evolution

I’ve been hearing radio ads for an event the Topeka Zoo is hosting called the “Zoo-b-que.”

Is that a good idea?

(AP) Thousands of tech faithful buy iPhones at launch.

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thousands of U.S. gadget fans made an orderly pilgrimage to stores on Friday to be among the first buyers of Apple’s iPhone, a music- and video-playing device expected to reshape the mobile industry.

Crowds outside some of Apple’s outlets cheered as their doors opened at 6 p.m. local time, while smaller groups waited outside AT&T stores. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - news) is the phone’s exclusive wireless carrier for the first two years.

“It’s the best day of my life. It’s Christmas, birthday, New Year’s all rolled into one,” said Kristian Gundersen, a 23-year-old graphic designer from Norway who flew to New York just to buy an iPhone.

Now that you mention it, that Dick Cheney feller does look like a bit of a grump.

Just, you know, sayin’, is all.

19 misdemeanor counts, for “technical” violations of the law. All of the Kansas outlets have it, so I’ll give you the Eagle link, since that’s Tiller’s home turf.

TOPEKA - TOPEKA — The state’s attorney general filed 19 misdemeanor charges Thursday against a high-profile abortion provider, alleging the doctor had an improper financial relationship with a consulting physician on late-term procedures.

Attorney General Paul Morrison alleges that George Tiller of Wichita had a financial relationship with physician Ann Kristin Neuhaus of Nortonville. Neuhaus consulted on the 19 abortions, which were performed in 2003. Tiller is among a few U.S. physicians who perform late-term procedures.

Kansas law allows some late-term abortion only if two doctors conclude it is necessary to prevent a mother’s death or “substantial and irreversible” harm to “a major bodily function.” The law requires that the two doctors have no financial or legal ties.

Under state law, Morrison said, only the physician who performs the abortion can be charged.

He filed his charges in Sedgwick County District Court. Each count is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

“It’s really pretty simple,” Morrison told reporters during a news conference. “We’re alleging there was a financial relationship between the two.”

Morrison was not more specific about the relationship, except to say that it probably wouldn’t have been apparent in public records.

Attempts Thursday to reach Neuhaus were unsuccessful. Tiller’s lawyers, Lee Thompson and Dan Monnat, issued a written statement declaring their client’s innocence.

Which, of course, means we’ll be seeing more fun stories like this in the media for months to come. I really don’t have much to add to what’s in the story, because if I said what was in my black heart right now I’m quite sure I’d alienate 95% of my remaining readership.

The abortions in question in both Morrison’s and Kline’s charges involved women who were more than 21 weeks pregnant and whose fetuses were able to survive outside the womb. Under a 1998 law, that’s when two doctors must reach a conclusion about the mother’s potential death or irreversible injury to “a major bodily function,” which has been interpreted to include mental health.

Kline had alleged Tiller violated the law by providing abortions to patients who were suffering from problems such as anxiety and single-episode depression. He hired a former psychiatry director at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore as an expert witness, who said none of the diagnoses fit the law and that most psychiatrists, including himself, thought no psychiatric reasons could justify an abortion.

But Morrison said in justifying such an abortion, a patient’s condition when she consults with the abortion provider isn’t the issue — only the potential problems she faces if her pregnancy continues. The law also doesn’t say that doctors have to give a more specific justification than preventing serious and permanent harm, he said.

Because that’s an area where you’d want as much ambiguity as possible.

Cheers!

