Today's Cultural Warfare Update

Sorry I'm so far behind on these; it's been a rough quarter. But no time for whingy bits - here's some of today's news.

Survey indicates that 24% of UK GPs refusing to sign abortion forms;

Wisconsin pharmacist repeatedly violates employer rules in refusing not just to dispense birth control (in any form), but refusing referrals, harassing birth-control customers, and more; he's suing on the basis of religious discrimination; so far, he's 0 for 2;

LifeNews's version of the story, of course, supports the pharmacist and blames Wal-mart's decision to stock ECP (which is not specifically related to this; it was for all forms of birth control) on "tremendous pressure from Planned Parenthood";

Rev. Jerry Falwell is dead; he had just been on CNN last week reasserting that it was the fault of GBLT people, the ACLU, abortion rights activists, and liberals in general that the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened;

Focus on the Family says Jerry Falwell "finished well;" James Dobson will honour Rev. Falwell, who spent his entire career making millions of dollars by trying to ruin the lives of others, on Larry King Live; James Dobson pledges to continue the war against LBGT people and others they dislike, stating, "It was Jerry who led an entire wing of Christianity, the fundamentalist wing, away from isolation and into a direct confrontation with culture. It was my honor to share the front lines with him in the battle for righteousness in our nation. We will continue that fight, in his honor, until our mutual goals are achieved";

Focus on the Family: "Decline of Marriage Leads to Decline of Civilization";

Colorado passes bill into law allowing lesbian and gay couples to adopt, and a second bill ending "abstinence-only" sex education funding; FotF is outraged, of course;

FotF's "Gays are After Your Children" propaganda today is a story I'm seeing hopping around the fundamentalist networks - "12-Year-Old Forced to Watch Brokeback Mountain Sues School";

FotF prints the American College of Pediatricians statement that embryonic stem-cell research should be stopped at once. The 2002-founded ACP is a real piece of work; their other positions include condemnations of GBLT people as "inordinately promiscuous... even within what are loosely-termed 'committed relationships'... more likely than heterosexuals to experience mental illness, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies, and shortened life spans" - basically the usual litany of theocon bullshit, filtered through secondary-reference footnotes to hide their original sources. They also, of course, assert that children are harmed by being raised by lesbian and gay parents, that contraception is bad, that the HPV vaccine isn't a good idea, and, of course, that abortion is very bad, even worse than contraception, and compare abortion rights supporters to Nazis ("...Echoing the words untermenschen; Lebens unwertenleben suggested in the 1930s in Nazi Germany"). More with the article;

Here's an example of how these things get used; the article is from 2005, but it still shows how these statement from an impressive-sounding groups end up coming out of, say, George W. Bush's mouth;

Faith and Freedom Network runs FotF's article - not quite verbatim, but close to it - on their website, pushes their "Change the State in '08" theocon-election campaign;

Faith and Freedom Network calls for a crackdown on academics, reprinting a position paper stating that "sometimes the exercise of intellectual dissent under the guise of academic freedom is misguided and just plain wrong," calls for beefing up anti-sedition laws, and generally saying it's time to crack down;

FFN's own column supporting crackdowns on dissident academics;

Focus on the Family reports on international theoconfab, the Fourth International World Congress of Families (WCF); they're anti-gay, anti-abortion, and so on;

Focus on the Family newsbrief on Connecticut case seeking to open the state marriage law to same-sex couples;

Massachusetts attourney general believes that the proposed anti-marriage amendment (which only needs 25% yes vote in the legislature to go to a popular vote) may be unconstitutional;

"Intelligent Design" professor upset that he didn't get tenure, claims creationists are blacklisted;

FotF's ad yesterday was for "Why You Can't Stay Silent; A Biblical Mandate to Shape Our Culture"; I comment on that a tiny bit below;

From cubes, an update on fired city manager and transwoman Susan Stanton;

Focus on the Family's ad for last Friday was for "THE HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today," which is part of their continuing push towards the idea that allowing GBLT people equal treatment under the law is inherently a violation of their religious rights to discriminate against GBLT people. This is an idea they've been working on for some time, of course; the intent is to make rights under the law a zero-sum game, and to declare that Christianity and anti-gay politics are one and the same;

FotF applauds students for "taking a stand" against GBLT anti-bullying efforts an queer students by boycotting school on the Day of Silence protest against anti-gay bullying. One of the interesting things is an outright admission that the plan is to create enough of a stink and mess that the Day of Silence anti-bullying effort gets shut down;

FotF report on the effort to get an anti-marriage amendment on the Massachusetts state ballot;

FotF notes a valid study linking HPV to throat cancer as well as cervical cancer, uses it to describe "how dangerous this activity [oral sex] can be"; and the study is accurate, but you're talking about a difference of 3 in 100,000;

FotF notes that the ACLU is planning a multi-state legal campaign against "abstinence-only" education courses that mischaracterise condoms as ineffective against the spread of STDs;

FotF uses the "special rights" language to describe nondiscrimination law on the basis of sexual orientation; this is a lie, since heterosexuals are included as well;

FotF refers again to a "mandate" that "requires" HPV vaccination in Texas - this in a story about it expiring in Texas. The problem is, it was never a mandate and never required; they just lied about it. What had happened is that the anti-cervical-cancer vaccine had been included in the standard vaccinations list. But you could opt out of it; it wasn't mandatory;

Courtesy wytwolf, here's today's Cultural Warfare Update Feature Presentation.

( Articles and excerpts below )