The Domestication of Cannibalization

Truth doesn't matter. It's manufactured. Reasonable people can decide for themselves what it is.

Life has no meaning of its own. It's a lump of clay awaiting the hands of a master visionary. Reasonable people understand this.

That's why the Reasonable celebrate moral catastrophes like this:

The House of Representatives delivered a strong challenge to President Bush on Thursday, overwhelmingly passing the same embryonic stem cell bill that he vetoed last summer.

Although the 253 to 174 vote fell 37 votes shy of being veto-proof, the wide, bipartisan margin increased pressure on the White House to compromise on more funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Thirty-seven Republicans, including Reps. C.W. Bill Young of Indian Shores and Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, joined most Democrats in passing the bill.

The Senate is expected to pass the bill this month.

"This is a very potent issue, not only in the elections, but as we go forward," said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., the bill's sponsor. "The vote today shows that productive discussion might be a very, very good idea for all concerned."

Her co-sponsor, Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., said he was hopeful, though not optimistic, that Bush eventually will compromise.

The president has declined offers to meet with stem cell supporters. The White House said Bush would veto the bill if it reached his desk because it "would compel all American taxpayers to pay for research that relies on the intentional destruction of human embryos."

Ignore ASCR. Whistle past Amniotic SCR. Don't even mention the name. Just call Embryonic Stem-Cell Research stem cell research.

For only two things ultimately matter to the truly enlightened among the reasonable. The first is the continued protection of Moloch-worship that ensures the free pursuit of the One Thing that Matters.

The other is the ring. As in Ka-ching! Lot's of Benjamins to cash in, selling those clump of cells Fools insist on calling children. Can't stop that gravy train!

The longer our society celebrates the collective delusion that we're all Gods of our own universe, the more corpses we leave in our wake. The Love that laid down his life at Golgotha drowns our steel hearts with his tears.

But what will we do when the reckoning comes?

Sooner or later, we all must face what we have done, and what we have failed to do.

How will today's representatives face that terrible moment? And how will we, who have lived to see such times?

"Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner!"

Amniotic Stem-Cells: Calling Light Darkness

One of the characteristics of our age is the consistent tendency to confuse good news with bad. That may come from a light-starved people that celebrate shades of shadow turning gray.

Consider the tone of WP reporter Rick Weiss. He covers a new variety of stem cell--developed from amniotic fluid, not the corpse of an embryonic child:

A type of cell that floats freely in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women has been found to have many of the same traits as embryonic stem cells, including an ability to grow into brain, muscle and other tissues that could be used to treat a variety of diseases, scientists reported yesterday.

The cells, shed by the developing fetus and easily retrieved during routine prenatal testing, are easier to maintain in laboratory dishes than embryonic stem cells -- the highly versatile cells that come from destroyed human embryos and are at the center of a heated congressional debate that will resume this week.

Moreover, because the cells are a genetic match to the developing fetus, tissues grown from them in the laboratory will not be rejected if they are used to treat birth defects in that newborn, researchers said. Alternatively, the cells could be frozen, providing a personalized tissue bank for use later in life.

The new cells are adding credence to an emerging consensus among experts that the popular distinction between embryonic and "adult" stem cells -- those isolated from adult bone marrow and other organs -- is artificial.

This should be good news.

But no. It isn't. It's just another pretext for the anti-choice fanatics to pipe on about "life":

But in the past, even hints that non-embryonic cells might have medical potential similar to embryonic ones have complicated the political push to expand federal funding for the controversial field. And accordingly, opponents quickly pounced on the new results.

"This is wonderful news," said Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of pro-life activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes research that depends on embryo destruction. "It doesn't require harming anyone or destroying life at any stage."

The production of stem cells that can develop viable treatments without costing lives--everyone should celebrate such a breakthrough. The fact that Mr. Weiss sees it only as a pretext for the Prolife movement to posture speaks volumes. The Reasonable MSM will no longer recognize the good in a story.

The institutionalization of pursuing illusion slowly strangles the collective conscience of our society. When we're cut off from the truth by our own denial, we lose the fundamental source of wisdom upon which our conscience depends. Thus, our institutions--like MSM--can celebrate a "freedom" whose fruit is murder while it condemns an ethical breakthrough in cutting-edge science. One that may save lives and improve the quality of life for countless others.

Only when we experience the truth and commit ourselves to it will we stop worshiping the dark. If we want to have any hope of authentic freedom, we must endure the pain of living in the truth. Otherwise, the light in our eyes will remain dark, and then how much darker will our own hearts become?

Late Manuevers

Now the Republican-controlled House pushes pro-life legislation?

Has GOP seen the light? Or are they tarring the road for the incoming Democrats and dangling a lit match?

The WP has the details:

In a parting gesture by social conservatives before Republicans relinquish control, House leaders plan to bring up a bill tomorrow that would declare that fetuses feel pain and require abortion providers to offer pregnant patients anesthesia for their unborn child.

