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Dear Prudie, I am a first-time mother to a beautiful 11-week-old boy. Right after having him, I was visited in my hospital room by a "lactation consultant." This person pulled out my chart without asking me and said, "I see you had a breast reduction done 10 years ago. That was extremely selfish of you."

BAGHDAD — Dr. Anthony Cordesman, Dr. Michele A. Flournoy, Dr. Fred Kagan, Dr. Kim Kagan and Richard Lowry, all members of a Washington based think tank, visited members of the Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq, Feb 7. Cordesman, Flournoy, Kagan and Kagan visited Camp Dublin, home to the Italian Carabinieri trained Iraqi National Police. Italian Maj. Gen. Alessandro Pompegnani, NATO Training Mission – Iraq deputy commanding general, met with the group to educate them about their goals to help the Iraqi nation become stable. Next, the group visited the Besmaya Range Complex where Iraqi Army Col. Abbas, base commanding...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney's pregnant lesbian daughter Mary will make a "fine mom," President George W. Bush said, sidestepping his past comment that a child ideally would be raised by a mother and father. Mary Cheney, 37, and her longtime partner, Heather Poe, are expecting their first child, which would be the sixth grandchild for the vice president. Cheney was hired last year as an executive for America Online. "I think Mary is going to be a loving soul to her child. And I'm happy for her," Bush said in an interview with People magazine.

Mary Cheney’s pregnancy poses problems not just for her child, but also for all Americans. Her action repudiates traditional values and sets an appalling example for young people at a time when father absence is the most pressing social problem facing the nation. With 37 percent of American children born to fatherless families, Mary Cheney is contributing to a trend that is detrimental to all Americans who will live with the ramifications of millions of children whose anger and frustration at not knowing their father will be felt in the public schools and communities of our nation. Mary Cheney is...

SEATTLE — This is about Ashley's dignity. Everybody examining her case seems to agree at least about that. Ashley is a 9-year-old girl who has static encephalopathy, a severe brain impairment. She cannot walk or talk. She cannot keep her head up, roll over or sit up by herself. She is fed with a tube. Her parents call her "Pillow Angel" because she stays right where they place her, usually on a pillow. Her parents say they feared that their angel would become too big one day — too big to lift, too big to move, too big to take...

Achieving Iraqi national reconciliation, involving other parties and progress in rebuilding the war-shattered nation should decide the timetable for US troops to leave, Indonesia's president said on Monday. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of the world's most populous Muslim nation, was speaking at a joint news conference with US President George W Bush, who was on his second visit to Indonesia. Mr Bush has adamantly opposed setting a specific timetable for withdrawal. Indonesia and the US are in accord on many issues, but some Bush policies, especially in the Middle East, are widely unpopular in the country of 220 million, 85...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids. The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil. Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts. Doctors agree that trans fats are unhealthy...

(AgapePress) - A conservative pro-family group is challenging Fox News Channel over an alleged $10,000 contribution it made to sponsor a conference last weekend for the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). Americans for Truth, an organization formed to monitor and expose elements of the homosexual agenda in the nation's culture, says if Fox News did make this contribution, the supposed "fair and balanced" network needs to contribute equally to a conservative organization if its slogan is to have credence. Both the pro-family group and WorldNetDaily reported on the network's alleged contribution to NLGJA, which is listed on the...

PARIS If Alexander Schoppmann is right, then where there's smoke, there's a flier. As more countries ban smoking in public places, his idea might seem malapropos. But Schoppmann, a German entrepreneur, is hoping to turn smokers' umbrage at ever-expanding efforts to stub out their habit into a highflying business proposal: Smoker's International Airways. As the name suggests, the airline, known as Smintair for short, will probably not be for the faint of lung. The carrier, expected to begin luxury service with only business and first-class seats early next year, plans daily flights between Schoppmann's hometown of Düsseldorf and Tokyo -...

