These newly posted short commercials in the Apple vein were shot by seminarians at the Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha. Major hoot. (See the two other videos on page 2.)

As our commenter Laura first reported yesterday, according to the Associated Press this morning:

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure at his summer home in Maine yesterday, causing a fall that resulted in minor scrapes, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said. He was to remain in a Maine hospital overnight....

Roberts, 52, underwent a "thorough neurological evaluation, which revealed no cause for concern," Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in a statement. Roberts had a similar episode in 1993, she said. Doctors called yesterday's incident "a benign idiopathic seizure," she added.

Left bloggers, given a stern talking to by their poobah Kos only last week to talk nice, are wishing for a death sentence or making other crass statements....

It goes without saying the engine propelling the abortion movement has been the courts, starting with Roe v. Wade.

Protecting abortion was the biggest reason why the Left tried to stop President Bush's two Supreme Court nominees. But the Gang of 14 - which I detested at the time - stymied them.

Now the Left is gearing up for the mother of all Supreme Court nomination battles, the one which could lead to the reversal of Roe.

I drew your attention last week to liberal Justice Breyer's shocking betrayal of the separation of powers by whispering in liberal Republican Sen. Specter's ear that he might want to take a closer look at recent decisions following the addition of Roberts and Alito to the Supreme Court. (Where are the journalists investigating Breyer's breach? Where are Congressional calls for an inquiry?)

I also highlighted the speech at a recent Planned Parenthood fundraiser given by the grande dame of liberal journalists, Helen Thomas, in which she warned, "It seems the present conservative [U.S. Supreme] Court is targeting Roe v. Wade and there's not much you can do about it unless Congress is willing to deal with these touchy subjects. Without pressure, I doubt they will."

MSM's attempt to arouse Americans' suspicions of an increasingly sound Supreme Court, obviuosly to tamper with the next nomination should it be on Bush's watch, has now begun. Yesterday's Washington Post headline:

Fewer See Balance in Court's Decisions;
Bush Nominees Have Made Panel 'Too Conservative' for Many, Poll Indicates

The Indianapolis Star's headline...

Of course, this is based on allegations against NFL quarterback Michael Vick that he was involved in the "sport." Be sure to vote, and then make your comments here, not on theh poll website.

Here are the results of the previous poll....

Two recent JillStanek.com blog posts have drawn the ire of liberal bloggers.

Adrian Monck at views on the news biz doesn't appreciate my thoughts on Helen Thomas, particularly this section of my post:

What goes around comes around, Helen. In that circle of life, you're a little too close to a time when you're going to be as helpless as those preborns you advocate killing...

The first question elderly people seeking medical treatment should be asked is if they are pro-life or pro-choice. If they answer the latter, they should be moved to the back of the line.

Responded Monck....

Pearl S. Buck said, "It is natural anywhere that people like their own kind, but it is not necessarily natural that their fondness for their own kind should lead them to the subjection of whole groups of other people not like them."

Do you think this statement applies to abortion?

One last photo from DC last week. On July 20 there was a large protest along Constitution Ave. against the Chinese Communist government's atrocities against its people: torture, and harvesting of organs from living prisoners. (Strangely, the one-child policy was not protested.)

That night, protesters held a candlelight vigil at the Washington Monument. You can see its base in the background of this photo. All those little lights you see were being held by Chinese people who sat cross-legged and meditating/praying for over an hour. It was quite spectacular. See two close-ups on page 2.

While my three-year-grandson, who is supposed to be potty-training, would rather "hang around"...

Crotchety, 86-year-old liberal journalist Helen Thomas is completely undeserving of her front row seat in the White House press room. Some elders don't deserve respect. She recently spoke at a Planned Parenthood of Greater Iowa fundraiser.

Reported Lynda Waddington of Helen's speech at RH (Reproductive Health) Reality Check today:

"It seems the present conservative [U.S. Supreme] Court is targeting Roe v. Wade and there's not much you can do about it unless Congress is willing to deal with these touchy subjects," she said. "Without pressure, I doubt they will."...

Thomas also admits that when she was originally told the conservatives' plans for the court, she didn't fully understand the implications.

