Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly
- The Beatles

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Alexa lives in the far east with her son Tyler and their cat Brownie. She can be reached via email here


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Friday, September 30, 2005
 
Dahlia Lithwick: Pick a chick


Alexa swing by at 4:23 PM

 
Spain's left-wing politicians block measure that would have provided benefits to unemployed mothers...


Alexa swing by at 3:58 PM

 
Heads up: Our furry friends in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana need help

Top-rate volunteers are needed immediately to clean, walk, and feed dogs and cats taken in by animal rescuers from collapsed and flooded houses in St. Bernard Parish, LA. This is dirty work. There are no accommodations within 90 minutes of the site, so volunteers must be prepared to live in their vehicles and bring food and water or travel to a tented campground 30 minutes away. The campground is known as "Camp Lucky" and is located at the intersection of St. Claude Highway and Press Street, near Chalmette, Louisiana.

Funds are also needed to help build and reconstruct animal-holding facilities; currently, animals are just being sheltered in a field in this parish. Donations to St. Bernard Parish and surrounding parishes will greatly help local animal-control officials and animal-rescue agencies.


Alexa swing by at 3:32 PM

 
M-Diddy gives up fur..


Here's a video she made with PETA


Alexa swing by at 3:20 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 1:19 PM

 
Speaking of which, I caught "Flower of the Night", a Thai horror movie on dvd at Kin's last night. Girl meets boy, gets pregnant, boy made girl have an abortion, boy stricken with guilt and tried to OD, while girl bled to death from the abortion.

Reality, folks. Fact is, you can bleed to death, even from "safe and legal" abortion... although I cannot guarantee if you'll get to come back from the dead and haunt the bitches who made you have the abortion...


Alexa swing by at 1:18 PM

 
Abortion bat boy to do community service at abortion alternatives center

Circuit Judge Matthew Switalski ordered Thursday that the teen, who strike his pregnant girlfriend with a baseball bat until she miscarried, to serve the first six months of a probation sentence, which is expected to last until he is 19, and then return to court next March for a review date to monitor his progress on that sentence.

In the meantime, he is to observe a 9 p.m. curfew on weekdays and 10 p.m. on weekends, remain in school and report to a probation officer, and to fulfill his community service requirements at Compassion Pregnancy Center in Clinton Township.

"He (Switalski) has chosen a venue to fulfill the obligation that's tailored to the offense and within the judge's discretion, and it's our understanding probation (officials) see it as an appropriate disposition," said Therese Tobin, chief trial attorney for Macomb County prosecutors, who handled the case against the teen and did not object to Switalski's determination.

Switalski himself said Thursday that the defendant is not to serve in a counseling capacity at the center and his duties there would befit a "fit young man" who could help out with lifting or menial tasks. If the organization staff attempts to indoctrinate him with its views or badger him for his acts, the judge said, he should report that immediately to the court.

"It's not like I'm trying to rub his nose in it. I'm trying to fashion community service that's appropriate to the nature of the crime for which he's now convicted," Switalski said. "He can simply pitch in and help out with any odd jobs they may need to get done."


Alexa swing by at 1:07 PM

 
The Lord works in mysterious ways... really.


(Thanks for sharing the story, Ashli..)


Alexa swing by at 12:46 PM

 
Judge John Roberts sworn in as Chief Justice



In a White House ceremony, Roberts took the oath as the youngest chief justice in two centuries -- just hours after the Republican-led Senate confirmed him with significant Democratic support as President George W. Bush's first nominee to the Supreme Court, the nation's final legal arbiter.

"The Senate has confirmed a man with an astute mind and a kind heart," Bush told a gathering that included members of Roberts' family, fellow justices and Senate leaders.

The Senate voted 78 to 22 to confirm Judge John Roberts as the nation's 17th chief justice Thursday.

All 55 Republican senators voted for Roberts. 22 Democrats and one independent senator also voted for the nominee, while 22 Democratic senators voted against him.

Senate approval capped a two-month process surprisingly free of the partisan rancor widely expected when President Bush nominated Roberts in July.



View the video here



Congratulations, Judge Roberts!


Alexa swing by at 11:58 AM

Thursday, September 29, 2005
 
The Two Doors


In July 1985, my husband and I paraded through the front doors of Methodist Hospital of St. Louis Park. We came to give birth to a beautiful baby girl, Bonnie Joy.

Six years prior to that, I had quietly slipped into Methodist Hospital through the back door, which is also known as Meadowbrook Women's Clinic. I was single, lonely, and frightened at that time in 1979 when I went to the clinic.

The Story of Two Doors

When I entered through the front door of Methodist Hospital, they insisted that I ride in a wheelchair. The nurse called me "Mrs. Woodley," and wheeled me past a nursery brimming with living, breathing, crying babies. Babies carefully tended and wrapped in pink and blue blankets.

In stark contrast, I entered by the back door at Meadowbrook Women's Clinic. There was no wheelchair. I was given a number for identification and directed to a waiting room after I paid the bill. Anything baby-like was strictly forbidden.

Shortly after I entered by the front door my nurse strapped a monitor on my belly. Her relaxed eyes and gentle touch were her offerings as she assured me, "Don't worry, we don't take any chances with babies." For 20 hours three nurses took turns recording and analyzing a rapid little heartbeat. During prenatal classes I had learned that three weeks after conception, my baby's heart began to pump blood. Brain waves were present at eight weeks and at ten weeks. Bonnie Joy was closing her delicate eyelids, puckering her lips and responding to touch.

In 1979, behind the back door, the baby was treated as an intruder -- a formless, featureless blob -- and a dangerous one. The attitude was simple and single-minded: let's remove it.

Behind the front door, Jody, my nurse, summoned the doctor to my room to review my charts, papers, and printouts. His eyes didn't quite meet mine when he said that things weren't going according to plan. After 20 hours of labor, the baby was in distress and in a difficult position for delivery. "We need your permission to do an immediate C-section." The doctor sensed our fear and quickly added, "We have the resources to keep both of them safe." The entire staff worked with one thing on their minds: "A mother and baby are in distress; we need to save them."

Behind that back door, a mother and baby were also in distress, but no one came to save us. After the procedure was over I rested in bed at the clinic. A poster taped to the ceiling read in bold, stark letters, "If it weren't for Planned Parenthood where would you be today?" That poster nauseated me more than the abortion. Filled with anger and frustration, I began to weep. "You didn't help me," I thought. "You had the resources but you didn't protect me or my baby."

Today Bonnie Joy is 15 years old. Despite complications in delivery, my family, society, and Methodist Hospital found resources to save our baby. They spared no expense and employed cutting-edge technology to preserve the tiny life. That's what they do behind the front door.

Less than a thousand feet away, a few doors down and one wing over, tiny lives are quietly and matter-of-factly destroyed. That's what they do behind the back door.

The Third Door

It took a third door to heal my back door wounds. Jesus said, "I am the Door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture."

Now I spend my life pointing confused young women to the true door of life and freedom -- Jesus Christ. By entering through this third door, we join a radically different community -- a fellowship committed to protecting the lives of both mother and baby.


(Julie Woodley as told to Matt Woodley)


Alexa swing by at 4:55 PM

 
Here's a look at the reality of the physical and emotinal dangers of abortion:

The risk of Choice


Alexa swing by at 4:44 PM

 
What Catholics believe about abortion and the death penalty


Alexa swing by at 4:42 PM

 
Sugarbabes' Mutya Buena considered aborting her baby daughter Tahlia but decided to go through with the pregnancy after being shown a scan of the foetus.

The singer was stunned to discover she was pregnant at the age of 18 and terrified about telling her parents.

She says, "My mind was so switchy. I was like, 'I'm going to get rid of her. I'm going to keep her. I'm going to get rid...'

"But then I went for my first scan. The doctor played her heartbeat really loud on a speaker, and I was like, 'Oh I can't get rid of her.'

"I'd thought to myself, let me go and get a scan photo first, so that if I do get rid of her, at least I've got a scan. That was my plan."

Buena was so scared about telling her parents she made herself ill: "They were upset with me. I was so stressed out about telling my family, I ended up in hospital."

The singer gave birth to daughter Tahlia six months ago and has moved in with the baby's dad Jay.

She added: "I think I would have regretted it because I've always wanted a baby."

Talking about the pregnancy she said: "I wouldn't say it was an accident but it was unplanned. I found out on the way to the airport and I got a pregnancy test".


Alexa swing by at 4:16 PM

 
Who's responsible, really? You fucking are.

Abortion Watch talks about the social stigma faced by unwed mothers:
THE GREATEST SHAME: One of the seldom spoken reasons why young girls have abortions is the social stigma that their own parents apply to other unwed mothers.