The scheduled vote may be the last on abortion-related legislation for years. That's because Democratic leaders hope to avoid confrontations over hot-button social issues that divide their caucus, and focus instead on military and pocketbook issues.

But Republicans and antiabortion activists signaled yesterday that they intend to press hard on social issues, even those that failed to gain traction during GOP control, to separate moderate-to-conservative Democrats from their more liberal leaders.

"The Democrats are facing an interesting situation because they ran to the right in this election," said Wendy Wright, president of the conservative group Concerned Women for America. "They promised one thing to America with their campaigning. The question is, will they live up to that image? Running and hiding is not a solution."

Democrats are shying from the fight. Party leaders in the House have declared tomorrow's decision "a vote of conscience" and will not try to sway the outcome. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) does not plan to speak on the bill, a rarity for her.

Had the administration championed more measures such as this, the Republicans may have preserved the House. Ironically, the Democrats took their social conservative members more seriously this past election then the GOP did.

This bill wedges those "Blue Dog" Democrats from their Reasonable masters in both houses. If the Republicans hope to keep Congress on the social issues agenda, this bill opens the way. Of course, should the Blue Dogs hold fast to their Pro-Life convictions, it may strengthen that position within the party at the national level. This would be bad for Republicans but good for social conservatives and pro-life supporters. Two parties that take life seriously better serve our society.

Interesting times may lay ahead.

Elections and The Catholic Factor

The Catholic Register offers an interesting autopsy on the Catholic contribution to the Republican party's capitulation.

Here's a snap-shot of their exploration:

Catholics overwhelmingly chose Democratic congressional candidates, according to exit polls. Nationally, Catholics made up 26% of the vote and chose Democrats over Republicans by 55% to 44%. In 2004, Republican congressional candidates had managed to win 50% of the Catholic vote, to 49% for the Democrats.

Although Republicans lost badly, pro-life losses were only moderate in the House of Representatives. The losses were more serious in the Senate, but life issues did not appear to have hurt any of the Senate candidates significantly.

“I don’t think this election is a sign that the country has shifted on the life issues,” said Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan, a pro-life leader in Congress and a reported hopeful for the 2008 presidential election. “I think we continue to gain ground in support for pro-life issues on the national level.”

(snip)

Republicans lost 18 members with mostly or all pro-life voting records, but it does not appear that many — if any — lost because they were pro-life. Among the pro-life losers, seven were involved in congressional or personal scandals. Four were connected to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, one allegedly choked his wife, another allegedly choked his mistress, and another allegedly used his influence to enrich his family.

Of the others, three of the Republicans were replaced by Democrats who appear to be genuinely pro-life — Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana, and former pro football player Heath Shuler of North Carolina.

“It fills us with hope that the Democratic Party is embracing social-conservative Democrats warmly,” said Joe Cella, president of the Catholic political activist group Fidelis. “We’re going to reach out to those Democratic conservatives who have won and develop relationships with them.”

“I think those are people who could definitely be approachable on traditional values issues,” said Mike Bober, executive director of the House Conservatives Fund, which raises money for pro-life, conservative Republican candidates.

Prolife Catholics clearly didn't abandon Republicans in favor of pro-abortion democrats. Why, then, did they turn on the party that--in name at least--supports the prolife position?

Well, here's a thought: Phoning in prolife support while pork-barreling to record highs will not ensure support of prolife Catholics--or anyone else.

American Catholics have always demonstrated that peculiar tendency toward American pragmatism and optimism. Having become even more assimilated since Vatican II, American Catholics exibit these traits even more consistently then before.

No American will put up with a party that betrays its principles. The public supported the Republican revolution of 1994 because those candidates promised change from the hubritic business-as-usual mentality. Such Beltway Shenanigans had sunk the capital into a cesspool of corruption and waste. Twelve years later, the party in power had become what they had vowed they would destroy. Meet the new boss: same as the old boss.

US Catholics joined their fellow Americans in saying, "your government doesn't work. You're fired." They supported "Blue Dog" Democrats because they stand for life and fiscal responsibility.

If the GOP wants to earn back the Catholic Vote, they had better remember why Catholics gave them their vote to begin with.

A piercing Glance

There's nothing to see here. So pay the Anchoress a visit.

Trust me:

Erhmmm…that got a little dicey-with-irony after a while. All those embryonic women talking about their futures, their boundless potentialities all while simultaneously calling for routine elimination of human embryos - excuse me, “products of conception” who were regarded as mere “clump of cells” whose destruction was compared to having a tooth pulled, and whose potentialities were considered quite irrelevent if they were to get in the way of a “real, living” woman’s opportunities.

Of course, the abortion debate is never ending, and the ante has been upped now, as some leaders of the Church of England think sick newborn babies should just be killed. Euthanasia is just a really late-term abortion, right? Euthanasia is the new answer to not letting anything stand in your way, whether it be a handicapped child, or a slowed-down parent. And it’s coming to a Soylent Green Clinic near you.

