The Necropolitan Sentinel

The biggest headline this week seems to be the brace of decisions by the Susan G. Komen Foundation concerning Planned Parenthood.

When Komen made its initial announcement about cutting funding, the left went apoplectic, because they understood what the score was:

Many other businesses and organizations know this same thing, but have been too timid to act. The left knows and understands this. (That’s why Planned Parenthood, NOT KOMEN, broke the story). If Komen is allowed to survive and thrive without the imprimatur of the left, then how many will follow suit? That’s why, no matter how many women’s lives are saved by their actions, they must be destroyed.

The media pitched a fit, and Komen issued an apology; its wording was interesting to me:

We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

The MSM went into full victory dance mode, and many on the right have started to despair once more—but people don’t seem to be reading what has actually been said:

This is a very carefully worded letter, and I think the care in its phrasing says a lot. What is not explicitly stated is: “Planned Parenthood will be getting new grants from Susan G. Komen in the future.” If the people at Komen wanted to say that, they would have—but they didn’t.

Finally, late in the day, a few on the right and on the left seem to have caught on.

But no matter how you cut it, there has been one really important point that this whole argument has made clear:

I mean, just pause for a moment: if Planned Parenthood is so serious about protecting women’s health, how does it justify leading a crusade to destroy the world’s leading breast cancer research foundation over these past days?? It’s simply incredible, and we need to make sure it’s never forgotten.

And Erick Erickson goes further:

I heard today that while small donations are up more than 100% to the Komen Foundation, major funders have threatened to pull money allocated to Komen because of Komen’s Planned Parenthood decision. Killing children in utero is the sacrament of the Church of the Secular Left, and any person or organization that becomes the slightest threat to abortion rights must be destroyed. Because the Susan G. Komen Foundation dared to stop giving money to an organization that kills kids (despite its spin), major liberal donors of Komen decided abortion outranks curing breast cancer—and Komen had to be stopped.

Tell me, where did those major donors think that Koman’s grants—those that were no longer going to Planned Parenthood—would go? To Taco Bell? They would have gone to places that actually provide mammograms.

The bottom line: the next time someone on the left tells you they care about women’s health, you now know that that their definition of women’s heath begin and ends with the word abortion.

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Meanwhile, in news that the MSM declined to cover, via a traditional “Friday night document dump” we discovered that Eric Holder and company knew a lot more than they are telling:

Other documents obtained by the committee make clear that the investigation in question was Fast and Furious. The emails also establish that Wilkinson and other senior Justice Department officials in Washington were briefed on the program shortly after Terry’s murder. In other words, within days, if not hours, of Terry’s death, it was known at the highest levels of the Justice Department that he was killed by guns sold with the full knowledge of federal officials who then lost track of them.

Investors’ Business Daily says this:

According to the Daily Caller, the emails also showed that Wilkinson then “alerted” Holder about the killing of the U.S. agent.

Since then, Wilkinson has taken the Fifth in congressional testimony and told investigators, “I don’t recall,” while the Justice Department on Monday declined to give any answer to the press about what Holder knew and when he knew it.

Glenn Reynolds calls this a “criminal disgrace”:

I think the disgrace is in the media that has ignored it, and that I haven’t heard any questions on it during the many Presidential debates.

Media or no, what is the final result of Fast and Furious? Ordinary Mexicans are illegally arming themselves and fighting back:

These days, things have quieted down in Colonia LeBaron. Some people say it’s because of the soldiers garrisoned in town. The LeBarons maintain it’s because the criminals know the community will fight back.

What’s the old saying? “Better tried by twelve than carried by six.”

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The media have also ignored the firestorm caused by new Obama Administration rules that would force Roman Catholic institutions to cover birth control costs for their employees—via their health insurance plans, and against their religion.. This is so egregious that even Obamacare advocates and “cafeteria Catholics” such as Sister Carol Keenan are crying foul.

This puts them in the rare position of being on the same side as 153 Bishops (as of this writing) who have denounced this via letter and messages&mdah;many which were read at Mass across the nation; even the Greek Orthodox bishops have issued a statement of support.

That just what an incumbent needs during an election year, isn’t it?

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By an odd coincidence, in my hometown there is a new Catholic radio station that will go on the air in June: WQPH. Officials from EWTN came from as far away as Alabama to attend an event on its behalf.

And the Bishop of Worcester gave a talk at the event:

In the speech he talked about Catholics not knowing their faith; although the President is not a Catholic, perhaps the Bishop could clue Mr. Obama in on a few matters: our Chief Executive said something rather odd at the National Prayer Breakfast about:

“. . . living by the principle that we are our brother’s keeper—caring for the poor and those in need.”

Mark Steyn pointed out that Obama’s brother is living on $12 a year, and noted that:

“This version of shared responsibility means the state should be your ‘brother’s keeper . . . ’”

Perhaps that’s what Reverend Wright was teaching, back in the day.

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Does this commercial seem familiar to you?

Brian K. Hill is running in Connecticut for the Senate; he is the second candidate to use the “Turn this Ship Around” ad in order to link his opponent to Obama; he joins Mark Oxner in making use of the Ladd Brain Trust. Considering the fact that this ad can apply in nearly any district, I strongly suspect that he will not be the last.

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In a little-noticed recent story, 25 Chinese were taken hostage in the Sinai by a group of al-Qaida types looking to win freedom for comrades who were taken in the bombing of Sharm el-Sheikh back in 2005.

I think there is a lot less than meets the eye here: if the new government in Egypt would like to release the Sharm el-Sheikh bombers but needs an excuse, this could be it.

For their sake, the “kidnappers” had better hope that this arrangement was worked out with China in advance by some of their planners. If that’s not the case, I expect they will find that our friends in the East are unlikely to forgive and forget, and that they are not going to worry about shedding a little blood to make an example.

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At the same time our friends the “Palestinians” are busy celebrating the murderers of the Fogel family:

On March 11, 2011, five members of the Fogel family were killed in their home in the Israeli town of Itamar by Palestinian terrorists from the Awad family. Hakim Awad led the attack, killing the parents Ehud and Ruth and three of their children, aged 11 years, 4 years, and 2 months.

The weekly PA TV program For You, dedicated to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, let the mother and aunt of one of the murderers praise the terrorists as “heroes.”

Remind me again why we could possibly want to fund these barbarians.

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I interviewed a former GOP candidate for Auditor in Massachusetts—Mary Z. Connaughton—last week at the Twin City Tea Party:

She gave a great talk on behalf of the Pioneer institute; it contained this memorable line on wealth:

“You don’t cut the pie into smaller pieces, you make a bigger pie.”

That is the most concise description of free market capitalism that I’ve heard in a long time.

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We are under a week away from the Superbowl, which will be a rematch between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Although there is no reason to believe the result will be a repeat of their previous meeting, there is every reason to believe it will repeat the excitement of Superbowl 42.

Apparently one thing that will not be repeated is any kind of “wardrobe malfunction.” On Jay Leno’s show Madonna talked about doing the halftime show, and Leno asked what rules she was given. She quipped: “for sure, no nipples.”

I had to laugh: seriously, is there anyone left in the world who wants to see Madonna’s nipples and has not?

There was one other interesting quote from her appearance on the show: “I don’t like to repeat myself, or do what other people have done before me.”

I wonder if anyone asked Lady Gaga for a comment on that.

I’ll see you one more time—just before I head down to CPAC. And just after the Patriots win their fourth Superbowl of the century.

. . . And yes: that is a prediction. I’m not just talking smack.