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I certainly can't speak for all pro-life persons out there, but as a pro-life/libertarian-ish NH person I'd like to address your points:

they won't bat an eye if that child and her mother starve to death a week later

Most of the pro-life people I know are passionate about helping those who choose to have a baby but don't have the means. Many churches will provide material/financial assistance, and I've personally seen plenty of emails seeking cribs and the like.

(nor will they move an inch to pay the not insignificant medical costs involved in giving the birth they forced her to give).

The Catholic church is simultaneously one of the largest advocates for unborn children and also operates the largest hospital charity in the world (including the treatment of one in six patients in the US).

ever does something wrong, they will be quite happy to electrocute and adult instead

There isn't widespread agreement on this that I've seen. Many in the pro-life movement are straight-up against capitol punishment, like the Catholic church. Others see there being a strong distinction between punishing those who have committed crimes and those who have never even had a chance to even breathe.

For me, the thing that guided my stance on the pro-life/pro-choice debate was where the beginning of life starts. If it's at or near conception, then it's never just to take that life unless it is threatening someone else's. If life doesn't start till birth, then it's a different story.

"I'm willing to bet that the Vatican would be most interested in hearing about/excommunicating those involved. Suffice to say that's not even SLIGHTLY kosher (for lack of a better word)."

Pedophilia isn't technically approved either, yet Church payoffs to shut up victims are totalling around a BILLION dollars in the US alone, the scandal is spreading, and the shell game of hide-the-pedo (as opposed to the duty to instantly turn over such predators to the police for public prosecution) is continually being exposed.

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/ClergySexAbuse/

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Sex-Abuse-Scandal-Threatens-Popes-Focus-on-Europes-Chritian-Roots-90097932.html

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2010/03/17/sex_scandal_embroiling_catholic_church_in_brazil/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/opinion/25thur1.html

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/ireland/091126/abuse-report-catholic-church-dublin

I'd like to see all priests get what Father Geoghan got in prison. The enablers are as guilty as the predators.

Not sure what you're driving at, but if you're a Catholic, cremation is A-OK (not directly stated but a conclusion you can obviously draw from this article, I was too lazy to find a better source). As for other Christian religions, I can't begin to understand why they still claim otherwise...

Comparing accusations by abuse made by loyal CATHOLICS to the actions of Chinese authorities is a bit of a stretch.

As for self-policing, do tell us why, when MANY Church members played shuffle-the-pedo for decades, we should regard that idea with anything but scorn?
What's worse, being a pedo or hiding a pedo so he can prey again?

How high did it go without punishment? I'll use the tactical relocation of Cardinal Law as an example. :)

$660,000,000 bucks isn't an act of desperate damage control?

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/ClergySexAbus e/#background

Huh? Christianity got the brutality out of its system in the crusades? Oh no no no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_burn.htm (witch burning)
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/northireland1.html (northern Ireland)
http://www.americancatholic.org/News/ClergySexAbus e/

For example.

auto-detected everything in my laptop. Didn't expect it not to, as previous Fedora Core releases did so.

I was a very happy RedHat and then Fedora user until I tried to install FC3. I hope that FC4 does better then its predecessor. When I did the install for FC3 it clobbered my system. It appeared that it did not correctly configure itself for my scsi controller.

All I can say is thank you St. Anthony because my backups saved my derrier that day. I am now a very happy gentoo user who synced and updated my system this morning like any other Monday without tempting St. Anthony too much.

It is nice not to have to download 4 cds every four months and hope that I won't need the backups!

A Catholic is supposed to defer to the authority of the Pope when he declares an infallible decision. Such decisions are generally made on questions of theology. Indeed, in two thousand years there has been only one infallible declaration by the Pope (Mary was assumed into heaven). Yes, most Catholics tend to give the Pope's opinion weight, but it is not a requirement. There are tons of priests, bishops and indeed a whole half of the Church (Eastern Orthodox) who have disagreements with the Pope, but are still Catholic.

A Catholic believes in the sancitity of life. They are not directly supposed to be anti-abortion. For example, if not having an abortion will kill the mother, the mother is not required to sacrifice her life for that of her child.

The essence of Catholicism is contained in the Creed/Profession of Faith read each week at Mass. It doesn't mention Pope or abortion.

It is not your place to declare whether someone is Catholic. By doing so you are passing judgement. As the name Catholic (meaning 'universal') implies, the Catholic Church encompasses a huge range of people and opinions, including conflicting ones.

If you really want to understand what makes a Catholic, read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's easier to read in book form. It's a pretty mind blowing document (apart from the length!) when you consider the number and quality of minds which have worked on it. It's interesting that the aforementioned 'creed' is used at the table of contents for first part of the Catechism, so that prayer really is a neat summary of what makes a Catholic.

In case you haven't twigged I am Catholic. It makes me seethe with anger to see what US (and other) religious wackos are doing in the name of Christ. I feel justified in my anger in that I equate the wackos with the moneychangers who hijacked the temple in Jerusalem for their own ends, and got driven out by an angry Jesus.

As a relatively devout Roman Catholic, I will say "no." The only problems that the Catholic Church (I can only interpret the RC Church, not any of the other fundamentalist Christian faiths) has with stem cell research is the destruction of unborn children in the attempt to get embryonic stem cells. Since it is a fundamental of faith that we are human persons from the point of conception, the destruction of embryos is morally equivalent to murder, regardless of the ends that are attempting to justify these means.

This is the same moral argument against abortion.

There is nothing wrong with donating blood, for example, thus using stem cells from adults that do not otherwise harm those adults is completely up to the owner of those adults. Here I'm using the term "adult" somewhat loosely since the cord may have the child's DNA (I'm not sure whose DNA the cord has, so I can't properly attribute it to mother or child). What I mean is in comparison to the embryonic stage of human development, any other stage, for the purposes of this moral argument, is basically adult if the donor (child, adult) is not killed to harvest the cells.

I presume that most of the other religious groups that oppose stem cell research are also only opposing harvesting of embryonic stem cells based on their similar convictions opposing abortion, but, as I said, I can't really speak for them.

Example (poorly worded): American Catholic website

The true origins of Halloween lie with the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. For the Celts, November 1 marked the beginning of a new year and the coming of winter. The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. During this festival, Celts believed the souls of the dead--including ghosts, goblins and witches--returned to mingle with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires.

When the Romans conquered the Celts, they added their own touches to the Samhain festival, such as making centerpieces out of apples and nuts for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchards. The Romans also bobbed for apples and drank cider--traditions which may sound familiar to you. But where does the Christian aspect of the holiday come into play? In 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1. The night before became known as All Hallow's Even or "holy evening." Eventually the name was shortened to the current Halloween. On November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day.

The purpose of these feasts is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the "communion of saints," which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time.

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/StemCell/ask_ stemcell.asp

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/StemCell/pope _to_bush.asp

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/StemCell/ask_ stemcell.asp

http://www.americancatholic.org/News/StemCell/pope _to_bush.asp