Messing with Mother Nature

Barbara Kay

The human species is changing but we're stuck on polar bears
The single 69-year old Spanish woman who gave birth to twins at the age of 66 died last Saturday. Maria del Carmen Bousada de Lara, who thought she had every prospect of living to see her now two-year old boys Christian and Pau into adulthood because her own mother died at 101, claimed not to regret her late-motherhood decision, even though her doctors told her that "the powerful drugs used during her fertility treatment could have helped her disease [believed to be breast cancer] to spread."

Although at the time of the birth Ms Bousada de Lara's case attracted a few stalwart supporters of the "right" of a woman to control her own fertility destiny, the general reaction was one of dismay and recoil. The most commonly adduced argument was that her children's odds of growing up motherless were sharply escalated by her selfishness. And so it came to pass, which will doubtless serve to dampen the enthusiasm of other older women contemplating the idea of post-menopausal pregnancy.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/messing_with_mother_nature/

Welcome to the genetic supermarket

Michael Cook

The good news is that the male of the species will not be placed on the endangered species list.
It’s amazing how a simple press release can instantly capture the imagination of media around the globe. A few weeks ago British scientists announced that they had created human sperm cells from embryonic stem cells for the first time. This provoked snickers everywhere about a future when men are no longer needed to propagate the species.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/welcome_to_the_genetic_supermarket/

Mike Pence taking on Planned Parenthood

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
Pro-life Congressman Mike Pence (R-Indiana) has drafted an amendment to defund Planned Parenthood.

Pence's amendment is attached to a Department of Health and Human Services funding bill that, in part, throws federal tax dollars Planned Parenthood's way. Justin Aquila of the Susan B. Anthony List tells OneNewsNow the abortion provider receives a sizeable part of the appropriation. "In the past two years, Planned Parenthood has received $350 million [in taxpayer funding]," he notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=612196

A Label that Sticks [Father Paul Scalia on the Gay-Straight Alliance]

When I was in high school, the students fell into many different groups: preps, jocks, cheerleaders, punks, deadheads, druggies, geeks, and all the rest. Just about everyone received an unofficial but virtually unchangeable assignment to a particular group. When I work in high schools today, I discover little difference. The groups still exist (with just a few changes in terminology), and the teachers and administrators still counsel against the labels. As they wisely explain, labels reinforce stereotypes and prejudices; they prevent us from accepting individuals and getting to know the real person.

There is one difference, however. While still warning children against stereotypes and labels, high-school administrations increasingly encourage one group of students to label themselves: those who experience same-sex attractions. With the assistance (and sometimes pressure) of such groups as the Gay-Straight Alliance and the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, high schools across the country now routinely have student organizations dedicated to promoting the tolerance and acceptance of homosexuality. Indeed, New York City has an entire school—Harvey Milk High School—devoted to “gay, lesbian, transgendered and questioning youth.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1456914/posts

District Attorney Seeks Life Time Ban For Walter Hoye

Union City, CA (ISSUES4LIFE FOUNDATION) Thursday, July 30th, 2009 – At a hearing Monday before Alameda County Superior Court Judge Stuart Hing, deputy district attorney Masanao Morimoto revealed that the District Attorney is seeking to ban Walter Hoye from ever returning to the Family Planning Specialists clinic in Oakland, California. Hoye was arrested last year for violating Oakland's "Mother May I" law. Following his conviction, he was sentenced to 30 days in jail and an $1100 fine, plus three years' probation during which time he was ordered to stay 100 yards from the clinic. Hoye exercised his right to turn down probation, but the judge proceeded to fill out a probation order anyway. Hoye served his time in jail, and the fine was paid. Both the conviction and the probation order are on appeal.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_12939639?nclick_check=1

Lessons from career woman’s no-baby shock

Carolyn Moynihan
I have just caught up with a classic “confessions of a career woman” story by a British woman who has reached the age of 45 bitterly disappointed that she will never have her own child. The Daily Mail headline says it all: “Seduced by stories of stars giving birth later and IVF myths, career-obsessed Lucy believed children and love could wait.”

