This from the Citizens for Midwifery e-mail group:

Grassroots Network Message 806035
Attorneys looking for VBAC ban victims

Dear Friends,

As you are likely aware, many women are denied access to VBAC (Vaginal birth after cesarean) because of hospital policies and outright bans.  Attorneys with the Northwest Women’s Law Center in Seattle are looking at this issue. One of them asked us to post the following:

I’m a lawyer with the Northwest Women’s Law Center in Seattle. I’m investigating possible legal responses to bans on vaginal birth after cesarean at hospitals in the northwest states  Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon. If you are currently pregnant and want to have a VBAC, but are facing a hospital policy that would require you to have a c-section regardless of whether you want it and regardless of whether it is actually medically necessary, and you are willing to consider working with a lawyer on this, we’d like to talk with you. Please respond to vbacbanhelp@ican-online.org .

This weekend we Americans will be celebrating Independence Day; it would not be surprising if the meaning of the 4th of July were still on our minds when we go to Sunday Mass on the 6th. And, in fact, our Mass readings touch on the very important issue of the real meaning of freedom and life. True freedom consists in living in accordance with the Spirit, in following Christ. Christ and his Spirit take away the yoke of sin and death. Christ gives us freedom from this yoke. Christ gives us rest. Christ gives us a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light.

But how can this be so? Christ is the one who - as the first reading reminds us - comes meekly, on a colt, the foal of an ass - comes, that is, as we know, as we recall each year on Palm Sunday, to suffer and die. Christ himself is sorrowful even to death at the beginning of his passion, and begs his Father, if possible, to take it away. How is this yoke of his an easy one; how is this burden of his a light one? And this burden of his is the one that he also has in mind for us. He tells us to take up our cross and follow him. He tells us to love one another with his own love, that lays down one's life for one's friends.

Lopez Lomong is an aspiring Olympian and once a Lost Boy of Sudan.  His story is inspirational and proof, once again, that we really do live in best place - outside of heaven.

From the New York Times:

A small pile of rocks still marked a memorial, he said.

“No, I’m here,” Lomong, 23, said he told himself. “I did not die.”

His attempt this week to make the United States Olympic track team in the 1,500 meters will culminate a heart-wrenching journey from child prisoner in war-torn East Africa to refugee among the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan to American citizen and elite middle-distance runner.

“After all he’s been through, he’s not easily rattled,” said John Hayes, who coaches Lomong, a favorite to claim one of three Olympic spots in the 1,500. “He doesn’t fear anyone.”

At age 6, Lomong was swept into Sudan’s long-running civil war. He and other children were abducted in 1991 by a government-backed militia as they attended Catholic Mass in the southern village of Kimotong. Get on the ground, the soldiers ordered the parishioners. When Lomong’s father tried to resist, he was hit with the butt of a gun. The boys were placed in a tarp-covered truck and driven away.

His parents searched the area in vain, then held a funeral. Lomong presumed his father and mother were dead, too, along with two brothers. For 12 years, he considered himself another orphan in a war between the Arab-dominated north of Sudan and the tribal black south. Eventually, two million people died and tens of thousands of children were enslaved.

We spent last Sunday at a beach in Lewes, DE.  We had a great time and I thought I'd remind all of us parents to play it safe this summer -

Keep counting - again and again.  Take turns w/ your spouse to be the 'Watcher of the Children'.  Make sure you go home with all the children you came with (and the same ones!).  Look back every time you get out the car - every time, check every seat - let's not read another tragic story of a child who was 'forgotten' in a hot car!!  (pets, too!)

Lotion, lotion, lotion - nothing ruins a trip out to the beach or park more than sunburn.  At the beaches, remember to get the edges of the suits at the waist for the boys and the leglines for the girls.

Avoid digging deep, deep holes at the beach.  They can actually collaspe just they do on construction sites.  And, they are hazardous to other beach bums who don't know they are there, fall in and twist an ankle or break a leg.  No holes deeper than the knees!!

Remember to keep drinking,  Water is best.  Dehydration can cause illness and it's easy to bring along a thermos of ice water to keep everyone happy.

