More Companies Stop Giving to Planned Parenthood

As I have mentioned before, one of my regular prayers is that shame and scandal become the portion for Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortionist and the organization that most zealously promotes (and enables) sexual promiscuity among teenagers. I was overjoyed to read from Life Decisions International and LifeNews this report.

“We cannot say for sure exactly why this is happening, but more corporations have been removed from the boycott list between the July 2010 and December 2010 lists than have ever been dropped in the past,” he added.

The companies no longer financially supporting the abortion business, which does more than 25 percent of the abortions in the United States annually, include Enterprise car rentals, Forbes magazine, Ing financial services and one of the more ironic entries, Toys “R” Us.

Other companies dropped from the pro-life boycott list include Cisco Systems, Red Lion Hotels, Franchise Services, Rolex watch company, Kenneth Cole and Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare.

“This means that ten corporations have been dropped from the current list,” Scott continued. “It also means that, so far, a total of at least 270 corporations have agreed to stop giving money to the abortion-committing giant! Simply remarkable.”

Read more here.

Education Bureaucrats Raise Property Taxes 8.3% While Using Stimulus Money for Raises & Bonuses

Arrogance is an ugly thing. But it seems that Grayslake School Board Superintendent Ellen Correll has it in spades. Not only did she and four other board members vote to increase its tax levy on the community, but she also announced that she used federal “stimulus” money to dole out raises and bonuses to teachers and administrators.

The school board claims that it needs to raise the tax levy by 8.3 percent because of shortfalls in operating costs. Tax rates are limited on existing properties and is capped by law so due to this the tax hit on older properties would not be as great as 8.3 percent. New properties, however, are not capped.

But in this economy, who can afford property taxes to go up yet again? As school board member Michael Carbone said in his comments, statistics show that in 2009 one in three houses sold in the district were in distress and in 2010 it was 50%.

Shockingly, as Correll and her board are crying poor and demanding more money, the school board turned around and used so-called stimulus money for luxuries and payoffs instead of applying it to the supposedly much needed operation costs...

Warner Todd Huston has more on this ugly story here at Publius' Forum.

It's Started! Federal Judge Says ObamaCare Is Unconstitutional!

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson (a George W. Bush appointee) has declared the Obama administration's health care reform law unconstitutional.

The ruling was on Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's lawsuit challenging ObamaCare's requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014. Hudson agreed that the individual mandate provision of the law exceeded Congress' powers under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.

The stage is being set for a Supreme Court showdown.

Pray.

The Cad Walks Free. But Mom Goes to Jail.

Here's another glimpse of life in these topsy-turvy, tragi-comic United States.

A creepy 21-year old man has improper designs on a 16-year old girl. The girl's mother (a school teacher) desires to protect her daughter from his "dating" advances. Nevertheless, her only requirement is that they not leave together. She offers to let them hang out at her rural home outside Council Grove, Kansas. She even goes so far as to suggest she buy the pizza.

But no. The minor girl wants to go out with her adult "suitor." So the bounder forces his way into the house where the mother finds herself attacked and physically restrained by both her daughter and the thug. The man (who has 50 pounds on her) takes away the mom's cell phone so she cannot call the police.

So the alarmed mother grabs the gun of the house, a low caliber, single-shot rabbit rifle, and goes outside to the car before the pair drive away. The mother demands the man leave her daughter alone and drive away by himself. He refuses and taunts her. What can the mother do? Though she is an experienced hunter who knows how to shoot, she lowers the rifle and points it at the ground.

But as she watches her attacker start driving away with her daughter, the mom's nervousness causes her to pull the trigger. The .223 bullet is fired into the dirt, nowhere near the vehicle or either of its occupants. Nevertheless, the cops show up. And...you guessed it...the only person hauled off to jail is the mom!

The cad who admits he forced his way into the mother's home, who admits he physically restrained her three times and...well, I'm not going to speculate on the possibility of statutory rape...is not charged with anything!

No, it's the mom in trouble. Indeed, she now faces three felony counts which could result in at least a year in prison, a hundred thousand dollars in fines and the loss of her teacher's license.

"What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" -- Good Intentions vs Bad Results

Politics in the Christian Worldview

John Malek, Christian businessman, veteran pro-life activist and now a reflective blogger, wonders if politics might possibly represent a holy calling.

He considers this important question over at In Pursuit of Reason. Check it out.

...That being said, I know that as a believer our number one role is to fulfill the great commission, to take the gospel to the whole world. Politics, however, according to Word-Origins.com is “etymologically the art of ‘civil administration’” and I think that captures what I think of when I think of the term politics – how society organizes and governs itself. But back to fulfilling the great commission, how can politics do that? Our kingdom is not of this world so why should we concern ourselves with this worldly endeavor?

Politics is something which affects much, if not all of our lives, and over the past few years I have seen more and more clearly how politics and our involvement and interest through informing ourselves on the issues of the day is increasingly necessary and, indeed, a holy calling. Jesus challenged us to be salt and light to our culture and Christians through the ages have fulfilled that charge by slowly turning and molding the collective consciences of their communities. A cursory history of Western (Christianized) culture will show that in the areas of slavery, treatment of women, rule of law, treatment of prisoners, the poor, handicapped and infirm among others, the church has positively influenced culture.

We are still called to affect our culture and as citizens of the largest Republic, we have unprecedented opportunities to affect and mold the conscience of our nation and because of our nations influence, the world. Jesus and Paul both affirmed a duty of Christians is to be good citizens and in order to do that, we first must be men and women like the men of Issachar “who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” I Chronicles 12:32. Do we understand the times? Do we know what America should do?...

Today's Posts

Friday's To Do List. Yipes!

One Bizarre Woman Complains, Town Removes Nativity Scene

Obama Burns His Bridges

Canadian Emergency Rooms: "Someone Will See You in 8 Hours, We Hope."

The Shepherd's Dog

Friday's To Do List. Yipes!

On this day, quite probably the last relatively warm day we'll see for a few months, Claire and I have to:

* Finish blogging.
* Compile and send out the Top Ten posts of the week to our growing e-mail list.
* Finish this month's LifeSharer letter.
* Present our Christmas edition of "When Swing Was King" at a downtown nursing home.
* Decide on the menu for tomorrow's luncheon and then get started making the items.
* Set up the nativity figures in the front yard.
* Buy new Christmas lights and get them hung on the front of the house.
* Do a bit of work on the agenda for Monday night's Vital Signs Governing Board meeting.
* Make a few phone calls and e-correspondence.
* And try to get a couple of hours anyway in sermon preparation.

We may even try to fit in a meal or two...or some sleep tonight! Ah, Christmas time!

One Bizarre Woman Complains, Town Removes Nativity Scene

It isn’t grotesque or sexually offensive, it isn’t the naked teens on the walls of Abercrombie, or parts of the “anatomy” regularly hanging in some of the stores, like Spencers, that are in malls throughout the country. It isn’t profane or vulgar….it’s… the Baby Jesus that, once again, has people offended- so much so that they feel the need to register complaints.

It’s known as the War on Christmas and just a few decades ago would have prompted peals of belly laughter caused by disbelief had our previous generations been warned it was coming. That was the generation born with common sense.

It shows up right on time each year and the ridiculous stories abound. The latest is coming out of Pennsylvania from a town called Canonsburg who has displayed their beautiful Nativity scene for the last 57 years- enjoyed by families and neighboring communities for all that time.

"A Pennsylvania town has removed a Nativity scene from the borough building after a resident complained. Canonsburg Borough Manager Terry Hazlett tells the Observer-Reporter of Washington that he received a written complaint last week from resident Megan Hartley. She wrote that the creche was disrespectful to citizens who aren’t Christian and that it shouldn’t be displayed at a government building..."

"Hartley is a college grad, single mom and a fiction writer who especially enjoys dabbling in the supernatural, including a seemingly unhealthy fascination with demons, vampires and gore. In one of her short stories posted online, Hartley describes the point of view from a demon in Hell by describing the mutilation of a human."

So, we have one incredibly weird woman, obviously deeply immersed in the occult, calling the shots for the entire town. Where is this tolerance from the “party of tolerance” that we hear the left boast of so often? Where is the tolerance for a simple nativity scene that the majority of the town enjoys and looks forward to each Christmas? The liberal rule of thumb seems to always be that of squashing the rights of the majority to please a very tiny minority.

(Brittany Pounders , "The Death of Christmas," Liberty Juice)

Obama Burns His Bridges

Here are two excellent articles dealing with Barack Obama's "compromise" with Republicans on extending the Bush tax cuts that you must not miss. The first is from Jeffrey T. Kuhner at the Washington Times and the second is written by Peggy Noonan over at the Wall Street Journal.

But if you only read one, read Kuhner's. Here's a teaser:

President Obama has made a fatal political mistake: He has shattered his progressive base - perhaps permanently. His liberal hour is over. This is the real meaning of the White House's tax deal with Republicans...

Hence, Mr. Obama sold out his allies for nothing meaningful in return - and they know it. Progressives are seething. Many House Democrats are in revolt. The New York Times' Paul Krugman and Frank Rich have denounced him. MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has compared the president's capitulation to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's "appeasement" of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. Mr. Obama is losing his left flank - the very people who propelled him to the presidency.

Liberals are finally discovering what most Americans already know: Mr. Obama cannot be trusted. He is a narcissist who believes that everyone and everything - including his own country - must be subordinated to serve his needs. His messiah complex threatens to tear America apart.

This follows a pattern of betrayal. His administration's massive deficits have betrayed Middle America, putting us on the path to economic ruin and national bankruptcy. The passage of Obamacare was a betrayal of our democracy, creating the ominous precedent that sweeping legislation can be enacted without anyone in Congress knowing or even being able to read fully what's in a bill before it becomes law. This is dangerously close to ruling by decree. His foreign policy - apologizing to the Muslim world, pressuring Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians, withdrawing missile-defense sites from Eastern Europe, coddling Vladimir Putin's Russia, refusing to confront North Korea and Iran - has betrayed our international allies and friends. His strict rules of engagement, combined with a troop surge that has no plan for victory, has betrayed our military in Afghanistan.

He has now betrayed the socialist progressives. Closing Guantanamo Bay, making the public option the centerpiece of the health care overhaul, pulling all U.S. forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and repealing the hated Bush tax cuts - the list of his failed promises keeps growing...

Canadian Emergency Rooms: "Someone Will See You in 8 Hours, We Hope."

I don't know what I find most shocking in this news story about Canadian hospitals.

Is it the tragedy of Thelma Lee, the 41-year-old woman who died after crying out in the emergency room "I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe" for an hour and a half -- without being attended to.

Or is it the fact that Ontario is the only Canadian province to bother with setting minimal times to wait in emergency rooms -- and the target they've set (wait for it) is 8 hours!

Or is it that the real-life situation involves people actually waiting for 23 hours to be treated!

The core problem? The scandalous waste of resources on bureaucracy instead of direct patient care.

Can someone say, ObamaCare?

The Shepherd's Dog

The Shepherd's Dog
by Leslie Norris (1921-2006)

Out on the windy hill
Under that sudden star
A blaze of radiant light
Frightened my master.

He got up, left our sheep,
Tramped over the moor.
And I, following,
Came to this open door,

Sidled in, settled down,
Head on my paws,
Glad to be here, away
From the wind's sharpness.

Such warmth is in this shed,
Such comfort from this Child,
That I forget my hard life,
Ignore the harsh world,

And see on my master's face
The same joy I possess,
The knowledge of peace,
True happiness.

Today's Posts

Christmas Reading Suggestions

A New Planned Parenthood Opens in Omaha

Religious Convert Turns to Terrorism -- Guess Which Religion

Did You Catch These Quotes?

Judge's Ruling: Planned Parenthood Guilty of Illegal Abortion on a 14-Yr Old

Christmas Reading Suggestions

From the Hartfords' "Making the Most of Christmas,"

1) Reading aloud the Christmas accounts in Matthew and Luke should be an indispensable part of a family's Christmas celebration. But Papa should also instruct his children from his study of these texts and others relevant to the Advent of Jesus. For instance, the mystery of the magi, the significance of the shepherds, the "nuggets" contained in the genealogies, the miracle of the virgin conception, and many other of the profound details of the first Christmas should be fully explored. Christmas literature can be tremendously inspiring and fun, but the emphasis should always be put on the historical, supernatural truths of the Savior's Advent. With that understood, then, here are a few suggestions to expand your Yuletide reading.

2) Joni Eareckson-Tada's A Christmas Longing. A splendid work featuring inspirational art done by mouth-artist Joni and profound biblical commentary. This is an important book for your complete enjoyment of Christmas.

3) John MacArthur's God With Us.

4) Our old pal, the very talented Calvin Miller has a nifty little Christmas novel entitled Snow that I joyfully recommend.

5) Of course, Charles Dickens is indispensable to the full-bodied Christmas that the Hartfords love. But besides "A Christmas Carol" (that most exquisite of short stories), Dickens has also given us "Cricket on the Hearth," "The Haunted Man" and many other seasonal gems. Got your library card?

6) Don't settle for just watching the movie. Why not read the original text of Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies? You'll be pleased you did.

7) A definite "must" for Claire's and my holiday season is sitting down with a hot mug of something and listening to an old recording of Dylan Thomas reading his own fabulous poem, "A Child's Christmas in Wales." I feel sorry for you if you don't have access to that experience, but you can at least read it yourself. So grab a copy at the library – or maybe whip up a batch of cookies and pay us a visit. We'll be more than happy to heat up the old Victrola!

8) Henry Van Dyke wrote several religious Christmas stories but "The Other Wise Man" is his not-to-be-missed classic. It is a perfect family read.

9) "The Gift of the Magi" is O. Henry's claim to Christmas fame and rightly he earned it. But he has several other Christmas stories you'd enjoy as well.

10) G.K. Chesterton's Christmas gifts not only include some of the wonderful poetry we include in these pages, but a Father Brown detective story entitled, "The Flying Stars."

11) Did you know that even Sherlock Holmes has a Christmas adventure? You bet! Check out Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle."

12) Poetry – man, there's a gang of excellent Christmas poetry that's been written but in our post-Christian culture, you have to work hard to find it! It's another reason to cultivate friendships with old books! (Hint! You'll find some wonderful examples of Christmas poetry by scanning through the Christmas section over at the old Book Den.)

Note: In addition to that one page of reading suggestions originally printed in our "Making the Most of Christmas" (1999), both Claire and I would endorse these Christmas books we've discovered since: Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope and The Bird's Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin.

And, if you'd like a few more suggestions, here are links to a few Christmas-themed book reviews from the old Book Den:

It Ain't No Mayberry: A Review of O Little Town

I Found Noel. Have You?

Who Wants a Little Schmaltz for Christmas? (Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas.)

Last Shot at Christmas Books --- Or An Early Start for Next Year’s Christmas List

Christmas Every Day

Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas

And finally, from our old KGBI days, here for your listening enjoyment is a radio recording (15 minutes, if I remember correctly) of Christmas of the Talking Animals.

A New Planned Parenthood Opens in Omaha

Yesterday Claire and I were praying in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in northwest Omaha (93rd and Binney) which had just opened for business. I also did a brief interview with KPTM there, sharing just a few of the reasons that Vital Signs Ministries joins many, many others in protesting the presence of such a grisly, immoral place.

I pointed out the huge profits that Planned Parenthood makes. For instance, in the fiscal year of 2006-2007, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America income was $1.018 billion. That's right, kids. $1.018 "b" (as in barbarism) billion. That, by the way, was up 11% from the previous year.

Not bad for a not-for-profit charity, huh?

And despite the enormous profits Planned Parenthood makes from selling surgical abortions and various abortifacient drugs, a third of their income comes from taxpayers!

Keep in mind also that they continue to get tax revenues even though they end each year with a vast surplus of cash. The excess profit for 2006-2007 alone was $114.8 million.

I also explained to the reporter (and through a press release that was sent out to other news outlets) that Planned Parenthood is the #1 abortionist in the United States. They now account for 20% of all abortions. In the same year mentioned above, the organization killed 289,750 preborn human beings. That was up more than 9% from the previous year.

And the numbers of abortions committed by Planned Parenthood in more recent years are higher still.

And though they love to insist they are a pro-choice organization that also offers adoptive referrals, only 2,410 customers were referred to adoption agencies. That's less than 1%.

Among Planned Parenthood's other shameful activity is the promotion and enablement of sexual promiscuity. They do so with aggressively immoral "sex education" materials and classes as well as the sales and distribution of condoms, various birth control drugs and devices (frequently abortifacient) and surgical abortions. In so doing, they can rightly be blamed for much of the tragic effects of the sexual revolution: the epidemic levels of sexually transmitted disease, the heartbreak and alienation caused by sexual sin, the serial "hooking up" which becomes practice for divorce, the plight of millions being raised by single parents, the breakdown of parental authority and, of course, the ongoing holocaust of abortion.

As I said to the KPTM reporter, "It is a sad day for a neighborhood when Planned Parenthood opens up shop."

For more on Planned Parenthood and how it contrasts with the compassionate, moral services provided by pro-life pregnancy centers, read Barb Malek's recent essay, "324,008 deaths or 700 lives? Where Should the Money Go?"

Religious Convert Turns to Terrorism -- Guess Which Religion

Here's a clip from CBS News about yet another homegrown terrorist who was stopped by the FBI from his scheme to kill Americans with firebombs. Like the others who the FBI has caught recently, he was a recent religious convert with a passion to blow sky high innocent American citizens.

Can you guess which religion he had embraced?

However, note that at the end of the clip, the CBS reporter seems to be almost as worried about the FBI's "entrapment" of these would-be mass killers as he is about the terrorists' designs. It's a bizarre twist to an otherwise good news story.

Did You Catch These Quotes?

John Hawkins over at Right Wing News has assembled his 2nd Annual "40 Best Political Quotes Of the Year." Invigorating reading, that's for sure. I drop in below a few of my favorites.

38) Liberals don't care. Their approach is to rip out society's foundations without asking if they serve any purpose. Why do we have immigration laws? What's with these borders? Why do we have the institution of marriage, anyway? What do we need standardized tests for? Hey, I like Keith Richards -- why not make heroin legal? Let's take a sledgehammer to all these load-bearing walls and just see what happens! -- Ann Coulter

33) Since the 1960s, much of the American church has been stampeding away from its allegedly "judgmental" past. As we de-stigmatize divorce, our families dissolve. As we de-stigmatize illegitimacy, fathers vanish. In matters public (see, for example, the Christian community's utter failure to oppose no-fault divorce) and private (the reluctance to "judge" our close friends when they stray into manifestly destructive behaviors), the message is clear: "I'm not one of those judgmental Christians."

We need to learn that there's a difference between judgment and reading comprehension. You are not making a judgment when you say that homosexual sex is wrong, that God hates divorce, and that premarital sex is a sin. God made those judgments, and you're merely communicating the judgment He made, not making one of your own. Further, in withholding, watering down, or denying those truths, you are not making anyone's life better. You are making their lives worse. -- David French

28) As has been said, standards are always out of date -- that is why we call them standards. -- George Will

24) Our culture has few taboos that can’t be violated, and our establishment has largely given up on setting standards in the first place. Except where Islam is concerned. There, the standards are established under threat of violence, and accepted out of a mix of self-preservation and self-loathing. This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that “bravely” trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force. -- Ross Douthat

18) If there is no moral foundation for a system of laws, then the law is reduced to “These are the rules. They’re the rules because I say so, and I control all of the guys with guns.” We can ask those who survived Pol Pot, Stalin, or Mao how that worked out. (Hitler’s Nazism was not state atheism; it was filled with the occult. Anyone who watches Leni Riefenstahl‘s “Triumph of the Will“ and doesn’t see religion is willfully blind.)

So the law is either codification of morality or it is thuggery. The real argument is about which moral code will be implemented by the law. To claim to reject a moral underpinning for the law is either a wish to live in a place where the law is whatever one guy says it is today, or else it is a disingenuous attempt to substitute your own moral code for the one that has already been codified. -- Beregond

Judge's Ruling: Planned Parenthood Guilty of Illegal Abortion on a 14-Yr Old

A judge has issued a ruling saying a Cincinnati Planned Parenthood abortion business rushed an abortion it did on a 14-year-old girl who was a victim of sexual abuse.

The case was brought by parents whose minor daughter had an abortion at a Planned Parenthood facility without their knowledge after being sexually abused by her adult coach. The parents allege that Planned Parenthood failed to comply with the statute requiring reports of known or suspected child abuse as well as Ohio’s parental consent statute.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Jody Luebbers gave the girl and her parents a major legal victory on Tuesday. She indicated the abortion practitioner for Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio breached the legal requirement by not meeting with the girl 24 hours prior to the abortion, as stipulated by the state’s informed consent statute, to explain to her the alternatives available to her...

More of the LifeNews story right here.

Today's Posts

The Christmas Gift That Kept On Giving

"Dumbing Down" Update: American Kids 25th Out of 34

It's a Farce: ObamaCare Waivers Climb to 222

Just How Many Jobs Did the Stimulus Create?

The Outlawing of Christian Conscience

Surgical Oncologist Argues: Birth Control Pill Is a "Molotov Cocktail" for Cancer

The Christmas Gift That Kept On Giving

The most memorable Christmas gift in the history of my family cost, if I remember correctly, 89 cents. It was a bottle of Lucarelli, an after shave cologne, that I picked up at a half-price store as a present for my youngest brother, Ric. We couldn't afford much that Christmas but we were nevertheless committed to a Hartford-style Yuletide. That meant putting several gifts under the tree for each member of the family. With parents, Grandma Ellsworth, five siblings (and usually a dog), that made quite a pile of gifts surrounding our Christmas tree.

An expensive tradition? Not really, because cheap gifts, even gag gifts, were the rule. The only thing that mattered was making sure everyone had plenty of things to open, talk over, and joke about. In other words, to enjoy as much family time as possible around the Christmas tree. So it was old records, used books, food, broken toys you scrounged up from the basement, items bought at a thrift shop that no one could determine exactly what they were. Hey, anything was cool at a typical Hartford Christmas.

However, I must say that the bottle of Lucarelli that I'd bought for Ric wasn't intended to be one of those gag gifts; I thought he'd actually like it. But a year later, when we again journeyed out to Denver for the holidays and I spied that very bottle of after-shave sitting unopened on his dresser, I realized that my "nice gift" had been a bust.

What to do? Only one thing, of course -- swipe the Lucarelli off Ric's shelf, wrap it up and put it under the tree again. It was great watching my ever-loyal baby brother try and fake enthusiasm for what he thought was a second bottle of the stuff.

That began a family tradition of someone cagily lifting that same bottle of Lucarelli after every Christmas in order to re-gift it to somebody else. Grandma got it one year and it arrived in a washing machine-size box for someone else another year. One of the best moves was when I cut out Brut labels from a store circular and pasted them all over the Lucarelli bottle before wrapping it up for Ric again. Surprise! I bet you thought I was gonna' give you that Lucarelli bottle again, didn't you? But no, little bro; I sprang for the extra bucks and got you something nicer. Ric wasn't fooled, of course, but part of the tradition with these gag gifts was that you had to play it straight. And he did, beautifully!

The Lucarelli saga continued for many years, until alas, my sister Sherry broke it while transporting it out of Colorado for re-gifting the next year. She explained further that the stuff smelled so strong (and lousy) that she had to throw the towels out that it was wrapped in -- this even though the contents of the bottle had evaporated by about a third over the years.

The moral of the Lucarelli story is, as you've guessed already, a simple one -- the gifts that are truly memorable and the most fun are very often the ones that come from a full heart, not necessarily a full wallet. So let the advertisers play with someone else's mind while you get personal and creative in your gift-giving this year.

And don't bother about looking for any Lucarelli. That bottle was the last in existence.

"Dumbing Down" Update: American Kids 25th Out of 34

Oh, the woes of the American education system. For despite all the hoopla that the establishment, the liberal politicians and the mainstream media regularly generate concerning the excellence of government schools, the facts reveal something entirely different.

When the objective observer examines the public school system in the U.S., he sees an extremely expensive failure -- a failure that is not only marked by an addiction to political correctness but also by the severe problems of aberrant priorities (i.e., more emphasis on soft sciences and sports than solid academics); by a lack of competition; an abhorrence of merit-based standards (for students or teachers); peer pressure and bullying; anti-Americanism; intolerance towards Christianity; and intellectual obscurantism in the fields of history and science.

And one more thing.

Students aren't learning the basics of what they need to thrive in a high-pressure, global economy.

The latest case in point illustrates that the "dumbing down" of American kids which has gone on for decades is still the trend. Check it out. In the latest stats from the Program for International Student Assessment (the tests the U.S. government and nearly all others accepts as the best evaluations around), the kids from Shanghai, China scored highest in every single academic category!

The U.S. kids? Well, they ranked 25th out of 34 in math. 14th out of 34 in reading (behind South Korea, Finland, Canada, and many others). 17th out of 34 in science.

Sadder still, when the overall standings were tabulated, incorporating all subjects, 24 out of the 34 countries outscored the American kids.

Yipes.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan admitted, “The brutal fact here is there are many countries that are far ahead of us and improving more rapidly than we are. This should be a massive wake-up call to the entire country.”

But that alarm has been ringing for years. And it will just keep on ringing -- with more bad news -- until politicians finally liberate our nation's kids.

To fix these things, school choice is paramount. Competition must be introduced. Merit-based pay for teachers is essential. Tough standards of performance must be enacted and enforced to free kids from the bloated, leftist, and woefully inept education bureaucracy. Technical education must again become a standard feature in high schools. Schools must again become safe havens, not only from playground bullying, but also from the bullying of biased, birdbrained teachers.

And the NEA must be boldly confronted and reined in.

Are you listening, new Congress?

It's a Farce: ObamaCare Waivers Climb to 222

Commenting on the remarkable number of ObamaCare waivers the administration is quietly issuing, Wesley J. Smith wonders, "A law is passed, it is barely in effect [and] with most provisions still years off, and the government has to issue hundreds of waiver (including to about 50 unions) to prevent people from losing their insurance. If it is this bad this early, what will happen when the buzz saw really hits?"

Smith links to Jamie Dupree's report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for more information (including the waiver count now climbing to 222). And if you'd like to run through the whole list, you'll find it here.

But don't figure this will be the end of it. The Democrats still have a lot of friends to pay off...with your money!

Just How Many Jobs Did the Stimulus Create?

According to recovery.gov, the President's website designed to track the stimulus plan, the $800 Billion plus porkulous bill passed in February 2009 is responsible for 3,348,813 jobs. According to a new analysis conducted by the San Fransisco office of the Federal Reserve, the president's projection is off by only 3,348,813 jobs. That's correct The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created exactly zero permanent jobs.

Zero permanent jobs?

Some story, huh? But Katie Couric won't be reporting on it tonight so zip on over to The Lid where they break it down nice and nifty.

The Outlawing of Christian Conscience

Did you realize that OB-GYN’s have to refer for abortion or risk losing their license? Just this month, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) reaffirmed a decision which they made in 2007. They have concluded and ruled that “patient autonomy trumps a physician’s right to conscience.”

And, since a doctor can have their board certification revoked if they act in violation of an ACOG ruling, standing up for one’s principles is risky business for these men and women...

Scary? You better believe it. But go get the whole story from Barb Malek over at Erase the Need.

Surgical Oncologist Argues: Birth Control Pill Is a "Molotov Cocktail" for Cancer

How often do doctors in America prescribe a Group One carcinogen - one recognized as a “definite” cause of cancer - to otherwise healthy patients?

Answer: as often as they prescribe the hormonal birth control pill.

This little-known fact about the pill was presented by Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, a breast surgical oncologist and co-founder of the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, who shared her expertise on the drug at the “50 Years of the Pill” conference in Washington, DC on Friday...

Lanfranchi offered a wealth of statistical data from various sources to support a fact that is known by the medical community to be true yet is rarely acknowledged: use of the pill has been strongly linked to an increased risk of breast cancer. The pill is also believed to increase the risk of cervical cancer and liver cancer.

“This stuff is not new, it’s not magic, it’s in the literature,” she said, linking pill use to the 660 percent rise in non-invasive breast cancer since 1973. “Women want to know, and women have a right to know, what researchers have known for over 20 years.”

She compared media treatment of the pill’s cancer risk to that of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), which was found to be carcinogenic in 2002. Once word got out, 15 out of 30 million women in America taking HRT stopped; by 2007, invasive breast cancer in women over 50 for estrogen-receptive positive tumors dropped 11 percent.

Meanwhile, she noted, hormonal contraception - essentially the same drug as HRT and with a similar cancer risk, about 25-30 percent - continues to be touted as harmless and even healthy. And yet, the International Agency on Research of Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organization, classified hormonal contraceptives in 2005 as a group one carcinogen along with asbestos and radium.

Unlike the HRT discovery, “I don’t remember one six o’clock news report about that information,” said Lanfranchi.

While even medical textbooks attest to the 30 percent increase in cancer risk, Lanfranchi noted a pervasively dismissive attitude: one British medical textbook she cited said that, “Considering the benefits of the pill, this slight increased risk is not considered clinically significant.”

Not clinically significant? “To whom?” Lanfranchi asked...

Read the full report on Dr. Lanfranchi's talk here at LifeSiteNews.

Today's Posts

Yes, We Still Remember

Chase Bank Chases Away Christmas Tree

"When Swing Was King" Swings Into Christmas!

Remarkable Development! Protection Against STDS, Unwanted Pregnancy, Heartbreak!

Will Hungary Rediscover Its Christian Heritage?

Obama Loses a Kiss

Yes, We Still Remember

Yes, we yet remember December 7 and we honor the memory of those American lives lost.

But we also take time on this Pearl Harbor Day to pray that our nation never forgets the crucial importance of comprehensive preparedness.

For a thorough preparedness requires 1) military strength, savvy and resolve. Of that there is a unified understanding.

But 2) it also requires a humility of our nation's people before Almighty God, a humility that requires us to live according to His Word.

Alas, on both counts, there is cause for very deep worry.

Chase Bank Chases Away Christmas Tree

You would think that the front office of the huge financial conglomerate JPMorgan Chase Bank would be awfully busy nowadays. You know what I mean -- America's constant business re-structuring, large scale mortgage defaults, investor panic, the national debt, a worldwide economic meltdown.

But no, these guys apparently have time enough to also play the Grinch to a local branch bank, sending down an order for them to remove a Christmas tree that had been set up in the bank's lobby!

Chase Bank told a Texas businessman to remove the Christmas tree he donated to a local branch because it could offend people.

Antonio Morales, owner of Bellagio Day Spa in Southlake northeast of Fort Worth had assembled and decorated a 9-foot-tall tree in the lobby of the Chase Bank branch at 1700 E. Southlake Boulevard as a favor to the branch manager, who is one of his clients.

The tree remained in the lobby from the Monday before Thanksgiving until Tuesday. Morales said his friend called him Wednesday to tell him the tree had to go. She later showed him an e-mail from JPMorgan Chase saying that the tree had to be removed because some people were offended by it...

A spokeswoman at Trinity Bank in Fort Worth said it has had a tree in its lobby since the Friday after Thanksgiving.

"I've been in this business more than 30 years, and every place I've worked we've put up a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving," said Linda Robertson, assistant vice president.

Bryan Fischer, director of issue analysis for the American Family Association, called Chase's decision absurd. "According to Advertising Age, 91 percent of American people celebrate Christmas," Fischer said. "That means that the single most inoffensive thing you can do at this time of year is wish someone a merry Christmas."

Fischer said that companies that have gotten away from acknowledging Christmas claim that they do it because they want to be inclusive. "The most inclusive thing you can do is wish someone merry Christmas," he said. "This means that Chase is running the risk of offending far more people by disrespecting Christmas than they are by honoring it."

After reading this story, I was particularly glad that our recent refinancing of our home had released us from doing business with JPMorgan Chase Bank. Nevertheless, I'm sending them a Christmas card via their media contact for Corporate Social Responsibility, Ann Marie Hauser (annmarie.hauser@jpmchase.com):

Dear Ms. Hauser,

Would you please pass on up the line this citizen's displeasure at the recent action of JP Morgan Chase management to force a local bank to get rid of a Christmas tree?

Yes, we have all heard the requisite defenses of such an anti-Christmas posture but those reasons remain as trite and fallacious as ever. Indeed, for companies to treat with contempt the strength of Christmas traditions in America and thus offend the preference of the vast majority of Americans isn't politically-correct or culturally sensitive at all. It's actually mean-spirited. And it's bad for business.

Again, I would appreciate your passing my complaint along. I'm quite sure it represents the opinion of most who read about your company's "axing" the Christmas tree.

Thank you and, with no pun or disrespect meant at all, please accept my best wishes for a Merry Christmas.

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

"When Swing Was King" Swings Into Christmas!

Among the prevailing duties that kept me offline last week were presentations of the Christmas version of "When Swing Was King" at three different facilities. All went extremely well, putting Claire and I, the residents, and the activities directors all deeply into the Christmas spirit.

Our Christmas version of "When Swing Was King" incorporated both the festive side of a big band holiday and also several songs which emphasized the religious significance of Christ's Advent. The accompanying photo presentation did the same. The result was what we hope for from all our Christmas parties -- a lively sense of good fun and fellowship, an appreciation of the unique beauty and memories which Christmas brings, and a time for serious reflections about the holy nativity.

As I said, the response from the elders was terrific. I'll quote just one dear lady -- "I so love it when you guys come and the music is always great and the pictures bring back to me so many wonderful memories. And the stories you tell are so interesting. But this today was the best of all! The pictures were so beautiful and, oh, the songs! You probably heard me because I think I sang along with every single one of them! Thank you both for coming again and not forgetting us. We just love you!"

I ask you -- how could we even think of staying away when we get responses like that?

Last week Allen and Cindy Nelson joined us for one of the presentations. That was their second time in coming along to visit and make friends. And, believe me, they're great at it! We were so thrilled to have them. And the invitation is always open for others too. We still have several presentations coming up here in December so, if you'd like to come along, just give us a call. It's an especially opportune ministry for retired folks, stay at home Moms and home-school kids.

And for those of you interested in the various song lists we develop for each month (no small task), here's the ones that made the Christmas edition of "When Swing Was King:"

Glenn Miller Orchestra: "In the Christmas Mood"
Tommy Dorsey Orchestra: "March of the Toys"
Duke Ellington Orchestra: "Jingle Bells"
Frank Sinatra: a 1947 recording of "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem"
Perry Como: "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen"
Vaughn Monroe: "Let It Snow"
Guy Lombardo Orchestra: "O, Come All Ye Faithful"
Benny Goodman Orchestra (with Peggy Lee & Art Lund): "Winter Weather"
Woody Herman Orchestra: "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"
The Mills Brothers: "O, Holy Night"
Judy Garland: "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"
Glenn Miller Orchestra: "Silent Night"
Bing Crosby: "White Christmas"

Remarkable Development! Protection Against STDS, Unwanted Pregnancy, Heartbreak!

Will Hungary Rediscover Its Christian Heritage?

Amid the wreckage that secularism and Islamification have brought to Europe (economic collapse, ever escalating crime rates, social breakdown, abortion, euthanasia, religious intolerance), Hungary hopes to rebuild its culture by looking to its Christian heritage.

The new government of Hungary has proposed a new constitution that would, among other dramatic changes, restore protection to the unborn and define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

Here's LifeSiteNews with the story.

Should these constitutional changes be adopted, they would create a complete about-face for Hungary, which currently has one of the most liberal abortion laws in Europe.

An ad-hoc parliamentary committee in charge of drafting the constitution has presented the draft document for debate in the Hungarian National Assembly between Dec. 10 and 15, before being submitted to a vote. If the document is approved by parliament, new changes to the constitution will only be possible if two subsequent parliaments vote on identical changes with the backing of a two-thirds majority on each occasion, the document stated.

The newly governing party, Fidesz, is usually described in the European media as “centre-right” and socially conservative. It rules in a coalition government with the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP). This April, the Fidesz/KNDP coalition won a huge landslide victory with a two-thirds majority, with Fidesz winning 263 of 386 seats in the National Assembly. Fidesz started its political life as a student-led anti-communist party who were actively persecuted by the regime. Its power has grown in successive elections since winning 8.95 percent of the vote in 1990, to its current 52.73 percent.

Modern Hungary’s first constitution was adopted in 1949 when the country was under communist rule. This was heavily amended in 1989 when communism in Europe was collapsing, and the current revision was announced earlier this year. If it is adopted, the new constitution will be the country’s first under a democratic government.

A pro-life constitution would mean a massive shift in Hungarian law, and a nearly unprecedented change for any EU country. Under communist rule abortion was allowed without restriction and was paid for by the state since the 1950s. Hungary’s current abortion rate, at nearly 30 percent of all pregnancies, is one of the highest in Europe.

Hungary’s birth rate is similar to that of many European countries spiraling down into a demographic crisis, with a general fertility rate of 1.39 children born per woman and a median age for women of 42.6 years. Population growth rate is - 0.156 per cent...

The new government’s plans have already come under attack by Europe’s intellectual liberals with an editorial piece appearing in the UK’s Guardian newspaper, warning that the European Union needs to “send a message” to Hungary’s new government, which it accuses of “dismantling the rule of law and eroding a fragile democratic political culture.”

Why not join me in sending a Christmas note to encourage the Hungarian leaders who are making this bold new move? I'm sending along an e-mail message to the political party Fidesz in care of the Hungarian Civic Union (fidesz@fidesz.hu) and a Christmas card through the regular post to the Hungarian ambassador to the United States. That address is:

Embassy of the Republic of Hungary in USA
3910 Shoemaker Street, N.W.
20008 USA

The message?

Having read of the visionary and idealistic constitution being proposed for Hungary by the parliamentary committee in the new government, I wanted to write and commend those who are seeking to bring this new constitution to reality. My Christmas prayer is that Hungary will adopt this enlightened constitution and thus provide a beacon for the rest of Europe.

It is so exciting to hope that the pro-life, pro-family ethics that once distinguished Hungary as one of the most enlightened and noble countries in Europe will again be promoted and that Hungary might be looking to its finest hour.

Please pass on to other officials there the sincere respect and appreciation which many Americans are feeling for Hungary in the light of this honorable, humane and progressive constitutional proposal.

Denny Hartford
Director, Vital Signs Ministries
Teaching Pastor, Faith Bible Church
(My street address & zip code)

Obama Loses a Kiss

Count Gene Simmons as another disillusioned Obama voter.

The Israeli/American bass player and entrepreneur who co-founded the hard rock group, Kiss, now admits that his vote for Barack Obama was based on a mix of emotion, guilt and naive idealism. He now understands that Obama was woefully unqualified for the job and that the overpowering reach of a leftist government threatens basic liberties. Watch.



(Thanks to David Ommen for the link.)

Today's Posts

Santa Claus and Frank Nitti?

Chemical Abortionists: First, They Lie. Then They Destroy.

TSA Agent Grabs the Cutie: "Because You Caught My Eye & They Didn't"

And What Else Has Been Happening In My Absence?

Santa Claus and Frank Nitti?

While down at the main branch of the Omaha Public Library last week, Claire and I came across a set of DVD recordings of the old Untouchables TV series. We checked out a set of four which presented half of the series' first year and we have really enjoyed them.

No, they're not historically accurate. And no, they're not high art. But they are vivid, entertaining and richly nostalgic. In fact, just hearing those high-pitched transtions from Walter Winchell takes me back, if not to 1929 when Eliot Ness was chasing down Capone, at least to 1960, when the series first went into my south Denver living room.

But this post isn't about the Untouchables. It's about what watching a particular episode of the show here in the Christmas season reminded me of; namely, an excellent political column from Thomas Sowell written last summer.

So, before you consider checking out The Untouchables from your library (which I would recommend), check out "Santa Claus and Frank Nitti" from Thomas Sowell. You'll enjoy both.

Chemical Abortionists: First, They Lie. Then They Destroy.

Abortionists (and I include those who use poisonous chemicals to kill preborn children) are as much into lies as they are into violence. The marketers of the abortion drug "ella" are all-too-typical examples of this wickedness.

Here's a portion of Anna Franzonello's AUL article dealing with these guys.

Sale of the Abortion Drug ella Surrounded by More Disinformation

In August, the FDA approved the new drug ella without adequate assurances of its safety for women and allowed the abortion-causing drug to be misleadingly labeled as contraception. Now ella’s U.S.-based marketer, Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and an online based pharmacy, KwikMed, are further distorting the facts as they start to sell the drug.

On its self-described “informative” website, Watson claims that ella “is not an abortion pill” and “if used as directed, emergency contraceptives do not work the same way as Mifeprex.”

