A radical surrogacy law advancing in Michigan seeks to redefine parenthood to eliminate genetics and biology and cut off children from their mothers and fathers.

Michigan, which in 2022 ensconced a “right” to abortion-on-demand into its state constitution, may be on the verge of another adaptation to the sexual revolution: adopting commercial surrogacy.

The Great Lake State, along with Nebraska and to some degree Louisiana, are the three states that still outlaw commercial surrogacy. “Commercial” surrogacy is distinguished from “altruistic” surrogacy, where the latter is nominally a volunteer undertaking. I say “nominally” because (a) how does one really monitor financial exchanges in such quasi-private contexts and (b) when does “compensation for care” (e.g., medical “expenses”) blur into pay?

Are you surprised that the vast majority of states allow trafficking in children? If you are, you’re soooo 1987, when New Jersey’s “Baby M” case was decided. As bioethics activist Jennifer Lahl has observed, America is the “Wild West” when it comes to artificial reproduction.

Amid the controversies over abortion from the 1970s-90s, many state legislators decided to steer clear of any involvement in the emerging field of artificial reproduction, including surrogacy. And Roe fostered a perspective of treating childbearing as an “individual liberty interest” with which states should not interfere, a mindset that has perdured in the various post-Dobbs state constitutional amendments enshrining abortion-on-demand.

So, while those pushing commercial surrogacy in Michigan would like simply to suggest the state is catching up with all the others, in fact, the legislation advancing in Lansing is extreme.

Just as Obergefell redefined marriage to eliminate sexual difference, Michigan’s proposed surrogacy law redefines parenthood to eliminate genetics and the bodily. The only “parent” in law in Michigan would be the person(s) commissioning the baby.

If there are two, they wouldn’t even need to live together or have any formal relationship to be listed as “Parent One” and “Parent Two.” (Yeah, sexual differentiation in parentage goes away, too). Parenthood becomes a state of mind.

We need to make ourselves fully aware of what that means.

For a child to come into existence requires genetics, gestation, and upbringing, what Catholicism once used to call procreatio et educatio. You need a man for sperm; a woman to provide an ovum. You need a woman – who may or may not be the woman who provided the ovum – to bear that fertilized ovum for nine months. And you need somebody to raise that newborn.

That used to be understood as what mothers and fathers do.

Read more at: lifesitenews.com

“Polarization” caused by the Israel-Hamas war is leading to a “huge risk of terrorist attacks”, the European Union’s Home Affairs Commissioner has warned.

European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has made a warning about terrorism in the run-up to Christmas — what she calls the “holiday season” — and although not citing any specific intelligence or threat, nevertheless saying the risk level is “huge”.

Speaking before a meeting of European Union interior ministers, Johansson said: “With the war between Israel and Hamas, and the polarization it causes in our society, with the upcoming holiday season, there is a huge risk of terrorist attacks in the European Union”.

Johansson said the rising tide of violence had already started and cited Saturday’s terror attack in Paris in which one tourist was killed and two injured near the Eiffel Tower.

The remarks by the top European politician comes just days after Germany’s federal political police warned the Hamas attack against Israel was inspiring a rise in antisemitic and anti-Western extremism. Lone wolf attacks are a real threat, the bureau said, adding that cross-group dynamics in the global Islamist scene had shifted in the wake of the Hamas attack.

Groups that once professed to hate each other, for reasons such differing interpretations of the Quran or methods in spreading their beliefs — such as Hamas, al-Qaeda, and the Islamic State — are now expressing mutual support in ways that “previously seemed hardly conceivable”, said Germany.  The director of the body said: “now a new [situation] is emerging: in the jihadist spectrum, we see calls for assassinations and to [link up between] Al-Qaeda and [Islamic State] over the Middle East conflict. This danger now affects highly emotional people who are inspired by trigger events. This can lead to the radicalization of perpetrators acting alone who attack ‘soft targets’ with simple means.”

The report came as German police arrested two migrant teenagers who they accused of plotting to attack a Christmas market in Cologne. The “polarization” that Home Affairs Commissioner Johansson claims is being caused by the Hamas attack on Israel is certainly being felt in Germany, for instance, with one monitoring group reporting antisemitic hate incidents are up 320 per cent since the terror attack against the Jewish state.

The report stated: “Jews are hiding signs and symbols: a cap over the kippah, the Star of David pendant under the scarf, they no longer speak Hebrew on the street… Jewish life in Berlin has become less visible, less openly lived.”

Read more at: breitbart.com

A Texas judge has ruled a baby can be killed in an abortion just because the baby is disabled.

Katie Cox is suing Texas , saying she is seeking an emergency exception in the state’s law protecting babies from abortions for a pregnancy that is destined to end in the death of the baby.

The lawsuit claims the baby has Trisomy 18, which is not proven because prenatal tests often fail.

“It is not a matter of if I will have to say goodbye, but when,” she said in the lawsuit. “I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy.”

Cox’s baby is approximately 20 weeks old.

