Fairness (As Defined by a Teacher's Union)

The Michigan Education Association's October magazine notes a large percentage of teachers nationwide that consider themselves "conservative."

It stated that a 2005-06 National Education Association survey found 45 percent of teachers under 30 classified themselves as conservative and 63 percent of teachers age 40 to 49 classified themselves as conservative. The MEA represents more than 157,000 teachers, faculty and education support staff.

Yet, in the same magazine, the MEA released its recommendations for political candidates and recommended 111 Democrats in 114 races...

(Capitol Confidential. Hat tip: Blogs Lucianne Loves)

What Flo Isn't Telling You About Progressive Insurance

What's Flo keeping quiet about?

How about the fact that Progressive Insurance boss Peter Lewis (described by Forbes as being worth more than a billion bucks) is one of the major contributors to leftist causes in the United States.

Like $16 million to the Joint Victory Campaign, $2.5 million to Move On. Org, and $2.9 million to “America Coming Together,” an organization he and George Soros put together to defeat George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

And then there's more millions over the years given to the Democrat Party. And the ACLU. And campaigns to legalize pot.

Lewis himself claimed in 2004 that he had given away $250 million. He's bankrolled the extreme left with a lot more since then.

Keep these donations in mind the next time you see a Progressive Insurance ad on TV. And pass it on.

Liberal Juan Williams Fired from NPR

Here's yet another case of how far political correctness runs from reality. Juan Williams, the well known liberal commentator, has been "fired" from National Public Radio, the extremely left-leaning, taxpayer-funded network, because he made certain statements about Muslims while appearing on the Bill O'Reilly show.

Williams' comments happened to be quite fair and full of common sense. But neither fairness nor common sense counts for much at NPR.

Here's an excerpt from the New York Times story.

NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night.

The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”

Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.

He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”

Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.

NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”...

Alicia C. Shepard, the NPR ombudswoman, said at the time that Mr. Williams was a “lightning rod” for the public radio organization in part because he “tends to speak one way on NPR and another on Fox.”...

Today's Posts

Speaking Truth to Power...Through Letters

Reverend, Do I Really Have to Go to the Movies?

Don't Even Think About Voting Until...

Remembering Leszek Kolakowski

Among Those Promoting Abortion? The Girl Scouts!

Planned Parenthood's Monstrous Matriarch

Using God-Talk to Cover Godless Schemes

Speaking Truth to Power...Through Letters

Here's a sample of the letters written at the Vital Signs Ministries' P.A.L. Night last Monday. Please use them as stimulation for your own calls and letters.

Letters were sent by everyone present to Omaha City Council members (1819 Farnam, Suite LC-1, Omaha NE 68183) regarding their plans for new laws protecting, as a special class, sexual orientation, gender expression and gender identification. I've blogged about this on several occasions (try this one to start) but time is of the essence. Write and/or call (or do both) today. 444-5557 is the Council's office. 444-5555 is the Mayor's office.

Several wrote thank-you cards or letters to Senator Johanns for his reintroduction of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act in the Senate. Thanks were also sent to Nebraska Right to Life, Unicameral Speaker Mike Flood and others for their work in passing LB 1103, Nebraska's Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. Also receiving thank-yous were Ken and Joni Erackson-Tada, Eternal Perspective Ministries, Nebraska Family Council, Pat and Carol Eberly for organizing the Life Chain, et al.

Letters were also sent to our Congressmen about the issue of gerrymandering (see this Vital Signs post) and about Colorado Congressman Mike Coffman's bill requiring a 2-week furlough on all but critical federal workers.

Several letters of protest were sent to Mattel Toys for their heartless, unjust actions in pursuing a senseless copyright infringement lawsuit. Here's a few:

Dear Sir,

You missed a wonderful chance to “mentor” a smaller toy company who was developing a product line for children with special needs. Super Duper used the words “Say” and “And Say” in their books. They helped many children. Shouldn’t you champion this? You are about children, aren’t you? It’s about sharing, not suing!

Hope you will withdraw your suit and give Super Duper all the help in the world to continue their valuable work.

