Daily Archives: October 1, 2010

The Christian Institute: “Homosexuals and bisexuals should be portrayed more frequently and more authentically on the BBC, according to a controversial new report commissioned by the broadcaster. However, the report also revealed that almost one in five viewers is either ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘very uncomfortable’ with homosexual scenes.”

Florida Today: “Capping an undercover operation Thursday, SWAT units arrested seven women and the manager of a strip club after residents complained that illegal sex often ended up in the parking lot.”

Daniel Hannan writing at his Telegraph blog: “The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durrão Barroso, has offered one of the few utterly honest arguments for European integration. The reason we need the EU, he suggests, is precisely because it’s not democratic. Left to themselves, elected governments might do all sorts of things simply to humour their voters: ‘Governments are not always right. If governments were always right we would not have the situation that we have today. Decisions taken by the most democratic institutions in the world are very often wrong.’”

“Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are asking a full panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to rehear a ruling issued last month by a three-judge panel that threw out an injunction against a problematic Los Angeles Community College District speech code challenged by a student.”

Telegraph: “Christian Democrats are in revolt against their party leaders over plans to ban the burka as part of a deal to create a Dutch liberal-conservative coalition government with the support of Geert Wilders, a far-Right leader.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Zem263sLo

Los Angeles Times: “The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center will receive a $13-million federal grant over five years to provide services for gay youths in the foster system, officials announced Friday.”

Center for Reproductive Rights: “On September 23, 2010, the Center co-hosted a roundtable discussion with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Institute for Human Rights (IDOM) in Chisinau, Moldova on Reproductive Rights: Opportunities and Constraints in the Republic of Moldova. The roundtable included discussion on Moldova’s international human rights commitments and gaps in its compliance. It highlighted issues such as maternal mortality, family planning, abortion, and introducing mandatory sexuality education in schools.”

Christian Post: “Islamic extremists killed a Christian lawyer, his wife and their five children in northwestern Pakistan this week for mounting a legal challenge against a Muslim who was charging a Christian exorbitant interest, local sources said.”

Janice Shaw Crouse writing in The American Spectator: “Now it goes without saying that there are good marriages and there are bad marriages, depending upon the values and virtues of the persons involved. But marriage does provide a framework with a tremendous potential and incentive for learning how to work together. Being unmarried may let you ‘have it your way,’ but a ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ attitude doesn’t pay off on the job, where the ability to compromise and get along are just as essential to smooth operations as they are in a marriage.”

Radio Iowa: “During a speech on Thursday, the chief justice of the Iowa Supreme Court defended the court’s 2009 ruling that cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Iowa. Chief Justice Marsha Ternus is up for a retention vote in this fall’s election and critics of the ruling want her voted off the court.”

Christianity Today: “A group of charities, colleges, and churches wrote a letter to the Senate which stated that they opposed efforts to ‘dilute the right of faith-based social service organizations to stay faith-based through their hiring’ . . . The Alliance Defense Fund also took on the issue of religious liberty through its third annual ‘Pulpit Freedom Sunday’ . . . ‘The question at stake is: Who should decide what is preached from the pulpit? Government bureaucrats and regulators, or the church and its leadership?’ asked ADF president [Alan Sears].”

News & Messenger: “Jennifer Basinger said she’s expecting about 50 people to show up at Manassas City Hall on Saturday to rally against an adult store set to open Oct. 20 on Battle Street in Old Town.” VA: Manassas pursues rules for sexually oriented businesses

Yahoo (AP): “Buck . . . endorsed a proposed amendment to the state constitution to set up a direct challenge to the federal government over rights for fetuses. But Buck changed his position after doctors and lawyers pointed out that the amendment would also ban some types of fertility treatments and emergency contraception.”

Lambda Legal: “In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Eighth Appellate District, upheld a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit brought by an antigay group that attempted to strip away the newly enacted domestic partnership registry for same-sex couples and their families.”

