A Sadie and a Mae Frown for...

I hadn't posted a "Sadie Frown" for a while, but the news today most certainly deserved double Sadie and Mae frowns.  The stories were just that bad:

This was one of those mornings where I checked facebook and began seeing links to various stories that made me feel physically ill.  They're the kind of stories that leave no doubt that evil is real, very, very real... and they're also the kind of stories that make one wish they could rinse out there eyeballs with bleach (there's the warning... it's really that bad...).

First I saw this story.  Over the years I've heard outrage over rhino and elephant tusks being sawed off for various supplements, and seahorse populations plummeting for the same reason, yet apparently this horrifying story broke back in August there was hardly a murmur.  Maybe that's because people would have to admit that the steps that lead up to powdered supplements made of 90-something percent dead babies, is also a grave disgusting evil (abortion) and that the taking of sweet innocent life, which so many condone in our country, is just as unimaginable as what these "supplement" makers are doing.

I mean logically does it make sense to be horrified by what's happening to the dead bodies, but be totally fine with the act of murder?  And let's face it, even in this morally relativistic culture we live in, ingesting dead babies is still going to turn the stomachs of most of us, right?  I like to believe that we're not so far gone that that's starting to sound okay to anyone who isn't a sociopath (although some people think that using them in skin care products is okay).

This post on NCRegister also talks about the similarity between these pills and the hotly debated stem cell research and wonders how disgusted we'd be with dead-baby-pills if they actually worked.

Another story popped up at the bottom of the page on the baby pill story, which I can't even manage to link to (instead I'll link to a fellow blogger who shares her disgust and a portion of the article).  It also sickening.  It's about the horrendous abuse of a five month old baby girl, who's mother was apparently running for worst-mother-of-all-time.  All I can say is that we should pray for that sweet little baby, who's now three years old and living with her adoptive mother.

After that I saw a link to a story about the founder of Calvary Chapel stating that children are no longer "assets," but "liabilities," because they no longer help bring in the dough for their parents.  Apparently if you really twist scripture so that it's no longer recognizable and you disregard other parts of the Bible and say "they don't matter anymore... God only meant that for them... not me..." you can come to that conclusion.  It also helps to begin with a belief that what God really wants for you is to be rich in this lifetime to reward you for your awesomeness, even if that disregards quite a few of Jesus' words, because that probably was also just meant for those people back in the first century and couldn't possibly apply to us now when he wants us all to have nice houses and at least three cars just for being our super awesome selves.

And here's why that story is lumped here with the others:

Maybe the message in that last story, that children are only blessings if they bring about financial gain, isn't that different from the sick message in the first story, where children weren't seen as blessings (at least by their government, depending on the circumstances of the abortion), but were seen as something that could be converted into currency ("assets" if you will).  Even the mother in the second story thought, through some convoluted logic to somehow gain and keep men by using her daughter as an "asset."  As long as we keep  missing the point, that children are always blessings and that life is always a beautiful gift, regardless of the circumstances, we can't really be shocked when evil like this unfolds and is brought to light.

The Aluma Wallet Scam... and Avoiding Telebrands...

I don't usually get sucked in by infomercials, but occasionally it happens and when it does, it almost always ends badly.  I should learn.  There was already the debacle when I ordered one of those "lose three size" shapewear sets after Mae was born (I've found shapewear can really help after a c-section at holding the scar in place while it's healing), only to find that the thing was about as effective as a plain piece of cotton, and 10x less comfortable.  But today I saw the Aluma Wallet and Paul and I both turned to look at each other, because we're both pretty hard on our wallets.  Paul's credit and debit cards are always getting destroyed in his wallet, and my wallet is pretty tattered.  And it was a buy one get on free deal with free shipping according to the infomercial for the grand old price of $10.99.

$5 for a metal wallet that supposedly has lots of space?  That's metal and shouldn't fall apart?  I could use that!  I mean, I could count this as our Christmas presents to each other?  Right?

So... I went online and began the order process.  I'll admit I was a little suspicious when they immediately asked for my credit card number, before even giving product info.

I just wanted two wallets.  They asked if I wanted to add the additional wallet.  I checked yes.  They asked if I'd like the additional wallet to be a different color.  I said yes again (because Paul was hoping for a black wallet).  They asked if I'd like to upgrade the wallets for $4.99 to save $6 on free shipping.  I said yes.

Suddenly a screen came up that thanked me for my order and told me I'd just spent $67.90 on five new wallets.  Um.  No.

I looked for "cancelation" information.  Nothing.  I went back to the original website and found a phone number to call, that led me to another phone number, which I was instructed to call on Monday.  I gave it a try and maybe because it's almost Monday in India, I got through.  I explained the problem.  The very nice man, who I reminded myself was not at fault here, told me he would put a note that my order needed to be modified before it was sent out, but that he couldn't cancel it because apparently "due to the high volume of calls and demand for this product" my order wasn't "in the system" yet.  I could call back on Wednesday to "modify" my order.  I clarified that I didn't want to modify it.  I wanted to cancel it.

He noted that I wanted to cancel it, but said I'd still have to call back on Wednesday to tell them again that I wanted to cancel it.  This made me a bit uneasy.  Are they just hoping that I'm not going to call back?  Or are they going to charge my card and ship the things out because I hadn't called in time, and then charge a shipping and re-stocking fee?  I will be calling back.  But I wanted a little more insurance to make sure I wouldn't be paying seventy bucks for a handful of $5 wallets that we don't need.

