Saturday, March 28, 2009

Francis Cardinal George urges opposition to Illinois "Reproductive Health and Access Act"


Office of the Archbishop
Post Office Box 1979 Phone: (312) 534-8230
Chicago, Illinois 60690-1979 Fax: (312) 534-6379


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

In the midst of Lent, with its drama of sin and grace, of evil and good, I write about a threat to our freedom to practice our religion in our State.

Before the Illinois General Assembly there is a proposal (HB 2354, the “Reproductive Health and Access Act”) that would remove the right to conscientious objection to abortion and related procedures for all health care workers. Thirty years ago, we were told that abortion is a rare but necessary tragedy and that abortion providers should not be legally punished. Today we are being told that abortion is a human right and that those who qualify it in any manner or who will not provide it should be legally punished.

This proposed law will drive Catholic doctors and nurses from health care and will make it impossible for Catholic hospitals to continue to be places where life is always respected, where no one is deliberately killed. In our country, we recognize conscientious objection to war, even though defending one’s country is a noble and moral act. We recognize the conscientious objection of those doctors who will not cooperate in administering the death penalty, even for terrible crimes. Why do some Illinois legislators want to take away conscientious objection to abortion?

The enemies of human life and religious freedom in Illinois are well funded. Pressure on legislators is great and is increasing. I ask you to contact your Representative this week to express your dismay that the Illinois legislature, elected democratically, would debate a bill that removes freedom of conscientious decision-making for health care workers as a condition of their employment. If, as we are told, the State should not come between a doctor and a mother, then surely all can agree that the State should not come between a health care worker and God.

We have, unfortunately, had to get used to the fact that our laws no longer protect unborn human life; now we are to get used to the fact that our laws will no longer protect conscience. In 1844, Abraham Lincoln broke with his own party, the often anti-Catholic Whigs, and proposed: “Resolved, that the guarantee of the rights of conscience, as found in our Constitution, is most sacred and inviolable, and one that belongs no less to the Catholic, than to the Protestant; and that all attempts to abridge or interfere with these rights, either of Catholic or Protestant, directly or indirectly, have our decided disapprobation, and shall ever have our most effective opposition.” Illinois HB 2354 betrays the legacy of Lincoln in his home State.

This proposed law will rend the already fragile garment of our civic unity and further alienate many from our government. Catholics and all people of good will should work to ensure its defeat. I also ask you to thank those legislators who are courageously opposing HB 2354 and to pray for those who are supporting it. To contact your legislator, please go to www.ilga.gov, or call 312-368-1066. Thank you and God bless you.

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Feminist Susan B. Anthony on elective abortion

Susan B. Anthony on Womens Suffrage and Other Ills
"I deplore the horrible crime of child-murder... No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh! Thrice guilty is he who... drove her to the desperation which impels her to the crime."
-The Revolution, July 1869, Susan B. Anthony

Which one is a real baby?



(Answer: Both, of course.)

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

An abolitionist speaks to 21st century America

William Lloyd Garrison - Wikipedia
The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison
Abolitionism - Wikipedia

"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; - but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead."
-The Liberator, 1831, William Lloyd Garrison
"I am a believer in that portion of the Declaration of American Independence in which it is set forth, as among self-evident truths, 'that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' Hence, I am an abolitionist. Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form - and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing - with indignation and abhorrence. Not to cherish these feelings would be recreancy to principle. They who desire me to be dumb on the subject of slavery, unless I will open my mouth in its defense, ask me to give the lie to my professions, to degrade my manhood, and to stain my soul. I will not be a liar, a poltroon, or a hypocrite, to accommodate any party, to gratify any sect, to escape any odium or peril, to save any interest, to preserve any institution, or to promote any object. Convince me that one man may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer subscribe to the Declaration of Independence. Convince me that liberty is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming fire. I do not know how to espouse freedom and slavery together."
-No Compromise with Slavery, 1854, William Lloyd Garrison

Obama seeks expanded power to seize firms

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms - Washington Post

Why did the Washington Post title this article, "U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms"? The U.S. isn't seeking this, Obama and his administration are seeking it.

