Tortured Liberal indignation

What Congress Knew About 'Torture' - WSJ.com

Hippocratic Oath v. "Conscience"

Interesting article about Rights of Conscience in the healthcare profession, First Things » Blog Archive » The Hippocratic Oath, Persona Non Grata. From the post:

To keep from so throwing out the baby with the bathwater, I suggest that we consider at least two crucial distinctions in determining what would be a protected refusal to provide a requested medical intervention; first, between elective and non-elective procedures, and second between treatments and patients. Thus, doctors should be permitted to refuse elective procedures—that is, interventions not immediately necessary to save the patient’s life or prevent serious physical harm—if their conscience so dictates, whether it be rhinoplasty, abortion, or assisted suicide. To prevent care refusals from being a mere cover for discriminatory attitudes, the requested procedure should generally be what violates the conscience, not bias against the patient. In this way, for example, an oncologist should not be able to refuse to treat a lung-cancer patient because the patient smoked or was a member of a racial minority.

Hat tip: ADF Alliance Alert

Hamas living by the sword

Hamas leader Rayan lived by the sword. ("Bodies of Hamas leader's children paraded as group promises 'painful' revenge for their deaths"). From the end of the article:

[Rayan] was preaching in a local mosque on the day before he was killed and said: "Our only language with the Jew is through the gun."

Abortion extremism

Who are the extremists on abortion?

A new Harris Poll finds a plurality of Americans want all or most abortions to be illegal and overwhelming majorities of Americans want more abortion limits in law. The nationwide poll showed just 9 percent said abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy -- Barack Obama's position.

Obama's Jihadist challenge

This article about the recent military conflict in Gaza reminded me of an Obama statement way-back-when threatening unilateral military action against Pakistan--a statement for which many people (even Conservatives) criticized him:

The Gaza Strip is just a microcosm of the threat posed by Islamic terrorism. Unless and until nations such as Iran and Syria are forced to end state sponsorship of terrorism, any victories we or the Israelis achieve will be short-lived. The longer we and the rest of the civilized world deny that fact, terrorism will succeed.

I haven't paid close enough attention to see if Obama ever recanted the comment, and I'm not sure whether he was serious anyway.

Auld Lang Syne - "Days Gone By"

Auld Lang Syne - Lyrics and MIDI:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
And here's a hand, my trusty friend
And gie's a hand o' thine
We'll tak' a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

Happy New Year!