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Traditionally, the wives of Presidents use their role as First Lady of the United States to champion feel-good, relatively nonpartisan causes. Rosalynn Carter promoted the arts. Laura Bush spoke about reading. Current First Lady Michelle Obama’s cause has been encouraging healthy habits among children. But as Steven Ertelt reports, some of Mrs. Obama’s guests at a recent Women of Courage Award ceremony send a much darker message:
The award recipients were also invited to the White House event that commemorated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and recognizing March as Women’s History Month in the United States. However, the president of the national Planned Parenthood abortion business was there.
Cecile Richards sent a message on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon that she was “Celebrating the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day at the White House with First Lady Michelle Obama.”
Other abortion advocates joined Richards, according to another tweet saying, “And with two of my heroines for women – [pro-abortion] Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Nita Lowey – you are amazing.”
Schultz and Lowey have radical pro-abortion voting records, and Richards’ organization is responsible for perhaps more women’s suffering than any major organization in America, from the baby girls it kills in the womb to the self-destructive behavior it promotes among the young to the crimes they’re complicit in to the lies they tell their female patients about their medical options and the procedure they’re selling.
Granted, the event itself was apparently a perfectly innocent celebration recognizing Pakistani women’s rights activist Ghulam Sughra, not an abortion propaganda-fest…but therein lies the problem. Making these three, particularly Richards, honored guests at an event dedicated to the broader subject of women’s rights very publicly affirms them as champions of women and allows them to further cement the mainstream media narrative that they alone have women’s best interests at heart in standing up to a pack of misogynistic religious zealots.
All while killing baby girls, lying to women, covering up statutory rape, and sowing the physical and spiritual fallout of causal sex.
If anyone should be sticking up for the girls victimized by Planned Parenthood, it’s the nation’s number-one female role model. But when they need her most, First Lady Obama stands against them, choosing instead to reinforce her husband’s radically pro-abortion, anti-woman agenda. What a shame.
| How modern eugenics discounts human dignity
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 10:07 AM PST In this modern age, many people are no longer afraid of eugenics. It is not that they are ignorant of the past. They know all about the movement of the early 20th century that tried to create a better human race by preventing the birth of those deemed “unfit.” |
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Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:49 AM PST For all those wanting a little vim and vigor with their morning coffee, Bishop David Zubick’s take on the Obama contraception mandate should do the trick. If it’s anything, it’s chock full of both. |
| Firefighter saves little girl’s life Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:45 AM PST A bone marrow donation gives a child a second chance |
| Under storm of criticism, CBS decides accurate reporting in order
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:28 AM PST CBS’s online photo album now includes at least a few great crowd shots of the March for Life, as well as some lovely pictures of young, happy, and exuberant pro-lifers after receiving a flood of criticism for their dishonest coverage of the event which drew nearly half a million protesters to Washington this week. |
| ‘I regret my abortion:’ one mother’s tale
Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:26 AM PST When someone mentions the victims of abortion, people usually think about the 54.5 million children whose lives have been claimed by the procedure since 1973. After Saturday’s March for Life Youth Rally, they may broaden that definition to include the mothers – and fathers – whose lives are often scarred with guilt and regret. |
| Bishop: Obama Telling Catholics ‘To Hell With You’ Posted: 27 Jan 2012 06:17 AM PST Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik is extremely critical of Obama’s decision to force individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, to cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion. |
| NBC Chicago Refuses to Air Super Bowl Ad in Open Violation of FCC Law
Posted: 26 Jan 2012 02:39 PM PST “This is a conflict between the rule of law and free elections on one hand, and the abuse of power and suppression of free speech on the other. We will fight NBC, and we will win. |
Back in November, I spotlighted Obama’s half-billion-dollar crony drug deal involving a no-bid contract with politically-connected SIGA.
Refresher course here.
In November, Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill — chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Contracting and Oversight and up for re-election in less than a year — asked HHS to review the contract.
Last week, the NYPost reported that SIGA execs dumped stock when they learned the contract would be far less than they anticipated last spring.
Today, GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina asked the HHS Inspector General to investigate:
“Yesterday afternoon I submitted my second letter to the Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services regarding apparent gross impropriety on behalf of the Obama Administration.”
“The more I investigate this deal, the more shocked I become at the potential corruption and insider influence taking place at the highest levels of our government. I cannot help but see the similarities between this case and the Solyndra scandal, since both involve rewarding companies tied to Obama donors, billions in taxpayer dollars, and insider dealing.”
“The decisions made by HHS have caused a legitimate small business in North Carolina to be denied a level playing field to provide smallpox treatments in the event of a national emergency. I will be very interested to see how the Administration explains their actions in awarding a billion-dollar corporation such a substantial contract when it falsely claimed to be a small business.”