Sincerely,
Carol Coppi

To Whom It May Concern:

I’m writing this letter to let you know how disappointed I am in your company for requiring SPD to cease making toys that say “Say.” Is your company so insecure that your product won’t be “as good” as what SPD puts out that you felt no one can make a toy with those words? These toys by SPD were designed to help children with autism and speech problems.

I have 12 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren and I will no longer buy them toys made by Mattel and will encourage my children and siblings to do the same.

I can’t express enough how disappointed I am with your company.

Alberta Kohls

Dear Mattel Toys,

In light of your company’s heartless actions against Super Duper Publications, including the insistence that they destroy material that could have been given to kids with special needs, I write this protest note on Charles Dickens stationery. (He wrote a lot about cads and skinflints and scalawags.) I will, until you desist in this unjust action, avoid Mattel products completely and urge others to do likewise.

Denny Hartford

And finally, a couple of letters zipped toward the White House, including this one

Dear Mr. President,

I know I’m touching on a sore subject here but it certainly seems that it’s not only the question of when human life begins that is “above your pay grade” but also economic realities, illegal immigration, a basic grasp of the U.S. Constitution, the geopolitical responsibility our nation holds, and so much more.

Please reconsider the disastrous course which you have charted for our country. Start over with a renewed respect for America’s traditional values, for Constitutional protections of speech and religion, for the Judeo-Christian ethos regarding sexuality and the sanctity of life and put America back on the right track.

Denny Hartford
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Teaching pastor, Faith Bible Church

How about your letters? Are they already in the mail? Or perhaps you'll get to them this afternoon or evening? Great!

Reverend, Do I Really Have to Go to the Movies?

I've always opposed this idea, quite popular in Christian circles, that we must dutifully go to those movies that Hollywood sells as family and faith friendly. The argument goes like this, "Christians need to show Hollywood that they will strongly support family films in order to prompt producers to make more of them."

But I've always found huge flaws in that reasoning. For instance, the family and faith friendly movies that Hollywood produces are quite often lousy films. They may not have as much of the gore, profanity and sexual tease of Hollywood's other products (which, by the way, are lousy films too), but neither do these "clean" movies have the values or ideas or artistic expressions that make for high quality entertainment. A sweet story about a bear cub or an underdog athlete may make for a "nice enough" story but it's not a Christian story...and usually it's not a story I think is worth paying to see.

Second, I get really bothered by Christian movie reviews that manage to "see" beneath the layers and claim to discern Christian teaching in these films. Whenever I read weasel words and phrases like "Christian underpinnings," "demonstrative of faith values," "Christ-like figure," "suggestions of redemption," and the like, I know I'm reading a reviewer's desperate attempt to put into his review what was not actually in the film. In literary interpretation we call that eisogesis, taking one's own baggage into the text rather than using exegesis, reading only from the text what's already there.

And, more important still, is this absurd commitment to "going to the movies" no matter what they offer. Why do Christians have to rely on Hollywood to give us things to do in our leisure time? Are there no friends to converse with, no hobbies or sports to occupy our time, no books to read? Are there no service projects to perform in Christ's Name, no opportunities for prayer and meditation, no stewardship projects around our homes, churches and neighborhoods?

Why this fixation, this terribly unimaginative and unhealthy dependence on Hollywood?

Now let me say here that Claire and I do like movies. We're not against them per se as a form of entertainment. But we do have serious problems with the lack of quality (both artistic and ethical) of modern films. So we watch old movies. Fred Astaire, Barbara Stanwyck, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Claudette Colbert, Ronald Colman, the Marx Brothers -- you get the idea.

But we also read books and talk to each other. We listen to music. We have friends over. We plan parties and menus. We putter in the garden. We visit people. We take drives and walks. We go to high school football games and art shows and church functions. We go to restaurants. In short, we do a lot of things in which we do not have to compromise our moral values or regret later that we have wasted our time.

