life issues

Susan B Anthony List Plans Pro-Life 2012 Ads

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From Hot Air:

Susan B. Anthony list, a pro-life advocacy group that last week released an ad dramatizing the obscene partnership between President Barack Obama and Planned Parenthood, aims to raise enough money to run the ad in key battleground states. To that end, they’re in the midst of a 72-hour campaign to come up with just $21,000 — so small a sum in comparison to the price of an Obama fundraiser.

As the ad depicts, the president’s support for Planned Parenthood runs deep. Even when states have legitimately — and through the proper legislative avenues — sought to defund the abortion provider, the administration has stepped in to override states’ decisions. Earlier this month, for example, after the Executive Council of New Jersey decided not to renew a $1.8 million contract with PP, the administration stepped in and awarded Planned Parenthood of New England more than $1 million in federal funding. Just days ago, the First Lady hosted a fundraiser with Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards and EMILY’s List President Stephanie Schriock…

Click on the link if you can donate – one thing we do know for certain is that the Obama Administration has been lock-step in favor of the Culture of Death.  If there has been a way to advance abortion, Obama has been right there.  And Obama is counting on a lot of pro-abortion money to help fund his 2012 campaign.  This is the best way to fight that – especially in pro-life States like Pennsylvania which Obama must win to be re-elected.

The Execution of Troy Davis

Mark Noonan20 Comments

Actually, it has been temporarily stayed, but no one knows for how long…could be that Mr. Davis will be executed later today, or tomorrow…but it could also go on quite a long time.  After all, last month we passed the 20th anniversary of his conviction.  I admit that until a little while ago, I had never heard of Mr. Davis – but this article over at Hot Air brought it to my attention, especially as it details Reagan FBI Director Sessions’ assertion that Mr. Davis should not be executed.

Reading the article, I have to say I’m quite unimpressed with the exculpatory evidence.  Seems like the usual litany of claims made by someone trying to get off from their crime.  Someone else did the actual dirty deed, witnesses have changed testimony, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Probably 99% of those on death row have similar claims.  Looking a bit further in to the case, I find – in my view – the most crucial evidence being that the ballistics for the murder match the ballistics for a previous armed robbery, for which Mr. Davis was convicted.

There is, of course, that chance that Mr. Davis lent his weapon to someone else who then murdered the cop (off-duty police officer Mark MacPhail), but this is highly unlikely.  What is incontrovertible is that Mr. Davis was doing a lot of things in 1989 (the year of the crime) as he shouldn’t…to put it to you all quite harshly, if by some chance he didn’t actually kill the cop, then he can choke on the irony of it all.  There is no one responsible for Mr. Davis being on death row other than Mr. Davis – he was living a life a crime, and such a life brings with it grave risks.  Had he never run afoul of the law, then he almost certainly would never have been convicted of any crime, let alone one which would result in a death sentence.

What really got me thinking over this case was the way the HotAir article concluded:

…The judge at the evidentiary hearing concluded that, “While Mr. Davis’s new evidence casts some additional, minimal doubt on his conviction, it is largely smoke and mirrors.” That’s an excellent reason to keep him locked up while he tries to prove his innocence, but “additional” doubt — even if it’s minimal — is an equally fine reason not to apply the needle lest you deny him the chance, especially when you have the shadow of someone else’s confession looming over the proceedings. Like Guy Benson says, “There are no do-overs here.” This, in fact, is how I suspect most opponents of capital punishment are made — there’ll always be some who blubber at the thought of the state imposing lethal justice on the Ted Bundys of the world, but the rest move by inches as nagging doubts in cases like this drag them towards abolition. Even if Davis is probably guilty, why not save lethal injection for the guys who are definitely guilty? I’ll never understand that.

Indeed – and that is part of the reason I’m opposed to the death penalty (the other part is that I hope those who commit crimes eventually beg God for forgiveness…I don’t wish to be even in theory part of cutting a man down before he’s had every possible chance to repent).  But the problem is that those who either oppose the death penalty – or who are approaching opposition – go about it entirely the wrong way.  As per usual in these cases, we had the “no justice, no peace” people out in force…curious how they never shout that for the innocent victims of crime; they never seem to demand justice for them and are quite peaceable about the people murdered, raped and robbed by criminals.  Seems that only criminals make such people want justice.  Funny, huh?  Anyways…they’ve got it all wrong.  If you want to end the death penalty, don’t argue in favor of the condemned who are usually pretty bad people, even if you want to argue they didn’t do the actual crime they are to be executed for.  What you want to argue for is justice…that those who commit crimes will pay a high price for it.  Do that, and all demand for the death penalty will evaporate.

