† Philly Abortionist Charged With Murder Of Seven Newborns: Over a 30-year period Dr. Kermit Gosnell made millions of dollars aborting and (allegedly) murdering the unwanted fetuses and babies of minorities, immigrants and poor women in Philadelphia. He was an abortionist exemplar, when you consider that Margaret Sanger championed abortion as a means to reduce the population of minorities, immigrants and poor women (in other words, as an instrument of eugenics). Given that racism and abortion are inextricably entwined, The Stiletto does not understand the brouhaha over former Sen. Rick Santorum's (R-PA) comment in an interview with CNS, that: "[I]f that human life is not a person then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say 'now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.'"

Santorum later explained his comment in the context of slavery ("For decades certain human beings were wrongly treated as property and denied liberty in America because they were not considered persons under the constitution") which is not only historically inaccurate (as Glenn Beck is forced to explain over and over and over), but the more apt parallel would have been to eugenics. Santorum didn't know why he was right, but he was right nonetheless. 

† The Seven (New) Words You Can Never Say On Television: In an interview on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” National Journal’s Michael Hirsh equates “certain kinds of metaphors” - particularly gun metaphors, and “killing, murdering, taking out” – with the “N-word”:

“Do we really want to continue to use that kind of language at these levels? Or, should there be kind of a social sanction, not a legal one, but a moral sanction in the way that we’ve stopped using certain epithets like the ‘n’-word public forums. Stop using that kind of language, those kinds of metaphors.” 

The Washington Post obviously didn’t get the memo. An article on the federal budget deficit was headlined: “New GOP Proposal Targets Federal Workforce,” and included several disquieting metaphors: 

A series of measures proposed Thursday by House conservatives to shrink the federal deficit included several that would fall heavily on the federal workforce. …

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio)  … has set a more modest target for reducing the federal budget.

Nevertheless, the Study Committee, which represents about 70 percent of House Republicans, intends to push a debate …

Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) … [said] "We're heading off a cliff." …

John Gage, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, urged lawmakers to "…consider the ramifications that these kinds of broadside attacks will have …"

† The Libel Over Blood Libel (second item): Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) apologized linking Republican criticism of Obamacare to Nazi propaganda, claiming that it was not his intent to be offensive, reports The Washington Times:

"I want to be clear that I never called Republicans Nazis," said the Tennessee lawmaker in a statement issued Thursday. "I regret that anyone in the Jewish community, my Republican colleagues or anyone else was offended by the portrayal of my comments." …

Jewish groups and others rebuked Mr. Cohen, who is Jewish.

"No matter how strong one's objections to any policy or to the tactics of political opponents, invoking the Holocaust and the Nazi effort to exterminate the Jewish people is offensive and has no place in a civil political discourse," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

† Living In These Mad, Mad, Madoff Times: Insurance fraud involving property and casualty claims costs American consumers roughly $30 billion a year, with slip-and-falls one of the fastest-growing scams. CBS News reports that 2010 “could be the biggest year ever for suspicious slip-and-falls.”

† Mortgage Loan Modification Less Than Advertised: President Barack Hussein Obama’s mortgage bailout program has failed to stop the tsunami of foreclosures that threaten to drag down the housing market for years to come. David Kapell, former mayor of Greenport, NY, thinks he has a better idea - “a structured foreclosure” - which he lays out in this New York Times op-ed:

Here’s how it would work. The borrower would lose ownership of his home, but be allowed to remain as a tenant paying fair rent for a reasonable period after foreclosure, with the requirement that he cooperate in the foreclosure. He’d pay fair market rents as published by the federal government, ensuring a clear, national standard. If the borrower couldn’t afford to pay market rent, existing federal rent-subsidy programs could be extended to help tide him over.

At the same time, with borrowers now working with lenders, it would be much easier to gather all the documents necessary to process the foreclosure, unclogging the sort of paperwork roadblocks that have recently encumbered the mortgage industry. Lenders would wind up owning a portfolio of income-producing property that would be readily marketable to investors.

True, the process could force lenders to revalue the homes at significantly lower prices than what they have on their books. Then again, such revaluation is almost inevitable in the current housing market, and instability in the banking sector could be resolved with additional government support.