And yes, we may also occasionally go out to a movie theater. Not often, no. But we do. We saw "Polar Express" in the theater and "Seabiscuit" and "March of the Penguins." We even saw "Toy Story 3" a couple of months ago with friends. But in none of these did we feel compelled to attend because of a Christian duty nor did we get so silly as to discuss afterward the deep religious significance emanating from the films.

So, enough with the exhortations about my obligations to go to all the "nice" Hollywood films so that the profit-hungry schlockmeisters of Tinsel Town will make more of them. I'm not buying it. Nor am I buying into the inferiority complex from which this exhortation stems from. For I don't need Hollywood to be entertained. There are better, more wholesome, more fruitful, and more Christ-honoring occupations elsewhere.

By the way, the article that stimulated these thoughts is "Hollywood Can't Get an Amen From Church Crowd" by T.L. Stanley over at Brandweek. Check it out.

Don't Even Think About Voting Until...

Just in time for the upcoming elections, here's the voter's guide from Nebraska Right to Life PAC. Pay attention!

Remembering Leszek Kolakowski

Some timely (and compelling) reflections this morning from pastor and educator, Dr. Jack Niewold:

I am remembering the 1956 October Dawn, a brief surge of freedom in Poland. Last April, when Poland’s president and first lady perished in a plane crash, I wrote a personal reflection on that little nation. No people has suffered more at the hands of the world’s “saviors” than the Poles. There is thus a moral authority that I extend to those who speak from the crucible of that nation’s suffering, whether the poet Czeslaw Milosz, union organizer Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, or philosopher Leszek Kolakowski (photo at left.).

Kolakowski was perhaps the greatest of all Marxist philosophers until his death in 2009. His conversion to Christianity in his middle years changed his focus entirely, and he became a champion of the idea that Christianity, not the Enlightenment, is the real basis for freedom in the West. Another Catholic philosopher, Jacques Maritain, had taught much the same in western Europe and America. Kolakowski’s ideas inspired the Solidarity movement in Poland, which formed the advance guard for the dismantling of communism in Eastern Europe.

Tyranny, Kolakowski wrote, nearly always follows when someone or some group of people decides to make society more humane. It is no accident, as Malcolm Muggeridge reminds us, that the disciple of Jesus most concerned about “the poor” was Judas Iscariot. It is important for us to recognize that the utopian visions of some of our leaders, the President especially, are often soft despotisms in disguise. Better by far to let people freely work out their own social values from below than to impose them from above. So long as a vital Christian presence is at work in a culture, reformers will emerge from within it to act as the conscience of the people.

Perhaps we are in our own October Dawn, after two years of a failed experiment in “Hope and Change.”

Among Those Promoting Abortion? The Girl Scouts!

I've pointed out before various aspects of the tragic transformation of the Girl Scouts of America: Girl Scouts Team Up with Planned Parenthood; The Girl Scouts of America: Adrift in a New Age Sea; More on the Girls Scouts' Embrace of New Age Nuttiness and These Sure Aren't Your Mom's Girl Scouts!

But here's a thorough and provocative analysis of the organization by one of the truly heroic pro-life leaders of our time, Dr. Jack Willke, former President of National Right to Life. The title of his essay is "The Girl Scouts: Promoting a Pro-Abortion Agenda."

Please read through these revealing articles before buying that next box of cookies, let alone before allowing your daughter to sign up for this increasingly disappointing organization. Instead, look at a terrific alternative, American Heritage Girls. It's a group that seeks to serve God, honor America and provide girls with an atmosphere of fun, wholesomeness, safety, learning and respect for the values that established Western civilization.

Planned Parenthood's Monstrous Matriarch

Barb Malek takes a look at Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, a woman that "family planners" and other pro-abortion advocates still idolize -- even though the record is shockingly clear that Sanger was a racist, eugenicist and elitist.

Wild stuff here but important stuff that the public desperately needs to learn.

Check it out here.

Using God-Talk to Cover Godless Schemes

As President of the United States, Barack Obama has been a deliberate, systematic evangelist of the culture of death.

Yet despite his professed theological mystification regarding the sanctity of unborn life, President Obama has no moral or intellectual difficulty in asserting that homosexuality is not a choice but the result of “people being born with ‘a certain make-up’.”

