The Negativity of Chastity?

"To preach a negative and colorless ideal of chastity to young men and women is to neglect the primary duty of awakening their intelligence, their responsibility, their self-reliance and independence.”

Sounds like a very modern attitude, doesn't it?

Sexual experimentation promised as a basic step to maturity?

Indeed, the above quotation suggests that promoting promiscuity is a "primary duty" of the governing powers. And, judging from what modern Americans watch on their televisions, hear on their iPods, see in the Victoria's Secret store windows in the mall, and are taught in public schools, the powers that be are enthusiastically following the course.

But the quotation actually comes a bit earlier than when you might guess. Because it wasn't first stated by Madonna or Cher, not by Hugh Hefner or Alfred Kinsey, not even by Helen Gurley Brown or... Nancy Pelosi.

No, this "seed statement" which has borne so much sour fruit in today's culture was published in a 1922 book entitled, The Pivot of Civilization by...

...the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger.

Swindling Saints?

Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.

It's an old adage, of course, but its relevance is greater than ever as this article on the dramatic rise in religious fraud sadly shows.

...Billions of dollars has been stolen in religion-related fraud in recent years, according to the North American Securities Administrators Association, a group of state officials who work to protect investors.

Between 1984 and 1989, about $450 million was stolen in religion-related scams, the association says. In its latest count – from 1998 to 2001 – the toll had risen to $2 billion. Rip-offs have only become more common since.

"The size and the scope of the fraud is getting larger," said Patricia Struck, president of the securities association and administrator of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities. "The scammers are getting smarter and the investors don't ask enough questions because of the feeling that they can be safe in church..."

Medical Breakthrough: Could Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Make the Embryonic Stem Cell Controversy Obsolete?

A Kyoto University research group reportedly has generated from a mouse skin cell a new pluripotent cell that resembles an embryonic stem cell.

The online issue of the U.S. scientific journal Cell reported Thursday that Shinya Yamanaka and Assistant Kazutoshi Takahashi have succeeded in creating the pluripotent cell, which they named induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cell. The iPS cell has similar characteristics to ES cells, which can grow into tissues and organs.

Using an embryonic stem cell in medicine is ethically controversial, as it is extracted from an embryo. With iPS cells, there would be no ethical problems as it does not involve an embryo. If human iPS cells can be created, patients undergoing transplants could have new organs with the same genes as their own, clearing the problem of postoperative rejection responses, and without ethical problems.

The group speculated that among the important gene factors in an embryonic stem cell, there should be some that can reprogram somatic cells and induce pluripotency that are characteristic to the factors in an embryonic stem cell in early development...

If you're a scientist and thus conversant with the technical language of the issue, you may want to read the full article from Cell. For the laymen, you will probably prefer reading through this Columbia, Missouri newspaper summary.

The Left's "Disconnect" with Islamofascist Realities

Today's "must read" column from Town Hall comes from Michael Barone who examines the Left's penchant for living in denial; in this case, focusing on their refusal to face the facts about the West's terrorist enemies.

...Thursday's lesson was not one Tuesday's victors wanted to learn. Left-wing bloggers played an important part in Lamont's victory. Here's the reaction of one of them, John Aravosis, to the red alert ordered here in response to the British arrests: "Do I sound as if I don't believe this alert? Why, yes, that would be correct. I just don't believe it. Read the article. They say the plot had an 'Al Qaeda footprint.' Ooh, are you scared yet?"

What we are looking at here is cognitive dissonance. The mindset of the Left blogosphere is that there's no real terrorist threat out there. We wouldn't have any serious problem if we'd just do something different -- raise the minimum wage or reduce the number without health insurance (the first issue Lamont mentioned on election night), withdraw from Iraq or (as some Left bloggers suggest) sell out Israel...

The rest of Barone's commentary can be read by clicking on the title of this post.

An Early Feminist Speaks to Abortion

Novelist and poet, Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton (1808 - 1877), was the grandaughter of the famous Irish playwright, Richard Sheridan (The School for Scandal, The Crtic, and others). However, she achieved renown of her own in writing The Sorrows of Rosalie (1829), The Undying One (1830), Stuart of Dunleath (1851), Lost and Saved (1863), and Old Sir Douglas (1867). However, her lasting claims to fame rested on her books of poetry, A Voice from the Factories (1836), and The Child of the Islands (1845), and on her tireless advocacy for women's and childrens' rights.

In writing in the social reform magazine, Woodhull's and Claffin's Weekly, in November 19, 1870, Sarah Norton gave her opinion of abortionists:

"Child murderers practice their profession without let or hindrance, and open infant butcheries unquestioned...Is there no remedy for all this ante-natal child murder?...Perhaps there will come a time when...an unmarried mother will not be despised because of her motherhood...and when the right of the unborn to be born will not be denied or interfered with."

For more about how the genuine championing of women's rights is connected with a principled opposition to abortion, check out the web site of Feminists for the Life of America.

And to read a couple of Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton's most touching poems, go on over to this post at The Book Den.

Sports Heroes Connect with Christ

For most Americans, the weekend means at least some time spent watching some of our favorite athletes do their thing. Whether it involves a 30 yard off-tackle run by a Denver Bronco tailback, a last second 3-pointer by a Boston Celtics power forward, a smashing backhand down a clay court, a paper-thin miss of two NASCAR vehicles coming around the far turn at the Brickyard...or whatever else -- Americans love athletes whose dedication, skill and love of their sport give such thrills and inspiration.

But for some athletes, there is something much more valuable and compelling than even their sports careers. And that something is their faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that not only gives them purpose and spiritual strength but also a "forever home" in heaven.

So, sometime during your sports weekend, why not zip over to the web site, Christian Sports Minute. There you'll find several things of interest for the sports fan including this particular page where you'll find brief testmonies from a whole gang of athletes. Some are written out and
some are audio recordings.

Among the ones I looked up (and really enjoyed) were Mike Singletary, Terrell Buckley, Michael Chang, Orel Hershiser, Danny Wuerffel, Tom Lehman, Jason Elam, Felipe Alou, Cody Custer, Darrell Waltrip, Kurt Warner, John Smoltz, Darrell Green, Orlando Merced, Napoleon Kaufman, Trent Dilfer, Mark Aguirre, Travis Fryman, Bruce Matthews, Jeremiah Trotter, Bobby Bowden, Shaun King, Irving Fryar, Troy Vincent, Anthony Munoz, Rick Lyle, Darren Sharper, and Ashley Ambrose.

Beyond the touchdowns, the buzzer beaters and all the rest, there are the universal questions of life and death, purpose and peace, heaven and hell -- let a few of your favorite sports heroes show you the answers they've found in following Christ.

New Study: Pregnant Teenagers Better Adjusted When They Carry to Term

Nobody is happy about unmarried teenagers having babies. But the constant argument from the left is that pregnant teenagers desperately need abortion to keep them from the many deep traumas that neccesarily come with having a baby.

But that constant argument experienced quite a slap in the face this summer when a new study was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. That study revealed that adolescent girls who have their babies aborted are 5 times more likely to go look for psychological and emotional help than those who keep their baby. 5 times!

The study, led by Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a research psychologist from Bowling Green State University, also found that teenagers who have abortions were over 3 times more likely to report subsequent trouble sleeping, and 9 times more likely to report subsequent use of marijuana.

The abstract of the journal article is here but you can read more of this story's details at LifeNews over here.

