Has America Lost It’s Soul? – The Bill Keith Report And Commentary Nov. 4, 2015
November 4, 2015
The Bill Keith Report And Commentary
Has America Lost Its Soul?
The Apostle Paul, the great first-century missionary, author and teacher, wrote a letter to Timothy, his young protégé. In the letter he spoke of people whose consciences were so evil they had lost all feeling of right from wrong, good from evil. He said their consciences had been “seared” or “cauterized” as though with a hot iron. Hence, no conscience, no feeling.
Centuries later, Pope John Paul said that the people of America, having allowed the death of the millions of unborn, have created “a culture of death.”
Recent revelations about the evils of Planned Parenthood would support both theses.
The most recent undercover video of an interview with a PP abortionist reveals the abortionist talking about how to sell the “intact head of a baby,” according to attorney Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice.
The videos reveal that PP has been selling baby body parts for profit for many years.
“The abortionist states (in the video) that selling the head — including the brains — of an aborted baby ‘will give me something to strive for,"” Sekulow said.
Yet, again, there is a virtual blackout of these heinous practices by the mainstream news media.
There has been an effort in Congress to defund Planned Parenthood — the organization receives over a half billion dollars a year from taxpayers — yet the Democrats in Congress have blocked the effort. Also, President Obama and Hillary Clinton — along with most all Democrats in Congress — continue to support PP.
The Pentagon and the Soul of America
Green Beret Sergeant Charles Martland was discharged from the army after going to the aid of a young Afghan boy who was being raped on an American military base in Afghanistan.
Town Hall reports “After an Afghan police commander admitted to repeatedly raping a little boy after chaining him to a bed for seven days, he was brought on base for questioning by Army Special Forces. When the commander laughed about his atrocities, in addition to beating the boy’s mother when she tried to intervene to stop him from assaulting her son, he got roughed up (by Martland).”
After the incident, the Pentagon kicked Sergeant Martland out of the army.
Earlier, the New York Times published an extensive report on how U.S. soldiers serving in that country have been ordered to ignore the rampant sexual abuse of young children, even on army bases. The army informed the soldiers that “it’s their culture” and were told they would be punished for intervening on behalf of the children. Some solders said they could hear the little boy’s cries all throughout the night.
Yes, indeed, when the American government does nothing to protect the lives of little boys from Afghan sexual predators, this country has lost its soul.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Corrupt News Media
Many of us watched the Democratic presidential debate with great interest. It was more of a love fest — between the media and Hillary Clinton — than a debate.
The debate once and for all revealed how partisan the news media is toward Hillary Clinton. They asked her no tough questions — about how she lied about the Benghazi attack that killed our ambassador to Libya and three other heroic Americans — or any of her other failures while serving as Secretary of State.
The reader will recall that for two weeks after the Benghazi attack, Mrs. Clinton told the American people it was caused by an American video critical of Mohammed. However, in her private emails — recently uncovered through the freedom of information act — she was telling everyone it was a terrorist attack. Yet the news media did everything they could to cover her lie.
Why did she lie? To help President Obama who was locked in his second presidential campaign with Mitt Romney. Obama had declared the war against al-Qaeda had ended and he was afraid a terrorist attack would hurt him with the American voters.
What about the news media’s cover-up of the way our veterans are being treated?
In a recent interview, Mrs. Clinton said the veterans problem is no big deal. Yet, more than 30,000 veterans have died waiting for treatment in our VA hospitals and some 50,000 veterans are homeless on the streets of America.
No big deal? Again, the news media gave Mrs. Clinton a pass and failed to report the truth hoping they can help her get elected president.
In another recent incident, a group of Black Lives Matter interrupted her campaign speech and yelled so loud she couldn’t continue her speech. But she did say “I stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you.”
Once again, the news media gave her a pass. None mentioned that Black Lives Matter urges people to kill policemen.
Hence, a massive Obama-Clinton cover-up with a complicit news media. As one who has observed politics in Washington for more than 50 years — and one who served as the city editor of an afternoon daily newspaper — this is the worst news media I’ve ever seen.
Hypocrisy on Trial
Planned Parenthood violates federal law. Nobody is arrested. Sanctuary Cities ignore federal law. Nobody is arrested. The Department of Justice runs guns to Mexican drug cartels. Nobody is arrested. The IRS illegally targets conservatives for audit. Nobody is arrested. Hillary Clinton violates federal law on classified information. She’s running for president. Kentucky clerk refuses to issue marriage licenses after same-sex marriage ruling. She goes to jail. (Courtesy the Patriot Post)
The Insanity of Gun-Free Zones
Following the tragic shooting at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, as sure as sin follows temptation, the gun-control activists called for more gun controls.
President Obama led the charge, repeating his worn-thing mantra, that more and more controls are needed. Hillary Clinton chimed in saying, “The epidemic of gun violence knows no boundaries” and she vowed, if elected, to fight the National Rifle Association with all her might.
Something quite interesting about the Umpqua College shooting — the security officer on duty wasn’t even carrying a gun for the school was a gun-free zone.
Gun-free zones are open targets for cowardly sociopaths or those with mental illnesses to prey and yes, kill, our children in the schools. They survey a school, see the sign that says “Gun Free Zone” and they know they have an easy target. Only they will be armed.
