There is no doubt that this action by a Brazilian prelate is controversial.

A Brazilian archbishop says all those who helped a child rape victim secure an abortion are to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

The girl, aged nine, who lives in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, became pregnant with twins.

It is alleged that she had been sexually assaulted over a number of years by her stepfather.

The excommunication applies to the child's mother and the doctors involved in the procedure.

The pregnancy was terminated on Wednesday.

It is also beyond doubt that the action was correct under the Code of Canon Law.

Can. 1398: A person who actually procures an abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.

And under Canon 1398, the archbishop arguably needs do nothing – the excommunication was automatic when the abortion is procured. Indeed, it would appear to apply to all of those who materially participated in the act.

Now one might argue with the position of the Catholic Church on abortion. I do not, for abortion is always the intentional taking of an innocent human life.

One may argue with the appropriateness of the sanction. I do not – having chosen to leave the Catholic Church some years ago, I do not have a dog in the fight over what is essentially an internal regarding the discipline of the Church.

But I remind folks of one thing – excommunication is intended to be a tool of rehabilitation as much as it is an instrument of punishment. In a case like this one, the rarely applied sanction is intended to acknowledge a grievous violation of the laws of God, and to call those punished back into full communion with Rome. Rather than cruel, one may therefore argue that the sanction is a merciful one.

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IÂ’m not a huge fan of Joe the Plumber, but W3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUT">this is certainly one lawsuit that I whole-heartedly support.

A conservative group has filed a lawsuit on behalf of "Joe the Plumber," accusing three former Ohio officials of violating his privacy and right to free expression when they gathered his personal information in a records search.

The federal lawsuit filed Thursday by Washington-based Judicial Watch says Samuel J. Wurzelbacher suffered emotional distress, harassment and embarrassment as a result of the search. It seeks unspecified punitive damages.

The lawsuit names Helen Jones-Kelley, who resigned in December as director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, and two assistants.

Given that the state investigation already found that Jones-Kelley and her minions acted inappropriately, this should be an open-and-shut case. I wonder whether or not the suit references the Ku Klux Klan Act, given that these three public officials acted “under color of law” to violate the rights of Wurzelbacher to exercise his rights under the Constitution to speak freely and participate in the political process?

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WeÂ’ve got a drug that can extend your life. You canÂ’t have it, though, because it will cost the government too much.

Thousands of patients with terminal cancer were dealt a blow last night after a decision was made to deny them life prolonging drugs.

The Government's rationing body said two drugs for advanced breast cancer and a rare form of stomach cancer were too expensive for the NHS.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is expected to confirm guidance in the next few weeks that will effectively ban their use.

The move comes despite a pledge by Nice to be more flexible in giving life-extending drugs to terminally-ill cancer patients after a public outcry last year over 'death sentence' decisions.

Remember – it will be your responsibility to die before you become a burden on society under Obama’s medical plan.

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And donÂ’t tell me you canÂ’t see the resemblance.

Word is that he may have finally ‘fessed-up to the dying Elizabeth Edwards.

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Coming soon to a radio near you in the event that the Obama Regime ever manages to bring back some form of the so-called Fairness Doctrine.

First, this bit from no-talent actress, no-brain talk host Roseanne Barr.

ohlmert you lie:

you say that twelve rockets were fired into israel since the end of the "war" (ethnic cleansing). Not one Israeli was hurt or killed by these rockets, and now you say you are going to go back and kill more palestinians to teach them a lesson!!!

I think rockets are being fired by your own sources, since less than ten israelis have been killed by them. You are bullshitting the world as you pocket money made from arms sales, along with bibi and your agents in Hamas. step down all men in power!

What this stupid cow doesn’t recognize is that the terrorists from Ham-Ass have taken credit for the attacks themselves. So not only is she a rabid anti-Semite, but she is also frighteningly ignorant – which is why the Left adores her.

And then there is this Leftist, who has now decided that dissent is most definitely not Patriotic in the Age of Obama – and makes it clear how dissenters should be dealt with when the president has a D after his name.

STEPHANIE MILLER, LIBERAL TALK RADIO HOST: I guess that is what Nancy and her friends want. As long as you have a place to listen Rush on the radio -- if he fails we all fail.

LARRY KING: If his policies fail, he fails, right?

MILLER: Exactly. To me that seems treasonous. [...]

* * *

If I could say something tonight that gets me that kind of attention, like maybe Rush Limbaugh should be executed for treason. How about that?

Interestingly enough, Larry king had nothing to say in response to these comments – so it would appear that the suppression of dissent against Obama is just peachy keen in his book, too.

