American politics / Pizza / Uncategorized

The Relatively Silent Debate about Contraceptives and Health

 

IN THE latest entry about the issue of cancer, abortion and oral contraceptives, Samson, a physician, writes:

[M]ost doctors are utterly unaware of the abortion-OCP-and-breast-cancer controversy. Understand: it’s not merely that most doctors disagree that there is a link, but most have not heard that there is a debate surrounding the issue whatsoever. When I was in residency (within the past five years) I was going to do a research project on the question of a link between contraceptive pills and breast cancer, but was talked out of it by several supervisors who thought the topic was unworthy of investigation because they had never heard tell of it.

 To me, the issue highlights the power of the supposedly “unbiased” and “scientific” literature, but that is a whole other discussion.

When one thinks of how much public interest there is in the effects of pesticides on human health, the relative lack of interest in this subject is striking.

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October 13, 2012
American politics / Uncategorized

Biden the Joker

  A GREAT ad by the RNC on Biden's grinning and laughing during the debate. Lawrence Auster captures the meaning of these grins: Biden’s constant guffawing while Ryan was speaking—conveying the message, “I can’t believe Ryan is telling such a howler of a partisan lie, I just can’t believe it!”—epitomizes the liberal domination of U.S. politics. And, as I’ve said so often, the Republicans lack the wit, the steel, and, most importantly, the non-liberal principles to identify this insidious manipulation for what it is and put the Democrats on the defensive over it.

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October 12, 2012
Education / Feminism / Uncategorized

One Woman Who Never Went to College

  HISTORY is filled with bright and cultured women who never went to college. Jane Austen, to cite one example, had no formal schooling after the age of eleven. Austen was born in December of 1775. According to the Wikipedia entry on her life: In 1783, according to family tradition, Jane and Cassandra were sent to Oxford to be educated by Mrs. Ann Cawley and they moved with her to Southampton later in the year. Both girls caught typhus and Jane nearly died.[24] Austen was subsequently educated at home, until leaving for boarding school with her sister Cassandra early in 1785. The school curriculum probably included some French, spelling, needlework, dancing and music and, perhaps, drama. By December 1786, Jane and Cassandra had returned home because the Austens could not afford to send both of their daughters to school.[25] Austen acquired the remainder of her education by reading books, guided by her father and her brothers James and Henry.  [26] George Austen apparently gave his daughters unfettered access to his large and varied library, was tolerant of Austen's sometimes risqué experiments in writing, and provided both sisters with expensive paper and other materials for their writing and drawing.[27] According to Park Honan, a biographer of Austen, life in the Austen home was lived in "an open, amused, easy intellectual atmosphere" where the ideas of those with whom the Austens might disagree politically or socially were considered and discussed.[28] Strange, that Austen's father…

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October 12, 2012
Contraception / Uncategorized

Lies about Promiscuity and Health, cont.

 

MARY writes in response to the discussion in this entry about the pervasive ignorance of the cancer risks and health dangers associated with abortion and contraception:

Planned Parenthood is proud that it doesn’t just do abortions; it also offers pap smears and mammograms – the need for which is accelerated by the sexual freedom they promote. This is tantamount to McDonald’s offering cholesterol tests or Phillip Morris doing free lung exams. It’s ludicrous. In a country that has successfully banned smoking in public in the name of second-hand smoke and whose First Lady has managed to drastically change school lunches for children nationwide due to childhood obesity, why is no one screaming from the rooftops for people to stop sleeping around? We are in the midst of a sexual-activity related crisis and no one will say it. Where is the First Lady when you need her? (more…)

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October 12, 2012
Military Women / Uncategorized

Is There Any Greater Abomination than the (Ideal of the) Female Soldier?

 

JILL FARRIS writes in response to the post on the Navy’s “Love Boat culture:”

Of course, the inevitable result of sex between shipmates under stress are unplanned pregnancies resulting in abortions. Women who undergo abortions have an increase in drug use, divorce/relationship problems, depression etc. In other words, these “love boat” conditions lead to an increase in ruined lives.

Whenever I read of women in the military or see any woman in a man’s uniform (ie., border guard, police woman etc.) I wonder where is her father and why didn’t he protect her? There is something so perverse about a woman acting like a man! And, apparently, underneath that uniform the hormones still do what hormones do and women still act like women!