One way to stop all the violence and killing in our schools is to take down the “Gun Free Zone” signs and replace them with “This School is Protected by Armed Security.” Since these killers are cowards, that would stop most all of the killings that have plagued our schools in recent years. But apparently no one in Washington seems to have thought of that.
Have the Inmates Taken Over the Asylum?
There are more criminals on the streets of America after President Obama released 6,000 convicted drug offenders as part of his new sentencing program, the Conservative Tribune reports.
Released on October 30, it is the largest one-time release of prisoners in U. S. History and the president says some 50,000 others are eligible for release in the near future.
About one-third of those released are illegal aliens who have committed drug-related crimes and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. But who knows if they will never be deported for deportations are minimal under Obama.
Comment: It’s quite difficult to understand why President Obama has chosen to release these men and women, many who are hardened criminals. Some have sold drugs to children. Others have sold heroin and other drugs that have destroyed thousands of lives.
Fourteen Million More Illegal Aliens Expected in U.S.
Unless something is done to address the illegal alien problem, some 14 million more illegals will cross the border from Mexico into the U.S. over the next 10 years, the Washington Examiner reports.
“Including all forms of immigration, the Census Bureau estimates another 14 million immigrants will enter the U.S. between now and 2025 — that’s almost five times the number of students who will graduate from public high school in America this year,” theExaminer reported.
That would bring a total of more than 25 million illegals in the land.
The Forgotten Generation — Our Elderly
The Obama administration announced there will be no cost-of-living increase next year for the elderly on social security who have become a forgotten generation. Have we forgotten that they built our giant skyscrapers and superhighways? Taught our children in schools? Healed our families in hospitals? And a hundred other acts of courage that made this nation great?
Have we forgotten that all the money in the social security fund came from the elderly and not one dime from government?
There’s plenty of money for illegals — who cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year. But not for the elderly.
There’s plenty of money for Iran — $150 billion — to seal the nuclear deal where Iran got everything and the U. S. nothing.
There’s plenty of money for the President and his wife to fly in separate planes to California for fundraisers when it costs $6,000 per hour to fly each plane. But nothing for the elderly.
There is talk in Washington of bailing out bankrupt Puerto Rico that will cost billions. But nothing for the elderly.
There’s $50 billion in fraud in Medicare each year. But no one seems to care.
Congress just passed a new budget that, in two years, will increase the national debt to $20 trillion. But nothing for the elderly.
It’s an absolute disgrace but that is what We the People have come to expect from our President and the Congress.
Has America Lost It’s Soul? – The Bill Keith Report And Commentary Nov. 4, 2015
A man who spent nearly 25 years on Missouri’s death row was executed Tuesday for the kidnapping, rape and fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old girl who was waiting for a school bus. Roderick Nunley became the sixth inmate put to death in Missouri this year
A California judge handed down an order that could spell big trouble for the on-demand economy. A judge determined that 160,000 current and former Uber drivers in the state could be treated as a class that will allow a lawsuit against the company to go forward
A law clerk in Kentucky who refuses to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because of her religious beliefs remained defiant, despite the Supreme Court cutting off her legal avenues. Now could come fines, impeachment or even criminal prosecution
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic logo was officially withdrawn on Tuesday after allegations of plagiarism against the designer, Kenjiro Sano. Sano maintains his design came from original work and that he only pulled the logo because it did not have public support
McDonald’s Will Start Serving Breakfast All Day
The fast-food chain announced that it will begin serving breakfast all day, throughout the U.S., beginning Oct. 6. The chain previously stopped serving its breakfast menu at 10:30 a.m. The announcement comes after a vote by franchisees last week
Assistant City Attorney David Broadwell was reportedly “shocked” by the talk over the contract and this was the first time he had seen a controversy like this “in all my years.”
(Denver, CO)—[CBN News] The restaurant chain Chick-fil-A is facing another battle over the CEO’s support of “Biblical marriage.” ((more)
Today’s video follows the release of additional footage yesterday that corrected an error in the timestamp in a previous video. Although it did not add additional context to the previously released video, Fusion GPS—a Democratic opposition research firm—had cited such minor technical details in a Planned Parenthood-funded report stating that CMP’s videos have no “evidentiary value” and “lack credibility as journalistic products.”
(Los Angeles, CA)—Kermit Gosnell has lurked behind the scenes in much of the recent discussion of Planned Parenthood’s organ harvesting business….(more)
“Every life matters because Almighty God created all of us, and every soul will spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell.”
Rev. Franklin Graham has issued a reminder that “all lives matter” because all people are created in the image of God in response to the execution of Deputy Darren Goforth, who was shot in the back Fridaynight in what authorities described as an unprovoked killing….(more)
Teresa Neumann – Benge Nsenduluka – Christian Post – (Aug 31, 2015)
Roma Downey and Mark Burnett believe “Ben-Hur” is “one of the most important works of Christian fiction ever written.”
(Dallas, TX)—On August 21, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett paid a surprise visit to the preview of their forthcoming new film “Ben-Hur” at T. D. Jake’s Mega-Fest in Dallas….(more)
“What I don’t understand is why someone would oppose looking into the allegations that have been made and assuring the public.” -Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez
(Sacramento, CA)—Unlike over a dozen other states, California is resisting calls to investigate Planned Parenthood….(more)
Bob Fu, president of China Aid… said it’s all happening because communist leaders are afraid they’re losing control of the region.
