Politics

The Unholy Church of America

~ bourbongal ~ Leave a comment

It holds all the tradition of any church.

  • Members who donate money generously – both individuals and corporations
  • Volunteers who zealously donate their time
  • The sacrament of confession
  • Theologians who clarify the beliefs for the faithful
  • A figurehead who teaches the faithful through televised talks and news appearances
  • Learned experts who perform their rituals

It is the Church of Planned Parenthood. And like any good church in America, they hold 501c3 tax-exempt status. And believe it or not, as a pro-life person, I support this tax status.

Members who donate money generously – both individuals and corporations

The rallies and local events, such as the Nasty Woman art festival are fantastic ways for members to both get involved in the community and donate their money. A local event was so successful that they raised over $30,000 in 5 hours.

Many corporations and charities also fund the Church of Planned Parenthood.

Volunteers who zealously donate their time

Each week, as they attend “committees and events”, volunteers assist with the Church’s mission – to escort women in to fulfill their declared right – to end the inconvenient truth in their womb. Never mind that to many of these women it may not be an inconvenient truth.

Never mind that it may be a child to be adored under any other circumstance. Never mind that the women may not be aware of the help available to them at this vulnerable time when they may feel betrayed by those they love most – the father of their child, and their family.

No. While the women may be sadly entering the Church, the volunteers are there to take up the battle cry and demand the rights of these women who may be too sad or weak to do so. Resigned to a fate which imposes an emotional burden they may not be later able to handle, they are led into Church in the sure hands of the true believers.

The Sacrament of Confession

Much like Catholic confession, anything disclosed to a clinic volunteer or worker need not be reported to police. Note, not the doctor, but the volunteer.

For instance, if a 40 year old man brings his 15 year old girlfriend in for a rite of the Church, demanding that the living evidence be removed, the workers need not call the police.

It has been said this is to protect the privacy of the patients- that they would be less likely to attend Church safely and speak honestly with their caregiver if they were to fear publication of their conversation.

Theologians who clarify the beliefs for the faithful

You needn’t look far to find the works of learned theologians clarifying the beliefs of the Church. At any women event, be it in entrepreneurship or tech, the assumption is made that all present are members of the Church.

The organizers of such events are quick to assume that as an ovary-endowed-American (OEA), you are automatically an enthusiastic member of the Church. As such, any events whose proceeds monetarily benefit the Church, may be promoted at all OEA events, even if they are not related to Church.

At January’s women’s march, it was assumed that women were members of the Church. As such, women celebrating life were told not to attend the march, as that was a blatant display of blasphemy and not protected by free speech.

“Good” women, “real” women are dutiful members of Church. They donate freely and support the faith. The services provided by the Church must be monetarily supported by non-believers and any talk to the contrary is hate speech against women.

A figurehead who teaches the faithful through televised talks and news appearances

Cecile Richards is a beautiful, well-spoken leader for the Church. Featured on morning talk shows, she expounds on the rites and rights of the Church. The members are entitled to pre-natal care and mammograms. Without these rites of the Church, the members would go without care. The only problem is that most chapels of the Church no longer offer these services.

But no matter, Pope Richards will defend the rights of the members to these services. And I have to agree with her. OEAs do have a right to these services. Where she falls short, is that the services are not and need not be provided by the Church. Plenty of other caregivers offer mammograms and prenatal care, also covered by medicaid, most within a couple of miles of a PP chapel.

Learned experts who perform their rituals

The sacrifices performed in the sacred rituals of the Church of PP, do require advanced learning. Unfortunately, they do not require the generally accepted federal medical oversight. There is safety protocol for the procedures performed in the sanctuary and at the altar of the Church; yet the Church seems to have received a religious exemption. Unlike even an elementary school’s nurse office, the sanctum of the Church is exempt from routine safety inspections.

Full Church privileges

For the reasons listed above, Planned Parenthood should receive an absolute right to continue their 501c3 tax-exempt status. As a non-profit, while they do generate much revenue from their rites and rituals, the money has rightfully been reinvested in the staggeringly high salaries of their leadership. The PPP (Planned Parenthood Pope) makes nearly $1,000,000/year, while the chapel leaders receive an average of $238,000/year.

And, in keeping with the time honored tradition of separation of church and state – their Church should receive not one penny of government money.

Some may point out that the government does give much funding to Catholic Charities for contracted services, similar to the Church of Planned Parenthood. Catholic Charities, however, is greatly restricted and receives tremendous oversight.

