“New video out of Cincinnati shows a black mob viciously beating and choking a white man, but police have distanced themselves from an initial explanation that the incident was an “anti-white” attack.”
But if a white mob attacked a black man, they would be all over it.
“Earlier this month, LifeNews.com reported on a high school in Seattle, Washington that is now implanting intrauterine devices (IUD), as well as other forms of birth control and doing so without parental knowledge or permission.
The IUD is known as a long acting reversible contraception, and may even act as an abortifacient. So, a young teen in Seattle can’t get a coke at her high school, but she can have a device implanted into her uterus, which can unknowingly kill her unborn child immediately after conception. Or, if she uses another method, she can increase her chances of health risks for herself, especially if using a new method.
The high school, Chief Sealth International, a public school, began offering the devices in 2010, made possible by a Medicaid program known as Take Charge and a non-profit, Neighborcare. Students can receive the device or other method free of cost and without their parent’s insurance. And while it’s lauded that the contraception is confidential, how can it be beneficial for a parent-child relationship when the parents don’t even know the devices or medication their daughter is using?
As it turns out, Chief Sealth isn’t the only school in Seattle doing this. As CNS News reports, more schools are fitting young girls — as young as 6th grade — with the devices and doing so without their parents knowing.”
” Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say they are determined to see that the requests are scaled back.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans — market leaders in many states — are seeking rate increases that average 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee and 54 percent in Minnesota, according to documents posted online by the federal government and state insurance commissioners and interviews with insurance executives.
The Oregon insurance commissioner, Laura N. Cali, has just approved 2016 rate increases for companies that cover more than 220,000 people. Moda Health Plan, which has the largest enrollment in the state, received a 25 percent increase, and the second-largest plan, LifeWise, received a 33 percent increase.”
He knew when two men showed up at his front door to threaten him in 2006 that his family would continue living in danger because of the three years he spent as an interpreter for U.S. forces in Iraq, including some of the most violent years of the war.
“[Militants] said to my parents and my family that we know your son was in the U.S. forces so when we catch him we will kill him,” Frodo said. “I worried about my kids and my family and I had a lot of nightmares that they’d come and catch me and my family and they kill my family.”
Frodo chose to go by this nickname to protect his identity from those who threaten his life.
Although the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad recognized Frodo as facing a “serious threat” and gave him “chief of mission approval,” the first step of the visa process, in August 2011, it wasn’t until a month ago that he finally got approval to travel, with his family, to the United States.
During the time his application remained in “administrative processing” his country was devastated by a new war that saw thousands more deaths and the rise of the Islamic State.”
“In the course of my work, I am often asked by colleagues to review and explain documents and statutes. Recently, in conjunction with my colleagues Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne, I read the transcripts of an interview Ms. Browne did with a man named Marc Turi, and Ms. Herridge asked me to review emails to and from State Department and congressional officials during the years when Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state.
What I saw has persuaded me beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty that Mrs. Clinton provided material assistance to terrorists and lied to Congress in a venue where the law required her to be truthful. Here is the backstory.
Mr. Turi is a lawfully licensed American arms dealer. In 2011, he applied to the Departments of State and Treasury for approvals to sell arms to the government of Qatar. Qatar is a small Middle Eastern country whose government is so entwined with the U.S. government that it almost always will do what American government officials ask of it.
In its efforts to keep arms from countries and groups that might harm Americans and American interests, Congress has authorized the Departments of State and Treasury to be arms gatekeepers. They can declare a country or group to be a terrorist organization, in which case selling or facilitating the sale of arms to it is a felony. They also can license dealers to sell.
Mr. Turi sold hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of arms to the government of Qatar, which then, at the request of American government officials, were sold, bartered or given to rebel groups in Libya and Syria. Some of the groups that received the arms were on the U.S. terror list. Thus, the same State and Treasury Departments that licensed the sales also prohibited them. How could that be?
That’s where Mrs. Clinton’s secret State Department and her secret war come in. Because Mrs. Clinton used her husband’s computer server for all of her email traffic while she was the secretary of state, a violation of three federal laws, few in the State Department outside her inner circle knew what she was up to.”
“The president of a conservative watchdog group says now that it is known that classified information was contained in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private stash of State Department emails, it is time for the government to seize her personal server and related storage disks to determine whether security was breached during her tenure as secretary of state.