[CBN News] A well-known Christian lawyer has been arrested in China, in the same region where the Chinese government has been tearing down crosses….(more)
Ahuva Balofsky – Breaking Israel News – (Aug 31, 2015)
Meanwhile, 340 other American rabbis, many of whom have ties to organizations known to be critical of Israel, sent their own letter to Congress, urging them to ratify the deal.
Over 1,000 American rabbis have signed aletter to Congress, urging US lawmakers not to accept the nuclear accord reached between the P5+1 powers and Iran earlier this summer….(more)
“We have three motivations for doing this. First we know that Jesus is more than worthy of a lavish offering. It’s that simple. Secondly, though, we do feel the urgency of the hour for America and this is intercession for our country. That we would respond to the worth of God with a fear of the Lord that would reform all things, including tens of millions of souls being saved. Thirdly, it’s a public witness to the goodness of God, that people would encounter God, right there on the National Mall….(more)
“God totally gets the credit for what’s happening. We’re seeing a nation becoming increasingly racially divided, but we’re seeing the Church rally around prayer and becoming more and more united. Thousands of people have been praying for this movie. With all of our inadequacy, God keeps taking what is said to be impossible and makes it undeniable. We are so grateful.” –Stephen Kendrick, Producer
Police discovered the partially decomposed bodies of up to 50 migrants piled up in a truck parked on the shoulder of an Austrian highway leading from the Hungarian border. Police official Hans Peter Doskozil said the truck had Hungarian license plates
The technology giant sent out invitations for a media event on Wednesday, Sept. 9 when it is expected to unveil the next iPhone, among other announcements. The invite also teases something to do with Siri, the company’s digital personal assistant
Conservative groups and politicians are calling on the National Portrait Gallery to remove of a bust of Margaret Sanger from the Washington, D.C. museum because the Planned Parenthood founder was a supporter of the eugenics movement
The Jamaican sprinter took home his tenth gold in the world championships 200m, lifting both arms and punching his thumbs into his chest to show once again he is the greatest sprinter of all time as he crossed the line with a time of 19.55 seconds
Study after study has shown that laughing is good for the soul. But now we know something else: sharing giggles with a romantic partner keeps the lovey-dovey feelings going, according to a study published in the journal Personal Relationships
Walmart will stop selling AR-15 assault rifles as well as other modern sporting rifles because of lower consumer demand for those weapons, rather than for political reasons, the company said. The rifles are sold at about one-third of Walmart’s U.S. stores
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he’s proud of kicking one of the country’s best-known Spanish-language journalists out of an Iowa news conference. “I think I handled that well. I got a lot of credit for it,” Trump said
Asian stocks rose after Wall Street soared overnight, breaking a six-day string of losses. The Shanghai Composite Index gained 5.3%, bouncing back from losses that wiped some 20% off its value over the past week
Today With Ray 8/27/2015 Views, news, and no blues (or very little!)
Mid-afternoon News with Ray – Monday July 20, 2015
Cuban officials formally opened their embassy in Washington, D.C., fully restoring diplomatic relations between the nations after five decades of hostility.
At midnight Monday, Cuba’s flag was hung in the lobby of the U.S. State Department.
“A new stage will begin, long and complex, on the road toward normalization which will require the will to find solutions to the problems that have accumulated over more than five decades and hurt ties between our nations and peoples,” Cuban President Raul Castro said in a televised address.
Likewise, the United States reopened its six-story embassy in Cuba’s captial city of Havana.
“It’s a historic moment,” Cuban diplomat and analyst Carlos Alzugaray said. “The significance of opening the embassies is that trust and respect that you can see, both sides treating the other with trust and respect.”
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t going to be conflicts — there are bound to be conflicts,” he acknowledged. “But the way that you treat the conflict has completely changed.”
Greek banks finally reopened Monday after being closed for three weeks.
Long lines formed outside banks in Athens as strict limits on cash withdrawals remain in place — 60 euros ($65) a day or a maximum 420 euro ($455) withdrawal weekly.
“I had 20 euros in my pocket when this happened. They said that today we would be able to withdraw 400 euros, but I could only withdraw 60,” pensioner Andreas Chrisavas said.
Greek banks closed their doors on June 29 to prevent a run on the banks after the country flirted with bankruptcy, defaulting on debts to the International Monetary Fund as its second bailout deal expired.
Now average Greek citizens will have to pay for austerity at the cash register in the form of a 23 percent sales tax, up from 13 percent, on many basic goods, making almost everything more expensive in this poor nation. Pensions have also been cut.
Bank customers will still not be able to cash checks, only deposit them into their accounts. Neither will they be able to use their credit or debit cards to withdraw cash abroad, only make purchases.
For Greeks, this is not a solution. And far left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is struggling to contain a growing revolt within his own party over the deal.
JERUSALEM, Israel — The Obama administration and the Netanyahu government continued their campaigns to either endorse or criticize the nuclear deal with Iran. The debate took place as Congress begins its 60-day period to review the agreement.
Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took turns on the Sunday talk shows defending their positions.
