Good morning to all our fine readers on this Tuesday of Holy Week. I adopted a number of Lenten observances this year--probably partly in an unhealthy competitive spirit with my teenage daughter, who gave up practically everything. I am allegedly abstaining from alcohol, meat and desserts. It does give me a newfound appreciation for how difficult it is to deny oneself the small pleasures of life.

I'd like to point our readers to several blogs. First up, we have Christus Medicus, a very new blog from a medical student.

Secondly, we have Dean's World. I like the way he interweaves personal and political reportage. I particularly commend this
post on his struggles with alcohol and his reflections on AA. One of the links he recommends goes to a fascinating page called AA Deprogramming which has an article on What AA does for survivors of abuse or trauma. Fascinating. Many women I know who are in the abortions/alcohol/abuse nexus are well-described by this article.

The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous makes passing reference to the "root causes" of alcohol addiction, but as the aforementioned article argues, is not perhaps the right place to heal from these root causes.

Thirdly, check out Times Against Humanity for ongoing discussion of sonograms and abortion. Thank you, Earl!

Finally, Ampersand, the man who writes Alas A Blog, got out the long guns recently in order to fisk Selma, the comment she once left on this blog, and our other fine readers and contributors.