YouTube video of woman who regretted chemical abortion yanked

Because she showed the aborted fetus.

But Christina at Real Choice wrote a transcript.

I'm sorry we couldn't get a name. This is highly news worthy.

To the woman who wrote this: I am so sorry you went through this. I hope we can find out who you are so we can share your story. Please find another host for your video as your story is important. You might try http://www.gloria.tv

And please tell us who you are. We may be able to get some media out of this, if you so choose.

A primer on the men's rights movement

At Oz Conservative

There's the usual range of liberal attitudes amongst these men. Some of the more right-liberal ones limit themselves to calls for procedural equality. But others are more radical and want to follow through more consistently with the liberal ideal of making gender not matter.

It's therefore often assumed at MRM sites that masculinity is an oppressive construct; that the aim of the MRM is to liberate men from masculinity; that society should be strictly gender neutral, including in parental roles and in having women drafted into combat roles; and that feminist countries like Sweden are the models for the rest of the world to follow.

The second wing of the MRM are the male separatists (who call themselves "men going their own way" or MGTOW).

These are men who have grown up in an age of female individualism. Their experience is of a society which is geared toward maximising female autonomy, whether it's in terms of education, careers or family.

Movements based on gendered victimhood: they're all crap.

VIDEO: What Every Catholic Needs to Know About Hell

I thought this was a propos, considering it's Halloween.

VIDEO: A message from the founder of Rachel's Vineyard

If you have been hurt by abortion, please listen to this video:



Rachel's Vineyard Retreat Schedule

Busy weekend ahead for me

Hello Dear Readers

I have a very busy weekend ahead of me. I will attend a pro-life conference tomorrow, and of course, Sunday is Halloween, plus other activities for the children.

So, if you get bored waiting for your comments to be moderated, please take a look at the blog headlines in the sidelines and click on them.

I suspect things will go back to normal on Monday.

VIDEO: Benedict XVI: Always Defend Life

The new bishop in the diocese of Longueuil could be a good sign

A new bishop has been named for the Catholic Diocese of Longueuil. His name is Lionel Gendron. He is a Sulpician and is an auxillary bishop of Montreal. He has also taught and the Grand Seminaire de Montreal.

I decided to do a little digging about him to see what I could find. I did not find very much. But what I did find looked promising.

For instance, this newspaper article says that he's a long-time friend of Cardinal Ouellet.

Another hardcore lib-left French "Catholic" website calls him a "conservative" and informs us that when he studied in Germany, his thesis supervisor was Pope Benedict XVI.

This is the first of Cardinal Ouellet's picks for the Quebec Church. I am cautiously optimistic. I am anxious to see who else he will pick in the future.

Verbal inflation rears its ugly head yet again...on a different issue

Like abortion, autism is a subject that is liable to raise its own tension-filled debates.

Some parents of autistic children, and autism activists, have very strong opinions about its causes and treatment.

(And I'm not one of them.)

The debates about causes and treatments can become very heated and lead to the kind of sentiment expressed in a column at Big Hollywood about Jenny McCarthy, who believes that childhood vaccines cause autism:

When she became one of the most vocal opponents of the CDC, she became party to what amounts to biological terrorism. [Oh brother!]

...

In a Time Magazine article last year, she announced that she would rather her son contract a potentially life-threatening disease than be autistic (I apologize now to any autistic adults that may be reading this for I can imagine how offensive that is).

Is Jenny McCarthy threatening anyone with harm if they vaccinate their kids?

Calling her lobbying "biological terrorism" is ridiculous.

Now, the idea that a life-threatening disease is better than autism is ridiculous in my mind. But I can see how a parent might say that. Not that I would condone such a statement. When your kid is on his fourth hour tantruming, you might wish his autism were something else, too, in the heat of the moment.

And as the parent of two autistic daughters, I don't feel offended. I think it's dumb statement, but it doesn't wound me in my soul. I think we're a little hypersensitive and too attached to identity politics.

What bothers me more than Jenny McCarthy's opinion on vaccines is the characterization of someone with a different opinion as a terrorist.

A terrorist is a person who uses violence to attain political goals.

People try to stretch the definition of "terrorist" to bank on the emotional animus against violence, even when they admit to using that word in a metaphorical sense.

But it's not a true depiction of the vast majority of political activity.

And I think it dilutes the true meaning of the word "terrorism", which is a bad thing.


But Suzanne, don't you think that not vaccinating babies and letting them die of diseases is a form of terrorism?

Gee whatever happened to Trust Women?

Oh right, that only applies to abortion.

People who don't want to vaccinate their kids aren't look to kill anyone.

They have an opinion about what's good for their children. It may be misguided, but it's not an immediate threat to the children's lives.

Some of the diseases that are targeted by vaccines are treatable and mostly non-life threatening. Measles. Mumps. Whooping Cough.

Whooping cough. Interesting that the columnist brought up this case:

Thanks to the anti-vaccine movement that heralded Ms. McCarthy as one of their most vocal leaders, whooping cough is back with a vengeance. In California alone, the number of cases has risen to its highest point since 1955. Los Angeles Unified School District sent out a recorded message to all families this month warning of an epidemic. 10 babies have already died of whooping cough in California this year alone. The saddest part is that all of these deaths were preventable.

Well not really. I googled the story and pulled this up from CNN:

All of the deaths occurred in infants under the age of 3 months, says Michael Sicilia, a spokesman for the California Department of Public Health. Nine were younger than 8 weeks old, which means they were too young to have been vaccinated against this highly contagious bacterial disease.

"This is a preventable disease," says Sicilia, because there is a vaccine for whooping cough to protect those coming in contact with infants, and thereby protect the infants.

However, some parents are choosing to not vaccinate their children. In other cases, previously vaccinated children and adults may have lost their immunity because the vaccine has worn off.

Is Jenny McCarthy responsible for those children's deaths? Hardly.

Can her position be refuted? Sure it can. But it doesn't have to include verbal inflation.

I think it does more harm than good.

And by the way, I have never been vaccinated, save for a booster shot in high school and a one-time flu shot. I got measles and chicken pox and I lived. For the vast majority of children, this will be the case. Perhaps I'm living off the immunity of the herd. But it's also true that in this day age, many of these diseases are just not as deadly once were. I don't mean to say that children should not be vaccinated, but I do want to put things in perspective. People who don't vaccinate their kids aren't exactly giving them a death sentence.

India makes history by promoting wheelchair user to rank of Army Major General

This is just interesting:

Belonging to the elite Parachute regiment, Maj Gen S K Razdan (pictured) picked up his two-star rank and is posted at the headquarters, integrated defence staff, Army officials said here.

The 52-year-old para commando was left paralysed below his waist after a spinal injury 15 years ago during a gunfight in Kashmir, an effort which had won him a Kirti Chakra, the country's second highest peace-time gallantry award.

In a daring effort in 1995, Razdan had taken on terrorists and saved the lives of 14 women in a 16-hour operation in Damal Kunzipur on October 8, which also happens to be his birthday.

The officer was shifted to the Army's Base Hospital in the national capital, where he was treated for his injuries. The Army has in the past promoted amputee officers to General-officer rank, but this would be the first time a wheelchair-bound officer has become a Major General, the officers added.

H/T: Media dis&dat

QUOTATION: Atheism

So much of what people call atheism is not so much the negation of God as the deification of the ego. All atheists believe in God, but the god is themselves.

--Bl. Fulton Sheen

Feminist tries to play gotcha with pro-lifers and fails miserably

Atheist in Canada thinks she's caught us in a double standard:

Anti-choicers have us believe that abortion is the killing of a human baby, and thus should be illegal. Nevermind all their other hypocrisies, what I want to know is this: do they condemn the Jehovah Witness parents who let their actual children, who are breathing and conscious beings, die because they refuse medical treatment? Because if you ask me, that is in fact actual murder, or at the very least, criminal negligence.

That is so weak.