Rob Schwarzwalder in "A Window Into Barack Obama’s Theology" for the Family Research Council. Read the rest here.

Today's Posts

Monday Morning

Thinking of Thanksgiving

Monday Morning

It's a very busy Monday, a reflection of just how busy the whole week looks. For instance, already today we've had a sidewalk counseling team out at the Bellevue abortion mill. That's nothing new, we're out there every Monday morning but there were a couple of differences. One, we had extra help. Larry was back; Mark hasn't yet started the new hours on his job; and Dick, Allen and Steve all took a couple of hours in their vacation day to come and joins us, That's friendship!

And two, for the first time in months, the abortion mill was closed! Hooray!

I'm afraid I wasn't there personally to join in the celebration. The gang went out for coffee after (Claire, Ruth, Carol, Quint, Larry, Dick, Allen, and Steve) but I was in another part of town being interviewed by Kristen Kelly on KCRO radio. One of the other guests scheduled to appear didn't show and so I had two segments of the program, one about 12 minutes, the other about 15. I talked about Vital Signs Ministries, the breadth of our activities, and Christian activism in general. Specific issues that got a clear airing included the new Nebraska fetal pain law, the proposed federal feta pain legislation, the new Planned Parenthood abortion business opening soon in northwest Omaha, and the City of Omaha proposing changes in the law which would give special "protection" for sexual deviants.

Claire and I reconnected about 11 this morning. But instead of starting on the blog, I had a couple of letters to write as well as a longer piece for the newsletter of Faith Bible Church which was due at...what's that? Noon? Yipes!

That's okay. I got it in just under the wire.

Next up are preparations for tonight's letter-writing party with a visit to my Mom's and mowing the lawn thrown in for good measure. So, like so many Mondays, there just isn't time for regular blogging. Sorry.

You can, however, check out that letter I sent over to Faith Bible Church because I'll post that here on Vital Signs Blog. After all, it deals with thanksgiving and that's relevant to us all. But besides that, I'll see you tomorrow.

Thinking of Thanksgiving

Dear friends,

Thanksgiving should be a continual occupation for the Christian, a reflection of our identity as people saved by the grace and power of God. Thanksgiving was part of the Old Testament requirements in keeping God’s covenant and it is repeatedly emphasized in the New Testament as well. It should be a part of our prayers, a part of our worship, a part of our service in Christ’s Name, and a part of our joy. It is something that we will be expressing when we are in Christ’s physical presence in heaven – we should, therefore, become well acquainted with thanksgiving right now!

As I was driving home this morning, I was reflecting on the last few days and praying about the things on the schedule for this week. And amid my requests were a lot of thank-yous to the Lord. It had been an eventful week and the one to come seemed like it would follow suit and so there was a lot to thank God for. But once I started expressing my gratitude to Him, I decided to extend my list. I ran into a detour (because of a burning car – not mine) and so I took my time driving an alternate route home, keeping my eyes on the road while my prayers soared heavenward. Among the specifics in my thanksgiving prayer were these 10 items:

1) I thanked God for my salvation. Yes, it’s been over 40 years but since the effects go on and on, so should my gratitude. After all, it’s because of what Christ accomplished on the cross (which I applied by faith in the spring of 1970) that I know Him, have the power to live in the Spirit, have a pure purpose in life, a forever home in heaven, and more. How can I NOT be grateful for salvation?

2) I’m thankful for my marriage to Claire, a truly exceptional woman. Her love and laughter, her intelligence and strength, her faith and fighting spirit have enriched my life in ways too numerous to count.

3) I thanked God for the autumn. It’s the one season here in Nebraska I really do love. The coolness of the air, the changes of color in the scenery, the approach of Christmas, the suggestion even of winter’s sleep after which the cycle begins again – all these things make the season really nice.

4) As I was coming back from an interview on KCRO, I was naturally drawn to thank God for that opportunity to talk about Vital Signs Ministries and the things we’re involved in. It turned out that the guest scheduled for the first segment didn’t show so that there was even more time to promote the ministry, share important information about the sinister schemes of Planned Parenthood, and tell the audience how to get more effectively involved in raising Christ’s banner in the public square.

