Why Mrs. Obama's Anti-Obesity Campaign is so Important

There is enough food in the world to meet everyone's need, not everyone's greed. (said Ghandi)

     America is an obscenely overfed population. We take up too much space (resources) on the planet.
Rather than insist that we abort to serve some population control agenda we should insist that people moderate their excesses-  If we got rid of obesity in America and Britain and other fat countries overnight an extra billion people could be fed.

   These are summaries of a few of the more brilliant comments of Lord David Alton, British House of Parliament.


---------------------------------------------

Universe Column

David Alton

July 15^th 2012

Mother Teresa once appeared on a coast-to-coast American TV programme which she discovered, during the commercial break, was being sponsored by a company offering pharmaceuticals to reduce obesity. She left the advertisers running for cover when, in the next segment of the programme, she pointed to the cruel paradox that in Calcutta most people had hardly enough food to get them through the day – while in America some people ate so much that they ended up obscenely over- weight needing drugs or surgery.

Like Mother Teresa, Mahatma Ghandi, also commented on our insatiable appetite for endless consumption, remarking that there is “sufficient in this world for people’s needs but not for their greeds”.

The population control lobby -which includes Andrew Mitchell, the British Secretary of State for Development - endless attack people for having children. 

They would do better to listen to Mother Teresa and Ghandi and study a recent report by researchers from the London School of Tropical Medicine which found that if obesity were reduced it would be enough to feed an extra one billion people.

Researchers calculated that the weight of the global population at 287 million tonnes, of which 15 million tonnes is due to people being overweight, and 3.5 million tonnes due to obesity. 

Our failure to curb excess has a huge impact upon food supplies, water, energy use, and carbon emissions.

Although just 6% of the population live in the USA it is responsible for more than a third of obesity. Britain is seventh in the world league table of over-eating countries.

As Professor Ian Roberts explained: "When people think about environmental sustainability, they immediately focus on population. Actually, when it comes down to it - it's not how many mouths there are to feed, it's how much flesh there is on the planet."   Andrew Mitchell please note.

While some of the world starves too many are clearly doing the reverse; and, ironically, both starvation and over feeding can have the same fatal consequences.

So, by addressing the developed world’s spiralling obesity problem it would simultaneously reduce some of the pressure on the developing world – both in terms of their vicious population control programmes – such as China’s one child policy and India’s gendercide of little girls - and in combating the pricing of poor populations out of world food markets.

Hot on the heels of the report from the School of Tropical Medicine, a campaign supported by the Catholic Independent Crossbench Peer, the redoubtable Baroness (Sue) Masham, who Chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Health Group, was making its own headlines, and revealing a possible solution.

The campaign kicked off with a Reception at Westminster entitled “Obesity: The Real Costs”, organised by the National Obesity Forum (NOF), and supported by a national slimming organisation Cambridge Weight Plan. An Early Day Motion was tabled in the House of Commons calling for an overhaul of the way GPs are motivated to address Britain’s biggest health epidemic – and you can ask your MP to sign it.
� 

Dr Matt Capehorn, NOF Clinical Director and Clinical Manager of the Rotherham Institute for Obesity, told the Reception that more than 1.1m Britons are morbidly obese or super obese. An alarming 100,000 of these fell into the super obese category.� To put this in perspective, a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 18-25 is healthy, 25-30 is overweight, and 30+ is obese.�  A BMI of 40 – morbidly obese – is the level at which life insurance companies become more reluctant to give cover, as someone’s life is potentially threatened; a BMI of 50 is super obese.

Obesity specialist, Professor Tony Leeds, of London’s Whittington Hospital, and Medical Director of Cambridge Weight Plan, said the cost of treating these groups was substantially higher than previously thought:

“Compared to the non-obese, the medication costs (for heart, joint, gut, chest problems and diabetes) are doubled for those with BMI over 40 and are an extraordinary £6100 per annum (3.5 times higher) for those with a BMI over 50. The super obese could be eating up £450 million per annum in medication in their own right.”
Dr Matt Capehorn told MPs that Britain’s GPs are rewarded financially for recording the number of obese patients – yet, ironically, not for doing anything about it. So, while individual surgeries were pioneering “best practice”, they had no incentive to do more than tick boxes.

He said: “Merely drawing up a register will not prevent a single overweight person from developing type-2 diabetes or a single obese person from having a heart attack.”That is why the NOF is calling for reform of the Government’s Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) to reward GPs who guide overweight and obese patients into clinically proven weight-management programmes.Britain should urgently review the way GPs are incentivised through QOF, and open the door to organisations who help address this problem using programmes based upon quality, peer-reviewed, research to demonstrate that their diets work in their own right, and when administered by GPs.

It is not just the millions of people directly affected by obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, cancer, stroke, and heart attack. If obese individuals suffer, so do their families and friends, and the National Health Service faces an unsustainable future as demand continues to soar.

Gluttony is considered to be one of the seven deadly sins and in the thirteenth century St.Gregory the Great set out his own health plan - using Biblical examples that are drawn from the ancient wisdom of the Old Testament - and described five ways in which we might curb our excesses – by examining when we eat; the quality of what we eat; the stimulants we use; the quantity we consume; and the eagerness with which we pursue food. It’s old wisdom which needs a new outing.

While we indulge ourselves in the over-consumption of food and become overweight and obese in the West, the poor starve in the developing world and face coercion to avoid having children. Tackling this crisis is becoming ever more a priority for the benefit of individuals, nations, and the poorest people in the world.

David Alton

(Professor Lord Alton of Liverpool)

House of Lords,

London SW1A OPW

� 

Roscoe Foundation for Citizenship, Liverpool John Moores University, 0151 231 3852 (fax: 0151 231 3853). 0207 219 3551 - House of Lords.

altond@parliament.uk� � �  www.davidalton.com�  www.davidalton.net

� 

To listen to a Roscoe Lecture: visit www.ljmu.ac.uk/citizen; then Roscoe Lectures; then multimedia.

---

Choice or Not

Things which mitigate against Choice
   are obviously coercion, and lack of knowledge to give informed choice.

Can we all agree that if you don't know what you are choosing it isn't really a reasoned choice?
Can we all agree that if something is coerced it isn't a reasoned choice?

In China, the one child per family policy has led to gender selective abortion because of a coercive law that mandates only one child and if you don't abort voluntarily the state will abort your fetus for you. The state determines you birth capacity, then the state destroys anything not compliant whether you like it or not .That is not 'choice.'  That is just death.

Then there is the issue of the massive amount of disinformation surrounding what happens to your fetus once aborted. The pro-choice people are fighting 'personhood' amendment issues everywhere so your fetus is not legally protected as a 'person' or human, when we know its DNA is nothing but human.
No one counts the pieces after an abortion, puts it neatly in a box and buries it in the National Fetal Graveyard. So what happens to it? Not a person it becomes "biowaste" and is often used for biomedical research. There are many articles written on this point, This is just one of them
There is a billion dollar biomedical venture capital funded industry doing research using parts of human fetuses. These research labs are global-there has been a lot of press concerning one in Aukland recently.
One of many articles on U. of Aukland research using American Fetal body parts
If a young woman or woman of any age went into an abortion clinic or planned parenthood and they told her that your baby (fetus) would be chopped up and sent to a few biomedical research labs to be biowaste genetic experimentation material, how many people do you think would sign up? How far a cry is this from human experimentation on dead Jews in the Concentration Camps during  WWII. Human genetic material for Mengele experimentation.

