Our own Tom McClusky wrote a funny blog this week about DC’s beautiful people. Today on a more serious note I would like to take up the topic of beauty and the dignity of the human person.

I am a motivated by deep beauty. To me, that which is real, true and good is always beautiful. Part of what makes something beautiful is that it is inherently creative and mysterious. I believe that when something is contrived, it becomes less beautiful. For example, we can think of any number of famous actresses or TV personalities who undergo plastic surgery and emerge looking more artificial and, thus, much less beautiful.

Beauty frequently communicates a deeper reality. It has been said, “The most beautiful act in the world was Christ dying on the cross.” Intended as an execution, Jesus’ death was the ultimate expression of love. It defined and illustrated beauty in its truest sense.

With this as our backdrop, I learned of a most unattractive, ugly reality this morning: there is now available to our American consumer a fertility clinic to create “beautiful babies.”

“Ever worried about having an ugly baby? Fret not, a popular dating website exclusively for beautiful people has branched out to provide a fertility forum aimed at creating beautiful babies. Criticized by some as narcissism gone mad, the project was launched in June, shortly after BeautifulPeople.com booted out 5,000 people who gained weight and were deemed too ugly to remain members. Presented as a solution for parents who worry about having ugly children, the Fertility Forum is “like any charitable work,” according to managing director Greg Hodge, a good‑looking Brit.

There is so much wrong about this it is hard to know where to begin.

Clearly, one of the most amazing aspects of life is the way in which a human being is created. We take it for granted even as our society does everything possible to control and manipulate this ability. But the truth is that a human being is the miraculous co-creation of an act of love between his or her parents. It is one of the greatest miracles on earth that the act of love would bear fruit in the miracle of life. In doing so, parents become co-creators with God.

Every baby is a gift. A baby is not a right. It is a gift from God, its co-creator. He chose, deliberately, to make every little one conceived within a womb.

A baby is a creation. A unique masterpiece. That does not mean that in order to be beautiful a baby need possess perfect, asymmetrical features. One of the most attractive babies I have even seen was a little girl with Down Syndrome. This baby glowed and had a smile that lit up the room (and her parents’ lives).

Another masterpiece was my friend’s son who had a heart defect and lived only a few days after birth. If you could have seen how this newborn radiated, your heart would permanently be strengthened.

Manipulating how life is created to produce physically attractive babies is wrong. Not only does it take the Creator and loving act which envelopes conception out of the equation, but it attempts to control and manipulate what is, in essence, a miracle. It moves in the direction of defining human beings by their features, rather than by their dignity and personhood.

In the process of producing beautiful children, many (beautiful) embryos will be killed because they somehow did not measure up to the qualifications the sponsors were hoping for, or perhaps the parents only wanted one baby, but five were created, etc.

This is a dangerous trend – one that will not have pretty consequences. Persons are not items to be designed for appearance or utility but are co-created to love and to be a unique reflection of their Creator.

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A recent report from Swiss researchers casts doubt on the ability of embryonic stem cells to treat stroke. Neural precursors derived from mouse embryonic stem cells were implanted into the brains of mice. After nine months, the implanted cells had engrafted and even extended axons into different portions of the brain, although the evidence indicated that the implanted cells did not develop into mature neurons but remained in an early developmental stage. When a stroke was induced in the mouse brains, the embryonic stem cells were actually expelled from the brain. The results, published in the journal Stroke, suggest that embryonic stem cells are ineffective at forming mature brain neurons and treating stroke damage.

In contrast, results with adult stem cells show effective treatment of stroke damage, and early results of a clinical trial with stroke patients are encouraging.

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Two papers published online recently in Nature journals indicate that the technology to produce iPS cells (induced pluripotent stem cells) is still a work in progress, but also highlight the confusion among journalists and even some scientists about stem cells–iPS cells, embryonic stem cells (ES cells), and Adult stem cells..

iPS cells provide a relatively easy and inexpensive method for creation of ES-type cells directly from virtually any tissue source or individual. They were first developed in 2006 in mice by the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, and in November 2007 both Yamanaka’s lab and the lab of James Thomson in the U.S. showed that this same technique could work for human cells as well. The original technique to reprogram a normal to become an iPS cell involves adding four genes directly to a human cell such as a skin fibroblast cell, with the genes added using a viral vector.

