Daily Archives: December 9, 2010

Family Research Council: “Family Research Council applauded Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senators John McCain and Jim Inhofe, along with Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, who stood together to stop the Defense Authorization bill from being considered by the Senate.”

Breitbart [AP]: “Americans’ wealth, or net worth, is the value of assets such as homes, checking accounts and investments, minus debt such as mortgages and credit cards. The Federal Reserve provides a snapshot each quarter. Net worth grew to nearly $55 trillion in the third quarter, a 2.2 percent rise from the prior three months.”

Human Rights Campaign: “Today the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, praised the bipartisan proposal under the leadership of Sens. Lieberman and Collins that emerged this evening to pass repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ as a stand-alone piece of legislation. The news comes from a bipartisan group of Senators after today’s failed vote to proceed to debate on the National Defense Authorization Act.”

Associated Press: “Sen. David Vitter, R- La., said in a letter to President Barack Obama that he was putting a ‘hold’ on the nomination of Dr. Scott Doney for chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He first wants answers to the tough new policy on offshore drilling announced earlier this month.”

Courier-Journal: “Gov. Steve Beshear said Thursday that he will require the state’s contract with developers of a Noah’s Ark-based theme park in Northern Kentucky to prohibit the project from receiving state tax incentives if there is discrimination in hiring based on religion or other attributes.”

“Using stem cell technology, reproductive scientists in Texas, led by Dr. Richard R. Berhringer at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, have produced male and female mice from two fathers.”

WLWT: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Franklin County commissioners and the Brookville Town Council demanding the removal of the scene from the courthouse lawn. Read: Nativity Scene Letter.”

New York Times: “[A] lawyer referred her to Balance Point Divorce Funding, a new Beverly Hills lender that offers to cover the cost of breaking up — paying a lawyer, searching for hidden assets, maintaining a lifestyle — in exchange for a share of the winnings . . . So far, the number of companies investing in divorce is small — Balance Point is one of the few that do it exclusively. But other businesses are gearing up.”

LifeNews: “The Senate turned back a second [attempt] by pro-abortion Democrats to stop a Republican filibuster against a Defense Department funding measure that would also allow abortions at military base hospitals.”

Livingston Daily: “Robert Muise, senior trial counsel for the Ann Arbor-based Thomas More Law Center, said there could still be legal action even though the Howell Public Schools district has already disciplined teacher Jay McDowell for his now-famous disagreement with student Daniel Glowacki on Oct. 20.”

South Town Star: “The Rev. Luis Ruiz, pastor of Rios De Agua Viva in the Marquette Park neighborhood of Chicago, has been eyeing the shuttered restaurant, 8100 S. Parkside Ave., as a second location for his Pentecostal Christian church . . . The property is zoned for commercial purposes, and Burbank’s code requires churches to have a special-use permit. Ruiz applied for one, and a Nov. 2 hearing was scheduled.”

Chuck Colson writing in The Christian Post: “So often today, conscientious objectors to homosexual marriage are being accused of hatred. It’s a dangerous trend. Princeton professor Robbie George, who helped draft the Manhattan Declaration, said this in a recent interview: ‘If belief in marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife comes to be treated in law as a form of bigotry, persons and institutions that dissent from the new political orthodoxy will quickly find . . . disabilities imposed upon them.’”

DNA: “The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), along with the city police, has chalked out a time-bound action plan to demolish 532 illegal religious structures, which are obstructing roads. It has already demolished 12 temples in two days.”

Doug Bandow writing at The American Spectator: “The DPRK routinely rates among the world’s worst religious persecutors. Formally atheistic, the regime has turned politics into a quasi-religion. The communist system is holy like a church, the ruling Kims, both father and son, are secular saints, the self-reliance philosophy of Juche amounts to theology, recorded in books of Kim sayings, and heretics are severely punished.”

Courthouse News Service: “A law allowing the indefinite detention of offenders deemed ‘sexually dangerous’ does not violate their due process rights, the 4th Circuit ruled on remand from the Supreme Court.”

