Michael Voris: Audacity 07-07
Published July 8, 2010 | 
The faith must be presented to the world with a great deal of audacity.
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Cuba Will Free 52 Political prisoners after unprecedented talks with the Catholic Church
Published July 8, 2010 | - Catholic News Agency (www.catholicnewsagency.com , 7/8/2010
The prisoners have reportedly suffered harsh conditions while incarcerated, with some going on hunger strikes as a sign of protest. Ariel Sigler Amaya, a 46-year-old prisoner released last month, became a paraplegic while in prison and now weighs 106 lbs.
Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana.
HAVANA, Cuba (CNA) – Following unprecedented dialogue between Cuban officials and the country’s Catholic leaders, political authorities in Cuba announced today that they will release 52 political prisoners.
According to the Miami Herald, Cuba’s leader Raul Castro announced the move to Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana on July 7 during the latest meeting in their nearly two-month series of talks.
Castro informed the cardinal that 5 prisoners will be released immediately with the remaining 47 being allowed to leave the island nation within the next four months, the Herald reports. The 52 were part of a group of 75 dissidents arrested in 2003 for what the local communist government viewed as treason.
Prior to Wednesdays announcement, the prelate’s talks with Cuban authorities had garnered the release of one prisoner and the transfer of a dozen others to prisons closer to their homes.
The prisoners have reportedly suffered harsh conditions while incarcerated, with some going on hunger strikes as a sign of protest. Ariel Sigler Amaya, a 46-year-old prisoner released last month, became a paraplegic while in prison and now weighs 106 lbs.
Dialogue contributing to the prisoners’ release has also been credited to the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, who visited the country during the recent Cuban Social Week in June.
Founded in continued response to Pope John Paul II’s call for a “New Evangelization,” the Catholic News Agency (CNA) has been, since 2004, one of the fastest growing Catholic news providers to the English speaking world.
http://www.catholiconline.com/international/international_story.php?id=37274
Pope Benedict XVI
Published July 8, 2010 | Pope Benedict XVI Leaves for Castel Gandolfo Teaching on Freedom. New Encyclical on Faith
7,000 pilgrims filled the Paul VI Hall to hear this beloved Pope at the last of his scheduled catechetical teachings until August 4, 2010. The Pope left for Castel Gandolfo after the instruction. ‘Freedom’, the Pope explained, ‘is authentic and helps in the construction of a truly human civilization only when reconciled with truth. If disconnected from truth, freedom tragically becomes the principle that destroys the inner harmony of human beings, a source of abuse for the strong and the violent, a cause of suffering and mourning. Freedom … grows and is perfected, said Duns Scotus, when man opens himself to God.’
Full Story
NASA’s New Mission: Building Ties to Muslim World
Published July 8, 2010 | By: Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent, July 6, 2010
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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in February. (Gerald Herbert/AP)
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You’d be hard-pressed to find an American who doesn’t know that the “S” in NASA stands for “Space.” Since the race to the moon in the 1960s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been one of the most storied agencies in the U.S. government. Now, under President Obama, its mission is changing — and space isn’t part of the story.
“When I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things,” NASA head Charles Bolden said in a recent interview with the Middle Eastern news network al-Jazeera. “One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”
From moon landings to promoting self-esteem: It would be difficult to imagine a more dramatic shift in focus for an agency famous for reaching the heavens. Bolden’s words left supporters of space exploration astonished. “Everyone had the same impression: Is this what he is spending his time on?” says a Republican Hill aide who tracks the space program. “A lot of people are very upset about it.”
NASA is not getting out of the space business, at least not entirely. But Bolden’s words, together with the president’s decision to scrap much of NASA’s mission and include the agency in the “Cairo Initiative” — that is, the White House outreach program outlined in Obama’s June 4, 2009, Cairo speech to the Muslim world — show that the NASA of the future will be little like the past.
Obama released his plan for NASA a few months ago, and to many it seemed a blueprint for disaster. The moon program will be scrapped, replaced by a hazy hope to visit Mars. The space shuttle will die, too, leaving America with no way to put a man in orbit.
Obama’s proposal stunned U.S. space heroes Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan — the first and last men to walk on the moon — who, along with Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, made a rare public statement denouncing the plan as a “devastating” scheme that “destines our nation to become one of second- or even third-rate stature.”
