Sunday, June 28, 2009

Pity the poor physician

I was just wondering what the average yearly income is for...say... your average physician is in the good ol' USA and I Googled upon a cool little Web site with that very information, StudentDoctor.com. Here's what I learned:
  • Family practice, $204,000
  • Internist, $176000
  • Neurology, $228000
  • Cardiology, $403000
  • General Surgery, $291000
  • Cardiovascular Surgery, $558719
  • Plastic Surgery, $412000


  • There's no reason to go on, for as you can see, doctors in the United States are well remunerated for their education and expertise. And if you're interested in the average yearly incomes of other medical specialties click the SutdentDoctor.com link above.

    Now why I bring this up is that it is clear to me that the primary and unstated reason the American Medical Association is so vehemently opposed to any "publicly" financed health care insurance scheme. They are worried their income will fall. Oh, fuck, what a catastrophe that would be. But, please, don't cry for the doctors for if this country ever went the way of the United Kingdom they would yet be among the richest guys in town. Our American physicians, should we wise up a go with a single-payer health care system, would still be members in good standing of the coordinator class.

    Friday, June 19, 2009

    Hey, Public Library of Des Moines, thanks for making a little girl cry

    I just sent this email to the PLDM:
    I just returned from the North Side Branch Library.

    Until just that minuet when I walked up and the automatic doors did not open did I have any idea that the branch would not open until 1 P.M. For me that is no big deal

    However at the same time that I arrived at the North Side Branch another fellow and what appeared to be his grand daughter approached. When the little girl learned the library was not open it broke her heart.

    I am sure the change in opening times is due in part to summer vacation schedules for library employees. I am also equally certain that the change in library opening times is due to budgetary constraints. Of course the library and all other city departments would have adequate funds if we in the neighborhoods were not forced into subsidizing all the tax credited, tax forgiven and tax increment funded development projects in downtown for the well-heeled and well-connected.

    I understand this. But a little girl does not.

    Thank you, Public Library of Des Moines, the city council, Polk County, the State of Iowa and the United States government for our skewed, regressive tax system that is ruining an economy and making a little girl cry.

    Thursday, June 18, 2009

    Presenting Her Highness the Princess Meresamun



    Getting By On Her Looks
    The ancient Egyptian Meresamun, who lived around 800 B.C., was a working girl, a priestess-musician who served Amun, the preeminent deity of Thebes. Her mummified remains, sealed 2,800 years ago in a skintight coffin of cartonnage (layers of linen and plaster), were examined by researchers at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute in September 2008 using the latest in CT scanning technology, a "256-slice" machine that produced startlingly vivid images. For months, she has since been the immensely popular subject of the Oriental Institute Museum's exhibition, The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt.

    Josh Harker, a forensic artist who lives in Chicago and was originally trained as a sculptor, worked digitally, leveraging the latest software and imaging technology.

    Ancient Egyptian records talk about the ideal sense of womanly beauty. "A lot of the descriptions are about breasts and hips and coal-black hair," says [Egyptologist at the Oriental Institute Museum, Emily] Teeter [...curator of the Meresamun exhibition.] "But they do talk about sweet lips for kissing--and Meresamun's got very sweet lips!"

    Wednesday, June 17, 2009

    George W. Ahmadinejad

    Now that the Iranian election is in the books and the protesters have taken to the streets one must ask the musical question: Why did the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his puppet master, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fix the results in such a ham-handed fashion?

    I mean, really now, if Ahmadinejad and his party had let the vote count go on in a normal manner the sawed-off mouthpiece for the heirs of cross-dressing reactionary political and religious leader, the late Ayatollah Khomeini, most likely would have won.

    Yet many observers, especially here in the West, question the results based on the speed with which the hand-marked paper ballots were counted. In this country when we had ink-marked ballots counted by hand, the results were known on the same day or at least very late at night, after all Abraham Lincoln was declared the winner of the 1860 presidential race late that November 6 Tuesday night. In the case of Iran, however, Ahmadinejad's "landslide" was announced mere minutes after the polls closed. And that was the other think that raised Western as well as the bushy eyebrows of opponent Mirhossein Mousavi.

    But without the guiding hand of a Karl Rove-like figure the good ayatollahs of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council obviously did not have enough confidence in the urban and rural poor of Iran who are Ahmadinejad's most fervent and loyal supporters to deliver the vote. Had Ahmadinejad's handlers used a lighter more subtle touch-- like throwing out a few absentee ballots, losing a box of ballots somewhere on the way to the county courthouse or challenging ever ballot with the first name Muhammad in the signature--they might have gotten away with it. Sure there would have been some protests for sure, but people would have accepted the result and gone on with their pathetic lives, it was a three-way race after all.

