Henry Hyde to Get Presidential Medal of Freedom for Opposing Abortion

(Hat tip: PewSitter.com)

From LifeNews.com:

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former member of Congress Henry Hyde will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom next Monday for his work opposing abortion. For decades, after his landmark Hyde Amendment stopped federal funding of virtually all abortions, Hyde became the pro-life movement's elder statesman on Capitol Hill.

Hyde was first elected to the House in 1974 and served as chairman of the House International Relations Committee and the House Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 2001.

In those positions, Hyde advanced pro-life legislation and worked to stop using taxpayer dollars to subsidize abortions in other countries.

Hyde's lasting legacy will be the federal Hyde amendment, which has prevented federal tax dollars from being used to fund almost all abortions since 1976. The Supreme Court heard a case in 1980 challenging the law and upheld it as constitutional.

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Awakenings: The Schiavo case revisited, by Wesley J. Smith
The Weekly Standard 11/05/2007, Volume 013, Issue 08:

On October 19, only months after being nearly dehydrated to death when his feeding tube was removed, Jesse Ramirez walked out of the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix on his own two legs. Ramirez is lucky to be alive. Early last June, a mere one week after a serious auto accident left him unconscious, his wife Rebecca and doctors decided he would never recover and pulled his feeding tube. He went without food and water for five long days. But then his mother, Theresa, represented by lawyers from the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, successfully took Rebecca to court demanding a change of guardianship on the grounds that Rebecca and Jesse's allegedly rocky marriage disqualified her for the role.

The judge ordered that Jesse be temporarily rehydrated and nourished. Then Jesse regained consciousness. Now, instead of dying by dehydration, he will receive rehabilitation and get on with his life--all because his mother rejected the reigning cultural paradigm that a life with profound cognitive dysfunction is not worth living.

Ramirez is only the latest instance of an unconscious patient waking up after being consigned to death by dehydration. . . .

Louisiana Goes Republican: Katrina Destroys Democratic Hold on Governorship

There was an historic election in Louisiana last Saturday. My home state got a new Republican governor. Yes, in the state of Katrina, which the liberal media has falsified into a "Bush-caused catastrophe," the state went Republican--and not just Republican, but with a highly conservative, pro-life Republican. Let it be clear: many of those from Louisiana knew right off the bat that the Katrina disaster was the product of years of insitutionalized Democratic mismanagement and corruption in New Orleans and Louisiana politics. Yet, the liberal media, oblivious to the facts, boldly projected their anti-Bush obsession onto the disaster and gave the nation a false picture of the cause of the disaster. Much the same is happening with the exaggerated emphasis on global warming.

A new generation is taking over in Louisiana. The new Governor-elect Bobby Jindal is at 36, the youngest governor in the nation. But note that youth is not enough--what makes Jindal special is that he combines youth with an entirely new approach, because there are young clones of the mentality that gave us years of Democratic mismanagement and mediocrity in Louisiana politics. Jindal is also an enthusiastic convert to Catholicism from Hinduism. His parents were born in India. He is a graduate of Brown University and was a Rhodes Scholar. And another great plus: he is not a lawyer! So, a lot of false assumptions fell yesterday: that Katrina would be a Democratic political boon, that Louisianians would not vote for a "non-white" governor, that Louisianians are satisfied with corrupt business as usual, that Louisiana is berefet of intelligent political talent. The skinny, non-lawyer, Republican Rhodes Scholar with roots in India is now the face of Louisiana politics. That's about as different from past Louisiana political figures as you can get. Saturday may finally have been the day that Louisiana really joined the Union. Now, the hard task becomes how the liberal media can spin the facts away and somehow transform this eruption of reality into some kind of evil that can be ascribed to President Bush. (For further details, see this Wikipedia link.)

Congratulations to Bobby Jindal on his election to Louisiana Governor.

Catholics Against Rudy has a new petition, by which you can express your public opposition to the candidacy of "pro-choice Catholic" Rudy Giuliani:

We are Catholics who will not vote for Rudy Giuliani in the GOP primary. The purpose of this petition is to allow faithful Catholics to speak out against Rudy Giuliani's abysmal record on non-negotiable "Culture of Life" issues (e.g., abortion, embryonic stem cell research) and traditional marriage, and to publicly oppose his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.

"Hillary Shares Your Vision for the Common Good"

"We are starting a conversation with Catholics across America and hope you will join us. Hillary shares your vision for the common good -- quality, affordable health care for all Americans, better educational opportunities for our children, and a plan for peace and stability from Baghdad to Darfur. Together we can make this vision a reality."

... Excluding, of course, those not yet born.

Senator Clinton launched a "National Catholic Steering Committee" to garnor support amongst Catholics for her presidential campaign. Ad Majorem Dei Gloria has the details.

