Category Archives: Medical Issues

Lies, Lies and Damned Lies

April 29, 2013

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

If the Internet has any value at all, you would think it would be in its role in “truth telling.”  If only.

Lies and deceit are as old as Adam and Eve.  Lying is an equal opportunity sin:  The man Adam Eveanswered God, “The woman you put here with me….The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Lying is eternal.  Only one generation out of the Garden, Cain took advantage of lies in an attempt to deceive his Maker.  Where was Able?  “I don’t know,” Cain said…presumably with a straight face.

The Bible abounds in wisdom grounded in knowing the difference between truth and lies.  Proverbs warns us.  Enemies disguise themselves with their lips, but in their hearts they harbor deceit.  [Prov 26:24 NIV]  Satan, the quintessential evil being, is named Father of all lies.

There is only one reason that lying is so pervasive.  There is profit in being a good liar.  If successful, you can retain your deed to the Garden of Eden; you can avoid the mark of Cain for murder.

Ford PintoFord car company tried its best.  And it almost got away with a very profitable lie.  In 1968, the Ford Pinto was set up to be a hot-selling, middle-America car.  Cute car, cute name…the Pinto was perfect for families on a budget and for their children just learning to drive.  Only problem?  Every once in a while, in a simple fender-bender car accident, the Pinto would explode into flames.  And flames are quite deadly to the people involved.

In May 1972, Lily Gray was traveling with thirteen year old Richard Grimshaw in a 1972 Pinto when their car was struck by another car traveling approximately thirty miles per hour.  The impact ignited a fire in the Pinto which killed Lily Gray and left Richard Grimshaw with devastating injuries.  A judgment was rendered against Ford and the jury awarded the Gray family $560,000 and Matthew Grimshaw $2.5 million in compensatory damages.  The surprise came when the jury awarded $125 million in punitive damages as well.  This was subsequently reduced to $3.5 million.

Long ago, when truth was recorded on scrolls, one can imagine how difficult it would have been to ride a donkey down to the local synagogue and dig through their scroll library, unrolling and rolling back leather scrolls in a search for the damning evidence to prove that Ford lied.  With the Internet, just type in “Ford Pinto,” and your evidence is at hand.  Voila!  Search finished. They lied.

The Internet, not yet in existence, would have been a great help in the 70s to reveal truth about the Pinto, saving time…and more importantly…saving lives.  It took more deaths, many years, and thousands of hours upon hours of research to prove that the deaths in Pinto accidents were caused by corporate greed.  Law professor Palmiter explains

Although Ford had access to a new design which would decrease the possibility of the Ford Pinto from exploding, the company chose not to implement the design, which would have cost $11 per car, even though it had done an analysis showing that the new design would result in 180 less deaths.

In the current age, no matter how you count the years between Genesis and today, we are witnesses to a “whole lot of lying going on.”  Just last night, in the commercial breaks for a one hour crime drama, three different drug companies are being accused of lying.  The companies told consumers, “Take our drug.  It is good for you.”  They are being sued.  Liars?

Did you take Accutane, Zoloft, or Actos?  One word typed into your Internet search engine…one Accutane Bookclick… “Enter”…and the entire library of the universe is at your disposal.  You would think that is enough to find truth and reveal lies…wouldn’t you?

If only!

And these drugs are the simple cases.  Don’t even think about investigating lies that involve our sexually promiscuous society.

Have you ever wondered about the money to be made in the sex industry?  Forget the obvious – pornography and prostitution.  What about all of the money to be made by encouraging people of all ages to have all types of sex at any time with anyone for any reason?

Dollar SignIf the question does not produce a string of dollar signs in your mind, please return to Genesis.  If any question has merits in today’s culture, this is it.    What profits are to be made by convincing people to have more of what they already are programmed to desire?  Sex.

And…with all that money at stake…what is the possibility that there are lies out there waiting to be discovered?  Sex…money…lies?  It’s a calculation you can bet on.

