"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Monday, February 13, 2012

Krauthammer Rocks on the Obamacare Mandate and on the Israel-Iran Nuclear Standoff

Charles Krauthammer, as usual, gets both of the pressing moral issues of the day exactly right:

From Fox’s Special Report with Bret Baier Friday, February 10, 2012
On the president’s revision of the administration’s earlier ruling that religiously affiliated employers must insure the cost of contraception and abortifacients:
This compromise is smoke and mirrors. It’s an accounting trick. Before the so-called compromise, Holy Cross Hospital, for example, was required by law to provide health insurance and required by law to include in that insurance birth control, morning-after abortion pills, and tubal ligation. After the so-called compromise, Holy Cross Hospital is still required to provide all these areas of health insurance, and the employee is guaranteed by law the same benefits. The only difference is, when the employee gets a letter about what he or she is entitled to, Holy Cross will send a letter leaving out these items and [he or she] will get a separate letter from the insurance company saying, “Oh, by the way, you are entitled to these items, the birth control, morning after pill and tubal ligation, for no charge at all.”
Now, it makes no difference whatsoever morally who tells you about the source of your insurance.
And second, is there anybody who believes this will be given away for free? If so, it’s the first time since the invention of insurance in Renaissance Italy that insurance has ever given away a service for nothing. This is magical thinking. It’s deceptive thinking. It’s cynical thinking. Other than that, it’s a great idea.
On speculation that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear program:
Our own secretary of defense has said that it’s highly likely. And he gave a timeframe — April, May, June, which means the Israelis think that the moment, the zone of immunity, where they can no longer attack successfully, is approaching.
I think he is right. I think the Israelis are serious [about attacking] unless something happens between now and midyear, or even November, that will threaten the regime. Because it [Tehran] won’t change the policy. I think Israel will strike because it cannot live under the threat of annihilation from Iran.…
Unless something intervenes, I cannot imagine the Israelis are going to allow Iran to go nuclear and to hold a Damocles’ sword over six million Jews all over again. Israel was established to prevent a second holocaust, not to invite one.

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