First off, has anyone ASKED pro-lifers if they condemn the JW doctrine of refusing blood transfusions for their small children?

No.

But that doesn't stop her from jumping to her desired conclusion:

So pro-life, you go to hospitals and call those parents murderers, right? You make them feel worse about themselves on their worst day, right? You fight tooth and nail to introduce laws to make sure those parents aren't allowed to cause the actual death of their actual children, right?

The overwhelming majority of pro-lifers are orthodox Christians of one kind or another, and would not share the JW's Bible interpretation.

Speaking as a Catholic, religious doctrines against reason and the public good can't have the force of law. I suspect many if not most Christians believe something to that effect.

So no, JW's cannot let their babies die.

Secondly, where is the movement to deprive JW babies of their right to life? Where is the push? Who is calling for it?

Nobody?

Then there's no need to go down to the hospital.

As AtheistinCanada has pointed out, it's already illegal to allow infants to die.

So...why would pro-lifers bother when the laws are to their satisfaction and other people will make sure those babies are saved?

Doesn't she suppose that doctors in the hospitals aren't gunning for those kids to be treated?

Doesn't she think that Child Protection intervenes in cases involving dying children, at least as far as very small children are concerned?

So why don't pro-lifers have to go to hospitals when the legal system will take care of it?

Oh I know, because she needs a convenient strawman.

Seriously to answer her question, maybe it has to do with the fact that this is a complete NON-issue.

And by the way, JW's go through great lengths to save their children without blood transfusions. According to this wikipedia article, they attempt to identify doctors and hospitals where alternative procedures are performed.

JW's don't want their babies dead.

Abortionists do. And some informed women who abort do as well.

Big difference, from a moral standpoint.

That's not to say that the JW's are correct.

But the elements of the situation show that the cases of JW's and their small children, and aborting women, are different.

When you try to find a double standard, you have to compare apples to apples.

Cases where the right to life of the innocent is denied.

Consider that pro-lifers fight against euthanasia, and are particularly vehement about euthanasia for disabled newborns, which is legal in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Why? Because like in the case of abortion, the goal is to intentionally kill innocent human life.

I can't vouch for the pro-life movement in the Netherlands and Belgium and their activities. But they certainly do speak out against the practice. Disabled babies are virtually deprived of their right to life.

Consider another case: The Born-Alive Infants Act.

In the US, some late-term aborted babies who were born alive were intentionally left to die. The pro-life movement lobbied to make sure that these legal persons were treated if they survived the abortion. So Congress passed a Born-Alive Infants act prohibiting abortionists from letting babies die.

And feminists fought it tooth and nail.

"Pro-life", you are a sick, murderous, hypocritical bunch and the world would be a better place but for your existence.

Feel the love. How liberals argue. Can't get their facts straight and typically resort to ad hominems. *Yawn*.

---

UPDATE:

I did a little Googling.

And found one strong pro-life objection to blood transfusion, but it's a very authoritative one.

Bishop Alejandro Goic of Rancagua, Chile, addressed a case of the Jehovah's Witness of denying blood transfusions to their children:

“For the Catholic Church, the position of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is what we call one of an erroneous conscience. That is, they believe something that is mistaken. This is part of their profound convictions, and therefore it merits respect in their decision making. Religious freedom invites us to respect the conscience of each person. What we must safeguard is the respect for life. In response to this, many laws dealing with minors in danger of death allow for the will of the parents to be overridden, not because children have more rights than parents, but because their lives are in jeopardy (Spain, Canada, to name of few).”


“God is the God of life. For Jesus life is something precious and ‘saving a life’ prevails over the law of the Sabbath (Mark 3:4), because ‘God is not a God of the dead but of the living’(Mark 12:27),” Bishop Goic stressed.

“We are followers of Jesus Christ. In the example of Christ, we can give our lives out of love of neighbor. ‘No one has greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends’ (John 15:13). Therefore, we strongly affirm ‘life, always’,” the bishop said.

Please help Blazing Catfur

Dear readers: Blazing Catfur is being sued by everyone's favourite ex-Thought Crime Commission employee Richard Warman because the li'l minou had the audacity to call Warman (of all things) a "bully".

Richard Warman, a bully? Whudda thought that?

The legal costs are adding up and he's passing out hat hoping that we can pull together and help him out.

Please don't leave him empty-handed. I do not want to see Richard Warman win his case. As he says, if everyone of his readers gives him a bit of money, he'll be able to cover his costs.

Execution of Iranian Church Leader Delayed

The gist of it:

The Rev. Youcef Nadarkhani, the leader of a church network in Rasht, Iran, was arrested on Oct. 13, 2009, after objecting to the practice of forcing Christian school students – including his own children – to read the Quran. After being tried in recent weeks in the 11th Chamber of the Gilan Province’s Assize Court, Nadarkhani was sentenced to die on Oct. 24.

Notably, however, a formal verdict has not yet been delivered by the court and Jason DeMars of Present Truth Ministries said Saturday that security officials have informed the courts to temporarily delay the pastor’s execution until further notice.

“He is currently under a sentence of death, but they are delaying the delivery of the verdict in order to put more pressure on him to turn away from Christ,” reported DeMars, who has been closely following Nadarkhani’s case.

Full Story

VIDEO: Rev. Peggy Means speaks of her abortion

Attention Pro-Lifers from London, England-- Vigil outside Parliament tomorrow

I received this message from Anthony Ozimic from SPUC:

SPUC has just received news of a vigil to be held outside Parliament tomorrow (Wednesday 27 October) marking the 43rd anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act 1967. The vigil is being organised by the Choose Life campaign, an initiative of Christian Concern led by Andrea Williams. The vigil will be held between 12pm and 1pm at Old Palace Yard, immediately opposite Parliament. Following the vigil, a service of lament and repentence will be held between 1.15pm and 1.50pm at the Emmanual Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 3DW.

Please attend if you can, and spread the word.

Service of lament and repentance. Oh there's a liturgy we need to invent in the Catholic Church.

The embarrased abortionist

This exchange between a pro-life leafleter and an abortionist took place in South Africa:

Most of the participants of the prayer vigil had dispersed when the “doctor” drove slowly past her home and around the traffic circle. As she pulled up next to our vehicle she demanded: “What are you doing parked outside my home? Are you the people who have been distributing these leaflets?” She waved one of the “You Can Stop Abortions in Pinelands!” leaflets. “Who wrote this?” she demanded to know. “I did.” responded Taryn.

“Well, I want you to stop. You’re embarrassing me in my neighborhood. I don’t want my neighbours to know what I do.”

“If what you are doing is right, why would you be embarrassed about your neighbours knowing your occupation?” I asked.

“Because it’s controversial. Not everyone approves of abortion. You are embarrassing me.”

“You are killing babies.” I told her.

“No, I don’t kill babies. The mothers do.” she responded.

“Well, the mothers pay you to kill their babies, but you’re the one who actually does the procedure.”

“But it’s their choice, they sign the life of their baby away. I’m just providing a service.” responded the “doctor”.

“So, you’re like a hit-man, who takes money to kill people?”

“You could describe it like that,” she smiled. “I’m providing a service. It’s the mother’s choice.”

(...)

Surely you, as a doctor, know that life begins at conception?”

“That’s not the point.”

“Yes, that is exactly the point. Make no mistake, the day will come when future generations will look back on abortion in our time the same way that we now look back on the slave trade and the holocausts.”

“Maybe,” she said, “but we won’t be around then, so it won’t matter to us.”

Doc, you just might. Don't exclude the possibility.

Epitomizing what is wrong with the Church in Quebec

So I was poking around on the internet when I came across this Quebec magazine called "Presence".

If you noticed the title of the upcoming December 2010 issue, it says:

"L'avortement intelligent"

Translation: Intelligent abortion.

