The article The War Against Girls in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal reviews Mara Hvistendahl’s book “Unnatural Selection”, where the title of this post comes from. As a strong anti-abortion advocate and even stronger pro-adoption supporter, the reality of folks around the world using technology to kill their own unborn daughters to have a larger percentage of sons is abhorrent. Another terror brought about by the ‘elite’ among us.

But oddly enough, Ms. Hvistendahl notes, it is usually a country’s rich, not its poor, who lead the way in choosing against girls. “Sex selection typically starts with the urban, well-educated stratum of society,” she writes. “Elites are the first to gain access to a new technology, whether MRI scanners, smart phones—or ultrasound machines.” The behavior of elites then filters down until it becomes part of the broader culture. Even more unexpectedly, the decision to abort baby girls is usually made by women—either by the mother or, sometimes, the mother-in-law.

Bad things happen when there aren’t enough women to tame and civilize the men in a society.

Ms. Hvistendahl argues that such imbalances are portents of Very Bad Things to come. “Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live,” she writes. “Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent.” As examples she notes that high sex ratios were at play as far back as the fourth century B.C. in Athens—a particularly bloody time in Greek history—and during China’s Taiping Rebellion in the mid-19th century. (Both eras featured widespread female infanticide.) She also notes that the dearth of women along the frontier in the American West probably had a lot to do with its being wild. In 1870, for instance, the sex ratio west of the Mississippi was 125 to 100. In California it was 166 to 100. In Nevada it was 320. In western Kansas, it was 768.

The article wraps up with some conclusions that I heartily agree with:

Despite the author’s intentions, “Unnatural Selection” might be one of the most consequential books ever written in the campaign against abortion. It is aimed, like a heat-seeking missile, against the entire intellectual framework of “choice.” For if “choice” is the moral imperative guiding abortion, then there is no way to take a stand against “gendercide.” Aborting a baby because she is a girl is no different from aborting a baby because she has Down syndrome or because the mother’s “mental health” requires it. Choice is choice. One Indian abortionist tells Ms. Hvistendahl: “I have patients who come and say ‘I want to abort because if this baby is born it will be a Gemini, but I want a Libra.’ ”

This is where choice leads. This is where choice has already led. Ms. Hvistendahl may wish the matter otherwise, but there are only two alternatives: Restrict abortion or accept the slaughter of millions of baby girls and the calamities that are likely to come with it.

It’s time to overturn Roe v. Wade, and “educate” our girls and young women that an unwanted pregnancy can become a very special gift through the selflessness of giving that child up for adoption. One can only hope that we are not so totally gone over to narcissism for this to eventually come to pass.

Fifty nine years ago today, couldn’t tell ya the time without tearing the place apart to find the birth certificate (at least I DO HAVE ONE! ), a 5-plus pound baby boy was born in a clinic in Tulsa Oklahoma. Some poor soul, for reasons unknown, was unable, or unwilling to keep the child that her body had produced, and instead of finding some back-alley abortion option had carried it to term and then had given it up for adoption.

A few hours after being born, that baby boy went home with the only parents he ever knew, James (Duke) and Anna Mae Baker to a little house on No. Cincinatti in Tulsa. A few years later the crew moved to a farm outside of Collinsville where I had a near idyllic childhood. I often think back in wonder at all the experiences had on that plot of land, especially when I see the kids getting out of middle-school a few blocks from here walking home, texting or talking on their smart phones, beating the neighbors flowers with sticks, talkin’ trash at each other . . . knowing that they are going home to their Playstations and iPods, YouTube video making and the like. They’ll never know what they have missed out on, but their souls will long for something . . . more.

Each year on this day I reflect on the thought that if Roe vs Wade had been the law of the land in February 1952, I am most certain that I would not be here to write this. Many tens of millions of nascent human beings have had their lives terminated since that SCOTUS decision. I truly wish that folks would make the right choice when faced with an unwanted pregnancy, and choose LIFE. There’s always some good folks out there without kids of their own — waiting, wanting to love and raise that baby as their very own.

So, thanks birth mom, whoever, wherever you are/were — my birthday wish is that there will be many more like you with the strength and courage to do the right thing. Who knows, 59 years from now, some grateful son or daughter might just be thanking you . . .

If we aren’t in the End Times, then it sure is a fine rehearsal . . .

Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed; 'Global Islamic conquest'...