Cleveland Taxpayers for the Ohio Constitution v. City of Cleveland, No. 94327 (Ohio App. Sept. 30, 2010)

Rapid City Journal: “A former Ellsworth Air Force Base sergeant is preparing to sue the city of Rapid City over the police department’s role in her discharge from the military earlier this year.” More from Bob Ellis at Dakota Voice: Rapid City Taxpayers to Pick up Tab for Homosexual Agenda

Center for Military Readiness: “The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has released submissions it has made to the Pentagon Comprehensive Review Working Group (CRWG), the ad hoc panel charged by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to assess the impact of repeal of the law on gays in the military on the armed forces.”

Boston.com (AP): “Justice Elena Kagan took her seat at the Supreme Court for the first time Friday in front of a packed courtroom that included President Barack Obama.”

Insider Online: “Soft consumer demand in a weak economy has led many businesses to cut prices. But this is not the case in the market for higher education. Entering college freshmen and returning students face ever-higher tuition and fees. In fact, tuition at American universities has been increasing faster than inflation for the past 30 years.”

ACLJ: “The ECLJ has just filed an important document with The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) at the UN – a follow-up to testimony we provided nearly three years ago when we began challenging the dangerous, anti-Christian concept known as ‘defamation of religions.’”

Annex Books v. City of Indianapolis, No. 09-4156 (7th Cir. Oct. 1, 2010)

SOB crime study does not support hours-of-operation ordinance

Before Easterbrrok, Chief Judge, and Flaum and Rovner, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam.

The 7th Circuit held that the study, Do ‘Off-Site’ Adult Businesses Have Secondary Effects? Legal Doctrine, Social Theory, and Empirical Evidence, 31 L. & Policy 217 (2009) by Richard McCleary & Alan C. Weinstein [SSRN | PDF] does not adequately support an Indianapolis ordinance requiring “adult bookstores to be closed all day on Sunday and between midnight and 10 a.m. on other days.” According to the court, the study “suffers [two] shortcomings . . . it concerns a dispersal ordinance rather than an hours-of-operation limit, and the authors did not attempt to control for other potential causes of change in the number of arrests near adult establishments.” Annex Books offered local evidence “suggesting [the] number of arrests near plaintiffs’ stores did not go down when the revised ordinance took effect, and in some areas arrests rose.” Therefore, the 7th Circuit upheld the district court’s grant of a preliminary injunction against Indianapolis.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune (AP): “A gay rights group and five gay couples are hoping to defend Wisconsin’s domestic partner registry against a legal challenge. Fair Wisconsin and the couples filed a motion Friday asking to intervene in the lawsuit brought by Wisconsin Family Action in August.”

“Gays are the new blue-chip recruits . . . elite colleges have begun to target and woo gay students to their ivory towers.”

Sarah Longwell writing at Townhall: “The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) reminded us just how much power teachers unions still have by pouring more than a million dollars into the Washington, D.C., mayoral campaign. Spent on organizing efforts and advertising campaigns, this money was crucial in turning the race around for a candidate who is far friendlier to the teachers unions, far more antagonistic to school chancellor and darling of the reform set Michelle Rhee, and far less likely to pursue reforms than his predecessor.”

The Advocate: “The White House may make one last-ditch effort this year to push through the defense authorization bill that houses a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal measure during the period following the midterms . . . The White House is beating back criticism for not being more engaged during last week’s unsuccessful vote to advance the legislation before Congress recessed for the midterm election.”

Metro Weekly: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was optimistic about the end of the military’s ban on gay and lesbian service, saying on Wednesday night, ‘[DADT] will be gone by the end of the year. It will just be a sad memory.’ This, she said, despite last week’s vote in the Senate against bringing the bill containing repeal language to the floor for debate.”

Mona Charen writing at Townhall: “‘Given the scope of the recent recession, many more couples are likely to choose cohabitation over marriage in the coming years,’ Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau told The Associated Press. Mather may be correct, but if so, Americans are choosing exactly the wrong way to weather hard times because marriage is one of the surest ways to escape poverty.”

Boston.com (AP): “A federal judge has given an anti-gay marriage group until next week to refile a lawsuit that seeks the right to run ads in the governor’s race without complying with campaign finance laws.”

OneNewsNow: “Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman emeritus of Focus on the Family, says he does not think abortion will be completely banned in the U.S. — but he is willing to settle for less. ‘I would be willing to settle for each state making a decision, and we’ll fight that out in the state legislatures in 50 states. I just don’t see the Supreme Court saying this is flat-out illegal,’ he laments.”

Freedom From Religion Foundation: “‘FFRF will soldier on’ in challenging the religiously-motivated engraving of ‘In God We Trust’ and the religious Pledge of Allegiance at the Capitol Visitor Center, the Freedom From Religion Foundation announced today. FFRF’s federal lawsuit, filed in July 2009, was dismissed on lack of taxpayer standing Sept. 29 by newly-appointed U.S. district Judge William M. Conley, Western District of Wisconsin.”

Eugene Volokh writing at The Volokh Conspiracy: “This apparently happened in July, but I only heard about it a few weeks ago. Here is part of a summary from an advocacy group, the European Centre for Law and Justice: . . . ‘The media group was fined 100,000 Euros for airing a promotional advertisement in defense of traditional family.’”

Courthouse News Service: “The 9th Circuit tossed a lawsuit challenging Alaska’s practice of appointing only attorneys as state judges through a merit-selection process in which attorneys play a significant role.” Kirk v. Carpeneti, No. 09-35860 (9th Cir. Sept. 30, 2010)

Salem-News.com: “I am signing Senate Bill 1449. This bill changes the crime of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor punishable only by a $100 fine to an infraction punishable by a $100 fine. Under existing law, jail time cannot be imposed, probation cannot be ordered, nor can the base fine exceed $100 for someone convicted of this crime.”

The News Herald: “Vernon City Attorney Kerry Adkison said Thursday that he would recommend to the Vernon City Council that the city have no involvement in a dispute between an assistant coach for a Vernon peewee football team and the Holmes County Peewee Football Association.”

NJ.com: “For now, a moment of silence will replace the Lord’s Prayer at the start of council meetings in a Jersey shore town.”

LifeSiteNews: “The European Union’s proposed Equal Treatment Directive overturns centuries of legal philosophy of justice and will restrict legally guaranteed rights of freedom of conscience, says Sophia Kuby of European Dignity Watch, a pro-life and pro-family NGO working at the European level. Kuby told LifeSiteNews.com at a conference in Rome last week, that, if adopted, upcoming EU initiatives will severely restrict basic democratic freedoms for Christians, all under the rubric of ‘equalities.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Already dubbed ‘Red Ed’ by the media, Edward Miliband, the newly elected leader of Britain’s Labour Party, has indicated his intention of continuing the anti-family and anti-life policies established for the party under former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘All regulations should be repealed that sanction or permit the imprisonment of women and children who seek or obtain an abortion under any circumstance,’ said Amnesty International (AI) through its affiliate in Asunción, Paraguay.”

Bryan Clowes, Research Manager, Human Life International, writing at LifeSiteNews: “The ultimate objective of the population controllers is not to ensure the widespread availability of contraception, but the worldwide availability of abortion . . . Today, the most powerful population control groups in the world are quite frank about their desire to legalize abortion worldwide . . . What the poor people of the world need is not pills and condoms, but authentic economic development. Studies have demonstrated that, when the standard of living of poor people is raised, they tend to have fewer children. Urbanization, the education of women, increased consumerism, and job opportunities for women outside the home are among the factors that influence people to have smaller families.”

Fresno Bee: “For the first time in eight years, the California Supreme Court is coming to Fresno — and it’s bringing along a high-profile case that could affect college students across the country . . . The court will hear arguments in eight cases over two days. It is not expected to rule on them during the visit. The highest-profile case by far is Martinez v. UC Regents, a class-action lawsuit that challenges California’s practice of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state fees at public colleges and universities.”

LifeNews: “The Centers for Disease Control has reported that two more women in the United States than previously thought have died from using the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug. The news comes just days after the 10-year anniversary of the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug.”

USA Today: “Welfare recipients have long been banned from using their benefits for alcohol and tobacco. Some state lawmakers are eyeing the vice of gambling, a move some advocates for the poor see as unnecessary and unfair. Michigan legislators are debating a ban on using public assistance debit cards at ATMs in casinos. In June, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, issued an executive order banning the practice. Minnesota and Arizona also ban it.”

Via Speak Up Movement / Church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aaNQkJFGJU

LifeNews: “The new maternal health report endorses a UN strategy that recommends ‘safe’ abortion services and family planning alongside antenatal care and skilled attendants at birth. That strategy was based on previous UN reports that said 536,000 women died yearly from pregnancy-related causes, 78,000 from illegal abortion. The new report slashes the total to 358,000 and did not offer any data regarding abortion.”

U.S. Department of State: “Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Arturo Valenzuela and the Director of the National Institutes for Health, Dr. Francis Collins, will brief the media on the U.S. Public Health Service STD Inoculation Study of 1946-1948 in a teleconference call on Friday, October 1, at 11:15 a.m. EDT. This conference call is open to credentialed members of the media.”

Associated Press: “Government prosecutors on Friday charged a popular Manila artist and tour guide with offending Roman Catholics after he disrupted Mass at the capital’s main cathedral to protest the clergy’s opposition to contraception.”

Phil Gramm writing in The Wall Street Journal: “This may not be your grandfather’s Great Depression, but many aspects of today’s situation would remind him of the 1930s. If the recession that officially ended a year ago feels uncomfortably surreal to you yet familiar to him, it’s probably because the recovery went missing.”

ADF Attorney David Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “Last night, the ADF Center for Academic Freedom filed a Petition for Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Jonathan Lopez’s case against the Los Angeles Community College District. (The ADF press release is here.) On September 17, 2010, a panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled that Mr. Lopez did not have legal standing to challenge LACCD’s speech code, even though a professor, administrator and two students threatened Lopez with punishment under the code.”

news9.com: “The Americans United for Separation of Church and State is asking the IRS to investigate a Church in Edmond after the church’s pastor declared his support for a gubernatorial candidate from the pulpit . . . According to Americans United the annual event is sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, a religious right legal group founded by preachers who chose to ignore the law by opposing candidate from the pulpit.”

OneNewsNow: “Americans United for Separation of Church and State wants the Internal Revenue Service to investigate an Edmond, Oklahoma, pastor . . . According to the Alliance Defense Fund, about 100 pastors from 30 states participated in that program on September 26 — and an ADF attorney says the legal group is “looking forward to what may come” in the aftermath.”

USA Today: “The campaign was sponsored for the third straight year by the conservative Christian group Alliance Defense Fund . . . ‘Our goal always has been to empower pastors to speak freely from the pulpit without government censorship or control,’ said the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based group’s senior legal counsel, Erik Stanley.”

‘So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of the First Amendment which I have in my gut the sense that they will abuse.’

National Law Journal (Law.com): “The American Bar Association is under fire from attorneys who argue that the organization should stop charging fees for access to its ethics opinions.”

National Law Journal (Law.com): “A group of state judges, judicial hopefuls and an anti-abortion organization has taken its challenge to a broad range of restrictions on campaign speech by judicial candidates to the U.S. Supreme Court. A longtime foe of those restrictions, James Bopp Jr. of Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom, in Terre Haute, Ind., has filed two petitions for review . . . ”

AP: “Moscow police have detained several gay rights opponents at the first sanctioned gay rights protest in years, marking a sharp reversal of policy after last week’s dismissal of the city’s notoriously intolerant mayor.”

“The real scandal is the fact that evangelical Protestants divorce at rates at least as high as the rest of the public . . . this creates a significant credibility crisis when evangelicals then rise to speak in defense of marriage.”