Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge

1. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It's okay, the White House whispers out of the side of its mouth to the pro-abortion lobby, you don't have anything to worry about with this new Supreme Court nominee. The pro-abortion groups have gotten the message.

2. More breakthroughs in adult cells, including a current therapy for sight loss and new ways to reprogram them into pluripotent stem cells (i.e., the functional equivalent of embryonic stem cells): here and here. Why is the government not putting the bulk of its resources into this approach?

3. Here's Robert George's statement from his debate the other day with Prof. Doug Kmiec about the President's record.

4. Lies, damned lies, statistics, and agendas. Prof. Doug Kmiec and Fr. Richard McBrien have both recently cited the utterly false and repeatedly discredited "statistic" that abortions and abortion rates rose during the various Bush Administrations, in order to make the point that Democratic policies actually reduce abortions. Prof. Michael New, the real expert on this, replies with the actual facts, namely that abortions and abortion rates declined under both Republican Administrations, as they generally have done since about 1980; he also reminds us that pro-life state laws, not economic policies, have the most impact on the incidence of abortion. Smart guys, why can't they look up the facts?

5. Only in the bizarre surreal world of the United Nations would a ban on abortions be viewed as "torture". Take special note from that piece that Amnesty International takes the same position. I say this with sadness as a former member of Amnesty, but the next time they want to start up a group in your school, or do a fund-raiser in your church, ask them about this. Show them this statement by the President of the USCCB. Then say "no thanks" and invite in groups like "Aid to the Church in Need" instead.

6. If you want a quick summary of the "legal realism" school of thought, which the new nominee to the Supreme Court reflects (and which is the staple of modern legal education), see here. As we law students quickly realized, "legal realism" is basically a justification for judges deciding cases according to their own interests and values. As every lawyer knows, sometimes when you go into court, it's not an even playing field, but it's two against one -- your adversary and the judge are both against you. Is that justice?

7. Where are things heading when you need a permit to have a private bible study in your home? They need a lawyer who's familiar with the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which was supposed to stop this kind of nonsense.

8. The celebrities are coming out of the woodwork to stump for same-sex "marriage".

9. Celebrity priest Fr. Alberto Cutie, who was photographed canoodling with a woman on the beach, and later went on TV to proclaim his lack of repentance for his incontinence, has suddenly become an Episcopalian deacon (no year-long RCIA or four years of seminary in the Church of What's Happening Now, I guess). And, showing boatloads of class, he didn't even tell his bishop he was leaving. Let's see, we got Fr. Rutler, they get "Fr. Oprah". Heh.