Caption Contest:
And They'll Have Fund, Fund, Fund 'Til Dubya Takes Their T-shirts Away
"I Had an Abortion" T-shirts are just
so 2004. From ChoiceClothing.com, a retail outlet of Planned Parenthood of the Columbia-Williamette (Ore.), come duds that strike to the heart of the organization's message: Give us money—
taxpayer money.
While the Hyde Amendment restricts Medicaid spending for abortions to cases of rape or incest, Planned Parenthood still receives
over a quarter-billion in taxpayer funds annually. There's no question that such a massive infusion of government money enables
Margaret Sanger's organization to spend money on abortion that it would otherwise be unable to allocate. PP also gets around the Hyde restrictions by
using government funds to recruit new customers.
And so, a caption contest. Act quickly as, knowing how the pro-death folks are onto this blog, I'm liable to get the proverbial phone call before the sun even rises.
Sorry I can't offer a prize this time around—job-hunting and all that—but the winner will receive glory and, if he or she's a blogger, a place in my soon-to-come blogroll (yes!). The deadline is midnight tomorrow (Monday). I reserve the right to delete entries that use profanity or that I judge to be outside the bounds of good taste (though those bounds are almost meaningless given the tasteless subject material).
Please put your caption in the comments below, give it time to show up (it will when I republish this blog), ignore Blogger's instruction to start a blog (if you're registering for the first time), and may the best wit win!
1:44 AM
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Saturday, January 29, 2005
All they need is Bert Parks.
(From Fr. Bryce Sibley, who calls it "the funniest thing I have EVER seen.")
UPDATE: Commenter Andy made me laugh out loud:
Whew. Check out the other "projects" on this firm's site (click on "churches" on the top banner). They're... um... interesting.
As a Presbyterian unschooled in Romish ways, I was particularly curious to see the basement chapel that they "brought into conformance with Vatican II." So I clicked on the link, and behold:
THEY TURNED IT INTO A GIANT FLOUNDER.
Or maybe it's a fluke. I can never remember which one has the eyes on its right side. Either way, it's a hulking great bottom-feeder. Have a look.
The sign of Jonah it ain't.
4:41 PM
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Michael Bates has a persuasive summary of the facts in the Terri Schiavo case, compiling the evidence that Schiavo is not in a persistent vegetative state and showing how her husband rejected a generous offer to drop his bid to have her killed.
4:44 AM
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Roamin' Holiday
Talking with a male friend recently about the possibility of throwing a party in New York City,the man—who is, like me, single and over 35—had one caveat: "We can't have it near Valentine's Day."
I knew exactly what he meant.
Valentine's Day in New York City has become like Halloween. It's inescapable, stretching over three nights, and if you're not taking part in it, you're really out of it. Bars swarm with canoodling couples, while singles hide at home alone, feeling pathetic as they drown their sorrows in Ben & Jerry's pints and "Seinfeld" DVDs.
Take away the "Seinfeld," and that's my memory of nearly every Valentine's Day: a solo pity party, aided by some artery-clogging delight (like the gourmet chocolates my father thoughtfully mails me each year without fail).
But there was one Valentine's Day I'll always remember. It was nearly five years ago, when I had a date with a sweet, endearing, handsome man who treated me to a candlelight dinner and gave me a festive card.
It was in the middle of July.
Michael and I had met in the late spring, and after we started dating, I made some comment about how I wished I'd known him at Valentine's Day. He felt the same way—so we decided to ignore the calendar and celebrate the romantic holiday on Bastille Day. It sounds kind of corny now, but at the time, the idea felt exciting and even subversive.
We didn't last together until the next V-Day—or even until National Spumoni Day. But we're still friends, and every so often Michael and I share a smile about our act of romantic rebellion.
There's a curious aside in 1 Corinthians 15:8, where Paul, describing how he was the last apostle to see Jesus, refers to himself as "one born out of due time." Many interpretations exist of that passage, but what strikes me about it is the sense that "it is not for [us] to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power."
Valentine's Day, for all the hoopla, remains an artificial construct. Love is real, and it emerges in God's own time, regardless of what the calendar says.
I used to have the familiar nightmare where I'd be back in high school, on the first day of class, and I'd lost my schedule. I'd desperately go from one wrong classroom to another, never finding out where I was supposed to be.
Those dreams tapered off a few years ago when I began to realize, as the nightmare started, that the whole thing was silly—I'd already graduated high school. No longer did I have to run around trying to force myself into a timeframe that was meaningless and unnecessary.
V-Day loneliness is just as pointless as that nightmarish feeling of being forever behind. I don't need Valentine's Day to be lonely; I can be lonely 365 days of the year (and 366 in leap years). But if I don't want to be lonely all the time, it doesn't make sense to indulge in self-pity simply because one day is designated for romance.
If you're born out of "due time," how do you get back in with God's own times and seasons, and not those of the world? Lewis Carroll had the answer, in his puzzle "The Two Clocks."
Carroll observed that if you have two clocks, one that loses a minute a day and one that doesn't go at all, the one that loses a minute a day will be right only once every two years. So if your timing is off and you keep going anyway, you'll almost never be in sync.
A stopped clock, however, is right twice a day.
On Valentine's Day, I am not going to wear myself down chasing after some fantasy that I can't reach. I'm going to stay where I am, and know that sooner or later, love will catch up.
4:26 AM
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Friday, January 28, 2005
Rattle Rouser
With all due respect for the American Life League's Stop Planned Parenthood, I think Jim Sedlak's exaggerating the reaction to Gloria Feldt's leaving the presidency of Margaret Sanger's organization. It really doesn't take that much to make babies happy. They're happy just to be alive.
Then again, I guess that's the point.
10:50 PM
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U2 Can Be Saved
There's a lively discussion on Touchstone magazine's Mere Comments blog over S.M. Hutchens's entry on the movement towards making worship more "attractive." Here's my favorite quote so far, from a reader trying to demonstrate how he can enjoy contemporary music outside church and yet not want it in church:
The arc of these discussions leads inevitably to the question of "style," or, more accurately, taste. My wife and I, both 30, have developed musical tastes quite common to our generation, summed up by this creed: U2 is best played at floor-shaking, neighbor-rattling, cat-hides-under-the-couch volume. True, our most shameful family secret is my wife’s predilection for Neil Diamond, but aside from these few idiosyncrasies our "tastes" are quite modern, thank you very much.
Personally I'd take Neil Diamond over U2 as a badge of hipness any day (especially since he wrote some of the Monkees's best tunes, "I'm a Believer" and "Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)," but the point is made.
6:56 PM
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He's 'OK'—I'm Not So Hot
A commenter who calls himself "Tulsa Human" (funny how none of these trolling libs give their real name or link to their blog) is grossly offended by my mother's satirical "Dear Terri" letter. When I asked him in the comments section to explain his ire, he wrote:
The "satire" presented on your site imputes grotesquely evil intent to Terri Schaivo's [sic] husband.
But one key fact about the case is this:
The courts have ruled consistently that Terri Schiavo is in a Persistent Vegetative State, and has been for over 14 years.
These were not frivolous decisions. That fact alone should give one pause before savagely demonizing Michael Schiavo.
Given the more-than-reasonable doubt in this case (and I don't use the term legalistically), the most charitable thing to say about this "joke" is that it is in extremely poor taste.
Would someone who has followed this case closely please explain to Mr. Human, in the comments section below, what is a persistent vegetative state, whether Terri Schiavo is in one, and whether a person who is in one deserves to be murdered so that her husband can collect a huge insurance sum that had been earmaked for her upkeep?
Again, please be polite if at all possible (though I found it difficult myself, as you'll see in the entry's comments). Your comments will go up tonight when I republish my site. Much thanks!
UPDATE: Turns out Tulsa Human does have a blog—he (or she) just hasn't made his Blogger profile available, which is why it doesn't show when you click on his name in the comments section.
4:36 PM
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Equal Opportunity Destroyer
From The Curt Jester comes word of a likely front-runner in the race to replace Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt, who has resigned under mysterious circumstances.
4:32 PM
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Cool Hand Uke
No, I'm not talking about Tiny Tim, but the smile-inducing winning entry in Slant Point's caption contest.
1:13 PM
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If you read this page last night, I've since added another post "back in time" (to keep "Bin Gripin'" uptop)—scroll down for Part 2 of my Oklahoma recollections. On a related note, Michael Bates writes about what it was like to know that I was blogging in the next room—but, amazingly, misses the opportunity to say that I was doing so in my pajamas.
3:30 AM
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Bin Gripin'
A commenter who calls himself Conservatives Hate America accuses me of having "an awful lot in common with the Taliban" because I associate Osama bin Ladin with the culture of death. But it's worse than that. Yes, according to this anonymous flamer, I merit the worst insult known to blogdom: I am (gasp!) intellectually dishonest—
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the unbelievable irony in your commentary here. While last time I checked Osama hadn't spelled out his political platform, Islamic extremists are rabidly anti-abortion (kinda like you). For that matter, Islamic extremists are deeply opposed to the use of birth control (kinda like you) and equal rights for gays and lesbians (kinda like you). Indeed, recent news reports have spelled out the Vatican's growing alliance with fundamentalist muslims to oppose the United Nations' reproductive rights platforms. If you want to lead your life according to your own interpretation of the Bible -- hey, great, whatever works for you. But if you advocate using the authority of the state to impose your own scriptural interpretation on those who do not share your views -- well, hey, you're starting to have an awful lot in common with the Taliban. At least have the courage of your convictions, and the intellectual honesty, to acknowledge how much your views overlap with those of Islamic extremists.
I wonder how one who holds a relativist worldview could know anything about what it means to have "courage of...convictions." But assuming he (or she) returns in search of a response, would anyone care to answer this person's points in the comments section below, and even shock him by resisting the urge to be snarky?
Note: Don't worry if your comment doesn't go up right away—it'll go up when I republish the blog, at some point during the day. If you need to register, ignore Blogger's request that you start a blog—your registration will go through anyway.
2:32 AM
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Right to (a Homosexual) Life
A researcher from the University of Illinois claims to have identified a DNA link for homosexuality.
The idea that a gene alone can cause someone to grow up homosexual is hogwash. But that won't prevent the homosexual lobby from using studies such as this latest one as "proof" that homosexuality is to be encouraged as a normal and healthy lifestyle.
However, there may be a silver lining to "gay gene" findings, one that nobody, least of all Planned Parenthood and NARAL—both major forces in the homosexual-rights movement—seems to notice. The belief that a gene causes homosexuality could affect the legality of abortion.
Think about it. Right now, Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and their allies loudly defend a woman's "right" to murder her child at any stage of pregnancy, for any reason. They support a woman's right to use prenatal DNA tests for the purpose of deciding whether to abort—fighting vehemently against any attempt to disallow abortion for the purpose of sex selection, for example.
(For an example of Planned Parenthood's attitude towards sex-selection abortions, see the last paragraph of this page from the Web site of one of its chapters, which sniffs, "Each year, a number of bills designed to create barriers or limit access to abortion services are introduced. Areas this legislation has covered include 'informed consent,' abortion reporting, insurance coverage, student fees, pathology reports, 'fetal pain,' fetal license plates, sex selection, fetal tissue research, late term abortions, etc." Dig those scare quotes around "fetal pain"—not to mention the idea of "fetal license plates.")
Now, imagine if women who didn't want homosexual offspring started testing their unborn children for the "gay gene"—and aborting them if that DNA were present.
I guarantee you, the homosexual community would scream for legislation to prevent women from making such a "choice."
1:58 AM
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Thursday, January 27, 2005
OK By Me—Part 2
Last Saturday morning, my ever-gracious host in Tulsa, Okla., Michael Bates, chauffeured me to Oklahoma City, dropping me off at Surlywood, which Dustbury fans will recognize as the home of the venerable Charles G. Hill. (You can see a couple of photos of the home at the bottom of this page).
Charles and I began corresponding 1996, when I had my old Web site, which was full of Sixties pop writings and images so worldly as to be almost pornographic (it featured a photo of Carol Doda circa 1966, in a skimpy bikini, sitting on the counter of a bar, displaying neckties that came in a can). I think he must have found it by Googling my name after reading my Hollies liner notes or something. After a year or so of back-and-forth on our shared love of Ginny Arnell's "Dumb Head" and other obscure pop wonderments, we fell out of touch.
Four years later, the Doda photo was long gone from my site, I was a conservative Christian wingnut, and Charles somehow found me again, becoming a welcome reminder of the music that I couldn't give up despite my changed philosophy. I also realized for the first time that we were kindred spirits in other ways as well, as you can tell from his blog. While he's not a textbook conservative, he has a clear-headed grasp of right and wrong, and a sense of poetry. On a good day—which is often—his depth and perspicacity remind me of nothing so much as G.K. Chesterton's work in the Illustrated London News.
To be continued...
UPDATE: It turns out my memory of how Charles and I met and re-met is off, so Charles is the authority on that. He kindly leaves it to me to reveal what my CompuServe handle was, a vintage-pop joke that he alone understood: "Nogood4u."
10:58 PM
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NARAL Reaps Wages of Sign
With mass murderers like the Chairman (no, not Frank Sinatra—the other one) scrambling to follow Idi and Osama's example, you just knew that Moloch had to get in on the act:
The demon writes: "One of my most favorite all-time organizations is NARAL Pro-Choice America since they do such great work for me and others down here. In fact we have reserved some office space down here for them later if they don't escape the grasp of my claws. They have this wonderful campaign going showing pictures of people with a very positive looking sign and sometimes when I get a little depressed over some anti-choice victory I just load up their web page and look at their
animated slide show of people holding this sign. There is even a picture of two dogs with one of these signs so it is nice to see even Fido helping out the cause."
