Go Here
One of my favorite online weekly emails comes from The Federalist Patriot, the Conservative Journal of Record. For subscription to this excellent publication which comes in email form, and also can be read in a PDF format Go Here
I love reading the Federalist Patriot simply because they take the top stories, quotes, and analysis each week, and in a concise and often funny way, share the news from a conservative perspective. The insights shared were particularly spot on during the recent presidential election.
And I highly recomend this publication to anyone who would like to balance news coverage from the Main Stream Media, which tends to look at things from a Marxist perspective. All of the writers for FP are Patriots who love God, Family, and Country.
In honor of Constitution day tomorow, when we as a Nation Celebrate the 218th anniversary of the ratification of this amazing document, I share these quotes, links, and insights to encourage you the reader to up your knowledge of the Constitution of the United States of America.
Jenny Hatch
Quotes from the most recent Publication:
“QUOTE OF THE WEEK…
“I have no platform. Judges are not politicians who can promise
to do certain things in exchange for votes. Judges are like
umpires. They don’t make rules, they apply them… The
primary check on the courts has always been judicial
self-restraint.” —Judge John Roberts before the Senate Judiciary
Committee”
“Just how important is it that President George Bush’s Constitutional-constructionist nominees be confirmed? It is more important than anything else this administration could hope to accomplish. The future of the Republic is riding on these confirmations.
The Federalist Papers, as the definitive explication of our Constitution’s original intent, clearly define original intent in regards to Constitutional interpretation. In Federalist No. 78 Alexander Hamilton writes, “[The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment…liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments.”
In Federalist No. 81 Hamilton notes, “[T]here is not a syllable in the [Constitution] which directly empowers the national courts to construe the laws according to the spirit of the Constitution…”
George Washington advised, “The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, ’till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People is sacredly obligatory upon all.”
Today, 218 years hence, Justice Antonin Scalia says of judicial activism, “As long as judges tinker with the Constitution to ‘do what the people want,’ instead of what the document actually commands, politicians who pick and confirm new federal judges will naturally want only those who agree with them politically.””
“Liberals can’t win on abortion, gay marriage and bans on the Pledge of Allegiance by allowing Americans to vote. That’s why they need the courts to keep inventing rights to abortion, gay marriage and bans on the Pledge of Allegiance. Normal liberals know that, which is why they duck honest argument. But the crazy liberals don’t. That’s why Bush needs to concentrate on luring them out of their cages. It takes so little to provoke them! Just let us know before Bush nominates Janice Rogers Brown to the Supreme Court so we can arrange for live TV coverage of George Soros’s head exploding, OK?” —Ann Coulter
“From the “Village Academic Curriculum” File…
The academic Left has long pounded their ideological nonsense into young college minds with the support of billions of dollars a year nationwide. For many years now, polls indicate that the longer a kid is a student, the more Marxist he becomes.
After all, PhDs vote overwhelmingly Democrat, contrary to their intelligence. Yet, in spite of all of this firepower, the Left is worried that some conservative groups are gaining inroads in America’s campuses. There are only perhaps a half dozen conservative organizations such as the Leadership Institute, the Young Americans Foundation and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute which are beginning to have an effect on campus.
The combined budget of these groups is somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 to $30 million—a far cry from the war chest of their opponents. However, Morton Blackwell, head of the Leadership Institute, which thrives on 300 campuses, puts it: “We are easily outspent 50 to 1. I’m honestly not worried about George Soros putting another $1 billion into leftwing political activities on campus. They have no idea how to spend the billions they already control.” This, we hope, is a little encouraging news on the warfront with Academentia.”
Go Here
Read the Introduction to this Blog

Go Here
By Dr. Linda Folden Palmer
“A recent study published in the journal Pediatrics, (May 2004), titled “Breastfeeding and the Risk of Postneonatal Death in the United States,” reports a 21% reduction in infant death for having EVER breastfed.
When they compare 3 months of any breastfeeding to less or no breastfeeding, the reported reduction is 36%. That’s 36% fewer infant deaths! If they were to compare 3 months of exclusive breastfeeding to no breastmilk, their number would have been closer to 50%.”
“This brings us face to face with the safety and effectiveness of infant formula as a breast milk substitute. Is formula actually as safe as we have been led to believe? In fact, the answer is a resounding “no.” In fact, the use of infant formula doubles the risk of infant death for American babies.”
“Below are the percentages and total numbers of U.S. infants who die from various leading causes, according to the 1999 National Vital Statistics Reports.
Total U.S. births in 1999: 4,000,000
Total U.S. infant deaths in 1999: 28,000
20% Congenital abnormalities (birth defects) 5,500
16% Low birth weight and premature birth 4,500
10% Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) 2,700
8.5% Complications during pregnancy and birth 2,400
6% Respiratory distress: lung collapse, influenza, pneumonia 1,750
3% Accidents (unintentional injuries) 850
2.5% Bacterial sepsis (infections) 700
2.4% Circulatory system diseases 650
1.4% Necrotizing enterocolitis 400
1% Intestinal inflammations (diarrhea) 300
0.3% Meningitis 100
0.3% Cancer 100
Numbers account for 70% of total infant deaths”
“Answering the Detractors
Criticisms are often spread about studies that find increased illness and death rates associated with formula feeding. For just this reason, each later study aggressively attempts to take into account any factors that have been purported as distorting previous study outcomes.
These research papers address as many aspects as possible, from maternal education, to smoking, to income level, to day care usage and many more possibilities. The results continue to reveal the risks of formula feeding.
It’s commonly said that formula feeding does not risk lives in industrialized nations where education and medical advances prevent increased deaths. The evidence is quite to the contrary. Some insist that the blame for the United States’ relatively high infant death rate lies with underprivileged communities.
Again, it has been shown that elevated death rates among U.S. blacks cannot be attributed to poverty. Hispanic Americans rank similarly to African-American populations for socio-economic factors, but they match non-Hispanic whites in their lower infant mortality rates. The difference is not socio-economic; rather, it’s in rates of formula use versus breastfeeding.
A New York study sought to establish the connection between education, income and infant survival. It concluded strongly that the number of illnesses is increased by two to three times in formula-fed babies regardless of socioeconomic status or level of parental education.
A later study in Israel confirmed the effects of formula feeding across all classes and education levels. The most recent analysis of this issue, again performed in the United States, reiterated that higher illness rates among formula-fed or formula-supplemented infants “did not differ among income groups.””
“What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You
Pediatricians spend much time frightening parents with 1 in 100,000 risks from vaccine-preventable diseases when parents question the utility and safety of vaccines. “Would you want to risk the life of your child?” they demand.
Yet these very same professionals offer formula samples with the other hand — when the magnitude of health risks associated with the use of formula is 500 times greater.
Parenting is all about making choices and weighing risks and benefits. Many parents need to make the riskier choice of formula feeding in order to balance other factors that benefit the family.
Yet some parents who have lost their children, possibly based on pediatric advice condoning or encouraging formula-feeding, would surely wish that they had been informed of the very real risks related to using formula.”
Go Here
Jenny Hatch
Read the Introduction to this Blog

We are studying the Teachings of the Prophet David O Mckay in our relief society class on sundays and this particular quote from yesterdays lesson touched my heart, and I wanted to share it.
The lesson was titled A Testimony of Truth
quote:
“…If you have that testimony [of truth] on your side, you can pass through the dark valley of slander, misrepresentation, and abuse, undaunted as though you wore a magic suit of armor that no bullet could enter, no arrow could pierce.
You can hold your head high, toss it fearlessly and defiently, look every man calmly and unflinchingly in the eye…You will know that all will come out right in the end; that it must come; that all must flee before the great white light of truth, as the darkness slinks away into nothingness in the presence of the sunburst.”
Jenny Hatch
Read the Introduction to this Blog

It is late. I can’t sleep. I’ve been blogging for a couple hours now while baking treats, and just wanted to write a little about Andrew, my second son and fourth child. Tomorow September 7th he will be nine years old. I have had quite a bit of time now to process through the various feelings and emotions tied to his birth.