The iPS cells behave like ES cells, but the technique does not use embryos, eggs, or cloning, making it an ethical way to produce “pluripotent” stem cells (cells that potentially might form any body tissue.) In contrast, the usual way to produce ES cells is by taking an embryo (produced by the normal process of fertilization, or by cloning, a.k.a. “somatic cell nuclear transfer”) and destroying the embryo to extract the ES cells (that’s why they’re called “embryonic” stem cells.)
[Click on the figure to enlarge]

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In a proof-of-concept study using a rabbit model, researchers have successfully regenerated a functioning limb joint grown naturally using the host’s own adult stem cells. Prof. Jeremy J. Mao and his team at Columbia University Medical Center, along with colleagues from the University of Missouri and Clemson University, published their report online in The Lancet. They fabricated an anatomically correct 3-dimensional bioscaffold infused with the protein growth factor TGFβ3, and implanted the scaffolds into rabbits that had their forelimb thigh joint removed. Other rabbits had scaffolds implanted without the added protein, or no bioscaffold at all. Four weeks later, rabbits that received the protein-laden scaffolds were able to resume normal movements, like rabbits with normal functional joints.

The treated rabbits had grown their own joint using their own adult stem cells. The authors said their findings showed regeneration “without cell transplantation.” The rabbits’ own adult stem cells were attracted to the scaffold joint site by the protein growth factor, “homed” to the location of the missing joint, and regenerated cartilage and bone in two separate layers.

The published results actually show two new findings: regenerating a limb joint for the first time, with the animals resuming normal function with the new joint, and also the regenerated limb joint being created from the animal’s own endogenous stem cells, not stem cells that are harvested and manipulated outside the host’s body. According to Prof. Mao:

“This is the first time an entire joint surface was regenerated with return of functions including weight bearing and locomotion. Regeneration of cartilage and bone both from the host’s own stem cells, rather than taking stem cells out of the body, may ultimately lead to clinical applications.”

In an accompanying published commentary, Dr Patrick Warnke of Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia, described the work as “a renaissance of use of the host as a bioreactor and recruitment of the host’s endogenous cells, including stem or progenitor cells, for tissue regeneration”.

Professor Molly Stevens of Imperial College London said:

“This is the latest study to have shown that there are stem cells in the body that can be harnessed to grow bone and tissue if they are given the right sort of signals.”

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The U.K. is reorganizing and consolidating a number of health-related quangos, as part of the remodeling of the National Health Service. One group slated to have its authority consolidated into a new agency is the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the HFEA (motto: “we never met an embryo experiment we didn’t like”). The U.K. Academy of Medicine has been charged with recommending a new structure. Hopefully a little respect for human life will be incorporated, but don’t count on it.

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Oliver Stone has made commercially successful and patriotically challenged films for nearly 30 years.  Starting with “Platoon,” he has made a career of highlighting America’s real or perceived failings and generally diminishing the greatness of our country.

His film “Platoon” portrays America’s war in Viet Nam as an exercise in murder and American soldiers as moral primitives.  Stone merits personal credit for his heroism as an Army soldier in Viet Nam, for which he received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart with an Oak Leaf Cluster.  Yet his brave conduct cannot excuse the worst possible excesses of a relative handful of American servicemen as representative of those who served in Southeast Asia.

“Wall Street” excoriates investment houses to the point that no parody of the film could ever so richly mischaracterize the nature of risk, initiative and profit more fully than does Stone (after making a boatload of money running-down the economic system that made his wealth possible, Stone has produced a “Wall Street” sequel that is due out soon). His sordid and uproariously conspiratorial “JFK” fosters the belief that President Kennedy was killed by factions of the U.S. government.  Stone’s “Nixon” is a wife-slapping lush. For such efforts, Hollywood has bestowed Oscars upon him.