Parents and society at-large share a great deal of blame for abortion, for it's our gossip and condemnation that helps turn the blessing of life into a great shame, and these young girls - often pro-life themselves - see killing their own child as a better alternative than facing ridicule from their parents, family, friends and the rest of society. With every critical comment and disapproving glance that's directed toward an unwed mother, we actively contribute to abortion.

Society heaps shame upon unwed mothers, but the greatest shame is all our own.
Read it all here


Hat tip: Emily


Alexa swing by at 3:09 PM

 
Let's pray for Baby Charlotte.


Alexa swing by at 3:08 PM

 
Terri Schiavo's family plans to write a book about their struggle to save the Terri's life from her estranged husband, who, after a legal battle that he dragged on for years, was allowed to euthanize his wife by denying her food and water. His actions led to a painful two week starvation and dehydration that eventually claimed the disabled woman's life.

Terri's parents Bob and Mary Schindler and her brother and sister, Suzanne Vitadamo and Bobby Schindler, plan to publish the memoir of Terri's life around March 2006, the first anniversary of Terri's death.


Alexa swing by at 3:05 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 2:27 PM

 
Guilt of abortion drove 19-year-old to suicide

Dr Sangeeta told Newsline that every woman has a right to discard any part of her body if it is troubling her or if she does not want it.
Hmm. I believe we are talking about a life here, dude.. not an arm or a leg or an appendix.


Alexa swing by at 2:24 PM

 
Arkansas clinic offers free abortions to hurricane evacuees..


Alexa swing by at 2:09 PM

 
Harriet Miers for SCOTUS?

President Bush meanwhile, is expected to announce his next nominee as early as Thursday afternoon..


Alexa swing by at 2:06 PM

 
Seriously now, I would love to support the Boobie-Thon if it's NOT GOING to Susan G. Komen Foundation...


p.s. Fatty, you still have my "apple" boobie shot?


Alexa swing by at 1:44 PM

Wednesday, September 28, 2005
 
I was wrapped in black
fur and white fur and
you undid me and then
you placed me in gold light
and then you crowned me,
while snow fell outside
the door in diagonal darts.
While a ten-inch snow
came down like stars
in small calcium fragments,
we were in our own bodies
(that room that will bury us)
and you were in my body
(that room that will outlive us)
and at first I rubbed your
feet dry with a towel
because I was your slave
and then you called me princess.
Princess!

Oh then
I stood up in my gold skin
and I beat down the psalms
and I beat down the clothes
and you undid the bridle
and you undid the reins
and I undid the buttons,
the bones, the confusions,
the New England postcards,
the January ten o'clock night,
and we rose up like wheat,
acre after acre of gold,
and we harvested,
we harvested.

- Anne Sexton, "Us"


Alexa swing by at 2:56 PM

 
John Roberts likely to allow hearings on PBA Ban...

During Roberts' confirmation hearings, pro-abortion Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, asked Roberts which cases "would make the cut" for the Supreme Court agenda.

Roberts said he thought the court should "grant review in cases in which a lower court strikes down an act of Congress."


Alexa swing by at 1:48 PM

 
Chinese attorneys are risking their own freedom by pressing for the release of a blind activist against forced abortions detained by local officials in the eastern Chinese city of Linyi. They have released an open letter calling for authorities to release Chen Guangcheng, who has been under house arrest for the last month after exposing the brutal forced abortion and sterilization tactics of population control officials.


Alexa swing by at 1:10 PM

 
Hell, it's easier for eight graders to get an abortion than a tattoo...


Alexa swing by at 1:02 PM

Tuesday, September 27, 2005
 
And I won't wait for you forever, while you run around like JFK
We watched that poor girl waste the best years of her life
And I'll be damned if I am going out, I will not go out that way


Alexa swing by at 8:34 PM

 
It's a boy for Bo Bice!



Congratulations to Bo and Caroline...


Alexa swing by at 7:58 PM

 
"I have a better idea. Let's take decisions over abortion rights away from men, period... Since men never will need (or have) an abortion, why should they possess the power to decide what women may and may not do with their bodies?"


Alexa swing by at 7:13 PM

 
President Bush drops hint on next nominee...


Alexa swing by at 6:51 PM

 
Pro-lifers largely stayed out of the Roberts fight. That was a mistake, says Manuel Miranda
Preparing for the Supreme Court fight, pro-lifers were told by White House surrogates to stay out of the light and out of the newspapers, to be quiet so as not to scare the horses. Even before Justice Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement this summer, while liberal reporters worked to connect conservative concern over the Supreme Court with the abortion issue, pro-lifers were measuring their words, beating each other up, and trying not to appear too demanding of the president that, in the small margins that matter, they had elected. [...]

There was the White House communicator who called MSNBC to berate them over a headline that suggested that John Roberts was pro-life; as if such news would bring down the Roberts nomination. And even now, the president is being advised by timid senators and aids to avoid a next selection that will cause commotion. How alarming then it must have been for the children of country-club Republicans scattered throughout GOP officialdom to hear nearly every Republican senator in the Roberts hearings make it resplendently clear that the fight of our times is over Roe:

Lindsay Graham of South Carolina: "Roe v. Wade: It divides America...There are plenty of women in South Carolina who have an opposite view about abortion... I dare say that 90% of the Republican Caucus is pro-life.

Jeff Sessions of Alabama: "You committed to Sen. Specter that you would bring no hidden agendas to this matter, that you would consider any case that came up under Roe... We will take you at your word that your mind is open and you will evaluate the matter fairly according to the high standards of justice that you can bring to bear to that issue and any others like it that come up. Will you give us that commitment?"

Tom Coburn of Oklahoma: "I've delivered 4,000 babies... And I won't pressure you on this issue.. But for the listeners of this hearing, if, in fact, life is the presence of a heartbeat and brain wave, it's important for everybody in the country to know that at 16 days postconception, a heartbeat is present."

Alexa swing by at 6:45 PM

 
Sharon Osbourne was still so angry with her mother for pressuring her into an abortion she refused to attend her funeral.

Osbourne became pregnant when she was 17 but her mother HOPE ARDON convinced her to undergo a termination.

Following the abortion the rock manager-turned talent show judge suffered complications which led to three miscarriages, and she still blames her mother - who died in 1998.

She says, "I didn't get on with my mother. I didn't want to see her alive so why would I want to see her buried?"


Hat tip: Emily


Alexa swing by at 6:34 PM

 
Partial-birth abortion ban heads to Supreme Court after Bush appeal

The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to reinstate a ban on a procedure that critics call "partial birth" abortions, setting up a showdown that could be decided by the president's new choice for the court.

The Bush administration brief argues that Congress' findings should be respected, namely that it heard from numerous doctors that said the three-day long abortion procedure is never necessary to protect a woman's health.

"Congress received oral and written testimony from experts who stated that partial-birth abortion was not necessary to preserve the health of the mother in any circumstances," the brief said.

The earliest that justices could take up the federal law, known as the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, is likely next spring.




Alexa swing by at 6:28 PM

 
Busted!

Cindy Sheehan got arrested Monday during anti-war protest outside White House. Apparently the woman smiled as she was carried to the curb, then stood up and walked to a police vehicle while protesters chanted, "The whole world is watching."

Ian has a video of that here


Alexa swing by at 6:21 PM

Monday, September 26, 2005
 
A crippled child
Said, "How shall I dance?"
Let your heart dance
We said.

Then the invalid said:
"How shall I sing?"
Let your heart sing
We said.

Then spoke the poor dead thistle,
"But I, how shall I dance?"
Let your heart fly to the wind
We said.

Then God spoke from above
"How shall I descend from the blue?"
Come dance for us here in the light
We said.

All the valley is dancing
Together under the sun,
And the heart of him who joins us not
Is turned to dust, to dust.

- Gabriela Mistral, "Those who do not dance"


Alexa swing by at 7:05 PM

 
Arnie announced endorsement of Parental Notification initiative

Schwarzenegger campaign spokesman Rob Stutzman said the governor believes parents should be involved in their child's medical decisions.

"Just as the law involves parents in all other medical decisions with a child, he doesn't believe abortion should be any different," Stutzman said.

The initiative would prohibit abortions for minors until 48 hours after a physician notifies a parent or legal guardian in writing. If the proposed constitutional amendment passes, abortion providers who violate the law will be subject to civil penalties.

The measure would allow a pregnant girl to petition a juvenile court judge to waive the notification requirement and would allow an exception if a doctor believes the delay caused by notification would put her life in danger.

Stutzman said Schwarzenegger still believes strongly in a woman's right to have an abortion.


Alexa swing by at 7:37 AM

 
Kids these days...

Sarah (peeking at the monitor): What are you doing, Auntie ****?

