Posted on 04/01/2009 11:13:55 AM PDT by wagglebee
Two threads by me.
SOUTH BEND, Indiana, May 13, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The president of the University of Notre Dame, Fr. John Jenkins, has issued a letter to graduates addressing the controversy that has exploded over the school's invitation to President Obama to deliver this year's commencement address and receive an honorary degree. In the letter Jenkins expresses his admiration for President Obama and his record.
"There is much to admire and celebrate in the life and work of President Obama," wrote Fr. Jenkins. "He's a remarkable figure in American history and I look forward to welcoming him to Notre Dame."
(To see full text of Fr. Jenkins' letter: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/may/09051305.html)
The University has been the center of a firestorm of controversy, drawing criticism from 74 U.S. bishops and 360,000 petitioning Catholics, ever since it was announced that Obama would appear on campus for graduation on May 17.
Instead of attending the official commencement ceremonies, pro-life graduating seniors protesting the invitation will attend a meditation led by Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life in the university's Grotto of Our Lady Lourdes. A rally on Notre Dame's South Quad, organized by ND Response and featuring several speakers, is expected to draw thousands of peaceful pro-life protesters. . .
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South Bend, IN (LifeNews.com) -- Notre Dame alumni who are upset with the university's decision to allow pro-abortion President Barack Obama to give this coming weekend's commencement speech and to give him an honorary degree continue to withhold their donations to the Catholic college.
In total, pro-life alumni and donors who feel disenfranchised by Notre Dame's decision have decided to withhold nearly $14 million in gifts they normally would have given.
David DiFranco, a Michigan businessman and 1995 Notre Dame graduate, told LifeNews.com on Wednesday that the ReplaceJenkins.com web site for disgruntled alumni has received over 1,400 pledges to withhold donations within a month since its launch.
“Most of the donors were at least loosely aware of the University’s trend away from its Catholic identity," DiFranco explained.
"But the invitation of President Obama to speak and to receive an honorary degree, combined with the weak responses presented by Father Jenkins as a defense to those who have criticized the decision, is what drives most alumni to our site," DiFranco added. . .
Thread by topher.
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Last week, during a radio interview on the Diane Rehm Show, Ted Turner, the billionaire founder of CNN, claimed that China has not used "draconian steps" in its one-child policy, but rather simply "encourages" people to limit the number of children per family to one. (To listen to the interview, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTME9ahQBWM)
However, as recently as this past month a researcher with the Population Research Institute (PRI) confirmed during a trip to China that coercive measures, including forced abortion, imprisonment, crippling fines, and kidnapping are routinely used by the Chinese government in the effort to enforce their one-child policy. This fact has been verified by numerous other independent human rights organizations and researchers over the last several decades.
In 2005 Amnesty International released a report that stated that, in China, "Serious violations against women and girls continued to be reported as a result of the enforcement of the family planning policy, including forced abortions and sterilizations."
Turner said during the recent interview that the word "control" in the term "population control" raises "a lot of bad connotations," since "people don't want to be controlled." But, he said, he believes in family planning "as long as it's voluntary."
"The Chinese, and I think wisely, instituted a one-child policy," he continued. "And they put in penalties, tax penalties and so forth, for people who have more than one child. But they're still a billion and half people in China, and, if you've been over there, it's so over-crowded you can barely turn around."
Turned continued on to claim that "they've done it without draconian - as far as I can see - draconian steps. They do encourage people to have one child."
At that point Diane Rehm interjected that "they've done more than encourage on several occasions."
"Well, I'm not intimately familiar with everything," Turner responded.
John Smeaton, director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), responded to the comments by accusing Turner of basically "denying the Holocaust" in claiming that China has not used "Draconian steps."
"The Chinese regime's 30-year record of infanticide, forced abortion, forced sterilization, torture, imprisonment and other crimes is so voluminous that Turner's comments are analogous to denying the Holocaust," he said. . .
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- When it comes to the end-of-life issues that pro-life advocates fight, it appears momentum is on the side of those who see death as a solution for those who are considered too old or too ill. An international symposium featuring top speakers and activists hopes to turn the tide.
With Washington becoming the second state to legalize assisted suicide last year and Montana potentially becoming the third soon, pro-life advocates are facing more battles across the nation.
In Europe, assisted suicide and euthanasia have already been approved in some nations and England has backed down on prosecuting cases of suicide tourism.
