Here's what she actually said:

"We know that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."

It should be clear to anyone remotely familiar with the Shepard murder or the hate crimes issue that she was not claiming that Shepard never existed or that his murder was a "hoax," but only that it's classification as an anti-gay "hate crime" was a "hoax." Nevertheless, she was mocked as roughly the equivalent of a Holocaust denier.

Some people, however, may still not be aware of the basis for Rep. Foxx's claim that classifying this brutal attack as a "hate crime" is inaccurate. I explained it in a 2007 op-ed in the Washington Times.

Below is an excerpt:

QUOTE

The ultimate irony in all this is that Matthew Shepard's death was probably not a "hate crime" at all. A courageous investigative report by ABC's 20/20, which they unfortunately buried on the day after Thanksgiving [November 26] in 2004, revealed that most of the people most closely involved in the case say that the attack on Matthew Shepard was motivated by robbery and driven by drugs - not by hostility toward Matthew Shepard's homosexuality. If he was specifically targeted, it may have been because he was small (only 105 pounds) and well-dressed - not because he was a homosexual.

When asked about the proof that it was a "hate crime," Cal Rerucha, who prosecuted the case, declared, "Well, I don't think the proof was there... That was something that they [friends of Shepard] had decided." Ben Fritzen, a former police detective, said, "Matthew Shepard's sexual preference or sexual orientation certainly wasn't the motive in the homicide... What it came down to, really, is drugs and money."

McKinney's girlfriend, Kristen Price, said, "I knew that night it was all about getting money... Money to get drugs." McKinney himself, talking for the first time (he did not testify at his trial), told ABC's Elizabeth Vargas that "it wasn't a hate crime... [A]ll I wanted to do was beat him up and rob him." In fact, McKinney said, "I have gay friends. ... You know, that kind of thing don't bother me so much."

END QUOTE

Wyoming had no "hate crimes" law. But that didn't stop Shepard's killers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, from being sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, after being spared the death penalty only because Shepard's parents interceded against it.

So it's hard to argue that a "hate crimes" law would have made much difference-even if it had been a "hate crime."

My boyfriend said he could pay for everything--But he shouldn't come here to pay 'cause you'll see him, right?" the counselor replies, "It doesn't matter. As long as your parents are not here and can't identify him, he can just pay and that's it. He could be like your older brother or whatever."

Tennessee law mandates that a minor must have parental consent before undergoing an abortion. Since the video has been released, two Tennessee state legislators, Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and Sen. Jack Johnson, have introduced legislation that would defund Planned Parenthood.

"Why would citizens tolerate paying the bills of an organization that protects statutory rapists and victimizes young girls? This is the sad result of the careless abortion-first mentality that has persisted at Planned Parenthood for decades."

[T]his is an issue that... individual women have to wrestle with... And I think they are in a better position to make these decisions ultimately than members of Congress or a president of the United States... So that has been my consistent position. The other thing that I said consistently during the campaign is I would like to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies that result in women feeling compelled to get an abortion, or at least considering getting an abortion...

These were careful words. Notice that Obama avoided any phrasing that would suggest that he believes abortions per se ought to be reduced. He doesn't ever assert that we ought to reduce the number of abortions because that would cast abortion in a negative light; wanting fewer abortions suggests abortion is a negative thing that ought to be reduced. Rather he is always careful to say that he wants to reduce the need for abortion, which leaves abortion as a "good" and casts the pregnancy (or rather the child) as the bad that should be reduced.

The Democrat platform under Obama was changed from making abortion "rare" to reducing the need for abortion -- a move deeper into pro-abortion orthodoxy. It's like the child is the dreaded disease and abortion is the wonderful vaccine -- why would we want fewer of those wonderful vaccines? It's the dreaded disease we want to reduce!

Obama is careful in his choice of words and so should pro-lifers be: do not ever give Obama credit for wanting to reduce abortions.

• "Mike Farris HSLDA, Parental Rights Amendment," Barbara Curtis, Mommy Life

The 100 Days Blog Posts.

