US clarifies "reproductive health" goal in UN documents

US clarifies "reproductive health" goal in UN documents
New York, Sep. 23 (C-fam.org/CWNews.com)

New York, Sep. 23 (C-fam.org/CWNews.com) - The US delegation to the UN has issued an official "explanation of position" clarifying the American understanding of references to "reproductive health" in the Millennium Development Summit document, the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-Fam) reports.

The US statement, delivered by American ambassador John Bolton, specifies that "reproductive health" should be understood in the context of previous statements produced by UN conferences in Cairo and Beijing, which said that the UN endorsements of that term "do not create any rights and cannot be interpreted to constitute support, endorsement, or promotion of abortion."

The US delegation insisted on including the "Explanation of Position" along with the latest UN document because some other delegations have sought to interpret the term "reproductive health" as including access to legal abortion.

In fact, C-Fam pointed out, the International Planned Parenthood Federation claimed a victory in the Millennium Development Summit, since the US had accepted the goal of "universal access to reproductive health." C-Fam notes that Planned Parenthood officials clearly saw that goal as including access to abortion--unaware that the US delegation would explicitly repudiate that understanding with the "Explanation of Position."

© Copyright 2005 Domus Enterprises. All rights reserved.

FDA seeks public comment on "morning-after" pill

FDA seeks public comment on "morning-after" pill
Washington, Sep. 23 (CWNews.com)

Washington, Sep. 23 (CWNews.com) - US federal regulators are seeking public comment on whether the "morning-after" pill should be made available without prescription.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is weighing a request to make the "Plan B" pill available over the counter only to women above a certain age threshold. The FDA has declined to make the pill available to all customers regardless of age, citing concerns that adolescent girls may not know how to use the pill safely.

The "morning-after" pill has been the subject of heated debate in the US, with proponents saying that the widespread distribution of the pill could cut down on the number of abortions. Opponents point out that the pill itself frequently causes an abortion, by preventing a fertilized embryo from being implanted in the uterus. Also, there is no evidence that abortion rates drop where the pill is legally available.

The FDA has never before imposed an age restriction on the use of a product that is otherwise freely available. The agency is seeking public comment on whether such a policy is justified.

Public comments (which should mention the FDA and include either the Docket Number 2005N-0345 or Regulatory Information Number 0910-AF72) can be posted through the FDA web site

© Copyright 2005 Domus Enterprises. All rights reserved.

Me and Others Watching Sarah Grow.....

Sometimes on the many groups on places on the internet, you get a chance to 'know' others from places and ages that you may never have gotten to know in any other way.

And occasionally, you have the privilege of watching some of those people grow ..........Sarah is one of my young friends, having 'met' her while she was yet a college student. There have been many of us that have had the opportunity to watch her struggles, changes, fears, joys, job seeking, etc as she grew from student to working single woman, and have prayed with/for her, laughed with her, advised her, sort of become MORE parents to her over the years (as though she NEEDS more...lol).

Sarah's professional life has been growing, and she has been humble enough to ask to be taught more by her bosses. Meet my young friend, Sarah, Crosswalk.com Family Editor, and enjoy her writing as much as we have! As that old saying goes.... you've come a long way, .... Sarah!

God bless, Sarah!

Early Damage Reports from Rita coming in....

Isle of Capri Casino 'split in half', according to police reports from people inside the Casino.... is being reported by Rick Leventhal of Fox News. Not confirmed as yet. He is in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Part of an I 10 overpass has collapsed... other damage reports trickling in. Half a million homes in Texas have no power.

Three historic buildings burned down in Galveston, apartment building burned down in Houston...

Geraldo Rivera is reporting it is so bad where he is that they won't put the dish up to broadcast, as it will just become a 'sail' and be badly damaged. Think he is in Port Arthur.....

Update @ 4:55 Central Time:
From MSNBC

"Dusting"--A WARNING FOR ALL PARENTS

This email has come to me many times already, and I have passed it on, but the more I read it, the more I feel that it has to get out even further.

May God give this family peace, and hold them together in the palm of His hand... and may Kyle rest in peace. May this story help to prevent another young person from attempting anything similar to this!

There is much more at the url below about this email, and it is worth reading.........

Subject: WARNING FOR ALL PARENTS (not joking)

This is a true story:


http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp or truthorfiction.com
Check it out on-line.



Dust Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere there's a computer.



First I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I

am a Police Officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We

have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were # 2 in the nation in

homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 named Thor. He was certified in

drugs and general duty. He retired at 3 years old because he was shot in the

line of duty. He lives with us now and I still train with him because he likes

it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house.

Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you.



The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I

have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once

a week if they used any drugs. Makes them promise they wont.



I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in

February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They

were full of dust so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3

pack of DUST OFF. Dust Off is a can of compressed air to blow dust off a

computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them they were all

used. I talked to my kids and my two sons both said they had used them on

their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting

the 10 dollars I paid for them.



On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the

3 pack which I had bought on sale so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust

Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.



