- EverVigilant.net - "The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." - John Philpot Curran
Pro-war "conservatives" love to denounce the "liberal" media for failing to report how well things are going in Iraq. Thanks to your tax dollars, schools, roads, utilities, and everything else we destroyed during our invasion is being restored. Yes, Iraq is a virtual paradise.
But take a look at some of the things that go completely unnoticed in the West. From the Catholic Herald:
"When they cook a dish in the Middle East, it is traditional to put the meat on top of the rice when they serve it. They kidnapped a woman's baby in Baghdad, a toddler, and because the mother was unable to pay the ransom, they returned her child--beheaded, roasted and served on a mound of rice." The infant's crime was to be an Assyrian, but this story, reported by the Barnabus Fund, went unnoticed in the West, like so many other horrific accounts of Christian persecution in Iraq.
Since the invasion of Iraq, Muslim militants have bombed 28 churches and murdered hundreds of Christians. Last October, Islamists beheaded a priest in Mosul in revenge for the Pope's remarks about Islam at Regensburg. But never let it be said that jihadis do not have a sense of ironic humour: that same month they crucified a 14-year-old Christian boy in Basra.
The latest report by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that two million Iraqis have fled since the invasion, and almost a third of these are Assyrian--who are down from 1.4 million in Saddam's Iraq to fewer than 500,000 today.
The Assyrians are one of the world's oldest civilisations. Their empire collapsed in 612 BC after four and a half millennia of civilisation; Rome was still a village and the Angles and Saxons were a thousand years away from forming a partnership. Now, while one of the world's oldest Christian nations faces extinction at the hands of Islamic extremists, the West does nothing.
Wasn't this exactly the kind of thing our invasion was supposed stop? Are we expected to believe that things are better simply because Saddam is no longer the one doing the killing?
It really is ironic. American evangelicals stood firmly behind their president when he pushed for regime change in Iraq. But now that their brothers and sisters in Christ are suffering, they are strangely silent.
José Padilla was held by the Pentagon from May 2002 until January 2006. He was then transferred to the custody of the U.S. Justice Department where he was indicted on terrorism charges. His trial is scheduled to begin next month – five years after his arrest.
Padilla filed a motion to dismiss on the basis that the government denied him his right to a speedy trial. But Judge Marcia Cooke denied the motion, holding that his status as an "enemy combatant" while in military custody precluded that right. In her view, the countdown to a speedy trial starts only when the defendant becomes part of the federal criminal justice system.
Regardless of Padilla's guilt or innocence, his case is important to every freedom-loving American. Jacob Hornberger explains why in his latest essay:
José Padilla is an American citizen. Thus, this case continues to hold ominous implications for the American people, especially when Judge Cooke's ruling is considered in conjunction with the ruling of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the government's "enemy-combatant" designation for Americans as part of its "war on terrorism." That means that whatever the government has done – and continues doing to Padilla – and, for that matter, every other "enemy combatant" in its "war on terror," – it has the authority to do to all Americans.
Pay close attention to this one, folks. It could very well come back to haunt us.
It is the brain child (no pun intended) of Christian Fiala, a butcher who is seen as a staunch advocate of women's health issues. He has been the director of an abortion clinic in Vienna for the last decade, and is the current chairman of the International Association of Abortion and Contraception Specialists.
Now, I'm sure you are familiar with the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. It serves as a somber reminder of the pain and suffering inflicted upon millions of innocent people in the hope of preventing such a thing from occurring again. Imagine what would happen if someone opened a museum dedicated to the philosophy that while the Holocaust wasn't pretty, the real horror was the shortage of gas chambers. Imagine if we were told that the real problem wasn't the killing of "undesirables," but rather the difficulty in rounding them up and disposing of them in a more efficient and humane manner. The public would be outraged beyond belief.
So, you can see that it really is ironic to see a museum celebrating the slaughter of untold millions of babies in a country where a person can be sentenced to prison for Holocaust denial. I guess when the "undesirables" in question are unborn children, no one really gives a damn.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed a statewide smoking ban into law yesterday. According to a recent AP report, "Smoking will be banned across New Mexico in bars, restaurants, stores and other workplaces ..."
But Governor Richardson, a man who is known for his "love of sporting events, cigars, fine food and good drink," made sure the new law doesn't apply to him. The ban excludes "retail tobacco stores, cigar bars, casinos, private clubs, and one-person offices not generally open to the public."
So, Governor, sit back, relax, and fire up one of those Cubans you love so much. Even hypocritical tyrants deserve a break every now and then.
According to a recent study published in the Internet Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatology, abortion is linked to higher rates of child abuse. From LifeSiteNews.com:
The findings were drawn from an analysis of data on 237 low-income women in Baltimore who had physically mistreated or neglected at least one of their children or allowed someone else to do so. Researchers controlled for a history of miscarriage or stillbirth, as well as for family history, aggression by the woman's partner and other key factors. While all the women in the study had some connection with child maltreatment or neglect, the authors found that those who reported a history of abortion reported significantly more frequent acts of physical violence, such as slapping, hitting or beating, directed at their children.
