Friday, January 23, 2026

Committing Abortion

 

From: Abe Books


 By Gretchen Garrity

"You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God."  James 4:4

My friend and fellow writer David Rice wrote a scathing and brutal satire regarding certain political figures' support for Amendment 3: "Prohibit Abortion and Gender Transition Procedures for Minors Amendment" that is on the Missouri ballot for November of this year.

The satire described in visceral detail the spiritual crime of supporting an amendment that pays lip service to pro-life policies, but in reality changes almost nothing of the current state of affairs in Missouri regarding abortion. 

While a previous Amendment 3 enshrined the right to abortion in the Missouri constitution, this new Amendment 3 supposedly adds a few restrictions. The "pro-life" movement gladly accepts another round of incrementalism hoping to curtail the murder of pre-born babies at some point in the distant future.

Among other provisions, Amendment 3 states, "...prohibit abortions except in cases of "medical emergency, fetal anomaly, rape, or incest," and permit abortions in cases of rape or incest only through 12 weeks of gestation..."

Do any pro-life proponents believe that there are not doctors willing to provide an abortion on the merest pretext? Who decides what a medical emergency is? Most surgical abortions are procured within the 12-week time frame. Additionally, the majority of abortions now are chemically induced by pills, which are not covered in this amendment.

The bottom line is that abortion will continue unabated in Missouri--without missing a heartbeat. Almost nothing is gained. In exchange for a Yes vote on Amendment 3, supporters will gain a bit on the transgender front (which is already on its way out) and which has nothing at all to do with abortion.

This is how the sausage is made. Corrupt lobbyists and legislators dangle a shiny thing in front of you in order to distract you. A little poop in the brownie won't matter because you won't be able to taste it, right?
Sen. Adam Schnelting

 
In essence, we are back to square one on the abortion issue. Proponents on each side of the issue continue on as before, while babies are being murdered and women are being traumatized. The political rhetoric to score points continues on. The fundraising on both sides continues on. The lies on both sides continue on. The status quo remains.

Declaring pre-born babies as persons is a third way of making abortion untenable. See linked personhood bills below.

By affirming the personhood of pre-born babies, it necessarily categorizes abortion as a crime. Committing abortion is committing a crime. This is the crux of the matter. It matters not if a child has been conceived in rape or incest. It matters not if a child is unwanted. The circumstances of a child's conception does not negate the personhood of that child.

There have been several personhood bills introduced in the Missouri Legislature in the last several years. The Republican Majority has been unwilling to seriously consider these bills. Why? Here are several current bills:

SB951

HB 1682

HB2688

HJR109 

HB3056

HB1661

No one of substantive thinking and reasoning can credibly deny that our culture is in a death spiral. Abortion, sex trafficking, drugs, transgender ideology, Critical Race Theory (which has jump started white guilt and self-hatred) as well as the breakdown of the nuclear family have been largely triumphant over a weakened Christian culture.

Aside from the Catholic Church, which was valiant in the early years of the pro-life movement but has waned, it is Protestant laypeople who are now propping up the pro-life movement. Pastors are lethargic and cowardly. Sheep without a shepherd are easily scattered.  

Sen. Rick Brattin
It is largely the pro-life movement that is currently splintering the Republican Party. Weak and accommodating legislation like the current Amendment 3 is indicative of a compromising GOP "super majority." It is plain to all but a few diehard partisan Republicans that both parties are controlled--and played--by moneyed interests who willfully direct legislation.

Abortion, the selling of baby parts, and medical experimentation is big money. Women are often devastated by aborting their children and may end up with further medical issues, as well as the emotional devastation of the decision to kill their child. The sorcery of Big Pharma (the word comes from pharmakeia (φαρμακεία) which is partly defined as magic spells) benefits many ways from abortion.

Back to David's satire, which you can read HERE. He spares no one. Sen. Adam Schnelting, his Chief of Staff Sherry Kuttenkuler Arthaud, Sen. Rick Brattin, Scott Faughn, and Pastor Tom Estes who is Sen. Brattin's Chief of Staff are all rhetorically skewered by Rice for their support of Amendment 3.

Pastor Tom Estes

Essentially, Rice's satire details the spiritual crime of supporting a constitutional amendment that approves of the murder of pre-born children in certain cases. The moral slicing and dicing it takes to legislatively destroy the Sixth Commandment is indicative of how far Christians and Republicans have fallen.

