Silvercrest79 - A little of This and That

Random links

silvercrest79 — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:32:04 +0000

This is a great site for kids and even fun for adults! http://www.sheppardsoftware.com

An intersting sandwich, I might even try it… Strawberry & Cream Cheese Sandwich

Very Ballsy article written by a Spanish writer and printed in a Spanish newspaper

silvercrest79 — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:52:29 +0000

The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer
Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez and published in a Spanish newspaper
on 5-22-07.

It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the
rest of Europe – and possibly to the rest of the world.
==========================================================
REMEMBER AS YOU READ — IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:30:20 -0500

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ by Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a
terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews
and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned
a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people,
truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who
changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science,
art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the
world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove
to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened
our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance,
religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an
unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities
into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government,
they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical
hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for
backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe
and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their
determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue
death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves
and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.

********************************************************************************************
A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they
imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to
themselves.

Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back.

These events are actual events from history.
They really happened!

Do you remember?

If you were not even born then, have you heard?
1.) 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
A Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40.

2.) In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped
and massacred by: Muslim male extremists mostly between
the ages of 17 and 40.

3.) In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

4.) During the 1980′s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon
by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

5.) In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

6.) In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old
American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair
by: Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
7.) In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver
trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
8.) In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

9.) In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

10.) In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

11.) On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles
to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one
crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed
by the passengers.
Thousands of people were killed by: Muslim male extremists mostly
between the ages of 17 and 40.

12.) In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

13.) In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.
No, I really don’t see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So,
to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly fanatics
intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be
allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random
searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper
identification, secret service agents who are members of the
President’s security detail , 85-year old Congressmen with metal
hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss,
but leave Muslim males between the ages 17 and 40 alone lest
they be guilty of profiling.

Let’s send this to as many people as we can so that dunder-headed
attorneys along with Federal Justices that want to thwart common sense,
feel ashamed of themselves — if they have any such sense .

As the writer of the award winning story ‘Forrest Gump’ so aptly put
it, ‘Stupid is as stupid does.’

Come on people wake up!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Born Alive Infant Protection Act

silvercrest79 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:47:23 +0000

I can’t believe that they have to make a LAW so poor innocent HUMAN babies can receive medical care!!! This is unconscionable to me! I can’t wrap my brain around this. I just can’t.

What I find even harder to believe is that this is being accepted as “OKAY”!!!! I can’t believe that anyone who lacks such a grave and total absence of human decency could EVER be even thought of for such a position of power.

*I apologize for the document table, I don’t know how to return it to it’s original state which was both sides the same and lined up line for line to compare the Acts. Also for the varied font sizes. I don’t know how to fix it.*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

August 28, 2008

Senator Barack Obama and his campaign staff have made many conflicting claims in an attempt to “explain” his opposition in 2001, 2002, and 2003, while an Illinois state senator, to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, legislation to provide legal protection for babies who are born alive during abortions. The language of the Illinois bills was very similar to the language of the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA), which was first introduced in Congress in 2000 and enacted into law in 2002. This document provides short rebuttals to a number of the often-shifting Obama claims. For much more extensive documentation on the Obama record on this issue, see http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/index.html

Assertion:

On many occasions beginning in 2004, and as recently as August 13, 2008, Obama and his official spokespersons said that Obama opposed the Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act because it lacked a one-sentence “neutrality clause” that was added to the federal BAIPA before it was enacted, and that he would have voted for the federal bill (if he had been a U.S. senator when it passed) because it contained the “neutrality clause.” This “neutrality clause” read as follows: “Nothing in this section [that is, the entire bill] shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being ‘born alive’ as defined in this section.” Obama said that such a clause prevented the federal law from conflicting with Roe v. Wade (a revealing argument, which is explored in detail below). For example, on August 13, 2008, the Chicago Tribune received a “Fact Check” from the Obama campaign that asserted “there are major differences in state and federal bills, including the fact that the federal bill included a ‘neutrality clause’.”

Response:

In the first place, the original federal BAIPA introduced in 2000 was only two sentences long – it merely defined as a legal person any human, “at any stage of development,” who achieves “the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother” and then shows signs of life (heartbeat, breathing, or “definite movement of voluntary muscles”). This bill, which received initial approval from the U.S. House of Representatives 380-15 in late 2000, said nothing in either direction about the legal status of a human prior to birth. Therefore the “neutrality clause,” added in 2001, simply made explicit what had originally been clear if implicit– that this bill dealt only with the rights of babies who had already been born alive. Yet, starting during his 2004 race for the U.S. Senate, Obama himself insisted that the purported lack of a “neutrality clause” in the state BAIPA was all-important.

That is why it was of considerable significance when the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) uncovered, and publicly released on August 11, 2008, three documentsthat proved that on March 13, 2003, Obama, as chairman of the Illinois Senate Health and Human Services Committee, actually presided over a committee meeting at which the original state Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (SB 1082) was revised to make it virtually identical to the federal law – including the addition of exactly the same “neutrality clause.” (To see the exact language of the original bill, next to the final language of the bill that Obama killed, refer to the last page of this document.) Yet, immediately after that change was made, Obama voted against the amended bill, and it was defeated on a party-line vote, 6-4. In other words, Obama led the way in killing a bill that was virtually identical to the federal law – the federal law that, since 2004, he has insisted he would have voted for if he’d had the chance.

