Abortion and Grieving

I feel compelled to ask and answer why I am devoting so much blogspace to abortion recently. I have always been grieving the selfish "choices" I made as a younger man. And the national revulsion in the wake of the Planned Parenthood videos is acting like a support.

According to the Kubler-Ross model of grief, there are emotional stages that persons processing grief experience. One of these is anger. Another is depression, which is anger turned inward. I'm done with depression.

I'm not afraid of anger anymore. I realize that it's just a feeling, and that it has a purpose, such as the production of adrenaline for energetic purposes. In fact, anger is the animating spirit behind many of these essays.

I don't feel anger for the individual woman who seeks an abortion. These women may have been conditioned into a total worship of self; however, each soul might repent and turn away, and claim salvation. No, the contempt and hostility are reserved for the political and cultural enablers of abortion. Like Cecile Richards, whom I'm pretty sure has a contract in hell signed in her own blood.

Amanda Marcotte is a pretty despicable human being as well. She calls it a "non-scandal." How many videos have to be released to convince her?

The real reason Rand Paul is so eager to defund Planned Parenthood: http://t.co/v1Ab8FhJcT @AmandaMarcotte

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) July 28, 2015

"Republicans continue to puff up in feigned outrage and use this as a pretense to attack family planning programs," Marcotte writes. It's not feigned. And nobody is attacking family planning. It the long-suppressed outrage that tax funding goes for abortion, and disgust that procedures are being modified to maximize profit from fetal organ sales.

Marcotte continues, saying that Rand Paul's "statement—that taxpayer dollars are going to it—a flat-out lie, as spending federal money on abortion has been banned since the ‘70s." Marcotte knows that some of the $500 million a year in tax money that Planned Parenthood receives annually, goes into general accounts to fund abortions. To say nothing of countless tax-exempt donations made to all the 501c(3) abortion-related PACs, whose sole purpose is abortion political advocacy.

I'm thinking that Marcotte is animated by anger, too. Perhaps she internalized a story she once read about sexual abuse. It might explain her most infamous quote, the one that got her kicked out of the John Edwards campaign, asking "What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit? You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology."

Marcotte claims that the libertarian Paul has in common 'the desire to feel self-righteous while in fact just being deeply selfish" with the conservative movement. Marcotte never mentions that Rand Paul is a doctor. I'm not sure Marcotte understands either the religious right or libertarians. She says that there is "libertarian hostility towards social spending on things like food and health care." She claims that libertarians believe the poor are just "shameful dependents who need to suffer for the lack of merit."

I'm glad in a way that Marcotte isn't repressing her rage. That's not healthy. Maybe this expression of toxic fury will be healthy for her. As long as she uses her microphone to promote pathological behavior, she will provoke me.

Darkness Was Upon The Face Of The Deep

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

I wrote an essay yesterday in which I shared part of the story about Planned Parenthood defector Abby Johnson. She was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in East Texas, and was traumatized by the experience of watching an abortion on ultrasound. She founded an organization called And Then There Were None, which helps abortion clinic employees leave the industry. She has also written a book, entitled Unplanned: The Dramatic True Story of a Former Planned Parenthood Leader's Eye-Opening Journey across the Life Line.

She was quoted in the Washington Times, and it wasn't until today that I realized that yesterday's essay omitted the most important part of her testimony. Many people who are pro-life have vilified Dr. Nucatola, but not Johnson.

"To be perfectly honest," she said, "I was disgusted at many of the comments that I saw from people claiming to be pro-life, and the way that they were talking about Dr. Nucatola. That was very disturbing to me. If we’re going to say that we’re pro-life and we believe in the inherent dignity of all persons, that includes physicians who work at Planned Parenthood."

This is exactly the correct tone that I wish to carry and convey as I continue my crusade for life.

I spent a lot of time today thinking about Jess McIntosh, the Emily's List communications director who appeared on Fox News Sunday. Maybe because she reminds me of my sister, who also wears her Scots-English in a wreath about her face.

McIntosh and I both studied English Literature. McIntosh has a Master's Degree, while I earned a minor degree. Something that people who study English Lit all have in common, is that they aspire to be great writers.

What happened to that idealistic young woman, Jess? What is missing inside you that you would negotiate your soul for an abortion provider? I understand the allure of politics. They say that politics is show business for ugly people. But you're not ugly, Jess. You are beautiful.

Are you a happy warrior, Jess, "whose high endeavours are an inward light that makes the path before him always bright?"

Or do you feel sorrowful, Jess?

"'True,' say the young children, 'it may happen
That we die before our time.
Little Alice died last year---the grave is shapen
Like a snowball, in the rime.'"

