The intricate history of the studio system’s production of stars is filled with manipulation, cover-ups, excised histories, and a gossip press willing to overlook it all as it behooves its own interests…. 

If and when the stars did misbehave, each studio employed “fixers” to cover up the evidence (which included bribing cops, paying off mistresses, and arranging for abortions).

~ Anne Helen Petersen, “The down and dirty history of TMZ,” Buzz Feed, July 24

[Photo is of actress Myrna Loy, who later admitted to an abortion in her autobiography, High Times, Hard Times]

by Kelli

• Saynsumthn’s Blog discusses Alliance Defending Freedom’s newest annual report to Congress “that identifies waste, abuse, and potential fraud by Planned Parenthood, state family planning programs, and other organizations”:
  

  The report details the 44 known audits or other reviews of Planned Parenthood affiliates’ financial data and practices, as well as 51 known audits of state family planning programs and three known audits of family planning organizations that found overbilling. The audits for fiscal year 2013 found a total of more than $115 million in waste, abuse, and potential fraud in federal and state family planning funding programs, the lion’s share of which goes to Planned Parenthood. Approximately $14.4 billion of federal Medicaid expenditures were improper payments, according to government sources.

  The report also identifies 10 types of waste, abuse, and potential fraud Planned Parenthood affiliates have been found to be committing or have been credibly accused of nationwide.

• At Live Action, Ingrid Heimark spells out the reasoning behind the real “war on women” being waged by pro-abortion, population control-advocating eugenicists.

• At the Pro-Life Action League, Matt Yonke reports on the 15th annual Face the Truth Tour, which began this year on July 11 near Joliet, Illinois. He details many events, but one that occurred in downtown Chicago shows the contrast between the motivations of pro-lifers and pro-choicers:
  

  Pro-abortion counter-protesters came out for the second two sites of the day, though they numbered only a handful. Holding crudely constructed homemade signs, they attempted to cover up our pictures of abortion victims, though their scant numbers made it impossible for them to silence our message.

  At Monday’s final site outside Union Station, a woman stopped in tears before one of our abortion signs. She was visibly pregnant and sidewalk counselor Cathy Mieding encouraged her to speak with League Vice President Ann Scheidler [pictured left with the woman]. It came to light that this was the woman’s fourth baby and her husband, and unreliable man to begin with, was angry about the pregnancy.

  Ann let the woman tell her story and connected her with assistance from The Women’s Center, a local pregnancy resource center. It was clear that even the opportunity to talk was a great help to her, and the services and support she would receive at the Women’s Center would be an even greater boon.

  Ironically, the pro-choice counter-protesters had no interest in helping this woman. In fact, they didn’t even notice her as they danced about waving their signs and distributing free condoms. Instead it was pro-lifers — who are supposedly waging a “war on women” — who were there to offer a listening ear and offer help to this woman in crisis.

• Pro-Life NZ examines possible reasons behind multiple polling results showing that men are more in favor of abortion than women:
  

  The difference between men’s and women’s attitudes may simply be that women are more sensitive to the fact that pregnancy involves carrying a living baby and therefore is to be treated differently to tooth extraction!But I also wonder if women are more supportive than men of doctors being involved in the decision, or of limits being tightened, because it is a way of sharing the decision-making burden, or a way of taking the decision out of their hands completely. And perhaps men are more supportive of unrestrictive abortion because it absolves them of their responsibilities?

  Readers may well disagree with my analysis. However the fact, surprising though it first seems, that more women want more restrictions to abortion than men requires explanation. Furthermore fundamentalist feminist claims that calls to reduce abortion time limits are an all-out war on women surely now need some re-thinking.

• At The Leading Edge, Brendan Malone shares the newest episode of The Pro-Life Guy in which he addresses “the most important question in the abortion debate”:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/AASBGHuQdcE[/youtube]

by Kelli

A new HBO documentary examines South Korea’s gaming culture in light of a couple who starved their child due to a gaming addiction. From People.com:

Plenty has been made of South Korea’s fixation with online culture, most visible in the marathon sessions of games like Starcraft.

