Wyoming’s beleaguered coal industry received welcome news last week when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally rolled out the Affordable Clean Energy rule (ACE). The effects were immediate and dramatic.
In anticipation of the EPA rule, PacifiCorp announced that coal-fired generators at its Naughton and Jim Bridger power plants would stay online for years past the 2022 closing that they announced in April. While PacifiCorp did not mention the EPA’s new rule, it’s not hard to connect the dots.
The Affordable Clean Energy rule is a necessary replacement for the Clean Power Plan (CPP) of 2015. The CPP effectively shut down coal-fired generators but when 27 states sued, the supreme court blocked its enforcement.
Since the court stayed enforcement of the CPP, America’s energy sector has been operating in a regulatory limbo. This unstable environment discouraged investors from spending money on units that might be shuttered at the wave of a bureaucratic hand.
Thus, while the rule itself could not shut down coal generators, the market instability manufactured by the EPA was just as effective. When the EPA destabilized electricity producers, it had an immediate effect on the mines that fuel them.
A power plant can adapt to an unstable regulatory environment by investing in natural gas generators and pipelines to keep them producing. But what is a mine supposed to do when it faces the sudden loss of more than half its customer base?
When mines in adjacent counties face this crisis simultaneously, the desperation to find new markets for the government-created glut of coal will depress the price of coal across the board. These market ripples, in turn, threaten to sink other mines operating on a razor-thin margin.
Bean counters in Washington may think that a mine can simply lay off half of its employees. But real life doesn’t work that way. Any retailer knows that a loss of half her customer base would not simply reduce profit by half. It would likely bankrupt the store. So also, the mine.
Investors are understandably wary of an operation that stands to lose half its customer base in three years. Kemmerer has seen the real-life consequences of Washington policy as potential buyers for the Westmoreland mine faded away.
Jobs, pensions and health insurance are on the line. House payments and truck payments don’t simply stop when a miner loses his job or has his work hours cut. The bankruptcy of mines translates to the bankruptcy of families. All of this means that schools, churches and small businesses are destabilized.
The Affordable Clean Energy rule has breathed clean air into coal communities across the state. Of course, the EPA itself is neither the savior nor the villain. Neither is any single administrator or administration.
The issue, rather, is an idea. On December 7, 2009 the EPA classified CO2 as a “dangerous pollutant.” Previously, the EPA was concerned with soot, sulphur and other unnatural byproducts of industrialization. These are harmful to the environment and harmful to humans, and the EPA successfully reduced these pollutants to negligible levels.
But CO2, water vapor and other greenhouse gases are naturally occurring. CO2 is the natural by-product of life itself. All people, all animals, even bugs produce it. While filters and efficient burning can reduce real pollutants, CO2 and water are the pure products of almost every chemical reaction that releases energy.
Classifying CO2 as a pollutant gives a lever to government to regulate everything. Should the EPA succeed in shutting down every coal-fired generator and every coal mine in Wyoming, there is no reason on earth why it wouldn’t go on to shut down every natural-gas-fired generator and every oil well in Wyoming.
That’s the simple reality of classifying CO2 as a “dangerous pollutant.” Our elected representatives haven’t done this, only unelected bureaucrats have. Meanwhile numerous countries, including the largest industrialized nation in the world, refuse to designate CO2 as a pollutant.
Nevertheless, last Wednesday’s ACE rule was met by a hue and cry from many politicians and radical groups claiming that “settled science” has proven CO2 to be a dangerous pollutant. Nancy Pelosi’s statement was typically breathless. She called the ACE a “dirty-power scam,” as though it were about dumping sulphurous soot into our atmosphere and acid into our lakes.
It’s time to dial back the rhetoric and have a real conversation. The past several years under the CPP has given Wyoming a wake-up call about the real-life consequences of designating CO2 as a pollutant.
Thankfully, the courts told the EPA it had exceeded its authority. It was created to enforce pollution laws, not to rewrite America’s energy policy unilaterally. Now that we have room to breathe, it’s time we had an informed conversation about CO2.
Friday, June 28, 2019
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Wyoming citizens get a breath of clean air
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| Photo by Mladen Borisov on Unsplash |
In anticipation of the EPA rule, PacifiCorp’s vice president of resource planning, Rick Link, announced that coal-fired generators near Kemmerer and Rock Springs should receive a lease on life. A report released in April slated two units at its Naughton power plant and two at the Jim Bridger plant to be shuttered by 2022. Now the utility is whistling a different tune. The Naughton units may remain in operation until 2025 and the Bridger units could still be producing power in 2032.
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| CEO Gary Hoogeveen and V.P. Rick Link Photo: Theresa Davis, Kemmerer Gazette |
While PacifiCorp’s announcement was not formally linked to the EPA’s new rule, it’s not hard to connect the dots. The ACE is the culmination of more than two years of work to replace the Clean Power Plan (CPP) that was rolled out in 2015 but ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Since then, America’s energy sector has been forced to operate in a regulatory limbo. The CPP was designed not to reduce the emissions coming from existing coal-fired generators, but to shut them down. It burdened these units with unreachable goals and crippling regulations.
On the one hand, the Supreme Court stayed enforcement of the rule. On the other hand, EPA’s slow walking a new rule meant that the energy industry was operating under the sword of Damocles. The threat was temporarily suspended, but only by a thread.
This unstable environment discouraged investors from spending money on units that could be shuttered at the wave of a bureaucratic hand. As a result, what could not be accomplished through constitutional means was happening nonetheless through a market instability manufactured by the EPA.
When the government deliberately puts its thumb on the scale to discourage investment in an industry, it sets off a chain reaction. Time marches on and equipment needs either to be replaced or repaired. Once the EPA nudged the energy sector away from investing in the upkeep of coal-fired generators, it would only be a matter of time before they became unusable.
