The Top 5 (September 14)

* "Candidate, Moderate Thyself: Conservatives are right to complain about the blatant bias of ABC’s debate moderators, but the bigger problem was Donald Trump’s undisciplined performance." (Heather Mac Donald, City Journal)

From the article -- Yes, the moderators of ABC’s debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were egregiously biased in favor of Harris. Yes, Harris recycled patent lies about Trump without the slightest pushback from the referees—that Trump has embraced the supposedly infamous Project 2025, that he supports a national abortion ban, that he called the anti-Semitic and racist demonstrators in Charlottesville in 2019 “fine people,” that he refused leases to black would-be renters. (The New York Times lauded the ABC team as a “model for real-time fact-checking.”)

But a low-information voter who, incredibly, still has not made up her mind about the election could easily decide for Harris on the basis of Tuesday’s debate. Trump put all his worst traits on display—his narcissism, his gratuitous nastiness, and above all, his penchant for using hyperbole as a substitute for argument.

* "Kamala Harris: ‘My Values’ Say Pro-Life Laws Are ‘Immoral’" (Ben Johnson, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Harris, who boasted she “brings values” to the White House, then repeated one of the many shopworn phrases she said during the debate: “One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body.” Christians have held that abortion violates their faith, and should be illegal, for 2,000 years. Orthodox Jews also say they hold a pro-life faith. The Satanic Temple regards abortion as a sacrament.

As she has throughout the campaign, Harris promised to impose abortion on all 50 states by force. “I pledge to you when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law,” she said. “But, understand, if Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he will sign a national abortion ban. Understand, in his Project 2025, there would be a national abortion ban.”

The Biden-Harris administration has endorsed a bill that goes beyond Roe, allowing abortion until birth nationwide. The Democratic Party platform also supports taxpayer-funded abortions in the United States and around the world.

* "The Truth About World War II" (Victor Davis Hanson, The Free Press)

From the article -- In a recent and now widely seen Tucker Carlson interview, a guest historian named Darryl Cooper casually presented a surprising number of flawed theories about World War II. He focused his misstatements on the respective roles of Winston Churchill’s Britain and Adolf Hitler’s Germany—especially in matters of the treatment and fate of Russian prisoners, the Holocaust, the systematic slaughtering of Jews, strategic bombing, and the nature of Winston Churchill. 

Because of the size of the audience Carlson introduced him to, and because of the gravity of Cooper’s falsehoods, his assertions deserve a response. 

* "The Uniparty Turns Literal" (Mark Steyn)

From the article -- I thought Cheney was an homme sérieux. But, in the end, he wasn't. The Bush years have to be accounted a terrible failure, in which the leadership of the then dominant superpower was unable to grasp the simplest of truths - not least about the need for strategic clarity. Under Cheney, America launched wars with no war aims, in which it deluded itself that "smart bombs" counted for more than will. Meanwhile, on the home front, the rate of Muslim immigration to America doubled ...because it was more important to show the world how nice we are than to consider the cultural consequences of demographic transformation. So the west spent twenty years fighting over the most barren and worthless sod on the planet, while surrendering Malmö and Marseille, Rotterdam and Nottingham, and Lewiston-Auburn, Maine. This is what happens when you have a political class almost entirely disconnected from the rhythms of real life in real countries.

So Trump has performed a great service in driving the likes of Cheney to vote Kamala. The feeble charade of TweedleDem vs TweedleRep is designed to obscure the central fact of end-stage western "democracy" - that, on anything that really matters, nothing can be permitted to change. Thus, having Dick Cheney and Ilhan Omar formally on the same team is very helpful. Trump has driven the "respectable" political class to make the Uniparty literal, and its consolidation has freed up space for an actual second party.

* "Migrants flooding NYC’s justice system -- making up ‘75% of arrests in Midtown’ -- as ‘pathetic’ sanctuary city laws handcuff cops." (New York Post)

From the article -- The problem is made much worse by sanctuary city laws that mean New York cops aren’t allowed to work with ICE on cases in which they believe suspects are in the country illegally. Additionally, the NYPD says it is barred from tracking the immigration status of offenders. This makes it almost impossible for authorities to get their arms around the problem, experts and sources on the ground say.

“New York City eliminated a tool to get rid of violent criminals. What a mess,” Jim Quinn, a veteran former prosecutor at the Queens District Attorney’s Office, told The Post. “The sanctuary city law is pathetic. It’s disgusting. It’s crazy.” Making matters worse, police sources say, word has gotten out in the shelters about the city’s lax bail guidelines — meaning migrants know they’re going to get kicked back onto the street quickly after they’re nabbed.

Bonus picks for this week? Yes, here's a couple:

* "Why America’s Soaring Debt Is Biggest Threat to US Dollar" (Daniel Lacalle, Daily Signal)

* "The Return of Anti-History: Podcasts are not reviving history, as is often claimed these days. They are mostly drowning it in a tidal wave of blather, at best sloppy, at worst mendacious." (Niall Ferguson, The Free Press)

The September LifeSharer Is Up

 You'll find the pdf of this month's "very newsy" newsletter right here.

