Politics
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Monday February 21, 2005
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Print- 1998/2000 Secret Tapes of Conversation with US President Bush
- Liberal MP Tom Wappel Smashes Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Arguments; Warns Polygamy Next
- Calgary Conservative MP Prentice Risks Political Suicide Supporting Gay Marriage
- Police Seize Abortion Pictures in Belfast City Centre
- UN DOHA Declaration on the Family Ratified But Canadians and Europeans Opposed
- Abortion-Pushing Socialists Elected in Portugal
- Infanticide, Forced Abortions Common Practice in North Korean Camps
- Thérèse Film Making Waves
- Bishop Denounces Mexican Gay Unions Campaign
- LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes
1998/2000 Secret Tapes of Conversation with US President Bush
TODAY'S HEADLINES
WASHINGTON, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Confidential taped conversations that took place in 1998, while US President George W. Bush was still Governor of Texas, and in 2000 after Bush had accepted the Republican nomination to run for US president, were recently released to the New York Times. The tapes were recorded by Doug Wead, a personal friend to the President and a former aide to George Bush senior.
In the conversations, President Bush is candid about some spiritual and moral issues.
“Gay marriage, I am against that,” Bush said. “Special rights, I am against that.”
Bush said that, despite his opposition to homosexuality and same-sex “marriage,” “I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner,” referring to the suggestion by some evangelicals that he fire homosexuals. “How can I differentiate sin?” he added.
“Preparing to meet Christian leaders in September 1998, Bush told Wead, ‘As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways.’ He added, ‘I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement.’”
Wead, warning Bush that “power corrupts,” said “I have got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check.”
“Preparing to meet with influential Christian conservatives, Mr. Bush tested his lines with Mr. Wead. ‘I'm going to tell them the five turning points in my life,’ he said. ‘Accepting Christ. Marrying my wife. Having children. Running for governor. And listening to my mother.’”
Bush acknowledged that he considered John Ashcroft a potential running mate for the election. “I like Ashcroft a lot,” he said in 1998. “He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick. He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice president.”
“When Mr. Wead predicted an uproar if Mr. Ashcroft were appointed to the court because of his conservative religious views, Mr. Bush replied, ‘Well, tough.’”
“I want Ashcroft to stay in there, and I want him to be very strong,” Mr. Bush said. “I would love it to be a Bush-Ashcroft race. Only because I respect him. He wouldn't say ugly things about me. And I damn sure wouldn't say ugly things about him.”
See related coverage:
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=2963
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Back to TopLiberal MP Tom Wappel Smashes Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Arguments; Warns Polygamy Next
OTTAWA, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Scarborough Southwest Liberal MP Tom Wappel has always been a strong defender of life and family, and his speech in the House of Commons on Friday defending marriage from radical redefinition was true to form. With a keen legal mind, Wappel dissected popular arguments supporting same-sex ‘marriage’ while showing that Bill C-38 is “a sham, and a hoax on parliamentarians and Canadians.”
Wappel began by noting that he had already many years ago attempted to enshrine the traditional definition of marriage in law but had been assured by successive justice ministers that such a move was unnecessary since the law was clear.
He dismantled the popular argument that the bill seeks to end discrimination.
“Is the institution of marriage discriminatory? Of course it is, by its very nature. We cannot get married unless we are of a certain age. That is discrimination on the basis of age. We cannot get married if we do not have proper mental capacity. That is discrimination on the basis of disability. We cannot get married unless we are of the proper bloodline. That is discrimination on the basis of who our parents are or who our siblings are . . . It discriminates against religion because it says we can only have . . . one spouse: one wife or husband.” He noted finally that the institution of marriage also discriminates “on the basis of sexual orientation because it says we must marry someone of the opposite sex.”
Wappel warned matter-of-factly that polygamy would follow the redefinition of marriage. “Some say that raising polygamy is a red herring and has nothing whatsoever to do with this bill. That is utter legal nonsense,” said Wappel. He cited two cases where illegal sexual practices had become legal, first the law limiting marriage to a man and a woman and then the laws against anal intercourse, both of which were ruled unconstitutional by judicial fiat.
“Why would members think, when those two examples have already occurred, it is beyond the pale that a judge at the stroke of a pen will declare polygamy legal because the law against it discriminates on the basis of religion?,” asked Wappel. “Those who argue in favour of polygamy will say, ‘How can we end discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in marriage but continue to permit discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs in marriage?’”
