Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Apr. 1st, 2005 02:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdFox News ran John Edward - a former Sciffy channel psychic - claiming that Terri Schiavo could "definitely clear on what's happening now around her" without challenge;
House Speaker Tom DeLay threatens judges who ruled against the fundamentalist-backed parents in the Schiavo case;
Sen. Frank Lautenberg launches a broadside against Tom DeLay in response;
Story on death threats and harassment received by Judge Greer before this last week and a half;
Christians, Jews, and Moslems join in Israel to try to stop a festival by gayfolk;
Today's Family News in Focus webcast is broken, but the summary indicates the main story is that judges are out of control and need to be stopped;
Focus on the Family Special Report on Terri Schiavo's death includes House Majority Whip Roy Blunt criticising courts for only ruling by the, you know, _law_, rather than "the facts of the case" - Republicans demanding "judicial activism" make me cry _and_ laugh;
Focus on the Family talks up President Bush's falling approval rating, claims any problems are for him not being socially conservative enough;
Fundamentalists team up with the MPAA to oppose peer-to-peer networks, spinning it as a pornography issue;
Concerned Women for America action item on changing Senate debate rules;
Baltimore Sun article on activist hopes to turn Schiavo case into a launching pad for a larger end-of-life movement - one activist calls for ending all "death with dignity" legislation;
Traditional Values Coalition plugs anti-marriage rally in California;
TVC rails against domestic partnership legislation in Connecticut, urges massive call-in campaign;
Operation Rescue president calls the courts "a tool in the hands of the devil";
Article by fundamentalist movie reviewer calls the courts neo-Nazis;
TVC broad-based attack article on gayfolk in Maine.
----- 1 -----
Media Matters for America (one of multiple sources):
http://mediamatters.org/items/200503250006
"Psychic medium, author, and former television host John Edward claimed on Fox News' morning show Fox & Friends that Terri Schiavo is "definitely clear on what's happening now around her." Edward was responding to a question from host Steve Doocy about whether Edward could communicate with Schiavo."
DOOCY: You mentioned the Terri Schiavo case. Some might wonder, "Well, you know what, I wonder if he could communicate with her."
EDWARD: I do believe that the soul, the consciousness, can communicate when they're in a state, whether it be a mentally incapacitated person, someone who's in a coma. It's a consciousness, and the soul has a living consciousness. So whether it's in a physical vehicle or not, there is still the ability to connect. Many people will have what they call out-of-body experiences, or astral dreams. Two very living people, that are healthy, could have a kind of connection in a dream state that can be validated. So why not somebody who's in this case?
DOOCY: So she may not be able to talk with her brain, but she can with her soul --
EDWARDS: But she's clear on what's going -- and I can tell you that she's definitely clear on what's happening now around her.
----- 2 -----
Even Death Does Not Quiet Harsh Political Fight
By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
The New York Times
Published: April 1, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/politics/01pols.html?
WASHINGTON, March 31 - The political battle over Terri Schiavo erupted anew on Thursday as conservatives portrayed her death as the result of an unaccountable judiciary and Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, threatened retribution against the judges who refused to intercede in the case.
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today," said Mr. DeLay, who was instrumental in pushing emergency legislation that gave the federal courts jurisdiction over Ms. Schiavo's care, only to see them decline to order her feeding tube restored. Saying that the courts "thumbed their nose at Congress and the president," Mr. DeLay, of Texas, suggested Congress was exploring responses and declined to rule out the possibility of Congressional impeachment of the judges involved.
Democrats, who had for the most part stayed on the political sidelines as Republicans pushed the Schiavo cause, immediately seized on Mr. DeLay's remarks.
"Mr. DeLay's comments today were irresponsible and reprehensible," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who said he was uncertain what Mr. DeLay's intent was. "But at a time when emotions are running high, Mr. DeLay needs to make clear that he is not advocating violence against anyone. People in this case have already had their lives threatened."
As the vigil in Florida ended for Ms. Schiavo, who was severely brain-damaged, conservatives said the refusal of the federal courts to step in underscored the need for Senate Republicans to end the ability of the Democratic minority to filibuster President Bush's judicial nominees.
Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of the evangelical group Focus on the Family, said the judges who would not stop the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube were "guilty not only of judicial malfeasance - but of the cold-blooded, cold-hearted extermination of an innocent human life."
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said: "It is a tragic, unfortunate but avoidable event that should awaken Americans to the problem of the courts. It is no longer theoretical. It is life or death."
While Mr. DeLay and others renewed the combative tone they had used to advance the Schiavo legislation, others couched their responses. Representative F. James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin and a chief advocate for the legislation, pointed out that the measure had passed in a "bipartisan fashion." Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader and another central figure in the Congressional action, directed his comments to Ms. Schiavo's family "and all those involved in this regrettable loss of life."
In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush appeared to seek a respite from the political battles over Ms. Schiavo.
"There's a lot of raw emotion still, and it may be appropriate to wait" before passing laws to address similar cases, Governor Bush said. "The answer to this is that we don't count on government to be the arbiter, or count on the courts to do that. This is the responsibility of the people we love, to talk to about this way in advance of it happening."
Democrats and other critics of the Republicans, bolstered by polls that consistently showed overwhelming public opposition to the Congressional role, argued that the willingness of the Republican-led Congress to intervene in one family's court battle would rally the opposition.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has worked for abortion rights groups, said some Americans had been skeptical that Republicans could succeed in overturning court precedents about abortion rights.
"Now it is like, oh yeah, the guys can step in from the highest level," Ms. Lake said. "It makes the threat seem a lot more viable."
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/lautenberg_letter_delay_schiavo_401.htm
Tom DeLay
Majority Leader
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Majority Leader DeLay,
I was stunned to read the threatening comments you made yesterday
against Federal judges and our nation's courts of law in general. In
reference to certain Federal judges, you stated: "The time will come
for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."
As you are surely aware, the family of Federal Judge Joan H. Lefkow of
Illinois was recently murdered in their home. And at the state level,
Judge Rowland W. Barnes and others in his courtroom were gunned down
in Georgia.
Our nation's judges must be concerned for their safety and security
when they are asked to make difficult decisions every day. That's why
comments like those you made are not only irresponsible, but downright
dangerous. To make matters worse, is it appropriate to make threats
directed at specific Federal and state judges?
You should be aware that your comments yesterday may violate a Federal
criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. §115 (a)(1)(B). That law states:
"Whoever threatens to assault…. or murder, a United States judge… with
intent to retaliate against such… judge…. on account of the
performance of official duties, shall be punished [by up to six years
in prison]"
Threats against specific Federal judges are not only a serious crime,
but also beneath a Member of Congress. In my view, the true measure of
democracy is how it dispenses justice. Your attempt to intimidate
judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental
democracy as well.
Federal judges, as well as state and local judges in our nation, are
honorable public servants who make difficult decisions every day. You
owe them – and all Americans – an apology for your reckless
statements.
Sincerely,
Frank R. Lautenberg
----- 4 -----
Florida judge embroiled in right-to-die dispute
By Abby Goodnough
The New York Times
Friday, March 18, 2005
MIAMI For most of his career, Judge George Greer presided over mundane local disputes that drew little notice outside Pinellas County, Florida, or even his courtroom. People who know him say he considers himself a "compassionate conservative," a man whose religious faith is as dear to him as his reputation as a legal scholar.
Now, though, the placid Florida Circuit Court judge is at the center of one of the nation's most contentious civil cases, the battle over whether to withdraw the feeding tube of a critically brain-damaged woman, Terri Schiavo. The case has made Greer a target of religious conservatives and others who object to ending any life prematurely. He resigned from his Southern Baptist church and lately travels under police protection; he doesn't even go to lunch unaccompanied.
No matter that the case has gone on for seven years, traveling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It always returns to Greer, 63, who Friday ordered that Schiavo's feeding tube be removed. His finding that Schiavo would rather die than be kept alive artificially, based on testimony from her husband, Michael, has drawn protest from around the world. Opponents have sent hundreds of letters and e-mail messages to the judge, picketed his courthouse in Clearwater, and, in a few cases, friends said, threatened his life.
He stopped attending his longtime church, Calvary Baptist in Clearwater, in 2003 after it sent a publication to the congregation sharply criticizing him.
Now, as protestors descend on Pinellas County, where Schiavo resides in a suburban hospice, and Tallahassee, where they are lobbying Governor Jeb Bush and the legislature, Greer's friends say he remains resolute. Yet they also say that stress is afflicting the judge and his family, especially after the recent murders of a state judge in Atlanta and a federal judge's husband and mother in Chicago.