Stone’s is an upside down world, where nothing is at it appears.  For Stone, hidden meanings, invariably dark, lurk behind every corner. Prosperity for some always means oppression of the many. Liberty is a word used by the powerful to hold-down the poor. And so on, ad nauseum. Whatever the roots of Stone’s twisted vision, its distortions have been popularized in one morally tainted film after another.

Today, Stone’s understanding of true evil has given even his Left-wing defenders pause. In an interview published over the past few days, he decries “Jewish domination of the media” and asserts that Hitler’s Holocaust is over-emphasized. He summarized his profound views of American international relations by saying, “Israel has (vile obscenity) United States foreign policy for years.” Even the liberal Huffington Post called this “Stone-Cold Jew Baiting.”

In Stone’s world, Hitler “is an easy scapegoat,” and Joseph Stalin, mass murderer extraordinaire, has to be “put in context.” Stone – whose father was Jewish, interestingly – is also a great admirer of brutal dictators like Fidel Castro and fascist thugs like Hugo Chavez, about whom he has made a glowing documentary.

Stone subsequently has apologized for his anti-Semitic comments, but his odd fascination with vileness today caught up with him. Never one to let truth get in the way of his perturbed historical narrative, Stone was today confronted by a reality that finally wearied of him. It’s called decency, something with which the talented but twisted filmmaker is all too unfamiliar.

Let us pray that Mr. Stone will turn his formidable talent as a filmmaker to truth that is bracing but ennobling, beauty that might be hard-won but is still inspiring, and goodness that while not sugary still enriches – and that his evidently troubled inner life will be transformed by a grace God alone can give.

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Vernon Baker, winner of the Congressional Medal Of Honor for extraordinary heroism in the Second World War, has died at 90 at his home in tiny St. Marie’s, Idaho.

Baker was an African-American.  He received his Medal of Honor (52 years after earning it) in a special White House ceremony, where President Clinton presented it to him.

Baker was only 5’2″, but would not let his height, nor the bigotry he fought against, stop him from defending his country.  A member of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division, his Medal of Honor citation reads as follows:

“Then Second Lieutenant Baker demonstrated outstanding courage and leadership in destroying enemy installations, personnel and equipment during his company’s attack against a strongly entrenched enemy in mountainous terrain. When his company was stopped by the concentration of fire from several machine gun emplacements, he crawled to one position and destroyed it, killing three Germans. Continuing forward, he attacked and enemy observation post and killed two occupants. With the aid of one of his men, Lieutenant Baker attacked two more machine gun nests, killing or wounding the four enemy soldiers occupying these positions. He then covered the evacuation of the wounded personnel of his company by occupying an exposed position and drawing the enemy’s fire. On the following night Lieutenant Baker voluntarily led a battalion advance through enemy mine fields and heavy fire toward the division objective. Second Lieutenant Baker’s fighting spirit and daring leadership were an inspiration to his men and exemplify the highest traditions of the Armed Forces” (Source).

Yet the military ignored him and other black heroes for decades until an Army-ordered review found Baker and six other African-Americans more than deserving of the nation’s highest honor for heroism.

Despite the bigotry he experienced as a young man – initially, he was even rejected by the Army itself – Baker said, “I’ve never seen color. I look out and I see America. I love you, America.”

Vernon Baker came back to a country stilled marred by racism, but he refused not to live the American Dream.  He continued to serve in the Army and then, for two decades, worked for the U.S. Red Cross.

Baker moved to St. Maries for a simple reason: In the great Idaho outdoors, he loved to hunt.  St. Maries is near beautiful Lake Coeur D’Alene and about two and one-half hours from Canada.  It is one of the most lovely places in the United States, a fitting place for a gentleman-warrior like Vernon Baker to enjoy his final years.

He was married twice; his first wife passed away in 1986, and he leaves behind his second wife, Heidy – a German native.  He and his first wife raised three children, and with Heidy he had a stepdaughter and a stepgrandson.