Me: I'm doing some work..

Sarah: Wot work? You don't have work wot...

Me: How do you know I don't work?

Sarah: Because Mommy is always calling you..

Hmph. :|


Alexa swing by at 7:17 AM

Sunday, September 25, 2005
 
So much for "common ground"...

Hillary Clinton is warning that if President Bush's Supreme Court appointees succeed in overturning the federal right to an abortion, state governments would likely implement a reverse of China's one child policy that would instead force women to have five children.

"There would be many places in the country that would criminalize [abortion]," Clinton says in a new videotaped message posted to her Senate campaign web site. "They might even send women and doctors to prison."

The top Democrat painted a stark picture of government bureaucrats forcing women to bear children against their will if the new Bush court has its way.

"It would go in the direction that I saw in my travels, where, you know, in China they mandated you could only have one child. And in some places, like Romania during thhe Communist era, they mandated that you must have five children."


Alexa swing by at 8:00 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 7:56 PM

 
Opinion Journal's Melanie Kirkpatrick takes a peek at the chicks who could replace Justice O'Connor..


Alexa swing by at 7:50 PM

 
Amy Sullivan: How pro-choice groups are hurting the Democrats -- and their own cause
The problem is abortion rights groups themselves, who can always be counted on to say or do something sufficiently extreme that it makes it just that much harder for the rest of us to defend our position out in the public square.

The most recent example, of course, was the television ad that the leading abortion rights organization, NARAL Pro-Choice America, chose to run against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts this summer, which strongly implied that Roberts found common cause with abortion-clinic bombers. An independent fact-checking organization run out of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center quickly determined that the ad was ''misleading" and ''false." Even pro-choice senators called it ''not helpful to the pro-choice cause."

This was not a rare misstep. The Roberts ad was rooted in an ongoing strategy on the part of the choice movement to demonize their pro-life opponents and energize those supporters who believe abortion should always be legal, with no restrictions. Unfortunately, that's not how abortion politics works.

As William Saletan explained in his 2003 book ''Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War," ever since Roe v. Wade became law in 1973, the side that has held the advantage in the abortion debate has been the one that figures out how to turn the issue into a wedge that divides their opponents. Abortion foes realized this almost immediately, and worked with newly mobilized religious conservatives to raise moral objections. The pro-choice movement fought back in the late 1980s by using a privacy argument to split libertarians from social conservatives. In the 1990s, conservatives used the issue of so-called ''partial-birth" abortion to make Americans queasy about how abortions are actually performed, and public support of abortion began to plummet.

Now, however, the momentum may be shifting back to the pro-choice side. Their unlikely hero is the pro-life Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who has won support for a strategy to lower abortion rates by reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies. But abortion rights groups are blowing this opportunity, using inflammatory rhetoric that alienates moderates and imposing a litmus test on the political party that is, for the foreseeable future, the one most closely aligned with their interests. [...]

Reid has introduced legislation he calls ''Prevention First," which aims to reduce unwanted pregnancies by improving access to birth control and making it more affordable. The approach is far from new--choice groups have promoted it themselves for years. It provides a lifeline to Democrats, who finally have a win-win issue. If Republicans oppose it, they risk being labeled extremists; if they support it, and it passes, Democrats can rightly claim to have done more to cut abortion rates than their political opponents.

And yet, as the ad against Roberts showed, abortion rights groups have the impressive ability to marginalize themselves in the public debate even when they represent a majority position.

The groups' most common tactic is to label the pro-life position ''intolerant" and ''misogynistic" at best, and in cahoots with violent extremists at worst. And when they're not demonizing their opponents, they're busy mocking them. Although many religious Americans consider abstinence an acceptable moral and personal choice, in the rhetoric of abortion rights advocates it becomes prudish and unnecessary. Earlier this summer NARAL's Washington affiliate held what was advertised as a ''Screw Abstinence Party"; last year, the Pennsylvania affiliate urged members to send ''chastity belts" to state legislators in protest of the state's ''Chastity Awareness Week."

In addition to alienating moderates, choice groups also make it hard for their friends to trust them by relying on misleading appeals and arguments. When the partial-birth abortion debate first emerged, they insisted that the procedure in question (dilation and extraction) was used only a few hundred times each year, and only in the most tragic of caseswhen a fetus had severe abnormalities that threatened its mother's health. Democratic senators dutifully trotted out and repeated these arguments, only to learn several months later that the procedure is in fact used thousands of times each year (usually in the second trimester) and for any number of reasons.

Alexa swing by at 7:43 PM

 
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

- Anne Frank


Alexa swing by at 7:20 PM

Saturday, September 24, 2005
 
HEADS UP: HELP OUR FURRY FRIENDS

Three weeks after Katrina hit, there are still hundreds of stranded and abandoned pets that are starving to death in their homes. A dedicated group of volunteers is doing their best to feed and water these animals and 2,000 others until better shelter arrangements can be made.

Ideally, they are asking for volunteers, not money. If you can possibly be of assistance, please see contact information below:
PLEASE COME NOW!!!!!!!!! we are DESPERATE for reliable people to assist in feeding and watering animals trapped in homes. We have thousands of animals still trapped WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER AFTER 3 WEEKS! We do not have enough rescuers to save them. Volunteers are stressed and overworked and heading home. We need as many people as are able to come down immediately with tents and sleeping bags. If you have a van, SUV, ryder truck, ETC. you're expecially needed since you can ferry in supplies. Report to barn 5 when you arrive or go to the 6am meeting to be deployed with a rescue team. Just come, no need to respond to this email. THANK YOU!!!!!!

There is an urgent need for volunteers to come for three day shifts in Louisiana to help starving dog and cat victims of hurricane Katrina. HSUS and other organizations need people to staff what is now the nations largest animal shelter. Which is in truth, nothing more than a makeshift facility with over 2,000 animals.

We also need people to go into the city and feed and rescue thousands of starving animals. Volunteers need only report to:

La Mar Dixon Center Command Center

9039 S. Saint Landry Road

Gonzales, LA Anytime - Day or Night

Be prepared for a chaotic situation. Bring a tent, sleeping bag or be prepared to sleep in your car. There is also an air conditioned area with cots. People that are physically fit and can enter New Orleans must bring sturdy shoes, long pants, sun visor or hat, crow bar and a utility knife. If you can just commit to a three day shift you will save more animals than we can express. Please come now! Just do it.

This request is coming from: David Meyer Executive Director 1-800-save-a-pet.com Acting Feed & Rescue Commander HSUS at La Mar Dixon
Please go to Riehl World View for more details and see how you can help.


Via Ian


Alexa swing by at 8:48 PM

 
Cross-dressing Ronald:



Gee.. did Ronald McDonald just morphed into a Ronette?


Alexa swing by at 8:27 PM

 
KLo: Cut the "No Boys Allowed" Crap; The president should appoint a qualified judge of his choosing to the Supreme Court - male or female
I've been livid ever since I heard Kansas Republican senator Sam Brownback say on Fox News, some weeks ago now, that President Bush should appoint a woman to fill the second Supreme Court vacancy of his administration. Even Brownback, who should be one of the sensible ones, was buying the silly conventional wisdom.

There is no good reason that this next pick (or any subsequent one) has to comply with anyone's identity-politics rules. The real rules are that the president is president and can pick who he wants. He needs to pick the most qualified man - or woman - for the job.

But it can be a man.

What's perhaps most frustrating about the conventional wisdom that the president needs to pick a woman - or a minority - is the disingenuousness of it on the Left and the naivete on the Right.

No one seriously believes that any woman would satisfy the Dianne Feinsteins of the world. Sure, a chick pick for the Court might be able to talk to the "lone woman" on the Senate Judiciary Committee as a woman, a mother, a daughter, a sister... blech... But let's be honest: A Janice Rogers Brown or a Priscilla Owen wouldn't count. They wouldn't be woman enough. They'd be considered self-hating women. It's easy to know this in advance, considering we've been there before.

Alexa swing by at 8:19 PM

 
Now France is offering financial incentives for women to have babies
France isn't alone in worrying about the need to encourage births. Across Europe [there is]... a decline in fertility rates that some fear could lead to economic decline.

In the 25-nation European Union, the average fertility rate has sunk below 2.07 children per woman -- the minimum needed to prevent a drop in population without immigration.

"It is a kind of creeping crisis," said Jan Hoem, a director of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany, where the fertility rate of around 1.3 is among Europe's lowest ...

The family-friendly policies have helped keep France's fertility rate among the highest in Europe -- 1.9 children per woman, second only to Ireland's 2.0 but still below the 2.07 level needed to keep population stable.

The EU average is around 1.5, dropping to less than 1.3 in some countries.