"People were saying during the [Ronald] Reagan administration that this was about the Supreme Court," she said. "I wasn't sure at that time what they meant. But the truth is that the court is their one last resort to push their agenda. It is their one last resort to prevail."...

"Let's return to the true ideals of the Bill of Rights," she said. "The issue is not the right to live. The issue is the kind of life. The issue is freedom without government or outside interference."

We're pushing our agenda through the courts?

The issue is not the right to life but the kind of life? What goes around comes around, Helen. In that circle of life, you're a little too close to a time when you're going to be as helpless as those preborns you advocate killing. And by "kind of life," you must mean one's caregiver?

The New York Times reported July 17 that while the number of baby boomer elderly people is increasing, "the number of doctors trained in geriatric medicine is declining." Wonder why.

The first question elderly people seeking medical treatment should be asked is if they are pro-life or pro-choice. If they answer the latter, they should be moved to the back of the line.

[Hat tip: Reader jasper; photo of Helen's nameplate from front row center of the new White House news room was taken by me last week.]

I know we have at least one young reader who was conceived via IVF. Am curious to know personal experiences.

And I agree with this article's last statement. IVF should be regulated in the US, not only for the health of those born but to put a stop to those "leftover" embryos.

From London's Daily Mail, July 23:

A study of hundreds of seven-year-olds has revealed that they are admitted to hospital much more frequently than other youngsters of the same age.

While many of their illnesses were common to all children, those born through fertility treatment suffered more fits and more conditions connected to the brain and immune system....

Last week while in DC we (my Mom, my daughter, and I) got to go on a White House garden tour and West Wing tour. Daena and Mom also got to view a presidential departure.

I thought you'd like to see the White House grounds close up, particularly since they do belong to us. I'm sure you'll agree they're beautiful. We weren't allowed to take photos of "anything under roof," so no West Wing pictures. Daena took all photos (see the rest on page 2), except the last one.

A strange article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal put negative spin on one unintended consequence of the Deficit Reduction Act, signed into law last year by President Bush: birth control pill usage.

Because of it, big pharma has had to raise prices of name brand birth control pills, which it previously sold to college "health centers" at a cut rate (which they then sold to students with a mark-up as a little money maker).

Now, "college students are making some tough choices, such as switching to cheaper generic brands...."

Since when is the chance to buy generic brands "tough"?

No, such a move could cause intelligent college women to falter, according to the article....

A Spider-Man comic book collector and blogger named andrewfarago has "discovered the strangest Spider-Man comic I've ever read. Period."

He says he stumbled on it a couple weeks ago at a vintage paperback book store in San Francisco. The comic book, entitled, "The amazing Spider-Man vs. the Prodigy," appears to have been copyrighted in 1976.

The comic is indeed strange, tracking the Spidey-foiled plot of the evil Prodigy to spread sexual wives tales to teens so girls will accidentally get pregnant, enabling Prodigy to send flying saucers to "scoop thousands of babies off to Intellectia."

You can read the entire comic book here, but these are the relevant pages (see the rest on page 2):

From The Politico, yesterday:

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) plans to review the Senate testimony of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito to determine if their reversal of several long-standing opinions conflicts with promises they made to senators to win confirmation....

The idea for a review came to Specter when he said he ran into Justice Stephen G. Breyer at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado....

Continuing in our series of art review and interpretation, we present for the first time artwork from the pro-life perspective, "No regrets?" by our own talented Bethany.

Previously we reviewed "Mandy goes to med school," "Fetal trapping in Northern California," and the video "Nurse."

"No regrets?" is rich in symbolism, as Bethany has explained to me. But I'll let you analyze and interpret for yourself. The rules are the same as always. Bethany will serve as moderator of this post. Critique of the work is obviously allowed. But any uncalled for comments that disparage her obvious talent will be deleted.

(Click to enlarge; see close-ups on page 2)

Reposted from the Culture Campaign blog, from the book "How Christianity Changed the World" by Alvin Schmidt, (Zondervan, 2004), 93,94

What would be the status of women in the Western world today had Jesus Christ never entered the human arena? One way to answer this question is to look at the status of women in most present-day Islamic countries. Here women are still denied many rights that are available to men, and when they appear in public, they must be veiled.