Thomas Fitton, who runs Judicial Watch, has filed, along with other groups, lawsuits to force the State Department to turn over memos and emails. These include Mrs. Clinton’s messages stored on her private, at-home server through which she exclusively conducted government business. A State Department official told a Senate committee this year that her practice was “not acceptable.”
U.S. guidelines are in place for the government to examine computer components that housed classified data without authorization.
Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in May against Secretary of State John F. Kerry in an effort to have a federal judge order the government to seize Mrs. Clinton’s emails. With last week’s disclosure of classified material being contained in her messages, the watchdog group says its case is stronger.
“It dramatically undermines the defense both from the State Department and Mrs. Clinton that this is not really a big deal,” Mr. Fitton told The Washington Times. “The presumption was there was classified information and that turned out to be the case. And Mrs. Clinton’s denial that there’s classified material — she knew better. Of course there would have been classified material there. And the State Department’s explanation, ‘Oh well, we classified stuff after the fact all the time. There’s nothing unusual there.’ That is baloney. It’s not what the rules are.””
“To the “Black Lives Matter” crowd, it seems that most black lives don’t.
Roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered each year — more than 90 percent by other blacks. To some Democrats, only those shot by white police officers or white bigots seem to matter.
Just 25 percent of about 400 local police killings a year involve a white cop and a black victim, an FBI study found. Shootings of blacks by police has been cut in half since 1981. For every black person killed by a white cop, black criminals murder 70. It is 25 times more likely a black person will commit a crime of violence against a white person than vice versa.
There’s so much crime in inner-city black communities because they’re poor, some say. They have it backward.
If poverty caused crime, crime rates wouldn’t fall during recessions; wouldn’t be much lower in poor rural counties than in cities, where incomes are higher. When crime rates are adjusted for “familial risk factors,” the correlation between poverty and crime all but disappears, Swedish researchers found.
We’ve spent more on the “War on Poverty” than on all of America’s real wars combined. As social service spending exploded, urban decay accelerated.
Crime causes poverty. Businesses flee violence-riddled neighborhoods, taking jobs with them. Property values fall.
More than 60 percent of prison inmates — 85 percent of juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system — are functionally illiterate. Rotten schools stunt millions of black lives.”
Can you imagine what it will be like if Hillary becomes president?
As I said before, it isn’t ideology,it’s money.
Concerning IUD in preteens.
I’m almost 85 and have been around some. I thought I knew about most things. But I must misunderstand something. Maybe I don’t know what an IUD is, but I didn’t think one could be inserted into a virgin.
This could, potentially, be a serious thing.
I agree with much of what he said, but I just don’t think it’s an either-or situation. As stewards of this world and of our nation — which is built on the premise of participatory democracy — Christians have a calling and a duty to do what they can to make life better for all, primarily out of a love for our neighbor, including those who haven’t been born yet.
The decisions being made recently aren’t good for anyone 😦 and potentially will cause much harm.
Democratic primaries have always featured liberal insurgent candidates, but perhaps none quite so liberal or insurgent as the socialist senator from Vermont. Sanders’ comments are a reminder of just how far the second-place Democratic presidential candidate stands from the American mainstream on some issues, and the looming reckoning Democrats face with their party’s leftward drift.
Summer is here and so I have time on my porch to write a few words.
1. Black Live Matter etc. Police violence and discrimination is a serious problem. Given the events of the last few months, I think its hard for anyone to ignore the fact that African Americans are treated differently. Police discrimination/violence does contribute to the violence that exists in predominantly black neighbourhoods. Thus the police are part of the problem and need to be part of the solution. An element not to be dismissed or distracted by black on black violence.
To raise the issue of black on black violence is rather simplistic — the rate of white on white violence is higher than black on white or police on white too. Would we ignore or distract on that basis?? A large part of violent crime is in fact domestic thus one would expect violence to be within a race as its actually within the family.
An unfortunate part of American cultural context is the heightened awareness of race usually results in a diminished awareness of class. The pool party in Texas was broken up not only because some residents didn’t appreciate blacks but because they were poor blacks. They had wandered away from their Section 8 housing — gone off the reservation to use a term usually applied to another poor disenfranchised group.
