With William F. Buckley and William Safire gone, the only two conservative pundits I read and respect are George Will and Rick Martinez. (Yes, Martinez is a pundit.) I rarely agree with their viewpoints, but I almost always love arguing with them (silently, of course) over my morning coffee.
Martinez's defense of Belmont Abbey College ("Birth control test case," column, Oct. 14) was not, however, worthy of debate. He spent 20 precious column-inches trying to whip up even more hysteria about government's role in health care, all based on an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission director's decision to find the Catholic college guilty of discrimination against women. Belmont Abbey's president threatens to close his college down before paying for birth control.
He actually has a far less draconian choice, which Martinez barely alludes to in his fourth paragraph: Stop accepting federal funds. Voila! Those pesky EEOC regulations go away, and the college can do anything within reason that its religious dictates prescribe.