In fact, the religious restrictions placed on Catholic Charities in their adoption procedures forced the closing of their services in several states. The result? Kids were placed back in the system and given to already overburdened case workers.

If Planned Parenthood wishes to continue to receive government funding then, like Catholic Charities, they should need to:

  1. Receive regular medical inspections
  2. Meet the same medical standards as any care facility performing outpatient surgeries which is not on the grounds of a hospital.
  3. Receive payment for specific procedures and stop performing others – or have the medicaid funding go to facilities which do not perform those other procedures.

The Real Reason We Pray at Abortion Clinics

~ bourbongal ~ Leave a comment

I gave some more thought to the woman who was marching her daughter in to the clinic to “remove” her grandchild. She screamed at us that she didn’t want her daughter on welfare.

I know many progressive, enlightened people who would agree with her. “We” don’t want more people on welfare, so this is the best solution. The authors of Freakonomics even credited the declining crime rate to increased abortions – making the conclusion that the criminals got killed off before they could commit the crimes. Not sure how they explain present day Chicago.

“We” don’t want to pay for more poor folk, so let’s just get rid of them before they can become a drain on the system.

Never mind compassion for the mom who may have made a mistake, or the dad who may have just been laid off from work.

Never mind the irony that we call this free choice, when most of these people feel like they have no choices.

Let’s kill the offspring of the drain on our system, so we don’t have to pay for them.

These enlightened folk are the same people who demand the right to health care, and the right for illegal immigrants to get free college education. But don’t let those illegal immigrants have a surprise pregnancy. We wouldn’t want to pay for their kids. No, better to “take care of it” by asserting their “right” to kill their young.

How about we give all people real, educated choices? How about we show real compassion for people in whatever situation they find themselves? Let’s actually get out there and help, rather than pointing fingers.

If this were truly about compassion, then the first thing a clinic worker would say is “I’m so sorry this is so hard for you. Let’s look at how we can help your family best succeed. Here is all the aid available to you – both public and private. Do you need emotional support? It’s available at [insert the name of a charitable organization].

Why must this be about numbers? Both about abortions performed and babies saved. It’s about neither. It’s about family health.

The family that makes the decision to kill their young to save finances, will tear itself apart. The mother that feels forced into that decision by her boyfriend, spouse or parents will live with unbearable grief for years.

Rather than cling to “rights”, let’s see about helping her feel whole. Let’s get her all the support she needs. And for goodness sake, let’s remove the guilt of putting another child on welfare.

THAT’S WHY WELFARE IS AVAILABLE.

If you know someone who needs love and compassion and real help, here are some resources. Please leave comments below with more resources and I’ll add them in.

And to be fair – here is the official “unbiased” help Planned Parenthood offers when someone finds themselves in an unplanned pregnancy. Note the descriptions given of Crisis Pregnancy centers and the scary word at the end of the option on adoption. Yes, that one is true, but the inclusion of that word at that particular moment could be rather terrifying to someone in that situation.

There are no resources offered regarding how to get help if a woman decides to raise her child. Also, despite the fact that a minor may not take tylenol without parental permission, read the last line of their article.

Please leave a comment and explain to me how Planned Parenthood’s official advice is unbiased.

Goyim Hamentashen

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goyim hamentasen

I was raised Jewish, and cherish the rich history. My kids know well, the family background and my love for some Jewish traditions.

Growing up, Purim was the tribe form of Halloween. We got to dress up and go trick or treating in the Temple (I was reform, so it was not called synagogue).

Of course, every girl wanted to dress up as Esther.

A few weeks ago, I decided to teach my little goyim how to made yummy hamentashen. As usual, I was missing a key ingredient – apricot preserves. We substituted with whatever jam was handy.

We tried to use Duff Goldman’s recipe, but were also missing the plain brandy and poppy seed filling ingredients. I used apricot brandy and decided I now love apricot brandy.

This was a wonderful opportunity to discuss religious persecution and its hidden benefits.

As a reform Jew in New York, my whole religious identity was bound to the holocaust, not so much worshipping God. Sunday school did teach about Jewish culture and some prayers, for which I’m forever grateful. I can still recite the Sh’ma.

Personally, my great-Aunt was part of the resistance in Poland, along with her husband. Both they and their toddler son were killed when the Nazis discovered that their pharmacy was aiding the resistance.

In 1930s Poland, much of the Jewish population was assimilated. Many were more Zionist than religiously Jewish. That was my family.

As you can see in the photo above, my daughter has red hair. It’s from my grandma. It seems to be a dominant gene in my family. 3 of our 7 kids have red hair, which is not a semitic trait. At some point my family must have assimilated with some red haired slavs.

