Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston denounced an effort to get physician-assisted suicide on the Massachusetts ballot. “We hope the citizens of the Commonwealth will not be seduced by language [such as] dignity and compassion, which are means to disguise the sheer brutality of helping people to kill themse... More

Tom, the day after Rick Perry jumped in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, I thought he might be clear of the issue – he called it a “mistake.” (I said so on NRO and in a National Catholic Register piece.) But the more I hear Governor Perry talk about the issue, the more he gives me pause. I get hating cancer, which the governor says was his motivation. I don’t get an e... More

Anecdotal, perhaps, but here’s a story that illuminates something of the story behind the kerfuffle. Until you’ve seen a special photograph, Craig Wilson says you don’t know the whole story of Rick Perry’s HPV vaccine decision. “She’s happy as hell. I mean, she is just unbelievably ecstatic,” Wilson said. “Here she is on a beautiful ranch somewhere, ... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. It’s been 88 years since a non-Democrat won New York’s 9th Congressional District, held recently by scandal-tarnished Anthony Weiner. The New York City district covers portions of Queens and Brooklyn. But yesterday, pro-life and pro-family Catholic Bob Turner won the seat by a large margin, 54% to 46%. M... More

Welcome to the Lunchtime Reader, where we assemble important stories to keep your eyes on. At last night’s Republican presidential debate, Rick Perry got jabbed from the Left on Social Security and from the Right on the HPV vaccination mandate and immigration. Tea Party activist Dana Loesch and GOP insider Alex Castellanos agreed that Bachmann improved her position, but that Perry and Romney rem... More

As expected, Rick Perry’s 2007 decision to mandate the Gardasil vaccine for all Texas sixth grade girls was a hot topic at last night’s GOP Tea Party debate. As expected, Perry was dinged, and rightly so, for the overreach in government authority. And he repeated that he now knows it was a mistake and he ought to have done things differently. But in this case, it isn’t the most i... More

In his first day on the campaign trail, Gov. Rick Perry does some good housecleaning, making amends in explaining his decision to mandate the vaccine Gardasil to 11-year old girls in Texas. As I said earlier, his executive order easily could have hurt him with Catholic and evangelical voters. When a voter in New Hampshire confronted Perry on this issue, he gave a great response: “I signed an ... More

Perry spoke to pro-life Latinos in California Sunday. Conservatives have been complaining for months that the current crop of presidential aspirants just isn’t that inspiring and they’ve been begging for another candidate to enter the race. It now looks like Rick Perry is going to be that new candidate. Admittedly, the three-term governor of Texas would start with several strengths. R... More

Yesterday I came across this headline: “Texas mandates cervical cancer vaccine.” Here is the LA Times on the story: HOUSTON ? Texas on Friday became the first state to require school-age girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus that has been shown to cause cervical cancer. Gov. Rick Perry signed an executive order mandating that most girls, starting in September 20... More