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'Jesus' Resurrection – Dramatic Testimony
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/jesus-resurrection.htm
Jesus' Resurrection - Essential to the Christian Faith
Jesus' Resurrection from the dead is as essential to the Christian faith as His death upon the cross. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Paul emphasizes the importance of the Resurrection with his statement "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not" (I Corinthians 15:14-15).
Jesus' Resurrection - An Historical Event?
So, is Jesus' Resurrection from the dead an historical event? It is proclaimed throughout the four Gospels as well as ancient correspondence. If these works are the historical documents they claim to be, then they bare witness to an historical event. According to Aristotle's Dictum, these pieces meet the criteria for legitimate historical documents. However, as they describe miraculous events, they are not recognized by secular society as valid testimony. How then will these accounts be validated? Two questions must be asked. First, do the authors of these literary pieces discredit their work, or do their lives give credit to their testimony? Second, do accepted historical authorities corroborate these accounts?
Jesus' Resurrection - The Disciples' Testimony
The men who believed in Jesus' Resurrection from the dead, known today as Christ's Disciples, certainly had their testimony, as well as their convictions, tested by those who disbelieved. With the exception of John, every one of these men were put to death. These deaths were excruciating and merciless. More so were their lives, as these men were persecuted by the secular world and suffered great hardship for the spreading of their beloved Gospel, which they proclaimed. Paul gives account in his second letter to the Corinthians "Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." (II Corinthians 11:24-27). Paul was later beheaded after suffering in a Roman dungeon for many years. His death was far less brutal then those of his brethren as he was a Roman citizen and often they were not. These men believed the Lord allowed them to suffer greatly, as there is no better evidence of their sincerity and the truth of their message than their endurance and perseverance without any hope of an earthly reward. Every single one of them could have escaped such torture and humiliation by simply denouncing the Resurrection of Christ. This was the goal of their tormentors. However, not one ceded to their persecutors, and this is dramatic evidence in rebuttal of any conspiracy theory.
Jesus Gave His Life For All Of Us, So All May Be Free From All Sin!
"Daily Motivations"
We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are always there for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you. -- Jeff Warner
"Do not look to the ground for your next step; greatness lies with those who look to the horizon." -- Norwegian Proverb
"Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future." -- Paul Boese
"Daily Devotions" (KJV and/or NLT)
Let everyone in the world fear the LORD, and let everyone stand in awe of Him. (Psalm 33:8)
If we could just grasp even a part of the magnificent holiness of God, then the whole earth would shake with people falling to the ground in worship and adoration of Him. Such a view would precipitate a healthy fear of God, which is the necessary starting point.
True knowledge of God's holiness always elicits a worshipful response from us. Moses fell to his face before the burning bush. Isaiah said, "Woe is me!" (Isaiah 6:5). We cannot stand in the presence of God without acknowledging His holiness and seeing our own sin.
Whenever I meditate on the holiness of God, I am impressed with how worthy He is of our worship. I want to become absorbed with His holiness, rather than with His might, His wisdom, or His other magnificent attributes.
As we meditate on God's supreme holiness, we cannot help but be overcome with a sense of awe. Music can help us express our awe for our Lord. Many of the Christian hymns capture the spirit of worship. I encourage you to select one of them, such as "Holy, Holy, Holy", or "Agnus Dei" and begin to worship God right now.
When we concentrate on God's holiness---His moral perfection and absolute purity---the only appropriate response is humble adoration, which is the basis for all worship.
Your View of God Really Matters …
Read Isaiah 6:1-8 then put yourself in Isaiah's place as you hear or sing a song such as "Holy, Holy, Holy", or "Agnus Dei".
"The Patriot Post"
"One hundred and seventy-three despots would surely be as oppressive as one." --James Madison, Federalist No. 48
"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send 150 lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, & talk by the hour? That 150 lawyers should do business together ought not to be expected." --Thomas Jefferson, autobiography, 1821
From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File
"[W]e have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), confirming that too much Botox can kill brain cells
The BIG Lie
On Monday, Barack Obama declared, "Our cost-cutting measures mirror most of the proposals in the current Senate bill, which reduces most people's premiums."
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) disagreed, albeit indirectly: "Anyone who would stand before you and say, 'Well, if you pass health care reform next year's health care premiums are going down,' I don't think is telling the truth."
See the video. http://patriotpost.us/perspective/2010/03/11/durbin-calls-obama-a-liar/
Regulatory Commissars: Pulling the Corker Out of the Bottle
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) stunned his Republican colleagues by working with Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) this week to breathe new life into Democrats' financial "reform" package. Feeling pressure from his right, however, Corker has since pulled out of the deal, which Dodd is now pushing without him.
