Veritas Forum

Hat tip to Jimmy Akin for highlighting this story about scientists working to create sperm out of women's bone marrow.

"British scientists are ready to turn female bone marrow into sperm, cutting men out of the process of creating life.

The breakthrough paves the way for lesbian couples to have children that are biologically their own.

Gay men could follow suit by using the technique to make eggs from male bone marrow."

"Greg Aharonian, a U.S. analyst who is trying to patent the technologies behind female sperm and male eggs, said he wants to undermine the argument that heterosexual marriage is superior because it is aimed at procreation. "I'm a troublemaker," he said."

The abolition of flogging is one of the great barbarisms of our society.

The new issue of the Liberty is out and up, and it's only the second day of class! Congrats to Rock and Greg, who worked their tails off to ensure that the Liberty got off to the right start this school year.

Go check it out! (and if you see any editing or formatting issues, please let me know...)

Is it really all that much of a surprise that Wikipedia, of all things, has the potential to influence voters in the upcoming election? The Washington Post has an article on it here.

And to get the geek vote, candidates should also consider hiring people to Digg articles in their favor...

I have a lot of fond memories of school supply shopping when I was younger--the Twister erasers and colorful designed Trapper Keepers I got to choose were part of the fun I associated with having to go to school.

Sadly, my little cousins don't get to the same enjoyment that I once did. With elementary schools now pooling supplies, a lot of kids don't even get to use the supplies their parents bought for them. And, if you happen to wander the school supply aisles at your local Target, you'll frequently hear parents complaining about it.

Here's an insightful article by Charlotte Hays on the effects of this whole communal supplies deal. The Communal Pencil.

Well, it's been a while since we've seen a post, so I figured I'd add something. It's not the article that I'd hoped for when I clicked the link, but some of the longer posts in this thread are interesting. Why are so many nerds Libertarian?

Catholic Bishop RSVP's for Rudy's campaign fundraiser.

I've got a column up today, on a subject I've been mulling over a bit of late.

Fox News has a story today on harsh treatment for detainees at Gitmo. Terror Suspect Claims Torture by Americans, Not Enough Entertainment at Guantanamo Bay. It reads like an Onion article.

WASHINGTON — An accused enemy combatant held at Guantanamo Bay told a military hearing he was physically as well as mentally tortured there by having to read a newsletter full of 'crap,' being forced to use unscented deodorant and shampoo and having to play sports with a ball that would not bounce...

That's what you get when you mess with the U.S. of A.

Jeff Jacoby has a great column today pointing out the little-noted fact the lawful incest is coming (sorry that the link doesn't go directly to his column, but it's blocked by our anti-spam software and I don't want to do the digging needed to unblock it). Indeed, it's already here in parts of Europe. The legal problem goes back to Griswold and substantive due process.

Griswold was about contraception, of course, but the decision reached set the foundation for the view that the bedroom cannot be regulated. Bestiality? Questions about its morality and legality are now acceptable discussion fare in The Washington Post and the New York Times.

Also, evangelical protestants need to rethink their acceptance of contraception. If it isn't intrinsically immoral (the Catholic position), it is nonetheless harmful, both to the individual and society.

Discontent with only raising the ire of the campus paper, our very own Nathanael Blake has gathered criticism on national TV! He's a written a couple of commentaries on the VT shooting incident here and here. This prompted Kieth Olbermann to give him the silver medal in his Worst Person Awards.

This is nothing but good news! The esteemed Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield will deliver the 2007 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities. This is "the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." No one deserves it more and few deserve it as much as this man.

As a testament to his character, Dr. Mansfield is also the adviser for Harvard's Students for Life group and for one of its conservative papers. If you haven't read his latest book, I suggest you do. It is excellent.

John Fund on our first and greatest president and his whiskey.

Here's my latest piece for ALL.

George Will has an excellent column today on the need for conservatives to get over Reagan.

Mark Steyn has a good piece on global warming. A highlight is his skewering of Ellen Goodman, who is surely among the most loathsome columnists around.

I really do. It's the simple things in life I like and it's those things they are trying to take away.

First, Victor Davis Hanson revisits Mexifornia, and it's worse than he foresaw.

Theodore Dalrymple discusses the disaster that is Britain. "Three new books give us an insight into the nature of the corruption that has sprung from the ever-wider extension of self-arrogated government responsibility in Britain, and they shed light as well on the effect that government expansion has upon the population. By the time you have finished reading them, you are unsure as to whether Gogol, Kafka, or Orwell offers the best insight into contemporary British reality. Gogol captures the absurdity all right, and Kafka the anxiety caused by an awareness of sinister but unidentifiable forces behind what is happening; but you also need Orwell to appreciate, and sometimes even to admire, the brazenness with which officialdom twists language to mean the opposite of what it would once ordinarily have meant."

Finally, here's a piece by Heather MacDonald that should forever lay to rest the myth that we can import from Latin America a solution to our social problems. The short version is that half of babies born to Hispanic mothers are illegitimate.

Here's the latest Islamic outrage: foreigners in Saudi Arabia are going to do time and be lashed for the horrible crimes of drinking and dancing. If any of these are American citizens, I think we should drop one bomb for every day in prison each serves and another for each stroke of the whip. Other nations can contribute as they see fit. As for where the bombs should be aimed...well, those tall towers and domes would make nice targets...

Dinesh D'Sousa has pretty much ruined his reputation in the conservative movement with his latest book (a pity, because his earlier work was often good), and Robert Spencer has a thorough takedown of it here.

Here's a report on Christians being driven out of Christ's birthplace by Muslim thugs.