Daily Archives: January 19, 2011

Big Government: “Today, GOProud, the only national organization of gay conservatives and their allies, announced that conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart will join the organization’s Advisory Council. ‘Andrew Breitbart is one of the most influential voices in the conservative movement today,’ said Christopher Barron, Chairman of GOProud’s Board. ‘We are thrilled to have him as part of the GOProud team.’”

“The House voted on Wednesday to repeal the sweeping healthcare law enacted last year, as Republicans made good on a central campaign pledge and laid down the first major policy marker of their new majority.”

Fast Company: “The Middle Eastern kingdom has just enacted one of the world’s most stringent sets of blogging regulations: Non-citizens can’t write about news, chat room users are encouraged to register with the government, and everyone needs to be very careful about religion.”

Global Post: “It has been boycotted, banned and bombed. But Al Jazeera’s Arabic language service is most widely watched news channel in Middle East.”

ABC News: “ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope says a Greens bill to restore the Territory’s right to make euthanasia laws will not pass.”

Ynetnews: “In a preliminary reading, the Knesset has rejected a law proposal that would have allowed terminally ill patients to take drugs that would cause them to die.”

Des Moines Register: “A legislative proposal to further restrict abortion in Iowa met resistance during its first legislative airing Tuesday: One Democratic lawmaker made repeated requests that advocates of the bill back their assertions with credible science.”

Radio Netherlands Worldwide: “The Don Bosco secondary school in Volendam refuses to scrap its headscarves ban despite a ruling by the Commissie Gelijke Behandeling (Equal Treatment Commission).”

WSFA: “Before a crowd of reporters and Jewish leaders Wednesday afternoon, Governor Robert Bentley apologized for comments that many considered offensive towards non-Christians.”

ABC: “A middle school girl was kept out of the first half of a basketball game Saturday because a referee ruled her religious headscarf, called a hijab, was a safety hazard.”

Spokesman-Review: “Idaho should consider raising its marriage license fee by $20 to help provide legal counsel in civil cases involving children and families, the chief justice of the state’s Supreme Court told lawmakers today.”

Human Rights Campaign: “The time is now to finally end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in the Aloha State, and to treat ALL families in Hawaii with the same dignity and respect. No child of a same-gendered family should have to grow up thinking their family is somehow less loving or legitimate than their straight counterparts.”

NorthJersey.com: “The state on Tuesday approved 23 new charter schools, including a controversial Hebrew immersion school for children in Englewood and Teaneck, and a virtual high school for Paterson students.”

Fox News: “Allegations of a pro-gay takeover, boycotts, embezzlement and terrorist-loving board members. Sounds like a Hollywood version of a conspiracy thriller, but it’s not. It’s the buzz around this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the nation’s single largest annual congregation of conservative leaders.”

ReligionLink: “The Republican tsunami that carried the GOP to control of the House (and led to the defeat of at least half of the 40 or so pro-life Democrats in Congress) also swept through the nation’s statehouses. As a result, abortion opponents also hold out hope that state legislatures will continue to pass laws restricting abortion or will adopt measures like mandated ultrasounds for women contemplating an abortion. This edition of ReligionLink provides resources to help reporters navigate the volatile issues at stake.”

Seattle Times: “Carrying roses, crosses and signs, thousands of protesters marched to the Capitol today in an annual rally against abortion in Washington state.”

Sheboygan Press: “Sheboygan Area School District officials are putting the brakes, ever so slightly, on expanding the district’s charter school program amid concerns by some that they’re creating a two-tier educational system where more motivated and affluent families are fleeing neighborhood schools for programs that more closely fit their children’s needs.”

Hawaii Right to Life: “Hawai’i motorists are in danger of losing the ‘Choose Life’ plate. We have only 98 plates on the road and DMV requires 150.”

New York Times: “[A]s demographers sift through recent data releases from the Census Bureau, they have found that Jacksonville is home to one of the biggest populations of gay parents in the country. In addition, the data show, child rearing among same-sex couples is more common in the South than in any other region of the country, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the University of California, Los Angeles.”

AFP: “South Sudan achieved the simple majority needed to secede in its independence referendum, preliminary results collated by AFP showed on Wednesday, even with many counties still to report.”

