What's New Robert L. Park 27 Feb 2012

WHAT’S NEW   Robert L. Park  Tuesday, 25 Feb 2012   Washington, DC 

1. THE 13TH CRUSADE: "TAKING UP THE CROSS" IN 2012 AMERICA. 
At the start of the bewildering Republican Primary process everyone agreed 
that the overriding issue would be jobs and the economy.  But a week before 
Super Tuesday, with jobs the economy recovering, Rick Santorum is calling 
for a holy war: "I don't believe in an America where the separation of 
church and state is absolute."  He should take a minute to read the First 
Amendment.  Meanwhile, Franklin Graham, son of Billy, questions the 
Christian credentials of both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. Halfway around 
the world, two American officers were shot dead in Afghanistan 
in "retaliation" for the inadvertent burning of Korans, which of course 
harmed not a living soul.  Here in Maryland, the Legislature sent a gay-
marriage bill to Governor O'Malley, which he will sign.  That won't hurt 
anyone either.  Next door in Virginia, the State Senate voted to suspend 
consideration of a bill defining life as beginning at conception, which is 
the position of to the Roman Catholic Church. The law would instantly 
create millions of one-celled persons. Perhaps they would be granted souls 
by heaven, citizenship by the state, and be counted in the census along 
with millions of frozen embryos? Or would the frozen embryos have to wait 
till they thaw? Based on a different reading of Genesis, a Jewish zygote 
wouldn't be a person for another nine months. How do we resolve this? Under 
case law, protection of a fetus by the state begins only after the fetus is 
capable of surviving outside the womb.  As WN pointed out in the last issue 
(15 Feb 2012), freedom of religion is not up for discussion. Gods do not 
compromise. 

2. AMNIOCENTESIS: WHO FIGURED IT WOULD BE A CAMPAIGN ISSUE? 
Last Sunday on Face the Nation, Rick Santorum opposed amniocentesis testing 
of an embryo in the womb.  One of the great advances in modern diagnostic