Daily Archives: February 15, 2010

Wired: “A U.S. comic book collector is being sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex and bestiality.”

Rutherford Institute: “The Rutherford Institute has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez in defense of the right of a Christian university student group to be able to freely associate with fellow believers who subscribe to their religious beliefs about sexual conduct outside of marriage.”

Catholic Online: “Homosexual marriage and other gay activism in society is harmful, in part, because it affects sexual preference and gender identity formation of some children, exposing them to the false ideology that all sexual and gender variations are equally healthy and harmless.It also negatively impacts all of humanity through our largest social systems (legal and health care, for example), and individuals who seek or practice it. This means that homosexuality cannot be morally neutral.”

East Valley Tribune: “Saying children do better in a home with a mother and a father, the state House voted Monday to give married couples preference when placing children for adoption. HB 2148 would overrule the existing practice of the Department of Economic Security that makes the ‘best interests of the child’ the primary factor when considering placing a child for adoption. Instead it would require DES — or any agency that contracts with the state — to give ‘primary consideration to placement with a married couple.’”

LifeSiteNews: “A controversial bill that critics say would significantly infringe on the rights of parents to bring up their children according to their values has passed first reading in the Polish parliament. Incorporated into the bill, titled ‘On the Prevention of Family Violence,’ which deals with a variety of issues, is a clause that says, ‘It is forbidden for persons holding parental power over children to implement corporal punishment, cause psychological pain or to humiliate them in any other form.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Public school children in Hamilton, Ontario will not be permitted to withdraw from classes that promote homosexuality, according to the Hamilton Mountain News. At the same time, according to a leaked document obtained by a local journalist, teachers are being instructed to tell parents who object to the curriculum that ‘this is not about parent rights.’”

Associated Press: “Wendell Loy Nielsen, 69, was named president in documents filed with the Utah Department of Commerce. He has long been a senior leader in the hierarchy of the southern Utah-based Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.”

Asia News Network: “The Indoneian Ulema Council (MUI) is throwing its weight behind the religious affairs ministry plan to outlaw unofficial marriage (nikah siri), a common practise in the Moslem-majority Indonesia.”

IPS: “Nicaragua slammed the door on any possible debate on the restitution of therapeutic abortion – performed to save the life of the pregnant woman – despite demands that it do so voiced during a United Nations review of human rights in the country . . . when the Nicaraguan government submitted its own report to the 47 countries sitting on the Council, it ruled out the restitution of therapeutic abortion, which is only banned in a few countries around the world: Chile, El Salvador, Malta and the Philippines, besides Nicaragua.”

Whittier Daily News: “After a newly appointed mayor took a Bible off the dais and chose not to schedule prayer at each council meeting, the country’s 220-year-old debate over church and state has sprung up in Pico Rivera . . . ‘It’s a very black-and-white situation, clearly defined in the Constitution,’ Salcido said after the January meeting. ‘When our framers crafted the First Amendment of the Constitution, they put the establishment clause in to protect the integrity of both institutions.’”

Argus Leader: “As congregations across the state consider whether to split from the ELCA over the gay clergy issue, the situation represents more than simply a change in the church. The controversy has the potential to splinter small towns and communities where the Lutheran church has been an important part of the social fabric for decades.”

Christian Post: “Its optimism is based on the findings of a survey of 18- to 24-year-olds at last summer’s Momentum event by youth ministry Soul Survivor, where 81 percent said they planned to vote, more than double the percentage of people in the same age bracket who voted in the last general election.”

Spero News: “On March 4, Mexico City will became the first capital city in Latin America to have legal same-sex marriages and adoptions . . . The plot becomes clearer when we review some recent cultural changes, which have found an amazing momentum thanks to the arrival to the power of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (Partido de la Revolución Democrática, PRD), a party with clearly Marxist roots.”

Chicago Tribune: “Attending Mass at Holy Name Cathedral was supposed to be one of the final Valentine’s Day weekend treats for Cindy White and her husband, who had traveled to Chicago from Hampshire, Ill., to celebrate the romantic holiday. Instead, the couple found themselves wading through nearly 100 men and women who had gathered outside the cathedral Sunday morning to protest the Catholic Church’s opposition to gay marriage and other stances that they see as unjust to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.”

Iowa Independent: “Four Democratic state senators — Dennis Black of Grinnell, Keith Kreiman of Bloomfield, Rich Olive of Story City and Joe Seng of Davenport — broke with their party and signed on to a Republican petition to force a vote on same-sex marriage. But with last week marking the first self-imposed legislative ‘funnel week’ deadline for bills to clear committee to stay eligible for consideration this year, the marriage amendment is officially dead, at least in this form.”

