THE KILLING FIELDS. U.S. District Judge Richard C. Casey has declared the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional. He is the second district judge to do so. Louise Melling, director of the ACLU Reporductive Freedom Project said they were thrilled. Judge Casey said the procedure is gruesome, brutal, barbaric, and uncivilized. Attorney General Ashcroft said he will appeal.

It is interesting to see the word play here. The Washington Post put the words "partial birth abortion" in quotation marks and said it was the term used by opponents. The medical term is intact dilation.

The other fun phrase is the ACLU's "reproductive freedom". That would imply freedom to reproduce, wouldn't it. Instead, it is freedom from reproduction for the mother. And that sounds better still than free to die on the first day outside the womb, for the baby.

In addition to killing for sexual convenience, we have killing for political gain. Augusto Pinochet lost his immunity from prosecution today as the Supreme Court of Chile ruled against him. Pinochet ruled from 1973 to 1990, and was known to "disappear" his enemies. There was also some miscellaneous torture and kidnapping of dissedents.

More current, in the killing, is the Islambouli Brigade, which claims credit for downing two Russian airliners full of civilians. They used Hexogen evidently. Hexogen is one of the most powerful military explosives. It looks like flour or sugar.

In 2003, Nikita Sergeevich Chekulin, the former acting director of the Scientific Research Institute of Russia alleged systematic theft and resale of 5 tons of Hexogen from the military.

Two young Russians have been detained in Gorny for trying to sell 8 kilograms of Hexogen for $50.00. That is enough to blow up a multi-story building or a city block.

So, when folks say it is important to take custody of weapons and chemicals when governments fall, we know it is true.

Edmund Burke said "There is no safety for honest men but by believing all possible evil of evil men."

I believe.