What Reduces Abortions?

Sometimes election years produce more policy myths than good ideas. This year one myth is about abortion. It goes like this: The Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision is here to stay, and that's fine because laws against abortion don't reduce abortions much anyway. Rather, "support for women and families" will greatly reduce abortions, without changing the law or continuing a "divisive" abortion debate.

Various false claims are used to bolster this myth. It is said that over three-quarters of women having abortions cite expense as the most important factor in their decision. Actually the figure is less than one-fourth, 23%. It is said that abortion rates declined dramatically (30%) during the Clinton years, but the decline stopped under the ostensibly pro-life Bush administration. Actually the abortion rate has dropped 30% from 1981 to 2005; the decline started 12 years before Clinton took office, and has continued fairly steadily to the present day. ...

An interesting article that you should read at the USCCB pro-life site. I know I was surprised by the info.

The Anchoress is Fasting ... So What Does Everyone Do?

Tease her with pie, of course!

Ah, but 'tis all in good fun.

I, myself, could not resist sending her a virtual piece of Perfect Pecan Pie.


Because I care, you know ...

A Brilliant Combination of Animation and Video

Found at lines and colors where, among other things, they tell us:

Taking off from the notion of a sketchbook in which a computer keyboard and screen have been drawn, it goes on to self-referentially show a hand-drawn YouTube interface on which a series of Lohbeck’s other short animations, also very clever and amusing in themselves, are shown. Several of them feature the sketchbook in other whimsical roles.

Ladies for Life? Sign Me Up!

Ladies, I don’t know about you, but I object strenuously to people claiming to speak for women when they promote abortion. They sure don’t speak for me. And I know I’m not alone. So, if you are a civilized woman who thinks human life should be protected from conception until natural death, please drop a note in the comments and let people know about your blog or website. It doesn’t have to be a site that talks about pro-life issues. It just has to be hosted or co-hosted by a lady who is pro-life. Thanks!

So says Kathryn Judson and she is not alone as most people who drop by here regularly know. Drop in and say hello. Via Wittingshire which also has some good links to check out.

Worth a Thousand Words

Britannia arm-in-arm with Uncle Sam symbolizes the British-American alliance in World War I. (Source: Wikipedia)

Worth a Thousand Words

Paul Weller by Edward B. Gordon

Daybook

Outside my window
The trees are green and I see maybe a leaf or two that is changing color. It will be Thanksgiving before they really change in force, if they do at all.
~~~
In my thoughts
I miss Hannah and Rose. I wasn't missing them for some time ... but today, I miss them!
~~~
In Thanksgiving
For my good life and family and how rich it is with God in the middle of it.
~~~
Kitchen meanderings
Planning another Khmer stir-fry this week ... a simple pork and green bean dish. We'll see if I actually make it or not.
~~~
Using my creative powers
Not sure if I'm using creative powers on this but I definitely am trying to keep myself on schedule and disciplined enough to ignore distractions. I'm realizing that my day is full of them and most are self-imposed. Bad, bad Julie D!
~~~
Stacked up

• Calico Palace by Gwen Bristow: revisiting an old favorite
• Shapers by Robert R. Chase: dropped into the middle of a situation that is probably the most unique and original view of an alien species I've ever read. Fascinating. Really fascinating.
• My Cousin, the Saint (review copy): loving this book. How the author manages to combine Italian history, the Italian immigrant experience in the U.S., the poor Italian parish priest experience, food writing, and faith ... well, he's good, let's just say that. Very good.
• Pope John Paul II: An Intimate Life (review copy): finished this actually. Excellent. Now I must write the review.
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (reading a chapter in the evenings with Tom, when we remember): funny and inspirational. I hope that if I were faced with such dire news I'd react as he did.

~~~
Couch potato
Ignoring those stinkin' Cowboys ... the usual things at home from the VCR: House, Bones, Pushing Daisies, Chuck. We gave Life on Mars a Try and I found it interesting although somewhat claustrophobic when he'd hear from loved ones over the television or radio. I felt trapped along with him. That was not such a good feeling but I believe it is particular to my reaction. I'm going to be continuing with it.

From the library-Michael Palin's Sahara which we're halfway though. I continue to be fascinated by how very differently people live right now at this moment from the way that I do.
~~~
In my ears
The Adventures of Jimmy Dale, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, proofing this week's podcast.

Caught up with Alderpod which is an interesting fantasy with a bit of steampunk folded in. The author surprises me time and again by having the characters react realistically in stressful situations as opposed to the idealistic way that I expect the strong female, the lad coming into his own, the bard on his first mission ... to react.
~~~
Around the house
Very, very slowly I'm cleaning up corners or bookshelves or tabletops. And they still stay cleaned off!
~~~
A favorite thing
Right this second? My husband. (That whole second honeymoon thing, you know.)
~~~
An extra tidbit
I have become the Queen of Canned Dogfood. (Also of canned cat food.) We're catering to our sweet old boxer who is slowly fading away from cancer. We joke that it's the canned Alpo keeping her alive. She's always a chow hound no matter what. The cat has finally become pleased now that I've tried Fancy Feast. She eats every bit, as opposed to the Iams tiny bits of fish (or whatever) where she laps up the liquid and disdains the solids.

What's Missing from this Stamp?

Of course, you noticed. We all noticed. They have removed the cigarette from one of the most famous photographs of Bette Davis. I like the way Roger Ebert comments on this:

... Yes reader, the cigarette in the original photo has been eliminated. We are all familiar, I am sure, with the countless children and teenagers who have been lured into the clutches of tobacco by stamp collecting, which seems so innocent, yet can have such tragic outcomes. But isn't this is carrying the anti-smoking campaign one step over the line?

