Daily Archives: August 4, 2010

The order is here.

Christian News Wire: MIM President Robert Peters commented: ‘Strangely missing from Attorney General Holder’s “comprehensive threat assessment of dangers facing children” online is the proliferation of hardcore adult pornography which is contributing to sexual exploitation of children in variety of ways.’”

Breitbart (AP): “Forty wealthy families and individuals have joined Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a pledge to give at least half their wealth to charity.”

“In America, we should respect and uphold the right of a free people to make policy choices through the democratic process–especially ones that do nothing more than uphold the definition of marriage that has existed since the foundation of the country and beyond,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brian Raum.

Associated Press: “Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle says her campaign is ‘a war’ with Democrats in Washington who are trying to ‘make government our God.’”

LifeNews: “Democrats in the state legislature kicked off a campaign to override a veto Governor Christ Christie issued to prevent $7.5 million in state taxpayer funds from going to the Planned Parenthood abortion business. When the state currently faces an $11 billion deficit, Christ said the funding doesn’t make sense.”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “[S]upport for legalized abortion and birth control — including controversial ‘Morning After’ drugs — has become a Democratic Party litmus test . . . Hence, the list of candidates endorsed by Planned Parenthood Votes in Washington should come as no surprise – but its uniformity is still eye-opening . . . Planned Parenthood Votes is not supporting a single Republican.”

Fox News: “A clerk at the Cook County Court confirmed Wednesday that the case against Joe Holland — a 25-year-old graduate student arrested while praying the rosary outside a Planned Parenthood facility — had been dropped. The case gained widespread attention after it was reported by FoxNews.com on Monday.”

“It is disturbing that the trial court, in order to strike down Prop 8, has literally accused the majority of California voters of having ill and discriminatory intent when casting their votes for Prop 8.”

“For the hundreds of thousands of Californians in gay and lesbian households who are managing their day-to-day lives, this decision affirms the full legal protections and safeguards I believe everyone deserves.”

FindLaw: “In the traditional definition, a family consists of two or more adults living together and raising and caring for children. But this all inclusive definition has historically never included gay and lesbian couples, which has led to a passionate same sex marriage debate that has raged for many decades. As time has gone on, more and more states and jurisdictions have given same sex couples the same rights and responsibilities as traditional married couples.”

Catholic News Agency: “The Mexican Institute of Sexual Orientation (MISO) recently launched a campaign to inform the public of the negative consequences of adoption by same-sex couples. The initiative comes as the nation’s Supreme Court is deciding whether or not to uphold a law allowing the practice in Mexico City.”

Center for Reproductive Rights: “This afternoon, a hearing took place in the City of Baltimore’s and Center for Reproductive Rights’ case defending a first-in-the-nation ordinance that demands truth in advertising from limited service pregnancy centers, also known as crisis pregnancy centers.”

Catholic News Agency: “This week, Auxiliary Bishop Fernando Chomali of Santiago spoke up in defense of marriage and remarked that all laws must be founded in reason, according to the truth about man.”

Breitbart (AP): “At least 51 senators have announced they will back Kagan in the vote expected Thursday.”

Associated Press: “Soaring more than 250 feet above picturesque Provincetown Harbor at the very tip of Cape Cod is the nation’s tallest all-granite structure, a 100-year-old monument at the place where the Mayflower initially dropped anchor after its perilous journey from England.”

CNN Money (click for map): “States are taking on more debt to cover their budget shortfalls and pay for infrastructure projects. Debt levels per person are also on the rise.”

STLToday.com: “Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March.”

LifeSiteNews: “The leader of a public interest law group has filed a complaint before the U.S. Supreme Court at the behest of pro-life organization Declaration Alliance, asking that the high court disbar Elena Kagan for falsifying testimony regarding the Clinton-era partial-birth abortion ban attempt.”

LifeSiteNews: “The debate over therapy for same-sex attraction (SSA) and gender identity disorder (GID) has been going on for years. Recently, the APA put out a paper designed to resolve the issue. However, the introduction of the APA’s Task Force Report on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation defines the parameters for the discussion in such a way that the defenders of therapy for SSA and GID are positioned in the worst possible light. The issue is essentially decided in favor of gay-affirming therapy before the evidence is heard.”

cnet / Privacy Inc: “The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse. This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for ‘testing, training, and evaluation purposes.’”

LifeNews: “Nancy Pelosi further ditched her Catholic credentials again as she was unable to answer a reporter’s question about whether Jesus Christ should have had his right to life protected from conception. Earlier this year, Pelosi said she has an obligation to pursue public policy ‘in keeping with the values’ of Jesus. Yet, asked by a CNS News reporter late last week whether Jesus has the right to life, Pelosi couldn’t agree.”

