Is Mike Huckabee the "Real Article"?

Will Mike Huckabee emerge as the "values voters" candidate for the primary election season? Carl Leubsdorf, the Washington Bureau chief for the Dallas Morning News, suggests he's the only "real article" available. Here's the column.

Going After Planned Parenthood

National anti-abortion leaders yesterday put finishing touches on a letter to be sent to all members of Congress urging suspension of more than $300 million in federal funding of Planned Parenthood until a criminal case brought in Kansas against the abortion-rights organization is settled. That launches an attack against the nation's largest purveyor of "reproductive health care," including abortions.

On Oct. 16, Kansas District Judge James F. Vano reviewed a 107-count grand-jury indictment against Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri Inc. and decided there was "probable cause" to proceed. Allegations of unlawful late-term abortions and other abortion-connected crimes were brought by Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline, a pro-life hero viewed as a fanatic by abortion-rights advocates. The prosecution alleges violation of state and federal laws and falsification of documents to justify it.

This opens a new front in the endless abortion wars. No change in the status quo had seemed possible for the pro-lifers. The 5 to 4 Supreme Court advantage for abortion is frozen, and a Democratic Congress won't pass new anti-abortion legislation, much less a constitutional amendment. The offensive against abortion now takes dead aim at Planned Parenthood and attempts to expand a Kansas criminal prosecution into a nationwide assault...

Read the rest of Bob Novak's New York Post column right here.

Hillary Clinton: Fabulist, Fraud and Felon -- Let's Go to the Videotape!

Check out this rough-cut trailer of Hillary Exposed: The Case of Paul vs Clinton. It's a remarkable video detailing just one example of the Clinton machine's power lust and the injustices it is willing to commit in pursuit of that power. In the Paul case, this leads to specific felonies, political corruption, election fraud, suppression of evidence, and a basketful of lies.

Here's the video.

Watch it and then pass on the link to your friends, family, and Christmas card list.

Reunited and It Feels So Good: Labor Unions & the Religious Left

Steven Malanga, the senior editor of City Journal and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has written a most illuminating essay about the formidable alliance now developing between labor unions and the Religious Left. Malanga explains that this fraternization isn't really new, reminding us of the impact of Walter Rauschenbusch and the Social Gospel movement of the 19th Century. However, there is definitely new energy, new motivations and, with the recent fragmenting among evangelical conservatives, a fresh sense of opportunity being felt by the old guard denominations. True, their "progressive" thinking on theological and cultural matters may be causing their congregations to dwindle away, but liberal clergy are finding new sources of approbation, encouragement and assistance from fellow-travelers in the unions and mainstream media.

Malanga cites specific examples of this new collaboration including "Seminary Summer", actions against Wal-Mart, and the resurgence of a John Sweeney favorite, “Labor in the Pulpits.” It's a fascinating, important piece and one which certainly relates to the MSM's recent promotions of the Religious Left. You can (and should) read the article in its entirety but here are a couple of excerpts:

...The Sweeney-led AFL-CIO re-energized the old alliance. Soon after he took office, the AFL-CIO launched “Labor in the Pulpits,” a program that encouraged churches and synagogues to invite union leaders to preach the virtues of organized labor and tout its political agenda. Labor in the Pulpits has steadily expanded: nearly 1,000 congregations in 100 cities nationwide now take part annually. Sweeney himself has preached from the pulpit of Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral, urging congregants to join antiglobalization protests in the capital. In Los Angeles, caravans of union activists have visited black churches on Labor Day Sunday, dispensing contributions from union locals. San Jose union leaders, seeing amnesty for illegal aliens as a way to garner new recruits, have asked churchgoers to support it. And in Des Moines, a vice president of the United Steelworkers told a Methodist congregation: “In America today, the pursuit of profits takes precedence over the pursuit of justice—and working families are suffering the consequences.”

