So the forcasters actually got it right this time. Yesterday morning we got about 14 inches of snow along with about 2 inches of ice. I can’t really remember the last time we got this much snow here. I still have yet to venture out onto the roads, ours didn’t get plowed until about 5:00 last night. The dogs are having a great time, though. My dog would spend hours frolicking in the snow if we let him! You can see more photos at my Dad’s Flickr photo album.
Pro-Life Advocate Laid to Rest
I told you earlier that a dear friend of mine died a few days ago. Today he no doubt helped delay a pretty serious ice/snow storm so that his funeral and burial could continue as scheduled. He was an agressive defender of human life and will be sorely missed, but I believe that he will be an even greater help to us now. Below is a picture of the pro-life display that a few of the local kids (including 3 of Dave’s) and I put up downtown on the 4th of July, something we do every year. Each year Dave and his family are a tremendous help for this. One of the many ways Dave contributed to the movement. I saw Dave as an inspiration for my own modest efforts to protect and defend life and I will continue to seek his council now that he’s gone. Please keep his wife, 5 children and 3 grandchildren (one is on the way) in your prayers.
Life is Worth Loving
In this article for the UK Times, sports writer Simon Barnes reflects on his experience of living with and loving his son, Eddie, who has Down’s syndrome. It is a beautiful testimony and relavent given the current situation in the UK with doctors seeking permission to kill disabled infants. As I said in a previous post, disabled children are human beings meant to be loved and cherished. Life is a wonderful gift from God even when that life doesn’t turn out quite as we had hoped.
From the article:
The fact is that nothing to do with love seems so terribly difficult when you get down to it. Nothing seems an impossible demand on your time, your resources, your patience, your temper, your abilities: not because you connect with your inner saintliness but because you just find yourself getting on with it: muddling through. Most non-parents imagine that they could never change a nappy. Then parenthood happens and they do it. It was the same thing when it came to living with Eddie. It’s just parenthood: everyone who has done it knows it.
So Eddie was born, and I have spent the subsequent five years living with him. Not living with Down’s syndrome: what a ridiculous idea. Living with Eddie. Who is my boy. And that really is the beginning, the end of it, and the day-to-day routine of it.
James Kelly, the Stem Cell Truth Detector
James Kelly, the paralyzed stem cell activist, wrote a fabulous article for National Review Online on the results of this month’s elections. Unfortunately he is not the kind of “victim activist” that the media is interested in. The only kind that shine in the media’s eyes are those like Michael J. Fox who use their illnesses to promote the creation and destruction of human embryos for scientific research.
From the article:
Two conservative stem-cell strategies offer real potentials for derailing the ESC and human cloning basic-research gravy train.
First, the public must be told the moral, financial, and practical truths about this research — the strategy effectively (and almost successfully) used by the Missourians Against Human Cloning coalition. When ESCs and human cloning are hyped with lies and frauds, call the lies and frauds by their name. When the motive for the deceptions is money, expose it. The public might be confused by scientific double talk, but it understands lies, frauds, and self-serving financial interests.
The pro-life movement needs to offer its political and public-relations support to research efforts aimed at expanding clinical uses of adult stem cells and cord blood. When the NIH refuses to fund credible clinical trials using adult stem cells or cord blood to save Americans from suffering from stroke, spinal cord injury, ALS, diabetes, or Parkinson’s Disease, the public needs to hear of it. If Americans can be shown that their health is being sacrificed, that their hopes are being exploited, and their trust has been betrayed to promote biotech financial goals, stem cell issues will become conservative and pro-life political strengths, rather than weaknesses.
In urging conservatives to take a hard-line approach to stem cells issues it might be said that I’m being selfish — that I suggest this course because I hope to walk again, because I want countless millions with diseases and disabilities to see their hopes fulfilled, because I don’t want others to needlessly suffer. If anyone were to say that, he’d be right.
— James Kelly, who was paralyzed in a 1997 auto accident, Kelly directs the Cures1st Foundation, Inc., which promotes the effective use of public and nonprofit research resources.
The Race is on in Florida
Supporters of embryonic stem cell research are working hard to get enough signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the Florida ballot in 2008. The amendment would require the state to spend $20 million annuallly on embryonic stem cell research for 10 years. But it looks like the opposition is gathering signitures for an initiative of their own. See here and here. A group called Citizens for Science and Ethics is trying to get an amendment on the ballot that says: “No revenue of the state shall be spent on experimentation that involves the destruction of a live human embryo.” Pretty clever. This is something I have often thought that we should have tried to do in Missouri this year. This will be an interesting race to watch in 2008. Let’s at least hope that the Citizens for Science and Ethics gather enough signitures!
On a personal note: a dear friend of mine – a father of 5 and a champion for life – passed away this morning. He was only 54. Please join me in praying for him and his family.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
I wish everyone a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving. I will be having a quiet day with my family here in Missouri. Every year we go see a movie, so we will be going to see “Happy Feet” tomorrow. I have been in a cooking frenzy lately, so I will be contributing to the Thanksgiving meal. I made pumpkin bread tonight and will be making apple crisp and a marinated salad tomorrow. My dad, the master chef, will be doing most of the rest of the cooking. So, I hope you all stay safe and have a wonderful day and remember to thank our good and gracious God for his beautiful gift of life!
For some turkey day reading check out Jill Stanek’s latest article on World Net Daily: Abortion and the end of the world. Or try the Real Story of Thanksgiving.
“Married Love and the Gift of Life”
For the first time in almost 40 years the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement reiterating the Church’s position on contraception and the meaning of the marital embrace. Married love is meant to be a total gift of self, holding nothing back. The use of contraception witholds a spouse’s fertility from that gift and says, “I give you everything I am – except…” It turns the marital embrace from an act of mutual self giving to the mere satisfaction of lust and human emotion. Because of this, Pope Paul VI, in his encyclical Humanae Vitae (1968), prophetically surmised that the use of contraception would lead spouses to treat each other as objects instead of people (if you have not yet read that document I highly recommend it!).
Contraception has had a lasting effect on our society as we now accept certain behaviors as premarital sex, adultry, divorce for whatever reason, and abortion. The latest headline on Fox News this evening states that Almost 40% of Children Born in the U.S. in 2005 Were Out of Wedlock, an All-Time High. Although the teen birth rate is declining the number of unwed mothers in their 20s is climbing and people are ditching the traditional idea of marriage. “A failure to respect married love’s power to helf create new life has eroded respect for life and for the sanctity of marriage.”
Common Sense
Like parental notification for minors and a 24 hr. waiting period, it is just common sense for abortion clinics to have annual safety inspections. Apparently Alabama is just now figuring that out. Any place that wants to be considered a “health clinic” should be held to the highest standards of safety, especially when you consider the methods used to perform abortions.
Get Ready for the New Congress
It seems that democrats plan on resurrecting the issue of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research early on in the next session. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says a measure similar to the one President Bush vetoed earlier this year will be voted on during the first 100 business hours of the next congressional session that begins in January.” Lucky for us it also appears that they do not have enough votes to override a veto. So let’s hope the President will stay true to his word a second time around.
Nicaraguan President Signs Abortion Ban
I wish we had more politicians like this in America:
MANAGUA, Nicaragua: Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos signed a bill Friday banning abortion in all cases — including when a woman’s life is endangered — despite opposition from doctors, women’s rights groups and diplomats.
Presidential spokesman Lindolfo Mojarretz told The Associated Press that Bolanos signed the bill Friday and that it will become law when it appears in the official register on Saturday.
Previously, Nicaragua allowed abortions if three doctors certified that the woman’s health was at risk. The law signed Friday eliminates that century-old exception.