Dispel the Illusion

The Plan to Poison Southeast Asia

2009-08-29T23:51:00.001-04:00

World-famous microbiologist Sir Macfarlane Burnet, the Nobel prize winner revered as Australia's greatest medical research scientist, secretly urged the government to develop biological weapons for use against Indonesia and other "overpopulated" countries of South-East Asia. The revelation is contained in top-secret files declassified by the National Archives of Australia, despite resistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Mickey Rourke Thanks Catholic Faith for 'Second Chance'

2009-08-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

Famed Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke, who was at the Sarajevo Film Festival last week, told a Bosnian newspaper that he thanks God and his Catholic faith for giving him a “second chance” in life to overcome his addictions, which almost led him to commit suicide. Speaking to the Bosnian daily “Avaz,” Rourke said, “God gave me a second chance in life and I thank Him.”

The Perils of Socialized Medicine

2009-08-27T10:55:00.000-04:00

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment. The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

Most Chinese Transplant Organs Come From Executed Prisoners

2009-08-27T10:54:00.000-04:00

The majority of transplanted organs in China come from executed prisoners, state media reported today in a rare disclosure about the country's problem of dubious organ donations. Despite a 2007 regulation barring donations from people who are not related to or emotionally connected to the transplant patient, the China Daily newspaper said 65 per cent of organ donations come from death row.

Pro-Life Leaders Facing Death Threats

2009-06-17T12:05:00.000-04:00

In the aftermath of the shooting of late-term abortionist, Dr. George Tiller, American pro-life leaders have been receiving death threats prompting round-the-clock protection from authorities. Jill Stanek ... said that she, along with Troy Newman of Operation Rescue and Fr. Frank Pavone at Priests for Life, had been receiving credible threats from a "troubled man involved in the abortion industry" ... Federal agents are currently monitoring his movements.

Why Obama Wants to Hide His Birth Certificate

2009-06-16T09:49:00.000-04:00

Since I began my quixotic campaign to uncover Barack Obama's birth certificate, many have asked me about the president's possible motives for hiding it with such tenacity and diligence. I think there are many plausible motives: Perhaps something in that birth certificate, if it indeed exists, would contradict assertions Obama has made about his life's story ... Perhaps it reveals a foreign birth, as Hawaii allowed for in 1961 while still issuing the "certification of live birth" we have seen posted on his website ... Or perhaps it will show just what Obama has claimed all along – a birth in Hawaii to two officially non-citizen parents, for the purpose of establishing "natural born citizenship" under the Constitution.

Critics of Gay Parenting Branded 'Retarded Homophobes'

2009-05-15T12:32:00.000-04:00

People who have concerns about the adoption of children by gay couples are 'retarded homophobes', the state-funded national adoption agency said yesterday. Those who protest over controversial gay adoption laws are merely 'whinging', according to the British Association for Adoption and Fostering. Its insulting description angered senior MPs and former Cabinet Ministers, Roman Catholic and Church of England leaders.

The Death of Europe

2009-05-15T12:18:00.000-04:00

Outside of politics, sports, and popular entertainment, how many living Germans, or French, or Austrians, or even Brits can you name? Even well-informed people who love art and literature and who follow developments in science and medicine would be hard pressed to come up with many, more often any, names. In terms of greatness in literature, art, music, the sciences, philosophy, and medical breakthroughs, Europe has virtually fallen off the radar screen.

China's 'Black Jails' Uncovered

2009-04-30T00:36:00.000-04:00

Local officials in China are using secret "black jails" to imprison citizens who threaten to report corruption to central authorities, an Al Jazeera investigation has revealed. At one location Al Jazeera's Melissa Chan found a woman being held by three men. As they slammed the door shut, the woman was heard screaming: "You're here to save me! I'm trying to get out!" Another woman, Shan Yajuan, said that she had previously been held in a "black jail" where she was beaten and shocked with cattle prods.

Just Who Are the Media Elitists?

2009-04-30T00:34:00.000-04:00

For the most part, they are the products of alleged institutions of higher learning presided over by a professoriate composed of devout Marxists who float above the grim precincts of reality while concentrating on expressing their hatred of America and inflicting their venom on their impressionable students. Convinced they have been elevated into an elite by virtue of having spent four years under such informed and inspired tutelage they go forth into the ranks of the nation's print and broadcast media harboring the virus of imagined superiority over the citizenry of the despised United States of America.

The Media Elite's Secret Dinners

2009-04-30T00:29:00.001-04:00

The catered gatherings also sound rather cozy, like some secret-handshake gathering of an entrenched elite ... Among those in regular attendance are David Brooks and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gene Robinson and Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post, NBC's David Gregory, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, PBS's Gwen Ifill, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum, former Time managing editor Walter Isaacson and staffers from Bradley's Atlantic and National Journal, including Ron Brownstein, Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Rauch.

Homosexual Indoctrination in the U.K.

2009-04-29T01:34:00.001-04:00

Pupils as young as 11 will be taught about homosexuality and civil partnerships in compulsory sex education classes. All secondary schools - including faith schools - will have to teach children about same-sex relationships as well as traditional families. Previously, heads could decide to opt out of teaching the controversial subject.

U.K.: Compulsory Sex Ed for 5-Year-Olds

2009-04-29T01:27:00.000-04:00

The government has announced plans to make sex education compulsory for pupils aged five to 11, dividing faith groups and safer sex campaigners. Under the plans all secondary schools will have to teach teenagers about contraception, safer sex and relationships, but faith schools will also be free to preach against sex outside of marriage and condoms.

