Our Own OC Held Without Bail

Pro-Choice Extremist Reportedly Arrested by FBI for Threats to Pro-Life Activists

Yup. forty-nine-year-old Theodore "Ted" Shulman, our own Operation Counterstrike, is in the slammer, arrested this past Thursday. I'm wondering what he did to be held without bail for making interstate terroristic threats against two unidentified prolife activists. And clearly the occasional death threats he posted here were just faint echoes of what he was doing elsewhere -- including, evidently, making threatening phone calls and being dumb enough to leave threatening voice mails without even disguising his phone number.

[S]cientist and pro-life activist Gerard Nadal ... wrote of his relief over the "reprieve from death threats" to himself and his family in the wake of Shulman's arrest, and Sullenger and others were equally grateful.

"He was always brazen in his threats and openly identified himself, telling us not to bother calling the FBI because they would never do anything for us," Sullenger said. "Thankfully, he was wrong about that."

OC's mom is Alix Kates Shulman, author of the (I'm told) sexually graphic novel Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, published in 1972. His mom aborted four of his five siblings -- two before his birth and two after -- leaving him with just one living sister.

Evidently Mama Shulman gifted her living children with her absence quite a bit when they were growing up, and expressed bewilderment that they were not grateful as adults. I'm not going to psychoanalyze him, but will say that having Alix Shulman for a mother certainly explains a lot about how Ted turned out.

For whatever reasons, Theodore Shulman -- who goes by Ted -- seemed to fixate on the issue of abortion rights and defined his activism by fierce and often extreme verbal attacks on pro-lifers that often threatened them with a violent end. He liked to allude to himself as the "first pro-choice terrorist" and started a blog called "Operation Counterstrike."

His mission statement says: "Right-to-lifism is murder, and ALL right-to-lifers are bloody-handed accessories. Swear it, believe it, proclaim it, and act on it."

It's not clear what Shulman may have done to push his actions and rhetoric across the line to alleged criminality. In its website report about Shulman's arrest Operation Rescue includes an audio recording of a threat to Cheryl Sullenger that the group says Shulman left on the group's voicemail:

"Hi Cheryl, I'm calling you to say you need to convert to pro-choice because your Maker is going to send an angel to gather you in very soon, and if you haven't converted to pro-choice by the time you get OFFED you will go to hell and burn!" the message says. "So quick, quick, quick -- convert to pro-choice during the few months you have left on this earth. Do it now!"

....

According to pro-life activists, Shulman is also the subject of a federal investigation in Wichita, which could result in additional charges against him.

For the curious -- whether to hear the threats or to hear OC's voice, here's one of the threatening voice mails he left.

His blog is here. Allow me to share a few, ahem, choice snippets:

Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who produced the right-to-lifist propaganda flick SILENT SCREAM, is dead.

Unfortunately, he died in his bed. He was not killed by a pro-choice counterterrorist. Too bad, he would have been a most effective target.

and

Good for Dr. Ginde, who used her car to get right-to-life terrorist Ken Scott out of her driveway.

Run him over next time, doc!

and

Last night, someone threw chunks of asphalt into the home of long-time pro-terrorist Joseph Scheidler. One of the bricks contained an anti-right-to-lifist note.

The thought is nice, but why such a trivial attack? Why asphalt and not bullets?

and

A man was arrested in Albuquerque for threatening to shoot two right-to-lifist protesters at an abortion clinic.

Remember, don't threaten right-to-lifers at abortion clinics. Any drama at the clinic is bad for the clinic. In this case, the clinic was shut down for two hours while the police investigated the incident.

Wait until the protest ends, follow a protester home, and THEN do your thing. That way, you can involve the right-to-lifer's family in your action.

But on the other hand, he'd post tidbits like this:

One of my childhood heros, Martin Gardner, has died. He was 95.

Among his many accomplishments, he wrote the scholarly annotations for THE ANNOTATED ALICE. In which he explains all the jokes and gives the original nursery rhymes which Lewis Carroll was spoofing with his nonsense poetry. Highly recommended for anyone who likes to read.

The Annotated Alice was one of my childhood favorites as well, a Christmas gift from my dad.

Well, here's hoping that Ted gets a decent phych eval in the lock-up and his intellect gets steered toward the constructive pursuits he's quite good at, when he's not lashing out at the people who didn't want his siblings to die violently.