feminine-genius

Imagine that!

LifeSiteNews provides a very interesting nugget about women in Europe:

PARIS, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The use of the contraceptive pill is plummeting among younger women, in response to growing awareness of its destructive health effects, reports a French bioethics site. According to the site "Genetique," the use of "the pill" among women aged 15 to 24 years old dropped from 43% in 2003 to 26% in 2007.   The rate of childbirth among the same group increased at the same time.

"The principal reason for this decrease is the attention paid by women to their health," says Genetique. "It is now proven that the pill suppresses libido and causes weight gain.  The fear of cancer and sterility are equally responsible." According to numerous studies on the effects of the contraceptive pill, its use is also linked to increased risk of heart disease, hypertension, and stroke.

Related LifeSiteNews coverage:

New Study Shows Contraceptive Pill Increases Risk of Heart Disease, Stroke
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/may/08050713.html

Massive Study Finds the Pill Significantly Increases Cancer Risk if Used more than Eight Years
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/sep/07091306.html

Birth Control Pill Linked to Hardening of the Arteries
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/apr/08040807.html

[I don't know why the site implies that the women in the study are Swiss, but evidently they have more information about the French group, Genetique. Regardless, fewer women on the pill is a good thing, even if their motivation is not for the best of reasons. The physical world does indeed bear the imprint of sin, and it manifests it in wide and diverse ways.]

Phyllis' ashes

Tuesday night, upon finishing a talk at UC Berkeley our valiant sister, Phyllis Schlafly slipped while leaving the podium, breaking her hip. Her Ash Wednesday began with surgery. Kindly keep this brave soul in your prayers.

A true friend...

... tells you the truth when it's necessary, no matter how painful it may be. Here is an example. The scenario she relates is emblematic of everything that is wrong with the sexual "revolution." It's a scam masquerading as fun that ends up hurting everyone -- even the father-bully who rages for blood.

Please keep that dear child in your prayers -- and the precious unborn around this spinning world, so that they may embrace their mothers and fathers in joy one day.

Turn and be saved

Let us fix our attention on the blood of Christ and recognise how precious it is to God his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world.

  If we review the various ages of history, we will see that in every generation the Lord has offered the opportunity of repentance to any who were willing to turn to him. When Noah preached God’s message of repentance, all who listened to him were saved. Jonah told the Ninevites they were going to be destroyed, but when they repented, their prayers gained God’s forgiveness for their sins, and they were saved, even though they were not of God’s people.

  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the ministers of God’s grace have spoken of repentance; indeed, the Master of the whole universe himself spoke of repentance with an oath: As I live, says the Lord, I do not wish the death of the sinner but his repentance. He added this evidence of his goodness: House of Israel, repent of your wickedness. Tell the sons of my people: If their sins should reach from earth to heaven, if they are brighter than scarlet and blacker than sackcloth, you need only turn to me with your whole heart and say, “Father,” and I will listen to you as a holy people.

  In other words, God wanted all his beloved ones to have the opportunity to repent and he confirmed this desire by his own almighty will. That is why we should obey his sovereign and glorious will and prayerfully entreat his mercy and kindness. We should be suppliant before him and turn to his compassion, rejecting empty works and quarrelling and jealousy which only lead to death.

  Brothers, we should be humble in mind, putting aside all arrogance, pride and foolish anger. Rather, we should act in accordance with the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit says: The wise man must not glory in his wisdom nor the strong man in his strength nor the rich man in his riches. Rather, let him who glories glory in the Lord by seeking him and doing what is right and just. Recall especially what the Lord Jesus said when he taught gentleness and forbearance. Be merciful, he said, so that you may have mercy shown to you. Forgive, so that you may be forgiven. As you treat others, so you will be treated. As you give, so you will receive. As you judge, so you will be judged. As you are kind to others, so you will be treated kindly. The measure of your giving will be the measure of your receiving.

  Let these commandments and precepts strengthen us to live in humble obedience to his sacred words. As Scripture asks: Whom shall I look upon with favour except the humble, peaceful man who trembles at my words?

  Sharing then in the heritage of so many vast and glorious achievements, let us hasten toward the goal of peace, set before us from the beginning. Let us keep our eyes firmly fixed on the Father and Creator of the whole universe, and hold fast to his splendid and transcendent gifts of peace and all his blessings (Saint Clement, Office of Readings for Ash Wednesday).

Need help pulling the plug?

Remember Our Gang? Lil' Rascals, Spanky, Buckwheat, etc.? I found them fascinating, simply because there were few films that revealed the authentic situation of that very early stage of the 20th century. It showed attempts at refinement, complete with smudges, baggy sox and the omnipresent grime of the depression.