Obama: 100 Days, 100 Mistakes

2009-04-29T01:22:00.000-04:00

1. "Obama criticized pork barrel spending in the form of 'earmarks,' urging changes in the way that Congress adopts the spending proposals. Then he signed a spending bill that contains nearly 9,000 of them, some that members of his own staff shoved in last year when they were still members of Congress. 'Let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business, and the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability,' Obama said." -- McClatchy, 3/11

Globalization Has Made Us More Catastrophe-Prone

2009-04-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

As the world grapples with the worst economic downturn in decades and the possibility of a flu pandemic, a growing body of research suggests the complexity of the modern global economy may make us more vulnerable than ever to catastrophe. The financial crisis began as turmoil in one small segment of the US mortgage market. Within months it had morphed into a global meltdown affecting almost everyone on earth.

The Spectre of Russian Depopulation

2009-04-16T11:27:00.000-04:00

A specter is haunting Russia today. It is not the specter of Communism—that ghost has been chained in the attic of the past—but rather of depopulation—a relentless, unremitting, and perhaps unstoppable depopulation. The mass deaths associated with the Communist era may be history, but another sort of mass death may have only just begun, as Russians practice what amounts to an ethnic self-cleansing.

Canada's Human Rights Message for China

2009-04-15T23:11:00.000-04:00

In our investigations, we have concluded that China's re-education camps, as well as its other detention facilities, often contain forced organ donor banks. (More information can be found in our report, available at www.organharvestinvestigation.net.) Imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners who refuse to recant their faith sometimes are blood-tested, organ-examined and killed for their organs ... Some vestiges of the totalitarian socialist state remain, including administrative detention and re-education through labour camps.

Neo-Cons Love Obama?

2009-04-15T23:10:00.000-04:00

One would expect neoconservatives to be friendless and circumspect, grumbling about Obama’s inevitable failure as they slump away from Washington. Instead, they are jubilant, palling around with liberals again, enjoying renewed respect. Obama is their hero.

World Hopper Chretien Now Investing in Vietnam

2009-04-15T23:07:00.000-04:00

Jean Chrétien is part of a team wagering on a resort and casino project in another region in Asia. As part of the largest foreign investment in Vietnam, the former prime minister is involved in building a multibillion-dollar five-star resort and Las Vegas-style casino south of Ho Chi Minh City. The Ho Tram project, located on pristine white-sand beaches on the South China Sea, is the largest foreign investment in the country ... The 75-year-old former politician, who acts as counsel to national law firm Heenan Blaikie, has been travelling the world making business deals and money.

China's High-Tech Execution and Organ Harvesting Vans

2009-04-08T21:09:00.005-04:00

A vehicle that has been specially developed to make executions more cost-effective and efficient ... This former member of the China People's Party will be handcuffed to a so-called 'humane' bed and executed inside a gleaming new, hi-tech, mobile 'death van.' After trials of the mobile execution service were launched quietly three years ago - then hushed up to prevent an international row about the abuse of human rights before the Olympics last summer - these vehicles are now being deployed across China.

Dead Man Re-Elected Mayor

2009-04-08T21:04:00.000-04:00

Voters in the small northeastern Missouri town of Winfield re-elected their mayor for a fourth term on Tuesday, about a month after his death. Ballots had already been printed and absentee voting had already begun when Harry Stonebraker died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 11. He won easily in Tuesday's general election with 206 votes, or 90 per cent.

E.U. Minister Admits She Hasn't Read Constitution

2009-04-08T21:00:00.001-04:00

The Government minister responsible for the revived EU constitution made an astonishing gaffe by admitting she had never read it. Europe Minister Caroline Flint admitted she had only been 'briefed' on parts of a document that surrenders a raft of British powers to Brussels ... During a Commons debate, Ms Flint confessed she had not read all of the despised charter. Critics said it was an 'extraordinary admission' to make.

Honduras Prohibits 'Emergency Contraception'

2009-04-08T20:56:00.002-04:00

The Honduran National Congress has passed a law banning the sale of so-called "emergency contraception," which in fact causes abortions as well as preventing pregnancy, according to local news reports. Also known as the "morning after pill," the drug contains a hormone that, if received after a new human life has been created, prevents it from attaching to the uterine wall, resulting in its death soon afterward. It is washed out in the following period.

White House Received Two Million 'Red Envelopes'

2009-04-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

The White House mail office has confirmed it received a "deluge" of as many as 2.25 million red envelopes symbolizing the empty promise of lives snuffed out in abortion in a massive campaign that was larger than most White House mailing movements in the last 35 years. White House mail worker "Steve" has handled letters for 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. for more than three decades ... Asked if he has seen a flood of red envelopes bound for the White House, Steve chuckled. "Uh, yes," he said emphatically. "Believe me, they made it here."

The Youth of Today

2009-04-08T20:53:00.000-04:00

The teenage gangs in inner cities; the increasing knife culture; the angry 19-year-old who lashed out and killed the boy in a bakery; the shocking case of an 18-year-old youth who, when in foster care, raped the two-year-old in the family and abused the nine-year-old; the extensive survey earlier this year that expressed a widespread anxiety about the state of the nation's children and the fact that childhood ends too quickly; the finding that a teacher suffers a violent attack almost every school day; the growth in childhood obesity, in teenage and pre-teenage binge drinking, in under-age sex and under-age pregnancies – there is a sense of a growing crisis in childhood, certainly a crisis in the way that we think of children.

