Daily Archives: March 14, 2011

NECN.com: he Missouri House has endorsed legislation imposing new limits on late-term abortions and criminal penalties on doctors who don’t abide by the new standards . . . Abortion bill is HB213 . . .

LifeSiteNews: Lawmakers in the New Mexico state House of Representatives approved a measure that gives limited protection to unborn victims of violence when their mothers are the subjects of a crime. The measure, known locally as the “Little Isaac” Act, was a legislative response to a mother’s brutal murder in 2009, and was opposed chiefly by Planned Parenthood.

Citizen Link: “Legislation designed to safeguard the religious liberties of Missouri residents has passed the state House with a 126-30 vote. HJR 2 . . . ”

Argus Leader: Two Sioux Falls women who were legally married in Iowa were granted the right to use their married names today.

The first baby with three biological parents could be conceived next year after the Government announced a major review of Britain’s fertility laws.

Telegraph: “High-quality religious education faces being killed off in schools because of swingeing teaching cuts and its exclusion from new-style league tables, academics warn today.”

The Scavenger: “On 11 May 2011, Australian activists will converge at the Houses of Parliament, Canberra in the country’s first rally in which people currently discriminated against on the grounds of their sex and/or gender variance, identity or expression will demand their equal rights.”

Christian Newswire: Randall Terry and Prolife Activists will be at the US Capitol on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 from 11 AM to 1 PM at the intersection of New Jersey and Independence Aves to hold a demonstration and speak with the press regarding the vote on the proposed 3 week Continuing Resolution that is expected to take place around 12 noon.

Breitbart (AP): “School boards and local governments across Wisconsin are rushing to reach agreements with unions before a new law takes effect and erases their ability to collectively bargain over nearly all issues other than minimal salary increases.”

LifeNews: “A press conference was convened at the Topeka Statehouse, Thursday, on behalf of approximately 90 state reps and senators calling for the government to prosecute child rape cover-ups at Planned Parenthood instead of “persecuting” former Attorney General Phill Kline.”

Blog of the Legal Times: “The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote late today on the nomination of James “Jeb” Boasberg for U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.”

Baltimore Sun: “A Baltimore principal’s decision to use prayer in preparation for recent statewide tests is drawing criticism as improperly mixing religion and public education.”

One News Now: State Representative Dwayne Alons submitted two bills to change the system. “The first one would be to do more of a selection process like the federal model,” he describes, “where the governor would select a name to fill a vacancy on the appellate court as well as the district courts. And then the Senate would confirm with a super majority — two-third’s vote.” . . . The second bill would establish a term limit for judges, plus a retention vote by the public.

Boston Globe (AP): Conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill began Monday to come out against a measure to keep the government running for three more weeks while the White House and Republican lawmakers seek a longer-term agreement on spending cuts.”

Palm Beach Post: The Senate Health Regulation Committee approved two anti-abortion measures this afternoon, including a proposed constitutional amendment banning public financing of abortions even in the case of rape or incest.

Press-Enterprise: n one instance, a Paloma Valley High School student alleged a teacher wrote an “S” on her hand and called her “a sinner.” In another, a student group says it was barred from doing an activity for gay and lesbian history month, though an ethnic student group could. An openly gay senior says he was unfairly disciplined after a dispute with a classmate who he says harassed him.

FreeMalaysiaToday: “Two DAP MPs take the government to task for holding on to the confiscated Malay-language bibles, and for making contradicatory statements.”

FRC Blog: On Tuesday, March 15, Family Research Council will Webcast a gripping presentation, hosted by FRC President Tony Perkins, titled “Sex Trafficking in America: From the Boulevard to Planned Parenthood“.

CanadianBusiness.com: “Legislation to ban state insurers from providing coverage for elective abortions is headed to its final hurdle in the Idaho Legislature.”

Eureka Alert: “In the next 20 years in large parts of China and India, there will be a 10% to 20% excess of young men because of sex selection and this imbalance will have societal repercussions, states an analysis in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj.101368.pdf”

Several chaplaincy groups are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to reverse a district judge’s decision to strike down part of a federal military readiness law that prohibited openly practiced homosexual behavior.

