Wednesday, September 27, 2006

It's all about choices

I've been surfing blogs and found The Grubby Halo. As I perused, I found this fantastic post about hotel porn. He could not have summed up my feelings on the subject more perfectly:

I came across this article on MSNBC.com yesterday: Conservative activists take aim at hotel porn.
"These are places that you take your family — these are respectable institutions," said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council. "Anything that brings porn into the mainstream is a concern. It just desensitizes people."
Basically these activists are pressuring the lodging industry to stop offering pay-per-view adult movies in hotels on the grounds that it may violate federal and state obscenity laws. I seriously doubt that it violates any laws as porn itself is not illegal and the whole thing is pay-per-view and voluntary to the end user. What it really boils down to is this group wants to impose their values on the rest of us, and that irks me. It's great that you don't like porn, but don't take choices away from other people who don't share your world-view. To make matters worse they're wasting the DOJ and FBI's time on this "investigation". I'm sure both departments have better things to do.

Read the rest here.

The comments on this post were interesting too, no matter what side of the argument you are on.

But I think the main reason I like this post is because it articulates my feelings on pretty much everything. Abortion, same sex-marriage, childcare/universal daycare, and tons of other issues. Why restrict people's choices because you don't agree with it?

I have the same view when it comes to this "universal daycare" bull-crap the Liberals were trying to shovel at us. Why should my tax dollars go toward paying for someone else's daycare costs when I choose to stay home with my kids, or hire a live-out nanny to care for my children? Why should I be financially penalized because Mr. and Ms. X decide to use daycare and don't feel they should have to bear that cost?

When the Conservatives came out with the $1200 annual childcare benefit, people squawked because "$100 a month doesn't go very far toward daycare costs." You're damn right it doesn't! That wasn't the point! You chose to have your kids, you can pay the costs! You are free, of course, to send it back, but I have yet to hear of anyone doing so. Everyone gets this money - even stay-at-home parents, and the money can be used as you see fit - put toward daycare, sports programs, preschool, or whatever your choice might be.

Besides, the last thing we need in this country is more unionized workers. What happens when the daycare workers (who will finally be making what they are worth, I concede,) decide they need more? What would a national daycare strike mean for families? For businesses where working parents are employed? For the economy? I just think this is an area where the government needs to stay out.

And so it is with many issues, this being just one. Choice, folks. You have it, whether you know it or not. Life isn't about the government taking care of you, the inherent structure of it precludes its ability to meet every individual's needs. If something's not working for you, do something about it, don't expect someone else to take care of it for you.

My feet are getting tired up here on this soapbox, so I'll step down now.