Depriving Bette Davis of her cigarette reminds me of Soviet revisionism, when disgraced party officials disappeared from official photographs. ...

The great Chicago photographer Victor Skrebneski took one of the most famous portraits of Davis. I showed him the stamp. His response: "I have been with Bette for years and I have never seen her without a cigarette! No cigarette! Who is this impostor?" I imagine Davis might not object to a portrait of her without a cigarette, because she posed for many. But to have a cigarette removed from one of her most famous poses! What she did to Joan Crawford in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" wouldn't even compare to what ever would have happened to the artist Michael Deas.

Read the whole thing here.

Worth a Thousand Words

Bloch Building by Hey Jules

Question of the Day: on the side

You can have only one condiment for the rest of your life. Which do you pick?

We're not talking seasonings like salt, pepper, and herbs here. This is about mayo, mustard, ketchup, hot sauce and the like.

The Matrix, Light Sabers and ... The Vote Reaper

I can't help it. This guy just cracks me up ... (via John C. Wright).

In Which Nations Shoot the Breeze

From the hilarious Wondermark Lite. Click on the cartoon to enlarge or click through the link to read it at Wondermark Lite.

Worth a Thousand Words

Achilles tending Patroclus wounded by an arrow
Identified by inscriptions on the upper part of the vase. Tondo of an Attic red-figure kylix, ca. 500 BC. From Vulci. (Source: Wikipedia)

You Know, I Never Thought of It LIke That!

Leave it to John C. Wright to point out ...

In other words, if your whole political economy is based on putting a burden of debt on unborn generations, does not the existence of your political economy rest on the idea that the unborn generation shall and must come to be? If the Big Brother you worship and serve cannot remain solvent, indeed, cannot survive at all, unless the next generation outnumbers the current, is it not treason to Big Brother to remain infertile? ...

Read it all here.

Worth a Thousand Words

Wild Autumn Beauty
Taken by the talented DL Ennis at Visual Thoughts

I am increasingly approving of The Nutrition Diva

She is part of the Quick & Dirty Tips podcasting family. I enjoy several of those podcasts as a matter of fact.

What makes me point out The Nutrition Diva? She uses common sense. And science.

I like that.

For instance, I had fallen prey to high fructose hysteria (to my shame, as I now realize) and she helped shake me into common sense (emphasis added):

... As is so often the case, a little chemistry helps makes things a lot clearer. Table sugar, or sucrose, is actually made up of two types of sugar molecules; it’s about equal parts glucose and fructose.

Regular corn syrup, the kind that you can buy on the grocery store, has a different profile. It’s much lower in fructose than table sugar. You heard me correctly: Corn syrup is naturally quite low in fructose. And that makes it a poor substitute for table sugar. Things made with regular corn syrup don’t taste the same as things made with table sugar.

The breakthrough for food manufacturers came when they figured out how to produce a corn syrup that was higher in fructose. High-fructose corn syrup actually has about the same amount of fructose as regular table sugar—making it a viable alternative for food processing. Because corn syrup is so much cheaper than cane sugar, manufacturers quickly adopted it and high-fructose corn syrup has largely replaced cane sugar in manufactured foods.

But here’s what gets lost in the high-fructose hysteria: Foods and drinks made with high-fructose corn syrup are, in general, no higher in fructose than foods made with regular sugar. But they are cheaper. ...

Or this bit of information about how much water to drink? Now, this one I knew. But it was refreshing to hear a little known bit of information being brought to light through a venue that is fairly popular (or so I'd bet):

... I bet you’ve heard it said that you need to drink at least eight glasses of water a day in order to stay properly hydrated. Perhaps you’ve also read that by the time you feel thirsty you’re already in an advanced state of dehydration, or that most of us are chronically dehydrated. Chances are also good that you’ve been told that drinking caffeinated beverages like tea and coffee cause you to lose more fluid than you take in.

What would you say if I told you that all of these widely held truths are little more than urban legends?

I can almost hear your shocked expressions! The dehydration myth has become so firmly entrenched in our collective consciousness that it may indeed come as a surprise to learn that there is very little scientific support for any of these notions. ...

Yep.

You don't have to listen to the podcast if you'd rather read. Full transcripts are available for each show.

Now This Would Make for an Interesting Shower

When a woman in Marino, a small Italian town south of Rome, turned on her kitchen tap, she got a spurt of wine instead of water. "Miracolo!" she shouted, and ran outside to tell others. Word quickly spread, and soon residents all over town were filling bottles and containers with Frascati, the local white wine made from trebbiano and malvasia grapes.

... Plumbers were supposed to have connected the 3,000 liters of Frascati to the town fountain for the annual harvest festival, but they accidentally hooked it to the water supply instead....

Story from Slashfood as well as a nice piece of art as illustration.

Looking Both Ways

You Know You're a Republican If ...
You favor free speech,
except for burning the flag or criticizing U.S. military policy.

You Know You're a Democrat If ...
You favor free speech,
except for ugly words about minorities, the disabled, or endangered species.

You Know You're a Republican/Democrat If...

Audiobook Review: The Standards of Creation

My review can be found at SFFaudio. This is right up there with T.M. Camp's "Assam and Darjeeling" as one of my favorite books of the year. I don't want to give anything away but I believe that Christian sci-fi fans are going to be especially delighted at some of the twists of this story. I know that I was!

Worth a Thousand Words

Motts: 1st Completed Commission Piece by Neil James Hollingworth

I not only love this artist's painting style but the fact that companies are still commissioning artwork. Nice.