• I'll be speaking at Harvest this Sunday night at 6pm.
400-408 – • Catholic News Agency (3/18/09) What the Pope really said about AIDS and condoms.
A journalist from French state TV asked Pope Benedict:
"Holy Father among the many evils that affect Africa there is also the particular problem of the spread of AIDS. The position of the Catholic Church for fighting this evil is frequently considered unrealistic and ineffective.
"Will you address this issue during your trip? Holy Father, could you please respond in French to this question?" he asked.
Although the Pope responded to a previous question from the French newspaper La Croix in French, he gave this in-depth answer in Italian.
"I would say the opposite."
"It is my belief that the most effective presence on the front in the battle against HIV/AIDS is precisely the Catholic Church and her institutions. I think of the Community of Sant' Egidio, which does so much, visibly and invisibly to fight AIDS, of the Camillians, of all the nuns that are at the service of the sick.
"I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness - even through personal sacrifice - to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress.
"Therefore, I would say that our double effort is to renew the human person internally, to give spiritual and human strength to a way of behaving that is just towards our own body and the other person's body; and this capacity of suffering with those who suffer, to remain present in trying situations.
"I believe that this is the first response [to AIDS] and that this is what the Church does, and thus, she offers a great and important contribution. And we are grateful to those that do this."
•• Kathryn Jean Lopez (3/19/09) From Saint Peter's Square to Harvard Square: Media coverage of papal comments on AIDS in Africa is March madness.
'We have found no consistent associations between condom use and lower HIV-infection rates, which, 25 years into the pandemic, we should be seeing if this intervention was working." So notes Edward C. Green, director of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, in response to papal press comments en route to Africa this week.
// "The pope is correct," Green told National Review Online Wednesday, "or put it a better way, the best evidence we have supports the pope's comments. He stresses that "condoms have been proven to not be effective at the 'level of population.'"
"There is," Green adds, "a consistent association shown by our best studies, including the U.S.-funded 'Demographic Health Surveys,' between greater availability and use of condoms and higher (not lower) HIV-infection rates. This may be due in part to a phenomenon known as risk compensation, meaning that when one uses a risk-reduction 'technology' such as condoms, one often loses the benefit (reduction in risk) by 'compensating' or taking greater chances than one would take without the risk-reduction technology."
Green added: "I also noticed that the pope said 'monogamy' was the best single answer to African AIDS, rather than 'abstinence.' The best and latest empirical evidence indeed shows that reduction in multiple and concurrent sexual partners is the most important single behavior change associated with reduction in HIV-infection rates (the other major factor is male circumcision)."
• Travis Kavulla (3/19/09) Benedict Has It Right: The truth about condoms, and Africa.
• Catholic Exchange (3/21/09) Prominent Ugandan AIDS Activist Thanks Pope for Opposition to Condoms.
• Harry R. Jackson, Jr. (3/23/09) The Pope Versus AIDS.
413-423 – (11:40) Rick Warren's SLOW-STOP AIDS phone call from last Thursday (3/19/09).
• Kay Warren (07/11/02) HIV/AIDS: S.L.O.W. It Down, or S.T.O.P. It? Saddleback's Kay Warren offers a dual framework for fighting the virus.
To SLOW HIV/AIDS:
Support the correct use of condoms every sexual encounter.
Limit the number of partners, because studies have also shown that the greatest risk is in multiple partners.
Offer needle exchange. Studies have shown that in some places clean needles can slow down the transmission of HIV.
Wait for sexual debut. Studies have shown that the younger a person is at their his or her sexual encounter, the more likely it is that he or she will be infected with HIV. So if you can encourage people to wait until they're older, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, before they have their first sexual encounter you can slow down the spread of HIV.
To STOP HIV/AIDS
Save sex for marriage.
Teach men and boys to respect and honor women and girls. If men continue to treat women with such disrespect, HIV will be on our planet for a long time to come. So there's a discipleship element.
Offer treatment through churches. We think that those things that I told you about, those six things that churches can do, when the church is involved, it can stop the spread of AIDS.
Partner with one person for life.
428-437 – • William Tucker (3/24/09) The Solar and Renewable Utopia. William Tucker is the author of Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America's Energy Odyssey.
My Summary: Just 1% of our total energy need comes from solar and wind. For solar to provide all our electricity needs, we would need 46,000 square miles of solar panels – one-third the size of New Mexico – 29.4 million acres. California intends to lead the way, requiring 20% of our electricity to be from "renewables" by 2020. This means solar panels will be polluting our deserts, destroying the ecosystem, and violating the spirit of the conservationists who originally donated much of the property. Plus, where are we going to get the water to wash the 10,000 square miles of solar panels each month? Why aren't we going nuclear? Literally?
• Robert Bryce (3/5/09) Let's Get Real About Renewable Energy: We can double the output of solar and wind, and double it again. We'll still depend on hydrocarbons. Mr. Bryce is the managing editor of Energy Tribune. His latest book is Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of 'Energy Independence' (Public Affairs, 2008).
My Summary: America used 4 billion (4,118,198,000) megawatt-hours of electricity in the past year. Solar and wind produce 45 million (45,493,000) mw/hrs, or just 1.1% of our need. Hydropower provides 2.4% of our energy needs. Natural gas provides 25%. One barrel of oil converts to 1.64 mw/hrs of electricity. Solar and wind output is equivalent to 27.2 million barrels of oil, or just 76,000 barrels of oil per day. Out total need is the equivalent of 47.4 million barrels per day – broken down into: 19 million barrels of real oil, the equivalent of 11.9 million barrels of natural gas, the equivalent of 3.8 million barrels for nuclear power, and 1.1 million barrels of hydropower, and miniscule contributions from wind, solar, geothermal, wood waste, etc. 76,000 barrels of oil per day from solar and wind is about the about the output of one average-sized coal mine.