In Saudi Arabia, for instance, women are even barred from driving an automobile. In the summer of 1999, news reports revealed that women are forbidden to wear lipstick, and if they do they can be arrested and jailed. Whether in Saudi Arabia or in many other Arab countries where the Islamic religion is adhered to strongly, a man has the right to beat and sexually desert his wife, all with the full support of the Koran, which says "Men stand superior to women...But those whose perverseness ye fear, admonish them and remove them into bedchambers and beat them; but if they submit to you then do not seek a way against them" (Sura 4:34).

This command is the polar opposite of what the New Testament says regarding a man's relationship with his wife....

The NJ Health Department has issued its report on the Alternatives abortion mill in Atlantic City, which I recently reported was closed June 22 for unspecified health and safety violations.

The NJHD has mailed me the complete report, from which I'll post excerpts upon receipt. Meanwhile, The Press of Atlantic City published some of NJHD's findings yesterday. As quoted from The Press....

Ah, the pureness and goodness of abortion.

On July 18, an abortionist who goes by the name of Beket blogged at Daily Kos that getting one is equivalent to attaining angelic status:

[T]hey are kind of like in that old movie "It's a Wonderful Life," in which every time a bell rang an angel got his or her wings. [F]or many a woman the experience of having an abortion isoften one way of claiming her wings - her wings of independence....

So abortion mill workers, who help women become angels, must be so righteous one should wear sunglasses in their presence or risk being blinded by their radiance.

That's what feminists would have us think of the July 17 arrest of Gloria Gray, office manager of West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa. Reported Ms. Magazine:

Gloria Gray was arrested when a group of anti-abortion protesters trespassed on her property. Gray's attorney made the following statement, "In Gloria's efforts to aid the police and to let them know that the extremists were trespassing on her property, she was arrested for asserting her rights."...

Oh, the injustice, the unfair treatment of police toward the Mother Teresa of abortion workers, aptly named Gloria, who was trying to single-handedly protect her mill from anti-abortion rioters while guiding police, apparently indeed blinded by her presence, to their location....

I contacted the pro-lifer actually involved in the altercation with Gray, David Lackey.

Lackey said...

Continue reading my column today, "Shout and twist," on WorldNetDaily.com.

[Hat tip for Beket quote: JivinJehoshapat]

Who can forget that shaky Michael J. Fox ad encouraging Missourians to vote to fund human embryo experimentation last November?

One of the lies of Amendment Two was that it outlawed cloning, which it actually sanctioned.

The amendment stated in one section, "No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being," which it could only say by redefining the word. Yet in another section it endorsed "somatic cell nuclear transfer," which is cloning.

Pro-lifers even sued - and lost - over the misleading ballot language.

MSM didn't help, of course, calling the valid argument - which anyone, even a reporter, could confirm by looking in a dictionary - a "claim."

But Amendment Two squeaked by, 51-49%, and MSM no longer has to play dumb, either that or it has forgotten to aid and abet the cover-up....

While researching my WND column for tomorrow, I came across this little vignette from an Operation Save America protest in Jackson, MS, last year.

OSA told me this morning the boy holding the Bible and praying later approached the girl, who in the video was shouting "hail sodomy" in his ear while another "progressive" waved a sign reading, "Sodomy Prevents Abortion." He apparently led her to the Lord, which is an amazing conclusion to this little vignette.

Advocates of human embryo destruction experimentation almost always list Alzheimer's as a disease they hope it will cure.

This is a myth, a lie. As the Washington Post reported three years ago, "of all the diseases that may someday be cured by embryonic stem cell treatments, Alzheimer's is among the least likely to benefit."

This is because Alzheimer's does not arise from a specialized population of brain cells. "[I]n contrast to Parkinson's, diabetes and spinal injuries, Alzheimer's disease involves the loss of huge numbers and varieties of the brain's 100 billion nerve cells - and countless connections, or synapses, among them," explained the Post article.

That information was backdrop for this point.

