Peaceful Marriage Demonstrators Assaulted

From LifeSiteNews

Demonstrators with the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) were assaulted yesterday in Warwick, Rhode Island, as they peacefully held signs in support of traditional marriage.

"We were at a busy intersection, getting strong support for traditional marriage," recounted Volunteer Rex Teodosio. "Three women approached us - one threw mayonnaise, while the other two grappled with our photographer.

"Then we were sprayed with mace. Finally, a burly woman got out of a car and punched our photographer in the face. They shouted obscenities the whole time."

Teodosio said the group was able to get the license plate number of the second car, and file a police report. The first car's license plate had been covered with a shirt.

The group says that pro-homosexual individuals have thrown water bottles, pesticide, rotten eggs and soda at TFP volunteers. But, they say, this is the first time the Catholic group was pepper-sprayed and physically attacked.

TFP said that police at Warwick station responded promptly and have opened a case. Pictures and video footage of the assault are helping the investigation.

"So much for tolerance," said TFP member Joseph Ferrara, who was struck by the attackers.

"Homosexual activists talk about tolerance, but everyone who saw the attack, saw their 'tolerance' in action. For me, these attacks reinforced my resolve to defend traditional family values."

'Stimulus' Grants Going to Porn Producers?

"Stimulus" funds awarded to the National Endowment for the Arts may be being used to produce pornographic material.

Editor's note: This story contains descriptions that some may find offensive.

From OneNewsNow
By Charlie Butts and Jody Brown

The NEA was allotted $80 million out of the $787-trillion stimulus bill approved earlier this year by Congress and President Obama. Alliance Defense Fund special counsel Pat Trueman shares what he found upon close examination of the NEA's expenditures.

"The National Endowment for the Arts is using money from the stimulus bill, which was supposed to create economic activity, for the production of pornography," he states. "They've specifically given grants to companies that they know produce pornography -- primarily homosexual pornography."

Among the recipients of federal stimulus money, according to a Fox News report:

• Frameline, a "gay and lesbian" film house which recently screened Thundercrack, which is described as "the world's only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women, and a gorilla." ($50,000 grant)
• San Francisco-based CounterPULSE, a group that produces the weekly "Perverts Put Out" -- a performance that invites guests to "join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun." ($25,000 grant)
• "The Symmetry Project" -- a dance piece that Fox News says "amounts to two people writhing naked on the floor, a government-funded tango in the altogether." ($25,000 grant)

Trueman says it is an "outrage" that federal monies are being given to porn-producing organizations. "The National Endowment for the Arts has long been fought by American Family Association and other pro-family groups because year in and year out, they fund pornography and blasphemy," he tells OneNewsNow.

And of the allegedly misspent stimulus funds? "This is an outrage," he exclaims. "People are hurting financially, and our federal government is funding pornography?"

Trueman believes the public ought to call on members of Congress to take a closer look at the National Endowment for the Arts and pull its federal funding.

Pope Records Album of Litanies and Prayers

Proceeds will help to provide music education for underprivileged children

From BBC News

Pope Benedict XVI will be heard singing and speaking on an album to be released on the record label that was home to Nirvana and Guns N' Roses.

The pontiff is to release Alma Mater, an album of Lauretan litanies and prayers with musical accompaniment, through Geffen Records.

The label said listeners would be "shocked" by his "incredible voice".

The album, which features the Pope using five different languages, will be released on 30 November.

The project came about after the label learned earlier this year that Benedict XVI had been working on an album with the Choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome.

'Very happy'

Colin Barlow, president of Geffen UK, explained: "We travelled to Rome, heard some of the music and realised it was a beautiful piece of music and something that actually could be an incredible record for us to work on.

"It's very much about delivering a really brilliant piece of music and making sure we treat it with the respect it deserves."

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Pakistan: Christians Flee After Muslims Destroy Village

From UCANEWS.com

Smoke was still rising from the Christian village of Korian in Punjab province on July 31 after it was completely destroyed in a violent raid the previous night by thousands of Muslims.

A Christian house set ablaze by Muslims

Korian was home to about 100 Christian families, most of them laborers, who all fled the area in the wake of the attack. No one died in the incident.

The village in Faisalabad diocese was attacked after Muslims accused a family there of blasphemy. In all, 60 houses and two churches belonging to the Church of Pakistan and the New Apostolic Church were destroyed and livestock stolen.

"They have left nothing. My horse, my only source of income, has also been taken," said Shubaan Masih, a local Christian.

The mob also blockaded the road leading to the village for several hours refusing entry to police or firefighters.

Masih said the mob was armed with firearms and explosives. "They used trucks to break the walls and petrol to start the fires," he said. "We saved our lives only by hiding in the fields until three in the morning, when relatives arrived with vehicles to collect us. The children cried all night," Masih said.

Tension between the Christian and Muslim communities in the area arose after pages containing Islamic inscriptions were found in front of a Christian home on July 26 following a wedding.

A group of Muslims then interrogated those who attended the wedding party, and accused the family of desecrating the Qur'an. The family says it has no knowledge of the offence but nevertheless apologized on July 30, saying that children who did not know what they were doing could have been responsible.

Muslims from surrounding villages gathered that evening at the local mosques before the mood turned ugly, Atif Jamil Pagaan, spokesperson of a Christian NGO told UCA News.

Local Muslims have filed charges against the family according to the country's blasphemy laws. They are accusing the family of blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad, which carries a mandatory death sentence in Pakistan. They also accuse the family of blasphemy against the Qur'an, which is punishable with life imprisonment.

A Christian home in ruins

Christian politicians and Catholic priests have condemned the incident and demanded investigations of the assault. A group of seven Catholic priests went to visit the site.

"One cannot but weep upon seeing the trail of destruction left behind," said Father Aftab James Paul, director of Faisalabad diocese's Commission for Interfaith Dialogue.

"It is yet another example of a feud being given a religious color. We shall visit the police station and demand the arrest of the instigators of this terrorism," he said.

According to media reports, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also strongly condemned the incident and expressed his sorrow over the destruction of homes and loss of livestock.

Reports said that Sharif has directed authorities to secure the area and control the situation.

Health Reform and Cancer

The danger is that ObamaCare will stifle medical innovations that could save patients like me.


From The Wall Street Journal
By Myrna Ulfik

I have been battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, an incurable blood cancer, for the past nine years. Last year, I was also diagnosed with uterine cancer.

I didn’t run to Canada for treatment. Medicare took care of my needs right here in New York City. To endure, I just need the freedom to choose my insurance, my doctors, and get the diagnostic scans and care I need. And one more thing: I need hope that a treatment will be developed that can control my diseases the way insulin controls diabetes.

Every cancer patient needs these things, especially hope. But the government’s plan to reform the health-care system in this country threatens all of this—particularly the development of new treatments.

When I was first diagnosed in 2000 I had chemotherapy. It put me in remission, but nearly killed me.

Three years later the lymphoma was back and I faced more chemo. This is so often the pattern of cancer: recurring disease and repeated chemo. In the end patients often die not from the disease, but from the treatments.

I took a different path, seeking a cancer vaccine. One had been developed at Stanford University 12 years earlier that had given 90% of patients very long remissions and cured some entirely. Unlike chemotherapy, there were no severe side effects.

But I couldn’t get the vaccine because the Food and Drug Administration required another trial that would take nine more years. Over-regulation has kept this treatment from patients for 21 years, as some 24,000 lymphoma patients died each year.

My husband and I searched the Internet and found another vaccine being tested at Freiburg University in Germany. That vaccine has helped me avoid chemotherapy for years. My oncologist says he’s never seen another patient do so well with the type of lymphoma I have.

I am still here because my care was managed by doctors—not a government agency. My doctors do what the bureaucracy can’t: They see me as a human being.

Patient-as-person will be a lost concept under the new health-care plan, where treatments will be based not upon individual patient needs, but upon what’s best for everyone. So cancer drugs for seniors might take second place to jungle gyms and farmers’ markets—so-called preventive care—which are covered under both the House and Senate versions of the health bill.

The stimulus package passed earlier this year allocated $1.1 billion for hundreds of “Comparative Effectiveness Research” studies. This project will compare all treatment options for a host of diseases in order to develop a database to guide doctors’ decisions. Research of this sort typically takes years. But the data will likely be hastily drawn conclusions that reflect the view of the government agencies that fund the studies: Cheap therapies are just as good as expensive ones.

In order to finance health-care reform, Democrats in Congress have proposed cutting $500 billion from Medicare over the next 10 years. Yet in his press conference last Wednesday, President Barack Obama denied that Medicare benefits would be cut. He has surrounded himself with advisers who believe otherwise.

Tom Daschle, Mr. Obama’s original pick to head Health and Human Services, argues in his book “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis,” that we should accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments.” Mr. Daschle blames the “use and overuse of new technologies and treatments” for runaway health-care costs. He suggests a Federal Health Board modeled after the British “NICE” board to make decisions on health-care rationing.

But the British system is infamous for denying state-of-the-art drugs to cancer patients. Thus cancer-survival rates in Britain are far below those in America, just as they are in Canada.

Canadian cancer patients told to wait months for treatment and diagnostic scans frequently go south and pay out-of-pocket for care in the United States. A number of Quebeckers even sued their government for violating their “right to life and security” under the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada’s Supreme Court has acknowledged the pervasive rationing that occurs. In the 2005 case Chaoulli v. Quebec (Attorney General) , the majority opinion stated: “The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public health care system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public health care.”

Despite such evidence, the Obama plan is likely to target various treatments—including radiology scans—in order to cut costs. I survived this long because my radiologist examines each of my scans with me in detail.

One of those scans also saved my life by picking up unsuspected uterine cancer. The congressional majority seems blissfully unaware that all cancer patients need those scans to monitor their diseases.

Also uneasy with the cost of medical progress is Dr. David Blumenthal, Mr. Obama’s new head of Health Information Technology. It is not reassuring that he stresses that two-thirds of the annual increases in health spending result from medical innovation, as he has written in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Cancer patients need nothing more than such innovation. Yes, developing more effective, less toxic treatments is expensive. The prices of new cancer therapies reflect the billion-dollar cost of developing each new drug. But such treatments can be life-saving, as they have been for me.

Despite its warts, our system works. Carelessly tinkering with it will have a world-wide penalty—the stifling of new drug development. What company would spend a billion dollars to develop a drug that will not be reimbursed by the new health plan? This would be a direct, devastating blow to the most vulnerable Americans.

In spite of the president’s assurances, there is every sign that this plan will be financed by deep cuts to Medicare, which, like the public option, will limit payments for specialists, radiology scans, and cutting-edge cancer drugs. These are prime targets because they are more expensive than other services. But are we really expected to forgo new medical technology and return to the cancer care of the 1970s?

When members of Congress are asked if they will opt for the public plan, they say no. That’s for the rest of us.

The number of Americans who have cancer exceeds 10 million. It’s time for cancer patients and their families to remind those on Capitol Hill that health-care reform is a matter of life and death for us.

Ms. Ulfik is a writer in New York.

SC Crimes Lead To NC Probation Policy Changes

Alan Hawes/The Post and Courier

From WYFF4.com

Two high profile crime cases in South Carolina involving parolees from North Carolina have led that state to make some big policy changes.

Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a measure into law Thursday that gives police officers better access to probation and parole records without waiting for a court order.

Officers will also have access to an offender's juvenile records and warrantless searches will be allowed as a condition of probation.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Info on Homosexual Health Risks Squelched

A pro-family activist group is calling for a federal study of the health risks of homosexual conduct.

From OneNewsNow
By Charlie Butts

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality president Peter LaBarbera tells OneNewsNow it only makes sense because the government will investigate the dangers of such habits as smoking and work to curb it. He cites information released by the Food and Drug Administration.

"[Men who have had sex with men since 1977 have] an HIV prevalence rate 60 times higher than the general population, 800 times higher than first-time blood donors, and 8,000 times higher than repeat blood donors," LaBarbera says.

The pro-family activist also notes an increased level of STDs and hepatitis.

"The people have a right to know about the health risks of homosexual activity just like they had a right to know about the health risks of smoking," he contends. "There was a huge effort to cover up the risks of smoking, just like there's a massive politically correct effort today to hide the true health risks of homosexual sex -- and the people have a right to know about that."

LaBarbera especially wants to warn school children who are being taught to accept the homosexual lifestyle as normal and healthy.

Senators Launch Bipartisan Effort to Save D.C. School Choice

Senator Lieberman Introduces Bill Preserving D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Cosponsors Include Diane Feinstein and Robert Byrd

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) today unveiled a bipartisan reauthorization bill for the D.C. school voucher program.

Lieberman, along with Susan Collins (R-ME) and four other senators, introduced legislation this morning to reauthorize and strengthen the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) for five years. This move provides continued hope for thousands of low-income families in the District of Columbia who seek equal access to a quality education.

"This is not a liberal program or a conservative program, but a program that puts children first," Lieberman said. "And I am proud to say that it's working."

Under Senator Lieberman’s bill, the program would be preserved and strengthened significantly. The Lieberman bill would increase scholarship amounts to $9,000 for K-8 students and $11,000 for high school students—indexing the scholarship amounts to inflation. While these amounts remain significantly below the amounts for the D.C. Public Schools, they provide the necessary increases to account for inflation over the past five years.

The bill would also:

--Give scholarship priority to siblings of students who currently participate in the program
--Require participating schools to have a valid certificate of occupancy
--Require teachers of core subject matters to have bachelor’s degrees
--Require an Institute of Education Sciences annual evaluation of the program
--Require students to take nationally norm-referenced tests

To date, the program has allowed low-income children to receive up to $7,500 in scholarships to attend the private schools of their parent’s choice. Since its inception in 2004, the program has served more than 3,000 residents—primarily extremely low-income children. More than 8,000 families have applied for scholarships, demonstrating overwhelming demand.

The school choice initiative in the nation’s capital has been bolstered by more than five rigorous studies demonstrating positive student achievement outcomes and parental support. The OSP is supported by a majority of the D.C. City Council and has the backing of nearly three quarters of D.C. residents—according to a poll released this week.

In May, a similar bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). Mr. Boehner is a longtime champion of the scholarship program and has spearheaded efforts in the House to preserve the program for low-income District families.

“Today’s action is a strong step in the right direction for low-income D.C. families,” said Kevin Chavous, the former D.C. City Councilman who is leading the fight to save the OSP. “We are pleased to see a strong, bipartisan effort to provide continued opportunity and hope to D.C. children through the extension and strengthening of the OSP.

Chavous added that efforts remain underway to save the educational futures of the so-called “D.C. 216”—a group of students who had their 2009-10 scholarship offerings revoked by the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year. He applauded Senators Lieberman and Collins, as well as 12 other Senators, who had previously written to Secretary Duncan expressing support for these children to enter the program.

From Our Mail: Are We Slaves on Obama's Plantation?

From: Randall A. Terry

Re: Comedy Videos: Are we Slaves on Obama's Plantation? Kill Granny, and more

Hello Pro-life Friend.

It is time for some satire!

G.K. Chesterton said: "That which is ridiculous deserves to be ridiculed." The idea of Obama forcing us to pay for dead babies is evil - but it also worth mocking.

I hope you enjoy these videos, and forward them to your friends!

1) Are we slaves on Obama's Plantation? (Filmed at the White House!)

2) The KKK endorses Obama' sHealth care: Abort more black babies.

3) The KKK endorses Obama: YOU are a racist!

4) Kill Granny, Save your Inheritance, and lower health care costs!

On a serious note, go to www.OverturnRoe.com to learn what you can do to defeat this damnable healthcare bill.

VISIT your congressmen's local offices IN PERSON. Let them hear your anger; let them see your eyes.

Go to them, and tell them you will not pay your taxes.

And maybe forward these videos to them!

Keep in the fight.

Randall

Obama 'Like Romans Who Destroyed Jewish Temples'

Jews read Lamentations at U.S. consulate on religion's saddest day

Jewish protesters at U.S. consulate in Jerusalem (WND photo by Gemma Blech)

From WorldNetDaily
By Aaron Klein

Marking the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, about a thousand Jewish protesters today read the biblical book of Lamentations in front of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to protest against the Obama administration's demand to freeze Jewish construction in eastern sections of the city.

Tonight marks the fasting day of Tisha B'Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It commemorates a series of tragedies that befell the Jewish people all on the same day, most significantly the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which occurred about 656 years apart on the same day. Jewish tradition calls for the reading of Lamentations.

"The Obama administration is following in the footsteps of Rome. He is trying to do what the Romans did, passing anti-Jewish decrees at the time of the destruction of the Temple," Nadia Matar, the protest organizer, told WND.

Read the rest of this entry >>

New Evidence Supports Authenticity of Shroud of Turin

From Catholic World News

A new study of the Shroud of Turin has discovered traces of writing in Aramaic, judged by experts to be more than 1800 years old. The visible letters appear to (be) portions of the phrase "king of the Jews"-- thereby strongly supporting the belief that the fabric is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Pope confirms visit to Shroud of Turin; new evidence on shroud emerges (CNS)

Obama’s Science Czar Said a Born Baby ‘Will Ultimately Develop Into a Human Being’

Is Obama Science "Czar" John P. Holdren human yet?

From CNSNews.com
By Terence P. Jeffrey

President Obama’s top science adviser said in a book he co-authored in 1973 that a newborn child “will ultimately develop into a human being” if he or she is properly fed and socialized.

“The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being,” John P. Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote in “Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions.”

Holdren co-authored the book with Stanford professors Paul R. Ehrlich and Anne H. Ehrlich. The book was published by W.H. Freeman and Company.

At the time “Human Ecology” was published, Holdren was a senior research fellow at the California Institute of Technology. Paul Ehrlich, currently president of The Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford, is also author of the 1968 bestseller, “The Population Bomb,” a book The Washington Post said “launched the popular movement for zero population growth.”

“Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions” argued that the human race faced dire consequences unless human population growth was stopped.

“Human values and institutions have set mankind on a collision course with the laws of nature,” wrote the Ehrlichs and Holdren. “Human beings cling jealously to their prerogative to reproduce as they please—and they please to make each new generation larger than the last—yet endless multiplication on a finite planet is impossible. Most humans aspire to greater material prosperity, but the number of people that can be supported on Earth if everyone is rich is even smaller than if everyone is poor.”

