Monday, June 1, 2009

'How Should Congress Respond?'

Salvation through legislation is the liberal gospel, and Ezra Klein is in the pulpit:
[The murder of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller] is the final, decisive act in "an ongoing campaign of intimidation and harassment against someone who was providing completely legal health-care services." That campaign stretched over decades of protests, lawsuits, violence, and, finally, murder. . . .
This was, in other words, a political act. Tiller was murdered so that those in his line of work would be intimidated. In conversations with folks yesterday, I heard well-meaning variants on the idea that it would be unseemly to push legislation in the emotional aftermath of Tiller's execution. I disagree.
[I]n my view, [it would be] a perfectly appropriate response for the Congress to decisively prove [the murderer's] action not only ineffectual, but, in a broad sense, counterproductive.
Murder is already against the law, but liberals can't save the world if they let mere facts get in their way.

7 comments:

  1. They're going to use this. The gang who won't let a crisis go to waste is going to turn this into a crisis. Our larger cities wake up to a corpse in the street almost daily, but an abortionist gets shot every dozen years or so and suddenly we're mobilizing the US Marshals.

    I have no tears for Tiller and if on the jury of his shooter would simply call it on the law and evidence as presented. I've got no tears for him either. God according to His wisdom will dispose at His will. I am a bit amazed that Tiller was accepted at a Christian church as anything other than a penitent sinner.

    There is so much wrong with this mess that only evil can profit from it.

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  2. One abortionist being unjustly murdered in a ten-year timeframe is not a "trend."

    An anti-anti-abortion backlash would have been more potent in the 1990s, when the media was a one-way street. Now people can just read comments on newspaper stories to see non-nuts condemning the action as well as any governmental overreaction.

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  3. Two wrongs (or in this case three) don't make a right.

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  4. Great post TOM... Keep up the excellent work!
    COMMON CENTS
    http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

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  5. Culture War SCORESHEET

    Media space devoted to reporting, opining, and commenting on the tragic killing of American abortionist George Tiller will be largely used to condemn pro-human-rights persons as violent and dangerous.

    Being familiar with a bit of hard data might be useful to your discussions over the next little while. I would not use the data to defend acts of violence, but it is valid to be able to counter the mis-characterization of Pro-Human Rights advocates as violent, specifically if characterized as having acted "more" violent than the Anti-Human Rights/Pro-Death side has.

    Human Rights Culture War Violence Scoresheet

    Violence Committed by Pro-Human-Rights "Extremists" or "Vigilantes" http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_viol.htm

    Violence Committed by Anti-Human-Rights "Extremists" or "Vigilantes"
    http://abortionviolence.com/

    Deadly Violence by Anti-Human-Rights Mainstream Functionaries
    http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/wrjp339.html
    Executions by Abortion 1920 - 2008 (Low estimate): ≈ 1,000,000,000

    Worldwide Wars, Genocides, Famines, Ritual Suicides. Human Sacrifices
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_disasters_by_death_toll
    Combined Total (High Estimate): 438,000,000

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  6. .."an ongoing campaign of intimidation and harassment against someone who was providing completely legal health-care services."

    I thought he was talking about Obama's health-care plan...

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  7. Look for this to bring out another stupid wave of “thought crime” legislation, where your actions on committing a crime no longer matter, but what a far-left loon thinks that you were thinking does.

    As far as I know, Kansas still has a death penalty for first-degree murder. So when this wack-job murderer goes to be executed, will the normal left-wing protesters turn out with their little signs and candles to protest? Didn’t think so.

    (Warning: Theoretical musing here) On a side note, if Tiller had a concealed carry permit, but had been forced to leave his gun in the car due to the law, would the usual leftist suspects be pressing to allow concealed carry in public businesses and places of worship? Didn’t think so either. (Disclaimer: I don’t know if Tiller had a CCW permit, owned a gun, or had any chance to defend himself. This was a completely theoretical argument. If it becomes a crime to think theoretically, then you can arrest my mind, but leave me alone.)

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