How many people will end up getting killed by the hate speech that comes out of FoxNews? The right wing authoritarians that watch that nonsense and are then inspired to commit acts of violence against their fellow americans is tragic. The people that are able to do this kind of thing are fake christians. They try to pretend they are holy, but they are murderers. Bill O'Reilly has incited a murder.

Mr. Madden,

Why do you refusing to acknowledge the your opponents valid arguments in your penultimate sentence? "There's no reason someone should become a target of such hatred and violence for doing their job."

Late term abortions are a very difficult issue. I know where I come down -- firmly pro-choice -- but there there are many smart and moral people who disagree with me. I think that they are wrong, but that doesn't mean that their arguments are poor or invalid.

The fact here is that Dr. Teller was not just "doing his job." He had defined his job a certain way. Doing this particular job was a moral decision, and one I support. It was not a neutral decision, and not one that should make him immune from criticism, or even from hatred. Heck, I can think of jobs whch right subject people to hatred and violence (e.g. serving in an invading army).

Obviously, killing a man for his moral decisions is not Christian. Nor do I think that it is particularly pro-life, but I ackwolwedge that if one thinks that abortion is murder, or that late-term abortioni is murder, that it becomes a much more difficult moral question.

His murder was not senseless. It was wrong and illegal,, but not senseless. Why do we have to deny the thinking of our opponents? What pupose does that serve?

plain and simple.

Murdering, right-wing terrorists. No better than Al-Qauda, the Taliban or Bin Ladin.

You people are shit.

Whenever the left seems to be have a little more power the conservative start murdering people. Look at Tim McVeigh! I lived in Charlotte when the OK City bombing occured. Local callers to talk radio DEFENDED the bombing and blamed the Feds for 'putting a day care center into an obvious target. Erik Rudolph (Atlanta Olympics bombing, abortion clinic bombings) was supported and helped by Christian conservatives while hiding out in the mountains of NC. In the 1960s they slew MLK. Violence is the only thing conservatives understand, because most of them are bestial, brutal and ignorant.

Side note - I have no use for 'earth first' style terrorists either. ELF is no better than the 'pro-life' murderers.

But no amount of spin can release you from your guilty conscience.

runfastandwin,

You don't know me or anything about me. You certainly don't know anything about my views about abortion/choice.

I find, however, that you actually are underscoring my point. There are some who support choice who are so eager to demonize those who disagree with them that they'll paint those who try to understand them as appeasers, traitors or the enemy.

What does that accomplish?

The idea of being pro-choice, as opposed to pro-abortion, is to get the government out of this particular decision. It is *not* to convince everyone that every abortion is right and moral. That latter is a losing battle, one that makes it harder for those of us who care about Choice.

Those can't recognize why some anti-choice folks might hesitate for a moment before condeming Tiller's murderer have little chance of expanding the pro-choice majority in this country. There *are* moral questions around abortion, and certainly around late-term abortion. I know where I stand on them, but I can also respect those who truly grapple with them and come out differently. I believe that it is that respect that gives me the best opportunity to convince them that being pro-choice is not the same thing as being pro-abortion.

I admitt, runfastandwin, that I have plenty of things in my life to have a guilty conscience about, but my efforts to understand those who disagree with me and to represent their views fairly are not among them.

Kudos on your comments. You cannot fully defend your own argument unless you understand -- and I think even empathize (dirty word recently I know) with -- that of the opponent's. And that includes defending it to yourself. That I see as a foundation of American civic life; but also one increasingly rare.

It's both odd and sad that no one seems to be interested in hosting vigils for the thousands of innocent lives taken by George Tiller. For the most part they were normal, healthy babies. The were not malformed. They were innocent victims of a man who made a fortune from extinguishing helpless infants (not embryos or fetuses....babies).

For anyone interested in the real truth about Tiller and his "untimely" death: for your information, were it not for the abuse of her powers as the then-governor of the state of Kansas (Kathleen Sebelius) Tiller would have been in prison where he belonged and might be alive today so if anyone is responsible for the demise of Tiller I suggest that the newly appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services (another big mistake) take a good look in the mirror.

How hipocritical... totally ignoring the innocent lives taken every day by Tiller.

What happened to be babies' choice?