The LA Times ran a story yesterday taking us into the abortuarium of one William Harrison. An OBGYN, Harrison gave up delivering babies in 1991, but stuck to the heart of his practice–killing.

Since 1973, Harrison estimates that he has performed 20,000 “pregnancy terminations.” Harrison bluntly calls himself an abortionist and says, “I am destroying life.”

At the same time, Harrison assures us that he is assisting these ladies in being “born again.” “When you end what the woman considers a disastrous pregnancy, she has literally been given her life back,” he says.

Times reporter Stephanie Simon introduces readers to some of the women willing to pony up $750 for Dr. Harrison’s services (he’s pretty prosperous, huh?), and their stories are heartbreaking and sickening.

One 18-year-old says, “It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.” “I thought it would be horrible, but it wasn’t. The procedure, that is.” She says it would be “unfair” to have a baby and that she would not be able to “provide a good life for my child.”

A high school volleyball player says she doesn’t want to give up her body for nine months. “I realize just from the first three months how it changes everything,” she says.

Another women, a single mom of three, says she could not possibly give her unborn child up for adoption and would wonder if they were loved (!!!). Apparently “ending the pregnancy” is just easier.

Harrison’s staff has also posted statistics on the wall that one in four pregnant women chooses abortion, and that one third of all women in the U.S. will have at least one abortion by the time they’re 45. The stats help to soothe the consciences of would-be moms who are feeling guilty. The nurse asks rhetorically, “You think there’s room in hell for all those women?” Does she really want to know the answer?

But, lest you think Harrison completely amoral, he won’t perform third-trimester abortions, which he calls infanticide. Wow, what a guy!

Harrison’s use of Christian terminology to defend his barbaric vocation is not new. In the August 2002 Newsletter of the Reproductive Freedom Task Force, Harrison wrote a brief essay called “Why I Provide Abortions.” Harrison wrote:

Gynecology was really to be only an appendage to my obstetrical practice and I am sure that providing abortions, even thinking about abortions, would never have been a major part of my life had other physicians in my area continued to provide them as was being done prior to 1984. However, I soon found my practice inundated with abortion patients because other physicians who had also been providing abortions stopped doing so. In late 1983 it suddenly became uncomfortable, and very soon dangerous, to provide abortions. I literally had no option but to make a “Sophie’s choice” between delivering babies, which I loved, or making what for me would be an immoral and unethical decision, that is, to choose to abandon those girls, women and families who started coming to my office by the dozens. How could I look my children, my wife, my mother, my friends – myself – in the face and say, “I believe that abortion should be legal, safe, and available. But now some people disapprove and it’s become very uncomfortable, perhaps even dangerous, to provide them. And so I am going to stop doing what I know to be absolutely right. When it gets uncomfortable or dangerous, it’s OK to say, `not me, coach.’”

Was that the morality that I wanted to demonstrate to my children? To parade in front of my wife, my family and friends?

Not me, coach!

Why do I provide abortions?

Here is the short answer.

Like multitudes before me and, I trust, multitudes to come, I eventually heard (Try as I might to avoid hearing it!) in that mother’s grief-filled declaration, “Oh God, Doctor, I was hoping it was cancer”, a still, small voice asking, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” to which I was at last compelled to reply, “here am I, send me.”

Here this man cites God’s call to the prophet Isaiah and compares it to his “calling.”

Meanwhile, the savagery continues unabated. Amanda, a 20-year-old office assistant, says that abortion is not “a rare thing,” in fact it’s “an everyday occurrence.” “It’s not like it’s illegal. It’s not like I’m doing anything wrong,” she says. “I’ve been praying a lot and that’s been a real source of strength for me. I really believe God has a plan for us all. I have a choice, and that’s part of my plan.” Yes, God told her to have an abortion. Perhaps while she was praying, it might have been wise to pick up a Bible.

Next we’re introduced to Sara, who was in the midst of planning her wedding when she was stricken with pregnancy. “I don’t think my dress would have fit with a baby in there,” she says.

Closing out the day is a 32-year-old college student named Stephanie. Stephanie has had four abortions in the last 12 years and says abortion is a “bummer, but no big stress.”

And Jesus said (Matt. 25:31-46):

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Our friend Renee DeGroot, an impressive young lady from an impressive family, penned this poem which was posted at The American View:

I

Our Creator God, in ancient time
Made earth and sky over which He reigns,
Decrees each birth and every regime;
Orders, and fulfills what He ordains.

