More on the partial birth abortion ban lawsuits...the lawyer for the plaintiffs doesn't want the records used and opposes the law because:

"Attorney A. Stephen Hut Jr., speaking for the plaintiffs, argued that the law "in its stunning breadth would ... remove the range of abortion alternatives available to women in the second trimester." He cautioned that the evidence will include "very raw stuff" and that descriptions of surgery were "not for the faint of heart." "

So it is not for the faint of heart because even the descriptions are so graphic? This is the wonderful "right" that we must preserve? (Click here for full article)

This is absolutely heart wrenching, an infant being murdered and the pro-abortion person has no idea what is going on...

"In San Francisco, a chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood testified that she chooses methods of abortion that violate the new law because they are among the safest options.

Asked by a government lawyer whether the fetus exhibits pain during the procedures, Maureen Paul replied, "I have no idea what you mean." "

She has no idea, or she knows and won't say? An infant that would be seconds from crying as she enters the world undoubtedly feels unspeakable pain as she is being murdered.

How do these people sleep at night? Are they just that desensitized? I guess the guards at Nazi death camps got used to it after a while...

This is simply foul, an example of the depraved mindset of those who murder children for profit (click here for full article)

Abortionist claim that partial birth abortion is wonderful because "Doctors, though, say the procedures decrease the frequency of surgical instrument insertions into a woman, eliminate the dangers that parts of a broken fetus might be left behind and give couples an intact fetus to grieve over."

Two points here. One, what about the danger to the baby who is being murdered? two, why are they are grieving over "an intact fetus"? It is just a fetus after all? Now, I can see grieving over a baby...

The American legacy of abortion: the blood of millions, shed for profit and convenience.

The Browns look as muddled as usual this offseason. Although I like the acquisition of Jeff Garcia, they have sommany unanswered issues: getting rid of Tim Couch and Dennis Northcutt, remaking the offense with a two back set and for cryin' out loud getting a better O-Line! The offensive line last year was like a sieve and Garcia's back won't take that kind of a pounding. If they are going to make full use of two very talented backs in William Green and Lee Suggs running behind a full back, they absolutely must get a better line. I would be willing to gamble big and try to move up to get Robert Gallery in the draft. Gallery at left tackle and Jeff Faine at center make a young core of O-Lineman that we can work with for years to come.

Dr. Mohler has an interesting segment on the use of birth control amongst Christians (click here for article). It is something of an uncomfortable topic amongst Christians, because it a) mentions sex and b) seems kind of "catholic" Having six kids of my own, we clearly are not experts! It is thought provoking and is a useful topic for discussion, especially given the increasingly small size of Christian families. We are something of a freak show at church because we have six kids, most everyone else has three or fewer (one other couple our age has five, but have taken permanent measures to make sure they stop there)

Here is an excellent article on the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention. I have tried to learn as much about this as possible, especially given the results of a lack of vigilance in the episcopalian and methodist churches, even the more mainline lutherans and prebyterians. It is far too easy to wander down the road of theological liberalism when we live in a land of plenty and get spoiled. Once we become dependent on ourselves, we try to ignore our dependence on God and make Him more palatable to ourselves.

Baseball has started! The all-American game kicked off the season...in Japan? How bad of an idea is that? A 5 AM game, eastern time with jet lagged players? Granted, the Devil Rays beat the Yankees, so that was nice but come on, the game was almost over by the time I got to work!

The Reds season kicks off on Monday and I will be in attendance. They are playing the Cubs, and Kerry Wood is pitching, so chalk that up as a loss. The Tribe starts off against the Twins, it is kind of odd they play 22 of 23 games in April against AL Central opponents, so the division race will be well under way before the month is out.

Play ball!

This is vintage Clinton….

He approached Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and said, according to the book, "It would scare the (expletive) out of al Qaeda if suddenly a bunch of black ninjas rappelled out of helicopters in to the middle of their camp. It would get us an enormous deterrence and show those guys we're not afraid."

The Pentagon feared a debacle similar to April 1980 when President Carter dispatched helicopters to Iran in hopes of rescuing 52 American hostages. The result was the incineration of two helicopters and the deaths of eight servicemen.

