Reflections From a Murky Pond

10:00PM EST, January 8th, 2008 – with over 50% of the precincts having reported, the results are currently:

Democratic party with 59% reporting:

• Clinton 60,839 39%
• Obama 57,013 37%
• Edwards 25,845 17%
• Richardson 7,409 5%
• Kucinich 2,240 1%
• Dodd 388 0%
• Biden 343 0%
• Gravel 209 0%

Republican party with 57% reporting:

• McCain 46,600 37%
• Romney 39,501 31%
• Huckabee 14,242 11%
• Giuliani 10,926 9%
• Paul 9,917 8%
• Thompson 1,487 1%
• Hunter 645 1%

Frankly the result are still very much up in the air. The Obama v. Clinton battle is much closer than was to be expected, especially since none of the pundits expected an early lead by Hillary. The Romney v. McClain battle is shaping up to be far closer than the MSM would like us to believe.

A Chinese woman, Jin Yani, who was forced to have an abortion despite being nine months pregnant is suing the authorities, specifically the Family Planning Bureau, for their actions. Jin and her husband Yang Zhongchen are suing the Family Planning Bureau in their county of Changli for $38,000 in medical expenses and $130,000 for psychological distress.

One night while her husband was away on business, a couple of weeks before her date for giving birth, Jin was dragged from her bed in the northern Chinese town of Anshan and taken to a nearby clinic, where, she says, her baby was killed by injection while still inside her.

“Several people held me down, they ripped my clothes aside and the doctor pushed a large syringe into my stomach. It was very painful. … It was all very rough.”

— Jin Yani

It’s been seven years since the Peoples’ Baby Killers pulled the murdered baby was pulled from her body with forceps, Jin remains traumatized and, the couple and a doctor say, unable to bear children. Yang and Jin have made the rounds of government offices pleading for restitution — to no avail of course. A family planning official in Changli county justified Jin’s abortion on the grounds she lacked a birth permit.

Don’t worry though, China is much more enlightened now. Zhai Zhenwu, a sociology professor at the People’s University Institute of Demographic Studies in Beijing, said that while forced, late-term abortions do still occur sporadically, they have fallen sharply. Things have improved since a propaganda campaign in 1993 to make enforcement of this law more humane. Perhaps they anesthetize the women now before ripping their murdered babies out of their wombs.

Read the Associated Press (AP) Source Article.

Do the Gods meet and discuss us amongst themselves? If so, what does each have to of His or Her chosen people?

Do the gods of different nations
talk to each other?
Do the gods of Chinese cities
speak to the ancestors of the Japanese?
To the lords of Xibalba?
To Allah? Yahweh? Vishnu?
Is there some annual get-together
where they compare each other’s worshipers?
Mine will bow their faces to the floor
and trace woodgrain lines for me, says one.
Mine will sacrifice animals, says another.
Mine will kill anyone who insults me, says a third.
Here is the question I think of most often:
Are there any who can honestly boast,
My worshipers obey my good laws,
and treat each other kindly,
and live simple generous lives?

— Orson Scott Card
Children of the Mind (Tor 1997)

Not my words, but at times my question. Could any of the Gods stand before His or Her fellows and state truly the his worshipers obey His or Her laws, treat each other kindly, and live simple generous lives? Do we – their purported worshipers – not prefer to aggrandize ourselves by reason of our faiths? Do we not prefer to use our Gods as reason for pride or spite, instead of serving them?

What would the Gods say of us if they met?

The votes or endorsements of 2,025 out of a total of 4,049 primary delegates are required to secure the Democratic party nomination, as of January 4th, 2008, these delegates are currently allocated:

• Clinton 169
• Obama 66
• Edwards 47

The numbers above, counterintuitive as they are, are not in error. Due to something called superdelegates, who are not bound to vote based on the popular vote in each state, third place Clinton now has more than twice the number of delegates of the first place candidate Obama.

In point of fact, as of January 2, 2008 – even before the the Iowa Caucus – the delegate totals were:

• Clinton 77
• Obama 31
• Edwards 16

Enacted in the 1970s, after control of the nomination process in the Democratic Party effectively moved out of the hands of party officials into the primary and caucus process, 852 superdelegates were created to offer some measure of overriding control to the leaders and key players in the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and to standing Democratic politicians and their supporters. This means that 21% of the total 4,049 delegates are not elected into their position nor are bound to vote in accordance with the will of the American people!

Currently these 852 power brokers are:

• 482 DNC members
• 235 Democratic House members
• 49 Senators
• 2 District of Columbia’s shadow congresspeople
• 28 Governors
• 56 Other Democratic power brokers

As if having 21% of the delegates outside the purview of the voters wasn’t bad enough in and of itself, the very rules that govern the Democratic primaries and caucuses lend extra weight and power to the 852 unpledged delegates. Under the Democratic Party’s Delegate Selection Rules, delegates are awarded by proportional representation, with a minimum 15% threshold required in order to receive delegates.

This means that in a close or sharply contested popular race – as 2008 looks like it’s going to be – there is a greatly increased chance that these 852 superdelegates will be the ones actually mandating who will be the Democratic Nominee for President.

I’ve updated Reflections From A Murky Pond to WordPress 2.3.2.

Version 2.3.2 is a bug-fix and security release. I highly recommend it to any and all WordPress users.

Thanks,

Jonolan