Michele McGinty: November 2008 Archives

It can be used for birth control, examinations, STD screenings and abortions:

For the first time, Planned Parenthood in Indiana is offering gift certificates. The organization said a big increase in calls and visits from newly unemployed and uninsured Hoosiers prompted what it calls the unusual, yet practical gift option.

"People are making really tough decisions about putting gas in their car and food on their table, so we know that many women especially put healthcare at the bottom of their list to do," said Chrystal Struben-Hall, Vice President of Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

[...]

The organization hopes people might purchase the certificates, and then turn them back in for their patients who need reproductive healthcare, but can't pay for it.

(via)

Elective abortions are not legal in Spain but they do have a health of the mother clause (both mental and physical) that accounts for 97% of the abortions. Abortion clinics have financial ties to psychologists who issue assessments for the abortion clinic patients that they need an abortion for psychological reasons (this is why pro-lifers fought so hard against "health of the mother" exceptions to late-term abortions).

Under Spain's practically nonexistent restrictions, abortions have more than doubled since the mid 1990s, climbing from 51,006 in 1996 to over 120,000 in 2007. The abortion rate is now approaching one in five pregnancies (18.3%), according to the report.

[...]

The report uses images to demonstrate the seriousness of Spain's abortion rate: the equivalent population of a mid-sized high school disappears every three days. Every twenty days the death toll equals the annual number of people killed in car wrecks. The total death toll, more than a million Spaniards since 1985, is the equivalent of multiple Spanish provinces.

[...]

Spain's abortion rate is a major contributor to the country's worsening demographic problems. The average number of children per family in Spain is only 1.3, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. The downward pressures on population are being relieved by a massive influx of immigrants from Arab countries and South America, which are beginning to replace the native Spanish.

It's up by 3%. The economy must be a little better than we've heard if people are out spending anything:

The holiday shopping season got off to a surprisingly solid start, according to data released Saturday by a research firm. But the sales boost during the post-Thanksgiving shopathon came at the expense of profits as the nation's retailers had to slash prices to attract the crowds in a season that is expected to be the weakest in decades.

Sales during the day after Thanksgiving rose 3 percent to $10.6 billion, according to preliminary figures released Saturday by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets. Last year, shoppers spent about $10.3 billion on the day after Thanksgiving, dubbed Black Friday because it was historically the sales-packed day when retailers would become profitable for the year.

[...]

Across the country, sales in the South were up 3.4 percent from last year while they climbed 2.6 percent in the Northeast as shoppers began scouring store aisles at midnight hoping to snag the best selection on early morning specials, some as much as 70 percent off. Elsewhere, sales rose 3 percent in the Midwest and 2.7 percent in the West.

(via)

Here's a report that states they didn't think they were part of a suicide mission.

The gang of terrorists who wreaked mayhem in Mumbai for three days were made to believe by their Lashkar bosses that they were not
being sent on a suicide mission and that they would be coming back alive.

In a sensational disclosure made by Ajmal, the jihadi nabbed alive by Mumbai cops, the group had planned to sail out on Thursday. Their recruiters had even charted out the return route for them and stored it on the GPS device which they had used to navigate their way to the Mumbai shoreline.

This suggests that the terrorists were willing to undertake a mission which they knew would be very risky, but not necessarily suicidal.

Sources said that the bait of safe return must have been used by the recruiters to convince the wavering among the group to join the audacious plot against Mumbai.

According to Maharashtra ATS sources, the terrorists who attacked Mumbai had instructions to kill till their death. A instruction that commandoes involved in the operation say they had followed to the end, littering the hotels with dead bodies. These disclosures are a part of some shocking revelations that came out after initial investigations.

Security sources quoting the arrested terrorist revealed that these terrorists were given extensive marine commando training for three months at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

I'm sure that you guys have been praying for the people of India and the families of those who have been attacked. We know how they feel to be attacked by Islamic militants who hate them because of who they are. Here is an example of the joy militants expressed when they heard the news:

Al-Qaeda websites on Thursday were swamped with messages from people who were celebrating the devastating Mumbai attacks which have left over 100 people dead and 281 injured. "Oh Allah, destroy the Hindus and do it in the worst of ways," was one of the comments that appeared on Islamist forums on the Internet immediately after the attacks.

"The battle that is underway in Mumbai is a battle for Allah between its servants and the infidels," said another message published on the al-Falluja forum.

Update: Here's a report on the amazing bravery and graciousness of the hotel staff during the terrorist attack:

Prashant Mangeshikar could be dead, one of more than a hundred victims of militant attacks across Mumbai landmarks, if it had not been for an employee at the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Mangeshikar, his wife and daughter were in the foyer of the 105-year-old hotel on Wednesday night when Islamist gunmen opened indiscriminate fire in one of a series of coordinated attacks in India's financial capital.

Recovering from the initial shock and chaos, hotel staff shepherded the guests, including the Mangeshikar family, through the service section upstairs -- only suddenly to come face to face with one of the gunmen.

"He looked young and did not speak to us. He just fired. We were in sort of a single file," Mangeshikar, a 52-year-old gynecologist, told Reuters. "The man in front of my wife shielded us. He was a maintenance section staff. He took the bullets."

The tale of the unnamed staff member has echoed across Mumbai where, time after time, hotel workers have emerged as the people who shielded, hid or evacuated their wealthy guests from militants at the Taj and Trident/Oberoi hotels.

Hotel workers in one case ushered guests into a conference room and then locked the doors to protect them from the militants. The guests were later rescued by the fire brigade.

The staff often proved essential, knowing short cuts to safety and where emergency exits were located.

The Obama effect on cookie sales Obama's favorite cookie when he was in Iowa is suddenly a big hit:

Suddenly, sales of 400 cookies in a good week soared to more than 1,000 a week, with requests coming from as far away as Mexico. Alas, the price is going up, from 50 cents to 75 cents a cookie to make up for the time it takes to make more each day.

[...]

"I think everybody just ... thought, 'Oh, great cookie, great president--the world is a happy place. Barack's going to fix all the problems and if I have a bite of this cookie it's going to make me feel good,'" Maxfield said.

Wow! Obama really has his work cut out for him lowering expectations. He's been trying to warn people it's going to take years to fix the economy but the people just aren't getting it. Maybe he shouldn't have sold himself as the one the world was waiting for
. It makes people think you're able to solve the problems of the world. Good luck with that.