Dakota Beacon

It is always startling to me when I talk to people that advocate pre-birth infanticide. I like to ask them the question, “When is an unborn child a human being?” The answer is always void of science and common sense as the engrained refrain is regurgitated, “When they are born!” Then when you remind them that in Fargo, at the Red River Women’s Clinic that tiny beings with fingers, toes, eyes, ears, noses, eyebrows, even little girls with all of the eggs in her ovaries that she will ever have are ripped apart as they are sucked out of the womb……the infanticider’s retort is “It’s only a fetus”, as if the term “fetus” which is a medical description of the period of time during the life cycle is instead a designation of sub-humanity.

Just prior to a recent discussion the mother of a Down’s Syndrome son voiced her concerns of how medical technology was so readily able to discern the sex of, the possible imperfection of, or if “God forbid, the gay gene”, and how these test drove the killing of many “fetuses”. As we talked afterwards it was apparent how precious her “imperfect” son was to her.

Perhaps you may think that I have gone a little overboard in the recent issues of this publication when it comes to the unborn. Well, all I can say to that is that sometimes your life experiences compel you to do all that you can to protect the innocent unborn, maybe because they are human beings, maybe because the are defenseless, and maybe because we can never judge the significance, regardless of perceived “defect”, of any human, born or unborn.

I will never forget the first time I met Gary. He had called me for an estimate on some remodeling. When I got to his house there he sat, covered in grime, surrounded by old insulation and heating duct parts. “You look like duct soup”, I joked. “Quack, Quack” he exclaimed. We burst out laughing and instantly we were buddies.

Gary had big, kind, gentle brown eyes. He was probably nicest person I have ever known. For about 7 years I did carpentry work on the rental properties that he and his mother owned. I can only begin to tell you of the kindness that man showed me and how we laughed constantly for years. Once, on the way back form the lumber yard we saw a frightened dog on a very busy street. Gary and I took that dog door to door until it got home. Gary then insisted that he pay me for the 4 hours we spent looking for the owners because the search was his idea. Another time when I was so desperate for cash that I was going to sell my table-saw to a mutual friend, Gary called me. “Don’t sell that saw to Mark, I’m on my way over”. Without any discussion Gary handed me a wad of cash and said, “Pay me when your family doesn’t need it”. Everywhere Gary went he spread kindness.

I loved Gary. I cried when his mother told me that he was sick again in the fall of 1988. I cried because I realized then that my suspicions were true, that Gary was dying of AIDS. Holding the hand of your best friend, so young, so kind, who had been so full of fun and energy while he is dying changes you forever. I thank God for Gary, though I still cannot understand why he is gone. But what if he had never been?

Jake was my next door neighbor when I was in second, third and fourth grades. Jake was big, strong, impossible to anger, and happy at all times. Jake was in his late teens and a Downs-syndrome child. I called him “Jake-o” or “Big, bad Jake”, he called me “Tee”. We spent our days playing hide and seek, wrestling (he would always let me win which inspired great mirth), and just generally running around in the woods. Jake was an incredible baseball batter. He would pound a hit that looked like a homerun and wait until the ball cleared the fence to begin skipping and dancing around the bases as the rest of us broke into the chant, “Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake.…”. The pure joy and exultation on his face was infectious. I can’t remember having more fun playing baseball than with Jake. I thank God for Jake. But what if he had never been?

At the time of her birth my niece McKenzie was the most premature (16 ounces) child to be born and survive in St. Louis County, Missouri. She was considered a miracle. Today, at 24 years she is by all accounts “a live wire”. My fondest memory of her was from the family reunion when she was 6 years old. She just wanted to crawl all over me, to be held and cuddled. Such an affectionate kid, a beautiful spirit, so easy to love, a miraculous gift from God. But what if she had never been?

Holding McKenzie I realized that she had a beautiful spirit. The realization of the beauty of her spirit, that spark of human kind got me to wondering about the moment that she changed from a genetically unique collection of cells into a human having a spirit. Did her spirit develop after her premature birth during the time that she would have spent in the womb? Did her spirit come into being exactly 9 months after her conception? When is that exact moment when a collection of cells becomes a human?