It actually makes liberal talk moron Ed Schultz look rather restrained by comparison.

Now if you watch Limbaugh with the sound down, the drugster, he looks like Adolf Hitler! His animation is amazing! It's, the parallel is so striking.

That’s right – don’t listen to the words, just watch the pictures in silence. That will let you confirm your pre-conceived notions. But as an experiment, you might try something similar with the sermons of your average black preacher – the animation is equally amazing. But of course, it would be completely unfair to make a comparison to Hitler on such a basis – just as Schultz’s comparison is unfair.

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I find it rather interesting that Jews donÂ’t go into the Palestinian territories and commit such acts against the people living there.

The driver of a construction vehicle rammed a police car and an empty bus in Jerusalem on Thursday, injuring two police officers before he was shot dead, police said.

News reports described the assailant as a Palestinian. Police did not immediately identify him but said he was not carrying identity documents. Jerusalem’s deputy police commander, Niso Shahar, told reporters: “We have no doubt that it is a terror attack.”

Hamas, of course, has offered praise for this act of terrorism.

You know, stories like this continue to reinforce my belief that what is needed in the region is a “one state” solution, not a “two state” solution. Let the Arab nations take their Arab brothers and sisters, and leave God’s Chosen People in the Land he gave them.

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Looks like the teachers of the district may have a union representative forced upon them, even though this is a right-to-work state.

The leader of the Houston school districtÂ’s most powerful teachers union is flexing her muscle to force smaller employee groups out of the bargaining room with top-level administrators.

Gayle Fallon, the longtime president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, wants her union and an affiliated union for blue-collar workers to be the lone groups at the negotiating table with the Houston ISD administration.

Currently, several employee groups are guaranteed seats at private monthly meetings, where issues involving wages and working conditions are hashed out. FallonÂ’s union, because it is the biggest, has three of the five seats reserved for teachers groups at those meetings.

Yeah, that’s right – you will still be able to join any group you want, but if this proposal passes you will have no voice unless you join HFT/ That certainly goes against the spirit, if not the letter, of the law here in Texas. It also serves as a preview of the sort of thing we can expect in the future under the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” passes in Washington.

And before you ask, I am a member (indeed, IÂ’m the building representative) of one of the major teacher organizations in this state. IÂ’m not opposed to the existence of such groups, but I do object to one being able to crowd out the competing voices in this way.

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It is rodeo time again here in Houston. That is a big deal in this town, and loaded with special events.

One thing that is often overlooked is the rodeo experience for special needs children. Volunteers, including a number of the cowboys and cowgirls, volunteer their time to take developmentally disabled children onto the dirt at Reliant Stadium and run them through some “rodeo events”. At the end, every child receives a trophy.

Most years there is an elderly couple down there on the floor, helping to award the trophies, giving hugs and taking pictures with these special children. Last night I learned that they wonÂ’t be there for tonightÂ’s event, because one of them is in the hospital after some serious surgery.

Former first lady Barbara Bush is recovering at The Methodist Hospital after successful open-heart surgery Wednesday to replace her aortic valve, a family spokesman said Wednesday night.

The operation was scheduled last week, after Bush, 83, reported shortness of breath. Doctors diagnosed a hardening of the aortic valve, during which the valve narrows and obstructs blood flow.

“The surgery went extremely well,” said Dr. Gerald Lawrie, the surgeon who replaced Bush’s aortic valve with a biologic valve during a 2½-hour procedure. “I expect her to recover fully and soon resume her normal activities.”

The wife of former president George H.W. Bush was admitted Tuesday night and is expected to stay in the hospital for a week to 10 days.

Family spokesman Jim McGrath said Bush was awake, alert and talking in the intensive care unit Wednesday night, with her husband by her side.

Yes, that is a part of what the former president and first lady do as a part of their life in retirement here in Houston. It is one of those things that doesnÂ’t make the newspaper, and that most folks donÂ’t know about unless they actually show up 90 minutes before the rodeo starts to see this special event or special children.

Needless to say, IÂ’d like to extend my prayers and best wishes to Mrs. Barbara Bush. May she make a full recovery, surrounded by those who love her.

I think I speak for many in this community, of al political persuasions, in saying this – here’s hoping that next year we get to see you with your boots on, once more showing the sort of gentle kindness and humility that we, your neighbors, have come to know and respect as you and your husband have lived among us before, during, and after the White House years.

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Some folks should not work in journalism (if we can call what CNN does “journalism”).

A U.S. airline is now selling "penis" on flights, an anchorwoman has declared.

