Joseph Bottum

A kind of exhaustion always settles in, murky and miasmatic, after battle. The nation’s conservatives foresaw the apocalypse if the Democrats’ plan for health-care reform passed, and on Sunday”yesterday, as I write”it did pass. The world didn’t end. The people didn’t rise up in rage. Furious lightning didn’t descend from the heavens to smash the apostate Capitol into rubble… . Continue Reading »

In the wake of the endorsement of the current health-reform bill by Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, Archbishop Chaput of Denver has issued this statement: In the past two days, congressional leaders and the White House have brought tremendous pressure on prolife . . . . Continue Reading »

Roll Call has just reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked all female Democratic members of Congress “to attend a hastily called meeting Wednesday morning.” She hasn’t said what the meeting is about, but presumably it concerns passage of the health-care bill. At a . . . . Continue Reading »

Newsweek’s new issue is out, featuring more in the magazine’s ongoing love affair with the Obamas—this time a cover about Michelle Obama’s campaign against obesity. But what’s that in the reflection in the apple? A reader suggests its either Karl Marx or one of the . . . . Continue Reading »

On Sunday, March 8, five hundred Christians were killed”slaughtered with machetes by Fulani Muslims in the Nigerian state of Plateau. The latest in religious clashes that the state has seen in recent months… . Continue Reading »

Bart Stupak tells Fox News that, as a “guesstimate,” he thinks the Democrats are at least 16 votes short of passing the health-care bill: “I’d be surprised if they have 200 votes.” One trouble for Pelosi seems to be that, this time around, she can’t accommodate . . . . Continue Reading »

With Louisiana’s Joseph Cao’s return to the fold, it now seems guaranteed that all the 178 Republicans in the House will vote against the Senate’s version of the health-care bill, even with some method (legal or not) invented to try to ensure reconciliation. Which means that the . . . . Continue Reading »

The American Catholic bishops sent a bulletin to parishes this weekend, urging Catholics to oppose the abortion funding provisions in the current version of the health-care. Unfortunately, Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, promptly endorsed the current bill: . . . . Continue Reading »

The very smart, very serious Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, has an op-ed in the Washington Post called “If Republicans Keep Ignoring Abortion, They’ll Lose in the Midterm Elections.” She writes: Republicans oppose President Obama’s health-care . . . . Continue Reading »

A friend—Nathaniel Peters, our former Junior Fellow, now at Notre Dame—sends a note pointing out this video of a liturgy at a Call to Action meeting a while back: The liturgical puppets seem to be about ten feet tall, four feet of which are their huge, dreadlocked liturgical heads, and . . . . Continue Reading »