Under the auspices of Labor in the Pulpits, clerics in America’s mainstream churches—Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians—have composed guidelines for union-friendly sermons and litanies, as well as inserts for church bulletins that promote union legislation. One insert, distributed in 2006, asked congregants to pray for a federal minimum-wage hike and also—if the prayers didn’t work, presumably—to contact their congressional representatives. Another recent one encouraged churchgoers to arrange home viewings of an anti-Wal-Mart documentary, to stop shopping at the retail giant, and to patronize Costco, a unionized competitor. A 2005 insert urged congregants to lobby Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act—controversial legislation that would let unions organize firms merely by getting workers to sign authorizing cards, rather than by conducting secret ballots, as is currently required.

Unions are also cultivating the next generation of church leaders. “Seminary Summer,” an initiative created with the Chicago-based, union-supported Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), arranges for seminarians to spend the summer months working with union locals. “Within three years most of these students will be in leadership positions in congregations,” predicted IWJ head Kim Bobo shortly after the program began in 2000. Since then, some 200 seminarians have helped unionize Mississippi poultry workers, aided the Service Employees International Union in organizing Georgia public-sector employees, and bolstered campaigns for living-wage legislation in California municipalities.

Seminary Summer seems to be sparking considerable enthusiasm among participants. “Before Seminary Summer, I had been leery, even suspicious, of labor unions,” remarked Lori Peterson of Loyola University, a 2006 enrollee. But afterward, she said, “I began to believe in the labor movement again. The training gave me a new perspective on unions and how important they are to creating equality and justice.” Chicago Divinity School student Beau Underwood, who took part in 2007, is equally fervent. “One staple of a union organizer’s toolbox is the bullhorn and I love it,” he noted on his blog. “One of the very first days I led chants during an early-morning hotel picket line. Just today, I ‘bullhorned’ at customers of a hotel being boycotted by the union.”...

Some of America’s most venerable Protestant denominations have thrown their institutional weight behind the new alliance with labor. More than 100 religious organizations support IWJ financially, including the National Council of Churches of the USA (NCC), an umbrella organization of nearly 40 mainstream Christian denominations. Key NCC members such as the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Episcopal Church are particularly active. Though it was founded in 1950 to promote ecumenical cooperation, the NCC has become a clearinghouse for religious participation in left-wing causes. Heavily funded by liberal groups like the Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation, during the 2004 national elections the NCC organized the Let Justice Roll campaign, which focused on voter registration drives in Democratic areas, and it renewed the campaign in 2006, this time with an emphasis on helping statewide groups pass referenda raising the minimum wage.

The new alliance between labor and religion also enjoys the powerful backing of the Catholic Church, whose American hierarchy, though often conservative on social issues, is firmly left-wing in its economic views. Several dozen major Catholic groups—including the Catholic Conference of Bishops, Catholic Charities, and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles—contribute financially to interfaith workers’ groups and assist their lobbying efforts. At a national conference, Bishop Gabino Zavala of L.A. went so far as to compare labor leaders with Old Testament prophets, praising them for “bringing the same conviction, ideals, passion, commitment to justice, energy for human rights, and sense of mission to their bold words and actions, to their union organizing and coalition building.”

Having established itself in many places as the moral authority on economic issues, the resurgent Religious Left has brought back the fiery redistributionist language of the social gospel. Despite decades of economic progress that have reduced unemployment levels to record lows and made America a magnet for opportunity-seeking immigrants, clerical anticapitalism increasingly echoes Rauschenbusch’s old notion that “it is hard to get riches with justice.” Leading clergy have depicted the free market as a vast, exploitative force, controlled by a small group of godless power brokers for their own gain. Speaking to a national conference of religious and labor leaders, IWJ’s copresident, the Reverend Nelson Johnson, called for America to save itself from “its own arrogance, its selfishness and greed” and admonished an elite “wallowing in the obscenity of massive unearned wealth.” In a scriptural reflection distributed for Labor in the Pulpits this year, the Reverend Darren Wood, a Methodist and the author of Blue Collar Jesus, criticized “the gluttony of the wealthy and the abusive powers of corporations” and declared that Christ envisioned “an alternate economy of equality.” To achieve that egalitarian vision, the IWJ’s Bobo recently pronounced, America needs a “redistribution” to “shift wealth from a few to working families.”...