I called my credit card and told them what had happened.  There was one thing they could do... freeze the card.  And so my card is frozen for the time being.  

My guess is that these companies rely on people being unwilling to make the multiple calls to cancel the order.  They hope that we'll just let the extra $50 go, and they make big money that way.  So I would strongly, strongly, encourage people to shop elsewhere.  I definitely will be avoiding Telebrands, the company that sells Aluma Wallet, in the future.  And I'd say they definitely deserve a Sadie (and Mae Bae) frown.

The dishonesty in this transaction was just a little much for me.  And if they're swindling people in this way, it makes me think that they probably don't have a great product whose performance speaks for itself.

The 15 Month Frown

Sometime around 15 months old our kids seem to develop a rather dramatic little frown, that seems to pop up when they're having their pictures taken.  This led, about a year and a half ago, to the "Sadie Frown" being awarded, not infrequently, on my blog.  

This particular picture, my favorite of the Sadie Frowns, taken in October of 2009:  

A little over two years later Mae Bae is now 15 months old.  Yesterday Paul captured an expression that very much reminded me of my favorite Sadie frown.  Mae wasn't thrilled I was pulling her hair back out of her face.  This picture was the result:

I have a feeling that a new age of frowning pictures is about to begin...

New Sadie Frown (trying to capture a Sadie Smile!)

It had been a while since I'd captured a Sadie Frown... however, when I was trying to get Sadie to smile for the camera tonight I captured this. She was pretty determined not to be caught smiling. Until I told her not to smile...

The moment I told her not to smile, the frown began to crumble...

She tried...

But what toddler can resist being told not to smile! Finally a smile and a wave for the camera (which was, of course, a bit out of focus for the best picture!)!

Sadie Frown of the Week: The "Food Enhancement" Saga Continues

So after I wrote this post, I wrote each of the companies involved this letter:

"I am very troubled by the recent reports that your company has partnered with Senomyx. The fact that Senomyx feels that it is conscionable to use electively aborted fetal cells in their research is deeply disturbing, reprehensible and, to most people, disgusting. I truly hope that your company’s products have in no way been connected with this research.

After reading these reports I have decided to “go straight to the horse’s mouth” to see what your company claims is the nature of your relationship with Senomyx.

I’m afraid that at this point, any relationship at all with a company that conducts such disgusting testing, will be too much for our household. While some may claim that such testing has a history of success, it’s clear that history is filled with much that should be done away with and using the cells of aborted children to find “safe” flavors ranks high on that list.

I know that after reading these reports I cannot convince myself that it is acceptable to buy your products (which is pretty sad because we do buy them quite frequently!). I hope you can offer an explanation that will put my mind at rest (and the minds of my friends and family members) and reassure all of us that your company does not in fact have a relationship with any company that engages in these practices.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my concerns."

You see our family does use products from all the companies named pretty frequently, adding to the fact that this is deeply disturbing. So far I've received two responses. First from Nestle saying:

"Thank you for contacting Nestlé®.

We appreciate your comments and will report your concerns."

Gee, thanks Nestle. I'm glad you appreciate me. It's a shame I won't be buying your products until you shape up and actually stop giving this company payment of any sort.

And then, the response from Pepsi:

"Please know that we take very seriously the issues you raised. PepsiCo has a strong set of defined values we strive to live up to.

Unfortunately, there is some misinformation being circulated related to research techniques that have been used for decades by universities, hospitals, government agencies, and private companies around the world. These claims are meant to suggest that human fetal tissue is somehow used in our research. That is both inaccurate and something we would never do or even consider.

It also is inaccurate to suggest that tissue or cells somehow are being used as product ingredients. That’s dangerous, unethical and against the law. Every ingredient in every one of our products is reviewed and approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

We hope this information is helpful and reassuring. Thank you again for reaching out to us and allowing us to clarify the situation."

I have to say that I'm not really reassured. I would be reassured if they cut ties with Senomyx and didn't give them a cent. But that's like the government claiming that they only give some abortion mill money to do physicals. While the claim may be that the money doesn't directly pay for abortions, it is keeping the abortion mill afloat. Maybe Pepsi's money doesn't go directly to aborted-fetus-research (how seriously sick is that phrase) but it does keep a company in the black that does conduct that type of research.

The old cliche: "If you lay down with dogs, you wake up with fleas" comes to mind. I try not to shop at stores that I know support Planned Parenthood or any other serious evil:

If I see a Susan G. Komen label on a product, it's likely going back on the shelf (how sad is that? I wish we could support something positive without supporting a grave evil...). I also find myself wishing that I could still buy those thin mints that I love (or any other Girl Scout cookie for that matter). However, unlike these companies, I'm not going to give money to groups that make incredibly poor choices, because I would be supporting those choices.

So Pepsi, while striving to live up to those values, I suggest you find a new biotech firm that doesn't use dead baby parts in any of their research. That's the only way you'll be making it back onto my shopping list...

Sadie Frown of the Week: Aborted Fetal Cells and "Food Enhancement"

This may be one of the most sickening things that I have ever read. Life Site News is reporting that the Biotech company, Senomyx, who works with major food companies, such as Pepsico, Kraft and Nestle, uses aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers. At the end of the article a list of addresses is given and I strongly encourage each of you to write these companies about this issue.