Not every child thinks firework shows are fun.  Be very aware of every baby and older children (and adults) who are sound sensitive.  Yes, you might miss out on the fireworks but watching from inside a car or at home is fine for a few years until everyone is comfortable.  (Pets, again here as well!)

Reconsider sparklers for any children.  If you must have them, be careful, watchful and don't let the kids do them on their own.  Make sure you have a bucket of water nearby for a quick put-out or a soaking place for fingers that got burnt from the metal stick.

"Wisconsin gay couples who marry outside state could face penalty"

Madison - When Dick Myers heard that California was going to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, he and his partner of nearly 13 years considered traveling there to get married.

That is until Myers and his partner, Steve Brondino, learned of an obscure state law that makes it a crime for Wisconsin residents to enter into marriage in another state if the marriage would be prohibited here. The law imposes a penalty for those who enter into a marriage that's prohibited or declared void in Wisconsin of up to $10,000 and nine months in prison. ...

The article goes on to note that "other states have similar laws, but Wisconsin's imposes the stiffest penalties."

The article also brings up the question: Since it isn't simply that same-sex "marriages" aren't allowed to take place in Wisconsin, but rather, that they aren't recognized there, would the law apply to these cases? And if so, would the state bother to prosecute?

I also wonder: Suppose that (as is, I think, quite plausible) the Supreme Court were to strike down the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, thus requiring every state to recognize same-sex "marriages" performed elsewhere (even if not to perform them). Would Wisconsin still be able to enforce this law? Or would such a reading of the "Full Faith and Credit" provision affect this law - and not only as applied to same-sex "marriage," but also as applied to age requirements and the like?

Please don't email me till Monday. Thanks. There will be a couple more posts before I go off blog and mostly offline.

Amen, Mike. Drawing from the great 20th-century Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, theologian David Schindler, in an important book (pp. 133-37) that I once summarized at some length on the blog (before the purge of old posts), makes much the same point, and applies it to questions having to do with contemporary American culture, politics, and economics.

Mother Teresa has been quoted as saying, "Faithfulness, not success."  Too often we get caught up in thinking that we have to be successful, to do things perfectly and only then are we pleasing to God.  This false idea that we have to earn our worth and value is debilitating.  We are called to remain faithful in our pursuit of doing what calls us to do, which includes getting back up even after we have fallen down.

A recent article discusses breaking pattens and increasing motivation.  Here it is ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080626150311.htm

A reader emails me and Pam:

Here's an old French advertisement for beer and breastfeeding. I thought it a nice confluence of your interests.

I believe the phrases translate as, "She buys her beer at the brewery (or cafe)," and "She makes her drink herself."

I'm not sure if the poster is against home-brewing or against drinks other than beer.

The picture was stolen from the Catholic blog, Fumare, from a December 2006 post.

What next? frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence, boils? 

From today's Greenwire:

As Olympic organizers grapple with algal blooms and potentially dangerous pollution levels in Beijing ahead of the August games, a new challenge looms -- a plague of locusts.

Inner Mongolia has mobilized 33,000 people to repel locusts that could reach the capital during next month's Olympics. The insects are within 430 kilometers (267 miles) of the city and have infested a 1.3-million-hectare (5,000-square-mile) area.

The locust alert comes as 10,000 workers scoop up blue-green algae along the Qingdao coast, where the Olympic sailing event will take place, and Beijing struggles to limit its pollution ahead of the Aug. 8-24 games.

Officials expect to have the algae cleaned up by July 15. Since June 25, they have removed 150,000 tons of algae. And Beijing plans to close factories and remove half the cars from roads this month to reduce smog. But the locusts in full flight could cause bigger problems. Inner Mongolian authorities are using 200 tons of pesticides, 100,000 sprayers and four airplanes to kill the pests (Wing-Gar Cheng, Bloomberg, July 2). -- KJH 

Following up on yesterday's posts, have a quick look at these brief items by the NRLC's Dave Andrusko: 1, 2.

