In order of appearance here (top to bottom) are The Tremeloes, Ben E. King, and Ricky Nelson. So, before you jump back into the culture wars, brew up and take a few minutes to remember the country that was America.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Monday, January 14, 2013
A Visible Pro-Life Witness -- Does It Matter?
I can.
And if you’ll indulge my imagination for a bit, I’ll share with you a few possibilities. Yes, these are fictional wanderings but after 30 years of pro-life activist experience, (including thousands of testimonies read and personal conversations engaged in), I don’t think they are far off the mark. You see, when I am in front of an abortion clinic, it is to serve two purposes: 1) to help sidewalk counsel as needed and 2) to present a pro-life witness to the public passing by. My signs and banners, therefore, are of most immediate importance to the incoming clients, but I'm also very serious about showing them clearly to those hundreds of people driving by during the time I’m there. I smile, give a gentle wave, try and ensure that both directions of traffic can easily see either my sign and/or my banner...and I pray.
I'm well aware that many of those driving by don’t want to notice me (or “us” if I'm with colleagues), but the clear fact is – they do! And I am quite confident that God is speaking to them. After all, by His very nature, He is a revealing God Who constantly tugs at men’s heartstrings. He does so through conscience and memory, through creation, through the written and verbal word, through examples, and through the “still, small” voice of conviction.
What does God want to say to those people driving by an abortion mill and how will they respond to His entreaties? The answers to those questions are as many, as varied, and as complex as the people involved. But we can be sure of this – God knows each person intimately. He is “in on” every detail of their history, their beliefs, their hopes, their fears, their secrets, and their future. And so God can use any tool available to reach out to them, not the least valuable of which are courteous, prayerful Christians who conscientiously present the winsome pro-life messages of their signs, banners, demeanor, and conversation -- and who then pray for the Holy Spirit to use them as He wills in the individual’s life.
Again, what goes on in those minds and hearts?
We can only imagine...
And that's exactly what I did in this Vital Signs letter from a couple of years ago. Check it out.
The Latest Research? Stem Cells (Morally Obtained) Are the Way to Go.
Scientists first reported in 2007 that a person’s cells could be reprogrammed to an embryo-like state, and so could form any type of cell in the body. Medical researchers immediately imagined using these ‘induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells’ to create an endless supply of genetically matched replacement tissues to treat a range of diseases: fresh pancreatic tissue for diabetics, for example, or new nerve cells for people with Parkinson’s.
The strategy also seemed to offer a way around the ethical complexities of using stem cells derived from human embryos. But then came the worries about possible side effects…
The latest Nature study rejects that conclusion. Masumi Abe, a geneticist at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan, and his team took iPS cells derived from mice and injected them back into the animals. For comparison, they injected other mice with embryonic stem (ES) cells. Yet unlike the 2011 study, which saw iPS cells perform worse than ES cells, the team found no differences between the immune responses of each group. The researchers also transplanted skin and bone-marrow cells derived from iPS or ES cells into mice and achieved similar success rates between the groups. The immune response of both sets of tissues is “indistinguishable”, says Abe.
Konrad Hochedlinger, a stem-cell scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, says that the result will probably “calm people down” about iPS cells. “It is definitely reassuring,” he says.
The findings follow another positive study on iPS cells, published late last year, which found that the reprogramming process causes fewer mutations than previously thought...
As ethicist Wesley J.Smith comments, "Good ethics and good science have the cultural healing power to produce a common way forward. Onward."
"Hello, This is 911 But We're Too Busy to Take Your Call Right Now."
Well, here's that point underscored in a real world happening.
Excuse Me, Is It Halloween Already?
Here's a sampling from recent headlines:
* Reid to Obama: OK to skip Congress on debt ceiling (Who cares about the Constitution? Who gives a rip about separation of powers? Why bother with fuddy-duddy notions of democracy, fairness, and representative government?)
* Obama speaking about gun control at today's press conference -- "I'm confident that there are some steps that we can take that don't require legislation and that are within my authority as president." (Ditto the comments from the above item.)
* Planned Parenthood reports record year for abortions -- In its latest annual report for fiscal year 2011 to 2012, Planned Parenthood reveals that it performed 333,964 abortions in 2011 – a record year for the organization.
* 128 million Americans are now on government programmes. Can America survive as the world’s superpower?
