Daily Archives: August 24, 2010

MercatorNet: “Expectations of stable majority government in Australia have been scuppered by a remarkable ‘Greenslide’ in Saturday’s national election. Neither the Labor government nor the conservative coalition won a clear majority, so it is not clear who will be leading the country – the incumbent Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, or the Liberal leader Tony Abbott . . . If there is an intellectual inspiration for the movement, it is the Australian philosopher Peter Singer, a theorist for the animal rights movement and a radical utilitarian who supports voluntary euthanasia and infanticide for disabled infants. Singer was one of the founding members of the national Greens and in 1996 he even ran unsuccessfully for the Senate as a Green candidate. He co-authored a book on the Green movement with Bob Brown.”

CatholicCulture.org: “Archbishop Raphael Cheenath of Cuttack Bhubaneswar— whose archdiocese includes the troubled Kandhamal region that saw orchestrated mob violence against Christians two years ago—has issued a scathing denunciation of the law that restricts religious conversions in the eastern state of Orissa.”

Billings Gazette: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana has sent a letter to leaders at Billings School District 2 asking them why they are holding an all-district back-to-school staff meeting at a church.”

“The Obama administration announced today that it will appeal a federal judge’s decision striking down President Barack Obama’s executive order forcing taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research.”

The Moscow News: “He banned demonstrations demanding his resignation and he closed their favourite club. Now Moscow gay priders are taking northern area prefect Oleg Mitvol to the European Court of Human Rights in a bid to halt a wave of homophobic feeling in its tracks.”

Russell Korobkin writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Judge Lamberth surprisingly interpreted Dickey-Wicker to prevent the use of tax dollars to support researchers who do any work using hESC lines as an input. One might at least plausibly argue for this result based on the principle that underlies Dickey-Wicker: that is, if Congress’ goal is to avoid dirtying the federal government’s hands with complicity in the destruction of embryos, perhaps research that relies on embryo destruction somewhere upstream should be ineligible for funding. But Lamberth claims that his result is supported by the unambiguous language of the Amendment. I find this argument utterly unconvincing.”

William Murchison writing at Chronicles: “The general comparability of all religions is the narrative that informs support for the New York City mosque—as, to tell the truth, it informs support for the mosques now springing up through once-Christian Europe. The necessity of throwing back that narrative isn’t the only reason most Americans reject the idea of admitting Islamic symbols and practice to the neighborhood of the 9/11 outrage. It’s a reason that works, even so. A Muslim need not believe in the truth of Christianity, but secular commitment to “diversity”—a commitment certain oddball bishops and theologians appear to support—undermines the American understanding of national identity.”

St. Cloud Times: “A policy that lays out what religious activities are appropriate in St. Cloud public schools will get a review from a community task force this year. Superintendent Bruce Watkins said he expects to announce plans for the task force Thursday during his report to the school board. The task force would be broad-based and have 10-20 members. It would review current practice in the schools, review what other districts are doing and examine if the policy meets the legal rights of all residents.”

Washington Post: “Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli writes in a new opinion that local governments do not have to ban holiday displays that include religious symbols, including Jesus Christ. Cuccinelli’s opinion was a response to a request from Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), who asked whether Loudoun County, under the U.S. and Virginia constitutions and Virginia law, is compelled to prohibit holiday displays on public property.” | Link to the opinion. (Va. AG Op., No. 10-067)

The Commercial Appeal: “The Tennessee Equality Project and councilwoman Janis Fullilove this morning withdrew the proposed ordinance, which would prevent the city from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in hiring or promotion of employees, and an accompanying resolution that would have included the ordinance’s language in city contracts.”

Evansville Courier & Press (AP): “The Paducah Sun reports the 150 Muslims want the mosque in a neighborhood where four Christian churches are located within six blocks of the proposed site in Mayfield. The city board of adjustment will vote on the petition after a review during a meeting at city hall today.”

Sunday News: “Members of the Apostolic Faith sect in Gwanda have vowed not to have their children immunised despite efforts by the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to convince them to take heed to their calls.”

Vatican Radio: “Archbishop Martin said that Ireland is undergoing a revolution of its religious culture, and that there are many parishes in Dublin where the presence at Sunday Mass is at 5 percent, and in some cases even below 2 percent.”

Reuters: “The overwhelming majority of Marines oppose sharing sleeping quarters with openly serving gays and lesbians, an obstacle if Congress lifts the ban on gays in the U.S. military, the top Marine said on Tuesday.”