2. The confederate flag is a distraction which although started by African Americans as a symbol and a legitimate grievance has morphed into the only thing that matters. The actions taken in Charelston was that of a lone gunman motivated by others and acting as a terrorist. Terrorism against African Americans does exist and is advocated by certain groups in America. However, the focus on the flag has taken the media focus away from where it should be — the face of terrorism in America.
As a child, I considered the flag, “the rebel flag” and saw it as a way of flouting one’s disrespect for authority. As I grew older I identified it as a marker for people who hadn’t grown up/were full of resentment for others/closed minded/ etc And thus the flag was a good identifier for me to avoid them. As you can tell, the flag means different things for different people especially in different contexts. Hence, the focus on the flag away from the issue of racial violence, terrorism, gun control etc is a way for the media to appear sympathetic while avoiding the more difficult questions facing America.
3. IUDs. I’m not sure how this is any different than handing out free condoms or birth control pills which is a fairly standard practise in many high schools as well as public health clinics. IUDs are more intrusive so I’m a little surprised thats the method chosen, although one can see it as more reliable in that proper use of the pill or condoms among teens is not to be expect.
The legal age of medical consent varies by jurisdiction but I imagine its between 12 to 16. Hence, I can’t see any child receiving an IUD without parent consent in grade six. Just checked — in Washington State medical age of consent depends on treatment but its usually between 13-14 except for emergencies or birth control in which case age is not an issue. The Ontario medical consent rules are more complex and age is not a factor — basically medical personnel have to discern the patients ability to understand and consent.
4. Hilary has to win her primary first. Once she beats back Sanders, the Republican field won’t be any more difficult. Right now she’s ahead of Sanders by 13 in Iowa and 9 in New Hampshire whereas she’s ahead of Bush (the closest) by about 6-8 points. Sanders is a challenge for both Clinton and the media in that he refuses to let others write his narrative. Clinton’s best move is to simply carry on — to respond to the Sanders challenge by pulling to the left or change positions leaves her vulnerable in the general election. She knows that and thus won’t be distracted.
5. Gay marriage. I was rather amused by both the celebratory nonsense and the doom and gloom. Marriage is essentially a bourgeois institution. You want to maintain marriage — maintain the middle class. As the middle class declines, so does marriage. One can argue the causation direction but its definitely a correlation. Marriage is no longer a standard assumption — many can’t be bothered and 50% of those who bother end up divorcing. As some pundits as cynical as me pointed out — many people now support gay marriage because they really don’t see the value in marriage.
Hello HRW, welcome back, though you and I disagree on most of that. but too much to comment on now.
Suffice it to say that I nearly cried when they replaced the confederate flag on the General Lee.
Or is it now the General Wesley Clark?
We spend all this time worried about teens getting pregnant, but we never explain that actions taken now can lead to infertility in the future. My infertility issues were from low sperm count and poor ovulation, but I have one friend who had an abortion in college and had difficulty conceiving later when she wanted to. I have another friend who used an IUD and it led to complications and a full hysterectomy. BCP’s carry risks of strokes and other medical issues, especially combined with cigarette smoking. I don’t think many 12-16 year olds are considering future health and fertility concerns.
I am not advocating sticking your head in the sand and pretending that sex won’t happen, but as a parent I feel I have the right to make medical decisions about my child that will have long term effects. The oral surgeon sure does want my child’s parents there when he removes wisdom teeth!!!!
I could almost agree to keeping abortion legal (although I am personally opposed to it) BUT I want it treated like any other outpatient surgery.
I’ve been off today and couldn’t comment on the IUD situation, but I agree with what HRW (hi, nice to see you again) was saying. An IUD is not something to mess around with, though they are safer now than they were 30 years ago.
They need to be monitored and rather than go into detail on how, let’s just say it sounded complicated to me as a college graduate when I first read up on them. How anyone in their right mind expects a young teenager to monitor is beyond me. Who is taking them on a regular basis to the gynecologist? And really, putting a 12 year old up in stirrups–wouldn’t that be somewhat traumatic?
Of course the girls probably were sexually active before hand, which is why they did it, but still, isn’t implanting an IUD dealing with symptoms rather than root causes?
I find it interesting they didn’t use the patch–which is easier to monitor and to apply–literally. But, the patch is obvious if you’re looking at it and might have raised questions. Not to mention the implication of putting hormones into a child who may not yet have entered puberty.
There’s so much wrong with this scenario–which I frankly haven’t examined in detail–that I’m flummoxed a school district would take it on. Maybe we’ll see some lawsuits? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?
