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Abortion Under the New Health Care Plan?

I thought President Obama’s executive order was supposed to eliminate the promotion of abortion by the new health-care bill? Comes this line , in the Detroit News : An early sign of health care reform’s impact is Planned Parenthood’s decision to open a new Oakland County clinic . . . . Continue Reading »

Now Animals Have a Right to Privacy?

It all gets to be too much: Animals don’t have the same sense of privacy or modesty that we have.  But a university professor—of course!—claims that nature documentaries violate animals’ putative “right to privacy.”  From the story:Dr Brett Mills from . . . . Continue Reading »

A Golden Age of American Poetry?

America may be declining in every other way, but former poet laureate Charles Simic says poetry in this country is doing just fine : Over the years, I had read too many essays by literary critics and even poets, which proclaimed confidently that poetry is universally despised and read by . . . . Continue Reading »

Empire Beats Godfather

Empire Strikes Back named greatest movie sequel , reports the Daily Telegraph , in one of those stories that makes you question the insight, or at least the age, of the respondents. Better than The Godfather Part II , which ranked third, behind , get ready for this, Terminator 2 ? . . . . Continue Reading »

A Sign of the Times

In the latest issue of the Weekly Standard , I argued that, to account for the press frenzy of recent weeks, it isn’t necessary to seek anti-Catholic motives in the media: Several Catholic commentators have charged that the European and American press is out to destroy the Church. “The . . . . Continue Reading »

That Was Then

One tries—with the greatest of charity, of course, and good will—to remember where these people were when bills to extend the statute of limitations were naming only lawsuits against the Catholic Church. Some of the currently proposed bills allow time-extended lawsuits against any . . . . Continue Reading »

Of Noah and Culture

Do  anthropological differences between our individualistic/wealth driven culture and the honor/shame  culture of the Middle East (throughout the ages) matter when reading text? Take for example the story of Noah and the flood. This question was asked when last I discussed the flood in . . . . Continue Reading »

Cowards

A story about Amtrak’s new beef-powered train: Taking Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer train between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City sometime in the next year? You will be hitching a ride on the first beef byproducts-powered biodiesel train. The train, which runs on 80% regular diesel and 20% . . . . Continue Reading »

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