Despite the proof released by NRLC, the Obama campaign continued to misrepresent these events. For example, on August 13, 2008, the Obama campaign submitted to the Chicago Tribune(among others) a chart that purported to contrast the “2003 Legislation That Obama Opposed” with the “Federal Legislation That Obama Would Have Supported” – and this chart falsely claimed that the “neutrality clause” was a “failed amendment, not included in final [state] legislation.” On August 16, 2008, when David Brody of CBN News asked Obama (on camera) about the NRLC charges, Obama said that we were “lying.” He repeated his claim that he would have been “fully in support of the federal bill that everybody supported – which was to say – that you should provide assistance to any infant that was born – even if it was as a consequence of an induced abortion. That was not the bill that was presented at the state level.”

On August 25, 2008, the independent group FactCheck.org (www.factcheck.org) issued a review of this question that concluded, “Obama’s claim is wrong. In fact, by the time the HHS Committee voted on the bill, it did contain language identical to the federal act. . . . The documents from the NRLC support the group’s claims that Obama is misrepresenting the contents of SB 1082.”

Assertion:

The BAIPA was unnecessary, because “Illinois law already stated that in the unlikely case that an abortion would cause a live birth, a doctor should ‘provide immediate medical care for any child born alive as a result of the abortion.’” (August 19, 2008, Obama campaign document)

Response:

Obama explained in 2001, and has never recanted, that he opposed the Illinois BAIPA because it declared a “previable fetus” to be a legal person – even though the bill only did so if the baby had achieved “complete expulsion or extraction from its mother.” (Obama’s statements are quoted verbatim further on in this white paper.) The old Illinois law in question (720 ILCS 510.6) covered only situations where an abortionist declares before the abortion that there was “a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the fetus outside the womb.” Humans are often born alive a month or more before they reach the point where such “sustained survival” – that is, long-term survival – is likely or possible (which is often called the point of “viability”). The old Illinois law has no bearing on many of the induced-labor abortions about which the nurses testified before the committees in Congress and the Illinois state legislature, because many of them were performed on unborn humans who were capable of being born alive, and who often were born alive, but who were not old enough to have a “reasonable likelihood of sustained survival . . . outside the womb.”

Even with respect to “viable” infants, the old law is ridden with loopholes. It does not apply except when the abortionist himself declares that there is “a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival of the fetus outside the womb.” This already-weak law was further weakened by a lengthy consent decree issued by a federal court in 1993, which among other things permanently prohibits authorities from enforcing the law’s definitions of “born alive,” “live born,” and “live birth.” On April 4, 2002, Obama spoke on the Illinois Senate floor against a bill (SB 1663 – which was not the BAIPA) that would have more strictly defined the circumstances under which the presence of a second physician (to care for a live-born baby) would be required; Obama argued that this would “burden the original decision of the woman and the physician to induce labor and perform an abortion . . . [I]t’s important to understand that this issue ultimately is about abortion and not live births.”The September 2000 committee reportof the U.S. House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee on the federal BAIPA (H. Rept. 106-835) summarized some of the testimony that indicated why such legislation (federal and state) was necessary:

Two nurses from the hospital’s delivery ward, Jill Stanek and Allison Baker (who is no longer employed by the hospital), testified before the Subcommittee on the Constitution that physicians at Christ Hospital have performed numerous ‘induced labor’ or ‘live-birth’ abortions, a procedure in which physicians use drugs to induce premature labor and deliver unborn children, many of whom are still alive, and then simply allow those who are born alive to die. . . . According to the testimony of Mrs. Stanek and Mrs. Baker . . . physicians at Christ Hospital have used the procedure to abort healthy infants and infants with non-fatal deformities . . . Many of these babies have lived for hours after birth, with no efforts made to determine if any of them could have survived with appropriate medical assistance. The nurses also witnessed hospital staff taking many of these live-born babies into a ‘soiled utility room’ where the babies would remain until death. Comfort care, the nurses say, was not provided consistently.” (see pages 8-9 of H. Rept. 106-835).

One example given by Mrs. Stanek was that an aborted baby “was left to die on the counter of the Soiled Utility Room wrapped in a disposable towel. This baby was accidentally thrown in the garbage, and when they later were going through the trash to find the baby, the baby fell out of the towel and on to the floor.” (Id. at 9). Mrs. Baker testified that she “happened to walk into a ‘soiled utility room’ and saw, lying on the metal counter, a fetus, naked, exposed and breathing, moving its arms and legs.” (Id. at 10).

In testimony by Stanek before the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee, on March 27, 2001, she said: “It is not uncommon for a live aborted babies to linger for an hour or two or even longer. At Christ Hospital one of these babies once lived for almost an entire eight-hour shift. Last year alone, of the 13 babies that I am aware of who were aborted at Christ Hospital, at least four lived between 1-1/2 to 3 hours, two boys and two girls.”

The House Judiciary Committee members of both parties apparently found the nurses’ testimony in 2000 to be compelling (although it should be noted that the committee’s report also provides ample additional justifications for enactment of the BAIPA); the bill was approved by the committee 22-1, and by the full House of Representatives 380-15, notwithstanding the vehement objection of the National Abortion Rights Action League. This was the original, two-sentence version of the legislation, and did not contain the “neutrality clause” that Obama later said was so important.