Honoring God, home, and neighbor
Is the Ten Commandments’ concern—
Our constant standard for daily labor,
With essential principles to discern.

God bestowed His law upon this race
All citizens, all creatures, owe consent;
Prosperity comes when mankind obeys;
For reconciliation, we must repent.

There is happiness in life and property,
When powers conform to heaven above;
Keeping the moral law brings real liberty
If God awakens the soul with truth and love.

Established firmly, are four institutions,
Subject to God’s governing presence;
Required in purpose, thoughts, and actions,
Is self-discipline in every conscience.

The family’s mission is pure matrimony,
Training children—Godliness to increase;
The church has a glorious gospel testimony,
Edifying the saints, that sin might cease.

Civil authority should defend by the sword,
Protecting our treasured rights, from foes;
Four jurisdictions does God’s Word afford;
On three, the state has no right to impose.

II

Four centuries ago, a visionary, Puritan clan
Understood justice and Scripture’s dictates;
Fled their home with a noble, but modest, plan;
Forsook tyranny, trusting God for their fates.

Soon the British taxed, and the townsfolk clung
To their cherished tenets of unbridled life;
Their doctrine spread, and the hillsides rung
With the battle cry sounded on drum and fife.

Many wise statesmen (two centuries since),
Gathered in colonial halls, and pledged
Their faith in God’s loving providence;
Intending this ever to be acknowledged.

Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton—
Diplomats, authors, and delegates;
Elected our President Washington,
The Father of these United States.

Inscribed in the famous Declaration
Of Independence, were their reasons;
Which originated the Constitution—
Chronicling in history, a vivid season.

America! Wide country, fair and free!
Where bold patriots and their brave wives
Upheld a righteous standard of liberty,
Gracing the name our nation derives.

Our Republic has a strong foundation,
Resolving valorous belief in The View
That the magistrate bring no degradation
On the Lord’s good gifts to me and you.

III

Yes, our Most High King has dominion,
Encompassing kings and time and space;
It matters not the people’s opinion!
Responsibility must, upward, face.

Our precious homeland is leaving behind
The Christian ideals our ancestors raised…
Neglecting the path that God designed,
Turning aside to where evil is praised.

The political sphere wants supremacy,
And clamors to see autonomy shine;
But America is not a democracy;
And we need humility, else we decline.

America would be free if she were faithful,
Discharging heaven’s purpose in each vote;
The greatest we can do is to be dutiful—
To our sovereign God, the results we devote.

There are some hopeful men and women,
Whose place is to restore and nurture
What arose in our 18th century revolution—
What is our heritage, and can be our future.

Diligently, we must strive for freedom,
Applying our talents in pursuit of this course;
And we continue to build God’s kingdom
When we return America to her first Source.

~ ~ ~

This is the story evidence has provided:
From the Bible’s honest account of old,
And by documents that have abided
From the wisdom our forefathers told.

Alexander Cockburn unleashes venomous invective at cowardly Democrats and a confused Juan Cole. “Here we have one of the most widely derided presidents in the history of the United States and a war abhorred by a majority of all Americans and the Democrats have near zero traction as a credible party of opposition.”

Professor Cole is concerned that a precipitous American withdrawal could create Cambodia-like conditions in Iraq. Cato’s Chris Preble answers that, “violence in Iraq may well increase.” While that would be tragic, Preble concedes, “our government’s obligation to the people of Iraq is superseded by its obligation to the people of the United States. Is it moral to ask American soldiers to die on the outside chance that their sacrifice will lead to a stable, united, democratic Iraq?”

Former Iraqi PM and CIA asset Allawi says the situation in Iraq parallels conditions under Saddam’s regime. “People are doing the same as (in) Saddam Hussein’s time and worse. These are the precise reasons why we fought Saddam Hussein and now we are seeing the same things. We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated.”

Dick Cheney says that those who advocate withdrawal from Iraq need to answer the question would we be better off or worse off with terror leaders like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri in control of Iraq. Charley Reese responds:

Dearly beloved, that is akin to saying that if Eliot Ness hadn’t come along, Al Capone would have been the dictator of the United States. Zarqawi is a miserable little terrorist with a small band of fanatical followers and a life span that is shrinking by the day. To suggest that there was even a remote possibility of him taking control of Iraq is, well, grossly misleading. Zarqawi is a Jordanian, not an Iraqi; he has been denounced by his tribe and his family; and he has killed more Iraqis than Americans. It is just a matter of time before some Iraqi drops a dime on him and he’s packed off to Islamic hell.