• "100 Days of Change I DON'T WANT!!!," lambofHisflock
• "100 Days of Change Video," Larry Nixon, American Patriotism Online
• "100 Days of Change for the Family," Apologetic Junkie
• "100 Days Madness is Upon Us," Tom McClusky, The Cloakroom
• "Obama's First 100 Days," Crystal Clear Conservative

• "Miss California to campaign against gay marriage," Associated Press (April 30, 2009)
• "Gay marriage bill passes in N.H. Senate," Eric Moskowitz, The Boston Globe (April 30, 2009)
• "Obama says abortion rights law not a top priority," David Alexander, Reuters (April 30, 2009)
• "NARAL President Celebrates Barack Obama's 100 First Days of Promoting Abortion," Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com (April 29, 2009)
• "Forced abortions shake up China wombs-for-rent industry," James Pomfret, Reuters (April 30, 2009)
• "Survey: 44 percent switch religions," Betsy Hart, Chicago Sun-Times (April 30, 2009)
• "Chamber instructs Henry to veto yet another pro-life bill," Tulsa Beacon (April 30, 2009)
• "Culture unraveling," Ken Blackwell, WORLD Magazine (April 29, 2009)

"Evidence that influenza can be more severe in pregnant women comes from observations during previous pandemics and from studies among pregnant women who had seasonal influenza. An excess of influenza-associated deaths among pregnant women were reported during the pandemics of 1918-1919 and 1957-1958. Adverse pregnancy outcomes have been reported following previous influenza pandemics, with increased rates of spontaneous abortion and preterm birth reported, especially among women with pneumonia. Case reports and several epidemiologic studies conducted during interpandemic periods also indicate that pregnancy increases the risk for influenza complications for the mother and might increase the risk for adverse perinatal outcomes or delivery complications.

 

"Many pregnant women will go on to have a typical course of uncomplicated influenza. However, for some pregnant women, illness might progress rapidly, and might be complicated by secondary bacterial infections including pneumonia. Fetal distress associated with severe maternal illness can occur. Pregnant women who have suspected swine influenza A (H1N1) virus infection should be tested (http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/specimencollection.htm), ....  "....."...fever in pregnant women should be treated."

The CDC information goes on to include breastfeeding considerations and other ways to reduce the risk of infection of pregnant women..

There's a lot of media buzz about President Obama's first "hundred days." What's so special about one hundred days? After all, he was elected to a term of four years. One hundred days surely is not very long in comparison to the more than 1,460 days of a Presidential normal term. (Those hardy souls who are already sporting 1.20.13 bumper stickers seem to all their fellow commuters to have jumped the gun.)

The media is also full of stories of how Americans are in love with our "hip" First Family. If Americans are in love with a father-headed, married-with-children model family, that is certainly a very good thing. If the Obamas can make marriage hip, then I'd say hip, hip, hooray.

But that hundred day thing has an odd origin for a free people to celebrate. It comes from the Emperor Napoleon. Talk about hip. Napoleon was the trend-setter and fashion-maker of Europe for fifteen years. The "Empire" style in women's fine clothing, art, architecture, and home décor was all the rage. Napoleon's massive Arc de Triomphe in the heart of Paris commemorated all his spectacular military successes-and France did have spectacular military successes guided by the strategic and tactical genius of the young conqueror.

Then, in 1812, he invaded Russia. He wanted to force the Russians to abide by his trade boycott against England. He entered the vast, forbidding steppes in June, 1812, with more than 600,000 men. By the time he retreated from Moscow, in December, he had only 10,000 men left, suffering some 97% in casualties. The temperatures-sometimes as cold as 60 below-were so severe that the antimony alloy of the soldiers' greatcoat buttons cracked and crumbled. Their coats flapped open. Thousands succumbed to cold, starvation, and disease.

You would think the French would hate such a bloody ruler. You would think he would be run out of France when he returned from Moscow. Think again. He was defeated in 1814 by the allies, captured and exiled to the little Mediterranean island of Elba. There he plotted his return.

He landed on the shores of Southern France on March 20, 1815. Would the French troops of the unsteady French King Louis XVIII shoot the returning despot down? Napoleon bared his breast to the soldiers and invited them to kill him. They wept (they were French, after all) and went over to Napoleon en masse.

Napoleon swept on toward Paris to reclaim the imperial throne he had invented for himself. He gathered more than 100,000 troops. In June, he met a hastily-reorganized allied army of British and Prussians under the Duke of Wellington at a little Belgian town called Waterloo. There, on June 18, 1815, the Iron Duke crushed Napoleon utterly. Tens of thousands more of his brave young French troops died crying out Vive L'empereur! (Long Live the Emperor!) They truly were brave.

Napoleon's second and last period in power was just one hundred days. That's where the journalists got the term that they quickly applied to Franklin D. Roosevelt's first three months of furious legislative activity during the Great Depression. It was then that a rubber-stamp liberal Congress rammed through dozens of bills-many of which set up agencies and programs we still live with. Some were pretty good. But many were ill-considered (if they were considered at all). That was 1933. And, hold onto your seats, friends, there was the second Hundred Days in 1937. That's when FDR tried to pack the Supreme Court. He overreached then and even his go-along gang in Congress choked. On that one, they handed him a stinging defeat.