The BAIPAs recognize pre-viable (as well as viable) live-born babies as persons under the law, which is intended to ensure that they are treated humanely and given whatever care (e.g., comfort care of warmth and nutrition, and medical assessment if appropriate) that a similar baby who had not been marked for abortion would have received. Moreover, under the BAIPAs, any overt act of violence against one of these babies would be a crime against a legal “person,” not merely the inappropriate handling of medical waste products.

Here is a hypothetical scenario that illustrates the need for the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act and the troubling implications of the rationale that state Senator Obama gave for opposing it. (This is merely a hypothetical for the purpose of illustration, not a description of an actual case.)

Hypothetical: In an induced-labor abortion, at 21 weeks gestation, a human is born alive. In this particular case, it appears unlikely that the newborn will survive for more than six hours. However, after one hour the abortion doctor, who has another appointment, simply picks up a hammer and brings it down on the baby’s skull.

Question:

Has this hypothetical abortionist violated the Illinois abortion-survivor law (720 ILCS 510.6), the law that Obama is now trying to hide behind? Answer: He certainly has not violated that law. That law comes into play only when the abortionist declares that the entity being aborted enjoys “a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival . . . outside the womb.” No physician — pro-life or pro-abortion — would affirm that a 21-week fetus has “a reasonable likelihood of sustained survival” outside the womb — the lungs are insufficiently developed.

Question:

In such a scenario, what are the implications of state Senator Obama’s stated reason, in 2001, for opposing the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act — this being that Roe v. Wade forbids defining an aborted “previable fetus” (even after live birth) as a legal person? Answer: Under Obama’s legal theory, the hypothetical doctor would not be committing a crime against a person, because there is no “person” under that theory. It appears that under this theory, the hypothetical abortionist would merely be completing the abortion, outside the womb, still operating under the protection of Roe v. Wade.

Most people, however, and most lawmakers, would have no trouble affirming that the baby in the hypothetical scenario is indeed a human child and that the hammer blow was a crime against a person. When Congress passed the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in 2002, without a dissenting vote, it clearly affirmed the concept that all live-born humans enjoy legal protection, and implicitly repudiated the notion that anything in the Constitution or U.S. Supreme Court rulings dictates a different policy. Yet, in 2003, Obama killed a virtually identical bill in the committee that he chaired.

Assertion:

“Obama voted against these laws in Illinois because they were clear attempts to undermine Roe v. Wade.” (August 19, 2008, Obama campaign document)

Response:

Many of the Obama defenders who repeat such statements evidently have never read the bills in question. Even some critics of Obama’s position have seemingly picked up the notion that there was something in the federal and state BAIPA bills, at least initially, that spoke directly or indirectly to the legal status of unborn children. But this is false. These were all very short and simple bills. The original (2001 and 2002) version of the Illinois state Born-Alive Infants Protection legislation consisted of just three operative sentences. The first two sentences tracked the federal bill – they merely recognized as a legal person any human, “at any stage of development,” who achieves “the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother” and then shows signs of life (heartbeat, breathing, or “definite movement of voluntary muscles”). The 2001-2002 Illinois bills also contained a third sentence that was not found in the federal version, sometimes called the “immediate protection clause.” In a document issued August 19, 2008, the Obama campaign specifically objected to this clause, which read as follows: “(c) A live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.” In a revealing statement, discussed further below, the August 19 Obama document labeled that third sentence as “Language Clearly Threatening Roe.”

At the March 2003 meeting chaired by Obama, this “immediate protection clause” was removed and replaced with the language of the federal “neutrality clause,” which is quoted in full in the second paragraph of this white paper. At that point, the federal law and the state bill were virtually identical. To see the original and amended Illinois BAIPAs side by side, go to the last page of this white paper.

We are critics of Roe v. Wade – but even among persons who defend Roe v. Wade, we think that most consider that ruling to confer a right to terminate the lives of unborn humans inside the womb, and do not believe that it diminishes the legal status of a baby who is fully born. However, there really are some people who believe that Roe v. Wade goes further, and requires that a “previable fetus” (Obama’s term) who is the subject of an abortion must remain classified as a non-person no matter where that “previable fetus” is located. In this vision, the so-called “previable fetus” who happens to be outside the mother is still in the process of being aborted, and that entire process (which Obama regards as constitutionally protected) will end only with the death of the newborn.

By his actions and his explanations of those actions, Barack Obama showed himself to be among those who hold this expansive vision of the “right to abortion.” In Obama’s view, to declare the fully born and living but “previable” human to be a legal person does indeed interfere with “abortion” and does indeed conflict with the full and proper application of “Roe v. Wade.”

The first time the BAIPA reached the Illinois Senate floor, on March 30, 2001, Obama was the only senator to speak against it, and his remarks clearly reflect that he holds the most expansive view on the scope of Roe v. Wade and the “right to abortion.” He said that “whenever we define a previable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a – a child, a nine-month-old — child that was delivered to term.”

