Dispel the Illusion

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's disturbing statements to the media that he will undemocratically not permit anyone to reopen the debate on abortion are a stark betrayal of conservative principles and should prompt his electoral defeat in Calgary Southwest in the coming federal election, says the editor of Canada's national Catholic magazine of news, analysis and opinion. In addition, Father Alphonse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight magazine, is calling for the removal of Harper as Conservative party leader.

A Louisiana lawmaker has an unconventional way of dealing with the poor. Representative John LaBruzzo (R-District 81) of Metairie recently suggested paying poor women $1,000 if they will consent to be sterilized. The suggestion has been rebuked by New Orleans Archbishop Alfred Hughes, who called it "blatantly anti-life." Katy Walker with the American Life League (ALL) explains LaBruzzo's plan further. "Louisiana State Representative John LaBruzzo has decided he's going to pay poor women a thousand dollars a piece to be sterilized -- sterilize themselves to end poverty," she says. "He's going to eliminate poverty by eliminating the poor."

China's crackdown on Christianity is being expanded to include even classical works of music if their themes are Christian, such as Handel's "Messiah" and Mozart's "Requiem," according to the London Telegraph. The report said the Academy of Ancient Music, a leading orchestral and choral group in Britain, was invited to sing Handel's "Messiah" at the Beijing International Music Festival this month. While authorities are allowing the performance to go on, the report said, it will be "by invitation only," a move effectively barring members of the public.

Research at Oxford University has found believers can draw on their religion to endure suffering with greater fortitude, suggesting Christian martyrs may have been able to reduce the agony of torture or slow death. Academics at The Oxford Centre For Science Of The Mind gave electric shocks to 12 Roman Catholics and 12 atheists as they studied a painting of the Virgin Mary. They found Catholics seemed able to block out much of the pain. Using brain-scanning techniques, they also discovered that the Catholics were able to activate part of the brain associated with conditioning the experience of pain.

A life-threatening abortion complication landed a patient of late-term abortionist George R. Tiller in the hospital last Thursday. The woman has come forward to tell of her harrowing, near-death experience at Tiller's Women's Health Care Services. Patient S. has alleged that on Tuesday, September 23, abortionist Shelley Sella may have botched an injection into her abdomen, causing sepsis, a systemic infection that rapidly spreads throughout the body and can cause rapid death.

The 2008 Folsom Street Fair sex festival has completed another run in U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco, and the local Chronicle newspaper described it this way: "There were naked people selling bondage gear and naked people seeking support for measures on the Nov. 4 ballot. There were naked people with cameras, taking pictures of other naked people. One man wore only an 11-foot Burmese python, which curled around his waist."

More than 50 members of Congress have asked the Health and Human Services Secretary to conduct an audit of Planned Parenthood over allegations that the abortion provider has overbilled the federal government. The request for the audit was initially made by a coalition of faith-based groups, including the American Family Association. Planned Parenthood receives federal funding through the Title X Family Planning Program, a 90-percent Medicaid match for family planning, and a federal program to purchase drugs from manufacturers at a reduced price.

Senior defence analysts said that within the next decade the country will have an army that will be second only to America's military might which could "embolden" it to military action. The rapid growth of China's navy is matched by its desire to expand into the Indian Ocean and South China Sea to feed resources into its voracious economy.

THE average British household faces a lifetime tax bill of £668,000 at current rates of taxation. The TaxPayers' Alliance pressure group, which campaigns for lower taxes, said that the figure represented a 6 per cent increase on last year. The amount is calculated on what an average household would pay over 40 years in work and 15 years in retirement.

A 45-year-old man who died in the Health Sciences Centre emergency department after sitting there for 34 hours was known to medical staff, health officials confirmed this morning. Wright said it’s possible the man had been dead for several hours. He was discovered in the waiting room by a non-staff member who alerted medical staff the man was unresponsive.

A study of abortion trends in the U.S. claims that the abortion rate is now at its lowest level since 1974, though minority groups did see as large of a drop in abortions. One critic of the study suggests it ignores both the “purposeful” placement of abortion clinics in African-American areas and the manner in which abortion is promoted to black women ... The abortion rate among black women was also found to be disproportionate to the general population. Though their abortion rate declined between 1994 and 2004, it declined by only 15 percent from 59 to 50 abortions per 1,000 women.

Outspoken conservative Taro Aso took power as Japan's prime minister on Wednesday after he overcame opposition forces in a split parliament, tasked with rejuvenating the ailing ruling party ahead of elections ... Aso, known for his rightist leanings and acerbic wisecracks, will lead a country wracked by political divisions and spiking concerns over the economy, which has stalled amid the ballooning financial crisis in the United States.

The campaigns for and against Proposition 8 have raised a combined $30 million, with donations given in support of the proposed ban on gay marriage running considerably ahead of those to the opposition. So far, the main group promoting the Constitutional amendment, which would overturn a recent California Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, has raised $17.8 million. The main No-on-8 campaign has raised $12.4 million.

Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, are the latest celebrity donors to the fight against California's November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage. Spielberg and Capshaw have donated $100,000 to fight Proposition 8, they announced in a statement Monday ... Brad Pitt gave the same amount to the cause last week.

A pro-family law organization is praising an appeals court decision in Kentucky that blasted a lower court for literally ignoring state law and creating an "adoption" for two lesbian women in violation of expressed state law. "Judicial activism is a cancer that eats away at the rule of law and undermines the confidence of the people in the legal system," said Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of Liberty University School of Law. "There is a clear distinction between the role of a judge and the role of a legislator."

Hindu crowds angry at the shooting by police of a protester over attacks on Christians in India's east burned more Christian homes and rioted with police, officials said on Thursday. Police said they came under attack through Wednesday night in Orissa's Kandhamal district. Hindus have been have been demanding the release of their leaders arrested on charges of attacks on Christians. The violence is the latest in a string of attacks on Christians in three Indian states that has left at least 20 people, mostly Christians, dead and dozens of churches damaged.

A college has renamed the traditional Christmas and Easter breaks in a bid to avoid offending students from other religions. The college's new calendar shows that both of the traditional holiday periods have now been re-branded as 'end of term breaks'. Critics have complained that the decision by Yorkshire Coast College is nothing more than 'political correctness'.

Four teenagers were horrifically slain by Satanists — stabbed 666 times each and then EATEN. The gang of Devil worshippers butchered their victims and roasted them on a bonfire before devouring their flesh. Horrified cops found body parts dumped in a pit beside an upside-down cross, a symbol used in Satanic worship. The victims all suffered 666 knife wounds — the number associated with the Beast, or Antichrist, and featured in horror films such as The Omen.

I disagree with Sarah Palin on a number of issues, including abortion rights. But when the feminist establishment treats not only pro-life feminism but small-government, individualist feminism as heresy, it writes off multitudes of women. Of course, being a feminist role model is not part of the vice president's job description, and there are legitimate questions about Mrs. Palin's qualifications. And yet, like millions of American women -- and men -- I find her can-do feminism infinitely more liberated than the what-can-the-government-do-for-me brand espoused by the sisterhood.

Republican John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate was intended to lure women voters, but it's the guys who are actually getting hooked, new polls show. One CNN survey this week found that 62% of men have a favorable opinion of Palin - nine points higher than women. Similarly, 57% of men believe Palin is qualified to be vice president, compared with only 43% among women.