The authors suspect that Pentagon's reservations about the Clinton plan ran deeper. The Pentagon, they point out, had an uneasy relationship with Clinton virtually from Day 1, when the White House began pushing to end discrimination against homosexuals by the military.

They quoted a senior political appointee at the Pentagon as saying that Defense was "particularly unwilling to go out on a limb for Clinton."

Also, the authors say, Thomas Pickering, No. 3 at the State Department under Clinton, worried that someone at Defense would put out the story that the Clinton plan would "hazard the lives of young Americans in a wild goose chase. The Pentagon has a great capacity to let things leak to keep from doing them."

Clinton's "black ninja" plan never got off the ground.


See the entire article here
This fits into my theory of Clinton as an adolescent that never grew up. Too cowardly to serve in the military, unable to stay loyal to his shrewish wife and playing with the military like toy soldiers in a sandbox. Odd that a man who was dismissive of the military as President and outright hostile to them before he took office never engendered the loyalty from the troops.

Fight terrorists with ninjas. Brilliant! Maybe we can sic King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table on Osama bin Laden!

Post script to the earlier posting about Kerry attacking Bush using Bible verses. No mention of the story on CNN.com, even after digging into the politics section. What a shocker...

This is an excellent editorial on OpinionJournal.com on why Kerry's post Vietnam activities are worth looking into. Undoubtedly the Leftist media will try to ignore this, fortunately between talk radio, Fox News, the internet and the Wall Street Journal/National Review, we will get constant updates on his misdeeds in the post war era. The part about the plot to assassinate U.S. Senators at the meeting Kerry was/wasn't/was at is especially interesting. This is almost funny, but they guy they were going to use was nicknamed " Scott the Assassin" Sounds like Tim the Shrubber from Monty Python's The Holy Grail. What is not funny is how the guy got his nickname, "He says he got the name in Vietnam for 'sneaking down to the Vietnamese villages at night and killing people.'" Nice peaceful people Kerry was hanging around with. Makes Hanoi Jane look almost patriotic. Not really…

The Pregnancy Resource Ministry is a wonderful program by Focus on the Family. Check it out here. The general idea is to make ultrasounds available to pregnant women considering abortion. The numbers of women choosing to carry the child to term after seeing the ultrasound are staggering. The pro abortion forces are all in an uproar given the increased availability of ultrsounds, but after all if they are "pro-choice" shouldn't they want women to have an informed "choice"? Or perhaps it is not really about choice at all, but rather the big business of abortion. Hmmmm.....

Boo hoo hoo!

A little local Kentucky politics...

The poor Democrats in the State House are upset because the GOP is insisting on voting on a gay marriage bill as a stand alone measure, instead of tacking on poison pill amendments and riders (click here for article) I know both sides do it, but what a garbage way to avoid debate. The Dems know they are not too far away from losing all representation in Kentucky politics, especially if we can defeat Commie George Clooney's dad in the Northern Kentucky house race.

The whole gay marriage issue is going to blow up in the Dems faces, by alienating working class catholic voters and black Christians. Their unswerving obedience to the tiny, but vocal, gay minority is going to leave them without their core voters. W. will happily appeal to the Reagan Democrats that the Dems need to win Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa etc.

Pretty decent sports weekend. Always nice when the Red Wings kick around the Avalanche in back to back games. Seriously, the wheels are off the Avs bus. Much as I hated (in a sports way of course) Patrick Roy, he clearly was the leader of that team and when they couldn't fall back on him they were lost. Now that he is retired, the Avs just aren't a very good team, even with Forsberg. I hope he goes back to Sweden, even as bad as the Avs are they still are a threat because he can take over a game.

Nice weekend of NCAA hoops. I am now a believer in UConn, that Okafor guy is a stud! The Duke-Xavier game was one of the best games I had seen in a while. Although I was pulling for home town Xavier to win, you have to appreciate Coach K keeping his team together. Who knows, a few more minutes and Xavier might have pulled it out. What a weird year in college basketball...

Just when you thought you had heard it all...

Now the pledge of allegiance is a "hate crime"? (click here for article) What next?

When do people in this country wake up and see that America is evaporating right before our eyes? Do we want a Godless, totally secular state where personal rights trump every other issue, and only the Left gets to determine who and what gets rights? Even as we gain victories in Congress and state legislatures, and even with a godly man in the White House, we are losing ground more rapidly than we could imagine in the courts of our country every day.

