Responsibility cannot be legislated

The Philippine Congress is serious about passing the proposed right to reply bill to law.  The Senate passed its version, and the House of Representatives seems to be close to passing its own.  Obviously most, if not all media outlets, are against it.  The Philippine Daily Inquirer's editorial of February 23 touched on this issue.

In the last paragraph, it says (boldface, mine):

Most of the major newspapers, radio and TV stations have manuals of editorial policies that include provisions on the right of reply and on accuracy, objectivity and fairness. We urge the authors of the right of reply bill to withdraw it. Responsibility cannot be legislated. Government officials, politicians and the people in general will just have to trust in the responsibility, ethical uprightness and sense of fairness of publishers, editors and reporters in doing their work and exercising journalistic judgment and discretion.

Oddly enough, so many in media have advocated for the Reproductive Health Bill, (and many other laws) which is really none other than legislated responsibility.  Ain't it?  I do not see any difference.  Heck, I could replace the important words in that paragraph with words that pro-life groups use, and it will mean the same.

In the US, there is talk that the Fairness Doctrine will be revived.  This pertains much to public radio, but it seems some politicians want to revive it and apply the same to other media and even the internet (close to impossible, for the internet, I believe).  This FD might even be more encompassing than this right to reply bill in RP.  Another oddity is that many in media in the US are for its return -- although mostly from liberal talk radio who are getting slammed by conservative voices over the airwaves.  It is so bad for many of the liberal radio shows that they simply closed shop.  Rush Limbaugh (whom the One says Republican should not listen to) has a minimum of a little over 13 million weekly listeners to his The Rush Limbaugh Show.

If there's Will, there's a way

To defend your "right to question green orthodoxy."

George F. Will is under attack by the greenies, after he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled "Dark Green Doomsayers".  The greenies are not happy and wants WP to correct the errors in Will's op-ed.

Excerpt:

An unstated premise of eco-pessimism is that environmental conditions are, or recently were, optimal. The proclaimed faith of eco-pessimists is weirdly optimistic: These optimal conditions must and can be preserved or restored if government will make us minimize our carbon footprints and if government will "remake" the economy.

Because of today's economy, another law -- call it the Law of Clarifying Calamities -- is being (redundantly) confirmed. On graphs tracking public opinion, two lines are moving in tandem and inversely: The sharply rising line charts public concern about the economy, the plunging line follows concern about the environment. A recent Pew Research Center poll asked which of 20 issues should be the government's top priorities. Climate change ranked 20th.

Real calamities take our minds off hypothetical ones. Besides, according to the U.N. World Meteorological Organization, there has been no recorded global warming for more than a decade, or one-third of the span since the global cooling scare.

When cartoon hurts

Man/Boy-love danger

Bob Hamer writes "Single Moms and NAMBLA" as a reaction to Ann Coulter's book Guilty.  HE writes of his undercover work in NAMBLA.  Read all.

He concludes, well, in some support to statistics that Ann used in her book:

I am often asked how we can protect our children. There is no magic formula for identifying a molester. There may be clues, but they are not foolproof. We cannot prove a negative. We can prove a person is a child molester. We cannot prove he is not. But Ann, let me expand on what you have said. I know you have been attacked for your chapter on single mothers and of course, there are exceptions to most rules, but single moms (and married moms and dads) let me give one piece of advice that Ann didn’t render. Based upon my three year affiliation with these child molesters, I observed one thing: Not one boy who came from a home with a strong, loving father figure was successfully targeted by a persuasion predator.

Protection may be that simple…a boy needs a loving father.

RP is safe for now from MBL.

Thing is, the "porkulus" law can affect us

The stimulus package worth $787B (in paper) was signed into law a few days ago.  The US Congressional Budget Office reports that the law will really cost about $3.27T.  That's a lot of money (1 trillion dollar bills would be the equivalent of eight and a half planet earths stacked on top of each other).  A lot of money to hold power over the American people. 

