The author of this op-ed column says that women will get abortions even if they’re illegal. This is supposed to support the proposition that abortion should be legal. Here’s my refutation by logical analogy: People will commit murder (rape, robbery, arson) even if it’s illegal; therefore, murder (rape, robbery, arson) should be legal. She needs a Critical Thinking course.
10-27-87 Tuesday. I’m troubled by certain advertisements that have recently appeared on television. They’re apparently produced by the beef industry. The slogan is “Beef: Real Food for Real People”. I’ve seen two actors so far: James Garner and Cybill Shepherd. In the Garner ads, he talks about eating “real food” rather than vegetables and other fare, then sits back with a large, juicy steak. Music plays in the background. In the Shepherd ads, the setting is again Texas or someplace in the west. Men wear blue jeans and cowboy boots, while the women are dressed in traditional feminine clothing like dresses. The message of the ads is one of machismo, and specifically that only sissies and wimps eat vegetables and bread. The troubling thing is not that arguments are presented on behalf of beef-eating, but that they’re not. Instead, the beef industry has gone in for nonrational persuasion. The idea is to get viewers to associate beef with things that they already desire or value, such as hardiness, machismo, pretty women, and fast cars. Beef, they want us to believe, is part of a healthy and happy lifestyle. Needless to say, this is false, and if I get a chance to say it publicly, I will.
Follow along. Either you own a cellphone or you don’t. If you don’t, stop reading. If you do, then either you carry it on your person or you don’t. If you don’t, stop reading. If you do, then either it’s turned on or it isn’t. If it isn’t, stop reading. If it is, then you’re leashed. Being leashed may be part of your job. It may even be that you don’t mind being leashed. But you’re leashed.
Addendum: Someone might reply that a home telephone (a “landline”) is just as much a leash as a cellphone. Two things. First, there’s a difference between being leashed while in one’s house and being leashed all the time. Second, some of us aren’t leashed at all. I haven’t heard my telephone ring in years. I keep the sound turned off. Anyone who wishes to speak to me—including my mother—must leave a message on my answering machine. Also, in case you’re wondering, my computer is set to make no sound. I understand that some people hear a noise when e-mail comes in. Not me.
Addendum 2: Someone tried to post a comment that said, “You’re sort of a jerk, Keith.” It won’t surprise you that it was anonymous. Isn’t it amazing how many cowards are out there? This person reads my blog (if you read my blog, I own you) and knows who I am, but can’t summon the courage to take the bag off his or her head. Imagine going through life with a bag over your head, afraid to take responsibility for your actions. If I had to choose, I’d be a jerk before I’d be a coward.
To the Editor:
Re “Another $200 Billion” (editorial, Oct. 25):
Regrettable though it may be, it should surprise no one that President Bush “clearly plans to keep fighting this pointless war until his last day in office.” Unfortunately, despite the 2006 Congressional elections and the overwhelming antiwar sentiment among our citizens, as you state, “Democrats have failed repeatedly to end the Iraq war or to substantially change its course.”
Afraid of being labeled “soft on terror” (a charge they will face in any event), Congressional Democrats and Democratic presidential candidates alike have fallen victim to the fear-mongering unleashed by Republicans in the wake of 9/11.
In doing so, they have become enablers of the White House’s misbegotten Iraq venture, which, rather than making our nation more secure, has fostered worldwide recruitment of terrorists and a decline in American prestige and influence that together threaten our interests both here and abroad.
The Iraq war and the accompanying assault on our civil liberties have gone on far too long, while the rich get their tax cuts and our domestic needs are given short shrift in the name of fiscal responsibility. The electorate deserves a clear choice in the 2008 elections, not a blurring of the differences between the parties, which can only serve to disillusion voters and endanger the Democrats’ election prospects.
Jay N. Feldman
Port Washington, N.Y., Oct. 25, 2007
Note from KBJ: I have no idea why the letter writer thinks there is “overwhelming antiwar sentiment among our citizens.” Is he simply projecting his own sentiments onto the American people? In November 2004, more than a year and a half after the invasion of Iraq, the American people reelected President Bush. Will the letter writer promise to shut up about this if a Republican is elected president in 2008?
Libertarians such as Nozick have sought to build their political philosophy on high moral ground—that of a stringent libertarian right of self-ownership that is supposed to reflect our elevated status as inviolable persons. The purpose of this article has been to show that egalitarians can build there too.
(Michael Otsuka, “Self-Ownership and Equality: A Lockean Reconciliation,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 27 [winter 1998]: 65-92, at 87)