The amazing thing is that by writing Under God into the Pledge, we were seeking to preserve our nation's heritage. It wasn't in there originally because it didn't need to be, that our nation was "Under God" was a given. It is only due to the onslaught of Communism that it became necessary to add the words into the pledge. I can't see the weak kneed Supreme Court able to resist throwing the pledge out. Scalia, Thomas and Rehnquist will no doubt be in favor but the rest of the court will belly up to the bar of political correctness and drink deeply, throwing aside the constitution in favor of a modern revisionist history of America.

They can take the pledge, but in my home America will always be "One Nation Under God".

I expect a whole lotta nothing from the media on this story (click here) where Kerry uses an offhand reference to the book of James to claim that Bush has an empty faith. He didn't mention him by name, but even a cursory look would tell you who he was referring to:

"Kerry never mentioned Bush by name during his speech at New North Side Baptist Church, but aimed his criticism at "our present national leadership." Kerry cited Scripture in his appeal for the worshippers, including James 2:14, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?"

"The Scriptures say, what does it profit, my brother, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?" Kerry said. "When we look at what is happening in America today, were are the works of compassion?"

Now you know if Bush used one of the many obvious Scriptures to attack Kerry as a hypocrite for waffling this way and that on every issue, the media would be all over him. Amazing that a man who is a) allegedly Roman Catholic and b) rejects most roman catholic teachings, would be quoting Scripture, especially since he clearly has no idea what the Scriptures say on a lot of issues. Why isn't anyone investigating why he can give a political stump speech at a church? Where is the ACLU crying separation of church and state? One can only imagine that if Bush were in a predominantly white middle class church and gave a similar speech, the self-appointed media paragons of truth & virtue would make hay of it for weeks to come.

How incredible self-absorbed is this? Homosexuals at Western Oregon University are upset because one of the many questions in a Red Cross blood screening asks about whether the donor has had sex with another man since 1977. This is one of the key indicators of an increased risk of AIDS.

As if it is not bad enough that homosexuals shorten their own lives by their deviant lifestyle, they insist that everyone else be put at risk to hide their own shame. They would rather we run out of blood than pry into their perversions. From WOU student Shauna Bates: "There may be less blood in the blood supply, or we can continue to have a world full of hate and discrimination" What a wonderful position. This gets at the heart of the radical homosexual agenda, where their own perversion comes before any other priority. It is hate and discrimination to screen the blood supply? I think it is hateful to expose others to AIDS rather than answer a confidential questionnaire.

Hey, maybe if we pretend AIDS doesn't exist primarily in homosexual men, it will go away! Or we can face facts that the AIDS "epidemic" is easily cured by practicing some simple sexual self-restraint. Seems an easy choice to me.

More lunacy in Utah...

Now a southern Utah town is putting up a huge statue of John D. Lee, who was famous for being the only man executed as part of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. What a heroic guy, leading the band that murdered women and children. Granted, he was likely a scapegoat to an extent but he also was likely involved. Click here for the article.

No wonder the LDS church didn't have any comment, they want this whole issue to go away quietly. Doesn't fit their public image.

We are only a few days away from the start of baseball season, thus kicking off a sports extraveganza. Hockey and basketball in playoff mode, baseball starting and the crown jewel of ESPN programming that guys can't get enough of: the NFL Draft! Seriously, Mel Kiper Jr. has one job, to predict the draft order of college football players. He spends 11 months of the year watching football and 1 month on ESPN giving predictions and the latest rumors. Jobs at ESPN must be awesome and he clearly has the best of them all!

It looks to be a rocky year of baseball in the Buckeye State. The Reds don't seem to know what the heck they want to be when they grow up (other than rid of Ken Griffey Jr.'s salary) They are all over the place and really haven't done a thing to get better. Kind of like the Bengals whose big offseason move was to sign an undersized middle linebacker. At least the Indians seem to be making progress. LOTS of young players except for Omar Vizquel. Lots of good young pitching. The old man of the crew is C.C. Sabathia and he is in his mid twenties and 4th season. They may not win the AL Central this year but they clearly have built a solid nucleus for the future. The big problem may be getting enough at bats for all the young hitters like Escobar, Gerut, Crisp, Broussard, Hafner, Peralta (starting to get the picture yet?)

