Setting the record straight on Sarah Palin

The Dems are in full meltdown mode about Sarah Palin as she closes the gap in the polls. So, naturally, they resort to gutter politics. Hacking Sarah's email, spreading ugly rumors about her pregnancy, trying to create "Troopergate", calling Bristol's cell phone. . .
but what bothered me the most was a piece from someone allegedly from Alaska, living in Ireland, who accused Sarah of slashing funding for special needs children. This is aimed at those of us in the disability community who are lining up to vote for McCain-Palin because of her promise to help our children if she is elected.
THIS IS PATENTLY FALSE.
Newsweek sets the record straight.
No Cut for "Special Needs" Kids
It's not true, as widely reported in mass e-mails, Web postings and at least one mainstream news source, that Palin slashed the special education budget in Alaska by 62 percent. CNN's Soledad O'Brien made the claim on Sept. 4 in an interview with Nicolle Wallace, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign:
O'Brien, Sept. 4: One are that has gotten certainly people sending to me a lot of e-mails is the question about as governor what she did with the special needs budget, which I'm sure you're aware, she cut significantly, 62 percent I think is the number from when she came into office. As a woman who is now a mother to a special needs child, and I think she actually has a nephew which is autistic as well. How much of a problem is this going to be as she tries to navigate both sides of that issue?
Such a move might have made Palin look heartless or hypocritical in view of her convention-speech pledge to be an advocate for special needs children and their families. But in fact, she increased special needs funding so dramatically that a representative of local school boards described the jump as "historic."
According to an April 2008 article in Education Week, Palin signed legislation in March 2008 that would increase public school funding considerably, including special needs funding. In particular, it would increase spending for certain special needs students that Alaska calls "intensive needs" (students with high-cost special requirements) from $26,900 per student in 2008 to $73,840 per student in 2011. That almost triples the per-student spending in three fiscal years. Palin's original proposal, according to the Anchorage Daily News, would have increased funds slightly more, giving intensive needs students a $77,740 allotment by 2011.
Education Week: A second part of the measure raises spending for students with special needs [the intensive needs group] to $73,840 in fiscal 2011, from the current $26,900 per student in fiscal 2008, according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
Unlike many other states, Alaska has relatively flush budget coffers, thanks to a rise in oil and gas revenues. Funding for schools will remain fairly level next year, however. Overall per-pupil funding across the state will rise by $100, to $5,480, in fiscal 2009. ...
Carl Rose, the executive director of the Association of Alaska School Boards, praised the changes in funding for rural schools and students with special needs as a "historic event," and said the finance overhaul would bring more stability to district budgets.
According to Eddy Jeans at the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, funding for special needs and intensive needs students has increased every year since Palin entered office, from a total of $203 million in 2006 to a projected $276 million in 2009.
Those who claim that Palin cut special needs funding by 62 percent are looking in the wrong place and misinterpreting what they find there. They point to an apparent drop in the Department of Education and Early Development budget for special schools. But the special schools budget, despite the similar name, isn't the special needs budget. "I don't even consider the special schools component [part of] our special needs funding," Jeans told FactCheck.org. "The special needs funding is provided through our public school funding formula. The special schools is simply a budget component where we have funding set aside for special projects," such as the Alaska School for the Deaf and the Alaska Military Youth Academy. A different budget component, the Foundation Program, governs special needs programs in the public school system.
And in any case, the decrease in funding for special schools is illusory. Palin moved the Alaska Military Youth Academy's ChalleNGe program, a residential military school program that teaches job and life skills to students under 20, out of the budget line for "special schools" and into its own line. This resulted in an apparent drop of more than $5 million in the special schools budget with no actual decrease in funding for the programs.

