Mortaine’s Blog

Ganked from and (whose username I will remember one day….)

One thing you’ll find is that I address related moral issues here, usually when the question is something that has a fairly straightforward answer for me, but the side-arguments are more interesting.

Abortion?: It’s a right. It’s a responsibility. It doesn’t erase the past; by the time you need one, your life has changed forever, no matter what. If I got pregnant, I would probably have one.

Prostitution?: Most of the time, it is exploitative, wrong, evil, cruel to women and GIRLS (because let’s face it, most prostitutes in the world are hardly old enough to wear training bras), spreads diseases that are damaging to women and girls, and is a massive risk to the safety and health of women and girls all over the world. “Upscale prostitution,” which is what I call it when you have a well-paid call girl, is so rare compared to sexual slavery, child sex workers, and streetwalkers, it’s just not even funny. And upscale prostitution is so restricted by economics, it’s just another case of the wealthy haves lording it over the have-nots. I’d be in favor of it if it were empowering for women, but it’s just not. Note that I haven’t ever met a legal Nevada prostitute, so I don’t know if legalized Nevada-style brothels “work.”

Alcohol?: Sure, what about it? I drink socially. I have an impressive bar at home. I love good beer. I wouldn’t give a drink to a recovering alcoholic nor would I give one to a child.

Marijuana?: No, but really because it irritates my airway; I’ve never tried it, so I don’t know if I would like it. Also, who needs the munchies? I can binge eat without drugs. I’ve seen pot destroy people, but I have also seen that it helps those who are hurting terribly. If pot were legal, pharmecutical companies wouldn’t have a market for Prosac or Zoloft or a host of crappy manufactured anti-depressants. Also: I understand that pot is largely illegal for trade market reasons to prevent hemp from competing with the nylon rope industry. I think that’s a stupid reason to outlaw something.

Smoking?: One of the evilist things to happen to the human race. I cannot stand smoking, I find smokers are incredibly rude. They don’t care who they harm with their smoke– I have personally lost relatives and have medical issues because of smokers in my family (including the lost relations). Young smokers also don’t know or care that their actions fund the political engines that they think they’re rebelling against.

Other drugs?: Caffeine is my drug of choice– I use it medicinally for migraines and reactive airways disease. Illegal drugs? Bad idea– they’re another one of those social poisons that eats away at society, like any addiction or exploitation.

Gay marriage?: I’m in favor of it. I think people who love each other, especially if they have children and want to be married, should have the protection of the state. I find it criminally unfair that gays who have kids together cannot share the legal protections provided to the most uninvolved genetic donors in other relationships.

Illegal immigrants?: The problem I have with illegal immigrants is the same problem I have with most of the issues raised in this survey: they’re being exploited. I’d rather pay $5 for an artichoke knowing that the man or woman or child who picked it was paid a living wage than to exploit people solely because an arbitrary law was passed telling them not to walk over an arbitrary line. These are not jobs being taken from hard working Americans– hard working Americans who are unemployed will go on the government dole before taking the kind of shit jobs that illegals get.

Drunk driving?: Don’t. You. Dare. It’s unacceptable in any circumstance.

Cloning?: Sure. I think it’s a good idea, and it’s the future of human evolution. Over time, we will work out the ethical and moral implications of cloning. We are already doing so. There is already the possibility of cloning feed grains that are optimized for nutrition, or cloning stock animals (cattle for example) that are optimized to most efficiently digest and process their grain. Hardly anyone would complain about making more efficient beef and grain sources; it will be necessary to do so in order to solve some of the world’s hunger problems. Human cloning is more difficult ethically, but already there are those who feel it would be okay to clone in order to achieve a baby for a childless family, while it would not be okay to clone in order to obtain healthy cells to replace those that had been damaged due to injury or disease. I foresee these issues being more or less decided over time as society’s morals adapt to the new ideas (much the way birth control, once very controversial, is now accepted). I also foresee a biological hurdle down the road– as cloning becomes ubiquitous, the species that are cloned the most will become more susceptible to disease (bi-sexual reproduction is a primary defense against disease). I do worry again about exploitation issues; will we clone successful porn stars to become prostitutes so everyone can see their cake and eat it, too? Is it exploitation to clone for organ donation? Is it any more explotative than having a baby because you need a bone donor for an older child (something that already is legal)?

