Not that this is all that new (nothing new under the sun). That is what we all used to dig about Don Rickles on the Dean Martin roasts. And, I believe that’s the formula for Howard Stern’s multi-million dollar career.

When I “came back to the Lord” I found that holy scripture said things like: “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” “A wise man weighs everything he says.” And, the warning from Christ that slowed my tongue WAAAAY down: “You will be held accountable for every word you utter.”

Funny how the world celebrates the opposite of what God’s word teaches.

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Atheism and Child Murder
By Dinesh D’Souza 5/12/08

Peter Singer is a calm, lucid and able debater, and our debate at Biola University in Los Angeles on April 25 was lively and hard-fought. Not for nothing is Singer considered a world-class philosopher and advocate. To watch the debate go to dineshdsouza.com and click on my AOL blog.

Singer praised me for not simply making assertions of faith or hurling Bible passages at him but rather for using reason and argument to make my case. And I complimented Singer for stepping, so to speak, into the lion’s den. (Biola actually stands for Bible Institute of Los Angeles.) Unlike the pusillanimous Richard Dawkins, who doesn’t dare to debate me even at his home campus of Oxford, Singer was brave to come to a Christian campus to dispute the resolution “God: Yes or No.” The audience of 3,000 was mostly though not exclusively Christian.

So perhaps atheism has found an able advocate. But unbelievers may want to think twice before lining up behind Singer, who argues in favor of infanticide, euthanasia and (this is not a joke) animal rights! One of Singer’s interesting proposals concerns what may be called “fourth trimester” abortions, i.e. the right to kill one’s offspring even after birth!

Here are some choice Singer quotations on the subject which I get from his books Rethinking Life and Death and Writings on an Ethical Life.

On how mothers should be permitted to kill their offspring until the age of 28 days: “My colleague Helga Kuhse and I suggest that a period of twenty-eight days after birth might be allowed before an infant is accepted as having the same right to life as others.”

On why abortion is less morally significant than killing a rat: “Rats are indisputably more aware of their surroundings, and more able to respond in purposeful and complex ways to things they like or dislike, than a fetus at ten or even thirty-two weeks gestation.”

On why pigs, chickens and fish have more rights to life than unborn humans: “The calf, the pig, and the much-derided chicken come out well ahead of the fetus at any stage of pregnancy, while if we make the comparison with a fetus of less than three months, a fish would show more signs of consciousness.”

On why infants aren’t normal human beings with rights to life and liberty: “Characteristics like rationality, autonomy and self-consciousness…make a difference. Infants lack these characteristics. Killing them, therefore, cannot be equated with killing normal human beings.”
************

So I say again: Thy Kingdom come, Lord. And, end this madness.

Planned Parenthood Has ‘Racist Agenda,’ MLK’s Niece Says
By Josiah Ryan
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
April 17, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - The niece of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is among a group of pro-life black leaders calling for an end to federal funding for Planned Parenthood because of what she calls Planned Parenthood’s “racist agenda.”

“Planned Parenthood is definitely a racist organization - they have a racist agenda,” Dr. Alveda King told Cybercast News Service. “Since 1970, there has been something like 50 million abortions. About 17 million of those have been blacks. It’s black genocide. They are killing our people and fooling us.”

Last year, The Advocate, a student publication at the University of California - Los Angeles, placed phone calls to Planned Parenthood offices around the country offering to make donations specifically to subsidize the abortion of black babies.

The publication then posted videos on YouTube using audio recordings of calls on which
Planned Parenthood officials agreed to accept race-targeted donations. Planned Parenthood officials issued an apology, stating it was not their policy to accept race-targeted donations for abortions.

In March, the National Black Pro-Life Union sent letters to the Planned Parenthood Federation
of America, NAACP, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Congressional Black Caucus and Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-Pa.).

The letters call on these groups and Fattah to support the termination of federal funding of Planned Parenthood, which currently exceeds $300 million a year.

