Daily Archives: January 27, 2011

National Catholic Register: “The Archdiocese of Boston has decreed that children of same-sex couples can enroll in its parochial schools, reversing a controversial 2010 decision at the parish level refusing one such admission.”

National Catholic Register: “Edmonton Catholic Schools’ trustees have voted to abolish gambling activities as a source of school funding.”

LifeNews: “In a long-awaited announcement, pro-life Congressman Mike Pence will not seek the Republican nomination for president and will leave open the possibility of a gubernatorial bid.”

The American Legion: “On Feb. 3, 1943, the United States Army Transport Dorchester was bound for an American base in Greenland as it pushed through the frigid North Atlantic waters with 902 servicemen aboard. But the ship did not arrive at its destination . . .”

Associated Press: “Five Hawaii Democratic representatives want to pass a law making President Barack Obama’s birth records public and charge $100 to see them.”

LifeNews: “According to the Associated Press, State Department officials confirmed Wednesday that Lois Quam will become the executive director of the GHI. Quam is a former UnitedHealth Group executive who is married to Matt Entenza, a former state legislator who lost his bid to become the Democratic nominee for governor of Minnesota to Mark Dayton last year. Quam also was a senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her health care task force in the 1990s that promoted a government-takeover of health care including taxpayer funding of abortions and rationing.”

Associated Press: “President Barack Obama has chosen Jay Carney, the communications chief to Vice President Joe Biden and a former magazine journalist, to be the next White House press secretary.”

LifeSiteNews: “The controversial Ontario Human Rights Commission has signaled their ‘takeover’ of the province’s education sector, a development that could threaten private schools and homeschoolers, said the Family Coalition Party of Ontario (FCP) today.”

Breitbart (AFP): “Two more people died and hundreds were arrested as the biggest uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule widened, prompting Washington to prod its long-time ally on democratic reforms.”

Detroit News: “A lawyers’ task force on Wednesday issued a report urging a systemwide overhaul that includes reducing the number of judges, consolidating and modernizing court operations. The report echoes a call for deep cuts in the state’s court system issued this month by the Michigan Supreme Court’s new chief justice, Robert Young Jr.”

UPI: “Republican Rep. Ron Paul says he is considering a Senate bid, a move analysts say could affect the Texas primary field for those counting on Tea Party support.”

Cody (Wyo.) Enterprise: “Gay marriage is again before the Legislature and Cody’s two Republican representatives are divided in their views – and votes – about one key bill. At issue is whether Wyoming should recognize same-sex unions from other states. According to House Bill 74, the answer is no.”

Chicago Sun-Times: “The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday approved charter school expansion for just under 6,000 students — providing an educational experience one parent said was as different from a traditional public school as ‘night and day.’”

L.A. Times / L.A. Now: “U.S. border authorities have arrested a controversial Muslim cleric who was deported from Canada to Tunisia three years ago and was caught earlier this month trying to sneak into California inside the trunk of a BMW, according to court documents.”

Michael J. New writing at National Review Online / The Corner: “It should also be noted that this research was funded by a grant from the Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation. This foundation was formed by investor Warren Buffet and named in honor of his wife after her death in 1994. This foundation has been very active in supporting abortion rights. Over the years, Susan Thompson Buffet Foundation has donated millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood.”

Fr. Frank Pavone writing at The Washington Post / On Faith: “[T]here is no proven medical benefit to the killing of a child in the womb. What disease does abortion cure? A medical procedure is supposed to help the body do what it is trying to do but is having difficulty doing. Abortion does just the opposite. It stops the body from doing what it is doing very well.”

ADF attorney Erik Stanley writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “The most recent ‘contribution’ to the hyperbolic musings of the [Americans United for Separation of Church and State] blog was this little piece that trumpeted that ADF has now ‘converted’ to AU’s position, and now believes that ‘separation of church and state’ is in the Constitution . . . The quote I made was in the context of a larger argument about the fact that there is a proper understanding that church and state should be separate in some ways. This is a view that ADF has always adhered to and fought for (which is also Jefferson’s view), that the state is prohibited from in any way attempting to control churches.”

Detroit Free Press: “The University of Michigan has barred about 2,000 people from its campus or parts of its campus since 2001, according to documents released this week by the university.”

Georgia Family Council: “[T]hey have buried the information in the OASIS data management server so that you have to dig it up that way. What’s more, they don’t use the term ‘abortion’ anywhere in OASIS that I can find. Instead, they use the sterile euphemism/acronym ITOP (Induced Termination of Pregnancy).”

