As President Bush’s eight years in office come to an end, let us examine his record. Obviously, the mainstream media, filled with hatred for the president, cannot be trusted to give an accurate assessment of his two terms as president.
Bush counselor Ed Gillespie details the myths and facts of the Bush presidency at Real Clear Politics.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/12/myths_and_facts_about_the_real.html
Myths & Facts About the Real Bush Record
By Ed Gillespie
“As the year draws to an end and President Bush enters his final month in office, there is much commentary about the Administration's record over the past eight years.
Unsurprisingly, many of these stories assail and distort the President's record and recycle myths and unfounded allegations that have been leveled for the better part of his two terms. Historical accuracy requires a response to the litany of attacks leveled against President Bush, and while there's not enough space to respond to all of them, here are five of the most egregious:
Myth 1: The last eight years were awful for most Americans economically and President Bush's deregulatory policies caused the current financial crisis.
Reality:
President Bush's time in office is ending as it began, with our economy under stress. The recession President Bush inherited as he entered office ran through the attacks of September 11, 2001, but during the recovery that followed, and due in no small part to the tax relief President Bush worked with Congress to provide, this country experienced its longest run of uninterrupted job growth - 52 straight months, with 8.3 million jobs created.
This reflected six consecutive years of economic growth from the Fourth Quarter of 2001 until the Fourth Quarter of 2007. From 2000 to 2007, real GDP grew by more than 17 percent, a remarkable gain of nearly 2.1 trillion dollars. This growth was driven in part by increased labor productivity gains that have averaged 2.5 percent annually since 2001, a rate that exceeds the averages of the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. In the same period, real after-tax income per capita increased by more than 11 percent, and there was a 4.7 percent increase in the number of new businesses formed. The current economic challenges, which the President and his Administration have responded to aggressively, threaten to reverse some of these gains - but the gains cannot be denied.
As for the current crisis, the President and his economic team have taken unprecedented actions to stabilize the financial sector and avert a collapse. While there are a number of causes of the housing and credit crises that are at the root of our current economic troubles, deregulation by the Bush Administration is simply not one of them. In fact, one of the circumstances that contributed to the crisis was the failure of the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which President Bush long tried to subject to greater regulation. In April 2001, three months after taking office, the President warned in his first budget that the size of the two GSEs were a ‘potential problem’ that ‘could cause strong repercussions in financial markets, affecting Federally insured entities and economic activity.’ In 2003, the Administration began calling for a new GSE regulator, and over the next five years, the Administration continued to call for GSE reform only to be accused by Democrats in Congress of creating artificial fears and advocating for ill-advised proposals. By the time Congress finally acted in 2008 to provide the oversight the President requested, it was too late to prevent systemic consequences. Had the Administration's initial reform proposals been adopted, some of today's turmoil in our financial markets may have been averted.
Myth 2: President Bush's tax cuts only benefited the wealthy and were paid for by sacrificing investments in health care and education.
Reality:
There are not 116 million ‘wealthy Americans,’ but that's how many taxpayers benefited from the President's tax relief. The across-the-board tax cuts provided tax relief to every American who pays income taxes, created a new bottom 10 percent bracket rate, doubled the child tax credit to $1,000, and actually increased the share of the Federal income tax burden paid by the top 10 percent of individual earners from 67 percent in 2000 to 70 percent in 2005. Furthermore, this Administration removed 13 million low-income earners from the income tax rolls completely.
The economic growth spurred by tax relief also spurred growth in Federal tax receipts. In fact, the Federal Treasury realized the largest three-year increase of revenue in 26 years, and tax receipts grew more than $542 billion between 2000 and 2007. And yes, much of that money went to investments in health care and education.
President Bush provided more than 40 million Americans with better access to prescription drugs by creating the market-based Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. And it is one of the rare government programs that actually costs less than expected. Projected overall program spending between 2004 and 2013 is approximately $240 billion lower, nearly 38 percent, than originally estimated, thanks to the market-oriented principles included at President Bush's insistence.
Despite the heated rhetoric over children's health insurance (S-CHIP) legislation last year, estimates from a 2007 Federal survey show that the number of uninsured children under the age of 18 actually declined by 800,000 from 2001 to 2007. From 2007 to 2008, the number of people covered by affordable and portable Health Savings Account-eligible plans increased 35 percent. Additionally, since President Bush took office, more than 1,200 community health centers have opened or expanded nationwide, which has helped provide treatment to nearly 17 million people.
Federal spending on education has increased nearly 40 percent under President Bush. Additionally, Pell Grant funding nearly doubled during the Administration, which is expected to help more than 5.5 million students attend college in the 2008-09 school year, 1.2 million more students than were assisted by Pell Grants in the 2001-02 school year. This financial aid assistance also helps account for the fact that 66 percent of high school graduates from the class of 2006 enrolled in colleges, compared to 63 percent in 2000.
Perhaps more importantly, the President's No Child Left Behind Act has delivered tangible results to students. Since the law was enacted, fourth-grade students have achieved their highest reading and math scores on record, eighth-grade students have achieved their highest math scores on record, and African-American and Hispanic students have posted all-time high scores in a number of categories, narrowing the gap between minority students and white students.
