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The CIA's drone strike program has stirred up a lot of controversy.In this program, the CIA sends unmanned plans out to bomb specific targets in an attempt to combat terrorism - aka the Taliban and Al Quaeda. While the program does seem to be causing problems for terrorists, it has also killed a good number of innocent, completely uninvolved civilians. And yet, the program continues. In fact, the number of strikes have only increased with time - though the program was the brainchild of the Bush administration, the Obama administration has latched onto it and continually upped its use.Why is this being allowed? Does this program not violate human rights by killing innocents? Though the strikes' objective may be to combat terrorism, and therefore protect human rights, we are no better than the terrorists if we blithely kill civilians along the way. War is no bed of roses. It's terrible. It's hell. Innocents will always die some way or another in its path, and some things can't be avoided. But the U.S. government knows that the drone strike program is killing civilians. They know that deaths have been reported - although how many haven't been reported, the American people don't know, due to the secrecy of the program. They know that the number of deaths has gone into the dozens.It's not worth it anymore.Stopping terrorists or not, if civilians continue to die, the program simply isn't worth it. We're stopping terrorists from killing innocents, by killing the innocents ourselves first. They won't need to bother bombing civilians - we're doing it for them. Why is this program being allowed to continue unchecked?One article that I read said that Obama wants to inspire confidence with this program, to show the American people that the government is doing something. If the government wants to show that it's "doing something" about terrorism, it should just be sending in the peace corps and showing tolerance and acceptance for all, not raining destruction down on those who have done nothing wrong.The CIA's drone strike program may be discouraging terrorists, but it's also killing uninvolved civilians - and the U.S. government knows it. Isn't this a violation of human rights? The international legality of the program has already been brought into question. What's the point of stopping terrorists if we're going to kill innocents along the way? And although the efforts of both the Taliban and the strikes seem to be focused mainly in Pakistan, strikes have also occurred in Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan - less involved countries who definitely don't need the extra problems. Especially Sudan, with a possible civil war looming overhead. The U.S. government needs to reassess what it's doing. This program needs to be stopped - or at the very least, monitored far more closely. I have started a Facebook page - "Stop Civilian Death in CIA Strikes" - and written a petition against this program. The people of the world need to step up and let the U.S. government know that what it's doing is not okay. I thank God that every time a plane flies overhead, I don't have to cringe in fear.http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-forestall-civilian-death-in-cia-strikes
The CIA currently controls a program wherein drones - unmanned planes - strike specific areas in the Middle East, hoping to dispense of Taliban officials. A BBC interview with a Taliban detainee indicated that the program is successful in frightening Taliban insurgents, and taking areas away from the Taliban that might previously have been deemed safe. Many members of the Taliban have been killed in these strikes, and terrorism may be suffering some serious blows.However, this program carries with it three major problems (besides the fact that people are dying, even if they are dangerous and terrorists).First of all, the program is kept under tight wraps. This is the CIA we're talking about, and the program is not available for a wide amount of scrutiny by other government organizations - such as the military. The American people are not well informed enough to fully understand the drone strike program's itinerary or its implications. More urgently, innocent civilians may be at high risk. And it's difficult for anyone not the CIA to tell - because mistakes made resulting in civilian deaths might never be reported beyond the CIA.There was one military investigation into the program fairly recently, and it reported the deaths of 23 civilians due to human error. President Obama greatly increased the number of strikes since taking office, and, while most strikes have occurred in northwest Pakistan, other less involved countries such as Yemen, Somalia and Sudan have each confirmed deaths. Since 2004, the program has caused hundreds of casualities - but how many were targeted terrorist victims, and how many were regular Pakistinians going about their daily lives? The CIA hasn't said.Another of the worst issues the drone strike program has is that it seems to be working against American interests. The capacity for the program to cause civilian deaths alongside targeted terrorists is angering native Middle Easterners. Especially as robotic, unmanned planes destroy lives while their operators sit safely at computer screens, the program displays to tribal Pakistinians American cowardice. Al Qaeda is reportedly finding it easier to recruit, as furious Muslim men find no satisfaction with American methods. According to a retired military officer with contacts in the CIA, even certain CIA officials are beginning to protest the program within the agency, feeling that the program is harmful and counterproductive.Finally, let's switch to those operating within the program itself. A blog I read on politics.gather.com brought up the very valid point of how these killings affect the planes' "pilots." With the push of a button, an American "pilot" can kill dozens of people some 10,000 kilometers away. He or she will not witness the deaths, will not see the people before they are killed, and can go home at the end of the day to watch soap operas and eat potato chips. While this may dispense with some of the ordinary psychological issues of killing fellow humans in war, is this cultivating a healthy way to view death? Such detachment may create an almost video game mentality of war.So to wrap everything up, this program may be protecting ordinary people by targeting terrorists, but it may be falling backwards and alienating probable allies. Who knows? As long as the CIA's drone strike program remains a mystery, we'll never get anywhere. Philip Alston, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, has argued that the CIA should turn the program's responsibilities over to the military, which has greater accountability. But whoever holds the reins on these strikes needs to open up, and let the rest of us know what's going on.To sign the petition asking the CIA to allow further scrutiny of the program: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/help-forestall-civilian-death-in-cia-strikesSources:http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/06/20106325050780296.htmlhttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/05/201053034934522302.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060701986.htmlhttp://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/dozen-dead-in-latest-pakistan-drone-strike/http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/12/what-if-predator-drones-work/31281/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/21/predator-drone-strikes-in_n_328744.htmlhttp://politics.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977900120http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51706


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Ubbi diaper pail is super convenient, any regular tall kitchen bag fits inside and works great! Ubbi plastic bags are made from recycled material and are biodegradable. They're not a must, just a plus!
- contains 20% recycled material
- 13 gallon (57.2l) capacity
- 17.7" c33.4" l 45cm x 85cm
- includes 25 bags

subset: commoncrawl


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V-TAC Echo Paintball Jersey
When disappearing into the landscape is your top priority, the Echo jersey has you covered. This jersey has a tough, lightweight Mesh weave construction with a continuos camo pattern to help you blend into your surroundings. Designed with Rib-knit cuffs and collar stretch to fit and feel comfortable all day long. The Echo Jersey comes complete with Velcro panels on each arm to stick your SSI patches. Valken Tactical Patch included.
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Decorative accent straps add beautiful contrast to a smooth leather clog. Made with Bendables flexible construction in extra soft blue leather, these women's Slip On shoe cushions the foot on an OrthoLite footbed, and adds a fashion right finish to fall pants and skirts.
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CONCORD, N.C. – Enduro and sprint karting have lost a pioneer and legend in Linda Emmick.
Linda Emmick passed away Wednesday night shortly after being admitted to the hospital. She was 69.
Linda and her husband, Gary Emmick, founded Emmick Enterprises in Sacramento, Calif., in the mid-1970s. Before building their own line of karts, the Emmicks were a leading Margay team on the west coast.
Emmick Enterprises grew to become one of the top American kart chassis manufacturers in the history of the sport. In the 1980s, Emmick was arguably the most popular kart in enduro-style karting, while their line of sprint chassis also produced a great amount of success.
After the passing of her husband, Gary, Linda forged ahead to lead Emmick Enterprises in the karting industry with her son, Ron. In addition to a being a successful businesswoman, Linda Emmick was also a leading official at many major kart events, including IKF Road Race Grand Nationals.
Gary Emmick was inducted into the WKA Hall of Fame in 1986.
WKA sends its thoughts, prayers and condolences to the entire Emmick family and those close to Linda. WKA will post arrangements when available.


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Looking to find baby, toddler and children's clothing? Golly Gumdrops Baby Boutique is just the place!