The specific passage expressing the authors’ view that a baby “will ultimately develop into a human being” is on page 235 in chapter 8 of the book, which is titled “Population Limitation.”

At the time the book was written, the Supreme Court had not yet issued its Roe v. Wade decision, and the passage in question was part of a subsection of the “Population Limitation” chapter that argued for legalized abortion.

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Home Depot building a 'le-gay-cy' for children

Home Depot is helping to introduce children to the homosexual lifestyle.

From OneNewsNow
By Charlie Butts

The Nashville Gay Pride website notes that Home Depot contributed more than $5,000 to help finance the 2009 festival. The retailer also participated by conducting children's craft workshops at a special booth set up for them. The company has sponsored similar children's venues at pro-homosexual events in Atlanta, Kansas City, Durham, Portland, and San Diego.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel tells OneNewsNow the home improvement store is facilitating the exposure of children to sinful behavior.

"Out of some kind of notion of political correctness and being tolerant, Home Depot is contributing to all of this," he notes. "They're contributing to the corruption of children, and they need to answer for that."

Many parents are already outraged and are taking action, according to Barber. "I would tell parents to go tell Home Depot that they don't appreciate it and that if they continue it, they're going to take their business elsewhere," he adds.

Barber says that will help drive a message home to company officials that in the interest of political correctness, they are driving away business and alienating a large percentage of their customer base who do not appreciate children being exposed to debauchery.

Other corporate sponsors of the Nashville event included Southwest Airlines and Bridgestone Tires.

"Tolerance" Camp for Future Community Organizers

Looking for a summer camp for your aspiring community organizer?

At Camp Wananame future left-wing activists learn tolerance for everyone and everything but conservatives. A project of the Pasco, Florida School District and Pathfinders in Bradenton, the camp trains young comrades to become advocates for greater state and federal spending for the Pasco, Florida School District and government grant funding for groups like Pathfinders in Bradenton.

After all, a left-wing agitator can't learn too soon how to shake down the system for left wing causes and ensure that conservatives foot the bill.

Jihad in North Carolina

From Law Enforcement Examiner
By Jim Kouri

Seven suspects have been charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure Americans overseas, according to law enforcement officials in a report to police organizations such as the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of North Carolina returned a sealed seven-count indictment against the following defendants:

• Daniel Patrick Boyd, 39, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina
• Hysen Sherifi, 24, a native of Kosovo and a U.S. legal permanent resident located in North Carolina
• Anes Subasic, 33, a naturalized U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina
• Zakariya Boyd, 20, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina
• Dylan Boyd, 22, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina
• Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, 22, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina
• Ziyad Yaghi, 21, a U.S. citizen and resident of North Carolina

All the defendants are charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, as well as conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. In addition, Daniel Boyd, Hysen Sherifi and Zakariya Boyd are each charged with possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Daniel Boyd and Dylan Boyd are also each charged with selling a firearm to a convicted felon. Finally, Daniel Boyd is also charged with receiving a firearm through interstate commerce and two counts of making false statements in a terrorism investigation.

The defendants were arrested at various locations Monday morning by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. They made their initial appearances today federal court in Raleigh, N.C. At that time, the indictment was unsealed.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Parental Rights Amendment Reaches 110 Co-Sponsors

Grassroots Movement Behind Effort to Ensure Parents' Rights to Raise their Children

From Christian Newswire

A Constitutional Amendment to protect the parent-child relationship introduced by U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Michigan, has reached 110 co-sponsors in the House.

"More and more members of Congress are recognizing the threat from government and foreign interference into the parent-child relationship," Hoekstra said. "I encourage my colleagues to support the initiative by co-sponsoring the Parents' Rights Amendment."

The Parental Rights Amendment (H.J.Res.42) would state explicitly in the U.S. Constitution that parents have a fundamental right to raise their children as they see fit, while protecting against abuse and neglect. Threats to the parent-child relationship include potential Senate ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the erosion of fundamental parental rights in our federal courts.

"Just about every member of Congress agrees with the legal principle that parents have the fundamental right to make decisions for the upbringing of their children," said Michael Farris, J.D., president of Parentalrights.org. "Because of international law and shifting judicial philosophies, the right is being steadily undermined. We now have 110 members of Congress with the foresight to say that we need to protect this long-standing right before the erosion goes too far. We appreciate the leadership of Pete Hoekstra and the 109 other members of Congress who believe that it is important to secure the rights of American families for generations to come."

More information on the Parental Rights Amendment can be viewed at www.parentalrights.org.

Episcopalians Reject Controversial Bishop-Elect

From OneNewsNow

Leaders of the Episcopal Church have rejected the appointment of a bishop-elect who denies that Satan exists, doesn't believe God sent Jesus Christ to die for the world's sins, and teaches that many paths lead to salvation.

The Diocese of Northern Michigan's election of the Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester was declared "null and void" yesterday. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori says he failed to receive the necessary consent from a majority of Episcopal bishops and diocesan committees.

Thew Forrester also has been criticized for blending elements of Christianity and Buddhism. In a 2004 diocesan newsletter, Thew Forrester said he had "received Buddhist 'lay ordination."'

Bloggers also have criticized Thew Forrester for calling a reading from the Quran "the word of God."

'Two styles of being Anglican'

Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Canterbury says Anglicans -- of which American Episcopalians are a part -- may have to accept a "two track" communion that embraces churches with conflicting beliefs about homosexual clergy and same-sex unions.

Rowan Williams wrote on his website yesterday that there are "two styles of being Anglican" and that both sides should work to keep the church together.

Williams is the Anglican spiritual leader. His comments are in response to the U.S. Episcopal Church's decision to lift a moratorium on homosexual bishops and to allow blessings of same-sex unions.

The Rev. Ian Douglas, who serves on the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, says this is what happens when what he calls "local leadings of the Holy Spirit bump up against received tradition in the church." He says the question is whether there are any "limits to diversity" in Anglican beliefs.

Biden's Gaffes Undercut Obama

Perhaps it's time to let Neil Kinnock write all his material. But would the plagiarized speeches be as entertaining as his "off the cuff" comments?

From The Washington Times
By Jon Ward

The Obama White House's vaunted message machine has been thrown off-track with increasing regularity by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., whose five verbal missteps in the past three months have created obstacles at home and abroad.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was forced Sunday to correct publicly Mr. Biden's characterization of Russia as a crumbling country, a description that infuriated Russian officials and contradicted President Obama's efforts to "reset" relations with the world power.

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Graham Only Judiciary Committee Republican to Support Sotomayor

The Senate Judiciary Committee has reported the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the full Senate, with every Republican member of the committee -- but one -- voting against the racist, unqualified nominee. Only Lindsey Grahamnesty, among all Republican Judiciary Committee members, voted to support Sotomayor.

The South Carolina Senator voted with Al Franken, Diane Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, Patrick Leahy and other liberals to report the nomination favorably.

Viet Catholics in Unprecedented Mass Protests Against Police Violence

From Catholic World News

An estimated 500,000 Vietnamese Catholics participated in a mass protest against police violence-- the largest such demonstration of the country's Communist era-- on Sunday, July 26. The protest was a response to last week's brutal police assault on Catholics protesting the confiscation of parish property. The Vinh diocese announced unflinchingly: "We have enough evidence to state that the police of Quang Binh had beaten our faithful before arresting them illegally." The mass demonstrations sparked new police violence, as two priests in the central coastal city of Dong Hoi were badly beaten and left in critical condition

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Half a million Vietnamese Catholics march through the streets against police violence (AsiaNews)

Divorce Damages Health and Remarriage Doesn't Help, New Study Finds

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine

Divorce and widowhood have a lingering, detrimental impact on health, even after a person remarries, research at the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University has shown.

"Among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions," said University of Chicago sociologist Linda Waite and co-author of a new study on marriage and health. Further, "Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health on all dimensions," she said.

Waite, the Lucy Flower Professor in Sociology and Director of the Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center at the University, conducted the study with Mary Elizabeth Hughes, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their research, which was based on a study of 8,652 people aged 51 to 61, will be published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior in the article, "Marital Biography and Health Midlife."

The findings are consistent with previous studies, said Dr. Mark Hayward, Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas and an expert in the field of health and marriage, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com (LSN). In his own work, he said, for example, "We actually found a very, very similar pattern to the findings that were in this study."

But while numerous studies have looked at the effect of marriage and divorce upon health, this is the first to examine both marital transitions and marital status on a wide range of health dimensions.

"Prior to this time, most people have been looking at kind of singular outcomes," Dr. Hayward said. "So in the work I've done, for example, I've looked at cardiovascular disease in particular. Other people have done the same: some people have looked at mortality, some people to depression. This study is probably one of the few studies that looks at a broader array of health, both in terms of physical and mental."

The study found that divorced or widowed people have 20 percent more chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, or cancer, than married people. They also have 23 percent more mobility limitations, such as trouble climbing stairs or walking a block. Further, people who remarried have 12 percent more chronic conditions and 19 percent more mobility limitations, but no more depressive symptoms, than those who are continuously married.

The impacts of marriage, divorce and remarriage on health are based on the ways in which the various illnesses develop and heal, study co-author Linda Waite said. "Some health situations, like depression, seem to respond both quickly and strongly to changes in current conditions," she said. "In contrast, conditions such as diabetes and heart disease develop slowly over a substantial period and show the impact of past experiences, which is why health is undermined by divorce or widowhood, even when a person remarries."

Dr. Hayward admitted the importance of helping people through difficult marriages, but emphasized the importance of helping people through divorce and after a divorce. "I think if there's any room for social policy in here," he said, "it's the issue of to what degree should we have a safety net in response to people that are suddenly finding themselves in these precarious positions. ... We do want to help people to pick up the pieces, so to speak, when their marriages go awry."

Divorce, he said, "is an incredibly adversarial situation. ... There may be room for social policy in helping people navigate these kinds of processes in ways that aren't so adversarial, and in that way mute the negative consequences of the divorce experience and what happens after divorce."

Hayward suggested that, on the level of health, divorce should not be discouraged because the health benefits of marriage may decline due to people staying in "bad" marriages.

However, previous research has shown that divorce has a worse impact on the couple's children than staying in a 'bad' marriage. A 2004 study at the University College Dublin discovered that separation even in the case of a 'bad' marriage, is more harmful to children than staying together. The study found that divorce was even more harmful to children than the loss of a parent.

Further, a book released by the Institute for American Values entitled Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce, based on a survey of 1,500 adults ages 18-35, revealed that even 'good' divorce has a negative impact on children. The book's author, Elizabeth Marquardt, commented, "Even when divorced parents behave well, their divorce confronts the child with the monumental task of having to make sense, alone, of the parents' very different beliefs, values, and ways of living - a job the parents are no longer required to do."

"As a consequence, children of both 'good' and 'bad' divorces come to feel like divided selves," she continued. "They lead a wholly separate life in each parent's world, leading over time to a troubling inner division that goes to the heart of their identity."

Fr. Thomas Dufner, a priest at a parish in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, who has been an outspoken defender of the Christian view of marriage (in 2003 he testified at a legislative hearing during Minnesota's debate on a proposed marriage amendment) told LSN that in his view this most recent study provides natural evidence in support of the traditional Christian view that marriage is "for life."

"By faith we know that in the beginning God created marriage for the good of spouses and the procreation of the race," said Fr. Dufner. "Now research confirms that health is also better for people who stay married. No surprise. Faith and reason go together confirming the same truth: What God has joined together, let no man put asunder."

Shock Video: Professor Gates Goes on N-Word Rant

'We're also trying to end what we call the one n-gger syndrome'

From WorldNetDaily
By Aaron Klein

A video has surfaced on YouTube of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. delivering a church speech in which he uses the N-word, rails against "racist historically white institutions in America" and accuses Newt Gingrich of attempting to block blacks from entering the middle class.

Gates became a lightning rod of racial controversy when President Obama defended the professor handcuffed in his home

last week by police in Cambridge, Mass.

"We are trying to end what we call the one n-gger syndrome

– you know, this place ain't big enough for more than one of us," said Gates in the video, which was filmed in 1999 in the All Souls Church in Washington, D.C.

"We in the academy have to know that our people, those of us who practice African-American studies, have to know that our people are under assault," Gates said.

Read the rest of this entry >>

5 Freedoms You'd Lose in Health Care Reform

If you read the fine print in the Congressional plans, you'll find that a lot of cherished aspects of the current system would disappear.

From Fortune
By Shawn Tully

In promoting his health-care agenda, President Obama has repeatedly reassured Americans that they can keep their existing health plans -- and that the benefits and access they prize will be enhanced through reform.

A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health committee, contradict the President's assurances. To be sure, it isn't easy to comb through their 2,000 pages of tortured legal language. But page by page, the bills reveal a web of restrictions, fines, and mandates that would radically change your health-care coverage.

If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.

In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage -- including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money -- but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can't have. It's a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.

Let's explore the five freedoms that Americans would lose under Obamacare:

Read the rest of this entry >>

Obama's Approval Rating: The Tide Turns

Only six months into his radical regime, Obama's poll numbers are beginning to tank. Rasmussen's Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows:

29% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11. That’s the first time his ratings have reached double digits in negative territory (see trends).

Another interesting development is reflected in a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Republicans and GOP-leaning independents were asked: "If the 2012 Republican presidential primary or caucus in your state were being held today, and the candidates were (READ LIST) for whom would you vote?

                       7/18/09
Mike Huckabee         26   
Mitt Romney             21        
Sarah Palin               19     
Newt Gingrich            10     
Tim Pawlenty              4  
Jeb Bush                    3   
Haley Barbour             1
Bobby Jindal (vol.)       2       
Charlie Crist (vol.)        *      
Other (vol.)                  2          
None of these (vol.)      5         
Would not vote (vol.)    1        
No opinion                  6     

Given that many Americans are rejecting socialized medicine and the rationing of health care, we believe that Mitt Romney, who already implemented a disastrous forerunner of ObamaCare in Massachusetts, will only fade. Since America as we have known it hangs in the balance, it's not too soon to rally around a principled conservative like Mike Huckabee.

Westminster Abbey Choir and Congregation - "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" - Parry

This beautiful hymn combines the words of the American Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier (text below), with music written by Sir Hubert Parry.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives Thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word

Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of Thy call,

As noiseless let Thy blessing fall

As fell Thy manna down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and Thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still, small voice of calm!

Does Ted Kennedy Deserve His Extended Cancer Care?

From American Thinker
By James Lewis

Senator Ted Kennedy, who is now 76 years old and was diagnosed with brain cancer in May of last year, is telling the world that nationalized medical care is "the cause of his life." He wants to see it pass as soon as possible, before he departs this vale of tears.

The prospect of Kennedy's passing is viewed by the liberal press with anticipatory tears and mourning. But they are not asking the proper question by their own lights: That question -- which will be asked for you and me when we reach his age and state in life --- is this:

Is Senator Kennedy's life valuable enough to dedicate millions of dollars to extending it another month, another day, another year?

Because Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy agree with each other that they of all people are entitled to make that decision. Your decision to live or die will now be in their hands.

Ted Kennedy is now 76. Average life expectancy in the United States is 78.06. For a man who has already reached 76, life expectancy is somewhat longer than average (since people who die younger lower the national average); for a wealthy white man it may be somewhat longer statistically; but for a man with diagnosed brain cancer it is correspondingly less. As far as the actuarial tables of the Nanny State are concerned, Kennedy is due to leave this life some time soon. The socialist State is not sentimental, at least when it comes to the lives of ordinary people like you and me.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Harry Patch, Last British Survivor of First World War Trenches, Dies

Harry Patch, the last British soldier to have served in the First World War trenches, has died at the age of 111.



From The Telegraph
By Sean Rayment

Mr Patch, who was known as the Last Fighting Tommy, was the last living soldier to have fought in bloody battle of Passchendaele, at Ypres, in 1917 in which more than 70,000 troops died.

The veteran's death follows that of Henry Allingham, also a veteran of the Great War who died on July 18 at the age of 113.

Mr Patch, who was a machine-gunner in the Duke of Cornwalls's Light Infantry, died on Saturday morning at Fletcher House care home in Somerset where he was living.

The Prince of Wales was among the first to pay tribute to Mr Patch, telling the BBC: "The Great War is a chapter in our history we must never forget, so many sacrifices were made, so many young lives lost. So today nothing could give me greater pride than paying tribute to Harry Patch from Somerset.

"Harry was involved in numerous bouts of heavy fighting on the front line but amazingly remained unscathed for a while. Tragically one night in September 1917 when in the morass in the Ypres Salient a German shrapnel shell burst over head badly wounding Harry and killing three of his closest friends.

"In spite of the comparatively short time that he served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry Harry always cherished the extraordinary camaraderie that the appalling conditions engendered in the battalion and remained loyal to the end."

Chief Executive of Somerset Care, Andrew Larpent, said Mr Patch had been unwell for some time and had died peacefully in his bed.

He said: "His friends and his family have been here. He just quietly slipped away at 9am this morning. It was how he would have wanted it, without having to be moved to hospitals but here, peacefully with his friends and carers."

Mr Patch never revelled in the fact that he was one of the last survivors of a war which had claimed the lives of so many of his friends. "I don't like it," he once said when asked what it was like. "I sit there and think. And some nights I dream – of that first battle. I can't forget it."

Read the rest of this entry >>

Raphael: The Mortal God

The following is an excellent documentary on the life and work of Raphael Sanzio, one of the greatest Italian painters of the High Renaissance. The great master, who left posterity so much, died at the age of 37.

North Korean Woman Publicly Executed for Distributing Bible

From Taragana
By Kwang-tae Kim

A Christian woman accused of distributing the Bible, a book banned in communist North Korea, was publicly executed last month for the crime, South Korean activists said Friday.

The 33-year-old mother of three, Ri Hyon Ok, also was accused of spying for South Korea and the United States, and of organizing dissidents, a rights group said in Seoul, citing documents obtained from the North.

The Investigative Commission on Crime Against Humanity report included a copy of Ri’s government-issued photo ID and said her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her June 16 execution.

The claim could not be independently verified Friday, and there has been no mention by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency of her case.

