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“As the clock ticks toward midnight and a shutdown of the federal government, President Obama and congressional leaders still lack a budget deal — and still dispute the major causes of the impasse that threatens to disrupt government operations.
“The government runs out of money at midnight unless Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., can resolve differences that appear to be narrow but intense.
“Reid said this morning that Democrats have agreed to $38 billion in budget cuts, but the big hold-up is Republican insistence on the inclusion of non-budget items in a final bill — particularly a proposal to de-fund Planned Parenthood because of abortion services. ‘This all deals with women’s health,’ Reid said.”
Us: Who is being ideological now, Sen. Reid? Taxpayers ought not be forced to fund the nation’s largest abortion provider. Even if you disagree, can we not see this is as an extraneous expenditure at this fiscally tight point?
Update: The Politico said of the deal, “The budget agreement reached late Friday night will not defund either the health care law or Planned Parenthood, but the Senate has agreed to take separate votes on both measures.” It’s hard to see how this is not a huge victory for Planned Parenthood. All the pressure to do the right thing is off. Go figure.
“The scandal and heartache of teen pregnancy has been exploited by producers of popular prime-time TV, who have made stories of 16-year-olds stumbling through accelerated adolescence into marketable drama. Likewise, news media have scrutinized the teen birth phenomenon for some time.
“The truly shocking and underreported story, however, is that of unmarried 20-something parents. While 21 percent of children born outside of marriage are to teen mothers, more than 60 percent of unwed births occur to women in their 20s”
“It is not the young girls studying for the SAT or fretting over their prom prospects that make up the majority of women bearing the 40 percent of children born outside marriage. It is women in their 20s and 30s, demonstrating the impact of increasing cohabitation and the collapse of marriage, who are putting cradles before wedding bands.”
“New York (CNN) — A New York billboard that focused exclusively on African-American abortion rates was taken down because of concerns for public safety, said Hal Kilshaw, spokesperson for Louisiana-based Lamar Advertising, on Thursday. The billboard was erected by group opposed to abortions.”
From NPR: “The chants, chaos and cries from the streets of Cairo and other cities in Egypt this week revive questions for historians and political scientists that politicians have to answer with practical policies. Host Scott Simon speaks with Dr. J. Rufus Fears, a historian and Classics scholar at the University of Oklahoma, about western concepts of democracy and the events now sweeping Egypt and the Middle East.”
Click here to listen and read this excerpt from the transcript below:
SIMON: What are some of your thoughts as you see these pictures from Egypt?
Dr. FEARS: Well, freedom is not a universal value. And many people, in many places, at many times have chosen the perceived security of a strong ruler – an authoritarian ruler, even a despotic ruler – over the awesome responsibility of self-government. That has been the choice of the Middle East, that is to say autocracy, since the birth of civilization in the Middle East in Iraq and Egypt 5,000 years ago.
SIMON: So as you take a look at whats happening, does that give you any pause to refresh your view? Or how do you see it?
Dr. FEARS: This is how regime change occurs in the Middle East – again, going back 5,000. A tyrannical ruler will ultimately so outrage the people through high prices for food, in particular, and oppressive taxations, and open corruption that these demonstrations will begin.
Our first great work of literature, “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” describing a situation in Iraq around 2700 B.C., has just the same story. The people rise up against a strong ruler and force him into exile. And that is the history of Egypt from, say, pharaonic times onward. And that will be the outcome of this particular crisis.
CITY JOURNAL has published a must-read column on teen pregnancy. The writer says:
“Within my lifetime, single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness. In our society, perversely, we celebrate the unwed mother as a heroic figure, like a fireman or a police officer. During the last presidential election, much was made of Obama’s mother, who was a single parent. Movie stars and pop singers flaunt their daddy-less babies like fishing trophies.”
“None of this is lost on my students. In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant.”