Almost One of Two New Americans in 2008 Was Latino

2009-04-08T20:50:00.000-04:00

Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said the number of Latinos who became Americans in fiscal year 2008 more than doubled over the previous year, to 461,317. That's nearly half of the record 1,046,539 new citizens overall in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 2007.

Who Counts as Human?

2009-04-02T19:12:00.001-04:00

The idea of "humanity" is modern. Athens and Rome had Athenians or Romans but not "men", in the sense of members of the human species. The word humanitas first appeared in the Roman Republic and meant eruditio et institutio in bonas artes (erudition and training in good conduct). Humanity was not a quality shared but, as Cicero put it, a standard of behaviour used to separate the homines humani (the educated Romans) from the homines barbari (the rest).

PETA Killed 95 Per Cent of Its Adoptable Pets

2009-04-02T19:10:00.001-04:00

Today the nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) published documents online showing that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed 95 percent of the adoptable pets in its care during 2008. Despite years of public outrage over its euthanasia program, the animal rights group kills an average of 5.8 pets every day at its Norfolk, VA headquarters.

Taxes Governor Recognizes Abortion Hurts Women

2009-04-02T19:09:00.003-04:00

Texas Governor Rick Perry has proclaimed April as Abortion Recovery Awareness Month stating: "Ending a pregnancy through abortion interrupts the natural birth process and creates significant trauma and stress for those involved in the pregnancy. An abortion is a tragic ending, not only because of the loss of a life, but also because of the physical and psychological trauma caused by the procedure itself. This often leads to lasting emotional and mental health problems for the mother, father and other involved family members."

Vatican Investigates Miracle Recovery

2009-04-02T19:07:00.000-04:00

When Jory Aebly was shot in the head, execution-style during a mugging five weeks ago in Cleveland, Ohio, that should have been the end of it. Doctors at the Metro Health Medical Center told his family it was a "non-survivable" injury, according to the hospital's Web site. But Tuesday, a very-much-alive Aebly was wheeled to a press conference before he went home in what some believe is a true "miracle," possibly good enough to help earn deceased Pope John Paul II sainthood.

Tibet: A Giant Prison

2009-03-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

Authorities closed the last window into a restive Tibetan region in western China yesterday, tightening its security cordon on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile. A Dalai Lama envoy called Tibet "a giant prison."

Pius XII Helped Jews During WWII

2009-03-05T21:12:00.002-05:00

Vatican Radio said Wednesday that a 1943 document found in a Rome convent bolsters church contentions that Pope Pius XII tried to save Jews from Nazis during World War II ... The Vatican insists that the late pope used quiet diplomacy to help Jews. Vatican Radio reported the discovery of a note, kept in a cloistered monastery near the Colosseum, which lists the names of 24 people who were taken in by the nuns at the behest of Pius.

Media Suck Up to the White House

2009-03-05T21:10:00.001-05:00

This proliferation of profiles isn’t about the reader’s need to know, or at least not entirely. It’s also about reporters’ need to introduce themselves to and ingratiate themselves with the White House officials they’ll need as sources over the next four years. It’s far easier for a reporter to get time with a key staffer when both parties know that a flattering profile is coming. And it’s a lot easier to get calls returned from the staffer’s colleagues — especially subordinates — if they know it’s an opportunity to suck up to the subject.

Hollywood's Bad Act

2009-03-05T21:09:00.000-05:00

I've won an Oscar! Thank you my beautiful partner, my beautiful therapist, my beautiful bankers. Thank you to the memory of an over-indulged playboy who was considered a great thespian because he put white makeup on his face, over acted and then filled himself with drugs and took his own life. Thank you. False emotion. Prepared speech. Go Obama!

Contraceptive Implants for 12-Year-Olds

2009-02-18T19:02:00.000-05:00

Doctors inject a plastic implant under the skin of the young girls, which releases the hormone progesterone, guarding against pregnancy for up to three years. The procedure is regularly given to under-16s who are not deemed responsible enough to remember to take oral contraceptives on a daily basis. Girls aged 13 and 14 are also considered, while in Scotland, a 12-year-old who became pregnant at 11 has been given the implant.

Fetal Stem Cells Trigger Tumors

2009-02-18T19:01:00.000-05:00

A family desperate to save a child from a lethal brain disease sought highly experimental injections of fetal stem cells—injections that triggered tumors in the boy's brain and spinal cord, Israeli scientists reported Tuesday ... Researchers have long warned that they must learn to control newly injected stem cells so they don't grow where they shouldn't, and small studies in people are only just beginning.

A Botched Abortion in a Mother's Own Words

2009-02-18T19:00:00.001-05:00

On the morning of July 20, 2006, Sycloria Williams, age 18, went for an abortion – a late-term abortion that she says went terribly wrong. Now 21, the Hollywood resident has filed a civil lawsuit accusing the clinic staff of delivering her child alive and killing the newborn girl by stuffing her into a biohazard bag.

Firefighters Were Forced to Participate in 'Gay Pride'

2009-02-18T18:58:00.000-05:00

A jury determined Tuesday that four San Diego firefighters were sexually harassed for being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade and awarded them combined damages of $34,300. The firefighters — Alex Kane, Chad Allison, Capt. John Ghiotto and Capt. Jason Hewitt — claimed they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding a fire engine in the July 2007 parade, which drew about 150,000 spectators.

North Dakota House Passes Bill to Ban Abortion

2009-02-18T18:57:00.000-05:00

North Dakota's House of Representatives has passed a bill effectively outlawing abortion. The House voted 51-41 this afternoon to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person. That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder.