Realize that Republicans could have passed a personhood bill at any time in the last several years. THEY CHOSE NOT TO. Instead, they are compromising with grave evil. This moral chasm is as great as that of Lazarus and the Rich Man, and it is precisely this that has caused the divide in the Republican Party in Missouri.

Some interesting fallout of David's satire occurred yesterday. A particular champion of conservative values, Lisa Pannett, took great offense at his article. Pannett is one half of the Shield Maidens, who are savvy political pundits (Pannett is a lobbyist) navigating the corruption in Jefferson City.

The graphic physical description of the spiritual sins being committed by politicians who support Amendment 3, was too much for her sensibilities. She took to Facebook to complain. A few others, including former state senator Bill Eigel (who frankly sounded like a prudish school marm) also sounded off at Rice's satire. There was outrage, there was disgust, there was a reactionary gathering of offended individuals, and it wasn't long before talk of a lawsuit was bandied about.  

Scott Faughn
Hmmm...what happened to free speech rights? Apparently the time-honored American sport of satirizing public figures was a bridge too far for some on the "Right." The depiction of aborted babies being made into political sausage by compromising Republicans was too much.

The real thing, the physical murder of certain babies that Schnelting and Brattin and Estes and Kuttenkuler Arthaud are willing to compromise with by supporting Amendment 3 apparently pales in comparison to Rice's satire.

Sherry Kuttenkuler Arthaud
No, in the estimation of the self-righteous, Rice's sin is greater, and he must be shut down. Money must be raised to hire lawyers to conduct lawfare. Rice, who has done great work on behalf of Republican causes in Missouri, must be buried.

This is the state of reasoning in Republican circles. I cast about for a reason why the satire triggered a few others. Most of them are quite active in political circles. Perhaps they were concerned they may someday come under scrutiny from Rice's pen. Perhaps they felt compassion for the objects of David's scorn. Perhaps they see an avenue to get rid of this troublesome fellow.

Perhaps some have been traumatized by abortion themselves, whether through procuring one or knowing someone who has. If so, that speaks directly to the emotional damage that abortion inflicts on women as well as their babies.

 

Whatever went on in the minds of those who improperly, unchristianly I might add, decided to publicly attack Rice, it is a very bad look. Pannett had already voiced her objections to Rice in a private chat. He ably defended his satire to her.

Taking it public was a mistake. You won't stop him or others like him from writing stinging critiques of public figures. In fact, you have called into question your own bonafides as darlings of all things conservative.

Jefferson City is a stronghold of spiritual evil. Very few survive it unscathed, uncompromised. Weak-minded Republicans (the majority) are mostly useless. You don't win by playing by the rules of evil systems. You break the system. If you are in Jefferson City thinking you are going to win by playing within the system, you have already lost.

If you doubt that the system can be destroyed, you are an unworthy Republican, let alone Christian. The system, of itself, will eventually fall. All such compromised systems fail in the end, whether you personally do anything about it or not. They flourish like a green bay tree and then are gone. They fall like the Tower of Babel. Failing to accept their Messiah, the Jews saw their temple destroyed within a generation, not one stone left upon another.

The personal, spiritual question for Republicans, conservatives, pro-life advocates is this: What are you doing in Jefferson City if you aren't pulling down strongholds? Where is your moral clarity? If you are more offended by a writer's depiction of spiritual sin than by the abomination of actual abortion, then you should sit down.

And if you find yourself suggesting a lawsuit to shut down free speech, you have become what you purport to hate. I have observed the spirit of compromise that permeates Jefferson City's Republican Party. To compromise with sin is to make yourself an enemy of God.

Committing abortion is committing a sin. It should be illegal as it is the murder of a person. The stuffy Republicans who cannot abide descriptions of visceral spiritual sin but who would advocate for supporters of Amendment 3 over free speech should spend some time in self-reflection. They should withdraw their threats of a lawsuit, not least because they will lose. If they persist, they show themselves to be the comrades of the lawfare crowd.

Above all, they should seek moral clarity. I suggest they open their Bibles at Genesis and commence reading through to Revelation.

