Happy Birthday Elizabeth Taylor !

Today is Elizabeth Taylor's birthday. She is 74 years old today. Since she is one of my Deadpool picks, I hope she doesn't get much older. She was undeniably beautiful in her day, and a huge sex symbol. She dominated Hollywood for years like no one does today. But her time has come and gone. Now she is known primarily as an AIDS activist and a one-time companion to that creep Michael Jackson. (although seemingly she has been wise enough to dump him - I don't remember seeing her or hearing from her during his recent trial unlike in 2003) For you fans, here is a link to a Elizabeth Taylor trivia quiz.

Happy Birthday Liz!

Rumblelanche!!!!!

Welcome everyone from Gut Rumbles. Pull up a chair and look around. Stay a while. Don't cost nuthin'. (but don't feed the animals)

Questions for the Pro-Choicers

OK, based on the debate I've been having, we know that over 97% of abortions in the US are for reasons other than the mother's health, and 87% of them are for reasons other than the mother's health, rape or incest, or the fetus's health. (and just how does an abortion solve a fetal health problem better than birth would?) We also know that the latest mantra of the Pro-Choice movement lately (since they have seen their support slipping in both public opinion and the courts) is abortion should be safe, legal and rare. We now know that there are about 1 million abortions a year (not including over the counter "morning after" pills). Low estimates put the number at 800,000 and high estimates put it at around 1,400,000. Most sources put live birth rates at around 4 million. So if you take the best case scenario, 1 out of 6 pregnacies result in abortion, use the worst case and it is about 1 in 3. (The CDC says that there were 246 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2001, which puts the number at 1 in 5)


So to you Pro-Choicers: Is this rare enough for you? If not, what are you doing to make it rarer? How rare should they be? Are you OK with over 700,000 abortions a year for reasons of convenience? (87% of 800,000, the low estimate)

We know that while you are willing to support laws that say you need parental permission for a teeneager to get aspirin form their schools (but prophalayctics are handed out like candy no questions asked), or a tattoo or their belly pierced but for some reason you think it is perfectly acceptable for them to get an abortion without even parental notification. Why? Don't say incest, all parental notification laws have work arounds in cases of abusive parents. We don't give children the right to choose to drive, use legal drugs (alcohol and tobacco) or vote, but we do give them the right to kill their baby.

Abortion

I am currently involved in an online discourse on abortion with a fellow blogger named GS. In one of my posts I characterized abortion as routine. He challenged my assertion, and wrote a post on his blog laying out his argument.

My first response was to challenge his statistics, using the example of partial-birth abortion. It is now established fact that abortion providers, and the pro-choice movement have lied about the number of partial-birth abortions performed each year. One of the doctors who was responsible has in fact admitted on television that he lied.

I decided however to accept his numbers for the sake of argument, and respond to his assertions. I have posted the following on the comments section of GS's blog, but I felt the points were valuable enough to reprint here.

Now on to some substance if we accept your numbers for the sake of argument.
1) You cite the number of abortions as approximately 1.37 million a year, (not quite the millions I postulated, but close) and the number of live births as somewhere between 3.8 and 4 millions a year. So even if we use your numbers, nearly a third of US pregnancies result in the purposeful killing of the baby. I think it is fair to say that something that happens between 1/4 and 1/3 of the time can be said to be routine.

2) If 47% of abortions are done on women who have already had an abortion, that is almost 1/2 of them. Again, something that happens 1/2 the time is fairly routine.

3)I said abortion was used as a form of birth control, not the primary form, so this is a bit of a strawman argument. Still almost half the women did not use any form of contraception during the month they became pregnant, a number I certainly find troubling.

4) "3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health" Please. My baby's health is at risk, so let's kill it. Surely that doesn't make any sense to you?