WorldNetDaily: “The Saudi prince whose post-9/11 relief check was rejected by former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani has found a more willing recipient in the city for his millions: the head of the Ground Zero mosque project. The same Saudi potentate, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, owns the biggest chunk of the parent company of the Fox News Channel outside of the Murdoch family.”

WSLS-10: “Religious organizations representing a range of faiths and views are rallying against Gov. Bob McDonnell’s bid to sell Virginia’s liquor monopoly.”

ChristianNewsWire: “It appears that in the U.S., homeschooling is the fastest-growing form of education, according to independent research conducted by organizations ranging from the National Home Education Research Institute (www.nheri.org), a nonprofit research and educational organization, to the federally funded National Center for Education Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov).”

FOX News: “The White House said Tuesday it wants to press ahead with federally funded stem cell research amid fears by some private groups that a judge’s ruling will block important scientific work. The Obama administration is exploring all possible avenues ‘to make sure that we can continue to do this critical lifesaving research,’ Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton told reporters in Vineyard Haven, Mass.”

The Roanoke Times: “Cuccinelli concluded that two state regulatory boards already have the authority to issue regulations governing abortion facilities and providers of first-trimester abortions . . . [Gov. Bob McDonnell] spokesman Tucker Martin said the administration will review Cuccinelli’s opinion before making any decisions, but made the governor’s stance clear. ‘The governor is a long-standing supporter of ensuring that abortion clinics, and their medical personnel, are treated equally with other outpatient surgical hospitals by the commonwealth to ensure services are provided in a safe manner,’ Martin said.”

The Oklahoma Daily: “However, it is rather telling that it is easier to get out of marriage, once viewed as the foundation of society, than a business contract. Not only is this a formula for increased dissatisfaction even among those in the 60 percent of marriages that have not ended in divorce, it constitutes a fundamental shift in the definition of marriage, one that did not require any assistance from a San Francisco judge to implement.”

Canada Free Press: “Those who will do anything possible to quash dissent regarding the issue of abortion were foiled once again on Wednesday, August 18, 2010. The case against David Avignone, an MBA student at Chicago’s Loyola University, was dropped by the City of Chicago.”

Boston.com (AP): “The Maine Senate returns to the State House on Wednesday for confirmation votes, and Gov. John Baldacci’s nominees for more than 70 judgeships, boards and commissions are all poised for approval given their positive reviews by legislative committees.”

ChristianNewsWire: “Evangelical left voice Jim Wallis, who has boasted of his ties to the Obama administration, finally has admitted that his ‘progressive Christian’ Sojourners movement has received funding from leftist billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Institute.”

CNET reported late last week that a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter to John Clark, Director of the U.S. Marshals Service, asking for a ‘full explanation’ of why the images were stored.”

First Amendment Center (AP): “Family members of a fallen U.S. soldier expressed disappointment yesterday after prosecutors and protesters from Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church reached a deal that will keep both sides out of court over actions stemming from a church member’s 2007 protest of the serviceman’s funeral.”

Janine Turner writing at Constituting America: “It is our duty to get involved in the preservation of our Republic. Times heed not the lazy participant, leaving America to the few. Patriots must prohibit the silent slippery slope that always precedes tyranny. The Federalist Papers, the issues they faced and the duties required of the people of the 18th century are as pertinent today as they were then.”

Associated Press: “Attorney General Henry McMaster says the plate designed by a nonprofit group is legal. That opinion comes nine months after a federal judge barred the state from making legislatively approved plates with the religious message.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “From Judge Kleinfeld’s concurrence in the judgment in Spencer v. World Vision: ‘The core of Judge Berzon’s dissent is the idea that performance of activities that are often performed in a secular context cannot be religious. That is mistaken. When the Pope washes feet on the Thursday before Easter, that is not secular hygiene, and the Pope is not a pedicurist.’”

Steve Jalsevac writing at LifeSiteNews: “Militant Islam’s rapidly growing influence within Western democratic nations has become a worrisome issue . . . Most Westerners do not realize Islam is not only a religious belief system, but also one that demands an all encompassing Islamic form of government and, in some Islamic societies, harshly enforced rules for daily living and thought . . . LifeSiteNews does not necessarily endorse all of these information items, but we hope they will spark readers to consider the implications of the likely large future role of Islamism in their lives.”

ChristianNewsWire: “The San Marcos City Attorney’s office confirmed yesterday that it has dismissed all criminal charges against Elena Di Ventra that arose out of a loitering citation she received in May 2010. The sidewalk counselor was represented by Life Legal Defense Foundation staff attorney Allison K. Aranda.”

