SURSUM CORDA has a worthwhile series on abortion. His stance is not the same as mine, but he provides a lot of food for thought: “On a random Saturday morning in the Spring of 1989, you could often find me in front of an abortion clinic. My colleagues and I would get up before sunrise, gather in a parking lot, and wait to receive a call telling us where we would be heading. The word would come, we would load... Read more

And there beside of marble stone was built An Altare, carved with cunning imagery, On which true Christians bloud was often spilt, And holy Martyrs often doen to dye, With cruell malice and strong tyranny: Whose blessed sprites from underneath the stone To God for vengeance cryde continually, And with great griefe were often heard to grone, That hardest heart would bleede, to heare their piteous mone. —TFQ Read more

LOTS of very interesting snippets at the Marriage Movement blog about a new Swedish study: “Children growing up in single-parent families are twice as likely as their counterparts in two-parent families to develop serious psychiatric illnesses and addictions later in life, a Swedish study has found.” Scroll around for brief analyses and links, including these bits: “[T]heir findings stood even when they adjusted for socioeconomic status and other confounding factors such as parental addiction or mental illness.” “Some may say... Read more

Frankly, Mr. Shankly, I’m a blogwatching wreck– I’ve got the 21st century breathing down my neck, I must move fast, You understand me, I want to go down in celluloid history… Gen X Revert: “South Park” and abortion. There’s a lot to say there, and maybe I’ll say it soon. Julian Sanchez: What he hopes will be his last word on Lott. Light of Reason: Response to me and Julian on free will. Ted Barlow: Lots of questions for John... Read more

Young knight, what ever that dost armes professe, And through long labours huntest after fame, Beware of fraud, beware of ficklenesse, In choice, and change of thy deare loved Dame, Least thou of her beleeve too lightly blame, And rash misweening doe thy hart remove: For unto knight there is no greater shame, Then lightnesse and inconstancie in love; That doth this Redcrosse knights ensample plainly prove. —TFQ Read more

OFFICE MOMS: Last night Shamed, Russo and I went to a roundtable sponsored by the America’s Future Foundation, on the topic, “Can women have it all?” (Apparently not, since one of the things I’d like to have is a world without cliched debate topics!) It was basically three women proselytizing for stay-at-home motherhood. I’m very sympathetic to this, as you might expect, but I think the discussion of mothering options tends to get bogged down in myths and stereotypes–on the... Read more

IRAQ: Here’s where my thinking is at now. Unqualified Offerings recently said that he felt like pretty much all the arguments had been hashed and re-hashed, and that probably applies to this post too; I’m posting it as much for myself as for you all, so I can get this all worked out in a relatively coherent sequence. Apologies in advance for the length and lack of certainty. We’ve been urged to go to war against Iraq (…more so than... Read more

“THEY THINK HUMAN RIGHTS BEGIN AT CONCEPTION AND END AT BIRTH”: Ampersand has a cartoon and post making basically that claim about pro-lifers. It’s based on a study that found that “states with strong antiabortion laws provide less funding per child for foster care, stipends for parents who adopt children with special needs, and payments for poor women with dependent children than do states with strong abortion rights laws.” I have a hard time taking this seriously as more than... Read more

THE MARCH FOR LIFE: I went with the Oligarch and Russo. (I carried a sign with the URL of Pregnancy Centers Online, and later a different sign with the dates of the Dred Scott, Korematsu, and Roe v. Wade decisions and the words, “History Will Remember.”) I’d never been to one before. Random impressions: Several hours after we dragged our frozen carcasses to the WARM confines of an Armand’s pizzeria, I was still wondering if I’d ever stop shivering. It... Read more

…And in his falsed fancy he her takes To be the fairest wight, that lived yit; Which to expresse, he bends his gentle wit And thinking of those braunches greene to frame A girlond for her dainty forehead fit, He pluckt a bough; out of whose rift there came Small drops of gory bloud, that trickled downe the same. —TFQ Read more