The June issue of AARP Bulletin, a publication by the American Association of Retired Persons, the largest American nonprofit advocacy group for those aged 50+, contained this....

In The Politico's "Court ruling hints at new abortion stance," July 18, author Chris Gacek explains the three major features of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's Partial Birth Abortion Ban ruling and how this will affect future abortion jurisprudence. One is he legitimized the psychological damage of abortion, much maligned by pro-aborts, and to do so he referred to work by Dr. David Reardon, also much maligned by pro-aborts.

Gary Bauer, in "Democrats' abortion relapse," featured in Human Events, July 20, compares the reality of the abortion-fanatic Democrat-controlled Congress vs. promises they made before the 2006 election to focus on common ground between pro-lifers and pro-aborts, as incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said 1.5 short years ago, "there is an opportunity to find common ground if we are willing to join together and seize it."

Sorry, I've been out-of-pocket in DC again this week. I'll be home Monday. Thanks very much to moderators Bethany and MK for holding the fort in my absence.

Thursday night, MN Republican Sen. Norm Coleman was able to add an amendment to a bill that prevents any government from carrying out a death sentence on a woman while she is pregnant. Aside from arguments for and against the death penalty, why would pregnancy matter?

[Hat tip: Family Research Council]

I previously blogged about two recently released movies with strong pro-life plots. Both female leads in Waitress and Knocked Up encountered crisis pregnancies and soundly rejected abortion.

In the Washington Post this past Sunday, columnist Ann Hornaday incredibly blamed this on Hollywood - for being afraid of controversy? Please.

Of course, this is false. These days Hollywood enjoys poking controversial sticks in America's face, badgering us from Brokeback Mountain to Iwo Jima.

But Hornaday theorized that on the topic of abortion, Hollywood has wilted....

This cartoon by Nick Anderson ran today in the Washington Post:

Two family values being mocked are teachings that sex is appropriate only within the confines of marriage, and abortion is wrong.

Meanwhile, alternatives that the no-family values crowd have promoted the last 30-40 years have wrought nothing but harm and despair. Can its proponents name one good thing that has arisen from the free love mentality?

~ From the Chicago Sun-Times/Associated Press, June 15

Gov. Kathleen Blanco signed legislation Friday that penalizes doctors who perform a late-term abortion procedure, making Louisiana the first to outlaw the surgery since a similar federal ban was upheld this year.

The new law allows the procedure only when the mother's life would be endangered without it. It would be a crime in all other cases, including when the pregnancy is expected to cause health problems for the mother.

The statute mirrors a federal ban President Bush signed into law in 2003 and that was upheld in April by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawmakers in other states are expected to consider similar bans. Louisiana is the first to enact one, according to the New York Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion-rights group.

In Louisiana, doctors face fines of between $1,000 and $10,000, and jail terms of between one and 10 years.

Planned Parenthood argued against the ban, but received a chilly response from lawmakers. Only a handful of legislators voted against the bill.

Interesting that the AP did not name that which was banned, Partial Birth Abortion, nor describe it, nor refute that there has never been a health reason found to commit it. Nor were any pro-life groups interviewed or referred to. Par.

New poll

Please be sure to vote on this week's poll, in the right column. Then comment here on this post, not on the poll website. The question is:

Upon news last week that an intact, frozen, baby wooly mammoth had been discovered, talk started of cloning it. What do you think about cloning nonhumans like animals and plants?

Last week, 76 of you answered this question, 1/3 more than the poll before:

On June 29, its legislature made New Hampshire the first state to repeal its law mandating that at least one parent be notified before his/her minor daughter aborts. Do you agree or disagree with this decision?

Here is the vote breakdown, including whereabouts of respondents, which I thought you'd find interesting. Click to enlarge:

I reported July 13 that two pro-life events were being held over the weekend.

Here are photos and a short video of a candlelight vigil from Wichita, outside George Tiller's late term abortion mill. The video is grainy but gives a flavor of what vigils are like.

Between 500-570 attended Saturday and Sunday. Click to enlarge photos.

Norma McCorvey, the former "Roe" of Roe V. Wade, praying outside Tiller's mill....

