Daily Archives: August 30, 2010

Axcess News: “Now, after a controversial court case and the government’s promise of a new law dealing with personal-status issues like marriage, their cases are in the spotlight. The resulting struggle has exposed the pitfalls of a legal system that, by forcing people to abide by religious regulations, has deprived citizens of the freedom to make decisions about their personal lives. Some – Christians and Muslims alike – are calling for alternatives.”

CBS Atlanta: “Code Enforcement officers with the city of Lilburn will not cite a monk accused of operating a religious temple on his property. Homeowners in the 5000 block of Hood Road tell CBS Atlanta Monk Ton held a large illegal religious service on his property Sunday, even though it is not zoned for that purpose.”

The Australian: “Mr Wilkie’s national demands include maximum $1 bets and $120/hour loss limits on pokies machines, an increase to all government pensions, including dental care in medicare, a conscience vote on gay marriage and increased aged care funding.”

WorldNetDaily: “The Internal Revenue Service has delayed approval of tax-exempt status for a private organization and is reviewing its educational work, telling a lawyer for the foundation that it must be examined by Washington because its activities may ‘contradict the administration’s public policies.’”

CNSNews: “[The Council on American-Islamic Relations] has filed a lawsuit against the Illinois State Police alleging discrimination when the agency revoked the appointment of the agency’s first Muslim chaplain.”

The Hill: “After the interview aired, Crist’s campaign issued a statement reiterating that he doesn’t back a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage.”

The Daily News Journal: “Rutherford County Sheriff’s deputies are investigating a complaint about shots being fired near the construction site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike.”

Green Bay Press Gazette: “A longtime truck driver has become the first city of Green Bay employee to request health insurance coverage for a domestic partner. The request could prompt a policy change making Green Bay the first municipality in Northeastern Wisconsin to provide benefits for employees’ same-sex partners.”

KFYI: “Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas says he was ready on Friday morning to concede the GOP nomination for Arizona Attorney General to current Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, as Horne’s lead continued to grow slowly with the continued counting of early and provisional ballots. However, as Friday wore on, the trend reversed, and Horne’s lead began to shrink.”

” . . . The commission said the trust was not performing any public benefit because homosexuality was not a mental disorder and did not need curing.”

Independent Online: “A former Rotarian who claims three Rotary clubs discriminated against him because he was homosexual is challenging the matter in the Equality Court in Pretoria. Rhett Gardener, an attorney at the Special Investigating Unit, said in court papers he was first forced to resign from the Rotary Club of Pretoria West (RCPW) after homophobic comments.”

Dr. Jeff Mirus writing at Catholic Culture: “What are we up against in fighting the public facilitation of sexual perversion? We’re up against nothing less than a global culture which regards a person’s desired form of sexual expression as a basic human right. I don’t mean that everyone in every country views things this way, but there are substantial groups of influential media leaders, politicians and judges in a great many places throughout the world who do—perhaps in most places.”

Global Post: “As Americans take on the issue state by state amid conflicting rulings by local and federal courts, Costa Rica’s Diversity Movement is pressing for change nationwide. Movement leader Abelardo Araya says it’s more appropriate to fight for gay rights in congress than in court or at the ballot box. Perhaps it’s a good strategy: legal action to overturn the hetero-only marriage rule have not won, and a poll in La Nacion newspaper after the recent court ruling said less than a quarter of respondents would have voted in favor of civil unions; 71 percent would have voted ‘no.’”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “[T]he response from Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR . . . ‘Can you imagine what this will do to our image around the world . . . And the additional danger it will add whenever there is an American presence in Iraq or Afghanistan?’ . . . This of course reminds people about the violent strains of Islam, and the danger those strains pose. But it also shows how some spokespeople for mainstream Islam (here, Hooper) are willing to use the actions by their violent coreligionists as a tool for suppressing non-Muslims’ alleged blasphemies and insults. That is precisely the image of mainstream Islam, it seems to me, that Terry Jones is trying to foster. I doubt that this was a cunning plan on Jones’ part, but that seems to be the effect.”

WorldNetDaily: “Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf claims that the U.S. Constitution is Shariah compliant. Let us examine below a few laws of Shariah to see if Imam Rauf is truthful or a fraud.”

WSJ: “The ruling earlier this month by San Francisco federal judge Vaughn Walker declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional might well be overturned by the Ninth Circuit . . . But for now, it seems it’s providing a bit of inspiration to gays and lesbians in Hawaii, who last month sued Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle after she vetoed legislation approved last year that would have allowed same-sex civil unions. According to this LAT story, backers of the suit hope Judge Walker’s Aug. 4 ruling will become the legal precedent that other courts in the country eventually will follow.”

