Planned Criminality

1. The Temple of Moloch, er, I mean Planned Parenthood, has once again been caught in the act of conspiring to cover up child abuse. But that's no reason to stop throwing taxpayer money at them, as Congress is thinking of doing with both hands and a wheelbarrow via the "Prevention First [Abortion Later] Act".

2. Gallup has an interesting survey on the level of religion in the various states. It would be interesting to do an overlay of these results with such things as abortion rates, out-of-wedlock pregnancy rates, divorces, absent fathers, crime, even voting patterns. It would also be interesting to compare it the results of a survey that Crisis Magazine did a few years ago on the health of the dioceses in the United States. I can't find that survey online anywhere, now that Crisis has gone out of print -- can any of you find it?

3. A clear-eyed look at the religious groups -- including some that style themselves as Catholic -- that promote "abortion reduction strategies" (i.e., saying you're interested in reducing abortions but doing nothing to reduce abortions). By their fruits you shall know them, and when you look at their fruits you can se that they are phony, phony, phony.

4. So it appears that younger women are choosing parenthood, rather than careers. However, since the article says nothing about women choosing marriage in increasing numbers, color me skeptical that this is a good trend.

5. The inexorable, slow-motion, drip-by-drip legalization of same-sex "marriage" continues in New York, as a Surrogate's Court for the first time recognizes a foreign "marriage" as valid for inheritance purposes. The only way to stop this is to pass a Defense of Marriage Act, which is a non-starter in our State Legislature. We're fighting a rear-guard action, hoping that maybe the cavalry will arrive soon.

6. A very nice piece from the National Catholic Register on Msgr. William Smith.

7. For those who think that tax problems are strictly a problem for appointees to high government posts, see this report. At least no "nanny tax" issues are likely to arise.