Read the full column here: http://city-journal.org/2011/21_1_teen-pregnancy.html
“Governor Andrew Cuomo has seen fit to invite his girlfriend of five years, the statuesque blonde Sandra Lee, into the Governor’s mansion. Sandra Lee has a cooking show I actually like called Semi-Homemade in which she gives tips on how to entertain so it appears you made various dishes from scratch. Andrew Cuomo also seems like a sober-minded Democrat. Nonetheless, this spectacle is a good gauge of the decline of marriage particularly in the East.”
Read more here: http://www.frumforum.com/semi-married
“Will a federal emergency-medical-treatment law be rewritten to mandate that all hospitals provide abortions?”
Our criteria include:
a) focus on the Christ Child and all His coming means;
b) whether it has stood the test of time (i.e. newer songs have the burden of proof; and
c) musical quality (though I realize many older hymns were later put to other tunes).
But first, honorable mentions include: Hallelujah! Chorus (I was recently told this was actually part of the Easter, not Christmas, portion of Handel’s Messiah); O Come All Ye Faithful, and Mary Did You Know?
The top five are:
5. What Child Is This? (I love the composer’s answer to his own question)
4. Away in a Manger (Children love this song and for good reason)
3. Silent Night (Is there any more serene song that this?)
2. O Holy Night (enough said)
A while back, we praised Steve Jobs for not allowing pornographic material in the App store. With equal force, today, we roundly criticize him for a bad move.
“Apple has removed an iPhone app considered anti-gay following a wave of protests sent through the online petition site Change.org. Initially approved and available in the App Store in October, the Manhattan Declaration app was submitted by members of the Manhattan Declaration, a movement launched last year by a number of Christian leaders espousing their condemnation of both gay marriage and abortion rights.”
The Manhattan Declaration is not an anti-gay statement, in any sense. It is a carefully worded, Christian statement about Christianity and culture Today, done with gentleness and respect. While “public opinion” (i.e. a critical mass of Apple users) was right in its opposition to pornography in the App store last time, this time it is in the wrong.
Therefore, Apple should reconsider this reactionary move.
Read more about this developing story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20024274-37.html#ixzz16thP7jXM
Update: “Signers of the Manhattan Declaration — a Christian document at the heart of a growing controversy — have resubmitted a tweaked “app” to Apple in hopes that the company will approve it after pulling an earlier version from its iPhone/iPad app store.” Read more: http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=34245
“In a recent cover story entitled “Who Needs Marriage?” the news-weekly (itself on the verge of extinction) unveils Pew Research Center findings that today fewer American adults are married than ever before (about 50 percent compared to nearly 70 percent in 1960), only 46 percent of unmarried people would like to get married and almost 40 percent of American adults think marriage is obsolete.
“Why? In part, because Americans no longer consider “tying the knot” a prerequisite for sex or child-rearing. So while many Americans continue to celebrate marriage (witness the appeal of shows like “The Bachelor” and the collective obsession with the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton), they no longer view it as necessary.
“America’s view of marriage as just another “lifestyle choice” is not without costs. Although Time attempts to paint a rosy picture of changing families and alternative parenting arrangements, the Pew study contains some sobering facts about American children…”
We’re not exactly sure who first wrote this, but we thought some of you might enjoy this list circulating on the Web.
Of course, some of these are quite a bit over the top, but here we give you the top ten reasons liberals hate the holidays:
10 – Thanksgiving is mass murder for turkeys.
9 – Too many SUVs traveling to grandma’s house.
8 – College bowl games encourage competition.
7 – Millions of Christmas trees are cut down.
6 – The pilgrims thought up Thanksgiving.
5 – Christmas lights waste electricity.
4 – People are giving thanks to WHOM?
3 – Winter lull in global-warming hype.
2 – Daycare centers are closed.
1 – Christmas celebrates a birth, not an abortion.
Imagine for a moment, a la Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, you could transport founding father and patriot Patrick Henry to today’s time. Imagine further you would take him to an American airport. I’m sure he would be shocked bedazzled to see the flying contraptions (not to mention the small rectangular object people held up to their ears). He might even be delighted, hoping to go tell Benjamin Franklin of what he saw.