English Abortion Pioneer: No Regrets Despite Dramatic Escalation

The architect of the law governing abortions in Britain said the procedure was too common and that he never expected the number of terminations to rise to their current levels, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Lord David Steel, who introduced the 1967 Abortion Act, which provided a legal defense to doctors performing the procedure, told The Guardian newspaper some women were using abortions as a form of birth control. "Everybody can agree that there are too many abortions," The Guardian quoted him as saying.

"I accept that there is a mood now which is that if things go wrong you can get an abortion, and it is irresponsible, really. I think people should be a bit more responsible in their activities, and in particular in the use of contraception."

The number of legal abortions in England and Wales has been on the rise since the 1970s and the number of terminations topped 200,000 for the first time last year, according to government statistics.

Steel told the paper he had no regrets about the law, adding that he did not support efforts to restrict access to abortions. But he called for better sex education and a new debate over Britain's sexual mores to help bring the number of abortions down...

He's Got the Attention; He's Got the Nobel Prize; Al Gore Just Doesn't Have the Facts

The world has become such a difficult and dangerous place that I am deeply appreciative of recent amusing events, which seem as if they were written by the Marx Brothers or Monty Python. I have in mind, it should go without saying, Al Gore winning both an Academy Award and the Nobel Peace Prize. The very sentence sounds like a punch line. But I can't quite figure out who is supposed to be the butt of the joke. I rather suspect that he has one more award to come -- the trifecta of absurdism. Perhaps he will be pronounced the world's greatest jockey or the world's most graceful dancer. It only makes sense, given Al Gore's acknowledged role in bringing the Internet to humanity. Whatever the award, the world will receive it with the same demeanor it displayed in appreciating the emperor's new clothes several centuries ago.

It is hard to say which of Al Gore's awards seems more improbable: his Academy Award, although he does not possess a single skill required for filmmaking, or his Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming, although he has no technical skills in that area and he has misled the world profoundly as to the danger. It just goes to show how good life can be once you officially are designated a victim of George W. Bush. Once Gore lost the 2000 election (before which he was scorned and mocked by the liberal world), the world fell over itself, showering him with wealth and honor. If only he could arrange to lose another election to a Republican, he could be chosen Pope, Homecoming King and Soapbox Derby champion.

Before reviewing Gore's various inanities that won him the Nobel, it is worth taking a look at one of his related projects: carbon offsets. As chairman and founder of Generation Investment Management, a firm that purchases carbon dioxide offsets, Gore stands to profit further from what he sees as mankind's misery -- which is OK by me. I'm glad to see he finally has developed the capitalist instinct (like his dad did with Occidental Petroleum and Armand Hammer).

But carbon offsets are a rather strange concept. Let me use a simple metaphor to explain it: Let's suppose that Al Gore goes to an Italian restaurant and eats a loaf of garlic bread, a plate of lasagna, a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, an extra-large pizza with seven toppings, a couple bottles of Chianti and a large assortment of pastries. As a result, he puts on 10 pounds. But he is deeply concerned that mankind is getting too fat. So he pays 10 peasants in Asia $10 each to eat nothing for a week. Although they are already thin, by starving themselves for a week, they each lose a pound. As a result, after a week, mankind is weight neutral. Al Gore weighs 10 pounds more, 10 Asians weigh 10 pounds less -- and Al Gore is given another Nobel Peace Prize for his leadership in keeping mankind's waistline in check.