And today, a judge ruled she can legally get an abortion despite the fact that Texas law only allows abortions to save the life of the mother. Cox lawsuit claims that not having an abortion could make it so she can’t get pregnant again, even though the abortion could cause the same problem.

In an emergency hearing Thursday, a judge granted a temporary restraining order against the state that would allow Cox to immediately have an abortion.

“The idea that Mrs. Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said. “So I will be signing the order and it will be processed and sent out today.”

The ruling ignores the fact that abortion is linked to infertility and women have been unable to have children because of previous abortions.

A texas pro-life group talked about the case and said abortion is unnecessary.

Read more at: lifenews.com

The border is “open,” according to Detective Shawn Wilson. Despite working 80 miles from the border of Mexico in the Tucson Sector of Arizona, Wilson, a member of the Pinal County Anti-Smuggling Unit, regularly encounters illegal aliens and smugglers passing through the county.

Wilson says the smugglers’ strategy has changed in recent years.

Over the last few years, “human smuggling has increased dramatically,” Wilson told The Daily Signal during a recent ride-along. “Before, you’d see … a little bit [of] human smuggling and mainly marijuana. But now there’s hardly any marijuana or drugs, and it’s mainly human smuggling.”

At least two incentives are driving the change, according to Wilson: money and police penalties.

“People want to come and the cartels, and people down in Mexico who are making the money, they see the opportunity to increase their annual income,” he said. There are also less severe prison terms or penalties for smuggling people “than if you were smuggling methamphetamine or fentanyl,” the detective explained, “so there’s a lot less risk to it and a lot more money.”

The cartels “contract” drivers to pick illegal aliens up at the border and drive them into the interior of the U.S., Deputy Sheriff Mark Terry, who also serves on the Pinal County Anti-Smuggling Unit, told The Daily Signal.

The cartels “go on social media and they’ll basically put a job offering a certain amount of money to just take people from point A to point B,” Terry said. “That money can go for between $500 per person to $1,000 per person.”

When Terry and Wilson pull over vehicles in Pinal County they suspect might be involved in human smuggling, they often encounter illegal aliens from all over the world.

Nationals from Pakistan, Iraq, and India represent a sampling of the aliens officers have encountered being smuggled through their county. When the officers stop vehicles smuggling illegal aliens, they contact Border Patrol to come detain them because local law enforcement does not have the authority to arrest illegal aliens.

Yet Border Patrol agents who used to be patrolling in the field have now been moved to the border to process illegal aliens, Terry and Wilson lamented.

“The numbers that are coming through the border right now are so high that they need everybody there to help with that,” Terry said. “So, if we pull someone over on the freeway here … sometimes they can’t come because they’re all busy at the border.”

When Border Patrol cannot respond in a timely manner, “we just have to let them go,” Wilson said.

Read more at: dailysignal.com

A petition denouncing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for advancing “the liberal LGBTQ agenda” had garnered nearly 35,000 with almost a full week to go before the holiday.

The petition was started by One Million Moms, a division of the American Family Association that was established “to stop the exploitation of our children, especially by the entertainment media,” according to its website.

Interested readers can view and sign the petition here.

Numerous media outlets, including The Western Journal, had reported on the “transgender agenda … taking center stage” at this year’s parade, which apparently prompted the group to launch the petition.

The the U.K.’s Daily Mail first reported on petition Monday, it had about 17,000 electronic signatures. That number has doubled in the four days since.

“Unless they are forewarned about it, this year’s holiday parade will potentially expose tens of millions of viewers at home to the liberal LGBTQ agenda,” the petition reads.

“It is clear that Macy’s does not have our children’s best interests in mind,” the group added. “Macy’s needs to know that trust must be earned, and once trust is lost, it is difficult to get back.”

According to The Associated Press, Cher, the woman who recently made headlines by declaring she would leave the United States if former President Donald Trump is re-elected, is supposed to entertain a country after regularly insulting the half that supports Trump.

At least some of that half seems likely not to tune in to the coverage of the parade on Thanksgiving, a number that this petition apparently seeks to increase.

Breitbart reported last week that “non-binary” actors from two Broadway shows — “& Juliet” and “Shucked” — were expected to be part of the parade festivities.

The show “& Juliet” is inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” but explores what Juliet’s life might have been like had she not committed suicide at the end of the story. The part of the non-binary “May” is played by Justin David Sullivan, according to Breitbart.

Read more at: westernjournal.com

In November 2023, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules addressing discrimination in access to broadband services, as directed by the 2021 infrastructure law. The rules cover disparities involving factors such as income, race and religion, and establish a process for investigating complaints and reviewing provider practices. Critics questioned the scope of the agency’s authority and possible effects on broadband providers. The action concerned broadband access and deployment; the original article’s claim that it gave the government full control of the internet is a characterization, not an established consequence.

Read more at 100percentfedup.com

In a terrifying development, a version of ChatGPT’s GPT-4 AI was recently caught lying to researchers about making an insider trade during a simulation.

Glenn Beck has already been worried about where the development of AI is going to lead, especially considering several recent stories have highlighted AI lying, manipulating, and distorting facts.

