If All Else Fails Use Fear

Sorry Mitt, the electoral map shows it’s all over but the shouting. I hope!

I find this truly depressing. Mitt Romney has resorted to fear to obtain a win. It’s not a new idea.

The NRA has successfully used fear to promote a high level of gun sales during the past four years. That organization has warned its members that Obama has plans to stop all gun sales and confiscate your guns. The reality is there has not been any gun legislation suggested by the administration. No new controls were suggested after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting nor any other shooting.

The Huffington Post reported “Mitt Romney’s campaign, in a last-minute robocall, warns voters that “President Barack Obama is hostile to the Christian faith.”

If that isn’t enough AP reports tonight “Mitt Romney warned Friday that re-electing his Democratic opponent would threaten another government shutdown and national default.” This was part of his presentation in front of more than 18,000 people in suburban Cincinnati.

So my question is if elected president will he use fear to obtain congressional support for the things he wants? You know, things like war with Iran, an extra $2 trillion dollars for the defense budget, the tax cuts he wants, and the reason we should not give any attention to global warming.

I guess I won’t have to hold my nose. Romney has made it easier for me to cast my ballot for Barack Obama.

Republican Party Opposes All Abortions

As time passes more and more Republican politicians oppose all abortions no matter how the woman became pregnant. Rape, incest or a woman’s health are no longer reasons to permit an abortion. It is an idea pulled from another century along time ago.

I am mystified by the idea that any woman would vote to elect Mitt Romney for president. The GOP Party platform includes these words: “We call on the government to permanently ban all federal funding and subsidies for abortion and healthcare plans that include abortion coverage.”

Three candidates for U.S. Senator or U.S. Congressman have spoken against the idea of abortion even in the case of rape. Todd Akin in Missouri, Richard Mourdock in Indiana, and now John Koster in Washington. Romney running mate, Paul Ryan, holds the same view.

Free access to birth control could prevent up to two thirds of U.S. abortions. This was the results of a research study conducted at the Washington University School of Medicine. However this is useless information to people who do not want to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

Mitt Romney is now trying to convince women that he does not subscribe to the idea that life begins at conception. Then why is this thought part of the GOP platform? Why did he select Paul Ryan as his running mate?

A Mitt Romney presidency will take this nation back to the middle ages. The Taliban couldn’t be happier.

G.O.P. Wants to Control Women

Muslims are known for their mis-treatment of women. They are treated as second class citizens. If you have never seen the movie “Not Without My Daughter” you should watch it. It tells of the treatment of women in a Muslim country. Most of us in America are shocked by the depictions of life in Iran. And yet, many Americans want to treat their wives and daughters as if they have no right to make decisions for themselves.

The orthodox of most religions in the United States still want to tell the women in their lives what to do and when to do it. The men can have sex but the women can not. If they get pregnant they must bare the child no matter how it was conceived. Both Tod Akin, Republican candidate for the Senate in Missouri and Indiana Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock have taken the position that women have natural protection against rape or if they were rapped the child must be born.

Is this the view of the Republican Party? Read their platform. Buried in the writing are these gems that lead to the same conclusions as Akin and Mourdock have made.

This is enough for me to oppose Republicans for office.

Through Obamacare, the current Administration has promoted the notion of abortion as healthcare. We, however, affirm the dignity of women by protecting the sanctity of human life. Numerous studies have shown that abortion endangers the health and well-being of women, and we stand firmly against it.

We call on the government to permanently ban all federal funding and subsidies for abortion and healthcare plans that include abortion coverage.

We likewise support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their children, including mental health treatment, drug treatment, and treatment involving pregnancy, contraceptives and abortion. We urge enactment of pending legislation that would require parental consent to transport girls across state lines for abortions.

We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and related services for abortion and contraception. We support keeping federal funds from being used in mandatory or universal mental health, psychiatric, or socio- emotional screening programs.

Does Islam Wish to be the Enemy of the West?

The answer appears to be YES! In communities throughout Europe Sharia law has replaced government law. In my own community Muslims refuse to obey local parking ordinances on Fridays when parking their cars before entering their mosque.

WordPress provides a daily report to me that indicates the nations of the readers of Coastcontact. Just this past Friday, October 12 there were at least seven visitors from Saudi Arabia. Many other Middle Easterners from many Islamic nations have also visited this site. I was interviewed by The Pakistani Spectator a few years ago too. However, there have been almost no comments or challenges by Muslims to my obvious Western views.

Without a dialog there cannot be a peace.

My primary target has been Islamic treatment of women. In my view they are treated like property. Many are denied education, kept wrapped in tents (called burqa), and are treated as little more than slaves or concubines.

However, many Muslims are migrating to Western Europe and America to obtain a better life without wanting to pay the price of throwing off their “old world” customs.