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October 12, 2012
American politics / Uncategorized

A Debate with Gilbert and Sullivan Moments

 

MARTHA RADDATZ, the moderator of last night’s vice presidential debate, failed to control the show. She did nothing while Joe Biden frequently interrupted Paul Ryan, who came across as sincere and had a few good lines, but was generally disappointing and overwhelmed by Biden, who was laughing and grinning like the Joker in Batman. At times, both candidates were talking at once.

Lydia Sherman writes:

For some reason the comments by Ryan: “This is the…this is the inspector general,” reminded me of some words in the song “The Very Model of the Modern Major General,” from the Gilbert and Sullivan show, The Pirates of Penzance. When my daughter plays and sings it on the piano for her children, some of them fall on the floor laughing. When she read the debate script to them, they did the same thing.

 Here is some of the transcript: (more…)

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October 12, 2012
American politics / Christianity / Uncategorized

Why Hasn’t Joe Biden Been Excommunicated?

 

THERE is a vacuum of authority at the  highest levels of the Church. Once again last night, Joe Biden, whose diabolical smirk dominated the vice-presidential debate, stated his support for Roe v. Wade. He said he doesn’t support abortion in his private life, but doesn’t believe it’s right to impose his belief on others, including Jews and Muslims, as if  opposition to abortion was a private religious practice, comparable to abstaining from meat on Friday or attending Mass. Biden, who met privately with Pope Benedict XVI just last year, knows full well that his position is rejected by the Church. When Benedict met with Nancy Pelosi in 2009, he explained to her why her position was wrong. He surely did the same with Biden. The Vatican News Service reported after Pelosi’s visit: (more…)

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October 12, 2012
Islam / Uncategorized

Tocqueville on Islam

 

THE Washington Times has an article (posted at Galliawatch) on great thinkers who have issued warnings on Islam. Here is a quote from Alexis de Tocqueville:

“I studied the Kuran a great deal…I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principle cause of the decadence so visible today in the Muslim world. Its social and political tendencies are in my opinion infinitely more to be feared and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a form of progress in relation to paganism itself.”

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October 11, 2012
Pizza / Uncategorized

Okay, There’s No Difference Between the Two Parties

 

A READER received this personal invitation from the Romney-Ryan campaign:

We are extending the deadline for you to enter for a chance to eat pizza with Mitt before joining the Romney-Ryan Team as I face off with Joe Biden at this week’s debate.

It will be a lot of fun, and it will be great to know the whole team is cheering me on. (more…)

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October 11, 2012
Homosexuality / Uncategorized

The Myth of Marriage Inequality

 

SUPPORTERS of homosexual “marriage” now commonly refer to their program as a question of “marriage equality.” This is one of those phrases, similar to “reproductive rights,” that is so remarkably illogical and absurd it can be demolished in but a few words. And yet so few people speak up to point out that it makes no sense.

There is one politician who speaks the obvious. The Legislative Assembly of Northern Ireland recently defeated a “gay marriage” initiative. In explaining her vote, Michelle McIlveen of the Democratic Unionists Party said it is “simply a myth that this is an equality issue.”

“Everyone is free to marry,” McIlveen said.

This is true. No one is denied the right to marry. There is no marriage inequality.

You could as easily argue that a man who is denied the right to marry, say, Angelina Jolie is a victim of marriage “inequality” as argue that homosexuals who cannot marry people of the same sex are denied equality.

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October 11, 2012
Christianity / Uncategorized

A Debate between Two Catholics

 

IN THIS article at the Washington Post, Maria Mazzenga, a scholar at Catholic University, is quoted regarding tonight’s vice-presidential debate. Both Biden and Ryan, as everyone knows, consider themselves Catholic. Heading off the glaring fact that one of these men is clearly anti-Catholic, Mazzenga says neither man follows Catholic teaching perfectly. (more…)

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October 11, 2012
American politics / Feminism / Military Women / Uncategorized

The U.S. Navy’s Love Boat Culture

 

SAILORS were once known for spending their leisure hours in brothels in foreign ports. Okay, they were not just known for it. They actually did it. That, for better or worse, was considered compensation for hard work and long hours at sea. Things have changed dramatically. Now men in the Navy have much less incentive to visit these fleshpots. On many naval ships, as much as 40 percent of the crew is women. And, there is plenty of opportunity for sex with shipmates. News flash: The typical naval vessel is becoming more and more like your average college dorm.