5) "3.3% of women have an abortion due to a risk to fetal health. 2.8% of women have an abortion due to a risk to maternal health. (Add on to that 6.1% the number of abortions performed due to rape/incest." These numbers come up to 12.2%. So using your numbers 87.8% of abortions are done for convenience, not medical necessity or rape. That sounds pretty routine to me.

Add to this the fact that most abortions are done on an outpatient basis, I stand by my characterization of abortion as routine.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines routine as "1 : of a commonplace or repetitious character"

Update 1/26/06: GS has responded to this post on his blog. He still insists on quibbling about my use of the word routine. But he, like others of his ideology, is missing the forest for the trees. Let's look at his numbers again.

1) 1 out of three pregnancies today results in an abortion. How can anyone read that number and not be absolutely appalled? Even if you don't believe in the humanity of the fetus, surely the number shows an incredible lack of responsibility and a rend in the social fabric? And for those of us who do recognize the humanity of the fetus, this is a holocaust beyond belief. The pro choice crowd likes to crow that they want abortion to be rare...just how rare is it, and what are they doing to make it rarer?

2) The pro choice crowd uses a strawman argument that abortion is needed to protect the health of women. Yet these numbers show that only 2.8% of abortions are done for maternal health reasons. In other words, over 97% of abortions are not done to protect the health of the woman. When you weigh that number against the small but definite chance of dying from having an abortion, the risk of infertility, the possible increased risk (unproven as yet, but ancedotal evidence) of cervical and breast cancer, and the observed dangerous changes in behavior (such as begining to smoke), it is entirely possible that abortion produces as many health risks for women as it prevents.

Visas? We Doan Need No Stinkin' Visas! pt 9

They're talking about illegal immigration on Fox today, and they brought up the strawman of how the illegal immigrants help our economy.

That is complete bullshit.

Any possible benefit the US economy receives from illegal immigration is geometrically outweighed by the drain they represent on our economy.

The only benefit they provide is a source of cheap labor. But this effect is not as large as it used to be. There is quite a large demand for this labor, and that demand is driving the pay of illegal immigrants up. In fact in the central valley of California this year, crops are rotting in the fields because they can't hire enough migrants to pick them.

The costs of this illegal immigration are myriad. First, the public services these illegal immigrants consume are a drain on our economy and taxpayers. The liberal judges have ruled that we have to give these criminals (they by definition have broken our laws) free medical care, education and in many cases welfare. Most of them work on the underground economy, so you can not even argue that they pay their fair share of taxes. They don't pay payroll taxes at all. Secondly, much of the money they earn is not plowed back into our economy to create new jobs and wealth, but instead is sent to Mexico, where it props up the corrupt regime. Money wire transfers from the US is now Mexico's second biggest source of income, behind only oil exports. We are talking billions of dollars. Thirdly the presence of so many unskilled workers drives down the wages for American citizens.

So let's lay that strawman to rest, illegal immigration DOES NOT benefit the US economy.

Dr. Who

Dr. Who is an extremely long running, at times superb Sci Fi series from the UK. There have been multiple actors in the role (at least half a dozen), they work around this by having the character morph into a new person when it regenerates. The version I am most familar with, and watched weekly growing up, was portrayed by Tom Baker. There is a new incarnation of the series coming to the Sci Fi channel in March. I'll give it a chance and see how it goes.

Battlestar Galactica Pt 11

Well that's interesting. The reincarnated Caprica Six has Gaius living inside her skull like she is living inside the real(?) Gaius's skull. When he first appeared in the reincarnation chamber I was SURE he was a Cylon, twenty minutes into tonight's episode, and I'm not sure.

Well the baby's name is Hera, after one of the human gods. Wife of Zeus, mother of the Olympian gods. Hmm.......

I really don't like the Biers model. (plus I can't get my head around the fact that it is Lucy Lawless.) Watching Six bash her in the head was almost fun.

This was a pretty cool episode. Lots of interesting possibilities. I was a little disappointed that no new human Cylon models were revealed.