CBN: “Ukraine elected a new president this week and evangelical Christians are concerned that the winner will restrict religious freedom.”

Idaho Reporter: “The Idaho Senate is considering expanding the right of conscience for health care professionals to include pharmacists, nurses, and other workers. The law currently only applies to doctors and hospitals.”

LifeNews: “Senator Evan Bayh, an abortion advocate from Indiana, will announced today that he will retire from the Senate. His departure is seen by political observers as making it much easier for one of the pro-life Republicans seeking his seat to win it and, ultimately, potentially shifting more Senate seats to pro-lifers.”

“The House also will vote on a proposed constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.”

Religion Clause: “The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last Friday wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (full text of letter) urging that U.S. representatives to the United Nations raise religious freedom issues at this month’s Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review session.”

AFP: “A row is brewing in Morocco over the sensitive issue of selling alcohol to Moroccan Muslims, which is banned by a law that is broken openly every day.”

Financial Times: “As Conservatives grasp the real possibility of victory this year, some are asking what degree of power a few evangelical Christians – only 3 per cent of the party members, according to one poll – will wield. The answer will determine the shape and sturdiness of any Conservative government.”

Christian Newswire: “Personhood Colorado submitted signatures to the Secretary of State’s office today for the Colorado Personhood Amendment. The signatures submitted totaled 79,817, although only 76,047 were required. All signatures are pending validation by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office.”

Chicago Tribune: “Same-sex couples will have two ways to characterize their relationships on the 2010 census: They can choose ‘husband or wife’ or ‘unmarried partners.’ The census will publicly report those responses and recognize demographic differences, such as their ethnicities, where they live, and whether they’re raising children, between the two groups.”

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey writing in The Washington Post: “[The equal protection standard] would not be the end of the court’s inquiry when ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is challenged, since it is the court’s assessment of Congress’s conclusions that must in the end govern. Yet the fact that the military’s senior leadership (both in and out of uniform) sees no significant threat to unit cohesion and combat effectiveness from permitting openly gay men and women to serve will make it all but impossible for Congress to articulate a rational basis for excluding them. ”

“The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider the petition at its conference on Feb. 19.”

Irish Medical Times: “Over two-thirds of GPs believe that some form of legislation should be introduced to allow teenagers to consent to or refuse medical treatment, including the ‘morning-after’ pill.”

Wall Street Journal: “European Union finance ministers, reluctant to offer Greece immediate financial support, are debating additional steps Greece could take to tame its budget deficit . . . The EU leaders’ declaration on Thursday called for countries that use the euro to take ‘determined and coordinated action, if needed, to safeguard stability in the euro area.’ This briefly appeased nervous investors, but the lack of ready funding help and a murky strategy later caused the euro to slump, trading at about $1.3598 at 1630 GMT Monday.”

CitizenLink: “President Obama’s proposed budget for 2011 includes more than $327 million for Title X, the program that funds Planned Parenthood. That’s a $10 million increase.”

Telegraph: “Prof Jones stepped down as director of the University of East Anglia’s climate change unit in December after leaked emails appeared to show academics were manipulating data to bolster claims that global warming is caused by humans. Now the academic has admitted he may have lost track of some of the data used to produce the famous ‘hockey stick’ graph, which uses climate readings from worldwide weather stations to show a sharp rise in global temperatures.”

Quad-City Times: “Danny Carroll of Grinnell, Iowa, chairman of the Iowa Family Policy Center, said forces working to block an effort to bring a constitutional amendment on the marriage issue before voters are doing so because they’re ‘pretty sure they’ll lose.’ Carroll, a former state lawmaker, spoke on Iowa Public Television’s ‘Iowa Press’ show, which is scheduled to air Sunday . . . Brad Clark, campaign manager for One Iowa, the state’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, challenged Carroll’s contention. ‘I don’t know that that’s the case,’ he said. ‘What we’ve seen in Iowa, according to some polls, is that Iowans are evenly split on the issue of writing discrimination into the Constitution.’”

UPI: “Undercover officers said their investigation found no illegal behavior in a sex-party room of a pornography bookstore in Melrose Park, Ill. . . . Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico said he would prefer the book store and party room went elsewhere, but there is nothing that can be done about it. ‘I can’t regulate morality,’ Serpico said.”

“A repeal is probably years away.”

