The Crazy Runs Deep

It's not just in Kansas. Antiabortion would-be terrorists are all over the U.S. And they're being funded by some deep-pocketed individuals...

Colorado "personhood law" backer linked to militant anti-abortion groups
The Colorado Independent - 8/11/08

Patrick Johnston, right, (and an unidentifed man) at a 2005 Columbus, Ohio-area abortion protest organized by Operation Rescue West and Minutemen United. (Photo/theoconia.blogspot.com)

A strange netherworld of extremes exists in today’s anti-abortion movement. Nowhere is that more evident than its latest political salvo coming to a voting booth near you in November — Colorado’s proposed Amendment 48, the so-called Human Life Amendment, a controversial mandate that seeks to confer constitutional rights to fertilized human eggs.

In the universe of antiabortion activism, a complex and sometimes toxic stew of passive pray-ins and endless letter-writing campaigns uneasily coexists with much more aggressive and violent means of ending abortion through patient stalking, clinic bombings and murder.

One man stands in the nexus between the mainstream factions that espouse the politically correct "love the sinner/hate the sin" mantra and the more virulent behavior inspired by strained Biblical justifications for killing said sinner.

James Patrick Johnston, D.O., is, by all appearances, a polite country doctor in south-central Ohio, husband and father of six children under the age of 10 with a new baby on the way. A self-avowed "life, liberty, and jobs" guy, he lost his 2007 bid for a seat in the Ohio General Assembly, where he ran on a plank of cutting taxes, expanding homeschooling and "making Ohio the first state in the Union to defy Roe v. Wade with a statewide abortion ban.”

Less obvious are his links to some of the most radical elements of the antiabortion movement — the paramilitary groups Army of God, Christian Gallery and Minutemen United that have been at the forefront of advocating for and celebrating violent clashes between anti-abortion forces and clinics.

The path leading from Johnston’s activism in poor Appalachian Ohio to the hotbed of wealthy religious conservatism in Colorado exemplifies the fluid interchange between the more radical antiabortion movement and those seeking to shield their past associations in order to appear more mainstream.

[Ed: See Johnston's article, "Justifiable Homicide: A Covenental View of Justice."]

[Read more.]

Is Scott Roeder a hero for murdering Dr. Tiller?

Anti-Abortionist Hate Speech Sparks Murder

This website has declared Merriam nutjob Scott Roeder a "hero" for murdering Dr. George Tiller yesterday in the lobby of his church. His murderer had a Jesus fish on his car. The irony is striking to anybody who thinks of Jesus as the "Prince of Peace." But this nutjob doesn't care about acting as Jesus would. According to someone who knows him, he is anti-government (they couldn't fry Dr. Tiller in court), so he took the law into his own hands. And he and other nutjobs think he did a righteous thing.

When I was in Sunday school, I was taught that Moses taught "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." But Jesus taught "love your neighbor as yourself," and "love your enemies." Love did not kill Dr. Tiller. The mental illness of one man plus hate speech from anti-abortion organizations killed Dr. Tiller.

On Steve Kraske's show today, Mary Kay Culp emphasized that she and Kansans for Life condemn this kind of action. I imagine Operation Rescue will issue a similar statement. Of course, they have to. But I doubt they are shedding any tears over Tiller's death. In the back room, I imagine they're giving each other high fives. Even if they didn't literally pull the trigger on the gun, they pulled the trigger on a nut who murdered Tiller after absorbing their constant inflammatory, hateful rhetoric against Dr. Tiller, Planned Parenthood and any other facility that provides abortions for women in need.

I hope for stronger restrictions and protections around any clinic that provides abortion and family planning information. I believe this will embolden other nutjobs to "go and do likewise." I hope and pray not, but I fear it.

Missing Link to Humans is Found

Fossil Ida: extraordinary find is "missing link" in human evolution

Perfectly preserved fossil Ida, unveiled in New York today, provides unprecedented insight into our ancestry

James Randerson
Guardian.co.uk
May 19, 2009

Ida, one of the most complete primate fossils ever found,
a 47-million-year-old human ancestor. Photograph:
Atlantic Productions Ltd.

Scientists have discovered an exquisitely preserved ancient primate fossil that they believe forms a crucial "missing link" between our own evolutionary branch of life and the rest of the animal kingdom.

The 47m-year-old primate – named Ida – has been hailed as the fossil equivalent of a "Rosetta Stone" for understanding the critical early stages of primate evolution.