A note at the end of the article says that Campbell's was working with this company, but has stopped. Hopefully a public backlash against companies that use this sort of research can cause these companies to make, if not ethical choices simply because they are right, good choices because people won't buy their products if they don't.

I'm going to be writing these companies, and am interested to see their response. Maybe if enough people make it clear that this is unacceptable the food companies will realize that this will affect their bottom line.

Biotech company using cell lines from aborted babies in food enhancement testing
BY REBECCA MILLETTE

LARGO, Florida, March 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pepsico, Kraft Foods, and Nestlé are among the corporations partnered with a biotech company found using aborted fetal cell lines to test food flavor enhancers, according to a pro-life watchdog group.

The internationally recognized biotech company, Senomyx, boasts innovation and success in “flavour programs” designed to reduce MSG, sugar and salt in food and beverage products. Senomyx notes their collaborators provide them research and development funding plus royalties on sales of products using their flavor ingredients.

Pro-life watchdog group, Children of God for Life (CGL), has called upon the public to target the major corporations in a boycott, unless the company ceases to use aborted fetal cell lines in their product testing...

...“Using isolated human taste receptors,” the Senomyx website claims, “we created proprietary taste receptor-based assay systems that provide a biochemical or electronic readout when a flavor ingredient interacts with the receptor.”

“What they do not tell the public is that they are using HEK 293 – human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted baby to produce those receptors,” stated Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director for CGL, the watch dog group that has been monitoring the use of aborted fetal material in medical products and cosmetics for years.

“They could have easily chosen COS (monkey) cells, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, insect cells or other morally obtained human cells expressing the G protein for taste receptors,” Vinnedge added...

Read the entire article here.

Sadie Frown of the Week: PDA's During Mass

I attended an absolutely beautiful Mass this morning. We have a new priest and he's using Eucharist prayers that we've rarely heard. It was truly amazing...

... And yet, the entire time one thought kept running through my head. I tried to brush it aside. And then I tried to force it aside. And yet it kept coming back, again and again, for the entire rest of the day. It was slightly nauseating.

Here it is:

Public Displays of Affection during Mass truly disgust me.

Deep breath.

There is apparently something that bothers me more than singing the "Our Father" and changing the words. It bothers me more than gender inclusive language. It is a couple, sitting directly in my line of sight, who cannot keep there hands off of each other.

I know what you're thinking: Teenagers!

Unfortunately, not at all. In fact, they were decades away from using "youth" as an excuse.

Words like "grope" shouldn't come to mind during Mass.

However, I have learned a few very important lessons today, in retrospect. 1) Come early to Mass (we arrived two minutes before it was scheduled and it had already started, so we had to sneak in and sit in the back... which leads me to #2). 2) Sit in the front! It's better for the babies to watch everything AND no one other than the priest is in front of you. No one in front of me had any idea what was going on and the people who were behind off to the sides likely missed it as well. In fact I'm pretty sure even the priest facing us couldn't see what was going on.

Paul pointed out on the car ride home (we had a long shopping day so this was hours later) that they really didn't seem to know they were doing anything inappropriate and I think he's actually (sadly) correct. They didn't seem to know that the fact that they couldn't keep their hands to themselves was not appropriate. And that says something very sad about our culture. Everyone should no that PDA's in Church are absolutely unacceptable.

Anyways, I have learned my lesson: come early, sit in the front. I don't need an extra "show" to go along with the Eucharist.

Sadie Frown of the Week: To Facebook... Or Not to Facebook...

I’ve been thinking about the drawbacks of social networking, particularly facebook, lately. It’s not as if I’m going to be deleting my account anytime soon… it’s too easy to stay in touch with people who I would otherwise not hear from and I love seeing the pictures of all of my friends who have growing families or who are out having adventures in the great big world. The fact that it’s so easy to share pictures with our family members across the country seals the deal. My account isn’t going anywhere any time soon and I will still be checking it pretty much every day.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel kind of sad when I read certain “updates.” I don’t mean updates that are about sad news, or hardships. Those let me know which of the people in my life need prayers at that moment, and I appreciate that aspect of facebook. I also appreciate being able to reach out with a quick comment or email to let the person know that they’re in our prayers.

No, the updates that make me sad often express anger and rage. Very often that rage seems to be directed at God.

Last month a “friend” from college posted an update proclaiming that he was “Jesus Christ” and that “yeah, I just went there,” followed by a rant about Christian hypocrites and how idiotic he thought they were. This was a young man I knew from college, and this wasn’t the first time he’d posted something like this as his update. It was actually a fairly regular event.

I debated my next step. Would I comment back? His other “friends” had already jumped on the bandwagon and were fighting to agree with him and slam Christians the world over (it’s just so trendy at the moment!). And he wasn’t really debating anything that was actually concrete. He was just calling Christians names.

I ended up deleting him from my friends list (and saying a prayer for him). In the end I was just tired of seeing the Redeemer of the World heckled and abused in yet another form (and on such a regular basis). When he comes to mind occasionally (or more specifically his anger at God) I try to remember to pray for God’s transforming grace in his life.

