purpose of harvesting their organs.
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Second, let’s say pro-choicers are ultimately wrong, but win the Culture War.
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That means over 45 million murders have taken place since Roe v. Wade, with society’s blessing, and the death toll will keep rising by a million every year. Every victim is utterly innocent & defenseless.
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Every. Last. One.
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The physical & psychological side-effects of abortion will continue to plague women. Embryonic stem-cell research may lead to medical breakthroughs, but an addiction to human life will have been created within the scientific world, potentially opening the door to speciously-rationalized horrors we can’t yet fathom.
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It’s obvious that the consequences of pro-lifers being wrong are nowhere near as dire as the consequences of pro-choicers being wrong, and it’s clear that pro-life victory is far more likely to make the world a better place. That alone should be enough to determine what the ethically-responsible position is.
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These are risks the pro-life community isn’t willing to take. Are you?
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The Case for Life – Part I
WHEN DOES LIFE BEGIN?
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What Are We Protecting?
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First, let’s lay a ground rule. By “life” we refer to any individual organism which is a member of the human species—not individual cells, sperm or eggs, hair follicles, skin, etc. (though a seemingly-needless distinction, these comparisons actually come up in debate—the pro-life movement is sometimes characterized as some strange mission to prevent the destruction of mere organic matter, a straw man which is then “discredited” with challenges like “You kill life every time you get a haircut!”) The latter are merely parts of other organisms, not organisms themselves. Nor are embryonic & fetal humans sacred because they are “potential life;” we seek to prevent their destruction because their lives already exist.
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Theologically Speaking, When Does Life Begin?
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If you claim to believe in the Old Testament or Torah’s veracity as the Word of God and absolute Truth, then the answer is simple. God told Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Before we have a physical form we have a soul, an identity which God can and does know.
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The Bible has many such references to children within the womb as human and spiritual, and the Catholic Church has recognized this for the majority of its history. Many of these references obviously apply to Judaism as well, but as a Christian I defer to Bonnie Chernin Rogoff, founder of Jews for Life:
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Judaism does not believe in the Christian concept of ensoulment, that at the time of conception the soul enters the embryo making that new life equivalent with a born person. In the earliest stages of pregnancy, up to 40 days post-conception, the fetus is considered “mere fluid” (Mishnah Niddah 3:7). However, after 40 days the fetus is considered formed and a woman who miscarries or aborts has to undergo the ritual cleansing process (mikveh) just as she would if a living child were born (Mishnah Kritot 1:3-6). In the Talmud Arakin 7a-b, the passage indicates it is permissible to desecrate the Shabbat to save the life of an unborn child. Further, while a traditional Jew is forbidden from carrying a knife on the Shabbat, a Jewish surgeon may do so, and use it, to save an unborn child’s life […]
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The view of Judaism is that abortion, while not considered murder, should be strongly discouraged. While the fetus is not accorded full human status, it is still considered a developing life with value, that must be protected and saved whenever possible, unless the life of the mother is in danger. In that case, it is permissible to abort the fetus. The Mishnah Oholoth 7:6 along with Rashi’s commentaries in Talmud Sanhedrin 72b make it very clear that the life (and not the ‘choice’ or ‘health’ of the mother) is the only permissible reason for abortion. Had abortion been performed in Rashi’s time for birth control, convenience, or economic reasons there would have been an outcry from rabbis and the religious community and the practice would have been condemned. Under no circumstances should abortion performed for frivolous reasons be given a stamp of approval by rabbis, under the pretext of “health.”
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Life is a precious, priceless gift from our Creator. Believers have a moral duty to recognize life from the beginning and to stand in defense of lives that cannot defend themselves…but some on the Left would have us believe otherwise.
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Even the Devil Can Quote Scripture
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Abortion is sometimes defended from a theological standpoint, with claims such as:
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Exodus 21: “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.” Violence against a pregnant woman causing premature birth is punished monetarily rather than with death; therefore, we are told, killing pre-birth is less grievous than killing post-birth. But what abortion defenders leave out is that the phrase “and yet no mischief follow” means, quite simply, “if the baby survives the attack.” The lines immediately following the passage make this clear: “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye…” In this regard, the fetus’s death is no different than an adult’s.