Moreover, Obama’s insistence that the “immediate protection clause” was “Clearly Threatening [to] Roe,” reiterated in the August 19, 2008, Obama campaign document, can only be understood as another expression of the same underlying concept: To Obama, Roe v. Wade stands for the proposition that prior to viability, a human “fetus” or infant must not be regarded as a legal person or as a “child,” whether inside or outside of the mother – at least, not in any context remotely related to abortion. Obama knows that this proposition does not appeal to a wide audience, so since 2004 he has actively misrepresented his record on this issue, and attacked those who try to draw attention to it.[There are other areas, as well, in which Obama has pushed for "abortion rights" beyond those that the U.S. Supreme Court has imposed under Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court has upheld as not inconsistent with Roe v. Wade several types of limitations on abortion, including parental notification laws (with certain judicial bypass provisions), restrictions on government funding of abortion, and a federal ban on partial-birth abortions, but all of those laws (and many others) would be invalidated by the proposed "Freedom of Choice Act" (S. 1173), of which Obama is a cosponsor. In a speech to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund on July 17, 2007, Obama said, "Well, the first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do." For more information on the "Freedom of Choice Act," including statements by its chief sponsors and advocates, see http://www.nrlc.org/FOCA/index.html]

Assertion:

Those who have sharply disputed Obama’s conflicting accounts of his actions on this issue, or criticized the ideological or policy premises on which his actions were based, are being “deeply offensive and insulting,” are engaging in “distortions and lies,” are “an example of the kind of politics that we have to get beyond,” and so forth.

Response:

As Ramesh Ponnuru with National Review observed(August 20, 2008), “Bereft of an argument, the Obama campaign is pounding the table.” This sort of manufactured indignation is yet another attempt to deflect attention away from uncomfortable questions: What expansive vision of “abortion rights” and Roe v. Wade caused Obama to perceive as especially dangerous the sentence in the original state bill that said, “A live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law”? Why did he kill the bill in his committee in 2003 even after that sentence was removed and replaced with the “neutrality clause” from the federal bill/law? Why, beginning with his Senate race in 2004, did Obama insist that the state bill he had opposed was very different from the federal law, because only the federal law contained the “neutrality clause,” and that he therefore would have voted for the federal bill if he had been a U.S. Senator when it was passed? Five days after National Right to Life released documents (on August 11, 2008) proving that Obama had in fact killed a bill virtually identical to the federal law, including the neutrality clause, why did Obama say we were “lying”?

When will Obama apologize to National Right to Life, to Bill Bennett, and to others who he and his campaign repeatedly accused of propagating lies or distortions, for saying things that are now proven as true? [On August 25, 2008, the independent group FactCheck.org (www.factcheck.org) issued a review of this question that concluded, "Obama’s claim is wrong. In fact, by the time the HHS Committee voted on the bill, it did contain language identical to the federal act. . . . The documents from the NRLC support the group’s claims that Obama is misrepresenting the contents of SB 1082."]

Obama’s words and action support this conclusion: His commitment to defend the practice of abortion without qualification was so absolute that it led him to reflexively view the issue of babies born alive during abortions through the prism of his concept of Roe v. Wade, and worse, to conclude that a breathing, squirming, fully born pre-viable human baby is still covered by Roe v. Wade. Once he realized how difficult his position was to defend in the world outside the halls of the Illinois Senate, he began to misrepresent his record.

Assertion:

Obama would have voted for the federal BAIPA, because “Federal law does not regulate abortion practice,” but he could not vote for a virtually identical state bill because it would “undermine Roe v. Wade or pre-existing Illinois state law regulating reproductive healthcare . . .” (8/19/08 Obama campaign document)

Response:

This is really nonsense. There are about two dozen federal laws that regulate abortion in various programs and contexts. Moreover, the Supreme Court’s abortion-related constitutional doctrines, on which Obama based his opposition to the BAIPA, apply with equal force to both federal and state laws. Thus, for anyone who thought that it was wrong to define a live-born human as a “person” prior to the point of “viability,” the federal bill would have been just as unacceptable as the Illinois state bills, because they did exactly the same thing.

The original two-sentence federal bill, the enacted three-sentence federal bill, the original 2001-2002 Illinois bills, and the amended 2003 Illinois bill, all have this in common: None of them spoke in any way to the legal status or legal rights of a human entity prior to being “born alive,” which was defined in every version as requiring “complete expulsion or extraction” from the mother. Thus, no version of the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act ever limited “abortion” in any way – except in the eyes of those who believe that the “right to abortion” can be extended outside the mother, in certain cases.

Assertion:

The Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act was tied together with, or was linked to, or was an amendment to, other bills, such as the “Induced Birth Infant Liability Act,” which would have made various controversial changes to Illinois laws dealing with late abortions.

Response:

This is an obvious attempt to change the subject and avoid prolonged scrutiny of Obama’s record on the sole bill that has been the focus of the national debate, that being the bill that was based on the federal bill, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. In Illinois, the BAIPA was never attached to any other bill, or offered as an amendment to any other bill. Each of the bills had separate numbers, were each subject to separate amending processes, and each was (of course) voted on separately. The BAIPA could have been enacted without any of the others.

Assertion:

Obama was not alone in opposing the Illinois BAIPA bills.

Response:

The Illinois BAIPA was initially closely patterned after the original federal bill which passed the U.S. House 380-15 in 2000. In 2003 the Illinois bill was revised, in the committee Obama chaired, to be virtually identical to the final federal bill, which had passed into law the previous year without any dissenting votes in Congress.