This is what “Single Payer” inevitably leads to:

Ed Morrissey pegs it:

We knew it would come to this when Oregon insisted on passing its assisted-suicide laws. It doesn’t take much for assisted suicide to go from a humane option to a cost-saving device, especially when the state pays for the medical care. One patient in Oregon got a letter that made this all too clear, when in the same letter rejecting her request for life-extending chemotherapy, Oregon offered her “physician-aid-in-dying”. In other words, Oregon offered their customer a heapin’ helping of death:

Just a little preview of the nightmare that will be Obamacare.

Sign the petition — Your very life will depend upon stopping this abomination of Obamacare!

This morning at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, the late-term abortionist George Tiller was murdered by an assailant who was later apprehended in a Kansas City suburb. Mark my words, all hell will break loose now with the pro-abortion lobby accusing those of us that are Pro-Life with being nothing but a bunch of homicidal lunatics and will present Tiller as a fallen warrior for a noble cause. Wait, that’s happening already:

Today, [Dr. Ann Kristin] Neuhaus said that she had expected further violence after Tiller’s acquittal. “I knew it was going to antagonize these people that he quote, unquote, got off the hook,” she said. “Dr. Tiller really was a warrior. He was a quiet, persistent, capable visionary, a true leader. Even if he had known it was going to end up this way, he wouldn’t have been deterred.”

{…}

Kelli Conlin, president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, echoed that sentiment in a statement about Tiller’s death: “It is cold-blooded, vicious actions like today’s assassination that make it hard for those of us in the pro-choice community to find common ground with those on the other side. It is lawless, violent behavior like this that makes us fear for our lives and our families. When they sit down across from us, they have no reason to believe that we come to the table with violent intentions. Today is a brutal reminder that we are not privileged to have the same sense of security.”

[Update: Also see here, and here.]

President Obama’s reaction:

“However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion,” he said in a statement, “they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

{…} “The fact is that at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable.”

This is not going to get the job done on the Pro-Life side. Tiller belonged in prison, or removed from the medical profession — not gunned down like an animal.

You watch, though. The person that did this heinous act is probably quite disturbed. However, unlike a “disturbed” killer of young women or children, those of the most liberal bent will not be cutting Tiller’s assassin any slack. They’ll cry for his head, and would take his soul, too — if they believed that we had souls. As Michelle Malkin writes:

Unfortunately, it’s too much to ask the cable news networks and hyper-partisan snipers on the Internet to have the decency to restrain themselves.

Prepare for a wall-to-wall onslaught of gleeful finger-pointing on the Left and heated responses on the Right.

Prepare for whitewashed hagiographies of Tiller’s career as an abortionist.

Prepare for DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano’s defenders to gloat about vindication.

Prepare for collective demonization of pro-lifers and Christians — and more gratuitous attempts to tar talk radio, Fox News, and the Tea Party movement as responsible for the heinous crime.

Prepare for the continuing redefinition of any and all sharp political disagreement as “hate” — a ruinous trend that inevitably comes back to haunt the hysterical accusers decrying “hate” the loudest.

Mark my words . . .

Visit The Anchoress’ blog to catch up on Heather, Kim and Little Faith. Then you will comprehend the significance of this excerpt:

I am absolutely astounded, instructed, edified and in all ways humbled in the face of faith this open, courageous and hearty. In a world where society encourages us to avoid the painful realities of life (and all the terrible beauty found therein) to shut ourselves off and remain comfortably anesthetized throughout our lives, these young women and their husbands – with the help of family, friends and faith – say “yes” to the difficult, “yes to the pain, “yes” to what comes their way.

What I see, over and over again in their stories is a peace the world cannot fathom, the “peace beyond all understanding.” As with the Gospels, where a rich young man was attracted to Christ but unwilling to give up his material things, we see here a peace many want, but few have the courage to pursue.

“Abortion Is A Blessing“

Reverend — Do you really know of what you speak?

When a woman finds herself pregnant due to violence and chooses an abortion, it is the violence that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing.

When a woman finds that the fetus she is carrying has anomalies incompatible with life, that it will not live and that she requires an abortion – often a late-term abortion – to protect her life, her health, or her fertility, it is the shattering of her hopes and dreams for that pregnancy that is the tragedy; the abortion is a blessing.

When a woman wants a child but can’t afford one because she hasn’t the education necessary for a sustainable job, or access to health care, or day care, or adequate food, it is the abysmal priorities of our nation, the lack of social supports, the absence of justice that are the tragedies; the abortion is a blessing.

And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing. The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing.

These are the two things I want you, please, to remember – abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.

