On a related note, Steve Yoder at "In These Times" highlights multiple studies challenging not the national impact of abstinence-only education.

Thanks to Ed Frawley

TalkingPointsMemo has the story about how the effort of soldier's father to document decrepit conditions at Fort Bragg has led to inspections of U.S. Army barracks around the world:

[Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers] acknowledged the revelations from a video shot by the father of an 82nd Airborne Division soldier showing poor conditions such as mold inside the barracks, peeling interior paint and a bathroom drain plugged with sewage.

The soldier's father, Ed Frawley, said he was disgusted by the conditions that greeted his son and the rest of his 82nd Airborne unit that returned on April 7-8 after a 15-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.

"We let our soldiers down, and that's not like us," Rogers told reporters. "We let our soldiers down. That's not how we want America's sons and daughters to live. There's no good excuse for what happened."

McCain's Immigration Stance

McCain has reversed his position on immigration reform (he supported it before he opposed it), and Media Matters won't let the public forget (even if the rest of the media will).

...McCain said on January 30 that he would no longer vote for his own bill, having abandoned his support for comprehensive immigration legislation during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. McCain now says that "we've got to secure the borders first" -- a position at odds with his prior assertion that border security could not be disaggregated from other aspects of comprehensive immigration reform without being rendered ineffective.

McCain has also reversed his position on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would have allowed "illegal immigrants under age 30 to remain in the United States and gain legal status if they attend college or join the military." Clinton and Obama both voted in favor of the DREAM Act, and both support the DREAM Act's enactment.

Good news from PCUSA

If you (like me) are feeling that it's been a bit grim week news-wise, here's a small bright spot from Adelle Banks at Religion News Service (via Pew Forum):

The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has reversed a lower court's censure of a lesbian clergywoman who performed what critics called same-sex weddings for two lesbian couples in California.

"It is not improper for ministers of the Word and Sacrament to perform same-sex ceremonies," ruled the Permanent Judicial Commission of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a decision released Monday (April 28). "At least four times, the larger church has rejected overtures that would prohibit blessing the unions of same-sex couples."