This morning’s Washington Post brings news of what should be the Obama Administration’s high-water attack on the sanctity of human life, and what should be for the pro-life cause our Dunkirk. Routed at the polls, pummeled on forced funding of the international population magnates, threatened with compulsory tax funding of the domestic abortion industry, we now face an Obama repeal of the Bush Administration’s conscience protections for health care workers who decline to participate in abortions.

It’s time to send out a call for the dinghies, the tugboats, the fishing trawlers — anything that floats or may float — and make it clear that in its lurch toward the Culture of Death the Obama Administration will be unable to dragoon people of conscience into their ranks or drum them out of their professions. The purest joy of an evildoer is to draw others — especially people of highest character – into their work and thereby drain their moral capital and sully their reputations. All this is happening because the evidence suggests that the ranks of medical personnel committed to abortion as their stock-and-trade is small and, shall we say, not drawn from the elites of the profession. In communities from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to Midland, Texas, the local abortionist is a drive-by doc, who visits for the day to conduct his ministrations of destruction upon the population. The dearth of death-dealers makes the crushing of conscience a social value for the Left.

Moreover, it is a sign of their own bad conscience. If so many good people will not perform abortions or hesitate to thrust a cycle of pills at a 15-year-old girl who really needs a wise adult offering her a better way than feeling compelled to submit to sexual exploitation by a boyfriend or adult man, then maybe, just maybe, there is something amiss with those health personnel who seem to hesitate at nothing. For the pro-life community right now, a Mrs. Miniver moment is the right thing. We’ve long upheld the rose as our symbol. Let’s go down to the sea in ships.

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POSITION: SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

NOMINEE: Gary F. Locke

BIRTH DATE: January 21, 1950 in Seattle, WA

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in Political Science 1972, Yale University

J.D. 1975, Boston University School of Law

FAMILY: Wife Mona Lee; three children, Emily, Dylan, and Madeline

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POSITION: DIRECTOR, DOMESTIC POLICY COUNCIL

NOMINEE: Melody Barnes

BIRTH DATE: April 29, 1964 in Richmond, VA

EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s degree with honors in History 1986, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

J.D. 1989, University of Michigan Law School

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I think Mary Eberstadt may be on to something, and I surely hope the theory follows through to mean more prudishness in sex will follow! But I have my doubts. People quite easily can measure the negative effects of gluttony by the numbers on the scale and their cholesterol count, etc. But an STD? Why that’s not MY fault, it was so-and-so who gave it to me. People who are honest and introspective, however, will be able to conclude that a lifestyle of serial monogamy has led to their unhappiness. Isn’t it interesting that the simplest answer that so many refuse to consider – faith in the God of Abraham rather than Lord Vegan — will make you both physically and psychologically healthier and happier?

By the way, my husband and I know Mary well and of course this article made me think of what she served us for dinner at her house not long ago — pulled pork sandwiches from a local deli!

Jewish World Review Feb. 26, 2009 2 Adar 5769

Prudes at Dinner, Gluttons in Bed

By George Will

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com  

Put down that cheeseburger and listen up: If food has become what sex was a generation ago – the intimidatingly intelligent Mary Eberstadt says it has – then a cheeseburger is akin to adultery, or worse. As eating has become highly charged with moral judgments, sex has become notably less so, and Eberstadt, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, thinks these trends involving two primal appetites are related.

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CPAC definitely offers a vast array of speakers in the conservative movement, and this year’s conference is no exception to the rule. Right now, I am live blogging from the New Challenges in the Culture War panel discussion, which features many renowned experts in the pro-life movement. The panelists include: Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, Dr. Janice Shaw Crouse of The Beverly LaHaye Institute and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University School of Law.

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FRC President Tony Perkins responds to President Obama’s address to Congress:

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Here’s what we are reading today.

