MH - Well, Sure, It's Wrong, But That Doesn't Make It Wrong...

Next up is this observation (thanks for the link, KJL at NRO) from director Mike Leigh, who was nominated this week for an Academy Award for his latest film, Vera Drake, the story of a heroic woman abortionist:

I deliberately and without any affectation made Vera Drake to pose a moral dilemma that has no slick or easy answers. We live in an overpopulated world. There is no question that to bring an unwanted and unloved child into this chaos is deeply irresponsible. There is no question that you destroy life when you terminate a pregnancy. But there is also no question that choice ought to exist. Those are my personal views. The film can only work if the audience takes the moral and emotional debate away with them.

We live in an overpopulated world? According to whom? And isn’t it interesting that he accepts that abortion “destro[y’s] life”? “But there is also no question that choice ought to exist.”

Maybe I’m being cynical here, but I wonder what Mike Leigh’s stand on the Iraq War is? (I could Google it, but I’m too lazy tonight.) Wanna bet he’s against it, and that somewhere he justifies his opposition on the grounds that it’s an immoral war? But Mike, you just said “choice ought to exist.” Am I wrong? Am I missing something? Or is choice only good when you agree with it? Of course, we’ve never seen this kind of contradiction before…