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The description of Adam’s creation in Genesis says “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” This supposedly indicates that life does not begin until the first breath is taken. But there are two problems with this view. 1.) As the first humans, Adam & Eve could not have resulted from a pregnancy, so the process by which God created them would likely be different. It seems plausible to assume that He created their bodies and souls separately, then put them together, and once they were in place, our God-given system of sexual reproduction took care of the physical self and God created the spiritual self earlier in development for all of His subsequent children. Subsequent references to humans in the womb suggest this, especially verses 13-16 of Psalm 139. 2.) Like all bodily functions, breathing starts prior to birth. Pro-choicers who define life in this way have themselves inadvertently rendered many abortions unacceptable—near the end of the second trimester, the baby is, in fact, breathing.
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Genesis 38 recounts the tale of Judah and his widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar. Upon discovering her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, Judah orders Tamar to be burnt to death—a punishment he cancels upon discovering that he is the father (he slept with her, mistaking her for a prostitute when she was disguised). Pro-choicers note that the sentence would also have killed Tamar’s unborn twins; therefore, the unborn must have less moral worth than a person. But this theory fails immediately: considering that Judah has “married outside the faith, raised [at least] two wicked sons, wrongfully accused his daughter-in-law of his sons’ deaths, lied to his daughter-in-law, refused to keep the law of levirate marriage and, of course, had sex with a prostitute;” he’s not exactly a moral compass! “But nobody other than Tamar prevented him from carrying it out, did they?” True, but that only means people deferred to his judgment & authority; it doesn’t say those people were right to do so. Since the primary message of the story concerns Judah’s wickedness and redemption, not babies, it can hardly be seen as a barometer to treatment of the unborn.
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“Jesus never mentioned [abortion] even once.” Jesus never mentioned drive-by shootings, either. But (obviously) he did mention murder. Value systems such as Christianity don’t need to list off every conceivable method of doing wrong as long as there is a clear set of moral principles in place to determine whether or not particular actions constitute sin. Since “thou shalt not murder” is about as unequivocally Christian as possible, one need only show that the unborn have lives of their own to establish that Jesus would forbid their deliberate destruction.
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When faced with contrary interpretations of Scripture, it is important to do two things: first, examine the context of the quotation in question, and second, weigh it against the entirety of the Biblical evidence. In the final analysis, Judeo-Christian teaching firmly sides with the sanctity of life.
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Religious Convictions in Politics
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“Even if God wants us to personally recognize life from conception onward, we can’t apply a personal religious belief to public policy.” Wrong again.
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The First Amendment guarantees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Thomas Jefferson famously referred to this as a “wall of separation between Church & State.” Fashionable though it may be to “evolve” the Constitution’s meaning over time, here we’ll stick to a literal read of its actual text, as understood by the Founding Fathers.
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The Founding Fathers understood “establishment of religion” to mean what it did under “the Church of England: a formal union of political and ecclesiastical authority in the hands of the state,” as Dr. Mark Levin writes in the excellent Men in Black (hardcover, p. 36). In other words, the Amendment prevents a church from imposing enforced regulations or punishments upon people, such as ineligibility from public office, taxation of minority sects, and jailing or executing heretics; as well as the converse: preventing the state from suppressing the religious activities of churches and private citizens. Hence, it is a rather straightforward separation of two organizations.
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Separating religious principles from politics is very different. There is nothing in the Constitution that dictates what values, ideas, or motivations are allowed to animate people. Indeed, such a restriction—regulating the intellectual or moral criteria by which American citizens are allowed to judge candidates & policies—would be un-American to the core.