With these challenges in mind, Alex Schadenberg, the head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, has assembled a powerful lineup of experts to help grassroots activists keep the "merchants of death" at bay.
"This is the most important meeting that has ever been organized to combat the euthanasia lobby in America and turn back the tide," he tells LifeNews.com.
"There is a growing pressure in every state in America to legalize assisted suicide. This pressure is built upon the lies that assisted suicide is simply another end-of-life choice and it is based on the autonomy of the individual," Schadenberg says.
Schadenberg says the educational forum is needed to help change a culture that increasingly views people as a burden. . .
Thanks for the ping!
Prayers someone leads her to the Lord as she faces meeting her
maker. Please, Lord, send your saints to minister to her spirit!!
Wake up slow Catholics! Rebuke and reject all bad people in govt.
I love it!
Threads by EternalVigilance, Mrs. Don-o and me.
LIVE broadcast courtesy of ProduceNetTV.com
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Almost two months after the announcement of President Barack Obama's commencement schedule, Notre Dame's campus will be flooded with visitors, graduates and Secret Service agents and South Bend's streets will be lined with protesters Sunday when Obama visits campus.
[snip]
Hundreds of protesters plan to stand or walk along Angela Blvd. and Indiana 933 Sunday; busloads of protestors are expected to arrive in South Bend - at least three buses are expected from Chicago - to join those who have already descended on South Bend.
Anti-abortion activists Randall Terry and Alan Keyes have led dozens of protesters on to campus the past few weeks...over 20 of these protesters have been arrested for trespass on University property.
[snip]
As local police are coordinating with Secret Service to prepare for the president's visit, those living around campus are preparing for an estimated 20,000 protesters to come to their neighborhood. . .
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SOUTH BEND, Ind., May 15 /Christian Newswire/ -- Vision America President Pastor Rick Scarborough said he was sickened by what he saw when those protesting Obama's speech at Notre Dame were arrested on the campus.
"I wept when I saw my friends arrested and taken to jail," Scarborough disclosed. "They almost broke the arm of a priest who appeared to be in his 80s, by dragging him on the ground."
Scarborough, who's a Southern Baptist preacher, said he was in South Bend in solidarity with Catholics who are protesting the upcoming commencement speech at Notre Dame by the most anti-life president in history.
"Millions of Catholics who were persecuted in their countries of origin came to these shores for religious freedom," Scarborough said. "These hard-working folk built institutions like Notre Dame to educate their children and strengthen their Church."
"Now Notre Dame is honoring Barack Obama, a man Catholics and other Christians should shun, as many of the Catholic bishops have."
When asked why he wasn't arrested, Scarborough explained: "This was a Catholic demonstration, As a Baptist, I had to respect that. I did not want to intrude. At the same time, I wanted to support a group of people I'm so proud of for standing up for Judeo-Christian morality."
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thread by Mad Dawgg.
Also, fewer think abortion should be legal “under any circumstances”
PRINCETON, NJ -- A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995. . .
Thread by GonzoII.
Nancy Mayer-Whittington remembers it as though it were yesterday; the joy of learning she was pregnant followed by the news that her daughter's first day of life would be her last.
Nearly 15 years later, she still weeps at the memory of how on the afternoon of Nov. 17, 1994, her gray-eyed daughter Angela lived barely 10 minutes, the victim of Trisomy 18, a fatal genetic defect. Pictures of the dark-haired little girl, robed in a white christening gown, are still scattered about her suburban Maryland home.
She was the first woman her doctor knew who had decided to keep her pregnancy. All his other patients in similar situations had aborted.
"I was so happy I did what I did," she says of her decision to bring Angela to term. "You get to see your child's birth and death all collapsed in one time frame. What most people want for their kids is for them to go to heaven. You get to complete that journey with them. As a parent, that is unbelievable. Life is about relationship to God. You know that when you literally pass them from your hands to His."
. . .
May 14, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Francine Lalonde, the Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament from La Pointe-de-l'Île, on Tuesday introduced a private members bill to legalize euthanasia in Canada.
Bill C-484 would add an exception to the criminal code, ensuring that doctors will not face criminal prosecution if they help a person die who is at least 18 years old and who, after being given or refusing treatment, continues to "experience severe physical or mental pain without any prospect of relief," or suffers from terminal illness.
"The time has come for this Parliament to find a way to decriminalize medical assistance in dying, which is of such vital importance to those whose suffering can no longer be relieved except by this ultimate compassion," said Lalonde in introducing the bill. . .
