Today’s edition of TN&V will offer a few comments on a number of subjects. Potpourri, over the year, seems to be one of our readers’ favorite ways of receiving information.

• We’ve written in this space and in National Right to Life News about the unintentionally inclusionary language used by pro-abortion President Barack Obama. Perhaps the latest was part of his remarks last week delivered at the National Prayer Breakfast. Obama said, “There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.”

• Coincidentally, just days before Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer, Rasmussen Reports found a deep divide between what people wanted as the basis for Supreme Court decision making and what they expect Obama believes. Rasmussen asked, “Should the Supreme Court make decisions based on what's written in the Constitution and legal precedents or should it be guided mostly by a sense of fairness and justice?” While a whopping 64% said it should be what’s written in the Constitution, only 35% believe Obama agrees with them.

• Still another batch of good news on the alternative-to-embryonic stem cell front. Northwestern University’s Dr. Richard Burt is publishing a study in the journal Lancet Neurology that showed improvement in four in five multiple sclerosis (MS) patients by using bone marrow stem cell transplants to “reset” their immune system. Burt told Reuters his approach is “aimed at turning back the clock to a time before the immune system began attacking itself.” In MS “the immune system is attacking your brain," Burt said. "After the procedure, it doesn't do that anymore." Chemotherapy is employed to destroy the immune system, and the patient's own bone marrow cells are used to rebuild a new immune system. According to Reuters Burt’s approach “is a bit gentler than the therapy used in cancer patients because rather than destroying the entire bone marrow, it attacks just the immune system component of the marrow, making it less toxic.”

*In an open letter to Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr (D-Pa.), Joseph Francis Martino, bishop of the Scranton diocese, sharply, criticized the freshman senator for failing to vote in favor of an amendment that would have made the Mexico City Policy permanent. On January 23, Obama nullified the pro-life policy using a “presidential memorandum.” The effect is to “put hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of organizations that aggressively promote abortion as a population-control tool in the developing world,” according to NRLC Legislative Director Douglas Johnson. “Much of this will consist of money diverted away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the hands of those organizations that are the most aggressive in promoting abortion in developing countries.”

In his open letter, published in the diocesan paper, ”The Catholic Light,“ Bishop Martino wrote, “Your vote against the Mexico City Policy will mean the deaths of thousands of unborn children.” The letter added, “This is an offense against life and a denial of our Catholic teaching on the dignity of every human being. This action is worthy of condemnation by all moral men and women.”

Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@gmail.com.