The House version of the bill, crafted by Massachusetts liberal Barney Frank, was recently considered dead in the Senate, and for good reason. It included a $4 trillion bailout provision for rickety financial institutions that would make TARP the official policy of the federal government. No more bankruptcies, no more survival of the fittest -- both characteristics of a free market. Instead, the government would be allowed to manipulate the markets on the backs of taxpayers. This bill would also create the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), a massive new federal bureaucracy that would have the power to oversee and ultimately regulate not only financial institutions, but also virtually any organization that deals with consumers.
Corker, a freshman senator with an American Conservative Union rating of 83, should have joined his colleagues in the first place and let the bill die in negotiations. Instead, he worked with Dodd to keep the CFPA alive. His office stated that he doesn't support the bailout provision, but he did in fact vote for the TARP-bank bailout in 2008. Wall Street likes the bailout provision, because it coats big firms with Teflon to keep them from failing under almost any circumstances. It's a good thing that Corker, who has received $3 million in campaign funds from the finance industry since taking office in 2007, reconsidered when he did. Still, he shouldn't have put himself in that position in the first place.
Health Care and Student Loans?
Senate Democrats want to attach a provision to the health care reconciliation bill that would allow the government essentially to take over all student loan lending in the country. Democrats are having enough problems passing health care on its own, and this latest parliamentary trick could shake up the delicate vote balance. The student-lending bill would federalize all higher education lending and would thus cause the loss of tens of thousands of private sector jobs. Senators representing states where those jobs stand to be lost are now wavering on whether they can support health care with this completely unrelated provision attached to it. What a shame.
The student-lending bill doesn't stand much chance of passage on its own. The $67 billion that the White House claims will be saved by the legislation is more than offset by $77 billion in new costs. That figure is a lowball estimate as it doesn't take into account the rate of student loan defaults or accurately figure new spending increases over time. Worst of all, virtually no one in the Senate has seen this bill, and the public isn't aware of the details, let alone the fact that it may become law without much debate.
In related news, according to Roll Call, "The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that President Barack Obama must sign Congress' original health care reform bill before the Senate can act on a companion reconciliation package." We'll soon see how Democrats plan to work around this legal obstacle.
New & Notable Legislation
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) announced a measure that would cut Congress's salary by 5 percent in 2011. It has 21 cosponsors so far, and, if passed, it would save taxpayers $4.7 million. Granted, that's a drop in the bucket considering the deficits we're facing these days, but it would be an important symbolic step for Congress to recognize the economic woes being felt in the private sector. The House voted against an automatic pay raise in 2009 and 2010, but it hasn't taken an actual cut in pay since 1933.
The Senate voted 62-36 Wednesday to extend jobless benefits and temporary business tax breaks. Six Republicans and all but Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted for the bill, which will add about $130 billion to the deficit over the next 18 months. The GOP "yes" votes were mostly the usual suspects, Christopher Bond (MO), Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Olympia Snowe (ME), David Vitter (LA) and George Voinovich (OH).
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) proposed an amendment last week to block the White House's arbitrary seizure of over 10 million acres of land in nine Western states. The land was designated as "monuments" under a questionable application of the Antiquities Act of 1906, in order to prevent resources development. DeMint pointed out that during times of economic stress, the government should be freeing up resources for development, not locking them up. Unfortunately, most of his colleagues disagreed. His amendment was defeated 58-38.
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced the "Enemy Belligerent, Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010," which would provide for military, rather than civilian, detention of terrorism suspects. The bill is ostensibly a response to the Christmas Day undi-bomber incident, in which the perpetrator was read his Miranda rights. It permits detentions based on "the potential intelligence value of the individual," or "such other matters as the President considers appropriate." That's a lot of uncomfortable leeway. Furthermore, the military would have the power to detain high-value detainees indefinitely "without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners in which the individual has engaged, or which the individual has purposely and materially supported." Given that Obama's Homeland Security team views right-wingers as threats, one wonders just where this could lead. With "friends" like McCain...
Finally, in a bid to put their big-spending past behind them (or at least make a good campaign statement), the House GOP adopted a unilateral one-year ban on earmarks Thursday. To paraphrase Ben Franklin, that's a good promise ... if you can keep it.
National Security -- On the Warfront With Jihadistan
As the Long War continues, both expected and unexpected targets were picked off by various American and allied forces this week. In Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that Maulana Faqir Mohammed, a top Pakistani Taliban commander, was probably killed last weekend after helicopters hit a building in Pakistan's Mohmand region, killing at least 16 Taliban militants. Although Malik could not confirm Mohammed's death, he was quoted as saying, "We had real-time intelligence that Faqir Mohammad was in a meeting with another commander, Qari Zia-ur-Rehman, in the hideout at the time of the attack." If true, we got two jihadis for the price of one. Meanwhile, the good hunting continued on Wednesday as U.S. missile strikes killed at least 12 militants near Pakistan's Afghan border.
