Is Anybody There?

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says Yahweh Sabaoth" Zach 4:6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dio di Signore, nella Sua volontà è nostra pace!" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin 1759

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

More Proof of Harm Done By Abortion to Women & Children

Abortion supporters like to claim that abortion is the safer than any other medical proceedure. But the evidence is mounting that abortion harms a woman emotionally, phsychologically & physically. & that it doesn't just hurt the woman who has it either.
Abortion supporters will likely reject this 1 as they have every other study, no matter how carefully done, even by abortion supporters looking for the opposite results like some of the pshycological studies.
They are so radically sold out to worshiping at the altar of abortion that they refuse to see the truth. Abortion supporters are the real misinformed fundamentalists & hardliners, not Pro-lifers. & this study just confirms that fact.
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Having an abortion doubles the risk of having a premature birth in a subsequent pregnancy -- that is the conclusion of a European researcher at a medical conference. Several previous studies have shown that abortion hurts women and future children by upping the chance of premature delivery.
Lead researcher Dr Robbert van Oppenraaij presented his findings before the collegium of scientists today at the annual European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Amsterdam.
He says one induced abortion raisers the risk of premature birth in a next pregnancy by 20 percent.
Two or more abortions raises the risk by 90 percent and doubles the risk of a very premature birth, at 34 weeks or less.
"It can be concluded that a history of abortion is associated with an increased risk for premature delivery and very premature delivery," he said, according to a London Mirror newspaper report.
Those numbers present a grave problem given that the repeat abortion rate in some nations, such as the United States and England -- is 40 to 50 percent or more. That means millions of women and children around the globe are at risk of premature birth because of having an abortion.
In February, another study confirmed the link between abortion and subsequent premature births when a woman is pregnant again.
Dr. Manfred Voigt led the study, published in the German medical magazine Z Geburtshilfe Neonatol.
According to the research, women who have one prior abortion boost their risk for a very premature birth in a future pregnancy by 30 percent.
Women who have had more than one prior abortion increase their risk of a very premature birth by 90 percent.
Canadian researcher Brent Rooney, who has published his own work on the abortion-premature birth link, says the common criticism from abortion advocates about studies showing post-abortion problems is a concern regarding recall bias. But the Voigt team had access to accurate abortion data from a governmental database without having to interview women about whether they had abortions.
"Deniers of the abortion-preemie risk would like to claim the women with a bad pregnancy outcome may not provide accurate information about their induced abortion history," Rooney said. "Data about women's prior induced abortion history in the 'Voigt' study was extracted from a perinatal data-base."
With the new German study, Rooney says there are now 17 statistically significant studies all confirming the abortion-very premature birth link.
Another 105 significant studies report a link between abortion and slightly premature birth or low birth weight babies.
In 2006, the National Academies of Science found that a first-trimester abortion, the most common abortion procedure, is linked to an increasing risk of premature birth.
The IOM published a report this month titled "Preterm Birth: Causes, Consequences, and Prevention."
In the report is a list of "immutable medical risk factors associated with preterm birth" and "prior first-trimester abortion" is listed third among other risk factors that increase the risk of having a subsequent premature birth.
The report has huge consequences for abortion because premature birth can lead to a host of problems, including cerebral palsy for the child and breast cancer for the mother.
The IOM reported that premature births before 37 weeks gestation represent 12.5 percent of all U.S. births, a 30% increase since 1981. Abortion became legally accessible in 1973 and the number of abortions peaked in the early 1980s as it became more ingrained in society.
The IOM said premature birth cost U.S. society $26.2 billion in 2005.

Telling the Governator: "Teachers not Abortions!"

LOS ANGELES, California -- Pro-life youth to picket the office of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Youth activists will demand that not penny of taxpayer funds be used to pay for abortions while teachers and community services are being cut in California due to budget concerns.
The demonstration will take place on Tuesday, June 30 at 11:00 A.M, at 300 South Spring St., Los Angeles, California.
The 65 youth activists will be carrying large signs and banners.
This event kicks off a national campaign by Survivors called "Teachers not Abortions."
Sarah Massell, a member of Survivors, states, "The pro-abortion movement is always telling us that we cannot force our morality on them. If abortion is a moral issue, why are taxpayers being forced to pay for abortions rather than fund education?
Public funds that should be going to ensure our teachers are properly compensated are now going to fund unlimited and unrestricted abortions. The more we cut resources to our educational system the more it will have a negative impact on future generations."
Timmerie Millington adds, "We have become a society that kills its own children with unlimited public funds. Yet, firefighters and police officers who have laid down their lives to protect our nation are loosing their jobs because our tax dollars are being spent on the killing of America's children."
Survivors is one of the leading pro-life youth activist organizations in the nation and they are sponsoring their annual 10 day ProLife Training Camp in Southern California.

This Just In: Evidience for the Real Inspiration for Obama's Health Care Plan

OBAMA CARE

(Source: Open Thread)


ITS INSPIRATION


It's A Human Being Not Just a Blob of Tissue

& modern technology is making it harder & harder for abortion supporters to claim that that is all it is, a blob not a human being. Check out this article from First Things & esp the picture that goes with it (Follow the link for more about the technology & more models as well):
Joe Carter
Brazilian student Jorge Lopes has pioneered the conversion of data from ultrasound and MRI scans into life-size plaster models of living embryos using a method called rapid prototyping.
‘It’s amazing to see the faces of the mothers,” says Lopes, who created the technology for his PhD project at the Royal College of Art. “They can see the full scale of their baby, really understand the size of it.”

Cool, isn't it? Words almost fail me. It may be art, but it is art reflecting life. & it solidly based on science.

The more science advances, the more it tends to uphold what Christianity believes. As Scripture says: "You created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother's womb." (Psalm 139:13) The Psalm goes on to talk about how we are fearfully & wonderfully made, clearly refering to the development of the unborn child in the womb.

H/T: Matthew Archibald @ Creative Minority Report (The 'Blob of Tissue' Era is Officially Over )

Monday, June 29, 2009

St. John The Baptist & the Unborn


The touching story of the two unborn children who were present at the Visitation should give us a reason to rejoice with Elizabeth and Mary at the dawning of our salvation. While the mothers basked in the overwhelming grace of the moment, the older of the two children was already working for our salvation in the way decreed for him by the Almighty from all eternity. That little baby was announcing the coming of the Savior even from the womb!
One has to marvel at the life of St. John the Baptist whose feast we celebrate each year on June 24th. Perhaps we take him for granted because his story is so familiar to us, but his vocation to holiness is beyond comparison with any other saint in history. With the exception of Jesus' most holy Mother, never has there been a human being so perfectly united to the Person of Christ than John. He was so perfect a man that Jesus Himself said that there was "no man born of woman greater than John." Great men of the world exalt themselves over their subjects as a way to assert their grandeur; yet, John's greatness was precisely in lowering himself to the depths of the earth (i.e., the Dead Sea, geographically the world's lowest point on land) and turning the attention of men away from himself onto Another. What worldly man does that? A man who lives in the desert and wears camel hair garments is hardly going to be accepted among the movers-and-shakers of society, but it was this greatest of men who said that he actually had to decrease if he were to fulfill his essential mission. Truly John's was a life of striking paradoxes which, when examined closely, point out the holiness of the man whose whole existence was to bear witness to Holiness Himself.
John's greatest witness was not in his words, however. It was in his actions. We know of only two actions outside of his baptizing and preaching that give us a window into this man's pure soul: his joyful leap in the womb of Elizabeth and his ultimate act of self-sacrifice in martyrdom. In birth and death he was the Lord's, as in every other moment of his existence. His pre-natal rejoicing at the Christ Child wordlessly proclaimed that all children, no matter the circumstances of their conception or birth, are unqualified blessings to us, joyful additions to the human family of which God never repents. We have the testimony of the "greatest man born of woman" as our witness to the sanctity of each and every human life!
John also valiantly embraced the multiple crosses of his life: penitence, suffering, imprisonment and beheading before the Perfect Sacrifice of the Cross was consummated. No wonder the scriptures tell us that even the wicked Herod, "felt the attraction of his words." John had that rare integrity of life that filled his words with grace. It was his life, his appearance, his humility, his mission and his gift of self that make John attractive to all generations, especially those who suffer injustice for the cause of righteousness.
I have no doubt that if John the Baptist were alive today he would be standing in front of abortion clinics witnessing to the unborn Christ in each child, calling people to account for their promiscuity, challenging the powers that keep this immoral industry in business, healing the wounded souls victimized by abortion, washing men clean of their sins that lead to death, teaching us to find joy even in our suffering and ready to lay down his own life so that others could live.
Truly there is no greater man born of woman than John the Baptist. He is the Unborn Witness to Christ who shows us the way out of the culture of death; if only we will listen to the silent eloquence of that little baby leaping in his mother's womb.
Sincerely,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,