US News and World Report: “Mehlman’s self-outing has drawn increased attention to the political activism of gay and lesbian Republicans at a time when the Democratic Party is far more often associated with backing gay rights. The Log Cabin Republicans, a PAC that has since the late 1970s promoted ‘a more inclusive Republican Party for gay and lesbian Americans,’ has given financial support to several congressional candidates.”

Minnesota Public Radio: “One of the hot debates in academia is now reaching the courts. The question: Do universities discriminate against religious conservatives? Some professors and students say they do, but it’s not an easy charge to pin down . . . [Mike] Adams teaches criminology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. A few years ago, he began writing strongly worded op-ed pieces expressing conservative views on religious and political issues. When he applied for promotion to full professor, his colleagues voted him down. [David French], an attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative legal group, says there’s an upsurge of these cases. ‘The secular public schools are almost becoming, for lack of a better term, quasi-religious in their outlook and devotion to one particular worldview and excluding all those who disagree,’ French says.”

Boston Herald: “Gov. David Paterson said Monday that he doesn’t need to apologize to Muslim groups who criticized him for comments last week in which he described developers of an Islamic center and mosque planned near ground zero as peaceful and ‘almost westernized’ Muslims.”

Duke Cheston writing at The John William Pope Center: “Recently, religious schools in the state learned that they cannot operate their own police forces, as other colleges and universities do. A ruling by the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that because Davidson College is deemed to be a religious institution, it cannot have a campus police force with the power to enforce state law. If that ruling stands, it will require the school to jump through additional hoops and potentially jeopardize the safety of its students.”

Reuters: “Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s invitation to hundreds of young women to convert to Islam overshadowed a two-day visit to Italy intended to cement the growing ties between Tripoli and Rome.”

San Francisco Chronicle: “Baghlan province is in the northeast, but Afghans say pedophilia is most prevalent among Pashtun men in the south. The Pashtun are Afghanistan’s most important tribe. For centuries, the nation’s leaders have been Pashtun . . . So, why are American and NATO forces fighting and dying to defend tens of thousands of proud pedophiles, certainly more per capita than any other place on Earth? And how did Afghanistan become the pedophilia capital of Asia? . . . Sociologists and anthropologists say the problem results from perverse interpretation of Islamic law. Women are simply unapproachable. Afghan men cannot talk to an unrelated woman until after proposing marriage. Before then, they can’t even look at a woman, except perhaps her feet. Otherwise she is covered, head to ankle.”

Washington Post: “A growing number of Republicans are breaking with the party’s traditional stance to publicly state their support for same-sex marriage, a shift strategists say stems as much from demographics as from the renewed focus on economics and the ‘tea party’ movement.”

ADF attorney Byron Babione appeared on Ave Maria Radio with Al Kresta to discuss the litigation over highway memorial crosses for troopers in Utah. | MP3 8:34 mins | ADF Media Information

The Hill: “The Tea Party Express, which spent some $600,000 on Alaska Republican Joe Miller’s primary challenge to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), says it’s preparing to do the same on behalf of Christine O’Donnell (R) in Delaware. O’Donnell is challenging Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) from the right in the state’s Sept. 14 Senate primary, but she has yet to capture the same kind of attention from conservative activists as other Tea Party-backed candidates have this cycle.”

Citizen Link: This headline is hard to miss. “Why is the Government Trying to Force Me to Divorce My Wife?” But even more noticeable is the $80-100,000 dollars Scott Sumner and his wife will miss over their lifetime simply because they’re married.

Baptist Press: “Pro-family advocates applauded the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to appeal a court ruling they fear could open broadcast television to the use of even more profanities and obscenities.”

Washington Post: “The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging the U.S. government’s authority to target and kill U.S. citizens outside of war zones when they are suspected of involvement in terrorism.”

Timothy Patrick McCarthy writes at Yahoo News: “Will the Republican Party follow Ken Mehlman’s lead and step out on gay rights? Historian Timothy McCarthy imagines a future where the GOP starts talking like Harvey Milk.”

Christian Post: “On Monday, Dinesh D’Souza was tapped as the fifth president of The King’s College, which seeks to educate students to bring competitive Christian ideas to positions of leadership in the institutions of government, civil society, media, law, education, business, the arts, and the church. The Campus Crusade for Christ-supported school is currently listed by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute as one of the top 50 colleges for conservatives.”

