In a 2012 letter to the editors of the Missoulian, Vicky Gordon observed that “yes, each of the 56 million aborted children has a soul; each is a person with a job to do, a life to live, and an innate dignity…The unborn are the same as we are. If someone kills us, that doesn’t mean that we never existed.” It was a strong cup of coffee, and not just because it appeared to count pregnancies prevented by IUDs among the number of “aborted children.” I have not been able to confirm the allegation that Gordon is a regular protestor outside of Blue Mountain Clinic. But we all know what she did when the Missoulian asked her whether she might reject Title X funding for Missoula County, as commissioners in Ravalli did last year. She found refuge in the passive voice:

Title X is federally funded and has been administered in Missoula without incident. I do not foresee that this would change.

So close to a definitive answer and yet so far. The vaguely alarming mystery of what Gordon might do if elected to a six-year term as commissioner is the subject of my column in the Missoula Independent this week. You should read it even if you don’t live here, because Montana politics are fascinating. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links, including an amazingly disingenuous mailer in support of Lawrence VanDyke. That’s your tease.

 

Like many state GOP organizations since 2008, Republicans in Helena have a plan to fight voter fraud. The plan is to end voter registration before Election Day, so that people who go to the polls and find themselves ineligible to vote can’t just register on the spot. Since Montana implemented Election-Day registration in 2006, the secretary of state has documented two—count ’em: two—instances of unqualified voters knowingly casting fraudulent votes. Perhaps more relevantly, 29,000 Montanans have registered and voted on the same day—many of them students, senior citizens, returned members of the military, and other constituencies that traditionally vote Democrat. We must prevent these people from ruining our elections with their .0006% rate of fraud. If that means disenfranchising 2% of the electorate, so be it; I’m sure the Founding Fathers wouldn’t want those people to vote anyway. That’s the argument I make, tongue drifting into my cheek, in my latest column for the Missoula Independent. You should read it. We’ll be back tomorrow with Friday links.

 

 

Props to Sid for inspiring today’s fun experiment by surprising me with work this morning. Kombat! Klients: please call and ask for quick turnarounds on short notice, as I will do that shit and bill you richly. There is no Combat! blog today, because I am a professional writer who solves problems in exchange for money. Hire me, and I will meet your deadline even at the expense of my own projects. Anywhom, more than one of you sent me this article about what’s wrong with academic writing. I have a lot to say about it, but lately I’ve been trying to stay away from pieces that can be described as “here’s what I think about this article.” I’m already presumptuous to think people want my opinions on arbitrarily selected topics; to ask them to read primary-source documents seems narcissistic. But this once, we could all read the linked article today and talk about it tomorrow, and see how we like that. Maybe there could be a Combat! reading club, like a book club but where we all read. Until that day. Which is tomorrow—until tomorrow.

Remember all the top-flight commentary I churned out over the last few days? Me neither, but I have an excuse: I’ve been sick with Middle-East respiratory syndrome (self-diagnosed.) Aside from entertaining my mother, it’s been bed rest for me since Monday. My hard work has paid off, though, and now I’m starting to feel better. For example, I am finally coherent enough to peer at Excel spreadsheets and generate invoices, which is what I need to do today instead of writing a blog. Sorry, you guys: this Arab flu has my whole schedule bolloxed up. While I expectorate tan foam that adheres to the sink, how about you read this excellent examination of Liberalism and Gentrification from Jacobin Magazine? Sure it’s about real estate and urban living, but it’s also about the tectonic-force division of America into two classes. We’ll be back tomorrow with right accounts receivable and Friday links.