But it would mark a harsh turn in the crackdown on religion in North Korea, a country where Christianity once flourished and where the capital, Pyongyang, was known as the “Jerusalem of the East” for the predominance of the Christian faith.

According to its constitution, North Korea guarantees freedom of religion. But in reality, the regime severely restricts religious observance, with the cult of personality created by national founder Kim Il Sung and enjoyed by his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, serving as a virtual state religion. Those who violate religious restrictions are often accused of crimes such as spying or anti-government activities.

The government has authorized four state churches: one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox. However, they cater to foreigners only, and ordinary North Koreans cannot attend the services.

Still, more than 30,000 North Koreans are believed to practice Christianity in hiding — at great personal risk, defectors and activists say.

The U.S. State Department said in a report last year that “genuine religious freedom does not exist” in North Korea.

“What religious practice or venues exist … (are) tightly controlled and used to advance the government’s political or diplomatic agenda,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a May report. “Other public and private religious activity is prohibited and anyone discovered engaging in clandestine religious practice faces official discrimination, arrest, imprisonment, and possibly execution.”

The report cited indications that the North Korean government had taken “new steps” to stop the clandestine spread of Christianity, particularly in areas near the border with China, including infiltrating underground churches and setting up fake prayer meetings as a trap for Christian converts.

Ri, the North Korean Christian, reportedly was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon — near the border with China.

“North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime,” Do Hee-youn, a leading activist, told reporters Friday in Seoul.

The South Korean rights report also said North Korean security agents arrested and tortured another Christian, Seo Kum Ok, 30, near Ryongchon. She was accused of trying to spy on a nuclear site and hand the information over to South Korea and the United States.

It was unclear whether she survived, the report said. Her husband also was arrested and their two children have since disappeared, it said.

The U.S. government commission report cited defectors as saying an estimated 6,000 Christians are jailed in “Prison No. 15″ in the north of the country, with religious prisoners facing worse treatment than other inmates.

In Seoul, the rights group said it would try to take North Korean leader Kim to the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity.

Activists say such alleged crimes — murder, kidnap, rape, extermination of individuals in prison camps — can’t take place in North Korea without Kim’s knowledge or direction since he wields absolute power over the population of 24 million.

Hatch and Cornyn Will Oppose Sotomayor Confirmation

Amidst Lindsey Graham's support for and "celebration" of the appointment of Sonia Sotomayor to a seat on the U. S. Supreme Court, two prominent Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have announced they will vote against her confirmation. Senators Orrin Hatch (Utah) and John Cornyn (Texas) both indicated today that they will oppose confirmation.

Maintaining the Status Quo in Education

By David Kirkpatrick

Potential sources of reforming public education are the institutions of higher education. After all, virtually all of the professionals in the K-12 system are products of higher education, from at least four years for a bachelor's degree to qualify as a teacher to years more for advanced degrees and for the innumerable specialty degrees.

Yet higher education has not only not helped improve basic education, it has been a major roadblock.

More than a generation ago Martin Haberman in an article entitled "Twenty-Three Reasons Universities Can't Educate Teachers" wrote, "(T)here isn't a single example of school change university faculty have researched and advocated that is now accepted practice...Any status survey will reveal that the proverbial-third grade in Peoria grinds on pretty much as it did in 1910."

True then. True now. And it is probably safe to predict that it will be true tomorrow.

This has had at least the acquiescence of teacher unions, if not their outright approval, or they would try to change it.

Proof that unions are a major obstacle to reform, if proof is needed, came in Colorado when a series of reforms were introduced in the state legislature. These included alternative teacher certification, a pilot voucher program, privatization, special contracts and merit pay.

It would be unrealistic to expect a teacher union to endorse such a wide-ranging program. And the state education association did not do so. As might have been anticipated, it termed them "so-called" reforms and announced that it would oppose every one of them.

In Florida the teacher union opposed both master teacher and merit plans, showing its unanimity with other teacher unions across the nation to this day.

In California, teachers were pressured to not sign charter school petitions and to harass those who might circulate or try to sign such petitions. School districts willing to grant charters even faced lawsuits.

In New Jersey, home of one of the strongest state education associations in the nation, that union not only opposed any steps toward privatization but warned its members to look out for such dangerous moves as site-based management, allowing two teachers to work together in the same classroom, and even proposals to provide teachers with computers or telephones.

John I. Goodlad has written that "both the NEA and AFT...support the strange notion that children need two adults at home but can stand only one at a time in a school."

It would be difficult to act much dumber than that. Teachers in their self-contaminated classrooms are the only professionals who consistently work in such isolation. Increasingly, here and there, some teachers have come to recognize that this is not necessarily "the way it's spozed to be,'as demonstrated by the fact that such classroom technology has not only gradually been introduced here and there since then but has often occurred not only with teacher acceptance but following their active encouragement.

Ironically, the more pressure is exerted on the system to change, and the more the unions are criticized, the more teachers take such criticism personally - a tendency the unions are happy to exploit."

As long as 35 years ago, In What's Best For the Children, Mario Fantini observed:

"(R)ank-and-file teachers, afraid of the external forces that are converging on them, turn increasingly to their professional organizations for protection. In return for this protection, the teachers give up their individually and their authority. This is delegated to a small group who will wage the protective war. All the rank and file need to do is to cooperate, to follow faithfully the suggestions of the central leadership group."

That is still true today, except fewer people speak of teacher groups as "professional organizations."

It can also be argued that the constant attacks on unions have actually strengthened them by frightening the teachers. The answer is to make unions unnecessary by implementing teacher independence and choice, which is why most charter schools and private schools are not organized, and why the unions oppose such teacher freedom...

Although, sadly, most schools of choice are not overly innovative either.

David W. Kirkpatrick is a champion of the school choice movement who also served as a senior officer of the National Education Assn (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the American Assn of University Professors (AAUP). He is a life member of the NEA, NEA-Retired, the PA State Education Assn (PSEA), PSEA-Retired, and the PA Assn of School Retirees (PASR). Co-founder, 1997, and first National Chairman, 1997-98, of Parents in Control (P-I-C), his current memberships include the Assn of Educators in Private Practice (AEPP), The American Assn of Educators (AAE), and the National Retired Teachers Assn Division of the American Assn of Retired Persons (NRTA-AARP).

A retired public educator, Kirkpatrick was an Easton (PA) Area School District high school history teacher and district social studies department chairman; and president of the Easton Area and Pennsylvania State Education Associations. He was a Distinguished Fellow with the Blum Center for Parental Freedom in Education, Marquette University, Milwaukee, from 1995 until the Center closed at the end of July 1999 and a Senior Fellow with the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, Pittsburgh, 1998-2000.

Lindsey Graham "Celebrates" Sotomayor Appointment

According to The Greenville News, Lindsay Graham will not only vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, he states, “I think it's appropriate to celebrate that the court has changed. This is an historic pick.”

The paper also reports that South Carolina may see a more conservative Lindsey Graham leading up to his next election. Dr. David Woodard, Clemson University political science professor, told the paper Grahamnesty can "do what he wants the next two years. The two years after that, he'll have to be a little more conservative. Then the two years heading into the next election, he'll be very conservative.”

What a relief to know that South Carolinians will only endure two more years of being labeled "bigots" by the United States Senator who has made his mark in Washington by betraying them. Let's hope that by 2014, the people will finally put an end to his games and elect a United States Senator who will stand with Senator DeMint in proudly representing them.

PAC Exposes Obamacare Medical Rationing

The Our Country Deserves Better PAC has produced the following TV ad and is raising funds to expose the Obamacare medical rationing plan.

Obama Nominee: Animals Can Sue People

A consumer-freedom group says President Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar" is an "animal-rights zealot" who may make life difficult for hunters and meat-eaters.

From OneNewsNow
By Jim Brown

Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) has placed a hold on the nomination of legal scholar Cass Sunstein to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Budget and Management. Cornyn is worried that the Harvard professor may push an aggressive animal-rights agenda in the White House. Sunstein has argued in favor of outlawing sport hunting and meat-eating, and written that animals should be allowed to file lawsuits "with human beings as their representatives."

David Martosko with the Center for Consumer Freedom shares Cornyn's concern.

"If Cass Sunstein is ultimately confirmed to be the regulatory czar, having an animal-rights zealot in that position for the first time could be problematic for Americans who love to hunt, who like seeing circuses, [who like] having animals, who like taking their kids to the zoo, who like feeding their children meat and milk at lunch time," he warns.

"This is a guy who I would think will use every means at his disposal to push the radical animal-rights agenda."

According to Martosko, Sunstein may one day be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court -- so Senators Cornyn and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) have both placed holds on Sunstein's nomination because they want the constitutional lawyer on the record now so that if he does something different they will be able to use it against him in a future confirmation hearing.

Major Pro-Life Event Tonight: Stop the Abortion Mandate Webcast at 9:00pm EST

The Susan B. Anthony List announces the following event:

Event Details---

Who: Marjorie Dannenfelser, President, Susan B. Anthony List will join prominent pro-life leaders, including Father Frank Pavone, Dr. James Dobson, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA), and representatives from pro-life organizations nationwide.

What: Pro-Life Grassroots Webcast to educate Americans about the nexus between abortion and health care reform.

When: Thursday, July 23, 2009

9:00 – 10:00 PM EST. Marjorie will speak at 9:18PM EST.

Sign up to listen online at www.stoptheabortionmandate.com.

Radio-quality recordings will be available for download on Friday, July 24, 2009.

Why: Draft versions of health care reform legislation in both the House and Senate lack language to explicitly exclude an abortion mandate. Without the addition of clarifying language – similar to the longstanding Hyde Amendment – Americans will be forced to subsidize abortion on-demand.

Dannenfelser states, "This week President Obama acknowledged the longstanding tradition of excluding abortion coverage from government-funded health care programs. When we find longstanding policies like limiting taxpayer funds for abortion, we know political common ground has been achieved. Yet both the House and Senate versions of health care reform legislation seek to undo this commonsense policy. Without language to explicitly exclude an abortion mandate, the legislation will result in Americans footing the bill for abortion on-demand in the largest expansion of government-backed abortion since Roe v. Wade. Pro-Life Americans everywhere need to make their voice heard to stop this abortion mandate and press for health care that honors both mother and child."

For more information about the event, to obtain radio-quality recordings, or to schedule an interview to discuss abortion and health care reform with Ms. Dannenfelser, please contact Joy Yearout at 703-380-6674 or email jyearout@sba-list.org.

156 Leading Conservatives to Senate: Obama's Supreme Court Nominee Disqualified

From Christian Newswire


156 conservative and constitutional cause leaders and citizens have signed a letter to members of the U.S. Senate expressing opposition to the confirmation of President Obama's nominee to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

One of the letter's signers, Richard A. Viguerie, said, "The media and Republicans aren't defining President Obama as an extremist politically and constitutionally; therefore, it is up to us conservatives. It is also important that a message be sent that, while Republicans may not be unified in opposing Obama's dangerous and unconstitutional agenda, conservatives and other constitutionalists are united."

"President Obama has nominated a radical judicial activist who apparently feels the need to mask her outrageous statements, rulings and writings over the years with the soothing words of a constitutionalist," said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. "Perhaps the Left has discovered that the American people most certainly do not want the Constitution to be radically altered on the whims of empathy. Sotomayor's extremist actions throughout the years speak far more loudly than the pretty words she spoke at her confirmation hearing. A 'no' vote for Sotomayor is a 'yes' vote for the Constitution," Daly said.

The letter notes it may be historic that a nominee to the Supreme Court has gone on record at her confirmation hearing to reject the underlying judicial philosophy of the President who made the nomination. The letter also states in part:

"Given that an appointment to the Supreme Court is for life, the statements by the President and his advisors, and Judge Sotomayor's pre-confirmation statements that conflicted with her confirmation testimony, we believe her judicial philosophy is indeed one that should disqualify her from appointment to the Supreme Court.

"This is a matter of whether the nominee has demonstrated that she will abide by the role of the judiciary consistent with, and as constrained by, the Constitution.

"Judge Sotomayor's rulings, whether dealing with the 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, private property rights, criminal law, use of foreign law, race, equal protection and other areas of law, demonstrate that, if she is consistently 'empathetic' at all, it is in favor of government power, even beyond constitutional constraints."

Among the 156 who signed the letter are: Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice and Manny Miranda of Third Branch; plus: Gary Aldrich, Bob Barr, Morton Blackwell, Brent Bozell, Floyd Brown, KellyAnne Conway, Janice Shaw Crouse, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Elaine Donnelly, Joseph Farah, Alan Gottlieb, Colin Hanna, Andrea Lafferty, Jeffrey Mazzella, Chuck Muth, Tony Perkins, Larry Pratt, William Redpath, Al Regnery, David Ridenour, Ron Robinson, Ilya Shapiro, Rev. Lou Sheldon, Matt Staver, Herb Titus and Wendy Wright.

The complete letter and list of all signers is posted at conservativehq.com/uploads/File/LettertoSenators.pdf.

Gun Rights' Defeat May Have Political Repercussions

"Your freedom to worship doesn't vary from state to state, your freedom to speak freely doesn't vary from state to state, your freedom to be free of unreasonable search and seizure is universal -- so why not gun rights?"

From OneNewsNow
By Jim Brown

The Libertarian Party is urging voters to hold 39 senators accountable at the ballot box for voting yesterday against their gun rights.

Yesterday the Senate fell two votes short of the 60 needed to pass an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill that would have allowed people with concealed carry permits in their states to carry guns in all other states that have concealed carry laws. Fifty-eight senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), supported the amendment; 39 voted against, including Republicans Dick Lugar (Indiana) and George Voinovich (Ohio). (See roll call vote)

Donny Ferguson, communications director for the Libertarian National Committee, says he is troubled that 39 senators believe Americans' constitutional rights end at the state line.

"Your freedom to worship doesn't vary from state to state, your freedom to speak freely doesn't vary from state to state, your freedom to be free of unreasonable search and seizure is universal -- so why not gun rights?" he asks.

"It's very simple -- and especially since the people often targeted by criminals are truckers and travelers, it just seems like it would be common sense for states to honor one another's concealed carry permits."

Ferguson predicts voters will throw politicians out of office for voting against their gun rights. He points out that Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania lost his Senate reelection bid in 1994 because of his support for the assault weapons ban.

A Summer With Aristotle

From The Wall Street Journal
By Emily Esfahani Smith

On a summer day, inside a Stanford University classroom, a blonde, 12-year old girl rises to confront her professor. “You’re wrong” she cries and storms out in tears. The professor, an ethics teacher at the school, is trying to make the case that it’s morally permissible to kill one innocent life to save five. Still later that night, over dinner, the professor and the girl sit side by side, working out their ethical differences thinker to thinker. The young girl even smiles.

Welcome to book camp. With the close of this summer, the Great Books Summer Program, as it is formally called, will have had its most successful year according to Peter Temes, its academic director. Each summer, students ages 12 to 17 gather against the idyllic backdrop of either Stanford University or Amherst College. They attend lectures, participate in discussions, eat meals, and live together as a community of precocious ­thinkers.

Reading the works of Homer, Virgil, Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson and so many others, the students are pushed to grapple with questions that have preoccupied the great thinkers of the past 2,500 years. What is the good life? How should I face injustice? What do I owe my neighbor?

The program started eight years ago with a group of 30 students, many of whom were underprivileged, meeting on weekends. Today, the camp enrolls around 600 students and its overlapping one-, two- and three-week sessions run from late June to the beginning of ­August.

Mr. Temes recalls the inspiration he had to start the great books initiative. “There was a brilliant middle schooler in the South Bronx whose teacher one day said to him, ‘I bet you’re really excited for high school.’ The kid stared back at her blankly and said ‘I don’t think I’ll go.’”

Realizing that there were many young students who shared a love of literature and ideas but lacked the “carrot of college dangling in front of them,” Mr. Temes and several others began the Great Books Summer Program “to give these kids a precollege college experience.”

Unfortunately, a great-books curriculum is in short supply even at many colleges today. But recently a small but vibrant group of important professors have been working to restore the great books’ prominence in a liberal arts education. In the past decade, educators at Princeton, Dartmouth and Brown (to name just three schools) have erected centers specifically designed to give students an education in the fundamental texts of the Western canon. Princeton’s James Madison Program, Brown’s Political Theory Project and Dartmouth’s Daniel Webster Project offer or sponsor classes on Medieval and Renaissance political thought, Civil Liberties, Politics and Religion, and so on.

The mere existence of these programs suggests an important trend in student learning habits. The academic radicalism of recent decades is receding, and students are ready to be serious again. Flaky courses—such as Sociology of Heterosexuality (Yale), Philosophy and Star Trek (Georgetown), or Whiteness: The Other Side of Racism (Mount Holyoke)—no longer interest them. Instead, students from book camp and Princeton are interested in “sitting down with Plato, St. Augustine, and James Madison, to think through the perennial issues of politics and citizenship,” says Robert George, a professor and director of Princeton’s James Madison Program.

Since its birth nine years ago, the James Madison Program has dramatically grown in its offerings and influence on the Princeton campus. That’s only been possible because “students are very interested in learning about founding principles. Our class enrollments are very high,” says Mr. George. “In the Constitutional Interpretation class, which has the reputation of being the hardest non-science class at Princeton, 100 to 125 students are typically enrolled.” To put that in perspective, most classes at Princeton hold fewer than 19 students. The James Madison Program’s numbers, along with the Great Books Summer Program’s, say it all. Students want to learn this stuff.

Still, too many colleges are not meeting that demand. Mr. Temes and Mr. George’s programs are one step in the right direction. But without more efforts like theirs, says Mr. Temes, many students will be condemned to “live in a world created by thinkers they don’t know nor understand.”

Ms. Smith is a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal this summer.

Russia’s Plan To Introduce Religion in Schools Lauded

From The Christian Post
By Gretta Curtis

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has announced a pilot project Tuesday that will require schoolchildren to take classes in religion or secular ethics, the Associated Press reported.

Medvedev said pre-teen students at about 12,000 schools in 18 Russian regions would take the classes. They will be offered the choice of studying the dominant Russian Orthodox religion, Islam, Buddhism or Judaism, or of taking an overview of all four faiths, or a course in secular ethics.

