North Dakota didn’t set out to become the abortion debate’s new epicenter. It happened by accident, after a legislative caucus that once vetted abortion bills languished, leaving lawmakers to propose a flurry of measures — some cribbed from Wikipedia — without roadblocks.
Long dismissed as cold and inconsequential, North Dakota is now trying to enact the toughest abortion restrictions in the nation. The newly oil-rich red state may soon find itself in a costly battle over legislation foes describe as blatantly unconstitutional.
Lawmakers on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House’s approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state’s constitution in November 2014.
It’s one of several anti-abortion measures to pass the Legislature. Most are awaiting the signature of Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who hasn’t yet indicated whether he supports the laws. Even if he were to veto them, some could have the support for the Legislature to override him.
One bill would prohibit abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Another would make North Dakota the only state to prohibit women from having the procedure because a fetus has a genetic defect, such as Down sy “The problem was we could never get all the groups on the same page,” Bismarck Republican Sen. Margaret Sitte said.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-03-23 03:38:032013-03-23 03:38:03ND Lawmakers Define Life As Starting At Conception, First Step in Outlawing Abortions
In the past 20 years, stem cell research has been thrust into the medical spotlight as celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve have advocated for it. Also, numerous studies have shown stem cell therapies have successfully treated a plethora of diseases.
And now, with the release of The Healing Cell: How the Greatest Revolution in Medical History Is Changing Your Life, the Catholic Church has given its stamp of approval on adult stem cell research by discussing the many ways these therapies work for the greater good. In fact, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote the book’s introduction, which was co-authored by Dr. Robin Smith and Monsignor Tomasz Trafny, along with Max Gomez.
Stem cell therapy isn’t anything new. Using bone marrow transplants to treat leukemia, which started more than 40 years ago, is essentially the same procedure. Through this process, doctors extract stem cells from the bone marrow and transplant them into the body to replace damaged cells caused by blood and bone marrow cancers. Sometimes cancer patients use autologous cells – cells harvested from their own body – and sometimes they use donated cells from another person’s bone marrow.
Ethical concerns
Smith said when celebrities began speaking out on behalf of embryonic ‘super cells,’ that’s when the real buzz started.
“Embryonic stem cells can become anything, any organ,” Smith said. “You have to destroy the embryo to get the cells, unless it’s from a stillborn fetus. It’s hard to control that in a lab. So that’s a little different from an adult stem cell, which is more mature. They exist in our bodies throughout our lifetime and go on to create just one or two specific things. All these clinical trials are looking at what cells should come from and where, in order to be treated.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-03-23 03:35:372013-03-23 03:35:37Catholic Church Gives Its Blessing To Stem Cell Research In New Book
A Texas mom is furious after discovering that her son’s school is teaching students that the United States is partly to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people.
Kara Sands, of Corpus Christi, Texas, took to her Facebook and posted photos of the test administered by Flour Bluff Intermediate School. The test reportedly covered content in a video fifth-grade students watched in class.
Of all the questions about the 9/11 attacks, Sands was most disturbed by question three: “Why might the United States be a target for terrorism?” The answer? “Decisions we made in the United States have had negative effects on people elsewhere.”
Unsurprisingly, the stunningly controversial lesson plan is part of the CSCOPE curriculum system that has come under fire recently. The same system includes lessons asking students to design a flag for a “new socialist nation” and dubs the Boston Tea Party as an “act of terrorism.”
“I’m not going to justify radical terrorists by saying we did anything to deserve that — over 3,000 people died,” Sands told KRIS-TV.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-03-22 03:15:312013-03-22 03:15:31Texas Mom Outraged After Finding Stunning Questions About 9/11, Terrorism On Her Son’s 5th Grade Test
A former worker for abortion practitioner Kermit Gosnell has told a court evaluating eight charges of murder for the embattled abortion practitioner that he did three-day-long abortion procedures at 30 weeks of pregnancy.
