Motivational-Inspirational-Historical-Educational-Political-Enjoyable
Promoting "God's Holy Values and American Freedoms"!
"Daily Motivations"
"Nothing is Impossible, the word itself says, 'I'm Possible'!" -- Audrey Hepburn
Questioning Your Way to Better Service
Most of customer service is common sense. You know excellent service when you experience it. And the same is true for poor service. There are plenty of examples from both ends of the continuum to learn from and apply (or avoid) in order to improve. Why bother? Because, in today’s marketplace, quality products and services – at competitive prices – are expected! What determines whether a patron chooses to do business with your organization versus a competitor usually comes down to relationships …how you make him or her FEEL. Bottom line (figuratively and literally): Excellent customer service is your one, true business advantage!
So, what can you do to ratchet-up the quality of service that your team provides? Start with questions! Bring everyone together for a meeting to answer and discuss the following:
Do you feel good about representing our organization – and its products and services? Why / why not?
Why should customers invest their time and money with us?
If we were the customers, would we want to do business with us? Why / why not?
What can we do to improve the experience our customers have with us?
Why should we bother? What are the benefits for us?
What do we need in order to make that improved experience happen?
What can we do to help each other be more successful in that effort?
Close the meeting by reviewing the various strategies / action items that were identified, and ask for everyone’s commitment to implement them – starting immediately.
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
"Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God." (Mark 10:27).
When Bailey Marks became our international vice president in 1981 our great dream was a Worldwide Student Congress. With the goal of inviting at least 30,000 students from every country in the world we realized the cost of such an endeavor would be $60million ($2,000 per student).
The very idea was "impossible" in human terms.
One morning, as Bailey was shaving, he suddenly blurted out to God, "God, what do you want me to do?" Bailey said the voice of God, though inaudible, told him, "Bailey, you're going about this the wrong way. Rather than bringing the people to the conference, you need to take the conference to people all over the world." Bailey asked God how that could be accomplished, and he was impressed that the Lord said, "By satellite."
As this excited young man stood in my office telling me what God had said, I looked down at my desk at a business card that had been handed to me the day before---Michael Clifford wanted to start a business conducting satellite conferences.
Before the week was out, Bailey, Michael, and I were meeting, praying, and planning for a great work of the Lord that turned out to be Explo '85, the world's largest closed-circuit satellite conference that had ever been conducted.
We had initially spoken of 30,000 students and $60 million. Instead, the numbers came to 300,000 people in 94 locations at a cost of slightly less than $7 million dollars. God is truly astounding!
"The Patriot Post"
"The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man." -- James Madison
EDITORIAL EXEGESIS
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi berated town hall and tea party protesters this month, tearfully warning they'd incite violence. Well, there's been violence all right, at Pittsburgh's G-20. But it wasn't the tea partiers. It takes gall to characterize ordinary Americans, freely exercising their rights of speech and assembly in civic forums, as 'mobs' while ignoring a pack of leftist thugs now smashing a U.S. city. But that's what Pelosi did, directing her righteous tocsin to the Norman Rockwell-like gatherings of Americans who opposed her expansion of government this past summer. 'I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw ... I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco,' Pelosi said, choking up, her eyes brimming with tears. 