Daily Archives: June 8, 2011

The Irish Times : The President added: “All conflict is about refusal to accept difference. The misery of that reality was visited on generations in Ireland and, in particular, Northern Ireland where the demonisation of neighbour by neighbour along sectarian lines was underpinned by a culture of non-acceptance of each other’s right to believe and behave differently . . .”

AP: A group of parents and teachers who want to dump the education overhaul have met a June deadline to gather enough signatures to put three repeal measures on the November 2012 ballot. More than 72,000 people signed each of three petitions to put the new Idaho laws to referendum votes next year.

The Local: Young women and girls in Sweden are getting fewer abortions, according to new figures, which also reveal a slight increase in controversial later-term abortions.

Christian Today: Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has called upon Indonesia to take action to protect religious minorities and preserve religious freedom.
It warns of increasing violations of religious freedom in the majority-Muslim country . . .

Scotland Herald: NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is pushing the scheme, replacing its C-Card system, to stock free condoms at around 70 GP surgeries, community centres, colleges and high street pharmacies.

The Christian Institute: A new Bill has been introduced to Parliament to tackle the problem of Sharia courts in England and Wales.

Christian Post: Gallagher points out that as societies age, their economies appear to stall, which in turn means their governments grow larger. Then the number of workers supporting the retired grows, and the burden makes economic growth (and having children) more difficult, thus creating a negative downward cycle.

Thomas Friedman at the NYTimes: You really do have to wonder whether a few years from now we’ll look back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking? How did we not panic when the evidence was so obvious that we’d crossed some growth/climate/natural resource/population redlines all at once?

Pauline Kosalka at Catholic Online: Ontario bishops have issued a memo urging Catholic school boards to set up clubs explicitly aimed to counter “bullying related to sexual orientation,” even though they banned the establishment of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) at Catholic schools just months ago?

The Globe and Mail: A Toronto-based comedian says she was blocked from performing at a Catholic school after board officials learned she was married to a woman.

LifeSiteNews.com: Filipinos have been successful in fighting off a sustained assault from the West in the form of a “Reproductive Health (RH)” bill that threatens the families and future of the Philippines. But the bill’s proponents seem undaunted and incredibly well-funded, so we wanted to help Catholics around the world understand the situation on the ground, and ask for your prayers and support.

LifeSiteNews.com: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has told the British government that they must clarify the rights of Christians with regard to the recently installed “equalities” laws.

ADF, allies representing doctors, law profs file briefs against problematic law after city appeals federal court’s decision to strike it down

: Ross Levi, the executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, appeared with representatives of the Capital District Area Labor Federation, Civil Service Employees Association, Public Employees Federation, New York State United Teachers, Service Employees International Union, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local #2 and Capital District Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement to announce last week their support for a same-sex marriage law this session.

The Texas Tribune: Earlier today, The Texas Tribune reported that the federal government could try to keep Texas from excluding Planned Parenthood from the Women’s Health Program. Last week, federal officials sent a memo to all 50 states warning them that Medicaid programs can’t exclude health care providers who offer them.

ABC News (includes video): Fultz’s attorney Todd Holmes said the court commissioner has stated he will recommend jail time if Fultz does not remove the billboard by June 17. They are planning on objecting to the ruling.

Forbes.com: Pennsylvania’s senate on Tuesday approved a bill to ban abortion coverage from policies obtained through health insurance exchanges that are to begin in 2014 under last year’s landmark federal health care law . . .

AG plans to sue over fracking – Bath, NY – The Courier: ttorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced this week he will file a lawsuit today against the federal government for its failure to commit to a full environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling – including the potentially harmful “fracking” technique – in the Delaware River Basin.

LifeNews.com: The Ohio state Senate today approved two amendments requested by a statewide pro-life organization seeking to protect Buckeye State residents from having to fork out taxpayer funds to pay for abortions.

LifeNews.com: The Maine state House has defeated three pro-life bills that would have limited abortions and the votes follow one in the Senate defeating legislation to provide justice and protection for pregnant women and their unborn children when they are victims of violent crimes.

LifeNews.com: nowing the battle is forthcoming, the California Pro-Life Council is alerting its members to support amendments to the budget that it says are targeted at the state’s financing of the abortion industry.

LifeNews.com: The House voted 70-44 to authorize dozens of new specialty plates, including the Choose Life plate, that require an extra $25 fee to purchase — with $15 going to pregnancy centers that provide women with abortion alternatives for each plate sold in the state.

Richard Vedder: Time to Make Professors Teach – WSJ.com: It’s a legitimate question. As college costs have risen wildly, the benefits of the degree seem less and less clear. Larger numbers of college graduates are taking relatively low-paying and low-skilled jobs.
The good news? There are ways to greatly ease the burden and make college more affordable, according to new data from the University of Texas at Austin.

LifeNews.com: Obama has nominated Steve Six, a pro-abortion former Kansas state attorney general to serve on the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, setting up another battle over abortion and a top judicial pick.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy: Greg A. Fultz put up a billboard showing himself holding what appears to be empty space, with the words “This Would Have Been A Picture Of My 2-month Old Baby If The Mother Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!” and some endorsements (apparently later removed) from pro-life groups, including the words “PRO LIFE” and “RIGHT TO LIFE.” . . .

The Globe and Mail: The contenders seen as the strongest are those with support in Conservative backrooms and a track record of conservative decision-making.

OneNewsNow.com: The motion is really a call for the State Department to be more proactive in dealing with Pakistan about persecution of religious minorities . . .

ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights Wisconsin today called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the systematic discrimination against and exclusion of students with disabilities in Wisconsin’s school voucher program

Ken Klukowski at The Washington Examiner: Obamacare is likely facing its last stop before it heads to the Supreme Court in 2012. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta will hear arguments Wednesday in the biggest Obamacare case in the country.
This is the Obama administration’s appeal in Florida v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

NCPA Policy Digest: Below are 10 ways local policymakers and citizens can restore that balance of power and do what’s best for the people of their state . . .

NCPA Policy Digest: Shubham Singhal, Jeris Stueland and Drew Ungerman of McKinsey & Co., a consulting firm, have conducted a survey of over 1,300 employers across the country and found that “30 percent of employers will definitely or probably stop offering [employer-sponsored insurance] in the years after 2014.” Among those with a “high awareness of reform,” more than 50 percent will do so, says Avik Roy, an equity research analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co. in New York City.

A federal court in Virginia issued a ruling yesterday upholding its earlier decision that the federal ban on direct corporate contributions to candidates violates the First Amendment. The James Madison Center for Free Speech filed a brief with the court urging this result.

Martin Feldstein at the Wall Street Journal: Expect more bad news until someone enacts a plan to bring deficits under control without.

The Hill’s Healthwatch: Democrats have hardened their stance on Medicare since the program helped propel them to an upset victory in a New York special election.

LifeNews.com: One fact that has gone unmentioned in all the media reports trumpeting Schwartz’s ascendancy is that Allyson Schwartz, besides having a perfect pro-abortion record in Congress, co-founded and acted as Executive Director of an abortion clinic in Philadelphia for 13 years (1975-1988).

KATC.com: The ACLU has sent a letter to the Lafayette Sheriff’s Office concering a Muslim woman, who the ACLU says was incarcerated in the Lafayette Parish Jail last year,and was forced by the Sheriff to remove her religiously mandated head covering, known as a hijab, because jail policies do not provide for head coverings of any kind.

OneNewsNow.com: But Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) disagrees. The U.S. Supreme Court has already definitively ruled that the government must allow religious groups to have the same access that other groups have,” he notes . . . “Churches that meet in public school buildings have been a huge benefit to the communities around them,” he contends. “It’s very sad when government officials misinterpret the Constitution and attempt to kick such groups out.”

Christian Post: “The government’s hyperactive censorship of classical religious texts severely limits the education of students by leaving them with an incomplete understanding of history and their heritage,” stated attorney David Cortman, a senior counsel with religious liberties law firm Alliance Defense Fund.

LifeSiteNews.com: “I’m speaking on biblical issues that have political ramifications,” said Garlow, who went on to praise the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian public interest firm, for challenging pastors to record bold sermons and send them to the Internal Revenue Service as a sign they will not be intimidated against speaking out.

Spero News: Attorney Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, a prolife organization, spoke to the grief borne by the fathers of aborted children. “Regardless of the prudential character of this particular billboard, it does highlight a deep and festering wound in our society: the harm that abortion causes to the fathers of aborted children,” he said. Bowman noted, “Most attention on post-abortion psychological harm is focused on the mothers, but men similarly have intense grief due to abortions of their children, both when they participate and when the abortion is done against their wishes.”

Mercatus Center at George Mason Universty, Report by Jason Sorens, William Ruger | June 7, 2011: This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. It updates, expands, and improves upon our inaugural 2009 Freedom in the 50 States study . . . With a consistent time series, we are also able to discover for the first time which states have improved and worsened in regard to freedom recently.

LifeNews.com: Matt Bowman, a pro-life attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, commented on the billboard controversy and said the whole incident outlines the grief fathers bear in the abortion process. “Regardless of the prudential character of this particular billboard, it does highlight a deep and festering wound in our society: the harm that abortion causes to the fathers of aborted children,” he said. “Most attention on post-abortion psychological harm is focused on the mothers, but men similarly have intense grief due to abortions of their children, both when they participate and when the abortion is done against their wishes.”

U.S. Dept. of State: We call on the Israeli government to investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice, and for calm from all parties.

Burlington Free Press: “They’re advocating for a lot of changes in the name of tolerance,” said Jim Campbell, an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. “Yet ironically the tolerance is not returned, for people of faith who don’t agree with their agenda.” . . . [Evan Wolfson] added: “There’s been a shift in the moral understanding of people — that exclusion from marriage and anti-gay prejudice is wrong. Positions that wouldn’t have been questioned in the past are now being held up to the light.”

Fox News: Fox 5 News reports that Syosset schools superintendent Carole Hankin rakes in more than half million dollars a year.

U.S. Dept. of State: he Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina have a long tradition of moderation, and are a continuing rebuke to the notion that Islam has no place in Europe. We want to see BiH thriving as a peaceful member of the European Union and NATO, with the conflict and suffering of the 1990s left behind never to return. We know that the citizens of this unique country want this too, from Prijedor to Travnik, from Foca to Livno and from Mostar to Brcko.