Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Mar. 28th, 2005 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdI run a mailing list where I send this stuff out. La. First summaries, then below, stories.
Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives's "Choice and Innovation Committee" pass bill allowing students to sue professors for not "respecting" their beliefs - it's aimed at eliminating "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors";
Alabama is trying to ban adoptions by gayfolk;
Worthwhile commentary on LJ about attacking marriage in the Terri S. case;
Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and others accuse liberals of wanting Terri S. to die, in particular because they hate Christians;
Pennsylvania town split over creationism, with the brilliant quote of, "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture";
Michigan prepares to allow hospitals and doctors to refuse care on "moral, ethical, or religious" grounds - intended targets are abortion rights and gayfolk;
Cal Thomas makes Terri Schiavo into part of the Great Religious War the fundamentalists have been creating and fighting;
Fundamentalists push bill banning courts from citing non-US sources in judgements - specifically calls out Lawrence v. Texas again, which they are making into a new Roe v. Wade (I posted this one largely because of the push to make LvT into a multigenerational religiously-mandated issue, as was done to Roe v. Wade; any place they can tie something they consider bad into Lawrence vs. Texas, which stopped states from making gay people illegal, they do, and they're quite plain about wanting it overturned);
Fundamentalists run training programme to teach other fundamentalists how to get ahead in Hollywood - all the language about infiltration is theirs, which is kind of funny;
CWFA attacks Michael Schiavo as "mocking marriage";
World Magazine wonders why more "pro-life" protesters didn't show up outside Terri Schiavo's room - one religious leader calls out the opposition specifically as Satan;
Voice of America quotes CWA lobbyists extensively in an article on applying broadcast "indecency" rules to cable and satellite programming;
Traditional Values Coalition attacks Dear Abby for supportive response to a letter from the parent of a child they think might be queer;
Traditional Values Coalition also attacks the Southern Poverty Law Centre, accusing them of "exploiting" Rosa Parks for the "homosexual agenda";
Traditional Values Coalition also compares Michael Schiavo and his lawyer to Hitler, thus invoking Godwin's Law.
----- 1 -----
http://www.alligator.org/pt2/050323freedom.php
Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.
The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.
The bill has two more committees to pass before it can be considered by the full House.
While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,” as part of “a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views.”
The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative “serious academic theories” that may disagree with their personal views.
According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.
Students who believe their professor is singling them out for “public ridicule” – for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class – would also be given the right to sue.
[More at website]
----- 2 -----
Bill would forbid gay adoptions
By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5GAY0323W.htm
Gay Alabamians hoping to adopt children in this state may never get
the chance. A group of state lawmakers is pushing a measure to stop
them.
The Alabama Legislature is considering a proposal that would make it
illegal for a person who is gay to adopt a minor. Currently, there is
no state law that would prohibit a person who is homosexual from
adopting children. However, because of the state's Marriage Protection
Act, which only acknowledges marriage as being between a man and a
woman, same-sex couples are effectively prohibited from adopting
children.
Howard Bayless, a gay Alabamian, says he's often thought of adopting a
child and is outraged by the proposed ban, sponsored by Sen. Hank
Erwin Jr., R-Montevallo.
"The government does not need to dictate to us what a family should be
made of and what a family should look like," Bayless said Tuesday. "I
have three sisters, and every single one of them have children, and
they have asked me to raise their children if something happens to
them. This would not allow me to raise their children."
The 2000 census indicated there were 8,109 same-sex partner households
in Alabama, representing about 0.5 percent of all households in the
state. There were 554 same-sex households reported in the tri-county
area that year.
Sandy Holmes, program manager with the office of adoption for the
Alabama Department of Human Resources, said that in February, there
were 641 children in the state awaiting adoption -- 272 of whom had no
family identified to give them a permanent home.
Under Erwin's proposed ban, none of these children could be adopted by
someone who is gay. His bill awaits action in the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Erwin said his measure is consistent with the state's stance on gay
issues. He pointed to the Legislature's recent approval of a proposed
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage -- a proposal that
must be approved by voters in a referendum -- and to Alabama's
existing Marriage Protection Act, which prohibits the state from
acknowledging same-sex unions.
"We need to be consistent," Erwin said in a recent interview. "If we
are going to say we are a family-friendly state with traditional
family values, then we need to have traditional family adoption
policies."
[More at web site]
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http://www.livejournal.com/users/erinlefey/288715.html
11:02 am
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7243574/
"Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D- Fla., who opposed the Schiavo bill, blasted GOP leaders as “particularly hypocritical” because they extol the sanctity of marriage and yet “insert themselves in between a husband and a wife.”
When a reporter queried House Majority Leader Tom DeLay Saturday about that point, he replied, “The sanctity of life overshadows the sanctity of marriage. I don’t know what transpired between Terri and her husband. All I know is Terri is alive…. Unless she has specifically written instructions in her hand, with her signature, I don’t care what her husband says.” "
Erin Lefey says:
Try that a few times for you. Read DeLay's quote out loud many times. "I don’t care what her husband says." Let it roll around in your head. “The sanctity of life overshadows the sanctity of marriage."
I've been fighting for marriage rights for a few years now. I'm wondering why, at this moment. All of you who think that being married means something, this Republican just destroyed it worse than any gay panic could. If someone in Congress disagrees with your medical decision regarding your spouse, they could overrule you. That's one of the KEY marriage issues we've been fighting for on the gay marriage front. A same-sex couple could not take care of each other in a medical crisis.
Turns out opposite-sex couples lost that right today. Sanctity of marriage indeed.
----- 4 -----
Conservatives claimed that liberals "want" Schiavo to die
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/items/200503260001
In discussing the Terri Schiavo case, several prominent media conservatives have accused liberals of wanting Schiavo to die and have imputed motives to them far beyond the belief, expressed by many liberals, that the courts were right to allow Schiavo's husband to make end-of-life decisions on behalf of his wife.
Syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh suggested that liberals "want this woman to die because Christian conservatives want her to live," calling it "payback." MSNBC host Joe Scarborough mused aloud about whether liberals "hate George Bush so much that they are cheering for Terri's death only because the president of the United States and his brother are fighting for Terri's life." Wall Street Journal contributing editor Peggy Noonan claimed that the "pull-the-tube people" -- she specifically named CNN Crossfire host James Carville and the website Democratic Underground -- are "committed" to Schiavo's death. Fox News host Bill O'Reilly singled out New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, stating, "I don't know why some of these left-wing columnists want her to die." Bay Buchanan, president of the conservative advocacy group The American Cause and frequent CNN commentator, asserted that the "only reason" that people "want" Schiavo to die is that "they've decided this woman is the property of her husband and he can do what he wants." Buchanan further accused feminists of "treating this woman like she is the property of her husband."
From the March 23 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: A question for those of you who are our friends on the left. Just answer it honestly to yourself: How many of you want Terri Schiavo to die simply because some Christian conservatives want her to live? How many of you have rejoiced when a death row inmate has been saved because of later investigation into DNA? Do you want Terri Schiavo to die because some Christian conservatives want her to live? Is that it?
[...]
Could it be -- and I suspect this is the real answer -- could it be that you have been so pent up with rage and frustration over the Christians in this country?
You just hated the success of The Passion of the Christ. You hated the outpouring of support for that movie, you just despise the red-state, hayseed, holy-roller crowd that you think is steamrollering the country.
Maybe this is just payback; you want this woman to die because Christian conservatives want her to live. And, since you don't like Christian conservatives so much you want them to be disappointed. You want them to find out what it's like to be on the losing side.
You want them to find out what it's like to not get away with everything they want just because they're Christians. Is that it? Does it really have nothing to do with Terri Schiavo; does it have solely to do with the fact that you want payback?
From the March 24 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country:
SCARBOROUGH: Why is that the same activists who fight to save the whales, the spotted owls, and a snail darter, for God's sake, sit quietly by while the U.S. government helps kill Terri Schiavo? Why do we see the visceral reaction by leftist organizations to the attempts to save Terri Schiavo's life? Do these liberals really hate George Bush so much? And that's all you ever hear about, George Bush. You never hear about Terri Schiavo.
