1. This is so disturbing:

I just spoke to a distraught US Special Forces soldier who is among the 1000 or so US troops in Syria tonight who is serving alongside the SDF Kurdish forces. It was one of the hardest phone calls I have ever taken. "I am ashamed for the first time in my career." — Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) October 9, 2019

2. Turkey’s deadly ‘safe zone’

3. From South Bend, again: AP: Officials find more fetal remains connected to late doctor

4. Responding to the exploding need for foster parents


5. People magazine of all places celebrates the parents of nine children, Rachel Campos-Duffy and former congressman Sean Duffy


6. From the Wall Street Journal: “A study published in September in the journal PLOS One found that politics is a source of stress for 38% of Americans.”

7. Also in the WSJ, Walter Olson argues that the Michigan religious-liberty foster-care/adoption victory was a narrow one, won largely because the state attorney general was so over-the-top in her rhetoric toward St. Vincent Catholic Charities there; that once those who oppose exemptions for religious agencies watch their tongues, there won’t be victories like this

8. From the Daily Signal: The True Effects of Watching Porn

9. Conservatives: Happier at Home, Worried for the Nation

10. This is adorable:

Plus: I’ll be hosting this tomorrow night:

I have a two-minute spot that runs daily on Sirius XM’s Catholic Channel, 129. Here’s the Soundcloud archive (which you can subscribe to).

Talking about A Year with the Mystics on Danielle Bean’s podcast


A Year with the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living is still 36 percent off on Amazon.