Also this week, Pakistani officials claimed that an American, Adam Gadahn, a 31-year-old who has appeared in al-Qa'ida videos urging jihad against the West, had been captured. U.S. defense officials said they had received no indication of any such arrest, and by Friday, Pakistani officials were backing away from the story. Gadahn, who grew up in Riverside County, California, before converting to Islam at a nearby Orange County mosque is the first American charged with treason since 1952, and the U.S. government is offering $1 million for information leading to his capture.
Finally, on Monday, a Pennsylvania woman named Colleen LaRose, but known to authorities as "Jihad Jane" (not to be confused with Hanoi Jane), was charged in federal court with using the Internet to recruit jihadis to carry out murders and other violent attacks overseas. One of her targets was Lars Vilks, an artist who had exercised his free speech rights by drawing a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. The indictment alleges that LaRose received orders to murder someone in Sweden, and to do so in such a way that it would frighten "the whole Kufar [non-believer] world." It also states that LaRose agreed to commit the murder, and that her appearance and American citizenship would help her blend in and carry it out.
Profiles of Valor: U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Elliot Ackerman
AckermanOn November 10, 2004, then-2nd Lt. Elliot Ackerman of the United States Marine Corps led a platoon into Fallujah -- at that time, still a hotbed of insurgent activity. The platoon's mission was to establish a foothold from which the battalion would then clear the city. As the Marines pushed into the city, enemy fighters attacked from all sides. Twice in the early fighting, Ackerman risked himself to pull wounded Marines to safety, and then organized their evacuation. As the battle raged, however, the vehicle sent to evacuate the wounded couldn't find their position, so Ackerman again headed into the open and risked what his citation called a "gauntlet of deadly enemy fire" to direct the vehicle to the Marines.
Later in the battle, Ackerman and his team were working to clear a building when he saw some of his Marines exposed on a rooftop. He ordered them down, but took their place to mark targets for American tanks. Under a barrage of enemy fire, he suffered shrapnel wounds in his leg but continued to direct both the attack and four medical evacuations. For his bravery and leadership, Ackerman was awarded the Silver Star. Semper Fi!
Business & Economy -- Income Redistribution: You Paid for It
Executive salaries reach $500,000, hourly fees top $600, and millions of your dollars are propping it all up. Welcome to the underworld of the environmental industry. According to Richard Pollock of Pajamas Media, "environmental activist groups have surreptitiously received at least $37 million from the federal government for questionable 'attorney fees'" related to lawsuits that "had nothing to do with environmental protection or improvement."
Since 2000, nine national environmental groups have filed the astounding number of 3,300 lawsuits, most based on "alleged procedural failings of federal agencies" rather than "substance or science." Not only has Uncle Sam doled out the millions, but Washington has "neither tracked nor accounted for" any of the outgo. Wyoming attorney Karen Budd-Falen, who helped uncover the fraud, says the $37 million is just the "tip of the iceberg," estimating the actual number is in the hundreds of millions.
Interestingly, according to the Washington Examiner, compensation for the top 10 paid environmental executives ranges from $308,000 to $496,000. Pajamas Media notes that of the $3.4 million that environmental PACs have given in federal campaign contributions since 2000, approximately 87 percent was to Democrats. Coincidence? We think not.
Eco-activists aren't the only ones greening themselves with your money. It seems Wake Forest University is using a $71,623 federal "we must rescue the economy now" stimu-less grant to study the effects of cocaine on a specific neurotransmitter in addicted monkeys. The economic benefit? Apparently a job "saved." For the record, we believe taxpayer dollars already fund too much monkey business in Washington; there's certainly no need to fund it anywhere else.
Administration Delays Oil Drilling
In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama risked the ire of his leftist comrades when he championed offshore drilling as an opportunity to free America from dependence on foreign oil; he shrewdly hedged his bets in order to lure centrists and other undecideds into his camp. However, as with so many other issues, Obama's campaign promises are proving worthless.
Despite the fact that Americans favor offshore drilling by a 2 to 1 margin, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has used every tool in his bureaucratic box to hinder it, including extending the public comment period before beginning the drilling program, voiding existing contracts for onshore drilling in Utah and announcing the delay of the offshore program until 2012. This program would have created 1.2 million real jobs per year and not doing it will cost the U.S. $2.36 trillion over the next 20 years. Surprise! Economic recovery is not the real agenda of this administration.