Myth 3: The President's ‘go it alone’ foreign policy ruined America's standing in the world.
Reality:
Rarely can one see revisionist history occurring in the present, but this charge is nothing short of that. The United States acted with a multilateral coalition of partner nations to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq after he failed to comply with the will of the international community, including numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions. To ignore this fact is not only a distortion of history, but it is also an insult to the service members of our coalition partners who sacrificed their lives to contribute to the success we are now witnessing in Iraq. And in Afghanistan, approximately forty countries are currently deployed with American forces, including every one of our NATO allies.
The President also created a worldwide coalition of more than 90 nations to combat terrorist networks by sharing information, drying up their financing, and bringing their leaders to justice. To date, we have captured or killed hundreds of al-Qaeda leaders and operatives with the help of partner nations. Furthermore, the Administration established the Proliferation Security Initiative, which now includes more than 90 nations, and other multilateral coalitions to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The President successfully pushed for expanding NATO membership, generated international pressure on Iran to stop it from developing nuclear weapons, and organized the Six-Party Talks, which have resulted in North Korea committing to give up its nuclear weapons and abandon its nuclear programs. Verifying North Korea's commitment will be a challenge, but at the most recent Six-Party Talks meeting, there was strong consensus among the five parties that North Korea must submit to a comprehensive verification regime that accords with international standards.
U.S. ties in Asia have been strengthened over the past eight years, and the Administration has built strong relationships with China, Japan, and South Korea, among others. We have signed an historic civilian nuclear power agreement with India, reflecting a fundamental change in our relationship. Pro-American leaders have been elected in Germany, France, and Italy. Eastern European countries such as Georgia, Ukraine, and Kosovo treasure their relationships with the United States, and no president has done more to improve health and security in the nations of Africa. We have also strengthened cooperation with Latin America, including initiatives with Brazil on biofuels and with Mexico and Central America on fighting organized crime. Finally, when the President took office, America had trade agreements in force with only three countries, versus 14 today - with three additional agreements approved by Congress but not yet in force and agreements with three countries that are awaiting Congressional approval.
Myth 4: The war in Iraq caused us to ‘take our eye off the ball’ in Afghanistan and with al Qaeda.
Reality:
Iraq and Afghanistan are two fronts in the same war, and while the success of the surge in Iraq has been visible, we have also had a quiet surge in Afghanistan. The U.S. has continuously and aggressively fought side-by-side with Afghans and our allies to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The United States has provided nearly $32 billion for security, political, and economic development assistance and the international community has provided more than $55 billion to Afghanistan since 2001.
An additional U.S. Marine battalion deployed to Afghanistan in November and they will be followed by an Army combat brigade of about 3,400 troops in early 2009. U.S. forces now total approximately 31,000, and are joined by nearly as many coalition troops. The United States and our allies are working with Afghanistan to help it nearly double the size of the Afghan National Army over the next five years, from 79,000 now trained to 134,000 in 2014.
We have also deployed Provincial Reconstruction Teams to ensure security gains are followed by real improvements in daily life, and we have helped local communities strengthen their economies and create jobs, deliver basic services, improve governance and fight corruption, and build or repair key infrastructure such as roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools. More than six million children, approximately two million of them girls, are now in Afghan schools, compared to fewer than one million in 2001.
In this Global War on Terror, we do not have the luxury to fight on one battlefront at a time. To defeat the terrorists, we must fight them overseas so we don't have to fight them here at home. Since 9/11, we have successfully captured or killed dozens of al-Qaeda's senior leadership and hundreds of al-Qaeda operatives in two dozen countries, removed al-Qaeda's safe-haven in Afghanistan and crippled al-Qaeda in Iraq, and disrupted numerous al Qaeda terrorist plots against the U.S., including a 2006 plot to blow up passenger planes traveling from London.
Myth 5: This Administration has been bad for the environment and ignored the problem of global warming.
Reality:
Given the liberal media's failure to acknowledge this Administration's true record on alternative energy, conservation, and climate change, it's not surprising this charge has stuck. But here are some irrefutable data points: From 2001 to 2007, air pollution decreased by 12 percent, and fine particulate matter pollution is down 17 percent since 2001. Ethanol production quadrupled from 1.6 billion gallons in 2000 to 6.5 billion gallons in 2007, wind energy production has increased by more than 400 percent, and solar energy capacity has doubled. In 2007, solar installations increased more than 32 percent and the U.S. produced 96 percent more biodiesel (490 million gallons) than in 2006. The Administration also provided nearly $18 billion to research, develop, and promote alternative and more efficient energy technologies such as biofuels, solar, wind, clean coal, nuclear, and hydrogen.
This Administration has improved and protected the health of more than 27 million acres of Federal forest and grasslands, protected, restored, and improved more than three million acres of wetlands, and established the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the world's largest fully protected marine conservation area (nearly 140,000 square miles).
