Daily Archives: January 26, 2012

NYTimes.com: But asked on Thursday whether he was satisfied with the approach taken by Mr. Christie, a Republican, Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, did not seem to want to get involved.

Seattle Post Intelligencer: The Government Operations, Tribal Relations & Elections Committee approved the measure with a 4-3 voice vote split on party lines. The bill is expected to head to a floor vote next, though a date has not yet been determined.

First Amendment Center: The 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June 2009 that a notorious death doesn’t give publishers a blank check to publish any images they wish. The case went to trial, and a jury in June 2011 voted to slap Hustler Magazine with $19.6 million in punitive damages for running the photos.

C-Fam Friday Fax: Hungarian leaders have passed a law protecting the traditional family, defying ongoing criticism that their new constitution would curtail abortion and homosexuality.

Christian Concern: Margo McDonald, the independent MSP, has re-launched her effort to secure legislation which would make assisted dying legal in Scotland, unveiling a new consultation on the issue.

The Christian Institute: David Lammy, the MP for Tottenham in London, backed the right of parents to smack their children and criticised those who claim it is abuse, commenting: “There’s a big difference between abuse and parenting.”

The Christian Institute: A pagan woman who lives with her lover and his wife, but denies it is a polygamous arrangement, has won a ‘right to family life’ immigration case.

LifeNews.com: The ECLJ welcomes the adoption, by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), of a Resolution setting the principle that “Euthanasia, in the sense of the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit, must always be prohibited.” This is the first time, in the past decades, that euthanasia is so clearly rejected by a European political institution.

News-Gazette.com: On Tuesday, the Illinois Supreme Court officially announced that it will start allowing cameras and recorders in state courts on an experimental basis with the aim of eventually pulling Illinois for good out of the group of 14 states that ban extensive media access at trials.

News from The Associated Press: Democratic North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue, the first woman elected governor in the state, said Thursday she would not seek re-election . . .

The Washington Post: The Commerce Department said Thursday new-home sales fell 2.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 307,000. The pace is less than half the 700,000 that economists say must be sold in a healthy economy.

ABC News: An Oklahoma bill that would ban the sale of food containing aborted human fetuses has some people wondering: What food currently contains aborted human fetuses?

Bloomberg: . . . according to the survey by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. The survey, which began measuring student opinions and concerns in 1966, also found more students supporting abortion rights, with almost 61 percent saying abortion should be legal.

UnionLeader.com: “Live Free or Die” isn’t just the official motto for a great state. As the 62nd Republican National Committee Chairman, I think it’s a mantra our party should live by. I hope that New Hampshire legislators will remember this slogan and reject proposals to strip citizens of their right to marry.

Baltimore Sun: Protesters are pressuring Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan to shun a prayer breakfast that features a former high-ranking Army officer who has made anti-Muslim remarks.

Baptist Press: To show support for a Tennessee town facing legal action against a cross atop its water tower, area residents carried a 12-foot cross nine miles to Whiteville, where it was presented to city representatives during a rally that drew about 350 people.

Alliance for School Choice: More than 210,000 children are participating in publicly funded private school choice programs across the nation, according to the School Choice Yearbook 2011-12—the annual award-winning publication offering the most comprehensive data on the nation’s 27 private school choice programs—released today by the Alliance for School Choice.

TheHill.com: President Obama will raise the nation’s debt limit to $16.39 trillion after the Senate on Thursday killed a measure to stop the president from adding $1.2 trillion to the total.

LifeNews.com: Angie Murie, executive director of Planned Parenthood Waterloo Region in Canada, was recently quoted in a National Post article claiming she opposed sex-selection abortions but essentially admitting that women should be able to have abortions for just about any reason.

Fox News: Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the airline heard from customers who preferred not to mix religion with transportation. The decision reflects respect for the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of Alaska Airlines’ customers and employees . . .

The Washington Post: The Maryland State Bar Association announced its support Thursday of a same-sex marriage bill sponsored by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), following what the organization said was an “overwhelming” vote by its board of governors.

The Washington Post: EqualityMaine, the Maine Civil Liberties Union and the Maine Women’s Lobby have collected more than 100,000 signatures — far more than needed to seek the referendum — made their announcement Thursday at the State House in Augusta.

OneNewsNow.com: In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich explained why he believes evangelicals are able to get behind his campaign.

