On the Square Today

George Weigel on the Church and the end of the welfare state :

Throughout the post-Vatican II years, the U.S. bishops’ conference has typically defended the welfare state and not infrequently urged its expansion. Everyone familiar with the situation knows that this has had far more to do with the political predilections of certain conference staff members than with the settled judgment of the American episcopate—or with a careful application of the principles of Catholic social doctrine. But things are changing.

Also today, Joseph A. Kohm, Jr. reviews Mara Hvistendahl’s Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men :

This unsustainable gender imbalance which results from prenatal female gendercide is an excrescence of abortion. A catalyst for this condition has been the proliferation and affordability of the ultrasound machine, making it simple for pregnant women to find out the sex of their unborn child. Cheap ultrasound machines can be hooked up to personal computers, making them easy to use even in rural areas.