Pope Francis Is Right. The World Should Ban Surrogacy (?)

Oh boy! Another diffcult issue to navigate. AUBREY GULICK (below) is a young conservative but she is also a devout Catholic and that has clearly influenced her views.

I think she is wrong. As I see it, surrogacy brings human beings into the world who otherwise would not exist so it is to be praised.

Her big objection is that not all fertilized eggs during a surrogacy process will result in a pregnancy. Fertilized eggs are real human beings and their death is akin to murder.

I do agree that all fertilized eggs are full human beings but it is myopic to say that their loss is akin to murder. Fertilized eggs are routinely lost during menstruation. That only some fertilized eggs survive is nature's way and surrogacy in fact REDUCES those losses. And the products of surrogacy are clearly very much wanted so should normally be treated well

Catholicism can be very dogmatic but I hope it releases its grip on Aubrey in this matter

Blue eyes. Blond hair. Somewhere between 5’9 and 6’3. Does that sound like the ideal baby boy? Or maybe you wanted a girl with brown hair and green eyes who would grow to be 5’3. Until very recently, that wasn’t a choice anyone got to make. Now, with surrogacy, almost anyone can.

Of course, that doesn’t mean surrogacy is moral, and the Catholic Church has been consistent in its opposition to the practice because it amounts to trafficking unborn children. On Monday, Pope Francis called for a global ban on surrogacy during an address to diplomats gathered in Vatican City in which he discussed a wide range of global issues, including the wars in Ukraine and Israel and the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. (READ MORE: Kellyanne Conway’s Contraception Gambit)

“The path to peace calls for respect for life, for every human life, starting with the life of the unborn child in the mother’s womb, which cannot be suppressed or turned into an object of trafficking,” Francis said. “In this regard, I deem deplorable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs. A child is always a gift and never the basis of a commercial contract.”

Surrogacy Grows in Popularity

But Francis didn’t just speak out against surrogacy, which he has done before; he called on the world to ban the practice altogether — and he did so in the face of an industry that is growing exponentially. Global Market Insights estimates that by 2032, the surrogate market will have grown ninefold compared to 2022 data, becoming an industry worth $129 billion. Surrogacy isn’t exactly new (“Baby M,” the subject of a contentious case that went to the New Jersey Supreme Court, was born in the 1980s), but its popularity has skyrocketed over the last few years.

There are several reasons for that. As homosexuality becomes more widely acceptable, those practicing the lifestyle want to have biological children, and that requires using a surrogate. Celebrities who want children often turn to surrogacy for health reasons or convenience. Couples who were married late in life or who struggle with fertility will sometimes do the same. Of course, surrogacy doesn’t work as an industry unless women are willing to carry someone else’s child for nine months — and those living in war-torn countries like Ukraine, countries with third-world economies (some of which have wisely banned the practice), or situations with low incomes and few career opportunities, usually are.

As the practice has become more popular, stories like that of Shane Dawson and Ryland Adams have received a lot of attention in the media. Despite Dawson’s demonstrable pedophilic tendencies, the popular YouTubers were recently able to take home twin boys conceived via an egg donor and birthed by another woman. An estimated 10 children were discarded in the process after Dawson and Adams decided which babies they wanted. (RELATED: Shane Dawson and Ryland Adams’ Use of Surrogacy Showcases the Practice’s Grotesqueness)

Product of the Culture of Death

While Dawson and Adams’ case is particularly horrific, the problem with surrogacy and in-vitro fertilization isn’t only that the gay couple deprives a child of his or her mother but that the process itself is immoral. Millions of tiny, unborn babies are frozen or killed, and the miraculous process of bringing life into the world is reduced to a contractual relationship in which thousands of dollars pass hands.

The same is true when a heterosexual couple struggling with infertility or sexual trauma turns to surrogacy to build a family. The ends don’t justify the means, and the process should be illegal. Fortunately, in some places like Italy, Spain, and India, it is. Unfortunately, in the United States, surrogacy is governed by a patchwork of laws across the states, and only three ban it outright.

As Francis pointed out in Monday’s address, surrogacy and its popularity are a product of the culture of death in which we live. “At every moment of its existence, human life must be preserved and defended; yet I note with regret, especially in the West, the continued spread of a culture of death, which in the name of a false compassion discards children, the elderly, and the sick,” the pope said.

