Redefining Freedom

http://townhall.com/columnists/alansears/2011/08/05/because_of_limitless_abortion,_women_everywhere_face_a_freedom_gap

Some conservatives claim to support freedom while really supporting it no more than liberals, and certainly much less than libertarians. But "freedom" is a Good Thing and they don't want to lose their stronghold on such a valuable rhetorical asset. So some dumb conservatives have begun to redefine "freedom" to serendipitously align with their conservative values.

Freedom means doing what one wants, plain and simple. But if Alan Sears is to be believed, there is a "freedom gap" because more girls are aborted than boys. Here are the highlights:

"It is safe to assume that post-moderns use the word to sum up their 'right' to do what they want, when they want, where they want. 'Whatever' they want. No, it’s not our Founding Fathers’ notion of 'freedom' in the least, but it’s a stipulation we’re working under in the 21st century."

If by "post-moderns" he means humans and dictionaries, then yes, we define freedom as the ability to do stuff without constraint. Note his lack of evidence that the framers deviated from this objective, common-sense definition, and his neglect to tell us just what they did consider "freedom" to be. I think I know why he didn't do either of these things...

"According to researcher Mara Hvistendahl, throughout the world there have been so many 'sex-selective abortions in the past three decades that 163 million girls' that should have been born were killed instead. One-hundred sixty-three million. Could a greater 'freedom gap' be imaginable?"

Allow me. Anything that gives males and females different rights. There. A hypothetical bigger "freedom gap." I have a great imagination.

"When Thomas Jefferson wrote the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' as a summary of the kind of freedoms we were meant to enjoy, it was foremost in his mind, and implicit in the phrase itself, that 'life' is the first of many conditions for the 'liberty' and 'happiness' that follow. Today, we are trying to pursue 'liberty' and 'happiness' without giving 'life' its rightful place, and it’s simply not working."

But you eat pigs, don't you? They're alive just like fetuses, only smarter and capable of feeling greater pain. Could it be that Thomas Jefferson was referring to persons when he wrote that mantra, to the exclusion of fetuses? After all, it'd be pretty hard to assure fetuses the right to speak or peaceably assemble or travel interstate. Also, what exactly is not working? Pro-choice advocates are perfectly happy with your so-called freedom gap, and pro-lifers don't care which sex is aborted more.