” . . . federal judge has overturned California’s same-sex marriage ban in a landmark case that could eventually land before the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Hadley Arkes writing at The Catholic Thing: “I’ve been making the case in these columns for a design of pro-life legislation that keeps its focus on the victim . . . I’ve entered the plea that there is a danger of subtly shifting from the central moral question when we concentrate on the harms absorbed by the pregnant woman and take the focus away from that small being who is being poisoned or dismembered . . . My own preference has run then to legislation that strikes at the premises of that right to kill the nascent life in the womb. But the irony here is that some of the measures that are more oblique – less challenging to the premises of abortion – may actually have more of an effect in reducing abortions.”

Law.com: “A federal appeals panel has thrown out a child pornography conviction that was based on explicit photographs texted by a 17-year-old to her field-hockey coach. The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals held there was no evidence that defendant Todd Broxmeyer asked 17-year-old ‘A.W.’ to take the pictures, and therefore no evidence that he ‘produced’ them as defined by the federal child pornography statutes.” | USA v. Broxmeyer, No. 09-1457-cr (2nd Cir. Aug. 3, 2010)

Omaha World-Herald: “It wasn’t abortion-related memos or military recruiters at Harvard that sank Elena Kagan with Sen. Ben Nelson. It was guns.”

The Boston Globe: “Six weeks after deadlocking on a proposal that would have required the pledge to be led in all Arlington schools, the School Committee approved a new pledge policy unanimously last night.”

“Under local court rules, it could be more than a month before the stay request might be acted upon, and the Proposition 8 backers argued that same-sex marriages could be performed during such an interval.”

Sioux City Journal: “Two former members of the city’s Human Rights Commission told the City Council on Monday they believe the commission is no longer composed of a diverse membership, with almost half its members belonging to the conservative Cornerstone World Outreach church.”

The Hill: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) plans to take up legislation in September to address the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush. Senior Democrats had expected the controversial issue to be postponed until after the election, when a fiscal responsibility commission appointed by President Obama is due to release its recommendations.”

OneNewsNow: “Pat Trueman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) who also founded PornHarms.com and heads a group called The War on Illegal Pornography, appreciates the boost in effort, but he believes the department needs a broader approach. ‘You’ll never solve the child pornography crisis in America without also prosecuting adult pornography,’ he explains.”

The Wall Street Journal has the full text of NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “speech following a vote that clears most major hurdles for the construction of a planned mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero”: “Of all our precious freedoms, the most important may be the freedom to worship as we wish. And it is a freedom that, even here in a City that is rooted in Dutch tolerance, was hard-won over many years . . . with or without landmark designation, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the owners from opening a mosque within the existing building. The simple fact is this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship . . . The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right – and if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.” | Via Religion Clause

The Independent: “The research, which was conducted by the charity network the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), shows that 76 countries still prosecute people on the grounds of their sexual orientation – seven of which punish same-sex acts with death.”

J. Christian Adams writing at Pajamas Media: “Section 8 of the federal ‘Motor Voter’ law requires states to conduct reasonable efforts to ensure that only eligible voters are on state voter rolls . . . In November 2009, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes, the Obama political appointee in charge of the DOJ Voting Section, told the assembled Voting Section that the Eric Holder Justice Department had ‘no interest in enforcing Section 8′ . . . Does voter fraud regularly affect who wins election? Outside of a few examples, I do not believe that it does, but integrity of the electoral process is perhaps more important than who wins and loses an election. Lawlessness in elections corrodes the entire democratic process.”

stltoday.com (RNS): “Brigham Young University was named the nation’s most religious campus, and Sarah Lawrence College the least religious, in new rankings released Tuesday. The Princeton Review released the 2011 edition of their yearly assessment of ‘The Best 373 Colleges,’ which included rankings of the most and least religious students.”

“The appeal asks the court to determine whether a state that permits any legal stranger to seek custody of a child over the objections of the child’s fit parents violates the parents’ constitutional right to raise their own children.”

The Boston Globe: “[Richard J. Henken], the president of Schochet Associates, which develops, acquires, and manages residential and commercial property throughout New England, is one of a number of Jewish benefactors in Greater Boston who not only give generously to Catholic schools, but also provide significant fund-raising muscle at a time when the region’s parochial schools are under severe financial strain . . . they said they are passionate about Catholic schools because they provide an excellent education to the neediest children.”

At The Volokh Conspiracy, Eugene Volokh discusses “The Prop 8 Report: What Defeat in California Can Teach Us about Winning Future Ballot Measures on Same-Sex Marriage.” Volokh gives Prof. Rick Hasen (Election Law Blog) the final word: “I’ve been involved with enough ballot measure litigation to know that the attorney general should not be entrusted with the responsibility of providing a neutral ballot title and summary, because he or she often has a political axe to grind and can be subject to pressure over ballot wording.”

