Well, I have good news and bad news.

The Bad News:
Apparently, contrary to all logic, contraception is "not related" to pregnancy. Thank you, Kansas.(Kansas City Star)

Robert Goulet died. Am I a terrible person because this is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear his name?

The Good News:
The Good Samaritain is alive and well! After driving by a crime scene where a woman was being raped, the people in the car tackled (and subsequently beat the crap out of) the rapist as he was running away. And now, not only is the asshole is being charged with rape and assault, but with strangulation, too. So these folks pretty much saved the victim's life. (ABC News)

I'm not sure if you've heard of the Westboro Baptist Church (and your browser may not open the link) or not. Basically, it's a church in Topeka, Kansas, that believes everything bad in the world is due to homosexuality. Your son killed in Iraq? Because god hates gay people. Six children burned to death in a house fire? Because of those evil homosexuals! So this church, in an effort to spread the word, uses funerals as their platform. They routinely picket the funerals of soldiers with lovely signs, in order to follow their religious belief that they need to save people from certain damnation by letting them know just how offensive the U.S. is to god. Well, they protested at the wrong funeral. In March 2006, the funeral was held for one Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, a marine killed in Iraq. Matthew's father, Albert Snyder, was so appalled at the protest that he sued the church for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. And guess what! He won. To the tune of around 11 million dollars. The church will most likely appeal the verdict, and the leader of the church claims that this will only further his cause by drawing more publicity. And there is the sticky issue of the First Amendment; Congress has outlawed funeral protests at federal cemetaries, but Snyder's funeral was in a public one. And the protesters were 1,000 feet away, and could not be seen or heard by the funeral party. But Albert Snyder stands firm that the group ruined the memory of the funeral, and claims that he is still haunted by the images he saw that day.

I know I listed this under "good news," but maybe it's just okay news. I think everyone can agree that Westboro Baptist Church is horrendously misguided, offensive, and wretchedly inappropriate, but they do have a right to say what they say. And the problem here is that even though nobody likes them, by taking away their right to free speech, it creates a standard. I'm sure there are plenty of people offended by my opinion that abortion should be legal, free, and a private matter for the woman alone, but no one can tell me not to shout it from the rooftops. I think a viable solution to the dilemma is the one posed by a local disc jockey when the horrible fire in Bardstown, KY killed 6 children and 4 adults: when he found out that Westboro had the funeral on their list of events to protest, he contacted one of the leaders and offered an hour on his radio show for them to "spread the message" if they would completely stay away from the funeral. The show, part 1 & part 2. And I have to say, the church kept their word. Maybe we could give them a satellite radio channel or something.