I decided to see who was behind this magazine. So I clicked on the "organization" page. The people on the masthead were unfamiliar to me, but the partners were not. They consisted of:

The Sisters of Notre-Dame
Dominican Fathers
The Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary
The Congregation of the Holy Cross
The Sisters of Saint Anne
The Sisters of the Holy Cross

The link list includes such liberal Catholic outfits as spiritualite2000.com and Culture et Foi.

If you look at some of the past titles of issues:

Unionism and social justice
Art and Taboos
Liberation theology

They interviewed an advocate for women's ordination.

All this leads me to believe that this upcoming issue of a so-called Catholic magazine, partnered with Catholic orders, will be less than pro-life.

And no one will raise a single protest in Quebec.

I wouldn't care so much if these were just individuals putting out a magazine. I'm upset that they list Catholic Orders as partners. 

Catholic Orders have no business partnering with such enterprises.

But I suspect nothing will happen. Business as usual.

This is why there is so little fight against abortion in Canada, folks. The people who should be most against it are not, and in fact are complicit in promoting it.

You know, the Pope has called for a synod on the New Evangelization, to bring non-believers back to the faith.

To tell you the truth, before we start doing that, maybe we should think of evangelizing the Church first, especially the clergy, the religious and the church bureaucracy.

Barbara Kay is so wrong on the death penalty

She writes:

I see the death penalty as justice served, as the extirpation of a cancer in the social body. Imprisoning a monster for life is, to me, analogous to maintaining a tumour with low-dose chemotherapy or radiation simply because it is made of flesh and blood like the rest of our body. We are deliberately isolating but nurturing something we loathe on the grounds that every human life is sacred. But that is nonsense. Many of the same people who would denounce the government as barbaric for taking Russell Williams’ life support the killing of unborn babies on demand, and have no problem with soldiers killing our enemies in combat.

Yes, every human life is sacred. And her argument is kind of interesting, considering that she supports legal abortion (I think).

A human being is not a tumour. This makes me think of the "fetus is a parasite" argument.

We don't like that particular human being, so we dehumanize them.

There is no real justice in the face of murder. True justice would be bringing back the victims to life.

How is paying with your life justice? Your life is not the lives of those who were killed.

All you can really do is penalize in a very imperfect fashion. Human dignity is absolute. Aggressors must be disarmed with only the necessary force. Otherwise, they must be allowed to live. Every human being is a little bit of us, even if we don't want to admit it. We all share in that nature. If we respect who we are, we should respect the humanity of others.

I am in favour of harsher sentences. A life sentence should be just that. I would be in favour of hard labour, of more arduous conditions. Because we must send society the message that killing is absolutely untolerable.

But we must not kill in return.

I don't think the death penalty debate will be reopened. But should there be a campaign, I pledge to fight it.

I want killing to stop.

Newgenics

Quote:

Society still prevents people with mental disabilities from having babies and is not comfortable when parents choose to have babies with disabilities, said Fairbrother, director of Neighbourhood Bridges, a human rights group that supports people with intellectual disabilities.

“We talk about newgenics, in a post-sterilization world,” she said.

People with intellectual disabilities get married, then aren’t allowed to live with their spouse, or are talked into long-term birth control such as Depo Provera, she said. They decide not to have children because they are told they shouldn’t, said Fairbrother.

“Because they know they’ll suffer for it and so will their children.”

And abortion facilitates all this. What's the difference between that and aborting a "defective" baby? It's the same thing. People don't want to be "burdened" with a baby with disabilities.

Artificial insemination...it's not all rainbows and sunshine, either

Barbara Kay:

Many people assume that sperm donor children are very like adopted children in having to come to terms with their bio-heritage. But in fact they are worlds apart. Adoption is a very well-regulated non-profit institution. The whole point of adoption is to find a loving family for a child who already exists. The rights of adoptive children are jealously guarded by trained social service people, who actually make adoptive parents jump through criteria hoops no ordinary
prospective parents would ever have to face.

By contrast, sperm and egg donation take place in an unregulated marketplace. The focus is not on the child – or rather the potential child – at all. On the contrary: sperm donation is only about the adult wish for a child. In theory this “intentional parenthood” means the conceived child is especially wanted and valued. But what it often means is that the child is wanted and valued by the mother. Intentional parenthood is also (mostly) intentional fatherlessness. There is enormous arrogance in the very idea that a child can be just as happy with half a biological identity as with a whole one, and that “fathering” can be reduced to a purely anonymous piece of DNA.

Are fetuses rational?

Ethika Politika:

To understand this point better, let’s compare me with a rock. Right now, neither of us can run a marathon, so in that respect, we’re similar. But there’s a big difference between us. While I can train and build up my stamina to the point where I can run a marathon, a rock will never be able to do so; it’s simply not the right kind of being. I, on the other hand, am the kind of being that can do so, even if I can’t do it right now. I have within my nature the ability to run a marathon, even if I haven’t developed that ability. And it’s the same with people in reversible comas. They’re still the kind of being that can think rationally. They have within their nature the ability to do so, even if they’ve temporarily lost the capacity to exercise that ability right now.

And it’s the same with fetuses, too. They’re also the kind of being that can be rational; they just haven’t developed that capacity to the point of being able to exercise it yet. So persons are characterized by having within their nature the ability to think rationally, even if they can’t exercise that ability just yet. And since fetuses fit this criterion, they must be persons too.

VIDEO: Lisa's Abortion Story

This is not a story of regret over having had an abortion. It's somewhat different:

"I regret my IVF"

This is one British woman's story of obsession with fertility.

She conceived twins through. One of them was aborted at 30 weeks for anomalies.

She conceived again through IVF. And her marriage fell apart. And she aborted twins.

My experiences have opened my eyes to the unacknowledged devastation IVF can wreak. No one talks about how the pursuit of fertility can bring negative consequences: you are expected to set your eye on the goal and just keep going until you get there. And when it has worked for you, no one will countenance you talking about how long or difficult the process was. Every discussion tends to be rounded off by someone saying, ‘At least you’ve got your little boy,’ as if what you went through is cancelled out by the end result.

Of course, mothers say that, however awful the pregnancy or birth, having a baby makes it all worthwhile. Society (including doctors, nurses and health visitors) tends to prevent women who have suffered any motherhood ‘loss’ (including the inability to conceive) from acknowledging it and thus working through it.

(...)

A friend of mine who has one IVF son and another conceived naturally, as well as having lost a twin pregnancy, says:

‘I still feel traumatised by fertility treatment and I don’t think that will ever go, even though I have my family. People, including my mother, tell me I should be grateful. But infertility leaves its mark, like when you move a sofa and there are still dents in the carpet long after the furniture has gone.’

This makes me wonder how many women out there regret their IVF.

How many women out there are scarred by the procedure?

And how many women feel the burden of knowing they have frozen babies who will never be born because there are only so many times you can be pregnant?

I wonder if there are women out there who, having had IVF, put up a good front but are suffering from their experiences.

Perhaps this should be another angle to the Silent No More campaign.

Catholic bloggers aim to purge dissenters

An article from The Washington Times.

I think there should be a little more of this in Canada. Especially Quebec.

VIDEO: The Story Behind "The Precious Feet"

Hear the story behind the famous picture of the "Precious feet" from which the Precious Feet pins were made.



This is an important part of our history, folks. We should pass it on. All the stories-- the famous embryo at 6 weeks who swam after being pulled from an ectopic pregnancy, "Malachi", so on and so forth-- we should tell these stories to everyone and create a history of the unborn child and the pro-life movement.

B.C. bishop in hospital after attack at rectory

What is this all about?

The Roman Catholic bishop of Kamloops, B.C., is in hospital after suffering a vicious beating at the rectory of the local church.

Monsignor Jerry Desmond said Bishop David Monroe was found bleeding and unconscious on the floor of his residence next to Sacred Heart Cathedral.

The monsignor said 69-year-old Bishop Monroe was assaulted when he answered the door at about 10 p.m. Friday night.