It’s ridiculous to say that a school absolutely cannot hold a graduation ceremony at the best available meeting location just because it is a church. Despite what secularist groups want school boards to believe, merely using a church building for such an event is not automatically unconstitutional. If these school boards choose the church facility because it best meets their needs, nothing is wrong with that. The fact that someone might be offended does not amount to a constitutional violation.”

John Culhane, Professor of Law at Widener University, writing at 365Gay.com: “First, [Gallagher is] right that civil unions and domestic partnerships are leading to marriage. Here’s some evidence: In Vermont, the first state to create the civil union, the legislature moved to full marriage equality in less than 10 years. Why? I’m sure each law-maker had his or her own reasons, but among them was surely a recognition – informed by a decade of experience and the report of a civil union commission – that this creative half-step was inadequate, confusing, and – most centrally – discriminatory.”

AP: “Health officials have shut down a Los Angeles clinic that caters to porn stars after it lost its state operating license.”

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) failed to garner the necessary 60 votes for a procedural motion to start considering the 2011 defense authorization bill, which contains a provision to repeal the ban on openly gay people serving in the military. The final vote was 57-40.”

Catholic Herald: “Relations between China and the Vatican are in danger of disintegrating after authorities forced bishops loyal to the Pope to attend a meeting of the state-run Church. Dozens of Chinese bishops were taken to Beijing against their will to take part in the National Congress of Chinese Catholic Representatives to vote for new leaders of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association and the Council of Chinese Bishops.”

Iona Institute: “In an editorial today, the paper endorsed controversial proposals made by the Law Reform Commission (LRC) last December which would allow minors aged 14 to 16 to be prescribed the Pill without parental consent.”

Thomas More Law Center: “The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed its opening brief earlier this week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, seeking to overturn a lower court decision dismissing its federal lawsuit challenging the Federal Hate Crimes Act passed in 2009.” The brief is here.

Radio Iowa: “The bishop of the Des Moines Catholic Diocese is urging southwest Iowa Catholics to be a ‘cascading voice of opposition’ to a Nebraska doctor’s plan to open an abortion clinic in Council Bluffs.”

The Constitutional Court of Austria [Google Translation]: “The Constitutional Court has ruled [against] the approach taken by the Federal Minister of the Constitution. Nowhere in the relevant Austrian Laws is [it said] that . . . only one Islamic or confessional community must be [the] religion. [On the contrary]: Such a view violates Article 9 of the European Human Rights Convention (right to Religion).”

Federal Administrative Court of Germany [Google Translation]: “The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, by orders from today in two cases in which this is about the refugee status because of religious persecution, called [on] the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg . . . for a preliminary ruling [concerning] the interpretation of Council Directive 2004/83/EC of the European Union (Qualification Directive). This [includes] the alignment of legal conditions for the granting of refugee status within the European Union. The German legislature . . . implemented the directive in August 2007.”

Welt Online [Google Translation]: “This trend he attributed to the introduction of civil partnership law eight years ago. This allows homosexuals to give their partnership a legal framework and protect each other.”

domradio.de [Google Translation]: “The Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden announced, in July, August and September 2010 reported 26,500 abortions in Germany. That was 100 fewer than in the third quarter of 2009.”

Telegraph: “In a report on homosexual equality, the Agency for Fundamental Rights said that phallometric testing, when men are shown both homosexual and heterosexual pornography while censors monitor the blood flow to the penis, ‘was questionable, since it is dubious whether it reaches sufficiently clear conclusions.’”

Iona Institute: “Almost 50 per cent of children born in the UK today will be living in broken homes by 16 due to increased levels of family break-up, an analysis of official figures shows. According to a study from the Centre for Social Justice think-tank, a dramatic increase in the number of unmarried couples having children was to blame for the rise in parental separation rates.”

“A major ruling by the UK High Court gives childless couples the right to pay fees as a well as expenses to surrogate mothers to have babies for them. The ruling, by a senior family court judge, allowed a British couple to keep a newborn child even though they had technically broken the law by giving more than ‘reasonable expenses’ to the American natural mother.”