Vernon Baker also leaves a nation forever grateful for his sacrifice, his courage and his patriotism.  His overarching legacy is to make every citizen of our country prouder to be an American.

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Last week we learned that President Obama made a recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  Berwick, a man who has been called “a one-man death panel,” repeatedly has stated his support for rationed healthcare.

What will this appointment mean to those of us who believe that every life has dignity, regardless of its stage or health status?  One clear concern, in addition to rationed healthcare, is assisted suicide.

A recent letter to the editor written by an Oregon doctor drove home this critical connection between assisted suicide and rationed healthcare.

“…remember the names Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup. Wagner was an Oregon resident who died in 2008. The Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) refused to pay for a cancer drug to possibly prolong her life and offered to pay for her suicide instead. This position saved the plan money. Stroup had a similar experience. The plan would not pay for a drug to prolong his life and ease his pain, but would pay for his suicide.  He said:  ‘This is my life they’re playing with.’ In both cases, the Oregon Health Plan’s position was only possible because assisted suicide is legal in Oregon. With assisted suicide now at issue in Idaho, will you and your families be the next Randy Stroups? Will you be the next Barbara Wagners?”

The decision regarding the legality of assisted suicide in the U.S. currently resides with the states. A number of states have chosen to make it legal, among them Oregon, Washington and Montana. Idaho currently is considering similar legislation.

Advocacy groups have waged strong campaigns in areas that potentially could legalize assisted suicide. In Pennsylvania, a group recently has been posting controversial billboards advocating for the legalization of assisted suicide. Another such advocacy group is “Compassion and Choices,” which has been lobbying in Idaho.

Every person, regardless of race, age, health, etc., has an inherent right to life.  Sadly, it is becoming more and more obvious as we begin to see the new healthcare law rolled out that the President’s health care regime is not about respecting a person’s dignity or inherent rights, especially that most basic right to life from conception to natural death.

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We’ve previously written about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) review of what is being labeled a new and more effective “emergency contraceptive,” ulipristal acetate, better known by its trade name, Ella.

The controversial drug is a very effective contraceptive, but lesser known is the critical information that the drug can also cause abortions and chemically and functionally resembles the one legal abortion pill in the U.S., mifepristone (RU-486).

There are many serious misconceptions about this drug under consideration for approval. To learn more, please see the following information compiled by FRC.

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In the latest Mapping America, the National Survey of Family Growth shows that women who worship at least weekly and grew up in intact married families are the least likely to abort their first baby.

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Evidence of the political tension in Honduras extends beyond the graffiti that remains from last year’s political demonstrations.  Yesterday we were awakened by local news reports that the airport in Tegucigalpa was being closed for five days because of rioting in the capitol city.  Originally we planned to depart Tela this morning for Tegucigalpa; however, our plans quickly changed, and we left Tela yesterday morning to try and obtain a flight out of San Pedro Sula.  Upon arrival, we received conflicting reports about what was going on.  After contacting the Embassy, we were informed that there was no rioting.  The city had experienced torrential rains over the weekend which resulted in flooding and some deaths.  The runway at the airport had apparently been damaged, and the airport was closed temporarily for runway repairs.  So we spent the night in San Pedro Sula and left at 2:30 a.m. for the trip to Tegucigalpa.

The shipping container remains in customs.  With the help of Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) office, we were able to determine that the hold up is over the yet-to-be-assembled bunk beds not being reported as lumber.  So the federal agency in charge of wood will have to determine what permit and fee is required.  The Honduran infrastructure may be lagging behind us, but its ability to find creative ways to tax is sure on par with our government.

We were able to provide another day’s worth of medical treatment for the children in the village of Tornabe on Monday.  One little girl, who is nine-years-old, came to see the doctors and join us for a church service.  She was born with what our doctors said was a correctable birth defeat that caused her feet to turn under.  She can only take a few steps by walking on the top of her feet; most of the time her mother carries her.  Honduras has public health care, but it is very rudimentary and surgeries like the one this girl would need to correct her feet are nearly nonexistent.  My daughter Kendal and she quickly became friends.  We are hopeful that we might be able to find an orthopedic surgeon who would treat her.

