Tag Archives: Obamaborg

Terminations are supposed to be a medical procedure

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I have been reading about the case of Dr Gosset with increasing horror. I have a pile of personal reasons for disliking abortion. As a child adopted in the 1960s, there is a reasonable chance that my nursing student mother would have terminated me. She didn’t — and she calls me kin now.

Like Grerp I see terminations as something that we will no longer be able to ban. I think that this society wants to disavow the consequences of sex — which include pregnancy, child support, and a pile of nasty diseases (at least two of which _HIV and syphilis — still cause people to present with psychiatric illnesses if luck and irreversible dementia if not). And I note that the male partner has no choice as to if he will support the child — he as at the mercy of the woman.

Anyway, the quote:

The District Attorney’s office this week charged an abortion doctor, Kermit Gosnell, with murder and infanticide. Nine other workers at the abortion clinic, the Women’s Medical Society, also face charges. According to the prosecutors, Gosnell and his associates not only broke state law by performing abortions after 24 weeks—they also killed live babies by stabbing them with scissors and cutting their spinal cords. Law enforcement officials found blood-stained furniture, unsterilized instruments and fetal remains scattered about the clinic. At least one woman, a refugee from Nepal, had died under Gosnell’s care after being given repeated injections of a dangerous sedative. Prosecutors said Gosnell made millions from treating and sometimes maiming his patients, who were mostly low-income, minority women [3].

But perhaps most frightening of all? The atrocities were discovered by accident [4], as the Philadelphia Inquirer points out. Warnings—from patients and their attorneys, a doctor at a Philadelphia hospital, women’s health groups, pro-choice groups, and even an employee of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health—failed to prompt state and local authorities to investigate or take action against the clinic.

The grand jury report said that one look at the place would have detected the problems, but the Pennsylvania Department of Health hadn’t inspected the place since 1993. Here’s the grand jury report, in surprisingly strong language:

The Pennsylvania Department of Health abruptly decided, for political reasons, to stop inspecting abortion clinics at all. The politics in question were not anti-abortion, but pro. With the change of administration from Governor Casey to Governor Ridge, officials concluded that inspections would be “putting a barrier up to women” seeking abortions.

“Even nail salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client safety,” the report states. “Without regular inspections, providers like Gosnell continue to operate; unlawful and dangerous third-trimester abortions go undetected; and many women, especially poor women, suffer.”

Now I commend the people from the pro-choice groups who did their duty and reported on the poor standards of this service. They were at least concerned about the service have minimal standards. There are many things that can go wrong –ranging from uterine rupture to post termination sepsis — that require standards of hygiene and sepsis. We have more regulations, in NZ, for ECT (which is basically benign — the risk relates to the anaesthetic) and we inspect and certify places doing terminations. We also requre all doctors audit their practice.

What gets me is that the usual systems — set up to ensure that there is asepsis and that systematic errors are not used in any surgery — were not used and that this was a poltical decision. It should have not been so. The service should have been run by doctors with the spine to insist on infection control and audit of complications. This is as much part of any service as assessment of patients and follow-up.
>But abortion is special. It should not be. It should be rare — as a termination implies something has gone so horribly wrong that a fetus has to die. From J. Durden:

Pregnancies are completely avoidable. Women have the regular pill, the morning after pill, the power to discriminate among their sexual partners, the power to insist upon condoms only when having sex, or the power to not have sex altogether if pregnancy is so scary and life-threatening. (The highly unlikely cases include instances where both the condom AND the pill fail – almost statistically impossible – or in instances of ACTUAL rape which end in pregnancy,…,

But abortion is protected by the constitution. Only in the USA — where Roe vs Wade has as much relevance to the aforementioned document as Dredd Scott — the rest of the world is more sensible.

Special cases make for bad medicine. If we are going to do terminations as a society — I for one refuse to bow to Baal but I’m aware that I am in a minority — then they should be regulated and done along with any other gynecological procedure. And this service — from the data we have was unsafe. Back street abortionists would have had more hygiene.