More photos on page 2.

Fois gras, a sort of goose liver pate, is a delicacy originated by the French. The process of readying the liver gets animal rights activists goosy. As described by Wikipedia:

In modern foie gras production, force feeding takes place 12-18 days before slaughter. The duck or goose is typically fed a controlled amount of corn mash through a tube placed in the animal's esophagus.... [T]his force feeding procedure [creates]... an enlarged liver.... [I]ts flavour is described as rich, buttery, and delicate, unlike that of a regular duck or goose liver.

With no more urgent matters pressing, the Chicago City Council banned the sale of foie gras there in April 2006 (although it is currently reconsidering, much PETA's consternation).

All of that was to set up this rich comment received at Illinois Review on my column, "Those onerous barriers to abortion," by John Coonen of The Coffee Group:

It's a shame how few so-called leaders step out of the shadows any more to say they are pro-life.

Talk to most pro-life advocates in either party, and you'll hear the same retort: "It's a divisive issue."

Ah, brilliant rationalization for one's reticence to articulate the truth you know in your soul. Divisiveness.

And illegal immigration - is that "divisive" too? Road funding; casinos to cover our debt-load?

Or how about Foie Gras? Charging airlines a tax to fly over the land of Lincoln? Is that more your baileywick? That's where you'll take a stand and hold the Peoples' sword high?

Twirl my finger in the air, and whoop-dee-doo, Braveheart.

A divisive issue. Is that all it takes to scare off the Republican party? Is that all it takes for Democrats who are pro-life to not dare to even mention it on their websites?

What's the matter? Partisans got your tongue?...

Jennifer Roback Morse wrote on Townhall.com this week:

[U]sing Planned Parenthood's own data... two studies [here and here]...

A poor cohabiting teenager using the Pill has a failure rate of 48.4%. You read that correctly: nearly half of poor cohabiting teenagers get pregnant during their first year using the Pill. If she kicked her boyfriend out of the house, or if she married him, her probability of pregnancy drops to 12.9%. At the other extreme, a middle-aged, middle-class married woman has a 3% chance of getting pregnant after a year on the Pill.

Over 70% of poor, cohabiting teenagers using condoms, will be pregnant within a year. By contrast, the middle-aged, middle-class married woman has a 6% chance of pregnancy after a year of condom use.

These figures cast new light on the debate over contraception education. The commonly quoted failure rates of 8% for the Pill and 15% for the condom are inflated by the highly successful use by middle-aged, middle-class married couples. Yet, the government promotes contraception most heavily among the young, the poor and the single

Bearing in mind comprehensive sex ed has been trialed in the U.S. for over 40 years, and contraceptives are now easily (and literally freely) available, what do you think should be done to lower the pregnancy rate of America's socioeconomically poor?

This is slightly off the beaten path, but I do wonder how many mothers abort babies because they are mixed race?

A July 13 Daily Mail column by Lowri Turner entitled, "I love my mixed race baby - but why does she feel so alien?" prompted the thought.

The piece is refreshingly candid but another one of those "What was she thinking?" writings. Doesn't Turner realize her daughter will grow up and read it? I am editing it for space constraints, but the entire article is worth reading....

[Photo, courtesy of American Idol, is of Jordin Sparks, 2007 winner, whose father is black and mother is white.]

Pro-aborts are trying to force all Iowan pharmacists to stock the morning after pill. Faye Waddington at RH (Reproductive Health) Reality Check said yesterday a study involving "phone surveys and mystery shopping" found:

Of the independently owned stores, there were 68 pharmacists who mistakenly believed emergency contraception would cause an abortion. Forty-six of the chain store pharmacists also held this mistaken belief.

Yet the maker of the morning-after pill, Plan B, website admits:

Plan B... prevents pregnancy mainly by stopping the release of an egg from the ovary, and may also prevent the fertilization of an egg (the uniting of sperm with the egg). Plan B may also work by preventing it from attaching to the uterus (womb).

So what exactly can the MAP cause? Are not feminist groups and the abortion industry intentionally misleading women?

[Photo above, courtesy of Family Policy Network, shows the fertilization process.]