Yet then imagine his horror to see a TSA attendant invasively frisking a nun in public, one who refused to walk through a “magic-like” machine that showed a person without clothes. Let’s listen in to the conversation:
TSA worker: Can I see your ticket, sir? It says here you paid with cash not plastic. We may have to search you.
Patrick Henry: What do you mean, plastic? May I ask who you are?
TSA worker: I work for the Transportation Security Administration of the Federal Government?
Patrick Henry: The what?
TSA worker: Put your hands above your head and let us scan you?
Patrick Henry: I beg your pardon!
TSA worker: Security!
Patrick Henry: Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you.
TSA worker: It’s for your own safety sir [as the worker invasively frisks him]
Patrick Henry: My safety? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of this shame? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me modesty … or give me death!
This is a silly illustration is to show the depths to which we have sunk. At the price of supposed security, we are giving up far more important things. I oppose the new TSA regulations for the following reasons:
1) The new scanners are an invasion of privacy and decorum;
2) The new frisking tactics are an invasion of privacy and modesty;
3) The new system is unnecessary. The previous security system worked. Even the “Fruit of kaboom” underwear bomber’s plan did not work, as he had to go to such great lengths to circumvent the system that his bomb was not functional.
4) Last but least, the new system is too costly. Specially trained dogs could be much more effective and cost-effective.
In sum, count me with the growing group of Americans fed up with the erosion of our modesty and yes, our liberty. Yes, please forbid it Almighty God!
“Colorado voters on Tuesday rejected what was said to be the nation’s only pro-life amendment.”
“Personhood Amendment 62, which would have given human rights to the unborn, was defeated by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. This is the second time the pro-life measure was voted down.”
“‘Tonight’s victory sends a strong message that Colorado is a pro-choice state,’ Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Monica McCafferty told The Colorado Independent.”
Read more here (and weep).
Beyond the normal 2010 election headlines you’ll read, there are a couple of social conservatives wins we want you to see:
3 Justices Booted in Iowa after Same-sex ‘Marriage’ Ruling
and
The Family Research Council has produced a superb primer on Ella, the so-called “morning-after pill” that could cause a skyrocketing in chemical abortions. It begins:
As we previously reported, on August 13th the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quietly announced approval of a new prescription abortion drug called “ella,” allowing Watson Pharmaceuticals to market this drug in the U.S. as an “emergency contraceptive” (EC). While proponents of ella claim that it is more effective than the so-called “morning-after-pill,” Plan B, ella can also function as an abortion drug (more like RU-486) [emphasis added].
Ella is similar in its chemical make-up to RU-486 and therefore can destroy an implanted embryo, in addition to other such effects as preventing fertilization or preventing implantation. Until now, the FDA has drawn the line between EC and abortion based on whether a drug prevents or ends an established pregnancy. Therefore, approving ella as an EC even under its own definition of an abortifacient is doubly misleading.
Due to the FDA’s approval of “ella” as an EC, pharmacists may believe they must cover ella as a prescription drug. However, many pharmacists do not know about the dangers of this drug or that it functions like an abortifacient. Many pharmacies may not know ella can cause an abortion, and need to be aware of these concerns before they begin stocking this abortion drug.
We realize our blog readers are among the brightest in the country. To test your religious knowledge, please take this quiz. Feel free to let us know your score.
http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/index.php
‘The Case for Marriage‘ is the most important piece National Review magazine has published in quite some time. It begins:
If it is true, as we are constantly told, that American law will soon redefine marriage to accommodate same-sex partnerships, the proximate cause for this development will not be that public opinion favors it, although it appears to be moving in that direction. It will be that the most influential Americans, particularly those in law and the media, have been coming increasingly to regard opposition to same-sex marriage as irrational at best and bigoted at worst.
They therefore dismiss expressions of that opposition, even when voiced by a majority in a progressive state, as illegitimate. Judges who believe that same-sex marriage is obviously just and right can easily find ways to read their views into constitutions, to the applause of the like-minded.
The emerging elite consensus in favor of same-sex marriage has an element of self-delusion about it. It denies that same-sex marriage would work a radical change in American law or society, insisting to the contrary that within a few years of its triumph everyone will wonder what all the fuss was about. But its simultaneous insistence that opponents are the moral equivalent of the white supremacists of yesteryear belies these bland assurances.
