The Ark and The Dove

Crude and provocative expression of opinions

That's what bloggers do, apparently.  According to an influential liberal blogger I read now and then, he "stood up to" Ms. Marcotte, apparently by giving her a good talking to and pretending there wasn't a problem.  Admittedly, my opinion of him as a statesman was not very high to begin with, but this doesn't convince me that I'll be wanting to see how he'd "stand up to" people who threaten the country.

How do you spell "Muahahahahaha!"?

From the UK's Guardian,

"A few years ago the debate was about whether the media controlled politicians or whether politicians controlled the media.  Now it is about how we are all responding to the explosive power of citizens, consumers and bloggers."

IN order to have meaningful discussions

about religion, you have to be able to talk about religion in public.  So maybe this is a step in the right direction.  Or maybe it's always been that way and I just don't know.

Btw, the Get Religion blog is consistently worth looking at.

Tuesday's consequences for pro-life

I don't suppose it's a secret that we here tend to lean a little to the conservative side of the American political spectrum, so we weren't exactly jumping for joy over Tuesday's election results.  In particular, there is one issue very near to our hearts - the pro-life cause.  In terms of sheer magnitude, the single greatest social justice issue of our time.  A lot of pro-life politicians were voted out of office for one reason or another and replaced with people either less pro-life or outright pro-abortion.

So how big a setback was it?  To hear "veteran journalist Russell Shaw," whom Zenit interviewed, it was a very significant setback.

However, could Tuesday's election hold the promise of improvement in the longer term?  In order to defeat Republicans, Democrats had to run candidates in many races who break with the party line in significant ways, even -gasp- on abortion.  Could this be the crack in the ice of abortion-crats' stranglehold on the upper levels of power in the Democrat ranks?  This is really what we want - not for the Democrats to turn into Republicans in blue, but for there to be bipartisan efforts on the pro-life front.  Pro-life being perceived as being identified with Republican, or orthodox Catholic with Republican, is not what we need and never what we wanted - whatever the parties, it never turns out well when that sort of dynamic appears.

What do you think?  Am I being too optimistic about this, or could it happen?

Addendum - Assuming this is the same person, Russell Shaw was the USCCB's spokesman for 15 years.

O'Malley wants slots?

I thought Ehrlich was the one who was 'changing Maryland for the "bettor".'  I wonder what Michael Busch is going to say about this.