As it should be:

KANSAS CITY – A man accused of gunning down one of America’s few late-term abortion providers was found guilty of first-degree murder on Friday after he said he had to act to stop the doctor from performing more abortions.

Scott Roeder, 51, was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated assault by a Wichita, Kansas jury which deliberated for just over 30 minutes. The case attracted anti-abortion protesters from around the nation to support Roeder.

Well, that may be. But this anti-abortion protester does not support murder, no matter who’s committing it.

One week today I’m going to talk at University of Ottawa on the idea that being pro-life is a distinctly pro-woman stand. It’s all going down on Friday, February 5, at 7 pm in Lamoureux Hall, Room 122, courtesy of the talented students of Ottawa Students for life. On that note, check out Rebecca Richmond’s blog for January 28:

In class this morning I was chatting with the guy who sits next to me about school and mentioned the fact that I was heavily involved with a club on campus. When asked what club, I replied, “Ottawa Students for Life. The pro-life club on campus.”

“Careful. Don’t say that too loud,” he warned with a smile. Why? Because the class we were in was Feminist Theories, a third year Women’s Studies course I’m taking as an elective.

This is the sort of environment a pro-life student faces on campus these days–the hush hush “don’t say that too loud” sort of world. No hush-hush, here, however, I make it my business to be fairly loud. I’m bringing others from the PWPL team too. Black Belt Brigitte, for example, for protection. You just never know what could happen. (That was a joke.)

Wow, the blogosphere and mainstream media is dialing up the hoopla about this Tim Tebow ad that as of yet, no one has seen. There are already spoofs of an ad that no one has seen. Talk about getting bang for your advertising buck.

Anyways, “women’s groups” say the unseen ad is divisive and Super Bowl Sunday is all about bringing people together. I hear they’ve lobbied the NFL to get the teams to agree to play touch football, so that no one gets hurt. And when the game is over, everyone will get a ParticipACTION ribbon and go home smiling. It’s gonna be magic.

Now these women’s groups–now they would certainly never, ever stoop to politicize a sporting event. Oh no. They certainly never would have started a rumour that Super Bowl Sunday is the day with the most domestic violence in a year.

Pro-choice feminists: Pro-choice until such time as someone actually dares to promote a choice they disagree with.

It gets pretty sad when you invite it there yourself, too.

Dating site eHarmony has settled a lawsuit in California by agreeing to end the separation of its homosexual and heterosexual matchmaking services.

eHarmony agreed to open a site for gay and lesbian customers after another lawsuit in 2008, but it did not cross-promote or even link between the two sites, and it kept subscriptions separate.

A gay man from New Jersey named Eric McKinley filed suit against eHarmony in 2008 for not offering matchmaking for gays and lesbians. eHarmony settled by agreeing to launch a service for gay and lesbian customers called Compatible Partners. eHarmony’s launch of Compatible Partners was called a “shotgun wedding” by the Los Angeles Times, though. There wasn’t even a link to Compatible Partners at eharmony.com.

Furthermore, Compatible Partners had a completely different subscription system. Bisexuals had to pay two subscription fees to have access to both sexes.

The newer lawsuit was settled in California yesterday. eHarmony will add its name to Compatible Partners, link it from the main eHarmony website alongside its Jewish, black, Christian and senior portals, and unify subscriptions. The company will also pay out $500,000 to around 150 Californians to settle. That’s in addition to the $1.5 million it has spent defending itself in court.

Honestly, I don’t understand this. If a commercial website does not offer services that suit you, even after you ask them to, you go find yourself a different and better site. You don’t get the state to force the rest of the world to accommodate your wishes. And besides, what should you care whether your particular service is merged with that of other people?

I don’t follow figure skating and the name “Johnny Weir” means nothing to me. But I like how he handles annoying critics. Go Johnny!

p.s. think we should send him a t-shirt?

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Andrea’s favourite part of what this figure skater says:

There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.”

He concludes by saying:

Every skater is wearing skates made out of cow,” Weir said. “Maybe I’m wearing a cute little fox while everyone else is wearing cow, but we’re all still wearing animals.”

A taxi company in Brandon, Manitoba, gives away free condoms to late-night customers Thursday through Sunday. It doesn’t happen very often, but I don’t know quite what to say except that I’m awfully glad I’m not longer dating. Is the girl supposed to be impressed that the guy picks up his condoms in the cab on the way home (wow, what presence of mind he’s displaying)? Or would she rather he shrugged and said: Don’t worry, babe, I’m already well-equipped in that department (wow, and a real gift for double entendres, too)?

In today’s Globe and Mail, the question of how Canada does maternal health continues. I’m not only concerned if the government is working with abortion-rights groups like Action Canada for Population and Development, but also be concerned if aid agencies are:

Mr. Morley said his organization and four others – Care Canada, UNICEF Canada, World Vision Canada and Plan International – realized when they met last February that they were all thinking the same way and decided to work together to get the government onside. Along with two Canadian aid agencies – Results Canada and Action Canada for Population and Development – that joined the cause in recent months, they were delighted when it was announced on Monday that Mr. Harper would take the opportunity of the June gathering to press the issue.

Since I have been a supporter of World Vision for some years now, I just placed a polite call, followed up with an email, to ask this:

I’d appreciate it very much if you could get back to me on whether or not World Vision is happy to partner with the ACPD. The ACPD is an abortion-rights group, and this is in my view, violently opposed to maternal health. It is my hope that you can clarify this situation for me and confirm that World Vision would not now, and has not in the past, worked with ACPD.

Feel free to do the same. My continued support of World Vision definitely hinges on the answer here.

Bump+. Will she abort? Or won’t she? And the audience gets a say, of course. Ain’t that America: A democratic say in whether or not a gal kills her child. What hootin’-hollerin’ fun!

In related news, tonight, I will throw my large-decidedly-not-a-flat-screen-television off my fire escape. Then, after writing a short but poignant goodbye note to family and friends, I will move to a small uninhabited island. I will be Prime Minister there. There will be no abortion, no attempts to pander to abortion-rights groups, and most importantly, no reality TV.

I love it when science catches up with what most normal people already know.

Scottish scientists have finally figured out why female fertility drops off so rapidly with age: a woman’s “ovarian reserve,” or the potential number of eggs she is born with, declines by almost 90 per cent by age 30. The study from the University of St Andrews and Edinburgh University found that most women are born with 300,000 potential egg cells but by age of 30, only 12 per cent are left on average; by age of 40, the reserve is down to just three per cent.  Though women continue producing eggs throughout their 30s and 40s, the reservoir of potential eggs from which they are taken shrinks to almost nothing. And though the body chooses the best eggs from the reserve, the likelihood is that the quality of the eggs will suffer with age, increasing the difficulty of conception and the risk of an unhealthy baby. The lesson, says study co-author Dr Hamish Wallace, is that women shouldn’t wait too long to try to conceive: “Our research shows that they are generally over-estimating their fertility prospects.

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Andrea is from that department too: Well, not really. But I do have smart, university-educated friends who think that when Hollywood stars have children at 40 it means they can too. We apparently cannot highlight enough, then, that the fertile years are a time limited affair. Sad, really. We’re all so smart, and yet, so dumb.  (And in that category I definitely include myself.)

I like what James O’Keefe did in the past, especially that famous sting operation on ACORN. I’m not too sure what this is about, but I don’t like what it looks like one bit.

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UPDATE: Reader Maryann sends this, which suggests the story might be less embarrassing for O’Keefe than the first reports indicated. I certainly hope so.