Just In Time for His Feast Today

The oldest known image of St. Paul has recently been discovered Rome. L'Osservatore Romano revealed the find on Sunday & published a picture of the icon (below).


Experts of the Ponitifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology made the discovery on June 19 in the Catacomb of Santa Tecla in Rome Vatican archaeologists using laser technology to remove layers of clay and limestone have discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St Paul the Apostle, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome.

Source:Rome catacomb reveals "oldest" image of St Paul
Picture from L'Osservatore Romano


But there is more. On Sunday Papa Benedetto said archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome, believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul. Scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.
The Pope said: "This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul." He announcing the findings at a service in the basilica to mark the end of the Vatican's Pauline year, in honor of the apostle.
While we can't be 100% sure, as Papa Benedetto said, this does seem to confirm that the bones are likely St. Paul's. These 2 items together serve to remind us of the continuous existance of the Catholic Church since the days of Christ. Given the date of the image, it is clearly an icon. Icons are used in Eastern Christianity not as art, but as an aid in prayer. The tomb dates from at least A.D. 390 and was buried under the basilica's main altar.
I find it interesting that yesterday (28 June) is also the feast of St. Irenaeus of Lyons. For me he is another reminder of the continuous existance of the Church as well as the fact of the Apostolic succession.
St. Irenaeus was a disciple of St. Polycarp. St. Polycarp was a disciple of St. John the Apostle. St. Irenaeus ended up in Gaul where he was ordained a priest by the 1st Bishop of Lyons (then Lugdunensis or Lugdunum), St. Pothinus. Irenaeus suceeded him as Bishop. Many, many centuries later Irenaeus' successor at Lyons ordained Pierre-Jean-Mathias Loras to the priesthood. Loras eventually ended up in Mobile, Alabama helping the Bishop. While there he was appointed the 1st Bishop of the Diocese of DBQ (then the whole state of Iowa, now the NE part of Iowa & an Archdiocese). So we can directly trace our lineage in DBQ all the way back to the start of the Church.
As an aside, Loras was the Latin tutor for St. Jean Vianney (Curé d'Ars). Legend has it that Loras got so fustrated that Vianney that he slapped him. We see which 1 became a saint & which ended up here in DBQ

Undermining His Own Position

I don't pretend to understand why Archbishop Weisgerber keeps digging a deeper & deeper hole for himself & the CCCB. All he is suceeding in doing is undermining any moral authority the CCCB may have. I hope that isn't what he is secretly trying to do. But part of me suspects there is more that we don't yet know about why he doesn't come clean like he should.
His actions are reminding me of Nixon after Watergate & Clinton after his various sex related scandals. His is attacking the messengers. He is going into denial mode. But, in the end, all he is doing is putting more egg on his own face.



Editorial by John-Henry Westen
OTTAWA, June 25, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Seeking to justify the giving of Catholic monies to groups that do not follow church teaching on abortion and contraception, Archbishop James Weisgerber recently used as an example the Vatican's yearly contribution to UNICEF. Ironically, however, the Winnipeg archbishop, who is currently the head of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), only managed to disprove his own point, since the Vatican actually halted its yearly donation to UNICEF in 1996, precisely because the organization was found to be promoting abortion and contraception.
Journalist Michael Swan reported Monday in both Catholic News Service and The Catholic Register that Archbishop Weisgerber said it is not necessary that Development and Peace work only with groups that espouse Catholic moral teaching. Reported Swan: "Weisgerber used the example of yearly Vatican contributions to UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children with which the Vatican has disagreed on contraception and abortion policy. Vatican donations are earmarked for specific programs or projects which reflect Vatican priorities."
However, the problem with the example is that in 1996, the Vatican announced that it would suspend their yearly contribution, and LifeSiteNews.com has confirmed with the Vatican that, as of yesterday, the donation has not been reinstated.
In announcing the decision to suspend the "symbolic contribution" to UNICEF, the then-Vatican representative to the United Nations, Archbishop Renato Martino, explained that the decision was based on four concerns:

  1. The failure of UNICEF to provide accountability for funds which donors have 'earmarked' for specific and morally unobjectionable child-related programs despite numerous requests by the Holy See for such assurances;

  2. The participation of UNICEF in the publication of a United Nations Manual advocating the distribution of abortifacient 'post-coital contraceptives' to refugee women in emergency situations;

  3. Evidence of UNICEF involvement in advocacy to alter national legislation regarding abortion; and

  4. Credible reports that UNICEF workers in various countries were distributing contraceptives and counseling their use.

Hence, Archbishop Weisgerber's error served to disprove rather than prove his point. The Vatican decision regarding UNICEF is thus an example of the Vatican taking exactly the opposite stance to Development & Peace - of cutting off Catholic funding for groups found to be promoting abortion and contraception.
The Vatican's stance on UNICEF bears even more resemblance to the Development and Peace situation than what is reported above.
Just as the funded partners of Development and Peace have stated repeatedly they do not engage in activities opposed to Church teaching - so too did UNICEF with the Vatican, in the face of incontrovertible evidence.
Archbishop Martino related in 1996 that the Vatican "has had an on-going dialogue with UNICEF for a number of years regarding its concerns. During that time UNICEF has assured the Holy See that, while UNICEF does advocate child spacing, it does not promote any particular family planning method. Further, the Holy See has been assured that UNICEF would never be involved in abortion or abortion-related activities."
The difference between the Vatican's take on UNICEF and D&P's take on their pro-abortion partners seems to be that the Vatican accepted hard evidence over the misrepresentations of UNICEF, while D&P is still rejecting the evidence.
"However, in spite of such statements, the new involvement of UNICEF in the areas of concern outlined above has forced the Holy See to take this visible step," explained Archbishop Martino.
For all LifeSiteNews.com D&P coverage

Operation Rescue HQ Vandalized

It will be interesting to find out if this was just a random act of vandalism, or an intentional attack on OR. The OR video (at end) shows the bike, nice 1 in good condition. Looking at the video it looks like the tools were specially attatched using velcro for some type of vandalism. Apparently the bike didn't have a city license, (not sure if Topeka requires) if it did it would have helped. But, unless someone recognizes the vandal or he tries again & gets caught, the whole story won't get out.

