Dog Zen

Rule of Dog has a bunch of adorable sleepy head puppies to brighten your Monday.

World Exclusive: St. Louis Post-Dispatch Interviews Boulder Abortion!

If you've ever wondered what an abortion has to say about, well, abortion the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has the exclusive for you.

Abortion thinks that "This is not about abortion,"..."This is about power." As to the abortion "debate", it says it's not a debate at all, but rather "This is a civil war,"..."These people are using bullets and bombs. That is not a debate."

This gem of a Freudian slip would be amusing if it weren't for:

- The recent assassination of Dr. Tiller.

- The need for bulletproof glass at a medical clinic.

- 24 hours a day federal marshals protection just so Ob/Gyns can properly care for their patients.

- Clinic signs instructing patients that "For your safety, do not open this door for anyone who has not accompanied you."


Also, note to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: If, according to Dr. Hern, he's performed 17,000 procedures over ~34 years, that means we're talking about ~12 procedures/wk (10 @ 15-26 wks, and 2 @ >26 wks).

Incidentally, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment*, in 2007 there were 11,336 reported induced terminations, with 7,687 (68.1%) @ 8wks or less; 1,683 (14.9%) @ 9-10 wks; 840 (7.4%) @ 11-12 wks; 666 (5.9%) @ 13-15 wks; 312 (2.8%) @ 16-20 wks; 98 (0.9%) @ 21+ wks; and 350 (3.1%) EGA not stated.

*from the Director, Vital Statistics Unit, Health Statistics Section, CHEIS-HS-A1 Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (personal communication 6/5/09)

Viagra Behind-the-Counter in the UK

If only female patients had a brain, agency, and a male reproductive tract....

LONDON (AFP) – Men will be able to buy Viagra on the High Street for the first time instead of going to a doctor after Boots launched a nationwide scheme on Friday.

Stores across the country will sell the erectile dysfunction drugs to men after they undergo a private half-hour consultation with a pharmacist.

Pharmacists will conduct a pre-screening questionnaire, take a medical history and conduct a series of blood tests, including checking glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels to rule out a more serious health problem.

...

Pharmacist James Longden, who led the trial, said men had travelled from around the country to buy the small blue pills.

"We had men coming not just from the North West but from all over.

"They were really positive about it. Sometimes it can be a bit of an embarrassing subject to talk about and many didn't know where to turn to for help," Longden said.

...

Patricia Lohr, medical director of the sexual healthcare charity BPAS, said women should also have the convenience of buying drugs from their chemist rather than seeing a doctor.

"It's fine that men will be able to pick up Viagra alongside their shaving foam at their local pharmacist.

"But why can't women access effective contraception by the same easy means? The contraceptive pill is safe, effective and used by millions of women worldwide - many more than men who use Viagra.

"A pharmacist can't even provide a woman with a repeat prescription for the pill - she has to return to the doctor's surgery time and again."

Dog Zen

Get a jump on your Monday morning puppy smile at Rule of Dog.

"Reign of terror against abortion providers"

AP image

Opponents of medical care for women were thwarted from using Dr. Tiller's closed clinic for their proverbial dance on a murdered man's grave. Instead, they took their celebration to Operation Rescue's own national headquarters, the site of a closed Wichita abortion clinic the group bought in 2006, a local hospital and a third abortion clinic that closed in 1991.

In other reign of terror against abortion providers "violence, what violence?" news:

During the first half of 2009, along with 67 burglaries, assaults and other violent incidents, there have been 1,400 reports of hate mail and/or harassing phone calls received by clinics, the highest level in a decade, according to the federation.

...

On Wednesday, a Memphis, Tennessee women's clinic was evacuated because of a bomb threat. That same day, two men in New Mexico were convicted of fire-bombing an Albuquerque abortion clinic.

At many clinics, door locks have been glued to keep people from entering. Patients sometimes must run a gantlet of shouting protesters to enter, and pictures, names and addresses of various abortion providers have been featured on anti-abortion websites.

