Daily Archives: August 3, 2011

LaTimes.com: ssemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) said he wrote the measure in response to a March 2003 incident in which graphic images of an aborted fetus were mounted on a vehicle and driven past a middle school in Rancho Palos Verdes.

AFP: US debt shot up $238 billion to reach 100 percent of gross domestic project after the government’s debt ceiling was lifted, Treasury figures showed Wednesday.

The Republic: hese days, Bechman has set his secular sights on what he considers another separation issue — a framed poster in the Simi Valley City Council’s foyer in City Hall saluting U.S. military personnel. The problem, in Bechman’s view, is that the poster also states “God Bless America” and “God Bless You.”

SandSpringsLeader.com: For as long as could be remembered, Sand Springs city councilors have been starting their meetings with a prayer. That custom is being challenged by a man who charges that the prayers violate the U.S. Constitution.

ADF attorney Dale Schowengerdt appeared on KPXQ with Tom Brown to discuss | MP3 audio 12 mins | Center for Arizona Policy Blog Post by Dale

GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, proudly announced it has received a five-year grant from the CDC to establish “safe zones” in 20 schools nationwide.

USATODAY.com: “I support the federal marriage amendment and I also support the same with the issue of abortion,” Perry told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “And I also support that same process for a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution so Washington will finally get the message of, ‘Hey, quit spending all the money.’ ”

Baptist Press: ABC Family became the second network to receive an excellent rating from a gay advocacy organization for its positive portrayal of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders, according to a report released August 3.

AP: Carlos Apolinario, the law’s author, says Heterosexual Pride Day is not anti-gay but a protest against what he says are the privileges the gay community enjoys.

NBC Bay Area: City Attorney Dennis Herrera has asked one anti-abortion center, First Resort, Inc, to stop buying ads that pop up when people are searching for abortion providers, reports SF Weekly.

LifeNews.com: 63 million women are missing from Asia. That is the entire female population of the United States.

The Commercial Appeal: U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice B. Donald will get a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate on Sept. 6, the first day Congress reconvenes after its five week summer recess, a Senate staffer confirmed this morning.

LifeNews.com: n June, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland (PPH), a large and very aggressive affiliate, announced it would be opening a dozen new facilities in Iowa and Nebraska in addition to the abortion clinics it already operated in these Midwestern states.

David French at National Review Online: Our military is comprised of hundreds of thousands of Christians and thousands of members of other faiths (and thousands of atheists as well). They come from different intellectual and spiritual traditions, and the government is emphatically not “serving” them when it essentially acts as if they — or their ideas — don’t exist.

The Tribune & SanLuisObispo.com: House Bill 2075 bars insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their regular health coverage plans. Under the bill’s provisions, general insurance plans could cover termination of pregnancy only in emergency situations to save the life of the mother.

LifeNews.com: An arguably unconstitutional effort in San Francisco at regulating the speech of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers was portrayed by Times reporter Jesse McKinley as an effort to “stem… misleading advertising”:

NECN: The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists filed a motion to intervene in the case Monday, along with a notice of its appeal of the injunction. The group claims it has legal standing in the case because its members in Kansas are losing childbirth-related business to abortion clinics.

Christian Post: Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, 16, has escaped from a gang of Muslims who kidnapped her last year, but it may be a long time before she recovers from the trauma

CTV News: A B.C. judge has ordered a speedy trial for a dying woman who wants to challenge Canada’s laws against assisted suicide.

NYTimes.com: The Fourth Circuit deserves credit for saying that a government that favors one faith flouts the inclusive nature of American government, harming church and state

72 charged in online child porn ring – CBS News: Seventy-two people have been charged–of which 52 were arrested–in an worldwide online child pornography enterprise, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

LifeNews.com: The National Catholic Register is out today with a lengthy profile of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and whether he can truly be considered pro-life on the issue of abortion. The question haunts him now as it did in the 2008 presidential election. The fact that Romney is unable to shake the question of the sincerity of his pro-life beliefs is a twofold problem.

The White House: Today, President Obama nominated Judge Adalberto José Jordánto the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

ABC News: Although challenges to the Obama administration’s health care law are being heard across the country, two important appellate court rulings are expected this summer that could determine whether the issue eventually lands in front of the Supreme Court.

SignOnSanDiego.com: A lawyer for the Christian groups said he was disappointed with the decision. “The court upheld a policy that clearly treats Christian groups worse than other groups on campus,” attorney Jordan Lorence said.