There are other, far less dramatic comments that also weigh on my mind as I scroll down the page. I’m not sure why someone would make fun of other people on facebook… it almost seems like the cruelty of high school, which we really should have outgrown years ago, has carried over into our adult lives. And in the end those comments don’t tell the world something awful about the coworker that we’re complaining about. Sadly… they say much more about the person typing away on the keyboard, trying to make someone else look bad for making a simple mistake (or sometimes for no real reason whatsoever!).

I’m not a saint. I make mistakes every single day. But I want to try to remember to be a little bit kinder to people… even people that I don’t like all that much. And maybe that’s the best reason to keep my facebook account up and running. As a reminder that the world needs a little more kindness and forgiveness and a little less anger and rage.

Some common sense and manners would hurt either!

Sadie Frown of the Week: A State Government in Mexico who Thinks Infanticide Isn't That Bad

In a society where everything is relative it becomes harder and harder to draw lines between right and wrong, much less even use words like "good" and "evil" and be taken seriously ("Evil? How archaic!"). The evil of killing our unborn children becomes common place and then, after a while, the next step, killing a newborn, doesn't seem quite as bad. The Groningen Protocol tries to make murder seem like compassion, which sounds strangely like the self-righteousness of the Pro-Death camp who really just want to "help women."

Many may still be horrified when someone like Dominique Cottrez is found to have killed eight of her newly born children, but between Holland's infant euthanasia protocol and Guanajuato's change in civil code, which makes infanticide a crime that may be punished by a mere 3 years in prison, rather than 35, I have to wonder how normalized murder will actually become in the coming decades.

Of course, infanticide, or "infant euthanasia" isn't really new, even in the recent past. In Nazi Germany some doctors promoted it as a "purely healing treatment" and called it "healing work" because not only did it relieve suffering, it also saved money that would otherwise be spent on caring for the disabled (sound familiar?).

It is heartening to know that every poll I've seen in the past year has shown that the majority of Americans aren't okay with abortion.

Unfortunately the more I read the more it seems that many people who think that matters of life and death is just a "choice" are sliding down the slippery slope that would make those same doctor's who did "healing work" proud.

Looking around and seeing just whose footsteps we are following in can be very telling.

What About The Right Not To Breath in Pot Smoke?

I've been working outside in the little garden patch in front of our apartment. It's tiny, but I've filled it with lavender and violas and it's come along nicely in the past week, from the bare packed earth littered with cigarette butts that it was when we first moved in. But it really is only pleasant to experience when we're getting out of the car, and then there's a good chance it will only be pleasant for a moment.

You see, in our county we've had a number of "doctors" come through town and set up shop on the side of the road. People come through before hand and spread the word. Sometimes there's an ad in the paper. When the "doctor" actually arrives he has people standing up and down the side of the highway advertising his "service." He sells medical marijuana cards, usually for around $200 a pop.

You can get them for anything. Headaches. Cramps. A hangnail.

A recent report in a newspaper claimed that one of our former next door neighbors (his family still lives next door to my family and the stink of their plants drifts over constantly) had made over a million dollars selling the cards. I wouldn't be surprised since he constantly writes in to the paper, telling everyone that every single plant that God made is good for the human body (can anyone spot the flaw in that logic?).

Back to my complaint though... Before we moved we lived next to growers and while there was a quarter of a mile between there house and ours, our home would stink like a skunk had sprayed for months leading up to autumn and the harvest. At least it wasn't year round though...

There isn't much room in our new home for growers to grow outdoors, but since it seems that many of our neighbors have cards, we get to smell the smoke. At night people sit out front and smoke pot. In the morning people sit out front and smoke pot. I open my door and it smells like pot. I open the window after a hot day... and the house fills with the smell...

California makes me feel a little bit crazy sometimes. And what bothers me even more than the basic legalization of marijuana (because let's face it, if anyone can get a card for no reason whatsoever, it basically is legal) is the fact that those of us who don't do drugs have to breath it in all the time.

I have a prescription for hydrocordone that I don't use, despite my headaches, because I don't like putting chemicals in my body if I absolutely don't have to. I'd like to have the option of not breathing in marijuana smoke too. And more than that, I don't want my seven and a half week old daughter and two year old exposed to it every time we open a window or walk outside.

All the druggies in California have there rights. What about the rest of us?

Can You Spot the Bishop of the Week?

One of these Bishops deserves a Sadie Frown and the other definitely deserves the title of Bishop of the Week (I need to start posting those again!). Can you tell which is which?

A Question for My Readers: and a Sadie Frown

What a strange day yesterday was. Paul and I got home from taking Sadie to the park in town (she is obsessed with slides and tunnels) and Paul left for work. I'd taken Sadie upstairs for her nap at Nani's house and had gone back downstairs to work on a mother's day present that I had wanted to get in the mail this morning. I decided to check my blogger dashboard first, and just around that time, mom came into the room and said that someone, we'll call this person Mrs. X, had just pulled in the driveway.

Now there is a tiny bit of background story here. First I'll start with the more recent background: This weekend we had a garage sale as part of the county wide garage sale. Towards the end of the first day Mrs. X came by and filled a big bag full of stuff she wanted. It wasn't the kind of stuff that people "need..." They were all frivolous little things like a silky scarf that had belonged to my grandmother, some beautiful lotions we'd gotten for her before she passed away this summer, stuff like that.

