The Top 5 (July 6)

* "Were the Founders Deist? Here’s One Sure-Fire Piece of Evidence Against That Idea" (Tyler O'Neil, Daily Signal)

From the article -- Although some of America’s Founding Fathers were deists, rather than Christians, the United States owes a debt of gratitude to a Judeo-Christian moral framework that goes beyond mere deism—and the proof is in the Declaration of Independence itself. Deism refers to the belief that God created the world and endowed human beings with reason, but after that, he left the world alone to develop naturally. Deists prefer a largely absent God who just set things in motion and then stands back, hoping everyone has a good time.

The Declaration of Independence does not envision such a God, and the document could not have formed the cornerstone of the American Revolution without a firm declaration that God—not government—is the foundation of just rule.

* "1 In 5 Auto Accident Deaths Now Involves Marijuana Use" (Jefferey H. Anderson, Federalist)

From the article -- A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health — and conducted by scholars at Boston Medical Center, Boston University, and the University of Victoria — found that the percentage of car crash deaths in America that involved marijuana has skyrocketed since 2000. The percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis alone rose from 4.2 percent in 2000 to 11.2 percent in 2018. Over that same span, the percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis and alcohol together rose from 4.8 to 10.3 percent. So the total percentage of car crash deaths involving cannabis, either with or without alcohol, rose from 9.0 percent in 2000 to 21.5 percent in 2018 — to more than a fifth of all car crash deaths in America.

Monitoring the Future, a survey funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, finds that the percentage of those ages 19 to 30 who use marijuana on a daily basis rose from 3.8 percent in 2000 to 7.8 percent in 2018 — more than doubling. That closely tracks the rise in car crash deaths involving marijuana over that period. 

Those numbers, however, are only through 2018. From 2019 to 2022, deaths from drunk-driver car crashes rose a whopping 33 percent — from 10,142 in 2019 to 13,524 in 2022 (the most recent statistics available), according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Deaths from stoned driver car crashes likely increased even more, given that, unlike alcohol use (which hasn’t changed much), pot use has risen greatly over the past few years.

* "The devastating case against vaccine-pusher Pfizer" (Neville Hodgkinson, The Conservative Woman)

From the article -- WILL our world eventually realise the extent of the covid con trick to which we have been subjected over the past four years? While most UK authorities, including the mainstream media, are still maintaining silence on the disaster, the American legal system seems poised to break omerta around the issue.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and another three of the state’s top legal officials have announced a lawsuit against Pfizer alleging misleading claims related to its covid vaccine. ‘Pfizer made multiple misleading statements to deceive the public about its vaccine at a time when Americans needed the truth,’ Kobach said. A similar action by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton remains pending, and several other states are becoming involved.

Pfizer says the lawsuits have no merit, and that its representations about the vaccine have been ‘accurate and science-based’. However, according to Dr Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-based Medicine at Oxford University, the charge sheet against Pfizer, with the main points outlined here, is ‘devastating’.

* "The Diminishing Likelihood of a Fair Election" (Brian T. Kennedy, The American Mind)

From the article -- Regardless of who the nominees are in 2024, just as in 2020, much of America will hold their elections in the least transparent, most vulnerable method possible: absentee ballots. Because of this, a free and fair election cannot be assured. It matters not that President Trump is ahead in all the polls and in ways that some pollsters believe cannot be overcome. Citizens should expect that, since America is in a war with Communist China, November’s election will be the target of a massive intelligence operation to decide the next president.

It should be noted that America’s election system was not built to stop the Communist Chinese or any nation state, or for that matter any dark money group, with the capacity and the interest in deciding an American presidential election.

The United States is made vulnerable by being the only developed country in the world to allow for this wide-spread use of absentee ballots. Every other advanced democracy conducts their elections in person, with identification shown, on paper ballots counted by large groups of people transparently tallying vote totals with the results available the same day of the election. In states around America, Secretaries of State have allowed or been part of the development of elections systems that would appear to be designed to allow for fraud. So whether not an election is stolen, a free and fair election system has been stolen from the American people. 

* "Cowboy Role Models" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- Mamas, you can go ahead and let your babies grow up to be cowboys…if, that is, they grow up following cowboy codes like the ones you’ll find below.

My sermon yesterday at Wellspring Church down in Papillion was entitled, “Let's Talk About Role Models” with the foundational text being 1 Corinthians 11: 1,2. And I introduced it with a story my Mom used to tell about me as a very young boy (before I could even read) asking her to give me my own Bible. The reason? I had just finished watching a TV episode of The Lone Ranger in which he solved a mystery by being remarkably familiar with a Scripture passage. And since one of my favorite heroes knew the Bible so well, I figured I’d do well to follow his example.

That’s a key difference between a mere hero and a role model. For the former can be “admired from afar” but the role model presents enough moral strength to influence a person’s behavior, priorities, even character. And don’t think those cinematic cowboys (and their producers, scriptwriters, and advertisers) weren’t well aware of how influential they could be. Indeed, back in the day, that influence was considered as something to be invested for a child’s good…and thus, the good of the culture.

Examples? Well, check out the following lists that I offered to church goers after the service. They are terrific moral codes that come from my 3 favorite cowboys.

Intelligent Design Creates the “Ultimate Skepticism”

Speaking of the Intelligent Design movement and the resulting cracks in the “great wall” of evolution, America’s most compelling novelist, the late Tom Wolfe writes...

“This, science’s Ultimate Skepticism, has been spreading ever since then. Over the past two years even Darwinism, a sacred tenet among American scientists for the past seventy years, has been beset by doubts. Scientists -- not religiosi -- notably the mathematician David Berlinski (‘The Deniable Darwin,’ Commentary, June 1996) and the biochemist Michael Behe (Darwin’s Black Box, 1996), have begun attacking Darwinism as a mere theory, not a scientific discovery, a theory woefully unsupported by fossil evidence and featuring, at the core of its logic, sheer mush.

Dennett and Dawkins, for whom Darwin is the Only Begotten, the Messiah, are already screaming. They’re beside themselves, utterly apoplectic. Wilson, the giant, keeping his cool, has remained above the battle.” (Tom Wolfe, “Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died,” first published in Orthodoxy Today, 1996)

Cowboy Role Models

Mamas, you can go ahead and let your babies grow up to be cowboys…if, that is, they grow up following cowboy codes like the ones you’ll find below.

My sermon yesterday at Wellspring Church down in Papillion was entitled, “Let's Talk About Role Models” with the foundational text being 1 Corinthians 11: 1,2. And I introduced it with a story my Mom used to tell about me as a very young boy (before I could even read) asking her to give me my own Bible. The reason? I had just finished watching a TV episode of The Lone Ranger in which he solved a mystery by being remarkably familiar with a Scripture passage. And since one of my favorite heroes knew the Bible so well, I figured I’d do well to follow his example.

That’s a key difference between a mere hero and a role model. For the former can be “admired from afar” but the role model presents enough moral strength to influence a person’s behavior, priorities, even character.

And don’t think those cinematic cowboys (and their producers, scriptwriters, and advertisers) weren’t well aware of how influential they could be. Indeed, back in the day, that influence was considered as something to be invested for a child’s good…and thus, the good of the culture.

Examples? Well, check out the following lists that I offered to church goers after the service. They are terrific moral codes that come from my 3 favorite cowboys.

“Ten Guidelines for Life” from Hopalong Cassidy

1) The highest badge of honor a person can wear is honesty. Be truthful at all times.

2) Your parents are the best friends you have. Listen to them and obey their instructions.

3) If you want to be respected, you must respect others. Show good manners in every way.

