Tag: Animal Rights

House Democrats: *Some* Children’s Lives Matter

Clifford A. Brown
Clifford A. Brown
1312
 

Well, House Democrats certainly did not waste any time. Their just-for-show funding bill not only rejects border security funding but also packs in all their abortion absolutist wishes. President Trump cannot trade away pro-life policies for some wall funding, so the House bill to end the government shutdown has been strictly leftist loyalty signaling. Can Democrats in leadership yield on these positions, or are they clinging to the backs of hungry young leftist tigers, who might shred their leaders’ careers in an instant?

The spending bill that Democrats introduced Wednesday includes language specifying that foreign non-governmental organizations that perform abortions consistent with the laws in their country are not ineligible for U.S. family planning funds.

Trump, like all his Republican predecessors since former President Ronald Reagan, cut off family planning funds to organizations that promote abortions for family planning.

Preview Open

Member Post

Lash LaRoche
Lash LaRoche
2111
 

It’s déjà vu all over again: “There is a healthy and an unhealthy love of animals: and the nearest definition of the difference is that the unhealthy love of animals is serious. I am quite prepared to love a rhinoceros, with reasonable precautions: he is, doubtless, a delightful father to the young rhinoceroses. But I will […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Member Post

DownUnder
DownUnder
109
 

My family and I just spent a few days at the beach over Christmas. Naturally, I thought about sharks. It’s my only thought at the beach.  I don’t like sharks. I don’t see the point of sharks except to terrify us and their fellow aquatic creatures.  So, early this year, when the government of Western […]
Join Ricochet!

This is a members-only post on Ricochet's Member Feed. Want to read it? Join Ricochet’s community of conservatives and be part of the conversation. Join Ricochet for Free.

Mr. Fluffy Goes to Washington

Done
Done
3717
 

As the Christmas shipping season buries me under a never-ending torrent of data, I find myself with little time to read and write about politics. I am, however, never too busy to bask in the latest insanity to come out of Vox: “Should dogs be citizens? It’s not as crazy as you think.”

“Not as crazy as I think” is a bar set so low as to be underground, and clearing it is not a feat worth bragging about. Just how crazy is it, Vox?

Preview Open

How Do You Think about Animal Rights?

Troy Senik
Troy Senik
5826
 

Browsing Twitter yesterday — what, like you spent the whole weekend building low-income housing and going to the gym? — I stumbled across an interesting exchange being curated by NR’s Kevin Williamson on the topic of animal rights. His take: that the whole idea of animal cruelty is awash in confusion.

Screen Shot 2014-09-08 at 11.57.59 AM

Preview Open

Can a Non-Human be a Person?

Stephen Dawson
Stephen Dawson
5114
 

shutterstock_99733508At the end of the latest Law Talk, Professors Epstein and Yoo (not atypically) disagree. Prof. Epstein appeared to have based his view on the topic on an assumption that is widely held, rarely stated, and that logically leads to shocking conclusions.

The subject was legal action proposing that an ape be recognised as enjoying certain ‘human rights’. Prof. Epstein suggested he’d be willing to entertain the idea when the chimpanzee could argue its own case. This suggests that the rights attach to the creature as a result of its intellectual (and communicative) abilities.

Prof. Yoo wisely noted that this was a category error: that a human enjoys human rights because he or she is a human, not because he or she can act like a human (my words rather than his). A human baby, he noted, is entitled to human rights although such a child could not represent him or herself in a court.

Preview Open

The Traditional Circus Gets A Win

Joe Escalante
Joe Escalante
1912
 

circusI’m not surprised but I’m not hearing a lot of people talking about The Humane Society, The ASPCA, and others, having to pay Ringling Bros. for misleading people about how they treat their elephants. Is this significant? Will people think twice the next time their heart strings are tugged by animal rights groups? Or does this just put off the inevitable end of the traditional circus as we know it. And please, no comments regarding how you feel about clowns.

Preview Open

Man vs. Bear — The Debate.

C. U. Douglas
C. U. Douglas
4521
 

Here in Oregon, a rancher recently shot and killed a black bear that was hunting his cattle. The bear made the news, as it hit a record-breaking (for this area) size of 490 pounds. That is a lot of black bear, which is the smallest and most widespread of the species in North America. Of course, the real fun of this article is the comments section. As could be expected, the arguments boil down to city environmentalists versus country conservationists.

For us city folk, the arguments come down to three points:

Preview Open

Washington’s Unhelpful Efforts to Stop the Ivory Trade — Richard Epstein

Richard Epstein
Richard Epstein
105
 

Regular readers of my work are aware that I have had more than a few occasions to criticize the policy goals of the Obama Administration. In my column this week for the Hoover Institution’s Defining Ideas, however, I take on an issue of a different nature: one in which the Administration’s goals are laudable, but the means by which it aims to achieve them are hopeless.

The Department of the Interior announced last month that it is imposing a sweeping ban on the commercial trade of ivory — one that will cover both the sale of objects that contain any amount of ivory, however small, and the shipment across state lines by the owner of any object that contains ivory. This policy is part of a well-intentioned effort to protect animals like elephants and rhinos from poachers by strengthening enforcement mechanisms against the illicit markets in which products made from their horns and tusks are traded. It suffers, however, from a total disconnect between ends and means. As I write:

Preview Open