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Consider the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson, it is rightly hailed as a prime example of American enlightenment. But its actual text would surprise many who only hear it mentioned in passing as a victory for church-state separation. Jefferson wrote (emphasis added):
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“Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others…”
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In Jefferson’s mind, freedom of thought was God’s will, and he had no qualms about positing that the country should follow such a Judeo-Christian value. The Constitution allows us to make such judgments; the only limitation is that in doing so, we cannot infringe upon the other rights outlined in the Constitution (“But I thought abortion was a constitutional right!” Patience; we won’t forget to address that one.).
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(There is a lot of eye-opening reading on the Founding Father’s true religious intentions for America; William J. Federer’s America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations is a great resource to start with.)
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“I still think opposing abortion is a religious teaching, so we can’t legislate it.” Consider that prohibitions against murder, theft and lying in the Ten Commandments are among the most explicit religious teachings of all, more so than those against abortion. Does that mean our laws against homicide, theft, slander, libel, or perjury are unconstitutional because they force people to abide by the Ten Commandments? While religious belief must not infringe upon our natural rights in public policy, there is nothing unconstitutional about accepting religious advice on how best to protect those rights. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Democrat Sen. John Kerry cited his religious convictions as “why I fight against poverty. That’s why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth. That’s why I fight for equality and justice.” In other words, he wanted to “impose” his religious beliefs about poverty, nature, etc. upon the American people. Until Kerry’s stances infringe upon actual rights, he is entitled to persuade a majority of his fellow Americans of their merits. The same holds true for marriage activists (on both sides), for pro-lifers, and for the aforementioned “Christians for choice.”
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Think of it this way: protecting innocent people is a goal that transcends belief, one that all believers and unbelievers ought to agree upon. Believers simply accept religious insight to help determine whether or not the unborn fit into the category of innocent people. Right or wrong, it’s a proposition that is fully appropriate for public discourse and the will of the people—not censorship or disqualification.
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Scientifically Speaking, When Does Life Begin?
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Of course, the religion-out-of-politics line is little more than a ploy to disqualify rather than debate pro-lifers, or to avoid taking a firm stand. In fact, if there is one truth that must be driven home, it is this: the question of life’s beginning is not by any means exclusive to religion. Science can answer it—and it has.
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In his magnificent The Party of Death, Ramesh Ponnuru writes:
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We have developed ways of talking that enable us to pretend that the point can be blinked away. In the case of abortion and embryo research, the main technique is to suggest that there is some great mystery about “when life begins,” and that this alleged question is a religious or philosophical one. Yet science has since solved the mystery. From conception onward, what exists is a distinct organism of the human species. The philosophical question is what we make of that fact. To jumble these issues together—the essentially scientific question of categorizing an embryo as human and living, and the moral question of whether it follows from that categorization that it has a right to life—is a logical error. Justice Blackmun, of course, proceeded in just this erroneous fashion in Roe. And if we are not careful, talking in terms of “meaningful life,” or, as [author Ronald] Dworkin does, of “life in earnest,” can lead us into this error as well.
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All of us who read this page were once human embryos. The history of our bodies began with the formation of an embryo. We were those embryos, just as we were once fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents. But we were never a sperm cell and an egg cell. (Those cells were genetically and functionally parts of other human beings.) The formation of the embryo marks the beginning of a new human life: a new and complete organism that belongs to the human species. Embryology textbooks say so, with no glimmer of uncertainty or ambiguity.