Read the rest here.
This new documentary called, “Blood Money” attempts to expose Planned Parenthood.
Christianity Today posted an important article by an author of a new book that explores if and how Christianity and cool go together. It begins:
To remain relevant, many evangelical pastors are following the lead of hipster trendsetters. So what happens when ‘cool’ meets Christ?
A U.S. district court issued a preliminary injunction on Monday stopping federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, in a slap to the Obama administration’s new guidelines on the sensitive issue.
Beginning to think about whom you’ll vote for in Oklahoma’s primary on July 27?
Check out Oklahomans for Life’s pro-life questionnaire, to see how the candidates answered the number one policy topic.
To our Pilgrim’s Progress readers, we say: May you and your family have a very blessed Independence Day (Fourth of July). And may the Lord make us ever more grateful for the nation in which we live.
“ICANN has approved XXX as a top-level domain,” reports PC World. The secular magazine gets it pretty close to right when they say: “The adult entertainment industry will soon have its own glaringly obvious domain, but unfortunately that doesn’t necessarily mean that dot-COM domains will suddenly be porn-free.”
They add, “However, porn sites will be like dolphins. All dolphins are whales, but not all whales are dolphins. Dolphins are a subset of the larger whale family. Similarly, all XXX sites will be porn, but not all porn sites will be XXX. Many porn sites have a long and established presence as a dot-COM domain and will not simply abandon that.”
We rue ICAN’s decision, and in a blog post last Spring, warned this moment would come.
“A new Baptist Press article explores why citizens should not extend a new place in this World Wide Web for pornographers, explaining how it would among other things:
(a) create a more legitimate platform for an illegitimate cause,
(b) create a cultural Trojan horse, and
(c) pad pornographers pockets.
It says in part:
“A former U.S. Department of Justice employee is urging people to speak out against the proposed formation of an Internet domain exclusively for pornographic websites.
“Until May 10, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is accepting input from the public on whether to establish the domain, marking the third time the idea has been considered.
“Patrick Trueman, a former chief of the Justice Department’s child exploitation and obscenity section, said the .xxx domain would not clean up the .com domain by requiring all pornographers to move to .xxx.
‘The .com domain is a cash cow for pornographers and they are not leaving it,” Trueman wrote in comments submitted to ICANN. “ICANN has no enforcement powers to make them leave and thus clean up .com. Pornographers would simply expand to .xxx and maintain their current .com sites, perhaps doubling the number of porn sites and doubling their menace to society.’”
Read the rest here.
WASHINGTON (BP)–You can’t keep a good state down. Proving that its state motto, “Equality Before the Law,” truly applies to all its residents, Nebraska has again stepped up to take the lead against the horrific practice of late-term abortion and its main proponent, LeRoy Carhart.
By the overwhelming margin of 44-5, Nebraska’s unicameral legislature passed a bill April 13 that bans abortions after 20 weeks of gestation, except when the abortion would preserve the life or physical health of the mother. Gov. Dave Heineman signed the bill into law that same day.
Read more here: http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=33107
News: Oklahoma Legislature overrides third abortion veto
http://www.newsok.com/multimedia/video/87997947001
Now comes the news today that “Henry vetoes two pro-life bills on Friday.
With due respect to the Governor, your reasons for the vetoes are paper thin and do not err on the side of life. Here’s to hoping you’ll see the light, so more babies can see the light of day.
Update: The Legislature overrides Henry’s vetoes!
In “Fiscal Conservatism Is Not Enough: What Social Conservatives Offer the Party of Lincoln,” scholar Robert Patterson offers key insight.
In this recent TV interview, when asked about the Executive Order related to abortion and the health care bill, self-proclaimed pro-life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak says:
“There is nothing that would stop this president from a month from now, a year from now, 10 years from now, of repealing this executive order.”
Ten years from now? So much for Presidential term limits.