A speech like this is not God’s work, but surly the opposite. The Anchoress pegs this woman dead on:

Actually, in this scenario, there are several tragedies “in sight.” There is – lest we forget – the ripping and shredding up of a human life (come on, Rev. Ragsdale – it’s a baby – a living being, species human, not vegetable, not wolvine), and more tragically a weird societal validation of the supremacy (and stagnation) of the beloved self, which compromises for no one and nothing, and puts nothing else before it. This is the ultimate, intimate idolatry, whereby one has made oneself a godling, a facsimile I AM. It is very tragic, indeed. It is also a lie and an illusion.

Damain Thompson, who’s piece in the Telegraph.uk is the source of the speech I’ve excerpted, reminds us:

Do not, please, make the mistake of assuming that she [Rev Katherine Hancock Ragsdale] is an unrepresentative extremist: liberal Anglicans in America are among the most fervent supporters of abortion in the world, outstripping even atheists in their enthusiasm for this gruesome procedure.

As a 57 year-old adoptee I “know” that, if abortion had been legal, cheap or paid for by the state back in 1952, I would not be here to write this today. I’m still a bit stunned by any “Christian” reverend that would make these statements or have these beliefs.

Evil is as evil does.

Technorati Tags: Abortion Is A Blessing, Rev Katherine Hancock Ragsdale

In his post, The Obama Lie Machine, Laer at Cheat-Seeking Missiles sums up our new Prez and nails him:

Respectfully, the man just makes things up; whatever sounds good and sooooothing, he’ll say it. Less respectfully, he’s a liar and smart folks will question everything he says.

I wholeheartedly agree, except for one teeny, tiny little thing — well, not so little in orders of magnitude for the soul of our nation. Obama doesn’t lie about abortion. He’s always been an advocate of a mother’s right to choose to kill her unborn child, and he’ll work overtime to rend asunder all the efforts that the Bush administration undertook to stop this horrendous travesty of nascent human carnage. The LA Times puts it this way:

‘Conscience’ rule on abortions may be overturned
The Obama administration wants to clarify a Bush policy that lets healthcare workers deny services because of moral beliefs.

Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration today will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows healthcare workers to deny abortion counseling or other family planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials.

The rollback of the so-called conscience rule comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it late last year in one of its final policy initiatives.

The new administration’s action seems certain to stoke ideological battles between supporters and opponents of abortion rights over the responsibilities of doctors, nurses and other medical workers to their patients.

{…}

Supporters of the rule say it protects doctors from being forced to prescribe treatments including birth control pills.

Just it straight in your minds — Obama doesn’t care if you religious beliefs can’t coexist with abortion rights. If you work for a health care provider or in any type of ‘family planning’, you WILL offer abortion as an option. No if, ands or buts. The Anchoress definitely has President Obama’s number when she writes:

This is not a president who is all about freedom, like the last American president.

Control, yes. Lots and lots of control. But freedom…not so much.

I wonder…once health professionals are compelled to prescribe or to abort, against their consciences, it won’t be a very big step toward demanding that they kill “compassionately put-to-rest” those whose quality of life is deemed “insufficient” by the government’s measure. Or, you know…those who are simply becoming too expensive to keep alive on “the taxpayers dime.”

Because when it comes down to Socialized Medicine “universal health care” a Ted Kennedy – who is useful, rich and connected – may be deemed worth treating and saving. But you and I, mere peons without “friends, money or connections” – we’d be a drain on the taxpayer’s dear purse.

If we become a drain on the “public purse” and they can no longer tax us into servitude — we will be of no use to the likes of the Supreme Ruler and Co. Just more Lightworker dictated CHANGE that we’ll all have to take up the _ss!

Technorati Tags: Obama, abortion, ‘Conscience’ rule on abortions

[Updated:]

I’m a bit slow on this one but it still bears commenting about. Last Thursday Aasiya Z. Hassan, wife of the prominent Muslim businessman Muzzammil Hassan was killed by beheading.

The killer? Good ol’ prominent Muzzammil, of course.

Why? Evidently because she had the temerity to try to divorce this Islamic TV magnate and got a restraining order to keep her safe from the violent SOB.

Was this murder committed in Saudi Arabia? Somalia? Iran? Pakistan? Sounds logical — why not try Buffalo, New York? From the Chesler Chronicals: Beheaded in Buffalo: The Honor Killing of Asiya Z. Hassan

On February 13, 2009, in Orchard Park, a suburb of Buffalo, 44 year-old Muzzamil Hassan, a prominent Muslim businessman was arrested for having be-headed his wife, 37 year-old Aasiya Z. Hassan. Yes, he beheaded her. Aasiya’s crime? She dared to obtain an order of protection which forced her violent husband out of their home.