Greer, a former Pinellas County commissioner who was elected to the 6th Circuit Court in 1992, declined to be interviewed, and neither the court nor the county sheriff's office would discuss his security arrangements. But several of his friends said that in recent weeks, after threats, at least two sheriff's deputies have escorted him almost everywhere.
Greer is legally blind and has a soft voice and a patient manner in the courtroom. In his order that Schiavo's feeding tube be removed, he politely cited the "excellent argument" of both sides' lawyers, even as he wrote, "The Court is no longer comfortable granting stays simply upon the filings of new motions and petitions since there will always be 'new' issues that can be pled."
The case, Schindler v. Schiavo, landed on his desk in 1998. Michael Schiavo wanted permission to remove the feeding tube, eight years after his wife suffered extensive brain damage when her heart briefly stopped, possibly due to a potassium deficiency.
But Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, immediately challenged him. They believe that Schiavo, 41, is conscious and responds to them, and that she could improve with therapy. After a trial in 2000, Greer found there was clear and convincing evidence that Schiavo would never recover and would not want to be kept alive artificially, based on statements that her husband and his relatives testified that she made years earlier.
But the battle has not ceased, and the case has often dominated Greer's calendar. He ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed twice in the past, only to see it replaced within days. The last time, in October 2003, the legislature passed a law that authorized the governor, Bush, to order the tube reinserted. Greer declared the law unconstitutional, and although higher courts backed him, Bush's appeals delayed any action for 17 months.
Now Bush and the legislature are rushing to agree on a bill that would outlaw the withdrawal of food and water from certain people in a persistent vegetative state, including Schiavo.
The Schindlers have failed in efforts to move the case to federal court, but the U.S. House of Representatives late Wednesday night approved a bill by a voice vote to move such a case to federal court, The Associated Press reported. Senate Republicans plan to introduce a separate bill to give Schiavo and her family standing in federal court, and they hope it can be debated on Thursday, a Republican aide said.
Harder to bear, other friends said, were the hate mail and flyers like the one that people who contributed to his 2004 re-election campaign received this week saying, "Please help stop a judicial murderer!" A petition to impeach Greer, circulated online by religious groups, has gotten nearly 7,000 signatures.
Cheryl Ford, a nurse who heads the National Fight for Terri Action Volunteer Group in Tampa, dismissed the possibility of violence against Greer, saying: "I haven't heard one person say they wanted to do anything violent. The people here are not people who would commit violence. The only ones committing violence are Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo who are murdering Terri by removing her feeding tube."
[more at URL]
----- 5 -----
March 31, 2005
Clerics Fighting a Gay Festival for Jerusalem
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and GREG MYRE
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/international/worldspecial/31gay.html?ei=5065&en=149e1c8e0aa86a2c&ex=1112936400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&position=
International gay leaders are planning a 10-day WorldPride festival and parade in Jerusalem in August, saying they want to make a statement about tolerance and diversity in the Holy City, home to three great religious traditions.
Now major leaders of the three faiths - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - are making a rare show of unity to try to stop the festival. They say the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.
"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable," Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi, said yesterday at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel's two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. "It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."
Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, added: "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."
Israeli authorities have not indicated what action, if any, they might take to limit the events. Banning the festival would seem unlikely, though the government could withhold the required permits for specific events, like a parade.
Interfaith agreement is unusual in Israel. The leaders' joint opposition was initially generated by the Rev. Leo Giovinetti, an evangelical pastor from San Diego who is both a veteran of the American culture war over homosexuality and a frequent visitor to Israel, where he has formed relationships with rabbis and politicians.
Organizers of the gay pride event, Jerusalem WorldPride 2005, said that 75 non-Orthodox rabbis had signed a statement of support for the event, and that Christian and Muslim leaders as well as Israeli politicians were expected to announce their support soon. They said they were dismayed to see that what united their opponents was their objection to homosexuality.
"That is something new I've never witnessed before, such an attempt to globalize bigotry," said Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of Jerusalem Open House, a gay and lesbian group that is the host for the festival. "It's quite sad and ironic that these religious figures are coming together around such a negative message."
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, co-chairwoman of the festival and the rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a gay synagogue in New York City, said the controversy was another sign that each religion had become polarized between its liberal and conservative wings.
The global Anglican Communion split deeply over homosexuality in the last two years after its American affiliate ordained an openly gay bishop and the Canada affiliate decided to allow blessings of same-sex unions.
"I reject that they have the right to define religion in such a narrow way," Rabbi Kleinbaum said of religious leaders who denounce homosexuality. "Gay and lesbian people are saying we are equal partners in religious communities, and we believe in a religious world in which all are created in God's image."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Family News in Focus
Friday, April 01, 2005
Focus on the Family
* Terri Schiavo’s case illuminates the Constitutional crisis gripping America – balance of power has been lost.
* Legislation to provide parents with vouchers for private schools is being rekindled across America.
* The states' governors are trying to keep from being overrun by casinos. Most of them run by Indian tribes..
* A college English teacher from Idaho claims he can recreate the shroud of Turin with some glass, paint, and old cloth.
* MTV has long been one of the most family UN-friendly channels on TV, especially during their “Spring Break” programming. The Parents Television Council is helping you identify who’s bringing you the sexually charged fare with a top ten list of sponsors.
* A Chicago hospital is in trouble for allowing a psychologist to practice witchcraft on its patients.
* The California judge who declared the state’s marriage law unconstitutional because it excludes same-sex couples has issued a stay on that decision.
----- 7 -----
CITIZENLINK SPECIAL REPORT:
----------------------------------------------
Terri Schiavo: 1963-2005
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
SUMMARY: Disabled Florida woman dies of court-ordered
dehydration and starvation as family advocates urge legal
reforms to ensure such barbarism never happens again.
"The sad day we hoped would never arrive . . . is here."
With those words, attorney David Gibbs III formally
announced the death this morning, just after 10 a.m. EST,
of 41-year-old Terri Schiavo at the Woodside Hospice in
Pinellas Park, Fla.
Schiavo, the disabled woman at the center of a highly
publicized struggle between the right to life versus the
so-called "right to death," died from the effects of being
denied food and water by court order for nearly 14 days.
Despite pleas from Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary
Schindler, Pinellas County Judge George W. Greer
authorized removal of Schiavo's feeding and hydration tube
on March 18 -- ending the seven-year effort of Schiavo's
husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, to get the courts
to end his wife's life.
Mr. Schiavo -- who lives with another woman by whom he has
fathered two children -- was reportedly at his wife's side
when she died. He barred Terri's parents and siblings from
joining him there.
In an afternoon news conference, the Schindlers sounded a
somber, forgiving note -- choosing to simply say goodbye
to their daughter and sister.
"As a member of our family unable to speak for yourself,
you spoke loudly," Bobby Schindler said. "We know that God
loves you more than we do. We must accept your untimely
death as God's will."
President Bush, speaking from the White House this
morning, was just one of many prominent political and
pro-family leaders who expressed sympathy for the
Schindlers -- and suggested that action must be taken to
prevent a similar fate from befalling anyone else.
"Today, millions of Americans are saddened," Bush said,
urging people to honor Schiavo by "working to build a
culture of life" in which all Americans are protected --
"especially those who live at the mercy of others."
Schiavo's death came 15 years after she experienced a loss
of oxygen to the brain after collapsing at home. Though
she slipped into a coma initially, she later emerged and
was diagnosed as being in a "persistent vegetative state."
In recent legal proceedings, however, attorneys for the
Schindlers filed affidavits from prominent neurologists
who questioned that diagnosis -- saying they believed she
was at least minimally conscious.
In their last court filing, attorneys for the Schindlers
said Schiavo not only had some awareness, but had
attempted -- after the feeding tube was removed -- to
communicate that she did not want to be killed. The courts
rejected the claim.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who successfully intervened to
rescue Schiavo from starvation in 2003 after the Florida
Legislature passed a special law later declared
unconstitutional, joined his brother in offering
condolences to the Schindlers -- and noting that Schiavo's
death raises questions that must be answered.
"Terri's death is a window through which we can see the
many issues left unresolved in our families and in our
society," Bush said. "For that, we can be thankful for all
that the life of Terri Schiavo has taught us."
Conservatives in Congress, who two weeks ago expended
Herculean effort to pass legislation to give federal
courts the jurisdiction to open new hearings in the case,
were much more pointed in criticizing the courts, which
both ordered -- and allowed -- Schiavo to be killed.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called Schiavo's
death "a moral poverty and a legal tragedy."
"This loss happened because our legal system did not
protect the people who need protection most, and that will
change," DeLay said. "The time will come for the men
responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not
today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this
fate never befalls another."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., specifically
condemned the federal courts, which he said had "reviewed
only the judicial process, rather than the facts of the
case, as Congress had intended."