Judicial Benchmarks: 9th Circuit Approves of Pledge
"A federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is constitutional," reports the Associated Press. Atheist Michael Newdow had filed suit in 2004, claiming his daughter shouldn't be required to say the Pledge at school. However, his daughter and her mother, from whom Newdow is separated, are Christians who don't object to the Pledge, and the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the case saying Newdow didn't have standing. He refiled on behalf of other parents, but, in a 2-1 ruling, a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected his argument that the phrase "under God" violates the separation of church and state. Yes, the Ninth Circuit. Amazing, isn't it?
This Week's 'Alpha Jackass' Award
"I guess what we all underestimated was the degree, the depths of dishonesty, and dirtiness, and cynicism to which the climate change denial movement would be willing to stoop to advance their agenda." --Michael Mann, author of the dirty, dishonest and cynical "hockey stick" graph showing a recent spike in warming
Second Amendment: Guns For Dummies
Federal authorities at the ATF recently intercepted a large shipment of rifles labeled "toys" in Tacoma, Washington, that it claimed "could have had far-reaching and potentially devastating ramifications if they had gotten into the hands of individuals who wanted to do harm in the American population." Could the weapons seizure have prevented a shooting rampage across the nation? Perhaps -- except for one problem. The guns actually were toys.
Apparently, the ATF thought there was no limit to the widespread damage these mostly plastic Airsoft BB guns could have inflicted upon hapless Americans. The lightweight plastic BB ordnance fired by such heavy artillery may actually sting or leave welts on bare skin if fired at close range. Undeterred by such an obvious blunder, the agency justified its seizure by declaring the toy BB guns could be converted into real, fully automatic machine guns -- which is true, if virtually all of the toy's parts were replaced with real machine gun parts from a real weapon. The same holds true for any other toy being converted to the real thing from scratch, like toy pickups or spaceships. The old adage never to attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity continues to be true, especially when it comes to bureaucratic bungling. Perhaps in the future, the ATF could refer to Guns for Dummies to help them identify real weaponry.
To Keep and Bear Arms
A burglar had the surprise of his life when he broke into a soon-to-be Marine's home in Delhi Township, Ohio. In the middle of the night, Kevin Boyle noticed that his door had been opened and quickly confronted the suspect. After warning him not to move, Boyle noticed him pull out what appeared to be a gun and raise it towards him. Fortunately, he had his own .45 caliber handgun ready.
Boyle fired two shots at the suspect and ran to get behind the corner wall for protection. He immediately called the police for help. The suspect took off to escape in the woods. It appears a car was waiting to pick him up. He remains on the run, and there is no evidence that he was struck by the bullets.
"I'm glad no one got hurt, including him. He probably thought he could get in for a quick little burglary and luckily I was ready to keep myself safe," said Boyle, who is two months away from leaving for Marine training camp. We'd call that successful early training.
"Liberty Counsel"
Liberty Alert
April 1, 2010
Homeland Security Raid of Religious Tracts Violates Fourth Amendment
www.LC.org
Yesterday a federal district court in Dallas, Texas ruled http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/opinion_rundus_033010.pdf that agents of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) illegally conspired to violate the Fourth Amendment rights of Darrel Rundus when they confiscated his "Million Dollar Bill" gospel tracts.
The judge ruled that DHS violated the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unlawful search and seizure. The ruling contains harsh language against the DHS agents, stating their behavior was inappropriate and they illegally conspired to violate the rights of Rundus.
Liberty Counsel represents Rundus and his Christian ministry, Great News Network (GNC). In June 2006, DHS agents entered GNN’s office without a warrant or permission, and threatened an employee with arrest to pressure him into giving up the gospel tracts, which the agents referred to as "contraband."
The front of the tract has markings similar to paper currency, but no one would ever get the tracts confused with real money. The front is printed with: "This bill is not legal tender," "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Department of Eternal Affairs." The back has statements such as, "The million dollar question: Will you go to Heaven?" The tract then contains the story of salvation written around all four sides. Rundus says that the tracts are extremely effective in sharing his faith with others.
We are grateful to God for this tremendous victory. All of us at Liberty Counsel want to continue to help people like Darrel Rundus reach others with the gospel. We do not charge for our services, but rely on your faithful donations.
