Orthodox Editors

“Right to Die” Can Become a “Duty to Die”

OrthodoxyToday.org | Wesley J. Smith | Mar. 1, 2009

Imagine that you have lung cancer. It has been in remission, but tests show the cancer has returned and is likely to be terminal. Still, there is some hope. Chemotherapy could extend your life, if not save it. You ask to begin treatment. But you soon receive more devastating news. A letter from the government informs you that the cost of chemotherapy is deemed an unjustified expense for the limited extra time it would provide. However, the government is not without compassion. You are informed that whenever you are ready, it will gladly pay for your assisted suicide.

Think that’s an alarmist scenario to scare you away from supporting “death with dignity”? Wrong. That is exactly what happened last year to two cancer patients in Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal. [Read more…]

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Soaking The Rich Means Crippling Churches, Charities, and Home Values

Hugh Hewitt Blog | Hugh Hewitt | Feb. 27, 2009

President Obama’s budget is built on a massive tax hike on upper income families. From the Washington Post:

Individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year and families who make more than $250,000 would also lose the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, meaning their top income tax rate would rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, their investment income would be taxed at 20 percent rather than 15 percent and their deductions for mortgage interest, state and local taxes and charitable contributions would be reduced.

[Read more…]

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Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, and More

More of the “change” that we were promised. This will push America into a deeper recession and can cause an economic catastrophe. America we told you so!
CNBC | Larry Kudlow (anchor) | Feb. 27, 2009

Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama’s State of the Union speech and his budget. He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds.

That is the meaning of his anti-growth tax-hike proposals, which make absolutely no sense at all — either for this recession or from the standpoint of expanding our economy’s long-run potential to grow. [Read more…]

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Obama to Overturn “Conscience Rule” for Pro-life Doctors

The Obamanations continue. The spiritual battle is intensifying. We’re only in week 5 of his presidency and the assaults on life, truth, and our freedoms are growing by the day.
Catholic Online | Randy Sly | Feb. 27, 2009

President Obama has begun quietly to begin the process of overturning regulations that protect doctors and hospitals from being forced to perform or refer abortions. The Chicago Tribune reports that President Obama is directing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to begin overturning the conscience rule that protects medical providers who are pro-life.

This pullback comes only months after the Bush administration strengthened the rule by placing penalties on facilities that subject pro-life doctors, nurses, or other medical workers to discrimination over the issue of abortion. [Read more…]

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Obama’s Biggest Radical

FrontPageMagazine | Ben Johnson | Feb. 27, 2009

When Barack Obama nominated John P. Holdren as his Science Adviser last December 20, the president-elect stated “promoting science isn’t just about providing resources” but “ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology.” In nominating John Holdren, his words could scarcely have taken a more Orwellian ring.

Some critics have noted Holdren’s penchant for making apocalyptic predictions that never come to pass, and categorizing all criticism of his alarmist views as not only wrong but dangerous. What none has yet noted is that Holdren is a globalist who has endorsed “surrender of sovereignty” to “a comprehensive Planetary Regime” that would control all the world’s resources, direct global redistribution of wealth, oversee the “de-development” of the West, control a World Army and taxation regime, and enforce world population limits.

He has castigated the United States as “the meanest of wealthy countries,” written a justification of compulsory abortion for American women, advocated drastically lowering the U.S. standard of living, and left the door open to trying global warming “deniers” for crimes against humanity. Such is Barack Obama’s idea of a clear-headed adviser on matters of scientific policy. [Read more…]

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Silenced in Speech Class

FrontPageMagazine | Gregory Gethard | Feb. 27, 2009

On many campuses across the country freedom of speech only extends to people who have politically correct viewpoints. The most recent example occurred on the campus of the Los Angeles City College. Jonathan Lopez, a student in a public speaking class, gave a speech opposing against gay marriage, an opinion shared by many Christians. It’s also shared by most Californians, as Lopez’ remarks came just weeks after California voted to narrow the definition of marriage to be between a man and a woman.

However, Lopez was not allowed to complete his speech. Professor John Matteson interrupted his remarks, labeling him as a “fascist bastard” in the process. After class, Lopez approached Matteson to ask him about his grade. Matteson responded to Lopez by saying, “Why don’t you ask God what your grade is?” [Read more…]

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The 2 Percent Illusion

Wall Street Journal | Feb. 26, 2009

Take everything they earn, and it still won’t be enough.

President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end “tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans,” and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won’t see their taxes increased by “one single dime.”

This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can’t possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama’s new spending ambitions. [Read more…]

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The Left Destroys More Than It Builds

Townhall | Dennis Prager | Feb. 24, 2009

From California to the Boy Scouts, It Destroys More Than It Builds

Virtually throughout its history, and certainly in the 20th century, California has been known as the place to go for dynamism and growth. It did not become the richest, most populous, and most productive state solely because of its weather and natural resources.

So it takes a lot to turn California around from growth to contraction, from people moving into the state to a net exodus from the state, from business moving into California to businesses leaving California.

It takes some doing. And the left has done it. [Read more…]

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Stem Cells: Ideology Or Science?

Investor’s Business Daily | February 20, 2009

It’s the supporters of embryonic stem cell research who have politicized science. The desperation of a family and the pressure to produce results may have produced a medical tragedy instead.

In the 2006 election, actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson’s, made a commercial for Democrats in which he urged voters to support Senate candidates who supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

As we noted then and do again, ESCR was not the “most promising” avenue of stem cell research. And no, that’s not because of a lack of federal funds, but rather with the difficulties of controlling the embryonic stem cells and what they turn into. [Read more…]

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Divorced from Reality

Touchstone | Stephen Baskerville | February 2009

“We’re from the Government, and We’re Here to End Your Marriage.”

The decline of the family has now reached critical and truly dangerous proportions. Family breakdown touches virtually every family and every American. It is not only the major source of social instability in the Western world today but also seriously threatens civic freedom and constitutional government.

G. K. Chesterton once observed that the family serves as the principal check on government power, and he suggested that someday the family and the state would confront one another. That day has arrived. [Read more…]

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