Daily Archives: July 7, 2011

AP: For decades Congress has used its power over the District of Columbia to ban the city from paying for abortions for poor women, but during a two-year period when lawmakers reversed course at least 300 women got city-funded procedures, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

After an emotional debate, German lawmakers voted Thursday to allow a procedure that looks for genetic disorders in embryos before they are implanted in the womb.

Chris Strohm at The Atlantic: The case of a Mexican man scheduled to be executed on Thursday in Texas threatens to disrupt U.S. diplomatic relations abroad and creates a politically volatile dilemma for Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for president. Unless Perry or the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes to stay the execution, Texas plans to execute Humberto Leal Jr. at 6 p.m. Central Time for the 1994 murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda.

The document, which has a total of fourteen points is called, “The Marriage Vow-A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family”

Bloomberg: The case is Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina v. Cansler, 11-cv-531, U.S. District Court, Middle District of North Carolina (Greensboro).

ZENIT: Political advocacy for assisted suicide in the United States dates back to the eugenics movement of the early 20th century and the failed Ohio euthanasia bill of 1906.

How Appealing links to reports and the ruling in Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC.

Baptist Press: Despite restrictions due to the Chinese Communist Party’s 90th anniversary, members of Shouwang Church in Beijing continued to meet outdoors July 3, leading to at least 19 arrests.

ZENIT: A human person is much more than a sexual orientation or an identification with the homosexual or heterosexual lifestyle, say the bishops of Canada.
The Commission for Doctrine of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) stated this in a pastoral letter released June 27 on the issue of ministering to “adolescents and young adults who question their sexual identity or experience feelings of same sex attraction.”

NewsMax: “We’ve not had one minute of debate about the debt ceiling in any committee,” the Kentucky Republican told C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” in a Sunday interview.

Newsmax: Several freshmen Republican senators are adopting strong parliamentary tactics to advance their policy agendas. And that’s causing headaches for the Senate leadership — Democratic and Republican alike — Politico reports.

A landmark ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for the first time explicitly recognizing the right to conscientious objection to military service . . .

Hotline On Call: Democratic political operatives overwhelmingly say the time has come for gay marriage, while a majority of Republicans now believe they should just avoid this issue, according to this week’s National Journal Political Insiders Poll.

Christian Post: Two other senators have already called for Ocasio to step down. Hutchison is asking the Veterans Affairs Secretary to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ocasio’s actions, according to KHOU.

NOLA.com: Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law Wednesday a measure that will revise and expand the information that abortion clinics and the state health agency must publish for women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

KansasCity.com: Gov. Sam Brownback is drawing fresh criticism from abortion rights supporters for naming an attorney who’s previously represented anti-abortion protesters to the state board that regulates doctors.

The Washington Post: Two founders of a new Russian opposition party have been barred from leaving the country for six months, after court officials ruled that a correction they were ordered to publish did not have a large-enough headline and was missing a key word.

Yahoo: op US lawmakers plan Thursday to welcome the Dalai Lama in a show of support as China stepped up pressure on President Barack Obama not to hold his own meeting with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

CNSnews.com: The United States government voiced concern Wednesday about the plight of an Iranian Christian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy. Reports say his appeal to a higher court resulted in a stark choice – disavow the Christian faith or die.

OneNewsNow.com: conservative military watchdog is throwing its support behind a House bill that will ensure defense tax dollars aren’t used to implement policy changes that violate the Defense of Marriage Act.

LifeNews.com: UN agencies have stepped up funding of International Planned Parenthood Federation despite an economic downturn and increasing government reticence to fund the organization over abortion.

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence at Speak Up Movement University Blog: Law professor John Banzhaf of George Washington Law School in D.C. is threatening to sue Catholic University for “discrimination” because he equates single sex dorms to illegal racial segregation under the District of Columbia Human Rights Code. The absurdity and extremeness of his legal theory can be demonstrated by the fact that buildings operated by the District of Columbia blatantly “discriminate” the same way by having “men’s” and “women’s” restrooms. Shocking, isn’t it?

LifeNews.com: In a new letter to House lawmakers, the nation’s Catholic bishops and a Catholic group that helps the poor urge them to keep in mind pro-life policies when putting together legislation funding various federal government departments.

Telegraph: Lesbian couples are twice as likely as gay men to separate, according to new figures showing a 44% rise in the number of civil partnerships that were dissolved last year.

KOB.com (includes video): An anti-abortion protestor was attacked outside an abortion clinic in Albuquerque on Tuesday and the incident was caught on tape.

Telegraph: A law stripping sperm donors of their right to anonymity has resulted in couples being forced to wait 18 months for infertility treatment.

Israel National News: The recent vote by Dutch legislators to ban kosher slaughter has left local Jews concerned, according to Dutch Chief Rabbi Benjamin Jacobs.

LifeNews.com: The sexual rights guide “Exclaim!” calls for a cornucopia of sexuality and gender protections and entitlements under the guise of international law. “Governments must respect, protect and fulfill all sexual rights for young people,” the publication states.

Bloomberg: New York City’s clerk will extend office hours to handle an expected flood of couples the week beginning July 24, when New York’s law allowing same-sex marriages takes effect . . . The city expects to reap millions of dollars in additional economic impact from the law as it markets itself as a gay- wedding destination.

The Christian Institute: Art critic and TV personality, Brian Sewell, has hit out at the excessive number of homosexuals, transsexuals, and teenage lesbian characters on popular TV soap Coronation Street.

William Saunders at Public Discourse: Planned Parenthood must account for its disregard for the law if it wishes to retain state funding.

“Gay marriage” in fact represents a vast expansion of state power: In this instance, the state of New York is declaring that it has the competence to redefine a basic human institution . . .

Hillel Ofek at The New Atlantis: To anyone familiar with this Golden Age, roughly spanning the eighth through the thirteenth centuries a.d., the disparity between the intellectual achievements of the Middle East then and now — particularly relative to the rest of the world — is staggering indeed. In his 2002 book What Went Wrong?, historian Bernard Lewis notes that “for many centuries the world of Islam was in the forefront of human civilization and achievement.” “Nothing in Europe,” notes Jamil Ragep, a professor of the history of science at the University of Oklahoma, “could hold a candle to what was going on in the Islamic world until about 1600.” Algebra, algorithm, alchemy, alcohol, alkali, nadir, zenith, coffee, and lemon: these words all derive from Arabic, reflecting Islam’s contribution to the West.

Today, however, the spirit of science in the Muslim world is as dry as the desert.

San Jose Mercury News: Marijuana groups representing thousands of patients and caregivers are suing to block Colorado’s sweeping limits on how pot can be sold starting Friday.

Courthouse News Service: Another coalition of Wisconsin unions sued Gov. Scott Walker in Federal Court, claiming his “Budget Repair Bill” violates the Municipal Employment Relations Act and the Constitution.

“The reality is that the major textbook manufacturers do not create different textbooks for each state,” noted Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute.

Jonathan Adler at The Volokh Conspiracy: Last Friday, the Justice Department filed its merits brief in Golinski v. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, arguing against dismissal of the suit challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act

LifeNews.com: A national pro-life group has issued a new report featuring a groundbreaking analysis of the nation’s largest abortion business Planned Parenthood. Americans United for Life says it has uncovered evidence of systemic financial irregularities within the abortion giant, which receives more than $363 million in federal and state taxpayer funding, and that Congress should investigate.

CNSnews.com: The House Judiciary Committee is launching an investigation to probe the involvement that Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan had in “health care legislation or litigation” when she was serving as President Barack Obama’s solicitor general and was responsible for defending the administration’s position in federal court cases.

