It’s not what I planned to write about, but this pharmacy thing is drawing a lot of responses. From one reader:

The question is then, how do you feel about pharmacist who refuse to sell any form of birth control? I don’t know if I would want my pharmacist deciding whether or not I should have any medication, it seems that a certified MD would be in a better position to make that choice.

Unless he chains you up in his basement, no pharmacist is ever going to decide whether you should have a medication. A pharmacist can only decide what he will carry and sell, and he has every right to do so. It’s not his problem or the state’s if you don’t like his wares, or if it’s a long drive to his competitor’s store.

One other response draws the desired absurd conclusion for me:

If the state is to license them, then it seems to me that that always comes with strings attached…Much as an observant Jew or moslem might not be able to work in a slaughterhouse that saw a lot of pork traffic, perhaps the most observant catholics and others cannot be licensed medical practioners in many countries in the West. The nature of faith is that it rules out all sorts of desired behaviour, after all; that being a licensed doctor might turn out to be one might perhaps be no surprise.

It’s refreshing to hear it spelled out that way — we’re legitimizing religious discrimination through ideologically motivated regulation. Another very common response pertains to the Muslim cabbie controversy from some months ago:

Very famously, Somali Muslim cabbies at Minn-St Paul Airport have exercised their “freedom of conscience” by refusing drivers who are carrying alcohol or disabled passengers who use guide dogs, booze and dogs being hated by Muslims. According to your standard, we are apparently to applaud the Muslim cabbies for their brave stand.

Strictly speaking, I am a big fan of signs that say “We reserve the right to refuse service for any reason.” I understand that we don’t live in that ideal world, but this correspondent implies that the presence of weird people in this world (and that isn’t legit Islam anyway, to refuse to transport people suspected of carrying alcohol) somehow justifies the continued erosion of the rights of business owners until they are gone. I’d like to see us do less of that, not more.