Even John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth who later became a Democratic senator and Obama supporter, was dismayed by the president’s plan to rely on the Russians to ferry American astronauts to the international space station. “We’re putting ourselves in line for a single-point failure ending the whole manned space program,” Glenn said.
The Muslim outreach at NASA is the result of the White House’s preparation for Obama’s Cairo speech. Staffers found that many Muslims admire American achievements in science and technology, so Obama used the speech to announce the appointment of U.S. “science envoys” and a new fund “to support technological development in Muslim-majority countries.”
Obama appointed Egyptian-American scientist Ahmed Zewail as the first science envoy to the Middle East. Just last week, Zewail argued that the U.S. can build better relations with the Muslim world by “harnessing the soft power of science in the service of diplomacy.” The NASA initiative is part of that.
Last month, Bolden himself traveled to Cairo to mark the first anniversary of Obama’s speech. In an address at the American University, Bolden cited Zewail’s work and stressed NASA’s role in improving relations with Islamic nations. Beginning with a hearty “Assalaamu alaykum,” Bolden explained that in the past, NASA worked with countries that were capable of space exploration, but now Obama has “asked NASA to change … by reaching out to ‘nontraditional’ partners and strengthening our cooperation in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and in particular in Muslim-majority nations.”
“NASA is not only a space exploration agency,” Bolden concluded, “but also an Earth improvement agency.”
At the same time, Bolden gave a bleak assessment of the space part of NASA’s mission. More than 40 years after the first moon landing, he told al-Jazeera, the U.S. can no longer reach beyond Earth’s orbit without assistance from abroad. “We’re not going to go anywhere beyond low Earth orbit as a single entity,” Bolden said. “The United States can’t do it.”
Its space initiatives junked, its administrator rhapsodizing about helping Muslims “feel good” about themselves: That is the new NASA.
Byron York, The Examiner’s chief political correspondent, can be contacted at byork@washingtonexaminer.com. His column appears on Tuesday and Friday, and his stories and blog posts appears on ExaminerPolitics.com
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37938
On NASA’s Strange Priorities
Published July 8, 2010 | … it’s a perversion of American scientific investment to distort a space agency into a feel-good tool of soft diplomacy….
Daniel Pipes, Catholic Exchange, July 8th, 2010
Barack Obama’s grand speeches in Istanbul and Cairo as well as his repeated insistence on “respect” made Americans very aware that he hopes to win Muslim favor. But we did not know how deeply embedded this impulse has become in U.S. policy until this: “Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world.” Byron York of the Washington Examiner uncovered an interview on Al-Jazeera in which the head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Charles F. Bolden, Jr., explained how Obama charged him to pursue three decidedly non-scientific objectives:
One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.
NASA, he went on, is pursuing “a new beginning of the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world.”
York also located a speech by Bolden, who is a retired United States Marine Corps major general and a former NASA astronaut, on June 15 at the American University in Cairo. There, Bolden related that Obama asked NASA to change…by reaching out to non-traditional partners and strengthening our cooperation in the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia, and in particular in Muslim-majority nations.
Bolden averred that, indeed, “NASA has embraced this charge.” In his colorful wording, “NASA is not only a space exploration agency but also an earth improvement agency.”
In response to the firestorm these comments have caused, the White House and NASA, according to Fox News, “stood by Bolden’s statement that part of his mission is to improve relations with Muslim countries — though NASA backed off the claim that such international diplomacy is Bolden’s ‘foremost’ responsibility.”
This unexpected turn of events prompts several reactions.
First, it is inordinately patronizing for Americans to make Muslims “feel good” about their medieval contributions to science. This will lead to more resentment than gratitude.
Second, Muslims at present do lag in the sciences and the way to fix this is not condescension from NASA but some deep Muslim introspection. Put differently, accomplished scientists of Muslim origin — including NASA’s Farouk El-Baz, who is of Egyptian origins — do exist. The problem lies in societies, and include everything from insufficient resources to poor education to the ravages of Islamism.
Third, polls indicate that Obama’s effort to win Muslim public opinion has been a failure, with his popularity in majority-Muslim countries hardly better than George W. Bush’s. Why continue with these farcical and failed attempts to win good will?