     What if we learned that this industry is driving the abortion industry in large part- the market for the fetal body parts for biomedical and genetic experimentation is so insistent that the monetary incentives for inducing abortions is driven by this demand?

If women are denied all the facts on this do you think 'choice' is full and informed?
If you are 'pro-choice' Don't you think we owe it to even people who want 'choice' to come clean and give them all the relevant information so that they can make an informed choice?

Of course if you knew your fetus was being used a biowaste in a grizzly lab experiment you shouldn't want that to happen. Something inside you should tell you that both you and the child in you are better off with you than Mengele.

This is just classic exploitation of women for other people's profit.
It's a women's rights issue. Life issues are Human Rights issues.

The Power To Penalize

Is a Penalty Really A Tax?

  That was the central question. The finding in the Affirmative for Congressional taxing authority saved Obama's skin on upholding Obamacare.

   But where is the limiting principle here. Can policy now all be done by - if you don't buy this we will invoke an IRS Penalty?  Congress can enact Taxes to pay for the common defense and 'general welfare.' This doesn't solve the broccoli problem.

  You don't buy a car this year you must pay a penalty to the IRS equal to the value of a car because the general welfare of the country is served by supporting our auto industry. You don't
buy your neighbor a lawn elf you pay the equivalent of a travelocity tour around the world in an IRS Penalty- subject to of course the criminalization of the default on any legit IRS penalty. Ok Lawn Gnomes might not be for the general welfare, but what if they are made by an auto company?

   If the lack of limiting principle was of concern in the Commerce Clause discussion, why isn't it of concern in the taxation situation?

   The result might be good and beneficial here- health policy by taxation isn't a far stretch. But what if the act sought was forcing something more objectionable?  What if an act sought to require every adult to pay for expensive childcare in a castle whether or not they have children under IRS Penalty if they do not.

   The slide toward absurdity is hard to conceptually avoid here. Its a problematic ruling constitutionally, while one that has an ultimately good outcome in terms of the social benefits of advancing the health care situation in the country potentially. Potentially only, not certainly because major cost issues are still not addressed.

No Excuses

Now You Have To Buy Health Insurance

    Its actually a very smart decision. Chief Justice Roberts held that the Commerce Clause cannot regulate people doing nothing or regulate them into commerce as opposed to regulation of already inter-state commerce. That would be essentially regulating consumers who aren't buying something compelling them to purchase something. But the individual mandate is not dead.  So ignore those false reports saying now the government can make you buy Ikea furniture to support trade with Sweden. Flatly wrong, said the court, about the commerce clause allowing the government to prescribe vegetables to cure weight issues or type II diabetes. No such commerce clause authority.

   The government does have the ability under its taxing authority to require people be penalized by paying an IRS 'Penalty' if they don't have health insurance. That inclines incentivization to purchase health insurance while it cannot compel it under the Commerce clause rationale, and is well within the taxing authority constitutionally to do so.
The gotcha hitch which the conservatives were hoping stymied such an approach was that the Anti-Injunction Act held that basically you can't sue over a tax you don't like unless you have already paid it to create some injury. That is called a 'standing' problem. The Court solved that problem by noting that a 'penalty' is effectively not a tax for Anti-Injuction statutory purposes, while the ability to levy such a penalty is constitutionally permitted under the purview of the Taxing authority. Splitting hairs perhaps, but a distinction with a difference. (and quite clever)

   So Obamacare survives in its entirety.
Now what of all the Cardinal assault in litigation in federal court on behalf of schools and hospitals that have to violate their consciences-

Undoubtably the catholic plaintiffs will argue that their federal tax exempt status should have something to do with excusing them from having to comply with the Act- if the ability to engage in Obamacares mandates are founded exclusively on the taxing authority and not the Commerce Clause then if these plaintiffs are tax-exempt then they may get constitutional exemptions. Perhaps. Very clever indeed.

So Open Minded your Brains Fell Out

That's what my mother used to say about people who thought anything and everything goes. Everything is not OK. There is evil in the world and it works through people. There is a standard and when you fall short of it you shouldn't insult the rest of the world for failing to fall to your low standard. That's what I want to tell Rielle Hunter and everyone who wants a metal because their marriage failed or they slept with a married guy and snagged him. A hung Jury means half the jury wanted to lock him up. Our whole penal system hinges in the fact that there are things so socially unacceptable we don't want to deal with people in society any more if they engage in those behaviors. Sleeping with someone when your wife is treating for breast cancer has to be one of the more low life sculduggeries imaginable- topped only by hiding your mistress, lying about paternity, diverting campaign donations to pay for your love child and hanging out to dry your staff. Sometimes liberal justifiers are so open minded their brains fell out. Attempts to rehabilitate Edwards' public image are a waste of time- In the name of the memory of Elizabeth I guarantee it.

We are Due

Another Fabricated Crisis You tell a lie big enough and long enough and everyone will believe it is true. That is what 911 was about. The next fabricated crisis is going to propel a vaccination regime. This is going to be used to justify detaining and quarantining people who don't take it in FEMA camps by homeland security. They are already doing real world drills in various states (Huffington Post reported Maine the latest). It will be precipitated by bogus reports of a virus inspired Zombie invasion- you know- flesh eating bacteria, naked cannibals munching on faces, etc. They have been planting stories about it in the news consistently and repeatedly so people are used to the notion that there is something pervasive about flesh eating cannibals and bacterias. Everyone will have to be vaccinated. They will implant some technology with the vaccine. This is predicted to be coming soon. It will be mass hysteria and homeland security will have to contain it. It is of course nonsense. About as much nonsense as a couple of Saudi (CIA asset) hijackers launching a jihad and driving two planes into the World Trade Center that imploded three buildings. The 'cannibals' have all been drugged. There are no Zombies. How to thwart the plan? You tell me. The vaccinations will be expensive but covered of course by Obamacare so the government puts a few billion in the pocket of PHARMA as planned vaccinating 300 Million people. Say the shot is $20.00-say you need five total over a two month span. Do the math people. The government will be there to protect the population from the zombie brain virus. If all of Obamacare falls through will the whole vaccination program?   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/22/zombie-apocalypse-bangor-prepares-for-invasion_n_1619887.html

Dance like no one's watching

or everyone is HERE

must see tv

June is Torture Awareness Month- were you aware?

Torture is an Intrinsic Evil - Video Clip Part 2 from NRCAT on Vimeo.

Stop Torture Sunday. And Every Day.

Join the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and the Washington Region Religious Campaign Against Torture (WRRCAT) will join a national coalition of groups tomorrow afternoon, June 24, for a demonstration and march,beginning at 1:00 pm at the reflecting pool in front of the US Capitol.  http://www.nrcat.org/        June 24  “March Against Torture, Guantanamo and the NDAA”. The keynote speaker is Stephen Xenakis, MD, a retired Army brigadier general and former NRCAT board member.  NRCAT president Linda Gustitus will be introducing Gen. Xenakis There will also be a film screening on Tuesday, June 26, as part of the 2012 campaign against torture. The documentary DOCTORS OF THE DARK SIDE will be playing at the E Street Cinema (11th and E Streets) at 6:00pm on Tuesday, June 26 to mark the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.  This screening will be preceded by a vigil at the Navy Memorial (8th St and Pennsylvania Ave) from 4:30pm to 5:30pm. For a full list of events by state, visit/google the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Thank you, Samantha A. Peetros Communications Specialist  Bill of Rights Defense Committee 8 Bridge Street, Suite A, Northampton, MA 01060 www.bordc.org info@bordc.org Telephone: 413-582-0110 Fax: 413-582-0116

Excuse me

Do you have a girlfriend?