But do they hate George Bush so much that they are cheering for Terri's death only because the president of the United States and his brother are fighting for Terri's life?
[More at URL]
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Teaching Darwin splits Pennsylvania town
Sun Mar 27, 5:54 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1548&ncid=1548&e=1&u=/afp/20050327/lf_afp/uspoliticsreligion
DOVER, United States (AFP) - The pastoral fields and white frame houses appear at peace, but this Pennsylvania farm town is deeply at war over teaching Darwin or Christian creationism in its schools.
Since last year the school board voted to have high school biology teachers raise doubts about Darwin's 145-year-old theory and suggest an alternative Christian explanation for life. The city has since been deeply riven over the issue of separation of church and state.
In January the school board ordered teachers to tell students that Darwinism is not proved, and to teach as well an alternate theory, "intelligent design," which posits that a grand creator, God, is responsible for the development of living organisms.
"Darwin's theory is a theory ... not a fact," the school board declared in their statement to the teachers. "Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view," said the report.
The command landed in the sprawling, red-brick Dover high school like a bomb. Biology teachers refused to read it, while around 15 students walked out in protest.
"Reading it sends the message that it is a legitimate scientific idea or theory," said Jen Miller, a biology teacher who is also a church-goer and daughter of a minister.
As news of the dispute spread, the small city of 25,000 found itself the focus of a national battle over Darwinism, creationism and the role of religion in schools.
...
"Creation is why we are here," said retired teacher Virginia Doll, defending the introduction of religion into the biology classes.
"We have a rather religious town, the God we serve is important in everything we do," she said.
...
"If we continue to indoctrinate our young people with non-religious principles, we're headed for an internal destruction of this society," he said.
...
"Christians are a lot more bold under Bush's leadership, he speaks what a lot of us believe," said Mummert.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture," he said, adding that the school board's declaration is just a first step.
"It took 30 or 40 years to eliminate God in school, it will take probably 30 or 40 years to get him back. You take a little step first, a little bite, then another little bite and another," said Steve Farrell, a nursery keeper, who dreams of the return to prayer in class.
[More at web site]
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http://www.proudparenting.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=65&typeofsite=snippetdetail&ID=1204&snippetset=yes#
Michigan Preparing To Let Doctors Refuse To Treat Gays
(Lansing, Michigan) Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.
The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.
The Republican dominated House passed the measure as dozens of Catholics looked on from the gallery. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which pushed for the bills, hosted a legislative day for Catholics on Wednesday at the state Capitol.
The bills now go the Senate, which also is controlled by Republicans.
The Conscientious Objector Policy Act would allow health care providers to assert their objection within 24 hours of when they receive notice of a patient or procedure with which they don't agree. However, it would prohibit emergency treatment to be refused.
Three other three bills that could affect LGBT health care were also passed by the House Wednesday which would exempt a health insurer or health facility from providing or covering a health care procedure that violated ethical, moral or religious principles reflected in their bylaws or mission statement.
Opponents of the bills said they're worried they would allow providers to refuse service for any reason. For example, they said an emergency medical technicians could refuse to answer a call from the residence of gay couple because they don't approve of homosexuality.
[More at web site]
----- 7 -----
Schiavo case matters in symbol and substance
Cal Thomas (archive)
March 21, 2005
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20050321.shtml
Why does Terri Schiavo matter? Why has Congress made a federal case
out of her situation? Why did the president of the United States
return to Washington from Texas in order to sign a bill created for
the express purpose of inviting a federal court to review the case and
likely requiring her feeding tube restored while the judge gathers
information?
She matters, not only because she has an endowed, inalienable right to
life, but also because she is a symbol - like Rosa Parks was a symbol
when she refused to sit in the back of that Montgomery, Ala., bus;
like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who symbolized freedom by defying Soviet
authorities and chronicling the inhabitants and victims of the gulags;
like astronauts who brave death to explore space. Symbols have
meaning. Terri Schiavo is a symbol in the battle over life-and-death
issues that inconveniently, but necessarily, confront us.
Opponents of federal intervention cry "hypocrisy" because
conservatives pushing for a federal court review claim to support
states rights on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage and
think these matters should be left to the states under the 10th
Amendment.
[More at web site]
----- 8 -----
Stick to U.S. Law, Judges Told
by Josh Montez, correspondent
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
SUMMARY: Congress weighs resolution to chide courts for
relying on international precedents in their rulings.
http://www.family.org/resources/itempg.cfm?itemid=5001&refcd=CE05CCZL&tvar=no
Congress is considering a resolution denouncing the
citation of foreign legal precedents in U.S. court cases,
a move prompted by the Supreme Court's recent nods to
international law in ruling on contentious issues.
The resolution comes from the office of Sen. John Cornyn,
R-Texas, and simply states that rulings "should not be
based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign
institutions."
Legal analyst Doug Kmiec of Pepperdine University said
Cornyn has a legitimate concern.
"Recent cases dealing with homosexuality, dealing with
same-sex marriage, dealing with very sensitive topics,
suggest the judges are all too willing sometimes to impose
their own views merely because others in other nations
agree with them," Kmiec said.
For example, the Supreme Court's 2003 Lawrence v. Texas
ruling cited foreign law as a justification for
overturning U.S. sodomy prohibitions. Another decision the
court handed down in recent weeks referenced overseas
legal precedent in finding the executions of minors
unconstitutional.
Judge Robert Bork, an analyst for the Hudson Institute,
said there's a strategy behind the high court's
international citations, even though their only job is to
be in step with the U.S. Constitution.
"I think the results they are arriving at, they would
arrive at anyway," he said. "And they are using foreign
law -- foreign decisions -- as window dressing to make it
look like they are in tune with the world."
John Drogan, Cornyn's press secretary, said his boss is
determined to fulfill President Bush's promise to find
judges who will interpret the law rather than make it.
"He's concerned," Drogan said of Cornyn, "that little by
little the American people may be losing control over
meaning of our laws and our Constitution."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Judicial activists are undermining
American institutions and culture. It is the gravest
threat to American democracy, as they dictate supreme
power of political, social and economic policy. Phyllis
Schlafly's "The Supremacists" sounds the alarm that our
self-government is in peril, but it also presents a plan
of action for ending the tyranny of judges.
----- 9 -----
Conservatives Infiltrating Hollywood
by Terry Philips, correspondent
Family News in Focus
Focus on the Family
March 28, 2005
Movie ratings and storylines are becoming more moderate as Christian movie makers get into the act.
http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0035991.cfm
A Hollywood project that has successfully trained Christian writers to work from the inside of show business has set its sights on Tinseltown's executive offices.
Act One, Incorporated's new executive program offers an MBA-style curriculum with veteran entertainment executives as instructors and mentors, according to Todd Coleman, the new initiative's director. The first class, to meet this summer, will number just 10.
The program's goal is to find young Christians who have great management skills and interests and turn them toward Hollywood.
"People who might have planned to go into politics, or corporate business in New York," Coleman said, "instead come out here and suddenly get to live out their passion, which is movies and entertainment."
While there are now 100 Act One writing graduates in the entertainment industry, the real meaningful decisions still come from studio executives.
"There was a realization that there is a need for more Christians behind the desks at the studios and the networks," Coleman said. "People who have the authority to choose which projects get made and which don't."
Phil Cooke, a Hollywood veteran and a Christian on Act One's board of directors, said the key is finding the best and the brightest Christian young people with leadership potential -- those who really want to make an executive-level impact in the entertainment industry.
"Hollywood is its own religion," Cooke said. "The world revolves around Hollywood as far as Hollywood is concerned."
That, he added, is why it is important to include training that deals with the dangers inherent in Hollywood's infamous culture.
