World's Youngest Blogger: Niklas Dietrich Smith

Congratulations to Chris Smith and his wife: "I Have, In Fact, Fathered One Ridiculously Handsome Fellow":

As beautiful as he is, I was unable to convince my wife to have another baby!

Perhaps if we soon welcome the world's youngest female blogger?

Libertarians on Abortion

I'm going to having more on libertarianism in an upcoming essay. I don't see it as a governing ideology, although certainly we could improve a lot of public life, especially economic life, by adopting a way more libertarian programmatic agenda. That said, I've always disliked the rejection of a lot of social morality in libertarianism, and Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie capture some of the moral spinelessness at the clip:

It's enough to say, as Matt Welch does, that one supports the freedom element of the right to an abortion. That part is fine. I've never argued we should have 100 percent criminalization of abortion. The squishy ground is where Nick Gillespie treads, and I don't think he acquits himself well. In fact, he's so squishy he harms even the liberty case for the pro-choice position. Libertarianism becomes a license for perverse libertinism. It's sick to think about what happens to the baby when a woman exercises that sliding scale for the termination of pregnancy. But again, that's why I'm neoconservative on domestic issues.

Ed Morrissey, who prompted the clip, has more: "Video: What is the libertarian position on abortion?"

Planned Parenthood Takes on the States

From Charmaine Yoest and Denise Burke, at Wall Street Journal, "A majority of Americans tell pollsters they do not want taxpayer dollars to subsidize abortions."

Without a doubt, measures to defund the abortion industry will remain a top priority for states in 2011 and will re-emerge in 2012. Legislators are responding to the majority of Americans—72% in a 2009 Quinnipiac University poll—who say that they do not want taxpayer dollars to be used to directly provide or indirectly subsidize abortions. Planned Parenthood and the administration appear committed to obstructing these efforts. Clearly, they prefer the status quo of taxpayer-funded largess for abortion providers—a bounty that amounts to $363 million annually in federal and state funds for Planned Parenthood alone.

RELATED: At Life News, "Judge Blocks Indiana Law Stopping Planned Parenthood Funding."

'Every Baby Is a Little Miracle'

ICYMI, be sure to read my end-of-semester report. This message came through in class meetings, without prompting. With rare exception, abortion was just not cool. And the ones who were down with it were Soros-types poisoned by left-wing blogs and NPR:

Via LaShawn Barber and Legal Insurrection.

Advertisers Flee Wonkette

From Steve Ertelt, at Life News, "More Companies Pull Ads From Wonkette After Trig Palin Post" (via Weasel Zippers).

Check that post. That's a beefy list of companies. Ouch.

Rep. Michele Bachmann: 'This is the “small ball” battle that House leadership has chosen to engage'

Representative Bachmann, at Red State, "Not a Big Enough Fight."

She's a little upset that House Republicans aren't staying focused on the big picture, especially the priority of ObamaCare repeal:

Don’t get me wrong, cuts in spending are a move in the right direction. House Republicans have brought about a change from the spending binge of the last two years. But it’s time to face the facts. This is the “small ball” battle that House leadership has chosen to engage. The current battle has devolved to an agenda that is almost too limited to warrant the kind of fighting that we’re now seeing in Washington.

Democrats only want to cut $33 billion of spending, while some reports say Republicans might settle for $40 billion. Either way, it’s not enough. We should be playing “big ball.” We should be fighting over trillions, not billions. We should be defunding ObamaCare, but we’re not.

I made a commitment to vote “no” on any Continuing Resolution that does not defund ObamaCare. That pledge to the American people remains unchanged. I believe that’s a battle we cannot walk away from. But, it’s not been an option in the recent government funding bills that House leaders have put up for a vote.

I am ready for a big fight, the kind that will change the arc of history. And, I’m hoping that when it comes to issues like the debt ceiling, ObamaCare, and the 2012 budget, House Republicans will take the lead, draw a line in the sand and not back down from the fight.

And here's Bachmann last night on Greta's:

I'll update on this. Social conservatives are loving the firm stand against Planned Parenthood, so there's special significance to this "small ball" battle after all.

GOP Threatens Shutdown Over Planned Parenthood

And I'm glad.

The New York Times is spinning the debate as a "non-budget" issue, but $75 million or $75 billion, it's public funding and more power to the Republicans calling out Dems on government-sponsored death to the unborn. And quoted there is former welfare recipient Patty Murray:

“I am really stunned, and I am angry as a woman,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, “that we have come to this after weeks of negotiating on numbers, where we have in principle an agreement on numbers, that there are those in the Republican Party in the House who are willing to shut down the government, take people’s paychecks away from them, because they want to deny women access to health care in this country.”

"Health care."