Because you want to know what gets peoples goat?  It isn’t that criminals are breathing, but that they are breathing and not having a bad time of it.  Among the routine stories of our times are stories of convicted felons in prison having cable television, exercise rooms, access to booze and drugs and generally lots of time to loaf around and eat food they didn’t earn.  That is what ticks people off…but if we make prison a place of no amenities and hard labor, then it will be judged sufficient punishment for criminals, and the public support for the death penalty will dry up.  Don’t, as it were, try to get Davis off…try to get him transferred to a prison-striped uniform and out in the hot sun breaking rocks, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week.  He’ll be alive, he certainly won’t be executed, he’ll still be able to argue his case in court that he’s innocent…but he won’t be in any condition to make non-criminals figure he isn’t being punished.

The desire for justice is innate in human beings.  Even when we are at our worst, we still tend to desire an equitable outcome. That people will get what’s coming to them.  The death penalty in the United States is just the desperate expedient of people who were sick and tired of mealy-mouthed liberals letting murderers out of jail after 12 years back in the 70’s.  Get rid of the mealy-mouthed liberals, make prison a harsh but just experience, and the people will relent of their desire to execute.  It is as simple as that.

UPDATE:  Mr. Davis was executed at 11:08 pm, Eastern.  I am sorry for it.  May God have mercy on his soul and comfort his friends and family in this hour of trial.  May God also preserve and strengthen the family and friends of officer Mark MacPhail.

California’s “Suicide by Liberalism” Continues

Mark Noonan15 Comments

Bankrupt State falling apart?  Then what you need to do is continue to erode the moral values which once upon a time made your State great…hey, you’ve already got one foot in the grave and another on banana peel, might as well go for it!  From California Catholic Conference:

On Sept. 6, Archbishop José H. Gomez issued the following statement on California Assembly Bill 499, which would allow children 12 and older to be vaccinated against sexually transmitted disease without parental consent or knowledge.

I am praying that Governor Brown will veto AB 499, which passed the California Senate last week.

Parents have a fundamental right and duty to be responsible for their children’s physical and spiritual well-being. Children have a fundamental right to the guidance and protection of their parents.

This legislation would deny those rights.

AB 499 would allow children as young as 12 years old to decide by themselves — without their parents’ involvement — to get vaccines to prevent sexually transmitted diseases…

Come on, Archbishop – who you trying to kid?  We know that all parents can ever do is get in the way.  It is always better if bureaucrats and politicians are in control.  Parents might try – horror of horrors! – to convince their kids that sex before marriage is wrong…better if we just piece by piece remove all parental authority and allow the kids, carefully guided by liberals, decide “for themselves” what to do. Geesh, next thing you know that crazy priest will be asserting that parents can even tell kids what to wear and what to buy!  Where would this all end if it weren’t for liberals?

It is just amazing, isn’t it?  Its sort of like they know they are dying out, but they just want to do as much damage as they can before they go.  California teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, but someone in the legislature found time to draft and pass a bill requiring something that no one other than a tiny minority of anti-family fanatics cares about.

I do wonder how long it will go on – just how utterly destroyed will California be before the people wake up and elect some Republicans to save the State?

 

The Anguish of Abortion

Mark Noonan39 Comments

In spite of pro-abortion attempts to paint abortion as painless, the agony is very real – from Life News:

A new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry by leading American researcher Dr. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University finds women who have an abortion face almost double the risk of mental health problems as women who have their baby.

Coleman’s study is based on an analysis of 22 separate studies which, in total, examine the pregnancy experiences of 877,000 women, with 163,831 women having an abortion. The study also indicated abortion accounts for one in ten of every adverse mental health issue women face as a whole.