"We're trying to raise up leaders who know how to be in the world of entertainment," Cooke explained, "but not of it."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
In the Focus on the Family broadcast "A New Hope in Hollywood" you'll hear from one of Hollywood's own. Quality family programming is hard to come by these days, but Hollywood insider Dave Johnson—co-creator of the PAX network show "Doc"—is working to change that. Listen in as he discusses the pitfalls of the entertainment industry and describes current efforts to encourage traditional values on television. CT463
----- 10 -----
Family News in Focus
Focus on the Family
Bob Ditmer
[Ed Note: No summary today.]
1. "Drug use is rampant in America. Studies say parents are the best defense against getting hooked." "Survey found that the current generation of parents, who were more likely to have used drugs in their own teen years" aren't talking about it with their kids or discouraging them as much as FotF wants. "Talking and education is an ongoing process, not a one-shot." Says talk about more than just drugs, also sex issues is important.
2. Many parents are unprepared to talk about sex, according to MSNBC poll. "The lack of information leads those wanting to delay sexual activity to feel alone." National Coalition for Protection of Children and Families say that children would talk with parents about sexual issues of parents were more comfortable about it. Abstinence and Marriage Partnership says most teens "respond extremely well" to no sex before marriage.
3. Christian underground trying "to change what Hollywood puts out." Act One, Inc. "It wants to infiltrate front offices now, too." See story above. "There is a need for more Christians behind the desk in Hollywood, who have the ability to choose what projects get produced and what doesn't."
4. "Just Pray No" is an April 2 and 3 prayer effort against drug and alcohol use. Trying "to enlist one million prayer warriors in the effort." "Without prayer and fasting, churches will have limited affect in reaching the afflicted."
----- 11 -----
Destroying Life and Mocking Marriage
3/28/2005
By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/7794/LEGAL/life/index.htm
Michael Schiavo has forfeited his right to speak for Terri.
Because of Concerned Women for America’s stance in support of saving Terri Schiavo from a court-ordered death by starvation, we have received calls and e-mails criticizing us for “ignoring the sanctity of marriage” and the “right of a husband to speak for his wife regarding her end of life wishes.”
To the contrary, our stance in this matter is entirely consistent with our respect for the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage.
Terri Schiavo, a seriously handicapped woman, lies helpless and dying from a court-ordered starvation death instigated by the one who still dares to call himself her loving husband. He is grieving, we’re told, over the impending death of his wife.
Most of the world now knows that Terri’s husband Michael is living with another woman with whom he has sired two children. Nonetheless, there are those who insist that even in this situation, it is Michael who should make the end of life decisions for Terri as opposed to her loving parents who want to care for her because they believe, as a practicing Catholic, she would never choose suicide over life.
Let’s begin by getting a grip on reality. Ask any woman on the planet what she would do if she recovered from what had been diagnosed as a “persistent vegetative state” to find her husband standing at the foot of her bed with a woman and two children. “Who are they?” He then introduces her to his kids and their mother. As she launches a bed pan at his head, he says, “C’mon, honey, I still care about you. I didn’t even divorce you.” And when she learns that some nitwit judge, who knew about lover boy’s adultery, granted his request for an order to pull her feeding tube, she starts looking for a bigger bed pan.
Michael Schiavo is an adulterer. He stepped out of the sanctity of his marriage when he stepped out on his wife. To call him Terri’s husband because he hasn’t divorced her makes a mockery of marriage.
He claims that he sought the court order to remove Terri’s feeding tube because he is keeping a promise to her that he made years ago. Really? Why does he feel obligated to keep that promise when he hasn’t kept his promise to forsake all others and cleave to Terri through sickness and health? Before you decide to make Michael Schiavo “Husband of the Year,” consider the following:
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Turnout burnout
COVER STORY
World Magazine
As Terri Schiavo's life ebbed, an expected army of pro-life foot soldiers turned up AWOL
by Joel Belz
http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayArticle.cfm?ID=10476
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - They built it—but almost nobody came.
From the welcoming entryway to the Woodside Hospice, bright orange snow fence stretched 500 feet to the east on 102nd Street and another 500 feet to the west. The barrier—at some points four layers deep in a town where it never snows—was there not just to protect the hospice complex. Pinellas Park police installed the fence to restrain and control the big crowds they were told might arrive from all over the United States to protest what was happening inside the hospice, where Terri Schiavo edged near death after medical personnel removed her feeding tube on March 18.
One policeman told WORLD his department had been warned that as many as 25,000 or even 50,000 people might show up on Palm Sunday weekend. His department, he said, was ready. "We built it," he said, "and they can come."
So the Pinellas Park police built their barrier. Bewilderingly, almost nobody came.
To be sure, several hundred passionate partisans did show up to protest the state's official treatment of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged—but in the testimony of her parents, by no means "vegetative"—victim of a heart attack 15 years ago. Mrs. Schiavo, 41, had for almost all that time depended on a feeding tube to keep her alive. But soon after noon on the Friday before Palm Sunday, that feeding tube was removed at the insistence of her husband, Michael Schiavo. After some 23 court decisions involving at least 16 judges in different jurisdictions, Mr. Schiavo also had the state of Florida on his side.
...
Franciscan Brothers of Peace Paul O'Donnell, Anthony Sweeney, and Hilary McGee came from St. Paul, Minn. They said their order was first established to protest abortion. "But now," said Mr. Sweeney, "Satan has run around to the other end of life and is attacking our older people. If this is allowed, thousands and maybe millions of people will die premature deaths."
[more at website]
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US Moves to Impose Harsher Penalties to Curb Indecent TV Shows
By Brent Hurd
Washington DC
23 March 2005
Voice of America
US lawmakers are turning up the heat against those found to be responsible for indecent broadcasting on American public airwaves. Higher fines for indecency are intended to curb what some consider a growing trend of sexually offensive material in the American entertainment media. Some lawmakers are also suggesting that decency standards be applied to private cable and satellite broadcasts.
The now-infamous uncovering of Janet Jackson's breast during a halftime show at the 2004 American Football Superbowl championship game sparked a quarter of a million complaints in an organized camapign by conservative American citizens.
The government agency in charge of regulating the broadcast industry decided it was time for a crackdown on obscenity.
The US House of Representatives approved a huge increase in fines. Future acts deemed indecent could cost a broadcaster or artist a $500,000 fine, 10 times more than the current fine, if the legislation passes the Senate and is signed by President Bush.
Janet LaRue, legal counsel for Concerned Women for America, a Christian public policy group, says the move is long overdue.
"In order to deter violations of our federal broadcast decency standards, broadcast fines have to be high. When you incur fines of only $32,000 against [American broadcaster] CBS television, for example, it is just pocket change. Broadcasters have been pushing the envelope, and the lax enforcement hasn't acted as a deterrent. So the nature of programming has become more and more explicit," says Janet LaRue.
Marvin Johnson is a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, a group that defends civil liberties. He believes the demand for more regulation of television broadcasts comes from a small yet vocal minority of Americans.
"I don't think it is the majority of Americans because if you look at the demographics of the people who watch these TV shows, some of them are very popular. A lot of people are watching, even though you have some that find them indecent," says Marvin Johnson.
The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is the government agency that assigns radio frequencies and licenses to broadcasters that in return, pledge to serve the public interest. That includes meeting FCC decency guidelines, particularly in the hours of 6 AM to 10 PM, a time when children are often watching television. The FCC defines 'broadcast indecency' as anything that portrays sexual conduct in an offensive way.
But John Watson, professor of law at the American University in Washington, says there is no clear-cut definition of indecency and the FCC has been inconsistent in its enforcement. He says that and the higher fines will have a chilling effect on broadcasters. He thinks they will err on the side of caution and self-censor programming
"They don't want to cross the line that they really cannot see very clearly. So they will stay far, far away from the line. As a result, they will not take any risks, they will produce programming that is acceptable for a ten year old," says John Watson.