After he was gone, Gary’s mother told me that he had been flawed and if she had known of the pain he would have in his life should would not have allowed him to be born. What if Jake’s parents had known that he would be born mentally retarded and decided that it was just better that he were not allowed to be born? What if it had been decided that McKenzie would be too much trouble and expense to keep alive?

Are there people not yet born who will do great and kind things? Are there people not yet born who will be an inspiration to those who know them? Are there people not yet born who will do wonderful things because they have beautiful spirits? But what if they never are? How can we predict the human potential of the unborn?

Studies of identical twins and the human GNOME projects seem to substantiate the fact that much of who we are is hard wired. The code is all there at the first division of the fertilized egg. As our technology allows more and more knowledge of the process that is human life what if we find that it is a continuum and that the humanness, the spirit, that spark is there at that first division of the fertilized egg?

Imagine a young woman with a big and growing problem. Imagine that she listens to Planned Parenthood and the National Organization of Women and decides that it is her reproductive right to make a “choice” to end her problem. Imagine that someday after she has chosen a surgical form of birth control that she realizes that science proves that life is a continuum and that she had initiated infanticide? Is it possible that the belief that you killed your child would leave deep and permanent scars on the psyche of these women?

You all know people conceived under inconvenient or difficult circumstances. Go ask their mothers if they think, in retrospect, that they would have been better off to have decided to have her child destroyed before birth. Find, if you can, the birth mother of an unexpected child, ask her if bearing that child and then offering a childless couple the chance to fill a void in their lives was worth giving birth. Ask the mother of a Down’s Syndrome child if they wish they would have terminated that child’s life to make their own life less difficult. Ask the mother of a homosexual if they would have destroyed that child if they had known what was going to transpire. Ask an adopted person if they are glad that their mother did not have them destroyed as a method of birth control.

You all know how the vast majority of those questions would be answered, yet the insanity of pre-birth infanticide remains largely unexamined. “Abortion” is a clinical abstraction, done in a neat and clean clinic, under the care of people who are so “compassionate”.  Now ask yourself the question, “Is this really about license for promiscuity and an industry of death with billions of dollars of blood money at stake?” But, you already know the answer, don’t you?

How many beautiful people like Jake will not bless another child because a fetal test indicates he will be “mentally impaired”? What if Gary’s mother had made a “choice”? How can we know the effect of the life of an unborn?

The title of this article posed a question. Who can know the value of the unborn? No one.

Barack Hussein Obama Sr.

(Obama's father) Born: 4/4/36 Died: 11/24/82 at the age of 46.

He was 5 years old when WW II started, and less than 9-1/2 yrs old when it ended.

Lolo Soetoro (Obama's step father) Born: 1935 Died: 3/2/87 at the age of 52.

He was 6 years old when WW II started, and 10 years old when it ended. He must have been the youngest Veteran in the war.

On February 23, 2011 the Fargo Forum published reporter Patrick Springer’s article entitled “Family Planning Faces Funding Cuts”. I would contend that this article was either poor reporting or propaganda. The article begins with the subheading “Advocates: GOP playing politics”. In so doing the author has set the predicate that Republicans are not serious or perhaps are manipulative and want to make family planning unpaid for by the Federal Government. The first paragraph continues what I believe is the deception:

“Funding cuts looming in the U.S. House that target federal support for family planning threaten services for more than 14,000 North Dakota patients who receive family planning, cancer screening and treatments for sexually transmitted diseases, providers said Tuesday.

The cuts are favored by House Republicans in a program called Title X that supports family planning programs, which include birth control but not federal funding for abortions.”

You will note that for some odd reason Mr. Springer neither provides any information about the official designation of the proposed legislation. What he neglects to tell is that HR217 is specifically named the “Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act”. The proposed bill is specific in the aims and conditions of it’s application stating:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act'.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON ABORTION.

Title X of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:

`SEC. 1009. ADDITIONAL PROHIBITION REGARDING ABORTION.

`(a) Prohibition- The Secretary shall not provide any assistance under this title to an entity unless the entity certifies that, during the period of such assistance, the entity will not perform, and will not provide any funds to any other entity that performs, an abortion.

`(b) Exception- Subsection (a) does not apply with respect to an abortion where--

`(1) the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape, or an act of incest against a minor; or

`(2) a physician certifies that the woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-threatening physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.

`(c) Hospitals- Subsection (a) does not apply with respect to a hospital, so long as such hospital does not, during the period of assistance described in subsection (a), provide funds to any non-hospital entity that performs an abortion (other than an abortion described in subsection (b)).

So, Mr. Springer is writing about defunding any entity that provides or pays for abortions! Somehow he forgets to mention the very crux of the story! Oversight? Accident? Sloppiness? The rest of the story pretty well explains what happened because the first quote of the story is:

‘“It would make a huge impact on our clients, which is unfortunate,’ said Larry Anenson Jr., health protection and promotion director at Fargo Cass Public Health, where the family planning clinic had more than 7,000 patient visits last year.”

Which leads to the question, is Fargo Cass Public Health doing abortions or paying for them?

Then when Rep. Rick Berg’s communication director Alee Lockman tells Springer that:

“It’s not killing all Title X funding,” she said. “Assuming that none of the organizations in North Dakota perform abortions, they would be exempt from this legislation.”

Springer still does not cite the bill nor the title of the bill which would have immediately clarified the factual basis of Ms. Lockmans’ statement.

Instead Mr. Springer writes that, “Robin Iszler, a registered nurse and administrator of Central Valley Health District, based in Jamestown, N.D., said there is a false perception that family planning services support abortions.” I believe that this quote was added to add authenticity to the premise that Republicans were cutting contraception when funding is tied not to Family Planning but specifically to ABORTION!

Then while still not giving the name, designation, nor basis of HR417, Springer finishes with quotes from Planned Parenthood Communications Director Amy Jacobson who continues to spread disinformation saying:

“This isn’t about abortion,” said Amy Jacobson, Planned Parenthood’s North Dakota public affairs manager. “This is about preventive services.”

…….

“All those sorts of things are important to protect our public health,” Jacobson said, a benefit to the general population, and not just the uninsured patients served by the family planning clinics.

“This is really a historic attack on women’s health,” Jacobson said.

Amy Jacobson for some reason does not know that this is in fact, ALL ABOUT ABORTION, and IS NOT about denying family planning funds to organizations who have nothing to do with pre-birth infanticide.

Mr. Springer finishes with a short paragraph:

“More than half of the patients served at Planned Parenthood’s clinic in Moorhead are from North Dakota, she said. The Moorhead clinic does not perform abortions, but some other Planned Parenthood clinics do.”

Does Patrick Springer not know that this is all about abortion and just has not done his homework before contacting and interviewing? Or, is he a propagandist who purports to be a journalist? My experience is that it is the later case.

The Logic of Life

Webster’s Dictionary Definitions:

HUMAN

1: of, relating to, or characteristic of humans

2: consisting of humans

3a : having human form or attributes b : susceptible to or representative of the sympathies and frailties of human nature <such an inconsistency is very human — P. E. More>

BEING

1a : the quality or state of having existence b (1) : something conceivable as existing (2) : something that actually exists (3) : the totality of existing things c : conscious existence : life

2: the qualities that constitute an existent thing : essence; especially : personality

3: a living thing; especially : person

Black’s Law Definitions

Baby – Not defined

Being – Not defined

Embryo. 1. A developing but unborn or unhatched animal, esp., an unborn human from conception until development of organs (ie. Until about the eighth week of pregnancy).

Human – Not defined

Person 1. A human being.

Child. 1. A person under the age of majority 2. Hist At common law, a person who has not reached the age of 14 3. A boy or girl; a young person. 4. A son or daughter 5. A baby or fetus.

When not defined in Black's Law (the gold standard of legal definitions) the common usage is correct (human & being) to define Black's Law terms.