Two innocents killed for every successful search and destroy mission

Is this the latest front on the war on terror. Maybe.
Sadly, however, it takes place down the block from you at your local obstetrician's office. In the insurance-paid, March of Dimes reasearched , ACOG-sanctioned search and destroy mission for unborn babies with Down syndrome, two 'innocent' babies (those with the proper number of chromosomes) are killed for every 'guilty' child who has one chromosome too many to be loved in our society. Read the article here.
This is considered a tragedy. Sure it is. Whenever a baby is killed in his mother's womb it is a tragedy. But the cruel irony is that few consider it a tragedy when this mission is successful, in one of three cases, and the right baby is murdered. The one who didn't deserve to live. That's why the Italian mother of twins aborted both her twins, because the first time the doctor killed the wrong child.
When does this insanity end?!
HT Life Site News

Franciscan Friars Vocations Video

One of the Friarys of this amazing order is a short ride from my new home.
Watch the video and you will soon understand why their inner peace and unity with God is so irresistable, we just had to live near the Friary and share their prayer life.

Oprah and All Her Works and All Her Empty Promises

Here is a guest post by one of my favorite priests: Fr Tom Euteneuer of Human Life International. Like Fr Corapi, he has a gift for pinpointing the lies most of us swallow whole from the Culture of Death. Thanks to his searing honesty and the gift of his priesthood, Fr. Tom enables us to see how captive we are, and how much we need Jesus Christ and His Church.
I feel sorry for Oprah because of her terrible childhood, and ask the Lord to have mercy on her as she is imperiling her soul by leading millions of American women into the death trap of New Age pseudo-spirituality. I am also appalled at her duplicity at refusing to host Sarah Palin and the authors of a book called "Gifts: Mothers Reflect on how Children with Down Syndrome Enriched Their Lives". She only appears to be loving and fair which makes her influence more insidious.
Lord, please deliver us from our foolhardy dependence on false idols of our culture.
From Fr. Tom Euteneuer
Of late I am increasingly frightened by something I see happening in our culture: it is the seeming superficial-ization of everything in American life to the point of absurdity and deception. The prime culprit of course is the ubiquitous mass media (especially 24-hour cable programming and the internet) and its constant dumbing down of the American consciousness to the lowest common denominator of the most tantalizing sound bites and images. The other bad boy is the interminable chatter/commentary by clever cultural sharpshooters: it's so bad sometimes that it makes me wonder if we can actually pull ourselves out of our co-dependence upon charlatans. What makes my priest's heart so heavy is that I think our society is going down the path of deep spiritual degradation, and it doesn't look like this trend will be ending any time soon. Certainly not in an election season.
Case in point: Oprah. Our country's richest woman is easily one of the most spiritually bankrupt people in America and also one of the most shockingly popular. How does a New Age con artist like Oprah get so many people to literally adore her? She did not make $260 million last year by feeding people solid food. She deals in fads, feelings and frauds - it's that simple - and apparently she is very effective at convincing people to follow her well-packaged crock of nonsense. Of a recent political speech, she admitted fawningly that she had "cried her eyelashes off" when she heard it, and I am sure her crocodile tears were persuasive to her vast audience. For people schooled in the truth, the reaction would be very different: I saw the same speech and could barely keep myself from throwing up, but they don't pay me $260 million a year.
When asked why she refused to interview her anointed one's political opponent, she balked and got caught in a nasty public relations double-bind which is what usually happens to people who play games with their own popularity. Her refusal would have been easier to swallow if she had just said simply that she didn't like the other candidate and didn't want her on the show; that we can accept! But then again, basic honesty is probably above Oprah's pay grade. The truth is that Oprah has put her social clout to partisan political use, and when she was called on to be fair, she just couldn't admit that she was playing the political hack.
I do think Oprah's menace is fundamentally spiritual though, and that it feeds off the growing spiritual superficiality of the American populace. Its treachery is not to be underestimated. Oprah not only believes in but forcefully advocates pernicious New Age trends like Helen Schucman's A Course In Miracles and Eckhart Tolle's terrible esoteric movement that is trampling down Christian values and opening up a spiritual vacuum in the hearts of millions as we speak. Having the life sucked out of our souls by spiritually bankrupt "celebrities" is a slow spiritual death, to put it mildly. However, Oprah is just the worst case scenario of what is reaching epidemic proportions in a personality-obsessed, spiritually infantile and media-saturated culture. The most popular show in American prime-time is not called "American Idol" for nothing: we are literally becoming a nation of idol-worshippers.
What can we do about all the deceptive cultural garbage clamoring to fill our vulnerable souls? Well, the Church has always had the answer and never ceases to instruct us in the discipline that will bring our souls down that "narrow way" of Christ. We are to "reject Satan and all his works and all his empty promises" - that would include all his idols too. We are to consume the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and say "yes" when we mean "yes" and "no" when we mean "no." As Jesus said, "everything else is from the devil."

=Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

Obama's Abysmal Pay Grade

a guest post by political cartoonist John Francis Borra
Barack Obama never lets us forget he's a "person of faith." At the same time, he refuses to accept the scientific fact that life begins at conception. Just like Joe Biden, he wants voters to believe that the point at which life begins is a matter of faith. Why? Because for the moral relativist, faith is synonymous with truth-- and truth is whatever you make it. This stratagem is the origin of Obama's bombastic and falsely humble response to Rick Warren's question concerning the beginning of life and human rights. It's also an indication of how little regard Obama has for whatever he calls "faith."

Needless to say, Obama's pay grade comment was no more than an effort to obscure the untenability of his position. But ask one of today's Catholic school kids when life begins and you'll get a clear, concise and truthful answer. If Barack Obama refuses to acknowledge irrefutable facts that even children do, what's he doing in a position of responsibility? And if he has so utterly little regard for his neighbors, how well suited can he possibly be to make decisions regarding their welfare?

While Sarah Palin has never been to Washington, she has something Obama and Biden both lack-- respect for human life. If this is not a quality that trumps all others when choosing our chief executives, it should be.
John Francis Borra
veritatis@eaglecom.net

used with permission

Abortion survivor speaks to Obama

from the Catholic League
Gianna Jessen and Jill Stanek of BornAliveTruth.org have released a video that features an appeal by Jessen to Sen. Barack Obama asking him to support health care for infants who have been born alive following a botched abortion. Jessen is a 31 year-old who survived a saline abortion; Stanek is the nurse who blew the whistle on infants being allowed to die in a utility room following induced-labor abortions (she was fired from Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois for doing so).

When Obama was in the Illinois State Senate, he blocked all legislation designed to provide health care for infants who survived an abortion. The language of the Illinois bill, in its final version, was identical to the language of the federal bill that was passed unanimously and signed into law by President Bush. Though that bill made it clear that nothing in the legislation could be construed to overturn Roe v. Wade, it still wasn't enough to satisfy Obama.

To see this 30-second video, click here.

On May 15, Catholic League president Bill Donohue appeared on "Fox and Friends" saying there had been a media cover-up of this issue. He now sounds off about this classic video:

"Abortion is not just another issue for Catholics. As Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput has said, it is a 'foundational issue.' Amazingly, the issue that this video addresses is beyond abortion"it is infanticide. Why Obama, who advocates universal heath care, would exclude babies who survive an abortion from his plan is mind-boggling. Guess the politics of inclusion draws a line when it comes to these kids.

"Moreover, if anyone wants to continue to deny that abortion involves human life, let him take a good look at Gianna Jessen: She is living proof that the entire pro-abortion agenda is based on a lie. Perversely, those who support 'choice' are the very ones who continue to deny the Jessens of this world that very right. And there are millions of such Jessens."
Photo credit: AIR MARIA

My favorite rabbi approves of Sarah Palin

Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Yehuda Levin is best known for being the highlight of March for Life in Washington, DC every year with his hilarious and outspokenly honest, searingly prolife keynote speeches, which he ends with the blowing of the shofar to begin the March.
That's why he's my favorite rabbi.
Here's his opinion of VP candidate Governor Sarah Palin.
"In reality, says Levin, the addition of Sarah Palin to the presidential ticket is good news for the pious Jewish community, saying that Sen. McCain's choice of a running mate "was certainly a gift from God," and comparing Palin's courageous stand for life to that of the holy women in the Bible. I agree!
"This phenomenal woman, pro-life, pro-normal marriage ... a woman's woman, somewhat of a reflection of the Jewish midwives in the book of Exodus, who stood up to the evil Pharaoh, and despite his anti-baby decree, they kept the babies alive.
"You go, Governor Palin! Keep championing a Godly agenda of a return to millennia-old standards of decency."
Read the entire article on Life Site News.