The Abortion of America's Conscience

The abortionistas are trying to circle the wagons around Planned Parenthood. Carly Fiorina appeared on Fox News Sunday opposite Emily's List Vice President Jess McIntosh. Fiorina scored a one-punch knockout during the conversation.

Planned Parenthood's activists have resolutely opposed ultrasounds prior to abortion procedures. Fiorina said they have "lobbied against a woman’s opportunity to look at an ultrasound before she makes an incredibly difficult choice to end the unborn life within her. And yet they are using that same technology to harvest body parts."

I don't know when Jess McIntosh surrendered her conscience. Her career in Democratic politics seems pretty anodyne. NYU, MA, English Literature. Al Franken spokesperson. Communications Director for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. And, since 2010, communications for Emily's List.

Part of her responsibility includes tarting up her image with a perky blonde hairdo and spitting out "pro-choice" talking points on television.

Emily's List is an acronym for Early Money Is Like Yeast. (It raises dough). They are a political action committee that only supports Democratic politicians. They were started by, among others, Barbara Boxer, Ann Richards, Anne Wexler, Donna Shalala, and Ellen Malcolm. This cycle, they are carrying Hillary Clinton's water.

I despise the soothing, non-threatening name of the organization, and everything they stand for. Using the name Emily for your abortion mill is an anectodal fallacy, because that name could be the name of your friend.

Abortion absolutists are saying that the videos being released by Center For Medical Progress are just a different way for "anti-choice" (the label "pro-life" is scrupulously avoided) people to shove images of dismembered fetuses in front of people. They're wrong. The words coming from Planned Parenthood executives are much, much more damaging.

I never much liked the approach of showing gruesome images to people. Even though it gets under the skin of the abortionistas, and gets them to claim that "free speech doesn't include showing dead fetus pictures."

A picture can be ignored, or compartmentalized. A person cavalierly referring to a broken baby in one bag being exchanged for a bag of cash creates word pictures. Each person that has ears to hear, and allows the message to resonate, cannot help but ruminate on the cruel indifference on display.

People that want the truth are hearing it, right now. Like the testimony of Abby Johnson, who used to run a Planned Parenthood clinic. She left and founded And Then There Were None, "dedicated to helping abortion clinic employees leave the business by providing counseling."

Johnson's conscience was shocked when a physician showed her an abortion procedure on ultrasound. "I had been told by Planned Parenthood that the unborn had no sensory development until 28 weeks gestation, and so to see a 13-week fetus trying to actively move away from the abortion instrument during that procedure was very shocking."

Maybe Emily should have a real baby brother, and he could start his own PAC. Aaron's List, dedicated to going beyond the ultrasound, and showing videotaped ultrasound abortions.

The New Welfare Queens

Employers in Seattle are learning how progressive economic policies create barriers to employment, and workers are learning how those policies create disincentives to work. Activists masquerading as workers pressured the city of Seattle to pass a minimum wage ordinance. Starting in 2017, the floor on wages will be $15/hour.

Labor activists used the hashtag #FightFor15 and slogans like "Stop Wage Theft." They aren't asking for much, just a living wage, decent benefits like paid sick leave, and the right to bargain collectively. And they are winning. The minimum wage is going to $15/hour in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The New York State Wage Board formally recommended a $15.00 minimum wage for the fast food industry in New York, and Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to move it into law.

These measures are a burden on the employer, and inhibit the employer from hiring.

These measures are also creating disincentives to work. Seattle workers are asking to work fewer hours. All of these welfare programs are means-tested. If a person wants a "decent place to live," they can apply for Section 8 housing assistance. Section 8 is available to families whose income does not exceed 50% of the median income for the county or metropolitan area in which the family chooses to live.

So, if a person wants to live within walking distance of Pike Place Market, and they have no marketable skills, they can always game the system. And if they want to buy artisanal, locally sourced arugula with their SNAP benefits, they need to work fewer hours to continue to qualify. Therefore, the minimum wage can be thought of less as a way to move people out of welfare, and more as a progressive tax on employers.

One of the arguments for minimum wage is that welfare programs socialize the loss of wages. That is, the taxpayer picks up the difference between what the worker takes home and what the person needs to survive. The progressive argument states the desire to avoid the socialization of these "lost wages," and also avoid the privatization of excess profits. The progressive socialist claims to flip the script, and privatize the losses, while socializing the gains (people using less of the relatively scarce entitlement resources).

In reality, the new, higher minimum wage is moving very few, if any, people off welfare.

Maybe we can start to think of these workers as the new "Welfare Queens." Wikipedia defines a welfare queen as a pejorative phrase used in the United States to refer to people, usually women, who are accused of collecting excessive welfare payments through fraud or manipulation. Thus, anyone who games the system to maximize their entitlement handout is a welfare queen.

Maybe we should stop referring to the results of the activist progressive approach as "unintended consequences." After awhile, they start to seem more intentional.

