Rights are a Bundle. Ignore Some at Your Own Risk

Again, for those not listening...

Rights are a bundle, not a la carte.

"You don’t care very much about the rights of the sky zombie folks* because you care more about COVID-19? Totally understandable, as you’re allowed to value your personal concerns over those of other people. But then, they’re allowed to care about their values over yours. The difference is that theirs are protected by the Constitution. Honor it not because you agree, but because you expect them to honor the rights you value, and either they all deserve respect or none do."

*these would be religious people

https://blog.simplejustice.us/2020/11/28/god-v-science-constitutionally-speaking/

On Texas and Concealed Carry

I'm an advocate of concealed and open carry...

I think it will save lives in the aggregate...

But let's not delude ourselves into thinking there won't eventually be a tragic mistake...

Nothing is perfect...

It is all about the balance of benefits and costs...

We suck at this...

Gun rights advocates like myself need to be ready to admit it if the negatives outcomes outweigh the positives (this doesn't mean we have to abandon our support for a fundamental right).

I am also acutely aware that people on my side of the criminal justice reform debate are blissfully ignoring the fact that crime has plummeted during the mass incarceration years and we need to be prepared if it turns out that criminal justice reform dramatically reverses this trend...

Ending the drug war with a shift to treatment could also have more negatives than positives...

But I think we should try (or at least the Feds can get the f out of the way and let some states try)

https://pluralist.com/jack-wilson-white-settlement-shooting-texas-armed-churchgoers/49999/?fbclid=IwAR0-TGDXL0uEq-8FktHLAsqqOiz-TMYAMxvFEe_Wn5IqQQh1Rax1Tu_cBmI

A Woman's Right to Choose...

If you truly want to protect a woman's right to choose (I do, despite serious reservations about some abortions) then the best way is to take a principled stand regarding the government's authority to make choices in all areas of people's lives. Take a skeptical view of all attempts to force people to make choices based on popular beliefs.

This means that you have to examine your beliefs on prostitution, drugs, vaccination and even guns. It doesn't mean you have to change your opinion, or become a libertarian or an anarchist, but you really need to be willing to subject your beliefs to rigorous examination of whether the benefits outweigh the intrusion, especially the myriad of laws without a direct victim.

While your at it, you might want to examine how much power the state has to force you or prevent you from doing what you want. You might want to re familiarize yourself with the first ten amendments of the constitution, especially the forgotten 4th through 6th and realize that erosion of these enumerated rights makes it easier to erode every right, including the right to choose.

 A state whose power is limited and which is not allowed to make choices for its citizens except in the most extreme of cases, is a state where a woman's right to choose is truly safe.

 A woman's right to choose will NEVER be safe in a country where the majority can force its will on the minority without the citizens raising an outcry.