Daily Archives: February 21, 2011

World Mag: . . . The changes do not go as far as the administration originally intended or as conservatives feared: wiping out protections in their entirety. But, according to Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, it “leaves the how and if of enforcement of conscience protections completely under the discretion of an agency which says it agrees with Planned Parenthood.”

Persecution Blog: “A Tashkent judge fined the accountant of the Uzbek Bible Society 316,505 Soms ($189) for “violating procedures” during the import of two shipments of Bibles in 2008 and 2010, according to Forum 18 News. ”

Zenit: The Irish bishops are underlining value of human dignity, urging people to promote this by their choices in the upcoming national elections and in other circumstances.

ZENIT: “Several Catholic bishops of Europe recently met with Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican leaders to once again call for the defence of religious liberty, especially of Christians.”

BBC: “A publicity drive has started for the census, now just five weeks away, but the survey is being criticised for its question on religion. So is it even possible to accurately measure how religious the UK is?”

Chuck Colson writes at the Christian Post: Is giving away chicken sandwiches an act of homophobic bigotry? According to certain homosexual groups and websites, it is: when you give away sandwiches to people attending a conference on marriage. You heard that right. Gay-rights groups are slandering and boycotting the well-known national fast-food chain Chick-fil-A-you know, the one that says we should “eat more chicken.”

Boston Herald: “Nevada union members plan to rally in Las Vegas and Carson City to show their support for public workers in Wisconsin fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights.”

“The debate over a Republican-backed Ohio bill that would strip public employees of collective bargaining rights is reaching outside the state capital, with hundreds of people rallying against the measure in Dayton.”

Detroit News: Organized labor will send 300 to 400 workers and union officials to the Capitol on Tuesday to try to stop “Wisconsin-style assaults” on collective bargaining, the president of the Michigan AFL-CIO said today.

Citizen Link: “It didn’t make a lot of headlines, but a Brigham Young University study found a correlation between delaying sex and a longer-lasting marriage.”

A Senate committee has approved bills to expand the number of charter schools in Oklahoma and make it easier to fire public school teachers, despite concerns from some Democrats that the proposals amount to an “assault” on public education.

St. Petersburg Times: “Opposition is heating up statewide as the Florida Legislature closes in on monumental changes to the teaching profession.”

LifeNews: “Two people have been arrested by local police in southeastern India, near Bangladesh, after a woman died in a failed abortion Sunday night.”

NECN.com: “Leaders of the House Judiciary Committee backed a plan Monday that bars Missoula and other cities from establishing their own criteria for those protected from discrimination. . . ”

Courier-Journal.com: “Several reports in recent weeks have said Senate Bill 56 would allow Kentucky public schools to teach the Bible as an elective social studies course. Actually, no law prevents districts from doing that now . . . ”

The Iona Institute: David French, senior counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said that the definition amounted to “radical political correctness run amok”. He said it was absurd to single out Christians as oppressors and non-Christians as the only oppressed people on campus. [more quotes by David . . . ]

The Jewish Chronicle Online: “Civil rights activists in Israel have praised the appointment of Israel’s first openly gay judge.”

Miami New Times: “The problem is that Chick-fil-A has recently been outed as a huge supporter of anti-gay organizations. Some students have a problem with a homophobic restaurant being established on campus, but some just don’t care . . . ”

DemocraticBelarus.eu: “I write this letter as legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance of more than 1700 lawyers dedicated to the protection of religious freedom internationally. The Alliance Defense Fund is accredited with the United Nations, European Parliament, Fundamental Rights Agency and Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe. I am greatly concerned with the existing treatment of lawyers who are currently defending individuals, particularly from opposition parties, who were imprisoned as a result of post-election peaceful demonstrations. Specifically I write with regards to advocates Mr. Sapelka, Mr. Tolstik, Mrs. Semashka, and Mrs. Sidarenka . . . ” | Also published at: Viasna Human Rights Center

AllAfrica.com: Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has condemned the face-off between the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu and the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Isa Ayo Salami and described the allegations of corruption “as a tip of the iceberg”.

AZCapitolTimes: “The Arizona House on Monday is scheduled to consider bills to place new restrictions on abortions, including steps that Planned Parenthood Arizona says would force it to drop medication abortions in its clinics outside the Phoenix and Tucson areas.”

The Daily Cougar: “Texas Senators passed Bill 16 on a margin of 21-10. This bill, as some may recall, requires doctors to perform a sonogram two hours before allowing a pregnant woman to have an abortion.”

San Diego Gay and Lesbian News: “Assemblymember Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, has introduced the Gender Nondiscrimination Act (AB 887) sponsored by Equality California and the Transgender Law Center.”

KIVITV.com: “It’s a life and death issue that’s hitting the Statehouse: Physician assisted-suicide and what Idaho code should say about the topic.”

“Over the protests of thousands of labor union members who filled the Statehouse, a House committee voted on party lines today to send a bill that would bar unions and companies from negotiating contracts that require all employees to pay fees for representation.”

Christian Post: “An international missions organisation reports that evangelicals are expected to reach 57.4 million in Brazil this year in accordance with the evangelical annual growth rate of 7.42 per cent.”

