all over the place

lots of fun had at julie's birthday party this past friday... i think we had about 21 guests over! i spent the first hour and a half grillling; wayne hardison and peter vw kept me company, which made it enjoyable. emily bugala made a delicious chocolate cake, which i topped with vanilla ice cream (a la big boy). we're so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family.

julie's at 36 weeks now, which means the baby will come sometime in the next 2-6 weeks. the 'official' due-date is august 15. i can't wait for our little girl to be born--what a miracle that will be! a brand new life.

i finished 'gilead' by marilynne robinson. a delightful novel! i'm not sure how to describe it. you can read the description on amazon.com here. a pulitzer-prize winning novel that portrays the pastoral profession in a pretty positive light. very cool. i've just started 'the davinci code' (to see what all the hoopla is about), 'beyond belief' by elaine pagels (oooohhh... a "secret" gospel! i smell a conspiracy!), and 'the world is flat' by thomas friedman. (interesting coincidence regarding the friedman book. i called my credit card's customer service number, and at the end of the call asked the guy where he was located---"india". he had a great american accent, and was very professional.)

on the supreme court, i'm going to predict Edith Jones. i'm not super confident, but it's a good bet. i think it's a good move in light of what may come down the road in terms of abortion rulings. the idea is that it's better to not have the only woman on the Court be on the left side of the abortion debate.

here's my thing on abortion (i recommend you stop reading now if you're not interested in controversial political blabbering): we had an ultrasound at about 20 weeks, and i saw the baby's arms, legs, beating heart, nose, lips. there are 1.5 million abortions in the US each year, 180,000 of them after the first trimester, and at least 23,000 of them are after 20 weeks (and that's by the most conservative estimates by Planned Parenthood). let me be up-front about my own belief on this issue. i think it's morally wrong to abort any fetus, at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason (except for perhaps a case where the mother's life is clearly at risk). having said that, can we as a society agree that at the very least we shouldn't be aborting after the first trimester? at 3 months, or about 12 weeks, the heart is beating (has been since the first month), the baby is sucking, breathing fluid, squirming, brain waves are detectable (since early 2nd month). even if you're not sure when "life" begins, can we at least agree that at 3 months this is clearly a real human life?

now, some people i know who are pro-life tell me that "yes, it's wrong", but that the legislative/legal fight isn't one that we should be too vocal about--we should work on changing people's hearts on the morality of the issue. (side note: i'm not sure how you do that by never publicly talking about why abortion is wrong) i'm wondering what their position would have been in the early 1800's in this country regarding slavery. "Yes, it's wrong, but I don't think we should expend our energy on prohibiting it in the South"? "besides, there are other issues of morality besides just slavery"? "in fact, i think it's really divisive to focus on this issue"? thank God we had leaders who had some backbone and were willing to make some enemies in the course of doing the right thing. i have utter respect for those abolitionists who were vocal, loud, and actively obnoxious in working to end slavery everywhere.

i know this issue is more complicated and confusing for some, because the nature of life (especially in the first trimester) is less obvious to some than the humanity of an adult human of african descent. and you have those extreme cases of rape and incest, or when the mother's life is in danger. nevertheless, if we are indeed terminating a couple hundred thousand fetuses well after the first trimester (even after 20 weeks!) each year, should we not be vocally saying "that's wrong!"? ....or, maybe we should think of this as only one moral issue among others, such as tax policy, defense strategy, environmental regulation, etc. etc.? I don't know... let's think back to 1860: hmmm... Lincoln is anti-slavery, but I like Douglas's views on defense, school spending and locomotive emissions. wow, tough call. on the one hand we keep millions of men and women in oppressive bondage, but on the other hand we will have cleaner rivers and better spending on schools. again, that's a really tough call. (not)