The proposal is believed to be part of a Kremlin effort to teach young Russians morals in the wake of a turbulent period of uncertainty following the collapse of the officially atheist Soviet Union.

Patriarch Kirill, leader of 100 million Orthodox Christians in Russia has praised the proposal and said, “All the concerns society has expressed will be addressed by this freedom of choice,” reported Reuters.

Russian Orthodox Church has been pushing the idea of introducing religious education in schools though church and state are officially separate under the post-Soviet constitution.

Three years ago some regions have taken the initiative on their own and required courses in Russian Orthodoxy, stirring protests that they were infringing on constitutional boundaries.

Brushing aside the concerns of some non-religious peoples who fear that it is a way of imposing Orthodox Church ideology, Medvedev said, “Students and their parents must be allowed to choose freely,” while addressing top clerics and officials at his residence outside Moscow.

“Any coercion, pressure will be absolutely unacceptable and counterproductive,” he said.

The President also insisted that the proposal is “only” the four faiths excluding other faiths, especially Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, which the Orthodox Church accuses of proselytising.

Medvedev said the national program would begin next year as a pilot project in 18 regions, covering about 20 percent of Russia's schools.

Over 80 percent Russians are believed to be members of the Russian Orthodox Church, however according to CIA world fact book said only about 15 to 20 percent as practicing Orthodox Christians. And minorities Christians like Roman Catholics and Protestants have often complained of not being able to practice their faith freely.

Earlier this year, the appointment of Aleksandr Dvorkin as chair of Expert Council on Religious Studies raised concern for non-Orthodox Christians, fearing that Russia might return to a “Soviet era” persecution of Christians.

Dvorkin, who is critical of non-Orthodox Christians was given “unprecedented powers” by the Ministry of Justice, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The move prompted USCIRF to add Russia to its watch list for the first time despite having monitored the country’s religious freedom for ten years.

Alan Stang, A Faithful Servant of the King

We were very sorry to learn of the passing of Alan Stang, who died July 19th at the age of 80. Several of Alan's columns have been posted on Sunlit Uplands -- "Yankee Genocide Still Here," "Know Your History, Or Die," and "Big Pharma, Big Food, Big Fuel, And Big Fascism." We exchanged E-mails with Alan, but he was a gentleman we would like to have known.

His biography suggests an extraordinary life:

"Alan Stang was one of Mike Wallace’s original writers at Channel 13 in New York. A talk show host. In Los Angeles, he went head to head nightly with Larry King, and, according to Arbitron, had almost twice as many listeners. He was a foreign correspondent. Alan wrote hundreds of feature magazine articles in national magazines and some fifteen books, for which he has won many awards, including a citation from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for journalistic excellence.

"One of Alan's exposés stopped a criminal attempt to seize control of New Mexico, where a gang seized a court house, held a judge hostage and killed a deputy. The scheme was close to success before Stang intervened. Another Stang exposé inspired major reforms in federal labor legislation.

"His first book, It’s Very Simple: The True Story of Civil Rights, was an instant best-seller. His first novel, The Highest Virtue, set in the Russian Revolution, won smashing reviews and five stars, top rating, from the West Coast Review of Books, which gave five stars in only one per cent of its reviews. 'Alan lectured in every American state and around the world and has guested on many top shows, including CNN’s Cross Fire."

On the day he died, Alan's family posted a column he wrote several months ago. It encompasses what made all his columns so appealing to us -- a belief in a powerful and loving God, intimately present in the affairs of man, a God whose passion continues through time, but a God who ultimately triumphs.

We believe this good knight and servant of the King is now in the presence of the one he served so well. His final post follows. May he rest in peace:

Why We Shall Win: How I Know

First there was Paul Potts. Even his name was prosaic, mundane. In America he would have been called Joe Shmo from Kokomo. When he walked out on stage in nearly dead England, viewers smirked. He was overweight and flabby, his manner diffident. He would have made a Savile Row suit look like a sack. He needed dental work. His job was selling mobile phones. Would you believe he hails from a place called Fishponds? I was watching because many email mentions of his name had inspired my curiosity. What on earth could this archetypical nerd do?

The smirks became groans when he told the Britain’s Got Talent panel he wanted to sing grand opera. His presence onstage was contradiction enough; now he had made it preposterous. Britain’s Got Talent, like its U.S. counterpart, “American Idol,” is the sanitized Anglo-Saxon version of the old Roman Colosseum, where competitors incapable of embarrassment offer themselves to be slain.

He named the aria he would do now: “Nessun Dorma.” No! “Nessun Dorma” is my favorite aria. I don’t know why. Maybe its electronic frequencies are sympathetic to my own. Whenever I hear it, an exquisite chill along my spine makes me shiver. What would this nerd do to it?

The music began. I cringed. Mobile phone salesman Paul Potts began to sing. And in an instant Paul Potts became Placido Domingo, tall, handsome, completely assured, and, most important, singing the beloved aria sublimely. The usual chill was shivering my spine. Surely this was a species of miracle and by now you know the rest of the story. Paolo Potts has become an international star.

Now here comes Susan Boyle, a name as prosaic as a number, as pedestrian as Paul Potts, like everything else about her. (Apologies to the rest of the empire’s Susan Boyles.) The poor lady lives alone with her cat. She is 47 “and that’s just one side of me,” but has never been kissed, maybe because her hair looked like what you use to scour a pan. The Salvation Army would have refused to sell her ensemble.

We do not need to belabor the rest of her appearance. The stout English words “frump” and “dowdy” suffice. So she was the female version of Paul, and vice versa. Like his, her lost figure was never coming back. Interviewed before she sang, she bumbled, tongue tied, like Paul. English eyeballs were rolling throughout the hall.

Susan said she wanted to be as successful as Elaine Paige. I had never heard of the lady. The even faster rolling eyeballs told me that she must be a super star. (Research reveals her to be exactly that.) Susan said she would sing “I Dreamed a Dream” from “Les Miserables.” But that song is a show stopper, requiring considerable expertise. If you don’t stop the show with it, you fail.

Many years ago, in the mists of antiquity, before most still living members of our species were born, I wrote a show at NBC in New York and routinely received tickets to Broadway opening nights. I was there at seventh row center when Pat Suzuki stopped the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song” with her version of “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” In today’s corrosive atmosphere of belligerent lesbianism, would you believe that a New York audience would stop the show and give a standing ovation to a rendition of a song with such a title? It happened. I was there.

Now, Susan Boyle, who has never been kissed, was saying in effect that she would do something similar in dying England, where Britain’s Got Talent but little else. But by now, the audience was united against her. Who did this uppity twit think she was? Elaine Paige, indeed! The music started. Susan Boyle opened her mouth. Now the crowd would administer her comeuppance. She would fall on her face.

You saw what happened along with tens of millions of equally astounded You Tubers. In that magical moment, never been kissed Susan Boyle became Ethel Merman, the “Merm,” became Edith Piaf, for whom fifty million Frenchmen would happily have died; went nose to nose with gorgeous Elaine Paige. Susan Boyle “laid them in the aisles.” Had there been a show to stop, it would have stopped. In those few minutes she turned the audience completely around.

Piers Morgan, one of the panelists, said he was “stunned” and had never heard anything like it in three years on the show. Amanda Holden’s eyes were as big as easy over eggs. Her mouth fell open. I could see all the way back to her molars. Of course, Simon Cowell, ever the smart Alec, said he had expected something extraordinary and was right as usual.

In the beginning, of course, there was Rocky. Remember? A club fighter, a palooka, chosen by the Heavyweight Champion of the World to fight him merely because of his preposterous name. The “Italian Stallion?” A man who doesn’t know the difference between condoms and condominiums? You’re kidding, right? You seriously think you can get into the ring with the undisputed, the undefeated Apollo Creed, the one, the only Master of Disaster?

It was to be a public relations masterpiece Creed had concocted. He would give a local boy the American Dream. It would take place on Independence Day in Philadelphia, the birth place of the nation. Creed would enter the arena wearing a Yankee Doodle suit. He would carry the Stallion a few rounds, give the fans a good enough show and then put him away. Remember? We are talking about “Rocky I” and “II,” among the greatest movies ever made. So where am I going with all this?

God. God created Creation for His pleasure. How do we know that? Scripture. That is what it says. God has an exquisitely subtle sense of humor. He takes pleasure in astounding His creation. What is the theme that binds all my examples together? Remember, Piers Morgan says he was “stunned.” Something had happened that couldn’t happen, that defied the laws of physics. Any occurrence that defies the laws of physics is by definition a miracle.

Yes, Paolo and Susan are great voices. But there are other great voices. Had Placido Domingo and Elaine Paige walked on stage instead, we would have enjoyed their performances thoroughly, but we would not have been surprised. We would have expected them to be great. What stunned the world here was the momentary cancellation of physical laws. Who can cancel physical laws?

God erupts at the most unlikely times in the most unlikely places. Scripture tells of many times He temporarily suspended His own rules, the laws of physics. I believe that however bad it gets, He will do so again. However much dictatorship we suffer, He will confound it for His pleasure. Why? Because He can, because He is a God of endless, overwhelming, inexhaustible power. Please do not mistake me. I do not subscribe to a Pollyanna prediction that He will preserve us from discomfort.

To see what could easily happen, read, for instance, Tortured For Christ, by Rumanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand. God will not preserve us from discomfort, but, when it pleases Him, He will shake the Obamatron suppuration like dust from His shoes. But first we may have to spend a season in H-e-c-k that many will not survive.

For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, God erupts in many ways that are apparent. For instance, I do not believe a thing like Beethoven could have happened by itself, by accident. The only sensible explanation for something like the Eroica, the Emperor and the rest is that God intervened, because Beethoven is the voice of God speaking through a man, which God sometimes elects to do. To underline His authorship, the Lord invoked His sense of humor by making Ludwig deaf.

Notice that the critics, the phony intellectuals, the worshippers of man have always disdained Rocky, a disdain compounded by his annoying habit of falling to his knees in prayer before the fight. I awaited such an expression concerning handsome Paolo Potts and the beautiful Miss Boyle.

And, sure enough, here comes the always reliable Slime magazine: “Ugly duckling stories really do not get any better than this. And Britain’s Got Talent milked them for all they were worth, cutting away to eye rolls and snickering by the audience and judges before the two wow-inducing performances. (Eye rolls and snickering, of course, can be taped at any time and edited in later, but never mind.) . . .”

Paolo and Susan tried and failed, tried and failed. Slime (Time) makes a point of the fact that they were not entirely untutored and untested, as if that obvious fact dilutes the effect. The story apparently would be unblemished for Slime only had they sprung fully matured from the temple of Zeus. Of course, Slime must be cautious in its disdain, because these new super stars are so well liked.

Of course they had some training and experience! That was obvious. So what? Without those things, their performances would have been impossible. Try it some time. To the normal mind, they enhance the story, along with Paul’s major bicycle accident and the fact that Susan had to care for her aging parents. She is an observant Catholic. Thank God she didn’t do a Rocky before her song. Would they have kicked her out?

Why are the phony intellectuals so disdainful? Why, for instance, do they still hate Rocky so much? Because Rocky and the others are what the twisted media publicly claim to revere but do not: individuals, mold breakers who rise up from the bottom and circumvent the orthodox, akin to scientific and inventive geniuses who lack academic credentials, not members of the tidy little group of approved Pharisees.

For such adventurers, today’s zombie “liberals” experience a visceral disgust. Raised in Communist schools to worship government, they do descend, as they say themselves, from monkeys – look at Ted Kennedy – unlike the rest of us, yet they worship themselves as gods. You want roller coaster terrifying? Imagine, say, Whoopi Goldberg worshipping herself, a monkey descendant worshipping a monkey.

But always, despite the horror satanic men have made of things, the spirit hovers, waiting, watching; God, total power, serene, inexhaustible, overwhelming power, preparing to confound them for His pleasure.

Rejoice! He rises!

Congressman Makes Bid to Strip Planned Parenthood of Title X Funds

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

A US Congressman today proposed an amendment that would eliminate millions of dollars in federal funds for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, which has lately come under public scrutiny after numerous employees across the country were caught on camera failing to inform law enforcement of child victims of sexual abuse.

U.S. House Representative Mike Pence, (R-Ind.) submitted an amendment to an appropriations bill funding the Department of Health and Human Services, which would make Planned Parenthood ineligible to receive Title X funds for "family planning" services. The Pence Amendment, submitted to the House Rules Committee, states, "None of the funds made available under this Act shall be available to Planned Parenthood for any purpose under Title X of the Public Health Services Act."

"According to their last annual report, Title X funds helped over 4.7 million women prevent pregnancy by a variety of ethical methods such as abstinence education and birth control," wrote Pence on The Hill's Congress blog. "There are many clinics funded by Title X that offer ethical family planning services - without providing abortions."

Legally a non-profit organization, Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) depends upon $349.6 million in US tax dollars to free up other resources that sustain the financial operation of its abortion facilities. According to PPFA's financial report for 2007-2008, the abortion provider brought in total revenue of $1.038 billion and posted an $85 million profit.

"When Title X money goes to organizations that provide both abortions and family planning services, even though the money cannot directly fund abortions, it can be used to offset operational costs, freeing up money to promote and provide abortions," added Pence, pointing out that Planned Parenthood performed 305,000 abortions in its last fiscal year, which was a 5.3 percent increase from 2006-2007.

However Pence indicated that Congress should withdraw Title X funding from PPFA for the simple fact that the organization appears to have an endemic problem with "fraudulent use of Title X funding." Many of its affiliates, he pointed out, have deliberately failed to report victims of child-rape and have encouraged girls to lie about their age in order to obtain an abortion. These violations of state law have been documented in California, Indiana, Arizona, Kansas, Tennessee, and Alabama.

The undercover sting operation that unearthed these violations, known as the Mona Lisa Project and led by Live Action's 20-year-old president Lila Rose, has prompted the Tennessee legislature to revoke Title X funding from state PPs, and led the Attorneys General of Alabama and Arizona to launch investigations of PPs for violating their state laws.

California Planned Parenthood affiliates are also currently engaged in a multi-million dollar lawsuit over allegations they bilked the federal treasury by tens of millions of dollars by abusing the Title X program. The suit filed July 8 in federal court by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) contends that the California-based Planned Parenthoods fraudulently marked up the price of a number of birth control drugs far above their actual cost before submitting requests for reimbursement from the government.

In order for Pence's amendment to have the chance for an up-or-down vote on the floor of the House, the House Rules Committee, led by pro-abortion Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) must first give its approval.

"Regardless of your views on abortion, our nation cannot afford to throw millions of dollars at an organization not only shown to misuse tax funds but one that continually puts the lives of men, women and children in danger," said Jim Sedlak, vice president of American Life League, which has given its support to the Pence Amendment.

ALL has urged its supporters to encourage their Congressmen to support giving the measure a fair hearing by the full House.

"Planned Parenthood's agenda is putting our kids in danger from sexual predators on a daily basis," said ALL President Judie Brown. "The gravity of Planned Parenthood's crimes transcends party lines. Any American concerned about keeping our kids safe should support the Pence Amendment."

President Barack Obama has asked Congress to increase funding for the Title X program by $10 million, bringing the program's total annual budget to $317 million.

Shock! Lancet Reports Sodomites Responsible for AIDS in Africa

Hat Tip to Notes on the Culture Wars
From Americans for Truth About Homosexuality

Here’s an interesting “Global Update” from the New York Times — after decades of homosexual activists pointing to Africa to change the subject whenever the obvious causal link between male homosexual practices and HIV is brought up. Note the last line: can you imagine the Times‘ indignation if all affected African countries were to report that truth that “gay” male sex is far riskier than normal sex?

We presume based on the Times‘ summary that the Lancet article is rife with pro-homosexual political correctness, as Western elites generally yearn to bring their decadent “First World” attitudes to economically underdeveloped countries that still regard homosexuality as deviant. —

Peter LaBarbera, www.aftah.com

The New York Times reports (emphasis added):

Aids: Role of Gay Men in Spreading Virus Is Ignored in Africa, Study Finds

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
New York Times, July 20, 2009

The role of gay sex in the transmission of the virus that causes AIDS in Africa has been long ignored, say the authors of a new study in the medical journal Lancet.

While most transmission of the virus in Africa is heterosexual, 19 recent studies of African men who have sex with men show that they have “considerably higher” infection rates than other adult men in their respective countries, said the authors, who were from Oxford University and research institutions in Ghana and Kenya.

These men also have less access to prevention and care; most African countries have allocated no money to gay men, and homosexual sex is illegal in 31 African countries, in four of which men risk the death penalty.

African male sexual networks overlap with male-female ones, the authors found, since many of the men also report recent sex with women or are married. In three genetic studies the authors compared, gay white men in South Africa had a virus from a type common among gay European and American men, while gay black men in Kenya and Senegal had the type circulating in their country’s black populations.

Gay men face ridicule from their families and health care workers and harassment by the police, the study reported. And because African governments and media aimed very little safe-sex information at gay men, false rumors were common — including rumors that gay sex or anal sex were safer than heterosexual sex.

Christian Doctor Who Abstained from Gay-Adoption Votes Accused of Discrimination, Removed from Panel

From Catholic World News

A Christian pediatrician in England has been removed from the Northamptonshire County Council's adoption panel because she abstained from votes recommending children for placement with homosexual couples. The head of Northamptonshire's children's services believes that the doctor’s principled failure to recommend children for gay adoption runs afoul of the nation’s 2006 Equality Act.

“Men and women bring different skills and styles to parenting and children learn from both examples,” said Dr. Sheila Matthews. “Mothers are more nurturing and fathers are more challenging and the combination of both is best for the development of a child.”

“I have no wish to impose my views on others,” she added. “I only wish to be able to abstain from panel votes … I don't want to be put in a position of doing something I don't believe in. That is my human right. Instead I have been accused of discrimination.”

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Doctor faces sack for refusing to back gay adoptions (Daily Telegraph)

Walter Cronkite's Push for Abortion and Homosexuality, 1965-2003

"As long as the abortion laws remain unchanged, abortion will continue to be a critical problem," stated Cronkite in 1965.

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine

Famed CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite has been lauded in the media since his death on Friday, at the age of 92, with tributes paid not only from secular media, but even Vatican Radio and other Christian news sources.