Planned Parenthood's Newspeak

Evidence of Planned Parenthood's political firepower is on full display. U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky has asked the Justice Department to investigate Center For Medical Progress. To see whether "any federal or state laws were violated in securing the LLC."

Naming his cover organization "Center For Medical Progress" was an inspired move by founder David Daleiden. It infringes ever-so-slightly on the George Soros organization Center For American Progress. Daleiden is profiled by a friend of his, Charles C. Johnson, here. My favorite passage in Johnson's article is a pointed warning "To the abortion industry: David is your worst nightmare. He knows all of your weaknesses and he has dedicated his life to finding them. He won’t quit. You’ll have to kill him."

Daleiden has warned Planned Parenthood that more videos are coming. "About a dozen," he said. Such as fetal tissue, including kidneys and brains, being implanted into laboratory rats. "A lot of frankly Frankenstein stuff," Daleiden says.

Lawmakers of both parties should be considering whether to defund Planned Parenthood. Stop giving them tax dollars. If people or corporations or foundations want to sponsor them, let them. While we're at it, revoke their 501c(3) tax-exempt status. That's supposed to be for educational organizations. If it takes re-writing the tax code to abolish 501c(3) organizations, so be it. If the tax code allowing deductions for charitable giving needs to be abolished, then so be it.

Anything less amounts to government sponsorship of abortion.

The videos that have appalled people of conscience have drawn Hillary Clinton's comment. "It’s really an attack against a woman’s right to choose, to make the most personal, difficult decisions that any woman would face, based on her faith and the medical advice that she’s given," Clinton said.

Referring to abortion as a "right" is Newspeak. It is a colonization of the language, to confer upon women the sole "right" to liquefy a human being out of existence. Just because it is her body, and can do with it as she pleases? She can't prostitute herself, abuse drugs, or commit suicide. No woman has the "right" to harm herself.

Abortionistas conflate legal rights with natural rights. A natural right is inalienable, and not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government." The right to defend oneself against physical attack is a natural right. A natural right cannot be taken away.

An individual's right to their own life cannot be taken away without due process. A woman showing up at an abortion clinic for the sake of convenience is not due process. An unborn child feels pain and fear, even though he or she may not understand how to process this.

The "right" to have an abortion is a legal right. That is, it can "be modified, repealed, and restrained by human law." It was given to women by the government, and it can be taken away by the government. People need to start saying that women in this country have a "legal right" to have an abortion. A natural right to abortion would imply that the taking of a human life at any stage of development is also a natural right. Maybe that is why the progressives feel so strongly that there should be a right to euthanasia. Once life in any form becomes devalued, life in all forms becomes devalued.

All The President's Rhetoric

CBS News carries a news brief each half hour on many stations carrying conservative talk radio. The message is always partisan Democrat. Which is understandable, since the president of CBS News is David Rhodes. His brother, Ben Rhodes, is Deputy National Security Adviser serving President Obama. The afternoon news brief chirped about how "Obama's Iran deal got a thumbs up at the United Nations."

The 15-0 vote at the U.N. Security Council is a preemptive usurpation of United States sovereignty. It was conducted to allow Obama to appeal to authority as he seeks congressional approval. That the vote was unanimous allows Obama an additional appeal to popularity. President Obama believes in the power of his own personal persuasion, but he constantly deploys logical fallacies.

Libertarians and conservatives reject the authority of the United Nations over that of the United States. It was apparent even before his election that Obama was an Internationalist, who would bind the United States to laws drafted by the U.N. and other international bodies. Candidate Obama telegraphed his intentions by declaring himself "a citizen of the world."

Obama repeatedly asserts that the Iran nuclear deal is good because he presents the issue as a choice between diplomacy or war. "Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically, through a negotiation, or it's resolved through force, through war," he said. The straw man fallacy is Obama's rhetorical tic. The military option frightens some people, and the speaker assumes that the listener is eager to do anything to avoid war.

Iran certainly does not desire all-out war, not yet. They have been waging proxy war against the West for thirty-five years. The negotiations served as a temporary truce, or hudna, for Iran. A hudna is always temporary, and not for a duration of more than ten years (it is no coincidence that the current agreement expires in eight years). The hudna is a tactical truce, arrived at during times of relative Muslim weakness.

Another logical fallacy that keeps getting repeated by the President's flacks is the fact that Nixon went to China, and Reagan negotiated arms control agreements with the Soviets. This is a false equivalence. The Soviet Union was a rational regime. They were officially atheist, and were not seeking an afterlife in paradise. Iran is not a rational regime. Iran is an annihilationist regime praying for the return of the 12th Imam, who will usher in Armageddon.