  That is what I want to ask some of these loud irate right wing single male catholic bloggers hailing the hill they want to die on being this HHS insurance reform legislation/regulation. Really? Come on.

   You need a girlfriend is what I want to tell them. Then you would have the foggiest idea what you are talking about.

  The amount of hype, hyperbole and campy merchandising schtick over this Fortnight of Freedom is enough to make you go-which religion is this? Is this the one with the beautiful latin chants and ave marias by the greatest italian opera singers in the world? Is this the one that runs the best relief services for refugee and migrants around the world? The prayerful rosary singing one- The one with beautiful stunning cathedrals in France? Or is this some Ralph Reed incarnated assault on Obama in an election year to make democrats out to be the immoral ones- the party that murders babies. The Republican Prayer Cabal.

click: HERE for WashPo article

  Come on. Insurance regulations to mandate access to birth control and sterilization (for maybe if you have uterine cancer and need the procedure to live) are not matters of religious freedom of an institution because corporations don't have religions.  What religion is GM, or Verizon or Ford or Citibank? They don't pray, they don't go to confession, they don't worship, they don't sing, they don't commune with God. The PEOPLE in them do. Religious freedom has to have an individual dimension such that the consciences of actual people, not the legal fiction of corporations matters and is considered for the liberty interest. So if for example over half the people Georgetown serves, and over half the administrators and teaching professionals there are not catholic but say jewish or protestant, then is it fair to say that an exception should be extended for catholic conscience rights regarding prohibition of something doctrine holds --and the people predominantly disagree with anyway?

     The best hope for this mess is that the mandates all together are done away with on grounds that the Government can't order anyone to purchase anything- the commerce clause doesn't permit regulation of consumers.

   Absent that sweeping mootness the Archdiocese should mediate because if not it will come out looking as bad as it did having its mitre handed to it in the gay marriage business. It looks ridiculous frankly.

   Saint Thomas More died over whether or not the Pope ruled English churches or what the King of England did as what King Henry VIII was trying to do in nullifying all authority of the Catholic Church on ecclesiastical matters was make King Henry the effective head of the Church of all England.
The analogy here would be if Obama said, all congregations now are free to ignore anything Wuerl, Dolan and all Bishops do because I, Obama am the Head of the Catholic Church now in America and dissolving the offices of Cardinal making them government adjunct agencies. It is absurd to make this insurance regulation analogous to that which St. Thomas More was opposing. I sincerely doubt that he would have gone to the gallows over this one. It makes a bit of a mockery of him.

Iranian Christians?

The head of the pro bono NGO Conflict Solutions International George D'Angelo told me he got a
Christmas Card from Iran noting all the Christian Churches in Iran.
Most people know that there is a vibrant Jewish Community in Iran but who knew Christians also have churches there and worship there. There is apparently a large persian/iranian Christian diaspora also and
a quick internet search disclosed that there is an Iranian Christian Church in Silver Spring just outside DC among other places:   HERE for http://www.iranianchurch.org/

If the rules on charitable aid to people on our Bad Guy list were amended these churches and NGOs like George's would be able to diffuse menacing situations and operate as peaceful forces.

See also, Iranian Christians International

So Dad

How do you like the i-Pad I got you?

      Watch this - sometimes I feel like the i-pad in church. They have no idea what we are capable of.
click: (in German)

They are Just Trying to Change The Policies

Ya Think?

   This is nothing, you are just trying to change the policies. This is the criticism leveled at people who point out the fact that there is a decreased vocations issue going on (St. Aloyisius the beloved Jesuit parish on the Hill announced closure because the Jesuits can't staff it any longer)- and the sex scandals aren't going away (a Monsignor in Philadelphia just got criminally convicted by a jury of playing priest shuffle board and cover ups in the service of Cardinal Bevilaqua)
and about a priest a year at least is all over the news for marrying some secret lover.

     Yes, we are just trying to change the rules. Because the old ones are nonsense. Priests should be allowed to be heterosexual and married to one wife. That is a historic rule that should be recaptured.

Can't wait to see what the Whispers in the Loggia guy has to say about the latest where a Monsignor will be in jail for about three to five years.
People are going to start holding decision makers accountable. In a system that is centralized by the payment obligations of parishes to Archdioceses then up to the Vatican there is obviously central control making the rules. And the rules need to change.

OMNA signs

Only Mormons Need Apply.

  The Mormons make no bones about the fact that they discriminate in hiring only themselves. They are overt about it. Here is an announcement regarding one enterprise owned completely by the church, because they run businesses. It is an enormous business empire. HERE

    So blacks comprise like minus zero percent of the church, catholics minus a hundred and Jews minus
infinity. Guess what is going to happen if Romney is President to the government. Just guess.
Take it seriously people.

Mormon Madness Part II

The Discrimination of the Fundamental Mormons

   The Justice Department is suing the FLDS, the Fundamental church of Latter Day Saints- a fundamental branch of Mormonism in several states in the Southwest.
click: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/06/22/justice-department-sues-fundamentalist-mormon-sect-for-discrimination/?utm_source=Raw+Story+Daily+Update&utm_campaign=8f5e1448bf-6_22_126_22_2012&utm_medium=email

There are towns run like company towns and anyone not Mormon doesn't get to play. Or be hired. Or work for anything.
     It appears that while the technical Mormon church doesn't permit polygamy, they tolerate the Fundamental offshoot branch of it which has more sister wives than Gingrich has marriages. Polygamy is the rule in the FLDS. You could easily even biblically justify this with something like Jacob took Rebecca and her sister  (maybe not on purpose). Even Abraham had an out of wedlock child.

     It should shock no one that Mormons say one thing to the meet expectations of the world and do something completely the opposite. This cult sect was founded by a guy running from the feds for bank fraud among other chicanery- not 'religious persecution' as they want to claim. They have to have enormous temples to store all the wool that is pulled over everyone's eyes.

    That should give everyone pause about a Mormon Bishop's Presidency.

There are Unfaithful Politicians

and there are disgusting dirtbags who don't deserve five seconds of public airspace.

    John Edwards is in the later. You don't sleep around on your wife when she has breast cancer. You don't sleep with a married man when his wife has breast cancer. Sure marriages fall apart. Half of them in the country. But there is a line. The French allow open fidelities -to a ludicrous point where for example Mitterand's family and mistress with second family all showed up together, at for instance his funeral.  The current French President Hollande is not married to a woman who has many kids with many husbands. I don't want to know the inter lapping adulteries that may or may not be implicated.

   But there is a line of decency here crossed in the Rielle affair. First of all John Edwards was nothing without Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was a beautiful smart attorney who had a federal clerkship and gave a career to devote to family. She tragically lost a son and the grief she felt with her husband inspired them to create two more beautiful children after she was 50 years old. She could have tried to forge an independent career then- lots of women do at that age- but she rooted herself in her love of her husband and children.  When you are over 50 you cannot conceive without fertility treatments which involve drugs most of the time and that is what likely contributed to her medical condition later. She literally died to give life to children for her husband.
   He betrayed her- with what? With some crystal gazing new agey 'spiritualist' who called him "Hot" in a bar and got pregnant to snag him. She has written a tell all now trashing Elizabeth and everyone should boycott it. It is trash, she is trash and she doesn't deserve anyone's attention for five seconds.  She makes the real skunk-Hos of Jersey look classy.

