Personhood Amendment Rejected
Posted by Michelle Moquin on November 9th, 2011
Good morning!
Readers: My blog is still being blocked. I am having a helluva time getting on my blog the past 24 hours. And when I can’t access it, I can’t read it, and I can’t post. Therefore, I have no idea what is going on in blogsville.
This morning I am out of here until Sunday. And where I am going I will have only limited access to my computer, so I am, keeping my fingers crossed that when I am on it, I will be able to read your thoughts and converse with you.
I am calling my server daily but so far not much has been able to happen to stop the situation from occurring, and reoccurring. As always I appreciate your patience and your persistence in trying to be here.
Now…onto today’s topic:
Congratulations to Mississippi for doing the right thing. The “Personhood” Amendment was rejected. This is big for this state. Let’s HOPE Ohio follows suit, not to mention, Florida, Montana, Oregon, Nevada and California (!)
Mississippi Voters Reject ‘Personhood’ Measure
Mississippi voters on Tuesday rejected an amendment to their state constitution that would have declared that life begins at fertilization.
The result was somewhat unexpected: As recently as a few weeks ago, the so-called personhood amendment was considered almost certain to pass. Voters in Colorado have twice rejected similar amendments to declare that life begins legally at fertilization, in 2008 and 2010. But Mississippi, with its far more conservative bent, was considered much friendlier territory.
Backers of the measure had made a special pitch to the state’s large African-American community. In one ad, an ob-gyn named Freda Bush told voters, “You do not have to have a law or medical degree to know the truth and protect unborn babies from abortions.”
Opponents of the measure, Amendment 26 on the ballot, argued — to some effect, as it turned out — that it simply went too far. One ad warned voters that the measure made no exceptions for cases of rape and would also ban birth control pills. (If it had passed, the amendment likely wouldn’t have banned all birth control pills. But it would have banned those that work in part by blocking fertilized eggs from implanting in the uterus.)
Felicia Brown Williams, outreach director for Mississippians for Healthy Families, the group that successfully fought the amendment, says there was no single reason voters turned against the measure.
“I think it was just a matter of making sure that the voters were informed,” Brown says. “And when they were, they came to our side.”
But even with the loss, supporters of the amendment aren’t giving up. Efforts are already under way to get similar constitutional amendments on the ballot in another half-dozen states next year, and to pass personhood legislation in at least two more states.
********
Readers: The radical extremists who want to control women’s bodies are going to keep at it. We need to be just as strong pushing back.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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November 9th, 2011 at 10:11 am
Hi Mischa, hope you’re going somewhere fun, you deserve it. Left you a vmail yesterday…call me whenever, next week mid-week/end’o'week is good, like you, I am busy through Sunday, some fun, some work that’s fun, too. For you gamers out there, I rep Commander Shepard ; ) the female version (and admit it, better than the male, though no offense to him), she’s hot and sought after for guest appearances, she’s got a much longer resume’ just thought I’d send you fans out a hey! I’ve got a much longer resume’ also, I juggle several things and love em’ all equally and passionately, so why do one thing? I’m also studying another subject and will reveal that in due time, bc it is so apropo…
I’ll be checking in…love the repug updates, makes the GOP (greedy one percent) look like what they are, DRS’s – dirty rotten scoundrels, and that is said with no offense to Steve Martin and Michael Caine, who were absolutely brilliant in the movie of the same name, a must see…why, bc the female lead steals the show ; ) badumbum…but, of course…
Luv, Zen Lill
November 9th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
WALK YOUR WAY OUT OF THE HOSPITAL
Being a hospital patient used to mean getting into a bed and basically staying there until the doctor said that you could go home.
But in recent years, this approach has been changing dramatically as medical staffers have recognized that patients heal faster when they get out of bed and walk — and new research is showing that the more you walk, and the sooner you walk, the better.
If you have elderly relatives, however, you have probably discovered that the outdated idea of the “benefit of bed rest” has tremendous staying power.
Convincing them otherwise can be more than challenging. Now, though, there is a new study that you can use to help them see the light.
It clearly demonstrates that, condition permitting, elderly patients who are willing to get up and walk around outside their hospital rooms (especially those who start on day one) shorten the length of time that they must stay in the hospital — which is another way of saying that active patients get better quicker.
BENEFITS OF GETTING ON YOUR FEET
Researchers from the department of nursing at Haifa University in Israel surveyed 485 patients, age 70 and older, who were hospitalized for at least two days (on average, about six).
When I contacted study coauthor Efrat Shadmi, RN, PhD, she told me that these patients were in the hospital for common acute conditions, including pneumonia and exacerbations of chronic illnesses such as heart disease.
Dr. Shadmi added that none of the patients’ conditions meant that they couldn’t or shouldn’t be somewhat active.
In fact, the study eliminated any patients who had been hospitalized for a debilitating condition, such as stroke, that would significantly affect their ability to move around. The findings were published in the July 25, 2011, Archives of Internal Medicine.
While previous studies have found value when younger hospital patients got out of bed and walked, this one had equally good news for older patients.
Study participants who walked around at least once a day outside their hospital rooms shortened their stays by 1.5 days, on average, compared with a group of patients who either refused (or were not encouraged) to walk around outside their hospital rooms.
So the most active patients were released from the hospital the earliest.
Another interesting result: Those who started walking sooner also left the hospital faster.
Patients who increased their walking by at least 600 steps from the first day to the second day of their stays were able to be discharged 1.7 days earlier than those who didn’t.
WELL WORTH THE EFFORT
Doctors stress that walking is important for hospital patients because it helps them maintain normal breathing function and promotes the flow of oxygen throughout the body.
It also helps support normal gastrointestinal, bowel and urinary function. Dr. Shadmi adds that geriatric patients, in particular, have yet another reason to get moving — muscle reserves decrease rapidly.
If an older patient lingers in bed for even a few days without walking around, he/she can lose muscle mass so fast that his everyday functioning can become impaired.
It was encouraging to learn from Dr. Shadmi that when hospital staffers and family members explained to patients participating in the study how important walking was —
both for faster healing and maintaining strength — the majority of patients were willing to give it a try, even if the extra effort made them extra tired.
So if someone you love is in the hospital, go ahead and nudge him to walk around a little. Sure, he might groan at first, but he’ll thank you later — when he’s at home.
Source(s):
Efrat Shadmi, RN, PhD, The Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing, faculty of social welfare and health sciences, Haifa University, Israel.
November 9th, 2011 at 12:31 pm
There is a lot going on in the world of politics today. Eric Holder is testifying on the Hill about Fast & Furious,
Herman Cain will have a press conference tonight to discuss the allegations of his fourth accuser, Sharon Bialek,
and President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were reportedly caught on a live microphone, talking smack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As always, HUMAN EVENTS has all those bases covered for you!
Also, I wanted to take the opportunity and speak out about the devastating allegations coming out of State College, Pennsylvania. It’s a very grave topic, a little different for HUMAN EVENTS coverage, but still worth discussing, not only along the lines of athletics, but on true moral and ethical responsibility from today’s “leaders” in today’s world.
Make sure to come back to HUMAN EVENTS throughout the day for all your breaking news!
November 10th, 2011 at 4:30 am
You stick it out Michelle. I couldn’t find your blog yesterday at all. But after getting the girls ready for school this morning, I tried again.
I haven’t ever written in, but when I saw only three I decided to sit down and write something to show those criminals that they will not stop you.
Donna
November 10th, 2011 at 4:46 am
Hafa adai
How many plagues follow the white man? Now Guam is infested with fire ants. The race is so driven by their desire to acquire money that their greed will justify anything.
First they brought the brown snake to Guam and wiped our all the birds on our beautiful island. Now they bring their fire ants.
==========================
“Little Fire Ants” Found on Guam, Could be “Ecological Disaster on Par With Brown Tree Snake”
Last Updated on Thursday, 10 November 2011 14:13
Written by News Release
Thursday, 10 November 2011 10:40
Guam News – Guam News
Guam – A colony of “little fire ants” has been found on Guam and according to University of Guam entomologist Ross Miller this could be the makings of an ecological disaster on par with the invasion of the brown tree snake.
“We have been on the look-out for Wasmannia auropunctata since 2007 with surveillance projects on Guam and in the CNMI.
This ant has caused ecological devastation in Hawaii, New Caledonia and the Australian government has spent over 12 million dollars in attempts to eradicate an infestation in Cairns and Brisbane,” says Miller.
The ant was found by staff of the Guam Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Eradication Project at Primos Northern Hardfill for organic materials located on the back road to Andersen.
“Workers were being bitten by the ants as they off-loaded debris at the dump. CRB Director Roland Quituqua brought in a sample to our lab and Maia Raymundo identified them as the little fire ant,” says Miller.
“This identification has since been confirmed by ant experts in Hawaii, and we are now trying to identify the extent of the infestation on Guam.”