Christian Institute: “A baby girl looks set to become the subject of a bitter legal battle between her lesbian mother and her father.”

Related:

UK: “Lesbian mother loses battle to stop gay father spending time with children”

KVIA: “A new group is considering starting a petition to convince El Paso City Council to add a Non-Discrimination Clause to the city charter that would trump the voter-passed initiative slated to take away the health insurance of gay and unwed partners of city employees.”

Noticias de Noticias: “The Hispanic National Bar Association (HBNA) commends President Barack Obama for nominating the Honorable Esther Salas for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. Similarly, the HNBA applauds the Senate Judiciary Committee for reporting out of committee by voice vote on December 1st The Honorable Edward Davila and The Honorable Diana Saldaña.”

VOA News: “China is lashing out at a U.S. House of Representatives resolution that calls on Beijing to release jailed dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, one day before the Nobel award ceremony in Oslo. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu expressed China’s firm opposition to the U.S. congressional resolution.”

The Hill: “Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.), the incoming chairman of the House Financial Service Committee, on Thursday approved Paul’s bid to lead the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee.”

OneNewsNow: “Kansas Family Policy Council director Donna Lippoldt attended the meeting. She shares her reaction to the vote. ‘I’m absolutely stunned to think that the city of Manhattan would pass this ordinance at the first reading . . . with so many loose ends,’ says Lippoldt. ‘It was obvious that they had no idea how they were going to implement this.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, called on world leaders Sunday to address the global warming crisis by drastically reducing the number of people on the planet. Maintaining that the very future of humanity was at stake, Turner urged immediate action: ‘If we’re going to be here [as a species] 5,000 years from now, we’re not going to do it with seven billion people,’ said Turner, who went on to propose the immediate adoption of a global one-child policy.”

The Cowl (Providence Colleges): “New regulations represent a federal encroachment on the independence of private institutions and especially religious schools. Even the Department of Education itself admitted that ‘a state’s role may extend into defining, for example, curriculum, teaching methods, subject matter content, faculty qualifications, and learning outcomes.’ Catholic colleges that incorporate religious teaching in their curriculum may risk losing federal funding if state governments don’t approve of the content.”

Central Chronicle: “In an apparent move to appease its 20-million-strong Muslim minority, Communist China plans to build mosques across the country to meet their religious requirement.”

The Guardian: “. . . local authorities up and down the land continue to exclude Christians (and a raft of other faith communities) from an even greater part of public life: the chance to control and deliver welfare services. In the past few days I have learned that while this exclusion is still largely the work of local government, the Charity Commission could have stopped it some time ago.”

Independent Catholic News: “In a homily to be delivered today at Westminster Central Hall in London, Cardinal Keith O’Brien will call on politicians and wider society to; uphold ‘freedom of religious expression’ which he will describe as ‘a basic human right, (which) is not upheld in our midst as widely and as completely as it should be.’”

ADF Attorney Casey Mattox writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “[A]s universities consider whether they might attempt to take the approach of UC Hastings and prohibit every student group from excluding anyone from leadership or membership on the basis of any belief or any status without exception, they – and the student government leaders who sometimes myopically encourage such blanket policies – may want to consider the impact such a policy might have on their a cappella singing groups, men’s and women’s choirs, club sports teams and even greek organizations.”

Robin’s Readings and Reflections: “Currently both the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) are examining all available avenues to help reunite the family. However, short of a miracle, it is unlikely that anything can be done. So we must pray for a miracle. It is just possible that if enough international pressure is brought to bear on the Swedish government, that they will be forced to re-evaluate their decision.”

In 2009, a father and daughter concerned with runaway government spending started a group called Montana Shrugged.

LifeNews: “Planned Parenthood of the Heartland has opened a new abortion business in Omaha, Nebraska on the northwest side of town that is the second in the large Midwestern city.”

USA Today: “Although Oklahoma’s law is the first to come under court scrutiny, legislators in at least seven states, including Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah, have proposed similar laws, the National Conference of State Legislatures says. Tennessee and Louisiana have enacted versions of the law banning use of foreign law under certain circumstances.”

