"Constitutional Rights"- The Race Card For Ill-Informed Crusaders

Okay, over the last week or so i have heard about 18 million things that made me think, "man, i should blog about that...".

last night i heard something that so blew me away by its sheer idiocy that i actually made a note to remember it so that i could rant about it.

so, here goes:

you know that i am all about nursing. you know that i am even to the extreme of most nursing moms with the whole family bed/nursing on demand around the clock thing. i think that a mom should nurse her baby when her baby needs her, but there are certain limits of just common decency that i may or may not have time to throw in at the end of this post.

here's what got me last night. there was a case in ann arbor, michigan- the berkley, CA of the midwest- where a woman was nursing her baby at the local YMCA while her other child swam in the pool. clearly offended by the total lack of modesty shown by discreetly nursing under a t-shirt, the bikini-wearing lifeguard and other similarly clad swimmers objected to this shocking display and asked her to leave the pool area. when they realized how completely foolish they sounded (yes, we can wear bathing suits of all shapes and sizes, but you cannot show 1/4 inch of the side of your breast while you nurse becasue it is too shocking to our delicate sensibilities...) they told her that she was violating the regulation against having food in the pool area. i WISH i was making that up!

anyway, all of the baby-toting crackpots turned out for this one- you know, the ones with their 6 year old tandem nursing with their toddler and newborn- yeah, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway- they interviewed one of those women at a rally to show support. now, let me digress and say that i can totally get on board with saying that the no food rule clearly did not apply to the nursing mom transporting contraband in her breasts. i would fully support someone pointing out how ridiculous it is to be offended by some showing of skin when you are at a pool where people A) are wearing bathing suits, and B) are walking around the locker room stark naked...but this woman they interviewed, this intellectual giant, this well-read bastion of knowledge said she was really upset because, "...nursing infants have a constitutional right to eat!"

come again?

like i said, go ahead and feed your baby. more power to you! you have a right to feed your baby as long as you are being reasonably discreet and respectful of other people's personal space. but a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO EAT????

so many times when something happens in politics, some random person will throw out the race card for no clear reason. not that there is any evidence of racism, implied or otherwise. not like everyone is sick to death of hearing race-whining- they will still cry racism for the stupidest least racist thing around. apparently, this has been replaced by crying constitutional violation...


club gitmo prisoners have constitutional rights even thought they are not US citizens and are not protected by our constitution? yeah, okay...

you have a constitutional right to smoke in a privately owned bar in new york, even though the owner and other patrons don't want you to? yeah, okay...

you have a constitutional right to not eat broccoli? import endangered species stolen from other continents? carry your box-cutters onto an airplane? yeah, whatever...

but "infants have a constitutional right to eat?" when did we, as a nation, stop thinking and start speaking in trite slogans that 90% of the population appears to latch onto even though they don't understand what they are saying?

i have always been among the snobby arrogant intellectual elite who belives that most people are dumber than i am - but seriously- are people getting that much stupider, or do i just have less patience?