Ford Boycott (Over Homosexual Advocacy) Having An Effect

The boycott of Ford Motor Company because of Ford's willing complicity in furthering the homosexual agenda is having its effect. For instance, a letter sent by the Greater Texas Ford Dealers Advertising Fund (an association involving 78 Ford dealers in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana) was recently sent to Ford Motor Company CEO, William Clay Ford, urging the company to "cease" advertising in homosexual publications. The letter acknowledged that a pro-family boycott is hurting their business.

"To be clear we strongly urge that Ford not only cease to advertise in homosexual related media and events, but in all politically charged and controversial media and events. We believe that Ford can and should market to all Americans with transportation needs, but that it should do so without tacitly approving a controversial lifestyle or stance."

Way back in February I posted an entry which detailed the reasons behind the boycott and urged consumers to consider joining the boycott as well as writing Ford to let them know how their unwholesome activity is viewed by the public.

I think it's time you join with the Greater Texas Ford Dealers and let Mr. Ford hear from you again.

You can check out various ways to influence Ford by clicking on the appropriate American Family Association page (right here) and/or you could contact Ford directly. You can use this form for e-mail or use the traditional routes:

Phone: 800-392-3673

Mailing Address:
Ford Motor Company
Customer Relationship Center
P.O. Box 6248
Dearborn, MI 48126

The Best Defense is a Good (And Willing) Offense

Let's hope that Saul Singer's simple strategy for fighting World War IV (reprinted here at NRO) is being read and carefully considered in the White House.

"Reutersgate" Is Just the Latest in a Long Line

The highly embarassing Reutersgate incident is just the latest in a long series of examples of how MSM bias is translated into MSM manipulation. Click on the title of this post to go to The Cassandra Page for an informative reminder of just how silly (and sinister) media distortion has become.

And, on the same subject, check out this Jerusalem Post article written by Sheera Claire Frenkel; this very disturbing video footage; and this excellent article from World magazine.

Senator Joe is No Conservative

This notable David Limbaugh Town Hall column emphasizes how Ned Lamont's victory over Joe Lieberman reveals a Democrat Party seriously in danger of marginilazing itself right out of the November elections. However, he has a few choice warnings to Republicans and independents who are too quick to "claim" Senator Joe for their own. I print an excerpt below but Limbaugh's column should be read in full. You'll find it here.

...While Republicans are falling all over themselves praising Lieberman, they, too, should be careful not to turn into single-issue advocates. While Lieberman's support for the war in Iraq against the oppressive Democratic tide has been admirable, let's not forget just how liberal he is on almost all other issues, from taxes and abortion to guns and Kyoto.

Nor should we overlook how Lieberman was virtually forced to behave as the election approached to ensure a respectable showing against his anti-Bush primary rival. He made clear he was no Bush-lover and certainly no conservative.

In a speech at the East Haven Community Center two days before the election, he couched his remarks in terms chosen to clarify -- above all -- that he was no Bush lapdog. He "opposed the Bush ban on stem cell research." He opposed the "Bush constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage." He "opposed the Bush bankruptcy bill" and "the president's efforts to undermine affirmative action." He "stood with my fellow Democrats to oppose George Bush's plan to privatize Social Security."

Let's not lose our heads and pretend Lieberman's a conservative -- such as with the Weekly Standard's toying with the idea of his running as a vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket in 2008. There are plenty of national security hawks on the Republican side who are also conservative on economic and social issues...

It Depends On Whose Anti-Semitism We're Talking About

Larry Elder has a great column about the strange selectivity in the Hollywood glitterati's attitudes towards anti-Semitism. Strongly criticize Mel Gibson? Fine; he deserves it. But what about the sober anti-Semitism of Michael Moore, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and others?

CNN Report: Adult Stem Cell Research is a Money Maker

In an interesting (and welcome) development, the last couple of days have seen increased attention from the MSM about the success of research using adult stem cells - a success that is translating into solid investment opportunities. On Tuesday I put this post on the Vital Signs Blog and today I'm suggesting you check out this remarkable CNN story which touts biotech companies like Osiris, Cytori, and Aastrom that are concentrating on adult stem cells.

"From a Wall Street perspective, adult stem cells are a much better investment," said Stephen Dunn of Dawson James Securities. "These are the guys who are going to be in the news in 2007 and 2008."

President Bush recently vetoed a bill that would loosen federal restrictions on funding for embryonic stem cells, and some analysts fear that as a result the best developments in this area will be made overseas.

But work with adult stem cells isn't being held back by funding restraints and political opposition, analysts say.

"Embryonic stem cell research hasn't kept up pace with adult stem cell research," said Dunn. "Adult stem cell research is advancing so far you might not need embryonic stem cells..."

Legal But Still Dirty: Two Abortion Clinics in Trouble

Abortion is a bad business -- just ask Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine whose oath of conduct was taken by generations of physicians, an oath that specifically prohibited any participation in the immorality of abortion.

And, if you had any doubt that abortion remains a bad business, check out these two news stories about the shoddy, dirty and dangerous conditions at these places.

Here is the situation with a Miami abortion mill and here is the case of another in Alabama which has state officials wondering about conditions elsewhere.

Part Three: The Nebraska Humane Care Amendment FAQ

In recent days I have posted here on Vital Signs Blog some of the answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the Humane Care Amendment that will be on Nebraska's ballot this November. If you've missed Parts One or Two of those posts, follow the links to catch up. Here is the next set...

What if I personally wish to decline food or fluids, especially nourishment by tube or IV, under certain circumstances?

The Nebraska Humane Care Amendment does NOT prevent anyone from declining care. The text expressly provides for “honoring the will of any person who, by means of a valid advance directive record, has fully, expressly, and personally either authorized the withholding of food or water from himself or herself under specific conditions, or delegated that decision, under specific conditions, to one or more relatives or to another person unrelated to the entity with a legal duty of care.” HCA preserves your right of self-determination by barring any unauthorized person from acting to dehydrate/starve you to death.

What about a situation where heirs with conflicting financial interests, perhaps in line for an inheritance, want to withdraw food and water from me while I am institutionalized?

If you authorize them to do so in writing by means of an advance directive (e.g., a living will or a durable power of attorney for health care) the Nebraska Humane Care Amendment would not protect you. If you never so authorize them, or if you ever withdraw such authorization, your right to the humane basics of hydration and nourishment would be constitutionally protected. The Nebraska Humane Care Amendment leaves YOU and your authorized loved ones in control -- not strangers, not greedy corporations, and not people you don’t trust to uphold your best interests.

Someone in the newspaper said Humane Care imposes all sorts of burdens and is inflexible. True?

Not true! Humane Care requires hydration/nutrition ONLY if its absence could reasonably kill or cause grave harm to the person at risk – and ONLY if the person can metabolize, and ONLY if there is no advance directive expressly authorizing otherwise. Conversely, Humane Care does NOT require water/food for a time if failure to hydrate/nourish would NOT reasonably cause death or grave harm. A less “burdensome” and more “flexible” policy would require that Nebraskans allow for involuntary dehydration/starvation to the point of death or grave harm.

But, could hydration and nutrition cause pain for the recipient?

Again, Humane Care allows for absence of water and food for a time if this would NOT reasonably kill or gravely harm the person at risk. On the other hand, because water and nourishment are ALWAYS necessary to sustain human life over an extended period of time, and because an individual may have a condition that causes pain (such as cancer), the caregiving institution should do everything it can to help the individual and loved ones in their desire manage any pain – but without acting unethically; without discriminating based on disability, age, etc.; and without acting against the Hippocratic Oath to expedite death. For an extended discussion of pain management, see for example, Power Over Pain: How to Get the Pain Control You Need (Eric M. Chevlen and Wesley J. Smith, 2002).