An example could be the November 2004 broadcast of the war movie Saving Private Ryan on the ABC television network. It contains historic scenes of battle, which include vulgar language that the FCC deemed indecent in other broadcasts. The subject matter was not sexual, but the language prompted more than 60 affiliate television stations not to show the movie. Later the FCC ruled that given the historical context of the movie, such profanity was acceptable.
Mrs. LaRue of Concerned Women for America agrees with that FCC decision. But she believes the FCC needs to expand its regulation of cable and satellite. People pay for those services - about 85% of the US households with televisions have them.
"It is time that the indecency regulations apply to cable as well as satellite simply because it is just as pervasive and available to children and is far more sexually explicit in many cases," says Mrs. LaRue.
But regulating something people pay for is not that simple. In 2000, the FCC tried to enforce restrictions on sexually oriented cable channels like Playboy television. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this would violate free speech rights based on the distinction that broadcasting over public airwaves is free, while citizens choose to pay for cable and satellite.
Legislation could reverse that decision. And recently, several senators introduced a bill that, if it becomes law, would expand government regulation to cable and satellite broadcasts. Current FCC commissioner Kevin Martin, expected to become the next FCC Chairman, says such a move could be a viable alternative.
----- 14 -----
Advice Columnist Promotes PFLAG And Transgender Confusion
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2192
March 24, 2005 – Abigail Van Buren, who writes the “Dear Abby” syndicated column, was recently asked by a mother how she should deal with her 14-year-old daughter who thinks she’s a homosexual. According to Van Buren, the mother should support the girl and join a chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Van Buren also recommended that the mother download a copy of a pro-transgender booklet produced by the Children’s National Medical Center on “gender variant” children. The booklet was written by three pro-transgender individuals, one of whom is a homosexual. This parent’s guide recommends that parents support their “gender variant” children and work to establish “safe” places in school for these children to be free from harassment. A “gender variant” child is one who thinks the opposite sex.
A member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has responded to this bad advice from “Dear Abby.” According to Dr. Sander Breiner, “The various mild to major symptoms that are expressed in the many periods of childhood can produce some serious—and sometimes permanent—repercussions.” Breiner says that a child who thinks he’s the opposite sex should be carefully evaluated and treated—but not by a homosexual therapist.
TVC’s ministry and counseling list will provide you with additional resources on help for individuals with same-sex attractions or gender confusion issues.
----- 15 -----
Leftists Exploit Rosa Parks For Homosexual Agenda
Traditional Values Coalition
March 24, 2005 – The leftist Southern Poverty Law Center headed by Morris Dees is working with Rosa Parks, the civil rights heroine, to establish a National Campaign for Tolerance. The goal is to enlisted five million activists to participate in so-called tolerance initiatives in their local communities.
One of the goals of the tolerance campaign is for individuals to sign a tolerance pledge that says, in part, “I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity [emphasis added] or other characteristics are different from my own.” Dees is shown at a “gay” pride parade in South Carolina in 1999: Gay Pride Pictures.
The tolerance campaign has also created materials for educators to use in public schools. Morris Dees’ fundraising agenda was exposed by Harpers Magazine in 2000. Author Ken Silverstein describes the Southern Poverty Law Center as engaging in a “relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate.”
Silverstein notes that in 1999, this organization brought in $44 million but spent only $13 million on civil rights programs.
Dees brags on his web site about suing Chief Justice Roy Moore over the judge’s refusal to remove the Ten Commandments from an Alabama state office building: SPLCenter.org: Why Did Center Sue Judge Moore?
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Hitler Targeted The Handicapped First
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2196
March 24, 2005 – The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum features an online display showing how German physicians under Adolf Hitler (and even before Hitler came to power) had created a euthanasia program to kill those deemed “unworthy of life.” According to the Museum: “The victims included the mentally retarded, the institutionalized mentally ill, and the physically impaired.”
The Museum noted: “The ‘euthanasia’ program required the cooperation of many German doctors, who reviewed the medical files of patients in institutions to determine which handicapped or mentally ill individuals should be killed. The doctors also supervised the actual killings. Doomed patients were transferred to six institutions in Germany and Austria, where they were killed in specially constructed gas chambers. Handicapped infants and small children were also killed by injection with a deadly dose of drugs or by starvation. The bodies of the victims were burned in large ovens called crematoria.
The roots of Hitler’s euthanasia program began in 1920 with the publishing of an essay by Dr. Alfred Hoche and law professor Karl Binding. The essay, “Releasing Persons from Lives Devoid of Value,” recommended a new medical ethic to deal with mental patients and those whose lives were considered worthless.
According to Hoche and Binding, useless individuals were to be killed to save money and to release them from the perceived miseries of living a life devoid of value.
Hoche introduced the concept of “mental death” to describe the retarded or those who suffered from other forms of brain damage (much like Terri Schiavo’s condition). He described these people as “human ballast” and said that killing them would be useful and allowable act under the law.
The idea of “mental death” and killing the handicapped swept rapidly through Germany. In 1931, a group of psychiatrists met in Bavaria to discuss the sterilization and killing of those with chronic mental illnesses. By 1936 the practice of killing the socially unfit was so common that it was mentioned only incidentally in a German medical journal.
Dr. Leo Alexander, a Boston psychiatrist, detailed the horrors of the pre-Nazi and Nazi euthanasia program in an essay titled, “Medical Science Under Dictatorship,” published in the July 14, 1949 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Alexander served as a consultant to the Secretary of War during the Nuremberg trials.
According to Alexander, the shift that took place among doctors was subtle. It began with the view that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived. “Gradually,” said Alexander, “it led to killing the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted, and finally all non-Germans.”
Robert Jay Lifton writing in The Nazi Doctors describes the Nazi euthanasia program and its eventual use against the Jews.
The philosophy of the Nazi doctors lives on today in the minds of federal judges and pro-euthanasia organizations as well as Michael Schiavo and his New Age attorney George Felos.
Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives's "Choice and Innovation Committee" pass bill allowing students to sue professors for not "respecting" their beliefs - it's aimed at eliminating "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors";
Alabama is trying to ban adoptions by gayfolk;
Worthwhile commentary on LJ about attacking marriage in the Terri S. case;
Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and others accuse liberals of wanting Terri S. to die, in particular because they hate Christians;
Pennsylvania town split over creationism, with the brilliant quote of, "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture";
Michigan prepares to allow hospitals and doctors to refuse care on "moral, ethical, or religious" grounds - intended targets are abortion rights and gayfolk;
Cal Thomas makes Terri Schiavo into part of the Great Religious War the fundamentalists have been creating and fighting;
Fundamentalists push bill banning courts from citing non-US sources in judgements - specifically calls out Lawrence v. Texas again, which they are making into a new Roe v. Wade (I posted this one largely because of the push to make LvT into a multigenerational religiously-mandated issue, as was done to Roe v. Wade; any place they can tie something they consider bad into Lawrence vs. Texas, which stopped states from making gay people illegal, they do, and they're quite plain about wanting it overturned);
Fundamentalists run training programme to teach other fundamentalists how to get ahead in Hollywood - all the language about infiltration is theirs, which is kind of funny;
CWFA attacks Michael Schiavo as "mocking marriage";
World Magazine wonders why more "pro-life" protesters didn't show up outside Terri Schiavo's room - one religious leader calls out the opposition specifically as Satan;
Voice of America quotes CWA lobbyists extensively in an article on applying broadcast "indecency" rules to cable and satellite programming;
Traditional Values Coalition attacks Dear Abby for supportive response to a letter from the parent of a child they think might be queer;
Traditional Values Coalition also attacks the Southern Poverty Law Centre, accusing them of "exploiting" Rosa Parks for the "homosexual agenda";
Traditional Values Coalition also compares Michael Schiavo and his lawyer to Hitler, thus invoking Godwin's Law.
----- 1 -----
http://www.alligator.org/pt2/050323freedom.php
Republicans on the House Choice and Innovation Committee voted along party lines Tuesday to pass a bill that aims to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism” by “dictator professors” in the classrooms of Florida’s universities.
