Obama Birth Certificate
The PDF file on the White House web site is obviously questionable even to an untrained eye. I'd like to see someone replicate that file with a scanner. Even if Barry Sotero were born in Kenya, he'd arguably be eligible, being the son of an American woman. I won't even touch that issue. But the file itself is obviously and crudely manipulated. Nonetheless, no one can address that elephant in the room without being labeled a birther. Such is the power of the media machine.
Climate Change
Climate change is an undeniable phenomenon. And some portion of it -- maybe even a significant portion -- could be human-caused. The problem is that to "do something" about it would require creating a huge and ominously powerful world-wide bureaucracy that would be tasked with stepping on economic activity that did not fit some arbitrarily-defined carbon footprint or some other open question. Sign most of the industrial, transportation, food, extraction, and energy sectors of the economy over to the government. What could possibly go wrong? Surely there'd be no trace of corruption or political gamesmanship. After all, we're talking about Public Servants.
Same-sex Marriage
I believe in God. I have fairly old-fashioned views of marriage -- one man, one woman. I have gay friends who would disagree with me. That's fine. In fact, I could even use my own bible to make a case for the church -- some church, anyway -- to recognize and bless a homosexual union. If one of my kids showed up with a same-sex significant other, I'd have to take a deep breath and accept. Given a choice between accepting and losing contact, accepting wins every time. But on the topic of marriage, what bubbles up in my mind is why the state is involved at all. A marriage contract is a living and financial arrangement. What does gender have to do with it?
Abortion
I've always hated this issue. It -- that unborn baby or that inanimate tissue mass, depending on your favorite axe -- is either human or it isn't. I had been pretty much in the pro-choice camp, but hoping not to have to make a choice. Then I saw an ultrasound of my eldest. That complicated matters. Some five years later, I saw my youngest in an ultrasound and I could see that she looked like her sister. The sealed it for me.And yet. A friend of mine is a doctor. "My patient," he said, "is a 12 year old survivor of sexual abuse. She has an alcoholic mother and an abusive step-father. No grandparent is in the picture. My patient needs an abortion." But most abortions aren't like that. Even so, no one I know of is suggesting an inquest after every D&C procedure. That's what enforcement would take.
My daughter had an acquaintance in high school who had cerebral palsy. He got it because he survived an abortion.
Abortion is a hard moral choice. It is rarely the best choice.