Your babys wardrobe is easy to maintain with cute selections from Golly Gumdrops Online Baby Boutique. Since babies and toddlers need to be comfortable in their baby clothes, we have a great selection of comfortable and practical children's wear, including an organic range of organic baby accessories, clothing and skin care. Golly Gumdrops responds to the need of parents to dress their children in the cutest toddler clothing. Everyone loves to make babies appear smart, from top to toe. Buy high quality kid's clothes like bonnets, baby hats, footwear, swimwear and all kinds of baby apparel for bedtime, playtime and bath time. Stuff their kiddie wardrobe with cute kid's clothing. Golly Gumdrops is your ultimate online baby, toddler and children's boutique for fashionable boys and girls. We also have a fantastic clearnace section of affordable baby, toddler and children's clothing.
Golly Gumdrops offer baby clothing brands inlcuding: Absorba, Annabel Trends, Baby Aspen, Baby Gund, Baby Snap Clips, Babycupcakes, Babylicious, Babytalk, Beatrix Potter, Bebe by Minihaha, Bebe Jr by Minihaha, Bindi Wear International, Books to Wear, Bright Bots, Bunnies by the Bay, Classic Pooh, Ecoboo, Eternal Creation, Fairy Floss Creations, Fleurville, Flippers, Gelati Art, Gr8x, Guess Kids, Huggalugs, Humphrey's Corner, Imp Prints Co, Jelly Beans, Jungle Rumble, Karma Baby, Kids Cold Packs, Kids Inc , Kinder Clobber, Little Bird, Little Chipipi, Look at the Wall, Made for Mum, Marquise, Max and Tilly, Miatom, Minihaha, Minimink, Munchee Mug, Oobi, Osh Kosh, Osh Kosh Baby Basics, Paper Eskimo, Parents of Invention, Penelope Lane, Plum, Pretty in Posies, Razbaby, Rippa, Run Scotty Run, Snazzy Baby, Snug as a Bug, Snugtime, Starchild, Stylesetter, Sunny Baby, T4Tot, Tahlia by Minihaha, Tickled Pink, Trolley Monster, Walnut Melbourne, Willow and Finn and Woof.


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Philosophie und Geschichtswissenschaften
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (3)
- Report (1)
- Crusades (1)
- Damascus (1)
- Emad al-Dīn Zingy (1)
- Hebron (1)
- Humphrey II (1)
- Kingdom of Jerusalem (1)
- Latin East (1)
- Nour al- al-Dīn Zingy (1)
- Tibnīn (1)
- Toron (1)
- Laws and skills : an inferential diagnosis and defense (2010)
- Philosophy is essentially dialectical. One gets into a dialectic by a puzzle, an aporia in thought and understanding. The point of philosophizing is not (necessarily) to get hold of the ultimate, objective, and immutably correct answers. The point is rather to come to be able to see one's way out of the aporia, and to understand how one got into it in the first place. The essay that follows – which I am submitting as my dissertation – is dialectical in two senses. As a piece of philosophizing, the essay is guided by a problem, the problem of understanding how laws of nature are possible, and how it is possible for us to know them. The movement of thought generated by attempts to get out of the problem then yields some ideas that do not stay in the original context in which the problem was felt to exist. Two important ones are, first, perceptual experience is not the only ultimate source of warrant we have for empirical knowledge claims, and second, perceptual experience is not the only epistemically significant experience we can have. Both are consequences of the idea that the mastery of skills is a form of interaction with nature that provides epistemic warrant for nomological claims. I shall leave it to the epilogue to examine how this view of skills contrasts with the ways skills are ordinarily thought of in philosophy and the implication of it for empiricism. The other sense in which the essay is dialectical is more interesting, and it has to do with the way in which I approach the problem that got me into started, namely, by paying special attention to the dialectic exchange between the realists and the antirealists about the laws of nature. Antirealism about the lawfulness of nature has experienced something like a post-Humean revival since the publication of van Fraassen's The Scientific Image. Most, including me, have strong realist intuitions about nomological "connections" in nature. Philosophical positions that are strongly counterintuitive have mostly not ended well in history. So it becomes something of a puzzle why antirealism about laws of nature manages to enjoy popularity every now and then.
- "Heraus aus dem Turm" : Dr. Hermann Schmitt-Vockenhausen und die Entwicklung der SPD zur Volkspartei ; eine biographische und regionale Studie (Main-Taunus-Region) (2013)
- The military role of the Fief of Tibnīn against the muslims in the age of the crusades (AH 498-583/ AD 1105-1187) (2014)
- The Crusade movement is one of the most important occurrences of medieval history. It took place throughout two centuries in the Levant and affected both Muslims and Crusaders and in turn changed the way in which West and East related to one another. When the Crusaders took control of the Holy Land and many Islamic cities in the Levant, they transferred their feudal European system there. They established four main fiefdoms or lordships, Jerusalem, Edessa, Antioch and Tripoli. In addition, there were another twelve secondary fiefdoms, of which Tibnīn was one. Tibnīn was called "Toron" by the Crusaders. Once the Crusaders had captured Tibnīn, they began building its fortified castle, from which the fief of Tibnīn gained its importance throughout the period of the Crusades. This paper traces the military role of Tibnīn and its rulers in the Latin East against the Muslims until 1187/ 583. Tibnīn played a key role in overcoming the Muslims in Tyre and controlled it in 1124. It also played a vital role in the conflict between Damascus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Tibnīn participated in defending Antioch, Banyas, Hebron and Transjordan several times. Furthermore, its soldiers and Knights joined the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem to capture Ascalon in 1153, and joined the campaigns of Amaury I, King of Jerusalem, against Egypt from 1164 to1169. The military situation of Tibnīn under the rule of the royal house until its fall to the Muslims in 1187/ 583 will be studied as well.


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Chattanooga Head Coach Wes Moore
Thoughts on Game
"We came out with a lot of energy. I like that. We were flying around on defense, and pretty much everyone that came in the game had that same kind of adrenaline. That was good. Some people came in off the bench and gave us a boost defensively and making things happen. So we did have a little there and you got to give them credit. They didn't back down, they hung in there. It was kind of touch and go in the second half, but I thought at that point that we really stepped it up. I think in the second half we forced 17 turnovers and only had four ourselves. I think that was a big factor in the game. It was good to get a lot of people involved and to get back on track. It was great to be at home. We've been on the road for a month, and you play in front of some places where only 300-400 people are there. To come back home and have well over 2,000 people here was nice. We appreciate the support we get."
On preparing for Georgia Southern
"I wanted to thank my staff, too. This week they had to step up and go the extra mile. I thought they did a great job. It's nice to have a veteran staff that knows what to do, and they get it done. My assistants did a great job getting us ready as far as the scouting report and film work. I definitely think Monday's loss made me feel a whole lot worse physically, and hope tonight's win will have the reverse effects."
Thoughts on the Lady Mocs scoring
"It was good to see Taylor have a good second half. That's what I said to her when we were going out there, 'Welcome back.' It's good to see her come in, make some shots and get her confidence up. The whole team right now with free throws, their whole confidence is down. I think things like that are contagious. If somebody steps up and hits a few, and we start getting happy, everything will be fine. In the mean time, all you do is keep working. The harder I work, the luckier I get."
Thoughts on Chattanooga's defense
"We normally run some different things and do as much things. We felt size-wise, we could get away with it. Taylor can do a great job scoring down there. She doesn't really get excited with it, but I think part of that had to do with the match up. We felt like she could still be effective in the four-out, one-in. I think Faith is real close to getting back, hopefully we can get everybody back to their natural positions and get some reps in as we go down the stretch. We can go small, and it makes it harder for them to sometimes match-up with us."
Thoughts on the freshmen's play
"I think Red gave us a shot of adrenaline, and the crowd got in to it. She put a lot of pressure on the ball, and forced a timeout. I think Red can bring some things to the table like that. Tatiyana can. We got some people who can come in off the bench, and do some things on defense. Townes can make some plays. It was a good team effort, and we kind of lacked that Monday night. We didn't have as much energy on defense as we needed, and it was good to see that back in effect."
