I listen to talk radio every day on my way to work in my car, and usually via the Internet at work.

One of the dangers of this is you occasionally hear a story that frustrates the hell out of you and you cannot call in to comment on it.  This is one such case.  I can’t think of a story that has infuriated me more due to the completely idiotic overreactions and the number of people jumping to conclusions..

I am going to post the story first:

http://www.komotv.com/news/7202241.html

Restrictions on the use of security videotape have been tightened at a suburban Tacoma high school after images of two girls kissing were shown to the parents of one of the girls, officials say.

Keith Nelson, dean of students at Gig Harbor High School, said he saw the students kissing and holding hands in the school’s busy commons, checked a surveillance camera and showed the parents the tape because they had asked him a few weeks earlier to alert them to any conduct by their daughter that was out of the ordinary.

OK, stopping for a moment, I have to immediate point out that there are several issues at work here, and people are mixing them into a single complaint, which clouds the issue.  I see the essential questions as:

• Are surveillance cameras in school a violation of privacy?
• Do parents have the right to about their children’s activities at school, and should the administrator have agreed to watch the child?
• Is two girls holding hands and kissing considered “out of the ordinary behavior”? Is this a gay issue?
• Should the video tape have been shown to the parents?
• Did the parents overreact to the video?
• Is Ken Schram an idiot?

OK the last one will make sense in a minute.  You see, Ken is one of those who blasted off into orbit over this regardless of the facts.  Here is his commentary on it (with my responses, as always):

Another topic I have avoided lately is abortion.  It is frankly one I am biased on.

The recent news that the SCOTUS has upheld a bad on Partial Birth Abortion, the procedure called intact Dilation and Extraction has caused the left to go up in flames, with visions of coathangers and back alley abortions abundant.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The law the SCOTUS upheld banned one specific procedure, except in the case of the mother’s health.  Other forms of late term abortion like Dilation and Evacuation are still perfectly legal.

The law only affects about 5% of abortions.

And to be clear the law was passed because this type of abortion is fairly gruesome.

I dislike abortion as a rule, but Partial Birth abortions are particularly vile in my opinion.

So all the cries about the end of the world are simple media posturing and demagoguing.

When the law was passed it had bipartisan support, too.  The votes were 281–142 in the House of Representatives and 64–34 in the Senate.  By party, that broke down to 218 Republicans and 63 Democrats in the House supported it, and 4 Republicans, 137 Democrats, and 1 independent opposed it.  In the Senate the bill was supported by 47 Republicans and 17 Democrats and opposed by 3 Republicans, 30 Democrats, and 1 independent.

Among the votes saying yes to the bill were these Democrats (a few notables in bold):

House:

• Robert Cramer (D-AL)
• Artur Davis (D-AL)
• Marion Berry (D-AR)
• Mike Ross (D-AR)
• Allen Boyd (D-FL)  
• Jim Davis (D-FL)
• Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
• Jim Marshall (D-GA)
• Jerry Costello (D-IL)
• William Lipinski (D-IL)
• Baron Hill (D-IN)
• Peter Visclosky (D-IN)
• Ken Lucas (D-KY)
• Rodney Alexander (D-LA)
• William Jefferson (D-LA)
• Chris John (D-LA)
• Stephen Lynch (D-MA)
• Richard Neal (D-MA)
• Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD)
• Michael Michaud (D-ME)