About one in five of nearly 700 free-standing U.S. health clinics providing abortions experienced violence over the last year, according to the Feminist Majority Foundation.

...

The violence and threats, combined with legislated restrictions in various states, are frightening providers and hindering women, said Dionne Scott, spokeswoman for the Center for Reproductive Rights.

On a totally unrelated note, here's what my newly formed, say, Muslim group is up to:

"Our mission is to crush [X] underfoot," said [me], founder and former leader of [another similar group with extremist ties], which maintained a "[assassinated professional] Watch" on its website before the [professionals]'s murder. "We will win this war. [Assassinated professional]'s death has the potential to propel us more quickly to our goal."

[Me] is promoting a training course for the "[X] warrior" and said [me] wants to spur new teams of community activists around the country.

"What's Going on in Iran?"

I am hoping for the best, but I'm afraid I do expect the worst.


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Pastor David Bayly: The Legitimate Shooting of Pregnant Women to Prevent Abortion Should Be Under Civilian Authority

Heeding President Obama's call for more civic service, David Bayly, pastor of Christ the Word, Toledo, Ohio, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation, inspired by his BFF pastor Douglas Wilson, uses his sermon to offer a plan:

If there should come a time when shots are legitimately fired to prevent the murder of babies in America, it will be—as in the American Revolution and the Civil War—when those who shoot do so under civil authority....

Granted, since about 35% of American women will have had an abortion by age 45, shooting so many pregnant women might be a tad counterproductive. But not necessarily. When you're pastor David Bayly and you declare "I will follow a man who can rise from the dead. You will too, if you have any sense.", maybe you just want to make sure there are enough risen-from-the-dead types for all of us to follow around.

Read the rest, as they say, and make sure not to miss such gems as this:

Where is legitimate authority found to oppose the king or president appointed by God? The answer is, God raises lesser authorities to confront higher authorities.

Got that? God appoints the president and then God raises lesser authorities to confront the president God appointed. Like, totally brilliant!

Last, but not least, when pastor David Bayly exhorts you to understand and declare:

Jesus is God. He is King. He is Lord. This has earthly implications which we must understand and declare. Jesus is Lord. ALL earthly authority belongs to Him.

you better do it. Like so:

Viva La Theocracy! ... Off With the Heads of Non-[Resurrected Corps]Believers!


PS: Pastor David Bayly, stop telling President Obama to kiss boys. If the President [k]iss[es] the Son there will be rejoicing of homosexuals (you know how these people do, at the drop of an abomination) and that's just haraam.

Also, not to get all prudish and all but, srsly, there is such a thing as TMI:

I am a pastor of little note ministering in a not-overly-large church in a not-overly-significant city....insignificant pastors such as myself, never even knowing I exist...[President Obama] you rule over me....You had me at "Hello", Mr. President...I am a pea, a gnat, a worm before you in every earthly sense....whoo-cchhhhh, cracks whip on bare skin for emphasis...though a worm in earthly terms, I wield a mighty sword....*wink, wink*, *nudge, nudge*...I wield the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God....while sporting sensible, yet chic, soft, velvet...chains of human insignificance and small-town unimportance.

Pastor David Bayly, dude, sometimes a sword is just a sword, but soft, velvet chains are never just what they are claimed to be.



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Manly "Zack" With Girly Bits, PMS, Menses, and Tampon Troubles

So it looks like we've run out of menstruating young women and "Zack", a teenage boy who wakes up one day to find himself in possession of girl parts "down under", is here to save the day.

As befits a representative of the important patient population, manly "Zack" with girly bits heroically validates women's reproductive health experiences and sells them some tampons, all in a hip, emo, viral kind of way.

Pity it's unprofessional to give medical advice based on the annoyance factor elicited by ad campaigns. Because I have to tell you, the temptation to recommend against using a certain brand of tampons is quite strong at the moment.





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Dog Zen

It's Monday morning. In these troubled times, head over to Rule of Dog and bask in the puppy splendor.

