February 11, 2004 by s.z.

When I Worked in a Drug Store, It Went Againt My Conscience to Sell The National Reviewto Anyone, But I Still Had To From today's Corner: SUPPORT THE PHARMACISTS [Rod Dreher] In my Dallas Morning News column today, Gene Herr, one of the three Dallas-area pharmacists who refused to fill the morning-after pill prescription for a rape victim, goes public to say that Eckerds fired them. Two of the pharmacists claim that they could not in good conscience fill the prescription because they believe life begins at conception, and this medication is intended directly to end the life of an innocent child who may have been conceived in the rape. This is a real bite-the-bullet case for pro-lifers, but the pharmacists correctly reasoned that if life really begins at conception, then the agonizing circumstances of the conception does not justify ending the life of an innocent human being. Planned Parenthood and many others are pummeling these pharmacists (and now that I've written a column siding with them, me; but that comes with the territory). This story is becoming a big issue here, and is prompting pro-life activists to consider lobbying the Texas legislature -- which has a Republican majority, and is reliably pro-life -- to extend conscience-clause protection now covering doctors and nurses to pharmacists. In Texas, no doctor, nurse or hospital worker can be compelled to participate in an abortion. With abortion, or its moral equivalent, now possible to achieve with medication obtained at a pharmacy, it is time that pro-life pharmacists receive the same right of refusal that doctors and others have. South Dakota is the only state in the nation that does this. Posted at 12:11 PM Yes, consider the plight of those poor pharmacists, fired for an act of conscience.  Sure, "the morning-after pill" is basically nothing more than birth control pills, which the pharmacists had dispensed all the time without protest.  But since in this case they "knew" that the rape victim intended to use the product to keep a possibly fertilized egg from implanting itself in her womb, it was, like Rod said the other day, the difference between legally selling a gun to someone who didn't say what they were going to use it for, and selling a gun to someone who said they were going to use it to kill their wife.  Because a fertilized egg is like a wife, and hormone pills are like a gun. But what about pro-life cashiers, who might have to ring up a rape victim's purchase of a product intended to keep a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in her womb?  Shouldn't such a cashier have the right of refusal too?  Isn't she just as worthy of protection from workplace reprisals for an act of conscience? And what if a woman who might be pregnant came through the check-out line with a bottle of wine.  Pregnant women shouldn't be drinking, because prenatal exposure to alcohol can cause damage to babies.  That cashier should be protected, by law, from having to sell anything to women that might be bad for the unborn.  And what if the cashier was a Mormon, who believed that alcohol is morally bad everybody?  And what if that cashier took a job in a liquor store?  Shouldn't she be allowed, by law, to keep her job while refusing to sell any alcoholic beverages to anybody, because said sales would go against her conscience? And what if that cashier was a vegan who felt "meat is murder"?  And what if she took a job in a grocery store?  Shouldn't she also be allowed to act on her conscience, and refuse to sell any animal-related product to anyone, without fear of being fired? So, Texas should pass a law saying that it's illegal to fire any employee for refusing to sell any legal product, if selling said product somehow goes against their conscience.  And that the customers, who might have real and pressing needs for said products, should just move to a less moral state if they want meat, cigarettes, or birth control pills. I look forward to the day that one passes. 1:11:51 PM

TownHall: The Anti-Kerry Edition Poor Howard Dean.  Not a single TownHaller feels he's the anti-Christ this week.  But Kerry once lived at the same time Jane Fonda did, which is even WORSE than the way Mrs. Dean dresses.  Oh, and thanks to Rebecca Hagelin, we have a new item to add to our list of "The Greatest Threats to Civilization."       Kathleen Parker Bush did just fine on "Meet the Press," and even if he didn't, we can't say anything bad about Daddy or we won't have anyone to protect us from the boogieman. When he falters, I find consolation in the fact that Bill Clinton was a mellifluous speaker, and he allowed Osama bin Laden to build a worldwide army against us. And when Bush lies, Kathleen reminds herself that Jimmy Carter was known for his honesty, and yet he did absolutely nothing to protect us from Mad Cow Disease or SARS. One can imagine the difficulty of parsing through so many layers of deception to reveal a certain, unassailable truth, or how impossible to affix blame to a single individual or agency.  Kathleen leaks the official conclusion of Bush's panel to investigate intelligence failures.  But if anyone could be blamed, it would be that CIA official who sent Joe Wilson to Africa. Thomas Sowell Slavery reparations would just lead to W.W.II.  So, let's just let people sell their kidneys if they want a cash windfall. No matter who was right and who was wrong in the 17th century, they were all dead and nothing within the power of man could bring them justice in this world. Symbolic restitution could only create new problems among the living.  Michelle Malkin Per Michelle, "New York City Mayor Michael 'Nanny' Bloomberg, he of the smooth hands and Nurse Ratched smirk," said that carrying guns in the city is bad.  But since Howard Stern and Don Imus have permits for concealed weapons, it's obvious that Bloomberg hates legal immigrants. What about Jose Acosta, the 69-year-old bodega clerk jailed for using his .22-caliber unregistered handgun to kill an armed thug who attempted to rob his Harlem grocery store? Punished for protecting his life and livelihood, this hard-working, law-abiding legal immigrant from the Dominican Republic is among untold victims of a system that subjects businesses and individuals to Byzantine, insurmountable gun-permit regulations while criminals romp.  