Even though the presidential campaign is so yesterday, I don't think anyone has informed the president yet. He's still doing campaign speak -- you know, the kumbaya calls for common ground, the sweeping promises scant on detail, the uplifting rhetoric held down by lack of substance.
Consider Obama's speech yesterday at Notre Dame. According to the Associated Press, the president called for an effort to “honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”
This is the same man who has promised to change the Bush-era “conscience clause.” Under Bush, this clause forced hospitals and health plans to respect the rights of doctors and other healthcare workers to refuse to deliver "treatments" that conflicted with their personal or moral beliefs. But with Obama's proposed revisions "based on sound science," these medical professionals will be forced to perform abortions if they want to stay in practice. So much for honoring conscience or finding the common ground he stressed at Notre Dame.
(I think the president missed the memo on the Gallup poll last week that showed the majority of Americans are now pro-life. Or perhaps, a la Pelosi, he wasn't listening at the briefing.)
Obama is good at delivering speeches. Anytime things heated up during the campaign, he made a speech, re-focusing media attention. But the campaign is over. Speechmaking and empty rhetoric will not solve the problems our nation is facing. If he truly wants to find common ground, he needs to start walking in our direction.
Showing posts with label abortion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label abortion. Show all posts
Monday, May 18, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Wall of Shame
I have to make up for lost time these last few days as our router was down, and I had to suffer through days of no connectivity. We got reconnected today, so here goes.
I'm instituting a Wall of Shame -- an amorphous memorial of infamy for public officials, and countries, who disgrace themselves by abusing the public trust, usually for self-profit or to further a sell-out agenda. If this were a physical memorial, I'm sure it would dwarf all the other monuments in D.C., and it would be inscribed with the names of both Republicans and Democrats who have shamed themselves. Rather than focusing on past offenders, I think we need to "memorilize" those who are still actively abusing our trust.
Inductee #1: U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York who today ordered the FDA to rethink its position on Plan B, the "morning-after" pill. Korman has decided that there's no scientific reason for the FDA to prohibit 17-year-old girls from buying this drug over the counter. And, given Obama's orders on abortion, pharmacists who don't agree with this will be forced to sell the drug to underage girls or be shut down. If this is changed, girls will not be carded, which means girls of all ages, without parental consent, could buy this drug, which can have some serious side effects. Check out http://www.optionline.org/map.html?gclid=CJqBq9y6upkCFQw9Ggodrl7G6A for a list of some of its complications.
Inductee #2: The South African government, which denied a visa to the Dalai Lama who had been invited to attend a big peace shindig to coincide with the 2010 World Cup soccer match in South Africa. The conference also was to feature South Africa's surviving Nobel Peace Prize winners -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Presidents Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk. The government claimed it denied the Dalai Lama's visa because his presence would detract from the soccer tournament. However, Thabo Masebe, spokesman for President Kgalema Motlanthe, told AFP, "We in the South African government have not invited the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa, because it would not be in the interests of South Africa."
A spoksman for the Tibetan-government-in-exile said, "African states are vulnerable to Chinese pressure because of huge Chinese investments there and so this is a case of business winning over human rights and good behaviour."
As a result of the government's action, Tutu and De Klerk have said they will not attend the conference. And "the Norwegian Nobel Committee will in no way participate in the conference alongside Nobel peace prize laureates if South African authorities do not revise their refusal to give the Dalai Lama a visa," Geir Lundestad, the head of the Nobel Institute, told AFP.