But while remembered by many as "the most trusted man in America," many of Cronkite's more radical, but lesser known views, would be considered repugnant even to many of his greatest fans.

For instance, up until his death Cronkite served as honorary chair of the Interfaith Alliance, an organization dedicated to countering the influence of conservative Christianity on federal politics. In 2007, the Alliance initiated a campaign to force Christianity out of the public sphere by promoting policies that would silence the Christian voice. They recommended that churches be prohibited from endorsing political candidates, that research and health policies should not be based on "religious doctrine," and that faith-based schools should be banned, among other things.

Part and parcel with Cronkite's campaign against religion in public life was his outspoken vocal support of abortion and same-sex marriage. In 2003-2004, for example, Cronkite wrote a column for King Features Syndicate, which was published in about 180 newspapers throughout the U.S. In the column he discussed 'Marriage and Abortion', expressing disregard for "conservatives" who oppose abortion and same-sex "marriage."

"It certainly is the right of the anti-abortionists and those who oppose gay marriages to defend, express and even propagandize their beliefs," he says, "but is it their right to impose their definition of morality on those who hold opposing views? The answer is a resounding 'no'. ... This columnist believes that among conservatives and liberals alike there is a majority who would put the sanctity of individual rights even above the sanctity with which some would endow the banning of abortion and gay marriage."

Cronkite served as anchor of CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981, a time of great change in America. His tenure included the JFK assassination, the moon landing, the Vietnam War, and he helped to shape American sentiment on these landmark events. But his time as anchor also included the most devastating of landmarks in American history, as many American pro-life activists would see it - the legalization of abortion.

And, no less than with the moon landing or the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite shaped American sentiment on abortion. Despite such overwhelming praise from sources Christian and secular, Cronkite's views on abortion and his role in its legalization ought not to be forgotten.

In 1965, before abortion was made legal in the U.S., Cronkite made CBS the first network in America to feature a documentary on abortion when he hosted the hour-long episode of CBS Reports entitled 'Abortion and the Law', which can be found on the CBS News website.

The documentary claimed to tackle the controversial issue impartially, dealing with the "legal, moral and medical aspects," but in fact, it amounts to an hour-long argument in favour of legal abortion. Amidst a barrage of experts spouting the need for abortion and women giving horrifying testimonies about illegal abortions, Cronkite pays mere lip service to the pro-life viewpoint.

In his introduction, Cronkite states: "As long as the abortion laws remain unchanged, abortion will continue to be a critical problem, and for those involved, they call for desperate decisions that result in dangerous medical complications.

"Women have abortions for all kinds of reasons. The unmarried girl abandoned by the father of the unborn child, the girl who'd rather not have a child than marry the baby's father, but 80% of the women who have criminal abortions are married. They're women who feel they cannot afford another child, or fear they are too old to bear another baby, or that the baby may be born abnormal."

At one point Cronkite introduces a doctor who is supposed to speak on the emotional effects of abortion, but while mentioning the trauma of losing one's child, the doctor emphasizes the emotional impact of having to obtain an illegal abortion in secret.

Towards the end the documentary discusses the status of abortion in other countries, including in Europe, Asia, and South America, and ending in Chile, with Cronkite describing the horror of illegal abortion there. According to Cronkite supposedly 1 in 4 Chilean women had had an abortion, while the documentary shows (in decorous 1965 fashion) the death of a woman from an illegal abortion.

"What happens in Chile is no different than what happens to thousands of women in the United States," Cronkite warns, "who are hospitalized each year because of post-abortion complications.

"While men of science, and law, and theology talk about medicine, and legality, and morals," he says, "hundreds of thousands of pregnant women, unmindful of what may happen to them, secretly and fearfully seek abortions. For them, there is a wide gulf between what the law commands and what they feel they must do."

Cronkite concludes, "We believe the moral, medical, social, and economic aspects of abortion should be opened to public discussion, for if changes in the law are advisable, this can only be done by the American people themselves. This is Walter Cronkite for CBS Reports. Good night."

NARAL Officially Backs Sotomayor

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

After several weeks of uncertainty about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's commitment to abortion, NARAL announced today it was convinced from Sotomayor's statements during the confirmation process that the judge is adequately in favor of abortion.

"President Obama made a sound choice in nominating Judge Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court," reads the joint statement from two NARAL leaders.

The group says that the nomination "reflects the president's commitment to ensuring that justices have strong legal credentials and understand how the law affects everyday people's lives, including the need to keep politicians from interfering in our personal, private medical decisions."

"In addition," say the leaders, "we took into consideration the significant and strong support her nomination has garnered from some of our most committed pro-choice allies in the Senate as well as President Obama's consistent record of support for Roe v. Wade and his established record of nominating to key posts individuals who share his principles."

While some abortion groups were wary of the candidate due to her lack of any abortion-related decisions, Planned Parenthood expressed confidence early on that Sotomayor would uphold the interests of the abortion lobby and President Obama.

"This historic nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court sends a strong signal that President Obama understands the importance of ensuring that our Supreme Court justices respect precedent while also protecting our civil liberties," stated Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards in May.

In confirmation hearings this month, Sotomayor repeatedly assured Judiciary Committee senators that she would uphold Roe v. Wade, a point she also made clear in private meetings with senators. But while she repeatedly referred to Roe v. Wade as the Supreme Court's "settled law," she admitted that she did not perceive the court's decision to uphold the partial-birth abortion ban as equally sacred precedent.

"The health and welfare of a woman must be a compelling consideration," Sotomayor admitted, indicating that she would not necessarily uphold the unequivocal nature of the ban.

Another pro-choice group, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, also expressed support for Sotomayor today.

"NLIRH stands in solidarity with Judge Sotomayor as she moves one step closer to becoming the first Hispanic judge on the Supreme Court," said executive director Silvia Henriquez in a statement.

Gun-Rights Amendment Divides Dems

From UPI.com

A measure that would let gun owners carry weapons across state lines could threaten the filibuster-proof edge Democrats have in the U.S. Senate, observers note.

The Republican-backed language, introduced by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., would override stricter laws of many jurisdictions, giving preference to states with looser standards, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

Read the rest of this entry >>

For The Children

From American Thinker
By Randall Hoven

Hey kids. I know you're not all that interested in politics, and you don't like to read too much. But, God bless you, you vote. That's understandable. It's hip to vote. P. Diddy urges you to do it. Most of the doors in your college dorm are adorned with Obama posters and news clippings. In 2008, the 18-29 age group voted 2-to-1 for Obama. And your college campus went wild the night he won.

But before you vote again, please consider reading the rest of this article. I'll try to make clear points and keep the paragraphs short. It's OK to listen to your iPod while you read.

Politics is actually kind of important. There are about 200 countries in the world; 200 different governments. In some countries, like North Korea, people have died by the millions due to starvation in just the last few years. In others, like the Congo, Sudan, Rwanda and others, people have died by the millions due to civil war or mass murder - again, in only the last few years, while you've been alive. Yet in other countries, like the US, obesity is considered one of our worst problems. Whether the worst problem you face is being overweight or hacked to death with machetes depends much on your country's politics.

No one has it figured out yet. Humans have been around for thousands of years, yet we still have hunger, poverty, disease, war, racism, hatred and all kinds of things that have made life miserable over thousands of years. So when some politician tells you he can get rid of all of these problems in the next 4 to 8 years, or they would go away if we could just get rid of his political opponents, he is being what is called "less than truthful."

But we're not totally stupid, either. We actually have made great progress in eliminating hunger, poverty, disease, etc. Do you know that from 1900 to 2000, for example, life expectancy went from 47 to 77 in the US? Yet in other countries, like Zimbabwe, the life expectancy today is just 46. You have to believe we did some things better in the US over our history, and we are doing some things better than Zimbabwe today.

Freedom is good. We actually have a good idea of what makes these kinds of differences among countries: freedom. Countries where people can own property and are free to buy and sell what they want, are the countries that are much better off. (Some people call this "capitalism", but it is really just freedom.) Countries where the government has more control over what you can have, buy and sell, do worse. For more reading on this, go here.

Communism is bad. Communism is not just another "ism." In the last 100 years, Communism killed about 100 million people. While I'm sure you heard of Nazism's Jewish Holocaust of 6 million, you probably haven't heard about this 17-times-bigger Communist holocaust. But it's documented in the Black Book of Communism, and the numbers are not really disputed, just ignored. Also, communist countries like North Korea and Cuba kill citizens who simply try to leave the country - today. Communism, along with Nazism and fascism, represent one end of the political spectrum -- the one where government makes most of the decisions, or the opposite of freedom. For more reading on this, go here.

What to fix? Many of us want to make the world a better place. Where would you start: in one of the richest countries on earth where people live fairly long, like the US, or in one of the poorest countries where people die fairly young, like Zimbabwe? It seems kind of dumb to me that the first place we would try to change the most would be the US. It seems to me we should try to change the places that are the most miserable, like North Korea, Zimbabwe and a bunch of other countries on earth. Also, in a place already doing pretty well, like the US, should we try changing everything at once, or try just a few things at a time and see if they work out before we try the next things?

The US is really pretty good. You can convince yourself of this by looking up data like wealth and income statistics, life expectancies, number of patents, etc., not to mention putting man on the moon. Or you could travel. Here are some tips for things to look for when you travel: can you drink the water without getting sick? Do they have toilets, and if so, where does the stuff go when you flush it? The biggest boosts to life expectancy are clean drinking water and a good sewage system. It ain't rocket science, but there are many places on earth where it would be a good idea to bring your own bottled water and TP.

Republicans aren't driven by racism.

• Slavery started in the US colonies between 1619 and 1650. Abraham Lincoln, took office in 1861, or after more than 200 years of slavery in the US. The Republican Party originated as an anti-slavery party. And sure enough, Lincoln, the very first Republican President, did end slavery in the US. It took the Civil War and about 620,000 American lives, including Lincoln's own, but slavery ended.
• When blacks were being lynched in the decades following the Civil War, it was Republicans in the US Congress who tried to pass anti-lynching laws. The Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill was sponsored by US Congressman L.C. Dyer, Republican of Missouri, in 1922. It was passed by the House of Representatives, majority Republican at the time. It was supported by President Warren G. Harding, Republican, as well as the NAACP. But it was defeated in the Senate by a filibuster from Democrats.
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964 won a higher percentage of Republican votes (about 4-to-1 in favor) than it did of Democrat votes (about 2-to-1 in favor). Al Gore's father, for example, was a Senator who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Republicans have been fairly consistent about race over the decades: they want the law to be blind to race. When government forms have a box for you to check what race you are, that is not color-blind. When your college has different ACT/SAT/LSAT test score cutoffs for applicants of different races, that is not color-blind. And you know that.

Fat cats vs. the little guy. This is one of the best cases of "branding" and one of the biggest myths ever perpetrated by political public relations. But you can follow the money yourself, on web sites like OpenSecrets or Newsmeat.

For example, if we look at the top contributing industries in the 2007-8 Congressional cycle, all of the top ten gave most of their money to Democrats (in fact, the top 14 did). Here are some of those top industries and what percent of their political contributions went to Democrats.

• Lawyers and law firms (78%)
• Securities/Investment (65%)
• Real Estate (57%)
• Misc. Business (70%)
• Business Services (73%)
• Misc. Finance (54%).

You know your poor, dedicated, underpaid teachers? They constituted the 6^th highest-ranking industry in political contributions, and gave 88% of their money to Democrats. Of course you know Big Oil has to give more than your underpaid teachers, right? Wrong. The oil and gas industry ranked 19^th; teachers contributed more than twice as much as Big Oil. Lawyers gave over seven times as much.

It might be a rip-off. Maybe you've heard of Bernie Madoff or R. Allen Stanford. They were both investment fund managers, but arrested this past year for ripping off their customers for billions of dollars. Madoff was recently convicted. They both gave big to politicians, over a million dollars combined, with almost all of it going to Democrats.

Although the Bob Dylan song Like a Rolling Stone is old now it's still considered pretty cool. Ponder these lyrics from that song.

"Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal."

When someone says he can make wonderful things happen if you would just give him more of your money (including a tax hike), consider that he might be Bob Dylan's diplomat who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat. He's not really where it's at.

The rip-off, small or large, is an old, old game. The best test of whether someone is ripping you off is not how nice his smile is; it's whether he's asking you to give him something.

Conservative can be cool. You probably wouldn't know it, but the following people are either outright Republican or have expressed support for Republican candidates or conservative or libertarian ideas.

• Stephen Baldwin (yes, Alec's brother)
• Drew Carey
• Jeff Foxworthy
• Kelsey Grammer
• Sammy Hagar
• Angie Harmon
• Patricia Heaton
• Dennis Hopper
• Kathy Ireland
• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
• Larry the Cable Guy
• Kid Rock
• Gary Sinise
• Lynn Swan
• Jon Voight
• Bruce Willis
• James Woods
• And a whole lot more

Even 50 Cent complimented, I think, President Bush.

Use your head. Virtually everything you've watched on TV or the movies in your lifetime, from the Care Bears to Oprah Winfrey and the latest Terminator movie, told you to follow your heart, not your head.

Tell me, the last time you got ripped off, was it because you followed your head too much? What about your friends who got pregnant or got someone else pregnant when they didn't want to -- was it their head that got them in trouble? Do you think Hitler's main fault was too much reason and rationality? When you really, really want to hit someone, does that urge come from your head, your heart or your gut?

I don't know about you, but my heart always told me to sleep late, skip school, tell my boss what I really think of this job, have another drink, and call the ex-girlfriend. My head, to my chagrin, said stay in school, keep my pants on, don't quit this job until I have another one, and apologize to my wife whether I did something wrong or not. In my experience, listening to my head paid off better.

You have a brain, and it's OK to use it. No one else can think for you. And now you have easier access to information than humans have ever had before. A few decent links to information-laden web sites are here. And my advice is to go for the raw data and not rely too much on someone else's analysis -- not Al Gore's, and not even mine.

That's enough for now, kids. And before you start thinking about how to "give back," try paying your own car insurance and cell phone bill.

Randall Hoven, the father of two 19-year-olds and a 25-year-old, can be contacted at randall.hoven@gmail.com or via his web site, kulak.worldbreak.com.

Palin to Feds: Alaska is a Sovereign State

Constitutional rights reasserted in growing resistance to Washington

Resolutions affirming state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution have passed in seven states and have been introduced in twenty-nine other states. In South Carolina, H3509 passed in the House on 02-26-09, but the Senate resolution, S-424, was referred to subcommittee, where it died. In six other states the resolution has also passed in only one chamber of the legislature.

This movement to restore the Constitution and particularly the rights of states under its Tenth Amendment is coordinated by The Tenth Amendment Center. The determined efforts of the Obama Administration to grab power and subvert the rights and protections of individual liberty and states' rights make passage of these state resolutions a national imperative. But what is of even greater need are state leaders willing to stand up and assert those rights in policy and refuse the federal bribes, paid with state taxpayer money, that have done so much to erode the protections the founding fathers provided. Funded and unfunded federal mandates imposed by federal authorities must be vigorously resisted.

Support for this movement to restore state sovereignty should be a litmus test for anyone wishing to represent the people as a state or federal legislator. Legislators need to be asked why a resolution affirming the Constitution and its Bill of Rights is controversial.

A directory to the legislators of all fifty states is available here.

From WorldNetDaily
By Chelsea Schilling

Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government.

Just weeks before she plans to step down from her position as Alaska governor, Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27, sponsored by state Rep. Mike Kelly on July 10, according to a Tenth Amendment Center report. The resolution "claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States."

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From Our Mail: Great Victory for Conservatives - CNN Fires Roesgen

From: Our Country Deserves Better PAC

Re: Great Victories

We have some great victories to pass along to our fellow conservatives - further evidence that your efforts and activism are paying off!

1st: CNN is dumping their liberal, anti-Tea Party correspondent, Susan Roesgen. Roesgen was the reporter who decided to harass those who attended the April 15th Tea Party in Chicago, IL, instead of serving as an unbiased journalist (yes, we know -- a bit of an oxymoron there). In response, we here at the Our Country Deserves Better Committee launched an online grass roots effort that flooded CNN's offices with tens of thousands of phone calls and emails. And CNN felt the heat - first sending Roesgen on leave for a suddenly scheduled vacation, and now deciding to part ways with Roesgen altogether.

2nd: Polls show a further drop in support for the Barack Obama/Nancy Pelosi socialistic health care plan. We here at the Our Country Deserves Better Committee are working on a new TV ad that we will unveil this week that will push further to defeat this awful, big-government montrosity. If you want to help us fight back to defeat Obamacare, please make a donation to our TV ad campaign by - CLICKING HERE.

3rd: Our TV ad, "It's Not Iran, It's Obama's Administration" continues to attract attention from across the nation. More than 227,000 people have watched the ad online at YouTube alone in addition to the broadcasts of the ad so far!

4th: And that's just the beginning. In about 40 days we will launch the "Tea Party Express" that will take the tea party movement to the next level - bringing real change to government as we take back our country from the far Left, tax-spend-bailout liberals who currently control Congress and the White House. Be sure to sign up and get involved for this huge national effort at: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org

The President's Power Grabs

From RealClearPolitics
By Diana West

At some point of embittering clarity, Americans will open their eyes to the glaring significance of the Obama era and see the Power Grab Years for what they are. Whether this realization comes in time to stave off the eradication of the United States as we thought we knew it, or whether it comes too late, I predict it will surely come.

If it comes in time, the realization that the nation dodged history's bullet will produce massive waves of relief. If it comes too late, the understanding of our fallen state will live on as the lost lore, not of a subject people exactly, but of a self-subjected people. That's because in this strange historical instance, the American people, beginning with but not limited to those of us who voted Barack Obama into the White House, seem to have agreed to shoulder the heavy, costly yoke of exponentially increasing government control of our lives.

Make that exponentially increasing executive branch control of our lives -- even more alarming given the cult of President Obama's personality already evident. With a rubberstamp Democratic Congress, it is the Obama White House that calls the shots, and it doesn't let dissenters forget it. As much as anything else this week, what cast me into this particular abyss of speculation was the stunning news that after Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., declared the Obama administration's stimulus spending plan ineffective and urged a halt to further stimulus spending, the White House dispatched four Cabinet secretaries -- Transportation's Ray LaHood, Agriculture's Tom Vilsack, Housing and Urban Development's Shaun Donovan, Interior's Ken Salazar -- to write letters to Republican Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer enumerating every dime of federal monies that would no longer flow to her state if Sen. Kyl had his way.

