"(Sarah Palin) is anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, anti-Big Oil, a lifetime member of the N.R.A., she hunts, she fishes - she is the perfect woman!"

This morning I was on the verge of tears reading the article Abortion issue Again Dividing Catholic Votes in the NYTimes. Especially depressing was the paragraph:

"Many parishes distributed a voter guide, produced by an outside conservative Catholic group called Catholic Answers, which identified five NON-NEGOTIABLE issues for faithful voters: abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, human-cloning, euthanasia and same-sex marriage."

Yeah - nada about poverty, war, the environment, greed, racism, justice, or child abuse.

I put down the paper in disgust at the endless fascination (perversity?) of conservatives with what other people do with their own bodies. I went to read my email and this was the first thing I saw, from good moral life-affirming people I know:

Dear All,

"I don't know who came up with this fantastic idea, but for a mere $5 you can let the McBush folks know what you think. Here's all you do.

Make a $5 minimum donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's
name. A Planned Parenthood donation is tax deductible, while a
political donation isn't.

And when you make that PP donation in Palin's name, they'll send her
a card noting that the donation was given in her name.

Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

Fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah
Palin's honor" card. Use the address for the McCain campaign
headquarters:

McCain for President/Sarah Palin
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

Tell all your women friends as well as your men
friends and urge them to do the same."

Consider my $5 sent...