Finally, it’s a perversion of American scientific investment to distort a space agency into a feel-good tool of soft diplomacy. Just as soldiers are meant to fight, not carry out social programs, so scientists must work to expand the frontiers of knowledge, not to make select people “feel good.”
Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, including Militant Islam Reaches America and In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power (Transaction Publishers), from which this column derives. You may visit his website by clicking here and purchase his books by clicking here.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/NASA_s-new-mission_-Building-ties-to-Muslim-world-97817909.html#ixzz0sw2S5KFl
Top 10 Things Obama Doesn’t Want You to Know About Donald Berwick
Published July 8, 2010 | 
President Obama bypassed Congress Wednesday and through a “recess appointment” put Donald Berwick — a leading advocate of rationing healthcare — in charge of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
But the truth is — as HUMAN EVENTS has been reporting — Berwick is America’s worst nightmare when it comes to healthcare reform.
Obama’s recess appointment was clearly an effort to avoid public hearings on Berwick’s controversial views.
Here are the TopTen things the Obama Administration didn’t want you to know about Berwick:
1. Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to administer Medicare and Medicare, has stated openly that he favors rationing healthcare “with our eyes open.” He wants the government to be able to decide how much healthcare you and your family are entitled to.
2. Berwick believes for that healthcare to be effective we must redistribute wealth. “Any healthcare funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent healthcare is by definition redistributional,” said Berwick.
3. Berwick is “in love” with Britain’s National Heath Service. He called the British system — that many here in the U.S. refer to as “free for all, but worthless to many” — a “seductress” about which he is “romantic.”
In an op-ed published in the Washington Post in 1992 Berwick stated about Britain: “At last, a nation where healthcare is a right and carrying a semi-automatic machine gun is a privilege. Berwick also described a “utopian” future in which the government is in complete control of the healthcare system.
4. Berwick believes that ultrasounds in normal pregnancies and cesarean sections amount to an “assault” and wants to cut prenatal care programs.
“As many as 80% of hysterectomies are scientifically unnecessary, so are more than a quarter of the drugs used for ear infections, most of the ultrasounds done in normal pregnancies, and half of cesarean sections in the United States. Isn’t this, with all do respect, some form of assault and battery, however unintended,” said Berwick
5. Berwick has repeatedly expressed his support for a single-payer healthcare system. Berwick has stated that if he could “wave a wand…
* Healthcare is a common good – single payer, speaking and buying for the common good;
* Healthcare is a human right – universality is a non-negotiable starting place;
* Justice is a prerequisite to health –equity is a primary quality goal.”
6. Berwick will cut the number of cardiac centers, cancer-care centers, neonatal intensive-care units, and high-level trama centers.
7. Berwick doesn’t trust the free market. “Don’t trust market forces,” instructs Berwick. Trust “leaders with plans.”
“When you rely on incentives, market forces, competition, and upward reporting for excellence you are playing with fire. I believe it is better to rely instead whenever possible on spirit, purpose, learning cooperation and joy in work.”
8. Berwick will cut preventative care in cases such as mammograms and ultrasounds. “One over demanding service is prevention; annual physicals, screening tests, and other measures that supposedly help catch disease early,” said Berwick in a 1998 Institute for Healthcare Improvement publication.
9. On “End of Life Care,” Berwick stated in a 1993 speech that “only a minority of patients, families, and clinicians support prolonged use of life-sustaining procedures and dramatic interventions in the terminal states of illness, yet substantial use of these procedures continue.”
10. Berwick, highlights race as a factor in healthcare reform. “It’s still true that race, minority race, especially being black in our country, is the strongest critique that we have about health,” said Berwick.
Miss Oddis is Assistant Managing Editor at HUMAN EVENTS. Before working with Human Events she was a researcher for syndicated columnist and author Robert Novak. Ms. Oddis has appeared on FOX News Hannity and Colmes, and The O’Reilly Factor. She has a bachelor’s degree in English from Eastern Connecticut State University. E-mail her at moddis@eaglepub.com. You can also request to follow her on Twitter. Or find her Facebook fan page here
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37938
30+ Major Pro-Life Leaders Joining Forces for Landmark ‘Ending Abortion’ Web Event July 10
Published July 8, 2010 | LifeSiteNews.com, July 7, 2010
Leaders representing more than 30 national and regional pro-life organizations will be part of an unprecedented 10-hour webcast conference this Saturday to help local pro-lifers make a greater impact defending the unborn in their community and beyond.