According to Webster, at the moment of conception the fertilized egg is in fact human and a being. Of that there is no doubt.

Wikipedia – Age Related Physical stages of human life

• Prenatal (fertilization - birth)
  • Embryo - (fertilization - 8 weeks of gestational phase)
    • Zygote, the point of conception, fertilization
    • Blastocyst the period between conception and embryonic stages
    • Embryo; the embryonic period starts at three weeks and continues until the end of the 8th week of pregnancy
  • Fetus (8 weeks of gestational phase - birth)

The terms embryo, Zygote, Fetus are to designate a time period of the human life cycle, they do not infer a state of sub-humanity.

Coming Distractions of Planned Parenthood

Amy Jacobson, North Dakota Public Affairs Manager for Planned Parenthood MN, ND, SD. In light of Ms. Jacobson’s recent articles concerning HB1450 and Planned Parenthood in general, I expected more prevarication and was not disappointed.  Below are excerpts from her article on the Planned Parenthood website at:

http://www.plannedparenthoodadvocate.org/content/north_dakota_house_passed_dangerous_personhood_bill...again

Fertilized Egg Deception

“These are dangerous days for the women and families of North Dakota. Today the North Dakota House of Representatives passed House Bill 1450; a bill which seeking to define a fertilized egg as a human being. ……”

“Personhood gives fertile eggs the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in its pre-pregnancy state. That is right, pre-pregnancy! By medical definition pregnancy begin at the point when a fertilized egg is implanted in the uterus.  But North Dakota’s Representatives have voted to overrule the standards, definitions, and procedures of the medical community; apparently they know what’s best for women.”

As a fertilized human egg is most certainly a living thing and is absolutely human HB1450 does not as claimed by Ms. Jacobson seek “to define a fertilized egg as a human being” but instead attempts to put into North Dakota law a well established scientific fact. In consideration of Planned Parenthoods “fertilized egg” deception, consider the medical textbook statements of fact:

“Almost all higher animals start their lives from a single cell, the fertilized ovum (zygote)... The time of fertilization represents the starting point in the life history, or ontogeny, of the individual.” - [Carlson, Bruce M. Patten’s Foundations of Embryology. 6th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996, p. 3]

“The development of a human begins with fertilization, a process by which the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote.” - [Sadler, T.W. Langman’s Medical Embryology. 7th edition. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins 1995, p. 3]

“Zygote. This cell, formed by the union of an ovum and a sperm (Gr. zyg tos, yoked together), represents the beginning of a human being. The common expression ‘fertilized ovum’ refers to the zygote.” - [Moore, Keith L. and Persaud, T.V.N. Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects. 4th edition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1993, p. 1]

So it would seem that “voted to overrule the standards, definitions, and procedures of the medical community” is not true as being  perpetrated by Planned Parenthood. Ms. Jacobson goes on to state that:

“The goal of Personhood legislation is clear: it was crafted specifically to reach a divided Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade decision. ..”

I would take issue with that statement by this logic: Putting scientific TRUTH into the North Dakota Century Code is ALWAYS a good idea. If TRUTH challenges Roe v Wade it is nor HB1450 or the North Dakota Legislature that would challenge but FACT.

Ms. Jacobson further asserts that ““Here a just a few of the ramifications of the perilous Personhood bill…”:

“-In vitro fertilization could be banned, as fertilized eggs would have full legal rights.”

This is false as the bill explicitly states that under the construction heading “…do not apply” saying, “c. The creation of a new human being through in vitro fertilization, but in no case does this section excuse or justify causing the death of a human being.”

Ms. Jacobson then states that:

“-The same is true of some stem cell research and some methods of birth control (like the Pill).”

Again under the heading “…do not apply”: “d. Contraception administered before a clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman.”

Then Ms. Jacobson further claims:

“-Should this bill become law in North Dakota, women who suffer miscarriages or pregnancy complications could be investigated for homicide, manslaughter or reckless endangerment.”

“More frightening is the brave new world in which women will live if this bill becomes law. The new definition of human being would leave women needing to know their body was carrying a fertilized egg immediately upon the union of her egg and a sperm…..”

The bill is explicit in stating that:

“3. Sections 12.1 - 16 - 01 through 12.1 - 16 - 03 apply only to the principal actor, other than the pregnant woman, with respect to criminal conduct upon a person who has not yet been born.”

Planned Parenthood killed 332,278 unborn babies in 2009 at an average of approximately $600 per infanticide, and that calculates to at least $199,366,800. During 2009 American taxpayers provided Planned Parenthood with 363.2 million dollars in grants and contracts.

We’ve heard a lot about Geert Wilders, the Dutch parliamentarian whose warnings about Muslim influence in his nation place him in the crosshairs of the powers-that-be.  But while the tow-headed modern-day Templar has thus far dodged the hangman on Truth-speech charges, another intrepid defender of Western civilization has not been so lucky.  And we haven’t heard much about him.

He is French journalist Eric Zemmour, and he was just convicted this week of “inciting racism.”  Writes The New American’s R. Cort Kirkwood:

Zemmour's "controversial" remarks included his observation that most drug dealers in France were black or Arab, and that employers "have the right" to deny employment to those two groups of people.

Zemmour's criminal speech occurred on a popular talk show during a discussion of why French police seem to stop minorities more than whites.  Said Zemmour: "But why are they stopped 17 times?  Why?  Because most dealers are blacks and Arabs.  That's a fact."

So Zemmour wound up in the French dock, and must now pay $14,000 to five groups that sued him for racism.

According to the New York Times, the French court said Zemmour had "gone beyond the permitted bounds of the right to freedom of speech," and that "... Zemmour had a particular responsibility to respect those limits as a 'professional of the media and of expression.'"

If Zemmour doesn’t behave like a “professional of the media,” it is only insofar as he is a patriot and French traditionalist.  While he is the son of Jewish Berbers who immigrated to France from Algeria in the 1950s, he states unabashedly that he believes “France is civilization with a capital ‘C.’”  Moreover, he not only supports the prohibition against wearing the full Islamic facial veil in public, he “advocates a return to authorizing only Christian first names for children born in France, a restriction lifted in 1993,” reports The New York Times.  He also states that late French President Charles de Gaulle was correct when he said that mixing Muslims and Christians is like “blending oil and vinegar.” 

Unfortunately, what also blends no better than oil and vinegar are secular Western governments and reality.  After all, as the book How to Win Friends and Influence People may tell us, you may incite others any time you render opinion.  As for the opinion known as commentary, it is mostly and necessarily social criticism, and all criticism could conceivably inspire someone to dislike, demean or even commit violence against its target.  But do we say that Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and their millions of “anti-theist” acolytes should be punished for criticizing Christianity?  And with all the violence of the 2010 campaign cycle, should we prohibit criticism of Republicans, Democrats and the Tea Party?  I mean, we can go way beyond McCain-Feingold and just ban campaign commercials altogether; after all, if they don’t incite people, I don’t know what does.  And would we have had the fire-bombing of fur stores, the torching of SUVs and the actions of the Unabomber had we not been accosted by environmentalist and animal-rights propaganda? 

The truth is that all criticism evokes harsh feelings in some, yet no one advocates banning all criticism.  Instead, governments may use “offensiveness” as a guide.  This is completely subjective, however, as most everything offends someone and most everyone is offended by something.  But we can’t ban everything, so the thought police use their own particular emotion-derived values set as a guide.  It’s called political correctness, which is the suppression of Truth for the purposes of advancing lies.  This is why I label so-called hate-speech legislation “Truth-speech laws.”

This brings us to the main point.  Liberal icon Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You’re entitled to your own opinions, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.”  But today’s liberals have turned this on its head.  Under their regime, we are entitled to neither our own opinions nor any facts. 

That is, if they’re politically incorrect.

This is why thought police in places such as Canada have said that the Truth is no defense against “hate speech” charges.  Imagine that…the Truth will set you free – but not from the clutches of the Sultans of Sensitivity. 

