All of these make sense. I think I struggle particularly with numbers 3 and 7 (overthinking/comparison and forgiveness). But thankfully, as per #10, I can dedicate myself to improving!

True confessions: I like country music. So yesterday as I drove the four hour plus drive back to Ottawa, I had my usual “Country Music Hour” and heard this song. Which I link to here, because we are approaching New Year’s. And I think it’s a consolation to know that anyone with their own set of red solo cups can have a truly great party. (My favourite line is the one about Freddie Mac. Comes early on in the song, so humour me long enough to hear it!)

Proceed to party, friends, proceed to party.

Since I was so enamoured with the recent Muppet movie, it reminded me this Christmas to pull out my Muppets Christmas CD.

Merry Christmas, all.

For the truth that binds us all together, I would like to say a simple prayer

That at this special time, you will have true peace of mind

And love to last throughout the coming year.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=givAZ05_wJg]

Two dutch TV hosts, alive, eat each other’s flesh, that they’ve had surgically removed, simply to see what it tastes like.

I’m deeply sorry to post this item so close to Christmas, but we here are in the business of drawing attention to those things which detract from human dignity. Are we so bored, so rich, so spoiled that this is what makes for entertainment today? Sometimes depravity takes the form of a Dutch TV show.

This petition came to me via Alberta Pro-Life:

Today, MP Stephen Woodworth has bravely called on Parliament to address the issue of abortion. It is already all over the news.  Our Parliament may not want to touch the issue, but the reality is that we are one of the few countries in the entire world (along with China and North Korea) that have no abortion legislation. Day after day children are being killed. It doesn’t stop around Christmas.

Take Action: Add your voice to this! Click here for a petition calling on Parliament to restrict abortion to the greatest extent possible. Please print off extra copies and distribute them at your school, church, business, and elsewhere. Also, please forward this to your contacts and other pro-life organizations, encouraging them to do the same. The petitions can then be submitted to your local MP (no need to have hundreds of signatures – they can read them in Parliament with as few as 25). Even if your MP is pro-abortion you can still give them the petition and ask him or her to read it in Parliament as your elected representative. We need a loud and clear voice from Canadians in defence of those who have no voice.

We know you are busy this Christmas but please make time to protect the innocent children being killed in our country. Don’t wait. Print the petition off now, circulate it, and then send it to your MP because we must act now.

The way I see it, any time is a good time to discuss the collective insanity that brings us abortion on demand, and petitions like this provide another opportunity.

Well, I can’t actually vote in the Republican nomination. But if I were able to, I’d vote Ron Paul. Check out his latest ad. He’s been pro-life from the get-go, and he’s an obstetrician by training, so this is not a political ploy designed to cater to a pro-life base.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkAsLPrnJGc]

A call from MP Stephen Woodworth to re-examine limits on abortion in Parliament, as reported in the Globe.

An Ontario Conservative MP says Parliament must take another look at whether unborn babies deserve to be treated as human beings, a move that could ultimately challenge the ability to terminate pregnancies with abortion. Stephen Woodworth, the member for Kitchener Centre, said in a news release Wednesday that a majority of Canadians wrongly believe the law protects the fundamental human rights of children before birth in the later stages of gestation. “In fact, the opposite is true,” Mr. Woodworth says in his release. “Canadian law provides no human rights protection whatsoever for children before the moment of complete birth.”

Way to go Mr. Woodworth. Rare is the politician who speaks his mind on these matters, and who speaks plain English, too. (“I believe in a woman’s right to choose” is one big euphemism from beginning to end and is indicative of a politicians who has never given any thought to the issue.)

I believe that many women are coerced into abortion, but not by gun-wielding thugs. It might go something more like this:

In Terry, McGovern implies that when he and his wife learned that their 15-year-old girl was unexpectedly pregnant, they agreed with their family doctor’s decision that she should travel to Florida for an abortion. He describes the impact of the abortion this way: ‘An important part of Terry was devastated by the abortion. Her innocence, her fun-loving nature, and her self-confidence were all deeply shaken, first by an unpleasant sexual experience and then by a pregnancy that she feared and yet did not want to terminate. She later told me of these feelings and then added: ‘I thought that my special relationship with you was over.’ I never knowingly conveyed such an attitude toward Terry. I never expressed anger, nor did I ever hint at any concern about possible political consequences. But Terry felt shamed and reduced by this episode. In retrospect I wish I had gone out of my way to reassure her that for me she remained a ‘special person’ whom I both loved and admired despite her teenage mistakes.”

McGovern’s dueling statements on abortion do not reflect well on his intellectual integrity. Publicly, he believes that pregnant women alone should decide whether or not to abort. Privately, he did not grant this power to his own daughter, who did not wish to abort.

This McGovern quote is taken from his book Terry: My Daughter’s Life-and-Death Struggle with Alcoholism. From Wikipedia we learn that Terry struggled with alcoholism for three decades, dying tragically at age 45. This traces the alcoholism back to age 15, the age at which she had the abortion. Tragic.

This story does highlight many things: that small people in utero are nonetheless people, for starters. And yes, it’s been said a thousand times, but I might as well say it again (why not?)–this baby could easily have been aborted on another floor of the hospital even as extraordinary measures were taken to save her life here.

Thing is, I’m not in favour of the extraordinary measures… not because I think the possibility of disease or illness would make her “quality of life” less worth living, but because in this case, the doctors saving her life in this manner may mean they are playing God. I am personally against in vitro fertilization, for similar reasons. I’d like to be able to flesh out my discomfort with this more fully, so if you agree or disagree with the extraordinary measures taken to save this baby born at 24 weeks, I’m all ears.

If anyone has any further information on this, I’d be much obliged. The Salvation Army has put out a statement that condones abortion if the baby has an abnormality that means he/she might not live very long, and also in cases of rape and incest.

I am particularly concerned about this business of termination in cases of disability. This is a double whammy since I heard on the news today that Salvation Army workers in Ottawa will consider going on strike as early as tomorrow. I naively believed people working at the Salvation Army did so from a sense of calling to help those in need, but apparently not.