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That new organism is alive rather than dead or inanimate. It is human rather than a member of some other species. It is an organism distinct from all others. It is not a functional part of a larger organism (the way a kidney is part of a larger organism). It maintains its own organic unity over time. It directs its own development, according to its genetic template, through the embryonic, fetal, and subsequent stages. Such terms as “blastocyst,” “newborn,” and “adolescent” denote different stages of development in a being of the same type, not different types of beings. At each of our earlier stages of life, we have been, as we are now, whole living members of the species Homo sapiens. (hardcover, p. 77-78)
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And medical textbooks do indeed say so:
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Human Embryology, 3rd Edition by William Larsen, Lawrence Sherman, S. Steven Potter, & William Scott: “In this text, we begin our description of the developing human with the formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells or gametes, which will unite at fertilization to initiate the embryonic development of a new individual.” (p. 1)
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The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th Edition by Keith Moore & TVN. Persaud: “Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” (p. 18)
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Human Embryology & Teratology, 3rd Edition by Ronan O’Rahilly & Fabiola Muller: “Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a ‘moment’) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.” (p. 8)
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Developmental Biology, 6th Edition by Scott Gilbert: “Fertilization is the process whereby two sex cells (gametes) fuse together to create a new individual with genetic potentials derived from both parents.” (p. 185)
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Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia, 7th Edition by Douglas Considine: “At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote), a new life has begun.” (p. 943)
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Langman’s Medical Embryology, 7th Edition by TW Sadler: “The development of a human begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.” (p. 3)
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Patten’s Foundations of Embryology, 6th Edition by Bruce Carlson: “Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” (p. 3)
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It doesn’t take much to see the common pro-choice line “clumps of cells” is empty, simplistic propaganda: Eye-opening information about fetal development is no secret, we know that preborn children are capable of feeling pain (note: link is a PDF file) at approximately 20 weeks, and the latest ultrasound technology shows us these “clumps” are surprisingly familiar.
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So where does all this leave us? The life of a human being does, in fact, begin at conception; so every abortion, every embryo discarding (either via stem-cell research or in-vitro fertilization), and some types of birth control destroy a human being. Yet when faced with this reality, pro-choicers have developed new criteria for human rights, which are designed to deny them protection based upon factors other than their biological humanity…factors which will be explored in Part II: The Value of Life.
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First, let’s lay a ground rule. By “life” we refer to any individual organism which is a member of the human species—not individual cells, sperm or eggs, hair follicles, skin, etc. (though a seemingly-needless distinction, these comparisons actually come up in debate—the pro-life movement is sometimes characterized as some strange mission to prevent the destruction of mere organic matter, a straw man which is then “discredited” with challenges like “You kill life every time you get a haircut!”) The latter are merely parts of other organisms, not organisms themselves. Nor are embryonic & fetal humans sacred because they are “potential life;” we seek to prevent their destruction because their lives already exist.
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Theologically Speaking, When Does Life Begin?
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If you claim to believe in the Old Testament or Torah’s veracity as the Word of God and absolute Truth, then the answer is simple. God told Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” Before we have a physical form we have a soul, an identity which God can and does know.
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The Bible has many such references to children within the womb as human and spiritual, and the Catholic Church has recognized this for the majority of its history. Many of these references obviously apply to Judaism as well, but as a Christian I defer to Bonnie Chernin Rogoff, founder of Jews for Life:
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Judaism does not believe in the Christian concept of ensoulment, that at the time of conception the soul enters the embryo making that new life equivalent with a born person. In the earliest stages of pregnancy, up to 40 days post-conception, the fetus is considered “mere fluid” (Mishnah Niddah 3:7). However, after 40 days the fetus is considered formed and a woman who miscarries or aborts has to undergo the ritual cleansing process (mikveh) just as she would if a living child were born (Mishnah Kritot 1:3-6). In the Talmud Arakin 7a-b, the passage indicates it is permissible to desecrate the Shabbat to save the life of an unborn child. Further, while a traditional Jew is forbidden from carrying a knife on the Shabbat, a Jewish surgeon may do so, and use it, to save an unborn child’s life […]
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The view of Judaism is that abortion, while not considered murder, should be strongly discouraged. While the fetus is not accorded full human status, it is still considered a developing life with value, that must be protected and saved whenever possible, unless the life of the mother is in danger. In that case, it is permissible to abort the fetus. The Mishnah Oholoth 7:6 along with Rashi’s commentaries in Talmud Sanhedrin 72b make it very clear that the life (and not the ‘choice’ or ‘health’ of the mother) is the only permissible reason for abortion. Had abortion been performed in Rashi’s time for birth control, convenience, or economic reasons there would have been an outcry from rabbis and the religious community and the practice would have been condemned. Under no circumstances should abortion performed for frivolous reasons be given a stamp of approval by rabbis, under the pretext of “health.”