But a new HBO documentary is focusing on a different aspect of the country’s gaming culture: The death of one couple’s 3-month-old baby from malnutrition in 2009 while they played an online game in six-to-12-hour binges.

The horrible irony of the story? The game they were playing involved caring for a virtual child.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/lF9vd31drIc[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: LauraLoo]

This week 300 members of the groups Operation Save America and Abolish Human Abortion have descended on New Orleans for OSA’s annual gathering and to remind the pro-abortion world, “No justice, no peace.”

Holding prayer meetings by night and prayer vigils by day, the pro-life/abolitionist activists have been busy – protesting two abortion clinics, a Planned Parenthood construction site, the homes of two abortionists (Mary Gardner and Roshanda Dean), the day care business of an abortion clinic manager (yes, you read that right), a pro-abortion church, and more. I can’t keep up. They also held a wake for an aborted baby.

The abortion crowd has responded by sending “[h]undreds of residents, students, and pro-choice volunteers…  to support doctors, clinics, and patients,” according to Ms. Magazine.

So if you follow the news, you know the home of the Mardi Gras has been a different kind of wild this week.

In the midst of the mayhem there has been at least one moment of comedic relief, when New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu issued a Certificate of Recognition to OSA leader Rev. Flip Benham for “Outstanding service to the City of New Orleans, which he later said was given “in error” and rescinded.

A Los Angeles Times writer is asking, “Where’s the outrage?” among conservatives after OSA/AHA disrupted the Sunday church service of New Orleans’ United Universalist Church, a denomination she admits is “among the most liberal of organized religions,” i.e., radically and inexplicably pro-abortion.

The church’s pastor accused pro-life activists of “terroriz[ing] children,” even as she and her church support tearing them limb from limb. You won’t get any condemnation from me for holding their blasphemous feet to the fire while there’s still time to repent.

Pro-lifers spotlighted another disgusting contradiction when they held a protest yesterday at Brown Bear Child Care Center, owned by Javonne Turner, who runs Delta Abortion Clinic on the side, believe it or not. Parents need to know their children are being watched by a child killer…

Also at this particular OSA gathering, Flip Benham handed over the reigns of leadership to Rusty Thomas. I’ll forever be indebted to these  two stalwarts for holding a prayer vigil in front of Christ Hospital when news broke it was committing live birth abortions. I pray for more of their boldness.

For an example of pro-abortion revulsion at this week’s OSA/AHA activities in New Orleans, watch MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s shocked and appalled segment from last night.

[Top photo via nola.com, photo of Fr. Frank Pavone blessing a victim of abortion via OSA; photo of certificate via Cal Zastrow on Facebook; photo of abolitionists in front of Unitarian Universalist Church via AHA on Facebook; poster of Javonne Turner via Leslie Hanks on Facebook; photo of protest at Brown Bear Child Care via thecreole.com]

by Carder

The duo creates homemade signs that have literally nothing to do with abortion, instead the posters are meant to deride the pro-lifers’ mission with senseless signs like “I Like Turtles,” “Jesus Slays” or “Honk if You’re Horny.”

… In one blog post, the pro-choice wife is pictured holding a sign that reads “Bring Back Crystal Pepsi,” as a cluster of pro-lifers stand behind her ostensibly praying. Under the picture, the bloggers posted a snarky comment saying that angering the pro-life protesters was a “Victory.”

~ The Daily Caller describing the antics of a pro-abortion couple mocking pro-life protests via their Tumblr account, July 23

Pro-lifers learned by accident this past March what Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando had been trying to keep secret until it was ready to open two months later, that it had purchased a clinic suite in the middle of a large medical complex in Kissimmee, just 20 minutes from Disney World.