As for bin Laden and his Egyptian adviser, they are – assuming they’re still alive – hiding out in some cave or rat-infested village in the mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They could not control a small town, much less a country of 25 million people of which neither of them is a native.

I don’t know who the vice president’s speechwriters are, but he ought to fire them all forthwith. What he said was so far off the map of reality that it is embarrassing. He might as well have said that if Americans withdraw, Martians will land in spaceships and take over the country. His statement is that bizarre. If he himself believes what he said, then he has displayed an ignorance of the Middle East that is embarrassingly gargantuan. A 12-year-old street vendor in Baghdad could tell you that those three men have zero chance of ruling Iraq.

Tom Fleming chimes in on Iraq fibs: “Setting aside the opportunism displayed by both parties, sensible Americans should be asking themselves what the allegations come down to. Even forgetful Americans must remember that the only reason we went to war is because the President and his advisors assured us that they did not merely think, they knew that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and were able to identify his mobile chemical labs. Since they were wrong, they were lying when they said they knew. It is as simple as that.”

Here is an interesting essay from the always insightful, if occasionally odd, Gary North. North argues that critics must “persuade the voters that (1) this war is a colossal mistake, (2) our troops’ continued presence in the Middle East is an equally colossal mistake, and (3) American troops must get out of the region and stay out.” An interesting point North makes is that the Establishment has been able to control American foreign policy by controlling the flow of information. Those days are gone. As I peruse my bookshelf, I note a number of revisionist tomes from the 1920’s showing the folly of WWI and the duplicity of the Wilsonians in dragging the country into that foolish and unnecessary conflict. Now such duplicity can be beamed around the globe through little more than a website and forward button.

American auditors are getting around to looking into cash disbursements in Iraq by the late Coalition Provisional Authority. Believe it or not, it looks like there may have been some corruption in the CPA. Philip Giraldi discussed CPA corruption about a month ago in The American Conservative, where he wrote:

When the final page is written on America’s catastrophic imperial venture, one word will dominate the explanation of U.S. failure—corruption. Large-scale and pervasive corruption meant that available resources could not be used to stabilize and secure Iraq in the early days of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), when it was still possible to do so. Continuing corruption meant that the reconstruction of infrastructure never got underway, giving the Iraqi people little incentive to co-operate with the occupation. Ongoing corruption in arms procurement and defense spending means that Baghdad will never control a viable army while the Shi’ite and Kurdish militias will grow stronger and produce a divided Iraq in which constitutional guarantees will be irrelevant.

Meanwhile, it looks like even Americans are admitting thatprison abuse is widespread in Iraq. Corruption and brutality. So remind me, why is life better for Iraqis now?

Finally, more grim news that the pace of American casualties is picking up again.

From Dr. William Campbell Douglass’ Daily Dose:

If you’ve been a reader of mine for any length of time at all, you know how I feel about our nation’s preparedness for a terrorist strike involving bio-warfare or other airborne agents. If you don’t, you can probably guess from the general tenor of my Daily Doses that I think we’re almost ridiculously under-prepared for the next 9/11 – especially if it involves the intentional spread of deadly diseases.

And though I hate to be proven right on this point, some new evidence gathered by an independent policy research organization, the respected RAND Corporation, confirms just how scary it is in the terrorist’s playground that is the U.S.A – even four full years after that darkest of days in the summer of 2001. Here’s what I mean:

According to an Associated Press article from a few weeks ago, a group of RAND researchers posing as emergency physicians called government health centers across the country in a sort of medical “secret shopper” exercise. During the calls, made to public health centers in communities of all sizes, they described TO THE LETTER symptoms of various bio-toxins the DHS has determined are likely to be loosed on us by terrorists. The study’s “doctors” spoke to each clinic’s personnel in the context of treating an actual patient exhibiting the symptoms.

And although the rate of response for these clinics turned out to better than expected (91% of those that couldn’t answer the phone returned calls in less than 30 minutes), NOT ONE of the sample of 19 clinics suggested isolating a “patient” exhibiting the textbook signs of highly contagious smallpox! Also, in none of these interactions did the government “action officer” even advise the caller to use any kind of protective equipment or procedures to avoid contracting the disease.