Hat tip: Jill Stanek


Alexa swing by at 7:56 PM

 
And the Best Actor awards goes to... Michael Schiavo!

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Schiavo said told the attendees that he "never, in my entire life, thought I would be thrown into such a national debate". He said all he wanted to do "was carry out my wife's wishes".

The Tribune said that Schiavo wiped away tears as he said that "Terri didn't die an awful death. He said as she died he "laid a red rose in her hand and said goodbye".

And oh, apparently he even received a standing ovation, the bastard.


Alexa swing by at 7:53 PM

 
Lumina's Theresa Bonopartis (who also contributes at AA) on Hillary Clinton, Judge Roberts and abortion


Alexa swing by at 7:40 PM

 
Embryos saved!


Alexa swing by at 7:30 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 7:21 PM

 
Listen up, ladies..

Obesity actually increases the risk of miscarriage


Alexa swing by at 7:15 PM

 
"You know we bunnies don't eat chickin', right Uncle Boobsy Loobz?"




Alexa swing by at 7:12 PM

Friday, September 23, 2005
 
What kind of parent would do this?


Alexa swing by at 6:49 PM

 
Arnie "backs" parental notification on abortion, says he would "kill" anyone who took his daughter for an abortion without telling him

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday he supports the primary aim of a ballot initiative that would make most abortions for minors illegal without prior notification of the girls' parents or guardians, saying he'd "kill" someone who took one of his own daughters for an abortion without informing him.

"I have a daughter," Schwarzenegger said in an interview with The Bee. "I wouldn't want to have someone take my daughter to a hospital for an abortion or something and not tell me. I would kill him if they do that."

Schwarzenegger, who has two teenage daughters and two preteen sons, said in response to a follow-up question that he didn't literally mean he'd kill someone. But, in some of his first public comments about the substance of Proposition 73, the Republican governor left little doubt how he feels about young girls getting abortions without their parents being notified ahead of time.

"It will be the ultimate of being outraged about it and angry about it," he said.

"They call me when my daughter falls off the jungle gym in the school and they say, 'What do you want us to use? Can we put a Band-Aid on it? Do you want to come in? She's crying a little bit.'

"They call us about everything. I don't want them in that particular incident not to call us."

If one of his daughters sought an abortion on her own, he said, "then I would deal with that also."


Alexa swing by at 6:25 PM

 
The Senate Judiciary Committee meanwhile, approved Judge Roberts' bid to head the Supreme Court on a 13-5 vote, with all Republicans and three Democrats supporting his nomination. The full Senate will take up President Bush's first Supreme Court pick next week and Roberts is expected to be approved easily.


HRC votes 'no'


Alexa swing by at 6:15 PM

 
Sam Brownback wants the next Supreme Court nominee to have anti-abortion record..

"The next nominee should let the political branches make political choices and should have a record of devotion to life and liberty that our Constitution protects," the Kansas Republican said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.


Alexa swing by at 6:09 PM

 
This is soo bugging me...



Can somebody please confirm if its PMS Federline or Sean?


Alexa swing by at 5:59 PM

Thursday, September 22, 2005
 
Uh.. Darth Durbin?

Darth Vader was not always evil, or was he? He started out as one of the good guys, a Jedi knight who stood for right.


Alexa swing by at 3:28 PM

 
"Preston Michael Spears Federline" ... Hmph.



Yah, that's what they are calling the boy...


Alexa swing by at 2:57 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 2:49 PM

 
Isn't this just the coolest thing?


Alexa swing by at 2:47 PM

 
Redbook, Breastcancer.org Mislead Women about Abortion-Cancer Link, says Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer
Redbook's October issue includes an interview with Marissa Weiss, MD, founder of the cancer fundraising business, breastcancer.org.  She said, "Two recent research reviews have found that abortion doesn't alter hormone levels in a way that could increase breast cancer risk, as some activists have claimed."

Calling Weiss' statement "sheer nonsense," Professor Joel Brind (Baruch College) said scientists agree that the woman who has an abortion has a greater risk than does the woman who has a baby. She misses the third trimester process that protects her from estrogen overexposure and matures her breast tissue into cancer resistant tissue. Scientists debate whether her risk is greater than what it would have been if she'd never had that pregnancy.  He explained:

"I do not know of any reviews--recent or otherwise--which have ever made such a ridiculous claim. Of course abortion alters hormone levels in a way that could increase breast cancer risk: it terminates the pregnancy! That means it terminates all the hormonal changes that occur with pregnancy, including those which cause breast maturation and decrease breast cancer risk. This is indisputable. What is in dispute is whether or not the changes induced by the pregnancy up until the time of abortion, i.e., the stimulation of rapid growth of breast tissue, is strong enough and long-lasting enough to increase the risk of breast cancer beyond what it would have been in the absence of pregnancy at all. The overwhelming majority of valid epidemiological evidence says it does."

Angela Lanfranchi, MD (Associate Professor of Surgery, Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center) agreed that Weiss' statement revealed a misunderstanding of the biological reason for the link.

Weiss denied that the Pill increases risk, but the World Health Organization acknowledged that combined oral contraceptives are "carcinogenic to humans." [4] These findings support an ABC link.

Alexa swing by at 2:28 PM

 
Planned Parenthood faces lawsuit for violating abortion law

In Minnesota, an abortion business must notify the parents of an underage teenager who is considering an abortion. A Planned Parenthood abortion center felt a girl just shy of her 18th birthday should allow it to skirt the law and perform the abortion anyway. The teenager, identified only as Anne Doe, was just short of her 18th birthday when she visited the abortion center. She ended up having the abortion at the St. Paul Planned Parenthood in 2002.

Planned Parenthood considered the teen an adult because of the closeness of her birthday and because she had given birth in a previous pregnancy.

The teens parents, who reside in New Ulm, were upset to learn after the fact that their daughter had an abortion without their knowledge. According to an Associated Press report, the parents sued the abortion business for violating Minnesota law. They seek $50,000 in damages.


Alexa swing by at 1:56 PM

 
Rita closes in...

Here's a blog with the latest updates on Hurricane Rita.


Alexa swing by at 1:45 PM

 
Folks, Rachel's Vineyard site in New Orleans needs our help!

Here is a letter from Susan Mire, the founder/director of Woman's New Life Center in LA:

"Dear friends,

My name is Susan Mire. I am the director of the Woman's New Life Center, a pro-life pregnancy counseling and medical center in New Orleans, LA. Before I tell you about what has happened to us due to Hurricane Katrina, I would like to share with you about our center, of which I am very proud. I opened the Woman's New Life Center in October of 2001 around the corner from a New Orleans abortion clinic. When we first opened, we provided professional counseling and ultrasounds to women who were seeking abortions. We also became a site for Rachel's Vineyard. Within 8 months of opening, due to the use of ultrasound and a high level of counseling, we had saved 37 babies and their mothers from abortion, and had offered one Rachel's Vineyard retreat. We have grown tremendously in four years. We now have Rachel's Vineyard retreats 3 times a year, and continue with professional counseling for crisis pregnancy, post-abortion and other pregnancy losses. Our counselor is a licensed supervisor, and we started to receive graduate level interns to work at the center. In 2003 we were able to hire a nurse practitioner who provides pre-natal care into the 20th week of pregnancy, as well as ultrasounds and limited well woman care. I was also able to hire an assistant.

Since opening in 2001, the number of children and women saved from abortion is now over 200, and 11 babies scheduled for abortion were instead placed for adoption. The entire staff are trained adoption facilitators. We give thanks to God for all of the amazing things He has accomplished through us these past four years.

Now, due to Hurricane Katrina, we must begin a new chapter. The last report I heard is that our street, Napoleon Avenue, had received up to 12 feet of water. We are on street level, and have taken in a lot of water. It's possible that we have lost everything. As a small non-profit we have no endowment or extra funds--payroll will not continue for me or other employees beyond the next couple of weeks. We are not administered by the Archdiocese, and receive no money from them. It's interesting, because each year our main fundraising event has been on a riverboat and we have called the event the "Lifeboat cruise and auction." Now we need a lifeboat!

We are committed to keeping the Woman's New Life Center open, even if we have to relocate. My employees want to stay with us, and we have looked into providing pregnancy services at the LSU campus in Baton Rouge, until we can get back to New Orleans in January (they estimate 3 months to clean up the city). In order to do this, we need your help.

We are looking for a "cast of thousands", one thousand people to give at least $50.00. With enough contributors, we can raise enough money to get through these next months and look to rebuilding. Even after January, we will need outside sources to help because many of our donors are vested in maintaining their own lives and businesses. Everyone in New Orleans and its suburbs is suffering severe personal and financial losses from Katrina, including me. It is our local donors and churches who have kept the Center going, and they will be recovering from this well into the New Year.

