AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
Sunday, June 14, 2009
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Last night at about 8 p.m., the Associated Press’s Roxama Hegeman became an early purveyor of the myth that abortion clinic-related violence has been a frequent and consistent occurrence during the past two decades when she wrote the following about the murder of Kansas abortionist George Tiller (saved here at host for future reference; bold is mine):
There was no immediate word of the motive (of) Tiller’s assailant. But the doctor’s violent death was the latest in a string of shootings and bombings over two decades directed against abortion clinics, doctors and staff.
A look at the actual history of such violence accumulated by a pro-abortion group demonstrates that Tiller’s murder is correctly seen as a horrible, isolated incident following a long, sustained, and not-reversed period of decline.
Here is the “History of Violence” accumulated by the National Abortion Federation (NAF), broken down into five categories:
- Murder and shootings — There were none since 1998 until Tiller was murdered on Sunday. From 1993-1998, seven abortion doctors or abortion clinic employees were killed, and 12 others were injured, many very seriously. One cowardly killing after 11 murder-free and shooting-free years following a period of seven in six years does not signal a trend by any reasonable definition.
- Arsons and bombings — Starting in 1976, NAF lists 13 such crimes during the remainder of that decade, over 75 during the 1980s, over 100 during the 1990s, and 16 since the turn of the century. Only six arsons took place from 2004-2008. The last arson listed at NAF’s site occurred in December 2007. It should also be noted that arsons set by business owners in general to collect insurance money are not all that infrequent.
- Butyric acid attacks — Butyric acid is a clear, colorless liquid with an unpleasant, rancid, vomit-like odor. According to NAF, this clinic attack method was used “about 100″ times from 1991-1998, and has not been employed since.
- NAF lists over 650 antrax attacks and fake anthrax attacks from 1998-2002, and none since then. Over 550 of these occurred in 2001.
Overall, an “Extreme Violence” page at NAF listing activity from 1997-2007 lists the following number of incidents per year:
As you can see, Rebecca Hegeman’s “string” has been broken twice in the past three years.
Abortion clinic violence and violence against abortionists has generally been on such a steep decline during the past decade that MSNBC stopped updating a web page dedicated to the topic in the late 1990s.
Without recounting already-known details, the unique specifics of Tiller’s situation also supports the idea that his murder, which should of course be and I’m sure will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, will more than likely not be a part of a new “string” of similar ones throughout the country.
Not that the establishment media types like the AP’s Hegemen, the ever-opportunistic Obama administration, or far-left blogs will particularly care about these facts.
There’s one more thing Ms. Hegemen forgot to note: The pre-born babies that George Tiller murdered were not available for comment.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
[Source: Advertising News]
AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
[Source: Home News]
AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
[Source: Murder News]
AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
[Source: Boston News]
AP: Tiller Murder Part of a ??String?"; Abort Group?"s Own History Destroys Claim
[Source: World News]
posted by 88956 @ 4:13 PM,
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You Shouldn't Say That Out Loud
PrintEmailPDF You Shouldn't Say That Out Loud
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
You Shouldn't Say That Out Loud
[Source: October News]
You Shouldn't Say That Out Loud
[Source: State News]
You Shouldn't Say That Out Loud
[Source: Duluth News]
You Shouldn't Say That Out Loud
[Source: International News]
posted by 88956 @ 4:04 PM,
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When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
Apparently, reality TV couple Spencer and Heidi Pratt - who got their start on MTV?"s The Hills and are now a part of this summer?"s I?"m a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here - have run afoul of one of NBC?"s reality programming head honchos with their latest attention-getting antics.
They are everything that?"s wrong with America,? executive vice president of alternative programming for NBC and Universal Media Studios, Paul Telegdy, said in a statement to Access Hollywood. ?SThey are insincere, lazy, entitled and they claim the devil has possessed them.
Apparently the couple not only demanded the royal treatment, but threatened to quit more than once and basically acted like a couple of spoiled brats.
I?"d like to ask Mr. Telegdy: what did he expect? Reality shows take everyday people and turn them into minor celebrities overnight. It?"s not like they had to work for years honing their craft while they waited tables and went on endless auditions, hoping and praying for their big break. (Of course, if one or both of your parents is Hollywood royalty, you skip that part and move right on to the big time.) The only ?Swork? involved in reality stardom is standing in line to audition, hoping to get picked; although sometimes people with unusual life circumstances are approached by producers who hope to exploit their lives for ratings that translate into dollar signs (think Nadya Suleman, lovingly referred to by society as the ?SOctomom?).