What’s more, the plan would create a new supply of badly needed rental housing without drawing the sort of community opposition that so often accompanies proposals to build new rental properties. Same house, same family - but a new, financially capable owner.

† Whatever Happened To Fact-Checking?: "Candid Camera" host Peter Funt, takes journalists to task for erroneously reporting that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) had been fatally shot – her husband, Mark Kelly, saw the devastating news reports while in flight travelling to the hospital, and spent 20 minutes grieving until he got the facts – scoffing: “The Internet has made real-time reporting more prevalent, but it certainly didn't invent it”:

All-news radio began in the early 1960s at stations like WAVA in Washington, D.C., and WINS in New York, where it was refined to become the nonstop reporting format that remains popular today. In 1980, media visionary Ted Turner launched CNN, and nonstop television news has been a vital part of American journalism ever since. …

News is instantaneous. With the exception of the tree that falls in the empty forest, reporting begins at some level at the very moment that news happens. Professional journalists - whether print or electronic - are simply an extension of the process. All deadlines are artificial. …

On television, legendary coverage by Walter Cronkite and others during events such as the Kennedy assassination and the first moon walk - in the days before CNN and 24/7 TV news -  demonstrated how deadlines could be measured by fact rather than time: Get it right and get it on. That was the schedule.

This is not to say that the power of the Internet to quickly disseminate errors is not cause for concern. Nor is the 24/7 news cycle an excuse for journalistic carelessness.

But the notion that nonstop news coverage is something new, some recent innovation developed as a product of the Internet and utilities such as Twitter, is bogus.

† Updates To Previous Posts (seventh item, Romney: The Sequel): It has not escaped the notice of The Boston Globe that as former MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) “lays the groundwork for a possible second presidential run” he is steering clear of Tea Party activists" in NH and other key primary states:

Romney is on track to present himself as the establishment candidate - a responsible, mainstream Republican leader with the necessary financial resources and credentials to beat President Obama.

But the approach carries potential risks, as the insurgent Tea Party movement shifts its focus from last year’s midterms and seeks to exert its influence on the presidential election.

Even in traditionally moderate New Hampshire, the Tea Party is ascendant. It tugged the state’s GOP congressional candidates sharply rightward last year, and one of its supporters is mounting a strong challenge in tomorrow’s election for the GOP state chairmanship. In a development that was startling even for a state with the motto “Live Free or Die,’’ the Legislature recently decided that lawmakers and visitors should be allowed to carry concealed weapons in the State House.

With the primary a year away, Romney runs the risk of being out of step with the party’s most energized, conservative voters, said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire.

“That’s a perilous role to be cast in. You’d much rather, especially at this stage, be the insurgent,’’ Scala said. “It would actually help Romney if he could convince some of these newer activists, if he could show the ability to cross from the establishment wing to the avowedly antiestablishment wing.’’

† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Restorative Capital Punishment): Hospira Inc. has reportedly decided to permanently halt production of thiopental sodium. If true,”the death penalty system in the U.S. is potentially thrown into turmoil,” reports The Wall Street Journal:

States can attempt to use another anesthetic in place of thiopental, but such a switch likely would need to be approved by courts and possibly state legislators.

Many states have already run out of thiopental, forcing prison officials to delay executions. The drug shortage followed a 2009 decision by Hospira to suspend production due to manufacturing issues.

The Lake Forest, Ill., company had planned to resume producing thiopental in the first quarter of 2011 at a company plant in Liscate, Italy. But in December, the Italian parliament issued an order binding the government to ensure that Hospira’s Italian-made thiopental would not be used in lethal injections.

In the face of that opposition, Hospira ultimately decided to exit the thiopental market, said company spokeswoman Tareta Adams.

† Updates To Previous Posts (fifth item, The TSA Emperor Wears No Clothes: Part II): The Washington Times notes that “[i]t's obvious bureaucrats know they're in trouble [over invasive airport security checks] and hope the attention will blow over” and the Editorial Page is doing a Happy Dance over “frequent traveler” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) heading up the Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, Homeland Defense and Foreign Operations:

Chaffetz vowed to use the chairmanship to encourage the agency to adopt a new outlook. "TSA has a credibility problem from my vantage point. They have said things repeatedly to the public that just aren't true."