4) Only through hard work and study can you succeed. Don’t be lazy.

5) Your good deeds always come to light. So don’t boast or be a show-off.

6) If you waste time or money today, you will regret it tomorrow. Practice thrift in all ways.

7) Many animals are good and loyal companions. Be friendly and kind to them.

8) A strong, healthy body is a precious gift. Be neat and clean.

9) Our country’s laws are made for your protection. Observe them carefully.

10) Children in many foreign lands are less fortunate than you.

Be glad and proud you are an American.

Roy Rogers’ Rules (for a Life Well-Lived)

1) Be neat and clean

2) Be courteous and polite.

3) Always obey your parents.

4) Protect the weak and help them.

5) Be brave but never take chances.

6) Study hard and learn all you can.

7) Be kind to animals

and take care of them.

8) Eat all your food

and never waste any.

9) Love God and go to Sunday School regularly.

10) Always respect our flag and our country.

The Lone Ranger Creed

1) I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.

2) That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.

3) That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.

4) In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.

5) That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.

6) That “this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people” shall live always.

7) That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.

8) That sooner or later – somewhere – somehow – we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.

9) That all things change, but the truth, and the truth alone, lives on forever.

10) I believe in my Creator, my country, my fellow man.

Evolution: The Worst Pseudo-Science Scam of Them All

Throughout the month of July, I will be posting here on Vital Signs Blog various articles, quotations, and references to trustworthy sources dealing with the ethereal, though insistent, claims about evolution. I do so because evolution theories have had such an enormous effect on current culture – an effect that has been devastating to the max on everything from education to politics to art to religious practice to the gross hindrance of genuine scientific inquiry itself. 

So stay tuned.

For the first entry, here’s a nifty 10-minute video video exploring the remarkable lack of empirical foundations for what evolutionists insist is "one of their best" arguments. So, cmon; let's check out this "whale of a tale."

The Top 5 (June 29)

* "America Is In Shambles Because Of Democrat Policies, Not Just Joe Biden" (Kylee Griswold, Federalist)

From the article -- The jig is up. Here’s what disillusioned Democrats and independents and moderates need to know. What all the blue-state refugees who now live in Texas and Florida instead of California and New York City need to admit. What all the fed-up middle-class families and forgotten nonwhite voters in the suburbs need to remember: These aren’t just Joe Biden policies that are disastrous. They’re Democrat policies. 

Abortion. Economy. Crime. Immigration. Lawfare. Foreign policy. Health care. It doesn’t matter what pet issue has voters down in the dumps. Democrats are in lockstep on the losing side. And anywhere they aren’t in lockstep — like on whether Israel is a victim of terrorism or a group of oppressive “colonizers” — they tow the radical line.

You think a Democrat switcheroo is magically going to secure the border and end the unmitigated illegal alien crime wave?...The same goes for Democrats’ abortion radicalism...On and on it goes. The foreign policy, welfare, and subsidy and bailout spending that have helped drive up inflation over the past three-plus years are Democrat policies, not just Joe Biden policies. The soft-on-crime ideology, push for self-styled “progressive” district attorneys, and defund-the-police movement, among other perversions of justice, are again Democrat pet projects, not a Biden-unique quirk.

* "What I Saw at a Terrorist Rally Outside a Synagogue" (Daniel Greenfield, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- LAPD officers did not stir as confrontations escalated into assaults, shoving into mace and bear spray. Jewish community members rushed to provide water bottles to the affected. Only after several such incidents did the LAPD finally bring in reinforcements and push the Hamas supporters away from the synagogue entrance (dispersing them to harass and threaten two other synagogues) while also clearing Jewish families away from the other side of the street who had been peacefully waving flags near a children's school.

The terrorist hate rally spread outside three synagogues, Congregation Adas Torah, Chabad Persian Youth, and Congregation Ateret Israel (Glory of Israel), and the confrontations in the center of the street continued. There were running battles along the large commercial street, with violent assaults outside a kosher luncheonette and running battles down a residential street in the Jewish neighborhood.

The terrorist hate rally was not an aberration, It's become the new normal.

* "‘A Complete Disservice’: SCOTUS Ruling Encourages Future Government Censorship, Experts Warn" (Ben Johnson, Washington Stand)

From the article -- The majority opinion will only encourage government to continue censoring speech via a third party, according to the 34-page dissent written by Justice Samuel Alito and joined by Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. The court has a duty to uphold people’s unalienable rights but, by dodging the substantive issues at hand, it “shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think. That is regrettable.” While the Biden administration’s censorship campaign “was more subtle than the ham-handed censorship found to be unconstitutional” in previous Supreme Court cases, “it was no less coercive. And because of the perpetrators’ high positions, it was even more dangerous.”

“It was blatantly unconstitutional, and the country may come to regret the Court’s failure to say so. Officials who read today’s decision … will get the message. If a coercive campaign is carried out with enough sophistication, it may get by. That is not a message this Court should send,” wrote Justice Alito.

* "What to Do When Pope Francis Tells You Not to Pray the 'Rogue' Psalms" (Jules Gomes, The Stream)

From the article -- There are several problems with Francis’s exhortation. Who is to decide which verses are palatable and which are offensive? The Roman hierarchy has a track record of misinterpreting and suppressing the Scriptures. Most Catholic biblical scholars are embarrassed by this but honest enough to quietly set aside the grotesque errors of the past.

Rome refused to use the Bible’s Hebrew and Greek manuscripts for centuries, and banned biblical scholars from using scientific methods of criticism until the restrictions were lifted by Divino Afflante Spiritu in 1943. Only in the Nova Vulgata of 1979 did the Vatican correct the grotesque copyist’s error of Genesis 3:15: “she [Mary] shall crush your head” instead of “he [Jesus] shall crush your head.”

How odd that God should inspire the Psalter for pre-modern man and not for Francis’s “modern man,” who is presumably far more enlightened and has the luxury of sanitizing the Psalter according to Enlightenment sensibilities. Francis’s appeal to novelty (argumentum novitatis) is a logical fallacy.

Of course, in one sense, the Psalms reflect a historical context and a religious mentality that are no longer ours. This is true of the entire Bible. But Francis would be surprised how the “religious mentality” of the Psalter that he so breezily dismisses is still very much alive in non-Western cultures.

* "From Darwin to Orwell: How the global tyranny began" (Niall McCrae, TCW)

From the article -- Arguably the most important event in modern history was publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in 1859. This came at a convenient time for the ruling class. Darwin’s thesis had two radical implications: it undermined the accuracy of holy scripture, and removed the special status of human beings. Such departure from Christian teaching led to Social Darwinism, an offshoot of evolutionary theory based on the notion that philanthropic society was nurturing the weak (upending survival of the fittest).

The Industrial Revolution had created a vast and potentially unruly working class, who were beginning to gather strength through the labour movement and political representation. The upper class feared for their future. This was the context in which Darwin’s nephew Francis Galton founded the pseudoscientific endeavour of eugenics.

The quest to improve the quality of human stock took hold in the intelligentsia, medical profession and politicians. Notable in the  eugenics movement was the Fabian Society, which controlled the Labour Party. Fundamental to eugenics is state control over who should live or die, a philosophy brutally applied after the Bolshevik revolution imposed on the mostly peasant populace of holy Russia.

The Top 5 (June 22)

* "The Hidden Hurt behind Pride Month and Sexual Rebellion" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

From the article -- The reality, Pullman explains, is that “people who have unstable families where children are not growing up in the homes with their two biological married parents [are] much more likely to identify as queer. And then on the flip side,” she continues, that kind of family trauma can also express itself in “a lack of natural identity [that] God has given each of us as man and woman…” She goes on to say that these young people grow up to be much more likely to engage in “every sign of personal distress,” including crime, teen pregnancy, and LGBT identification.