Gosnell, whose squalid “house of horrors” abortion clinic and callous, has had almost flippant attitude toward his macabre abortion practices shocked the nation. In all, Gosnell faces 43 criminal counts, including eight counts of murder in the death of one patient, Karnamaya Monger, and seven newborn infants. Additional charges include conspiracy, drug delivery resulting in death, infanticide, corruption of minors, evidence tampering, theft by deception, abuse of corpse, and corruption.
Gosnell could face the death penalty if convicted and he faces a mandatory minimum 20 years. The jury heard information about how Gosnell did gruesome late-term abortions that killed children and put women at risk. A young woman who was 17 when she aborted “Baby A” spent several hours testifying in Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s murder trial.
The prosecution says she was nearly 30 weeks in her pregnancy. And one of Gosnell’s medical assistants, who had testified that late-term babies were routinely cut with scissors after delivery, said she was disturbed by the baby’s size and pinkish color.
Prosecutors believe she was well beyond the 24-week limit in Pennsylvania. Gosnell started a three-day outpatient procedure on the teen in 2008 in Delaware, where the limit is 20 weeks. The baby was delivered at his clinic in West Philadelphia.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-03-22 02:46:342013-03-22 02:46:34‘House of Horrors’ Doctor Did Three-Day-Long Abortions At 30 Weeks Of Pregnancy
Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom and a Hudson Institute Fellow, told Breitbart’s “Uninvited” panel at CPAC on Saturday that “religious persecution is the gravest human rights crisis of our day.” She added that “Christians are as a group the most persecuted, out of sheer numbers, across the world. This means they are being killed, tortured, imprisoned and eradicated …sent into exile for their beliefs.”
“This is happening in three types of countries,” she said. “Those with a remnant Communist country, like North Korea and China, some nationalist countries like Burma and Eritrea, and then in the Muslim world …where Islamism is on the rise.” In those Muslim countries, she said, “persecution . . . is intensifying, and it is spreading.
The crisis of global persecution of Christians has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. Ms. Shea told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that “since A.M. Rosenthal at the New York Times passed away [in 2006], this issue has not been covered at the level it deserves, so I was very happy that Breitbart gave me the opportunity on the panel to promote the issue of global persecution of Christians.” Rosenthal, the former executive editor and columnist at the Times from 1977 to 1999, wrote dozens of columns on the problem of global Christian persecution in the 1990s.
Ms. Shea pointed to several recent examples of violent persecution of Christians in the Muslim world. “Last week alone,” she said, “we saw in Libya a Coptic Christian from Egypt tortured to death. Fifty of his co-religionists were imprisoned and some are still there.”
Ms. Shea’s complete remarks to “The Uninvited” panel can be seen in this video clip:
A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from requiring Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan to provide mandatory contraception coverage to his employees under the federal health care law.
The devout Roman Catholic says he considers contraception “gravely immoral” practice. His lawsuit also lists as a plaintiff his Domino’s Farms, an office park outside Ann Arbor.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law against Monaghan and Domino’s Farms.
The Texas Pain Bill, which establishes a state interest in protecting the lives of preborn children who feel pain, has predictably been attacked by the anti-Life media, which challenges the scientific evidence.
The Dallas Observer called the evidence “medically questionable,” and cited a “fact” that “there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that fetuses actually feel pain.” The Observer ignores dozens of current peer-reviewed fetal pain studies that confirm the capacity of a 20-week child to feel pain in utero.
Numerous scientific studies and physicians recognize that preborn children feel torturous pain from abortion by twenty weeks gestation, if not earlier. Contrary to The Observer’s ludicrous claim that the reality of fetal pain is based on a study from 1987 that has been “debunked,” ample recent evidence from the scientific community supports the bill.
What we know is the nervous system is developed to a level of maturity where pain can be sensed. We do see physical reaction to stimulation, and not only with respect to movement of the child, but release of stress hormones and other responses such as elevated heart rate. These are all objective responses to pain. And that is superimposed on the knowledge that the circuitry is developed which enables a human to feel and experience pain.