Yet in all of this I truly know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His decree. I know that many opportunities and graces can come from such a situation, and I am praying for the openness to follow where He leads. I ask your prayers and intercession.

Spread the word to everyone you know, through your friends and churches. Donations can be made through our website, www.womansnewlife.com, through PayPal.

I thank you for your kindness and love for unborn children and women."


Alexa swing by at 1:24 PM

 
Somebody kill me, kill me pills...

So, if it all goes well, I could be off my meds in as soon as seven weeks, my neurosurgeon said. Yay! For good, I hope, because 1) I'm sick of being on the pills, and 2) the medical bills are killing me. Ack.

Pray for me.


Alexa swing by at 1:20 PM

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
 
Late term abortion referrals legal?


Alexa swing by at 12:13 PM

 
What the Bible say about abortion:
The Bible speaks of a fetus as a person, not simply tissue that can be discarded if found to be a bother or nuisance. Since the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, then the destroying of the fetus is killing a person. "In the past, some people have mistakenly speculated that perhaps the body might be in the process of formation for some time, and then 'God breathes a soul into it.' They had it backward. The life that is present forms matter into a body for itself' (Joseph Breig, "Life Forms Matter," The Catholic News, Jan. 24, 1974, p. 8).

"Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? Did you not pour me out like milk ... and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit" (Job 10:8-12 NIV).

"Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name... and now the LORD says--he who formed me in the womb to be his servant..." (Isaiah 49:1, 5).

"The word of the LORD came to me, saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:4-5).

In the following passages we note that personality is ascribed to the unborn.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that fully well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (Psalm 139:13-16).

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him" (Psalm 127:3).

Exodus 21:22-25 relates how Israel was to judge a circumstance relating to the death of the unborn:

"If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

All of the latter deals with unintentional hurt that comes to a pregnant woman; how much more will divine penalty come upon those who intentionally discard the fetus? The Gospel of Luke ascribes personality to the fetus within Elizabeth:

"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit... As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy" (1:41, 44).

Mere tissue does not leap for joy; only personhood leaps for joy. The Bible regards the fetus as having personality. In Galatians, Paul speaks of himself as a person while still in his mother's womb, but more a person consecrated by God for a holy mission (compare Jeremiah 1:5 for the same accent):

"But when God, who set me apart from birth, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles..." (Gal. 1: 15-16).

Since the Bible regards the fetus as personality, then the aborting of the fetus is murdering personality.

Some verses from Scripture dealing with murder are then appropriate for study, such as Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man." Also, read Exodus 23:7: "Have nothing to do with a false charge, and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty." Note I Peter 4:15: "If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer..."

Hat tip: J. Grant Swank


Alexa swing by at 12:04 PM

 
China population control workers arrested over forced abortions

Several Chinese population control officials in Linyi, a city 400 miles southeast of Beijing, have been arrested or fired after reports surfaced that they were involved in forced abortions and sterilizations. The surprising actions came after a local advocate who exposed the problems was detained under house arrest for 30 hours. Chen Guangcheng, the detained activist, told Time magazine in an interview before the arrest that 7,000 area people had been sterilized against their will.


Alexa swing by at 11:56 AM

 
So says the man..

"I don't drink decaf unless it is absolutely necessary for social decorum. Decaf is evil. I am not exaggerating. Coffee by its nature has caffiene. To decaffienate is to remove an essential good, albeit an accidental good, from the coffee. Therefore, decaf is evil because of the lack of good that ought to be present. Now where is my grinder?"

- Ragemonkey's Fr. Tharp


Alexa swing by at 10:56 AM

 
Feminist and family planning groups want US to subsidize forced abortion in China...

because apparently choice only works one way.


Alexa swing by at 10:52 AM

 
Alexa swing by at 10:49 AM

Tuesday, September 20, 2005
 
Okay, I admit. Single parenting are not for wusses. It is tough, physically, emotionally... and of course, financially. I'm sure we have all read testimonies or stories about women who had abortions, because they could not afford or do not have the means to raise a child. But fret not, fellow sisters... help is available. As single parenting becomes more common, I'm happy to report that governments are responding to the challenge by providing several policies and programmes for single parents.

State help for single-parent families:

Singapore
- All working mothers (married or not) can qualify for a center-based child-care subsidy of up to SGD$150 a month.
- They can also apply for a monthly infant care subsidy of up to SGD$400 for children between 2 and 18 months old.
- All single parents are eligible to apply for almost all of the social assistance schemes under ComCare.
- They can also apply for employment and financial assistance with the Work Assistance Programme and the Self-Reliance Programme.

United States
- Single parents can apply for child-care subsidies, depending on income, family size and state of residence.
- A temporary assistance programme for needy families also provides monthly cash grant and medical care tied to job programmes offered by the state.
- Children below 19 who are uninsured are offered health insurance by the state under the State Children's Health Insurance Programme.
- There are also food stamps given for buying groceries each month.
- There is a child tax credit of US$600 per child for single parents who earn less than US$75,000 a year.

United Kingdom
- Income Support is paid to single parents aged 16 and above and working less than 16 hours a week. The amount given depends on age, size of family and other income received. I.e. single mothers aged 18 to 24 get their income topped up to £41.35 per week. This goes up to £93.05 per week after the baby is born and can be claimed till the child turns 16.
- They are also entitle to Child Tax Credit, a 25% discount on Council Tax and the maximum Housing Benefit that helps with most of their rent.

Sweden
- Social security benefits vary according to the age and needs of the children. I.e. single parents with a year-old child receive 5,120 Swedish kronor.
- Single-parent families are further entitled to 1,173 Swedish kronor per child a month.
- In addition, childcare is heavily subsidized by the government and provided universally to all children.
- Single parents are also entitled to the same housing benefits as married couples.

Australia
- Single parents who earn less than A$33,361 a year get fortnightly payments ranging from A$137.06 per child below 13 to A$59.36 per children aged 18 to 24 years.
- They also get maximum child-care benefits of up to A$469.78 per week depending on the number of children getting registered childcare.
- In addition, they are given the same rent benefits offered to married couples (A$115.08 for 1-2 children and A$130.06 for 3 or more children).

Japan
- Single parents who earn less than 1.3 million yen a year receive a monthly allowance of 42,370 yen for one child, 47,370 yen for 2 children and an additional 3,000 yen for each child thereafter.
- In some cities such as Minato City in southeastern Tokyo, subsidized home help services are provided up to 12 times a month. A child-care helper visits to help out new single parents trying to adjust or those who have fallen ill.
- There are also designated hotels and amusement parks that single-parent families can visit a few times a year for free or at a discount.


(Source: The Clearinghouse on International Developments in Child, Youth and Family Policies at Columbia University. Hat tip to Melody Tan at The Straits Times)


Alexa swing by at 4:47 PM

 
NYPD unplugs Cindy Sheehan...


Alexa swing by at 4:03 PM

 
Apparently humans aren't the only ones who are depressed and miserable...


Alexa swing by at 3:57 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 3:17 PM

 
Michael Schiavo makes the news again..

this time about a complaint on his nursing license...


Alexa swing by at 3:02 PM

 
"New Orleans is kind of like a bowl in a bathtub... that made their situation particularly dire.."

Little Rock Baptist Church in Detroit makes 357 housing units available to victims of Hurricane Katrina


Alexa swing by at 2:46 PM

 
What John Roberts really said about Roe
Judge Roberts's chief strategic objective in his confirmation hearing was to secure the support of Chairman Specter - a vocal supporter of Roe v. Wade - without losing the support of conservative Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. It is a testament to Roberts's skills as an advocate that his remarks at his confirmation hearing on abortion and stare decisis have been understood by Specter and many other supporters of Roe as suggesting that he would not vote to overrule Roe. What seems not to have been noticed is that Roberts in fact deftly repudiated Specter's notion that Roe is some sort of "super-duper precedent" entitled to "super stare decisis." In so doing, he marked the path for the eventual overruling of Roe.

Alexa swing by at 2:39 PM

 
Adult stem cells shows promising results...


Alexa swing by at 2:35 PM

 
President Bush has once again decided to revoke funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for a fourth time because of the international agency's involvement in supporting China's population control program that has included forced abortions.

China has come under fire for its population control atrocities like forced abortions and sterilizations.

According to the State Department and a leading Congressman who focuses in internationalefforts, the UNFPA continues to provide funding and technical support for China's one-child birth policy.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Bush administration "remains firmly committed to women's maternal and reproductive health. However, our support must always be provided in accordance with U.S. law."


Alexa swing by at 2:28 PM

 
Folks, there will be a memorial service for Terri Schiavo this friday in NYC. Please see Tim's post for the full details.


