According to the Wall Street Journal (5/23/08), The Federal government distributes about $280 million a year among the thousands of clinics to subsidize the cost of birth control, cancer screening, HIV testing and other reproductive care for low-income patients.' Known as Title X, the program serves five million men and women a year.' By law the money can't be used for abortion procedures.But about one third of Title X patients receive their care at reproductive health clinics run by Planned Parenthood, which is also the nation's largest abortion provider.' Critics say the federal grants indirectly subsidize Planned Parenthood's abortion services by keeping a steady stream of money flowing into the clinics.President Ronald Reagan imposed rules over two decades ago that barred clinics that received Title X money from performing abortions or referring patients to abortion clinics.' Opponents filed suit, and the regulations were put on hold for years as the court battle played out.' The United States Supreme Court eventually upheld the regulations - but a year and a half later, President Clinton rescinded them.Since Mr. Bush took office, activists on the right have been pleading with him to reinstate the Reagan-era rules.' In one of his first official acts as President, he imposed restrictions on foreign family-planning aid, preventing U.S. grants from going to groups that perform or promote abortion.' He has declined, however, to implement that rule domestically.'Planned Parenthood of America relies on government grants and contracts, including Title X, for roughly a third of its nearly $337 million budget, according to its recent financial support.' Before the Bush administration is over, a final push is being waged to pressure the President to use his executive authority to order the change. More >>

It is a well known fact that illegal aliens have voted in national elections.' Arizona is the only state that requires proof of citizenship - either a birth certificate or passport is sufficient proof.' This year, some 5,000 names have disappeared from the voting registry.Unbelievably, some Hispanic activists and organizations are complaining!' I don't get it.' This is a sovereign country, and one of the perks of citizenship is the right to vote for our government officials.' Persons without such legal status ought not to be able to influence an election.' These activists and organizations should be going door-to-door to make sure that their "constituency" is driven to the proper government buildings to get such proof - where it actually exists.' These same activists and organizations should report people who are breaking the law to the INS.It is a breach of trust for any political party or its members to support illegal voters and then complain about "illegal" voting.' I am not aware of any urgency within the Democratic Party in Congress to make sure that the 50% of votes from the deployed military are no longer disenfranchised. More >>

I remember several "brouhahas" over the last few years concerning some Christian religious leaders making comments about severe weather, HIV and even September 11, suggesting that it was "God's punishment" for perceived flaws in American social life.' Boy, oh boy, did the media go mad over that!Although she has had to backtrack and apologize for her comments, I didn't see anywhere near the same response to Sharon Stone's suggestion that China's devastating earthquakes, which killed an enormous population might be "karma," because China is "not nice to Tibetans."' First of all, the average Chinese person has no power to dictate foreign concerns, much less their own domestic situation.' Has anybody lately looked at their form of government?' Anyone whining about "disenfranchisement" of voting privileges in America should visit China for a year - and make sure that the 50% of deployed military's ballots are actually counted for a change.To suggest that God or karma wiped out innocent people, because He is unhappy with their government's international political position is, in my never to be humble opinion, blasphemous, and phenomenally insensitive and disgusting.Christian Dior has dropped spokeswoman Stone from their advertisements in China, and has also apologized to its customers there. But, I imagine, because she is a popular, liberal, Hollywood type, with great facial bone structure, she will not be feeling the negative impact of her own "karma" for very long. More >>

Every weekend, newspaper inserts around the country provide coupons, giving you opportunities to get a wide selection of products for even less than what your local paper offers in its supermarket ads.' To tap into this vast source of discounted food and cleaning products, there are Web-based services that give you easy access to the discount coupons.' Some of the sites allow users to print coupons directly, while other services, for a fee, clip the coupons from newspaper inserts and mail them to you.One of the best of these is thecouponclippers.com .' Fees are 50 cents per order plus 10% of the face value of each coupon, and shipping is 58 cents.' They have an extensive selection, including a health-food section.' You can shop by department or via search tool.' If you are buying huge volumes, you might want to check centsoff.com .There are others, like grocerycoupons.com , onlinecoupons.com , and grocerycard.com , but they require a fee for the year that ranges from $10 to $100, and then 10% of the face value of each coupon and 75 cents for postage. More >>