Federal law requires that a certain amount of grants for this research and production be set aside for small businesses. In turn, small businesses will compete for these contracts and “grant awards” while convincing the government that their products will provide the most effective treatment and protections, at the lowest cost to the American taxpayer.
The two companies at the center of this – SIGA and Chimerix – competed for this award and submitted their own proposals for drugs to combat smallpox. SIGA’s small business status was challenged and the SBA ruled twice that they were “Other Than Small,” and therefore ineligible for a small business set-aside contract. But rather than acknowledging SBA’s decision, HHS pulled the small business set-aside and reissued the contract as a sole-source, non-compete to SIGA Corp. for $2.8 billion.
MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Inc. is a corporation wholly owned by Ronald Perelman, and TransTech Pharma, Inc. (a privately-held drug discovery company controlled by MacAndrews & Forbes). In November 2003, Perelman announced he would invest $10 million through MacAndrews and Forbes into SIGA Technologies – at the time a tiny biotech company that was developing oral drugs to prevent and treat diseases, including smallpox and anthrax.
Bill Brett for The Boston Globe
The statue of Jesus in front of Blessed Mother Thresa of Calcutta Catholic Church on Columbia Road at Dorchester Avenue was vandalized during the night.
A statue of Jesus was decapitated this weekend outside a Columbia Road church named after Mother Teresa.
The Reverend Jack Ahern, of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta at St. Margaret’s church, said that when he arrived at the church early Sunday morning, he found the statue without its head and knocked partially off its stand.
“The head was to its side in multiple pieces. It’s almost like he whacked the head first, and then pushed it off its base,” Ahern said.
Ahern said the statue was originally at St. William’s church in Savin Hill, but was moved to Blessed Mother Teresa several years ago. Ahern said the statue touched, and was touched by, many.
“The statue was right by the sidewalk,” he said. “Kids and adults would walk by and touch the hand of Jesus.”
The statue is beyond repair, Ahern said. He added that the parish has not yet discussed replacing it.
Boston police said they received a call for vandalism Sunday morning and will further investigate the incident.
Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Ill. has asked parishes, schools, hospitals and religious houses to insert the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel into the intercessions at Sunday Mass to pray for Catholics’ freedom.
The move comes in response to a new federal requirement that will force many Catholic organizations to provide insurance coverage for sterilizations and contraceptives.
“It is God’s invincible Archangel who commands the heavenly host, and it is the enemies of God who will ultimately be defeated,” the bishop said in a Jan. 24 letter to the Catholics of his diocese.
The prayer should take place in the general intercessions before the concluding prayer, Bishop Jenky said. He asked that the intention of the prayer be announced as “for the freedom of the Catholic Church in America.”
The St. Michael prayer was authored by Pope Leo XIII, and was once commonly said in U.S. Catholic parishes as part of a petition for the freedom of Soviet Russia.
He said it is his duty to summon the local Church into “spiritual and temporal combat in defense of Catholic Christianity.”
“If these regulations are put into effect, they could close down every Catholic school, hospital and the other public ministries of our Church, which is perhaps their underlying intention,” Bishop Jenky said. “What is perfectly clear is that this is a bigoted and blanket attack on the First Amendment rights of every Catholic believer.”
Bishop Jenky’s comments add to the continued reaction to the Department of Health and Human Services ruling that requires insurance coverage of procedures which Catholic teaching recognizes as sinful. The rule’s narrow religious exemptions only include institutions which hire or serve their fellow believers and have the inculcation of religious values as a primary purpose.
The requirement will make it impossible for Catholic institutions to continue to offer health care coverage for their employees, the Diocese of Peoria said. The institutions could be forced to drop healthcare coverage for employees because of their moral and religious objections.
Bishop Jenky stated that the president does not have the authority under the U.S. Constitution to “require our cooperation with what we consider to be intrinsic evil and mortal sin.”
“I am honestly horrified that the nation I have always loved has come to this hateful and radical step in religious intolerance.”
The bishop pledged that the Church will never abandon its commitment to the Gospel of Life and called on the faithful to “vigorously” oppose what he called an “unprecedented governmental assault upon the moral convictions of our faith.”
Bishop Jenky also struck an encouraging note.
“Have faith! Have courage! Fight boldly for what you believe!” he said. “I strongly urge you not to be intimidated by extremist politicians or the malice of the cultural secularists arrayed against us.”
Invoking the First Letter of John, he said Catholics should always remember that “the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”
Read more: http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/US.php?id=4749#ixzz1kh9k42Hq
News from the Trenches SUNDAY, JAN. 22, 2012 More than 180 pro-life people joined Helpers of God’s Precious Infants of San Diego to mark the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade at a candlelight prayer vigil and public witness along Harbor Drive in downtown San Diego on Sunday, Jan. 22. 