While she was shopping she kept talking loudly, across the driveway, about how she'd forgotten her purse and money at home (kind of a big thing when you're out shopping!) and how she'd give me the money later at Church. I didn't say anything when she said that and she finally got the message and brought the entire bag over and said she'd bring the money back later and pick it up. I have to say, I felt relieved. I didn't feel comfortable selling things that belonged to other people (much of which was my late grandmother's, and we were selling off the things no one wanted to divide the money between her heirs...) on credit, to someone who I was fairly certain would never pay us back...

Which brings me to the second part of the back story: Mrs. X used to watch our house when we went out of town. "Watching our house" really just means feeding my parents' horses twice a day... a job that does not require coming into the house. The last time she watched the house though, she acted a little bit odd. She demanded the house keys from my mom, saying she just wanted to make sure the cats were alright and that she'd change the litter boxes (we were going out of town for a couple of nights and they have access to food, water and three different litter boxes...). When we got home the litter boxes most definitely had not been touched, but there was quite a bit of evidence that someone had been making our home, their home... And later some people in the house noticed that some belongings have now been "misplaced."

We'd all like to believe that they really have been "misplaced." However, after yesterday, I am less certain.

A normal person would come up to the front door and knock if they wanted something from the owner. Instead, as my mom put her shoes on to go outside, she heard Mrs. X rummaging through the stuff out in the garage (and the inside of the garage was never part of the garage sale... everything was out on the driveway, where we are still working at putting stuff into boxes to go to their various destinations). When my mom walked out she quickly picked up a bag, clutched it against her chest, and said "I'm here for my stuff" and tried to leave.

My mom knew that she had not paid. I had actually just told my mom the price that I'd given her for the bag of stuff and had added that if she'd wanted a beautiful set of blue glasses that my husband had put in the sale, I would sell them to her for a very, very low amount (I'd told her that amount at the sale... and was only selling them to her for that amount because I know her and because she went on and on about loving them...). Instead my mom saw that she'd shoved the glasses into the bag on top of all the other stuff and was trying to leave without paying for anything.

When my mom stopped her she tried to give her a lower amount, and then finally a little more and when my mom insisted on the price we'd agreed to she said that she would "give it to the kids at Church" and put the stuff in her car and left.

My mom is a very sweet, quiet person. She came back in the house really upset.

And very quickly, pregnancy hormones surging, I was very upset as well. I was upset because I felt like she had taken advantage of that fact that my mom is so sweet and quiet. And I was upset because it was pretty clear that she was going to take everything and leave and hope we didn't notice. To top of the entire thing, I have to say that I was annoyed that she kept playing the, "we go to Church together" card when she'd driven miles out of the way, and snuck into our home to steal.

Like my mother, I am usually very shy. So she was shocked when I grabbed the keys to her car, asked her to watch Sadie, and drove down to the local meeting hall, where Mrs. X spends most of her time with a glass of wine in her hand. She was just walking out with another hall member and her teenage daughter (another surge of annoyance that she'd brought her teen daughter with her to our house to steal).

I was surprised at how calm I sounded when I got out of the car. I said, in my sweetest voice, that I was really very sorry but that I couldn't give her my husband's belongings on credit. And then I reached into my pocket, because she'd given my mom an $1.50 extra for the glasses... and the $1.50 I'd shoved into my pocket to return to her was gone... As much as I didn't want to give her the glasses, because she had just tried to sneak into the garage and steal them, I didn't want to owe her a penny. So I finally followed the first thought that popped into my head and gave her one of the glasses back and said she could buy the others any time she wanted to (and the glasses even individually marked down were more than $1.50...)... I won't be holding my breath for that to happen, because I don't believe that she ever had any intention of paying for them...

And I went home, feeling kind of brave... and kind of stupid.

I spent the rest of the afternoon troubled... and now, after giving my rather long winded explanation of what happened, will ask for advice.

If you caught someone in your home, with the clear intention of stealing, and you knew that this person had very recently been given the keys to your parish because they had volunteered to "help out," would you say something to your pastor?

I tend to be over scrupulous about "gossip" (would privately warning our pastor fall under that category?) and tend to examine and over examine everything that I say (except apparently on my blog...). At the same time, I would feel very, very guilty if things suddenly start disappearing from our parish (wine, for example) and I, knowing what I know, had refrained from saying anything...

Thoughts?

Sadie Frown of the Year: Stupak Sells Out and Leaves Unborn Unprotected

It's hard to be surprised by anything that politicians do these days. Promises mean next to nothing and sometimes it seems like everyone has a price (at least if they hold a public office).

I'm sure you all know by now that Obama's healthcare bill passed tonight, 219-212.

A couple of days ago the morning news reported that both sides had 212 votes, but that Stupak and his group of pro-life democrats were holding strong. I even joined the Stand with Stupak group on Facebook (which I un-joined tonight). I felt hopeful.

Unfortunately it seems that Stupak is just another in a long line of disappointments, made all the worse by the hope that he inspired in these past weeks.

The current claim being made by Stupak and the administration is that an executive order issued by Obama will stop abortions from being paid for by the healthcare bill.

I'm not sure why anyone would trust the word of a man who has repeatedly promised to extend "abortion rights" as far as he possibly can. If he were truly going to do something to limit abortion he would be breaking his very vocal campaign promises (and the silence from the pro-death camp and the votes for the bill from the most liberal members of congress are telling).