* Braces for the Kids Just Got More Expensive: Obamacare Tax Hike Case Study. In 2013, the tax increases in Obamacare will increasingly conspire against kitchen-table family healthcare decisions.
* Health insurers jacking up rates by double digits in advance of Obamacare
* First Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea Cases Detected in North America: Completely incurable gonorrhea may be at hand
* The Washington National Cathedral had been ready to embrace same-sex marriage for some time, though it took a series of recent events and a new leader for the prominent, 106-year-old church to announce Wednesday that it would begin hosting such nuptials.
* China's space activities raising US satellite security concerns
* Jackie Chan back in action, branding US more corrupt than China
* Obama Appoints Islam’s Apologists: The shared perspective of Hagel, Kerry, and Brennan. --Waving aside any pretense of diversity, invoking seldom heard themes of merit and competence, President Barack Obama is about to appoint to his cabinet three of the most naive older white guys that ever walked up the Capitol steps...All of these candidates are rabidly pro-Islam, pro-Arab, or both. All are apologists for those causes. All are strong proponents of Obama’s vision of the world, a diminished U.S. military, and a more sympathetic outreach to Islam.
* Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said the automaker plans to build some Jeeps in China for the local market — and later, in Russia.
* Can’t Obama Find an Honest Man For Treasury Secretary?
* New York congressman introduces bill to abolish presidential term limits
Friday, January 04, 2013
Swinging in the New Year
We would love to have you along for the party. And so would the activities directors of the places we go. But, most important, your presence would really add to the enjoyment of the residents there.
So, come on. Check the schedule (there's a few evening performances too) and make your plans.
And so you won't be taken completely by surprise (there are always some), here's the latest "When Swing Was King" song list. It's a whole new program and in the songs, the photos and the accompanying commentary, there are some real treasures.
1) Glenn Miller Orchestra (Ray Eberle, vocals)
"The Nearness of You"
2) Bob Crosby Orchestra (Judy Garland, vocals)
"Stompin' at the Savoy"
3) The Ink Spots
"I'll Get By"
4) Benny Goodman Orchestra
"Let's Dance"
5) Chick Webb Orchestra (Ella Fitzgerald & Charlie Linton, vocals)
"There's Frost on the Moon"
6) Charlie Barnet Orchestra (Ray Eberle, vocals)
"Night Clow" (The title is right.)
7) Artie Shaw Orchestra (Helen Forrest, vocals)
"All the Things You Are"
8) Charlie Spivak Orchestra
"Serenade In Blue"
9) Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
"Chinatown, My Chinatown"
10) Gordon MacRae (with Shirley Jones)
"Oklahoma!"
11) Les Brown Orchestra (Doris Day, vocals)
"Sentimental Journey"
12) Harry James Orchestra
"Deep Purple"
13) Desi Arnaz Orchestra
"The Lady in Red"
Do You Dare Change? Check Out "Christmas Resolutions."
That's how I started the Vital Signs Blog post ("Want To Do Better In Your New Year's Resolutions?") from last Monday. It was one that got a lot of positive reaction and, of course, I'm pleased that it did.
But I promised at the end of that post that I'd let you know when Claire got the sermon audio from Allen and then uploaded it onto the Vital Signs Ministries website. For there's a lot more in the sermon than what I could stuff in that brief blog post.
Here is the link to the Audio Sermon list from the Media area of the VSM website. You can download the sermon (which is entitled "Christmas Resolutions") or listen to it right there. There's also a link to the sermon, Claire just told me, on the right sidebar of the site's Home page.
The American Church: Positives & Negatives
I appreciated Brown's article a lot. In fact, I'm going to print off his basic points and use them for in discussions with colleagues…and in my prayers to God.
After reading through them, you may feel the same.
Travel the Freedom Road
And finally, using all of these practices -- plus indoctrination by means of the media and the schools, activist judges, voter disenfranchisement, and government directives backed up by police powers -- they eliminate freedom altogether.
Anyone interested in a principled, peaceful, prayerful but thoroughly counter-culture New Year? Then let's take seriously these biblical exhortations:
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)
"Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38-39)
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12: 1-2)
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:13-14)
TLC's Shameless Sisterhood
But, unlike the TV show itself, Barb's column shouldn't be missed. Excellent and important stuff.