The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, passed 8-to-2 despite strenuous objections from the only two Democrats on the committee.
The bill has two more committees to pass before it can be considered by the full House.
While promoting the bill Tuesday, Baxley said a university education should be more than “one biased view by the professor, who as a dictator controls the classroom,” as part of “a misuse of their platform to indoctrinate the next generation with their own views.”
The bill sets a statewide standard that students cannot be punished for professing beliefs with which their professors disagree. Professors would also be advised to teach alternative “serious academic theories” that may disagree with their personal views.
According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, the law would give students who think their beliefs are not being respected legal standing to sue professors and universities.
Students who believe their professor is singling them out for “public ridicule” – for instance, when professors use the Socratic method to force students to explain their theories in class – would also be given the right to sue.
[More at website]
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Bill would forbid gay adoptions
By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5GAY0323W.htm
Gay Alabamians hoping to adopt children in this state may never get
the chance. A group of state lawmakers is pushing a measure to stop
them.
The Alabama Legislature is considering a proposal that would make it
illegal for a person who is gay to adopt a minor. Currently, there is
no state law that would prohibit a person who is homosexual from
adopting children. However, because of the state's Marriage Protection
Act, which only acknowledges marriage as being between a man and a
woman, same-sex couples are effectively prohibited from adopting
children.
Howard Bayless, a gay Alabamian, says he's often thought of adopting a
child and is outraged by the proposed ban, sponsored by Sen. Hank
Erwin Jr., R-Montevallo.
"The government does not need to dictate to us what a family should be
made of and what a family should look like," Bayless said Tuesday. "I
have three sisters, and every single one of them have children, and
they have asked me to raise their children if something happens to
them. This would not allow me to raise their children."
The 2000 census indicated there were 8,109 same-sex partner households
in Alabama, representing about 0.5 percent of all households in the
state. There were 554 same-sex households reported in the tri-county
area that year.
Sandy Holmes, program manager with the office of adoption for the
Alabama Department of Human Resources, said that in February, there
were 641 children in the state awaiting adoption -- 272 of whom had no
family identified to give them a permanent home.
Under Erwin's proposed ban, none of these children could be adopted by
someone who is gay. His bill awaits action in the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
Erwin said his measure is consistent with the state's stance on gay
issues. He pointed to the Legislature's recent approval of a proposed
constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage -- a proposal that
must be approved by voters in a referendum -- and to Alabama's
existing Marriage Protection Act, which prohibits the state from
acknowledging same-sex unions.
"We need to be consistent," Erwin said in a recent interview. "If we
are going to say we are a family-friendly state with traditional
family values, then we need to have traditional family adoption
policies."
[More at web site]
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http://www.livejournal.com/users/erinlefey/288715.html
11:02 am
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7243574/
"Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D- Fla., who opposed the Schiavo bill, blasted GOP leaders as “particularly hypocritical” because they extol the sanctity of marriage and yet “insert themselves in between a husband and a wife.”
When a reporter queried House Majority Leader Tom DeLay Saturday about that point, he replied, “The sanctity of life overshadows the sanctity of marriage. I don’t know what transpired between Terri and her husband. All I know is Terri is alive…. Unless she has specifically written instructions in her hand, with her signature, I don’t care what her husband says.” "
Erin Lefey says:
Try that a few times for you. Read DeLay's quote out loud many times. "I don’t care what her husband says." Let it roll around in your head. “The sanctity of life overshadows the sanctity of marriage."
I've been fighting for marriage rights for a few years now. I'm wondering why, at this moment. All of you who think that being married means something, this Republican just destroyed it worse than any gay panic could. If someone in Congress disagrees with your medical decision regarding your spouse, they could overrule you. That's one of the KEY marriage issues we've been fighting for on the gay marriage front. A same-sex couple could not take care of each other in a medical crisis.
Turns out opposite-sex couples lost that right today. Sanctity of marriage indeed.
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Conservatives claimed that liberals "want" Schiavo to die
Media Matters for America
http://mediamatters.org/items/200503260001
In discussing the Terri Schiavo case, several prominent media conservatives have accused liberals of wanting Schiavo to die and have imputed motives to them far beyond the belief, expressed by many liberals, that the courts were right to allow Schiavo's husband to make end-of-life decisions on behalf of his wife.
Syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh suggested that liberals "want this woman to die because Christian conservatives want her to live," calling it "payback." MSNBC host Joe Scarborough mused aloud about whether liberals "hate George Bush so much that they are cheering for Terri's death only because the president of the United States and his brother are fighting for Terri's life." Wall Street Journal contributing editor Peggy Noonan claimed that the "pull-the-tube people" -- she specifically named CNN Crossfire host James Carville and the website Democratic Underground -- are "committed" to Schiavo's death. Fox News host Bill O'Reilly singled out New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, stating, "I don't know why some of these left-wing columnists want her to die." Bay Buchanan, president of the conservative advocacy group The American Cause and frequent CNN commentator, asserted that the "only reason" that people "want" Schiavo to die is that "they've decided this woman is the property of her husband and he can do what he wants." Buchanan further accused feminists of "treating this woman like she is the property of her husband."
From the March 23 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
LIMBAUGH: A question for those of you who are our friends on the left. Just answer it honestly to yourself: How many of you want Terri Schiavo to die simply because some Christian conservatives want her to live? How many of you have rejoiced when a death row inmate has been saved because of later investigation into DNA? Do you want Terri Schiavo to die because some Christian conservatives want her to live? Is that it?
[...]
Could it be -- and I suspect this is the real answer -- could it be that you have been so pent up with rage and frustration over the Christians in this country?
You just hated the success of The Passion of the Christ. You hated the outpouring of support for that movie, you just despise the red-state, hayseed, holy-roller crowd that you think is steamrollering the country.
Maybe this is just payback; you want this woman to die because Christian conservatives want her to live. And, since you don't like Christian conservatives so much you want them to be disappointed. You want them to find out what it's like to be on the losing side.
You want them to find out what it's like to not get away with everything they want just because they're Christians. Is that it? Does it really have nothing to do with Terri Schiavo; does it have solely to do with the fact that you want payback?
From the March 24 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country:
SCARBOROUGH: Why is that the same activists who fight to save the whales, the spotted owls, and a snail darter, for God's sake, sit quietly by while the U.S. government helps kill Terri Schiavo? Why do we see the visceral reaction by leftist organizations to the attempts to save Terri Schiavo's life? Do these liberals really hate George Bush so much? And that's all you ever hear about, George Bush. You never hear about Terri Schiavo.
But do they hate George Bush so much that they are cheering for Terri's death only because the president of the United States and his brother are fighting for Terri's life?
[More at URL]
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Teaching Darwin splits Pennsylvania town
Sun Mar 27, 5:54 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1548&ncid=1548&e=1&u=/afp/20050327/lf_afp/uspoliticsreligion
DOVER, United States (AFP) - The pastoral fields and white frame houses appear at peace, but this Pennsylvania farm town is deeply at war over teaching Darwin or Christian creationism in its schools.
Since last year the school board voted to have high school biology teachers raise doubts about Darwin's 145-year-old theory and suggest an alternative Christian explanation for life. The city has since been deeply riven over the issue of separation of church and state.
In January the school board ordered teachers to tell students that Darwinism is not proved, and to teach as well an alternate theory, "intelligent design," which posits that a grand creator, God, is responsible for the development of living organisms.
"Darwin's theory is a theory ... not a fact," the school board declared in their statement to the teachers. "Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view," said the report.
The command landed in the sprawling, red-brick Dover high school like a bomb. Biology teachers refused to read it, while around 15 students walked out in protest.
"Reading it sends the message that it is a legitimate scientific idea or theory," said Jen Miller, a biology teacher who is also a church-goer and daughter of a minister.
As news of the dispute spread, the small city of 25,000 found itself the focus of a national battle over Darwinism, creationism and the role of religion in schools.
...