The National Black Pro-Life Union is a coalition of 15 African-American organizations that includes the Coalition of African-American Pastors, High Impact Leadership Coalition, and King
for America, which is led by King.

According to the National Black Pro-Life Union, none of the groups contacted have responded
to the letters.

King, who is also a pastoral associate for the conservative pro-life group Priests for Life,
said she was partially motivated to join the campaign to terminate federal funding for Planned Parenthood because in the early 1970s she was fooled into getting an abortion by a Planned Parenthood office that told her that her baby was “just a blob” of tissue.

“There are more Planned Parenthood clinics in black neighborhoods, because there is an
artificial demand, which was created by Planned Parenthood,” King told Cybercast News Service. “We were told by Planned Parenthood that abortion, which is actually murder, is therapeutic.”

The Planned Parenthood Federation did not respond to Cybercast News Service’s multiple requests for comment.

“It’s very difficult for them to understand that we are part of one race - the human race - and racism is just fighting among ourselves,” said King. “Congress needs to defund Planned Parenthood for participating in this agenda right away.”

**********

Pastors Accuse Planned Parenthood for ‘Genocide’ on Blacks
Thursday, April 24, 2008

WASHINGTON — The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has perpetuated a “genocide on the black community,” says a group of African-American pastors who claimed Thursday the birth control and abortion provider has had a racist agenda since its beginnings in 1921.

Holding a brief vigil and press conference in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington,
D.C., the group of pastors and activists said they were incensed by the results of recent “undercover” inquiries into several Planned Parenthood clinics across the country.

“Every day … over 1,500 black babies are murdered inside the black woman’s womb,” said Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, of Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND). “This is a race issue.”

The pastors urged Congress to initiate an audit of the organization and have written letters demand-ing that money for Planned Parenthood be eliminated from federal Title X funding, of which the group got $65 million for fiscal year 2007, according to pro-life Concerned Women of America. In total, Planned Parenthood received $300 million in government contracts and grants in the current fiscal year.

The national office of Planned Parenthood provided FOX News with a lengthy statement on Thursday in which it said its role in the African-American community is widespread because the need is greater.

“The (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) revealed that a shocking number of teenage African -American girls — nearly half — carry a sexually transmitted infection,” reads the statement. “This compares to an overall average rate for all teenage girls of at least one in four.

“The largest increases in the teen birthrate were reported for non-Hispanic black teens, whose over-all rate rose five percent in 2006. In addition, African-American women are more likely to die of breast cancer than the general population,” it said.

But an investigation, undertaken by students at the University of California at Los Angeles news-paper, The Advocate, revealed troubling responses from Planned Parenthood staffers when asked by an actor, posing as a “donor,” if he could earmark his contribution for abortions for “black babies” only.

In one example, Autumn Kersey, vice president for marketing at Planned Parenthood of Idaho, is asked whether a donation can be specified “to help a minority group … like the black community, for example.”

“Certainly,” Kersey says in a taped response in which she sounds genuinely encouraged by the offer. “If you wanted to designate that your gift be used to help an African-American woman in need, then we would certainly make sure the gift as earmarked for that purpose.”

The caller responds: “Great, because I really faced trouble with affirmative action, and I don’t
want my kids to be disadvantaged against black kids. I just had a baby; I want to put it in his
name.”

Kersey responds, “Absolutely.” The “donor” proceeds to proclaim that “the less black kids out there the better,” followed by, “understandable, understandable,” by Kersey, who laughed as if he were joking.

“Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time that I’ve had a donor call and make this kind of
request, so I’m excited and want to make sure I don’t leave anything out,” she is recorded saying.

Kersey’s and other statements were culled from calls to Planned Parenthood clinics in six states.
In each, the staff person answering the call expressed an interest in taking the donations despite the caller’s overtly racist commentary.

