PRO-LIFE CATHOLICS GATHER: The first annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast drew 1,000 attendees to the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., on April 28. Bush's Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson spoke, as did Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) and Rep. Walter Jones (R.-N.C.). The speech from Sen. Rick Santorum (R.-Pa.) drew a mixed response from the crowd: Though Santorum led the charge for the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban in the Senate, he had just finished his highly active effort to defeat pro-life, conservative Rep. Pat Toomey (R.-Pa.) in his primary challenge to liberal, pro-abortion Sen. Arlen Specter. Avery Cardinal Dulles gave the keynote address. Dulles warned against the notion of "moral freedom," defined as the ability of individuals to determine good and evil for themselves, as the descendant of the "intellectual freedom" supposedly gained in the 18th Century and the "political freedom" gained in the 19th Century. He quoted the U.S. Supreme Court's insane formula from its Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision reaffirming abortion on demand, which declared: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." "An increasing number of Americans come perilously close to accepting this," which he called "the words of the serpent," and asked, "Could not Adolf Hitler have claimed the right to define human existence?"
END TYRANNY: Ray Flynn, former Boston mayor and former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, and Boston businessman Thomas Shields filed a motion to dismiss the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's unconstitutional decision imposing same-sex marriage in the state due to go into effect later this month. "No party in this lawsuit discussed the issue of jurisdiction before the court," said Benjamin Bull, chief counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is helping with the case. "Only the people, not the courts, can amend the state constitution. It's certainly not too late to raise it now. . . . If the court rules against the motion to dismiss, the Massachusetts constitution will have become the instrument of judicial whim and tyranny, and not the democratic bulwark it once was."
THE GOAL: In the wake of a radical illegal alien amnesty proposal from Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.-Mass.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D.-Ill.) last week, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.) recalled what Juan Hernandez, Mexico's minister for Mexicans living abroad, told him in a meeting in December 2002. "I asked him what his job was, and he said, 'To increase the flow,'" said Tancredo. "He said that Mexico benefited as more Mexicans 'moved North'-that's how he put it. He said, 'The population of this country between 18 and 25 has doubled. And the unemployment rate among these people is 45%.' " Hernandez said, according to Tancredo, that one-third of Mexico's GDP consists of money sent home from Mexicans living abroad. "We want them to remain connected to Mexico," said Hernandez, and in addition, "Millions of Mexicans living in the North will influence your government's policy." "I said that this could be viewed as interference inside one country by another, and he responded, 'Congressman, it's not two countries, just a region,'" Tancredo said.
CAIR'S ROOTS: As the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complains about an increase in "hate crimes" against Muslims in the United States-to all of 93 incidents last year-Americans might consider recalling the following testimony before Sen. Jon Kyl's (R.-Ariz.) Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Sep. 10, 2003, from expert Matthew Epstein: "In supporting claims of religious discrimination, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its leadership has managed to disguise its true agenda of supporting militant Islam and protecting the operations of radical groups supporting terrorism. A careful review reveals that CAIR was a creation of the Hamas group in the United States. CAIR leaders have been heard expressing their support for Hamas both in public and on FBI surveillance tapes. CAIR has received support from, and lent support to, Hamas financial conduits in the United States."
SOWELL FOOD: From Thomas Sowell's May 3 "Random Thoughts" column: "Australian economist Wolfgang Kasper has figured out the day on which the average citizen has earned money enough to pay his taxes, so that he can then begin earning money for himself instead of for the government. For Singapore, that date is March 31, for the United States April 21, for Germany July 1 and for Sweden August 5."