Racism?: It’s stupid, but I understand where it comes from. It’s largely a poverty/class issue. Racism in America would be greatly diminished if everyone had the same amount of money. If everyone started out with a level playing field, the game wouldn’t be about race. Unfortunately, everyone doesn’t start out level; some have more, many have less, and the largest group with less also have non-peach-colored skin.

Premarital sex?: Of course. Also pre-marital co-habitation; it only makes sense. I just wish I could get more involved in post-marital sex….

Religion?: I don’t believe in god. I find assumptions that everyone believes or that everyone has a religion to be highly offensive. I also find many people think atheists have no morals, which is another assumption I find offensive. I think prayer in schools is a terrible idea– it’s another way to isolate those who are different from those who conform. You want to pray in school, do it when everyone in my generation did– during the thirty seconds after a pop quiz is announced, when it counts. I also want “under God” to be taken out of my pledge of allegience. My nation isn’t under god. It’s around me, in me and my fellow citizens, under my feet in the pavement my nation put there, in the air that I breathe, and in the simple act of looking at the sky and being free enough to enjoy the experience. My nation isn’t under god– it’s in all the places the religionists think god is supposed to be already.

The war in Iraq?: Unwinnable. It’s about money and oil. Anyone saying otherwise is a liar or highly gullible.

Bush?: Obsessed. Vindictive. Fighting a war with a country over an oil deal that went bad four generations ago between his family and the Husseins. I can’t decide if he’s stupid or not– he puts on a good public show of being an idiot, but his actions bely a certain cunning that chills me. More and more, I believe he permitted the 9/11 attacks to occur.

Downloading music?: I’ll assume this means illegal/illicit music sharing, burning of CDs, swapping, etc. As a copyright holder, I am opposed to it. The RIAA is a horrible organization that only seeks to protect the major music conglomerates, all of whom exploit their artists, but that does not mean that the artists do not get something from the purchase of their music, nor does it mean that they don’t deserve something for their work. I don’t care if it’s Eminem, Brittney Spears, or an indie garage band that really needs a leg up– success does not mean you relinquish your rights to your livelihood. I do believe that ripping a copy to MP3 is a legitimate use of a CD that you purchased, and that it’s also legit to restore a backup of a CD that you lost (I’ve done this when an import CD got lost in a friend’s divorce). However, my entire MP3 collection is legal. If someone leaves a CD at my house, they can be comfortable that, while I might listen to it, I won’t keep a copy for myself. Just this morning I bought “No Rain” by Blind Melon for 99 cents. I didn’t have to buy the whole CD, and I can burn it to a CD if I’m worried about losing the data from my hard drive. It was a bargain.

The legal drinking age?: It’s 21. It’s been that way throughout my entire life. I don’t have a problem with it. I consider this debate long settled.

Porn?: Ah, sticky wicket time. My husband makes his living from selling it, so I have to be something of a hypocrite here. I think it’s inherently exploitative, but not from the side of the industry. I think the exploitation is in perception on the side of the viewer– it contributes to the culture of sexual violence and objectification towards women that I personally abhor. I guess my best way of explaining that is to say that I don’t like seeing women placed in unrealistic and exploitative roles in normal media, either.

Suicide?: Bad idea. I’ve never heard of anyone who had attempted suicide, had their depression treated, and continued to be sorry that they had not succeeded in killing themselves. Thus, suicide attempts should be taken seriously and treatment pursued. I do think that DNRs are not suicide– a suicide takes their own life, a DNR simply pre-selects when to stop medical treatment.

Some questions that should have been on there:
Wal-mart?
Sex education?
Executing Minors?
Prison?
Three-Strikes Law?
Megan’s Law? (registering of sex offenders after they’ve been released, thereby guaranteeing they can’t live anywhere for more than 3 months at a time….)
Amber Alert?
Child-free Flights?
etc…..