Tragedy

I've been in a bit of a blog dilemma the last couple days. The shootings at Virginia Tech have been such a prominent story, and such a tragic waste of young human life and potential. I found myself pretty much unable to blog, because I didn't feel up to addressing the one thing that has the whole nation's attention (there are plenty of other people ready to weigh in anyway), but it seemed somehow frivolous and callous to babble on about nanotech, or the politics of global warming. I've also been pretty sick for the past week, from a bug my Darling suffered through first, and then lovingly passed on to me. I just don't really have the energy, physical or emotional, to jump into the fray about whether the shootings at the school prove the case for or against gun control. Don't get me wrong, I have my opinions, just no real need to articulate them at this point. I did find that this article from Glenn Reynolds summed things up well though, so I'm sending it your way, for what it's worth. Other than that, all I want to do is to express my sincere condolences for everybody who lost someone they loved.

I will add one more thing, on another topic. Some of you will know that the Supreme Court upheld the ban on partial birth abortion this morning. I have to say I'm glad. Readers of the Meow know that, while I am most definitely pro life, I understand that people on both sides of the abortion debate generally take their position from a belief that theirs is the right and compassionate position, not from any innate, evil, selfish desire for power, predilection for irresponsibility, or any of the other accusations that people fling at each other over this very emotional topic. Most people act from a true desire for our nation to make the right choice. At the same, how we think about children in the womb reflects who we are as a society, whatever our motives for the laws we make. Even as I was glad that the Justices have upheld the ban on what I believe is an unbelievably barbaric "procedure," I was saddened how calmly the AP writer talked about how doctors still have the option of "dismembering the fetus in the uterus." Dismemberment in the uterus. Wow. It hurts me right now to think about what that says about humanity. From the pro life point of view, that is just as tragic as the shootings at Virginia Tech.