Associated Press: “AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said the rush to trim federal and state budgets was shortsighted, would hurt middle-class workers and do little to spur economic growth.”

WTSP: “Nelson, a Democrat, told about 120 editors and reporters attending The Associated Press’ annual legislative meeting that he’s confident that he and President Barack Obama will fare well in 2012 when Florida will have 29 electoral votes in the presidential election.”

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools: “2010 proved to be quite a year for charter school legislation, with several states making positive changes.” | 2011 report

ChristianNewsWire: “California Healthy Marriages Coalition (CHMC) has released an unprecedented in-depth study, The State of California’s Unions — In the Pews and the Public Square. This is the first-ever report that looks at Californians’ views on marriage and divorce matters and compares them based on their self-described levels of religious activity . . . 32% of ‘Regular’ church-goers agree that ‘marriage is too risky’ due to the high chances of divorce.”

Thomas More Law Center: “Last week, Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff, a federal district court judge in Michigan, dismissed a constitutional challenge to the U.S. Government’s bailout of AIG, which used over a hundred million dollars in federal tax money to support Islamic religious indoctrination through the funding and promotion of Sharia-compliant financing (SCF). SCF is financing that follows the dictates of Islamic law.”

James Poulos writing at Cato Unbound: “To understand the fate and future of traditions, we need an alternative to the secularization thesis—and a different conceptual point of departure than ‘modernity’ . . . [Tocqueville and Nietzsche] recognized that, in a democratic age, Biblical morality would be opposed only insofar as it retained its noble aspect—its commanding system of yeses and nos that authoritatively establish a moral hierarchy. But both thinkers also knew that Biblical morality contained the most profoundly equalizing moral code that had ever been seen on earth—inspiration for a humanistic democratic ethic that sees all persons as equally unique, autonomous, and valuable . . . Traditions cannot be thought of except in relation to institutions. As far as our current struggle is concerned, what is true of marriage is true of any cultural institution that carries traditions that reach back behind the democratic age for at least some of their foundations. Unable to provide their own foundations, traditions in a democratic age are likely to fall back upon the authority of the state—the only institution that can officialize the openness of traditions to all.”

OneNewsNow: “A Pentagon advisor says the apparent victory of a Muslim candidate in the Ivory Coast’s disputed presidential election is the latest example of how Islam is steadily moving its influence southward into sub-Saharan Africa.”

ChristianNewsWire: “In China, there are at least 37 million more men than women, and that gap is growing each year . . . This gendercide is waging a war against Chinese girls every day, primarily as a result of the One-Child Policy.”

Parent Central: “The Halton Catholic District School Board has struck down a controversial ban on gay-straight clubs that some newly elected trustees say did not reflect their views . . . at a meeting Tuesday attended by dozens of opponents to the ban, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Union, the new trustees voted 6-2 to scrap the clause that had sparked outrage from human rights advocates, sparked a protest petition and drawn a thumb’s-down from celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.”

Jill Stanek writing at WorldNetDaily: “Bill No. 371, which mimics ordinances passed in Baltimore and Austin, would force PCCs in New York City to post signage that they do not commit abortions or distribute contraceptives. It would also force them to notify clients if there were no doctor in the house . . . [a report from] two weeks ago from the New York City Department of Health [showed] that a staggering 41 percent of all pregnancies in NYC ended in abortion in 2009. The rate for black women was even worse – 60 percent. For Bill No. 371, the timing of this report could not have been worse.”

WCF Courier: “Iowa senators will begin their daily work with prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Senate President Jack Kibbie, D-Emmetsburg, the presiding officer when the Senate is in session, announced Tuesday that the change was approved following a request last week from freshman Sen. Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock.”

Topeka Capital-Journal: “The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee revealed Wednesday a sweeping abortion bill crafted to restrict late-term procedures, expand parental consent for minors seeking to end a pregnancy and match Kansas law on partial-birth abortion with a more stringent federal statute.”

Courier-Journal Editorial: “Legal abortion is the law of the land, and a recent Kentucky Court of Appeals ruling served to support that settled law. But because the case involved a minor from another state, and her right to petition a Kentucky judge to have an abortion without a parent’s permission, there is talk of approaching the General Assembly to ‘tighten’ the law that allows minors to make their case.”

