Daily Archives: October 12, 2011

J.D. Long-Garcia and Joyce Coronel at »The Catholic Review Online: The battle over conscience rights has been ongoing, said Nik Nikas, president and general counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund. “When you stand for conscience,” Nikas said, “you are indicting others.” He told a story of a Catholic medical student who was mocked by his professor for stepping out during a sterilization procedure. Alan Sears, CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, lauded legislation recently passed in Arizona that limits and restricts the right to abortion. Religious communities are an essential part of the fabric of America, he said, and their rights of conscience must be protected. “Those who are treated in Catholic hospitals and by people like you … receive better care,” Sears said.

OMB Watch: According to the Alliance Defense Fund, the more than 475 pastors who registered to participate in Pulpit Freedom Sunday “committed to preach sermons that present biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates.” Garlow described his sermon in two parts: in one section, he would discuss issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, and in another, he would discuss candidates.

This September, 729 abortions – that’s 324 fewer abortions – a 30% decrease,” Herrod explained.

LifeNews.com: Today, U.S. Judge Thomas Marten unsurprisingly acquiesced to ACLU’s petition that the Dodge City Family Planning (DCFP) clinic join the Planned Parenthood lawsuit over Title X money distributed by the Kansas state health department.

Baptist Press: The poll by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling shows the amendment winning by a margin of 61-34 with support from Republicans, Independents and Democrats.

Boston.com: The alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States may be an act of war against the U.S., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.

MSNBC.com: The Chicago Tribune and WGN-TV, which obtained information about union pension benefits during a joint investigation, said at least eight union officials in Chicago were eligible for what were described as inflated city pensions on top of union pensions for the same period of employment.

Mail Online: The European Human Rights system grants foreign murders the right to have a family life but it is powerless to deal with the real evils of a show-trial of a former Prime Minister in the ex-Soviet state of Ukraine. This Ukranian episode clearly demonstrates the toothlessness of European human rights system to bring about any real and effective civil liberties in the countries that need it the most.

TriplePundit.com: Europe’s highest court released an opinion on October 6th, finding that the proposed mandatory inclusion of non-European based airlines in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), is compatible with international law.

NCRegister.com: California governor authorized the measure on Oct. 9; children as young as 12 can receive vaccinations and other medications to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, including HPV, without their parents’ notification.

The Harvard Crimson: Missed the “Smile, your mom chose life!” posters around the Yard last week? Thanks to some of your fellow classmates, probably so. Just as regular as the descent of midterm season in October is the tearing down of Harvard Right to Life’s posters every time pro-life students attempt to share their message of life with the campus.

LifeSiteNews.com (includes video): An undercover audio investigation has been released in which a New Mexico abortion clinic worker tells a potential client that an $8-9,000 elective abortion at 27 weeks gestation would be fully covered by taxpayer Medicaid dollars.

WLBT 3 – Jackson, MS:: A movement is underway to allow open prayer in schools and school related events. Some Mississippi schools, including one in Pike County, have continued prayer at sporting events and want to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The Republic: The number of abortions performed in Arizona dropped by about a third in September after new state laws tightened restrictions and requirements.

Catholic Culture: The National Marriage Project, joined by universities in five nations, has published The Sustainable Demographic Dividend–a report that links the strength of families and the economy.

CBN.com: “It’s very difficult without paid signature gatherers. But the ground swell is so great, it’s actually possible that we just might make it,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, one group supporting the effort.

CSMonitor.com: he Egyptian military said today that they are investigating who killed 17 Christian protesters on Sunday. Their denial of guilt has angered many Egyptians, who complain of a new dictatorship.

Stephen J. Heaney at Public Discourse: Political legitimization of “private” sexual and marital choices causes much public harm. We have been personally harmed by the regimes of abortion and easy divorce.

LaTimes.com: The Marines set up a booth at San Gabriel Valley Pride’s Community Unity Day at Pasadena City College. They were the only military branch to attend.

NYTimes.com: I was left with the strong impression that for many highly educated and young people in Portugal — which belongs to both the European Union and the euro zone but doesn’t have nearly as much economic or political clout as its peers, and has plunged into fiscal crisis — same-sex marriage became a badge of sophistication, affirming their country as an enlightened place.

Boston Globe: Two leading Republican contenders for mayor of America’s eighth-largest city are openly gay, and voters have barely noticed. It doesn’t come up at campaign appearances or in local news coverage.

TheHill.com: The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said that he would rather go without a defense spending bill this year than compromise on allowing military chaplains to conduct gay marriages.

TIME: In a country that isn’t known for its progressive politics, male-to-female transsexual Anna Grodzka is proving to be a political trailblazer.