'This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and ... I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made,' she told a congressional forum Sept. 17 in a bid to silence peaceful protesters. Scroll ahead one week to the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh: Some 1,000 hooded rioters descend on the city waving signs such as 'Smash the G-20' and 'Eat the Rich.' Many take 'direct action' to 'challenge capitalism' in what organizers brazenly call an 'unpermitted protest.' Unlike the town hall citizens, they didn't 'hurl' statements -- just tire irons, bricks and rocks, in an effort to damage private businesses.. ... This kind of violence is nothing new. It was found in Seattle in 1999, where former Obama administration green czar Van Jones got himself arrested. It was repeated at other summits in Turin, Italy; Washington, D.C.; and London. These leftists detest capitalism, abhor private property -- and have ties to the Democratic Party. The unwillingness of the Democratic establishment to defend free markets emboldens the rioters. In destroying private property and impeding trade, these anarchists prove their aims aren't democratic. They resemble the mobs of Castro's Cuba who engage in violence against citizens to enforce conformity. The outrage of it all raises questions about Pelosi's real agenda in her one-sided criticism of tea partiers. By criticizing only tea partiers and ignoring rampant thugs, she seeks to repress peaceful dissent. With that setup, it's no surprise that there's a mudslide of violence now rolling down on us from an energized radical left." -- Investor's Business Daily
INSIGHT
"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand." -- English Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
"The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it." -- American writer H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
"Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity." -- American author Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)
UPRIGHT
"President Obama's speech to the United Nations has been called naive and even 'post-American.' It was something else, as well: the most extravagant excursion into self-worship we have yet seen in an American leader. Beware of politicians who claim to be 'humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed upon me.' It's a neon sign flashing the opposite. And sure enough, in almost the next sentence, the president allowed that 'I am well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world.' Really? The whole world pulses with hope and expectation because Obama is president? People in Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Taipei have a spring in their step because an Illinois Democrat won the White House?" -- columnist Mona Charen
"America is 233 years old. Some think that there are ample accomplishments speaking to our character and cause that predate Obama's ascension to the presidency. Feh, Obama seems to be saying. Look instead to our new greatness, for we have elected a man like him! Having anointed himself America's vindicator and redeemer, Obama's real purpose seems to be to become the leader not of the free world but, simply, the world." -- columnist Jonah Goldberg
"With President Obama presiding over 'the historic session,' the U.N. Security Council approved unanimously an American resolution committing all nations to work for -- please sit up straight for this -- a world free of nuclear weapons. Somewhere in the fine print was a clause praising small babies, little puppies and chocolate candy. The resolution was so harmless that even Russia, China and several 'developing' nations (the usual euphemism for the socialist satraps) voted for the resolution." -- columnist Wesley Pruden
"The president's announcement that the United States would not deploy long-range missile defenses in Eastern Europe after all was astonishing because George W. Bush had negotiated so patiently with the Czechs and Poles, who took considerable risks in cooperating with Washington. ..... The Poles, Czechs and everyone else must hope that Obama got something from Russia in return. For now, the president looks more chump than champ. The president's men made him look like a rube just off the turnip truck for how he gave the word to the Polish and Czech presidents, treating them to a midnight telephone call the night before he announced his decision. It looked like an afterthought, and probably felt that way, too." -- columnist Suzanne Fields
"Liberalism holds that there is no human problem that government can't fix if only the right people are put in charge." -- former Alaska governor Sarah Palin
DEZINFORMATSIA
Civil discourse 101: "The Republicans lie. They want to see you dead. They'd rather make money off your dead corpse. They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don't have anything for her. That's how the insurance companies make money, by denying the coverage." -- MSNBC's Ed Schultz
Braying Jackass: "[T]his crazy anti-government talk [at town hall meetings] isn't improving any body's life. The clown show is over. It's better now to look like you're at least hopeful of getting a better health care plan for the country, even if you vote against it." -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews
The depth and seriousness of Leftmedia "journalism": "Who would you want to swap lives with for a week?" -- CBS's Cali Carlin to Maggie Rodriguez, who answered, "Hands down, Michelle Obama."
