11/22: pro-life license plate

[Undertoad]

I don't have any Thanksgiving-specific images, so I just have to pick the most provocative one I have in the pile right now, and that's this one. Yesterday a county-level judge in Florida threw out a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of this license plate design. Discuss amongst yourselves.

[kaleidoscopic ziggurat]

free speech right?

i still don't have a conclusive opinion on the topic... both sides have great arguments. i'd love to see some statistics on adoption waiting list times and such though! my mother is a rather strong pro-lifer based on two items: responsibility/accountability for your actions, and the high demand for kids from parents that can't have some of their own. in this day and age of high tech birth control being readily available, one has to admit that in a lot of cases an unwanted pregnancy is just irresponsible... but then again i personally feel the planet doesn't need any more human beings and in some ways keeping them off the playing field saves thousands of lives [smaller ones, perhaps... non-human, without a doubt..].. . . still - someone makes a mistake - should they not pay the consequences? 4 or 5 months of being bloated and sick is perhaps a healthy reminder that the reproductive act isn't just pure fun - there are biological strings attached if you're messing around immaturely. cause & effect.

it would be a tough sort of item to legislate though... very few things seem reasonable, although i would feel that any woman whose age falls under the voting age should have all options available. a full-term pregnancy is a heavy lesson to pay when a scare is probably enough to right improper and irresponsible behavior.

but back to the license plate - whats so bad about it? people should be able to display whatever ideology they wish to as long as it isn't bloody stupid [and that's for the courts to decide, as they say].

anyhow, just some thoughts... as i said, i really don't have a concrete stance on the topic... but i do feel that women should be accountable with such a heavy matter.

[Slight]

Ok this is weird. First of all I would like to know if this is what the plate actually looks like or if it is just a mock up done by the party responsible for the Florida bill getting passed. I assume it is real. The fake license number reads like this to me: (what's the issue?) Abortion, I'm 4 it. Obviously they mean: Choose life, I am for it.

I have major issues with this plate, but I can't think of a legal problem with it. The plate and it's design should be protected by free speech. The people choose to pay extra to get this plate and have their money put to use by the state. I guess besides being an issues loaded design, I don't like the idea of the government printing other peoples speech. Seems to me like someone else should print the plates and dole out the money. It is almost state sponsered propaganda.

If it was up to me each state sould have just one design (except for vets, disabled people, trucks, trailers, gvmt vehicles, higher education vehicles, diplomats, and dealers) and you could have whatever number on your plate if you so choose at no extra cost. I would get FUCK YOU, just to be contrary and obnoxious. Here in Colorado there are like 20 designs that are standard and my friend tells me it is no better in Arizona. You want variety? Bah I say!

[Whit]

I think most of us agree that this falls under free speech. If you disagree then say so. For the rest of us let's just drop the obligatory "They have a right to say this" section and get to the issue we're going to argue about shall we?

I think the plate's an ad, not a real plate. Like the one's for sport's team's. Which would make it more important because it could be on alot of cars not just one.

Oops, gotta go I'll post again later.

[jaguar]

i don't see anything wrong with it.
Even if the idea makes me sick.

[lisa]

Even though I tend toward being a pro-lifer (though I can usually see both sides of the issue), I have a problem with the state promoting controversial issues on license plates.

IOW, if they have a "pro-life" licence plate, they should have to have a "pro-choice" license plate. Especially since "pro-life" is not the law.

This used to be the rule, if you recall, for the media, "equal time" for controversial issues. And, although, that has been removed, I still think that the government itself should have a similar kind of requirement.

[Griff]

I have a problem with licence plates.

[serge]

"Choose reason"

pic of xtian cross in a crossed out circle


Oh wait.. 'equal time' is only on paper...

[Whit]

     Ya know, this may seem a little cold but...

responsibility/accountability for your actions, and the high demand for kids from parents (or more likely parent) that can't have some of their own. in this day and age of high tech birth control being readily available, one has to admit that in a lot of cases an unwanted pregnancy is just irresponsible...

     Have you considered in the case of people that have the 'unwanted' kid that the child is then raised by the irresponsible parents that didn't want him/her in the first place?

     Also, the last time I heard the demand for kids to be adopted was pretty much for white kids only. Not to sound racist but minority children just don't have the same demand. That's just life.

     Hey, I've got a horror story or two about adoption but I'll save that for later...

[jaguar]

argh i reallyreallyreally don't want to get started on this one - its one of my big hangups, mostly because of person experience..
First thing that came to mindwas thatit seems 90% of the pro-lifers are christian, male or both. Religious views of one person shouldn't effect teh lifestyles of other people nad it doesn't have nearly the same effect on guys as it does girls. MOst pro-lifers also seem to be pretty militant, many i've spoken to thought it should apply to RAPE as well - stupid, stupid people are so cuaght in the hwole poor little child thing what about the poor bloody mother, even if its jsut na unwanted pregnancy it can very easily ruin someones life, adoption isn't that easy. Particualry (on both points) if the person happens to be underage.

WOW - this was purely government funded? now that stinks of someone using public money on their own little jhad. You can get similar things in aust- but you have to pay for them, thats fine.

[Griff]

"WOW - this was purely government funded? now that stinks of someone using public money on their own little jhad. You can get similar things in aust- but you have to pay for them, thats fine."

Umm no. I assume like the rest of these schemes its designed to put more money in the coffers by charging extra for a special plate.

From personal observation, I'd say most militant pro-lifers are male but most prolife folks are not militant. Most, like myself, are content to live out our beliefs in our own lives and only get bent out of shape when asked to be accomplices in others' choices. Don't expect me to stand idley by while you abort, execute, or bomb on my dime.

[serge]

Originally posted by Griff
From personal observation, I'd say most militant pro-lifers are male

Indeed, women (for the most part) seem to actually understand the issue.

Don't expect me to stand idley by while you abort, execute, or bomb on my dime.

No one is aborting YOUR fetus.. now about executing doctors and bombing clinics.. there's much to be said about that.

[modernhamlet]

But I just heard a news story on NPR about how a huge percentage of the nations hoax anthrax scares have been reported at reproductive health centers and pro-choice organizational offices. 500 times, the authorities have had to quarentine and test these places, just in the last month.

I would personally like to thank these horrible nutjobs for making their side look like a bunch of lunatics.

That said, it makes me really sad.

mh

your right to swing your fist around stops at my face

[elSicomoro]

Hmmm...are they going to offer a Pro-choice plate? I don't personally see anything wrong with it, and it seems to fall within the 1st Amendment boundaries.

Virginia apparently still has a Confederate Pride plate...I remember a debate over that when I lived in DC.

[jet_silver]

What bothers me about these license plates isn't even the message. It's the God-awful -designs-. I can't think of a state whose "special cause" license plates don't look as though they were designed by a committee of half-wits whose artistic sensibilities begin and end with the Howard Johnson School of Hotel Decorating. Haven't these people heard of -artists-?