Monday's links and comments

Fred Thompson Picking Up Support in Ohio. He hasn't announced he is running yet, but support is building. Viking Spirit blog has a post titled: "Switching horses: I'm supporting Fred Dalton Thompson." More interesting than the fact that he is supporting Thompson is that he is switching from being a Giuliani backer. Support in a political race is a zero sum game. If each declared candidate has a percentage of support from likely primary voters and a new candidate enters the field and garners 20% support then that has to come from the other candidates. I've assumed that Thompson would appeal to the uneasy McCain backers, so seeing a Giuliani backer switch is interesting. As far as actually announcing goes, I'm hearing Thompson will likely jump in the fray on the 4th of July.

People fooled into thinking a national health care plan is a good idea need to read this article from a country with "free" health care: Woman faces 3-year surgery wait.

Out of desperation, she went to an orthopaedic specialist as a private patient a few months ago.

The specialist told her she could operate within two weeks. But with the bill expected to hit $4000, Mrs Haffenden was forced to go on the 14-month waiting list to see the same specialist as a public patient.

Speaking of medical issues, you have to be happy for LeCharles Bentley:

Center LeCharles Bentley, whose first season with Cleveland ended with a freakish knee injury last summer that became infected and threatened his life and NFL career, plans to play for the Browns this season.

Six months ago I was hearing he may need to have his leg amputated and now he is talking about being ready for the season opener. Amazing. Whether or not he ever plays football again I'm just glad he seems to be returning to good health. We often take note of the millions made by the top athletes, but we forget that too many of these players sacrifice their future health for some temporary gridiron glory.

After the failures of my generation, apparently there is some hope for the next one. (H/T BizzyBlog)

A new poll conducted by a three media outlets finds that teenagers and young adults are more likely than older adults to say that they don't think abortion should be legal or that it should be subject to stricter limits than it is now. The poll confirms the findings of other surveys showing the next generation of Americans are more pro-life.

This shouldn't be too surprising. James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal has previously noted something he calls the "Roe Effect." Since 1973, a sizable percentage of potential pro-abortion voters were aborted long before they could vote. Children of people likely to raise them to be pro-life are much more likely to survive the dangerous unprotected first nine months of their lives.

My congressman, John Boehner (R-OH), has an op-ed piece at Townhall.com titled Broken Promises which looks at how the Democrat majority has failed to deliver since taking over. This just might knock him off of Nancy Pelosi's Christmas card list.

In baseball, Reds manager Jerry Narron was fired for failing to figure out how to win without much of a pitching staff. Stranger than that is Mariners manager Mike Hargrove firing himself while his team is riding a nine game winning streak. Usually, managers suffer burn out when failing to meet expectations not when exceeding all reasonable expectations. Neither move will make much difference. The Reds will lose between 95 and 105 games while the Mariners will miss the playoffs by around 5 games.