Ahmadinejad Wins, In the Most "Robust Debate" Kind of Way

Good thing President Obama, who said Iran's "robust debate" leading up to Friday's presidential elections is evidence that change is possible, believes in a Sky Fairy what with Ahmadinejad's victory in the Iranian presidential election being the result of a "divine assessment" and all.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning Supports Domestic Terrorism

When Dr. Leroy Carhart is assassinated, please remember what domestic terrorism enabler and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, a constitutional officer whose duty is to [u]phold and defend the Constitution and laws of the State of Nebraska, had to say about one Nebraska citizen engaged in the lawful profession of providing legal, medically necessary procedures to patients [like in Kansas (.pdf), post-viability elective abortions are illegal in Nebraska]:

I'm disgusted and I'm saddened, and I hate it that he's here in Nebraska and I hate it that he's in America. I mean, this guy is one sick individual.

Good thing that Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning is only disgusted and saddened by, and wants to rid the country of, Ob/Gyns, sickos that they are. I mean, imagine if he or any other AG in the U.S. had said the same thing about people who matter like a religious professional or pretty much anybody but Ob/Gyns and their patients.

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Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Kansas

Dr. LeRoy Carhart will continue to provide necessary Ob/Gyn care to patients in the Wichita, Kansas area.

Terrorism Works: Dr. Tiller's Clinic Is No More

Dr. Tiller's clinic will not reopen:

A statement released by attorneys for Tiller's family said they were "ceasing operation of the clinic and any involvement by family members in any other similar clinic."

One down, two to go.

And, apropos of not assassinations and terrorism, Pvt. Long's killer speaks out:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Muslim convert charged with fatally shooting an American soldier at a military recruiting center said Tuesday that he doesn't consider the killing a murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.

"I do feel I'm not guilty," Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press in a collect call from the Pulaski County jail. "I don't think it was murder, because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason."

Dr. Tiller's Assassin Calls the AP, Again

Dr. Tiller's assassin tells the AP that he has refused to talk to investigators, conditions in jail are deplorable, and that similar violence was planned around the nation for as long as [abortion] remained legal.

Meanwhile Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL-Pro-Choice America, appeals to the good sense, civility, and self-restrain of anti-medical care for women groups. You know, how you do when there are only two Ob/Gyns left to provide specialized, therapeutic medical care to women and you're hopping they're not next in line to be assassinated.

President Obama and Israel, the Wasted Version

Perhaps if you want to gauge the education and perspectives of any group of people you should do them the courtesy of interviewing them when they're not, you know, wasted? [NSFW]



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Dog Zen

It's Monday morning, time again for Rule of Dog.

DOJ to Investigate Dr. Tiller's Assassination

Threat of [maybe, perhaps] a crime: Former Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison: "We've got a lot of e-mails — hundreds and hundreds and hundreds," he said. "Whether they're threatening is probably a judgment call."

Action: Unprecedented security greeted reporters Thursday for Attorney General Paul Morrison's announcement of findings in an investigation of Wichita abortion physician George Tiller.

Armed officers checked identification badges at the front door of the Memorial Building next to the Statehouse. Only reporters were allowed inside. Everyone was directed to a lone elevator. No one was allowed to walk up the stairs. Guards were stationed in the four corners of the third-floor lobby where the news conference was held.

Morrison said the security arrangements reflected the volume of e-mails his office had received since January.

Actual federal crime: Gluing the back door of reproductive health clinic repeatedly, last time on the morning of the day before you're going to assassinate Dr. Tiller. The FBI both knows about the crime and has tape of it.

Action: Nothing, because a grand jury was[n't] convened and/or look[ed] into the matter, and a belated umm, well OK then, we'll have a look at this silly matter.

Phill Kline Most Affected by Dr. Tiller's Death

I would be remiss in my duty if I didn't bring to your attention the hardship Dr.Tiller's assassination has caused for former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline (emphasis mine):

Thousands of Kansans opened their mailboxes Thursday to find a solicitation letter from former Attorney General Phill Kline that invokes physician George Tiller and Planned Parenthood while seeking contributions for a campaign against abortion rights.

