Disgrace

1. The speech was so full of sophistry and empty slogans that it scarcely bears analysis, and if you can read the whole thing you're a better man than I. Here's Amy Welborn's take on it. Kathryn Jean Lopez. Ralph McInerney.

2. The money quote from Amy: "That's the basic question, with all of its many implications. Do you recognize the preborn baby, even in the midst of the complexities of its young life, dwelling within the body of another, living with her own complexities in a complex, pluralistic society - as "the least among us" or do you not?" Want to know what the answer was from NDU? Just think of the back-slapping and the standing ovation given at an institution named for the Mother of God to an apologist, facilitator, and advocate for the modern-day slaughter of the innocents. To illustrate that, just look at the front page picture in the Washington Post, which speaks volumes. Is this how the early Church Fathers would have related to Caesar? How about the Prophets -- anybody recall any back-slapping by Isaiah to Ahaz?

3. Jody Bottum tries again to put the NDU situation in context, in response to critics of his argument about Catholic culture.

4. Yet another reason why no rational, fair-minded person should ever read Time magazine -- its bizarre, nasty story about the NDU situation. You have to love the characterization of the opposition to the NDU award as "a small but vocal minority". Yeah, only 70 of the Apostles Among Us and 360,000+ others.

5. Remember, when the President speaks of reducing abortions, he's talking about funneling money to Planned Parenthood, flooding the country with contraceptives, and polluting the minds of the youth with biased sex education. He does not support authentic measures to directly encourage women to keep their babies. Watch what he does, not what he says.

6. On the good news front, the Oklahoma legislature has passed a bill banning all cloning.

7. Sociologist Charles Murray documents the disturbing trend in the "white underclass" away from marriage and towards out-of-wedlock births (70% illegitimacy now among poor whites).

8. Gotta love this headline: "Priest says good sex in marriage is alright". Who knew?

9. I'll blog later today about the whole NDU thing, for the last time.