Woo hoo! Only two more months 'till Opening Day in baseball, and the Dodgers have signed...Ron Coomer? Bet the Giants are shakin' in their shoes now, by golly.

On both the old and new calendars, today is the feast day of St. John Bosco.

Well this is incredibly perverse. A Canadian court (big surprise) awards a divorced couple damages for the "wrongful birth" of their Down's Syndrome child.

A [British Columbia] Supreme Court justice ruled this week that Dr. Ken Kan must pay the child's mother, Liu-Ling "Lydia" Zhang of Vancouver, $10,000 in damages.

The justice also awarded American Simon Fung, the father, $20,000 in damages and $295,000 for the cost of his daughter Sherry's future care.

Dr. Kan was negligent in failing to send Zhang for an expedited amniocentesis test, which likely would have detected her baby's chromosome defect, Justice Michael Catliff ruled.

Zhang would have aborted her pregnancy had she known her daughter would be born with Down's, the mother has said.

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Time to celebrate by going out and getting a sheep style 'do.

Broadest U.S. Christian alliance, that includes the Catholic Church, is proposed.

The loosely knit alliance would represent five segments of U.S. Christianity, listed in the plan as "Evangelical/Pentecostal, Historic Protestant, Orthodox, Racial/Ethnic and Roman Catholic."

The Catholic church and most evangelicals and Pentecostals do not belong to the National Council of Churches, which is currently the nation's largest ecumenical group. If the new alliance does emerge, it could supplant the National Council or radically alter its role in American Christianity.

Not enough time to examine their qualifications?! Give me a freakin' break! Before the Republicans took back control over the Senate, you idiot Democrats had more than a year to question these judicial nominees! Admit it. You guys are just mad because Sen. Hatch isn't giving you enough time to run your asinine smear campaigns!

Prof. to students: "No recommendation unless you accept my belief that we are descendents of monkeys and the origin of life is just one big happy accident."

After reading Mark Shea's blog on "Evangelicalese", I'm in need of some clarification. When Protestants mention the "sanctuary" of their chapels, are they generally including the pews where everybody sits (or stands and claps their hands to cheery music)? My understanding of the sanctuary in a Catholic context is that it only includes the immediate area around or in front of the altar (sometimes cordoned off by Communion rails).

Old calendar feast day: St. Francis de Sales

New calendar feast day: St. Gildas the Wise

Could this possibly be the case where the SCOTUS gets to revisit the question of whether an unborn child is a "person"? Hmmm...

Oh yeah, this makes sense.

For all my fellow Tridentine loyalists who go by the old calendar, today is the feast day of St. Peter Nolasco. If you're going by the new calendar, it is the feast day of my patron saint, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Ewwwww!

On a more serious matter, SCOTUS declines to hear juvenile death penalty case.

The Supreme Court has allowed the death penalty to be imposed on killers who were 16 or 17 at the time of their crimes. Lawyers for Oklahoma inmate Scott Allen Hain said the minimum age should be raised to 18.

"While they appear to be fully-grown physically and may seem to be functioning as adults, their judgment and impulse-control are simply not that of adults," attorney Steven Presson told justices in filings.

Hain was 17 when he and an older friend abducted and killed a young couple in 1987. They locked the victims in their car trunk and set it afire.

SCOTUS declines to hear Mattel appeal over song that calls Barbie a "blonde bimbo."

The song, by a Danish group called Aqua, includes the lyrics, "I'm a blonde bimbo in a fantasy world/Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly."

Mattel Inc. (MAT), which gets $1.5 billion or more annually in Barbie sales, complained that an advertisement for the song ran during Saturday morning cartoons and that MCA Records Inc. even wanted to sell the recording at toy stores.

The Bucs don't have a chance unless Warran Sapp or Brad Johnson have a relative who is a priest or nun . (article requires registration)

"I'm part of the Raider Nation," said Sister Kathleen Gannon, a nun in Berkeley whose nephew, Rich Gannon, is Oakland's starting quarterback.

"When Rich first came out here to the Raiders, I said, 'Rich, they have a very bad reputation," she said. "But he said, 'Aunt Kath, I know that's their reputation, but if you talk to the guys they have a very deep spirituality.' "

I'm glad to see the feds have finally done something to make California fix its woeful foster care system. Perhaps the feds' findings will prove useful in beating back proposed bills to make private foster care agencies place children with homosexual applicants.