SHERMAN OAKS - A teenage boy and his 5-year-old neighbor shoot hoops on a quiet, tree-lined street. It's a quintessential image of suburbia. But it's illegal. Now, a not-so-neighborly fracas has developed along Matilija Avenue after a former City Council field deputy reported that some households were violating two obscure city ordinances by placing basketball hoops above the curbs outside their homes. The city served the offenders with notices to comply. Nate Brogin refused. "This is a great opportunity for kids to come out after school and break a sweat. Isn't that what a quiet residential street is for?" said...

San Antonio, Texas -- site of the famous 19th-century battle at the Alamo -- is now host to another potential battle that is brewing, this one between homosexual activists and conservative Christians. The battle is centered on, of all things, a statewide chain of grocery stores. The H-E-B Grocery Company, with headquarters in Kerrville, began more than 100 years ago with one tiny family store. It now boasts over 300 stores across the Lone Star State and in northern Mexico and more than 56,000 employees. It also boasts of giving millions of dollars annually to charitable organizations, educational initiatives, and...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Sanitizing movies on DVD or VHS tape violates federal copyright laws, and several companies that scrub films must turn over their inventory to Hollywood studios, an appeals judge ruled. Editing movies to delete objectionable language, sex and violence is an "illegitimate business" that hurts Hollywood studios and directors who own the movie rights, said U.S. District Judge Richard P. Matsch in a decision released Thursday in Denver. "Their (studios and directors) objective ... is to stop the infringement because of its irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies," the judge wrote....

When tobacco control goes out of control Gloucester Daily Times The absurdities of tobacco politics have been with us for decades. But every few years, there is another burst of insanity that would be amusing if we didn't all have to take it seriously, because it has the force of government behind it. Such are the times in which we now live. First, the local example: In Peabody, Bruce Lerner is the most recent poster boy for the death of common sense. And the result, of course, is the death of a business that was paying taxes to a city...

They wanted to sue over sodas in school, they even complained about 2 percent milk, and now they’re after fruit juices. But to the Washington Post, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is just another health-conscious consumer advocacy group. The June 28 Washington Post featured CSPI’s latest complaints about fruit drinks on the front page of its weekly Food section. Staff writer Candy Sagon began by reporting on the additional business juice vendors are enjoying as the nation’s three largest soft drink makers agreed to end soda sales to public schools. But Sagon quickly shifted to complaints...

ANNAPOLIS -- State lawmakers voted yesterday to overturn Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of the Democrats' energy plan that will postpone a 72 percent rate increase by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. but forces customers to pay interest on the deferred charges. The company's 1.1 million residential customers will see their bills increase 15 percent on July 1 -- not the 72 percent increase to market rates set earlier this year in a wholesale electricity auction overseen by the utility-regulating Public Service Commission. However, the money customers save will still be owed to the company, and the customers will...

A Santa Ana man who reports his Latino neighbors for city code violations says he's just trying to raise property values. Some view his actions as part of a culture clash. How you view the recent news about a Santa Ana man who pleaded guilty to selling cars from his house may depend on which side of South Broadway you live on. On the east side, Tim Rush says he's "ecstatic, and doing a jig." For more than a year, Rush had regularly complained to city officials about problem neighbors, particularly Pedro Reyes Rios, whom he nicknamed the "Cal Worthington...

Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) has become a convenient morning stop on many hectic commutes. Recent studies have even pointed to coffee’s potential in helping to prevent cirrhosis of the liver. But on ABC, the coffee maker was criticized during a “consumer alert” that treated cups of coffee like a “dose” of a hard drug. The June 19 edition of “Good Morning America” presented Starbucks as akin to a narcotics dealer preying on addicts. Correspondent Elizabeth Leamy explained “many customers love their regular dose.” The camera then cut to a shot of an apparent Starbucks consumer who referred to her relationship with...

Cardinal Justin Rigali, writing in the Catholic Standard and Times, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said that the modern media’s obsession with pornography is “one of the most pervasive and destructive problems in our society.” “Our society," the Cardinal wrote, “is inundated with sex and sensuality largely from the media. Films, television programs, and advertisements are loaded with sexual reference as well as the promotion of sexual promiscuity.” The all-pervasiveness of sexual imagery in the media has led to the vast proliferation of pornography on the internet where it is accessible to anyone who can use a keyboard. It is...

Washington, D.C. — Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed its strong dismay at the multibillion-dollar broadcast industry’s latest attempt to abuse the public airwaves. After repeatedly offending the public with indecent broadcasts, four major broadcasters filed what CWA believes are frivolous lawsuits challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) recent rulings. A license to broadcast doesn’t give anyone – not even super-rich Big-Media conglomerates – the right to broadcast indecent language between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The four major broadcasters want the courts to approve the indiscriminate use of words for excretory and explicit sexual conduct. “All four broadcast networks...

Homeowners Associations: Many Consider Them Fighting Words Threats against boards by resentful residents seem to be on the rise. Legislation is proposed. By Daniel Yi, Times Staff Writer April 3, 2006 When police found 78-year-old Lucy DeAbreu in her Dana Point condominium, her face had been pummeled so badly that she couldn't speak clearly. The petite widow had to slowly spell the name of her attacker: M-I-N-E-O. Charles Mineo and DeAbreu were neighbors in a tidy ocean-view complex favored by retirees and weekend sojourners. Mineo, a 47-year-old accountant, was angry at his homeowners association because it had penalized him for...

There is a landmark legal battle of constitutional proportions being fought down in Mississippi. It involves fundamental rights protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments, not to mention the rights of certain small business owners to satisfy their customers. This week, another court refused to recognize Mississippians' right to find companionship for 29.99 and so a law outlawing the sale of sex toys will stand. “A person commits the offense of distributing unlawful sexual devices when he knowingly sells, advertises, publishes or exhibits to any person any three-dimensional device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human...

Michael Schiavo Caught in Serious Distortion of Truth on NBC Interview By John-Henry Westen CLEARWATER, FLA., March 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Michael Schiavo, who ordered doctors to withhold food and water from his severely disabled wife Terri until she died, and his current wife Jodi were interviewed by NBC's Matt Lauer. Those exclusive interviews based on Schiavo's upcoming book "Terri: The Truth," are to be broadcast on "Dateline," Sunday, March 26 at 7 p.m.. Ironically, despite claiming to speak about 'the truth' concerning Terri, NBC's Lauer catches Schiavo in a serious distortion of truth as the interview begins. In the...

Companies are charging smokers more money for health insurance CINCINNATI — Smokers already feeling pressure from increasing cigarette costs and workplace smoking bans are now feeling squeezed from another direction — health insurance premiums. A growing number of employers — private and public — are charging employees who use tobacco more money for their health insurance coverage. Employers hope that the higher charges will motivate more employees to stop smoking, resulting in improved health and lower health care costs for the companies and their workers. "With smokers costing companies about 25 percent more than nonsmokers in the area of health...

SAFETY HARBOUR, Florida, January 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNew.com) – Michael Schiavo, who had his disabled wife Terri killed last March by refusing her food and water, was re-married last Saturday in the Roman Catholic Church of Espiritu Santo in Florida. Schiavo married Jodi Centonze. He had two children with her during the years he worked towards achieving Terri’s death. Terri Schiavo was killed in March 2005, in spite of her family’s strenuous fight to prevent the removal of her feeding tube and water. Terri was left severely brain damaged after collapsing at age 26. Although medical authorities said she was in...

COLUMBUS — Ohio’s anti-smoking effort, funded by the tobacco settlement, has poured more than $2 million into passage and implementation of local clean indoor air laws. But now that the Super Bowl of smoking bans is before the Ohio General Assembly — a statewide ban that would be among the strictest in the nation — the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation must sit on the sidelines, at least officially. The 2000 law that created the foundation forbids it from lobbying or otherwise getting involved in a state ballot issue, the goal behind petitions certified by Secretary of State Kenneth...

BERLIN - Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to receive a warm welcome when she visits Washington this week with a senior White House official praising Sunday the closer ties that had developed between Berlin and the US since Germany's September election. The relations between Washington and Berlin had "already become closer" following Merkel's election as German leader, Nicholas Burns, the US Deputy Secretary of State, said in an interview with the German daily Der Tagesspiegel. However, during talks Friday with President George W. Bush, Merkel is expected to press for Washington to close America's controversial detention camp at Guantanamo Bay....

WASHINGTON -- The University of Illinois must soon decide whether, and if so how, to fight an exceedingly silly edict from the NCAA. That organization's primary function is to require college athletics to be no more crassly exploitative and commercial than is absolutely necessary. But now the NCAA is going to police cultural sensitivity, as it understands that. Hence the decision to declare Chief Illiniwek ``hostile and abusive'' to Native Americans. Censorship -- e.g., campus speech codes -- often are academic liberalism's preferred instrument of social improvement, and now the NCAA's censors say: The Chief must go, as must the...

A consumer group is demanding that Frito-Lay put warning labels on chips with the fat substitute olestra or face a lawsuit by a Massachusetts woman who says she got stomach cramps and had to use the bathroom quickly after eating the snacks. The Center for Science in the Public Interest said Wednesday that 30-year-old Lori Perlow of Braintree, Mass., would sue Frito-Lay under a consumer-friendly deceptive-advertising law in the Bay State. Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo Inc., said warning labels are not needed for its Light lines of potato and corn chips. "It's an extremely safe product, well-tested," said Frito-Lay...

The president of Marxist Mexico, Vincente Fox, is a real busybody when it comes to sticking his nose into the affairs of the United States. He has more crust than a loaf of bread. Early in December, 2005, it was announced that a federal judge had lifted the final barrier stopping the United States from completion of a fence along much of its border with Mexico. Fox has been more than critical of the fence plan ever since he heard about it. His problem seems to be that it will keep all the illegals on his side of the border,...

OTTAWA - Group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday as it lifted a ban on so-called “swingers” clubs. In a ruling that radically changes the way courts determine what poses a threat to the population, the top court threw out the conviction of a Montreal man who ran a club where members could have group sex in a private room behind locked doors.

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Allison Avrett's photos show her daughter Haleigh as a smiling little girl with brown bangs hanging over her squinting eyes. Those pictures were taken before Mrs. Avrett gave up Haleigh for adoption five years ago, and long before the purported beating that landed the 11-year-old in a hospital attached to the ventilator and feeding tube. Now, with Haleigh's doctors saying she will never recover from her vegetative state, the child is at the center of a life-and-death legal struggle.

The Hennepin County Sheriff's Department is investigating allegations of criminal sexual conduct by Minnesota Vikings players after a boat cruise on Lake Minnetonka turned into an out-of-control party that included lap dances and sexual acts, an attorney for the charter boat company said Tuesday. Stephen Doyle, a lawyer representing the owners of Al and Alma's, a company that charters cruises on the lake, said cornerback Fred Smoot and another Vikings player, whom he declined to name, reserved a charter for a night-time excursion Thursday. "From our end, I don't know the name of the other primary person, but we turned...

Adam Goldsmith's grieving parents say their son was killed by a DVD player. The 30-year-old Sudbury man died in June after the motorcycle he was riding was hit by a car that had a portable DVD player in the front seat. Legislators are now joining in a push to add the devices to the growing list of what doesn't belong in the front seat. ``We have witnessed first-hand the devastation that's caused by this, when people aren't paying attention,'' said Barbara Goldsmith, the victim's mother. State Sen. Jarrett Barrios (D-Cambridge) is sponsoring a bill to outlaw DVDs in front seats,...

The state attorney general wants the country singer who made the song "Redneck Woman" a hit to stop "glamorizing" the use of chewing tobacco at her concerts. State officials said Gretchen Wilson can be seen on concert jumbo screens pulling a can of Skoal from her pocket while performing her new song, "Skoal Ring." That may violate the 1998 settlement between states and tobacco companies forbidding tobacco ads targeting young people, Attorney General Paul Summers said. "Many young people attend your concerts and purchase your music and T- shirts," Summers wrote in a letter he sent to Wilson Thursday. "Because...

If knowledge is power, then gossip is powerful currency, traded daily on high school phone lines and at the supermarket check-out lines. "The best piece of gossip always has a little hint of scandal involved," says Paula Froelich, a columnist for the New York Post's "Page Six." "And it's also pretty salacious. And at some point your mouth drops and you go, 'oh no she didn't!'" While Mom always said "No one loves a busybody," some scholars believe gossip is a healthy, essential tool in helping people work together and defining the rules of the tribe. ....

WASHINGTON Using sex to sell liquor—and incorporating images where liquor is being used excessively or in an irresponsible manner—are among the chief complaints in the latest advertising code report issued today by the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., the industry's trade group. The semi-annual report, which covers January through June 2005, is part of the industry's voluntary efforts to regulate itself. One SKYY Vodka print ad, for example, featured a female model wearing see-through clothing. The advertiser, SKYY Spirits, agreed to revise the ad after receiving a complaint. While the council said it achieves a "100 percent" compliance rate...

APPLETON (AP) - At Jokers Bar, the staff of eight has been laid off. Owner Tony Schaefer said he's now working the bar with his brother. Schaefer is among many business owners still fuming a month after a ban on smoking at all indoor workplaces was enacted in this city. The ban was approved by 56 percent of voters in an April 5 referendum and went into effect on July 1. Madison's similar smoking ban went into effect on the same day, although there was no referendum preceding it. "We'll be closing up" if business doesn't improve, Schaefer said. "The...

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WHEN it comes to food fights, John Belushi's character in "Animal House" has nothing on Rick Berman. A prominent Washington lobbyist, Mr. Berman runs the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit advocacy group that is financed by the food and restaurant industries. Two months ago, after a report in a leading medical journal cast doubt on several assumptions about obesity, he pounced. His group ran $600,000 worth of full-page ads in a half-dozen newspapers, gloating that the study showed that obesity was not an "epidemic" but rather a lot of hype. "Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of obesity...

At a press conference and Congressional briefing on Wednesday, May 25th, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) will introduce federal legislation that could cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in federal law enforcement grants to local anti-drug task forces. The legislation, which is being co-sponsored by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Donald Payne (D-NJ), and Ed Towns (D-NY), would prohibit states from spending federal Byrne grants on regional narcotics task forces unless they adopt laws preventing people from being convicted of drug offenses when the only evidence against them is the uncorroborated testimony of a law enforcement officer...

Oops, make that 25,814 -- not 400,000. In March 2004, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said 400,000 Americans die each year due to obesity-related problems. But wait. Citing flawed data, four months ago the CDC revised the number down to 365,000. But now, another branch of the CDC says the first branch -- the CDC's Division of Adult and Community Health -- got it wrong. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics says, no, the real figure is 111,909. And after you deduct the beneficial effects of being moderately overweight, the figure declines to 25,814! So is the CDC...

Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation Urges Wife of Disabled Jacksonville Man to Err on the Side of LifeTo: National DeskContact: Pamela F. Hennessy for the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, 727-445-1766, phenn@zimp.orgCLEARWATER, Fl., May 14 /Christian Wire Service/ –- The volunteers with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, along with the family of Terri Schiavo, are urging Jacksonville, Florida resident, Eliza Thomas, to allow her 34 year old husband to live.The Foundation has learned that Scott Thomas suffered brain injury in September of 2004 and has since been incapacitated and dependent on others. His mother, Pamela Patton, has petitioned the courts for guardianship of the...

Major decisions have been made at the polls, including...the controversial Issue 2, which would permit smoking in Columbus bars and taverns. With 99 percent of districts reporting in, voters have apparently rejected Issue 2, the smoking ban exemption. Bar owners and employees had campaigned hard for the exemption that would have allowed businesses that make most of their money from alcohol, bars and taverns, to permit smoking. On Tuesday, about a hundred supporters fanned out at polling places to reach out to voters. Bar owner Kari Hansley says, "We want them to know our business has dropped. We're laying off...

My position on the Schiavo matter has vascilated back and forth over the past few days as I've agonized over the matter.Should she be given a chance at life? If so, what kind of life are we talking about? Is there a chance at rehabilitation? Is Michael Schiavo an evil S.O.B., or is he simply a heart-broken man?Conversely, is she truly in a vegetative state? A virtual zombie with eyes open, and nothing inside? Are her parents and family in denial about her pain and suffering? Are the evangelicals coming to her aid getting so worked up that they are...

HOW DO WE ELECT DANGEROUS IDIOTS LIKE THIS? The brain-dead, idiotic, disgusting, anti-American, childish, can't-get-over-it politician of the day is one Nelson Polite, a member of the Lancaster, Pennsylvania city council. Thankfully this jerk will rise no further up the political ladder. Even Democrats think he's a fool. Polite is upset because of David Stoltzfus who runs a baked goods stand at the local city market. Stoltzfus has a picture of President Bush hanging in the stand. Polite is a Democrat. Polite made a trip to visit Stoltzfus to tell him that he and other Lancaster Democrats are "offended" by...

Note: The following commentary includes graphic descriptions. This is not suitable for children. “I’m at my wits’ end,” the young woman wrote. “I’ve asked pastors, friends, parents, God, and message boards this question and still haven’t received an intelligent answer that I can live with. Why are homosexual acts wrong? I’m a Christian and believe in the Bible, but this part always stumps me.” According to my friend, Dr. J. Budziszewski, author of the excellent new book, Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students, disturbing questions like this show that church leaders aren’t providing young people with the whole...

Nearly three dozen Ohio counties are among 474 nationwide that must adopt new pollution controls because their air does not meet air quality standards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its list today, which includes counties in 31 states. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt told governors that the new standards will require more actions from states to achieve cleaner, healthier air. The EPA already has said it will take actions to reduce pollution from power plants and announced today in a companion regulation new requirements aimed at curtailing air pollution over state parks. The county designation has been long awaited, ever...

Governor Wants to Smoke Sat Feb 14, 5:28 PM ET Associated Press (AP) -- Anti-tobacco groups are protesting Governor Schwarzenegger's efforts to return the smoke-filled room to California politics. Schwarzenegger is converting the Capitol's interior courtyard into an all-weather ``smoking plaza'' where he can smoke cigars with lawmakers and other power brokers. Anti-smoking groups say that sends the wrong signal particularly to young fans of the screen star-turned-politician. They're sending him hundreds of Valentine's Day (news - web sites) cards asking him to stop. A Schwarzenegger spokeswoman says the governor discourages children from smoking -- but notes Schwarzenegger is over...

<p>SACRAMENTO - Anti-tobacco groups on Saturday protested Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to return the smoke-filled room to California's political lexicon.</p> <p>To comply with the state's strict smoking laws, the cigar-loving Schwarzenegger is converting the Capitol's interior courtyard into an all-weather "smoking plaza" where he can entertain lawmakers and other power brokers.</p>

SACRAMENTO -- In addressing an issue that professional sports teams such as the Washington Redskins have faced and resisted in recent years, the California State Assembly passed a bill Thursday that would require the state's middle and high schools to drop "Redskins" as their mascots if the bill becomes law. The Assembly passed the bill 43-20 after a lengthy, passionate debate about Native American-related mascot names that are common throughout California and the nation. If passed by the Senate and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the ban would begin in January 2006 and make California the first state to issue...