As LaHood snarkily put it to Gov. Brewer, "If you prefer to forfeit the money we are making available to your state, as Senator Kyl suggests, please let me know."

What did the White House expect the governor to do next? Make Sen. Kyl an offer he couldn't refuse? Or, as Mark Steyn, detecting the whiff of extortion in the air, asked: "Why not just break his (Kyl's) legs in the Senate parking lot?"

Muscular politicking on steroids is the Obama way, whether the administration is bullying Chrysler bond-holders, wresting control of the Census from the Commerce Department, or empowering, at last count, as many as 31 "czars" to oversee various aspects of federal policy, from Gitmo closure "czar" Daniel Fried to executive pay "czar" Kenneth Feinberg, many without Senate confirmation. In explaining the full White House press on government-controlled health care, top Obama strategist David Axelrod could have been describing the Obama White House m.o. in general: "Ultimately, this is not about a process, it's about results." Which is just another way of saying the ends justify the means.

But what are those ends? My guess is that socializing the engines of wealth and creation in this county is itself a means to an end -- the consolidation of a new power structure derived from a government-dependent population and animated by the kind of identity politics exemplified by Sonya "wise Latina" Sotomayor, whose self-contradictory Senate testimony this week, by the way, perfectly tracks Axelrod's playbook. In the meantime, however, as the administration expands its control over the private sector, as it formulates foreign policy in harmony with that of Castro's Cuba, Chavez's Venezuela, and Ortega's Nicaragua, it's no stretch to say that Barack Obama is reshaping the USA in a distinctly socialist mold, something closer to a dictatorial workers' paradise than to cowboy-friendly Reagan Country.

But there exists a potent taboo against the S-word and other terminology essential for analysis. Jeb Bush's aversion to the term is typical. "Is Obama a socialist?" Tucker Carlson recently asked him in Esquire magazine.

Bush said he didn't know, and called the president a "collectivist." Same difference? Perish the thought. "Socialism is pejorative in America," Bush explained. "So people stop listening. People are tired of it. That word won't stick. It's a turnoff. It doesn't help."

"It's a turnoff"? It had better not be a turnoff. Because if we don't talk about it, we won't think about it -- until it's too late.

Diana West is the author of the "The Death of the Grown-Up: How America's Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization."

Fiscal Ruin of the Western World Beckons

For a glimpse of what awaits Britain, Europe, and America as budget deficits spiral to war-time levels, look at what is happening to the Irish welfare state.

From The Telegraph
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Events have already forced Premier Brian Cowen to carry out the harshest assault yet seen on the public services of a modern Western state. He has passed two emergency budgets to stop the deficit soaring to 15pc of GDP. They have not been enough. The expert An Bord Snip report said last week that Dublin must cut deeper, or risk a disastrous debt compound trap.

A further 17,000 state jobs must go (equal to 1.25m in the US), though unemployment is already 12pc and heading for 16pc next year.

Education must be cut 8pc. Scores of rural schools must close, and 6,900 teachers must go. "The attacks outlined in this report would represent an education disaster and light a short fuse on a social timebomb", said the Teachers Union of Ireland.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Rosa Elvira Sierra - "Pie Jesu" - Requiem by Gabriel Fauré

ObamaCare Is Anti-Life and Compromise Will Not Make It Acceptable

A coalition of pro-life leaders has announced what is being billed as the largest ever conference call and webcast to oppose abortion provisions contained in the Obama health care legislation. The live webcast will be held this coming Thursday, July 23.

It is good to see Americans uniting against the culture of death. ObamaCare is morally reprehensible because it will increase the number of abortions in the United States, force every taxpayer to fund them, and coerce medical professionals to perform the grisly procedures in violation of their consciences. But this coalition should vigorously oppose the legislation even if all provisions pertaining to abortion were eliminated.

The fundamental concept of ObamaCare is anti-life in that it will ration health care at every stage of life, and particularly threatens the weak, the disabled, the elderly, and all those who may be deemed by government as less than useful, contributing members of society. This utilitarian philosophy is inherent wherever socialized medicine has been implemented. Can we expect a political regime facing the most staggering debt ever known to mankind to operate the system in a compassionate and humane way? Do we really want to entrust to bureaucrats life and death decisions involving our parents, grandparents and children?

Finally, it is incomprehensible how the American Catholic bishops could support such a plan were all references to abortion stricken. Catholic social teaching has not only opposed the fundamental errors of socialism, it upholds the principle of subsidiarity, the idea that nothing should be done by a higher, more complex organization that can be done at a lower, smaller, more personal level. In his landmark 1991 encyclical, Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II said that the welfare state “leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies which are dominated more by bureaucratic ways of thinking than by concern for serving their clients and which are accompanied by an enormous increase in spending.” To take health care out of the hands of consumers and providers and turn it over to massive government bureaucracy violates the principle of subsidiarity, the Catholic natural law tradition, and will ultimately be seen as an enormous loss for the "culture of life."

So many political battles are lost because Christians elect to do the pragmatic thing and fight on the enemy's terms, with the enemy's tools. ObamaCare needs to be opposed in its totality. This is not a time for small compromises, but for a radical, counter-cultural commitment to the truth. Certainly the Obama administration is not one of incrementalism and compromise. If this evil is to be defeated, Christians need to be equally bold and uncompromising in promoting a culture of life.

NASA Commemoration of the Apollo Moon Landing

NASA has unveiled this site to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing. Included are superb documentaries, videos, photos, including the following restored video of Armstrong and Aldrin raising the American flag on the moon.

Mexican Agents Headed for U.S.?

We have serious misgivings about this, but would welcome some international observers for the 2012 presidential election.

Federal drill to focus on response to terror

From WorldNetDaily
By Bob Unruh

Agents for Mexico soon could be roaming the roads of several southern states – along with representatives of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom – under a Federal Emergency Management Agency exercise that is going to focus "exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection."

The event is called National Level Exercise 2009 and is part of an annual series of exercises formerly called TOPOFF, for Top Officials, under the National Exercise Program that "serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises."

The idea has some bloggers stunned.

"Imagine, armed Mexican troops protecting us from 'terrorism' in the United States! Don't you feel safer already? ¿Dónde están sus documentos?" wrote an alarmed blogger at TargetFreedom.

Read the rest of this entry >>

A Reagan Forum with Peggy Noonan at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation

House Approves Publicly-Funded Abortions in D.C., Cans D.C. School-Vouchers

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives has passed a bill that allows the District of Columbia to fund abortions and legalize the consumption of marijuana for medicinal purposes, but phases out a school-voucher program designed to help lower-income class parents send their children to a school of their choice.

Despite the opposition of a coalition of pro-life Democrats and Republicans, the Financial Services Appropriations bill passed Thursday evening by a 219-208 margin. The measure allocates $768 million in federal funding for the D.C. government, but reversed a long-standing Congressional ban that prohibited the federal district from using public money to subsidize abortions for lower-income women.

The Financial Services Appropriations bill also dropped a decade-long provision that prevented the federal district from legalizing medical marijuana through the initiative process. The bill also establishes a needle-exchange program for drug-users in order to slow the spread of HIV, but slashes $50 million from the government's anti-drug media campaign, reducing its budget to $20 million.

Although lower-income families may soon have public assistance to obtain abortions, the measure eliminates by 2010 the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provided parents a voucher of $7,500 per child that gave them the freedom to send their children to the private school of their choice. The policy affected the education of 1,716 low-income students, but was opposed by teachers unions and the Obama Administration.

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Another Legal Victory for Traditional Marriage as Challenge to Proposition 8 is Tossed by Federal Judge

From Christian Newswire

A federal judge granted another strong legal victory for Proposition 8 today by throwing out the challenge that directly attempted to overturn the measure on federal constitutional grounds.

United States District Court Judge David Carter threw out the challenge to Proposition 8 and dismissed the state of California as a defendant in the case of Smelt vs. United States. The judge indicated in his ruling that since the plaintiffs in the case were legally married before the enactment of Proposition 8, and because the California State Supreme Court recently held that such marriages would remain intact, they had no "injury" or standing to challenge the measure. Portions of the case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) will be heard in August.

"This is another great day for marriage in California," said Andrew Pugno, Chief Legal Counsel for ProtectMarriage.com, the official campaign committee for Proposition 8 and for the proponents of the measure. "The twice-expressed will of the people of California for traditional marriage is under assault from many lawsuits, but our recent string of victories in both state and federal courts is very gratifying."

The challenge to the Federal DOMA law will move forward with the U.S, Department of Justice as the official defendant. The next hearing is scheduled for August 3.

"ProtectMarriage.com will continue to fight for marriage and fight to defend the will of the people, no matter what course and no matter what legal theory they conjure up," said Pugno.

Senate Votes to Expand Federal 'Hate Crimes;' Senator DeMint Speaks in Opposition

From OneNewsNow

WASHINGTON- People attacked because of their sexual orientation or gender would receive federal protections under a Senate-approved measure that significantly expands the reach of "hate crimes" law. The Senate bill also would make it easier for federal prosecutors to step in when state or local authorities are unable or unwilling to pursue those acts deemed to be hate crimes.

Senate Democrats insist the hate-crimes amendment (S. 909) they attached to the defense appropriations bill won't criminalize preaching or speaking out against homosexuality.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray suggested the measure could actually protect people of faith by boosting penalties for hate crimes motivated by anti-religious bias. "Burning down a building is a crime -- but that crime takes on a new character when that building is a church or a synagogue or a mosque," she stated. "It's wrong when one person attacks another person on the street, for sure; but it has a different meaning when violence occurs because a victim is a different race or religion or sexual orientation."

But Sen. Jim DeMint said that since opposition to homosexuality is "a biblical concept," the measure could "serve as a warning to people not to speak out too loudly about their religious views lest the federal law enforcement come knocking at their door." The South Carolina Republican asked, "Can priests, pastors, rabbis be sure that their preaching will not be prosecuted?

Michigan Democrat Carl Levin responded that only biased acts of violence, and not speech, would be prosecuted as hate crimes.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Judge Sides with Christian Student Professor Called "Fascist Bas**rd" over Views on Marriage

Whether it's in the South Carolina blogdom, academia, or politics, the homo-fascists themselves make the most compelling case for natural law and Christian morality. May they continue to show America what they represent in all its darkness and evil.

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

A US District Judge has blocked the Los Angeles Community College District from enforcing its sexual harassment policy, which the judge ruled had promoted a hostile environment for the free speech rights of a Christian student.

U.S. District Judge George H. King agreed with Jonathan Lopez, a student attending Los Angeles City College (LACC), that the District's policy as written had created the environment that emboldened his speech professor to call Lopez a "fascist ba***rd" for explaining his Christian beliefs and how they related to his views against same-sex "marriage."

King stated in a ruling handed down last week that key sections of the policy were "unconstitutionally overbroad" and then issued the preliminary injunction on the policy, saying that the way the policy was constructed meant it "cannot be rendered constitutional by excising words or severing sections."

Represented by lawyers with the Alliance Defense Fund, Lopez had filed a lawsuit against the District and LACC back in February after he had been censored and threatened with expulsion by Professor John Matteson, who had assigned the members of his public-speaking class in mid-November to give an informational speech on any topic.

Lopez decided to give an informational speech to students on his own Christian beliefs, including Christian views on marriage. Lopez had read aloud the definition of marriage from the dictionary and had also quoted two verses from the Bible, when Matteson interjected in the middle of the speech and called Lopez a "fascist ba***rd" before his classmates.

Matteson refused to let Lopez finish, and instead invited other students to leave if they felt offended. But with no student taking up Matteson's invitation to depart, Matteson ordered the class dismissed. Instead of giving the assignment a grade, Matteson mocked Lopez on his written evaluation, taunting, "Ask God what your grade is."

A week after the incident, Matteson threatened to see to Lopez's expulsion after he saw Lopez speaking with the college's dean of academic affairs.

Faced with legal action, the District disciplined Matteson, and gave Lopez an A in the course; however the ADF argued that the District's sexual harassment policy had created an environment in which Matteson felt comfortable to intimidate Lopez from stating his beliefs.

Judge King agreed that the policy violated First Amendment protections of free speech by silencing viewpoints that others would find offensive, because it failed to contain "both a subjective and objective requirement." King pointed to the District's website indicated any conduct involving sexuality could fall under the heading of sexual harassment including "sexist statements." In this context, the site stated, "If [you are] unsure if certain comments or behavior are offensive do not do it, do not say it. ... Ask if something you do or say is being perceived as offensive or unwelcome."

"Thus, the Policy reaches constitutionally protected speech that is merely offensive to some listeners, such as discussions of religion, homosexual relations and marriage, sexual morality and freedom, polygamy, or even gender politics and policies," wrote King. "While it may be desirable to promote harmony and civility, these values cannot be enforced at the expense of protected speech under the First Amendment."

King paid particular attention to one passage from the policy that included under the sexual harassment code "conduct [of a sexual nature that] has the purpose or effect of having a negative impact upon the individual's work or academic performance, or of creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work or educational environment."

"The Policy reaches speech unrelated to a class, such as discussions in any public and common areas at LACC. Even speech related to a class can be restricted by the Policy if the speech is not an intrinsic part of the course content," King wrote in his order.

King's order forbids the LA Community College District and the LA City College from carrying out or even promulgating the sexual harassment policy and to remove all references to the policy from its websites within fourteen days of the injunction.

Barbara Boxer Called on "God Awful" Racist Politics

There was a refreshing moment of truth in the Senate this week when Black Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Harry Alford accused Senator Boxer (D-CA) of playing race politics during an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on green jobs.

TEA PARTY MOVEMENT UPDATE

Greenville to Hold Tea Party/Patriots' Protest at Senator Lindsey Graham's Washington Street Office to Oppose Government Run Health Care



WHAT: Patriots Health Care Freedom Tea Party
WHO: July 17th Simultaneous Tea Party Protest ObamaCare
WHERE: 101 East Washington Street, Suite 220, Greenville, SC
WHEN: Friday, July 17, 2009, Noon to 1 PM Eastern

Media Contact:
NAME: Christina Jeffrey
PHONE: 864-431-6022 (c) and 864-948-1297
EMAIL: christinakfjeffrey@gmail.com
WEB: http://teapartypatriots.org/


Americans are waking up to the realization that the future of our country and, indeed, our very lives are at stake in the radical proposals being hurried through Congress by the Obama Administration.

The liberals hope to enact their socialist agenda before anyone notices. But concerned taxpayers from around the country will gather simultaneously at the home offices of their representatives in the US Congress and the US Senate to voice their opposition to Government Run Health Care. One such Tea Party expected to have a significant turnout has been organized in Greenville, SC, at Lindsey Graham's Washington Street Office (101 East Washington Street Suite 220) from 12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM.

This group is a coalition of ordinary American citizens from all political affiliations who believe in free-market values and are concerned about the direction of this country’s fiscal policy.

Some participants also participated in previous Tea Party Protests like the one in Boiling Springs that attracted over 2,000 participants on July 4th and in the 10,000 strong Greenville Tea Party at the Bi-Lo Center on April 15th. But many of Friday's participants will be first time political activists rallying to express their anger, frustration, and opposition towards more spending, more government, and the elimination of our free market system all of which are problems with socialized health care.

We hope all patriots in South Carolina will make their voices heard.

US Evangelist 'Married' Under-Age Girls, Court Hears

A controversial American evangelist "married" under-age girls as young as eight before forcing them into sex, a court has heard

Alamo was jailed for four years in 1994 for tax evasion. The authorities raided
his compound in south-western Arkansas in September last year. Photo: AP

From The Telegraph
By Tom Leonard

Tony Alamo, 74, who at one time turned his ministry into a multi-million dollar business, has denied taking young girls across state lines for sex at his trial in Texarkana, Arkansas.

On Wednesday, one of his former wives told the court that the preacher had so many partners that he scheduled how often he would have sex with each of them.

The 30-year-old woman, who married Alamo when she was 15, said she began to have doubts about him when she was an adult after he graphically described sexually abusing an eight-year-old holding a stuffed animal.

She told the court that Alamo said she should not question what "the Lord told me to do".

The woman, a third generation follower of a movement that some have dubbed a cult, said "Papa Tony" segregated children at his religious compound by gender to prevent what he called "hanky-panky".

The children were not allowed to attend normal schools but were instead sent to classes approved by Alamo, who exercised a similarly rigid control of the adults in his flock, the court heard.

Alamo was jailed for four years in 1994 for tax evasion. The authorities raided his compound in south-western Arkansas in September last year.

If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count.

Alamo, who was born Bernie Hoffman of Jewish parents, set up the Alamo Christian Foundation with his late wife, Susan, in Hollywood in 1969.

They built it into a very profitable organisation that included its own syndicated television show and even a line of "Tony Alamo" brand sequinned denim jackets.

Alamo's teachings include the imminence of Armageddon and the collusion of the Pope and the US government in a Satanic conspiracy that was responsible for Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks and the assassination of John F Kennedy.

Alamo claims the current trial is part of this Vatican-led conspiracy against him.

The trial continues.

Controversial Homosexual "Hate Crimes" Act Set for Senate Vote Tomorrow

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

Senate Democrats announced on Monday that the Senate would consider a homosexual "hate crimes" proposal as an attached amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, and will likely vote on the bill tomorrow.

In addition to adding "sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability" to the list of federally-protected classes, S.909, also known as the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also expands the reach of hate crimes law by eliminating the restriction that such crimes disrupt federally protected activities.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Monday he would introduce S.909 as a bipartisan amendment to the defense authorization measure, thereby easing passage of the hotly debated bill.

Last year the Senate approved hate crimes legislation also as part of the military bill, but it was never reconciled with a similar House-passed bill, and met with opposition from the Bush White House. However, Obama expressed support for the legislation in April, urging the House to quickly pass its version.

Critics have warned that the bill is bound to chill religious free speech against homosexuality, saying that similar laws in other countries have facilitated the prosecution of Christians who criticize homosexuality, particularly in Canada and the U.K.