Much of the misperception about the President's environmental record is born out of the President's withdrawing the United States from the Kyoto Protocol, which did not include the effective participation of major developing countries such as India and China. Instead, the President worked to address climate change by launching the Major Economies Process, which convened the leaders of the world's major economies, both developed and developing, to work on ways to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve energy security without harming our economies or giving any nation a free ride. Finally, the President set the country on course to stop the growth of greenhouse gas emissions below projected levels by 2025 and invested more than $44 billion in climate change-related programs.
Some other items that are infrequently mentioned about the real record of the Bush Administration but are worth noting: Teenage drug use has declined 25 percent; in 2007, the violent crime rate was 43 percent lower than the rate in 1998; between 2005 and 2007, the chronically homeless population decreased approximately 30 percent; funding for veterans' medical care has increased more than 115 percent; and as of 2005, the most recent abortion rate is at its lowest since 1974.
And one last fact: Our homeland has not suffered another terrorist attack since September 11, 2001. That, too, is part of the real Bush record.”
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Greatest Liberator Since World War II
Now, here’s something you’ll never read in any American newspapers. George W. Bush is the “greatest liberator since World War II.” Fancy that!
To listen to American journalists, he is the next thing to the devil himself. Doesn’t that just figure that you have to get the truth about President Bush from a foreign news source.
Read and marvel about Bush’s heroic efforts and successes in winning the war against terror via Gateway Pundit:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-liberator-who-saved.html#links
George W. Bush: The Greatest Liberator Since World War II
"‘The decision by Bush, with Blair's support, to sweep the Taliban out of Afghanistan was a brilliant move, one that not all U.S. presidents would have taken. A weaker leader would have gone to the United Nations Security Council and sought a negotiated settlement with Kabul.’
Nile Gardiner
The Telegraph
‘George W Bush: winning the war on terror’
December 27, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3965454/George-W-Bush-winning-the-war-on-terror.html
US President George Bush prepares to speak to supporters in Freedom Square, Tbilisi, Georgia. (SMH)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/images/20050510_g8o3737jpg-515h.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Grenade-thrown-near-Bush/2005/05/11/1115585004633.html
Don't expect to read anything this honest in the US papers...
George W. Bush liberated 60,000,000 Muslims from tyranny- More than any leader since World War II.
The Telegraph gives an honest review of the Bush years:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3965454/George-W-Bush-winning-the-war-on-terror.html
‘Ten or twenty years from now, historians will view Bush's actions on the world stage in a more favourable light. America's 43rd president did after all directly liberate more people (over 60 million) from tyranny than any leader since Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Widely seen as his biggest foreign policy error, the decision to invade Iraq could ultimately prove to have been a masterstroke. Today the world is witnessing the birth of the first truly democratic state in the Middle East outside of Israel. Over eight million voted in Iraq's parliamentary elections in 2005, and the region's first free Muslim society may become a reality. Iraq might not be Turkey, but it is a powerful demonstration that freedom can flourish in the embers of the most brutal and barbaric of dictatorships.
The success of the surge in Iraq will go down in history as a turning point in the war against al-Qaeda. The stunning defeat of the insurgency was a major blow both militarily and psychologically for the terror network. The West's most feared enemy suffered thousands of losses in Iraq, including many of their most senior commanders, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Qaswarah. It was the most successful counter-insurgency operation anywhere in the world since the British victory in Malaya in 1960.
The broader war against Islamist terrorism has also been a success. There has not been a single terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, and for all the global condemnation of pre-emptive strikes, Guantanamo and the use of rendition against terror suspects, the fact remains that Bush's aggressive strategy actually worked.
Significantly, there have been no successful terrorist attacks in Europe since the July 2005 London bombings, in large part due to the cooperation between U.S., British and other Western intelligence agencies. American intelligence has proved vital in helping prevent an array of planned terror attacks in the UK, a striking demonstration of the value to Britain of its close ties to Washington.
President Bush, in contrast to both his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton before him, had a crystal clear, instinctive understanding of the importance of the Anglo-American Special Relationship. Tony Blair may well have been labeled Bush's "poodle" over his support for the war in Iraq, but his partnership with George W. Bush marked the high point of the Anglo-American alliance since the heady days of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
The decision by Bush, with Blair's support, to sweep the Taliban out of Afghanistan was a brilliant move, one that not all U.S. presidents would have taken. A weaker leader would have gone to the United Nations Security Council and sought a negotiated settlement with Kabul. It was a risky gambit that was vindicated by a stunning military victory in the space of a month, with a small number of U.S. ground forces involved.
Bush also made a firm commitment to defending the fledgling Afghan government, and succeeded in building a 41-nation NATO-led coalition. The notion that the resurgence of the Taliban is America's failure is nonsense. The U.S. has more than 30,000 troops in the country under U.S. or NATO command, making up over half of all Allied forces there. Continental European allies have simply failed to step up to the plate with more troops, with almost the entire war-fighting burden placed on the U.S., UK and other English-speaking countries. Afghanistan is not a failure of American leadership, it is a damning indictment of an increasingly pacifist Europe that simply will not fight.
President Bush also recognized the importance of re-shaping the NATO alliance for the 21st Century, backing an ambitious program of NATO expansion, culminating in the addition of seven new members in 2004. He also had the foresight to support the development of a missile defence system in Europe, successfully negotiating deals with both Poland and the Czech Republic. Bush was right to back the eventual inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, and both would be well on their way to membership today were it not for the feckless decision of France and Germany to side with Russia in blocking their path to entry.
Bush began his presidency primarily as a domestic leader. He ends it as a war leader who has left a huge imprint internationally. His greatest legacy, the global war against Islamist terror, has left the world a safer place, and his decision to project global power and military might against America's enemies has made it harder for Islamist terrorists to strike against London, Paris or Berlin.’
There is much more at The Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3965454/George-W-Bush-winning-the-war-on-terror.html
Via Free Republic
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2154744/posts
Jules Crittenden adds that it is also with tremendous grace that George Bush has accepted his designated role as villain, fall guy, punching bag.”
http://www.julescrittenden.com/2008/12/27/george-bush-liberator/
To listen to American journalists, he is the next thing to the devil himself. Doesn’t that just figure that you have to get the truth about President Bush from a foreign news source.
Read and marvel about Bush’s heroic efforts and successes in winning the war against terror via Gateway Pundit:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/12/george-w-bush-liberator-who-saved.html#links
George W. Bush: The Greatest Liberator Since World War II
"‘The decision by Bush, with Blair's support, to sweep the Taliban out of Afghanistan was a brilliant move, one that not all U.S. presidents would have taken. A weaker leader would have gone to the United Nations Security Council and sought a negotiated settlement with Kabul.’
Nile Gardiner
The Telegraph
‘George W Bush: winning the war on terror’
December 27, 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3965454/George-W-Bush-winning-the-war-on-terror.html
US President George Bush prepares to speak to supporters in Freedom Square, Tbilisi, Georgia. (SMH)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/images/20050510_g8o3737jpg-515h.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Grenade-thrown-near-Bush/2005/05/11/1115585004633.html
Don't expect to read anything this honest in the US papers...
George W. Bush liberated 60,000,000 Muslims from tyranny- More than any leader since World War II.
The Telegraph gives an honest review of the Bush years:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3965454/George-W-Bush-winning-the-war-on-terror.html
‘Ten or twenty years from now, historians will view Bush's actions on the world stage in a more favourable light. America's 43rd president did after all directly liberate more people (over 60 million) from tyranny than any leader since Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Widely seen as his biggest foreign policy error, the decision to invade Iraq could ultimately prove to have been a masterstroke. Today the world is witnessing the birth of the first truly democratic state in the Middle East outside of Israel. Over eight million voted in Iraq's parliamentary elections in 2005, and the region's first free Muslim society may become a reality. Iraq might not be Turkey, but it is a powerful demonstration that freedom can flourish in the embers of the most brutal and barbaric of dictatorships.
The success of the surge in Iraq will go down in history as a turning point in the war against al-Qaeda. The stunning defeat of the insurgency was a major blow both militarily and psychologically for the terror network. The West's most feared enemy suffered thousands of losses in Iraq, including many of their most senior commanders, such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Qaswarah. It was the most successful counter-insurgency operation anywhere in the world since the British victory in Malaya in 1960.
The broader war against Islamist terrorism has also been a success. There has not been a single terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, and for all the global condemnation of pre-emptive strikes, Guantanamo and the use of rendition against terror suspects, the fact remains that Bush's aggressive strategy actually worked.
Significantly, there have been no successful terrorist attacks in Europe since the July 2005 London bombings, in large part due to the cooperation between U.S., British and other Western intelligence agencies. American intelligence has proved vital in helping prevent an array of planned terror attacks in the UK, a striking demonstration of the value to Britain of its close ties to Washington.
President Bush, in contrast to both his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton before him, had a crystal clear, instinctive understanding of the importance of the Anglo-American Special Relationship. Tony Blair may well have been labeled Bush's "poodle" over his support for the war in Iraq, but his partnership with George W. Bush marked the high point of the Anglo-American alliance since the heady days of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.
The decision by Bush, with Blair's support, to sweep the Taliban out of Afghanistan was a brilliant move, one that not all U.S. presidents would have taken. A weaker leader would have gone to the United Nations Security Council and sought a negotiated settlement with Kabul. It was a risky gambit that was vindicated by a stunning military victory in the space of a month, with a small number of U.S. ground forces involved.
Bush also made a firm commitment to defending the fledgling Afghan government, and succeeded in building a 41-nation NATO-led coalition. The notion that the resurgence of the Taliban is America's failure is nonsense. The U.S. has more than 30,000 troops in the country under U.S. or NATO command, making up over half of all Allied forces there. Continental European allies have simply failed to step up to the plate with more troops, with almost the entire war-fighting burden placed on the U.S., UK and other English-speaking countries. Afghanistan is not a failure of American leadership, it is a damning indictment of an increasingly pacifist Europe that simply will not fight.
President Bush also recognized the importance of re-shaping the NATO alliance for the 21st Century, backing an ambitious program of NATO expansion, culminating in the addition of seven new members in 2004. He also had the foresight to support the development of a missile defence system in Europe, successfully negotiating deals with both Poland and the Czech Republic. Bush was right to back the eventual inclusion of Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, and both would be well on their way to membership today were it not for the feckless decision of France and Germany to side with Russia in blocking their path to entry.