    But the ayatollahs pushed their luck and fixed the election, declaring their boy, Ahmadineja, the winner with a 63% plurality. Now they've stepped in it. But the reason they did so remains why?

    Observes Stephen Zunes at Alternet.org
    The only people happier than the Iranian elites over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's apparently stolen election win Friday, were the neoconservatives and other hawks eager to block any efforts by the Obama administration to moderate U.S. policy toward the Islamic republic.
    By now it is ancient and arcane American history that advisers to then-candidate Ronald Reagan had secret talks with members of the Iranian revolution during the 1980 U.S. presidential election. Those of us old enough to remember recall how the American hostages held by the Iranian revolutionaries at the U.S. embassy in Tehran were released just as the divine Reagan was giving his first inaugural address.

    Which leads me to speculate that elements of America's reactionary right may have had contact with elements of Iran's SCRC. Perhaps clandestine promises were made to surreptitiously aid Iran's faltering economy, perhaps secretly buy some oil for Israel or supply the Iranian air forcer with spare parts. We'll never find out the truth.

    From an American NeoCon/reactionary Republican perspective keeping the runty bogeyman Ahmadinejad on television scaring the shit out of the dull witted American electorate, is right where they want him.

    Wonkette : A Few Vaguely Related Palin-Letterman Thoughts, And More!

    Wonkette : A Few Vaguely Related Palin-Letterman Thoughts, And More!

    Posted using ShareThis

    Monday, June 15, 2009

    Right wing hypocrite calls for Letterman's firing

    Should have seen this one coming.
    Under fire for a risque joke last week, David Letterman has apologized to Gov. Sarah Palin and her supporters. But a group urging CBS to fire the host says it's still not enough.

    "I'm glad he's acknowledged we're right," said John Ziegler, a creator of the film "Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected and Palin Was Targeted" and who this month began a new show on KGIL. "I think it's a good first step in the right direction, but I don't think it's enough." Part of the problem, he added, is that Letterman made a "horrendous attempt at an apology" last week, when he devoted several relatively light-hearted minutes to the controversy, invited Palin on his program and repeated the joke.

    Ziegler said he was not sure what sanction Letterman should face, but options should include suspension and firing. The host could also donate to a charity of Gov. Palin's choice, he said. Meanwhile, the group is still planning a rally Tuesday outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, where Letterman tapes his show.
    LA Times.com


    So where was this asshole Ziegler when Don Imus was calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed ho's?"

    Well here's the kind of hypocritical right wing asshole John Ziegler is:
    John Ziegler was fired Wednesday by WHAS Radio, but Thursday, Ziegler told WLKY NewsChannel 32's Abby Miller that his firing had nothing to do with the remarks he made about former Fox41 morning anchorwoman Darcie Divita.

    Ziegler made comments last week about his private relationship with Divita, called her a liar and shared intimate details, Miller reported. He then went back on the air Tuesday and reported that the matter had been resolved, but was fired shortly before he was scheduled to go on the air Wednesday morning.

    "To discuss the intimate details of a person who is not related to his job or any way, shape or fashion is totally inappropriate," [Divita's attorney Thomas]Clay said.
    WLKY.com

    That was in 2003, six years latter he's a protector of the fairer sex. Utter nonsense.

    Saturday, June 13, 2009

    NOW isn't that stupid?


    I wasn't going to post anything on the extremely stupid topic of David Letterman versus Sarah "Pit Bull with Lipstick" Palin but it came to my attention today that the National Organization for Women, NOW, is on the side of Governor Palin and her supposedly aggrieved 14-year-old daughter, Willow. NOW is standing up for "Pit Bull" Palin and daughter Willow because, as far as I can tell, both possess viginas and mammary glands.

    On its Media Hall of Shame Web site writes indignant communications director Lisa Bennett:
    The sexualization of girls and women in the media is reaching new lows these days -- it is exploitative and has a negative effect on how all women and girls are perceived and how they view themselves. Letterman also joked about what he called Palin's "slutty flight attendant look" -- yet another example of how the media love to focus on a woman politician's appearance, especially as it relates to her sexual appeal to men. Someone of Letterman's stature, who appears on what used to be known as "the Tiffany Network" (CBS), should be above wallowing in the juvenile, sexist mud that other comedians and broadcasters seem to prefer.

