tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33855769.post9028471869338912470..comments2024-03-27T17:40:18.022-07:00Comments on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: 'Fox News personality compares gays to terrorists' & other Friday midday news briefsBlackTsunamihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02349560427762283170noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33855769.post-30978080505952101072015-02-22T10:46:34.872-08:002015-02-22T10:46:34.872-08:00Alvin, the Baume piece is very good, but I have be...Alvin, the Baume piece is very good, but I have been wanting to open a colloquy on the question of 'public accomodations' for a while. And no, I am not a libertarian, and will discuss why the libertarian idea is a big <b>fail</b> below. I am a (mostly straight and always open) bisexual, in fact, someone who grew up in a lesbian household -- yes, lesbians DID exist 68 years ago to those endtimes Christians reading this.<br /><br />My problem is something Baume addresses -- but I am not sure he is right. This is the reverse case. He claims that a business is free to discriminate on other grounds but 'protected category' (and of course I agree with his point that we all need to work to get GLBTQs under that rule in every state).<br /><br />But is he right? My original problem was picturing myself as a print shop owner suddenly seeing Tony Perkins walking through the door, and not being sure I would have a right to refuse to serve him, and I <br />believe there are laws covering this as well. (Could a printer charge Republicans twice as much as Democrats, for example? I believe this is not allowed -- certainly a printer may not gouge a politician by inflating his prices for political work in general -- I think political ads must be charged at the lowest regular rates.)<br /><br />I want the right to slam the door on the elegant smirking face, and might shut my own business rather than accept an order from him. But if I have that right, what is to stop a baker from arguing that her refusal to bake a wedding cake ccmes not from 'discrimination against gays' but because the cake is 'political speech.'<br /><br />(For that matter, in a 'protected status' state, if a straight person comes to order a 'congratulations on your wedding' cake from the same baker, wouldn't she have every right to refuse it, since she is not refusing to serve someone based on their membership in a protected status group.<br /><br />Seem to remember that Blogger has a character restriction, so I'll end this here, and later today or tonogh put in a post dealing with the two additional concerns of 'emergency accommodations' --<br />a commenter pointed out that the action of a pediatrician who acted as this doctor did was merely am inconvenience, but what if she were an emergency room technician? -- and the problem with the libertarian position -- that societal and governmental pressure may overwhelm the 'hand of the free market.' You have at least a familial history that tells you that, during the period of segregation, a business that attempted to fight it through the free market would have failed. If it weren't burned to the ground before opening, it would become <i>de facto</i> segregated because no white would have risked patronizing it. Whichever, or even if it was allowed to operate, it would have failed because of that pressure.<br /><br />Anyway, more later, if I do need to expand on the last.Prup (aka Jim Benton)noreply@blogger.com