Pictures like this tells of a wish to convert the entire world to your way of life. These pictures are of Muslims marching through the STREETS OF LONDON during their recent ‘Religion of Peace Demonstration.’

Tell us all here in this blog what you want.

The Father

Should Catholics riot over this silly story? I hope they don’t! Muslims need to learn to take jokes about their religion as silly words.

—

A little boy got on the bus, sat next to a man reading a book, and noticed he had his collar on backwards.

The little boy asked why he wore his collar backwards.

The man, who was a priest, said, ‘I am a Father.’

The little boy replied, ‘My Daddy doesn’t wear his collar like that.’

The priest looked up from his book and answered, ”I am the Father of many.’

The boy said, ”My Dad has 4 boys, 4 girls and two grandchildren and he doesn’t wear his collar that way!’

The priest, getting impatient, said. ‘I am the Father of hundreds’, and went back to reading his book.

The little boy sat quietly thinking for a while, then leaned over and said, “Maybe you should wear a condom and put your pants on backwards instead of your collar”.

Mormons in Israel

For those of you who do not read the Los Angeles Times this article will be of interest. I do not trust Mitt Romney because he has been a serial flip-flopper. There is hardly a position he took as governor of Massachusetts that he has not changed. If you can believe him, Romney says he would never criticize Israel and would be a steadfast ally to the Jewish state. You could call it politics but there does not appear to be any issue that is core to his beliefs. Still this article may give you pause to at least listen to his campaign.

Mormons in Israel

By Rafael Medoff

Mitt Romney’s trail to the Holy Land was blazed by a Utah missionary a century ago.

MITT ROMNEY’S visit to Israel will generate much speculation on the role Jewish voters will play in the U.S. presidential election. His visit may also spark discussion about Mormon-Jewish relations in the wake of the recent controversy over a Mormon temple that conducted posthumous baptism ceremonies for some Holocaust victims.

But another Mormon’s visit to Jerusalem, 99 years ago, deserves some of the spotlight too. Because that little-known visit ultimately had a decisive impact on Jewish history and America’s response to the Holocaust.

In 1913, 29-year-old Elbert Thomas and his wife, Edna, wrapped up their five-year stint in charge of a Mormon mission in J apan and prepared to return to their native utah. They decided to pay a short visit to Turkish-occupied Palestine on the way home.

The Holy Land figures prominently in Mormon theological tracts. Thomas was keenly aware of Mormon prophecies about an in- . gathering of the Jewish exiles and the rebirth of the Jewish homeland.

“We sat one evening on the Mount of Olives and overlooked Jerusalem,” he later recalled. “We read the poetry and the prophecy, the forebodings and the prayers, with hearts that reached up to God.” Under “stars the likes of which you see nowhere else in the world but on our own American desert, out where I grew up,” Thomas read the lengthy “Prayer of Dedication on the Mount of Olives” by Orson Hyde, an early Mormon leader and fervent Christian Zionist.

“Consecrate this land … for the gathering together of Judah’s scattered remnants … for the building up of Jerusalem again after it has been trodden down by the Gentiles so long,” Hyde had written in 1841. “Restore the kingdom unto Israel, raise up Jerusalem as its capital…. Let that nation or people who shall take an active part in behalf of Abraham’s children, and in the raising of Jerusalem, find favor in Thy sight. Let not their enemies prevail against them … but let the glory oflsrael overshadow them.”

The moment, the mood and the words moved Thomas to feel a deep spiritual connection to the Jewish people and to commit himself to becoming one of those who would “take an active part in behalf of Abraham’s children.” And three decades later, he was presented with an opportunity to do so.

In the 1940s, as a U.S. senator from utah, Thomas became deeply concerned about the plight of the Jews in Nazi Europe. He joined the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, a lobbying group led by Jewish activist Peter Bergson. Thomas signed on to its full-page newspaper ads criticizing the Allies for abandoning European Jewry. He also cochaired Bergson’s 1943 conference on the rescue of Jews, which challenged the Roosevelt administration’s claim that nothing could be done to help the Jews except winning the war. Although a loyal Democrat and New Dealer, the Utah senator boldly broke ranks with President Franklin D. Roosevelt over the refugee issue.

Thomas played a key role in advancing a Bergson-initiated congressional resolution calling for creation of a government agency to rescue Jews from the Nazis. Sen. Tom Connally CD-Texas), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, initially blocked consideration of the resolution. But when Connally took ill one day, Thomas, as acting chair, quickly introduced the measure. It passed unanimously.

Meanwhile, senior aides to Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. had discovered that State Department officials had
been obstructing opportunities to rescue Jewish refugees. Morgenthau realized, as he told his staff, that the time had come to say to the president, “You have either got to move very fast, or the Congress of the United States will do it for you.” Armed with a devastating report prepared by his staff, and with congressional pressure mounting, Morgenthau went to FDR in JanuaryI944.