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/lessons_from_career_womans_no_baby_shock/

New Zealand parents reject smacking ban

Carolyn Moynihan

The Great Smacking Debate is in full flight in New Zealand where a lawchange two years ago specifically banned the use of “force” for thepurpose of correcting children. Opponents of the new law collectedenough signatures to secure a referendum on the smacking issue, whichtakes place next month. A New Zealand Herald poll last week shows that85 per cent of parents of young children plan to vote No on thequestion: “Should a smack as part of good parental be a criminaloffence in New Zealand?”

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/new_zealand_parents_reject_smacking_ban/

God's Marriage Resonates Deeply with Majority of Americans

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property (TFP) is promoting traditional marriage on the streets of New York, Maine and Rhode Island and finding how deeply Americans cherish God's marriage - the union of one man and one woman.

TFP volunteers have been standing on busy street corners holding HONK signs, which are large signs with a message printed in bold and colorful letters: HONK for traditional marriage = 1 man + 1 woman.

The public enjoys the pro-family group's HONK signs."People love to honk their horn for marriage. It's like they feel liberated from all the homosexual propaganda being forced on them," said Norman Fulkerson, TFP leader with the group campaigning in upstate New York.

Fulkerson continued: "The opposition is forced to hear the barrage of honking horns. Their insults and cursing get drowned out in the noise of the honks." Even pedestrians join the honking by simulating the movement of pressing a car's horn and making a loud honk sound."People are tired of hearing all the propaganda for same-sex 'marriage'," said Richard Lyon, TFP volunteer campaigning in Rhode Island. "I'm finding that people don't want their children educated in the homosexual lifestyle. They want the traditional family. And they're happy to see us saying this in public."

The Catholic group also hands out a flyer titled "Ten reasons why homosexual 'marriage' is harmful and must be opposed," and calls on Americans to firmly and peacefully oppose the advance of the homosexual movement.Recent surveys show that support for same- sex "marriage" is declining in the United States.
Visit www.TFP.org for additional reports.

Paternal and maternal ages at conception and risk of bipolar affective disorder in their offspring.

A consistent association between paternal age and their offspring's risk of schizophrenia has been observed, with no independent association with maternal age.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19627644?ordinalpos=2&itool=Email.EmailReport.Pubmed_ReportSelector.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Prop 8 Panel Discussion at San Diego Historical Society

Thursday, July 30 5:30pm – 7:30pm
San Diego NOW!: California Proposition 8: New Strategies for the Same-Sex Marriage Debate Admission: FREE SDHS members, $10 general public.
Please note: Reservations are requested.
Call for program description. 619-232-6203, ext. 129

a gross cohabiting couple

This is a prime example of why cohabiting is dangerous for children.
Headline:
3 children found starved in hotel bathroom
Officials say kids were so emaciated they threw up when first fed

If you've got the stomach for it:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32091786/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts
This is a prime example of why cohabiting is dangerous for children.

Beware Prop 8 signature takers

Professional signature gatherers will begin standing outside of Target, grocery stores and other venues to gather the necessary signatures to put the gay-marriage issue back on the ballot for November. They are targeting the more liberal parts of the State, but some signatures will be gathered here in San Diego County as well.

The most effective, and least costly, way to defeat this measure is to make sure it doesn't garner enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. The deadline for gathering the signatures is August 15, 2009.

Please inform your family, friends, and associates of this latest assault on PROP 8. Please encourage one-and-all to NOT sign these petitions at store fronts. Say "NO Thank You" to this petition! Marriage = One Man & One Woman.

A common phrase used by professional signature gatherers is, "It doesn't matter if you sign it, this is only so the people can vote on it." It does matter!

Let's do our part to keep this measure off the ballot. I invite you to forward this information through your personal email lists and encourage others to forward it to their friends and family members.

