Daily Archives: August 23, 2011

LifeSiteNews.com: Health officials in New Mexico appear to be resisting an investigation of abortion facilities that have placed multiple botched-abortion calls to 911 in recent months, according to pro-life leaders. Meanwhile, the pro-life leaders say a report has emerged of a woman dying at one of the facilities just last month.

11alive.com: Like most governments, the City Council of this Fayette County municipality of 37,000 begins their meetings with a prayer. But now they’re being threatened with legal action if they don’t change it.

Christopher J. Stravitsch at LifeSiteNews.com: In the struggle to define marriage and sexuality, we need all parents to get in the game. Parents are faced with the challenge of educating their children in “the true meaning of human sexuality,” but they should not be discouraged.

AP: California lawmakers heard testimony Tuesday on whether local jurisdictions have the right to ban male circumcision or whether the practice should be covered by statewide rules, a debate that evolved from a divisive ballot measure in San Francisco.

David Hudson at The Volokh Conspiracy: One of the most pressing issues in student-speech jurisprudence concerns when school officials can punish public school students for posting profane, racy, bullying or otherwise objectionable material online. Several federal courts of appeals have weighed in on the issue, heightening the possibility of U.S. Supreme Court review . . .

No Labels: The results of the phone survey also reveal that members of both parties share the blame, with about 67% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans stating they had no town hall meetings scheduled for the recess period.

Catholic Culture: In the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, the ministry of health in the Jhunjhunu district has set a goal of sterilizing 1% of the population and is paying people to be sterilized.

Bluegrass Policy Blog: “…71% of respondents said that they have trust and confidence in America’s teachers. However, when asked about the teacher unions, 47% say they believe the unions have hurt education, compared to only 26% believing the unions have helped education.”

Asia News: The Catholic Church condemns the Nepalese governments proposed new penal code that prohibits conversions.

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at TellADF Blog: It’s an extraordinary breakthrough – a remarkable opportunity for the Alliance Defense Fund to stand in defense of religious freedom in the United Kingdom in cases that – if they are decided the wrong way – could have a negative impact on your religious liberty here in the United States.
On August 12, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) granted ADF permission to intervene in four rights of conscience (“freedom to disagree”) cases originating in the UK . . .

SCOTUSblog: Steve Sanders, visiting assistant professor at University of Michigan Law School, reminds us that if the Supreme Court agrees to decide the question of same-sex marriage, it will also affect the lives of many couples who are already married.

The Blog of Legal Times: District of Columbia Court of Appeals Chief Judge Eric Washington recently began his term as president of the Conference of Chief Justices, a national organization that makes policy recommendations, develops educational programs and advises state judicial systems on best practices for court administration.

LifeNews.com: If passed, H.R. 2121, the “China Democracy Promotion Act of 2011,” would enable the President to deny entry into the U.S. for Chinese nationals who have “committed human rights abuses” against people in China. Anyone who “has participated in the imposition of . . . China’s coercive birth limitation policy” is included.

FoxNews.com: Planned Parenthood may return to federal court to force Kansas to immediately release federal funds for the group’s non-abortion services because it doesn’t believe the state is complying with a judge’s order, the leader of its regional chapter said Thursday.

Washington Times: Top Republicans denounced Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Tuesday for saying during a visit to China that he “fully understand[s]” Beijing’s one-child policy, which has led to forced abortions and forced sterilizations. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in a statement that Mr. Biden’s words “should shock the conscience of every American.”

LifeNews.com: Joe Scheidler is used to personal attacks from abortion advocates and the man who has publicly opposed abortions for decades. He’s faced everything from death threats to vandalism, but a new attack from abortion backers tried a new tactic.

Fox Nation: A New Jersey school district has apologized to parents after requiring high school students to read books that include graphic depictions of lesbian sex and a homosexual orgy.

allAfrica.com: : Regional and continental legal bodies have launched another withering attack on the judicial authorities in Swaziland for failing to conclude the farcical disciplinary process involving High Court Judge, Thomas Masuku, who remains suspended from the bench.

WTAW: A federal judge is asking attorneys for veterans groups and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to settle a lawsuit accusing Houston VA officials of religious discrimination.

The Advocate (a homosexual advocacy publication): Some family law experts are astounded by a Houston judge’s order in a custody case — it forbids a gay man to leave his children alone with his husband.

New York Times: As the Bush administration sought to muster backing for a strike against Iraq in the Security Council, the United Nations moved forward this week toward creating an International Criminal Court — a project that America’s allies hope the United States will support over

The Australian: MORE than 50 church leaders have directly appealed to all 226 federal MPs not to change the Marriage Act, kicking off a campaign to defeat moves by Labor and the Greens to allow same-sex marriage.

KLFY.com: An atheist group wants a local superintendent to reprimand one of his principals for allowing a prayer rally to take place in a school.

Dayton Daily News: The debate over bringing creationism into Springboro classrooms ended after a shift in viewpoint by the school board member who started the discussion, which prompted a national response, including threats of legal action.

Houston Chronicle: A southeastern Kentucky public school district had stopped its practice of a public prayer before high school football games.

Spero News: A Christian family consisting of 26 persons, including women and children, was enslaved in Pakistan for over 30 years.

aLifeNews.com: The Obama administration is renewing efforts to promote abortion to children — following on the heels of decisions by the pro-abortion president to de-fund abstinence education programs that have helped teenagers.

