Where There is No Respect for Life, Evil Flourishes
The heinous actions of the Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 can unequivocally be described as evil. It had as its genesis the inculcated belief that Jews are malevolent and subhuman, therefore, they are deserving of death, destruction and being conquered by any means possible including the unconscionable and premeditated slaughter of women, children and the elderly.
In keeping with a tactic almost as old as mankind itself, the self-appointed leaders of Middle Eastern Islamic terrorist groups and the political leaders of nations such as Iran have manipulated their maleducated followers or citizenry into believing Israel and the Jews have either taken what is rightfully theirs, are the personification of evil, or are responsible for their misery.
Throughout the history of mankind unscrupulous leaders and their disciples have exploited mankind’s base nature as exemplified by what the Catholic Church defines as the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth. These human failings invariably lead to a near-irreversible loss of respect for human life and in due course a society riddled with uncontrolled evil.
The loss of respect for life has also begun to dramatically infiltrate the American ruling elites and the overall society as over the past two decades the following, previously unthinkable, changes have occurred within the United States:
- Unfettered abortion up to the point of birth and post-birth infanticide has become a policy position of the Democrat Party.
- Euthanasia is openly discussed and supported by an ever-growing (73%) segment of the population.
- Sexually confused teens are being coerced into mutilation and permanent disfigurement in order to appease the gods of transgenderism, accompanied by an unabashed campaign to legalize pedophilia.
- A significant plurality of Americans is demanding the censorship, imprisonment, and persecution of their political adversaries while they, and recent Islamic immigrants, are openly supporting and justifying the slaughter of Jews by Hamas.
- Tribalism has been mainstreamed and with it the belief that certain ethnicities or races are inferior to others and also responsible for society’s ills, therefore, they are deserving of disrespect, abuse and discrimination.
The path the United States is presently traveling will inevitably lead to the darkening shadow of unfettered evil descending upon the land leading to national self-destruction.
Respect for life runs counter to mankind’s base nature and a world that oftentimes sees human life as expendable for reasons of political power, economic gain, territorial conquest, and supposedly, in the name of religions that coincidentally promulgate respect for life.
Respect for life is not just a religious value, it is a foundational value of all societies in which reasonable people would want to live. Those who see mankind as having dignity just because they are human, believe that respect for life requires they do not intentionally kill, abuse or torture another human being.
The world’s major religions, which represent 78% of the global population, believe and teach that respect for life is fundamental to all religious sensibilities and societies. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam believe God created mankind; thus, human life is entitled to respect and dignity. Hinduism views human life as a manifestation or expression of the Divine. And Buddhism sees human beings as entities that can ultimately attain enlightenment (Buddhahood) and are entitled to respect. All major religions agree in unequivocally stating that life is sacred.
Therefore, the taking of human life is regarded as among the gravest of transgressions, except where it may be necessary to protect oneself or others from greater harm.
An ironic commonality of language underscoring the sanctity of life and the condemnation for the taking of it can be seen first in the Jewish Talmud (200 AD) and later in the Islamic Qur’an (600 AD). In the Talmud, Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:9:
Whoever destroys a life, it is considered as if he destroyed the entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved the entire world.
The fifth chapter of the Qur’an, Surah Al-Maidah verse 32:
…that whosoever kills a human being for other than murder or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and whoever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he saved the life of all mankind.
Yet, Hamas, Hezb’allah and other middle eastern terrorist groups profess an explicit belief in Islam and in God’s revelations to Mohammad as recorded in the Qur’an, the central religious text of Islam. Unfortunately, many militant Islamists seize upon other verses amid the 114 chapters of the Qur’an they claim can be interpreted to fit their agenda or personal animosities or as justification for violence and conquest.
Once evil controls a society it cannot be bargained with or appeased. The deep-seated disregard for life extends to their own population who are sacrificed by their leaders either via unending warfare, imprisonment, or execution. Ultimately, as history has repeatedly revealed, these societies either destroy themselves from within or are, by necessity, conquered by others.
Once again, the world has been reminded that evil exists. As in Europe in the 1930s, the unbridled evil rampant throughout the Middle East will metastasize into another global conflagration if not addressed and ultimately eliminated and that the underlying root cause is not economic, or territorial, or religious but malevolent disregard for human life.
Image: Franz von Stuck
Britney Spears Says She Had Abortion While Dating Justin Timberlake: ‘He Didn’t Want to Be a Father’
Britney Spears says in her eagerly anticipated new memoir that she had an abortion during her relationship with Justin Timberlake over two decades ago, according to an excerpt released Tuesday.
It is one of several revelations in “The Woman in Me,” out October 24, in which the 41-year-old pop star also addresses the controversial conservatorship that barred her from handling her own life and finances for 14 years.
“If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it,” she writes of the abortion, in an excerpt published by People magazine on Tuesday.
“And yet Justin was so sure that he didn’t want to be a father.”
In the book, Spears describes meeting Timberlake when they were both children performing in Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club.
They later began dating in their late teens, becoming one of the entertainment industry’s highest profile couples, before splitting in 2002.
According to the memoir, Timberlake “definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy.
“He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young,” she writes.
She adds: “To this day, it’s one of the most agonizing things I have ever experienced in my life.”
Representatives for Timberlake, now 42 and married to actor Jessica Biel, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Following the split with Timberlake, Spears had two sons — Sean and Jayden — with her second husband Kevin Federline.
In 2008, after suffering a highly public breakdown, Spears was placed under a unique legal guardianship largely governed by her father, Jamie.
During a court appearance in 2021, she told a judge that the conservatorship was preventing her from removing a contraceptive IUD — despite her wanting to get pregnant.
“The conservatorship stripped me of my womanhood, made me into a child,” says Spears, in another excerpt.
She also writes: “I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sick.”
The guardianship was scrapped in November 2021. Spears became pregnant in 2022, but later announced she had suffered a miscarriage.
In August, her third husband, Sam Asghari, said the pair were filing for divorce.
171 Clergymen Pen Letter Opposing Ohio Abortion Ballot Measure: ‘Diabolical’
More than 170 clergymen who lead congregations in 23 counties across Ohio issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning a radical ballot measure that could codify a supposed “right” to abortion in the state constitution.
“The Ohio faith community has consistently advocated for the sanctity of life and also advocated for moral clarity regarding childhood sexuality. With the mandate from GOD, we will not be silent on issues affecting our culture,” the statement reads in part.
“[W]e support the sanctity of life and believe the anti-family Issue 1 will normalize child abuse and strip parents of their God-given roles to raise their own children,” the statement continues. “This Fall on Tuesday November 7th, we encourage Ohioans to protect life and “VOTE NO” on Issue 1.”
The clergymen further called the language of the measure “diabolical” and warned that it “may bring sweeping changes with it” if passed.
“As lead clergymen from 171 congregations, we believe the language of Issue 1 is deceptively vague and detrimental to the basic, inalienable, and GOD-given rights of parents and children. In fact, parents and children are not even mentioned in Issue 1,” they said.
The statement comes after more than 100 prominent black faith and community leaders from across the political spectrum in Ohio released a letter encouraging a “no” vote on Issue 1. The letter reads:
This is not a party line vote, nor is Issue 1 a Republican or Democrat issue. This is a moral issue and for the Black community in particular, it is a life-or-death matter. Only 13 percent of Ohio’s population is Black, yet 48 percent of abortions undergone by residents of our state are performed on Black women – a tragic and difficult reality that our community cannot ignore.
“Even more alarming is the number of Black children – 20 million – who were killed in the womb between 1973 and the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court last June. That is enough to fill Ohio stadium more than 194 times,” the letter continued.
“Enough is enough. The Black community supports life. We have a rich pro-life history, rooted in our love of family and in our abiding faith and belief that God is the ultimate author of every life,” it reads. “As Psalm 139:13-14 declares, ‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.'”
Ohio Abortion Activist Fails to Clarify Broad Wording of Issue 1 in TV Debate
The clergymen and pastors joined other critics of the abortion ballot measure who have urgently warned that the broad language of the amendment would decimate parental rights, lead to abortion throughout pregnancy, and even allow minors to pursue sex-change procedures. Members of the pro-abortion coalition have notably long campaigned to end parental involvement laws.
The amendment was put forward by Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights (OURR)— a coalition comprised of far-left groups such as URGE, ACLU of Ohio, and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio. The amendment notably uses the broad term “individual” rather than defining an age limit, and uses the umbrella terms “health” and “reproductive decisions,” which has left many Ohioans confused about just how far reaching the amendment could be.
The pro-abortion groups pushing the amendment have dumped significant sums into framing a “yes” vote on Issue 1 as a vote for “freedom,” and have invoked conservative imagery, opposition to government overreach, and mentions of “faith” and family” to convince Ohioans to support the killing of the unborn. Pro-abortion groups successfully employed a similar strategy in the 2022 midterms, when abortion was on the ballot in states like Kansas and Michigan.
The language of the Ohio amendment, which was changed significantly by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R), would “establish in the Constitution of the State of Ohio an individual right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion.” It would also:
- Create legal protections for any person or entity that assists a person with receiving reproductive medical treatment, including but. Not limited to abortion;
- Prohibit the State from directly or indirectly burdening, penalizing, or prohibiting abortion before an unborn child is determined to be viable, unless the State demonstrates that it is using the least restrictive means;
- Grants a pregnant woman’s treating physician the authority to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether an unborn child is viable;
- Only allow the State to prohibit an abortion after an unborn child is determined by a pregnant woman’s treating physician to be viable and only id the physician does not consider the abortion necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health; and
- Always allow an unborn child to be aborted at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of viability, if, in the treating physician’s determination, the abortion is necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost published a legal analysis of Issue 1 and found that, while the language makes no mention of parental consent laws, “the parental-consent statute would certainly be challenged on the basis that Issue 1 gives abortion rights to any pregnant ‘individual,’ not just to a ‘woman.”’
Yost also noted that regulation of post-viability abortions would be “technically possible but would be ineffective” if the amendment passes.
“The Amendment allows the State to prohibit abortion after viability, ‘but in no case’ if the doctor thinks it necessary to protect the mother’s life or health — a broad concept that is not defined in the Amendment,” he wrote. “Issue 1 gives sole discretion to the physician in deciding if the law applies, with no requirement for a second opinion or objective criteria for evaluating the physician’s professional judgment.”
On the topic of transgender drugs and surgeries becoming available to any Ohioan if the amendment passes, Yost said the vague ballot language leaves “outcomes uncertain.”
He wrote:
These other areas of law are harder to assess because Ohio does not have specific statutes addressing minors’ access to these medical treatments or products. However, if the word “individual” as used in the Amendment includes minors, Ohio’s general laws concerning minors and health care could be affected.
Some other States have enacted, and some Ohio legislators have proposed, laws regarding transgender treatment of minors. Given the uncertainty of the breadth of the terms “reproductive decision” and “individual,” as discussed above regarding parental consent for abortion, challenges are certainly likely, with outcomes uncertain.
It would certainly be too much to say that under Issue 1 all treatments for gender dysphoria would be mandated at the minor individual’s discretion and without parental involvement. This is a developing area of the law nationally, and all that could be said with certainty is that Issue 1, if passed, would impact the analysis of any future law.
The ACLU of Ohio is responsible for crafting the broad original language of the proposed abortion amendment, along with other groups such as Planned Parenthood. Left-wing fact-checkers have quickly asserted that the amendment would not impact parental rights. But when local media questioned the ACLU of Ohio about whether the language of the measure would undo parental consent and notification laws, the organization vaguely indicated that those laws would not stand if the amendment passes.
Ohio election officials are predicting the issue may drive “heavier-than normal turnout for an off-year vote,” AP reported. Ohioans will also vote on whether to legalize recreational marijuana.
Early voting began last week in the Ohio election and continues through election day on November 7.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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