We are now sadly familiar with some high profile Islamic beheadings of infidels in Muslim lands; Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, immediately come to mind. Sadly, we are also familiar with the practice of beheading, dismembering, burying alive, and stoning Muslim (and sometimes Christian) women to death in Muslim lands. But this took place in a suburb of Buffalo, New York, in America, Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

She goes on to relate why this “honor” killing in Buffalo is so important.

Muzammil Hassan was an educated, powerful, creative, and living in freedom in the United States. In fact, he may have viewed himself as a spokesman or even role model for other healthy, assimilated, Muslims who also live here.

In 2004, Muzzamil Hassan founded Bridges TV, an English-language Islamic network to combat alleged anti-Muslim bias in the American media. {…}

Hassan considered himself a role model for “healthy, assimilated, Muslims”, and so he slaughtered his wife by hacking off her head, like a farmer would kill a chicken that was doomed to be tonight’s dinner.

Where is the cry of outrage from C.A.I.R.? Where are the calls from the “healthy, assimilated, Muslim” community for Hassan to pay the price for butchering his wife?

[Crickets chirping.]

I’m just sayin’ . . .

[Update]

My buddy Laer at Cheat-Seeking Missiles notes that this story isn’t showing up on “CNN, ABC, CBS – or even the home state paper, the NY Times. (MSNBC does have the story.)” In a related post he addresses the fact that the NY Times has featured a story about a church killing in Tenn. three (3) times but not the beheading of a New York woman by her husband, a media mogul that is trying to shed a better light on Muslims in America. Laer writes:

The Chmielewski theory that the NYT doesn’t bother with local crime stories elsewhere falls apart here, since two killed with a shotgun, even in a church, isn’t as newsworthy as one person killed by beheading, Muslim or not. No, what makes it newsworthy is that Adkisson had a “stated hatred for the liberal movement.” Had a Unitarian shot up a Baptist church because of a “stated hatred of the conservative movement” – newsworthy as that would be on its face – rest assured the NYT wouldn’t have covered it.

The conclusion is irrefutable: The NY Times will take any opportunity it can to discredit conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, and it will avoid any opportunity to paint Muslims in a negative light.

The sad fact is that along with hatred of conservatives, Dhimmitude is alive and runnin’ rampant at the New York Times.

Technorati Tags: Aasiya Z. Hassan, Muzzammil Hassan, Orchard Park, Islamic beheadings

This story sounds like a bad horror flick. Unfortunately, for the infant, there were no special effects and its death was an all too real horror. With 23-week octuplets fighting for life out here in CA, the news of this 23-week fetus turned born-alive infant that was tossed out like garbage should chill anyone not wholesale bought-in to the Culture of Death promoted by the secular Left. From A/P writer Christine Armario:

Eighteen and pregnant, Sycloria Williams went to an abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.

Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated to dilate her cervix and otherwise get her ready for the procedure.

Only Renelique didn’t arrive in time. According to Williams and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl.

What Williams and the Health Department say happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of the clinic’s owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant’s umbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

Police recovered the decomposing remains in a cardboard box a week later after getting anonymous tips.

Totally disgusted yet? As the Ginsu commercial says, “Wait, there’s more!”

The complaint says one of the clinic owners, Belkis Gonzalez came in and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, then placed the baby in a plastic bag, and the bag in a trash can.

Williams’ lawsuit offers a cruder account: She says Gonzalez knocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth, onto the floor. The baby’s umbilical cord was not clamped, allowing her to bleed out. Gonzalez scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirth into a red plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.

{…}

An autopsy determined Williams’ baby – she named her Shanice – had filled her lungs with air, meaning she had been born alive, according to the Department of Health. The cause of death was listed as extreme prematurity.

OK, now if you aren’t totally disgusted what can I say? The doc has multiple settled suits for malpractice and is restricted to performing abortions only with another physician in attendance — not that he paid any attention to that edict.

Abortion? Readers of ‘Okie’ know that I’m against it, big time! For unwanted pregnancies “adoption” should be the preference. During the fall election there was some fallout over Barack Obama’s failure to vote for the Illinois legislation, the “Infants Born Alive Bill”, that would have compelled those in attendance to administer aid to babies born alive during botched abortion attempts. Gianna Jessen, herself the product of just such a botched abortion, was very much upset over the positions of then candidate Obama.

