Today's Cultural Warfare Update

A special, most important, nr. 0: ATTENTION CANADIANS: Focus on the Family Canada has sent out an ACTION ITEM to call all MPs and demand that they overturn marriage rights in a revote apparently coming "soon." This is a full action item to their membership, so I'm going ahead and sending it out; there's yet more to come, maybe tonight; I'm pretty far behind the curve on this lately. Sorry about that.

But now, today's news:

ATTENTION CANADIANS: Focus on the Family Canada has sent out an ACTION ITEM to call all MPs and demand that they overturn marriage rights in a revote apparently coming "soon." This is a full action item to their membership;

The American Family Association appears to have gotten Wal-Mart not to talk to GBLT business groups anymore; that's very unfortunate. Also, they're pushing to require that all members of Congress take their oaths of office on the Bible. Ha HA - overtly theocratic. I'd laugh, but it's not funny;

Focus on the Family ACTION ITEM to call and write MPs against marriage rights, seeking to throw out C-38 on a revote;

AFA: Wal-Mart will "not make corporate contributions" to "support or oppose controversial issues," calls off boycott; ACTION ITEM to thank Wal-Mart for stiffing t3h queer businesses (not their words, of course);

Wal-Mart's statement on the matter, linked to by the AFA; the statement is not as clear as the AFA would like it to be, I suspect, but they seem to have been satisfied;

AFA FAQ on the Wal-Mart situation; apparently some of their membership is worried that the AFA is not being hard enough on Wal-Mart for dealing with the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and the questions are interesting in that Wal-Mart has (reportedly) not dropped its NGLCC membership this year. However, the AFA expects them to fail to renew next year, and will be monitoring for compliance;

AFA condemns Rick Warren's church allowing Senator Barak Obama to speak;

AFA Newsbrief on the Supreme Court religious-school voucher case non-ruling;

American Family Association ACTION ITEM to mandate that all Senators and Representatives take their oaths of office by swearing on the Bible;

AFA, Concerned Women for America's Robert Knight condemn ABC for having a transgendered character on All My Children, a daytime soap opera;

AFA story on fundamentalist parents pushing to remove a children's book about two male penguins adopting an egg;

American Family Association, Family Research Council, and Concerned Women for America applaud Mr. Bush's appointment of an anti-contraception activist to be head of family planning at Health and Human Services; see earlier Cultural Warfare Updates for details/quotes/presentations from this guy; he also claims that sex outside marriage causes brain damage; FRC and CWA expect Planned Parenthood clinics to lose non-abortion-related medical services funding as a result and are pleased;

This is a weird one; a group I've never heard of called the "Intercollegiate Studies Institute" says "high-cost colleges may not be worth the money," says students are losing education at college, not gaining it, and points students at places like Grove City College - which is home to one of Concerned Women for America's favourite anti-gay talking heads, Warren Throckmorton. I note that one of ISI's three posted "Outstanding Alumni" (from their Outstanding Alumni page) is president of the Heritage Foundation (which spends a lot of time being theoconservative towards GBLT people) and that their principles statement calls for "Judeo-Christian" "values, customs, conventions, and norms," which I don't imagine I have to translate for you in this context. I would guess with some confidence that what they describe as "losing knowledge about American history and politics" is actually forming opinions with which ISI disagree;

AFA article on the "wrongful death" lawsuit against a fertility clinic that accidentally discarded four embryos without permission; I should make it clear here that the clinic is clearly in the wrong, but suing for "wrongful death" puts this incident onto this list. One of the specific intents of this lawsuit is to have a court case wherein the embryos in storage are legally classified as having the same rights as human beings, and to back up the definition of pregnancy to conception, rather than the traditional medical definition of implantation. I have to wonder, who the fuck is pregnant here, the goddamn petri dish? - but, you know. Note a new term, the "pre-emplanted embryo," to indicate a fertilised egg cell which has not implanted anywhere. Research indicates taht round 70% of these never implant in nature, I note as an aside, muttering something to the effect that even were I a theocrat I'd say that a 70% failure to implant rate kind of indicates that Jesus doesn't give a rat's ass about these little cells. Anyway, they're probably doing this because their constituency is used to the term "embryo" and already considers it a full human being; using the correct word "zygote" would require another round of convincing that it's a human being;

AFA article on activities of anti-abortion Democrats, includes condemnation of Amnesty International considering adopting the position that women should have access to abortion services when raped; "Pro-Life Congressional Congress" urges AI not to adopt this "pro-abortion position";

Concerned Women for America starts up with their seasonal celebration - the annual "War on Christmas" bullshit. Last year, they were firmly in the "Merry Christmas and NOTHING ELSE" camp, assaulting (for example) Coldwater Creek for having both "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" catalogues, saying Coldwater Creek was "trying to have it both ways." This year, they seem happy enough with Wal-Mart's multiple-slogan approach, a rare example of them getting something and being okay with it, rather than moving even more absolutist; Saving Christmas in Massachusetts, a group I've never heard of, urges a boycott of stores not using Merry Christmas, saying that "We're going to get 'tolerated' right into hell." AFA also points to a tracking website, http://www.mymerrychristmas.com/;

CWA picks up the "gay marriage means legalised bigamy" routine some more;

CWA applauds Bill O'Reilly's "year-long investigation" of Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who performs abortions in Kansas; they call Dr. Tiller "Tiller the Killer";

CWA has more War On Christmas bullshit; personally, I find the "War on Christmas" crock to be one of the most egregious things in the entire fundamentalist Culture War;

CWA runs a Mark Tooley column against Episcopalians, partly for being GBLT friendly, partly for having female leadership, mocking them for not being focused enough on breeding as much as possible; it's an... interesting column;

Another CWA "War on Christmas" column;