Thoughts on the second half
"This second half was good, but the Tennessee game was special, too, because you were doing it against a very athletic team. We got to do it every night. We got to make an instructional video every night if we are going to be successful. We can't just get by with status-quo. That's one thing we changed this year, and the players seemed to buy in early. We kind of slacked off in the last couple of weeks, and we got to get that energy back."
Kylie Lambert, guard, senior
On the focus of today's game
"Yeah, the focus was definitely on defense. Coach Moore wanted us to pressure them a lot more and I think we did a good job of that."
On the intensity of tonight's game
"Aside from Tennessee, I thought this was the most intense game we've played all season."
On the intensity being brought on by being at McKenzie Arena
"I think it was so intense because we were back home. It is really nice to be back home and have the home court advantage."
Taylor Hall, forward, junior
On posting 16 points
"It always feels good to hit some shots, especially when I have been in a slump. My teammates did a great job of getting me the ball. They were looking for me when I was posting up and made a lot of great passes to get me the ball."
Thoughts on playing the five spot
"It wasn't necessarily the plan, but they start four guards so we had to go with a smaller lineup. We know that when we have a smaller lineup that we need to turn up our energy and make things happen. I am still learning the position since Faith has been out. Like I said, the plays we ran seemed to work out really well and my teammates made some great passes to me."


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Endpoint management, user support, and Windows migration that's easy on IT
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Bundle Commander
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Bronze medalist for "Best Deployment/Configuration Product" category.


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"It's good to be in something from the ground floor … But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over." — TV mob boss Tony Soprano
"Many Americans I think feel that way." — TV psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi
Actor James Gandolfini, who starred in the highly decorated series "The Sopranos," passed away recently while on vacation in
In many ways, the Sopranos was a genuine reflection of the vagaries of domestic and global economic fortunes, both good and bad, during the eight years the program aired. As head of his
The booming 90's economy was at its nadir when the series opened in 1999. During a power struggle between Tony and his Uncle Junior in the first episode, Junior says, "Things are good, I'll grant you that. But this economy is so robust you get credit for (stuff) you had nothing to do with."
Indeed, the stock market was so strong then that one could almost throw a dart at the Dow and make money.
Tony and wife Carmela were continually conflicted over investing in the market. Tony harbored bundles of cash and preferred "putting his money on the street," rather than committing it to legitimate investments.
Carmela was fearful for her financial future if something happened to Tony, a theme that resonates with many American women. She hounded Tony to invest in the market.
Tony responded, "Stocks? You've got to be high up in the corporate structure to make that … work for you." Tony's cynicism regarding the market reflects the negative attitudes that some Americans associate with investing.
When the actual global recession ensued, Tony's captains brought him lighter envelopes. Tony calls his troops together and tells them, "You're supposed to be earners, so earn!" Then he implores his henchman, Silvio Dante, to explain the economic facts of life to his employees.
"Two things have always been immune to these kind of recessions," says Silvio. "… show business … and our thing." Only "their thing" wasn't immune. It was just as vulnerable as the general American economy was when the mortgage lending crisis evolved and the housing market collapsed.
Tony's quoted complaint at the top of the column also represents the thinking of many investors, who fear that they have missed the run-up in equities in recent months.
The Dow Jones, however, is a non-inflation adjusted index, and if it were, the Dow would have to currently be at 17,000 to match 2007 highs. Additionally, there are many "Global Giants" equities that pay regular dividends which can still be bought at a fair price.
Margaret R. McDowell, ChFC, AIF, a syndicated economic columnist, is the founder of Arbor Wealth Management, LLC, (850-608-6121~www.arborwealth.net), a "fee-only" registered investment advisory firm located near Sandestin.


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This weeks free music download is Johannes Brahms's Double Concerto for Violin and Violoncello, Op. 102
Completed in 1887, this concerto is German composer Johannes Brahms's (1833–1897) last orchestral work. Brahms wrote this work, referred to as a "double concerto" as it features two soloists rather than one, for violinist Joseph Joachim and Joachim's quartet-mate, cellist Robert Hausmann. Joachim and Brahms had been very close friends for many years, insofar that Joachim's first son was named after Brahms, but the two had a falling-out after Joachim's divorce to mezzo-soprano Amalie Schneeweiss. The concerto's first rehearsal was the first time they had spoken for seven years. Though their friendship was likely never has strong as it had been, the collaboration reestablished a relationship between the three musicians. Brahms eventually gave the manuscript to Joachim, inscribing "To him, for whom it was written."
Brahms conducted the first performance in Cologne in October 1887, with Joachim and Hausmann as soloists. Its reception was only lukewarm. As the tides of tonality were changing in the late 19th century, the Double Concerto is decidedly Romantic and old-fashioned. The Double Concerto is more highly regarded today, but is still the least-performed of any of Brahms's concertos; this is likely due to the impracticality of securing two virtuosic soloists rather than any disdain for the work.
This recording is performed by Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine under the direction of Alain Lombard.


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Juggling, scrapbooking and building 7-foot-long roller coasters out of K'Nex aren't typical homework assignments, but they are just some of the skills Buck Lodge Middle School students are learning in their enrichment program classes this year.
The special non-credit classes are how students at the Adelphi school decided to spend the 40-minute middle school day extension Prince George's County mandated in 2012, said Stacey Gaines, co-director of Buck Lodge's enrichment program.
Now in its second year, the program separates Buck Lodge from other county middle schools, many of which designated the extra time as study hall, Gaines said.
"It's such a different model than what [the county] is used to seeing with this extra time," she said.
This year, Buck Lodge re-offered some of the most popular classes from the 2012-2013 school year, including model rocket building, yoga, soccer and engineering, Gaines said. Students select their favorite 10 classes from a list, and are placed into one of them for the entire semester.
The classes are led by Buck Lodge's classroom teachers, who select topics based on their own passions and the students' interests, she said.
Susan Creamer instructed a knitting class of about 20 students from August to December. She said many students learned additional stitches through online tutorials after learning the basic stitch in class, and one student taught herself and several of her peers how to crochet.
Creamer, who instructed a journaling enrichment class last year, is the school's technology teacher.
"That's one of the wonderful things about the enrichment program," she said. "Teachers can select something that is very different and students are able to see us in a different light. You learn things about your colleagues too which is fascinating."
Erica Ponce, 13, of Adelphi took a scrapbooking class last semester, and said she would like to be placed in the same class during this year's second round of enrichment programming, which begins Jan. 21.
"I like being creative," she said. "We made pages and we also paint. You could duct tape your binders and journals and stuff."
The eighth-grader said she plans to use her new scrapbooking skills for fun outside of class.
Eighth-graders Nelson Romero, 14, and Wayne Campbell, 13, of Beltsville spent four months building a mini carnival out of K'Nex in their mechanics class. Last school year, the boys took the same class and helped classmates build a ball factory.
"Something I would say that was really great in this class to take away was just the way of your mindset working to work with other people and have the determination to finish it all," Nelson said. "It makes you feel great finishing it."
Gaines said the classes are a way for students and teachers to work side by side and learn more about each other.
"It gives you an opportunity to interact with kids in a way you don't interact with them during the normal school day," she said. "It's more about learning how to communicate with people — it's learning how to collaborate."


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It was the adrenaline rush that hooked Sally Rumph. The feeling the rider got when going cross country with her horse as he demonstrated a natural balance at all paces, gliding over fixed, solid and imposing jumping efforts, providing Rumph with an irresistable sensation, one that's endemic to the sport of eventing. Rumph is at the Paradise Farm Horse Trials this weekend with her 11-year-old gelding Hang Time, or Oliver as he's known around the barn, and the rider/horse combination did their dressage test and went stadium jumping Saturday.