So think about it: one day you?"re just an average person, perhaps an office drone or a stay-at-home mom whom no one would look twice at while at the grocery store or standing in line at the movies. Next thing you know, every detail of your life is laid bare for public consumption, you?"re chased down daily by the paparazzi, and your every move, including your hairstyle and weight, is dissected on shows like Entertainment Tonight. The entertainment media that feeds off of celebrity like a pig at the trough is really quite nauseating at times.
Granted, it can be said that people who seek such fame are asking for it. All you have to do is see what happens to others, like Jon and Kate Gosselin, whose marriage seems to be unraveling and who have dominated the news headlines for weeks. Or Susan Boyle, whose sudden rush to fame via Britain?"s Got Talent with a boost from YouTube was so stressful that, after being labeled the favorite to win but coming in second in the show?"s finale, she checked into a clinic citing ?Semotional exhaustion.?
But really, who is truly prepared for the pitfalls of fame? We?"ve seen professional singers and actors, who are supposed to know the ropes, crash and burn. (Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan come immediately to mind.) Suddenly wealthy and surrounded by yes-men and other sycophants hoping to somehow cash in on the cash cow, it?"s hard to keep real life in perspective.
Heck, even being an amoeba in the large ocean of internet publishing can be unsettling at times. I?"ll never forget my first ?Syou?"re a ****? e-mail from someone who didn?"t agree with something I wrote. It?"s truly unpleasant, but unfortunately it also comes with the territory. I?"m working on getting a thicker skin.
So the Pratts are acting like prats. Naturally, much of the blame lies with their crass attitude and what Paul Telegdy of NBC noted as their sense of entitlement. But what of the responsibility of reality TV programmers? They put on these shows because they?"re popular and are relatively inexpensive to produce and essentially create the monsters that populate them. Who can forget the hapless Stephen Fowler of Wife Swap, whose contemptible treatment of his guest wife Gayla Long earlier this year earned him the hatred of millions across the nation? It cost him both personal and professional embarrassment, and likely had a negative impact on his own marriage. He claimed that he was egged-on by the show?"s producers to ham it up. From what I?"ve seen, I doubt that he needed much egging.
But no one will ever really know, and surely the show?"s director and producers bear some responsibility for the final product. Reality TV isn?"t spontaneous; it?"s scripted, manipulated, and edited for entertainment and shock value. Big gasps equal big ratings. Someone at the gym I go to even speculated that the Gosselins?" marriage issues are a put-up job intended to boost ratings.
Then there?"s us - the public. We put these individuals up on a pedestal and wait like vultures for them to slip up so we can trash them at the first opportunity. Nothing says schadenfreude like gloating over Contestant A being voted off the island because he lost the bug eating challenge for his tribe.
And what happens to these reality stars when the cameras stop rolling? Some manage to use their experience as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things as Elisabeth Hasselbeck did. Others manage to return to everyday life. Still, others likely have difficulty adjusting to their loss of celebrity and must deal with depression, etc. But there?"s always a fresh batch of suckers around the corner, waiting for our thumbs-up or thumbs-down.
When you look at it, there?"s really no one person to blame when reality TV stars go bad. We?"re all culpable in one way or another. And what does that say about us as a society?
When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
[Source: Good Times Society]
When Reality TV Stars Go Bad, Who?"s to Blame?
[Source: 11 Alive News]
posted by 88956 @ 2:25 PM,
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Tomasky talk video: Michael Tomasky tests his geographical knowledge of the Middle East
PrintEmailPDF As President Obama visits the Middle East, Michael Tomasky tests his knowledge of the region
Tomasky talk video: Michael Tomasky tests his geographical knowledge of the Middle East
[Source: Good Times Society - by The American Illuminati]
Tomasky talk video: Michael Tomasky tests his geographical knowledge of the Middle East
[Source: Duluth News]
Tomasky talk video: Michael Tomasky tests his geographical knowledge of the Middle East
[Source: Mma News]
Tomasky talk video: Michael Tomasky tests his geographical knowledge of the Middle East
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Tomasky talk video: Michael Tomasky tests his geographical knowledge of the Middle East
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posted by 88956 @ 1:42 PM,
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