Tragedy and Poverty

1. This piece from the Times is unbearably sad -- an online discussion of how a woman is in the process of deciding to have an abortion because her masters degree program was too inflexible to accommodate her pregnancy (which, by the way is illegal discrimination in violation of federal law). Here's a response that pretty much says it all. Let me get personal for a second. I have two graduate degrees, one of which is about as fancy as you can get. But Peggy and I lost three babies before birth. I would trade any of my degrees, and pretty much anything else I have ever owned or will ever own, for even one of those babies to have survived. How sad it is that someone can judge that any master's degree be worth ending someone's life. And even sadder is that people in her life encouraged that way of thinking. Please pray for this poor deluded woman, and all those who think like her.

2. In a not-unrelated matter, a woman is on trial in France for a series of homicides -- the victims were her newborns. Wesley Smith asks, if the newborn isn't a person, as some (like Peter Singer) allege, then what's the big deal?

3. The Cardinal Newman Society has identified ten "Catholic" colleges that promote abortion.

4. A profile of a woman who once worked for Dr. Tiller, but became a pro-lifer. She is very graphic in her description of the evil that took place in that clinic in Wichita. Not for the faint of heart.

5. Helen Alvare on the strategy to legalize same-sex "marriage" by federal lawsuit. She's cautiously optimistic about the outcome of a court challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, the current Administration will be in charge of defending the statute, so I'm less optimistic.

6. The President, meanwhile, is granting some federal benefits to same-sex couples. Gay rights groups are less than enthused -- they want the whole enchilada.

7. Perhaps not the most ideal spokesman for chastity, but here's rock guitarist Lenny Kravitz for you.

8. A beer made from a 9000 year-old recipe will be available this summer.