443-452 – • Phillip Longman (3/24/09) Headed toward extinction? World depopulation — rather than overpopulation — is the troublesome trend that should concern the entire planet. Phillip Longman is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About it. His latest book, with Ray Boshara, is The Next Progressive Era, set to be published in April.
My Summary: World population hit 6 billion in October 1999, will hit 7 billion by 2012, and will peak at about 9 billion about mid-century. The worldwide supply of children will start declining about 2025. "With fewer workers to support each elder, the world economy might have to run just that much faster, and consume that much more resources, or else living standards will fall." Look at the 4-2-1 policy now in China – on worker supports two parents and four grandparents.
Longman writes, "For the majority of the world's inhabitants who no longer live on farms or rely on home production, children are no longer an economic asset but an avoidable liability. At the same time, the spread of global media exposes people in even the remotest corners of the planet to glamorous lifestyles that are inconsistent with the sacrifices necessary to raise large families. In Brazil, birthrates dropped sequentially province by province as broadcast television became available."
He concludes, "As the number of women of reproductive age falls in country after country, world population is acquiring negative momentum and thus could decline even if birthrates eventually turn up. Societies around the globe need to ask why they are engaging in what biologists would surely recognize in any other species as maladaptive behavior leading either to extinction, or dramatic mutation."
458-508 – Should Obama speak at Notre Dame's commencement? Will you sign the petition?
• Online Petition: http://notredamescandal.com.
PETITION to Father Jenkins, President of the University Of Notre Dame
Dear Father Jenkins:
It has come to our attention that the University of Notre Dame will honor President Barack Obama as its commencement speaker on May 17.
It is an outrage and a scandal that "Our Lady's University," one of the premier Catholic universities in the United States, would bestow such an honor on President Obama given his clear support for policies and laws that directly contradict fundamental Catholic teachings on life and marriage.
This nation has many thousands of accomplished leaders in the Catholic Church, in business, in law, in education, in politics, in medicine, in social services, and in many other fields who would be far more appropriate choices to receive such an honor from the University of Notre Dame.
Instead Notre Dame has chosen prestige over principles, popularity over morality. Whatever may be President Obama's admirable qualities, this honor comes on the heels of some of the most anti-life actions of any American president, including expanding federal funding for abortions and inviting taxpayer-funded research on stem cells from human embryos.
The honor also comes amid great concern among Catholics nationwide about President Obama's future impact on American society, the family, and the Catholic Church on issues such as traditional marriage, conscience protections for Catholic doctors and nurses, and expansion of abortion "rights."
This honor is clearly a direct violation of the U.S. bishops' 2004 mandate in "Catholics in Political Life": "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."
We prayerfully implore you to halt this travesty immediately. We do so with the hope that Catholics nationwide will likewise call on you to uphold the sacred mission of your Catholic university. May God grant you the courage and wisdom to do what is right.
Sincerely,
• Hugh Hewitt (3/24/09) The President at Notre Dame.
512-523 – Calls
528-538 – Tom Doyle, is Director of International Ministries/Middle East Specialist for E3 Partners (e3partners.org) and author of Breakthrough: The Return of Hope to the Middle East (goodnewsfromthemiddleeast.com), talks about winning Muslims to Christ in the Middle East.
544-554 – Tom Doyle
558-608 – (2:00) Clayton McDonald telling his story, recorded by Jacob Lewis which you can find at www.claytonsstory.com.
Francis Chan, of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley (cornerstonesimi.com), author of Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God (crazylovebook.com), talking about Clayton McDonald's life – diagnosed with leukemia four times from the age of 7 and he died last Monday night at 18. He always spoke about how it wasn't hard for him to live like it was his last day – because it might be. He talked about how he wasn't scared of the cancer, he was scared for people distracted by the world (claytonsstory.com).
• Clayton at Cornerstone, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzkuXc2b17c.
612-623 – Francis Chan.
628-638 – Frank Turek, founder of crossexamined.org, and author of Correct, Not Politically Correct: How Same-Sex Marriage Hurts Everyone and I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist.
• Frank Turek (3/2/09) Sleeping with your Girlfriend.
644-652 – Frank Turek
• Wyndham-Leader (3/24/09) Muslim student teacher refused position at Christian college.
• Thomas Sowell (3/24/09) Cheap Political Theater.
• George Will (3/24/09) Political Malfeasance and the Financial Meltdown.
• Dennis Prager (3/24/09) Why Doesn't Communism Have as Bad a Name as Nazism?
Barney Frank said, "At some point, [the Defense of Marriage Act] is going to have to go to the United States Supreme Court. I wouldn't want it to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has got too many votes on this current court."
701 North Brand Boulevard, Suite 550
Glendale, CA 91203
Office (818) 956-5552
Frank's Assistant Nate Hanson nate@kkla.comGet Podcasts Here!
701 North Brand Boulevard, Suite 550
Glendale, CA 91203
Office (818) 956-5552
Frank's Assistant Nate Hanson nate@kkla.comGet Podcasts Here!