See Wappel’s full speech:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/050221a.html
jhw
Calgary Conservative MP Prentice Risks Political Suicide Supporting Gay Marriage
TORONTO, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Enshrine Marriage Canada (EMC) released the results of new public opinion poll in Calgary North Centre that found Conservative MP Jim Prentice is at odds with his own voters on the issue of marriage. Over 76 per cent of current Conservative supporters oppose redefining marriage.
“Jim Prentice’s own voters in Calgary North Centre want their MP to back the traditional definition of marriage,” said William Gairdner, a member of EMC’s steering committee. “Jim Prentice may have said he intends to vote for the Government’s bill, but his own voters oppose the idea.”
EMC is a national, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to enshrining the traditional definition of marriage in the Constitution of Canada as the union of one woman and one man.
“Taken as a whole, the people of this riding are divided,” said Gairdner. While the opinion in the riding is split evenly, 82 per cent of all voters want to be consulted. “Clearly, at a minimum, Jim Prentice needs to talk to his voters. Frankly, he needs to really listen to his own Conservative voters who oppose the change.”
“So, if Jim Prentice is listening to anyone, it’s people who didn’t vote for him like Liberals and New Democrats because three quarters of Conservatives oppose him on this. He’s certainly not listening to people in his own party or people who actually voted for him in June 2004,” concluded Gairdner.
The professional study was commissioned by EMC and performed by the Logit Group of Toronto from 7-8 February 2005. In it a random sampling of 400 eligible voters (with a margin of error of +/-4.9 per cent) in Calgary North Centre were asked for their views.
To express your concerns to Prentice
1318 Centre St. N.E.
Suite 105
Calgary AB T2E 2R7
Phone: (403) 216-7777
Fax: (403) 230-4368
e-mail:
See the Enshrine Marriage website at
http://www.enshrinemarriage.ca
jhw
Police Seize Abortion Pictures in Belfast City Centre
BELFAST, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Police seized a display board belonging to Precious Life showing pictures of abortion in Belfast city centre on Saturday 19th February, and cautioned members of the pro-life group for showing “offensive material”.
Members of Precious Life had set up the display board and information table as they have been doing every week for the past seven years in Belfast’s Cornmarket at 2.00pm. They spent over an hour distributing leaflets and collecting petition signatures when three police officers arrived. The officer in charge claimed the pictures were “offensive” and the other officers moved in to seize the display board and threw it into the back of a police van. Two members of the pro-life group were cautioned with a view to prosecution for showing “offensive material”.
Bernie Smyth from Precious Life said “Its disgraceful that we can be threatened with prosecution for trying to protect mothers and babies from abortion. These pictures show the reality of abortion. That fact that little babies are being killed is what is truly offensive. It seems these pictures are too horrible to look at, but not too horrible to be allowed to happen - 600 times every day in the UK.”
Mrs Smyth added “We are surprised at the action of the police today. We have been setting up our information table and board in Cornmarket for over 7 years and generally we have a good working relationship with the police. In 1999, the police sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions regarding our displays but they ruled that it was not illegal and no action could be taken against showing these pictures.”
Bernie Smyth concluded “We will not be deterred by the police action today. We will continue to show the true reality of abortion. We will be out again on Monday showing these pictures on the streets of Belfast. The horror of abortion is the worlds best kept secret and it must be exposed.”
jhw
UN DOHA Declaration on the Family Ratified But Canadians and Europeans Opposed
UNITED NATIONS, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On December 6, on the 10th anniversary of 1994’s International Year of the family, pro-family forces gained what they consider to be a huge victory as the United Nations ratified the Doha declaration on the family.
The Doha International Conference for the Family convened in Doha, Qatar, on November 29-30, 2004 to explore and analyze the implications of Article 16(3) of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights which proclaims, “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state.”
The Doha Declaration further affirmed pro-family sentiments, including: “Every individual has the right to life…;” “A family composed of a husband, wife and children is the natural, basic element of a society and should be protected by society and by the State;” “Evaluate and reassess government population policies, particularly in countries with below replacement birthrates;” and, “Parents should choose what kind of education they give their children,” among others.