Beyond this, one of these bozos apparently even told a RAND imposter doc to “go back to bed” because no other cases of the disease being described (in that instance, bubonic plague) had been reported in the area…

This, despite the fact that bubonic plague is NOT TRANSMISSABLE from person-to-person, but rather the result of an infected flea’s bite. Duh!

Needless to say, the study, funded by the department of Health and Human Services, points to some dismally discouraging shortcomings in our emergency terror response mechanism. There are 2,800 such clinics across the United States, and if each of them is advising first response doctors this poorly, we’re in major trouble, folks…

I was stirred from my slumber last evening by the sound of caterwauling across the hall. We’ve entered the sick season in the Dow home, so I stumbled from the warm comfort of my bed to see what was amiss.

Grabbing Jack from his crib, I proceeded into the living room and plopped in the easy chair to rock my sick youngin’ back to sleep. It looked like I might be up for a while, so I grabbed the remote to see if there was anything on the tube.

Hmm, let’s see. A rerun of “Oprah,” which looks to be part of a grand celebration documenting twenty years of polluting American airwaves with raw cultural sewage. Hey, some highlights from the latest Benny Hinn crusade on the Total Blasphemy Network. “Law and Order SVU,” “Law and Order CI,” “Law and Order”…Dick Wolf is a busy man. An infomercial for “Girls Gone Wild.” OK, why do I have this infernal box in my home? Then it hits me: Fox News. I would be lost without the highbrow debate of “Hannity and Colmes” and the punchy analysis of FNC legal eagles Greta van Whatsherface and Andrew Napolitano. And who could get through the day without a few minutes in the “No Spin Zone,” listening to the ravings of John Gibson, or taking in the latest jingoistic flim-flam from tough guys Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke, Charles Krauthammer, and Brit Hume?

So naturally I headed to FNC, where I was greeted by the visage of Neil Cavuto interviewing a network “foreign policy expert” whose name escapes me at the moment. Always eager to hear the latest shuck-and-jive from the War Party, I was intrigued by the headline at the bottom of the screen that screamed, “Iran Building Nukes in Underground Caves.” In my mind all I could picture was a series of Bat Caves with a pole installed in the residence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he slides down every now and then to go visit a group of Iranian maaaaddd scientists, working literally within the bowels of Iran to destabilize the entire planet. “Quick Boy Wonder, call Bill Kristol!”

In any case, the gist of the discussion was that Iran is helping to destabilize Iraq (yeah, the Shiite government of Iran is supporting the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. Righto.) and is working hand-in-glove with the North Koreans, a charter member of the Axis of Evil, to build underground tunnels and caverns whose purpose is to hide the construction of nuclear missiles.

The charges against Iran are being leveled by Alireza Jafardazeh, who is a DC-based consultant and former spokesman for the National Council of the Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition group. Hold the phone, amigo. Haven’t we seen this sort of duplicity in action before with the Iraqi National Congress and embezzler Ahmed Chalabi funneling phony intelligence into sympathetic outlets within the bureaucracy, Congress, executive branch, and media? Seems like at least a bit of skepticism might be in order.

Yet the ABC News headline screamed,”Iran Is Building Nukes in Underground Locations!” When did the “liberalcommiepinkomainstreammedia” (LCPMSM for short) turn into a transmission belt for warring Middle Eastern factions trying to use the U.S. military to do their dirty work?

So since things are going so swimmingly in Iraq, why not load up the punch bowl and let the good times roll, say the experts at FNC and “journalists” over at ABC? We know that the president joked about taking the war into Doha, turning al-Jazeera HQ into a pile of rubble. But has anyone seen any reference in the American press to this?

Before the war, Bush and Blair were on the phone, presumably giggling like school girls, discussing the possibility of “dealing with” Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea, and Pakistan. Oh well, I guess we should learn to stop worrying and get on with World War IV, long sought by Poddy Sr, James Woolsey, and the small gaggle of neocrazies driving the foreign policy bus who have more interest in creating an American Empire and making the world safe for Israel than protecting Americans and our interests.

Wreck the malls with bouts of folly
Fa la la la la la la la la!
There’s no need for melancholy
Fa la la la la la la la la!

Don we now padded apparel
Fa la la la la la la la la!
Strolling into Yuletide peril
Fa la la la la la la la la!