I'll post the next installment in a day or two.

South Dakota Update -- The Billion Brothers Split on Abortion Ban

Okay, you're the Democrat running to become South Dakota's next Governor. And, in normal behavior for a Democrat seeking political office, you oppose such sweeping pro-life measures as the abortion ban passed earlier by the state legislature. In fact, you create a special news conference to "clarify" how completely you're opposed to the ban.

You've got everything going for you -- you're speaking to like-minded souls in the media; you're utilizing the old "Of course, I'm pro-life but" rhetoric; and, heck, you're a physician with all the authority that commands.

But, uh oh...you suddenly discover that your own brother (also a physician) has come to the same place with a public statement of his own. And his statement stands squarely, strongly against yours --- "I support this courageous act by our South Dakota Legislature and Governor Rounds, because it recognizes the scientific and moral truth about human life in the womb."

Maybe it's just not your day, after all.

Read MSNBC's account of the Billion brothers' disagreement right here.

What About the Children? The Victims of Andrea Yates' "Insanity" Go Unmourned

The tragedy of Andrea Yates brutally drowning her children -- 7-year old Noah, 5-year old John, 3-year old Luke, 2-year old Paul and 6 months old Mary -- has been mercilessly extended by a Texas jury letting the murderer go free. Indeed, Andrea Yates is being re-fashioned by the MSM and feminist groups into a post-modern heroine, a "super mom" who just happened to catch a bad disease...or who, perhaps, unwittingly fell victim to what a CBS reporter called "the dark side" of home-schooling.

Kathryn Jean Lopez takes a look at this very disturbing situation in this NRO article.

The Wild and Wicked Ways of Communist Belarus

How wild can anti-Christian indictrination in the schools get? Check out how the corrupt and totalitarian Communists of Belarus do it.

Despite protests from religious communities, state textbooks continue to make false allegations such as associating charismatic churches and Hare Krishna devotees with the group behind the fatal gas attack on Tokyo's metro system, claiming that Adventists operate "on the same principle as any fraudster," and depicting the history of Protestantism in Belarus negatively...

In one Minsk school, the headteacher told teachers that 90 per cent of every class must join the Pioneers, a Soviet-style state youth organisation, "but that Baptists and satanists were permitted not to join." In another incident, one teacher told a class that "they shouldn't be friends" with a Protestant pupil.

Read the rest of this article from Forum here.

Criticism of Intellligent Design Articles Unfounded

A recent document published by the Discovery Institute takes on (and effectively knocks down) both the oft-repeated claims that advocates of intelligent design are unable to publish their work in "appropriate" scientific literature and that advocates of intelligent design cannot get their works published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

The well-annotated Peer-Reviewed & Peer-Edited Scientific Publications Supporting the Theory of Intelligent Design is right here. Go ahead and print a few copies off to hand around to friends, skeptics and folks who have had nothing by which to judge the issue except the slanted reports of the mainstream media. It is a very persuasive piece.

Reuters Gets It Wrong -- Again

Here's a quick alert about the funeral strafing that wasn't.

And, in a related piece, here is the Washington Post story about Little Green Footballs and its exposure of Reuter's doctored photo a couple of days ago. (And don't miss LGF's response to the Post story right here.)

Why the Mel Gibson Story Overshadows the Seattle Shootings

Yesterday I urged visitors here at Vital Signs Blog to check out the compelling column written by Jeff Jacoby which compared the MSM reactions to Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic ravings to the shootings of six people (one of them fatal) in a Seattle Jewish social center. It was an important, challenging read.

So is this one from Dennis Prager.

Adult Stem Cell Research Companies Are "A Better Buy"

If you want to get a "good return" on your investment (in both dollars and decency), look to adult stem cell research instead of companies experimenting with human embryos.

...Based in California, SmallCap Sentinel has been issuing investment information for 23 years and analyst D.R. Clark says adult stem cell research firms are a better buy.

"As the headline-grabbing battle regarding embryonic stem cell research rages, adult stem cell sources continue to provide an ever-broadening array of life-improving possibilities," Clark said in a statement LifeNews.com obtained.

"Researchers are using the far less controversial adult stem cells to attack enormous medical problems and are confident enough in their successes thus far to seek the protection of U.S. Patents," he added...

The rest of the story is here at LifeNews.com.

Raunchy In, Raunchy Out

It's one of those expensive, time-consuming "scientific studies" with a lot of numbers, charts and specialized lingo but which ends up with conclusions that any group of sane people sitting in a coffee shop could tell you.

Here's the story from the Family Research Council's Washington Update.

Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics

Raunchy music lyrics can lead teens to early sexual experimentation, a Rand study reports in the journal Pediatrics. Lyrics about conscienceless sex affected both males and females, whites and non-whites, the researchers found. "Lyrics classified as degrading depicted sexually insatiable men pursuing women valued only as sex objects," the researchers reported. These lyrics were most prominent in rap music and convey "distorted notions about gender roles to both male and female teenagers," the report said.

Researchers followed 1,461 teens for three years and compared music they listened to with their self-reported sexual activity. It compared those who listened to such music with those who did not. The study also found, significantly, that "large numbers of sexually active teenagers...wished they had delayed sexual initiation."

Nearly 20 years ago, Tipper Gore and Susan Baker launched a campaign designed to pressure the recording industry to give notice of explicit lyrics so that parents could be forewarned. Mrs. Gore dropped her efforts, however, when she and her husband, Sen. Al Gore, ran afoul of their Hollywood supporters.

Debauching the young is big business. Those who profit from this traffic buy entree to the halls of power. They use their access to silence criticism. And their beat goes on. Still, the Rand study is hard evidence from a non-political source that messages about abstinence and indulgence makes a difference. Sexually active youth regret that impact. It's time the music industry did as well.

If you'd like to read through the original study in the Pediatrics journal, go here.

A Pro-Life Message from Moscow

At last night's pie social, an annual event sponsored by Vital Signs Ministries, stories were told from the 22 long years of prayer, witness and sidewalk counseling outside the 46th Street abortion clinic -- a clinic that closed down earlier this summer. Among those faithful pro-life activists who shared their experiences were several who were unable to be at the event in person but who sent in comments to be read to the crowd of over 100 in attendance.

Below is one of those messages:

I am celebrating with you in Omaha over the closing of the 46th Street abortuary.

It was always a privilege to stand with the saints on behalf of life! I cried many tears while witnessing the personal dramas of women crossing the threshold of that address to keep an appointment with an executioner. Our prayers at that location were always about life or death for an innocent and mercy for the guilty. While there are many redemptive stories of days when someone had a change of heart the overwhelming sense for me are all the unnecessary losses. The unforgettable scene of people taking determined or maybe even halting footsteps, but finally one foot after, another taking the last step inside the West glass door entrance is immeasurably tragic. I am grateful that we could honor the “helpless ones” by speaking up and showing up for them.

Many women here in Russia have had abortions and continue to use this practice with barely any social protest. The weight of guilt and shame in this culture has been increased by the endorsement of this practice over the last century.

It was always hard to show up and watch so many people make choices that were conceived in hell. I do remember clearly and gratefully that some changed their minds. Our gracious God gave us an opportunity to see the miracles of many held back from the edge of destruction. The mark of those days is still etched not only on our hearts but forever on the moms who took life and violently buried it at 46th and Douglas Streets in Omaha, Nebraska.

A compassionate God has brought a limit to the destruction at this site. The silent screams will no longer cry out here. May the Father’s heart be consoled along with our hearts.

Sharing these memories with you,

Jamie Hejl,
(missionary, Evangelical Free Church of America - International Mission)
Kursk, Russia

Stephen Baldwin is "Livin' It"

Stephen Baldwin is "Livin' It" like he never dreamed before his conversion to Christianity. Here is a brief review from Baptist Press of Baldwin's story along with details about his new book, his outreach to "extreme sportsmen" and his foray into graphic novels.

You can find out more details (and watch a 60-second intro to "Livin' It" by Baldwin himself) by clicking on this page at the B&H Publishing web site.

A Deadly Back-Room Deal: California's Biggest Union Opposes Parental Involvment in Abortion Decisions

This is really sad news.

The Democrats who control the California Labor Federation have announced that their union is not only going to jump into the abortion fray, but that they're going to begin with an official opposition to Proposition 85, a ballot initiative that would require doctors to notify parents before performing abortions on minors. Furthermore, the leaders said they're going to push their "big brother", the national AFL-CIO ''to reconsider its position of neutrality on the issue.''

The CLF represents more than 2.1 million workers in over a thousand unions.

Deadly Anti-Semitism Downplayed by the Media

Jeff Jacoby points out the twisted priorities of the MSM (and, for that matter, of American public interest) as he compares the response of Mel Gibson's drunken rants to the more sinister, more savage attack on Jewish women in Seattle.

...According to police and eyewitness reports, the killer, a 30-year-old named Naveed Haq, forced his way into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle by holding a gun to the head of a 13-year-old girl. Once inside, Haq announced, “I am a Muslim American, angry at Israel,” and opened fire with two semi-automatic pistols. Pam Waechter, 58, died on the spot. Five other women, one of them 20 weeks pregnant, were shot in the abdomen, knee, or arm. When one of the wounded women managed to call 911, Haq took the phone and told the dispatcher: “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”

This was no spur-of-the-moment meltdown. The police say Haq, who holds an engineering degree from Washington State University, had purchased the two guns and waited 10 days before picking them up on July 27. He selected his target by searching online for Jewish sites. And as his declarations make clear, he was impelled to kill by his antipathy toward Jews and his convictions as a Muslim.

At a time when jihadist murder is a global threat, and when some of the most malevolent figures in the Islamic world -- Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hezbollah chieftain Hassan Nasrallah, to name just two -- openly incite violence against Americans and Jews, the attack in Seattle should have been a huge story everywhere. Yet after six days, a Nexis search turned up only 236 stories mentioning Haq -- about one-fourth the number devoted to Gibson’s drunken outburst. Why the disparity?...

Jacoby goes on to give several frightening examples of what Daniel Pipes has dubbed "Sudden Jihad Syndrome"

...Just this year, for example, Mohammed Taheri-azar, a philosophy and psychology major at the University of North Carolina, deliberately rammed a car into a crowd of students, saying he wanted to "avenge the death of Muslims around the world." Michael Julius Ford opened fire in a Denver warehouse, killing one person and injuring five. "I don't know what happened to him yesterday," his sister Khali told the Denver Post. "He told me that Allah was going to make a choice and it was going to be good and told me people at his job was making fun of his religion."

Other cases in recent years include Hasan Akbar, a sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division, who attacked his fellow soldiers at an American command center in Kuwait with grenades and rifle fire, killing one and wounding 15; Hesham Ali Hadayet, who killed two people when he shot up the El Al ticket counter at the Los Angeles airport in 2002; and Ali Hasan Abu Kamal, who was carrying a note denouncing "Zionists" and others who "must be annihilated & exterminated" when he opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

If the Catholic Mel Gibson's nonviolent bigotry is a legitimate subject of media scrutiny, all the more so is the animus that has spurred Muslims like Naveed Haq to jihadist murder. And yet that is a line of inquiry that few seem willing to pursue. "No one wants to propagate bias or jump to conclusions," the New York Sun noted the other day. But how many more Haqs must erupt in a homicidal rage, it asked, before we stop assuming that these are merely random incidents and open our eyes "to the possibility that they are part of a war in which understanding the enemy is a prerequisite for victory...?"

Winston Churchill on the Threat of Militant Islam

What would the prescient, passionate, and eloquent Winston Churchill say to stir the public to a common defense of Islamofascism? In this unique column, Suzanne Fields reminds us of what he already said about it.

..."But how many know that [Churchill] also warned the world of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism?" asked his namesake grandson Winston in a speech in Australia. The young Churchill confesses that he didn't know that, either, until he began compiling a book about his grandfather's speeches. He discovered that on June 14, 1921, after a Cairo conference in which Churchill presided over the meeting that re-shaped the Middle East -- including the creation of modern Iraq -- he warned the House of Commons that the violently radical Wahhabi Muslims, then confined to Saudi Arabia, were a dangerously lethal strain of what was then called Mohammedanism, and would require watching.

But who cared? "The consequence," says his grandson, "has been that the Wahhabis have been able to export their exceptionally intolerant brand of Islamic fundamentalism from Mauritania and Morocco on Africa's Atlantic shores, through more than two dozen countries including Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, to as far afield as the Philippines and East Timor in the Pacific."

The young Winston worries that the West is dozing off again. He can't imagine anything more deadly for civilization than the message he hears on Capitol Hill, from congressmen who want to cut and run from Iraq. "Is [America] going soft?" he asks. "The reality is that Iraq today is the epicenter of the Islamic militants' assault on the West..."

Read the whole column right here.

The Tooth Fairy Weighs In On the Mininum Wage

Mac Johnson (writing in Human Events) gets in touch with the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny for a no-holds barred conversation about Congress' raising the mininum wage last week. This is a terrific article -- cleverly, comically written but with several very serious points made.

If you're the kind of person who e-mails to your friends the best of the internet reading you come across, you're definitely going to be sending this one along.

Nebraska Humane Care Amendment -- The Next Installment

Here is the next "installment" from the FAQ document provided by the people leading the charge for the Nebraska Humane Care Amendment, a measure that I am on public record as supporting. The first in this series was posted on Vital Signs Blog right here. The others will be forthcoming...

Are Nebraskans really at risk for involuntary, institutional dehydration/starvation?

Yes. So-called “futile care” policies being adopted by HMO’s, hospital chains, so-called non-profit health systems, and interstate corps across the nation now threaten us with denial of wanted life-saving care in general -- and in particular, with the guaranteed-fatal denial of food and water. Consider:

* We hope that the battle that we fought for our sister will bring to light and bear witness to the horrible acts committed in the name of ethics in hospitals across the state of Texas. The fact that we had to fight this battle is both frightening and a sad commentary on the so-called "ethics" now being practiced in medical facilities in this state….We wish so much that we could have spent more time at our sister's side, when she was living and fighting for her life, rather than having to visit our attorney's office, give interviews to radio and television stations to let the public know of the atrocity about to befall Andrea, and literally stand outside the hospital and beg them not to kill our sister. In attempting to deprive Andrea of the most basic of her human rights--life--St. Luke's Hospital managed to deprive her family and her of that which is most dear to us all, when we are faced with the death of a loved one: a proper goodbye. How, in the name of God, anyone can call putting someone to death when they are at their most helpless and begging for their lives “ethical,” we cannot imagine. (Melanie Childers, sister of Andrea Clarke, Democratic Underground.com, 5/8/06).

* The bioethics committee at St. Luke's Hospital in Houston, Texas has decreed that Andrea Clarke should die. Indeed, after a closed-door hearing, it ordered all further medical efforts to sustain her life while at St. Luke's to cease. As a consequence, Clarke's life support, required because of a heart condition and bleeding on the brain, is to be removed unilaterally even though she is not unconscious and her family wants treatment to continue. (National Review Online, 4/27/06). Denial of food and water, even to a patient who wants it and whose family seeks it, is within the “futile care” policy options of Houston hospitals.

* As you read these words, quietly, slowly, inexorably, mostly behind the closed doors of hospital ethics committees, “futile care” or “inappropriate care” protocols are being put into place in hospitals throughout the country. The first time most patients and their families become aware that doctors are being given the right to say “no” to wanted medical treatment … is during a medical crisis when they are at their most defenseless and vulnerable. Hospitals in Des Moines, Iowa, appear to be the latest institutions to stealthily adopt futile-care policies. As reported by the January 2, 2003, Cedar Falls Courier, some area hospitals now have rules in place that permit "medical staff to withdraw treatment over a family's objection." (National Review Online, 1/6/03)

* The Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics (Fall 2000) reviewed so-called “futility” policies of 26 California hospitals. Only one provided that "doctors should act to support the patient's life" when life-extending care is wanted by the patient. All but two hospitals "defined circumstances in which treatments should be considered nonobligatory even if requested by the patient or patient representative." In sum, 24 of the 26 hospitals studied permit unilateral denial of wanted, life-supporting care.

* Contrary to how it sounds, medical futility is not a matter of refusing treatment that will not provide the medical benefit the patient seeks. … In such “qualitative futility” cases, treatment is stopped in spite of a patient's or family's objections — the intervention is necessary not because the treatment doesn't work, but because it does. In essence then, it is the patient's life that is deemed futile and, hence, not worthy of being preserved. Texas, however, has become ground zero for futile-care theory thanks to a draconian state law… that explicitly permits a hospital ethics committee to refuse wanted life-sustaining care. Under the Texas Health and Safety Code, if the physician disagrees with a patient's decision to receive treatment, he or she can take it to the hospital ethics committee. …If the committee decides to refuse treatment …the patient/family has a mere ten days to find another hospital willing to provide the care, after which, according to the statute, “the physician and health care facility are not obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment.” (National Review Online, 4/27/06).

* Massachusetts' child welfare chief said his agency didn't tell the state's highest court that a brain-injured girl at the center of a right-to-die legal battle might be getting better because doctors convinced him she would never recover from a vegetative state. Department of Social Services Commissioner Harry Spence has been criticized for moving too quickly to try ending Haleigh Poutre's life support. He's also come under fire for not seeking more medical opinions on her chance for recovery. Authorities say Haleigh, who is now 12 and in a rehabilitation hospital, was beaten nearly to death by her adoptive mother and stepfather. Spence said Haleigh was showing signs of responsiveness about a week before the Supreme Judicial Court granted permission to remove her life support. But he said Haleigh's doctors said her movements were not a sign she would recover…."They absolutely affirmed that the chances of her recovery were absolutely zero. There was nothing for us to report to the SJC. There was nothing that had changed." Immediately after the SJC's Jan. 17 ruling that Haleigh's life support could be removed, Spence said he ordered the girl's doctors at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield to examine her again. "They said `oops, we're seeing signs of consciousness,'" Spence said. (Associated Press, 3/23/06)

"Stem Cells Without Moral Corruption"

The Catholic Education Resource Center has reprinted an excellent article dealing with the controversy over stem cell research. It was originally published in the Washington Post last month and was co-written by prolific author and Princeton University professor, Dr. Robert P. George, and Eric Cohen, the director of the program in biotechnology and American democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Cohen is also editor of The New Atlantis and a senior research consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics. Check it out; it's really a good one.

Smoke & Mirrors (And More Smoke) Reporting Techniques

As if the MSM hadn't already gone over the top in their slanted reporting of the Israeli attacks on Hezbollah terrorists, here's a case of Reuters altering a photograph to "improve" their case.

A Clash of Values: Abortion in Today's News Stories

Let's look at a quick comparison of cultural values from today's news:

1) A woman leaves an amateur (and ineffective) firebomb outside an abortion clinic (at night with no one inside the free-standing building) -- she gets 6 years in prison.

2) A mentally-handicapped woman dies after undergoing an abortion at the notorious abortion center of George Tiller -- no indictments are issued.

3) A university (Arizona State) which has allowed (and even promoted) extremely controversial ideas, displays, literature, etc. under the banners of free speech and academic tolerance -- brazenly engages in coercive intolerance against pro-life advocates. It is being sued by a pro-life student organization.

4) The mainstream media regularly trumpet the news that there is absolutely no link between abortion and breast cancer -- yet stubbornly refuse to even mention the vast number of scientific studies (like this one just released by the National Academies of Science) that state otherwise.

5) It seems an Australian abortionist is guilty of not only killing a baby born alive in her facility but also of conniving to get another doctor involved in covering it up -- the other doctor (when caught lying) gives up the game.

A Willful Blindness

Victor Davis Hanson has written an exceptional piece for NRO, one that examines the current media/government blindness regarding Islamic terrorism, anti-Semitism and the endangerment of Western values.

...It is now a cliché to rant about the spread of postmodernism, cultural relativism, utopian pacifism, and moral equivalence among the affluent and leisured societies of the West. But we are seeing the insidious wages of such pernicious theories as they filter down from our media, universities, and government — and never more so than in the general public’s nonchalance since Hezbollah attacked Israel...

Read the rest of Hanson's profound article here.

Feder Doesn't Buy Gibson's Apologies

Don Feder, who was way out front in defending Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion, from raucous denunciations of anti-Semitism, maintains that position. But what about Gibson himself with his drunken epithets and wild accusations from the other night?

That -- is another matter.

Click on the title of this post to check out Feder's latest column.

ESCR Cures are Years Away...If Ever

A couple of British scientists have dared to go public with one of the most politically-incorrect statements of our time; namely, that medical cures developed from embryonic stem cells are years away from happening...if they ever will be!

Here's the brief story from LifeNews.com.

Shining An Internet Light on Government Spending

This could be huge!

If Senator Dr. Tom Coburn's proposed bill (S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act,) becomes law, you could go to a web page and discover just exactly how the federal government is spending your money!

Do you think the lobbyists are gonna' fight this one tooth and nail? You better believe it. And so will the "charities" that receive vast funds of tax money like Planned Parenthood, Sierra Club, the National Endowment for the Arts, and so on.

Full disclosure is an idea that should have been implemented a long, long time ago. Full disclosure will shine a light that is desperately needed to increase competition in government contracts, help prevent corruption and fraud, and increase pressure on spend-happy politicians to behave themselves. As Coburn says, "Sunshine's the best thing we've got to control waste, fraud and abuse. It's also the best thing ... to control stupidity."

Here is a Washington Post story from last week on the issue but much better yet are the editorials posted on Senator Coburn's web site from the Washington Times, the New York Times and several others.

Contact your Congressmen and Senators soon and let them know your opinions about a quick, painless passage of S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act.

The Nebraska Humane Care Amendment

In the next few days, I'm going to be posting here a few excerpts from a FAQ document sent to me by the developers of the Humane Care Amendment that has been approved to go on the state ballot this fall. Here's the first installment...

What is the Nebraska Humane Care Amendment?

Humane Care is about protecting all Nebraskans from involuntary dehydration/starvation to death. This measure would guard any person, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, age, disability, gender, etc. from dehydration or starvation by any institution with a legal duty of care (such as a hospital, orphanage, prison, sanitarium or nursing home) if the withholding of food and water sustenance could reasonably result in death or grave physical harm. It allows, however, for honoring the will of any person who has expressly requested withholding of food or water under specific conditions, or delegated to relatives that decision, by means of a valid advance directive given previously.

Why is the Humane Care Amendment needed in the Nebraska Constitution?

For one thing, some big HMOs, hospitals, health corporations, so-called “bioethics committees”, university professors, doctors’ panels and others are supporting involuntary dehydration/starvation of patients when these elites judge that your life or the life of one of your loved ones is of insufficient value, inadequate social utility or is “burdensome”. People of color, people with disabilities, the elderly, the poor, and other minorities are at greatest risk that a corporate committee may deny them the basics of food and water, once they are under institutional control. Whether it’s a prison, hospital, orphanage, juvenile detention facility, foster home, nursing institution, or whatever, no institution should have that kind of unilateral life-or-death power over any vulnerable citizen -- perhaps one day you or your loved ones -- entrusted into its care. By specifying the fundamental human right of food and water in the Nebraska Constitution, we safeguard all Nebraskans from corporate lobbyists, special interests and shifting political winds in Lincoln.

Stay tuned for more...

Help Save the Child Custody Protection Act

As you know, last week the U.S. Senate passed s. 403, the Child Protection Custody Act, which would make it a crime to transport minors across state lines for abortions in violation of parents' rights. But, of course, Democrats no longer let democracy stand in the way of their own whims and Senator Dick Durbin and his cronies in the Democratic Caucus turned the rules inside out in an effort to keep this decision from ever becoming law.

Amazing chutzpah...but this is Democrat politics in the modern age.

Wanna' do something about it?

Call and e-mail your Senators today and ask them to begin acting like they are a representative government, one based on justice and honesty. Also, demand specifically of Senators Harry Reid (Nevada), Dick Durbin (Illinois) and their fellow pro-abortion zealots in the Democrat Party to remove the devious roadblocks they've established to try to stop passage of the Child Protection Custody Act.

This is quite urgent matter and the time to act is today. Right here is an on-line petition you can sign.

And over here is a quick-use tool to find the contact information for any of the sorry set of Senators who voted against this common-sense, compassionate bill: Akaka (D-HI); Baucus (D-MT); Biden (D-DE); Bingaman (D-NM); Boxer (D-CA); Cantwell (D-WA); Chafee (R-RI); Clinton (D-NY); Collins (R-ME); Dayton (D-MN); Dodd (D-CT); Durbin (D-IL); Feingold (D-WI); Harkin (D-IA); Jeffords (I-VT); Kennedy (D-MA); Kerry (D-MA); Lautenberg (D-NJ); Leahy (D-VT); Levin (D-MI); Lieberman (D-CT); Lincoln (D-AR); Menendez (D-NJ); Mikulski (D-MD); Murray (D-WA); Obama (D-IL); Reed (D-RI); Rockefeller (D-WV); Sarbanes (D-MD); Schumer (D-NY); Snowe (R-ME); Specter (R-PA); Stabenow (D-MI); and Wyden (D-OR). The pr-abortion Diane Feinstein (D-CA) wasn't present for the vote.

The Interview They Wish Would Go Away: Sultan's Criticism of Islam Continues Its Effect

What do you want to bet that Al Jazeera TV wished they'd never let Wafa Sultan, an Arab-American psychiatrist, get in front of their camera?

Check out Dr. Sultan's very effective critcism of the obscurantism and terrorism of extremist Muslims. It was initially televised back in February but through such innovative means as YouTube, it is a piece which goes on and on.

Also, if you prefer, here is a written transcript of the interview. And over here is a fascinating follow-up story about Dr. Sultan from the New York Times.

Castro: Ever A Liar and A Beggar

While Cuba holds her breath, waiting to hear whether or not she is free from the cruelty and corruption of the Old Communist, and waiting to see if further outrages against her follow at the hands of Fidel's barbarous baby brother, freedom-loving people around the world pray.

There are many English-language web sites designed to give the world the true picture of Cuba, complete with the details of her poverty, illness and oppression under Castro -- news that the fellow-traveling mainstream media has always failed utterly to provide. They include Babalu', Cuban-American Pundits, 26th Parallel, Kill Castro, and The Real Cuba.

It was at The Real Cuba that I found this revealing anecdote:

"Mr. Roosevelt, can you spare 10 bucks?"

In 1940, when he was a young student at one of Cuba's most exclusive Catholic schools, Fidel Castro wrote a letter to then US President Franklyn Roosevelt asking the president to send him a $10 bill. In his letter, the young Castro referred to Roosevelt as his "friend." The letter is now in the National Archives.

"Never I have not seen a ten dollars bill green American and I would like to have one of them," Castro told Roosevelt.

But much has changed since then. After becoming Cuba's absolute ruler and running the island as his private farm and the 11 million Cubans as his peons, Castro is now a multimillionaire. His fortune, according to Forbes magazine, is more than 900 million dollars or 90 million 10 dollar bills like the one Castro was begging Mr. Roosevelt to send him.

It seems that Castro has always liked to beg his "friends" for money.

A few years after writing the letter to Roosevelt, Castro was begging Cuba's richest class for money to fight Batista and bring democracy to Cuba. Many went ahead and gave him the money and he later betrayed them and the millions of Cubans who once trusted him. Later he begged the Russians for money and took billions of dollars from them until they went bankrupt, thanks in part to all the money they dumped in Castro's "Black Hole."

And now he found another "rich daddy" who is using billions of dollars that belong to the Venezuelan people and giving them to the beggar-in-chief.

Two things are clear from Castro's letter: One, that he always has been begging for money and two, that he has always been a liar. In the letter to Roosevelt, Castro said that he was "12 years old," but he was born on August 13 1926 and since the letter to Roosevelt was dated November 6, 1940, Castro was already 14.

Conclusion: A beggar then and a beggar now; a liar then and a liar now.

Are Opponents of Embryonic Stem Cell Research Extremists?

Just when you think the debate over embryonic stem cells can't get any more degraded...

Check out John Leo's excellent review of how the controversy over the government funding of embryonic stem cell research is being played. A very good piece.

Anarchy in the Classroom (And I'm Talking About the Teachers)

Sol Stern has written a detailed, probing and profoundly disturbing article in City Journal about the takeover of the public education system by the left's most radical activists. It is an important read.

In the article, Stern highlights the career of Weather Underground bomb-thrower (literally), Bill Ayers, who decided that his anarchism could be better served from inside the educational establishment than from merely blowing up buildings. And he was right -- he's found success beyond his wildest dreams in his endeavors to undermine capitalism, democracy and traditional cultural values.

But that's not all. Stern's in-depth article also explores the extremism of today's liberal education reformers who are not only distorting (or denying altogether) the historic values of Western civilization when they teach courses in history, literature and economics but which seeks to bring socialism and even anarchism to such seemingly secure subjects as math and science.

Boston Globe: Abortion Is a Better Choice...for the Unborn Child!

There is a glaring problem with media bias favoring abortion; no doubt about that -- but over-the-top media stupidity? Here's political commentator Mark Finkelstein's brief take on a Boston Globe editorial in which abortion was described as the best option...for the unborn child!

Government By Bureaucratic Whim

In order to take (and keep) political power, people have been known to distort the record, to lie, to bend the rules, to bribe, to cheat, to exert various coercive measures and, like many modern judges and Robin Carnahan, the Democrat Secretary of State in Missouri, to simply refuse to obey the law.

Paul Jacob gives the details of this shysterette in this Town Hall column.