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
Wichita, KS (LifeNews.com) -- An abortion advocate attacked the national headquarters of the pro-life group Operation Rescue on Friday. The attack, which came weeks after the shooting of late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller, saw someone attempt to disabled the pro-life organization's security system.
Operation Rescue is located in the same central Kansas city where Tiller ran his late-term abortion business and was killed.
The incident could be seen as a retaliation for that killing, even though Operation Rescue was not involved in it.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon and Troy Newman, the group's president, heard a noise through his office window. He observed the assailant through the security cameras attempting to gain access to the roof.
Newman rushed outside and confronted the man, who then tried to punch Newman. When that failed, he flung his bicycle at Newman then fled the scene.
One security camera was stolen causing an estimated $1,000 in damage.
Police were called and a report was filed, but the suspect is still at large.
Newman was on the phone with a reporter from the Washington Times at the time of the incident and was ironically talking about the death threats his group has received in thee weeks following the Tiller shooting.
"In light of the recent events, the targeting of our security system is troubling," he told LifeNews.com.
Newman said local police officials were not as cooperative as they could have been: "We can't help but think that if this attack happened to an abortion clinic, there would be federal marshals patrolling and investigating. The police seemed apathetic. It's almost as if pro-lifers are second-class citizens."
"We are just thankful that no one was injured and that the attacker was interrupted before he could do more damage. We will be increasing our security precautions as a result of this incident. We have a very dedicated staff, and no amount of intimidation will deter us from our work," he added.
Operation Rescue has released a video from their security cameras showing the attacker who attempted to disable the security system.
The video shows the suspect lurking outside its headquarters before the incident.
The man who is alleged to have shot Tiller, Scott Roeder, has no links to any legitimate pro-life group other than a couple of postings on a public forum on a pro-life web site. Otherwise, he has never been a volunteer of, staff member of or in any way associated with either national, state or local pro-life groups.
That and hundreds of condemnations of the Tiller shooting from pro-life groups hasn't stopped abortion advocates from exploiting Tiller's death for political gain and blaming pro-life advocates for his death.
The Obama administration has also come under fire for ignoring alleged vandalism of another abortion center prior to the shooting.
Related web sites:Operation Rescue - http://www.operationrescue.org

Labels:

Sunday, June 28, 2009

I'll Bet the Pro-abortion Gang Will Declare Him A hero

On Wednesday 24 June 2009 James Canfield, a regular pro-life protester of a Planned Parenthood and Women's Health Center in Chico, California, was almost run down by Matthew Reid Haver. Witnesses said that a man driving an SUV attempted to strike Canfield, who dove out of the way and was not seriously injured. The license plate of the SUV was taken down & gien to Officer Brian Miller who conducted the investigation. The license was traced back to Haver, who was then arrested.
According to Chico Police Lt. John Carrillo, Canfield was protesting outside of a Planned Parenthood facility with a large, graphic sign of an aborted baby. Haver drove by with a child with him. The Child asked what was on the sign. Haver then apparently became enraged at the sight of the sign, and attempted to run down Canfield.
According to The Paradise Post newspaper Police told them that Haver's motive was clearly targeting a pro-life person because Canfield is a regular protestor outside Planned Parenthood and also at the Women's Health Center, which does abortions.
After being arrested & brought in Haver suffered a medical emergency. He was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where he was issued a citation ordering him to appear in Butte County Superior Court at a later date. Acoording to Carrillo did note that Haver was not harmed by any one else. But he refused to comment whether any injuries were self-inflicted.
He will likely be charged with assault with a deadly weapon and possible misdemeanor charges that include driving with an expired license and switching license plates with another vehicle he owns.
Last October. Jason Bryant Shireman was apprehended by Fayetville, AR police and charged with three counts of aggravated assault. He nearly hit a group of pro-life people outside the Fayetteville Women's Clinic abortion business.
Add this to the recent reports of death threats against Pro-life leaders I already reported on. Yet, not a single abortion supporter has condemned any of these actions. Why? The answer is simple, they approve of violent means to silence us. I say this because I have learned from personal experience that it is abortion supporters who tend to violence from the start, not Pro-lifers. While they try & claim that Pro-lifers are violent, it is really abortion supporters who are the violent ones.
You also note how these acts of violence against Pro-lifers have been ignored by the Main Stream Media. To do so would undermine the claims of who really is or isn't violent.
Violence is never right. It isn't right when used to silence or stop Pro-lifers as they protest abortion. It isn't right to stop abortionists or abortion supporters. & above all, it isn't right when done in the form of abortion to kill the unborn.

You Mean Pluripotent Isn't Better?

Every time you turn arround you hear the promoters of embryonic stem cell research claim that because stem cells are pluripotent they are the only real hope for a cure. Well guess what? Scientists have found out that, at least in the case of muscle stem cells, adult cells function differently.
Given all the problems that have already cropped up with embryonic stem cell usage, like tumors, this discovery again raises the question about why do we even need embryonic stem cell research. It may turn out that what is true for muscle stem cells is true for every other type of stem cells. It seems that embryonic stem cells are pluripotent only because they need to be at the early stages of life in the womb. After that it looks like God designed us so that only adult stem cells will work properly.


A new understanding of the genes that make muscle cells may change the way researchers think about stem cell transplants for muscular dystrophy and muscle injuries, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
In a surprise finding, they said genes important for forming muscle cells in embryos and newborns are not normally active in adult stem cells.
And researchers hoping to use muscle stem cells in stem-cell transplant therapies should not assume genes that control early muscle development serve the same purpose in repairing adult muscle, Christoph Lepper and colleagues at the Carnegie Institution in Baltimore reported in the journal Nature.
Earlier studies have shown that two genes -- Pax3 and Pax7 -- control cells that give rise muscle in embryos, and Pax7 also helps build muscle in newborn mice.
To get a better understanding of their function, Lepper and colleagues studied these genes at various stages of development in live mice.
"I thought that if they are so important in the embryo, they must be important for adult muscle stem cells," Lepper said in a statement.
The team used genetic engineering to suppress both the Pax3 and Pax7 genes in adult muscle stem cells, and they found that adult stem cells were still able to function normally.
"I was totally surprised to find that the muscle stem cells are normal without them," Lepper said.
The researchers then looked at whether the same was true in injured muscles, when muscle stem cells go to work making new muscle tissue.
To study this, they injured mouse leg muscles between the knee and ankle, and found the muscle stem cells were able to make new muscle, even without the two key embryonic muscle stem cell genes.
The team said the embryonic muscle cell genes appear to only be active in mice within the first three weeks after birth. After that, they believe the genes go quiet and allow a different set of genes to take over.
Finding those genes will be important as scientists pursue new treatments for diseases like muscular dystrophy, a genetic, degenerative disease that affects voluntary muscles, they said.
And they said teams should look at other types of stem cells to see how age might affect their properties, and they should take age of stem cells into account in transplant-based treatments.

Labels:

Coincidence or Intentional?

IMHO Intentional!!!!!

DID THE BISHOPS AVOID A.L.L.’S MESSAGE IN USA TODAY?