So, the “sexual chaos that children are experiencing,” Joy says, is what she sees “as kind of a second-, third-generation consequence of our culture’s acceptance of feminism, no-fault divorce, and those other things. … And so all of these decisions that people are making absolutely affect each other.”

* "The media’s great awokening is alienating the masses: Audiences are fed up with newspapers, Hollywood and Big Tech all singing from the same woke hymn sheet." (Joel Kotkin, spiked!

From the article -- 

* "An Open Letter from Herta Muller" (A Nobel Prize winning writer has written a shocking wake-up call to the West regarding the madness that has gripped parts of Western society since Hamas attacked Israel. Published in Truth of the Middle East)

From the article -- That is why the whole country has been traumatized, because the founding of the state of Israel was intended to protect against such pogroms. And until October 7, it was believed to be protected. Although Hamas has been sitting on the state of Israel’s neck since 1987. The Hamas founding charter clearly stated that the destruction of the Jews was the goal, and that “death for God is our noblest wish”.

Even though there have been changes to this charter since then, it is clear that nothing has changed: the destruction of the Jews and the destruction of Israel remain the goal and desire of Hamas. This is exactly the same as in Iran. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the destruction of the Jews has also been state doctrine since its foundation, that is, since 1979.

When talking about the terror of Hamas, Iran should always be included in the discussion. The same principles apply, which is why big brother Iran finances, arms and makes little brother Hamas its henchman. Both are merciless dictatorships. And we know that all dictators become more radical the longer they rule.

* "Supreme Court's decision on abortion drugs: A wake-up call for church leaders" (Josue Sierra, Christian Post)

From the article -- The fact remains that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has failed to abide by its legal obligations to protect the health, safety, and welfare of girls and women. Sadly, the ruling allows these dangerous drugs to remain widely accessible without proper medical oversight. This decision should challenge Christian pastors and church leaders to play a more active role in providing moral clarity, and educating and warning their congregations about the true danger and risks of abortion.

As Senior Counsel Erin Hawley of Alliance Defending Freedom notes, "The FDA recklessly leaves women and girls to take these high-risk drugs all alone in their homes or dorm rooms, without requiring the ongoing, in-person care of a doctor." The FDA's own label warns that approximately one in 25 women who take chemical abortion drugs will end up in the emergency room. This alarming statistic highlights the physical risks associated with these drugs and the need for increased awareness and support within our churches.

* "True and False Abortion History: It’s not true that abortion was unregulated in America before 1821." (John Grondelski, Human Life Review)

From the article -- As to Arizona’s “archaic” 1864 law, I would send readers to a far-too-neglected masterpiece of legal reasoning: then-Justice William Rehnquist’s dissent in Roe v. Wade. Roe was decided in 1973 by a 7-2 vote; Justices Byron White and Rehnquist dissented. White’s dissent is much better known for its memorable phrase that the ruling was “an exercise of raw judicial power.”

Rehnquist’s dissent, less quoted, is a masterpiece of historical research. Although the Supreme Court in Roe could not decide for sure just where in the Constitution the “right to abortion” was to be found, one of the preferred candidates was the 14th Amendment and its “due process” clause. That amendment was ratified in 1868, when most states had enacted laws protecting the unborn against abortion. Twenty-eight states were required to ratify the 14th Amendment; as Rehnquist shows, 36 states had anti-abortion laws on the books, a considerable number of them — including Arizona (then a territory) — in the 15 years before the 14th Amendment.

Why is that important? Well, if the 14th Amendment grounds the “right to abortion,” how is it that nobody — not in Congress, not in the 28+ state legislatures that ratified it — ever suggested the Amendment had anything to do with abortion, much less required it to be legal? Many of those states were also enacting pro-life laws in that era, so it’s not that the question was forgotten. The same Congress that passed the 14th Amendment even passed some abortion restrictions for the territories.

* "The tragedy of Net Zero for the world’s poor." (David Wright, The Conservative Woman)

From the article -- IT HAS been calculated that the West spends half a trillion dollars a year on the futile attempt to ameliorate the non-existent effects of the global warming catastrophe hoax. I suspect that it is considerably more than that. Meanwhile all the world’s poor live shorter lives, struggle to put even basic food on the table, cook on open fires of wood and dung inside their homes where they inhale the smoke, walk miles to fill buckets with water to wash and drink and after sunset live in the dark with no electric lights. All this without even considering the availability of medical care which we take for granted and so often abuse.

In Africa alone almost half a billion people live in abject poverty. Add to these the slum-dwellers of India, Bangladesh and many South American countries and a picture emerges of intolerable living conditions in the 21st century for a large percentage of mankind. Many of us, nay, most of the rest of us, are unaware how awful this is and blissfully enjoy the comfortable, plentiful lives we lead.

The Net Zero zealots are certainly fully aware of this but they don’t care that Net Zero will prolong this situation, probably for ever. At least one group of green nutters has actually admitted this.

The Top 5 (June 15)

* "One in three female voters wants a party to win her vote on abortion" (Matt Lamb, Human Life Review)

From the article -- Among female registered voters, 22% say they do not trust either candidate on abortion, while 13% are “not sure.” An almost equal amount (34%) have trust issues with both political parties on abortion.

This shows an opening for pro-life candidates and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is clear on its position: legalize abortion through the moment of birth, mail abortion drugs across the country and hand them out at Walgreens, and force taxpayers to support the killing of preborn babies. Democrats also want pregnancy resource centers closed.

Republicans have been a bit murkier on their plans, with some favoring a national abortion ban, some wanting the issue left up to the states, and some probably not wanting to talk about the issue at all.

But the fact the Democrats have not won over one in three female voters with their position shows there is room for pro-lifers to shift the Overton Window and get voters to support the party that is more opposed to abortion."

* "Stemming the Tide: Denny Speaks to the Nebraska Abortion Ballot Controversy" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- "And yes, just such a constitutional amendment is being advocated even now for Nebraska. It is called the Protect Our Rights amendment and it is enthusiastically and financially backed by the mega-abortion profiteer Planned Parenthood, the Nebraska chapter of the ACLU, and other groups and individuals representing the most extreme of the anti-life ideologies. Their goals are clear. Among them ? No limits whatsoever (not even health and safety regulations) on abortion. No laws to protect preborn boys and girls even from late term destruction. No informed consent. No parental consent -- not even parental notification. Zero accountability for abortionists. Yet more tax funding of abortionist businesses. (Planned Parenthood alone rakes in hundreds of millions from the government every year.) The denial of conscience clauses which would thus require pro-life medical personnel to participate in abortions. And the aggressive prohibition of such historic freedoms as speech and assembly when they involve pro-life sidewalk counselors, public rallies, and even pregnancy aid centers.

Exposing the horrible effects of this wildly radical abortion amendment must be the Christian’s most urgent and critical response. And I cannot emphasize this too strongly."

* "The chilling rise of the Hamas red triangle: Anti-Israel bigots have adopted the terror group’s propaganda symbol to threaten and intimidate Jews." (Daniel Ben-Ami, spiked!)

From the article -- "This attack on the homes of Pasternak and other board members comes on the back of countless other anti-Semitic incidents in New York, the city with the largest Jewish population in the world. These include a keffiyeh-sporting mob on a subway carriage chanting ‘Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist – this is your chance to get out’; protesters shouting ‘Israel go to hell’ outside an exhibition memorialising those slaughtered by Hamas at the Nova music festival; and the long-running anti-Israel protests at Columbia University. No wonder one leading Jewish magazine is asking whether New York is over for Jews.

