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!

Finding consumer equillibrium for babies?

Some people don't have enough: "Dr Zavos said yesterday that this was just the "first chapter" in his ongoing and serious attempts at producing a baby cloned from the skin cells of its "parent"...Little Cady died aged 10 in a car crash in the US. Her blood cells were frozen and sent to Dr Zavos, who fused them with cow eggs to create cloned human-animal hybrid embryos." Some people have too many: "The pregnancy was unexpected, and for one 32-year-old single mother in Syracuse, New York, the ailing economy became a factor in her decision to have an abortion." (funny story: the first time I saw that article, there was a picture of an ultrasound attached...It's gone now...)

On a lighter note, this type of thing is one more reason why I so enjoy baseball...What nerds. But how cool :) And there's nothing like thrift in government to inspire the citizenry. Obama has pledged to cut $100 million from his $3.4 billion budget. The one and only Greg Mankiw puts in perspective:

• "[I]magine that the head of a household with annual spending of $100,000 called everyone in the family together to deal with a $34,000 budget shortfall. How much would he or she announce that spending had to be cut? By $3 over the course of the year--approximately the cost of one latte at Starbucks. The other $33,997? We can put that on the family credit card and worry about it next year."
  

But have no fear, says Roger Simon: "In the future, because of Janet Napolitano, may her name forever be praised, our executive branch will buy its office supplies in bulk."

Lastly, this article was handed out by our "development" (read: fund-raising) crew today...Read it. It gets a little creepy: "See if you can adopt the same breathing pattern as your prospect. In doing so, it is helpful to observe the rise and fall of your prospect's chest or shoulders for cues. Of course, use your peripheral vision to do this so you are always maintaining eye contact. Synchronized breathing between you and your prospect is such a subtle thing, yet people really pick up on it." Creeped out right about now.

Just Dance?

Proving for once and for all (one hopes) the age-old saying about books and covers: Presenting Susan Boyle.

Saletan summarizes a British Medical Journal piece recapping stuff we've heard before, but the numbers bear repeating: 124 boys born to every girl. 32 million more males under age 25 than girls. Why? "Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males."

Gallup has a treasure-trove of social science polling data on its site, none particularly inspiring. To wit:

• "Attendance among Roman Catholics dropped from 75% to 45%" from 1955 to the present day. "Whatever the causes, it is clear that U.S. Catholics' once-nearly uniform obedience to their church's requirement of weekly mass attendance has faded, and Catholics are now no different from Protestants in their likelihood to attend church."

• In a similar (and I don't think unrelated) vein, "Despite the Roman Catholic Church's official opposition to abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, a Gallup analysis finds almost no difference between rank-and-file American Catholics and American non-Catholics in terms of finding the two issues morally acceptable."

[Click to see full polls.] More probably to come as I come across them.