Pro-family leaders, meanwhile, expressed concern about
what Schiavo's death says about the nation -- and its
system of government.
Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James C. Dobson said
Schiavo "had been executed under the guise of law and
'mercy,' for being guilty of nothing more than the
inability to speak for herself."
"Every Florida and federal judge who failed to act to
spare this precious woman from the torment she was forced
to endure," he added, "is guilty not only of judicial
malfeasance -- but of the cold-blooded, cold-hearted
extermination of an innocent human life."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in
Washington, D.C., said the "tragic and unfortunate event"
should awaken Americans to the problems of the court
system.
"In Terri's case, the courts have shown that they are
suffering from a persistent state of arrogance," he said.
"Her death is a symptom of a greater problem: that the
courts no longer respect human life."
Pro-family lawyers who worked to keep Schiavo alive were
equally saddened -- and outraged -- saying the aftershock
from the case will reverberate for years.
"It was clear from all who were involved in her case that
Terri wanted to live," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of
the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented
the Schindlers at the Supreme Court in their efforts to
defend the previous Florida legislation that was declared
unconstitutional.
"It is extremely disappointing that the legal and
legislative efforts made in the past two weeks did not
succeed."
Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, said
Schiavo's life struggle should be the catalyst for
legislative reform.
"Terri Schiavo," he said, "should make us all more
sensitive and eager to protect human life from birth to
natural death."
One of the issues lawmakers will likely take up in the
months to come is whether it's always right for a husband
or wife to act as a disabled spouse's guardian in the face
of such signs of conflict of interest as were present in
the Schiavo case.
"Terri's life and her recent death should serve as a
catalyst for the state of Florida and other states around
the country to pass legislation that would disqualify a
legal guardian who has an apparent and direct conflict
such as that between Michael Schiavo and Terri," Staver
said.
Another area of legislative reform is certain to center on
how to proceed when a disabled person leaves no specific
instructions on the kinds of medical treatment he or she
would want if rendered unable to speak. Florida state
legislators came just a few votes short of passing a law
that would assume in cases like Terri's that the patient
would want to be kept alive.
Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus
on the Family, said another cause for the pro-life
community in the months to come is correcting the media's
painting of Schiavo as a martyr for the so-called "right
to die."
News polls indicating the public supported her starvation
death were fueled by media reports that stated or implied
that she was comatose and on "life support," as if she had
been on a respirator.
She had been neither.
"We need to confront this philosophy of radical autonomy,
that's expressed through the so-called 'right to die',"
Earll said. "It's a dangerous threat to the vulnerable
among us."
In the end, Princeton law professor Robert George said
Schiavo's death lays before all Americans a choice.
"Do we recognize that all human lives have a profound
inherent and equal dignity?" he asked. "Or are we prepared
to abandon our historic belief in the equal dignity of all
human beings and move to a view that considers some lives
to be a life unworthy of life?"
----- 8 -----
March 31, 2005
Bush's Approval Rating Solid
by Terry Phillips, correspondent
A recent poll shows that more than half of Americans are happy with the job the president is doing—but not thrilled about the country's direction.
http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0036041.cfm
The annual Battleground Poll from George Washington University is out—and it shows that President Bush has a 53 percent approval rating.
There's at least one seeming anomaly in the data, though: 54 percent think the nation is on the wrong track, despite the high marks for Bush.
Christopher Arterton, whose School of Political Management guided the polling, said that the president's ratings can be traced to the last election, when voters saw him as "the answer, not the problem."
"In other words, some of those people are quite concerned with what they refer to as a decline in moral values," Arterton noted.
But on fiscal matters, Democrats win. They're seen as the party holding down federal spending. Pete Sepp with the National Taxpayers Union said costs of the Iraq war, the No Child Left Behind educations reforms and the Medicare prescription benefit are at the heart of those numbers.
"Those perceptions keep building upon each other to the point where the GOP is at risk of being labeled a big-spending political party," Sepp said.
Democrats are also seen by better than two-to-one as the party making prescription drugs more affordable. Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation said that grows out of criticism of the Administration for not including price controls in the Medicare drug program.
"We really don't talk about price controls on any other sector of the economy, because we know they don't work," Matthews said. "But they're coming back into Medicare."
On Social Security, the president seems to have made the case that's there's a problem, but those polled don't like any proposed remedies.
----- 9 -----
March 31, 2005
Pornography a Shared Hazard
by Steve Jordahl, correspondent
Movie industry representatives are teaming with conservatives to battle Internet file sharing of smut.
http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0036043.cfm
It's not often that Hollywood executives and family advocates agree on anything, but both were on the same side at the Supreme Court this week: arguing against sites that allow free downloads on the Internet.
The movie industry is suing file-sharing sites to protect its copyrights. But it's not stolen intellectual property that family groups are concerned about—they want to put an end to one of the largest purveyors of child pornography in existence.
"We're concerned with the huge amounts of child pornography, other kinds of pornography, obscenity, distributed by these file-sharing companies," said Jim Backlin, vice president of legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition.
Of the more than 2.5 billion files shared every month, in fact, many are illegal pornographic images.
"You don't want to have child pornography, which is illegal," attorney Barbara Comstock said. "You don't want it to have some type of free zone on these networks, because that is something that's illegal."
The problem, Comstock added, is that some of the conservative justices on the Supreme Court seemed concerned about infringing on technological progress.
----- 10 -----
http://congress.cwfa.org/cwfa/issues/alert/?alertid=7228386&type=CO
Concerned Women for America
Stop Judicial Activism
Dear Friend,
We have an urgent item to bring to your attention this morning.
Please take a few minutes today to call or e-mail each of your state’s U.S. senators and demand a “Yes or No” vote for judicial nominees. Liberal groups are rallying today to give their “spin” to the judicial nominations battle. They are portraying the Senate’s refusal to allow up-or-down votes on the President’s judicial nominees as simply a way to ensure “fair judges,” which means only judges who are pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “marriage” and who want the Ten Commandments removed from public places.
Using the filibuster, which takes 61 votes to overcome, the Democrats have blocked a number of good judges, and are threatening to block any conservative U.S. Supreme Court appointee. Given the poor health of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and other justices, a battle looms over their impending replacements.
The liberal Democrats are playing hardball. They threaten to shut down the government if they don’t get their way, and then to blame Republicans. The media will pile on, parroting the liberal spin. That’s why you need to take a minute or two to call or e-mail your U.S. senators and ask them to ensure that the Senate gets straight votes on nominees.
Liberals fear that judges who respect the Constitution will end their undemocratic reign of judicial tyranny.
The threat of court-imposed homosexual “marriage” in EVERY state became even more apparent on Monday when a single California judge struck down the state’s marriage law, which had been approved in 2000 by a 61.4 percent vote of the people. The judge said he could find no “rational” basis for keeping marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The president has nominated common-sense judges who are prepared to administer the law rather than re-write it. But they can’t get a vote.
It’s an outrage! The Senate needs to know we’re watching and expect better from them. Click on the box at right to send an e-mail to each of your senators, or call the Capitol switchboard now at 1-202-224-3121 to reach your senators. Ask them to allow an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees. (To find out who your senators are, click here: http://congress.cwfa.org/cwfa/issues/alert/?alertid=7179036).
Sincerely,
The Legislation Department
Concerned Women for America
----- 11 -----
Activists hope to keep up momentum
Groups seek to take on other 'right to life' issues; 'Allowed ... doors to be opened'
By Ellen Gamerman
Baltimore Sun
Sun National Staff
Originally published April 1, 2005
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - The Rev. Ed Martin does not want to squander the attention that the Terri Schiavo case has given his cause. In the month the anti-abortion activist spent outside the hospice housing the severely brain-damaged woman, he has given his business card - emblazoned with a logo of an adult hand protectively holding a baby - to every reporter who has approached him.
In the wake of Schiavo's death, protesters like Martin are trying to hold on to the national media contacts they made while demonstrating outside the hospice, hoping to use their outrage over the Florida woman's death as fuel for future activism. For the groups joined together on this case - anti-abortion protesters, disability rights advocates, euthanasia opponents - the aim is to keep the issues alive after her death.
"We have to go into the political realm and get the right elected officials in office who will fight the people in favor of 'death with dignity,'" said Martin, 59, an Ocala, Fla., activist who spends most of his days demonstrating outside abortion clinics.
Chet Gallagher, 55, who was arrested dozens of times during Operation Rescue anti-abortion protests, sees the fight over right-to-die issues as the next logical extension of his activism. "It's the same alliance of all of us who were active in the Rescue movement in the '80s," he said.