The Stir: It’s hard being a new mom (or even an experienced mom to a new baby) and sometimes we do things we know we shouldn’t, despite what all the experts say. But this is a safe place to share your secrets (PM me)—we’ll never tell.

The Christian Institute: A controversial proposal to allow commercial abortion providers to advertise their services on television and radio has come under fire

NYTimes.com: In an unusual scientific about-face, researchers at Northwestern University have found evidence that at least some men who identify themselves as bisexual are, in fact, sexually aroused by both women and men.

NYPOST.com: One in four New York newlyweds is gay. Since same-sex marriage went into effect July 24, roughly 1,400 gay couples have tied the knot citywide, according to data obtained by The Post.

Brisbane Times: Katter’s Australian Party has signalled it will not accept candidates who support gay marriage or who shun “Christian values”.

But when the California couple returned in 2011, they said, the clinic told them the fertilized embryos were gone.

News from Maine Family Policy Council: Featured on the national webinar will be America’s premier Christian thinker and spokesman, Chuck Colson, Bishop Joe Mattera of New York City, Pastor Benny Tate of Atlanta, GA, and Pastor Jim Franklin of Fresno, CA, along with Attorney Erik Stanley from Leawood, KS.
The second webinar – a Media Training Seminar – at 1 PM Eastern – is for all pastors and Christian leaders who would like to learn how to handle interviews with the media. The facilitator will be Bruce Smith who handles media relations for the 2,000+ allied attorneys of the Alliance Defense Fund. She is remarkably skilled.

365gay.com: Lawyer Kenneth J. Allen told RadarOnline that he also plans to “challenge Indiana law’s lack of recognition of a same-sex partner as a beneficiary under its wrongful-death law, and seek damages from the state for the victim’s 17-year-old daughter.”

AP: Standard & Poor’s says that its president is stepping down, an announcement coming only weeks after the rating agency’s unprecedented move to strip the United States of its AAA credit rating.

AP: A mayor is trying to ban Christian churches on streets with Islamic names, the latest attempt to block construction of a new parish in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

AP: Sales of new homes fell for the third straight month in July, a sign that housing remains a drag on the economy. If the current pace continues, 2011 would be the worst year for new-home sales in nearly half a century.

LifeNews.com: The new report, published today in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, finds 97 percent of physicians surveyed say they have encountered patients wanting an abortion while only 14 percent of doctors are willing to do an abortion.

Peter J. Reilly at Forbes: My own view is that a fairly simple fix would be to put in a dollar limit in effect. Rev you can buy as many houses as your want but your tax-exempt housing allowance is limited to 4 grand. If that’s good enough for an admiral on Nantucket, it should be good enough for you. I’m not knocking religion here. I really think that the exclusion inviting abuse is bad for religion.

Findlaw: The White House is revealing plans to save businesses $10 billion by scrapping hundreds of government regulations found to be outdated, unfair or unnecessary.

OneNewsNow.com: “It’s certainly our hope that a majority of the Supreme Court will understand that it’s not permissible for any state agency at any level to completely ban an entire category of books,” Cortman contends. “It’s just another way of the dumbing down of our public education system.”

Minnesota Public Radio News (includes audio): Jeremy Tedesco, a legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization, is convinced the district will prevail here and retain the policy. “It’s well-established in the law that public school districts have very broad discretion when it comes to curricular decisions,” he said. Tedesco says a case about Creationism that went before the Supreme Court in the 1980s is relevant to Anoka-Hennepin. In that case, the court stated that “states and local school boards are generally afforded considerable discretion in operating public schools.’” Tedesco also said it will be a challenge for plaintiffs to directly link harassment to the neutrality policy. “I don’t think there’s any connection between the two,” Tedesco said.

The New American: David Cortman, senior legal counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the legal advocacy group representing Moffett and the charter school, told the Idaho Press-Tribune in an e-mail that he is prepared to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. “In our opinion, the court failed to perform any meaningful analysis of any issue in the case,” Cortman wrote, “including the seminal one: whether there is any educational purpose to ban all religious documents from objective teaching….” In addition, he charged, the 9th Circuit panel ignored the right of local school districts to choose their own texts and curricula. “Censoring books, including religious books, is not the proper way to educate children,” Cortman said in an ADF statement, adding: The court’s opinion requiring the removal of religious books to comply with the so-called “separation of church and state” conflicts with established U.S. Supreme Court precedent stating that “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.”

Religion Clause: In Britain, the Federation of Student Islamic Societies is pressing the British government to create a new student loan system that is consistent with Sharia law.

Religion Clause: Chris Rodda blogging last week at Talk To Action reports on the findings so far by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation in its investigation of Pentagon spending on faith-based programming– mostly evangelical Christian in emphasis.

The Hill: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the elimination of 83 outdated and obsolete agency rules on Monday, including the controversial Fairness Doctrine.

FoxNews.com: But when I see that the content involves a token nod to abstinence and an emphasis on “safer sex” practices, I’m reminded of a saying made popular by Alcoholics Anonymous: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.”

Christian Post: More than 540,000 people have committed to a boycott of Home Depot over its support of homosexual activism, according to a spokesperson of the group organizing the boycott.

SCOTUSblog: NYU Law School’s Kenji Yoshino argues that the Court can apply the more stringent form of “rational-basis” review to restrictions on same-sex marriage.

Presidential candidates in the next election should uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

LaTimes.com: Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It’s now $14,639,000,000,000. When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20, 2009, CBS’ amazing number cruncher Mark Knoller reports, the national debt was $10,626,000,000,000. That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That’s the fastest increase under any president ever.