Pro-life activists will converge this week on two major cities with significant histories of pro-life prayer/protests - Birmingham and Wichita. It appears pro-aborts will try to defend their bloody turf, at least in Birmingham.

Go, lifers! 1960s black civil rights protests were unpopular but those participating proved to be on the right side of history. Pro-life civil rights protesters share that confidence.

First Wichita, from Operation Rescue:

The Wichita Awakening - July 14-16, 2007 A Prophetic Call to End Abortion and Seek Revival

Schedule of Events

Saturday: July 14
8:30 P.M. Candlelight Vigil, featuring Rob Schenck, President of Faith and Action, Washington, DC at George Tiller's abortion clinic located at 5701 E. Kellogg, Wichita.

Sunday: July 15
2-4 P.M. Prayer vigil, featuring Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, Washington, DC at Tiller's clinic, 5107 E. Kellogg, Wichita.
7 P.M.-Midnight Prophetic praise and Worship. Location: Mid-American All-Indian Center, 650 N. Seneca, Wichita.

Monday: July 16
8:30-4 P.M. Prayer throughout the day at Tiller's clinic.
7 P.M.-Midnight Prophetic praise and Worship. Mid-American All-Indian Center

[Photo above was taken at Tiller's clinic in 1991 during the famous 6-week Summer of Mercy. This was prior to FACE, so a battle ensued between federal judge Patrick Kelly, who tried to crush the protest using an 1871 anti-KKK law (which the US Supreme Court later overruled), and Bush I, who said this was a local/state matter and ordered federal agents to ignore Kelly. Still, there were 2700 arrests during the six weeks.]...

Until last week, podiatrists cutting out ingrown toenails were more regulated in Missouri than abortionists cutting out preborn babies....

But on July 6, Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation into law mandating that facilities where babies are scrapped will have to meet the same criteria as facilities where teeth are scraped.

That's tough to argue against, but Planned Parenthood, which owns two of the four affected abortion mills, may sue to block it.

According to the Associated Press, PP "claimed the law could force it to spend up to $2 million to remodel one of its clinics and halt medical abortions at another site."

Just how shoddy can a mill be if it will cost $2 million to make it as safe and clean as a facility where pink eye is treated?

But PP strenuously objected, saying....

Continue reading my column today, "Those onerous barriers to abortion" on WorldNetDaily.com.

This is sure interesting. From the Moscow Times, today:

Lyuba was only about four months old when she died on a full stomach. Ten thousand odd years later she is set to become world famous.

Scientists have hailed the discovery of the baby woolly mammoth, dubbed Lyuba, as one of the finest examples of preserved mammoths ever discovered after it emerged from the melting permafrost in western Siberia.

"There has never been such a find," Pavel Kosintsev, one of the first scientists to see the mammoth....

"The mammoth is an animal that you look at and you see that there is an entire epoch behind it, a huge time period when climate was changing," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Zoological Institute....

A July 10 CNSNews.com article spotlighted not just a dramatic shift in young attitudes toward abortion but why the dramatic shift - incrementalism.

(Generation Y birth years vary slightly to include those born from 1976 to 2002.)

Younger voters, especially women, are embracing a pro-life position in surprising numbers and in sharp contrast to attitudes that held sway 15 years ago, according to a new study....

Jeff Fecke at RH [Reproductive Health] Reality Check complained yesterday that Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life was out of line to blame Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota for the 16% spike in underage abortions in 2006.

Fecke accused MCCL of "attacking" PP for pointing out in a press release PP had not coincidentally that same year "opened two suburban 'express' mall stores targeting young women with scented oils, candles and referrals to its St. Paul abortion center."

Problem is, PPMNDSD indeed entices young women into its mall stores with scented oils and candles. The lovely display photo at right was taken from PPMNDSD's website.

When will pro-aborts admit PP is all about titilating kids to have sex?

Fecke dismissed this thought as an "elaborate conspiracy theory in which Planned Parenthood sucks girls in by giving them access to contraception and uses that increased access to contraception (along with a few trinkets) to lure women in for a fun, exciting abortion."

