* Abortion
I’m not happy with abortion. My bias, though, is to defer to actual humans rather than to abstractions or to potential humans. So I want to let the woman decide.
(I don’t believe, by the way, that your way of thinking works. (1) We don’t generally get to define contractual agreements for other people. “What you *really* meant by offering me a ride was a contractual agreement to get me where I was going. Therefore, you should compensate me for that flat tire.” (2) The results of applying “you really meant” contracts to other areas would be absurd. For example, since you believe the justification for legal involvement in marriage is that it produces children, you should be prepared to bill my mother in law and the man she married after my wife’s dad died for their failure to produce children in return for marital benefits. (3) Penalties for contract violations should be proportional, not just clever. You do not argue that “significant and irreversible changes” are an appropriate penalty. Why not add a fine to the cost of a desired abortion? Or 40 days of community service teaching proper use of condoms in an opt-in course for teenagers?)
* Gay marriage
Again, there are actual human beings who suffer by not being able to marry. Making other people suffer shouldn’t be done lightly. The increase in taxes gay marriage might cause strikes me as the epitome of “lightly”.
I’m also a big fan of marriage. I strongly suspect that it’s good for society, at least for our society, so the more the (heh) merrier.
* Drug legalization
The War on Drugs has been a complete failure on its own terms. It has also increased corruption, promoted the militarization of the police and associated loss of civil rights and traditions, costs us a ton of money, and is doing its patriotic part to lose us a war in Afghanistan. Even if I thought drug use (including alcohol and nicotine) was inherently wrong, I’d have to say that the cost is greater than the benefit. Since I don’t particularly care if other people drink or get high, I see no reason not to legalize drugs. Based on effect and addictivity, marijuana and nitrous oxide (say) should be less regulated than alcohol. Heroin (the only drug the most enthusiastic drug user I’ve ever known would not touch) should be much more strictly regulated.
If we’re going to ban drugs, by the way, we should also ban small children spinning around until they get dizzy and fall down, which always seemed to me to spring from the same desire-to-mess-with-your-head as drug use does.
* Prayer in schools
No purpose is served by embarrassing little Christians when their teacher leads the whole class in an Islamic prayer. Or vice versa. Or little agnostics in a “non-demoninational” prayer.
When it comes to prayer clubs in the school, I’m torn. On the one hand, everybody knows that those often become an excuse for the majority (Christian, in this country) to bully or embarrass the minority. On the other hand, the minority might as well get used to it. I’ve finally settled on a semi-strict constitutional interpretation that goes like this:
I happen to think that the 2nd amendment is clear enough. We’re a country where “happiness is a warm gun” is constitutionally sanctioned. Deal with it. Similarly, we’re a country where government has been instructed not to favor religion, even though we’re an atypically religious nation. Deal with it.
* Sex out of wedlock
I encourage it. Once bound to a partner, I bet you’re asking for trouble if you stray, but I guess it’s your business.