Of course, this example is not quite fair to Gore because that imagined humanitarianism actually "costs" him cash money. In the real carbon offset business, he looks forward to being paid for directing other carbon consumers to invest in carbon neutral projects. Although when Gore personally is using carbon, as when he flies in a carbon-belching Gulfstream, one of his companies would pay some other fella not to fly or plant a tree or do something to offset Gore's carbon belching...

Read the rest of Tony Blankley's too-funny (but too-true) column right here.

Belarus Compared to Communist East Germany

After meeting with Belarusian Prime Minister Syarhey Sidorski in Minsk on October 23, Matthias Platzeck (photo at left), the minister-president of the eastern German state of Brandenburg, concluded that Belarus was hauntingly similar to East Germany under Soviet Communist domination.

"Nothing is prohibited, but everything is made impossible. So we knew that sort of thing too."

(Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 23)

Do Atheists Make Bad Neighbors?

A new Canadian survey has found that believers are more likely than atheists to place a higher value on love, patience and friendship, in findings the researcher says could be a warning that Canadians need a religious basis to retain civility in society.

The survey of 1,600 Canadian adults, led by University of Lethbridge professor Reginald Bibby, gave a list of 12 values - from honesty to family life to politeness to generosity - and asked the participants if they found each "very important." In each case, theists ranked the values as more important than atheists.

The reason for this, suggests Prof. Bibby, a prominent sociologist, is that those who are involved with religious groups are being exposed to a whole range of values that are not being propagated well by any other major source. "To the extent that people are not involved in religious groups ... they're not being exposed to those interpersonal values and they're simply not holding them as strongly," Prof. Bibby said in an interview.

The study says: "To the extent that Canadians are saying good-bye to God, we may find that we pay a significant social price."

He said people who are believers are encouraged ­- whether by a desire to please God, or because of a fear of God - to adopt these values. "If you don't have that as a major source in the culture then what will be the source? I think that's where we've been really superficial ... we've really been underestimating the contribution religious groups can make." Prof. Bibby describes himself as a believer in God who holds many of the values that the theists in his survey value. But he has no particular religious identity beyond saying he is a Protestant and describes his own family as being secularized. He acknowledged that many non-believers still place a high value on morality and ethics. But he said some of that is a legacy from previous generations who held deeper religious views...

On Drowning Polar Bears and Other Green Myths

My friend, Stuart Cunliffe, over in Manchester, England tipped me to the blog run by Melanie Phillips (photo at right), the conservative British author, columnist and political cynosure. I'm most grateful he did and I'm pleased to pass on the recommendation. A good start is her entry titled, "The Green Inquisition" that I print below. But I think you'll find nearly all of her commentaries provocative and worthwhile. The new home for Melanie Phillips Diary is the Spectator (U.K.) and it's right here.

Thank goodness for David Bellamy. In a glorious piece in the Times, he rips into the global warming scam with unrivalled brio — and with deserved contempt and fury for those who have turned science into the enemy of reason and sought to suppress the truth through a campaign of vilification and intimidation. Over and over again he brings forward elementary facts which directly contradict or fatally undermine the misleading claims and sometimes totally bent predictions of man-made global warming catastrophe which masquerade as ‘research’.

One reason why these charlatans have got away with it until now is their claim of a ‘scientific consensus’ that the case for man-made global warming is now established beyond doubt. But as Bellamy observes: "...the self-proclaimed consensus among scientists has detached itself from the questioning rigours of hard science and become a political cause."

And in any event, this ‘consensus’ is as much of an illusion as Al Gore’s drowning polar bears: "A recent survey of Klaus-Martin Schulte, of Kings College Hospital, of all papers on the subject of climate change that were published between 2004 and February of 2007 found that only 7 per cent explicitly endorsed a ‘so-called consensus’ position that man-made carbon dioxide is causing catastrophic global warming. What is more, James Lovelock, the author and green guru, has changed his mind: he recently stated that neither Earth nor the human race is doomed."

