Mod squad
I am pleased to announce the addition of three new moderators on the blog to work beside our experienced aces, Bethany and MK.
You all know Jasper, Lauren, and Valerie. They have been loyal, reliable, and astute commenters for some time, and they have all agreed to come on board as moderators, for which I am very appreciative.
It’s not that the crowd has grown too rough for Bethany and MK to handle alone.
It’s that it has grown too big, a good problem. Traffic to the site has increased more than 300% since January, now over 30,000 unique visitors a month. And in August we reached a milestone of 1 million hits for the month.
Thanks to all for your interest and participation in this blog. Your comments make it such an interesting and informative read.
And thanks to Bethany, Jasper, Lauren, MK, and Valerie for moderating. It takes quite a bit of time and energy.
In addition, Jasper has agreed to scout out each day’s quote of the day, which will be a big help. Thanks to him for that, too.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
WooHoo…Go ModSquad!
Where’s the music?
Well I’m babysitting my neice and nephew and watching high school musical. Does that count?
I’m hurt that you didn’t ask me.
You are SO not coming to my slumber party!!!!!
Congratulations to you all, and Jasper, don’t forget about those Swedish women.
Doug
Laura, maybe in the future. I find myself sort of likin ya! You just take a little getting used to.
Thanks to all of Jill’s helpers!
That is amazing that you are getting so many hits! Great job!
Elizabeth
Congrats everybody! Sorry I havent been around lately, its senior year for me, so college stuff is right in front of me, so a lot is going on.
But I thought I’d share a story today from my second day of school, which most likely will make all of you cringe in horror. It was weird, but this place was the first place i thought of, possibly because how appalled i thought you all would be, but I digress.
Im in an elective called US Legal, where we learn, if you didnt catch it, about the US Legal system. We were talking about how society creates law, and abortion popped up.
The teacher phrased it along the lines, “well, isnt it immoral to get an abortion?” And, unexpected to me (I knew much of my school leaned towards the left despite their parents thoughts/influences, but this still surprised me) he was met with a resounding no, and a few “well, it depends on the circumstance”. Just a story I thought I’d share.
Congrats again to all you moderators, and nice to see you all again :D
Dan,
It’s nice to hear from you, good-luck with the first year…. Was that a rhetorical question? or did the teacher really feel that abortion was immoral?
it was a question to generate discussion in the class
and its my last year of hs ;)
In general, the younger a population the more liberal they will be. Of course, people usually “peak” liberally in college.
When I was in highschool *shudders*, I was pro-choice and fairly vocal about it.
Ok guys…confession time…I supported Kerry in the last presidential election. *runs and hides*. I even had a Kerry bumper sticker on my dorm room door.
What a difference a few years make, no?
oh, ok…one more year.
“he was met with a resounding no” …no surprize there, I guess….
..and nobody said “yes, it is immoral?”
Also, did you hear? Fred Thompson announced his candidacy.
not that I heard.
“What a difference a few years make, no?”
Yes Lauren, it does sometimes….you were in college in the 04 election? wow, you’re pretty young too.
Dan,
Did the teacher offer any opinion on whether or not he thought abortion was immoral?
Yep. I even distributed lots of rock the vote *cough cough vote for kerry!* pins.
Even more frightening…I was at a private women’s college on the East coast.
Lauren,
Ok guys…confession time…I supported Kerry in the last presidential election. *runs and hides*. I even had a Kerry bumper sticker on my dorm room door.A
You can’t run far enough or hide well enough…we will hunt you down! lol
At least tell me the sticker isn’t still on the door! I can’t tell you how many people still have his bumper sticker on their car. Talk about living in a fantasy world!
I meant this music…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0-XrZoHj2k
And in case anyone is wondering…
When you get pregnant at a snooty women’s college you get kicked out of the dorms (obviously, no married housing), have your scholarship slashed, and lose your work study if you have the audacity to actually give birth to the child. Of course you are reminded time and time again that all of this could be avoided if you make a simple *choice*.