“Ronald Reagan negotiated with the former Soviet Union. Richard Nixon negotiated with what was then known as Red China. You have to negotiate sometimes with people to make the world and your country safer,” Kerry told told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“And we negotiated because President Obama thought the primary challenge here was getting a nuclear weapon away from Iran and we believe that this deal does that,” he added.
But Netanyahu suggested Iran had just received its “dream deal,” warning the agreement was destined for the same end as the 1994 accord with North Korea.
“There was a celebrated deal just a few years ago, a nuclear deal everybody — the international community, the scientific community — everybody applauded it,” Netanyahu said on “Face the Nation.”
“It was a deal with North Korea,” he continued. “That proved to be a historic deal as well. And North Korea today has a dozen nuclear bombs and is on track to get a hundred nuclear bombs. So I think that this is a repeat of the mistake of North Korea.”
Meanwhile, the clock began ticking on the 60-day period for Congress to review the agreement. The Obama administration, however, plans to take the accord to the U.N. Security Council before Congress can vote.
While Kerry and Netanyahu staked out their positions and Congress began its review of the accord, crowds in Tehran shouted “Death to America.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei vowed Iran’s policy toward what he called the “arrogant” United States would not change and pledged to support its allies in the region.
“America’s regional policies run counter to the Islamic Republic’s policies,” Khamenei said. “We will not stop supporting our friends in the region: the oppressed people of Palestine, the oppressed people of Yemen, the people and government of Syria, the people and government of Iraq, the oppressed people of Bahrain, and the true jihadists in Lebanon and Palestine.”
With billions of dollars in sanctions relief, many Middle East observers fear Iran will soon be able to resupply the terror groups: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
In the meantime, as one more sign of the growing tensions in the region, 47 percent of Israelis would support a unilateral strike against Iran’s nuclear program.
Meanwhile, all 15 members of the United Nations Security Council gave the Iran nuclear deal a nod of approval on Monday. While the council unanimously endorsed the accord limiting Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for lifting sanctions, it also voted in favor of a measure that would re-impose U.N. penalties should the country breach the agreement.
Several states that have ordered the National Guard to arm military personnel at facilities and recruiting offices in the wake of last week’s shooting rampage in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Those states include Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida.
“I will not permit our citizen-soldiers to remain unable to defend themselves and our facilities around the state,” Indiana Gov. Mike Pence told reporters.
The Pentagon also ordered recruiters into civilian clothes at the office.
Skip Wells was one of the four Marines killed in the shootings in Chattanooga last week.
“We send our service people into harm’s way overseas and that tends to be when we worry about them the most,” his father, Kip Wells, told reporters. “We don’t tend to worry so much when they’re here at home.”
Nancy Proxmire, the mother of the fifth victim, Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith, made a trip to the memorial outside the military recruiting office in Chattanooga on Sunday. Smith died of his wounds in the hospital Saturday.
In tears, Proxmire told reporters, “My son is a hero! He died doing what he loved. He’d have it no other way.”
Meanwhile, the family of the alleged gunman, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, broke their silence this weekend. They expressed sympathy to the victims’ families and noted that the 24-year-old suffered serious mental illness and depression.
“There are no words to describe our shock, horror, and grief,” the family said in a statement.
“We understand there are many legitimate questions that need to be answered,” the family said. “Having said this, now is the time to reflect on the victims and their families, and we feel it would be inappropriate to say anything more other than that we are truly sorry for their loss.”
Abdulazeez was a devout Muslim. So far, the FBI has no evidence he talked with terrorists.
While the biggest weather story of the week is undoubtedly the blockbuster snow affecting western New York, there’s an equally rare phenomenon occurring on the other side of the country: it’s raining in California, and more could come as we head into the winter.
After a winter and early spring yielding record low Sierra snowpack compounding a crippling multi-year drought, parts of California saw a strangely out-of-season soaking late this past week.
Record rainfall fell in southern California. On Thursday, showers and thunderstorms brought locally heavy rainfall to the San Diego area. San Diego International Airport measured 1.51 inches of rain in just about 90 minutes. A total of 1.63 inches fell on Thursday at Lindbergh Field, making it the wettest day in May on record.
This heavy rain brought flash flooding to the area with multiple water rescues reported. There was also a rain delay for the baseball game between the Washington Nationals at San Diego Padres on Thursday night. This is only the fifth rain delay at San Diego’s Petco Park since opening in 2004.
San Diego is also experiencing its second wettest May as of Friday evening, with a monthly total of 2.35 inches. The current record for wettest May is 2.54 inches set in 1921.
Record rainfall also occurred in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday where a daily rainfall record of 0.69 inches of rain was set. LA broke the daily record rainfall again on Friday with an additional 0.16 inches. The previous record was only 0.03 inches set in 1902.
Satellite image and jet stream midday Thursday along the West Coast. Teal-shaded streamlines depict the strongest jet-stream level winds, illustrating the sharp southward plunge of the jet stream off the West Coast.
For much of this past winter and early spring, the polar jet stream had taken a large northward migration into Canada, keeping Pacific storms away from the West Coast.
Instead, late this past week, the jet took a sharp southward plunge over the eastern Pacific Ocean, steering vigorous upper-level disturbances into the West Coast.