This tiny non-descript ant can be found on the underside of leaves, in the ground or in treetops eating other insects, snails, geckos, baby chicks, whatever they find in their paths.
They can potentially turn an area into an ecological wasteland. If people brush against infested plants, hundreds of the tiny ants will soon be stinging them before they know it.
While the sting of an individual ant is not in itself painful, the ants sting en masse which may cause persistent, intense itching and a rash.
Dr. Miller is hopeful that the public will respond to this all points bulletin and be on the lookout for the ants.
“We are counting on the cooperation of the public to find out how extensive the little fire ant is on Guam.
If you have been stung or have seen small yellow or reddish to golden brown ants in your yard or ranch please do collect a sample to help us find them,” says Miller.
People can bring ant samples to UOG College of Natural and Applied Sciences Dean’s office during weekday business hours.
It is important that the ants are placed in a container with a tight fitting lid, preferably in alcohol, and labeled with the person’s name, phone number and the location where it was collected.
UOG scientists are working with Russ Campbell, Guam’s territorial entomologist to mount a campaign to contain this latest invasive species to land on Guam.
Ant samples may also be taken to Dr. Campbell’s office at the Plant Inspection Station on Tiyan. His number is 472-5812 extension 15. Dr. Ross Miller may be contacted at UOG at 735-2141.
===================
Please Cooperate with this notice and bring a sample of the fire ants you find to UOG College of Natural and Applied Sciences Dean’s office during weekday business hours. or call Dr. Campbell at 472-5812 extension 15. Dr. Ross Miller may be contacted at UOG at 735-2141.
Be careful out there.
Peter
November 10th, 2011 at 4:50 am
Zen Lill:
I for one am looking forward to your news. Tell us more about the Commander Shepard. Is it a game? If so who sells it?
Larry
November 10th, 2011 at 6:23 am
I’m in total agreement with Zen Lill about the GOP (Greedy One Percent). Here is another example of them trying to give even more tax breaks to that group.
==========================
Democrats on the deficit super committee rejected a new Republican proposal this week to reach a deal before the Nov. 23 deadline, prolonging congressional paralysis over Pentagon cuts that could affect the Guam military buildup.
While this latest Republican offer, submitted on Monday in Washington, would raise $300 billion in new tax revenues that Democrats have demanded for months, the Democrats nonetheless rejected it because in their analysis, the plan would produce a tax windfall for the rich and shift a bigger portion of the nation’s spending burden to the middle class.
“I have yet to see a real, credible plan that raises revenue in a significant way to bring us to a fair, balanced proposal,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the Democratic co-chairwoman of the panel, told reporters, according to The Washington Post.
Republicans say their latest plan to achieve the deficit savings target mandated by the August debt ceiling law shows their willingness to generate revenue through taxes. The party’s previous plan for the super committee had been criticized for protecting tax breaks for the rich and not putting enough revenue on the table.
But despite this latest setback, key members of both parties still think progress is afoot.
“The fact that some Republicans have stepped forward to talk about revenue, I think, is an invitation for Democrats to step forward and talk about entitlement reform as well as spending cuts,” a story in The Hill reported Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) saying. “Therein lies the core of an agreement,” he said.
Mr. Durbin is the second-ranking Senate Democratic leader and worked on fiscal reform as part of the Simpson-Bowles commission in 2010 and more recently, the Senate’s Gang of Six. “We need to seize this opportunity; it will not come around again,” he said. “I just encourage them, stay with it. They have only a few days left.”
The Senate’s third-ranking Republican and chairman of the Republican conference, Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), agreed with Mr. Durbin. “Republicans have put revenues on the table, Democrats have put entitlements on the table,” Mr. Alexander said. “They both need to put more of each on the table and get a result.”
Also this week, in his sternest language yet, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta called for Congress to “show some leadership” in the deficit reduction proceedings. He said any failure by Congress to produce solution would be a failure of leadership. The devastating across-the-board sequestration that would be triggered “is like shooting yourself in the head,” he said during a speech at the National Guard’s Joint Senior Leaders Conference in Maryland.
“I have said to members of Congress, ‘Look, my friends. I have men and women who are willing to put their lives on the line to sacrifice for this country,’” the Secretary said. “‘You sure as hell can sacrifice and provide a little leadership to get the solution we need in order to solve this problem.’”
Mr. Panetta went on to say that the Department of Defense was united streamlining the defense budget to meet fiscal pressures. He talked of preserving the strength of the force while scouring the budget to find efficiencies, duplications and programs that must be cut.