Great election coverage at Catholic Fire

I'm proud to be a friend to blogger extraordinaire, Jean, at Catholic Fire. Her coverage of the election is outstanding, don't miss it.
UPDATE:
I just did a search "Catholics for Sarah Palin" and discovered another Catholic blog with great political coverage: The Catholic Knight.
I sometimes feel guilty about missing so many important issues on this blog, but I just moved and I do have a family, so please help me out and go to these blogs to get what I miss.
Thanks

New Brochure on Down syndrome for Expectant Parents

A press release from Concerned Women for America

State Director Anne Downey launches an informational resource for new parents

Washington, D.C. — Concerned Women for America (CWA) of New York today launched an international project aimed at reducing the 90 percent abortion rate for babies diagnosed with Down syndrome. This new project, developed in consultation with the major Down syndrome groups in America, makes available a free informational brochure titled, “When you’ve learned that your baby may have Down syndrome … There is help and hope!” The brochure offers reassurance to families facing a prenatal diagnosis and provides them with a list of resources and support groups to help them learn more about their baby’s opportunities. At the companion website, DownSyndromeBrochure.com¸ the brochure is available in English and Spanish for free download or for ordering of printed copies at a nominal charge. Eventually, CWA of New York intends to offer the brochure in many different languages and with country-specific versions, such as a French version listing agencies and resources in France.The brochure is timely because of a December 2007 practice bulletin issued by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) which states, “After the diagnosis of a chromosomal abnormality, the patient should receive detailed information, if known, about the natural history of individuals with the specific chromosomal finding. In many cases, it may be very helpful to refer the patient to a genetic counselor or clinical geneticist and national groups such as The National Down Syndrome Society (www.ndss.org) or National Down Syndrome Congress (www.ndsccenter.org) to help the patient make an informed decision.”

The brochure will allow busy OB/GYN doctors and others to provide expectant mothers with easy-to-read information.The brochure features the photographs of children and young adults with Down syndrome and their family members. Anne F. Downey, Esq., State Director for CWA of New York, says, “The brochure features the faces of a number of children and adults with Down syndrome. Each of the persons featured in the brochure came to me in a special way and has his or her own wonderful story to tell. In the photos you can see the joy that these young people and their family members have. Just looking at them, you can see that there truly is help and hope.”Medical professionals, disability groups and others wishing to obtain the brochure in large quantities may contact State Director Downey for special arrangements.Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.
I submitted this photo for inclusion in this brochure. Our family does have a wonderful story to tell about life with a child with Down syndrome. I try to tell it every day at Cause of Our Joy.
We had no idea how popular this subject would be when the brochure came out.
Isn't God's timing great?!

Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity under attack in India

Militant Muslims aren't the only threat to peace. Violent Hindus have been torturing and murdering Catholic clergy, and plan to commit more violence against them, accusing the Missionaries of Charity of kidnapping and converting infants.
Mother Teresa's orphanages are famous for taking unwanted children, unusually girls from families where they face almost certain death, thanks to the banned but common dowry customs. It takes 15 years for an Indian family to save up the $15,000 marriage dowry for a girl, so subsequent girls are normally aborted or killed at birth. Mother Teresa began orphanages to halt this practice decades ago, but her merciful work is now under threat from militant Hindus, who seem to have the Indian police on their side.
Blessed Mother Teresa, pray for us!
Read the entire article here.
HT Life Site News

Republican surge during Dem convention

WHY did John McCain's number's surge during the Democratic Convention?
Did voters see something which turned them off?
This plus the Trig Palin Effect on Catholic voters is on National Review.