Priscilla Coleman, a professor of human development and family studies at Bowling Green State University and lead author of the study, suggested that the link between abortion and child abuse may be influenced by a number of key factors, including unresolved grief, having felt pressured into an unwanted abortion, and disruption in maternal bonding with subsequently born children.
Unresolved grief issues, Coleman noted, "may negatively impact parental responsiveness to child needs, trigger anger, which is a common component of grief, and/or increase parental anxiety regarding child well-being." Some research indicates that grief may be more difficult to resolve if women undergo an unwanted abortion due to pressure from others. In one study, cited by Coleman, 64 percent of American women with a history of abortion reported feeling pressured to abort by others.
Dr. David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute and a leading researcher who has been involved in more than a dozen studies on the impact of abortion on women, said that this latest study confirms the general findings of previous studies linking abortion with a higher risk of abuse or neglect.
"Previous research has also shown that abortion is linked with a subsequent increased risk of alcoholism, drug use, anxiety, rage, anger and psychiatric hospitalization," Reardon said. "Any of these factors, individually or in combination, can significantly increase the personal and family stresses that can lead to maltreatment or neglect."
A previous study by Coleman found that a maternal history of abortion was linked to less supportive home environments for subsequently born children and that subsequent children exhibited more behavioral problems than the children of women without a history of abortion.
A New Zealand study that tracked young women from birth to 25 years of age found that young women who had abortions were significantly more likely to experience subsequent depression, suicidal behavior and substance abuse, even after the researchers controlled for previous mental health problems.
"Taken all together, these studies show that the mental health effects of abortion don't stop with women," Reardon said. "They will impact their families, too."
In short, abortion is not simply a private, personal matter between a woman and her doctor. There are always multiple victims.
I think it's safe to assume that this most recent study will not be trumpeted by the mainstream press.
As of now, there are no plans to update the States' Rights Review blog. While I will continue to speak out in support of states' rights, I believe that this site as well as the flagship EverVigilant.net provide ample opportunity to do so. Having a separate blog dedicated to issues I already write about elsewhere seems rather redundant. It also seems rather redundant. I will, however, leave the SRR blog up for the time being for those wishing to access the archives.
Many Republicans believe that Rudy Giuliani is their best hope for a White House victory in 2008. Who knows? Depending on the Democrats' choice of candidate, they may be right. What I do know is that no Republican victory has ever resulted in smaller, less expensive government.
And no Republican victory has ever resulted in a significant reduction in the number of innocent babies who are murdered legally in this country. Sure, virtually every GOP candidate pays lip service to their pro-life constituents, but that doesn't mean they actually believe their own words about the horrors of abortion. They're only out to get votes and, since the majority of pro-life voters are gullible saps who will march in lock-step behind anyone who will give them the time of day, these gutless politicians have little to worry about.
Well, it's time for people to start waking up. Rudy Giuliani is pro-abortion. He always has been. Yes, he prefers to use the euphemism "pro-choice," but anyone who believes that an innocent child must be sacrificed in order to respect a woman's right to control her own body is solidly in the pro-death camp.
"Oh, but at least Giuliani would be better than Hillary Clinton."
Really? Giuliani readily admits that while he is personally against abortion (pure hypocritical tripe), he fully supports its practice:
He also believes that public funds should be available so that poor mothers can murder their children as easily as rich mothers:
And, as this excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue reveals, Rudy would go so far as to pay for an abortion for his daughter if she chose to murder her child:
GIULIANI: ... I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions were illegal.
I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views...
DONAHUE: Which would be to continue the pregnancy.
GIULIANI: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice of the woman--my daughter or any other woman--would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion, I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it.
Personally against it, publicly for it. I think it should be clear by now exactly where Giuliani stands on the abortion issue.
Of course, that won't stop thousands upon thousands of pro-life voters from supporting him. Some things just don't change.
WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau inadvertently posted personal information from 302 households on a public Internet site multiple times over a five-month period, the bureau said Wednesday.
The information included names, addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and family income ranges, said Ruth Cymber, the agency's director of communications. No Social Security numbers were posted, and there is no evidence that the data was misused, Cymber said.
But, she added, posting the information violated bureau policies and federal law. ...
... "A breach of this kind is unacceptable," Census Director Charles Louis Kincannon said in a statement. "We are strengthening our internal procedures to further safeguard our data to prevent a recurrence." ...
... The incident comes six months after the Census Bureau acknowledged losing 672 laptop computers since 2001, including 246 that contained personal data. Most of the computers were used by workers gathering survey information in communities.
The sad thing is that you and I are the ones who end up paying for government incompetence. It will be interesting to see if anyone loses his job or, at the very least, is reprimanded for this breach of trust. I won't hold my breath, though.