The adult amateur went novice with the horse she's been riding since last September. Rumph is relatively new to the sport, and has brought Oliver up from beginner novice. The rider/horse combination had first come out at beginner novice at Chattahoochee Hills, but they've continued to evolve under the watchful eye of coach/trainer Christy Mackaness.
"We did a fabulous beginner novice, went a little fast on cross country, and got a speeding ticket," said Rumph.
"She found this wonderful little horse. He knows his job well."
Saturday morning's wind and rain provided somewhat of a challenge for rider and horse, but that didn't seem to act as much of a deterrent for Rumph and Oliver as their intrepid spirit carried them seamlessly through the transitions and changes during their dressage test.
Rumph returned to the saddle after a protracted layoff, having previoulsy exhibited show hunter/jumpers.
"They're a lovely pair," said Mackannes. "They're perfect for each other. He loves his new job as a novice horse. Sally rides him well, and she's learning a lot about the sport of eventing on him. I love watching them. Sally's very capable, and they have many fun years of riding ahead of them."
Mackaness went novice Friday with Escape Appeal, and the Charleston-based professional always welcomes the opportunity to compete at Paradise.
"It's a fantastic facility," said Mackaness. "The horse trials are always well run, and it's a beautiful track."
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Hill Fellow Award - Jeff Sanford (3 min)
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Has anyone heard of the channeling messages of Matthew Ward?He was killed in auto accident when he was 17 years old, and been in contact with his mother for the last 30 years.He gives her messages about our planet and what is happening and why.I have always believed this to be wrong, talking to the dead, yet I am drawn to this like a moth to the flame.Is this something people should avoid?If his mother is doing this for finiancial profit then heaven forbid.If this is not an allowed subject mods please delete.
Hi Beloved Servant, thank you, sometimes I am drawn to distracting things such as this, I really hate it when I let this happen.


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Windham woman killed in two-car crash in JamaicaJanuary 30,2013Windham woman killed in two-car crash
JAMAICA Police identified a 20-year-old Windham woman was killed on Monday in a two-car crash on Route 30 in Jamaica.
According to State Trooper James Matthews, Tressa McKinney was traveling south when she lost control of her car and skidded across the roadway. Matthews said McKinneys car crossed the yellow lines and collided with northbound traveller Gavin Scotti, 48, of Greenwich, Conn.
McKinneys car ignited after the crash and she was pronounced dead at the scene, Matthews said. Scotti and his passenger were transported to Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend for minor injuries.
The Jamaica and Londonderry fire departments, Londonderry Rescue and Winhall Police assisted at the scene. The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information should call Matthews at 254-2382.MORE IN This Just InNEW YORK Yes, your mutual fund may own some Greek stocks. No, most likely not a lot. Full StoryWHITE RIVER JUNCTION A Springfield man who was captured Friday evening after he took off... Full StoryLoan program launched for owners of flood damaged apartment houses Full Story
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Hobby Lobby and Science
Lisa Fullam July 9, 2014 - 3:21pm
The Hobby Lobby decision exempted the corporation from providing insurance coverage for contraceptives it believed to be abortifacients. But is that belief true? And should it matter, especially as Catholic institutions decide whether to raise similar objections?
First, a clarification: two different definitions of what counts as an abortion are in play. In medical terminology, a woman is not considered pregnant until the developing embryo implants in the uterine wall, approximately a week after fertilization, (so on average about 7-10 days after ovulation.) Since one can't have an abortion until one is pregnant, by medical standards contraceptives that block implantation by changing the uterine lining are not abortifacient. Roman Catholic magisterial teaching, on the other hand, holds that the developing embryo should be treated as a person from conception. Anything that blocks implantation would be considered abortifacient by those who believe that personhood starts with conception. In short, in medicine, "pregnancy" is a term that refers to the woman, while for many pro-life people and groups, it refers to the presence of an embryo.
The Hobby Lobby case focused on 4 means of contraception: Plan B and Ella, both forms of emergency contraception (EC) for use after unprotected sex, and two forms of the IUD, the copper-coated IUD and a hormone-releasing IUD called Mirena.The literature is complex and developing, and I hasten to state at the outset that I'm not a pharmacologist or an MD. But here goes:
How does Plan B (levonorgestrel) work? Clearly its principal mode of action is to inhibit ovulation. Studies here and here indicate no effect on implantation or endometrial thickness (which might affect implantation.) This was controversial early on, but the most recent studies indicate no effect on implantation. Similar pregnancy rates from use of Plan B after ovulation vs. placebo also support the conclusion that Plan B does not affect implantation. Indeed, a number of studies of implantation in vitro, in animal models, and reflecting clinical efficacy state confidently that there is no effect on implantation. (The German bishops also have given their thumbs-up to EC that doesn't block implantation. The USCCB links to statements on EC are broken.)
The principal mechanism of action of Ella (Ulipristal acetate) is also inhibition of ovulation. This drug has a longer window of efficacy than Plan B, and is approved for use up to 5 days after unprotected sex. (This is because it can block ovulation closer to follicular rupture than Plan B does.) In higher doses, Ella could affect uterine lining, but at the doses used for EC appears to have no such effect. Other studies note the pharmacological similarity of ulipristal to mifepristone, (which does terminate pregnancy.) If administered after ovulation, Ella might inhibit implantation. However, there are also indications that people who take Ella after they ovulate become pregnant at a similar rate to those who take placebo, implying that any effect on the endometrium is not enough to significantly impair implantation. In sum--the scientific jury still seems to be out on Ella and implantation, as far as I can tell.
The hormone-coated IUD releases levonorgestrel (the active ingredient of Plan B), so can act to inhibit ovulation, and to thicken cervical mucus to impede sperm movement. The copper-coated IUD impairs sperm motility. Both forms of the IUD impair implantation according to most--but not all--of the sources I checked.
It seems that Hobby Lobby cast its net too broadly, and ruled out a form of emergency contraception that is effective ONLY pre-fertilization, Plan B. It is not abortifacient by any definition. The mechanism of action of Ella on this point seems unclear so far, while most sources agree that the IUD affects implantation.
Why does this matter? In making religious liberty-based claims, it seems to me, truth counts. It is one thing to say that the law should respect freedom of people to believe or not believe what cannot be empirically proven. (The existence of God, e.g., pace Thomas Aquinas.) It is quite another matter for laws that put significant burdens on individuals (here, women whose contraceptive choices are limited,) in the face of data that shows that the religiously-based claims are demonstrably wrong. Obviously, reliigious liberty means that people are free to believe things that are just wrong--anti-evolutionists, young-earthers and their ilk--but surely there must be a limit to how much a person's fallacious belief can be invoked to justify limiting others' freedoms.
Beyond the law, there is a question of scandal. The image of religious institutions is affected in matters like this, and here is where Catholic institutions should tread carefully. If Catholic institutions jump on the Hobby Lobby bandwagon, they should do so only in ways that reflect the current state of biological understanding on these questions, and they should be prepared to revise as necessary. Otherwise, the banner of religious liberty will come to seem like a right to persistent and harmful ignorance. This is truly scandalous--it would imply, contrary to the best of Catholic tradition, that faith requires rejection of reason.
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Actually, the data is quite good that the Copper T works by preventing fertilization, not by preventing implantation. So it is a true contraceptive, not an abortifacient. I don't know if as much research has been done on the Mirena. But the Mirena has uses for controlling uterine bleeding and so is used even in women who do not need contraception (perimenopausal women with hemorrhaging issues, for example).
I agree that it is important we have the facts straight, or whatever position we take is undermined. I appreciate that the dialog about Hobby Lobby in Commonweal has so far been pretty civil in the blog...
What's discouraging is that the court took Hobby Lobby's assessment of the medications over the information given by the e American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Like the court, I think that most people for Hobby Lobby don't actually care about the facts.
An article on the subject ... http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-ra-craziest-thing-about-hobb...
I think its kind of a tempest in a teapot since birth control pills run between $15 -$50 a month if you pay for them yourself. There are a lot more expensive health-related costs: deductibles, co-pays, other exclusions, dental, vision etc, that are still unaddressed and are not even on the radar because everyone's fighting over contraception.
If I worked for a Catholic insitution and they said they wouldn't cover my contraception, but could generously subsidize a low-deductible, modest co-pay, free generic drugs, comprehensive dental and vision for me and my family, I would not feel there would be any scandal at all, I would be happy for the good insurance coverage.
Lisa, thanks for your objectivity, and particularly for your two concluding paragraphs. Good post.
The statement that a woman is not considered pregnant if the fertilized embryo isn't affixed to the uterine wall is almost technically correct, (one can be ectopically pregnant) but skirts the issue of whether life has been initiated. The fertilized egg is a genetically distinct human entity with a soul.
The fertilized egg is a genetically distinct human entity with a soul. Sorry - this is a wish, opinion, etc. This is exactly what Lisa is trying to objectively parse.......you, rather, fall back to a cultic notion that admits neither science nor rational thought.
Your statement might fly if you leave out *with a soul*. And please explain why in the natural course of things, roughly 2/3rds of all fertilized eggs fail to implant - does this mean that they have been *aborted* - was God the abortionist? Your statement is unnuanced and as such only creates polarizations - not dialogue. It is a nice poster phrase that says nothing.
I think Irene makes an interesting point: Employers who are a little more PR savvy could probably "sell" employees on their decision not to pay for contraception if they made up for it their having to pay contraception out of pocket with improved dental/vision coverage. The cost of having a tooth crowned is now $500 or more. You can buy 10 or more months of birth control for that.
This solution, however, ignores that:
a) Employers are not allowed to duck contraception coverage under Obamacare regulations (except churches, church affiliated, and, apparently closely held corporations whose five or fewer controlling owners object).
b) Women take hormone therapy for medical conditions such as endometriosis or replacement after a hysterectomy at a pre-menopausal age.
c) Women who want to ensure they don't get pregnant because of diabetes or multiple past miscarriages may want to opt for sterilization rather than NFP, which gets dicey once you're in peri-menopause. The alternative to that is no sex and separate bedrooms, always a great way to enhance marital relations! Maybe the Catholic employer would pay for a nice bolt lock for the bedroom door ...
John Walton,
I appreciate your contribution to this discussion. Thank you.
Well to at least some point, Catholic teaching on when life begins really does ignore science. As Bill deHaas points out, something like 2/3 of all fertilized eggs never become implaned and thus never have a change to progress beyond the very initial stage of growth into a real person. The idea that "life begins at conception" is really based on an older understanding of how gestation works in fact. Really not much different from Gallileo. the teaching hasn't caught up with the facts. In that case it was the fact that the sun not the earth is the center of the solar system. In this case it is that a fertilized egg is not a sufficient condition for life to begin. That egg must also be implanted in the womb before there is any chance for it to grow into a person as we understand the term.
One thing that is interesting to me though, is that the Hobby Lobby claim isn't exactly consistent with Catholic teaching, despite the huzzahs from the UCCB. Their claim seemed to be that they objected to paying for abotifacients. In Catholic teaching, that is really not relevant. The Church believes that every sexual act should be open to the possibility of conception (except of course when it doesn't believe that, eg natural family planning). So whether a particular method does or doesn't "abort" the fetus is really pretty irrelevant when it comes to artificial birth control.
The final and really bizzarre part of this decision is that according to Sam Alito, facts are irrelevant. It is only belief that matters. Hobby Lobby argued that it opposed paying for abortifacients, when in fact the items at issue are not that. But that is irrelevant. Alito's world, "truthiness" (a "truth" asserted "from the gut" or because it "feels right," without regard to evidence or logic) prevails. Next time you hear a judge or lawyer talk about th efacts of a case, remind him that facts don't matter. Truthiness does.
Galileo? Didn't he say that planets have circular motions and that comets were a play of light while mocking his contemporaries who had it right on these matters? He got in trouble not for his science but for his sarcastic demeanor toward the Pope (who had been his supporter). The Church sinned and acted very badly when it placed him under house arrest. The Church rightly owed him the apology that JPII offered. But let's stop perpetuating the myth that the Galileo affair was a clash of a noble scientist against a superstitious religion. I mean, if we really love the truth and value facts, can't we take a wholly realistic view toward Galileo and stop using him as a boiler-plate prop to wield against the Church in every discussion?
It's not that the Catholic church is historically against science, per se ... there have been lots of Catholic scientists ... but the church *is* against scientific facts that refute or undermine its teachings. The badness is that the church has the agenda of protecting its teachings even at the expense of the truth.
Does the fact that Galileo did not get everything right negate the fact that Church leaders taught and insisted, with threats and actual punishments, on the truth of something false? And moreover, something that humbler men might have seen to be out of their purview?
People might talk less about "the Galileo affair" if Church leaders would ease up a little on the magisterium shtick and occasionally acknowledge with the rest of us that like benighted travelers, they're not always sure of the right path.
Crystal - whyever would you think that? I don't know of any scientific facts that the church denies in order to protect its teachings. Certainly, the post that Lisa wrote doesn't provide any examples.
The example from the issue of this post is that the church (not just Hobby Lobby) deems contraception as abortifacients ... "The drugs that Americans would be forced to subsidize under the new rule include Ella, which was approved by the FDA as an 'emergency contraceptive' but can act like the abortion drug RU-486. It can abort an established pregnancy weeks after conception." http://www.usccb.org/news/2011/11-154.cfm
But that is NOT true ... "Morning After Pills Don't Cause Abortion, Studies Say" ... http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/22/172595689/morning-after-pills...
Hence the disregard for the truth on the church's part.
PS - maybe the US bishops need to talk to the German bishops ... http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/02/21/german-bishops-ok-emergency-cont... :)
Crystal - regarding Ella - here is what Lisa Fullam concluded in this post: '' In sum--the scientific jury still seems to be out on Ella and implantation, as far as I can tell." So do you think Lisa is just flat-out wrong, as wrong as you seem to think the bishop are? I have read her writing here at dotCom, and I assume you have, too, and I would not be inclined to accuse her of conspiring with the US bishops to deny scientific truths :-).
Perhaps Lisa hasn't read the latest info on those drugs? The aricle I mentioned at NPR states ...
"when it comes to Plan B, there is now fairly definitive research that shows the only way it works is by preventing ovulation, and therefore, fertilization .... a study published just last year led the to declare that Plan B does not inhibit implantation .... studies have also shown that ella, like Plan B, doesn't prevent pregnancy if a woman has already ovulated. Women who took the drug after ovulation got pregnant at the same rate as those who took nothing at all. She says that strongly suggests it does not have any effect on blocking implantation."
Check the article for links to the studies ... http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/22/172595689/morning-after-pills...
A couple have people have mentioned a statistic that 2/3rds of all fertilized eggs fail to implant, and elsewhere others have mentioned a high rate of very early miscarriages. In the first place these statistics are at best an educated guess; much of the time a woman wouldn't be aware of a pregnancy or potential pregnancy at this stage. In the second place, this is a red herring, irrelevant to the discussion of the morality of the issues at hand. Because the discussion is about human agency, not acts of nature. The truth is that we don't know at what point a zygote or blastocyst can be said to be possessed of a soul, it is not something science is capable of proving one way or the other. Yet we do believe that each of us has a soul. For all we know, God endows these failed early beginnings of human life with souls, and takes them to Himself after their incredibly short time on earth. You know; the landowner and the vineyard and the day's wage.
The comment above should read "A couple of people..." Wish there was an edit button.
I appreciate the note about differing definitions of pregnancy and abortion. It is fine for different contexts to use the definition that is the most relevant. As long as people are clear about what definition they are using, it isn't a problem.
We also need to be careful about how we interpret the science. A lot of the commentary has transformed scientific statements indicating uncertainty whether a particular pathway contributes to the effectiveness of a treatment into statements that the treatment definitely uses that pathway. Furthermore, we need to be careful to consider the size of an effect in addition whether we can measure an effect. Just because we can measure a difference doesn't mean that it is large enough to care about.
We also need to take into consideration the high rate of failure for implantation even without contraceptives. If the change in likelihood is within the variation among healthy woman, does it matter?
Finally, does the net effect matter? If the prevention of fertilization prevents more failures to implant more than the prevention of implantation causes such that the expected number of failures to implant goes down, is that a good thing rather than a bad thing?
If they have souls, Heaven is going to be weird. That doesn't mean it's false (Heaven is certainly going to be weird in many ways).
It's actually pretty hard to prove 'anyone' has a soul, even from a Christian perspective ... http://www.amazon.com/Bodies-Spirited-Current-Issues-Theology/dp/0521676762
Ryan, yes, I'm looking forward to Heaven being weird! Of course from this side anything is pure speculation; but I would like to think in heaven that we attain the potential that it wasn't possible for us on earth.
Crystal, the word soul has a lot of baggage, maybe we should just call it the part of us that survives death. I realize we can't prove that either. But as Paul put it, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied."
There is no consensus as to the status of a fertilized egg even in the scientific community. However, because of the ambiguity surrounding it, research studies on fertilized eggs are subject to strict ethical parameters and guidelines; stricter than research on other biological matter.
At issue is access to drugs that may be an abortificient. On that poiint, given the ambiguity, the decision needs to fall on the patient who, with appropriate information, make an informed decision. Clinics, hospitals (Catholic or not) should not be arbitrarily making these choices.
With respect to Hobby Lobby, the employees are not denied access to these medication, the company is saying that it is not going to pay for these through the insurance coverage and they made their arguement on religious and not solely scientific grounds.
Nobody, including Hobby Lobby, is suggesting that women should not have access to these medications.
If Catholic institutions jump on the Hobby Lobby bandwagon, they should do so only in ways that reflect the current state of biological understanding on these questions, and they should be prepared to revise as necessary.
This, indeed, is the relevance for Catholic institutions and it will be interesting to see how this is being addressed by those institutions. Are these drugs, for example, covered at Catholic hospitals and institutions?
Katherine, yeas, I'm hoping there's a part of us that survives and that there's a heaven too.
Katherine - you state: "In the second place, this is a red herring, irrelevant to the discussion of the morality of the issues at hand. Because the discussion is about human agency, not acts of nature. The truth is that we don't know at what point a zygote or blastocyst can be said to be possessed of a soul,...."
Actually, would suggest that your response is the red herring - it is the old hierarchical dodge - when you can't explain something, use *natural law*.
Fact - in terms of pro-life in the medical, scientific, social agency fields, *human agency* is used almost exclusively to address risks, threats, and potential death to human beings - we don't leave up to *acts of nature* e.g. brain surgery; by-pass surgeries; to name a few.
And yet, when it comes to reproduction, the church has knee-jerked into what Ms. Kaveny calls a *cultic stance* - so, you have Humanae Vitae that does not permit contraception (and we know now that this papal decision had more to do about papal power, precedence, and fear than anything having to do with the merits of the issue and it negated the overwhelming approval that the Papal Birth Control Commission gave it.
The same process is involved here - the process of fertilization happens and more than 50% of the eggs fail to implant (sorry, this is a proven fact of research studies). If it is *natural*, we say and do nothing. Now, if a family, married couple, etc. use good judgment and decide to use *artificial* contraceptives, the church objects. If a couple, for whatever reason, find that their contraceptive failed or that they are pregnant and this was unplanned (2/3rds of all abortions are because of an unplanned pregnancy), why is the use of artifical means to stop implantation rejected - because they choose to use *artificial means* - as stated above, we do that millions of times a day to save lives. Why is reproduction carved out as different?
And, agree, we don't know when the egg, ovum, fetus, etc. has a soul (Thomistic theology said after 90+ days). Why is your knee jerk to *conception* the automatic fallback (it wasn't in the church for 1500 years)/ Why can't scence have some input into this decision?
George D - many catholic bishops and dioceses have permitted the use of Plan B, Ella, etc. in catholic hospital ERs for victims of rape, incest, etc. (Massachusetts dioceses are a good example of this). And these precedents and local decisions have raised questions when the *black and white* (or the Greens of Hobby Lobby) answers start to flow.
Let us be clear about the word game in play: to redefine "pregnancy" as implantation, rather than conception, is perhaps a convenient moving of the goal posts to allay the scruples of those who want to use abortiofacients, to give big Pharma more money, and to fudge the action of at least three of the four means which Fullam herself admits can function post-conception. But the average person on the street would not instinctively say pregnancy begins at implantation, nor is there any scientific reason for doing so. After all, nothing else happens at implantation than that the developing embryo moves to the next developmental stage in order to continue developing. Nothing changes. No new DNA. No new genetic identity. Just continuity with what was before implantation (but not what was before fertilization). To say arbitrarily that a "pregnancy" has begun because the developing embryo has advanced to the next stage of development necessary to maintain his or her viability allows us to say that since abortion also prevents continuing development, the woman must have not been pregnant, since development is no longer going on. So, we can now have abortions without pregnancy?!
Let us be clear about the word game in play: to redefine "pregnancy" as implantation, rather than conception, is perhaps a convenient moving of the goal posts to allay the scruples of those who want to use abortiofacients
Sigh .... both Plan B and Ella stop ovulation .... there is no egg, no fertilization, implantation is not an issue, and there is no abortion.
We were namers from the beginning.
So the Lord God formed out of the ground various wild animals and various birds of the air, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them; whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
In all those cases, the flesh-and-blood animals and birds came first, and the names after. There was a lion before there was "lion," and a finch before there was "finch." But we are a striving race, always looking to exercise our powers and extend their range. Soon we turned to our hopes and fears, and in giving them names, we came to believe that they were as substantial as elephants.
Soul is one of those things that we have denominated into existence. Its father is fear of death and its mother is hope of a better existence beyond the curtain, when all wrongs will be righted. Maybe we have hit upon the truth, and that immaterial, unobservable, ethereal thing is what we really are, and it animates the rough outer coat we call our bodies. But there is little evidence for it. It never explained much. And a better understanding is beginning to emerge.
We need not fear any loss of dignity. For if we are, with the rest of life, beings entirely of this astonishing world, we are all the more subtly and marvelously wrought.
John Prior, I am astonished at this extreme nominalism. That a zygote has a full human DNA (though potentiallys subject to splitting into monozygotic twins) is in any case precisely not a matter of "naming" but of verifiable fact.
As to "soul", a term beloved of philosophers like Plotinus and poets like Wordsworth and "the atheist Shelley" as well as of theologians, I don't see it being dislodged by "a better understanding". Science has not explained consciousness, and even if it did it would not do justice to the phenomenon of consciousness, which is indeed immaterial and ethereal but not unobservable -- at every moment we are looking into the world of soul.
Bill deH., you misread what I was trying to say. I probably didn't express it very well. I was not trying to defend Humanae Vitae or the natural law theory. I didn't mention either of them; in fact I actually agree with much of what you said about them. Yes, we do interfere with nature, all the time. Sometimes we accomplish very good things, other times there are unintended consequences. Sometimes the good things and the unintended consequences go together. My point was simply that we aren't responsible for "acts of nature". We are responsible for what we do. We have an obligation to get it right; or as right as we are able. The fact that in nature there appears to be a lot of loss of life in the very early stages is not an excuse for us to be casual about causing more of it.
Sigh .... both Plan B and Ella stop ovulation .... there is no egg, no fertilization, implantation is not an issue, and there is no abortion.
Crystal, you are fighting a losing battle with some Catholics about this. The fear is that if ovulation and fertilization occur first and THEN someone takes the emergency contraception, emergency contraception could prevent implantation, thus causing an abortion according to Catholic definitions of pregnancy, even though the pill's user would never know for sure. Some folks just don't believe what the science says; some will tell you that plain old birth control pills themselves have abortifacient properties.