While this precipitation may be considered “manna from heaven” in this sun-worshipping state, it is only a tiny drop in a massive bucket that is this multi-year drought.
Let’s stick to the positive news, here. How unusual is this May rain?
How Rare is a May California Soaking?
January-April was the third driest such period on record in California, exceeded only by 2013 — the state’s record driest year — and 1977.
From May through October, only 9 percent of the year’s average rain fell in Los Angeles.
In May, that monthly average was a mere 0.26 inches of rain as the dry season started to set in.
However, L.A. picked up almost four times their average May rainfall in just a two-day time span this week (Thursday and Friday).
In fact, L.A. has only recorded 13 Mays since 1878 with at least an inch of rain, for an average return interval of once every 10-11 years. This last occurred in 2003.
In San Diego, this is even more unusual.
Only once since 1930 has this city synonymous with picture-perfect weather seen a one-inch rainfall in May — May 8, 1977 — when 1.49 inches was measured at Lindbergh Field.
Sierra snow isn’t all that typical in May, either.
Tahoe City, California, only averages 2.3 inches of May snow. By this time of year, spring snowmelt of the heavy Sierra snowpack is well underway, replenishing the state’s reservoirs, a prime source of drinking water.
Senior weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen noted the winter storm warning issued for the Sierra earlier this week was the latest-in-season such warning by the National Weather Service in Sacramento since 2011.
To reiterate, this welcome May event is a tiny drop of drought relief.
While often overstated and oversimplified to imply relief is certain, the developing El Nino may offer hope since the Pacific storm track may not be blocked from California as often next fall and winter, when the real wet season returns to a thirsty state.
Tornadoes ripped through western Illinois Thursday, with the town of Cameron, population 600, taking a direct hit.
Video captured several funnels forming as a multi-vortex storm ripped through Warren County, located southwest of Chicago.
The twisters caused significant damage and left many residents without power. Illinois State Police officials say there no major injuries.
“I lived in this town in 1989 when the last tornado touched down,” Cameron resident Mike Trout, told the Galesburg Register-Mail. “The damage this time is far, far worse; 1989 doesn’t even compare to this.”
Honeybee ‘Crisis’ Now Seen as False Alarm
In 2006 commercial beekeepers began reporting unusually high rates of honeybee die-offs over the winter, blaming a variety of factors for the decline.
Since then the media have warned of a “beepocalypse” threatening America’s food supply. In 2013, NPR said bee declines could bring “a crisis point for crops,” and a Time magazine cover looked ahead at a “world without bees” that are responsible for pollinating one-third of the crops Americans eat.
But here’s the buzz now: There are more honeybee colonies in the U.S. today than in 2006. Data released in March by the Department of Agriculture showed that the number of honeybee colonies is at a 20-year high, and U.S. honey production is at a 10-year high.
“Since colony collapse disorder began in 2006, there has been virtually no detectable effect on the total number of honeybee colonies in the United States, nor has there been any significant impact on food prices or production,” according to the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a Montana-based non-profit environmental think tank, which attributes the industry’s health to the “savvy” of commercial beekeepers.
The beekeepers have been actively rebuilding their colonies, often by splitting healthy colonies into multiple hives and buying new queen bees from commercial breeders.
The fees beekeepers charge farmers to provide pollination services have risen for a few crops, but the higher fees have helped beekeepers offset the cost of rebuilding their hives.
According to the USDA, the honeybee industry thrived last year, with the number of colonies rising to 2.74 million from 2.64 million in 2013. The honey yield per colony also rose, from 56.6 pounds to 65.1 pounds, and production increased from 149 million pounds to 178 million.
Yet the Obama administration last year announced the formation of a task force to develop a “federal strategy” to promote honeybees and other pollinators. Last month the task force disclosed a plan aimed at reducing honeybee-colony losses to “sustainable” levels. It calls for more than $82 million in federal funding to promote pollinator health.
PERC observed: “Somehow, without a national strategy to help them, beekeepers have maintained their colonies and continued to provide the pollination services our modern agricultural system demands.
“With U.S. honeybee colonies now at a 20-year high, you have to wonder: Is our national pollination strategy a solution in search of a crisis?”
Last week, pro-life activists published a three-hour video of Planned Parenthood’s top doctor talking about the exchange of fetal organs that are extracted from women during abortion. “We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part,” Dr. Deborah Nucatola tells her lunch guests, undercover activists who posed as members of a biologics startup. “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.”
Ever since the video’s release, the apologists for legal abortion at Planned Parenthood and in the media have been trying to crush this story with euphemisms. The mainstream media dutifully repeated and expanded on Planned Parenthood’s talking points. The story went like this: A group of fanatics, one of whom is known to pray (ew!), perpetrated a hoax. They falsely portrayed Planned Parenthood’s program of life-saving tissue donations as a sale (which would be illegal).
What has gone largely unmentioned is that the activists also released a complete unedited video. The media went to extreme lengths to avoid quoting this doctor on which parts of an unborn child she “crushes” to preserve valuable organs. The media also failed to mention that she discussed Planned Parenthood affiliates that want to “do a little better than break even” on these transactions. And the reports don’t mention that a firm associated with the sale of these fetal livers, hearts, and headsadvertised the fiscal benefits of preserving them, and had that very daytaken its website offline.