• “A New Tradition for Obama’s Presidential Events: Opening With a Prayer,” Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report (February 24, 2009)
• “Montana church may shield donations to gay marriage ban,” Carol J. Williams, The Los Angeles Times (February 26, 2009)
• “Number of households with kids hits new low,” Jack Gillum, USA Today (February 25, 2009)
• “California gay marriage fight echoes past,” Aurelio Rojas, Detroit Free Press (February 26, 2009)
• “Judge refuses to throw out Kansas abortion case,” Associated Press (February 25, 2009)
• “Poll: More Californians support restrictions on abortion,” Mary Anne Ostrom, San Jose Mercury News (February 25, 2009)
• “Abstinence-Only Sex Education Doesn’t Work,” Teresa Pelham, The Hartford Courant (February 25, 2009)
• “Hospital fights euthanasia ruling,” United Press International (February 24, 2009)
• “On Faith,” The Washington Times (February 26, 2009)
• “Supreme Court to Utah-Based Religion: Sorry, Summum,” Ashby Jones, The Wall Street Journal (February 25, 2009)
• “Vouchers under fire,” Emily Belz, World Magazine (February 24, 2009)

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Here’s some of the buzz from the blogosphere.

• “New York Times whitewashes Gary Locke’s ethics/campaign finance scandals,” Michelle Malkin, Michelle Malkin.com If you need more proof on why Washington Governor Gary Locke is not a good choice for Secretary of Commerce, you should read Malkin’s analysis. After all, Malkin wrote for The Seattle Times during the Locke administration.
• “”Politics in the Guise of Pure Science,” Wesley J. Smith, Secondhand Smoke
• “America Acting Like Wild Pigs,” Maggie M.Thornton, Maggie’s Notebook

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Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) are eager to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine (FD). That was a rule laid down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that was used to squelch broadcast criticism of the (mostly liberal) administrations in Washington. The FD was the 20^th century equivalent of the Alien and Sedition Acts. The FD reigned for several decades and had the effect of suppressing debate on the airwaves. Until the boneheaded McCain-Feingold law was passed, FD was the worst infringement on free speech going. It was repealed under Ronald Reagan in 1987. That was the year he called for the Berlin Wall to come down. As a result of Reagan’s liberating efforts, we saw freedom rise at home and abroad.

Conservative radio talkers are calling the threat of a reconstituted FD a “Hush Rush” bill. We need to be aware, however, that liberals may achieve their ends without passing legislation, or even without a new FCC “fairness” rule. They could do it by requiring a fixed amount of local content for radio. The idea there is that our mostly liberal major metropolitan areas would produce the local content and squeeze out the conservatives-like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Bill Bennett–who tend to be nationally syndicated.  

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Here’s what we are reading today.

• “Father in Chief,” Lisa Belkin, New York Times (February 22, 2009)
• “Study on sex education in Texas schools,” Dallas Morning News (February 25, 2009)
• “Stem-cell inaction prompts concern,” Meredith Wadman, Nature (February 24, 2009)
• “No surprises as Leno’s Prop. 8 resolution moves on,” John Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle (February 24, 2009)
• “Gay Marriage Debate,” WLOS-13 (February 24, 2009)
• “Perry, other leaders rally for bill at anti-abortion rally,” David Saleh Rauf, The Houston Chronicle (February 24, 2009)
• “MT Senate says parents should be told of abortion,” Associated Press (February 25, 2009)
• “Report: 1.94 Million Unintended Pregnancies and 810,000 Abortions Prevented Each Year by Publicly Funded Services,” Guttmacher Institute, YubaNet.com (February 24, 2009)
• “Pittsburgh schools remove ‘abstinence-only’ sex ed,” Associated Press (February 25, 2009)
• “Catholics and euthanasia,” Charles E. Rice, The Notre Dame Observer (February 24, 2009)
• “Patriarchal Religion, Domestic Violence And A Beheading In Buffalo,” Susan Jacoby, Newsweek (February 25, 2009)
• “High-court case gives religion fight to administration,” Greg Stohr, The Philadelphia Inquirer (February 24, 2009)
• “New anti-religion ads go mobile,” Heather Burian, The Badger Herald (February 25, 2009)
• “Supreme Court to decide dispute over cross in Mojave,” Charlie Butts and Jody Brown, OneNewsNow (February 25, 2009)

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How do you know that you know way too much about Washington bureaucracies and how they “work”? Here’s how. When you hear CNBC’s Rick Santelli calling for a Chicago Tea Party tax protest this summer, you immediately start to wonder whether he’ll need to get permits from some government entity like the Environmental Protection Agency. And then you wonder whether Illinois permits will be needed also. Well, I plead guilty to having had such thoughts last Thursday.