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I keep wondering what Greedy One Percent representers have to do to get the people to vote them out. I’m white and I can’t believe that this is just about race.
Honestly, how does my race benefit if the GOP is supporting the super rich. All white people aren’t super rich unless somebody is keeping my share.
Vickie
November 10th, 2011 at 6:55 am
Vickie:
I’m sorry, but you must belong to that small group of whites with a conscious. Most are like the students at Penn State that rioted when they heard that their football coach Paterno and university President Graham Spanier were fired by the Penn State trustees amid a growing furor linked to their handling of sex abuse allegations against a former assistant football coach, Sandusky.
Paterno allowed the creep to continue molesting for 9 years because he was a good assistant coach. That would be bad enough but those white future leaders of this country when on a rampage vandalizing and destroying property to protest the firing of the guy who looked the other way while a know child molester was destroying the lives of children.
To riot over someone that helped to cover up child molestation, therefore allowing it to continue? To choose a football coach over the safety of children? These people are DISGUSTING
Jose
November 10th, 2011 at 6:57 am
Larry, Mass effect, EA/BioWare, anyone is who is a full on gamer knows this info though : ) It’s cool, I didn’t either…I have friends who work fro Electronic Arts and Activision/Blizzard gaming is a HUGE industry. it amazes me how many people live life behind their computers (This is only for quick check in’s and not all day here at mm blog, that’s my disclaimer) and there’s a funny series of 3 minute clips called ‘the guild’ its hilarious, google it…it’s the creation of a young actress who is going places, she wrote, directed, starred, etc…
Vickie, yes I would like to know where my cut is also…I receive all the email alerts posted here and more, I like to read what the true lefties and the true righties write, about themselves and about each other, it’s insane really. I rarely poke my two cents into the politics around here since Robert and Doug as well as Anonz cover it all so articulately, a woman’s voice in these matters would be nice to hear though I won’t offer mine, I take enough shit here : )
I have gotten my call for jury duty today, maybe I’ll be on here more than I even want to be today…
Catch you from the courthouse ; ) Luv, Zen Lill
November 10th, 2011 at 7:06 am
Fuck you spick.
November 10th, 2011 at 7:11 am
Two years ago this month, I was down. And if Democrats like you had waited to get involved, I would have been out – and my extremist Tea Party opponent would be a U.S. senator today.
That’s the situation now. It might not be fair, but it is what it is: While Republicans have only 10 seats to defend, we have to defend 23 of our own seats against candidates every bit as extreme as the one I faced two years ago. And the firewall keeping us from Republican control of the Senate is only four seats high.
That means we have to fight uphill, defending every single one of those seats. And it means we can’t afford to wait until next year to fight back against the far right.
November 10th, 2011 at 7:32 am
Okay Mr. Anonymous #10 here is an excerpt from the Grand Jury report. You tell me what one should think of coach Paterno.
=========================
It was about 9:30 p.m. on March 1, 2002 — the Friday before the beginning of spring break — in the Lasch Football Building on the main campus.
And here is the line:
“He saw a naked boy, Victim 2, whose age he estimated to be 10 years old, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked [Jerry] Sandusky.”
The “he” has been identified by the Harrisburg Patriot-News and other media outlets as Mike McQueary, then a graduate assistant and now an assistant coach at Penn State. Sandusky, of course, is the former Penn State football coach who has been charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a decade.
So what did McQueary do in that moment? Did he shout? Did he pry the attacker off the young boy? Did he seek help from anyone who might have been nearby? Did he call the police?
The answer to all these questions is no, at least according to the grand jury report.
Instead, the 28-year-old called his father. And John McQueary told his son to call head football coach Joe Paterno. He did, the next day. And later that Saturday, the two met at Paterno’s house. (I keep wondering where the 10-year-old was and what he was doing by then.)
What was said at the Saturday meeting?
According to the grand jury report, the graduate assistant told Paterno “what he had seen.” Before the grand jury, Paterno testified that he was told that Sandusky was seen “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy.”
Regardless of what level of detail he was provided, in my opinion there is no exculpatory explanation to be offered on Paterno’s behalf. Maybe that’s why he released a statement last weekend when the story broke, before this week’s events led to his firing:
As my grand jury testimony stated, I was informed in 2002 by an assistant coach that he had witnessed an incident in the shower of our locker-room facility. It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report.
He continued: “Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky.”