What's at stake in the election: (it's the Supreme Court, stupid!)

Ann Coulter, well known for pithy remarks once told a Republican politician that you can go against every conservative principal; spend money, start new programs, even go soft on terrorists, but give us strict constructionist justices on the Supreme Court.
We who are active in politics know who runs this country. That's why the fact that Fordham is honoring Justice Breyer who voted pro-partial birth abortion is particularly agregious.
Pat Buchanan with his typical eloquence, tells us what would be the effect of an Obama Biden regime on the since most important issue for Catholics, Evangelicals and people of conscience: human life.
The reason this election is the last chance for life is the Supreme Court. For it alone -- given the cowardice of a Congress that refuses to restrict its authority -- has the power to reverse Roe, and because that court may be within a single vote of doing so.
Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts appear steeled to overturn Roe and return this most divisive issue since slavery to the states, where it resided until January 1973.
And John Paul Stevens, the oldest and perhaps most pro-choice justice at 88, is a likely retiree in the next four years. And there is a possibility Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at 75, a survivor of cancer, could depart as did Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Thus, in the first term of the next president, there is a strong probability that one or two of the most pro-Roe justices will leave the bench. Replacement of even one of these two liberal activists with a jurist who has a Scalia-Roberts-Alito-Thomas record on the U.S. appellate court could initiate a challenge to Roe, and its rapid reversal.
Read the entire article at Human Events.

Fordham Law to honor pro-death Justice Breyer

Do we have to review the reasons why this is an outrage?
OK here goes:
In the 2000 decision Stenberg v. Carhart, Supreme Court Justice Breyer wrote in the majority opinion: "This Court, in the course of a generation, has determined and then redetermined that the Constitution offers basic protection to the woman's right to choose."
In contrast, New York Archbishop, Edward Cardinal Egan recently lambasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for defending the so-called "right to choose." Egan said: "Anyone who dares to defend that they [children in the womb] may be legitimately killed because another human being 'chooses' to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name."
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in his dissenting opinion in Stenberg, wrote: "I am optimistic enough to believe that, one day, Stenberg v. Carhart will be assigned its rightful place in the history of this Court's jurisprudence beside Korematsu and Dred Scott. The method of killing a human child . . . proscribed by this statute is so horrible that the most clinical description of it evokes a shudder of revulsion."
"The choice by Fordham University of Justice Breyer to receive this prestigious award," said Patrick Reilly, "is a far cry from an award established to recognize the 'positive contributions of the legal profession to American society.' Justice Breyer did not act objectively in Stenberg, but rather overstepped his authority and legislated from the bench."
"If Fordham truly aspires to follow its own mission statement and be 'Guided by its Catholic and Jesuit traditions,' then it must rescind the offer of this award to Justice Breyer," said Reilly.

Read the article on Life Site News.
Make the effort to tell Fordham what a dim view Catholics take of Pro-abortion Breyer's receiving an award from a Catholic University.
Contact:
Edward Cardinal Egan of New York
1011 First AveNew York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-371-1000
and
Fordham University
Stephen Freedman, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President/Chief Academic Officer
svpcao@fordham.edu
718.817.3040 (p)
718.817.3050 (f)

Great post on Sarah Palin at Da Mihi Animas

I just couldn't help sharing this picture from Padre Steve's awesome post.

"Apple Pie and Gunsmoke"

Catholic Leadership Conference is clear on life

Catholics need clear leadership on this issue and here it is.
Read the entire article here at Catholic online