Fortunately, I am not alone and not nearly as bad off as Scott Ott of the D.C. Examiner appears to be. Ott has written a brilliant, hilarious piece entitled, “EPA Arrests Rick Santelli, ‘Chicago Tea Party’ Cancelled.” (See Feb. 24, 2009 ed., p. 14.) The satirical article contains the following slam from President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, commenting on Santelli’s arrest for threatening to pollute Lake Michigan: “I don’t know where Mr. Santelli lives, but apparently, like most conservative critics, he has a callous disregard for the lives of the waterfowl, sturgeon and fresh-water mollusks that inhabit the Lake Michigan watershed.”

That’s funny, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Santelli really could be arrested for dumping tea or “derivative securities” (paper) into the Great Lakes. Well done, Mr. Ott.

Andie Coller of The Politico observed today that Gibbs “dismissed [Santelli] as a know-nothing derivatives trader out of touch with Main Street.” Coller then noted that “[a] Rasmussen poll released Monday found that 55 percent of those surveyed thought federal mortgage subsidies to those most at risk of losing their homes would be ‘rewarding bad behavior.’” If I were the White House I would be very careful about trying to roll out a campaign of intimidation and bullying against journalists, in general, and a journalist, in particular, who is very much attuned to public sentiment, is an expert in the numerous cross-cutting markets traded in Chicago, and is the most popular figure on America’s #1 financial news network.

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Earlier this week North Dakota passed a bill to recognize the “personhood” of the unborn embryo or fetus. Several other states are considering similar measures.

Such laws, among other things, seek to correct a philosophical mistake. That is, they seek to correct the dis-unity between “person” and “human being” that philosophers such as Peter Singer make. There is no difference. All human beings are persons. Creating a distinction between some human beings, who are persons, and some who are not is a dangerous game.

It is the powerful, after all, who will decide which human beings are persons, and you can bet your last dollar they won’t leave themselves out. But, as history proves, they will leave others out – the weak, the voiceless, the outsiders. The whole history of our United States may be understood as a struggle to recognize, and to guarantee in law, that all human beings are equal. State “personhood” laws are well within this tradition.

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In the latest Mapping America, the National Survey of Children’s Health shows that children who attend religious services at least monthly are much less likely to repeat a grade in school than those who attend religious services less frequently.

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Here’s some of the buzz from the blogosphere today.

• “Gays, child molesters, athiests and Oscar,” Brian Kirwin, Bearing Drift The Academy Awards (Oscars) last Sunday proved that only movies with a pro-gay or anti-family slant tend to be hailed by those in Hollywood.
• “Jindal’s Moment,” Philip Klein, AmSpecBlog Bobby Jindal will be giving the rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union Address and the spotlight will be on him tonight.
• “Red envelope campaign – send Obama an abortion reminder,” Diane Singer, Mommy Life Great story about a campaign that is occurring to remind President Obama of the lives lost to abortion every day.
• ” 9,000 earmarks in the $410 billion omnibus spending bill: Gang tattoo removal, Maine lobster, La Raza & more!,” Michelle Malkin, MichelleMalkin.com Earmarks Galore in the Omnibus Bill, and Malkin lists them in this post.

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Our Navy chaplain told us last Sunday about a most interesting psych experiment from his college days. Student volunteers were given special goggles. These goggles blocked out the students’ peripheral vision and turned everything they saw upside down–a full 180º. At first, of course, the students stumbled around, as if hopelessly uncoordinated and incapable of movement. Gradually, however, they began to accommodate themselves to the new view. In a surprisingly short time, the students, their upside-down goggles firmly attached and without peeking, found they could negotiate with ease. Apparently, some volunteers for this upside-down experiment have become so proficient they can actually pilot airplanes.