Bush began his presidency primarily as a domestic leader. He ends it as a war leader who has left a huge imprint internationally. His greatest legacy, the global war against Islamist terror, has left the world a safer place, and his decision to project global power and military might against America's enemies has made it harder for Islamist terrorists to strike against London, Paris or Berlin.’
There is much more at The Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3965454/George-W-Bush-winning-the-war-on-terror.html
Via Free Republic
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2154744/posts
Jules Crittenden adds that it is also with tremendous grace that George Bush has accepted his designated role as villain, fall guy, punching bag.”
http://www.julescrittenden.com/2008/12/27/george-bush-liberator/
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Women Emotionally Scarred from Abortion
Not only does abortion kill an innocent baby; but, it often leaves the mother traumatized for years to come, as well. If abortion is not the murder of a human being and not morally wrong as reader Diogenes states, then why does the horrific procedure result in women being so emotionally scarred?
The only solution to that question is that God has placed in each of us a conscience; women over time begin to recognize the wrong they have committed against their own offspring, and it often results in post-abortion trauma.
The abortion industry neglects to inform women of the tragic emotional damage that often occurs as the consequence of an abortion. Of course, the media is silent on the issue and its ramifications because journalists are nearly all defenders of the brutal procedure.
Abortion is not the “unpardonable sin” as many women believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is a merciful God and is eager to forgive women who have undergone abortions. Just cry out to Him; He is the answer to the pain and suffering and loves you in spite of your sin.
One News Now reports of the suffering that women go through because of their abortions:
http://onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=339308
“Overlooked in the debate over abortion, and usually disregarded by pro-abortion activists for obvious reasons, is the impact having an abortion often has on the women who've experienced them.
A few years ago, psychotherapist Theresa Burke, who specializes in treating women dealing with post-abortion issues, wrote a book called ‘Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion.’
As a graduate student, she was taught that the very topic was verboten. Leading a support group for women with eating disorders, Burke learned that six out of the eight had undergone abortions. The other two had been sexually abused as children. Whenever the subject of abortion came up, Burke noted that it aroused intense emotions among the women, even as they strongly dismissed its potential impact on them. She decided to ask her supervising psychiatrist about pursuing it in therapy. The response? Drop it.
Spurred on by that experience, Burke decided to make post-abortion trauma her specialty.
‘As a society, we don't understand abortion,’ she writes. ‘We debate it. We pass laws about it. We argue about it as a moral and political issue. But we don't understand it as a life-changing experience. In that latter regard, grief after an abortion is neither expected nor permitted in our society. This is a great national tragedy.’
Burke now runs a program called Rachel's Vineyard which offers weekend retreats across the country to help heal people suffering from the trauma of abortion.
http://rachelsvineyard.org/
Burke writes that most women choose abortion in violation of their conscience.
‘Various studies have found that 65 to 70 percent of women seeking abortions have a negative moral view of abortion...[and] that 74 percent of those admitting a past abortion...personally believe abortion “is morally wrong.”’
But society, boyfriends, and especially abortion counselors often discourage women from listening to their consciences. Instead women are told that having an abortion rarely causes psychological reactions. One of Burke's patients was told by an abortion counselor that having an abortion is no more painful or risky than having a tooth pulled.
That's not the case, based on Theresa Burke's experience as a therapist. Nor is it the case for Michaelene Fredenburg, who learned firsthand that there can indeed be psychological consequences following an abortion.
‘When I was 18, I had an abortion,’ she writes. ‘I was completely unprepared for the emotional fallout.’
Fredenburg was overwhelmed by a range of feelings, from anger to profound sadness. She suffered in silence for years before finally seeking help from a trained counselor.
She also turned to her faith.
‘After years of struggling with self-destructive behaviors my experience brought me to church...but I often found myself thinking that if people sitting around me knew what I had done, they wouldn't shake my hand – and certainly wouldn't sit next to me.’
So Fredenburg decided to try and help others in her situation. She has started an outreach to those whose lives have been affected by abortion called Abortion Changes You.
‘Many men and women who have experienced abortion have a sense that somehow God and the church are “off-limits“ for them. Some do find their way into church, but silently struggle to move forward in their relationship with God.’
The Abortion Changes You outreach describes itself as ‘an invitation for people from all faith backgrounds who have experienced abortion – men, women, grandparents, siblings, other family members and friends – to discover that they are not alone and that healing resources are available.’ The goal is to offer experiences and resources allowing anyone affected by abortion to ‘begin taking the purposeful steps to wholeness and peace.’
Fredenburg tells of her own experience, as well as the stories of many others, in her book, ‘Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One's Abortion Experience.’ The larger Abortion Changes You outreach includes an interactive website (AbortionChangesYou.com) where people can share their experiences with others. Reading through the entries is painful. There are common threads which run through many of them: guilt, depression, drug and alcohol abuse. One woman writes,
‘I cried for 20 years.‘
And another, ‘My inside is like a giant hole. I don't think I will ever be able to be me again.’
