Where’s the Outrage?

As a surgeon, I really don’t want the courts telling me what kind of procedures that I perform. We already have the most regulated business in the world - medicine.

As far as a women’s right, it is exactly that, a women’s right. The Supreme Court with 8 men and 5 Catholics decided to uphold the federal ban on “partial birth” abortion. There is a lot of confusion and mis-information that surrounds this procedure. The bottom-line is a woman should have the right to decide what is best for her as long as the fetus in not viable. If the fetus is viable the woman should be able to choose between adoption and parenthood.

You should not be able to regulate what I do with my body.  Sure there are some exceptions.  Until anyone can come up with a definition of when human live begins, we should agree to disagree.  The “pro-life” folks will have none of this.  They want to impose their religious beliefs on everyone.  They will not stop until there are no legal abortions performed anywhere.
The full Supreme Court decision is here.

Question - Are the Democrats ready for a knockdown drag out fight with the Republicans? This is a federal law. Congress can change the law but the president would have to sign the legislation. This will never happen. The next question is can Congress override a veto? I think that the answer is No. For now, the Democrats will have to work toward getting a more liberal Congress and a democratic President.

Elections have consequences.  Great post by The Carpetbagger and Think Progress.

 

 Supreme Court - Partial Birth Abortion decision [2:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Legal, Supreme court by ecthompson
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What would you ask Alberto? What questions have to be asked for you to feel like the process was fair?

Update:  La Times editorial argues that Alberto’s performance today may not matter.  He has already lost the confidence of lawmakers.  Whether he keeps his job is a matter of politics and not whether on how he answers questions in front of the Senate.

 

 Questions for Alberto [1:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Cho was clearly confused. At one point during the rant he compares himself to Jesus Christ. He also mentions the Columbine killers.

Addendum: Video updated.  (I had the same video as in the previous post.  Oooppss.)

 

 More from Cho [3:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Virginia Tech Shooting by ecthompson
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Spiderman 3 opened in Japan last week.  I loved Spiderman 2.  As a matter of fact, I love the comic strip.  Nothing is really black and white in Spiderman’s world.  Everything is a shade of grey.  Decisions have consequences.  I’m looking forward to 3!

 

 Spiderman 3 [1:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Movies by ecthompson
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These ramblings sure seem to indicate someone who is/was psychotic.  Paranoid.  Paranoid delusions.  They are after him.  They have “backed” him into a corner.
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From MSNBC.com:

Sometime after he killed two people in a Virginia university dormitory but before he slaughtered 30 more in a classroom building, Cho Seung-Hui mailed NBC News a large package including photographs and videos Monday morning, boasting, “When the time came, I did it. I had to.”

Cho, 23, a senior English major at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, killed 32 people in two attacks before taking his own life. (more…)

From WaPo:

On the network’s “Nightly News” broadcast, anchor Brian Williams said the package was sent Monday via overnight mail, but didn’t arrive at NBC’s office until today because it had an incorrect Zip Code. Williams said a mail clerk received the package at 9:01 a.m., which was nearly two hours after campus police received a 7:15 a.m. call about at shooting at West Ambler Johnston dormitory. The second shooting at Norris Hall, an academic building across campus, was reported to police about 9:45 a.m.

The news network said it had turned the original package over to authorities. The video was said to include profane, often unintelligible rantings, and mentions of Cho’s anger at rich students. The network, in an earlier broadcast, showed photos of Cho posing with a pair of black pistols in his outstretched hands, with a hammer, and with a pistol pointed at the camera. (more…)

 

 Shooter video [4:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Virginia Tech Shooting by ecthompson
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Because there is so much sadness that is hanging over me lately (nurse at the hospital has died beside the Virginia Tech shooting), I will be posting more music video this week. Music has always had the ability to pick me up.

Huey Lewis and the News were about as big as a group can get in 1985. In 1983, the band’s 3rd album, Sports, sold 10 million copies in the US. On the heels of Sports, Huey Lewis is asked to act (very minor role) in Back to the Future. He and his band write 2 songs for the movie. Each of the songs does very well. The movie’s success didn’t hurt the song at all.

The Power of Love is a classic Huey Lewis and the News tune. The song is driven by an infectious bass line. The News manages to sing a 50’s style do-wop line in the background. Huey’s vocals, which always borders on gravelly, stands right in the middle of the arrangement - picture perfect. The guitar solo is light and it has to be. If the guitar was too heavy the whole song would be pushed out of the soulful pop genre into the hard rock. All of these sounds blend perfectly together to give you classic Huey Lewis and the News.

 

 Power of Love [4:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Music by ecthompson
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Keith Olbermann has a retrospective on what we know now. It was about 36 hours since the shooting started. We have learned a lot. I’m kinda surprised that everyone and I mean every one is there at Virginia Tech. From reporters to News Anchors. The students don’t have room to breathe without someone sticking a microphone in their face. They have had the president and the governor of Virginia on campus. Are more politicians coming?

 

 Perspective [5:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Countdown, Virginia Tech Shooting by ecthompson
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After any terrible tragedy we try to focus on the killer(s) for clues. Things that we might have missed. I think that we are going to find that many people thought that this guy was weird and possibly disturbed.

————

From MSNBC.com:

They met across the professor’s desk. One on one. The chairman of the English department and the silent, brooding student who never took his sunglasses off.

He had so upset other instructors that Virginia Tech officials asked whether the professor wanted protection. Lucinda Roy declined. She thought Cho Seung Hui exuded loneliness, and she volunteered to teach him by herself, to spare her colleagues. The subject of the class was poetry. (more…)

His dorm mate’s thoughts.

 

 Who was Cho Seung Hui: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Virginia Tech Shooting by ecthompson
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Remember the dirty bomber, Jose Padilla (I discuss this case with Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com)? He was one of the first persons that the US picked up in the War on Terror. He was labeled an Enemy Combatant. He was held with out charges or trial for more than 3 years. Now, it looks like the government is finally going to put him on trial.

Mr. Padilla is the best example of our government losing the constitution. This is is different than John Walker Lindh (an American catch in Afghanistan) or 9/11 master mind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (who recently confessed). Padilla was/is an American. He was picked up in the US. He was tortured. He was kept without any legal representation. He was not even charged with a crime for years. It is not a stretch to say that almost any American could be treated like this.

 

 Who is Jose Padilla? [1:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Al Qaeda, War on Terror by ecthompson
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From MSNBC.com:

The sport utility vehicle carrying Gov. Jon S. Corzine was traveling about 91 mph moments before it crashed, the superintendent of state police said Tuesday.

The governor was critically injured when the vehicle crashed into a guardrail on the Garden State Parkway just north of Atlantic City last week. He apparently was not wearing his seat belt as he rode in the front passenger’s seat.

The speed limit along that stretch of the parkway is 65 mph. (more…)

Tags: Healthcare by ecthompson
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