As a Catholic I am theologically conservative, but in politics I am fiercely moderate. This is the wrong year to vote John McCain president. If he had ran in 2004, he'd perhaps be a strong incumbent now. But he didn't. As for the opposition, I'm not necessarily an Obama supporter. He might, however, be the best candidate for ~this~ year.

S/he has a funny way of not necessarily supporting Obama, going to great lengths to excuse Obama's opposition of Born Alive while calling me a "partisan hack and pro-life ideologue who is wrong about Obama's support for infanticide...."

On July 17 Bill O'Reilly took on "the Planned Parenthood fanatics" for an ad they are running against John McCain for his votes against forcing insurance companies to fund contraceptives, even if Catholic, for instance, and in violation of their beliefs.

I was glad O'Reilly took the position he did but winced at his rationale, which was a bit ill-informed (stating this was a taxpayer funding issue) and I thought sexist....

While O'Reilly may consider impotence a "medical condition" insurance companies should pharmaceutically cover, others would make a strong case that contraceptives also treat medical conditions, like irregular or painful periods, as well as prevent pregnancy.

I'll cover this more in my WND column Wednesday, but the problem here is more theological and moral. I'm sure for John McCain there were free market issues, too. The Catholic Church believes the concept of contraception is wrong. Furthermore, birth control pills and IUDs can abort a 5- to 9-day-old embryo. That's why its insurance companies don't want to subsidize birth control.

Perhaps someone can explain O'Reilly's last line, which I kind of get but not quite: "Do I have to buy you dinner before you use the birth control? Give me and every other taxpayer a break, Planned Parenthood."

Here's a good one, as reported by Operation Rescue Saturday:

Operation Rescue's Truth Truck, driven by Mark Gietzen, caused a stir the St. Louis Planned Parenthood abortion mill on Saturday, July 19, when he drove onto their parking lot and parked near the front door as abortion-bound women entered the facility.

Security guards for PP immediately rushed to close the parking lot's iron gates to prevent the Truth Truck from leaving while they summoned the police....

But this action turned out for the good, allowing the Truth Truck to witness to the women in the parking lot for longer than it would have otherwise.

Gietzen was convinced that his actions were completely legal.

"They did not have the proper signage to keep me off the lot," he said.

Apparently the police agreed. Officers made the PP security guards open the gate and allow the Truth Truck to leave as over 300 pro-lifers cheered....

[S]aid OR president Troy Newman... "By locking the Truth Truck into their parking lot, they were accomplishing our work for us!"

[Photos courtesy of OR, taken by Tracy Mathews]