Also, the Doha called on the UN to “Evaluate and reassess government population policies, particularly in countries with below replacement birthrates.”
Real Women of Canada’s Jan/Feb 2005 Reality newsletter pointed out that, despite the unanimous support of 149 countries present to ratify the Doha Declaration December 6, there were 14 (absent) dissenters, including Canada and the European Union.
The EU dissented to the Declaration, also preventing its own members Italy and Poland, who backed the Declaration, from supporting it. The EU thus violated its own mandate not to interfere with the policies of its member nations, raising the question of whether individual states enjoy true autonomy, as claimed, within the EU.
See also
The full text of the declaration
http://www.euro-fam.org/documents/shared/pub/Actions/2005/dohadeclaration-en.pdf
Baldock promotes Doha Declaration on the Family
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PA0412/S00347.htm
International Conference Adopts Monumental Pro-Family Declaration
http://www.c-fam.org/FAX/Volume_7/faxv7n50.html
Visit REAL Women of Canada’s Newsletter site (Jan/Feb 2005 not yet on line):
http://www.realwomenca.com/newsletters.htm
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Abortion-Pushing Socialists Elected in Portugal
LISBON, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Portugal has joined the ranks of EU nations that, while nominally Catholic, have elected socialist governments bent on overturning their countries’ abortion laws. Rising unemployment under the centre right Portuguese Social Democrat party was used as a lever to gain a Socialist win of 45% of the vote and a majority in Portugal’s Parliament in Sunday’s election.
Portugal’s Socialist Party is roughly equivalent in policy to England’s Labour Party according to the BBC. The Socialist party ran on a platform that included a promise to conduct a national referendum to overturn the country’s official prohibition on abortion. No date has yet been announced for the abortion referendum.
On Sunday, the Socialists won 120 of the 230 seats in parliament, making it unlikely that an electoral alliance will be formed with either the Communist party or the Left Bloc, both of which support legalized abortion. The Left Block, a coalition of various leftist formations including the Communists and Greens, saw its number of MPs increase almost threefold, from 3 to 8.
Just over 90% of Portugal’s approximately 10 million citizens register as Catholics. As with most traditionally Catholic European countries, however, the Church has, since the 60’s, seen a precipitous decline in Mass attendance, in the number of men attending services and, perhaps most tellingly, in the birth rate. Portugal’s population is steadily decreasing and aging, with the birth rate at about 1.4. In many Catholic countries, the all-pervasiveness of Catholic culture can result in the growth of indifference and even outright hostility to its actual religious tenets, as was seen in Quebec after the 1960’s.
To be Portuguese is to be Catholic culturally, but not necessarily religious. The growth of Portugal’s rejection of the Catholic faith is reflected in its social policy. The right to contraception was written into the constitution in 1976 and the recent growth of the homosexual activist movement has matched its escalation elsewhere.
The International Planned Parenthood website boasts that in Portugal, “contraceptives are widely available and prescriptive methods are free-of-charge. First-trimester abortion is legal on physical or mental health grounds, or in the case of rape…(and the) proposed liberalization of the (abortion) law has demonstrated strong ‘pro choice’ support.”
Worthy of note to Catholics is the fact that this election comes immediately following the death of Portugal’s unofficial living saint, Sr. Lucia Marto, a Carmelite nun who was the last surviving one of three children to whom the Virgin Mary appeared in 1917. One of the promises the Virgin reportedly made to Lucia was that the Catholic faith will never completely fail in Portugal.
Read Swissinfo news coverage:
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5551461
hw
Infanticide, Forced Abortions Common Practice in North Korean Camps
SEOUL, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A defector, testifying at human rights hearings Tuesday, said that infanticide and forced abortion are common practices in North Korean detention camps.
“I heard the cries of both mother and child through the curtain (at a hospital). And through the partially open curtain, I witnessed the nurse covering the infant's face with a wet towel on a table, suffocating it,” said the 28-year-old woman, identified as Park Sun-ja, according to a koreaherald.co.kr report.
“The baby stopped crying about ten minutes later,” Park added. She was testifying at an international conference discussing human rights abuses in North Korea. Her real name was withheld for her protection.
Park observed the infanticide while a prisoner at Shinuiju Provincial Detention Camp for two months after a failed escape in 2000 led to her capture in China. She successfully escaped to South Korea in 2002.
