A Mother's Gruesome Reminder

Take time to read this brief account of a woman's act of murder coming back to haunt her in a rather disturbing way:

Aborted Baby's Head Left Inside Woman

A British hospital is now investigating the case of a woman who had an abortion, but then was shocked to find out the head of her unborn baby had been left inside her. ...

It's a matter of personal choice. It's just another surgical procedure. Abortion is no big deal, right? Try telling that to someone who is going crazy after literally coming face-to-face with the consequences of her actions.

Bush: The Quintessential Cheerleader

You have to hand it to the guy - he really knows how to get people fired up.

Strategic Positioning

I think I finally understand why so-called "conservatives" are bending over and grabbing their ankles for the Republican Party. When the military draft is reinstated, when American citizens are issued national ID cards and when we are living in a full-fledged police state, they will be in a much better position to kiss their own behinds goodbye.

Guns Don't Kill People; Machetes Kill People

I stumbled across this AP article on a Boston news site:

Police See Surge In Gang Attacks Using Machetes

BOSTON - Police say they are seeing a surge in the number of gang-related attacks involving machetes, the huge knives that are a ubiquitous tool in rural Latin America, with blades as thick as an axe and nearly as long as a sword.

The troubling trend has led some departments to crack down on machetes, and not just in urban areas. Some suburban communities have also enacted new laws to ban the knives. ...

Take away their guns and they'll use machetes. Take away their machetes and they'll use gas-powered weed trimmers. Soon we'll see gangs roaming dark streets armed with Garden Weasels.

Something tells me the particular type of weapon isn't the problem.

Is Dubya a Pro-Life President?

An overwhelming number of conservative Christians believe that George W. Bush is a pro-life president. After all, he cut off funding to organizations that promote abortion, didn't he?

Well, not quite.

Financial support that previously went to the United Nations Population Fund has been diverted to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Bush's budget for fiscal year 2005 earmarks $8.8 billion for USAID, $425 million of which is going to "family and reproductive health programs."

What exactly are these "programs"? According to the USAID website, "these programs help to expand access to information and services regarding planning to reduce unintended pregnancies, improve infant and child health and reduce mortality rates and decrease maternal deaths associated with childbirth." I should point out that one of the stated goals of USAID is "protecting the environment by stabilizing population growth" - and as everyone knows, terms like "family planning" and "stabilizing population growth" are euphamisms for infanticide.

To be fair, USAID does claim that its funds are not used to promote abortion. However, this contradicts a January Catholic World News report:

A group of Peruvian lawmakers have asked the U.S. government to stop funding organizations that lobby for the legalization of abortion in their country, which U.S. law already forbids.

The letter from 10 members of the Peruvian Congress to Andrew Natsios, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that an October 2003 conference funded by USAID featured speakers from USAID-funded groups calling the abortion laws in Peru a "social problem" and calling for abortion as a family planning method.

According to LifeSite.net, the aforementioned legislators were concerned about a new law being presented before the Peruvian congress:

In the letter, the members highlight sections of the proposed bill which states that "reproductive health should include measures to promote ... abortion ..." and that "legal barriers to reproductive health include laws prohibiting abortion," and that "reproductive health services such as abortion can only be put into practice when they are carried out in properly equipped facilities that are authorized to perform these procedures." Conference speakers are said to have lamented that the illegality of abortion was a "social problem."

Thomas Jefferson once said, "That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." If conservative Christians really want a pro-life president in office, why are they rallying behind a man who is using their tax dollars to fund the promotion of abortion in third-world countries?

* For a report from the Population Research Institute (PRI) on this subject, click here.

The Dept. of Homeland Security? More Like the Dept. of Moxie!

If it weren't for brave leaders like our illustrious Secretary of Homeland Security, I don't know how I would sleep at night. Appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America," Tom Ridge assuaged my fears about possible terrorist attacks:

"The reality of living in America after September 11 is that we have to accept the fact that from time to time that we're going to get information about attacks. ... We have to go on being America. Go to work. There will be additional security measures taken to protect you ... let's go back to work."

I cannot help but admire that kind of leadership. It takes guts for him to tell us to get on with our lives when the only protection he has for himself is the around-the-clock services of a small army of Secret Service agents armed with automatic weapons.

Thank you, Mr. Ridge! Your courage is an inspiration to us all!