I’m at Blogwatch now you know, e-i-e-i-e-o…

If you haven’t checked out After Abortion yet, now might be a good time. Personal stories, recent studies, compassion and hope.

Camassia: Why heaven?–resurrection, social justice, failure, and “pie in the sky when you die.” A fierce and fantastic post.

“Crunchy Con” blog: I’m instinctively unenthusiastic about this book, which might be surprising given my deep dissatisfaction with contemporary categories of left and right. Nonetheless, several people discussing the book here are really awesome, e.g. Frederica Mathewes-Green and Amy Welborn, so I expect I’ll end up reading it (the blog, if maybe not the book) anyway. So… yeah, if you’re into talk about virtue, and beauty, but also for some reason organic foods, click and enjoy. On your computer, which is presumably neither organic nor purchased at a mom-and-pop.

Family Scholars: We don’t love people “because.” Or, the limits of social science.

GetReligion: Russian newspaper closed over (a different, but related) cartoon.

Hit & Run: Cute map comparison of words used in Reason magazine vs. blog. Check out the relative prominence of e.g. “abortion,” “terrorism,” and “school.” Makes me think maybe I should check out the mag again, since H&R; comes across, in this graphic, as the kiddie-pool, dowhutchalike, “I’m a libertarian because I’m twentysomething and I have too much money” version. …She said cattily. To point out the limits of my cattiness, I should also point you to this post on the death penalty and the logic of revenge. (You could say “the logic of justice,” IMO, and the post’s point would hold. I think we tend to underestimate how painful justice is, without mercy.) …I should also note, in retracting-claws mode, that I initially pegged the prominence of “drug” and “drugs” as yet another sign of the blog’s overprivileged-Washingtonian-ness, before remembering that while overprivileged Washingtonians do like to drink our gin-and-tonica and smoke our marijuanica, ending the drug war is also and primarily a social-justice issue. (And I’d bet a lot of those “drug” posts are about the FDA, inc. painkilling drugs, an issue where pro-lifers and libertarians ought to be able to work together–underprescription of painkillers may well be driving the demand for euthanasia.)

Relapsed Catholic: “Now, as the title itself makes clear, Life of Brian is about a guy named Brian, who is mistaken for the Messiah. When the Pythons gathered to write the script for what was then being called Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory, they prepared by reading the Gospels, and quickly concluded that Jesus didn’t deserve to be spoofed.”

The Corner: Ramesh Ponnuru makes an excellent, limited point about Constitutional interpretation. The starting point for a discussion, but a much more insightful starting point than most.

The Rat: Ovation sluts. “So anyway, if you’re an ovation slut, stop it, because one of these days I MAY HIT YOU.”

Soviet jokes. Via the Club for Growth.

From the Independent Institute:

Parade magazine recently ranked the twenty worst dictators currently in power. Many names are familiar–Fidel Castro, Muammar Qaddafi, Kim Jong-Il, Robert Mugabe and others. They are all guilty of human rights violations and in some cases have committed outright genocide. But there’s another trait common to all twenty leaders–every single one has received foreign aid from wealthy Western countries. …

…The U.S. contributed to 19 of the 20 worst dictators; King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia was somehow left off of the U.S. gravy train.

(more) –via the Club for Growth

Ask a Mexican. (It is real, not a spoof. And seriously awesome.) Via Ratty.

And here’s a new-to-me blog: Mumpsimus. Lit-crit with a strong science-fiction slant and lots of interesting posts.