Student Oppressed by Prof Over Gay 'Marriage' Speech

2009-02-17T18:57:00.000-05:00

Student Jonathan Lopez says his professor called him a "fascist bastard" and refused to let him finish his speech against same-sex marriage during a public speaking class last November, weeks after California voters approved the ban on such unions. When Lopez tried to find out his mark for the speech, the professor, John Matteson, allegedly told him to "ask God what your grade is," the suit says. Lopez also said the teacher threatened to have him expelled when he complained to higher-ups.

Whitewashed Report Leaves China Sparkling

2009-02-17T18:54:00.000-05:00

Officials with China Aid Association say a recent review of China's human-rights record by the United Nations didn't contain all of the facts ... Katherine Cason with CAA says the summary from the OHCHR did not include reports on the Chinese government's human-rights violations against multiple victims groups. "We found that [with] this committee, the reports that have been received and the summary that they made have [sic] been whitewashed," claims Cason. "A lot of the persecution that has taken place -- the human rights abuses in China -- [has] actually been taken out of these documents."

'I Was Nearly an Abortion Statistic'

2009-02-17T18:52:00.000-05:00

In 1976, my mother was 21 and trying to keep a struggling marriage from falling apart. During that time, she became pregnant. The decision was made, she recalled, to terminate the pregnancy. My father -- with whom I have a somewhat distant relationship -- drove my mother to a clinic. My mother said she could not stop crying during the entire trip. She knew that having a baby would not save the marriage, but her desire to have a child was too strong ...

Toronto Star Beatifies Obama

2009-02-05T22:45:00.002-05:00

Pictures like this don’t happen by accident. And they aren’t accidentally published on the front page of far-left Obama-loving Canadian newspapers. Under the headline, “Obama gives Wall Street a salary cap." For a bunch of secular-“progressive” fundamentalists, you’re not really all that “secular,” are you, over there at the Toronto Star division?

Horrific Botched Abortion

2009-02-05T22:44:00.001-05:00

Eighteen and pregnant, Sycloria Williams went to an abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.
Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated to dilate her cervix and otherwise readied for the procedure. Only Renelique didn't arrive in time. According to Williams and the Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivered a live baby girl. What Williams and the Health Department say happened next has shocked people on both sides of the abortion debate.

State Employee: $94,000 Salary to Do Nothing

2009-02-05T22:41:00.000-05:00

As he tells it, Randall Hinton is paid $93,803 a year to do nothing. He spends much of his workday at the State Insurance Fund donning headphones, listening to rock 'n' roll, blues or classical tunes and his superiors are cool with that. His work agenda involves placing his feet up on his desk, staring out his office window and counting cars on the New York State Thruway. He arrives at 7:30 a.m., leaves at 3:30 p.m., sees no one and talks to no one. He never does any work. It's been this way for Hinton for most of this decade.

We Show Tolerance to 'Gays' and Get Tyranny in Return

2009-02-01T19:09:00.000-05:00

If I never again had to read or write a word about homosexuals, I would be very happy. I really don't want to know what other people do in their bedrooms. But these days they really, really want us all to know. And, more important, they insist that we approve. No longer are we allowed to keep our thoughts to ourselves, while being polite and kind.

Nurse Suspended for Offering to Pray for Patient

2009-02-01T18:59:00.000-05:00

A Christian nurse from Weston-super-Mare has been suspended for offering to pray for a patient's recovery. Community nurse Caroline Petrie, 45, says she asked an elderly woman patient during a home visit if she wanted her to say a prayer for her. The patient complained to the health trust about Mrs Petrie who follows the Baptist faith. She was suspended, without pay, on 17 December and will find out the outcome of her disciplinary meeting next week.

What's So Great About Catholicism?

2009-01-21T23:55:00.005-05:00

With its divine foundation, sanction, and mission, nothing could be more glorious than the Catholic Church ... The Renaissance, a great Catholic moment, enlightened the world by seeing it afresh with both the light of faith and the light of classical civilization, which was Catholicism's seedbed. So, too, today, if we look on the world through truly Catholic eyes, we will find that the fog lifts, our perspectives grow deeper, and beauty and truth beckon above the puerility of mass popular culture.

The End of White America?

2009-01-21T23:55:00.001-05:00

The Election of Barack Obama is just the most startling manifestation of a larger trend: the gradual erosion of “whiteness” as the touchstone of what it means to be American. If the end of white America is a cultural and demographic inevitability, what will the new mainstream look like—and how will white Americans fit into it? What will it mean to be white when whiteness is no longer the norm? And will a post-white America be less racially divided—or more so?

Christian Fireman Wins Apology Over Gay Stance

2009-01-21T23:53:00.000-05:00

A Christian fireman who was disciplined for refusing to attend a gay pride march has won an apology and compensation from his employers. John Mitchell, 37, took a stance on moral grounds as one of nine firefighters who disobeyed orders to hand out leaflets at the event in Glasgow. The Roman Catholic father-of-four received a written warning and was ordered to undergo "diversity training".

Man of the People's Inauguration Costing a Royal Fortune

2009-01-14T23:56:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama's inauguration is set to cost more than £100m making it the most expensive swearing-in ceremony in US history. The President-elect will take less than a minute to recite the oath of office in front of an estimated two million people in the US capital next week. But by the time the final dance has been held at one of the many inaugural balls the costs for the day will be a staggering £110m.