Read the Court Opinion in this case. http://www.lc.org/media/9980/attachments/opinion_rundus_033010.pdf
Read our News Release for more details. http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=922
"The Web"
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA): Guam could 'tip over and capsize'
http://dailyradar.com/beltwayblips/video/youtube-3-25-2010-hank-johnson-guam-tip-over-wmv/
Poll: Almost Two-Thirds of U.S. Oppose Health Law
By: Dan Weil
http://newsmax.com/InsideCover/Poll-Two-Thirds-Oppose-Health-Law/2010/03/31/id/354336
Almost two-thirds of Americans believe the new healthcare law is too expensive and gives too much authority to the government for healthcare, according to a USA Today/Gallup Poll.
That could be bad news for Democrats in November’s congressional elections.
Supporters "are not only going to have to focus on implementing this kind of major reform," Robert Blendon, a Harvard professor of health policy and political analysis, told the paper.
"They're going to have to spend substantial time convincing people of the concrete benefits of this legislation."
Poll respondents are worried that the reform package will cost them more while lessening their quality of care.
Even President Obama has acknowledged problems on the cost front. "We are still going to have adjustments that have to be made to further reduce costs," he said Tuesday on NBC’s Today,
To some extent, poll respondents have contradictory views of the new legislation. A plurality believes the law will generally improve healthcare coverage and the overall health of Americans.
But 65 percent say the government’s role in healthcare is being expanded too far, 64 percent say the program will cost the government too much, 58 percent say it doesn’t do enough to brake rising costs and 51 percent say it doesn’t do enough to regulate the healthcare industry.
Half of respondents in the March 26-28 poll say the law is “a bad thing,” while 47 percent view it as “a good thing.”
That’s a shift from a poll March 22 — one day after the House approved the legislation — in which supporters outnumbered opponents 49 to 40 percent.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted March 23-26 produced mixed results for Democrats.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s approval rating dropped to 29 percent from 35 percent in January.
But approval of Obama’s handling of healthcare reform rose to 48 percent from 43 percent.
Obama's radical recess appointments
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=957272
A grassroots non-denominational church lobby is blasting President Barack Obama for using recess appointments for two individuals who are so radical they couldn't even be confirmed by a Democratic-controlled Senate.
Since Congress adjourned on Friday (March 26), President Obama has appointed no less than 15 of his languishing nominees. The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) is concerned about two in particular, including radical professor Chai Feldblum who is to serve as a commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
TVC executive director Andrea Lafferty says Feldblum is way out of the mainstream (see earlier article).
"She has stated that sexual liberty trumps religious liberty, she's opposed the Boy Scouts being able to determine who should be Scout leaders, and she also is the author of ENDA (the Employment Non-Discrimination Act), which is a bill that will force Christians and everybody to have to hire transgendered people," Lafferty explains. In addition, while speaking at a forum in 2004, Feldblum stated that "gay sex is morally good."
Lafferty also notes her outrage that Obama chose during the congressional recess to appoint Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board, which is supposed to be an impartial arbitrator.
"They're supposed to be fair," Lafferty says of the NLRB. "[But] there is nothing moderate about Becker's point of view. He has done nothing but work for union thugs and push unionism all across the country, so it's an outrage that this man was put in a position where he's supposed to be fair and balanced, and it's not possible."
The TVC executive director admits she is somewhat relieved that the recess appointments can only serve without Senate confirmation through the rest of the current session of Congress, which runs through the end of 2010.
Groups Blast Obama's Appointment of Gay Activist
By Nathan Black|Christian Post Reporter
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100331/groups-blast-obama-s-appointment-of-gay-activist/index.html
Conservative and Christian groups are increasingly voicing opposition to President Obama's recent recess appointment of a homosexual activist to his administration.
Chai Feldblum, a lesbian Georgetown University Law Center professor, was appointed over the weekend as commissioner on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"She is way beyond what most Americans would consider mainstream," said Shari Rendall, director of Legislation and Public Policy at Concerned Women for America, in a statement Tuesday.
Feldblum, who was nominated by Obama in September, is the primary author of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would make it illegal for employers to make decisions on hiring, firing, promoting or paying an employee based on sexual orientation.
Religious employers have argued that they themselves would be discriminated against under ENDA.
Gay rights groups praised the appointment of Feldblum. Opponents, meanwhile, maintain that the openly lesbian professor "would not be impartial in her decision-making process."
"From her own account, Feldblum would have a difficult time ever deciding that religious liberties should trump homosexual rights," said Rendall.
Feldblum has acknowledged the conflict that exists between "laws intended to protect the liberty of LGBT people ... and the religious beliefs of some individuals whose conduct is regulated by such laws."
But in such conflicts, she said society should side with the liberty of LGBT people over the liberty of the religious.
She was willing to make a very limited exception to ENDA, specifically for "enterprises that are engaged in by ... religious belief communities that are specifically designed to inculcate values in the next generation."