At the United Nations today, Ambassador Samantha Power tried to pretend she's a hardliner. She said the United States nevertheless has "profound concern about human rights violations committed by the Iranian government [and] about the instability Iran fuels beyond its nuclear program, from its support for terrorist proxies to repeated threats against Israel to its other destabilizing activities in the region." The queen of the Internationalists really wants to believe that being nice to Iran will inspire a virtuous circle, and cause them to change their behavior.

Like everything else about Obama, it is about the triumph of hope over experience and reason.

Paintball Jihadis

The media has helpfully informed us that the people pictured exchanging firearms in a Staten Island parking lot are not a threat to anybody, because it appears the weapons are actually paintball guns.

Color me skeptical. For me, the image of a woman wearing hijab, carrying a firearm, is among my worst nightmares.

I don't care if they are paintball guns. For whom are they intended? Maybe the realistic-looking weapons are intended as a birthday present for the woman's son. Happy birthday, Mohammed! How was your visit to Jordan?

Maybe the woman herself is a paintball enthusiast. It's possible, although it would seem her bulky clothing would impede her freedom of movement in tournament play.

Maybe the family just likes to set up targets in the backyard, and plug away while enjoying bratwurst and Blind Pig IPA. We don't know their intent, but we are told not to worry. To allow ourselves to worry would be profiling and submitting to our nativist fears.

If the people had a confederate flag symbol on their vehicles, everybody in the tri-state area would still be sheltering in place.

Maybe they are rehearsing for a coordinated attack. Not to be alarmist or anything, but what is their immigration status?

Arab men on student visas going to flight school didn't raise any red flags, either.

The Colonization of Language

Ran into an interesting tweet this morning, courtesy of Netroots Nation 2015.

The death of the bees is a sign that colonizing women, people of color, marginalized communities is not sustainable, says Jess X. Chen #NN15

— Katie Hegarty (@HegartyKatie) July 19, 2015

This is a beautiful example of the Gaia Theory, in which the earth is worshipped like a pagan deity. Gaia communicates her distress via coded signals apparent to the Brahmins and Druids of our neo-priestly caste. Jess X. Chen has divined that the "colonization" of women and other protected classes is unsettling to Gaia. Not only that, but Gaia has chosen to destroy bees to tell us (using scientific methods to determine that the cause of colony collapse disorder looks to be a class of pesticides is not useful to her followers, and is avoided).

Anyway, whenever the word "colonize" is used, it evokes two complementary meanings in my mind. The primary connotation is that of a group of people getting in ships, sailing to a foreign land, and appropriating the resources. The British Empire's subjugation of India is an example.

A deeper connotation comes from the natural world, where countless examples exist. To take just one, consider Africanized bees, also known as "killer bees." This species was introduced to Brazil in the 1950's. It steadily expanded its territory by cross-breeding with European bees, and arrived in North America in 1985.

In either case, colonization is a natural process, in which a strong group overcomes a weaker one. It is one of the ways that Nature selects stronger, fitter species for survival. That fact is too hurtful to many. If Katie Hegarty was a blogger 50,000 years ago, she would be tweeting that the ice age was a sign from Gaia that homo sapiens are colonizing native neanderthal populations, and it is hurting Gaia's feelings.

The word "colonization" has increasingly taken on negative connotations, as evidenced by Chen's quote. The etymology of the word colonize is from the word "to inhabit." The Merriam Webster Dictionary has a neutral definition of "colonize," either 1) to establish a colony, 2) to send illegal or irregularly qualified voters into, and 3) to infiltrate with usually subversive militants for propaganda. The last two seem gratuitous. But not as gratuitous as the third definition in the Google search results, which claims that to colonize means to "appropriate a domain for one's own use."

A definition as elastic as that is necessary to aggregate political power. It can be said that language is a domain, and as thus, it can be colonized. Consider the attempt by Cortes to decimate the language of the Aztecs. Something similar is happening right now. Hard copy dictionaries are being replaced by Wikipedia and online sources. The editorial staff at Wikipedia is effectively determining the mother tongue that will be used by Western Civilization, from now on.

And no discussion of colonization would be complete without noting who is actually appropriating women, people of color, and marginalized communities. The Democratic Party. An individual woman making a private decision to offer her body for compensation on Craigslist is more problematic than entire populations being colonized into a political system, apparently.

Abortionistas and Their Fallacies

Planned Parenthood's marching orders have gone out, and their media shock troops are spinning as fast as they can. An example of the many fallacies being deployed is the strawman fallacy of Amanda Marcotte. She is pretending to refute one argument while actually refuting an argument that has never been made. Take special note of the quotation marks around the word "outraged." This is done to imply that the feeling is contrived, and illegitimate.

I really do wish, now, that everyone who is “outraged” at Planned Parenthood takes a vow never to use medicine developed from this research.