Ah, the progress of the progressives and the pelvic left marches on. Birth control was supposed to free women (mostly it freed men) and abortion was supposed to make “every child a wanted child.” Now, if your child is not the right sort of child, it doesn’t matter if you want it or not, you should not have it. If you (or your growing baby) are not fit to be perfectly productive, then you owe it to society to either kill the baby or die yourself, rather than inflict such vulgar weaknesses upon the rest of us. Society has nothing to learn from you, and you have nothing to teach it. Better to die and, as old Scrooge noted, “decrease the surplus population”.

All these decades later, the “enlightened” boomers have learned nothing about The Holiness of Be-ing, even though they have had some great instruction put before them.

As we watch this seemingly inexorable march toward the elimination of imperfect or sickly people for the good of humankind, I wonder, sometimes, if the Michael J Fox’s of the world realize that they are advocating the sorts of people and policies that will one day tell him that if he really cared about being a good citizen in the world, he’d take himself out.

The rest is just as good!

Nothing storms upon us all faster than ever. Nihilism--ever the order of the day--erodes the fabric of our very consciousness with every insidious illusion it fabricates. We cling to the Real. We hold on to him because we're lost in the dark without him.

But we must reach out to the hands that fade from the light. We can't leave our brothers out there. Nothing can't have a claim on them.

So spread out. Bear the light we've received. Witness to the truth through the lives we live that conform to it.

Otherwise, we won't have the heart to look our Savior in the eye when he asks us, "where are the rest?"

Elections and The Prolife Factor

I experience the independent blues whenever I vote. It's difficult to discern which candidate will least impinge and most support practical implementations of CST. Forget the party platforms: Neither can hope to even approximate an appropriate prudential application of the Church's wisdom regarding social affairs.

This election may leave independents and Catholics alike wondering just how worse off the nation now is. As with most things in life, it's not so simple.

Dr. Jeff Miras explains:

As little as ten years ago, the outcome of this election would not have been in the remotest doubt. Nor would there have been so much anecdotal evidence to belie the outcome. Of eight states voting on constitutional amendments to limit marriage to a man and a woman, seven passed the amendment. In several closely contested races, the Democrats resorted to fielding genuinely socially conservative candidates in order to win. One thinks, for example, of ex-Redskin quarterback Heath Shuler in North Carolina. And in the most obvious case, Rick Santorum, a strong pro-life Republican senator, could be beaten only by a pro-life Democrat whose family name is an icon for suffering on behalf of the pro-life cause.

That the outcome is still in doubt now is a sign of hope, and not only because Republicans might still control the Senate. The hopeful sign is that doubt exists when, by past political rules, there should be no doubt at all. For example, Ronald Reagan, who was wildly popular, never had the House of Representatives on his side even for a moment. Bush, who is far less popular, has done far better. There should have been a Democratic landslide in this election.

Whatever the result for 2006, this prolonged tension may well mean that the culture of life has gained considerable traction. In the long run, the most striking feature of this election may be hidden in the fact with which this column began: Democrat gains were only average, and the party had to tilt ever so slightly toward life to win.

The Democratic Party's dependence on center-right, conservative and pro-life democratic candidates complicates their political ambitions. The rabid, far-left base of the party will make demands that these freshman Senators and House Representatives will not feel inclined to support without significant compromise. Additionally, the Democrats hold a one-seat majority in the Senate: they'll need Republicans to cross the aisle in order to enact any legislation of consequence.

The most troubling consequence for pro-life citizens, however, remains the future of SCOTUS. President Bush's confirmees had begun the high court's long march from Judiciarium to legitimate Judiciary. That conversion may now end:

In the long run, a return to the principles of natural law among the electorate will be the minimum requirement for the restoration of civilization and the protection of the innocent in America. Meanwhile, an insistence that the Supreme Court must respect the text of the Constitution can shift the culture wars dramatically, creating a long series of very winnable battles. The Court is thus critical for both the continuation of the American experiment and the creation of a political climate in which the culture of life can flourish. Reforming the Court is the most critical single step in stopping America’s drift into secularist oligarchy.

(snip)

As the Senate goes, so goes the Court. There is still a very slim chance that pro-lifers may have a large voice in the next and most critical judicial appointment. If not, we will have a long time to reflect on Thomas More’s indictment of Richard Rich in Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons. Rich had betrayed More in return for being set over Wales. To paraphrase More’s scathing comment: “Americans, the Lord said that it did not profit a man to gain the whole world if he lost his soul. The whole world, Americans...but for Iraq?”

It's a chilling thought. Let's hope the pro-life Democrats that assume office in January honor their conviction. But let's not hold our breath.

Better yet, let us pray for our society. Only when we convert together to the Truth will our society truly embrace justice. We'll receive the faith that we ask for.

So let's keep asking for it.