CNSNews: “A high-level immigration official says it costs $12,500 to arrest, detain and deport each person removed from the U.S.”

OneNewsNow: “‘It is undoubtedly true that people who travel with laptops use that means for getting pornography, more so than they would to get a pay-per-view channel on television. So there is likely a decline in the revenue from pornography,’ he agrees. ‘But we believe that revenue is still very high, and it’s likely very profitable for Marriott, or they would just drop it from all hotels.’”

Aaron Blake writing at Washington Post / The Fix: “[T]he Republican Party has moved steadily to the left on gay rights . . . Ten years ago, it wouldn’t have been so easy for many of these influential conservatives to ally themselves with gay Republicans. The GOP back then was winning on social issues and thought consolidating its social conservative base was the ticket to a sustained majority.”

DFW Catholic: “In the new document filed last week, the Medical Board formally charges Riley with fraudulently attempting to obtain a medical license, unprofessional conduct, aiding an unqualified person in the practice of medicine, and lying on her medical board license application.”

OneNewsNow: “Officials say Pentagon leaders will roll out a plan Friday that is expected to give the military services about three months to train their forces on the new law allowing ‘gays’ to serve openly.”

ChristianNewsWire: “New Hampshire moved one step closer to homeschool freedom as House Bill 301, the Homeschool Freedom Act, sponsored by State Representative James Parison was formally introduced.”

AFP: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday the US military would be able to scrap a ban on gays serving openly in the military by the end of the year, promising swift action.”

Presidential Prayer Team: “Though the brief acknowledges that ‘in the end, the large majority of states today do not recognize same-sex marriage,’ Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel [Dale Schowengerdt] criticized the defense as being ‘deficient,’ asserting that the Department of Justice is giving a weak defense of DOMA because the president is in favor of its repeal.”

DailyKos: “Lt Dan Choi has been served with a collection notice, asking him to repay $2,519.18 left on his service contract, which was prematurely terminated when it became publicly known he was gay . . . He says he’s not paying.”

Belfast Telegraph: “Martijn Leenheer said he was ‘shocked’ to accidentally discover five-year-old Finn had been reciting prayers several times a day at Drumlease Primary School in Dromahair, Co Leitrim, despite the fact that his parents had opted out of Catholic religious instruction for their child.”

This is Somerset: “Church leaders have accused a Somerset council of political correctness after they were denied a grant for a children’s group – for being religious. Newtown King’s Church in Bridgwater asked Sedgemoor District Council for £285 to fund a daily two-hour programme for youngsters during the Easter holidays.”

Deutsche Welle: “The reprimanding of a teacher for advocating evolution has prompted a political row in Turkey, as teachers and academics worry that the Islamic-rooted government is trying to undermine science education.”

Rasmussen Reports: “A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 81% of Likely GOP Primary Voters have a favorable opinion of Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachusetts and an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Seventy-nine percent (79%) share a favorable opinion of Palin, the party’s 2008 vice presidential nominee, and 77% express positive feelings about another 2008 contender, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.”

Fox News / Live Shots: “Like many parents who home-school, Voydatch believes in the importance of teaching the basics of reading and writing. But she also believes in the importance of a religious education . . . ‘The judge,’ explained Simmons, ‘said that Amanda reflected her mother’s rigidity in matters of Faith, and that because of that rigidity she needed to be ordered into government run schools.’”

The Christian Institute: “Voluntary Sunday school teachers, church elders, deacons, prayer group leaders and all other church volunteers have been saved from an avalanche of equality diktats following an important court ruling. The Christian Institute intervened in the case and urged the Court of Appeal not to treat volunteers as though they had the same rights as employees under a European Equal Treatment Directive.”

NECN: “Dilawar Grewal sued the university, alleging that he was fired in November 2009 after complaining about treatment by co-workers. He says he was subjected to racial and religious slurs, including being told he looked like a terrorist. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in India. He’s also a member of the Sikh religion.”

CNBC: “The Arkansas Legislature is wrapping up its week with action on legislation addressing abortion coverage under the health care overhaul and attorney’s fees for the indigent.”

First Amendment Center (AP): “Republican state Rep. Andrew Koenig and several other co-sponsors introduced H.B. 195, which would allow educators to teach and guide students in thinking critically about scientific theories and discuss ‘differences of opinion about controversial issues, including biological and chemical evolution.’”