The Trig Effect

No, it's not trigonometry, it's far more powerful. It's the effect that the beautiful innocent countenance of a baby with Trisomy 21 has had on the world. Politicians and pundits, doctors and journalists are all a flutter trying to keep the lid on the dirty little secret: from 90 to 94% of these children are killed before they are born.
We in the prolife community have know this for decades, and have been fighting this trend. We have had formidable opponents; from The March of Dimes who sponsors research into 'search and destroy' methods for prenatal diagnosis to the AMA and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists who recommend, no, INSIST on mandatory prenatal testing for all women, to the misinformed genetic counselors who scare parents into aborting these children. We can now add to this side Dr Andre Lalonde, head of the Canadian who feels that Trig is causing trouble for women who might get the idea that allowing their babies with Trisomy 21 to live poses a grave threat to abortion. You got that right, Dr. Lalonde!
We who love someone with 47 chromosomes have done battle with all of these, armed with only the power of the internet. We have seen the Kennedy Brownback Bill, which would inform expectant parents of the truth, used as a pawn in a political tug of war this summer, and be defeated without serious consideration. We have seen our children mocked by Hollywood films like "Tropic Thunder". We have cried while millions of children like those we love die before their parents can experience the joy they would have brought into their lives.
But, the tide is turning towards a new understanding of the intrinsic worth of the individual with Down syndrome by the simple fact that Gov. Sarah Palin unapologetically chose to give birth to her son Trig. Actions speak louder than words. It's . . .
The Trig effect.
Such a big wave caused by such a small little boy.
GO TRIG!

Help this video to change the tide of the election

Fr Jonathan Morris' opinion of Sarah Palin's motherhood

Many good Catholic mothers have been disagreeing on this one. Let's listen to Fr. Jonathan on what kind of mothering Sarah Palin has time to do.

I do not know if Gov. Sarah Palin will make a good Vice-President. I do know she is being an exceptional mom, also in moments of crisis. Some have said, in many, many ways, “Big deal!”
But most of these are men.
I ask if any of us guys could be a mom of five, with a handicapped child, achieve an 83% approval rating as state governor, and smile all the way through a prime time speech, after the week this woman has just had.

Good point, Father. It takes a mom to multi-task like that!

Read his entire article at Fox News blog.

Sarah Palin: Super Mom Makes a Super VP.

No one lists ‘motherhood’ on their resume, least of all a vice presidential candidate. But Governor Sarah Palin, who has just been named Senator John McCain’s running mate, finds herself talking more about her motherhood than her record of cleaning up Alaska politics. And most of the questioners are card-carrying NOW members. What are they thinking?
Could these pundits have rediscovered their lost parenting instincts? Or is something more sinister at work? I suspect that liberals are feeling the hot breath of a new feminist on their necks, and have come out of their comfortable thrones in the mainstream media loaded for bear. How dare a conservative woman leave her kitchen! Stay home with your son, and keep his adorable face out of the media lest people learn that 90% of children like him are aborted. Don’t you dare look so slim only four months after giving birth, you got some explaining to do, or we’ll make up our own story.
And what’s with the cool glasses and posh up-do? You people are supposed to look frumpy!
The point is that Sarah Palin contradicts the liberal’s reviled stereotype of the angry conservative woman, “clinging to her guns and religion”. They understand her combination of values as poorly as they comprehend the name of the organization she belongs to: “Feminists for Life”. A mother who is tough on corruption, yet tender with errant children. A wife who supports and is supported by her husband. An intelligent woman who loves God. A pistol-packing mamma who breastfeeds her baby. A meat-eater who enjoys nature. Such a description of Sarah Palin’s character is reminiscent of the frontier woman, once was considered the gold standard of womanhood. Some of us recognized these traits right away and were whooping for joy on Friday thinking, here’s the woman who can take on Washington and the Taliban! Here’s the vibrancy and moral clarity which seems to have drained from the Republican Party! Who else but the mother of five, can burst into the beltway with a gust of icy Arctic Air, blasting away the cobwebs of cronyism?
None other than the mother who faced the daunting prospect of raising a child with Trisomy 21 and accepted him lovingly. She said that Trig was a gift from God, and proudly carried him in her arms in a YouTube video she made a week after his birth, causing this special needs mom to take notice. A true test of character is living by your standards when it has a personal cost. And now that her seventeen year old daughter Bristol’s pregnancy has been made into a campaign issue, Sarah headed off ugly rumors by reminding us what a good mother does in such situations. She supports her daughter so that she can choose what’s best for all concerned. Life. And she’s not afraid to tell us so.

Sarah Palin’s seasoned motherhood has added tremendous gravitas to her character, and her resume. What she did as a hockey mom was not wasted. Her life as a mother taught her lessons which made her into the wise, dynamic woman praised in Proverbs 31. Ignoring feminist dogma, she didn’t need to make herself into a man to be successful; Sarah Palin is successful because femininity fully lived just may be the most powerful force in the world.
Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1995 letter to women;
“Thank you, women who work! You are present and active in every area of life-social economic, cultural, artistic and political. In this way, you make an indispensable contribution to the growth of a culture which unites reason and feeling, to a model of life ever open to a sense of mystery, to the establishment of economic and political structures ever more worthy of humanity. Through the insight which is so much a part of your womanhood, you enrich the world’s understanding and help to make human relations more honest and authentic.”
“Women will increasingly play a part in the solution of the serious problems of the future: leisure time, the quality of life, migration, social services, euthanasia, drugs, health care, the ecology, etc. In all these areas a greater presence of women in society will prove most valuable, for it will help to manifest the contradictions present when society is organized solely according to the criteria of efficiency and productivity, and it will force systems to be redesigned in a way which favors the processes of humanization which mark the “civilization of love.”
“It is thus my hope, dear sisters, that you will reflect carefully on what it means to speak of the “genius of women,” not only in order to be able to see in this phrase a specific part of God’s plan which needs to be accepted and appreciated, but also in order to let this genius be more fully expressed in the life of society as a whole, as well as the life of the Church.”

This “Civilization of Love” which John Paul mentions might sound gentle, but establishing it in a in the midst of the Culture of Death takes the greatest possible courage. It takes a mother.
Meet Sarah Palin, supermom, proud possessor of feminine genius, and the best candidate ever for Vice President. She seems to have been chosed by God to perform this special task at this extraordinary hour of need.

Sarah Palin's nomination speech was a triumph

Even her detractors had to admit that her dynamic, poised, often hard-hitting speech was a home run. She outlined her many accomplishments as governor of Alaska, comparing them to the absenteeism and indecisiveness of Obama whose lackluster record in the Senate is an easy target. She outlined the importance of sacrifice and leadership, two qualities understood by John McCain, who said, "I'd rather win a war than an election". I have to admit, I thought the surge was reckless, but he was right to support it. McCain remembers how Democratic President Kennedy got us into Vietnam, and then sent troops in only little by little, undermining our efforts. John McCain rescued the Iraq War from becoming another Vietnam.

When it came to her family, Sarah Palin said that they are typical, with ups and downs, joys and challenges, a glancing reference to the tabloid attacks from mainstream newspapers this week on her daughter Bristol's pregnancy, which is more attention than they deserve.

BUT, for me, a special needs mother, THIS was the takeaway line of the night:

"Last April, we were blessed in my family with a baby boy. Sometimes our greatest blessings are also our greatest challenges. (HUGE OVATION, everyone focused on adorable Trig sleeping in Daddy's arms) For Special Needs Parents: For years you have been working to make the world a more welcoming place for your children. I promise you, that if we win, you will have a friend, an advocate in the White House". (BIG OVATION)

Sarah had reached through the TV screen and grabbed my heart! I have been working so hard these two years, since I met Senator Sam Brownback, supporting the "Prenatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act" only to see it tossed into the mix for partisan bickering. Now, I know that if Sarah Palin is elected, legislation like this will be taken seriously, and maybe, just maybe, the scandalous persecution of unborn babies with conditions like Down syndrome, aborted at a rate of 90% will end.

For this position alone, Sarah Palin has earned my full support. What kind of superpower are we, the wealthiest nation on earth, who had no room for the special needs child?

You can always judge a society by how it treats its weakest members. Thanks to Sarah Palin, the USA may emerge from this grave violation of civil rights, and once again like in the 1960's, give human rights to an overlooked segment of our population.