— Amanda Marcotte (@AmandaMarcotte) July 17, 2015

This is the moral equivalent of defending the atrocities of Josef Mengele on the grounds that his experiments on twins, or pregnant women, or dwarves, have advanced medical science.

Jessica Valenti admits to having had two abortions. She says that it is understandable that people would be horrified upon watching the Planned Parenthood video, because "the reality of medical procedures are not pleasant." "Abortion is a medical procedure," she explains, and "abortion is one of the most common medical procedures in the country."

This is a compositional fallacy, and implies that we shouldn't be squeamish about simple medical procedures. As if crushing the skull of a fetus is somehow comparable to a tonsillectomy. It is true that all abortions are "medical procedures," but not all medical procedures are equal. Performing a lethal injection on a pet or a condemned human being is also a "medical procedure."

Valenti acknowledges that sanitizing the language is an important way to keep the abortion mills operating. "Abortion providers...are aware that public perception has a very real impact on keeping abortion safe and legal."

Yet another fallacy is deployed by Lena Dunham. Two fallacies in one! Labeling Center for Medical Progress as extremist is ad hominem and calls into question the partiality of the organization.

Who's attacking Planned Parenthood? An extreme (and extremely discredited) anti-abortion group. Consider the source and #StandWithPP!

— Lena Dunham (@lenadunham) July 17, 2015

This defense is very common. Jezebel writes that "Group behind Planned Parenthood video may have lied to the IRS." RH Reality Check asserts that "Co-Founder Behind Planned Parenthood Video Has Close Ties to Abortion Clinic Violence." And Media Matters weighs in with it's own tu quoque fallacy, tweeting that "right-wing media and GOP candidates cash in on doctored Planned Parenthood video outrage." Even Media Matters knows that the full, uncut video was released at the same time.

Nowhere in any of these arguments is any acknowledgement of the core issue for conservatives, the sancity of human life, and the wasted potential, discarded as casually as baby romaine lettuce.

Caitlyn's Courage

I'm avoiding all local and national television news this morning. They are serving dog's breakfast about Caitlyn Jenner's appearance at the ESPY awards last night. Jenner received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. Giving this award to Jenner attenuates the significance of the award, and of Ashe's life.

I'm old enough to remember Arthur Ashe. I was a teenage tennis junkie. Ashe was the first black player on the U.S. Davis Cup team. The only black man to win Wimbledon, US Open, or Australian Open. This was done in an era when the trauma of the civil rights movement was still fresh. Ashe was himself arrested during an anti-apartheid protest in 1985.

Ashe contracted HIV during a blood transfusion and died from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993. He was a graceful tennis player and a gentle, dignified person. Caitlyn Jenner is a trannsexual who killed a woman with his car.

If the ESPY awards were legitimate, and not about stimulating preference cascades, why not give the award to Renee Richards? Richards played at the same time as Ashe. Richards actually underwent sex-reassignment surgery in 1975. Nothing requires more courage out of a man than having his little buddy hacked off.

I can't stand the sound of Jenner talking. Jenner has adopted a lisp to enhance his transformation. Most people with a lisp go to a speech pathologist to correct the problem. Jenner has hired a voice coach to help produce a speech impediment.

I'm really trying not to use gender pronouns. No amount of media indoctrination will convince me that Jenner is a woman. It takes more than a Versace dress, breast implants and hormone therapy to transform a man into a woman.

For Caitlyn Jenner to become a woman, the Y chromosome present on each 23rd pair in every cell in his entire body would have to be replaced with an X. Seventy trillion Y chromosomes would have to be replaced. What makes a man or a woman isn't a social construct, it's biology.

For example, let's say that Jenner takes aspirin on a daily basis. An aspirin regimen has been shown to reduce the risk of myocardial infarction in men. However, aspirin used by women has been shown to be protective against stroke. If someone like Jenner has a family history of heart attacks, would a physician prescribe aspirin therapy? Or is that an example of hateful, binary thinking?

I was also thinking about Jenner's children. Brody Jenner was being interviewed and he kept referring to his father as Caitlyn. I thought that was a very adroit way of not calling Jenner his father. But Caitlyn Jenner is Brody's father. And women cannot father children. Asking us to believe differently is just pissing on us while telling us that it's raining.

So just to circle back on why Jenner, of all people, is receiving this award. The powers that be are promoting transgenderism and everybody better get the fuck out the way. The Pentagon is going to allow trannies to serve openly. Fourth of July Parades are going fab and will look like gay pride parades.

Also, two bills are being pushed by trans activists. ENDA, The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, is an anti-business measure that would permit self-identified cultural victims to sue their employers after they get fired. And SNDA, the Student Non-Discrimination Act, is basically Title IX for public schools.

