It’s the largest celebration around the world each year. Other holidays get a single day, but Christmas is emphasized for an entire month, one twelfth of every year. During the Christmas season, billions of people set aside their normal routines to decorate their homes, send out greeting cards, buy gifts, go to Christmas parties, attend church services, sing Christmas songs, watch Christmas TV specials, and travel long distances to be with their families. Christmas sights and sounds fill the air everywhere….

If you stop to think about it, is is astounding that the simple, unassuming birth of a peasant boy born 2,000 years ago in the Middle East has caused such commotion – his birthday even causes traffic james today in places like New York City, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro.

You may have never realized that every time you check your calendar or refer to a date or write one down, you are using Jesus Christ as your reference point. Because of Jesus, history is divided into BC (before Christ) and AD (anno Domini, in the year of the Lord). Every other event in history and every event on your calendar today is dated by how many datys and years it has been since Jesus Christ appeared on earth.

Even your birthday is dated by his birthday.

~ Pastor Rick Warren, The Purpose of Christmas

[Photo of Christmas in Moscow’s Red Square via The Guardian]

by Hans Johnson

Nothing holds back  Duncan Lou Who,  a boxer puppy who lives at Panda Paws Rescue in the state of Washington.  Born with severely deformed back legs that had to be amputated at eight weeks, with regular physical and hydrotherapy he is able to keep up with his four-legged friends.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/6N0HpAU4i1c[/youtube]

You can read an  update here.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: The Blaze]

Next week, a number of celebrities will join in an effort organized by an independent group to boost enrollment on the online exchanges, said a person familiar with the plan, who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about it. An advertising blitz will begin in January after the holiday season has ended, said the person.

Scarlett Johansson, Aisha Tyler, and Gabrielle Union have recorded phone messages that Planned Parenthood is using to promote enrollment. Actresses Lena Dunham of “Girls” and Elizabeth Banks of “Hunger Games” posted Twitter messages to promote a Planned Parenthood Internet town hall this week on Obamacare.

In addition, Planned Parenthood, which provides health services to women, will “ramp up significantly” its efforts to promote enrollment in January, deploying hundreds of staff members with a goal of contacting a half-million people in Texas, Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, said Rachel Fleischer, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

~ Bloomberg, December 6

Even the Pope and Cardinal Dolan have been lauding South African leader Nelson Mandela following his death earlier this week of natural causes at age 95.

But I can’t.

Nelson Mandela has the blood of preborn children on his hands… lots of them. According to The Examiner on December 6:

Serving as the Republic of South Africa’s president from 1994-1999, Mandela not only signed the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1996, he was also one of the most ardent supporters of what the openly pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute calls “one of the most liberal abortion laws in the world.”

As cited, the law “allows abortion on demand up to the 20th week; after it and up to birth for ‘serious medical reasons’; and, as amended in 2004, allows registered nurses and midwives to perform abortions as well before the 12th week.”…

Since the legalization of abortion in the RSA, there has been 1 million legal abortions reported to the government, with the overwhelming number being that of racially black African unborn children as cited by Spero News on Jan. 31, 2012.

I cannot get past this and cannot view Mandela as any other than a leader who engaged in mass genocide of his own innocent people.

Others are noting additional blemishes on Mandela’s record, but even if he were an otherwise all-around hero, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to say a positive word to say about him other than, “I pray he repented.”

Am I wrong?

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• The Washington Times says stem cell research funding is turning toward adult (instead of embryonic) stem cells, even in traditionally liberal states:
  

  “Money talks,” said Gene Tarne, author of papers for the Charlotte Lozier Institute that find that the bulk of stem cell funding grants in California and Maryland are moving toward “ethical” research that doesn’t use human embryos.

  “The shift looks like a sea change from when state funding strongly favored research from embryonic stem cells over “adult” stem cells, which are taken from the placenta, umbilical cord and some mature tissues and do not kill human embryos.”…

  [A] Kansas stem cell research center that, by law, won’t use stem cells culled from human embryos also is taking off….

  The center… is “a visionary move” to “support science that can actually lead to a lot of new therapies and potentially change the face of medicine,” said Dr. Buddhadeb Dawn, director of the center, which is housed at the University of Kansas Medical Center….

  Excluding embryonic stem cell research is not an impediment, Dr. Dawn said. “Adult stem cells are the ones that have been shown to be effective for patient treatment,” he said.

• At National Review, Michael New discusses the significance of the new meta-analysis of 36 separate abortion/breast cancer link studies. The study “concluded that induced abortion raises the risk of breast cancer by 44 percent. Each of the 36 studies showed a positive correlation between abortion and breast cancer.” Despite the academic credentials and the findings, the mainstream media is showing a “circle the wagons” mentality in lock step with the abortion industry, as usual.
• Pro-Life Action League promotes the “Empty Manger Christmas Caroling” event, to be held outside abortion facilities. Some cities are already posting their events and schedules. PLAL gives you all the resources necessary to host your own event.
• At Life Training Institute, Dr. Rich Poupard discusses Michigan’s heavy restrictions and regulations on a surgical procedure for minors: requiring parental consent, admitting privileges for doctors, and informed consent of patients…. But is he is talking about abortion?
  