And if a kid can’t carry ibuprofen to school, how can anyone justify this type of physical intrusion?
1. The Dukes — horrible distraction from the real issues — a mindlessly simplistic tv show which had one redeeming feature once you realized every episode was the same. And the car wasn’t bad either. But its easier to condemn a car than talk about real issues
2. IUD – I read about this prior to coming here on a leftist site and my first thought was do schools have the right equipment (stirrups) and thats as far as my mind was willing to go in that direction. The patch and the IUD both require more monitoring than a school should be willing to do nor does a school have that expertise. It appears the school board was attempting to eliminate teen pregnancy in any way possible.
Schools should educate and explain the options (condoms, pills, IUDs) and if somehow we think grade sixes posses the ability to consent they should seek out medical personel at a proper clinic. Normally health teachers explain birth control methods pros and con and at the most point to the direction of a local clinic.
STI prevention usually means if any method is advocated its condoms. Although any middle school health teacher would be remiss to point out that condom effectiveness is dependent on the male knowing how to use it properly — not something a 15 year old knows nor think about.
Strange how there is a sexual age of consent but no age of consent on birth control….the two don’t always coincide but still……
And as for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton being a more plausible general election candidate, Thyle Shartar, a Wiscasset resident, seemed to sum up the way the strategic- calculations-versus-heartfelt-sentiments debate is shaking out.
“I think you have to vote for what you believe in,” she said.
And besides, added Stephen Tewhey, a retired IT type from Gorham, “Bernie will move the whole conversation to the left.”
Wishful thinking? Maybe. Still, people at this rally clearly didn’t consider Sanders’ pitch to be the stuff of progressive pipe dreams, but rather simple — and long overdue — common sense.
That helps explain why, in a few short months, Sanders has accomplished something few anticipated: He has established himself as the major challenger to Clinton. ….
HRW, I could disagree with just about every point you make. I’ll point out, though, that equating the black-on-black murder rate to the white-on-white and assuming that both are mostly domestic violence suggests you know little or nothing about inner-city crime.
And your assumptions on “the rebel flag” are simplistic and insulting. Many people fly it because they believe the CSA was a legitimate nation (it was) that was illegitimately shut down (it was) at the cost of a staggering number of lives. (Do you know what 600,000 translates into as a percentage of modern-day America?) Imagine that America went to war against Canada, conquered it by the deaths of millions on both sides, and brought Canada in as part of America, and then some Canadians still want to fly the Canadian flag–would you consider that immature or childish? What if some of the people who flew it had lost relatives in the Canadian-American war?
Oh, and inserting something in a minor is different from handing out condoms–but that too is morally wrong and no place of the schools. Handing our birth control pills is also hideously immoral–birth control pills can wreak havoc on an adult woman’s hormones (I determined in my twenties I’d never touch the things, I’d seen so many problems among my friends who had used them, and nothing I’ve seen since has made me change my mind), and here are parents not even knowing that their young daughter, who is their own responsibility, is taking a potent drug? Further, none of those birth control methods, including condoms, is effective against STDs, but somehow girls would have a false sense of security if they’re using them.
Wandering Views 
A completely different take on recent events from the Lutheran pastor who married us long ago:
http://pastorpaulanderson.com/2015/07/06/the-supreme-court/
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From infofwars.com via Drudge
by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON | JULY 7, 2015
“New video out of Cincinnati shows a black mob viciously beating and choking a white man, but police have distanced themselves from an initial explanation that the incident was an “anti-white” attack.”
But if a white mob attacked a black man, they would be all over it.
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News dump time…
Implanting IUD in girls as young as 6th grade. Without parental consent.
http://www.lifenews.com/2015/07/02/schools-implant-iuds-in-girls-as-young-as-6th-grade-without-their-parents-knowing/
“Earlier this month, LifeNews.com reported on a high school in Seattle, Washington that is now implanting intrauterine devices (IUD), as well as other forms of birth control and doing so without parental knowledge or permission.
The IUD is known as a long acting reversible contraception, and may even act as an abortifacient. So, a young teen in Seattle can’t get a coke at her high school, but she can have a device implanted into her uterus, which can unknowingly kill her unborn child immediately after conception. Or, if she uses another method, she can increase her chances of health risks for herself, especially if using a new method.