After the bill passed the house Republicans tried to reinsert the Stupak Amendment as a separate issue from the core bill. Twenty minutes later (it was reported by CNN) that a Republican member of the house yelled "baby killer" when Bart Stupak stood to speak against that motion.

And what does Stupak have to say now? "The motion is really a last-ditch effort of 98 years of denying Americans health care. It is the Democrats who have stood up for the principal of no public funding of abortions. It is Democrats through the president's executive order that ensure the sanctity of life is protected."

I've spent the last few hours wondering if Bart Stupak and the other members of his group really believe that life will be protected by this bill. Are they naive? Are they stupid? Or have they just sold out?

When it turns out that the bill does not protect life, Stupak will not be able to claim that he wasn't warned. This letter, written by Robert A. Destro, a Professor of Law at Catholic University of America, gave him a clear picture of what today's vote would mean:

Dear Mr. Stupak:

Questions have surfaced in the past few weeks about whether the billions of dollars the Senate health care reform bill appropriates for Community Health Centers (CHCs) will be used to pay for abortions. I have been asked by several interested parties to give my opinion on Secretary Sebelius’ recent statement asserting that abortions will not be covered.

It’s not even a close question. Abortions will be covered.

For nearly forty years, the courts have held that there are no medical or economic reasons to distinguish elective abortions from any other medical service. The basic argument is that health care coverage for women cannot be truly “comprehensive” unless – and until – elective abortions are covered just like any other medical procedure.

Federal appeals courts have been unanimous in their holdings that when Congress provides funding for “comprehensive” services, it must explicitly prohibit the use of federal dollars to pay for abortions. If there is no explicit prohibition, the courts will order the federal government to pay.

Read the entire letter here.

Will the executive order truly keep federal dollars from paying for abortions? I am very skeptical. And it seems I'm not alone in my doubts. Here's what the National Right to Life Committee has to say in the wake of tonight's vote:

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) remains strongly opposed to the Senate-passed health bill (H.R. 3590). A lawmaker who votes for this bill is voting to require federal agencies to subsidize and administer health plans that will pay for elective abortion, and voting to undermine longstanding pro-life policies in other ways as well. Pro-life citizens nationwide know that this is a pro-abortion bill. Pro-life citizens know, and they will be reminded again and again, which lawmakers deserve their gratitude for voting against this pro-abortion legislation.

The executive order promised by President Obama was issued for political effect. It changes nothing. It does not correct any of the serious pro-abortion provisions in the bill. The president cannot amend a bill by issuing an order, and the federal courts will enforce what the law says.

To elaborate: The order does not truly correct any of the seven objectionable pro-abortion provisions described in NRLC's March 19 letter to the House of Representatives, which is posted here: http://www.nrlc.org/AHC/NRLCToHouseOnHealthBill.pdf

I can't imagine any other news story beating this one on the Sadie Frown scale, which is why I'm giving Stupak and every other person who voted for and supported the bill the Sadie Frown of the Year. They certainly earned it.

Who Could Believe that Pelosi's Plan is Life Affirming?

The Anchoress had another great post yesterday over at First Things. Whenever Speaker Pelosi speaks it makes me feel a bit like this, so I definitely can relate to the feelings that the Anchoress talks about earlier in the post (this is how Sadie feels if you suggest that it's time to get off the tractor and come in for dinner) ----->

"In her upside-down world, Pelosi may think that this monstrosity she is laboring so mightily to deliver is “life-affirming;” that is because she is -like so many of her generation- unable to imagine life after her own. It takes a “my life right now is more important than any future life” mentality to be this committed to abortion, and to insuring that every means of preventing or ending life, at every stage, is introduced into the public mind as a Godly and enviable thing. It takes a mind that willfully misunderstand the nature of both light and life, as taught by the Church she professes to love, to stand there with a smug, “unicorns and rainbows” demeanor and spout these deceitful platitudes that are not grounded in any sort of reality...

...After all of that -and in a direct attempt to smackdown the Catholic bishops who rightly oppose this bill- the Pelosi ends with yet another slander of all Catholic religious woman, with the assistance (it must be admitted) of a few perpetually adolescent useful idiots who, as I said yesterday, “delight in poking into the eyes of authoritative teaching.” Not only does Pelosi exaggerate the number of religious women who support this bill, she frankly lies when she says that “just about every order you can think of” wants “to pass this life-affirming legislation...”

... it is one thing for a Catholic to be publicly misguided, misinformed, socially maladjusted or even stupid. It’s quite another -and to my way of thinking, a genuinely evil thing- for Catholics to put on a cloak of moral authority by virtue of their church membership, and proceed to spin their deceitful webs while mindfully exploiting her greatest saints and teachings for the expressed (and unbelievably sleazy) promulgation of their legislative propaganda...."

Read the entire post here.

Sadie Frown of the Week: This Coalition of American Nuns

I just saw this over at the Lair of the Catholic Cavemen and share the feeling of disgust and disappointment in these so called "religious." These nuns definitely deserve a Sadie Frown:

A coalition of American nuns, claiming to represent over 50,000 members of women's religious orders, has broken with the country's Catholic bishops by coming out in support of the health-care reform legislation now pending in Congress....