That is part of a troubling trend, say critics, who accuse Planned Parenthood of targeting minority neighborhoods. They blame the institution for a disproportionate rate of abortions among black women.

“I think the media, and I think America, and certainly black folks, need to start thinking about
race and Planned Parenthood, said Rev. Clenard Childress, who raised the question, not for the first time, about Planned Parenthood’s founder, Margaret Sanger, who died over 40 years ago at the age of 86.

Sanger, a pioneering advocate for universal access to birth control for women, was also a proponent of “eugenics,” a philosophy that advocates social intervention, like birth control and abortion, for “improving” the hereditary traits of the human race. According to biographies written about Sanger, who was the sixth child of 11 eleven born to a family in upstate New York, her support for this practice was focused on the “unfit” and the poor — slum dwellers — as they were called at the time, by making contraceptives more available there.

Over the years, comments made by Sanger about reproduction among the poor and minorities have led to her reputation as a racist and a belief that she wanted to “weed” out blacks from society. Planned Parenthood has disputed that caricature and has pointed out her supporters in the black community, including Martin Luther King Jr., and W.E.B DuBois. Nevertheless, Childress and others repeatedly invoked her name as a major force behind a century-long “genocide” on the black community.

According to a report released by the group of Students for Life America on Tuesday, black women are 4.8 times more likely to have an abortion than white women, while the black population in the U.S. is in decline. Black women account for 36 percent of those having abortions in the U.S. today, according to group, while black children make up 17 percent of live births.

“Contrary to the public’s belief that Planned Parenthood is helpful and supportive of family
planning and the health of the mother and child, recent news and research show that the roots of its foundation have continued to give birth to continual hatred and disdain for minorities that its founder saw as ‘unfit,’” the group says in its report.

* 1st, let me say that I’m glad to see that CNN has added a “Salute to the troops” blog. God bless our troops.
* Hmmmm…. Nicholas Cage settles liable suit against Kathleen Turner… Ok.. Whatever.
* Hilary would like FL & MI to count… Straining to hold her campaign together, me thinks.
* Nato endorses US missile shield in Eastern Europe… wise move.
* Ha! Electrocuted rat spurs Stockholm power outage. Seriously, “it’s the little things.”

* I’ll finish up with one that I read a few weeks ago- “Woman goes into hospital for a leg operation and gets a new anus instead.” Glad I wasn’t the 1st orderly to see her after the operation… “I’m here to change your bandages…” From now on I will think twice before saying “I’m having a bad day.”

Why do you seek the living one amoung the dead? He is not here, but He has been raised.
(Luke 24:5-6)

This is among my top 3 favorite passages in all of holy scripture.

A man has been raised from the dead to eternal life. The same will happen to all who believe His message and obey His teachings.

If you can’t get excited about that… you must be… well… dare I say: “dead?”

Have a blessed Easter.

This discussion comes up a lot when I’m telling people about Slingshot Records and why we operate the way we do.

Not only do I run the label (with the help of a handful of other great folks), I’m in one of the bands on the label (REV21). So I know what it’s like to be an artist. The music business has gone through some MAJOR changes in the last 25 years. And, one thing is for sure — only rarely has it been an “artist friendly environment.” That’s what Slingshot Records is trying to create.

Think of some of the changes in last 25 years:
** Vinyl, 8 track, cassette, DAT’s, CD, MP3, etc.
** AM, FM, Satellite, Internet radio.
** Dick Clark’s American Band-Stand, Mid-Night Special, Night Tracks USA (Where Tom Kenney,the voice of Sponge Bob got his start), MTV, VH1, YOUTUBE.
** Acoustic instruments, electric instruments/amps, Moogs, computers, samplers, loops, modelers.
** In early 1980’s lawyers and accountants took over the labels… they couldn’t give a RIP about the artists and their dreams.