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KEEP POSTED:

Upcoming columns will expose the many profits to be had for those in our culture  who are in the business of promoting free and easy sex.  Yes, there is a cost involved in “free” sex.

Risking Death

April 22, 2013

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

Summer is the time to celebrate health!  We are heading into the season for flip flops, sun screen and watermelon.  And with all of our attention on health and fun, what better time is there to consider the possibility of risking death?

In the summer of 1975, moviegoers huddled together in dark theaters, watching death unfold on Amity Island.  The new Sheriff in this small beach community discovered Jawsthe remains of a shark attack victim.  And horror exploded on the screen, leading to three sequels of JAWS and a theme song that, forty years later, children can hum with glee.

Sharks…and death…what is your risk this year?  According to OCEANA, only about a dozen of the approximately 500 shark species should be considered potentially dangerous to humans. White, tiger and bull sharks are responsible for more than half of all shark attacks. In five years (2006-2010), an average of 4.2 fatal shark attacks took place each year world-wide. Between 2006 and 2010, a total of 179 shark attacks occurred in the U.S., resulting in three fatalities.

Bathtubs…and death?  You might want to take your baths in the ocean with the sharks.  In 2003, 320 U.S. citizens died in the bathtub…no sharks involved.

How many ways are there to risk dying?  LiveScience on the web has saved us much work, speculating on 10 Easy Paths to Destruction.   Saying Amen to Rocker Tommy Lee who once said, “[W]’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time,” they warn us away from the ten “easiest catalysts to self-destruction.”  Are you surprised when you learn you should not eat junk or smoke cigarettes?Twinkies

Junk food…and death?  Are you thinking candy bars and deep-fried Twinkies?  Think again.

Researchers analyzed the diet, health and death data on 37,698 men and 83,644 women over two decades.  Participants completed questionnaires about their diets every four years. During the study follow-up period of more than two decades, almost 24,000 of the participants died, including 5,910 from heart disease and 9,464 from cancer.

Red MeatDeath…by eating red meat?  Here are the facts.  Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22% higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27% higher risk of dying of heart disease.  Overall, one serving per day of processed red meat increased risk of cancer by 16%.

Death…and eating chicken?  Using a statistic model, the researchers estimated that replacing one serving a day of red meat with one serving of with poultry would decrease the risk by 14%; nuts, 19%; beans, 10%; low-fat dairy, 10%; whole grains, 14%, and fish, 7%.

Sharks…red meat…are vegetables starting to look better on the grill?

VegetarianismThe largest study of its kind found vegetarians have healthier hearts than those who eat meat or fish.  According to two large studies, vegetarians are a third less likely to need hospital treatment for heart disease or die from it, and the diet could mean living nine additional years than you might consuming meat based diets.

So…let’s get real.  And let’s get serious.

Do you know someone who has breast cancer?  While Americans are planning trips to the beach this summer, do you know someone who is undergoing chemo and meeting with the attorney to write out their end-of-life wishes?

What if you knew important information about risks that lead to breast cancer?  And what if that information could make a difference for you, your wife and your daughters?  Would that gain your attention just as much as the stats for death by shark attack, bathtubs and eating red meat?

BCI LogoAs reported in the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute Newsletter, “This past February, the news media widely covered a study in JAMA which showed that the incidence in breast cancer had almost doubled over the past 34 years, 2% per year, compounded.  This represents an over 90% increase in women between 20 and 39 years old.  The cancers they were citing were invasive and had already spread outside of the breast which are life threatening.  The Author, Rebecca Johnson, had been diagnosed herself at age 26 with breast cancer.”

So…let’s consider.  What is contributing to this dramatic increase in the incidence of breast cancer?  Swimming with sharks?  Eating hot dogs and steak?

If swimming with sharks led to breast cancer, you can be sure we would be reading about it in The New York Times.  They would lead with this story at least once a month, and NFL football players would have decals of Pink Sharks on their helmets this year.

Instead, this crisis of life is being ignored.  We have all the pretty pink ribbons…and NONE of the facts.