   Someone wants to play a game with everyone and turn her into the faithful wronged woman who had a love child so should be pitied if not adored with her plastic surgeried pouty fish mouth and exposed long legs. Pity the fool who is taken in.

     Americans may be too prude when it comes to the political sex lives of politicians. The french are more free that way perhaps. But the French wouldn't dare be so disgusting as to involve themselves in a family while the wife was undergoing cancer treatments. There are few things more reprehensible.

Boycott her book.

Care and Feeding of Defense Contractors

To Fight Phantom Enemies

   We spend and/or budget about 750 BILLION dollars on defense- people who make weapons and function in war. By contrast whenever a vote to fund the UN or the US Institute of Peace comes up
they are lucky to get any funding at all. In fact Congress once voted to give the USIP ZERO.
The defense industries' lobbys are wildly powerful.

We are not in a 'cold war.' We should barely be in a 'war on drugs'. We are not on a Crusade fighting Muslims.

We make our own terrorists to justify this completely insane misplaced national prioritization. We provoke our own wars. We stage our own victimization.  We act bizarrely indignant to anyone who disagrees calling them unpatriotic or immoral.

This is a far far greater evil, a crime,  than anything to do with insurance mandates.

     Yet the Bishops aren't holding any rallies on overmilitarization of society in a culture of death.
No bishop is out there on Youtube or Fox decrying the fact that we have maimed or killed or seriously wounded about 50,000 of our American soldiers and millions of innocent Iraqis. Totally innocent people.

     No Bishop is saying "Learn War No More" and lay down your swords for plowing shares-lets learn Peace.
   Not One.

No Bishop will have a child of their own or support a wife who does. No Bishop has first hand knowledge that many fertilized eggs that leave a woman's tubes don't get implanted naturally in her uterus wall lining and are sluffed off- so while 'conception' might start life, there is another act of fortuity that allows it to become a growing embryo-namely if it by chance makes it to the lining and hangs on there. Many many factors can determine this, notably the health of the lining, the stress of the woman which can affect hormones, other hormonal features. What contraception does is give the woman control and conscious choice over when she wants it to happen or not. God gave her that control because God allowed the technology to develop to allow her this freedom of choice. Not that all
technology that exists is intrinsically good but this one has served a useful societal utility in the mental health and well being of women. Contraception, whether physical (diaphragms and condoms) or chemical (more risky to health) is not as great a threat to civilization as a 750 Billion Dollar US Defense
Budget for blasting limbless our imagined enemies in the interest of oil company interests.  The Bishops have been corrupted because they are fed by the Defense Contractors and those feeding off the 750 Billion. We don't have a Department of Peace with a Budget for contractors. We have a Pentagon and Department of Defense that pays obscenely people who fund particularly the Archdiocese of Washington, DC.

Get with the Program- the one Jesus was about.

On this Date

Two Years Ago

  The Supreme Court ruled on Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 130 S. Ct. 2705 (2010). See http://www.charityandsecurity.org/litigation/HLP
That may not ring a bell- it essentially made it a crime for charities to give aid to anyone believed to be associated with terrorists on our terror watch list and imposed onerous vetting procedures for people dealing with those who may be so classified. This has turned into a bit of a fiasco as people in legitimate charities hands' are tied behind their backs if they try to engage in Tier II diplomatic efforts which have in past proved quite fruitful. A panel discussion took place today sponsored by the Charity and Security Network in which they discussed why this is such an unhelpful opinion.

   One speaker noted that if she went election monitoring in Lebanon and spoke to Hezbolah she could be arrested. Its faint consolation that no one has yet been but she noted that she is promoting the rule of law and so is an advocate for compliance with all laws- this particular one has created real problems for Track II diplomacy and peace building internationally. She noted that the work she did in meeting with Gerry Adams for example prior to the Irish Easter peace accords would now be illegal.

    A Senior Hill Staffer noted that there is no greater pressure on the Congress than to bomb Iran. He strongly urged that the previous strategies of bombing the living daylights out of anyone who crosses our interests (real or perceived) is outdated and Admiral Mullin is leading a task force to reorient the strategy to one of mutual cooperation and trust building rather than international bullying. The staffer strongly urged that if the rules on Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project were reversed with regard to charitable efforts many civil society and charitable orgs would be in Iran diffusing the tension and creating an atmosphere of peace that is not taking place now by sole virtue of the chilling effect of that opinion.

   A representative of CRS, Catholic Relief Services noted that the AID vetting process means that many partnerships that would be fruitful for peace wouldn't get established and it is an onerous process that delays efforts harmfully. It also subjects anyone who has to detail disclosures about themselves or their boards to possible retaliatory efforts in conflict regions just for working with American charities (in cases for example where CRS is a USAID subcontractor with a local partner in a conflict region) and possible violence- another chilling factor for anyone wishing to engage with legitimate charities.

  The discussion was live streamed on their website at www.charityandsecurity.org
HERE
For more info contact info@charityandsecurity.org

  The battle cries to blitzkrieg Iran now are loud and insistent. This of course would be supreme madness as it would invite in Russia and China and start WWIII. We owe it to ourselves to revisit these rules, and legislate better ones that allow peace to prosper.
The Charity and Security Network are trying to make enough noises so people get the urgency of the matter. They need your help.

The UN, Now and Future

Another Way of Viewing the World

   is how Le Monde Diplomatique markets itself- and it is correct. They get access to news not filtered through the political correctness of any US Administration and the people pulling media puppet strings here.
  Last night another Formidable Soiree at  La Maison of the French Embassy where Grace a La Director Roland Celette, co-sponsored by Le Monde Diplomatique and the French America Global Forum,  a panel conference discussed all things UN- is it effective, is it on a 20 year decline, is its power diluted by G20s, G8s and is it capable of working at a speed necessary for economic involvement in the world's economic crisis. The panel featured Keval Dervis VP and Director of the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings, Charles Kolb, President of Committee for Economic Development (CED), Anne-Cecile Robert Le Monde Journalist specializing in European Institutions and Associate Professor at L'Intitut d'Etudes Europennes at Paris VII University, and James Traub, NYTimes Mag and Foreign Policy writer with www.foreignpolicy.com.

     I was impressed how James Traub managed to color coordinate his red striped socks with the couch he was sitting on and noted the impeccable sense of style of the organizers whose orange and red decor reminded one of ones favorite water hole on the riviera.  That's what I was a thinking about instead of whether the Libya action was something that the UN should be used for or not.

     A movie was shown of Koffi Anan's tenure at the UN by a French producer who has made about seven movies of his time there.

    The take aways were numerous but a consensus seemed to be attained that there is a necessary place for the UN notwithstanding the trashing it got during the Bush Administration who used it unforgivably as war cover under fraudulent pretexts (my conclusion, not that officially of the Embassy)-

     The Un operates a bureaucracy with many agencies (the World Bank and IMF/IFC are technically under it while operationally not so much)- and serves humanitarian functions that have kept through things like the WHO (World Health Org) and World Food program people alive in the millions around the world. These organizations literally are responsible for keeping communities literally alive. This cannot be underestimated because if ever there were tax dollars well at work, it should be noted that this is effective use of governments' treasuries.

    Kolb noted that he thought the UN was too cumbersome to move quickly enough to do things like regulate currencies or engage in global coordination of necessary economic measures which justifies things like G20 and G8 decision making. Anne-Cecile Robert thought that the UN should be appreciated in the same way we go back now to the slow food movement and noted that the entire world should have a say regarding key economic decisions that affect everyone so the rich countries are not just dictating to the poor ones how life will be for everyone. Traub noted that the UN provided a successful avenue for what he viewed as the Libya success story. Dervis noted that  most people think we give about 25% GDP to foreign aid while we only give about 1% or less so the past fights about UN funding are usually cast in an overly disparaging framework.

