Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

RUSH LIMBAUGH EXPLAINS ERIC CANTOR'S UNEXPECTED DEFEAT

Rush produced a brilliant monologue as his show began today.  It's titled: "Warning: Amnesty is Not Necessarily Dead."  I had not tuned in but saw Drudge had linked to a transcript within an hour.  What does Rush say?

I can honestly say I have never seen such a divide between the people who govern this country and the people who live in it. I have never seen Washington so distant and so removed and so unaware. It is stunning to me to listen to some of the commentary from inside the Beltway . . . 

I have been predicting that inside-the-Beltway people have no clue what the people of this country are really thinking. They have no clue how irritated people are. They have no idea how angry, and they don't care on top of that, even if they were aware. But Washington has less and less about it that relates to normal life in this country than I've ever seen. And the commentary in the aftermath of this election last night is evidence of it. . .

Rush goes on to discuss what he considers totally "out-of-touch" commentary, including Republicans.  He also notes the failure of Republicans to immediately embrace Dave Brat who defeated Eric Cantor.  Brat was against amnesty, but Rush predicts that amnesty is not thereby defeated.  Not by a long shot.  Read it all..

 

BIOETHICAL QUESTIONS ADDRESSED BY THE VATICAN'S "DIGNITAS PERSONAE"

Twenty-three pages in length, the document comes bundled with a Vatican-issued summary and accompanying Q&A.

National Review's Yuval Levin writes:

One of the great ironies of the stem cell debates of the last few years has been that some of the most serious attention to scientific detail and reality has come from Catholic circles, while some of the most wide-eyed messianic faith-healing talk has come from liberal political (and sometimes even scientific) circles. There is another example of the former today, with a new Vatican document about reproductive technologies and bioethics. I’m not a Catholic and am in no position to speak to the theological components of the document, and I don’t agree with all of its conclusions (on IVF, for instance) but its treatment of the latest scientific developments and of the related ethical questions is exceptionally good, and its attitude—very pro-science and very clear about ethical boundaries and the reasons for them, with arguments that reach well beyond Catholic theology—is very impressive.

The view of many of us who have argued against the destruction of embryos for research is that we ought not understand ourselves to be faced with a choice between science and ethics, but with the challenge of championing both, which is a challenge both to scientific ingenuity and to ethical reflection and argument (a case I take up, among other issues, in my recent book on science and democracy). The Bush administration’s approach to the stem cell debate has been one example of how to think in these terms. This document, wherever you stand on its Catholic-specific elements, is another very worthy one.  [Emphases mine]

REPRODUCTIVE EXPLOITATION: WOMBS FOR RENT -- AMERICAN WOMEN USE INDIAN WOMEN AS SURROGATE MOTHERS

Chuck Colson offers wise and sensitive comments on a practice highlighted by Judith Warner in her New York Times article, "Outsourced Wombs."

Complications Associated with New Reproductive Technologies

Chuck Colson spotlights Liza Mundy's new book, Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction Is Changing Men, Women, and the World. Colson says he "cannot recommend this book strong enough, especially for would-be parents who may face difficult decisions about childbearing in the near future."  He writes:

Mundy is not writing from a Christian viewpoint or even from a pro-life viewpoint, but she covers the murky field of reproductive technology, and its effects on families, thoroughly and unflinchingly. And she takes seriously the ethical dilemmas that arise in a largely unregulated field where