    On that point, it's important to note that when Chelsea Clinton was 13 years old she was the target of numerous insults based on her appearance. Rush Limbaugh even referred to her as the "White House dog." NOW hopes that all the conservatives who are fired up about sexism in the media lately will join us in calling out sexism when it is directed at women who aren't professed conservatives.
    Oh, so the ladies of NOW think that race-baiting, misogynistic wing nuts will join them in fighting "sexism" in the media when it's aimed at a "liberal" women? That's just about the stupidest fucking thing I think I read in all this Letterman-Palin imbroglio.





    Interestingly in her Today Show interview Governor Palin nearly quotes verbatim Keith Olbermann and Craig Crawford's discussion of Letterman's supposedly offensive, to both flight attendants and "Pit Bull" Palin, phrase "slutty flight attendant" in the Today Show interview.

    So we better not refer to "Pit Bull" Palin looking like a slutty flight attendant or to her daughters' abstinence-only preteen sexuality in any way shape of form. Moreover we should ban all words with anything even hinting at sexual innuendo or double entendre in order to protect the dear sweet Palin women from nasty, immature, juvenile sexist television comedians.

    But really now, should we give the prudish, Puritanical, bluenosed ladies of NOW a big ol' tip o' the spoon for legitimizing "Pit Bull" Palin's phony baloney victimization.

    Monday, June 08, 2009

    Like government managment never lies

    This in from Radio Iowa
    Boswell defends Pelosi in water boarding flap
    Monday, June 8, 2009, 10:26 AM
    By O.Kay Henderson

    Congressman Leonard Boswell, a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, is defending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has come under fire for saying she was "misled" by the Bush Administration about the interrogation techniques used on terror suspects.

    Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, was on the House Intelligence Committee in September 2002.

    That's when Pelosi says she was never told the technique of water boarding was used. Boswell suggests at that time he and other Democrats on the committee were upset about water boarding and a letter of complaint was sent to the Bush Administration.

    Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn issued a written statement in response to Boswell's comments. "It is disappointing that Congressman Boswell is falling in partisan line behind the Speaker and rejecting calls for the briefings in question to be declassified," Strawn said.

    Obviously Mr. Strawn has never worked for any federal agency. I recall numerous occasions when Postal Service management lied to carriers.

    That CIA officials under direct orders of the White House lied their asses off at a "classified" meeting with the House Intelligence Committee should come as no surprise. That Republicans, however, are defending a shadowy federal agency for its veracity is.

    By the way, Strawn must have missed U.S. House minority leader John Boehner's performance on the Wolf Blitzer show a couple of weeks ago.

    Sunday, June 07, 2009

    Sieg heil! mein teacher!

    Oh, key-rist, as if this country is militaried-up enough already, now idiot Des Moines Independent School District Superintendent Nancy Sebring proposes setting up a "charter school" along military lines, reports this AM's Sunday Des Moines Register
    Des Moines school officials want to open a charter school for boys that draws from traditional military principles, such as leadership and self-discipline.

    A formal proposal and price tag are months away, but Superintendent Nancy Sebring said it could include a separate facility for an estimated 50 middle school boys. Fall 2010 is the target opening date, she said.

    The military theme is more about resilience and physical well-being than rigid reform, Sebring said.


    I have no problem with public schools requiring kids to wear uniforms. Nor do I object to public schools experimenting with single-sex class rooms whereby teaching is geared to the needs and intellectual developmental levels of the two sexes. But a military charter school? Aren't the Boy Scouts and ROTC enough?

    According to The Register news story Sebring thinks, a military-themed charter school will somehow, perhaps magically, lower the Des Moines School District's dropout rate. Huh?!

    Why doesn't the dumb bitch just ask the kids at Des Moines' high schools why they might drop out? Why doesn't she order some sort of outreach and survey program toward kids who've already dropped out and ask them why they quit school? I'll bet you the reasons why kids drop out have little to do with lack of self-esteem or self-discipline. I'd hazard a guess that most kids drop out for economic reasons, like helping mom pay the rent. And I'll bet there are even some kids who drop out because they're aren't intellectually challenged by the school curriculum.

    But this brilliant school administrator's idea is to take the district's hardest cores, put them in one school, give them bootcamp-style training and expect them to come out model citizens. If anything the little bastards will graduate from Sebring's charter bootcamp as better gang leaders or cops (also a criminal gang.)

    No word on opinions of Sebring's proposed charter bootcamp from the Des Moines School Board's resident nutcase Jonathan Narcisse.

    Update!