Planned Parenthood’s top talking point was that the video was “dishonestly edited.” The truth is more the opposite. The video revealed the reality that Planned Parenthood and its defenders are working hard to spin. When Planned Parenthood gives one of its patients this consent formfor organ donation, the language is dishonestly edited, referring to hearts and livers as “blood and/or tissue.” When speaking candidly to presumed professionals in the biz, however, PP’s top doctor is far more precise. After all, how do you think Planned Parenthood would react to legislation requiring it to explicitly ask patients if they want to donate the “heart, liver, or brain” of their aborted child to research?
I doubt addressing the conscience of most hard-core abortion supporters is likely to effect change. A moment’s reflection on biology tells you that at the time of conception (not implantation), a unique human DNA code comes into being, bearing a likeness to its mother and father. A moment’s reflection on evolution tells you that from that same moment, the mother’s own body goes through physiological changes designed specifically to protect a healthy unborn child from harm. A glancing familiarity with human reproduction tells you that elective abortions are performed on unborn children with recognizably human features. Arms that can flail, fingers that can grasp, brains that can perceive pain. There is no one part of abortion that is more horrifying than abortion itself.
Someone who knowingly accepts the “crushing” and “snipping” of developing children as part of life in enlightened times, who resolves themselves to this practice as society’s comprehensive and just response to a pregnant woman in crisis, is a person whose conscience is at the ready to accept or wave away any enormity around the practice. If you forced yourself to contemplate them at length, you might question the moral character of the whole enterprise. So you dismiss as local crime Kermit Gosnell’s horror-clinic, where plunging the sink revealed a baby’s arm, and you turn away from stories about hospitals that burn the remains of unborn children as part of a renewable heating energy source. Planned Parenthood’s financial transactions in recently severed baby heads is just the humanitarianadvance of “Science! FTW!” Could you object if they labeled a bag of heads with a meme of Neil deGrasse Tyson? What, are you such a troglodyte that you are “grossed out by science?” We’re just plunging science deep into some necks — I mean “tissue” — here.
Some argue that the pro-life activists are just taking advantage of a natural squeamishness to medical procedures, that they “zero in on those gross medical details for maximum impact.” As if the phrase “I’m gonna crush this” is something only a properly desensitized medical professional can understand. I don’t believe the reaction of disgust here is purely physical.
Just this week I’ve watched television shows that included innocent people being shot in the head, with their blood spilling out in a little gusher. There was once a popular show on SpikeTV called 1,000 Ways to Die, in which extremely gruesome deaths were re-enacted for a thrill. Medical dramas and documentaries show people going into active and traumatic surgery.
We can see bloody cop dramas because we are allowed to deplore the actions depicted, and console ourselves that they are extraordinary and unlawful. The gore of 1,000 Ways to Die we can live with because the events are so abnormal, so unchosen. And the details of medical dramas on television (and in our own lives) are bearable because we know that doctors are trying to save a human life.
The reason the pro-life activist video has to be dismissed as a “hoax” is the same reason the hailed pro-choice activist kept the film of her own abortion framed from the neck up. And it’s the same reason Planned Parenthood wants media outlets to use their bloodless language about “tissues.” Because the clinic, the media, and the culture want your approval of abortion as ordinary, lawful, and competently chosen. They can’t let you see what it actually is: the violent destruction of a human life.
****************************
Please feel free to leave a comment in the comment box at the end of this newscast.
If you liked this report click the “LIKE” button.
If you want to be notified when the next newscast is published click the little RMN red box that will immediately take you”SUBSCRIBE” button on the video.
So until the next newscast this is Ray Mossholder, praying for you my friend. Hav
Mid-afternoon News with Ray – Monday July 20, 2015
We may never know the full extent of evil that goes on behind Planned Parenthood’s closed doors. But we know enough. In a world where killing is currency and empires are built on the backs of innocent children, maybe nothing should surprise us. And yet, it does — with every new story of the abortion industry’s inhumanity.This morning, pro-lifers awoke to another scandal: the news that Planned Parenthood — the same organization President Obama routinely praises, speaks to, and fundraises for — is involved in a black market of body parts. The ghoulish details are the subject of an undercover video just released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), featuring a woman extremely high up in Planned Parenthood’s chain of command: Senior Director of Medical Services Dr. Deborah Nucatola.In a nonchalant conversation over lunch, when most people would have lost their appetite, Nucatola tamely describes how she orchestrates abortions to produce the “intact parts” clients want. Posing as buyers from a human biologics company, CMP carefully pulls back the curtain on the dark world of human harvesting. Like something out of a science fiction novel, Nucatola casually explains that the organization charges anywhere from $30 to $100 per piece, depending on the demand for the specific organ or tissue.”There is not [an abortion] provider out there,” she says enthusiastically, “who doesn’t want this. Everybody just sees this as a way to add another layer of good on top of what they’re already doing.” With shocking clarity, Nucatola sips her wine and talks about how she personally coaches clinics to perform abortions that minimize the damage on the baby’s profitable parts. “If you maintain enough of a dialogue with the person who’s actually doing the procedure, so they understand what the end-game is, there are little things, changes they can make in their technique to increase your success.”So then, she explains, “you’re just kind of cognizant of where you put your graspers. You try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that, you know, we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m going to basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” Sometimes, Nucatola shares, she studies the abortion schedule of the day on the lookout for marketable organs. “I’ll actually collect what you want sometimes, and put it aside.” So you do that, CMP asks? “If I see it. Why not? I’m right there. Oh, for sure, I mean to me, I don’t know, it makes the procedure that much better…”Of course, Nucatola cautions over and over again, Planned Parenthood is extremely careful not to look like they’re cashing in on the arrangement — despite the bodies of evidence to the contrary. For obvious reasons, the organization doesn’t openly admit to scavenging unborn children for their parts. Like most of its business model, this wouldn’t exactly help Planned Parenthood’s struggling PR image.But public opinion should be the least of the group’s concerns. Trafficking in human body parts is a serious crime (not that the law has ever stopped Planned Parenthood before). Violating the partial-birth abortion ban alone is punishable by $250,000 and/or up to 2 years in prison. Add selling human fetal tissue, and Cecile Richards’s group is looking at a federal felony with a half-million dollar fine and 10-year jail term. Yet when CMP explained in a separate video what help Nucatola had been with their harvesting efforts, Richards replied, “Oh, good. Great. She’s amazing.” Meaning that the knowledge of this fetal farming goes all the way to the top.