The high school, Chief Sealth International, a public school, began offering the devices in 2010, made possible by a Medicaid program known as Take Charge and a non-profit, Neighborcare. Students can receive the device or other method free of cost and without their parent’s insurance. And while it’s lauded that the contraception is confidential, how can it be beneficial for a parent-child relationship when the parents don’t even know the devices or medication their daughter is using?
As it turns out, Chief Sealth isn’t the only school in Seattle doing this. As CNS News reports, more schools are fitting young girls — as young as 6th grade — with the devices and doing so without their parents knowing.”
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Here comes the pain….
” Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say they are determined to see that the requests are scaled back.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans — market leaders in many states — are seeking rate increases that average 23 percent in Illinois, 25 percent in North Carolina, 31 percent in Oklahoma, 36 percent in Tennessee and 54 percent in Minnesota, according to documents posted online by the federal government and state insurance commissioners and interviews with insurance executives.
The Oregon insurance commissioner, Laura N. Cali, has just approved 2016 rate increases for companies that cover more than 220,000 people. Moda Health Plan, which has the largest enrollment in the state, received a 25 percent increase, and the second-largest plan, LifeWise, received a 33 percent increase.”
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They should just come in thru Mexico, it’s cheaper, faster, and free.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article26283241.html
“Frodo lived in fear for nine years.
He knew when two men showed up at his front door to threaten him in 2006 that his family would continue living in danger because of the three years he spent as an interpreter for U.S. forces in Iraq, including some of the most violent years of the war.
“[Militants] said to my parents and my family that we know your son was in the U.S. forces so when we catch him we will kill him,” Frodo said. “I worried about my kids and my family and I had a lot of nightmares that they’d come and catch me and my family and they kill my family.”
Frodo chose to go by this nickname to protect his identity from those who threaten his life.
Although the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad recognized Frodo as facing a “serious threat” and gave him “chief of mission approval,” the first step of the visa process, in August 2011, it wasn’t until a month ago that he finally got approval to travel, with his family, to the United States.
During the time his application remained in “administrative processing” his country was devastated by a new war that saw thousands more deaths and the rise of the Islamic State.”
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Hillary’s secret war.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/1/andrew-napolitano-hillarys-secret-war/
“In the course of my work, I am often asked by colleagues to review and explain documents and statutes. Recently, in conjunction with my colleagues Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne, I read the transcripts of an interview Ms. Browne did with a man named Marc Turi, and Ms. Herridge asked me to review emails to and from State Department and congressional officials during the years when Hillary Clinton was the secretary of state.
What I saw has persuaded me beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty that Mrs. Clinton provided material assistance to terrorists and lied to Congress in a venue where the law required her to be truthful. Here is the backstory.
Mr. Turi is a lawfully licensed American arms dealer. In 2011, he applied to the Departments of State and Treasury for approvals to sell arms to the government of Qatar. Qatar is a small Middle Eastern country whose government is so entwined with the U.S. government that it almost always will do what American government officials ask of it.
In its efforts to keep arms from countries and groups that might harm Americans and American interests, Congress has authorized the Departments of State and Treasury to be arms gatekeepers. They can declare a country or group to be a terrorist organization, in which case selling or facilitating the sale of arms to it is a felony. They also can license dealers to sell.
Mr. Turi sold hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of arms to the government of Qatar, which then, at the request of American government officials, were sold, bartered or given to rebel groups in Libya and Syria. Some of the groups that received the arms were on the U.S. terror list. Thus, the same State and Treasury Departments that licensed the sales also prohibited them. How could that be?
That’s where Mrs. Clinton’s secret State Department and her secret war come in. Because Mrs. Clinton used her husband’s computer server for all of her email traffic while she was the secretary of state, a violation of three federal laws, few in the State Department outside her inner circle knew what she was up to.”
————————————————
It’s way past time to seize Hillary’s server.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/5/hillary-clinton-classified-emails-require-governme/
“The president of a conservative watchdog group says now that it is known that classified information was contained in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s private stash of State Department emails, it is time for the government to seize her personal server and related storage disks to determine whether security was breached during her tenure as secretary of state.
Thomas Fitton, who runs Judicial Watch, has filed, along with other groups, lawsuits to force the State Department to turn over memos and emails. These include Mrs. Clinton’s messages stored on her private, at-home server through which she exclusively conducted government business. A State Department official told a Senate committee this year that her practice was “not acceptable.”