A reader emails:

In Townhall, a disturbing column on how the AIDS establishment has been ruining Uganda's success in preventing HIV infections. The column also notes that adjacent to the Washington Post column by a co-chair of Uganda's national program for AIDS prevention lamenting this fact, is an editorial pushing the very same 'safe-sex' and 'education' agenda for American gays that has been spectacularly ineffective in Africa.

Thanks. I think that sometime in the last couple of years I've seen other, similar articles on the Uganda situation.

A reader responds to yesterday's posts on cohabitation (1, 2):

USA Today has a piece on infidelity; near the end we find this statement:

"The need for extreme stimulation may be one reason online pornography is becoming more an issue in marriage, some say."

My thinking is that the causality in that statement is completely reversed.

Continuing yesterday's topic, on the sidebar is a link to an earlier article about the rise in cohabitation in many countries. Unfortunately, the article soft-pedals the deleterious effects of cohabitation on children and completely neglects the downside for the couples themselves.

Kevin, thanks for the article you posted concerning the significant problems with cohabitation.  It is truly amazing how this common, "socially acceptable" practice of living together is so destructive and yet continues to be embraced wholeheartedly.

People are so cut off from their emotions and from ordered moral norms that in their trek through the darkness, they gravitate so quickly to anything that will give them some sense of feeling alive, despite any or all the evidence that would tell them that what they are doing will ultimately bring them the opposite. 

Cohabitation is such a tremendous deception and study after study is confirming it's true destructive nature.  Within counseling, I have heard numerous first-hand stories of the results, and regrets, of those who had initially pursued this relational minefield. 

If anyone has not read the full article that Kevin's post has linked, it is well worth the read.  It is chock full of studies and research on cohabitation and its effects.  Here is the link again:

http://www.zenit.org/article-23056?l=english

A reader emails:

Last night's post by Michael and many of today's posts brought to mind the lyrics of a recent song by an Indie rock band called My Morning Jacket. Searching the web I found various versions of the lyrics, but I did finally find one that matched the way I hear the song, "I'm Amazed":

I'm amazed at the love we're rejecting
I'm amazed at what we accept in its place

I thought that appropriately captured the theme.

A reader emails:

In your post on the decline in abortions in Wisconsin, you asked about evidence that emergency contraception availability does not reduce abortions or pregnancies. Point 4 off this fact sheet from the USCCB provides just what you are looking for:

Twenty-three studies published between 1998 and 2006, and analyzed by Raymond, Trussell and Polis, measured the effect of increased access to EC on EC use, unintended pregnancy, and abortion. Not a single study among the 23 found a reduction in unintended pregnancies or abortions following increased access to emergency contraception.

This study highlighted, from Scotland, is probably the one you are thinking of. I'm almost positive it found its way onto the blog, but I couldn't find it in the archives.

By Dr. Jack Newman - a respected authority on breastfeeding - check it out!  His first page quotes have good reminders:

"There are two principles at the base of understanding breastfeeding and understanding how to help new mothers breastfeed. One is that babies learn to breastfeed by breastfeeding. The other is that there is much more to breastfeeding than the breastmilk alone. As important as breastmilk is, breastfeeding is that much more." Dr. Jack Newman

"The baby was inside you for a long time. The transition to the outside world can be made more smoothly by establishing prolonged and continued skin-to-skin care between you and baby as much as possible. This skin-to-skin care is best kept up for as many days and weeks as you can manage. Baby will cry less, breastfeeding will likely go easier, and baby’s metabolism and respiratory functions will be better maintained." Edith Kernerman

Have you looked at these?  I'm thinking of going with your recommendation.  I need some structure - and some inspiration - for the year. 

I feel all over again like the longed-for days of ordered loveliness that I am supposed to be creating for my Catholic homeschooled children are going to continue to escape me for the rest of my life.

has been posted!

Longtime readers of my blogging may remember him. I mentioned him nearly six years ago (on my old blog). Today he has an NRO article. (Yep, it's the same guy - just in case you were thinking maybe there are two people by that name.)

"Teenagers aren’t ready to be parents. Their parents would tell them this — if the government would let them."