Expecting Andy – giving Michelle a foot massage while Allison makes a face…
Some ironies for this Natural Mother; During my pregnancy I ate no refined sugar. I was a disciplined Vegan and ate no animal foods, and basically built this child on grains, beans, carrot juice and green leafy vegetables with an abundance of soy protein.
Want to know what Andy’s requests were for his birthday meals??? Bacon AND sausage for breakfast with donuts and hashbrowns. For supper, just one word: Steak. That’s it. Just Steak.
For his cake – Chocolate cake with icing, and for his fourth grade class? Chocolate brownies, homemade of course, with chocolate frosting. (I have never in my life made brownies with frosting, but I just ate one, and man they are GOOD!) I learned a long time ago, that this particular age group of children has an emotional need to be “just like the other kids”. No tofu surprise/grated carrot and zuchini muffins for his class!
Andys teacher informed his class that she “loved homemade birthday treats, and for the kids to ask for their moms to bring home baked goodies for the class”. I would have bought him a big sheet cake and/or store bought cupcakes if I could, but NO, he wanted Mom to make it to please his new teacher. So I have been baking all evening, and this afternoon my husband went to the store and purchased all the meat.
I am still mostly a vegetarian, and so to have to cook up all this fleshy food is rather nauseating to me, but I have promised the children that I will cook whatever they want on their birthday, and make them as gooey a cake as possible. So, three pounds of butter, twelve eggs, and ten CUPS of sugar later, here is what I came up with. (I did use freshly ground whole spelt as the flour though for both the brownies and the cake!)

Cake and brownies
and the meat…

Andy’s complete birth story is on the birth love web site, but I can’t link to it because it is a members only site. I don’t have the gumption to rewrite it now, the complete story is in my book A Mothers Journey, but I will take a few minutes to write some thoughts about this beloved son of ours.
The morning of his birth was a life changing moment for me personally. I had done my own prenatal care and was five weeks overdue. My husband had given me multiple priesthood blessings promising me that he would be born in the “due time of the Lord”. I held fast to those blessings during those sultry hot nights in late august when I was so big, and so ready for him to be born.
During the three hours of his labor, I felt the veil part and angels were in my bedroom while I danced him out. I felt that all of my life to that point had been in preparation for this one moment in time. A time to birth. I pushed him out in three painless contractions. And when I held him in my arms for the first time, I just marveled that he was really here, whole, beautiful….but not breathing. We could not get him to take a breath.
I could tell he was a large newborn, but did not know until a couple hours later that he was eleven pounds and twelve ounces with a fifteen inch head and 23 inches long.
Why wouldn’t he breathe? We prayed, Paul gave him a blessing, I tried a little CPR, and he was just so still. At that moment a scream started in my heart. “No, Father in Heaven, NO! Do NOT let this happen. Please let it be perfect…please don’t make me face them.” And then the whirlwind began. It’s like a dream in my memory. Paul dialed 9-11 and within minutes they started to arrive….

Andrew two days old at the hospital
Three and a half days of horrifying scrutiny, questions, mental torture, why, oh why did you give birth alone??? You had insurance??? If only YOU had come to US, none of THIS would have happened. You must be a gestational diabetic, nobody has a baby that big, whatever were you thinking? And it went on and on and on until I wanted to scream. But I didn’t, I stayed quiet and just quietly stuck up for myself and my son when it seemed appropriate to speak.

