Ten Things That Caught My Eye Today (October 25, 2019)

1. Peggy Noonan today (this is the end of the column, read the whole thing, if you can):

Can we agree his is a radical, maximalist stand? Under his standard the Catholic Church would be ruined, and with it a whole world of charities, schools, hospitals, orphanages, other agencies, all of which help those with limited resources. Let’s just posit without bothering to defend the proposition that an America without the Catholic church would be a poorer, sicker, colder place, and one less likely to continue.

At almost the same time as the CNN town hall, the Little Sisters of the Poor, who serve the elderly and impoverished, were again in court asking for protection from the ObamaCare mandate that tells them they must include contraceptive coverage in their employee health plans. It’s been a long legal journey: The Supreme Court has already been involved. So has the Trump administration, whose directives regarding religious protection have been challenged by certain states, which got injunctions, which have been upheld by the appellate courts. The Sisters are forced to appeal to the high court again, which will, please God, affirm, with clarity and force, the constitutional rights without which they cannot exist.

Oh, progressives, if you only had the wisdom to back off, to see your demands as maximalist, extreme, damaging to the fabric, the opposite of live and let live. When you push in this way to control the culture of the country, do you ever ask, “When I win, will there be a country left?”

2. A smile seen around the world: Cincinnati’s National Down Syndrome Adoption Network goes viral

Or just watch the video here

3. And from Buffalo: Adoption Perspectives: Taking Care of Our Children

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5. Jillian Kay Melchior on Hong Kong’s Revolutionary Turn

6. Pope Francis to visit Asia as it faces ‘unholy trinity’ of Christian persecution

7. Why on earth? CBS News is fighting the stigma of consensual non-monogamy

8. Signs that America Is Finally Facing the Urban Mental Illness Crisis

9. There is wisdom here:

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Plus: I talk with Matt Lewis about A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living on his podcast here.