So why was the Illinois bill so much more controversial in the Illinois legislature?Obama himself deserves much of the credit, or blame. Obama was a rising political star (soon to successfully run for a U.S. Senate seat). He was an articulate law school instructor, who sat on the committees that debated the bill. In 2001, he was the only senator to speak against the bill on the floor. By 2003, he was the chairman of the committee to which the bill was referred, he presided over the meeting at which it was amended to be virtually identical to the federal law, and then led the other Democrats on the committee in killing it. Certainly, Obama influenced other senators to oppose the bill, even after the counterpart bill was enacted by Congress without dissenting vote. It is unseemly for him to now try to melt into the crowd.The NRLC website (http://www.nrlc.org) has an archive of key documents regarding Barack Obama and the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, at http://www.nrlc.org/ObamaBAIPA/index.html

This archive includes the complete text of each version of the federal and state bills, the official Illinois documents that proved that Obama opposed a state BAIPA virtually identical to the federal BAIPA, a side-by-side comparison of the state and federal bills, a side-by-side comparison of the two versions of the state bill (both of which Obama opposed), documents issued by the Obama campaign, NRLC white papers that narrate the chronology of the federal and state Born-Alive Infant Protection bills and Obama’s statements on the issue, and documents dating from the period of congressional consideration of the federal BAIPA.

The original Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2001-2002(opposed by state Senator Barack Obama): SB1095 / SB 1662AN ACT concerning infants who are born alive.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Statute on Statutes is amended by adding Section 1.36 as follows:

(5 ILCS 70/1.36 new)

Sec. 1.36. Born-alive infant.

(a) In determining the meaning of any statute or of any rule, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative agencies of this State, the words “person”, “human being”, “child”, and “individual” include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.

(b) As used in this Section, the term “born alive”, with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

(c) A live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.

The Illinois Born-Alive Infants Protection Act as amended and then voted down at a meeting of the Illinois state Senate Health and Human Services Committee on March 13, 2003 (Obama voted against this amended bill): SB 1082AN ACT concerning infants who are born alive.Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Statute on Statutes is amended by adding Section 1.36 as follows:

(5 ILCS 70/1.36 new)

Sec. 1.36. Born-alive infant.

(a) In determining the meaning of any statute or of any rule, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative agencies of this State, the words “person”, “human being”, “child”, and “individual” include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development.

(b) As used in this Section, the term “born alive”, with respect to a member of the species homo sapiens, means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of that member, at any stage of development, who after that expulsion or extraction breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut and regardless of whether the expulsion or extraction occurs as a result of natural or induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion.

(c) A live child born as a result of an abortion shall be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.(c) Nothing in this Section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand, or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive as defined in this Section.

Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon becoming law.

this article from

Barack Obama’s Actions and Shifting Claims on the Protection
of Born-Alive Aborted Infants -– and What They Tell Us About His Thinking on Abortion202-626-8820
http://www.nrlc.org
Legfederal@aol.com

By Douglas Johnson, Legislative Director
and Susan T. Muskett, J.D., Legislative Counsel
National Right to Life Committee / Federal Legislation Department

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Daily funny II…

silvercrest79 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:06:37 +0000

This really applies MUCH more to the current Domocratic nominee but still funny none the less.

Daily funnies…

silvercrest79 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:00:05 +0000

Obama picks his cabinet.

My observation…

silvercrest79 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:02:17 +0000

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Antisocial personality disorder

Definition

Antisocial personality disorder is a condition in which people show a pervasive disregard for the law and the rights of others. People with antisocial personality disorder may tend to lie or steal and often fail to fulfill job or parenting responsibilities. The terms “sociopath” and “psychopath” are sometimes used to describe a person with antisocial personality disorder.

Early adolescence is a critical time for the development of antisocial personality disorder. People who grow up in an abusive or neglectful environment are at higher risk, and adults who suffer from the disorder were usually showing behavioral problems before the age of 15. Antisocial personality disorder affects men three times as often as it does women and is much more prevalent in the prison population than in the general population.

Antisocial personality disorder is a chronic condition and represents one of the most difficult personality disorders to treat. However, psychotherapy and some medications may help alleviate symptoms. In many cases, the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder decrease as the person reaches middle age.

Symptoms

The classic person with an antisocial personality is indifferent to the needs of others and may manipulate through deceit or intimidation. He or she shows a blatant disregard for what is right and wrong, may have trouble holding down a job, and often fails to pay debts or fulfill parenting or work responsibilities. They are usually loners.

People with antisocial personality disorder can be aggressive and violent and are likely to have frequent encounters with the law. However, some antisocial personalities may also possess a considerable amount of charm and wit.

Common characteristics of people with antisocial personality disorder include:

Persistent lying or stealing
Recurring difficulties with the law
Tendency to violate the rights of others (property, physical, sexual, emotional, legal)
Aggressive, often violent behavior; prone to getting involved in fights
Inability to keep a job
A persistent agitated or depressed feeling (dysphoria)
Inability to tolerate boredom
Disregard for the safety of self or others
A childhood diagnosis of conduct disorders
Lack of remorse for hurting others
Possessing a superficial charm or wit
Impulsiveness
A sense of extreme entitlement
Inability to make or keep friends

The intensity of symptoms tends to peak during the teenage years and early 20s and then may decrease over time. It’s not clear whether this is a result of aging or an increased awareness of the consequences of reckless behavior. However, though a person with antisocial personality disorder might be less likely to commit crimes later in life, that person may continue to be an inadequate spouse or parent and an unreliable employee.