1:40 PM
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Get Your Clicks
Links of Note
- For those wanting the "right to die," why stop there? Ed of Media Culpa offers "some other possibly missing rights."
- If you're going to call this blog by something other than its name, I guess "The Darwin Patrol" could be appropriate. (Note: The photo on that entry is of a child receiving a successful operation in the womb—not an abortion.)
1:21 PM
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I've added a disclaimer to "Dear Terri."
1:10 PM
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Brett Taylor of Saint Kansas made a comment to "I. Amin Pro-Choice America" that must be shared: "Sorry, Dawn (and all the ladies)—this one's taken."
1:06 PM
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If you visited this page last night, there's a new addition to that evening's entries—I posted it "back in time" to keep the NARAL and "Dear Terri" items uptop.
3:38 AM
I. Amin Pro-Choice America
NARAL's "We Are Pro-Choice America" photo campaign is so popular that even dead genocidal dictators want to get into the act. Thanks be to Joel Helbling for sending in this shot of a man who killed some 255,000 victims—but doesn't have a peg on the hypocritical Hippocraticals who don white coats to extinguish life:
1:43 AM
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005
OK By Me—Part 1
I visited Oklahoma for the first time last Thursday through Monday, at the very kind invitation of Tulsa residents Michael Bates and his wife, Mikki, and found much to like, from the Art Deco and Fifties-era hotel and burger-joint signs, to the gentlemanly menfolk who would hold doors open for me, to the cheap eats, to the churchy structures of all types (including the world's largest praying hands, to the rugged individualism reflected in the many specialty license plates, and more.
On Friday afternoon, Michael took me to the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore, which is really more like a shrine, filled with Frederic Remington sculptures, lassoes, postcards, sheet music, vaudeville posters, and loads of odd little dioramas of episodes in the humorist's life. (That's where Your Petiteness posed alongside a painting of the "Anti-Bunk" hero.) But while the dozens of Rogers epigrams posted on the walls make for amusing reading, many of the exhibits lack biographical background—it's largely just "here's his hat," "here are his spectacles," etc. (Exceptions include a great display on Life magazine's "Will Rogers for President" campaign.)
The museum's Web site includes information on Rogers that would have made its exhibits more interesting—like Eddie Cantor's tale of how Rogers schooled him. That piece includes a Rogers quote on how he drew his material from newspapers, which still applies in the age of blogs:
I have found out two things. One is that the more up-to-date a subject is, the more credit you are given for talking on it, even if you really haven’t anything very funny. But if it is an old subject, your gags must be funny to get over.
Still to come: Record hunting with Charles G. Hill, coffee with the cream of Okie bloggers (where I just missed seeing a giant wiener), and tea with Happy Homemaker.
9:20 PM
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I Am Furious Yellow
Looks like some people can't take yellow ribbin'.
Kevin McCullough reports that the University of Oregon is steaming over bloggers' and talk-radio listeners' massive protest against its banning the yellow-ribbon "Support Our Troops" stickers from university-owned cars. The school claims such expression on a state-owned university's property is "a violation of a statewide policy."
What I'd like to know is, since when did supporting the members of the U.S. military become a violation of the policy of a U.S. state?
1:28 PM
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Bin Choosin
As NARAL Pro-Choice America continues posting photos of hapless Americans holding the organization's pre-printed "I Am Pro-Choice America" sign, it seems unfair that the organization should ignore its many foreign supporters. To that end, Saint Kansas forwards me a shot that, inexplicably, didn't make NARAL's cut:
4:37 AM
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Raising the 'Anti'
Roman Catholic seminarian Jeff Geerling just got back from the March for Life and has some photos to show for it, but what's on his mind now is the lopsided nature of the press coverage the rally received, as he writes in a thought-provoking entry, "War of the Words":
I am Pro-Life.
I am not an enemy of life. I am an ardent supporter of all human life; from the moment it starts (conception, when sperm meets egg), to the moment it naturally ends.
And yet, I am a "foe." I am an "enemy," according to most media sources. Take a look at these headlines:
* "Anti-abortionists pledge to fight on"
* "Abortion foes march in capital"
* "Abortion foes rally in Washington"
* "Abortion Foes Get Call From Bush"
Some may think that this is a non-issue, but it is not. Many members of the media are playing a game with words, trying to make pro-lifers sound like bad people, and "pro-choicers" sound good.
Read on to his conclusion—it's something that needs to be said.
4:03 AM
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Robert George, the man who puts the "pun" in "pundit," is among the creators of a new online site inviting readers to vote in the anti-Oscars. Of course, it's called The Felixes.
3:48 AM
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Salon Writer Stands Up for Terri
A call to let Terri Schiavo live has come from an online magazine not known for supporting a culture of life: Salon.
Linda Reid Chassiakos, mother of a severely disabled child, writes:
Terri's cause has been adopted by religious conservatives with passionate advocacy. I am neither religious nor conservative, but as a compassionate progressive, I believe the Schiavo case spotlights a critical juncture in the preservation of a humanistic and humanitarian culture: Allowing Terri to die via starvation belies and mocks the ethics and principles of a civilized society.
As a doctor, I have cared for patients who have chosen, in sound mind and in good conscience, not to prolong their lives via extreme measures. Their decisions were documented in written contracts, often after intensive counseling and personal consideration. Hearsay communications from potentially interested parties, however, are not an acceptable substitute. In the absence of a living will, I remain committed by my Hippocratic oath (an ethical code for the medical profession that prohibits doctors from causing any harm) and duty to my profession to do the utmost for my seriously ill patients.
Read the whole thing.
2:11 AM
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Remembering Greg Shaw
New York City musician Peter Kohman, whom I remember from 20 years ago when he was with the Tryfles, sends notice of a concert in honor of beloved late Bomp! Records founder Greg Shaw:
On January 29, Magnetic Field in Brooklyn will be hosting an evening in memory of Greg Shaw...a night of performances by the Coffin Lids and Shaw 'Nuff. The Coffin Lids were one of the last bands Greg signed to Bomp! and come in a haze of smoked amps and electroshocked, Farfisa-driven rock'n'roll. Shaw 'Nuff is a one-shot NYC supergroup featuring Peter Stuart, Kurt Reil, Mike Fornatale, Michael Lynch and Wendy Fornatale. Each of these musicians is variously a veteran of, or enlisted in, groups like The Standells, Grip Weeds, Beau Brummels, Blues Magoos, The Monks, Moby Grape, Cavestomp Redcoats, Richard & The Young Lions, The Lynchpins, and Kelly Stoltz. DJs Ira Robbins and WFMU's Evan Davies will spin prime selections from the Bomp! catalogue and music with
appropriate blood ties.
The night begins at 7:30 on January 29th. The door price will be $10, all proceeds donated to Greg's widow and son. Magnetic Field is located at 97 Atlantic Avenue, between Hicks and Henry Streets, in Brooklyn Heights. The phone # is 718-834-0069.
1:29 AM
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Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Letters From Iraq
The eloquent e-mails of my friend Steven Givler, a captain in the U.S. Air Force, telling of his experiences while stationed in Iraq, are now the subject of a three-part series in the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. Here's a taste:
Some clown on the BBC the other night was saying that tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians had died because of American aggression. What nonsense. I'd be glad to host the man who said that. I'd let him spend the night in one of our flimsy trailers, listening to the shriek of rockets overhead, feeling the shock of the explosions and the rattle of stones on the roof. By morning, he'd be screaming for reprisals.
Not us. We take it. Sometimes on the chin. In ones or twos, our people are injured or killed. We mourn them. We pack their personal effects and send them home to their families and we press on, giving up our safety in order to assure [the safety] of Iraqi civilians. We don't do it for recognition and we don't expect to hear about it on the news. But it sure ticks me off when I hear someone saying exactly the opposite of what I know to be true.
11:43 PM
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By popular demand, here again is the link to Tracey Hallman's poetry. Tracey is married to Saint Kansas, who writes today of how kids' TV is celebrating a #$%*&!@ different kind of wordsmith.
11:28 PM
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Quote of the Day
From Kevin McCullough's new feature "Kerry—'Reporting for Duty", on the Massachusetts senator's return to Capitol Hill, comes this gem—a comment on a news article's stating, "On Monday, Kerry introduced a bill...":
Now there's something—not often said in the past 20 years...
11:08 PM
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Two Hundred and Eighty-Eight Sex Partners? That's Two Gross*
A team of Ohio State University sociologists examining a sex survey taken by students at a Midwestern high school have created a "sex map" showing how nearly 300 teens were connected by sexual contact with one another.
Reuters reports that "288 students were linked in a one-to-one chain of sexual contact that rarely looped back. In other words, one boy had sex with one girl, who had sex with another boy, who had sex with another girl and so on."
The researchers said that the teens were "just average students" (I'm assuming they weren't talking in terms of academics) and "not extremely active sexually." (For comparison, they wrote, witness promiscuous adults such as "NBA stars with thousands and thousands of partners"—as though such scuzzy folk were somehow representative of responsible grown-ups.)
So what can be drawn from this interlocking map of hundreds of hedonistic high-schoolers? Hold onto your hat. "[S]ocial policies that could help some of them protect themselves from STDs could break a lot of these chains that can lead to the spread of disease," the lead researcher, sociologist James Moody, declares.
Ah yes, we're back in Planned Parenthoodland. It's perfectly fine for kids 14 and up to have sex with one another—just as long as Old Man VD doesn't break up the party. And as far as breaking "a lot of these chains," one abstinent student can break them—or at least impede their progress by saving himself or herself from premarital sex while making a positive psychological impression on other students.
But while Moody gives abstinence lip service, it's clearly not his priority:
"Anything that limits that and restricts the flow of body fluids between people would help." That includes education about condom use, abstinence and other policies, he said.
It's so simple. Why can't uptight red-state values-voter parents get it through their thick heads? For children to be sexually responsible, all they have to do is—repeat after me—restrict the flow of body fluids. This is what Planned Parenthood, SIECUS, and their allies call "comprehensive sex education," in a nutshell. It's the George Clinton adage—free your a-- and your mind will follow.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Midwest, nearly 300 high-school students have had sex with two or more partners—and nobody seems to care about what goes on above their waist.
*Bwahahaha! Oh, sorry...laughing at my own headlines again...
1:52 AM
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A quick and very sleepy note to say thanks so much to everyone who's commented or written to me with sympathy and kindness over the personal news that I reported yesterday. It means a lot to me. Having just gotten back from my vacation, I'm more behind on e-mail than usual. But on the other hand, I now have more time than before, so I plan to write back very soon to everyone who wrote in.
Also coming soon, fond reminiscences of the Okie blogger bash and great times with Jan the Happy Homemaker, Charles G. Hill, and Michael Bates.
1:51 AM
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Monday, January 24, 2005
Let's See Some ID
Wittingshire's Amanda Witt, whose husband Jonathan is the Discovery Institute's senior fellow, is in hot primordial ooze with Darwinists (not as fun as it sounds) for pointing out a Darwin quote on the relative intelligence of the sexes that could have come from beleaguered Harvard President Lawrence Summers.
Today Witt let fly a riposte that strikes at the unquestioning faith of evolutionists who are so quick to attack any theory that springs from, well, unquestioning faith:
Proponents of intelligent design get attacked all the time for their supposed motives, when what matters is THE EVIDENCE. That never seems to get addressed in the slew of ad hominem attacks, and the hand-wringing over the implications of design theory.
Look at the evidence for intelligent design. Look at the lack of evidence for key aspects of Darwinian evolution. That's all the ID movement asks.
11:19 PM
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The Life You Save
On this day of the March for Life, NARAL Pro-Choice America's Bush v. Choice blog, in an entry titled—with the organization's typical sensitivity—"'Moral Values' my ass!", assails President Bush's lack of "moral clarity."
The NARAL blogger lauds an ACLU executive's pro-abortion op-ed that asks questions like, "What is moral about denying health coverage to a pregnant woman in need of an abortion when her doctor believes it is necessary to protect her health? What is moral about forcing a low-income woman to choose between paying for an abortion she needs to preserve her health and paying for food, shelter and other basic necessities for her family?"
Elsewhere on the blog, readers are directed to a discussion on Feministing.com about whether the Democratic Party should, while keeping its pro-choice stance, welcome pro-lifers (which, when you think about it, is like an oil refinery's welcoming asthmatics).
What the ACLU exec's op-ed and the Feministing discussion have in common is that they play into the idea that abortions are necessary primarily because a woman may need one to save her own life. In fact, abortion is never necessary to save a woman's life. It may be an unintended effect of a lifesaving procedure, such as ending an ectopic pregnancy, but a procedure intended specifically to kill the unborn child has been rendered unnecessary by advances in science. Even former Planned Parenthood president Alan Guttmacher famously wrote in 1967, "Today it is possible for almost any patient to be brought through pregnancy alive, unless she suffers from a fatal disease such as cancer or leukemia, and if so, abortion would be unlikely to prolong, much less save the life of the mother."*
The American Life League, a Catholic organization which is against every form of abortion, recognizes that lifesaving treatment may have an unintended "double effect": "Essentially, both mother and child should be treated as patients. A doctor should try to protect both. However, in the course of treating a woman, if her child dies, that is not considered abortion."
As for moral values and my a--, I'll stick my butt out for NARAL, the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood when they protest the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that the ex-husband of a "purposefully interactive, curious and expressive" woman can have her killed. But I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them—least of all the ACLU—to do so...at least, not until the Devil needs a pair of ice skates.
*Abortion—Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: The Case for Legalized abortion Now. Diablo Press, 1967.
