Our “Empty Manger” Christmas Caroling at four abortion sites Saturday was successful in every way: Forty carolers were at each site, a mixture of old guard and new faces, mostly young. There were at least three saves, one directly attributed to our caroling.
Abortion Mill Caroling Saves Baby
A woman going into the Western Ave. mill heard our singing and saw the empty manger. When she got inside she began thinking of Mary and her baby, and how sad the empty manger looked. She came out to talk with one of our counselors and decided against abortion. Another woman had decided against abortion earlier. Kathy Mieding reported a save at Albany, on Elston.
We are happy to learn that pro-life groups in other locals are adopting the “Empty Manager” Abortion Mill Christmas Caroling concept. After the caroling, thirty carolers came to our home for hot chocolate.
Illinois Parties Scrambling
A story in Monday’s Chicago Sun-Times says lots of Democrats are leaving their party because of its lack of moral values, while some Republicans are worried that the GOP is concentrating too much on morals. Also, the article says Democratic leaders must minimize the infighting that comes with controlling nearly every major office in state government.
And Republican leaders are being yanked in two directions as they figure out how to rebound from scandals and bad luck while some say the GOP must support more moderate candidates if it hopes to compete in the suburbs, while others want to build on the downstate gains by moving even more to the right.
The article, “Political parties in a pinch as state voting patterns change,” quotes Bill Bartels of Clay County: “If we could cut Chicago off and float it to Canada, we’d win big time.”
He’s probably right, but the rest of Illinois has been trying to get rid of Chicago for generations. And the feeling is mutual. Conversion is the only answer and that’s one big order.
Man of the Year George W. Bush
TIME Magazine has named President George W. Bush “Person of the Year.” We liked the old terms, “Man of the Year,” or “Woman of the Year”; person of the year is just too politically correct. Bush beat out Mel Gibson and Michael Moore, and this is Bush’s second time as “Person of the Year.”
Krauthammer Defends Christmas
Charles Krauthammer asks what Christmas would be without the usual platoon of annoying pettifoggers rising annually to strip Christmas of any Christian content. With some success, he admits, such as ” banning Christmas Carols in some schools, holding Holiday Parties, prohibiting manger scenes.”
Krauthammer, a practicing Jew, believes efforts to de-Christianize Christmas are absurd. He points out that 95 per cent of Americans go right on celebrating Christmas anyway, and government wise it is still an official federal holiday.
Krauthammer says he, like most Jews, likes Christmas. You rarely find Jews protesting Christmas. He writes:
To insist that the overwhelming majority of this country stifle its religious impulses in public so that minorities can feel comfortable not only understandably enrages the majority but commits two sins: profound ungenerosity toward a majority of fellow citizens and a failure to appreciate the uniqueness of the communal American religious experience.
Krauthammer ends, Merry Christmas. To All.
Will Frist Bust the Filibusters?
Robert Novak asks if Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will make a point of order when the Senate reconvenes January 4 that only a simple majority is needed for a Presidential confirmation. Novak says it’s a risk, but the Democrats did it and got away with it.
Frist fears criticism from respected conservative voices that think it would undermines the bulwark of limited government. Republicans have never used the filibuster to deny Federal Judgeships, while Democrats have used it repeatedly.
Maybe it’s time the Republicans make a point of order to require a simple majority for confirmation, then table a Democrat motion and go on with the voting, minus the usual Democrat filibuster. He can do it, and he should.