Daily funny…. (warning may be offensive to some)

silvercrest79 — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:48:21 +0000

New waxing options for the progressive woman.

http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000805.php

Sadness…

silvercrest79 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:28:44 +0000

I need to vent my sadness somewhere, so I will vent it here….

Everyone it seems is pregnant….

Why am I all alone? Why am I always last? Why is it always a struggle? Why is life passing me by? Other people are so happy. Why can’t I be happy? Why can’t I be like other people? Why do other people have what I would consider perfect lives (which is far from perfect but from my perspective are)? To say that life isn’t fair would be putting it mildly, heck that is a compliment from my perspective. It sucks sucks sucks.

I am worn down, worn out, over done, expired, I am sick sick sick of my crappy excuse for a life. I am sick of playing games. I am sick of the short end of the stick, hell I don’t even have a stick I’ve been so screwed over. I am sick of taking the blame. I am sick of holding my tounge. I am sick of walking on eggshells.

Is it too much to ask for even a bit of happiness, really is it? What did I ever do to diserve this sham of a life?

I’m trying to find a new normal and if this is a new normal this is some f’d up bull.

Babywearing!

silvercrest79 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:54:22 +0000

Win the Essential Babywearing Stash from Along for the Ride (one Beco Butterfly, one Hotsling baby pouch, one BabyHawk Mei Tai, one Zolowear Ring Sling, and one Gypsy Mama Wrap)

Something I’ve been going to do for a while… :)

silvercrest79 — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:30:59 +0000

Since I DETEST mountains of plastic toys that waste petroleum and hurt my feet when I step on them…. lol I came up with some ideas for gifts for the girls that would be fun, useful, beneficial, and not hurt my feet.

—— These are perfect ideas for both girls Ari and KK :

Ballet lessons (or $$ to put toward them)

Gymnastic lessons (or $$ to put toward them)

Swimming lessons (or $$ to put toward them)

Tin, metal, porcelain, or ceramic cups and saucers to make up a tea set.

Silk scarfs, playsilks (they are large silk scarfs), or other things to dress up with like vintage clothes (NOTHING from the 80′s sorry..LOL).

Simple dolls (no wetting or talking ones….lol). Waldorf dolls especially.

Doll clothes in all sizes to fit existing dolls (no polyester it is a cat hair magnet).

Art supplies like kraft paper, brushes, paint, fingerpaints, stamps, inkpads, fun shaped holepunches, or anything they can be creative with like that.

Medium to Large wooden, porcelain, glass or ceramic beads and cording to string them on like hemp or cotton and simple closure devices.

—– For Becca all of the above applies with a few changes.

She is too young for lessons or a tea set.

The article below from Mothering Magazine is what prompted me to make the list I’ve been planning to make for at least two years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No More Junk Toys: Rethinking Children’s Gifts
By Judith L. Rubin

Issue 121, Nov/Dec 2003
One night, not long after Christmas, my pacifist friends Jay Levy and Su Zuniga quietly crept down to the basement with a hammer while their three-year-old daughter, Samantha, slept. There, they methodically banged on the belly of her new mechanical dog until it stopped yapping.

Another friend’s daughter received a Victorian makeup table for her fourth birthday. “It’s plastic, it’s ugly, and it’s huge. It’s totally inappropriate for a four year old. Not to mention that my daughter is a tomboy.” When asked about the fate of the gift, she replied firmly, “It is going to ‘disappear’ very soon.”

Some parents are creative in their disposal of “junk toys,” as my husband calls them. “The worst toy our daughter ever received,” notes one mom, “was a hard-plastic, realistic, talking doll. She purported to be your child’s ‘best friend’ by using a set of pre-recorded diskettes that get inserted into her back. We were saddened to think there might be some lonely children out there for whom this doll might actually be enriching. The doll stands in the center of our peace garden as our scarecrow.”

But approaching friends and family about their gift choices can be awkward. As one friend put it, “I don’t want them to think I disapprove of their taste.” So the gifts wind up at the Salvation Army or the dump.

Making gifts “disappear” is a last resort for parents who receive junk toys-i.e., toys out of line with their values or taste. Like junk food, junk toys can be fun but are devoid of nutrition. Buying them requires little forethought. They are excessively commercial, and are often linked to cross-marketing schemes. They excite children at first, but that initial flicker doesn’t endure. Also like junk food, junk toys have hidden environmental and social costs for which the consumers pay.

The issues involved in junk toys are deeper than the layer of clutter on the playroom floor. These issues are as deep as the ocean, where thousands of yellow Lego toy life rafts drifted ashore after three million toy pieces inadvertently spilled from a tanker in 1998.1 But more important than the occasional freak toy-pollution disaster are the routine environmental insults associated with most toy production.

When we buy a Barbie doll, the relatively low price belies the full cost of her petroleum-intensive plastic manufacturing process, her plastic and paper packaging, and transporting her and her billions of accessories from Southeast Asia to the US . These hidden costs, what economists call “externalities,” are paid (or more commonly unpaid) not by individual consumers or corporate producers but by collective society at large. We don’t-and probably can’t-pay enough for the product and its packaging, shipping, and manufacture to justify the damage caused by these processes.