SCOTUSblog: “Yesterday the full Senate opened debate on Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and a final vote is planned before the end of the week, likely tomorrow.”

Associated Press: “Kansas Republicans have chosen Congressman Jerry Moran as their nominee for an open U.S. Senate seat in a bitter primary race where both candidates actively courted GOP conservatives.”

Atul Gawande writing in The New Yorker: “In the past few decades, medical science has rendered obsolete centuries of experience, tradition, and language about our mortality, and created a new difficulty for mankind: how to die . . . The trouble is that we’ve built our medical system and culture around the long tail. We’ve created a multitrillion-dollar edifice for dispensing the medical equivalent of lottery tickets—and have only the rudiments of a system to prepare patients for the near-certainty that those tickets will not win. Hope is not a plan, but hope is our plan.”

The Hill: “The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) — two organizations on the front lines of the repeal fight — will send staffers and allies to the offices of senators from Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Virginia as part of their Countdown 2010 advocacy campaign.”

Associated Press: “Even as the project’s backers celebrated the decision, a conservative advocacy group founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson announced it would challenge the panel’s vote in state court Wednesday.”

Denver Post: “Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes is warning voters that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s policies, particularly his efforts to boost bike riding, are ‘converting Denver into a United Nations community.’”

Politico: “In the wake of two polls showing seniors skeptical of health reform, the Obama administration has made a $700,000 national cable ad buy, featuring Andy Griffith talking about the Medicare benefits within the law, aimed at selling a key voting block on new provisions.” | Via Newsmax

“What if Democratic leaders are saving their most controversial issues until after November when voters are powerless to do anything about it? That’s a question more insiders are beginning to ask as big ticket legislation on spending, the military, global warming and campaign finance sit curiously idle.”

Rasmussen Reports: “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 29% of Adults say the FCC is doing a good or excellent job regulating profanity, sexual content and violence on television and radio. Twenty-eight percent (28%) feel the FCC is doing a poor job monitoring content.”

Betsy McCaughey writing in the Wall Street Journal: “If mandatory insurance is declared unconstitutional, the entire health law could collapse like a house of cards. Most complex legislation states that if one part of the law is struck down, other parts remain enforceable. But authors of ObamaCare chose to omit that clause, suggesting that the health overhaul won’t work without mandatory insurance.”

The News-Gazette: “[David Hacker], a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Foundation representing the professor, said he didn’t know the status of the Newman negotiations. ‘He hasn’t made a decision yet on the University of Illinois offer, but we fully expect he’ll teaching in the classroom in the fall,’ Hacker said.”

CBN News: “A federal judge is expected to deliver his ruling Wednesday in the trial of Proposition 8, California’s amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman . . . ‘The 7 million voters in California voted for Prop 8, they made a reasonable, legitimate public policy decision that the Constitution permits, and that the federal judge should just defer to their decision,’ said [Jordan Lorence], an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund.”

OneNewsNow: “‘[It] means that we become players with all of the draft committees on conventions and treaties, from things like the international criminal court statutes to things potentially like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, where we as legal experts can come in and provide input on the things that we feel are important,’ [ADF Attorney Roger Kiska] explains.”

Florida Baptist Witness: “Orlando-based Liberty Counsel filed a lawsuit July 1 challenging a ban on the distribution of Bibles in Collier County on Religious Freedom Day.”

“Attorneys associated with the Alliance Defense Fund and National Lawyers Association point out that about three-quarters of American lawyers don’t even belong to the ABA, and many actively work to protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

Spartanburg Herald-Journal: “City Council voted unanimously and without discussion Tuesday night to formalize a prayer policy that officials here say is consistent with state law and won’t exclude people who have different beliefs than the person offering the invocation at public meetings . . . Woodruff’s prayer policy was drafted by city officials, local attorneys and those with the Alliance Defense Fund — a Christian organization.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education: “The Alliance Defense Fund was pleased with the panel’s opinion regarding the security fee but plans to ask the full appellate court to re-examine the other parts of Mr. Sonnier’s appeal. The three-judge panel should have considered not whether Southeastern Louisiana’s policy could be valid in some circumstances but whether its restrictive provisions were narrowly tailored to meet the university’s interests, said [Nathan W. Kellum], senior counsel for the group. ‘If the court would apply the right standard, they would come up with the right result,’ Mr. Kellum said.”

Renew America: “Recently, we received the following message from Alan Keyes’ national pro-life organization — Declaration Alliance — appealing for support of a criminal complaint filed by DA and Larry Klayman of Freedom Watch alleging that Elena Kagan defrauded the Supreme Court by altering a scientific report on partial-birth abortion when she was an attorney for President Bill Clinton.”

“With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The measure, which seeks to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law, includes a provision that would change how insurance companies that go out of business in Missouri liquidate their assets.”

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