Power plants, however, are not islands of industry randomly scattered throughout the countryside. The Naughton and Jim Bridger plants were built in the middle of nowhere because coal was found buried in the middle of nowhere. When the EPA destabilized electricity producers, it had an immediate effect on the mines that fuel them.
A power plant may be able to adapt to an unstable regulatory environment by investing in natural gas generators and in the pipeline infrastructure to keep them producing. But what is the mine supposed to do when it faces the sudden loss of more than half its customer base? And when two mines within 100 miles suddenly have a glut of coal that they are desperately trying to sell, what happens to the market price of coal that keeps every other mine operating above its thin profit margin?
Bean counters in Washington may think that the mine could simply lay off half of its employees. But real life doesn’t work that way. Any retailer knows that a loss of half her customer base would not simply reduce profit by half. It would likely bankrupt the store. So also, the mine.
How does one find investors willing to operate a mine that may lose half its customer base in the next three years? The bankruptcy drama in Kemmerer suggests that it is easier said than done. And that translates to people, real people.
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| J. C. Penney Motherstore, Kemmerer, Wyoming |
Jobs are on the line. Pensions are on the line. House payments and truck payments don’t simply stop when a miner loses his job or has his work hours cut. The bankruptcy of mines translates to the bankruptcy of families. All of this means that the survival of local schools, the employment of teachers, the viability of small businesses, churches and a thousand other things are destabilized.
I am not so naïve as to blame every local concern on national politics. Whenever there is a threat to a community and a way of life, there is plenty blame to go around. We all contribute to the problem in our own way. Those problems are only exacerbated when neighbors hate neighbors because of political opinion.
Still, if it is true that everyone shares the blame, it would be equally naïve to close a blind eye to the EPA’s role in Wyoming’s problems. Thankfully, that was corrected last Wednesday. With that correction, we are already seeing a lease on life for four coal-fired generators and for the communities that have built up around them.
Of course, the EPA itself is neither the savior nor the villain. Neither is any single administrator or administration. The issue, rather, is an idea. On December 7, 2009 the EPA classified CO2 as a “dangerous pollutant.”
Up until that point, EPA policy had been concerned with cleaning unnatural chemicals and particulates from industrial emissions. Smog and carbon monoxide are unnatural byproducts of industrialization. These are harmful to the environment and harmful to humans. While no car can run and no power plant can make energy without emitting some of these harmful by-products, we have been wildly successful in reducing them to negligible levels.
But CO2, water vapor and other greenhouse gasses are naturally occurring. CO2, in particular, is the natural by-product of breathing. All people, all animals, even bugs produce CO2. While filters and efficient burning can reduce real pollutants, CO2 and water are the pure products of any fire—from natural gas to wood, to coal. In fact, they are the natural by-products of human life itself.
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| Photo by S A R A H ✗ S H A R P on Unsplash |
Classifying CO2 as a pollutant, gives a lever to government to regulate all of human life. Should the EPA succeed in shutting down every coal-fired generator and every coal mine in Wyoming, there is no reason on earth why it wouldn’t go on to shut down every natural-gas-fired generator and every oil well in Wyoming.
That’s the simple reality of classifying CO2 as a “dangerous pollutant.” That’s the elephant in the room. That’s why our elected representatives in congress have refused to pass a law designating CO2 as a pollutant. That’s why China, the biggest industrialized nation in the world, refuses to designate CO2 as a pollutant.
Nevertheless, last Wednesday’s ACE rule was met by a hue and cry from many politicians and radical groups claiming that “settled science” has proven CO2 to be a dangerous pollutant. Nancy Pelosi’s statement was typically shrill. She called the ACE a “dirty-power scam,” as though it were about dumping smoke into our atmosphere and toxins into our lakes.
It’s time to dial back the rhetoric and have a real conversation. We, as a community and state, have just had a glimpse—and only a glimpse—of the real-life consequences of designating CO2 as a pollutant. My beloved town of Kemmerer has had a brush with becoming a ghost town—and we may not be out of the woods yet.
The main reason that the Supreme Court blocked the CPP in the first place is because it found the EPA had exceeded its authority. Congress authorized the EPA to clean the environment, not to set America’s energy policy. Now that the power to set policy has been returned to the states, it’s time all of us had a serious and informed conversation about CO2.
Friday, June 21, 2019
WTE: David and the abortion Goliath
Dr. Deborah Nucatola, senior director of medical services for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), had lunch with David Daleiden nearly five years ago. Daleiden is an undercover investigative journalist looking into the sale of tissue from aborted humans. Over salad and wine, Nucatola explained how PPFA medical directors used ultrasound guidance to alter the abortion procedure for organ harvesting.
“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part,” she said. “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” Nucatola was particularly expansive about techniques for keeping the brain intact. “Some people,” she said, “will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex [head down]… So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium [head] at the end.”
Almost a year after recording this ghoulish conversation, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released it to the web. It went viral and was followed by 18 more. Planned Parenthood was exposed for trafficking in baby parts. The videos documented collusion going to the very top of the organization, including President, Cecile Richards.
They conspired to ignore numerous state and federal laws for profit. The last video released showed Dr. Susie Prabhakaran, vice president of medical affairs in southwest and central Florida, explaining how Planned Parenthood's National Medical Standards & Guidelines trains abortionists to skirt the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban (18 U.S.C. § 1531).
Enacted in 2003, the ban prohibits killing a baby after delivery past the navel. Standard operating procedure is to inject digoxin to stop the unborn’s heart before extracting the baby.
Prabhakaran explained that she and many of her PPFA colleagues could deliver digoxin-free—and therefore more valuable—specimens by simply skipping that precaution. This leads inevitably to live births where the organs are harvested from a living baby.
