{"id":18346,"date":"2015-04-07T13:37:07","date_gmt":"2015-04-07T11:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=18346"},"modified":"2015-04-07T13:37:07","modified_gmt":"2015-04-07T11:37:07","slug":"ilana-mercer-get-off-your-knees-gov-pence-youre-not-in-a-gay-bathhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=18346","title":{"rendered":"Ilana Mercer: Get off your knees, Gov. Pence! (you\u2019re not in a gay bathhouse)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pretend the U.S. is as free as the Founding Fathers intended it to be. In this authentically (and classically) liberal America, no one can tell free men and women what to do with their property, namely their bodies, their abodes and their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>The individual living in America as it was meant to be is free to run his business as he wishes, associate with those he likes, dissociate from those he dislikes or disapproves; hire, fire, rent to or evict from, invest and disinvest, speak and misspeak at will.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/ilana_nuut2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-16009\" src=\"http:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/ilana_nuut2-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"ilana_nuut2\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>This hypothetical free man is at liberty to bruise as many feelings as he likes, so long as his mitts stop at the next man\u2019s face. So long as he harms nobody\u2019s person or property, our mythic man may live as he wishes to live.<\/p>\n<p>Americans have been propagandized for so long; they no longer grasp the basic building blocks of liberty. A crude <em>reductio ad absurdum<\/em> should help:<\/p>\n<p>A retail store selling Nazi memorabilia opens its doors in my neighborhood. I enter in search of the yellow Star of David Jews were forced to wear during the Third Reich. The proprietor, decked out in Nazi insignia and regalia, says, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, we don\u2019t serve Jews.\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t be like that,\u201d I say. \u201cWhere else can I find a pair of clip-on swastika earrings?\u201d The Nazi sympathizer is polite but persistent: \u201cMa\u2019am, I mean no disrespect, but back in the Old Country, Jews murdered my great grandfather\u2019s cousin and used his blood in the leavening of the Passover matzah.\u201d \u201cYeah,\u201d I reply. \u201cI\u2019m familiar with that blood libel. I assure you my own mother&#8217;s matzo balls were free of the blood of brats, gentile or Jewish. No matter. I can see where you\u2019re coming from. I\u2019m sorry for your loss. Good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There! Did that hurt?<\/p>\n<p>Did I rush off to rat out my Nazi neighbor to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice? Not on your life. A principled Jewish libertarian (with a sense of humor)\u2014who believes in absolute freedom of association and the rights of private property\u2014would doff his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.headcoverings-by-devorah.com\/Headcoverings_Kippot.html\" target=\"_blank\">Kippah<\/a> and walk out.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 120px; height: 240px;\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;OneJS=1&amp;Operation=GetAdHtml&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;source=ac&amp;ref=tf_til&amp;ad_type=product_link&amp;tracking_id=praag-20&amp;marketplace=amazon&amp;region=US&amp;placement=0984907017&amp;asins=0984907017&amp;linkId=ASOBKPKUPKGY3XQ4&amp;show_border=true&amp;link_opens_in_new_window=true\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Similarly, if a restaurant refused to serve a gay family member and her partner; why would we wish to compel its sincere owners to wait on us? Why make them uncomfortable? Why not take our business where it\u2019s wanted?<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, anti-discrimination law banning the private discrimination just described is inconsistent with freedom of association and the right of private property.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat right to discriminate is the very essence of freedom,\u201d remarks Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute. \u201cThat\u2019s why people came to this country, to escape forced associations\u2014religious, economic, political, or otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not all jurists have a good understanding of liberty.<\/p>\n<p>While poor, hapless Governor Pence has a far better handle on freedom than legal positivist Judge Andrew Napolitano\u2014the Judge <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wnd.com\/2015\/04\/indianas-new-law-constitutionally-infirm\/\" target=\"_blank\">condemned <\/a>the spirit of a law that grants a defendant a legal standing to argue his case in a court of law\u2014Pence lacks the TV persona\u2019s bombast.<\/p>\n<p>Get off your knees Gov. Pence; you\u2019re not in a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gay_bathhouse\" target=\"_blank\">gay bathhouse<\/a> (where only gays are, presumably, welcome). Muster a coherent defense of the bedrock of a free republic\u2014and of civilization itself: the rights of private property and freedom of association.<\/p>\n<p>Why do men like Mr. Pence, who understand these principles all too well, buckle before a mob of lobotomized tyrants with the intelligence of a Miley Cyrus?<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2015\/03\/27\/text-indianas-religious-freedom-law\/70539772\/\" target=\"_blank\">Indiana\u2019s Religious Freedom Restoration Act<\/a>. I believe the relevant section is a modest thing: \u201c\u2026 the court or other tribunal shall allow a defense against any party and shall grant appropriate relief against the governmental entity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This small clause came as a surprise, unaware as I was that American courts deny a manifestly religious defendant the right to mount a faith-based defense. The legal defense reclaimed by the Indiana law is thus almost pitiful. How illiberal have U.S. courts become if a defendant has no legal standing to argue his religious convictions?<\/p>\n<p>Canada operates an extra-judiciary Human Rights Tribunal that, likewise, affords its victims none of the traditional defenses Canadian courts usually allows. For example, <em>mens rea<\/em>, or criminal intention\u2014the absence of the intent to harm\u2014is no defense in this Tribunal. Neither does \u201ctruth\u201d qualify as an argument in a \u201ccourt\u201d that prosecutes thought crimes. If he denies the Holocaust, a defendant in these Canukistan courts cannot assert a sincere belief in this conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>The absence of due process in Canada&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ilanamercer.com\/phprunner\/public_article_list_view.php?editid1=274\" target=\"_blank\">Human Rights apparatus<\/a> makes it one of the most oppressive instruments at the state\u2019s disposal. Not for nothing is it referred to as a Kangaroo Court.<\/p>\n<p>And it is a Kangaroo Court that says yes to the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.findlaw.com\/blotter\/2012\/11\/what-is-the-twinkie-defense.html\" target=\"_blank\">Twinkie Defense<\/a>, and no to the faith-based defense.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a9 2015 by Ilana Mercer<\/em> <a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ilanamercer\" data-show-count=\"true\" data-size=\"large\">Follow @ilanamercer<\/a> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Ilana-Mercer\/125168679420\" target=\"_blank\">Like Ilana Mercer&#8217;s Facebook page<\/a><\/strong> Read Ilana in German on <a href=\"http:\/\/jungefreiheit.de\/author\/ilana-mercer\/\" target=\"_blank\">Junge Freiheit<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pretend the U.S. is as free as the Founding Fathers intended it to be. In this authentically (and classically) liberal America, no one can tell free men and women what to do with their property, namely their bodies, their abodes and their businesses. The individual living in America as it was meant to be is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=18346\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ilana Mercer: Get off your knees, Gov. Pence! (you\u2019re not in a gay bathhouse)&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,80],"tags":[3039,11406,8843],"class_list":["post-18346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-ilana-mercer","tag-gay","tag-indiana","tag-judge-andrew-napolitano"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18347,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18346\/revisions\/18347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}