What They Won't Stoop To -- Democrats Attempt Smear of Ken Blackwell

Ken Blackwell an anti-Catholic? That's the charge made recently by an Ohio organization of Democrat Catholics. And the substance of the charge?

Blackwell is co-authoring a book with a fellow who once told Catholic jokes! No kidding.

And, oh yes; it turns out that the group making the charge isn't really all that concerned about being anti-Catholic at all. Indeed, the organization itself refuses to accept the Church's position on abortion, school vouchers, etc.

Fortunately, quick to the rescue is the Catholic League's William Donohue.

Prayers Are Always In Order -- For All Of Us

Lucianne Goldberg's news roundup is one of our favorite spots on the web, usually the first one we visit every morning. She and her team provide important news stories, many of which would slide by unnoticed if lucianne.com wasn't there to post links to them.

Also, Lucianne's comments about the day's major stories frequently say more in 6 or 7 words than others say in paragraphs. And frequently she adds just the right touch of humor that will help keep you smiling even in the midst of every day's culture wars. She is a treasure.

And, oh yes -- did I mention her Photo of the Day (like the one shown above from her site) should never be missed? Lucianne.com -- bookmark it and make it a frequent stop in your own travels through cyberspace.

At Last, Victory & Vindication for the Godfather of the Pro-Life Movement

Our dear friend, mentor and hero Joe Scheidler has finally won his 20-year old case at the Supreme Court (again!) and, in doing so, has given all Americans a very important victory for freedoms of speech, assembly and religion. Congratulations to Joe, his family, attorney Thomas Brejcha and all of the team there at the Pro-Life Action League.

The story is at various places on the web today but the fullest and most accurate is at the Action League's site itself. In addition to Joe's press release, you'll find links there to the whole sordid history of the case.

Courage and Compassion in Kansas

In an effort to keep others from making the same tragic mistake that she did, State Representative Brenda Landwehr, a Republican from Wichita, admitted to undergoing an abortion several years ago. This confession came when Mrs. Landwehr was debating a bill on the house floor that would require health and safety inspection of abortion clinics in the state. She hadn't planned to do so but moved, as she later said by God, she emphasized her point that abortion “traumatizes women” by explaining to her colleagues there in the State Capitol that, “I live with that pain every single day because I killed a baby.”

The Kansas House passed the bill by one vote. It must now make it past the State Senate.

By clicking on the title of this post, you can go to the online news page of the local ABC-TV affiliate, KAKE, for the story. That page also has a link to a video presentation of the station's on-air report which includes a brief interview with Landwehr.

If you'd like to send along an encouraging thank-you to Representative Landwehr, you can do so by mailing her at the Kansas State Capitol, 300 SW 10th St., Topeka, Kansas 66612 or at this e-mail address.

Why Is Mike Adams Retiring from Writing Town Hall Columns?

What's this about the retirement of Mike Adams, the witty, insightful, and courageous UNC-Wilmington professor who keeps Town Hall readers "in the know" about what the leftist hooligans (usually professors) are up to on campus? You better check it out...right here.

Vatican Urges Muslims to Get a Grip

From ABC's web page comes a Reuters story that shows the Vatican's increasing frustration over Muslims who demand tolerance from others but then engage in the most grievous violence against their opponents. Read the whole story (and it's a good one) here but I will toss in a couple of teasers...

...After criticizing both the cartoons and the violent protests in Muslim countries that followed, the Vatican this week linked the issue to its long-standing concern that the rights of other faiths are limited, sometimes severely, in Muslim countries.

Vatican prelates have been concerned by recent killings of two Catholic priests in Turkey and Nigeria. Turkish media linked the death there to the cartoons row. At least 146 Christians and Muslims have died in five days of religious riots in Nigeria.

"If we tell our people they have no right to offend, we have to tell the others they have no right to destroy us," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State (prime minister), told journalists in Rome...

Vatican diplomats argue that limits on Christians in some Islamic countries are far harsher than restrictions in the West that Muslims decry, such as France's ban on headscarves in state schools.

Saudi Arabia bans all public expression of any non-Muslim religion and sometimes arrests Christians even for worshipping privately. Pakistan allows churches to operate but its Islamic laws effectively deprive Christians of many rights...

Iraqi Christians say they were well treated under Saddam Hussein's secular policies, but believers have been killed, churches burned and women forced to wear Muslim garb since Islamic groups gained sway after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003...

Belarussian Opposition Gets A Rare Chance To Be Heard

Alyaksandr Milinkevich, the united opposition candidate in the upcoming March 19 elections for the presidency of Belarus (elections which are undoubtedly well rigged by the corrupt Lukashenka regime) pledged in a televised address to voters a few days ago to radically change the style of governance and free his country from the grip of fear.

The address was one of the very few times Belarussians had to hear from anyone besides the Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenka (photo left) because of the heavy-handed state control of the press and media. "Authorities in a future Belarus will be elected, not appointed," Milinkevich said. "The person will be given priority over the state. The government will not rule the person, but the person will determine the country's policies.... Freedom will give people an opportunity to lead a decent life."