President Obama is rapidly attempting to bring the entire economy under the control of the executive branch, under his authority. He appears to be willing to break the back of the economy, so that he can rebuild a new economy patterned after his ideals.

If we permit this to happen, what are some of the headlines that soon may follow?

"President demands expanded powers to avoid economic meltdown"
"President wins power to seize any 'unhealthy' company"
"President insists capitalism needs 'rescue'"
"Obama to nationalize all private banks and thrifts"
"FDIC reimbursements frozen pending 'restructuring'"
"IRA and 401k funds frozen pending 'restructuring'"
"President proposes 'housing relief' tax on mortgage holders not in default"
"Federal Reserve empowered to review and adjust employee compensation plans"

What else?

Monday, March 23, 2009

Oppose the Illinois State "Freedom of Choice Act"

Catholic Conference of Illinois ACTION ALERT

Illinois House Bill HB 2354 seeks to:

  • make abortion a fundamental right, preventing any common-sense regulation such as parental notification;
  • expand public funding of abortion through Medicaid during a time when the state cannot meet its current fiscal obligations;
  • invalidate the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act protecting health care professionals and employers; and,
  • mandate comprehensive sex education for all children in public schools.
Making the killing of one's unborn child a "fundamental right" is a radical attack on the truly fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, rights that belong to "all men", as affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, living, unborn children lack legal protection of these rights, much as Native Americans and negro slaves in this country 150 years ago did not enjoy a legal recognition of their human rights on par with white citizens.

Should the state of Illinois not only ignore, but march against the best currents of history, by enshrining as a "fundamental right" a legal right to kill one's offspring? And should the state go further still, denying medical professionals the right of conscience, the right to refuse to perform abortions or other procedures that believe immoral, and imposing harsh penalties on those unwilling to carry out such acts? The result will be to make even late term, partial birth abortion, a "fundamental right", and to compel those who reject the practice for profound personal reasons to carry it out.

These are powerful reasons to stop the State "Freedom of Choice Act", reasons strong enough to call for our prompt action...

Please, contact Your Illinois legislators and urge them to vote NO to HB 2354.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
-Edmund Burke

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Misguided activists vent anger at AIG employees

Angry activists on protest tour over AIG bonuses -AFP

Activists from the "Connecticut Working Families Party" demonstrating at the homes of AIG employees display a misguided anger.

AIG is not the source of the problem. Showing up in buses at the family homes of AIG employees suggests a radical class warfare mentality. I hope that this isn't what CWFP intends, but this is the impression many people will form.

Angry protests at employees' homes distract from the real problems, which have more to do with years of the federal government's wrongheaded manipulation of mortgage lending, and now its massive (damage control) "rescue" programs, rather than the compensation plans of individual companies.

Blame for the current situation lies primarily in the federal government. Protesters who want to show their displeasure should board buses for Washington, D.C., not Fairfield, Connecticut.

Bonus outrage: Is the federal government deliberately inciting class hatred?


AIG bonus outrage has employees living in fear - Associated Press

Why are AIG employees receiving bonuses? For the same reason many other individuals have received bonuses: they earned them under the compensation plans of their employer.

So why is there such outrage toward AIG employees that some now fear for their families' safety? Is it because these individuals are known to have been dishonest, or done any harm to their communities, their country, or the economy? No. It's because of anger that our tax money has been used to bail out a company that is so important, we are told, that it simply CAN'T BE ALLOWED to collapse. And now that numerous billions of our dollars have been handed over to AIG, the company has directed a large percentage to foreign recipients, as well as a relatively tiny portion (about 0.1%) into employee bonuses.

Oh, there is much cause for outrage here. It's outrageous and unfair that public money is being used to prop up certain struggling corporations suffering the consequences of their own decisions, while others less well connected are left to solve their problems on their own. But those who direct their anger toward AIG employees have been taken been fooled into overlooking the real offenders.

