National Review has the text of a proposed Executive Order that would prohibit funding of abortion -- a scheme necessary to get Bark Stupak and other pro-life Democrats on board with the Senate version of health care reform. (Yuval Levin doubts the EO's language "possibly be a draft of actual executive order language" and therefore might only be symoblic.) I entirely endorse Kathryn Jean Lopez's [...]
In the language of our intellectual and cultural elites, we often find repeated phrases that seem to have a life of their own. Like the symptoms of an undiagnosed, contagious disease, these phrases suddenly appear and spread quickly throughout the language of our popular discourse until they, and the assumptions they conceal, are accepted as self-evidently true. It is sometimes difficult to [...]
On Nov. 3, 2009, a United Kingdom judge ruled that Tim Nicholson’s environmental principles qualified as a “philosophical belief” under the 2003 Religion and Belief Regulations. The former head of sustainability from Grainger plc can now sue the company for religious discrimination, as they fired him because of his environmental policies. This treatment of environmentalist views as a religion is indicative of [...]
I am 25 years old, have been married for a year and a half and look forward to having children. I am thrilled to know many friends and acquaintances who have also been discerning, preparing and entering into marriage over the last few years. It is not unusual to discuss having children and natural family planning with them. The underlying understanding for [...]
In “Christianity Lite” (First Things, February 2010), Mary Eberstadt traces the collapse of the mainline Protestant churches to Resolution 15 of the 1930 Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops, which broke with the hitherto universal and constant teaching of the Catholic church against any use of artificial means of contraception. Specifically, Resolution 15 provided that married couples who are faced with [...]
I’m going to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville,” I told my wife Ileen. “Sarah Palin is going to be the keynote speaker.” “Sarah Palin! She’s terrific. Who’s paying for it?” she asked, suspiciously. “The Tea Party people. The Democratic party recommended me highly.” “The Democratic Party!” she exclaimed. “After what you accidentally did to the Democrats telling the whole world [...]
We know that Drew Brees quarterbacked the New Orleans Saints to a Super Bowl victory over the Indianapolis Colts and was named the game’s most valuable player. But there was another quarterback who, on that same day, earned an MVP award for what he did off the field, during the telecast of the game. Tim Tebow is, in the parlance [...]
Recently, in my Sun Media column, I wrote of being invited by a student group at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. to speak on the issue of abortion. I wrote in the column that the organizers of the event were obliged to hire security guards after threats were made to disrupt the event and how these were taken seriously as [...]
Recently, an editor who regularly rejects my articles called me a humorist. I let it pass. Editors have called me worse things. When I was young and busy, I wrote humour for fun, and I sold the odd piece. Now that I’m old and idle, I write humour seriously, and I still sell the odd piece. So I’m keeping up. [...]
There are a few rules about reviewing movies that no one can teach you – that only become evident after you’ve sat through many hundreds of hours of films you probably didn’t enjoy and written reviews that, taken as a whole, provide evidence of a life in the midst of being wasted. Some apply generally to the whole history of moviemaking and [...]
Worst job in the world this weekend? Democrat whip in the House of Representatives. Do they have the votes or don't they? Appears that no one knows, not even Nancy Pelosi. Talks to secure the votes of pro-life Democrats have broken down. The latest rumour is that there could be an executive order with Stupak-like language to satisfy pro-life Democrats. Don't believe it. Barack Obama [...]
Two days after his Foreign Affairs Minister reasserted that contraception and abortion would not be part of the Canadian government's plan for maternal health, Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to have reversed, or perhaps clarified, the government's position on contraception. Harper says that contraception will be included -- maybe. Or perhaps it was always included and it was not properly communicated. It is [...]
Is it any coincidence that the Democrats are pushing for a health care reform vote on the opening weekend of the NCAA men's basketball tournament? To answer my own question, no. After being in power for 14 months and eight months after the first of numerous deadlines, the Democrat leadership insists that reform must be passed this weekend and signed into law before the [...]
Intrade prediction market on whether Obamacare will become law (by June 30, 2010) falls from about $70 yesterday to under $35 today, the lowest point since March 3.
Great news reported on the front page of today's Globe and Mail: The Conservative government has offered an explanation for why it will exclude contraception from its initiative to improve the health of mothers in poor countries: Birth Control doesn't fit with saving lives. In no uncertain terms, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon yesterday ruled out any kind of family-planning programs being included [...]