Roosevelt could read the writing on the wall. With just days to go before the full Senate would act on the resolution, Roosevelt preempted Thomas and the other congressional advocates of rescue by imilaterally creating the agency they were demanding: the War Refugee Board.

Although understaffed and underfunded, the board played a major role in saving more than 200,000 Jews during the final 15 months of the war. Among other things, the board’s agents persuaded a young Swede, Raoul Wallenberg, to go to German-occupied Budapest in 1944. There, with the board’s financial backing, he undertook his now-famous rescue mission. Thomas’ action in the Senate was an indispensable part of the chain of events that led to Wallenberg’s mission.

The Swedish government, together with Holocaust institutions and Jewish communities around the world, recently launched a yearlong series of events commemorating this summer’s 100th anniversary of Wallenberg’s birth. One hopes these celebrations will include appropriate mention ofthe role played by Americans such as Thomas in making Wallenberg’s work possible.

And as Romney retraces some of Thomas’ steps in Jerusalem, he will have special reason to feel proud of the role played by a fellow Mormon in helping to save Jewish lives.

RAFAEL MEDOFF is director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and the coauthor with Sonja Schoepf Wentling of the new book “Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the ‘Jewish Vote’ and Bipartisan Support for Israel.”

Religion or Government – Which Laws Prevail?

Does the First Amendment permit religions to ignore secular law?

I was watching a Diagnosis Murder television show this evening. You may recall that is the Dick Van Dyke program where he plays a doctor who solves crimes. In this particular episode a Catholic priest refuses to tell anyone including the police who committed a murder. His reason is that his knowledge is the result of a “confession.” I was astonished that he held the position that he is sworn to keep all confessions private.

Then I Google the question, “Can Catholic priests reveal confessed crimes to the police?” Apparently I am mis-informed; it is an accurate fact that “confessions” are never to be revealed. Perhaps that explains the reason that priests who are child abusers were not reported to the police. The priests simply “confessed” their sins.

We all know how that turned out. Still, the laws regarding religion seem to disregard society’s right to law enforcement.

If you are an Orthodox Jewish family and a relative dies under suspicious circumstances the law requires an autopsy. Will an autopsy be preformed against Jewish law?

How will America’s response to Sharia Law be handled? I contend that when religious law conflicts with government law, the government prevails. How will the Supreme Court handle this?

Santorum suspends GOP presidential campaign

Reported in an AP story April 10, 2012 2:16 PM EDT. This is the news that Romney was hoping would come soon. Santorum scared me because of his strong religious convictions. He advocated a strong link between the government and his church. That would end the religious freedom that is a hallmark of our society.

The rabbi who guided Reform Judaism

An obituary appearing in THE WEEK magazine dated February 24, 2012. W. Gunther Plaut (1912-2012)

The rabbi whose commentary on the Torah helped introduce tens of thousands of Reform Jews to their faith got an early lesson in the importance of literary interpretation soon after arriving in America, in 1935. He saw a newspaper in Cincinnati that, to his eyes, announced surprising news of a revolution in Italy. The headline: “Reds Murder Cardinals.”

Wolf Gunther Plaut was born in Munster, Germany, and earned a doctorate in law at the University of Berlin, said the Toronto National Post. But when the Nazis came to power, they barred Jews from practicing law, so Plaut began studying Jewish theology. “I wanted to know what it truly meant to be a Jew if I was made to suffer for it,” he later said. He received a scholarship to study in the U.S. in 1935, was ordained as a rabbi in 1939, and became a U.S. citizen in 1943. Having enlisted with the U.S. Army as a chaplain, he witnessed the liberation of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp at the end of the war. He recalled the survivors as desperate for theological relief. “Their first request was not for food, but for Jewish religious items,” he said.

Plaut settled in Toronto, said The New York Times, where he wrote his “magnum opus,” a modern commentary on the Jewish holy scriptures that became a “touchstone for Judaism’s liberal branches” upon its publication in 1981. Prior to Plaut’s edition, the only available translation of the Torah was one published in the 1920s with an Orthodox commentary. Plaut’s Torah interpreted Hebrew scripture “in ways that a strict adherence to tradition did not admit.” The book is now used in Reform synagogues throughout the U.S. and Canada. “You may never have met Rabbi Plaut personally,” said U.S. Reform Rabbi Jan Katzew, “yet it is likely that he taught you Torah.”

Plaut was a fierce opponent of discrimination and prejudice throughout his life, said the Toronto Star, whether it was directed against Jews in the Soviet Union or racial minorities in North America. “He was a defender of human and civil rights at a time when many didn’t even know its meaning,” said Bernie Farber, former head of the Canadian Jewish Congress. “We stand on the shoulders of such men.”