3:36 PM
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Post Mortem
I wrote the "wood"—the front-page headline—of yesterday's New York Post.
It was my last act at the Post. Knowing the Trump wedding was ahead, I shouted the headline to the paper's weekend copy chief as I headed out the door last Tuesday, my last day there.
The only things I can say about the situation right now are that it is always painful to lose one's job; I will always be proud of the work I did at the Post, where I won first place for "Brightest Headline" in the 2004 New York State Associated Press Awards; and I have faith that something better is in store for me.
1:15 AM
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Sunday, January 23, 2005
IrishLaw takes on an anti-abstinence op-ed by NARAL's Karen Cooper that the blogger aptly terms "Grandmas for sex: because let's get real."
In response to Cooper's claim that abstinence-until-marriage is unrealistic as "a model for the 21st century, when half of the students in law school and medical school are women," IrishLaw writes:
I find it interesting Cooper focuses on law and medical students as an example here of those who are wanting (apparently) both to have sex and not to have children. If these students (still a very small percentage of all women) were to become pregnant -- as does happen in spite of all that comprehensive sex education NARAL advocates and these educated women undoubtedly know about -- surely they would be in the best position of all women to be able to take care of a child? Abortion is "needed" least for these.
11:15 PM
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Take Two RU-486—and Call Me in the Mourning
The Los Angeles Times reports that Dr. Warren Hern, the late-term abortionist who's protesting that a Roman Catholic Church is publicly burying the ashes of some 1,000 babies he killed, says that he's got nothing against burial rites on principle. In fact, after he's vacuum-suctioned a baby out of a womb, he sometimes shows up at its funeral:
In some cases, he has participated in Jewish and American Indian funeral rituals after the abortion, along with the family members.
This sounds like something out of a black comedy like "The Loved One." An all-inclusive package deal: "We kill it...and mourn it."
1:33 AM
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Saturday, January 22, 2005
This is Dan Lovejoy guest blogging for Dawn at the Oklahoma Blogger Bash. Click here for pics, or here for a list of attendees. We're having fun!
UPDATE, 11:31 p.m.: It's Dawn, back at the Bates family manse in Tulsa, here patriarch Michael is currently putting up photos of the blogger bash on his Batesline. Dan Lovejoy also has a group photo up—go to this post and scroll down.
And yes, I had a wonderful time, and will write more about it—and my fabulous outing with Dustbury's Charles G. Hill—after I get back on Monday. (Charles has already written a beautiful account of the afternoon, but I'm sure I can think of something he didn't mention.) Right now I have to get some sleep for that Sunday-morning red-state thing they call "church."
My one regret is that, while I was with fellow bloggers at the Oklahoma City coffeehouse where we met, I missed getting my picture taken outside with the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile.
4:47 PM
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Friday, January 21, 2005
Still on vacation, but Michael Bates graciously allowed me to dominate his computer for a Planned Parenthood post tonight. You'll next hear from me late tomorrow or early Sunday, with photos and news of the first-ever Okie blogger bash. In the meantime, thanks for all the suggestions in "Ready, Willing, and Cable"—please keep them coming!
11:30 PM
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Apoplectic Abortionist Kicks Ash
A mortuary worker in Boulder, Colo., was so disgusted by an abortionist's bringing boxes of human remains to be incinerated that he secretly brought the remains to a Roman Catholic Church—which has been quietly burying them for years.
Now, the church plans to publicly bury the ashes of up to to 1,000 aborted children—and the abortionist is hopping mad, as the local CBS affiliate reports:
Dr. Warren Hern of the Boulder Abortion Clinic said his contract with Crist Mortuary required it to bury the ashes in its own plot.
Instead, he learned this week that for nearly a decade, a mortuary officer has been giving the remains to the Sacred Heart of Mary Church. The ashes are buried near a statue of Jesus and a memorial wall with plaques carrying messages from people wanting to memorialize their fetus.
I'm sure if the news organization had bothered to speak to any of the bereaved parents, they'd say they weren't memorializing their fetus, but their baby. Amazing how people can get carried away and anthropomorphize the things to the point of imagining they're actual human beings."A lot of my patients come in with desired pregnancies, deeply saddened they have a desired pregnancy which is medically complicated or threatening their life," said Hern, one of a handful of doctors in the country who perform abortions late in pregnancy.
Notice how quickly the report throws off the fact that Hern, like Kansas' notorious Dr. George Tiller, performs late-term abortions. That means these weren't just "blobs of tissue," as the abortion lobby would have people believe. As volunteer Susan LaVelle from Sacred Heart of Mary explains, these were unmistakably mutilated babies:LaVelle said the Crist officer who gave the remains to the church began doing it in 1996, when he worked at a different funeral home. She said the man was "traumatized" when he opened a shipment of remains and saw recognizable human parts. He asked the church pastor what to do.
"The two of them decided it would be good to be able to honor these unborn babies by giving them a proper burial," she said....
The church in the fields southeast of Boulder has quietly held burial ceremonies for fetal remains from Hern's clinic since 1996....[LaVelle] said parishioners have known about the activity since 1998, two years before the wall was built.
For a year, church leaders considered inviting the public to the burials, LaVelle said. When the church recently received enough remains for the largest burial yet, they decided to announce a candlelight vigil Friday night and a burial ceremony after Sunday morning Mass.
The burial will represent 600 to 1,000 remains of aborted, stillborn and miscarried fetuses. LaVelle said the ceremony was never intended as a political statement, though it comes one day after the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion.
"I have never met a woman that didn't agonize over this decision, and we are not judging that. If anything, we are saying we understand this was agonizing," LaVelle said. "Our society says it's something to be quiet about, so she carries that pain in silence. We want her to know that she doesn't have to do that, that we're here for her."
But the abortionist will have none of it."I'm appalled that the Catholic Church will exploit women's private grief and misery for their own political purposes," he said. "Crist made a political statement by collaborating with this macabre ritual."
So proper burial is a "macabre ritual"—while sticking a pair of scissors in the skull of a viable unborn child is perfectly all right.
I suppose one could say it's bizarre to bury the ashes on sacred ground—if one believes that the babies are no more human than "medical records." For that's what Planned Parenthood says an unborn child is”medical records.
Oh, wait. That's what Planned Parenthood said it was, when they were pressed on the subject in another case. The present issue forces them back to relativism. Is it a baby? Is it a blob of tissue? Is it anything worth mourning over? That's up for the woman to decide—after she's had it killed, they say:Kate Horle, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said it was unethical because neither Hern nor his patients knew of the burials.
"We certainly see this as a violation of the privacy of women," she said. "(The church and the mortuary) don't have a relationship with these women and they have no idea what their wishes or personal beliefs might be."
Got it? If it's a violation of privacy, then the unborn child is "medical records." If the woman has other wishes or personal beliefs, then it's a person. But in any case, neither Planned Parenthood nor Dr. Hern has ever considered giving women an opportunity to mourn—not just see a social worker, but really mourn—for their dead child. Because that, of course, would imply that the thing that was scraped out of their womb was really a child—when we all know it's really just a child-shaped political football that can be humanized or dehumanized at a woman's whim.
10:08 PM
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Short Fuse
I'd just gotten off the train to Newark International Airport and was in the elevator going up to the Air Train monorail, when I noticed that the only other person in there with me was a man about 40 years old, wide build, goatee, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and khaki bermudas. He looked like a beatnik Big Kahuna from the old surf movies. Except that the temperature outside was in the 30s.
He didn't look crazy, so I figured he must be traveling to somewhere warm.
"Going south?" I asked.
He paused and released an inaudible sigh.
"I could be sitting with a handgun and a kitchen sink on my head, and in New York, nobody would care," he said. "But put shorts on—" He sighed again.
The elevator doors opened. "Have a nice trip!" I chirped. And ran off.
1:09 AM
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Thursday, January 20, 2005
Ready, Willing, and Cable
I'm dashing this off my friend Michael Bates's computer in Tulsa, Okla., where I am on a four-day vacation—during which I'll be joining Dustbury, Happy Homemaker, Dan & Angie, the Gleesons, and others at the first-ever Okie blogger bash. (Don't worry, my collection of Herman's Hermits vinyl is safe; a pal's watching the Eden manse.)
One of my last acts before flying south was moving up from dialup—I now have a cable connection. (I'll pause a moment while the chorus of, "You still used dialup?" dies down.) But I've yet to test-drive my new connection by attempting to, say, listen to three-minute songs that previously would have taken me half an hour to download (like Saint Kansas' "Rock the Vote" parody, "Bomb a Rock Star).
Here's where you can help. What have I been missing all this time? What songs, sermons, videos, animations, or other things on the 'Net should I check out now that I'm a broad with bandwith?
Please put your suggestions in the comments section below. My only requirement is that they link to material that's rated G.
Note: The comments only go up when I publish my blog, so if yours don't go up quickly, don't fret—they'll be up later in the day. Also, blogging will be light until I get back on Monday—but do watch for photos of the blogger bash, which should be up by Sunday morning.
11:44 PM
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Schmall Change
After I complimented the Associated Press for using the word "schmooze" in a headline yesterday, some editor watered the headline down, removing the Yiddishism.
I guess you could say they preferred the Gentile touch. But the message here is, sadly, you schmooze, you lose.
4:21 AM
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A Box on Both Your Houses
Sacred Miscellany's Mary Jane Ballou rethinks a counterculture classic—Malvina Reynolds' Levittown-inspired protest tune "Little Boxes":
Washing up after dinner tonight, the song kept running through my head and I found myself growing progressively more annoyed. Everything about the song oozed the self-satisfaction of the intellectual and political elite (self-identified, of course). No mass-produced houses for them, no boring jobs in corporations, no dull public schools for their children, and so on. I remembered performances of this song and the chortles of university students and faculty members that accompanied it. And, I blush to admit, I chortled along with the best (or worst) of them.
Was there ever a thought of how much those little houses (and today's equivalent) meant to the folks buying them with V.A. loans? Of the pleasure of having a home and the family that had been delayed by Depression and War? Of the quality of that housing compared to crowded older apartments or substandard rural dwellings? Of what the people in those houses wanted or thought or cared about?
Nah, it was all about being from Berkeley or San Francisco, being hip, politically active, and never taking a job with "The Man" as long as those graduate assistantships and the checks from home kept coming.
An online bio of Reynolds notes, "In her jubilant, liberal rejection of traditional other-worldly religion, Malvina wrote and sang 'This World':"I'd rather go to the corner store
Than sing 'Hosanna' on that golden shore
I'd rather live on Parker Street
Than fly around where the angels meet."
So this woman valued things below more than things above, yet she couldn't see how, for a working-class family, a prefabricated home of their own could be a little piece of heaven.
That's pretty ticky-tacky, if you ask me.
3:50 AM
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Military Engagement
The Canadian military has drafted guidelines for its chaplains to marry same-sex couples.
In other words, if G.I. Joe wants to marry G.I. Jeff, they can do it right on the base.
Never mind that no homosexual couple has asked the military to make the provision:
"It's essentially a statement of the way the law is going," said military chaplain Col. Stan Johnstone, who helped draft the new guidelines....Johnstone said that they also currently have never had a request by any same-sex couple to be "married," he simply wants the military to take the "leading edge" on the issue.
This story is much larger than its skimpy news coverage would suggest, because it compromises the integrity of the Canadian military.
If you've served or are serving in the military, U.S. or otherwise, please leave a comment and tell me, what do you think of Canada's making it possible for two soldiers serving in combat, side by side, to "marry"? There are all sorts of issues here that the articles on this issue have yet to address, from morale to the logistics of having a "married" couple serve together in situations where one of them could be killed.
Looks like the Canadians are so certain of being protected by Uncle Sam that they feel perfectly safe turning their military bases into hotbeds of homosexuality. I'm glad they didn't send their men to serve next to ours in Iraq. Our GIs have enough to deal with over there without having to overhear lovers' spats.
3:14 AM
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"It's Not a Child—It's a Choice"
WorldNetDaily's David Kupelian's "How lying marketers sold Roe v. Wade to America" is a far-ranging and withering exposé of the abortion industry (sans photos) that should be read by everyone who considers themselves pro-choice—as well as pro-lifers who can withstand a behind-the-scenes description of people who kill people. Here's a sample—but read the whole thing:
Whereas once upon a time pregnant mothers were respectfully, lovingly referred to as being "with child," today we coldly refer to the unborn not as a child but as a "fetus." Indeed, the word "fetus" has taken on qualities and characteristics convenient to the pro-abortion viewpoint – implying something less than human, with little intrinsic worth, and therefore disposable. If an abortionist or "pro-choicer" looks at a "fetus," his eyes will see a perfectly formed human child – for that is what a fetus actually is – but his mind will see an ugly, nonhuman, disposable lump of tissue.
Interestingly, if there were no word for "fetus," such a switch of realities would be more difficult. The word itself becomes a convenient carrier of the "ugly, nonhuman" characteristics, and is thus a key tool for denying the humanity of the unborn human child.
We're dealing with very deep denial here. Let me offer a personal example: More than two decades ago, as a news reporter I confronted a Planned Parenthood attorney with a photograph of a white, five-gallon plastic bucket filled with dead, late-term human babies – the results of one day's abortions at a Canadian hospital. His response was to deny that what he saw were really human babies, and suggested that perhaps they were actually dead monkeys. Mind you, this man made his living defending the world's largest abortion provider – but when he saw real abortions, he denied what was right in from of his own eyes.
2:00 AM
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My sincere apologies to everyone to whom I owe an e-mail. It's been very busy here, and I'm about to go away for a long weekend. I hope to make a dent in my inbox when I get back.