    Stale news story from Thursday's Washington Post
    ATLANTA -- The U.S. Marine Corps is wooing public school districts across the country, expanding a network of military academies that has grown steadily despite criticism that it's a recruiting ploy.

    The Marines are talking with at least six districts _ including in suburban Atlanta, New Orleans and Las Vegas _ about opening schools where every student wears a uniform, participates in Junior ROTC and takes military classes, said Bill McHenry, who runs the Junior ROTC program for the Marines.

    None of the Chicago military schools made "adequate yearly progress" last year, meaning they fell short of basic standards under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

    Friday, June 05, 2009

    Consortiumnews.com

    Consortiumnews.com

    Posted using ShareThis

    Oooooo...I just "hate" being so right

    Update on the "suicide" of actor David Caradine from this morning's Washington Post:
    By Tim Johnston
    Special to the Washington Post
    Friday, June 5, 2009; 7:44 AM

    BANGKOK, June 5 -- Thai police officers investigating the death of David Carradine, the American actor who made his name in the "Kung Fu" television series in the 1970s, say he most likely died of asphyxiation, possibly when an auto-erotic sex game went wrong.

    Carradine, 72, was found naked in a closet in an upscale Bangkok hotel on Thursday with cords around his neck and his genitals. The police are checking DNA found on the cords, but say they found no signs of a struggle, suggesting that Carradine might have either tied himself up or submitted voluntarily to his incapacitation.
    And I never imagined I'd ever use the "erotic asphyxiation" label ever again.

    Thursday, June 04, 2009

    David Carradine dead...suicide?

    According to ABC News
    David Carradine, star of the 1970s drama "Kung Fu," was found dead in a Bangkok, Thailand, hotel room from an apparent suicide by hanging, according to police and local media. He was 72.

    ...Citing unnamed police officials, the Nation newspaper reported Carradine was found dead this morning by a chamber maid at the Park Nai Lert Hotel, where he was staying while shooting his latest film, "Stretch."

    Carradine was reportedly found naked in the room's closet hanging from a rope, possibly from the curtains, according to the Nation and police.

    "He was found hanging by a rope in the room's closet," Lt. Colonel Pirom Jantrapirom of the Lumpini police station in Bangkok told Reuters.
    Suicide?

    Now why would a guy hang himself in the middle of filming? Did Carradine know the movie would be that bad?

    For my money the star of Kung Fu and Kill Bill vols 1&2 when the way of Vaughn Bode and INXS frontman Michael Hutchence.

    Et tu, Brute?

    So you think the Democratic Party is the party of the little guy? You think the Democrats stand shoulder to should with union leaders? You think Democrats even give a shit about the union members whose campaign donations they plead for every election cycle?
    How Corporate America Has Outmanueverd Organized Labor
    Is Card Check Dead?

    By ADAM TURL
    The fight for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) appears to be stumbling, with Corporate America increasingly confident that it will defeat the most "controversial" parts of the pro-union legislation.

    If passed in its current form, EFCA would make it easier to form unions by giving workers the option of gaining representation when a simple majority of employees signs union cards, a method often called "card check." EFCA would also increase fines on employers for violating workers' right to organize and make it harder for companies to weasel out of initial union contracts by imposing binding arbitration if negotiations stall.

    In May, the president argued for compromise on EFCA, saying "I'm supportive of it, but there aren't enough votes right now."

    But because of the timidity of Democratic politicians and their backers in the union movement, big business has been able to project its case against EFCA. The result is that an upside-down "bizarro" version of what workers actually face predominates in the mainstream discussion of the legislation.
    CounterPunch.com
    Should have seen this coming. Well, I sort of did because on all fronts, on nearly every campaign promise to he made to the working American man and woman, President Oreo is in full retreat into the cozy confines of his corporate overlords arms.

    Face it. We are fucked. I'm sorry I voted for the guy. I thought he would listen but, instead, he's just the make-up artist putting new lip stick on the same old sow.

    Iowa Idiots make national headlines



    I didn't watch the Rachel Maddow Show last night because I was viewing a rebroadcast of all three parts of the excellent companion documentary to UCLA geographer Jared Diamond's, 2005 book Guns, Germs, and Steel:The Fates of Human Societies. So I missed Rachel presenting a rogues' lineup of Scott Roeder fans, all from the state of Iowa.

    First up is Steve Deace , a queer hating, fetus-hugger who loves Jesus.

    If you ever heard WHO Radio 1040AM, the 50,000 watt voice of the Middle West, for anything other than University of Iowa football and men's basketball you'll soon realize it is to the right of FoxNews.

