Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP (Tory) & RC

God judges….

And we all thought that it was SSM that caused things like this…….

 

by AnnaMerlan

Very Reasonable Politician: Abortion is Causing California’s Drought

California Assembly Member Shannon Grove is generating cascades of headlines over the last couple days for her very reasonable, well thought-out, scientific point of view that her state’s crippling drought is caused by abortion. She’s been defending that view to her constituents on Facebook, which, again — great plan.

Grove, who represents Kern County in central California, made the remarks last week at the California ProLife Legislative Banquet last week in Sacramento. They were first reported by RH Reality Check, and they are solid:

“Texas was in a long period of drought until Governor Perry signed the fetal pain bill,” she told the audience, presumably referring to HB 2, the omnibus Texas abortion bill that included a 20-week ban based on junk science. “It rained that night. Now God has His hold on California.”
That’s right — it rained in 2013, and then God, as Wonkette points out, just kinda ruminated on Texas’s standing with Him for another couple years, continuing the drought, until He turned it into some floods that killed 31 people there and in Oklahoma.

What’s interesting about this is that five months ago, Grove released a video in which she blamed the drought on the Environmental Protection Agency, saying they’re releasing fresh water into the ocean to try to save a small fish:

That’s a frequent talking point on Fox News, and you can find that claim as far back as a 2009 Wall Street Journal editorial; it’s not a widely accepted idea, but it is, at least, a little less controversial than saying it’s the smiting hand of the Lord Almight at work.

In her Facebook discourse yesterday, Grove backpedaled, sorta, while still making it crystal clear that yeah, she thinks God made this drought:

I believe —and most Americans believe —that God’s hand is in the affairs of man, and certainly was in the formation of this country. The Founders put God in the center of this nation by recognizing Him as a giver of our rights. Is this drought caused by God? Nobody knows. But biblical history shows a consequence to man’s actions; we do know for sure that Cal.ifornia’s water shortage crisis has been compounded by liberal politicians’ poor decisions – not properly managing our water resources and refusing to build water storage for decades.
Besides her fun views on God’s effect on your rain barrel, Grove is also against SB 277, which would make it harder for California parents to opt out of vaccinating their kids and then sending them to school to give everyone preventable diseases. She’s referring to it as the “forced vaccinations bill” and says it threatens religious freedom and personal choice.

Grove is scheduled to appear at a June 26 panel about how “poor policy decisions” made the drought worse. At least now we have a good sense of what she thinks that means.

Extremist!

Extremist religious groups block report on sexual and reproductive rights in European Parliament
December 10th, 2013
The Estrela Report on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights was blocked in the European Parliament today as a result of lobbying by extremist religious groups. The report, authored by Portuguese MEP Edite Estrela, recommends that people have access to sex education, contraception and safe abortion, but at each stage of the process socially conservative religious groups which oppose women’s rights have been campaigning against it. The British Humanist Association (BHA) is disappointed at the blocking of the report, and condemns the actions of the religious conservatives who have obstructed it.

As well as dealing with sex education, contraception and safe abortion, the report also takes gender-based violence (mostly against women) into account, and refers to the prevention and treatment of STIs, including HIV/AIDS. Socially conservative MEPs blocked the report at a plenary meeting on 22 October, after which it was sent back to the Women’s Rights Committee and amended. However, the report has been blocked again in today’s vote. After the vote today, Ms Estrela said that ‘hypocrisy has prevailed over the rights of women’. Throughout this process, MEPs have received more than 80,000 e-mails from extremist religious groups requesting them to reject the report, sometimes with personal threats.

Pavan Dhaliwal, BHA Head of Public Affairs and Vice-Chair of the European Humanist Federation (EHF) commented ‘This is a disgusting attempt by extremist religious groups to deny people their sexual and reproductive rights, and it is tragic that the rejection of the report has taken place on Human Rights Day. The report’s obstruction has been achieved as a result of frantic lobbying by socially conservative religious groups who oppose women’s rights and gay rights, as well as the right of everyone to access decent sex education and sexual health services. These extremist religious groups are trying to hold back decades of progress on sexual and reproductive rights, and represent only a tiny proportion of EU citizens. They should recognise that they are fighting a losing battle.’

Notes

For further comment or information contact Pavan Dhaliwal, Head of Public Affairs at pavan@humanism.org.uk or on 0773 843 5059.

Heroes and/or Villains 2

By Andy Kossak, Mon, November 11, 2013

A group posted on the Abolish Human Abortion Facebook page urging them to take women to places other than abortion clinics by pretending to be involved with an anonymous community organization that provides abortion services to women.