By Michael Hichborn
Since 2003, American Life League has taken out a full-page ad in USA Today, to send a message to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at its annual spring three-day conference. The ads call on the bishops to obey Canon 915 by denying Holy Communion to pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians and other public figures. This year’s ad, titled “A Message of Salvation for the Shepherds of the Catholic Church,” displays a 3-D ultrasound image of a preborn baby next to a quote from the Gospel of Matthew: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.”
The ad can be viewed here: http://www.all.org/pdf/LeastOfTheseAdUSAtoday.pdf.
ALL places these ads in USA Today because most hotels deliver it to their guests’ rooms. The ad is timed for delivery to the bishops on the first morning of the conference. On the first day of the conference, however, we were rather shocked to learn that the bishops had not seen the ad because USA Today was never delivered to the bishops’ rooms.
While the situation is somewhat complicated, the odd circumstances and strange responses to our questions cause us to ask, “Did the USCCB’s leadership deliberately prevent the attending bishops from seeing ALL’s ad on the first day of the conference?”
An American Life League employee was on the ground in San Antonio, Texas, where the conference took place, and reported what could have been an attempt to prevent the ad from reaching the bishops’ rooms:
On Wed. morning, I woke up to find the New York Times at my door. I called the desk asking where USA Today was, and they said they had some at the desk and would send one up to me. I explained that it was our understanding from talking with hotel personnel that USA Today would be delivered to all the rooms. The person at the desk stated that they had stopped delivering USA Today a couple of weeks ago, but that they keep a small bundle for those who request it. She was surprised that I had received the New York Times, as that is not the paper they normally distribute.
I checked my copy of USA Today that was sent up to my room and found that the ad was indeed in it. I called the desk again and asked for a member of management. The person who answered was eager to please and said that it was no problem; he could run a list of the bishops and have USA Today delivered to their rooms. [American Life League offered to pay, if there was a fee for this service.] He thought he had enough copies, but if not, he would let me know. Some time passed and I did not hear back from them, so I called again. This time, he had backed down, saying that the drop would have to be approved by the USCCB contact person. He referred me to Lisa, the event supervisor for the hotel, who was coordinating with the USCCB.
Lisa called me and said that we would not be able to make any drops of USA Today, due to security issues and because the bishops had approved only of having the New York Times dropped during their stay.
When an offer to pay for the hotel to distribute a newspaper they already have stocked is first accepted and then refused because the bishops stated that they only wanted the New York Times (one of the most liberal papers in the country), we can only conclude that the USCCB’s leadership wished to prevent the attending bishops from seeing our ad during the conference. And given that this is the first time—in six years of placing such ads—that something like this has happened, we can’t help but think that this was a deliberate dodge.
However, upon their return to their own diocese, each bishop who attended the conference will find a copy of the ad waiting for them in the mail.
The sad conclusion to be drawn from all of this is that the ads we place must be tugging at the consciences of the bishops who see them. And with hardened hearts, the USCCB’s leadership apparently wishes to altogether remove our reminder of the duty that most of the U.S. bishops still ignore.
But we still have hope that, through persistence, the U.S. bishops, as a whole, will finally realize their obligation to deny Holy Communion to pro-abortion “Catholic” politicians. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable about a poor widow and an unjust judge. The judge "did not fear God, neither did he care for people." Nevertheless, he eventually agreed to do justice to a poor widow because she was so persistent in her pursuit of justice. And inspired by our Blessed Lord’s own words, American Life League will continue to remind the bishops of their just duty, so that we will see eventually the day when all of the Church’s shepherds have made it abundantly clear that you can’t be both Catholic and pro-abortion.
Michael Hichborn is the director of American Life League’s Canon 915 project, which encourages Catholic bishops and priests to protect the Holy Eucharist from sacrilege.

Planned Parenthood Does NOT Speak FOR Women


By Katie Walker
Who let Planned Parenthood speak for women?
I’m a 23-year-old woman and a product of my generation – a generation that, statistically speaking, supports the family, increasingly opposes abortion, gives and works for those less fortunate, and is willing to fight for human rights at home and abroad. We appear to be at the beginning of the anti-“me generation,” if you will. I like to think of us as Joan of Arcs with laptops. Make mine a Mac!
And judging from anecdotal evidence of women I see out and about (drum roll, please!), we increasingly like dresses. Was that a gasp I heard from the Gloria Steinem crowd? Calm down, ladies.
Now I consider myself a fairly normal, well-adjusted woman of my generation, so you can imagine my confusion when this commercial from Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain, began heating up the airwaves earlier this month in the Washington, D.C. area – where I live.“More than 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does is provide preventive and primary care to keep women healthy,” the soft voice-over tells me.
Primary, preventive care? Now isn’t that sweet of them? And all this time I thought Planned Parenthood was about abortion and contraception! Silly me.Let’s just mosey over to their 2007-2008 Annual Report, shall we? And we’ll read all about their primary "health care" for women of my generation.
Stop the presses!
According to their own data, primary care accounts for less than one percent of Planned Parenthood’s business—0.7 percent, to be exact. So much for truth in advertising. It appears the operative word here is “preventive.” So what are they preventing? Breast cancer, heart disease, maybe? Those two frightening killers of women? Hmmm … Not exactly.
Abortion accounts for one-third of Planned Parenthood’s clinic income of $374 million in 2008. Planned Parenthood saw 2,360,796 women for “contraceptive services” in 2008. To Planned Parenthood, “preventive” refers to prevention of both pregnancy and birth – and always has.
Margaret Sanger, in her 1915 book, What Every Girl Should Know, said this about motherhood: "I cannot refrain from saying that women must come to recognize there is some function of womanhood other than being a child-bearing machine." In her 1922 book, Woman and the New Race, Margaret Sanger said this about the purpose of sex: "[Our objective is] unlimited sexual gratification without the burden of unwanted children.”
And don’t even get her started on marriage! From the same book: "The marriage bed is the most degenerative influence in the social order."
(If you think this is scary stuff, do a Google search of Sanger and check out what she had to say on eugenics, “feeble-minded” people and African Americans.)
Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921. The organization changed its name to Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. Today, Planned Parenthood considers itself a leader in the fields of women’s rights and women’s health. Sanger’s organization, from 1921 to this very day, has always considered pregnancy and birth a form of parasitic physical and social illness – something we need “health care” to fix.
Now we can compare Planned Parenthood’s clearly outmoded concept of femininity and womanhood with the perspective of modern American philosopher Alice Von Hildebrand, one of my favorite authors, in this 2003 interview on her book The Privilege of Being a Woman (2002):
A woman by her very nature is maternal -- for every woman, whether married or unmarried, is called upon to be a biological, psychological or spiritual mother -- she knows intuitively that to give, to nurture, to care for others, to suffer with and for them -- for maternity implies suffering -- is infinitely more valuable in God's sight than to conquer nations and fly to the moon.”The choice offered to young women these days is to accept their bodies and their womanhood as gifts: the unique and beautiful ability to give life, hope and nurturing to others.
Or women can accept the Planned Parenthood philosophy that our bodies are meant for self-satisfaction, self-actualization, i.e. the self. Women can choose between a culture of selflessness or selfishness.I know which one I aspire to and I know which one the stats show an increasing number of my fellow young women aspire to.
Get with the times, Planned Parenthood! This boat is leaving without you.
Katie Walker is American Life League’s director of communications.