    Morning wing nut Jan Mickelson and Rush Limbaugh in the WHO lineup were bad enough, but a couple of years ago the station management decided to really descend into the gutter by adding former jock-talk radio host Steve Deace, pronounced Day-ess.

    Well little did HO management know, or perhaps they did, that the rotund Mr. Deace is a Bible-thumping Christian of the most fundamental kind. A Christian Taliban if you will, to the right of the pope.

    Also to the right of the pope when it come to abortion is Dave Leach, who I've profiled earlier, and one Dan Holman who told a CNN reporter:
    "I was cheered by it(Dr. George Tiller's murder) because I knew that he wouldn't be killing any more babies. And I expect that would happen when all legal and moral -- legal ways of trying to stop it has been exhausted, as they have tried to prosecute him for giving abortions to people in violation of Kansas law.

    I don't advocate it, I don't support it. But I don't condemn it, and I believe that what he did was justifiable."
    And so it goes. And I bet you thought Iowa was an enlightened, "blue" state because our Supreme Court ruled that, yes, homosexual people have the same rights as heterosexual people to get married.

    Sorry to disabuse you.

    Wednesday, June 03, 2009

    Let's "save" the old building by moving it, selling it on eBay

    What's the logic in this:
    A preservation group in Des Moines is turning to a popular auction website in hopes of finding a buyer for a historic structure.

    The opening bid on eBay is $26,000 for the Continental Oil Company building.

    It opened in Iowa's capitol city in 1933 as a gas and service station. The 26-by-44-foot building with a terra cotta roof is in the architectural style of Spanish Mission Revival. It was saved from the wrecking ball by being jacked up and moved, but now needs a permanent home.

    Sarah Oltrogge, spokeswoman for Des Moines' Historic East Village, says too many buildings in the area are being flattened. "We really didn't want to see another building go down and this one particularly has inspired so much conversation because it is unique looking," Oltrogge says.
    Radio Iowa
    Now hold on for a second, why do we need to move the old gas station in order to save it? I mean it is was in a perfectly good location for, quoting Ms. Oltrogger again,"...a coffee house... or "...a great small office for someone. I mean there are new condos, shops, office complexes and a couple of gay bars in the neighborhood so the old Conoco/Dewey Ford gas station should stay in situ as it were.

    But things ain't that simple here in the city of real estate developers and insurance company kingpins. Last August JSC Properties Inc, owned by James Cownie, a relative of Mayor Frank Cownie, decided a parking lot would look pretty nice at the old gas station's 203 E. Grand location.

    Rather than fight Cownie the residents and business owners of Des Moines newly fashionable "East Village" ponied up funds to move the old gas station and put it up for auction on ebay.

    I'm sure the "East Villagers" are hoping that some wealthy, community spirited local will purchase the structure so they can continue enjoying it.

    I'm hoping that since they didn't stop Cownie's parking lot plan that some well-heeled pick from California or Texas buys the old building and ships it, brick-by-brick to Los Angeles or Houston.

    Tuesday, June 02, 2009

    Dope on the new dopes at GM, Chrysler

    The biggest hoax ever foisted upon the American...hell, world...public is that an asshole with a master's of business administration, MBA, knows everything there is to know that is humanly possible about successfully running a business and a national economy.

    From their recent track record one would think that MBA's would be getting run out of every town, hamlet and Middlesex on a rail. But no.

    Writes Steve Parker at The Huffington Post.com
    [Y]ou'd have thought Detroit and Washington might have learned the past few years, the Harvard MBAs in the auto executive suites wouldn't know a good car if they got run over by one.

    Robert Kidder will be the new chairman of Chrysler and Al Koch will be "chief restructuring officer" at that's left of The General.

    Kidder's résumé includes a stint as CEO of Duracell. He currently is a lead director at investment firm Morgan Stanley and CEO of 3Stone Advisors of Columbus, Ohio, which manages a private equity fund focused on investing in water-quality testing. Great -- Nardelli did such a wonderful job at Chrysler after his hiring by private equity fund Cerberus.

    Koch, a managing director with AlixPartners LLP, is a veteran turnaround specialist who helped Kmart Corp. through its bankruptcy protection reorganization. He will lead the separation of the automaker's assets into a "New GM" and the remaining parts of the company that will form "Old GM." Koch will lead the management team that winds down the "Old GM" company once the automaker emerges from bankruptcy.

    Another finance guy from another private equity firm.

