Why Movie Stars Should Shut Their Big Fat Yaps

The embryonic stem-cell lobby has no shortage of celebrity boosters, but something tells me it's wishing today that Scarlett Johansson were on the other side.

According to Moviehole.net, the actress, who plays a clone in the upcoming "The Island," is "very much pro-stem cell research"—apparently meaning the embryonic kind, since that's the only one that is, as the article notes, "a political hot potato."

"I think that there’s a lot of wonderful possibilities erupting," Johansson explains. "I mean, if they could eliminate diseases like Alzheimer’s and polio that would be incredible."

"Eliminate polio"! Bwa ha ha.

Someone ought to tell Ms. Johansson that while she's been in a "Ghost World," a vaccine that would "eliminate" polio—and has in most of the world—has been available for 50 years. It is incredible—and no embryonic stem cells were harmed in its making. The reason polio is resurging now in Africa and the Arab world is not due to a lack of available vaccine, but rather to the kind of anti-American conspiracy theories perpetuated by the actress's Hollywood colleagues.

The Johansson interview's from an Australian Web site—so the actress can't say her meaning was lost in translation.

UPDATED, 1:16 p.m., replacing "cure" with "vaccine that would eliminate," etc., at the behest of commenters who split hairs over whether polio had been "cured." Now tell me Scarlett paid attention in history class.

What He Said

In other words, ditto on Mark Kellner's must-read entry on "the difference between the squishy and the solid."

Don't Stop the Carnival

For Sunday's "Blog On!", at Joel's suggestion, I'm thinking of spotlighting blog carnivals—Carnival of the Conservatives, Carnival of the Vanities, etc. If you're reading this and know which blog will, as of this coming Sunday, be hosting the most recent carnival on a particular topic, could you please let me know by posting a comment below? I'd like to point readers to the most current carnivals as of that date, which is June 5. You can also e-mail blog-carnival info to dawn -at- dawneden.com. Thanks very much!

For a carnival of coolness, tune into 77 WABC today for its annual "Rewound," featuring vintage recordings of the station in its pop-music glory days and the return of the legendary Dan Ingram. (Hat tip: Michael Lynch, who really should update his blog.)

Missing Links

My latest "Blog On!" column is in today's Daily News. Thanks very much to readers who helped with ideas. I'll be making another pitch for reader help later today.

The News' Web site is working out the bugs with regard to the hyperlinks in my column, and a couple were lost in translation, so here they are for your enjoyment: Muley's World and the "Hooker Bear" entry of Not a Desperate Housewife.

Good morning! Off to Our Saviour. Hope to have a little something up later; if not, then tonight.

Nothing much new in this space tonight—just visiting the folks and revisiting my A.A. Milne Pooh and poetry paperbacks. I wish I still had that Frank Luther album of Milne poems set to music: "Christopher Robin goes hoppity hoppity hoppity hoppity hop..." Although I haven't seen it since I was a kid, some 30 years ago, I somehow remember that it was on Decca. I must have been a record-label nerd even then. I think my "Hans Christian Andersen" soundtrack was on Decca too, if I'm not mistaken. All the cool kiddie records were on Decca.

Karol of Alarming News has a witty post about her worst summer jobs. I remember, at age 15, working concessions at an outdoor Jerry Garcia Band concert.* I was walking around holding a cardboard tray full of giant soft pretzels, calling loudly, "Pretzels! Pretzels!" when some scraggly young Reagan-era wannabe hippie guy scrambled up to me.

"Did you say mushrooms?" he asked hopefully.

I stared at him and articulated like I would to a child, "No, sir, I said, 'Pretzels..'"

Dejected, he said, "Aw, I thought you said mushrooms." And stomped away.


*Caldwell College Concerts on the Hill, produced by John Scher, 1984. Robert Hunter opened the show.

On Seeing Red in a Blue State

I would like to say a few things for the benefit of new readers of this blog.

Before I begin, I would like to state what I hope is obvious for everyone who's been reading this blog up to now: that The Dawn Patrol does not represent, nor is intended to represent, the opinion of my employer or of anyone other than myself. That is the way it has always been.

For a long time, I have had the luxury of writing every night knowing that I will be read by people who have, for the most part, been following my blog for some time and have a good idea of my personality.

I like to think of The Dawn Patrol's comments section as the bar where everybody knows your name. There's Nightfly, Saint Kansas, Janjan, Joe and Joseph, Kris, "G'day" Peter, Steve G. and Another Steve, Joel and Joel, Camila, Dave, Maclin, Kate B., Sonetka, and so many others who feel like friends even though I've met only a tiny handful of them. Even when they don't agree with me, they seem to feel at home here. They actively engage themselves in posting comments—both to me and to one another—about the issues I bring up, and I'm very grateful that they take an interest in what I have to say.

With the advent of my Daily News column, I have officially become a public figure. As a result, some new people discovering my blog are looking at it in a different way than longtime readers because they see me as part of the mainstream media.

I still have a hard time considering myself part of the establishment—it's not like, as one blog paranoiacally assumed, I'm writing for the editorial page. But it's true that I have a column which—while itself fairly innocuous—draws attention to my name, which in turn can lead people to seek out my views about faith and politics on this, my personal Weblog.

When those readers get here, what they may find (particularly if they're following links that have been helpfully supplied by left-wing blogs) is that I have what liberal New Yorkers consider strong views on issues such as abortion, stem-cell research, sex education, homosexual sex—indeed, all sex outside of traditional marriage—and gay marriage.

I believe that my views on culture-of-life issues such as abortion and stem-cell research are fairly self-explanatory. However, readers seeing the strong language that I use against the abortion lobby—especially ones who don't know many Christian social conservatives—might assume that, just as I hate organizations like Planned Parenthood, I hate individuals who disagree with me. Specifically, they might assume that I hate homosexuals.