Many express anger that they weren't given information about the psychological impact abortion often has.
http://abortionchangesyou.com/
The book and the website include tools and referrals for people seeking help. Available also are pastoral tools for ministers and lay leaders, along with information on local counseling resources, including biblically based support.
Fredenburg believes it is never too late to heal.
‘Whether the abortion happened recently, or years ago, there is always hope.’
And as Christians, it's important to remember that there is always forgiveness.
That reminds me of Dr. Timothy Keller's book ‘The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism‘. Keller believes that Christians too often behave like moralists, wrongly believing that God's love for them is based on their behavior. (See Marcia Segelstein's column: ‘Are you a Christian or a moralist?’) Keller's book warns Christians of the smug self-righteousness that often accompanies such an attitude, and reminds us that we are saved not by ourselves or our actions, but by sheer grace. Perhaps it was smug self-righteousness that Fredenburg sensed around her in church, making her feel that people wouldn't want to shake her hand or sit near her. How easy it is to forget that we are all sinners. And how difficult it is sometimes to accept forgiveness.”
http://onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=244058
The only solution to that question is that God has placed in each of us a conscience; women over time begin to recognize the wrong they have committed against their own offspring, and it often results in post-abortion trauma.
The abortion industry neglects to inform women of the tragic emotional damage that often occurs as the consequence of an abortion. Of course, the media is silent on the issue and its ramifications because journalists are nearly all defenders of the brutal procedure.
Abortion is not the “unpardonable sin” as many women believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is a merciful God and is eager to forgive women who have undergone abortions. Just cry out to Him; He is the answer to the pain and suffering and loves you in spite of your sin.
One News Now reports of the suffering that women go through because of their abortions:
http://onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=339308
“Overlooked in the debate over abortion, and usually disregarded by pro-abortion activists for obvious reasons, is the impact having an abortion often has on the women who've experienced them.
A few years ago, psychotherapist Theresa Burke, who specializes in treating women dealing with post-abortion issues, wrote a book called ‘Forbidden Grief: The Unspoken Pain of Abortion.’
As a graduate student, she was taught that the very topic was verboten. Leading a support group for women with eating disorders, Burke learned that six out of the eight had undergone abortions. The other two had been sexually abused as children. Whenever the subject of abortion came up, Burke noted that it aroused intense emotions among the women, even as they strongly dismissed its potential impact on them. She decided to ask her supervising psychiatrist about pursuing it in therapy. The response? Drop it.
Spurred on by that experience, Burke decided to make post-abortion trauma her specialty.
‘As a society, we don't understand abortion,’ she writes. ‘We debate it. We pass laws about it. We argue about it as a moral and political issue. But we don't understand it as a life-changing experience. In that latter regard, grief after an abortion is neither expected nor permitted in our society. This is a great national tragedy.’
Burke now runs a program called Rachel's Vineyard which offers weekend retreats across the country to help heal people suffering from the trauma of abortion.
http://rachelsvineyard.org/
Burke writes that most women choose abortion in violation of their conscience.
‘Various studies have found that 65 to 70 percent of women seeking abortions have a negative moral view of abortion...[and] that 74 percent of those admitting a past abortion...personally believe abortion “is morally wrong.”’
But society, boyfriends, and especially abortion counselors often discourage women from listening to their consciences. Instead women are told that having an abortion rarely causes psychological reactions. One of Burke's patients was told by an abortion counselor that having an abortion is no more painful or risky than having a tooth pulled.
That's not the case, based on Theresa Burke's experience as a therapist. Nor is it the case for Michaelene Fredenburg, who learned firsthand that there can indeed be psychological consequences following an abortion.
‘When I was 18, I had an abortion,’ she writes. ‘I was completely unprepared for the emotional fallout.’
Fredenburg was overwhelmed by a range of feelings, from anger to profound sadness. She suffered in silence for years before finally seeking help from a trained counselor.
She also turned to her faith.
‘After years of struggling with self-destructive behaviors my experience brought me to church...but I often found myself thinking that if people sitting around me knew what I had done, they wouldn't shake my hand – and certainly wouldn't sit next to me.’
So Fredenburg decided to try and help others in her situation. She has started an outreach to those whose lives have been affected by abortion called Abortion Changes You.
‘Many men and women who have experienced abortion have a sense that somehow God and the church are “off-limits“ for them. Some do find their way into church, but silently struggle to move forward in their relationship with God.’
The Abortion Changes You outreach describes itself as ‘an invitation for people from all faith backgrounds who have experienced abortion – men, women, grandparents, siblings, other family members and friends – to discover that they are not alone and that healing resources are available.’ The goal is to offer experiences and resources allowing anyone affected by abortion to ‘begin taking the purposeful steps to wholeness and peace.’
Fredenburg tells of her own experience, as well as the stories of many others, in her book, ‘Changed: Making Sense of Your Own or a Loved One's Abortion Experience.’ The larger Abortion Changes You outreach includes an interactive website (AbortionChangesYou.com) where people can share their experiences with others. Reading through the entries is painful. There are common threads which run through many of them: guilt, depression, drug and alcohol abuse. One woman writes,
‘I cried for 20 years.‘
And another, ‘My inside is like a giant hole. I don't think I will ever be able to be me again.’