However, the abortion drug Mifeprex (RU-486) is, like ella, a selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM). They have similar chemical make-ups and modes of action. Translation: they work the same way.

Watson acknowledges that “ella may also work by preventing attachment to the uterus.” However, this description is misleading. What, exactly, is prevented from attaching?

Watson does not say an embryo (a distinct human being) is prevented from implanting in the uterus. A person viewing Watson’s website, who is not familiar with the science, may believe Watson is referring to an egg and not an embryo, since the phrase immediately follows a sentence stating ella may “stop[] or delay[] ovulation (the release of an egg from an ovary).”

The Frequently Asked Questions section on the KwikMed website, where women can order ella without even having seen a doctor, is blatantly inaccurate. KwikMed tells women that ella “may also work by preventing attachment (implantation) of the egg to the uterine wall.” However, it is a developing embryo, a distinct human being, that is prevented from implanting, not an egg.

Watson and KwikMed also fail to inform women that, by blocking progesterone, ella can starve an embryo to death even after implantation. (During pregnancy, progesterone is necessary to build and maintain the lining of the uterine wall. Thus, by blocking progesterone, an SPRM can either prevent a developing human embryo from implanting in the uterus, or it can kill an implanted embryo by starving it to death.)...

Read the rest of Anna's report right here.

TSA Agent Grabs the Cutie: "Because You Caught My Eye & They Didn't"

It has been a few years since she starred in the TV series "Baywatch" or since she posed nude in Playboy magazine. Nevertheless, Donna D'Errico remains attractive enough to "catch the eye" of a TSA agent when nobody else did.

"I immediately asked why we were having to go through an extra search, and no one else was being made to do so, indicating the long line of other passengers in front of and behind where we had been in line. In a very sarcastic tone, and still holding me by the elbow, the agent responded, 'Because you caught my eye, and they' -- pointing to the other passengers -- 'didn't...'"

"They never even told me what they were doing at all, or that I had any choice," she said. "It was just, 'Stand here. Raise your arms above your head like this.' They never told me that they were going to be conducting a full-body scan, or that I had the option of being searched instead...

"After the search, I noticed that the male TSA agent who had pulled me out of line was smiling and whispering with two other TSA agents and glancing at me. I was outraged."

So was her boyfriend, Roy J. Bank, the president of Merv Griffin Entertainment, who says he was in disbelief at what had just occurred.

"Anything that upsets Donna upsets me," he said. "I hated her being humiliated like that. I was genuinely shocked by both Donna and Rhyan being pulled aside for the extensive scanning.

"I'm all for measures to make us safer when traveling, but when it is so incredibly arbitrary, I don't feel any safer ... and I can promise you that her getting additional screening and the line full of people I saw around us not getting additional screening is not making us any safer!"

And What Else Has Been Happening In My Absence?

After a week of living "off line" (no blogging, no Facebook, very little peeking into cyberspace at all), I return to Vital Signs Blog with a short list of key articles relevant to the culture wars.

* Here's our Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitting that Saudi Arabia, our supposed "ally" in the Middle East, is actually a major banker for the terrorists who want to destroy us.

* The Guardian reports how the WikiLeaks cables show (among other amazing things) how the Obama administration used spying, intimidation, manipulation and under the table deals to win support for the Copenhagen global warming accord.

* Standout wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers dares to take on the NFL for the league's hypocrisy regarding player safety...and other matters.

* President Obama proves he can be as pretentious, as exaggerated and as ridiculously phony as any Hollywood publicist as he sings praises to White House honorees Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, et al.

* "In the name of job creation and clean energy, the Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in stimulus money to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. The administration has awarded more than 179,000 “categorical exclusions” to stimulus projects funded by federal agencies..."

* Your tax dollars at work -- and in a very sick, wicked cause. "The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that features images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as "homoerotic." The exhibit, “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture,” opened on Oct. 30 and will run throughout the Christmas Season, closing on Feb. 13..."

*Wes Pruden gives here a provocative post-mortem of the global warming power play.

Scams die hard, but eventually they die, and when they do, nobody wants to get close to the corpse. You can get all the hotel rooms you want this week in Cancun.

The global-warming caravan has moved on, bound for a destination in oblivion. The United Nations is hanging the usual lamb chop in the window this week in Mexico for the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change, but the Washington guests are staying home. Nobody wants to get the smell of the corpse on their clothes.

Everybody who imagined himself anybody raced to Copenhagen last year for the global-warming summit, renamed "climate change" when the globe began to cool, as it does from time to time. Some 45,000 delegates, "activists," business representatives and the usual retinue of journalists registered for the party in Copenhagen. This year, only 1,234 journalists registered for the Cancun beach party. The only story there is that there's no story there. The U.N. organizers glumly concede that Cancun won't amount to anything, even by U.N. standards...

* And finally, here's a brief clip showing how Ronnie Hastie, a Christian teenager who plays football in Spokane, Washington, was penalized for kneeling in the end zone after scoring a touchdown. The referee, paying no attention whatsoever to how this 2-second gesture has been accepted at every level and in every venue of athletic endeavor, claimed it was an "excessive celebration" and "unsportsmanlike conduct" and he threw a penalty flag directly at the kid.

Will we begin to see more of this? No doubt.

Hastie said he’s pointed up as a gesture to God after every touchdown he’s scored in every game and never had a problem before. “It’s usually one or two seconds long,” he said. “It’s something I’ve done as a tradition.”

Hastie said he asked the ref why he was penalized, and the ref responded that Hastie wasn’t supposed to draw attention to himself.

“That wasn’t the point (of the gesture), so I guess I was a little confused,” Hastie said. “I do that to give glory to my heavenly father, Jesus. He gives me the strength. He’s the one who gives me these abilities in the first place.”

Hastie’s father said his son points skyward in an effort to recognize something more important, actually trying to draw attention away from himself.

Blogging Break

Other things piling up (or should I say, piling on?) and so I'm taking the week off from daily blogging. See you next Monday.