Labels:

& Now For Something Completely Different - Fried Dill Pickles

OK, I have a feeling that a couple of people know where I am going already. & you can blame Guy Fieri & his Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. I was just watching an episode & 1 of the places he went to was Penguin Drive-In - Charlotte, NC. & 1 of their featured items was fried dill pickles.
Sounds like something I would definitely like to try out.
On the other hand, watching the show just added to my conviction that watching programs on this network without being able to taste the food is cruel & unusual punishment.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

An Award


Paul over at Thoughts of a Regular Guy gave me the above award. In accepting the award there are 3 requirements. The 1st is to thank the person who bestowed the award upon me as well as provide a link.. So: "Mille grazie Paul!" (Link already provided).
2) Share "ten honest things" about myself.
a: Pope Paul VI, Olivia Newton-John & I share a birthday.
b: Both my grandfathers & 1 of my maternal great grandfathers worked for the Chicago Great Western Railroad in Oelwein. (Not sure if any of them ever met Walter Chrysler when he worked there.)
c: I am an accomplished Italiano cook.
d: The most famous person I ever met, political - VP Dan Quayle. Actually got to spend some time talking to him 1 on 1.
e: Most famous person, Catholic leader/Television personality - Mother Angelica. I was 1 of her bodyguards when she spoke her in DBQ (1984) & also spent some time with here down at EWTN (1989)
f: Haven't made the final connection yet, but may be related to a future saint of the Catholic Church - Venerable Sr. Elena Aiello.
g; President John Adams is a hero of mine, the most underappreciated of our Founding Fathers & IMHO the 1 man the USA owes the most to for our independence. (& ancestor of 1 of the bloggers whose blog will get the award)
h: Favorite Holiday - 4th of July
i: Favorite movie: 1776
j: #1 all time hero is my maternal Grandfather, Giovanni Stasi. Tried to show me how easy it was to ride a bike without training wheels when I was 5 & broke his arm as a result.
Bonus honest thing: Ideal World Series - Mets v Twins, Ideal Super Bowl - Jets v Vikings
3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.
4) Tell those 7 people that they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it.
Here they are:
Congratulations!

Total Gansta Government

A Father's Lament on His Lost Fatherhood

The other day I took a look at a Planned Parenthood ad that talked about their goal of every child being wanted. I asked the following question:"It also raises the question, wanted by who? I know of plenty of fathers who wanted their child but were denied it because the mother aborted the child , willingly or under family pressure." Here is the story of 1 wanted child that didn't get the chance to know the love & care of his father.
Also, it shows the double standard in Obama's statement last year when he said that a father's responsibility begins at conception. Here is a father that was willing to be responsible but not given the chance. If his responsibilities started at conception, shouldn't his rights? & even more importantly, if there is an individual that the father is responsible for, what about his or her right to live?
Another sad point in this story is the advice given the mother by the nurse at Boston College. This is a Catholic College, or at least it claims to be. & yes, there are a few faithful Catholics there. But they are the exception not the rule. The nurse & the administration have the blood of that child on their hands.

In October of 2006 I found out I was going to be a Father. My girlfriend of 6 months was pregnant with our child. Neither of us planned this pregnancy, or had even talked about the possibility of getting pregnant. That was about to become my biggest regret. Like I said I wasn’t ready to have a child. She said she couldn't go forth in having a child and needed to abort. She went to the nursing staff at Boston College a week or two after she found out she was pregnant. The nurse at BC told her that she would be better off having an abortion, and told her where she could get one. I didn’t make a big deal of it at the time because I wanted her to stay calm and positive.
I brought her to a crisis pregnancy center in Boston when she was 5 weeks pregnant, so that she could explore her options other than having an abortion. The women at the center set up a date for her to get an ultrasound so she could see her child. We went to get her first ultrasound when she was 5 weeks pregnant. We weren’t able to see much at this point, but we did see the heartbeat of our child. The sono tech. said it was too early in the pregnancy to see our baby, and to come back in 2 1/2- 3 weeks. We came back 3 weeks later for another ultrasound, and that’s when we saw our baby. Our child was at 8 weeks gestation and had fingers, toes, eyes, everything. I saw and heard my child's heart beat and I cried. It was a very overwhelming and beautiful experience for me, until she looked over at me and said: “What are you crying about? Worms have heartbeats too”. Her sister had offered to pay $500 for her to get an abortion. She insisted she was going to get the abortion, was planning to get one that weekend, and broke up with me right before.
I called the abortion clinic and asked what my rights were; they said “You don't have any”. I then asked them, "What do you do with the aborted babies? I want to bury my child". They told me that it wasn't a child, it was a fetus, and to never call again or they would involve the police. My hands were tied. I, as a father had no legal right to protect my child from a death committed by a "doctor". I called everyone imaginable to see what my rights were and I got the same answer: “nothing”.
The week before my child was aborted; I went to try one more time to ask the mother of my child to not do this. But she was adamant about having an abortion, and told me to leave. So I then asked her if I could do one thing before I left, she told me that was fine. I then got on my knees and kissed the stomach of the mother of my child and said “I love you, and Daddy will see you in heaven”. I then took the ultrasound pictures and left.
The day my child was aborted was a very painful day for me. I was informed that my child had been aborted in the afternoon on December 2nd, 2006. It was the most painful experience I have ever been through. My relationship ended with the woman that I thought I was going to marry, and I lost my first child. I didn’t want to go on; I was in too much pain. I didn’t eat. I didn’t sleep. I had nightmares of my child being aborted. The day after my child was aborted, I went to see my pastor and he suggested that I have a memorial for my unborn child. I took his advice, and had one the following Sunday at his church. I had my parents and a few friends come. It was a short ceremony, but very painful. I never thought that my child would meet God before I did.
After that day things were still very painful. I still couldn’t sleep or eat, and thoughts of suicide filled my head every waking hour. I joined Bible studies, and post abortion Bible studies as much as possible. Those were the only people that would understand. There were times that I wouldn’t even receive support at church. A man is really not allowed to grieve the loss of his unborn baby. I was told things like: “Your child wasn’t even born, so get over it”, “It wasn’t a baby yet”, or even people saying “Your child deserved to die”. None of those things helped me heal and just put me in more of a state of depression.
That winter I was invited to a Right to Life march in Concord, NH. I thought it might be healing, so I went. While I was there, I met a man that ran crisis pregnancy centers in NYC. After speaking to him for awhile, he invited me down to NYC for the summer. I decided to go down and give it a shot.
On July 12th 2007, the day my child was supposed to be born, I went to NYC to serve God and help men and women in situations like I was in. While I was there, I counseled around 500 men and women, and through God, saved at least 100 lives from abortion. I continued to do this work in Manchester, NH by sidewalk counseling, counseling in centers, coordinated 40 Days for Life in New Hampshire, and started speaking to different Churches and events, sharing my testimony and how abortion affects men. I recently moved to Florida where I am doing the same work. Even though I never got to meet my child, I miss my baby ever single day. I know my child is now in the arms of Jesus and I will meet him and hold him in heaven.
Theo Purington
Posted By Theo Purington on Jun, 23 2009

Boston Archdiocese Finally Admits It Would Promote Abortion With Insurance Plan

Here are some paragraphs from the Boston Globe story with my comments in blue.