1:12 AM
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Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Just a reminder: If you try to register to post a comment and Blogger asks you, after you've input your username and password, to start a blog, just ignore the request—your registration is still good.
10:55 AM
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Planned Parenthood's Clerical Error
Planned Parenthood's Web site currently features a link to The Religious Institute of Sexual Justice and Healing, headed by the former CEO of the pro-abortion sex-ed group SIECUS. Its motto is—I kid you not—"Pastors for Sexual Health, Prophets for Sexual Justice."
Considering the group is a favorite of Planned Parenthood, which cleared $35.2 million last year, I guess it depends on how you pronounce "prophets."
The Religious Institute's Web site features the organization's "Religious Declaration on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing," which begins:
Sexuality is God's life-giving and life-fulfilling gift.
So much for abstinence! Pity all those poor nuns, priests, monks, and spinsters walking around "unfulfilled." Pardon me while I run to the nearest singles bar to get godly "fulfillment."Our culture needs a sexual ethic focused on personal relationships and social justice rather than particular sexual acts.
I'm sorry, "social justice" does not go with "personal relationships." They tried that in the Sixties, requiring white coeds to sleep with a rainbow of partners in order to prove they weren't all prejudiced and uptight. It didn't work. (Stokely Carmichael famously claimed that the only position for a woman in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was "prone.")God hears the cries of those who suffer from the failure of religious communities to address sexuality.
Meaning, "God hears the cries of those who suffer from the failure of religious communities to address sexuality the way Planned Parenthood and SIECUS want them to address it." Is there any religious community in the world that fails to address sexuality? The only one I can think of is the Shakers.We are called today to see, hear, and respond to the suffering caused by violence against women and sexual minorities, the HIV pandemic, unsustainable population growth and over-consumption, and the commercial exploitation of sexuality.
That reference to "unsustainable population growth and over-consumption" sticks out like an abortionist's curettage knife.
As Dean Esmay explained recently, overpopulation is a myth. The movement against overpopulation is financed largely by men of extreme wealth, as Population Research Institute head Steven W. Mosher noted in an interview while speaking of John D. Rockefeller:I think he was also laboring under the misguided notion that you can reduce poverty by eliminating the poor. Of course, you can't do that. We know the way to reduce poverty is to set up the rule of law, put in place a system of respect and safeguards for private property. You set in place a fair and just legal system, you allow entrepreneurs to keep the proceeds of their enterprise rather than have them taxed away or stolen away by corrupt officials.
The Religious Institute's latest effort is an "Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Abortion" (PDF file) urging clergy to offer "support with love to those who choose adoption or termination of their pregnancies."
Ah, yes—support with love to those who choose to keep their baby, or those who choose to kill it. Because we know that the two are morally equivalent and equally deserving of support.
That support, the letter says, should include "providing worship opportunities for those who seek them to mourn losses from miscarriages, stillbirths, and abortions."
In other words, where abortion's concerned, support the killing of babies and give the bereaved moms the "opportunity" to worship.
And people think that pro-life religions have an inconsistent position? For women who have faith, there is hope after abortion—aided by church-supported groups like Project Rachel that minister to their real and deep suffering. But for the clergy of the Religious Institute, one woman's adoption is no better than another woman's abortion, and life itself becomes as worthless as a Planned Parenthood condom—after it's been tested by Consumer Reports.
3:09 AM
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All the Schmooze That's Fit to Print
Nice to see some Noo Yawk Yiddish creep into the mainstream, via this AP headline:
"President Bush Schmoozing With Donors"
2:55 AM
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Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Hill Da Wabbit
Saint Kansas has a screen grab from an episode of the kiddie cartoon show "Postcards from Buster" showing a "Mrs. President" who looks suspiciously like Hillary Clinton if she were a bunny rabbit with very short ears—or, as the post's headline suggests, a female dog.
9:05 PM
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The Vision Thing
Charles of Dustbury writes about the folly of requiring specific physical characteristics in a love interest:
You might infer...that there have not been many women in my life, and indeed there have not, but they have been a fairly diverse lot, from sizes 2 to 221?2, heights from 4'9" to 5'9", and don't even ask me to recall cup sizes. About the only thing they had in common was that at some point they thought I was acceptable, which is miraculous enough.
What a beautiful statement. While I've done my share of guy-watching (often accompanied by involuntary hair-tossing and eyelash-batting), I have to agree with Charles. Looking back, the men to whom I was most attached weren't the ones whom I found most attractive on first sight. They were the ones with whom I felt comfortable—as opposed to the goofy and awkward way I feel around ultra-handsome men—and who intrigued me in a way that made me want to discover what was behind their eyes.
8:01 PM
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The Real Kerry Spot
My latest Planned Parenthood post just turned up on The Daou Report, published by the John Kerry campaign's online communications advisor Peter Daou, "the Web version of a daily report prepared by Peter for KE04 and the DNC." I can't really make out a particular editorial view in its selection of topics—it just seems to be a potpourri of opinions from mostly leading conservative and liberal blogs.
1:07 PM
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This has to be the oddest pro-life blog I've seen. I can't make head or tail of it.
Well, on second thought, I can make out the head pretty well.
4:05 AM
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Dawn Sequitur
Reading a press release masquerading as a feature article on the Madera, Calif., Planned Parenthood clinic, I found this curious little quote from the facility's manager, which I offer without comment:
"Our community outreach program includes providing books for the children of our clients to encourage their love of reading."
4:00 AM
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Rubber Bull
"This is an easily preventable disease, you just have to change human behavior."
— Film and TV producer
Firdaus Kharas speaking by telephone from the United Nations, where he was publicly launching
"Three Amigos," the AIDS-prevention campaign featuring cartoon condoms
How right he is. Except that his campaign doesn't encourage behavior change at all. It just encourages potential AIDS victims to have
a false sense of security.
3:33 AM
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Baby, It's You
"Nineteen years ago, 14-year-old Mishelle Elliot made a mistake that changed her life. She and her boyfriend were fooling around, and, as is often the case, one thing led to another. Maybe they didn’t have a condom, or maybe what they used broke, but Mishelle soon found herself responsible for an extra life growing inside her. Mishelle cried when she discovered it, afraid of what her family and her boyfriend would think and do."
So writes college student Paul Owen in a poignantly beautiful article for his school paper: "Adoption could save a life—like mine."
2:55 AM
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Monday, January 17, 2005
Army Chaplain's Prayer Request
A friend in the military sends this prayer request from a chaplain in Iraq. I'm omitting the chaplain's e-mail address but will forward him any encouraging comments:
As a transportation battalion, my unit will be delivering the voting machines and the ballots to villages and cities throughout Iraq during the upcoming elections. (January 30/31) Our convoys are prime targets for the insurgents because they do not want the equipment to arrive at the polling stations nor do they want the local Iraqi citizens to have the chance to vote; timely delivery must occur so that the elections occur. Encourage your friends and family members and those within our churches to pray specifically for the electoral process.
Historically, the previous totalitarian regime would not allow individual citizens to vote. Democracy will not be realized in Iraq if intelligent and competent officials are not elected to those strategic leadership positions within the emerging government; freedom will not have an opportunity to ring throughout this country if the voting process fails. Announce this prayer request to your contacts throughout your churches, neighborhoods, and places of business. Those with leadership roles within the local church, post this message in as many newsletters and bulletins as possible. There is unlimited potential for God's presence in this process but if we do not pray then our enemy will prevail (See Ephesians 6:10-17) A prayer vigil prior to the end of the month may be an innovative opportunity for those within your sphere of influence to pray. This is a political battle that needs spiritual intervention. A powerful story about God's intervention in the lives of David's mighty men is recorded in 2 Samuel 23:8-33. David and his warriors were victorious because of God's intervention. We want to overcome those who would stand in the way of freedom. David's mighty men triumphed over incredible odds and stood their ground and were victorious over the enemies of Israel. (Iraqi insurgents' vs God's praying people). They don't stand a chance.
I will pray with my soldiers before they leave on their convoys and move outside our installation gates here at Tallil. My soldiers are at the nerve center of the logistic operation to deliver the voting machines and election ballots. They will be driving to and entering the arena of the enemy. This is not a game for them it is a historical mission that is extremely dangerous. No voting machines or ballots. No elections. Your prayer support and God's intervention are needed to give democracy a chance in this war torn country. Thank you for reading this e-mail. Please give this e-mail a wide dissemination.
Thank you for your prayer support for me and my family. Stand firm in your battles.
Blessings,
v/r
Lyle
CH (CPT) Lyle Shackelford
Battalion Chaplain
HHD, 57th Transportation Battalion
Providing With Mobility
"Keep Em Moving"
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
-Joshua 1:9
8:07 PM
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Can You Draw Maggie?
This is my kind of contest:
The Margaret Sanger Blogspot is pleased to announce its 1st Annual Margaret Sanger at the Ku Klux Klan Rally Art Contest.
Margaret Sanger's account of her talk at the Ku Klux Klan Rally can be found below from pages 366-367 of Margaret Sanger An Autobiography (1971 reprint by Dover Publications, Inc. of the 1938 original published by W.W. Norton & Company):
http://michael_mcloughlin.tripod.com/magieandkkk.html
When the Margaret Sanger Blogspot performed a Google search for images of this historical event, none could be found. Clearly, there is a critical need for artistic recreations of the historic event.
The Big Abortion Industry still holds Margaret Sanger out as an icon. Artwork is one more important way to promote the truth about Margaret Sanger.
See the full post for details on how to enter.
Artistic and witty pro-lifers like Curt Jester, Saint Kansas, Media Culpa, Fr. Bryce, Jeff Geerling, Dennis Schenkel, are you reading? This should be fun.
7:35 PM
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Picks to Click
Links of Note
[UPDATED]
Karol of Alarming News has word of a pro-life rap song.
* * *
Charles of
Dustbury has more on
the hijacking of Panix, which looks to be a new and deeply disturbing form of Internet crime. Charles also has
a must-read post—really, an op-ed”on why today matters. Read the comments too.
* * *
Julie Neidlinger writes encouragingly about this here blog and has fun with
a NARAL feedback form intended for President Bush.
3:10 PM
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Gay Bars Make 'Tolerant' Neighbors
The specter of enforced "tolerance" rears its ugly head in Spokane, Wash., where homosexual groups are pushing the traditionally conservative city to create a special "gay district":
A gay district would signal that Spokane is tolerant and progressive, proponents contend, the type of community that can attract the so-called "creative class" that will build the economy of tomorrow.
Needless to say, if you are opposed to creating a special part of town for people who need people who practice anal sex, you are an Uptight White Person. At least, according to "Bonnie Aspen, a business owner who arrived with her partner two years ago to escape the congestion of the San Francisco Bay area":Spokane is some 90 percent white and a gay district will promote the notion that such a community can still be tolerant and have diversity, Aspen said.
So that's it. People who happen to live in a 90 percent white town in the Pacific Northwest have some serious tolerance issues to work out. They can either make an extra special effort to make the other 10 percent feel included—or they can just agree to let developers set a part of their town aside for homosexuals.
Heck, if creating a "gay district" is tolerant, why not just section off the entire darn city according to ethnic, social, religious, and sexual groups? And we could give each group its own insignia, so that no one would be caught in the wrong neighborhood. With my heritage, I'd wear a star, of course, and the homosexuals could wear those cute little pink triangles.TRACKBACK: Dustbury's Charles writes in "They're here, we're used to them":
What bothers me about this is not so much that there would be a gay district in Spokane — we have one in Oklahoma City, fairly diffuse but centered not far from me, that bothers me not at all — but that they think it can be imposed from without. It can't. (The last time American cities made an effort to create separate neighborhoods, the symbol was not a rainbow, but a large black bird.)
3:40 AM
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Media Culpa is on a roll. Especially read "If People Are Pests, Outlawing DDT is the Pesticide."
3:36 AM
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Martin Luther King's Niece, Silent No More
Newsweek online has an interview with Martin Luther King's niece, Alveda King, that's astonishing. It's not what she's saying that's such a surprise—she's known to be a member of Silent No More, but, rather, that one of the more liberal newsmagazines' Web sites would publish such a pull-no-punches interview with a powerful, articulate, conservative black woman. Good on Newsweek, good on interviewer Karen Fragala, and God bless Alveda King. Some highlights from the story:
What is the most pressing issue facing African-Americans today?
If we were in the 1990s, I would have said that school choice is the most pressing civil-rights issue. We're now in the new millennium, and the battle for life, in my heart, has equal place. By that, I'm speaking of the pro-life movement. I am a member of a group called Silent No More, of mostly women who say they regret their abortion. I'm post-abortive so I know this, when we abort the child, we violate his or her rights, we as the mothers suffer tremendously, and our families suffer. I remember my children saying, "You killed our brother or our sister, how could you do that? Did you want to kill us, too?" My uncle said that "the Negro cannot win if he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for personal comfort and safety.” Now if you look at the issue of abortion, that's immediately sacrificing the life of a child for personal comfort and safely.
What about a young, single woman growing up in a poor neighborhood, with few resources? A lot of people would say that it is better for her to have an abortion than to raise a child in poverty and perpetuate the cycle of poverty for another generation.
I had an abortion in my early twenties. I was married, but the father did not want the child. He was very emphatic about that, and somewhat threatening, and I felt under tremendous pressure, and so I made that choice. At the time, we had one son, and [the father] did not want other children. And it was so convenient, because Roe v. Wade had just passed, and my medical insurance paid for it. I would say in retrospect, we have a greater responsibility as a compassionate society to teach our young people, male and female, the responsibility of parenting, what happens when you have sex, and to teach again like we used to: be prepared to raise a child if you have sex. People stopped saying that. And so I do have compassion for the young person who says, “If I have this baby, my life will be ruined.” But I believe the answer is: Think about that before you have the sex. I would say to that young lady, if she's already pregnant, then we go into intervention and look for opportunities to have the child adopted, or to strengthen her with maybe a scholarship to finish school so she doesn't feel deserted or abandoned.