Alexa swing by at 2:22 PM

 
Stem cells may repair cord damage, study says
he experiment, reported Monday, isn't the first to show that stem cells offer tantalizing hope for spinal cord injury ...

But the new work went an extra step, suggesting the connections that the stem cells form to help bridge the damaged spinal cord are key to recovery.

Surprisingly, they didn't just form new nerve cells. They also formed cells that create the biological insulation that nerve fibers need to communicate. A number of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, involve loss of that insulation, called myelin.

"The actual cells that we transplanted, the human cells, are the ones that are making myelin," explained lead researcher Aileen Anderson of the University of California, Irvine. "We're extremely excited about these cells."

Alexa swing by at 2:05 PM

Monday, September 19, 2005
 
On the southwest side of Capri
we found a little unknown grotto
where no people were and we
entered it completely
and let our bodies lose all
their loneliness.

All the fish in us
had escaped for a minute.
The real fish did not mind.
We did not disturb their personal life.
We calmly trailed over them
and under them, shedding
air bubbles, little white
balloons that drifted up
into the sun by the boat
where the Italian boatman slept
with his hat over his face.

Water so clear you could
read a book through it.
Water so buoyant you could
float on your elbow.
I lay on it as on a divan.
I lay on it just like
Matisse's Red Odalisque .
Water was my strange flower,
one must picture a woman
without a toga or a scarf
on a couch as deep as a tomb.

The walls of that grotto
were everycolor blue and
you said, "Look! Your eyes
are seacolor. Look! Your eyes
are skycolor." And my eyes
shut down as if they were
suddenly ashamed.

- Anne Sexton, "The Nude Swim"


Alexa swing by at 4:30 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 3:54 PM

 
Michael Schiavo to tell his side of the story...


Alexa swing by at 3:43 PM

 
Dawn Eden has an article on The Raving Atheist...


Alexa swing by at 2:56 PM

 
Outside the din of abortion debate, lie these heartbreaking stories:
At Little Rock Family Planning Services, the women filed in without making eye contact, a demographic that remains unrecognized.

Leah works in a clothing boutique. Alicia is in high school. Tammy pulls espresso. Regina is a sergeant in the Army, recently home from Iraq.

Far from Washington and the Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Judge John G. Roberts Jr., here in Little Rock on an August weekend, 26 women from as far away as Oklahoma joined the more than one million American women who will probably have abortions this year. [...]

Brittany, 17, brought her mother for support. Linda, 39, brought her daughter.

Alexia, who wore a cross pendant, prayed all through the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Delta State University in Mississippi . At 23, she was having her third abortion. "My religion is against it," she said, adding that she is a Baptist. "In a way I feel I'm doing wrong, but you can be forgiven. I blame myself. I feel I shouldn't have sex at all."

Venetia Grunder, 21, viewed an ultrasound image of the fetus in her womb. She was 12 weeks pregnant, though she had taken birth control pills as directed. "I feel pretty messed up," she said after seeing the image. "It's different, just knowing. My husband told me not to look. This changes my feelings, but I'm sticking by it. Damn it, $650, I'm sticking by it."
[...]

In the squat, nondescript brick building here, the lofty rhetoric that has billowed through public debate for the last 32 years gave way to the mundane realities of the armed security guard and the metal detector, the surgical table and the settling of the bill before the procedure - $525 to $1,800, cash or credit card only...

Regina cried on the operating table.

Kori, 26, who was having her third abortion, asked to watch the procedure on the ultrasound monitor. "I wanted to see what it was like," she said. "It was O.K. to watch. Once you had your mind made up to do it, you just suck it up and go with it."

Alexa swing by at 2:23 PM

 
Specter hopes O'Connor's replacement is like Roberts

"I hope that we'll have somebody who is modest like Judge Roberts says he is, someone who will promote stability so there are no sharp turns," Sen. Arlen Specter said.

To conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly however, another Roberts would be "a betrayal".


Alexa swing by at 1:38 PM

 
The National Pro-life Alliance, a 600,000-member organization dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade and ending abortion-on-demand, is expanding its work in support of Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee John G. Roberts with a national media campaign aimed at fourteen U.S. Senators in eight states.

The organization has budgeted $570,000 for TV and newspaper ads in Delaware, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New York, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin to coincide with the opening of Senate hearings on the nomination of Judge Roberts.

View the ad here


Hat tip: Tim


Alexa swing by at 1:22 PM

Sunday, September 18, 2005
 
Lefties, get your lithium ready...

From the Washington Post today:
JOHN G. ROBERTS JR. should be confirmed as chief justice of the United States. He is overwhelmingly well-qualified, possesses an unusually keen legal mind and practices a collegiality of the type an effective chief justice must have. He shows every sign of commitment to restraint and impartiality. Nominees of comparable quality have, after rigorous hearings, been confirmed nearly unanimously. We hope Judge Roberts will similarly be approved by a large bipartisan vote. [...]

Judge Roberts represents the best nominee liberals can reasonably expect from a conservative president who promised to appoint judges who shared his philosophy. Before his nomination, we suggested several criteria that Mr. Bush should adopt to garner broad bipartisan support: professional qualifications of the highest caliber, a modest conception of the judicial function, a strong belief in the stability of precedent, adherence to judicial philosophy, even where the results are not politically comfortable, and an appreciation that fidelity to the text of the Constitution need not mean cramped interpretations of language that was written for a changing society. Judge Roberts possesses the personal qualities we hoped for and testified impressively as to his belief in the judicial values. [...]

Mr. Bush deserves credit for making a nomination that, on the merits, warrants support from across the political spectrum. Having done their duty by asking Judge Roberts tough questions, Democrats should not respond by withholding that support.

Alexa swing by at 2:50 PM

 
Artificial wombs and alternatives to abortion..

Will science trump politics in resolving abortion debate?


Via Fr. Tucker


Alexa swing by at 2:30 PM

 
So read your books, but stay out late
Some nights, some nights, and don't think
That you can't stop by the bar
You haven't shown your face here since the bad news
Well I'm here till close, with fingers crossed
Each night cause your place isn't far

And hours pass, and hours pass..


Alexa swing by at 2:29 PM

Saturday, September 17, 2005
 
To think that fathers are supposed to protect...

18-year-old threw two newborns down air shaft, own dad accused of fathering both babies..


Alexa swing by at 8:37 PM

 
Did you know..

In China, they make beauty products from aborted babies?


Alexa swing by at 8:25 PM

 
We pay for smut, meh?

Well, if we did, then I certainly don't know about it. :|


Alexa swing by at 7:37 PM

 
Meanwhile, Disability Rights Group Not Dead Yet charges Missouri with medical killings. Stephen Drake says the legislature's Medicaid cuts tells the disabled that breathing and eating are 'optional'. The legislation, which took effect September 1, cut certain health-care items designated as "optional equipment," including feeding tubes, nutritional formula, and ventilators.

"What you're doing is taking away devices, technology that people depend on to live," Drake says. "With a feeding tube, if you take it away, people die. You take away a ventilator, people die. This is not like taking away, as horrible as it is, somebody's blood pressure medication."


Alexa swing by at 6:57 PM

 
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox says he plans to appeal the partial-birth abortion ruling which was struck down as 'unconstitutional'. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood in Detroit ruled the Legal Birth Definition Act can't be upheld because she claims it puts an "undue burden" on obtaining a legal abortion.


Alexa swing by at 6:48 PM

 
China's grisly population-control atrocities

In what was described as the most brutal mass sterilization and abortion campaigns in years, population-control authorities are resorting to draconian measures, including infancide, forced abortions (even late-terms) and forced sterilization. The heartbreaking story of one woman, Li Juan, whose term baby was forcibly aborted has come to light:
The men with the poison-filled syringe arrived two days before Li Juan's due date. They pinned her down on a bed in a local clinic, she says, and drove the needle into her abdomen until it entered the 9-month-old fetus. "At first, I could feel my child kicking a lot," says the 23-year-old. "Then, after a while, I couldn't feel her moving anymore." Ten hours later, Li delivered the girl she had intended to name Shuang (Bright). The baby was dead. To be absolutely sure, says Li, the officials--from the Linyi region, where she lives, in China's eastern Shandong province--dunked the infant's body for several minutes in a bucket of water beside the bed. All she could think about on that day last spring, recalls Li, was how she would hire a gang of thugs to take revenge on the people who killed her baby because the birth, they said, would have violated China's family-planning scheme.

Report in New England Journal of Medicine says China should scrap its forced-abortion population control policy which has drawn worldwide condemnation


Alexa swing by at 6:22 PM

Friday, September 16, 2005
 
The Coalition for a Fair and Independent judiciary has launched a new anti-Roberts ad called "Silence". You can view it here.