Inductee #3: Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., longtime chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. More than a decade ago, Murtha created the Electro-Optics Center under the auspices of Pennsylvania State University supposedly to spur a new high-tech industry and create jobs in economically depressed western Pennsylvania. Every budget cycle, Murtha has directed millions of earmarks to the center and then allegedly, through staff members and lobbyists, told the center which defense companies it had to award contracts to. Coincidentally, the contractors that got hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts donated millions of dollars to Murtha's campaign and PACs. After 35 years of dirty dealings in Congress, Murtha is now under federal investigation. (Source: Washington Post)
Inductee #4: Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. Yes, he's the guy who lied about ensuring that the AIG bonuses were protected in the stimulus bill, and when he finally came clean about it, he said he protected the bonuses at the bidding of the Obama administration. He, like Obama, also got a sweetheart deal on his home mortgage. But what lands him on the Wall of Shame is a cottage deal in Ireland that recently came to light. He apparently co-owns an Irish cottage. The other owner was in business with someone who had been convicted of some serious tax charges. Dodd arranged a full pardon under President Clinton.
I'm sure you have nominees for the Wall of Shame. Feel free to share.
I'm instituting a Wall of Shame -- an amorphous memorial of infamy for public officials, and countries, who disgrace themselves by abusing the public trust, usually for self-profit or to further a sell-out agenda. If this were a physical memorial, I'm sure it would dwarf all the other monuments in D.C., and it would be inscribed with the names of both Republicans and Democrats who have shamed themselves. Rather than focusing on past offenders, I think we need to "memorilize" those who are still actively abusing our trust.
Inductee #1: U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York who today ordered the FDA to rethink its position on Plan B, the "morning-after" pill. Korman has decided that there's no scientific reason for the FDA to prohibit 17-year-old girls from buying this drug over the counter. And, given Obama's orders on abortion, pharmacists who don't agree with this will be forced to sell the drug to underage girls or be shut down. If this is changed, girls will not be carded, which means girls of all ages, without parental consent, could buy this drug, which can have some serious side effects. Check out http://www.optionline.org/map.html?gclid=CJqBq9y6upkCFQw9Ggodrl7G6A for a list of some of its complications.
Inductee #2: The South African government, which denied a visa to the Dalai Lama who had been invited to attend a big peace shindig to coincide with the 2010 World Cup soccer match in South Africa. The conference also was to feature South Africa's surviving Nobel Peace Prize winners -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Presidents Nelson Mandela and FW De Klerk. The government claimed it denied the Dalai Lama's visa because his presence would detract from the soccer tournament. However, Thabo Masebe, spokesman for President Kgalema Motlanthe, told AFP, "We in the South African government have not invited the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa, because it would not be in the interests of South Africa."
A spoksman for the Tibetan-government-in-exile said, "African states are vulnerable to Chinese pressure because of huge Chinese investments there and so this is a case of business winning over human rights and good behaviour."
As a result of the government's action, Tutu and De Klerk have said they will not attend the conference. And "the Norwegian Nobel Committee will in no way participate in the conference alongside Nobel peace prize laureates if South African authorities do not revise their refusal to give the Dalai Lama a visa," Geir Lundestad, the head of the Nobel Institute, told AFP.
Inductee #3: Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., longtime chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. More than a decade ago, Murtha created the Electro-Optics Center under the auspices of Pennsylvania State University supposedly to spur a new high-tech industry and create jobs in economically depressed western Pennsylvania. Every budget cycle, Murtha has directed millions of earmarks to the center and then allegedly, through staff members and lobbyists, told the center which defense companies it had to award contracts to. Coincidentally, the contractors that got hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts donated millions of dollars to Murtha's campaign and PACs. After 35 years of dirty dealings in Congress, Murtha is now under federal investigation. (Source: Washington Post)
Inductee #4: Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. Yes, he's the guy who lied about ensuring that the AIG bonuses were protected in the stimulus bill, and when he finally came clean about it, he said he protected the bonuses at the bidding of the Obama administration. He, like Obama, also got a sweetheart deal on his home mortgage. But what lands him on the Wall of Shame is a cottage deal in Ireland that recently came to light. He apparently co-owns an Irish cottage. The other owner was in business with someone who had been convicted of some serious tax charges. Dodd arranged a full pardon under President Clinton.