In his interesting and candid article “Co-ed Crew: Reality vs. Taboo,” in Proceedings Magazine of the U.S. Naval Institute, Capt. Kevin Eyer writes:

[I]t would not be unusual for you to be glad, believing that your Navy has grown up into a service no longer sullied by raw, alcohol-fueled lust. You may reasonably think that the Navy is a professional and sober organization in which the worst elements of human weakness have been stamped out. Certainly that is the image that leadership jealously promotes and guards.

But you would be naïve to believe this mythology. You see, human nature has not changed, and water inevitably finds its own level. So, even despite the Navy’s ever-increasing efforts to legislate morality (or perhaps because of it) sailors have discovered new ways in which to be, well, sailors. Over time, they have largely replaced those historic foreign dalliances with that which is more expedient and close at hand: sex with their shipmates.

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October 11, 2012
Contraception / Female sexuality / Feminism / Uncategorized

A Breast Cancer Story

 

 

CHARNETTE MESSÉ had an abortion and used oral contraceptives. She believed these led to breast cancer in her thirties. In this video, she discusses her experience. As far as I know, it is not possible for Messé to have known conclusively that either the abortion or synthetic hormones caused her cancer. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that they did and that these factors have led to the deaths of many others. Messé died last December.

Here is a video about the risks. According to the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, five women have successfully sued abortion doctors for failing to warn them of the risk.

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October 10, 2012
Consumerism and its Wages / Uncategorized

One More Retailer to Boycott

 

SAMSON writes:

Well, it seems our family has another one for the “boycott” category. My wife and I had the recent experience of reading through the Sears Wishbook in anticipation of Christmas. We were shocked and appalled to find, in the midst of a section advertising children’s toys, a page completely devoted to Playboy-themed merchandise. We won’t be buying anything from Sears this year, I guess. Apparently we weren’t the only ones to have this reaction.

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October 10, 2012
Uncategorized

We’ve Got Every Angle Covered

 

SHEILA C. writes:

Perusing your site this morning reminded me of all the standard, liberal memes pushed relentlessly by the MSM. Ubiquitous pink packaging? Check. I had to dig through a number of spice containers at the grocery store the other day to find one in standard colors; I will not “support the ta-tas.” The denial of evil and infantilization of America? Check. I was a bit too old for the Sesame Street era, but my younger sister, who was always “young” for her age, watched it in its early years, and even then its pabulum sickened me. I preferred real babies (and baby sitting) even then. The feminization of the military? Check. (more…)

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October 10, 2012
American politics / Military Women / Uncategorized

The Flying Amazon

  IN THE entry on a billboard that depicts a woman in the National Guard hanging in the air on a rescue line with a small child, apparently in her off hours while attending college full time, Terry Morris writes: She is Woman! Look at ‘er roar … or, soar! You wrote: “Normal women don’t yearn to rescue, they yearn to be rescued.” Exactly. And this is what I find to be so ironic about the billboard. The young woman depicted does not look like a strong, self-confident, determined rescuer. Rather she looks small and frail, and the way she’s peering upward gives the impression that she, in spite of the military garb she is wearing, is actually being rescued along with the child, instead of rescuing the child. Somehow I imagine that there is a (heterosexual) man at the other end of that rope. But, of course, how could she be an effective “rescuer” and a full time college student too?

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October 10, 2012
Uncategorized

One Response to Breast Cancer Awareness Month

  SJF writes: I walked into the kitchen today at work and witnessed two young, very health-conscious women reading the label of a yogurt container and discussing whether it contained harmful chemicals. Both of these women most likely take hormonal contraceptives, and both walked in the recent breast cancer awareness walk/run. Given the chemicals in hormonal contraceptives, and the fact that the World Health Organization has labeled some of these chemicals carcinogens, I found the contradiction in these women's behavior striking. If I had said anything to them, I would have probably gotten fired. So instead, I went back to my desk and wrote out a healthy check to One More Soul, Inc., a non-profit group that promotes NFP and offers many resources describing the connection between hormonal contraceptives and breast cancer. I highly recommend their CDs and pamphlets, which are all very affordable.

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October 9, 2012