On March 1st, I left for work at 10 PM. Just before midnight my wife went

down and kissed Kyle goodnight At 5:30 am the next morning Kathy went

downstairs to wake Kyle up for school, before she left for work. He was

propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She

called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move.



He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep.



He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over.

He was pale white and had the straw from the Dust Off can coming out of

his mouth. He had the new can of Dust Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.



I am a police officer and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse and

she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after

the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust off was in his

system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 AM I found out that

using Dust Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a

name for it. It's called dusting. A take off from the Dust Off name. It gives

them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives

down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle

showed his best friend. Told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. Its just

compressed air. It can't hurt you.

His best friend said no.



Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant

called R2. Its a refrigerant like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a

heavy gas. Heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps

the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases

the oxygen to your brain, to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT

KILLS YOU.



The horrible part about this is there is no warning. There is no level that

kills you. It's not cumulative or an overdose; it can just go randomly, terribly

wrong. Roll the dice and if your number comes up you die. IT'S NOT AN OVERDOSE.

It's Russian Roulette. You don't die later. Or not feel good and say I've had

too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not, you die within 2

seconds of finishing "the hit."



That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died. Why his eyes

were still open. The experts want to call this huffing. The kids don't believe

it's huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit

here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction. No

strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals.



Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably

did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known. It's easy to say hey,

it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always effected.

This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul

that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's

nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm

supposed to do but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk

about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't

even describe how bad she is taking this.



I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because

we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them. After Kyle died another

story came out. A Probation Officer went to the school system next to ours to

speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust Off in the

bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his

locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't

have a drug problem there. They

don't even have a dare or plus program there. So rather than tell everyone about

this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it.



Tne Probation Officer told the media after Kyle's death and they, the school,

then admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media

and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house.



We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust Off

isn't new and some "professionals" do know about. It just isn't

talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it.



April 2nd was 1 month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th

birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at

2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is

in heaven but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to Hell.



This Officer is asking for everyone who receives this email to forward it to

everyone in their address book, even Law Enforcement Officers.

Terri News from Cheryl Ford, RN

Have been waiting for Cheryl's book to come out, and she has posted that it will be available Sept. 26, finally.

She has also sent out an email about Michael's planned book, and posted about it on her website, Fight4Terri .

Simon Wiesenthal's death

Because I had cable/internet server problems for the past week, or more, I was not aware until I began to check out other bloggers about the news that Simon Wiesenthal had passed away.

May he rest in peace! I have read much of what he has written, and had followed quite of bit of the work he had done for so long. Janjan has linked to a good news article about him.

Rita has hit

Rita hit about 2:38 AM Central time, near the Tex/Louisiana border. Houston area is now no longer living under the threat of her...and on Fox News just now, they learned that even with all the water, etc... the automatic watering system outside still came on as scheduled where the reporter was speaking.... praise God for simple things to find some humor in all of this horror.

The winds will still be in the seventy mile an hour or so area...and having seen the destruction THAT amount can cause (Oshkosh, WI a few years back....) I am glad those I know down there had taken it seriously and left. I only hope that NEXT time, they remember New Orleans, and all the destruction of Katrina, not that Rita turned away at the last minute....

There will still be much damage where Rita visits. And New Orleans will have to start nearly all over again, with the flooding that is going on there. I pray that not many listened to the Mayor the other day, inviting them back by zip code....

Still Getting to Know Me......(another)

I did one of these not too long ago, on Sept 9. So some answers will just be references to that post, as one of my faults is trying to find an easy way to do things..... grin.

Getting to know me...

Five things I plan to do before I die:

1. Get to Ireland, Australia, New Zealand
2. See my grandkids married, great grandkids, etc
3. Changes in RDH practice (such as our own Board, etc, like we have as Nurses....)
4. Finish my Bachelor's Degree ... think I may have it by age 75 or so...
5. Finish reading all of my unread books....or learn to not buy new ones til the pile is down to one or two...

Five things I can do:

1. Talk
2. Eat
3. Cook, make soup from scratch
4. Read (read read read)
5. Sing and dance in private at home when no one is around......

Five things I cannot do:

1. Sing well
2. Dance well
3. Sew
4. Reupholster furniture ( I have the material here though....) or fix any electronic/mechanical object.
5. Bring myself to parachute, or bungee jump.... and that won't change!

5 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1. See the list on the other one.....

Five things I say most often:

1. Again, see the list on the other one.....

Five Celebrity Crushes:

Again... see the list on the other...however, the list below is taken from my latest challenger's, and I can also say I respect 1, 2, and 4... like the acting skills of 5, though not always his political views...and not sure who 3 is...

I really do not have 'crushes' on any celebrity, but have a fairly good list of those that I admire.
If this was not titled crushes, I can also think of several women I would include for strong admiration, such as Edith Stein, Elizabeth Seton, Helen Keller....

1. Mel Gibson
2. Jim Caviezel
3. William Hurt
4. Paul Newman
5. Martin Sheen