“Results indicate quite consistently that abortion is associated with moderate to highly increased risks of psychological problems subsequent to the procedure,” the study says. “Overall, the results revealed that women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 percent increased risk of mental health problems, and nearly 10 percent of the incidence of mental health problems were shown to be directly attributable to abortion.”…

It is quite simply unnatural for a woman to abort her child – it is, indeed, a negation of all that “woman” means.  Call it biology or the will of God, the plain fact of the matter is that women are to create and nurture life…a woman can choose not to do this, but to take “choice” to mean the deliberate killing of a life already started is a horrific violation of the feminine spirit.  Given this, it is a certainty that there will be mental and spiritual pain associated with abortion.

My final awakening to the full effect of abortion was when, a few years back, I was privileged to meet some women from Silent No More – a campaign by women who have had abortions and now wish to warn other women of the terrible consequences.  While I have been, for most of my adult life, pro-life,  I still felt that as a man I was some how out of place in being a forthright and public opponent of abortion.  The ladies of Silent No More set me straight…bringing me to understand that my duty, as a man, is to defend women…including defending them against abortion, to the fullest extent of my ability.  The pain these women shared with me made it impossible for me do to other than continually speak out against this anti-woman, anti-human, barbaric practice…and to seek its abolition.

Let know one try to convince you otherwise – an abortion is the worst thing a woman can do to herself short of suicide.  However bad the circumstances of the pregnancy, to kill the unborn child will just make it worse, not better.  Life is always the proper choice.

Democrats Play for the Political Middle

Mark Noonan148 Comments

By playing up to those moderate, middle-of-the-road, “mom and apple pie” folks at….Planned Parenthood – From Life News:

The chair of the national Democratic party headlined a small rally in Florida yesterday for Planned Parenthood, in what is the latest event having Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz working with the abortion business.

Wasserman Schultz was named by pro-abortion President Barack Obama recently to take over as the head of the Democratic Party nationally and prepare for his re-election campaign next year. At the time of her appointment to the position, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards praised Wasserman Schultz as a “heroine” for her extensive abortion advocacy. The appointment made it clear Obama would not run from his lengthy pro-abortion record…

Yeah, that is what the people of America want –  abortion on demand.  And, hey, if you can get it funded via ObamaCare in the by and by, so much the better.   When Americans get up in the morning, they aren’t worried about their jobs or the future for their children…the only concern they have is whether or not Planned Parenthood stays on the public teat, sucking up money for butchering children.  That is the way in to America’s heartland…be closely identified with Planned Parenthood.

These people are starting to make this too easy…

Why Liberals Hate the “Conscience Exemption”

Mark Noonan35 Comments

From Life News:

A new study provides more good news for pro-life advocates, as it shows fewer doctors are willing to perform abortions than before — creating a situation where the lower availability of abortion may be helping to reduce abortions.

The new report, published today in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, finds 97 percent of physicians surveyed say they have encountered patients wanting an abortion while only 14 percent of doctors are willing to do an abortion. That’s lower than the 22 percent of doctors who said they would do an abortion in the last poll, from 2008…

In the main, no doctor who is worthy of the name would perform an elective abortion.  Doctors know better than most that the unborn child is a unique, human life…and anyone committed to healing and saving will have a very hard time getting around this concrete fact.

There has been, over the years, a continual drop in the number of doctors who are willing to perform an elective abortion, greatly cutting in to the availability of the inhuman procedure, even without legislative restrictions.  Because of this, the pro-abortion fanatics are determined to force doctors and other medical professionals to provide abortion and other anti-life medical procedures – these people fought hard to ensure that ObamaCare had no meaningful “conscience” clause for medical providers who feel that things like birth control and abortion are immoral…and the pro-aborts will keep at it.  And here’s the bad news – as long as Roe is recognized as the law of the land, they are in a strong position.

If abortion is a right – and if health care is a right – then no doctor can refuse to perform whatever medical procedure a patient orders.  That, right there, shows that asserting a right to an abortion is absurd – no human right can ever denigrate another human right…you do have a right to choose, but this includes the right to choose “no” when asked to participate in an abortion.  But this bit of common-sense doesn’t matter to the pro-aborts…they just want their anti-life agenda to become absolutely the law of the land, and they’ll use every tool they’ve got…including asinine judicial rulings such as Roe.  And if they have to forcibly conscript our doctors and nurses in to the abortion industry, they’ll do it in the name of a “right” to an abortion.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it – the issue of life is the most important issue facing us today.  Next to it, issues such as the debt, the economy, war and all the rest fade to insignificance.  Whether or not we survive as a people depends on what we do about life.  Look around the world today and what do you see?  A dying world.  All of the nations of the Earth are locked in a dance with death.  Only a few nations retain a robust birth rate…while some nations have already entered terminal population decline (meaning that unless there is a massive turn-around in the birth rate, they will die out, as nations, within a bit more than a century).

