The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Told You So

8.5.05 @ 12:01AM

BIRTH CONTROL'S FALLOUT
Re: Lisa Fabrizio's Pro-Life Lite:

I greatly admire when people can make a first class case for a conservative position without needing to mention God, the Bible, the Pope or religion, so my compliments to Lisa Fabrizio. It should put to rest liberal claims that such arguments run hopelessly afoul of the First Amendment, or at least their interpretation of one clause of it.

That said, consider how some of what are usually considered the most exacting aspects of Roman Catholic doctrine forecast consequent problems long before they happen. Consider Pope Paul VI's 1968 Humanae Vitae, the famous "birth control" encyclical, the 55 mph speed limit of the Roman Catholic highway. I am not acquainted with any current era Catholics with families of ten or 12, so much for the Pope's warning on artificial conception (I have two, a daughter and a son, ahem). And I don't know any current era Catholics who might be infertile and then think twice about any of the "common" assists to correct a natural flaw (note no scare quotes). After all, Rome does get a little carried away at times, right?

Then again, consider that the entire ESCR debate that Lisa ably articulates is "unintended" collateral fallout of "common" assists to correct natural infertility. And consider that once sex and marriage were separated, and sex and the creation of family were separated, and sexual satisfaction became the first priority, the "unintended" collateral fallout of such satisfaction, i.e., children, became nuisances that only Harry Blackmun could sweep away.

A lot of getting carried away sure is happening. But not in Rome.
-- Frank Natoli
Newton, New Jersey

I, too, am disappointed by Dr. Frist's discombobulated thinking but not surprised. Since Roe v. Wade, there has been tremendous pressure in the medical profession to embrace the pro-abortion view, but over the years, a truce has been reached between the two factions that boils down to: you do your thing, I'll do mine. It took many brave doctors to stand up to those who would force their colleagues to accept abortion. I am indebted to them for creating a sort of "conscientious objector" status for those of us who wanted no part of abortion during our medical training. As the years have gone on, the majority of medical students do not have any exposure to abortion during their training, regardless of their personal views on the matter, so we have seen pressure by pro-abortion groups to make such training mandatory.

Now, with the advent of embryonic stem cell research, the pressure to kill nascent (in Dr. Frist's words) life has returned, and has been couched in terms of wanting to cure disease. (I mean, who can be against that, right?) What has yet to fully develop is the critical mass of physicians who will stand up to their fellow scientists who, in my humble opinion, are deliberately obscuring the debate and exploiting the will to live of people who have chronic, life-threatening diseases and our goodwill to help our fellow man. Unfortunately, faced with the pressure of being called anti-science and callous, Dr. Frist caved. The pro-life movement could have used a leader like Dr. Frist to re-focus the debate and draw attention to what the embryonic stem cell lobby will demand and actually require for them to have any chance for success: cloning in every way, shape, and form. President Bush is to be credited for holding the line and needs our support to continue to do so.
-- Andrew J. Macfadyen, M.D., Pediatric Critical Care, Children's Hospital of Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska

PUMPED
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Decade of Illusion:

As an observer of the media, the reaction of the MSM to this Palmeiro story (esp. those national and local gasbags on sports talk radio/TV) has been absolutely fascinating to witness. Those guys will need chiropractors in a few days as they twist themselves around and around attempting to find an opinion that coincides with there decidedly liberal world view.

Here they go. They think Palmeiro was great and his legacy should endure and he really didn't do anything wrong, and he's so handsome and, well gee, there are so many other guys in the Hall of Fame who were really, really, really rascals and besides, George W. Bush was the owner of the Texas Rangers when it seems he began juicing and had to have been complicit in it thus making it all Dubya's fault and not Palmeiro's.

Great! We've got it!

But, but, but... he took an oath to tell the truth and on national television he lied (while wagging his finger) and that's bad and we can't sit in our ivory towers like the press's purloined princes and let this gross injustice to all jurisprudence and ethical behavior stand!

Oh, wait! How can we say that's bad? If we do, while sending him to the dustbin of history the comparisons to that handsome and oh so sexy Arkansas Rascal himself (old you-know-who) who found it in his heart to trash Thomas Jefferson, Newt, Bob Livingston, Henry Hyde, etc., along with lying under oath and wagging his finger will become inevitable and we don't want that to happen because, well, "we just can't help ourselves."

OUCH! I think I hurt myself.

To paraphrase H.L. Mencken, "I hate all sportswriters as rabidly as a sportswriters hate common sense."
-- Rick Osial
Montclair, Virginia

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Mainstream Media, Television, Business, Earmarks, Sports, Religion, Abortion, Global Warming, Hollywood, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, NATO, Conservatism, Oil