“On Wednesday afternoon, March 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on several judicial nominees, including Oetken’s nomination . . . ”

AFP: Debate over civil unions for gays has divided Peru’s socially conservative electorate ahead of next month’s presidential vote, drawing particularly fierce opposition from the Catholic church.

CNSNews: “Secretary of State Doug La Follette said Monday that he decided to publish the law on March 25 in order to give schools and other local governments time to pass contract extensions between now and then.”

Weekly Standard: This line is as bizarre as it is priceless: “A loose coalition of Democratic legislators failed to cobble together enough votes to overcome opposition from Republicans and religious groups.” It makes it seem as though the fight was a partisan battle that simply pitted Democrats who favored gay marriage against Republicans who opposed it.

LifeSiteNews: “On March 22 the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will hold a hearing to investigate the allegations of a Slovakian woman of Romani ethnic origin (also known as gypsy) who claims she was the victim of a forced sterilization during the delivery of her second child by caesarean section, in 2000 at the Prešov Public Hospital.”

LifeSiteNews: Last year, a graphic display set up by pro-life students at the University of British Columbia was obstructed by protesters, who covered the pro-life posters with large cloths and impeded discussions as university security and police stood by. So last Thursday, as UBC Lifeline prepared to set up this year’s display of the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), they were prepared for a large and raucous protest.

LifeNews: “While surrounding states like Washington and Oregon pushed ahead to become the first in the nation to legalize assisted suicide and Montana could be right behind them, Idaho passed a bill to make the practice a felony.”

LifeSiteNews: report issued in the UK earlier this week, called “Too Much, Too Young,” unmasks the extremely explicit nature of sex education material that public groups are pushing on school children as young as five-year-olds

The Washington Times: “The corrupt pay-for-play arrangement with Democrats has brought the nation to the brink of insolvency. The time has come to roll back the unfair advantages and benefits Democrats have created for their financial benefactors.”

LifeNews: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has announced she will not stick with most of the rest of the Republican caucus in the Senate on any vote to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Eugene Volokh reports at the Volokh Conspiracy: “As I blogged a few months ago, a two-judge majority on a Sixth Circuit panel held in Defoe v. Spiva that there was such an exception; to quote the panel . . . ”

WVNSTV.com: “The banner wasn’t the only change this weekend either. Ken Burgess, a member of All 10 Commandments Ministries, was in town with several others handing out yard signs to locals. They’re attempting to raise awareness of the issues surround the Ten Commandments.”

John Ingold writes at the Denver Post: “The departure of the longest-serving active judge on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals gives President Barack Obama the chance to even the panel.”

The “poll results” and article by Reid Forgrave are this Des Moines Register article titled: More have unfavorable view of Vander Plaats.

Christian Post: “An online activism website has collected over 2,600 signatures within a few days to petition Apple Inc. for the removal of the iPhone app of a Christian ministry dealing with homosexuality.”

Seattle Times: Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a vocal critic of the academy, criticized the scope of the review as it was outlined in the Air Force statement. The problem at the school is not with any restriction on the free exercise of religion, but with unwanted proselytizing by fundamentalist Christians, a violation of the constitutional concept of the separation of church and state, he said.

Religion Clause Blog: “According to India Today, the All India Shia Personal Law Board is taking action to counter the growing problem of domestic violence.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Matter of Zornow, (NY Sup. Ct., Dec. 23, 2010, posted March 2, 2011), involves a dispute between siblings over whether their mother, an Alzheimers patient in a nursing home, should be denied artificially administered food and water when the statutory conditions for doing so would permit such a decision to be made.” | Eugene Volok has a blog post on the ruling at the Volokh Conspiracy.

NY Times: After The New York Times published an article about her case, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal alliance, petitioned Judge Nolan B. Dawkins of Alexandria Circuit Court on behalf of her children. He ordered her feeding tube reinstated while the legal issues were weighed.