If you want to know the facts, they are available.  The Breast Cancer Prevention Institute has followed this issue for years.  Thanks to the Internet, we no longer have to wait for the facts in The Times.  Here they are:

  • Non-invasive breast cancer, in-situ cancers, has risen by 300% since 1975.
  • In-situ cancers, treated with mastectomy, radiation, and hormonal therapy, progress into invasive cancers if not treated.
  • Invasive cancers have risen about 40% over 35 years.

And if it is not sharks…and not red meat…what is leading to all of this cancer?

The Breast Cancer Prevention Institute provides a chart of 70 professional studies investigating elective abortion as it relates to breast cancer.  Of these studies, 33 demonstrate a statistically significant correlation between induced abortion and breast cancer.  In total, 55 of the 70 studies present a positive correlation between induced abortion and breast cancer.http://www.dreamstime.com/-image1329930

Our mothers and daughters are being sold down the river…the shark-infested river.

Unwilling to speak truth, abortion proponents prefer to sell pink football gear to the players and to ask for your money at the grocery counter…”for breast cancer research.”  Why?

We have research!  We can educate women…and the men who REALLY care about women.  Abortion is a real link to women and death by cancer.

Summer…fall, winter and spring…this matters!  Check out the information.  Share it with those you love.  This is not political.  It is personal.  It is about saving the lives of people we love.

Sharks, red meat…and abortion…truth is truth, no matter what.  If we are afraid of one shark eating our child this summer, we should fear for the lives of our wives, daughters and friends being sacrificed in silence to shield abortion from critical evaluation.

Summer is coming on.  You have time to read.  If you care about the women in your life, there is no better time than now to read and learn what we can do to save their lives.

Risking death?  Not if we don’t have to.  This is a summer for life.  Take time to read and to enjoy time with the ones you love!

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BREAST CANCER RISKS

Want more information?  Check out the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute publications that give a full picture of this link of breast cancer to induced abortion.

 

 

Illinois Teaches Teens How to Do Safe Sex?

April 15, 2013

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

We can all agree on the problem with teens and sex.  We have too much of it, along with the attendant problematic results:  STDs, single parent homes, absent fathers, abortion, economic challenges, and more.  Since the 1960s and the start of the sexual revolution, we have watched these problems escalate.  We have wrung our hands.  And we have sought solutions.

Illinois legislators think they have the solution.  And in their eagerness to “solve the problem,” they are preparing to mandate the “solution” that many believe is one of the problems that got us into the fix we are in.

For half a century, we have explored ways to address the problems associated with teen sex.  Sadly, the first problem is our inability to even agree on the problem at hand.  Do we…

  • Suffer from Puritanical sexual standards, or
  • Believe that sex has no meaning other than the actual physical encounter…
  • Welcome babies as the blessing of our fertility, or
  • Dispose of babies as inconvenient byproducts of sexual pleasure…
  • Address the different sexual needs of men and women emotionally and physically, or
  • Maintain that gender has no significance based on our “sexual equality”…
  • Help parents in their roles as educators for their children on sexual values, or
  • Bypass parents as ignorant stewards of their child’s sexual health…?

This list of conflicting values and beliefs could fill up a spiral student college notebook.  Not surprisingly, the supposed “solutions” to the problems of teen sex could fill up ten spiral student college notebooks.

In Illinois, legislators have put their collective finger on the solution.  They have decided to bet on condoms and contraception.  But they are not betting with their own lives.

Legislators are betting the lives of all Illinois school children on a pipe dream, betting these young wedding giftlives on a “solution” that is actually a problem gift-wrapped in wishful thinking.  They want all Illinois sex education programs to instruct students on how to use a condom and on how to take birth control.

They are not the first to throw condoms at kids, and they won’t be the last.  But, after 50 years of condoms in baskets, free for the taking, we have not solved anything.  Indeed, the very real possibility is that we have made the problem worse.  It is a conundrum that perplexes many.

