Month: May 2006

It turns out it’s not that different from my own:

Doctrinally speaking, Ramesh is not an orthodox Catholic. He says he doesn’t understand the proscription of homosexual conduct in Scripture, for instance, telling me that he needs to read more carefully on that subject. Homosexuality is not the only issue on which he parts ways with social conservatives. Ramesh endorses ending the federal war on drugs. He believes in the legalization of marijuana. He sees no vice in casinos. He does not support the Federal Marriage Amendment.

I didn’t realize Ramesh opposed the FMA. Good for him. My bad.

It’s good to see that the MSM are finally reporting that people of faith have varying views on marriage rights for gay couples. The Christianists do not represent all Christians on this matter – or people of many other faiths as well.

A reader writes:

For what it’s worth – and entirely aside from the moral & ethical aspects of first trimester abortion, Plan B, etc., – I just want to add to what you posted.  This NIH study underscores the problems with the rhythm method/Natural Family Planning. Proponents of NFP – be it the Church or secular groups — often seem to assume an awful lot about women’a menstrual cycles, i.e., that they are pretty darn regular. Just about any women can attest that that’s hooey, and that even if their own cycle is fairly regular they know five women whose cycles aren’t (this irregularity is especially prevalent among younger women and teens). We also all know from personal experience how it varies based on, for example, stress and exercise levels that month.

This is probably why NFP, even when followed diligently, has such a high failure rate relative to other methods – I think it’s a stretch that it has a 90% effective rate, as the part you excerpted suggests (hey, my sister is a devout Catholic and is a model user of NFP, and 3 of her 5 kids were "accidents" and every Catholic family I know can tell a similar story). The cynical part of me doubts that today’s NIH would be allowed to release such results…

On a personal note, I’m living proof that NFP doesn’t work. My mother read the calendar wrong, and voila! Or as she once gently put it to me: ‘Your sister was an accident, Andrew, but you were a mistake." And people wonder where I got my tact from.

A reader notes:

Did you see the actual clip of Robertson working out? It shows him leg pressing ‘1000’ pounds. I use quotes because any self-respecting weightlifter would immediately dismiss his ‘leg press.’ First, he does not use a complete range of motion. A proper leg press involves bending your knees to at least a 90 degree angle so that you are able to work your butt muscle along with your quads, hamstrings, and calves. Second, he kept using his arms to help push the weight up. That is blatant cheating. Your arms should be at your side or folded across your chest, not pushing your legs!

So he cheated in pressing 1,000 lbs. Now how about the 2000?

Clarke County, Virginia, Blue Ridge Hunt Spring Trail Ride, 8.50 am.

Accra, Ghana, mid-morning.

According to the theocons, a human being exists from the "moment" two people’s DNA merge in conception. The womb is therefore a natural killing field for countless human beings who never make it past conception to implantation, let alone further along the birth process. This is why the Christianists want to ban the morning-after pill, because they see it as a form of abortion, because it makes it much harder for an embryo to implant in the uterine wall. The Catholic church, however, supports the "rhythm method" for birth control, where a couple only has sex outside a woman’s fertile period, when the uterine wall is less receptive to new embryos. What’s the difference? A new paper argues: none at all. Money quote:

"Even a policy of practising condom usage and having an abortion in case of failure would cause less embryonic deaths than the rhythm method," writes Luc Bovens, of the London School of Economics, in the Journal of Medical Ethics… As many as 50% of conceptions may not survive long enough even to disrupt menstruation, Bovens says. It is reasonable to assume then, he adds, that embryos created from sperm that has been sitting for days within the female’s reproductive tract before ovulation may be disadvantaged.
The situation is similar, he suggests, for eggs that have been waiting around for sperm to arrive. These are the only two likely scenarios where fertilisation might occur using the rhythm method, he points out.
These embryos may then face a less-than-ideal uterine lining, he points out, since the uterus is not as receptive outside of the most fertile period.
Bovens calculates that, if the rhythm method is 90% effective, and if conceptions outside the fertile period are about twice as likely to fail as to survive, then "millions of rhythm method cycles per year globally depend for their success on massive embryonic death".

Is the Pope facilitating a holocaust? By his own logic, perhaps. Mr Ponnuru, call your office.

There is a God.

Gillingham, Kent, England, 3.10 pm.

W does hip-hop. Funny video. Or as one commenter put it:

 Funny as Foshizzle, DA prez b a monkeyizzle. peace out.