"Creation is why we are here," said retired teacher Virginia Doll, defending the introduction of religion into the biology classes.
"We have a rather religious town, the God we serve is important in everything we do," she said.
...
"If we continue to indoctrinate our young people with non-religious principles, we're headed for an internal destruction of this society," he said.
...
"Christians are a lot more bold under Bush's leadership, he speaks what a lot of us believe," said Mummert.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture," he said, adding that the school board's declaration is just a first step.
"It took 30 or 40 years to eliminate God in school, it will take probably 30 or 40 years to get him back. You take a little step first, a little bite, then another little bite and another," said Steve Farrell, a nursery keeper, who dreams of the return to prayer in class.
[More at web site]
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http://www.proudparenting.com/page.cfm?Sectionid=65&typeofsite=snippetdetail&ID=1204&snippetset=yes#
Michigan Preparing To Let Doctors Refuse To Treat Gays
(Lansing, Michigan) Doctors or other health care providers could not be disciplined or sued if they refuse to treat gay patients under legislation passed Wednesday by the Michigan House.
The bill allows health care workers to refuse service to anyone on moral, ethical or religious grounds.
The Republican dominated House passed the measure as dozens of Catholics looked on from the gallery. The Michigan Catholic Conference, which pushed for the bills, hosted a legislative day for Catholics on Wednesday at the state Capitol.
The bills now go the Senate, which also is controlled by Republicans.
The Conscientious Objector Policy Act would allow health care providers to assert their objection within 24 hours of when they receive notice of a patient or procedure with which they don't agree. However, it would prohibit emergency treatment to be refused.
Three other three bills that could affect LGBT health care were also passed by the House Wednesday which would exempt a health insurer or health facility from providing or covering a health care procedure that violated ethical, moral or religious principles reflected in their bylaws or mission statement.
Opponents of the bills said they're worried they would allow providers to refuse service for any reason. For example, they said an emergency medical technicians could refuse to answer a call from the residence of gay couple because they don't approve of homosexuality.
[More at web site]
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Schiavo case matters in symbol and substance
Cal Thomas (archive)
March 21, 2005
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/calthomas/ct20050321.shtml
Why does Terri Schiavo matter? Why has Congress made a federal case
out of her situation? Why did the president of the United States
return to Washington from Texas in order to sign a bill created for
the express purpose of inviting a federal court to review the case and
likely requiring her feeding tube restored while the judge gathers
information?
She matters, not only because she has an endowed, inalienable right to
life, but also because she is a symbol - like Rosa Parks was a symbol
when she refused to sit in the back of that Montgomery, Ala., bus;
like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who symbolized freedom by defying Soviet
authorities and chronicling the inhabitants and victims of the gulags;
like astronauts who brave death to explore space. Symbols have
meaning. Terri Schiavo is a symbol in the battle over life-and-death
issues that inconveniently, but necessarily, confront us.
Opponents of federal intervention cry "hypocrisy" because
conservatives pushing for a federal court review claim to support
states rights on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage and
think these matters should be left to the states under the 10th
Amendment.
[More at web site]
----- 8 -----
Stick to U.S. Law, Judges Told
by Josh Montez, correspondent
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
SUMMARY: Congress weighs resolution to chide courts for
relying on international precedents in their rulings.
http://www.family.org/resources/itempg.cfm?itemid=5001&refcd=CE05CCZL&tvar=no
Congress is considering a resolution denouncing the
citation of foreign legal precedents in U.S. court cases,
a move prompted by the Supreme Court's recent nods to
international law in ruling on contentious issues.
The resolution comes from the office of Sen. John Cornyn,
R-Texas, and simply states that rulings "should not be
based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign
institutions."
Legal analyst Doug Kmiec of Pepperdine University said
Cornyn has a legitimate concern.
"Recent cases dealing with homosexuality, dealing with
same-sex marriage, dealing with very sensitive topics,
suggest the judges are all too willing sometimes to impose
their own views merely because others in other nations
agree with them," Kmiec said.
For example, the Supreme Court's 2003 Lawrence v. Texas
ruling cited foreign law as a justification for
overturning U.S. sodomy prohibitions. Another decision the
court handed down in recent weeks referenced overseas
legal precedent in finding the executions of minors
unconstitutional.
Judge Robert Bork, an analyst for the Hudson Institute,
said there's a strategy behind the high court's
international citations, even though their only job is to
be in step with the U.S. Constitution.
"I think the results they are arriving at, they would
arrive at anyway," he said. "And they are using foreign
law -- foreign decisions -- as window dressing to make it
look like they are in tune with the world."
John Drogan, Cornyn's press secretary, said his boss is
determined to fulfill President Bush's promise to find
judges who will interpret the law rather than make it.
"He's concerned," Drogan said of Cornyn, "that little by
little the American people may be losing control over
meaning of our laws and our Constitution."
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Judicial activists are undermining
American institutions and culture. It is the gravest
threat to American democracy, as they dictate supreme
power of political, social and economic policy. Phyllis
Schlafly's "The Supremacists" sounds the alarm that our
self-government is in peril, but it also presents a plan
of action for ending the tyranny of judges.
----- 9 -----
Conservatives Infiltrating Hollywood
by Terry Philips, correspondent
Family News in Focus
Focus on the Family
March 28, 2005
Movie ratings and storylines are becoming more moderate as Christian movie makers get into the act.
http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0035991.cfm
A Hollywood project that has successfully trained Christian writers to work from the inside of show business has set its sights on Tinseltown's executive offices.
Act One, Incorporated's new executive program offers an MBA-style curriculum with veteran entertainment executives as instructors and mentors, according to Todd Coleman, the new initiative's director. The first class, to meet this summer, will number just 10.
The program's goal is to find young Christians who have great management skills and interests and turn them toward Hollywood.
"People who might have planned to go into politics, or corporate business in New York," Coleman said, "instead come out here and suddenly get to live out their passion, which is movies and entertainment."
While there are now 100 Act One writing graduates in the entertainment industry, the real meaningful decisions still come from studio executives.
"There was a realization that there is a need for more Christians behind the desks at the studios and the networks," Coleman said. "People who have the authority to choose which projects get made and which don't."
Phil Cooke, a Hollywood veteran and a Christian on Act One's board of directors, said the key is finding the best and the brightest Christian young people with leadership potential -- those who really want to make an executive-level impact in the entertainment industry.
"Hollywood is its own religion," Cooke said. "The world revolves around Hollywood as far as Hollywood is concerned."
That, he added, is why it is important to include training that deals with the dangers inherent in Hollywood's infamous culture.
"We're trying to raise up leaders who know how to be in the world of entertainment," Cooke explained, "but not of it."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
In the Focus on the Family broadcast "A New Hope in Hollywood" you'll hear from one of Hollywood's own. Quality family programming is hard to come by these days, but Hollywood insider Dave Johnson—co-creator of the PAX network show "Doc"—is working to change that. Listen in as he discusses the pitfalls of the entertainment industry and describes current efforts to encourage traditional values on television. CT463
----- 10 -----
Family News in Focus
Focus on the Family
Bob Ditmer
[Ed Note: No summary today.]
1. "Drug use is rampant in America. Studies say parents are the best defense against getting hooked." "Survey found that the current generation of parents, who were more likely to have used drugs in their own teen years" aren't talking about it with their kids or discouraging them as much as FotF wants. "Talking and education is an ongoing process, not a one-shot." Says talk about more than just drugs, also sex issues is important.
2. Many parents are unprepared to talk about sex, according to MSNBC poll. "The lack of information leads those wanting to delay sexual activity to feel alone." National Coalition for Protection of Children and Families say that children would talk with parents about sexual issues of parents were more comfortable about it. Abstinence and Marriage Partnership says most teens "respond extremely well" to no sex before marriage.
3. Christian underground trying "to change what Hollywood puts out." Act One, Inc. "It wants to infiltrate front offices now, too." See story above. "There is a need for more Christians behind the desk in Hollywood, who have the ability to choose what projects get produced and what doesn't."
