The Book of Job is Old Testament God. It doesn’t count. Except, of course, when you want it to count.

Let the white baptists have their 16 year old daughter come home pregnant by Tyrone of the high school basketball team. I'm quite certain we'll see a sudden shade of gray appear, drowning out their previous rigid black and white.--Sooner a shade of gray than a shade of tan.

I know, I know. So very wrong.

--

Anyway, on a non-satirical level, Brownback made these remarks to a group of St. Joseph's Covenant Keepers:

Rape is terrible. Rape is awful. Is it made any better by killing an innocent child? Does it solve the problem for the woman that's been raped? We need to protect innocent life. Period.

St. Joseph’s Covenant Keepers’ introduce themselves on their website as follows: “Welcome to our website for fathers. St. Joseph’s Covenant Keepers is an informal international network of Christian men, under the patronage of St. Joseph, dedicated to strengthening fatherhood and the family.” http://www.dads.org/

I’m all for men being good fathers, but anyone else noting the creepiness in addressing an organization dedicated to fatherhood about how abortion is wrong even in cases of rape? Because in rape pregnancies, the father is a rapist.

Quick - who's got the number for al-Qaeda's main office??

Why, it's 1-800-ALQ-AEDA of course!

I agree, whatever_dc, that Lindsay Lohan’s appeal isn’t based in her talent. She has yet to produce any Oscar-caliber work, but they doesn’t mean she’s without acting ability. And I consider acting ability, even if it’s mediocre, a talent. Doesn’t make her an artistic genius.

Anyway, back to the Lohan appeal. Her wildness is appealing (and not just to teenage girls). But teens also find/found her cool. From a Spring 2006 Lindsay fan club online forum:

i love lindsay lohan

shes a rock chick like me!

n she can sing, dance n act! go lindsay!

and

Loved Lindsay when she looked like this b4 she lost weight!! Dnt get me wrong still Love her but wish she would get back to her normal size and stop trying 2 b thin 2 look good!!

Teens love Lohan because she’s like them, only cooler. The same reasons any of us ever picked up a Tiger Beat or its ilk in our youth.

"Ambulatory surgical center", any public or private establishment operated primarily for the purpose of performing surgical procedures or primarily for the purpose of performing childbirths, or any establishment operated for the purpose of performing or inducing any second or third trimester abortions or five or more first trimester abortions per month, and which does not provide services or other accommodations for patients to stay more than twenty-three hours within the establishment, provided, however, that nothing in this definition shall be construed to include the offices of dentists currently licensed pursuant to chapter 332, RSMo; [Changes in bold] http://www.senate.mo.gov/07info/BTS_Web/BillText.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=7394

Huh? Any establishment whose raison d’etre is abortion? Is there any such establishment?

I don't understand. Are you questioning the existence of abortion clinics?

Yes. Planned Parenthood doesn’t run “abortion clinics.” They run [women’s] health clinics where abortions account for about 3% of the services they provide. Breakdown of services provided by Planned Parenthood in 2005:

• Contraception: 37% of services
• STI/STD Testing and Treatment : 29% of services
• Cancer Screening and Prevention: 20% of services
• Other Women's Health Services (includes pregnancy tests, prenatal care and infertility care): 10% of services
• Abortion Services: 3% of services http://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/pp-services-5552.htm

Now, this is just the overall average, skewed by the fact that not all Planned Parenthood clinics even offer abortion. I can’t find an exact stat of how many clinics offer abortion services. Let’s say the number was 50%--that could make abortion services 6% of the total services performed at a clinic that performs abortions. Let’s say the number of clinics was 6%--that would make abortion services 50% of the total services performed at a clinic that performs abortions. (Any math-y people feel free to jump in if I’m extrapolating horrbily from these stats.)

**In order for abortion to be a clinic’s primary reason for existence, I’d say abortion would need to account for at least 50% of the total services provided.

Planned Parenthood isn’t the only clinic that provides abortions, but they are the most visible with 900 clinics and affiliates nationwide. Clinics that provide abortion don’t just provide abortions--although there may be a small number that primarily provides abortion services. We buy into anti-abortion rhetoric when we refer to health centers that provide a variety of services as “abortion clinics.”

Let's face it--some of the candidates are "not serious" in the sense that even they don't think they have a snowball's chance of being elected. So if that's the "not serious" Clinton and Edwards were referring to, they're not wrong.

However, these "not serious" candidates are doing something important and necessary--they're shaping the debate and pushing some thought-provoking ideas. And eighteen months before the general election sounds like a really good time to start shaping the debate.

If you feel you're too good to appear on stage with the "not serious," you needn't bother showing up yourself.