Divided and United

2009-01-13T19:25:00.002-05:00

China: No Human Rights Improvement in 2008

2009-01-13T16:03:00.001-05:00

China failed to enact democratic reforms in 2008 despite promises to do so, a private democracy watchdog organization said Tuesday. The statement from the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom House came as the group unveiled its 2009 "Freedom in the World," report, an analysis on levels of freedom in almost 200 countries around the globe. Asia researcher Sarah Cook called China's progress toward freedom in 2008 "disappointing," particularly following its promises to expand opportunities for free expression in connection with the holding of the summer Olympics.

Illegal Fetal Age Deception Scheme at Abortion Site

2009-01-13T16:02:00.000-05:00

Operation Rescue announces the release of results from an undercover investigation it recently conducted at George R. Tiller's late-term abortion clinic, Women's Health Care Services. Those results show compelling evidence that WHCS routinely underestimates the fetal age and viability of pre-born babies in order to avoid having to comply with Kansas law. "The evidence shows there is no doubt that fetal ages and viability are being intentionally misstated by WHCS in order to do abortions that would otherwise be illegal," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

Court Orders Prayer Stopped at Schools

2009-01-13T16:01:00.001-05:00

A federal judge has ordered the Santa Rosa County School District to stop promoting religion and prayer in the classroom and at school events. U.S. District Court Judge Casey Rodgers ruled Friday after school officials admitted allegations in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU sued the district, Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and former Superintendent John Rogers on behalf of two unnamed Pace High students.

Planned Parenthood U.S. Lays Off Staff

2009-01-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

Hit with declines in funding from the economic crisis and the Madoff scandal, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America is laying off around 20% of its staff. Roughly 30 people were let go earlier this week, according to a source who works for the nonprofit. Executives at Planned Parenthood confirmed the layoffs, but declined to give more details.

Oral Contraceptives' Link to Breast Cancer

2009-01-13T15:57:00.001-05:00

Oral contraceptive (OC) use has been linked to increased risk of breast cancer, largely on the basis of studies conducted before 1990. In the Case-Control Surveillance Study, a US hospital-based case-control study of medication use and cancer, the authors assessed the relation of OC use to breast cancer risk among 907 case women with incident invasive breast cancer ... These results suggest that OC use is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer diagnosed in recent years.

Tavis Smiley: 'We're All Working for Barack Obama'

2009-01-09T19:22:00.000-05:00

Chris Matthews won't be working alone. Back in November, the Hardball host said it was his job to make Barack Obama's presidency a success. Today, another TV journalist expressed a similar sentiment. Tavis Smiley has declared that "we're all working for Barack Obama" and that "we have to help make Obama a great president."

Cohen's Black Jesus to Shock America

2009-01-09T19:20:00.000-05:00

Sacha Baron Cohen is preparing to shock America with his latest film, which is said to contain a black model called Jesus wearing a loincloth and a crown of thorns. The comedian, who has been sued by several people who featured in his film Borat, will be ready for similar reactions after the release of the big-screen debut of his character Bruno ... Clips of his work have become cult favourites on YouTube. And it is thought that the film version will see Bruno in more outrageous form.

42 Per Cent of Canadians Can't Name First Prime Minister

2009-01-09T19:13:00.000-05:00

A national survey has found that more than two in five Canadians could not identify Sir John A. Macdonald as the country's first prime minister. The Dominion Institute also found that only one-quarter of people surveyed could identify Sir Wilfrid Laurier as Canada's first francophone prime minister.

Mainstream Media in Death Throes

2009-01-09T19:11:00.000-05:00

The Globe and Mail says it will reduce its work force by about 10 per cent through voluntary buyouts, and possible layoffs. The newspaper's publisher, Phillip Crawley, told staff the Globe is looking to cut between 80 and 90 jobs, and will offer voluntary buyout packages over the next few weeks. Should that target not be reached, layoffs will be needed to reach that figure, Mr. Crawley said.

Not His Kids ... But He Has to Pay Support Anyway

2009-01-09T01:02:00.001-05:00

An Ontario Superior Court judge has ordered a Toronto man to continue paying child support even though a DNA test shows he is not the biological father of his ex-wife's twins. In her ruling, Madam Justice Katherine van Rensburg decided that even though Pasqualino Cornelio did not father twins – now 16 – with Anciolina Cornelio, he must continue to pay child support because "he was the only father the twins knew during the course of the marriage."

Pill's Founder Cites Its Horrors

2009-01-09T00:58:00.002-05:00

85-year-old Carl Djerassi. The Austrian chemist was one of three whose formulation of the synthetic progestogen Norethisterone marked a key step towards the earliest oral contraceptive pill. Djerassi outlined the "horror scenario" that occurred because of the population imbalance, for which his invention was partly to blame. He said that in most of Europe there was now "no connection at all between sexuality and reproduction".

Top 10 Christian-Bashing Moments in America

2009-01-06T22:26:00.000-05:00

Topping the list compiled by the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission is the assault by radical homosexuals after Proposition 8 passed in California in November. In opposition to the amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, some gay rights supporters verbally and physically assaulted Proposition 8 proponents, vandalized church property and automobiles and also blacklisted individuals, churches and businesses that donated money for the Yes on 8 campaign ...

Chinese Christians Sentenced to 'Re-Education' Through Labor

2009-01-06T22:23:00.000-05:00

On December 3, Taikang county, Henan province, more than 50 house church Christians gathered in the home of Xie Ruming. Officials from the Taikang County Domestic Defense Protection Squad suddenly broke into the home. All of the Christians were arrested ... Tang Houyong, Shu Wenxiang and Xie Zhenqi each received a one-year sentence of re-education through labor for "illegal proselytizing" and attending an "illegal gathering."