We here in the United States are barely increasing – and a lot of that increase is due to recent immigrants, who haven’t quite been as poisoned by the Culture of Death as native people.  But even the nations the immigrants come from are now rapidly falling in to death…our illegal immigrant problem from Mexico will shortly solve itself…believe it or not, the Culture of Death has so corrupted Mexico that Mexican women (once know for their fertility) are not having children.  Our source of cheap, imported labor is drying up at the source.

I can’t really explain the motivation of those on the side of death – certainly there is an element of despair in them (likely stemming from some species of non serviam coming from the Enemy), but I’m at a loss to fully explain why they want us to die.  The only thing I know for certain is we must fight and destroy the Culture of Death.  We must not say that Life and anti-life are equal and worthy of respect…the pro-abort position is an illegitimate abomination, which can only be adhered to out of rank ignorance, or simple wickedness.  All our policies must be geared towards encouraging men and women to marry and have children, and providing them with the economic and legal basis to sustain a decent household for the raising of children.  Anything which detracts from this must be hindered, all that advances it must be fostered.

Remember, then, why you are fighting for small government, low taxes, sensible regulations, strong morals, decent education and religious liberty…not for your own self, but for all of those here today, and for those who come after.  All our efforts are not for political victory or so we can make money, or bomb our enemies to smithereens…but just so Joe and Jane Average can get married, have kids and raise them in a decent society.  If you’re not fighting for that, then you’re not fighting for anything worthwhile.

The Warm, Fuzzy Culture of Death

Mark Noonan2 Comments

Looks like the pro-abortion fanatics are worried that the truth is destroying them…so, rather than just admit to truth and stop being so bloodthirsty in pursuit of abortion, they are hoping to put a smiley face on mass murder – from Life News:

I read recently that a team of researchers was beginning a study that seeks to reduce the stigmatization of abortion in society. Not surprisingly, the research team is being represented by the Guttmacher Institute, the former research arm of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider (over 332,000 annually).

This upcoming study follows on the heels of a journal article published by a group of six academics which included an employee of the Guttmacher Institute. The article was titled “Abortion Stigma: A Reconceptualization of Constituents, Causes, and Consequences.”  The entire article is available on the Guttmacher Institute website.

The researchers noted five reasons abortion is stigmatized including the fact that scientific advances have “challenged previous constructions of boundaries between fetus and infant.” What most disturbs me about this “research” is that its aim is specifically to counter growing scientific evidence of the humanity of the unborn child…

There is just too much  money and power wrapped up in abortion advocacy and in abortions, themselves.  Some people have reaped vast fortunes and gained a great deal of power riding the “choice” label.  Now that label is being downgraded…the humanity of the unborn child is becoming ever more undeniable.  A desperate measure is to be made to counter this growing, common-sense view…a campaign of lies to convince people that, once again, it is just a “blob of tissue” which can be killed on a whim.

It is very sad to hear of this – that some people will so greedily cling to the passing, trivial rewards of this world.  Just to keep a bit of power and just to keep a bit of money, the Culture of Death will lie in defense of murder.  Imagine what this does to their souls, day by day.  It is bad enough for us just with the normal run of sin…I some times look in horror upon myself for my behavior.  Imagine what it would be like to be a normal, sinning human being and then tacking on advocacy of murder…and murder of the most innocent and helpless among us!  The darkness and pain these poor people feel in the dead of night, when the still, small voice of God tries to speak to them, must be terrible.

Keep up the fight – never forget the innocent lives which have been lost, and those which will be saved by the Pro-Life fight.  Work for that day when abortion is ended, and even its advocates recoil in shame over what they have done.