The conference will take place July 10, from 10am to 8pm EDT.
David Bereit, national director of 40 Days for Life, is co-hosting and coordinating the event. “Over the last two years,” he said, “we’ve surveyed more than 28,000 people who participated in 40 Days for Life campaigns, asking them how unified pro-life efforts can expand and have even greater impact.”
An overwhelming majority of respondents asked for focused training to educate, equip, and empower pro-lifers in their local communities to help bring an end to abortion.
“As a result,” said Bereit, “we are launching the first step in the Ending Abortion initiative — a massive, day-long, webcast mega-conference uniting the entire pro-life movement.”
The event will break the pro-life message into ten different hour-long focused topics. Confirmed speakers include:
· CHARMAINE YOEST, Americans United for Life
· MARJORIE DANNENFELSER, Susan B. Anthony List
· KRISTAN HAWKINS, Students for Life
· TOM MCCLUSKY, Family Research Council
· WENDY WRIGHT, Concerned Women for America
· LOU ENGLE, The Call
· MARK CRUTCHER, Life Dynamics
· ABBY JOHNSON, former Planned Parenthood abortion center director
· ALVEDA KING, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
· DR. TONY LEVATINO, former abortionist
· PEGGY HARTSHORN, Heartbeat International
· THERESA and KEVIN BURKE, Rachel’s Vineyard
“The goal is to educate, equip, and empower pro-lifers to have a greater life-saving impact right where they live,” said Bereit, adding that this first-ever event is designed to set the stage for greater involvement in local pro-life efforts this fall, including the next 40 Days for Life campaign, which runs from September 22 to October 31.
“A renewed groundswell of grassroots interest can also help make the pro-life issue of primary importance prior to this fall’s elections,” Bereit said.
Additional details are available online at http://www.endingabortion.com/.
Founder’s Quote Daily
Published July 8, 2010 | 
“The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. … How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers?”
–John Adams, Diary, 1778
Tony Perkins: Family Research Council, 7/8/2010
Published July 8, 2010 | Something Berwicked This Way Comes…
Recess is usually a time for game-playing–and in Washington, it’s no different. With Congress out of his hair for the week, President Obama couldn’t resist hiring another radical socialist for one of the most important jobs in America. Knowing that many in his party wouldn’t support him, the President used a recess appointment to force Dr. Don Berwick into the top spot at Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). By sidestepping the confirmation process, the White House also avoided a messy public debate over Berwick’s fanatical support for “death panels” and rationing.
To justify the move, the President’s communications director said Republicans were stalling the nomination–but, as everyone with any political sense knows, the GOP couldn’t stall Berwick if they wanted to! Under Senate rules, the majority controls the committees. So it’s the Democrats–not Republicans–who decide when to hold hearings and schedule votes. They refused to do either, which should indicate just how offensive this nominee is. FRC has fought his appointment since the White House originally floated his name. As the head of CMS, Berwick will be in charge of almost a trillion dollars in benefits, not including the massive expansions of Medicaid under the new health care law. And just to give you an idea of how powerful his post will be, the Senate Republican Policy Committee explains that CMS is larger than all but 15 of the world’s economies.
Obviously, the President’s decision to seat Berwick without so much as a hearing is shocking for a job of this magnitude. “It’s nearly unprecedented for an administration to recess appoint [someone] that has not even come up for a hearing. It’s unfortunate that President Obama saw fit to take this extraordinary step,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), “and appoint an individual charged with overseeing a benefits budget larger than the economies of Denmark, South Africa, and Israel combined without so much as a hearing to examine his views.”
So what are these “views” that the White House is so desperate to cover up? For one, Berwick is a socialist. He was caught on video suggesting that “any health care funding plan that is just… must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer...” Secondly, he thinks it’s cheaper to let sick patients die than provide care. “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care,” he said last year, “the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.” He is, in his own words, “romantic” about nationalized health care, particularly Britain’s system. He despises free market capitalism. And the list goes on and on.