"We want to change the American workforce and revolutionize social norms," she said earlier. "Our current public policies undermine the moral and political unit of same-sex couples and families and that's a moral wrong that needs to be rectified."
Feldblum, who has been fighting for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) rights for the last 20 years and supports polyamory, believes it is only a matter of time before America enters an "era of full LGBT liberty."
Other groups that have publicly denounced the appointment of Feldblum include the Traditional Values Coalition and Family Research Council.
Obama made 15 appointments to his administration over the weekend when Congress began its Easter recess, bypassing the normal confirmation process. Recess appointees serve through the end of the current Congress unless they receive Senate confirmation.
Clinton Blasted for Pushing Abortion in Canada’s G8 Maternal Health Plan
By Patrick B. Craine
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10033108.html
OTTAWA, Ontario, March 31, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canadian and U.S. pro-life leaders are denouncing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after she weighed in Tuesday on the debate over the Canadian government's G8 maternal and child health initiative, insisting plainly that abortion is necessary for maternal health.
"You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion," she told reporters when asked about Canada's G8 initiative.
Reacting to Clinton's comments, Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Campaign Life Coalition (CLC), told LifeSiteNews (LSN), “How dare she stick her pro-abortion nose into Canadian politics. Hasn't she done enough damage to the unborn in the U.S.?”
Clinton made the comments at a news conference following a G8 foreign ministers meeting in Gatineau, Quebec. She began her visit in Ottawa on Monday.
"I do not think governments should be involved in making these decisions. It is perfectly legitimate for people to hold their own personal views based on conscience, religion or any other basis," she said. "But I've always believed the government should not intervene in decisions of such intimacy."
Clinton said that maternal health is a “great concern to me and to my government,” noting that the U.S. government is promoting their own global health initiative that promotes access to contraception. “We are also looking for ways to make women’s choices so that they can avoid abortion – more realistic by providing support for them,” she said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband agreed with Clinton, saying Britain also does not want to exclude abortion. "We think it's very important to have a comprehensive family planning aspect as part of the development strategy," he told CBC.
Conservative MP Brad Trost criticized Clinton for “pok[ing] her nose in areas that are not her business.”
“Canada can make up its own mind on what its policy is on maternal health care and how we define it,” he said. “The Prime Minister has taken the lead in an initiative to help women's health and rather than trying to interfere in Canada's policies by playing up to a domestic American political audience in her own party, she (Clinton) should stick to more fruitful international matters.”
Clinton's remarks have reheated an ongoing debate over abortion and contraception in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's G8 initiative. Two weeks ago the government indicated that the initiative would not include support for contraception or abortion and that it would simply focus on saving lives through basic care such as inoculations, health services, and food and water, but Prime Minister Harper backed down on contraception following pressure from opposition parties. Since then, the government has repeatedly maintained that they have no intention of debating abortion, leaving it unclear whether or not they will support abortion in the plan.
Pressed by reporters last week about abortion funding, Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda stated, "We are not closing any options . ... We are not ruling out any options.”
Nevertheless, the Canadian Parliament last Tuesday defeated a Liberal motion proposed by MP Bob Rae that demanded the government offer a “full range of reproductive health services” in the Third World initiative. Though backed by the three opposition parties, the motion failed in a vote of 138-144 because 13 Liberals were absent and three – Paul Szabo, Dan McTeague, and John McKay – opposed it.
Trost noted that the motion's defeat can be interpreted as an indication that the Canadian Parliament does not endorse abortion in the plan.
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, who began pushing abortion in the G8 initiative within days of its January announcement, has praised Clinton's 'admirable' comments and jumped on them as a sign that the Conservatives are out of step with other G8 countries.
"Canada took a knock in the last two days and it shouldn't have. The government should have stood up and been clear and understand what the international consensus on that issue is," Ignatieff said, according to Canwest.
"I just think that a G8 country like Canada should get up and be clear. Hillary Clinton was admirably clear about what the international consensus on maternal health is. It's what we've been saying, it's what G8 countries have been saying," he continued. "That's the position Canada should take and Canadians need to notice that's not the position taken by this government."
According to Marie Smith, director of the U.S.-based Parliamentary Network for Critical Issues, “Secretary Clinton is revealing to the world that a pro-abortion ideology at the highest levels of the US government has hijacked the noble goal of reducing maternal deaths by re-defining maternal health to include access to abortion.”
“Governments which value the lives of unborn children must now view with suspicion US efforts to reduce maternal mortality to ensure that access to abortion is not included in the aid package,” she added. “Maternal health is about saving the lives of mothers. Abortion is a violent act which destroys the life of the child and often injures the mother.