Dr. Greg Gardner Visits Vital Signs Ministries

We believe there will be a rich harvest from the seeds of encouragement, enlightenment, challenge, and friendship which were liberally sown throughout Dr. Greg Gardner’s visit to Nebraska. Our physician friend and longtime pro-life colleague from Birmingham, England was kept busy in his 4 and 1/2 day stay with us and a lot of ground was covered in the many stimulating conversations we enjoyed together. 

But it was not only Claire and I who were blessed to talk over many things with Greg; indeed, we count about 72 people he met in that brief time. 

Among Dr. Gardner’s activities while he was here were an in-depth tour and ministry review of Assure Women’s Center and radio interviews with Jackie Mahr at Walnut Radio and Karen Bowling at Nebraska Family Alliance down in Lincoln. Also, Greg spoke to 24 veteran pro-life advocates after a large potluck dinner at the home of Dr. Ralph and Carol Kramper.

But folded into all of these events were other breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and coffees where he was able to engage with Vital Signs Board members, many of our colleagues, even several of our neighbors. And those discussions explored many, many areas including the comparative states of the culture, church, politics, and pro-life movement in both the U.S. and the U.K.

It was a terrific ministry and Claire and I can certainly testify that know that Vital Signs Ministries will be profoundly affected for the good as we evaluate and enact things the we discussed with our dear friend. Thank you, Grace for lending your husband to us for this brief but momentous time! 

The Top 5 (September 7)

* "This is not fake news: U.S. Surgeon General warns that parenting is a health hazard" (Kimberly Ells, Mercator)

From the article -- This Surgeon General’s Advisory is the first time I recall seeing an official government entity framing children as a clear and present danger to their parents. It reminds me of radical feminist Sophie Lewis’ assertion that babies in utero commit “fetal violence” toward their mothers by introducing health threats to and demanding nourishment from their unfortunate maternal hosts. Likewise, Suzanne Sadedin says an unborn baby employs “manipulation, blackmail, and violence” against its mother while floating in the womb and usurping whatever sustenance it can suck from her body.

What does the Surgeon General say should be done about this assault on parents’ health? The “We Can Take Action” section of the advisory starts with this preface: “While parents and caregivers may have the primary responsibility for raising children… [it] is a collective responsibility.” It then gives a laundry list of collectivist solutions including the following...

* "The Oslo effect" Israelis won’t forgive or forget the left’s weaponization of the hostages to do Hamas’s dirty work for it." (Melanie Phillips, Jewish News Service)

From the article -- Israelis are being increasingly maddened by grief and horror over the unconscionable fate of the hostages trapped in the hell holes of Gaza. Last week’s cold-blooded murder of six of these captives by Hamas savages has tipped many Israelis over the edge.

The demonstrators’ demand for an immediate ceasefire deal to release the hostages is not only ludicrous to the point of near derangement but also poses a direct threat to Israel’s security and indeed existence—precisely the outcome that Hamas intends through its diabolical manipulation of the hostages’ plight.

* "Why Corporations Are Ditching Wokeness" (Dan Morenoff, City Journal)

From the article -- The growing number of corporations pledging to abandon “antiracist” policies and to restore the primacy of profit-seeking is encouraging. Only time will tell if their statements are sincere. While we wait to find out, it’s worth considering another detail of this reversal: Why now? The efforts of activists and journalists like Robby Starbuck and my colleague Christopher Rufo have played an important role in these developments. Their work has exposed discriminatory corporate policies and raised public awareness to a critical mass.

A more cynical interpretation, however, may help explain these decisions, too. Corporate decision makers may be pulling back from “woke” initiatives because they care more about legal exposure than they do about ideology. Courts are ever-more willing to hold executives responsible for racial discrimination. In a little-noted consensus, at least eight of the 13 U.S. Courts of Appeals—all those taking a position on the issue so far—have agreed that the individuals who participate in racial contracting discrimination are liable for the harms caused, even if a lawyer signed off on the practice. Since the 1970s, that liability has extended to directors who vote for discriminatory policies. 

* "Why aren’t governments tackling the epidemic of sexual abuse in America’s public schools?" (Michael Cook, Mercator)

From the article -- "The Justice Department and many law enforcement agencies and school systems have failed to take basic steps to prevent sexual misconduct and root out abusive cops,” the Post claims. The tragic thing is that these allegations come as no surprise. It is just the latest in a steady trickle of stories in the media about sexual abuse in American public schools. No doubt the problem is similar in other countries. The difference is that collecting meaningful information about abuse in schools is far more difficult in the US because of its sheer size and the number of jurisdictions – 50 states plus the District of Columbia and other territories, divided into more than 13,000 school districts. 

Three articles by journalist James Varney for RealClearInvestigations highlight a massive problem which emerges from time to time but has never been comprehensively studied. He writes: “For a variety of reasons, ranging from embarrassment to eagerness to avoid liability, elected or appointed officials, along with unions or lobbying groups representing school employees, have fought to keep the truth hidden from the public.”

* "The Adventure of the Black Paw" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Ministries)

In this 8 and 1/2 minute video clip, Denny recounts perhaps the most exciting day of his life...with a couple of moral applications of universal relevance. Check it out. You'll enjoy it.

The Adventure of the Black Paw

In this 8 and 1/2 minute video clip, Denny recounts perhaps the most exciting day of his life...with a couple of moral applications of universal relevance. Check it out. You'll enjoy it.

https://vitalsignsministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/The-Black-Paw-2.mp4