U.S. guidelines are in place for the government to examine computer components that housed classified data without authorization.
Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit in May against Secretary of State John F. Kerry in an effort to have a federal judge order the government to seize Mrs. Clinton’s emails. With last week’s disclosure of classified material being contained in her messages, the watchdog group says its case is stronger.
“It dramatically undermines the defense both from the State Department and Mrs. Clinton that this is not really a big deal,” Mr. Fitton told The Washington Times. “The presumption was there was classified information and that turned out to be the case. And Mrs. Clinton’s denial that there’s classified material — she knew better. Of course there would have been classified material there. And the State Department’s explanation, ‘Oh well, we classified stuff after the fact all the time. There’s nothing unusual there.’ That is baloney. It’s not what the rules are.””
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We know they don’t, other than as tools to get what they want, but if liberals really cared about black lives….
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/07/05/if_liberals_really_cared_about_black_lives_127249.html
“To the “Black Lives Matter” crowd, it seems that most black lives don’t.
Roughly 7,000 blacks are murdered each year — more than 90 percent by other blacks. To some Democrats, only those shot by white police officers or white bigots seem to matter.
Just 25 percent of about 400 local police killings a year involve a white cop and a black victim, an FBI study found. Shootings of blacks by police has been cut in half since 1981. For every black person killed by a white cop, black criminals murder 70. It is 25 times more likely a black person will commit a crime of violence against a white person than vice versa.
There’s so much crime in inner-city black communities because they’re poor, some say. They have it backward.
If poverty caused crime, crime rates wouldn’t fall during recessions; wouldn’t be much lower in poor rural counties than in cities, where incomes are higher. When crime rates are adjusted for “familial risk factors,” the correlation between poverty and crime all but disappears, Swedish researchers found.
We’ve spent more on the “War on Poverty” than on all of America’s real wars combined. As social service spending exploded, urban decay accelerated.
Crime causes poverty. Businesses flee violence-riddled neighborhoods, taking jobs with them. Property values fall.
More than 60 percent of prison inmates — 85 percent of juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system — are functionally illiterate. Rotten schools stunt millions of black lives.”
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Can you imagine what it will be like if Hillary becomes president?
As I said before, it isn’t ideology,it’s money.
Concerning IUD in preteens.
I’m almost 85 and have been around some. I thought I knew about most things. But I must misunderstand something. Maybe I don’t know what an IUD is, but I didn’t think one could be inserted into a virgin.
This could, potentially, be a serious thing.
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Chief Sealth International should be renamed Chief Stealth International.
Disgusting and horrifying, this sneaking around behind the backs of parents, doing dangerous things to our youth.
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Just plain evil, 6.
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Ah, tall Paul. I remember him. 🙂
I agree with much of what he said, but I just don’t think it’s an either-or situation. As stewards of this world and of our nation — which is built on the premise of participatory democracy — Christians have a calling and a duty to do what they can to make life better for all, primarily out of a love for our neighbor, including those who haven’t been born yet.
The decisions being made recently aren’t good for anyone 😦 and potentially will cause much harm.
I’m not giving up this ship quite yet. 🙂
If Hillary wins, maybe. 😦
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I read this last night, interesting how far to the left the Democratic party has moved since 2008.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/bernie-sanders-socialist-surge-119785.html
_____________________________________
Democratic primaries have always featured liberal insurgent candidates, but perhaps none quite so liberal or insurgent as the socialist senator from Vermont. Sanders’ comments are a reminder of just how far the second-place Democratic presidential candidate stands from the American mainstream on some issues, and the looming reckoning Democrats face with their party’s leftward drift.
_____________________________________
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In order to placate the angry, uptight hordes (thanks public education!) I give you the politically correct Dukes of Hazzard.
With an apology to my southern friends for the cousins bit at the end. 😯
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Summer is here and so I have time on my porch to write a few words.
1. Black Live Matter etc. Police violence and discrimination is a serious problem. Given the events of the last few months, I think its hard for anyone to ignore the fact that African Americans are treated differently. Police discrimination/violence does contribute to the violence that exists in predominantly black neighbourhoods. Thus the police are part of the problem and need to be part of the solution. An element not to be dismissed or distracted by black on black violence.