Planned Parenthood intended to commit abortions at its new Kissimmee clinic, which it purchased for $1.4 million in 2013, despite the fact that deed restrictions prohibit surgical procedures from being performed without permission from other owners.

Pro-lifers and surrounding business owners quickly took action, planning protests (photo above) and filing a lawsuit.

Yesterday Circuit Court Judge John E. Jordan granted an injunction that blocks Planned Parenthood from committing abortions. This morning pro-life Dr. John Littell, who has been intimately involved with blocking Planned Parenthood in Kissimmee, told me this has the effect of a permanent injunction unless Planned Parenthood appeals. In other words, it is what it is. I love the first line from this mynews13.com article, emphasis mine:

Planned Parenthood’s CEO tried to argue that surgical abortions are not “surgical” procedures because they do not involve incisions.

The judge ruled Planned Parenthood should have tried to remove the deed restriction before buying the property.

“PLANNED purchased the PLANNED property with knowledge of the restrictions and proceeded at its own peril.”

Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando’s CEO would be Jenna Tosh, pictured right, whose brother-in-law is pro-abortion comedian Daniel Tosh, and who, as an aside, prompted an ongoing lawsuit in Winter Park, Florida, in 2012 when she complained to city officials about a pro-life protest at her home, and they passed an ordinance blocking such protests. Pro-lifers say this was unconstitutional and believe their case has been bolstered by the Supreme Court’s recent buffer zone decision. Abortion always brings chaos and upheaval to a community.

Planned Parenthood Kissimmee had planned to start committing abortions next month. If Planned Parenthood is permanently blocked from committing abortions, its claim that “abortions make up less than 10 percent* of the health services they provide” will be put to the test.

If that’s true, the clinic should have no problem remaining open. So why then did ClickOrlando.com report, “If Planned Parenthood can’t do abortions, they may not be able to stay open”?

One more point: At least one news article erroneously stated the injunction also blocks Planned Parenthood from performing mammograms, something it does not do. It only refers.

*UPDATE 7/24, 8:45a: I have received a copy of the temporary injunction, a great read. In it Jenna Tosh claims abortions at the Kissimmee facility would actually amount to “less than 1% of PLANNED’s services.” To that end, while Planned Parenthood requested a bond of $720,000 in lost revenue should Planned Parenthood ultimately prevail in this case, the judge set the bond at $24,000, since, he said, Planned Parenthood shouldn’t expect that much lost revenue if indeed abortion accounts for less than 1% of its services. Ha!

UPDATE 7/25, 9:45a: And here here is Jenna Tosh’s affidavit, wherein she claims abortion accounts for “less than 1%” of Planned Parenthood’s services within her affiliate.

[Top photo of pro-life protest at Kissimmee Planned Parenthood’s grand opening in May via Shark-Tank.com]

by Kelli

Abortion is a normal thing that women do, and we should stop asking women to sit in silence when the topic comes up….

Let’s get to the point where telling abortion stories at a party is just as common as telling birth stories. As long as we stay silent, it’s a right that can be taken away from us.

~ Sarah Grey, discussing her abortion and its effect on her, SocialistWorker.org, July 23

by Hans Johnson

A video showing a two-year-old boy learning to use his prosthetic legs for the first time was uploaded on YouTube on the Fourth of July. His heartwarming declaration of “I got it!” made the video immediately go viral. But Kayden’s inspiration might not have been here at all, had his parents succumbed to doctors’ pressure to abort him. His mother, Nikki, writes:

Kayden Elijah Kinckle was born on June 3, 2012, with an Omphalocele (where some organs remain outside the body) and Amniotic Band Syndrome (where string-like bands are wrapped around the legs and feet while in the womb). These complications led to some deformity with his legs and feet. As a result, Kayden had two abdominal surgeries immediately after birth, and most recently he underwent a double-amputation of his right foot and left leg.

A book suggestion for the family, interviewed here on Fox & Friends, would be The Little Engine That Could:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/f2ovz-Ldyto[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: Susie Allen]