That's a nice rhetorical trick. Planned Parenthood is a death mill. Ground zero for the enormity of progressive pro-abortion evil. And leftists are manning (or womanning) the barricades on this one, since they know that abortion is to social policy as unions are to economics: Lose there and the Democrat-socialist-anti-life-coalition takes a knockout blow, with repercussions all the way up the electoral ladder (think President Barack "Infanticide" Obama).

Also, at Wall Street Journal, "Abortion Returns to Center Stage."

'Abortion is Black Genocide'

At PuffHo, "Obama Featured On Chicago Anti-Abortion Billboards Targeting Black South Siders."

Also, at Jill Stanek's, "Breaking: New “abortion is black genocide” Chicago billboard to feature Obama." And Moral Outcry, "New Billboard Campaign against Abortion Features President Obama."

RELATED: At That's Abortion, "Life Always Rebuttal to Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar":

Lila Rose on Glenn Beck's

I watched this last week. Enjoy Lila Grace Rose for a little respite from the progressive evil, via Trevor Loudon, "Beck With Lila Rose and the Deadly Legacy of Margaret Sanger":

And check Live Action here.

Kermit Gosnell and Roe v. Wade

The video features Lila Rose from LiveAction.org (via The Blog Prof). It's powerful:

As I keep learning, there are few things greater than abortion that more fundamentally separate normal, life-loving Americans from the death-loving dregs of progressivism. Scott Lemieux is simply a vile man. As a college instructor he's made abortion politics one of his pet projects. Rarely is the conventional evil of Democrat-progressive politics better represented than in Lemieux's posts at LGM. See for example, "Once You Get Your Position Sorted Out, Perhaps We Can Talk." There's no need to quote it. He's attacking Darleen Click at Protein Wisdom. As can be seen at the title, Lemieux's all about elaborating all the tired public policy explanations for the enormity of the Kermit Gosnell murders. And that's the thing: It's just superfluous. No explanation is needed. As Michelle wrote previously:

Deadly indifference to protecting life isn’t tangential to the abortion industry’s existence – it’s at the core of it. The Philadelphia Horror is no anomaly. It’s the logical, blood-curdling consequence of an evil, eugenics-rooted enterprise wrapped in feminist clothing.

This is how mass murder gets a pass from progressives like Scott Lemieux and his evil hordes at LGM. And there's yet more here. It's all very clinical. What never comes into the picture --- never, ever --- is the idea that killing the unborn is an enormity of world historical evil. To commit abortion is to violate the command of the absolute truth of goodness: honor life. Our own Declaration of Independence bears this, that governments are established to preserve life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. All progressives want is more death, destruction, and desperation. I find it horrifying. But then, I look at politics from a stance of fundamental morality, and that separates me --- and my allies like Darleen, Lila, and Michelle --- from the heathen left. And where I may differ from others is that I don't question the civil liberties of abortion, and frankly I'm not necessarily down with the greater criminalization that's alleged by pea-brained progressives. The question is of moral agency. Of moral choice. People of goodness have to persuade women to choose life. That's the imperative, because whatever happens in the law --- whether the remote possibility exists for vacating Roe v. Wade, for example --- the final foundation of both moral right and popular will is in the realm of ideas, popular ideas. So in this sense, it's no contest. Progressive can't win on the merits, they can't win the debate, because they've got no case for life. When you see people like Barbara O'Brien claiming that the system worked in Philadelphia, you know how deep are the evils of these ghouls who are unfortunately fellow Americans.

RELATED PROGRESSIVE DEBAUCHERY: From American Prospect, "A Response to Saletan on Late-Term Abortions."

Leftists Get Lifeline to Hell With Philadelphia Abortion Case

I've probably said it before, but I'm simply blown away. Is there no bottom too deep for the progressive left? The politicization of the Arizona shooting was pure evil and hard to beat. But after yesterday's news of the arrest of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, I think progressives got a lifeline to Hell.

I commented yesterday on Barbara O'Brien's cheers for Dr. Kermit Gosnell. And now coming back to it, it turns out the line on the progressive left is that the Philadelphia case is an argument for more abortions, that is, more support for purportedly legal and safe abortion, rather than legislation to further restrict access. I don't make a case either way. Perhaps there are some extreme medical circumstances in which obtaining an abortion is absolutely necessary. But over the past few years it's been clear that the right to an abortion has become the equivalent to a license for death. And while it's impossible to imagine a more heinous case, the Philadelphia horror is the direct result of the left's destruction of the sanctity of life. One thing leads to another. God help the poor women who come into the wrong circle of people, who direct them to the clutches of the likes of Dr. Gosnell.

