Diane M. sent us information that contradicts all the blah-blah that's been going on regarding the non-RESURGENCE of religion in America.

Like the Contract out on America, what the religious resurgence is, really, is a lot of hot air. Machismo men, in particular, are playing the trumpet loud trying to drown out the women's laughter - women who know better.

Although there are many women who have bought into the idea that the religious right is huge - kinda like a virgin who's never seen a REAL penis before her wedding night and is told that her husband's teenie thingie is wonderful and it is she who is lacking because she can't feel anything.

Anyway, this so-called resurgence should be called unsubstantiated rumor and wishful thinking, aka propaganda.

Sort of reminds one of the actions of Special Inquisitor Kenneth Starr who had spent more than $40 MILLION of YOUR tax dollars trying to find out information about a land deal gone sour (cost about $4 million).

By the way, who is monitoring the expenditures of the Special Inquisitor? How much graft and waste is there in Starr's budget as he flies here and there to make speeches for money and working on private practice matters.

Wouldn't you like to see the billing records of Starr who crucified Hubbell for the very same thing - cheating on his clients.

BTW, do any of you remember Starr's statement that his GREAT ambition was to be the attorney general under President Dan Quayle. (Now that's ambition ???? I'd forgotten it myself until someone reminded me.)

Hey, kids, Starr said it, not me. With judgment like that, how can one expect him to run an investigation and not an inquisition where he is certain that everyone but himself (and his handlers) and those who agree 100% with him are WRONG and should be in jail.

But back to religion (although Starr is a fundy and boasts about going into jails and preaching, etc).

According to the Christian Science Monitor church attendance is NOT what is claimed. (Having the CSM contradicting the propaganda is similar to having one of the Contract out on America signers blowing the whistle on Newt's many sexual affairs and marriges.)

In fact, churches and people are outright misleading the real facts. !Gasp! (If we were referring to ordinary folks we'd say they were lying, but with church folks, they're just "errrorrring".

In a 1998 article, CSM says that religious people boast that 45 percent of the population goes to church every Sunday, but, the real figures are really less than 30%.

What is growing is the entertainment and weird churches - those megachurches with no denominational affiliation but who preach that EVERY word in the bible (which bible; which translation???) is absolutely true (and then refuse to live by any of it that bothers their life style) - with the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses, are growing. The Mormon church, by the way, is the RICHEST church in the U.S. It surpasses the Roman Catholic Church by a goodly margin.

(Has anyone asked Senator Orin Hatch UNDER OATH how many church wives he has??? He's a top man in the Mormon hierarchy.)

Religious authorities say the so-called nutsy church "growth" is actually a sideways movement: church goers changing from church to church and that the number of people are dropping out and never going back is increasing every year.

Mainline churches have lost fully 25% of their members since the 1960s.

One authority says his research indicates only 24% of the American people attend church.

There's also lot of talk about prayer and devotions (Brokaw on NBC is one of the worst) but an authority estimates that only 5 percent of the U.S. population is actively engaged in prayer or devotionals on a daily basis.

Not what you've heard, huh?

But then the Nazi party never was the majority in Germany until they took power through propaganda, intimidation, and lies - plus turning one citizen against the other (as the RR are doing regarding women's human rights and the human rights of lesbians and gays).

Regarding abortion, Diane M. comments:

".... that one (only one) facet of the argument is that until the turn of this century people believed that sperm was the human being. That is, just as a person plants a kernel of corn in the ground for nurturing, a man plants in a woman for nurturing--she didn't contribute anything. This would be a reason that the Catholic Church thought contraception was wrong -- the little critters were alive before they even left the man, in their belief system. (Catt's Claws calls this the sacred sperm theory.) Upon the discovery of the ova (turn of this century) you would have though maybe they'd get a clue, but that was just a vessel within a vessel in semi-modern beliefs. Upon the discovery of DNA we finally proved that a new organism isn't possible unless a sperm and ova meet. And yet most of religious belief about abortion is based on the idea is that there is already a soul when a man "needs" to ejaculate. And they haven't revised their beliefs to match reality yet."