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Life is a precious, priceless gift from our Creator. Believers have a moral duty to recognize life from the beginning and to stand in defense of lives that cannot defend themselves…but some on the Left would have us believe otherwise.
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Even the Devil Can Quote Scripture
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Abortion is sometimes defended from a theological standpoint, with claims such as:
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Exodus 21: “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.” Violence against a pregnant woman causing premature birth is punished monetarily rather than with death; therefore, we are told, killing pre-birth is less grievous than killing post-birth. But what abortion defenders leave out is that the phrase “and yet no mischief follow” means, quite simply, “if the baby survives the attack.” The lines immediately following the passage make this clear: “And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye…” In this regard, the fetus’s death is no different than an adult’s.
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The description of Adam’s creation in Genesis says “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” This supposedly indicates that life does not begin until the first breath is taken. But there are two problems with this view. 1.) As the first humans, Adam & Eve could not have resulted from a pregnancy, so the process by which God created them would likely be different. It seems plausible to assume that He created their bodies and souls separately, then put them together, and once they were in place, our God-given system of sexual reproduction took care of the physical self and God created the spiritual self earlier in development for all of His subsequent children. Subsequent references to humans in the womb suggest this, especially verses 13-16 of Psalm 139. 2.) Like all bodily functions, breathing starts prior to birth. Pro-choicers who define life in this way have themselves inadvertently rendered many abortions unacceptable—near the end of the second trimester, the baby is, in fact, breathing.
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Genesis 38 recounts the tale of Judah and his widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar. Upon discovering her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, Judah orders Tamar to be burnt to death—a punishment he cancels upon discovering that he is the father (he slept with her, mistaking her for a prostitute when she was disguised). Pro-choicers note that the sentence would also have killed Tamar’s unborn twins; therefore, the unborn must have less moral worth than a person. But this theory fails immediately: considering that Judah has “married outside the faith, raised [at least] two wicked sons, wrongfully accused his daughter-in-law of his sons’ deaths, lied to his daughter-in-law, refused to keep the law of levirate marriage and, of course, had sex with a prostitute;” he’s not exactly a moral compass! “But nobody other than Tamar prevented him from carrying it out, did they?” True, but that only means people deferred to his judgment & authority; it doesn’t say those people were right to do so. Since the primary message of the story concerns Judah’s wickedness and redemption, not babies, it can hardly be seen as a barometer to treatment of the unborn.
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“Jesus never mentioned [abortion] even once.” Jesus never mentioned drive-by shootings, either. But (obviously) he did mention murder. Value systems such as Christianity don’t need to list off every conceivable method of doing wrong as long as there is a clear set of moral principles in place to determine whether or not particular actions constitute sin. Since “thou shalt not murder” is about as unequivocally Christian as possible, one need only show that the unborn have lives of their own to establish that Jesus would forbid their deliberate destruction.
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When faced with contrary interpretations of Scripture, it is important to do two things: first, examine the context of the quotation in question, and second, weigh it against the entirety of the Biblical evidence. In the final analysis, Judeo-Christian teaching firmly sides with the sanctity of life.
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Religious Convictions in Politics
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“Even if God wants us to personally recognize life from conception onward, we can’t apply a personal religious belief to public policy.” Wrong again.
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The First Amendment guarantees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Thomas Jefferson famously referred to this as a “wall of separation between Church & State.” Fashionable though it may be to “evolve” the Constitution’s meaning over time, here we’ll stick to a literal read of its actual text, as understood by the Founding Fathers.
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The Founding Fathers understood “establishment of religion” to mean what it did under “the Church of England: a formal union of political and ecclesiastical authority in the hands of the state,” as Dr. Mark Levin writes in the excellent Men in Black (hardcover, p. 36). In other words, the Amendment prevents a church from imposing enforced regulations or punishments upon people, such as ineligibility from public office, taxation of minority sects, and jailing or executing heretics; as well as the converse: preventing the state from suppressing the religious activities of churches and private citizens. Hence, it is a rather straightforward separation of two organizations.
