The stark hypocrisy of “pro-life” murder should be obvious to all but the idiotic and/or ideological. It reveals that the real argument is not “pro-life” versus “pro-choice”, but guns versus abortion. The actual issue under discussion is; shall killing be permitted prenatally or postnatally? It is a city-versus-country dispute over a detail of timing.

There are other compromises with necessity; self-defense, capital punishment, defensive war. They may be justifiable, but they are by definition not “pro-life”, except in the Orwellian sense.

There are no pro-lifers because there is no free lunch. In the absence of infinite wealth, people must pick and choose whom to help and whom to deny, sometimes even in matters of life and death.

Take Dr. Tiller’s patients. He treated the hard cases, the obstetric disasters, the doomed pregnancies fated to yield dead baby or dead mother or both. In such cases, there does not exist a “pro-life” medical option; late-term abortion is the least bad choice.

These sorts of bad choices happen all the time. They’re natural, they’re built into the world. If God exists, and created such a world, then God is certainly not a pro-lifer. Therefore it is folly for mortals to call themselves “pro-life”; for that would be to claim moral superiority over God and Nature.

I say we should retire the phrase “pro-lifer”. There are none.

>You know, I want to believe better of people, I really do, but the various
> components of the above demographic just keep on disappointing me.

I think we all do and then reality sinks in. Facts just cant be refuted. Of course not everyone is going to fit this mold but a good majority does qualify.

That’s a great idea; I’ve always been amazed how court proceedings are allowed to turn into tabloid fodder (FAUX loves to sensationalize any court case that involves sex, children, etc.). Just because a person is charged with a crime, why should his or her entire life be destroyed by the media before a verdict is rendered?

If I were the family of Dr. Tiller I would be hiring an Army of lawyers to go after FAUX and specifically Bill O’Reilly. And since he has chosen to be a public figure I would not feel hypocritical to joyfully watch the bad press ruin his life (although I suspect it would probably help his ratings, the idiots that watch the factor would see it all as a left wing conspiracy).

I think moves to increase civil liability or limit free speech will be ineffective for reasons previously discussed. But look at the issue in a reverse frame. This idea would require a new law from Congress, which is possible in light of the tragedy. Call it the Tiller Act. Suppose I could apply to the court for ‘anonymity’. This legal status, once granted, would make it against the law for any publication or web site to broadcast my name, my home address, work address or that of family &/or associates. No ‘Tiller Watch’, such as Operation Rescue had.

Also, allow a business to be able to apply for the same status; if granted, the location of a clinic could not be broadcast, a clinic could not be picketed. Any trespasser would get ONE warning, further incursions that exhibit a deliberate pattern to violate the status of ‘anonymity’ – mandatory jail time. The ‘legal’ harassment tactics would come to a screeching halt. Put serious teeth into the law, mandatory jail time, and stiff fines for individuals and sponsoring organizations, plus the opportunity for a victim to sue in civil court.

Thus Dr. Tiller becomes for O’Reily, ‘an unnamed abortionist in Kansas’. Anything more specific and he broke the law. Let him be as inflamatoroy as he wants, just so he can’t point a finger at a specific person.

The status of anonymity should not be granted by the court to a public figure, politician, actor, sports figure, anyone who has sought or by virtue of his work is in the public eye.

This solution would not be airtight, but it could be very effective. I don’t think for example that Tillers court case in Kansas earlier this year could not properly be kept out of the media. Web sites could be raised out of US jurisdiction, but if those web sites are used to raise funds FOR an organization in the US, the assets of those organizations would be subject to seizure.

The fact is this. Roe v Wade is not going away; Obama will get a total of 2, maybe 3 SC justices. The right-to-life crowd is not going to fold, so they are going to use terrorism when they have no chance in court.

I would LOVE to have someone like Glenn Grenwald write this; it would be effective and hold up in court. The focus of the act would not be to inhibit free speech but to grant privacy, and some measure of security where your line of work makes you a target for bombs & bullets. I’m not a lawyer; this is just a first draft of an idea. Comments from some of the smart people here?

You know, I want to believe better of people, I really do, but the various components of the above demographic just keep on disappointing me.

Tiller’s family is grieving. Those who have jumped to score political points before Tiller is even buried are no better than the Phelps family thugs of the “Westboro Baptist Church” who respect no bounds of civility.

I wonder if she’s aware that the statement the family released about Tiller’s murder includes sentiments such as the following (from the story on Yahoo news):

The family said its loss “is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence.”

Sounds kind of political to me. How tasteless! As Malkin says herself:

Unfortunately, some are not content to leave it at that for now. They fail to respect that there is a proper time and place to indulge in political battle.

Yes, of course. The day after an abortion doctor is murdered is precisely the wrong time to talk about threats of violence against abortion doctors.

Every mainstream pro-life organization has unequivocally condemned the killing.

I repeat: Every mainstream pro-life organization has unequivocally condemned the killing.

Yup. Every mainstream Democrat and liberal unequivocally condemned the attacks of Sept. 11 too. Didn’t stop Little Lulu and her buddies from calling us objectively pro-terrorist America-haters who should be detained, jailed and in some cases shot and/or hung.

Doesn’t feel so good now, does it, you little rage machine?

That is an interesting assessment you posted. It really infers that the pro-lifers are more concerned about the popularity of their beloved republican party than they are in the lives of the unborn. Once again the wing-nuts exhibit extreme hypocritical behavior, go figure!

Today’s assassination of Dr. George Tiller comes 5 months into the term of our second pro-choice president. For anyone who would like to believe that this is a statistical anomaly, a coincidence that doesn’t portend anything, again, you are wrong.

During the entire Bush administration, from 2000-2008 there were no murders.

During the Clinton era, between 1994-2000 there were 6 abortion providers and clinic staff murdered, and 17 attempted murders of abortion providers. There were 12 bombings or arsons during the Clinton years.

During the Bush administration, not only were there no murders, there were no attempted murders. There was one clinic bombing during the Bush years…

In the last year of the Bush administration there were 396 harassing calls to abortion clinics. In just the first four months of the Obama administration that number has jumped to 1401.