4. "Just Pray No" is an April 2 and 3 prayer effort against drug and alcohol use. Trying "to enlist one million prayer warriors in the effort." "Without prayer and fasting, churches will have limited affect in reaching the afflicted."
----- 11 -----
Destroying Life and Mocking Marriage
3/28/2005
By Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/7794/LEGAL/life/index.htm
Michael Schiavo has forfeited his right to speak for Terri.
Because of Concerned Women for America’s stance in support of saving Terri Schiavo from a court-ordered death by starvation, we have received calls and e-mails criticizing us for “ignoring the sanctity of marriage” and the “right of a husband to speak for his wife regarding her end of life wishes.”
To the contrary, our stance in this matter is entirely consistent with our respect for the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage.
Terri Schiavo, a seriously handicapped woman, lies helpless and dying from a court-ordered starvation death instigated by the one who still dares to call himself her loving husband. He is grieving, we’re told, over the impending death of his wife.
Most of the world now knows that Terri’s husband Michael is living with another woman with whom he has sired two children. Nonetheless, there are those who insist that even in this situation, it is Michael who should make the end of life decisions for Terri as opposed to her loving parents who want to care for her because they believe, as a practicing Catholic, she would never choose suicide over life.
Let’s begin by getting a grip on reality. Ask any woman on the planet what she would do if she recovered from what had been diagnosed as a “persistent vegetative state” to find her husband standing at the foot of her bed with a woman and two children. “Who are they?” He then introduces her to his kids and their mother. As she launches a bed pan at his head, he says, “C’mon, honey, I still care about you. I didn’t even divorce you.” And when she learns that some nitwit judge, who knew about lover boy’s adultery, granted his request for an order to pull her feeding tube, she starts looking for a bigger bed pan.
Michael Schiavo is an adulterer. He stepped out of the sanctity of his marriage when he stepped out on his wife. To call him Terri’s husband because he hasn’t divorced her makes a mockery of marriage.
He claims that he sought the court order to remove Terri’s feeding tube because he is keeping a promise to her that he made years ago. Really? Why does he feel obligated to keep that promise when he hasn’t kept his promise to forsake all others and cleave to Terri through sickness and health? Before you decide to make Michael Schiavo “Husband of the Year,” consider the following:
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Turnout burnout
COVER STORY
World Magazine
As Terri Schiavo's life ebbed, an expected army of pro-life foot soldiers turned up AWOL
by Joel Belz
http://www.worldmag.com/subscriber/displayArticle.cfm?ID=10476
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - They built it—but almost nobody came.
From the welcoming entryway to the Woodside Hospice, bright orange snow fence stretched 500 feet to the east on 102nd Street and another 500 feet to the west. The barrier—at some points four layers deep in a town where it never snows—was there not just to protect the hospice complex. Pinellas Park police installed the fence to restrain and control the big crowds they were told might arrive from all over the United States to protest what was happening inside the hospice, where Terri Schiavo edged near death after medical personnel removed her feeding tube on March 18.
One policeman told WORLD his department had been warned that as many as 25,000 or even 50,000 people might show up on Palm Sunday weekend. His department, he said, was ready. "We built it," he said, "and they can come."
So the Pinellas Park police built their barrier. Bewilderingly, almost nobody came.
To be sure, several hundred passionate partisans did show up to protest the state's official treatment of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged—but in the testimony of her parents, by no means "vegetative"—victim of a heart attack 15 years ago. Mrs. Schiavo, 41, had for almost all that time depended on a feeding tube to keep her alive. But soon after noon on the Friday before Palm Sunday, that feeding tube was removed at the insistence of her husband, Michael Schiavo. After some 23 court decisions involving at least 16 judges in different jurisdictions, Mr. Schiavo also had the state of Florida on his side.
...
Franciscan Brothers of Peace Paul O'Donnell, Anthony Sweeney, and Hilary McGee came from St. Paul, Minn. They said their order was first established to protest abortion. "But now," said Mr. Sweeney, "Satan has run around to the other end of life and is attacking our older people. If this is allowed, thousands and maybe millions of people will die premature deaths."
[more at website]
----- 13 -----
US Moves to Impose Harsher Penalties to Curb Indecent TV Shows
By Brent Hurd
Washington DC
23 March 2005
Voice of America
US lawmakers are turning up the heat against those found to be responsible for indecent broadcasting on American public airwaves. Higher fines for indecency are intended to curb what some consider a growing trend of sexually offensive material in the American entertainment media. Some lawmakers are also suggesting that decency standards be applied to private cable and satellite broadcasts.
The now-infamous uncovering of Janet Jackson's breast during a halftime show at the 2004 American Football Superbowl championship game sparked a quarter of a million complaints in an organized camapign by conservative American citizens.
The government agency in charge of regulating the broadcast industry decided it was time for a crackdown on obscenity.
The US House of Representatives approved a huge increase in fines. Future acts deemed indecent could cost a broadcaster or artist a $500,000 fine, 10 times more than the current fine, if the legislation passes the Senate and is signed by President Bush.
Janet LaRue, legal counsel for Concerned Women for America, a Christian public policy group, says the move is long overdue.
"In order to deter violations of our federal broadcast decency standards, broadcast fines have to be high. When you incur fines of only $32,000 against [American broadcaster] CBS television, for example, it is just pocket change. Broadcasters have been pushing the envelope, and the lax enforcement hasn't acted as a deterrent. So the nature of programming has become more and more explicit," says Janet LaRue.
Marvin Johnson is a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, a group that defends civil liberties. He believes the demand for more regulation of television broadcasts comes from a small yet vocal minority of Americans.
"I don't think it is the majority of Americans because if you look at the demographics of the people who watch these TV shows, some of them are very popular. A lot of people are watching, even though you have some that find them indecent," says Marvin Johnson.
The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, is the government agency that assigns radio frequencies and licenses to broadcasters that in return, pledge to serve the public interest. That includes meeting FCC decency guidelines, particularly in the hours of 6 AM to 10 PM, a time when children are often watching television. The FCC defines 'broadcast indecency' as anything that portrays sexual conduct in an offensive way.
But John Watson, professor of law at the American University in Washington, says there is no clear-cut definition of indecency and the FCC has been inconsistent in its enforcement. He says that and the higher fines will have a chilling effect on broadcasters. He thinks they will err on the side of caution and self-censor programming
"They don't want to cross the line that they really cannot see very clearly. So they will stay far, far away from the line. As a result, they will not take any risks, they will produce programming that is acceptable for a ten year old," says John Watson.
An example could be the November 2004 broadcast of the war movie Saving Private Ryan on the ABC television network. It contains historic scenes of battle, which include vulgar language that the FCC deemed indecent in other broadcasts. The subject matter was not sexual, but the language prompted more than 60 affiliate television stations not to show the movie. Later the FCC ruled that given the historical context of the movie, such profanity was acceptable.
Mrs. LaRue of Concerned Women for America agrees with that FCC decision. But she believes the FCC needs to expand its regulation of cable and satellite. People pay for those services - about 85% of the US households with televisions have them.
"It is time that the indecency regulations apply to cable as well as satellite simply because it is just as pervasive and available to children and is far more sexually explicit in many cases," says Mrs. LaRue.
But regulating something people pay for is not that simple. In 2000, the FCC tried to enforce restrictions on sexually oriented cable channels like Playboy television. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this would violate free speech rights based on the distinction that broadcasting over public airwaves is free, while citizens choose to pay for cable and satellite.
Legislation could reverse that decision. And recently, several senators introduced a bill that, if it becomes law, would expand government regulation to cable and satellite broadcasts. Current FCC commissioner Kevin Martin, expected to become the next FCC Chairman, says such a move could be a viable alternative.