The pontiff is, of course, quite right. Children ought to be the natural product of the love between a man and a woman — a wonderful, miraculous outflowing of their relationship. They should never be a commodity, ordered out of a catalog in a desire to satisfy the egos of the people who claim to be their parents.

https://spectator.org/pope-francis-is-right-the-world-should-ban-surrogacy/

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Mega-Study Finds That Minorities Don’t Receive Harsher Criminal Punishments, But That Academics Said So Anyway

An analysis of twenty years of academic literature found that there is little or no evidence that minorities are mistreated by the criminal justice system when it comes to punishment, despite assertions to the contrary by policymakers, media, and academics.

“In recent years it has become common belief within the scholarly community as well as the general public that the criminal justice system is biased due to race and class issues. We sought to examine this with meta-analysis. Our results suggest that for most crimes, criminal adjudication in the US is not substantially biased on race or class lines,” professors Christopher J. Ferguson and Sven Smith of Stetson University found in a study to be published in the criminology journal Aggression and Violent Behavior and obtained by The Daily Wire.

“Overall, this is a cause for optimism,” researchers concluded—though their findings also called into question the honesty and rigor of the work conducted by race-fueled scholars, whose weaknesses were highlighted this month in former Harvard president Claudine Gay.

As a meta-analysis, the study did not create a new dataset on criminal sentencing and race, but rather examined 51 studies conducted by others looking at the question since 2005. The numbers suggesting no or marginal racial bias in punishment were therefore collected by the existing studies, but those authors often claimed to have found racial bias in their writings, even when their numbers did not back it up.

“We express the concern that evidence for racial bias in the U.S. criminal justice system has been consistently weak, and that scholarly narratives have too often ignored this in favor of the systemic racism narrative,” Ferguson and Smith wrote.

Some of the studies found no evidence of racism in criminal sentencing and said so clearly, but their findings were simply ignored by the media, politicians, and other academics, who at times did not acknowledge a single paper dissenting from their hypothesis in their citations.

“At present, we believe that the evidence on racial bias in criminal justice adjudication has been poorly communicated to the general public and policymakers. In many cases, it appears that data calling into question beliefs in structural racism in the criminal justice system are simply being ignored, both by scholars in the field and by policy makers,” the new paper said.

When combining the 51 studies, the numbers “did not reach evidentiary standards to support the hypothesis that race or class are predictive of criminal adjudication” when it comes to all crime types, violent crimes, or juvenile crimes. For drug crimes, “small disparities were found… suggesting that race/ethnicity is associated with between 1.6 to 1.8% of the variance in criminal adjudication” among blacks and Hispanics facing drug charges, versus whites–a percentage so small that policy discussions focused on it are unlikely to solve any problems.

“There was no evidence of a class effect, and Asians actually received more favorable treatment during criminal adjudication than Whites, albeit not at a level that met our evidentiary standard,” the paper said.

Scholars determined to find racial bias were often able to claim to have made a statistically significant finding because court records allow for studies to include tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of cases. In science, the threshold for “statistical significance” is a balance between how big the effect is and how many examples were included in the study. In studies with huge amounts of criminal cases, even the most minute differences in criminal sentences can technically be called “significant.” But in the common meaning of the word, a years-long prison term being a few days shorter or longer, on average, for different race or class groups is not actually significant, and is essentially “noise” in the data set, the paper said.

Among other signs of biased or poorly done science, race researchers often did not “pre-register” their studies by laying out in advance their hypothesis and what they would do to determine if it was true or not. That meant that if their initial methodology found no evidence of racism, they could simply slice and dice the data in different ways until they found some way in which they could claim vindication. (Ferguson and Smith’s meta-analysis was pre-registered.)

Such researchers also did not set out in advance what kind of numbers would be required to show that the criminal justice system is racist. “Put simply: it is helpful to know what data we’d expect to see if the theory is wrong and what the threshold for rejecting the theory might be. Without such clear guidelines, theories may persist endlessly despite having weak evidence,” Ferguson and Smith wrote.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/mega-study-finds-that-minorities-dont-receive-harsher-criminal-punishments-but-that-academics-said-so-anyway

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Blue state Republicans move to strike this ‘catastrophic’ drug law they say is wreaking havoc on communities

As Portland reckons with an "explosion" of open-air drug use, Fox News rode along with the police bureau's bike squad. Here's what we saw in the City of Roses.