ChristianNewsWire: “Tom Ritter, who taught physics and chemistry for over a decade, has filed a federal lawsuit against The Blue Mountain School District in the Middle District of Pennsylvania . . . If evolution is unscientific, why teach it? Because no Creator means no God. In other words, evolution taught without a possible alternative is Atheism.” | Complaint is here (via Religion Clause).

The Christian Institute: “Michael Portillo, discussing the plight of the Christian B&B owners sued over their double bed policy, has expressed concern at the dangers posed by a ‘secular theocracy.’”

Lansing State Journal: “The commission voted 3-1 to offer the benefits to roughly 35,000 employees – more than half the state government work force – after state officials told the commission that the benefits would be too costly as the state faces a $1.8 billion budget shortfall.”

LifeSiteNews: “An Austrian think tank and non-governmental organization is warning that freedom of religious expression is ‘at risk’ in Europe from secularist intolerance on the left. While Islamic extremists continue assaults on Christian communities in Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan and around the Middle East and Asia, restrictions on public expressions of religious belief by Christians are growing in Western Europe, the cradle of Christendom.”

Liberty Counsel: “Liberty Counsel filed an Amicus Brief in support of the federal Defense of Marriage Act in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, regarding The Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The brief states that the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman for federal purposes and law is clearly constitutional.”

Damian Thompson writing at his Telegraph blog: “This figure, from the respected Pew Forum, means we must radically revise predictions that practising Muslims will outnumber practising Christians by 2035, which were based on the outdated 2001 census figure of 1.65 million (which was too low even at the time). It will happen much sooner than that.”

KTTS: “The Branson Board of Aldermen say the city should give the motto ‘In God We Trust’ a prominent display at city hall.”

Philadelphia Inquirer: “Yet, if we are concerned about competition from China, we should look beyond Beijing’s growing military – and economic – might. Far better to focus on China’s progress, and our lag, in educating our future workforce. That’s where the real Chinese challenge lies.”

ABC: “A grocery store in Arkansas reversed its decision to put a ‘family shield’ over the cover of the current issue of Us Weekly that showed a picture of Elton John and his partner David Furnish with their new baby Zachary.”

Breitbart (AFP): “The world’s Muslim population will grow twice as fast as non-Muslims over the next 20 years according to a new study, which predicted that Muslims within a generation will make up more than a quarter of the global population.”

Walter Russell Mead writing in The American Interest: “As the blue social model gradually falls apart and American society casts restlessly about for something to replace it, charter schools may be on the cutting edge of the social transformation about to take place . . . they are doing at least as well as the schools we have — and they are pointing the way to the kind of political and social transformation that can take us past the stagnant and dysfunctional world of Big Blue Bureaucracy into something more sustainable and more hopeful.”

AFP: “In Afghanistan, where insurgents continue to fight their ‘holy war’ against foreign forces, there are no churches, evangelising is illegal and the country’s constitution forbids conversion from Islam to another religion.”

CBC: “Top Canadian security officials say they have intercepted or intervened in a number of cases involving Canadian youths set to join the Somalia-based militant organization al-Shabaab, but in spite of their efforts many others may have joined the group.”

Deutsche Welle: “As referendum results make southern Sudan’s independence from Khartoum nearly certain, northern Sudanese are unsure what is in store for their country. The president has promised to base the constitution on Sharia law.”

The Spokesman-Review: “Idaho’s state Human Rights Commission has endorsed legislation adding sexual orientation to the state’s anti-discrimination law, a key move since two years ago, the commission opposed such legislation – and lawmakers refused even to introduce it.”

LifeSiteNews: “Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore told Irish public radio earlier this month that the Irish parliament must ‘face up to its responsibilities’ and make abortion fully legal according to the English model. In Ireland the right to life of the unborn is included in the constitution, where it was placed by a popular referendum.”

LifeNews: “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is holding a conference call today in what is a new bid by the Obama administration to lobby religious leaders to support the Obamacare law in the face of a congressional repeal effort.”

George Leef writing at the John William Pope Center: “As Lawrence Velvel, Dean of the Massachusetts School of Law explained in this Pope Center Clarion Call, the American Bar Association’s accreditation standards greatly increase the cost of legal training, but without doing anything to improve quality . . . If we want to make legal education less costly, and thereby make legal services more widely available, the right move is to open this market up to competition.”

Religion Link: “Where will the world’s Muslims live in the next 20 years? The Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has released a new report, ‘The Future of the Global Muslim Population,’ providing estimates of the number of Muslims around the world today and projecting the growth of the Muslim population to 2030.”