...There were two moments in the program that I found particularly disturbing. The first was when one of the pastors sat his two teenage daughters down to show them how to put a condom on a banana. He kept stating, “now I hope you never have sex, but….” and then proceeded to give them advice on how to stay safe from STD’s and pregnancy if they did. There was no explanation about what the Bible says about sex before marriage or even why it is better to wait. He even made it clear that he had a lot of sex as a teen and got some pretty disgusting diseases as a result. If this is what he tells his daughters, it makes you wonder what this man of God tells his congregation.
Sadly, I do not find this surprising. We talk to young ladies every week that attend Bible-believing churches, some that are even in leadership roles, that have had multiple sexual partners and see nothing wrong with that. Some of them have concerns with abortion, but if a pregnancy affects them personally, many do not give the destruction of their unborn child a second thought. I have often wondered if they ever heard a message of abstinence preached from the pulpit and find it hard to believe that they do.
If the church does not take the lead in this area, who will?…
Read the rest of “The Sisterhood”: Striving to Prove the Church is No Different Than the World? at Barb's blog.
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Reaching Out From the Womb
The doctor called me over and said, "Hey, she's grabbing my finger." So I ran over there and just grabbed the shot and I was just in awe looking at it. It was such an amazing picture.
When The Light Bulb Police Come to Your House, Read Them This.
“When there is something in your house, you don’t perceive any danger, you wouldn’t get that close to an x-ray in a doctor’s office,” explained Miriam Rafailovich, Professor of Materials Science at Stony Brook University in New York.
Money saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs emit high levels of ultra violet radiation, according to a new study. Research at Long Island’s Stony Brook found that the bulbs emit rays so strong that they can actually burn skin and skin cells.
“The results were that you could actually initiate cell death,” said Marcia Simon, a Professor of Dermatology.
Exposure to the bulbs could lead to premature again and skin cancer, according to doctors...
Big Tax Hikes, Pork and Broken Promises -- That's Your "Fiscal Cliff" Deal, America.
* Remember "We have to pass the bill before we know what's in it"? Well, here we go again. -- "Senators Got 154-Page 'Fiscal Cliff' Bill 3 Minutes Before Voting on It."
* Who cares about promises made to the American people? Not politicians -- not even Republican politicians.
* Obama Wins. The G.O.P. Caves. (And Americans Get a Very, Very Bad Deal)
Look Who Al Gore's Network Was Sold To...
So instead they sold the network to…wait for it…Al Jazeera.
How's that for an illustration of "progressive" patriotism?
Mirena IUD Profits Soar...So Do the Lawsuits
I print excerpts below but I encourage you to read (and pass along) the whole article. It is entitled "The Mirena IUD is Becoming More Popular - and the Lawsuits are Piling Up."
...Since Mirena was approved by the FDA in 2000, Bayer has spent tens of millions of dollars advertising the IUD directly to the consumer.
As a result of this advertising campaign, Finer notes, “Women born in the United States appear to be “catching up” to women born outside the United States, who already had a higher level of use, likely due to a greater prevalence of these methods in Mexico.”
The implication here is that women outside of the U.S. are more “advanced” in their contraceptive use than their benighted American sisters, but nothing could be further from the truth. The reason that IUDs are more prevalent in Mexico is simple: the Mexican government coerces women into accepting them. Either accept an IUD or have your tubes tied, new mothers are told. What would you choose?
The same is true of Finer’s factoid about high IUD use in China. The reason that 41 percent of women in China have IUDs is because China’s population control authorities insist that women either wear IUDs or be sterilized after they give birth. That’s not good news for women. Indeed, it’s not good news for anybody, unless of course you fear human fertility.
Bayer’s advertising campaign for Mirena, although expensive, has more than paid for itself. More than a million American women have been convinced to spend nearly $800 apiece buying the IUD. This has generated over a billion dollars in revenue for the German pharmaceutical giant, a good bargain by anyone’s calculation.
Bayer and other abortifacient contraceptive manufacturers also stand to make a lot of money from Obamacare. The HHS mandate will require all healthcare plans to cover the full range of contraceptive methods, including Mirena, at no cost to the patient. In other words, we taxpayers are about to make Bayer shareholders rich.