Posted by Michael Paulson June 26, 2009 07:10 PM
Caritas Christi Health Care, the financially challenged Catholic hospital system founded by the Archdiocese of Boston, is abruptly ending its joint venture with a Missouri-based health insurer at the insistence of Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, who has decided that the relationship represented too much of an entanglement between Catholic hospitals and abortion providers. After weeks of denying it didn't represent an entanglement or promotion of abortion.
The dramatic development, just days before the joint venture was scheduled to start providing care to low-income residents as part of the state's efforts to establish near universal health coverage here, is a vindication of sorts for a variety of very conservative Catholic critics (If by conservative you mean those who want to conserve orthodox Catholic teaching, fine. But I suspect that this was used perjoratively ESP SINCE IT USES THE ADJECTIVE VERY.) of the cardinal, who have been arguing angrily and loudly Again this is done not simply to describe how the protestors feel, but it is done perjoratively to once more paint Pro-Lifers in a negative light. that it would be "evil" for Caritas to partner with a health provider that covers abortion services. Evil is what it would be, plain & simple. & faithful Catholics have the right to speak out about how wrong it was. & like Jesus was with the money changers, they have every right to be angry.
The development is also a setback for Caritas, because it represents the undoing of one of the most significant steps its new chief executive, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, had announced as part of his efforts to turn around the hospital system's finances. It was not immediately clear last night what the financial impact of the change is on Caritas, but the decision is a stark and public reminder from O'Malley to de la Torre and the general public that moral concerns will trump monetary concerns at the Catholic hospitals. (But only when Cardinal O'Malley is forced to.)
And here is a joint statement from the Archdiocese and Caritas announcing the development minutes ago:
"Based on the decision of the Caritas Christi Executive Committee of the Board of Governor's to relinquish its membership and equity interest in the previously established joint venture, CeltiCare Health Plan Holdings, LLC (formerly known as Commonwealth Family Health Plan Holdings, LLC) but maintain its important role as a provider of health care to many enrolled in the state's Connector Program, the Archdiocese of Boston today expressed support for the new arrangement.
Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley said, 'I am pleased that Caritas Christi was able to achieve this outcome. Throughout this process, our singular goal has been to provide for the needs of the poor and underserved in a manner that is fully and completely in accord with Catholic moral teaching. By withdrawing from the joint venture and serving the poor as a provider in the Connector, upholding Catholic moral teaching at all times, they are able to carry forward the critical mission of Catholic health care.'
Caritas Christi CEO Dr. Ralph de la Torre said, 'The opportunity for Caritas Christi to participate in the Connector program will allow Caritas to serve the low income and underserved population's desperate need for quality health care. We are committed to fulfilling our mission, as we always have, rooted in the principles established by Catholic teaching, of providing the highest quality healthcare to patients across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.'
Expansion of Caritas' care for the poor and the uninsured was the original motivating force in entering the agreement with Celtic Group, Inc. (a subsidiary of Centene Corporation). Catholic health care in the United States has two principal goals: providing health care for all, a basic requirement of social justice; and protecting the sacredness of human life from conception until natural death. The protection of human life and dignity demands that Catholic institutions never contribute to procedures which are inconsistent with Catholic moral teaching, such as abortion and sterilization. These procedures and others are prohibited by the Ethical and Religious Directives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Having withdrawn from the original joint venture, the provider agreement will allow Caritas Christi to fulfill its mission of serving the poor without participation or cooperation in procedures forbidden by the moral teaching of the Catholic Church.
The decision to withdraw from the joint venture follows several weeks of discussions between Caritas and Centene and an extensive analysis by the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) which was undertaken at the request of the Cardinal. Over that time, subsequent discussions involving Caritas Christi, the NCBC and the Archdiocese were held and the Cardinal made his final determination. The Cardinal's role in reviewing and seeking additional guidance on this proposal is rooted in his responsibility to ensure the Catholic identity and moral character of institutions affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston, including Caritas Christi.
'The goal of this review was to ensure that Caritas Christi could serve the poor through a plan for participation in the Connector that is in complete accordance with Catholic moral teaching,' said Cardinal O'Malley. 'I want to thank Dr. Ralph de la Torre and his team at Caritas Christi and the NCBC for their thoughtful collaboration. I also want to extend my sincere gratitude to Dr. John Haas and the staff at the National Catholic Bioethics Center for their diligent and comprehensive review of the proposal. I am pleased that they were able to provide a recommendation whereby Caritas can go forward in fulfilling its mission of Catholic healthcare.'"
After reading that statement i hope your head wasn't spinning too bad fromm all the spin it contained. The reality is that without the pressure kept on Cardinal O'Malley by faithful Catholics this never would have happenned. Caritas & the Archdiocese would have become abortion providers.
Congratulations to the Catholic Action League & American Life League for leading the battle.
Here is ALL's statement:
Washington, DC (26 June 2009) – The following is a statement from American Life League president Judie Brown regarding Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s announcement that archdiocese-affiliated Caritas Christi Healthcare has withdrawn ownership of CeltiCare Health Plan. The announcement comes only two days after A.L.L. announced it would launch an investigation into the scandal.
“Praise God! After months of tireless effort from American Life League and pro-life heroes in Boston and around the country to expose a potential scandal only days away from becoming a tragic betrayal of Catholicism’s unwavering commitment to the dignity of the human person, Cardinal Sean O’Malley has heard our voices and will end the joint venture with abortion-providing Centene Corp!
We profoundly thank Cardinal O’Malley for his courage, leadership and pastoral concern for the health and well-being of those youngest members of his archdiocese. He has set a beautiful example of dedication and charity for those poorest of the poor – the preborn.
Cardinal O’Malley has answered our call and beat the clock as the minutes ticked away until the July 1 launch of the new CeltiCare Health Plan and the Catholic Church’s participation in the intrinsic evil of abortion.
Together with the thousands of American Life League supporters whose voices cried out in horror to the Cardinal at the thought of the Archdiocese of Boston supporting and promoting abortion, we congratulate Cardinal O’Malley on his commitment to the Faith – even during this time of severe financial crisis.
It has been American Life League’s privilege and honor to work alongside Massachusetts heroes Carol McKinley, C.J. Doyle of Catholic Action League and many other Boston pro-lifers in our effort to bring this potential scandal to light.
Their constant vigilance and unwavering dedication to truth were a clear voice of conscience in Boston and the archdiocese is incredibly blessed to have such soldiers for Christ in their pews.
What happened in Boston will ring out far beyond the potential scandal that could have involved Caritas Christi and thereby the Archdiocese. Cardinal O'Malley's reaffirmation of the Faith, when it would have been all too easy to compromise, is a sign of the vitality of United States Catholics’ commitment to human life and personhood.
American Life League and our supporters are humbled to stand alongside Cardinal O’Malley as a sign of contradiction to the culture of death."
American Life League was cofounded in 1979 by Judie Brown. It is the largest grassroots Catholic pro-life organization in the United States and is committed to the protection of all innocent human beings from the moment of creation to natural death. For more information or press inquiries, please contact Katie Walker at 540.659.4942.

Amnesty International Now Resorting to Lies to Push Abortion Agenda

This is a followup to yesterday's post on AI & Poland:
I wish I couls say that AI resorting to lies surprizes me. But after all these years of dealing with the "culture of death" I'm not. They have lied again & again about what abortion is, the harm it does etc.
In 1977 AI won the Nobel Peace Prize for the work it did to end torture. Now it is promoting not only the torture, but the murder of the unborn. It is doing so under the guise of fighting violence against women. & abortion isn't violence to unborn women as well as men? AI has totally lost any moral authority it may have ever had.


Polish Girl was not raped, was not harassed by pro-lifers, was pressured to abort