Until now, because of having a devoted regular readership, I have assumed that people know something of who I am, what I believe, and why. Looking at the overwhelming majority of my regular commenters, it's clear to me that my audience is not made up of haters, and I believe that's because most readers know I'm not a hater myself.

But as other bloggers spotlight posts where I candidly admit dismay over things like organizations' attempts to promote homosexuality to children, I can only imagine what The Dawn Patrol must look like to someone who's just skimming through it. If a liberal's just searching my blog for charged words like "homosexuality" and "abortion," I could easily look like a wingnut straight outta Jesusland. To such a speed reader, every other word probably translates as, "homosexuality bad," "Planned Parenthood bad," etc.

To such a reader, I would like to say, don't just read my posts that scream "red state." Read the ones in between. If you do, you'll see that I don't hate homosexuals, because then I'd have to hate myself.

Not because I'm gay—I'm not. (Didn't mean to give you a start.)

No, if I hated homosexuals, I would have to hate myself, because I am a sinner and have no right to consider myself morally better than another person. That's not to say I don't believe in a distinction between good and bad behavior. However, to hate someone means judging not only their behavior, but their heart. My faith tells me that only God judges the hearts. If, when writing about a particular behavior that riled me, I have judged not only people's behavior but also their humanity, then I am sorry.

This brings us to a belief put forth by Planned Parenthood and other gay-rights groups—Alfred Kinsey's claim that people's sexual behavior is an inherent part of who they are. Such organizations assert that to pass judgment upon homosexuals' behavior is to pass judgment upon their entire being.

If someone reading this really believes that—that his humanity is defined by his sexual attraction—then I don't know what to say. Such a reader will not be assured by my telling him that I don't hate him. All I can say is, if I found him lying bleeding in the street, I'd rush to his aid. I wouldn't first demand to know his sexual preference. Such things are important, to be sure, but they're not who we are. Marriage is meaningful on Earth, partly as a reflection of Christ's heavenly union with His Church. But there are no marriages in Heaven.


*You may have noticed that I prefer the term "homosexual" to "gay." That is because "gay" implies a value judgment. Its heterosexual counterpart, "straight," isn't as positive—it implies "uptight," as in "straight-laced." I don't think homosexual advocates would take it kindly if heterosexuals took for themselves a term truly equivalent to "gay"—like "happy."

Burned the midnight oil last night writing my column, so just a few short takes this afternoon:

• Simon & Shuster is officially boycott-worthy. Also see Mere Comments' take on "Simon & Shuster and the Oral Tradition." (Thanks to readers Joe Shipman and Tom Mc for the tips.)


• In honor of our troops for Memorial Day, Duncan Maxwell Anderson revisits "This Is the Army."


• Annie Banno has the details on this year's Ball for Life.

An Innocent Manse

What a brilliant idea—lifestyles of the not-quite-famous. It reminds me of the films that Gary Weis used to do for "Saturday Night Live."

Reader Bob Denham comments on an earlier post that his teen's school had a special parents' meeting about blogging. Sounds like there's a story there. I'd like to ask any parents who are reading if you could please leave a comment (click on the "Comments" box below) to answer one or both of the following questions:

1) Have your school's officials or parents' association informed you about the possible problems caused by students' blogging? What did they tell you about it, and what kind of advice did they give you on how to avoid those problems?

2) Does your child blog? If so, do you read your child's blog, and do you supervise his or her blogging? If you supervise it, how do you go about doing that?

3) If you don't mind your child's blog being read by strangers, please post the URL and describe what kind of supervision you exert over the blog, if any.

Any posts left in this thread may be quoted in my newspaper column. Although the comments software will ask for your name, e-mail, and URL, you may post anonymously if you wish—include your name just if you'd like it to appear in the paper. Thanks very much!

If you've yet to read my new column, I just put a link to it atop Gaits of Eden. My next one is due tomorrow night—any suggestions? I'm always on the lookout for recent noteworthy blog items, but I'd especially appreciate your suggestions on general blog-related topics that would interest an audience that might not have a deep knowledge of blogs. Please post your ideas by clicking the "Comments" link below—much obliged!

Harper's Bazaar

This morning, I Googled my long-lost friend Rick Harper to see if he was still making fine, catchy, and thoroughly janglefied pop music.

He is.

I have never heard such a prominent bass harmonica in all my life.

Chinless Wonder

Had a lovely lunch yesterday with Trevor Romain, who has at least as much joie de vivre in person as he does in his videos (check out the clips on his Web site to see what I mean). He's in town to appear this morning on "Fox & Friends"—you can catch him if you're watching the Fox News Channel between 7 and 9 a.m. Eastern time.

Awwww

Isn't that sweet. Someone at the Post still believes in "miracles." The word appears three times in this article on "L.I. Wonder Twins"—which, despite its promising headline, has nothing to do with Saturday-morning TV.

I believe in miracles too, and I'm thankful that I'm alive to see them—unlike the four human lives that Dr. Paul Liu created knowing full well there was an 80 to 90 percent chance they would never see the light of day. Given those odds, it's a miracle that two of them survived.

Ohio Men Are From Mars

Robert N. Going (who really should get his blog going again) writes with the following insight into a great novel. I love Ray Bradbury's work, but when I'm reading it I often have to put it down, because it hits me too hard. Interesting to see the wit behind the poignancy. Writes Robert:

I am a great fan of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles which I have probably read a dozen times in the last 40 years. It was only a couple of years ago that I caught the full meaning of part of it when I stumbled on the lyrics to "Beautiful Ohio." In the story about the third mission to Mars, the astronauts find an American midwestern town plopped right next to their rocket. The boys suddenly recognize their own relatives. They all run off to their boyhood homes. There's lemonade and ice cream, the sound of creaking porch rockers and through one of the windows a copy of the sheet music for "Beautiful Ohio" propped on a piano in the parlor. None of it is real, of course, just dreams of what used to be, prepared by the native Martians to lull them into complacency. (A dream that carries through to the all-American funeral with a band playing "Columbia, The Gem of the Ocean.")