"... This is politics; this isn't a question of faith and morals," said Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network. Women religious have a direct interest in health-care reform, she added: "We are the ones who work every day with people who are suffering because they don't have health care."

Full Story Here.

I wonder when Sister Campbell began to believe that matters of life and death began to fall outside of the realm of "faith and morals." These women are either willfully blind to something that most of the country understands (that abortion is most definitely included in the language of the Senate Bill) or they're lying. Neither would surprise me at this point.

This is yet another example of why a Vatican Investigation of these orders was so desperately needed. It seems that these sisters are intent on building the case against themselves.

As for the last sentence of the piece, as someone who is basically uninsurable and has spent half of the last decade uninsured because of a injury (which could have been corrected through a surgery that Blue Cross of California deemed "experimental" back when I was insured and then used to deny me coverage) I can honestly say that even suffering without insurance has not caused me to support these bills. I'd rather be uninsurable than sell out and join the culture of death that these nuns are now very much a part of.

Sadie Frown of the Week: NBC's Olympic Coverage

Sadie and I were all fired up this afternoon. We were planning on watching the US/Canada hockey game. It would have been Sadie's first hockey game and I just know that she would have loved the sport. After all she loves football and baseball and just seems to be a sports-loving-girl.

We'd gone out with Nani and Grumpa and Nini and Gigi for some late afternoon Geocaching, but we made sure that we were home in time for the game... or almost in time... Sadie and I rushed in three minutes after the game had started, flipped on NBC... and found.... Russia playing the Czech Republic...

I took a deep breath. Maybe they would switch over afterwards. Or maybe it would start from the beginning after the Russian/Czech game ended. I flipped onto the satellite info and it said Russian/Czech hockey game, skiing, ice dancing...

Another deep breath. I reread the description. I flipped ahead to see if it would be on later. No sign of American/Canadian hockey anywhere.

So I flipped up to USA (the channel), which has had some Olympic events (they must be owned by the network or something). They were showing Pirates of the Caribbean. But I still had hope.

I flipped up to CNBC. Curling. Norway vs. Sweden if I remember correctly. Now Norway's red, white and blue checkered pants are pretty awesome, but we were looking for US/Canada hockey! The curling was almost over though, so I looked ahead to see what was on next... Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Models... seriously?!?! Instead of one of the major events for the North American teams in the Winter Olympics.

We went back to NBC, hoping that they might have come to their senses and found a recap of the 1980 Lake Placid USA/USSR match up. Now as interesting as this would have been as an intro to the game today or as a nice touch to add at intermission, it was downright insulting to those of us who knew the game was on and couldn't find it!

Paul had woken up to see the game (he's still on night duty) and finally found an explanation online. The game had been switched to MSNBC. We looked at the satellite menu and found that we would have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get the game since we don't have the channel as part of my parent's package (and their package has tons of channels! It's crazy!).

So we are mighty annoyed. Paul and I have both been reminiscing about the days when the Olympics were on pretty much around the clock instead of select events with the favorites shown at 11pm (not everyone has Tivo!). This morning when we got home from Mass we checked NBC to see what even was on... any guesses to what it was? "Paid Programming."

I think NBC has proven that they aren't worthy of the Olympics. It's time to pass the responsibility on to someone who will do a good job and actually show the events that people want to see.

Maybe they can even find a network that shows the good events at a reasonable hour instead of in the middle of the night! I would have missed out on spending fourth grade obsessing over ice skating if they only showed it at 10 o'clock at night! The little kids that are the most excited about it are already in bed by then!

More Genius Remarks in the Comments Box..."Kill Babies or they Might Cost You...."

This morning I found this bit of compassion tossed into the combox:

Mackenzie said...

I just figure the amount of tax money going to abortions will be a lot less than the amount that would go to welfare to pay for the kids if they gave birth to them.

Where to begin? I have to admit that the first thought that popped into my head when I read this was "taking evil to a whole new level..." but the sad truth is, it's not a "new level." There are far too many people in this world infected with the strain of moral relativism that tells us there is no good and no evil, that everything is just shades of grey, and apparently in Mackenzie's world, slaughtering an unborn child is a lesser evil than risking (gasp) someday having the child depend on the government.

Having grown up in low income small towns I can match faces to the abstract idea of "kids on welfare" and know amazing adults that worked hard, got scholarships and now work to help others. Perhaps it's because they know what it's like to be down and out, to have the contempt of people like you, Mackenzie, who honestly believe that they are better off dead than given a chance at life.

Valuing money above human life is very, very sad.

I also think its odd that a person can be passionate enough to have a blog about saving the environment, but can so easily disregard unborn human life.

Every life is sacred. Every child deserves the chance to be born, rather than being murdered, ripped limb from limb in his or her mother's womb, which should be the safest of places. Or do you honestly believe that any child deserves this?

You may also want to think about the fact that those children who you're a big fan of aborting, would most likely grow up to be the tax payers who will be paying into the system for your medi-care and social security in fifty or so years. But then again, maybe you don't think life has value after a certain point? I mean if you don't believe that life have value at the beginning than how can it somehow acquire worth and have value at the end?

Taking this logic to the next level I imagine Mackenzie is a big fan of euthanasia? I mean if you want to kill children because they might cost the government money at some point, than you'd probably want to toss in those old, retired folks as well who are no longer "productive members of society."