Monday, January 19, 2026

Missouri Liberty Radio

  

David Rice and myself were guests during Sam Britton's Off the Cuff radio show at Missouri Liberty Radio. The subject was libraries. We were on during the second and third hours--beginning around the 56-minute mark:

January 18, 2026 Off the Cuff



Tuesday, January 6, 2026

Tuesday, December 30, 2025

Make Home Libraries Great Again

 

Monday, December 29, 2025

Bringing back the private library

 As our dystopian culture moves more and more to streaming options, ebooks and digital information, physical community libraries will lessen their collections to accommodate technology. It's time to bring back private libraries.

Saturday, December 27, 2025

The State of Journalism Today

 By Gretchen Garrity

Yesterday, David Rice and myself spent some time with Tom Martz of the Locke and Smith Foundation, a non-partisan constitutional organization that keeps track of our Missouri legislature.

Martz, a local talk radio host on KSGF 104.1 who was filling in for Nick Reed, was interested in local independent journalism. You can listen to the show HERE. It's in two parts, with the first part (dated 12/26/25) beginning about 20 minutes in.

As an illustration of how bankrupt and useless corporate media is, watch how a young man busted wide open the fraud in Minnesota. As Martenson says, "This can only mean they [media] are complicit in covering up fraud as long as it's being done by 'their team." 

Exactly correct. My hope is that young journalists will push back on the indoctrination they are inevitably confronted with in journalism school. Expose it! It would make a great story and it might just help to reform the fetid mess in journalism. Seek truth and not a journalistic tribal narrative. There are lots of great independent journalists out there like Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal.


Monday, December 22, 2025

Cross Post: A Prayer to St. Dudash-Buskirk, Patron Saint of Rhetoric and BDSM (Satire)

An Intercessory Appeal to the Only One With Power to Actually Help In the name of the ALA, and of EveryLibrary, and of the Holy Institutional Backing, Amen.

By David Rice

Click on image for clarity


 St. Dudash-Buskirk, PhD in Rhetoric, Professor at Missouri State University, backed by the American Library Association and EveryLibrary, hear my prayer.

I come before you as a supplicant, a lone citizen without credentials, without institutional backing, without the organizational power that you wield so effortlessly. I have already prayed to St. Michael the Archangel at a library board meeting (at the 4:00 minute mark) and you found that offensive. But I understand now my mistake.

 St. Michael cannot help me with earthly institutions. He has no PhD. He holds no university position. He commands no professional networks. He cannot call the Attorney General or write academic papers or leverage organizational backing. He only fights as the commander of God’s angelic armies, so it’s not real power.

But you have real power and you can help me.

So I pray to you instead, O Patron Saint of Rhetoric and Institutional Power, that you might intercede on behalf of the marginalized—a role you claim as your sacred calling.

First Petition: For Sight to See Who is Marginalized

St. Dudash-Buskirk, grant me understanding of your Critical Theory of Power.

You teach that we must identify who holds power and who is powerless. You proclaim the importance of protecting marginalized voices against institutional authority. You celebrate speaking truth to power and challenging entrenched systems.

So I ask: Why do you not intercede on my behalf?

What you claim to value:

• Speaking truth to power

• Challenging entrenched institutions

• Protecting marginalized voices

• Exposing institutional corruption

• Resisting institutional authority

What I actually do:

• Expose institutional corruption (staff illegally suing the board)

• Challenge entrenched power (administration covering up violations)

• Speak truth to power (one citizen vs. PhDs, ALA, MSU, EveryLibrary)

• Protect citizens from institutional overreach (BDSM instructions for teenagers)

• Resist institutional authority (refuse to be “handled” by administrators)

Your institutional backing:

• PhD in Rhetoric from a major university

• Teaching position at Missouri State University

• American Library Association

• EveryLibrary (national lobbying organization)

• Professional credentials and networks

• Executive Director Will Blydenburgh (your ally)

• Media sympathy

• Friends who rally around you

• Career advancement opportunities

My backing:

• A library book

• A prayer you found offensive

• No credentials

• No organization

• No church support (they reject this fight)

• No professional network

• Lost friends

• Increasing isolation

Under your own framework, I am the marginalized voice. You are the institutional power.

Yet you defend the institution and attack me.

St. Dudash-Buskirk, intercede that I might understand this mystery.

Second Petition: For the Contradiction of Words

Holy Mother of Relativism, you teach that all truth is constructed, that moral claims are mere power plays.

Yet you called my reading “salacious.”

If the book isn’t salacious on the shelf for teenagers, why is it salacious when I quote it?