The five-page mailing from Kline was placed into circulation by an Ohio company May 27, a spokesman for Kline said, which would have been four days before Tiller was shot and killed at a church in Wichita.

“There was no way to foresee what was going to happen,” said spokesman Brian Burgess. “I think it’s fair to say the timing is unfortunate.”

Kline, who filed criminal charges against Tiller while serving as attorney general, targeted the solicitation at former political supporters. He is trying to eliminate $200,000 in personal legal debt that piled up during the past six years. The letter also says cash was needed by Life Issues Institute, an anti-abortion organization in Cincinnati affiliated with Kline, to “launch more aggressive battles on the national front.”

“I need your support,” Kline says in the piece. “Your contributions will help us continue this fight and defray our legal expenses.”

“I have acted in faith consistent with my duty and oath of office. When you think about it, the battle is understandable. They must silence the truth by silencing the messenger; and to date, I am the only one who has been willing to speak the truth,” the letter concludes.

How exactly is the courageous, ethical, professional, yet woefully persecuted, Phill Kline supposed to continue to fight the good fight and pay his legal expenses if [t]hey [who] must silence the truth by silencing the messenger keep on getting shot in the head while attending church, hmm, I ask you?

Least you forget, when it comes to Phill Kline, we are in the presence of exceptional greatness. After all, he was the only one willing to:

2005 - Cross-reference patient file numbers with abortion records, then subpoena records from Wichita’s La Quinta Inn, where patients were staying, to match dates with names.

2007 - Steal patients' medical records.

2008 - Store the stolen medical records in his garage, have an employee store them in a Rubbermaid container in his dining room, and have his staff copy confidential medical records at a retail store.

2009 - Have his staff mail patients' medical records to the new state he was moving to after losing his Kansas job.

Obama's Appointee Alexia Kelley Should Help Dr. Tiller's Assassin Obtain Federal Funds for Reducing Abortion

Right before slain Ob/Gyn Dr. George Tiller is to be laid to rest, our most magnificent leader, President Obama (PBUH, praise Jesus, and Omm), appoints Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, to head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

This is great news and here are three reasons why:

1. Faith-based government centers tasked with reproductive health policy recommendations.

As Sarah Posner explains in The American Prospect about the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships [u]nder George W. Bush [.pdf], the faith-based centers didn't play a policy role. But Obama has expanded the faith-based project to include a policy side, and one of its chief goals is to reduce the need for abortion. (links mine)

Create faith-based centers at various Federal agencies to help funnel some government money to your co-religionists and maybe to have people in place just in case the theocracy is a-comin'. Despicable, but mostly run-of-the-mill corruption typical of politicians and power-hungry religious people. Task faith-based center at the HEALTH department to come up with solutions to real life medical matters. That's just a special kind of brilliant. All that's left to do is to sit back, relax, and feel the freaking magic[-based solution]!

2. Appointee's mission is to advance the prophetic voice of a particular religion's tradition.

Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization on a mission to advance the prophetic voice of the Catholic social tradition.

Who better to provide science-based solutions to real life reproductive health matters than one who's on a mission to advance views about a supernatural realm that have empirical consequences?

Between the virgin birth that's neither parthenogenesis nor fetus-in-fetu, sacred sperm, legal rights for morula-Americans, and the prohibition on safe and effective medical procedures (abortion) and drugs (birth control), so many prophetic directives from God, so little time to enact them into public health policy.

Also, the fact that Bill Donohue and his crew do not like the competition from CACG, and the fact that Ms. Kelley holds some bizarre policy beliefs (see below) and advocates the style of "common ground" over the substance of reality clearly indicate that President Obama's decision to appoint Kelley to help shepherd...the White House's common ground agenda on abortion through HHS will deliver women from the evil of abortion, praise be [insert deity, or close male relative of, deity of choice].

3. Alexia Kelley has no idea how to interpret, you know, data.

According to Alexia Kelley, [a]bortion is a social justice issue that must be understood within the context of strategies to combat poverty and to create a truly pro-family economy that respects life.