Hospital Throws Baby's Remains in Garbage

2009-01-06T22:19:00.000-05:00

Police are searching garbage dumps in New Jersey and Pennsylvania for the body of a baby that was apparently thrown out with the trash at Jersey City's Christ Hospital.
Investigators are saying a dead baby's remains were accidently tossed in the trash in New Jersey. Hospital spokeswoman Barbara Davy said the baby was stillborn on Dec. 21 and the body was placed in the hospital morgue. The body was gone when a funeral home employee came to pick it up on Jan. 2.

Only Nine Per Cent in U.S. Want Unrestricted Abortion

2009-01-06T00:08:00.001-05:00

A nationwide survey commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has found that four out of five U.S. adults (82 percent) think abortion should either be illegal under all circumstances (11 percent) or would limit its legality. Thirty-eight (38) percent would limit abortion to the narrow circumstances of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother; and an additional 33 percent would limit abortion to either the first three or first six months. Only 9 percent said abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy.

The Street of Dead Fetuses

2009-01-06T00:05:00.001-05:00

It has been said that one death is a tragedy, and a million, a statistic. But on occasion a feeling person writes something so moving that a statistic is transformed into a tragedy no one understands. Irrevocably, who we are as a people changes forever through vivid moral shock. I got the shock recently from Dr. Richard Selzer, a general surgeon retired from 26 years at Yale University Hospital. "It is midsummer ...You look down and see...a tiny naked body, its arms and legs flung apart, its head thrown back, its mouth agape, its face serious. A bird, you think, fallen from its nest. But there is no nest here on 73rd Street, no bird so big. It is rubber, then. A model, a...joke. Yes, that's it, a joke. And you bend to see. Because you must. And it is no joke. Such a gray softness can be but one thing. It is a baby, and dead. You cover your mouth, your eyes. You are fixed. Horror has found its chink and crawled in, and you will never be the same as you were ..."

Gays Vandalize Catholic Church

2009-01-06T00:04:00.000-05:00

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, in the heart of San Francisco’s gay Castro community, was vandalized over the weekend by opponents of Proposition 8, the California resolution passed by voters in November that rejected gay marriage. Swastikas were painted on the church and the names Ratzinger (referring to Pope Benedict XVI) and Niederauer (the San Francisco Archbishop) were scrawled besides the Nazi symbol. Catholic League president Bill Donohue is asking Catholics nationwide to respond to this incident ... "Leaders in the gay community show no leadership when it comes to denouncing incivility committed in the name of gay rights. This has got to end.”

The Return of the 1950s Housewife

2009-01-01T17:00:00.001-05:00

SHE sews, cooks, knits, gardens and raises chooks. The housewife is back – with younger women embracing traditional domestic crafts in droves, new figures show. Sewing machines have rocketed off shelves in the past six months, with Lincraft reporting a 30 per cent increase in sales. "There has been a definite trend happening and we have also started to see an increase in dress-fabric sales," said Lincraft spokesman Jeff Croft. "Demand for sewing classes has increased – and one of the biggest growth areas has been knitting yarn, with a 10-20 per cent increase in sales compared to this time last year."

Private Firm May Track All U.K. E-mail and Calls

2009-01-01T16:58:00.000-05:00

The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary ... But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian ... assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a "hellhouse" of personal private information.

Religious Belief Delays Sexual Involvement

2009-01-01T16:56:00.001-05:00

A study in the January issue of Pediatrics that is critical of virginity pledges nonetheless reveals that teens who are more religious have their first sexual encounter at the average age of 21, or four years later than teens who are not as religious ... Her analysis shows that among her sample of 934 teens with strong religious backgrounds, both the pledgers and non-pledgers became sexually active at about 21 on average. That is four years later than teens who are not as religious. She said religious beliefs play a role in teens abstaining from sex.

Planned Parenthood's Reporting in Question

2009-01-01T16:55:00.000-05:00

A team of volunteers at Live Action Films who earlier released videos of two Planned Parenthood offices advising how to conceal a reported sexual assault on a child now wants the abortion company to answer a few questions, such as how many abortions does it perform and how many reports does it submit to Child Protective Services. In an open letter and a video released today, the pro-life organization said the public should know what is going on at the company that gets millions of federal taxpayer dollars annually.

New Study Further Disproves Freakonomics Abortion-Crime Reduction Theory

2009-01-01T16:53:00.000-05:00

A new study offer more reasons for doubting the Freakonomics theory put forward by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt that claims legalizing abortion reduced crime. The study shows a large rise in homicides by black teens in recent years even though black women have the highest abortion rate. Respected criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University has released a new study showing homicides by blacks between the ages of 14 and 17 have jumped 34 percent from 2000 through 2007. The number of crimes for white people in the same age range did not increase.

Leather Fetish Gathering Coincides With Obama Inauguration

2009-01-01T16:38:00.000-05:00

Thousands of tourists pouring into Washington, D.C. for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration will be sharing the nation's capital with a few thousand predominantly gay leather fetishists, in town for their annual convention. Next January 16th, 17th and 18th brings the 25th annual Mid-Atlantic Leather Weekend to Washington, D.C. Hosted by the city's Centaur Motorcycle Club, "a group of men with an enthusiastic interest in motorcycles, leather and other men," the event is expected to draw between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees.