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Austin, TX (LifeNews.com) -- Medical groups in Texas are drawing the ire of pro-life advocates because they are pushing a phony bill that is holding up legislation that would reform the futile care law that is pushing euthanasia.
The statute allows hospitals and other medical facilities that believe a patient is too far gone to help to give their families just 10 days to find another facility that will offer the treatment or lifesaving medical care.
As a result, patients like Emilio Gonzales and Andrea Clark are making headlines because they became potential euthanasia victims.
Rep. Bryan Hughes, a Republican, is working with pro-life groups and disability rights advocates for a bill to repeal the law and replace it with one requiring medical centers to provide lifesaving medical treatment until the patient can be transferred to a medical facility that will provide appropriate medical care for the patient. . .
Thanks for the info. I’m anxiously awaiting the ND Commencement.
Thanks for the ping!
There are a lot of thread on this, this one by EternalVigilance is probably the most comprehensive with live updates throughout the day.
Please post all information about today's protests here.
My phone is already ringing steadily.
Our AIP folks on the ground at the Notre Dame gates report that the CBR plane is in the air.
"We will not be silent.
We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will give you no rest."
Thread by me.
There's been very little attention paid to an interview President Obama did with the New York Times the day of his major speech at Georgetown University on April 14. I was especially interested in the section of the interview dealing with health care, and to learn of the President's perceptions of end-of-life issues. It's not pretty. Read on.
For starters, President Obama opined:
I have always said, though, that we should not overstate the degree to which consumers rather than doctors are going to be driving treatment, because . . . when it comes to medical care; I know how to ask good questions of my doctor. But ultimately, he's the guy with the medical degree. So, if he tells me, You know what, you've got such-and-such and you need to take such-and-such, I don't go around arguing with him or go online to see if I can find a better opinion than his.
Well, yes and no.
But the President's slant is immediately concerning, because there's a fine line between medical expertise and Doctor Power. What if the doctor says, "Well, you've got two weeks to live, and your quality of life is very poor, and all the expensive care we can give you will not help a bit, but assisted suicide is legal, quick, and very inexpensive?' Should I then accept this pronouncement because he's "the guy with the medical degree?"
If you think I'm stretching things a bit, it's because of what came next from the President:
And part of what I think government can do effectively is to be an honest broker in assessing and evaluating treatment options. And certainly that's true when it comes to Medicare and Medicaid, where the taxpayers are footing the bill and we have an obligation to get those costs under control. And right now we're footing the bill for a lot of things that don't make people healthier.
Not too hard to see the spin here. Now we'll get the government saying, "OK, seeing that we pay for your medical care, we're going to decide what care you get and what care you can't have."
And, more darkly, the specter of futile care emerges, because what the President was saying was, "If we're paying for stuff that doesn't make you healthier, we need to reconsider whether we want to pay for this treatment."
Note the phrase is "to make you healthier" - not to alleviate your symptoms, or provide you with comfort care because you're never going to get healthier.
Simple: If treatment makes you healthy again, you get it. If it can't, you can't have it, because we need it for people who can get healthy again. . .
Thread by me.
County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced Thursday the indictment of four people in connection with the alleged assisted suicide death of a Phoenix woman.
The indictments were handed down from a grand jury on Tuesday.
The four defendants are part of a group called Final Exit Network that according to their website, "serves people who are suffering from an intolerable condition."
Frank Langsner of Scottsdale and Wye Hale-Rowe of Colorado, were indicted on charges of manslaughter and conspiracy to commit manslaughter.
Also indicted for Conspiracy to commit manslaughter were Roberta Massey of New Jersey and Dr. Larry Egbert of Baltimore.
According to Thomas, Jana Van Voorhis was found dead in her home on April 15, 2007.
An investigation determined she had died by suicide accomplished through helium inhalation. Investigators said Van Voorhis was not terminally ill but rather suffered from mental illness and depression. . .
Thanks for the ping!
Thread by BykrBayb.
TALLAHASSEE -- State Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican and 22-year veteran of the Legislature, has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the lawmaker's longtime spokeswoman said Saturday.
“During a recent routine post-legislative session checkup, Senator Jim King was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. While Senator King plans to seek additional medical counsel and aggressive treatment, he is aware that this particular type of cancer is difficult to treat and manage, and that the outcomes are, at best, guarded," said Sarah Bascom, a political consultant and longtime spokeswoman for King, in a statement. . .
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