PPFA instructs its medical directors that intent is all that matters. As long as they first check a box saying, “I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure,” what they actually do doesn’t go into the record. Whether this practice is illegal or merely evil is only important to lawyers.
Earlier videos showed technicians who admitted harvesting organs from still-living babies. Prabhakaran’s candor explained how these atrocities go unrecorded.
Instead of firing these evil doctors, Planned Parenthood claimed the videos were “highly edited.” Of course they were! How else can viewers access the evidence buried in hours of footage? But, “highly edited” does not mean deceptively edited.
The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) took two steps to verify the videos. First, with the shortened videos, it released the entire footage. Anyone can judge for himself at centerformedicalprogress.org. To date, there are no credible allegations of deceptive editing. Second, CMP submitted all footage to Coalfire Systems for independent forensics testing. This lab verified that they were authentic and unaltered.
Two recent events have returned these videos to the headlines. On June 5, 2019 the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded a nine-month audit of fetal tissue contracts by canceling its contract with the University of California, San Francisco and by halting its in-house programs that experiment on fetal tissue.
“Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration. The audit and review helped inform the policy process that led to the administration’s decision to let the contract with UCSF expire and to discontinue intramural research,” said the HHS statement.
Nearly four years after Daleiden released the results of his investigation, the unethical and often unlawful procurement of fetal remains will no longer enrich the world’s biggest abortion provider at taxpayer expense. Daleiden deserves America’s enduring thanks for his painstaking investigation.
Instead, he has been prosecuted to the full extent of the law. California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, raided his home confiscating his video footage. Her successor, Xavier Becerra, filed 15 felony charges in the state’s court.
Next, the National Abortion Federation went to federal judge, William Orrick, a long-time abortion activist, who imposed a gag order preventing Daleiden from using any of his videos.
Daleiden’s defense lawyers cried foul. If the state of California can use Daleiden’s videos to prosecute felony charges, his defense reasoned that they were permissible as exculpatory evidence. Orrick counted this as contempt and slapped Daleiden with a $195,000 fine.
Last week the typically activist Ninth Circuit denied his appeal. As David battles the abortion Goliath, the Supreme Court may be his last chance. Now would be a good time to support this intrepid warrior.
“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part,” she said. “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” Nucatola was particularly expansive about techniques for keeping the brain intact. “Some people,” she said, “will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex [head down]… So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium [head] at the end.”
Almost a year after recording this ghoulish conversation, the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) released it to the web. It went viral and was followed by 18 more. Planned Parenthood was exposed for trafficking in baby parts. The videos documented collusion going to the very top of the organization, including President, Cecile Richards.
They conspired to ignore numerous state and federal laws for profit. The last video released showed Dr. Susie Prabhakaran, vice president of medical affairs in southwest and central Florida, explaining how Planned Parenthood's National Medical Standards & Guidelines trains abortionists to skirt the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban (18 U.S.C. § 1531).
Enacted in 2003, the ban prohibits killing a baby after delivery past the navel. Standard operating procedure is to inject digoxin to stop the unborn’s heart before extracting the baby.
Prabhakaran explained that she and many of her PPFA colleagues could deliver digoxin-free—and therefore more valuable—specimens by simply skipping that precaution. This leads inevitably to live births where the organs are harvested from a living baby.
PPFA instructs its medical directors that intent is all that matters. As long as they first check a box saying, “I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure,” what they actually do doesn’t go into the record. Whether this practice is illegal or merely evil is only important to lawyers.
Earlier videos showed technicians who admitted harvesting organs from still-living babies. Prabhakaran’s candor explained how these atrocities go unrecorded.
Instead of firing these evil doctors, Planned Parenthood claimed the videos were “highly edited.” Of course they were! How else can viewers access the evidence buried in hours of footage? But, “highly edited” does not mean deceptively edited.
The Center for Medical Progress (CMP) took two steps to verify the videos. First, with the shortened videos, it released the entire footage. Anyone can judge for himself at centerformedicalprogress.org. To date, there are no credible allegations of deceptive editing. Second, CMP submitted all footage to Coalfire Systems for independent forensics testing. This lab verified that they were authentic and unaltered.
Two recent events have returned these videos to the headlines. On June 5, 2019 the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded a nine-month audit of fetal tissue contracts by canceling its contract with the University of California, San Francisco and by halting its in-house programs that experiment on fetal tissue.
“Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration. The audit and review helped inform the policy process that led to the administration’s decision to let the contract with UCSF expire and to discontinue intramural research,” said the HHS statement.
Nearly four years after Daleiden released the results of his investigation, the unethical and often unlawful procurement of fetal remains will no longer enrich the world’s biggest abortion provider at taxpayer expense. Daleiden deserves America’s enduring thanks for his painstaking investigation.
Instead, he has been prosecuted to the full extent of the law. California Attorney General, Kamala Harris, raided his home confiscating his video footage. Her successor, Xavier Becerra, filed 15 felony charges in the state’s court.
Next, the National Abortion Federation went to federal judge, William Orrick, a long-time abortion activist, who imposed a gag order preventing Daleiden from using any of his videos.
Daleiden’s defense lawyers cried foul. If the state of California can use Daleiden’s videos to prosecute felony charges, his defense reasoned that they were permissible as exculpatory evidence. Orrick counted this as contempt and slapped Daleiden with a $195,000 fine.
Last week the typically activist Ninth Circuit denied his appeal. As David battles the abortion Goliath, the Supreme Court may be his last chance. Now would be a good time to support this intrepid warrior.