CWA column against Wal-Mart, updated to reflect that we're at war against Eurasia and have always been at war against Eurasia - well, okay, that's not quite fair; they aren't nearly as happy with Wal-Mart as the AFA is, saying (correctly!) that the press release by Wal-Mart isn't explicitly promising not to work with GBLT business groups anymore and says nothing about dropping GBLT-related books from their books section;

CWA column saying that a pedophile group in the Netherlands means we'll be seeing them here too, in organised political form; says that personal choice must be restricted by the "spiritual boundaries of our Judeo-Christian heritage";

The Hill thinks that "Culture-war veterans" will cast themselves now as more moderate and mainstream; I think they're high. Also, Human Rights Campaign plans to be a nice quiet little yessir and not pressure Democrats on GBLT rights;

CWA links to a CNN article: oh look, Mexico City has civil unions now;

CWA links to a long article by GBLT marriage rights opponent Stanley Kurtz two part article called "Confession," where he makes up a "confession" by marriage rights activists that says "your worst fears are justified"; this is Part I;

Part II of the article - it was published in two parts;

Bizarre New Jersey Star-Ledger column about controversy not driving sales of Plan B; I might suggest that emergency contraception is used in emergencies, and that birth control OMG usually works, but CWA attacks the emergency contraception on the basis of, um, it not selling out at the local NJ Stop-And-Shops; they also continue their new rhetoric of implying that EC doesn't actually work, attempting to spread 'EC is Fraud' as a meme;

LifeNews version of the "wrongful death" lawsuit against a fertility clinic; contains the 'this is Dred Scott' language again;

New Jersey Republican legislator to introduce GBLT marriage/civil unions ban in the state legislature.

( Articles and excerpts below )

yep, it's been cold

Last night's low at Murkworks North: -8.9°C, or 16°F. Chilly! That's lower than a lot of area November records, but, of course, isn't official, and isn't exactly the same location anyway. I had a funny moment this morning when a hummingbird whizzed up right next to me and hung out while I put the hummingbird feeder back with new, unfrozen sugar water. It waited until I got back to the door to drink up, though.

Oh look, another winter storm warning for tonight. @whee! But it's supposed to turn to rain before dawn. I wonder if we'll have school tomorrow? As always, I will assume so.

I'll post some pictures after I do my Japanese composition homework. Until then, stickmaker found this, which is, as they say, funny. It's probably old but I hadn't seen it before.

getting a little giddy right about now

This composition assignment is an introduction letter to a made-up Japanese pen pal. It's really difficult for me. We're supposed to talk about things like our school and class and our house and where we live. I just wrote this:

わたしのうちはゆきにがあります。ゆきにすんでいます。さむいのです。かいひょうすきます。おいしです。ときどき、しろくまはわたしのおばさんをたべます。でも、なれました。

"My house is in the snow. I live in the snow. It's cold. I like seals; they are delicious. Occasionally, a polar bear eats my mother. But I've gotten used to that."

I think maybe I need a break.

(NEWS) Today's Second Cultural Warfare Update

Faith and Freedom Network: polygamists take cue from same-sex marriage-rights effort - so, of course, they blame the gays;

FFN does its share of War on Christmas bullshit; also, they've got a big defense of the culture war up, la;

FFN ACTION ITEM to thank Wal-Mart for their statement distancing themselves from the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce and other "controversial" groups;

FFN criticises ABC for not following the fundamentalist "abortion causes breast cancer, sterility, and depression" theocon line;

Focus on the Family Canada article saying sex education is a failure;

Canada Family Action Coalition condemns Wal-Mart, congratulates the AFA, over dealing with GBLT business groups; it looks like they're adopting wholesale the American theoconservative line that the only way to be "neutral" in the "culture war" is to not acknowledge GBLT people in any way in business or as employees;

CFAC says marriage rights for lesbian and gay couples are the same as "incestuous relations, man-boy sex orgies, [and] animal-human weddings";

***** CFAC: children demand opposite-sex marriage only; article says Canada needs a Consitutional amendment against same-sex marriage; I've seen plenty of calls to overturn C-38, this is the first time I've seen a demand for an amendment against it;

CFAC prints a column saying essentially that if you can't discriminate against queers, you can't really be Christian and are being religiously oppressed;

CFAC rails against Ottawa school assignment because it involved about writing about anti-GBLT prejudices which the parents support;

CFAC blames GBLT people for paedophilia, says acceptance of GBLT people is leading to more of it;

Institute for Marriage and Family Canada (a Focus on the Family project) anti-abortion article in the National Post;

Traditional Values Coalition: "Atheism Has Fueled Greatest Mass Murders In World History";

TVC links to WorldNetDaily article on the effort by fundamentalist leaders across the board to prevent Senator Obama from speaking to Rick Warren's megachurch congregation in California;

Family Research Council editorial in Louisiana building groundwork for another run at changing civil rights law so that losers in civil rights law cases involving religious establishment and discrimination no longer have to pay court fees; they're attempting to portray existing practice as corrupt, a method to fund the ACLU on taxpayer dollars: "Millions of taxpayer dollars enriches the ACLU's $150 million annual budget annually. It is then used to attack the remaining vestiges of Christianity and morality in America." I particularly like that "remaining vestiges of Christianity and morality in America" part. Gosh, aren't Christians 90% of the population? Oh wait, you mean Christian law;

Family Research Council: don't blame "social conservatives" for big spending (and please ignore that we furiously backed Mr. Bush throughout his insane spending spree, with many of our rank-and-file saying things like Jesus put him into office); says GOP corruption and Iraq caused the election loss, not gaybashing - America likes the gaybashing and we should do more of it, because that's what God wants anyway. Oh, and judges are activists and horrible and the judiciary needs to be reigned in.

( Articles and excepts below )