Who pushed the plan to use huge amounts of public money to bail out AIG and other companies? Congress and the president. Who specifically added a provision to the stimulus package to allow AIG to pay out bonuses with bailout money? Senator Chris Dodd (who initially denied adding it but later admitted it). Three Republicans and almost every Democrat voted for the stimulus package which included this bonus provision. They rushed it through Congress over the loud objections of the minority party. The president signed it. Now that there is a public outcry, the president and his cohort are, oh, so shocked -shocked and angry!- that AIG has paid out bonuses. But these are the guys who legislated the funds and authorized the bonuses, so their outrage is political posturing as false as a three dollar bill. These are the real offenders, and these are the ones who deserve our anger and opposition: not AIG employees.

President Obama and prominent members of Congress have been exploiting the public anger to promote hostility toward the wealthy in general and to deflect anger from themselves. Their motives are obvious. In a socialist government those in power are satisfied with nothing less than total control over the economy. Therefore, successful private producers are adversaries of the state. The wealthy must be brought down, their assets confiscated at once or little by little. To justify this, the economically successful must be shown to be greedy, dishonest parasites standing in the way of equal opportunity and economic justice. Their companies must be regulated, their incomes capped, their bonuses restricted, their assets taxed punitively. They must be stigmatized. "Activists" must appear in the news, denouncing the "greedy" rich and intimidating them in their neighborhoods. And Congress and the president "must act now" to pass more and more draconian measures to "rescue" the economy from the clutches of such greedy capitalists.

This sort of revolution has taken place at many times in many places. But it's not American, and it's not what our ancestors in this country fought for. We shouldn't permit it to take place here.

We need to halt the reckless course our government is following. Congress and President Obama need to be rebuked loudly by the American public: NO to the slavery of crushing debt! NO to federal "rescues" of failing companies, NO to the use of public money to prop up private investments and risky mortgages! NO to the devaluation of our currency by excessive printing of new money.

And we need to remember that our neighbors who go to work and produce things, who earn incomes and pay their bills, and sometimes even earn bonuses... these neighbors are NOT our enemies. Americans now more than ever need to be united in order to stand up to a government that ominously seems intoxicated with the desire to nationalize and socialize the economy, and promotes a hostile class mentality to achieve its goals.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Outraged with AIG bonuses? OK, but Congress and the President approved them

Congressman McCotter (R-MI) Slams those Protecting AIG Bonuses in Voting for Stimulus Bill



I'm upset that AIG accepted federal funds and then paid bonuses. But that's not nearly as scandalous as the fact that Congress not only gave them the funds to begin with, but specifically provided a loophole to allow the bonuses to be paid.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Does Millsaps College condone religious bigotry?

Open letter to Dr. Frances Lucas, President of Millsaps College
frances.lucas@millsaps.edu

Dear Dr. Lucas,

Dr. Robert McElvaine's piece in the Washington Post, "Impeach the Pope" (March 18, 2009) is an irrational screed that repeatedly (and intentionally?) misrepresents the teachings of the Catholic Church and the actions of Pope Benedict XVI. The author's clear willingness to distort historical fact and his shrill tone betray not just ignorance but malice and religious bigotry. The letter contributes nothing scholarly or constructive, and the reader must wonder what really prompted Dr. McElvaine's eruption of anti-Catholic hostility. Whether the professor was prompted by moral issues or the desire for attention and financial gain ("...As I detail in my latest book..."), I can't say.

To abuse facts as the author has done, and so to fabricate a club to publicly assault another individual with whom one disagrees is not innocent freedom of speech; it is not an expression of academic freedom. It is unscholarly, illiberal, and inexcusable. It demands public reproach by the academic community and individuals of good will. As president of Millsaps, I hope and ask that You will do so.

Prior to Dr. McElvaine's article I hadn't heard of Millsaps College. Now that I have, I must offer You my sympathy that Dr. McElvaine's ill rant, while presumably of his own doing, is an embarrassing reflection upon Millsaps. I don't suppose this was the professor's first embarrassing outburst, nor is it likely to be his last. Will Millsaps become an accomplice by guilty silence, its reputation tarnished by one small-minded professor?