In addition the House version of the bill, titled the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Act, was met with alarm by conservative lawmakers after the House Judiciary Committee refused an amendment proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to specifically exclude pedophiles from the protection.

As the committee had also refused to define or restrict the definition of the term "sexual orientation," one Democrat representative lauded the bill as granting heightened federal protection for all of the 547 "paraphilias" or sexual aberrations documented by the American Psychological Association.

In the House debate, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) urged passage of the bill with the understanding it would grant all known sexual fetishes heightened federal protection.

"This bill addresses our resolve to end violence based on prejudice and to guarantee that all Americans regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability, or - (Hastings here lifted a several-page document) - all of these '-philias' and fetishes and '-isms' that were put forward, need not live in fear because of who they are."

The Senate received hundreds of thousands of letters from citizens protesting the bill in a campaign sponsored by WorldNetDaily last month.

To contact your Senator:
http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/How_to_contact_senators.htm

U.S. Capitol switchboard:
202.224.3121

From Our Mail: Sotomayor Takes Axe to Second Amendment -- Won't Answer Whether She Believes There's a Right to Self-Defense

From: Gun Owners of America

Re: U.S. Senate must vote NO on Judge Sonia Sotomayor!


In defending her decision that the states could enact any form of gun control they wished -- with absolutely no regard to the Second Amendment -- Judge Sonya Sotomayor has developed a new love for Nineteenth Century court opinions.

Demonstrating that she was programmed in her responses, Sotomayor defended one of her earlier legal opinions by citing "footnote 23" of Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion in the DC v. Heller case last year.

But, when pressed by questioner Orrin Hatch yesterday, Sotomayor could not recite the contents of that footnote or the holdings of the cases which it cited. As it turns out, the footnote on which Sotomayor claims to rely, cited -- without approval -- two Nineteenth Century cases which rejected the notion that the Second Amendment was 'incorporated' to apply to the states.

But those were also the days when the Supreme Court held that the rights protected in the First Amendment did not apply to the states. Apparently, Sotomayor wants to base her anti-gun philosophy on antiquated decisions from an era when the U.S. Supreme Court was spitting out racist decisions.

Her answers got even worse today when Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma asked her, point blank, "Is there a constitutional right to self-defense?" Sotomayor said that was an "abstract question" and that she couldn't think of a Supreme Court case that addressed that issue.

Coburn said he didn't want a legal treatise on what Supreme Court holdings have said, rather, he wanted her own personal opinion. Sotomayor would not answer the question, although when pressed, she equated self-defense with vigilantism!

Folks, do you see how important it is to stop this nomination? GOA mailed its members postcards opposing Sotomayor not too long ago. Please make sure you have mailed those in. We need a multi-pronged offensive right now where our Senators are receiving snail mail, email and phone calls.

And, we need ALL PRO-GUN ORGANIZATIONS to take a stance AGAINST this nominee.

Organizational spokesmen can talk a good game and say they have serious "concerns" about Sotomayor. That's all well and good. But unless those organizations (big and small) rate each Senator's vote on Sotomayor -- when she's clearly anti-gun -- then those supposed "concerns" are just meaningless.

Senators have to hear from ALL the pro-gun organizations -- big and small -- that they are going to rate this vote during the 2010 election. Otherwise, those organizations are just Paper Tigers.

We can't let this anti-gun judge infiltrate U.S. Supreme Court! She is dangerous on so many levels -- but, especially, on Second Amendment rights.

GOA considers her nomination to be of the most important gun votes in the HISTORY of the US Senate. We can't think of any other nominee in recent history who has taken such a horrid stand on the basic right of self-defense.

She says that she will follow the precedent in the DC v. Heller (2008) case. But even if she does, that only means that she will vote to apply the Second Amendment in Washington, DC. She has already ruled this year in Maloney v. Cuomo that the amendment doesn't apply to where you live. --

Tim Macy, Vice-Chairman of Gun Owners of America

ACTION: We need to "pull out the stops" to defeat this nominee. Please contact your two U.S. Senators today and urge them to VOTE NO on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your Senators the pre-written e-mail message below.

----- Pre-written letter -----

Dear Senator:

Even though President Obama is extremely anti-gun, I still started with an open mind regarding his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. But after her testimony these past two days, there is no way that she should be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

When asked by Senator Tom Coburn if there was a right to self-defense, Sotomayor said that was an "abstract question." Sotomayor would not answer directly, although when pressed, she equated self-defense with vigilantism!

How can the Senate confirm a judge to the U.S. Supreme Court who does not believe in the rights that are EXPLICITLY stated in the Bill of Rights?

I also want you to know that Gun Owners of America will heavily score any vote related to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor -- whether it's a vote on cloture or final passage -- for its rating in 2010.

Moreover, GOA is going to publish its rating so that millions of Americans can see how their Senators voted on this most important vote.

GOA has told me that it considers the Sotomayor nomination to be one of the most significant gun votes in the HISTORY of the US Senate, as there has been no other nominee in recent history who has taken such a horrid stand on the basic right of self-defense.

Sincerely,

Pentagon Orders Soldier Fired for Challenging President

In his great narrative poem, Idylls of the King, Tennyson wrote: "A doubtful throne is ice on summer seas." And so it will increasingly prove to be for the Kenyan.

WorldNetDaily is reporting that the Department of Defense has ordered one of their contractors, Simtech Inc., to "fire a U.S. Army Reserve major from his civilian job after he had his military deployment orders revoked for arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office."

Major Stefan Frederick Cook was terminated at the insistence of the Defense Security Services, an agency of the Department of Defense.

One wonders how long the White House enemies list will become, how many Americans will be persecuted for exercising their First Amendment right to speak freely, how many will lose jobs, how many parents will refuse to let their sons and daughters risk their lives on the orders of an illegitimate President, before the Congress of the United States does its duty to establish that Barack Hussein Obama (a.k.a. Barry Soetoro) is even eligible for the office to which he was elected?

CatholicVote.org Releases New TV Ad

The following is the third release in CatholicVote.org's superb national media campaign "Life: Imagine the Potential" series.

Why Europeans are turning against Obama

From American Thinker
By Steve McCann

On the 6^th of November last, I made a wager with some of my associates in London and Zurich that within a year they would be pining for the return of George W. Bush and his "cowboy presidency".

As of today, my friends have collectively conceded and are forwarding payment.

Why the sudden capitulation? Reality has begun to set in with a vengeance.

For nearly 65 years Western Europe has lived under the military umbrella provided by the United States. That left these countries free to minimize spending for defense and maximize spending on social issues. European socialism became a new hybrid form of historic socialist thought. It combined a modified capitalist system to provide the funding and the government to oversee cradle to grave security. At that point in history, United States and European economic hegemony controlled world trade. Surely prosperity, despite some expected minor ups and downs, would be expected far into the future, thus financing all the spending on both sides of the Atlantic.

But some unexpected things happened on the way to this never-ending golden age.

Read the rest of this entry >>

More Bad Polling News for the Dems and Obama

From American Thinker
By Gene Schwimmer

For the second time since Obama took office, Republicans have been leading Democrats on Rasmussen's Generic Congressional Ballot for three consecutive weeks.

The gap between the two parties matches the previous record of three points; however, it is the first time that the gap between the two parties has been that wide for two consecutive weeks. If the GOP holds its lead for a fourth week, it will be a record. Ditto if the amount of that lead exceeds three points.

Catholics for Kerry Leader Pleads Guilty to Prostituting 17-Year-Old

Quisling, whore, traitor, pimp -- are just a few of the terms that come to mind in thinking about Robert Eric McFadden. He's the sort of "Catholic" the left likes to use as political window dressing.

McFadden, formerly of the Kerry campaign, is of a type that can be found heading such phony groups as "Catholics for Choice," "Catholics for Obama" and Catholics for scores of other causes antithetical to everything for which the Church stands. They usually have lots of ideas about how the Church should be run; but as we like to reflect, "truth is the daughter of time." These phonies, who you are very unlikely to see at Mass, at a meeting of the Knights of Columbus, or coaching a CYO basketball team, may get plum ambassadorial appointments from time to time, but they ultimately work for another power and eventually are exposed for what they truly are.

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

A leader among pro-abortion Catholic circles has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of compelling the prostitution of a 17-year-old girl.

Robert Eric McFadden, 46, admitted last Thursday that he marketed the minor for sex on the Craigslist website. The court dismissed five other counts of pandering obscenity and promoting prostitution.

McFadden's activity was discovered as part of an online sex sting operation conducted by police investigators in January. Prosecutors say that McFadden took photographs of a girl he had met in an online chat room before offering her services to others on the Internet as a "recommended" prostitute.

Sentencing is scheduled for August 20. McFadden could face up to ten years in prison.

McFadden has served in several capacities as a leading "abortion reduction" Democrat Catholic: he was the founder of Catholics for Kerry in 2004, and in 2005 was president of the left-leaning Catholics for Faithful Citizenship. In 2006, he was the spokesman for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, another liberal Catholic group that considers a nominee's stance on abortion negotiable in light of his or her position on other social issues.

In 2008, McFadden served as a leading Catholic outreach organizer for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He is also the former Director of Community and Faith-Based Initiatives for pro-abortion Ohio Governor Ted Strickland.

An eventual Obama supporter, McFadden criticized pro-life Catholics for opposing the then-presidential nominee's radical abortion agenda, and insisted Obama's social policies would "reduce the number of abortions."

Last year, McFadden wrote a letter the Knights of Columbus criticizing Supreme Knight Carl Anderson for instructing Catholics not to vote for pro-abortion candidates.

"Carl Anderson should resign as Supreme Knight so the good work of the Knights of Columbus can continue without the stain of partisan politics," wrote McFadden, himself a Knight.

In an August 2006 Columbus Dispatch article, McFadden complained that Catholicism had been "co-opted by the religious right."

"During the election cycle in 2004, our Catholic values were whittled down to four or five issues that were nonnegotiable," McFadden said. "We want to bring other issues into the discussion."

Our Country Deserves Better PAC Releases TV AD

The Our Country Deserves Better PAC is raising funds to expose the Obama regime and put the above ad on TV stations across America.

Obama Science Czar Envisioned "Planetary Regime" of Forced Abortion and Sterilization Program in Book

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

Although President Obama's choice for science czar received unanimous approval from the US Senate in March, little mention has been made of Harvard professor John Holdren's career as a self-avowed "neo-Malthusian." In that capacity Holdren has advocated compulsory population control in America, including forced abortion and the addition of sterilizing agents to drinking water, and the creation of what he literally called a "Planetary Regime" that would enforce such a program worldwide.

President-elect Barack Obama stated in December that he had nominated Holdren as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) as part of his Administration's mission to promote an unbiased science. The goal, said Obama, was to protect "free and open inquiry" and "ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology."

"It's about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it's inconvenient - especially when it's inconvenient," announced Obama.

As "Science Czar," Holdren holds the position of the President's assistant for Science and Technology, Director of OSTP, and Co-Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Holdren has accrued an impressive list of credentials to his name: a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a former Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, winner of the Volvo Environment Prize of 1993 (along with population control advocate Paul Ehrlich), and others.

However nothing better reveals the scientific and global policy views of Obama's Science Advisor than his writings on environmental issues, which help provide a picture of the man at the helm of the President's most inner circle of scientific advisors.

Earlier in February, FrontPage magazine had first revealed that Holdren had proposed a number of dispassionate prescriptions for a ruthless population control program that could be applied to the United States in a 1977 published book entitled, "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment." Holdren co-authored the work with population control advocates Paul and Anne Ehrlich with the central premise that governments may curtail individual human rights "where society has a 'compelling, subordinating interest' in regulating population size."

Examples put forward by the authors include the possibility of forced abortion to meet population quotas, sterilizing populations through intentionally tainting the water-supply with infertility drugs, mandating unwed and teen mothers to chose between abortion or giving their children up for adoption, and the imposition of a "Planetary Regime" to enforce policies of population control, with one enforcement mechanism being a global transnational police force.

"Indeed, it has been concluded that compulsory population-control laws, even including laws requiring compulsory abortion, could be sustained under the existing Constitution if the population crisis became sufficiently severe to endanger the society," wrote Holdren on page 837.

Holdren defends that assertion on the next page by stating that "neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution mentions a right to reproduce" and that for the survival of society, a government could both coerce women to have children as well as force them to abort.

Large families are a particular target of Holdren and the Ehrlichs, who write that parents of such families "contribute to general social deterioration by overproducing children" and "can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility."

Holdren advances several ideas for coercive fertility control. He states (pp. 786-7) that "sterilizing women after their second or third child" may be more practicable than sterilizing men, proposes a "long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin" at puberty and then "might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births."

"Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control," says Holdren.

"Indeed, this would pose some very difficult political, legal, and social questions, to say nothing of the technical problems. No such sterilant exists today, nor does one appear to be under development. To be acceptable, such a substance would have to meet some rather stiff requirements: it must be uniformly effective, despite widely varying doses received by individuals, and despite varying degrees of fertility and sensitivity among individuals; it must be free of dangerous or unpleasant side effects; and it must have no effect on members of the opposite sex, children, old people, pets, or livestock."

Holdren proposes on pages 942-3, an ultimate enforcement mechanism in the form of "a Planetary Regime - sort of an international superagency for population, resources, and environment" that would control and distribute all natural resources and determine as well the "optimum population for the world."

"Control of population size might remain the responsibility of each government, but the Regime would have some power to enforce the agreed limits," Holdren states. Earlier Holdren had mentioned the creation of "an armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force" (p. 917) as one method of achieving international security.

Read quotations and excerpts from "Ecoscience" with photographs and scans of original text via blogger ZombieTime here.

Episcopal Church to Affirm 'Gay' Clergy

From OneNewsNow

Episcopalians are moving toward affirming an open role for homosexual clergy in their church despite pressure from fellow Anglicans not to do so.

Episcopal bishops voted at a national meeting yesterday for a statement that says "God has called and may call" homosexual men and women to ministry. Delegates to the meeting already approved a nearly identical statement. This latest version is likely to be approved by Friday.

Episcopalians caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating the first openly homosexual bishop, Vicki Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. That decision has nearly split the world Anglican Communion, which includes Episcopalians.

To calm tensions, Episcopal leaders three years ago had urged restraint by dioceses considering homosexual candidates for bishop. No openly homosexual bishops have been consecrated since then.

The Massachusetts Health Mess

Massachusetts Shows How ObamaCare Would Really Work

From The Wall Street Journal

In a rational world, the prognosis for ObamaCare would wait on the evidence in Massachusetts, given that the commonwealth's 2006 program closely resembles what Democrats are trying to do in Washington. If the results were widely known, it might be dead on arrival.

The Massachusetts law, which was championed by former GOP Governor Mitt Romney, imposed an individual mandate, requiring nearly all residents to buy health insurance or else pay a penalty. (The exceptions are those who qualify for the state's public program.) This was supposed to cover everybody and save money too. We've written before about how costs have exploded, but it also turns out that consumers have other ideas.

For 15 years Massachusetts has also imposed mandates known as guaranteed issue and community rating -- meaning that insurers must cover anyone who applies, regardless of health or pre-existing conditions, and also charge everyone the same premium (or close to it). Yet these mandates allow people to wait until they're sick, or just before they're about to incur major medical expenses, to buy insurance. This drives up costs for everyone else, which helps explain why small-group coverage in Massachusetts is so much more expensive than in most of the country. Mr. Romney argued -- as Democrats are arguing now -- that the individual mandate would make that problem disappear, since everyone is always supposed to be covered.

Well, the returns are rolling in, and a useful case study comes from the community-based health plan Harvard-Pilgrim. CEO Charlie Baker reports that his company has seen an "astonishing" uptick in people buying coverage for a few months at a time, running up high medical bills, and then dumping the policy after treatment is completed and paid for. Harvard-Pilgrim estimates that between April 2008 and March 2009, about 40% of its new enrollees stayed with it for fewer than five months and on average incurred about $2,400 per person in monthly medical expenses. That's about 600% higher than Harvard-Pilgrim would have otherwise expected.

The individual mandate penalty for not having coverage is only about $900, so people seem to be gaming the Massachusetts system. "This is a problem," Mr. Baker writes on his blog, in the understatement of the year. "It is raising the prices paid by individuals and small businesses who are doing the right thing by purchasing twelve months of health insurance, and it's turning the whole notion of shared responsibility on its ear."

Mr. Baker is right, though he underestimates the extent to which it is rational for people to do this, considering the government-mandated incentives. To one degree or another all insurance pools require the younger and healthier to subsidize the older and sicker, though part of the risk-sharing bargain is the hedge against unanticipated or future health problems -- i.e., true insurance. The combination of guaranteed issue and community rating actively encourages parts of the healthier population to forgo coverage and thus blow up voluntary risk pools. No doubt our politicians will conclude that the solution is to raise the penalty for going uninsured, though it would be easier and more rational to let insurance markets function without mandates.

For many Democrats, none of this is really a surprise, or even important. Their Rube Goldberg rules are meant to transfer the costs of health care away from individuals and onto someone else -- private companies like Harvard-Pilgrim in the short term, and over time onto taxpayers. Why lobbyist Karen Ignagni is still putting the health-insurance industry's head on the Washington chopping block is a mystery for the ages.

A Christian Vision of Marriage and Family

By R. Albert Mohler, Jr.


"For the first time in its history, Western civilization is confronted with the need to define the meaning of the terms 'marriage' and 'family.'" So states author Andreas J. Kostenberger who, with the assistance of David W. Jones has written God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation.

This sense of crisis and the need for definition sets the stage for this book and its central thesis--that the only way out of our present cultural confusion is a return to a biblical vision of marriage and family.

As Kostenberger observes, "What until now has been considered a 'normal' family, made up of a father, a mother, and a number of children, has in recent years increasingly begun to be viewed as one among several options, which can no longer claim to be the only or even superior form of ordering human relationships. The Judeo-Christian view of marriage and the family with its roots in the Hebrew Scriptures has to a certain extent been replaced with a set of values that prizes human rights, self-fulfillment, and pragmatic utility on an individual and societal level. It can rightly be said that marriage and the family are institutions under seige in our world today, and that with marriage and the family, our very civilization is in crisis."