Congressman Chris Smith writing at LifeNews: “I urge President Obama to join us in speaking out for all those in China whose basic human rights are violated – for political prisoners . . . ”

ACLU: “After a successful fight to overturn Florida’s ban on gay people serving as adoptive parents, the two young brothers adopted by Martin Gill participated in an adoption ceremony in Judge Cindy Lederman’s chambers in Miami-Dade County Juvenile Court today, marking the final step in their adoption process.”

LifeSiteNews: “France’s Constitutional Council, its highest court for constitutional issues, has agreed to examine homosexual ‘marriage,’ and is expected to render a verdict within a week.”

LifeSiteNews: “In a statement announcing the birth, Kidman and Urban thanked the ‘gestational carrier’ of their child. Although it is unclear why the couple chose to use a surrogate mother, this conjures up a nightmare scenario. Could this become the new fashion trend for Hollywood starlets who want children?”

St. Petersburg Times: “The political sea change marked by the November elections on Tuesday pulled six more states into Florida’s lawsuit challenging the national health care legislation, making it one of the biggest tests of federal authority in the country’s history with 26 states now in line.”

LifeSiteNews: “In the keynote address to the mHealth Summit held in November last year, Bill Gates introduced a plan to use cell phone technology to register every birth on the planet in a newborn vaccination database . . .”

Education Week: “A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, in New Orleans, on Tuesday upheld a program in which the university considers race as one factor for admission after Texas students from the top 10 percent of their high school classes claim places guaranteed by a state law.”

Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, No. 09-50822 (5th Cir. Jan 18, 2011)

Doe v. Boland, No. 09-4281 (6th Cir. Jan. 19, 2011)

“Dean Boland downloaded images of children from a stock photo website, digitally ‘morphed’ them into pornography, then used the images to help his clients resist child pornography charges in federal and state courts . . . the parents of the depicted children found out about the exhibits, prompting them to sue Boland under the civil remedy provisions of the federal child pornography statute.”

FRC Press Release: “Family Research Council and the Thomas More Society yesterday submitted an amicus curiae (‘friend of the Court’) brief in a lawsuit brought by advocates of same-sex ‘marriage.’ The brief was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, and it urges the Court to reverse a July 2010 decision by Judge Joseph Tauro that struck down the federal definition of marriage contained in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).”

STLtoday.com: “As promised, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Wednesday morning to try to overturn the new restrictions on funeral protests passed just hours before by the St. Charles City Council.”

CNN Health / The Chart: “Researchers found that since women in the 18- to 23-year-old group feel they don’t need men for financial dependence, many of them feel they can play around with multiple partners without consequence, and that the early 20s isn’t the time to have a serious relationship. But eventually, they do come to want a real, lasting relationship. The problem is that there will still be women who will have sex readily without commitment, and since men know this, fewer of them are willing to go steady . . . ”

The Register-Mail: “After a two-year hiatus, ROWVA Superintendent Lloyd Little gave his school administrators the green light Tuesday to re-implement a daily moment of silence, as mandated by Illinois law . . . The Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act, approved in October 2007, requires a daily moment of silence at the opening of every school day, not to be conducted as a religious exercise, but rather as ‘an opportunity for silent prayer or reflection on the anticipated activities of the day.’”

USCCB: “In a letter to Congress, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), outlined the ‘principles and priorities that will guide the public policy efforts’ of the Bishops’ Conference during the new legislature. The letter was mailed to all members of Congress on January 14.”

Montreal Gazette: “The Bloc Quebecois is proposing a ban on Sikh ceremonial daggers in federal Parliament buildings. The opposition party made the recommendation following an incident Tuesday at Quebec’s National Assembly in which a group of Sikhs, carrying their kirpans, were turned away from the building for security reasons.”

Desoto Times: “A ban of Santa Claus and religious displays at Christmas by ICS Head Start officials drew a swift rebuke from DeSoto County Supervisors Tuesday.”