5) I also spent time expressing my thanks to God for His most recent blessings on our work: the World-Herald publishing a pro-life column of mine, opportunities to speak to a pro-life group in Columbus and an AWANA group here in town, high numbers of people viewing Vital Signs Blog, lives saved from abortion, our new inspirational presentations uploaded onto YouTube and other internet sources, and more.

6) Thanksgiving is also in order for the resurgence of conservative values among American voters. And so I thanked God for that even as I prayed anew for yet more eyes to be opened about the immense dangers represented by “liberalism” – dangers like more abortion, more promotion of sexual deviance and homosexual “marriage,” out of control spending, the tyranny of a Nanny State that seeks to steal away our freedoms of speech and religion, and more.

7) I took some time to thank the Lord too for the delight and comfort and strength I find in His Word. In particular, I thanked Him for leading me back again to Romans and Hebrews in my personal study and to Nehemiah for the sermon series at church.

8) I am thankful that God continues to sustain my Mom even as she deals with her dementia, decreasing strength and other issues. Her spirit remains lively and sweet. And she is at a place she loves and where she receives good care. It’s a place where we have been able to get involved in too. And that’s important not only in making it more home-like and comfortable for Mom, but because it increases the quality of her care.

9) The burning car I mentioned earlier also prompted me to thank the Lord for our vehicles. And for our house and lawn. And for getting the chance to re-finance our home at a cheaper rate. And for the little dog next door. And for the success I’ve already seen from over-seeding the lawn last month. And for all the other “little things” that make driving up to my house a source of pleasure.

10) And finally, I am very thankful for God’s leading us to Faith Bible Church. We have made good friends there. We’ve enjoyed the opportunities to serve the people there and to be encouraged, stimulated and taught by them. Faith Bible Church represents such a good example of how small churches can be successful by concentrating on what God has for them, rather than foolishly trying to imitate what God has for others. The renewal of confidence, energy and joy that we’ve seen in the last couple of years at Faith Bible Church is extremely exciting. So too is the love of the Christians there for God’s Word; their willingness to learn; their commitment to serve the Lord in a variety of critical ministries; their partnership with Vital Signs Ministries; their faithful example of honoring Christ at their places of employment; and their friendly openness to others. I know that Claire feels the same way as I do in being very, very thankful for all these wonderful blessings.

Today's Posts

Think the NRA Represents Conservatism? Think Again!

Nebraska RTL Press Release on Fetal Pain Bill

ObamaCare vs Catholic Hospitals: Which Will Die First?

Throwing Bioethics Out with the Bath Water

Let's Make the Elimination of Gerrymandering a Priority

What Was Missing in the Media Coverage of the Chilean Miners?

Think the NRA Represents Conservatism? Think Again!

"The NRA has endorsed 39 House Democrat candidates even though their Republican challengers champion the Second Amendment. To add insult to injury, the organization is endorsing them in center-right House districts that Republicans could win."

Here's more...

Right-to-life groups have three criteria candidates must meet to get their endorsement, Americans for Tax for Reform have candidates sign a pledge, but the NRA doesn’t require candidates to meet certain criteria or a sign pledge to uphold the Second Amendment for its endorsement; it’s a purely subjective judgment call.

For example, in last year’s special election for New York’s 23rd Congressional District, the NRA supported leftist Republican Dede Scozzafava over Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman. Scozzafava eventually dropped from the race and endorsed Democrat Bill Owens over Hoffman. Now, the NRA endorses Owens over Republican Matt Doheny in November.

Even though the NRA supports Republicans and has given 71 percent of its political action committee’s contributions to GOP candidates, that percentage is down compared to previous election cycles. The Democrat Party is the problem plaguing America and ignoring that problem is a fatal mistake.

A lot of so-called conservatives avoid discussing how the NRA is undermining the conservative movement and Republican efforts to oust George Soros’ Shadow Party Democrats from power. “Great Americans” Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, et al either won’t mention the NRA’s undermining activities or they dance around them when they’re pointed out and never openly criticize the organization.