The Baby Who Defied Britain's Abortion Law

2008-12-30T20:40:00.002-05:00

When Lexie Slater-Folksman was born at 23 weeks - an age at which babies can still be aborted - she weighed just 1lb 8oz ... Lexie's case proves that the abortion laws are outdated and should be changed. At 23 weeks, Lexie was born a week before the time limit for termination ... (Her mother) said: "We're so glad to have Lexie home with us at last and it just shows how outmoded our laws on abortion are. Some mothers-to-be would be able to legally terminate their pregnancy at 23 weeks - yet my Lexie is living proof babies can survive being born so prematurely. I never realised a baby would be so well developed at 23 weeks and they do have a chance of life."

Russian Prof Predicts End of the U.S.

2008-12-30T20:38:00.000-05:00

A Russian scholar predicts that's when the United States becomes the Untied States, disintegrating into six pieces that will then align with other global powers.
The Wall Street Journal carries the tale of dire prognostication by Igor Panarin, who has been predicting the U.S. demise for a decade. What will bring about the U.S. disintegration? Mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation. That will ignite a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Panarin foresees the breakup in late June or early July 2010.

Oppose Same-Sex 'Marriage'? You're Fired!

2008-12-30T01:26:00.001-05:00

Protests following the passage of California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as between one man and one woman, made news headlines, but the Pacific Justice Institute reports a growing number of cases where those opposed to the ballot measure have taken out their anger more quietly: by harassing – and even firing – employees who voted for it.

Indiana Planned Parenthood Under Investigation

2008-12-30T01:25:00.000-05:00

A probe is under way of an Indiana Planned Parenthood after an undercover video revealed alleged criminal actions. Lila Rose of Live Action Films filmed visits to two Indiana Planned Parenthood clinics. She posed as a 13-year-old impregnated by a 31-year-old man. While at the clinic, she was advised on how to get an abortion without getting the boyfriend in trouble. The Indiana attorney general's office and one grand jury are now investigating.

Religion = Better Self-Control

2008-12-30T01:24:00.000-05:00

Researchers around the world have repeatedly found that devoutly religious people tend to do better in school, live longer, have more satisfying marriages and be generally happier. These results have been ascribed to the rules imposed on believers and to the social support they receive from fellow worshipers, but these external factors didn’t account for all the benefits ... "When you add it all up, it turns out there are remarkably consistent findings that religiosity correlates with higher self-control.”

Media Distort the Pope's Words - Again

2008-12-30T01:21:00.000-05:00

Both mainstream and homosexual media around the world launched into a full-court and often vicious attack on Pope Benedict XVI following his Dec. 22 Christmas address to the Roman Curia. The furor began after the Holy Father said that protecting humankind from self-destruction was as important to Catholics as protecting the tropical rainforests. Although the pope nowhere used the word “homosexuality” in his discourse, homosexuals and others seized on a portion of his description of the Catholic understanding of the created natural order in which he described the “sacrament of creation” as “matrimony - which is the lifelong bond between a man and a woman.”

13 CHRC Personnel Have Been Investigating Conservative Website

2008-12-28T19:17:00.002-05:00

Thirteen bureaucrats and lawyers at the Canadian Human Rights Commission have worked on the investigation of the conservative website, Free Dominion, for two and a half years. And that investigation continues to this day. That’s about all the information that’s available from the access to information response provided by the CHRC to Free Dominion. I’ve never seen such a laughable disregard for Canada’s freedom of information laws as this reply is.

An Atheist Says Africa Needs God

2008-12-28T19:14:00.000-05:00

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates ... Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

Chipping Away at Christmas

2008-12-25T00:49:00.001-05:00

Non-Christians are seldom behind movements to have Nativity scenes pulled from public squares, Christmas carols replaced with holiday songs or "Merry Christmas" substituted with "Season's Greetings." The culprits are most often anti-Christians -- people of little or no faith who have grown tired of all the jollity and goodwill this time of year.

Most Americans Say 'Merry Christmas'

2008-12-25T00:30:00.000-05:00

A vast majority of Americans still say “Merry Christmas” instead of the more politically correct greeting “Happy Holidays,” a recent poll shows. More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) say they greet with “Merry Christmas,” according to a Fox News poll taken Dec. 9-10. “I feel better when someone greets me in a store with ‘Merry Christmas’ because Christmas is about the birth of our Savior Jesus,” said Steve Krotoski, who leads Pray Daily America – a ministry that prays for the country everyday.

Dozens of Christmas Displays Vandalized, Pastor Assaulted

2008-12-25T00:19:00.000-05:00

Nearly 30 acts of vandalism against Nativity scenes or Christmas displays and at least one case of physical assault against a Christian pastor have occurred over the last few weeks, according to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which tracks many such incidents every holiday season. “When you see all these examples” of vandalism and assault, “it is shocking,” said Susan Fani, communications director for the Catholic League, a conservative civil rights organization. “And we’re saying, ‘Take a look at this – this shows an animus against Christianity.’”

Media Research Centre's Notable Quotables

2008-12-25T00:18:00.000-05:00

The Media Research Center today announced its Best Notable Quotables of 2008: The 21st Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting, and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews “won” the dubious honor of Quote of the Year for gushing over a Barack Obama speech back in February: “I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often….And that is an objective assessment.”

Americans Prefer News From Web to Newspapers

2008-12-25T00:15:00.000-05:00

The Internet has surpassed newspapers as the main source for national and international news for Americans, according to a new survey ... Forty percent said they get most of their news from the Internet, up from 24 percent in September 2007, and more than the 35 percent who cited newspapers as their main news source.