Most experts concerned about teen pregnancy assume that teenage girls don’t want to get pregnant. So, they assume, the logical way to reduce teen pregnancy is to teach the girls how to avoid getting pregnant, whether through abstinence or contraception. Almost all campaigns to reduce teen pregnancy are based on this premise. Unfortunately, that assumption and the policies based on it are often wrong, as recent news reminds us. ...

Parents might be wondering how it could be legal for schools to offer contraceptives to minors without their parents’ consent. And how could this be the practice at over one-quarter of the school-based health clinics in Massachusetts? Because federal and state laws usually require that publicly funded health clinics offer birth control and other reproductive health services to minors who request them, without parental consent or notice. ...

Zenit article: "Living Together Dangerously: Study Reveals Perils of Cohabitation"

Here's the Marriage Project report, in html and pdf.

"Abortions drop in Wisconsin for 2007: Fourth straight decline sends number to lowest level since 1974"

Some PP spokeswhore credits "emergency contraception." Forget the debate about whether it's abortifacient (I suspect it isn't - but it's still contraception, and still wrong, except when used by rape victims). Hasn't there been evidence that it doesn't affect the pregnancy and abortion rates?

I think Barb Lyons is much more likely to be right. See Michael J. New's work (at least some of which I think I've linked before), e.g.: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

By way of follow-up to my post last week, two columns by Dave Andrusko:

• "Golubchuk Passes Away From Natural Causes"


• "Death as the 'Preferred Medical Option'"

A reader emails:

It's too late for me to read the whole piece, but K-Lo linked to this Sunday Times (UK) article mentioning that perhaps 40% of all persistent vegitative state patients are misdiagnosed as such. The article apparently goes on to discuss work being done to improve the situation.

A reader emails:

So I found myself at some economics-oriented blog that linked to a CNN story on a study with the following results (the CNN link didn't appear to be working):

When young men were shown erotic pictures, they were more likely to make a larger financial gamble than if they were shown a picture of something scary, such as a snake, or something neutral, such as a stapler, university researchers reported.

The arousing pictures lit up the same part of the brain that lights up when financial risks are taken.

... The study conforms with recent research that indicates men shown a pornographic movie were more likely to make riskier sexual decisions. Another suggests straight men think less about their financial future after being shown pictures of pretty women.

Many blog commenters took swipes at the study, but my favorite was this:

The obvious next question is whether this effect is specific to erotic emotions, or if you'd get the same effect with other positive emotions. In other words, is sex special because you need to use sexy stimuli to get this effect, or is sex special because you need to use sexy stimuli to get this effect into the news?

A reader emails:

A reader emails:

Yes, I've been quiet here for a few days. I spent the weekend with Kim, as usual, and yesterday focused on work.

Among other things over the weekend, Kim and I went to the Boston Mills Artfest. There was some great stuff there. Kim wanted to enjoy seeing what was there - she goes nearly every year - but was also interested in finding something to hang over the fireplace in her family room (there's a lot of space there, as the house has an open floor plan, and that wall goes up two stories). As we were leaving at day's end, she ended up buying one of the first things we'd looked at when we got there, a photograph, printed on canvas, by Alex Ludden, called "Doorway to Heaven," and depicting an arched doorway in a Dominican house in Oaxaca, Mexico. I liked it because of the Dominican connection, of course, but also because of the composition, colors, and so on.

There was too much other good stuff there to mention in this post, but let me plug just two of the other artists whose work I liked. One was Will Armstrong, who with his wife makes "metal quilts." We saw several that depicted trees; I especially liked the four-piece one showing a different part of the same tree in each of the four seasons.

The other was Bill Dziejman, who does some interesting photography - see especially his "series." I could see myself buying and hanging small prints of the beer and wine series in my kitchen, along with the picture of the tops of some wine bottles.

For those of you in the Cleveland/Akron area, the Artfest continues/concludes next weekend. The second weekend has different exhibitors, but I'm sure they'll also be good.

Hard to believe a year is gone.  Like most homeschooling moms - moms in general, really - I measure my year from July to July.  We look for, and buy calendars, that allow us to plan summer activities and the school year.  A Jan. - Jan. calendar just won't work for us.