WI State Journal: “With teachers likely headed back to their classrooms Tuesday, a Madison School District request for a temporary injunction barring further walkouts remains in limbo.”

Indiana University: “Polygamy practiced by some 19th century Mormon men had the curious effect of suppressing the overall offspring numbers of Mormon women in plural marriages, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in the March 2011 issue of Evolution and Human Behavior.”

One News Now: Both sides have presented their appeal in the case involving Capistrano High School student Chad Farnan, who sued his history teacher, Dr. Corbett, in April 2008 for attacking Christianity during his lectures and for calling creationism “superstitious nonsense.”

One News Now: “A New Jersey-based attorney says Governor Chris Christie is “launching a revolution” in taking on the liberal status quo of the Garden State.”

CNSNews: In receiving communion at a Mass offered by the Roman Catholic bishop of Albany, NY, that state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, who supports abortion, gay marriage, and lives with his girlfriend, committed an “objectively sacreligious” act that “produces grave scandal,” according to Dr. Edward Peters, a top expert in Catholic Church law and a consultant to the highest court at the Vatican.

MLive.com: “Mlive readers had strong feelings and many comments about U.S. Rep. Justin Amash’s decision to vote “present” rather than yea or nay on a controversial amendment to defund Planned Parenthood.”

Dalton, Randy Gibson, Demetrios Stratis, Fenn Little, Greg Terra, Stephen Casey, Mari Chamberlain, Mark Rienzi, Peter Costea, Bob Dapelo, Scott Bergthold, Steve Taylor, The Christian Institute, and Tom Brandon for their recent accomplishments and successes listed below. Please take time to congratulate them!

WorldNetDaily: The court has confirmed that it has distributed a petition for rehearing in the case brought by attorney John Hemenway on behalf of retired Col. Gregory Hollister and it will be the subject of a conference on March 4. It was in January that the court denied, without comment, a request for a hearing on the arguments. But the attorney at the time had submitted a motion for Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who were given their jobs by Obama, to recuse. Should Obama ultimately be shown to have been ineligible for the office, his actions, including his appointments, at least would be open to challenge and question. At the time, the Supreme Court acknowledged the “motion for recusal” but it changed it on official docketing pages to a “request.” And it reportedly failed to respond to the motion . . . He also argued that if court members continue to “avoid” the dispute they effectively will “destroy the constitutional rule of law basis of our legal system.”

Robert Knight writes at the Washington Times: “Christians, Orthodox Jews or anyone with traditional views of sex and marriage should be barred from state university counseling programs unless they agree to violate their beliefs. That’s the gist of theamicus brief the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed Feb. 11 in a case in which a Christian student is challenging her dismissal from a graduate counseling program at Eastern Michigan University in 2009.”

Chuck Norris writes at World Net Daily: “As I began to point out last week in my part 1, the U.S. public education system is flailing now more than ever, and teachers’ unions are aiding and abetting its demise. Some teachers unions may indeed be fighting for some of our teachers, but they are failing our students by protecting adults at the expense of not allowing the reformation of a crippled and dying system.”

“The Republican-dominated Tennessee Senate Education Committee voted last week to deny Tennessee teachers the right to negotiate their working conditions with boards of education across the state through collective bargaining. Republicans hold the majorities in both the Senate and House. The Tennessee School Boards Association also endorses the bill.”

LifeNews: “The overall number of abortions in Alaska dropped slightly in 2010, but the abortion rate among teens is rising, as is the number of abortions being paid with public funds, according to the annual report from the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics.”

LifeSiteNews: “Riding nationwide Tea Party exasperation with the administration’s spending habits, House GOP members have crafted a budget bill that not only slashes spending, but powerfully throws down the gauntlet to the president’s progressive ideas on life and family issues.”

LifeNews: “A Canadian boy will not lose his life support today and his parents may be able to take him to a hospital in the United States to provide appropriate medical care after a Canadian hospital sought and won a court order to remove his life support.”

FRC: By Act of Congress, this is still George Washington’s Birthday. Although car dealers and shopping malls have told us over and over again it’s Presidents Day, the law is clear: We are honoring today our first president, the Father of our Country.
George Washington has been described as “the gentlest of Christendom’s captains.”

Billings Gazette: “A group of parents and community members filed a lawsuit on Friday against the Helena Public School District, claiming it violated open meeting law and prevented meaningful public participation . . . At the heart of the matter is the Health Enhancement Curriculum, which the district released in June. The document, which contained sections on human sexuality, caused much controversy in Helena, and in response the board slowed down the process and held two lengthy public hearings before approving the document.”

Iowa Independent: “House Republicans have answered Branstad’s wish with House Joint Resolution 12, which would throw out the current judicial selection method and replace it with the federal system.”

“In sum, public sector unionism lacks the economic justifications for private sector unionism. It results in significant distortions of the political process, which have real adverse consequences for the taxpayers.”

Todaystmj4.com: “Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says his chamber of the Wisconsin legislature will convene to pass non-spending bills and act on appointments on Tuesday even if minority Democrats remain out of state in an effort to block a vote on Governor Scott Walker’s budget repair bill. Could one of those bills be the union aspect of the budget bill, voted separately?”