Hat tip Thomas Lipton

Hi Andrew: If they are yours, you have to sack them.

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There is an old saying in my field — respondat superior. It means that the senior member of the team is responsible for those below him.For she is supervising the other members of the team

And if something goes wrong, she is responsible. It does not appear to apply to the elite (I was going to say the “left elite”, but that is redundant). Two people have been arrested for voting irregularities. From the herald.

The irregularities involved people outside of Auckland, but related to the Papatoetoe ward in south Auckland, investigation head Detective Inspector Mark Gutry said last month.

Two men, aged 36 and 39, both of Papatoetoe, have been jointly charged with forgery and will appear in the Manukau District Court today.

Further charges would follow and it was possible more arrests would be made, Mr Gutry said.

Police had been working closely with the Electoral Enrolment Centre to ensure a credible and democratic process in the upcoming local body election, he said.

Despite the arrests, the investigation was expected to continue for some time.

Labour president Andrew Little told Radio New Zealand today he understood one of the accused had links his party.

Last month he said if the police investigation revealed any member of Labour was involved the party would take appropriate action internally.

via Two arrested in voter enrolment probe – Super City – NZ Herald News.

Now, if the person is convicted, there must be a public disavowal of the person. At least.

If the integrity of that election is ruined by these actions, there should be a second election. And the leadership of the Auckland Labour Party — or RAAM , or whoever, will need to resign with the person involved.

Because we cannot tolerate corruption in these processes. Otherwise, be become Obama’s America.

Ann on the tea party

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In the US the elite ‘publicans are scared of the tea party. They are comparing this with their nightmare (Goldwater). The great Ann hits them out of the park.

As long as liberals are going to keep gleefully citing Goldwater’s love of gay marriage and abortion, his contempt for Christian conservatives, and his statement that “every good Christian should line up and kick Jerry Falwell’s ass,” maybe they could ease up on blaming Christian conservatives for Goldwater’s historic loss.Goldwater wasn’t our guy; Reagan was.

via Welcome to AnnCoulter.com.

I note that the Left in NZ are going for the jugular. After Garrett was hounded out of ACT because he got a false passport, confessed, was convicted and the records sealed… they are now after Calvert. Who apparently is a landlord. And one of her buildings houses a brothel.

Ms Calvert, who is replacing disgraced MP David Garrett, confirmed yesterday she owns the building in Queens Gardens, Dunedin, that houses La Maison House of Pleasure.

The parlour bills itself as Dunedin’s “classiest establishment”, though its website address is more to the point – “sexindunedin”.

Speaking alongside ACT leader Rodney Hide at party headquarters in Newmarket, Auckland, Ms Calvert was reluctant to comment on prostitution as an issue but she said she would be “troubled if they were doing anything illegal”.

She indicated she had no skeletons in her closet, nor criminal convictions. She wanted to make it clear she was in no way involved in the prostitution business and was simply a landlord.

Some of her investment properties also housed finance companies and, to some, their reputation was just as questionable as massage parlours, she said.

My understanding is that a landlord cannot discriminate by race occupation etc of their tenants.

The left double standard is alive and well

Concentrate in the important.

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The Times has an interesting set of comments. In New Zealand, we have, until recently, kept private things private. For we are fully aware that our politicians are not saints. But things changed… slowly. Having the PM and Leader of the Opposition have to play happy families — Paul Holmes visiting — has not helped. It affects the children. There have been suicides.

But… there are standards. I support the Whale in exposing rorts of credit cards for private meals, flowers, underpants and other things.

Like McCrystal, I have been at times scathing about my employers. I have had confrontations with the suits. I have advocated for staff. That is part of my job. However, if a reporter was present… I would turn into a jargon spouting eunuch. It’s called survival.

Then, after Vietnam, an ethos of exposure swept the culture. The assumption among many journalists was that the establishment may seem upstanding, but there is a secret corruption deep down. It became the task of journalism to expose the underbelly of public life, to hunt for impurity, assuming that the dark hidden lives of public officials were more important than the official performances…

In other words, over the course of 50 years, what had once been considered the least important part of government became the most important. These days, the inner soap opera is the most discussed and the most fraught arena of political life.