Liberal Fascists to Silence Pro-Life Voices

Mark Noonan9 Comments

From the Bay Citizen:

San Francisco leaders are launching a coordinated attack against what they call “one of the most serious threats to reproductive rights today” — so-called crisis pregnancy centers that advertise as though they provide abortions, but counsel against them.In a joint press conference with Supervisor Malia Cohen, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said the “right-wing, politically motivated centers” use false advertisements to target vulnerable populations and can cost women valuable time as they decide whether or not to end a pregnancy.

“Women’s reproductive rights are under assault,” Herrera said…

How dare they!  To think that someone might delay, even by a minute, the butchering of unborn children!  Thank goodness the government of San Francisco is up to the task…once they’re done, if you wind up pregnant in San Francisco, you’ll run no risk of someone offering an opinion that you shouldn’t kill your child.  Then, at last, all will be paradise in San Francisco, right?

A couple other cities under the iron grip of liberal fascism have also passed such laws.  They are very naturally being challenged in court and, if it gets there, the Supreme Court will strike down all such laws.  Free speech is free speech, even if liberals don’t like it.

But isn’t this just like our liberals?  They simply don’t want to hear us, at all…not even the slightest breath of non-liberal speech is to be allowed, if they had their way.  The fascism of the left grows apace (and is matched by the growth of liberal racism and anti-Semitism)…and I really do feel sorry for them.  To have so closed their minds and hearts to reason and mercy must make for a cold, lonely life.  They are screaming for relief, but all they do is keep lacerating themselves, and tightening their shackles a little more.

For goodness sake, liberals…do one small thing:  allow other people to talk some out of killing their children.  That is all…if you can just bring yourselves to tolerate that, you’ll be on the path to recovery.

Live for 150 Years? Goodness, Why Would You Want That?

Mark Noonan18 Comments

From Popular Science:

Bill Andrews has spent two decades unlocking the molecular mechanisms of aging. His mission: to extend the human life span to 150 years–or die trying…

…“I want to cure my aging,” Andrews tells me, “my friends’ and family’s aging, my investors’ aging, their friends’ and families’ aging, and make a ton of money. And I want to cure everybody else’s aging too—I put that probably equal to making a ton of money.”…

Andrews is clearly a smart man, and driven by a vision…and, who knows?, maybe he can eventually manage it and get human life spans up to 150.  I hope to be long dead by the time he figures that out.  Andrews is a bit extreme about it, but what he is doing is an apt symbol of our age:  a fear of dying so large that we both never really talk about death, and go about doing everything we can to avoid risk and extend our lives.

In this, I admire my late Uncle Mike – my godfather and a good man.  He was told he could have a surgery which would have extended his life.  His attitude was, “what for?”.  His beloved wife was long deceased, he had no children of his own and he was pushing 80.  He refused the surgery, came ’round to see my father (they got gloriously drunk and sang old songs together in a pub – and that is how you say goodby to those you love, if you get a chance), and then went off to die.  There is a time to live, and there is a time to die…and anyone who hangs too tightly to this world will find that he loses everything, including the next world, for his efforts.

Just the mere thought of living to 150 fills me with dread.  Figuring that I’ll live to my father’s age (general luck and genetics being about the same), I’ll make it until early 2047.   Am I supposed to want to live another 60 0r 7o years after that?  Do I want to live until 2107?  Work, pay taxes, deal with traffic for that long?  For another 96 years be faced with endless temptations to reject God and ruin myself for good?  No, thanks very much…I’ll take my 80 or so and be done with it.  Find me medicines which allow me to keep my eyesight and wits until the end, but don’t try to make me in to someone celebrating his 150th birthday.

And then there’s this – supposed you did find the elixir to make us live to 150 years, what sort of people would we be?  The saints among us wouldn’t avail themselves of it…the people most likely to claw desperately to such expedients are the greedy and the base…cowards and criminals.  Imagine if Stalin had such a medicine…he’d be 133 years old…and still have 17 more left to go under that plan.  Stalinism would still be ruling in Russia…and imagine just how bad that cruel, lunatic man would have become had he been able to live these past 58 years!

We can’t stop people from trying, but we can stand aside and leave them to their own horrors…and hope that wisdom comes to them, including the wisdom which says that, eventually, its time to go.  Don’t stand there forever in the way of those who come after…move on and leave the future to those who will live in it.