Do it! Do it!

Bishop Wiegand of Sacramento advises Gov. Davis to stop receiving Holy Communion for as long as he supports pro-abortion policies. The way I see it, "Gray-out" should be looking at this as a favor, since he is blaspheming our Lord every time he receives the Eucharist. (How else should a person who receives Holy Communion while in a state of mortal sin be described?)

How incredibly dumb do you have to be to not know that eating a Big Mac with fries every day will make you fat?

Roe has seen the light of truth, but her former attorney is still in the dark.

Cold, hard, and sad facts on this, the 30th anniversary, of Roe v. Wade.

The retirement watch on Chief Justice Rehnquist grows.

He is now in his 17th year as chief justice, and the 31st as a member of the court. Recent health problems, the political calendar, and Rehnquist's success in advancing a conservative agenda all have helped fuel the retirement speculation.

''He is the most likely to retire, and the stars are aligned right for it,'' suggested Roger Pilon, vice president of legal affairs at the Cato Institute, a libertarian legal advocacy group. Given that the Congress and presidency are both controlled by Republicans, Pilon said, ''it's the opportune time for him to retire; all that could change with the next election.''

Nice to see the Ninth Circuit got something right for a change. They rule that Maui County Council members, in their capacities as individuals, cannot claim government immunity when they are sued under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. In other words, if a government entity violates a plaintiff's rights under RLUIPA, each individual responsible for that violation (e.g., a city or county council member) can personally be on the hook for any damages incurred.

The capital of Raider Nation (yes, I'm on the bandwagon) gets a new, and seemingly better, bishop. (Hey, any guy labeled a "conservative" by the ultra-liberal SF Chronicle can't be all bad).
(link via Amy Welborn's blog)

In light of the fact that Martin Luther King was an adulterer and partly named after the man who effectively ignited the Reformation and Protestantism, I just can't get very excited about MLK Day. Maybe the government should have just called it "Civil Rights Day" or "Title VII Day".

Somehow, I doubt the founding fathers ever envisioned lap dancing as being a First Amendment right.

This is just utterly twisted.

Stewardship. Genesis tells us that we are created in God's image and that with that gift comes the responsibility for "...every living thing that moves upon the earth" (1:27-28). It follows that, as moral agents, women have the God-given responsibility to make decisions about the course of action that seems to them most responsible in cases of unwelcome pregnancy.

The SCOTUS upholds the constitutionality of "double jeopardy" death sentence.

The Constitution guarantees that no one will be "subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." That means that once acquitted of a crime, someone cannot be tried again.

Double jeopardy protection does not apply in Sattazahn's case, because the first jury did not acquit him but merely disagreed whether he deserved to die, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court majority. He was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

Without having actually read the decision, I suppose the majority was correct insofar as the "double jeopardy" principle applies to convictions and not sentences. Still though...

I get the distinct impression that Pat Buchanan thinks the death penalty needs to be regularly imposed in this country.

Again and again, in Illinois and across America, people have voted to retain this ultimate sanction for the most vicious and vile killers among us. Our Constitution provides for a death penalty. For centuries, it has been a part of our criminal justice system. When Illinoisans elected [George] Ryan [governor], they were voting to retain it. Every killer on death row is there because a jury, after hearing all the evidence, voted unanimously to put him there.

Students in Mass. who were suspended for passing out candy canes with Bible verses on them have filed a lawsuit.

Eerily enough, a similar situation occurred last month at a high school in Reno, NV. However, after yours truly sent the school district a sternly worded demand letter, the decision to prohibit the candy cane distribution was reversed. They were smart; the school in Mass. wasn't.

More California cities decide to ban Jesus Christ from city council invocations.

The Superior Court of Los Angeles County ruled that such sectarian invocations violate the Constitution's separation of church and state. The appellate court upheld that ruling in September 2002. The Burbank council has not formally decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court yet, but Mayor David Laurell said it's only a matter of time.

"I think we need to take this ruling to the highest court of the land," Laurell said. "It has already had statewide impact and could have nationwide impact."

Will you people in South Dakota please make Tom Daschle go away.

Justice Scalia publicly voices complaint on how the courts have gone too far in separating church from state.

As an example, he pointed to an appeals court decision in California that barred students from saying the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase "one nation under God."