This case in Florida looks a lot like murder. I sure hope that the D.A. feels the same way.

Technorati Tags: Sycloria Williams, Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique, abortions

British ethicist Baroness Warnock, “Britain’s leading moral philosopher”, has a message for the aging in Britain — Dementia sufferers may have a ‘duty to die’.

The veteran Government adviser said pensioners in mental decline are “wasting people’s lives” because of the care they require and should be allowed to opt for euthanasia even if they are not in pain.

She insisted there was “nothing wrong” with people being helped to die for the sake of their loved ones or society.

You just can’t make this crap up, folks. I get all squeamish and my flesh crawls when those advising to the powers-that-be begin advocating for death instead of life. I can almost, almost comprehend those in constant pain being allowed to end their own lives — almost. But I keep getting back to the point of — That ain’t right! We’ll see how that holds up if I ever get a terminal, debilitating, horrendously-painful illness. However, I will never get to where the Baroness goes next.

The 84-year-old added that she hoped people will soon be “licensed to put others down” if they are unable to look after themselves.

{…}

“I think that’s the way the future will go, putting it rather brutally, you’d be licensing people to put others down.”

“[L]icensing people to put others down.” That’s what you’ll finally end up with folks from socialized medicine. It’s not your getting all the care that you can afford, or that a doc will do for you pro bono. Hell no, it’s only all the care that the state is willing to dole out to you. Once you are no longer contributing to the public coffers, you have no value to the state. That makes giving you medical care a lose-lose proposition, a negative on the balance sheet, a distinct and ever increasing liability; See where this is going?

Barack Obama and the Dem wits are promising all of us single payer health care — so that we will all get the medical care that we deserve. Just put 2 & 2 together . . .

Technorati Tags: Baroness Warnock, socialized medicine

[H/t: Hugh Hewitt]

STATEMENT OF HIS EMINENCE, EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN CONCERNING REMARKS MADE BY THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Like many other citizens of this nation, I was shocked to learn that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America would make the kind of statements that were made to Mr. Tom Brokaw of NBC-TV on Sunday, August 24, 2008. What the Speaker had to say about theologians and their positions regarding abortion was not only misinformed; it was also, and especially, utterly incredible in this day and age.

We are blessed in the 21st century with crystal-clear photographs and action films of the living realities within their pregnant mothers. No one with the slightest measure of integrity or honor could fail to know what these marvelous beings manifestly, clearly, and obviously are, as they smile and wave into the world outside the womb. In simplest terms, they are human beings with an inalienable right to live, a right that the Speaker of the House of Representatives is bound to defend at all costs for the most basic of ethical reasons. They are not parts of their mothers, and what they are depends not at all upon the opinions of theologians of any faith. Anyone who dares to defend that they may be legitimately killed because another human being “chooses” to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.

Edward Cardinal Egan

Archbishop of New York

August 26, 2008

As Hugh remarks, the MSM doesn’t find any of this newsworthy . . .

Technorati Tags: EDWARD CARDINAL EGAN, Speaker of the House of Representatives

I didn’t get to watch Meet the Press on Sunday, but if I had I’d have been riled up enough to get this out soonest. You see, when the Democrats try to show how religious they are, they usually stick both feet in their mouth. Now, I’m sure there are a lot of God-fearing, church-going Dems out there, it’s just hard to figure them out when their current supreme leader, Nancy Pelosi (R – Cal) shoots off her mouth. In response to Tom Brokaw’s question as to what she would advise Barack Obama on the beginnings of life, since good ol’ Barack says that question is “above his pay grade”, she said:

I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator–St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on the woman’s right to choose. Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child–first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester. There’s very clear distinctions. This isn’t about abortion on demand, it’s about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and–to–that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god. And so I don’t think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins. As I say, the Catholic Church for centuries has been discussing this, and there are those who’ve decided…

Brokaw reminds her that the Church states that life begins at the moment of conception, to which she replies

I understand. And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that. So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy.

I’m not a Catholic, the last church I was a member of was a Southern Baptist church, but even I know that the Catholic Church has never sanctioned abortion. Nancy Pelosi just went on national TV and told a whopper! And, at the same time, maligned an entire organized religion to boot. Way to go miss representative from San Francisco.

Now, it didn’t take very long for some high-ranking members of the Catholic Church to take note and decide that Nanny Nancy needed a bit of remedial-catechism. From Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl:

We respect the right of elected officials such as Speaker Pelosi to address matters of public policy that are before them, but the interpretation of Catholic faith has rightfully been entrusted to the Catholic bishops. Given this responsibility to teach, it is important to make this correction for the record.

