Today's Cultural Warfare Update

It's kind of amazing that this didn't get picked up last week, but that's what happen when things come out on Friday: Sandra Day O'Connor rips into the largely-theoconservative-prompted attacks on the court system in no uncertain terms. This story should not be ignored. So, of course, I'm getting to it on a Friday. Well, foo. But still, pay attention.

Canadians may want to note that the Canada Family Action Coalition has started pushing the "birth control causes cancer, and by the way, so does abortion" line, and the Canadian Cancer Society is COVERING UP THE TRUTH in order to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it; I don't know whether this is new up there, but it's a long-time tactic in the US.

And now, today's news;

Faith and Freedom Network declares religious supporters of GBLT rights to be "heretics";

***** Sandra Day O'Connor, now retired, slams attacks on court system and the independence of the judiciary; "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings";

Focus on the Family applauds FCC fines for indecency, stating that they are sending a "message"; includes ACTION ITEM to thank FCC, and links on the FCC's new one-page webform for submitting indecency complaints; Penny Nance, special adviser to the FCC, talked to FotF about it, encouraging complaints;

FofF says that polygamy isn't really supported by the BIble, despite the religious nature of the groups suing for it; it's just a "cultural phenomenon adopted by some leaders in ancient Israel;" then they go ahead and blame gays anyway;

***** Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM in Washington State to support anti-marriage/anti-GBLT-rights "Prayer Rallies" and volunteer to work on the anti-gay initiative of Tim Eyman's (tho' they don't use his name);

FotF talks about a recent Supreme Court decision as being a big victory for fundamentalist forces, also talks about how conventional wisdom that you need health exemptions in abortion bans is (in their mind) wrong;

FotF condemns attempt in Colorado to make Plan B available without a prescription;

Concerned Women for America's latest hatefest against Dr. Alfred Kinsey (of the Kinsey Report, which they have always hated and still hate);

Some immigrants are using Great Britain's civil unions law to ease immigration - setting up temporary civil unions in the same way that people have been setting up marriages of convenience for years; but, of course, this means civil unions must be banned;

CWA reprints editorial condemning no-fault divorce in New York State;

CWA attacks health record of RU-486, demands it be pulled immediately from the market;

Poll: South Dakotans overwhelmingly oppose abortion ban as passed by the state legislature;

Family Research Council ACTION ITEM to demand that HIV+ Gay Games participants be banned from entry to the US; demands that Homeland Security be used to keep people out; "Human lives are at stake";

American Family Association condemns Virginia school board that refuses to ban Gay-Straight Alliance clubs; the ban would be in defiance of the equal-access rules fundamentalists won at the Supreme Court to ensure that religious clubs couldn't be turned away, demonstrating again that it has nothing to do with "judicial activism" and has everything to do with "no fags" and "Christians only";

***** AFA reports and supports Canadian fundamentalist demands that a student newspaper be shut down and all editors fired over their decision to print blasphemous cartoons of Jesus; insists this is "cannot be compared" to Muslim reaction to blasphemous cartoons of Mohammed; funny, I can make that comparison just fine;

AFA supports Oklahoma bill to remove all material containing GBLT-related themes from public spaces in libraries; also any material that is "sexually explicit";

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney introduces bill to exempt Catholic Charities' adoption services from state civil rights law - specifically, to allow them to refuse to place children with gay and lesbian married couples;

American Family Association ACTION ITEM to thank FCC for fining CBS $3.6M;

Canada Family Action Coalition opens branches in Hastings and Prince Edward Counties in Ontario;

Canada Family Action Coalition: birth control, abortion both cause cancer; Canadian Cancer Society disagrees; CFAC accuses them of covering up The Truth to make more money by treating cancer than preventing it; I don't know whether this is new for Canadians, but this has been a standard canard in the US for at least a couple of decades;

Faith and Freedom Network blogs against the Freedom Ride, the Soulforce effort going to religious colleges which ban GBLT students; they seem to have lifted this a lot from previous articles excerpted here in Cultural Warfare Updates, only without giving credit;

"Sound The Alarm," the anti-GBLT website pushing Referendum 65 and the statewide anti-gay "Prayer Rallies" has a vision statement up; it condemns marriage rights, abortion, divorce, and television content; on the "Strategy" page (one click away) they're trying to build up a network of pastors to participate in the various anti-gay, anti-etc activities they want to pursue; they're co-ordinating with Faith and Freedom Network which will send out their action items;

New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade chairman compares gays to neo-Nazis (thanks, nihilistic_kid);

Iraqi cleric Sistani on gay and lesbian people: "The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing" (thanks, Andrew);

Focus on the Family claims victory over DefCon ads, but they're still sending out another ACTION ITEM to complain to DefCon;

FotF's James Dobson to be speaker at "Values Voters" summit - an anti-gay marriage amendment is nr. 1 on the agenda;

FotF ACTION ITEM to its membership to support an Illinois petition drive to get an anti-marriage-rights amendment on the ballot;

Kansas changes sex education classes to be opt-in-with-parental-permission-only;

Utah governor signs bill requiring written parental permission before abortion;

Kansas fundamentalist groups asking for tighter parental-notification laws, identification of father, other details.

( Articles and excerpts below )