By Alex Bush
June 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last year international media was awash with headlines about the case of pregnant 14-year-old Polish girl, who had become the focal point of the debate about abortion in the strongly pro-life country. In the end the girl aborted her child, apparently under intense pressure to do so from her mother and an international pro-abortion group.
But Amnesty International (AI), the human rights organization that last year announced that it now believes that legal access to abortion is a universal "human right," has now claimed that the girl, dubbed "Agata" by the Polish media, became pregnant as a result of a rape, and was then prevented the the hospitals from obtaining a legal abortion and was harassed by pro-life groups.
However, Tomasz Terlikowski, coauthor of a book about the controversy, called "Agata. The Anatomy of Manipulation," told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that AI's statement is "one big lie."
"There is absolutely no credibility to it," he said, "This is all a story made up by abortionists; they have absolutely nothing to confirm it. I really can't believe what we're reading in this report by AI."
The report, available on AI's website, claims that Agata was "pregnant as a result of rape." It also says that Agata "was subjected to delays in accessing a legal abortion," and that, "hospitals in Lublin and Warsaw refused to perform the abortion, despite its lawfulness, and failed to refer her."
The human rights group also accuses pro-life activists of "harassing" the girl and her mother, saying that Agata "and her mother were not protected from direct and personal harassment by abortion opponents."
Terlikowski told LSN, however, that the clear facts of the case tell a dramatically different story.
Rather than rape, said Terlikowski, the cause of the pregnancy was clearly attested to by Agata and her boyfriend, who "testified to the police that they had sex with mutual consent." Instead, it was "the mother and abortion activists who sold the rape story to the media" in an effort to obtain the abortion, he said.
As for the hospitals refusing to perform the abortion, Terlikowski observes that the delay had more to do with Agata herself, than with the hospital's willingness or unwillingness. The "hospitals refused to perform the abortion because the girl changed her mind many times, whether to abort or not," he said, noting that Agata "was under serious pressure from her mother and abortion advocates who 'took care' of her."
"Agata sent text messages to friends indicating that she was threatened with being kicked out of the house if she insisted on keeping her pregnancy," he told LSN. "She would sign and then withdraw her consent to abortion."
"So hospitals said 'we're not doing it, we have serious doubts if she wants it and if her decisions are independent.'"
Terlikowski also points out that "absolutely no 'harassment' from abortion opponents has been proved," noting that Agata "never spoke of any harassment because there wasn't any."
Terlikowski said that she "kept in touch with abortion opponents, including one priest, whom she texted regularly, but was forbidden from seeing. She communicated willingly with him often and treated him as a friend."
"The only example of 'harassment' that the most viciously pro-abortion newspaper [Gazeta Wyborcza] could quote on this issue," he said, "is that Agata received text messages saying 'save your baby, it will love you,' or that she was given a box of chocolate and a book about baby care from somebody at the hospital."
"The girl was isolated from abortion opponents early on once pro-abortion Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper started their vicious anti-life media campaign," Terlikowski said. "She was always in the company of her mother, abortion activists, including pro-abortion lawyer, sometimes a social worker."
"The police never found any proof or any trace of the alleged harassment from abortion opponents."
Related LifeSiteNews.com Coverage:
Amnesty International Tars Poland over Abortion Access
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jun/09062509.html
Poland in an Uproar after Coercive Abortion Pressure Put on 14-Year-Old by Planned Parenthood
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061008.html
Tragic Conclusion: Polish 14-Year-Old Aborts Baby in Controversial Case http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/jun/08061902.html

Torna a Surriento


"I Tre Giovani Tenori" from Ti Lascio Una Canzone, Gianluca Ginoble, Piero Barone & Ignazio Boschetto, strike again.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Laws Based on the 10 Commandments - Doesn't This Violate the Seperation of Church & State?

& what about the claim that we can't impose our morality on other? Well, in simple terms, the people that make those claims are wrong. Adams is right!!!!!
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If `Thou shalt not covet' and `Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free."
--John Adams, A Defense of the American Constitutions, 1787

Labels:

Amnesty International Continues Its War on the Unborn

I used to have some respect for Amnesty International. But when it opted to endorse the murder of the unborn via abortion it lost any & all moral authority it may have had.
On their website AI says they are "a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all." (emphasis mine) & "Our supporters are outraged by human rights abuses but inspired by hope for a better world - so we work to improve human rights through campaigning and international solidarity.' Yet they deny the most basic right of all, life, to the most helpless of all, the unborn.


By Piero A. Tozzi, J.D.
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) Amnesty International recently issued its 2009 survey of what it considers to be the state of human rights throughout the world. Of particular interest to social conservatives is Amnesty's continued campaign to advance a "right" to abortion globally.
In its entry on Poland , Amnesty raps the country for its alleged "Denial of access to abortion for eligible women," citing criticism that Poland received from the Human Rights Council (HRC) in May 2008. It further faulted the government for failing to implement a 2007 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), Tysiąc v. Poland, concerning a purported "duty to establish effective mechanisms for ensuring women have access to abortion where it is legal."
Critics charge, however, that both the HRC criticism and the 2007 ECHR decision highlighted by Amnesty underscore growing trends among "human rights" bodies that increasingly seek to impose obligations on countries based on social policy preferences rather than on hard jurisprudential principles.
The Tysiąc decision, which resulted in a 25,000 euro fine against the government of Poland, concerned a severely myopic woman who claimed she would go blind if she could not get an abortion. Critics charge that her claims were unsupported by the facts and that the court ignored the opinions of eight experts, including gynecologists and opthamologists, who concluded that there was no connection between her pregnancy and her condition.
ECHR Judge Javier Borrego Borrego of Spain, in a spirited dissent, noted that the majority instead relied on the "isolated and muddled" opinion of a single general practitioner in order to achieve the desired outcome. This view was echoed in the International Journal of Human Rights by Jakob Cornides, who wrote that the Court “simply…failed to establish any link between the facts and the law.”
By trumpeting decisions like Tysiąc and statements emanating from United Nations agencies to advance a global abortion agenda, Amnesty International has adopted a strategy originally spearheaded by pro-abortion public interest law firm Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).
According to Susan Yoshihara of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute [Publisher of the Friday Fax], at the Women Deliver conference held in London in 2007, Amnesty's "reproductive rights" coordinator Stephanie Schlitt committed the group to partnering with CRR to get abortion recognized as a human right through litigation, in part by arguing that such a right could be found in existing human rights treaties. While conceding that treaties are silent on abortion, Schlitt stated that skillful advocacy could help create recognition of a new "right to abortion" among a "critical mass" of United Nations officials and global jurists.
Prior to 2006, Amnesty was neutral on the subject and took the position that "no generally accepted right to abortion in international human rights law" existed. Since abandoning neutrality, Amnesty has repeatedly intervened in internal debates in countries like Mexico and the Dominican Republic claiming – incorrectly – that international law requires countries to permit abortion.

North Carolina & Planned Parenthood's Eugenic Roots

On Monday North Carolina put up a cast aluminum roadside marker remembering poor people, mental patients and prisoners who were sterilized against their will by state officials. (NC remembering victims of sterilization program) Between 1933 & 1973 more than 7,600 people were sterilized by "choice or coercion" under the state's so-called eugenics program.
While I applaud their admitting what they did was wrong, it is what they have failed to acknowledge that is just as interesting. The huge role Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger played in promoting eugenics. But then that isn't surprizing since those same tactics are still underlying PPs current business model.
For more on how Sanger's eugenics program still operates check out the info found here. The National Black Pro-Life Union & L.E.A.R.N. (Life Education And Resource Network) Northeast - Black Genocide also have more info on the Eugenics/abortion connection.
I find it interesting that NC ended the eugenics program the same year Roe v Wade & Doe v Bolton legalized the abortion alternative that is now being used to the program intended to keep thousands of people considered mentally disabled or otherwise genetically inferior from having children. Now with Pre-natal testing we can eliminate those same people before there is even a need, as Sanger would say, to sterilize them.
Sadly, in 1927 the US Supreme Court said in Buck v. Bell that states could involuntarily sterilize those they deamed inferior. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote in the 1927 ruling: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough." Even worse, that ruling has never been overturned. (U.S. eugenics legacy: Ruling on Buck sterilization still stands)
Expressing his concerns about how we will handle the ethical questions of possible genetic "improvements" to humanity, University of Maryland historian Steven Selden said: "We're going to revisit all the ethical conundrums that were inherent in the eugenics movement as we move forward."
He is right. we are heading down the same road. In a way I was surprized the USA Today printed an article about Paul Lombardo & his efforts to publicize the terrible history of eugenics. Again because of the Sanger/PP link which USA Today failed to mention in the article. But, I suppose that the editors felt it was safe for USA Today to do so since that link is regularly swept under the rug.
In October 2008, Lombardo published Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court and Buck v. Bell that looked at the history of Buck v Bell. He was named a 2009 Georgia Author of the Year for that book. He is also working on 100 Years of Eugenics: From the Indiana Experiment to the Human Genome Project. Last February Lombardo traveled to Rome to speak about the danger of eugenics at the Vatican.
These days, eugenics may be sanitized under other names, but it is still the same evil. & we need to realize that it is a part of the agenda of the "culture of death". & it is being promoted stealthily in the name of health.

