Daily Archives: June 21, 2011

LifeSiteNews.com: Despite intense foreign pressure, Costa Rica rejected a bid to overturn its decade-long ban on in vitro fertilization last week.

The Institute on Religion and Public Policy at the Christian Newswire: Legislation recently proposed in Hungary contains provisions designed to create the most oppressive religion law and the most burdensome registration system in the entire OSCE region. Over a hundred religious organizations will be retroactively stripped of their status as religious communities and “de-registered” as religious organizations if these provisions become law.

AP: Newly released documents show Kansas officials have taken only a few weeks to draft new abortion clinic regulations and plan to decide by July whether to give the state’s three existing clinics licenses to continue operating.

The Guardian: Barack Obama is set to reject the advice of the Pentagon by announcing on Wednesday night the withdrawal of up to 30,000 troops from Afghanistan by November next year, in time for the US presidential election.

With the legislative session in overtime and the votes of a handful of Republican state senators up for grabs, the fate of a “gay marriage” bill that would make New York the largest and most influential state to redefine marriage remained uncertain Tuesday.

Catholic Culture: Christians took to the streets of Attock–a city of 260,000 in Punjab province in northern Pakistan–to call for a more serious police investigation into the May 14 kidnapping of Robin Javed, an Anglican pastor.

Emily Belz at WORLD Magazine : “The Establishment Clause is being misunderstood to mean that you cannot accommodate religious private speech as opposed to other private speech,” said Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, one of the lawyers for the Bronx, N.Y., church that sought to rent from a local middle school. “They have their dance recitals, Boy Scout meetings, union meetings, worship services. Nothing is transformed. The meeting doesn’t work some architectural alchemy on the building.”

Europolitics: The president of the EU Court of Justice wants 12 more judges to enable his institution to cope with its increased workload.

EuropeNews: WEA-RLC said while for the youth and moderate Muslims of the country the Jan. 25 uprising was about democratic freedoms, the Salafis who had been inactive for decades quickly saw it as an opportunity to push an Islamist agenda.

LifeNews.com: The Minnesota affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business says it will close six locations on August 1 thanks to the Title X budget cuts Congress approved in its most recent budget this past Spring.

Catholic Culture: The post-Mubarak Egyptian government is considering a proposal to relax restrictions on the building of churches.

Boston.com: Legislation to allow gay couples to enter into civil unions in Rhode Island is running out of time in the General Assembly.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2011: A bill on “Marriage and Family” seeking to legalize polygamous marriages returned to parliament in 2008. But once again it failed to pass after coming under strong criticism from female lawmakers, notably Bakhyt Syzdykova, a young deputy and woman’s rights activist.

LifeSiteNews.com: In the bluntest possible terms, Cardinal Pell said in an open letter, “We might shoot a dying dog, but no human, no matter how old or sick, is just an animal. It is wrong to kill innocent human life.”

LifeSiteNews.com: Given the precipitous decline in the birthrates of European countries, all anti-natal programs funded by the United States should immediately be replaced by pro-natal programs, one top population expert recently told the U.S. Senate.

Yahoo! News: President Barack Obama’s health care law would let several million middle-class people get nearly free insurance meant for the poor, a twist government number crunchers say they discovered only after the complex bill was signed.

Washington Times: People aboard a party bus shot at after leaving a Northeast strip club last week were earlier involved in a fight at the club — the latest in a series of incidents there that include a stripper being hit in the face with a champagne bottle during a tussle between a patron and the entourage of rapper Lil’ Wayne, according to police reports.

International Business Times: Let’s admit the reality here. While homosexual activists attempt to portray their lifestyle as normal and healthy, and insist that homosexual relationships deserve equal rights as heterosexual ones, the real world may suggest a quite opposite picture.

Telegraph: Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suffered a devastating blow to his authority on Tuesday as MPs forced the resignation of one of his closest allies amid growing domestic opposition to his radical leadership.

U.S. Department of Agriculture activists want to impose their intense brand of homosexual sensitivity training governmentwide, including a discussion that compares “heterosexism” – believing marriage can be between only one man and one woman – to racism.

The Post and Courier: Graham said he “will not be intimidated” by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Charisma: “The people of Wisconsin recognize that marriage provides a strong foundation for a thriving society. That’s why they approved a constitutional amendment that specifically protects marriage from all imitators. Politicians and activist groups should not be allowed to get around that,” says ADF Senior Legal Counsel Austin R. Nimocks. “We will appeal this decision because this domestic partnership scheme is precisely the type of marriage imitation that the voters intended to prevent.”

After a marathon session Tuesday to pass deals involving taxes, state university tuition and other issues, the Republican-led Senate will be able to focus on whether to release a gay marriage bill to the floor for a vote.

Mimi Swartz at the NYTimes.com: Some gay evangelicals truly believe that to follow their sexual orientation means abandonment by a church that provides them with emotional and social sustenance — not to mention eternal damnation. Keeping their sexual orientation a secret, however, means giving up any opportunity to have fulfilling relationships as gay men and women. “When these clash, what do you do?” . . . It wasn’t until around 2004 that Flanigan found an answer, one that was given legitimacy by the American Psychological Association (A.P.A.) five years later and one that complicated the conventional wisdom about sexual identity and sexual orientation.

BusinessWeek: Voters in Liechtenstein have overwhelmingly backed a new law giving gay and lesbian couples the right to formally register their partnership.