Angels Real, Say Two-Thirds of Canadians

2008-12-24T12:01:00.000-05:00

From the tuques on our heads to the socks we wear to bed, Canadians are nothing if not practical. When it comes to believing in angels, however, a nationwide poll shows pragmatism takes a back seat to faith for fully two-thirds of adults in this country. Of the 1,022 Canadians surveyed by Ipsos Reid, 67 per cent professed belief in angels: 37 per cent with certainty, 30 per cent somewhat.

Repeat After Me: Merry Christmas!

2008-12-21T21:51:00.002-05:00

I know there are an awful lot of efforts to expunge references to Christmas from the public square. But so long as each of us is permitted to wish friends and strangers Merry Christmas, we retain the most powerful corrective force to political correctness: Just say the words.

U.S. Teens: Violent, Unethical

2008-12-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

More than a quarter of all U.S. teenagers think violent behavior is at least sometimes acceptable, and one in five say they behaved violently toward another person in the past year, according to a new poll. Most said self-defense (87 percent) or helping a friend (73 percent) were acceptable justifications for violence. But 34 percent said revenge was a sufficient motivation.

Shocking Study Finds Most Will Torture If Ordered

2008-12-21T19:04:00.000-05:00

Scientists said on Friday they had replicated an experiment in which people obediently delivered painful shocks to others if encouraged to do so by authority figures. Seventy percent of volunteers continued to administer electrical shocks -- or at least they believed they were doing so -- even after an actor claimed they were painful, Jerry Burger of Santa Clara University in California found. "What we found is validation of the same argument -- if you put people into certain situations, they will act in surprising, and maybe often even disturbing, ways."

Drug Abuse Common Among Women Who Have Abortion

2008-12-19T01:18:00.000-05:00

Young women who have an abortion or a miscarriage are more likely to develop a substance abuse problem or psychiatric disorder, a Brisbane researcher has found. Kaeleen Dingle from the University of Queensland's School of Population Health examined 280 women aged between 18 and 23 who have experienced pregnancy, and found a link between losing a baby and mental health issues.

China Launches (Another) Major Crackdown on Dissidents

2008-12-17T12:37:00.000-05:00

Pro-democracy activists in Shanghai said that the police have assaulted residents who have tried to lodge complaints at official agencies. The restrictions coincide with Thursday's 30th anniversary of Gaige Kaifang, the moment when China opened up to the world under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping. An increasing number of critics are pointing out, however, that China's economic success is a hollow victory without political change. The purge was launched at the end of November, after the execution of Yang Jia, a 28-year-old man convicted of killing six policemen.

Olympics Over, But Chinese Net Censorship Persists

2008-12-17T12:35:00.000-05:00

The Chinese government has quietly begun preventing access again to Web sites that it had stopped blocking during the Olympic Games in China in August, Internet experts said on Tuesday. Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said at his semi-weekly news conference on Tuesday in Beijing that the Chinese government had a right to censor Web sites that violate the country's laws.

Inquiry Into Planned Parenthood Sought

2008-12-17T12:31:00.000-05:00

A member of the Indiana General Assembly on Tuesday asked the state attorney general and Marion County prosecutor to investigate video-taped advice given at two Planned Parenthood clinics to a woman who said she was underage and wanted an abortion. In one video, taken at a Bloomington clinic and released earlier this month, a woman who said she was a minor who was pregnant by a 31-year-old man was told by a Planned Parenthood representative to seek an abortion in Illinois.

Stalinism in Quebec

2008-12-17T11:52:00.000-05:00

Jonathan Gagne, a courageous teenager at the Joseph-Hermas-Leclerc secondary school in Granby, Que., has just been suspended, and will likely be expelled, for boycotting ERC (the Ethics and Religious Culture course). He is a hero to thousands of angry, mainly Catholic, Quebecers who consider compulsory submission to ERC a violation of their human rights. The ERC curricula are mandated to introduce students to Quebec's rich diversity of religious tenets and "facilitate the spiritual development of students so as to promote self-fulfilment." Since when does the state "facilitate" spiritual self-fulfilment?

Gay Group Organizes 'Pink Christmas'

2008-12-08T23:38:00.002-05:00

A Dutch gay group said Monday it has planned a "Pink Christmas" festival for the first time in Amsterdam, featuring a manger stall with two Josephs and two Marys ... ProGay group chairman Frank van Dalen said Monday the event is intended to increase the choices for homosexual men and women during the Christmas holiday week ... Some Christian groups protested. The organization Christians for Truth said the idea "mocks the core concepts of Evangelism."

Another Abortion Propogator Criminally Convicted

2008-12-08T23:38:00.001-05:00

A woman who operated an abortion clinic that catered to low-income Latino women has pleaded guilty to nine felony counts of practicing medicine without a license, the district attorney's office announced today. Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, 48, faces as many as nine years in prison when sentenced Feb. 6. "This criminal preyed on women in the Hispanic community and has now been held accountable," said Dist. Atty. Bonnie Dumanis.

Portugal Pushed Into a Second E.U. Vote

2008-12-08T23:36:00.001-05:00

Irish voters who rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June will be asked to vote again on the issue next year, paving the way for controversial EU laws to be introduced in Britain. All 27 member states must ratify the Treaty before it comes into force. Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic are the only nations that have not yet agreed to do so ... On Thursday the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen will confirm that a new vote will be held in 2009.