One poor dear, Shirley Jean Rickert was there on the set, enjoying herself but losing her innocence in the process.

"We were just kids playing together. We had fun and enjoyed ourselves", she remembered. "It didn't seem like work. The mothers, on the other hand, were awful. Vile women who craved the adoration and the pay cheques far more than their offspring ever did. Stardom was my mother's dream. It was never mine. I can remember at 20th Century Fox Shirley Temple's mother in particular standing just out of shot tempting the curly-haired cutie with a bar of candy: 'Sparkle, Shirley, sparkle and the candy is yours!'"

Her own over-zealous mother was so sure that Shirley could survive without a contract that she set the youngster out on her own, only to spiral downwards into bit parts and near oblivion. She stumbled from one engagement to another and her personal life was a mess.

Hollywood scandal magazines linked her romantically to a bevy of unmarried male heart-throbs, including Scott Marlowe, Anthony Perkins, Montgomery Clift and Tab Hunter. Away from Hollywood, she became a burlesque dancer in an act called Gilda and Her Crowning Glory, appearing in New York and Las Vegas, and performing alongside Tempest Storm, Jean Carroll and Jane Briggerman in theatres and night clubs. She later toured Canada.

Recently she wrote on her website, in response to a fan from Detroit: "Detroit was one of the towns where I would appear on a kiddie TV show on Saturday morning as Shirley Jean of the Our Gang/Little Rascals and disrobe on stage at night for the little kiddies' parents. Fame's a weird thing!"

From child star to stripper, how depressing. If that doesn't help you flip off the tube for the coming six weeks, what will?

What price freedom?

Hillary of the Sisterhood just forsook reproductive choice, national sovereignty and religious freedom for the sake of foreign investment:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the debate with China over human rights, Taiwan and Tibet should not be allowed to interfere with attempts to reach consensus on other, broader issues.

Shortly before arriving in Beijing on the last leg of her inaugural trip abroad as America's top diplomat, Clinton said that she would raise those contentious issues, but noted that neither side was likely to give ground on them.

Instead, she said, it might be better to agree to disagree on longstanding positions and focus instead on American-Chinese engagement on climate change, the global financial crisis and security threats.

So carbon footprints are priorities over the trampling of Tibetans, and reducing greenhouse gases is achieved by reducing the unborn to lumps of cold flesh -- even against their mothers' "choice." 

Interestingly, Mrs. Clinton said that no one need give voice to the human rights issues because our firm stance is already foundational to our presence at the negotiating table. I didn't notice that China changed one iota with the "world's lens" on them during the Olympics.

More and more stories from China trickle out, shocking even those who might not consider themselves "pro-life."

Zhang Linla, who has a four-year-old daughter, told a website in Shenzhen, on the border with Hong Kong, that she was subjected to a late forced abortion because she became pregnant again before the period officially allowed between births. "Six days before the due date, 10 strong strangers came to my house, forced me into a truck then took me to a family planning clinic, where the doctor gave me an injection," she said. "The child began struggling in my womb and one of these scum even kicked me in the abdomen. Then the baby came out and they threw it into a rubbish bin. I could even see it was still moving."

An even more horrifying story, reported on hundreds of websites, concerned a case of infanticide in Wuhan, central China, last September. A farmer named Huang Qiusheng said his wife, who was nine months pregnant, gave birth to a live child despite being forced to submit to an injection to induce an abortion. The infant was thrown into a urinal. The next day an elderly woman named Liu Zhuyu heard the child's cries, rescued it, washed it and delivered it to a neonatal clinic. But the reports claim that five family planning officials confronted Liu, seized the child and killed it by throwing it to the ground.

The complexity of family planning laws and their arbitrary enforcement often contributes to cases of cruelty. This month a newspaper in Yunnan province reported a case of compulsory sterilisation that has appalled commentators. It involved a woman named Zhang Kecui, who was ambushed in the street by family planning officials and dragged on to the operating table for a sterilisation. Zhang has two children and according to regulations should have been sterilised after the second birth. Her husband has lodged a legal complaint but has little hope of redress.

Sociologists and doctors are beginning to question the long-term effects of the birth-control policy. "As a woman, I believe that coercing a woman who is eight months pregnant to have an abortion is inhuman," a family planning official, who asked not to be named, told The Sunday Times.

But although such stories exist and can be verified (imagine each of the above multiplied enough times to account for the 300 million births "prevented") they mean nothing in terms of the economic relationship between China and the West, which prioritises trade and investment over human life itself.