     What should the expectations be and where should it go- what should reforms look like? These were questions asked by Michael Shank, US Vice President at the Institute for Economics and Peace,and board member of the National Peace Academy. He told an amusing anecdote of trying to get a bagel once toasted in the UN cafeteria. The cafeteria worker didn't know if they had a toaster, couldn't find an outlet, ponder the legal ramifications of letting him cut it himself and had to go back to the kitchen to see if they had a knife. By analogy he provoked wonderment regarding whether the UN has the tools necessary, knows where they are, overly paralyzes itself with cross-border litigation worries and can't find where to plug itself in to various conflicts. Kolb's comical retort was- the UN should outsource bagel -there are much better bagelries in New York. Also, can anyone there write a decent report-he lamented. (or- he should get an assistant who can translate for him.)

   The soiree was topped off with a reception catered by PAULs , the newest French boulangerie, patisserie in DC with stores at Farragut North on Connecticut Ave and in Georgtown on Wisconsin near M streets. Cute little triangle salmon cream cheese sandwiches laid in a cut out box of bread.
I think I will try making it for the next hors d'oevres fete I help with.

Thanks again to the fantastic folks at the French Embassy (the two Oliviers are adorable) and especially Roland. Merci Mille Fois.

   

 

Electric Cars Catching On

The Green Pope Gets an Electric Car- When are these coming to America?

The Objectively Reasonable Man-Woman

in the Land of Hypotheticals

   Because that's what law deals in- the great what ifs'....and how will this opinion be translated into similar fact patterns.
So imagine this one:
On planet Castrati I run the  Church of Unity Seattle Space Needle Vegans and we run a small grocery store at discount prices of vegan foods. Only organic vegan foods are in our store. We don't eat pesticides. Against our religion. We are purists, we only allow followers to put in their mouths authorized foods.
The government has a new rule that says all grocery stores across the country must comply with labeling requirements for one type of particularly bitter fruit which contain the following- where the produce was grown, which farm, if any pesticides were used, if the produce has been FDA inspected and approved and whether any litigation has been generated of a personal injury nature because of consumption in addition to the recommended daily requirement and vitamin and mineral content of the food.

The Church of Unity Seattle Space Needle Vegans said- hold on there! or Yo Dude! Those labels have to be put on the fruit and veggies with a sticky gum paste which is not authorized for consumption. In fact there has been litigation that the sticky stuff on the labels when consumed in massive amounts actually makes people sick. So we don't want to put the labels on the food. Our food is really pure-
But the government says -look, everyone who shops there doesn't know your pesticide practices and some people would rather know if any litigation was generated by the harm in eating something or not than the tiny amount of gum stickiness in their intestines resulting from the debris of the peeled off label. Plus no one is forced to buy the bitter forbidden fruit.

    The highest Bishop mahoff Bernie decries RELIGIOUS LIBERTY violation!
     He organizes massive vegan rallies- and gives out french fried sweet potato chips (fried in soy oil).
You can't do this Sister Sam!

So how is this different?
Clearly there is a reasonable man somewhere on planet Castrati.  Have him call me.


(think i'm kidding, click http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/19/dirty-dozen-foods-list-2012-ewg_n_1606256.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl4%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D171168#s=1111519

People Who Should Be Worried

About a Romney Presidency:

   Aside from the obvious - Democrats, women and anyone with a brain--the following industries will suffer under a Mormon BISHOPs regime (yes, Romney is a Mormon BISHOP not just your ordinary priest schlub-something all Mormon adults, male and female get to be just for contributing enough)- because of their strict
'piety' regarding various vices.  Not only does the White House effect fashion trends regarding consumption but Mormons are hyper moralists who would legislate banning things they find morally prohibited. Here are the industries that should be really worried.

   The Wine importing/alcoholic beverage industry- this will affect economies of France Italy and Spain.
They don't allow drinking of any alcohol. Forget all the studies that red wine helps your heart. They just consider it all immoral. Don't you dare throw a little grand mariner in that crepe- or hell fires await.
Just wait for the rule of powdered lemonade.


Starbucks and all coffee importing- from everywhere. Coffee is prohibited -it is viewed by Mormons as an artificial stimulant. Nestle, Maxwell House, Folgers- start selling stock if Romney is elected.  Carmel Mochiata Frappucinos? Consider yourself damned. Espresso machine makers? Start converting them into popcorn machines.  Your friendly neighborhood coffee joint will have to start serving warm milk.

As for 'culture?'  Think Mormon Tabernacle Choir at the Kennedy Center. All Year.
And a lot of short sleeved white shirted short haired guys with pocket pen protectors asking you if you have met Joseph Smith as your personal savior yet.

Seriously, the Republicans have lost their minds folks.

Nuns on the Bus

Rockin and Rollin on the Interstates

Nuns Rock. I am sorry. I love them. Ladies of the cloth as it were- whether in suits or habits. My friend George tells a joke. 'You can kiss a Nun but don't make a Habit out of it' :-) (aaaargh)
There are problems with the Ryan Budget- like it impoverishes and starves impoverished and starving people. If a nun is coming your way- Kiss Her. That will knock her Crocks Off :-)  They also enjoy a nice Merlot so treat her out.
HERE FOR THE NUNS ON THE BUS RUN--http://catholicsinalliance.org/cgf62012nuns.php

JUSTICE WITH A MISSION

International Justice Mission gets an award from the State Department

     You may have seen them on Oprah. The International Justice Mission is against child trafficking around the world literally rescuing children from lives of prostitution in places like India.
They deserve your support and attention. They have been faithfully at it since its attorney founder left the Justice Department. click-http://www.ijm.org/content/state-department-honors-ijm-president-gary-haugen


BRAVO. and Congratulations.

When the Church is a Political Action Committee

It can lose its Tax Exempt Status

   And Minister Barry Lynn of the Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) will file a complaint, as he vows to do against the preacher who blasted Obama on his gay friendliness. click here for
his explanation of the obligation not to endorse any candidate under rules for charitable tax exempt orgs.  If you are operating like a political action committee you should not enjoy charitable tax exempt status. The catholic church comes close when it hosts national rallies for religious freedom to trash Obama and all democrats participating in Obamacare- including the very Catholic Pelosi. Hasn't anyone paid attention to the fact that Sebellius and Pelosi are both Catholic and find the church's behavior here off the charts offensive and ridiculous?
     This org has made a statement that providing insurance for people to make private health decisions regarding contraception is not a 'religious liberty ' issue of the institution.  He urges Obama to protect people's health care access to contraception.

     Institutions may have constitutionally protected freedom of speech but do they have a religion because they call themselves one? You often hear it said that Georgetown law school isn't really catholic. It's just the name they inherited. The exemptions speak to the notion that one can be called religious of one religion or another when one is functioning as a religion, involving people of that religion and serving people of that religion. When you have a catholic law school where the administrators are not all or much catholic, workers are not all catholic, students or people it serves not all catholic, is it fair to call it catholic such that it should get some sort of exemption?  Rational people on moral grounds use birth control to avoid abortion and unwanted pregnancy. They don't agree with the whole religious freedom assault on HHS regs.