ABNA: “With French Muslims praying in the streets and in basements around the country, and with the far-right in France is targeting mosques as a treat to French identity, the Strasbourg city council unanimously approved Monday the creation of two new mosques in the city, including one with a minaret, according to the vice-mayor in charge of religious affairs, Oliver Bitz.”

“. . . During a press conference, Smith said Gosnell ‘induced labor, forced the live birth of viable babies in the sixth, seventh, eighth month of pregnancy and then killed those babies by cutting into the back of the neck with scissors and severing their spinal cord.’”

Heritage Foundation / The Foundry: “[T]he Obama Administration is desperate to convince the public that their war on business is over. Hence President Barack Obama’s Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday announcing ‘a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.’ This is a nice sentiment. But even a cursory examination of the President’s actual order shows he is all talk and no action.”

Associated Press: “A human rights group says a survey it conducted reveals flagrant and widespread abuses by Myanmar’s army, and could be used as evidence to prosecute the country’s military rulers for crimes against humanity.”

David Harsanyi writing at Townhall: “When Obama was in a place of political comfort, the free market was a place of unhinged self-interest, unfairness and misery. Nearly all of our troubles were portrayed as a case of regulatory neglect — and nearly every dilemma was met accordingly. Nothing’s changed but the political conditions.”

Associated Press: “Public education in Texas is facing billions in proposed budget cuts that would include slashing arts education, pre-kindergarten programs and teacher incentive pay as lawmakers take on a massive deficit with the promise of no new taxes.”

Associated Press: “China’s online population rose to 457 million in 2010 as use of mobile phones to surf the Web spread rapidly, an industry group reported Wednesday.”

SCOTUSblog: “The Supreme Court, in the early stages of setting up the cases it will decide during its next Term, agreed on Tuesday to decide whether patients receiving Medicaid benefits, and the providers who serve their health care needs, have a right under the Constitution to challenge a state’s reduction of benefit payments. The Court granted three separate petitions by California officials, but consolidated them for argument and decision together. This was the only newly granted case.”

The Hill: “Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) have dealt a blow to Democrats’ faint hopes of keeping the majority in the Senate after the 2012 election.”

Wall Street Journal: “As the shooting starts, the video shows Judge Roll pushing another man, Rob Barber, onto the ground, Mr. Nanos said. ‘It looks to us as though he is pushing against Ron Barber to move him out of the way.’ Both men fall to the ground; both are shot. The judge was shot in the back and died.”

Associated Press: “An abortion doctor who catered to minorities, immigrants and poor women was charged with eight counts of murder in the deaths of a patient and seven babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors, prosecutors said Wednesday.”

Human Rights Campaign press release: “‘Today’s action by the Supreme Court makes abundantly clear that D.C.’s human rights protections are strong enough to withstand the hateful efforts of outside anti-LGBT groups to put people’s basic civil rights on the ballot,’ said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. ‘For almost two years, the National Organization for Marriage and the Alliance Defense Fund, along with Bishop Harry Jackson, have fought a losing battle to shamelessly harm gay and lesbian couples in D.C. who seek nothing more than to share in the rights and responsibilities of marriage. The D.C. Council and Mayor courageously made marriage equality a reality last year, and the courts have since upheld the rights of D.C. residents to govern ourselves and take the necessary steps to eliminate discrimination in our community.’”

Boston.com (AP): “An astronomy professor who sued the University of Kentucky after claiming he lost out on a top job because of his Christian beliefs reached a settlement Tuesday with the school. The university agreed to pay $125,000 to Martin Gaskell in exchange for dropping a federal religious discrimination suit he filed in Lexington in 2009. A trial was set for next month.”

Associated Press: “A federal appeals court will consider whether Louisiana must put both fathers’ names on the birth certificate of a child adopted by a gay couple.”

ChristianNewsWire: “On Martin Luther King Day, more than 40 African-American religious and political leaders gathered as conservatives speaking out against the ‘civil unions’ bill. They are outraged with the message from the homosexual agenda to compare seeking rights with civil unions to the civil rights movement.”