From Joel:

1. I own an electric guitar. It’s a 1995 Gibson Les Paul Studio, with the customary three-position pickup switch. I bought it with my high school graduation money. I always wanted to be in a (non-high-school) band, but we could never get all the instruments necessary in one place. I’m out of practice, but if pressed, I can play it.
2. My primary role at work is that of tech support. Among my duties, however, is the operation of a small library. I’ve learned a lot in the last few months about what librarians do for a living.
3. In my early twenties, I read a lot of Taoist literature. I went around telling everyone I was a Taoist. I doubt real Taoists would do some of the things I did when I was twenty, like go to house parties with a half-gallon Thermos and fill it with Keystone Light. Five times.
4. I stole my favorite t-shirt from the still-smoldering wreck of a burning building. This was also the first and only time I tried pot.
5. Freshman year at K-State, I had a crush on a pretty girl who worked at the same Dillons. I saw her a couple of times after that: once years later when I was drunk and sitting in a pizza place — and once right after I quit that Dillons; I was drunk, naturally, and lying face down in one of those sidewalk tree grates in front of Pizza Shuttle, puking and trying to make conversation. (There seems to be a common theme for my college years.)
6. I have never — intentionally, accidentally, or through neglect — killed an animal with four legs or less.
7. I once worked in the Dillons seafood market on 23rd Street in Lawrence. I cannot stand the sight or smell of fish being prepared, and the thought of eating it is revolting to me over a decade later.
8. Count all the words in this blog. For every word I’ve written here, I’ve written two — be they in poetry, journal entries, short stories, et cetera — that will never see the light of day.

Or at least half of it, anyway. The other shoe will drop on Friday.

Kansas Attorney General Paul Morrison released long-awaited findings of an investigation against a Wichita abortion provider today and found that at least half of the charges filed by his predecessor Phill Kline were “without merit.”

Morrison’s office said in a news release today that evidence presented to a Sedgwick County judge had been mixed up in records he obtained from a clinic run by George Tiller, a Wichita physician who is known nationally for providing late-term abortions… [snip]

Tiller’s defense attorney, Dan Monnat, said: “It looks like finally there is being an independent and professional investigation conducted. As we’ve said all along, we are confident that once it is concluded Dr. Tiller will be found innocent of all charges.”

Morrison today said that he found problems in Kline’s investigation and filing of 15 charges accusing Tiller of not properly reporting abortions to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, as required by law.

The KDHE confirmed, Morrison said, that Tiller’s reporting was accurate and as required under law.

“It’s the same way they’ve accepted it for 10 years,” said Ashley Anstaett, spokeswoman for Morrison.

Come on. You needed a little day-brightener, didn’t you?

Anyway, I don’t think there’s any doubt except among the hundred-percenters that Kline is truly incompetent and was eminently capable of the mistakes attributed to him. I don’t know what all the shots at Kline personally are about, since he’s pretty much radioactive now and therefore not worth the effort, unless the spirit of revenge among the Left at large has filtered down to Morrison’s new pals. The Kansas GOP’s overall incompetence has fairly well ensured that Democratic donations should be up, so that can’t be it. Kline himself pretty much destroyed the opposition to abortion in this state by his own bungling — Tiller is now the demi-god, with power approaching Terry Fox levels for a civilian.

This is all not to mention the fact that, as I have said before, the forces who want abortion abolished are fighting a losing battle. They have framed the issue as one of Christian morality, which, despite the fevered imaginations of the state’s Left, is a sure-fire loser among the public at large.

When I was younger, I didn’t care about this issue at all, but as I’ve aged, I’ve turned fairly hard against it personally I still don’t think it should be illegal — mostly out of the cold calculation that making it illegal will do absolutely nothing to stop it — but I want to have a say in how and why it is done if it is to be done. The genie is out of the bottle. I’m not going to squander what say I do have in it fighting for something — abolition — that is impossible to achieve. It’s perhaps time for Kline’s supporters to make the same calculation, and admit they backed the wrong horse. I do not imagine they will do so.

At least he’ll be easy to spot.

… but we don’t have this problem. At least not yet.

And that’s no jive.

I’m going to recommend to the girl who runs a lemonade stand on my jogging route that she get some white Dixie cups and stamp the Apple logo on the side so she can charge three hundred dollars a glass.

I admit that the issues raised herein by Lastango at Daily Pundit crossed my mind a time or two as I taught 14- and 15-year-olds.

Sad to say, but it’s something for which male teachers and volunteers must account. Their number is relatively few, but the damage done by false accusations is permanent.