And into this world walks Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

General McChrystal was excellent at his job. He had outstanding relations with the White House and entirely proper relationships with his various civilian partners in the State Department and beyond. He set up a superb decision-making apparatus that deftly used military and civilian expertise.

But McChrystal, like everyone else, kvetched. And having apparently missed the last 50 years of cultural history, he did so on the record, in front of a reporter. And this reporter, being a product of the culture of exposure, made the kvetching the center of his magazine profile.

By putting the kvetching in the magazine, the reporter essentially took run-of-the-mill complaining and turned it into a direct challenge to presidential authority. He took a successful general and made it impossible for President Obama to retain him.The reticent ethos had its flaws. But the exposure ethos, with its relentless emphasis on destroying privacy and exposing impurities, has chased good people from public life, undermined public faith in institutions and elevated the trivial over the important.

via Op-Ed Columnist – General McChrystal and the Culture of Exposure – NYTimes.com.

It may be that McCrystal has more honour that I, or any other Kiwi, has.

A boot in your face, forever.

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The Left, in the 1890s, had a hypothesis. That if a revolution occured, and those who were workers (the low, the proles) ran their own lives by means of a dictatorship of the proletariate (well, I guess that is Lenin, in 1905) then all will be well.

It failed.

Now the Left have abandoned the proletariat, and instead advocate identity politics. Which consists, simply of forcing us to approve their decisions, regardless of what they are.

America is not yet remotely comparable to Orwell’s England of 1984. We’re still a rich people…though Washington has impeded our ability to advance and prosper as we've historically done. We’re still largely free to speak our minds…though Washington, the Left, and the barons of the Main Stream Media are doing their best to make sure only their preferred messages are widely heard. We’re still permitted to vote out our current scoundrels and vote in a new set, every two years…but have you noticed how little things have changed these past few decades, no matter who's “in” and who's “out?” (And that’s before we address the effect of ever-expanding vote fraud and voter intimidation.)

No, not everyone who advocates for increasing federal activism, taxation, and regulation is a would-be tyrant. Some sincerely if naively believe that what they advocate would only be for the best. But their opinions are, to an increasing degree, handed out to them by others — and those others are predominantly persons of no morals, consumed by a great lust for power.

It’s time we ceased, once and for all, to attribute good intentions to our adversaries as a default condition of our discourse. As the old English order of chivalry, the Order of the Garter, inscribed as its motto: “Honi soit qui mal y pense:” “Shame upon him who thinks evil.” Those who can be led to understand better might be many, but they must not be credited with better intentions than they display by their deeds. Those who already understand perfectly well, and approve of the damage to freedom and prosperity wrought by Leftist policies, must get no shrift at all.

via Francis W. Porretto – Eternity Road.

I’d sugges that we should not permit those in power to shut us up. We should not permit them to ruin our businesses. For the elite rule only with our consent.

And it is time to take that consent back.

John McCain on Independence Day

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McCain, good on ya.

Our appreciation for what happened on a hot summer day in Philadelphia all these years ago is often limited to a fleeting, warm feeling about an ancient generation of Americans who, against great odds, stood up to a powerful oppressor, and claimed their natural right to liberty. This is an accurate but incomplete understanding of the revolution begun that day. For written on that piece of yellowed parchment is not only the bold assertion that thirteen former British colonies were and forever would remain free and independent states, but also the once radical idea that history has a right side and a wrong side, and that Americans stood and would always stand on the right side.

The signers put their names and ransomed their lives to a universal, not just a national ideal; that all human beings everywhere, not just Americans, not just the mostly well-off white men gathered in Philadelphia for the occasion, ‘are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’

We’ve not always been true to that ideal, and the rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Slavery, Jim Crow, the disenfranchisement of women were betrayals of the principles enshrined in our founding documents, and had to be conquered before we could claim without qualification to be firmly on the right side of history. But we overcame our faults, corrected our mistakes and in the unfinished story of our Republic, we continue our progress toward ‘a more perfect union.’ And, in the struggle to do so, we have achieved greatness.

