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STEPHEN BROWNE: EVOLUTION - TWO VIEWS

The watered-down Marxism of Political Correctness holds that we can erase the inherent differences between men and women, such as the natural aggressiveness of young boys and nurturing drives of girls, by re-programming their behavior and language, resulting in idiotic social and educational policies that are both tragic and comic.



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Beacon Author
BRENT MCCARTHY: WHERE’S WALDO (POMEROY)?

In a “Where’s Waldo” rip-off, the people of North Dakota were introduced to a game last summer called “Where’s Pomeroy”.

Pomeroy sightings are starting to happen again. He is on the TV and radio. Oh, an election is coming up and now he wants OUR votes. Sorry, I am too important and my time is too valuable, let’s play “where’s my constituents”.



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Dennis Patrick
DENNIS PATRICK: TRUE CONSERVATISM

A recent headline last proclaimed: “Conservatives Still Outnumber Moderates, Liberals.” The Gallup/USA Today poll concluded 43% Americans describe themselves as conservative, 35% moderate and 20% liberal. What really caught my eye, however, was the labeling of the categories as “ideologies.”

Announcement of this poll coincided with something I was reading in pursuit of my summer agenda. Specifically, I uncovered one of the finest descriptions of conservatism I’ve seen stated -- ever.



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Schmid
SCHMID - LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST: JULY 26, 2010

Minneapolis or Denver?, top destinations for ND flyers, GF Herald is bullish about the ND oil industry, Booms, by definition, come and go, What is The Forum’s objective?, shortage of labor in the oil industry, The oil boom is accelerating, U.S. Highway 52 in ND is a workhorse, Bismarck Tribune, God’s Global Barnyard, rolling 1,300 pound hay bales, Take Dakota College at Bottineau, Indian Candy, A 200-seat restaurant called Jake’s, DAKTOIDS,

Minneapolis or Denver?  Two popular American cities -- both have good air service from ND -- which should you visit?  To assist with this question, I used the website of Travel+Leisure.  I had no preconception, so the outcome was a bit of a surprise: Minneapolis swamped Denver.  T+E found Minneapolis people friendlier, more intelligent and more attractive than Denver.  Grrr, but Denver people were much more athletic.  Don’t look for diversity in either city.  Culture and shopping, no contest, Minneapolis walks away.  One thought -- Denver has a very fine airport -- perhaps go no further.

 

What are top destinations for ND flyers: No. 1 Las Vegas, No. 2 Minneapolis and No. 3 Denver, trailed by Phoenix and Chicago.

 

A tale of two cities.  The GF Herald is bullish about the ND oil industry; The Fargo Forum is, well, something else -- we can’t be sure.  Herald economist Ralph Kingsbury was still excited from a trip he took with a GF delegation to the Williston-Minot part of the state.  Kingsbury clearly thinks the oil boom is the real thing, “What’s happening across western North Dakota isn’t just a flash in the pan . . . No one ever expected anything like this.”

 

The Forum had faint praise: “North Dakota’s oil boom is great news for the state’s economy, but the sustained, reliable economic engine that is Fargo is better news in the long pull” and  “Booms, by definition, come and go.”  The Forum was almost ominous when it predicted: “the blowback that surely will come when negative social and environmental impacts of accelerating oil activity assert themselves in oil zone communities.”

 

So what’s going on here.  What is The Forum’s objective?  Does it feel western ND is getting too much press -- does it want to pull the center of attention back to Fargo?  Does The Forum think excitement over the oil boom masks an impending hangover?

 

The Forum is clearly right in one respect -- there is going to be a second stage to the oil boom where related costs and needs become apparent.  Incredible traffic and demolished roads are already on the screen.  The Minot Daily News spoke of the shortage of labor in the oil industry and the impact on other industries.  Job Service of North Dakota said,  “Agriculture can't compete with the kinds of wages paid by the oil companies either, but it isn't alone in that peril.”

 

The oil boom is accelerating.  Williston was ND’s No. 5 city in taxable sales in 2009 -- in the first quarter of 2010, it skipped over Grand Forks and Minot to become No. 3.  As mentioned here earlier, NY-based Hess Corp. is plowing $325 million into an expansion of its Tioga natural gas plant.  Now, Mistral Energy is proposing a 430-mile, $300 million pipeline to move ethane (a natural gas component) from the Hess plant to a Nova Chemical plastics plant near Red Lake, Alberta.  The Nova complex, one of the largest of its kind in the world, is owned by an Abu Dhabi investment firm. 