The slip-up happened on CNN when anchorwoman Zain Verjee was reporting about Northwest Airlines now selling peanuts on flights.

Verjee mentioned the word "penis" three times instead of "peanuts."

"Northwest began serving penis this month as its merger partner Atlanta-based Delta airlines has done for years," Verjee said.

"Georgia is the top penis producing state in the country."

One would think that literacy and the ability to pronounce common words would be a basic job qualification to work as an anchor.

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When a law enforcement officer gives you a directive, you are supposed to follow it.

When you refuse to follow the directive, there are consequences that may include the use of force to enforce that directive or take you into custody.

And so the complaint by this Canadian is not only one that does not stir even one ounce of sympathy in my heart, but it also leads me to view him as a whiner who does not realize how lucky he had gotten that day.

A Canadian who demanded courtesy from a U.S. border security guard says he was pepper sprayed and held in custody for three hours for asking the disrespectful officer to "say please" when ordering him to turn his car off during a search.

"I refused to turn off the car until he said please. He didn't. And he has the gun, I guess, so he sprayed me," said Desiderio Fortunato, a Coquitlam, B.C., resident who frequently crosses the border to visit his second home in the state of Washington. "Is that illegal in the United States, asking an officer to be polite?"

First, it was not a request – it was an order.

Second, the officer followed proper procedure.

Third, the fact that this was the second such incident involving this guy makes it quite clear that he knew what the proper procedure was and that he instead chose to be obstinate. Rather than warn him to be more cooperative, it seems like it is high time to put him on the list of those forbidden admission to the United States.

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Imagine this situation.

YouÂ’ve lost a family member. The deceased had little or noting in the way of assets at the time of his/her death, perhaps due to the final illness.

And then the phone calls come – debt collectors. Only, you didn’t contract the debt; the deceased did. The begin making requests that you pay the debt. But what they don’t tell you is this – you are not responsible for paying one penny of the debt in question.

Sound outrageous? It isn’t – and has become a common business practice.

The banks need another bailout and countless homeowners cannot handle their mortgage payments, but one group is paying its bills: the dead.

Dozens of specially trained agents work on the third floor of DCM Services here, calling up the dear departedÂ’s next of kin and kindly asking if they want to settle the balance on a credit card or bank loan, or perhaps make that final utility bill or cellphone payment.

The people on the other end of the line often have no legal obligation to assume the debt of a spouse, sibling or parent. But they take responsibility for it anyway.

These folks know you donÂ’t owe them anything, and that the debt became legally uncollectible when the debtor took that last breath. But they are banking on the probability that you donÂ’t know that.

Scott Weltman of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis, a Cleveland law firm that performs deceased collections, says that if family members ask, “we definitely tell them” they have no legal obligation to pay. “But is it disclosed upfront — ‘Mr. Smith, you definitely don’t owe the money’? It’s not that blunt.”

“Not that blunt”? Let’s try “not that honest”. What these folks are about is extracting payments from bereaved individuals who are not responsible for another’s debts – even if the payment of the debt is going to create a hardship.

And what is more disgusting is that these folks claim they are offering a service because they refer folks to grief counselors and have a website that tells folks how to proceed after the death of a loved one.

Am I alone in viewing these folks as exploitive parasites?

And am I alone in believing that this might be an appropriate area for some sort of legislation, either on the state or federal level?

Or is my offense at the ghoulishness of the pseudo-sympathy used to extract money from the family of the dead simply preventing me from seeing the legitimacy of such tactics?

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The people have spoken – and the California Legislature has now said that they don’t give a rat’s ass what the people have to say.

Both houses of the state Legislature passed resolutions Monday endorsing the legal effort to overturn California's same-sex marriage ban, just days before the issue goes to the state Supreme Court.

The resolutions passed along party lines, 18-14 in the Senate and 45-27 in the Assembly, with several members absent in both chambers.

The evidence that certain officeholders in the state are clearly not in sync with the voters – or with the basic principle of popular sovereignty that underlies the entire American system of government.

"We're talking about a radical revision to our Constitution," said Sen. Mark Leno, the San Francisco Democrat who sponsored the Senate resolution. "Do we have a constitutional democracy in California or do we have mob rule, where a majority of Californians can change the Constitution at any time?"

Excuse me, Senator Leno, but I’d like to remind you that the at the very heart of the notion of constitutional democracy is the belief that the power of government comes from the people, and that their grant of power to the government comes in the form of a constitution. The people have a right – indeed, they have an obligation – to alter or abolish a particular constitutional framework so as to establish a government that is responsive to their will so as to secure their essential liberties. To argue that permitting Californians to change their constitution at any time is antithetical to constitutional democracy is itself antithetical to constitutional democracy, as it places that document and the government it establishes above the people – essentially arguing that the people are the creature of the document and the institutions it establishes rather than the other way around.

