Saturday, January 24, 2009

Explain Me This

Many on the Left (and some on Right, nine cents away) are chortling over the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, yet more meddling between employer and employee on the part of the Great Parents In Washinton. Funny, I'm not hearing them are gripe about this: "Almost all male U.S. citizens, and male aliens living in the U.S.,who are 18 through 25, are required to register with Selective Service." [Emphasis mine]

Why is that? Hey, I'm happy to be a full citizen and all, don't get me wrong; one of the best things about Western Civilization for us on the distaff side is we've got all manner of opportunities our ancestors could never have imagined, many thanks to technology. I can vote and I do vote. --But females are still exempt from the draft and kept away from front-line combat (and I am well aware of the very practical reasons for the latter, save your arguments).

Nevertheless, fair's fair. If we're gonna get paid the same, if we have all the same rights, hadn't we better also shoulder our share of the burden? Childbirth used to be woman's equivalent of warfare -- or even worse, since wars came and went but babies are born every day. Modern medicine has fixed that, even more than it has helped soldiers survive. So maybe it is time for us to step up, if we're gonna be gung-ho for equality in all things.

On the other hand, when I look at how Western Civilization has gone since my sisters got politically active, it frets me. What'd they turn their attention to even before the vote was won? Temperance, that's what, which gave us Prohibition, from which sprang nothing good. I dunno; maybe I shouldn't be voting. And neither should Hillary or Diane.

6 comments:

perlhaqr said...

I have to admit, I'm shamefully ignorant of the procedure for adding an amendment to a bill. How do we go about getting one of the few people in those *ahem* august bodies to sabotage this bastard by adding a line saying that with the passage of the bill, everyone who falls under it's jurisdiction is required to also register for the selective service?

WV: "mistr" HAHAHAAHAHAH!

CGHill said...

"Many on the Left (and some on Right, nine cents away)..."

This is the kind of phrasing I wish I could come up with, or as the Grammar Police say, with which I wish I could come up.

Not a dime's worth of difference, indeed.

Comrade Misfit said...

I have no problem with universal registration for the draft.

Roberta X said...

Fair enough, E.B.! Credit where credit's due -- you and I disagree on most things political but you're not whiny. I can't stomach whininess from either side.

Anonymous said...

One of the subjects which, to my massive frustration, I haven't been able to narrow down to a focused essay, is what I see as the great failure of feminism- starting with a role which was almost entirely defined for women by modern wealthy men, they decided that they should keep that definition of "feminine" and try to elevate and glorify that rather than focusing on all the things that the "masculine" virtues did to make the men productive full members of society. What feminists seem to currently hold as feminine- and therefore good- isn't liberating, it's a cage.

Suffice to say from my perspective, if we're to have a Selective Service at all it should damn well include women. "Rights" without responsibilities are merely privileges, and men and women alike know this deep down.

Anonymous said...

I was nearly sent to the stockade and dishonorably discharged when it was discovered, during basic training, that I had not signed up for selective service.

The CID guy talking to my drill sargent called it "falsified enlistment".

My Drill told me, "If there's one thing I can't stand in MY Army is a draft dodger!"

Joining the Army is not an out, why should any other thing allow you to avoid signing up?