I REALLY HATE MAHABLOG. It's always so hard to pick out one post worthy of linking to. They're all important enough to link to! Okay, so after you read the piece on free markets, and the piece on the article in the May issue of Harper's on the Christian right's war on America, go to this one.

They agitate not, neither do they lobby; yet in America an infant "born alive" after an abortion or miscarriage has a right to health care.

So here's what I want to know: Assuming such infants exist, how many hours or days pass before they lose the right to health care and are thrown into the American health care system to sink or swim with the rest of us? At what point do the provisions of the Infant Protection Act [the Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2002] cease and, say, those of the Texas "futile care" act kick in? Has anybody figured this out?
[...]
The act itself came about because the Fetus People were spreading horror stories about babies who survived late-term abortions and even regular childbirth who were just put aside and allowed to die. Apparently the Fetus People are still spreading these stories, causing the Bush Administration to warn doctors they'd better clean up their act.
[...]
Speaking of futile health care,

Hundreds of thousands of poor people across the nation will lose their state-subsidized health insurance in the coming months as legislators scramble to hold down the enormous — and ever-escalating — cost of Medicaid.

Here in impoverished southeast Missouri, nurses at a family health clinic stash drug samples for patients they know won't be able to afford their prescriptions after their coverage is eliminated this summer. Doctors try to comfort waitresses, sales clerks and others who will soon lose coverage for medical, dental and mental healthcare.

I say those waitresses, sales clerks, etc. should march to the courthouse and demand to be given the legal status of "born-alive infants."

Has any reader of Liberty Street heard or read anything about the Born Alive Infant Protection Act of 2002? Because I hadn't. And this is why blogs in general and, in particular, blogs like Maha's are so important. As far as I'm concerned, Mahablog is one of a handful of "best blogs" on the web.