In one sense, the statistics tell the story. The great social transformation of the last two hundred years has led to an erosion of the family and the franchising of its responsibilities. The authority of the family, especially that of the parents, has been compromised through the intrusion of state authorities, cultural influences, and social pressure. Furthermore, the loss of a biblical understanding of marriage and family has led to a general weakening of the institution, even among those who would identify themselves as believing Christians.

At the cultural level, Kostenberger suggests that the rise of a libertarian ideology explains the elevation of human freedom and a right to self-determination above all other principles and values. The quest for autonomy becomes the central purpose of human life, and any imposition of structure, accountability, boundaries, or restriction is dismissed as repressive and backward.

Within the Christian church, Kostenberger discerns what he identifies as a "lack of commitment to seriously engage the Bible as a whole." As he correctly observes, evangelical Christianity has no shortage of Bible studies, media production, parachurch ministries, and the like. Yet, most Christians are woefully unaware of the deep biblical, theological, and spiritual foundations for marriage and the family that are central to the Christian tradition.

"Anyone stepping into a Christian or general bookstore will soon discover that while there is a plethora of books available on individual topics, such as marriage, singleness, divorce and remarriage, and homosexuality, there is very little material that explores on a deeper, more thoroughgoing level the entire fabric of God's purposes for human relationships," he observes. To fill this void, Kostenberger and Jones, along with Mark Liederbach, who contributed sections on contraception and reproductive technologies, attempt to offer an integrative approach that would establish a biblical theology of marriage and family. The primary focus of Scripture, they assert, is "the provision of salvation by God in and through Jesus Christ." Nevertheless, the Bible also addresses an entire spectrum of issues related to marriage and the family--extended to issues such as human sexuality, gender, reproduction, parenthood, and more.

Kostenberger and his co-authors begin their consideration of marriage and family in the book of Genesis, establishing the starting point for these considerations in the doctrine of creation. Throughout the volume, a complementarian understanding of the relationship between men and women is affirmed, and the man and the woman, both created in the image of God, are assigned different responsibilities and roles.

Early in the book, Kostenberger makes an audacious claim: "Our sex does not merely determine the form of our sex organs but is an integral part of our entire being." This flies in the face of the postmodern claim that gender--indeed the very notions of male and female--are nothing more than the product of social construction and ideology. This complementarian arrangement is correctly grounded before the Fall and its consequences.

Yet, Kostenberger gives careful attention to the effect of the Fall and the consequences that follow. Thus, sin and its effects becomes the explanatory principle for all confusion over gender, sexuality, marriage, and the integrity of the family.

In successive chapters, the book moves through a series of special topics, surveying the biblical material and presenting a systematic exposition of the Bible's teachings. The authors balance considerations from both testaments and deal honestly with the biblical narratives concerning biblical characters. Thus, the Patriarchs become examples of faithfulness, even as their own sin and misadventures in marriage and parenting are candidly observed. The authors use a very helpful outline format in setting out the various scriptural passages and their importance to each question. In this sense, they succeed in presenting an integrative model, pulling from a comprehensive reading of the biblical text.

For example, marriage and the roles of both husbands and wives is grounded in Genesis and then traced through the entire Old Testament. Husbands are to love and cherish their wives, to bear primary responsibility for the marriage union and to exercise authority over the family, and to provide the family with necessities for life. The wife, on the other hand, is to present her husband with children, manage her household with integrity, and provide her husband with companionship. Contemporary readers may be shocked by the candor of Kostenberger's presentation, but he grounds his arguments directly in the biblical text. Thus, readers are offered the opportunity to read the critical passages for themselves, and then to understand how Kostenberger framed his argument.

In an interesting section, Kostenberger acknowledges that, within six generations of Adam, the biblical vision of monogamy was at least occasionally compromised by the practice of polygamy. As Kostenberger observes, "While it is evident, then, that some very important individuals (both reportedly godly and ungodly) in the history of Israel engaged in polygamy, the Old Testament clearly communicates that the practice of having multiple wives was a departure from God's plan for marriage." Further, the Bible is clear that individuals in the history of Israel who abandoned God's design of monogamy and participated in polygamy did so contrary to the Creator's plan and ultimately to their own detriment. The sin and disorder produced by polygamy, then, is further testimony to the goodness of God's monogamous design of marriage as first revealed in the marriage of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden."

In light of contemporary confusions, this is a most helpful and accurate clarification. Similarly, Kostenberger deals honestly with the Bible's teachings concerning deviant sexual practices, ranging from homosexuality and adultery to incest.

In another helpful section, Kostenberger differentiates between "traditional" and "biblical" visions of marriage. The traditional vision is deeply rooted in middle-class experience in America. The biblical vision is not dependent upon this traditional model.

Considering the nature of marriage, Kostenberger dismisses the notion of marriage as a sacrament or as a mere contract. Instead, he argues that marriage is rightly understood as a covenant, defined as "a sacred bond between a man and a woman instituted by and publicly entered into before God (whether or not this is acknowledged by the married couple), normally consummated by sexual intercourse." Thus, marriage is not merely a bilateral contract, but is a sacred bond. Moving from marriage to the larger family context, Kostenberger suggests that a biblical definition of family points to the structure constituted by "primarily, one man and one woman united in matrimony (barring death of a spouse) plus (normally) natural or adopted children and, secondarily, any other persons related by blood." Citing Old Testament scholar Daniel Block, Kostenberger identifies the family in ancient Israel as patrilineal, patrilocal, and patriarchal. As Block helpfully suggests, the Old Testament family might best be described as "patricentric." In other words, the family is centered around the father.

In the New Testament, the structures of marriage and family are explicitly affirmed, even as the church is identified as the new family of faith. Nevertheless, the emergence of the church does not eliminate marriage, family, or the bonds and responsibilities established in Creation.

In a helpful section originally contributed by Mark Liederbach, the authors survey questions related to procreation, contraception, and the use of advanced reproductive technologies. The authors write with sensitivity, but also warn against a superficial embrace of contemporary technologies as without moral and theological complication. Readers are advised to look carefully at the nature of reproductive technologies, as well as contraceptive choices, in order to evaluate such options in light of biblical principles and mandates.

Kostenberger also presents a wealth of material related to the structure of the family, parenthood, and the care and discipline of children. He deals honestly with the need for parental correction and discipline, and affirms the role of corporal punishment in the raising of the young. "Of course children will disobey--they are sinners!," Kostenberger observes. "Parents rather should be expecting their children to sin, even after they have come to faith in Christ. Such an expectation is realistic and enables the parent to deal with each infraction calmly and deliberately, administering discipline with fairness, justice, and consistency."

The authors also provide a very helpful consideration of the biblical material concerning homosexuality. "The biblical verdict on homosexuality is consistent," Kostenberger argues. "From the Pentateuch to the book of Revelation, from Jesus to Paul, from Romans to the Pastorals, Scripture with one voice affirms that homosexuality is sin and a moral offense to God. The contemporary church corporately, and biblical Christians individually, must bear witness to the unanimous testimony of Scripture unequivocally and fearlessly." In later chapters, Kostenberger deals with questions related to divorce and remarriage and to the roles and responsibilities of men and women within the church. Even those who disagree with this understanding of divorce and remarriage will appreciate his careful consideration.

Against the backdrop of civilizational crisis, Kostenberger concludes by arguing that this crisis is "symptomatic of an underlying spiritual crisis that gnaws at the foundations of our once-shared societal values." Further, "In this spiritual cosmic conflict, Satan and his minions actively opposed the Creator's design for marriage and the family and seek to distort God's image as it is reflected in God-honoring Christian marriages and families."

Thus, recovery of a biblical understanding of marriage and family is itself a witness to the gospel and to the grace and mercy of God in giving humanity these good gifts for His good pleasure. Kostenberger and his coauthors are to be congratulated on a volume that takes the biblical text seriously and seeks to apply Scripture to contemporary questions in a way that is neither arbitrary nor piecemeal. Their integrative approach will assist Christians to think through the most important issues of our day and, more importantly, lead their families to show the glory of God in the midst of a fallen world. This book should be welcomed and widely read.

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. For more articles and resources by Dr. Mohler, and for information on The Albert Mohler Program, a daily national radio program broadcast on the Salem Radio Network, go to www.albertmohler.com. For information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to www.sbts.edu. Send feedback to mail@albertmohler.com. Original Source: www.albertmohler.com.

'Politburo' Controlling U.S. Policy

Is anyone surprised by this? Did even Madam Clinton expect that she was going to conduct US foreign policy?

Sources say White House cadre bypassing agencies, jeopardizing security

From WorldNetDaily
By Aaron Klein

Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel with President Obama in the Oval Office (White House photo)

A small group of officials working mostly from the White House are tightly controlling U.S. foreign policy, bypassing other government agencies and making decisions without employing their expertise, according to diplomatic sources speaking to WND.

The sources said some of the decisions may be jeopardizing U.S. security.

A senior Middle East diplomatic source said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently apologized to a Mideast leader, explaining to him U.S. policy regarding his country is being dictated by the White House and not her agency.

The diplomatic sources all confirmed Clinton has been largely cut out from the decision-making process, as have U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones and other top figures.

The diplomatic sources identified the White House group largely controlling foreign policy as consisting of President Obama; White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; top Obama adviser David Axelrod; and National Security Council Director Denis McDonough. Also, Mark Lippert, chief-of-staff of the National Security Council, is involved.

Read the rest of this entry >>

"Roe" of Roe v. Wade Arrested for Protesting Hearing of Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Nominee

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

Norma McCorvey, the "Roe" of Roe v. Wade who now is a leading opponent of abortion, was arrested for disrupting the hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor today along with several other pro-life protesters.

Sgt. Kimberly Schneider of the Capitol Police said McCorvey and one other protester were charged with unlawful conduct for disrupting Congress, making a total of four arrests related to abortion protests during the hearing, reports the Washington Post.

McCorvey had at first stayed outside the Hart Senate Office building with a small group of pro-life activists protesting Sotomayor's confirmation. She then gained admittance to the building as one among the crowd of citizens regularly admitted in brief intervals to listen in on the hearing.

"You're wrong Sotomayor, you're wrong about abortion," McCorvey declared to the Supreme Court hopeful before being quickly escorted out.

While Sotomayor has had little direct contact with the abortion debate, her pro-abortion beliefs have been established by interviews with senators on Capitol Hill in addition to a long list of extreme pro-abortion legal briefs authored under her purview.

The hearing was interrupted several times by other pro-life protesters. Shortly before the proceedings commenced, the Washington Times reports one man shouted: "What about the rights of the unborn?" A second protester, who repeatedly shouted "Abortion is murder," was escorted out by police about an hour later.

McCorvey, whose Supreme Court victory in 1973 unleashed legalized abortion in America, became an active opponent of the procedure following a conversion experience in 1994. Her 2005 petition to the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade was rejected.

Brave New World of Infant DNA Data-Basing

From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
By Bob Barr

One of the most exciting moments in life is to witness the birth of a new child. All hell could be breaking loose outside the delivery room, yet all your attention in those moments is focused on the miracle of a new baby being born. Yet in those exhilarating moments, a small event takes place in hospitals across the country that escapes the attention of most every parent, yet is becoming a matter of increasing concern for parents.

Laws in all 50 states require hospitals to collect a sample of every newborn baby’s blood (from a small pin prick to the baby’s foot). The primary purpose is to test for PKU (phenylketonuria, an inherited disease that can result in brain and nerve damage) and other diseases (California, for example, tests for some 76 different conditions).

Were the test itself the end of the matter, few questions would be raised. However, parents and others in a number of states are beginning to question what happens to those millions of infant dried-blood samples — each of which contains the entire genetic history of the infant, as well as DNA information on his or her parents and ancestors — that are collected each year. Who owns those samples? For what purpose(s) can the information be used; and by who? What agencies and commercial entities can access the information? Is parental consent required? Why should the information be retained at all?

In fact, lawsuits in at least two states — Minnesota and Texas — have been filed to test the limits of such newborn DNA data basing. The conditions under which such DNA samples are collected, retained and used likely will lead to more such lawsuits as parents learn of these factors.

Some states (California and North Carolina, among others) retain the DNA samples collected from newborns indefinitely, and other states keep them for up to 23 years. And while many states technically allow parents to refuse to have their newborn’s blood sample genetically tested, such “opt out” procedures rarely are made known to parents.

The stakes in this data war are high, as researchers and government agencies are realizing the value of such a databank of DNA and other genetic information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has at least since 2002 been advocating for a national databank, calling such “leftover dried blood spot specimens” a “valuable . . . source for public health surveillance and . . . population-based data on prevalence of genetic variations.” The National Institutes of Health is using $13.5 million in taxpayer dollars to create a national blood sample repository.

These efforts are being aided by federal legislation signed into law by President George W. Bush last year that allows the federal government to screen the DNA of all newborns in the country. The purported justification for this far-reaching, privacy invasive law was the need to have a “national contingency plan” to meet “public health emergencies.”

State governments are moving quickly also to develop regimens for retaining and accessing what Sharon Terry of the Genetic Alliance calls a “national treasure” of data. Michigan, for example, reportedly has set up state-run freezer facilities at a “neonatal biobank” in Detroit.

Researchers and other advocates of DNA data basing are aggressively protecting their turf. The American College of Medical Genetics, for example, recently issued a “position statement” extolling the benefits of dried-blood specimen databases, and dismissing opponents’ concerns as “unsubstantiated and highly exaggerated.” Even the March of Dimes has joined the bandwagon — vigorously opposing requirements for parental consent (now required only in two states plus the District of Columbia).

With federal law, taxpayer dollars, and otherwise respected agencies like the March of Dimes lined up against them, parents and privacy-advocates trying to stem the tide of infant DNA data basing have their work cut out for them. Let’s hope they are up to the challenge.

Saint Florianer Sängerknaben - "Voice Art"

The St. Florianer Sängerknaben (St. Florian Boys' Choir) (SFSK) can look back on a thousand-year-old tradition and today are an internationally acclaimed concert choir sponsored by the "Society of the Friends of St. Florian Boys' Choir".

The history of the Convent of St. Florian can be traced back to the early Christian burial site of Saint Florian the Martyr (304 AD). The convent's baroque church built by Carlo Carlone and Jakob Prandtauer is one of the most beautiful examples of Austrian architecture. The institution of St. Florian Convent Boys' Choir goes back as far as 1071, at the time when monks of the Augustiner Chorherren took over the monastery.

Many musicians have come from the ranks of the SFSK, the most famous of these being the composer Anton Bruckner, whose name is inseparably connected with St. Florian. About fifty years ago the convent closed down its private school. Since then, the Boys' Choir still reside at the convent but attend public schools in St. Florian where they form special classes suited to their needs. Until only a few decades ago, the SFSK's duties consisted solely of providing church music for the convent. Under the musical direction of Professor Hans Bachl and Convent Director Josef Leitner they went on their first concert tours abroad and successfully took part in competitions.

Today the choir has many different responsibilities. Church music is still of central importance. On High Holidays the SFSK join with the Convent Choir and the Convent Orchestra under the direction of Professor Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter in singing mass. But they are also an internationally acclaimed choir, travelling all over the world as well as recording CD’s or frequently appearing on television. The boys have sung in world-famous music festivals as well as in famous opera houses. Since 1983, Professor Franz Farnberger has been the choir director. The Society of Friends of the St. Florian Boys' Choir was founded in 1996. One year later it assumed responsibility for the institution of the Boys' Choir. Large-scale rebuilding as well as modernization of the Convent's boarding school was undertaken as a result of the Society's financial support as well as generous support from the Provincial Government of Upper Austria.

Jon Christos - "Meaning of Life"

Groups Demand that Jail Stop Censoring Religion

From OneNewsNow
By Charlie Butts

Civil and religious rights organizations are demanding that a Virginia jail stop removing Bible passages and other religious material from letters written to inmates.

Anna Williams, whose son was detained at the Rappahannock County Regional Jail, says officials cut out entire sections of letters she sent to her son that contained Bible verses or religious material. She says the jail cited prohibitions on Internet material and religious material sent from home.

John Whitehead, founder of The Rutherford Institute, represents Williams. His organization is challenging censorship of the mail.

"She's a devout Christian, and her son's in jail there and she's been trying to send him letters with Bible passages and whatever -- and the jail has actually been going through snipping out portions of letters," the attorney explains. "[S]ome of the letters are full of Bible verses, so what her son is getting is absolutely at the end of the letter where she says goodbye, I love you, and those kinds of things."

According to Whitehead, the situation is not an isolated case.

"Various Christian organizations are trying to give Bibles to prisoners...and prisons and local jails are actually prohibiting [that], saying such materials could be dangerous -- and they're actually stopping them," he laments. "So this is a nationwide thing that we're seeing, and [it's] one reason why we're trying to get involved in this case and stop it and nip it in the bud."

Whitehead tells OneNewsNow that courts have ruled there must be a compelling reason for censoring inmate mail -- and Bible verses, he says, hardly represent a compelling reason.

Prison Fellowship, the ACLU, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and other groups sent a letter to Rappahannock Regional Jail Superintendent Joseph Higgs, Jr., calling the policy illegal. Higgs issued a statement saying the groups' letter prompted him to launch an internal investigation.

The Second American Revolution - "We The People"

On September 12 the Tea Party Movement will storm Capitol Hill. Details for the mass protest are still being worked out, but 9000 patriots have already registered. The Second American Revolution is only just beginning.

Gore boasts: 'Global Governance' Coming with Carbon Tax

It must be the cockiness and arrogance of power; liberals are beginning to be forthright about their true agenda.

Gore Tells conference U.S. responding to warming threat with 'cap-and-trade'

From WorldNetDaily
By Bob Unruh

Former Vice President Al Gore, whose "An Inconvenient Truth" video epistle on the claims of global warming has not weathered recent scientific research, now has promised at a conference in the United Kingdom that the impending virtual energy tax under the U.S. "cap-and-trade" legislation will bring about "global governance."

Gore, who this year famously left his Nashville mansion's driveway brightly illuminated during the "Earth Hour" event that promoted energy savings, was speaking at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment.

He cited the "cap-and-trade" legislation in the U.S. Congress that by President Obama's own estimate would cause utility bills to skyrocket for American consumers.

Those taxes are good, Gore said. "But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change, and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global government and global agreements," he said.

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