Let me say this – reasonable people may disagree about the relative merits of gay marriage and Proposition 8. Reasonable people may even disagree about the question of revision vs. amendment under the California Constitution. However, no person can agree with Senator Leno’s words unless they fundamentally reject the words of Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, . . . — That. . . Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it. . . .

I’ve excerpted this quote in this form to provide the reminder that among the truths declared to be self-evident by the founding generation of the Republic was that the people are the only valid source of government power, and that it is the height of constitutionalism for the people to change a constitution, not a rejection of that principle. To argue otherwise is anti-constitutional – and, dare I say it, approaches being un-American.

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It may well have a black face, as in this scene from a recent Detroit City Council meeting.

A pitiful Teamster official who practically crawled to the table on his knees expressing profuse respect for this disrespectful body was battered by both the crowd and the council.

When he dared suggest that an improved Cobo Center would create more good-paying jobs for union workers, [Council President Monica] Conyers reminded him, "Those workers look like you; they don't look like me."

Desperate, he invoked President Barack Obama's message of unity and was angrily warned, "Don't you say his name here."

Got that, white boy -- Barack Obama isn't the president for white Americans, only for blacks. Invoking his call for a post-racial America is only acceptable to bludgeon whites with, not to demand that all Americans be treated with respect.

By the way, the Kluxer sound-alike be-yotch running the Detroit City Council, Monica Conyers, is the wife of US Congressman John Conyers (D-Detroit). Could you imagine the outcry if a family member of a white Republican congressman (or governor, or dog catcher) were to publicly make such statements?

Or, as the author of the commentary piece from which I quoted above, Nolan Finley of the Detroit News, notes:

Juxtapose the place and the faces and imagine a white Livonia City Council treating a black union representative with such overt racial hostility. The Justice Department would swoop down like a hawk, and the Rev. Al Sharpton would clog Five Mile Road with protesters.

But in Detroit, dealing with the council's bigotry is part of the cost of doing business.

Here's a test for Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder. Let's have that courageous discussion of race and racism that Holder talked about recently. Let's have a little bit of that post-racial America. Turn the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice loose on the city of Detroit. Deal with the naked racism present in the scene above by going after the black Democrat head of the city council, the wife of a senior black Democrat congressman who was an early supporter of Barack Obama's candidacy for president.

In other words, let's get a little equal protection of the laws for all Americans.

Or admit that the rhetoric of the campaign was all a sham.

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And another example of a story of unethical behavior by a politician that will lead to absolute silence from the Houston area's local self-appointed ethics watchdog because the perp, Ron Kirk, is a Democrat (and one that he supported for high office).

Ron Kirk, nominated as U.S. Trade Representative in the Obama administration, owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to make his payments, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday.

The committee said the taxes arise from KirkÂ’s handling of speaking fees that he donated to his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

The disclosure made the former Dallas mayor the latest in a string of top-level Obama administration appointees found to have underpaid their taxes, following Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle, who withdrew as candidate for Health and Human Services secretary. Nancy Killefer, ObamaÂ’s pick for chief performance officer, also bowed out amid tax problems.

It might be easy to give Ron Kirk the benefit of the doubt if this was not one more example of a pattern of unpaid taxes by a prominent Democrat appointed by Barack Obama to high office. And given the high ethics standards that Obama claimed he was going to bring to the executive branch, I don't see how Kirk can be allowed to survive.

But then again, after putting a blatant tax cheat like Tim Geithner in charge at the Treasury Department, I guess anything is possible.

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If you want an example of how "hate crime" laws make for unequal protection of the law, here is a perfect example.

Assemblywoman Pat Eddington (D-Medford) is introducing legislation that would require law enforcement to treat any crime committed by a man against a woman as a potential hate crime.

Backed by fellow legislators and advocates for women's groups such as the National Organization of Women, Eddington said that recent reports of especially brutal crimes against women — including a Buffalo-area woman allegedly beheaded by her estranged husband — call out for for more prosecutions that make use of the gender category of New York's hate crimes law.

Eddington's legislation would mandate that officials apply the hate crime standard, which comes with harsher sentencing guidelines, before lesser charges.

Got that? ANY crime committed by a man against a woman. They will start out with the assumption of a hate crime.

Notice -- crimes by women against men will not get that assumption.

What next? Any crime committed against a minority by a white will be presumed a hate crime until proven otherwise?