Me bitter? Nah…
Lauren,
can I ask what college you went to? I live on the east coast, was it in Boston?
MK, I’m far far away from that door now, so who knows. I wouldn’t be suprised!
This year I think I’m supporting Ron Paul. I will NOT vote for Guliani, and am hoping that if he gets the Republican nomination, Ron Paul will run as an independent. Yes, I know it will split to vote…but I honestly see very little difference between Hillary and Rudy, and could vote for neither and maintain any sort of personal integrity.
Did you guys watch the debate tonight?
I was wondering how the board felt about THIS:
GOP Candidates Snub Social Conservatives
By RYAN SAGER
September 5, 2007
If self-styled “values voters” have felt snubbed by the Republican presidential candidates this election season, that snubbing is now official.
Mayor Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and Senator McCain are all declining to participate in a September 17 debate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that’s being hosted by an umbrella social-conservative group called ValuesVoter.org. Social conservatives will be upset; other conservatives might well be heartened by the waning power of the religious right.
A number of second-tier Republican candidates have confirmed attendance at the event, according to the news site WorldNetDaily.com, whose editor, Joseph Farah, is slated to moderate the debate. They include Rep. Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Senator Brownback, Rep. Ron Paul, and John Cox.
The debate will be held at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and broadcast live on a “Christ-centered” satellite TV service, Sky Angel, as well as streamed over the Web at ValuesVoterDebate.com.
The festivities, however, look likely to go off without a marquee name. Queried yesterday by The New York Sun, the McCain campaign cited a scheduling conflict. “We are not attending,” a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, Brooke Buchanan, replied by e-mail. “It’s the last day of the No Surrender tour
It was Salem college, the oldest women’s college in the nation. Older even than the United States. It was founded by Moravians who believe that everyone is completely equal before God (but also owned slaves…)
Weird tid-bit. It was a women’s college that didn’t have a nursing program. Does that strike anyone else as really, really odd? I left because I realized that I wanted to be a nurse and didn’t want to waste my time getting a useless degree. (You would think the whole anti-parenting thing would have run me off, but NOPE)
Anyways, though I made many wonderful friends, most of which helped me OUT of my feminist ways, I would never recommend the school to a young woman. I saw far to many girls come in only to be “reprogramed” into feminist thinking. It was inevitable. My freshman english course was post-colonial feminist literature.
Interesting Lauren,
I grew up next Salem State College in Salem, MA.
..I can’t decide between Rep. Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Senator Brownback.
According to FOX surveys, Ron Paul won the debate.
(Does anyone else have a bad vibe about Fred Thompson. Appearing on Leno and stiffing the debate is bad…)
I like all of the ones you mentioned, but I don’t think they’ll get the nomination. It’s a sad world we live in when even conseravatives are backing away from pro-life politics.
WOOHOO Go Ron Paul!
Yes I agree, I don’t think they’ll get the nomination. Yes, I don’t think Thompson wants to put in the effort, he ‘s pandering going on the Leno show and blowing off the debate. I like Ron Paul too, but I don’t think we can blindly pull out of Iraq…..
Jasper, yeah that’s my issue with him as well. Even so, he’s the politician to whom I most closely resemble. He’s written some great stuff for libertarians for life.
Hey all!
I think maybe you should, in the interest of fairness… make an occasional prochoicer a moderator… if moderation is what you’re really interested in. Your moderators as they stand, while sober and seemingly reliable, don’t actually police prolifers, but simply stand guard against trolls while turning a blind eye to all else.
OH MY GOD! Cam is that you? YEAHHHHHHHH!!!
If you tell anyone I said this I’ll cut out your tongue…BUT I MISSED YOU!
Cameron!!!
Where have you been. I haven’t seen you around much…then again I haven’t been on much in the past couple weeks…..
As for turning a blind eye…. Last night I was agreeing with Doug! He is a pro-choicer and I was agreeing with him! I’m still in shock. AND he was disagreeing with a pro-lifer! AAAHHHH!!!!!
