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George Will Is Wrong about Masterpiece Cakeshop: The Right NOT to Promote a Message is Protected
National Review ^ | 12/05/2017 | David French

Posted on 12/05/2017 7:13:17 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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1 posted on 12/05/2017 7:13:18 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

If a heterosexual comes into a Christian bakery and asks for a “wedding cake” for two homosexual friends, and the baker refuses to make it for him, then how exactly is the baker engaging in any kind of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation?


2 posted on 12/05/2017 7:16:10 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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To: SeekAndFind

I absolutely HATE where this conversation is going. Now we’re flirting with the idea that discrimination against “gays” may not be kosher, but against events only.

This could have been a landmark case to bust open the fascist nature of “anti-discrimination” laws as they apply to private businesses and associations, but they won’t go there. What a tragically lost opportunity.


3 posted on 12/05/2017 7:22:08 AM PST by fwdude (Why is it that the only positive things to come out of LGBT organizations are their AIDS tests?)
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To: SeekAndFind

> one of the all-time greats of the conservative movement, George Will <

Well, at least the author has a sense of humor.


4 posted on 12/05/2017 7:24:35 AM PST by Leaning Right
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To: SeekAndFind

Will’s a fool as has been proven over and over again.

These bakers need to come up with a different reason for not making these cakes. And then, if forced, add a little something to the batter. (In fact, gay websites always warn their brethren of this possibility.)


5 posted on 12/05/2017 7:25:41 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: SeekAndFind
The issue wasn't even about sexual orientation. He was refusing to let his artwork honor a particular event.
6 posted on 12/05/2017 7:25:41 AM PST by posterchild
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To: posterchild

RE: He was refusing to let his artwork honor a particular event.

Bingo, THAT is the main issue. The Baker could have served the gay couple or any gay who came in for ANY cake ( e.g. a birthday cake ).

Clearly a FIRST AMENDMENT issue which SHOULD protect the baker.


7 posted on 12/05/2017 7:28:48 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
As a long-time business owner and as a conservative, I think this is a bit more complicated than simply saying that a business owner can or should do whatever they personally believe. I also think it is incumbent upon the shopper to shop where they are welcome.

Anyway, I think there is a big Catch-22 in all of this--what is a business allowed to do or not do? The cake shop, Twitter, Facebook, your local Internet provider, etc. Shall all be able to impose their viewpoint on others? Thus, no conservative on the Internet, no conservative "right to refuse service" at the cake shop? While I agree that the cake shop, the wedding photographer, and others have right to refuse service, we need to reconcile this with the same right of Twitter and Facebook to refuse service. Same with Internet Service Providers that choose not to deliver certain URL addresses (heck, they might based on our desire for the cake shop, apply the same to block FR). That is the challenge, how do we apply personal rights to commercial entities. I think the only way is to say that commercial entities don't have 1st amendment rights of their owners, they are privileged organizations and have public responsibility.

8 posted on 12/05/2017 7:30:02 AM PST by Reno89519 (PRESIDENT TRUMP, KEEP YOUR PROMISES! NO AMNESTY AND BUILD THAT WALL.)
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To: Alberta's Child

That’s a different kind of heterosexual of course, who is included under the second A of LBGTQQIAAP, namely “allies”.

I wonder how Karl-Maria Kertbeny, the journalist who coined “homosexual” and “heterosexual”, would regard the ever-changing expansion of pseudoterms that his own pseudoterms spawned.


9 posted on 12/05/2017 7:31:04 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: SeekAndFind
A cake can be a medium for creativity; hence, in some not-too-expansive sense, it can be food for thought. However, it certainly, and primarily, is food. And the creator’s involvement with it ends when he sends it away to those who consume it.

Substitute "house" for "cake," and "Frank Lloyd Wright" for "Jack Phillips." Does Will's argument still hold up?

Clearly, a house is primarily for dwelling, so why are Wright's houses so famous?

-PJ

10 posted on 12/05/2017 7:32:01 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: Political Junkie Too

To keep up with the food metaphor: Will’s a fruitcake.


11 posted on 12/05/2017 7:33:29 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: miss marmelstein

Will is a swamp creature looking out for fellow swamp creatures.


12 posted on 12/05/2017 7:34:17 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: SeekAndFind

George Will is “Willfully Ignorant” in this matter.

He knows damn well that Mike had sold product to these guys many times before.

There is NO legal compulsion for him to participate in a fraudulent ceremony.


13 posted on 12/05/2017 7:35:15 AM PST by G Larry (There is no great virtue in bargaining with the Devil)
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To: jospehm20

Yup.


14 posted on 12/05/2017 7:36:19 AM PST by miss marmelstein
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To: SeekAndFind
In a nutshell: George Will is an avowed atheist, and has quietly been pushing that agenda all his writing career. He was reared by secular "humanists", the son of a "philosophy" teacher.

I had my fill of Will after his book "Pursuit of Virtue and Other Tory Notions" came out in the 80s. It wasn't the book per se. It was that shortly after the book came out that it was revealed he was banging some bimbo on the side.

He divorced his wife, dumping her, leaving her with three kids to raise including one with Down's syndrome.

Call me old fashioned but I find it rather unsavory to be pushing a book on the virtues of virtue, while engaging in a personal life that was quite the opposite.


 

15 posted on 12/05/2017 7:36:31 AM PST by Governor Dinwiddie
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To: SeekAndFind

If he refused to make a cake for the (statistically unlikely) same sex marriage of two heterosexual men (for tax reasons perhaps) would this even end up in court?


16 posted on 12/05/2017 7:37:18 AM PST by posterchild
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To: SeekAndFind

George Will is usually always wrong.


17 posted on 12/05/2017 7:38:51 AM PST by democratsaremyenemy (Streepisacreep)
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Forcing someone to say something with a gun to their heads is called something. What could that be? Hmmm.


18 posted on 12/05/2017 7:41:18 AM PST by USCG SimTech
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To: SeekAndFind

Problem George - they offer to sell their bake goods to anyone - there’s just some messages they will not utilize their artistic abilities to create.......I bet they would also refuse to put, “All faggots should eat $#!+ and die” on a cake too....


19 posted on 12/05/2017 7:41:56 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Olog-hai
Excellent point. If two gay men came into my place of business and I was subject to some kind of legal harassment for "discrimination" for refusing to do business with them, my obvious defense would be:

"How am I supposed to know whether they're homosexual or heterosexual?"

20 posted on 12/05/2017 7:42:16 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("Tell them to stand!" -- President Trump, 9/23/2017)
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