The religious persecution against Jews in Europe, prior to the Holocaust, while traumatic and unfair, did have one big benefit. It kept them Jewish for the most part, whether they worshipped God or not. It kept the little tribe from a backwater Roman province alive and well for over 2000 years.

Every time persecution went away, assimilation quickly followed. Assimilation is the quickest possible way to kill a community. Ask the Babylonians. They wanted to destroy the Jewish identity of those northern 10 tribes of the Jewish people. They didn’t kill the people. They just treated them decently, but made them intermarry and settle elsewhere. Pretty soon, they were known as the Samaritans and no real Jewish identity.

Basing religious identity on terrible events 50 years prior, does not fill the need for God in every child’s heart. As St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Almost every Jewish teen I knew, who was raised reform, grew up and married a Catholic or became Catholic. Some became nothing. Some became unitarian. But those seeking God mostly found their way to Catholicism, in my anecdotal experience.

Why? Because the liturgy is the same. It’s familiar.

There’s a tabernacle.

There’s a cantor.

There’s readings from the Old Testament.

There’s an ever burning candle.

Even the prayers are identical…. Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh… Holy, Holy, Holy… same prayer.

There’s some Jesus dude. So that was a bit of a hurdle for me. Ok, almost a job stopper.

But there’s also something else that Judaism was lacking for me. One true authority. I’ll continue that in another post some day.

Getting back to persecution…

I was raised to easily recognize persecution and call it out. So here’s where it gets just plain weird. I never experienced religious persecution as a Jew. Maybe because I grew up in a land where I thought all people were Jewish or Catholic (New York). I didn’t know there was any other religion until I was 12.

But here I am, Catholic, and I experience it all the time. Even from other Catholics. But just like historical religious persecution, aside from the Holocaust, forced Jews to decide if they were going to assimilate or truly worship God as their ancestors did, today’s publicly-accepted Catholic bashing forces us to choose.

We can hide our religious belief behind political correctness. We can avoid topics that involve things such as absolute truth. We can be silent while our Facebook friends rail against everything we can hold dear. Or we can sacrifice our reputation for the sake of the Truth. We will soon likely be forced to choose.

I was raised by a Communist and a Socialist and taught to fight publicly accepted doctrine. I was taught to fight authority and challenge propaganda.

I stand before you, to the horror of my parents, putting their lessons in action.

I CHOOSE GOD.

The Real Reason President Obama Doesn’t Get Me

~ bourbongal ~ Leave a comment

Full disclsosure: I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. Both parties suck.

Our President gave a talk the other day during which he mentioned the responsibility of successful entrepreneurs to pay their due. Hmmm. I know this video has been overanalyzed and over-defended on both sides of the political spectrum. But the main point is that he doesn’t seem to get what being an entrepreneur actually entails.

Full disclosure number two: I aspire to live the American dream. You know the one where you move to America, start your own business, get rich, and give all your money back to the government.

Except, I was born in America, so I can’t move here. I moved to the Midwest, does that count?  And I’d prefer to keep my money and give charitably  to places of my own choosing, rather having the IRS snatch it.  Oh, and I’m not rich. Yet.

So let’s examine his talk about entrepreneurs.

He doesn’t get me. He doesn’t get risk. He doesn’t understand real risk because he’s never had to live it. He’s never had to make the choice of escaping the golden handcuffs of a good job, coming up with an original business model, paying rent on an office, and paying employees before yourself.

It’s exhilarating. Like jumping out of a plane. Something I wouldn’t recommend as an entrepreneur. Who is going to run your business if you break both your legs? Or die?

But wasn’t running for president a risk? No, not really. He had a backup job. No, he doesn’t know risk. Without us risk takers we wouldn’t have some of those things he quoted in the speech.

Those roads? If Henry Ford hadn’t successfully automated the car manufacturing process we’d still be riding our bikes on dirt. He failed miserably several times until he came up with a system that made cars affordable for the whole country. And he gave people a good salary because it made sense, not because the government forced him.

And the schools? Don’t even get me started. I live in Obamas home state. Until 2010, 35% was considered a passing score on the Basic Skills Test for teachers.

It comes down to this. If there is no reward for risk, why take any? If the only reward for risk brings the fear of getting hit with the Alternate Means Tax (aka You Filthy Rich Person Must Give Me All Your Money), then why try to succeed? I guess my new goal is to make just enough money to not get a target on my back. I will follow that up with a trip to New York City where I will get a pop just large enough to not get arrested.