Pro-lifers have joined together at this spot on the anniversary of Roe v Wade for nearly a decade, and each year the crowd has grown larger. All ages were represented, from infants to the very old. A large number of families and younger people were noted in the crowd. Rosaries were prayed along the lineup of participants for the protection of the unborn, while most people driving by showed signs of agreement. As usual, the event was very peaceful and without incident. Among the many signs people held included “Abortion Kills Children,” “Stop Killing the Innocent Unborn,” “Jesus Heals and Forgives,” and “Adoption, the Loving Option.” There were several large banners, including “Defund Planned Parenthood,” “Life is Precious,” and “We are Praying for an End to Abortion.” The purpose of the event is to remind people driving by that the majority of people in our city are pro-life, and that we have not forgotten the more that 50 million innocent unborn babies that have had their lives taken away since this infamous day 39 years ago, when the Supreme Court of the United States legalized the murder of unborn babies. FAMILY PLANNING ASSOCIATES
Miramar Road, San Diego
Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012 It was cold, dreary, and rainy this morning at FPA on Miramar Road. We had, maybe six prayer warriors and two sidewalk counselors. Most women going into FPA where hostile. Several women were late terms, several were follow ups, and many would not talk at all — only giving hostile finger gestures. One young woman came with her mother. The young girl wanted to talk, but her mother pressured her to go into FPA. Sometime mid-morning, a well-dressed man in an expensive car drove into the parking lot and approached one of the counselors. He peppered the counselor with questions about how often we are there, what we do (exactly), and asked who the counselor worked for. To the latter, the counselor responded, “God.” He also asked who or what church the people praying were from. Sensing deception from the questioning man, the counselor responded politely, but without giving too much information. The counselor asked if the was man if he was writing an article since it felt like an interview. The man said he was not, he was only curious. He then questioned the counselor about how the stores felt about us being there, and if they thought we were doing things that were illegal, etc.. After getting limited information, the man drove around the parking lot and spoke to another counselor, briefly, who also felt deception from him. He then drove off. The counselors spoke to many individuals and gave out Rosaries, abortion and life information, and Culture of Life Family Services (COLFS) cards to everyone who would accept.Toward the end of the morning (somewhere close to 11), two women exited FPA. Both looked older than the routine age of girls going in for an abortion. As they went to get into their car, the counselor noticed one of the women wearing a jacket with a big picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back. The counselor called out to this woman before she shut the door asking about Our Lady of Guadalupe. After a brief discussion, the passenger told the counselor that the driver was the one who had gone in for an abortion but the abortionist was “hesitant” because she was too far along. They had been instructed to contact the FPA office in Riverside where they routinely perform late term abortions. “N” referred to the abortionist as a she, which indicated to the counselor that FPA’s nurse practitioner may have done the ultra-sound. “N” told the counselor that, while FPA did a sonogram, she saw nothing on it — only what looked like a blob. They told her they thought she was about 15 or 16 weeks, and that they couldn’t do the abortion, but referred her to their Riverside office. The counselor began to talk to “N,” and after finding out what her life stresses were, including health problems, the counselor told “N” that she knew of a doctor’s office where she would have all her problems addressed and not have to make the decision that would change her life negatively and forever. The abortion-intent woman looked hesitant, but never took her eyes off the counselor. The counselor told “N” that COLFS could help her, and asked “N” to give over her trust, promising her that whatever she needed would be addressed at COLFS. The counselor told “N” that their meeting was not by accident, and no matter how scared she was, she would be cared for. The counselor asked her to let her phone the doctor so he could meet them at COLFS for an ultra-sound and whatever else she needed. She told her at COLFS she would feel safe and know she had made the right decision. Reaffirming that she was a good mother who was scared, the counselor asked “N,” “Let us help you.” The woman agreed to follow the counselor to COLFS. After arriving at COLFS, “N” revealed she had not given up her thoughts of having the abortion as her life was in such disarray. After talking further to the counselor in greater detail, “N” began to sense a deep feeling of trust. Then once she saw her baby on the ultra-sound, she spoke to Dr. Delgado, and opened up about all her needs. She was overwhelmed with relief. While choosing a baby bear at COLFS, “N” broke down and cried. She told the counselor that this was the first time she had cried in 18 years. “N” told the counselor, “If you weren’t there today, I would have killed this baby. You saved my baby’s life.” The counselor replied, “No. I am just a pencil in the hands of God. Your own act of love and free will reached out and said yes when given the opportunity. We did not meet by accident.” — The counselors of God’s Precious Infants, San Diego