Colin Mason of the U.S.-based Population Research Institute called Clinton's comments “disengenuous.” “She says that she doesn't think that governments should intervene in 'intimate decisions' like abortion, and yet she insists that the same should make a hard commitment to 'legal, safe abortion.' This is because she knows that any government that commits to providing abortion as part of healthcare, is affirming abortion as a legitimate clinical service.”
“Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly demonstrated her attachment to abortion-on-demand, and these remarks do nothing but reflect that commitment,” he added.
According to Campaign Life Coalition National President Jim Hughes, “Hillary Clinton is merely trying to force her own pro-abortion agenda onto the world stage as she attempts to influence G-8 leaders and oppose Canada’s position.”
“To suggest that we offer women in developing countries the death of their child rather than safe health care as Prime Minister Harper has suggested is a morally bankrupt position,” he added.
Commenting on NDP leader Jack Layton's remark that the Conservatives have let ideology get in the way of maternal health, CLC's Mary Ellen Douglas said, “It is clear by Hillary’s remark that it is the pro-abortion ideology which is getting in the way of maternal health.”
CLC called on pro-life supporters to contact the Prime Minister's office and urge him to stay the course and do what is best for maternal health.
Contact Information:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
E-mail: pm@pm.gc.ca
A Political Stimulus, Not A Job Stimulus
by Veronique de Rugy
http://biggovernment.com/vderugy/2010/04/01/a-political-stimulus-not-a-job-stimulus/
I received many emails on Friday and this weekend about the data published here showing that on average Democratic districts are getting almost twice the amount of stimulus money than Republican districts. Republican districts also received smaller awards on average. The average dollars awarded per Republican district is $260,675,663, while the average dollars awarded per Democratic district is $471,533,539.
Several readers asked if the difference could be explained by the fact that Democratic districts have many more people than Republican districts have. So I looked at the numbers and here is the result. It’s not.
Republican districts get $362 per capita on average
Democratic districts get $692 per capita on average
Also, on average, Democratic districts received one-and-a-half times as many awards as Republican ones. Democratic districts also received two-and-a-half times more stimulus dollars than Republican districts ($122 million vs. $46 million). Of course, there are more Democratic districts than Republican districts in the Congress.
Is the politics part of the allocation decision?
Well I checked for the correlation between political indicators and stimulus funding. I found that there are no effect of political variables (leadership, tenure in office …) on stimulus funds allocation with one exception: the district’s party affiliation (whether the district’s representation was Republican or Democratic) does matter.
So how much does party affiliation mattered? While the effect is significant, because of the specifications of the model, more confidence should be placed on the relationship between the two variables then on the quantification of that relationship. In other words, while I am confident that whether the district is represented by R or D matters for funding, I just can’t tell you how much this factor matters compared to the other factors that went into the allocation decision.
On the other hand, I can tell you what factor was not a part of the allocation decision: the level of unemployment in each district or the deterioration of unemployment in each district. In other words, unemployment levels didn’t matter. That’s not what the money was supposed to address. Or was it?
Here is a chart to illustrate this point. As you can see the districts where unemployment increased the most during the recession aren’t receiving more money that the ones that were hit more lightly.
All the data is available for download here. (Ignore the picture)
Five Years Later, Pro-Life Leaders Remember Terri Schiavo's Murder
By Kathleen Gilbert
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10033104.html
PINELLAS PARK, Florida, March 31, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the fifth anniversary of the court-ordered death by starvation and dehydration of Terri Schindler Schiavo, Terri’s family, pro-life leaders and anti-euthanasia advocates have united to call attention to the silent abuse of people with disabilities, and the new dangers posed by the recently-passed federal health care reform legislation.
The Christian Defense Coalition, Faith and Action and Generation Life announced they will pray and leave a single rose on the public sidewalk in front of the Pennsylvania Ave. NW side of the White House to commemorate Terri's death. The groups also reminded Americans that President Obama later called it a "mistake" that, as a U.S. Senator, he had supported Congress' decision to try to save Terri from death.
"End of life issues are a deep concern in this new health care legislation," said Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition and one of the leaders who worked to save Terri's life in Florida, in a press release Tuesday.
"Simply put, how can the American public trust the President and his Administration to deal compassionately with end of life issues when he considered it a 'mistake' to have intervened in attempting to keep a young woman from being starved and dehydrated?"
"Nothing arrested the conscience of the nation like Terri's suffering and needless death," said Rev. Rob Schenck, President of Faith and Action. "Now, she continues her ministry by provoking us all to appreciate and value the worth and dignity of brain injury victims."