Nathan Koppel writing at the Wall Street Journal Law Blog: “On blogs with names like ‘Scammed Hard’ and ‘Shilling Me Softly’, law graduates are blaming their alma maters for luring them into expensive programs by overstating their chances of landing a job upon graduation, the USA Today reports.”

Associated Press: “The White House says federally funded stem cell research should continue and is exploring how to respond to a judge’s order halting it.”

OneNewsNow: “A Messianic Jewish leader and Israel supporter says she’s angered — but not surprised — by a report that Harvard University recently sold off all of its investments in Israel.”

Associated Press: “A gay couple has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Wyoming law that defines marriage as existing only between a man and a woman.” | Shupe-Roderick v. Freudenthal, No. 2:2010-cv-166-F (D. Wyo. August 13, 2010)

365 Gay: “The California State Senate passed a bill on Monday that would repeal a section of the California Welfare and Institutions code that instructs the State Department of Mental Health to conduct research into the ’causes and cures of homosexuality,’ with the implication that lesbian, gay, and bisexual Californians are sexual deviants, potential sex offenders and a threat to children.”

Women on Law Review: A Gender Diversity Report (Google Viewer): “Ms. JD collected self-reported gender diversity data from general interest law reviews at the 2009 U.S. News ‘Top 50′ law schools for the 2008-2010 academic years. The results show that while overall percentages of women members of these law journals (44.3%) and women in leadership positions (46.2%) correlates strongly to the number of women awarded law degrees during the same time period (45.7% in 2008), the number of women editors-in-chief is disproportionately low (33%). Whether a school appeared in the top or bottom half of the U.S. News ranking had no significant impact on these numbers.”

The Sacramento Bee / Capitol Alert: “Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman said this afternoon that if elected governor, she would defend Proposition 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage, by appealing a recent federal court ruling declaring the proposition unconstitutional.”

Irish Times: “Organisers said the Government had tried to ‘pacify’ the gay community but had failed. They called for the right to marry for same-sex couples. The Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2009, signed into law last month, extended marriage-like benefits to gay and lesbian couples in some areas but did not address the rights of children.”

PublicSquare.net: “The Religious Freedom Restoration Act was supposed to clarify issues of religious freedom. But did it make matters worse? Two experts in religious freedom law debate the issue.”

LifeSiteNews: “A cadre of homosexualist activists are preparing to launch a new group, Catholics for Equality, whose self-proclaimed mission is to lead lay Catholics away from the institutional Church’s teaching on sexuality and encourage support for homosexual ‘marriage.’”

Los Angeles Times: “Proposition 39, which was passed by voters in 2000, requires school districts to provide charter schools with facilities that are reasonably equivalent to those of other schools in the district. About 60,000 students in L.A. Unified have opted to attend charter schools. But administrators have in no way tried to meet the ‘reasonably equivalent’ standard . . . When charter schools manage to get funding to build their own schools independent of the district, they do so for far less money than the LAUSD does.”

Boston.com (AP): “Jimmy Carter was to leave for North Korea today to try to gain the freedom of a Boston man imprisoned for illegally entering the communist nation, US officials said last night.”

CNN / Belief Blog: “The humanitarian organization World Vision can require its employees to be Christians, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. In upholding a lower-court ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that World Vision is exempt from a provision in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act barring religious discrimination.” | Eugene Volokh: When may religious charitable groups discriminate in employment based on religion?

Jonathan Adler writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “Do parents have a constitutionally protected property interest in the dead body of their child, including all organs? Not necessarily is the answer given by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Albrecht v. Treon, at least under Ohio law as interpreted by the Ohio Supreme Court.” | Related post: Ohio Court Debates Rights to Body Parts [1.23.2008]

New York Times: “The ruling came as a shock to scientists at the National Institutes of Health and at universities across the country, which had viewed the Obama administration’s new policy and the grants provided under it as settled law. Scientists scrambled Monday evening to assess the ruling’s immediate impact on their work . . . [Steven H. Aden], senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which sued to stop the Obama administration rules, said the judge’s ruling ‘means that for now the N.I.H. cannot issue funding grants to embryonic stem cell research projects without any further order from the court.’”

Liberty Counsel: “Liberty Counsel has agreed to represent Mary Susan Pine, a sidewalk abortion counselor, who is being sued by the politically motivated U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder. Using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) federal law and seeking the maximum fine of $10,000, Holder alleges that Pine ‘obstructed’ a car entering a Florida abortion clinic nearly a year ago, on November 19, 2009. The suit is entitled Holder v. Pine.”

