Tag Archives: series

Investigating NFP: The Great Embryo Killer? (Part I)

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[Errors in my arguments were fixed and additional material was added after initial publication. – Funky]

St. Blog’s Parish will soon be all aflutter with news that Luc Bovens, a professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics, has written an article ("The rhythm method and embryonic death", J Med Ethics 32: 355-356) that links the use of the "rhythm method" with embryonic death, i.e. early miscarriage or spontaneous abortion. (Fedora Tip: UnSpace)

"Some proponents of the pro-life movement argue against morning after pills, IUDs, and contraceptive pills on grounds of a concern for causing embryonic death. What has gone unnoticed, however, is that the pro-life line of argumentation can be extended to the rhythm method of contraception as well. Given certain plausible empirical assumptions, the rhythm method may well be responsible for a much higher number of embryonic deaths than some other contraceptive techniques."

Though some responses to the sloppy arguments made in this paper have been made by American Papist, Epiphany, and other bloggers, I do not believe the responses I’ve so far seen address the scientific/statistical aspects of Bovens’ claims. For instance, they rightly point out that the rhythm method was long ago replaced by much more reliable empirical methods collectively known as natural family planning (NFP). However, I suspect that Bovens chose to deliberately seem ignorant of pro-life/anti-contraceptive terminology in order to subtly mock what he sees as ignorance of reproductive medicine on the part of those who call the birth control pill abortifacient. I fear that Catholic bloggers have allowed themselves to be distracted by a red herring.

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2006 Race for the Cure 5K

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[2006 Race for the Cure 5K bib]It was naive of me to think that I could run a personal best at the Race for the Cure. There were far too many walkers clogging the route. The really annoying thing is that there shouldn’t have been any walkers on the race course at all. The walkers had their own course and were scheduled to start at a different time. Obviously a lot of people didn’t realize that or didn’t care. After all, rules apply to other people. *grumble* Next year I’ll definitely start close to the front of the pack. I’d rather be passed by the really fast people than have to pass the really slow people.

Anyhow, though my time of 27:30 wasn’t a personal best, it was still my best recorded race time. I figure I lost 2-3 minutes on the first mile alone. After that, though, I ran a hair over an 8-minute pace. Later in the day, I ran a training 5K in Schenley park with Edey and Father Michael Darcy (of the Oratory). My time on that was about 25:30.

My next race will be West Penn Track Club’s Pittsylvania Mile. I’m hoping for 7:30 or better. After that, I’ll be running the Father’s Days Us TOO 10K for prostate cancer research. My goal is to run it in 45 minutes or less. I’ve done sub-49:00 once in training, so I know it’s not impossible.

2006 Fineview Step-A-Thon 5K

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The finish line was 400 ft higher than the starting line. I climbed 381 steps to get there. Needless to say, I wasn’t shooting for a personal record in this race. 😉

The temp was a little chilly at the start of the Fineview Step-A-Thon 5K (probably about 45), but it rose 10 or 15 degrees before the end. Physical exertion helped warm me up, too. I made a mistake at the beginning of the race that’ll correct next year. There was a flat stretch at the beginning that was intended to separate the pack before folks ascended the first set of stairs. I paced myself as I would have for any other 5K, which got me stuck behind people that walked up the steps instead of running up them. Next year I’ll sprint the beginning so people can be stuck behind me instead. 😉

I finished in 29:06 (9:23 pace), which is better than my Run With HAART time, but nothing to get excited about. I was 6th out of 7 20-29 males and 47th out of 56 runners. On May 14, I’ll be in the Run for the Cure 5K and I’m shooting for a sub-26:00 (8:23 pace) time. My goal is to run a sub-8:00 mile at the Pittsylvania Mile Run on June 3.

“Father” Bill

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An article in today’s Pitt News has some misleading information.  In the section addressing Lent, "Father" Bill Hausen, of Christ Hope Church, is quoted. Hausen broke away from the Catholic Church in 2004. He has been excommunicated and is no longer longer recognized as a priest by the Church, the sacraments he offers are not valid, and attending services at Christ Hope does not satisfy one’s Sabbath obligation.

2006 Run With HAART 5K

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[runwithhaart06.jpg]9 AM. 36°. Sleet.

It wasn’t the coldest race I’ve run, but it wasn’t the warmest, either. 😉 This morning I ran the Run With HAART 5K in Schenley Park. It was one my favorite races thus far. I love any race that involves trails, but this was especiialy cool because it involved trails that I regularly train on. 🙂

Like I said, it was freakin’ cold, but not unbearable. The pre-race registration seemed well organized and the race started on time. I finished in 29:15, which gave me a mile pace of 9:26, and my heartrate averaged 180 and peaked at 195. That time’s in between my results for the Run Shadyside and Chamber Classic last year, and I’m pretty happy with it. It’s early in the season and I have plenty of time to improve before the Great Race. I finished 44rd out of 60 males in my age group and 110 out of 208 total participants (though some of them were walkers and skew the results a little).

After the race, ten-minute massages were available for free. Also, there was a raffle which I put $5 into. There were a lot of very nice gift certificates given out, as well as the 50-50 prize of $30. I won two $5 gift certificates to Subway and a $10 gift certificate to Allegro Hearth Bakery in Squirrel Hill. Due to the frigid weather, only a few people stuck around for the awards ceremony and raffle. Those who did were treated to humerous announcing by one of the organizers, made all the funnier by his ability to be goofy depsite how cold he obviously was. All-in-all, it was a fun race and I’d be happy to run again next year.