THE DEMO-GOGUES
From the speech to the UN: "No nation can or should try to dominate another nation." -- Barack Obama ("Did a professional speechwriter write that? Or did you outsource it to a starry-eyed runner-up in the Miss America pageant? Whether or not any nation 'should try' to dominate another, they certainly 'can,' and do so with effortless ease, all over the planet and throughout human history." -- columnist Mark Steyn)
Arms are for hugging: "We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth." --Barack Obama ("President Obama dreams of a world without weapons .... but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite. Iran since 2005 has flouted five Security Council resolutions. North Korea has been defying Council resolutions since 1993. I support the extended hand of the Americans, but what good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community? More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe a UN member state off the map." -- France's Nikolas Sarkozy ++ "It's a sad state of affairs when a Frenchman mocks an American president and you have to go with the Frog." รข??columnist Jules Crittenden)
Tough talk: "Iran is on notice that when we meet with them on October 1st they are going to have to come clean and they are going to have to make a choice: Are they willing to go down the path which I think ultimately will lead to greater prosperity and security for Iran -- giving up, uh, the acquisition of nuclear weapons, and deciding that they are willing to abide by international rules and standards in their pursuit of peaceful nuclear energy -- uh, or will they continue, uh, down a past that is going to lead to confrontation? I'm not going to speculate on the course of action that we will take. We're going to give October 1st a chance." -- BO
"We're exploring how you broaden and deepen sanctions. Now, sanctions are already in place, as you know, but like many sanction regimes they're leaky. But in the last, ummm, eight months, uh, since we've been dealing with North Korea on a similar, uh, set of issues, we have forged an international consensus around very tough sanctions. And that's given us some additional information about how to proceed on the Iranian front." -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Attacking the Tea Parties: "It's fine for people to debate the issue and attack the issue, but when they go and stoop to the level of the vitriolic rhetoric that we've seen this debate turn up, it's very, I think, dangerous to the fabric of our country." -- Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-UI)
Cat out of the bag: "I don't know what 'cap and trade' means. I don't think the average American does." -- Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass-confusion)
Call the Hearse: "If it fails, I'm dead." -- Vice President Joe Biden on the so-called stimulus
ESSENTIAL LIBERTY PROJECT
The mission of the Essential Liberty Project is to support the restoration of constitutional integrity and Rule of Law. Our objective is to distribute millions of Essential Liberty Constitution pocket reference guides to high school and collegiate students. This primer on liberty, as "endowed by our Creator" and codified by our Founders in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, includes a comprehensive introduction on the history of American Liberty by Mark Alexander, and a collection of quotes from our Founders on Liberty. It is also compact in size -- which is to say it is at hand for debate, anytime, anywhere.
SHORT CUTS
"There's a new book out about Barack and Michelle Obama's marriage and in it they say Michelle Obama was very upset by all these drooling blondes who would push up to her husband and rub themselves up against him. They said this one blonde was especially suggestive and kept rubbing up against the President. Finally, Michelle said, 'Look, Chris Matthews, get away from my husband.'" -- comedian Jay Leno
"Obama is, we are told, the smartest man to sit in the Oval in many a year. And yet he is capable of truly flabbergasting fatuities like this: 'In this hall, we come from many places, but we share a common future." You don't say? That's right up there with Warren Harding's declaration that 'the future lies before us.'" -- columnist Mona Charen
"For progressives in the Age of Obama, setting high academic standards is secondary to the self-improvement of the 'whole child' and 'service' to the cause of social justice. Out: readin', writin' and 'rithmetic. In: rappin', revolution and radicalism." -- columnist Michelle Malkin
"The White House said swine flu vaccines will be in doctors' offices Monday. Many parents are refusing to have their kids vaccinated. They're afraid the kids will walk out of the doctor's office clapping their hands and chanting Barack Hussein Obama." -- comedian Argus Hamilton
"The Web"
Myrick: Obama’s Iran Policies “Frightening”
http://video.newsmax.com/?bcpid=20972460001&bclid=22770166001&bctid=44146002001&s=al&promo_code=8B8C-1
Homosexuals give Obama standing ovation
It appear President Obama is strong on his decisions of supporting homosexuality and lesbian activity, which is against our Holy Bible. Obama appears to be very slow in supporting our troops in Afghanistan, regardless of the fact that our Commander on the grounds has asked for an 40 thousand additional troops to battle the Taliban and Al-Quita. Where is Obama's thinking? - oyh
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=716624
Christine Simmons - Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama was given a hero's welcome last night as he addressed the nation's most powerful homosexual group.
The estimated crowd of three thousand homosexuals and supporters attending the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign gave Obama a standing ovation as he repeated his pledges to meet some long-standing demands of homosexual activists.
Obama restated his campaign pledge to allow homosexual men and women to serve openly in the military. " I will end 'don't ask don't tell' he told the crowd.
He offered no timetable or specifics and he acknowledged some may be growing impatient.
"I appreciate that many of you don't believe progress has come fast enough," Obama said. "Do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach."