International Business Times reports that the group known as “Praying for you” posted on the Abolish Human Abortion Facebook page urging them to kidnap women by pretending to be involved with Cicada Collective.

Praying for you advised supporters of Abolish Human to pretend to volunteer for Cicada Collective as drivers and gave a contact email address to use.

According to the post, the Collective was looking for volunteers to “shuttle TX women around for their abortion appointments” and called for anti-choice campaigners to apply, undercover, in a bid to lure the women away,reported news.com.au.

The post then recommends that the women by taken to a church to delay the abortion and ultimately change the pregnant woman’s mind.

“I’m not suggesting you actually takea (sic) woman to an abortion clinic,” it reads.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to minister to an abortion minded woman for an hour while you DON’T take her to the clinic. And hey if you can’t change her mind by the time she gets out of your car and realizes she is at church and not the clinic she’s missed her appointment anyway.”

After Cicada Collective was made aware of the post, it warned women about the potential threat.

“Anti-choicers attempting to infiltrate was bound to happen at some point right? Here is a concerning message we got this morning. Other groups out there wanting to provide practical support to people seeking abortion care in Texas, please be careful.”

Abolish Human Abortion strongly denied having any involvement with the group recommending the kidnapping and said it had been written by pro-choice campaigners in an attempt to “slander” the group.

Texas is one of the strictest states in the U.S. for its laws on abortion. Earlier this month, a federal court allowed new abortion restrictions that require doctors performing abortions to have privileges to admit patients to nearby hospitals. It also limits the use of abortion-inducing drugs

Timothy Cardinal Dolan

Timothy Cardinal Dolan says he’s ready for gay marriage battles

In an interview with ‘Meet the Press,’ the cardinal said the Catholic Church had been ‘caricatured as being anti-gay.’ He also said the church was not going to give up fighting to stop the ‘stampede’ to legalize same-sex marriage.

By Simone Weichselbaum AND Erin Durkin / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, December 2, 2013

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NBC News

Cardinal Timothy Dolan appeared Sunday on ‘Meet the Press,’ addressing his position — and Catholic Church’s — on gay marriage.

Timothy Cardinal Dolan brushed off criticism of his gay marriage stance Sunday — saying he’s ready for a long culture war just like the abortion battle.

“We get backlash from those who think we are too gracious, and compassionate, and loving, and accepting of gays,” Dolan said after celebrating Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

RELATED: TIMOTHY CARDINAL DOLAN: CHURCH ‘OUT-MARKETED’ OVER SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

“And then we get backlash from gay people who feel that we are not tolerant enough of them.”

Alec Tabak for New York Daily News

Cardinal Timothy Dolan presides over Mass on Sunday at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In an interview with “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Dolan said the Catholic Church had been “caricatured as being anti-gay.”

He also said the church was not going to give up fighting to stop the “stampede” to legalize same-sex marriage.

“When Roe v. Wade came through in 1973, everybody said, ‘This is settled, no use in fighting it anymore, it’s over with, the government has decided.’ And we say, ‘Oh, no, no. This isn’t going to go away,’” he said. “Of course, now the abortion debate is more vigorous than ever.”

 

 

2 Tough Questions

TWO TOUGH QUESTIONS
Question 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids
already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally
retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?

Read the next question before looking at the answer for this one.

Question 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote
counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates.

Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.
He’s had two Mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10
martinis a day.

Candidate B He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used
opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C He is a decorated war hero. He’s a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an
occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first, no peeking,
then scroll down for the answer.

————————————————————————-

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.

And, by the way, the answer to the abortion question: If you said yes,
you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn’t it? Makes a person think before judging
someone.

The Truth
The eRumor has some factual problems.

As far as we can tell from researching the life of Beethoven, it’s misleading to set up the question by saying he would have been his mother’s ninth birth.
Only three of the children born to Maria Magdalena Beethoven survived infancy, with the composer Ludvig Von  Beethoven being the oldest of the three.
Beethoven himself suffered from deafness in adulthood, but we found no evidence of deaf, blind, or mentally retarded siblings as children.
We found no substantiation of Beethoven’s mother having had syphilis.
She is said to have died of what at that time was called consumption or tuberculosis.

Regarding candidate A, Franklin Roosevelt, there is talk among astrologers that he consulted with astrologer Evangeline Adams, but we have not been able to document that.
We don’t know how many mistresses Franklin Roosevelt had but he had an affair with his wife’s social secretary Lucy Page Mercer.  She was with him when he died in 1945 in Warm Springs, Georgia.
He did like his martinis and is credited with having been the first to mix a martini in the White House and was a smoker.