So Bradbury only gives us a glimpse of "Beautiful Ohio", while winking at those who know the chorus:

Drifting with the current down a moonlit stream
While above the Heavens in their glory gleam
And the stars on high
Twinkle in the sky
Seeming in a paradise of love divine
Dreaming of a pair of eyes that looked in mine
Beautiful Ohio, in dreams again I see
Visions of what used to be.

Cool, eh?

Back from visiting my love in Ohio and had a wonderful time. I started writing an entry about it, but words fail me, so it'll have to wait. In the meantime, I must get some sleep because tomorrow I'm having lunch with a visiting blogger I'm meeting for the first time, whose story is inspiring. So, thanks for coming by—please stop back later, when there should be another post or two...

Black Coffee in Bed/Breakfast at Tiffany's

The Nightfly's got a hot streak going—several days' worth of eminently readable posts on evangelism and popular culture. His latest is on his "Twilight Zone"-like experience of passing by a New Jersey town's library, hearing a singer playing acoustic guitar there who sounds just like the guy from Squeeze, and discovering...well, read it for yourself.

Having a wonderful time with Joel in Cleveland. (Don't believe everything you read.) This morning, we will visit the Wade Chapel, which was designed entirely by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

Blogging will be light to nonexistent until I return home tomorrow night. Thanks very much to everyone who's posted encouragement—it means a lot to me. I'm also happy to have gotten a fine new Dawn Patrol endorsement (see left, below Terry Teachout's towhead testimonial).

Looks like the big news that I promised a while back is finally coming to pass. It has to do with something that'll be in this coming Sunday's New York Daily News. I'm still going to be a little secretive because (a) I don't want to spoil the surprise, and (b) there's always the chance that the piece might be postponed. But, just as a tease, I will tell you that it has something to do with Joey McKeown.

Please don't ask Joey to disclose the surprise, as I'm trusting he'll keep his lips sealed 'til the big day. And yes, Joel knows too, but his lips are also sealed—or at least, they're otherwise occupied, as I'm about to leave for Cleveland to visit him for the weekend.

When the piece comes out, chances are it'll draw some new readers to this blog. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's read The Dawn Patrol up to now, especially those with whom I've corresponded and who have left comments. I'm very grateful for the support and fellowship that you've shown me. It's a wonderful feeling to post entries with the knowledge that you'll read them.

Lastly, one note to my personal friends reading this: If you need to reach me, please call on my cell phone. I've never been good at responding to my e-mail—though I read all of it—and the situation does not look likely to improve...though the rest of my life, thank God (and with a nod to St. Maximilian), keeps getting better.

Miss Odious Regrets

Patricia Beninato of I'mNotSorry.net, the Web site for women who wish to "share their positive experiences with abortion," is soliciting feedback on a new public-relations idea:

got an e-mail today from a young woman who was compelled by her "pro-life" parents and her own beliefs to continue a pregnancy caused by date rape. She now deeply regrets the decision. I've gotten a few e-mails like this in the past few months, and I was toying with the idea of creating a section where women could tell such stories to show the reality that "pro-lifers" conveniently choose to ignore. I know it doesn't really jibe with the whole "I'm not sorry" idea, but I think this happens more often than is reported and may give women like this an outlet that isn't normally available. Your thoughts?

Dig those scare quotes around "pro-life." Oooh, I'm scared. Those fearsome "pro-lifers" actually want to let people live. Don't let them near your fetus.

Note how Beninato begins her comments with the information that the young woman's pregnancy in question was caused by date rape. The implication is that an abortion would somehow lessen the trauma of the rape—even though the opposite is the case. This is true regardless of whether the child is aborted through surgery or through medication, but is particularly true of surgical abortion. Dr. David C. Reardon observes, "Abortion involves a painful examination of a woman's sexual organs by a masked stranger who is invading her body. Once she is on the operating table, she loses control over her body....And while she lies there tense and helpless, the life hidden within her is literally sucked out of her womb."

As for the idea of inviting women who regret their motherhood to speak out, I agree with Beninato's commenters: It's wonderful—jibes perfectly with "the whole 'I'm not sorry' idea."

You know how members of the post-abortion recovery group Silent No More wear T-shirts declaring, "I Regret My Abortion"? I'mNotSorry could make up shirts announcing, "I Regret My Motherhood." They'd be a big hit with the "I'm With Stupid" set.

Just imagine—once the kids of those regretted pregnancies are old enough to read, they can log on to the Web and read their resentful moms' stories about how those mean old "pro-lifers" allowed the little parasites to see the light of day.

In fact, why stop at a Web page? I'mNotSorry should publish baby books for regretful mothers. They could have a page for the pregnancy-test strip with its ominous pink lines; a page for the mom to draw the abortion-clinic bill that she tragically never got, and a page for a photo of the should've-been-snuffed-out baby with the smug-faced grandparents who forced its existence.

Margaret Sanger's motto for her Planned Parenthood organization was, "Every child a wanted child." It takes legalized abortion to show kids just how unwanted they are.

Cosmo Takes a Stand—for One Night

A new survey by British Cosmopolitan finds that the overwhelming majority of women who have had one or more one-night stands regret it.

This is not surprising. What is surprising at first glance is that Cosmo would report such information, since so many of its articles are focused on nonmarital sex.

I think what's going on here is that Cosmo's editors realize that women are dissatisfied with one-night encounters—so they use that knowledge to market the magazine to women who dream of such encounters' being transformed into "real" relationships. After all, they paired the cover tagline for the sex survey with one for a story on "10 Sexual Sins Thou Shalt Commit Tonight." The message is, if you're good enough in bed, he just might stay.

The truth about the destructive and numbing psychological effects of unmarried sex, particularly on women, is one of our society's most closely guarded secrets, kept out of the popular culture in much the same way that the deep emotional damage caused by abortion is hidden. It's not just the mainstream media that avoids the topic either; as World magazine's blog recently noted, fornication runs much deeper among churchgoers than homosexuality—yet pastors rarely preach against it.

