Daily Headlines | Friday May 6, 2022

Good Morning!

Helen Keller once suggested “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”

Her insight may have been inspired by the apostle Paul, who wrote to the church at Corinth, “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).

The radical abortion lobby is spiritually blind:

1. Pro-Abortion Groups Target Churches for Mother’s Day 

From Fox News:

Pro-abortion activists are targeting Catholic churches for protests on Mother’s Day, with some citing the Roman Catholic faith of multiple justices who reportedly at one point supported the leaked draft opinion striking down Roe v. Wade.

The protests follow days of organizing in front of the Supreme Court building following the leak Monday night – protests that led the Washington, D.C., police to erect a fence ostensibly to protect the building and justices within. Fox News has also learned that there has been a strong police presence at the justices’ homes following the leak.

The organization Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights has organized a “week of action” beginning on May 8, Mother’s Day, with “Actions Outside of Churches.”

“This action is called for by a collective of spanish [sic] speaking women’s rights groups + activists across the country, including from Bride’s March, Dominican Women’s Development Center, Ni Una Menus, and Las 17,” according to the event schedule. “Several cities will be hosting protests outside of prominent churches in their towns, these can look like a group of people holding signs wearing Handmaids Tale outfits, passing out flyers outside to church goers or doing a die-in.”

RELATED: 

Protesting at Homes of Supreme Court Justices Isn’t Free Speech, It’s Harassment

From The Daily Citizen:

The possible demise of Roe v. Wade revealed in a leaked draft of a majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is sure to provoke strong reactions on both sides of the abortion issue. However, one leftist group has crossed a societal line of propriety by calling for protests at the homes of the six conservative justices on the high court.

The group is going so far as to offer payments, which it is calling “stipends,” to those who show up.

The organization’s website, called “Ruth Sent Us,” includes a map with the locations of what purport to be the homes of Justices Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas, Barrett, Gorsuch and Chief Justice Roberts. For that reason, we won’t be linking to the group’s website.

The protests are scheduled to last at least from May 8 to May 15, and perhaps go longer. It is supported by LGBT and feminist groups, Black Lives Matter, and immigration activists. The “Ruth” in “Ruth Sent Us” is supposed to signify the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a pro-abortion justice.  

2. The End of Roe v. Wade Will Be Good for America 

Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal:

[Abortion] never stopped roiling America.

Why? Because all the other decisions were about how to live, and Roe was about death. Justice Alito seems to echo this thought in his draft opinion, which would turn the questions of legality and illegality over to each state. This is not a solution to the issue, it is a way of managing it—democratically.

I respect and agree with the Alito draft, didn’t think Roe was correct or even logical, and came to see the decision as largely a product of human vanity. Of all the liberal jurists who have faulted it, the one who sticks in the mind was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who after questioning Roe’s reasoning said, in 1985, that it appeared “to have provoked, not resolved, conflict.” It did.

I am pro-life for the most essential reason: That’s a baby in there, a human child. We cannot accept as a society—we really can’t bear the weight of this fact, which is why we keep fighting—that we have decided that we can extinguish the lives of our young. Another reason, and maybe it veers on mysticism, is that I believe the fact of abortion, that it exists throughout the country, that we endlessly talk about it, that the children grow up hearing this and absorbing it and thinking, “We end the life within the mother here,” “It’s just some cells”—that all of this has released a kind of poison into the air, that we breathed it in for 50 years and it damaged everything. Including of course our politics.

the end of Roe could be a historic gift for both parties, a chance to become their better selves.

And if Roe is indeed overturned, God bless our country that can make such a terrible, coldhearted mistake and yet, half a century later, redress it, right it, turn it around. Only a thinking nation could do that. Only a feeling nation could do that. We’re not dead yet, there are still big things going on here.

RELATED: 

‘It’s Murder’: Franklin Graham Joins Fellow Christians in Decrying Biden’s Use of ‘God’ to Defend Abortion Rights

From CBN:

President Joe Biden was torched by conservatives and Christians this week when he defended abortion and railed against attempts to thwart it, in part, by noting he is a “child of God.”

The Rev. Franklin Graham was among those who took issue with Biden’s comments, with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association president calling abortion a “sin” and likening it to “murder.”

“Biden said that the right to an abortion comes from being a ‘child of God.’ Mr. President, that is just not true,” Graham tweeted. “Being a child of God does not give you the right to take the lives of the innocent. Abortion is a sin— simply put, it‘s murder.”