Be that as it may, many in the pro-life movement think Bart Stupak betrayed the pro-life cause with his deal. At the very least you could make a strong case he blundered, because:
1) the executive order could be, to his own admission, can be easily undone;
2) taxpayer funded abortions will in fact occur in this system, if only the ones included in the legal exceptions (e.g. for cases of rape); and
3) the $11B in funding to Community Health Centers could be, and likely will be used to subsidize abortions, as money is fungible.
Here’s to hoping Rep. Stupak knows better than we.
Happy Thanksgiving to, in our opinion, the brightest group of blog readers on the World Wide Web! May the Lord bless you and yours.
We’re not exactly sure who first wrote this, but we thought some of you might enjoy this list circulating on the Web.
Of course, some of these are quite a bit over the top, but here we give you the top ten reasons liberals hate the holidays:
10 – Thanksgiving is mass murder for turkeys.
9 – Too many SUVs traveling to grandma’s house.
8 – College bowl games encourage competition.
7 – Millions of Christmas trees are cut down.
6 – The pilgrims thought up Thanksgiving.
5 – Christmas lights waste electricity.
4 – People are giving thanks to WHOM?
3 – Winter lull in global-warming hype.
2 – Daycare centers are closed.
1 – Christmas celebrates a birth, not an abortion.
One word can stop you in your tracks when you seek to “give an account for the hope that is in you” as an ambassador for Christ. That word is “tolerance.”
–Gregory Koukl, in an article from the Christian Research Journal, volume 24, number 4 (2002)
“A person’s a person, no matter how small.”
-Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!
We speak with one voice today in condemnation of the recent murder of George Tiller.
From following our blog, you know we have no admiration for the man, who was a notorious late-term abortionist. Yet this heinous crime brings us no joy whatsoever, only grief. An immoral, evil act like this deserves the utmost penalty under the law.
Here’s to a happy new year. Our prayer is that we truly make it the year of our Lord.
Last week, the Democrat’s Convention contained several notable speeches, including one by Michelle Obama. This week, at the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, there were many speeches worthy of comment. To that end, below is our assessment of the major ones that provided the driving force for the convention, and thus, determined the momentum of the upcoming elections. Our grades are, as is with everyone, mostly subjective.
John McCain: B+
Explanation: His words were Churchillian, his story is heroic, his delivery was a tad lacking and lengthy. He’ll make a great President though. [listen to a speech excerpt].
Sarah Palin: A+
Explanation: She stole the show and single-handedly shifted the momentum of the election. She was feisty but not flashy. She was substantive but not boring [speech excerpt].
The pro-life movement has long needed an eloquent spokeswoman on the national stage. In Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, we appear to have been given that gift.
For this reason and more, we wholeheartedly endorse this historic selection by Sen. John McCain.
Out of a deep sense of duty to our readers, we went to see the new documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The film, starring Ben Stein, is definitely worth seeing, and has something to say. Unlike the Al Gore documentary, it has not won critical acclaim and will likely not have the staying power of the former Vice President’s green movie. It could, however, outdo Michael Moore’s so-called art.
‘Expelled’ tells the story of Stein’s exploration of why those in the scientific community have been banished when even suggesting the consideration of intelligent design as a reasonable alternative to teaching the evolution theory.
Throughout the film, Stein makes the analogy of the evolutionary theory being a contributor to the rise of the Nazi Holocaust, communism, atheism and Planned Parenthood.
References of the Holocaust are depicted with some graphic scenes. The horrific eugenic experiments that Nazi scientists performed on disabled people also are mentioned in the film.
The movie’s culmination centers on Stein’s interview with Richard Dawkins, one of today’s prominent scientists who promotes the scientific theory of evolution. There’s quite a dramatic build-up to the interview where Stein gets Dawkins to admit there could be a possibility of intelligent design. However, Dawkins refuses to believe in the popular intelligent designer.
Stein is his typical self. His dusty dry sense of humor is splattered throughout the film. If you appreciate his character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you will enjoy ‘Expelled.’ And you will experience Stein’s passion of seeking truth, which we hope you share.