I'm sure you have nominees for the Wall of Shame. Feel free to share.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Separation of Church & State
I'm sure you've heard by now that President Obama, on his 51st day in office, will OK spending another $410 billion of our money. And, if you've been watching Fox, you've seen that Nancy Pelosi is throwing a temper tantrum because she can't have a specific military plane for her little Memorial Day party. Someone ought to file an FOIA request to see how much she's costing us just in her personal travels and vacations.
Because the omnibus spending bill is all you're going to be hearing about on the news tomorrow, I wanted to point out something else. With Obama lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research and providing more public money for abortions, there's growing concern about whether doctors who view abortion as murder will be forced to do them. Saying public health trumps a person's right to stand by his or her convictions, a number of federal lawmakers want to force doctors -- and pharmacists -- to do abortions and dispense morning-after pills. Oh yeah, those misguided lawmakers also cite separation of church and state.
Now that argument gets me. The First Amednment says nothing about separation of church and state. What it does is forbid Congress from establishing a church. To understand the intent of our Founding Fathers on this issue, we must think about the context.
Before the birth of our country, many of the colonies had an established church paid for by the colonial government -- i.e., the taxpayers of that colony. Take Virginia, for instance. Colonial Virginians were forced to pay a tithe to the Church of England. That meant my Swiss Mennonite and staunch Scottish Covenanter ancestors who settled in Virginia in the 1600s and 1700s had to pay money to the Church of England in addition to supporting their own churches, which did not receive public money. Robert Ewing, one of my first ancestors in this country, wrote a letter to the Virginia legislators that he sent along with his tithe, thanking them for allowing the Ewings and others in Peaks of Otter, Va., to worship at a Presbyterian church.
This was what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he wrote his famous letter describing his OPINION about the "wall" he perceived between church and state. None of our Founding Fathers would have denied anyone the strength of his or her personal convictions. In fact, it was because of their personal convictions that the likes of George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Marion, etc., stood up and told King George what he could do with his misplaced power. Our Founding Fathers were willing to sacrifice their lives to establish a country where people would be free to worship and follow their convictions in every aspect of their lives.
The question we now face is: What are we willing to do to protect that freedom?
Because the omnibus spending bill is all you're going to be hearing about on the news tomorrow, I wanted to point out something else. With Obama lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research and providing more public money for abortions, there's growing concern about whether doctors who view abortion as murder will be forced to do them. Saying public health trumps a person's right to stand by his or her convictions, a number of federal lawmakers want to force doctors -- and pharmacists -- to do abortions and dispense morning-after pills. Oh yeah, those misguided lawmakers also cite separation of church and state.
Now that argument gets me. The First Amednment says nothing about separation of church and state. What it does is forbid Congress from establishing a church. To understand the intent of our Founding Fathers on this issue, we must think about the context.
Before the birth of our country, many of the colonies had an established church paid for by the colonial government -- i.e., the taxpayers of that colony. Take Virginia, for instance. Colonial Virginians were forced to pay a tithe to the Church of England. That meant my Swiss Mennonite and staunch Scottish Covenanter ancestors who settled in Virginia in the 1600s and 1700s had to pay money to the Church of England in addition to supporting their own churches, which did not receive public money. Robert Ewing, one of my first ancestors in this country, wrote a letter to the Virginia legislators that he sent along with his tithe, thanking them for allowing the Ewings and others in Peaks of Otter, Va., to worship at a Presbyterian church.
This was what Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he wrote his famous letter describing his OPINION about the "wall" he perceived between church and state. None of our Founding Fathers would have denied anyone the strength of his or her personal convictions. In fact, it was because of their personal convictions that the likes of George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Marion, etc., stood up and told King George what he could do with his misplaced power. Our Founding Fathers were willing to sacrifice their lives to establish a country where people would be free to worship and follow their convictions in every aspect of their lives.
The question we now face is: What are we willing to do to protect that freedom?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)