George Tiller, M.D. - Rest In Peace

Abortion Doctor Shot At Church
WICHITA, Kansas (AP) - Media reports say that abortion provider Dr. George Tiller has been shot and killed at his Wichita church.

Tiller has been among the few U.S. physicians performing late-term abortion. His clinic has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades.

Story

Later, Tiller's attorneys released a statement from Tiller's wife, Jeanne, his four children and 10 grandchildren.

Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather. Today's event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George's friends and patients. This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace. Our loss is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality healthcare despite frequent threats and violence. We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere.

But Warren Hern, a Colorado physician and close friend of Tiller's who said he is now "the only doctor in the world" who performs very late-term abortions, said Tiller's death was predictable.

I think it's the inevitable consequence of more than 35 years of constant anti-abortion terrorism, harassment and violence. George is the fifth American doctor to be assassinated. I get messages from these people saying, 'Don't bother wearing a bulletproof vest, we're going for a head shot.'

Abortion foes have lost ground. . . . They want the doctors dead, and they invite people to assassinate us. No wonder that this happens. . . . I am next on the list.

Kelli Conlin, president of NARAL Pro-Choice New York, echoed that sentiment in a statement about Tiller's death:

It is cold-blooded, vicious actions like today's assassination that make it hard for those of us in the pro-choice community to find common ground with those on the other side. It is lawless, violent behavior like this that makes us fear for our lives and our families. When they sit down across from us, they have no reason to believe that we come to the table with violent intentions. Today is a brutal reminder that we are not privileged to have the same sense of security.

Tjhe Big Ban

Ban on Gay Marriage Upheld in California

There is one poll that we have not heard from. How many gays have voted to uphold the ban?

ARW
5/26/09

Somehow, I didn’t get this posted. Sorry.

ARW
5/29/09

Moral Certainty

Moral Certainty

I am a devout Christian, and those of my views agree that God put us on this earth to bring new lives upon this Earth—the more the better. We also believe that this country is most beloved of God and that we should spread His word around the world.

My children attend school at a very large school, where they are taught the Word of God, which must be spread across the Earth. But there are some children from other neighborhoods who have not been brought up properly at home. One of those children started a fight with one of my children not long ago, and my child was severely wounded in the fight.

Now, although we Chritians are true believers, we cannot accept such a thing being done to one of our children, so we gathered a whole bunch of other Christians to join our family and give the offending child a lesson he will be sure to remember. And we sent them over to the other neighborhood to let him and his family know that, no matter what it takes, we will defend our own.

Unfortunately, coping with that child and his family required a pretty severe response, his injury being so great. Much as we regretted having to be so stern, things got out of hand between the two parties, and we ended up having a great battle, with hurt feelings on all sides. A few blows even went astray and hurt some of the people on our side, but things like that are bound to happen.

What makes matters worse now is that there are people in various places (and even a few in this great Christian country) who think that our children got too rough. After all, not all of their children started the original fight, but that really is no excuse when they either did not support us, or withdrew their support before the fight was settled in our favor. You really can’t stay good friends with people who are not blessed with Christianity and the moral superiority that those of us who are converts have worked so hard and with such certainty to bless the rest of our neighbors.

What we must do for our own safety and the moral will of God, therefore, is keep a very close watch on the other neighborhoods and use whatever means we have to elicit from them any secrets they may have about their plans to hurt our children in the future. May God bless us and the moral and ethical paths we may feel obliged to choose!

The Socialist Atheist
5/21/09

The Birds Need Us

Please Feed the Birds

Since our terrible forest fire here in the mountains above, and including parts of Santa Barbara, many of the birds who had just moved to the mountains for the summer have come back looking for food. As a result, I have at least twice as many birds as I ordinarily do. I have eleven feeders and two bird baths, and I have t work hard to keep them filled.

I am sure other bird feeders have experienced the same thing, and I urge those of you who have not fed them before to welcome them to your homes, especially if you can keep them relatively safe from cats.

I have a hummingbird feeder and an oriole feeder close to each other, and the birds eat the same food and move back and forth from one to the other. The hummingbirds are tiny, but ferocious when battling with each other to get to the food.

You do not need to buy oriole or hummingbird food. I will include below a recipe which is very easy to follow, and the birds do not need coloring.

Note: The feeders are emptying much faster than in the recipe indicates. Upon occasion, I have had to fill them twice a day.

ARW
5/28/09


HUMMINGBIRD FOOD WITH ALMOST NO MEASURING

Rule Number One: Do not buy ready- made mix. Homemade is safer and better.

Rule Number Two: Do not add red coloring. The color of the feeder itself attracts the birds, and the dye can be harmful.

Rule Number Three: Hang the feeder where it gets as much shade as possible, and is not reachable by cats.

Tools needed:
A tea kettle for boiling water
A one-quart sauce pan with cover
A one-cup measuring cup
A spoon for mixing
A quart-sized plastic bottle with pourable lid for storage in the refrigerator
And very important, a funnel to pour from one container to another. The containers have small openings, and it is easy to spill.

Mixing method:

Fill the teakettle with fresh water and bring to a boil, then set aside.
Fill the measuring cup with sugar and pour it into the saucepan, then pour in at least 2 cups (estimated) of boiled water, stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, and set aside to cool.
Refill the teakettle with fresh water, bring it to a boil again (to be sure it is purified), then set it aside to cool.
When the water has cooled, pour the sugar-water into the plastic container, then fill to the quart mark with the cooled water from the teakettle.
This means that the only measuring you had to do was measuring the sugar into the cup, and filling the remaining space in the refrigerator container to the quart mark.
Just be sure you shake the container a little each time you put new food into the clean hummingbird feeder to be sure it’s well mixed.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU PUT FRESH FOOD IN THE FEEDER EVERY SEVEN DAYS. WHEN YOU CLEAN IT, BE SURE TO FILL THE CENTER CUP WITH CLEAN WATER. THIS IS TO KEEP INSECTS FROM GETTING INSIDE TO THE FOOD. ALSO, CLEAN THE ENTIRE FEEDER WITH FRESH RUNNING WATER AND YOUR FINGERS, THEN CLEAN THE EATING HOLES WITH A CLEAN Q-TIP, BOTH FROM THE TOP AND THE BOTTOM.


ARW
6/24/08

What a Lucky Choice!

What a Great Choice!

I just watched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appear to answer questions of the press with regard to the Middle East. She was an enormous improvement over her predecessor. She spoke intelligently and calmly, with a welcoming smile in her eyes as well as on her mouth. Her demeanor respected her guest, the Egyptian Foreign Minister, and her questioners as well, rather than arrogantly speaking down to them.

Her position in life fits her like a suit, and she deserves no place to go but up when President Obama has finished his time in office.

ARW
5/27/09

My Crusade

So you think I am carrying on too much about religion?! Well take some time to think about the crusades the Catholics and the evangelicals are on. Both groups are hell-bent, so to speak, to ram their religious views down the intellectual and spiritual throats of the rest of us. They are doing their damndest, again so to speak, to get their religious views enshrined in the Constitution of the United States, MY Constitution, and I and other people like me are determined not to let that happen.

In looking back over my other blogs on the subject, I find that they continue to indicate the importance of this subject to me. The reason I am writing about it again is that Pres. Obama is now faced with the necessity of choosing another member for the Supreme Court, as well as the opportunity to bring it into more balance with the beliefs of the citizens of this country, who came here from many different countries with multiple races and many disparate beliefs among us. The choice of members of the Supreme Court seldom comes, and George W. Bush added to its imbalance, which in turn has added to the growing schisms which threaten to tear this democracy apart.

There are many atheists like me out here, as well as many people with religious views which are unlike ours and those of Christians, as well as differences within the Christian religion itself. And there are Indian tribes, those from whom this country was stolen by Christians many years ago, many of whom still hold their original beliefs. (For those who do not know, the Indians were named Indians by the people who stole their land because they were heading for India and thought they had reached it.)

Back to THE REALLY BIG SUBJECT AT HAND! The Catholics and the evangelicals, many with little education, want to take away the right to die, a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion (or not), the right of gays to marry in a church willing to marry them, the rights of atheists to run for high office (I think some of the latter already do not exist.)

Addendum 1. The subjects above are unique to the people involved and their families. How they respond is up to them, not to outsiders.

Addendum 2. A woman whose teen-age son is dying of cancer has been in the news lately because she believes in a cure by God, and the state is attempting to force her to let him have medical help which may very well save his life. I find myself on her side in this case. Her religious views are as sacred to her as mine are to me, and her son evidently shares her views. The outcome is up to her and her family to decide. Let them be.

Addendum 3. Has it ever occurred to those who want to exercise their control of any of these subjects, that the world is in terrible shape, due mainly to us?! There are more people on its surface who are destitute than there are those who are rich. The animals, who were created by the same force which created humans are being decimated by humans, with nothing good to replace them. And the only way the earth can even begin to recover is for there to be fewer of us and what we have wrought. God must surely be crying.

5/24/09
The Socialist Atheist

Santa Barbara in Danger

The Jesusita Fire

This is just to let you know that I am being evacuated with my cats by my daughter and my helper because of another threatening fire.

Unlike last year, when the voluntary evacuation line was at Ontare, the next street over from me, this time Ontare is the mandatory evacuation line, and La Cumbre, a couple of streets beyond me in the other direction is now the voluntary evacuation line.

It all means a great deal of work for Autumn, even though one of my helpers has been kind enough to stay beyond her time to help.

So far, no homes or structures have been burned yet, but there are hundreds in imminent danger, and the winds will be very high for several days, and are expected to be extremely erratic.

Just wanted to let you all know what’s going on. Autumn would rather take me and my cats to a friend’s home, but I would much rather go back to her house as I did last time because I am familiar with it. It means more work for her, unfortunately, if I stay at her house.

I hope to God that the thousands of homes that are in danger will make it through safely. I can’t even bear to think of all the animals, both pets and wild, that probably won’t make it.

I’ll get back to you in a few days, I hope.

Anne
5/5/09