How could we possibly go wrong in teaching children the use of condoms and contraception?  Let us count the ways:

  • The language of safe and protection is used to sell condoms.  True safety is always safe – 100% of the time.  Medically accurate information reveals that condoms and contraception fail…even with experienced users. [See testimony linked below for detailed information.]
  • The singular “problem” that concerns legislators is pregnancy.  How do they prevent babies?  Many young people do not see babies as a problem.  In fact, for many young people, babies can be a solution for these teens to their own set of problems totally ignored by adults.
  • Condoms and contraception address one primary problem:  pregnancy.  They are not the solution to STDs and can even magnify exposure to STDs.  STDs are not simply “cured” with a few antibiotics.  They lead to sterility, serious lifelong health problems, cancer and death.
  • Classroom educators who promote condoms and contraception through their demonstrations are giving medical advice and instruction to minor children.  These teachers are not subject to the professional medical standards that govern any other area of medicine: credentialing, supervision and medical liability.
  • Condom and contraception instruction lacks any serious follow up with minor children: testing for their understanding, their retention of information or the appropriateness of information for their individual situations.
  • Condom and contraception instruction is often conducted “in the shadows,” in such a way as to distance children from parents and important adults in their lives.  In some cases, parents are characterized by instructors as ignorant, out of touch, and untrustworthy.
  • Condom and contraception instruction empowers people who prey on children, implying that teen sex is appropriate and isolating children from true protection in their families and from medical professionals.
  • Abortion is the unspoken fallback option promoted – and sold –  for any failure of a condom or contraception.  It is no surprise that many of the same businesses that sell abortion are lead advocates for and teachers of contraception.

These are serious drawbacks to the proposed mandate in Illinois.  But the greatest problem with the solution is its failure to actually and directly teach students the healthiest choice of all.

The proposed legislation withholds truth from our children.  The bill “makes changes to provide that all classes that teach sex education and discuss sexual intercourse in grades 6 through 12 shall emphasize that abstinence from sexual intercourse is a responsible and positive decision.” [underlining added]

This statement is worded to suggest that there is a long list of responsible and positive decisions Children Kissing Their Father on His Cheeksabout sex that students can use to choose the one they like best.  It suggests that abstinence is just one of many decisions the student is free to choose from  They can responsibly consider no sex…or they can responsibly consider sex with a condom.  Either…or…both decisions are on the list of “responsible sex”  given approval by the instructor.

Consider that a sixth grade student is 11 to 12 years old.  Is that what you want a stranger to be teaching your child?  Do you want the teacher to tell your 12-year-old daughter that she can have “safe” and “responsible” sex if she uses a condom and that abstinence from sex is just one option of many “good choices?”

Girl giving mom flowers.Condoms and contraception are mechanical fixes used to address a condition of the heart and soul.  Children want love.  They want acceptance and affection.  These are not sexual needs.  They are heart needs.

We can teach children healthy approaches to life, and we can guide them in those choices.  We do that in the areas of diet, smoking, driving and drugs.  It is time to step up to the plate and truly safeguard the sexual health and future for our children.

Illinois…Illinois legislators…the children of your state deserve the best and truest options of all.  If education is not directed to the highest and best goals for our children, then we will get the problems that we deserve.  Unfortunately for our children, we are playing with their lives and with their futures.  They deserve better.

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NOTE:  Detailed testimony presented by Scott Phelps to the Illinois State Legislator presents research and professional evidence, including CDC guidelines, supporting a commitment to abstinence until marriage education for students in grades 6 to 12.

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ARCHIVES – RELATED COLUMNS

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The Invisible Crowd

February 1, 2013

It is a common fantasy of the common man…and woman…finding a way to become invisible, to become the proverbial “fly on the wall” in a room, to witness happenings that would be closed to us, to hear words that would be denied us.

In 1897, H. G. Wells explored this fantasy in his famous novella The Invisible Man, where scientist Griffin finds a way to change a body’s refractive index to that of air.  In the same way as air, Griffin’s body reflected no light.  He was invisible.