RELATED: 

Former President Donald Trump Talks Overturning ‘Roe v. Wade’ on ‘CBN News’ 

From The Daily Citizen:

Former President Donald J. Trump recently gave his thoughts on the leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft majority opinion overruling Roe v. Wade and returning total lawmaking authority over abortion back to the states and the U.S. Congress.

Though Chief Justice John Roberts has since confirmed that the draft is authentic, the opinion is neither final nor conclusive, since justices can modify and switch their votes until the final opinion is released.

Speaking with CBN News Political Analyst David Brody, President Trump discussed the leaked opinion, and the justices that he placed on the high court: Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Brody posed the following question to the president: “The Supreme Court now authenticating that draft opinion by Sam Alito, in essence overturning Roe v. Wade, were you surprised to see this?”

3. Senate Democrats tee up likely doomed vote on protecting nationwide abortion access 

From ABC News:

The Senate will take a procedural vote to start debate on codifying abortion rights next week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday.

Democrats have pledged to take swift action on the issue after a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. The draft is not the final ruling, though the court confirmed its authenticity.

“I intend to file cloture on this vital legislation on Monday which will set up a vote for Wednesday,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor.

Any effort to protect abortion access nationwide is likely to face an uphill battle in the 50-50 divided chamber, where Democrats don’t have the 60 votes needed to overcome an expected filibuster.

4. Abortion Pills Stand to Become the Next Battleground in a Post-Roe America 

From The New York Times: 

If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the legal and culture wars over abortion that have consumed the United States for decades would increasingly shift to a new front: the use of abortion pills.

Medication abortion — a two-drug combination that can be taken at home or in any location and is authorized for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — has become more and more prevalent and now accounts for more than half of recent abortions in the United States. If the federal guarantee of abortion rights disappears, medication abortion would likely become an even more sought-after method for terminating a pregnancy — and the focus of battles between states that ban abortion and those that continue to allow it.

“Given that most abortions are early and medication abortion is harder to trace and already kind of becoming the majority or preferred method, it’s going to be a big deal,” Mary Ziegler, a legal scholar who has written widely on abortion, said. “It’s going to generate a lot of forthcoming legal conflicts because it’s just going to be a way that state borders are going to become less relevant.”

About half the states are expected to quickly make all methods of abortion illegal if the justices’ decision in a Mississippi case resembles a draft opinion leaked this week that would nullify the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion. Other states would likely continue to allow abortion, and several are already taking steps to accommodate patients from the states where abortion may be outlawed.

5. Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Classroom and Library Books 

From The Daily Citizen:

In 2019, parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, discovered that their district spent millions of dollars to purchase thousands of books as part of a “Diverse Classrooms and Libraries Program.” According to Parent and Child Loudoun, which advocates for transparency and parental involvement in the district:

Concerned parents raised the alarm in early September that many books incorporated LGBTQ themes in grades as early as Kindergarten including the promotion of Queer Theory concepts, as well as sexually inappropriate and even explicit language in other grades including excessive profanity and frequent descriptions of underage drinking, fondling, masturbation, orgasms, oral sex, sexual intercourse, sexual abuse, statutory rape, incest, and rape. 

Parent and Child Loudoun reviewed and listed hundreds of age-inappropriate, sexually confusing, explicit, objectionable, and profane books that were placed in schools in classrooms and libraries in their district. Here are just a few examples:

• When Kayla was Kyle, by Amy Fabrikant – An elementary school picture book about a boy who “transitions” into a girl.
• Teach Me, by R.A. Nelson – The “young adult” (YA) novel tells the story of a 16-year-old girl and her seduction and statutory rape by her male high school teacher.
• All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages by S. Mitchell – The book in middle and high school libraries contains sexually explicit and homosexual content.
• Dear Rachel Maddow,by A. Kisner – Another YA novel where the lesbian-identified protagonist, from a troubled home, writes emails to the stabilizing force in her life – MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Contains some sexual content and more than 100 uses of profanity.

Children are harmed by being exposed to age-inappropriate, obscene and explicit content. Such experiences can lead to struggles with pornography, compulsive masturbation, sexual identity, shame, self-esteem, sexual activity with other children, and developing and maintaining healthy relationships.

6. The Problems of Putting off Children 

From Public Discourse:

There are reasons to be concerned about waiting too long to have children. Leading the list are the increased risks that advanced maternal age poses to the mother and her baby. Pregnancy at thirty-five and older is sometimes bluntly described as “geriatric” and it is more prone to the natural shocks that flesh is heir to. Professional-class parents have a reputation as overprotective, but they often increase the risks to mother and child by delaying childbearing.