USA Today (includes video): “Albert Snyder tears up, then turns angry as he recalls burying his Marine son while members of the anti-gay fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church picketed nearby.”

American Medical News: “When ella is available later this year, physicians will have to decide if prescribing the drug is right for them and their patients.”

CNN: “Suspected arson at the future site of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, has ‘really raised the fear factor’ among area Muslims, a representative of the mosque told CNN on Monday . . . The fire is under investigation, but “you can reasonably make the assumption” that it was deliberately set, FBI Assistant Special Agent Keith Moses said Sunday.”

Tennessean: “The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee condemns the recent act of arson against the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro and supports the right of Muslims across the state to construct places of worship and practice their religion.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ-dEunfZMw

Engage Family Minute Blog: “This primary election yielded nominations for Gov. Joe Manchin, for the Democratic Party, and John Raese, for the Republican Party. Oh, and for good measure, Mountain Party candidate Jesse Johnson was nominated too. So, what’s the fallout? Rasmussen reports that the race is quite tight.”

WBZTV: “With approval from two accrediting agencies, Franklin Pierce Law Center is officially being renamed the University of New Hampshire School of Law.”

AP: “The town where the Civil War’s tide-turning battle was waged is fighting dissension in its own ranks, with even hard-core preservationists split over a proposed casino that would rise near the historic battlefield and be named for the line that divided North and South.”

NCPA: “Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, told the Daily Caller that the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation is a type of diplomatic effort and outreach. “It is helping to preserve our cultural heritage. It is not just to preserve religious structures,” Thompson said. ‘It is not to preserve a religion. It is to help us as global inhabitants preserve cultures.’”

The Hindu: “After Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM), makers of Blackberry, fell in line with the government demands of granting lawful access to its encrypted messages, the government is all set to issue notices to search engine Google, internet phone call provider Skype, Virtual Private Network (VPN) service providers and a few other entities to make available their services to law enforcement agencies.”

ChristianNewsWire: “An open records request for public documents has been denied by the Iowa Medical Board, which tipped off Planned Parenthood of the Heartland that the request for public records had been made. Planned Parenthood then filed a suit against a medical watchdog group to block the release of the documents.”

Christian Newswire: “Well over 15,000 students and parents have politely requested that Alverno College, a Catholic college founded by the School Sisters of St. Francis, delete several web site links that channel students to abortion advocacy groups. However, despite the large number of complaints the links remain up and running . . . ”

CNN: “The online video is an effort to fight back against ‘the rising tide of fear-mongering’ resulting from plans to build a Muslim community center in lower Manhattan in New York, the group behind it said. . . . ”

Family Restoration Blog: “With these postmodern actions we continually deconstruct the hope of family restoration. Average people and average lawyers disrespecting the microcosmic civilization of lifelong marriage has brought us to the point of astounding attorney applause over the collapse of the rule of law.”

Charles Kupchan writing in The Washington Post: “The European Union is dying — not a dramatic or sudden death, but one so slow and steady that we may look across the Atlantic one day soon and realize that the project of European integration that we’ve taken for granted over the past half-century is no more . . . This renationalization of politics has been occurring across the E.U . . . right-wing populism is on the upswing — a product, primarily, of a backlash against immigration. This hard-edged nationalism aims not only at minorities, but also at the loss of autonomy that accompanies political union . . . The renationalization of European politics is a product, first and foremost, of generational change.”

National Journal / Hotline on Call: “Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) will not be on the AK Libertarian Party ballot line this fall, according to the secretary of the party.”

John Fund writing in the Wall Street Journal: “[Glenn Beck's 'Restoring Honor' Rally] was yet another demonstration of how the Obama administration’s excesses have brought different strands of the conservative movement together . . . In the past, more secular Tea Party types might not have showed up at a religiously-themed event like ‘Restoring Honor.’ Similarly, many of the devoutly religious people I met at Saturday’s rally probably would in the past have shunned an explicitly political event such as Friday night’s Freedom Works meeting. But I kept bumping into the same people at both gatherings.

Politico: “Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer is calling on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove a reference to her state’s immigration law from a report on human rights. In a required report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the State Department said the federal government’s challenge to the Arizona law that requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop or detain was an example of how the United States is protecting human rights.”

The Hill: “The U.S. economy faces a ‘lost decade’ like the one Japan suffered through in the 1990s if the government continues to spend and rack up debt, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday.”