Alexa swing by at 4:46 PM

 
Young moms..

Girls as young as 13 are giving birth...


Alexa swing by at 4:45 PM

 
Andrew has a blog!


Alexa swing by at 2:43 PM

 
Prayers to Andrew..



I didn't know :(


Alexa swing by at 2:38 PM

 
Watching Planned Parenthood and the likes squirm is priceless indeed..


Alexa swing by at 2:21 PM

 
Now, this is interesting
Circumspect and clever Roberts has been. No one really knows. But I predict two things: (a) Chief Justice Roberts will vote to uphold Roe v. Wade , and (b) his replacing his former boss, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, will move the court only mildly, but most assuredly, to the left -- as measured by the only available yardstick, the percentage of concurrences with the opinions of those conservative touchstones, Scalia and Thomas.

I infer this not just by what Roberts has said in his hearings -- that he supports Griswold v. Connecticut , that he deeply respects precedent and that he finds Roe itself worthy of respect. That is little beyond boilerplate. I infer it from his temperament, career and life history as an establishment conservative who prizes judicial modesty above all. Which means that while he will never repeat Roe , he will never repeal it and be the cause of the social upheaval that repeal would inevitably bring.

Alexa swing by at 2:05 PM

 
Hmph. Reuters got some serious explaining to do...


Alexa swing by at 1:43 PM

Thursday, September 15, 2005
 
This message is for my dearest and very special long-time friend, James "Seamus" Ruby

Re: Hurricane Ophelia

James, if you are still in NC, please get out of there NOW.

I don't know why the emails are not getting to you (I'll keep trying), but if you are reading this, please, please, please call me on my cell.



Alexa swing by at 6:07 PM

 
Stanek: Throwing babies out with the floodwater
Quirky America. Everyone decries the elderly people left to die in nursing homes, and the sick people left to die in hospitals, and even the pets left to die in the streets. But killing New Orleans' little bundles of trouble before they are born is a load off.

I wonder if any deserted abortion mills were looted. Likely not, unless thugs thought they might find drugs or money. I imagine even murderers and thieves were creeped out at the thought of little bags and buckets of dismembered babies floating around inside those places.

Quirky America. The American Red Cross has no trouble calling surviving Louisiana and Mississippi pregnancy resource centers for help:

"In our local maternity wards mothers are delivering in the hallways," wrote Dorothy Wallis, director of the Caring Pregnancy Center of Baton Rouge, in a Sept. 2 e-mail. "The hospitals are sending their post delivery patients to us for care. The American Red Cross sent eight families today. The crisis pregnancy centers of Baton Rouge are now responsible for meeting the needs of refugee women and children."

Yet the American Red Cross refuses to give any disaster relief money to pregnancy resource centers to help them help them. Separation of church and state, you know.

Please help the PRCs. Jill Stanek has the details.


Alexa swing by at 5:59 PM

 
Operation Rescue reveals the autopsy report of the 19-year-old Texas teen who died from complications of a third-trimester abortion received at Women's Health care Services at the hands of the notorious butcher George Tiller.

According to the ten-page document released August 24, Christin Gilbert "died as a result of complication of a therapeutic abortion. Most likely the mechanism of death is sepsis".

As Birth Story had earlier reported, Christin who had Down's Syndrome, was sexually assaulted sometime in 2004. As a result, she became pregnant. Christin was brought by her family to Women's Health Care Services for a third-trimester abortion in her 28th week of pregnancy on January 10, 2005. There her baby received a digoxin injection to the heart and she was prepared for labor and delivery of her dead child. Christin died from the botched abortion on January 13.


Alexa swing by at 4:24 PM

 
Christ!

Free abortions for Katrina's victims
Drs. Jerry Edwards, William Harrison and Tom Tvedten, Arkansas' only abortion providers, are offering free abortions to women who have been displaced by the hurricane's destruction.

"This is basically our way to give, the same way people give to the Red Cross," said Edwards, who, with his partner Tvedten, operates Little Rock Family Planning Services. He decided to perform free abortions for the displaced because he said there is "very little governmental help" for women who are away from home and want to end their pregnancies.

Is it an act of compassion? "Yes," said Harrison, the 70-year-old abortion doctor who owns the Fayetteville Women's Clinic. "I know what happens to women who need abortions and can't have them," Harrison said. He claimed they often take matters in their own hands and perform unsafe abortions on themselves.

Hat tip: PoliticalCP


Alexa swing by at 4:15 PM

 
Alan Dershowitz, Harvard's most socially rough-edged law professor in this article calls John Roberts a 'fetus":
In a stab at the 50-year-old [John] Roberts, who, if confirmed, will be the youngest chief justice in 200 years, Dershowitz said, "Today, they're trying to nominate fetuses in the hope that they will be kept alive like [Terri] Schiavo."

Alexa swing by at 3:50 PM

 
Bush nominates first trimester fetus to Supreme Court
Already, this experienced and capable embryo has demonstrated during his or her in utero existence a deep commitment to the core principles of the Constitution," Bush said. "It is with great pride that I nominate this unborn American patriot to the highest court in the land."

Alexa swing by at 3:42 PM

 
To think that they had to run this on the wire...


Alexa swing by at 3:31 PM

 
Overheard in the U.S. Senate's Hart Building..

Democrat Sen. Joe Biden to Judge Roberts: "You're the best I've ever seen before the committee..."


(Via Matt Drudge)


Alexa swing by at 3:24 PM

 
Another judge declares partial birth abortion ban unconstitutional

In a ruling dated Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Page Hood in Detroit ruled the Legal Birth Definition Act places an "undue burden" on women's right to choose.

Hood said the law is confusing and vague, and its exceptions for the health or life of a mother are meaningless and unconstitutional.

"The act does not describe any specific procedure to be banned," Hood wrote. "The act also does not distinguish between induced abortion and pregnancy loss."

Parties in the lawsuit learned of the ruling late Wednesday when it was obtained by the Detroit Free Press. It was not immediately clear why the parties were not notified of the ruling.

Proponents of the law said they were attempting to ban a procedure they call "partial-birth" abortion . Previous attempts by state lawmakers to stop the abortion procedure were struck down by federal courts in 1997 and 2001.


Alexa swing by at 3:21 PM

 
Heads up: Volunteers needed at Baton Rouge pregnancy resource center (PRC) disaster relief center

Folks, please take a moment and read Jill's post here:
If possible, please plan to stay for at least two weeks, although one week is ok. Volunteers will be needed to fill these posts for at least the next couple of months:

~ Disaster relief receptionist to field emails, calls
~Webmaster , proficient in Flash, to keep up with website/Internet needs and problems
~ Disaster relief prc volunteers coordinator
~ Disaster relief clerical/secretarial help
~ Disaster relief warehouse distribution/inventory administrator
The PRCs also need tools and supplies to work with, as well as financial help, so please go read Jill's post for the full details on how and where you can help.


Alexa swing by at 2:27 PM

 
Britney gives birth to a baby boy!



Congratulations to the proud parents!


Alexa swing by at 2:13 PM

Wednesday, September 14, 2005
 
Er.. "Bobbitised"?


Hat tip: KLo


Alexa swing by at 1:05 PM

 
Do they like profit from these RU486 deaths?

National Abortion Federation (NAF) launches $2 million ad campaign on RU486...


Alexa swing by at 12:49 PM

 
And guess who the "Judicial Tyrant of the Year" award goes to..

Haai-yaaahh... that's for killing Terri, arsehole.


Alexa swing by at 12:37 PM

 
The dirt on Judge Greer

Apparently they have records that showshe accepted a campaign contribution in excess of the legal limit as part of the funding of his 2004 campaign.


Alexa swing by at 12:30 PM

 
Woman sues Ortho Evra manufacturer



The 37-year-old woman suffered a pulmonary embolism after using the Ortho Evra contraceptive patch for seven months.

Pulmonary embolism is a potentially fatal condition triggered by a blood clot that obstructs an artery in the lungs, often leaving victims with chronic health problems requiring long-term anticoagulant medications. Reports show that the deaths of at least seventeen young American women over the past two years may be related to Ortho Evra patch use.


Alexa swing by at 12:17 PM

 
Erh... Squidward is gay?


Alexa swing by at 11:39 AM

Tuesday, September 13, 2005
 
All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What! all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?...
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.

- Macbeth


Alexa swing by at 4:01 PM

 
Italy to save babies the medieval way

The medieval "foundling wheel", a common feature at convents and monasteries until the 19th century, will be restored in Italy and ready by Christmas to let desperate mothers abandon newborn babies anonymously and curb the number of infants left to die in bins.

