Saturday, May 12, 2007

Saturday Morning Musings


Well, we at least know that Romney has been a successful business men. Recent reports are estimating his wealth at a whopping $250 million. I have even heard other estimates that are higher. If Romney is to somehow win the White House, this would make him our wealthiest president ever, by far.

Giuliani has been making efforts recently to clarify his abortion position. At a recent speech he said that he believed abortion is "morally wrong," but that he respected a woman's right to choose. This may sound good to some people at first, but how is this a clear position. I would venture to say that Rudy thinks that stealing is morally wrong as well, but I would bet that he will never say he respects a thief's right to choose to steal or not. The fact is that we impose our morality on people every day. That is what the criminal code is. Saying abortion is "morally wrong," but respecting the right to choose (which was John Kerry's position as well by the way) strikes me to be the most convoluted position of them all.

The Minnesota Legislature, truly out of control this session, has passed a bill through both houses, that would ban smoking across the entire state, except for limited exceptions. Personally, I think smoking is morally wrong, but I respect a persons right to choose. Oh, wait . . .

3 comments:

Anonymous_Me said...

I'm going to have to disagree with you on the abortion position. It is possible for a person to be personally opposed to abortion yet be in favor of abortion rights.

For many, it is a question of competing values that are put into extreme forms. There is no human territory more private than the womb, but human life is more sacred than very little else on earth.

Unfortunately, in the first three months of pregancy, the human life at issue here is in a very primitive stage of development. I do not mean to suggest that a young fetus is any less human than you or I, but I think it is reasonable to say that a week-old baby is more significant than a week-old fetus.

WCE said...

eightgun is splitting hairs on an issue that is either right or wrong at any stage of fetus development. Harming a week-old fetus that has the potential to live as full a life someday as a week-old baby is not less significant.

Anonymous_Me said...

WCE,

I am not sure you and I really disagree. I think you may have misunderstood what I wrote, so let me try to be more clear.

I think it is possible for a person to believe the following two things at the same time:

1. Abortion is always wrong except when the life of the mother is threatened.
2. Abortion should be largely legal.

As for me, personally, I believe the first and have not made up my mind about the second.

It is possible to believe both of those things at the same time because no one believes everything that is immoral ought to be illegal. One of the reasons why some people believe abortion should be legal is that they do not believe the government should have authority over a woman's womb.