Some advocates said they already have heard Obama's promises and now they want a timeline. Cleve Jones, a pioneer activist and creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, said Obama delivered a brilliant speech, but added "it lacked the answer to our most pressing question, which is when."
"He repeated his promises that he's made to us before, but he did not indicate when he would accomplish these goals and we've been waiting for a while now," said Jones, national co-chair of a major gay-rights rally scheduled for Sunday on the National Mall.
Obama also called on Congress to repeal the Defense Of Marriage Act, which limits how state, local and federal bodies can recognize partnerships and determine benefits. He also called for a law to extend benefits to domestic partners.
He expressed strong support for the HRC agenda of ending discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people but stopped short of laying out a detailed plan for how to get there.
"My expectation is that when you look back on these years you will look back and see a time when we put a stop against discrimination ... whether in the office or the battlefield," Obama said.
"We have never had a stronger ally in the White House. Never," Joe Solmonese, the group's president, said at the dinner before the president spoke.
Health Care Speechwriter for Edwards, Obama & Clinton Without Insurance Now
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/08/health-care-speechwriter-for-edwards-obama-and-clinton-doesnt/
For the first time in my life, I am without health insurance and it is a terrible feeling.
In the past, I paid attention to the health care debate as a speechwriter who prepared speeches, talking points, op-eds, and debate prep material on the topic at different times for John Edwards, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and others. Now, I'm paying attention because I'm a citizen up the creek without a paddle.
Throughout my life, I have been very lucky because my insurance has always been there whenever I had a crisis. When my 10-speed hit a patch of leftover winter sand, and I went flying into a telephone pole, it covered the x-rays and stitches and concussion diagnosis. When a half a ton of sheet rock fell on me, my insurance paid for the cast on my foot. When my depression kicked in and I was hospitalized and painting ceramic pieces in art therapy to boost my self-esteem (sheesh), it made sure that when I got home my medical bills didn't make me reach for a razor. And when there were growths in my uterus, it covered that medical procedure and every regular check-up, lab test, broken bone, sports injury, and antibiotic prescription in between.
Since I care more about my country than my personal pride, here's how I lost my insurance: I moved. That's right, I moved from Washington, D.C., back to Massachusetts, a state with universal health care.
In D.C., I had a policy with a national company, an HMO, and surprisingly I was very happy with it. I had a fantastic primary care doctor at Georgetown University Hospital. As a self-employed writer, my premium was $225 a month, plus $10 for a dental discount.
In Massachusetts, the cost for a similar plan is around $550, give or take a few dollars. My risk factors haven't changed. I didn't stop writing and become a stunt double. I don't smoke. I drink a little and every once in a while a little more than I should. I have a Newfoundland dog. I am only 41. There has been no change in the way I live my life except my zip code -- to a state with universal health care.
Massachusetts has enacted many of the necessary reforms being talked about in Washington. There is a mandate for all residents to get insurance, a law to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition, an automatic enrollment requirement, and insurance companies are no longer allowed to cap coverage or drop people when they get sick because they forgot to include a sprained ankle back in 1989 on their application.
Even if the economy was strong and I was working more, I still couldn't afford my premium. I am not alone; I've got 46 million friends in a similar situation. We wake up every day worried that a bad cough, an accident while walking the dog, or that dreaded pain on the right side of the abdomen will send us into complete financial ruin.
As luck would have it, I didn't schedule a physical before I left D.C. I thought I could get that taken care of when I moved -- after all they had reforms, automatic enrollment, and universal coverage in Massachusetts, all the things I'd written about for politicians. Health care would be affordable. It didn't dawn on me that it would just be affordable for other people.
Now, sharing my experience doesn't make me an expert in health care policy anymore more than my knowledge that Kajagoogoo sings "Too Shy" makes me an expert in music. What my story does is serve as a cautious reminder that we need to get this right, not right away. A rushed bill will have consequences. Reforms will not be cheap and some people may be priced out.
How could all of these weeks and months go by and no one is examining and talking about what has worked and what hasn't worked in Massachusetts?