Congress is right to be outraged. Senators like Tom Barrasso (R-Wy.) were stunned to learn that while they’re on vacation, President Obama gave Berwick the keys to one of the biggest federal agencies in the country. “Because this post administers the Medicare program, it touches virtually every senior in America …” he said. “This recess appointment proves [that Obama] did not have the support of a majority of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate… Once again, [the President] is going behind closed doors out of fear the American people will learn that Dr. Berwick plans to use rationing as a cost-cutting tool…”
Surf and Marriage Turf
Same-sex couples were hoping to take the plunge in Hawaii, but that was before Gov. Linda Lingle intervened. In a massive victory for marriage, the Governor beat back a challenge from the legislature to establish counterfeit unions. After months of deliberating, Gov. Lingle said there had not been a bill that she “contemplated more” or “thought more deeply about” during her eight years as Governor than the institution of marriage. “I have been open and consistent in my opposition to same-sex marriage, and find that House Bill 444 is essentially same-sex marriage by another name.” According to Lingle’s staff, roughly 60% of the phone calls and emails flooding the office were in opposition to the bill. No doubt you were a big part of that number! On the actual day of the veto, supporters of marriage prayed outside of the capitol while proponents wore rainbow leis and played music from the Rent soundtrack. Our sincere thanks to all of the churches and families who contacted Governor Lingle in the state–and those of you who prayed for her outside it. A few minutes of your time can make all the difference!
http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU10G04&f=PG07J01
LifeNews.com Headlines: July 8, 2010
Published July 8, 2010 | OBAMA RECESS APPOINTS RATIONING ADVOCATE DONALD BERWICK TO MEDICARE POST
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – President Barack Obama used a recess appointment today to name rationing advocate Donald Berwick to become the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The office oversees government health care programs and that worries pro-life advocates because Berwick has praised British programs that ration care.
OBAMA ADMIN DENIES IT’S SUPPORTING KENYA CONSTITUTION LEGALIZING ABORTIONS
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Even though a federal law prohibits the United States from spending taxpayer funds lobbying for abortion abroad, the Obama administration has essentially been supporting a new constitution Kenya residents will vote on next month that includes provisions that would legalize unlimited abortions.
PRO-LIFE ADVOCATES CALL OBAMA PICK DONALD BERWICK A ONE MAN DEATH PANEL
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The reaction from pro-life advocates against the recess appointment of rationing advocate Donald Berwick to head up Medicare and Medicaid has been strong. They are very concerned Berwick, named to the post by Obama today after no hearings in the Senate, will promote rationing.
GOVERNOR JINDAL MAKES LOUISIANA FOURTH TO OPT OUT OF ABORTION $ IN HEALTH CARE
Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) — Governor Bobby Jindal has made the state of Louisiana the fourth to opt out of some of the abortion funding found in the government-run health care law President Barack Obama signed. The Louisiana Senate passed its opt out bill on a 28-3 margin after the House approved it by a wide margin.
GALLUP: OBAMA APPROVAL RATING DROPS TO 38 PERCENT FOR INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A new Gallup poll shows just 38 percent of independent voters think pro-abortion President Barack Obama is doing a good job. Those figures don’t bode well for Obama and his pro-abortion Democratic allies heading into the 201 election season where pro-life Republicans are poised to pick up seats.
DEMOCRATS FOR LIFE DEFENDING LAWMAKERS WHO BACKED PRO-ABORTION HEALTH CARE BILL
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Democrats for Life of America is striking back against the pro-life organizations that are targeting the formerly respected pro-life Democratic members of Congress who supported the national health care bill that contained massive abortion funding and was opposed by every other pro-life group.
CARE NET BLASTS PRO-ABORTON ATTEMPT TO SHUT DOWN PREGNANCY CENTERS
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A national association of pregnancy centers says it is not surprised by the relentless efforts of the pro-abortion group NARAL to target their working helping women find abortion alternatives. Care Net says the summer attack by the abortion industry is “just another attempt to shut down the competition.”
PRO-LIFE LEADERS, GROUPS COME TOGETHER FOR WEBCAST TRAINING AGAINST ABORTION
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – More than 30 pro-life groups and leaders are coming together this weekend for an unprecedented event that will help train and motivate pro-life people to work against abortion. The webcast coming this Saturday will last for ten hours as pro-life advocates cover a variety of topics.
