Great line of the day

Dave writes about how the Arkansas soldiers and Dr. Tiller were both shot by religious nutballs:

Anyone using their religion, regardless of what it is, as an excuse to shield their behaviour, instead of being able to steer that excuse to mitigate guilt or sentence, should have their sentence extended and the use of religion as an excuse treated as an aggravating factor . . . If an individual drags their religion into souless murder they should be made to pay a greater price.

Emphasis mine.

Late term abortion

This is a late term abortion:

In 1994 my wife and I found out that she was pregnant. The pregnancy was difficult and unusually uncomfortable but her doctor repeatedly told her things were fine. Sometime early in the 8th month my wife, an RN who at the time was working in an infertility clinic asked the Dr. she was working for what he thought of her discomfort. He examined her and said that he couldn’t be certain but thought that she might be having twins. We were thrilled and couldn’t wait to get a new sonogram that hopefully would confirm his thoughts. Two days later our joy was turned to unspeakable sadness when the new sonogram showed conjoined twins. Conjoined twins alone is not what was so difficult but the way they were joined meant that at best only one child would survive the surgery to separate them and the survivor would more than likely live a brief and painful life filled with surgery and organ transplants. We were advised that our options were to deliver into the world a child who’s life would be filled with horrible pain and suffering or fly out to Wichita Kansas and to terminate the pregnancy under the direction of Dr. George Tiller.
We made an informed decision to go to Kansas. One can only imagine the pain borne by a woman who happily carries a child for 8 months only to find out near the end of term that the children were not to be and that she had to make the decision to terminate the pregnancy and go against everything she had been taught to believe was right. This was what my wife had to do. Dr. Tiller is a true American hero. The nightmare of our decision and the aftermath was only made bearable by the warmth and compassion of Dr. Tiller and his remarkable staff. Dr. Tiller understood that this decision was the most difficult thing that a woman could ever decide and he took the time to educate us and guide us along with the other two couples who at the time were being forced to make the same decision after discovering that they too were carrying children impacted by horrible fetal anomalies. I could describe in great detail the procedures and the pain and suffering that everyone is subjected to in these situations. However, that is not the point of the post. We can all imagine that this is not something that we would wish on anyone. The point is that the pain and suffering were only mitigated by the compassion and competence of Dr. George Tiller and his staff. We are all diminished today for a host of reasons but most of all because a man of great compassion and courage has been lost to the world.

And this:

I didn't know Dr. Tiller personally but I know of someone who he cared for from the Kansas City area. She was a young woman who was pregnant with an anacephalic baby, one without a complete brain and had no chance of surviving at birth. After a sonogram identified this situation she was so distraught that her ob-gyn here send her to Wichita to terminate the pregnancy. There was a great physical and psychological risk for her to continue carrying a baby that had no chance of life. Upon arrival with her mother, she had to make her way through the protesters who tried to pull her aside. It was a devastating experience to be attacked in that manner and it was a choice made to save her life and sanity. God bless Dr. Tiller and his family.

And this:

. . . My husband and I are devout Christians, and during that time we prayed and prayed, believing that God was going to heal our girls. Instead, the new prognosis was even grimmer than we had anticipated: The twins' conditions were actually growing worse. Savanna's fluid had spread around her abdomen, signaling a condition called ascites, which has a wide range of consequences, including putting additional pressure on the organs, thereby causing respiratory distress and heart failure. Sierra had a leaky heart valve. The doctor also suspected that they were developing Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, which meant that Savanna was taking blood from Sierra through their shared placenta. Sierra's chance of survival outside the womb hovered at around 5 percent—and she was the healthier of the two girls.
When the doctor who performed this second ultrasound suggested I consider terminating the pregnancy, I grew furious. As a Christian and a married woman who desperately wanted a child, I'd never given much thought to abortion. Like many others, I assumed that only women with unwanted pregnancies had the procedure. I wanted my twins to live. We're not doing that, I thought. There's just no way. But as John pointed out, Savanna was going to die, and when she did, she would take her sister with her. My doctor also confirmed that Savanna's illness could trigger a rare syndrome in me: I was mirroring some of her symptoms and retaining fluids. My body was extremely swollen and I could hardly walk. If I continued the pregnancy, I could put my own health at risk too . . . I have never before been a political activist. But if I have a chance to change even one person's heart by telling my story, that's what I want to do for my girls. I want Savanna's and Sierra's lives to have meant something.