While the state has the lowest rate of uninsured, a report by the Commonwealth Fund states that Massachusetts has the highest premiums in the country. The state's budget is a mess and lawmakers had to make deep cuts in services and increase the sales tax to close gaps. The number of people needing assistance has at times overwhelmed the state. The mandate means that some people who can't afford insurance are now being slapped with a fine they also can't afford. There is no "public option" in the way the president describes it, no inter-state competition, no pool for small businesses and self-employed individuals like me to buy into groups that negotiate cheaper rates. So far I haven't found any "death panels," but if I get sick and need a hospital, I sure hope I can find one and a feisty granny to pull my plug.
What makes this a double blow is that my experience contradicts so much of what I wrote for political leaders over the last decade. That's a terrible feeling, too. I typed line after line that said everything Massachusetts did would make health insurance more affordable. If I had a dollar for every time I typed, "universal coverage will lower premiums," I could pay for my own health care at Massachusetts's rates.
So far, the most informed and civil discussion I've had about this issue has been with some of the sales representatives with the top providers in Massachusetts as I searched for an affordable plan. Each person I talked to was kind and considerate and truthful. One man said that he prepares everyone for the "sticker-shock," whether they are a family of four or an individual.
Right now, the truth is if I could buy my health plan from D.C., then I would. If I could buy into a public option, co-op, or trigger plan, whatever they want to call it, then I would. If I qualified for the new exchange, then I'd get into that, too, but four years is a long time to go without a physical, pap smear, and to have this mole checked. If someone were to put Medicare for All back on the table, then I would be fine with that too. Honestly, it's starting to make the most fiscal sense: $450 billion we pay to insurance companies could be redirected to Medicare, $350 billion in savings in paper work, and of course that $500 billion in savings for "waste, fraud, and abuse."
If this country is about to gamble a trillion dollars plus -- and it will be a big plus no matter what the Congressional Budget Office projection is -- then why not use a system that already exists? My experience in politics has been any time a politician says $500 billion will come from "waste, fraud, and abuse" that's a fancy way of saying, "Hold on to your wallet; we'll pay for it later."
We have to be careful about how we spend this trillion dollars. Right now, we are $1.4 trillion in the hole and the Senate has been asked to raise the country's debt ceiling to $12 trillion. We are fighting two wars and may increase troop levels in one. We have 250 new Iraq and Afghanistan veterans seeking care from VA facilities every day, and unemployment is headed north, past 10 percent. Has anyone else thought, "Hey wait a minute? Why are we proposing to spend so much on a mess of a plan?"
Why can't Washington look north to Massachusetts? What's the lesson for the nation in its successes and failures: universal coverage first or cost reductions? If health care is a right, then why aren't we starting over with Medicare for All? If health care is a responsibility, then why aren't we changing the system to address that? There is a big red flag planted in the middle of this state and it looks like everyone's just pledging allegiance to it rather understanding the warning in its wave.
For now, I'm going to have to get used to this terrible feeling. I'll eat right. I'll drive 55. I'll keep my dog on a tight heel and pet her to keep my blood pressure down. And I'll hope the economy turns around soon and $6,600 or so a year for health insurance doesn't seem so unaffordable.
I want health care reform. I need it, but I want Washington to start over. It doesn't make me "un-American" or "astroturf" or "racist." I'm a critic because what Washington is talking about doing has made health insurance unaffordable in Massachusetts.
If Washington won't go for a simple clean move to a system like Medicare for All, then it needs to do one reform, one new law, at a time -- not with a 1,000 page bill where strange things can hide. Line up the 80 percent of things we agree on and vote one at a time to change pre-existing conditions, cut that $500 billion in Medicare's "waste, fraud, and abuse," create meaningful lawsuit reform, and add some real competition to insurance companies whether it's a public option or a pilot exchange program. Show the country that this is possible with lower premiums and more efficiency and then go for the tough stuff. Critics like me want something done right because we actually are up the creek without a paddle.
If Congress and the president want to fix health care, then it is time to start over. They need to look at what's worked and what has failed in Massachusetts. They are going to have to actually take former Gov. Sarah Palin's advice and "look north to the future." Who knew that would ever make sense? But if we continue on this current path without looking, it's easy to diagnose what's coming to the country when a health care bill passes.