The fact that over 40 percent of women age 15-44 have cohabited suggests that the problem's invisibility is due to its very immensity—fornication is woven seamlessly into the fabric of our culture. Television, films, and the rest of the media combine to encourage women to self-medicate their loneliness with sex. Society pretends to frown upon one-night stands—out of concern over AIDS if nothing else—but sex within an unmarried relationship is considered acceptable because of the atmosphere of mutual "respect."

The truth is that no woman can truly be respected by a man who is perfectly willing to make full use of her body and perfectly unwilling to give her a full commitment. That's not respect. It's a transaction: "You give me sex and I will 'respect' you until we get bored of one another." Behind that "ideal" lies a deep cynicism. Whores have a point when they say that the difference between them and other women having nonmarital sex is that they get paid.

I'm not saying this to judge women, but to suggest that any hope of future love is worth forgoing present "respect." It's a subject on which I feel qualified to write with authority—as I've written before, I've had more "respect" than you've had hot dinners. When love finally came, I knew that it was far more than just deserts.

Calling Cleveland Catholics

I'm going to be in Cleveland this Saturday and would like to attend a vigil Mass. Can anyone recommend a church with all the smells and bells and—if at all possible—no Eucharistic ministers? (I'm not receiving, but I do plan to go up for a blessing—plus I just prefer more traditional churches.)

Leave it to Michelle Malkin to link to me on a day when I'm busy and don't have any new posts to speak of. (Actually, she links to an old post, and I greatly appreciate her long memory.) More substantial posts late tonight, I promise. In the meantime, John Bambenek is all over the Newsweek debacle, including an entry where he rightfully ridicules Andrew Sullivan's "fake but plausible" argument.

Thanks to the commenters on the evangelism post below—it's an enlightening discussion.

Need a smile this morning? Check out Evilpundit's Photoshop masterpiece "St. George and the Kitten." (Thanks, Credibility.)

Gore Blimey

Lesley Gore has a new album.

Based on the brief sample available on her label's Web site, it's quite listenable—graceful, mature, yet with a voice that remains instantly recognizable.* I'm not sure if there's a song there, but it's a nice feel, and unquestionably the best thing Gore's done since recording "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" for the odd When Pigs Fly compilation.

I eagerly await a full review on Dustbury.

*Warning: The song sample inexplicably includes the very same note that Macintosh computers use to tell you that you have a new mail message. It made me check my Telnet mailbox four times within 50 seconds.

Hell Is Luther People?

Heading to work earlier than usual today, I saw outside the PATH-train entrance, directly facing the rush-hour crowd, a man displaying a large white posterboard. On it, he had written with a marker in block letters, "IT'S HELL IF YOU'RE NOT A ROMAN CATHOLIC."

It wasn't until I got on the train that I realized what his sign meant. My first thought was that he was promising some sort of earthly reward, e.g. "Be a Catholic! Life won't seem so bad!"

Two things seemed remarkable to me: First, that the man was one of those rare Catholics who publicly take it upon themselves to fulfill John Paul II's call to evangelize. Second, that he was doing so in a singularly unappealing fashion. He didn't look particularly happy. Where's the good news?

Imperfect Communion

Joey McKeown's latest tale of woe sounds like a script for a sitcom pilot. I'm thinking, "The God Couple."

When Joey's good, he's very, very good. Somebody syndicate this man's vignettes—make him a guest on Amy Welborn or something. And find a way to keep him in New York City—its Catholic intellectual life needs him.

Aviatory Porcines Dept.

Reader Belinda writes: "I figure that given their commitment to women's reproductive health, Planned Parenthood will be all over this story from the Telegraph."

(If the above link doesn't work, the story is also on LifeNews.)

I'll go one further. If Planned Parenthood's national organization issues a press release about this study that takes its findings seriously, expresses grave concern about its implications, and states that the organization will henceforth warn all of its abortion customers about the significant risk of future premature births, then I'll never write a negative word about Planned Parenthood again.

Now, what are the odds of that happening?

Pronoun Trouble at the Associated Press

The Associated Press apparently has a new policy for citing sources. People quoted in its articles can call themselves anything they want—even saying they're male when they're female and vice versa—and the AP will simply print whatever they say as gospel.

Witness "Transsexual Youth Haven Provides Support", the AP's story about a Chicago center for youths who want to change their gender. As it bends over backwards to be tolerant, the news organization doesn't even bother to get a quote from someone who might think it's not a good idea to mix sexually confused teenagers with 25-year-old cocaine-addicted prostitutes. But more than that, it quotes the youths by the names and genders that they've applied to themselves—even though it appears that none of them have actually gotten sex-change operations or had their names legally changed.

So, the news organization quotes a girl named Dai as a boy named David, and a boy named Josh is quoted as a girl named Jessi—because respect for transexual youth's self-esteem apparently trumps the facts in the Associated Press's 2005 stylebook.

Nice to know that if the AP ever comes calling, I can tell them to refer to me as a "he" and call me by the name "Cole Porter." After all, they're now the "anything goes" newswire.

Had a little fun with my cell phone last night after deejaying at POP GEAR!, taking a couple of self-portraits to send to my love. The other one is on Gaits of Eden.

Sweet Chastity

Reader Paas comments about the manner in which children should be taught about abstinence:

[S]omeone should make the distinction between repression and sublimation very clear. Repression, as I understand it, refers to the denial that certain feelings and urges exist, thereby causing such feelings to manifest themselves in other, often unhealthy ways. But sublimation is something else altogether. In this case, it means acknowledging, accepting and embracing the fact that we are humans with sexual desires, but simultaneously recognizing that the potential consequences of irresponsible sex compel us to temper our urges. Instead, we sublimate them. We take that energy and consciously channel it into other parts of our lives, scholastic, creative, interpersonal.