A Memorial Service for the Victims of Abortion

This afternoon Bev Weis joined Claire and I at the St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery in south Omaha for a special memorial service for the victims of abortion. The service was sponsored by the Omaha Business and Professional People for Life and I had been asked to say a few words and then lead those gathered in a prayer. A small service was then conducted by the Rev. Mr. Glenn Tylutki.

The day was terribly hot (102 degrees) and the trees planted around the memorial have not yet grown tall or leafy enough to provide shade so it was a fairly small group. But no matter; the memorial was as lovely and peaceful as ever, the fellowship quite encouraging, and the prayers, being earnest and directed to the God of all confort, were certainly of great value.

The memorial design involves two rings of square granite stones embedded in a circle of flowers, small bushes and ground cover. In the middle of the circle is a dramatic stone statue of a pensive woman kneeling in contemplation. It is the Rachel Mourning Statue and upon the large square pedestal on which it rests are the appropriate Scripture and an explanation of the memorial's significance. It is really a very moving display and an excellent place to quietly mourn, pray and re-dedicate onself to the fight against the unjust violence of abortion.

The square granite stones are actually designed to be used as memorial tablets with space for the inscriptions of the names of children lost to the world through abortion. Names of children can easily be reserved for a tablet simply by e-mailing Vital Signs Ministries. We will contact the BPPL in your behalf. The normal donation suggested for each line on one of the granite squares is $25 but the price can be covered by BPPL or Vital Signs.

The Memorial for the Unborn is truly a haven for healing and needs to be promoted by the Omaha pro-life community much more than it has been these last four years of its existence. Especially relevant would be the increased involvement of the post-abortion ministries provided by our local pro-life pregnancy centers.

Again, the Memorial for the Unborn is located on the southwest end of St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery, 5226 S. 46th Street (48th & Q).

Amnesty International's Desire to Promote Abortion Is Beginning to Hit the Headlines

The move by pro-life citizens to keep Amnesty International from engaging in abortion advocacy is beginning to go public. And that's a good thing.

When the story first started leaking out last spring, visitors here at Vital Signs Blog were encouraged to write, call, or e-mail Amnesty International to pass on their opinions about a human rights organization transforming itself into an anti-human rights organization. (See this post to refresh your memory and note below the contact information for Amnesty International's U.S office.)

This approach; namely, bringing the lights of truth and justice to the powers that be and reminding them that someone is watching what they do is, of course, classic Amnesty International stuff. They have effectively promoted and organized such activities against human rights abusers for decades.

But, when they themselves conspire to engage in immoral actions against preborn children, they cling to the same kind of self-righteous stubborness they've seen in hardline dictators. As the AP news story describes it, "Amnesty officials were unavailable for interviews, but the group released a statement from its London headquarters saying the group 'does not make policy according to the ebbs and flows of external pressure.'"

Poor dears.

Of course, when you've tried to keep this move towards abortion advocacy in the closet...and when you keep leaders unavailable for comment...and when you release an arrogant, yet unsigned, statement that you're not concerned about "external pressure," you reveal all too clearly that you are.

Therefore, your letters, calls and e-mails remain very much in order.

Amnesty International Web site -- www.amnestyusa.org
Telephone of the U.S. office -- 212 807 8400
Address of the U.S. office -- 5 Penn Plaza - 14th floor
New York
NY 10001
USA
E-mail of the U.S. office -- admin-us@aiusa.org

The White Buffalo Calf Woman Speaks from the Great Beyond...In Favor of Abortion

If anything, Judy Peres' story in the Chicago Tribune demonstrates that she must have skipped a few of her journalism classes. Sure, her article (which covers the Cecelia Fire Thunder controversy) reveals the bias towards abortion that one regularly sees in the MSM. That's no surprise. But Ms. Peres' disorganized, rambling, fitfully written prose is. The Tribune used to require better work than this.

At any rate, the article does have a few points of interest, especially those relating to former Chief Fire Thunder's introduction of the White Buffalo Calf Woman to lend divine assistance to her campaign to put a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic on "her" Oglala Sioux reservation.

Condoms for Kids?

Gee...there's nothing like reaching out to help kids, is there?

An example? Let's look at Durex, a subsidiary of the multi-national conglomerate, SSL International, whose new "condoms for kids" hit the shelves in Germany this past week with sales in the U.K. and elsewhere scheduled for next year.

According to the news report, "the condom is 49mm wide — compared to the 52mm standard version — and is easier to put on. Durex says it is designed for the younger, less experienced users. A spokesman said: “It is aimed at youths between 13 and 16, where a not insignificant number engage in unprotected sex.”

Despite the heartbreak, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, abortion, and the death of innocence that always follows the promotion of sexual activity among young unmarrieds (even with the best condoms in use), Durex will still try to sell the line that they are selling the "kiddie condom" out of the best motives. And with the Family Planning Association being behind them, they just might fool a few suckers after all.

By the way, among other companies owned by SSL International is Scholl, makers of popular foot products. Here's the news story, courtesy of the Sun Online (U.K.).

Does the Pro-Life Movement Care About In Vitro Fertilization?

Pro-abortion columnist Michael Kinsley answers the above question in the negative. “In short, if embryos are human beings with full human rights, fertility clinics are death camps—with a side order of cold-blooded eugenics,” writes Kinsley in the National Post. “No one who truly believes in the humanity of embryos could possibly think otherwise.”

Furthermore, Kinsley goes on in his article to portray pro-lifers as inconsistent and hypocrital because they don't oppose fertlity clinics that create expendable embryos.

But Kinsley is engaging (as he usually does) in selective reporting, conveniently ignoring the wide array of pro-life leaders and organizations (including Vital Signs Ministries) that has steadfastly protested any and all philosophies, methodolgies and practitioners that endanger preborn children.

So, let's set the record straight, okay? John Jalsevac, writing this article for LifeSite News gives a fuller, more accurate look at the issue.

Welcome to the State of Paranoia

Actually, modern Iran has not only become a nation marked by deep paranoia but also of extreme intolerance, coercion and obscurantism. This latest action (i.e. the banning of such dangerous words of foreign origin as "pizza") is almost laughable...until one remembers how violent and barbaric this regime has become in its passion to "purify" others.

Putin and Chavez Agree on New Weapons Deal

This is the kind of news story that you may be tempted to pass over as you flip the pages (or the TV remote) looking for something of more current significance.

But when dictators get together, especially from other sides of the world -- and especially when the party ends in one Communist thug selling a lot of really dangerous toys to another Communist thug -- then there is serious trouble on the horizon for the free world.

The Erratic Tom Davis Wins "Porker of the Month" Award

Republican Congressman Tom Davis is a conservative-leaning libertarian but one who has a mixed record on both social issues and spending priorities. For instance, he generally votes with the Congress' pro-life bloc but, like others, he was inconsistent enough in his own philosophy to vote for more embryonic stem cell funding last week. He has further disappointed conservatives by voting against vouchers for private schools and by promoting increased privileges for homosexuals, thus earning fulsome praise and support from the Log Cabin Republicans.

Davis can be very erratic in other areas too. He has strangely inconsistent records on energy, environment, tax reform, election reform, and so on. Even on spending, Davis keeps causing his colleagues to scratch their heads in confusion. For example, he has voted for a balanced budget amendment, for line item veto power, and has a 93% record with the Chamber of Commerce, indicating a strong pro-business perspective. But, in contrast, Tom Davis has supported many of the "most boondoggley" pork projects coming out of Congress. Indeed, one of them, a federal bailout of the Washington, D.C. Metro system, has seen Davis as a key leader.