One is likely to be installed in the Santo Spirito hospital near the Vatican next year. The wheel, half inside the hospital and half outside, allows a mother to leave a baby without being seen. Staff can then turn the wheel and collect the newborn child. In the past mothers rang a bell before abandoning the baby and running off. The modern wheel is equipped with heat sensors which alert doctors and nurses to a new arrival.


Alexa swing by at 3:27 PM

 
Pam Anderson and other People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are coming to the aid of the Gulf's abandoned and stranded pets. Silent-auction proceeds from PETA's 25th-anniversary gala this weekend in L.A. will go toward hurricane animal relief...


Alexa swing by at 3:16 PM

 
Help women find better options than abortion says Amy Campbell of Democrats for LIfe


Alexa swing by at 3:09 PM

 
Alexa swing by at 2:31 PM

 
"(One person) would take me to car lots and tell me I could have any car I wanted if I would have an abortion. I traded my babies for a Chevy truck."

Another woman has come out and tell her abortion story


Alexa swing by at 1:56 PM

 
From the Elliot Institute:

Women are three times more likely to die after an abortion

Springfield, IL (Sept 9, 2005)--International health experts have published a new study disclosing that 94 percent of maternal deaths associated with abortion are not identifiable from death certificates alone. Proper tracking of pregnancy associated deaths, they report, requires the linking of death certificates to the deceased women's medical records. Only in this way, they conclude, can accurate information about recent pregnancies be determined--information that is frequently missing from death certificates and autopsies.

The study, completed by researchers from the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health in Finland, shows that the long held presumption that abortion is associated with fewer deathsthan childbirth does not hold up once the pregnancy history of women is actually investigated using record linkage. Previously, it has been widely assumed that the mortality rate associated with abortion was only one-sixth that of childbirth. But those estimates were based primarily on information gathered only from death certificates or other public records. Proper identification of pregnancy history, the researchers found, reveals that the death rate associated with abortion is actually three times higher than that of childbirth.

The findings of this epidemiological study may have a profound impact on the abortion debate in the United States, according to some legal analysts. "The claim that abortion was safer than childbirth, at least early in pregnancy, was accepted as a crucial fact in Roe v Wade," says Walter Weber, an attorney with the American Center for Law and Justice, who specializes in abortion law. "In fact, the Court concluded that the states had authority to regulate abortion to protect women's health only at the point at which death rates associated with abortion exceeded those associated with childbirth -- which at that time was assumed to be around 12 weeks of gestation."

This recent study is just one of a series of studies done among women in Finland and California demonstrating an elevated risk of death following abortion, a risk that exceeds that of both non-pregnant women and women whose pregnancies are allowed to follow their natural course. According to Weber, these studies provide a new basis for states to regulate abortion even within the judicial reasoning of Roe.

The argument over risks of death following abortion versus childbirth won't be settled overnight, however. Planned Parenthood and the closely allied Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) continue to promote the message that abortion is safer than childbirth. Their argument is based on comparing the nationally reported rates of death for childbirth to the rate of death associated with abortion that is reported by the National Institutes of Health's Centers for Disease Control (CDC). But both sets of numbers are drawn principally from death certificates.

Even before this latest study discrediting the accuracy of accessing pregnancy associated deaths from death certificates alone, the CDC's reports on abortion associated deaths had been severely criticized by abortion opponents. One of the chief complaints was that the top physician's in the CDC's abortion surveillance unit had clear conflicts of interest since they were not only outspoken advocates for expanding abortion services but also practicing abortion providers.


Mark Crutcher, president of Life Dynamics, has charged that CDC's abortion surveillance unit was set up by abortion advocates within the CDC not to oversee abortion but to defend and promote abortion. "When it comes to abortion, CDC stands for Center for Damage Control," writes Crutcher.

A recent law review article examining the new data on elevated death rates following abortion also criticizes the CDC's resistance to adopting the new record linkage techniques. According to the lead author, David Reardon of the Elliot Institute, the CDC abortion surveillance team has yet to apologize for and repudiate a blatantly misleading study its team authored in 1982 which asserted they were successfully identifying at least 90 percent of deaths associated with abortion. "This report was particularly dishonest in that they misappropriated a little known statistical comparison test, and violated each of the test's three preconditions for validity, simply to dismiss calls for better investigations."

Reardon says that the work of Kevin Sherlock, a writer and reporter who specializes in public record research, proves that the CDC's abortion mortality statistics are essentially meaningless. Sherlock's independent review of death certificates, with cause of death verified by autopsies and court records regarding malpractice claims, confirmed at least 140 abortion related deaths for the decade of the 1980s, which is thirty percent more than the total reported by the CDC. "That a single investigator could fully document thirty percent more deaths than the entire CDC abortion surveillance unit should give everyone pause," said Reardon.

In light of the studies documenting higher death rates associated with abortion, combined with renewed criticism of the CDC abortion surveillance unit itself, top CDC officials appear to be backing away from their past claims. In response to a letter from Walter Weber questioning the appropriateness of comparing maternal mortality statistics for childbirth with CDC's reported mortality statistics for abortion, Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, director of the CDC, wrote in July of 2004, that maternal mortality rates and abortion mortality rates "are conceptually different and are used by the CDC for different public health purposes." In other words, the CDC numbers relied upon by Planned Parenthood and AGI are not truly comparable.

According to Reardon, this is why the record-linkage studies based on data collected in Finland and California are so important. "These studies represent the first time that the measurements of deaths associated with abortion and childbirth have been taken using a consistent and uniform standard."

While it is still unclear how this new information will ultimately affect abortion access, there is no doubt that it intensify the social, legal, and medical debates surrounding it.


Emily has more here.

See also: Death Rate of Abortion Three Times Higher than Childbirth: 13-year Population Study in Published in Top OB/Gyn Journal


Alexa swing by at 1:10 PM

 
Baby Torres has died
With great sadness, we are asking for your prayers for the repose of the soul of 5 week old baby Susan Ann Torres. She passed away last night after surgery for a perforated intestine. Please include in your prayers a request for the peace and comfort of her family, especially Jason Torres, who has had a very difficult past several months
Jason Torres in a statement said,"After the efforts of this summer to bring her into the world, this is obviously a devastating loss... It was our fondest wish that we could have been able to share Susan's homecoming with the world"

Family statement


... holding daddy's hand



Please pray for Susan Ann Catherine Torres. Pray that her soul rests, that she be reunited with her mommy. Our heartfelt condolence to Jason, the Torres and Rollin families.


Alexa swing by at 12:36 PM

Monday, September 12, 2005
 
Damn you, Hollywood..



Hell, I'll never drool at Heath Ledger the same way again :(


Alexa swing by at 3:48 PM

 
New Orleans doctors killed patients who they said were dying, that they had to leave behind during flooding and looting...


Alexa swing by at 3:18 PM

 
George W. Bush is "average", but far from ordinary...

OpinionJournal's James Taranto has tells us why.


Alexa swing by at 2:29 PM

 
On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised.

Then I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, "Live!" I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, you who were naked and bare.

Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.

- Ezekiel 16:4-8


Alexa swing by at 2:09 PM

Sunday, September 11, 2005
 
Are you telling me I should be a lesbian?
According to Drexler, lesbian moms are "more sophisticated about how they teach their sons right from wrong" than heterosexual couples, and there are "real advantages for a boy being raised in this new type of family." Heterosexual mothers don't measure up in "moral attitude" and are less likely than lesbian moms to "create opportunities for their sons to examine moral and values issues." This in turn slows the "moral development in their sons."

Furthermore, Drexler asserts that boys raised by lesbians "grow up emotionally stronger," "have a wider range of interests and friendships" and "appear more at ease in situations of conflict" than boys from "traditional" (i.e., father-present) households. Fatherless boys "exhibit a high degree of emotional savvy ... an intuitive grasp of people and situations." Best of all, sons of lesbian couples are much more willing to discard traditional masculinity than boys trapped in heterosexual households.
Hmm. Surely you don't want your son to grow up wearing nail polish, Jay?


Alexa swing by at 6:07 PM

 
Read it and weep:
No matter what you 'believe' about abortion, the truth is, when I had been alive and growing for seven months, a woman made a choice that tore my legs off and most of my fingers too. Because of her choice to abort me, I will never be able to walk or run and play with the perfect, healthy legs I was created with, nor will I ever be able to type with the healthy, nimble fingers that used to be mine. That kind of sucks, doesn't it.
Tucker's Story


Alexa swing by at 5:49 PM

 
Folks, the American Red Cross needs 40,000 volunteers -- please read.


Alexa swing by at 5:33 PM

 
Re: Operation Save Katrina's Babies

Folks, Jill Stanek has an update here, please read...


Alexa swing by at 5:28 PM

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