Griffin, the mad scientist, was only able to accomplish his feat through mastery of scientific principles and conducting hours of chemical experiments recorded in three notebooks.  But there was an easier way.  I know.  On January 26, 2013, I became invisible…without performing one scientific trick…sharing my invisibility with a large crowd of nearly 50,000.

2013 March for Life Plaza 2On a bright San Francisco morning, blessed with perfect temperatures and clear skies, an estimated 50,000 people congregated at the Civic Center Plaza for the 9th Annual Walk for Life.  I had personally invested hundreds of dollars to make myself visible as an American who values the dignity of each human life from conception to natural death.  I had hoped to be seen.  I wished to be counted.

In the opening greeting to the crowd, the speaker asked those of us at the Walk for the first time to raise our hands.  My hand went up.  I wanted people to see me…to see us…all of us.

I shared in the mission for the walk:  Silent No MoreTo change the perceptions of a society that thinks abortion is an answer. Abortion does violence to women and to their children, both physically and emotionally. We deserve better than abortion.

I hoped to further the goal of the walk:  To be a vocal and visual message that people of the West Coast stand for life. To reach out to women harmed by abortion. To inform society of the damage done to women by abortion.

Walk for Life SF 2013 StreetThe crowd was a wonderful mix of people, each one committed to being a voice for life.  Fifty thousand of us walked the two miles to the Embarcadero. Another 500,000 marched in Washington, D.C., despite freezing snowy weather.

And for all of the people and all of the opportunities to talk with us and to photograph us, we were largely invisible.  My hotel provided guests with free copies of the San Francisco Chronicle.  I waited for a copy of the paper with a front page story and photo to take home to my family and friends.  I waited.  I am still waiting.

How do you make a crowd of 50,000 people invisible?  You work for a San Francisco news service so devoted to abortion of babies at any time and for any reason that every person at the paper is willing to close their eyes to the undeniable tens of thousands of people walking through your city.

Thanks to the Internet, I finally located the Chronicle’s story about the crowds at the march.  Instead of focusing on the 50,000 people, the reporter and photographer highlighted pro-abortion activists…across the city at Justin Herman Plaza.  The lead photo for the story showed two pro-abortion protestors with their bullhorn yelling and waving their bright orange sign:  Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.  But who were they yelling at?  Where were the 50,000 people?

March for Life 2013 Young WomenThe reporter made obligatory references to the invisible crowd in her story.  But it was all packaged in bright colors to tell another story under The Chronicle headline:  S. F. abortion rally shows 40-year split.  Abortion rally?  Clearly, those 50,000 of us attending the Pro-Life rally must have been invisible.

The Chronicle is in good company.  Local and national media are loathe to report in any significant way on the growing tide in America that supports human life…all life.  It’s OK.  I will still pay hundreds to attend the next Walk in 2014 and to be a witness for life.

The best part of walking in 2013 was to share the sidewalks with the impassioned young people who can see the truth, even in a culture that works so hard to make the truth invisible.  Life is precious.  And the coming generation of young people who are not afraid of the truth will tell the story missed by The Chronicle.March for Life 2013 Logo

The Chronicle hires the reporters and photographers who refuse to see life.  But their failure to tell this story will not prevail.  Just ask all of the parents who witness their baby growing in the womb, clearly visible on the 3D and 4D ultrasounds.

Life is precious.  Above all, no matter how hard we try, life will tell its own story.  Close our eyes, cover our ears…yet through it all…life refuses to be invisible.

Save your pennies.  Hitch a ride.  Bring your friends.  We have a story waiting to be told.  Hope to see you with me on the streets in 2014!

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For full video and photographic record, with photographer credits, visit the official website:  WALK FOR LIFE WEST COAST

Because I Said So

December 3, 2007

Jane Jimenez

Jane Jimenez

Another writer has put her best words forward, trying to prove the obvious.  The title of her book tells us what we already know:  Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Damages Girls (and America, Too!)

Unfortunately, though, knowing that we are a sex-obsessed culture and witnessing the damage it does to our children will not be enough to compel a cultural change.  Politicians, academics and editors refuse to support education that helps teach and mentor children to remain sexually abstinent.  What are they waiting for?  Research, they say.  Research and evidence.