Federation for Children: Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett today announced a sweeping education reform package that would create an expansive voucher program for low-income families stuck in failing schools, ensure strict accountability standards for charter schools, and increase eligibility for the state’s highly-successful Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program.

OneNewsNow.com: our major Internet providers in the United Kingdom will require users to opt in if they want to view pornography, which one anti-porn organization says is a better alternative to systems that filter porn out.

Catholic Culture: Amid a conflict over disputed land, mob of 50 armed Muslims attacked Christians near the east-central Pakistani city of Khanewal, leaving one dead and 20 injured.

Catholic Culture: The Irish government has accepted UN recommendations that it should make contraceptive information available to adolescents, consider changing the legal definition of the family, and question the right of religious institutions to hire employees who accept the teachings of their faith.

In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan’s new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.

Reuters: Iran’s Supreme court sent back the case of a Christian pastor sentenced to death for apostasy to the lower court that tried him, saying there had been insufficient investigation before the original trial, students news agency ISNA said on Tuesday.

Family Policy Council of West Virginia: Schools should prohibit bullying for any reason. Rules against bullying ought to apply equally and fairly to all. Bullying is defined by a person’s actions, not by the status of his victim. Singling out who is and who is not protected from bullies misses the point.

Tami Fitzgerald letter to the editor at the Jacksonville Daily News: No matter how Elon or the press tries to spin it, 62 percent to 63 percent of the people in North Carolina believe that marriage is the legal union between one man and one woman.

USATODAY.com: Just as he’s navigated the past 75 years with Josephine at his side, 97-year-old Michael skillfully situated his 96-year-old wife at a table.

Rebecca Hagelin at Townhall : A new study by researchers at the University of Washington found that “supermoms” (women who project the image—and believe the myth—that they can juggle children, home, husband, career and volunteer work with perfection) end up more depressed than other moms.

The Express Tribune: The government and the Hindu community were unable to break their deadlock on Tuesday over the divorce clause in the Hindu Marriage Act. The clause has proved contentious since the bill was drafted in 2008, with the government defying Hindu leaders who believe divorce is not part of their religion’s culture.

89.3 KPCC: Writer Kate Bolick writes about that subject for the cover story of this month’s The Atlantic. She argues marriage is changing in the new economy . . .

Scotsman.com: FORMER SNP leader Gordon Wilson has called for a referendum on the government’s proposals to allow same-sex marriage, which he warned could have “extremely destructive consequences” for Scotland.

Telegraph: A Supreme Court justice has criticised his fellow law lords as “unwise” for using human rights legislation to “frustrate Government policy” over a law introduced to crack down on forced marriages.

Detroit Free Press | freep.com: Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill this week banning a type of late-term abortion.

The Washington Post: On Friday, the House will consider H.R. 358, the “Protect Life Act.” The measure, introduced by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), would prohibit federal funds from going toward any health care plan that covers abortion services; it also would block funding from being withheld from institutions that are opposed to providing abortions. The bill is one of two abortion-related measures introduced by House Republicans in this Congress; the other is H.R. 3, the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” . . .

BBC News: The founding president of the UK’s Supreme Court, Lord Phillips, has defended the Human Rights Act as he announces his retirement.

Clarence Thomas’ Influence On The Supreme Court : NPR (includes audio): Twenty years ago, Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court by the narrowest margin in 100 years. He’s the most conservative justice since the 1930s, and, in his passion for his own version of “original intent,” he’s willing to reverse whole lines of previous rulings. He’s an enigmatic figure — silent at oral arguments, beloved by his law clerks and court employees.

The Globe and Mail: At the centre of the case is a 43-year-old, anti-gay proselytizer, William Whatcott, who once worked as a gay prostitute. By prosecuting him under its anti-hate provision in 2002, the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission effectively silenced Mr. Whatcott’s crusade against homosexuality.

Religion Clause: In a Kentucky state court yesterday, two more members of the Old Order Schwartzentruber Amish community were convicted of refusing to use state-required orange colored safety emblems on their horse-drawn buggies.

Washington Examiner: President Obama failed to renew the $19 million grant awarded to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for providing assistance to human trafficking victims.

Chicagotribune.com: The DuPage County Board today voted unanimously to approve changes to its zoning laws that will restrict the operation of new houses of worship and other places of assembly in unincorporated residential neighborhoods.

Investors.com: Leaked cables show Japan nixed a presidential apology to Hiroshima and Nagasaki for using nukes to end the overseas contingency operation known as World War II.

News from The Associated Press: A nationwide coalition of anti-abortion groups is preparing to push legislation in all 50 states requiring that pregnant women see and hear the fetal heartbeat before having an abortion.