Generation Life director Brandi Swindell, who engaged in a 14-day hunger strike while Terri was starved, said that, "as a young woman, my heart broke every day outside of Terri's room thinking about the pain and suffering she was experiencing."
"As a nation, we must offer the most needy of our society compassion, dignity and justice. Regrettably, we forced Terri to die the most painful and barbaric of deaths," said Swindell. "My hope is that we have learned valuable lessons from Terri's death and how we treat the disabled. Those lessons must be founded on equality and human rights for all."
Terri's father, Bob Schindler, did not live to see the fifth anniversary of his daughter's death: the family mourned Mr. Schindler's death of heart failure in August. Terri's mother, Mary Schindler, is still living.
Another blow was delivered to Terri's family earlier this month when an episode of FOX's "Family Guy" mocked the death of their loved one in an episode entitled "Terri Schiavo: The Musical." The show depicted Terri hooked up to various life-support systems and declared her a "vegetable," when in reality Terri required nothing more than a feeding tube and was awake and responsive at the time of her death. Bobby Schindler, Terri's brother and founder of the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, said the episode left him "astonished at the producer’s cruel bigotry directed towards my sister and all cognitively disabled people."
"I wish I could say things have changed for the better since my sister’s death or that people with cognitive disabilities are now better protected in response to the horror she had to endure," said Schindler in an article for Townhall.com Wednesday. "Tragically, however, it seems the rights of the brain-injured, elderly and others are still being violated."
While "the 'death panels' Sarah Palin spoke of sounded like bombastic language," he noted, "many hospitals and facilities already have something frighteningly similar." "Ethics committees are making many life and death decisions about patients, including whether to withhold simple provisions," he said. "In a seemingly clandestine way, these ethics committees – comprised of medical and legal professionals – are empowering facilities to make life and death decisions independent of the family or a person’s own wishes.
"The chilling stories we receive make it clear few citizens have any idea how vulnerable they are when it comes to judgments left in the hands of these ethics committees and facilities," he said. "And with the federal government now controlling our health care, there is no reason not to believe that these types of committees won’t become nationalized. Particularly when a health care system has been sabotaged by cost factors and quality of life judgments."
Schindler expressed concern with the health care rationing that now looms on a national scale following passage of the federal health care bill.
"I think it's very easy to see people like my sister in the crosshairs," Schindler told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview Wednesday.
"These types of ethics committees are going to become nationalized ... it seems to me that it comes down to cost," he said. "Look at assisted suicide - think about the cost of handing somebody some pills to kill themselves, compared to the cost of perhaps giving them the availability of prolonging their lives, if they do have some type of terminal illness."
Schindler pointed out the danger of allowing an administration filled with people who "have no regard for the value of life" to dictate the guidelines for health care on a wide scale. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, whose office is granted sweeping new powers and responsibilities in determining health care guidelines by the new health care legislation, is radically pro-abortion.
"The health care reform is going to reflect their values," said Schindler. "If we have an administration that doesn't value life, then how can we expect it to value life when it comes to whether or not they should care for people like my sister?"
Dr. Mark Mostert of the Institute for the Study of Disabilities & Bioethics commemorated Terri's "legalized medical execution" on his blog Tuesday.
"[H]ere we are five years later. Disability groups trash the Schindlers. The President of the United States thinks intervening to help avoid Terri’s execution was a mistake," wrote Mostert. "Now what?
"Here’s what: Never, ever, let Terri’s memory and her martyrdom be forgotten."
Terri's Life and Hope Concert, featuring Randy Travis and Collin Raye, will be held on April 11th in Indianapolis, Indiana. The concert will benefit the Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping persons with disabilities, and the incapacitated, who are in or potentially facing life-threatening situations.
Click here for information on Terri's Life and Hope Concert.
Click here to read Fr. Pavone's National Catholic Register column.
Click here to read Bobby Schindler's Townhall.com column.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Terri Schiavo Mocked on FOX's Family Guy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10032315.html
Bob Schindler, Father of Terri Schiavo and Tireless Fighter for Disabled Persons Right to Life, Passes Away
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/aug/09083112.html
Bobby Schindler’s Letter to Florida Bishop: When Bishops Don’t Do Their Job – Innocent People Die
www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07032801.html
Terri Schiavo - Denied Rehab, Food, Water, Holy Communion and Now a Christian Burial
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/mar/05032902.html
"The e-mail Bag"
You Might Be A Redneck
Thank you Jeff Foxworthy!
You've ever filled your deer tag on the golf course.
You have ever used lard in bed.
You own more than 3 shirts with cut off sleeves.
You have ever spray-painted your girlfriends name on an overpass.
Your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand.
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