Pennsylvania Representative John Murtha addressed a throng of reporters last week concerning the Iraq disaster. He described administration flailing as, “a flawed policy wrapped in illusion.”

Murtha is a Marine veteran who served as an intelligence officer in Vietnam. But that didn’t stop a little tart from Ohio from implying that Murtha was a coward. Likewise, White House press secretary, and paid prevaricator, Scott McClellan said Murtha was endorsing the foreign policy positions of Michael Moore.

My knowledge of Murtha’s record is actually quite limited, though I recall him representing the hawkish wing of the Democratic Party before the GOP takeover in 1994. He is a bear of a man, the kind of Democrat you can imagine slugging back a beer at the local union hall after a day of deer hunting in southern Pennsylvania.

Murtha’s sound strategic critique of policy failures in Iraq should provide cover to fearful Democrats, allowing them to finally produce a coherent strategy for withdrawal. But alas, it is not to be. The Dem’s presumptive nominee, Ms. Rodham, took issue with Murtha’s assessment and says withdrawal “would cause more problems for us in America.” Hillary continues, “It will matter to us if Iraq totally collapses into civil war, if it becomes a failed state the way Afghanistan was, where terrorists are free to basically set up camp and launch attacks against us.” One wonders if Senator Rodham has turned on CNN lately. Is Iraq not already a failed state where terrorists roam freely attacking American troops?

Likewise picking up the hawkish mantle is another wannabe emperor, Joe Biden. I saw part of Biden’s enthralling speech to an assorted assemblage of movers-and-shaker at the CFR over on C-SPAN the other evening. I was unable to confirm if these were Senator Biden’s actual thoughts, or whether he’d cribbed them from Neil Kinnock. Speaking to Murtha’s call for an orderly, face-saving strategic exit from Iraq, Biden said, “I share their frustration. But I’m not there yet. I still believe we can preserve our fundamental security interests in Iraq as we begin to redeploy our forces. That will require the Administration not to stay the course, but to change course and to do it now.”

According to Biden, the new course would include a strategy to build “a political consensus, starting with the Constitution, that gives the Kurds, Shi’a, and Sunnis a stake in keeping Iraq together.” Biden insists that we must rebuild Iraq by providing, “Government ministries that work and provide basic services, and we need to re-do the reconstruction program to deliver real benefits.”

The naivete of this powerful United States Senator is amusing, and maddening. Civil war or Shiite tyranny was the inevitable outcome of the Iraq War. The Washington Post reported recently that roving bands of Shiite death squads are terrorizing Sunni populations. According to the Post, there are:

Growing charges of mass illegal detentions, torture and killings of Sunni men [in Iraq]. Members of the Sunni minority, locked in a struggle with the Shiite majority over the division of power in Iraq, say men dressed in Interior Ministry uniforms have repeatedly rounded up Sunni men from neighborhoods and towns. Bodies of scores of them have been found dumped by roadsides or in gullies.

Bob Dreyfuss and Seymour Hersh both reported that American tax dollars were being funneled into the creation of paramilitary forces in Iraq whose goal is to terrorize Sunnis.

Meanwhile, Sunni political figure are magically disappearing all over Iraq. The London Observer reports:

According to human rights organisations in Baghdad, ‘disappearances’ – for long a feature of Iraq’s dirty war – have reached epidemic proportions in recent months. Human rights workers, international and local, who asked not to be identified in order to protect their researchers in the city and their organisations’ access to senior government officials, told The Observer last week that they have hundreds of cases on their books. They described the disappearances as the most pressing human rights issue in a country that is in the midst of a human rights disaster.

Read Beaumont’s article and you can only conclude that Iraq has spun completely out of control, and that Senator Biden’s call to give “the Kurds, Shi’a, and Sunnis a stake in keeping Iraq together” is little more than a fairytale.

Meanwhile, Biden says that we must begin to deal with the insurgency. But the insurgency is largely homegrown, the result of American intervention, and would wither away with our departure from the scene. As I have written before, the pool of anti-American fighters driving the insurgency has likely grown as a response to the invasion of Iraq. Indeed, studies have demonstrated conclusively that even the foreign fighters in Iraq were radicalized by the war itself.

The recent admission that white phosphorous was used during the destruction of Fallujah merely adds fuel to fire. Through the occupations and our actions in Iraq, we become the chief recruiting instrument for Bin Laden and his Islamist allies.

As Congressman Murtha says, “Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME.”