A mess.
Wendy Button has written for John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Mayor Tom Menino of Boston as well as other national and international leaders, and is working on a book.
Census Bureau sending violent felons to our doors?
by Ed Morrissey
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/10/08/census-bureau-sending-violent-felons-to-our-doors/
Why does this sound so familiar?
A Senate Subcommittee hearing today revealed that nearly 36,000 Census Bureau employees were hired despite the fact that the fingerprint component of their criminal record checks was botched. Despite additional name checks recommended by the FBI, the GAO said that it was possible that more than 200 employees hired by the Census Bureau had criminal records, and were in contact with the public while canvassing for the ongoing 2010 census.
Robert Goldenkoff, the Government Accountability Office’s Director for Strategic Issues, said that the criminal record checks were bungled because of poor staff training. Bureau staff with less than 2 hours of training in fingerprinting ruined about a fifth of the 162,000 necessary criminal record checks.
If the properly processed criminal record checks are any indication, the Bureau may have let a large number of violent criminals slip through the cracks. Of the prints that were properly checked, about one percent, or 1,800 workers, had criminal records that name checks failed to identify.
Of these 1,800 workers with criminal records, about 750 had their employment terminated or further reviewed due to criminal records that included crimes like rape, manslaughter and child abuse. Projecting these numbers to the employees with spoilt prints, the GAO came up with the figure of 200 census workers that may have had serious criminal records.
This should ring a bell for readers of Captain’s Quarters. In 2004, Democrats used Americans Coming Together to conduct door-to-door voter registration drives, and ACT hired felons to knock on doors to persuade voters into becoming Democrats. Eventually the John Kerry campaign and the Democrats ended their association with ACT out of embarrassment.
Now, however, it looks like they’ve turned the Census Bureau into ACT all over again. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of turning Census Bureau workers away from our doors as we do with partisan community organizers. In their rush to hire, probably brought on in an attempt to alleviate the unemployment numbers (the money this year came from the stimulus package), the Census Bureau botched a process that private-sector employers routinely employ, and hired hundreds of felons to demand our personal information on our doorsteps.
Imagine how the Obama administration will handle hiring in the public-option health-insurance agencies …
When is a “Fetus” a Baby?: Twice-Born Macie
by Gary DeMar
http://www.americanvision.org/article/when-is-a-fetus-a-baby-twice-born-macie/?awt_l=CQsGV&awt_m=1dtZkClwK9P5qC
Technology has no morals. Things are not evil in and of themselves (Col. 2:20–23). What people do with the things of this creation is the determining factor. This is certainly true with power (Matt. 10:25; 2 Cor. 1:24) and wealth (1 Tim. 3:3; 6:10; Heb. 13:5). Technological devices do not come with morality tags attached specifying how they should be used. Two men trained as physicians can use their skills to save a life or end a life. David Horowitz writes in his article “When Man Plays God”:
When ultrasound technology (sonogram) became readily available to physicians, it was a boon to the medical profession, which quickly realized its practical applications. Relatively inexpensive, portable and un-invasive, ultrasound scans soon became one of the first tests to be performed in the routine examination of a patient’s heart, liver, lymph nodes, etc.
Women, especially, benefit from sonograms, whose images can identify the causes of pelvic bleeding, menstrual problems, cysts and cancerous cells. And of course the general monitoring of the health of both baby and mother during pregnancy have made the sonogram an invaluable diagnostic tool.
But there is a flip side to this coin—the abuse of ultrasound technology (or of any technology, for that matter).
In societies that are culturally biased against women, the sonogram can lead to eugenics, genocide and murder. In many parts of the Islamic world, for example, the birth of a daughter can bring extreme financial hardship to a family, and the early knowledge of the existence of a female fetus developing inside the womb has led many a couple to either abort the pregnancy or hide knowledge of the pregnancy until birth, whereupon the baby girl was left on some hillside to die of exposure.
In countries with a tradition of honoring the birth of a son and lamenting the birth of a daughter, such as Communist China, the practice of female infanticide has reached new heights. China’s deadly (for females) combination of its one-child policy on the one hand, and a longstanding preference for sons on the other, has led to extremely high abortion rates for girls; as a result, in some regions of the country the living population consists of 120 males for every 100 females.