Abp. Raymond Burke on Canon 915

Abp. Raymond Burke on Canon 915 In the Light of the Law Sept. 10, 2007:

One of America's sharpest canon lawyer bishops (Abp. Raymond Burke of St. Louis), has just published a terrific article in perhaps the world's most prestigious canon law journal (Periodica de re Canonica in Rome), on a topic of vital interest to the Church in the world (the correct application of Canon 915 on denial of Holy Communion). Best of all, it's available on-line here.

Just in case you missed it -- consider it as a 'must-read', especially in light of 2004's presidential race, with the scandal of pro-choice Catholic John Kerry insisting on his right to the Eucharist (not to mention this election with a certain former mayor of New York).

Meanwhile, Catholic News Agency reports that Cardinal McCarrick has recommended that the Catholic Church forcefully preach the pro-life message to presidential candidates rather than following Archbishop Burke’s suggestion of denying them Communion.

Cal Thomas on Global Warming

Credible veteran conservative columnist Cal Thomas has his usual common sense take on Al Gore and global warming at this link. It always amazes me how naive many of the Gore cultists are--their leader does not even live up to his own preaching on global warming in his own public lifestyle of extravagant and lavish energy consumption. Alas, we are all born looking for someone to believe in, we are all hard-wired to look for a messiah. Yet, the true Messiah came, died, rose again, and will return--and remains available this very day for the asking. There is no need to look elsewhere and be ultimately disappointed and disillusioned. The false messiahs have fallen repeatedly and some still nostalgically look back to them: Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Che. Others like Castro keep hanging on by their fingernails. Yet, other false messiahs, such as Darwin for example, were never looking for messianic status but are more the product of fanatic followers who "dogmatize" the contributions of important historical figures beyond their original intent. The question remains for all of us: who is your messiah? Is the one you have, whether explicitly or implicitly, worth it? Can he deliver?

Congrats to Christopher on the Birth of His Son

(Hat tip: American Papist)

Christopher's dad, Dr. Philip Blosser, reports at Musings of a Pertinacious Papist:

Son Christopher (of Against the Grain, Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club, & Pope Benedict XVI Fan Club) has just sired a son, Raphael Joseph Feldman-Blosser. If you're familiar with his blogs, you may wish to send him a congratulatory note -- with or without a cigar.

All the best to you and your growing family, Christopher!

Archbishop Burke vs. Rudy Giuliani: "Matching Wits with an Unarmed Foe" American Papist has the goods. October 3, 2007.

40 Days for Life

The pro-life movement is on the offensive against Planned Parenthood:

"This fall, 89 cities in 33 states across the nation will unite for a unique pro-life campaign called 40 Days for Life -- an intensive effort designed to raise awareness, save lives, bring healing, and prepare America for the beginning of the end of abortion.

The campaign will be conducted simultaneously in all locations from September 26 - November 4."

The main component of this campaign is peaceful vigil outside Planned Parenthood clinics or other abortion facilities. Here is the link to learn more and to see how you can help.

I attended the kickoff event in one city, Ann Arbor, Michigan, at the local Catholic charismatic parish. As usual, the most moving testimony was from two women who choose to be silent no more and to speak of the immense damage that abortion does to the mother involved. By the mercy and healing power of Jesus, these women are free today to live full lives and to speak truth to power courageously and prophetically. Although they still carry scars from their great error, they are able by the power of Jesus to move on, experience peace and joy, and now go about doing good and teaching others. Just the other day, another woman told me about the horrors of her own abortion and about the insidious workings of Planned Parenthood when she volunteered there years ago: exorbitant profit margins on birth control pills and suppression of information about the harmful consequences of abortion to the woman. She also told me that if anyone had intercepted her on the way to the abortion clinic and urged her to turn around, she would not have had the abortion.

This particular sin and others are at times like that: many are reluctant even as we begin the sin and are undergoing it. The lie of the devil is that we are on some kind of assembly line where we just can't stop the descent to hell. The truth is that we are really free and can choose to stop the madness as we begin to slide into sin. Too many women have been "hustled" through fear, lies, propaganda, and pressure into scarring themselves permanently with abortion. The same woman told me that she tried to interrupt the abortion as it was proceeding, but was told that it was already too late. Many times we slide into disaster even while we recognize that it is a disaster. That's why we have to remind ourselves that in Jesus we are always free to say no to the machinations of evil. We have to learn to say no and to exercise our freedom to be sane.

Let's be clear: Planned Parenthood is an umbrella term for a network of death camps for infants spread throughout the United States. The roots of this evil lie in the fornication culture that exploded onto the American scene in the sixties and is now considered "normal" in America. The most outrageous bad fruit of a fornication culture is the murder of children. Sin works that way. The devil works that way: one outrage leads to another until you get to the ultimate outrage--child sacrifice in modern America for personal convenience and as a form of after-the-fact birth control. We even have one major political party--the Democratic Party--that has sold its soul to the maintenance of this contemporary holocaust.