In many ways this is an old alliance of religious conservatives who usually band together on cultural and political issues. This group is undaunted by polls showing that a majority of Americans supported Michael Schiavo's decision to have his wife's feeding tube removed. They say the survey questions were tilted against their cause.
With this latest cause comes, they hope, new momentum, broadening their movement to a spectrum of "right to life" issues.
"This situation allowed so many doors to be opened on the culture of life," said Lanier Swann, a lobbyist for the conservative Concerned Women for America. "It is our hope and our understanding that Congress will continue to dig deeper into this."
But there's no clear picture of where such activism goes now that demonstrators are packing up their tents, the media is heading home and many Americans are expressing relief that this sad and troubling look inside a divided family is finally over. And for a group so diverse that demonstrators outside the hospice sometimes fought with each other, rather than their right-to-die opponents, the alliance is hardly ironclad.
Protesters in wheelchairs joined the rally outside Woodside Hospice, arguing along with the anti-abortion crowd for the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube. But several took offense at religious activists over their support of abortion rights and over language some felt was patronizing.
"They were praying for our healing, and I told them I don't need to be healed, thank you very much - it's this whole ideology that we're not OK as we are," said Carol Cleigh, 50, who came here from North Carolina with supplemental oxygen and a mobilized wheelchair.
But most protesters on the Schiavo case agree that "persistent vegetative state" and "minimally conscious state" are terms open to vast interpretation. They want patients without a living will to have government protections in case their relatives are coerced into terminating their lives. Cleigh said she hopes the case brings attention to problems that stem from what she calls the "better dead than disabled" attitude.
After collapsing 15 years ago, Schiavo had been in what doctors called a persistent vegetative state, meaning she was incapable of registering or vocalizing thought. But Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, said they saw signs of emotion and cognition and fought their daughter's legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, who said his wife had told him she would never want to live on artificial life support.
[...]
But the Schiavo case has mobilized thousands of supporters who have been willing to donate to the Schindler family's cause. The New York Times recently reported that the Schindlers struck a deal with a conservative direct-mail firm, selling their list of 4,000 e-mail addresses from donors to their legal fight through their Web site.
At the central Florida hospice, activists like Chet Gallagher - who was arrested Easter Sunday for trying to take Schiavo communion - say they see the Schiavo case becoming a part of the conservative lobbying agenda. The devout Christian considers the next cultural front the fight over the end of life.
"We have a movement now, and there has to be a unified stand against this imposing spirit of euthanasia," he said. "It's a real spiritual battle that's raging."
[More at URL]
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TVC Urges Californians To Rally For Marriage
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2211
March 31, 2005 – Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon is urging Californians to participate in a rally for a state constitutional amendment on marriage on April 2, 2005.
The rally will feature Rev. Sheldon, TVC Lobbyist and Legislative Analyst Ben Lopez, TVC Central Valley Coordinator Jody Hutchens, and State Senator Roy Ashburn. The rally begins at 10 a.m. and will be held at Patriots Park, located at the intersection of Ming Avenue and New Stine Road in Bakersfield, California.
TVC sponsored Senate Constitutional Amendment 1, which will define marriage as a one man, one woman union. The amendment is being carried in the Senate by Sen. Bill Morrow and in the Assembly by Assemblyman Ray Haynes. The bill is ACA 3 in the Assembly.
According to Rev. Sheldon, “We intend to add California to the list of those 14 other states that passed marriage amendments in the 2004 elections … That is why Traditional Values Coalition has taken the lead in the fight to preserve marriage in California.”
More on this is available here: Sen. Roy Ashburn, Public to Rally in Support of Marriage Amendments.
----- 13 -----
URGENT: Defeat Homosexual Civil Unions In Connecticut
Traditional values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2210
March 31, 2005 – The Family Institute of Connecticut is calling upon voters in that state to stop the legislature from passing a homosexual civil unions bill.
The Finance Committee has just voted 31-11 to move the legislation to the floor for a vote.
FIC leader Brian Brown is urging Connecticut voters to inundate the legislature with phone calls and emails to urge them to vote against passage of the civil unions legislation.
FIC’s web site provides an easy way for voters to easily contact their state legislators: Marriage Protection Center
Read and distribute two of TVC’s reports on homosexual marriages and civil unions: “Homosexual Civil Unions” and “Homosexual Marriage = Civil Unions = Domestic Partnerships.”
----- 14 -----
Pro-lifers hear call to overhaul 'arrogant' judiciary
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050401-012526-6575r.htm
Terri Schiavo's death is expected to have major political ramifications as pro-lifers declare war on the judiciary and galvanize for the coming fight over Supreme Court vacancies.
"We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican. "We will look into that."
The Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue, lamented, "The courts of this land have become the tool, in the hands of the devil, by which the culture of death has found access."
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh bluntly blamed the judiciary for "ordering the starvation" of Mrs. Schiavo.
The Florida woman who died yesterday after her feeding tube had been disconnected nearly two weeks earlier has become a martyr for conservatives, who planned to avenge her death by fighting to put pro-life justices on the Supreme Court as soon as vacancies arise. They also vowed to prevent the Schiavo case from becoming any kind of legal precedent.
Democrats were not relishing the prospect of open warfare against an energized, motivated pro-life movement. Yet Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promised to mount a spirited defense against the conservatives.
"They are seeking to take away the independence of the judiciary — the crown jewel in our system of government — so that they can advance their own ideological agenda of the day," the Massachusetts Democrat said during a speech in Boston.
"That is exactly the kind of tyranny that our ancestors fought to prevent," he added. "And I pledge to you, that as long as I have a voice, I will continue to fight it as well."
President Bush encouraged pro-lifers to redouble their efforts in the wake of Mrs. Schiavo's death.
[more at URL]
----- 15 -----
Neo-Nazis Kill Terri Schiavo
Mar 30th, 2005
by William Federer
http://www.movieguide.org/index.php?s=articles&id=45
Even before the rise of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich, the way for the gruesome Nazi holocaust of human extermination and cruel butchery was being prepared in the 1930 German Weimar Republic through the medical establishment and philosophical elite's adoption of the "quality of life" concept in place of the "sanctity of life."
The Nuremberg trials, exposing the horrible Nazi war crimes, revealed that Germany's trend toward atrocity began with their progressive embrace of the Hegelian doctrine of "rational utility," where an individual's worth is in relation to their contribution to the state, rather than determined in light of traditional moral, ethical and religious values.
This gradual transformation of national public opinion, promulgated through media and education, was described in an article written by the British commentator Malcolm Muggeridge, entitled "The Humane Holocaust," and in an article written by former United States Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, M.D., entitled "The Slide to Auschwitz," both published in The Human Life Review, 1977 and 1980 respectively.
Malcolm Muggeridge stated:
"Near at hand, we have been accorded, for those that have eyes to see, an object lesson in what the quest for 'quality of life' without reference to 'sanctity of life' can involve.... the great Nazi holocaust, whose TV presentation has lately been harrowing viewers throughout the Western world.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Maine Columnist Warns Of Attacks On ‘Heteronormative’ Thoughts
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2204
March 31, 2005 – M.D. Harmon, an editorial writer for the Portland (ME) Press Herald has recently expressed concern about new attacks against traditional marriage in our culture.
According to Harmon, there’s a growing battle over the adding of “sexual orientation” to the state’s human rights statutes. The bill under consideration says that sexual orientation is “a person’s actual or perceived heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality or gender identity or expression.”
Harmon notes that “Private religious bodies are exempt from the law, but ordinary believers aren’t. So, what happens the first time a male employee turns up to work at the auto parts counter wearing a dress and lipstick?”
Harmon describes the trouble that Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith ran into at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations not long ago. Smith told the women that they could have it all: “A loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career.”
Her statement angered members of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance. They said she had engaged in “heteronormative” speech and had inferred that male and female couples were the norm.
Harmon warns that groups like this will use sexual orientation laws to beat the notion out of straight Americans that they’re normal. He quotes radical University of Chicago law professor Elizabeth Emens who supports the idea of polyamory—or multiple sex partners in a “marriage.” Emens hopes to destroy the notion of marriage altogether and her ideas are being propagated by radical homosexual groups.
Read and distribute TVC’s updated report, “A Gender Identity Disorder Goes Mainstream” that describes the homosexual/transgender movement’s efforts to normalize cross-dressing and transsexualism.