Tuesday, June 18, 2019
The Center for Medical Progress is back in the news
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| Michelangelo's David | Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash |
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| Dr. Debora Nucatola |
“We’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part,” she said. “I’m gonna basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact.” Nucatola went on to explain how it is most difficult to extract the baby’s brain intact. “Some people,” she said, “will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex… So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last step, you can evacuate an intact calvarium [head] at the end.”
On the morning of July 14, 2015, America woke up to this video, released from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). The video went viral and was followed by 18 more, documenting both that laws were being intentionally skirted and that the practice was known throughout PPFA from the Executive Director, Cecile Richards, on down to the medical directors of its clinics.
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| Dr. Susie Prabhakaran |
In the last video released, Dr. Susie Prabhakaran, vice president of medical affairs, Planned Parenthood in southwest and central Florida, explained how Planned Parenthood's National Medical Standards & Guidelines manual includes a loophole for abortion doctors to fake compliance with the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.
The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban (18 U.S.C. § 1531) was signed into federal law on November 5, 2003. It prohibits the killing of a baby after it has been partially delivered. The standard operating procedure to prevent this from happening in a later-term abortion is for the abortionist to inject digoxin into the unborn’s heart so that the baby dies before delivery.
But, when a technician hinted that digoxin would make the organs less desirable, Prabhakaren explained that she and many of her PPFA colleagues do not use it at all—even for abortions as late as 22 weeks, six days. This practice leads inevitably to a high percentage of live births where the organs are harvested from a living baby. To skirt the law, she explained that PPFA trains clinic medical directors to check a box on the pre-operation form that states, “I intend to utilize dismemberment techniques for this procedure.”
Checking this box, they are taught, exempts them from prosecution even if they later kill a baby delivered live. Previously released videos had already shown clinic workers talking about how they had harvested organs from still-living babies. All this news set off a firestorm.
PPFA attempted damage control by claiming that the videos were “highly edited.” Of course they were! How else are you going to allow viewers to see the most important statements buried in hours of footage with distracting background noise? But, “highly edited” does not mean that the videos were doctored or altered in any way. It only means that irrelevant clutter was cut out of the final product.
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| Cecile Richards, Ex. Dir. PPFA |
Two things were done in order to demonstrate the bona fides of the videos. First, alongside the short versions of the footage, the CMP released the full video footage. This allowed anyone to scrutinize the editing for bias or deception. To date, no one has found any. Second, the videos were submitted to an independent digital lab for testing. This lab verified that they had not been doctored or fabricated in any way.
Despite these facts, many Americans have only heard that these videos are “highly edited,” and have moved on to other things. But, in recent weeks, two events have brought these videos back into the news.
First, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that after a nine-month audit of contracts and federal law, it is cancelling a contract with the University of California, San Francisco, involving the use of human fetal tissue, and is halting its in-house programs that experiment on fetal tissue.
“Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities of President Trump’s administration. The audit and review helped inform the policy process that led to the administration’s decision to let the contract with UCSF expire and to discontinue intramural research – research conducted within the National Institutes of Health (NIH),” said the HHS statement released on June 5, 2019.
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| David Daleiden |
Nearly four years after David Daleiden released the results of his investigation, American taxpayers are being relieved of the burden of funding experimentation on human tissue that was procured unethically and that helped to enrich the world’s number one abortion provider.
Rather than receiving accolades for his painstaking investigation, Daleiden has been prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Then Attorney General for the state of California, Kamala Harris, filed charges against Daleiden and raided his home—along with fellow-journalist Sandra Merritt--confiscating hours of video footage from his computers and hard-drives.. Harris’ successor, Xavier Becerra, filed 15 felony charges in the state of California.
In a coordinated action, the National Abortion Federation went to District Judge William Orrick, a long-time abortion activist, to impose a federal gag order preventing Daleiden from using any of his videos. Then, when defense lawyers used the videos to defend him against the charges filed by the state of California, Orrick found him in contempt of court and slapped him with a $195,000 fine.
Can a federal judge suppress exculpatory evidence in a state case? Apparently so.
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| Xavier Becerra |
Last week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to hear Daleiden’s latest appeal. The ironic result is that, on the very week that HHS responded to Planned Parenthood’s unethical trafficking in fetal organs, the man most responsible for exposing the evil practice is now forced to pay $195,000 to the abortion machine.
Someday, perhaps, justice will be done. Today is not that day. If you appreciate Daleiden’s dogged determination to expose and stop an evil practice, now would be a good time to send a donation to centerformedicalprogress.org.
Friday, June 14, 2019
WTE: The Battle for Civilization
The 75th anniversary of D-Day has come and gone. The speeches are delivered. The dignitaries have returned home. But my heart is still in Normandy as I hold sand scooped from once bloody beaches.
The largest naval armada ever assembled drove into the teeth of Germany’s Atlantic Wall. No one had ever seen an invasion force of this magnitude, yet it gained little territory. In the end, the allies hold only 172.5 acres of Normandy.
They were not fighting for land. They were fighting for civilization—a way of life. They kept only enough land to bury their dead, 9,388 heroes.
Where else in the annals of history do we find such a deed? Many have fought to expand territory, to exact tribute, or out of duty to some treaty. But the allies fought for none of these reasons. They fought for civilization itself.
Civilization derives from the Latin civitas, meaning city. It comprises the institutions and ideas that unite families into community. Family bonds are natural. But the bonds that tie family to family must be cultivated.
That’s why the first and most basic building block of civilization is the family. Cities are not made up by random men, women and children. Cities are built by fathers and mothers, sons and daughters who build homes, businesses and a shared infrastructure to benefit their families.
Civilization, therefore, rests on two pillars. First, it supports and protects individual families. Second, it treats all families of equal importance. Governance that fails in either respect destroys, rather than builds civilization.