Execution

Here in California, a judge has denied the people justice yet again. A piece of scum named Morales (the first Hispanic slated for execution in California since the death penalty was reinstated) was supposed to be executed for raping and murdering a a teenage girl in 1981. He had a fair trial and was sentenced to death by a jury of his peers.

The first outrage was a decision by a judge that lethal injection was potentially cruel and unusual, because if the convict happened to wake up from the sleeping drug, he might feel pain from the other two (one of which paralyzes him). Excuse me? Since when did pain become cruel and unusual? I put up with pain every time I go to the dentist. I want execution to be painful. There should be an element of punishment involved. Hell, if it was up to me, the convict would be executed by being killed in precisely the same manner that he murdered his victim.

The second outrage was the original judge in the case refusing to sign a new death warrant. so this murdering bastard has cheated justice for longer than his victim lived her life, and will continue to do so for an indeterminate length of time.

When told of his reprieve, the bastard smiled.

My Ass (links are slightly not safe for work)

Everyone else has been posting pictures of their ass on their blog (here and here), so I decided what the hell I might as well join in.

(H/T: Gut Rumbles)

The Producers

I just got through watching the original version of the movie The Producers. Genius, pure genius. Gene Wilder gives one of his best performances and launches his comedic career. Zero Mostel is masterful as you would expect. There are some surprises too, the best being Christopher Hewitt (best known in the US as Mr. Belvedere) as the director.

Now, I love Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Wil Ferrell. (and Uma Thurman for that matter, although Lee Meredith was better in the original) But there is no way the new version can be as good as the original. In fact, from the clips I have seen, it's not.

I really hope Mel doesn't decide to re-make Blazing Saddles or Young Frankenstein next.

We've got to protect our phony baloney jobs, gentlemen.

Man, this would be too good to be true! Dick Morris is saying that Sen. Robert "I'm staying here until you drag my cold, lifeless body from this chamber" Byrd might actually lose his election this year. This after being elected to the Senate eight times already. You have to take it with a grain of salt, because it is Dick Morris, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.


Personally, I think the people of West Virginia have decided to get rid of Sen. Byrd before every building and road in the State is named after him.

Since he's one of my deadpool picks, I'm hoping he drops dead this year anyway.

Thought Crimes

There is a man in Austria who has been held in prison for four months, and faces the prospect of ten years in jail. What awful crime did this man commit? After all, this is a country in which a sentence of life in prison sometimes means only fifteen years.

David Irving is in jail, and facing trial, for making statements that question the truth of aspects of the NAZI holocaust during WW II. Yes, you read right, this man is in jail for his thoughts and opinons. I personally think he is a kook, and completely wrong. I have been to Dachau and seen the ovens. But that doesn't mean he has no right to his opinions. You deal with speech like his in two ways. You either ignore it as the ramblings of a madman, or you counter it with more speech. Throwing him in jail for it is an atrocity. This is the same country that had the audacity to attack the State of California and our governor for executing a brutal morderer who had 20 years to appeal his sentence. (of course in Austria, he probably wouldn't have even been in jail after twenty years)

Word has just arrived that he has been sentenced to three years in jail. Shame Austria, shame.

(h/t: The Snow Job)

Why Deify Earnhardt?

This weekend is the fifth anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's death. Once again people are making a big deal about it. OK, I can handle that. But what I don't understand is how he suddenly became the "greatest NASCAR driver ever".

What I remember of Earnhardt is the reckless and dangerous manner in which he drove. I remember the fights he got into for knocking other drivers out of a race. I remember the disrepect he had for other drivers. He was the "bad boy" of NASCAR. Even his fans called him "The Intimidator".