And this:

. . . Instead of cinnamon and spice, our child came with technical terms like hydrocephalus and spina bifida. The spine, she said, had not closed properly, and because of the location of the opening, it was as bad as it got. What they knew -- that the baby would certainly be paralyzed and incontinent, that the baby's brain was being tugged against the opening in the base of the skull and the cranium was full of fluid -- was awful. What they didn't know -- whether the baby would live at all, and if so, with what sort of mental and developmental defects -- was devastating. Countless surgeries would be required if the baby did live. None of them would repair the damage that was already done . . . Though the baby might live, it was not a life that we would choose for our child, a child that we already loved. We decided to terminate the pregnancy. It was our last parental decision.

And I do not understand why anyone would think it was moral to deny parents the right to make their own decision about abortion.

Dr. Tiller

I knew nothing about Dr. George Tiller until this morning, but I join millions in mourning his death.
From Feministe :

He put the health of women above his own life.

From Pandagon:

If a woman has a later term therapeutic abortion---be it because it was a wanted pregnancy, she has serious mental health issues, or she is a child victim of rape---it’s rarely easy on her mentally or physically. Dr. Tiller’s clinic was renowned for the thoughtful patient support to help women get through what is a very difficult time---counseling, support groups, religious services for the lost baby if you desire.
He didn’t have to do this. He didn’t have to put his life and his family’s life on the line every day to tend to women going through a little-understood trauma. He didn’t have to go through a sea of protesters who hate women so much they actually think that women are lying about their problems so they “get” to have later term abortions. He didn’t have to suffer through relentless legal abuse at the hands of fundamentalist misogynists who obtain political power by exploiting voter ignorance about abortion. He didn’t have to make himself the target for this murder to help women, but for whatever reason, he rose to this challenge, and that makes him a real hero.

But, of course, it would be unseemly if pro-choice people actually got angry about this tragedy. The Associated Press writes:

[Anti-abortion activists]expressed concern that abortion-rights activists would use the occasion to brand the entire anti-abortion movement as extremist.
They also worried that there would be an effort to stifle anti-abortion viewpoints during questioning of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Her exact views on abortion aren't known, but conservatives fear she supports abortion rights.
Said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, an anti-abortion activist: 'No one should use this tragedy for political gain.'

Digby responds

Perhaps we could just sweep it under the rug and carry on with the slut shaming, bloody pictures and calling doctors murderers.

And chief wingnut Randall Terry is happy to oblige.
Just watch -- they'll complain about how Obama is persecuting them if they aren't allowed to turn the funeral into an anti-abortion protest circus.

The Sweater

In honour of the hockey playoffs -- The Sweater by Sheldon Cohen

All in

Sounds like Newt Gingrich is going all in against the Sotomayor nomination. And so is Rush Limbaugh.
And Obama has finally realized the stakes.
But I wonder if the Republicans have accounted for the "Iron This, Buddy!" effect, which Hillary mobilized so well. As Digby writes:

All the rancid talk about her alleged racism has been accompanied by a strong dose of sexism, particularly the whisper campaign about her "unseemly" temperament . . .When Scalia treats lawyers to a thorough grilling, he's just putting them through their paces and demonstrating his own strongly held convictions. When a woman does it, she's just a domineering bitch on wheels. This is a familiar double standard for working women everywhere.. . .
When I see these conservative men on television bleating plaintively that the president shouldn't have chosen a Latina federal judge but rather chosen "the best person for the job," I can't help but burst out laughing at the total lack of self-awareness such comments illustrate. It's clear they believe that 96% of all Supreme Court judges having been white males simply shows that white males are more qualified than anyone else. It's hilarious.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

The classic:



Apparently Steven Spielberg called this "the Citizen Kane of animated film".

