I finished Ramesh Ponnuru's book "Party of Death" earlier this week and it's an excellent and easy-to-read book -- one every pro-lifer should have on their bookshelf.

"Party of Death" is not a religious treatise -- it doesn't need to be. Instead Ponnuru presents a intellectually rigorous defense of the idea that a human being is a human being -- with intrinsic value -- no matter their age, size or level of intellectual capability. One of the less honest, but commonly used defenses of pro-abortion rights absolutists is that a human embryo or blastocyst or fetus is so small that it doesn't have the same rights to life as the rest of us. I had to laugh when Ponnuru addressed this argument in his book, not because Ponnuru was wrong to call "pro-choicers" on it, but because my response would've been different, and simpler.

I often joke that people are short if they're shorter than me. They're tall if they're taller than me. They're young if they're younger than me and...you get the idea. I just laughed as I imagined someone smaller than me using that argument in my presence.

Ponnuru doesn't just focus on abortion, but also on euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research.

For those who are put off by the title of the book, I'd note that the quick and easy assumption that the Party of Death is synonymous with the Democrat Party is inaccurate. Ponnuru points out that the Party of Death has footholds in both the Democratic and Republican parties -- though the majority of its strength and numbers reside in the Democrats' camp. Republicans like Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch do get called to account in the book for their logical inconsistencies when it comes to opposing abortion but being in favor of embryonic stem cell research.

For pro-lifers who find themselves on the defensive in the abortion debates "Party of Death" is an especially welcome tool -- it certainly would've been a help to me as I prepared for my speech against abortion in my college speech class more than a decade ago.

In closing, I'll repeat the short note that I sent to Ponnuru shortly after my first evening with the book. I didn't think that it was possible for me to dislike Sen. Barbara Boxer any more than I already did.

I was wrong.