Ohio passes "Heartbeat Bill"; Christian Artists Face Jail Time...more

Ohio Passes Bill Banning Abortions after 6 Weeks Lawmakers in Ohio have passed a bill, that, if signed by the state’s governor, John Kasich, would ban most abortions after six weeks.

The NBC-affiliated station WCMH-TV Columbus reported that the “Heartbeat Bill,” as it is known, would be one of the nation’s strictest abortion laws.

Currently, after Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, legalizing abortion, most states have resorted to allowing abortion up to the point of fetus viability--when a fetus is able to stay alive outside the womb.

If signed into law, the Heartbeat Bill will perhaps set a new precedent regarding abortion restrictions.

Fake news hysteria is why our elites aren't trusted   ...We noted earlier this week that elite media figures actually were fooled on a large scale by a fake story about fake news because it seemed to confirmed their pre-existing assumptions. Everyone is vulnerable to misinformation and spin—to suspend disbelief when it is convenient to do so. As Shafer says, the self-righteous conceit behind the sudden preoccupation with fake news is that this tendency is somehow more pronounced among Trump voters than everyone else—indeed, that many people could only have voted for him because they were misinformed. . . .

But the collapse in public trust in the mainstream press is also driven by politics and social divides. Much of the public believes that big city reporters do not understand them or their way of life, and hold their values in contempt. And the degree of hysteria that media elites are exhibiting about “fake news,” and the rubes who were supposedly taken in, will only reinforce this perception further...

Two Christian Artists Face Jail Time for Refusing to Make Invitations for Same-Sex Wedding Christian artists who create hand-painted invitations and cards could be facing jail time and heavy penalties for refusing to make invitations for same-sex weddings.

Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, owners of art design studio Brush & Nib, challenged an ordinance in Phoenix, Arizona that prohibits them from refusing clients for same-sex weddings. Under the same ordinance, they are also not allowed to discuss their convictions or the reason for not accepting clients for same-sex weddings.

If they should violate these laws, they would be imprisoned for six months for every day they fail to comply. They would also be fined $2,500, according to Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Kristen Waggoner, who appeared on Fox’s ‘The Kelly File’ last week to talk about the case...

Report Shows 2.5 Million Human Beings Created for IVF Have Been Killed ...Doctors typically create more embryos in IVF than they implant. Sometimes couples have embryos implanted in the womb multiple times before a baby survives to birth. In other cases, couples want to have multiple children.

However, this practice has led to millions of leftover embryos – who already are unique human beings with their own DNA. Some couples have the embryos destroyed, and others donate them to research. Both options are extremely troubling because they involve human lives.

But couples have another, life-affirming option that is gaining attention across the world. Embryo adoption, sometimes called snowflake adoption, allows couples to make adoption plans for their embryos with other adoptive couples....

Ransomed: The Freeing of 226 Christians From Islamic State  The millions in ransom money came in dollar by dollar, euro by euro from around the world. The donations, raised from church offerings, a Christmas concert, and the diaspora of Assyrian Christians on Facebook, landed in a bank account in Iraq. Its ultimate destination: the Islamic State group.

Deep inside Syria, a bishop worked around the blurred edges of international law to save the lives of more than 200 people — one of the largest groups of hostages yet documented in IS's war in Syria and Iraq. It took more than a year, and videotaped killings of three captives, before all the rest were freed...

Jesus, a Broken Car Window and a Girl from Oman
...We talked about what life was like as a migrant. She was smart, intelligent, well thought out.  I told her what Perth had been like in the 70s, compared to what it was now.  And then I asked her what she found hard about Perth.

“No one talks to anyone,” she said, “Everyone keeps to themselves. There’s no community life and everything closes so early.”

 

“What about the other unit owners?” I asked, looking out the window as a couple of shaven headed big bearded blokes took a smoko.

 

“No one really says anything.  I miss the way everyone back home talked to each other.”...