The use of the inverted red triangle to target Pasternak’s home is particularly chilling. This symbol is directed at anyone deemed to be pro-Israel or who does not explicitly condemn the Jewish State."

* "The West Is Sick of the New Woke Jihadism" (Victor Davis Hanson, Daily Signal)

From the article -- "So woke jihadism is not an ecumenical concern for the oppressed, the occupied, the collateral damage of war, or the fate of refugees. Instead, it is a romanticized and repackaged anti-Western, anti-Israel, and antisemitic jihadism that supports the murder of civilians, mass rape, torture, and hostage-taking.

But what makes it now so insidious is its new tripartite constituency."

* "Unequal Application Of The Law In America Today Isn’t Hypocrisy, It’s Hierarchy" (John Daniel Davidson, Federalist)

From the article -- "As tempting as it is to call out the hypocrisy here — teenagers hunted down and charged for defacing a pride mural, no punishment at all for a mob of left-wing protesters defacing national monuments — that would miss the point. This isn’t hypocrisy on display, it’s hierarchy.

When you see harsh punishments for those who dissent from the regime on the one hand, but total leniency (and tacit regime endorsement) for those who are essentially regime enforcers on the other hand, what you’re seeing is a display of power. Its purpose is to communicate to the rest of the country who has power and who doesn’t, who is protected and who isn’t."

Stemming the Tide: Denny Speaks to the Nebraska Abortion Ballot Controversy

In the summer of 2022, there was great rejoicing among American Christians at the long-prayed for move of the Supreme Court to reverse 1973’s horrific Roe v Wade decision that had so twisted law, science, history, and civilized moral standards to unleash the “silent holocaust” of abortion upon preborn boys and girls. As the decades of “legalized” child-murder wore on -- legalized” but always abominable to God -- Christians had almost given up hope of ever seeing their prayers answered regarding Roe’s fall.

And yet, in the matchless grace of God, He gifted our nation with the Dobbs decision. And by so doing, God gave America one last chance to repent of the blasphemy and blood guilt, the cowardice and compromise, and the appeasing apathy that had allowed those many millions to die such a cruel and unjust death.

But what, in fact, has happened in the days since Dobbs? Well, it is a great tragedy to admit, but while Christians breathed a sigh of relief and accepted the Court’s decision as a victory, the devil took it as an opportunity -- an opportunity to push his gruesome abortion agenda even further. The media, long adamantly pro-abortion, started howling. Politicians at the highest levels of the present administration openly vowed to break the law in order to protect abortion. And the abortion industry itself, though depending more and more on chemical poisons to terminate the lives of preborn kids, nevertheless trebled its efforts to eliminate any and all restrictions on surgical abortions. 

In 7 states so far, extremist abortion measures have been enacted. That's right; the pro-life side has lost all 7 times! The ultimate outcome? Abortions without restrictions, without limitations, without conscience clauses to protect people who want no part of participating in what they believe to be a terribly immoral act. No common-sense regulation of abortionists whatsoever. The moral landscape will be far worse than even under Roe.

And yes, just such a constitutional amendment is being advocated even now for Nebraska. It is called the Protect Our Rights amendment and it is enthusiastically and financially backed by the mega-abortion profiteer Planned Parenthood, the Nebraska chapter of the ACLU, and other groups and individuals representing the most extreme of the anti-life ideologies. Their goals are clear. Among them ? No limits whatsoever (not even health and safety regulations) on abortion. No laws to protect preborn boys and girls even from late term destruction. No informed consent. No parental consent -- not even parental notification. Zero accountability for abortionists. Yet more tax funding of abortionist businesses. (Planned Parenthood alone rakes in hundreds of millions from the government every year.) The denial of conscience clauses which would thus require pro-life medical personnel to participate in abortions. And the aggressive prohibition of such historic freedoms as speech and assembly when they involve pro-life sidewalk counselors, public rallies, and even pregnancy aid centers.

Exposing the horrible effects of this wildly radical abortion amendment must be the Christian’s most urgent and critical response. And I cannot emphasize this too strongly. 

However, a statewide coalition of medical professionals and organizations who are long- standing champions of the sanctity of life -- organizations including Nebraska Right to Life, Nebraska Family Alliance, Students for the Life of America, Alliance Defending Freedom, several pro-life advocates associated with the Nebraska Catholic Conference, and others -- have pursued an additional strategy to keep Nebraska from falling into the same tragic abortion column as the other states I mentioned. These pro-life veterans conducted comprehensive and remarkably in-depth research into the opinions of Nebraska voters in order to determine the very best strategy to protect the pro-life gains earned in the Unicameral thus far as well as setting a foundation for ongoing protections of women and pre-born boys and girls in our state. 

The result? They created their own ballot initiative to counteract the Planned Parenthood one. It is called the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment and it reads, “Except when a woman seeks an abortion necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest, unborn children shall be protected from abortion in the second and third trimesters.”

Now, of course, this doesn’t represent the ideal for which all pro-lifers pray and work (namely, the protection by both law and social practice of all preborn boys and girls). However, it seeks to save the most lives possible given the unavoidable political realities we currently face. This amendment has been criticized by a small number in the pro-life community because it honestly addresses the current opinions of Nebraska voters on abortion-related subjects. And despite the experience, depth of conviction, and proven integrity of the pro-life champions who crafted the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment, some have criticized it as an unacceptable compromise. Some have even impugned the motives and character of the pro-life leaders who crafted the amendment and those in the general community who support it.  But please realize (and I say this as a pro-life veteran of over 40 years) that such charges are base, unwarranted, and extremely counter-productive. 

Remember, the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment was carefully, prayerfully formed by pro-life leaders who, first of all, did the research into what is most likely to be accepted by Nebraska voters, and secondly, who have years of hard-fought experience in doing the best job possible in promoting the sanctity of human life in the trying, tumultuous arena which is the Nebraska Unicameral -- a convoluted legislative body at best and one where Ernie Chambers is likely to return in its next session.

Let’s face it; pro-life advocates who have had to work in the complex, confrontational cloud of modern politics have, for over 50 years, been required to work incrementally. That is to say, they strive to get the very most they can in pro-life legislation, to save what babies’ lives they can, to enlighten the general public as best they can, and to create precedents to fight for yet further protection of women and pre-born kids in the next battles. To call such people names, to deny the sincerity of their pro-life conviction, or in any other way, to belittle their valor and perseverance in their championing the sanctity of life over these long, hard decades is terribly foolish and wrong. 

And don’t miss a very relevant reality. The Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment would provide not only a safeguard for the legislative gains pro-life advocates have made in the last several years; it would also provide a foundation for us to go further in the months and years ahead. Indeed, contrary to the harshest criticisms, this amendment does NOT prevent future pro-life legislation, including a “heartbeat bill” or limitations (even prohibitions) of abortion drugs. Thus, the combination of protecting the ground we’ve gained thus far PLUS securing the opportunity of making new advances in the future is why such august bodies as Nebraska Right to Life and the other statewide pro-life groups I mentioned support it. Again, they know all too well that the amendment provides only an incremental step towards the protection of all human life. But it is NOT a surrender nor is it even a permanent compromise. It is simply a move to stop the enemy’s accelerating momentum, to defend the gains thus far achieved, and to set a foundation for future campaigns. 

But there is yet another player that has come onto the field -- a pro-life amendment entitled Choose Life Now.  Its purpose is noble and very ambitious; namely, protecting the right-to-life of preborn children in Nebraska. All preborn children. And right now. Dismissing the incremental approach altogether, this amendment is absolutist in its language. It reads, “A preborn child at every stage of development is a person. Wherever under Nebraska law the term ‘person’ is used or implied, it shall include such a child.”