Bishop Monroe was apparently attacked with a blunt object, Father Desmond said.

He said Bishop Monroe's head and face remained swollen Saturday and he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

“I anointed him about midnight last night, so about two hours after the beating. He did not recognize me and his face was very swollen.”

He said a priest heard Bishop Monroe yelling and rushed downstairs to help but slipped and dislocated his shoulder.

The priest and the bishop were taken to hospital.

Praying for the bishop and the priest...

---

UPDATE:

Investigators said the suspect’s family was extremely co-operative. Earlier in the evening, family members had taken the suspect to the hospital over concerns that he was experiencing a psychotic episode. The suspect smashed a window at about 8:50 p.m. as he was leaving the hospital, said Wilson.

The suspect is not known to police and investigators say there’s nothing to suggest he knew Monroe, said Wilson.

Prayer and Action Fastion Item for Monday

Received by email. Passing this along...

John Pacheco has called for a day of fasting and prayer this Monday. (and you thought I'd ask you to write a letter!)


The Canadian bishops will be talking about Development and Peace at 11:45am on Monday, at their annual plenary session, in Cornwall, Ontario. Pro-lifers have been waiting a long time to hear the bishops speak definitively on why -

1. Development and Peace is giving money to fund 47 pro-abortion groups in the Third World?

(see: http://www.socon.ca/index/dp_abortion.html

and

http://www.lifesitenews.com/features/DevelopmentPeace/)

2. why Development and Peace money is being used to obtain a Federal Court injunction Sept. 12 to block an access (via an access to information request by lifesitenews) to information request for the names and funding levels regarding its nearly 200 partner organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia?

(see write up in Catholic Register- http://www.catholicregister.org/canada/court-quashes-access-to-information-on-dp )


If you have a chance (in between fasting and praying), please send John a note of encouragement, and solidarity at-

http://www.socon.ca/or_bust/?p=10096#comments


So far, there is just three people joining me. And I do hate to fast and pray alone.


This is a VERY critical moment in the Catholic church in Canada. Let's pray our wonderful bishops over to the pro-life side!

Why we need a law against coerced abortion

Texas Parents Stopped From Forcing Teenage Daughter to Have Abortion from LifeNews.com

With the help of pro-life attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund, a 16-year-old Texas girl has secured a temporary restraining order preventing her parents from forcing her to have an abortion.

On two occasions, the teenager’s mother literally dragged her to local abortion facilities, including International Healthcare Solutions and Planned Parenthood of the Texas Capital Region, demanding that her daughter take the life of her unborn child.

Though she refused and the child’s father also does not want the baby killed, her parents continued to insist that they will force her to have the abortion. The court’s order prevents that from happening.

And ...

The 16-year-old high school student, who is 13 weeks pregnant, was even more confirmed in her decision against having an abortion after receiving information from a pro-life prayer worker outside one of the abortion facilities to which her mother took her.

That is what sidewalk counsellors are for.

More here

VIDEO: Dancing Orthodox Rabbis

Just...Weird.

Update on Bill C-510 Roxanne's Law against forced abortion

The blog for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada informs us that Bill C-510 aka Roxanne's law has passed the House Committee procedure stage and will be up for a first hour of debate on November 1st.

The EFC has a document explaining the law in depth and answering objections. (Also here).

VIDEO: Discarded... a short film about women in India

This is really good. It's about the state of affairs for women in India. It's not just about abortion, but also about the cultural practices that lead to it.

There are some disturbing scenes of women who have been burned by their husbands. Be warned.

It's worth your 12 minutes. You won't be bored.

In India, all women must confront the cultural pressure to bear a son. The consequences of this preference is a disregard for the lives of women and girls. From birth until death they face a constant threat of violence. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/undesired

Fr. Raymond Gravel in favour of legalizing euthanasia

Don't tell me you're shocked.

Campaign Life Quebec has the story.
(In French)

Fr. Gravel says "I am against legalizing euthanasia in general. It's not everyone who believes in God wants them to live until a natural death. I think those people have a right to decide about their death."

If that's not legalizing euthanasia "in general", I don't know what is.

Fr. Gravel does the same thing with abortion. He says "I'm against abortion, what're you all mad about?" But supports legal abortion. Which is to say he opposes legal protection for unborn children. Which is what the moral law requires.

When are the bishops going to do something about this priest? This is not okay. The Vatican or SOMEONE should tell him it's his job to preach the Catholic teachings of our Church.

Calling abortion pics "porn"-- another distortion of the language

Once again, abortion supporters are twisting the language, redefining words to suit their own purposes.

The Pro-Life Action League blog has pointed to a MSM blog that calls Missy Smith's graphic political ads "abortion porn".

It's not very respectful of sex workers to compare what they do to abortion. Don't all women (and men) have a right to make a living with their bodies and exercise their autonomy? Why disparage their supposedly legitimate commercial product by associating it with abortion?

I suppose it might have to do with pornography and abortion both being obscene. Well, there I would agree.

Perhaps pro-choicers imagine that pro-lifers get off on these pics, since we're fetus fetishists and all. Like respecting the unborn is a bad thing. There's no unprovable malicious intent they won't attribute to pro-lifers to make their point, in the absence of facts and logic for their case. They can't argue the pictures, so they have to make the story about something else.

And I love how he underscored that most abortions are in the first trimester. As if there were no pictures of aborted first trimester fetuses.

Keep trying to deflect the issue, bud. It'll only work for so long. Eventually, somebody will have to comment on what's being shown.

Place your bets: who's the next pope?

A British bookie website gives the odds.

Cardinal Francis Arinze (2/1) and Cardinal Scola (6/1) are ahead.

Cardinal Ouellet is listed at 40 to 1 odds.

Bono is at 1000 to 1 odds.

Which goes to show what they know because he can't be in the running. He's married.

Expect the MSM to use this kind of website to write their news stories.

Here is where we juxtapose

Post today at The Abortioneers:

I wear a "Trust Women" button like the one worn by Dr. Tiller. I believe it with all my heart and it's the reason I go to work every day,

Post yesterday, regarding the 40 Days for Life the number of babies saved:

September 22 – October 31
Day 29 – 346 babies saved

More like 346 women harassed, accused, guilt-tripped. Oh wait, it's more like a billion women. Those 346 are just the ones who actually stopped to listen to you, who either didn't want to have abortions in the first place or who didn't know where to turn for real information and advice and fell victim to your lies and injustice.

So Trust Women...until they talk to pro-lifers, but then don't trust them any more because their judgement can't be trusted.

And I love how she seems to think she knows the emotions and ideas of the women whose babies were saved.

Did any of them express feeling harassed, accused or guilt-tripped?

And the question also comes down to: were they happy with their decision?

Is that what should ultimately matter to feminists?

Well no. Because the only good happy decision is one that is taken by consulting the feminist line.

And she says some women "didn't want abortions in the first place." How does she know? And if they are on the way to the clinic and didn't want abortions, what would they have done to stop them? 
I think more women whose babies were saved because of 40 Days should come forward. Of course, given that they would contradict the feminist line, they would probably be dismissed, just like women who regret their abortion are routinely dismissed. But at least the public would know.

Abortion clinic patients' opinions about obtaining abortions from general women's health care providers.

From an abstract:

OBJECTIVE: Most U.S. women obtain abortions at specialty clinics. This qualitative study explores abortion clinic patients' opinions about receiving abortions from general women's health care providers.

(...)

RESULTS: Despite having a general provider, most women sought clinic abortions. Some women offered reasons for preferring specialty care and others for preferring abortion from their general provider. Most women assumed their general provider did not "do abortion" and many believed those providers were opposed to abortion. Women who had delivered a baby were concerned with their image in their general provider's eyes. Two women were denied care by their general providers.

VIDEO: Forced Abortion For Violating One Child Policy

A horrific report, broadcast on Al-Jazeera.



It's funny because feminists insist that pro-lifers are out to control women's reproductive lives.

If that were the case, why wouldn't pro-lifers support forced abortion?

After all, if it was ALL about control, and not ANYTHING about the rights of unborn children, wouldn't pro-lifers support the Chinese Government?

Unintentionall Funny Abortion Gang Post

Remember yesterday when I blogged about how feminists manipulate language and attribute definitions words used by pro-lifers speakers that the latter never intended?

Here's another beautiful example.

KushieIsMoon asserts most solemnly and definitively that anti-choicers live outside reality. Because they say that abortion is murder.

And that has no basis in reality.

None whatsoever. NOT A SHRED OF EVIDENCE.

It's a total lie.

And how does she prove it's a lie?

Simple.

She links to a legal definition of murder.

See? See?

 Since a fetus is not person, so it can't be murder. THEREFORE pro-lifers have no basis in reality.

And I guess when slaves were killed before Emancipation, that wasn't murder, either, huh? When they called killing blacks "murder", they were lying, too?

Doesn't KushieIsMoon think that pro-lifers KNOW THAT, i.e. that abortion does not constitute a murder for the legal system?

After all, isn't that what pro-lifers are fighting against?

The irony of saying we're the ones who do not live in reality!

The word "murder" has more than one definition. The word murder can also mean the unjustified killing of human life, and that's how most people use it, regardless of the legalities of the word.

But abortion supporters want to get away from that stigma. They can't deny that abortion take a human life. So they have to twist words to make them mean something compeletely different than what normal people would havet hem mean.

Kushie also says:

There are other anti-choice beliefs which obviously have no place in the real world- like the idea that all pro-choice women hate babies,

Well abortion rights supporters are no lovers of fetuses. In fact, they try to disparage support for fetal rights by calling pro-lifers fetus fetishists.

I don't know of any greater hatred than denying another human being the non-negotiable right to exist.

Now, she veers into a post about IgnoreRoe, a movement to get elected officials to ignore Roe v. Wade on the basis of interposition.

I'm not a Constitutional expert, so I don't know if that would work.

But Kushie is upset that they're pushing this view.

How can anti-choicers be convinced to live in reality, and to accept reality?

I am all about reality.

Unfortunately, it appears that it is abortions rights supporters who flee reality and always have.

They have always fled the reality that abortion takes a human life. And if some of them do accept that abortion takes a human life, they think taking innocent human life is okay. They do not believe that the right to life of every innocent human being is non-negotiable.

I'm not making this up. Any honest feminist will own up to this.

VIDEO: Vote for Amendment 62, Colorado!

VIDEO: Doctor Shocks Michael J. Fox on Oprah re: stem cell research

"The stem cell debate is dead."

Vote for Megan Crowe for Catholic School Trustee in Zone 10

I heard some good things about Megan through the grapevine, and I understand from a commenter at SoCon or Bust that she was the only candidate to answer the questionnaires from Campaign Life Coalition and Concerned Catholic Parents of Ottawa.

Zone 10 includes

Ward 12 – Rideau-Vanier
Ward 13 – Rideau-Rockcliffe
Ward 14 – Somerset.

I hope those of you living in these areas can vote for her!

Please pass it on.

---

UPDATE

I just got off the phone with Campaign Life Ottawa. Campaign Life's head office did not change the website yet indicating Megan Crowe's answers.

But the Ottawa office said that she had answered all the answers positively.

I notice that the incumbent Thérèse Maloney-Cousineau also answered the questions positively.

I heard that she got a phone call from a solid pro-lifer who asked her about her views and her response was "I'm a practicing Catholic."

That's not good enough for me or most active pro-lifers.

However, Megan Crowe is a university student. I've seen her talked up on facebook by pro-lifers from U of O.

I trust the under 30 crowd more when it comes to such things.

I don't just want a candidate who answers the questionnaires correctly. I want a kindred spirit. Megan Crowe sounds like more of a kindred spirit.

If you have any more info, you can leave it in the comments (make sure you wait for the webpage to load completely.)

VIDEO: Abortion Story // Deana

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada Upset at Media Use of Images

Quote:

How many times have you seen an article about abortion that is accompanied by a stock photo of a pregnant woman obviously in the third trimester? Such photos are inaccurate and inappropriate. Portraying a heavily pregnant woman in the context of abortion simply feeds the anti-abortion myth that women routinely have abortions right up to the 9th month of pregnancy. Pairing such a picture with an article on abortion may even directly contradict the facts and arguments in the piece.

But you would support a woman's right to choose abortion at that time for any reason, right?

One of the images recommended is this:

Of course, the gestational sac is not exactly at the heart of the debate on abortion. If they wanted to be REALLY accurate, they'd opt for a picture of an actual embryo:

Heck, if the journalists were REALLY keen on showing the issue, they'd show the graphic image of an abortion.

The ARCC is urging its members to email the picture to journalists who use an image of a pregnant woman.

---

UPDATE on October 20th:

I just thought of something.

The picture of the gestational sac at 5 weeks...

Besides not showing the humanity of the unborn child...

It's not even an abortion.

It's probably taken from a miscarriage. There's no blood. Unless they took it from a medical abortion, but they would have had to clean it up. I think it's unlikely.

Women's Issues Debate for Ottawa Mayoral Candidates

To be held on October 20th between 6:30-8:30 pm at Ottawa City Hall.

I suspect that 40 Days for Life might come up as a topic of discussion.

I hope some pro-lifers can show up. I don't think I'll be able to make it.

Hamburg set to be first German state to officially recognize Islam

The Hamburg agreement would integrate Muslims in several practical ways. For example, city schools would have to hire Muslims to teach Islam in religion classes all pupils attend. These are now run by teachers from the local Lutheran church.

It would ensure burial rights in municipal cemeteries, so Muslims can be interred in shrouds rather than coffins and have no other religious symbols nearby. Many immigrants prefer to be buried in their original countries to ensure a Muslim burial.

Muslim pupils would be free to skip school on two or three Islamic holidays and Muslim preachers could be posted in prisons.

Marriage and Poverty

Phyllis Schlafly

The crux of this problem and its costs is that a lack of marriage causes poverty. The poverty rate for single parents with children is 36.5 percent, while it is only 6.4 percent for married couples with children.

...

Contrary to a lot of chatter, this isn't a teenage problem (only 7.7 percent of new single moms are minors), and it isn't a failure of birth control, and it isn't the accidents of unplanned pregnancies. These single moms want their babies and confidently expect Big Brother to provide for them.

...

Marriage drops the probability of child poverty by 82 percent. Marriage has just as dramatic an effect as adding 5 to 6 years to the parents' level of education.

If single moms were to marry the fathers of their children, the children would immediately be lifted out of poverty. Eight out of ten of these fathers were employed at the time of the births of their out-of-wedlock children.

...

Interviews with low-income single moms show that they are not hostile to marriage as an institution or as a life goal. In fact, they dream of having a husband, children, a minivan, and a house in the suburbs "with a white picket fence," but nobody tells them they will probably always be poor if they have babies without getting married.

What about the guidance we give kids in school? We tell them they will be poor if they become school dropouts and that it's self-destructive to use illegal drugs, but it's just as important to warn them about the life of poverty ahead of them if they produce babies before they marry.

What about the moral guidance we expect from the churches? Do they tell young people not to pretend they can form a "family" without marriage and a father for the children?

The feminist manipulation of language to manifacture hypocrisy

Joyce Arthur decided to post on her blog, after a two year absence.

In her latest post, she attempts to "correct" a statement released by the Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland to "accurately" reflect their views (her additions in red).

However, this statement is not an accurate reflection of your own views (which I'm quite familiar with). So I have taken the liberty of helpfully rewriting it for you:

"Every human life is worthy of protection from the moment of conception to natural death, except for pregnant women. The dignity of men and fetuses is absolute and inviolable, while the dignity of women is subject to their reproductive capacity. We call on public representatives to ... promote and defend a legislative environment which respects the inherent dignity of life in all it stages, except during the child-bearing years of women."

It's a commonly used tactic of feminists to question the sincerity of their opponents based on self-serving definitions of words that the speakers are not employing. In this instance, Joyce is attempting to communicate that because bishops oppose legalizing killing unborn children, that amounts to not respecting the lives of women.

What does respect of life consist of?

It means allowing people to live. It means respecting their right to life. It means not wanting anyone to kill them. Including themselves.

Now this is all very plain.

But feminists are really fond of stretching the definition of words to fit their agenda.

See, in the feminist mindset, "right to life" isn't just about physical existence, which is what most people understand by "right to life".

It's about the qualitative meaning of the word "life". As in the phrase "get a life". Which of course no constitution guarantees (yet). But they're thinking of things like: getting a career, saving a marriage, holding off on children to do other things, etc

However, taking the pro-lifers at their word and according to the meanings they are using is not very effective for the abortion rights movement because it makes them look anti-life.
So feminists have to twist the meanings of words to make their cause look good.

They attribute to words meanings never intended by the speaker.

And in effectuating that manipulation of meaning, they can make the speaker appear as hypocritical.


But in order for a speaker to be TRULY hypocritical, he must hold double standard that he himself created.


Using the meanings HE intended.


See, the bishops meant something very specific when they said that all human life is worthy of protection. But in this case, Joyce Arhur didn't take the word "life" in its literal meaning, which is what the bishops intended.

This way, she could be said to stating their "real" views. And thereby make them look hypocritical.

But is it their real views?

No.

Do Northern Irish Bishops want women to die? No. Do they want doctors to do everything possible for women to live? Yes.

So they're not hypocrites.

But Joyce Arthur won't admit to that.

But with any goal, not all means are morally acceptable.

You don't take an innocent human life to save another's life.

That's Ethics 101.

However, if feminists admitted that pro-lifers were truly sincere about respecting all human life, their cause would suffer a great deal. Because then they would have to admit that they were all about legalizing killing. In the minds of the people the contest would look like this:

Criminalizing the taking of human life vs. giving women the right to do whatever they want.

From a moral standpoint, it doesn't look good.

So feminist approaches to the topic very often includes manipulation of the language, questioning the sincerity of pro-lifers (based on pro-choice terms, not pro-life ones) and only caring about results, not the means.

But see, reality has its own rules. You can't ignore the moral elements of a means to a goal. Morality is nothing more than those rules of behaviour that in the long term are most advantangeous to human nature. When the morality of the means of attaining goals are ignored, the advantage of doing so only lasts for so long precisely because human beings are made a certain way, and immoral acts are ultimately harmful to humans. It's like when you take certain kinds of drugs to slim down, or keep awake or do things that your body was not meant to do. Sure you can slim down without exercise and good nutrition, or take pep pills without end, but your body will break down because of it. The psychology of man is the same way. You'll see nice results in the immediate, but in the long term, it will undermine the human person.

The myth of the legality of abortion in Common Law countries before the 19th century

Yes, this is another re-run.

But it's an important issue that you should understand.

Abortion was NOT legal before laws were passed in the 19th century.

The problem was that abortions before quickening were difficult to prosecute because one had to prove that the child was alive before you could convict.

Given the impossibility to know whether a fetus was alive or not, it was virtually impossible to prosecute for abortion.

So, DE FACTO, pre-quickening abortions were "legal" for lack of prosecution.

How an atheist came to believe in miracles

Globe and Mail:

Her canonization adventure began in 1987, after she wrote her dissertation on the invention of the stethoscope. A fellow hematologist in Ottawa asked her to cast her professional eye over 400 bone marrow slides from a leukemia victim. Dr. Duffin knew nothing else about the case – it was a “blind” review – and assumed her report would be used in a medical lawsuit.

After examining the first few slides, she concluded three things: That the samples were from a woman, that she had myeloblastic leukemia, the most aggressive type known, and that she, poor thing, was dead. But as she delved into the whole range of samples, covering 18 months, a highly unusual pattern emerged. “It was treatment, remission, relapse, then remission, remission, remission,” she said.

Dr. Duffin’s report could offer no reason for the remission and she jokingly suggested that it was a miracle. She later found out that the patient had survived and that – no joke – her examination was done on behalf of the Vatican miracles-screening team.

The Church is so thorough in her investigation of miraculous cures for canonization that she only picks the ones capable of convincing skeptics.

VIDEO: Campus Outreach at UC Berkeley

Moral Relativism Explained (Cartoon)

From drawntocatholicism

Homily from the Ottawa 40 Days for Life MidPoint Rally

I couldn't make it to the rally because I am just overwhelmed doing Mom things, but I received by email the copy of the speech that Fr. Matthew Wertin's gave. Here it is:

I am here in Ottawa to study Canon Law, and it would have been very easy and very tempting for me just to keep my head in the books, lay low, finish my degree and then head back home. I could’ve told myself, “don’t worry; you can get involved with the pro-life efforts once you’re back home.” However, for me, that was simply not an option. Do firefighters sit at the station learning new techniques, while across town there is a burning building with people inside? No, they go and do what they can to save those people. And to me, what happens every week in that building (65 Bank St.) is just as serious and just as urgent. I refuse to sit by, while innocent babies are violently killed and countless others are left seriously wounded, for the rest of their lives.

I am also convinced that when I give of my time to stand up for Life, in the ways that I can, God blesses and helps me to fulfill my other duties and responsibilities. I believe He will bless my studies and help me to learn what I need to learn to be the best Canon Lawyer possible, NOT because I ignored the abortion issue to dedicate all my time to studies, but precisely because I did not turn my back on these children, their parents, and everyone else involved in this life and death matter. I think that’s true for all of us, whatever our state in life. I believe that God sees and is pleased with what we’re doing, and because of that, He will bless us and help us with everything else.


I can now see that Ottawa has a critical role to play in the “big picture”. Because this is the nation’s capital, it is meant to be a beacon of light giving hope to every man, woman, and child of this land. But how can that be done when abortion is still legal and is still practiced, right here in beautiful downtown Ottawa? What kind of message does that send, and what kind of example does that give to everyone else across Canada? The good news is that every VICTORY that is won here for Life will have a positive effect across the entire land. Every victory will spread, and is spreading!

Take for example the arrested pro-life students at Carleton University. They remained calm, professional, and prayerful in their witness, but they didn’t back down either. They were right, and with tremendous courage they stood up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, in the midst of a hostile environment and unjust treatment. They are heroes! When you watch the video, you feel such a surge of energy, inspiring you to join with them in the fight for LIFE. I think Ruth Lobo has the potential to be one of THE foremost pro-life speakers and activists for all of Canada, and beyond, as she has clearly proved her integrity and strength in the midst of opposition, and you can tell she is a natural leader, one whom others will certainly follow. I would follow her. And you can see what new life and enthusiasm this event has given to so many tired warriors in the “trenches”, who often wonder if their efforts are doing any good. These faithful students are now inspiring people across the globe!

To be here, in this place, is to be at Calvary. The unthinkable happened to Our Lord, the greatest tragedy ever, and something unthinkable is happening now, in our own day and time. And so we keep watch, and pray. And yet, isn’t that exactly what Jesus told his followers to do, just hours before His death? “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Mt. 26:41). We are here, at this modern day Calvary, the place of the skull, where countless innocent little children have been led like lambs to the slaughter, opening not their mouths, because they can’t. They’re not allowed to. There is a silence here: a grave, haunting silence that often causes a feeling of uneasiness in us when we come.

There are 2 other types of silences occurring in this great battle of Life vs. death. On the one hand, we who come here to pray JOIN Mary, Mary Magdalene, and John in their silence at the foot of the Cross, except now Our Crucified Lord is holding these little slain children and gazes upon those who have exacted this unjust crime, pleading the Father to forgive them, because they know not what they do. And many of them don’t, which is why they need our witness. Many people do not understand why we come here, and many people are afraid of what they don’t understand, so they lash out in anger from a place of insecurity or false confidence, convinced that we are the enemy and that we have come to condemn them and others. But they are not our enemies.