Ontario is worth every penny

So here it begins -- a Globe and Mail political reporter, Konrad Yakabuski, is claiming that the auto bailout is going to cost $1.4 million per job and that "maxed-out taxpayers" are questioning the cost.
Well, he's not speaking for me.
For decades, Canadians in Ontario have been shelling out to help Western grain farmers. And cattle ranchers. And hog producers. And forestry workers. And fruit growers. You name it, year after year, crisis after crisis, Ontario taxpayers have been paying for loan guarantees and subsidies and retraining programs and economic development grants for Western Canada.
So now, for once, Ontario needs help to save one of its most important industries.
And we can damn well give it to them.

Creepy

Boris asks Dear Leader what the fuck is wrong with you?

. . . there is no excuse for the way you've carried on since you first found office. "Tapes"? Seriously man, you're a thug. . . . You nursed your grievances and rage and let them putrify and corrupt you like Annakin Skywalker.
Really, it must be hard to hang on to that kind of anger.

I keep remembering Rick Mercer's story in December about the Potemkin supporters, Conservative staffers who were sent to 24 Sussex to cheer when Harper drove past.

Mr. Harper, by all accounts, actually believed that the young people were there of their own accord and represented a groundswell of love and support for his actions. Staffers in the Prime Minister's Office know that he is easier to handle when being applauded and not questioned.

Lord save us from another prime minister with borderline personality disorder.

Tricky Dicky North

Talk about fiddling while Rome burns, Harper is listening to Iggy-tapes while Canada goes broke.
Steve V calls his post about this "Harper Unplugged" but I think it's more like Harper Unhinged.
A BCer in Toronto posts Ignatieff's response -- Employment Insurance claims are up, stimulus funds aren't being spent, we're got a $50 million deficit, and our Prime Minister is chortling about listening to tapes? Yes, its definitely Nixonian, as Iggy says:



Then again, maybe Harper could learn something by listening to Iggy -- you may have heard he was at Harvard?
But actually that crashing sound reverberating across the country is not just Harper burning, its the other shoe dropping.
Now we understand why the Conservatives started running those ridiculous attack ads about Ignatieff -- they were trying to push him off-balance before the news got out about the deficit.
Didn't work.

Shorter

The lesson Harper is learning from the isotope crisis:

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Do do that voodoo that you do so well.

Here is Sebastian's voodoo which won the fifth competition of the NFB in association with Cannes Short Film Corner and YouTube. Four short films were posted on YouTube for voting through May.



Check out the others, particularly Reach. Thanks to Drawn for the link.

Towel Day

In memory of Douglas Adams, today is Towel Day. Globe reporter Matt Hartley quotes what the Hitchiker's Guide says about towels:

"A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough."

It is important to know where one's towel is.
And don't panic!

Glad to hear it

Whenever I read about some new conspiracy theory about how somebody is secretly running everything behind the scenes, I think "Well, thank heavens SOMEONE is in charge of this mess!"

Afghanistan mission?

John Cole has a question about Afghanistan:

What exactly are we doing over there? And I’m not saying that seizing the things that makes the Taliban go is a bad thing, just that it is hard to figure out what our big plan is in the region. Drug seizures in a region renowned for opium production just seems kind of whack-a-mole.

As soon as you find out, John, please let the rest of us know, because Canadians have been asking that question for the last six or seven years.
For a while there, early on, in late 2001 and 2002, it did seem as thought the Afghanistan war had some sort of purpose. But that was a long time ago, before it turned into some kind of War Lite with interminable "raids" and "sweeps" and drones killing wedding parties and roadside bombs blowing up young Canadian and American soldiers for no reason anyone can still remember.

Its a wonderful town

My daughter just called as she was walking through Times Square in New York, where it is Fleet weekend so there are sailors all over the place. Reminded me of this great number: