Abortion is not only a moral issue but is also an economic issue.   Abortion is murder. But looking beyond the immorality of abortion now let’s take a look at the economic implications of abortions.  According to the statistics from 1973 to 2005 there have been at least 40,463,050 abortions performed since the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, when abortion was legalized.  For the purpose of taking into account accidents, diseases, and miscarriages that may have caused a certain number of deaths let’s subtract 10 percent of these lives from the total amount that were aborted.  So if you subtract 4,046,305 from 40,463,050 you get 36,416,745.  Taking into account possible deaths from accidents etc. from 1973 – 1993 there were at least 20,754,095 abortions.  People who would have been born from 1973 to 1993 would be paying into the system today.  First, try to imagine 20,754,095 Americans being added to our population.  Then think about how it would be if these 20 million people were contributing to Social Security, and paying both State and Federal taxes.  Do you think we would have economic problems as severe as those we have now with the deficit, national debt, with the future funding of Social Security if we had an additional 20 million people paying into the system?

This is how abortion is destroying America:

Reblogged from BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades!:

Santorum and his issue with Satan speech given at Ave Maria. You will need speakers probably to hear it, the transcript can be found below the video.   Transcript: “This is not a political war at all. This is not a cultural war. This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country – the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age. There …

Reblogged from catholicboyrichard:

Last week I wrote some thoughts on the tragic death of Whitney Houston.  In that article, I also opened up regarding some of my own personal past events, in an attempt to relate, as best I could, to the sad but clear truth that we could all without a doubt be a “Whitney,” had we been thus enabled by walking in her shoes and situation. In re-reading my piece, I began to find myself further exploring the whole idea of “enabling” on a societal level, whether drugs, alcohol, or within the realm of …

The past few days I have been sick and am so sorry that I haven’t made my blog rounds in recent days.  I felt better today so Kevin and I took the opportunity to travel to Steubenville, OH (about a 45 minute drive from where we live) to attend a Rick Santorum rally.  I had been wanting to see him in person so it was awesome to be able to see Rick today.  The place where he was speaking was packed with lots of people – at least 500 people were in attendance.  What was really cool though, is that I was able to shake his hand.  Since I am sorta height challenged my sweet hubby recorded all the video footage of Santorum’s speech.  I had a little bit of trouble with YouTube so I will post the videos of the rally tomorrow.  God must have paved the way, granted me temporary healing or something, because now I feel almost as horrible as I did yesterday during the day.

It is almost the beginning of Lent.  We are supposed to fast on Ash Wednesday and avoid eating meat on both Ash Wednesday and all Fridays during Lent.  I asked my husband if he knew the reason behind these traditions, or where they were derived.  He pointed me to the writings of the Early Church Fathers called The Didache.  Here is a passage from the Didache:

Chapter 8. Fasting and Prayer (the Lord’s Prayer). But let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week. Rather, fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday). Do not pray like the hypocrites, but rather as the Lord commanded in His Gospel, like this:

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily (needful) bread, and forgive us our debt as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (or, evil); for Thine is the power and the glory for ever..

Pray this three times each day.

Here is a prayer from St. Albert the Great on Conscience:

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who seekest those who stray and receivest them when returning, make me approach to Thee through the frequent hearing of They Word, lest I sin against my neighbor by the blindness of human judgement, through the austerity of false justice, through comparing his inferior status, through too much trust in my merits or through ignorance of the Divine Judgement. Guide me to search diligently each corner of my conscience lest the flesh dominate the spirit.

Here is a very good article I thought that I would pass on to all my readers. 

The article is called The Little Sisters of Limousine Liberalism by George Neumayr: 

I called up the Catholic Health Association (CHA) yesterday. I wanted to nail down the exact compensation figures for some of its executives, including the salary and benefits of Sister Obamacare, also known as Daughter of Charity nun Carol Keehan, who last week helped Barack Obama engineer his latest con job — the bogus conscience “compromise” designed to hoodwink Catholics into voting for his reelection.

As it has been widely reported, Obama conferred with Sister Keehan before his announcement last Friday. Then, lo and behold, she praised his revision as an inspiring resolution to the thorny issue of “religious freedom” soon after the sham event concluded.

So let’s get down to brass tacks. How much is Sister Keehan worth for such political interventions? The checkered Catholic hospitals Keehan represents as chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association stand to receive gobs and gobs of cash from the federal government if Obamacare holds up past 2012. Consequently, the members of the association are more than happy to pony up huge salaries to executives skilled at manipulating the Catholic electorate for Obama.

Keehan is worth $962,467 to them in total salary and benefits, according to the Schedule J (Form 990) 2010 document sent to me by CHA. Theoretically, this is paid to the nun’s order, though CHA adds an intriguing caveat to its compensation figures:

The descriptions below provide an overview of the composition of the five compensation figure columns (B, C, D, E and F). Note that for Sisters Carol Keehan and Patricia Talone and for Father Tom Nairn, all amounts in column B, except for certain fringe benefits included in column (B)(iii), were paid to their respective orders.

In other words, not all the money goes to their religious orders. What are these “certain fringe benefits” to which the caveat refers? I didn’t get a comprehensible answer from CHA. But its spokesman assured me that these “certain fringe benefits” weren’t large. Maybe the Wall Street Journal should drill down into the numbers.

According to the form, base compensation for “Daughters of Charity for Sr. Keehan” was $682,982. “Bonus and incentive compensation” was $136,000. “Other reportable compensation” — which is the (B)(iii) to which the caveat refers — was $131,888. Nontaxable benefits were $11,597. All this adds up to salary and benefits totaling $962,467.

Presumably, her 2011 salary and benefits will exceed $1 million, if the past is any measure. (Her 2009 salary and benefits fell in the $850,000 range.)

It turns out that left-wing “Catholic Social Justice” is a good career move. Sister Talone, to which the caveat refers above, pulls down for the Sisters of Mercy “$416,623″ in total compensation, while Fr. Nairn’s order, the Franciscan Friars, snatched $194,947.

Who knew that lobbying for the corporal works of mercy paid so well? Of course, the dirty little secret of secularized “non-profit” Catholic hospitals is that they rake in enormous profits. Hence, some of its executives garner salaries/benefits north of $9 million. Obamacare will release another avalanche of federal government cash with which to feather their nests.

“For where your treasure is, your heart will be also,” said Jesus Christ. A pedestrian reduction of the Son of God’s saying is: Follow the money.  CONTINUED HERE 

Some of the laity have dissented over the years but have not posed a threat to the institutional foundation of Catholicism.  The HHS mandate poses an existential threat to the Catholic Church’s right to hold beliefs on issues of sexual morality and to uphold them at the various Catholic institutions.  If this isn’t overturned it could force the Church to the closure of colleges, hospitals, organizations et al. so the Church doesn’t abandon its moral principles and the workers do not have to go against their consciences.

This issue which surrounds the HHS mandate is not about so-called women’s’ rights or “women’s health care” it is about government interference into a religion’s moral belief system and the State overstepping its bounds in violating a religious institution’s freedom of religion by forcing this mandate by fiat which runs contrary to our constitution. This is a constitutional issue. The Obama administration has trampled on citizens First Amendment rights.

While I do believe, for the most, that the Church has failed to teach the laity on matters involving human sexuality there are reasons behind this failing. Is it due to the societal shift in sexual morality since the sexual revolution of the 1960′s and the negative influence it has had on the public? Could it be because priests seldom preach on sexual morality? I know that some don’t preach on these controversial issues out of fear of offending the laity and them running off with their pocketbooks. I know for a fact that there are some priests that don’t agree with the Church’s teaching on contraception as well as the Church’s teaching on issues of sexual morality so why would these dissenting priests preach on these issues, advocating for the Church’s teaching?

Parents have a responsibility to teach the tenets of the faith to their children. I believe a significant number of parents since Vatican II have failed to pass on the principles of the Catholic faith to their kids. I am sure there were some obstinate, rebellious children who simply rejected Church teaching for the ways of the world. I am positive that some priests have made an effort to teach their flock the Church’s teaching on human sexuality and the morality of contraception but because of outside societal pressures some rejected the teaching of the Church.

Is it time that the Church have a more effective, consistent, and coordinated effort to teach all aspects of the faith?

Reblogged from Coming Home:

In my youth, the differences between the Soviet Union and the United States were made abundantly clear to us. We had the freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights, and they didn’t. Teens at drive-thru fast food restaurants were iconic of American freedom. The freedom to recreate our culture through music, food, mobility. Our fathers fought despotism in World War II and Korea and told us of the communist menace, always juxtaposed with the freedoms for which they fought. We could only imagine the …

H/T American Freedom 

H/T unedited politics