The organizers of this effort have started pretty late in the game. Plus, they do not have the kind of statewide support system that has been established over the years by the groups backing the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment. Therefore, even the organizers of this third abortion-related amendment admit they have a difficult task to even get on the ballot. And if they do succeed in that effort, the job of persuading enough Nebraska voters to accept the uncompromising language of the Choose Life Now amendment will be extremely tough. Nevertheless, the pro-life advocates behind this amendment are giving it their best efforts and their impassioned prayers. For just like those who support the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment, they too want to save lives, serve women and families, and rebuild a culture of life in Nebraska. 

And that brings me to my closing remarks. Do I believe the Planned Parenthood-backed amendment is a horror of immeasurable danger? Yes, without a doubt. Therefore, it is to be fought by our most dedicated (and unified) prayers, public education, and principled advocacy. 

Do I believe that Christians can in good conscience sign and/or support either of the two pro-life amendments? Yes, I do. 

But, after a lot of prayers, a lot of conversation with pro-life colleagues, and sitting on our deck thinking through the options before us, Claire and I will be concentrating our efforts this summer and fall in exposing the pro-abortion amendment for what it is and the draconian evils it would unleash. That was our focus before either of the pro-life ballot initiatives were announced and that will remain the case. We hope you agree that is the most critical task before us.

Nonetheless, Claire and I have both signed the petition to put the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment on the Nebraska ballot this fall. Our decision to do so reflects our deep respect and trust in the pro-life champions that have, after such in-depth research and consultation with pro-life leaders across the United States, created the amendment. We believe that, in addition to an all-out effort to persuade Nebraskans to pray, work, and vote against the unspeakably shameful pro-abortion amendment, the Protect Women and Children Nebraska amendment is the best way to defeat the evil intents of those who want ever-more deaths by abortion.

And one final word. Please do not allow the enemy to divide the pro-life community into camps. Do not allow yourself to yield to self-righteousness, pride, a competitive spirit, rash and/or unfair judgments, impatience, or unkindness in your efforts to do the Lord’s work in this critical campaign.  And do what you can to oppose those mean-spirited things when you see them in others. God forbid that we surrender this perspective in these oh-so-trying days.

The Top 5 (June 15)

* "A Christian Response to Pride Month" (Suzanne Bowdey, Washington Stand)

* "Who Is Running Congress?" (Armstrong Williams, Daily Signal)

* "The Abortion Industry Owes Its Success To The Proliferation Of Feminism" (Carrie Gress, Federalist)

* "Little Pills That Kill" (2-minute video produced by Pro-Life Action Ministries, Vital Signs Blog)

* "NIH scientists made $710M in royalties from drug makers -- a fact they tried to hide" (Adam Andrzejewski, New York Post)

What the Abortion Sellers Don't Tell Women About "Those Easy Pills"

Check out this extremely enlightening 2-minute video.

 

Vital Signs' June Newsletter Is Up

In this month’s edition of our LifeSharer, you’ll find items reflecting ministry activities, blog posts, open letters, and FYI updates. And if they seem to cover a lot of ground, that’s because they do! Indeed, that’s the nature of Vital Signs as Claire and I sincerely try 1) to serve the people that are right in front of us and 2) to counter the lies and wicked deeds of our corrupt culture with biblical truth. And, as you know, pursuing those goals keeps us very busy.

Among the topics in the newsletter this time around? Planned Parenthood is thriving; female athletes are being disrespected; a Nebraska abortion petition drive is in full force; VSM is very busy...and Sherry said, “Thanks.”

Check it all out right here.

Tim Tebow's Miracle Arrival

The following is the May 27 entry from the Mission Possible: One-Year Devotional by outspoken Christian champion Tim Tebow. Claire and I have been using this in our spiritual disciplines since back in November...and we have really blessed to have done so. Of course, I've been singing that tune since we began, but maybe reading posts like this one will be the spark for you to order your copy today.

At the very least, please pass this blog post on to your family and friends for it is a quick summary of a remarkable pro-life testimony.

Here it is:

Only God 

“Jesus said, ‘With people it is impossible, but not with God;
for all things are possible with God.’” (Mark 10:27)

In 1986, right before a certain missionary went onstage to preach before a crowd in a remote village on an island of the Philippines, he began to uncontrollably weep. He felt like God was putting it on his heart and in his head that babies all over the world were being aborted. And then God put it on his heart and in his head that he needed to have another baby. He already had four kids that were home on another island in another village with his wife, but he felt this need so strongly. 

He and his wife began to pray for the baby they hoped to have, and a while later, she became pregnant. They were so excited. When they saw the doctor, however, their excitement deflated. The doctor believed the baby wasn’t in fact a baby but a tumor. A bit later, more news: the tumor was, in fact, a baby, but the baby wasn’t healthy, and should the mother continue with the pregnancy, it could cost her life. The mother chose to trust in God and keep the baby. 

Her entire pregnancy was rough, filled with one ailment after another. But miraculously and much to the doctor’s amazement, the mother gave birth to a perfectly healthy boy. And she, too, survived. 

That day, I got to meet my mom. That’s right. That “tumor” was me. God has the power to accomplish what we cannot. Choose to trust Him, even when where you’re standing seems impossible. 

What impossible prayers do you have to choose to trust God for?

Our Love for the Father Through the Eyes of a Child

Our Love for the FatherThrough the Eyes of a Child

(Guest Column by Dr. Ralph Kramper)

As I talked to several sidewalk advocates outside planned parenthood in Omaha, Nebraska this morning, I was called by the Holy Spirit to write a brief reflection about a simple experience that was a teaching moment. The Holy Spirit is our advocate whenever we choose to call upon Him.

This morning, my son-in-law brought to our home his two daughters, one seven and one two. Of course, the older one was happy to be there to be watched and interact with the grandparents. When the 2 year old realized dad was leaving, she broke into immediate intense tears. It appeared the departure of a most loving dad was quite devastating. Fortunately, some Mickey Mouse "shorts" on the internet helped to distract her from the feeling of loss. When I returned home from praying at Planned Parenthood she returned to frantic tears when it was not dad at the door.

My in-soul advocate called me to reflect on what should be our response when we refuse and walk away from the love of the heavenly Father who made us in His image. Realistically, we should be in great distress and tearful that we have rejected His passionate love for us. His absence prevents peace in our hearts. He never leaves us.

Yes, God sent His only Son that we might be saved from our sins and dwell with Him forever. Indeed, we should recognize His absence and be in great distress. Fortunately, the Trinity never says, "I'm done with you!" Amazing the truth we can learn from a child.

The Top 5 (May 25)

* "Federal Court Rules Maryland Parents Cannot Opt Children Out of LGBT Lessons" (S.A. McCarthy, Washington Stand)

From the article -- The federal lawsuit was brought by a group of Christian and Muslim parents who wished to remove their children from LGBT-themed lessons on religious grounds. Over 1,000 parents — including Catholic, Ethiopian Orthodox, evangelical, Muslim, and Jewish parents — attended a subsequent MCPS board meeting to protest the decision to rescind parental opt-outs.

Then, in August, Biden-appointed U.S. District Court judge Deborah Boardman ruled against Maryland parents, claiming that mandatory LGBT lessons do not constitute a religious liberty infringement. She wrote that reading books about transgenderism, drag queens, and bondage fetishes to children as young as three “is not indoctrination” and does not “directly or indirectly” coerce children into activity “that violates their religious beliefs.”