UPI: “Nowhere is the culture war more apparent than in battles over religious displays. The latest skirmish was fought earlier this month in Denver, where a federal appeals court said crosses erected along Utah highways as memorials to fallen Highway Patrol officers were in violation of the First Amendment’s ban on the establishment of religion . . . The Becket Fund also predicted the U.S. Supreme Court would be asked to review the Utah case. Which begs the question: Is there anything in Supreme Court jurisprudence that would lead observers to conclude the justices would uphold the Denver appeals court?”

Politico: “One of the nation’s most prominent Muslim organizations, the North American Islamic Trust, is set to face off with the U.S. government in a federal appeals court Monday. The reputation of the group, known as NAIT, may well hang in the balance, but don’t bother trying to attend the court session this afternoon before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. In a highly unusual move, judges have — without explanation — ordered the arguments closed to the public.”

ADF attorney Steve Aden appeared on the Zeb Bell Show to discuss this: Federal court halts Obama administration’s embryonic stem cell policy | MP3 17:22 mins

LifeNews: “The Iowa-based Planned Parenthood affiliate that has the nation’s first abortion practitioner overseeing the new telemed abortion concept has filed a lawsuit to block a pro-life group’s request for papers on the abortion practitioner’s medical license. The pro-life group Operation Rescue is also concerned that the Iowa Board of Medicine tipped off Planned Parenthood officials to its request for the documents.”

Washington Examiner: “Senior executives, on-air personalities, producers, reporters, editors, writers and other self-identifying employees of ABC, CBS and NBC contributed more than $1 million to Democratic candidates and campaign committees in 2008, according to an analysis by The Examiner of data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics . . . By contrast, only 193 of the employees contributed to Republican candidates and campaign committees, for a total of $142,863. The average Republican contribution was $744.”

“The situation in the North Caucasus is now much more difficult than [Vladimir] Putin or [Dmitry] Medvedev imagine it. We are talking about a growing Islamist opposition and hundreds or even thousands of militants in Chechnya alone, with more young men joining them up in the mountains. It’s a civil war. Invisible or visible, it’s a war.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “From today’s In re the Petition of Theresa Goudeau to Adopt a Minor Child (Ga. Ct. App.), 2010 WL 3369363 . . . ‘The superior court denied the petition of Theresa Goudeau to adopt her foster daughter and ordered the Department of Family and Children’s Services to remove the child from Goudeau’s foster care, finding that placing the child with Goudeau violated this state’s “public policy” because Goudeau was not married to the man with whom she lived . . .’”

[Medvedev said] . . . “Now that we’ve got the icon back, our country secures an additional defence,”

ABC 15: “State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne declared a victory over Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas via Twitter Sunday afternoon. Horne confirmed to ABC15 he posted the celebratory message on the social media site.”

Dahlia Lithwick writing at Slate: “[W]hat does the difference between having one, two, or three women at the court really signify? Social scientists contend that the difference is more than just cosmetic. They cite a 2006 study by the Wellesley Centers for Women that found three to be the magic number when it came to the impact of having women on corporate boards . . . ”

BBC: “[Cardinal Sandoval Iniguez] alleged that Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard had bribed the Supreme Court judges to hand down a ruling that supported gay rights . . . The Supreme Court judges issued a unanimous and unprecedented condemnation of the Archbishop’s allegations . . . One specific article in the constitution, article 130, prohibited members of the Church from participating in any political activities, interfering in any government matters, or campaigning for or against any candidate . . . But now, amid the gay rights debate, the Church has seemed ready to breach that restriction.” Via Religion Clause.

Religious Clause: “In Moore-Backman v. United States, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88547 (D AZ, Aug. 24, 2010), an Arizona federal district court adopted a magistrate’s recommendations (2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88548, June 28, 2010) and dismissed a complaint by a Quaker that the use of his federal income tax payments for military spending substantially burdens his religious exercise in violation of the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act . . . ”

Mark Helperin, “The World Trade Center Mosque and the Constitution,” Wall Street Journal (full text via Google News): “The proponents of the mosque know that Americans will not and cannot betray our constitutional liberties . . . Their knowledge of the Constitution, however, does not penetrate very far, and perhaps they are not as clever as they think. The Constitution is a marvelous document, and a reasonable interpretation of it means as well that no American can be forced to pour concrete. No American can be forced to deliver materials. No American can be forced to bid on a contract, to run conduit, dig a foundation, or join steel.”

NCPA (WSJ): “California simply cannot solve its budgetary problems without addressing government employee compensation and benefits, says Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of California . . . Thanks to huge unfunded pension and retirement health care promises granted by past governments, and also to deceptive pension-fund accounting that understated liabilities and overstated future investment returns, California is now saddled with $550 billion of retirement debt, says Schwarzenegger.”