Wuerl pointed out that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear, and has been clear for 2,000 years. He cited Catechism language that reads, “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception … Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law.

On the 25th, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver addressed Pelosi’s lies about the Church and its stance on abortion:

Since Speaker Pelosi has, in her words, studied the issue “for a long time,” she must know very well one of the premier works on the subject, Jesuit John Connery’s Abortion: The Development of the Roman Catholic Perspective (Loyola, 1977). Here’s how Connery concludes his study:

“The Christian tradition from the earliest days reveals a firm antiabortion attitude . . . The condemna-tion of abortion did not depend on and was not limited in any way by theories regarding the time of fetal animation. Even during the many centuries when Church penal and penitential practice was based on the theory of delayed animation, the condemnation of abortion was never affected by it. Whatever one would want to hold about the time of animation, or when the fetus became a human being in the strict sense of the term, abortion from the time of conception was considered wrong, and the time of animation was never looked on as a moral dividing line between permissible and impermissible abortion.”

Or to put it in the blunter words of the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed on this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

Furthering the re-education of the Dem wits on Catholic theology regarding abortion, the Archbishop had this to say to Obama’s VP pick, Joe Biden (D-Del), self-professed Catholic and huge abortion supporter:

I certainly presume his good will and integrity,” said the archbishop, “and I presume that his integrity will lead him to refrain from presenting himself for Communion if he supports a false ‘right’ to abortion.

The Anchoress, to whom I will defer all things Catholic, writes this:

[I]f Pelosi wants to quote Augustine’s saying “three months,” as somehow authoritative – even if the church does not – how does she reconcile that with her abortion voting record, which upholds later term abortions, partial birth abortions, embryonic experimentation, etc, etc. She says “I personally think the answer is 16 weeks,”, but that’s just an opinion, like anyone else’s opinion, even mine – and if she believes the answer is 16 weeks, how can she possible vote in favor of, say, partial birth abortion?
{…}
I mean, I’m not expert, and I’m far from brilliant. But one does not have to be brilliant to figure that out. Err on the side of life, not death. It might be a legislative conundrum, and a sickle into the side of free will and free conscience, but in simple terms of life and death, the moral calculus is not really that difficult.

Hey lady, you are brilliant! And, you’re dead-on correct on this one.

Hey folks, it’s a right to life issue. Abortion is a right to end life, not save it, or make someone else’s life easier or more convenient. Barack Obama is the most abortion-supporting candidate ever to be at the top of a US national ticket for President. But, at least he isn’t out there miss-stating lying about Catholic Church doctrine. Naw, he’ll leave that one up to Slow Joe . . .

Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi On Abortion, Nancy Pelosi, Roe v. Wade, Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, Archbishop Charles Chaput

[H/t: See Dubya] At the Saddleback Civic Forum one of the questions asked by pastor Rick Warren was about abortion: “Forty million abortions, at what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” Good ol’ Barack Obama tried to punt on this one with his initial answer:

Well, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

Yeah, nothing like trying to become the most powerful person on planet Earth and being content to duck any inquiry, especially that one! However, the Chosen One, always in love with his own voice couldn’t help himself but continue to this effect.

But let me just speak more generally about the issue of abortion, because this is something obviously the country wrestles with. One thing that I’m absolutely convinced of is that there is a moral and ethical element to this issue. And so I think anybody who tries to deny the moral difficulties and gravity of the abortion issue, I think, is not paying attention. So that would be point number one.

But point number two, I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade, and I come to that conclusion not because I’m pro-abortion, but because, ultimately, I don’t think women make these decisions casually. I think they — they wrestle with these things in profound ways, in consultation with their pastors or their spouses or their doctors or their family members. And so, for me, the goal right now should be — and this is where I think we can find common ground. And by the way, I’ve now inserted this into the Democratic party platform, is how do we reduce the number of abortions? The fact is that although we have had a president who is opposed to abortion over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down and that is something we have to address. [emph. mine]

And there’s the rub — that last statement is a lie outright fabrication mis-statement. The pro-choice Guttmacher Institute reports the following:

In 2005, 1.21 million abortions were performed, down from 1.31 million in 2000. From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred.

Let’s be real generous and say that Barry’s fact checkers need to sharpen up a bit, or maybe a lot! But hey, it’s not like Obama doesn’t get tongue tied from time to time, much like our beloved current Pres., but the MSM sure gives him a pass on that, don’t they? To our amusement, The Nose On Your Face isn’t quite so kind.