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Separating religious principles from politics is very different. There is nothing in the Constitution that dictates what values, ideas, or motivations are allowed to animate people. Indeed, such a restriction—regulating the intellectual or moral criteria by which American citizens are allowed to judge candidates & policies—would be un-American to the core.
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Consider the 1786 Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Written by Thomas Jefferson, it is rightly hailed as a prime example of American enlightenment. But its actual text would surprise many who only hear it mentioned in passing as a victory for church-state separation. Jefferson wrote (emphasis added):
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“Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others…”
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In Jefferson’s mind, freedom of thought was God’s will, and he had no qualms about positing that the country should follow such a Judeo-Christian value. The Constitution allows us to make such judgments; the only limitation is that in doing so, we cannot infringe upon the other rights outlined in the Constitution (“But I thought abortion was a constitutional right!” Patience; we won’t forget to address that one.).
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(There is a lot of eye-opening reading on the Founding Father’s true religious intentions for America; William J. Federer’s America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations is a great resource to start with.)
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“I still think opposing abortion is a religious teaching, so we can’t legislate it.” Consider that prohibitions against murder, theft and lying in the Ten Commandments are among the most explicit religious teachings of all, more so than those against abortion. Does that mean our laws against homicide, theft, slander, libel, or perjury are unconstitutional because they force people to abide by the Ten Commandments? While religious belief must not infringe upon our natural rights in public policy, there is nothing unconstitutional about accepting religious advice on how best to protect those rights. During the 2004 presidential campaign, Democrat Sen. John Kerry cited his religious convictions as “why I fight against poverty. That’s why I fight to clean up the environment and protect this earth. That’s why I fight for equality and justice.” In other words, he wanted to “impose” his religious beliefs about poverty, nature, etc. upon the American people. Until Kerry’s stances infringe upon actual rights, he is entitled to persuade a majority of his fellow Americans of their merits. The same holds true for marriage activists (on both sides), for pro-lifers, and for the aforementioned “Christians for choice.”
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Think of it this way: protecting innocent people is a goal that transcends belief, one that all believers and unbelievers ought to agree upon. Believers simply accept religious insight to help determine whether or not the unborn fit into the category of innocent people. Right or wrong, it’s a proposition that is fully appropriate for public discourse and the will of the people—not censorship or disqualification.
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Scientifically Speaking, When Does Life Begin?
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Of course, the religion-out-of-politics line is little more than a ploy to disqualify rather than debate pro-lifers, or to avoid taking a firm stand. In fact, if there is one truth that must be driven home, it is this: the question of life’s beginning is not by any means exclusive to religion. Science can answer it—and it has.
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In his magnificent The Party of Death, Ramesh Ponnuru writes:
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We have developed ways of talking that enable us to pretend that the point can be blinked away. In the case of abortion and embryo research, the main technique is to suggest that there is some great mystery about “when life begins,” and that this alleged question is a religious or philosophical one. Yet science has since solved the mystery. From conception onward, what exists is a distinct organism of the human species. The philosophical question is what we make of that fact. To jumble these issues together—the essentially scientific question of categorizing an embryo as human and living, and the moral question of whether it follows from that categorization that it has a right to life—is a logical error. Justice Blackmun, of course, proceeded in just this erroneous fashion in Roe. And if we are not careful, talking in terms of “meaningful life,” or, as [author Ronald] Dworkin does, of “life in earnest,” can lead us into this error as well.
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All of us who read this page were once human embryos. The history of our bodies began with the formation of an embryo. We were those embryos, just as we were once fetuses, infants, children, and adolescents. But we were never a sperm cell and an egg cell. (Those cells were genetically and functionally parts of other human beings.) The formation of the embryo marks the beginning of a new human life: a new and complete organism that belongs to the human species. Embryology textbooks say so, with no glimmer of uncertainty or ambiguity.