Of course, to brave these dangers women must first become pregnant, which becomes more difficult with age. Despite our cultural expectations, the female reproductive system begins declining around age thirty. Which is to say that the culturally-favored reproductive strategy for educated professionals is to wait to have children until female fertility is on the downswing. Having children during one’s best childbearing years is seen as, and statistically is, lower-class—the prejudices of the educated are sometimes stupid.

Furthermore, letting the biological clock tick close to midnight not only increases the likelihood of fertility problems, it also narrows the window in which they can be diagnosed and treated. Relatedly, putting off children makes it more difficult to have more than one or two. Yet these risks are often overlooked by those who say they want to have children—just not yet.

7. FDA Limits Authorized Use Of Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Due To ‘Potentially Life-Threatening Blood Clots’ 

From the Daily Wire:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced late Thursday afternoon that it has limited the authorized use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to adults who cannot receive other coronavirus vaccines.

The FDA said in a statement, “After conducting an updated analysis, evaluation and investigation of reported cases, the FDA has determined that the risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a syndrome of rare and potentially life-threatening blood clots in combination with low levels of blood platelets with onset of symptoms approximately one to two weeks following administration of the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine, warrants limiting the authorized use of the vaccine.”

The FDA said that the potential benefits for the vaccine outweighed its potential risks “for individuals 18 years of age and older for whom other authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines are not accessible or clinically appropriate, and for individuals 18 years of age and older who elect to receive the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine because they would otherwise not receive a COVID-19 vaccine.”

8. Report: Mickelson had $40 million in gambling losses 

From the Associated Press:

Federal auditors investigating Phil Mickelson’s role in an insider trading scheme found his gambling losses totaled more than $40 million from 2010 to 2014, according to an excerpt from Alan Shipnuck’s forthcoming biography.

Shipnuck posted the excerpt on his “Firepit Collective” site Thursday. His unauthorized biography on Mickelson is to be released May 17 during the PGA Championship. Mickelson is the defending champion. He has not said if he will be playing.

Mickelson has been out of public view since the final round of the Saudi International on Feb. 6. A short time later, Shipnuck posted explosive comments from Mickelson on his involvement in Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed golf venture.

9. How to teach your kids to have a healthy relationship with money – even if you didn’t 

From CNBC:

Parents can talk about money with their children at an early age — as soon as their kids are in elementary school.

“Children need to learn from a very early age that money is not a scary concept,” said Debra Kaplan, a licensed therapist, author and speaker based in Tucson, Arizona. “And the more they know about it, the more they can feel a kind of mastery over it.”

How parents should communicate about money will vary greatly depending on the age of the child, she said. With young children, parents can include their kids in activities where they budget and spend, such as going grocery shopping.

“We have to give [money] context for a child,” said Kaplan. That means explaining to them in terms they understand what money can be used for — it can be spent on things like food, or toys for kids, or saved for later.

10. My Mother’s Kitchen Cooked Up Confidence 

From the Wall Street Journal: 

My mother taught me to cook—with a patience that, as I look back now, seems nearly saintly. Maybe because of the let’s-get-this-done mindset that led me to major in engineering, I have always valued efficiency. In cooking that means perfectly chopped vegetables in their respective bowls. Color-coordinated knives for different meats. The spices arranged in proper order before cooking begins. A precise scale for weighing ingredients just as the recipe says.

It turns out that’s not how good cooking works. My mother isn’t exactly carefree in the kitchen, but compared with my own anxiety about precision, her intuition seems aggravatingly breezy and calm. She just knows when food is done. While I would stand watching the kitchen clock, she’d call out casually from the living room that the bread was ready. And she was always right. How is an engineer supposed to learn that skill?

My mother taught me to sew as well. In the abstract, sewing is a better fit for people with an engineering slant of mind. Thread the bobbin, following the sewing-machine instructions. Pin the thin manila paper on to the cloth, as the pattern’s instructions say. And there you are.

Children learn their lessons imperfectly, and I’m still trying to apply all that my mother has taught me. Since I was a toddler, she’s aimed to make me independent, assured and competent—the conditions, she thought, of happiness. And only now do I see how wonderful that training was, and how much more I have to grasp of what she taught me when I was young.

But that’s the condition of all of us, isn’t it? The thing we’re supposed to remember on Mother’s Day? The lessons we learn in school often have finite application. We learn a particular fact or technique. But the lessons we can learn from our mothers are lifelong skills and the deep truths that get richer and more important as the years go by.

Hope you have a great Mother’s Day weekend!