I've known one woman to have one of these. She was very anti-choice. The baby that she so wanted was found at just under 7 months to have severe hydrocephalus and spinal bifida. She was told there was no question the child would be profoundly mentally retarded and would need life long institutional care. After a few weeks of prayer, her and her husband decided to have the procedure.

I think this is exactly the sort of realistic and difficult scenario that comes up with optional late term abortions and often isn't frankly discussed. People talk about rape, incest, and the health of the mother. There is another scenario: The baby may be broken, severely. Is it murder to abort such a pregnancy? This is going to become a vital question very soon now, and I think that searching for theological explanations is as useful here as it is in explaining the age of the planet. This is a deep moral, philosophical problem that absolutely requires an analysis of the alternatives on their impact and merit. I don't really know if anyone deeply addresses this, and I think popping out with a strict interpretation of some scriptural verse is a cop out that avoids taking this issue head-on and does not properly prepare people to handle this situation.

RE: Late Term Abortion Ban Upheld by Supreme Court

In the deadliest day in Baghdad since the latest American-led security plan for the city took effect two months ago, at least 146 people were killed today in a series of bombings that tore through predominantly Shiite crowds gathered at a bus depot, on a shopping street and near a police checkpoint, the authorities said.

Click through for a fairly horrific photograph.
Ken Olbermann asks:

It is an unspeakable and overwhelming tragedy, up to 30 young Americans killed violently, pointlessly, and the rest of us left with an urgent and almost helpless feeling that somebody could have done something to prevent it, and that everybody must do something to protect the next potential victims.

And yet, the same number of young Americans of approximately the same age have died in Iraq in the last 10 days.

It seems fair to ask the question: If the violent deaths in Virginia send a nation into shock and expressions of concern and anxiety, why isn't a continuous flow of American blood in Iraq generating a similar reaction?

It does seem fair to ask the question. However, I think that by leaving the question hanging Olbermann intends to score a political point instead of really thinking about it. He goes on to talk about how preventable the violence in Iraq is. I'm not so sure. If we hadn't gone in to begin with, we wouldn't have the problems we have now, but that decision has already been made. Does Olbermann have a peace plan, or merely a plan to pull out and let the people there consume each other in civil war?

We've grown accustomed to the violence in Iraq. Certainly we don't expect a college campus to face similar horrors. Bombings in Iraq aren't a shock. The soldiers there are connected to us, but they weren't drafted and they understand the risks they are taking. The people who live there, however, didn't ask for the hell they are living in. I do think that people have a tendency to view foreign people dying on their television screens with a great deal of detactment... Like they aren't real people, but characters in some mini-series. For at least a certain percentage of the population there is an element of self superiority, either ethnic or national or religious, in play. But for most I simply think they have conceptual trouble deeply comprehending the reality of places that they have never travelled to. They know intellectually that Iraq is real, but emotionally they don't get it on the same level as places they have touched.

Were we to be more emotionally involved, would it impact the outcome? I think perhaps it might. I'm interested in what others think.

Bombings Kill at Least 146 Iraqis in Baghdad - New York Times

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.

Why the Shootings Mean That We Must Support My Politics

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the first-ever decision by the Court to uphold a total ban on a specific abortion procedure -- prompting the dissenters to argue that the Court was walking away from the defense of abortion rights that it had made since the original Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 recognized a constitutional right to end pregnancy medically. Roe v. Wade was not overturned by the new ruling, as some filings before the Court had urged.

The Court said that it was upholding the law as written -- that is, its facial language. It said that the lawsuits challenging the law faciallly should not have been allowed in court "in the first instance." The proper way to make a challenge, if an abortion ban is claimed to harm a woman's right to abortion, is through an as-applied claim, Kennedy wrote. His opinion said that courts could consider such claims "in discrete and well-defined instances" where "a condition has or is likely to occur in which the procedure prohibited by the Act must be used."

I think the court may be trying to remove abortion from federal politics.

Jurisprudence currently allows for something quite similar to European abortion policies: early trimester abortions are allowed, late trimester abortions are often banned, but there are exceptions in the case of the health of the mother. In spite of this, there are no bans on any type of abortion presently. This is because the abortion issue is more of a political football than something legislatures are truely interested in.

The current wedge has been the health of the mother. Conservatives argue for abortion bans which do not include such an exception. They know that liberals won't accept such a rule, and that the courts won't accept such a rule, and this creates strife which helps them motivate people to get to the polls.

Ironically, the court has handed conservatives exactly what they don't need, which is a victory. They banned something, and the ban stuck. But the majority states that the ban will not continue to stick if challengers provide actual circumstances in which a mother's life is threatened. This is a dangerous move, as it may actually involve a death. However, it changes the legislative playing field. Abortion bans are going to have a heath exception regardless of whether its written into the law. This means that conservatives can pass late trimester abortion bans, and in fact that liberals can sign on to them, without being concerned about the health issue.

Thomas and Scalia go further, stating that they also think this ban may fall to a commerce clause challenge.

The result is that the abortion issue gets removed from the federal political sphere. Federal Republican candidates cannot argue that you need to vote for them in order to ban abortions, because they don't have that power, and because the justices on the court don't need to be replaced in order for that to happen.... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

SCOTUSblog: 'Partial Birth' Abortion Ban upheld

A Hempfield Area High School sophomore spent 12 days in juvenile detention after authorities in Westmoreland County mistakenly charged him with making a March 11 bomb threat, in part because the district had not changed its clocks to reflect daylight-saving time.

County juvenile detention officials wanted to keep Webb in custody, Andrews said. "They wanted him to have a mental health evaluation because he wouldn't admit to making the call."

"Legally, we were OK. We didn't step on this kid's rights," said Mike Sturnick, supervisor for the juvenile probation office.

You imprisoned someone for 12 days and accused them of being insane because you can't count. You should be apologizing and not making excuses.

Time stands still for Hempfield teen in lockup - Tribune-Review

I'm sure you're all aware that this has been a pretty terrible day. This link goes to a newsroll at a Virginia Tech Newspaper. There is another here. Posted because I'm good at finding the best sources for information, but unless you've got a reason I don't recommend looking at these. There is no sense to be made of this.

Virginia Tech Newsrolls

LGM-118A Peacekeeper missile system being tested at the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

This is a time-lapse photo showing the paths of the multiple re-entry vehicles deployed by the missle. One Peacekeeper can hold up to 10 nuclear warheads, each independently targeted. Were the warheads armed with a nuclear payload, each would carry with it the explosive power of twenty-five Hiroshima-sized weapons.

Image:Peacekeeper-missile-testing.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thought I'd post this given the discussion about that WaPo article.

YouTube - Joshua Bell plays Bloch Nigun

The Predators evened their Western Conference quarterfinal by
beating San Jose 5-2 Friday night in a penalty- and fight-filled game.

"We came here to play hockey tonight," Nashville coach Barry Trotz said.
"We knew it was an important game, and they turn it into a street brawl."

San Jose coach Ron Wilson, who lost a player to injury for a second straight
game, stalked into the post-game news conference and picked up the microphone.

"I have no comment," Wilson said before walking out of the room.

Hell yeah!

NHL - San Jose Sharks/Nashville Predators Recap Friday April 13, 2007 - Yahoo! Sports

Spectragrams of the static in songs on the new Nine Inch Nails album draw pictures! The first picture is from their trailer video. (The spectragram itself is from My Violent Heart.) You can now listen to the entire album on their website.