* "Half of trainee doctors at UCLA's prestigious medical school 'are failing basic tests after dean who's anti-white ignored affirmative action ban and terrorized staff with DEI rules'" (Dominic Yeatman, Daily Mail)

From the article -- The David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles boasts Nobel Prize winners on its faculty and accepts just 173 students out of the 14,000 who apply to it each year. But it has plunged from sixth to 18th place in the rankings since the appointment of Jennifer Lucerno as dean of admissions in June 2020 amid claims that the admissions bar for underrepresented minorities is now 'as low as you could possibly imagine'.

The number of students failing tests on basic medical knowledge has increased 10-fold in some subjects since 2020, the Free Beacon reported. And a majority of students are now flunking standardized tests on emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, and pediatrics among some cohorts. The collapse in standards has turned the institution into a 'failed medical school' according to one former member of the admissions staff.

Admitting students on racial criteria has been banned in California since 1996 and outlawed federally since a Supreme Court ruling last year. But faculty at the school said that Lucerno has ignored bans on affirmative action and allegedly told colleagues she wanted a highly qualified white male candidate pushed down the residency rank list because 'we have too many of his kind'.

* "Urgent: Lie Detectors Wanted" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- A little known poem written in the 1920’s by the author of Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak, describes the power of Bolshevik revolutionary and ruthless dictator Vladimir Lenin in a striking stanza. In this poem, “Lofty Melody,” Pasternak emphasizes the connection between Lenin’s comprehensive political power and his propaganda prowess. Writes Pasternak, “He ruled the flow of thought, and that is why he ruled the land.”

Pasternak understood that the prelude to controlling people’s lives was controlling their minds. And as the decline of Western civilization continues its dramatic course, it is critical that you and I take the challenge that Pasternak’s observation implies. After all, ours is an age when the erroneous inventions of Darwin, Freud, and Marx still dominate the academic world – an age when the terms and demographics used in the public debate over abortion are provided by the abortionists themselves – an age when lies of the devil have become the dominant messages in our culture’s music, movies, television programming, fashion, education systems, and the leftist reporting which masquerades as journalism. These godless sources clearly have ruled the flow of thought in our era, thus creating the most horrendous flow of action, including waves of unimaginable violence, sexual perversion, and open defiance of Almighty God.

* "Former NIH Director Admits Government Was Top Source Of Covid Misinformation" (Brianna Lyman, Federalist)

From the article -- So Collins admits the federal government lacked any scientific basis for this massive social policy it pushed on Americans, including by colluding with Big Tech to shut down public debate about Covid-19 responses. Such debate could have revealed that many Covid policies weren’t backed by good research. Instead, numerous federal officials pressed Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to shut down skepticism and contrary information it falsely labeled “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

* "Courting infamy: The ICC prosecutor's blood libel is part of the pincer movement for Israel's destruction" (Melanie Phillips)

From the article -- The Israelis have taken more care not to kill civilians than any other country. Yet astoundingly, they are being accused  of crimes against humanity. The people who really have exposed Gaza’s civilians to danger are the Hamas terrorists, who have used them as human shields and cannon fodder by siting missiles and the infrastructure of warfare among apartment blocks, schools and hospitals. These are real war crimes against Gaza’s civilians which Khan doesn’t even mention.

Khan has relied for his evidence upon claims made by partisan “human rights” groups who oppose Israel’s existence and have been defaming it with lies that have inflamed protests and attacks upon Jews across the world. 

Urgent: Lie Detectors Needed

A little known poem written in the 1920’s by the author of Dr. Zhivago, Boris Pasternak, describes the power of Bolshevik revolutionary and ruthless dictator Vladimir Lenin in a striking stanza. In this poem, “Lofty Melody,” Pasternak emphasizes the connection between Lenin’s comprehensive political power and his propaganda prowess. Writes Pasternak, “He ruled the flow of thought, and that is why he ruled the land.”

Pasternak understood that the prelude to controlling people’s lives was controlling their minds. And as the decline of Western civilization continues its dramatic course, it is critical that you and I take the challenge that Pasternak’s observation implies. After all, ours is an age when the erroneous inventions of Darwin, Freud, and Marx still dominate the academic world – an age when the terms and demographics used in the public debate over abortion are provided by the abortionists themselves – an age when lies of the devil have become the dominant messages in our culture’s music, movies, television programming, fashion, education systems, and the leftist reporting which masquerades as journalism. These godless sources clearly have ruled the flow of thought in our era, thus creating the most horrendous flow of action, including waves of unimaginable violence, sexual perversion, and open defiance of Almighty God.

Jesus warned us that Satan is the father of lies and also that he is a creature committed to fierce action, especially against Christians. Indeed, the devil is never content with the lie itself; he is also a blasphemer, a deceiver, an accuser, a tempter, a murderer. And, in pursuit of these wicked things, he creates alliances with foolish, rebellious human beings. For instance, he uses such voices as a newspaper or magazine article, a film or a television program, a humanistic school curricula or museum exhibit, the allure of cocaine highs or illicit sexual thrills, get-rich-quick pitchmen or false preachers, and so on. Through such voices, the devil seeks to rule the land -- by ruling “the flow of thought.”

The psalmist tells us that those who speak lies go astray. The deception of the mind leads to “actualized” sin...and then more sin. Stressing the same truth, the Lord tells us that as a man thinks, so will he act. As apologist Francis Schaeffer repeatedly emphasized, “Ideas have consequences.” And no more crucial does Dr. Schaeffer’s remark relate to you and I than in this matter of believing lies.

Now this isn’t normally a topic we talk about. The word “liar” is considered too stern, too moralistic, too judgmental for social use…even in church. And certainly being a “lie detector” will not make you very popular nowadays. Nonetheless, those who have trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have an unmistakable, undeniable calling which requires them to perform that very function. Detecting the lies that confront us throughout the day, refusing their power in our own lives, and then daring even in the public square to expose and refute those – these are critical elements of being a true disciple, a “light of the world.”

I fear for the state of the Church in the West because of the frequency with which everyday Christians succumb to worldliness, forfeiting their rich intellectual heritage for the propaganda doled out by the devil’s minions. Is it any wonder then that believers, “unsalty” and begrimed with the spirit of the age, have lost their power to influence the events around them? Rather than acting as sojourners in this foreign country of the world, we’ve settled in and become quite comfortable. Rather being transformed into the image of Christ Jesus, we have chosen to be poured into the molds made by advertisers, politicians, secular educators, entertainment moguls, and preachers who deny the necessity of both holy living and sacrificial service in behalf of others. It has been a tragic sell-out.

Is there a way back? Certainly. And it begins with the simple refrain, “Out with the bad and in with the good.” Or, put another way, we need much less of the world in us and much more of the Word. The writer of Hebrews tells us that the mature Christian is one who has by practice had his senses trained to discern good and evil. That is a comforting thought as well as a challenge. For despite the enveloping cloud of lies in our era, the Holy Spirit reminds us that the obedient Christian can overcome evil with good. Not only can we escape the tyranny of lies ourselves, we can even beat them back as they try to claim new victims.

It doesn’t come easy, of course. The most difficult reclining chairs to get out of are the ones that feel so good to be in. You have to be a diligent student of the Bible. You must strive for holiness, deny self, be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. And you have to engage the power of the Holy Spirit as you bring His light to bear upon everything you encounter. If you let down your guard in any area, you become easy prey for the father of lies. He will fool you. He will exploit you. And he will then toss you aside. How infinitely better is it to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd?

By wisdom a house is built

And by understanding it is established.

And by knowledge the rooms are filled

With all precious and pleasant riches.

