Current Affairs

Mitch Albom discusses the small controversy over the Detroit Pistons' swimsuit calendar [http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060115/OPINION02/601150352/1082] . The calendar doesn't have pictures of Ben Wallace in a Speedo, but rather pictures of the Piston dancing team--the Automotion--in Speedo-like attire.

Home of the 1960s Free Speech Movement [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Speech_Movement]: > Bay Area abortion-rights activists say a Roman Catholic group's advertisements on hundreds of BART trains and in scores of stations -- attacking the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision and

A novel idea to try to resolve the debacle that is the modern prison system: > With space scarce as the U.S. prison population grows, a top Idaho lawmaker is proposing that inmates share beds by sleeping in shifts, a practice sometimes used by the U.S. military. Link

> More than 10m female births in India may have been lost to abortion and sex selection in the past 20 years, according to medical research. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4592890.stm] The result is common-sensical: there's a lopsided boy-to-girl ratio. The

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Fr. Joseph Fessio. Hewitt's book, Blog, got me blogging on a daily basis. After reading it, though, I suspected Hewitt was an anti-Catholic, possibly a bigoted one, but based on this interview, my fears were misplaced. Bigots are rarely so respectful. Link [http://www.radioblogger.

Even a leftist at a Seattle alternative newspaper decries the Stalinist wannabes who have taken over Europe [http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=25924]: > How did Western Europe come to be ruled by monolithic ideologues? Short answer: the "'68ers," which is what Europeans call those

> A mother described yesterday hearing her son shot dead after he refused to convert to Islam. . . . > Mr Marriott, an accountancy student and gang member, was killed in a park near his home in Brixton, south London, in June 2004. > Three members of a rival gang, known as

For those who missed news about the highly-respected Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near: [http://www.upi.com/Hi-Tech/view.php?StoryID=20051229-090610-4704r] > Kurzweil's latest futuristic tome is the sequel to his last bestseller, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, which

According to this NYT article, India is on the brink of a sexual revolution. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/02/business/media/02playboy.html?ex=1293858000&en=48ecbc9cf9fcc214&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss] India with a sexual revolution? One like we experienced in the