I feel like those student volunteers. I remember when the world was right side up. In the 1960s, I did not take psychology in college, but biology. In that class, we dissected a fetal pig. I can still smell that formaldehyde and see the odd smile on my fetal pig. You can imagine, then, how strange, how upside down it seemed to me when I heard people in that era begin to talk of the unborn child as a fetus.

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POSITION: DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT and BUDGET

NOMINEE: Peter R. Orszag

BIRTH DATE: December 16, 1968 in Boston, MA

EDUCATION:

A.B. summa cum laude in Economics 1991, Princeton University

M.Sc. in Economics 1992, London School of Economics

Ph.D, in Economics 1997, London School of Economics

FAMILY: Divorced, lives with his two children, Leila and Joshua

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Here’s what we are reading today.

• “Gay Marriage Needs a Vote,” Editorial, New York Times (February 23, 2009)
• “Politics in the Guise of Pure Science,” John Tierney, New York Times (February 23, 2009)
• “New Safety, New Concerns In Tests for Down Syndrome,” Rob Stein, The Washington Post (February 24, 2009)
• “Bobby Jindal’s Big Night and the Future of Religious Conservatives in the GOP,” Dan Gilgoff, U.S. News & World Report (February 23, 2009)
• “Legal Experts Propose Limiting Justices’ Powers, Terms,” Robert Barnes, The Washington Post (February 23, 2009)
• “Family planning report gets applause and criticism,” Martha R. Gore, The San Francisco Examiner (February 24, 2009)
• “Gay Bloggers’ Voices Rise in Chorus of Growing Political Influence,” Jose Antonio Vargas, The Washington Post (February 24, 2009)
• “Pornography addiction: What happens to the spouse,” Elia Gourgouris, Mormon Times (February 24, 2009)
• “At Tonight’s Address, What Obama Should Say About Abortion,” Aspen Baker, RH Reality Check (February 24, 2009)
• ” Catholic Judges and Abortion: Did the Pope Set New Rules?,” Douglas W. Kmiec, Time (February 20, 2009)
• “Obama asked to keep abstinence education funding,” Charlie Butts, OneNewsNow (February 23, 2009)
• “Bishops of India strongly reject euthanasia,” Catholic News Agency (February 23, 2009)
• “Senate panel kills bill on prayers at state police events,” Mason Adams, Roanoke Times (February 24, 2009)
• “Trading Civil Unions for Religous-Liberty Protection?,” Maggie Gallagher, National Review Online (February 23, 2009)
• “Dealing in death,” Lynn Vincent, World Magazine (February 28, 2009)

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“You Commie homo-loving sons of guns! I did not expect this, but I – and I want to be very clear that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me. Often. But I – I am touched by the appreciation and I hoped for it enough that I scribbled down – so I have the names in case you were Commie homo-loving sons of guns.”

In case you were trapped in an elevator during the Academy Awards, or landing in a USAir Jet on the Hudson River, you doubtless know by now that the above quote was part of Sean Penn’s acceptance speech for his Oscar in the film, Milk.

For once, let’s not focus on homosexuals. Or even on guns. Let’s consider instead that toss-away line about Commies. The Hollywood glitterati cheered and laughed to have themselves so described by one of their favorite bad boys. And maybe, with Penn’s blessing, we can use the Russian pronunciation-Gollyvood.

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Here’s some of the buzz from the blogosphere today.

• “Hollywood’s culture of death,” Jill Stanek, JillStanek.com Last night’s Oscars highlighted more anti-family films than pro-family films.
• “Remembering the indispensable man,” Scott Johnson, Powerline Blog Great post celebrating the life of President George Washington on his birthday.
• “What Exactly are Pro-life Riders?,” Tom McClusky, Kitchen Table Blog
• “Catholics United? More Like Catholics Looking to Divide,” Tom McClusky, Kitchen Table Blog Is the group, Catholics United, tied to George Soros?

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POSITION: SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION

NOMINEE: Ray LaHood

BIRTH DATE: December 6, 1945 in Peoria, IL

EDUCATION: B.S. in Education 1971, Bradley University, Peoria, IL

FAMILY: Wife Kathy; four children: Darin, Amy, Sam, and Sarah

FRC SCORECARD:

110^th Congress: 64%

Lifetime Average: 78%

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