Thursday, November 1, 2012

Thomas Friedman, the Once Great NYT Columnist Describes How He is Pro-Life

Pro “All Life” That Is

In the late 1990’s and early part of this century no one was greater at describing the economic transformations the world was undergoing than New York Time columnist Thomas Friedman.  But Mr. Friedman got hung up in the Iraq war, thinking that it would lead to peace, prosperity and freedom in the Middle East.  A person’s whose judgment was that bad deserved to lose the respect he had earned, and he did.


Mr. Friedman, Thinking Right (But Not Right Wing)
Again 
But deep down Mr. Friedman is a very articulate, very intelligent person.  And when he gets back to writing about things he knows about he can be very authoritative.  Here he is writing about how he is “Pro Life”, and how the people who claim to be Pro Life are not.

In my world, you don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and be against common-sense gun control — like banning public access to the kind of semiautomatic assault rifle, designed for warfare, that was used recently in a Colorado theater. You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and want to shut down the Environmental Protection Agency, which ensures clean air and clean water, prevents childhood asthma, preserves biodiversity and combats climate change that could disrupt every life on the planet. You don’t get to call yourself “pro-life” and oppose programs like Head Start that provide basic education, health and nutrition for the most disadvantaged children. You can call yourself a “pro-conception-to-birth, indifferent-to-life conservative.” I will never refer to someone who pickets Planned Parenthood but lobbies against common-sense gun laws as “pro-life.”

And yes, while Mr. Friedman says that is what happens in his world, he is wrong.  It is what happens in everyone’s world.

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