As usual, the Wall Street Journal is a bright light of reason amongst the liberal malaise of most mainstream papers. Today there is a magnificent editorial regarding the September 11th hearings and President Bush's policy of preemption (click here for the full editorial) The basic premise is that the Left has on the one hand criticized Bush for doing too much post 9/11 and not enough pre-9/11.

Can anyone make this a coherent argument? Bush should have put together the dots that no one else had in the 8 years under Clinton? This is the same Left that touted what a wonderful foreign policy leader Clinton was, now says that Bush, who had a much more aggressive anti-terror policy than Clinton, didn't do enough to prevent the 9/11 attacks? After Mogadishu, the Khobar Towers, the first WTC bombing and the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, bin Laden and crew were emboldened and unpunished. America had shown herself unwilling to take the steps to track them down and was all too willing to run if a little bloodied.

Now the Left claims that anyone would have deposed the Taliban after 9/11. Really? The same leftist media types that were wringing their hands over going into Afghanistan now recognize the move as common sense?! What hypocrisy! Just imagine the outcry of "imperialism!" if Bush had acted preemptively against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Iraq. Liberals were more concerned about the destruction of a couple of Buddha statues than they were about the terrorists camps.

The song from the left remains the same, cowardice and backbiting, Take no action but criticize those with the courage to do so. Attack Bush no matter the truth. Take the politics of lies, innuendo and personal attacks started by the Left in the Robert Bork hearings and lower them further. Win whatever the cost.

I am of mixed feeling about this article in USA Today (click here).On the one hand I am concerned that people's fervor over The Passion of the Christ will fade in the months to come and by the end of the year be as apathetic as ever. On the other hand, perhaps this is just a part of an overall trend toward revival in America...

Yikes, this could be scary. Reports are that the FLDS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) are building a compound in Texas. The whole situation in southern Utah and northern Arizaona with these people is frightening. If the whole thing doesn't explode into bloodshed, I will be very surprised. You just know the mainline mormons don't want this to blow up and draw uncomfortable attention to their less than savory past.

The Barna Group does some excellent work on researching faith attitudes in America. Their reports are usually sobering, because much of America believes in something, but is not sure what that something is. Here is a great example (click here for full article). 77% of Americans claim to belong to Christianity, yet of that same population:
60% don't believe in the existence of Satan
55% think a good person can work their way into heaven
44% believe Jesus sinned while in His earthly ministry
Only half identify theselves as “absolutely committed” to the Christian faith

Sobering news. On the other hand, compared to Europe we live in a Christian utopia. It is about time that Africa, South America and Asia start sending Christian missionaires to Germany, France and England! Turn about is indeed fair play.

et tu Richard?

This is a riot, I really can't imagine that Richard Simmons hits all that hard. I have a vision of a fairly limp wristed girl slap...

et tu Richard?

This is a riot, I really can't imagine that Richard Simmons hits all that hard. I have a vision of a fairly limp wristed girl slap...

I forgot to add the URL, click here for the article about Kerry.

More Kerry lies.

According to reports, Kerry first denied having been at a meeting where assassinations of U.S. Senators were seriously discussed by his "peaceful" Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization. Of course, someone of Kerry's high moral character would not be involved in that! In fact he had resigned some time earlier. But wait, turns out the FBI was tracking Kerry's movements during that time and turns out....

(Wait for it, you know where this is going!)

Kerry was indeed at those meetings! In reality he didn't resign from VVAW until much later. This guy just lies and lies and lies, and when he gets caught blames others for being mean to him. The quote from his spokesperson is vintage Kerry: "If there are valid FBI surveillance reports from credible sources that place some of those disagreements in Kansas City, we accept that historical footnote in the account of his work to end the difficult and divisive war"

Now what does this really say? It says that since you can prove that he was lying, Kerry sort of accepts this minor detail of being at a meeting discussing the assassination of U.S. Senators as a footnote, but hey look at how noble the cause was! Yeah real noble, providing comfort and support to the enemy killing his "band of brothers".

No free pass on your anti-war activities Johnny Boy!