Ben Shapiro Investigative reporter Ben reports that John Kerry helped the Viet Cong by testifying about American war atrocities.  And Kerry left American POWs to die in Vietnam!  Ben knows, because a guy told him this over the phone. But for the Vietnam soldiers who died because Kerry provided aid and comfort to the Viet Cong, or the POWs who may have lived out their lives in cages, Kerry's lack of commitment had tragic consequences  Debra Saunders The stupid liberals want Bush to prove that he actually "showed up" while in the National Guard!  But we don't see THEM pulling strings to help their kids avoid the draft by learning to fly F-102s, which is actually more dangerous wartime combat.  Don't get me wrong. I've enjoyed listening to friends and neighbors in the Bay Area -- people who wouldn't sleep for a year if their kids signed up for ROTC -- voice their indignation at the possibility that Bush might have missed so much as a day in uniform.  It's especially choice when they dismiss Bush's service in the National Guard because he didn't go to Vietnam. Such criticism ignores the risky nature of flying F-102s and the admittedly remote possibility of being sent into combat.  Jonah Goldberg Sure, Kerry was a war hero and Bush was AWOL from the cushy National Guard assignment he obtained through family connections.  But Kerry didn't vote for pro-war policies through the years, while Bush LIKES taking the country to war, so Kerry is the fake military man, and Bush is the real deal! He still boasts of fighting "Ronald Reagan's illegal wars in Central America," which, to be charitable, was not the stance taken by pro-defense Democrats in the 1980s.   Rebecca Hagelin It's the end of the world as we know it, and it's because of gay marriage. Four activist judges in Massachusetts may have just marked the beginning of the end for America. How? By destroying the building block of society, and replacing it with nothing more than straw.   To redefine marriage – the very core of what we know as family – is to wreak havoc on every other institution that holds our country together. From the legal system, to interstate commerce, to health care, to your neighborhood, everything would eventually fall apart. Why? Because the nuclear family – starting with the marriage of one man and one woman – is the very foundation of the entire human race and every single civil society since the beginning of time.   All those societies which used a different kind of familiar system?  Uncivilized.  Because only brutes would choose something other than the nuclear family.  Your "God-given reason" tells you that. And why would everything fall apart if we allowed same-sex marriage?  Well, ask your gay-loving, marriage-hating friends, the Europeans!  They now have a negative birth rate, meaning that in tens of thousands of years, if the trend stays the same, they won't exist anymore.  The goal isn't for everyone to be able to enjoy any type of marriage they choose – the goal is to destroy it.  And power-hungry activist judges are helping them do just that  And Rebecca, as you will recall, makes good refreshments, so we should trust her when she informs us of other people's real goals. Terence Jeffrey Terence tells us that the media showed that videotape of Carlie Brucia "for days," and that DOJ stats show that 115 "stereotypical kidnappings" occurred in the U.S. in 1999, with half of those resulting in the death of the child.  Parents are scared, and vow not to let their children ever leave the house again.  So, is Jeffrey's point that the media is causing unreasonable fears in parents? Hell, no!  He says that media doesn't care about most kidnappings, and that the reason that parents are scared is because the justice system doesn't allow the police to execute suspected kidnappers on the spot! Why is this fear so widespread in America today? Because we don't kill killers often enough, or swiftly enough. If our justice system worked the way it ought to work, we would not only execute Carlie's killer, we would do it quickly. We would do it soon enough so that a clear moral connection was made between his crime and the just and proportionate punishment meted out for it.  Allow me to go a bit off topic here.  Records show that 436 children aged 0-14 were killed by firearms in the year 2000 (110 suicide, 227 homicide, 86 accidents, and 10 undetermined).   So, I suggest that Terence have a talk with Perfect Mom Michelle Malkin about her advocacy of guns, and recommend that parents should start worrying about Michelle as much as they do about that deadly stranger-kidnapper. David Fussel, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers told the Herald-Tribune that even if Smith were sentenced to death now, it could, in the paper's words, "take 10 to 15 years for the sentence to be carried out, depending on the amount and complexity of the appeals." That's not justice, that's a joke. It's the perverse, but predictable, punchline of a justice system that views its role as rehabilitating criminals and protecting them from themselves, rather than punishing criminals and protecting kids like Carlie Brucia.  Um, yeah.  Because the reason it takes so long to bring a capitol case to execution is because we keep trying to rehabilitate the condemned along the way. Paul Greenberg The fact that Paul experienced a couple of incidents where the military screwed up his records proves that Bush was where he was supposed to be all the time (and not that he got paid when he didn't show up, like some cynics may maintain).  And while the White House still can't find any of Bush's fellow Guardsmen who recall drilling with Bush, that only means that John Kerry had them killed. It occurs to me that if George W. Bush, now listed in the roster as commander in chief, could just get the vote of every GI who'd ever gotten tangled up in military paperwork, he ought to win this year's presidential election by the biggest landslide ever.  Well, it's a better idea than having him campaign on character, the issues, or his track record. So, TownHall.  Late, but worth waiting for, right? 11:58:12 AM