On the member feed a ricocheteer asked what modern conveniences (especially single-use, disposable ones) we would be willing to give up? As is my wont, I attempted to lead the conversation down a very different bunny-trail: More
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Recommended by R> Members I wasn’t shocked when I saw this from LifeNews, “For Every 1,000 Babies Born, New York City Kills 544 Babies in Abortions.” Over one-third of pregnancies in New York City ends in the killing of the child. I wasn’t shocked because I knew NYC was the abortion capital of the US as far as a single city goes. And that’s not good enough. The Dems have taken over both Houses of the legislature in NY State now and fully intend to expand abortions if that is physically possible.
MoreOn Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton joined forces at a Barnard College rally to promote the Reproductive Health Act (RHA). As Jack Crowe reported for National Review, Cuomo has “no doubt” that conservative justices will enable the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that legalized abortion at the a federal level. If that happens, the RHA will fortify abortion right in New York state law.
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Well, House Democrats certainly did not waste any time. Their just-for-show funding bill not only rejects border security funding but also packs in all their abortion absolutist wishes. President Trump cannot trade away pro-life policies for some wall funding, so the House bill to end the government shutdown has been strictly leftist loyalty signaling. Can Democrats in leadership yield on these positions, or are they clinging to the backs of hungry young leftist tigers, who might shred their leaders’ careers in an instant?
MoreThe spending bill that Democrats introduced Wednesday includes language specifying that foreign non-governmental organizations that perform abortions consistent with the laws in their country are not ineligible for U.S. family planning funds.
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Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York is actively pushing the pro-abortion deceptively-named Reproductive Health Act, which would allow abortions on viable, late-term unborn babies for any “health” reason. Cuomo, who wants the legislation passed in the next 60 days, is a Catholic of Italian descent and had married one of the Kennedy litter and is now divorced and living with his lover. Cardinal Timothy Dolan has a holy obligation to correct, or punish as necessary, any Catholic for openly advocating for abortion which is forbidden by Catholic teaching and when a high-profile Catholic, like Nancy Pelosi or Cuomo or any other Catholic holding political office uses their position and authority to push for abortion, then they are deliberately undermining the authority and teaching of the Church. If Cuomo is under the auspices of the Archdiocese of Albany, then Bishop Scharfenberger should act and excommunicate Cuomo and Dolan should vocally support that action. Dolan should use every opportunity to publicly challenge Cuomo on the pending legislation. Pelosi has been rebuked by her own bishop in the past for her pro-abortion advocacy.
Look, I realize that Cardinal Dolan would probably have to endure being disinvited from dinners at the governor’s mansion or Cuomo’s Manhattan digs and this action would put a kink in any public events where he shares the limelight with the governor, but he has been on record saying that “We must end abortion, and not with contraception” and that abortion must be made illegal. Well, here’s your chance, Eminence to walk-the-walk and not just talk-the-talk. Your own presumably practicing Catholic governor is using his office and bully pulpit to pass legislation that will bolster the state’s efforts to continue to kill children and harm souls. How about using your own office to publicly condemn Cuomo’s actions and call for his excommunication? Or are you more concerned with being ostracized from New York power circles and cocktail parties? Are you a really a Catholic cardinal called on to do lead Catholics away from mortal sin or are you a paper tiger in a skull cap?
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On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.-George Orwell More
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Pope Francis calls out Archbishop Viganò as The Great Accuser (Satan) for bringing to light how deceptive and dismissive Francis and his cadre of cardinals and bishops have been in their dealings with Cardinal McCarrick and other pederast and pedophile clergy and refuses to address Viganò’s charges in any substantive way and refuses to meet with […]
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Recommended by R> Members Are you ever confronted with a circumstance where you simply cannot find any words to respond? Even worse, you can’t even find an appropriate emoji?
I was very recently presented with an advertisement that began with these words:
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Recommended by R> Members Earlier today, I went to see the Gosnell movie, a movie which is going to change the debate about abortion forever. I was surprised by the part of the movie that affected me most deeply; in a movie that was totally about babies, the part that moved me the most wasn’t really about the babies. It was the scene in which an actress playing Gosnell’s daughter makes a very brief appearance.
That must sound so strange. Please let me explain: I am the daughter of two people who have been very active in the pro-life movement since before I was born. I have always been well aware of the horrors of abortion, and I was prepared when I walked into the movie theater to be horrified by what was done to those babies. I was also aware that abortion hurts and sometimes kills women. I was prepared for that too. I also knew that abortionists are often — to put it mildly — incompetent doctors. That part didn’t surprise me either. But the very brief shot of Gosnell’s daughter shook me to my core.
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Our latest episode of Whiskey Politics (video below) joins the stars on the red carpet premiere of the movie Gosnell, The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. The script was written by our good friend @AndrewKlavan and stars Dean Cain and Nick Searcy, who also directs. This movie shouldn’t have happened as Hollywood blacklisted any investment, all distribution channels and social media banned any advertising (such as the trailer below). But with crowdfunding and years of dedication, the movie will be released tomorrow across the country. The movie was very good and compelling. It’s handling sensitive issues in a way that makes the audience think, while not gratuitously showing scenes none of us would want to see. It’s appropriate for kids, although that will be a tough discussion on the ride home. If you enjoy Law and Order, you will sink right into this.
