Editor's note. Have a great weekend. Please send any comments to daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Let me begin by thanking all the people who wrote all the wonderful things about my second column yesterday on the movie "Juno." A leader in one crisis pregnancy center told me that once the film is in DVD format, her group will make viewing it mandatory for volunteers. She said she also hoped the parents of young people will view the film as well.

A quick look ahead to next week: our director of education will be fleshing out the earlier analysis we provided of the latest numbers from the Guttmacher Institute, which revealed an 8% decline in abortions between 2000 and 2005. There are many, many important pieces of information tucked away in the report. Some are not encouraging, many lift your spirits up, and all present us with insider information on the Abortion Industry.

Let me offer just one heads-up on a TN&V I'll be writing. Awhile back we debunked the "research" that purported to show that abortions really went up under President George W. Bush. It was silly and we carefully punctured all the myths.

The latest numbers make one extremely relevant point even more clear: it is hugely important who occupies the White House.

Under President Bush, from 2001 to 2005, the number of abortions declined each and every year from the year before. By 2005 the number was 1.2 million, depressingly high but coming down.

Do you think that is a trend that would continue under a Clinton Two or a President Obama or a President Giuliani? Hardly.

I should go on and on about the following story, but it is so nauseating I'll just comment briefly. The lead sentence in a story that appeared January 23 in the Albany Times-Union says it all:

"To commemorate Tuesday's 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman's right to an abortion, clergy blessed this city's new Planned Parenthood clinic in a ceremony dubbed 'On Sacred Ground.'" The object of the "blessing" was a newly constructed abortion clinic in Schenectady, New York, that was replacing an older facility in the same town.

We're told that the Rev. Larry Phillips of Schenectady's Emmanuel-Friedens Church "has been affiliated with Planned Parenthood going back more than 30 years."

Rev. Phillips "led everyone outside where they laid their hands on the brick and limestone as the minister declared, 'This is sacred ground'"? Why so, we might ask.

Because, according to Rev. Phillips, it is a place "where women's voices and stories are welcomed, valued and affirmed; sacred ground where women are treated with dignity, supported in their role as moral decision-makers ... sacred ground where the violent voices of hatred and oppression are quelled."

Two quick points. First, Kathleen Gallagher of the New York State Catholic Conference, told the newspaper, "My gut reaction is that it's two-faced," a.k.a. hypocritical.

She said, "For many years abortion proponents have been saying this is not a religious issue, you should keep religion out of this, and now all of a sudden they turn around and decide to bless an abortion clinic to gain respect for a procedure everybody knows is not worthy of respect."

But, second,  what is the "story" that most women tell? That they aborted because they felt they had "no alternative." How is slaughtering the children of women who most often feel trapped treating them "with dignity"?

Consider: If I went to a social worker and said, "You know, I just lost my job, I'm about to lose my house, and the walls of my life are crashing down around me." Would you say the social worker was supporting me in my role as a "moral decision-maker" if she agreed it was perfectly okay for me to kill my kids as a way to get out of the predicament I'm in? Of course not. Why? Because the "moral decision-maker" was proposing a hideously immoral course of action.

As for violence, I wonder if between laying hands on abortion clinic brick and mortar, Rev. Phillips has ever pondered what takes place thousands of times a day inside places just like this one. It's violence so off-the-charts, so soul-wrenching, that the Abortion Establishment works day and night to make sure the American people never sees what is being done to the littlest Americans.

Keep Rev. Phillips in your prayers. Someday he will have a lot of explaining to do to someone whose opinion matters a lot more than yours and mine.