House Speaker Tom DeLay threatens judges who ruled against the fundamentalist-backed parents in the Schiavo case;
Sen. Frank Lautenberg launches a broadside against Tom DeLay in response;
Story on death threats and harassment received by Judge Greer before this last week and a half;
Christians, Jews, and Moslems join in Israel to try to stop a festival by gayfolk;
Today's Family News in Focus webcast is broken, but the summary indicates the main story is that judges are out of control and need to be stopped;
Focus on the Family Special Report on Terri Schiavo's death includes House Majority Whip Roy Blunt criticising courts for only ruling by the, you know, _law_, rather than "the facts of the case" - Republicans demanding "judicial activism" make me cry _and_ laugh;
Focus on the Family talks up President Bush's falling approval rating, claims any problems are for him not being socially conservative enough;
Fundamentalists team up with the MPAA to oppose peer-to-peer networks, spinning it as a pornography issue;
Concerned Women for America action item on changing Senate debate rules;
Baltimore Sun article on activist hopes to turn Schiavo case into a launching pad for a larger end-of-life movement - one activist calls for ending all "death with dignity" legislation;
Traditional Values Coalition plugs anti-marriage rally in California;
TVC rails against domestic partnership legislation in Connecticut, urges massive call-in campaign;
Operation Rescue president calls the courts "a tool in the hands of the devil";
Article by fundamentalist movie reviewer calls the courts neo-Nazis;
TVC broad-based attack article on gayfolk in Maine.
----- 1 -----
Media Matters for America (one of multiple sources):
http://mediamatters.org/items/200503250006
"Psychic medium, author, and former television host John Edward claimed on Fox News' morning show Fox & Friends that Terri Schiavo is "definitely clear on what's happening now around her." Edward was responding to a question from host Steve Doocy about whether Edward could communicate with Schiavo."
DOOCY: You mentioned the Terri Schiavo case. Some might wonder, "Well, you know what, I wonder if he could communicate with her."
EDWARD: I do believe that the soul, the consciousness, can communicate when they're in a state, whether it be a mentally incapacitated person, someone who's in a coma. It's a consciousness, and the soul has a living consciousness. So whether it's in a physical vehicle or not, there is still the ability to connect. Many people will have what they call out-of-body experiences, or astral dreams. Two very living people, that are healthy, could have a kind of connection in a dream state that can be validated. So why not somebody who's in this case?
DOOCY: So she may not be able to talk with her brain, but she can with her soul --
EDWARDS: But she's clear on what's going -- and I can tell you that she's definitely clear on what's happening now around her.
----- 2 -----
Even Death Does Not Quiet Harsh Political Fight
By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
The New York Times
Published: April 1, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/01/politics/01pols.html?
WASHINGTON, March 31 - The political battle over Terri Schiavo erupted anew on Thursday as conservatives portrayed her death as the result of an unaccountable judiciary and Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, threatened retribution against the judges who refused to intercede in the case.
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today," said Mr. DeLay, who was instrumental in pushing emergency legislation that gave the federal courts jurisdiction over Ms. Schiavo's care, only to see them decline to order her feeding tube restored. Saying that the courts "thumbed their nose at Congress and the president," Mr. DeLay, of Texas, suggested Congress was exploring responses and declined to rule out the possibility of Congressional impeachment of the judges involved.
Democrats, who had for the most part stayed on the political sidelines as Republicans pushed the Schiavo cause, immediately seized on Mr. DeLay's remarks.
"Mr. DeLay's comments today were irresponsible and reprehensible," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, who said he was uncertain what Mr. DeLay's intent was. "But at a time when emotions are running high, Mr. DeLay needs to make clear that he is not advocating violence against anyone. People in this case have already had their lives threatened."
As the vigil in Florida ended for Ms. Schiavo, who was severely brain-damaged, conservatives said the refusal of the federal courts to step in underscored the need for Senate Republicans to end the ability of the Democratic minority to filibuster President Bush's judicial nominees.
Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of the evangelical group Focus on the Family, said the judges who would not stop the removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube were "guilty not only of judicial malfeasance - but of the cold-blooded, cold-hearted extermination of an innocent human life."
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said: "It is a tragic, unfortunate but avoidable event that should awaken Americans to the problem of the courts. It is no longer theoretical. It is life or death."
While Mr. DeLay and others renewed the combative tone they had used to advance the Schiavo legislation, others couched their responses. Representative F. James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin and a chief advocate for the legislation, pointed out that the measure had passed in a "bipartisan fashion." Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader and another central figure in the Congressional action, directed his comments to Ms. Schiavo's family "and all those involved in this regrettable loss of life."
In Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush appeared to seek a respite from the political battles over Ms. Schiavo.
"There's a lot of raw emotion still, and it may be appropriate to wait" before passing laws to address similar cases, Governor Bush said. "The answer to this is that we don't count on government to be the arbiter, or count on the courts to do that. This is the responsibility of the people we love, to talk to about this way in advance of it happening."
Democrats and other critics of the Republicans, bolstered by polls that consistently showed overwhelming public opposition to the Congressional role, argued that the willingness of the Republican-led Congress to intervene in one family's court battle would rally the opposition.
Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster who has worked for abortion rights groups, said some Americans had been skeptical that Republicans could succeed in overturning court precedents about abortion rights.
"Now it is like, oh yeah, the guys can step in from the highest level," Ms. Lake said. "It makes the threat seem a lot more viable."
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/lautenberg_letter_delay_schiavo_401.htm
Tom DeLay
Majority Leader
House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Majority Leader DeLay,
I was stunned to read the threatening comments you made yesterday
against Federal judges and our nation's courts of law in general. In
reference to certain Federal judges, you stated: "The time will come
for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."
As you are surely aware, the family of Federal Judge Joan H. Lefkow of
Illinois was recently murdered in their home. And at the state level,
Judge Rowland W. Barnes and others in his courtroom were gunned down
in Georgia.
Our nation's judges must be concerned for their safety and security
when they are asked to make difficult decisions every day. That's why
comments like those you made are not only irresponsible, but downright
dangerous. To make matters worse, is it appropriate to make threats
directed at specific Federal and state judges?
You should be aware that your comments yesterday may violate a Federal
criminal statute, 18 U.S.C. §115 (a)(1)(B). That law states:
"Whoever threatens to assault…. or murder, a United States judge… with
intent to retaliate against such… judge…. on account of the
performance of official duties, shall be punished [by up to six years
in prison]"
Threats against specific Federal judges are not only a serious crime,
but also beneath a Member of Congress. In my view, the true measure of
democracy is how it dispenses justice. Your attempt to intimidate
judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental
democracy as well.
Federal judges, as well as state and local judges in our nation, are
honorable public servants who make difficult decisions every day. You
owe them – and all Americans – an apology for your reckless
statements.
Sincerely,
Frank R. Lautenberg
----- 4 -----
Florida judge embroiled in right-to-die dispute
By Abby Goodnough
The New York Times
Friday, March 18, 2005
MIAMI For most of his career, Judge George Greer presided over mundane local disputes that drew little notice outside Pinellas County, Florida, or even his courtroom. People who know him say he considers himself a "compassionate conservative," a man whose religious faith is as dear to him as his reputation as a legal scholar.
Now, though, the placid Florida Circuit Court judge is at the center of one of the nation's most contentious civil cases, the battle over whether to withdraw the feeding tube of a critically brain-damaged woman, Terri Schiavo. The case has made Greer a target of religious conservatives and others who object to ending any life prematurely. He resigned from his Southern Baptist church and lately travels under police protection; he doesn't even go to lunch unaccompanied.
No matter that the case has gone on for seven years, traveling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. It always returns to Greer, 63, who Friday ordered that Schiavo's feeding tube be removed. His finding that Schiavo would rather die than be kept alive artificially, based on testimony from her husband, Michael, has drawn protest from around the world. Opponents have sent hundreds of letters and e-mail messages to the judge, picketed his courthouse in Clearwater, and, in a few cases, friends said, threatened his life.
He stopped attending his longtime church, Calvary Baptist in Clearwater, in 2003 after it sent a publication to the congregation sharply criticizing him.
Now, as protestors descend on Pinellas County, where Schiavo resides in a suburban hospice, and Tallahassee, where they are lobbying Governor Jeb Bush and the legislature, Greer's friends say he remains resolute. Yet they also say that stress is afflicting the judge and his family, especially after the recent murders of a state judge in Atlanta and a federal judge's husband and mother in Chicago.
Greer, a former Pinellas County commissioner who was elected to the 6th Circuit Court in 1992, declined to be interviewed, and neither the court nor the county sheriff's office would discuss his security arrangements. But several of his friends said that in recent weeks, after threats, at least two sheriff's deputies have escorted him almost everywhere.
Greer is legally blind and has a soft voice and a patient manner in the courtroom. In his order that Schiavo's feeding tube be removed, he politely cited the "excellent argument" of both sides' lawyers, even as he wrote, "The Court is no longer comfortable granting stays simply upon the filings of new motions and petitions since there will always be 'new' issues that can be pled."