Thanks Diane. (One of CC's author's prize possessions is a medical text illustration text of a man ejaculating fully-formed, albeit tiny babies ... ain't science wonderful? But I've always wondered that if an abortion "kills" one of those "babies" what about the other half million or so that came out at the same time???? Isn't the man guilty of "killing" all those others by not saving those other little "babies" and planting them in other women? Inquiring minds want to know.

It's hard to believe in today's world that the European Court of Justice on 02-17-98 issued a ruling that same-sex domestic partner's don't deserve the same travel benefits extended to opposite-sex domestic partners - that such discrimination does not violate the European Court Treaty nor the 1975 council directive. In explaining that there was no discrimination in their ruling, the court said - {{oh, sit down chilluns and fasten your seat belts before going on }} - because it is refusing male same-sex partners as well as female same-sex partners, so there is no discimination based on sex. Oddly, the chief advocate for Lisa Grant who brought the case was one Cherie Booth, a barrister who is the wedded partner of Britain's prime minister Tony Blair. The Britain government as well as other European governments argued against Lisa Grant's plea for justice.

Our M.D. advisor Nancy Phillips wrote in answer to my confusion regarding the popsicle baby that was born recently - it had been frozen for 7.5 years before being implanted into a woman's uterus for gestation. "How exactly is this possible - people can't be frozen and come back - Doesn't this kinda prove that there's something different about a fetus and that it's not quite human?" Dr. Phillips wrote: "Post-fertilization early embryos (2 to 32 cells or so) can be frozen in a special medium and stored at 200 degrees Centigrade below zero (liquid nitrogen - those smoking thermos bottles in Jurassic Park movies). At this stage, every cell is equivalent to every other cell, and if one or two or three cells die, the remaining cells are fully capable of filling in. Even the best freezing process will have loss of a small percentage of cells. Later on, the cells begin to have specialized characteristics and eventual fates, despite looking much like other cells in the embryo. A cell destined to become heart can't switch course at this time and become brain. Once cells (and their descendants) have specialized fates, they can't be killed off at random without losing some crucial part of the embryo. There are scheduled cell deaths, though - that's why we have separate fingers and not fins."

Thank you Dr. Phillips for a very good explanation.

It's hard to believe this, but there's ANOTHER federal prosecutor out there who is running amok. A fellow Republican with Starr, Donald Smaltz is prosecuting the alleged irregularities in the Tyson Food gifties that consisted primarily of $12,000 worth of gifts (football tickets and the like) Smaltz claims was given to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. But he isn't prosecuting the Tyson brothers. Oh no. They pleaded guilty and are paying a few measly millions (about 6 to be exact which is chicken feed to those boyz).

But Smaltz (are there any Jews out there who find this funny??? Smaltz prosecuting the Tyson chicken boyz) has saved his big headline grabbing prosecutions for two EMPLOYEES who have never done anything without the boss's approval.

Yep, another Republican prosecutor is running amok BUT before you think it's part of the DNA, recall that the wife of the director of media who is being prosecuted is one Beverly Woody Bassett who was the Arkansas state securities commissioner who said of Whitewater: "there's no scandal here."

Oh, you think I'm playing "grassy knoll conspiracy" here? Recall that in TEXAS, the sister and brother-in-law of the former lover of Henry Ciscneros are being prosecuted by yet ANOTHER special (Republican) prosecutor for - DRUM ROLL PLEASE - getting a house mortgage by signing for it but actually the house was for their sister. This couple has to face the wrath (and expense) of the Republican's fourth branch of the federal government for telling a white lie to help a relative get a house mortgage. NO MONEY WAS LOST. Mortgage paid off. What the shit is going on?

{ For you who are culturally deprived, schmaltz is the Yiddish word for chicken fat (head?) }

There are only a few training programs for women interested in a career in politics:

Center for the American Woman and Politics - Eagleton Institute of Politics; Rutgers University The Women's Campaign School at Yale University

The Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics Iowa State University

Brandeis University also offers some courses. (Information from a column in the Christian Science Monitor)

We have often criticized the male homosexual campaign keeps health authorities from tracking HIV/AIDS positive men, citing possible discrimination - and we now have an epidemic of married women being infected by their husbands because health authorities are handcuffed and often can't warn the women their husbands are infected.