World Net Daily: A judge has ordered a court-appointed guardian for an incapacitated woman to ask health care providers to “reinstate nutrition and hydration and continue such care unless and until there is a further order from this court.” . . . Family members declined to comment immediately, but Casey Mattox, legal counsel for the ADF, said, “Innocent life deserves to be protected. ADF is pleased that the court agreed to put the brakes on this rush to intentionally starve a defenseless woman to death. It’s a simple decision to respect the family’s wishes and protect the life of this Rwandan genocide survivor.”

One News Now: And as a matter of fact,” Theriot said, “in this particular place where they want to lease space, there are already two churches in the shopping center — and there have been churches there for over nine years. However, the city’s now trying to kick those churches out and is not allowing the Baptist church to lease space there and use it for a church.”

Terry Paulson writes at Townhall: In cash strapped CA, higher taxes have just stifled the private sector, motivated corporations to leave the state, and strangled job growth. The economic pain is not shared equally. According to the Employment Development Department, while private-sector workers have lost over a million CA jobs since the recession began, CA government employment has increased 1,200 jobs. CA now has over 489,000 state workers who are paid by a million fewer taxpayers, many of whom have seen their incomes compromised.

MyCentralJersey.com: A comment that she made in her letter, which has been erroneously used so often, by so many, in so many circumstances, is six words in length – “the separation of church and state.” . . . The ACLU has been using it to ban prayer in schools, and at school events, and activist judges have unjustly sided with them. Recently the Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Counsel have taken legal steps to try and correct this injustice.

The Walrus: “When the American Right needed courtroom-ready arguments against gay marriage, it looked to three academics from McGill . . . The following year, a lawyer from the Alliance Defense Fund, a controversial American Christian group, asked Somerville and Young to act as expert witnesses in a landmark Iowa case involving six gay couples who hoped to wed . . . ”

ADF attorney David French writes at Patheos: I’m a card-carrying member of the professional religious right. No, that’s an understatement. To simply call me a “member” would profoundly understate my antagonistic role in the culture wars. Fans of comic book movies (and all of you should be) may remember a scene in X2, the sequel to X-Men, when Pyro tells a frightened police officer: “You know all those dangerous mutants you hear about in the news? Well I’m the worst one!” and then proceeds to wreak fiery havoc on an entire neighborhood

Paul Driessen writes at Townhall: “Welcome to the Third World, Europeans, where costly electricity is available only from time to time, at unexpected hours, depending on bureaucratic whims and how much power wind turbines and other “environment-friendly” generators can muster.”

LifeSiteNews: “The doctors who have cared for him want to remove his breathing tube but Moe Maraachli and Sana Nader took their battle to court to allow the tube to be removed at home, so the boy can die surrounded by his family.”

ADF attorney Steven H. Aden is a guest essayist at Constituting America.  He has written a brief analysis of Article I, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution which provides: “2: No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.”

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Rasmussen: “In fact, only three percent (3%) say individuals who go to Ivy League schools are better workers than those who go to other schools. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 79% do not think Ivy League students make better workers. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided . . . But only 28% of Americans believe that people who work harder generally make more money than others anyway.”

NCPA Policy Digest: “The results suggest that culture is more important than formal institutions in explaining differences in the degree to which states fail, according to Claudio D. Shikida and Ari Francisco de Araujo Jr., of Ibmec Minas Gerais, Brazil, and Pedro H. C. Sant’Anna, of Universidad Carlos III, Madrid.”

SCOTUS Blog: The Eleventh Circuit Court agreed Friday to put the health care case on a fast track, and issued a briefing schedule, but said it would keep open for now the question of whether the appeal will be heard initially by the full Court or by a three-judge panel.  The Court said the briefing schedule it had laid out would not be affected by what it decides for or against en banc review.  The briefing will begin April 4 and will be completed on May 25.  That schedule could still allow for an en banc oral argument on June 6, as the challengers requested.