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Compiled by Steve Jalsevac
BEAUTIFUL MOVIES
Choosing Thomas
Inside a family's decision to let their son live, if only for a brief time – 9 minute movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToNWquoXqJI
The Butterfly Circus
This inspiring 20 minute on line movie starring Eduardo Verástegui (Bella), Doug Jones (Pan's Labyrinth, Fantastic Four) is highly recommended
https://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/The%20Butterfly%20Circus/
OBAMA
He's Not Jimmy CarterBy Quin Hillyer
Conservatives are taking too much solace in the precipitous drop in Barack Obama's approval ratings…Today's situation is far different, far more conducive to our political adversary's political power, than that which faced Carter. And Obama is an entirely different breed of cat. He's more ruthless, more tactically savvy, and has far more dangerous objectives. A drop in his poll ratings isn't as serious a setback for him as similar occurrences were for the peanut farmer from Plains.
In short, conservatives should beware. The political battle we're in is far more difficult than any the conservative movement has ever faced. It will take all our energy and all our smarts to win it.
Obama wants to change the system itself. He is a radical's radical, with an authoritarian impulse. His Alinskyite training means that social unrest doesn't unnerve him; it plays right into his hands. The more unrest, the greater the crisis; the greater the crisis, the more excuse he has to use and consolidate central power in order to completely remake society.
In foreign affairs, his radicalism is even more apparent. He keeps undermining allies while embracing enemies.
One wonders what exactly his agenda is. But it's clearly something the likes of which we've never seen. To defeat Obama's radicalism will take plenty of political savvy on the right.
Civil unrest will not win the day; it will only help him.
The one, and perhaps only, opportunity to stop his juggernaut will be in those mid-term elections. Every bit of conservatives' efforts should be directed at building a massive voter turnout to defeat Obama's leftist allies in 2010.
Finally, it will help Obama that, probably by design, the bulk of the “stimulus” funds remain unspent. What will happen is that at just the right time, those funds will spur a false recovery …if Obama's course is stayed and he consolidates power in 2010, the diminution of freedom may be well-nigh irreversible.
https://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/03/tk
Obama's Carrousel of Incompetence
Unsurprisingly, on every front the President is in trouble. This White House is a serious crisis. According to sources with whom I confer, the Obama White House is the most tightly controlled White House in years, with the President, Emanuel, and David Axelrod micromanaging practically everything. They compose what is called “the Politburo,” …Stupendous failure is in the cards.
https://spectator.org/archives/2009/08/27/obamas-carrousel-of-incompeten
Obama Regulation Czar Advocated Removing People’s Organs Without Explicit Consent
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/53534
Rush, Beck Warn Obama Administration Trying to Bring Country to Its Knees
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2009/08/26/rush-beck-warn-obama-administration-trying-bring-country-its-knees
Bill would give president emergency control of Internet
If your company is deemed “critical,” a new set of regulations kick in involving who you can hire, what information you must disclose, and when the government would exercise control over your computers or network.
https://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html
Obama's Health Rationer-in-Chief
White House health-care adviser Ezekiel Emanuel blames the Hippocratic Oath for the 'overuse' of medical care.
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574374463280098676.html
Alinskyian Health Care Push, Part III
Key players supporting President Obama's healthcare plan are several religious groupings including Sojourners and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. They invest themselves with “moral garments” to achieve their political goals.Religious institutions, as opposed to organized schools or unions, are particularly useful to Alinskyian organizing networks, as it is a prime Alinskyian strategy is to “do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. ….Moral rationalization is indispensable at all times of action whether to justify the selection or the use of ends or means.” [Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, 10th Rule, p 43.]
https://www.speroforum.com/a/20249/Alinskyian-Health-Care-Push-Part-III
Win Politically, Lose Culturally
Abortion advocates have got to be scratching their heads. For the first time in decades, they have staunch allies in the top echelons of government and the left-wing majorities needed to advance their agenda. Yet during the first eight months of his administration, abortion has been far down the president's list of priorities. Even worse for abortion advocates, the issue is trending away from them even as they've gained more power.
https://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/03/winning-politically-losing-cul
Why parents don’t trust the Educator-in-Chief and his comrades By Michelle Malkin
https://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/04/why-parents-don%E2%80%99t-trust-the-educator-in-chief-and-his-comrades/
The key to affordable health insurance: de-regulation
https://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147486420
RELIGION
Religion and Socialism by Peter Kreeft
The essence of theological modernism is the denial of the supernatural…its instinctive gravitation to socialism is natural.
From the history of secular socialist and communist experiments that we have seen so far, I think we must not only call all the experiments failures but also call most of the experimenters liars and hypocrites. The most systematic oppression and mass murders in history have been carried out in the name of social equality, and blessed by the intellectuals, both of the Left and the Right…Socialism's dream is naive because mere equality does not automatically destroy oppression. Egalitarianism can be as oppressive as any tyranny.
Democracy is an answer to the question: In whom is the social-political power located? The answer is: in the people at large. Totalitarianism is an answer to the question: How much power are the social-political authorities to have? The answer is: total power, power to reshape human life, human thought, human nature itself.