But the worst kind of insensitivity is numbness to Truth.  The Truth is always a defense, as it originates with a source that transcends courts and human-rights tribunals.  And this should make a person wonder, if an entity suppresses it, whose bidding is it really doing?

Ah, the irony.  A government suppresses Truth on behalf of a group that sometimes may call that government as satanic.  Well, I suppose everyone is right about something. 

At 12:22 pm today, HB1450 passed the North Dakota State House of Representatives by the vote of 68-25.  

North Dakota is on the verge of a movement that will save thousand if not millions of lives. I believe that by the middle of March of 2011, the leaders of this state will recognize and act on irrefutable truth. There is HB1450 that is working it’s way through the 2011 legislature. If enacted the new law inserts the scientifically precise definition of Human Being as a definition into Title 12, the North Dakota Criminal Code. It would read:

"Human being" means an individual member of the species homo sapiens at every stage of development.

Construction clauses address concerns about medical procedures not intended to harm the child, accidental or unintended death of an unborn child, in vitro fertilization, contraception, and that only a doctor would be held responsible in the intentional killing of a child.

http://www.legis.nd.gov/assembly/62-2011/bill-index/bi1450.html

The North Dakota State Senate will be more difficult but it seems at this point that it will be very likely to pass in that house as well.

The North Dakota Governor will sign the bill.

The only abortion facility in North Dakota is in Fargo and is about 1,600 feet from Minnesota. I think they will move over the river and North Dakota will not have any place where unborn children will be killed.

Well, I can almost feel my toes and finger tips again. Another two hours of midwinter on the ’49 Ford 8N. Driveway once more passable for two wheel drive vehicles. For now. After a point it gets to be a puzzle. Moving snow around when you can’t push it sideways in a long trough gets to be interesting…and cold. But we are about half way through and it has been a little bit of a challenge but at least no nine million below. Maybe at the end of this winter we should go someplace south for a while. You know, like Linton or Strasburg.

ND Media – Puff Piece Parade - I keep reading the ND media puff pieces about Byron Dorgan and Earl Pomeroy. Collective amnesia does not allow any print, no television, or hardly any radio to mention that Dorgan, Conrad and Pomeroy all voted for ObamaCare. Thanks you guys. Now for the first time in the history of this great nation, legislation has been passed that allows the federal government to force you under penalty of law to buy health insurance. Trust me, all evidence indicates that if they think they can make you do this that they will think that they can make  you do anything.

ObamaCare – Killing the Obamanation - ObamaCare was named “ The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act “. Well it turns out that their will be nothing affordable about it. So why spend endless years on court appeals as the validity of this monstrosity works it’s way to the U.S. Supreme Court? Why not find the chink in the armor, the Achilles’ heal, the heart that provides life to this legislation? Simply repeal Section 1501 of the act, commonly known as the Minimum Essential coverage Provision which requires that every United States citizen, other  than those falling within specified exception, maintain a minimum level of health insurance coverage? Forcing people to buy anything is repulsive. This section of the legislation could be repealed with overwhelming support of Americans. Send it up to the Prevaricator In-Chief and make him veto it over and over and over until the American people understand just who he is.

Regulatory Fiat – The New Tyranny - Be sure and thank Byron, Kent and Earl for their part in institutionalizing tyranny by bureaucracy.  We are in a very, very dangerous time. Issues of such magnitude that their resolution had to be the result of debate and vote are now beyond your reach or oversight. With or without purposefully vague laws Obama’s EPA attacks the state of Texas by making up rules as they go along. The EPA is bound and determined to enforce Carbon control under cover of unimaginable leaps of logic and evidence. Anthropogenic global warming turns out to be a fraud. The very fraud that EPA uses as the basis of new rules and you have no redress. Obama’s Federal Communication Commission, having been told no by congress and the courts begin their effort for federal control and there is much evidence that the end game is United Nations control of the internet. No debate. No Vote. Just the way socialist statists like it. Bravo Team North Dakota! Way to put America’s version of a nappy-headed Hugo Chavez at the helm of our nation!