The last one first. Here's Amanda Marcotte, in a tweet, just making things up:

Pro-choicers support quality women's health care, and are the enemies of those who force women into underground clinics like Gosnell's.

The claim she's making is based on the typical rhetoric that if you ban abortions, women will be driven to "back-alley" abortionists and many will die due to incompetent surgery.

Trouble is, that rhetoric is about a hypothetical situation in which abortion is outlawed. Abortion is not outlawed in America -- nor in Pennsylvania. Gosnell's clinic was not "underground;" it was, by appearances, a government-permitted abortion mill.

In fact, despite performing illegal late-term abortions, it still got no inspections or negative sanctions from the state -- specifically, the Grand Jury report stated, due to pro-choice politics, which demanded that, contrary to the law, no abortion clinic should have any inspections or scrutiny.

So what could she mean about "underground"? She might mean that Pennsylvania outlawed very late-term abortions. And thus women had to go to Gosnell's dingy, bloody house of horrors to get them.

So what she might mean is... the crimes that Gosnell is accused of should not have been crimes at all, because live-delivering nine-month babies and then snipping their spinal cords on the operating table should have been legal.

In which case we understand Marcotte's only concern here: That these abortions should have been performed in a cleaner, nicer, more professional setting, as legal abortions might be conducted. Because she'd have them be legal.

In this version of things, the only problem with Gosnell is that he didn't keep things clean and let one woman die to a botched abortion. The seven babies killed on the table? They simply should have been euthanized in more sanitary conditions, in a nicer room, with better lighting and a better staff-- a better staff, because they'd be working in a legal operation, and thus Gosnell wouldn't have to hire sketchy scrubs to do the butchering.

So Amanda Marcotte thinks the only problem with this venue was its aesthetics and professionalism -- if they were butchering live-delivered children in a cleaner venue, she'd have no problem.

I don't know how to inform her that the dirtiness of the lab -- this perhaps traceable to pro-lifers, who made the process illegal, and of course illegal operations tend to be dirty ones -- is really not the top consideration here. It's a consideration -- one woman died due to the incompetence and unsanitariness of the abortion mill -- but not the only consideration, and not the top one.

Honestly I don't even know why I responded to her. She's plainly a lunatic.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia is now considering deleting the entry on Gosnell. Their rationale? It's a local murder story, nothing more. And they know that because the story has failed to generate any attention in the national media.

Note that they're all working from the same playbook: If we just keep silent on this, if we impose a coordinated embargo, essentially the story just goes away.

I don't suppose I have to mention Orwell. You were already on that page.

And so was Wikipedia.

Posted by: Ace at 09:49 AM | Comments (522)
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Remember hearing that the drought and soaring hot temperatures last summer were because of global warming/climate change/whatever the hell the peers are calling it now? Um, yeah, about that. Not so much. 2012 drought wasn't caused by global warming.

NOAA asks: What caused the 2012 Central Great Plains Drought?

NOAAÂ’s answer: The central Great Plains drought during May-August of 2012 resulted mostly from natural variations in weather.

• Moist Gulf of Mexico air failed to stream northward in late spring as cyclone and frontal activity were shunted unusually northward.
• Summertime thunderstorms were infrequent and when they did occur produced little rainfall.
• Neither ocean states nor human-induced climate change, factors that can provide long-lead predictability, appeared to play significant roles in causing severe rainfall deficits over the major corn producing regions of central Great Plains.

Posted by: CDR M at 06:10 PM | Comments (834)
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This picture is actually Pulitzer-worthy. The judge in the Gosnell trial set aside some seats for the media, as judges do in high-profile cases.

Silly judge.

Meanwhile, a Washington Post reporter explains why she covers all sorts of national issues but hasn't written a word about this one.

Note that Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a dirty word got a lot of coverage by this reporter, but this story is just a "local crime story."

Like Newtown was. But then Newtown had "national ramifications" for legislation... that the media desired. This story also has national ramifications for legislation... that the media does not desire.