The case, Schindler v. Schiavo, landed on his desk in 1998. Michael Schiavo wanted permission to remove the feeding tube, eight years after his wife suffered extensive brain damage when her heart briefly stopped, possibly due to a potassium deficiency.
But Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, immediately challenged him. They believe that Schiavo, 41, is conscious and responds to them, and that she could improve with therapy. After a trial in 2000, Greer found there was clear and convincing evidence that Schiavo would never recover and would not want to be kept alive artificially, based on statements that her husband and his relatives testified that she made years earlier.
But the battle has not ceased, and the case has often dominated Greer's calendar. He ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed twice in the past, only to see it replaced within days. The last time, in October 2003, the legislature passed a law that authorized the governor, Bush, to order the tube reinserted. Greer declared the law unconstitutional, and although higher courts backed him, Bush's appeals delayed any action for 17 months.
Now Bush and the legislature are rushing to agree on a bill that would outlaw the withdrawal of food and water from certain people in a persistent vegetative state, including Schiavo.
The Schindlers have failed in efforts to move the case to federal court, but the U.S. House of Representatives late Wednesday night approved a bill by a voice vote to move such a case to federal court, The Associated Press reported. Senate Republicans plan to introduce a separate bill to give Schiavo and her family standing in federal court, and they hope it can be debated on Thursday, a Republican aide said.
Harder to bear, other friends said, were the hate mail and flyers like the one that people who contributed to his 2004 re-election campaign received this week saying, "Please help stop a judicial murderer!" A petition to impeach Greer, circulated online by religious groups, has gotten nearly 7,000 signatures.
Cheryl Ford, a nurse who heads the National Fight for Terri Action Volunteer Group in Tampa, dismissed the possibility of violence against Greer, saying: "I haven't heard one person say they wanted to do anything violent. The people here are not people who would commit violence. The only ones committing violence are Judge Greer and Michael Schiavo who are murdering Terri by removing her feeding tube."
[more at URL]
----- 5 -----
March 31, 2005
Clerics Fighting a Gay Festival for Jerusalem
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and GREG MYRE
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/international/worldspecial/31gay.html?ei=5065&en=149e1c8e0aa86a2c&ex=1112936400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print&position=
International gay leaders are planning a 10-day WorldPride festival and parade in Jerusalem in August, saying they want to make a statement about tolerance and diversity in the Holy City, home to three great religious traditions.
Now major leaders of the three faiths - Christianity, Judaism and Islam - are making a rare show of unity to try to stop the festival. They say the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.
"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable," Shlomo Amar, Israel's Sephardic chief rabbi, said yesterday at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel's two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. "It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."
Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, added: "We can't permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."
Israeli authorities have not indicated what action, if any, they might take to limit the events. Banning the festival would seem unlikely, though the government could withhold the required permits for specific events, like a parade.
Interfaith agreement is unusual in Israel. The leaders' joint opposition was initially generated by the Rev. Leo Giovinetti, an evangelical pastor from San Diego who is both a veteran of the American culture war over homosexuality and a frequent visitor to Israel, where he has formed relationships with rabbis and politicians.
Organizers of the gay pride event, Jerusalem WorldPride 2005, said that 75 non-Orthodox rabbis had signed a statement of support for the event, and that Christian and Muslim leaders as well as Israeli politicians were expected to announce their support soon. They said they were dismayed to see that what united their opponents was their objection to homosexuality.
"That is something new I've never witnessed before, such an attempt to globalize bigotry," said Hagai El-Ad, the executive director of Jerusalem Open House, a gay and lesbian group that is the host for the festival. "It's quite sad and ironic that these religious figures are coming together around such a negative message."
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, co-chairwoman of the festival and the rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a gay synagogue in New York City, said the controversy was another sign that each religion had become polarized between its liberal and conservative wings.
The global Anglican Communion split deeply over homosexuality in the last two years after its American affiliate ordained an openly gay bishop and the Canada affiliate decided to allow blessings of same-sex unions.
"I reject that they have the right to define religion in such a narrow way," Rabbi Kleinbaum said of religious leaders who denounce homosexuality. "Gay and lesbian people are saying we are equal partners in religious communities, and we believe in a religious world in which all are created in God's image."
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Family News in Focus
Friday, April 01, 2005
Focus on the Family
* Terri Schiavo’s case illuminates the Constitutional crisis gripping America – balance of power has been lost.
* Legislation to provide parents with vouchers for private schools is being rekindled across America.
* The states' governors are trying to keep from being overrun by casinos. Most of them run by Indian tribes..
* A college English teacher from Idaho claims he can recreate the shroud of Turin with some glass, paint, and old cloth.
* MTV has long been one of the most family UN-friendly channels on TV, especially during their “Spring Break” programming. The Parents Television Council is helping you identify who’s bringing you the sexually charged fare with a top ten list of sponsors.
* A Chicago hospital is in trouble for allowing a psychologist to practice witchcraft on its patients.
* The California judge who declared the state’s marriage law unconstitutional because it excludes same-sex couples has issued a stay on that decision.
----- 7 -----
CITIZENLINK SPECIAL REPORT:
----------------------------------------------
Terri Schiavo: 1963-2005
by Pete Winn, associate editor
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
SUMMARY: Disabled Florida woman dies of court-ordered
dehydration and starvation as family advocates urge legal
reforms to ensure such barbarism never happens again.
"The sad day we hoped would never arrive . . . is here."
With those words, attorney David Gibbs III formally
announced the death this morning, just after 10 a.m. EST,
of 41-year-old Terri Schiavo at the Woodside Hospice in
Pinellas Park, Fla.
Schiavo, the disabled woman at the center of a highly
publicized struggle between the right to life versus the
so-called "right to death," died from the effects of being
denied food and water by court order for nearly 14 days.
Despite pleas from Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary
Schindler, Pinellas County Judge George W. Greer
authorized removal of Schiavo's feeding and hydration tube
on March 18 -- ending the seven-year effort of Schiavo's
husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, to get the courts
to end his wife's life.
Mr. Schiavo -- who lives with another woman by whom he has
fathered two children -- was reportedly at his wife's side
when she died. He barred Terri's parents and siblings from
joining him there.
In an afternoon news conference, the Schindlers sounded a
somber, forgiving note -- choosing to simply say goodbye
to their daughter and sister.
"As a member of our family unable to speak for yourself,
you spoke loudly," Bobby Schindler said. "We know that God
loves you more than we do. We must accept your untimely
death as God's will."
President Bush, speaking from the White House this
morning, was just one of many prominent political and
pro-family leaders who expressed sympathy for the
Schindlers -- and suggested that action must be taken to
prevent a similar fate from befalling anyone else.
"Today, millions of Americans are saddened," Bush said,
urging people to honor Schiavo by "working to build a
culture of life" in which all Americans are protected --
"especially those who live at the mercy of others."
Schiavo's death came 15 years after she experienced a loss
of oxygen to the brain after collapsing at home. Though
she slipped into a coma initially, she later emerged and
was diagnosed as being in a "persistent vegetative state."
In recent legal proceedings, however, attorneys for the
Schindlers filed affidavits from prominent neurologists
who questioned that diagnosis -- saying they believed she
was at least minimally conscious.
In their last court filing, attorneys for the Schindlers
said Schiavo not only had some awareness, but had
attempted -- after the feeding tube was removed -- to
communicate that she did not want to be killed. The courts
rejected the claim.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who successfully intervened to
rescue Schiavo from starvation in 2003 after the Florida
Legislature passed a special law later declared
unconstitutional, joined his brother in offering
condolences to the Schindlers -- and noting that Schiavo's
death raises questions that must be answered.
"Terri's death is a window through which we can see the
many issues left unresolved in our families and in our
society," Bush said. "For that, we can be thankful for all
that the life of Terri Schiavo has taught us."
Conservatives in Congress, who two weeks ago expended
Herculean effort to pass legislation to give federal
courts the jurisdiction to open new hearings in the case,
were much more pointed in criticizing the courts, which
both ordered -- and allowed -- Schiavo to be killed.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called Schiavo's
death "a moral poverty and a legal tragedy."
"This loss happened because our legal system did not
protect the people who need protection most, and that will
change," DeLay said. "The time will come for the men
responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not
today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this
fate never befalls another."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., specifically
condemned the federal courts, which he said had "reviewed
only the judicial process, rather than the facts of the
case, as Congress had intended."
Pro-family leaders, meanwhile, expressed concern about
what Schiavo's death says about the nation -- and its
system of government.
Focus on the Family Chairman Dr. James C. Dobson said
Schiavo "had been executed under the guise of law and
'mercy,' for being guilty of nothing more than the
inability to speak for herself."