While it's true that repression as Paas describes it is an unacceptable solution, the problem with this approach is that sexual desire cannot be sublimated.

The "scholastic, creative, [and] interpersonal" activities which Paas cites as sublimations of desire are not really sublimations—just shifts in priorities. A woman who channels her sexual desire into practicing for a marathon doesn't become better at going the extra mile in a relationship. She only manages to take her mind off of it. Likewise, a man who would like to be having sex but instead focuses on scholastic achievement doesn't graduate with a doctorate in chastity. He's still the same frustrated individual—just with more loans to pay off.

Think about the Virgin Mary, who lived an active, healthy life for many years. Was she rejoicing at a Canaa wedding and following her Son from place to place because she had so much leftover energy from not having sex? Hardly.

Rather, Mary made a conscious decision, at the very point in her life when she was poised to become sexually active with her husband, to instead put her entire self into serving the Lord: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

So, Mary's capacity for sexual desire was not "sublimated," it was sacrificed. It is in such sacrifice to the Lord that nuns, priests, and all who are called to chastity gain strength, inspiration, and vitality. In an ideal society, we would esteem such individuals—whether their chastity is relative (that is, within marriage) or absolute—as examples for ourselves and for our children.

Just checked Kyriosity for the first time in a while—that's the blog of Valerie, who designed The Dawn Patrol's logo—and found lots of good stuff, including a link to the trailer for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." But what's really cool is that the date of each of her posts ends with "AD."

Wonder Mint

You will never look at a Cert the same way again.

(From Muley's World, a brand-new blog whose prolific author has the makings of a comedic genius and will be famous if he doesn't burn himself out. Mark my words.)

Philip K. Dick, Prophet

The BBC reports that researchers at Cornell have created a self-replicating robot.

Score another fulfilled prophecy for the late science-fiction author Philip K. Dick, who saw this coming 52 years ago in his short story "Second Variety," which was much later adapted into the film "Screamers."

The Love You Save

Zippy Catholic, who inspired The Dawn Patrol's recent post on sola scriptura (scroll down and look for the post with over 100 comments) has a new post today, "Salvation by What?", that—while by no means ending the argument—offers a lovely summation point for the Catholic side:

...[T]o understand the Catholic Faith you have to understand that it is not primarily about intellect, or even morals: it is about Christ received through the sacraments, because He commanded it, and because those who love Him will do as He commands because they love Him. And He commands as He does because He loves us. Understanding may follow practice, to a greater or lesser degree. But the Catholic faith is a loving response to our King and Redeemer, not an intellectual response to a text. A Downs Syndrome Catholic who can't read the Bible is in no way lesser than a theological polymath....

That isn't to say that there aren't sincere elements of all of these things in Protestant faiths. But the answer to "what must I do to be saved" can't be specified in a finite text, any more than "what must I do to make sure my wife still loves me tomorrow." There are no intellectual certainties, and yet the certainties transcend any intellectual certainties because they are rooted in love...

Beautifully stated. I would add that Jesus' love is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.

You can comment on Zippy's post on his blog.

Just Asking

Fr. Bryce Sibley is a man after my own heart.

Yesterday, he posted for his readers' benefit a couple of questions he sent to Dr. Vanessa Cullins, the Planned Parenthood columnist who answered a "when does life begin" query by saying a baby becomes a person when it takes "its first breath." Here's an excerpt:

From the Planned Parenthood website, it appears to me that you are an African-American. How do you feel being employed by an organization founded by Margaret Sanger who is quoted as saying, "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population"? This of course was to be achieved through her so-called "Negro Project" - which would exterminate blacks and other minorities as "undesirables"....[more]

[Comments disabled on this entry, as there's already a lively discussion brewing on Fr. Sibley's blog.]

Fetus, Don't Fail Me Now!

Reader John R. (who lists a comics site as his home page) weighed in on a recent post about "fetus vs. baby" terminology with a comment worth reprinting. The following fictitious exchanges, he writes, are "to prove that there is no such thing as common sense that even a child can articulate perfectly that some grown-up with a political agenda can't pervert!"

John R. writes:

"guess what grampa jim - mommy's got a baby in her tummy!" so it is - amen."

Not so fast...here's an alternative script, with Grampa Jim an avowed "technicalist" re "the fetus":

Little Girl: Guess what grampa jim - mommy's got a baby in her tummy!
Grampa Jim: Oh, no! That's no baby...it's a fetus!
Girl: Wow! Mommy's got a fetus in her tummy!
Grampa Jim: That's right!
Girl: What is a fetus, Grampa Jim?
Grampa Jim: The important question isn't what a fetus is! No, the real question is what it could be! Don't be afraid to use your imagination to wonder about "the mystery of life!" The fetus is your friend. It's like a cloud in the sky- it can be anything you want it to be!
Girl: Ooooh....the mystery of life! So you mean...a fetus could be a kitty kat?
Grampa Jim: Yes! The fetus could be a cute, fluffy kitty kat! It could also be a boat, or a dump truck, or a comic book!
Girl: Wow! A comic book!
Grampa Jim: Yeah! It's a fetus, so the sky is the limit what it could be. Nobody knows until your mommy lets it come out!
Girl: Neat! And here I thought it was just gonna be a crummy little brother!
Grampa Jim: It could be a Hershey Bar, too! Or a catcher's mitt....or a....

Bizarre

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports, "Police used taser on pregnant driver."

The reporter's name and e-mail address are at the bottom of the article. I'm running off to work right now, but I'd be very interested if someone could find out if the woman, who went on to deliver "a healthy girl," really said this:

"As police officers, they could have hurt me seriously. They could have hurt my unborn fetus."

Associated Press style frowns upon "unborn child," but reporters and editors aren't supposed to change words like that in a quote.

Thanks to Peter Horvath of that wonderful Who-inspired think tank Anderson Council for the tip.