The top-level international research team, who have studied her in secret for the past two years, believe she is the most complete and best preserved primate fossil ever uncovered. The skeleton is 95% complete and thanks to the unique location where she died, it is possible to see individual hairs covering her body and even the make-up of her final meal – a last vegetarian snack.

"This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of all the mammals; with cows and sheep, and elephants and anteaters," said Sir David Attenborough who is narrating a BBC documentary on the find [See video here.]. "The more you look at Ida, the more you can see, as it were, the primate in embryo."

[Read more.] And...

How a deal in a Hamburg bar led scientist to Ida fossil, the "eighth wonder of the world"

Komodo dragon bite: It's not the bacteria that kill you.

It's the Venom.

It probably took this long to find the true culprit killing the Komodo Dragon's victims because nobody wanted to get close enough to find out. The former best guess was that the critters had so much awful bacteria in their mouths that one bite was enough to infect their victims instantly, causing shock, then death. Now we find out the big lizard has more than horrible breath as a weapon; the killing drug is venom.

Parkinson: Turncoat on clean air

Parkinson Okays Toxic Giant Coal Plant

Was Kathleen Sebelius even out of the building before Mark Parkinson balked on his so-called Democratic principles in regard to the proposed coal plants?

Turns out, he has now okayed one giant coal plant in western Kansas that will pump out approximately two-thirds the deadly toxins that all three of the proposed plants would have. Way to go, traitor.

Traitor to the goodwill of ALL of Kansas, now the darling of Sunflower Energy and Republican legislators who kept thumping their drums about "jobs, jobs, jobs" to be created by the construction of the toxin factory. Parkinson apparently forgot that the wind blows from West to East, and people in the eastern part of the state have no death wish. They don't like toxins in their air, and neither should Western Kansans. Jobs are temporary; death by cancer is permanent. There are jobs, jobs, jobs in green industries, too, like wind turbines, which would work just fine in Western Kansas. I guess those jobs weren't "shovel-ready" and backed by powerful energy companies.

Parkinson says he won't run for Governor in 2010. More's the pity that, depending on who the *declared* (as opposed to fake) Republican candidate is, he might be the better choice. One wonders if he is telling the truth about not running. Seems that this latest betrayal shows his true Republican colors, and Sunflower Energy might be writing out a campaign check sometime soon.

Oh, woe is us.

Stephen Colbert on National Day of Prayer

The Colbert Report - Thursday, May 7, 2009

Clasp Your Hands Say Yahweh

To compensate for President Obama's bad attitude, Stephen has to amp up his own National Day of Prayer prayer. (04:46)

See video.

The Hobbit: Human Family Member, or ...?

Flatfooted Ape or Hominid?

Scientists have discovered the bones of a critter with feet that were way, way long for the size of its body. And get this: the feet were completely flat.

Now, we know this critter, who is thought to have existed as recently as 17,000 years ago on an Indonesian island, did not jump from an upper bunk to flatten its feet and get out of the Army. So what's with the flat feet?

Some scientists speculate that the critter developed the ability to walk, but not the ability to run, as our distant hominid ancestors did. For running and jumping, the critter would have needed an arched foot, they say. Did it fit into the hominid line that evolved arched feet? If not, where did it go? Up in smoke?

So what is this critter? A distant cousin, or a member of a different branch of the family entirely?

Unanswered questions are what science is all about: someone finds something, then speculates, based on other known facts, what the thing is. Then other scientists, based on still other known facts, says it is no such thing. And this is where it gets exciting. Now begins the true detective work. The hypothesis, the research, the papers, the arguments.

Where does "The Hobbit" fit into the human family picture? Or does it? One thing is sure: the answer will be hotly debated. And the more hotly it is debated, the more certain we may be that the final answer (if any) will be thoroughly supported by research by scientists around the globe.

Whether this critter is a hominid or ape has no influence on our daily lives. Yet the process of its identification has everything to do with the processes of science, which certainly does have an influence. This detective story is to be continued...

Most Repubs finally acknowledge GOP is incompetent

Hooray!

After eight years of the Bush Administration's deregulation, demoralification, depocketbooking, and deference to Big Bidness and the Military Industrial Complex, even Republicans, except for wingnuts, are now aware that the GOP is incompetent to govern. With a philosophy that's built around winning office and giving big gifts to their buddies, not public service, it was bound to enlighten even the dimmest dim-bulb Republican moron.