World saved! The consensus argument is of course in itself absurd. Even if this famed consensus existed, it would prove nothing except the unlimited capacity of people to fall into line when their livelihoods are at stake. The ‘scientific consensus’ has been proved wrong over and over again; it was not long ago that it was proclaiming with the same certainty that the planet was about to freeze to extinction.

What matters is not that very grand people with lots of letters after their names all agree to a proposition, but whether that proposition is actually true. The priesthood of experts gets away with spouting undiluted bilge because people are easily intimidated by their aura of intellectual invincibility. But however arcane their area of expertise, whatever they say still has to correspond to the basic requirements of evidence, logic, consistency and rationality. In those areas, the judgment of ordinary people is as good as anyone’s. And that judgment (backed up by countless scientists whose voices have been all but drowned out) says we are being played for suckers. Green ones.

Also, while you're making your first visit to Melanie Phillips' blog, check out her entry on the superbugs being bred by hospitals and clinics unconcerned about efficient sterilization procedures. Scary stuff.

Fred Thompson: Keep the Government Out of Euthanasia Cases

The original Associated Press story is simple and brief (I reprint it below) but there are a few other angles on the matter, most notably from the New York Times, ABC News, and the Baltimore Sun.

The bottom line? Thompson, if President, would not direct the government to intervene even in a case like Terri Schiavo's where the patient's basic right to life was being refused. That's certainly not the kind of message that will draw pro-life advocates to Thompson's camp, especially given their awareness of the ever-broadening scope of the euthanasia movement.

Republican Fred Thompson has previously sidestepped questions about the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. Yesterday the former Tennessee senator said he's uncomfortable discussing it because of his own daughter's death.

Thompson was asked about the case in Florida, where is occurred and where it is still a major issue. He said it was an intensely personal issue. Thompson said the decisions need to be made by the family -- and the federal and state government should stay out of it.

Thompson's daughter, Elizabeth "Betsy" Thompson Panici, died in 2002 of an accidental drug overdose. She died six days after being brought unconscious to a hospital emergency room.

Rush's Little Brother Enters the Fray

David Limbaugh gives a quick review of the sordid, shameful anti-Americanism of the left (including that demonstrated by so many of the leading Democrat politicians) with a couple of specific observations of Harry Reid's failed smear of David's big brother. A good read.

What Can Bobby Jindal Teach the G.O.P.?

Louisiana has always been a strange place. This is, after all, the state that once elected a convicted felon (former Gov. Edwin Edwards) over former KKK leader David Duke on the strength of the sentiment expressed on an Edwards bumper sticker: “Vote for the crook. It’s important.”

The state patterns its justice system on Napoleonic Law. Its major city sits below sea level. Its history is steeped in a weird combination of influences: French, Spanish, Catholicism, voodoo. Over the years, the state has spawned a bizarre parade of corrupt politicos, from die-hard socialists like Huey and Earl Long to committed incompetents like Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco — Democrats all.

But something amazing has happened in Louisiana. Bobby Jindal has been elected governor. Jindal, a 36-year-old Republican whose Indian parents came to the United States mere months before their son was born, was raised a Hindu but later converted to Christianity, becoming a Catholic as a teenager. He is pro-life, pro-family, conservative to his core and committed to cleaning up the corruption that has permeated Louisiana politics for at least a hundred years.

This man is the first non-white to be elected governor of Louisiana since reconstruction, and the first Indian American to be elected to a governorship in the history of the country. A brilliant student who went on to be a Rhodes Scholar, Jindal became head of Louisiana’s Health and Human Services Department at the tender age of 24. Four years ago, in 2003, Jindal was defeated for governor by Kathleen Blanco. He went on to win a congressional seat in a landslide in 2004. He was reelected by an even larger margin (88 percent) in 2006, a supposedly Democrat year.