At least Fecke understood the concept. Too bad he didn't do his homework and check out PP's stores, ads, and trinkets....

The Pro-choice Oklahoma blogger wrote yesterday:

I was driving along Western crossing Classen Blvd. [in Oklahoma City] yesterday and caught a glimpse of a baby on a billboard. Then I was shocked at the words underneath "I used to be an embryo".

Have you seen this billboard in your neighborhood?

New tactics from the anti-choice groups...leading away from the ugly pictures...

I can't locate the exact billboard yet, but it must look something like this:

#1: That babies were once embryos came as a "shock" to you, PC OK?

#2: Citing this biological fact is a "tactic"? Actually, it appears pro-lifers provided a much needed biology lesson you missed in high school, if you attended high school.

#3: What's "anti-choice" about making this biological fact available to women? Are you saying you'd rather they not know? You call that "pro-choice"?

#4: Pro-lifers showing photos of babies who escaped being drawn and quartered before birth isn't anything new, honey. Your mom likely displayed one of you.

#5: What's so "ugly" about those drawn and quartered photos anyway?

You didn't hear about it on MSM, but a group of 40 from the pro-life group Survivors (people born from 1973 on) staged an old-fashioned sit-in at Hillary Clinton's Los Angeles campaign office on July 6.

Disrupting fundraising and meals, the Survivors chalked the cement floor with pro-life messages and held signs showing exactly what Hillary supports.

Spokesperson Kortney Blythe said in a statement, "This is not about a political party, but rather about youth taking a stand against anyone who promotes an act that kills a child, permanently scars a woman, and has wiped out one-third of our generation."

Good for them. See more photos on Blythe's facebook. See a video of the Survivors inside headquarters here and being escorted out by police here.

Actually, the Survivors were very busy last week, holding a training camp.

Pro-aborts didn't like the Survivors or their pictures. These videos are not for the faint of ear. These aren't unusual responses. I know.

At Venice Beach....

At late-term abortionist Josepha Seletz's home, who slices and dices at Pro-Choice Medical/Eve Surgical Center in L.A....

Pro-aborts are such pleasant people. What are they so mad about? It's just a choice.

Last week, Alternatives abortion mill in Atlantic City became the 2nd NJ chop shop this year to have its suction machines unplugged by the NJ Health Dept., which conducted its first inspection since 2001 based on a tip.

According to a letter (right, click to enlarge) the NJHD wrote to Alternatives on June 22, which it also faxed to me, "the facility was found to have violations posing immediate and serious risk of harm to patients in areas including, but not limited to, the absence of a mechanical ventilator, the absence of Dantrium (an anti-hyperthermia drug), the absence of hot water for more than a year, and the absence of a scrub sink."

I cannot comprehend a medical facility with no hot water and no scrub sink.

But there's more.

Yesterday came word the clinic was being purchased by abortionist Steven Chase Brigham, who committed abortions there on June 8 and 15.

The notorious Brigham has had his medical license revoked in NY and FL, voluntarily returned it in PA (where he can never reapply), is on medical probation in CA, and was practicing with restrictions in NJ when this latest incident occurred.

Some of Brigham's abortion butchery included puncturing a uterus, not treating an infection, over-sedating a 14-year-old, and missing a lacerated cervix, uterine artery, and uterus of an obese patient who later had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy.

Pro-aborts keep saying stories of horrific mills and the abortionists who run them are isolated.

Pro-aborts avert their eyes to protect abortion, certainly not women.

[Hat tip: Operation Rescue; photo courtesy Operation Rescue]

See also, "Found at legal abortion mill: 'rusty crochet hooks'," March 15, 2007

OrdinaryGal at Daily Kos has written an extraordinarily unintelligent post tying President Bush's veto of taxpayer-funded human embryo experimentation with her lament that a blind U.S. baby will have to go to China to participate in an umbilical cord stem cell study that may restore his vision.

OG says she has "been reading up" on stem cell research. Well, she needs to read a little more, first learning the most basic fact: There are different kinds of stem cells.

OG wondered, "Why couldn't the Bush Administration follow the lead of California and try to make a difference in the field of medical research relating to serious, chronic health conditions," after lauding the Golden State for passing Proposition 71, "which will provide ten billion dollars in state funding for human embryonic stem cell research."