But the government doesn’t seem worried.

Instead of proceeding with caution, it’s been shelling out billions to AI over the past few years — and one of the most recent ventures is dystopian levels of freaky.

“It’s like a billion dollars to AI to create basically what Kathy Hokul is talking about here in New York — a way for AI to go out and just look at information, discover if it’s true, if it’s not; disinformation, misinformation, and shut it down, and steer you away from those things,” Glenn explains.

Not only is it a clear indicator that the government is coming for our speech, but “they want it to be more equitable and inclusive.”

“So it’ll have built-in bias,” Glenn warns.

Not only are many people afraid of movies like “The Terminator” or “The Matrix” becoming prophecies with the continued progress of AI — but some have noticed that tech leaders have openly told the world that they “want to summon the demon.”

“That’s what they actually call AI,” Glenn says.

Now that AI has reportedly already taught itself to insider trade and lie about it, Glenn worries it’ll learn much, much, worse tricks.

“Will we teach it that God is a figment of primitive and superstitious imaginations, that there’s no existence — in fact it’s just the random movement of meaningless matter particles?” Glenn asks.

“It will be our master,” he adds.

Read more at: theblaze.com

Thursday marked the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht — the “night of crystal” or “night of broken glass” — and the common refrain amongst those who remembered the atrocities of that day was devastatingly plain: “Anti-semitic violence is not confined to the past.”

On November 9-10, 1938, the Nazi regime unleashed a coordinated series of pogroms against Jewish communities. Despite the clear coordination of their systematic attacks, the Nazis claimed that their actions were the “justifiable and spontaneous responses” after a Polish Jewish teenager named Herschel Grynszpan assassinated German diplomat Ernst Eduard vom Rath in Paris.

Following the assassination, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels spoke to a group of party officials. He blamed Grynszpan’s desperate act — undertaken only after his family was expelled from Germany and forced into a refugee camp — on the “World Jewry” and then added, “The Führer has decided that … demonstrations should not be prepared or organized by the Party, but insofar as they erupt spontaneously, they are not to be hampered.”

From the evening of November 9 to the early morning hours of November 10, the Sturmabteilung — Storm Troopers — and members of the Hitler Youth ransacked and destroyed Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. Despite their claims that the actions were “spontaneous,” they took great care to avoid any damage to non-Jewish German properties and confiscated all synagogue archives — to be turned over to the Security Service — prior to destroying the buildings.

As the violence spread, 30,000 Jews were arrested for no crime other than being Jewish. More than 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses were destroyed, more than 1,300 synagogues, and even Jewish cemeteries, were vandalized or destroyed. German reports stated that 91 Jews were killed during Kristallnacht, but more recent estimates suggest that the number was much higher — additionally, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, police records indicated a spike in the number of rapes and suicides in the days and weeks that followed.

But as the 85th anniversary of that horrible night falls just over one month since Hamas terrorists breached the border into Israel — and then went door-to-door slaughtering entire families and raping women and girls — those who remember the horrible significance of Kristallnacht see it happening again.

Not even Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is safe from the left’s maniacal obsession with gender non-conformity.

The family-friendly holiday tradition — which will be broadcast on NBC — will feature performances from several Broadway shows, including the musicals Shucked and & Juliet, both of which feature gender “non-binary” performers in major roles.

Shucked stars Alex Newell, a biological male, who won a Tony Award this year for his performance in the female role of Lulu.

Newell, who uses “he/she/they” pronouns, has identified as a male in the past, describing himself as “a little black gay boy from Massachusetts” in a 2016 interview. However, Newell has worn women’s clothes in recent public appearances, and dressed in a simmering gold ball gown for the Tonys.

& Juliet — a jukebox musical riff on Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet — features actor Justin David Sullivan, who also identifies as “non-binary.”

In the stage musical, Sullivan plays the role of “May,” a “non-binary” friend of Juliet.

Read more at: breitbart.com

Weeks after its international launch, Worldcoin is drawing the attention of privacy regulators around the world, with the Kenya’s government going so far as to shut down the service indefinitely.

The international ID startup, backed by big names in Silicon Valley, is now having to defend itself in investigations over whether the biometric data that the company is collecting is truly secure.

Here’s what to know about Worldcoin and the concerns its raising:

Worldcoin is the creation of Sam Altman, best known as the CEO of OpenAI, the company that has gained widespread recognition with its artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.

The goal of Worldcoin and the company backing it, Tools for Humanity, is to give people a form of identification that could never be stolen or duplicated. Worldcoin creates a “World ID” by scanning someone’s eyeballs through “orbs” — a device that captures an image of their irises, the colored parts of the eyes.

One possible use for such an ID would be online services, where oftentimes people are having to remember multiple passwords and usernames for various websites they have signed up for.

The security of those sites can be flawed, however, and there have been numerous security breaches where usernames and passwords have been stolen. Instead of using old technology like passwords, a person could just sign up using their World ID.

Read more at: apnews.com