What a Friend We Have in Geriatrics

This just in from the BBC:

• "[H]oly scripture...once led Mississippi whites down the road of bigotry." And, in case you didn't realize, the connection remains: "There are more churches per head of population in Mississippi than in any other state and, historically, you could argue, more racial prejudice, more unchristian behaviour."


• George W. Bush-style evangelical Christians who listen to Christian radio stations and put up "vaguely threatening messages on billboards" outside churches (such as "Jesus is coming - where are you going?") remind us that "religion has motivated all manner of charlatans and creeps in American life."


• But there's good news: A few real Christians—little old white ladies and kindly old black men—show that the true faith still exists outside the scary organized religion of those "[p]ristine Catholic cathedrals with long, pointy towers, cool and confident looking with wide lawns and copious car parks. Baptist houses of worship, with"—yup—"those vaguely threatening messages on billboards outside..."

Phew. Leave it to the Brits to find the real Christians. Maybe if we're lucky, they'll clone a few for us.

SIECUS's Pet Project

"Colleagues and I have fantasized about a national 'petting project' for teenagers .... A partial list of safe sex practices for teens could include: Talking, Flirting, Dancing, Hugging, Kissing, Necking, Massaging, Caressing, Undressing each other, Masturbation alone, Masturbation in front of a partner, Mutual masturbation. Teens could surely come up with their own list of activities."

— A passage from Debra Haffner's article "Safe Sex and Teens" in the September-October 1989 SIECUS Report, quoted by Jane Jiminez in "SIECUS Redefines Humanity."

All of Haffner's "petting" ideas have been incorporated into SIECUS's anti-abstinence "comprehensive sexuality education" curriculum, as well as other bizarre little touches like this acrostic, from an article on the SIECUS sex-ed Web site Families are Talking, "How Do I Know if I'm Ready for Sex?". It's meant to remind teens of things to think about before having sex:

Can (consent)
U (not using)
Have (honest)
My (mutually pleasurable)
Pleasure (protected)

Got it? Before having sex, teens are supposed to remember the words, "Can U Have My Pleasure?" Call it sex ed a la Prince.

The Eyes Have It

Thanks to Glib & Superficial for pointing out the range of Jennifer Wilbanks items on eBay. At this hour, the Jennifer Wilbanks's Face on a Peanut is going for $100.

Relative Morality, Dachau-Style

"The worst was not that I was beaten but that I was forced to respect people who were criminals."

— Dachau concentration-camp survivor Arthur Haulot. From Joshua M. Greene's excellent Beliefnet article "The Unbelievable and the Believer,"about devout Presbyterian William Denson, who prosecuted Nazi war criminals.

Sola Assassin

"Martin Luther was presciently right to decry reason as the mortal enemy of sola scriptura."

— Zippy Catholic (not to be confused with Zippy the Pinhead), capping off his or her post on how Godel's theorem negates the belief that all true doctrine must be decideable from Scripture. [I'd be interested in reading your comments, but ask that you please read Zippy's entire entry before posting—thanks.]

New York City vintage-pop music fan Spike Priggen presents a precious clip of Harry Nilsson from his early-Seventies BBC special, performing "Without Her." [You can read about Nilsson's life here.]

Crusades-Film Writer's Personal Jihad

A reviewer from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops writes that the Crusades blockbuster "Kingdom of Heaven" contains "a not-so-subtle strain of anti-clericalism....[I]t is distressing when, in the movie, the Christian camp is comprised of mostly caricaturized clerics—of the arrogant or cowardly variety—and war-mongering brutes drunk with ambition, bloodlust and religious fervor."

Knowing the film's author, William Monahan, a former colleague of mine from New York Press, I have to add, "Anti-clericalism? Gee, ya think?"

Believe you me, 20th Century Fox—owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which also owns Fox News and the New York Post—knew exactly what it was doing when it hired Monahan to tell the story of the Crusaders' fight for Jerusalem. And I'm not just saying that because he made his name with a novel featuring a gangster named Jesus Castro.

I remember Bill from 10 years ago as charming, libertarian-leaning, with a razor-sharp wit that he used in print to anger as many people as possible.

Monahan's most notorious New York Press piece, "Dr. Rosenthal, I Presume" (6/21/95), was a devil's-advocate response to a New York Times op-ed by A.M. Rosenthal that had recommended the United States spend $100 million to eradicate female genital mutilation in Africa. Making copious use of the f-word, Monahan argued against spending "a hemorrhage of nonexistent national treasure on a problem no one actually understands."

While Monahan grudgingly acknowledged that FGM "isn't nice, it isn't perfect," he insisted that there were sound societal reasons for the practice, as it "control[led] reproduction and disease." He cited what he claimed was a similar example from biblical times:

A savage custom that has become traditional generally has a practical point attendant on its birth. The Jews of the desert cut off their foreskins for the same reason that Australian aboriginals slashed the foreskin laterally; because they didn't have any soap and water. A covenant with God was an appliqued afterthought.

That's one memorable quote on religion from the writer of "Kingdom of Heaven"—here are some more, as cited in the Catholic League's "1995 Report on Anti-Catholicism":

The cover story of the New York Press, "The Angel Factory: Making Martyrs & Monsters," by William Monahan, used John Salvi, the gunman who opened fire in two abortion clinics in late 1994, as an example of "a Catholic success story...the sort of Catholic the Church has been sadly lacking for years—which is to say, a Catholic." The article attacked the Church at length, criticizing the sacraments, religious, saints, martyrdom, the Pope, Catholic education, etc. In explaining Salvi’s behavior, Monahan wrote, "Salvi was thinking crazily, but he was thinking in Catholic terms," and that "the Church definitely can’t say that he wasn’t listening in catechism class."

It's entirely possible that Monahan's animosity towards Catholicism and Judeo-Christian religion in general has softened since his New York Press days. But somehow, reading the reviews of "Kingdom of Heaven," I don't think so.

From Wittingshire comes the news, "Planned Parenthood Reports: Intelligent Design Worse than Abstinence."