Standpoint: “I have just returned to London, where I have lived since I was 11. I have been away for four years, living as an ethnic minority in a monocultural part of the world, amassing a host of stories to tell to disbelieving friends. On the whole, I am glad to return . . . Yes, I am very glad to have left Britain’s second city . . . For four years, we lived in inner-city Birmingham, in what has been a police no-go area for 20 years . . . When we arrived, the population was predominantly Pakistani. Now Somalis are there in equal number. Most of the run-down Irish pubs were turned into mosques during our time.”

Pat Toomey writing in the Wall Street Journal: “As members of Congress debate whether to raise the U.S. debt ceiling—the limit on our government’s debt—we should all agree on at least one thing: Under no circumstances is it acceptable for the U.S. to default on its debt. Not only are we morally obligated to honor our debts, but we benefit greatly from the nearly universal conviction that those who lend to us will always be repaid, on time and in full. We should never undermine that conviction.”

Peter Robinson writing at The Corner: “Today on Uncommon Knowledge, John Yoo criticizes Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision to overturn California’s Proposition 8. John Yoo: ‘I thought it was a really poorly done decision. I mean if you read it carefully, it basically says, “This law is so irrational. No one could have any reason to actually ban gay marriage. That is just the product of hate.”‘” Video is here.

Peter Berger writing in The American Interest: “Conservative cassandras (please note: I am not one of them) are turning out to be empirically correct, even if one disagrees with their philosophy: once you legitimate same-sex marriage, you open the door to any number of other alternatives to marriage as a union of one man and one woman: polygamous (an interesting question for Muslims in Germany and dissident Mormons in Arizona), polyandrous, polygenerational – perhaps polyspecies?”

Sydney Morning Herald: “The NSW’s Surrogacy Act, which was passed in November but has not yet come into force, will impose penalties of two years’ jail, a $110,000 fine, or both on parents who pay for a surrogate here or abroad to carry their child . . . Commercial surrogacy is illegal in Australia. But under the new law, NSW residents face prosecution for using commercial surrogacy overseas.”

Breitbart: “China’s economy grew 10.3 percent last year but inflation exceeded the government’s full-year target, Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television said on its website Wednesday.”

Inside the Issues: “Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel [Joseph Infranco] and ADF-allied attorney Charles S. LiMandri spoke on Saturday, January 15, 2011 at a rally in support of protecting the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial . . . ‘War heroes have earned the right to be remembered,’ Infranco said. ‘The memory of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom shouldn’t be dishonored because the ACLU claims several people were merely offended.’”

ADF attorney Heather Gebelin Hacker writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “We know that ‘civility codes’ on college campuses are used to stifle speech (see, for example, the case of the College Republicans at San Francisco State University), which is why it is important to oppose them. (Ironically, they were also used by government officials to silence speech during the Civil Rights Movement. Many of the foundational free speech cases come from that era.) We must remember that simply because someone does not like what they hear does not mean the truth should not be spoken.”

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence writing at Speak Up Movement / University: “The Washington Post is reporting on a recent study of humor at the Supreme Court. Yes, humor does happen at the Supreme Court! . . . My one argument at the Supreme Court resulted in the [Laughter] designation appearing in the transcript. I argued the Southworth case against the University of Wisconsin in 1999. This was a case about students objecting to the University’s requirement that all students pay a fee that would fund private campus groups that advocated ideas the contributors disagree with.”

MetroWeekly / lastword: “Jackson has been working with a number of local and national groups including members of the National Organization for Marriage, Alliance Defense Fund, Family Research Council, several African-American baptist preachers and the head of Washington’s Catholic Archdiocese, Donald Wuerl . . . Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington’s only (nonvoting) Congressional voice, calling out people like Harry Jackson . . .”

LezGetReal: “The Christian Post recently stated in one article: ‘Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel [Dale Schowengerdt] criticized DOJ’s defense as “deficient.” “The administration refuses to make the argument that the Congress made [when establishing DOMA],” asserted Schowengerdt.’”

LifeSiteNews: “Jackson and the Stand4MarriageDC coalition were represented by attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a Christian public interest firm. ‘In America, we respect the right to vote. That right is explicitly protected by the D.C. Charter, but the government has succeeded for now in suppressing the voice of D.C. citizens,’ said ADF Senior Legal Counsel [Austin R. Nimocks].”