Oregon’s Suicidal Approach to Health Care

American Thinker | Rita L. Marker | Sept. 14, 2008

Oregon seems to have found a surefire way to lower health care costs: Tell the patient you’ll pay for drugs that will end her life, but not those that would extend her life. Here’s how it works:

In May 2008, 64-year-old retired school bus driver Barbara Wagner received bad news from her doctor. She found out that her cancer, which had been in remission for two years, had returned. Then, she got some good news. Her doctor gave her a prescription that would likely slow the cancer’s growth and extend her life. She was relieved by the news and also by the fact that she had health care coverage through the Oregon Health Plan. It didn’t take long for her hopes to be dashed. [Read more…]

Feminist Admits “Abortion is Murder” but “I Am a Firm Supporter”

LifeSiteNews.com | Tim Waggoner | Sept. 12, 2008

In an article focusing on newly appointed vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, prominent feminist Camille Paglia admits that, much like Gov. Palin, she also believes abortion involves the murder of an innocent life – but unlike Palin, Paglia says she is a “firm supporter” of abortion.

Paglia’s piece, which appears on Salon.com, is the latest indication that “utilitarian” philosophies that no longer recognize the “right to life” as being the most foundational human right are gaining ground in some liberal circles. Under these philosophies even murder can be advocated as long as it protects what is deemed to be an even more important “right” – in Paglia’s case the sacrosanct “right to abortion.” [Read more…]

Palin and the Left’s Comprehension Gap

American Thinker | Dave Smithee | Sept. 11, 2008

It’s always been true, but as the Palin mayhem demonstrates more extravagantly then ever, the left and their media allies possess a dangerous, childish ignorance of their conservative opposition. It manifests itself in their snide assessments of her as a white trash anti-woman, and in their hysterical bleating about her pregnant daughter, which was met with the sound of crickets and an indifferent ‘So?’ by the evangelicals that the news was apparently crafted to outrage. Yet that didn’t stop them from trying as they frantically waved around the lifeless non-story, making it dance like a desperate puppeteer putting on a show for an alien species it had no understanding of.

Behind closed doors at MSNBC, there might have been puzzlement as to why nobody had, as yet, tried to stone Bristol Palin. “But that’s what they do, isn’t it? When they’re not threatening gays?” Or take Sally Quinn’s recent comments on Palin. She’s fuzzy on the matter; but is pretty sure evangelicals are against women having jobs outside the home. [Read more…]

Obama Did Vote to Teach Sex Ed to Kindergartners

Amy Proctor | Amy Proctor | Sept. 14, 2008

You’ve probably seen John McCain’s You Tube ad saying Barack Obama’s only legislative accomplishment on education was voting yea on teaching kindergarteners sex education. The Obama campaign refutes the ad. They say the legislation taught kindergartners how to discern sexual predators.

Not true. The McCain ad is right. Obama voted in the Illinois Senate to pass a bill for comphrensive sex education for grades K-12. [Read more…]

Science slows global warming!

American Thinker | James Lewis | Sept. 7, 2008

Yes, kids, science is a wonderful thing. But not nearly as wonderful as climate modeling, which can perform supernatural miracles. Honest! Climate modeling can raise the level of the oceans (even without Obama’s intervention), it can burn up the planet a hundred years from now, and Shazzam! — the models can save us again — all without leaving your video games, and without the benefit of the real-world data that you need for boring old regular science.

At least, that’s what Nature — the oldest science journal in the world, going back to Isaac Newton — now claims. [Read more…]

Humans Have Astonishing Memories, Study Finds

Biology or secular-athiestic science simply cannot explain how such enormous amounts of information and data can be stored and knowledge can be retained and continually increased in a finite number of neurons. One word, miraculous!

LiveScience.com | Clara Moskowitz | Sept. 8, 2008

If human memory were truly digital, it would have just received an upgrade from something like the capacity of a floppy disk to that of a flash drive. A new study found the brain can remember a lot more than previously believed.

In a recent experiment, people who viewed pictures of thousands of objects over five hours were able to remember astonishing details afterward about most of the objects. [Read more…]

Obama “my Muslim faith”

Townhall Blog | reasonmclucus | Sept. 10, 2008

Republicans have jumped all over Barack Obama’s statement in a George Stephanopoulos on “This Week,” on ABC on September 7. “Let’s not play games,” he said. “What I was suggesting — you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith.”

The Main Stream Media have largely ignored the statement because members of the MSM believe it is there job as Good Democrats to make Barack Obama look good. [Read more…]

How Obama lost the election

Asia Times | Spengler | September 3, 2008

DENVER – Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last week seemed vastly different from the stands of this city’s Invesco Stadium than it did to the 40 million who saw it on television. Melancholy hung like thick smog over the reserved seats where I sat with Democratic Party staffers. The crowd, of course, cheered mechanically at the tag lines, flourished placards, and even rose for the obligatory wave around the stadium. But its mood was sour. The air carried the acrid smell of defeat, and the crowd took shallow breaths. Even the appearance of R&B great Stevie Wonder failed to get the blood pumping.

The speech itself dragged on for three-quarters of an hour. As David S Broder wrote in the Washington Post: “[Obama’s] recital of a long list of domestic promises could have been delivered by any Democratic nominee from Walter Mondale to John Kerry. There was no theme music to the speech and really no phrase or sentence that is likely to linger in the memory of any listener. The thing I never expected did in fact occur: Al Gore, the famously wooden former vice president, gave a more lively and convincing speech than Obama did.” [Read more…]

Rejoice O Bride Unwedded

This is one of my favorite hymns in the Orthodox (Byzantine) tradition. The first is sung in the original Greek, the second is the English translation. The hymn was authored by St. Nectarios of Aegina early in the last century. Also, the term Theotokos means “bearer of God” or “the One who bore God” in Greek. It is the name of the Virgin Mary and functions as a Christological statement, that is, it affirms the child born of Mary is God. This was decided at the Council of Ephesus in 431.