Rep. Todd Akin has, unwittingly to be sure, harmed the pro-life movement, his senatorial race in Missouri, the Republican Party, and therefore quite possibly the nation.

Every person who speaks or writes for the public will make an occasional faux pas, and sooner or later, will write or say something inappropriate. The game of "gotcha" that the media play -- especially with regard to Republicans and conservatives -- is what makes so many politicians sound robotic when they speak.

But Congressman Akin said something that cries out for condemnation and retraction -- and necessitates an explanation.

On a Missouri TV program Sunday (8/19), he was asked his position on abortion in cases of rape. Akin responded, in part, that "from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

As one wit put it about such a comment: that was worse than wrong, it was stupid. Akin should say so. And so should the pro-life movement.

If you Google "coyote hunting," you'll get 2,790,000 hits.  It's a popular sport among outdoorsmen, and a necessary one.  As one hunter puts it:

Coyote populations across the country are exploding and taking an unprecedented toll on wildlife. Zero predator control by state and federal agencies and low fur prices have kept trapping to a minimum, hence predator populations are booming. The opportunity to add some prime coyote pelts to your trophy collection and reduce the predator pressure on the local game and bird populations have never been better.

Coyotes are pests, varmints, hated not only by cattle and sheep ranchers, but by anyone with a regard for all the wildlife they kill.  In many states, they can be shot on sight with no permit required in a year-round open season.  Ed Boggess, Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources fish and wildlife policy chief explains:

Coyotes are an unprotected species and can be taken at any time of year, in any quantity, by almost any methods.

It's time this perspective is applied to human coyotes - for "coyote" is what smugglers of illegal aliens from Mexico into the US are called.

On the heels of record freezing weather in Europe, there was a story this week (carried by the Drudge Report and WorldNetDaily so you may have seen it) about a Russian scientist predicting global cooling.

Russian astronomer Khabibulo Absudamatov expects a “decrease in the flow of the Sun’s radiation,” over the next several years which will lead to cooling, not continued warming of the planet.

While his prediction may be right, he is wrong about the cause. As discussed in Solar Warming last September, it’s not the sun’s heat radiation causing a warmer earth, it’s the sun’s magnetic activity.

In Solar Warming, we discussed the cost-free solution to global warming: Let the world’s airlines use high-sulfur jet fuel while flying at cruise altitude.

The solution to global cooling is the mirror image of this: Have international jetliners burn their fuel “rich” at altitude. Give them a tax credit as an inducement.

Less than 100 days before the US presidential elections, the Obama administration is openly denying Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem. Can this be a vote-getter? 

The Emergency Committee for Israel released an ad titled, "O, Jerusalem." The commercial shows administration officials squirming when asked to name the capital of Israel, and highlighted the recent refusals of White House and State Department spokespeople to acknowledge that Jerusalem is Israel's capital city. The underlying message of the ad is that the administration's policy is out of step with the views of the majority of Americans.

As Republicans repeat traditional positions, the Democrats are rendering conventional statements of amity with the Jewish state controversial. It is the Obama White House and its surrogates who are attacking those (like Mitt Romney) who recognize Israel's capital as diplomatic flamethrowers. It is the Democrats who are demonizing American supporters of Israel (like Republicans) as disloyal.

What has changed? Why are Obama and his surrogates now highlighting Obama's hostility? Why are they making opposition to Israel a partisan issue and attacking Republicans for being pro-Israel?  The answer is clear:  Obama has given up on the pro-Israel vote. He's going for the anti-Israel vote and the indifferent-to-Israel vote. He thinks that's the way to win in November.

We call To The Point "The Oasis for Rational Conservatives."  We've gotten a flood of emails this week asking if articles on certain websites claiming that George Bush has "a secret plan to abolish American sovereignty" are being pushed by Irrational Conservatives.

The answer is yes.  We all focus so much on the moonbats of the left - barking mad hairshirts like Algore, Moveon.org folks driven treasonously insane by Bush Derangement Syndrome - that it's important to recognize there are moonbats of the right.

For some weird reason which has to do with psychology rather than reality, a small but loud subset of conservatives easily falls prey to conspiracy theories about cabals of powerful people meeting in secret to take over the world:  the Bilderbergers, the Trilaterialists, the Council on Foreign Relations, or some such.

The world headquarters of this subset of conservatives is on a grassy knoll in downtown Dallas. 

If it hasn't already arrived in your community, it will be there soon:  the nightmare of addiction to methamphetamine.  Supplanting cocaine in drug use, it's much easier and cheaper to make than coke.  A "meth lab" requires only simple equipment like bottles and tubing, easily acquired ingredients, and can be set up in a small space in most any building.

Not only is it cheaper than coke, the high the addict gets from meth is far more intense - and thus far more addictive.  Meth users get a sudden rush of pleasure lasting several minutes, followed by a euphoric high that continues for up to 12 hours.  It leaves cocaine in the dust.

Both cocaine and meth cause the excessive release of the brain chemical or neurotransmitter that controls pleasure called dopamine.  Having sex raises dopamine levels in the brain to about 200 units.  Cocaine spikes dopamine levels to 350 units.  Methamphetamine spikes at 1,250 - more than 12 times the base level of 100.