1:40 AM
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Sunday, January 16, 2005
James Wood has decided not to retire his blog after all, and I for one am glad.
10:51 PM
Just a reminder: You don't need to start a blog to register with Blogger so you can comment on this blog. Just ignore the request that Blogger gives you to start a blog. Your comment will go through anyway.
I ask bloggers to register because it cuts down on comments spam and helps make commenters more responsible. I love the quality of the comments on this blog.
10:44 PM
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"Faces of Feticide" Entrants:
We Have a Winner!
Among the many fine entries in The Dawn Patrol's first caption contest, "Faces of Feticide"—which featured a photo of a young woman in a cubicle holding a sign from NARAL saying "I Am Pro-Choice America," taken from the organization's gallery for its photo campaign*—were these gems:
- From No. 2: "Fer real. I'm having my uterine contents suctioned out while we speak...No, not at all. Sure, I can meet you for a latte in 15 minutes, as long as it's a skinny!"
- From bryanm: (on the day of the Christ's return)
God - "So, let's talk about that picture"
- From Therese Z: "Golly, yes, I'm pro-choice! I have the power not only to choose my friends, but I can even choose my family!"
- And, proving that there's always a surrealist in the bunch, one from Credo (a blogger I'm very happy to have discovered through this contest). Remember, the photo was of a young woman holding a sign reading, "I Am Pro-Choice America." I give Credo, an ardent pro-lifer, credit for having the creativity to respond by writing something in Engrish:
"Buy American. Make very happy long time. Please choose American."
But the prize goes to the author of this caption, who wrote it after NARAL removed the first photo from its site:A cartoon thought bubble above her head says:
"PLEASE HELP ME...they said if I don't smile enough when I hold up this paper they will vacuum extract me from my cubicle...they took away my cubicle neighbor, the one with brown hair, glasses, and a black v-neck, because she didn't smile enough and held her up by her feet and stuck scissors in the back of her brain!!! OH GOD HELP ME..."
Wodamark, assuming you're a bona fide stranger (or near-stranger) and not a friend in disguise, you have won a $25 Amazon gift certificate. In addition, I'll donate $25 to the tsunami-relief charity of your choice and $25 to the pro-life charity of your choice. Please write me at dawn -at-dawneden.com to claim your prize and name your charities of choice, plus drop a comment below so I'll have verification that the person who e-mailed me is in fact Wodamark.
Thanks so much to everyone who entered! I'm now taking suggestion for a new contest.
*Until NARAL removed that photo, when I replaced it with another one, which NARAL then removed as well.
9:40 PM
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WE DID IT!
Thank you, readers! Using nothing but the force of satire, we shamed NARAL Pro-Choice America into removing its online "I Am Pro-Choice America" photo gallery.
I originally read about the gallery in this post on NARAL's "Bush v. Choice" blog. The gallery, which you can read about in my "Faces of Feticide" contest entry, featured images of women holding up printed signs saying "I Am Pro-Choice America." As one reader noted, the women were likely all NARAL employees.
The organization put out a call for supporters to send in photos of themselves for the gallery. That link is still up. But all the original gallery images are down—including both the ones I used for my caption contest.
While I'm thankful that the employees of NARAL—whom those in the photos most likely were—are feeling shame over their public identification as "Pro-Choice Americans, the sad part of this is that they have no compunction about exposing others to ridicule. You can bet that the gallery will re-emerge in time, with dozens or hundreds of Americans smiling with their "I Am Pro-Choice American" signs—unaware of the extent of public criticism they may face.
I don't believe in ridiculing people for the sake of making them feel bad about themselves. But when a person publicly holds up a sign saying, "This is what I am," and advocates for a particular view, they deserve to face the reaction of people who disagree with what they stand for.
I am thankful that I live in a country where we have this right to publicly state our views and publicly disagree. And, occasionally, make fun of a public person's hairstyle—without malice.
Contest results to follow later tonight...
8:33 PM
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On the Side of the Angles
Roman Catholic seminarian Jeff Geerling writes about taking part in the annual pro-life march in St. Louis, which drew 400 people. He's not kidding about the Planned Parenthood building's looking like a prison. But what I really like is his demonstration of how a pro-lifer and a newspaper photographer can approach the same situation from two totally different angles.
7:39 PM
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Charles of Dustbury has an excellent and highly informative post on the hijacking of my e-mail server, Panix. Sorry to be so taken up with this today, but, as you can imagine, it is a huge issue. According to Panix's Web site, it appears to be resolved, but I will never feel secure with an e-mail server again.
6:49 PM
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Watch this space for the winning entry of the "Faces of Feticide" contest. [UPDATE: The winner's posted above.]
Addled Writer comments to the entry below that it's too soon to attempt to make a political point out of the Jersey City killings, and that Muslims in America oppose violence done in the name of their religion. What do you think? Please post your comment to that entry—and do know that I am not advocating a reaction against Muslims in general, only the terrorists who are calling for violence against "infidels."
1:18 PM
Vengeful Muslims Suspected in Brutal
Killing of Christian N.J. Family
This story in today's New York Post adds horror upon horror. The unspeakably brutal murder of a Jersey City, N.J., family may been motivated by Islamic hatred:
The father of a murdered New Jersey family was threatened for making anti-Muslim remarks online — and the gruesome quadruple slaying may have been the hateful retaliation, sources told The Post yesterday.
Hossam Armanious, 47, who along with his wife and two daughters was found stabbed to death in his Jersey City home early Friday, would regularly debate religion in a Middle Eastern chat room, one source said.
Armanious, an Egyptian Christian, was well known for expressing his Coptic beliefs and engaging in fiery back-and-forth with Muslims on the Web site paltalk.com.
He "had the reputation for being one of the most outspoken Egyptian Christians," said the source, who had close ties to the family.
The source, who had knowledge of the investigation, refused to specify the anti-Muslim statement. But he said cops told him they were looking into the exchanges as a possible motive.
The married father of two had recently been threatened by Muslim members of the Web site, said a fellow Copt and store clerk who uses the chat room.
"You'd better stop this bull---- or we are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you," was the threat, said the clerk, who was online at the time and saw the exchange.
But Armanious refused to back down, according to two sources who use the Web site.
Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy would neither confirm nor deny that cops and prosecutors were looking into the religion motive, saying only that "nothing is being ruled out." But a relative of the mayor who answered the phone at Healy's home said there was information the murders were "religion-related"...
Armanious' fervor apparently rubbed off on his daughter, Sylvia — who would have turned 16 yesterday.
"She was very religious and very opinionated," said Jessica Cimino, 15, a fellow sophomore at Dickenson HS.
A family member who viewed photos of the bloodbath said Sylvia seemed to have taken the most savage punishment.
"When we saw the pictures, you could tell that they were hurt really, really bad in the face; especially Sylvia," said Milad Garas, the high-school sophomore's great-uncle.
The heartless killer not only slit Sylvia's throat, but also sliced a huge gash in her chest and stabbed her in the wrist, where she had a tattoo of a Coptic cross.
Also found murdered were the wife, Amal Garas, and the parents' other daughter, Monica.
Fred Ayed, the deacon at St. George and St. Shenouda Church, where the deeply religious family attended services, said he's worried that the murders could have a ripple effect.
"I am concerned for the safety of our community," said Ayed, who knew Hossam for 30 years.
"People are scared because one family was slain like cows," said Moheb Ghabour, publisher of a local newspaper for the Coptic community.
Osama Hassan, director of the Islamic Center of Jersey City, described the relationship between Copts and Muslims as cooperative if not friendly.
"I think there might be people that can get into physical fights, but not to the point of murder," Hassan said.
Both the deacon and uncle poured cold water on the theory that the family were the victims of a robbery gone wrong.
"This is not a robbery, Ayed said. "We found all of the jewelry in the house. They didn't take anything."
The FBI confirmed it has been called in to help with the case.
The New York Times, which did not have the Muslim-hatred angle of the story as of this writing, notes that yesterday morning "officials said that they would release the official autopsy reports later in the day, but then they declined to do so."
That sounds to me like they have evidence that the family were slain in the manner that Islamic terrorists slaughter so-called infidels.
It could be that the assertions the Post story makes are false. Still, when will we learn from 9/11? If we don't fight this terror and hatred, wherever it is, it will find us.UPDATE: Steven Givler, who is having a technical problem commenting via Blogger, writes:
I thought I'd mention that I don't see why people are so coy about suspecting Moslems of killing the Coptic family in New Jersey.
After all, what happened to them is no different from what would have happened to them in Egypt, had they spoken out about Islam - or even not said anything about Islam, but tried to tell someone about Jesus.
And what hypocrisy on the part of Osama Hassan to describe the relationship between Copts and Moslems as "cooperative if not friendly." It may appear that way on the streets of New Jersey, but the dynamic that governs that relationship is the terrible oppression Copts and other "infidels" receive at the hands of the tyrannical regimes they fled when they came to the United States.
3:13 AM
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Saturday, January 15, 2005
I just popped by the St. Gabriel's tsunami relief-fund Web site and was elated to see that the charity—whose public-service ad appears at left—is only a few hundred dollars short of its $50,000 goal.
Right now, the St. Gabriel's relief team—including the lovely woman known as The Penitent Blogger—is in India to deliver aid to the victims. You can read their journal of the trip on the organization's Web site. While you're there, why not click the PayPal link and add to their donations? I'm sure that as the volunteers of the charity—which started last month with nothing but love and concern—are working to help people who have lost everything, it would lift them up to hear that their much hoped-for goal had been met.
8:00 PM
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Serves Me Wrong
[UPDATED—SEE BELOW.]
It's starting to hit me just how distressing it is that my e-mail server, panix.com, has been hijacked. Any company through which I've done business could e-mail my own address with personal information on me, and it would go to some stranger. Likewise, friends of mine could write me mentioning personal information about me or them, and the stranger—who's clearly a criminal—could use the information to commit fraud. Or the crook could write back to my friends and they'd think it was me.
When I get home tonight, I plan to e-mail my entire address book to tell them to use dawn -at- dawneden.com, which is still operative (it goes to the panix.net domain, rather than the hijacked panix.com). But I have many friends who aren't in my address book.
More information about the domain hijacking is on Panix's home page.
UPDATE, 1/16/05, 1:35 a.m.: This is bizarre and scary. The owner of my Web host says he's never seen anything before. Someone masterminded a scheme to take over New York's oldest commercial Internet service provider that involved nefarious dealings on three continents. Someone should investigate this story, because this is big. Check out the latest dispatch from Panix:
Panix's main domain name, panix.com, has been hijacked by parties unknown. The ownership of panix.com was moved to a company in Australia, the actual DNS records were moved to a company in the United Kingdom, and panix.com's mail has been redirected to yet another company in Canada. Panix staff are currently working around the clock to recover our domain, but this may take until Monday, due to the time differences and difficulties in reaching responsible parties over the weekend.
7:13 PM
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Today's Modesto Bee has a fascinating interview with abortion survivor Gianna Jessen, who was born alive at 7 1/2 months after clinic workers had injected saline into her mother's womb. Lack of oxygen in the womb resulted in her developing cerebral palsy. She thrived nonetheless and became an ardent campaigner for the pro-life cause. The whole article's worth a read—here's a quote that stood out:
"My biological parents made some really poor choices," she said. "I forgive them for what they did [but] I live every day with the result of the 'choice' that my biological mother made 27 years ago. So it's ridiculous to think our choices on a moment-by-moment basis only affect us. They always affect someone else, for good or ill."
5:41 PM
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Sports fans will appreciate how odd it was for me, as someone who doesn't follow the teams, to turn on the news-radio station today and hear the announcer speaking so excitedly about "gangrene."
5:00 PM
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Cheech Your Children
This is your child's brain on drug education:
RAMAPO (N.Y.)—Grumpy is hyper-vigilant and mildly paranoid. Bashful, with his bloodshot eyes, red nose and unsteady gait, has a clear case of alcoholism. Sneezy snorts cocaine; Sleepy shoots up heroin. And Happy? Pot, of course.
"Snow White and the Seven Drugged Dwarfs" was just one of 17 workshops on substance abuse, health and sexuality offered yesterday at Rockland Community College as part of the annual Drug Awareness Day. The eight-hour event, which included a multimedia presentation and an afternoon reception, drew students from public high schools across the county, from the Rockland Board of Cooperative Educational Services and from Daytop Rockland.
"In a lot of ways, this is the first step," event co-chairman John Dunn said about the program's purpose. "An adolescent is probably not going to stop using substances solely because of this program, but it tips the scale a little bit.
"Students will come away with a heightened awareness of the risk and come away with skills to help them address that risk."[Source]
Have we not learned anything from the Sixties? The enormous popularity of Cheech and Chong among potheads shows that portraying marijuana users as happy-go-lucky goofballs does not exactly deter teens from seeking out the weed. In fact, any attempt to portray drug addicts in hip and ironic settings only serves to distance kids from the intended lessons, disassociating the danger from the children's reality.
And speaking of disassociating from reality:
In one of the workshop rooms in Academic II, peer educators from Planned Parenthood passed out cups of water representing body fluids. Except for one cup injected with a faint dye, all the cups were clear. As students, simulating the exchange of body fluids, transferred the contents of their cups to other cups, all of the water gradually became contaminated. The infection, originally carried by one person, had transmitted to all the people.