Steven Petrow at 365gay.com: Fortunately, many school districts have reacted to changing circumstances by modernizing this little ritual (along with its counterpart, Mother’s Day), either by changing its name to “Parent’s Day” or simply by letting the kids make a card for any relative, teacher, or role model.

NPR: Gays and lesbians marched in several Eastern European capitals Saturday protected by hundreds of riot police after some extremist groups urged members to stop the Gay Pride rallies.

Greg Sargent at The Washington Post: As I noted here yesterday, the problem is that Obama has left everyone believing that he believes in full equality but that he’s not quite prepared to take the final step of saying so.

China.org.cn: While talking about making genre movies in China on Wednesday in Shanghai, some well-known film directors explicitly expressed their great disappointment at China’s film censorship. “The only reason that we cannot make genre movies is the barrier that censorship sets,” Chinese director Jia Zhangke said.

CNN: The National Labor Relations Board unveiled new rule changes Tuesday that could speed up votes on whether or not employees at a company want to belong to a union.

USA Today: Planned Parenthood of Indiana began cutting back services today and will shut eight clinics this week as a state law cutting off funding takes effect, The Indianapolis Star reports.

LifeSiteNews.com:
Spain’s government is systematically violating the conscience rights of health care workers on abortion, says a group of legal experts that is now taking action to restore those rights.

Christian Post: Evangelicals in the U.K. have rebuked comments made by the Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Britain for accusing evangelical Christians of wanting to “have a fight,” and that they “choose sexual orientation as the ground to fight” out of political motivation.

ITProPortal.com: To show its support for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, Google has recently added a rainbow feature to its search results which is being displayed at the right end side of the search bar, PC Mag reports.

LifeSiteNews.com: A ban on federal funds for “telemedicine” medical abortions was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last week as an amendment to an appropriations bill governing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which passed later the same day.

The Daily Caller: Congressional talks are breaking down over No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and the Obama administration’s arbitrary back-to-school timeline for reauthorizing the law is slipping away. So Duncan is preparing to circumvent Congress by granting states waivers to get out from under some of NCLB’s mandates.

LifeNews.com: Legislation allowing motorists in the Tar Heels State to purchase Choose Life license plates is one step closer to becoming law thanks to a vote by the North Carolina state legislature to send the bill to Governor Bev Perdue.

LifeNews.com: Add Newt Gingrich to the list of Republican presidential candidates hitting Mitt Romney over his decision to not sign a pledge the Susan B. Anthony List sponsored on four key pro-life issues.

Deseret News: Looking to build a broad consensus of GOP support, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman Jr. is actively courting the support of gay Republicans.

The School Law Blog: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday made it more difficult for public employees to gain First Amendment protections for their workplace grievances.

Opinion analysis: Limits on “Petition Clause” : SCOTUSblog: The Court allows public employees with workplace grievances to file a lawsuit against their government employer under the First Amendment’s Petition Clause, but only if the lawsuit involves a “matter of public concern” — the same limitation that the Court has previously placed upon public workers’ lawsuit under the Amendment’s Free Speech Clause.

Religion Clause: According to The Layman Online, a Missouri state trial court has ruled in favor of the break-away Colonial Presbyterian Church, one of Kansas City’s largest Presbyterian congregations, in its land ownership dispute with the Presbyterian Church USA.

Religion Clause: In Kubala v. Hartford Roman Catholic Diocesan, 2011 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1260 (CT Super. Ct., May 20, 2011), a Connecticut state trial court dismissed a lawsuit brought against a Catholic priest, his church and the Hartford Diocese seeking damages for injuries plaintiff received when, during a Catholic Charismatic Renewal healing service she was physically injured.

Thomas Sowell at Townhall: Someone needs to say to those who want Social Security and Medicare to continue on unchanged: “Don’t you understand? The money is not there any more.”

AP: The World Health Organization urged governments Tuesday to eliminate laws criminalizing sexual activity between consenting men, as part of an effort to ensure they get equal access to HIV prevention and treatment.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State: In 2002, President George W. Bush rolled back these protections by issuing a new order that allows religious organizations that receive government contracts to discriminate in hiring based on religion.

LifeNews.com: The NAACP is not happy with a new campaign sponsored by a black pro-life advocate that has new billboards placed in Atlanta, Georgia with the message “Abortion Enslaves Us” and “The 14th Amendment Made Us Members. Abortion Dismembers.”

ACLU: Three civil liberties organizations filed suit today in Denver District Court to challenge a school voucher plan adopted by the Douglas County School District. The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued on behalf of a group of parents, clergy and other taxpayers who oppose the program’s effort to divert taxpayer money to primarily religious, private schools. | Complaint: LaRue v. Colorado Board of Education

WSJ.com: Indications are emerging that dissenting voices are gaining traction in the public square. For instance, ordinary Chinese are running for election in local legislative bodies that are usually rubber-stamp bodies filled with reliable worthies chosen by the Party.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at Townhall: The culture of death is relentless. And certain of its adherents—Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America, for example—are not only committed to the promotion, provision, and performance of abortions, but to removing every obstacle that might deter a woman from having one.

We conclude that the Adoption Act, N.J.S.A. 9:3-38 to -56, does not preclude plaintiffs from seeking visitation under the grandparent visitation statute . . .

In nature, 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. This ratio is biologically ironclad. Between 104 and 106 is the normal range, and that’s as far as the natural window goes. Any other number is the result of unnatural events. Yet today in India there are 112 boys born for every 100 girls. In China, the number is 121—though plenty of Chinese towns are over the 150 mark.