Getting serious, the Obama legacy on abortion is not stellar as Michael Gerson’s April Washington Post op-ed illustrates.

Obama’s record on abortion is extreme. He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion — a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called “too close to infanticide.” Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion. And now Obama has oddly claimed that he would not want his daughters to be “punished with a baby” because of a crisis pregnancy — hardly a welcoming attitude toward new life.

Fox News Religion Contributor Father Jonathan Morris sees the Saddleback event as the potential beginning of the end for the Barack Obama campaign.

In this light, there were two moments in Saturday’s forum that, in my opinion, were the beginning of an unraveling of Obama’s campaign.

The first and most important of these was Obama’s response to Pastor Warren’s excellent question, “When do babies get human rights?” The senator from Illinois responded:

“I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade”

Now we do know. What I find disturbing is that while Senator Obama says he doesn’t know when babies get rights, he has always felt comfortable voting to refuse the right to life to all pre-born babies, even ones who are aborted outside of the womb, through partial birth abortion or, shockingly, even after a botched abortion.

Senator Obama doesn’t know if these babies have human rights, and still he is willing to vote in favor of letting them die?

You don’t have to be a theologian or a scientist to know that kind of moral thinking is deeply flawed.

Just what we need in the White House for four or eight years — an elegant speaker whose “moral thinking is deeply flawed.”

There is no other option — Vote for John McCain.

Technorati Tags: Saddleback Civic Forum, Barack Obama, pro-choice, Roe v. Wade, partial-birth abortion, infanticide, Barack Obama, John McCain

The Boxing Day tsunami of 2004 is said to have killed over 300,000 people from Sri Lanka to Sumatra. Lat week’s Cyclone Nargis, that sent tidal surges estimated at 20 feet in height pounding into the lowlands of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, may end up topping that number by 200,000 or more, according to the UK’s The Sun.

Last night’s warning came as it emerged that 17 Britons, including ex-pats and backpackers, were still missing.

Sources said 200,000 people were already dead or dying.

But the figure could rise to HALF A MILLION through disease and hunger if the nation’s hardline army rulers continue to block aid for the devastated lowlands of the Irrawaddy Delta.

Unlike the devastation and resulting aftermath caused by the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, and its series of tidal surges, the military junta of Burma, known as Myanmar to the politically correct crowd, is standing fast in its refusal to allow foreign aid workers into the country. The military rulers are allowing mass casualties to continue, with many more to come from disease from the rotting corpses, tainted water supplies, lack of food distribution, because they are afraid of losing control of the country they have ruled for decades. So much so that the UN has now suspended food aid, but hopes to resume tomorrow.

In 2004 and early 2005 the World responded to the tsunami disaster in mass, with our military rushing in supplies, medical aid and cleanup help, along with aid from the UN plus many other countries and disaster aid groups. Many of us gave money to organizations like World Vision which got in there early and made the most of each dollar sent to the cause. Not this time.

This time, we watch, helpless, as another set of xenophobic amoral thugs, having no sense of human worth and fearing the outside world, allow those in their charge to die in gross numbers. Even the AP seems to have this one figured out.

“The military regime is extraordinarily xenophobic. They are afraid of everything,” said Sean Turnell, a Myanmar expert at Australia’s Macquarie University.

Among the junta’s fears are internal uprisings, a U.S. invasion, globalization and its capacity to dilute traditional Burmese culture. In the aftermath of Saturday’s cyclone, the junta appears to be afraid of losing face with its people.

“If they can’t handle the situation and they let Westerners come in with helicopters, this will demonstrate to their own people the shortcomings of the military,” Turnell said. “They are more concerned with control and maintaining an omniscience in front of their people than saving lives.”

Regardless of what Michelle Obama believes, we live in a great country. As events like those of last week make so very clear, most of the rest of the world is not nearly as fortunate.

Technorati Tags: Boxing Day tsunami, Cyclone Nargis

Geez, while the ol’ Okie was sleepin’ all peaceful and stuff, an agent from the “Religion of Peace” half way around the planet sends me the following little love note.

1. amir Says:
April 6th, 2008 at 2:52 am

shame
down with israel
you are terrorist
you kill children&women
israel is filthy regime

Kinda like a “haiku”, except without the “hai” or the “ku”.

