A new study has been released by the Commission on Parenthood’s Future, showing that young adults conceived by sperm donors generally fair more poorly than adopted children or those raised by their biological parents. The authors — which include Professor Norval Glenn of the University of Texas at Austin — surveyed more than 1 million … Read more
If you’re at all familiar with alternative medicine, you’ve heard of homeopathy. The system was first developed in the late 18th century, and served — at least for a time — as a chief competitor to what is now mainstream Western medicine. Unfortunately for proponents of the system — and I’m married to one — … Read more
Did California voters just strike a blow for governmental ‘moderation,’ or was Tuesday’s successful passage of Proposition 14 an early Christmas gift for lobbyists and big name, big money candidates? The new system will put candidates of all political stripes on a single ballot, and all voters will be able to participate. The top two … Read more
Checking out at the grocery store the other day, I paid for my sack of rolls. The checkout person handed me my bag. “Thank you,” I said. “You’re welcome,” she said. I walked away with a sense that something was wrong. Do checkout people usually say “you’re welcome” and nothing else? Not usually. Usually they … Read more
I know it’s not medically sound, but I find a nice summer tan appealing. We are the type of New Englanders who celebrate winter by staying as close to bed as possible from November to March, and when we emerge in the spring, we look like ICU patients freshly pried out of a full-body cast: … Read more
I know it’s not medically sound, but I find a nice summer tan appealing. We are the type of New Englanders who celebrate winter by staying as close to bed as possible from November to March, and when we emerge in the spring, we look like ICU patients freshly pried out of a full-body cast: … Read more
It seems somebody one day had the bright idea of asking Samuel Johnson whether he wrote for money. It’s easy to imagine that great man of letters and lexicographer of the late 18th century puffing up like an angry blowfish as he replied, “Sir, anyone who writes for anything except money is a fool.” … Read more
Lately I’ve felt like Lex Luthor without any Kryptonite. For the past few weeks here I’ve been vindicating the rights of the merely natural against the claims of supernature. (Sheesh, that even sounds boring to me.) It’s not a project calculated to win me friends among the pious. In Christian circles, who really wants to … Read more
According to Kenneth Vogel at Politico, the fundraising powerhouse Tea Party Express may actually be a front for a Republican PAC. While others have said as much, the point was reinforced when Politico obtained an internal proposal from GOP media firm Russo Marsh & Rogers — the operation behind the “Express” — that appears to … Read more
It’s no secret that China has been practicing gendercide — the mass killing of unborn girls by abortion — for some time. Now this interesting piece in the UK’s Mail Online outlines the problems Chinese society will be facing by 2020, when there will be 30 million more men of marrying age than women. As … Read more
This weekend, millions of Americans marked the passage of the health-care bill the only way they could: by reverently retiring the Stars and Stripes that fly at their homes and running up the Maple Leaf. That’s unfair to Canada, but since when have we Yanks felt bad about that? The Canadian and European single-payer health-care … Read more
Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio received a first-class letter from the U.S. Census, telling him that they’ll be sending him another letter next week. The apparent foolishness of the exercise got him thinking about its expense: There were 105,480,101 households in 2000. At 500 sheets of paper per ream, that’s 210,960 reams of paper … Read more
This film is for those who’ve suffered from religious bigotry. Its sold-out screenings at Sundance and in Salt Lake City are the first step for people to learn the truth about such a damaging and divisive effort. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. The combination of yesterday’s Variety report on Red Flag Releasing’s acquisition of 8: … Read more
Over the course of many months thinking about the deadly sins and opposing virtues, I’ve ranged pretty widely. In dealing with Greed and Generosity, I have drawn (so far as I know) the only direct connections yet between Chinese Communism, elves, ostrich farms, and the mortgage crisis. But that’s what being Catholic (from katholikos, or … Read more
Barney Frank, former chief booster of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now conveniently says they should be disbanded. “I believe the remedy is abolishing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their present form and coming up with a whole new system of housing finance,” Frank said. Furthermore, he told Big Think that the poor … Read more
Should corporations be considered persons? Is personhood the same as citizenship? And is money a legitimate form of free speech? These are the questions I’ve been asking myself since reading the news of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Thursday that corporations and unions are persons with free speech rights, therefore permitted to contribute as much money … Read more
Writing for Catholic Advocate, Matt Smith deconstructs Sen. Barbara Boxer’s admission the Senate health care bill fully funds abortion, in spite of the accounting procedures that purportedly keep separate money for health insurance from money for abortion. Boxer Confirms Senate Bill Does Not Restrict Abortion January 20, 2010 By Matt Smith A buyer’s … Read more
If you haven’t read The Screwtape Letters, you should. In fact, click over there right now and buy it. C. S. Lewis’s harrowing look inside of the mind of a “designated tempter” (he’s just like a guardian angel, except . . . the opposite) isn’t just insightful entertainment; it’s more like reading an intercepted copy … Read more
On Christmas day, a Delta Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit narrowly escaped catastrophe when an intended suicide bomber who had passed through security could not get the plastic explosives he hid in his underwear to detonate. The attempt occurred as the plane was on its final descent, 20 minutes from landing, with 289 people … Read more
Remember all that talk about how the Bush and Obama stimulus packages were going to create jobs with new public works projects? Well, it hasn’t quite turned out that way. The infrastructure projects are lined up, sure — along with their sizable price tags — but the new jobs are nowhere to be found. … Read more