I can see that my two minutes of hate have gone long, so I will close with words from the fearless one himself, Caitlyn Jenner, who wants all of us to know that "it’s about all of us accepting one another." I'm okay with coexist, and only have a few caveats about tolerance, but acceptance is a bridge too far. Asking for my acceptance is a little too close to "resistance is futile," and "you will be assimilated."

Baby Livers Wholesale

At least now we know why abortion activists resist any and all attempts to reasonably limit their ongoing slaughter. It's not just that their mode of production is abortion. It's now confirmed that abortions provide inputs for a long-suspected other mode of production: the sale of body parts of aborted fetuses.

Who Is Deborah Nucatola? 5 Things To Know After Planned Parenthood Director Is Accused Of Selling Baby Body Parts, murmurs the headline at International Business Times. Er, no. Nucatola doesn't stand accused of anything. She has actually confirmed what people suspected for a long time.

"We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact," Nucatola said.

Planned Parenthood is standing by their gal. They released a statement describing the organ harvesting as helping patients [who] sometimes want to donate tissue to scientific research that can help lead to medical breakthroughs, treatments and cures for serious diseases.

The human being that is being harvested is never given the chance to consent. If they were capable of communicating their wishes, they would probably want to live a natural life.

The further along in gestation the fetus is, the bigger the organs, and the more valuable they are. No wonder the abortion absolutists see no distinction between a ten day old fetus terminated with a pill, and a nine month old fetus terminated with forceps.

The pride that Planned Parenthood feels for Nucatola isn't shared by Nucatola herself. She deleted her Twitter account. That is the behavior of someone who is ashamed.

America asked for this. America tolerates tax-payer funded abortions, and tax-exempt status for groups like Planned Parenthood Action Committee, who advocate for unrestricted abortion.

America stood by at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for a voice vote three times to recognize God and deemed it passed even though the nays were louder.

America stood by at the 2012 Democratic National Convention when the abortion fanatics took to the stage, one after another. Nancy Keenan, President of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK. She's a nun who seems pretty tolerant of abortion coverage in Obamacare. And Sandra Fluke.

The 2012 Democratic Convention and its All-Star lineup of abortionistas was galling to me. One etymological root of the word "galling" is bile. Another root is a sore on the skin caused by rubbing or chafing. When will America throw off the saddle and drink from the healing waters?

Reality Bites

Watching The Bachelorette is one of my guilty pleasures. It's always weird critiquing reality television. The shows are produced to the hilt and staged in a way that the viewer only sees what the producers want to show. Last night, Kaitlyn Bristowe was portrayed as having sex with three men on successive nights. Then she sent Ben home.

I actually thought she would send Shawn home. She must like the conflict between Shawn and Nick. Oooh, two men are fighting over me. Ben is better looking than either man, and offered Kaitlyn a stable choice and a way forward without chaos. Her choice opens a window into Kaitlyn's psychological pathologies. Two men fighting over her provide a better way for her to try to relive and resolve her deep-seated insecurities.

Because I believe that Kaitlyn is badly broken. It is very telling that Kaitlyn went to visit Nick's family and Shawn's family. For some reason, she didn't take either of them to meet her family. Isn't taking the boy to meet the girl's father a time-honored courtship ritual? There was apparently too much dysfunction in Kaitlyn's family to risk the meeting.

The program is being sold as a courtship ritual. Kaitlyn repeatedly said the goal of the process is finding a husband. The men keep saying that they are seeking a wife. I would just caution them against using such gendered terms. Someday, it may be considered hateful and exclusionary. Democrats have already introduced legislation which would ban the use of the terms "husband" and "wife" in federal law.

I can already see the evolution of the program unfolding before me. I wonder how long it will be before ABC Television produces a gay version of the Bachelor? I predict they will cast a bisexual female as the Bachelorette within two years. They will package someone mutable and ambiguous, like Ruby Rose, who will then date both men and women. That's ratings gold!

I hope Kaitlyn Bristowe finds peace and happiness. I don't think she's a bad person, not at all. In fact, I feel a little sorry for her. I don't think she's that smart, and I suspect she may have once had a head injury, like a car accident or something. One clue is her lazy eye. Another clue is her absolute lack of impulse control. She doesn't have the ability or desire to delay gratification.

That's not to say that she's not clever. She is actually following a sound reproductive strategy, one that women have been employing for millenia. By being sexually promiscuous, she is increasing the chances that she will become impregnated. And all these alpha males are passing along the most desirable genetic material possible. Once she becomes pregnant, she can go exclusive with the male that will be the best provider and protector. They may not be one in the same man. That man might have been Ben, who was sent home.

Weekend At Bernie's

Hillary Clinton gave a domestic policy speech today. She has obviously retained a vocal coach. Her tone is very calm, and she enunciates very clearly. She sounds like a librarian. Still, it's better than the Shrillary we all know so well.