My question to You, the president of Millsaps College, is: how will You respond?

Regards,
John Robin.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Petulant Professor Pillories Pope to Promote Pathetic Paperback

Guest Voices: Impeach the Pope - On Faith at washingtonpost.com

Sure-fire formula to earn money and the fawning attention of the media:

1) Present Yourself as an educated Catholic.
2) Express Your outrage: write a book attacking the Catholic Church, its doctrine, and the Pope. (Straw-man arguments resting on blatant distortions or willful ignorance will do just fine, especially if You are already a genuine, elbow-padded professor type.)
3) Write editorials and make TV appearances fulminating against all things Catholic and plugging "My Latest Book".

By some quirk of human nature, lots of people will just eat this up without ever questioning Your claims.

Note: Don't follow this sort of approach if You are Muslim or Jewish, as that would be considered bigoted and incur the indignation of the tolerant.

______________

Note to the Washington Post:

McElvaine's screed is worthy of publication by a purportedly respected publisher? How the great have fallen!

How about some SERIOUS discourse on the Pope's position? The professor's frothing diatribe contributes nothing of value.

Can't the Post find someone able to write a coherent analysis and commentary on the Catholic Church's position on contraception? My high school daughter could do a far better job than this petulant prof from ...what school was that?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Pope says condoms are not the solution to AIDS

Pope says condoms are not the solution to Aids - they make it worse -Times Online

The Pope is correct.

Promotion of condom usage encourages a casual attitude toward promiscuous sex, a major factor in both the spread of HIV and in the continued sexual exploitation of women.

But the World Health Organization and its corporate friends are threatened by this truth.

Therefore the Pope must be mocked.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Company of the Living Dead

Critics blast AIG as flap escalates over bonuses - USATODAY.com
AIG isn't alone, but it's a good symbol for the financial house of cards which is collapsing in ruins around us. Surely the government, banks, investors, and insurers were not powerless to see that a collapse was likely if not inevitable.

Yet government policy encouraged and rewarded an unsustainable orgy of risky lending and unrealistic valuation of debt.

Now AIG has already collapsed, although the mountain of freshly printed cash shoveled into the abyss is supposed to fool us into thinking AIG has been "rescued". The entity moves, walks, talks, and spends as though the orgy were still in full swing, but the soul has already left the body. The federal government, with its 79.9% ownership of this corporate corpse, is the animating principle, the Doctor Frankenstein behind the pathetic creature. But the creature proves to be a hideous embarrassment, refusing to play politely its assigned role as subservient ward of the state.

Frankenstein's monster ran amok, but at least Frankenstein created only one. Governments are rarely satisfied to produce only one hideous, overreaching disaster. As the "rescue" of AIG will prove to be somewhat less successful than was hoped, the meddlers surely will not repent of their dreams, but will redouble their efforts to realize them, meddling more and more with whatever remains of the economy. They'll create more and bigger monsters, uglier and more destructive: impotent, and doomed to wander the economy as insatiable zombies, tethered to their capricious and increasingly useless rulers, leaving a pestilence of poverty and servitude behind them.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Obama administration harasses sheriff for enforcing immigration laws


Supported predictably by ACORN and other leftist groups, several Democratic congressmen have prompted the Justice Department to investigate the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona. The sheriff's office is alleged to have violated the civil rights of illegal aliens.

Or was the real problem that the law enforcement activities of the sheriff's office were producing such amazing results? An August 2008 press release of the sheriff's office reports some of these results and statistics:

Nearly 2300 arrests;
16,000 inmates found to be illegal aliens who have been or will be deported;
20% of Maricopa County Jail inmates are illegal aliens, and 70% of them (2000 individuals) were arrested for felonies.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

President Obama appoints Abortion Czar

Obama grants abortion advocates’ wish, creates ambassador for "women's issues"

After receiving a letter from several abortion "rights" organizations, President Obama has created a position to address women’s concerns around the globe. On Friday the White House announced that he would nominate Melanne Verveer, an abortion supporter, to fill the new position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues.