"Every Florida and federal judge who failed to act to
spare this precious woman from the torment she was forced
to endure," he added, "is guilty not only of judicial
malfeasance -- but of the cold-blooded, cold-hearted
extermination of an innocent human life."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in
Washington, D.C., said the "tragic and unfortunate event"
should awaken Americans to the problems of the court
system.
"In Terri's case, the courts have shown that they are
suffering from a persistent state of arrogance," he said.
"Her death is a symptom of a greater problem: that the
courts no longer respect human life."
Pro-family lawyers who worked to keep Schiavo alive were
equally saddened -- and outraged -- saying the aftershock
from the case will reverberate for years.
"It was clear from all who were involved in her case that
Terri wanted to live," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of
the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented
the Schindlers at the Supreme Court in their efforts to
defend the previous Florida legislation that was declared
unconstitutional.
"It is extremely disappointing that the legal and
legislative efforts made in the past two weeks did not
succeed."
Mathew Staver, president of Liberty Counsel, said
Schiavo's life struggle should be the catalyst for
legislative reform.
"Terri Schiavo," he said, "should make us all more
sensitive and eager to protect human life from birth to
natural death."
One of the issues lawmakers will likely take up in the
months to come is whether it's always right for a husband
or wife to act as a disabled spouse's guardian in the face
of such signs of conflict of interest as were present in
the Schiavo case.
"Terri's life and her recent death should serve as a
catalyst for the state of Florida and other states around
the country to pass legislation that would disqualify a
legal guardian who has an apparent and direct conflict
such as that between Michael Schiavo and Terri," Staver
said.
Another area of legislative reform is certain to center on
how to proceed when a disabled person leaves no specific
instructions on the kinds of medical treatment he or she
would want if rendered unable to speak. Florida state
legislators came just a few votes short of passing a law
that would assume in cases like Terri's that the patient
would want to be kept alive.
Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics at Focus
on the Family, said another cause for the pro-life
community in the months to come is correcting the media's
painting of Schiavo as a martyr for the so-called "right
to die."
News polls indicating the public supported her starvation
death were fueled by media reports that stated or implied
that she was comatose and on "life support," as if she had
been on a respirator.
She had been neither.
"We need to confront this philosophy of radical autonomy,
that's expressed through the so-called 'right to die',"
Earll said. "It's a dangerous threat to the vulnerable
among us."
In the end, Princeton law professor Robert George said
Schiavo's death lays before all Americans a choice.
"Do we recognize that all human lives have a profound
inherent and equal dignity?" he asked. "Or are we prepared
to abandon our historic belief in the equal dignity of all
human beings and move to a view that considers some lives
to be a life unworthy of life?"
----- 8 -----
March 31, 2005
Bush's Approval Rating Solid
by Terry Phillips, correspondent
A recent poll shows that more than half of Americans are happy with the job the president is doing—but not thrilled about the country's direction.
http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0036041.cfm
The annual Battleground Poll from George Washington University is out—and it shows that President Bush has a 53 percent approval rating.
There's at least one seeming anomaly in the data, though: 54 percent think the nation is on the wrong track, despite the high marks for Bush.
Christopher Arterton, whose School of Political Management guided the polling, said that the president's ratings can be traced to the last election, when voters saw him as "the answer, not the problem."
"In other words, some of those people are quite concerned with what they refer to as a decline in moral values," Arterton noted.
But on fiscal matters, Democrats win. They're seen as the party holding down federal spending. Pete Sepp with the National Taxpayers Union said costs of the Iraq war, the No Child Left Behind educations reforms and the Medicare prescription benefit are at the heart of those numbers.
"Those perceptions keep building upon each other to the point where the GOP is at risk of being labeled a big-spending political party," Sepp said.
Democrats are also seen by better than two-to-one as the party making prescription drugs more affordable. Dr. Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation said that grows out of criticism of the Administration for not including price controls in the Medicare drug program.
"We really don't talk about price controls on any other sector of the economy, because we know they don't work," Matthews said. "But they're coming back into Medicare."
On Social Security, the president seems to have made the case that's there's a problem, but those polled don't like any proposed remedies.
----- 9 -----
March 31, 2005
Pornography a Shared Hazard
by Steve Jordahl, correspondent
Movie industry representatives are teaming with conservatives to battle Internet file sharing of smut.
http://family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0036043.cfm
It's not often that Hollywood executives and family advocates agree on anything, but both were on the same side at the Supreme Court this week: arguing against sites that allow free downloads on the Internet.
The movie industry is suing file-sharing sites to protect its copyrights. But it's not stolen intellectual property that family groups are concerned about—they want to put an end to one of the largest purveyors of child pornography in existence.
"We're concerned with the huge amounts of child pornography, other kinds of pornography, obscenity, distributed by these file-sharing companies," said Jim Backlin, vice president of legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition.
Of the more than 2.5 billion files shared every month, in fact, many are illegal pornographic images.
"You don't want to have child pornography, which is illegal," attorney Barbara Comstock said. "You don't want it to have some type of free zone on these networks, because that is something that's illegal."
The problem, Comstock added, is that some of the conservative justices on the Supreme Court seemed concerned about infringing on technological progress.
----- 10 -----
http://congress.cwfa.org/cwfa/issues/alert/?alertid=7228386&type=CO
Concerned Women for America
Stop Judicial Activism
Dear Friend,
We have an urgent item to bring to your attention this morning.
Please take a few minutes today to call or e-mail each of your state’s U.S. senators and demand a “Yes or No” vote for judicial nominees. Liberal groups are rallying today to give their “spin” to the judicial nominations battle. They are portraying the Senate’s refusal to allow up-or-down votes on the President’s judicial nominees as simply a way to ensure “fair judges,” which means only judges who are pro-abortion, pro-homosexual “marriage” and who want the Ten Commandments removed from public places.
Using the filibuster, which takes 61 votes to overcome, the Democrats have blocked a number of good judges, and are threatening to block any conservative U.S. Supreme Court appointee. Given the poor health of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and other justices, a battle looms over their impending replacements.
The liberal Democrats are playing hardball. They threaten to shut down the government if they don’t get their way, and then to blame Republicans. The media will pile on, parroting the liberal spin. That’s why you need to take a minute or two to call or e-mail your U.S. senators and ask them to ensure that the Senate gets straight votes on nominees.
Liberals fear that judges who respect the Constitution will end their undemocratic reign of judicial tyranny.
The threat of court-imposed homosexual “marriage” in EVERY state became even more apparent on Monday when a single California judge struck down the state’s marriage law, which had been approved in 2000 by a 61.4 percent vote of the people. The judge said he could find no “rational” basis for keeping marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The president has nominated common-sense judges who are prepared to administer the law rather than re-write it. But they can’t get a vote.
It’s an outrage! The Senate needs to know we’re watching and expect better from them. Click on the box at right to send an e-mail to each of your senators, or call the Capitol switchboard now at 1-202-224-3121 to reach your senators. Ask them to allow an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees. (To find out who your senators are, click here: http://congress.cwfa.org/cwfa/issues/alert/?alertid=7179036).
Sincerely,
The Legislation Department
Concerned Women for America
----- 11 -----
Activists hope to keep up momentum
Groups seek to take on other 'right to life' issues; 'Allowed ... doors to be opened'
By Ellen Gamerman
Baltimore Sun
Sun National Staff
Originally published April 1, 2005
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - The Rev. Ed Martin does not want to squander the attention that the Terri Schiavo case has given his cause. In the month the anti-abortion activist spent outside the hospice housing the severely brain-damaged woman, he has given his business card - emblazoned with a logo of an adult hand protectively holding a baby - to every reporter who has approached him.
In the wake of Schiavo's death, protesters like Martin are trying to hold on to the national media contacts they made while demonstrating outside the hospice, hoping to use their outrage over the Florida woman's death as fuel for future activism. For the groups joined together on this case - anti-abortion protesters, disability rights advocates, euthanasia opponents - the aim is to keep the issues alive after her death.
"We have to go into the political realm and get the right elected officials in office who will fight the people in favor of 'death with dignity,'" said Martin, 59, an Ocala, Fla., activist who spends most of his days demonstrating outside abortion clinics.
Chet Gallagher, 55, who was arrested dozens of times during Operation Rescue anti-abortion protests, sees the fight over right-to-die issues as the next logical extension of his activism. "It's the same alliance of all of us who were active in the Rescue movement in the '80s," he said.
In many ways this is an old alliance of religious conservatives who usually band together on cultural and political issues. This group is undaunted by polls showing that a majority of Americans supported Michael Schiavo's decision to have his wife's feeding tube removed. They say the survey questions were tilted against their cause.