That ruling is on hold pending further consideration by the same court, but the Supreme Court could eventually be asked to review the case.

Justice Thomas reportedly sells memoirs for a cool mil.

The book is expected in stores in the fall of 2005. Thomas, 54, will write about growing up in coastal Georgia during segregation, and will include details about his family, his time in a Roman Catholic seminary and his bitter Senate confirmation hearings in 1991, says publisher Alfred Regnery, who says he read and unsuccessfully bid on the working 125-page manuscript.

I tell you what, Pres. Bush is showing me some cojones with his decision to renominate Charles Pickering for the Federal judiciary (what with the whole Trent Lott fiasco and all). My only hope is that the general public will see through the predictable rantings of people like Sen. Charles Schumer who are relining up their old idiotic platitudes about how Pickering is a threat to civil rights and will send American blacks back into slavery.

Sen. Patty Murray says her bin Laden remarks weren't an attempt to try to paint him as a hero.

"I have to tell you that it's really important that people don't twist or construe remarks that were made to an AP student group in a Vancouver high school," she told Fox News in a Senate corridor after attending a "power coffee" with the 13 other women senators on Capitol Hill.

Whatever Patsy. I'm guessing you also think that oral sex really isn't sex (unless a Republican does it), and that the word "is" has several variable meanings.

Pam Anderson is allowed to teach Sunday school classes?! Assumming it's at a Christian church, I think someone there needs to read that passage in the Bible about causing children to sin and tying a millstone around one's neck. Yikes!

Looks as though the Jerry Falwell School of Law (aka Liberty University School of Law) is set to open its doors for the first time this Fall. What are the chances that Larry Flynt will be a donor to the school?

The negative impact of emphasizing critical thinking over factual knowledge: College seniors today know less about history than high school grads 50 years ago.

Seems to me like modern higher education needs to adopt a Catholic "both/and" approach rather than a Protestant "either/or" one.

Highly publicized scandals notwithstanding, Christianity is still flourishing worldwide.

The New York Times' sick love affair with Roman Polanski

Some old folks will recall that Polanski, who commonly assaulted women cinematically, ("Repulsion," "Rosemary's Baby," "Chinatown"), was convicted of drugging a 13-year-old girl with pills and champagne and then raping her in his hot tub.

Toasted by his sensitive filmdom friends with "13-year-old champagne," Polanski fled the United States and lolled about in Europe where his pedophile lusts were considered so very creative.

Strange that Catholic pedopriests don't receive the same laudatory media treatment as artsy filmdom child molesters.

2003 Orange Bowl Final: USC 38 Iowa 17

Why does ESPN continue to employ Lee Corso (who erroneously proclaimed Iowa would upset USC)? Just wondering.

What the hell is the purpose of agnosticism? Do adherents of this "maybe there is, maybe there isn't" belief really think they are covering their bases? C'mon now.

One final comment on atheism: those of you in the United States who adhere to this shrill screed of ignorance and limited thinking (one does not play God by directly aiding in the healing of someone who is ill or injured) ought to be damn glad that the founding fathers of this country believed in the existence of a divine creator (read the Declaration of Independence). If they had believed that the inalienable rights of humans were but a social construct rather than a product of moral precepts written upon the hearts of all men by nature's God, you would more than likely be living right now under the authoritative regimes of the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany; assumming, of course, you haven't already been aborted for not having the genetic charateristics of an ideal Arian or Soviet. Then again, maybe this is what you atheists want.

Utah's ban on "wrongful life" lawsuits is upheld by Utah state supreme court.

The court ruled in an appeal brought by the parents of a 4-year-old Salt Lake City girl born with Down syndrome. Marie Wood and Terry Borman sued the University of Utah Medical Center in 1999 after their daughter was born, claiming they were given incorrect readings from prenatal tests and were led to believe the girl would not have chromosomal disorders.

Third District Judge Homer Wilkinson threw out the lawsuit, and the justices affirmed his decision Tuesday.

Underlying this case is the parents' assertion that their right to possibly (more like, probably) abort their "imperfect" daughter was violated. Perfect candidates for the maniacal Raelians if you ask me.

BTW, Happy New Year!

It might be little late to mention it now, since everyone probably already knows, but it is worth emphasizing the fact that the Raelians are atheists.