If you confessed to using emergency contraception to your priest, I don't know how it would be handled. Would it be assumed that you had aborted a zygote? That you were guilty of complicity in a possible abortion? Or were guilty of illicit sexual activity and using artificial contraception? My guess is that it would vary from priest to priest.
There are further concerns that the pills would be handy for rapists and incestuous relatives to use to cover their crimes, or that the emergency pill makes women less vigilant against the consequences of a drunken fling.
All of this culminates in the claim that artificial contraception and engineering of women's sexual cycles has made us coarse and cheapens sex.
There's a lot to unpack in these claims, and I fear I will be unpacking them still on my deathbed, when it's too late and even though I am far beyond the age where any of this touches me directly even now.
Some time ago, I decided I should not discuss contraception, homosexuality, or abortion with Catholics, though I do follow these discussions and use them as food for thought. So I should follow that decision and get on offa here.
@Crystal, et al, indeed, I found many folks asserting that Ella also acts only pre-implantation, and that the claim was made based on pregnancy rates, which seems like a good empirical measure to me. I couldn't find a scientific paper to back that up, though. If anybody out there has an academic reference, I'd be grateful for one. Similarly for the IUD: I found a 1989 essay by Slevin that seemed very convincing, but it didn't seem to affect subsequent writing on the mode of action of the IUD. Indeed, official documentation (specifically label inserts) changes more slowly than scientific progress, but I'd have thought word would get around by now. Again, if there's anything solid since then, I'd love to have it--the copper coated IUD is the most effective means of emergency contraception, so it's an important question.
@John g., OK, but notice the opposite situation: if "pregnancy"means only the presence of an embryo regardless of implantation, does that mean that a man with a living embryo in a vial in his pocket (not impossible) is "pregnant"? There are arguments to be made for either definition of pregnancy, istm.
Here's one study ... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20399948 ... that concludes this about emergency contraception ... "LNG-EC prevents pregnancy only when taken before fertilization of the ovum has occurred."
And this page cites a lot of studies ... http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/health/contraception/ICEC_FIGO...
Katherine - thanks for the generous reply and agree with you. My point about human action is that we need to unpack some of the excellent parts of Humanae Vitae that focused on family decisions that are both moral and eithical and not get sidetracked by an argument over *artificial*.
Reproduction is a biological process that has human emotional/ethical/moral overtones. Thank Lisa Fullum for trying to drill down, make distinctions, and provide descriptions based upon research and actual science before just knee jerking to statements such as: life begins at conception or personhood begins at conception. Ms. Raber said it well - we need to avoid the extremes including biologism; include women in this debate;the family in this debate; etc.
The fear is that if ovulation and fertilization occur first and THEN someone takes the emergency contraception, emergency contraception could prevent implantation, thus causing an abortion
The studies show that this *does not* hapen. The drugs do not prevent implantation of already fertilized eggs. The NPR article makes all this clear.
The science seems to show that Plan B and Ella do not cause abortions - they stop pregnancy by stopping ovulation, and when a fertilized egg already exists, they don't affect it.
Having said that, I am coming to believe that the wide acceptance of this science will not affect conservative religion's opposition to contraception and emergency contraception .... Randall Balmer once gave an interview about how the religious right has changed its position on abortion to use it as a wedge issue ... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5502785 ... and I think that the real issue for conservatives isn't abortion, it's controling people and consolidating power. Once contraception has been shown not to cause abortion, they will simply move the goal posts.
Those "conceptus" which don't implant most likely fail for some simple biological reasons -- that doesn't mean that they don't have souls, or are not part of God's larger plan. God is the ultimate risk-taker.
Sorry for being un-nuanced, thought I was just being clear in 140 words or less. Ever study metaphysics?
John M Grondelski, thanks for that comment. You have it exactly right.
Crystal, if you really want to persuade anyone, I suggest you engage John M Grondelski's comment. Waving NPR and NY Times links under people's notices without engaging the arguments isn't likely to accomplish that.
I don't know if you have ever observed a medical-injury lawsuit? I have. Each side brought in an eminently qualified medical doctor. Each doctor, under direct and cross examination from the respective sides' legal counsel, gave evidence that contradicted the other's, and took turns alternately instructing and confusing the jury (on which I sat, so I can speak to the jurors' states of mind). Science is science, and virtually everyone, including Catholic bishops, accepts its authority within its proper sphere (accepting its limits is another matter), but the epistemology of science is not always straightforward, as I expect you know, as you've mentioned, I think, that you have a degree in philosophy.
The only reason I engaged you under this topic is because you wrote, "the church *is* against scientific facts that refute or undermine its teachings. The badness is that the church has the agenda of protecting its teachings even at the expense of the truth." I can tell you that you're wrong about this. This is not to say that there aren't Christians whose view of science is antediluvian and denialist. But don't confuse them with the Catholic church's teaching office.
Bishops are not scientists, and they approach scientific questions from a rather different point of view than researchers and engineers, as frequently their interest is not so much in the science itself and its commercial applications as in the morality of the technology - a field in which, it's worth noting, researchers and engineers have no especial expertise nor claim to authority unless they've acquired it outside their scientific endeavors. As with many other subject matters, bishops rely on subject matter experts to inform them. Speaking as a non-scientist myself, my understanding is that nobody, but nobody (except God :-)) knows with 100% certainty whether Ella prevents a fertilized egg from implanting. It's not directly observable. So we collect information by indirect means, make inferences, and estimate likelihoods. In short, we use our judgment. And because this is a morally fraught topic, the judgment is prudential in nature
This explains how it can be that (apparently) the German bishops accept the use of Ella as a rape-kit treatment in their hospitals, but many American bishops apparently don't. I don't think the German bishops (and some American bishops) are notably more scientifically informed or pro-science than their American brethren. It's more likely that both sets of bishops have tried to make prudential judgments in good faith, and the outcomes of those judgments aren't always going to be the same.
It's entirely possible that science someday will be able to give a more definitive answer to the question of whether Ella prevents a fertilized egg from implanting. If that happens, and the answer is "no", then we may look to the bishops eventually to come around on Ella. I would just ask that you don't detract the bishops as having some hidden agenda because their policies don't align with what someone told an NPR reporter.
Sorry. When it comes to the US bishops, my default position is cynacism, I guess. Sure, the findings of scientific research are often open to interpretation, and even science has agendas that can skew findings. At the end of the day though most of us live our lives believing the consensus of scientific research.
The subject of contraception and the Catholic church bothers me on every level, from the theology behind the church's view to the science they seem to want to ignore, to the way the US bishops use this issue politically. I know from experience that it is pointless to try to change people's minds on these issues, but I've decided that it's worthwhile to at least publically state what I believe to be true.
John Walton stated - God is the ultimate risk-taker. Agree - so why can't one think that God allows responsible adults to decide how best to form, raise, and support families rather than allow folks to arbitrarily decide when a person is or when a zygote is a person, etc. That is also ultimate risk-taking in the very creatures he loves.
Crystal, I don't think the Church is "ignoring" science so much as it is demanding, as Jim points out, a higher degree of proof that the drugs do what they say they do, i.e., arenot abortiofacients. You can feel frustrated with the Church's teaching on contraception (I share it). But perhaps you can also feel Mr. Grondelski's skepticism with the notion that drugs always do what they claim to (or claim not to).
For many Catholics, and I think Jim has expressed this several times, there is no teaching more sacred than that of the sanctity of human life even (and perhaps especially) in its most microscopic form. Once life has been created, it may not be destroyed or meddled with by human engineering without great sin.
This idea has fostered great compassion in many people; if you can truly feel horrified by the idea that a zygote might be destroyed or threatened, a tiny dot no bigger than a pencil point which no one ever sees outside a microscope, think what you must feel if a toddler or an elderly grandmother is threatened.
