🚀 go-pugleaf

bw> Bryce Wilcox
gs> Gary Strand

gs> How am I to judge your claims about the PKers versus their claims about
    gays and (say) pro-abortion-rights folks?

bw> Well, if I were you I would start by examining the substance of the argu-
    ment.

  So far, you haven't presented any argument except that you're prejudiced
  against the PKers.

bw> Some helpful questions might be:
    "Do you believe that your opponents should be allowed to express their
     opinions, publicly, privately, and in groups, without restriction?"

  So the PKers don't want blasphemy, some gays don't want "unfair" protrayals
  of gays in the media ("Basic Instinct", for example). Both sets want re-
  strictions of one kind or another.

bw> "Do you believe that your opponents have the right to pursue their own
     interests and behaviors as long as those behaviors do no harm to their
     fellow citizens?"

  Do fetuses count as "fellow citizens"? That's the PKer's argument -- that
  abortion costs the lives of millions of babies every year. Note that this
  isn't *my* argument -- it's theirs.

bw> "Does your argument against your opponents depend for its legitimacy
     upon the facts of reality and the social contract among equals, or
     does it depend for its legitimacy upon the arbitrary laws of a higher
     power?"

  Like Congress?

  The fearmongering about the PKers, and the fearmongering over gays, is
  ridiculous. Those who fear the "Religious Right" are as silly as those
  who fear gays recruiting kids from elementary schools. Both have their
  unsavory elements, to be sure, but since when is someone else's personal
  beliefs a matter for you to decide? So long as no real harm comes to you,
  what difference does it make? The PKers are not some monolithic group
  out to seize political power; they're men who want to live their lives
  as good Christians. You might object to that; but you have no more right
  to dictate how they live than they have to dictate how you live. If it's 
  no skin off your nose that your next-door neighbor "prays over" his wife,
  what do you care? If you insist that you do, he might start poking around
  in your life, which I doubt you'd like.

bw> You could probably think of more relevant questions if you tried, Gary.

  Again, there hasn't been much illumination of why you hate the PKers. All
  these alleged faults of theirs are present in most everyone. I assume
  you don't hate most everyone.
--
Gary Strand                                     Opinions stated herein are mine
strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu                         alone and are not representative
http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/cscor/gary/index.html         of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF