Breaking: Conservative Pro-Life MP shows backbone

Question: How long will it take before Harper breaks his back?

Al-Qaida to Truthers: We made the Twin Towers Fall!

The Guardian:

Al-Qaida has sent a message to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking him to stop spreading conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks.

Iranian media on Wednesday reported quotes from what appears to be an article published in the latest issue of the al-Qaida English language magazine, Inspire, which described Ahmadinejad's remarks over the 11 September attacks as "ridiculous".

In his UN general assembly speech last week, Ahmadinejad cast doubt over the official version of the 2001 attacks.

"The Iranian government has professed on the tongue of its president Ahmadinejad that it does not believe that al-Qaida was behind 9/11 but rather, the US government," the article said, according to Iranian media. "So we may ask the question: why would Iran ascribe to such a ridiculous belief that stands in the face of all logic and evidence?"

Truthers: angering Al-Qaida might be dangerous. Just sayin'. :)

Montrealer faces charge of cultic activity over ‘illegal’ Catholic mass

National Post:

Celani is the one in court only because her signature was on a $700 rental contract for the use of two rooms in a city-owned complex called La Maison du Brasseur in the borough of Lachine, just west of downtown Montreal.

About 100 people belonging to a lay Catholic association used the rooms to watch some inspirational videos and have a potluck lunch together. Oh, and horror of horrors, they sang songs and held a Mass behind closed doors. Then everyone went home. End of story. Or so it seemed.

Except that seven months later, in April 2010, Celani received a $144 ticket for having allowed the Mass to take place.

By so doing, she had broken a bylaw that prohibits “cultic” activity such as “praying, singing religious songs or conducting religious celebrations.” Under the same regulations, interestingly, renters are allowed to serve liquor provided they have the necessary permits. They are forbidden, however, from using propane tanks to cook inside the building. So, you can get hammered in La Maison du Brasseur. You just can’t blow the place up or mention God.

A moral issue raised by IVF

Barbara Kay:

The ethical problem, and one that is rarely discussed, is that it is now a given – it shouldn’t be – that women have a right to artificial aids to conception, even when the need for the aid was created voluntarily, by delaying conception to a point where the odds of conception were slim. Girls need to be educated in their teens about the risks of delayed conception. They should be taught that artificial treatments do not have a high success rate. They should also be assured that having babies when nature is their friend will not blight their career prospects indefinitely. 

Myth: The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

The truth is, you start out poor when you're young. And you earn more money as you grow older:

Despite the old cliché about the rich and poor, the Canadian dream of climbing the income ladder is not a fantasy.

By examining the share of national income going to the "richest 20%" and "poorest 20%" of Canadians, the Conference Board continues to perpetuate the myth that most Canadians are born into, live and die within certain income groups. But in reality, with some hard work, young Canadians can and will live better than their parents.

Most young people start out in the low-income group and work up to the middle or high-income group over time. Given their initial lack of experience, education and/or training, their incomes start out low but peak when they hit middle age (the prime earning years) and then taper off as they approach retirement.

The reality is: most poor get richer at some point in their lives. Chronic poverty over a lifetime is the experience of a small minority of people.

Celebrity couple looking for talent rep for their unborn child

I do not vouch for the accuracy of this story. However, just the fact that it's circulating is culturally significant.

TMZ.com:

WHICH IS MORE SHOCKING -- that pregnant "Bachelor" winner Shayne Lamas is going to name her kid PRESS ... or that her unborn child is about sign a deal with a talent agency ... from inside the womb??!?!?

TMZ has learned ... Shayne and her hubby -- TheDirty.com honcho Nik Richie -- are in talks with a management company called Z Group -- which has made a formal offer to represent the baby ... even though its still TWO MONTHS away from being born.

According to the contract, the company would get 15% of whatever the kid makes in an entertainment job ... including writer, editor, performer, musician artist, etc.

Art: Super Fetuses

French artist Alexandre Nicolas has designed a seroes pf sculptures portraying comic book heroes as fetuses. The series is entitled Prédestinés. It's subtitled: Creation and its risks. 8 superfoetuses and one accident.

He also includes a Hitler fetus.

Fairly inflammatory. But then artists do that.

This display makes me think of the old standby argument that abortion is wrong because you could be destroying the next Beethoven.

While I believe this to be true, I never liked that argument because then you have to answer why killing Hitler in vitro would have been wrong (which I believe it would have).

At the time of the pregnancy, no one is really predestined for anything. At least as far as you know. From the perspective of eternity, God has a plan for what he wants to do with your life, and he knows what your fate will be. But no one has access to that knowledge. So practically speaking, there is no real predestination. You don't know if aborting a particular fetus will result in aborting a Beethoven or a Hitler.

Via: Technabob, LaughingSquid and TrendsNow

Study: poor mother-to-infant attachment may have its roots in pregnancy

A study abstract:

While there is good evidence that depression negatively impacts mother-to-infant emotional attachment in the postpartum period, the impact of depression in pregnancy on maternal emotions and cognitions about the fetus (often termed "maternal-fetal attachment" or MFA) is unclear. This study compared MFA scores from women meeting clinical criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) with scores from nondepressed women. Participants were 161 women enrolled at 23-36 weeks gestation, of whom 65 met criteria for MDD via the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV-TR during their second and/or third trimesters. Cranley's Maternal Fetal Attachment Scale was administered at 26 and 36 weeks gestation. Generalized linear modeling was used to assess the effect of MDD, anxiety, and antidepressant use on MFA. MDD was negatively related to MFA (LR) = 4.58, df = 1, p < 0.04). Neither anxiety (LR = 0.22, p < 0.64), nor antidepressant use (LR = 0.20, df = 1, p < 0.66) were related to MFA. Depression severity was negatively related to MFAS scores (B = -0.005, SE = .002, p < 0.0012) when including the interaction of MDD group and HRSD scores in the model. This study is the first to demonstrate that clinically defined MDD during pregnancy negatively impacts MFA, suggesting that the basis for poor mother-to-infant attachment in postpartum MDD may have roots in pregnancy.

Maternal-Fetal attachment? Why...the fetus is not even a human being. Nothing to be attached to! (#sarcasm).

What did Fr. Gionet say to get himself into trouble?

About that priest from New Brunswick who was suspended for preaching Catholic doctrine on homosexuality, abortion and cohabitation:

Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday afternoon, Gionet declined an interview. He did, however, provide a written statement.

In a letter in French he provided to the The Daily Gleaner, Gionet wrote the sermon was about the destruction of the church and the need to seek forgiveness for past sins:

"I said: ... 'Today, it is we Catholics who are destroying our Catholic Church. We need only look at the number of abortions among Catholics, look at the homosexuals, and ourselves.' (That's when I pointed at my chest - through that action I wanted to say, we the priests) and I continued saying: We are destroying our church ourselves. And that's when I said that those were the words expressed by Pope John Paul II. At that point, in the St-Leolin church only, I added: We can add to that the practice of watching 'gay' parades, we are encouraging this evil ... What would you think of someone who seeing what was happening on (Sept.) 11, 2001, the crumbling of the towers, had begun clapping? We must not encourage evil, whatever form it takes."

Fr. Gionet, let your words ring out through the whole world! Let your suspension be the occasion of this prophetic message reaching ever corner of the Earth!

Oh yeah:

Lanteigne said the parish's regular priest, Rev. Rejean Landry, has apologized to him and to parishioners and he doesn't see the church as being as closed as it once was.

"We're not in 1920 anymore; the church has to be more open. And I think that based on the actions of the diocese, that shows the church is more open," he said.

Open to sin.

I encourage all Catholic bloggers to repost Fr. Gionet's words. If his words raise a furor in the blogosphere and make an impact around the world, this will be the work of the Holy Spirit: to bring truth to light even if it was stated in a remote corner of Canada. This truth should be out in the open for ALL to know and contemplate.

Another reason why I didn't vote Conservative

Report: Canada’s Conservatives to re-fund world’s largest abortion provider

Pro-lifers: until you insist that Conservatives start acting pro-life, they will take your votes and screw you over. You can't vote to fend off the Liberals forever. At some point, you have to insist on a change of course, otherwise it's pointless to vote "pro-life".

Don’t pay the CCCB tax this weekend

According to SoCon or Bust:

Warning: this Sunday is the “Collection for the Needs of the Church in Canada“. While the name sounds noble, this collection is primarily aimed at helping each diocese pay its annual mandatory contribution to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB).

You read that right: the CCCB collects a tax on each diocese to fund their bureaucracy. This wouldn’t be a problem if the CCCB was actually doing a good job of promoting the Faith. But since they’ve become a haven for abortion pushing social-justice rackets, I would encourage you to not put any money in the collection basket this weekend.

This shows exactly what's wrong with the Catholic Church today

Elderly Canadian priest suspended for denouncing abortion, homosexual behavior:

BATHURST, New Brunswick, September 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Diocese of Bathurst, New Brunswick has removed an elderly priest from active ministry after he caused a storm of controversy by denouncing homosexuality, cohabitation, and abortion in an August homily.

...

A member of the Eudist Fathers, Fr. Gionet had been accused by parishioners of “homophobia” in media reports last week after he criticized a homosexual parade in Moncton in an August 20-21 homily. His loudest critic was the mayor of Saint-Leolin, Joseph Lanteigne, an open homosexual and member of the parish council, who demanded the priest’s suspension.

...

The Diocese has released a letter to the faithful explaining the suspension, according to French-language media reports. Bishop Valery Vienneau explains that the priest had refused to alter his statements, and the bishop expressed regret that the comments had upset the faithful.

I exhort you please send an email to Bishop Vienneau. and tell him this is unacceptable. Then ask others to do the same.

Showing once again why I didn't vote Conservative

Kenney, Baird sign pledge to fight anti-Semitism

Sounds good, eh? Who's not oppose to anti-semitism? But here's the hitch:

In a statement last year, Kenney said the document was a step in coordinating global efforts against hatred.

"Among other things, it calls for leaders of faith groups to combat all hatred and discrimination, including anti-Semitism; governments to reaffirm and implement the Genocide Convention; establishment of an international task force to identify and monitor hate on the Internet and the development of a comprehensive facility to record all hate crimes, and; including anti-Semitism," he said.

They're calling for more government control of the internet, more government bodies to prosecute people for their opinions.

Now a protocol doesn't really mean anything. It may just remain a dead letter. But I get the impression that the people who signed this don't really get it when it comes to free speech.

This pro-life quote should be widely disseminated and popularized:

Alas, if only killing babies were as controversial as saving them.

--Gregg Cunningham, The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform:

H/T Fletcher's Blog

Welcome to Canadian Socialized Medicine

Demand high but medical specialists not finding work in Canada

Some of those stymied in their job search are trained in areas — like oncology and orthopedic surgery — where governments have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years to expand services and reduce patient delays.

But while provincial governments have paid to train more specialists in those high-demand areas, hospitals and health regions often lack the money to hire them once they hit the job market, experts say.

...

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons — which oversees and sets standards for medical specialties — has already catalogued a list of high-unemployment specialties. It includes not only oncology and orthopedics but cardiac surgery, nephrology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, otolaryngology — the ear, nose and throat field — and public health and preventive medicine.

There are many people whose loved ones are on a waiting list who would pay to see those specialists RIGHT NOW if we had more private medicine.

But no, no, let the bureaucrats run the system, they've done a real bang up job so far.

VIDEO: Rio de Janeiro's “Christ the Redeemer” statue will soon turn 80

The state of conservatism in Canada

Brian Lilley:

For the last several years, and in two federal elections, we have been told that the Harper government is most right wing government in Canadian history. We’ve been warned of cuts, we’ve been warned how heartless they are.

That’s been an ongoing narrative, not just from the opposition parties, but from most of the consensus media as well.

Harper will cut.

Harper is ideological.

Harper is ultra-conservative.

It simply isn’t true though.

Under pressure from the left and due to a minority government situation the Harper government has become the biggest spending government in Canadian history. They have cut little and expanded much.

...

We need leaders across the country who are not afraid to say they believe in smaller, limited government. Leaders who are not afraid to tell special interest groups that although their plan sounds lovely and compassionate that it would be better handled by the private sector or by a charity.

We need leaders not afraid to stand for freedom, for property rights two things so closely tied that without property rights true freedom fades and government power rises up.

We need leaders who are willing to acknowledge that humanity is imperfect and no amount of government meddling, social programs or spending can end all of the inequality, injustice or evil in the world.

We need a real conservative alternative in Canada.

Part of the problem is that the conservative base keeps voting these people in. They don't demand more of their leaders. It's not just that leaders are lacking; it's that the conservative base is so afraid of losing, they don't require conservative principles from their politicians.

If you want true conservatism, stop supporting fake conservatism.

What the heck would we do without studies?

Let me translate the abstract into plain English:


If people just didn't sleep around so much outside their primary relationship, it would eliminate spread of AIDS.

Well duh!

And I love the euphemisms they invent to describe these phenomena: concurrent partnerships and coital dilution. I know this is what researchers do, but it still bemuses me.

Joliette Bishop may have to testify in Fr. Gravel's suit against Lifesite

Reports Deborah Gyapong.

Here's the glitch: if the trial rests on whether Bishop Lussier thinks Fr. Gravel is loyal to the Magisterium, Lifesite is sunk.

I hear Cardinal Levada is retiring. Any chance we could draft him into this? :D

Link Love

Here are a couple of stories I've read lately...

A Council of Europe committee has drafted a resolution that could keep parents-to-be in the dark concerning the gender of the fetus, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The committee says that instructing medical staff to withhold gender information will prevent some parents from “selectively aborting” based on whether the child is a boy or a girl.

I think this is counter productive to the pro-life cause. The identity of the unborn child contributes to his humanization, and gender is part of that identity. One could also make the argument that information on genetic anomalies should not be revealed. Deaths for genetic anomalies are far more prevalent in the West than death because of gender.

In the Bahamas, a Baptist Bishop lobbies to have abortion criminalized.

A new study reveals that the unborn have facial expressions.

Fetuses at the first stage of observation (24 weeks) were able to move one muscle in their face at a time. They would for example stretch their lips or open their mouth. By 35 weeks gestational age, fetuses combined a number of facial muscle movements, combining for example lip stretch, lowering of the eyebrows and deepening the nasolabial furrow, thereby turning isolated movements into recognisable and increasingly complex expressions.

Shock: No jail time for woman who strangled newborn because Canada accepts abortion, says judge

Gee, that blogpost of mine regarding infanticide was rather timely:

Pro-life advocates have warned for years that widespread acceptance of abortion will open the door to greater societal acceptance of infanticide, beginning with the euthanizing of disabled newborns. Infanticide proponent Peter Singer, a top ethicist at Princeton University, has said, for example, “there is no sharp distinction between the foetus and the newborn baby.”

Look back through history. These ideas are not new. We should be doing research, pro-lifers.

VIDEO: New Documentary Trailer about the Children's Aid Society of Ontario

This looks like it could be good.


Powerful As God - The Children's Aid Societies TRAILER from Esther Buckareff on Vimeo.

Documentary Website.

The Tunnel of Parenthood

I completely identify with this article about parenting multiple children under the age of five.

The author calls it "The Tunnel of Parenthood".

Having three children under the age of six-- the oldest of whom is autistic-- has been a definite challenge.

Some day I know that I will look back and wonder how I did it.

Now I'm pregnant with Number Four. And this pregnancy has been so much easier because my two oldest are "past the hump" of total dependence. They can feed themselves somewhat, dress themselves, are toilet-trained, can amuse themselves and-- probably most importantly-- help me out. With my Number Three and with other chores.

I know that some people say that adolescence is also very difficult for parents. I don't buy it. It's not the same physical strain. And you can reason with an adolescent in a way that you can't a with a two-year-old. That's not to say that it's a piece of cake. But it doesn't require the constant on-call attention that dealing with toddlers often does.

HT: ProWomanProLife

It's the Eye of the Tiger

Fr. Frank Pavone says:

General George S. Patton, Jr., in his 1926 essay, “The Secret of Victory,” wrote, “The secret of victory lies not wholly in knowledge. It lurks invisible in that vitalizing spark, intangible, yet as evident as the lightning — the warrior soul. The fixed determination to acquire the warrior soul, and having acquired it to either conquer or perish with honor, is the secret of victory.”

I think one of the most instructive movies about fighting and victory are Rocky I and Rocky II

I think boxing is a stupid sport. But Rocky impart an important lesson: that in order to win, you have to have the hunger to win, to want it more badly than anything else. And if you don't have it, you'll get your head beat in. Or worse.

If you don't have that hunger, you're not going to do what it takes. You're going to make token efforts, half-assed attempts. And you'll lose and accept losing.

We need the Eye of the Tiger, the hunger that drives a person to do whatever it takes to win, that does not contemplate failure as an option.

Part of that drive is the willingness to devote one's life to the cause. Not one's spare time. One's life.

Part of the reason why we have trouble making inroads has to do with the lack of manpower which reflects a lack of willpower. If you only make token efforts, you will get token results.

How serious are we in winning this fight?

If we want to win, we have to do what it takes to win. And that means devoting ourselves completely to the fight.

It's daunting. When you're an activist, a lot of what you do is behind the scenes. Like a boxer, you "train" for the big day, the big fight the day of reckoning, or in our case, the vote in Parliament or the day in Court. You don't know if all that pain and sweat will be worth it behind the scenes.

You have to make it worth it. Self-doubt undermines your effort. You must simply do what must be done to assure a victory. You don't look back. You don't think what-if-- you simply work to be the absolute best in order to defeat your opposition, letting your hunger for victory drive you on.

That's the Eye of the Tiger.

Newborns were also not considered human beings

This science article discusses the origins of baby bones discovered in museum archive and the circumstances of the babies' deaths.

They are believed to be the children of prostitutes living in Roman Britain who were victims of infanticide.

Said one researcher:

In Roman times, "we know newborn babies weren't viewed in the same light as older babies and children as they were growing up," Mays said.

In order to achieve a fully human status, babies needed to survive to about 6 months old, Mays said.

This is not the first statement I've read about the lack of humanity of the newborn.

In Joseph Dellapenna's book Dispelling the Myths of Abortion History, he writes that in the Early Modern era, it was commonly believed that a baby was not a human being until baptism.

Infanticide was very common in certain parts of Europe, and was a main method of limiting family size, and it was practiced by women in various circumstances, not just the destitute. Although the law may have recognized that it was a crime, popular belief rationalized it to such an extent that in many communities, ten, twenty, thirty or even forty percent of newborns were believed to have been allowed to die (or were deliberately killed) in order to limit family size. Although a baby could have been easily smothered and died without suspicion in an age of high infant mortality, especially if the father vouched for the mother, infants were often killed by exposure, e.g. abandoned on a city street or a church porch, or they were sent to wet nurses who were not paid and who then subsequently allowed the baby to die of neglect or "overlaying" i.e. rolling over the child.

Since there was a lack of forensic science in this age, and child mortality was high, it was very difficult to prove that infanticide had occurred, and given the common beliefs about the nature of humanity of the newborn, it was difficult to convict a woman of the crime, especially if it was a capital crime. Jurors tended to sympathize with the mother.

Pro-life discourse on this subject might be countered by raising the objection that the emergence of abortion in the 19th and especially the 20th century made infanticide virtually obsolete. However, if infanticide was acceptable to many based on the dehumanization of the unborn, abortion was also permitted to spread in the same context (and in age which was extremely ignorant of fetal development).

I think the link between the dehumanization of the infant and the dehumanization of the unborn and how they lead to killing might be an easier analogy to suggest than the analogy between the dehumanization of the unborn and that of Blacks, Jews, Native Americans and Women. For one thing, infants were killed for the very same reason that the unborn are killed today.

The downside of this analogy is that, as far as I know, no western government in the modern era has ever denied the humanity of the infant. This was done in pagan societies such as pre-Christian Rome, where the Father had the right to expose his infant child. Nonetheless, the parallels between infanticide and abortion are rather striking. I think pro-lifers might want to explore this topic further.

Fluff piece

German company unveils Pope Benedict XVI teddy bear.

Cute. But I wouldn't pay $500 for a teddy bear.

BREAKING NEWS: Troy Davis Has Been Scheduled for Execution Sept. 21

Mobilize Religious Leaders to Take Action Here

Please pass this on.

Suzanne

What's wrong with this abstract?

Title: Women Bar Drinkers' Discussions About Birth Control and Risky Sexual Behavior.

Conclusion:

The discussions reduced rates of risky sex when the sexual partner was more intimate (i.e., boyfriend/dating partner), regardless of AOD use and when the sexual partner was a friend or ex-partner and no AOD were used. The thematic analysis suggested that pregnancy prevention was a stronger motivation for discussing condom use, rather than risk of contracting an STI. Given the substantial rate of high risk partners, history of STIs, and limited amount of time women reported knowing "regular" partners, we suggest that interventions designed to reduce risky sex should be tailored to increase women's awareness of STI and pregnancy risk when under the influence of AOD, and promote condom use regardless of partner type.

Did you notice?

Beside the complete absence of suggesting abstinence as a possible course of action, the authors also omit to make the following suggestions:

1. Don't have casual sex; and
2. Stop using drugs.

You get the feeling that research is about underscoring obvious conclusions but not the obvious solutions.

Update

Dear readers

I'm tired. So I won't be making any special effort to blog for the next little while. I can barely make it through the day, let alone try to find interesting articles to blog about, so I won't. I might post if I see an article I absolutely want to comment, otherwise, I'm on hiatus until after the baby is born next month. Thanks for your understanding.

Why Canadian Women Get EI Benefits for Late-Term Abortions

Please bookmark this post and pass around the link so that this becomes common knowledge.

A number of outlets have published or circulated this story about Canadian women receiving EI benefits for late-term abortions.

People don't get it: how do women earn maternity benefits for not giving birth?

Here is the scoop.

The reason women are able to receive EI benefits for a late-term abortion is that an abortion after 20 week is not technically an abortion.

According to the Canadian Medical Association, from which government bodies take their cue, an abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy before fetal viability, i.e. 20 weeks.

Therefore a pregnancy termination after 20 weeks is not an abortion.

It is coded as a stillbirth.

The government makes no distinction between a natural stillbirth-- one where the baby dies of pre-existing condition-- and induced stillbirth, whereby baby dies through feticide.

Therefore, all mothers who experience stillbirth, regardless of the cause, receive maternity benefits.

Another reason why EI benefits are permitted is that it is assumed that induced stillbirth is motivated by a serious medical reason. Therefore, it is assumed that the baby was wanted and that this was a maternal act if you will. Nobody assumes that there is such a thing as an elective late-term abortion, even those these have been documented.

So there you have it, pro-lifers. Pass this along.