Cathleen Kaveny and Marc Thiessen: Kindred Spirits

In a truly touching moment of reconciliation between the eternally baffled Rubber Hose Right and the Pelvically Obsessed Left we get Cathleen Kaveny, former member of the Obama Campaign’s National Catholic Advisory Committee, penning an essay that is titled–I kid you not–“What is ‘Abortion,’ Anyway?” It’s in response to the excommunication of the nun in Arizona.

It’s soooooooo baffling! My head is just *spinning*! Who can even know how to define all these incredibly mysterious terms like “torture” and “abortion”? Golly! I’m sooooooo confused!

Until the Church offers us a detailed list in an infallible encyclical that details ever possible form of so-called “abortion” and so-called “torture” it is absolutely pointless for any Catholic to condemn any action as abortion or torture. Anybody who opposes these things or, worse still, condemns the actions of another is just a judgmental Pharisee.

Too bad the Coalition for Fog took their site down. The Torture Defenders on the Right and the Abortion Defenders on the Left really do have so much to say to each other. The whole Definition Game is so beloved by the Sophists of Death on both the Left and Right I find it amazing they haven’t fallen in love with each other yet.

The method is simple: take an extreme wedge situation. A tubal pregnancy. Or, if you happen to be a Republican shill instead of a Democrat shill, a ticking time bomb. Then simply say, “Are you going to let innocent people die? And besides do we really even know what abortion/torture are?” Thiessen/Kaveny are making the same arguements. And they are doing so, not out of the blue, but in response to specific political situations. Each of them are shills for politicians whose evil policies go way beyond these extreme situations. Each of them is trying to square the circle of Catholic teaching and politicians whose polices *cannot* be reconciled with that teaching. Easiest way to do that, heart-wrenching appeals to extreme wedge arguments. “We *have* to “abort”! We have to “torture”! (be sure to put the words in scare quotes in order to deny that you are saying what you are, in fact, saying). This nun was a hero! That CIA guy was a hero!” That’s the basic game being played here.