Sadly, the myth that women are somehow less able or too weak to shoot a powerful handgun exists; it exists in gun stores, on the web or anywhere a woman might go to purchase a firearm. I was at a gun show recently and approached one of the vendors to look at the guns he had for sale. The first thing he said to me was “so, you are looking for a smaller, lower caliber handgun that you can handle, right?” I gave him a “look” maybe “stare” is a better word, and walked away.. What we WANT is a gun that will do what a gun needs to do….stop an attacker in his tracks. The best size and caliber of that gun depends on the same factors it would for a man looking for a gun for self protection. Most agree that a small caliber handgun like a .22 revolver or a .25 or .32 caliber automatic just isn’t powerful enough to stop a 250lb attacker, who might be high on drugs, which makes it less of a deterrent or even worse, make him even angrier. So a larger caliber gun is really more of a necessity than of choice.
So what type of handgun is best for self defense? There are two choices, a revolver or a semiautomatic pistol. Your decision will be based on your specific and unique needs, physical traits and your likes and dislikes.
Revolvers and semi-automatic pistols each have their own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. The one best for you will be based on how you prioritize or rank these advantages and disadvantages. The size of your firearm must be considered if you plan on concealed carry. It has been shown that the smaller the gun, the harder it is to grab away from you, but you want the accuracy and power necessary to stop an attacker. Hand strength and your tolerance for recoil are other issues to consider. There are smaller barreled options in both revolvers and semiautomatic pistols available in the recommended self defense calibers.
For some reason many people recommend that a woman start off with a revolver and then “grow into” an automatic. This is illogical and you should resist the urge to accept this chauvinistic advice. A beginner is a beginner and there is no reason you cannot learn to shoot a semi-automatic pistol as easily as a revolver. I believe this logic is sadly based simply on the fact that semi-automatic pistols are a more complex machine and that somehow women are not comfortable with complex machines. Of course, I have no comment! If you feel that a semi-automatic pistol is your choice for personal defense then go for it! If you like the simplicity of a revolver, then that is the right choice for you. I personally chose a semi-automatic pistol as my first gun.
I am a FIRM believer that each woman should choose their own gun. Just like a pair of good shoes – feel, fit and wearability are things that only you can know. You wouldn’t have your husband or boyfriend choose and buy a special pair of shoes would you? If possible get to a range that rents firearms and get a chance to hold, feel and fire different models.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-03-13 02:51:432013-03-13 02:51:43What Kind of Gun For A Woman (+video)
A Harvard-affiliated hospital will study why so many lesbians are overweight, thanks to a $1.5 million grant from the federal government.
The grant was recently approved by the National Institutes of Health. It will allow Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a medical center affiliated with Harvard University, to examine an issue of “high public-health significance,” in the words of researchers.
Three quarters of gay women are obese, according to the grant for the study. But gay men have much lower obesity rates than heterosexual men—a discrepancy for which there is no scientific explanation, said researchers.
An NIH spokesperson claimed that the study would be in the best interests of public health.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2013-03-13 02:24:332013-03-13 02:24:33Feds Pay For Study On Why Lesbians Are Fat
James Holmes, 25, who is accused of killing twelve people and injuring 70 others during a shooting rampage at a Batman movie premiere, is expected to enter a plea today.
Defence lawyers have indicated that the former neuroscience graduate might plead not guilty by reason of insanity. If he does, the judge has ruled, he might have to submit to a “narco analytic interview” – including the use of what some have dubbed a “truth serum” – as part of the evaluation of his mental state.
A narcoanalytic interview is a decades-old process in which patients are given drugs to lower their inhibition. The judge said Holmes could also be given a lie detector test as part of the evaluation.
Holmes will face 166 counts during an arraignment hearing in connection with the shooting spree at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, last July. Last week that same judge rejected defence claims that the rules relating to an insanity plea were unconstitutional.
Holmes was arrested immediately after the shootings at a midnight showing of ‘The Dark Night Rises’. A preliminary hearing in January was presented with harrowing evidence of the scene inside the cinema in the aftermath of the shooting and the desperate attempts to save lives.