Our wealth and power, unequaled by any nation before or since, are not the cause of our greatness. Our ideals have made us great. We are strong and prosperous because we are free, not the other way around. We have marched, in fits and starts, toward the right side of history and have ascended to a most exalted station in the affairs of mankind – ‘leader of the free world.’ It’s a great tribute to us, but also a great responsibility.

We share a kinship of ideals with every man and woman on earth who struggles for their God-given rights. The world must never doubt where we stand in the liberation struggles of our time. We stand with those who risk the anger of tyrants and their lives for the proposition that just government is derived from the consent of the governed; that all people are entitled to equal justice under the law.

via John McCain on Independence Day and the Iranian protests.

Hat tip here. And the Borg for pushing your political agenda on such a day, shame.

Oh I forgot. You had that removed.

Note to warmists: Snow, rain and gales bring winter chill

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Ah yes, everyone is moaning. We expect a clod snap aorund now but then we want cold bright frosty days and to see the son. Not miserable gray chilly coldness.

And ii is cold. Full winter cold. Too early.

Philip Duncan, of Weatherwatch, said the wild weather was caused by the return of the low front that brought cold temperatures last week.

“Cold snaps are not unusual but for it to stick with us so long is strange,” he said. “We had such a warm April but we’ve been robbed of autumn. We’re having July weather in the middle of May, when the coldest time of this year is still to come.”

MetService figures show temperatures are only slightly cooler than last year. In Auckland, the mean temperature for May so far is 11.9 degrees, compared to last year’s average of 13.6.

Comparisons for the other main centres showed similar decreases.

“These temperatures are typical of late May to early June so they’ve occurred two weeks earlier than normal,” said MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt.

“We’ll probably have the temperatures we’ve got right through into June.”

via Snow, rain and gales bring winter chill – National – NZ Herald News.

I’m not a believer in CO2 as a major factor: I think water and sunspot / solar cycles have more to do with this. If Gore is right, can everyone fire up their V*s and open a few more coal fired stations, because we are two degrees down, and that matters.

Of course the Goreists would argue two degrees up proved their point. If that is the case, does this disprove it?

How to be an opposition.

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Hat tip to Power Line. THis is what leadership looks like. Gov. Pawlenty and the minority Republicans have stopped the Peronistas. Cold. Dead. For two years.

Today is the last day of the legislative session here in Minnesota. The action has been furious over the past couple of weeks, with the Democrats, who control both houses of the legislature, enacting a billion dollar tax increase along with spending bills that contain explosive increases.

Governor Tim Pawlenty has played the role of Horatius at the Bridge, and so far he is winning hands down. He vetoed the Democrats’ giant tax increase, and yesterday his veto was sustained in the House, with two Democrats joining all Republicans. Also, the Democrats made a grave tactical error by sending Pawlenty spending bills ready for his signature. But, with a constitutional requirement of a balanced budget and the Dems’ tax increase vetoed, cuts will have to be made. In the present posture, Minnesota law allows Pawlenty, in effect, to write the state’s budget for the next two years. He can use a combination of line item vetoes and “unallotment” to direct spending where he thinks it needs to go, while maintaining a balanced budget. The whole situation, which right now looks great for Republicans and for the people of Minnesota, is a testament to Pawlenty’s political skill and to the determination of a rock-solid Republican caucus in the House, under the leadership of Marty Seifert.

But the Democrats haven’t given up. The session lasts until midnight tonight, and they are likely to propose a different package of tax increases, seek further overrides, etc. Thus, at 5:30 this afternoon there will be a “Storm the Capitol” rally on the Capitol steps. The purpose is to oppose veto overrides, increased taxes, and last-minute deals that will result in wasteful spending. It also should be a victory party of sorts, as Minnesota conservatives have shown how much can be achieved, even against apparently daunting odds.

via Power Line – Hold the Line on Taxes and Spending.