Major online conservative gatekeeper publications aren’t much better. They have been treading lightly over the NRA’s underhanded endorsements of Democrats, as if they’re trying their level best to remain in the good graces of the organization.

The NRA hides behind the one-issue, gun-rights only claim, and endorses Democrats to ensure participation in future elections. The organization didn’t oppose Eric Holder for attorney general and waited until the last minute to come out against Obama’s leftist Supreme Court nominees. It signed on to the Disclose Act, which was a carefully crafted Democrat scheme to impose onerous disclosure requirements on over 100,000 nonprofits and activist groups to prevent them from engaging in any effective political speech during campaign season. Such tactics are a fool’s game for those who feed the crocodile believing they will be the last to be eaten.

Face it; this hypocritical “arrogant and elitist” organization has more in common with Chuck Schumer than it does with Chuck Heston. Much like the leftist, race-baiting poverty pimps Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, who fuel the race issue for relevance and money, the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre and chief lobbyist Chris Cox don’t seem too anxious for the gun control issue to go away. They appear to be more concerned with preserving their six-figure salaries than with upholding the Second Amendment and defeating the one party that unambiguously has been behind all gun control legislation...

Read the rest of this enlightening post (with inclusions from Red State) over at Liberty Juice.

Nebraska RTL Press Release on Fetal Pain Bill

Julie Schmit-Albin, Executive Director of Nebraska Right to Life, was like the rest of us in waiting for the pro-abortion lobby to try and use the courts to derail LB 1103, Nebraska's Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would otherwise go into effect today. As the law was written in such a way that opponents would look quite obscurantist and cruel in fighting it, that hasn't happened. And so Julie sent out the following press release this morning.

NEBRASKA BREAKS NEW GROUND IN ABORTION LAW WITH ENACTMENT OF LB 1103, PAIN CAPABLE UNBORN CHILD PROTECTION ACT

LINCOLN----LB 1103, Nebraska's ban on abortions of unborn babies who are capable of feeling pain at 20 weeks' gestation, appears to be going into effect on its enactment date today.

"While LB 1103 was going through the Nebraska Legislature last Spring, abortion adovcates asserted that a legal challenge was forthcoming." said Julie Schmit-Albin, Executive Director of Nebraska Right to Life. "Apparently cooler heads prevailed over the summer as our adversaries think twice about bringing higher Court scrutiny of LB 1103. They can't risk taking Nebraska's fetal pain ban all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, for fear that the new line of demarcation for abortion under Roe will be pain instead of viabilty."

LB 1103 was Nebraska Right to Life's priority legislation for the 2010 legislative session and they worked closely with Speaker Mike Flood, sponsor, to ensure its passage.

"The legislative record for LB 1103 is solid, in both committee testimony and floor debate." said Schmit-Albin. "If our opponents ultimately challenge the legislation, they are going to have a very difficult time refuting the documented medical studies which show unborn children experience pain by 20 weeks gestation."

Schmit-Albin said NRL has been contacted by a number of other state affiliates of National Right to Life which want to enact a fetal pain ban in their states.

"The issue of fetal pain is going to be discussed on a national stage through many State Legislatures." said Schmit-Albin. "It's a debate our opponents are dreading. They never saw LB 1103 coming, they couldn't stop it and now they know America will be talking about the pain that unborn babies feel during abortion. The abortion industry is in a world of hurt on the fetal pain issue and they haven't found a way to handle this debate."

Julie and her team deserve our undying gratitude for the work they put into this momentous legislation as do Speaker Flood, the State Senators who championed it and enlightened pro-life citizens across the state who promoted it and prayed for its passage.

Certainly, our prayers and pro-life efforts on every front must continue apace but this is a very important step forward in dismantling the protections of legalized abortion.

ObamaCare vs Catholic Hospitals: Which Will Die First?

Kathryn Jean Lopez is a superb columnist -- perceptive, principled and eloquent. But she also is a great reporter as this National Review article, "No Mercy," reminds us. In it, Lopez examines the important controversy over the closing of Catholic hospitals because of ObamaCare.

