Right to Opine

Once widely hailed as the source for breaking news and accurate coverage, CNN has been losing out to competitors—particularly Fox News—for a number of years. In posts past I’ve touched on a few of the reasons, such as the blatant bias of “journalist” Christiane Amanpour and the bile-spewing Joy Behar. (I have yet to comment on “Parker Spitzer.” Have you seen it? Incredible.)

Piling on top of the left-leaning bias—which, to be fair, is CNN’s prerogative, as is Fox’s tilt to the right—is its less-than-accurate coverage of controversial topics. In the past, for example, they’ve trotted out entirely misleading statistics regarding the prevalence of American-sourced weaponry in Mexico—data which is refuted by the FBI, which handles the gun traces—in order to support an anti-gun stance. Today CNN posted the following headline “Court condemns Irish ban on abortion” above a story on a significant European Court of Human Rights ruling.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Ireland’s laws on abortion Thursday, ruling the country violated the human rights of a woman forced to go abroad to end her pregnancy.

It did not, however, recommend a change to Irish law, which prohibits abortion in all cases.

Except Irish law does not prohibit abortion in all cases. It allows exceptions in situations in which the mother’s life is at risk. In addition, the issue raised by the court’s ruling was not that the woman had to leave Ireland to get an abortion, but that Irish law does not clearly define how exceptions are to be granted or provide medical guidelines for doctors and patients in such cases and, therefore, she was unable to obtain pertinent medical advice. The court did not “condemn” the Irish ban on abortion. On the contrary, it left the law intact (as it has done with complete abortion bans in the tiny nations of Andorra, Malta, and San Marino) but found it violated the Irish Supreme Court’s own 1992 ruling because it does not provide an “effective or accessible procedure” for women to obtain exceptions.

The remainder of the article blathers on about how terrible Ireland is for its repressive law and lack of respect for the “human right” to abortion. Its inflammatory language is chosen specifically to frame a negative opinion of the Irish law and to support abortion. Read the actual ruling and see for yourself how CNN’s coverage stacks up in terms of accuracy and fairness with the New York Times, BBC (and here), Associated Press.

No respite from global warming for the UK. – Rush hour warning as freeze bites

Um, don’t the Arabs need to figure out how to deal with Israel, not the U.S.? – Arabs reject Middle East peace talks without US plan  

You knew it was, er, coming, didn’t you? – Kinect sex is here, game company says

Now this is the kind of research our tax dollars should be supporting. – Philly Brewer Reverse-Engineers Our Founding Fathers’ Ales

I’m terribly afraid all too many readers will miss the satire in this. – Let’s Get Rid of Freedom and Replace It with ‘FreeSmart’

A long but worthwhile look at the duality of CA. – Two Californias

Our pilots have some serious skills. Check out how he holds this Chinook steady for a troop extraction…with only the rear on solid ground.

Would you like some C4 with that? – TSA X-Ray Machines Easily Fooled, Researchers Find (full paper here)

Feel-good story of the day. – Amputee Sets Out to Complete 8 ‘Ironman’ Challenges in 8 Months

A good perspective on why the ever-popular .38 snubbies aren’t a good choice for women. – The Double Action Trigger

A school board meeting in Florida became the scene of a potentially deadly shooting spree today when a disgruntled—and rather incoherent—area resident opened fire with a handgun.

The gunman opened fire at [Superintendent] Husfelt and school board members. He missed them all, even though he was at close range, said Lee Stafford, director of student services of Bay District Schools.

Fortunately the man was incompetent with his weapon or this would have turned tragic. Please explain to me again why it’s a good idea to ban law-abiding citizens from carrying concealed weapons in situations like this. It only creates victims out of the innocent.

Americans (who opposed Obamacare 2-1) finally win a round. – Judge Voids Key Element of Obama Health Care Law

$400K spent per new “green” job. Great ROI. – Green Jobs Not Growing As Expected

Prager on the latest incident of Palin Derangement Syndrome. – He Called Sarah Palin an “Idiot”?