ADF attorney David French appeared on the Bob Dutko Show. | MP3 audio 5:36 mins | Related ADF Media

Des Moines Register: “Iowa will be one of only three states without a female justice on its supreme court if Gov. Terry Branstad decidees not to select the sole woman in the pool of nine finalists for the bench.”

Cincinnati.com: “The Supreme Court has examined 15 rulings from the 6th Circuit since 2008 and has thrown out every one of them.”

The Hill: “At 4:40 a.m., lawmakers voted 235-189 to send the so-called continuing resolution to the Senate. Not one Democrat voted for the bill that would cut at least $61 billion, from 2010 levels, in spending for federal programs and agencies.”

The New American: “The Alliance Defense Fund agreed, and filed a letter on behalf of 25 students protesting the offensive language. University officials have now retreated from the offensive language. What remains inexplicable is how such defamatory language could have survived any meaningful process of review prior to adoption in the first place.”

Journal Gazette: “Allen County will settle a lawsuit filed by an abortion clinic claiming a county ordinance violated doctor-patient privacy laws . . . The settlement also calls for the county to pay $30,000 toward the health clinic’s legal fees. The clinic was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana and the Center for Reproductive Rights; the county was defended at no cost by the Alliance Defense Fund.”

Laramie Boomerang: “The Wyoming Senate passed a House bill on third reading Friday that would not recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states but would give couples in civil unions access to Wyoming courts to resolve disputes. The Senate passed House Bill 74 on a 16-14 vote . . . litigated against same-sex marriage in California.  A lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund has appeared at committee hearings in this legislative session and has spoken in favor of defining marriage as existing only between one man and one woman . . . ”

Religion Clause Blog: Jones County, Texas has designated the Chapel at the French Robertson Unit of the Department of Criminal Justice as a branch courthouse. It is used for non-jury proceedings when French Roberson inmates are charged with offenses. In Lilly v. State of Texas, (TX App., Feb. 17, 2011), an inmate who pleaded guilty to assaulting a public servant challenged on free exercise . . . ”

NY Times: “The Tunisian revolution that overthrew decades of authoritarian rule has entered a delicate new phase in recent days over the role of Islam in politics.”

CNBC: “As the U.S. Federal Reserve grappled with the aftershocks of financial crisis, the Chinese, like many others, suffered huge losses from their investments in American financial firms — from Lehman Brothers to the Primary Reserve Fund, the money market fund that broke the buck. The cables, obtained by WikiLeaks, show that escalating Chinese pressure prompted a procession of soothing visits from the U.S. Treasury Department . . . ”

California Catholic Daily: hristians deserve the same protections against religious discrimination as any other students on a public university campus,” said ADF Senior Counsel David French. “It’s very good to see officials at UC-Davis agree. Anti-Christian discrimination is an epidemic on American university campuses, and that’s what made the UC-Davis definition ridiculously absurd. We wish that more universities would be as proactive in addressing such concerns as UC-Davis has been here.” . . . ADF-allied attorney Tim Swickard, one of nearly 1,900 attorneys in the ADF alliance, had sent a letter to the university explaining that the definition is unconstitutional under both the U.S. and California constitutions . . .

AP: “Montana legislators had been asked to choose between two proposed bills in creating a physician-assisted suicide law: Ban the practice altogether or create regulations for doctors and terminally ill patients to follow. Now it appears they’ll do neither . . . ”

AP: “The head of Wisconsin’s powerful teachers’ union is calling on educators to return to classrooms Monday and Tuesday rather than continue being absent to protest an anti-union bill at the state Capitol.”

“Senate Democrats acknowledged that the 19 Republicans could pass any item that doesn’t spend state money in their absence. The budget-repair bill they have been blocking requires a quorum of 20 senators to pass, while other measures require only a simple majority of the chamber’s 33 members.”

John Fund writes at the Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Walker’s argument—that public workers shouldn’t be living high off the hog at the expense of taxpayers—is being made in other states facing budget crises. But the left observed the impact of the tea party last year and seems determined to unleash a more aggressive version of its own by teaming up with union allies. Organizing for America is already coordinating protests against proposed reforms in Ohio, Michigan and Missouri.”

LifeNews: “So, you know, my bottom line is, that uh, I think that Planned Parenthood in the past has done good work. If there was a specific problem at this center, it should be addressed,” Obama continued.

Catholic Culture: “Army chaplains will have a major part in preparing the service to accept the lifestyles of some,” according to an Arizona newspaper’s summary of his remarks . . . ”

Lexington Herald-Leader: “A liberal blogger and another man who tried to go to a special event at Kentucky’s Creation Museum said they were denied admission because they told security they were a same-sex couple . . . Museum spokesman Mark Looy told The Kentucky Enquirer that the promotional material for the Date Night made it clear the event was for heterosexual couples only.”

“Gay and lesbian groups across the country have launched campaigns to remove Chick-fil-A from campuses in response to the fast food restaurant providing sandwiches and brownies for a traditional marriage conference hosted by the Pennsylvania Family Institute.”