If you have been watching the news over the last couple of weeks, you might not know that a very controversial trial is taking place in Philadelphia. Kermit Gosnell is accused of murder. Allegedly he murdered one of his patients in the process of doing a late term abortion under abominable sanitary conditions at his abortion clinic. She died from a drug overdose. He was charged with infanticide since he allegedly delivered late term babies and then snipped their spinal cords with scissors. As I was writing this post, it was reported that the charges of infanticide were dropped because the prosecution could not prove the babies were born alive. Gosnell’s abortion clinic has been called a house of horrors by anti-abortion advocates. I’m sorry I can’t give you more details about the conditions or Gosnell because there seems to be a sort of collective ignoring of the case by the media. As one blogger pointed out, there seems to be an asymmetry of the coverage of outrage between those who were so exorcised that the Susan G. Komen foundation withdrew support from some clinics who also did abortions and  the near non-outrage regarding Gosnell’s almost macabre nonchalance at infanticide (apparently he kept the severed feet of some of the fetus’ in a jar). Continue reading …

“Jacob speak comfort to me Jacob!” he said imploring. “I have no comfort to give,” replied Jacob Marley “That comes from other regions and ministers than me” (A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens)

Last Friday news outlets across the nation sprang to life covering an unfolding grade school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. There were, according to Police: 20 children among 26 victims of Connecticut school shooting. Somehow the word “tragedy” seems an understatement. As I listened to the coverage, I thought of my grandchildren, two of which are in that age range. One of our supporters e-mailed looking for words of consolation. She said she could not stop weeping and even though this occurred in a distance state and her children were safe she felt completely crushed by the incident. Oddly, Ebenezer Scrooge’s request and his late partner, Jacob Marley’s response came to mind. Sometimes, it seems, no words of consolation can mitigate such an evil event, but I did my best in my e-mail response. Like many parents and grandparents, we looked on and participated in the grief vicariously. Continue reading …