To raise the issue of black on black violence is rather simplistic — the rate of white on white violence is higher than black on white or police on white too. Would we ignore or distract on that basis?? A large part of violent crime is in fact domestic thus one would expect violence to be within a race as its actually within the family.
An unfortunate part of American cultural context is the heightened awareness of race usually results in a diminished awareness of class. The pool party in Texas was broken up not only because some residents didn’t appreciate blacks but because they were poor blacks. They had wandered away from their Section 8 housing — gone off the reservation to use a term usually applied to another poor disenfranchised group.
2. The confederate flag is a distraction which although started by African Americans as a symbol and a legitimate grievance has morphed into the only thing that matters. The actions taken in Charelston was that of a lone gunman motivated by others and acting as a terrorist. Terrorism against African Americans does exist and is advocated by certain groups in America. However, the focus on the flag has taken the media focus away from where it should be — the face of terrorism in America.
As a child, I considered the flag, “the rebel flag” and saw it as a way of flouting one’s disrespect for authority. As I grew older I identified it as a marker for people who hadn’t grown up/were full of resentment for others/closed minded/ etc And thus the flag was a good identifier for me to avoid them. As you can tell, the flag means different things for different people especially in different contexts. Hence, the focus on the flag away from the issue of racial violence, terrorism, gun control etc is a way for the media to appear sympathetic while avoiding the more difficult questions facing America.
3. IUDs. I’m not sure how this is any different than handing out free condoms or birth control pills which is a fairly standard practise in many high schools as well as public health clinics. IUDs are more intrusive so I’m a little surprised thats the method chosen, although one can see it as more reliable in that proper use of the pill or condoms among teens is not to be expect.
The legal age of medical consent varies by jurisdiction but I imagine its between 12 to 16. Hence, I can’t see any child receiving an IUD without parent consent in grade six. Just checked — in Washington State medical age of consent depends on treatment but its usually between 13-14 except for emergencies or birth control in which case age is not an issue. The Ontario medical consent rules are more complex and age is not a factor — basically medical personnel have to discern the patients ability to understand and consent.
4. Hilary has to win her primary first. Once she beats back Sanders, the Republican field won’t be any more difficult. Right now she’s ahead of Sanders by 13 in Iowa and 9 in New Hampshire whereas she’s ahead of Bush (the closest) by about 6-8 points. Sanders is a challenge for both Clinton and the media in that he refuses to let others write his narrative. Clinton’s best move is to simply carry on — to respond to the Sanders challenge by pulling to the left or change positions leaves her vulnerable in the general election. She knows that and thus won’t be distracted.
5. Gay marriage. I was rather amused by both the celebratory nonsense and the doom and gloom. Marriage is essentially a bourgeois institution. You want to maintain marriage — maintain the middle class. As the middle class declines, so does marriage. One can argue the causation direction but its definitely a correlation. Marriage is no longer a standard assumption — many can’t be bothered and 50% of those who bother end up divorcing. As some pundits as cynical as me pointed out — many people now support gay marriage because they really don’t see the value in marriage.
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Hello HRW, welcome back, though you and I disagree on most of that. but too much to comment on now.
Suffice it to say that I nearly cried when they replaced the confederate flag on the General Lee.
Or is it now the General Wesley Clark?
😆
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We spend all this time worried about teens getting pregnant, but we never explain that actions taken now can lead to infertility in the future. My infertility issues were from low sperm count and poor ovulation, but I have one friend who had an abortion in college and had difficulty conceiving later when she wanted to. I have another friend who used an IUD and it led to complications and a full hysterectomy. BCP’s carry risks of strokes and other medical issues, especially combined with cigarette smoking. I don’t think many 12-16 year olds are considering future health and fertility concerns.
I am not advocating sticking your head in the sand and pretending that sex won’t happen, but as a parent I feel I have the right to make medical decisions about my child that will have long term effects. The oral surgeon sure does want my child’s parents there when he removes wisdom teeth!!!!
I could almost agree to keeping abortion legal (although I am personally opposed to it) BUT I want it treated like any other outpatient surgery.
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I’ve been off today and couldn’t comment on the IUD situation, but I agree with what HRW (hi, nice to see you again) was saying. An IUD is not something to mess around with, though they are safer now than they were 30 years ago.
