Ann Marie Cosgrove

We have approval from Fr. Walsh to sponsor Ann Marie Cosgrove. I've already put together a flier, now all I have to do is put in our request for the space. If anyone would like to volunteer to put up fliers, let me know. Also, we will need to have a contact for the talk. I could give my number at the store if people call between 10 and 5, however, I think it would be good to have one more person answer calls, especially if they are more likely to be around after five. Any takers?

Small Families Out; Big Families In

There is a must read article at the following address about overpopulation:

http://www.mercatornet.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=291

The basic gist of the article is that small families are on the way out because the economy can't handle an ever declining birth rate. Okay, I know, it would be nice if the reason for the turnaround were that people had decided to listen to God but I'll take what I can get.

The author of the article points out that the basic premise of the zero population types (i.e., that having no kids will make you richer) doesn't work out very well on the macro level. You see, people (properly raised, of course) are not merely expenses, they are also generally producers. And they usually produce more than what they need so they have something left over to help take care of those among us who aren't able to take care of themselves any more.

Let's hope we don't see a lot of "Live Unworthy of Life" campaigns started before the new wave of large families get into full swing.

Angela Franks

As you may recall, in one of our previous meetings we discussed the possibility of having a speaker in to discuss the history of Planned Parenthood--in particular--its historic involvement with the eugenics movement. During our meeting I could not remember the name of the author who had written a recent work on this topic. I finally tracked it down and her name is Angela Franks and her book is "Margaret Sanger's Eugenic Legacy: The Control of Female Fertility".

I talked to Angela today and I think she would make an excellent speaker on the topic of Planned Parenthood because she is very academic and she's a stickler for accuracy. For a two-hour talk she would charge $800, plus expenses. She lives in Morgantown and would be flying out of the Pittsburgh airport. She'd need about $200 to take a shuttle between Morgantown and Pittsburgh, airfare (probably around $600) and two nights accomodation because it is a stretch to get back and forth in one day if she is going speaking in the evening, and it's hard to get here in time for an evening talk if she doesn't leave until the morning of the talk (plus, she's pregnant with her third child, so let's give the poor woman a break!)

Angela also could give a talk to our group for an extra $300 to provide information about Planned Parenthood's history and what they are doing at the moment that would be a little more informal. We can discuss this more at our meeting tonight.

The timing on this would probably be best at the end of October because she's finishing off her PhD at the beginning of October, "may" be traveling out of the country in November, and is due to deliver in January of next year.

There are other people who could speak on this topic but I believe that Angela Frank's commitment to accuracy makes her the best choice. If we have someone speak on this topic they have to be completely accurate or we will be doing more harm than good. Angela's reputation is untarnished in this regard.

Let's discuss this more at the meeting!

Church to Publish New Document on Life Issues

The Church is planning to publish a compendium of the Church's positions on life issues soon in which they do what they always do--support life. Unfortunately, some of the more clueless members of the MSM have characterized this upcoming document as an "attack" on abortion rights and other liberal causes. I'd characterize it more as a defense of traditional Church teachings, but hey, that's just me!

Pro-Life Search Engine

If you want to find things on the Internet and help the pro-life cause at the same time, Pat Johnson told me that there is a new search engine powered by Google that does just that. The search engine is http://www.prolifesearch.com/. Thanks to Pat Johnson for that tip and don't forget to use www.prolifesearch.com instead of www.google.com or www.yahoo.com!

J. Budzizewski--My New Hero!

For those of you who've never heard of J. Budzizewski, let me tell you, you are really missing out. I just finished "The Revenge of Conscience--Politics and the Fall of Man" and I can honestly say I think it will make me a better person. The most insteresting thing about the book is that everything in it screamed "Catholic!" He was quoting from Aquinas and Augustine and Popes, but when Mr. Budzizewski talked about his faith he always just said he was "Christian." "Hmphh!," I thought. Is this some new kind of marketing ploy like Amway uses where you don't tell people what "company" you are with until you have them cornered? Well, I did a little more searching and found out the author wasn't Catholic when he wrote the book in the late 1990's, but he was on his way there, because he became a Catholic in 2004. It reminded me a little of G.K. Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" which is a totally Catholic book that was written by an Christian author who did not yet realize that he was a Catholic Christian quite yet.