Actually, it was $3 billion, doubled to $6 billion with interest, but facts didn't figure into OG's post.

And actually, not one taxed penny earmarked to fund human embryo experimentation could go toward sight-saving umbilical cord stem cell research.

Since umbilical cord stem cell research is so important to OG, she may want to switch from supporting John Edwards, as she professed, to supporting Republicans and the Bush Administration.

Because in December 2005, President Bush signed the pro-life Republican-sponsored Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005, which authorized $79 million to establish a cord blood matching network and to add 150k cord blood units to the national inventory, so as to create a 90% patient crossmatch.

The Act also authorized any cord blood deemed unsuitable for transplant to be donated for research. Bill sponsor, Rep. Chris Smith, noted, "Published studies have shown that cord blood stem cells have the capacity to change into other cell types, including nerve cells, heart cells and insulin-secreting cells."

In fact, a study less than two weeks old found cord blood stem cells successful in treating children with Type I Diabetes.

[Photo courtesy of Medical Journal of Australia. Retrieving cord blood is painless. It is drawn from the umbilical cord section still attached to the placenta after the cord is cut going to the baby.]

We decided to stay in DC a couple more days, so I'm posting the Weekend question early, since I now won't be back in the saddle until Monday.

According to ABC on July 3, "[t]he bill to make it a felony to kill a police dog sailed through the [North Carolina] legislature, and the bill to make it double murder to kill a pregnant mother is bottled up in a committee... [due to the] volatile debate over abortion."

Explained Democrat State Sen. A. B. Swindell, "All animals are parts of folk's family."

Swindell opposed the comparisons being made. "The police dog thing - I see that as something different as getting to debate on [the abortion] issue."

Intentional or not, Swindell made two assessments. First, he implied animals are family and preborn children are not. Second, he tied a Laci/Connor Peterson-type murder to abortion.

Do you agree or disagree on either/both points?

[Hat tip: Reader jasper]

As I mentioned on July 2, we are moving our daughter Daena to DC this week to begin a new job.

How great to coincidentally have the opportunity to celebrate the 4th of July in our nation's capital! We originally planned to watch the fireworks on the slope of the Washington Monument. But through a connection we ended up watching the fireworks from the South Lawn of the White House (!), while the President, Laura, Barbara, Bush I, twins Barbara and Jenna, Condi, Karl (all who we spotted), viewed them from the veranda. It was a memorable night.

See more pictures on page 2.

UPDATE, 11a: All photos are now up, including a very grainy one of President Bush.

I posted a month ago that our daughter Daena had graduated from college and was looking for a job in DC. (She majored in political science and French.) Well, she did get the job she was after, working for an undisclosed elected official. So we are moving her to DC this week, to an incredibly small apartment with incredibly high rent.

We're looking forward to watching the 4th of July fireworks from the slope of the Washington Monument in our nation's capital (!), and then Rich and I will return home Thursday.

So I won't be posting anything until Friday, although I'll be checking in.

I'm leaving comments open, and Bethany and Mary Kay (MK), the site moderators, are in charge. You can contact them at their email addresses in the right column, if you have any obnoxious comments (i.e., threatening, blasphemous, gutter) to report, etc.

Have a great 4th!

New poll

Please be sure to vote on this week's poll, in the right column. Then comment here on this post, not on the poll website. The question is:

On June 29, its legislature made New Hampshire the first state to repeal its law mandating that at least one parent be notified before his/her minor daughter aborts. Do you agree or disagree with this decision?

Old poll

Last week, 49 of you answered this question:

If the Supreme Court overturns its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, what will be the outcome?

The correct answer was...

(C) The states will be free to decide how/if to regulate abortion.

71.4% got that answer right! 12.2% answered (A) All abortions will be illegal; 9.2% answered (B) All abortions except to save the mother's life will be illegal; and 8.2% answered (D) I don't know.

What do you think the Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson and signed by 56 American leaders on July 4, 1776, means by the term, "created equal"?

In context, this rich statement reads:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.