Well, here in her book Prude they get what they want.  Carol Platt Liebau is no dummy.  Graduating from Princeton, she entered law school at Harvard and served as the first female managing editor of the Harvard Law Review.  Her work as a law clerk for a U.S. Court of Appeals Judge launched an impressive succession of legal and policy positions spanning fifteen years.

Evidence?  Politicians want research?  Fine.  Liebau gives them evidence…along with logical argument…she “puts all the facts at their fingertips,” detailing the radical sexual forces assaulting our children.

Kate O’Beirne, Washington editor of National Review can’t say enough about Prude. “All parents want their daughters to be healthy and happy. Smart parents will recruit Carol Platt Liebau to help rescue the girls they love from the destructive forces they face. Liebau sounds an alarm we dare not ignore in her brave, groundbreaking book.” 

Groundbreaking?  Hardly.

The books keep coming.  Each year, one or more valiant writers pull together the facts and give voice to victims of the sexual revolution. Each book lays out the research and the evidence.  It is never enough.

In 2000, at only twenty-three years of age, Wendy Shalit published A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue.  For her effort, she was mocked and ridiculed.  Again, in 2007, she wrote Girls Gone Mild, drawing on 100 in-depth interviews and thousands of e-mail exchanges with women from ages twelve to twenty eight.  Shalit documents how young women want a culture that affirms and promotes chastity.

In 2005, Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families hit bookstores.  Author Pamela Paul investigated the “all pornography, all the time” mentality of many younger men and its ripple effect on the culture.  Her in-depth interviews confirmed what much research shows.  Pornography damages relationships, negatively impacts libido and is highly addictive.

In 2006, Dr. Miriam Grossman penned Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student. Drawing on her ten years as a psychiatrist at the student health service at UCLA, she is armed with facts, evidence and research that disprove the tenets of the liberated sex mantra preached on college campuses.  No wonder that Dr. Grossman feared professional retaliation and listed the official author as “Anonymous, M.D.”

Dr. Margaret Meeker, a pediatrician for more than twenty years specializing in treating adolescents, has written several titles on teens and sex.  In Epidemic: How Teen Sex Is Killing our Kids, she presents research on the physical and emotional consequences of teen sex and makes these facts come alive through stories about the teens she has treated.

These books, and many others, evidence a large body of scientific research documenting the destructive consequences of “liberated sex”.  They support the need to restore sexual abstinence as an expected standard for our children and to set cultural norms affirming this goal.  Research is available to show that effective abstinence education programs are doing just that.

But the facts, the research and the evidence are not enough to satisfy the demands of those defending our sexualized culture.  The facts are never enough…for a very simple reason.

The sexual revolution in the 60s was not founded on facts, research and evidence.  It was founded to give us what we wanted.  Embracing birth control and abortion on demand, human sexual behaviors of all kinds were defined as positive and empowering.  Sexual self-control was defined as negative and unnecessary.

These definitions are self-justifying.  One cannot fight a definition by using research.  A chair is defined as a place to sit, not because research proves it true.  A chair is a chair…because I said so.

If a woman says sexual promiscuity harmed her, by the modern definition of liberated sex, she is simply repressed.  She is immature…”because I said so.”  By definition, sex is good.  Liberated sex is better.

What about a research study of a thousand women who say sexual promiscuity harmed them?  Well, they are all repressed…because we said so.  The study “proves” these women need to be treated so that they will enjoy liberated sex.

The more we are pushed to gather evidence, the further we drift from the truth.  We can pile up research, and we can write a book.  Many will laud our efforts to restore common sense and save our young women.  But, our book, if not mocked as a puritanical tract, will be ignored by those who hold the power to direct a cultural change.

You may have facts.  Unfortunately, though, you will never have enough facts and research.  Modern definitions have been chiseled in stone:  liberated sex is good sex…and sexual restraint is bad.  That’s just the way it is…”because I said so.”