Many express anger that they weren't given information about the psychological impact abortion often has.
http://abortionchangesyou.com/
The book and the website include tools and referrals for people seeking help. Available also are pastoral tools for ministers and lay leaders, along with information on local counseling resources, including biblically based support.
Fredenburg believes it is never too late to heal.
‘Whether the abortion happened recently, or years ago, there is always hope.’
And as Christians, it's important to remember that there is always forgiveness.
That reminds me of Dr. Timothy Keller's book ‘The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism‘. Keller believes that Christians too often behave like moralists, wrongly believing that God's love for them is based on their behavior. (See Marcia Segelstein's column: ‘Are you a Christian or a moralist?’) Keller's book warns Christians of the smug self-righteousness that often accompanies such an attitude, and reminds us that we are saved not by ourselves or our actions, but by sheer grace. Perhaps it was smug self-righteousness that Fredenburg sensed around her in church, making her feel that people wouldn't want to shake her hand or sit near her. How easy it is to forget that we are all sinners. And how difficult it is sometimes to accept forgiveness.”
http://onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=244058
Monday, December 1, 2008
The "New Deal" Was an Utter Failure
FDR, a hero to liberals, has been given a free pass and is an overrated president. His New Deal policies of high taxation and regulation were destructive to business and harmful to the economy. In fact, his economic policies prolonged the Depression and did not solve the high unemployment rates. It was, in fact, the Second World War that brought an end to the Great Depression.
Our 32nd president’s greatest accomplishments occurred in foreign policy. However, even on that issue, he started out poorly. Recently, I have been reading a biography of General Douglas MacArthur to my ten-year-old son. In doing so, I learned that in the 1930s, while Germany and Japan were building up their militaries and becoming aggressors, FDR actually cut the U.S. military budget by 51% and redirected those funds to help with the ailing economy--a typical liberal response while the world grows increasingly more dangerous. This foolish decision resulted in a weakened American military when we were forced to enter the war after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. To his credit, once FDR recognized that we had to defeat our enemies in Europe and the Pacific, he became a great wartime president.
The reason this information is of significance is because Barack Obama is being compared to FDR, and many anticipate a new "New Deal" when he becomes president.
Read from Mona Charen on National Review Online.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q= NDk0ZjAzYjI1NDQwMTU1NzRmZmU3NWRhMDYwNzAxODA=
That New New Deal
Not for repeating.
By Mona Charen
“’This is the best deal since 1932.’ So said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) regarding the increased public appetite for government intervention in the economy. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel echoed the sentiment when he told the Wall Street Journal, ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.’
Oh, boy. While Barack Obama’s appointments so far have been fairly moderate, other Democrats are whistling ‘Happy Days are Here Again’ and dusting off their wish lists for federal spending. ‘The House and Senate Appropriations committees hope to use December to negotiate a $410 billion omnibus measure that can be swiftly approved when the new Congress convenes,’ reports the Politico. Wasn’t it just two months ago that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — supposedly outraged that the Congress was being asked (by Bush and Paulson) to pony up $700 billion to prevent a total freeze of credit markets around the globe — intoned ‘SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS.’ She repeated it for emphasis:
‘Madame Speaker, when was the last time anyone ever asked you for SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS? It’s a staggering figure.’
But that was then. Now the cover of Time features Obama as FDR and the term ‘new New Deal’ is on everyone’s lips. Columnist Paul Krugman is fine with that, except he objects that Roosevelt didn’t do enough!
The conventional wisdom has had a rough time of it lately among scholars. You know the fairy tale. You were probably taught it in school. During the 1920s, America practiced laissez-faire economics. The 1920s were seen, as historian Amity Shlaes put it, as a period of ‘false growth and low morals.’ Greedy businessmen got out of control and created a market crash in 1929. President Hoover, obedient to Republican ideas concerning noninterference in the market, did nothing. The economy spiraled into a depression. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, banished fear, inaugurated the New Deal, and put America back to work.
A series of recent books has demolished the myth. Some of Roosevelt’s reforms were salutary (the Securities and Exchange Commission, reform of the Federal Reserve) but the New Deal’s chief object was never achieved — it did not solve the nation’s unemployment problem. The CATO Institute’s Jim Powell points out in ‘FDR’s Folly,’
‘From 1934 to 1940, the median annual unemployment rate was 17.2. At no point during the 1930s did unemployment go below 14 percent. ... Living standards remained depressed until after the war.’
Stanford University history professor David Kennedy has acknowledged, ‘Whatever it was, the New Deal was not a recovery program, or at any rate not an effective one.’
Amity Shlaes’s “The Forgotten Man” reminds us that FDR was a class warrior with a vengeance, always at pains to pin the nation’s ills on ‘economic royalists’ who had, he claimed, depressed wages, fixed prices, and conspired to keep all of the nation’s wealth in their own greedy hands. FDR’s war on businessmen (which featured not just rhetorical but actual criminal prosecutions) spread fear and timidity throughout the entrepreneurial sector. Shlaes writes, ‘The New Yorker magazine’s cartoons of the plump, terrified Wall Streeter were accurate; business was terrified of the president. But the cartoons did not depict the consequences of that intimidation: that businesses decided to wait Roosevelt out, hold on to their cash, and invest in future years.’