The essence of modernity is the death of the spiritual. A modernist is someone who is more concerned about air pollution than soul pollution. A modernist is someone who wants clean air so he can breathe dirty words… A modernist cares about big things, like whales, more than little things, like fetuses; big things like governments, more than little things like families and neighborhoods; big things like states, which last hundreds of years, more than little things like souls, which last forever.
https://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2009/pkreeft_darkness_sept09.asp
Flourishing Nashville convent trains largest group of nuns in U.S.
https://www.tennessean.com/article/20090905/NEWS06/909050354/1970/NEWS04/Order+trains+largest+group+of+nuns+in+U.S.
More nunsense in the name of conscience
https://insightscoop.typepad.com/2004/2009/09/more-nunsense-in-the-name-of-conscience.html
A bishop publicly criticizing another bishop? By name?
Yes, and with specifics. In fact, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin even used the “d” word in reflecting on the life and memoirs of a certain Archbishop Rembert Weakland:
WITHOUT A DOUBT: Archbishop Weakland’s Perplexing Pilgrimage BY BISHOP THOMAS J. TOBIN
https://thericatholic.com/news/detail.html?sub_id=2407
Sheehan decries loud tactics by fellow bishops
https://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/faith/2009/08/obama_notre_dame_abortion.html
Pie in the Sky – What happened when a billionaire pizza mogul tried to build an elite Catholic law school.
…in June, the U.S. Department of Education reported that Ave Maria School of Law had failed its financial responsibility test, the only law school in the nation to do so. Even more troubling, the school ranked sixth to last among all American institutions of higher learning on the department’s financial responsibility index, thanks partly to its multimillion-dollar deficit. “Our student body now is one of the four or five worst in America.” The instability has also wreaked havoc on the school’s reputation: in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report law school rankings, Ave Maria tied for last place in the peer-assessment category, the most important measure in determining a school’s standing
https://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/pie_in_the_sky.php?page=all&print=true
The Development and Peace conundrum – Editorial By Fr. Alphonse de Valk
https://catholicinsight.com/online/editorials/article_918.shtml
Detroit Archdiocese losing $42K a day, set to make big cuts
https://freep.com/article/20090903/NEWS05/90903052/1319/Archdiocese-losing—42K-a-day—set-to-make-big-cuts
Protecting Rifqa is a Matter of Adhering to the U.S. Constitution By Janice Shaw Crouse
https://www.cwfa.org/articles/17658/BLI/commentary/index.htm
LIFE ISSUES
Margaret Sanger: Birth Control Pioneer and Feminist-Fascist
https://mensnewsdaily.com/2009/08/31/margaret-sanger-birth-control-pioneer-and-feminist-fascist/
Ghanaian archbishop asks Catholics to fight legalization of abortion
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=16945
“Right to Die” Means a Physician Duty to Kill? by Wesley J. Smith
https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2009/09/03/right-to-die-means-a-physician-duty-to-kill/
US hospitals bully families to end patients' lives
Hospitals have used any number of bullying tactics to try to get the family to consent to end life support, such as turning family members against each other or inserting unauthorized 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders into the patient's chart
https://www.speroforum.com/a/20255/US-hospitals-bully-families-to-end-patients-lives
Stem cell Successes go Unreported
The Culture and Media Institute believes the media is biased in favor of research on human embryos, but that there is scant coverage of successful work with adult stem cells.
https://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=664488
Ontario Premier McGuinty is on the wrong track with In Vitro Fertilization By Fr. Alphonse de Valk
First, Ontario should remove abortions from OHIP. Second the province should reject adding “In Vitro Fertilization” (IVF) to OHIP.
https://catholicinsight.com/online/editorials/article_926.shtml
MISCELLANEOUS
Half of general practicioners refuse swine fraud vaccine over testing fears
https://current.com/items/90783536_half-of-general-practicioners-refuse-swine-fraud-vaccine-over-testing-fears.htm
Lower Risk of Problems in Midwife-Assisted Home Births, Study Finds
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/lower-risk-of-problems-in-midwife-assisted-home-births-study-finds/article1270829/
When the Biological Clock Runs Out
The number of Canadian women giving birth in their 40s has tripled in 30 years – but not without some help. But in-vitro fertilization has its limits, and it doesn't work for everyone
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/when-the-biological-clock-runs-out/article1271371/
Glenn Beck Wins Wednesday's Cable News Ratings Battle
https://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/08/27/glenn-beck-wins-wednesdays-cable-news-ratings-battle
Italian Priest Uncovers 100 Pedophile Networks
https://www.zenit.org/rssenglish-26770
Feminist leader Naomi Wolf howls as her justifications of Islamic misogyny are exposed
https://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/2009/09/027475print.html
Budget woes force Focus on the Family layoffs
Anderson says 75 employees will lose their jobs and an additional 57 vacant positions will remain unfilled, leaving the ministry with about 860 employees, down from a peak of 1,400.
https://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=669624
Marriage: What Matters By Robert W. Patterson
Too many Republicans are blind to what is at stake in the marriage-law debate.
https://www.cwfa.org/articles/17645/CWA/family/index.htm
Homosexual activists preparing to threaten Maine citizens who donate to pro-marriage campaign
https://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09c/maine_vote/harass_donors.html