Friday End-Of-Summer Mashup

I’m going to clean out my “in” bin a bit here; I had some stories that I’d planned to post about, but I don’t think I’m going to get to them all individually, so here they are…

This Inquirer story tells us about John Dunkle, a life form who has threatened doctors performing abortions in Philadelphia, Allentown and Reading, PA on an internet site.

As the story notes…

U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan alleged that Dunkle, 72, "encouraged his readers to kill a specific clinic physician by shooting her in the head."

Idiot…

When reached by phone yesterday, Dunkle said he was not aware of the lawsuit and he would stop posting the offensive material if asked.

"Oh yeah, if someone tells me to stop," he said. "You are not talking to a hero."

I would say that that’s the understatement of the year.

Call me a “slime-snake-monkey-person” since I believe in evolution as science, I guess; this post from People For The American Way tells us that someone named Robert Bowie Johnson Jr. (the “Bowie” should have been a tipoff) who holds a general science degree from West Point, tells so-called Christians that people such as your humble narrator should be referred to as “mutants” for our beliefs.

As kos would say “pot, meet kettle” (PFAW also tells us that just because we haven’t heard from crazy fundie ringleader James Dobson lately, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t doing anything; he and his zealots seem to be engaged in strong-arming state legislatures in an effort to enact their agenda, since they realize they are hopelessly in descent on the national stage).

Also, I guess the only other science taught at West Point aside from military is the “junk” kind based on Johnson’s book.

Leave it to Tom Coburn to block final passage of a bill intended to curb the rate of military suicides in fear that the government’s record-keeping on troubled vets might somehow crimp their ability to purchase handguns, as this New York Times editorial from yesterday tells us.

The Times adds the following…

The senator’s office points to another bill near passage — prompted by the Virginia Tech gun massacre — that would encourage states to do a better job of listing mentally troubled individuals on the federal roll of risky gun purchasers. But tying these two measures together is itself evidence of defective reasoning, or at least scurrilous politicking. The Virginia Tech measure has nothing to do with veterans and affects only those Americans formally judged by a court to be mentally disturbed.

It is an eminently good thing that the anti-suicide measure would require medical specialists to keep track of veterans found to be high risks for suicide. But that’s to care for them as human beings, under that other constitutional right — to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Respect for the grave sacrifices by veterans requires the Senate to strike down the Coburn ploy and hurry this vital measure to President Bush.

I can’t anticipate anything happening to the bill except a veto given President Nutball’s fealty to the NRA, but miracles can occur every now and then.

God, I hope we never have a replay in this country of the Elian Gonzales mess, but if we do, it could be this case.

Coral Gables, FL baseball agent Joe Cubas is the foster father of a 4-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy who were born in Cuba and taken from that country by their biological mother, Elena Perez, but she has been hospitalized with a mental illness. Now, the biological father in Cuba, Rafael Izquierdo, has apparently petitioned a Florida court for custody of the little girl.

I’m not exactly sure why Izquierdo would want the daughter and not the son, which could be the case based on the story. The Department of Children and Families seems to want to keep the girl with the Cubas family.

This is a tougher call than the Gonzales case because there are two kids involved this time. The biological father should come first when determining who should be the best provider; the fact that that was apparently forgotten in the Gonzales case infuriated me, if you want to know the truth. However, keeping both kids together in an environment they know where they can support each other (and the adoptive father has the means to provide for them) might ended up trumping Izquierdo’s request.

The fact that I don’t have to deal with difficult stuff like this makes me glad I do what I do instead.