It is only recently that the New Deal myth has really taken hold. At the time there was less pretense. In “New Deal or Raw Deal?” Burton Folsom of Hillsdale College quotes Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. Testifying before the House Ways & Means Committee in May of 1939, the FDR ally and acolyte did not sugarcoat it:
‘We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work. … I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot.’
On balance, the New Deal damaged the nation profoundly by extending and deepening the Great Depression. No other downturn in American history lasted so long or afflicted so many.
So no repeats, thank you very much.”
Our 32nd president’s greatest accomplishments occurred in foreign policy. However, even on that issue, he started out poorly. Recently, I have been reading a biography of General Douglas MacArthur to my ten-year-old son. In doing so, I learned that in the 1930s, while Germany and Japan were building up their militaries and becoming aggressors, FDR actually cut the U.S. military budget by 51% and redirected those funds to help with the ailing economy--a typical liberal response while the world grows increasingly more dangerous. This foolish decision resulted in a weakened American military when we were forced to enter the war after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. To his credit, once FDR recognized that we had to defeat our enemies in Europe and the Pacific, he became a great wartime president.
The reason this information is of significance is because Barack Obama is being compared to FDR, and many anticipate a new "New Deal" when he becomes president.
Read from Mona Charen on National Review Online.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q= NDk0ZjAzYjI1NDQwMTU1NzRmZmU3NWRhMDYwNzAxODA=
That New New Deal
Not for repeating.
By Mona Charen
“’This is the best deal since 1932.’ So said House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) regarding the increased public appetite for government intervention in the economy. Incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel echoed the sentiment when he told the Wall Street Journal, ‘You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.’
Oh, boy. While Barack Obama’s appointments so far have been fairly moderate, other Democrats are whistling ‘Happy Days are Here Again’ and dusting off their wish lists for federal spending. ‘The House and Senate Appropriations committees hope to use December to negotiate a $410 billion omnibus measure that can be swiftly approved when the new Congress convenes,’ reports the Politico. Wasn’t it just two months ago that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — supposedly outraged that the Congress was being asked (by Bush and Paulson) to pony up $700 billion to prevent a total freeze of credit markets around the globe — intoned ‘SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS.’ She repeated it for emphasis:
‘Madame Speaker, when was the last time anyone ever asked you for SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS? It’s a staggering figure.’
But that was then. Now the cover of Time features Obama as FDR and the term ‘new New Deal’ is on everyone’s lips. Columnist Paul Krugman is fine with that, except he objects that Roosevelt didn’t do enough!
The conventional wisdom has had a rough time of it lately among scholars. You know the fairy tale. You were probably taught it in school. During the 1920s, America practiced laissez-faire economics. The 1920s were seen, as historian Amity Shlaes put it, as a period of ‘false growth and low morals.’ Greedy businessmen got out of control and created a market crash in 1929. President Hoover, obedient to Republican ideas concerning noninterference in the market, did nothing. The economy spiraled into a depression. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, banished fear, inaugurated the New Deal, and put America back to work.
A series of recent books has demolished the myth. Some of Roosevelt’s reforms were salutary (the Securities and Exchange Commission, reform of the Federal Reserve) but the New Deal’s chief object was never achieved — it did not solve the nation’s unemployment problem. The CATO Institute’s Jim Powell points out in ‘FDR’s Folly,’
‘From 1934 to 1940, the median annual unemployment rate was 17.2. At no point during the 1930s did unemployment go below 14 percent. ... Living standards remained depressed until after the war.’
Stanford University history professor David Kennedy has acknowledged, ‘Whatever it was, the New Deal was not a recovery program, or at any rate not an effective one.’
Amity Shlaes’s “The Forgotten Man” reminds us that FDR was a class warrior with a vengeance, always at pains to pin the nation’s ills on ‘economic royalists’ who had, he claimed, depressed wages, fixed prices, and conspired to keep all of the nation’s wealth in their own greedy hands. FDR’s war on businessmen (which featured not just rhetorical but actual criminal prosecutions) spread fear and timidity throughout the entrepreneurial sector. Shlaes writes, ‘The New Yorker magazine’s cartoons of the plump, terrified Wall Streeter were accurate; business was terrified of the president. But the cartoons did not depict the consequences of that intimidation: that businesses decided to wait Roosevelt out, hold on to their cash, and invest in future years.’
It is only recently that the New Deal myth has really taken hold. At the time there was less pretense. In “New Deal or Raw Deal?” Burton Folsom of Hillsdale College quotes Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau. Testifying before the House Ways & Means Committee in May of 1939, the FDR ally and acolyte did not sugarcoat it:
‘We are spending more money than we have ever spent before and it does not work. … I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises … I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started … and an enormous debt to boot.’
On balance, the New Deal damaged the nation profoundly by extending and deepening the Great Depression. No other downturn in American history lasted so long or afflicted so many.
So no repeats, thank you very much.”
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