On the positive side, as Horowitz points out, there are a number of benefits, especially when the subject of abortion comes up. General Electric Medical Systems has developed 3D and 4D imaging. “To create 3D images, an ultrasound system determines the volume of a subject—for example, a baby. The system then reconstructs the image in three dimensions. As for 4D Ultrasound, only the Voluson 730 can gather 3D volumes and instantly reconstruct them into moving images.” The results are amazing.
Technology is a double-edged sword. As history attests, it can be used for both good and evil. For destroying the lives of preborn babies or for healing them. Here’s a story that shows the positive side of advances in fetal surgery techniques that incorporate sonogram imaging. “Just four months into Keri McCartney’s pregnancy, an ultrasound revealed a tumor growing on the baby’s tailbone the size of a grapefruit—nearly as large as the baby herself—that was stealing the baby’s blood and weakening her heart.” In order to remove the tumor, the six-month preborn baby had to be operated on. “Surgeons anesthetized Keri McCartney into a deep sleep in order to make sure the womb did not think the pregnancy was over during the procedure. After finding the right place that would not disturb the placenta, surgeons opened the womb and extracted about 80 percent of Macie Hope’s body, leaving only her head and upper body inside.” Amazing!
These types of procedures, as more people learn about them, could send the abortion industry into economic freefall. Here’s a question for the doctors who operated on baby Macie: Was the “fetus” a baby when you operated on “it”? Throughout one article I read, Macie was continually described as “the fetus.” Why bother with an expensive operation on a “fetus” who is not really a human being until “it” takes a breath? Why weren’t the parents told that at this stage in the pregnancy, the tumor was just as significant as the “the fetus” since they were nothing more than a mass of cells? Some news stories slipped up and called the pre-born Macie a baby. Good for them.
Tearjerker: 5 alive after woman makes 1 brave choice
Incredible decision impacts generations to come
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=112324
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Ann and Juda Myers
Late one evening in 1956 after watching the movie "The Ten Commandments" in a theater, a 22-year-old woman walked home alone in the dark – but she would not make it to the house before eight young men would brutally beat and rape her in the streets.
The woman, Ann, recalled the horrifying sexual assault in a video about her experience in St. Louis, Mo.
"I walked home which was about eight blocks, and when I got close to home there was a used car lot, and there were eight men in there," she said. "They grabbed me and attacked me. And I made it home after they attacked me and beat me up and did a few other things."
A child conceived in rape
Already shaken by the traumatic sexual assault, Ann made a shocking discovery when she went to stay with her parents in Jackson, Miss.
"At that time, I didn't know I was pregnant," she said. "Three months later, I found out I was, and my parents didn't want me to have the baby, let alone keep it."
Her mother insisted that she have an abortion. But Ann adamantly refused.
"I didn't believe in destroying her, so I had her," Ann said in the video. "And they forced me to give her up."
Now that little baby, Juda Myers, is grown and shares her inspirational story of life.
"She knew I was a human," Myers told WND. "She said she couldn't kill a kitten or a puppy, much less a human baby."
Forgiveness beyond human imagination ... 'Think No Evil' by Jonas Beiler and Shawn Smucker will challenge you to examine your willingness to show grace to those who don't deserve it.
A Methodist minister and a Catholic priest were instrumental in helping Ann follow through with her plan to deliver the baby. The priest took Ann to a Catholic charity in Shreveport, La., where Myers was born.
"She gave me up for adoption," Myers said. "She didn't want to do that, but under the circumstances she had to."
When Ann was recuperating in the home following childbirth, an elderly lady brought the new baby to see her. Ann held the baby often, but when Myers was only 3 months old, she was adopted by another family.
Ann was given a photograph, and it remained her only memory of her baby for 48 years.
Juda Myers
A tearful reunion
Myers' new parents were open about the adoption and told the little girl she was adopted at a very young age.
"My adoptive parents always told me that I was very special because I had two sets of parents," she said. "They insisted on letting me know that I was loved. I did wonder why I was given up."