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Advice Columnist Promotes PFLAG And Transgender Confusion
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2192
March 24, 2005 – Abigail Van Buren, who writes the “Dear Abby” syndicated column, was recently asked by a mother how she should deal with her 14-year-old daughter who thinks she’s a homosexual. According to Van Buren, the mother should support the girl and join a chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG). Van Buren also recommended that the mother download a copy of a pro-transgender booklet produced by the Children’s National Medical Center on “gender variant” children. The booklet was written by three pro-transgender individuals, one of whom is a homosexual. This parent’s guide recommends that parents support their “gender variant” children and work to establish “safe” places in school for these children to be free from harassment. A “gender variant” child is one who thinks the opposite sex.
A member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) has responded to this bad advice from “Dear Abby.” According to Dr. Sander Breiner, “The various mild to major symptoms that are expressed in the many periods of childhood can produce some serious—and sometimes permanent—repercussions.” Breiner says that a child who thinks he’s the opposite sex should be carefully evaluated and treated—but not by a homosexual therapist.
TVC’s ministry and counseling list will provide you with additional resources on help for individuals with same-sex attractions or gender confusion issues.
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Leftists Exploit Rosa Parks For Homosexual Agenda
Traditional Values Coalition
March 24, 2005 – The leftist Southern Poverty Law Center headed by Morris Dees is working with Rosa Parks, the civil rights heroine, to establish a National Campaign for Tolerance. The goal is to enlisted five million activists to participate in so-called tolerance initiatives in their local communities.
One of the goals of the tolerance campaign is for individuals to sign a tolerance pledge that says, in part, “I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity [emphasis added] or other characteristics are different from my own.” Dees is shown at a “gay” pride parade in South Carolina in 1999: Gay Pride Pictures.
The tolerance campaign has also created materials for educators to use in public schools. Morris Dees’ fundraising agenda was exposed by Harpers Magazine in 2000. Author Ken Silverstein describes the Southern Poverty Law Center as engaging in a “relentless fund-raising campaign, peddling memberships in the church of tolerance with all the zeal of a circuit rider passing the collection plate.”
Silverstein notes that in 1999, this organization brought in $44 million but spent only $13 million on civil rights programs.
Dees brags on his web site about suing Chief Justice Roy Moore over the judge’s refusal to remove the Ten Commandments from an Alabama state office building: SPLCenter.org: Why Did Center Sue Judge Moore?
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Hitler Targeted The Handicapped First
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2196
March 24, 2005 – The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum features an online display showing how German physicians under Adolf Hitler (and even before Hitler came to power) had created a euthanasia program to kill those deemed “unworthy of life.” According to the Museum: “The victims included the mentally retarded, the institutionalized mentally ill, and the physically impaired.”
The Museum noted: “The ‘euthanasia’ program required the cooperation of many German doctors, who reviewed the medical files of patients in institutions to determine which handicapped or mentally ill individuals should be killed. The doctors also supervised the actual killings. Doomed patients were transferred to six institutions in Germany and Austria, where they were killed in specially constructed gas chambers. Handicapped infants and small children were also killed by injection with a deadly dose of drugs or by starvation. The bodies of the victims were burned in large ovens called crematoria.
The roots of Hitler’s euthanasia program began in 1920 with the publishing of an essay by Dr. Alfred Hoche and law professor Karl Binding. The essay, “Releasing Persons from Lives Devoid of Value,” recommended a new medical ethic to deal with mental patients and those whose lives were considered worthless.
According to Hoche and Binding, useless individuals were to be killed to save money and to release them from the perceived miseries of living a life devoid of value.
Hoche introduced the concept of “mental death” to describe the retarded or those who suffered from other forms of brain damage (much like Terri Schiavo’s condition). He described these people as “human ballast” and said that killing them would be useful and allowable act under the law.
The idea of “mental death” and killing the handicapped swept rapidly through Germany. In 1931, a group of psychiatrists met in Bavaria to discuss the sterilization and killing of those with chronic mental illnesses. By 1936 the practice of killing the socially unfit was so common that it was mentioned only incidentally in a German medical journal.
Dr. Leo Alexander, a Boston psychiatrist, detailed the horrors of the pre-Nazi and Nazi euthanasia program in an essay titled, “Medical Science Under Dictatorship,” published in the July 14, 1949 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Alexander served as a consultant to the Secretary of War during the Nuremberg trials.
According to Alexander, the shift that took place among doctors was subtle. It began with the view that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived. “Gradually,” said Alexander, “it led to killing the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted, and finally all non-Germans.”
Robert Jay Lifton writing in The Nazi Doctors describes the Nazi euthanasia program and its eventual use against the Jews.
The philosophy of the Nazi doctors lives on today in the minds of federal judges and pro-euthanasia organizations as well as Michael Schiavo and his New Age attorney George Felos.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 11:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 04:52 pm (UTC)Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives's "Choice and Innovation Committee" pass bill allowing students to sue professors for not "respecting" their beliefs - it's aimed at eliminating "leftist totalitarianism" by "dictator professors";
I love that. It's funny how the college professors are "dictators" and the Right is upset that colleges are pushing left ideals. Maybe they're left because they can rub brain cells together and are educated.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-29 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 05:53 am (UTC)And don't think it's about the sodomy law. Several Justices have publically stated that they are now looking at the laws of foreign countries and ignoring the constitution. Five of them cited -foreign- law in the recent banning of the death penalty for those under 18 years of age. THAT is what this is about.
Considering that no other country out there has Freedom of Speech, I'm waiting for the Justices to strike that one out next, because that's what everyone else does...
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 06:48 am (UTC)It's not only about that, but it absolutely, positively is about that. I read this stuff every day Lawrence vs. Texas is routinely cited as the number one example of why this is bad, and the decision is dragged into every story where they can make it fit as an example of Courts Gone Amok.
Seriously, when I restarted my fundamentalist monitoring last year, I didn't expect Lawrence vs. Texas to be such a big deal in and of itself. I expected that the bigger concern on their part would be the ways in which it might get used. I was wrong. By itself, it's a huge, huge deal, and it's demonised on every level they can find.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 06:59 am (UTC)Judges have decided they can write law, they can interpret the constitution's (not unlike a mystic) 'true meaning'. They can override the will of the people and trump both the Executive and the Congress. There is a constitutional crisis coming, the Judiciary is in bad need of being struck down from its regal ways and put back on an even keel with the other branches. Getting rid of life appointments would be a good place to start.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-30 07:28 am (UTC)As for the rest, it becomes abundently clear with a little reading that they only care about Constitutional issues, federalism, and the "tyrrany of the courts" when it comes down against them. Or, as Andrew Sullivan was saying:
Fred Barnes, a born-again Christian conservative makes the point succinctly here:You can't have a clearer statement of the fact that religious right morality trumps constitutional due process. Of course it does. The religious right recognizes one ultimate authority: their view of God. The constitution is only valid in so far as it reflects His holy law. Robert George, the recent recipient of $250,000 from the Bradley Foundation, makes the point more subtly here:The first point seems to me to be blather. The Florida courts have clearly wrestled with this issue many, many times. I haven't seen an argument that they are behaving outrageously beyond the bounds of their legitimate authority in a very complex case. And George's appeal to "civil rights" depends, of course, on what you mean by "civil rights." Where gays are concerned, George's belief is that gays have no fundamental civil rights with respect to marriage or even private consensual sex. George even believes that the government has a legitimate interest in passing laws that affect masturbation. But when he can purloin the rhetoric of "civil rights" to advance his own big government moralism, he will. The case also highlights - in another wonderful irony - how religious right morality even trumps civil marriage. It is simply amazing to hear the advocates of the inviolability of the heterosexual civil marital bond deny Terri Schiavo's legal husband the right to decide his wife's fate, when she cannot decide it for herself. Again, the demands of the religious right pre-empt constitutionalism, federalism, and even the integrity of the family. When conservatism means breaking up the civil bond between a man and his wife, you know it has ceased to be conservative. But we have known that for a long time now. Conservatism is a philosophy without a party in America any more. It has been hijacked by zealots and statists.