For an organization whose hands are already dirtied by sex trafficking, gender targeting, unsanitary clinic conditions, multi-million dollar fraud, and sexual abuse cover-ups — dismembering babies for sale is hardly the kind of retail business you want to hang a shingle over. And yet Americans continue to be unwilling investors in this taxpayer-funded Frankenstein. If this doesn’t persuade the government to act, I don’t know what will. It’s time for Congress to launch an immediate investigation into Planned Parenthood’s grisly side business. Pick up the phone and call your congressman (some of whom are already speaking out) and demand a full-scale inquiry on the President’s favorite “nonprofit.”
When the President said he wanted to makeover the military, lifting the ban on transgenders isn’t what most people had in mind. With less than 18 months left in his mission of “fundamentally transforming America” President Obama is accelerating the effort to repeal the ban stopping men and women suffering from gender confusion from serving in the military.
In an announcement Monday, Secretary Ash Carter said, “The Defense Department’s regulations regarding transgender service members are outdated and are causing uncertainty that distracts commanders from our core missions.” No, what distracts commanders from their core missions are ridiculous social experiments like this one. As part of the statement, Carter launched a six-month study on the impact of repealing the ban — which, if it’s anything like “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’s,” will have no bearing whatsoever on the final decision-making. And, after five years of that experiment, support for the repeal isn’t exactly growing. Just a third (32%) of voters now think open homosexuality is a good thing for the military — an all-time low, Rasmussen found.
While LGBT activists cheer, others can only shake their heads in astonishment. “Considering the abysmal condition of our military and a decline in readiness, why is this a top priority for the Obama administration?” our own Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin asked. If the President were as focused on the world’s threats like he was focused on LGBT activism, America would be the safest, most powerful country in the world. Instead, the White House is so busy using the troops as carriers for his social engineering that our military can’t even confront the real enemy. It all confirms what former Defense Secretary Robert Gates wrote in his book — that the only time he sensed passion from the President about any issue involving the military was overturning “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Meanwhile, U.S. veterans (if they aren’t on waiting lists for health care) watch helplessly as the blood they poured out to help stabilize the Middle East is lost while this administration pushes an agenda to persuade Americans that the country’s current policy is “discriminatory.” But the reality is, the military discriminates constantly in its attempts to find the best physical and mental recruits it can. Why is this any different? Otherwise qualified men and women are turned away from the military every day for bad eyes, flat feet, asthma, and a host of other truly immutable characteristics. Yet in the phony name of fairness, our leaders would willingly let people into the military whose mental state is not only unstable — but a detriment to their fellow service members? It’s illogical. Allergies can keep you out of the military, but gender dysphoria can’t?
The tension with China and Iran is escalating, and America’s strength is declining. Instead of Humvees, we’re buying hormones. A military whose budget was cut to bare bones will suddenly be forking over millions of dollars for surgeries, therapies, pills, and retrofitting of facilities. And for what? Certainly not to make the military more capable of performing its mission. It is time for our nation’s military leaders to put their stars on the line and tell the President “no.”
The thousands of men and women who serve in our military follow the orders flowing from the Pentagon, trusting that their leaders are doing what is necessary to accomplish the military’s mission — not the deviant agenda of this President. To understand the disruption this repeal could cause, get the facts on transgenderism. Check out FRC’s new paper, “Responding to the Transgender Movement.”
The same President who wants to put transgendered people on the front lines says we should trust his judgment on Iran. That will be a tall order for most Americans, who have watched from the sidelines as this administration fumbles even the most basic foreign policy decisions. Now, almost seven years into his record of leading from behind, President Obama insists that his administration’s losing streak is over with a deal that our closest ally has described as a “historic mistake.”
Congress will have 60 days to review the deal that eases arms and economic restrictions on Iran. As a result of the deal, billions of dollars would flow to the regime — which, as most conservatives point out, will almost certainly fund more terrorism. In exchange, President Rouhani would offer his word that Iran would cut back its nuclear program. (A word, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points out, hasn’t exactly been iron-clad.) “We were told to give President Rouhani and Foreign Minister Zarif a chance to bring change and moderation to Iran,” Netanyahu has said. “Some change! Some moderation! Rouhani’s government hangs gays, persecutes Christians, jails journalists, and executes even more prisoners than before.”
