The song is called "Butterfly", by the band Bluefield.  It tells the story of a couple:

All our big plans had no little ones in 'em

We just weren't ready for a child...

But then he has a dream:

I saw his face; he had my eyes,

I swear he had your smile...

You just have to hear the rest!  You can listen at its MySpace site.  Then call your local station and request this song.  It is the kind of thing that can save a little life.

For Good Friday 2005, the Vatican News Service released a set of mediations on the Stations of the Cross, by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  The Mediations are still available on the Vatican website here. 

Evidence is accumulating that abortion's effect on the men involved is profound and complex. This website, Reclaiming Fatherhood, offers support to men who are dealing with the aftermath of an abortion and to those friends, family members, or counselors who may be trying to understand and help them.

Please see and share the moving rap video embedded in the front page of that website: a man wishing Happy Birthday -- "I think about it every year." -- to the child whose abortion he paid for, admitting his selfishness and that he committed a homicide.

From the Heavens to the womb and to the Heaven's again.

From the ending to the ending, never got to begin.

I love you whoever you would have been.

We cannot say it enough: Abortion kills babies and hurts women... and men.

No, I am not talking about Iraq.  I am talking about a war that has been declared by some members of the medical profession and some elements of our society on an entire classification of human beings: those with Downs Syndrome.

The medical community is expanding its guidelines regarding testing for the genetic disorder to include younger expectant mothers.  A prenatal diagnosis of this syndrome is becoming a death sentence for more and more unborn babies.  In part this is because when a woman or a couple are confronted with this diagnosis, they are offered the option (more often framed as a suggestion) that they terminate the pregnancy and they are not offered supporting information and resources that demonstrate to them how this child can enrich their lives and why his or her life has great value and potential. Instead of being called to embrace the furture with hope and the child with love, our society is instead calling them to the dark path of destroying an innocent and beautiful life.

One mother of a Downs Syndrome child has made a lovely video to counter the negative impressions of these children. Spread it far and wide to help save lives: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_0K-gPlyb0

The New York Times obituary encapsulates the memories in a tidy Buckleyesque sentence:

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

For encomiums (or as he would surely have had it, "encomia") from friends -- a few of the millions of minds he enriched and hearts he touched -- see these pages at The American Spectator and his own National Review.

Got a favorite in the horserace and want to watch him pull ahead, fall back, and take the lead again... maybe.  What you need is an easy way to keep track of the polls.  Of course they might be all wet -- like the predictions that Obama was going to take New Hampshire, but watching those lines trending up and down can still engender that thrill of hope or sinking feeling of imminent defeat that makes politics a public drama with a personal stake.

Here are a couple of ways to stay on top of latest polls:

USA TODAY has a nifty little graphic sorted by Democrat and Republican and by national and state polls.

Wikipedia is collecting very detailed information state by state for both parties updated constantly:

Opinion polling for the Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008

Opinion polling for the Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008

Now that Huckabee has made such a big and unexpected splash, you are going to hear more and more about the tax reform proposal he has endorsed -- the "Fair Tax."  Here are a couple of sources if you are interested in delving more deeply into this issue:

The book about the Fair Tax is here on Amazon.com and there are over 1400 reviews of it, some with very in-depth analysis pro and con.

There is a website promoting the Fair Tax.

The Time/CNN blog site of Justin Fox, "The Curious Capitalist," has a post about it along with a lengthy, robust (and amazingly civil) discussion from all angles.

[Please note that neither I nor CE is endorsing Huckabee or the Fair Tax proposal.]

File under "I Really Am Not Demanding Nearly Enough of Myself" or maybe under "One of the Most Amazing Things I Have Ever Seen" -- a blind painter developes a Braille-like painting technique. On YouTube, of course.

This beautiful YouTube video is called The Price of Salvation: The Life of Christ. It features the life of Christ as conceived by some of the greatest artists over the past 1000 years, wonderfully set to music.