The vast majority of plastic commercial toys are made by children themselves, working in overseas sweatshops. Girls as young as 13 years, some working the night shift, stitch Barbie’s dresses.2 In Thailand in 1993, hundreds of workers, including child laborers, died in a fire while stuffing Cabbage Patch dolls for Hasbro, Inc.3 The Asia Monitor Resource Center and the Coalition for the Charter on the Safe Production of Toys reported that Vietnamese workers making McDonald’s Happy Meals toys for as little as six cents an hour had been poisoned by acetone, a chemical solvent used to manufacture plastic Disney characters such as the 101 Dalmatians line.4 All of this so that I can pull up to the drive-through window and toss my child a Happy Meal figurine? No, thanks.

Then there are the social costs of marketing. Marketers broadcast programming designed to hypnotize toddlers into “cradle-to-grave brand loyalty to these toys.”5 Marketing professionals cross-reference, cross-market, and cross-pollinate products and entertainment. By intentionally blurring the distinctions between entertainment, products, school curricula, and advertisements, marketers readily capitalize on young children’s limited ability to differentiate between them. It’s no accident that, in the children’s section of Barnes and Noble, the books starring such television-based characters as Arthur, Clifford, and Blues Clues are displayed most prominently, while the classics get the cheap seats.

Despite warnings from the American Medical Association that children who watch more than 10 hours a week of television and/or video are more likely to be overweight, aggressive, and slow to learn, more products and entertainment than ever are designed to capture the imaginations of children aged one to three years, and to encourage them to watch TV.6 Experts with PhDs conduct sophisticated focus groups to ensure that each and every episode of TV shows such as Dora the Explorer hit the mark with preschoolers.7

The TV show sells the books and movie, the movie ads sell the Happy Meal action figures, and these in turn sell next year’s patented Halloween costumes. Then the media hero du jour is immortalized and consumed, literally, as a fluorescent, frosted birthday cake from the local supermarket. If you were hosting, say, a Dora the Explorer party, you could choose from more than 70 party accessories, including blinking fiesta beads.

It’s brilliant marketing, and it works. The only problem is that it works against parents, children, and the environment.

North Americans have come to rely on commercial institutions to furnish our stories, heroes, icons, and expectations. The old traditions and rites of passage have been eclipsed by a boy’s first Nintendo, a girl’s first Barbie, a computer, a first toy gun.

Last Christmas, when the US was bombing Afghanistan, JC Penny advertised Forward Command Post, a 75-piece set that includes: a bombed and blood-stained play house, one 11 1/2-inch-high figurine in military combat gear, toy weapons, an American flag, chairs, and more.8 “Take command of your soldiers from this fully outfitted battle zone,” the ad boasted. Forward Command Post is recommended for ages five and up. Last December, the Toys-”R”-Us website listed it as “sold out.”

Julie Convisser, a movement therapist and mother of two small boys, worries about the messages kids get from commercial culture. “I feel like they are being groomed to be materialists, to buy into an evil-vs.-good world paradigm, and to ignore the spiritual heart of life and the bounty of nature.” She buffers the influence of commercial culture as much as possible by limiting her boys’ TV viewing and being picky about videos, avoiding media-promotion toys, and sending her older son to a school at which the other children’s parents share her values.

Others argue that children should be exposed to commercial culture to avoid becoming victims of it. In fact, direct experience can be a fast way for kids to learn the ropes of misleading ad campaigns. Karin Purdy, mother of three, says, “I let my kids watch TV, and I let them buy some of the products they see. They are usually quite disappointed when they get them and they aren’t as great as they thought. They get smarter as they get older.”

Michelle Sobel, a film editor, a creator of educational software, and the mother of two girls, thinks about this issue constantly. “We live in a consumer culture and kids are going to be confronted with it all the time, despite your best attempts to control it.” When her three year old, Willa, sees a seductive ad for a toy and says, “I want that!” Michelle asks, “What do you like about it?” She transforms the indulgence/denial struggle into an interesting conversation about what is appealing to her daughter. Engaged in discussion, during which mom may even begin to talk about something else, it’s easier for the daughter to walk away from the toy.

Whatever their individual approaches, many parents work hard all year long to protect children from pervasive and cloying commercialism. But despite our best efforts, holidays and birthdays can become gift-crazed free-for-alls. Why allow our friends and relatives to fall into the trap of giving meaningless gifts when a simple, genuine gesture can mean so much more to the children? “Disappearing” junk toys only compounds the environmental and cultural costs; it’s up to us to stop the charade and transform the culture of gift-giving.

It’s perfectly natural that adults love to give children things and that children love to receive them. Even in Waldorf schools-which discourage plastics, TV, and commercial images on clothing-there exists a strong understanding that, according to writer Gisela T. O’Neil, “in the beginning of life, roughly till we reach adulthood, we are at the receiving end of life: parents, teachers, and society bestow their care upon us. Later follows the time when we ourselves are called upon to contribute to other people and to society. Think of the boundless expectations with which a young child anticipates his birthday or other gift-bestowing events, how he feels at the center of the world! Actually, most of the early part of life is a continuous receiving.”9

Changing the Culture of Gifts
Alicia Daniel, field naturalist, teacher, and mother of two daughters, offers a radical checklist:

1) Will this toy eventually turn into dirt-i.e., could I compost it? Stones, snowmen, driftwood, and daisies-they will be gone, and we will be gone, and life goes on.