“All the prisoners there believed that all infants were killed immediately upon delivery and wrapped up in a piece of cloth before being buried at a nearby hill,” Park said. She said injections were the usual method used to induce early delivery of the child.
“I cannot even imagine how she may have felt,” she said. “I heard that these kinds of acts were done before, but once I saw them with my eyes, I didn't feel like living in the society again.”
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Thérèse Film Making Waves
LifeSiteNews.com Movie Review
TORONTO, ON, February 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - After years of anticipation and Internet buzz, the film Thérèse has opened on screens across Canada, and its February 18 premiere in Toronto has generated rave reviews from filmgoers city-wide.
American filmmaker Leonardo Defilippis, who directed and starred in Thérèse, surprised audiences by appearing at select locations in Toronto Friday night, and accepted praise for his film bio-pic, whose 5-year odyssey to the big screen has been fraught with obstacles, criticism, miracles, and changed lives.
To read this complete LifeSiteNews.com movie review by John O'Brien see
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/feb/050221b.html
Bishop Denounces Mexican Gay Unions Campaign
MEXICO CITY, February 21, 2005 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews) - Bishop Rodrigo Aguilar Martinez, who heads a Mexican bishops' conference committee on family ministry, has criticized the broadcast of ads sponsored by the government's Health Secretariat promoting homosexual unions as a "right." He stated, "We cannot go along with or accede to such things, because sooner or later the damage will be felt."
Bishop Aguilar says the ads, which will be broadcast starting in March, should be reviewed because instead of fighting against "homophobia" they are promoting promiscuity and human and social degradation.
He also encouraged people to make their opinions about these ads known, and he said the Church is not seeking popularity or the imposition of a passing fashion, but rather fidelity to Christ in the Gospel.
"The position of the Church is that homosexuality is a disorder and cannot be approved. The intention is not to discriminate or reject somebody, but to reject homosexual acts," the bishop stated.
He added that to make same-sex unions equivalent to marriage and later to allow them to adopt children is a tendency "disordered in and of itself" which "harms the child, who has a right to be with a father and a mother."
LifeSiteNews.com NewsBytes
Idaho Lawmaker Wants State To Require Viewing Graphic Photos Before Abortion
http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x62624&Layout=KBCI....
Georgia Abortion Bill Drops Disputed Cancer Link
http://www.ediets.com/news/article.cfm/cmi_964864
Canadians split in how same-sex marriage issue would affect their vote during next election says poll
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1108957030805_46
Human Dignity Doesn't Hinge on "Quality of Life," Says Pope
Zenit link http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66696
U.N. Committee Recommends Ban on All Types of Human Cloning: Holy See Is Moderately Satisfied
Zenit link http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66625
Doctors are warning young cannabis users that they could be at an increased risk of having a stroke
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4276457.stm
British Navy Seeks Gay Sailors
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2087-1491764%2C00.html
Corruption of universities a terrible shame upon the United States
http://www.nationalreview.com/frum/frum-diary.asp
IVF embryos may be starved of a vital ingredient
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18524874.000
History of modern man unravels as German scholar is exposed as fraud
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0%2C2763%2C1418083%2C00.html
If Schiavo is allowed to die, it will be to our everlasting shame
http://www.spiritdaily.com/schiavoclaims2.htm
Homosexuality: From mental disorder to civil-rights cause
http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayarticle.cfm?id=10331
British Navy signals for help to recruit gay sailors
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C2087-1491764%2C00.html
Abortion: A Law Unto Itself
http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=66586
Pope criticized on abortion view in book
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10944042.htm
California Assemblywoman introduces bill to legalize assisted-suicide bill
http://www.record-bee.com/Stories/0%2C1413%2C255~33911~2719116%2C00.html
Evangelical Christians gather to press political agenda
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/nation/10938281.htm
Massachusetts Corruption case leads agents to buried fetuses
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/02/19/probe_takes_bizarre_twis/
Chinese city restricts abortions to try to stop killings of baby girls
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3047267
Kansas bill to restore hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funding to pro-life clinics and groups
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/local/10945730.htm
Church's view on homosexuality out of touch with science Says Toronto dissident "Catholic" New Times paper
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_T...
Lynne Cheney: "I don't support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage"
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/2/18/133724.shtml
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