Milinkevich said the opposition is against staging a "colored revolution" in Belarus like those that followed elections in Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. But he added that if the authorities manipulate the votes, people will have the right to take to the streets to defend their votes. "If people take to the streets, we, on our part, will do everything so that this will be a peaceful demonstration as required by the constitution. And we hope very much that the authorities will act in the same manner and not use force," Milinkevich said.

If the first part of Milinkevich's hope; namely, that the frightened and oppressed people of Belarus will risk severe penalties to protest a rigged election, is wishful thinking, then the second part; namely, that Lukashenka would not retaliate with brutal force, is beyond the wildest imagination.

Meanwhile, one of the other opposition candidates, Alyaksandr Kazulin, was allowed a prerecorded TV address immediately after that of Milinkevich. Kazulin argued that incumbent President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has no right to be on the ballot for the March 19 presidential election because the Belarus constitution clearly disallowed anyone serving more than two terms in the office. He stressed that Lukashenka violated the constitution by calling
a referendum in 2004 to lift the limit -- another vote where the outcome was decided by Lukashenka long before the votes were counted (if they ever were counted).

Kazulin also pointed out to voters that Belarusian Television would not allow him to show his wife, Iryna, together with him in the studio. (Recent allegations by Belarusian Television, ever the instrument of Lukashenka, claimed that Kazulin is divorced and is lying when he tells the public that he is married.) Kazulin went on to contend that the nation has never seen the first lady, Halina Lukashenka, together with her husband over the entire course of his 12 years in office. Kazulin repeated the claims that many Belarussians in the know already realize that the womanizing Lukashenka lives with another woman -- whose mother is former Health Minister Lyudmila Pastayalka -- and has a son by her.

Oriana Fallaci Draws the Left's Hatred as Few Others

From The Book Den, here's an interesting entry dealing with liberalism's mean-spirited intolerance of even the most sensible moral arguments.

The post there also contains links to information about Oriana Fallaci, the Italian journalist, interviewer and author who is so fervently drawing the Left's disdain.

"Church of the Presidents" Heralds Same-Sex Marriage

From south Boston's newspaper, the The Patriot Ledger, comes this story:

The city’s defining historic landmark is about to be thrust into one of the most divisive modern political debates by means of a huge banner proclaiming support for same-sex marriage.

The United First Parish Church - widely known as The Church of the Presidents - has petitioned city officials for permission to hang a 34-foot-by-4-foot banner reading ‘‘People of Faith for Marriage Equality’’ above its main entrance on Hancock Street in the heart of downtown Quincy.

The church, a long-time Unitarian-Universalist congregation and home to the crypts of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams, needs city approval to hang the banner because its proposed size is more than twice that allowed under city code...

The Rob Reiner Scandal

Wanna' bet this never takes off?

So, quick -- while the story has at least briefly surfaced in the press (the San Francisco Chronicle, for crying out loud), take a peek at how the enlightened, far-left Rob Reiner "misused" about $23,ooo,ooo in taxpayer's money in his role as chairman of the First 5 California Children and Families Commission.

On Dead Voters And Other Election Frauds

Corruption and inefficiency are rampant in Michigan. And many other places.

One would think that the liberals' control of the MSM, the government bureaucracies, and the unjust advantages they were given by "campaign-finance reform" would be enough for them. But, no; even with these advantages, the left feels compelled to cheat at the grassroots level as well.

Isn't that a sweet thought as we look forward to the next elections?

Award-Winning Film Portrays Heroic Muslim Suicide Bomber

The post just previous to this one concerned the West ignoring the ongoing murders of innocents by fanatic Muslims. This one shows another element of Western culture's cooperation with the savages who would destroy it; namely, the glitzy glorification of a film which "stars" a Palestinian suicide bomber killing innocent Israelis.

Paradise Now has already won at the Golden Globes. Next stop? The Academy Awards.

And with all the positive hype being given by the Hollywood Left to the more illustrious, more expensive Munich by Steven Spielberg, another adamantly anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian film, who's to say that Paradise Now isn't set to bring home the Oscar?

And yet, knowing full well the extreme immorality and crazed political philosophy that Hollywood stands for, Americans (even American Christians) are spending their dollars and their hours at the movie theaters more than ever. Sigh.

Clicking on the title of this post takes you to a revealing story about Paradise Now from the (U.K.) Observer.

MSM Ignoring Muslim Savagery

It is an ugly, unfair and utterly irresponsible matter, this refusal of the mainstream media to tell the truth about the increasing floods of Islamic barbarity.

It is also clearly suicidal.

In this frightening piece, Mark Steyn shines a singular light on Muslims killing Jews in France -- brutal murders which are routinely ignored by the Western press.

Hwang's Violent Buddies

Let's see now -- he's an incompetent, unethical scientist dealing in an immoral field in which the tiny human beings used for research are actually killed.

And he's a proven liar that bilked his government out of millions of dollars.

Furthermore, he's a egotist of the lowest order who refused to apoligize even when caught red-handed in his crimes of fraud...a fraud which monstrously fueled the false hopes of millions of disabled and dying people.

And when this guy is finally fired from his government job, it is the lady who fired him who is brutally attacked?