“Funny” how this story hasn’t made the headlines…like it would have had it been a conservative prof. – Palin-Hating Columbia Professor, Huffington Post Blogger, Busted for Incest

The Absence of Consequence

Former Justice Breyer is rather limited in his knowledge of Madison. – Breyer: Madison wrote 2nd Amendment to appease the states

TSA fondles Indian ambassador. JaNo says, “Good job!” – US concern at frisking of India envoy Meera Shankar

Americans who take their religion seriously really are more charitable than secularists. – Charity’s Religious Edge

So we’re going to continue sending an increasing stream of revenue to countries that hate us because we can’t expand drilling and refining here. Brilliant move. – Gas prices on track for unseasonable spike

Leftist class warfare in the raw. What large companies pay for a CEO’s healthcare wouldn’t cover the cost of a dozen employees. For companies with thousands of workers, it’s completely irrelevant unless you’re a redistributionist. – Executives keep health perks while workers’ benefits are cut

An interesting look at the arms being used by our opponents in Afghanistan. Many are WWII-era or older, like the Russian Mosin-Nagant (I own a WWII model). – What’s Inside a Taliban gun Locker?

Consumer Product Safety Commission displays its incompetence again. – Feds dismiss need to recall lead drinking glasses

Now this is some cool R&D. – Navy’s Mach 8 Railgun Obliterates Record

Another Disney kid goes Cheech & Chong on us. – Miley Cyrus Smokes From Water Pipe in Party Video

Interesting that a web site dedicated to science shows so much animosity to one of the basic tenets of science—examining all sides of an issue and exposing both the strengths and weaknesses of any theory.

A subcommittee of the state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted 6-to-1 Tuesday to approve an industry-standard biology text, which conservative critics had attacked for failing to teach the “controversy” about evolution.

While the article focuses on criticism of creationism and intelligent design, conspicuously absent is any mention that there are, in fact, gaping holes in every flavor of evolutionary theory—a fact which they fear having taught in public schools lest any thinking student have doubts about the validity of Darwinist thought.

The public school attack on Christianity continues. It’s interesting how often my liberal friends say this kind of thing doesn’t happen in public schools. – Parents Pull Son Out of New Hampshire School Over Assigned Book That Refers to Jesus as ‘Wine-Guzzling Vagrant and Socialist’

This is what happens when the role of parents is passed off to government. – NHS group call to ban children watching ‘smoking’ films

Great idea. Because when you need help now, the police are minutes away. – Panic buttons for 1,000 NHS community staff in Swansea

Promising multiple sclerosis research breakthrough—privately funded. – Study offers hope of ‘repairing’ MS damage

A fascinating pictorial of now-defunct coastal defenses around San Francisco. Photos range from period to modern. A few are rather beautiful, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has visited the bay area. All have interesting informational captions. – A century of guarding SF from attack

If that interested you, don’t miss the companion piece. It’s a long, but very worthwhile read. – A tour of SF Bay’s hidden military fortifications

An alarmingly naive defense of WikiLeaks. – Why WikiLeaks Is Good for America

Israel Derangement Syndrome at its best. – Egyptian Officlal: Israel Could Be Behind Deadly Shark Attack

Feel-good story of the day. – Runner Crawls to Finish as Team Wins Title for Ailing Coach

Something to try next Thanksgiving. – Cooking a turkey by dropping it

Not surprisingly, foreign leaders aren’t minimizing the impact of WikiLeaks’ latest. – Downplaying The WikiLeaks Disaster

One DREAM that needs squashing. – No More Illegal Alien Waivers

While the rest of the world expands oil drilling, we shut it down and will inevitably wind up buying even more of what we need from foreign sources. While sucking the energy life-blood out of our own economy we pour billions into other nations’ oil ventures. Brilliant, that.