News from Missouri Family Policy Council: The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand an Illinois law requiring the observance of a moment of silence in Illinois public schools.

News from The Associated Press: The changes would also lift a centuries-old ban on British monarchs marrying Roman Catholics.

Roanoke.com: A student perturbed by a display of the Ten Commandments at Narrows High School should not be allowed to sue under a veil of secrecy, attorneys for the Giles County School Board say.

LifeNews.com: More than 100 members of Congress have drafted a new letter to President Barack Obama asking him to cut off federal taxpayer funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) due to the agency’s participation in China’s brutal one child policy.

Christian Post: Since then, with the help of the Alliance Defense Fund, the church has gone through numerous appeals, suffering a setback after each time it achieved a victory. But now, as the church comes close to having its voice heard by the highest court in the land, it is not so much about a single church as it is about freedom to worship.

OneNewsNow.com: Austin R. Nimocks, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, says the high court’s decision not to hear the case “affirmed the rights of states as sovereign entities.” “No state makes the law for another state” . . .

The Hill: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) subpoenaed Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday for documents related to the “Fast and Furious” gun tracking operation.

NCPA Policy Digest: President Obama revived one of his favorite revenue-raising proposals in his recent jobs plan: limiting the itemized tax deductions that “millionaires and billionaires” (defined as individuals earning over $200,000 or couples earning more than $250,000 per year) can take for mortgage interest, state and local taxes, and charitable contributions, says Craig D. Eyermann, an Independent Institute Research Fellow.

HSLDA on Christian Newswire: Both ADF and HSLDA are currently asking for letters to be written in an attempt to renew attention to the family’s case and to encourage Swedish officials to release Domenic back to his family. “The government shouldn’t abduct and imprison children simply because it doesn’t like homeschooling. That’s bad enough. But now the state is going even further by attempting to get the parents out of the way altogether,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska. “This simply cannot stand. We will do everything in our power to help reunite this family.”

KFOX El Paso: Oster said, “A pastor should not have to vet his sermons by Uncle Sam. When a pastor preaches his sermons he does not have to get approval from the government for what he says.”

Cassandra Hough at Public Discourse: An “adaptationist” approach to pornography is dangerous because it ignores widespread research showing that pornography harms society at many levels.

Speak Up Movement University Blog: The Alliance Defense Fund family extends its heartfelt condolences to the staff and friends of Students for Life of America (SFLA), who lost a dear friend and co-laborer for life, Kortney Blythe Gordon.

The Daily Texan: The Texas Center for Defense of Life, Law of Life Project, Alliance Defense Fund and Liberty Institute are representing Austin area pro-life pregnancy resource centers who say the city is violating their First Amendment rights as well as attacking their moral position on abortion.

The Jackson Sun | jacksonsun.com: The Board of Aldermen voted last week to let the Alliance Defense Fund look into the town’s options for responding to the complaint about the cross. The board meets the first Monday of each month.

OneNewsNow.com: Joel Oster, an attorney with ADF, tells OneNewsNow the mayor wants Brown jailed. “And in this particular case the state law says that the church cannot circulate a petition for the recall of a candidate, and if a church speaks out against an elected official in that way they are subjected to criminal punishment,” explains the attorney. “It almost makes you wonder if we’re in Communist China and not the United States of America.”

WorldNetDaily: A headline in the Washington Times – “IRS Has No Business Censoring Pastors – First Amendment Supersedes Tax Regulation” – accompanies attorney Erik Stanley’s article, which includes the following: “To even suggest that any governmental agency or official has the right to punish a pastor because of something he says from the pulpit is not only offensive but unconstitutional. No pastor should ever have to dance around an issue or self-censor his sermon because of an Internal Revenue Service rule. In America, we value everyone’s constitutionally protected right to free speech and free exercise of religion. Nonetheless, there exists just such an IRS rule. It’s known as the Johnson Amendment. Getting rid of it was the motivation behind the Alliance Defense Fund’s fourth annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday, which took place this past Sunday.

SCOTUSblog: The scattered schedule that lawyers have followed in filing appeals on the constitutionality of the new federal health care law has contributed to the creation of a puzzle for the Court to work out in deciding when, and how, to treat the cases. It now appears that, if the Court wants to wait and act on all six appeals that have now been filed, at the same time, it probably would not consider them until its Conference of December 9.

The Order list is here.

Reuters: The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to consider the rights of same-sex parents in a setback for two gay men who wanted both of their names listed on their adopted son’s birth certificate.

The Guardian: A small Spanish biological research company was deluged with queries after reports that its blood test could predict the age you would die. Well, can it?