They need to be monitored and rather than go into detail on how, let’s just say it sounded complicated to me as a college graduate when I first read up on them. How anyone in their right mind expects a young teenager to monitor is beyond me. Who is taking them on a regular basis to the gynecologist? And really, putting a 12 year old up in stirrups–wouldn’t that be somewhat traumatic?
Of course the girls probably were sexually active before hand, which is why they did it, but still, isn’t implanting an IUD dealing with symptoms rather than root causes?
I find it interesting they didn’t use the patch–which is easier to monitor and to apply–literally. But, the patch is obvious if you’re looking at it and might have raised questions. Not to mention the implication of putting hormones into a child who may not yet have entered puberty.
There’s so much wrong with this scenario–which I frankly haven’t examined in detail–that I’m flummoxed a school district would take it on. Maybe we’ll see some lawsuits? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?
And if a kid can’t carry ibuprofen to school, how can anyone justify this type of physical intrusion?
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An IUD, also, will not protect anyone from an STD.
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1. The Dukes — horrible distraction from the real issues — a mindlessly simplistic tv show which had one redeeming feature once you realized every episode was the same. And the car wasn’t bad either. But its easier to condemn a car than talk about real issues
2. IUD – I read about this prior to coming here on a leftist site and my first thought was do schools have the right equipment (stirrups) and thats as far as my mind was willing to go in that direction. The patch and the IUD both require more monitoring than a school should be willing to do nor does a school have that expertise. It appears the school board was attempting to eliminate teen pregnancy in any way possible.
Schools should educate and explain the options (condoms, pills, IUDs) and if somehow we think grade sixes posses the ability to consent they should seek out medical personel at a proper clinic. Normally health teachers explain birth control methods pros and con and at the most point to the direction of a local clinic.
STI prevention usually means if any method is advocated its condoms. Although any middle school health teacher would be remiss to point out that condom effectiveness is dependent on the male knowing how to use it properly — not something a 15 year old knows nor think about.
Strange how there is a sexual age of consent but no age of consent on birth control….the two don’t always coincide but still……
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About the recent proposal to temporarily sterilize all New Zealand teenage females:
http://theleadingedgeblog.com/sterilisation/
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On Bernie’ surge:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/07/07/the-bernie-sanders-surge/llyoW0vCATBAQvsGqtKnyK/story.html
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And as for Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton being a more plausible general election candidate, Thyle Shartar, a Wiscasset resident, seemed to sum up the way the strategic- calculations-versus-heartfelt-sentiments debate is shaking out.
“I think you have to vote for what you believe in,” she said.
And besides, added Stephen Tewhey, a retired IT type from Gorham, “Bernie will move the whole conversation to the left.”
Wishful thinking? Maybe. Still, people at this rally clearly didn’t consider Sanders’ pitch to be the stuff of progressive pipe dreams, but rather simple — and long overdue — common sense.
That helps explain why, in a few short months, Sanders has accomplished something few anticipated: He has established himself as the major challenger to Clinton. ….
______________________________________________
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HRW, I could disagree with just about every point you make. I’ll point out, though, that equating the black-on-black murder rate to the white-on-white and assuming that both are mostly domestic violence suggests you know little or nothing about inner-city crime.
And your assumptions on “the rebel flag” are simplistic and insulting. Many people fly it because they believe the CSA was a legitimate nation (it was) that was illegitimately shut down (it was) at the cost of a staggering number of lives. (Do you know what 600,000 translates into as a percentage of modern-day America?) Imagine that America went to war against Canada, conquered it by the deaths of millions on both sides, and brought Canada in as part of America, and then some Canadians still want to fly the Canadian flag–would you consider that immature or childish? What if some of the people who flew it had lost relatives in the Canadian-American war?
Kim posted a link to this excellent article written by a black Southerner in defense of the Confederate flag. http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/black_veteran_a_son_of_the_sou.html
Oh, and inserting something in a minor is different from handing out condoms–but that too is morally wrong and no place of the schools. Handing our birth control pills is also hideously immoral–birth control pills can wreak havoc on an adult woman’s hormones (I determined in my twenties I’d never touch the things, I’d seen so many problems among my friends who had used them, and nothing I’ve seen since has made me change my mind), and here are parents not even knowing that their young daughter, who is their own responsibility, is taking a potent drug? Further, none of those birth control methods, including condoms, is effective against STDs, but somehow girls would have a false sense of security if they’re using them.
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