So I have to respect this line of thinking even while I cannot wholly enter into it.
Sorry, all; just can't keep my mouth shut.
I can't keep my mouth shut either :)
For many Catholics, and I think Jim has expressed this several times, there is no teaching more sacred than that of the sanctity of human life even (and perhaps especially) in its most microscopic form. Once life has been created, it may not be destroyed or meddled with by human engineering without great sin.
This idea has fostered great compassion in many people; if you can truly feel horrified by the idea that a zygote might be destroyed or threatened, a tiny dot no bigger than a pencil point which no one ever sees outside a microscope, think what you must feel if a toddler or an elderly grandmother is threatened.
That sounds good and perhaps some people do feel compassion because of Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life, but it makes weird then the Catholics who are for the death penalty, the Catholics who are not anti-war pacifists, the Catholics who contribute to the poverty that destroys people, etc.
I think I'm a pretty compassionate person - I contribute to charity, I'm a vegetarian, a pacifist, etc. - yet I don't feel anything for or about embryos.
PS - saw this today "When Beliefs and Facts Collide" ... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/upshot/when-beliefs-and-facts-collide....
@bill -- becuz God is perfect and we aren't.
I am certainly not a zealot requring Scaret "A"s emblazoned upon the tunics of women etc etc.
JOL @ 4:48 am,
How did my name get into that first paragraph of yours, when there wasn't so much as a z, let alone a zygote, from beginning to end of my comment? Be that as it may, I affirm that zygotes are real things in this world, like lions, and existed long before they were named. But your reference to monozygotic twins has raised other questions. If the soul is infused at conception, what happens when the zygote divides to become identical twins? Does each twin receive half? Then what is half a soul? Is it equal to a whole soul? Does a spindle appear and pull the halves apart? Or does God perhaps just chip in another one? How would anyone begin to investigate those questions?
And then there is your second paragraph. Wordsworth? Honestly, Wordsworth? That's an argument? And better still,
Science has not explained consciousness, and even if it did it would not do justice to the phenomenon of consciousness...
Does that mean that if science explained consciousness, it would not explain it? I see.
Work on the brains and nervous systems of humans and other animals is making slow but steady progress. No one expects it to be finished soon. But remarkable insights have already been made into diseases, malfunctions, and abnormalities of those systems, which open up new possibilities for study and a reasonable hope of understanding normal brains better.
If the incorporeal soul is really the seat of perception, cognition, imagination, memory, decision-making, and everything else that makes us distinctly human, why is that two-pound slab of meat taking up so much space in our upper story?
Thank you for links, but they seem to reaffirm that Levonorgestrel, Plan B, doesn't block implantation, and Uliprestal, Ella, might but isn't certain yet. (It'd be a secondary mechanism of action, certainly, i.e., if it ever acts that way, it'd be less common than by preventing ovulation. That uncertainty, though, carries a lot of weight for life-at-conception folks.) The German bishops duck the mechanism question, saying only that EC drugs thst don't block implantation are okey doke. But I don't have access to the best medical databases, so still grateful to anyone who can provide data for Ella or the IUD that doesn't say they can block implantation...
I'm wondering about funding for research to anser these questions--they're tricky, but not impossible to answer, as was the case for Plan B. But is there enough benefit in answering them to make drug companies interested in paying for the answers?
Yes, I see that the studies of Ella are less definite than those for Plan B (just looking at what I could find and access at Google Scholar). I wonder of there's a dichotomy between those who wonder if EC causes an abortion and those who actually want to use the drug. Those who seem the most concerned about the possible abortion effects (or about the use of any contraception) are maunly a minority who would probably never use the product anyway, so perhaps drug companies won't find it cost effective to do all that's required to get a definite answer?
Thanks, John Prior - *ridiculous is as ridiculous does* (JOL)
Really, let's just all agree that *God* is a *watchmaker* and he moves, shifts, decides, names, etc. every tiny particle until, suddenly, it is a child. There is no human freedom; there is no human responsibility - God, the watchmaker, just manipulates all of this and human beings are not to intrude sometimes. (but, other times, they can - SCOTUS, US bishops, and the evangelicals will let us know)
One thing I can predict - we will never see this number of *catholic* supreme court judges again - their tenure has been a sad spectacle.
I don't think predictions about the future of Catholics on the Supreme Court or in any other governmental, academic, journalistic, business, etc. endeavor are of any value.
Those who direct the holders of various positions are playing a long game, as has been obvious to many observers for years. (Those observers, of course, are derided for believing in conspiracy theories.)
The NYT published an interesting (imho) article a couple of weeks ago about Roberts' long game:
There is no way to know which decisions made on the Court, in the Congress, in various governmental agencies, at the Vatican, in various diocesan offices, etc., etc. are influenced by blackmail.
About the Author
Lisa Fullam is associate professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. She is the author of The Virtue of Humility: A Thomistic Apologetic (Edwin Mellen Press).


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Thinking Regionally to Compete Globally- A presentation in Guatemala on the Regional Migration Study Group
During this public briefing in Guatemala City (conducted in both English and Spanish), the Co-Directors of the Migration Policy Institute-convened Regional Migration Study Group, MPI President Demetrios G.
Tackling Brain Waste among Immigrant Professionals: Initiatives to Improve the Recognition of Foreign Qualifications
This panel discussion focuses on the circulation of skilled immigrant professionals and the recognition of foreign qualifications in the United States and Europe.
The winners of the Migration Policy Institute's 2013 E Pluribus Unum Prizes, honoring exceptional immigrant integration initiatives in the United States, discuss their work at an award ceremony on December 4, 2013 in Washington, DC.
The 10th annual Immigration Law and Policy Conference featured keynotes by U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, as well as panel discussions covering a range of key immigration topics.
This briefing at the State Capitol in Honolulu, organized in conjunction with the University of Hawaii at Manoa, marked the formal release of a Migration Policy Institute report that presents key demographic and socioeconomic information about the Mexican-origin population in Hawai'i.
Education for the Future: Extending Georgia's High School and College Reforms to its Growing Immigrant Population
MPI experts, along with representatives from Gwinnett County Public Schools and the University of Georgia's Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, discuss the educational experiences of Georgia's first- and second-generation immigrant youth and where Georgia's ambitious education reforms have met—or failed to meet—the needs of this growing population.
This event with UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres features findings from UNHCR's report, Children on the Run, which examines the increasing numbers of children from Central America and Mexico who head off alone to find refuge in the United States, fleeing violence, insecurity, and abuse.
This panel discussion on unaccompanied minors focuses on a report by Kids in Need of Defense and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of the Law, whose primary conclusion is that children face a U.S. immigration system created for adults that is not required to consider the child's best interests.
This discussion explores how the 2014 Greek Presidency of the European Union and the United States can work to address the challenges of managing migration while meeting humanitarian obligations and nurturing economic growth.
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Adam Levine Claims "I'm Not a Reality-TV Star," Blasts the Genre
Even though The Voice is a reality television singing competition, don't get it twisted — Adam Levine is not a reality TV star.
In his Nov. 19 cover interview with TV Guide Magazine, he shared quite a rant about the genre.
"I'm not a reality-TV star," Adam exclaimed. "The Voice isn't a show about me going shopping or complaining about stupid f—ing mundane s— that no one should ever complain about: 'Poor rich me and my caviar problems.' That drives me crazy. I hate it! There's a purpose to this show."
That "purpose" doesn't just help the contestants on his team, though — it once stopped him from leaving the music industry.
"I'd started to become cynical and jaded about the music industry and all the things that I had loved. This show kind of reinvigorated me," he admitted about how the show affected him. "It's led to a renaissance, not just in my career but in my life."
And will the rocker be back on the show after Season 4? "I legitimately do not know," was his only response.
Do you agree with Adam's critiques of reality television? Weigh in below.
Source: TV Guide Magazine
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