I've seen some Occupy Democrats's photos on the RFRA. For instance:
I'm a nurse obligated to provide topnotch care and comfort–even to individuals with freaking swastikas tattooed on their flesh.
If I can take care of Nazi sympathizers, they can service pizza to gay people.
–Isabel Holland
Never mind florists and wedding cakes. What happens if you have a heart attack or you are in an accident and the doctor at the emergency room is one of those republican religious freaks and refuses to provide emergency care in the name of Jesus because he doesn't approve of your lifestyle?
Hitler started killing gays first then he moved onto heterosexuals. Don't be naive. The hate doesn't end with gays. It's just the beginning.
i) To begin with, employees are required to follow company policy, whatever that may be. A family-owned pizzeria isn't comparable.
ii) The pizzeria does serve homosexual customers. What it refuses to do is celebrate homosexuality by participating in a ceremony that glorifies homosexuality.
iii) So we went from not baking a wedding cake to "killing gays." Nothing like liberal logic.
iv) It was Christians who founded hospitals in the first place. We value life. We value the lives of unbelievers. We care about the fate of the lost. That's the point of evangelism.
v) Actually, I don't think doctors have a duty to treat everyone. If somebody like Pablo Escobar suffers life-threatening injuries when his motorcade is ambushed, I don't think physicians are morally obligated to patch him up and send him home so that he can order more hits. I'd say his "lifestyle" disqualifies him from receiving medical care.
In fact, I wouldn't object to their euthanizing him to harvest his organs to save innocent patients. That would be poetic justice for all the people he murdered.
I'm not saying that's practical–unfortunately. I'm just discussing this as a matter of principle.
v) The question at issue is how much gov't coercion is desirable or tolerable in a free society. Would you rather live in a police state? Although the gov't should generally avoid inequitable treatment, that doesn't apply to transactions between private citizens. I can do favors for a friend that I wouldn't do for a stranger. I can treat my wife preferentially.
You're not dealing with rational people here. Any group that has the word "Occupy" as the centerpiece of their name has proven through their words, their deeds, and their dependance on uberleft sugardaddies (like George Soros and Warren Buffet) to be far far far from rational. And, sadly of course, it almost appears that their primary mission in life is to prove Psalm 14:1 as true today as the day David first penned it.
ReplyDeleteI like how you examined more carefully what they have to say.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Steve's fine points:
ReplyDelete"I'm a nurse obligated to provide topnotch care and comfort–even to individuals with freaking swastikas tattooed on their flesh. If I can take care of Nazi sympathizers, they can service pizza to gay people. –Isabel Holland"
Nurses can work in a variety of practice environments. This includes nurse-owned groups in private practice. Depending on the nurse-owned group, the nurse wouldn't necessarily be "obligated" to provide care. Instead, with few exceptions, nurse-owned groups can provide care or turn down care to whomever they wish.
Or would Isabel rather wish to see nurse-owned groups forced to provide care for anyone and everyone who walks through their door? What if the person has no insurance or means to pay? Should a nurse-owned group be legally mandated to treat and care for a patient regardless of cost, resources, etc. to them? If so, then Isabel is arguing against many fellow nurses and their businesses too.
"Never mind florists and wedding cakes. What happens if you have a heart attack or you are in an accident and the doctor at the emergency room is one of those republican religious freaks and refuses to provide emergency care in the name of Jesus because he doesn't approve of your lifestyle?"
This is pure ignorance. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) is US federal law. EMTALA requires all emergency physicians (yes, including the highly caricatured "doctor at the emergency room...one of those republican religious freaks") to at least evaluate and stabilize if not treat every person in need presenting to an ED even if the person is not a US citizen, lacks health insurance or other means of payment, and so on.
Of course, whether EMTALA should be law is up for debate.
"Hitler started killing gays first then he moved onto heterosexuals. Don't be naive. The hate doesn't end with gays. It's just the beginning."
These "gays" and their supporters are attempting to browbeat others into submission to their agenda. I could see a "neutral" person saying: First the "gays" came for the conservatives, and I did not speak out, because I was not a conservative. Then they came for the religious, and I did not speak out, because I was not religious. Then they came for the moderates, and I did not speak out, because I was not a moderate. Finally, they came for me, who just wanted to be left alone, but there was no one left to speak for me.
"I'm a nurse obligated to provide topnotch care and comfort–even to individuals with freaking swastikas tattooed on their flesh. If I can take care of Nazi sympathizers, they can service pizza to gay people. –Isabel Holland"
DeleteActually, I suspect Isabel is engaging in hyperbole for effect. At least to my knowledge, the only nurses who might be "obligated to provide...care" are nurses working in EDs. Otherwise, as Steve pointed out, nurses who are employees (rather than owners or partners or the like) would have to abide by their hospital or company's policies, just like virtually every other employee.
"Hitler started killing gays first then he moved onto heterosexuals. Don't be naive. The hate doesn't end with gays. It's just the beginning."
By the way, is this Godwin's rule on display?
Good points!
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