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Chelsea Clinton said that opposition to abortion is not just wrong, it is “unchristian.” More
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Recommended by R> Members Climate change is not my issue. I don’t know enough about the science to form a solid opinion. Had I been permitted to remain within the liberal left, I’d no doubt be mindlessly backing Team Gore. That is, I would have, had Team Gore and the Democratic Party not made the mistake of amply demonstrating its cynical perfidy when it comes to issues I do know and care about.
A story for another day (or, let’s face it, for just about all my other days): at the moment, I’d like to reprise my Stewardess Metaphor for those who might have missed it.
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Recommended by R> Members This drivel actually spewed forth from the mouth of US Senator Cory Booker. Listen below:
MoreSen. Cory Booker wants to “move onto a new candidate” and does not care whether Kavanaugh is “innocent or guilty.” pic.twitter.com/TwKpkbPWzh
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Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer is must-see cinema. It reveals very inconvenient truths, from which we, as a society, have averted our eyes and stopped our ears. For many years, in Philadelphia, poor women, and their newborn infants, were prey to a serial killer, given license to kill by state authorities. When police stumbled upon the killer’s lair, in a prescription drug raid, the powers of the state, and the media, were bent towards denying or disappearing the truth. This is not fiction. The killer, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, was convicted on three counts of first degree murder, one count of involuntary manslaughter, and a mind-numbing number of lesser charges. Go see this movie, to understand what is really driving the battle for the Supreme Court.
Be assured, this PG-13 film does not contain blood and gore. Instead, the filmmakers skillfully convey outrage and horror, through the actors’ reactions, to things the camera slides past. Among the talent involved, Andrew Klavan wrote the teleplay, Nick Searcy directed, and the husband and wife team of Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, wrote the screenplay and produced. The movie was crowdfunded through Indiegogo, raising $2.3 million dollars after Kickstarter dumped them, allegedly for political reasons.
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Recommended by R> Members The good folks at New Liturgical Movement and Fr. Z, both have posts up today on Blessed Herman of Reichenau, “the Cripple”, honored in the Benedictine Tradition. Blessed Herman was a man who “could barely move and hardly speak, stricken with many maladies”. As Fr. Z’s interlocutor writes:
MoreHe was a genius of math, geometry, music and natural sciences.His story is simply amazing. Spina bifida, cleft palate, all sorts of illnesses. He needed a monk to help him for everything. But he had a wicked sense of humor and was admired universally. But in today’s Europe his birth would have been considered a disgrace and aborted or euthanized. Or called an ossified unreconstructed manualist and neopelagian self-absorbed judgmentalist.
Jim Geraghty of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America are enjoying Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono getting so much television time. One week after telling all men to “shut up” and admitting she was fine keeping the Supreme Court seat vacant, she admits to CNN that she doesn’t believe Kavanaugh’s denials on sexual misconduct allegations because she doesn’t like the way he rules on cases and fears he would overturn Roe v. Wade. They also blast the “New Yorker” for actually publishing a story from a second “accuser,” despite the fact the accuser could not definitively name Kavanaugh for the misconduct, all named witnesses had no knowledge of the incident in question, and the accuser actually told former classmates in the past week that she wasn’t sure she was targeted by Kavanaugh. And they get dizzy from all the reports that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is on the verge of resigning or being fired.
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The focus of abortion, at the appalling hearings this week for Judge Kavanaugh, has shown us, more than anything has, the harmful legacy that this destructive 1973 ruling has brought to our land, in the over 45 years since that ignominious January day. To digress, just for a moment, from the subject of this essay: […]
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Recommended by R> Members Bill Scher, writing in Real Clear Politics back in July, informs us that “more than 900,000 women a year get an abortion.” If Roe is overturned and “abortion is no longer an option, the trajectory of [women’s] lives would profoundly change. Economist Ana Nuevo Chiquero, in a 2010 paper, found that an unplanned birth “reduces […]
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Recommended by R> Members Now we know the economic value of every abortion, thanks to the highly credentialed, brilliant Chelsea Clinton:
MoreIt is not a disconnected fact — to address this t-shirt of 1973 — that American women entering the labor force from 1973 to 2009 added three and a half trillion dollars to our economy. Right?
After interference by Hollywood, tech companies, and the courts, the creators of a movie based on Kermit Gosnell have finally released the first trailer.
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David French of National Review and Greg Corombos of Radio America take on three heavy topics, starting with Colorado baker Jack Phillips now having a powerful case of discrimination against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission after the commission ruled Phillips had violated the rights of a transgender lawyer for not customizing a cake for their gender transition or one depicting Satan engaged in a sex act. They also hammer the Catholic church in Pennsylvania over the new grand jury report that reveals more than 3oo priests horrifically abusing more than a thousand children over the decades and the despicable lengths officials in the church went to in order to silence accusers and keep the priests in active ministry. And they shred Chelsea Clinton’s absurd contention that abortion has been great for the economy because it allows more women to stay in the workforce.
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