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Gas prices are going up over $4 per gallon in some areas of the country. The solution?' Get a scooter!'One "scooter-ite" bought a Vespa GTS that uses about $7 of fuel every two weeks.' Wow!Consider the cost of a 50 mile round-trip commute based on a fuel price of $3,79 a gallon:' the scooter (Vespa S) would cost $2.65 per day; a Honda Accord, $6.10 per day, and a large SUV (Ford Expedition), $10.50 per day.' A Vespa can travel 80 miles on a gallon of fuel.There is a downside to scooters, however:' dealing with potholes, having to get a motorcycle license in most states, no protection in bad weather, and vulnerability around other vehicles, which are usually a lot bigger.' Nonetheless, scooter sales have gone up 25% in the past year.' Scooter prices range from $3,000 to $9,000, depending on size and "fanciness."In 2005, the latest year with complete data, the death rate for scooter riders was 129 per million scooters registered, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.' In comparison, the death rate was 78 for cars and light trucks, and 645 per million motorcycles registered.'I believe this is a growing trend.' It's not an accident that you've been seeing so many more motorcycles and scooters on the road.' In addition to being more cost-effective, it's fun and "cool" to be on a scooter.' I have a Harley-Davidson Road King that's been converted to a trike for safety.' I had it "muralized," and it's a show-stopper.' I've had a Vespa scooter, too, and that's also a fun ride. More >>

"Obese and overweight people require more fuel to transport them and the food they eat, and the problem will worsen as the population literally swells in size," a team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says.' This adds to food shortages and higher energy prices, say the School's researchers, Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts, who wrote about this subject in the most recent issue of the medical journal Lancet .At least 400 million adults worldwide are obese.' The World Health Organization (WHO) projects that by the year 2015, 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese.' The researchers calculate that these fat and obese people require 18% more energy than someone with a stable Body Mass Index (BMI).Is the next step giving tax breaks to those who are thin and fit? More >>

Besides the assault on Western civilization from the outside by Islamist jihadists, we are deconstructing our own society by declaring null and void basic concepts of mother- and father-centered lives for children.Forget the biology:' Male and female create offspringForget the psychology and sociology:' children who do not have Mom and Dad-centered home lives tend to have higher poverty rates, and more problems on all levels with education, violence, and substance abuse,Forget everything that is basic and makes sense, because some women are so selfish and/or incompetent to have a healthy relationship with a man that their desire - desire - is to have a child, intentionally robbing that child of a father and a mom and dad-centered home.Well, permission to do so has been granted by the British government to do just that.' The British government voted just last week to remove the requirement that fertility clinics consider a child's need for a father.' Let me repeat:' they removed the requirement that fertility clinics even consider a child's need for a father.' Can you believe that?' The best interests of a child are eliminated from discourse, because a female wants to make a baby for her own pleasure - and a historically civilized government backs her up?' Sheesh!Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, in an interview with London's "The Times," said, "I think it strange that the government should want to take away not just the need for a father, but the right for a father." This action effectively declared fathers an irrelevance in modern Britain.' It is scary that only 60% of Brits who were polled believed that a child should have a mommy and a daddy - that's the power of the "feminista" movement!Here are some letters that were sent to London's "Daily Mail:"1. Raised in a single-parent family, I can say from experience that a child needs a father.' Mothers alone cannot take his place.' It's a selfish act and implies women are more concerned with fulfilling their own needs to have a child than thinking of the child's welfare.' Men:' STOP DONATING SPERM! 2. What about a man's right to have children without a mother?' In order to avoid sex discrimination the [government] must surely now provide surrogate mothers for any would-be father who asks for one in order that he might have children. 3. With all our problems with 'feral, fatherless' youngsters in modern Britain, this vote seems utterly baffling, and frankly, obscene. 4. Is there really any need for a mother either? More >>

California's Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has found out some fascinating things about the mating behaviors of octopuses.First, some general information:' these particular octopuses are about as big as a human hand, and most of that size is in their sucker-covered tentacles.' Their bodies are just walnut-sized.' To procreate, the males deposit "sperm packets" in the female's body through a specialized tentacle.Second:' this particular species (aculeatus octopu) is normally yellow with dapples of brown, tan, and grey.' But when a male sees another octopus, he puts on his fighting and flirting colors (both of which look the same), turning nearly white with dark stripes.' That signals that he's a male, and is ready to fight OR mate.'Third:' the females will mate with any male octopus that wanders by.' The males are more selective and are more enthralled with the more voluptuous females - skinny girls need not apply.Fourth:' the little itty-bitty guys don't want to fight the regulation-size guys, so they crawl along the ocean floor to one of the voluptuous females in a den guarded by the larger male.' These clever smaller dudes remain brown and yellow (typical female behavior).' By hiding and "cross-dressing," these little guys often manage to get close enough to the female to mate....and, as I reported, she'll mate with anybody, anytime, anywhere.Moral to this story?? More >>

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