In 2005, almost 49 years later, Myers contacted an agency to help her find her birth mother.
"I wanted to be able to research her address and go there to thank her for giving me life," Myers said. "I wanted to be able to get those words out before she'd say, 'I don't want to have anything to do with you. Leave me alone.'
"All I wanted in life was to thank this woman for giving birth to me."
But Ann called Myers in December and left a voicemail message before Myers could acquire the address.
She said, "Hi, this is Ann, and I'm interested in what you have to say. I'm sorry I missed you. … If you're my long-lost daughter, God bless you. If you're not, give me a call anyway. I'd love to know what you want. God bless you, too."
Myers immediately called Ann, but Ann could not hear her because a group was Christmas caroling in the background.
"I asked, 'Is this Ann?'" Myers recalled. "She said, 'Honey, you are going to have to speak up. I can't hear you.'"
"I shouted, 'As far as I know, I'm your daughter!'"
Ann broke into tears.
"While I was saying this, the choir was in the background singing 'Gloria,'" Myers said with a chuckle.
She arranged to fly to her birth mother's nursing home, but she was apprehensive about the reunion. Would Myers' features remind Ann of her attackers on that horrific night?
"I have bright blue eyes, and I was so afraid that my mother probably would have had brown eyes," she said. "I thought I might look like one of the rapists, and I didn't want to meet her looking like him."
But when Myers approached the reception desk, she heard, "Juda?"
"I turned around, and I saw the brightest blue eyes," she recalled. "It was just amazing to be able to see eyes that resembled mine. It was a surreal moment."
Ann sat in her wheelchair, clutching the photo of her little baby.
"She was holding that picture in her hands after 48 years," Myers said. "She had never let it go."
Message of forgiveness and life
After speaking with her birth mother for more than an hour, Myers asked Ann about the circumstances of her conception. Ann explained that she had been raped by eight young men one night outside of a used car lot in St. Louis when she walked home from the movie.
"I was on my knees, and I was crying," Myers said. "I put my head in her lap and cried."
But Ann's reaction to her daughter's weeping astonished Myers.
"She just patted me and said, 'Honey, stop crying. I've forgiven those men."
She continued, "Look what God has done. He's brought you back to me. God is faithful."
When Myers returned home, she wrote a song for her mother and recorded it on a CD. She titled it "God Is Faithful."
"On Valentine's Day, which is my birthday, I went back, and I gave her that song as a gift," Myers said. "As she listened to the song, she just stared at me.
"In my entire life, I have never felt that kind of love. It was the most incredible moment."
Myers said her mother is her "hero" for forgiving her eight attackers and allowing her baby to live.
Because of Ann's decision to save the life of one baby 53 years ago, five people are alive today – including Myer's one-week-old grandbaby. She now has two sons and two grandsons.
Myers' son, Jason, daughter-in-law, Veronica, and new grandbaby, Jackson (photo: Juda Myers
Myers, a singer, songwriter, artist and author, wrote a book about her experience titled, "Hostile Conception: Living With A Purpose."
"The main thrust of the book is how to forgive any offense, because my mom forgave," she said. "I forgave."
Now, Myers shares that message, seeking to inspire people wherever she goes. She has been to South Africa and is planning a trip to orphanages in India to share her music and testimony of God's love.
She has accepted an invitation from Harvard Right to Life to speak at Harvard University on Oct. 20. Myers also plans to accompany Molly White, founder and director of Women for Life International, to the United Nation's Commission on the Status of Women's Conference.
Conceived in rape and dedicated to sharing her story of life and forgiveness, Myers urges women to choose life instead of abortion.
She told WND she has an important message for women who experience unplanned pregnancies:
"If you ever find yourself in this situation, be a hero."
"The e-mail Bag"
YOU know you need a Different Lawyer when ......
* You met him in prison.
* During your initial consultation he tries to sell you Amway.
* He tells you that his last good case was a Budweiser.
* When the prosecutors see who your lawyer is, they high-five each other.
* He picks the jury by playing "duck-duck-goose."
* He tells you that he's never told a lie.
* He asks a hostile witness to "pull my finger."
* A prison guard is shaving your head.
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