Great article at Patheos.

[T]he thing is that IÂ’m getting kind of sick of pointing out egregious bias only to see things not just remain bad but get worse. Just think, in the last year, we saw the media drop any pretense of objectivity and bully the Susan G. Komen Foundation into funding Planned Parenthood. And then we had how many months of coverage focused on someone calling a birth control activist a bad name? And who can forget every pro-life person in the country being asked to respond to Todd AkinÂ’s stupid remarks about rape?

So our abortion-drenched media would certainly want to cover what is arguably the countryÂ’s most horrific serial murder trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, right? Well, far from the front-page, top of the news, daily update coverage you rightfully would expect, itÂ’s been downplayed. Majorly downplayed.

...

But gosh darn it, can you think of any policy implications to this, uh, “local crime” story? And that’s all it is. Just like a bunch of other local stories the Washington Post also refuses to cover — local crimes such as the killing of Trayvon Martin and the killing of Matthew Shepard and the killing of students at an elementary school in Connecticut. Did the Washington Post even think of covering those local crime stories? No! Oh wait, they did? Like, all the time? Hmm. That’s weird. But did they cover them in terms of policy implications? Asking politicians for their views and such? Oh they did that, too? Hmm. So weird. Oh, and Sarah Kliff [Ms. Just a Local Crime Story -- ace] herself wrote one of those stories? Well, gosh, I’m so confused.

And what policies could possibly be under discussion with this Gosnell trial?

...

Journalists arenÂ’t exactly coming to her defense either. In the words of Andrew Kirell:

Yeahhhh, so IÂ’m pro-choice, but this Gosnell story is awful. And oh boy does it look bad for reporters normally on the health/abortion beat.

I've got one question for the media:

If the jury votes for the death penalty, how are you going to explain to your readers your complete embargo on this story? I imagine at this point you'd have to note that someone had received a capital sentence; at that point, what's your excuse for having not said a word about it?

Posted by: Ace at 08:19 AM | Comments (423)
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• So It Turns Out The Toomey-Manchin Bill Does Apply To Some Private Sales
  
• North Korea Says Tokyo Is Target No.1
  
• Democrats Block Resolution To Honor Lady Thatcher
  
• Mail Bomb Sent To Joe Arpaio Intercepted And Destroyed
  
• More Horror Stories Pertaining To Kermit Gosnell
  
• Apparently Jane Fonda Is Playing Nancy Reagan In Some Movie
  
• Newtown Families Get Handlers, Become Lobbyists
  
• Which Countries Execute The Most Prisoners
  
• Democrat Senator Cashing In On Dead Newtown Children
  
• Higher Education's Racism Problem
  
• MO Broke Own State Law And Shared Detailed Conceal Carry Records With Feds
  
• Anti-Gun Nuts Using Increasingly Graphic Images Of Newtown To Advance Agenda
  
• Terry McAuliffe's Solyndra
  
• Retail Sales In US Dropped In March By Most In Nine Months
  
• New Mars Photos May Reveal 1970s Soviet Lander
  
• Some Baseball Players Hurt In A Baseball Slap Fight
  
• Pogrom's Back In Vogue In Eastern Europe?
  
• Rev. Wright's Daughter Charged With Money Laundering In Fraud Scheme
  
• Drought Blamed For Demise Of Mayans
  
• Photos Of Life Inside North Korea
  
• Reminder: Don't Text While Driving
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:21 AM | Comments (593)
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Happy Friday.

The text of the Toomey-Manchin amendment is finally available. It does not contain the provision that Erick Erickson warned of. The NRA's characterization of it, though, was completely accurate.

"Republicans are passing around the popcorn." Yes. Yes we are.

The Obama Administration gave four more F-16s to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The actor suing IMDb for revealing her age lost her lawsuit. She's also presumably been made aware of the Streisand Effect.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:53 AM | Comments (344)
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No, its not a joke.

...Local governments would charge property owners a fee based on the amount of pavement on their property. It would be at the jurisdiction of the local governments to determine the size of those fees...