Florida readers of the newspaper for which I work will see the headline I wrote for a photo of the pope at Castel Gandolfo, his summer residence: "A Man's Rome Is His Castle."

Thankfully, I will be over 1,000 miles out of spitball-throwing distance.

Also, if I had composed a headline for a review of this show—which I didn't—I would have written simply, "Hamalot."

Roman Catholic seminarian Dennis Schenkel has the best headline of the past week that I didn't write. (Note that the story's been updated.

When Does a Person Begin?

I'm sure you're just dying to know. Well, Planned Parenthood has the answer for you.

"Most medical authorities and Planned Parenthood agree that it starts when a baby takes its first breath."

So, now you know.

Hat tip: LifeSite.

ACT UP Imitates the NRA

A popular theme among those objecting to the claim that promoting anal sex—even if condom use is encouraged—equals promoting AIDS, is the assertion that anal sex does't cause AIDS, HIV does.

I take it, then, that they would agree with the NRA that guns don't kill people, people do.

Unless, of course, they're shooting blanks.

When my love offers a profound Revelation, I say, Babylon.

Abstinence—Real Scary, Kids!

The latest Web site from SIECUS, Planned Parenthood's partner in its efforts to attack abstinence-only programs in favor of abortion-positive, anti-heteronormative "comprehensive sexual education," includes a brochure called "COMMON CHARACTERSITICS [sic] OF FEAR-BASED,
ABSTINENCE-ONLY-UNTIL-MARRIAGE CURRICULA." (PDF file).

Yep, that abstinence ed is pretty scary.

The brochure leads off with the most terrifying examples its authors can find of "FEAR-BASED" abstinence curricula. For the sake of honesty, I will quote these examples in their entirety, even though the language on a couple of them is awkward, and one of them—assuming it's quoted accurately and in context—is downright embarrassing. The important thing to keep in mind that these are the most disturbing examples that SIECUS could find of the unspeakable terror that is abstinence ed.

The brochure's author writes by way of introduction:

In recent years there has been a proliferation of curricula used in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Many of these curricula are designed to control young people’s sexual behavior by instilling fear, shame, and guilt. They are often rooted in specific religious beliefs and portray premarital sexual activity as immoral and universally harmful. Fear-based curricula typically rely on negative messages, distort information, and promote stereotypes and biases. The following are examples from some of the curricula available to schools and programs across the country.

Here are the examples SIECUS cites, in their entirety:

* “Teenagers who are sexually active in high school will find that their schoolwork suffers.”
Reasonable Reasons to Wait (Student Workbook, p. 41)

* Question: “What are the risks of being sexually active?”
Answer: “Teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, low self-esteem, loss of reputation, feelings of being used.”
Choosing the Best PATH (Teacher’s Guide, p. 6)

* “Illustrate how repeated sexual encounters make it difficult to begin and
maintain lasting relationships because the ability to bond emotionally is destroyed.”
Choosing the Best PATH (Teacher’s Guide, p. 6)

* “These are simply natural consequences. For example, if you eat spoiled food, you will get sick. If you jump from a tall building, you will be hurt or killed. If you spend more money than you make, your enslavement to debt affects you and those whom you love. If you have sex outside of marriage, there are consequences for you, your partner and society.”
Sex Respect (Student Workbook, p. 11)

* “How do you think you would feel watching someone you love get AIDS and die?”
Heritage Keepers (Student Manual, p. 97)

The brochure's author adds:

This focus on consequences is clearly designed to scare students rather than educate them. There is no scientific evidence to support the assertion that premarital sexual intercourse leads to everything from a loss of reputation to an inability to bond emotionally.

Do we need scientific evidence to show that premarital sexual intercourse leads to a loss of reputation? As for its effect on teens' ability to emotionally bond, I don't need research at hand to tell me how sex outside marriage trains people to skip steps that are necessary for forging a long-term relationship.

The brochure continues with examples of how abstinence curricula "instill[s] shame to motivate behavior." Again, I am reproducing all the brochure's examples:

* QUESTION: “Why could a sexually active teen tend to have lower self-esteem?”
POSSIBLE ANSWER: “May feel dehumanized or worthless, weak or powerless if partner is selfish or controlling.”
Choosing the Best LIFE (Teacher’s Guide, p. 8)

* “Why is it hard to have self-respect if you’re sexually active, especially if the relationship ends?”
Reasonable Reasons to Wait (Student Workbook, p. 103)

* “Each time a sexually active person gives that most personal part of himself or herself away, that person can lose a sense of personal value and worth. It all comes down to self-respect.”
Choosing the Best PATH (Teacher’s Guide, p. 7)

* “Many young teens who have been brought up with principles and values may have already decided they want to save sex for marriage.”
Sex Respect (Student Workbook, p. 36)

* “Why is it likely that weak people would choose risky behaviors, like
drugs, alcohol, sex outside of marriage, or violence?”
Heritage Keepers (Student Manual, p. 98)

* The emotional consequence of premarital sex: “You know people talk about you behind your back because you’ve had sex with so many people. It so empty too (sic). Finally you get sick of it all and attempt suicide.”
FACTS (Middle School, Teacher’s Edition, Appendix, p. 98)

* “Even if you’ve been sexually active, it’s never too late to say no. You can’t go back, but you can go forward. You might feel guilty or untrustworthy, but you can start over again.”
Game Plan (Student Workbook, p. 45)

The brochure's author complains:

Forty-seven percent of all high school students have had sexual intercourse. It is inappropriate and potentially harmful for education programs to imply that these teens lack values and self-respect. It is equally wrong for programs to tell parents, teachers, or teens that sexually active students are less worthy of love, trust, and respect.

Nobody said that such teens are "less worthy" of love, trust, and respect. That is the lie of the "tolerance" crowd, who would have us believe that condemning a person's behavior is equal to condemning their humanity. Responsible parents do not want their children to be browbeaten—but neither do they want their children to be in an environment that condones behavior that is inherently harmful to them.