    The problem is that in this country we tend to worship the ground any moron from any of the Ivy League universities walks upon, especially Harvard. Our current president is an Ivy League product, Columbia University and Harvard law. Likewise the former resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue received his "gentleman's C" from Yale then an MBA from the Harvard School of Business.

    Karl Rove's observation, "I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools," meant to disparage Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, may just be closer to the mark than we are willing to admit.

    Just because they "love" fetuses it doesn't mean they can't be terrorists

    The big news item Sunday was the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita, Kansas doctor who had the balls to perform so-called "late term" abortions in the buckle of the Bible belt, by one Scott Roeder, a known anti-abortion terrorist.

    For some reason the mainstream media, M$M, treats anti-abortion lunatics with kid gloves. I typed in "roeder" in the Google News search engine feature. In scanning the synopses not one news story uses the term "terrorist" to describe the white, fundamentalist Christian Roeder.

    Sure terrorist is an inflammatory word but if the suspect is black and a Muslim the M$M has no problem in using that descriptive term:
    Shooting of Soldiers Called "Terrorist" Act

    (Little Rock) -- A suspect is in custody in connection with the shooting of two Army recruiting officers in Little Rock Monday.

    One of those soldiers died and the other is being treated for non-life threatening wounds.

    Local law enforcement officials say they have 24-year-old Abdulhakim Muhammad in custody.

    He's a U.S. citizen who changed his name from Carlos Leon Bledsoe after he converted to the Muslim faith.
    Ozarks First.com, June 2, 2009


    Now to be fair, and I always try to follow the journalistic ethic of fairness and balance, the headline of an analysis of Roeder in the Christian Science Monitor.com reads, Concerns mount that suspect in abortion-doctor shooting had extremist ties, and the headline of the anti-abortionist Web site LifeNews.com screams, Abortion Activists Call Pro-Life Advocates "Terrorists" in Wake of Tiller Shooting. So at least one long-time news organization is willing to hint that Roeder might, just maybe, have ties to other extremists while another has the balls to use "terrorists" in its headline. Albeit in a way pejorative towards the opponents of its editorial viewpoint.

    In this morning's edition of The Des Moines Register reporter Tony Leys introduces Des Moines businessman and anti-abortion "activist" Dave Leach
    A Des Moines abortion opponent said Monday that the killing of a Kansas doctor could be justified as a way to prevent what he sees as the murder of unborn babies.

    The activist, Dave Leach, said he did not condone the shooting death Sunday of Dr. George Tiller, but he wouldn't condemn it.

    "I grieve for Dr. Tiller," Leach said. "I rejoice for the babies who will not be killed."

    Many leaders of large anti-abortion groups have condemned the killing. But Leach has gained national attention for his statements about the justification of violence against abortion providers, including Tiller. He publishes Prayer and Action News, a newsletter and Web site that focus on stopping abortion.
    Even more revealing is the comments from supporters of Mr. Leach. To Wit:
  • urby_guy wrote:
    Before all of you abortion supporters and advocates shed a tear for this Tiller fellow, think, "did I shed a tear for any of the 1000's of lives that were ended at the hands of this guy?" The 1000's (by his own admission) of hearts and lives that ended up in the dumpster outside of his office never made the news, but the death of this guy does, go figure? Something else to think about, while abortion is "legal" by our laws, so was the extermination of millions of jews by the laws of Nazi Germany, yet if someone were to have killed Hitler, that person would have been celebrated as a hero. I don't condone murder by anyone, and Tiller's murderer should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but at least no more lives will be snuffed out by Tiller.
  • wdmthompson wrote:
    What people need to realize is that abortion is OUTRAGEOUSLY WRONG. It is so wrong, that people will become crazy over it. The person who killed abortionist Tiller probably was crazy. Still, it's very hard for me to feel really bad about Tiller's death.
  • RW_Extremist wrote:
    The same people who don't want terrorists having water poured on them to save innocent lives are the same people defending the mass murdering Tiller the Baby Killer. To the left, killing the innocent is acceptable. No wonder they reject GOD's words.
  • adelguy wrote:
    It was predicted that the left-wing liberal media would use this tragedy to hammer pro-life supporters. On cue, the DMR found a nut case who by his own admission has few followers, and make him the poster-boy for pro-life believers. What trash.
  • No need to continue. This discussion board will go on and on in this vein all day.

    By the way, I am banned from posting comments at The Des Moines Register because I offended some of the above Register posters and had the temerity to call the right wing, anti-immigrant MinuteMen "wussies."