A wise man is strong

And a man of knowledge increases power.

For by wise guidance you will wage war,

And in abundance of counselors there is victory.

(Proverbs 24:3-6)

The above passage from Proverbs presents a dramatic contrast to Vladimir Lenin’s ambition to rule over men by dominating the world of ideas. For the wise man, as these verse illustrate, is one who builds his life on the sure foundations of God’s Word. That man can then influence the world of action as he teaches truth, exposes and overcomes the devil’s lies, and guides others towards spiritual freedom, justice, moral purity, and serenity of soul.

Unlike Lenin (and unlike Satan and his henchmen themselves), the wise man has trusted Jesus Christ’s death as payment for his sin. He has been adopted into God’s forever family and given the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to walk in the newness of life. In obedience to God’s commands for him to be a light-bearing disciple, the wise man will thus celebrate his freedom to know truth, but he will also bravely take on the duty of “lie detection” to help liberate others.

The Top 5 (May 18)

* "NFL Kicker’s Pro-Family Commencement Speech Sparks Left-Wing Backlash" (S.A. McCarthy, Washington Stand)

From the article -- Commenting on the backlash against Butker’s speech, author and publisher at The American Spectator Melissa Mackenzie told The Washington Stand, “Butker kicked a hornet’s nest by denouncing the crass emptiness of a world where people are motivated by selfish desire instead of sacrificial love. So many people lead empty, self-seeking lives, whether it’s trading values for power or trading values for transient sexual pleasure.” She added, “Butker calls these sinners to account and asks them, instead, to return to the truth where peace, fulfillment and salvation lie.”

Mackenzie also stated, “That Butker sees these timeless truths at such a young age and is willing to use his celebrity to express his views is both courageous and necessary. Most people recognize the veracity of his point of view which is why they react so violently to it. Me thinks they doth protest too much.”

* "1948 Was Key" (Editors, One for Israel)

From the article -- Like a key that unlocked the proverbial Pandora's Box, the events of 1948 have rippled out from Israel and affected the whole world. Why does this small strip of land matter so much? Other lands are contested, fought over, have changed hands and experienced turmoil, but there is something seriously significant about the land of Israel. Clearly 1948 holds very different connotations for those on different sides of the conflict, and then there's a whole other meaning for those out in the nations. What does it mean for you? But most importantly, what does God think about it all?

* "The Left’s Campus Protest Scam" (Michael Lind, Tablet)

From the article -- “The issue is not the issue.” This saying of the campus left is as true today as it was in the 1960s. Whatever the ostensible issue may be that provides the occasion for a nationwide wave of campus protests, the list of demands presented to university administrators by student protesters and allied outside agitators is remarkably similar -- suggesting that the point of the exercise may lie closer to home.

For half a century now, the passion of idealistic students involved in campus protests that were purported to be about national and global issues (the Vietnam War, racism, police shootings, climate change, and now Israel’s war against Hamas) has been diverted into narrow efforts to multiply jobs and teaching opportunities for leftist professors, administrators, consultants and other foot-soldiers and clients of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. In turn, these campus activists have helped to transform American universities from engines of upward mobility and economic growth to taxpayer-funded ideological indoctrination centers...

* "SOS: Stop the World Health Organization's Tyrannical May 27 Power Grab" (Robert Williams, Gatestone Institute)

From the article -- The WHO is not elected, has no democratic legitimacy, is not accountable to anyone and has no control mechanisms to restrain its reach. After the horrifying failures of the WHO during Covid-19, the answer is not to give the organization more power, but to disengage from it entirely.

The UN and the WHO evidently want unlimited control. If they are not stopped right now by national governments that refuse to approve the new Pandemic Treaty and proposed International Health Regulations amendments, unlimited control is what they will have -- and it is we who will have given it to them.

* "Lenin 100 Hundred Years Later" (Daniel J. Mahoney, Fusion)

From the article -- To the historical determinism central to the Marxism of Marx, Lenin added a penchant for revolutionary conspiracies and a criminal preference for clandestine activities, including robbery. He had no love for Russia whatsoever. And he loathed the European working class (and sundry social democratic parties) for siding with their respective countries over ideological criteria at the outset of World War I. A master tactician, expert conspirator, and ruthless Machiavellian, Lenin plotted with the Germans to return to Russia in a sealed train in April 1917, in time to inflict the coup de grace on a weak and ineffectual Provisional government dominated by feckless liberals and socialists. He was amply funded by a Germany that aggressively sought to undermine what was left of the Russian empire. Any self-respecting government would have arrested him for treason. While peasant mobs looted and set fire to landed estates, and the revolutionary Soviets systematically undermined the integrity and cohesion of the Russian armed forces, Lenin prepared the final blow, a coup d’état (not a popular “revolution”) to seize control of a vast nation for what was by then called the Bolshevik party. A first coup failed in July 1917. A second succeeded in October 1917. Lenin now had his opportunity to achieve utopia-in-power. But what utopia did he have in mind?

Disrespecting Female Athletes Is a Disrespect to All Women

The following is a letter I'm sending today to the NCAA. Similar letters will also be sent to the International Olympic Committee, to President Biden, to Nebraska's Congressional delegation, and Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen.

To the NCAA,

Such a bizarre contradiction of the original intents of Title IX could hardly be imagined than allowing biological men to invade female sports, stealing from girls and women the opportunities for honest and fair athletic competitions for which they have long dreamed, strenuously trained for, and fully deserve to receive. Indeed, this recent fad of accepting biological men into female athletics is not only a reprehensible repudiation of the very purposes laid out in 1972 in Title IX, it is also a blatant denial of the most basic principles of feminism, moral decorum, and science.

Please face the facts. No change of pronouns, no psychological reorientation, no drugs or surgery can provide a sufficient excuse for forcing girls and women to compete with persons born as males who thus have inherent (and profound) advantages of strength, speed, and stamina. There’s no other way to put it -- girls and women are being cheated. And the worst offenders are not the biological men lining up at the starting line with women, but rather the schools and sports associations that allow them to do so…and, of course, the Biden administration which, though claiming so loudly to be pro-woman, is being exactly opposite those claims by trying to force Americans into one of the most despicably sexist policies of all time.

This is a matter of simple fairness, so please do the right thing. Resist this new anti-woman fad. Instead, respect female athletes by ensuring for them a level playing field.

P. S. I include this popular visual from the Babylon Bee that accurately (if though satirically) illustrates the foolishness and over-the-top unfairness of forcing women to compete against men.

The Top 5 (May 11)

* "The Democrat Party’s Antisemitism Went Mainstream With Barack Obama" (Shawn Fleetwood, Federalist)

From the article -- It goes without saying that if the aforementioned demonstrators were “MAGA Republicans” protesting an Islamic country and harassing Muslim students, legacy media “journalists” would be relentlessly spamming the phone lines and emails of every GOP official in the country asking for condemnation. They will never hold Democrats to the same standard, and their refusal to call out Obama for ignoring the leftist occupation of universities shows it.

While the media’s inaction isn’t surprising, neither is Obama’s silence. Obama’s decision to remain mum on the issue is representative of his behavior and the individuals encompassing him throughout his life...

* "The People Setting America on Fire: An investigation into the witches’ brew of billionaires, Islamists, and leftists behind the campus protests." (Park MacDougald, Tablet)

From the article -- Have America’s college students suddenly converted en masse to anarcho-communist-jihadism? Not quite. Many are far left and anti-Israel. Some are foreigners, or the children of foreigners, who have imported the conspiracies and hatreds of their homelands. More, admitted under relaxed pandemic-era admissions standards and proudly ignorant of both American and world history, are taking the “decolonial” half-knowledge pushed by their elders to its logical conclusion.