   There is a real problem with people who don't want their own families telling people who do how to go about forming them. Not only is it a loss of credibility issue, it's a competency issue. You don't know what you are talking about. So no one  has to listen to you goes the rationale. Abstract theoretical speculation about morality doesn't take the place of budgeting a grocery bill for a family. You all live rent free in luxury in an unreal world not inhabited by the rest of us issuing moral proclamations on how we are supposed to conduct sex lives that you don't have and don't want.

     The 'religious liberty' of other people who either work in your organizations or pay to use the services (students) is personal and real. Institutions don't have religions- the people in them do. And when the people in them are different religions, you have to respect their liberty.
 

Rome's Pagan Reversions

And Bodily Penalties

   We all know about the pagan temple prostitutes that Paul ranted against. Do we have the whole picture. The Greek pagans and early Roman pagans had temple priests who castrated themselves to make themselves sex slaves to the faux deity- it is described well HERE
Some act pleasing the deity took place as the priests effeminate themselves, castrated themselves to become essentially male prostitutes in temple worship. Heinously evil.

   This is exactly what happens when a Priest chooses voluntary castration to serve the Pope- in his presumed infallibility a sort of demigod because the Pope insists on a priesthood of 'celibate' 'chaste' men- turned castrati.

Priests are making themselves literally sick to neutralize their natural male hormones with drugs.
Stop It. God didn't tell you to make yourself sick.

Paul said if you burn with passion marry her. No sin in that.

The verse that some make themselves 'eunuchs for the kingdom' can be viewed as widely historically wrongly misinterpreted. There were pagan male Eunich temple prostitutes everywhere in Roman times.
What the verse is saying is to those eunuch temple prostitutes serve now the Lord not that fake faux God you have been messing with. Some eunuchs will be Eunichs for the Kingdom. It is not a call to castrate the faithful. To the contrary- it is a call to the already castrated to now enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mutilation and cutting oneself is expressly forbidden in Jewish law- it is what the Prophets of Baal did.

Making Eunichs For the Kingdom

While Suing Against Birth Control.

    This would be laugh out loud funny except its so perverted when the families of the butchered priest have to pay the salary of the Cardinal and  Chancellor ordering the litigation against birth control while ordering healthy heterosexual priests be 'treated' by it.

   The church practice of castration of healthy heterosexuals to avoid 'scandal' (as if relations were a scandal with a woman when they are healthy heterosexual as opposed to discrete secret gay ones which  go on all the time, even in Seminaries---just google Wuerl in Pittsburgh) are as old as Abelard and Heloise. For those not familiar with the story Abelard was a French catholic canon cleric and teacher of an aristocratic Heloise and they fell truly deeply in love.
When someone- some sick B-tard clerical higher up found out (probably someone with loose lips at a confessional who had no idea what damage it could cause) they castrated him. So much for young love.
The church isn't about Love when it threatens its power. It spits in Jesus' face so it can write and sell books about him.  Especially if someone wants to be a Bishop or a Cardinal. Can't have that sort of 'scandal' out there- doesn't make us look "holy." Just google Abelard and Heloise and you will see the tragedy. http://www.unc.edu/~franco/writings/abelard.html

  They are more subtle now- they don't need a knife. They use chemicals. A Shot, a Pill, a drink. There goes your libido and all traces of your 'urges' to do anything other than embroider. Side effects? Fatigue, depression, bone density loss,  weight gain, high risk of cardiovascular distress and disease, blood clots, blood pressure irregularity, baldness-hair loss, feelings of isolation, feelings of suicide. No worries- just take more drugs and sit there in the confessional.

     These are sick B-tards. Really really sick B-tards. So sick that the International Criminal Court is prosecuting them. So sick that they believe a woman priest is an automatically worse excommunicable sinner than a child rapist priest. So sick that they believe fathering an actual child is a sin. ---while worshipping a 'Father' in heaven.

     I have to shake my head wondering if the 'flock' are either so stupid or if someone slipped something in the chalice they all drink from to make them docile to accepting this barbarism. The fact that this masquerades as some sort of holiness is about as offensive to God as the Baal worshippers who sliced themselves to bring their God Baal closer. Sick, people- you deserve to be sued six thousand ways from
here to eternity.  And you have some nerve suing the government for your religious 'FREEDOM.'

   The analogy is more like the Christian Scientists who are not allowed the religious freedom to not treat their children when they have cancer and let them die. Some beliefs don't get excused from laws just because they are religious. A Christian scientist parent who refuses medical treatment for a child who died from a treatable illness or injury will be prosecuted for manslaughter or second degree murder- and it doesn't matter what their religion is. Because some religious beliefs are so counter to societally healthy accepted norms that they don't get protection from or  excused from the laws.

   You are also not allowed the religious exception to knowingly hide a sexual predator child rapist and shield them from legal investigation without reporting in mandatory reporting districts. The interests of children's health trumps the religious rules. That is currently being debated in Ireland now as the seal of the confessional is threatened by laws on mandatory reporting of child molesting priests to law enforcement if they confess in the confessional.  Some religious beliefs don't get protection- because there is a higher good at stake.



   

No, not a cult at all (sarcasm)

Hey Mitt and Mrs. Mitt

Boxers, Briefs or.........

Don't Shoot Me- I now am a fan of

Sean Hannity

   for taking on the exorcist priest who left his position for crossing the bounds of chastity with a woman- and some weird things involving perhaps intimacy crossing boundaries with exorcisms-  Sean is positively cute here.   Hard to believe anyone didn't find him hard core enough, but here he takes on the hypocrisy- and should be applauded. Sean you are cute.

This is a sad fall from Grace for this priest who was scandalized for having some sexual indiscretion involving a woman- during an exorcism. I heard him talk on exorcisms once-he wrote a book on it. If he was allowed to be married would it mean he lost all his powers to conduct exorcisms? If he were married he probably wouldn't be tempted to get weird during an exorcism. Just another example of how the rules do damage not good on the mandatory celibacy realm.  The fallout and criticism of this guy for having a 'sexual indiscretion' with an adult woman is totally absurd. Adult men and adult women are made for each other-that way. So pathetic. So ironic he is preaching on self control when this is what got him.

Not Holy- Pathological

The myth, the mystery.

  You sometimes hear the requirement for priests to 'die to themselves' e.g. castrate themselves chemically or physically to serve the Kingdom as a death to self to serve Christ. Christ isn't however impressed. He never asked for it- the Popes did. And the Pope can change the rule overnight because the Popes made the rules not Christ about 1,000 years after Jesus left the earth.

   Pope JPII made an explicit statement that celibacy was not ontologically necessary for priesthood ( Jesus doesn't need your sperm to convert his body and blood into wine. )

Some errant theological tale spinners will even say that anyone who objects should be told as Jesus told Peter to "get behind me Satan!" for not going along with the program of Jesus' death. Peter in the verse objects saying basically -you shouldn't have to die!--and jesus rebukes him.

To those errant theological myth masters I say "Get Behind Me Satan!" Because Jesus never told you to take his image of creation in the form of a man and so destroy or butcher it that it mars his likeness. It is grave moral sin to do so. It has distorted the priesthood- it is against scripture and Jewish tradition.
It has destroyed families and women.
It has to change.

Christ never said and never wanted his church to be run either like a gay bar or a all mens lodge of single men on women's hormones to contain themselves. It's so sickening that 3 Billion dollars of settlements doesn't change the policy or cause any sort of sane self reflection on the point.

The Pope is in the sort of delusional denial that basically says -screw you all- this is the way I want it so this is the way I am going to keep it. But don't screw you all. Take the female birth control instead. And have a martini.
   