So what? 

Thing is, the "porkulus" law can affect us in RP.   If, as Judge Roy Moore says, "it is an assault on our Constitution, our freedom and our faith", this stimulus package can only mean harm for us as well.  Of course, our veterans who fought for the US in World War II will get their lump sum reward (too little, too late?), but without a US economy stimulated (the law actually will not bring the kick the economy needs, some say), I do not see enough stimulus to stabilize our own economy in the long term

Yesterday, I heard from one of my colleagues in school (cite.edu.ph) that some of our partner-companies are sending us back some of our students who are on their on-the-job training (dual training system) with them, because the OJT's do not have any work or training.  This means that our students' graduation from their technician programs will have to be delayed, as the OJT is an important requirement.  Our partners have laid-off some regular workers and so we understand why the OJT's have to go as well.  They promise to take them back if the companies' operations are back on track.  The stimulus has to have a really good kick for our students to be back on track as well.

For what it's worth, we have new and old partner-companies who are taking in more OJT's this time.  Thank you very much for this.  But we are still short in our OJT placements.

The astronaut speaks

Former astronaut Harrison Schmitt is one anthropogenic global warming skeptic.  He will speak in next month's International Conference on Climate Change in New York.  It is not that he is a former US senator (although not presidential candidate) that makes him justified to speak about climate change and global warming.  Mr Schmitt:

has a science degree from the California Institute of Technology. He also studied geology at the University of Oslo in Norway and took a doctorate in geology from Harvard University in 1964.

Schmitt had earlier resigned from the Planetary Society after the society took the stand that many groups have taken with regard to global warming.  He said that:

"global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making."

AP, as it appears in the Boston Herald, writes:

Schmitt said historical documents indicate average temperatures have risen by 1 degree per century since around 1400 A.D., and the rise in carbon dioxide is because of the temperature rise.

Schmitt also said geological evidence indicates changes in sea level have been going on for thousands of years. He said smaller changes are related to changes in the elevation of land masses — for example, the Great Lakes are rising because the earth’s crust is rebounding from being depressed by glaciers.

Do as I say ... oh, I lost count

From the Times of London online, we read this report.

Who are some of these?  To name a few, here are excerpts:

THEY may shout their green credentials from the rooftops, but some of Britain’s most prominent environmental champions are living in homes that produce up to half a ton of excess carbon dioxide a year.

An audit of properties, measuring heat loss, has revealed that Chris Martin, the pop star, Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, and Sir David Attenborough, the broadcaster, are among those who reside in homes that are “leaking” energy. Some lack even the most basic energy saving measures such as cavity wall insulation and double glazing.
...

Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat energy and climate change spokesman, owned the least energy-efficient property. He bought his £150,000 flat in Southwark, south London, 25 years ago but has failed to fit it with any significant insulation. Only last week Hughes unveiled plans to make every home in Britain energy efficient within the next decade. He could start with his own flat.
...

Johnson is a late convert to the environmental cause and has sought to enhance his reputation by offering Londoners discounted home insulation.

However, his five-bedroom Victorian house in Islington, north London, loses 1,388kWh of energy a year - equivalent to - largely because of “excessive heat loss” around 360kg of CO2 the upper and lower windows.

Yep, do as I say ...

It was like everything inside was coming out at once

During an interview at her attorney’s office Jan. 28, Sycloria Williams reflects upon her experience at a Dade County abortion clinic. “They never said anything to me that would make me think it was a baby. They never said anything like baby, fetus. Nothing.”

H/T: Jill Stanek

Who said this?

“But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.”

Powerful remarks indeed. Sadly, these words ring hollow when the innocent is an unborn child or a victim of a botched procedure.

Question: "Is there any human life more innocent than that of an unborn baby living in its mother’s womb?"

And another, before the signing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation:

"I refuse to accept that millions of our children fail to reach their full potential because we fail to meet their basic needs."

