Sunny with a high of 95?

Mr Saletan has an interesting challenge for those of challenging political persuasions:

• "I'm not ruling out water-boarding. But before you tell your pals around the water cooler that it's a vital interrogation tool or that the bastards deserve it, check out one of the demonstrations posted on the Internet, such as the waterboarding of Slate and Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens. You can also read David J. Morris' firsthand account of a water-boarding, published here six months ago.

The same goes for any other violent or lethal practice you countenance from the comfort of your desk. Capital punishment? Watch an execution. Eating meat? Check out a slaughterhouse. Abortion? Peruse the video library or, if the pregnancy is yours, look at an ultrasound. And don't think that opposing these practices insulates you from the same responsibility. If you think capital punishment is never warranted, acquaint yourself with the handiwork of a few murderers. Before you defund international family-planning agencies, meet some malnourished children."

Also, I know Japan is creepy but this guy with a pillow takes it to a new extreme [caution, some medically accurate terminology.] Another tour de force of Japanese culture: RapeLay. "Players earn points for acts of sexual violence, including stalking girls on commuter trains, raping virgins and their mothers, and forcing females to get abortions, according to the group's online statement." Rah rah Captialism!

One of the most powerful videos you may ever see...And I mean powerful

As someone who was obviously in DC for the first 100 days of the reign of Obama, this little illustration made me laugh quite heartily.

Even I, staunch Catholic conservative that I am, have been surprised at the legs the Obama/ND story has gotten. Mary Ann Glendon's decision to not accept the Laetarae Medal went slightly unnoticed in the media, but I thought this column was one of the more thoughtful mainstream pieces I've read on the subject in the past couple weeks.

During one of my last nights in DC, Mythbusters came on and I was shellshocked at how simply amazing this is.


Finally, I came across this piece while doing research for one of my papers, I came across an article that brought back the good old days of impeachment: "I'd be happy to give him [oral sex] just to thank him for keeping abortion legal," [Nina Burleigh, former Time White House correspondent] said. "No doubt the president's lawyers and spin doctors would say I wishfully imagined that long, appreciative look," she writes. "But we all know when we're being ogled. . . . I felt incandescent. It was riveting to know that the president had appreciated my legs, scarred as they were. If he had asked me to continue the game of hearts back in his room at the Jasper Holiday Inn, I would have been happy to go there and see what happened."

Attack of the Linx! [Part III]

These are mainly things I want to get back to reading tomorrow or at a certain point.

"Red Sex, Blue Sex"

"Thank God America Isn't Like Europe -- Yet"

"But Enough About You..."

"Weekend Opinionator: Obama's Communication Breakdown"

"An Open Letter to Fr John I Jenkins, C S C, President of the University of Notre Dame"

The last one is my own contribution :)

I like to worry about the future.

I've been meaning to post this Slate article from October for a while on Prenatal tests, genetics, and abortion by William Saletan, of whom I'm not a huge fan. I keep telling myself I'm going to update my ND Web site and put my bioperfectionism essay up there for some bed time reading, and that will be announced when it's ready...The convalescence period after my wisdom teeth extraction today may help towards that goal.

Speaking of the pursuit of technological utopia, I'm reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, which is generally regarded as the one of the trio of dystopias written in the first half of the Twentieth Century along with Brave New World and 1984. My favorite is still BNW, and so far We is coming in a close third. They're all interesting for each author's take on what he thought the best avenue to curtail freedom - Zamyatin is similar to Huxley in a view of a government taking power by eliminating the link between sex and reproduction and emptying it of any meaning. But we're not anywhere near that, are we?

While recovering, I'm watching South Carolina-Kentucky in the Liberty Bowl on ESPN360.com and for halftime they're doing a human interest on Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt who felt called by God to adopt a girl named Anya from Ukraine who suffers from a facial deformity called Proteus syndrome. In the documentary, she tells the ESPN reporter that "It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, it's matter your heart is like on the inside." ....Amen. "For you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the children."