Anyway, here is a choice tidbit from the last chapter of "The Revenge of Conscience", entitled "The Fallen City:"

"I observed to a homosexual activist with whom I was debating that our bodies have a language of their own, that we say things to each other by what we do with them. What does it mean then, I asked him, when a man puts the part of himself which represents the generation of life into the cavity of decay and expulsion? Seeing the answer all too well, he refused to reply. Permit me to spell it out. It means "Life, be swallowed up by death."

Oh man! How true is that? Isn't that exactly what follows unrepented homosexual acts? Death! Spiritual death, certainly, but also premature physical death. "Life, be swallowed up by death." I will definitely have to remember that line!

J. Budzizewski also has a great book called "How to Stay Christian in College." Great stuff on chastity and many other issues that college students will face in most secular colleges.

Where Have All The Downs Syndrome Children Gone

I read an interesting article on a woman from England who found out the son she was carrying would have Downs Syndrome when she was 35 weeks along. The pressure to abort was tremendous. Thankfully, she and her husband loved the child unconditionally and had already named him so they weren't swallowing all the "concern" that the doctors and nurses were showering them with.

An interesting statistic from the article said that 62% of Downs Syndrome children are diagnosed before birth and 92% of those diagnosed are aborted.

God have mercy on us.

DVC Stinks!

Not surprisingly, the film version of the DVC didn't fall far from its "literary" tree. Reviews from Cannes, the NYT, and everyone else have been universally negative. Some critics have been downright vicious, referring to Tom Hanks as "bloated" and saying things like, "the film takes longer to get through than the book, or at least it feels like it!' At Cannes, viewers were no more polite--some actually were derisively laughing at parts that weren't supposed to be funny!

Some enterprising individual recently released a spoof on the book, entitled, "The Baloney Code." Apparently, there is more truth in this satire than there was in the origina novel. But you know what they say, "Satire has to have some truth to it or it isn't good satire." Sounds like a funny book. I may have to thumb through it the next time I go to Barnes and Noble.

Talking About Touching

Someone sent me a link to a website that has sample lessons from the "Talking About Touching Program" at http://www.primaryeducators.org/lessons.php. As some of you may know, Talking About Touching is the anti-abuse course aimed at children, while VIRTUS, is the anti-abuse course aimed at adults.

One word came to mind after reading the TAT sample lessons--"appalling." Way too much detail for the target ages. I can easily imagine situations where children first exposure to deviant sexual ideas would be through this program.

Not surprisingly, Planned Parenthood and Gay Rights organizations whole-heartedly endorse these programs. If these programs come our way, I think we all should be ready to say, "no," in a loud, firm voice, just like they tell the little kids to do when someone tries to molest them.

Liquid Breathing Environment

I read an interesting article in Reader's Digest this morning as I was trying to wake up. It dealt with a mother who was a neonatal nurse who, herself, gave birth when she was 5 months along. One of the problems that threatens the survival of preemies is the fact that their lungs are not mature enough to breathe air, so they have risks for all sorts of things like blindness and stroke, etc.

Apparently, a doctor has developed a liquid breathing environment that mimics amniotic fluid, but is able to get oxygen into the babies bloodstream without the baby having to breathe air. They said if you could fill up a swimming pool with this stuff, you could breathe underwater. I know! Freaky!

Well, the mother in the story made the tough choice to use this experimental treatment for her daughter and it worked! Her daughter is a completely normal 12 year old today.

Unfortunately, no one is willing to fund this treatment. Maybe we should write to our Congressman and suggest that they throw some of the money they are sending to stem cell research toward this, highly effective treatment for preemies. Think of all the money they would save on caring for disabled children! It almost seems criminal not to support this research when we have good reason to believe that it not only can save lives, it can actually prevent brain damage.