Check it out.

Throwing Bioethics Out with the Bath Water

How goes bioethics in the Brave New World, a world in which technological advances, the lust for profit and scientists' egos have been freed altogether from prior constraints? Indeed, can we even speak anymore of bioethics?

For if there are no limits whatsoever, if every scientist or doctor or common citizen is "free to do what he likes in his own eyes" without any concern for the sanctity of human life, individual human rights, or a fear of almighty God, we could end up in a bizarre, ugly, and highly dangerous post-modern mess.

Oh, wait. We're already there.

Here's a few of the headline stories you'll find in just the latest edition of Bioedge:

* Only half of Belgium’s euthanasia cases are reported.

* When a Vancouver couple discovered that the child they had commissioned had Down syndrome, they urged their surrogate mother to abort it. She did.

* Leading British doctors who support assisting the terminally ill to die launched an unprecedented campaign for change in legislation on the right to die last week.

* Looking for publicity to boost sales of his autobiography, actor Michael Caine is boasting of having his own father euthanized.

* Surrogacy has become an unregulated industry in India. IVF clinics implant embryos couriered from abroad into surrogate mothers’ wombs. Soon this may become completely legal. The draft bill states that government accredited “banks” will register prospective surrogates on a database and warehouse sperm and eggs.

Let's Make the Elimination of Gerrymandering a Priority

Bruce Walker over at American Thinker talks about gerrymandering, an enduring and critically important defect in America's democracy. Walker argues that the reforming momentum of the Tea Party could finally do away with this unjust evil and thus make our theory of representative, responsible government a reality again.

The accompanying illustration (Illinois' 4th District) reminds us of just how unnatural, how conniving and how autocratic gerrymandering has become.

...Gerrymandering helps insure that members of the House of Representatives and members of state legislatures do not really need to worry much about what voters think. Ominously for Americans who want their elected officials to listen to them, very sophisticated computer software almost allows the gnomes who redraw legislative boundaries to decide elections in many districts by the very careful selection of which voters will be in which politician's district. This is great if we want government that ignores us, filled with self-important nabobs who feel safe passing up town halls and debates, but the situation is awful for Americans who want politicians to listen to them.

Democrats have historically profited more from gerrymandering than Republicans, but the two political parties often collude to draw districts which protect incumbents of both parties. Gerrymandering is a perfect example of bloated corruption in American government today. Ending gerrymandering is not hard. Congress could pass a very simple statute like this: "All legislative districts in the United States shall be drawn compact, contiguous, and as nearly as possible along existing county or parish borders." Actually, Republicans in Congress a century ago did pass federal laws banning gerrymandering, and federal courts did not find any impediment to that (Democrats, however, opposed this reform, and it ended in the 1930s).

The Tea Party should push Congress to adopt this very direct and patently good law early in the next session -- and for several reasons. First, enactment of this law would forever change American politics for the better. Abolishing gerrymandering makes it very difficult for politicians to keep winning elections without real thought of defeat. Second, embracing this issue will place the Tea Party squarely in the ranks of the "good government" groups. Those who are unsure about the Tea Party would find in its support for this reform a very positive message about what the Tea Party wants for America.

Finally, supporting a federal bill to abolish all gerrymandering will put Barack Obama in a very tough situation. He has spoken piously about the problem of politicians choosing their voters. But Barack Obama, the Illinois State Senator, did just that, and the congressional and state legislative districts which he helped draw as a member of the Illinois State Legislature are about as offensive as any state in the nation. This includes Illinois congressional districts, Illinois state legislative districts, and even Chicago ward districts. Compare this crazy quilt with the serene and simple districts of neighboring Iowa. If the Tea Party pushed Congress to pass a law banning gerrymandering, anyone who opposed the bill would be supporting this old evil. So what would Obama do? If he were to support the bill, then he would infuriate many Democrat officeholders. If he were to oppose the bill, he would expose himself as just another corrupt Chicago politician.

Is ending gerrymandering the sort of issue which would capture the people's attention?...