Germany’s National Socialists were destroyers of civilization because they were destroyers of family. It began with the T4 program that secretly euthanized elderly fathers and mothers in state sanitoriums and went on to kill disabled veterans.
Next, they set family against family. “Kristallnacht,” the night of broken glass, set hooligans loose to destroy Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues. Soon enough, storm troopers divided those families by taking them to separate concentration camps.
For the moment so-called Aryan families were spared this forced separation. Nevertheless, they were divided by more insidious means. The Hitler Youth indoctrinated German children with lies and turned them into informants against their own families. The National Socialist regime was pure evil. It was not just a different kind of civilization. It was no civilization at all.
D-Day speeches through the years have repeatedly claimed that the fight was for civilization itself. But as our own civilization is undermined, that sounds increasingly like a quaint platitude.
We are saturated with entertainment and education that breathes the air of moral relativism. Our children are told that there is no objective good or evil. Absent the foundation to discern a good choice from a bad one, choice itself becomes the end-all and be-all.
The more deeply this indoctrination sinks into the national psyche, the more difficult it is to understand why D-Day happened, at all. The uncommon valor that became common on the beaches of Normandy baffles us. In a world were good and evil are forgotten categories, civilization can no longer be distinguished from barbarism.
On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, President Trump gave a speech that drew praise from his harshest critics. In it he vividly recounted the heroism of great men. But more, he elucidated the spirit that drove them on.
At the climax of the speech, he said, “The exceptional might came from a truly exceptional spirit. The abundance of courage came from an abundance of faith. The great deeds of an Army came from the great depths of their love.” This is exactly right.
The graves are Normandy are marked by 9,239 Latin crosses and 149 stars of David. Both testify that these men were driven on by a common worldview. The uncommon valor, so common on D-Day, arose from a shared idea that no civilization is—or can be—a god unto itself.
People are civilized by acknowledging a common duty to the One who created all. Natural love binds families together. But family can only be bound to other families by acknowledging a common creator. In such a civilization, laws are not created by rulers, they are discovered in creation itself and acknowledged by the common consent of the people.
While the Cross of Jesus and the Star of David stand for widely different views of who the Creator is, both acknowledge “one nation under God.” Civilization starts there.
After commemorating the 75th anniversary of the day that saved western civilization, let us set our minds on understanding the civilization they fought for. That is the best way we can honor the dead. Only by regaining the clear vision of good and evil that inspired them, can we fight as heroically in our own generation to preserve civilization for the next.
The largest naval armada ever assembled drove into the teeth of Germany’s Atlantic Wall. No one had ever seen an invasion force of this magnitude, yet it gained little territory. In the end, the allies hold only 172.5 acres of Normandy.
They were not fighting for land. They were fighting for civilization—a way of life. They kept only enough land to bury their dead, 9,388 heroes.
Where else in the annals of history do we find such a deed? Many have fought to expand territory, to exact tribute, or out of duty to some treaty. But the allies fought for none of these reasons. They fought for civilization itself.
Civilization derives from the Latin civitas, meaning city. It comprises the institutions and ideas that unite families into community. Family bonds are natural. But the bonds that tie family to family must be cultivated.
That’s why the first and most basic building block of civilization is the family. Cities are not made up by random men, women and children. Cities are built by fathers and mothers, sons and daughters who build homes, businesses and a shared infrastructure to benefit their families.
Civilization, therefore, rests on two pillars. First, it supports and protects individual families. Second, it treats all families of equal importance. Governance that fails in either respect destroys, rather than builds civilization.
Germany’s National Socialists were destroyers of civilization because they were destroyers of family. It began with the T4 program that secretly euthanized elderly fathers and mothers in state sanitoriums and went on to kill disabled veterans.
Next, they set family against family. “Kristallnacht,” the night of broken glass, set hooligans loose to destroy Jewish businesses, homes and synagogues. Soon enough, storm troopers divided those families by taking them to separate concentration camps.
For the moment so-called Aryan families were spared this forced separation. Nevertheless, they were divided by more insidious means. The Hitler Youth indoctrinated German children with lies and turned them into informants against their own families. The National Socialist regime was pure evil. It was not just a different kind of civilization. It was no civilization at all.
D-Day speeches through the years have repeatedly claimed that the fight was for civilization itself. But as our own civilization is undermined, that sounds increasingly like a quaint platitude.
We are saturated with entertainment and education that breathes the air of moral relativism. Our children are told that there is no objective good or evil. Absent the foundation to discern a good choice from a bad one, choice itself becomes the end-all and be-all.
The more deeply this indoctrination sinks into the national psyche, the more difficult it is to understand why D-Day happened, at all. The uncommon valor that became common on the beaches of Normandy baffles us. In a world were good and evil are forgotten categories, civilization can no longer be distinguished from barbarism.
On the 75th anniversary of D-Day, President Trump gave a speech that drew praise from his harshest critics. In it he vividly recounted the heroism of great men. But more, he elucidated the spirit that drove them on.
At the climax of the speech, he said, “The exceptional might came from a truly exceptional spirit. The abundance of courage came from an abundance of faith. The great deeds of an Army came from the great depths of their love.” This is exactly right.
The graves are Normandy are marked by 9,239 Latin crosses and 149 stars of David. Both testify that these men were driven on by a common worldview. The uncommon valor, so common on D-Day, arose from a shared idea that no civilization is—or can be—a god unto itself.
People are civilized by acknowledging a common duty to the One who created all. Natural love binds families together. But family can only be bound to other families by acknowledging a common creator. In such a civilization, laws are not created by rulers, they are discovered in creation itself and acknowledged by the common consent of the people.
While the Cross of Jesus and the Star of David stand for widely different views of who the Creator is, both acknowledge “one nation under God.” Civilization starts there.
After commemorating the 75th anniversary of the day that saved western civilization, let us set our minds on understanding the civilization they fought for. That is the best way we can honor the dead. Only by regaining the clear vision of good and evil that inspired them, can we fight as heroically in our own generation to preserve civilization for the next.
Tuesday, June 11, 2019
The Battle for Civilization
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| Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, France Photo by Neil Thomas on Unsplash |
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| Sand from Utah Beach |
As I write, I am holding a small jar of sand scooped from once bloody beaches. It moves me. One hundred-thirty thousand troops in 7,000 ships landed along a 50-mile stretch of sand. It was the largest naval armada ever assembled in the history of the world. It was advanced by 17,000 paratroopers who dropped behind enemy lines.
No one had ever seen an invasion force of this magnitude, yet it gained little territory. In the end, allies from six nations gained for themselves only 172.5 acres of French territory. They were not fighting for land. They were fighting for civilization—a way of life.
They kept only enough land to bury their dead. Beneath the hallowed ground lie the remains of 9,388 fallen countrymen. 9,239 graves are marked by Latin crosses, an additional 149 by the Star of David. This is remarkable.
Where else in the annals of history do we find an empire that fought, but not to enrich itself? Some wars were fought to expand territory. Some were fought to exact tribute money. Some were fought out of duty to an alliance. But the allies fought for none of these reasons. They fought because civilization itself was at stake.
What is civilization? It derives from the Latin word civitas, meaning city. Civilization is comprised of institutions and ideas that allow people who are unrelated to live together in peace and unity. The bonds of marriage and family arise naturally in human hearts. But the bonds that tie family to family in a cooperative endeavor must be cultivated.
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| Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash |
That’s why the first and most basic building block of civilization is the family. Cities are not made up by random men, women and children. Cities are built by fathers and mothers, sons and daughters who build homes, businesses and a shared infrastructure to benefit their families.
Immediately, that determines two parameters of any civilization. First, the government supports and protects every individual family. Second, it prevents any family from benefitting at the expense of another family. A government that fails in either of these areas is destroying civilization, not building it.
The National Socialists of Germany had done more than take over French territory. They demonstrated an utter contempt for the family. It began with the T4 program that secretly euthanized elderly fathers and mothers in government institutions. It expanded to kill mentally handicapped brothers and sisters and those maimed in the Great War.
Next, the National Socialists encouraged some families to attack the homes and businesses of other families. “Kristallnacht,” the night of broken glass, brought this pogrom into the streets. Soon enough, storm troopers divided the families of Jews, Gypsies and other “non-desirables” by taking them to separate concentration camps.
Even while so-called Aryan families were momentarily spared such forced separation, they were being divided by more insidious means. The Hitler Youth and the Nazi Brown Shirts indoctrinated German children with lies and turned them into informants against their own parents and siblings.
Through all these atrocities, and more, the civilized world came to understand that the National Socialist regime was pure evil. It was not just a different kind of civilization. It was no civilization at all. The Allied forces were fighting for civilization itself, and they knew it.
In commemorations throughout the last 75 years, speeches have repeatedly made this claim. But as our own civilization is undermined and confused, it sounds increasingly strange to our ears.
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| After Kristallnacht, Holocaust museum |
Moral relativism teaches that there is no objective good or objective evil. It teaches that there is no way of knowing a good civilization from an evil one. Yet this bankrupt philosophy dominates our cultural institutions today.
We are propagandized through film and song, in classrooms and newsrooms. These don’t merely assert, they assume that no matter what a person chooses, that choice is legitimate and beyond criticism. We are taught that choice itself is the end-all and be-all.
The more deeply this indoctrination sinks into the national psyche, the more difficult it is to understand what happened at D-Day. Speeches may recount story after heroic story of men who rose to the challenge of the century. Yet, the motivation for such widespread heroism is utterly baffling if we ourselves no longer believe that good and evil are valid categories.
If we can no longer understand what makes a civilization, we cannot tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.
Last Thursday, President Trump recounted the stories of numerous heroes who not only fought and survived, but who travelled to Normandy to be present at the commemorations 75 years later. Their stories are inspiring and humbling.
You should take the time to read his entire speech. Even his harshest critics are praising it as one of the best of his presidency. Not only does it vividly portray the deeds of these heroic men, it goes on to explain the spirit that drove them on.
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| President hugs "tough guy" of the "suicide wave" Russell Picket, 116th Infantry Division, Company A |
At the climax of the speech, he said, “They pressed on for love in home and country — the Main Streets, the schoolyards, the churches and neighbors, the families and communities that gave us men such as these. They were sustained by the confidence that America can do anything because we are a noble nation, with a virtuous people, praying to a righteous God. The exceptional might came from a truly exceptional spirit. The abundance of courage came from an abundance of faith. The great deeds of an Army came from the great depths of their love.” This is exactly right.
The 9,239 crosses and 149 stars that mark the graves of the fallen are more than empty symbols. They are silent testimony that these men were driven on by a common worldview. The uncommon valor, so common on D-Day, arose from a shared idea that no civilization is—or can be—a god unto itself.
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| A boy on the battlefield (6/94). Photo credit: Ellen Lange |
Natural love binds families together. But family can only be bound to other families by acknowledging a common creator. This fills each family with a desire to protect the family next door as zealously as its own.
Make no mistake. The Cross and the Star of David are not the same. They stand for widely different views of who the Creator is. Both, however, acknowledge “one nation under God.” Civilization starts there.
Now we have commemorated the 75th anniversary of the event that saved western civilization. The best way that we can honor the dead and give thanks to the living is to understand what that civilization is.
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| Le Mont Saint Michel, Normandy Photo by Michel Labeaume on Unsplash |
Only when we have regained the clear vision of good and evil that inspired them, can we fight as heroically in our own day to preserve civilization for our children.
Friday, June 7, 2019
WTE: Baby Saybie’s beautiful and miraculous life
Sharp Mary Birch Hospital, in San Diego, announced that “Baby Saybie” is going home. (Her actual name is being withheld at her parent’s request.) The University of Iowa’s Tiniest Baby Registry, lists her birthweight as 245 grams (8.6 ounces), about one fifteenth the size of an average newborn and twelve grams smaller than the previous record holder.
Saybie’s mother was 23 weeks and three days pregnant when she arrived at the ER. Diagnosed with preeclampsia, she underwent an emergency C-section. Doctors did not expect the baby to live out the hour, but five months later she went home. One nurse explained, “We do everything we can for each preemie, as well as we can, and after that, it’s really up to our babies.”
Few stories receive such universally positive treatment, but Saybie’s birth has been celebrated around the world on both sides of the aisle. That alone is a reason to cheer. She brought the world together in a singular narrative of life.
The first striking thing about her story is that life remains a mystery. Despite modern medicine’s advancement, medical professionals know that there is a spiritual dimension to life. It remains a gift unattainable by human craft or random chance. We only have the power to protect what is given, but not to create or preserve it.
Saybie teaches something else as well. We are regularly told that abortion is sometimes necessary in order to save a mother’s life. This is false. Abortion is never prescribed to preserve the life of the mother.
Her mother’s life-threatening condition did not require an abortion. She needed, rather, an emergency C-section. This is standard of care because even the safest second trimester abortion is more than double the risk of a C-section. Other methods only increase the risk and take longer.
After her birth, all that medical science could do for Saybie was to approximate the womb. Her own body did the rest. Thus, she is a living, breathing embodiment of everything that America has been debating over the past four months. While Saybie was fighting for her life, America was involved in a screaming match about the unborn and our responsibilities relative to them and to their mothers.
While some were alleging that the unborn are only a blob of tissue, the doctors who extracted Saybie at 23 weeks found a fully formed human being who could breath, eat, cry and move.
While Ruth Bader Ginsberg is claiming that a woman is not a mother until her baby is born, Saybie’s mother was fighting for the life of her child before the C-section was performed. She was afraid that her daughter would not survive. This is a mother’s love in action, not the cold theories of an ideologue.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) reinforced Roe v. Wade’s (1973) holding that after viability the State can regulate and even forbid abortion (Casey, p. 837). Saybie puts a face on this ruling and shows that society’s responsibility to protect human life begins as early as 21 weeks and as small as 8.6 ounces.
In spite of this, New York legalized abortions through the 40th week and similar bills were introduced in Arizona, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Illinois. Most have failed, but some are still advancing.
Meanwhile 50 attempts have been blocked to bring the “Born Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act” to a vote. This is not an abortion bill. It humanely requires that “any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
People just like Saybie should have access to the same health care that Saybie had. We have the means to protect them. Federal law already recognizes them as persons protection under the Constitution. It is unjust to deprive them of the health care they deserve.
The world is celebrating the medical team that protected Saybie’s chance to live. Newspapers are publishing the photos of her face and telling the story of her miraculous survival. It’s worth telling. it uplifts all humanity by uplifting the smallest human.
Saybie’s mother was 23 weeks and three days pregnant when she arrived at the ER. Diagnosed with preeclampsia, she underwent an emergency C-section. Doctors did not expect the baby to live out the hour, but five months later she went home. One nurse explained, “We do everything we can for each preemie, as well as we can, and after that, it’s really up to our babies.”
Few stories receive such universally positive treatment, but Saybie’s birth has been celebrated around the world on both sides of the aisle. That alone is a reason to cheer. She brought the world together in a singular narrative of life.
The first striking thing about her story is that life remains a mystery. Despite modern medicine’s advancement, medical professionals know that there is a spiritual dimension to life. It remains a gift unattainable by human craft or random chance. We only have the power to protect what is given, but not to create or preserve it.
Saybie teaches something else as well. We are regularly told that abortion is sometimes necessary in order to save a mother’s life. This is false. Abortion is never prescribed to preserve the life of the mother.
Her mother’s life-threatening condition did not require an abortion. She needed, rather, an emergency C-section. This is standard of care because even the safest second trimester abortion is more than double the risk of a C-section. Other methods only increase the risk and take longer.
After her birth, all that medical science could do for Saybie was to approximate the womb. Her own body did the rest. Thus, she is a living, breathing embodiment of everything that America has been debating over the past four months. While Saybie was fighting for her life, America was involved in a screaming match about the unborn and our responsibilities relative to them and to their mothers.
While some were alleging that the unborn are only a blob of tissue, the doctors who extracted Saybie at 23 weeks found a fully formed human being who could breath, eat, cry and move.
While Ruth Bader Ginsberg is claiming that a woman is not a mother until her baby is born, Saybie’s mother was fighting for the life of her child before the C-section was performed. She was afraid that her daughter would not survive. This is a mother’s love in action, not the cold theories of an ideologue.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) reinforced Roe v. Wade’s (1973) holding that after viability the State can regulate and even forbid abortion (Casey, p. 837). Saybie puts a face on this ruling and shows that society’s responsibility to protect human life begins as early as 21 weeks and as small as 8.6 ounces.
In spite of this, New York legalized abortions through the 40th week and similar bills were introduced in Arizona, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Illinois. Most have failed, but some are still advancing.
Meanwhile 50 attempts have been blocked to bring the “Born Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act” to a vote. This is not an abortion bill. It humanely requires that “any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
People just like Saybie should have access to the same health care that Saybie had. We have the means to protect them. Federal law already recognizes them as persons protection under the Constitution. It is unjust to deprive them of the health care they deserve.