 

U.S. Highway 52 in ND is a workhorse -- from Portal on the Canadian border, the road slices southeasterly through Minot across two-thirds of the state before joining I-94 in Jamestown.  Hwy 52 has only two lanes, but is attracting heavy truck traffic.  On the same July day, a collision involving a semi-truck on Hwy 52 near Fessenden hospitalized two and another forty miles away near Carrington killed both drivers.

 

The Bismarck Tribune joined the editorial chorus calling for urgent federal action on Devils Lake flooding.  The Trib says if the lake overflows “water quality issues will be washed down the Sheyenne River no matter what the Clean Water Act or treaties with Canada say.”  The Trib sees federal regulation and inaction as the main problem, “The state has done everything it could to deal with the flooding.”  Gov. John Hoeven hopes for three recommendations from a White House interagency group: Waive the Clean Water Act, expedite permits and let water out the east (salty) end of the lake.

 

If you are bishop of the Western North Dakota Synod (70,000 members) of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (pause for breath) you must deal with weighty policy matters like guidelines for gay and lesbian clergy.  Bishop Mark Narum also gets to hit some soft pitches, such as describing “God’s Global Barnyard,” a synod sustainable agriculture project.

 

We may have the makings for a new Halloween horror movie.  Imagine the heroine, amidst darkness and crashing lightning, fleeing rolling 1,300 pound hay bales.  Winds of 100 mph near LaMoure drove hay bales up to a quarter of a mile across fields.  Toss in a few grain bins for variety.

 

Some of ND’s little public colleges struggle to justify themselves.  Take Dakota College at Bottineau -- it’s considering a day care center for the elderly and disabled.  The college would help with toilet and meals.  A necessary public service?  Possibly, yes.  A necessary part of the mission of the ND University System?  You decide.

 

Yum, taste the slowly simmering buffalo tongue.  Try the buffalo liver, it’s “Indian Candy.”  These experiences were part of a camp where a buffalo was butchered as part of cultural training for Ft. Berthold youth.  Kids prepared the meat in traditional ways, cooking in a pit of heated rocks.

 

Is ND getting serious about battling its weight problem?  A 200-seat restaurant called Jake’s will be opening in Grand Forks, the featured specialty -- deep-fried polish sausage.

 

DAKTOIDS: In the annals of ND weather, 1936 stands out as the hottest and coldest.  In July that year, Fargo had eight straight days with temperatures exceeding 100; on September 22 the temperature went to 101 and temperatures have not reached 100 since (info from WDAY/Forum weatherman Daryl Ritchison) . . . Minot native Rear Admiral Mike Miller replaces Bismarck native Vice Admiral Jeffrey Fowler as Supt. of the Naval Academy . . . The Jamestown Sun (a Forum paper) silenced its 40-year-old press, released a few employees and moved its printing operation to W. Fargo . . . The front-runner attracts money -- Gov. Hoeven’s senatorial campaign has raised 30 times the donations of opponent Tracy Potter.

 

********************************************************************************** 

 

SUPPLEMENT:  Summary of Fedgazette Article About North Dakota: “The little economic engine that could”

 

The Fedgazette is a monthly publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis (the 9th District) covering ND, its adjoining states, Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The article was written by the Fedgazette’s editor Ronald Wirtz in the July 2010 issue.  The article attempts to explain why the ND economy is an anomaly in the 9th District and the nation.  Following is a summary: 

 

What a difference a decade has made

 

The state’s economy “sticks out like a diamond.”  During the past decade the state’s per capita personal income ranking has risen from 39th in the country to 19th.  ND’s has posted “top-of-the-class numbers” in unemployment, income growth and other categories.

 

Repositioning

 

For much of the decade ND’s growth was overlooked as the nation enjoyed a housing boom.  But when the country entered recession, ND continued against the tide adding jobs in 2008 and 2009.  In the past two years, the state had job growth in almost every employment category.  So, in part, it’s the contrast with the nation that has brought ND attention and praise.  The state easily has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

 

The state has not been entirely spared -- its manufacturing sector looks more like the nation’s.  Bobcat, the maker of small four-wheel drive loaders, is one of ND’s largest businesses and serves national and international markets.  It has severely downsized during the recession.  Many of the state’s small towns continue their death spiral as rural areas lose population.

 

Reasons for success

 

The quick and easy explanation for ND's out performance is the oil boom in the western part of the state.  The state has in a short time become the fourth largest oil producing state.  While oil is a large factor, the author points out that coal and agriculture remain big parts of the state's economy.

