Afraid Of Being Shot On Your Way To An Illegal Abortion? Blame Ralph Nader!

I should start a regular feature called Mind Bloggling.

With the usual hat tip to memeorandum, we now find Martin Lewis easily outdistancing Barack Obama and Dr. Phil in the Warped Logic contest that is now sweeping the nation. Mr. Lewis asserts -- as Jack Paar used to say, I kid you not -- the following:

Thanks to Ralph Nader and those "holier-liberaller- progressiver-purer-than-thou" folks who voted for him, Al Gore and John Kerry lost their presidential bids and that led to weaker gun control laws and a more conservative Supreme Court and that, that, THAT, Ladies and Gentlemen, has resulted in "tens of thousands of women who will be denied an abortion as a result of the new Supreme Court decision" and "the slaughter in Virginia."

Truly, the mind boggles.

Mr. Lewis is not, as I first thought (having never heard of him before -- have you?), the love child of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, but:

[started] his career as a protégé of fabled Beatles publicist Derek Taylor – he has had a storied 36-year history as a journalist, columnist, writer, humorist, monologist, comedic performer, radio host, TV host, TV correspondent, Master of Ceremonies, producer (of movies, TV, radio, DVDs, stage shows and record albums), talent manager, record company owner, independent film distributor, film-festival curator, political commentator, pioneering organizer of benefit events, human rights activist - and as an award-winning publicity & marketing strategist.

And now we know why he can't hold a steady job. [bada-bing!]

Take a deep, cleansing breath, Mr. Lewis. The lapsed, so-called assault weapons ban never prohibited the 9mm or .22 caliber handguns used in the Virginia Tech massacre, and no president or would-be president could have possibly pushed through legislation banning or even imposing serious restrictions on such weapons in the last decade, nor is it at all clear that such legislation would, itself, pass Constitutional muster.

No responsible abortion rights advocate has ever claimed that there are or have been or are ever likely to be anywhere near tens of thousands of cases of the particular abortion procedure, the prohibition against which the Supreme Court did not overrule as being unconstitutional. Moreover, although the matter is disputed, there is evidence that, for the majority if not the overwhelming majority of women seeking an abortion whose physician might otherwise have considered that procedure, alternative procedures exist and remain legal.

Reasonable people can reasonably disagree about the likely alternative history of the U.S. since 2000 had Ralph Nader chosen not to run for president. But Mr. Lewis cannot be counted among such people. Opinions such as his should not be dismissed lightly; they should be dismissed with howls of derisive laughter.