Oregon House Republicans are sharing their plan to end the state's voter-approved drug decriminalization experiment at the same time Democratic lawmakers are weighing a more modest re-criminalization proposal.

"The citizens of Oregon understand the failures of Measure 110," Rep. Rick Lewis, one of the chief sponsors of the GOP bill, said in a statement. "We see the results on the streets, in the unacceptable overdose death rate and in the catastrophic consequences to our communities, to public safety and to livability. Change is needed, and we can’t afford to take small steps that fail to adequately address the problem."

About 58% of Oregon voters passed Measure 110 in 2020, decriminalizing small amounts of all drugs and redirecting much of the state's marijuana tax revenue to fund grants for addiction services.

Since then, addiction and overdose deaths have skyrocketed in Oregon and nationwide as fentanyl swept across the country. Now, three years into the first-of-its-kind law, numerous polls show Oregonians favor re-criminalizing hard drugs and making treatment required, not voluntary, as a jail alternative.

The Republican bill would make possession of drugs like fentanyl, heroin and meth a Class A misdemeanor and would require treatment to avoid jail. If convicted, drug users could face up to a year in jail, a $6,250 fine, or both.

"Enabling people to live on the streets and poison themselves is not compassionate," Rep. Tracy Cramer said in a statement.

The bill would also ban public drug use and set harsher prison sentences for drug dealers, especially if they sell drugs that result in a person's death.

Democrats, who control both chambers of the state legislature, have also signaled a desire to roll back parts of Measure 110 during their upcoming 35-day legislative session. One possibility is making possession a Class C misdemeanor, the lowest crime classification.

But reform advocates staunchly oppose re-criminalizing drugs.

"Any action by the Oregon legislature that criminalizes addiction would be cruel, harmful, and a failure of leadership," read a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, Health Justice Recovery Alliance and other groups supporting Measure 110.

"We cannot regress back to the failed war on drug tactics that harm Black, brown, and poor people and make drug addiction, overdose deaths, and homelessness more difficult and expensive to solve," the statement continued.

In Portland, where the effects of Oregon's drug laws are most stark, city officials have been urging the state to take action.

"We need to give tools to our first responders so they can take action," City Commissioner Dan Ryan told Fox News on Thursday. "If someone is smoking fentanyl in public and it's causing harm to those who are trying to access the sidewalk, then the police need to be able to respond to that … It's just common sense."

Portland's City Council unanimously passed an ordinance banning public drug use in September. But city officials said the law couldn't go into effect until state lawmakers pass a new law allowing them to enforce it.

Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber told the Capital Chronicle that Democrats are working with Republicans to "put together a proposal that connects people to addiction treatment, gets drugs off our streets, and keeps our communities safe."

"We know we cannot go back to the failed war on drugs, and we cannot continue to allow Oregonians to die of drug overdoses on our streets," Lieber said in a statement to the outlet. "A policy has not been finalized, but once we do have a proposal to put forward, we look forward to thoroughly vetting the ideas through a public process."

A coalition of political and business leaders in Oregon have also lobbied the legislature to reform Measure 110 and promises to send a ballot measure to the voters if lawmakers don't take action next month.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blue-state-republicans-move-strike-catastrophic-drug-law-say-wreaking-havoc-communities

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Antisemitic madness is everywhere now

It makes the brainless and the losers feel smart

For many, it was to be a respite. An escape. A place to unwind and be among nature, music, dance, yoga – a sanctuary of sorts. A safe space. The website promised an experience based on inclusivity. This promise was undoubtedly fulfilled for many Woodford Folk Festival goers, unless, of course, you were Israeli or Jewish.

Israeli backpackers flocked to Woodford keen to, at least temporarily, leave the massacre of October 7 behind them.

‘We came because we heard that it’s an amazing festival,’ said Ami, a young Israeli.

‘I went with a friend whose boyfriend was kidnapped and then killed in Gaza. Our goal was to clear our minds and leave the city – be in nature. Instead, the experience turned out to be very triggering.

‘The people there had no idea what they’re talking about. One girl on stage in shorts was holding an Aboriginal and Palestinian flag, yet if she dressed like that in Gaza she would be shot straight away.’

And for local Jewish residents, the experience was not much different.