LOUISIANA GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL ALLOWING WOMEN TO SEE ULTRASOUND BEFORE ABORTION
Baton Rouge, LA (LifeNews.com) – On Tuesday, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana signed into law two pro-life bills including one that opts the state out of abortion funding under the federal health care law and another that allows women a chance to see an ultrasound of their unborn child before the abortion.
Supreme Court Justice Kennedy Hopes to Outlast Obama
Published July 8, 2010 | By James Tillman, July 7, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com
Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States of America has told friends that he will not retire until Barack Obama is no longer president, according to the New York Daily News.
The Reagan-appointed justice turns 74 this month, and has spent 22 years on the Supreme Court
He is considered the swing vote in many cases, and thus one of the most powerful justices.
He wrote the majority opinion in 2007′s Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the constitutionality of the partial-birth abortion ban; however, Kennedy sided with the pro-abortion majority in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe v. Wade.
Kennedy’s decision would prevent Barack Obama from appointing another extreme liberal Supreme Court justice.
Obama has already nominated the pro-abortion Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court as well the pro-abortion Elena Kagan for the position. Sotomayor was confirmed last year, while the Senate is currently considering the latter nomination.
Bobby Jindal Signs Landmark Abortion Reforms into Louisiana Law
Published July 8, 2010 | By Peter J. Smith, July 7, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com
BATON ROUGE – Gov. Bobby Jindal signed three landmark abortion bills on Tuesday that significantly tighten the state’s regulations on abortionists and their practices, and opt out the state from the national health care reform’s abortion mandates.
Jindal signed two bills that were introduced and shepherded through the legislature by the Louisiana Right to Life Federation (LARTL). The Ultrasound before Abortion Act (SB 528) adds strict ultrasound requirements to the state’s informed consent laws. The law requires abortionists to perform an ultrasound on a woman at least two hours before she undergoes the induced abortion of her child, and before she is put under any kind of anesthesia.
Abortion facility employees must also follow a detailed script set forth in the legislation, offering pregnant mothers the opportunity to see the ultrasound image, hear a description of the image, and receive a printout of the ultrasound image. To guarantee compliance, legislators added a provision stating that abortionists failing to adhere to the law could expect to find themselves sued in civil court by their clients.
The other bill, the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out (HB 1247), prohibits health insurers from providing abortion coverage within the state-run health insurance exchange that will go into operation in 2014, as mandated by the national health care reform. A provision of the national law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, gives states the explicit right to ban health insurance companies receiving public subsidies under the state health exchange from providing abortion coverage.
The Louisiana measure even protects children conceived in situations of rape and incest, leaving just one exception for insurance companies – allowing them to pay for abortion in cases where the mother’s life is in danger from “a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury” including “a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.”
With Jindal’s signature, Louisiana becomes the fourth state in the union to opt-out of the abortion mandate.
“We brought these bills forward to the legislature out of the desire to increase the positive effects of ultrasound and to prevent the government funding of abortion,” commented Benjamin Clapper, LARTL’s Executive Director, in a statement. “We are confident these new laws will save the lives of unborn children and open the door to life-affirming choices for mothers.”
In addition to the above bills, Governor Jindal signed another major abortion reform into law (HB 1370), introduced by Democrat Rep. Fred Mills, that gives abortionists and abortion clinic owners no room to run from the long arm of the law.
Mills’ legislation empowers the Department of Health and Hospitals to shut down the operation of abortion facilities not in compliance with Louisiana law. And the DHH secretary may also immediately shut down a clinic’s operations if a DHH investigation rules that the clinic is violating the law and poses “an immediate threat to the health and safety of a patient or client.”
But abortionists would not just be able to set up shop at another location. If an abortion facility violates the law, state or federal, and the DHH Secretary either chooses to “deny, refuse, or revoke” the operating license of its owner, then all the facilities licensed under that owner would have to cease their operations. In addition to this, the law states that “any owner, officer, member, manager, director, or administrator of the licensee may be prohibited from owning, managing, directing, or operating another outpatient abortion clinic in [Louisiana].”
The law is a major reform, but it actually just brings outpatient abortion clinics into compliance with Louisiana’s regulations that already apply to hospitals.
“Louisiana furthered its exemplary commitment to defending unborn human life by enacting these critical pieces of pro-life legislation,” said Clapper. “We thank Governor Jindal for signing these bills into law and for his administration working with us every step of the way to pass these measures.”
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
‘Bayou State’ Scores another Pro-Life Win with Ultrasound Act
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10061611.html
Louisiana Passes Opt-Out Bill Voiding ObamaCare’s Abortion Mandate
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10061403.html
Louisiana Lawmakers Clamp Down on Law-Breaking Abortionists
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10061410.html
GOSPEL & MEDITATION: Go, Spread the Kingdom
Published July 8, 2010 | July 8, 2010
Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Jeffrey Bowker, LC
Matthew 10:7-15
Jesus sent out the Twelve with the following instructions, “As you go, make this proclamation: ´The kingdom of heaven is at hand.´ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there until you leave. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you. Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words — go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgment than for that town.”
Introductory Prayer: Lord, in your presence I break away from the spiritual laziness and indifference that deprives me of the fruit of this prayer which I need so much. I know my poverty, and you are immensely rich in all that I need. I am so slow to give, whereas you are prompt and total in your gifts to me. I offer you this unruly heart of mine to do all that you wish of me today.
Petition: Lord, please grant me the grace to be a better apostle today than I was yesterday.
1. Go Out The command is “Go.” The Kingdom cannot be spread while sitting in an easy chair. We cannot wait for the world that needs Christ to come to our door. Letting opportunities where we can serve pass by, hoping someone else will take the initiative, is simply a “no” to Christ’s command. “Go” means sensitizing our heart and eyes to those who are hungry for Christ, seeing in the faces of our family members and co-workers a hunger for his power and grace. In this culture that is sick and waning, “go” means reaching out to those who need to know Christ, so that his Kingdom will expand. We cannot take the easy route of preaching to the choir; we must reach out to those professions and fields of study that have lost all sense of the dignity of the human person – especially medicine, law, politics and education. This is what the King is asking. What is the response I am giving to my King?
2. “Nobody Gives What He Doesn’t Possess” Christ’s command is to give from what we have received. If every day we make ourselves more aware of the gifts we have been given through Christ’s power, we will be better at giving Christ to others. As apostles, we go not with our own power; rather, we carry Christ’s power to heal, save and conquer evil. It is he who drives the mission, who makes the apostles a team. How often do I calculate what I can contribute to the mission based only on the strength of my human qualities? How often do I give only from what is just me, rather than from the graces I have received from the Holy Spirit? Moreover, do I measure my effectiveness solely from an individual perspective, rather than from that of the whole body of the Church, in which other apostles are locked arm-in-arm with me for the cause of Christ? God’s saving power is found where obedience and unity are, not where only natural talents, gifts and abilities are at play.
3. Failures and Disappointments Christ affirms that when we reach an impasse in our lives, this is, in and of itself, no sign of the lack of the authenticity of our mission. Its results are tied to the free-will choices of others, as well as to a plan where apparent barrenness is part of God’s economy of salvation. A period of few fruits in the mission can be a period of consolidation of our commitment to follow him in season and out of season. Take this time to repel all discouragement and doubt and to prove how authentic our “yes” is. A pure “yes” will seek God’s will and the mission at hand simply because he wants it, not for any easy or short-term results.
Conversation with Christ: Jesus, I wish to ignite my own zeal for your Kingdom from the furnace of divine love which burns in your heart. I offer you the promise of a soldier in combat: to be courageous, honorable, persevering, and worthy of the name I bear – “Apostle of the Kingdom of Christ.” I work aware of the fact that I have only one life to live on this earth. Not one minute must be wasted in comfort-seeking and selfishness. My heart is ready for the mission, Lord; please sustain it today with the strength of your own.
Resolution: Today I will review my daily and weekly time commitments before Christ, and I will ensure that I am using my time as fruitfully as I can to expand his Kingdom in the world.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302
TODAY’S SAINT: STS. AQUILA AND PRISCILLA
Published July 8, 2010 | CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 08, 2010
They were tentmakers, thus sharing the same profession as Paul and because of this it is thought that Paul may have worked with them. Acts 18: 18-19 tells us that they accompanied Paul to Ephesus and stayed there with him for three years.
In the era of house churches – when Mass was always celebrated in the house of one of the Christian community – their’s was an important one.
According to tradition they were martyred in Rome on their return, probably around the same time as St. Paul.
Big Shoes, Small Steps