Congress can reject the deal, sending it back to the White House for President Obama’s veto of that rejection — after which, stopping it would require a two-thirds vote from Congress. “Moving forward, I welcome a robust debate in Congress on the details of this deal,” the President claimed. But apparently not too robust — since he continues, “I will veto any legislation that prevents the successful implementation of this deal.”
Meanwhile, Americans like Pastor Saeed Abedini have nothing to gain or lose in the agreement. Once again, the White House refused to make their release a condition of any deal. The same administration that moved heaven, earth, and five terrorists to get a traitor back has once again shrugged its shoulders at four Americans who sit as prisoners of the very regime he is negotiating with. “I plead with Congress to ensure that my husband, an American citizen, is not left behind,” Saaed’s wife, Naghmeh, said in a statement. “I plead with each member of Congress to review the deal with our family at the forefront of their thoughts. Congress holds the key to bringing my husband home, to returning the father to my children.”
Tony Perkins – The Biggest Story Today July 16, 2015
href=”http://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20150715/planned-parenthood-bad-sell”>Planned Parenthood Gets Bad Sell Reception
Partner with Planned Parenthood, and you’ll pay for it. That seemed to be the message yesterday from the U.S. House upon learning that the country’s largest abortion business was running its own little shop of horrors. Hours after the Center for Medical Progress exposed the group’s ghoulish side business of selling human body parts, the effects of the scandal started hitting home for organizations like Susan G. Komen — longtime donors to Cecile Richards’s group.
What should have been a routine vote on a commemorative breast cancer coin became anything but, once members were alerted by FRC and Heritage Action that the bill included funding for Komen — which is a major supporter of the “nonprofit” caught peddling baby parts. That association was too toxic for House conservatives, who refused to turn over $4,750,000 to one of Planned Parenthood’s biggest donors on the same day it was implicated in a Frankenstein-like plot. Komen had tried to cut ties with Richards’s group in 2012and fund organizations actually performing mammograms, but ultimately caved to left-wing pressure.
Now, that relationship isn’t just costing them one coin — but several. In the wake of CMP’s video, members streamed onto the House floor to pull their names from the bill yesterday — 25 in all. House leadership followed, temporarily shelving the bill until Komen could be removed and calling for an investigation into the taxpayer-funded harvesters. In a statement released today by Speaker John Boehner, the GOP vowed to call Planned Parenthood on the carpet — not only for selling baby parts, but for potentially violating the partial-birth abortion ban (a procedure preferred by Dr. Deborah Nucatola because it’s less likely to damage “the goods” —unless those goods are women).
These accusations demand a response, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) said, and Congress intends to give it one. “When an organization monetizes an unborn child — and with the cavalier attitude portrayed in this horrific video — we must all act,” Boehner resolved. “As a start, I have asked our relevant committees to look into this matter. I am also calling on President Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell to denounce, and stop, these gruesome practices.”
And the House’s investigation isn’t the only one. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) was one of the many GOP candidates lashing out at the government’s investment in a group that mutilates babies for merchandise. “This same organization is seeking to open an abortion clinic in New Orleans. I have instructed Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals to conduct an immediate investigation into this alleged evil and illegal activity and to not issue any licenses until this investigation is complete. I am also asking the FBI to assist DHS in investigating…” Nearby Texas will do the same.
The drumbeat continued on the campaign trail, where almost every Republican presidential candidate had harsh words for the group that President Obama has spoken to, worked with, and fundraised for. Despite different statements, they shared a common theme: it’s time to defund Planned Parenthood.
Meanwhile, at the PR bunker of Cecile Richards’s group, crisis management was in full swing. In a feeble attempt to explain the video, a spokesman insisted that “tissue donation” was routine. Tissue donation, maybe. Tissue sales? Never. “Anti-abortion activists… have made false charges for years,” Planned Parenthood claims. Now, they’re “making claims with no basis in reality and no evidence to back them up.” What do you call a two-hour, 42-minute video with one of the highest executives at Planned Parenthood if not “evidence?” Unfortunately, this is what liberals do. They somehow get away with accusing conservatives of saying or doing vile things without proof. Yet when pro-lifers produce powerful evidence of Planned Parenthood’s wrongdoing, they deny it. Richards’s group also tried to discredit the tape as “heavily edited.” But that will be difficult to do now that CMP has released the full recordingandtranscript.
Of course, these image problems are made more difficult by Planned Parenthood’s long track record of sexual abuse cover-ups, gender targeting, unsanitary clinic conditions, botched abortions, falsified medical information, Medicare fraud, and more. At this point, most Americans probably assume that if Planned Parenthood had so little respect for the living, why would it respect the dead?
For now, all eyes are on the Democratic Party, which has enormously benefited from the political alliance with Richards’s group. Will it give back the tainted money? Or will it leave voters wondering: exactly how much of the $586,095 given to House and Senate Democrats in 2014 came from the sale of baby remains?
Tony Perkins – The Biggest Story Today July 16, 2015