Saddam Hussein is scheduled to go on trial Wednesday. But as great as it will be to see the former tyrant in the dock, don’t expect much from the trial, which likely will be quickly postponed. That’s because the charges will be narrowly focused on the execution of more than 140 men and teenage boys, not the more heinous crimes attributed to Saddam, including the killing of an estimated 300,000 Shiites and Kurds. Also, observers worry that the incompetence of the special tribunal and the unfairness of the trial could undermine the verdict. And, ultimately, the biggest frustration will be that a death penalty wouldn’t be harsh enough punishment. As Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said: “Saddam should be executed 20 times.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Under the Bush administration, more than a billion dollars has gone to abstinence-only sex education programs, such as Abstinence Education Inc., a Wichita group that just received a $770,800 federal grant.
Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, had this (and more) to say about abstinence-only sex education:
“In short, the idea that teens will remain celibate until they marry — and that they don’t need information about sex — says much more about the values and fantasies of the people who are promoting these policies than it does about teens. . . .
“I am completely against abstinence-only sex ed programs for three reasons: There is no evidence at all that they work; common sense says they have no chance of working; and it is not clear that ethically they send the right message to young people.”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, wrote a commentary in today’s Eagle responding to a column by Eagle editorial writer Randy Scholfield that criticized pro-life protesters who use photos of aborted fetuses. Newman argued that, as with some horrific news photos that helped expose injustices, “the images of aborted babies are educating the public about an issue in a way that melts away the euphemistic terminology on both sides.” He wrote: “Volumes of opinion articles and all the debate over a woman’s right to choose, or whether it is her body, become simply rhetoric when faced with just one image of the brutality of abortion.”
What do you think? And what about displaying these graphic photos where children are likely to see them, such as on the pro-life “Truth Truck”?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
New techniques to derive embryonic stem cells without destroying an embryo are encouraging but unlikely to break the social conservative block on federal research funding anytime soon. That’s because the techniques haven’t been used in humans yet, and one of the procedures still has ethical concerns (it involves deliberately creating an embryo that will not grow). But if the procedures do work, it could split the pro-life opposition into those who are OK with stem cell research as long as an embryo isn’t destroyed, and those who are opposed to the creation of embryos, including for in vitro fertilization.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
FYI: Here is Rush Limbaugh’s take — or spin — from an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal about the conservative split over the Bush nomination of Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court:
“The Miers nomination shows the strength of the conservative movement. This is no ‘crackup.’ It’s a crackdown. We conservatives are unified in our objectives. And we are organized to advance them. The purpose of the Miers debate is to ensure that we are doing the very best we can to move the nation in the right direction. And when all is said and done, we will be even stronger and more focused on our agenda and defeating those who obstruct it, just in time for 2006 and 2008.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
It’s exciting that Kevin and Cathy Nutsch are getting a new home thanks to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” The family’s old house near Rose Hill exploded in August because of a propane leak. But if all goes as planned, the TV show’s design team — assisted by an army of local contractors and volunteers — will finish the new home within five days.
“Extreme Makeover” is a ratings hit in large part because it helps deserving families. That’s certainly the case this time.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
From the perspective of 2005, it’s difficult to comprehend how it could take 72 years to win the battle for women’s suffrage in the United States. Even Eleanor Clift was surprised at how little she knew about that fight before she began writing her book “Founding Sisters and the 19th Amendment.” Yet the amendment’s 1920 passage, Clift has noted, was “the greatest expansion of democracy in a single day that the world has ever seen.” Clift, a Newsweek columnist and TV pundit, will talk about this and more at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Wichita State University’s Hughes Metropolitan Complex, 29th Street North and Oliver. To better understand this episode in American history is to better value the precious power to vote.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
