Piqued

Introduction

Not long after one friend inspired me to write about abortion, another brought up the issue of the “new form” of conservatism that is growing particularly quickly among the younger generation. It’s a movement I’m proud to be a part of, but my friend’s take was not at all in favor of it, instead favoring the type of “conservatism” that President Bush has enacted during his presidency. He made a number of interesting claims about the new, largely Ron Paul-led movement:

• That we are pro-life but want to leave it up to the states to decide, which will result in it remaining legal in some states.
• That we want to legalize drugs because the current method of getting rid of them is failing.
• That we oppose the war on terror because the need to stop mass murderers doesn’t justify the cost.
• That we oppose all tax increases, which is causing economic problems due to national debt.

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I read an article today posted by a friend of mine.  The article was written by an abortion doctor and outlines the reasons he chooses to provide them, and his experience dealing with the criminal violence of a couple of anti-abortion activists.  It was published in the National Post (a Canadian paper), and is located here: http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=283931&p=1

Below this posting, my friend pointed out that even if abortions were illegal, they’d still happen. Here’s my take:

It is true that abortions would still occur were it to be made illegal. Violations of individuals rights to life and property, such as theft, rape and murder happen all the time too. Should they be made legal?

While the article points out some chilling facts about amateur abortions, it ignores the fundamental issue in the abortion debate. What happens to the mother is completely irrelevant if the fetus is a human being, and not just some meaningless attached tissue as abortion proponents argue. This article then becomes an example of the consequences of an illegal activity, the gory details of which should, if anything, encourage pregnant girls to give their children up for adoption rather than go through such a thing. The fact that legalizing the practice would have fewer consequences for the person who decides to have it has nothing to do with whether it should be legal or not. Either type of abortion (professional or amateur) still has the same, far greater, consequence for the other person in the situation: death.

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So the market suffered a pretty serious decline at the beginning of this week. And once again, the Fed used their all-powerful control over interest rates to balance the drop. I understand that a balancing force like the Fed does encourage investment by reducing the risk to investors of a sudden drop like the one that triggered the Great Depression. However, it also tends to mask the underlying issues behind market declines like we saw this week. Chief among these is the fact that the US dollar continues to fall compared to foreign currencies, which may be a sign of a weakening economy. This devaluation of our currency also hurts our buying power in the world market. Of course, it also means we may finally start balancing our trade deficit by exporting more. And that could be a very good thing for portions of the market.

Still, I can’t help but think that the optimism of some on Wall Street about the market’s ability to rebound is a bit unrealistic when you look at government fiscal policy. As we continue to run up our national debt by borrowing money to fund foreign activities and domestic welfare programs, our national fiscal crisis becomes ever more dire. While this may not seriously affect the marketplace right now, I do not think it bodes well for the future. Our national debt is currently over $9 trillion and growing, and one must wonder how the government will ever pay this off. I can think of a few possibilities, only one of which could benefit the economy.

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I realize this is now the third Ron Paul-related posting since I began this blog not two weeks ago. I’m sorry about all the Ron Paul spam, but if you still haven’t given him a serious look, I think you owe it to yourself and this country to do that much. Form your own conclusions by looking into what the man has actually said. This is the first time in years that I’ve found a political candidate to be excited about, and I am so glad to see Paul’s popularity rise that I want to do all I can to make it count on election day.

On that note, this is a really good editorial I found by a Florida pastor and radio host.

With that out of the way, I’d like to address something my mom heard on a conservative talk radio show about Ron Paul and white supremacy groups. My initial reaction was that it was untrue, but I wanted to make sure before I continued to support him. Here’s what I found:

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So I just found this story buried on Fox News’ “Politics” page. Paul broke fund-raising records not 24 hours ago, and Fox News already has it listed below something about imported product safety regulations.

Worse than that is the addition of dubious information in order to belittle Paul’s accomplishment. The report states as fact the previously unpublicized claim by the Romney campaign that he raised $6.7 million in a day early in his campaign.

If this were true, he probably would have made a big deal out of it back then as it would have broken John Kerry’s 2004 record. But we’re just now hearing about it. It also doesn’t agree with his FEC filings, which list his largest one day take at just over $3 million. So nobody seems to know where he’s getting this number. The Paul campaign today released a press handout that addresses the one-day fundraising claims of both Clinton and Romney.

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