   

When the Cure is Worse Than the Illness

Birth Control for Priests


Don't blame your friendly fat friar for being fat. He may have been put on "medication" that starts with medrox... something or other (read for the release form which explains what it is)
     HERE- http://www.bishop-accountability.org/reports/1985_12_09_Peterson_Guidelines/Hopkins_05_DepoProveraRelease.pdf

Here's how they control the myth of chastity/celibacy-a pill a day will do you.
Who needs cold showers if you can just take a birth control pill?

     You should know if you were prescribed this 'treatment' that this drug was the subject of a massive class action in which it was claimed that the drug has serious bone density reduction properties/effects- meaning your bones will break in few years from now like you were an 85 year old woman. It has a litany of harmful effects.  click here; if they drugged you and didn't tell you what it would do you may have a case
And HERE

     Women shouldn't take it. Priests definitely shouldn't take it. In fact you may be part of a class action out there if you did sign one of these waiver forms.

You should not ever let a 'treatment' center treat you for normal heterosexual attraction. You should marry her.

  Only one organization in the world hit with 3 billion dollars of sexual perversion/deviancy settlements/claims would not be subject to a massive Congressional investigation, restrictive legislation and possible RICO suits. It's nearly unforgivable that the Pope declares all this a 'mystery.'  Normal heterosexuals are drugged into impotency, gays are therapeutically treated with 'masterbation satiation' therapies, normal heterosexuals are flatly banned, locked out, and yet the Pope finds the incidences of sexual perversion and deviance 'a mystery.'  You should expect a bit more intelligence from someone ruling spiritually a billion people shouldn't you? Has early Altzheimers set in there?

It's a bit like lobotomizing a population and wondering why everyone is flunking their driving test. Mystery to Me Sherlock.

And they wonder why France wants to stay a Secular country and why Separation of Church and State is a good thing?

Whackadoodle Ding Dong Mormon

Claims

     God is about six feet tall and lives on planet (insert weird name here), the Garden of Eden is really in Missouri, Ghenghis Khan and Hitler can be and were posthumously baptized by dunking a living surrogate in baptismal waters for the dead, and no Jesus for you unless you wear magic white underwear. Not kidding. And this is the religion of the fearless leader of the Republicans.  Have you people lost your minds?  See the episode of Religulous! by Bill Maher on Mormonism HERE, now go to confession

DANGERs of Birth Control

and why No Priest Should Take IT.

     The shot Depro Provera, used to 'treat' priests into impotency, chemical castration or loss of libido should not be taken by priests because it is a birth control for women progesterone based medication that can give them hair loss, lost bone density/mass-osteoporosis early, weight gain, increased cardiovascular risks and blood clots among other reasons. That's no way to treat a lady much less a priest.

    Priests should be allowed to pick one wife and keep her instead of having to drug themselves into impotency and head tripped into guilty thinking that having a normal male sex drive is somehow immoral because they went to a school for a number of years called a seminary.

  It is really about time people got real about this. If 3 BILLION dollars of litigation doesn't convince you look at how many priests around you are bald. Priests taking female hormones- and you thought you imagined your monsignor getting round around the hips.

The Birth Control Outrage

and the outrageous hypocrisy

     Because the Catholic Priesthood insists that all males must be 'eunuchs for the kingdom'- to serve the entire community- something Jesus never commands as required to serve any community, the church in Washington chemically castrates priests  at the Saint Luke's Institute-with female birth control Depo-Provera.  HERE---http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2007/06/paedophile-priests-in-us-treated-with.html It is a female contraceptive drug which given to males turns off their libido, looses their body hair, effeminates them, gives them added weight that adds to their cardiovascular risks and makes them less likely to fall for any woman thus perpetuating the celibacy myth.  Priests are on birth control. To control their sex lives.

    The Catholic Church while bringing lawsuits about contraception actually has priests on it- female contraception. The Saint Luke's Institute is an organization that treats priests who are on the edge of cracking under the unnatural unholy stresses of forced celibacy. Google It. Best kept secret out there- that shouldn't be secret.

     Sinful. Scandalous. Outrageous that the Vatican would rather drug its priests than allow them to form healthy family relationships (like the Episcopalian ones )-
If the Archdiocese is suing HHS does HHS get then to subpoena the Saint Luke's Institute to get these records and records of all priestly subscriptions for birth control paid from Archdiocese medical insurance?  Seems a motion to compel on that might be forthcoming.


 

Green Revolution

Electric Cars.

  Not your grandfather's golf cart.  Remember those golf cart that you just plug in to charge up. What if they were vamped up to be real electric scooter cars. Renault , a French company by the way (another thing the French do better than we do) has engineered the electric car to another dimension. And they are popularly affordable. click here for the twizzy by renault

Ideal for city driving and parking. Like a Smart Car only Smarter.
Wonder when these are coming to the US.  (or do the gas companies have strangleholds on regulations keeping them off their territory?)

Political Malestroms and Madness

Regarding .6% of the population.

   The amount of time and attention given this election cycle to trashing the issue of equal legal protection of gays is staggering given that the gay community comprise only .6 percent of the entire population. That is a figure a fraction  of what the national unemployment rate is. That is below what is frequently cited as the rate of homosexuality in the animal kingdom which has been pegged at about 10 percent of any given species. POINT SIX PERCENT.

  Only five counties in the country have gay households pegged at over ten percent which include places like West Hollywood, San Francisco's Castro District and certain totally gay enclaves of Massachusetts. Washington, DC does not have a gay household ratio over ten percent. It doesn't even rank in the top ten highest gay communities in the country.

  But this was a such a pillar of at least one Republican campaign that it started a new fad- glitter bombing-- Tossing glitter on the suit of a bloviating politician who was assaulting the civic dignity of gayness.  The Archdiocese of Washington cancelled ALL adoptions-its entire adoption program because it didn't want to place kids in gay households. It cancelled ALL spousal medical insurance because it lost a legal battle with the District which says if you have gay people working for you who now are legally married under District law you cannot discriminate against their spouses and not give them spousal insurance. The church considers that all priests are in a sense married to the church. Some even wear wedding rings to make the point. So this is all men married to each other essentially for life. They all give each other medical insurance. But rather than recognize non clerical gay marriage they just cancelled ALL straight and non straight medical spousal coverage. Madness.

     You cannot turn on your computer without reading another story of a poor kid who took his life because he had been bullied for years for being gay. Emotional torment, fomented by a political culture of abusive insulting rhetoric.  Why would anyone 'choose' being gay people lament.

     No politician in America is going to win by gay bashing. It is just not necessary to be so malicious to any group of people. People who are gay are more often than not related to siblings and parents who are not and still love them.  Some of them have lost siblings or children to AIDS inflicted gay relatives.
They resent deeply things like the catholic church refusing to cover for condoms when a third of them are likely gay and carrying HIV/AIDs viruses at a rate four times greater than the population.

  You call that 'religious liberty.' I call it Madness.



   

Worthy Cause

Brain Research

    One thing I agree with Newt Gingrich on is that we need to devote serious resources to brain injuries.  The wars have caused unbelievable head traumas that previously people died from.
Here is a story of a guy who had a stroke which paralyzed him in every way but his blinking eyes through which he communicates through an eye recognition computer that allows him to tweet messages. HERE

     All the money fighting the insurance nonsense should instead be given to brain research so people like this can have brain surgery and not want to be euthanized. Just a thought.  Medical research is a more worthy cause than fighting against contraceptive coverage.

