“In this purse, sweet soul!” said I

“Twenty pound lies fairly

Seek no further one to buy

For I’ll take all thy Barley

Twenty more shall purchase delight,

Thy person I love so dearly,

If thou wilt watch my blog all night

And gang home in the morning early…”

First, I’d like to thank everyone who’s responded to yesterday’s posts. The criticisms have been polite and thoughtful, and the personal notes have been moving and courageous. If I haven’t responded to you personally yet, it’s because I’m swamped in work, and have been trundling slowly through the inbox.

Now, the blogwatch.

Bruce Bawer has a blog; more exciting for me, he has an interesting review of the movie “The Apostle.”

HappyFunPundit: An R-rated discussion of the aphrodisiac effects of Afghan water; some hysterical meta-blogging; the exclusive HFP/Tom Ridge interview (must-read).

Diana Hsieh: Praise for an intellectual history of the Enlightenment.

Integrity is a nifty new blog dedicated to exploring the Pope’s encyclical on the role of the laity. Looks like common-sensical, astute fun.

Ken Layne: Long, good rant about… well, everything in the headlines.

Louder Fenn: More of the very cool What It’s Like To Write Christian Children’s Fantasy series. Keep it coming!

PhotoDude makes an excellent case for an unusual choice for the photography Pulitzer: the last picture by a photographer who lost his life taking pictures of the 9/11 attacks.

InstaPundit’s mention of the Possumblog reminded me again how much I enjoy reading this marsupial’s journey through Dixie. (Even if he does like a simplistic, unhelpful Lileks column on the Mideast.) The Possum is like a friend from high school–even if you haven’t checked in for a while, there’s always a homey, friendly vibe.

Dave Tepper is looking for charities that dig the free market. This site has some good information.

Eugene Volokh’s blog is everything you expected it to be. Great posts on whether immigration, under certain circumstances (not the ones the US faces today, in my opinion), can lead to a restriction of liberty; and a necessary reply to an InstaPundit cheap shot.

Amy Welborn: Once I fix the links list, I’m going to stop blogwatching Amy, because she’s an all-star and you should just go read the dratted site already. But today, I’ll just point you to her take on the much-blogged Cardinal Arinze “abortion and 9/11” speech. I have problems with the distinction Mark Byron makes between a communitarian/collectivist culture of death (teen girl suicide bombers) and an individualist culture of death (uh, that’d be us), though. Keep in mind that pretty much all of the COD trends in the US–abortion, euthanasia, embryo-destructive research and the like–are presented as expressions of compassion. I wouldn’t be a good mother right now–we should end his suffering–we can save so many lives. Maybe the better distinction is death-as-argument vs. death-as-compassion? I’m not sure. But there’s more going on in this country than simple individualism.

Speaking of, since cloning has been so much in the news lately, maybe I should point out my essays on therapeutic and reproductive cloning. They’re over there in the links list, to your left.

And in a Welbornish spirit, here’s another Good Thing Catholics Do: Concordia Children’s Town. A Jesuit-run ministry to Romanian street children. They’ve got 15 houses, two day centers, a winter soup kitchen, and five apartments. Kids live in small family-like groupings and learn to live with one another and with adults. One has graduated from a university. These are kids who are living in sewers, playing with dead rats, choosing between abusive homes and the street. Find out more by emailing [email protected] . (You’d know this already if you read the Register.)

“Oh, this would bring me to disgrace

And therefore I say you nay Sir

And if that you would watch my blog,

First marry and then you may Sir!…”