[Rhodes22-list] Politics - The Camel's Nose Is Well Inside The Tent

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Hank,
 
As you point out, there's a lot to be said for letting you decide how to  run 
your business, but clearly, that can be taken too far.  Society has  decided, 
for better or worse, that you can't discriminate based on race, color,  sex, 
religious convictions, physical handicaps, sexual orientation, and the  list 
may go on.  We can discuss the reasonableness of those laws, but they  are 
generally accepted laws.   All we need is for a guy like  Rummy to step forward 
and claim that drunkeness is part of his religious  conviction and there's a 
case against the hapless Somali cab driver he wants to  hit, and I suspect Rummy 
would win big time (certainly by Somali cab driver  standards).  
 
>From my perspective, Moslem cab drivers are a zit to this  problem.  The real 
problem is born again Christian doctors and pharmacists  that deny service.  
They are licensed to be in business by the public,  they are tightly regulated 
and they benefit greatly from that regulation  and licensing.  I think is 
reasonable to expect them to provide the service  they have represented they 
would provide, without discrimination.  If a  person were in physical distress, I 
think it's unreasonable that they be denied  service because the medical 
practitioner decided the person was a "good person"  or "bad person", or the 
disease or affliction at issue was gods revenge, or any  other hare brained reason.  
If they want to pass judgement on people,  diseases, conditions, and/or 
approved drugs they should be  philosophers or ethicists; if they want to practice 
medicine they should be  doctors or pharmacists.  The individual has a choice, 
but having made that  choice and represented that they would provide a 
service (which is an  implicit part of their licensing) they are committed to 
provide the service  without discrimination to the best of their ability.
 
I see the whole issue as just another kind of discrimination based on  
religious convictions.
 
Just my opinion.
 
Dave