Finer refers to IUDs, including Mirena, as “contraceptive devices,” but IUDs act by aborting already conceived children, not by preventing their conception. An IUD is, in effect, a tiny abortion machine that prevents pregnancy by physically obstructing the normal process by which a tiny baby implants in the uterus of its mother.
Mirena, it is true, is more than just an IUD. It also contains a synthetic “hormone” called levonorgestrel that some months prevents ovulation. Even when what is called “breakthrough ovulation” occurs, the progestin sometimes still prevents conception by thickening the cervical mucus and preventing sperm from reaching the ovum. Still, when this doesn’t happen, a baby can be conceived and begin its 5 to 7 day journey down the Fallopian tube. But when it reaches the uterus itself it encounters the grim reaper in the guise of an IUD and its life is over. An early-term abortion occurs...
But the list of unwanted side effects of Mirena is quite long. These include amenorrhea, intermenstrual bleeding and spotting, abdominal pain, pelvic pain, ovarian cysts, headache, migraines, acne, depression, and mood swings. The Truth About Mirena website contains hundreds of detailed accounts of such side effects by women who have personally suffered from them. It makes for grim reading...
…With all of these side effects, it is no surprise that the number of lawsuits is proliferating. If you type “Mirena” into your search engine, along with information about the IUD, a number of ads offering legal representation to those harmed by the device will pop up…
Bayer is probably already settling lawsuits out of court as quickly and as quietly as possible, so as not to discourage other potential users of Mirena. When their legal costs begin to mount, their sales begin to drop, and their profit margins disappear, it will be time for their end game: this will involve taking the contraceptive off the market, at least in the U.S., and reaching a once-and-for-all settlement with the entire class of affected users.
I do not think Bayer is at all daunted by this prospect.
In fact, I believe that Bayer, like all contraceptive manufacturers, is already working on a successor contraceptive that will, in a couple of years, be released with great fanfare. This new “magic pill” will be heavily marketed directly to consumers. It will be sold by the millions. It will earn hundreds of millions for the company. It will not really be “new,” however. Rather, it will closely resemble an existing contraceptive drug or device, but it will have a new name, a slightly different chemical formula, and a slightly altered appearance to preserve the fiction that it is an entirely new product.
Like its predecessor, it will be foisted on a new generation of women until the side effects manifest themselves. At which point it, too, will be removed from the market in turn.
What a market plan.
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
Obama Wins. The G.O.P. Caves. (And Americans Get a Very, Very Bad Deal)
Sigh. The Republicans were, once again, played for suckers by the President, the Democrats and the Democrat media. * "According to the Congressional Budget Office, the last-minute fiscal cliff deal reached by congressional leaders and President Barack Obama cuts only $15 billion in spending while increasing tax revenues by $620 billion—a 41:1 ratio of tax increases to spending cuts." (Matthew Boyle, Breitbart)
* "The budget deal passed by the U.S. Senate today would raise taxes on 77.1 percent of U.S. households, mostly because of the expiration of a payroll tax cut, according to preliminary estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington. More than 80 percent of households with incomes between $50,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes. Among the households facing higher taxes, the average increase would be $1,635, the policy center said." (Richard Rubin, Bloomberg)
* Everyone's paycheck is about to take a hit, and it's not the boss' fault. But some business owners say it's a tough talk to have.
The rate of workers' payroll taxes, which fund Social Security, has been 4.2% for the past two years. As of Jan. 1, it's back to 6.2%, on the first $113,700 in wages.
That forced Mike Brey, who owns four Hobby Works shops near Washington, D.C., to notify his store managers about the upcoming change during a conference call Monday. He called the experience uncomfortable. "These are the people who can least afford it," Brey said.
Brey said he can't raise compensation to ease the pain. Enduring the recession meant cutting his own salary, firing workers, taking on half a million dollars in debt and raiding his own 401(k).
"Any business that survived the recession did so by digging a big hole," Brey said. "We can't dig any deeper." (Jose Pagliery, CNN Money)
* "The Senate deal to avoid the 'fiscal cliff' will add roughly $4 trillion to the deficit when compared to current law, according to new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)." (Peter Schroeder, The Hill)
* ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deal Also Doles Out Millions for Hollywood, Railroads, Rum Producers (ABC News)
* “I appreciate all the hard work that went into avoiding the so-called 'fiscal cliff.' I especially commend Senator McConnell's efforts to make the best out of a bad situation. Nevertheless, I cannot support the arrangement they have arrived at. Rapid economic growth and spending reforms are the only way out of the real fiscal cliff our nation is facing. But rapid economic growth and job creation will be made more difficult under the deal reached here in Washington."