Look carefully at the examples above and ask yourself, however awkwardly or unfortunately worded some of them might be, what is so "frightening" about them? What responsible parent could possibly object to their underlying message? The powers who oppose abstinence education do so precisely because the time-honored message of such programs—that children are too valuable to give their bodies away—is deeply offensive to them, interfering as it does with their vacuous, self-centered, and hedonistic way of life.

NOTE TO COMMENTERS: Please limit your comments on this post to discussion of the points raised above. The link that I have offered lead to SIECUS information about various abstinence curricula, some of which, if SIECUS is to be believed, contain medically inaccurate information. Not every "comprehensive sexual education" curriculum is accurate either. Take the Montgomery County, Md., sex-ed curriculum—please. So I ask that you save your debate on the accuracy of the rest of sex-ed curricula for another time, and comment here only about the topic at hand. Off-topic comments will be deleted at my ultra-capricious whim. Thank you for your cooperation.

Wrote a couple of headlines yesterday for the national edition of the paper (you won't see them in NYC) that are worth sharing:

For a story about a zoo's wanting to power itself with elephant dung, "Zoo wants to fuel up when chips are down."

For a photo of Florida marine-conservancy workers preparing to release dolphins back into the ocean, "The Porpoise-Driven Life."

Lance Salyers of Ragged Edges' post titled "Why I'm Anti-Abortion" is the best one I've seen in a while to address the topic from the standpoint of basic natural law. Choice quote: "To advocate the severing of choices from their consequences is no virtue."

Domo [sigh!] Arigato, Mr. [pant!] Roboto

The Sunday Times of London reports on a fashionable "Bridget Jones"-type blogger in Japan whose love affair with an awkward man who loves robots and dinosaurs is inspiring Japanese women to seek out nerds.

Much of the story of the anonymous blogger who calls herself Artesia and her boyfriend, whom she calls No. 59, is oddly touching. Those romantics of us who are geeks inside—I call myself a nerd in chic clothing—like hearing about a shy boy and shy-ish girl bonding over a shared love not of the Beatles, but of beetles.

But if you read between the lines, the article reveals a sad truth which I believe applies not only to Japanese women, but to Western ones as well.

Start with the boyfriend's nickname, No. 59. Artesia calls him that, writer Leo Lewis explains, because she dated 58 men before him: "She goes on to criticise suitors 1 to 58 as self-centered, and to denounce most Japanese men as utterly disinterested in their women’s lives."

I suppose it's cute that this woman gives her boyfriend a nickname that is a constant reminder of all the men she dated before him, and that she only dated self-centered men before No. 59 changed her life.

Not that I doubt Artesia's stats or her claim that 1 through 58 were self-centered. But her making such a blanket statement against all the men she's ever dated leaves out one important issue: What made her choose men like that?

The answer, according to our culture's present-day, "Desperate Housewives" aesthetic, is that men simply are like that: They're indeed self-centered, and the only heterosexual ones who treat women with respect are geeks.

Now, I have nothing against geeks, nerds, or anyone who finds pleasure in life's minutiae. I myself have been known to obsess on things that others would find boring, like underground train signals. But to suggest that men who socialize well, bathe regularly, and are unable to name all 17 casts of "Star Trek" are by definition self-centered is, well, silly.

When Artesia is saying that she dated 58 self-centered men, what she is really saying is that she was unable to wait for the right one—so she tried to settle. And she tried again, and again, and again.

It's possible that Artesia might have gone through a soul-searching period of personal growth after No. 58—resolving to find interests in life other than dating, and clearing her head and heart in the hope No. 59 would be her final pick. But according to the article, she simply puts all the blame for her long streak of bad relationships on the men she's dated.

I wish Artesia all the best with No. 59, and I applaud her efforts to confer sex appeal on nerds. But when it comes to lessons in love, Artesia's message to women—that they never have to ask themselves, in Neil Young's words, "Why do I keep f---ing up?"—is science fiction.

John Bambenek reveals that Planned Parenthood is "flouting Illinois law for fun and profit." Surely if an organization receiving a quarter-billion dollars in taxpayer funds were giving away morphine, the police would be all over them. But because Planned Parenthood is merely giving away murder medicine, they think they can get away with it. John tells how you can do your part to insure that law enforcement does its job.

This photo is for the benefit of Clinton W. Taylor, who sent me the T-shirt as a thank-you for giving him a telephone interview on his KZSU (Stanford University) radio show—and asked that I send a photo of me in it (for station-publicity purposes, I assume).

Just added a photo of Frank Jump and Kevin Walsh (two entries down).

A couple of commenters answering my question about purgatory (two entries down) refer to J.R.R. Tolkien's story "Leaf By Niggle." I haven't read the story myself, and it's not online, so one would have to go to an actual library (gasp!) or bookstore to find it. On the other hand, for those who do know the story and want to read more about it, there is, of course, a "Leaf By Niggle" fan site.

Signs of the News

I promised some wonderful news today, and I do have wonderful news, though not as much as I'd hoped. The biggest piece of news will have to wait until at least midweek. In the meantime, I'm very happy that the Sunday New York Daily News today has, on page 26, a beautiful photoessay that I coordinated. It's images of "ghost signs"—vintage advertisements painted on the sides of buildings—that I acquired for the paper from Kevin Walsh of Forgotten New York and Frank Jump of the Fading Ad Gallery, accompanied by an essay from Walsh.

UPDATE: Kevin stopped by Frank's gallery today and sends this photo of him (at right) and Frank displaying their News feature. In the background is Frank's stunning photo of an 1890s Reckitt's Blue ad.

Good morning! New posts to come this afternoon, I promise. In the meantime, I'd appreciate your answers to this question: Why should I care about whether purgatory exists? (In fact, I believe that not only does it exist, but I should care—but I can't explain exactly why. Also, keep in mind that I've never been capable of penetrating the works of Dante and possibly never will.) Thanks!