Once life loses its value and you started placing money and things over people, things go down hill fast. You may even become delusional and start to think that the world out there actually cares about what's inside your fridge.

John Carr Needs to Go: USCCB Executive Director in Bed with Pro-Death Organization

Back in October I wrote a quick post for people thinking about donating to the CCHD. As I did more research I found it promised that the CCHD had been reformed (and some claims that it hadn't happened at all), but I still had an uneasy feeling that just didn't go away. And now this comes out:

John Carr is the USCCB executive director of the Department of Justice Peace and Human Development which oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). He has been employed by the USCCB since 1987.

John Carr’s relationship with the Center for Community Change goes back at least to 1983, serving in leadership roles from 1999 to 2006 – including as chairman of the board. The Reform CCHD Now report details the organization’s promotion of abortion, “reproductive rights” and homosexuality as among the CCC’s core advocacy focuses.

In 2001, while Carr served as both a USCCB exec and CCC leader, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference funneled $150,000 to the pro-abortion group. The USCCB web site currently promotes the group and officials have spoken at CCC events.

“Strangely, Carr’s leadership on the CCC’s board shows up on several bios he’s submitted for speaking engagements, but the word for word bio on the USCCB web site mysteriously omits that one detail,” Hichborn said. “Why?”

Revelations of John Carr’s involvement in the Center for Community Change come only months after members of the Reform CCHD Now coalition, including American Life League, uncovered 31 CCHD grantees partnered with the CCC.

“The CCHD claims it will immediately investigate accusations against organizations it funds yet it is silent on the CCC,” said Hichborn. “How can Carr and the USCCB possibly justify this intimate relationship with such an obvious enemy of the Church?”

Read more here.

When I started reading about this a couple of days ago I assumed that John Carr no longer worked for the USCCB. I mean, this seems like the thing that would end a career with the Catholic Church, doesn't it? Lying about ones past (and present) work experience and activities (and doesn't anyone google employee names anymore? Or is that sooooooo 2005?) seems like a pretty good reason for giving someone the boot. So I wandered over to the USCCB website to see what I could find and all I came up with was this.

This is distressing. I'm telling myself that they are probably investigating it and speaking with their lawyers as I type and that we'll hear more in a few days (like maybe Bishop Morin saying that maybe they were a tiny bit wrong when they said that the claims of helping pro-death organizations were "outrageous" back in November). It's certainly something that can't be ignored any longer.

Hopefully the Bishops can clean house and fix this oversight before "focusing on the common good" next week.

To read more check out "Sleeping with the Enemy" over at the American Life League.

And yes, this situation does most definitely warrant a Sadie Frown.

Tylenol Gets a Well Deserved Sadie Frown

I am a little annoyed. Actually I'm more than a little annoyed. You see lately I've been getting sick. I was confused at first, because I thought that the morning sickness had ended a couple of weeks ago. And this wasn't quite the same as morning sickness. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something was off.

Still, I figured that every pregnancy is different and that this time morning sickness must be different from the last time, coming and going randomly without cause.

One consistent throughout my pregnancies has been migraine headaches. I've kept the medicine cabinet stocked with Tylenol Extra Strength, since it's one of the few medicines the doctor automatically okays (along with Benadryl and Robitussin) and am just thankful that the headaches usually don't last very long. Last night, however, I had one of the worst migraines of my entire life. It finally faded towards morning, but when I got up I found myself incredibly sick to my stomach.

After getting sick I decided that it was probably a mixture of a sensitive stomach (during my pregnancy with Sadie I had a bleeding ulcer) and taking Tylenol right before bed on an empty stomach (or a kind of empty stomach anyways, I'd had dinner about three hours earlier). And of course I partially blamed morning sickness. Since I still had a little headache I decided to take another Tylenol (on a full stomach after breakfast) before we headed into town to do our monthly Big Food Shopping.

A few hours later I was sick in "The City," thankful that Sadie had a small toy bucket that we'd brought along.

And now I see this. Johnson and Johnson issues recalls of lots of Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Rolaids, Simply Sleep and St. Joseph. And looking back over the last month I think there's a pretty strong correlation between my headaches, taking Tylenol and being sick the following morning.

This website allows you to search to lot numbers of these drugs if you have them in your house.

The lot my bottle is from is not listed. However it's right next to some that are listed and frankly since this is the second recall this month I wouldn't be surprised if more followed. I can tell you one thing for certain, I'm not going to be taking another pill out of that bottle.

Johnson and Johnson definitely get a Sadie Frown.

Frustration is...

...getting an eighteen month old to finally close her eyes in her own bed and fall asleep and then three minutes later hearing an unruly Patriots Fan (who shall remain nameless) downstairs scream at the TV and having the little ones sweet little eyes flutter open, look around and then, in true New England Fan fashion, start to scream at the top of her lungs (in solidarity with the person downstairs :OP).

You Sir, deserve a Sadie Frown.

Note to Men Everywhere: the argument, "I don't remember yelling at the TV" is not particularly useful one in cases such as this one. That only shows the person that spent the next hour trying (unsuccessfully) to get the little one to sleep that the play in question was not even worth remembering sixty minutes later! And so the fantastic (hopefully) post I have been planning these last few days will have to wait a little longer, until someone finally falls asleep again. And who knows when that will be!