Now, isn't life a basic need? No wonder many children do not reach their full potential -- they are nipped at the bud. Are we finally seeing the truth?

Michael Dubruiel+

Michael Dubruiel passed away today, February 3, when he "collapsed this morning at the gym and was not able to be revived despite the efforts of EMTs and hospital personnel."

His blog is one of the blogs I follow regularly. He is the husband of Amy Welborn, one of my favorite contemporary Catholic writers and bloggers.

Update: Michael's last column.

Blogs abuzz about TAC

Recent days have seen blogs writing about the possible formal entry of the Traditional Anglican Communion into the Catholic Church.  It is noted that the TAC has been exploring its communion with the Roman Catholic Church for varied reasons.  Some have mentioned that the TAC is being offered to come into the Church as a Personal Prelature.  The only Personal Prelature so far after this new juridical form was instituted in the Church is Opus Dei.  If indeed this happens, an Easter entry has been speculated, then, Welcome Home!

See here, here, here, here, and here.

Justifying terror

Judea Pearl writes an op-ed in WSJ in time for the seventh anniversary of the murder of his son, former WSJ reporter Daniel.  He writes how some people have been made as tools of the terrorists to justify not only the violence that these terrorists do, but also why they think the global war on terror is not necessary, that it has to stop.  He mentions how luminaries, the media and even universities have contributed to this way of thinking.

Excerpts:

Those around the world who mourned for Danny in 2002 genuinely hoped that Danny's murder would be a turning point in the history of man's inhumanity to man, and that the targeting of innocents to transmit political messages would quickly become, like slavery and human sacrifice, an embarrassing relic of a bygone era.

But somehow, barbarism, often cloaked in the language of "resistance," has gained acceptance in the most elite circles of our society. The words "war on terror" cannot be uttered today without fear of offense. Civilized society, so it seems, is so numbed by violence that it has lost its gift to be disgusted by evil.
...

But the clearest endorsement of terror as a legitimate instrument of political bargaining came from former President Jimmy Carter. In his book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," Mr. Carter appeals to the sponsors of suicide bombing. "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Road-map for Peace are accepted by Israel." Acts of terror, according to Mr. Carter, are no longer taboo, but effective tools for terrorists to address perceived injustices.
...

Mr. Carter's logic has become the dominant paradigm in rationalizing terror. When asked what Israel should do to stop Hamas's rockets aimed at innocent civilians, the Syrian first lady, Asma Al-Assad, did not hesitate for a moment in her response: "They should end the occupation." In other words, terror must earn a dividend before it is stopped.

The media have played a major role in handing terrorism this victory of acceptability. Qatari-based Al Jazeera television, for example, is still providing Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi hours of free air time each week to spew his hateful interpretation of the Koran, authorize suicide bombing, and call for jihad against Jews and Americans.
...

At my own university, UCLA, a symposium last week on human rights turned into a Hamas recruitment rally by a clever academic gimmick. The director of the Center for Near East Studies carefully selected only Israel bashers for the panel, each of whom concluded that the Jewish state is the greatest criminal in human history.

Spitz's the man

As I said in a previous blog, Mark Spitz is still the Man!

You would never see him like this >>>

Disgrace. Even more disgrace.

Pro-life videos

Rachel's post on Faith and Family. Go and see.

I am posting these two videos because they are breathtaking. The videos are different than what I’m used to, but I found them to be at least as powerful as any other pro-life message I have seen. Incredible to see all the different vessels God can use to spread his message.

On a related point, see how radical environmentalism (read: anthropogenic global warming alarmism) is nothing more than population control, eugenics, and, well, socialism.

More than Two Children “Irresponsible” Says Top Advisor to British Government

I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don’t really hear anyone say the ‘p’ word ... I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate and how many children they think are appropriate.

She refused to have them killed

"What do you suggest she should have done?  She refused to have them killed."