WMAL: “Democratic lawmakers . . . announced support for bills that would end discrimination against gay Virginia state employees, strengthen anti-bullying laws in Virginia schools, and repeal a 2006 amendment to the Virginia Constitution that forbids same-sex marriages.”

Victor Davis Hanson writing at Townhall: “American reality has been turned upside down in just 20 years . . . In response to this topsy-turvy world, the traditional media, tenured professors, well-paid public employees, rigid ethnic and racial lobbies, unions, organized retirees, open-borders advocates and entrenched politicians all are understandably claiming that we live in an uncivil age. We well may, but we also are seeing the waning of an old established order. And the resulting furor suggests that the old beneficiaries are not going quietly into that good night.”

The Hill: “Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) anticipated addition to the panel is another indicator that the GOP will look to make significant reforms to entitlement programs. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all fall within the jurisdiction of the Finance panel. ”

The Hill: “The bill is the latest indication that some Republicans are digging in their heels on the debt vote despite stern warnings from the Obama administration that failing to raise the ceiling would be disastrous for the country. It also signals a widening rift with GOP leaders who have suggested Republicans will ultimately have no choice but to approve the debt increase.”

The Hill: “The House today approved legislation [H.R. 359] that would end public financing of presidential campaigns by eliminating the option taxpayers have to donate $3 of their tax payments to a presidential campaign fund.”

2011 Index of Economic Freedom / Ranking the Countries

The Canadian Press: “The two women have lived together 15 years, are raising four children together, and already benefit from a French law recognizing their partnership . . . The issue exposes a paradox in France: while the country often has an anything-goes attitude to romance and sexuality, it can be conservative with family values. The couple and advocacy group Act Up Paris hope France will soon join EU partners including Spain, Belgium and Netherlands that have legalized same-sex marriage.”

USA Today: “A university that came under fire from students for the departure of a lesbian women’s soccer coach has added sexual orientation to its non-discrimination policy, but it was not clear whether it covered sexually active gays.”

Pacific Justice Institute: “A bill recently introduced in the California senate seeks to mandate that all public schools in California teach history and social studies with a deliberate slant toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons (LGBT). The bill, SB 48 . . . ”

Associated Press: “The government said Thursday it will alter its borrowing strategy to buy some time before hitting the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.”

Associated Press: “A Spanish association of people searching for lost children or parents filed a petition Thursday with the attorney general to investigate allegations that newborns were stolen from their mothers and sold to other families for decades, including as recently as the mid-1990s.”

Associated Press: “The course is being launched alongside other tentative steps of acceptance on Italian campuses. Some universities have recently allowed transsexuals in the process of changing gender to carry ID using their new name, activists say – so Mario may be officially called Maria.”

Religion Clause: “In Winters v. Brown, (FL App., Jan. 26, 2011), a Florida appellate court upheld applying the ‘best interest of the child’ test to affirm a trial court’s award of control over health care decisions for his minor child to the child’s father.”

Vancouver Sun: “It is no secret that there are child brides and teen mothers in the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., and that many of them are illegal immigrants from the United States . . . The numbers come from the B.C. Vital Statistics Agency and were filed as an affidavit last week in B.C. Supreme Court, where Chief Justice Robert Bauman is hearing a constitutional reference case to determine whether Canada’s polygamy law is valid.”

Associated Press: “A group of nine Hawaii senators held hands, bowed their heads and sought God’s blessing Wednesday, signaling that they’ll still pray despite a vote last week to abandon official invocations.”

New York Times: “Democratic advocates of an overhaul of Senate rules to curb the filibuster abandoned that effort on Wednesday, clearing the way for a bipartisan agreement to institute less sweeping changes to ease procedural gridlock.”

Montreal Gazette: “A woman from the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., told a Vancouver courtroom Wednesday she wasn’t worried about her husband marrying a 15-year-old girl because she ‘seemed very responsible.’ The 24-year-old mother, who was married at 17, made the comment during her cross-examination at the polygamy trial in B.C. Supreme Court.”

Vancouver Sun: Child brides forced to make a marriage choice

The Roanoke Times: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation hasn’t identified a parent who’s upset with the decision and could push the issue to court, as the foundation has warned. The advocacy group has heard from five residents of Giles County and others who live outside the district, foundation attorney Patrick Elliott said Wednesday.”

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: “State Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said a majority on the court pushed for changing court rules behind closed doors, breaking with a decade-long tradition of debating court rules in public meetings. Bradley said she opposed holding recent talks in private and she and two other justices refused to participate in discussions over court finances because it wasn’t being done in public.”