Everest is nothing compared to the mountain of evidence supporting this claim. Like, for example, the Reducing Abortion in America: The Effect of Socioeconomic Factors (.pdf) study commissioned by Ms. Kelley's organization, a study so not flawed that ideologues known for their own sloppy and biased studies were actually able to force a rewrite of it.

And speaking of evidence, also form Ms. Kelley, our wise DHHS shepherd on reproductive health policy:

Reducing the abortion rate by 95 percent in 10 years is an essential and achievable goal.

This, right here is proof that Alexia Kelley is eminently qualified to herd the women of America into the corral and unleash a reproductive health policy shearing unto them hereto unparalleled in this or any other real or imagined world.

When you are able to read the not-at-all bizarro Life 95-10 Initiative document (.pdf) from Democrats for Life who look and work toward the day when unborn children can be fully protected in law, competent enough to miss each and every one of the many red flags that the document is nothing but silly propaganda, and so scientifically-literate that you decree a 95% reduction in the abortion rate in 1o years an achievable goal in the absence of even a whisper of a shade of a hint of supporting evidence, you are without a doubt the right person to head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Well done President Obama!

Oh, and a quick note for Ms. Kelley: Not for nothing, but as you start your new job please keep in mind that incarcerating or shooting all the Ob/Gyns who perform abortions tomorrow will still not reduce the abortion rate by 95%. On the other hand, offing a good number of women of reproductive age might be something to consider in the reality-based quest to achieve the blessed goal.

Dr. George Tiller Is No More

Dr. Tiller's funeral was today. He was a Navy veteran who loved Star Trek and trusted female patients.

Dr. Tiller's Assassin Chats With the AP

In a call from jail to the AP Dr. Tiller's assassin disputed characterizations in the news media of him as being anti-government, saying he is "anti-corrupt government."

This makes me wonder if one line of defense will be that shooting Dr. Tiller in the head while he was attending church is justifiable as an anti-corrupt government action.

After all, Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, and former Kansas Attorney General Phill "the patient chart thieve" Kline did point out that government corruption was the reason for Dr. Tiller's acquittal of misdemeanor charges stemming from medical procedures he performed:

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, said abortion opponents were never confident that Tiller would be prosecuted aggressively enough by the current attorney general.

"Even if Tiller had been found guilty, he would have appealed to the Supreme Court," Culp said, noting that four of the Kansas high court's seven justices were appointed by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who supports abortion rights.

Kline, the former attorney general who started the investigation, expressed frustration at the prosecutors who tried the case, noting that their only witness was Neuhaus.

"You do not win cases nor achieve justice by calling one witness and ordering your staff not to initiate any additional effort to gather evidence," Kline said in a written statement.

Dr. Tiller's Assassin Asks For Bail

Scott Roeder, the man charged with first-degree murder in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller wants a judge to set bail:

In a motion filed Wednesday in Sedgwick County District Court, public defender Steve Osburn cited Kansas law saying bond should be granted for defendants charged with non-capital crimes.

...

A hearing on the defense motion is scheduled Friday.

So many clinic locks to tamper with, so little time.

Is It Wrong to Murder an [William Saletan]?

Slate and William Saletan want to know if you think it's wrong to murder an [William Saletan]:

[An organization]...endorses the murder of [columnists like William Saletan] on the grounds that "whatever force is legitimate to defend the [country from domestic terrorism] is legitimate to defend [against domestic terrorism enablers]."

Is that statement wrong? Is it wrong to defend the [country against domestic terrorism enablers] as you would defend [against domestic terrorists]? Because that's the question this murder poses.

[Disclaimer: For any government types monitoring this site in a much needed attempt to protect the truly oppressed and endangered among us, I, unlike Slate and Mr. Saletan (and many others), have not lost touch with reality. I know that enabling, advocating for, actually assassinating people and committing acts of terrorism is wrong. That's why I engage in, and advocate, snark instead of, you know, murder.




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No Dog Zen

There's nothing to smile about this Monday morning.