Hyperbole Schmyperbole

and What On Earth Are You Talking About

    If you have not noticed and you live in DC or Maryland there is a massive PR effort afoot in tandem with the HHS so called religious liberty suits involving something called a freedom fortnight of prayer or something like that. It ends on July 4 (with fireworks thanks to the National fireworks folks who put on the best display imaginable everyone should see in DC once in their lifetime)-

Judges, I am told, love it when you 'litigate in the press.' (NOT)

Aside from the obvious difficulty in contorting additional insurance benefits into liberty issues- (aside from the fact that anytime anyone makes anyone buy anything it is an infringement of liberty of sorts-ask the guys at CATO who did the briefing)- there are hyperbolic statements that are troubling and don't serve the cause- because they just don't sound honest.

  For instance, in the Wuerl clip below he talks about how 'soup kitchens and pantries' will be threatened (wiped out? have to close??)  if insurance has to be provided that includes contraception, sterilization and the Plan B abortofascient. I have volunteered in one such place for a few years now and to my knowledge the only full time staff at all associated with it is a saintly Priest who presumably doesn't need any of those things-thus no additional cost burden there. Everyone else is a volunteer except one part time staffer who likely doesn't get any medical benefits-and if she did she wouldn't use things against church teaching. So how does this self-insured imposition add a penny to the cost burden? Over half the volunteers are past child bearing age, and all the other ones are following
the church teaching on chastity. So self-insurance means you pay nothing more. By distinction, if you had to buy an insurance policy that had elevated premiums that somehow were passed to the Archdiocese as opposed to the insured individual or beneficiary of a policy you would be
paying more for the eventuality of something that never got used. Self insurance is thus cheaper if no one uses it.

  So why would a 'soup kitchen or pantry' have to be shut down? We don't serve soup by the way, which Wuerl would know if he ever stepped foot into the program run right out of the basement of the Cathedral where he is supposed to sit (when not in Rome of course.)

    Did anybody take a poll before these suits were filed? How does it threaten chastity to have expanded insurance possibilities for things people don't use. People who have catastrophic coverage hope to never have to use it. Everyone who gets car insurance hopes to not have to get in an accident involving bodily injury. Do car accident rates go up because people have car insurance? It's nonsense.
Who gets in a car and says "I have insurance now- lets see if I can have a catastrophic spinal injury in a car accident!"
  Why are you wasting anybody's attention, time, money or patience on this?

Do you have medical  insurance for any priest that covers sorosis of the liver if they turn out to be an alcoholic?  Drunkenness is right up there with fornication on the bad acts list.  Clearly insurance covers things that might result from disapproved conduct. What about lung cancer if you had a secretly smoking priest? Do your policies cover lung cancer. Do you think any priest or any employee of the Archdiocese will start taking up smoking once they find out lung cancer is covered?

This is a huge Republican grandstanding assault against the Obama Cabinet because they can't stand him. They are furious the Republicans lost the White House and have been waiting for any colorable excuse to attack him. It's really a bit much, don't you think?
   

and a lot more profanity- the take on Santorum.

Comic Relief

(warning: some profanity)-- if Politicians explained Marriage like this?

Love is Everything

Confessions of a Hot Saint Coming Soon

Why a Real Witness is So Important

LDS Mormon convert to Christianity says why its critical we get the difference.

I am not ashamed of the Gospel. It is the power of salvation unto Life.

Weird News Watch

Winners of the following "news" categories:

IS THIS REALLY NEWS?    Miley Cyrus lost her pants (not kidding, real AOL story)

FEMA QUARANTINE WATCH EVENTS:   Oregon man gets plague (we didn't buy the face eating bacteria epidemic or the zombie apocalypse so now we have literal plague)  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/plague-oregon-man-contrac_n_1600466.html

CONSERVATIVE CATHOLIC CRAZINESS
Liberal Nun says the Cardinal shouldn't have to buy their contraception (catholicvote.org)
Good, we were worried.

OBAMA LIKES DREAMERS

And will amend Immigration Policy Making a way in the desert for young people to become American citizens. This is the kind compassionate thing to do. Some will argue it rewards law breakers but in lots of cases these kids came with parents and didn't have a choice. They have been law abiding since.

China's-Every Other Child Must Die- Policy

Unreal.

More Disturbing

China's One Child Policy

   Takes another victim (or two)- A baby and her mother were victimized by the China One Child Policy and it went viral on the internet. China in its population control directives require that people only have one child or pay an exorbitant fine/fee to the government. If you can't pay the fee, you can't keep the child. Only wealthy people have more than one or people wait, saving a half a lifetime and have their second years and years later.
    This woman lost her child to a FORCED abortion at SEVEN MONTHS. At that point the child is viable. (My sister was two month early premie).
Here the child lies next to her mother on a post that went around the world. click:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/china-forced-abortion_n_1599485.html?ref=topbar

    This is the sort of the thing catholic bloggers should be insanely fighting not contraception at Catholic U.
   The UN and every Human Rights org on the planet should be on this.
There is an organization in America who is on top of it: the Jubilee Campaign and Law of Life Project run by Sam Casey, Esq. (former Law Professor and Former head of the Christian Legal Society.)

    Its a religious liberty issue when the government forces an act against someone's conscience.
    The government under the HHS mandates is not telling anyone that they should take any pill or avail of the insurance. There is a difference. A huge difference.

Public Outcry over Forced Abortion in China The international press picks up the story of Feng Jianmei and brings the injustice of the One-Child Policy into the public eye.

Officials dumped Ms. Feng's baby at her side following a forced abortion last week. June 14, 2012 Dear Friend, Earlier this week, we sent out a heartbreaking story about Feng Jianmei's forced abortion. You told friends and family.  You called congress.  (One woman sent 18 letters to congress and arranged an in-person meeting with her representative.)  You spread the story like wildfire, and yesterday that fire ignited the International media. Chai Ling spoke about abortion on Al Jazeera English, and you can see the mainstream coverage here:  BBC World News    ABC CBS  NBC Thank you for shining a light on the dark truth of the One-Child Policy.  That pressure is working.  Today the Chinese government apologized to Feng Jianming and promised an investigation.  Cao Ruyi's case is still in question, but we hope that the officials who threatened her are now re-thinking their intent to abort her baby. Meanwhile, the public outcry in China continues as citizens voice their horror online.    There are renewed calls for the end of the One-Child Policy.  The end of the policy is nearer now than ever.  We rejoice because the world has begun to wake up and open its eyes to this crime against humanity.  (For something that incriminates motherhood is in itself a crime.)    We ask you to keep this issue in the public eye.  Shout it from the rooftops!  You have a part to play in the end of the One-Child Policy, and we are praying for you all. With hope, The All Girls Allowed Team   Friend, you are at the very core of the movement to end the One-Child Policy and the suffering it causes. You can act today to help women like Cao Ruyi and ensure that what happened to Jianmei never happens again. Please PRAY for Feng Jianmei and her family, and for the protection of Ms. Cao and her unborn baby. CALL the office of your congressional representative, or WRITE to them using this  form letter. Let them know what is taking place in China and ask them to use their influence to promote justice for women in China. GIVE to All Girls Allowed's forced abortion intervention efforts. You can give online HERE, and write "Forced Abortion Efforts" in the dedication line. We'll support the direct intervention efforts of volunteers when possible, and we'll help cover the fines of parents in under threat of forced abortion.

YOU CAN ACT. Support intervention in forced abortion cases by giving   HERE   and putting  "Forced Abortion"  in the dedication line.   We will use those funds to support intervention efforts or pay birth permit fines  for women under threat.