Just days after expanding his attack on the unborn by authorizing federal funds to mutilate and destroy human embryos, Obama has created the new position of "ambassador at large for global women's issues" and nominated the pro-abortion Melanne Verveer to be the first Abortion Czar.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Consciencous objectors: enemies of the United Statists of America

U.S. moves to rescind healthcare conscience rule - Reuters

The Obama administration moved formally on Friday to rescind a Bush administration rule to protect health workers who refuse to provide services and information on moral grounds, which had inflamed abortion-rights advocates.


In the New Administration, it is not enough to fund federal programs to promote and provide abortion and contraception within our borders and around the world. It is not enough to fund the manipulation and destruction of human embryos in the name of scientific progress. It isn't enough -surely this is coming soon- to enforce availability of late term, partial-birth abortions, even in states which have legislated against them.

What now shall be required is the denial of legal protection for those medical professionals who refuse to provide such services because of their own personal moral objections. The federal government shall now attempt to compel medical providers to carry out procedures or dispense products they believe to be immoral, harmful, or unethical.

Pharmacists, physicians, nurses, medical technicians, and others: Your deepest convictions regarding what is ethical, Your very sense of right and wrong as it pertains to Your profession, are at stake. By executive order Your conscience has been stripped of its legal standing.

Yes, the Administration acknowledges Your right to have such convictions. But it now asserts You have no legal right to act on these convictions unless they are in accord with the policies of our central government.

Let the unborn die to benefit the privileged

Obama lifts Bush restrictions on stem cell research - Reuters


President Obama

Chancellor Hitler

President Barack Obama is not the first national leader to promote a sacrificial holocaust of the weak, the "useless", the unwanted, for the benefit of the privileged. Like Adolf Hitler before him, President Obama regards certain classes of human beings as something subhuman, life unworthy of life.

But what if human embryos really are persons? Doesn't this very plausible possibility -even if not self-evident to all- mean that they deserve protection from federally funded programs that treat them as objects fit for exploitation and lethal experimentation? Obama sees no ethical problem here, because, as he has explained, "answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade."

Therefore, with head held high he pronounces human embryos legitimate fodder for dissection, manipulation, and destruction.

Just as many of Hitler's German contemporaries accepted -even supported- his policies, so too does much of the American public -morally numbed by decades of legalized abortion- accept and applaud as "scientific progress" Obama's expanding, statist attack on the defenseless.

History repeats itself ...and often history's tragedies, when repeated, do so on a larger scale.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Gov. Quinn: 'Better to keep Burris than to let the people decide'

Gov. Quinn backs off special Senate election to force Burris' hand | Clout Street - local political coverage

Governor Quinn reveals himself to be very much a 'team player' in the corrupt Chicago democratic machine. Clearly he thinks it's better to let the counterfeit (but democrat) senator Roland Burris remain in office than to risk a special election that may flip the seat to an underdog. With public fury as hot as the sun, who knows? ...even a republican could win.

Governor Quinn, this is not an auspicious way to begin Your partial -and likely only- term as governor.

"Pro-Choice"? Have You seen what You defend?



Priests for Life

"America Will Not Reject Abortion Until America Sees Abortion"

Is Governor Kathleen Sebelius insane?

Abortion foes go after Sebelius - 2008 Presidential Campaign Blog - Political Intelligence - Boston.com

The most basic duty of government is to defend the inalienable, intrinsic rights of human beings at every stage of life. The foundation of all human rights is the right to life, a right our founding fathers proclaimed "self-evident". Any person who does not understand, respect, or is unwilling to defend this right can not be trusted to understand, respect, or defend any other human right, and is unfit for any public office where human rights are at stake.

Governor Sebelius now has been nominated by President Obama to be our next health and human services secretary. She claims to be Roman Catholic. But any Catholic, like her, who claims to be 'personally opposed' to abortion but who denies their duty to oppose abortion is either profoundly ignorant of the truth, insane, or a dangerous liar.