With this latest cause comes, they hope, new momentum, broadening their movement to a spectrum of "right to life" issues.
"This situation allowed so many doors to be opened on the culture of life," said Lanier Swann, a lobbyist for the conservative Concerned Women for America. "It is our hope and our understanding that Congress will continue to dig deeper into this."
But there's no clear picture of where such activism goes now that demonstrators are packing up their tents, the media is heading home and many Americans are expressing relief that this sad and troubling look inside a divided family is finally over. And for a group so diverse that demonstrators outside the hospice sometimes fought with each other, rather than their right-to-die opponents, the alliance is hardly ironclad.
Protesters in wheelchairs joined the rally outside Woodside Hospice, arguing along with the anti-abortion crowd for the reinsertion of Schiavo's feeding tube. But several took offense at religious activists over their support of abortion rights and over language some felt was patronizing.
"They were praying for our healing, and I told them I don't need to be healed, thank you very much - it's this whole ideology that we're not OK as we are," said Carol Cleigh, 50, who came here from North Carolina with supplemental oxygen and a mobilized wheelchair.
But most protesters on the Schiavo case agree that "persistent vegetative state" and "minimally conscious state" are terms open to vast interpretation. They want patients without a living will to have government protections in case their relatives are coerced into terminating their lives. Cleigh said she hopes the case brings attention to problems that stem from what she calls the "better dead than disabled" attitude.
After collapsing 15 years ago, Schiavo had been in what doctors called a persistent vegetative state, meaning she was incapable of registering or vocalizing thought. But Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, said they saw signs of emotion and cognition and fought their daughter's legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, who said his wife had told him she would never want to live on artificial life support.
[...]
But the Schiavo case has mobilized thousands of supporters who have been willing to donate to the Schindler family's cause. The New York Times recently reported that the Schindlers struck a deal with a conservative direct-mail firm, selling their list of 4,000 e-mail addresses from donors to their legal fight through their Web site.
At the central Florida hospice, activists like Chet Gallagher - who was arrested Easter Sunday for trying to take Schiavo communion - say they see the Schiavo case becoming a part of the conservative lobbying agenda. The devout Christian considers the next cultural front the fight over the end of life.
"We have a movement now, and there has to be a unified stand against this imposing spirit of euthanasia," he said. "It's a real spiritual battle that's raging."
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
TVC Urges Californians To Rally For Marriage
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2211
March 31, 2005 – Traditional Values Coalition Chairman Rev. Louis P. Sheldon is urging Californians to participate in a rally for a state constitutional amendment on marriage on April 2, 2005.
The rally will feature Rev. Sheldon, TVC Lobbyist and Legislative Analyst Ben Lopez, TVC Central Valley Coordinator Jody Hutchens, and State Senator Roy Ashburn. The rally begins at 10 a.m. and will be held at Patriots Park, located at the intersection of Ming Avenue and New Stine Road in Bakersfield, California.
TVC sponsored Senate Constitutional Amendment 1, which will define marriage as a one man, one woman union. The amendment is being carried in the Senate by Sen. Bill Morrow and in the Assembly by Assemblyman Ray Haynes. The bill is ACA 3 in the Assembly.
According to Rev. Sheldon, “We intend to add California to the list of those 14 other states that passed marriage amendments in the 2004 elections … That is why Traditional Values Coalition has taken the lead in the fight to preserve marriage in California.”
More on this is available here: Sen. Roy Ashburn, Public to Rally in Support of Marriage Amendments.
----- 13 -----
URGENT: Defeat Homosexual Civil Unions In Connecticut
Traditional values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2210
March 31, 2005 – The Family Institute of Connecticut is calling upon voters in that state to stop the legislature from passing a homosexual civil unions bill.
The Finance Committee has just voted 31-11 to move the legislation to the floor for a vote.
FIC leader Brian Brown is urging Connecticut voters to inundate the legislature with phone calls and emails to urge them to vote against passage of the civil unions legislation.
FIC’s web site provides an easy way for voters to easily contact their state legislators: Marriage Protection Center
Read and distribute two of TVC’s reports on homosexual marriages and civil unions: “Homosexual Civil Unions” and “Homosexual Marriage = Civil Unions = Domestic Partnerships.”
----- 14 -----
Pro-lifers hear call to overhaul 'arrogant' judiciary
By Bill Sammon
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050401-012526-6575r.htm
Terri Schiavo's death is expected to have major political ramifications as pro-lifers declare war on the judiciary and galvanize for the coming fight over Supreme Court vacancies.
"We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican. "We will look into that."
The Rev. Flip Benham, director of Operation Rescue, lamented, "The courts of this land have become the tool, in the hands of the devil, by which the culture of death has found access."
Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh bluntly blamed the judiciary for "ordering the starvation" of Mrs. Schiavo.
The Florida woman who died yesterday after her feeding tube had been disconnected nearly two weeks earlier has become a martyr for conservatives, who planned to avenge her death by fighting to put pro-life justices on the Supreme Court as soon as vacancies arise. They also vowed to prevent the Schiavo case from becoming any kind of legal precedent.
Democrats were not relishing the prospect of open warfare against an energized, motivated pro-life movement. Yet Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, promised to mount a spirited defense against the conservatives.
"They are seeking to take away the independence of the judiciary — the crown jewel in our system of government — so that they can advance their own ideological agenda of the day," the Massachusetts Democrat said during a speech in Boston.
"That is exactly the kind of tyranny that our ancestors fought to prevent," he added. "And I pledge to you, that as long as I have a voice, I will continue to fight it as well."
President Bush encouraged pro-lifers to redouble their efforts in the wake of Mrs. Schiavo's death.
[more at URL]
----- 15 -----
Neo-Nazis Kill Terri Schiavo
Mar 30th, 2005
by William Federer
http://www.movieguide.org/index.php?s=articles&id=45
Even before the rise of Adolph Hitler's Third Reich, the way for the gruesome Nazi holocaust of human extermination and cruel butchery was being prepared in the 1930 German Weimar Republic through the medical establishment and philosophical elite's adoption of the "quality of life" concept in place of the "sanctity of life."
The Nuremberg trials, exposing the horrible Nazi war crimes, revealed that Germany's trend toward atrocity began with their progressive embrace of the Hegelian doctrine of "rational utility," where an individual's worth is in relation to their contribution to the state, rather than determined in light of traditional moral, ethical and religious values.
This gradual transformation of national public opinion, promulgated through media and education, was described in an article written by the British commentator Malcolm Muggeridge, entitled "The Humane Holocaust," and in an article written by former United States Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, M.D., entitled "The Slide to Auschwitz," both published in The Human Life Review, 1977 and 1980 respectively.
Malcolm Muggeridge stated:
"Near at hand, we have been accorded, for those that have eyes to see, an object lesson in what the quest for 'quality of life' without reference to 'sanctity of life' can involve.... the great Nazi holocaust, whose TV presentation has lately been harrowing viewers throughout the Western world.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
Maine Columnist Warns Of Attacks On ‘Heteronormative’ Thoughts
Traditional Values Coalition
http://traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2204
March 31, 2005 – M.D. Harmon, an editorial writer for the Portland (ME) Press Herald has recently expressed concern about new attacks against traditional marriage in our culture.
According to Harmon, there’s a growing battle over the adding of “sexual orientation” to the state’s human rights statutes. The bill under consideration says that sexual orientation is “a person’s actual or perceived heterosexuality, bisexuality, homosexuality or gender identity or expression.”
Harmon notes that “Private religious bodies are exempt from the law, but ordinary believers aren’t. So, what happens the first time a male employee turns up to work at the auto parts counter wearing a dress and lipstick?”
Harmon describes the trouble that Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith ran into at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations not long ago. Smith told the women that they could have it all: “A loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career.”
Her statement angered members of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance. They said she had engaged in “heteronormative” speech and had inferred that male and female couples were the norm.
Harmon warns that groups like this will use sexual orientation laws to beat the notion out of straight Americans that they’re normal. He quotes radical University of Chicago law professor Elizabeth Emens who supports the idea of polyamory—or multiple sex partners in a “marriage.” Emens hopes to destroy the notion of marriage altogether and her ideas are being propagated by radical homosexual groups.
Read and distribute TVC’s updated report, “A Gender Identity Disorder Goes Mainstream” that describes the homosexual/transgender movement’s efforts to normalize cross-dressing and transsexualism.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-04-01 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-01 10:51 pm (UTC)Sadly, though, these are the people most in charge. And it's been a long campaign and they are by no means finished. I have no option to ignore them, except maybe by leaving the country, so fight it is.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-01 11:04 pm (UTC)