Conn Carroll writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “In another development from last week, this one virtually ignored by the establishment media, the Department of Defense released its annual Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China. According to the report, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) official budget, which has enjoyed double-digit annual increases for two decades, grew again by nearly 8 percent . . . More troubling, however, was what the report did not focus enough on: the threat to Taiwan. There is little discussion of the Taiwan military structure or its equipment . . . Meanwhile, while the Obama Defense Department is ignoring the threat to Taiwan, the Obama State Department has gotten off to a poor start defending human rights in China.”

The Monitor: “Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted, blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa field.”

The Christian Post: “Two Somali Muslim men attacked a well-known Somali church leader in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa over the weekend, according to a Washington-based Christian human rights group.”

CatholicCulture.org: “In an August 22 editorial, the Boston Globe asked Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley to recommend new conditions on the sale of Caritas Christi, the health-care system of the Boston archdiocese . . . The Globe asked the attorney general to seek a commitment that Cerberus would not sell the system’s 6 hospitals for at least 7 years after the official purchase.”

“The Americans leave behind ‘an Iraq worse off than the one they found seven years ago,’ said Warduni, who’s widely regarded as the most charismatic voice among the Iraqi bishops . . . . Now there’s only rubble. We’ve become targets, we’re afraid to even leave the house. The situation is worse for everyone, but especially for us Christians. The withdrawal of the United States is a disastrous flight from responsibility . . . ”

Standard Newswire: “CMA CEO David Stevens, MD, noted, “This case highlights the harm that diverting federal funds away from proven effective research poses to those patients who are waiting for cures . . . Dr. Stevens noted, ‘We are grateful for the excellent legal work of Advocates International, and the Alliance Defense Fund in this case, and are proud to stand with fellow plaintiffs Drs. James L. Sherley and Theresa Deisher, Nightlight Christian Adoptions, Shayne and Tina Nelson, William and Patricia Flynn.’”

Associated Press: “The judge’s ruling drew praise from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys and co-counsel in the suit. ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life. The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos,’ [Steven H. Aden], ADF’s senior legal counsel, said.”

LifeNews: “The Alliance Defense Fund, a pro-life legal group that served as co-counsel in the case, also hailed the order that prevents the Obama administration from carrying out its embryonic stem cell research policy while the court considers the lawsuit. ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments–prohibited by federal law–that destroy human life,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Steven Aden].”

ADF Attorney Gregory S. Baylor writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “In a motion filed July 30, 2010, CLS urged the Ninth Circuit to address that issue. On August 9, Hastings and Hastings Outlaw filed their oppositions to CLS’s motion, essentially urging the court to end the case without consideration of the school’s unconstitutionally selective application of its all-comers policy. Yesterday, August 19, CLS filed its reply. We now await the Ninth Circuit’s ruling.”

ADF Attorney David French writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “Step 1: Launch a debate within key private professional organizations (such as the National Association of Social Workers or the American Counseling Association) about the need for ;social justice; within the profession . . . Step 2: Incorporate this view within extraordinarily broad rules of ethics . . . Step 3: Convince public entities (like colleges or state licensing boards) that they must teach and apply these privately-generated ethical rules to students and members of the profession . . . Step 4: When challenged, argue that conventional First Amendment analysis doesn’t apply because you’re merely ‘teaching professional standards’ or applying the ‘rules of ethics.’”

Earned Media (Advocates International): “Advocates International (AI), part of the public interest legal team along with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher (GD&C) who brought the case before the court more than a year ago, is pleased with the decision of the United States District Court of the District of Columbia yesterday enjoining HHS and NIH from unlawfully expending taxpayer funds on research involving the destruction of living human embryos.”

Ronald Bailey writing at Reason: “The case had been brought before the court by the conservative Christian Alliance Defense Fund and Nightlight Christian Adoptions which wants to put embryos left over from fertility treatments up for ‘adoption.’ Both argue that deriving human embryonic stem cells kills pre-born people. Given that about 60 percent of Americans support stem cell research using embryos left over from fertility treatments, this ruling will surely spark the stem cell wars anew.”

The Christian Post: “‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments – prohibited by federal law – that destroy human life,’ said [Steven H. Aden], senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund. ‘The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos.’”