Gays (men) can also be proud of the secrecy that surrounded an HIV-infected man, a slime-ball of slime-balls, who had unprotected sex with than 100 KNOWN WOMEN sex partners - and passed the virus on to dozens of them. (By the way, not one of the women infected passed the infection on to their male partners which holds with the warnings that we have posted on CC for years. A man is likely to pass the HIV/AIDS virus on at least ten times more than a woman to man - so if a guy says he got AIDS/HIV from a FEMALE prostitute ...)

This slime-ball, this filth of the earth used to hang out in malls and such places and pick up female losers or the misplaced. HE fawned over them and flattered young lost souls who were forbidden sex education in schools and thus were unprepared for this terrible, insidious torturer who would murder them. At least three of his victims were aged 13 or 14, with most in his victims in their early 20s or less. He was 28 and was gunned down on a St. Louis street in January 1997 in an apparent unrelated incident.

The 100 females figure is according to the State of Missouri which compiled it through city and state investigators.

Here's the kicker: He also infected women in Illinois but CONFIDENTIALITY laws are blocking the investigation - so there may be dozens of women in Illinois infected with HIV from this slime ball but the laws are blocking the information that could prolong their life with prompt treatment.

There's something wrong an anti-discrimination picture that makes women the victims. . . . . . . .

No one wants gays discriminated against, but we want women protected. Is that too much to ask? After all, most gay men infections can be avoided by using a condom. Married women often don't have that option, and society frowns on them requesting such usage - like the Pope doesn't like it.

For those ultra-right conservatives and hair-in-the-ear idiots like Andy Rooney on Sixty Minutes, I dedicate this portion of this column. Here are some reasons feminists aren't condemning Bill Clinton for the RUMORS and INNUENDOS Starr and his minions have concocted:

#1 - Anita Hill testified under oath. What Paula Jones has said and claimed is NOT under oath. She has since amended, changed, etc., her story. Let's wait until she raises her right hand and faces possible jail time for any lying. Jones is trying to get $2 million dollars; Hill asked for nothing.

#2 - Andy Rooney probably reflects a lot of guyz out there as he ranted and raved about President Clinton and the alleged sexual affair with Monica Lewinsky although THERE IS NOT ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE THAT IT OCCURRED. It has been denied by Clinton and Lewinsky. Lewinsky's attorney is shooting down the allegations one by each. Andy Rooney owes President Clinton and his listeners an apology for his unfair rush to judgment and I, for one, will no longer turn to Sixty Minutes because it has shown a complete irresponsibility in this matter.

#3 - According to Lewinsky's attorney, Clinton never gave ML any copy of _Leaves of Grass_ which, the great newsmedia seems to have forgotten, is a psalm of male homosexual love. I have yet to see an apology from all the bigtime news hounds.

#4 - Monica Lewinsky was very well connected when it came to democratic fund contributors. Of course she'd stand out. She was also exiled because she was a little bit too caught up in the Clinton charisma. And ladies and gentlemen who haven't had the opportunity to meet him, he is CHARISMATIC!

#5 - President Clinton hugged and kissed a friend of mine in Little Rock at a "rope" when he went by shaking hands during his campaigning. The press didn't photograph or make a big deal of it. I guess because she was in her 60s. Other friends and acquaintences have had phone calls from him. SO? Why hasn't the news media jumped on that? The people who KNOW Clinton know how affectionate he is. He just does that sort of thing.

#6 - For the record - AGAIN - Paula Jones NEVER, not once asked for any advice, support or anything else from the Arkansas Chapter of the National Organization for Women (I was president at the time so I should know). After phone calls between me and the national office, Patricia Ireland did attempt to meet with Paula Jones, but Jones was too busy buying a dress. NOW is off the hook on this one.

#7 - The difference between Senator Packwood and President Clinton is the difference between being hanged and walking out the prison gates: PROOF. Everything in the Linda Tripp/Monica Lewinsky rumor factory against Clinton is rumor, just talk between two women - and most women know that one sometimes one exaggerates when it comes to reciting romantic experiences - something, of course, that men don't know anything about.