The other type of silence is from those who should be here with us but have not yet embraced the call and the courage to do so. They sit in 3 silence, often dismissing the opportunities to stand up for life by distracting themselves with other, “more important” things. This is frustrating for us, and we don’t understand. When someone finds out that innocent children are being violently killed, the response should be, “WHAT?! Where, when? We’ve got to stop it!” For whatever reason, too many are not responding this way. But they are not the enemies either, and they need our love and witness as well.

God is so patient and loving, and we see this in how he moves in our hearts to help us to grow in our witness to Life. I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t born an avid pro-life activist. Sure, I’ve always been pro-life, but I haven’t always acted upon it. I’ve had to grow, little by little, and with the help of others. After several years of praying outside abortion mills and studying the issues, I saw the video, “No Greater Joy,” by Pro-Life Action League, and I was blown away. I highly recommend it, and you can see it on their website or on YouTube. It is a training video for sidewalk counselors, which shows actual sidewalk counselors and how they do what they do. One of them was a young priest. I was so inspired by his example that I too began taking the steps to do the same thing, and I can’t tell you what an amazing experience it has been.

Here, the set-up makes it particularly hard to see results. We’re already at a disadvantage in that these women have made the decision to come here by the time we encounter them. There is no other way for us to find them beforehand. And even then, it’s a busy city street, and there are other things going on in that building, so there are many things against us. BUT, we have our dedicated sidewalk counselors, along with our dedicated prayer warriors, and most importantly, we have God and His grace to work miracles through us despite the obstacles!

I have no direct knowledge of whether or not I have ever helped anyone to choose life for their child, but I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty – BECAUSE OF OUR PRAYERS AND WITNESS, LIVES ARE BEING SAVED AND LIVES ARE BEING CHANGED! I guarantee it. We may not see it, but it is happening. And we must not rely on knowing the results of our efforts, because on principle alone we should feel compelled to keep coming back until this evil doesn’t exist anymore. We must carry on, without counting the cost, and let God worry about the results. We simply 4 give our yes to God, do whatever He asks of us, and trust Him completely. The victories are His.

Shawn Carney, campaign director for 40 Days for Life, has been sharing stories of people who have come forward to say that they chose life for their baby because of Life Chains and because of people praying and witnessing outside abortion sites. Once, in Colorado, I noticed a black truck with tinted windows crept down the side street and parked. Then, the truck pulled into the parking lot of the abortion mill, and a woman got out and started coming over. She hollered, “Thanks! Thanks for being here!” Now, at first I thought she was being sarcastic and that she was picking a fight, so I braced myself. I calmly said, “You’re welcome.” She came closer and said, “I had two abortions, and people simply do not realize the damage. Thank you for coming here to pray so that other women won’t have to go through what I’ve gone through.” I said, “Are you getting the help that you need for healing?” She said she was, so I said as she parted, “God bless you.” She turned around and said, “No, God bless YOU!” So you see, we do have an impact, and we do help people, whether or not we see it or hear about it.

All of us have room to grow, and all of us are in need of constant conversion. Saint Longinus the Centurion was one of the roman soldiers who formally cooperated in the unjust crucifixion of Jesus, not unlike those in the abortion industry today. It was he who pierced our Lord’s side, and we know that along with the Blood and Water that flowed from Jesus’ Sacred Heart, the WITNESS of those who remained at the foot of the Cross aided in his conversion. He became such an avid follower of Jesus that eventually he too paid the price of martyrdom at the very same “washed” hands of Pontius Pilate. Like him, we have also been forgiven, and are now giving our lives completely to Jesus. This gift we have received, we should want for everyone else too, no matter what.

We will continue coming back to this spot, and any other place where the holy innocents are murdered and countless lives are ruined, so that hearts may be converted. Once hearts are converted, then minds will be converted, and once that happens, then the right actions and decisions will soon follow. Only true holiness, by God’s grace, can bring about the needed conversion in others. There is no substitute for holiness. That is our number one objective, because it is the number one most effective weapon 5 that we have in this fight. We have to change hearts! And we will, by prayer and love.


I have one final story to illustrate how this can happen. Towards the beginning of these 40 days for Life, I was praying one afternoon when an elderly lady approached. She looked at our signs, and then she looked up at me. She was very angry, and she said, “I don’t like what those priests did to those kids. It’s bad.” Then she said, “Are you a priest?” I said, “Yes, I am.” She took a step back and said, “Then I am ashamed to be standing on the same property that your feet are touching.” I replied, “What those priests did was horrible, and there is no excuse.” I could see that she started to lighten up. I then had the chance to explain to her that we detest that evil just as much as we detest the evil of abortion. She agreed and she finally said, “I don’t like this abortion. I will come back again later to join you here.” A victory for Life! She started off as my enemy, judging me and holding me in contempt for the sins of some of my brother priests, but she left as my buddy, ready to stand alongside me. This is the New Evangelization, this is how hearts are changed, and this is how we will win the battle, one soul at a time! “This is how we know what love is, that Jesus Christ laid down His life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters…Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:16, 18). AMEN

Former UK Chancellor says West is running out of money

Kenneth Clarke, the former UK chancellor, has warned the West is in grave danger of financial collapse.

Watch some leftist suggest that all we need to do is print more money.

Liberal clergy plan gay-rights protest in Phoenix

"The Diocese of Phoenix said it would not back down."

I would be tempted to tell the protesters: the more you protest, the more we'll speak up.

Top reasons for unfriending people on facebook

Include:


* Unimportant posts

* Posting about polarizing topics like religion and politics

* Crude/racist comments

* 57 percent of those surveyed unfriended for online reasons, while 26.9 percent did so for offline behavior.

...

I actually look for people who WANT to post about religion and politcis-- those that I agree with. Even I get the odd Protestant or slightly liberal post, I don't mind that much.

I actually prefer that to boring posts. Although I can appreciate "slice of life" posts.

I also think that allowing people to post Farmville junk to their status line (and similar things) is a mistake.

My big beef with facebook is when a complete stranger tries to friend me and they do it based on the fact we have 100 friends in common, and they leave me no information in their profile as to WHY I might want them as a friend, and they don't bother to send a message introducing themselves. They assume I'd click "yes" based on that association, but I don't know WHY we have the same friends-- maybe some people just aren't that picky about their friends.

For Gloria Feldt, Stay-at-Home Moms are a Problem

Because:

They make it harder for the rest of us to remedy the inequities that remain. We have to make young women aware of how their choices affect other women. It should be acceptable criticism to point out that, although everyone has the right to make their own life decisions, choosing to “opt out” reinforces stereotypes about women’s priorities that we’ve been working for decades to shatter, so just cut it out.

Okay, I have the right to make individual choices, but if I don't live for the sake of women in general and I happen to like traditional stereotypes that I live up to then I'm...what, a traitor to my gender?

And, the “individual choice” women have to become stay-at-home moms becomes precarious when they try to return to the workplace and find their earning power and options reduced. If we could see child-rearing as a necessary task and not an identity, and if we could collectively recognize that facilitating it benefits us all, we would go much further in guaranteeing women’s choices than we do when we are expected to uncritically celebrate every individual’s decisions.

But child-rearing is very much a part of many women's identity.

Nobody replaces mom.

This proves once again that feminism is not about women. It's about ideas about women. Horribly wrong ideas.

But it really warms my heart though, knowing that the fact that I am not earning a paycheque thwarts feminist goals.

Something tells me that Gloria Feldt is the kind of middle class bourgeois feminist that Third Wave Feminists complain about.

I think.

Mind you, she is a big abortion pusher. That often makes one immune to criticism in the feminist camp.

