The American Taliban Strikes

Dr Tiller was a gynecologist who among other services provided abortions. deekaa6 provided my friends at Balloon Juice with a personal testimonial regarding Dr Tiller's practice. You should read the entire thing, but I'll give you this:

Dr. Tiller understood that this decision was the most difficult thing that a woman could ever decide and he took the time to educate us and guide us along with the other two couples who at the time were being forced to make the same decision after discovering that they too were carrying children impacted by horrible fetal anomalies. I could describe in great detail the procedures and the pain and suffering that everyone is subjected to in these situations. However, that is not the point of the post. We can all imagine that this is not something that we would wish on anyone. The point is that the pain and suffering were only mitigated by the compassion and competence of Dr. George Tiller and his staff. We are all diminished today for a host of reasons but most of all because a man of great compassion and courage has been lost to the world.

This Doctor was vilified as Killer Tiller and described as a monster with blood on his hands among other nastiness. What the Doctor did in his practice was legal and unfortunately necessary. Some find that more than unfortunate, they find it evil and go from there, farther afield, perhaps, than their instigators planned.

I am unable to read minds and so I am reluctant to say that asses like Bill O'Rielly wished for deaths amongst those they vilified, but their endless drumbeat of invective has had its inevitable ending in the murder of Dr George Tiller. You cannot blame the magic box for society's failures and offenses, but it does reinforce points of view. If that point of view is already past a point of balance the tipping over into lunacy is guaranteed. Do the purveyors of hate like BillO have blood on their hands? Yes, absolutely and less honorably than that they accused Dr Tiller of and quite as legally. They did not say, "I will approve if you kill Dr Tiller," they simply presented him as less than human and thus undeserving of that consideration by trying and convicting him of crimes against humanity through their rhetoric. Sadly, most were actually unaware of the actual practice of Dr Tiller which the above commenter outlines.

I've been taken to task for calling teabaggers idiots, well there's a far cry from questioning someones reasoning powers and dehumanizing them and setting them up for murder. It is funny how few of the left persuasion go around a bend and kill people in this country and the right provides the trigger men. Is that a function of being of the right? No, certainly not, but it is a function of the hysteria and overblown rhetoric the right engages in.

The American Taliban is winning its terrorist war against abortion. Doctors die, clinics are bombed and all that makes people reluctant to provide such services. The BillOs and Randall Terrys are their preachers, they don't take matters in hand, they create the climate rather than do the deed. It might be useful to shun such.

This is preaching to the choir, readers of this site don't watch Fox or read the tracts of Terry. I have no idea how to approach doing something legal about the American Taliban - GWB would have invaded...the wrong country...