The speech was warmed over hash, straight from the Center For American Progress.

"For 35 years, Republicans have argued that if we give more wealth to those at the top — by cutting their taxes and letting big corporations write their own rules — it will trickle down." Allowing people to keep what they earn is "giving" them "more wealth," according to Hillary.

"I believe we have to build a growth and fairness economy." You can't have both. Capitalism creates winners and losers, and there will always be unfair, disparate outcomes. "We can’t build strong families without more fairness." Nobody believes anymore that Democrats want to build strong families. Democrats believe that it's unfair that some children have loving families while others do not.

"As President, I will work ... to strengthen the American middle class." The Democratic approach to economics eviscerates the middle class. Look at California. That is the future of America. Economics based on broken windows fallacies and demand-side economics.

It was the supply-side economics of Reagan and Bush 41 that encouraged production and handed her husband an economy that benefited from a peace dividend and dot-com boom.

"Bringing millions of hard-working people into the formal economy would increase our gross domestic product by an estimated $700 billion over 10 years." This is based on cherry-picked data from the CBO. The CBO also said that per capita GNP would be less than 1 percent lower than under current law through 2031 because the increase in the population would be greater, proportionately, than the increase in output. The increase in population will be greater than the increase in output. In addition, the CBO estimates that average wages for the entire labor force would be 0.1 percent lower in 2023 under the proposed legislation.

That's not how you build out the middle class. That's how you build the bottom quintile, the Democratic Party sweet spot.

"Breaking down barriers so more Americans participate more fully in the workforce — especially women." I guess nobody told Hillary that women are earning more college degrees than men, and women in their twenties are earning more on aggregate than men. The only role men will play in the brave new world is female ally and stay-at-home dad.

Oh god, there's so much more speech to fisk! I'll just leave this here, and note that it looks like Hillary is brain-damaged. Bill Clinton said that it took "six months of very serious work to get over" her brain injury. She should release her medical records. The corpse in the movie Weekend At Bernie's had more vitality.

Pulling Out All The Stops

I was thinking about the Chinese stock market on my morning walk today. A few days ago, I had an anxiety attack, and was pretty sure the world was coming to an end. Then I put the leashes away and made my Vitamix blend: kale, collards, celery, beet, daikon, and brussels sprouts. After consuming that, I felt "right as rain," as if I were Neo eating The Oracle's cookie and submitting to her programming sub-routine.

Today I feel a sense of detachment from the Chinese crisis. Telegraph UK noted that there are similarities between the China of 2015 and the U.S. of 1929. Huge stock market run-up, fueled by margin buying. Speculative real estate bubble. The premise that the laws of economics no longer apply, that it's "different this time."

If there is a major perceived shortcoming of capitalism, it would be the boom-and-bust cycle, and the inevitable panics. The Chinese government has more levers of control over markets than the United States, and they are using every last one. On Tuesday, more than 40 percent of listed companies suspended trading in their shares. This is in response to share prices on the Shanghai Composite index falling more than 16% month-to-date, and more than 25 percent since the 52-week high, set in June.

It's bad, but not as bad as the bear market of 2007-8. Besides, it's just paper losses, right? Tell that to the retail investors, estimated at more than ninety million people. To prevent the market from returning to equilibrium, the Chinese government is pulling out all the stops.

The Chinese central bank is providing liquidity, brokerages are being made to pump, insiders are being told to pump, and state-run companies are pumping. They are even arresting short-sellers. And I thought the uptick rule in the United States was onerous.

I love the idiom known as "pulling out all the stops." It means to hold nothing back, and throw everything into the fight. It originates from organ music, as the organist uses stops to control music volume and tone. When all the stops are pulled, the organ plays all the tones simultaneously.

Curiously, a stop order, or stop-loss order is a pre-determined sell order that is triggered when a stock falls below a certain point. This is supposed to limit downside risk to the individual. But when a lot of people are selling at the same time, stops are hit, prices fall faster, and selling panic can spread like contagion to the broader market.

When all the stops are removed, it's like an elevator that has every button disconnected except for "P"enthouse and "B"asement. We live in interesting times.

She Sells Sanctuary

Kate Steinle was murdered by an illegal alien on July 1. She was thirty-two years old.

Her life was forfeit because the Democratic Party cares more about votes than lives. Because San Francisco is a sanctuary city, and has been since 1989. The man that killed her knew that he would be safe from deportation in San Francisco. It is illegal for local police to turn people over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a court order. Even if they have been convicted of multiple felonies. Even if they have been deported multiple times.

The President has made no comment about Steinle's murder. When Josh Ernest was asked to comment, he said "I'd refer you to DHS." You fucking asshat, you are DHS.

Apparently, Obama only cares about murders committed by people who pose with the confederate flag.