Of course, progressives couldn't care less about God, so it's pretty easy for them to choose up sides. Notorious atheist PZ Myers sums up progressive thinking on the case:

No one endorses bad medicine and unrestricted, unregulated, cowboy surgery like Gosnell practiced — what he represents is the kind of back-alley deadly hackery that the anti-choice movement would have as the only possible recourse, if they had their way. If anything, the Gosnell case is an argument for legal abortion.

The statement's false, if not an outright lie. Gosnell was practicing for thirty years, and clinics like that are sustained by huge networks of pro-choice activists. This is the logical outcome of the left's culture of death. Unrestricted access is exactly what progressives want, screw the quality, obviously. Myers simply drills the point home by suggesting this is the case for legal abortion.

And go read Scotty Lemieux at Lawyers, Gays and Marriage. He's a clinical monstrosity himself, not only stupid but completely unoriginal. And I've responded to dim bulb Malaclypse at the post.

The Tolerant, Compassionate Non-Violent Left

Here's a couple of interesting posts, from Nice Deb, "Leftism Really is a Mental Disorder." And at Kathleen McCaffrey at Legal Insurrection, "Evil Schmevil." Kathleen examines the question of whether Jared Loughner is "insane or just evil?"

At the comments, I suggested that Loughner's crazy. The left's exploitation of him is evil.

The System Worked: Mahablog Cheers 'House of Horrors' Abortion Doctor Who Killed Seven Babies by Severing Their Spinal Cords With Scissors

The main story is at Wall Street Journal, "Philadelphia Abortion Doctor Charged With Murder":

Warning: The following will likely be the most disturbing story you read here all day all month.

With that disclosure, here goes.

A Philadelphia doctor who provided abortions for minorities, immigrants and poor women has been charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday. Click here for the AP story; here for the Philadelphia Inquirer story.

Working out of his Philadelphia office (pictured), Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said.

Gosnell “induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord,” Williams said.

Nine of Gosnell’s employees also were charged ...

And at Lonely Conservative, "Abortionist Charged With Multiple Murders":

This has to be one of the most horrific things I’ve ever heard .... Ghastly doesn’t begin to describe it. Good Lord.

And it's true. Here's this from the Grand Jury report:

This case is about a doctor who killed babies and endangered women. What we mean is that he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy – and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors. The medical practice by which he carried out this business was a filthy fraud in which he overdosed his patients with dangerous drugs, spread venereal disease among them with infected instruments, perforated their wombs and bowels – and, on at least two occasions, caused their deaths. Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here. But no one put a stop to it.

Let us say right up front that we realize this case will be used by those on both sides of the abortion debate.We ourselves cover a spectrum of personal beliefs about the morality of abortion. For us as a criminal grand jury, however, the case is not about that controversy; it is about disregard of the law and disdain for the lives and health of mothers and infants. We find common ground in exposing what happened here, and in recommending measures to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

I'm glad the Grand Jury placed that disclaimer at the beginning of the report, because for me, this isn't so much about abortion politics as it is the normalization of evil. I wish women didn't have abortions, although I'd never deprive a woman her right to make the decision. But this isn't about that. What happened in Philadelphia, over a period of years, it turns out, is what happens when life itself becomes cheapened and coarsened at the altar of civil liberties. Just because one has the right to do things doesn't mean they ought to do them. And here the case could be made that that right itself is illegitimate if not exercised with the same kind of common sense and professionalism that we'd expect of those providing any kind of medical service, from routine doctor visits to open-heart surgery. That is to say, if one's going to perform this service, shouldn't it be treated with the same kind of dignity as any other operation? Instead what's revealed here is the production of death, and for what reason I can't possibly fathom. It's not so that women can exercise "choice." If someone is on the fence on the question of abortion, here's a case study of how badly things not only can go wrong but will go wrong, since taking scissors to just-born babies is the next logical step in the agenda of moral annihilation at the center of the pro-choice movement. And I think the point is illustrated at The Mahablog, where not once do we witness Barbara O'Brien's condemnation of the slaughter, but we instead gasp at her first impulse, which is to blame the right: "It appears to me this is not a bogus charge concocted by 'Right to Life' operatives." Seriously. Read the whole thing, especially this jaw-dropping conclusion:

This is the system working. If abortion is criminalized, thousands of clinics like this will spring up like mushrooms, operating underground, out of sight of the law.

No, Barbara, the system didn't work. But I will pray. I'm saddened by the industrial-scale death that you promote with your radical pro-choice ideology. And I'll pray for those babies --- and for you as well.

See also, The Other McCain, "Abortion Is Murder, and Sometimes We Are Brutally Reminded of That Fact." And Dr. Melissa Clouthier, "Abortion Abomination - Murder. Vile, evil, disgusting, loathsome murder." (Via Memeorandum.)