Ol’ Amir banged around in ‘Okie’ for 26-minutes and 13-seconds — Well, golly gee . . . I didn’t know you cared, Amir. Strange reaction to my last year’s post about the former Dutch Parliament member Ayaan Hirsi Ali! That’s real peaceful there, buddy, ol’ pal.

Funny ain’t it. On Thursday my Jewish Persian friend takes me to the Dennis Prager 25th Anniversary Roast and just days later an Iranian retard in Tehran comes up with this. Crazy world, my friends — Crazy!

Hey, that reminds me of a little song. So here ya go Amir — grab yourself a smoke and a brew and enjoy Jessica Lange lip syncin’ to Patsy Cline’s version of Willy Nelson’s Crazy . . . and don’t worry, you can cover up the “pointy bits” with you thumb while you watch.

That banner at the top right is there for a reason. Israel has many enemies in this world, but only a few friends. After what happened yesterday, they need all the moral support they can get from those friends.

On 9/11 the civilized world declared that on that day “We all were Americans”. I feel something like that this AM as I react to yesterday’s slaughter of eight innocent Jews and wounding of nine others — just teens and twenty-somethings — in a seminary library in Jerusalem. As Israel mourns, so do we. Unless you are corrupted by multi-culteralism or have been brainwashed by the University to believe that Israel is bad and Palestine is good, then you are incensed by Hamas‘ claims of responsibility and praise for the Israeli Arab’s gunning down of these students, and their call for even more “operations”.

As a non-Jew, I can’t react with the authority of one who is of that faith. Yoni Tidi, master sniper and former member of an Israeli anti-terror unit certainly can — and he pulls no punches in his reaction to the revelation that the gunman worked at the seminary and was arrested by Israeli authorities four months ago, then released a couple of months later.

WE ARE STUPID, CRIMINALLY STUPID.

I want to yell and scream at how stupid Jews are.

Never hire an Arab, in more incidents that can be told here the Arab worker one day turns on the Jew who hired him and the Jew gets to die for being stupid.

If I were Prime Minister, Israel would arrest every single person at this terrorist scums house that was the day after the murder sitting under the flag of Hamas in Jerusalem and we would deport them and reduce their home to ruble.

The Arab members of Knesset would either be arrested for treason and after a fair trial shot or they would just end up dead.

We are at war so let’s act like it.

How long can Israel tolerate being shot, blown up and rocket-bombed — all while giving up land and making ever greater concessions for “peace”? For the Arabs and Palestinians and the Iranians there will be no peace until every last Israeli is dead.

The Okie’s got a little secret for all o’ ya —

They feel the same way about all of us in the West . . .

Technorati Tags: Palestinians

The next time someone tells you that all things are relative and that we shouldn’t be judgmental of other cultures, read them this:

Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down’s Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.

The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.

Other officials said the women were apparently unaware of what they were doing in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert toughened security measures.

More than 70 people died and scores were wounded in the deadliest day since the US “surge” of 30,000 extra troops were sent to the capital this spring.

There’s low, there’s lower, and then there are those that need to be hunted down and destroyed like rabid dogs. Al Qaeda is firmly in that latter category!

[Update]
Captain Ed remarks about this in a much more elegant manner:

In a way, this shows how desperate AQ has become. They obviously cannot fill their ranks with willing participants, and even hostages won’t suffice. Instead, they exploit the weakest and most innocent and use them as commodities to kill as many people as possible.

The Iraqis have seen this evil up close and have rejected it. They understand now that there is no accommodation with evil. It has to be defeated, and defeated utterly.

Technorati Tags: Al Qaeda

The Nose On Your Face: “News so fake you’ll swear it came from the main stream media.”

Ask Islamic Rage Boy: Volume III

Dear Islamic Rage Boy,

I was recently captured by the American swine on the battlefield of Iraq during the glorious jihad against the west. I did not intend to be taken, but the Somali suicide belt I had on did not detonate. To add insult to injury, after being taken to Guantanamo Bay (which is really quite nice), I have taken to eating the decadent, carb-laden infidel food and have put on the dreaded “Gitmo Fifteen.” What is the best way to lose this excess weight?

Rapidly Gaining in Gitmo

Dear Rapidly,

Wow, talk about your proverbial string of bad luck. I am very sorry for your failure to blow up. This can be most disconcerting. . .

You’ll have to go there to read the rest of Rage Boy’s answer to Rapidly Gaining — what a hoot! Also, don’t miss Cat Forced To Use Baby’s Head as Litter Box; PETA Demands Investigation. The support group mentioned sounds about perfect for these losers.

Technorati Tags: The Nose On Your Face, Islamic Rage Boy