evolution

I got home last night at 6:30 after working out, and after checking e-mail and such it was 7:00. I turned on the TV and went to get something to eat. I came back to the sight of host Tim Brown and Eagle editor Dion Lefler on Kansas Week with the chyron “ABORTION DEBATE” at the bottom of the screen.

Let me tell you – I’ve never been so glad to have the sound turned off in all my life.

You want to talk about something else now, don’t you?

I bought a 40″ high-definition TV and got the box. High-def rules.

You know what doesn’t rule? When you’re writing a post and your Internet service craps out for no reason for two days. That’s what.

Just when you were getting used to the quiet: George Tiller, legendary (or infamous, depending) Wichita late-term abortion provider, was shot and killed this morning. Due to the many internal conflicts and contradictions I have about this man, this issue, and this place, this is going to be a disjointed post, with updates interspersed throughout as I collect my thoughts, and possibly take a break to go and shout at some inanimate objects.

UPDATE [13:21] It appears from the available information now that Tiller was inside the church when he was shot. It might have been a member of the church. A physical description of the perp, with a description of the car and a license plate number, is all over Creation now. Hopefully it’s just a matter of time before the perp is found.

UPDATE [13:54] The J-W is claiming that he was serving as an usher for the service when he was shot, confirming part of the above. Also, for some reason, I descended into the comment thread there to read it. It’s more or less what I expected: out of every 100 commenters, one troglodyte shows up to congratulate the shooter, four poor souls mutter some other pablum because they’re just as conflicted as (and more able to keep quiet than) I am, and the other 95 dial the drama up to “Andrew Sullivan”, compare Christians to terrorists, declaim against the clinic bombings that occur every day, and then go home. O to be on another planet for the next few months…

UPDATE [14:09]: Operation Rescue finally learned some media savvy and is looking for the deepest hole they can find to hide in. They put out a statement on their Web site denouncing the killing, and now it’s unavailable. I’d guess that there are a number of people in every newsroom on Earth who thinks it was one of them. Maybe it was. But I’d also bet there’s quite a number of those folks who would like a few minutes alone with the shooter before the Wichita cops and Kansas Highway Patrol get to him.

UPDATE[14:14]: Eagle Twitterers say that the suspected shooter has been caught. No details.

UPDATE [15:04]: Bad news: This site crashed for 45 minutes. Good news: Nobody’s reading it, so nobody missed anything.

Police have left the church where Tiller was shot; attention has apparently been turned to the man the Eagle and others say is in police custody.

And one more thing: You think, and I think, that the person who shot George Tiller was probably at one point an anti-abortion activist. There are a whole bunch of people who are going to look dumb if he wasn’t.

Another old Kansan speaks from another place. On days like this I wish I was in another place too.

UPDATE [15:26]: The CBS affiliate in Wichita says that the suspected shooter was caught — in Gardner, KS, which is in western Johnson County outside the KC metro area. That’s about four hours’ drive from Wichita on I-35 and about 30 minutes from Lawrence. The arrest took place about an hour and a half ago.

UPDATE [15:32]: This is going to be one of those “clear, bright line” moments that I’ve spoken of before. Most of the time I think those are good things… most of the time. This wouldn’t be one of them.

UPDATE [15:50]: This is getting weird. The Eagle Twitterers posted a video that shows Tiller’s clinic being searched by dogs. Something may not be quite as it seems here.

Also, some more thoughts: Regardless of how you feel about Tiller — I am on the record in plenty of places on this site — this most likely was a calculated act of political terrorism, period. There does not and cannot exist any justification for it.

In what some might find to be the irony to end all ironies, such an act will render the suspect eligible for the Kansas death penalty. I’m not an advocate for that, either, but considering the enormous political pressure that will be brought to bear, the shooter might find out just how much he has lost this war.

UPDATE [16:32]: The Eagle’s story has been updated with some details about the shooter, a 51-year-old male, who was driving a vehicle registered to someone in Merriam.

UPDATE [19:38]: The suspect that was arrested in Johnson County and returned to Wichita has been identified by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department as one Scott Roeder.

Charles Johnson of LGF did some digging, and found a creepy post from two years ago under the suspect’s name on an Operation Rescue forum, among other things. It looks like that hole’s not quite going to be deep enough or dark enough. Thus does everyone — leftists and abortion opponents alike — have their fantasies come true…

UPDATE [20:39]: Time to call it a night. I don’t believe there will be too many more facts to come out at least for now, and what’s to come in the immediate future, particularly in the cacophony of idiots called “the blogosphere”, will be both fact-free and insufferable to watch.

I might have more to say on this topic tomorrow. If I can stand it, that is.

MORE:The above link is to the J-World.. Here are some others:

• The Topeka Capital-Journal.
• The Wichita Eagle. The Eagle is also Twittering.
• MSNBC.
• If you’re a blog fan you should probably look at memeorandum, but I didn’t and don’t plan to. I just don’t want to know. Here’s the link.

Previously on evolution:

• All mentions
• All previous posts on abortion politics.
• Abortion opponents did it to themselves (1 | 2)
• A counter to what you’re going to be hearing and seeing in the next few days. [UPDATE 15:39]: J-W via AP, the first of many to run it up the flagpole.

1. I think my upstairs neighbors smoked a 37-pound brick of hash with a blowtorch and a fume hood that vents into my apartment. That is the only thing that could explain the current smell therein.

2. We had my former co-author’s bachelor party last night. I somehow managed to spend less than $200, although the group spent probably close to three times that much. No strippers, bartenders, or wait staff were harmed in the making of this post, although a few Cuban cigars and (today) some clay pigeons “took one for the team”.

I heard the song of the same name by King Khan and His Shrines on the satellite.

It reminded me of a post I wrote on the topic three and a half years ago. Let the bad faith arguments begin.

If, like me, you are a Kansas lifer, you will no doubt appreciate the Kansas Sampler Foundation’s “8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine”. Go there and vote thusly.

Personally, I think this list is slightly defective, because there is one establishment that is a rite of passage for a great many Kansans, and that’s Bob’s Diner in Manhattan.

Anyway, take your pick, and then share in the comments those you think got missed.

… of all the God-damned things in the world. I woke up one morning last week and couldn’t feel the ring and pinky fingers on my left hand. When I went to my mom’s to duck the tornado that formed two miles from my apartment last weekend, she thought I might have carpal tunnel syndrome.

… but not before I lost five nights of sleep, because I was panicking — a health issue this close to an exam, under stress, numbness in fingers, grandmother has MS, stress provokes the attacks, numbness a signal of attacks, etc.

Along comes my brother, three weeks from his medical school graduation. I told him about it, and he had me put my fingers in some odd positions, and then said “Go like this-” — to extend my arm and bend it slightly at the elbow — and quickly jammed his thumb in the soft spot outside of my elbow between the elbow and forearm. It felt like an electrical jolt through my forearm, and I winced in pain.

So now I need some kind of brace. Any suggestions?