Matt Paterson at the Washington Times: Once our body politic accepted this fundamental role of government, Medicare, welfare, Obamacare (or something very much like it) and all the rest of the unaffordable entitlement programs were all but inevitable. Obamacare will put us over the edge, to be sure, but make no mistake: It was Social Security that put us on the road to fiscal disaster and moral lethargy.

Findlaw: The man accused of masterminding the Ohio Amish beard-cutting attacks made a request last week. Samuel Mullet wanted to be out on bail.

NYTimes.com: Sure, being the top judge of the appeals court in Brooklyn is impressive. It is one of the most powerful judicial seats in the state.

Atlanta J. Constitution: Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson on Tuesday wrote White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler that they would not hold up Atlanta lawyer Mark Cohen if he is nominated to fill a vacancy on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They also said they would not block U.S. Magistrate Linda Walker and Atlanta lawyer Jill Pryor if they are nominated to the U.S. District Court.

WBTV 3: Move over Cherokee Casino, the Catawba Indian Nation wants a piece of the action and plans to go to great lengths to do so.

Rasmussen: Mitt Romney has jumped back ahead in the fevered Florida Republican Primary race with his support back to where it was before Newt Gingrich’s big win Saturday in South Carolina.

David Malpass at WSJ (full access via Google): The central bank should take note when a popular presidential contender calls for limits on its power . . . The Fed’s responsibility is to create confidence in price stability and the dollar, thus providing the best monetary policy environment for full employment. Most central banks operate on this principle. Instead, the Fed has systematically undermined economic confidence by promising to maintain zero interest rates for privileged borrowers. That policy will have to stop if the U.S. is to again achieve impressive growth.

Matt Ridley at WSJ.com: Even a rational optimist is pessimistic about some things. Here’s one: the gradual distortion of the human sex ratio by sex-selective abortion. A new essay by the demographer Nicholas Eberstadt concludes that “the practice has become so ruthlessly routine in many contemporary societies that it has impacted their very population structures.”

Acipresna.com: (translated to English from Spanish by Google): Reassess and highlight the values ​​of family inspires a genuine human development is one of the conclusions of the International Symposium entitled “Why go for the family ? ” held on 18 January in the city of Chiclayo, a city in northern Peru . . . The symposium, organized by the Family Grows (CreceFam), was attended by Dr. Piero Tozzi, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund of the United States, which addressed the theme of “family status in the global context.”

The online database is here: Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe.

ADF Attorney Doug Napier at the Christian Post: The repeated warnings that repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” would open the door for religious discrimination were ignored, and we are already beginning to see the toxic fallout from this mistaken move. After DADT was stripped away last year, the military entered 2012 in a whole new world. It’s one in which the dismantling of DADT has actually provided homosexual activists the momentum they needed to step up and try to fashion not just the military in their own image, but other related agencies and associations as well.

Washington Blade – “America’s Leading Gay News Source”: The Anchorage Daily News reports that the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, which has intervened in pro-LGBT ballot measures across the country for many years, has begun weighing in on the measure. “The ultimate concern with enacting something like that is that it infringes on religious freedoms,” said ADF lawyer Holly Carmichael. “There’s a huge constitutional concern here.”

ADF President and General Counsel Alan E. Sears at LifeNews.com: What was reported, rather, is that our president has a dream. One substantially at odds with the dream that fired Dr. King’s imagination and eloquence so memorably on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial nearly 50 years ago.

East Valley Tribune: Education: Arneson contacted the Alliance Defense Fund after hearing about the organization through a friend, Scruggs said.
The Alliance Defense Fund is a “legal alliance of Christian attorneys and like-minded organizations defending the right of people to freely live out their faith. Launched in 1994, ADF employs a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family,” according to ADF’s website. It is based out of Scottsdale. “These types of regulations on First Amendment rights are popping up on college campuses more and more often,” Scruggs said. “These places are devoted to the marketplace of ideas.”

AP on Houston Chronicle: The Center for Reproductive Rights is asking for a rehearing of its argument that a law requiring a sonogram before an abortion is unconstitutional.

News from The Associated Press: Egypt has banned the son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and a number of other Americans from leaving the country as tensions rise over moves by Egyptian authorities to restrict the work of international rights organizations.

Tulsa Today: Veteran White House reporter Keith Koffler on his blog WhiteHouseDossier.com late last night posted a stunning story that President Barack Obama will ignore an order by an Atlanta judge to appear in court Thursday for a hearing in a case challenging his qualifications under the Constitution to be president. So is this the new state of the union, in which no one must obey the law?