Andy on his blessing day – three weeks old
I believe I heard the words brain damaged home birth baby thirty times in those three days. Every doc and nurse at both hospitals reassuringly informed me that my oxegen deprived child would most likely be brain damaged.
I’ve spent the past nine years watching and waiting for the “damage” to appear. It never did. He is perfect. He is one of the nicest children I have ever personally known. He is thoughtful, kind, and ever since he could hold a crayon in his hands he has drawn me beautiful pictures of flowers, trees, the sun, with the words, “I love Mom” on them, which we proudly display on the fridge. I taught him how to read in our home school and by the age of six he was reading chapter books.
When he was about four, I asked him if he remembered his birth. I have learned that it is about this age that they start to forget. He told us, “when Mom came to the hospital to get me, she wanted to beat up the doctor”. Yes, that’s right, I did. That particular doctor, I asked that she be removed from the case, as she had done some unethical things, and I did not trust her. And it is true for a time I wanted to beat the snot out of her.
I have often pondered on the words of the nurse who moaned to me “if only you had come to US, none of this would have happened”. She is right, most likely I would have been induced three weeks before he was ready to be born, perhaps resulting in a C-section, and the thrill of giving birth in my own bedroom surrounded by angels and in the sanctity and purity of my own home would have been lost.

Andrew 6th birthday
Do I have any regrets about the way things went? Sure. If I could have prevented Andrew from being pummeled in the NICU for three days I would have, but I like to think that some of my efforts during those days lessened his time there, as they were talking about keeping him for a month, but when they could not find anything wrong with him they sent us home.
I kept asking everyone “Why are we here? What is wrong with him?” The first doc that I fired kept saying to me when I first showed up, “you have a very sick baby”. I thought as she said it, “I have a very drugged baby – but please, define sick”. I didn’t say that to her, she was the wrong type of doc to say something like that to, but I did say it to some others and in the end, they agreed and sent us home.
For a couple years I felt alot of guilt for what he experienced during his three days in the NICU. But you know what? I did the best I could. And I think he knows that. We had three wonderful years of on demand breastfeeding, and now he is growing up so fast, so tall, so full of life and love.

Paul with Andrew on his Baptism day
As the peacemaker in our home, he is simply a joy to have in our midst. It was worth every second of pregnancy misery, after birth medical trauma, and unending questioning by everyone in my life to know WHY I gave birth at home alone. I would do it all over again to have the blessing of him being a part of our family.
I figure we are at about the halfway mark of his time in our home. May these next nine years simply be more of the same, just enjoying his quiet, thoughful manners, and curious insights into how he views the world.

Jeff and Andy dress up 2002
This post is dedicated to all of you mothers who are on the fence in regards to UC birth. We mothers don’t have any guarantees in life. When Heavenly Father asked us to “walk by faith” during mortality, what that means is that we sometimes have to take a flying leap out into the darkness, and simply trust that the savior will be waiting with outstretched hands to catch us if our leap into the unknown sends us in the direction of the sharp rocks and briars of life.
Some would look at Andy’s birth and say it was a failure. Instead of thinking of the blood loss (My crit was 4.7 right after the birth)and the baby not breathing, what I remember is the sensation of being in a standing position while I pushed and how powerful it felt to be on my own two feet instead of on my back.
To feel the unfettered flow of pure spirit and love as he was born, and to grasp him in my own hands and pull him up into my arms. Although my triumph quickly melted into abject terror at the thought of having to transfer to the hospital at that moment, I will never forget the high of how it felt to give birth alone and in my own bedroom.
I need to sleep – but God bless the birthing mothers where ever they may be this night; at home, in the hospital, in the surgery wards, and in the recovery rooms, and Please God, bless the babies…
Jenny Hatch
UPDATE: September 7th

Andrew the morning of his ninth birthday, holding his chocolate cake!

Go Here
Midwives left ‘powerless’ by soaring caesar births
Adam Cresswell, Health editor
September 05, 2005
“THE number of women giving birth by caesarean section is rising fast, and could soon hit a record of 32 per cent of deliveries – far higher than in countries such as Britain and New Zealand.
There are more than 250,000 births a year nationwide, and emerging hospital data indicates the increase in caesarean rates since the mid-1990s may be accelerating.”
…”The reasons for the sharp increase in Australia were difficult to establish conclusively, Professor Tracy said, but more than 80 per cent of women who had a caesarean for their first child went on to have caesareans for their subsequent children. “They are coming back and not necessarily being encouraged to have a vaginal birth,” she said.
“It’s the whole madness of technology – the biggest risk factor for any of these things is to have private obstetric care.”
Jenny Hatch