Month: February 2008

Pro-choice is not

A news story from earlier this week:

U.K. Artist Kills Herself After Aborting Twins

A British artist, expressing remorse and regret, hanged herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, London’s Sunday Telegraph reported.

“I should never have had an abortion,” Emma Beck wrote in a note she left. “I see now I would have been a good mum.”

The note continued: “I told everyone I didn’t want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is to late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no one else does.”

There can be no mistake, there is an abortion industry that is anything but “pro-choice.” Pro-choice does not pressure women into having abortions. Where are the women’s groups defending women from being pressured into abortions? No one stood up for this woman’s right to choose. They were only concerned with performing more abortions.

Why is it that pro-choice does not include the choice not to have an abortion?

My reading list

The Solomon Kane movie is in production right now. The poster is up on the director’s personal web page. Cool huh?

So I’ve decided to announce my inaugural pick of “Jason’s Super Fantastic Bookclub!TM”

(Drumroll please!)

The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. I went to the library today and picked it up. Hey, no one says you have to buy the selected title. Read, enjoy, discuss…

Gaining the whole world

Have you ever noticed how some Bible passage are short on details? For instance today’s gospel reading is the story of Jesus recruiting Levi (more commonly known as St. Matthew now) as his disciple.

Luke 5:27-29
After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

This is all we are told about Levi. We need to look at the clues to piece his story together. From this passage, we can see that Levi was apparently a very successful tax collector. He had his own house. He had the financial resources to through a banquet at a moment’s notice. He had enough friends that he was able to fill the banquet with a “large crowd.” Levi had all the worldly trappings of success. What more could you want? Money, comfort, leisure for the buying.

Does this sound like anyone else we’ve seen recently? Heath Ledger was 28 years old when he died two weeks ago. He had fame, money, friends, and a life of comfort (he was scheduled for a massage at the time he died). Still, he was so unhappy he accidentally killed himself by taking a lethal combination of pain killers, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety meds. At the same time, we also see Brittney Spears continue her very public self-destruction. These two have (had) everything in the world that is supposed to make life enjoyable.

Two thousand years ago a successful tax collector named Levi seemingly found himself in the same position. Then a man walked by and told him to leave it all behind. And he did! Levi gave up everything to follow a Galilean around for three years. He put his life in danger and, years later, likely gave his life for believing in the man who said “follow me.”

Don’t you wish we had the tell-all biography of St. Matthew?

Free novel for Firefly fans

Steven Brust is one of my favorite fantasy authors. OK, he is a communist sympathizer, but I don’t see that in the books I’ve read (maybe I’m just not that deep). What truly makes him an amazing writer is his ability to write well in different styles. His Taltos series is written in the first person. His Phoenix Guards series that is set in the same world as Taltos is written in a “Romantic” (not romance) style.

For some reason Brust decided to write a Firefly novel. Brust – Firefly, what’s not to like?
You can download it here.

Bundled up

I had to go to the store the other night and decided to take Bailey with me. It was snowing a little so of course I had to bundle her up. The results were hilarious. This was about a minute before we left the house.

(Firefox has a problem playing AVI movies. If you use that browser, either download the video or use IE).

Superbowl!

It’s halftime at the Superbowl. I love the Superbowl. Its truly a piece of Americana.

The Patriots are ahead 7 – 3. So far its been a good game. Right now I’m stuffed on ribs, chips, and about a gallon of soda pop. Mmmm. What a great day to be an American.

Update: The Giants beat the formerly undefeated Patriots. Good game even though I’m a little disappointed that the Pats couldn’t finish out their historic year.