  If you haven’t figured it out, I’m not talking about abortion access. I’m talking about access to routine third molar surgery. These “restrictions” that I mention are dealt with every single day by my own patients, in the office where I practice. Yet the same type of standards, when applied to those adolescents seeking abortion care, are seen as some horrific barrier to care.

• ProLife NZ shares a post from The Leading Edge regarding a New Zealand couple who was awarded compensation for personal injury – because they didn’t have the opportunity to abort their daughter, who has spina bifida, and whom they claim to love:
  

  It now sets a legal precedent which declares that being denied the opportunity to kill an innocent human being before birth is an act which causes injury to the persons who would have procured the killing if they had been afforded the opportunity to do so. I wonder how long it will be before someone tries to test this new ruling to see if it applies to the killing of persons without disabilities prior to birth as well – or is it just those with spina bifida and Down syndrome who come in for such prejudicial rulings in the Brave New Zealand?

• Pro-Life Wisconsin reports that state Democrats are going for broke in introducing a bill to ban all restrictions on abortion. PLW also explains their stance that anything less than a Personhood amendment is making peace with the abortion industry.
• Secular Pro-Life showcases the pro-life documentary, 40, which will have its world premiere on Wednesday, December 11th. Watch the trailer:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/0djVEGv4s00[/youtube]

by Kelli

The CDC Abortion Surveillance Report dated November 29, 2013 reveals that in 2010, 56.7% of abortions reported to the CDC nationwide were done on Hispanic and Black women….

According to the CDC Abortion Surveillance Report there were 415,479 abortions for known ethnicity reported for selected states in 2010. 153,045 (or 36.8 percent) were non-Hispanic white babies, 148,261 (or 35.7 percent) were non-Hispanic black babies, 87,240 (or 21.0 percent) were Hispanic babies, and 26,933 (or 6.5 percent) were babies of other races or ethnicities….

The report reveals that a majority of Black or Hispanic babies were aborted in New Jersey (55.9 percent), the District of Columbia (64.8 percent) and Georgia (73.2 percent).

~ The Global Dispatch, December 5

The press release post also headlines: “81.9 percent of babies aborted in New York City, 63.7 percent in Texas were Black or Hispanic.”

More here.

by Hans Johnson

In Britain there has been a growing uproar about the overreaching and secretive nature of Family Justice. One case making the headlines is that of a pregnant Italian woman who came to the country on a business trip in July of last year. The 35-year-old woman, who is bi-polar, had a panic attack in an airport hotel. She called police and was confined under the Mental Health Act.

Then Justice Mostyn in the Court of Protection issued an order “for the birth to be enforced by way of caesarean section.” The baby girl was born in August and was placed in state care.

Over the pleas to take the baby back to Italy, an adoption by a British couple is almost complete, despite findings in court last February that the mother has recovered.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/A30QhjR093Q[/youtube]

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: The Blaze]

by JivinJ, host of the blog, JivinJehoshaphat

• Jorge Martin-Santana, a medical assistant at a Sacramento Planned Parenthood, has been charged with sexual battery for allegedly touching a patient inappropriately in October.
• A Washington city may pull a grant from a family resource center which provides information directing women to abortion-referring clinics.
• Notorious abortionist Steven Brigham is back in the news after New Jersey prosecutors revealed that Brigham lied under oath about whether he had malpractice insurance.:
  

  Now, as Brigham, 57, tries to regain his license, New Jersey prosecutors have submitted evidence that his sworn statement was yet another lie. They allege that not only did he stop carrying required liability insurance around 2006, but last month produced a phony insurance policy when forced to back up the statement.

  The Bermuda-based company that purportedly issued his policy was itself a sham. It has not issued policies since 2006, when the company operator went to jail for insurance fraud and money laundering, according to legal papers filed Nov. 27 by New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Jeri L. Warhaftig.

  “Brigham also produced a fraudulent receipt for payment for a policy issued by” the sham company, Warhaftig wrote.

• ABC covered Rep. Chris Smith’s (pictured left) announcement that the vast majority of health plans offered to Congress and their staffers include abortion coverage:
  

  The disclosure Wednesday by abortion opponent Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., also highlights an emerging issue nationally: It may be hard for individual consumers to determine whether abortion is a covered benefit in plans offered through the new online insurance markets.

  For government insiders, there’s another twist: Lawmakers and their staffs now appear to be the only federal employees with access to abortion coverage through their government-supported health insurance plans.

  Smith said only nine of the 112 insurance plans offered to members of Congress and their staffs through the Washington, D.C., insurance market exclude abortion as a covered benefit.

[Photo via catholicfire.blogspot.com]