Such legislation creates a two-tiered justice system. Thanks to Assemblywoman Pat Eddington for making the matter crystal clear.

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Here are the most recent results of the Watcher's Council vote -- with the pleasant surprise that i actually won for the first time in a while.

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 1 2/3 points! - Rhymes With Right - About The Chimp Cartoon
• Second place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Bookworm Room - Giving the people what they want


• Second place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - The Razor - Octomom: A Symbol of ObamaÂ’s America
• Second place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - The Colossus of Rhodey - Reaction Eric HolderÂ’s “cowards” comment


• Third place with 1 points - Cheat-Seeking Missiles - NY Times Finally Covers Hassan Beheading
• Fourth place with 2/3 points - The Glittering Eye - How Not to Draw a Conclusion


• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Right Truth - Our Supreme Leader, Barack Obama
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - The Provocateur - The Coming Mortgage Class War III


• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Soccer Dad - Try a little tenderness - in foreign policy

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 points! - The Nose On Your face - Islamic Rage Boy Addresses Muslim TV ExecÂ’s Recent Wife-Beheading


• Second place with 1 2/3 points - The Long War Journal - Analysis: Pakistan peace agreement cedes ground to the Taliban
• Third place with 1 1/3 points - Chesler Chronicles at Pajamas Media - A Dutch Hero Comes to Warn Us, Seek Our Support. The Incomparable Geert Wilders, MP, in New York City.


• Fourth place with 1 points - (T*) - Michelle Malkin - The Chinagate/Buddhist temple cash skeletons in Gary LockeÂ’s closet
• Fourth place with 1 points - (T*) - JudeoPundit - Iran adopts Starfleet insignia


• Fifth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - The Anchoress - Yep, I Miss Bush
• Fifth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - The Weekly Standard - No Speech, Please


• Sixth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Threats Watch - Mexican President: GovÂ’t Does Not Control Areas on US Border
• Sixth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Ottawa Citizen - Back to Carter

  By the way, you'll love the winning Non-Council entry from The Nose On Your Face. If you like satire, you'll love Islamic Rage Boy's latest incisive commentary.

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Here’s a case where I side against my fellow conservatives and with Obama and his supporters – DADT is simply a bad policy.

On Monday, buoyed by a stronger Democratic majority in Congress, Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) will introduce legislation to overturn the ban against homosexuals serving openly in the military, a Tauscher aide said.

ClintonÂ’s handling of the issue was widely condemned, and the entire fiasco became a textbook example of the sort of avoid-at-all-cost political controversy that can seriously undermine a new president. For Clinton, it knocked him off message, sapped him of auathority, damaged his popularity ratings and left him with a reputation for being wishy-washy that stuck.

And it left the military with a policy that no one really likes — the “don’t ask, don’t tell” regulation that allows gays to serve in the military, as long as they don’t flout their homosexuality.

LetÂ’s consider the reality at work here. The current policy is idiotic and unworkable. It requires an element of dishonesty from those in the system (both gay servicemembers and their superiors) while doing nothing to enhance our nationÂ’s security. Indeed, it at times requires that the military purge itself of skilled personnel of unquestioned competence and patriotism over an issue that need not impact military readiness or efficiency. Moreover, the general level of acceptance of homosexuals in society (not approval of homosexuality, but the acceptance of individual homosexuals) has reached a level that orientation ought not be a serious issue.

H/T Gay Patriot

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Well, more a matter of sour grapes.

British-Indian author Salman Rushdie has attacked the plot of multiple Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" as a "patently ridiculous conceit".

Rushdie wrote in Britain's Guardian newspaper that the central feature of the film -- that a boy from the Mumbai slums manages to succeed on the Indian TV version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" -- "beggars belief."

"This is a patently ridiculous conceit, the kind of fantasy writing that gives fantasy writing a bad name," the author of "The Satanic Verses" said in the article published Saturday.

The point that Rushdie misses, of course, is that the fantasy of it all is precisely what appeals to people about the plot of both the original book (Vikas Swarup’s "Q&A") and movie is that it is an outrageous fantasy. Who does not root for the underdog (or, in this case, the underSlumdog)? We want to see the little guy win against all odds. And that is why more people will love the book and film versions of “Slumdog Millionaire” than will even like Rushdie’s novels, including the fatwa-worthy “Satanic Verses”. Reading and movies are often the way that we seek a release from our own lives and an escape from our problems, not a time of deep thought and contemplation upon the larger issues of life, the universe, and everything. That is not to say that Salman Rusdie is not an Important Author – merely that there is an appropriate place for both the serious works of Rusdie and the lighter fare of Swarup.

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