Regarding candidate B, Winston Churchill, according to WinstonChurchill.org, he was known for his drinking.
We could not find whether he used opium in college.

Regarding candidate C, Adolph Hitler, it is true that there is no evidence that he ever cheated on his wife but that’s primarily because he was married to her for a few hours before both of them committed suicide.
Hitler’s and his longtime mistress Eva Braun got married early in the morning on April 29, 1945.
At about 3:30 the next afternoon, both took cyanide although Hitler also shot himself in the head.

Hitler preferred a vegetarian diet, but was not a pure vegetarian.
It started when his doctor once put him on a vegetarian menu but Hitler is described by his biographers as liking a variety of meats including sausages.
There is no record of Hitler having smoked or been a user of alcohol and, in fact, he campaigned against the use of tobacco among his troops.

towards Dagenham*

Yesterday the Scottish Parliament held its first evidence session on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill; the legislation that could introduce equal marriage in Scotland.

The inquiry into the Bill is being undertaken by the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee who will hear evidence from a wide range of stakeholders in the coming weeks, before making recommendations to the Scottish Parliament on whether to proceed with the Bill and, if so, in what form.

As well as hearing from those groups in favour of equal marriage the Scottish Parliament’s Equal Opportunities Committee heard from those religious groups who are opposed. Just one day in, herePinkNews.co.uk presents the top 12 strangest arguments against equal marriage, from the evidence presented to the Committee:

1 – John Deighan, from the Catholic Church in Scotland, explains why there is no need to lift the ban on same-sex marriage: “We already have equal marriage. All people have the right to marriage.”

2 – Dr Salah Beltagui, from the Muslim Council of Scotland, explains how equal marriage will lead to brotherly love: ”What scares people are the things that will happen under the bill that are not expected. The bill gives a list of people whose relationships are too close for them to marry. For us, that list includes same-sex couples. It will be dangerous for society if we keep changing the list to exclude relationships that we currently recognise as making it not possible for people to marry. As people have said, that could lead to incest and other dangerous relations.”

3 – Mr Deighan explains how same-sex marriage is an issue for trading standards: ”We cannot have laws saying that people who sell bracelets can call them watches if they do not tell the time.”

4 – Mr Deighan explains why Catholic schools would not wish to participate in LGBT History Month: ”The whole aim of the month is to try to change people’s understanding of people who are homosexual and propose them as role models. We would not want to be doing that.”

5 – Mr Deighan compares LGBT History Month to racist propaganda and pornography: “If someone came in with literature for the BNP and a printer thought that the literature was racist and they did not want to print it, I think that they would be perfectly entitled to say no. Similarly, if someone came in with pornography and the printer felt that pornography was detrimental to the rights of women, they would be entitled not to print it. If they were asked to print publicity material for LGBT history month, but they thought that that twist on history was wrong and they did not want to participate in that deception, I think that they would be entitled to say that.”

6 – Dr Beltagui explains how legalising same-sex marriage will require the Scottish Government to amend every document in history: “It is the principle—changing the whole history of marriage—that is worrying us. The bill talks about changing the text of Scots law and so on to accommodate the change that the bill will make. Are we going to do that for all the documents in history that faith groups or nations have?”

7 – Mr Deighan compares same-sex marriage to incest: “A brother and a sister were demanding that they be allowed to marry. If we set up a principle that marriage is only about love, we need to ask what principle then says that such relationships are not permitted.”

8 – Dr Beltagui creates confusion when explaining how equal marriage could create confusion: “If we start changing the definition of marriage from what we know and what we know about who is coming from which line and who is not, there will be confusion and we will not know exactly where we stop and where we start”

9 – Mr Deighan explains marriage is not about badges: “We do not change the whole of society because people might feel upset that their relationship is not being given a particular badge by the state. It is not about badges”

10 – Dr Beltagui explains how equal marriage could lead to a threesome: “The bill makes marriage acceptable between two men or two women, but it uses the definition of adultery only between a man and a woman. That means that someone can have relations with someone of the same sex outside a same-sex marriage, including in a threesome, a foursome”

11 – Mr Deighan explains how changes in equality law have made it compulsory for a man to be a woman: “The trajectory of the past 10 years has been to try to replace equality with sameness in thinking that a man has to be a woman. That is where we have gone wrong.”

12 – Dr Beltagui explains equal marriage is exactly like abortion: “The case of marriage is exactly like abortion. It is an issue on which people will differ. We accept that abortion is a controversial issue, and marriage is at the same level, or perhaps an even higher level. Abortion involves one person with an unborn baby, but the issue of marriage involves the whole of society”

 

*. toward Dagenham = beyond Barking (on the London Tube). Barking mad