“Thousands of small businesses, not just the wealthy, will now be forced to decide how they'll pay this new tax, and chances are they'll do it by firing employees, cutting back their hours and benefits, or postponing the new hire they were looking to make. And to make matters worse, it does nothing to bring our dangerous debt under control."
“Of course, many Americans will be relieved in the short term that their taxes won't go up. However, in the long run they will be hurt when employers pass on to them one of the largest tax hikes in decades. Furthermore, this deal just postpones the inevitable, the need to solve our growing debt crisis and help the 23 million Americans who can't find the work they need.” (Senator Marco Rubio)
Monday, December 31, 2012
Want To Do Better In Your New Year's Resolutions?
My sermon at Faith Bible Church yesterday was the last in a 5-week series on gifts: God's gifts to us of physical and spiritual life; various other gifts God graces us with (righteousness, the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the church, trials to prove our faith, etc.); the gifts given by the Magi to Jesus; the gift of Christmas itself (being a careful description of the Bethlehem scene); and yesterday's subject, Our Christmas Gifts to God.
That's the first step in overhauling your ideas about New Year's resolutions. Don't make them a matter of self-improvement, targets that you're aiming at in your own wisdom and planning to keep through your own willpower. Take the 12 Days of Christmas (December 25 until Epiphany) and use them for meditation, prayer, and perhaps discussion with loved ones in order to come up with the changes the Lord most wants you to pursue. And then make those your Christmas gifts to Him.
Now I know some Christians are critical of the practice of making New Year's resolutions. Some because they believe resolutions reflect more reliance upon one's own willpower than upon God's grace to effect change in one's life. Others dismiss resolutions simply because they've failed so many times in the past and have thus grown weary and jaded.
But making resolutions isn't really optional for the Christian. Think for a moment about the Scripture's use of exhortational verbs like "dedicate," "reckon," "count it," "establish," "consider," "purpose," "consecrate," "prove," "remember," "put aside," and many more. All refer to the prayerful making (and keeping) of resolutions to live godly. So, why not use the Twelve Days to go deeper than usual in one's spiritual analysis in order to better serve the Savior in the year to come?
Yesterday's sermon will be up on the Vital Signs Ministries web site in a few days and I encourage those of you who truly desire a higher grade this year with your resolutions to give it a hearing. But here's a few of the basic points for you to consider until then:
* God is a God of grace and, through the cross of Jesus, He is always ready to forgive sin and failure. And He's ready to empower His disciples to begin again and again. His mercies are new every morning.
* The Latin word behind resolution (i.e. resolve) means to untie. And an awful lot of our obstacles to spiritual growth involve un-tying the knots of bad thinking and bad habits. To untie these knots, we need patience (and other virtues given by the Holy Spirit), better information (Bible study), higher goals (investments in eternity), and better influences (effective fellowship).
* Resolutions are not enemies.We need to embrace the benefits of spiritual growth -- liberation, peace, joy, greater effectiveness in ministry, and so on. We need to see beyond the work to the prize.
Okay, that's enough for now. Like I said, the whole sermon (involving several Scriptures) will be on the website soon. But in the meantime, go ahead and start asking the Lord to show you what Christmas gifts He most wants from you in 2013.
Remembering Chuck Colson
"Chuck Colson did not experience a 'jailhouse conversion.' On the contrary, you could argue that he went to prison as a result of becoming a Christian."
Eric Metaxas has an excellent BreakPoint piece here that will add to your understanding and appreciation of a truly outstanding Christian hero.
Did You See These?
Up to 60,000 patients die on the Liverpool Care Pathway each year without giving their consent, shocking figures revealed yesterday. A third of families are also kept in the dark when doctors withdraw lifesaving treatment from loved ones. Despite the revelations, Jeremy Hunt last night claimed the pathway was a "fantastic step forward". (Read more of the Daily Mail report right here.)
* Constitution? Obama Don't Need No Stinkin' Constitution.