So what does Bobby Jindal’s election as Louisiana’s governor say about the future of GOP politics? As Bill Krystol, editor of “The Weekly Standard” and a Fox News commentator, has said, this is very good news for Republicans.

“He’s a very impressive guy,” Krystol said. “It’s awfully good news for Republicans. Haley Barbour, the Republican governor of Mississippi, one of the two states worst hit (by Hurricane Katrina), is going to get reelected with a huge margin, and the other state which had an incompetent Democratic governor, has now elected a Republican to replace her. Republicans who make a good case for themselves can do well.”

Republicans who make a good case for themselves can do well. That statement should be taken to heart by every GOP candidate, campaign manager, speechwriter, press secretary and consultant running for any office next year. And the way to make a good case for themselves is to run as unabashed conservatives...

Read the rest of Doug Patton's insightful exhortation right here.

Media, Science Establishment Are Irresponsible In Ignoring Abortion/Breast Cancer Link: Women's Lives Are At Stake

One of the articles I missed while teaching in Belarus the past few weeks is this op-ed column written by Dennis Byrne and published in the Chicago Tribune. It is a good one and especially relevant for despite all the media attention arising from Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the links to abortion continue to be rejected, covered up or ignored altogether. An excerpt of Byrne's article is printed below.

During National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it is fitting and proper that women be informed about any newly discovered dangers, even as the public groans under the weight of all the warnings surrounding the mere act of living.

For example, a well-researched Chicago Tribune story last week disclosed that women who have just a couple of alcoholic drinks daily increase their breast cancer risk by 13 percent. Coincidentally, a new study reported that abortion is an important breast cancer risk factor, yet I couldn't find a word describing the research in mainstream media.

How to explain this disparity? I'll be vigorously advised that "most" studies disprove an abortion-breast cancer link. Or that the study in question appeared in a "conservative" scientific journal. Or that the study is bogus or unimportant. Or, more rudely, that the whole breast cancer argument has been concocted by anti-abortion rights advocates to make women afraid to have abortions. The issue is dead, I'll be notified. Kaput. Here I would remind critics that in science it's not who says it or how many say it that counts. What does count are the data and the rigor with which they are collected, analyzed and held up to a scientifically credible hypothesis.

So let's look at the science of this latest study, which appeared in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. Using statistical techniques and reliable national health data, the study of eight European countries found, to a statistically significant degree, that the incidence of breast cancer increases with the incidence of earlier abortions. The researcher, Patrick Carroll, used the same mathematical model employed in a 1997 study that predicted with extraordinary accuracy breast cancer increases in England and Wales from 1998 to 2004. Using that model, Carroll predicts that countries with higher abortion rates -- England and Wales -- could expect a troubling increase in breast cancer rates. The Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, where abortion rates are lower, should experience a smaller increase. And in Denmark and Finland, where abortion rates have declined, cancer rates should similarly decline...

Thanks to Dr. Greg Gardner in Birmingham, England, for pointing out this important piece.

Romney's On A Roll

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign received some very big breaks this last weekend -- the expiration of Sam Brownback's bid; a victory in the Family Research Council straw poll; and the securing of an endorsement from one of the pro-life movement's most venerable leaders, Dr. John Willke (shown at left).

Willke had been an ardent supporter of Senator Brownback. But now, the former president of National Right to Life and still a major influence in the movement, has gone so far as to say he will actively promote Romney in Ohio and beyond.

Willke...says he based his endorsement of the former Massachusetts governor on his record in office. "Unlike other candidates who only speak to the importance of confronting the major social issues of the day, Governor Romney has a record of action in defending life," he said in a statement sent to LifeNews.com.

"Every decision he made as Governor was on the side of life. I know he will be the strong pro-life President we need in the White House," Willke added. "Governor Romney is the only candidate who can lead our pro-life and pro-family conservative movement to victory in 2008."

The GOP presidential contender said he was thrilled to receive Willke's endorsement. "I am proud to have the support of a man who has meant so much to the pro-life movement in our country," Governor Romney said.