Paul Gottfriend writing at The American Conservative / @TAC: “From his statements, Washington intended the American people to be religious Christians and allowing for certain exceptions, he probably hoped they would be Christians of the Protestant variety.”

New York Times: “But a growing number of companies, now including Facebook, Bain & Company and possibly Boston Consulting Group, are trying to level the playing field for same-sex couples by covering those extra costs, since their unions are not recognized by the federal government. The new policy at Facebook and Bain will take effect on Jan. 1. Boston Consulting said it expected to adopt the policy shortly, and it would also probably take effect on Jan. 1.”

Bloomberg: “The Michigan Civil Service Commission is postponing action on a proposal that could allow same-sex partners or other adults living with state employees to be covered by state-paid health insurance.”

Pink News: “The Lithuanian parliament will vote next week on legislation to impose heavy fines on those who ‘promote’ homosexuality.”

“Republican Gov.-elect Terry Branstad urged lawmakers Monday to let Iowans vote on a proposed gay marriage ban.”

Daniel J. Mitchell writing at Cato@Liberty: “The burden of government spending is going to increase. Unemployment benefits are extended for 13 months. And there is no effort to reduce spending elsewhere to ‘pay for’ this new budgetary burden. A rising burden of federal spending is America’s main fiscal problem, and this agreement exacerbates that challenge.”

LifeSiteNews: “The poll revealed that 82% of Brazilians wish to maintain abortion as a crime, and 72% are against its depenalization. Religious differences only changed the latter result marginally, with 75% of Evangelicals, 73% of Catholics, and 69% of other religions opposing depenalization.”

On the heels of MasterCard’s web site hijacking, the War on Illegal Pornography coalition disclosed today that it too has fallen victim to a multi-pronged attack on its web site, Facebook, YouTube, and email accounts by techno-terrorists—people who use technology to disrupt and punish those whom they oppose.

LifeSiteNews: “The underlying philosophical theme among women who believe that women should not have multiple children is that there are fundamentally sound reasons for choosing not to bear children and absolutely detestable reasons for choosing to have a large family . . . Like Sanger, Behar, Fisher and others, the overriding theme is that reproductive choices should be made in such a way that children are not born into this world but eliminated so that the environment can flourish.”

LifeSiteNews: “The Parliament of the African nation of Malawi has passed a law adding lesbian sodomy to its list of criminalized sexual perversions, despite international pressures to eliminate such laws.”

LifeSiteNews: “While pro-life advocates lost their battle to defeat Rep. Fred Upton’s bid to head the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, they have scored a major victory with the selection of Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Penn.) to chair the subcommittee on health.”

“The material in those packages are human body parts – eyes, ears, limbs, brain, skin – now an indispensable commodity for many U.S. researchers and scientists, and a lucrative export of America’s abortion clinics.”

LifeNews: “The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has announced it is delaying hearings in a case related to an abortion practitioner who evaded state law by making illegal abortion referrals.”

The Hill: “The House Democratic Caucus on Thursday rejected the tax deal negotiated between the White House and Senate Republicans. The non-binding vote of the caucus held during a closed-door meeting puts tremendous pressure on House leaders to win changes to the proposal.”

Mike Dorf writing at Dorf on Law: “The plaintiffs are arguing on appeal that Judge Walker’s ruling is narrow in scope, binding only on the California Governor, Attorney General, two other state officials, and the County Clerks of Alameda and Los Angeles counties. That may seem odd, given that usually victorious parties want the ruling they have obtained to be binding as broadly as possible. But the fewer people who are bound by the ruling, the fewer people have standing to appeal.”

George Thomas writing at The Hoover Institution / Stanford University: “If there is a twist, it is that much of the current debate over original meaning focuses on the Civil War amendments, particularly the Fourteenth Amendment, rather than the Constitution of 1787 and the Bill of Rights of 1791 . . . And yet, when we turn to the rights protected by the Fourteenth Amendment there is not only the question of what rights it protects, but also the question of which clause of the amendment protects them. At issue are two clauses from Section I of the amendment — the Privileges or Immunities Clause and the Due Process Clause — and the relationship between them.”