In an attempt to seize total control over national security and bypass congress, a frightening new step by the Obama Administration is coming into play. As noted in Friday’s Wall Street Journal in an op-ed by John Bolton and John Woo, a State Department advisory group that is run by former Secretary of Defense William Perry is advising that the U.S. and Russia both reduce nuclear weapons without a treaty, as a treaty would require ratification by Congress. This would allow Obama and his executive branch to unilaterally cut our nuclear weaponry and ignore the treaty clause of the Constitution…(Read more of William Bigelow's article, "Obama Seizing Sole Authority for US Defense," here at Breitbart.)
* Claims of Wind Farms Saving Energy Dollars Is Hot Air
Wind farms have just half the useful lifespan which has been claimed, according to new research which found they start to wear out after just 12 years. A study of almost 3,000 turbines in Britain – the largest of its kind – sheds doubt on manufacturers claims that they generate clean energy for up to 25 years, which is used by the Government to calculate subsidies.
Professor Gordon Hughes, an economist at Edinburgh University and former energy advisor to the World Bank, predicts in the coming decade far more investment will be needed to replace older and ineffective turbines – which is likely to be passed on in higher household electricity bills…(Read more of Tamara Cohen's news story at the Daily Mail.)
* Media Rides Hobby Lobby Horse; Refuses to Report ObamaCare's Court Stebacks
In their ongoing effort to emulate Pravda, the media are doing their best to prop up Obama administration propaganda. Just as they exaggerated anything resembling good news about the economy during the run-up to the recent election, they are now echoing the administration’s talking points on Obamacare and the HHS mandate. The party line on the “Affordable Care Act” is that it has survived all significant legal challenges and full implementation is inevitable. Stories that don’t fit that line don’t get past the editor.
Thus, we get thousands of stories about the Sotomayor opinion with headlines that suggest it constitutes the demise of all serious challenges to the HHS mandate. Meanwhile, we see and hear almost nothing about 80 percent of the rulings handed down by federal courts during the same month on the same issue. But the lawsuits continue to plod forward. Moreover, the HHS mandate is by no means the only provision of Obamacare still being litigated. And the utterly corrupt MSM does not get the final word on any of these lawsuits. Thank God. (Read the entirety of David Catron's "MSM Gives Us the Mushroom Treatment on HHS Mandate" at The American Spectator.)
* Union Thugs Turn to Arson
"'I don't think this was a spontaneous group of kids who did this,' he said during a tour of the site Friday. 'We're really talking about the bad behavior of union bullies.' He estimated that the cost of the damage could run over $500,000." (Here's the Philadelphia Inquirer story.)
* Obama Hates the Rich...But Not the Rich Unions
"While politicians have kept the focus on the fiscal cliff and displaced anger toward law-abiding citizens who own guns, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was able to quietly overturn longstanding precedents to give unions some Christmas gifts that will ultimately hand them a windfall." (Read more of Dr. Susan Berry's "Obama's NLRB Plays Santa to Unions" at Breitbart.)
* Misguided Law Regarding Mentally Ill Endangers Everyone
The city streets are teeming with thousands of mentally ill homeless people capable of psychotic acts of random violence if left untreated, experts warned yesterday. As many as 11,000 of the city’s 33,000 homeless adults have some form of mental illness, said D.J. Jaffe, executive director of the Mental Illness Policy Organization. Of that number, about 3,300 are potentially violent, Jaffe said.
“When untreated, they’re capable of horrific acts,” said Jaffe. “The danger is that they’re so sick that they don’t know they’re sick, and their brain is incapable of regulating their own behavior.”
He urged New Yorkers to be especially wary of people screaming at voices only they can hear, wearing tons of clothes in the summer or eating out of trash cans. “But if you’re walking down the street, you know who’s mentally ill — it doesn’t take a nuclear scientist.”
Jaffe said steps must be taken to strengthen Kendra’s Law — a loophole-ridden 1999 measure intended to allow courts to forcibly treat the dangerously unhinged…(Read the rest of Gary Buiso's New York Post article right here.)
More Unvarnished Cruelty from Dictator Putin
If the new law had not been passed, a few of the kids stuck there would undoubtedly have benefitted from being adopted by well-meaning Americans such as Heather and Aaron Whaley of Frederick, Maryland, who say they are devout Christians eager to adopt a 4-year-old Russian girl with developmental issues. But now that is not to be…
Read more of "The Tragic Cruelty of Vladimir Putin" by Max Boot here at Commentary.
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