Once the final disposition of the shipping container is determined we will be sending a small team back to Honduras, hopefully in August, to assemble the beds and distribute the supplies to the children in Tornabe.

A week in Honduras, or most any foreign country for that matter, is a reminder of how blessed we are to live in the United States—a country that has enjoyed the fruit of a nation with a Christian foundation upon which our ordered liberty was built.  It is also a reminder of what America could become if we lose that liberty.

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Not only are the Obama administration and the Pelosi-led Democrats in Congress out of step with the American public in giving high priority to pushing a radical homosexual agenda, but they are out of step with their own Democratic base. That’s the message of a recent, admittedly unscientific survey conducted by The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC). Here’s how they described the survey:

“More than 2,000 Democratic supporters offered input, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia. . . . Respondents were asked to rank how important a series of issues were to them. The issues were: Fully Funding Public Schools, Expanding Environmental Protections and Clean Energy, Strengthening Government Ethics Rules, Promoting Job Growth, and Promoting Equal Rights for the LGBT Community.”

The results? All five issues were rated “extremely important” by a majority of respondents–except for LGBT “Equal Rights,” which got that rating from only 47.3%. By contrast, over 80% of respondents rated “Public Education” as “extremely important.” The homosexual agenda even had 19.3% of these Democratic activists dismissing it with replies of “not very important” (7.9%), “not important at all” (5.6%), or “no answer” (5.8%). Only 5.6% were as negative toward education as a priority.

We can only hope Congressional leadership will take this into account in determining whether to make homosexuals in the military and ENDA a priority in the tight legislative calendar between now and next January, when the new Congress takes office.

Democrats’ 2010 Legislative Priorities Survey

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On Tuesday evening, July 13, the Board of Trustees of the Helena, Montana public schools was scheduled to hear public comments for the first time on a controversial new sex education curriculum.

Some people who support in principle the idea of sex education in schools may wonder what the fuss is about in Helena. Just so people know how extreme the proposed curriculum is, here are some excerpts—direct quotations from the outline (available on the web—see pp. 45-50):

Kindergarten:

“Introduce basic reproductive body parts (penis, vagina, breast, nipples, testicles, scrotum, uterus)”

Grade 1:

“Understand human beings can love people of the same gender & people of another gender”

Grade 2:

“Understand making fun of people by calling them gay (e.g., ‘homo,’ ‘fag,’ ‘queer’) is disrespectful and hurtful.”

Grade 4:

“Understand sexual harassment is unwanted and uninvited sexual attention such as teasing, touching, or taunting, sexting and is against the law.” [sic]

Grade 5:

“Understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration.”

“Understand sexual orientation refers to a person’s physical and/or romantic attraction to an individual of the same and/or different gender, and is part of ones’ [sic] personality.”

Grade 6:

“Understand that sexual intercourse includes but is not limited to vaginal, oral, or anal penetration; using the penis, fingers, tongue or objects.”

“Understand gender identity is different from sexual orientation.”

Grade 7:

“Discuss the Supreme Court decision that has ruled that, to a certain extent, people have the right to make personal decisions concerning sexuality & reproductive health matters, such as abortion, sterilization, and contraception.”

“Discuss state laws governing the age of consent for sexual behaviors.”

“Understand sexual abuse involving touching can include kissing, an abuser touching ‘genitals’ touching the abusers ‘genitals,’ being asked to touch one’s own ‘genitals,’ or engaging in vaginal, oral, or anal intercourse.” [sic]

Grades 9-12:

“Understand erotic images in art reflect society’s views about sexuality & help people understand sexuality.”

One other item in the high school curriculum, listed under “human sexuality” even though it has nothing directly to do with that, is this:

“Understand seeking professional help can be a sign of strength when people are in need of guidance.”