Was it a full moon last night?
(I should mention that the discussion we were having wasn’t about abortion though…….. )
;-)
Cam,
You must’ve gotten homesick rehashing your wedding…were you lurking?
I thought Ron Paul won too.
I like all of the ones you mentioned, but I don’t think they’ll get the nomination. It’s a sad world we live in when even conseravatives are backing away from pro-life politics.
Posted by: lauren at September 5, 2007 10:19 PM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s becoming a Republican trend:
California Governor Schwarzenegger Wants Weaker GOP Abortion Stance
Sacramento, CA (LifeNews.com) — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming under fire today from pro-life advocates there because of his desire to weaken the Republican Party’s pro-life stance. He is asking for a new state Republican platform that removes any mention of abortion.
Schwarzenegger says he prefers to focus other political issues where Republicans have more consensus, even though recent polls show Republicans are pro-life by more than a three-to-one margin.
The current state platform calls for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that ushered in an era of virtually unlimited abortions.
The governor is calling himself “post-partisan” and says he wants to bridge the divide between Republicans and Democrat.
But one pro-life advocate there says that will leave many Republican Party supporters behind who are pro-life and generally back the party’s candidates.
“There’s a move afoot to make sure the Republican Party stands for nothing,” Mike Spence of the California Pro-Life Council, told the Associated Press.
He called the governor’s idea to change the platform “a direct assault on Republican Party principles. They think they can reduce the party to a few lines or sound bites.”
Spence’s point is backed up by a new poll by the Diageo polling firm done for the Hotline political newspaper. It surveyed 604 self-identified Republican voters August 22-26.
Some 63 percent of Republicans said they want all or almost all abortions prohibited, while just 20 percent said abortions should be legal. Another 16 percent want them legal but want more limits on them.
The GOP state convention begins later this week and party activists will work to hammer out a platform.
No jasper he did not add his opinion, one of the reasons im sure would be fear of being accused of overstepping his bounds, another being he wanted our opinions and wanted us to discuss it so that a class discussion would happen, however with so little difference in opinion, it tapered off fairly quickly
If someone from Law and Order was going to be president, I would want it to be Jesse Martin.
Or Mr. Big from SVU (I think it’s SVU……)
;-)
JK, he’s not on SVU, I think he’s on the regular L&O
It’s Olivia and Stabler.
Oh…..I’m always getting the L&O’s mixed up, it’ll be the same with all the CSI’s in a few years….
Long lost Cameron! Hi!
Hi Cameron. Where have you been?
Pavarotti died this morning :-(
Are there any other opera lovers here who are as very sad as I am?
Lauren’s the one in the middle.
“Pavarotti died this morning :-( ”
Thats too bad. I’m a (small) opera fan, Erin.
Eternal rest grant unto them him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon them him. May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Really, Erin? I’m sorry to ear that!
AAKK hear
Yeah. Pancreatic cancer. He was such a fantastic tenor.
Hey now, Jacque…I would never wear a skirt that short!
Ahh…I’m sorry to hear about Pavarotti. I’m not that big of an opera fan, but he had such an amazing voice.
It’s cool, JK. SVU is my fave but I”m also a huge fan of Sam Watterston (who I think stars in several different kinds–okay I may be wrong, I don’t know). But yeah. I like the characters in SVU. And Ice-T is pretty cool too :)
I’ve only caught bits and pieces of the L&O’s, I can’t really get that into them.
jasper, you grew up near salem state? Wow, I actually currently live in the area
Dan,
Yes, I grew in Salem, Mass. Are you from the North Shore area?
Yeah, I am.
JKeller: Or Mr. Big from SVU (I think it’s SVU……)
JK, could you mean Chris Noth, who played a cop on “Law and Order” (I think teamed with Lenny Brisco) and who also was “Mr.Big” on “Sex and the City” – the boyfriend of “Carrie Bradshaw” (Sarah Jessica Parker)?
Doug