This seems to show a couple of things. Firstly, most of the left are economically ignorant. They cannot see the results of history, for the progressive doctrine they espouse indicates that we should repeat what is a failed experiment. The US idea of separation of powers in part was designed to protect the republic from the populace voting bread, circuses and bankruptcy.

Now if the other 49 states will emulate this…

The scientific method in action.

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California has been run by Peronists for a while. The government works for the unions and the legislators. There is an effluvium of populism and sloganeering.

However, the budget is bloated. Taxes are soooo high that firms and people are leaving. This demonstrates,  almost perfectly, that tax and spend policies are economically disastrous.

It is a perfect experiment: 300 people who can move through 50 states with no restrictions: firms that can also move in a similar manner. The consequence is that Calif. is going to tank. Or be rescued, which will mean that the federal government will have more toxic debt that it can swallow.

I agree with Megan McArdle…

So what about California? A reader asks. Ummm, that’s a tough one. No, wait, it’s not: California is completely, totally, irreparably hosed. And not a little garden hose. More like this. Their outflow is bigger than their inflow. You can blame Republicans who won’t pass a budget, or Democrats who spend every single cent of tax money that comes in during the booms, borrow some more, and then act all surprised when revenues, in a totally unprecedented, inexplicable, and unforeseaable chain of events, fall during a recession. You can blame the initiative process, and the uneducated voters who try to vote themselves rich by picking their own pockets. Whoever is to blame, the state was bound to go broke one day, and hey, today’s that day!

There is a surprisingly sizeable blogger contingent arguing that we have to bail them out because however regrettable the events that lead here, we now have no choice. But actually, we do have a choice: we could let them go bankrupt. And we probably should.

I am not under the illusion that this will be fun. For starters, the rest of you sitting smugly out there in your snug homes, preparing to enjoy the spectacle, should prepare to enjoy the higher taxes you’re going to pay as a result. Your states and municipalities will pay higher interest on their bonds if California is allowed to default. Also, the default is going to result in a great deal of personal misery, more than a little of which is going to end up on the books of Federal unemployment insurance and other such programs.

Then there are the actual people involved. Whatever you think of, say, children who decided to be born poor, right now they are dependent on government programs, and will be put in danger if those programs are interrupted.

On the other hand, I don’t really see another way out of it. If Uncle Sugar bails out California, California will not fix its problems

via Is California Too Big to Fail? – Megan McArdle.

But there is one fly in the ointment. The Obamaborg owes Pelosi. Pelosi was infected with Peronism a long, long time ago. This could be the beginning of the USA slide towards being, like Argentina, a banana republic.

Trainwreck on the way.

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I like Bloomberg. Like most financial papers, it has to give figures. Businesses need ‘em. From today.

President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”

Mate, It’s happening. I cashed up three years ago to fund a new house and gaining adequate care for my children after my marriage broke up. If and when I have cash again, I want it to be in a country with a strong currency (not the US) rule of law (not the US under the current administration) and where there will be social mobility (not the US, where there is now a functional nomenkultura)

The president pledged to work with Congress to shore up entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare and said he was confident that the House and Senate would pass health-care overhaul bills by August.

“Most of what is driving us into debt is health care, so we have to drive down costs,” he said.

If you cut health care you will either non fund the rare and costly –  or not fund the new. If you don’t fund innovation you will NOT get new cures. People will die and they will protest. It is very hard to deal with a cute kid who is dying becuase you won’t dunf a new drug… and this happens. In New Zealand, where there is a monopoly drug purchaser run by suits who only care about getting under budget, it happens frequently. If you don’t beleive the NZ experience, I suggest you look at the good Dr Crippen, who documents how the UK NHS is now run by a bunch of retarded monkeys.

The trainwreck is coming. But printing money and calling it a stimulus just greases the tracks. The US desperately needs a few people who will think this through advising a president who is grossly inexperienced, if not frankly dumb.

via Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’ (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.