Fargo's economic diversity, with health care, the F-M colleges, and companies such as Great Plains Software and Scheels sporting goods, also contributes to a stable economic mix.

 

One of the biggest factors in ND’s success is what didn’t happen.  ND didn’t participate in the residential real estate boom.  As one Fargo banker put it “the housing market never got out of whack here.”

 

Outlook

 

Most people interviewed for the article did not expect the ND economy to unravel, although an extended drop in oil prices would be troublesome.  ND’s prosperity is relative and, as the country hopefully rebounds, ND’s growth could be expected to lag.  While most Nodaks are not farmers, the author believes the state maintains a farmer’s mindset -- “modest, perpetually optimistic, yet conservative.”  A tendency to discount prosperity, not project it.  Michael Solberg, president of State Bank & Trust in Fargo, said ND residents have “a steady mind frame.”

 



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Beacon Author
Dustin Gawrylow: Where Does Congressman Pomeroy Stand On Raising Taxes In A Recession?

At the end of 2010, if nothing is done the tax cuts that were implemented in 2001 will disappear.  With them, a considerable tax break for the lowest income earners.  



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Beacon Author
DR. MARK W. HENDRICKSON: MORE LESSONS FROM HISTORY: HOW OBAMANOMICS MAY PLAY OUT

When private businesses serve customers poorly, their revenues decline. If their losses are severe enough, they fold. Exactly the opposite happens with bureaucracies. If they fail to get the job done, Congress typically appropriates more funds for them…. [T]he same dynamic will play out with Obamacare, too, unless it is repealed. It’s the nature of the beast.



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Beacon Author
CHUCK ROGÉR: DEMOCRATS CAN BE TRUSTED TO BEHAVE MORALLY?

When it comes to ethics, people suddenly trust the guys who cannot be trusted on anything else. The inconsistency shows the lack of clear thought that Americans are capable of putting into life's questions. People's reasoning power has been damaged by decades of emotional liberalism. The body politic is weak and susceptible to a relentless onslaught of nonsense from the mainstream media and academia.



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Beacon Author
LYNN BERGMAN: AN IDEA WHOSE TIME IS NOW…ABOLISH PROPERTY TAXES IN NORTH DAKOTA

Perhaps most importantly, the abolishment of the property tax would return us to the spending levels of year 2000 as adjusted for inflation. That kind of fiscal discipline would unleash the biggest boom in North Dakota’s history with virtually no end in sight. The next decade would see most of our youth staying right here in North Dakota to enjoy the prosperity created by their parents and grandparents.



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Beacon Author
DUSTIN GAWRYLOW: EXPIRING TAX CUTS HIT LOWEST INCOME EARNERS HARDEST

In 2001, a completely new 10% bracket was created for the first $8,500 worth of income.  Prior to that, this level paid 15%.  If the these tax cuts are not extended, that income level will have to pay another $350 each year in taxes.

 This represents a 50% increase in taxes for this income level.



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Beacon Author
JOEL SWANSON:  GOD BLESSED US WITH OUR FOUNDING FATHERS

It is important that we “remember that our founding fathers, like ourselves and every generation of mankind, were born into a world they did not make. Yet no generation did more to remake for the better, the world they inherited.” The debt that we, and indeed the world owes this unbelievable group of men, can never be repaid.



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Beacon Author
BRENT MCCARTHY: POMEROY SUPPORTS OUR MILITARY - OH, REALLY?

Honoring our soldiers and veterans involves more than simply handing out someone else’s money or taking a taxpayer funded trip to pose for pictures with them. It includes speaking out against those who slander them and most importantly preserving the principles of freedom that they fought, bled, suffered and died for.  In Pomeroy’s case, it simply means going against his party.



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Beacon Author
CHUCK ROGÉR: THE COBALT BLUE LEFT

Strange art and radical politics focus otherwise purposeless lives. Snubbing the notion of a free society, elitists concentrate on shackling society in chains fashioned from impossibly perfect models of economics and human nature. Many artsy-fartsy Santa Feans' real motivation comes across as no different from liberals' motivation in general: getting high on the feel-good that flows from contrived virtue.



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Beacon Author
MARK W. HENDRICKSON: THREE NEGLECTED ECONOMIC LESSONS FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

More money is not the cure for depressions, as can be seen by contrasting the depression of 1920-21 with the early 1930s. The money supply contracted to a comparable degree both times, but in the ‘20s prices and wages were more flexible (that is, free of government intervention), so that they could adjust and bring supply and demand into balance. In short, markets work if government stays out of the way.



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Steve Cates
IN THE CLASSROOM - OBAMA V. BUSH

"Genius" Barrack and George W. talk to grade school children. Makes you kind of wonder......



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Schmid
SCHMID - LOOKING BACK FROM THE LEFT COAST: JULY 16, 2010

Basics of Editing

“ticking time bomb”, Devils Lake covers over 700 square miles, Ramsey County Commissioner Joe Belford, Fargo native climbs Mt. Rainier, It's time to close, ND has a growing problem with elderly drivers, -- and that's only Sheriff Doug Howard, Tracy Potter know this all too well, $380,000 of out-of-state travel expenses, 100  Best Places to Live, Fargo is very high on the GF list of suspects, Fargo-Moorhead is becoming older and blacker, But we have no choice now, we can't unring the bell, 61 steady years, Daktoids




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Selwyn Duke
SELWYN DUKE: IMMIGRATION, RECONSIDERED

All of the aforementioned brings us to an important point: Illegal migration isn’t the problem.

It’s an exacerbation of the problem. 

And if we’re going to support our current legal-immigration scheme, why get so worked up over illegal migration?  We are already supporting a legal cultural death by a thousand cuts; we are already supporting the importation of nearly a million socialist-leaning voters every year.  All amnesty does is expedite the process.

The norm in man’s history has been to keep unassimilable foreign elements out of one’s land, not invite them in.  Of course, another norm of man has been the will to survive.  I’m not sure that’s an instinct we still possess. 



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Steve Cates
REPRESENTATIVE DAVE WEILER - VINDICATED ! CHARGES DROPPED!

Nodland and Kitko were both informed that they were perpetrating falsehoods. Kris Kitko was even given a chance to get in front of the eventual exoneration of Dave Weiler when she was informed that the charges would be dropped against him (Weiler). An orchestrated effort to destroy the life and reputation of another human being, to purposely, by extension hurt his children, all for politics is about all that liberals can do. There are few things more dishonorable. It is disgusting.



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Beacon Author
DR. PAUL KENGOR: THE BLOOD OF THE TEA PARTY

This is a multifaceted movement, but one thing seems certain: Those taking pleasure assailing Tea Partiers may enliven the very movement they endeavor to destroy. I’m reminded of a quote from an early Church father (Tertullian): ‘We multiply wherever we are mown down by you.’ The ‘blood’ of the faithful is ‘seed’. The hysterics have only gotten worse. Smear groups like ‘CrashTheTeaParty.org’ are infiltrating the Tea Party. The goal … is to ‘act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities,’ in order to ‘damage the public’s opinion of them.’ To the Obama acolytes: If independents, moderates, and Democrats are a notable element of the Tea Party movement, or sympathize with it, do you really want to inflame them, especially as November 2010 approaches?



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Beacon Author
MARK ARMSTRONG: WHO IS THE MAN IN THE SHROUD?

 

I have been fascinated by stories of the Shroud of Turin for nearly 25 years.  Never did I imagine that one day I would be bringing my newly confirmed 14-year old daughter Teresa and two of her friends with me to see it.  But last April, by piecing together cheap airfares and frequent flier miles the four of us went on a 9-day pilgrimage of a lifetime to Italy that was spiritually transformational.



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Beacon Author
MCCHRYSTAL/OBAMA BIOGRAPHICAL COMPARISON

General McChrystal  Biography 
Commander,  International Security Assistance Force/
Commander, United States  Forces Afghanistan 
United  States Army
 SOURCE OF  COMMISSIONED SERVICE: USMA EDUCATIONAL DEGREES 
United  States Military Academy - BS - No Major 
United  States Naval War College - MA - National Security and Strategic   Studies 
Salve   Regina University - MS - International  Relations
 MILITARY  SCHOOLS ATTENDED: 
Infantry  Officer Basic and Advanced Courses 
United  States Naval Command and Staff College 
Senior   Service College Fellowship Harvard   University
 FOREIGN  LANGUAGES: 
Spanish
 PROMOTIONS  DATE OF APPOINTMENT:



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Beacon Author
RUBEN LACKMAN: REASONING BACKWARD THROUGH THE EYES OF LOGIC

A simple dictionary definition of logic is: “the science of correct reasoning; the laws which govern correct thinking.”  It further includes the acceptance of conclusions based on verifiable facts, or truths, reached either through experience, inductive or deductive reasoning, or observation or experimentation.  Some examples of truths confirmed by these methods are: H20 makes water; 2+2=4; water runs downhill; seeds produce their own kind; power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely; compassion without substance is worthless, or as Antoine de Sainte Exupe’ry says, “To love, only to love, leads nowhere.”  Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” is probably the best essay on the connection between “reason” and “compassion” and when and where each is appropriate.  Read it!



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Beacon Author
DR. MARK W. HENDRICKSON: DOCTRINAIRE LIBERTARIANISM VS. AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY

For [John] Stossel to maintain that the federal and state governments should not deploy National Guard troops to secure the border because it is expensive turns people off to libertarianism. I share Stossel’s aversion to big, expensive, wasteful government. But to make a dollars-and-cents argument that the United States, still the wealthiest country in the world, shouldn’t spend money to defend its citizens and its borders against swarms of sometimes-violent foreign invaders is flabbergasting.



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Beacon Author
JOEL SWANSON: OBAMA AND MEDIA SHILLING FOR ILLEGALITY

The loud and vocal consensus of the left-wing main street media is “three cheers for Obama” for sticking up for those illegals, after all, that is a lot of democratic votes come November. But, the country’s best legal minds, those who really count, think Obama and Holder bit off more than they can chew; that the new law that goes into effect at the end of the month will be ruled constitutional, and that Governor Brewer and the soon to be safer residents of Arizona, will indeed have the last laugh.



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Steve Cates
STEVE CATES: INFANTICIDE AND THE HUMANITY OF MCKENZIE

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 23 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?

Watch this video about a true miracle. Watch this video and ask yourself when was the exact moment that she became human, and if you do not know when that moment was, ask yourself should unborn children be protected at least until we do know for certain and without queston.



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Beacon Author
COACH MIKE SCHATZ: FROM THE SIDELINE - July 9, 2010

I got a really good email the other day. Many of you may have seen it. It talked about the punishments for crossing the borders of various countries around the world. North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Venezuela, and Cuba were mentioned, and 12 years hard labor, detained indefinitely, shot, jailed, never heard from again, and branded a spy were their penalties or punishments. Pres. Calderon of Mexico recently admitted that if a Guatemalan crosses over into Mexico illegally, they are asked for their papers, detained, and sent back. It is against the law to cross into this country without the proper papers, also. I support Arizona.



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Beacon Author
SALLY MORRIS: LET’S DARE CALL IT “TREASON”

The reason for this Mexican invasion of illegal fugitives is that that nation is an abject failure.  Calderon realizes that his best hope for his economy is revenue coming from illegals sending money home to Mexico while taking pressure off of Mexican resources by sucking ours dry through free education, medical care and other services for which they pay no taxes to support.



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Beacon Author
STEPHEN BROWNE: THE NAZI SLANDER

When I hear “Hitler” and “Nazi” tossed around by people who would never say “Stalin” or “Mao” or “communist,” I have to ask, is it because they are afraid of these kind of people? Or worse, is it because they admire them?

Could that be it? And why?

Leftists are intellectuals, just ask them. Or don’t, they’ll be only too happy to tell you anyway.

And though I say it who am one, intellectuals tend to be, shall we say, a bit on the wimpy side. They may admire strength, but often have little idea what it is, and too damned often they think strength is brutality.



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Beacon Author
BRIAN KALK: NEW CAP AND TRADE TARGETS NORTH DAKOTA

"Utility Only" version of Cap & Trade will disproportionally

 affect North Dakota consumers and devastate our economy



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Beacon Author
EUGENE GRANER: STRATEGIC MORTGAGE DEFAULTS - THE NEXT ECONOMIC TIME BOMB

Can oil production continue to keep our state’s economy ahead of the country until it catches up to us, or do we get pulled into the muck with rest? Let’s hope the leaders of our state take the initiative to start planning for a rainy day and realize they can’t continue increasing the cost of government when the state populous is not growing at all comparatively.



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Beacon Author
DANIEL WOODARD: STOPPING TERRORISM…..IN THE WOMB

Imagine discovering that a veterinarian regularly ripped the heads from living puppies or kittens or crushed their skulls. Would you consider this type of action obscene? Terrorizing? Barbaric? Or, what if you discovered that some doctors regularly ripped off the heads of human babies? Obscene? Terrorizing? Barbaric? It is happening. You just thought that the antiseptic, clinical abstraction that is “abortion” had nothing to do with terror or barbarism. Think again. Here is the evidence.



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