2) Do I know who made this toy? This question leads us to search for the hidden folk artist in each of us.

3) Is this toy beautiful? Have human hands bestowed an awkward grace, a uniqueness lacking in toys cranked out effortlessly by machine?

4) Will this toy capture a child’s imagination?”10

To this list we might add: Does this gift foster my child’s natural inclinations? Will it enable him to more fully engage in life? Does it help her reach her goals?

My husband and I have been proactive, perhaps downright annoying, in our efforts to work closely with the gift-givers in our children’s lives. We have banned plastics and gifts made in China , and have asked that donations to nonprofit organizations be made in their names. The results have been amazing. Relatives made a hand-painted chair, built an art easel, and offered such practical and well-timed gifts as a backpack for sleepovers. They have knitted miles of handmade sweaters and blankets. Parents who hesitate to speak up for fear of offending rob their friends and family of a chance to participate more deeply in their child’s life.

Head them off at the pass. If you don’t offer clear choices well before a holiday or birthday, relatives and friends will buy “obligatory” gifts. Dovetail their best intentions with something your child actually wants or needs. One friend wrote in tiny italics at the bottom of her baby’s birth announcement: “Please, no pastel, no plastic.” We all got the message. Another suggested that we each bring a cup and saucer to a birthday party to help make her child a new tea set. Every year, my husband and I ask that guests bring a skit or song to my daughter’s birthday party in lieu of a gift. It’s not difficult to get them to juggle instead of buying her a Barbie, but it doesn’t happen by osmosis.

Pay people for their skills, not their stuff. Last October, my daughter decided she wanted to play the violin. Her grandparents agreed to sponsor eight lessons, one for each night of Chanukah. This arrangement satisfied everyone: my parents, who from 3,000 miles away longed to instill in their granddaughter a love of classical music; my daughter, who took lessons on a time-limited, trial basis; and a talented young violin teacher, who is raising her own child and going back to school.

Give away your juiciest ideas. As your child’s closest confidante, you are up to date on his or her secret interests. Being close to children gives parents a unique opportunity to clue relatives in about what gifts will have relevance to their children’s lives.

The best gift I ever gave my nephew was a cardboard refrigerator box. After opening a dozen molded-plastic toys at his birthday party, he and his friends went absolutely wild over the giant carton. His mom knew how much he’d enjoyed one at a friend’s house, and had passed on the clue to me. It took a bit of moxie to show up at his party with a cardboard box, but the other parents-total strangers to me at the time-congratulated me with hearty slaps on the back.

Be Prepared if it Backfires. When a friend’s son was two, her parents asked what they could get him for Christmas. She explained that he liked making music, and that a drum would be nice: “My mom went to Toys-”R”-Us and bought him a battery-packed, plastic, multicolored drum machine with various buttons, high-volume percussion tracks, and multicolored blinking lights. My heart sank when he tore open the paper and I saw what it was. I was actually angry-a little at my Mom for being so clueless, and a lot at our culture, which has turned something as wonderful as a drum into this repellent mechanical thing. Fortunately, my son didn’t even understand what it was. We made it ‘disappear’ that day and went to a fair-trade import store and bought him a handmade tom-tom drum made of wood and hide with a lovely wood drumstick. He still has it, and loves it and uses it three years later.”

And if you still can’t bring yourself to tell friends and relatives what your child really wants, you can always put it in writing.

NOTES
1. Curtis Morgan, “Legos and Other Floating Flotsam,” Miami Herald, 17 May 1998 .
2. Sarah Cox, “The Secret life of Toys,”
www.maquilasolidarity.org/campaigns/toy/scox.htm.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Gary Ruskin, “Why They Whine,” Mothering no. 97 (November-December 1999): 40-50)
6. Karen Springer, “Why We Tuned Out,” Newsweek, 11 November 2002 .
7. Daniel McGinn, “Guilt Free TV,” Newsweek, 11 November 2002 .
8. JC Penney, 2002 Christmas catalog: 486.
9. Gisela T. O’Neil, “Gratitude, Love, Responsibility” in Waldorf Schools, Volume 1: Kindergarten and Early Grades, Ruth Pusch, ed. (Spring Valley, NY: Mercury Press, 1996), 24-32.
10. Alicia Daniel, “Checklist for Toys Focuses on Deeper Values,” Burlington Free Press, 16 December 2001 .FOR MORE INFORMATION

Organizations

Center for a New American Dream
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 900
Takoma Park, MD 20912

www.newdream.org
Brochure, “Tips for Parenting in a Commercial Culture

Commercial Alert
www.commercialalert.org

.For more information about toys, see the following articles in past issues of Mothering: “Homemade Toys: Why Nothing Can Beat a Paper Pinwheel,” no. 95; “Top Toys,” no. 91; and “Toys That Encourage Imaginative Play,” no. 90.

Judith L. Rubin lives in Portland , Oregon with her husband, Peter Bahls, and their daughters, Cecilia (6), who still enjoys violin lessons, and Hannah (1 1/2), who plays with all her sister’s best toys.”