The bailout is a hefty one: $1.5 billion over 10 years. And this is all on top of the $6.2 billion Congress has already given to the bumbling, stumbling transit authority in 3 other bailouts since 1967. And note this too -- this latest rip-off of taxpayer money comes in spite of a series of reports in the Washington Post last summer revealing how the transit folks managed to mismanage $1 billion!

And so... for leading the way for this exchange of money from your pocket to those of the D.C. transit system, the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) has "awarded" Tom Davis the dubious distinction of being its "Porker of the Month."

You can read the rest of the CAGW's commentary about Davis' pet pork project right here.

Common Sense from the MSM

The MSM can do it right and this editorial published in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel is a prime example. The column applauds the common sense that was shown by Democrat Senator (and presidential hopeful) Evan Bayh in voting for the Child Custody Protection Act.

And over here at the Columbus Dispatch, the paper printed a nice, balanced argument from a nearby academic defending President Bush's veto of the embryonic stem cell funding bill.

Oh yeah; the mainstream media can do it right.

They just so often refuse to do so.

Uzbekistan Moves Against Non-Muslims -- Again

From Compass Direct News, an outlet primarily for news reports of persecution against religious believers, comes this report:

Uzbekistan has closed down another Western-funded aid agency, ordering the complete liquidation of the Central Asian Free Exchange (CAFE) and ouster of its foreign staff.

A final appellate court judgment against CAFE was handed down by Tashkent courts on July 11, less than four months after a rash of local court cases were launched against branch CAFE offices in six cities across Uzbekistan.

Like 20 other humanitarian groups closed down on scant hearsay evidence within the past two years by the authoritarian Central Asian state, CAFE was charged with a list of various procedural laws it had allegedly violated.

But the most serious accusation against CAFE was that the nonprofit group was doing covert missionary work among Uzbekistan’s predominantly Muslim citizens. Due to “conditions in Uzbekistan,” the lengthy verdict claimed, “missionary activity will have fatal consequences.”

Here is the rest of this sad story of intolerance and bigotry.

Does MTV Own You (Or Your Teenager)?

“At MTV, we don’t shoot for the 14-year-olds, we own them.”

(Bob Pittman, creator of the MTV Network.)

Well, there's a few teenagers who MTV doesn't own...except as enemies.

Today there's a protest going on outside MTV's corporate headquarters in New York City. That protest is organized by Stand True, a group of young Americans dedicated to fighting for the sanctity of life and for the promotion of Christian virtues in our culture. At this demonstration, the group will be praying and handing out flyers with hip and hopeful challenges for young people to take back their lives from such would-be "mind'masters" as MTV.

For more information, including a PDF version of the flyer to be distributed, follow this link.

And for the news item about the protest which caught my attention today, thanks to the Generations for Life web site.

The Outlawing of Fetal Farming

This isn't the first time I've mentioned this, but then it's certainly no problem to repeat it -- Jill Stanek's columns from her web site as well as those she writes for World Net Daily are really quite excellent. They're always well reasoned, timely and compelling.

Jill''s most recent piece deals with the legislation President Bush did sign last week, the ban on fetal farming. Jill explains just what was at stake with this legislation, why it was so ignored by the MSM, and what we can expect the law to do.

Evangelicals and Global Warming: The ISA Response

The Interfaith Stewardship Alliance is a coalition of religious leaders, scientists, academics, and others who desire to speak and serve as biblical stewards of God's creation. They particularly seek to promote the principles of the Cornwall Declaration in the discussion of various public policy issues including population and poverty, food, energy, water, endangered species, habitat, and other related topics.

Recently, the ISA drew up a specific response to those evangelical leaders (and many pseudo-evangelical leaders) who had fallen hard for the politically but scientifically-incorrect theories of global warming that are touted by the left. In fact, a document entitled, Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action, which reflected these theories (and which included plenty of political commentary) was signed not only by such liberal religious figures as Jim Wallis and Ron Sider but also by popular evangelical leaders like Rick Warren and Jack Hayford. That document made a lot of noise when it was released last winter.

The excellent, well-balanced ISA response to the above mentioned document is entitled, An Open Letter to the Signers of “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action” and Others Concerned About Global Warming. The letter begins...

Widespread media reports tell of a scientific consensus that:
• the world is presently experiencing unprecedented global warming;
• the main cause of it is rising atmospheric carbon dioxide because of human use of fossil fuels for energy; and
• the consequences of continuing this pattern will include (1) rising sea levels that could inundate highly populated and often poor low-lying lands, (2) more frequent deadly heat waves, droughts, and other extreme weather events, (3) increased tropical diseases in warming temperate regions, and (4) more frequent and intense hurricanes.
Recently eighty-six evangelical pastors, college presidents, mission heads, and other leaders signed “Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action,” under the auspices of the Evangelical Climate Initiative. The document calls on the federal government to pass national legislation requiring sufficient reductions in carbon dioxide emissions to fight global warming and argues that these are necessary to protect the poor from its harmful effects.

In light of all this, many people are puzzled by the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance’s opposition to such calls. Do we not care about the prospect of catastrophic global warming? Do we not care that with rising temperatures the polar ice caps will melt, and the sea will inundate low island countries and coastal regions? Do we not care that the world’s poor might be most hurt by these things?

Yes, we care. But we also believe, with economist Walter Williams, that “truly compassionate policy requires dispassionate analysis.” That is the very motive for our opposing drastic steps to prevent global warming. In short, we have the same motive proclaimed by the Evangelical Climate Initiative in its “Call to Action.” But motive and reason are not the same thing. It matters little how well we mean, if what we do actually harms those we intend to help.

That is why we take the positions we do. In the accompanying document, “A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming,” we present extensive evidence and argument against the extent, the significance, and perhaps the existence of the much-touted scientific consensus on catastrophic human-induced global warming. Further, good science–like truth–is not about counting votes but about empirical evidence and valid arguments. Therefore we also present data, arguments, and sources favoring a different perspective:...

Read the complete text of the ISA letter here and then, check out the ISA study document itself -- A Call to Truth, Prudence and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming.

Major Ecumenical Move: Catholics, Lutherans and Now Methodists Agree About Justification

At the 19th World Methodist Conference meeting in Seoul, South Korea, the denomination took the unprecedented step of joining the Lutheran World Federation and the Roman Catholic Church in signing a joint agreement on the doctrine of justification. It represents a historic and significant development in ecumenism. The story, courtesy of The Christian Post, is here.

Unfortunately, the news report does not give its readers much sense of what these folks are actually agreeing to. For that you'll have to be ready to wade into the lengthy document finalized back in 1999. That 13-page theological presentation can be found over here in the documents of the Roman Curia.

Now, anyone familiar with church history, theological controversy and/or current views of denominational leadership realizes that this joint signing doesn't mean that all (or even the most important) of the barriers between the various Christian confessions are down. Such Reformation hallmarks of sola sciptura, priesthood of the believer, sufficiency of the atonement, and so on still clash with Roman Catholic doctrines of Marianology, purgatory, the role of the sacraments, the authority of the Pope and others. For instance, note the introduction to the documents of the Roman Curia from which the original Lutheran/Catholic justification statement is taken...an introduction that clearly underscores the supremacy of the Roman Catholic papacy:

In exercising supreme, full, and immediate power in the universal Church, the Roman pontiff makes use of the departments of the Roman Curia which, therefore, perform their duties in his name and with his authority for the good of the churches and in the service of the sacred pastors.

No, notwithstanding this remarkable agreement on justification, full ecumenism has quite a ways to go.