I imagine that after thirteen years of this curriculum, there would be a lot of young people “in need of guidance” and “seeking professional help.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Family Research Council today released a new report that refutes claims made recently by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ (RCOG) that a fetus is not able to feel pain before 24 weeks of development. RCOG’s study is being used to uphold Britain’s current legalization of abortions up to 24 weeks. Pro-abortion activists in the United States could also try to use this study to argue against Nebraska’s new law that states that an unborn baby can feel pain at 20 weeks and which, as a result, outlaws abortions from that point on.

Director of FRC’s Center for Human Dignity Jeanne Monahan notes that the RCOG’s study is seriously flawed and could lead to a profound moral injustice, the more cavalier taking of unborn life. Said Monahan:

“The report appears to be politically timed and motivated, given the growing momentum in the U.K. to protect the life of the unborn by lowering the time limits for legal abortion.

“RCOG is using a faulty definition of pain in this study. A number of experts in the field of fetal development, who were not consulted for this report, previously have refuted the idea that the cortex needs to be fully developed for an unborn baby to feel pain. On the contrary, it is possible that unborn babies between 20-30 weeks of development can experience greater pain than a full-term newborn or older child. At 20-30 weeks, an unborn child possesses the highest number of pain receptors per square inch he or she will ever possess, and the baby’s nerve fibers are located closest to the surface of the skin.

“Most importantly, RCOG is trying – but failing – to dehumanize the baby to make abortion appear somehow more palatable, yet the truth remains that abortion is a violent and painful procedure for the infant and mother. The humanness of the unborn child is not contingent on its capacity for pain. Whether or not an unborn child can feel pain is irrelevant to the respect that an unborn person deserves – respect sufficient to be protected by law from conception until natural death,” Monahan concluded.

Click here to download Family Research Council’s response to the RCOG report.

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This has been such a busy trip that I’ve not had time to share details of our outreach.  Yesterday, we finished our fifth full day here in Honduras.  On Saturday and Sunday our medical team saw children and adults in Tornabe and at our mission church here in Tela.

We joined the congregation at our mission church for a Saturday evening service followed by an authentic Honduran meal.  The meal and the fellowship were outstanding.  The church has just called a young new pastor, Pastor Gerson David, so we were able to hear him share his heart for reaching the people of Tela with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Last night our team cooked for the folks at Tornabe, and then we joined them for Sunday night service and listened to Pastor Marvin preach.  He leads the small church that is host to the outreach to the nearly 100 orphans in Tornabe.

Our progress at the orphanage in Tornabe has been limited because the shipping container which is holding most of our supplies, including the beds for the children, remains tied up in Customs.  We are praying that we receive the container before we leave so that we can at least assemble the beds and put them in the rooms that are going to serve as temporary dormitories for the boys and girls.

The lack of supplies has made for an interesting trip as we’ve had to hunt locally for food and supplies.  I’ve spent a good portion of each day trying to obtain needed construction items for the church/orphanage and food and supplies for the 30 people on our mission team.  Trying to shop for groceries for 30 people here in Tela will give you a much greater appreciation for Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club!

I now know where every mom and pop grocery store and meat market is here in Tela.  I use the term “grocery store,” but they are more like a 7-11s without air-conditioning and with intense security by men with shotguns.  Fortunately, we have some great friends here, like Ester Maldonado, who, among other things, helps me overcome the Spanish labels at the “grocery store.”

Join us in praying that we get some good news on the container of supplies today!

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Check out the booklet, “The Defense of Marriage Act: What It Does and Why It Is Important for Traditional Marriage.”

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European Dignity Watch is new pro-family, pro-life group founded to strengthen collaboration between like-minded organizations in Europe and Internationally. Based in Brussels, this leadership group will be keeping an eye on the EU and keep people up-to-date on major policy happenings related to family, freedom and life. This week the group is reporting on a new “Principle of Equality” which will, in essence, place sexual orientation rights above and beyond other rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, in the EU.

See their website for more information and to sign up for the Network.