Labels: ,

YouTube Helps PP Cover Up Truth About Abortion

From the Live Action Website:

Planned Parenthood falsely says abortion pictures are "not real"

On June 24th, Live Action uploaded a video to YouTube which was removed by YouTube shortly thereafter for "violation of the YouTube Community Guidelines". No detailed explanation was provided and YouTube also give our account a "warning strike".

OUR CASE WHY YOUTUBE UNFAIRLY REMOVED THE VIDEO
We do not believe that our video violates YouTube's guidelines for the following reasons:
- Our video did not disclose the identity or full name of the Planned Parenthood staffer involved.
- The four pictures of an abortion that we provided in our video were with rational context and warning. The images were not shock content and were less graphic than other videos on YouTube. Many graphic medical procedures are found on YouTube.
Warning, some of these are very graphic.
YouTube does not permit "shock" videos. Our video is clearly not a shock video as the graphic content is providing with a warning and a reasonable context for display. It is clear that our video passes the standard provided by the following YouTube Policy.
"The world is a dangerous place. Sometimes people do get hurt and it’s inevitable that these events may be documented on YouTube. However, it’s not okay to post violent or gory content that’s primarily intended to be shocking, sensational or disrespectful. If a video is particularly graphic or disturbing, it should be balanced with additional context and information. For instance, including a clip from a slaughter house in a video on factory farming may be appropriate. However, stringing together unrelated and gruesome clips of animals being slaughtered in a video may be considered gratuitous if its purpose is to shock rather than illustrate." (
source)
ACTION ITEM:
Contact YouTube and ask them why the LiveActionFilms video was removed on June 24th.
YouTube web form. (select Video removal)
YouTube, LLC
901 Cherry Ave.
San Bruno, CA 94066
USA
Phone: +1 650-253-0000 or 650-343-2960
Fax: +1 650-253-0001
Press can ask YouTube about this at: press@youtube.com

Here is the video followed by Live Action's background:


Planned Parenthood Falsely Says Abortion Pictures Are "not Real" - Free videos are just a click away

THE STORY BEHIND VIDEO
A Planned Parenthood staffer in Tucson, Arizona tells undercover Live Action actors Lila Rose and Jackie Stollar that abortion pictures are "not real". This complete fabrication by Planned Parenthood appears to reveal their manipulation of the counseling situation so that the alleged 15-year-old girl would agree to submit to an abortion.
Authentication of abortion images:
Additional abortion images:
Courtesy of Center for Bio-Ethical ReformVideo of an actual abortion:

Labels:

Whither CCCB?

The other day I put up a post looking at what is going on with the CCCB scandal. The Heresy Hunter sent me a response. Part of the repsonse shared a l;ittle of the history of the CCCB that I feel should be shared here.
"Al, if you think the USCCB is infected with bureaucratic corruption and immorality, the CCCB up here in Canada is way worse. Recall: Canadian bishops, in outright defiance to the Pope's issuance of Humanae Vitae, countered with their "Winnipeg Statement", which effectively denied all that the encyclical propounded. This statement cannot be found on the CCCB website. . . . . Gregory Baum, who was a priest (at the time), highly responsible for the wording in the Winnipeg Statement. He left the priesthood soon after, latterly advocating Marxist liberation theology, and married an ex-nun." (You can read the full Winnepeg Statement here.)
Officially, the CCCB has never retracted that statement. Thus it is still the official position of the CCCB. (Canadian Catholics Ask Bishops to Retract Winnipeg Statement - Recommit to Humanae Vitae)
I was familiar with the Winnipeg Statement & some of its fallout. But was not aware of who was behind it. needless to say the direction Gregory Baum's life took did not surprize me.
The whole mess of that statement reminds me of the mess created by the Land O' Lakes Statement in the US. The 1967 statement effectively divorced Catholic Colleges from the Catholic Church. & the American Bishops went along. When Ex Corde Ecclessia came out, Pope John Paul provided the USCCB with the means to put things back in right order. The USCCB basicly refused to.
What we are seeing here in the US & Canada is just a modern version of dissent by groups of Bishops that has been seen over the centuries. In the end, this is a part of the 2000 year effort by Satan to destroy the Catholic Church. He won't. But that doesn't mean we accept it, or remain silent. We need to pray, speak out & support groups like LifeSiteNews & The Cardinal Newman Society who are working to get the truth out. Silence is not an option. Speaking up for the truth is our responsibility. It is a part of our call.

Labels:

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Marie Stopes International and Ipas Announce Strategy to Expand Access to Abortion

1 of the best things about this is that the Pro-Life Movement can be ready to counter the lies & misinformation that will be promulgated by abortion advocates to impliment that strategy.



By Samantha Singson
(NEW YORK – C-FAM) A year-and-a-half after the "Global 'Safe Abortion'" conference took place in London, abortion advocates Marie Stopes International and Ipas just released the conference report detailing the abortion movement’s worldwide strategy. While organizers claimed that the primary objective of the conference was to "save women's lives and reduce maternal mortality," the report reveals that participants prioritized a so-called "right" to "safe and legal abortion" above all else – dismissing any evidence of its harmful effects on women and even denying the right of conscientious medical professionals to object to participating in abortions.

The 800 conference participants, culled from the world's major abortion advocacy groups, crafted and signed the "Global Call to Action for Women’s Access to Safe Abortion" demanding that women everywhere "have full access to legal, voluntary, safe, and affordable abortions as part of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care." The Call to Action also demanded that governments reform their laws and policies "at all levels" to ensure "rights to contraception and safe abortion," and that medical schools provide "physicians, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare workers" with abortion training.

Presenters lamented that even where abortion is legal, there are technical and policy barriers to contend with, such as shortages of trained, authorized healthcare personnel, particularly in rural areas. Strategies to address this lack of access to abortion focused on training non-physician "mid-level providers," such as nurses and midwives, and promoting "medication abortion" to "facilitate" the "explusion of uterine contents," as well as undermining conscience protections relied on by physicians, nurses and other health care workers opposed to taking unborn life.

Advocates were encouraged to press for greater liberalization where abortion is permitted "to preserve the woman’s health" by urging abortionists to argue that abortion was necessary to achieve the World Health Organization’s definition of health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Apart from pushing for legalization, conference participants were urged to argue for the broadest interpretation of existing laws and policies and attack "other medically unnecessary administrative constraints that hinder access," such as requirements for spousal and parental consent and multiple physician authorizations. They were also urged to combat pro-lifers’ success in linking “pregnancy termination” to cancer, infertility and severe psychological trauma.

While those involved in the conference purported to help women by lowering maternal mortality through legalizing abortion, a new publication from National Right to Life (NRLC) points out that the lack of modern medicine and quality health care, not the prohibition of abortion, "results in high maternal mortality rates." Contrary to "safe abortion" advocates’ claims, NRLC argues that liberalization "in the developing world, where maternal health care is poor, [...] would increase the number of women who die or are harmed by abortion."

Indeed, a recent United Nations treaty body submission by the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) conceded that the nation of Sri Lanka had made great strides in lowering maternal mortality while retaining laws penalizing abortion that CRR considers among the world’s “most restrictive.”

Labels:

LifeSiteNews.com Headlines

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Get this widget!
Visit the Widget Gallery
FaithMouse