...With only 20 minutes remaining before adjournment, the amended bill was sent to the House, which approved the legislation 91-45. Gov. Martin OÂ’Malley is expected to sign the legislation into law...

None of this money could possibly be stolen or misdirected. Unthinkable in an incorruptible state like Maryland...

Next year, they come for the air you breath.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:01 AM | Comments (107)
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Bleg: Does anyone have experience mining Bitcoins?

Recently they seem to be reaching a critical mass (also possibly a bubble) so I've become interested in mining me some.

Why? Mostly because it's an interesting concept to have an open source untraceable-but-usable currency - and absolutely totally not because they're useful for buying underground guns, drugs, women, or alpacas.

This video is a pretty good introduction to what they are and this article seems to lay out all the steps you need to mine them.

So does anyone in the horde have experience with mining and using bitcoins? Are there any Moron groups? Any gotchas to using them?

FYI the current exchange rate is 1 bitcoin = $69 USD or 1/1650th of a healthy white child.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:25 PM | Comments (535)
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This was linked in the sidebar but I think deserves a nod here. This MOH was awarded posthumously today, for his actions and courage during the battle of Unsan, Korean War, November 1950.

"As Chinese Communist forces encircled (3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry during the battle of Unsan,) Kapaun moved fearlessly from foxhole to foxhole under enemy direct fire in order to provide comfort and reassurance to the outnumbered Soldiers. When the Chinese commandos attacked the battalion command post, Kapaun and other members of the headquarters withdrew 500 meters across a nearby river, but Kapaun returned to help the wounded, gathering approximately 30 injured men into the relative protection of a Korean dugout."

The narrative goes on to describe how the battalion became entirely surrounded by enemy forces. It recounts how Kapaun spent the next day, Nov. 2, repeatedly rescuing the wounded from "no-man's land outside the perimeter."

As the battalion's position became hopeless, "Kapaun rejected several chances to escape, instead volunteering to stay behind and care for the wounded." At dusk, he made his way back to the dugout.

"Among the injured Americans was a wounded Chinese officer," it continues. "As Chinese infantry closed in on their position, Kapaun convinced him to negotiate for the safety of the injured Americans."

The narrative then describes how, after Kapaun's capture, he intervened to save the life of a fellow Soldier who was "lying in a nearby ditch with a broken ankle and other injuries. As Chinese soldiers prepared to execute" the Soldier, "Kapaun risked his own life by pushing the Chinese soldier aside" thereby saving the Soldier's life.

He marched north to a POW camp with his fellow soldiers, and died there the next May.

via xbradtc

The full citation is below. more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:49 PM | Comments (109)
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NRO posted this, but honestly, I thought Kristen Powers and Jonah Goldberg made more interesting points on this than Krauthammer. Ah well. It's something.

I don't think this is just about abortion. The media refuses to cover any wedge issue which might hurt Democrats.

Oh, they do love reporting on things that put pressure on fissures between Republicans or fissures between Republicans and Independents. But when a story threatens to damage the papered-over differences between Democrats, or between Democrats and Independents, suddenly the media isn't interested in difficult political questions.

This story exposes faultlines between Democrats, who are by political necessity abortion absolutists, and Independents, who may lean somewhat pro-choice but sure the hell aren't on board for infanticide. But to report this story at all would put the Democrats in the difficult position of angering its an element of its hardcore single-issue leftist coalition, or alienating independents.

Thus, the media -- which just "wants to report the facts" and "takes no positions on policy questions" and which has no partisan leaning at all -- simply doesn't report the story at all.

After all, if the public hears of it, they may make The Wrong Decisions.

You don't trust children with matches and you don't trust the American public with information. It's that simple.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (440)
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"I don't comment on confidential sources," Corn told TPM in an email. "Can't say much now."

But I thought it was your "understanding" that the tape recording was legal, David.

Sweet:

Posted by: Ace at 02:51 PM | Comments (176)
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