The content didn’t change. The speaker changed.

You cannot claim both that books are neutral information AND that my speech is harmful. If words have no meaning, then “salacious” is meaningless, your objection is meaningless, your entire Facebook post is meaningless.

But if words have power—if language shapes reality—then my prayer has power (that’s why you objected), my reading has power (that’s why you called it salacious), and the book’s content has power (that’s why it matters what’s in the library).

You use language to convey meaning while teaching that meaning doesn’t exist.

The word “salacious” has no place in your worldview. But you used it anyway, because you know words carry moral weight. You just don’t want to admit that truth applies to the books you defend.

St. Dudash-Buskirk, intercede that you might recognize the contradiction you embody.

Is it wrong for adults to participate in BDSM or Kink? If so, why? If not, why not?

You won’t answer. You deflect to authorities (ALA, Freedom to Read), make pop culture references, claim I violated decorum.

But here’s the simplest question: Why should strangers instruct children in sexual practices?

This isn’t a parent answering their child’s questions. This is institutional strangers giving sexual values to children as if values don’t exist.

If sex has no value, then rape is not a crime.

Answer the question or admit words mean something.

St. Dudash-Buskirk, intercede that you might answer what you refuse to address.

Third Petition: For Justice in the Matter of the Edited Video

O Defender of Institutional Prerogatives, I bring before you a documented case of public records destruction.

The public meeting video was edited to remove Tory Pegram’s challenge to the board’s oversight authority. This is a Sunshine Law violation—the destruction and alteration of public records to hide inconvenient challenges to institutional power.

Read the rest here.

Saturday, December 20, 2025

Jacob Marley's Lesson

Fred Barnard

By Gretchen Garrity

 

  "I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. Is its pattern strange to you?” Jacob Marley's Ghost in A Christmas Carol

MSU Professor Elizabeth Dudash-Buskirk's eternal soul is in trouble. While she claims to be a Christian, she nevertheless promotes salacious (her own term) books for minors in the Christian County Library. One such book was quoted from at the December board of trustees meeting: Sex Plus. Here is a review of the book: Sex Plus is a Youth Book in Nixa by David Rice--but before you visit the review, here is what Dudash-Buskirk said about it in a recent Facebook post:

"First, we had David Rice who first prayed, then read law, then engaged a salacious YA book that described pretty accurately the common teen experience of masturbation, questions about sexual guidelines or what is normal."

Now, try to square that with the book review by Rice. The book contains subheadings like "Strap-ons," "Cleaning Sex Toys," "Prostate Massager," "Butt Plugs and Anal Beads,"Vibrators," "Visiting the Sex Shop," and more than you can imagine.

Now according to the Catholic Church, of which Dudash-Buskirk claims to be a member, masturbation is a sin against the Sixth Commandment. Protestants of different types are on the fence, but in general, masturbation is frowned upon. Viewing pornography is almost a given with masturbation.

Promoting books like Sex Plus (which is written for ages 12-17), is a sin against God and an attack on children. Claiming to be a Christian as a way of virtue signaling while violating its precepts is also a sin.

Professor Dudash-Buskirk also claims to be a free speech advocate. But if it is speech she personally objects to, her thought is that it must be controlled, suppressed, and censored. In her own words (click on the image for clarity):

One can see the confusion, which is a hallmark of the demonic. I wrote about it HERE. Professor Dudash-Buskirk does not want books like Sex Plus exposed to the public. It makes her job of interpreting "free speech" rights look downright satanic (and it is). According to her, quoting salacious books in a public library meeting is unacceptable, as is prayer speech. But one must never question a child's "freedom to read" a salacious book that some book publisher or librarian or the American Library Assocation has deemed acceptable.

Enough.


Beginning around the 3:20 minute mark (it should be prompted), you can listen to Rice's comments and then Professor Dudash-Buskirk. Listen for yourself and decide which individual is seeking to protect children and preserve parental rights.

The chains one forges in life will continue afterwards. Ebenezer Scrooge saw the light before it was too late, unlike his business associate Jacob Marley. My prayer is that those who support exposing children to highly-charged sexualization will see the light before they too are weighed down with the chains of sin un-confessed and un-forsaken.

Thursday, December 4, 2025

ΨΥΧΗΣ ΙΑΤΡΕΙΟΝ

 

 

Also: The Most Beautiful Libraries on Earth