"He knows how important it is to have someone in Washington who will actively promote pro-life policies," Romney added. "Policies that include more than appointing judges who will follow the law but also opposing taxpayer funded abortion and partial birth abortion."

Willke joins National Right to Life legal counsel Jim Bopp in supporting the Romney campaign, though the organization itself has yet to make a presidential endorsement.

Heterodoxy - Doubt - Sexual Confusion: Harry Potter Author's "Christianity" Is Modern Anglicanism

There are many stories available today dealing with J.K. Rowling's bombshell announcement that one of the central characters of her Harry Potter novels was a homosexual but I've found the articles from the college papers especially interesting. Here's one from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst); and here's another from the Berkeley campus rag containing this noteworthy observation: "And just like that, Rowling gave the middle finger to the religious right. All those parents so concerned over the negative influence of the “Harry Potter” series now have something else to fear."

But the most concise report I found came from The Daily Texan, UT Austin's newspaper:

This past Friday, J.K. Rowling dropped a bombshell. Revealing to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall that the wise Hogwarts headmaster and mentor to Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, is gay, Rowling shocked both the audience and the world.

At a stop on her highly publicized open book tour, Rowling read a section of the last book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" before addressing questions from the audience. One question came from a young boy asking whether Dumbledore ever found true love.

With absolutely no hesitation Rowling replied, "Dumbledore is gay." The audience went into gasps and applause as Rowling continued to explain the mysterious backstory of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore was obsessed with his arch rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he was forced to fight and defeat long ago in a battle between good and bad. Rowling says that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down. Falling in love can blind us to an extent." She went on to explain that Dumbledore's "great tragedy" was his love.

There are no references to Dumbledore's sexuality in the books, but Rowling did say that if you read between the lines in book seven, there are some underlying clues that would give him away. She said that she had to inform the screenwriters of the sixth film of the "coming out" because they had created a semi-love interest with a woman in the film, and Rowling would have nothing to do with that.

After the Q&A was complete, a quick poll was revealed showing mass support for Dumbledore's newfound sexuality.

Just a week earlier, Rowling had shared another secret with the media; namely, that the Harry Potter series were Christian literature. Hmm. Naturally, this didn't carry anything like the news interest the current story has produced. But still, if you want a fuller picture of what's been going on in J.K. Rowlings head, you'll want to look at this MTV report by Shawn Adler. Read closely, though, and I think you'll see that Rowlings' understanding of Christianity is marked by the same distinctives as modern Anglicanism itself: heterodoxy, doubt and, as the revelation about the Albus Dumbledore character shows, a sad rejection of the Bible's teaching on sexuality.

Harry Potter is followed by house-elves and goblins — not disciples — but for the sharp-eyed reader, the biblical parallels are striking. Author J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" books have always, in fact, dealt explicitly with religious themes and questions, but until "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," they had never quoted any specific religion.

That was the plan from the start, Rowling told reporters during a press conference at the beginning of her Open Book Tour on Monday. It wasn't because she was afraid of inserting religion into a children's story. Rather, she was afraid that introducing religion (specifically Christianity) would give too much away to fans who might then see the parallels.

"To me [the religious parallels have] always been obvious," she said. "But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going."

Indeed, at its most simplistic, Harry's final tale can in some respects be boiled down to a resurrection story, with Harry venturing to a heavenly way station of sorts after getting hit with a killing curse in Chapter 35, only to shortly return...

But while the book begins with a quote on the immortal soul — and though Harry finds peace with his own death at the end of his journey — it is the struggle itself which mirrors Rowling's own, the author said.

"The truth is that, like Graham Greene, my faith is sometimes that my faith will return. It's something I struggle with a lot," she revealed. "On any given moment if you asked me [if] I believe in life after death, I think if you polled me regularly through the week, I think I would come down on the side of yes — that I do believe in life after death. [But] it's something that I wrestle with a lot. It preoccupies me a lot, and I think that's very obvious within the books."

