ROE V WADE HYSTERIA ALERT



The San Francisco Chronicle is having a hard time with terminology this morning. The headline of the story in question reads "Fetus found in downtown wastebasket". Then, right underneath the headline, we read "Police question S.F. building where abandoned preemie's body discovered." [Emphasis is mine]



The use of the word "preemie" is very interesting. It seems that the Chronicle doesn't know what to call the, well, "thing" that was found in the trash.



And what should we make of this paragraph?

An autopsy was being conducted by the San Francisco medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death of the fetus, which police Inspector Mike Johnson described this morning only as premature.

What is premature? The "fetus", or the "autopsy?" I presume that the writer, Henry K. Lee, was referring to the "fetus", "preemie", or, perhaps "baby?"



Obviously, all of the major style guides at the Chronicle couldn't help with the authorship of this story. If the writer were to have actually stated that the dead baby was, in fact, a baby, you can bet your life certain pro-abortion groups would come out of the woodwork to condemn the story. So we are instead treated with vague language regarding the very subject of the story, a human baby (you won�t find �baby� in the story until you read the very last word in the article).



The SFPD homicide detail is looking into the case, but they are not entirely sure that they should:

"Until the cause of death is determined, we don't know if it's a homicide or not," [Inspector Maureen] D'Amico said.

I guess it's murder if the autopsy demonstrates that the subject question was a premature baby. But what if the coroner concludes otherwise? Will this just be a case of unlawful disposal of hazardous material?



Oh what a confused world we live in.

NOBEL PRIZE WINNING BLOCKHEADS & NEW WHAT NEXT? CONTEST



P. J. O'Rourke excoriates a ludicrous press release by 103 Nobel laureates at the Atlantic Monthly online.



Such Nobel silliness reminds me of the indecipherable blather that frequently issues forth from the halls of academia, for example:

The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of Althusserian theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.

This prize-winning entry from the Philosophy and Literature Bad Writing Contest was written by Judith Butler, professor of rhetoric and comparative literature at none other than the University of California at Berkeley.



What Next? Good Writing Contest: If for some reason you actually know what professor Butler is saying, send me an e-mail entry with your plain English definition. The entrant with the clearest explanation will win a free copy of David McCullough's biography of John Adams (which I first mentioned yesterday). Rules: (1) I alone will judge all contest entries, and (2) my decision will be final. The deadline for entries is May 31st. Good luck!

A HISTORY LESSON



A great piece by Victor Davis Hanson in today's Wall Street Journal on the spoils of war and revisionist history in the Middle East.

JOHN ADAMS � TERRORISM EXPERT



I�ve just begun David McCullough�s beautiful biography of John Adams (available online here). I�m not yet 100 pages into this book, but I can already tell that it�s changing my perceptions about the man who was arguably one of the most influential players in the American Revolution.



McCullough quotes Adams�s voluminous writings throughout the book, demonstrating that Adams had an uncanny ability to predict the future. When he was in his youth, Adams crafted what has turned out to be an profound prophecy about the ascendancy of America in the global political stage. Adams had this to say about the appeasement and conciliatory measures that were being punted about the Continental Congress during it�s deliberations prior to the Declaration of Independence:

But I was not content with all that was done, and almost every day, I had something to say about advising the states to institute governments, to express my total despair of any good coming from the petition [the "Olive Branch Petition" to King George III] or of those things which were called conciliatory measures. I constantly insisted that such measures, instead of having any tendency to produce a reconciliation, would only be considered as proofs of our timidity and want of confidence in the ground we stood on, and would only encourage our enemies to greater exertions against us.

This philosophy, which could be characterized as "peace through strength" must prevail in places like Afghanistan and Israel. There can be no reconciliation with an enemy that is committed, strategically, to the destruction of not only Israel, but of the West.



Binyamin Netanyahu exhibits this Adams-esque understanding in Israeli politics, and although he is no longer Prime Minister (for now?), he obviously still exerts a strong influence, as demonstrated most recently by the justified actions Israel is taking to secure herself from terrorism.

A CONCEALED WEAPON FOR ME, BUT NOT FOR THEE



Dateline Oakland, CA -- State Senator Don Perata, from the other side of the Bay, will introduce legislation to impose a "small" 5-cent tax on each bullet sold in the state of California. Here's a link to the senator's letter requesting renewal of his CCW permit to carry a concealed firearm. Senator Diane Feinstein was also caught with a concealed weapon permit when she was trying to ban guns she felt were bad.



Naturally, none of this rank hypocrisy will make your local news broadcast.

HAPPY EASTER!



My apologies for the belated Easter greeting. I had a great time today with my friends here in San Francisco. I hope, wherever you may be, that you find the peace and joy you're searching for.

THIS IS WHY YOU WANT TO KEEP THE LID ON GOVERNMENT GROWTH



Check out the last paragraph of this article. What a great thing it is to work for a government agency -- you never have to say your sorry because you run no risk of getting fired.