Persistent pursuit of marriage protection

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -
A pro-family group in West Virginia believes the state needs to institute protections for traditional marriage.

Kevin McCoy, president of the West Virginia Family Foundation, is pleased that his state's legislature has passed a resolution for a subcommittee hearing on a traditional marriage amendment. McCoy believes they are bowing to pressure from his organization, which has submitted the marriage amendment in every session since 2006.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=608322

US teen sex statistics show ‘disheartening’ trend

Carolyn Moynihan

Birth rates among teenagers are on the rise again in the United States after large declines between 1991 and 2005, according to a report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Other sexual health indictors also have flattened or worsened in what the CDC calls a “disheartening” reversal. Predictably, there are calls for “better sex education” -- meaning more stuff about condoms and pills, evidently.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/us_teen_sex_statistics_show_disheartening_trend/

Court favors mother's rights over former lesbian partner

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -
A Utah woman involved in a lesbian relationship left her partner and took her child with her, a move that led to a courtroom battle.

Jana Dickson left the relationship with lesbian partner Gena-Louise Edvalson because she believed it was not a good environment to raise her two-year-old son, among other reasons. Salt Lake City Alliance Defense Fund attorney Frank Mylar represented Dickson.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=604794

Primacy of Culture in "Caritas in Veritate"

Encyclical Offers Opportunity to "Think With the Church"
By Jennifer Roback Morse

SAN MARCOS, California, JULY 17, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's "Caritas in Veritate" is his contribution to the course of Catholic social teaching.

Many commentators seem to read this document as if it were a think-tank white paper, and ask whether the Pope endorses their particular policy preferences. I must say that I surprised myself by not reflexively reading it in this way. After all, I spent many years teaching free-market economics.

I distinctly remember reading "Centesimus Annus" for the first time, and mentally checking to see if I agreed with it.

But this is not the correct way to read papal documents. The papacy's prophetic role is to interpret the past, and provide guidance for the future, while avoiding the excesses of its own time. In "Caritas in Veritate," Benedict XVI argues for the centrality of moral considerations in both economics and politics. Without charity and truth, we cannot create a truly decent society, no matter how sophisticated our technology or how thorough-going our democracy. Benedict XVI stresses the centrality of the social, cultural sphere for several reasons.

http://www.zenit.org/article-26488?l=english

Poll: Support For Gay Marriage Dips

Posted by Stephanie Condon
Support for same-sex marriage has declined slightly from two months ago, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds. On other issues that have come before the Supreme Court -- namely, affirmative action and abortion -- Americans' opinions have remained relatively stable for years, according to the poll, conducted June 12 - 16.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/06/17/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5094597.shtml

Majority of Americans Continue to Oppose Gay Marriage

No change in support from last year
by Jeffrey M. Jones
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans' views on same-sex marriage have essentially stayed the same in the past year, with a majority of 57% opposed to granting such marriages legal status and 40% in favor of doing so. Though support for legal same-sex marriage is significantly higher now than when Gallup first asked about it in 1996, in recent years support has appeared to stall, peaking at 46% in 2007.

View poll.

Smuggling abortion agenda into healthcare reform

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

If passed, two healthcare reform bills could mean more abortions at taxpayers' expense.
The two primary measures -- the Kennedy bill and the House Democratic leadership bill -- contain provisions that would represent the greatest expansion of abortion since the Supreme Court legalized it in 1973, according to Douglas Johnson of the National Right to Life Committee.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=602360

NEA flexes 'political muscle,' backs same-sex 'marriage'

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow -
The National Education Association has thrown its full support behind homosexual "marriage."The NEA recently held its annual convention in San Diego, California, where members voted on two issues of importance to those involved in the culture war. One of those issues was whether the union would support same-gender marriage. According to Jeralee Smith, co-founder of the Conservative Educators Caucus, the resolution passed by roughly a two-thirds majority.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=603580