Leslie Jacobs, “After the Deluge, A New Education System,” Wall Street Journal (full text via Google News): “Five years ago yesterday, the levees broke. Hurricane Katrina flooded roughly 80% of this city, causing nearly $100 billion in damage . . . But from the flood waters, the most market-driven public school system in the country has emerged. Education reformers across America should take notice: The model is working . . . After Katrina . . . state officials took the bold step of creating a market-driven system of autonomous schools . . . Public officials dramatically expanded the number of charter schools in the city. Today close to 70% of children attend charters.”

The Hill: “The playing field of competitive House races has expanded substantially over the past two months, increasing the chances that Republicans will control the lower chamber next year . . . As the election environment has worsened for Democrats amid troubling new economic and polling data, Republicans have become increasingly bullish in their projections of major House gains.”

Associated Press: “The imam spearheading a proposed Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York believes the fierce opposition is closely linked to the U.S. elections in November, according to comments published Monday.”

The State Column: “Florida Governor, and current U.S. Senate candidate, Charlie Crist said Sunday that he supports a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Mr. Crist said that he favors a ban but added that he describes himself as a ‘live and let live kind of guy’ when it comes to same-sex partners living together.”

Associated Press: “Whatever the outcome, the uproar over a planned Islamic center near the World Trade Center site is shaping up as a signal event in the story of American Islam . . . American Muslim leaders say the furor has emboldened opposition groups to resist new mosques around the country, at a time when there aren’t enough mosques or Islamic schools to serve the community.”

Las Vegas Sun (AP): “[T]he ruling drew praise from the Alliance Defense Fund, a group of Christian attorneys who helped with the lawsuit filed by two researchers against the administration rules.The American people should not be forced to pay for experiments _ prohibited by federal law _ that destroy human life,’ said [Steven H. Aden], the group’s senior legal counsel. ‘The court is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos.’”

Baptist Life: “Exemplary college and seminary students interested in addressing today’s cultural issues from a biblical perspective have the opportunity to become directly involved in issues that impact millions of people through the Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention . . . Clifton Drake had just graduated from law school at Georgetown University when he decided to pursue an internship with the ERLC in 2008. Placed through the Blackstone Legal Fellowship, a ministry of the Alliance Defense Fund, Drake spent six weeks in ERLC’s D.C. office working on public policy issues of interest to Christians.”

Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho) editorial: “Here’s what it takes to shutter a charter school in Idaho. First, the school’s backers must promise to spend taxpayer money in defiance of Idaho’s constitutional prohibition of religion in its classes . . . Then to make an even bigger stink, have the school’s leaders cozy up with the Christian conservative Alliance Defense Fund.”

The Bulletin (Philadelphia): “[T]he Pennsylvania Supreme Court has determined that state law requires life-preserving treatment for people who are not near death and have not refused treatment . . . ‘A person’s value isn’t based on his or her physical or mental abilities,’ said ADF Legal Counsel [Matt Bowman]. ‘No one should be allowed to decide that a person’s life is not worth saving just because he or she has a disability or medical condition.’” ADF News Release

Care 2 / Protect Women’s Rights: “Urban Outfitters, a clothing store mostly targeted at college students and 20-and-30-somethings, decided to start selling Proper Attire condoms on its website . . . Rita Diller, National Director of STOP Planned Parenthood, a project of the American Life League, emailed her supporters, an email that was soon circulating among, according to RH Reality Check’s Eleanor Bader, ‘dozens of local anti-choice and church groups and . . . major national organizations including the Alliance Defense Fund, Women of Grace, and catholicnewsline.com.’ The next day, Proper Attire condoms were pulled from Urban Outfitters’ online catalogue.”

The Tennessean: “A Tennessee-based Christian group believes it is saving lives by bringing the research to a grinding halt . . . Tennessee has become a key player in the arguments unfolding in court that could decide the fate of research involving human embryos. Even Tennessee’s two U.S. senators are divided on the issue . . . Seeing that more embryos could be destroyed and the government would spend more money on the research, the Christian Medical and Dental Association immediately filed the federal lawsuit along with the Alliance Defense Fund, a coalition of attorneys who defend religious freedoms, marriage and family.”

OneNewsNow: “Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has ruled against family members who wanted to end the life of a man with mental disabilities . . . Randall Wenger of the Independence Law Center and an allied attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) tells OneNewsNow the court stood with 53-year-old David Hockenberry, who has had acute mental disabilities since birth.”