‘As a person who’s been going to Woodford since my early teens, I’ve always found it a place of refuge and I felt safe. Each time I’d go to Woodford it felt like coming home,’ said Penny. ‘Yet this year was different. It was filled with extremely distressing experiences. It was disheartening to see casual one-sided references to the war in an inflammatory way.’

And then there’s Hagar, who has been travelling in Australia for close to a year. She is a Nova festival goer and has many friends who lost their lives on October 7, as well as friends who have fallen while serving in the army in this current war. The Nova music festival is where more than 350 young Israelis were murdered. Others were raped, tortured, or kidnapped and taken into Gaza. Some are still being kept hostage.

It was the first time, she said, during her travels in Australia that she had encountered such anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish sentiments from the other people in attendance.

‘The people they [the protestors] are supporting killed my friends and reminded me of the horrible events of October 7,’ Hagar said.

‘It [Woodford] is not an experience which I will remember as being good, [with some festival goers] supporting murder and rape in a modern society and it felt like our side wasn’t heard or given a chance to tell our story.’

The Woodford Folk Festival near the eponymous South East Queensland town has been and gone for another year. The festival is held annually over six days and six nights, following Christmas through to New Year’s Day. More than 2,000 local, national, and international, artists, musicians, and presenters put on over 500 acts. Around 125,000 people flock annually from around the globe to the event. The festival is run as a non-profit organisation supported by corporate sponsors as well as receiving state and federal government sponsorship. The festival organisers tout the event as a festival ‘based on a vision of inclusive and creative community and culture…’ and ‘…kindness, empathy, goodwill and generosity are collectively extended to all’.

For a certain minority, this year’s festival was anything but ‘inclusive’ or filled with ‘kindness, empathy, and goodwill’. Instead, it was marred by pro-Palestinian supporters high-jacking the festival, turning the event into mass political grandstanding.

‘I’m a regular attendee at Woodford Folk Festival and have worked there multiple times,’ said Imogene, who is neither Jewish nor Israeli.

‘This festival holds a very special place in my heart and is definitely considered to be one of my favourite festivals in Australia. However, I was really disappointed this year by the insensitivity towards the large Israeli and Jewish community who have supported this festival for many, many years.

‘I understand that this art and musical festival always has a hint of politics, however, this year’s festival was heartless and very inappropriate. It was incredibly unfair towards the Jewish community to have people protesting about Gaza and Palestine with signs like ‘From the river to the sea Palestine will be free’ during such a sensitive time. In festivals you should feel a sense of belonging, instead people were parading the extinction of Israel with no real understanding of the depth of their words. There were groups of people gathering at the village green with flags, and posters, and wearing Keffiyeh (which is culturally inappropriate in itself), and then parading these around the festival. People even put ‘Free Palestine’ stickers on Israeli food trucks and signs. Can you feel the suffocation? Musicians and artists praying for the people in Gaza with no remorse or prayers towards Israelis who are sitting right in front of them. It was absolutely heartbreaking!’

Imogene shared that throughout the festival her Jewish friends came up to her in tears and shared how unsafe they felt – in a festival that should be bringing nothing but love and light, she said.

‘After the horrific events that happened on October 7, in particular at the Nova festival, you can imagine the hurdle Israelis and all affected had to overcome to even bring themselves to this festival, to then feel suffocated, unsafe, and to be reminded of these events by people dressing up like the ones who brought this terror in the first place.

‘While I love this festival and all that goes into it, I was very disappointed and disheartened by the large number of beautiful people who were torn apart from all of this – including me.’

Israeli-born Australian Sivan attended the Woodford Folk Festival with her two children, aged 6 and 9. Sivan had never been to Woodford and was looking forward to spending the day at a festival that she thought would be a peaceful, welcoming, and inclusive environment. As a Jewish Israeli, what she experienced was quite the opposite. She felt unsafe, not welcome, and her children felt scared, threatened, and fearful from what they experienced.

Sivan’s best friend, Danielle, lived on Kibbutz Oz – one of the kibbutzim massacred on October 7. The parents of Sivan’s friends, Orly and David, were both gruesomely murdered by Hamas. What makes these slayings particularly grotesque is that the terrorists filmed the murder and sent the footage of this horrific act to their daughter, Danielle. Sadly, this experience is not unique to Sivan. Many Queenslanders have a close connection to the horrors of October 7.

As Sivan strolled around the Woodford grounds, she encountered a group of Palestinian protestors sporting Palestinian flags and signs. The group chanted ‘Free, free Palestine’ and ‘Genocide’. She asked this group whether they knew what had happened on October 7.

They did not respond and avoided engaging in conversation with her. She asked again. No response. She then asked them to close their eyes and imagine terrorists breaking into their houses, murdering families, slaughtering babies. One of the protestors responded with: ‘That never happened.’

Sivan said her children were left extremely scared after the encounter. Sivan said she came to the festival to enjoy the shows, the workshops, the music, and dancing: the putative community spirit of the festival. Yet the reality of the festival was anything but enjoyable. A little later, she was confronted by yet another protest.

Jewish friends of Sivan had flown up from Melbourne with their daughter to attend the festival. They had paid for two days but after the first day did not feel comfortable returning to the overtly anti-Israel environment.

An Israeli backpacker, while watching a performance, was confronted by a Palestinian flag and a mentioning of all ‘the murders in Gaza’ during the show. Another Israeli backpacker went to order some food from an Israeli food truck. A sticker had allegedly been stuck to the van: ‘Warning: Do not buy this product. Supports Israel. A country that is exceedingly violating international law, the 4th Geneva Convention, and fundamental human rights. Stand up for human rights. Boycott Israel until it respects international law. #BDS.’ Not only is this incorrect, as many international law experts will confirm, but one has to ask what a locally owned/run business has to do with Israel? Just like every other Aussie, they were there to enjoy the festival and, hopefully, make a quid while they’re at it, not to be subjected to boycotts and acts of antisemitism. The IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Association) defines what constitutes antisemitism, including: holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

Prior to the start, both Israelis and Jews had shared their concerns with Woodford management. According to them, these concerns were allegedly met with justifications of free speech. Festival organisers provided assurances that they would respond quickly and decisively to any incitement of hatred.

The Woodford Folk Festival is a partly state and federal sponsored event and as such ought to be wholly exempt from politics and expressions of controversial opinions. Furthermore, it runs directly counter to Woodford’s stated aim of ‘love’ and ‘coming together as humans’ etc. etc. It is indeed incumbent upon the festival organisers to ensure that no festival goer is offended, but is instead able to enjoy the music, dance, art, the natural environment, and workshops.

‘I left Israel 2 months after the war started,’ Yasmin says. ‘In the first 2 months, I have not experienced any negativity from people here, even the opposite, people whom I interacted with were very supportive and understanding in conversations when I told them I am from Israel.

‘During the Woodford Festival, I was exposed to the most Palestinian and pro-Palestinian content so far in my trip. On the first day, there were Palestinian flags on the main stage at an event, which made me feel very uneasy and unsafe. They then set up a stand with their propaganda. It was the opposite to feeling welcome and at home; it was very uncomfortable. We tried to talk to the management about our feelings to no avail.

‘We talked to the police about how this makes us feel but they informed us that this was authorised by the management.

‘People at the festival asked me why don’t I go to another country and live there? What they don’t understand is the connection we have to our country, our land. It is where I live, where my cultural heritage is.

‘In my eyes that flag [Palestinian] is a symbol of Israeli annihilation, which was attempted on October 7. When I see that flag I feel my life is in danger. I did not enjoy this festival. I would have liked to have something to represent how we feel and what the Israeli side has been through. It felt like very one-sided opinions and views.’

One Israeli backpacker summed up the general sentiment: ‘If I knew it would be such an anti-Israel festival I would never have gone. I thought it was supposed to be a peaceful, welcoming festival. I came to escape – to experience positive, good vibes and be among nature – to have a good time. Yet it felt violent, aggressive, toxic.’

In my opinion, the organisers of the Woodford Folk Festival have failed miserably in their mission, vision, and values of inclusivity, kindness, empathy, goodwill, and generosity collectively extended to all. They have allowed what is one of the great festivals of ‘human connection and love’ on the annual calendar to descend into something else entirely.

‘It was the first time I felt unwanted and rejected because I am Israeli,’ Amit said. ‘I felt minimised – like someone is pointing a finger at me because of where I am from.’

I wonder if this was the experience event sponsors had hoped for…

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/01/a-festival-of-exclusivity/

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

<> http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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