Idaho Press-Tribune: “The Idaho’s Public Charter School Commission Thursday approved a definition of religious texts, but a local academy objects to the way the issue was handled . . . The definition answers Nampa Classical Academy’s question of what the commission considers to be a religious text. But the definition will apply to all commission-approved charter schools. It means the Bible and similar materials can’t be used in charter classrooms.”

OneNewsNow: “School officials are awaiting a federal court decision concerning the ‘period of silence’ law in Illinois schools . . . David Cortman [said] ‘During that time [students] could think about whatever they want to, and heaven forbid they could pray, and some local atheists — with the help of our friends at the ACLU — decided to bring a challenge based on the so-called “separation of church and state,”‘ Cortman explains.”

News-Journal: “The Christian Family Coalition claims the politically active group’s religious rights were violated after a request to hold a seminar at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library was denied. … Joel Oster, a senior attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, said Christian groups should not be denied access to public meeting rooms because of their beliefs. ‘Having a policy explicitly designated to exclude religious groups from meeting in public facilities is blatantly unconstitutional,’ Oster said in a prepared statement.”

Winston-Salem Journal: “Constance Lynn ‘Connie’ Blackmon, the co-plaintiff in the lawsuit to stop Forsyth County commissioners from opening their meetings with sectarian prayer, is a former Southern Baptist who says she got involved in the local fight out of respect for government systems. … The county has stepped out of bounds, she said, by continuing the fight for sectarian prayer, or prayer to a specific deity, even after County Attorney Davida Martin declined to represent the county in the case and by using the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization, to defend it.”

Winston-Salem Journal Editorial: “The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners’ fight to preserve sectarian prayer to open their meetings, which seemed close to ending just days ago, roared back this week as supporters trained their fire on Dave Plyler, the swing vote on the issue and the chairman of the board. Plyler should vote to cease further appeals of the case that could ultimately cost taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars. … Rather than retain an outside law firm, the county joined forces with the Alliance Defense Fund, an organization with a Christian agenda over which the county has no control.”

Amartya Bag, Folkways and Mores: Their Significance in International Law (February 14, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1552670

“The words ‘folkways and mores’ got popularized through the work of an American sociologist William Graham Sumner in his book Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals in 1906. According to Sumner folkways are ‘habit of the individuals and customs of society which arise from efforts to satisfy needs, they are intertwined with goblinism and demonism and primitive notions of luck and so they win traditional authority.’ There is no doubt that both the phenomenon of globalisation and modernisation has their impact on the tradition and norms of the people. The greater question lies whether folkways and mores have any significance in this present day and whether they evolve in the way they used to do earlier. This paper tries to give an overview of the concept of folkways and mores and their relevance in the modern world with reference to international law.”

Alex E. Wallin, The Declaration of Independence: The Religious Beliefs of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and Their Role in the Beginning of a Revolution and Nation (April 29, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1552444

Alex E. Wallin, John Finnis’ Natural Law Theory and a Critique of the Incommensurable Nature of Basic Goods (December 21, 2009). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1552388

“Without any hierarchy governing the basic goods that provide the basis of John Finnis’s ‘New Natural Law’ theory moral actors will inevitably be required to makes choices, as Russell Hittinger argues, without the ability to judge the morality of that choice. Also problematic is this theory’s allowance for a person to act to save another’s life without consciously making any choice and counter-intuitively be considered to not have acted morally. Finnis’s system is examined in its entirety with specific attention to the issues created by an incommensurable pre-moral list of basic goods. An excellent critique by Hittinger concerning specific problems associated with Finnis’s theory is also discussed followed by additional commentary from the author on other flaws associated with this list of basic goods. The resurgence of interest in Natural Law theory and the Supreme Court’s own discussions of issues addressing morality warrants a closer look at the arguably most authoritative modern statement on natural law in order to better understand morality and its place in our national discourse.”

Anu Bradford and Eric A. Posner, Universal Exceptionalism in International Law (February 03, 2010). U of Chicago, Public Law Working Paper No. 290. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1551355

“A trope of international law scholarship is that the United States is an ‘exceptionalist’ nation, one that takes a distinctive (frequently hostile, unilateralist, or hypocritical) stance toward international law. However, all major powers are similarly ‘exceptionalist,’ in the sense that they take distinctive approaches to international law that reflect their values and interests. We illustrate these arguments with discussions of China, the European Union, and the United States. Charges of international-law exceptionalism betray an undefended assumption that one particular view of international law (for scholars, usually the European view) is universally valid.”