Which I’ll leave as the point of this 1st installment: Artists… If it’s because we want the best access to hear our favorite artists, and all of these innovations helped that… WHY DO WE NOT NURTURE ARTISTS EFFORTS? Is it all because of the pursuit of the “fast buck?” I think it can definitely be argued that short sited business people in the music business often toss less developed talent aside seeking a “sure thing.” Not that that’s all bad, but often equally talented artists throw away their dreams because perceive a “no” as final word on their career.

A few years ago it was either Steven Tyler or Mick Jagger that said (paraphrasing) “We’d have never made it in this current music business environment. It took us 3 albums to hit our stride.”

These terms have aspects that can be similar - (sadly). The first two can be quite healthy. The last two are never healthy. The first two can drift into the last two if you’re not careful. The last two can never yield anything good unless by a fluke… something results in a 180 degree turn from them. (Hmmm… that last sentence was rather goof, but I’m going to leave it in there because I am an optimist.)

Sorry, I got off on a tangent. My main reason for examining these words was because I sometimes struggle with maintaining a healthy balance between Competition and Capitalism while I live my life.

If I’m not careful I can begin to envy those who are attaining the very goals that I’m seeking but failing to attain. (Not good).

Competition seems best when I’m also rooting for those in competition with because a greater, positive goal is still being attained. Capitalism feels best when I’m achieving the scripturally mandate to “cultivate our talents.” It’s God that gives the increase. My efforts are only a factor… a faith step. And, without faith it’s impossible to please God.

Please enjoy these Excerpts from “I’ve Always Been Proud of America” By Rich Galen
Wednesday, February 20, 2008

If Michelle Obama is finally really proud of America because of Barack’s run, she should be aware that Obama is not the first Black person to run for President…

In 1972 Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ran for President. Mrs. Chisholm, a Black woman from New York received 151 delegate votes at the Democratic National Convention that year. That total will be way more than John Edwards, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich will receive at the 2008 Democratic National Convention - COMBINED!

Now, I will grant you that Michelle Obama was only eight years old in 1972 but one assumes she has read the history of the United States generally and/or the history of Black Women in the United States in particular. In her speech announcing her candidacy in January 1972 Rep. Chisholm said: “I stand before you today as a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency of the United States. “I am not the candidate of black America, although I am Black and proud. “I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman, and I am equally proud of that. “I am not the candidate of any political bosses or special interests. “I am the candidate of the people.” Thus demonstrating an understanding of an America which Michelle Obama clearly lacks lo these 36 years later.

So, Rick says: How about we all focus on the healing rather than than the poison? (Numbers 21, Old Testament)

Check out Wintley Phipps history lesson on “the black notes” here:

I recently listened to people call into a Nashville talk radio show and share what they loved about America. To my surprise, most of the comments where profoundly moving.

Ideas like America liberating Europe and the Pacific during WWII (and our military forces are ALWAYS LIBERATOR’S). Freedom of religion (not “from religion” unless that’s your speed)… the ability to share your faith without fear of being beheaded… no matter what your religious affiliation. The ability to pursue your life’s calling or dream and possibly achieve the goal.

Can these things be said about any other nation throughout history? There may be a select few… very few.

Is this country perfect… NO WAY! Are there parts of US history that are sad and even shameful… CERTAINLY!

The most profound comment that I heard that day illustrated a major difference between liberals and conservatives —

Most liberals (seem to) hate the United States because of it’s failures.
(No offense meant to my liberal friends… and, please show me where this observation is wrong… I’m begging you). What.. we.. have.. here… is a failure to communicate. I don’t like this division any more than you do… but, this is the way you want it… so, you get it. (A twist on a quote from “Cool Hand Luke.”)

On the other hand, most Conservatives deeply love the America IN SPITE of it’s failures.

The moral of the story is: Ideals are great. And, it’s admirable, honorable, and necessary to strive for them. But, if you’re waiting for perfection this side of Heaven… well… don’t hold your breath.

Yes or no… Do you love America?