The world is celebrating the medical team that protected Saybie’s chance to live. Newspapers are publishing the photos of her face and telling the story of her miraculous survival. It’s worth telling. it uplifts all humanity by uplifting the smallest human.
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
Baby Saybie’s beautiful and miraculous life
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| R.N. Michelle and baby Saybie on May 29, 2019 | Photo: AFP |
She was born in late December weighing a mere 8.6 ounces. That’s about one fifteenth the size of a full-term baby. According to the Tiniest Baby Registry kept at the University of Iowa, that makes her a new world record holder. Previously, the tiniest baby to survive was born in Germany four years ago and weighed 257 grams (9 ounces) at birth.
Saybie’s mother was in her 23rd week of pregnancy when her husband took her to the ER. There she was diagnosed with preeclampsia. This is a pregnancy complication associated with high blood pressure that affects two to eight percent of pregnancies world-wide. This life-threatening condition is listed among the most frequent causes of maternal death. In this case, doctors were forced to perform an emergency C-section to save the life of the mother.
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| Saybie at birth |
Saybie was born at 23 weeks and three days. While her mother was under anesthesia, her father was given the grim news that he should expect the baby to die within an hour. Nobody knows why, or how, but she has broken all expectations. Spring Birches is an RN at the NICU that cared for Saybie. She explained, “We do everything we can for each preemie, as well as we can, and after that, it’s really up to our babies.”
Premature babies (preemies) are those who are born more than three weeks before their due date. Anyone born more than twelve weeks early is called a “micro-preemie.” The Tiniest Baby Registry records 36 babies who have survived birth at 23 weeks or earlier. The earliest surviving micro-preemie was born at 21 weeks.
As soon as the hospital announced Saybie’s release, her story went viral. A Google search of her nickname finds celebratory stories published in every major news outlet worldwide. In our polarized news atmosphere, few stories receive such universally positive treatment. That alone is a reason to celebrate Saybie. She has brought the world together in a singular narrative of life, beauty and miracle.
The wonder of human life remains a mystery. The medical sciences have learned much and developed many tools to support it. But contrary to the armchair scientists who insist in blind faith that science controls all, doctors in the real world know that there is a spiritual dimension to life that is unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Life—especially human life--is always a gift. It is not a production of mankind. It is not a function of random chance. It is certainly not a cursed cancer. In every case it is a blessed gift that we can only receive with thanksgiving or reject in contempt. We have the power to protect it once it is given. But to create it or preserve it directly remains beyond human power.
This is an important reminder. Often reproductive technologies, and medical advances generally, are simplistically told to give the illusion of control. But the actual doctors at the bedside either thank their God above or curse their unlucky stars for results that they cannot predict.
Saybie’s story illustrates something else as well. In popular debate, we are often told that abortion is sometimes necessary in order to save the life of the mother. This is simply false. Abortion is never done to preserve the life of the mother.
Saybie’s mother had preeclampsia. Its onset in her 23rd week presented a life-threatening emergency that was off the charts. Her doctors did not prescribe abortion to save her. They prescribed an emergency C-section. This is the standard operating procedure because an abortion would have been more risky than a C-section.
According to one published study, even the safest second trimester abortion (dilation and extraction) is more than twice the risk of a C-section. Other abortion methods ranged from five to 30 times more dangerous. Third-trimester abortions can take up to three days. Saybie’s mom didn’t have that much time.
In the five months since she was born, all that medical science could do for Saybie was to provide an inferior, if passable, facsimile of her mother’s womb. Her own body has done the rest. Thus, she has given us a window into the womb. Saybie is a living, breathing example of everything that America has been discussing over the past four months.
While Saybie has been fighting for her life, America has been involved in a nation-wide screaming match about the status of the unborn and our responsibilities relative to them and to their mothers.
While some were alleging that the unborn are only a blob of tissue, the doctors who extracted Saybie at 23 weeks found a fully formed human being who could breath, eat, cry and move.
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| Ruth Bader Ginsberg |
While Ruth Bader Ginsberg is claiming that a pregnant woman does not become a mother until the baby is born, Saybie’s mother was arguing with her doctors for the life of her child. She was afraid that a C-section at 23 weeks would not give her daughter the chance to survive. This, in fact, is the love of a mother, not the cold theories of an ideologue.
While politicians and pundits were asserting that non-viable children are not deserving of equal protection under the law, Saybie was proving that she, an 8.6-ounce bundle of life, was more than viable. She was living! She was proving that Wyoming’s current prohibition against abortions after viability, translates to 8.6 ounces, or as early as 21 weeks.
On the 46th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New York passed a law that allows for abortions all the way up to the 40th week of gestation. Within weeks, similar bills had been introduced in Arizona, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Illinois. While many of these have failed, some are still advancing.
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| Rep. Liz Cheney, (R-WY) |
Meanwhile, House Democrats have blocked 50 separate attempts to bring the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivor’s Protection Act” to a vote. This bill does not change any abortion laws. It only requires that “any health care practitioner present at the time the child is born alive shall exercise the same degree of professional skill, care, and diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive at the same gestational age.”
In other words, it says that people just like Saybie should have access to the same health care that Saybie had. Medical science has the means to protect them. Federal law recognizes that they are citizens of the United States and “persons” under the U.S. Constitution. To deprive them of health care is unequal and unjust.
The whole world is celebrating the medical team that protected Saybie’s chance to live. News outlets around the globe are publishing the photos of her beautiful face and telling the story of her miraculous survival. It’s a story worth telling. It uplifts all of humanity by shining a light on the humanity of all.
Further Reading:
The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Health Care
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