Comments on: Paying the Piper and Calling the Tune

By: Paying the Piper and Calling the Tune » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog « thereformedmind

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:30:31 +0000

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By: readering

readering — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:40:26 +0000

Back in the days when the government relied on citizen militias it could and did require men to buy guns in connection with their service in the militia. Lawyers defending Obamacare in the Supreme Court rely heavily on that precedent in support of the constitutionality of the individual mandate.

By: Peg

Peg — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 05:08:47 +0000

It occurs to me that many would object if the government forced them to buy guns as some kind of second amendment requirement.

By: pentamom

pentamom — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:31:46 +0000

“Them” meaning the leftists that are pushing that side of the debate, not necessarily the administration or Komen itself.

By: pentamom

pentamom — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:30:38 +0000

“I don’t know what most leftists consider a comparable sacred cow. What is their line in the sand? I thought the First Amendment was a candidate, but I was wrong.”

Peg, I think we ARE seeing it here and with the Komen case. The sacred cow is “access to” abortion and contraception (as they define access, meaning “compelling other people to pay for it so as to allow it to create no inconvenience to anyone.”) That’s why this one is playing out like this — that’s why the administration can’t just say, “You know what? I think the Catholics are wrong here but it’s not worth the fight” and why Komen had to back down. Because not-providing-funding for abortion and contraception-related matters is like killing babies to them.

By: Peg

Peg — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:58:53 +0000

The problem with analogies that attempt to provoke empathy is that they are not equivalent in scale. The Church believes that abortifacients kill people. The HHS mandate forces us to participate in and pay for murder. That is worse than being subjected to ideologically objectionable curricula. It is also worse than the other examples I have seen—Jews and Moslems having to pay for pork products, etc.

I don’t know what most leftists consider a comparable sacred cow. What is their line in the sand? I thought the First Amendment was a candidate, but I was wrong.

By: Gian

Gian — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:46:28 +0000

“, institutions that weren’t recipients of public funding wouldn’t be at a competitive disadvantage”

What is that supposed to mean?. That they won’t get top-ranking professors or doctors?. Why is that more important that maintaining institution’s integrity as a Catholic institution?

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:27:23 +0000

Let’s get real here; what’s going on here isn’t anything new. There’s no requirement in the mandate that Catholic institutions change their doctrinal “curriculum”, so the curricular analogy is a bad one. Rather, the effect of the mandate basically mirrors what the Solomon Amendment did when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was in place. Institutions of higher education receiving funding from the federal government were required to allow the military to recruit on campus, regardless whether they had in place non-discrimination policies covering sexual orientation.

By: Mary

Mary — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:27:00 +0000

As Megan McArdle observed, it’s as if there were scads of people striving to care for the poor, and the Catholics ought to be grateful they were chosen.

By: Chris Paige

Chris Paige — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:08:57 +0000

Amen! No one would accept similar restrictions on secular beliefs protected by the First Amendment – say a requirement that biology courses include creationism or a prohibition on expressing certain anti- government ideas (like opposition to the draft) in a history class. Somehow, religious liberty is different (even though it’s protected in the same First Amendment). This is all about stamping out “pernicious” opposition to abortion, just as the Fugitive Slave Act was meant to stamp out abolitionism. If there’s any good in all of this, it’s that Justice Kennedy will be hard-pressed to uphold Obamacare now that it’s obvious that liberals will use Obamacare to render the Constitution a meaningless nullity.