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That new organism is alive rather than dead or inanimate. It is human rather than a member of some other species. It is an organism distinct from all others. It is not a functional part of a larger organism (the way a kidney is part of a larger organism). It maintains its own organic unity over time. It directs its own development, according to its genetic template, through the embryonic, fetal, and subsequent stages. Such terms as “blastocyst,” “newborn,” and “adolescent” denote different stages of development in a being of the same type, not different types of beings. At each of our earlier stages of life, we have been, as we are now, whole living members of the species Homo sapiens. (hardcover, p. 77-78)
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And medical textbooks do indeed say so:
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Human Embryology, 3rd Edition by William Larsen, Lawrence Sherman, S. Steven Potter, & William Scott: “In this text, we begin our description of the developing human with the formation and differentiation of the male and female sex cells or gametes, which will unite at fertilization to initiate the embryonic development of a new individual.” (p. 1)
–
The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th Edition by Keith Moore & TVN. Persaud: “Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” (p. 18)
–
Human Embryology & Teratology, 3rd Edition by Ronan O’Rahilly & Fabiola Muller: “Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a ‘moment’) is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte.” (p. 8)
–
Developmental Biology, 6th Edition by Scott Gilbert: “Fertilization is the process whereby two sex cells (gametes) fuse together to create a new individual with genetic potentials derived from both parents.” (p. 185)
–
Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia, 7th Edition by Douglas Considine: “At the moment the sperm cell of the human male meets the ovum of the female and the union results in a fertilized ovum (zygote), a new life has begun.” (p. 943)
–
Langman’s Medical Embryology, 7th Edition by TW Sadler: “The development of a human begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.” (p. 3)
–
Patten’s Foundations of Embryology, 6th Edition by Bruce Carlson: “Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)… The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” (p. 3)
–
It doesn’t take much to see the common pro-choice line “clumps of cells” is empty, simplistic propaganda: Eye-opening information about fetal development is no secret, we know that preborn children are capable of feeling pain (note: link is a PDF file) at approximately 20 weeks, and the latest ultrasound technology shows us these “clumps” are surprisingly familiar.
–
So where does all this leave us? The life of a human being does, in fact, begin at conception; so every abortion, every embryo discarding (either via stem-cell research or in-vitro fertilization), and some types of birth control destroy a human being. Yet when faced with this reality, pro-choicers have developed new criteria for human rights, which are designed to deny them protection based upon factors other than their biological humanity…factors which will be explored in Part II: The Value of Life.
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The Case for Life – Introduction & Index
The First Right
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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—US Declaration of Independence
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So reads the founding document of our nation. The unalienable right to life can be thought of as the First Right of our Republic, because without it, no other right can be exercised. Thus, protecting that right is the paramount duty of our government and society. And in order to best fulfill that duty, we must carefully determine exactly what constitutes life, and when we have it.
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In this troubled age, when respect for life remains in doubt even within the Republican Party, there is no more important cause than standing up for America’s soul and turning back the callous disregard for the innocent which has infected our nation like a cancer in the past decades. In this upcoming five-part essay, I shall attempt to articulate both the case for life and its proper role in the GOP & conservative movement as comprehensively as possible.
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Part I: When Does Life Begin?
Part II: The Value of Life
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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—US Declaration of Independence
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So reads the founding document of our nation. The unalienable right to life can be thought of as the First Right of our Republic, because without it, no other right can be exercised. Thus, protecting that right is the paramount duty of our government and society. And in order to best fulfill that duty, we must carefully determine exactly what constitutes life, and when we have it.
–
In this troubled age, when respect for life remains in doubt even within the Republican Party, there is no more important cause than standing up for America’s soul and turning back the callous disregard for the innocent which has infected our nation like a cancer in the past decades. In this upcoming five-part essay, I shall attempt to articulate both the case for life and its proper role in the GOP & conservative movement as comprehensively as possible.
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Part I: When Does Life Begin?
Part II: The Value of Life
Part III: Life and Public Policy
Part IV: Life and the Constitution
Part V: Pro-Life Strategies
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Part I examines when life begins & why it deserves protection, and will be posted shortly after this Introduction.
