Saturday, January 16, 2010

Will we eventually see AbortionGate?

Many researchers have found that women who have abortions have a significantly higher risk of developing breast cancer.  In fact, the majority of research on this topic reaches the same conclusion.  Only a minority of studies have found no link.  However, as pointed out by Lorne Hunter in this excellent article, the politically correct "consensus" on this issue appears to be that no link exists.

I wonder what would be found if somebody hacked the servers of the major researchers who claim that such a link doesn't exist...

Yet, I think that pro-lifers sometimes get too excited about this issue.  The abortion-breast-cancer link (or ABC link) is not the reason why we oppose

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Killing me softly with his blog?

I read the results of a new study suggesting that watching TV is bad for your health.  And it's not because it correlates with less exercise and poor health.  Read this excerpt:

Researchers tracked the TV-viewing habits of 8,800 adults and followed them for six years. They found those who spent four hours daily in front of the tube had an 80 percent greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease than those who watched the box for less than two hours. The association was independent of risks such as smoking, obesity and unhealthy diet.

Prolonged inactivity, which can raise blood-sugar and cholesterol levels, is to blame for the health effects, not the appliance itself, said David Dunstan, a study author and researcher at Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute in Melbourne.(Source)

(...)

“Too much sitting is bad for health,” said Dunstan, a professor of health sciences. “Avoid sitting for prolonged periods and keep in mind to move more, more often.”

So sitting for extended periods is bad for your blood-sugar and cholesterol.  Go figure.  Sitting in front of a computer isn't very different from sitting in front of a TV, is it?  So is blogging bad for your health?  Should I sue my boss for making me work at a desk all day?  At home, maybe I should raise my desk and blog while standing up?  Better yet, let me setup a treadmill or a stationary bike in front of my PC...

.

Monday, January 11, 2010

So much work to be done in educating the faithful

Here's an excellent article from CatholiCity regarding the dire state of Catholics' knowledge of their faith.  One particular area of weakness is their knowledge of the Word of God.  According to this article, 93% of adult Catholics in the U.S. own a Bible, but about 3% read the Bible each day only 7% read it at all each week.  This paragraph would be funny if is wasn't tragic:

Recent studies have shown that sixty percent of American Christians believe that Jesus was born in Jerusalem, not Bethlehem. Only forty percent of Christian Americans can name any five of the ten commandments. Half of high school seniors think that that Sodom and Gomorrah were married. Less than half can identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible. Only a third of Americans know who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and more people believe that the Reverend Billy Graham delivered it than Jesus. Twelve percent think that Noah's wife is Joan of Arc. The examples abound.

There's so much work to be done in helping Catholics learn about the Faith.  But there's a key problem:  you can't teach someone if they're not listening.  How can we get Catholics to make the effort of educating themselves when we can't even get their attention for five minutes?

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Great humour on "dentists" from an old Bill Cosby monologue

This video cracks me up! Good clean humour.