But students are not the only, and perhaps not even the most important, faction active in the campus protests. As in the “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter protests of the summer of 2020, “outside agitators”—professional radicals and organizers, black bloc antifa thugs, Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries, and Palestinian and Islamist radicals—have played a central role in organizing and escalating the campus protests, just as they have organized and escalated the wider anti-Israel protest campaign that began almost immediately after Oct. 7. This largely decentralized network of agitators is, in turn, politically and financially supported by a vast web of progressive nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, and dark-money groups ultimately backed by big-money donors aligned with the Democratic Party...

* "Biden’s double game on Hamas should fool no one: A presidential speech condemned past and present antisemitism. However, it contradicted policies aimed at letting the terrorists win and appeasing pro-Hamas voters." (Jewish News Service)

From the article -- The reason for Biden’s carping at Israel had nothing to do with human rights or America’s strategic interests. It was motivated by politics. From the moment that the Oct. 7 attacks happened, the left wing of the president’s Democratic Party has been vocal in its distaste for Israel and opposition to a successful effort to take out Hamas. So-called “progressives,” as well as the extremists of the left-wing congressional “Squad,” were falsely accusing Israel of war crimes and “genocide” even before the bodies of the Oct. 7 victims were cold. They are motivated by intersectional and critical race theory ideologies, which falsely label Israel as a “white” oppressor and regard the Palestinian war to destroy the one Jewish state on the planet as a righteous cause. They want self-determination for everyone but Jews, perceiving Hamas’s genocidal goals as a form of justified “resistance.”

Living as he does in a left-wing bubble inside the White House and, as he has always been throughout his long political career, a weathervane determined to stay in sync with liberal fashion, Biden thinks the anger at his initial pro-Israel policies is the reason why he continues to trail former President Donald Trump in the polls. He believes that mollifying disaffected young leftists, as well as Arab and Muslim-American voters, is the key to retaining the support of the Democratic base.

* "A simple and persuasive way to explain your pro-life view is as easy as one, two, three." (Paul Stark, NRL News)

From the article -- If someone asks what you think about abortion, or why you’re pro-life, what do you say? How do you get supporters of abortion to rethink the issue—or even change their minds? We can put forward our case clearly, concisely, and in a way that appeals to those who aren’t already pro-life. Here are three key points to make when articulating your view....

* "To Abortion Workers: 'Jesus Still Loves the Little Children'" (Denny Hartford, Vital Signs Blog)

From the article -- The Wednesday focus in Vital Signs “3 for 5 Prayer Campaign Against Planned Parenthood” is to “pray for spiritual conversion among Planned Parenthood employees and supporters.”...Well, with this prayer target in mind, I thought I’d write up a quick summary of the appeal I made to the abortionists last Monday morning when Claire, Keith, and I were engaged in our prayers and public pro-life witness on the sidewalk there. It is one of the messages I have spoken to abortion workers for over 40 years and it goes something like this...

The “Imperative” Take-Aways from the Assure Banquet

We were blessed to be part of the very large audience at the Assure Women’s
Center banquet last night…and for several reasons. For instance, it was wonderful to again hear director Toni Clarke detail the effectiveness of Assure in helping women and families, dissuading women from committing abortion, winsomely sharing the gospel with clients, helping people experience thorough forgiveness and healing from past abortion decisions, engaging in unique and highly persuasive educational ministries through social media, and more. Assure is clearly one of the most influential and thoroughly biblical Christian ministries in the Midwest.

But last night was also important because the leadership of Assure, knowing all too well the grave dangers to pro-life work posed by the extremist Protect Our Rights ballot initiative which, if successful, would enshrine absolutely unlimited abortion in the Nebraska state constitution, addressed the matter with courage and wisdom. Toni herself spoke briefly to the matter, but Assure also built into the evening’s program remarks directly aimed at the ballot initiative by Lorelee Byrd, Karen Bowling of the Nebraska Family Alliance, former Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson, and Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen. Thank you, Assure, for including that crucial service to the pro-life community in the evening’s purposes.

And, of course, I must not fail to mention that the keynote speaker for the Assure banquet, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon, provided inspiration and encouragement to the large gathering present. Among his stimulating remarks were “5 Imperatives in Defeating the Culture of Death.” They were 1) We must secure the right to speak freely. 2) Defend reality. 3) We must aim at victory, not compromise. 4) Focus on winning back the culture. And 5) Courage is contagious. Within these five challenges, Dillon had a lot of sage advice, presented in a provocative, often humorous, way -- advice and challenge that this veteran pro-life activist deeply appreciated.

Of course, another wonderful blessing in the evening for Claire and I was being able to share it with the guests at our tables: Bev, Suzi, Gary & Christi, Charlotte, Kathy, John & Tabi, Karla, Sonya, Dan & Cindy, Tom & Lila, David & Ruth, Matt & Vivien, Matt, Luke, Ryan, Kyra, Reagan, Rob & Hope, Mark & Mary, and Sharon. What a noble company indeed!

Thanks so much, Assure staff, for a most inspiring evening. And thanks even more for the ongoing work you do for moms, babies, families, the Church, and the hopes of restoring to our culture a respect for the sacredness of human life.

To Abortion Workers: "Jesus Still Loves the Little Children"

The Wednesday focus in Vital Signs “3 for 5 Prayer Campaign Against Planned Parenthood” is to “pray for spiritual conversion among Planned Parenthood employees and supporters.”

Indeed, here is the sample prayer we offer: “Please, Lord Jesus, reveal to those who work with, promote, or otherwise support Planned Parenthood the organization’s inherent evils.  Give them a new understanding of the sanctity of life, marriage, family, and purity.  And with repentance and conversion, make of these ‘born again’ people effective servants of Your grace and holiness.”

The Scripture exhortation we connect to the Wednesday prompting is 2 Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Well, with this prayer target in mind, I thought I’d write up a quick summary of the appeal I made to the abortionists last Monday morning when Claire, Keith, and I were engaged in our prayers and public pro-life witness on the sidewalk there. It is one of the messages I have spoken to abortion workers for over 40 years and it goes something like this...

“Good morning! You know, among our prayers this morning, are heartfelt prayers for you and your colleagues. Specifically, we are praying that you wake up to the real nature of this business -- the evil, barbaric destruction of preborn boys and girls. We are praying that (for the sake of both your happiness and the state of your eternal soul) you find another job, one where you can truly help people rather than being a part of a business that lies to women, plays on their fears and confusion, and then actually kills little human beings for money. 

I know you know the song ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children.’ You have probably sung it yourself when you yourself were a kid. Well, that’s not just a religious song. Make no mistake; Jesus does love the little children; each single child is a very big deal with Him. And He is urging you today to separate yourself from a business whose primary profits come from cruelly tearing these little children to pieces. Please reconsider what you’re involved in here. Hundreds of abortion workers have found forgiveness, spiritual cleansing, and a fresh start with God, simply by trusting Christ’s sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty of all their sins and to start a new, noble, and eternal life with Jesus as their forever Friend. Won’t you take this wonderful opportunity also? Please, leave this wicked place today and come to Jesus.”

I hope this brief post serves as an effective reminder for you to pray for us as we engage in this pro-life witness, but also to pray for the conversions of men and women who are going so far in “suppressing the truth in unrighteousness” that they willingly work in such a heinous business. And, of course, we encourage you aloso to participate with pro-life advocates all over the country in all of the points of the “3 for 5 Prayer Campaign. You’ll find it right here on the Vital Signs Ministries website. Thanks so much.