VIDEO: Republican Candidate Runs Graphic Abortion Ads

From Jill Stanek:

Warning...graphic abortion pics:

Pro-lifer Missy Smith decided to run against pro-abort Democrat DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for one reason: To air graphic abortion ads on tv.

Norton is an entrenched incumbent in an overwhelmingly liberal district.

But the political contest is beside the point, although Missy has run a serious campaign, she tells me, making inroads at several black churches. Missy won the Republican primary with 87% of the vote.

Pssst...Christian Heritage Party...there's an idea for your next political ad...

Abortion Gang Member Talks About "Who God Really Is"

ProChoiceGal at Abortion Gang wrote a post about "Who God Really Is".

In this way, my belief in God has boosted my enthusiasm for the pro-choice movement. When I found the reproductive justice movement, I found God’s calling for my life. God’s purpose for our lives isn’t to spend our time hurting people, lying, and gossiping like many anti-choicers do.

This makes me think of the parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector:

9To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The Pharisee stood up and prayed about[a] himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

Well thank God she's not like those icky anti-choicers.

Instead of hurting, lying, and gossiping, wouldn’t it make more sense that God wants us to fight, with love and passion, for the rights of all people, women included? Isn’t that who God really is?

O-kay.

And that knowledge is based on....what exactly?

(And all people does not seem to include fetuses in her purview. God only loves those who are born?)

The problem with leftists is that they project their ideology on God. They don't ask God. They figure out what THEY THINK is good (which is based purely on subjective ideas), and they figure God represents those values.

There's an old cliche that goes "I asked God. He's pro-choice."

Funny, nobody ever explains how they got to that answer. Sounds like they were putting words in his mouth.

If you want to know who God really is, you have to be ready to abandon what you think you know.

Susan Boyle: my mother was advised to abort me

From the Christian Institute:

Miss Boyle said doctors had told Bridget Boyle, then a 45-year-old mother of eight, that having another baby could kill her.

...

The singer, writing in her autobiography, said when she was born doctors commented she would “never be anything” and she has been “trying all my life to prove them wrong”.

But if Susan Boyle had been aborted, so what right? Losing a human being is no loss to the world really, especially if we don't know who he or she is.

That's how feminists think.

Echoes of the Holocaust at Carleton University

Lifted from SoCon or Bust:

Carleton Lifeline in conjunction with Jose Ruba [founder of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform] invite you attend Echoes of the Holocaust: a comparison of human rights violations, including abortion.This is an educational talk that seeks to bring the abortion debate to the forefront of our society in a respectful and open way. 

Time: Monday, October 18 · 7:00pm – 10:00pm

Location: Tory 360 (see map of Carleton University here.  The Tory Building is labelled TB on the map.  It’s in the upper-left portion of the map, near Dunton Tower)

---

I wonder if Jojo will get a chance to finish. Or whether the pro-aborts will shout him down again.

VIDEO: Maggie speaks about her abortion

Abortioneer Wonders: Shouldn't the Clinics Give a Damn?

The unabashed naiveté of Anti-Anti is astounding.

In a recent chat with fellow Abortioneers, the question arose of whether it is possible to work in Abortion Land without being a feminist. About a Girl recently expressed her discontent at the diminishing sense of feminism in our clinics, superseded by a for-profit model that shifts the focus from the woman to the service-payment exchange.

Which is what pro-lifers have said for the last 40 years. AND YOU JUST NOTICED?

See this is the nice thing about insiders talking openly about abortion and abortion land. Lots of people think pro-lifers make stuff up when it comes to abortion. But the abortioneers come out and say what we've been saying. Thank you for making our point!

She continues:

I can't really begrudge that; you provide a service that people want, one that will never diminish in demand, and you've got a pretty steady stream of income. It's good business sense, not personal. Then again, it's not a dental office. It's an abortion clinic. Women go there to make some of the most important decisions of their lives. Shouldn't the clinics give a ***?

You mean they don't. You mean they prefer cash to the lives of women? Say it ain't so.

Here's the kicker:

I suppose, by default, if you are providing a service that advances women, you hold some feminist ideals.

ROFL. So being willing to stick a curette in a woman's uterus and suck out a fetus confirms your feminist leanings by default?

(But oppose abortion, even if you support every other feminist tenet, and you're a "fake feminist". LOL.)

Even if you are just a health care tycoon by day, the fact that you enter into the line of abortion fire confirms your feminist leanings

So let's see. Even if you're in the abortion business ONLY FOR THE CASH, and you cut corners, and you couldn't care less about the women's personal problems, that confirms your feminist leanings.

But on second thought, maybe she's right!

Yes, the Charter DOES apply to Universities

Remember how a lot of pro-aborts scoffed at the pro-life students at Carleton University saying that it's private property and it can censor graphic images?

Well, that argument has been blown away by a Supreme Court Ruling.

What this means is that a publicly-funded University can't just act like it's a private body making up the rules. It has to consider that it's an agent of government.

As National Campus Life Network says, it could have an effect in the case of the pro-life students being disciplined at the University of Calgary.

Majority of Toronto District School Board Trustee Incumbents Rely on Union Funds for Campaigning

The findings were gleaned from an analysis of candidates' financial reports from the 2006 election (City of Toronto website). According to Neil Flagg, candidate for trustee in WARD 5 (York Centre), 15 out of 22 elected trustees (68%) received union donations during the 2006 election, and of the 15 incumbents, 12 are seeking re-election in 2010. If re-elected, these incumbents would constitute a majority (55%) at the Board.

"The potential for conflict of interest in allowing unions to fund campaigns is obvious, and was recognized as such by the City of Toronto when council voted to ban union donations. Accountability at the TDSB begins when we know that trustees truly have the best interests of their constituents, and the taxpayers, at heart." said Neil Flagg.

Read more at Blazing Cat Fur.

This makes me wonder...are unions funding the school trustee incumbents in Ottawa? Hmm....

Addendum: The same is true of Catholic school trustee incumbents...

VIDEO: Fr. Augustine tells of his involvement with abortion

Attention Residents of HAMILTON: Important Catholic School Trustee Candidate Information

PEACE Supporters have gathered information on those candidates who are for and against the Dalton McGuinty Equity Strategy which would endanger the faith of Catholics and Christians.

Support those candidates who are AGAINST it. You are encouraged to pass on this information to concerned Catholic voters in the Hamilton area.

Wards 1 and 2

Agro, Louis: In favor of it.

Linger, Paula: Wasn't sure what it is all about.Wasn’t for or against.

Valvasori, Mark: In favor of it.

Wards 3 and 4

Agostino, Ralph: Very much against it.

Milazzo, Calogero: Against it.

Nestor, Brian: Uncertain

Ward 5

Agostino, Sam (Son of Ralph Agostino in ward 3 & 4): Against it

Ciotti, Frank:  Partly for & partly against

DiBartolomeo, Linda: Left a message but have not received an answer.

Ward 6

Ecker, Michael:  Evasive

Fr. Kennedy, Kyran: Very Much against

Pellegrino, Nick: Against

Ward 7

Daly, Patrick: Very much against it.

Ward 8

Freiburger, John: Very much in favor of it.

Kolenko, Raphael: Partly in favor & partly against

Manchia, Sergio: Against

Valvasori, John: Favors it.

Wards 9, 10 and 11

Antony, Saji: Against it.

Bartolotti, Raymond: Against it.

DiBrizzi, Anthony: Half for it & half against it.

DiFrancesco, Paul: Against it.

Lohin, Dan: Against it.

Nardini, Mary: Partly for and partly against.

Wards 12, 13, 14 and 15

Cornale, Carolyn: Against it.

D'Angelo Rome: Against it.

Parisi-Strecker, Dave: Against it.

And in the French sector...

Conseil Scolaire public de district du Centre-Sud-Ouest

Wylde, Micheline: Has been working for it.

Conseil Scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud

Levesque, Marcel: Against it.