"They all reacted, 'Who gave me this?'" said peer educator coordinator Mara Yacobi.
This is a typical Planned Parenthood exercise, and it's deceptive in that it appears to give kids an important message: Sexually transmitted diseases are contagious. But what message does it really give?
We all know what message Planned Parenthood wants kids to take from that exercise: Use condoms. But Planned Parenthood knows full well that not every teen instructed to use condoms will use them each time, nor do condoms prevent every sexually transmitted disease.
Also note the context of this exercise. It takes place during a brief workshop in a one-day symposium. Essentially, the educators believe that if they only have an hour to get a message to the kids, the most important thing they can share with them is, "Use condoms."
Time and time again, sex educators use this Band-Aid approach—and then they wonder why teens are still getting pregnant and contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
The truth is, exercises like the one Planned Parenthood's glass of water only serve to teach kids that it is a given that they will have multiple sexual partners. Once that issue is settled for them, they are certain to encounter emotional problems and risk getting pregnancy and disease. Attempting to "protect" them by educating them about condoms only serves to exacerbate the problem by endorsing a culture of sexual permissiveness.
2:47 PM
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It does appear that I have lost e-mail due to my mail server's domain being stolen (see below). If you've sent me an e-mail in the past day and I haven't responded, please send it again. (If you've sent me one earlier and I haven't responded, my apologies—I'm backlogged.)
2:30 PM
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E-gads
My e-mail server, Panix, announced today that its domain has been stolen.
What that means for me is that I can best be reached via my dawneden.com address, dawn -at- dawneden.com, rather than my Panix one.
As for what it means for Panix, I thought I would post the two notices they've sent out on the subject, in case the techies among you are interested or would like to comment:
[First notice]:
Sat, Jan 15 2005 -- 6:03 AM
------------------------------------
We are currently looking into a very serious error involving our main domain name, "panix.com". It has either been stolen, or been the victim of a very bizarre technical failure on the part of one or more domain registrars or some part or the global DNS system. Some of the entities involved in this failure appear to be in Canada, Great Britain, and Australia, and it's proving challenging to untangle so far. We are of course working on resolving this as soon as possible, since this failure impacts *all* services that use the panix.com name.
Since the errors (or theft) are controlled by domain registrars, and not by us, this is not a simple technical failure that we can resolve on our own by working hard enough. This is a failure of the underlying fabric of the Internet. Since we are reliant on registrars to fix this problem in their databases, we can't provide a definite estimated time to fix this problem. We will however provide updates as sson as we know anything else.
[Second notice:]
Sat, Jan 15 2005 -- 10:39 AM
---------------------------------
Until we resolve the issue of the domain "panix.com", we have set up the domain "panix.net" to include the same names and addresses as "panix.com".
You may use this as a temporary solution for access to mail, webpages, etc. Wherever you would use "panix.com", you can replace it with "panix.net".
11:47 AM
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This Post Brought to You By a White American
Jewish Christian Driving-Disabled White-Collar
Heterosexual Abstinent Female
The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's statement in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day features this quote from Jesse Jackson's 1984 Democratic National Convention speech:
The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt.
My first thought reading that was: And they forced Interior Secretary James Watt out four years later because he bragged that his staff included "a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple"? (Never mind that he also dissed the brothers.)
I intend to observe Martin Luther King Day by respecting other people as fellow human beings—not as straight, gay, fully abled, follicularly challenged, black, white, purple, blancmange, whatevers.
2:49 AM
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Friday, January 14, 2005
Headline of the Day
From Christianity Today's Weblog, for a story about a Christian organization's being told it can't put tsunami orphans in a religious group home, a headline with a rock'n'roll reference: "Hey, Preacher, Leave Those Kids Alone."
10:19 PM
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Read the updated "Faces of Feticide" entry for NARAL's reaction to the contest.
8:16 PM
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Planned Parenthood: 'We Kill Your Kid So You Don't Have To'
Someone known only as "sprflwr" went into the Dawn Patrol archives and made a pro-abortion comment to my entry about Planned Parenthood's reaction to the baseball-bat abortion case:
Planned Parenthood exists to keep incidents like this from happening. The tragedy here is that this young couple was so desperate to end this pregnancy that they took this girl's life into their own hands. Ted Kennedy said it best this Wednesday: "History teaches that abortions do not stop because they are made illegal. Indeed, half of all abortions in the world are performed in places where abortions are illegal." Those who oppose abortion need to face the fact that "the number of abortions is reduced when women and parents have education and economic opportunity." Don't those who care about the right to life have a special obligation to make universal prenatal care -- and health care generally -- a priority? Instead of focusing on making abortions illegal, use your energy to help keep children from getting pregnant in the first place!
Would anyone care to post a polite response to that comment in case the commenter returns?
UPDATE: One great comment has come in already, courtesy of Saint Kansas: "Rule No. 1: Any sentence that begins 'Ted Kennedy said it best'should not be finished."
UPDATE #2: Kate's witty comment has the best analogy I've seen on the subject—a good one to remember when confronting abortion proponents.
4:01 PM
I am happy to report that the news article I linked to earlier about Pope Pius XII's allegedly ordering that Jewish children sheltered by Catholics not be returned to their parents, has been debunked. The Curt Jester has the story.
Jeff Geerling, thank you for not saying, "I told you so."
3:39 AM
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UPDATED—Faces of Feticide
UPDATE, 7:50 p.m.:
My phone rang at work at 6:30 p.m. today and it was a man identifying himself as Jim Joseph, counsel for NARAL at Arnold & Porter in Washington D.C. The law firm's name was familiar because a reader who had posted a comment to this post, which included a link to his doctored version of the NARAL photo that I had posted, had e-mailed me an hour earlier to say that someone from Arnold & Porter had been viewing his site.
Before Joseph could say anything else, I said, "and you'd like me to take the photo off my site?" He said, "Yes." I said I'd do it immediately, and I did.
That was it. He was perfectly polite. Except that he said he hoped all my eggs died...JUST KIDDING! Please don't call me again on that one.
Because I said, "that photo," and he said, "yes," I believe I am within my rights to reasonably assume he meant only the photo that was taken from NARAL's site—and that Jeff Miller's fine photo of Death as "Pro-Choice America" can stay. And so it will unless and until my phone rings again.
You really have to admire these NARAL folks' research capabilities. They must have looked at their hits from my links to their site, then gone to my site, then dug through my various links until they found where I worked—something that is intentionally not obvious on my site because I wish to retain my safety and privacy. (Then they had to convince the switchboard operator that I work there, which is an effort in itself.)
One interesting result of NARAL's discovering The Dawn Patrol is that the photo I originally featured is no longer on NARAL's site. Apparently that woman is no longer Pro-Choice America. Since she has probably seen what readers have said about her and now realizes what some people think of her position, I think it'd be a good idea to pray that she gains God's wisdom and understanding and doesn't harden her heart. (Those are good prayers for anyone, myself included—not just her.)
The contest is still on, but with a new photo to caption. From now on, please make your captions for this photo from NARAL's gallery [UPDATE, 1/16/05: NARAL removed that photo too]. (Also, please let me know if NARAL takes it away or alters it—right now it's a blond woman holding the sign atop her head.)
Because this whole ordeal has only served to radicalize me, I am now adding to the prizes. Besides the ones mentioned below, I will donate $25 to the pro-life charity of the winner's choice.
Thanks very much for your support and encouragement, which means a lot to me when I come up against resistance, as it inevitably comes. I'm thankful that Jesus has overcome the world.
In the grand tradition of the Iraq Photo Project that had dreadfully earnest-looking Americans holding up "We're Sorry" signs—which Tim Blair hilariously sent up in "THE TERRIFYING FACE OF FORGIVENESS"—comes NARAL's "I Am Pro-Choice America" campaign. Go to its home page and you will find dreadfully earnest-looking images of women in various states of defiance [UPDATE, 1/16/05: NARAL removed all photos], each displaying NARAL's "I Am Pro-Choice America" sign in he office cubicle. It's intended to protest President Bush's inauguration and celebrate the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
Which gives me an idea...
[UPDATE, 1/16/05: NARAL removed the photo that was here from its page]
Yes, it's the new Dawn Patrol contest! Caption this photo!
Everyone is welcome to enter; however, only people who are not already friends or e-mail pals of mine are eligible to win. This is to limit the chances of favoritism and let strangers know they have a chance. (You may still be eligible to win if we've only corresponded to say "nice blog" or "here's a trackback.")
The deadline is midnight tomorrow (Saturday). The prize is a $25 Amazon gift certificate, plus I'll donate $25 to the tsunami-relief charity of your choice. So click on the comments link and caption this Face of Feticide!
Note: I reserve the right to delete entries that use profanity, or ones outside what I consider to be the boundaries of good taste (though there's still plenty of leeway). Give time for entries to appear—they don't go up 'til I republish my blog. And if you're registering with Blogger, despite what their instructions imply, your registration will work even if you don't start a blog.
UPDATE, 3:12 p.m.: Some great entries have been posted already—keep 'em comin'! Meanwhile,
Jeff Miller of
The Curt Jester has discovered another NARAL supporter:
1:56 AM
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Thursday, January 13, 2005
Why Do Birds Sing So Gay?
No, this isn't another entry on cartoon characters singing for "tolerance." It's a pair of rock'n'roll questions from my friend Dimitri Cavalli, which I'd like to invite you to answer in the comments section below (I'll answer there too, after I've given them some thought):
1) What do you consider the most effective pick-up line based on a song lyric? I used "If I were a carpenter and you were a lady, would you marry me anyway" a few times. [That would give me a Hardin.—Ed.]
2) What do you consider the greatest event in rock history? Me? I'm partial to July 12, 1979--Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park in Chicago. It helped kill disco.
11:19 PM
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Scott of Slant Point has announced the winning entry in his photo-caption contest, which captions a shot of Mahmoud Abbas shaking Jimmy Carter's hand (with a photo of a smiling Arafat looking on).
Speaking of contests, Tim, who won the "Which Witness Is Which?" contest (after an incognito pal of mine was disqualified) never got in touch with me to claim his not insignificant prize. Rather than keep going down the list of entrants, I think it's time for another contest. Any ideas? Submitting an idea will not disqualify you from winning.
11:07 PM
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Planned Parenthood Warns Parents Over Video Games
Planned Parenthood sponsored a lecture on the harmful psychological effects of violent video games in Portsmouth, N.H., where an expert warned that games such as "Grand Theft Auto" are "creating and nurturing a culture of disrespect."
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood's own video game, Birthcontroids, nurtures a culture of death—complete with a sperm-zapping ovum.
But you've got to give Planned Parenthood credit for admitting that kids need something to do between the ages of five-and-under, when they're supposed to start touching themselves "for pleasure," and 14, when they're supposed to start planning their parenthood.
4:18 PM
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A Dawn Patrol thank-you to those commenters who answered my request to describe the video of the arrest of Christians proselytizing at Philadelphia's gay-pride fest (which I can't view on my Mac).
Also, check out Alan Levering's comment on "SpongeBob Sings for 'Diversity'" for more on the motives of the people who gathered kids' beloved cartoon characters to sing "We Are Family."
Thanks very much to everyone who comments. It's a great pleasure for me to see the new information and observations that come up, and the conversations that ensue. I know it's a drag to register and then have to remember a new username and password. On the bright side, Blogger never sends out spam, plus, when you register for one of their blogs, you can post to any of their blogs that takes comments.
2:23 PM
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Heard about the U.N. backed cartoon-condom campaign to encourage "safe sex"? "The Three Amigos" cartoons star a trio of adorable animated prophylactics. Rush Limbaugh has the last word on it—he notes that all the cuddly contraceptives need to make their message complete is a U.N.-loving man in a sperm suit.
Thanks to Saint Kansas for the e-mailed tip.
1:56 PM
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Dowd's Army
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd bemoans the fact that, in her mind and in the minds of unseen multitudes of other women, intelligent ladies of a certain age can't find a husband because "Men Just Want Mommy."
Dowd cites evolutionary reasons for this, as well as studies:
[A study] by researchers at four British universities and reported last week, suggested that smart men with demanding jobs would rather have old-fashioned wives, like their mums, than equals. The study found that a high I.Q. hampers a woman's chance to get married, while it is a plus for men.
Many women, and probably men as well, would agree that a good deal of men don't seem too picky in the intellect department. Then again, I know lots of brainy men, many of them attractive, who aren't babe magnets.
But look at Dowd's implication. She says men want "old-fashioned wives, like their mums."
Apparently no "mum" in evolutionary history has ever had a high I.Q. They were probably too busy birthin' babies and churning their own butter.
What does a man really want, if he wants a woman like his mother? He wants someone smarter than him in the areas where it really counts, who will love him deeply and faithfully, organize his home life, and encourage him in his career. OK, and pick up his dirty socks. (Or, as my mother did for my stepfather last night, clean out the cat poo from the laundry dryer after poor kitty was accidentally shut up in the dormant machine all day.)
I can't see what's wrong with that, or what's wrong with my wanting a husband like my father—a strong, protective, yet gentle man; intelligent, devoted, delighting in my company, and proud to be the breadwinner.
But Dowd disagrees, eliciting her final quote from a gal who's most famous for wearing danishes on her ears:I asked the actress and writer Carrie Fisher, on the East Coast to promote her novel "The Best Awful," who confirmed that women who challenge men are in trouble.
"I haven't dated in 12 million years," she said drily. "I gave up on dating powerful men because they wanted to date women in the service professions. So I decided to date guys in the service professions. But then I found out that kings want to be treated like kings, and consorts want to be treated like kings, too."