LifeNews.com: A pro-life legal firm is pressing on with a lawsuit it has filed on behalf of a former employee of the California affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business alleging he was fired for exposing massive fraud

Religion Clause: AP reported yesterday that the federal government has taken the unusual step of asserting the state secrets privilege in a motion to dismiss most of a lawsuit filed in federal district court in southern California against the FBI over its use of informants to infiltrate mosques.

Legal Intelligencer: The parents of a Cozen O’Connor partner who left the bulk of her estate to her wife argued the profit-sharing benefits the daughter accrued at the firm should go to them because Pennsylvania and federal law does not recognize same-sex marriages. | O’Connor v. Tobits

Religion Clause: Haaretz today reports on the latest volley in the battle between religious and secular Jews in Israel over the text used at the official military ceremonies remembering fallen soldiers, including the state ceremony each year at the end of Memorial Day and the beginning of Israel Independence Day.

Rasmussen Reports: Americans think the Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, but they overwhelmingly believe that separation is not violated by plans to include the so-called 9/11 cross in a memorial on the site of the World Trade Center.

Armstrong Williams at Townhall: An utterly riveting cable TV show called the “Love Crimes of Kabul” follows the stories of Afghan women who have been imprisoned for breaking strict Sharia law governing sex outside of marriage. Their crimes would be hardly recognizable in the United States: adultery, fornication, prostitution and lewd behavior have become pretty much the norm here.

Congress has fired back in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.

Rebecca Hagelin at Townhall: While a pessimistic view of the other person and the marriage worsens the relationship, cultivating a positive mindset towards your spouse—focusing on their strengths and gifts-will, says Neff, “remind you of why you’re in that relationship in the first place.” And that’s good for every marriage.

The Guardian: Fear is driving a silent bank run in Greece – but some see the government’s austerity plans as a chance to transform

CNBC: Europe is a “train wreck” and on the “brink of a major financial crisis,” Scott Minerd, CIO of the fixed-income firm Guggenheim Partners, told CNBC Tuesday.

MyFoxNY.com: Taxed-out New Yorkers are voting with their feet, with a staggering 1.6 million residents fleeing the state over the last decade.

OneNewsNow.com: “The Freedom From Religion Foundation has no valid, legal argument to demand that the prayers be censored or eliminated,” contends Brett Harvey, senior counsel for the ADF. “They simply don’t like the prayers being uttered at public meetings, and so they’re on a seek-and-destroy mission to rid cities and counties of such prayers through coordinated attacks like this one. [more by Brett; Mike Johnson also quoted]

San Francisco Chronicle: The Christian groups’ lawyer, Jordan Lorence of the Alliance Defense Fund, said he may ask the Supreme Court to take up the case. “A vegan group can exclude meat-eaters, and anti-death penalty groups can exclude people who don’t support their cause” while receiving campus funding and other benefits, like access to meeting rooms, Lorence said. He said the school policy relegates religious groups to second-class status.’ | Alpha Delta Chi-Delta Chapter v. Reed, No. 09-55299

Christian Post: Christians shouldn’t be arrested and silenced for peacefully sharing their beliefs on public property,” said Alliance Defense Fund Senior Counsel Nate Kellum in a statement released on Monday.

Bloomberg: China, the largest foreign investor in U.S. government securities, joined Russia in criticizing American policy makers for failing to ensure borrowing is reined in after a stopgap deal to raise the nation’s debt limit.

Byron Johnson at Public Discourse: n sum, considering costs and benefits purely from an economic perspective, we can no longer afford to overlook faith-based approaches to crime reduction. Much can be achieved if we can overcome the last acceptable prejudices that continue to hinder building the partnerships and networks of support, both sacred and secular, needed to address successfully a number of our current crime-related problems.

The Barna Group: One nation under God? Perhaps, but new statistics released by the Barna Group, as part of its State of the Church – 2011 report, suggest that there is great variety of religious belief and behavior found across the country. The latest in a series of six reports that track changes in America’s religious nature since 1991 reveals that some of the old religious stereotypes no longer hold water. Deeper insight into those variations is accessible through a commentary by lead researcher George Barna at his blog site, georgebarna.com.

U.S. Dept. of State: We deplore the attack today outside the Holy Family Church in Kirkuk and extend our condolences to the victims’ families and loved ones. Attacks like this, which target religious minorities, demonstrate the extent to which certain terrorist groups will go to disrupt the progress Iraq has made toward reducing violence