Michael Tomasky writing at The Guardian: “This case was not only about the new NIH guidelines, but about the legal standing of the plaintiffs, who were representatives of conservative Christian advocacy groups and research agencies that opposed the Obama NIH proposals. The plaintiff Alliance Defense Fund has a history of anti-gay activism. The group’s standing to sue was in question. In fact, on a previous occasion, Lamberth tossed the suit, arguing that the plaintiffs lacked standing.”

Portfolio.com / Heavy Doses: “The judge found that a group of researchers working with adult stem cells, represented by the Alliance Defense Fund, had a good chance of winning their suit challenging the Obama administration’s policy. That suit was based on a 1996 Congressional ban on destroying embryos to create embryonic stem cell lines.”

Vermont Public Radio (NPR): [Steven Aden] of the Alliance Defense Fund didn’t buy that argument, and neither did Judge Lamberth. ‘If one step of a project results in the destruction of an embryo, the entire project is precluded from receiving federal funding,’ Aden said.”

CBN News: “‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments, prohibited by federal law that destroy human life,’ the Alliance Defense Fund’s senior legal counsel [Steven H. Aden], said.” | Video at link

OneNewsNow: “Just six days before school was to begin, the Idaho State Board of Education voted to uphold the closure of a charter school that tangled with officials over the use of the Bible in the classroom . . . [David Cortman] of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) says he is disappointed by the closure, ‘especially in light of the fact that the entire state’s educational system is undergoing a financial crisis.’ He does not think it was just for the board to take on the one school.”

OneNewsNow: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) is representing Wisconsin Family Action in a lawsuit against the state over the definition of marriage . . . ‘Even though the people of Wisconsin clearly defined marriage in their state constitution as the union of one man and one woman, the state legislature has implemented a “domestic partnership” scheme that seeks to undermine that marriage amendment,’ explains ADF attorney [Jim Campbell].”

The Christian Institute: “Research by University College London has revealed that binge-drinking women were 40 per cent more likely to have had at least one abortion over the past year. The study also revealed that women who drink more than the recommended weekly limit, roughly equivalent to 7 glasses of wine, were 80 per cent more likely to have used the morning-after pill (MAP) in the past year.”

The Washington Post: “[Steven Aden], a lawyer with the Alliance Defense Fund who filed the suit, said the court will need to clarify whether the injunction affects work using money already issued to researchers under the administration’s new guidelines or blocks additional funding.”

The Boston Globe: “[Steven H. Aden] — senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a nonprofit legal alliance of Christian attorneys and co-counsel in the suit — said yesterday that the alliance was encouraged by the ‘common sense’ ruling. ‘We believe that the court’s interpretation is consistent with Congress’s intent in keeping taxpayer money out of research that destroys human life,’ Aden said.”

Worthy News: “‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life. The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos,’ said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H. Aden] which co-counseled in the lawsuit.”

“In a ruling involving a mentally disabled man whose legal guardians sought the power to end his medical care, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has determined that state law requires life-preserving treatment for people who are not near death and have not refused treatment.”

Bloomberg: “For opponents of the field, federal funding for such research equates to taxpayer support for the destruction of human life, said [Steven H. Aden], an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund in Washington, a Christian organization that represented the two remaining plaintiffs in the case. ‘The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments — prohibited by federal law — that destroy human life,’ Aden said yesterday in a statement on the alliance’s website.

Catholic News Agency: “The Alliance Defense Fund, which helped represent CMA and Nightlight, saying that the ‘American people should not be forced to pay for experiments – prohibited by federal law – that destroy human life.’ ‘The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos,’ continued ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Steven H. Aden]. ‘No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless.’”

Monsters and Critics.com: “ADF senior legal counsel [Steven Aden] said, ‘No one should be allowed to decide that an innocent life is worthless. Experimentation on embryonic stem cells isn’t even necessary because adult stem cell research has been enormously successful.’”

LifeNews: “The lawsuit, filed in August 2009, alleges that the guidelines governing destructive embryonic stem cell research implemented by the Obama administration in July “are contrary to law, were promulgated without observing the procedures required by law . . . Thomas G. Hungar, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs, which includes the Alliance Defense Fund and the Christian Medical Association, said in 2009 when the lawsuit was filed, ‘the language of the [Dickey-Wicker] statute is clear’ that it ‘bans public funding for any research that leads to the destruction of human embryos.’”

Wall Street Journal: “[Steven Aden], senior counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund and a lawyer for the challengers, said the ruling ‘is in line with Congress’s intention that taxpayer funds should not be used to destroy human life.’”