Second Links — 8.18.10

A pro-choice group runs ads with women dressed as bears , in a reference to Sarah Palin’s “momma grizzlies.” One woman says “Want to know what threatens me? My daughter not having the right to choose” and another that they want to “protect our right to hibernate with whoever we choose.”

A Hindu group criticizes as anti-Hindu a review by the Catholic News Service of the new movie Eat Pray Love . Here is the review .

The Japanese ambassador to the Holy See argues that Christianity is foreign to Japan . There are, he writes, “at least, three elements which characterize Japanese religiosity philosophically distinct from Christianity. The three key words are ‘self,’ ‘Nature’ and ‘absolutization’.”

A German court supports equality in inheritance for homosexual couples . It said that “the fact that heterosexual marriage could produce children did not justify higher taxation for homosexuals over inheritance,” according to Reuters.

College is a five (!) year party , according to a new book, reviewed in the Wall Street Journal . “In an effort to win applicants, Mr. Brandon says, colleges dumb down the curriculum and inflate grades, prod students to take out loans they cannot afford, and cover up date rape and other undergraduate crime. The members of the faculty go along with the administration’s insistence on lowering standards out of fear of losing their jobs.”

And for those who like this kind of thing, three articles on fashion and clothing, The New Adventures of Old Elaine ,  Pawing Through Someone’s Memories at Scout Vintage T-Shirts , and A Return to Basics, One Stitch at a Time .

And finally, one in five American teenagers has some hearing loss . “Probably from those darn ear bugs,” wrote the young reader who sent in the link. “What’s that? Oh, you said ear buds.”

Thanks to the New Oxford Review for some of the links.