The Napoleon thing is fascinating. Yes, he did have some solid achievements for France. But he was a tyrant. He ruled with the aid of an efficient and ruthless secret police. He rigged all the elections and controlled the press. He led millions of young men of Europe to their deaths.

The people of France, however, seemed not to mind. When his body was returned to France from St. Helena long after he died in exile, all of Paris turned out for his re-interment in a huge and impressive tomb in the historic Hotel des Invalides. It was to this incredible monument that the conquering Adolf Hitler was drawn during his five-hour whirlwind tour of Paris after his stunning victory over France in 1940.

A hundred days? Are we seeing a return of that kind of hero worship in our time? Despite all that we know about Napoleon, tens of thousands of selfless young people were quite willing to lay down their lives for him. It's a sobering thought.

"Men of intemperate minds cannot be free," wrote the great Irish Member of Parliament, Edmund Burke, "their passions forge their fetters." Burke was the great friend of liberty-and the implacable enemy of the French revolutionary disease.

Have we been stoking passions in this country-ever since the 1960s-that will forge our own chains of despotism? I pray it is not so. But even as we assess our own First Hundred Days, it is important not to give in to passion. We must remain cool and objective-if we would remain free.

• "Maine: Vote on Gay Marriage Expected," Abby Goodnough, The New York Times (April 29, 2009)
• "NH state Senate voting Wednesday on gay marriage," Associated Press (April 28, 2009)
• "Paterson: Gay Marriage Opponents Suffer From 'Guilt'," Elizabeth Benjamin, New York Daily News (April 28, 2009)
• "Face harsh reality of pornography," Jerry Johnston, Mormon Times (April 29, 2009)
• "President Obama's First 100 Days: Major Abortion Promotion, Attacking Pro-Lifers," Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com (April 29, 2009)
• "Euthanasia will be debated in the Scottish Parliament," The Christian Institute (April 29, 2009)
• "Study delves into why Americans change religions," Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times (April 27, 2009)
• "ENCORE: Targeting Religious Broadcasters," Rowan Scarborough, Human Events (April 28, 2009)
• "S.Korea lifts ban on stem cell research," AFP (April 29, 2009)

     As we noted last week, the Family Research Council has been concerned that women might use Plan B frequently, repeatedly in the place of standard contraceptives.  The labeling contains no clear warning about such use.  FDA officials have pooh-poohed this argument, but one interesting anecdotal piece of evidence has come in on this topic.

     The changes to Plan B marketing were discussed on "AirTalk," a public radio program broadcast by KPCC-FM, a station owned by Pasadena City College on April 23^rd.  The guest-host was David Lazarus of the Los Angeles Times, and he interviewed Dr. Susan Woods, former FDA official and Plan B supporter, and Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.  The show can be heard via this weblink.

     There was one extremely interesting caller who was referred to as "Steve from Diamond Bar." (Steve start: 22min 05sec; Steve end: 23min 05sec.)  Steve is a co-owner of a pharmacy, and he explained that a few years ago 30-minute consultations were needed before the pharmacists could dispense Plan B over-the-counter in California. 

     Steve had occasion to notice the buying patterns of his customers.  He noted that many purchasers were responsible about using Plan B, but he also described a class of customer who came to the store "on a regular basis" and purchased Plan B "week after week."  When David Lazarus asked him whether the repeat users "were a majority or minority of users," Steve responded that they were probably half of the Plan B purchasers.
 
     Even if Steve from Diamond Bar did not remember correctly and inflated his estimate, it is clear that a substantial population of Plan B users were using this drug very frequently - as many have feared.

• "Declining Notre Dame: A Letter from Mary Ann Glennon," Joseph Bottum, First Things (April 27, 2009)
• "College student leads undercover campaign against abortion," Robin Abcarian, The Los Angeles Times (April 27, 2009)
• "Statehouse deadlocked on abortion bill," Associated Press (April 27, 2009)
• "Penn State's Anti-Veteran Bias," Mark Hyman, The American Spectator (April 27, 2009)
• "Shurtleff: Gay marriage ban prohibits civil unions," Associated Press (April 27, 2009)
• "Gay Couples Line Up to Marry in Iowa," Monica Davey, The New York Times (April 27, 2009)
• "Marriage Bill Poses a Test of Loyalties: Church vs. State," Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times (April 26, 2009)

Preliminary results on four patients were reported in 2007 in the New England Journal of Medicine. This current study following the original patients and other patients is published in The Lancet