Part IV: Life and the Constitution
Part V: Pro-Life Strategies
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Part I examines when life begins & why it deserves protection, and will be posted shortly after this Introduction.
Fred Fakes
Liberalism comes in many shapes—most of them putrid—but occasionally one comes across a lefty endeavor so stupid, so unconvincing and so pathetic that you can’t help but feel sorry for the poor saps who conjured it up.
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Welcome to the Fred Thompson Forum, a website that, on the surface, appears to be a forum for Fred Fans to talk up & about their candidate. But after an approximately 5-second investigation, it’s clearly anything but.
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Here’s how Frank J. describes it:
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There seems to be a bunch of posters pretending to be ignorant “neocons” who support Fred Thompson (with over the top names like I LOVE HANNITY and Neocon4Fred), while links and facts to Ron Paul are casually put into the discussion and his supporters are made to seem sane in comparison. The biggest tell is that’s theres a poll up about whether Fred Thompson can beat Ron Paul, and Fred Thompson is losing — on a supposed Fred Thompson fan site.
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Plus, the reader who alerted me to this said he actually had all his sane posts about Fred Thompson removed. So the whole point of the site is to make Fred Thompson supporters look stupid while pushing them to Ron Paul… except I doubt anyone who isn’t already a Ron Paul supporter is dumb enough to fall for it.
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Then again, this is actually one of the more clever things those weenies have done — certainly more clever than the poll spamming. It’s like a dog figuring out how to work a doorknob. Any toddler can do it, but, for a dog… wow.
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Too funny…
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Welcome to the Fred Thompson Forum, a website that, on the surface, appears to be a forum for Fred Fans to talk up & about their candidate. But after an approximately 5-second investigation, it’s clearly anything but.
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Here’s how Frank J. describes it:
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There seems to be a bunch of posters pretending to be ignorant “neocons” who support Fred Thompson (with over the top names like I LOVE HANNITY and Neocon4Fred), while links and facts to Ron Paul are casually put into the discussion and his supporters are made to seem sane in comparison. The biggest tell is that’s theres a poll up about whether Fred Thompson can beat Ron Paul, and Fred Thompson is losing — on a supposed Fred Thompson fan site.
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Plus, the reader who alerted me to this said he actually had all his sane posts about Fred Thompson removed. So the whole point of the site is to make Fred Thompson supporters look stupid while pushing them to Ron Paul… except I doubt anyone who isn’t already a Ron Paul supporter is dumb enough to fall for it.
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Then again, this is actually one of the more clever things those weenies have done — certainly more clever than the poll spamming. It’s like a dog figuring out how to work a doorknob. Any toddler can do it, but, for a dog… wow.
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Too funny…
Amen, John Podhoretz!
One Advantage to Andrew Sullivan’s Pompous, Hysterical Nonsense…is that he’s frightening away similarly pompous and hysterical would-be tourists who fear they may be arrested, belly-slapped, waterboarded, and sent to Gitmo. That’s a good thing, as one can imagine what a pain such people are to the hotel staff wherever they do travel.
Happy 4th of July
http://youtube.com/v/vJNqep77vBw
”
Double, no triple, our troubles and we’d still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.”
– Ronald Reagan
(“God Bless America” by Martina McBride)
Top 10 Ways President Bush Can Further Alienate His Base
At this point, never say never:
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10. Publicly make out with Nancy Pelosi.
9. Not listen to anyone unless they speak in Spanish.
8. At his next meeting with generals, start shouting, “No blood for oil!”
7. Endorse Ron Paul.
6. Demand a new investigation into 9/11 to find out if he knew about it before it happened.
5. Become a coyote.
4. Start writing diaries on The Daily Kos.
3. Publicly make out with Ted Kennedy.
2. Convert to Islam.
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And the number one way President Bush can further alienate his base…
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Have Dick Cheney resign and appoint a new VP: Harriet Miers.
Conservative Standards 