Marybeth Hicks at Townhall : In fact, “early gender socialization” is deemed unhealthy for children by powerful progressive organizations such as UNICEF, which defines “gender socialization” as “the process by which people learn to behave in a certain way, as dictated by societal beliefs, values, attitudes and examples.” UNICEF decries this process, noting that it begins even before a child is born when the community anticipates its arrival as a boy or girl.

LifeSiteNews.com: Adoption is a “golden option” that should be offered to pregnant teenage girls and women unable to raise their child, says the UK’s new Government Ministerial Advisor on adoption.

LifeSiteNews.com: A chilling 911 call from an abortion clinic, in which a clinic worker describes the worsening condition of a botched abortion victim, has been released by Operation Rescue.

The Volokh Conspiracy : he Hawthorne Police Department filed two counts of harassment charges in the fourth degree on June 9 against a primary candidate . . . According to a court document, Speulda sent fliers to residents of the 2nd ward that contained “a picture of the victim, who was running for borough council, in a tub with two men knowing the victim was homosexual” and made communications in a manner likely to cause annoyance specifically by going door to door to residents of the 2nd ward and handing out literature that made reference to “the victim’s sexual orientation knowing that the victim was homosexual.”

Religion Clause: In Doe v. Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis, (MO App. July 5, 2011), a Missouri appellate court rejected plaintiff’s claim against the Archdiocese of St. Louis for intentional failure to supervise one of its priests who sexually abused plaintiff as a teenager.

Stanley Fish at the NYTimes.com: And there you have it: a clash between the worship of freedom of speech and a concern for the quality of public life in relation to which free speech may sometimes be asked to take a back seat. It is the same clash that pits the freedom to play video games against society’s interest in fostering a generation of young adults responsive to its ideals and aspirations. We have seen this before — in the pornography cases, in the crush-video case, in the case upholding the right of an anti-gay ministry to picket the funerals of soldiers — and we shall certainly see it again.

Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski at The Huffington Post: Liberal pundits are panicking over constitutional conservatism. They shouldn’t, because every child — whether the parents are liberal or conservative — will benefit from constitutional conservatism’s ascendency. If America elects a constitutional conservative president and Congress in 2012, we’ll move forward as a freedom-loving nation.

Olympia Snowe and Jim DeMint at the WSJ.com: Before we consider saddling our children with even more debt, we must enact significant spending cuts and enforceable caps on future spending. For the long term, to prevent both this Congress and its successors from hijacking the promise of American prosperity, we also need a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, like the one we and all 47 Senate Republicans have introduced.

VIS news – Holy See Press Office: The Agreement, which is written in English and Azeri and includes a preamble and eight articles, regulates the position of the Catholic Church in Azerbaijan.

Catholic Culture: he lower house of Russia’ parliament, the Duma, has approved legislation that will require all abortion advertisements to include warnings about the risks to the mother’s health.

Livingston, NJ Patch: “It’s ridiculous to stop citizens from displaying a cross on their own property,” says ADF Litigation Staff Counsel Jonathan Scruggs. “The Constitution guarantees the right of Americans to express their religious beliefs in this fashion, and no local ordinance can trump that. In this case, however, the ordinance itself doesn’t actually even prohibit these crosses. The law is being used in a vague fashion to stop him from doing what he wishes on his own private property.”

The Washington Post: Advocates of this approach cite the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that the “validity of the public debt of the United States . . . shall not be questioned.” On Wednesday at a White House question-and-answer session held via the Web service Twitter, Obama said the debate over raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling shouldn’t become a constitutional question.

A U.S. appeals court in California on Wednesday ordered the Obama administration to allow gays to serve openly in the military, heightening pressure on the Pentagon to quickly carry out its plans to end the 1993 don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy.

Raymond Abrahim at the Middle East Forum: If growing numbers of Muslims in Egypt have an intrinsic hatred for all things Christian— demonstrated days ago by the torching of eight Christian homes on the rumor that a church was being built—let us not forget that this hate has instrumental, that is, economic benefits: the extortion of money from the non-believer—tribute from the conquered infidels to their Islamic overlords—otherwise known as jizya.