My advice to Leia is to get off her Death Star or else she'll spend another "12 million" light-years in empty space. If you want to be a princess, you have to be willing to marry the man who would be king.
3:55 AM
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5 Americans Could Face 47 Years in Jail For Reading the Bible Through a Bullhorn
The above headline is true, but there's one more detail. The defendants were reading the Scripture passages while surrounded by a brigade of angry "Pink Angels" activists at Philadelphia's annual gay-pride event, Outfest.
The confrontation was captured on videotape, and it may be seen on the Web site of the protesters' organization, Repent America or on the site of the American Family Association legal divsion that's representing them. [I can't see the video on my Mac, and would be grateful for your description of it in the comments below.] Originally all 11 protesters were charged, but WorldNetDaily reports that charges were dropped against six "apparently because they were not seen quoting Scripture on the videotape."
Eight charges were filed against the five defendants: criminal conspiracy, possession of instruments of crime, reckless endangerment of another person, ethnic intimidation, riot, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and obstructing highways. WorldNetDaily reports that "the ethnic intimidation charge stems from Pennsylvania's 'hate crimes' law—to which the newest 'victim' category of 'sexual orientation' was recently added."
None of the Pink Angels were cited or arrested.
It is hard to conceive of something like this happening in America, where five people could be charged with felonies carrying prison sentences of up to 47 years for each defendant, when all they did was walk into an angry mob with a bullhorn, shout Bible passages, sing hymns, and warn homosexuals that they were at risk of going to hell. No violence actually came about because of their protest.
A look at the Repent America Web site suggests that while the group takes a hard-line biblical view of homosexuality, its mission is to encourage repentance—not, as with Fred Phelps' odious "God Hates F-gs" group, to spur hatred.
But then, what if those protesters were Phelps's group, and they were doing the same nonviolent actions as Repent America—just shouting Bible passages, singing hymns, and preaching to an angry crowd? Or what if it were the March for Life and a Planned Parenthood crew broke in, nonviolently reading from the Book of Moloch and shouting anti-Catholic slogans?
Does anyone in America deserve to face a possible forty-seven years in jail just for exercising free speech in the wrong place?
The Repent America Web site includes contact information for the Justice Department, which the organization's lawyers are trying to get involved in the case. But it's not going to be easy: WorldNetDaily reports that homosexual Justice Department attorneys participating in Outfest advised the policemen who arrested the protesters.
I believe that many Christian groups are afraid to involve themselves in this case because the defendants are not a nice cuddly bunch of "tolerant" people. But they'd better get involved soon, because this is it. This is the test case for the self-appointed "Tolerance Teachers", to prove that they can put Americans away for the rest of their lives—just for preaching God's Word where people don't want to hear it.
2:01 AM
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Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Even if I didn't have the blessing of being able to call Karol of Alarming News a personal friend, she'd still be a woman after my own heart, with posts like her one today about two thugs being charged with a "hate crime" because the goth kid they beat up calls himself a Satanist. She writes:As someone who spent her teenage years hanging out with drag queens, going out to clubs in NYC and wearing plastic dresses, wigs and silver eyelashes, I am definitely partial to oddballs and freaks. And, I hope those that committed this crime are punished. But, c'mon. Satanism? As if those two idiots that beat him up had any idea that he worshipped Satan or as if the motivation for the attack was anything other than sheer stupidity on their part. This is why 'hate crime' laws are ridiculous. It's very rare that someone commits a crime, especially a violent one, with love in their heart. Why should our courts be clogged with lawyers arguing over whether Satanism is a real religion or not?
10:43 PM
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The Blind Leading the Blonde
"Washed-up chick singer gets all speer-chul," says Christopher S. Johnson of Midwest Conservative Journal, referring to this Kabbalah Centre tale:
At one point, I noticed a striking blonde enter, in a trilby hat - Madonna. She was seated with her husband, Guy Ritchie, and their children on the next table. They seemed like a nice family, with Madonna a normal mum.
But then things turned crazy. A weird religious service started with prayer readings and chanting that culminated in everyone turning to the east, pushing the air with their hands, and crying out "Cher-er-er-er-nobyl" at the top of their voices. They thought they were curing Chernobyl of radiation, using the power of Kabbalah to drive away the evil - and one of the biggest rock stars on the planet was joining in the chanting.
Clearly, the Material Girl, in her old age, is attempting in her own way to follow the advice of another chick singer who's had her day in the sun—her idol Debbie Harry: "Fade Away and Radiate".
P.S. If you think modern-day Kabbalah has any connection with Judaism, the remainder of Christopher's post gives the lie to that.
1:40 PM
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John Lennon, "Internationale" Man of Mystery
Maclin Horton is incensed that Rolling Stone named John Lennon's "Imagine" the third greatest song of all time when, as the magazine acknowledges, Lennon himself admitted it was the Communist Manifesto set to music:
Has the Rolling Stone writer and others like him actually read the Communist Manifesto? No one today could read a call for "racial purity" without thinking at once of the Holocaust and viewing the author as at least hovering around the moral territory of its perpetrators. Can the Rolling Stone writer read proposals such as "abolition of private property" and "centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State" without thinking of the millions dead in Stalin’s terror, in the Gulag, in Mao's Cultural Revolution? Can he or she read "Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture" followed by "gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country" without thinking of Cambodia's killing fields?
On the other hand, the chairman of the Communist Party USA has no problem with the free publicity.
Maclin also has a good new, thought-provoking Catholic-themed blog, Caelum et Terra, where he takes on such topics as defining the culture of death.
3:10 AM
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Consumer Reports' Hidden Agenda
Annie of After Abortion yesterday asserted that Consumer Reports had a "hidden agenda" in placing the results of its contraception study—which included an analysis of abortion as "birth control—online:
Consumer Reports has never allowed you to view their content online without being a paying, registered customer first. Sure enough, do a search on "Saturn" or "Hemi Dodge Ram Truck" and you have to sign in as a paying customer to view the articles.
Not so with birth control and abortion, though, oh, no.
Looks like CR has sold out, with an apparent hidden agenda, wanting to propagate their personal ideology and gross misinformation free of charge to the unsuspecting, trusting public. I am incensed.
A World Net Daily report today shows that Annie was right on the money—and the conflict of interest lay with the magazine's own CEO:Consumer Reports...published in its February 2005 issue a list of birth-control options that includes abortion, complete with a section describing how the procedure gets rid of a pregnant mother's "uterine contents."
Along with an analysis report on condoms, Consumer Reports provides both a comparative guide to other contraceptive methods and a page entitled "Birth control: More and safer choices," which includes discussion of abortion.
Pro-life activists have criticized the magazine for failing to list the downsides and alternatives to abortion, and for referring readers to Planned Parenthood, the nation's No. 1 abortion provider.
Though Consumers Union in its mission statement also says it has "no agenda other than the interests of consumers," a review of the backgrounds of both the top executive and key staff members reveals information that could belie such a noble purpose.
According to an online bio, James A. Guest, the organization's president and CEO, previously headed Planned Parenthood of Maryland.
This may not be a surprise for us culture-of-life types who see Planned Parenthood's bloody fingerprints all over media coverage of abortion and contraception. But it has the potential to be a huge embarrassment for Consumer Reports.
Imagine if Consumer Reports did a story lauding the new, low-cost Macintosh computer, and it turned out the organization's CEO previously worked for Apple.
Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt and her minions must be congratulating themselves up and down for successfully infiltrating the most trusted consumer magazine in America.
1:59 AM
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The Nutty Confessor
I just unearthed something I'd been looking for—the 1995 "Best of Manhattan" issue of New York Press that includes my ode to New York City street chestnuts. It's only two paragraphs, but I'd been wanting to publish it here because it's still relevant. Nearly 10 years later, NYC's chestnut situation has only gotten worse. I saw chestnuts once on the city streets this year, and they weren't even roasting; the vendor had them hanging in dainty wire baskets. Harrumph.
Incidentally, to give you an idea of how long ago 1995 was in Dawn years, one of the other items I contributed to the issue was "Best Fashion Comeback: PVC-Wear." So here, with apologies to my aunt if she's reading this, is what I wrote, as it appeared in NYPress:
Best Disappearing Street Food
Roasted Chestnuts
Shell Shock. When we think of Christmas in New York, we think of those prepubescent days when we waited on line to see some awful '70s Disney film like "Pete's Dragon" on a double bill with the Nativity at Radio City Music Hall. That was the first time we saw a bum begging with a printed sign, but mean ol' Aunt Polly told us he wasn't
really blind. It was also the first time we saw street vendors offering roasted chestnuts, although we didn't dare eat them.
Unfortunately, by the time we were old enough to appreciate this age-old, fat-free delicacy, it was almost as hard to find as that other stalwart of old New York movies, the English-speaking cab driver. And good luck finding chestnuts outside of the tourist district. Even there, the one or two chestnut vendors we found last winter offered a different level of product than we recalled from past years. Instead of a minimum of 10 big nuts, with maybe one burnt one, our $2 got a
maximum of 10
small nuts, with most of them scorched beyond recognition. Mayor Giuliani should quit hassling those pseudo-sightless bums and work on this meatier quality-of-life issue.
1:11 AM
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Tuesday, January 11, 2005
SpongeBob Sings for "Diversity"
From the American Family Association comes word of the entertainment world's latest attempt to teach kids that homosexuality is normal—in the name of that familar buzzword, "tolerance":
On November 10, 2004, a video remake of the song, "We Are Family," was created using the voices and images of over 100 beloved children's TV characters. On March 11, 2005, the video performance will air simultaneously on the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and PBS. A similar video aired on those networks in 2002. (See earlier story.)
The nation's children will be all too familiar with the characters on the video, incuding those from Arthur, Barney, Blue's Clues, Bob the Builder, The Book of Pooh, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dora the Explorer, Jimmy Neutron, Kim Possible, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Little Mermaid, Madeline, The Magic School Bus, The Muppet Show, Rugrats, Sesame Street and SpongeBob SquarePants.
Also in March, the DVD of the song will be distributed to 61,000 public and private elementary schools across the country. It will be accompanied by a teacher's guide, designed by the Anti-Defamation League, a group that, among other things, promotes the normalization of homosexuality.
As a Jew who's accepted Jesus, I had thought of the ADL primarily as an organization that does important work to counter anti-Semitism. However, a search for the word "homosexual" on the organization's site turns up articles like "ADL Hails Supreme Court Decision Overturning Texas Sodomy Law."
The AFF article continues:Driving the project is the We Are Family Foundation, which states on its website that the song was remixed "to speak the message of diversity and tolerance to elementary school children nationwide"....
WAFF was founded as a non-profit organization in 2002 by Nile Rodgers, who wrote the song "We Are Family" with his late music partner, Bernard Edwards. The WAFF site says that the group "celebrates our common humanity and the vision of a global family."...
The website is filled with pro-homosexual materials. A "Tolerance Pledge," for example, created by Tolerance.org, part of the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center, encourages signees to pledge respect for homosexuals and work against "ignorance, insensitivity and bigotry."
Most Christians are now aware of what those code words mean, said American Family Association chairman Don Wildmon. "If you are a person who accepts the homosexual lifestyle, then you are tolerant," he said. "If you don't, then you are a bigot who is motivated by ignorance and hate." [Full text]
I grew up in the 1970s, with Marlo Thomas's Free to Be...You and Me book and album, and I know how good it feels for kids to celebrate a world where they are allowed to be themselves. There were undoubtedly gay-lib messages in that project as well, though the only moment I can remember that touched on unstereotypical sexual roles is Rosey Grier's sweet rendition of "It's All Right to Cry."
But I can't really say I grew up a more understanding or tolerant person because I sang of "a land where the children run free." Songs like that taught me to have a very high opinion of myself. They didn't teach me to see myself in relation to anything else—God, my family, society at large.They put me in a lyrical wonderland of brotherly love that had no connection to everyday life.
The "We Are Family" project bringing together the most popular TV cartoon characters to sing about "diversity"—where "diversity" is defined partly as celebrating one's "sexual identity—sounds similarly detached from kids' everyday lives. But this time there's a more sinister turn—it's a surreptitious Hollywood effort to teach kids to explore homosexuality. Moreover, the flip side of the program's "tolerance" is gross intolerance of those with differing beliefs.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin of Toward Tradition, writing in his organization's pamphlet "The Evolution of Tolerance," has sharp words for those whom he calls the "Tolerance Teachers":Collectively they aren't "teachers" in the literal sense of being employed by schools to educate the young (though some of their number are indeed professional educators in precisely that sense). But they present themselves as educators of us all, wiser and better than we are, seeking to illuminate us about the great societal ills of the day: intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, and hate. They conduct their classroom—which is America as a whole—with a strict hand. What the Tolerance Teachers have done is to take the old American tolerance and turn it into something very different—something more like, well, intolerance.
Sounds like it would be a good idea to keep the kids away from the TV when that "We Are Family" video airs on March 11 and pop in a DVD of Looney Tunes instead. Just so long as it doesn't include the cartoon where Porky Pig's in a bridal gown.
TRACKBACK: Craig of Lead and Gold writes of the entertainment world's hypocrisy on the issue of whether or not television affects children's behavior.
8:20 PM
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A Perfectly Unbiased Examination of Howard Dean
Who says conservative bloggers let their biases affect their blogging? In honor of Howard Dean's throwing his hat into the ring for the DNC chairmanship, Lone Star Times contributor Matt Bramanti resurrects a column he wrote when the former Vermont governor was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Showing that he is willing to give Dean the benefit of the doubt, Bramanti titles the column: "Is Howard Dean a sc-mbag* or a nutcase?"
