OP|pulp|ED FICTION: Suspiciously convenient convergences in op/ed columns

When your conscience goes to work: no one should be forced to sacrifice his beliefs to a job (LA Times)

By Crispin Sartwell
Crispin Sartwell teaches political philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa.

In his April 6 opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times supporting the idea of a "conscience clause" for pharmacists morally opposed to birth control, Crispin Sartwell opens with this:

I once worked in a philosophy department in which one of the professors was active in NAMBLA, the controversial North American Man/Boy Love Assn. The secretary, a deeply religious woman named Judy, was assigned the task of typing up his man-boy love book manuscript and sending it off to the publishers.

She came close to quitting, but she was the sole provider for three children. Finally, she held her nose and typed one-handed.

I think of Judy when I think about the issue of whether pharmacists should be permitted to refuse to fill prescriptions at which their conscience balks. The conscience of some pharmacists balks at birth control and morning-after pills.

Wow! Just imagine it. Sartwell once worked (past tense is critical here: don't want his current coworkers and employer to freak out) in a philosophy department where an outrageously proud and defiant pedophile forced the department's deeply religious secretary (single mom to three kids, no less) to type up his personal manuscript -- and not just any old personal manuscript but a nasty man-boy love book manuscript.

Does this not boggle the mind?

Pure bogusness.