Dems scored higher on every issue except the improperly named "war on terror," where the two parties tied.

Ice Shelf the size of NYC breaks off in Antarctica

Still don't believe global warming?

Tue Apr 28, 1:51

by Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent –

TROMSOE, Norway (Reuters) – An area of an Antarctic ice shelf almost the size of New York City has broken into icebergs this month after the collapse of an ice bridge widely blamed on global warming, a scientist said Tuesday.

"The northern ice front of the Wilkins Ice Shelf has become unstable and the first icebergs have been released," Angelika Humbert, glaciologist at the University of Muenster in Germany, said of European Space Agency satellite images of the shelf.

Humbert told Reuters about 700 sq km (270.3 sq mile) of ice -- bigger than Singapore or Bahrain and almost the size of New York City -- has broken off the Wilkins this month and shattered into a mass of icebergs.

She said 370 sq kms of ice had cracked up in recent days from the Shelf, the latest of about 10 shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula to retreat in a trend linked by the U.N. Climate Panel to global warming.

[Read more.]

Palin fans diss their idol

Everyone to the left of Attila the Hun always thought Sarah Palin was a very bad joke. Her inability to name even one national publication she reads to keep up with world affairs. Her statement that she's qualified to be an internationally competent Veep (or even Pres) because she can see Russia from her house. Her RNC-funded clothes-shopping binge, which included buying silk underwear for her husband. And on and on. But now even her former supporters think she's a loser. About time they put their cute designer glasses on and took a closer look.

Fans of Sarah Palin Now See Her as a "Clownish, Vindictive Amateur"

By Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
Posted on April 22, 2009, Printed on April 27, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/137975/

Reihan Salam, a prominent conservative blogger and Republican strategist, has defended Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) quite a bit over the last several months. He's promoted her, made excuses for her shortcomings, and tried to convince any who'd listen that she's really not as awful as she might seem. Up until recently, Salam has argued valiantly that Palin is a credible national figure and a plausible presidential aspirant.

Now, however, Salam has reluctantly given up.

Palin's campaign antics can be forgiven. What can't be forgiven is the ham-handed way she's tried to build her national profile since she returned to Alaska. She's abandoned the bold right-left populism that won over Alaska voters -- and me -- in the first place in favor of an increasingly defensive and harsh partisanship. After making her name as a determined enemy of Alaska's corrupt Republican establishment, she recently called for Democratic Sen. Mark Begich to step down so the hilariously crooked Ted Stevens could get another crack at the seat. She loudly promised to leave federal stimulus money on the table before clawing that promise back with a whimper. One can't help but get the impression that Palin is a clownish, vindictive amateur.

Now, for example, Palin is raising hackles for naming colorful crackpot Wayne Anthony Ross to be Alaska's attorney general. It turns out that Palin may have consulted with Ross over a state senate appointment, a move that would have been against state law. As a general matter, state law is something you might want your AG to be on top of.

What I'm wondering is: Has Sarah Palin undergone some kind of secret lobotomy?

[Read more.]

Toles: Lobbying with bailout money

Texas BOE vote could allow teaching of creationism

By now, we all know that the phrase, "examine the strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories means, "Hey, y'all -- bring the Dr. Dino books and videos into your science classroom."

Well, after some wrangling, the Texas Board of Education did vote to remove those offending words. However, they replaced them with an even broader requirement: that students analyze "all sides of arguments." I hope they do, because then they'll find out that every creationist canard has been thoroughly debunked again and again.

No transitional fossils, depth of moon dust, "sudden appearance," and all your other favorite creationist claims have been revealed as apologetics for a literal interpretation of the Bible, not science. I guess I can understand why Biblical literalists fight so hard to defang real science: thinking you're going to hell if you question Genesis might be a strong motivator. That is, if you believe in hell.

Oh, then there's the part about humans not coming from monkeys. Truth is, we don't come from monkeys. Our line split off from the monkey line long before Homo Erectus came along. And we don't *come from* apes; technically, we *are* apes. Members of the Great Ape family. Much smarter and much more clever than the apes in the jungles or at the zoo, perhaps, but still, we are family. We're smart enough to ruin our own economy and ecology, but too dumb to figure out how to repair the damage. Hmm. Maybe we're not so much smarter than our jungle cousins, after all.

[Read article.]