So, I am looking again for a planner.  Last year, you may remember my search for the 'perfect' planner.  I ended up w/ the Catholic Woman's planner from www.family-centered.com.  I used it all year, it is now pretty beat-up and full of apppointments, phone numbers, story ideas, and much, much more.  It is full of a year of my family's life. 

So this year, I went again to the Family-Centered.  There was my planner but sadly, it was again white.  The only real complaint I can lodge against this planner is that it is white. I know why it is white - most people prefer white as a clear, crisp surface for writing.  But I dearly love color, so this year, I thought I'd find something different.  I wanted color, pizzaz, something....so I started looking again. 

Over the past few weeks, I have found what were advertised as  'perfect' mom planners for over $50!  Some almost $100.  No mom I know would spend that much on a lousy calendar unless it was going to drive the kids to the soccer practices listed in that calendar!  I have found affordable calendars w/ a lot of color, pretty pictures, neat little clips for marking important dates but still something was missing.

Matthew 8: 23-27
As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?"

Today's reading is so comforting in its familiarity.  Jesus can calm the very winds; as their creator, they must obey his words, his commands.

But what of us?  Are we not also created by Him?  Why then do we continue to storm around?  The storms of our lives are often of our own creation, we have made them by our decisions or lack of decision.  How often have we insisted on sailing out into stormy seas, refusing to listen to the warnings from the Coast Guard (God, friends, family or spiritual counselor)?  We feel our boat, our very lives, become swamped but we refuse to seek help through others or prayer and won't even attempt to bail ourselves out.

Or, the storm is not of our making.  We are caught up in a tempest we don't want to be in.  We are desperate to see the light in the clouds, a calm in the winds and an ease to our difficulties.  Again, turn to Jesus.  Ask Him to calm your winds, ask for His help to see a clear sailing route back to the shore where you can rest and He will have a fire and fish awaiting you.

Either way - Jesus is the only way out of the storm - either one you created yourself or one that merely whipped up around you.  Perfect storm??  Perfect Lord.  Jesus, calm the seas of my soul.

With many personal, family and marital rights and healthy norms being eroded, there is much need for our ongoing prayer and acts of sacrifice/fasting as well as taking action.  We should not presume on anything.  As a child, I would never have conceived of the prospect that gay behaviors would not only become socially tolerated, but even promoted, such as the state recognition of gay "marriages".

Yet, the problems are much more cancerous than imagined and common sense is truly going out the window as exemplified in a recent ruling that occurred in Canada where the court ruled in favor of a teenage girl saying that her parents did not have the right to restrict her from going on a school camping trip, of which, the father had grounded her from going due to her inappropriate behaviors on the internet and conflict with her stepmother.  It is truly unbelievable - here is the story:  http://www.crosswalk.com/parenting/11578047/

This Sunday, the Church celebrates the great feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Our Mass readings include, of course, St. Matthew's account of Peter's confession of faith, and Jesus' response. They also include the story from Acts of the angel's rescue of Peter from Herod, and St. Paul's words about how the Lord had strengthened and rescued him and enabled him to finish his mission. By way of a brief reflection, I would like to note the importance of trust that the Lord will never abandon us, will never ask anything of us that he will not also enable us to do.

This is true of the call to holiness in general. In Christ and the Holy Spirit, God really enables us to shun evil and do good, even to live as his faithful sons and daughters. This is true also of all the particular things God asks of us, for our own sake and for the sake of others. If we are confident that God has asked something of us, we may be equally confident that nothing need keep us from accomplishing it. And if something truly prevents us from accomplishing some goal, we may be confident that God was not, in fact, asking it of us. Either way, we can and should have true peace.

This is true not only of what God asks each of us as individuals, but also of what he asks of his Church as a whole, as a Body. As God protected Sts. Peter and Paul and the other Apostles for the fulfillment of their mission - and as he protects each member of the Church, great or small, so he protects the whole Church, founded on those Apostles and their sucessors, made up of those countless members.