That, by the author's own acknowledgement, "Harry Potter" deals extensively with Christian themes may be somewhat ironic, considering that many Christian leaders have denounced the series for glamorizing witchcraft. When he was known simply as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Pope himself condemned the books, writing that their "subtle seductions, which act unnoticed ... deeply distort Christianity in the soul before it can grow properly."

For her part, Rowling said she's proud to be on numerous banned-book lists. As for the protests of some believers? Well, she doesn't take them as gospel.

"I go to church myself," she declared. "I don't take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Roe v. Wade's Legacy

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said today that even if the court's Roe v. Wade decision is reversed, it has paved the way for permanent women's access to abortion...

Ginsburg said, "I do not believe the court's overruling Roe v. Wade -- which I don't think will happen -- will prevent women of means from accessing an abortion. It will have a devastating impact on poor women." She spoke to a crowd of about 500 at Atlanta's Ahavath Achim synagogue.

Ginsburg said divisive issues such as abortion underscore the need for a strong and vigorous minority, especially with the recent rightward tilt of the 9-member court. She said some dissents are aimed at swaying the opinions of her fellow judges while others are "an appeal to the intelligence of another day" in the hopes that it will provide guidance to future courts.

The "another day" in Justice Ginsburg's future which she should really be concerned about is the day when she will face judgment for her arrogant promotion of child-killing. Thus, my prayer for Justice Ginsburg today is that she finally look up to see the righteousness of Almighty God and thus learn how utterly foolish and wicked has been her dedication to abortion. And as she repents, may she discover the grace of God richly and freely available through the blood of Jesus Christ Who suffered and died to pay for the sins of all mankind...including all of hers.

Al Gore's Strange (Even for the Nobel Committee) Prize

Check out Christopher Horner's commentary on Al Gore's receipt of the Nobel Prize. Funny, sad and wildly ironic all at the same time.

ABC News Shills for Abortion Industry

This piece from ABC News deals with Johnson County (Kansas) District Attorney Phill Kline and his attempts to make Planned Parenthood and other abortionists obey existing laws regarding health and safety standards, reporting of sexual assaults on minors, and so on.

Good topic.

But the story is a classic example of not only the predictable slant of the MSM towards abortion rights but of its paranoia of even the most prudent and practical regulations of the abortion industry.

And note the ironic title of the piece, Could One Man Influence Abortion Law? Uh huh; as if actions by one man (and one woman) judges striking down legislation, popular referendums and presidential actions haven't already influenced and, in fact, entrenched abortion practices.

O praeclarum custodem ovium lupum! This ancient adage of Cicero's is perfectly apt of the modern media.

In English?

An excellent protector of sheep, the wolf!

Denny Is Back from Minsk

Denny is back! After a much-delayed flight out of Chicago, he finally landed in Omaha last night. He has many stories to tell and is anxious to get back to blogging but he needs some sleep after being up for over 24 hours. He will return on Monday to a full blogging schedule.

Senator Coburn Continues to Battle Earmarks

Would the Democratic-controlled Senate approve a $1 million earmark to celebrate Woodstock-era baby boomers, carved out of a bill funding health care and education? It would because it is sponsored by New York's influential senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. It would because they promote the pet project of a big-time Democratic campaign contributor.

Nevertheless, as the Senate began consideration Wednesday of the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma proposed an amendment to eliminate the earmark. The $1 million goes to the performing arts center of the Bethel Museum in Liberty, N.Y., the site of the original 1969 Woodstock Festival. Coburn argues that a "taxpayer-funded Woodstock flashback" cuts into the government's Education for Homeless Children and Youth grants.

Robert Novak alerts us to how Senator Coburn has once again challenged the Senate to stop earmarking government money. To read the rest of the story by Robert Novak, click the here.