#8 - Why hasn't the media looked into the motives of Linda Tripp and her handler Goldberg who was a Nixon dirty tricks artists. Or done more about Jones' handler McMillan who is a right-wing fanatic, a rabid anti-abortion activist who has had two abortions herself.

#9 - Why has Newsweek had two men on its payroll who spend most of their time trying to get dirt on Clinton. Why didn't they fire the editor who published a slanderous book about Clinton under a false name and then LIE to cover up suspicions?

#10 - When is some great news commentator stand up and condemn what is going on the way Edward R. Murrow did regarding the McCarthy witchhunts back in the 50s. Where is journalistic dignity when we need it.?

#11 - Even if ALL the charges were true, there is NOT ONE SHRED OF IMPLICATION - NOT EVEN FROM JONES - THAT "NO" didn't mean "no." I really think that some of these feminists - such as the hypocritical adulterer who heads one of the larger feminist organizations and has spoken out against Clinton - ought to grow up.

There is such a thing as consensual sex, believe it or not.

Believe it or not.

Because, dear hearts, not all the interns who got seduced by older, more experienced people worked in the White House.

Y'all know, of course, that the Rutherford Foundation has been fund-raising by using their involvement with the Paula Jones case. It is an ultra-right think tank out of group out of Virginia that has been providing her with attorneys and funds for makeovers, new hair styles, etc.

There's a Jewish term: Chutzpah (spell it as you will) that applies to those who would make money off a woman who doesn't seem all that bright.

You should see how she scored on her qualifications tests when she applied for a job in the Arkansas state bureaucracy.

For those culturally deprived, one example of what chutzpah is, picture a guy who kills his parents and then pleads for mercy from the court because he's an orphan.

More chutzpah from the conservative side of the aisles of Congress.

Republican conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist is complaining (as Clinton did in his State of the Union address) that the Senate Republicans are holding up confirmation of new federal appointments in the federal judicial system by refusing to vote on 42 of the Clinton's 78 judicial nominees last year.

Because of ideology? Pardon me, but that's BULLSHIT.

It's a fund-raising ploy. Chutzpah!

The ultra-conservatives in Congress are refusing to do their duty as they swore to do when they took their oath of office and are crippling our judicial system and looking for the looooooooong green as their reward.

Seems like these members of the senate (and even a few from the house side even thought they have nothing to do with confirmations) are sending out lots of fund raising letters asking for money to help them keep liberals off the bench ... even though many of the judges being held ransom to the right-wing money grubbing were originally appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush.

That's another definition of chutzpah.

It's also the definition of dereliction of duty.

Or irresponsible money suckers.

Newspapers are carrying articles and the Centers for Disease Control (aka CDC - chumps, dunces, and charlatans) are headlining the drop in abortions as a victory for the sacred sperm but also noting - as an afterthought - that births are also down.

So it was predicted in a 1995 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, highlights of which Catt's Claws has been publishing ever since. We don't want this vital information swept under the sweaty armpits of machismo.

>>>>Medical authorities are saying the use of two already approved drugs will induce abortions when used in combination and they have produced a surge in abortions. However, no one will realize it for several years until they see that the birth rate and abortion rate have stayed down. The two-drug abortions method is being prescribed quietly and in privately in doctor's offices today.

Dr. Richard U. Hausknecht of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York published a study of the use of the combination of methotrexate and misoprostol to induce abortion (the Aug. 31, 1995 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine). In years past, several doctors, including a woman doctor released the same information but after the flurry of the first news story, the information was quietly ignored/suppressed. <<<<<<<<<<<

Methotrexate is FDA-approved for use against cancer; Misoprostol is FDA approved to treat ulcers. Because both are FDA-approved, they can be prescribed by YOUR physician today. Together they produce abortions at a better rate than the RU-486 pill.

Available today at your friendly M.D.

Also available for many years and never brought to women's attention, drugs that produced abortions in women with ectopic pregnancies: your friendly birth control pills.

Send your ideas, comments, and news for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed as we get to it. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information. Catt's Claws is NOT sponsored by any organization. The contents are strictly the opinion of the author. Copyright 1998, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902