Boy, you could see this coming a mile away. The Supreme Court will review the constitutionality of the phrase Under God in the pledge of allegiance. Anyone want to take bets that the Supremes, in their infinite wisdom, rule against the inclusion of Under God? If anyone thinks the upcoming election is irrelevant, they need to pay close attention to SCOTUS because they, not the Congress, are making the laws around here. With Rhenquist and several of the liberal judges getting ancient and in poor health, if Bush is reelected we may have the chance to replace a couple of the leftist members and finally overturn Roe V. Wade. May God in His mercy make that happen and cleanse our nation of the scourge of abortion.

One of my favorites web theologians is James White of Alpha & Omega Ministries. He can be a bit smug at times, especially to those who lack his background in the original Biblical languages, but given the abuse he takes I can understand why. He has archives of his radio show, the Dividing Line, online and the one from 3/23/04 is absolutely outstanding. Soulforce, an allegedly Christian homosexual group, has been touting the work of some liberal theologian as proof that the Bible does not speak out against homosexuality. Dr. White absolutely demolishes that, and shows that it does indeed speak out specifically and vociferously against the deviant homosexual lifestyle. Click here to access his website.

Another good article from National Review here. While I often find National Review too secular for my tastes, it does have some pretty biting commentary toward the left. What is that old saying, enemy of my enemy is my friend?

Outstanding!

This piece from Stanley Kurtz of National Review hits it right on every point (click here) regading gay marriage.

By the way, I still am amazed that people refer to Andrew Sullivan as a conservative. He seems to have combined the narcissistic tendencies of the left with the greed of the right, and the combination is quite ugly. Capitalism divorced (no pun intended!) from Judeo-Christian values gives us an ugly beast of greed.

It is still really cold in Cincinnati, I mean like see your breath kind of cold. We are rapidly approaching April with no warmer weather in sight. This must be that global warming the tree huggers always talk about....

As expected by anyone with any sense, the push for so-called gay marriage has led to other deviants pushing for similar rights. See this article in the Salt Lake Tribune. Polygamists, spurred on by the Supreme Court rulings and illegal gay marriages are now pushing to overturn the prohibition on plural marriage. Can bestiality be far behind?

Dr. Albert Mohler has an excellent blog entry today, one that speaks to the need to remain compassionate in our ministry to those caught up in the homosexual lifestyle, while remaining firmly committed to calling sin what it is: sin, pure and simple and the need for repentence from that sin.

This is disturbing as well

We lost a lot of ground in the mid-20th century when evangelicals divorced our faith from our politics. The Gospel comes first but one cannot be a Christian and in good conscious ignore the world around us. This should be a warning call to those in ministry. Just like with the fall of the Episcopalians and the United Methodists by compromising with the homosexual movement, we need to be vigilant that we hold fast to the Gospel. Preaching is not entertainment, and if young Christians think homosexual "marriage" is OK, then we haven't been doing our job.

Here is some good clean fun! I have a sister that is nuts about marshmallow peeps. I think they are absolutely gross, but she loves 'em! Like everything else in the cyber-age, they have a website for the peeps, click here. Fun recipes, merchandise, even a fan club! How do you have a fan club for a sugary treat?!!!

They do seem to give a lot of money to Easter seals, so that is nice. I wonder how much they get in kickbacks from the Amercian Dental Association....oddly they don't post nutritional information on the website, but you can call a 1-800 number (For ingredient inquiries, please contact our Consumer Relations team toll-free at 1-888-645-3453.) That must be a rough job!

Check out the above blog, I have been involved in a couple of interesting conversations with a pretty diverse group. It is a Lutheran pastor's website, and are involved in a discussion of Roman Catholicism with a Catholic, a Baptist and Reformed pastor. This has branched out to debate over Calvinism and infant baptism. Good stuff. While we clearly disagree on some issues, it is good to see that the 3 evangelicals can argue civily over other issues. Granted, there is little tolerance for Rome, but that is probably to be expected...

Where does it stop? An openly homosexual woman who chooses to live in a sinful relationship with another woman, who is ordained as a pastor? And the Methodist church can't find any compelling evidence that she has violated the UMC Book of Discipline? They might as well throw the whole thing out. Clearly, this is the result of another liberal mainline church letting P.C. social activism come before the Gospel.