"That doesn't mean that questions of Taiwan, Tibet, human rights, the whole range of challenges that we often engage on with the Chinese, are not part of the agenda," she said. "But we pretty much know what they're going to say."

Right. Why nag your child to clean his room when he'll only say no. Just hand over the keys to the car regardless and find peace in knowing that you cannot see eye-to-eye on discipline.

Meanwhile, look at the smiles of the women who have survived both the one-child policy and sex-selection abortions. These gals have clearly beat the odds!

The feminine genius lives!

How delighted I am with my fellow Canadian, 12-year-old "Lia." And yet her compelling presentation was disqualified -- simply for its topic. For shame.

Details here.

Novena for Benedict

From 14-22 February, 2009

One Our Father, Three Hail Mary's, Glory Be.

V. Let us pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI:
R. May the Lord preserve him, give him long life, make him blessed upon the earth, and not hand him over to the power of his enemies.

V. You are Peter.
R. And upon this Rock I will build my Church.

Let us pray:
God our Father, Shepherd and Guide, look with love on your servant, Pope Benedict XVI, the pastor of your Church. Grant that his word and example may inspire and guide the Church, and that he, and all those entrusted to his care, may come to the joy of everlasting life. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.

Saint Peter, pray for us.

Select apology

Being no great football fan, I didn't mind being without a telly last night. Evidently, though, the Super Bowl had its share of raunch -- intended and unintended. Folks in Tucson, Arizona using a local Comcast station were subject to ten seconds of lurid feed from a pornographer who managed to sneak into the system.

The station said it had no explanation for what happened but was investigating the incident during the match between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"When the NBC feed of the Super Bowl was transmitted from KVOA to local cable providers and through over-the-air antennas, there was no pornographic material," KVOA president and General Manager Gary Nielsen said in a statement.

The KVOA statement said the station was dismayed and disappointed that some Comcast customers and their families were subjected to the material.

At that point, all that's left is an apology since one cannot roll back the hands of time. But what about the rest of the viewers nationwide and around the world? Will they get an apology? Anthony Esolen describes the raunch included in the commercials:

In one, a young stubble-chinned guy munches on a chip, and presto! a slinky young lady walking down the street is stripped to her black underwear. Then, presto! bills start shooting out of an ATM machine, and everybody in the street swarms around for the money, in a regular riot. A policeman steps in, but munch! his uniform falls empty to the street, and a little monkey emerges from it.  So, lust -- with the added zest of violent voyeurism  --, avarice, and dehumanization, to sell chips.

In another, a plain-looking female office worker is subjected to public humiliation.  "No one wants to see you naked," says her enemy, another female worker.  The last shot is of a badly shaved doofus (all men are badly shaved doofuses), standing over her, saying, "I want to see you naked."

Unfortunately, he has many more examples of mindless depravity -- for which no one receives an apology. You can't get those minutes back, folks. So much goodness on the field. Off the field? Not so much. I'll stick with Netflix and books on tape.

What about simplicity?

The "sustainable development commission" in England is about to make a proposal:

COUPLES who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned.

Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. He says political leaders and green campaigners should stop dodging the issue of environmental harm caused by an expanding population.

There are two important arguments against this. The first is that it's an effort to justify population control measures in third world countries where the families greatly value (and simply need) more children. Many still die of curable diseases and many hands are needed in labour-intensive economies. This is wrong and bad -- and it's racist. "Less from the unfit" (Sanger) is their motto behind closed doors.

Secondly, it ignores the fact that in developed countries, larger families consume less overall goods because of the economy and oblation necessary. Clothes are passed on or shared, extra-curriculars are minimised because of the family dynamic already present, each expenditure is shared (strollers, skates, cars, books, etc.) and these children simply learn to need less as they mimic the requisite generosity of the parents.

The premise about environmental costs assumes that each child will be outfitted and pampered to the nth degree. Larger families operate differently. Thus the outlay of a family with two children is usually far greater than one with six. (Now college is a different matter, but there are ways to cope with those ridiulous costs, which may even be rigged partially for this end.)

A report by the commission, to be published next month, will say that governments must reduce population growth through better family planning. Porritt, a former chairman of the Green party, says the government must improve family planning, even if it means shifting money from curing illness to increasing contraception and abortion.

Thus self-control is not even an option -- let the elderly and sick die, kill the children. These are very unpleasant people, wouldn't you say?

In the end, larger families will have more children to contribute their sane thoughts in the public square than those who limit their children. They will also bear the burden of supporting the aging population. If I had a choice in my nursing home, I'd love a cheerful nurse from a large family who has the people skills and abundant virtues learned in a large family. What are the odds...?