As far the "Greatest driver in NASCAR", there is only one man who deserves that title, and it is hands down, Richard Petty, The King. There is simply no argument possible if you know anything about NASCAR. He was the first driver to win seven NASCAR championships. (to be fair, Earnhardt is the only other driver to do the same thing) Petty won 200 races. (by comparison Earnhardt only won 76 races)

Everyone makes a big deal about the fact that Earnhardt's son is a NASCAR driver. Richard Petty is part of four generations of NASCAR drivers:
His father Lee, who also won a NASCAR championship,
His son Kyle,
and his grandson Adam, who unfortunately was killed in a NASCAR accident.

Day By Day Extended

Day By Day has been doing extended strips on Sunday for the past month or so. The first two panels are reprinted on the bottom of my blog like the daily strips. You have to follow the link in my blog roll to see the whole Sunday strip. Today's extended strip shows Jan playing air guitar in a bikini.

That brings back the memory of me playing air guitar at my friend's wedding a couple of years ago. It was late at night, and I was one of the last guests there thankfully. An AC/DC song came on, (not one of my favorites, but I was just too drunk to care) and I hit the dance floor and started to play air guitar like a drunk teenager. The only thing that saved the moment, is that the bride joined me out there!

Politically Incorrect Joke

A Zebra died and went to heaven. When he got there he wandered around. One day he ran into God."God" he asked, "can I ask you a question?"

"Sure" God replied.

"I've wondered all my life, am I a black horse with white stripes, or a white horse with black stripes?"

"You are what you are" God replied, and walked away.

The Zebra kept wandering around, and soon ran into St. Peter."St. Peter " he said, "can I ask you a question?"

"Sure" St Peter replied.

"I've wondered all my life, am I a black horse with white stripes, or a white horse with black stripes?"

"Why I don't know" St. Peter replied, "you'll have to ask God."

"I did" the Zebra replied.

"Well What did he say?" asked St. Peter.

"He told me you are what you are" said the zebra.

"Well there you go" said St. Peter. "you must be a white horse with black stripes."

"How did you figure that out?" asked the Zebra.

"Well, if you had been a black horse with white stripes, God would have told you "you is what you is."

Christmas in February!

My Amazon. com order showed up today!!! Let's see -

Five Movies:
The Producers (orginal version)
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
The History of the World Pt. 1 (Can you tell I'm a fan of Mel Brooks?)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Three CDs:
AC/DC Live
AC/DC Back in Black
Rose Royce The Best of Rose Royce

Four books:
1901 by Robert Conroy (alt history)
Designated Targets by John Birmingham (alt history)
Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman (alt comics history)
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History by Thomas Woods

Battlestar Galactica Pt 10

Well that was an interesting episode. Now we have an Adama in command of both Battlestars. However the most interesting part to me was the sneak peak at next week's episode. I wonder if we'll meet any new models of humanoid Cylon?

Cheney's Hunting Accident pt 2

OK, As I understand it the whole problem with the accident is that Cheney waited 18 hours to report the accident, right?

Well let us just imagine that Cheney had held a press conference that same day on the hospital lawn immediately after Mr. Whittington had been admitted. The story we would all be hearing about now is:

"How come it always has to be about Cheney? His friend is lying there hurt in hospital and he's holding a press conference. How arrogant. "

or

"They just released the story now to try and suck up all the news space and distract from the Katrina hearings and Iran starting to enrich uranium."

Happy Fracking Valentine's Day

Cheney's Hunting Accident

What is the big deal? I bet the same thing happened a dozen times this weekend. If it had not have been the Vice-President involved, no one would have ever heard about it. Talk about a tempest in a teapot, or making a mountain out of a mole hill.


Even worse than the hysterical coverage of the accident itself is the outraged demands of the media to know why they weren't informed at once. What would they have done, broken into normal TV with the report? A special edition of the newspapers? What did the White House supposedly have to gain by the delay? Since when does the media have the right to be instantly informed about ANYTHING, let alone an aspect of the Vice-President's private life? If I had been Scott McClellan I would have told the media to get a life!

Update: Many on the Left are calling on Vice-President Cheney to resign. You know what? So am I. That way President Bush can appoint Secretary of State Rice to replace him.