The Legal Project: “Through cases like those enumerated above related to expression concerning Islam, and through countless others directed more generally at protecting individual liberty on our campuses, the FIRE is helping students to unlearn some dangerous lessons they are being taught at our colleges and universities about the scope of individual liberty.”

Wes Vernon writing at NewAmerica: “Since the latest barrage of leaked government cables by the WikiLeaks cyber-terrorist Julian Assange, the name of the Army PFC Bradley Manning is frequently cited as the original leaker of those thousands of diplomatic cables. What is not generally mentioned: Manning was openly homosexual and a very disturbed man. He was in flagrant violation of the military’s so-called ‘Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell’ policy — which is supposed to mean if you’re a gay in the military, keep it to yourself and no one will ask you one way or the other.”

Rasmussen Reports: “But if you live in one of the expensive Blue States, you may have some reason to feel blue. The federal tax code treats a $250,000 income in San Francisco, where houses sell for a median price of $628,000, the same as a $250,000 income in Houston, where the median is $79,000.”

Vancouver Sun: “Women of marriage age are a rare and highly desirable commodity and should have ‘increased market value’ in economics speak. In practice, they should have their pick of marriage partners. But they don’t. Over her years of study, Grossbard has found that far from women having increased value, invariably the male leaders in polygamous societies have institutionalized women into subservience.”

Chuck Donovan writing at The Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “As has become clear in other recent cases in federal court involving claims of irrational discrimination involving homosexual persons, the failure of the executive branch to perform its duties to defend duly enacted laws, or identify and support parties who will do so, is crucial not only to just outcomes but to the maintenance of public trust. Judicial activism coupled with executive malfeasance is a formula for national cynicism and fruitless furor.”

Government Executive: “Despite concerns about implementing a major policy change during wartime, the military services are developing plans for the likely repeal of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law that prohibits gays from serving openly in the armed forces, said Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking at Government Executive’s Leadership Briefing on Wednesday morning.”

Fox News: “A Louisiana committee on Tuesday rejected calls by conservatives to include references to the debate over evolution and the religious-based concepts of intelligent design or creationism in state-approved biology textbooks.”

Religion Clause: “Forum 18 reported yesterday that human rights activists and religious groups are strongly criticizing proposed amendments to Armenia’s Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations (full text) and proposed amendments to the country’s Administrative Offenses Code, Law on Charity, and Criminal Code (full text).”

Stars and Stripes: “The chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force do not support a repeal of the military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law, telling lawmakers Friday that such a move could add unnecessary stress to the force.”

Paul Ibbetson writing at GOP USA – Kansas, you’re not in Kansas anymore: “As a lifelong Kansan I have felt that my state, as well as its location within the heartland, is a special place where traditional American values tend to be unbending to the onslaught of the political left . . . However, today as the sun shines down on the plains of Kansas, a liberal storm of great consequence is brewing. Government officials in the city of Manhattan, Kansas are about to pass a modification of an existing anti-discrimination ordinance that will create the most intrusive pro-homosexual ordinance in the country.”

Robert Knight writing at Townhall: “So what did the city fathers of Camden do when faced with a $25.5 million budget deficit? On Thursday, they voted to lay off 200 police and firefighters along with 200 other city workers . . . It’s the typical liberal gambit: having loaded the public rolls with unionized government employees doing all sorts of non-essential things, the politicians go for the jugular to get the public’s attention.”

Guy Benson writing at Townhall: “Longtime anti-earmarks crusader Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has received the support of Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner to be named to the powerful House Appropriations Committee next year. Boehner’s blessing all but guarantees that Flake will join a committee upon which he’s heaped criticism for years.”

Family Research Council: “Richard Cohen, SPLC’s President, revealed what this whole attack on FRC was really about.’We don’t believe that some of these people should be put on national TV.’ According to Cohen, FRC’s position on marriage should disqualify us from any media appearances. (Is it really our position on marriage or that the facts are just not on their side?)”