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Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle has vetoed the bill to create “civil unions” that the legislature passed in a last-minute legislative maneuver in April. It was refreshing to see Gov. Lingle declare straightforwardly, “I have been open and consistent in my opposition to same gender marriage and find that HB 444 is essentially marriage by another name.” It’s refreshing mostly because last year, two other governors—New Hampshire’s John Lynch and Maine’s John E. Baldacci—caved to homosexual activists under similar circumstances, and signed bills to legalize same-sex “marriage.”

However, in reading a news report about the veto, something else caught my eye. Here’s what the Honolulu Star-Advertiser said about one of the critics of the veto:

“It’s beyond problematic,” said Steven Levinson, a retired associate justice of the state Supreme Court, whose daughter is a lesbian. . . . Levinson authored the landmark 1993 ruling that held that it was discriminatory for the state not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Now wait a second. The author of the very first court decision in American history that was supportive of same-sex “marriage”—has a lesbian daughter? Doesn’t that suggest a little problem of judicial ethics known as a “conflict of interest?”

Of course, Levinson’s “landmark” ruling was 17 years ago. His “lesbian daughter” might not have been “out of the closet” in 1993 (or might not have been born, for that matter). But it raises an interesting question, which is—why am I the only person asking if this is a conflict of interest? If judges are going to rule on issues involving the supposed “civil rights” of homosexuals, don’t they have a conflict if a close family member—or even they themselves—are homosexual? Shouldn’t they be required to recuse themselves—or at least disclose the potential conflict?

Of course, it’s logically quite possible that a judge could rule objectively on the issue of same-sex “marriage” even while having a family member who self-identifies as “gay.” It is liberals—not conservatives—who assume that there is a contradiction in loving a homosexual person while opposing same-sex “marriage.” But the way that Levinson spoke out publicly this week suggests that for him, liberal emotionalism trumps conservative logic. So it’s reasonable to ask whether it might also have trumped judicial restraint back in 1993.

You can only imagine the complaints of “bias” from liberals if the judge ruling on a case that arose from the Gulf oil spill were found to own stock in BP—or even if his daughter did. Given their hostility to religion, the reaction might be even worse if a judge ruling on an issue involving a local church—say, one of the Episcopal churches whose ownership is disputed by its conservative congregation and liberal diocese—were found to be a member of that same church (or even if his daughter was).

Why are there not similar howls when a judge who has a “gay” child—or is “gay” herself—rules on issues involving homosexuality?

I guess liberal political correctness includes a lot of double standards.

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If you haven’t done so yet, don’t forget to register for Values Voter Summit!

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There’s a lot of buzz about Will Saletan’s incisive analysis of Elena Kagan’s role in shaping, from the White House, the “medical” conclusions of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on the partial-birth abortion method.  (See full article, below.)  The criticism of Kagan and ACOG is certainly welcome, especially coming from this “pro-choice” writer at this left-leaning magazine.

But Saletan is dead wrong on one central point:  Kagan did substantively change the ACOG statement with the sentence she dictated to the organization.  Before Kagan’s interference, the ACOG statement read:

“a select panel convened by ACOG could identify no circumstances under which this procedure, as defined above, would be the only option to save the life or preserve the health of the woman.”

Before Kagan, partial-birth abortion was equal to or lesser than other methods in ACOG’s view.  With the addition of Kagan’s wording that it “may be the best” method “in a particular circumstance,” partial-birth abortion now became potentially better than other methods in the official view of ACOG.  Saletan apparently doesn’t understand that making it potentially best in some unnamed hypothetical situation was equivalent to making it definitively best in the view of the reviewing courts.  Even a cursory reading of the lower court rulings shows that the Kagan “best” language was absolutely key to the courts’ reasoning in overturning the bans.

Ultimately, of course, the Supreme Court got past this politicized medicine and got the ruling right.  But this revelation should be a permanent black eye for ACOG’s reputation on any abortion-related issue in the future, and is proof that Kagan is a zealous pro-abortion political animal trying to disguise herself in judge’s robes.

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