Captain Harding's battle

I heard today they're speeding up debates on the RH Bill, which is supposed to save the country from poverty by cutting away at the population employing what GK Chesterton calls Birth Prevention. They're making a vote tomorrow; I hope they see that enforcing contraceptives on the population is not the answer, but strengthening family values and trashing that over-sexualized media culture that can't get enough of itself.

(Besides, contraceptives are bad for the health; just look at the literature behind every birth-control advertisement published in random women's magazines to see what I mean.)

While the forces clash in congress, here's an excerpt from a Jules Verne adventure to help remind us that, in the end, there's Someone up there who makes many great and good things spring from all our silly human mistakes. Maybe also to remind us that no battle is too big when what you fight for is honest-to-the-bones, good for humanity.

This excerpt is from Verne's little-known novel called The Mysterious Island. In this scene, six castaways under the leadership of Captain Cyrus Harding, an American engineer, prepare for battle against fifty pirates who threaten their colony, Lincoln Island:

The pirates had been alarmed. They knew that Lincoln Island was inhabited. They would land upon it in numbers and well armed. They would respect nothing. Should the settlers fall into their hands, they must expect no mercy!

"Well, we shall know how to die!" said the reporter.
"Let us go in and watch," answered the engineer.
"Have we any chance of escape, captain?" asked the sailor.
"Yes, Pencroft."
"Hum! six against fifty!"
"Yes! six! without counting--"
"Who?" asked Pencroft.
Cyrus did not reply, but pointed upwards.