Sigh. The inmates really are running the asylum.

Here's the story.

Modern Science is "Political" Science

Michael Fumento has a terrific column here dealing with the increasing dominance of social and political factors over true science. It is an important read.

But What About the Powerball Losers?

The Family Research Council's comments on the Nebraska winners of the Powerball windfall:

The media is giving front-page coverage to eight Nebraska meatpackers who each won more than $22 million in the latest Powerball lottery. What we don't learn from these stories is the high percentage of lottery winners who go bankrupt...

Gambling advocates don't tell you that odds of winning the lottery are less than those of being struck by lightning--twice. Many pro-lottery propagandists assure gullible voters that the money raised by the lottery will go to a good cause like education. I saw in my own state how the budgeters simply shifted existing funds out of education to cover other expenses, resulting in a zero net gain for education. It's a state-sponsored form of the old shell game.

We know from Scripture that the love of money is the root of many evils. We also know that we should pursue happiness by honest toil, not by expecting to get rich quick. The Nebraska winners included three immigrants from Vietnam and the Congo. One of them said: "This is a great country!" How sad that this is the message we send to would-be Americans. Gambling not only corrupts politicians and politics, but it also corrupts the American dream.

And while we're on the subject, take a look at this quick piece on the incredible power of gambling's Washington lobbyists...as in Washington's most powerful lobbyists!

"Bioethics" -- The Hoax of the Century?

The word "bioethics" has become the umbrella term for a whole host of unprincipled activities as well as a great deal of "science fiction" used to disguise the impracticality (or even worse, the sheer wickedness) of genetic manipulators. But then, distorting the language is simply the first sinster step towards distorting the morality of medical practice itself. Thus, a re-defintion of conception (clearly unscientific and inaccurate) to mean implantation rather than fertilization or the use of terms like "delayed personhood" are but the precursors to surgical abortion, the use of abortifacient chemicals and devices, the variety of in vitro fertilization techniques, cloning, physician-assisted suicide, living donor organ transplants, and other horrors.

It is this fraudulent science (inaccurate, immoral, and full of false promises and wishful thinking) that Dr. Dianne Irving and embryologist Dr. Ward C. Kischer referred to as "the hoax of the century" in their 1995 book, The Human Development Hoax. As Dr. Irving says, "We could have never [in 1995] imagined in our wildest dreams the explosion of false and decadent science that was to come in the human cloning and human embryonic stem cell research debates - what I would call 'the hoax of the millennium'. Enough is enough. This has got to stop."

Clicking on the title of this post will take you to Dr. Irving's comments on an article just published in Genetic and Engineering News about the connections between the Stanford Bioethics Consultants and the most brazen of the genetic manipulators.

Dr. Irving's professional activities include teaching positions at Georgetown University, Catholic University of America, and The Dominican House of Studies. She is a former career-appointed bench research biochemist/biologist (NIH, NCI, Bethesda, MD), an M.A. and Ph.D. philosopher (Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.), and Professor of the History of Philosophy, and of Medical Ethics. So, yes...Dr. Irving knows what she's talking about.

Dutch Bureaucrat Calls for Coerced Contraception and Abortion

You can. You should. You must.

That simple formula describes the course of decadence in modern society. First, the formerly unthinkable sins become allowed, sometimes still frowned upon, but yet allowed because of the greater good of individualism, free expression, skepticism over the legitimacy of moral authority, etc. Of monumental help here is the involvement of key authorities: educators, physicians, government leaders, film stars, and late-night comedians.

But then (and often very quickly), the culture gets comfortable with the presence of the formerly unthinkable sins in their midst. The justifications for their practice begin to evolve into encouragement for a wider audience to join in. Freedom from past restraints! Experimentation with new thrills! Expansion of the possibilities of pleasure! Mere tolerance of the formerly unthinkable sins now morphs into a call for general participation.

And then the next phase -- developed primarily to deal with those retrogressive individuals clinging to outmoded ideals, tired religious values and the like -- coercion. It would have been preferable for such people to have been successfully re-educated in the new ways. It would have been so much easier for all concerned had they got with the new program and embraced the "You can and You should" objectives. But they didn't and now, whether the reason is cultural, religious or just plain stubborness, the enlightened powers of government must be utilized to force compliance. It's all for the good...trust us.

This is what's called "social progress" and in the last couple of generations, we have witnessed the "You can, You should, You must" progression in matters of immodesty, public indecency, premarital sex and cohabitation, adultery, drug use, homosexuality and other sexual deviancies, prostitution, eugenic abortion and sterilization, genetic manipulation, and more.

This story from Holland is but one more sad example of the trend.

Any Port in A Storm -- The Bush Death Wish

From every angle, from all considerations, the Bush decision to go down with the ship on the matter of selling our port authorities to the United Arab Emirates is an inexplicably bonehead play.

Here's Kathleen Parker with one of the clearest presentations yet made.

A Living Constitution or a Fixed Foundation? To the Democrats, It Depends on the Issue They're Pushing

Here's Jonah Goldberg with today's "slam dunk" read. Very, very good. Just click the (rather long) title of this post to go there.