We may have some issues of our own in the Southern Baptist Convention, but since the conservative resurgence we don't have questions like this raised. We don't have women pastors and we sure don't have practicing homosexuals in the church. Start to contradict Scripture in one place and pretty soon you are picking and choosing what fits your "needs" rather than God's will. The Gospel is not a buffet, to pick and choose from as you see fit. God sets it forth, and you take it or leave it as a whole. Sure the Gospel is offensive, it is SUPPOSED to be! No one likes having their sin pointed out, but without sin there is no need for forgiveness and Christ died on the cross in vain. I would rather be offended but saved than smugly self-assured and headed to hell.

Thanks to poor coaching and play by Tubby Smith and the Kentucky Wildcats respectively, my NCAA bracket is all a mess (note there is no gamblng involved here, it is just for fun). I had UK winning it all, so much for that scenario. At least Vandy beat N.C. State...

Plus good news for Cinci despite the mauling that UC took from Illinois. Warren Sapp is headed to Oakland, he and the Raiders deserve one another.

P.C. nonsense! This comes out every week on FoxNews.com, but every week I am amazed at how ridiculous this stuff is. Can't have anything Christian associated with St. Patrick's Day? For cryin' out loud, his first name wasn't Saint! The one about not creating an environment in a Canadian prison where the inmates feel badly about themselves is classic as well. Absolute lunacy!

Speaking of dark days in Cinci, the Bengals are close to signing Warren "Overrated" Sapp. Just when things were lookign up, they are signing an overrated, big mouth, expensive, self-indulgent boob. Like having loud mouth Chad Johnson isn't enough, can you say personality conflicts? Makes me gald to be a Browns fan, but I will still have to hear about him on a daily basis in the Cinci media.

Another cold and miserable day in the greater Cincinnati area. I am all done with the grey skies and chilly air. Today is the first day of spring, and while we are expecting a high of 61 today, tomorrow they are calling for a high of 38 and 36 on Monday. Brrr! Maybe some rain to really cheer it up some. At least we have church tomorrow plus March Madness on TV, so it will be tolerable. Blah!

This is an unfortunate situation all around. Church should alwasy only be about one person, Jesus Christ. Too many churches have become about the pastor, creating a cult of personality. Larry Davis, of First Baptist Cold Spring, should have stepped aside at least temporarily while this mess gets cleared up. I am not assuming he is guilty or innocent, but his pride is going to cause the demise of a 1500 member Southern Baptist church and how many of those folks are never going to come back? He at the very least needs to explain the gambling charges on a bank account that he alone controls. He says on the one hand that the lawyers don't run the church and then hides behind the "advice" of his own. Hypocrite.

A simply marvelous article on what can happen when the Gospel of Christ becomes a social justice movement...click here

One of the fun things about blogs is referring your readers to other blogs. One of my personal favorites is World Magazine's blog, available by clicking here. It is mostly frequented by Christians, predominantly Protestants and tends to cause many a spirited debate...

Kudos to Rich Lowry in the National Review, pointing to the new Time magazine article on women choosing to stay home with their children. Shockingly, as Lowry notes, Time finds that women who stay home are not all living in trailer parks, but indeed are successful in their own right and choosing their children over a new SUV. This is a remarkable trend, one that I find refreshing having a wife that stays home and never regretting to place her children first. With six kids, it is also not feasible to relegate them to day care, but even when we only had two and I made very little money we found ways to make it work. To read the entire article from Lowry, click here.

What a great deal this is! A free blog site so that I can educate the people. Just so you know who you are dealing with, I have been married for 12 years, and my wife Eva and I have 6 children: Caitlin, Hunter, Madison, Noah, Reagan and Laura. We attend Hickory Grove baptist church and are staunchly commmited to Christ as a family, holding firm to the innerancy of scripture and most of the basic Southern Baptist beliefs. I am more Reformed in theology than most of the rank-and-file SBC, but I think that historic position is returning to the convention.

Check out my people holding firm! Unlike the pantywaist Spaniards, Poland reaffirmed her commitment commitment to it's garrison in Iraq. Nice to see some Europeans have some guts.

Sit back and enjoy!