The day after his meeting with McQueary, Paterno hosted athletic director Tim Curley at his home and related that the graduate assistant “had seen Jerry Sandusky in the Lasch Building showers fondling or doing something of a sexual nature to a young boy,” according to the grand jury report.
So what happened to Sandusky? He was essentially put on double secret probation and prohibited from using the athletic facilities with young people.
All of which is why many have been appropriately asking of Paterno and Penn State president Graham Spanier: What did they know and when did they know it?
But I am fixated on an earlier point of the causal chain. I want to know why Mike McQueary did not take immediate action.
I am trying to be fair to the man. For all I know there is some plausible explanation not revealed in the grand jury report. If so, it’s unlikely we’ll hear it soon. His father was quoted in the Centre Daily Times as saying, “The attorney general in Harrisburg told us, because we are witnesses, they told us not to make any comment whatsoever.”
But without more details, the situation that Mike McQueary encountered on that Friday night in 2002 seems akin to a passerby who witnesses the rape of a woman in an alley and chooses to walk past.
The event he told the grand jury he witnessed was live and ongoing. If fact, he testified that he believed both Sandusky and the boy saw him when he witnessed the attack. I wonder what the young boy thought when McQueary did nothing. I wonder how that inaction may have scarred him.
It would seem that an adult bore silent witness to subjugation, manipulation, and coercion. And rather than take immediate action, he delayed, called a parent, and disregarded the immediate safety of a prepubescent boy.
Shame, shame, shame.
===========================
Sure, it the guilty are white, the deference term white’s give their own is that bullshit you see above, “I am trying to be fair to the man. For all I know there is some plausible explanation not revealed in the grand jury report. If so, it’s unlikely we’ll hear it soon.” So he ends his critique with “Shame, shame, shame.”
If this was an OTW’s behavior, that author would have been calling for blood. What the fuck was he asking us to believe when he intimated that there could have been a possible explanation for not reporting to the police a grown man fucking a 10 year old boy in the ass.
Are we supposed to believe that that is an everyday sight for tiny dick white boys. Was the only cause for concern the fact that he was doing in the Lasch Football building? These are some sick motherfuckers!
I mean both the perpetrator Jerry Sandusky and the witness Mike McQueary. McQueary should be locked up and the key thrown away. Sandusky may be a psychological sick pedophile who can’t help himself.
But that bastard McQueary is directly responsible for every child that suffered at McQeary’s hands after he witnessed that assault and did not report it to the police.
Wanna bet he did not stop the attack. Of course not he wanted to protect his job. Once again MONEY is the god of most white males. They are morally vacant.
Their only connection to morality is the shit they try to force others to follow to satiate some sick neurotic need to control others.
Lazaro
November 10th, 2011 at 8:00 am
I read that article too. It began with “There is one line amid the 23-page grand jury presentment that marks the depth of the alleged depravity in the Penn State scandal. As a father of three sons, it makes me sick to read.
—————-
“When I got to the part where author said “I am trying to be fair to the man. For all I know there is some plausible explanation not revealed in the grand jury report. If so, it’s unlikely we’ll hear it soon.”
———————–
I too thought, this is white boy mentality. They can always give each other deference in any situation. What I would like to ask the arthur is “Just which one of your three boys would it have been okay for Mr McQueary to standby and allow a grown man to rape in the ass?
Which one would it have been okay for Mr. McQueary to not shout “Get off that kid you sick fuck?”
Which one of your three boys would it have been okay for Mr. McQueary to have not stood by and made sure the kid was okay?
Which one of your three boys would it have Okay for Mr. Queary not to have called the police and say “I have just witnessed the rape of a minor?”
Yes, you are the typical white boy. You create those “gray” areas for other white boys to be given a pass where OTWs would have been held to a different standard.
You would have been the first to scream that there is NO excuse for Mr. McQueary’s behavior. But you and the likes of you get to pass the buck to Coach Paterno. Who at best should have heard about it with the sounds of police sirens arresting the rapist Jerry Sandusky.
Mike McQueary should be in jail as an accomplish after the fact. He witnessed a crime an covered it up. So how does the white boy’s Just-Us Justice system handle that.
They give McQueary a pass to go after Paterno. I’m for that creep’s firing also, but I’m not white so I don’t have a lost of common sense, when it comes to disgusting behavior by white boys. Hence the first thought that comes to my mind is why wasn’t McQueary charged with a crime of aiding and abetting Sandusky in raping that 10 year old boy?
ANSWER: Just-Us Justice
Daniel
November 17th, 2011 at 5:08 am
health benefits of cherries…
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