Re: As always, I disagree...

But who are you to pontificate that, Diss? They are NOT universal principles, they never have been and they never will be. All I can say to such dictates is speak for your own offspring, not mine. My offspring ARE my property. Completely and utterly 100% MINE. Why? Because I said so. I made 'em and as far as I am concerned *I* will be the only one to dictate all the grand principles. No one else is in any position of "natural right" in the first place to contest that. I alone will be the one to set the standards and bestow upon my offspring any given freedoms at my own good will. I work independently of socialists and what they think. They are about as relevant to me as green Marsians. Just because my offspring are individuals with wills of their own makes no difference to the matter either, it's completely irrelevant to me.

Because you say so? What if your offspring disagree with you? What if they seek help from other people who will sympathize with their desire for freedom and who do not agree that DNA is the biological equivalent of an ownership tag? Without your so-called enemy, the state, to back up your claims of ownership, your claims to control your kids will have no teeth whatsoever.

And when I say "property" it is not necessarily in the monetary sense, but in that purely raw primordial animal sense. I consider my offspring my property not so much in terms of $ but instead just as a dolphin, lion or vulture would consider their young to be their own possessions.

No animal species other than humanity compell their offspring to be dependent on them any longer than is necessary. Animals do not see themselves as owning their offspring because they have no conception of ownership. Human beings are capable of rational thought, and as such, comparing us to other members of the animal species who rely on instinctual behavior more than learned behavior and abstract thought is falacious.