The President and the entire Democratic Party are just fine with the concept of sanctuary cities. The less enforcement of our immigration laws, the better.

The word itself is evocative of the concept of the church as a sanctuary for a person accused of a crime. It's also a cynical appropriation of religious symbolism by those who would never visit a place of worship. But sanctuary doesn't mean permanent immunity from prosecution. In canon law, it protected those accused of violent crimes for a limited time only, affording a measure of due process in a time when punishment was often abrupt and bloody.

The reason most often cited in support of sanctuary cities is that "immigrant populations" need to be encouraged to work with police without fear of deportation, and that will improve public safety. This is a canard, an appeal to emotion. The truth is, if someone is suspected of a crime, any legitimate probable cause that will allow police to arrest and detain them is what will "improve public safety."

Immigration activists have even cited the 10th amendment as a reason not to comply with ICE detainer requests. Angela Chan, a staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco has said that "The 10th Amendment prevents the federal government from requiring state and local authorities to do their work for them."

It's also quite cynical for a progressive to cite the 10th Amendment as support for a state's right to ignore federal law. Usually the only people fluent in the 10th Amendment are described as wing nuts or right wing nut jobs. The Tenth Amendment just states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." I guess progressives only cite the Supremacy clause when it suits their argument.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Directory Sarah Saldana went on record before Congress in March about the possibility of whether she would support a new federal law mandating local cooperation. "Thank you, amen," was her reply.

That didn't sit too well with the American Civil Liberties Union, who said Saldana "insulted all the states and localities across the country who have wisely decided to stay out of immigration enforcement." Time to take the word "American" out of your organization, ACLU. That would be a wise decision.

Democrats Destroy Jobs

California Assembly Bill 1522 is now in effect. This new law requires employers to accrue paid sick leave for all their workers. Sick leave is accrued at the rate of one hour of paid leave for every thirty hours worked. In effect, every employee just received a pay increase of 3.33%.

Surprisingly, the unions that helped write AB 1522 are exempt from its requirements.

A full-time employee would accrue eight paid sick days in a year. Right now, the law allows employers to limit the number of days claimed by the employee at three. That won't last. How can they limit hours earned to some arbitrary number? Is the employer going to write a check to the employee to account for the bigger number on the pay stub?

I believe it is a good thing when a company offers paid leave to their employees. I just don't think its any of the government's business one way or the other. The law will have the effect of subsidizing absenteeism.

The Sacramento Bee points out that "one employee in three forfeits their pay if they take a sick day. And most of those are at the bottom of the salary scale – restaurant workers, fast-food workers, farmworkers, gardeners." That's because these are entry-level jobs, held by those with very few skills. One way these workers compete with other workers for jobs is by the willingness to take a job that doesn't offer paid leave. Making a business comply with this new law takes that right away from the worker.

AB 1522 author is Lorena Gonzalez, and she made a statement in front of a San Diego McDonald's. She fretted about "single moms, working moms, who work up to 30,40,50 hours a week, and have to decide- are they going pay the rent that month, are they going to keep their job, or are they going to take their baby to the doctor.... That's unfair... And it's wrong." Invoking the moral authority of single mothers is a pure appeal to emotion.

Francine Busby, Chair of the San Diego Democratic Party bemoans the fact that "The United States is the only developed country in the world without laws requiring access to paid sick leave." Yes, and the U.S. generally has the healthiest labor market on the planet.

Busby calls this an example of "man’s inhumanity to man." Wait, what? A worker and their employer enter into their work contract by mutual agreement. Busby also cites the law as a tool to "close the gender gap," since "mothers are more likely than fathers to take time off work to care for sick children and aging family members." Once again, a woman has cited the absolute moral authority of mothers.

By reminding everybody that women are more likely than men to need and use paid sick leave, this law effectively encourages discrimination against the hiring of women. That's because an employer is not required to pay out accrued, unused paid sick days at the time of termination, resignation or retirement.

Three days of paid leave weren't really what the Democrats of San Diego wanted. Then-Council President Todd Gloria passed a city ordinance mandating a raise in the minimum wage and five days of paid leave. When the mayor vetoed it, forcing a referendum. Gloria got $300,000 worth of support from the SEIU to harass and intimidate petition workers gathering signatures. It doesn't sound like Busby, Gloria and the rest are at all "confident" that voters will "do the right thing" and pass these measures.

Paid sick leave is just one more tiny burden being placed on the plowhorse of the economy. It won't be the last. California State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson wrote SB 406, which would make a company of 25 people accrue paid family leave. All these Democrats have the same things in common: Good intentions and the desire to make our labor markets as fair as those in Europe.

Maybe the Democratic Party sweet spot is Spain, which has 25% unemployment and 50% youth unemployment. Because the only ones who benefit from generous labor laws are people that already have jobs.