Well, all right, maybe Bramanti's a little biased—he is an opinion journalist, after all, and this ain't CBS News. He offers a handy scorecard of Dean's alternately wacky and cruel antics, including this campaign tale you might have missed:
The NBC affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa reported that the Dean campaign bought 200 lunches from the Brown Bag Deli, and then walked on the check. The deli's owner, Scott Hoffman, said the Dean workers stiffed him for $963.01. Let me repeat this: the man stole hundreds of sandwiches. This event brought to you by the man who wants to preside over a $10 trillion economy. Verdict: sc-mbag.
*Deletion mine.
5:52 PM
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Memo to Abortion Activists:
Be Careful What You Wish For
The "feminist pop culture" magazine B-tch (deletion mine) has finally caught up with the "I Had an Abortion" T-shirt debacle, only six months after the fact.
Rebecca Hyman, writing in the aptly titled article "Full Frontal Offense" (reprinted on the radical left-wing site Infoshop), is distressed that the feminist world has not banded together to support the shirt:
The negative reaction many feminists have to the shirt reveals a fundamental contradiction in the current state of pro-choice politics—or, more precisely, the extent to which those who are pro-choice feel ashamed, at some level, to support abortion. The fact that so many women read a simple statement as a “celebration” of the procedure speaks volumes about the feelings women have internalized as a consequence of the conservative assault on women’s rights. Although most of the women I spoke with were uneasy about their response to the shirt, repeatedly insisting that they were pro-choice even as they told me they would never wear it, some reacted to a photograph of the shirt with anger....
It’s important to recognize the extent to which the attention of the pro-choice movement has shifted away from the bodies and lives of women who need abortions and toward those who aim to strip women of the right to control their reproductive lives. So it’s not surprising that a large part of the movement is plagued by the notion that anti-choicers riled up by the sight of women proclaiming their abortions on their chests will want to step up their efforts to deny them this power. Given this fear, it would seem a smart strategy to keep quiet, stay under the radar, and hope that women will vote anti-choice legislators out of office. Such a focus, however, ignores the effect pro-choice speech, including the shirt, might have on a woman feeling isolated and ashamed because she had had an abortion or is considering it. A public sisterhood of those who have chosen abortion, for a variety of personal reasons, could do a lot to counteract the hateful rhetoric of the anti-choice movement.
The sheer blindness of abortion proponents' optimism is unbelievable. Hyman truly feels that if there were a "public sisterhood of those who have chosen abortion," such women would together assert the importance of their having being allowed to make their "choice."
People like Hyman believe that those opposed to abortion treat women who have had them as outcasts. Clearly she's never heard of Project Rachel, or one of the many other recovery programs run by pro-life organizations and religious groups. Those programs show compassion on post-abortion women, rather than treating them like walking billboards. Those "I Had an Abortion" T-shirts represent the ultimate objectification of women, reducing them from human beings with souls, to mere "bodies" and "choices."
As for the writer's fantasy of a sisterhood, I'll believe she's sincere about that when she writes about the real-life sisterhoods of women who have had abortions—like After Abortion.
2:43 PM
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Some of the headlines I wrote that are in today's edition of the paper where I work:- For a story about the dresses the Bush daughters will wear to inaugural balls:
GOWN AND COUNTRY
For a story about the unseasonable weather in Los Angeles and, coming soon, in New York: Crazy Shade of Winter
2:13 PM
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Yes, Virginia, There Is a Slanted Kos
The blog world went wild over the weekend after Daily Kos and others reported on Virginia Republican legislator Del. John A. Cosgrove's bill to require women to report fetal deaths within 12 hours or face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The bill was written so loosely that it could be interpreted as requiring women to report miscarriages. That, in fact, was what left-wing bloggers presumed it was intended to do, as a senseless, punitive ploy ultimately directed towards recriminalizing abortion. Reading about the bill, it was hard to disagree with them.
Yesterday, Cosgrove retracted the bill—and had harsh words for bloggers and their readers, who sent him over 500 angry e-mails. The Virginian-Pilot reports:
[Cosgrove] was shaken by the speed and volume of the response as word of his bill traveled across the country via the Internet.
"I’ve never been blogged before," he said. "The tone of the e-mails has been disgusting. It’s, 'You're a horrible person. You ought to be crucified.' And those were the nice ones."
Cosgrove said his bill was intended to add more teeth to laws penalizing women who abandon full-term infants after birth....
Cosgrove became interested in the issue after two infants' bodies were discovered in Chesapeake in recent years. He said the 12-hour time limit was chosen to ensure that a coroner could examine the body and determine whether the infant had been born alive or dead.
"I would never, ever impose something like that on a woman who had a miscarriage," he said.
The lawmaker proposed a similar measure two years ago that specified only live births and stillbirths after 24 weeks that occurred without medical assistance....
Cosgrove said he spent the weekend responding to all 500-plus e-mails he received from people as far away as California and Texas.
After reading this, I'm inclined to believe that Cosgrove was foolish and terribly misguided. But I don't see the anti-abortion conspiracy which bloggers were so quick to read into the bill. Believe me, I'm all for anti-abortion conspiracies. But this is an innocent guy who got pounded by the full force of blogger animus.
1:59 AM
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Out of the Wood Work
James P. Wood's writing just keeps getting better, so I was sorry to learn from him via e-mail this morning that he plans to abandon his "not a blog."
His latest and presumably final post, "A Matter of (eternal) Life or Death," is an eloquent, biblically reasoned broadside against the death penalty. I personally have problems seeing the death penalty as part of the culture of death, because of its foundation in Scripture. However, I will grant that the way it is generally administered in the present day and age is unjust by biblical standards. At any rate, James's attack on the death penalty is the most moving that one could expect to find, something that those who read it will pass on to their friends.
In his e-mail to me, James offers a challenge of sorts. I'm not certain I'm up for it—it's so overarching—but I invite you to respond to it in the comments section. He writes:
May I recommend a topic? There is a divide in America today. The secularists/relativists among us decry a creeping theocracy, even lamenting a Talibanazation of our culture. Meanwhile we Christians are disturbed by the slide into an amoral, post-modern, anything-goes mentality that fails to object to the nudity, foul language, and
questionable ethics that pervade our society and gain mainstream credibility with increasing ease.
If we are such a religious country, how can we write off Terri Schiavo and millions of unborn children? If we are the people of a merciful God, how can we condemn so many of our fellows to death or its living equivalent behind unrelenting bars? How can expensive cars sporting fish symbols drive daily past hungry souls holding "will work for food" signs? How can we stand by while our public airwaves are turned into outlets for pornography? And where is the oppressive religiosity that threatens to stifle our free expression? It seems that the ungodly are winning every battle. And this election has only served to awaken them to the mild "threat" that we pose to their agenda.
I read the Columbia Journalism Review, and even their blinders have been lifted to the Christian influence on our society, though their reaction is predictably reactionary, rooted in denial, and patronizing. I trust that you can write this up more effectively than I ever could.
1:35 AM
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Monday, January 10, 2005
Where's the 'Emergency'?
Here, from the Portland (Maine) Press-Herald, is part of an op-ed that typifies the Planned Parenthood-fueled reaction against the omission of so-called "emergency contraception," or the morning-after pill, from the Justice Department's guidelines for treatment of rape victims:
The devastation of suffering through a sexual assault can be compounded by an unwanted pregnancy. While that might seem obvious, it's a fact that apparently is lost on the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department recently issued guidelines for the treatment of rape victims by law enforcement agencies. The guidelines are reportedly extensive and detailed instructions on how best to help someone who has experienced sexual assault - with one glaring omission.
The guidelines contain no reference to the value of emergency contraception for sexual assault victims. This has rightly sparked letters of protest from Planned Parenthood and other organizations.
Emergency contraception, commonly known as the morning-after pill, will prevent a pregnancy after a sexual encounter. It doesn't expel a growing fetus like the abortion drug, RU-486. Instead, it is a stronger dose of the medicine commonly used in birth control pills....
Planned Parenthood reports that more than 300,000 women are raped in the United States each year and that about 25,000 of them become pregnant as a result. It says that 90 percent of those pregnancies could be prevented if the victims had prompt access to emergency contraception.
If that were the case, it would mean thousands fewer unwanted pregnancies and, presumably, fewer abortions as well. That's a goal all sides on the abortion issue should be able to get behind.
Let's look at this, starting with the words "emergency contraception."
It is not contraception.
It is abortion.
According to a U.S. Department of Health Web site, "emergency contraception" works in one of three ways:- By preventing ovulation,
- By preventing fertilization, or
- By preventing implantation, or—in the government's words—"stopping a fertilized egg from attaching itself to the wall of the uterus."
Note the word "fertilized egg." The government's Web site defines a pregnancy as occuring when the egg implants; hence, in the government's words—as in Planned Parenthood's—"emergency contraception" does not end a pregnancy.
But regardless of whether the woman is quote-unquote "pregnant," the fact remains that emergency contraception is meant to destroy a dividing embryo that is a genetically unique individual. That is not just killing a single sperm or a single egg. That is abortion.
Planned Parenthood is orchestrating a campaign against the Justice Department because it wants the law to mandate that when a rape victim enters the hospital, she should be offered the opportunity to chemically end her pregnancy.
It is typical of Planned Parenthood to go after the weakest victims. And it is typical of them to do so, knowing that, in many areas, they themselves will be the facility to which women will be referred for "emergency contraception" pills. It boils down to more taxpayer money for Planned Parenthood—at the expense of already-victimized women and their unborn children. Even without the additional funds it would get from such mandated "emergency contraception," Margaret Sanger's organization gets over a quarter-billion in taxpayer money each year.
A woman who has been raped has already been through a traumatic experience. To then take advantage of her when she is most vulnerable and tempt her to destroy her child is truly sick.
The idea that women who are raped should abort their children contains within it the idea that the offspring of the rape is somehow vile in its very nature and deserves to be destroyed.
No, I can't imagine what it would be liked to be raped and carry my assailant's child. But I can tell you one thing. That unborn child would not carry the evil of its father. It would be like any innocent baby—any child who deserves to live and not be destroyed.
It's important also to consider the nature of "emergency contraception" versus other methods of abortion. A woman who is under great emotional stress following a rape is vulnerable to a well-meaning person's suggestion that she take a pill and be rid of her child. That same woman, a few weeks later, might realize that she was wrong to have the embryo expelled from her body. But by then, it would be too late. She would be left with not only the rape in her memory, but also the knowledge that she herself had caused the extermination of a human being.
A rape victim cannot erase her own experience. For her to abort her child, either via "emergency contraception" or via another kind of abortion, she would have to believe that her own unwillingness to have further pain precludes her child's right to live, and that any emotional pain she might have from the abortion would be less than what she would experience if she bore the child.
In our society, a woman has the right to make that life-and-death "choice." But we, as taxpayers, should not be required to fund it. The Justice Department—and, by extension, our president—is right.
8:40 PM
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Just in case you wonder when you see the caption for a photo in tomorrow's paper of an infant who was saved from the tsunami, I did indeed write the kicker—a little tribute to one of my favorite tunes. It says, "BEACHED BABY."
8:15 PM
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Reuters' Faulty Reporting
Reuters—the unapologetically left-wing news organization whose editors believe "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"—has a word for the "60 Minutes" story on President Bush's National Guard record.
The word is "faulty."
You can see it, not only in the headline, but also in the text of "CBS Ousting Four Employees Over Faulty Bush Story."
Note the delicate language—as though the story were true, save for one little detail.
Reuters can't call a fake a fake.
3:54 PM
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We Have a New Winner
The winning entry of the "Which Witness Is Which?" contest has been disqualified. It turns out to be none other than my good friend Kevin Kane, who writes that "Nola" is a contraction of his former hometown, New Orleans, La. I have been trolled.
So we now have a new winner: Tim.
Readers were asked to write a one-sentence description of the simplest way one could tell apart two books titled Witness, one by Whittaker Chambers and the other by Amber Frey.
Tim's winning answer:
"One witness is about a small group of people spying on an entire society, the other witness is about an entire society spying on a small group of people."
So, Tim, assuming you're not another good friend of mine in disguise, you win the $25 Amazon gift certificate, plus I'll donate $25 to the tsunami-relief charity of your choice. Write me at dawn -at- dawneden.com to claim your prize, and please post a heads-up in the comments space below after you write to me, so that I'll know the person who claimed the prize was the same Tim who wrote the entry. (Your Blogger-profile number will identify you.)
3:25 PM
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Trade Martin is a multitalented music man, active since the Brill Building era, who wrote one of my all-time favorite records, Evie Sands's "Take Me for a Little While" (better known in its versions by Dusty Springfield, Vanilla Fudge, and Cher), and who currently writes songs for B.B. King. To raise money for the tsunami-relief effort, he's put a couple of his new gospel songs online for downloads, asking listeners to click on a link to relief charities and donate to them in exchange for the songs. The song I picked, "I Truly Believe," is a simple, piano-fueled number with thoughtful lyrics and a nice, subtle build. Worth listening to if gospel's your bag and you want to give to a good cause—or if you just want to hear what became of the guy who wrote the Vagrants' folk-punk classic "I Can't Make a Friend."
3:57 AM
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Euthanized Quadriplegics Make Clint's Day
This is a public-service announcement, for those readers who don't read movie reviews. (Hi, Mom!)
It's awards season, and Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is raking in the statuettes.
But if you're thinking of seeing it, I have one word of advice for you:
DON'T.
This article will tell you everything you need to know.
Also check out the comments section of
Fr. Bryce Sibley's blog entry on the film.
3:26 AM
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West Gets Fooled Again
Meet the new boss.
Same as the old boss.
Further reading:
1:49 AM
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Sunday, January 9, 2005
