I can't help it. I'm addicted to reading the Abstinence Clearinghouse blog. It's like reading a label of Dr. Bronner's soap, but even weirder and more perplexing. What I can't figure out is how the bloggers have survived this long with their high levels of intelligence, when there is so much traffic to wander into or electrical sockets to experimentally poke with forks.
This is an upsetting bit of pandering--- Barack Obama has come out and opposed 3rd trimester abortions for "mental distress". My initial thought was not to get too bunched up about it, because pandering actually ranks above food and water as necessities for a politician's continued existence, and this is a classic example of someone speaking out of both sides of his mouth. Condemning late term abortions for "mental distress"---a term that conjures up images of women aborting at 7 months because their boyfriends left without a forwarding address, because they didn't realize that being pregnant meant you got fat, etc.---is like condemning purple stoplights. It's great that you have that opinion and all, but you do know the thing that bothers you doesn't exist, right? As Dr. B lays out, there's only two clinics in the entire country that do 3rd trimester abortions, and they have a long list of indicators you have to satisfy to get on the list, mostly direct threats to the mother's health or fetal abnormalities incompatible with life. There are 3rd trimester abortions performed because of psychiatric indicators, but that's a much different thing than "mental distress". At bare minimum, I'm guessing the women (or more likely girls in many cases) that have really late abortions because of mental distress have to have mental health problems so severe that they outstrip the trauma of having a 3rd trimester abortion, which is pretty serious in and of itself. I don't think that it takes much work to imagine some of the horror stories that land women (or more commonly, girls) in Kansas or Colorado to get an abortion---being raped by relatives, suicide attempts, strenuous attempts at self-aborting that put them in danger of killing themselves. Considering that Dr. George Tiller of Kansas has an extensive counseling program attached to his services, including support groups with other people who find themselves in the tragic situation of having to get later term abortions, I'm guessing that the mental status of his patients is well understood by the staff at the clinic.
Drudge turns on the tired old police siren for breaking news -- here it's time to flip on the rainbow siren!
Now that the Florida governor's found that "special someone," you know, the adulteress he's been allegedly boinking for sometime now, he's making his "union" legal -- something gay and lesbian couples in the Sunshine State cannot do. Obviously, Charlie Crist wants that McCain VP slot so badly he can taste it...
Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome.
"She's special in every way. She's brilliant, beautiful and sweet. I'm very, very lucky," Crist told the St. Petersburg Times in an exclusive interview.
Crist said he picked out the sapphire and diamond ring on Wednesday at the Gold and Diamond Center in St. Petersburg's Northeast Shopping Center.
...And his engagement is likely to reverberate well beyond Florida because the popular governor is widely viewed as a contender to be likely Republican presidential candidate John McCain's running mate. Not since Franklin Pierce picked William King to be his running mate in 1852 has America had a bachelor vice president.
Best wishes to the happy couple...I wonder if the McCain campaign will have a congratulatory press release out soon. 
Click on the screenshot for the Sun-Sentinel video report. The anchor is so giddy. Oh, and the readership of the paper doesn't buy this one either:
Related:
* The Talk of the Green Iguana: Will American voters elect the first gay vice president in November?
* Crist to be 'outed' as straight...by Roger Stone's alleged 'sex tape'
* Tongues wag whether Crist's 'girlfriend' is 'the one'
* Poor Charlie Crist - he's really desperate for that VP slot
* Howie Klein: Charlie Crist Has A "Girlfriend"-- A First Step Towards Getting On The Mccain Ticket... To Nowhere?
* Oh my -- more GOP closet doors are flying open...
* Florida gov Charlie Crist: leave ban on adoption rights for gays on the books
The Wall Street Journal runs an opinion piece declaring that Obama should embrace his Muslim heritage.
How's this for an economic indicator?