Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Jul. 13th, 2005 10:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdVirginia United Church of Christ church hit by arson, anti-gay graffiti - blog entry includes link to news article, previous blog entry at the same site mentions earlier anti-gay vandalism hits at other UCC churches in Virginia, following the "Still Speaking" inclusiveness-oriented ad campaign;
A reasonably interesting blog post that I include mostly because the writer has thoughts similar to mind w.r.t. dealing with an opponent with orthogonal rules sets - "Violence and Agency"; read the whole thing if you read any of it;
Not normally in the scope of this bulletin: the new spin that Karl Rove exposing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent was _good_ (even though he didn't do it, of course) and that he should get a medal for it (even though he didn't do it) is so audacious that even in an era where words mean nothing and expediency rules everything, I find it breathtaking;
I saw this before, but the version I saw then didn't have the raw letter texts - now that there's a version that does, I'll post it: Pope Benedict, when still Cardinal, agreed with assertions that Harry Potter novels are spiritually corrupting;
Focus on the Family, other fundamentalist groups oppose effort to ban Federal Government workplace discrimination against gayfolk - it's an attempt to put the Clinton-era rules back into place by Congress - includes action item (ACTION ITEM);
Focus on the Family action item urging letters against Johnson & Johnson ad targeting gay consumers (ACTION ITEM);
FotF whinging about news coverage not being positive enough forwards President Bush;
FotF newsbrief supportive of Kenneth Tomlinson's political interference at PBS;
FotF newsbrief on the Supreme Court nomination fight;
FotF newsbrief - New Jersey senators won't support anti-abortion nominee;
FotF newsbrief - "angry" Arlen Specter behind push to open more lines of stem cells for research;
Concerned Women for America doesn't want Gonzales to be nominee to replace O'Connor;
CWFA condemns bill that would project Federal employees from on-the-job discrimination based on sexual orientation;
California school district settles anti-gay student harassment lawsuit;
Kentucky school district facing lawsuit over failure to comply with previous settlement over anti-gay harassment of students;
Washington Times on Santorum's book, which criticises working women, claming women staying home and not working would solve many of society's ills;
Augusta Free Press report on the importance of a woman as nominee;
Family Research Council demands USAID dismiss all groups which support birth control in international family planning (ACTION ITEM);
Rick Santorum again blames Boston "liberal" culture for the Catholic church's pedophiliac priests and accordant scandal. Whatever happened to blaming the criminal?
----- 1 -----
"Christians love; cowards hate"
Sunday, July 10, 2005
http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com/chuck_currie/2005/07/christians_love.html
The following editorial ran this morning in The News Leader in response to the fire set at St. John's Reformed United Church of Christ in Virginia. The words are strong and are a gift to all that have been touched by this story:
It was a small fire, but a loud message. A 225-year-old church in rural Middlebrook was damaged when someone set hymnals ablaze. The choir loft and a pew were burned, and smoke damaged the sanctuary.
The apparent motive was left in graffiti.
The congregation of St. John's Reformed United Church of Christ was left angry and in tears.
What was their crime to receive such punishment? Their denomination last week voted to consider opening its doors to gay couples who want to marry. The UCC's general synod decision to endorse gay and lesbian marriages is not binding on local congregations. It is beyond the ability of words to convey the nightmarish irony of such hatred.
[Much more at URL]
----- 2 -----
Easily Distracted
Culture, Politics, Academia and Other Shiny Objects
Violence and Agency
http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=55
Caleb McDaniel makes some important observations here and at his own blog, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to respond.
These are certainly not the kinds of discussions I had in mind when I asked that we put aside the little extremist hobgoblins for just a bit. Mostly I’d just rather we all stay clear of the kind of whiny and banal partisanship where the challenge of terrorism is just more fuel for the spin-meisters, more occasion for subpar blogger imitations of the punditocracy.
Caleb’s thoughts are quite the opposite, deep and challenging.
To begin, I simply disagree with his elevation of peace as a social aspiration equivalent to justice or freedom, or the proposition that peace is the necessary precondition of either justice or freedom.
It may be true that civility is intrinsically a peaceful state, that to practice it constrains us from not just physical violence but even from totalizing verbal or cultural aggression against an opponent. The ideal democratic civil society is a game, which for me is anything but a trivializing or dismissive metaphor. This is a utilitarian claim that political conflict produces the most generative results for the whole of a society within constraints or rules. A game is a topography of conflict, a map. You can’t go off the edge of the map: there you will find monsters, or the edge of the world.
To play a game, both parties consent to play by the rules. Yes, sometimes one party cheats, but there is a big difference between the kind of cheating that preserves the game’s essential terms and the kind of systematic contempt for the game that ultimately destroys it–or the spoiler who throws the board across the room when they’re going to lose. If one party sits down at the table to play, and obeys the rules, and the other person won’t even acknowledge the game at all, then there are no constraints on either player. There is no game.
A democratic civil society cannot incorporate someone who will not even acknowledge its existence. Some acts of refusal can simply be ignored: they do not challenge or contest civility, merely stand apart from it. A game is not threatened by someone who will not play but does not contend. Some acts of refusal cannot be ignored. You cannot have peace with those who will not make peace. You cannot make peace if the price of peace is to give up the purpose of peace. You cannot make peace if it means an end to justice or freedom.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Karl Rove Should Get a Medal
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By John Gibson
Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162335,00.html
I say give Karl Rove (search) a medal, even if Bush has to fire him.
Why? Because Valerie Plame (search) should have been outed by somebody. And if nobody else had the cojones to do it, I'm glad Rove did — if he did do it, and he still says he didn't.
Why should she have been outed? Well despite her husband's repeated denials, even in the face of a pile of evidence and conclusions from a Senate investigation, it appears all evidence points to Joe Wilson's wife, spy Valerie Plame, as the one who recommended him for the job of going to Niger to discover is Saddam was trying to buy nuke bomb materials.
Why is this important? Because Wilson was opposed to the war in Iraq, opposed to Bush policy, and pointedly and loudly said so.
[More at URL; also, the Wall Street Journal is floating the same spin; speaking personally, this, more than anything else I've heard, tells me that Karl Rove actually did it.]
----- 4 -----
Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online
LifeSiteNews.com
Wednesday July 13, 2005
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html
RIMSTING, Germany, July 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - LifeSiteNews.com has obtained and made available online copies of two letters sent by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was recently elected Pope, to a German critic of the Harry Potter novels. In March 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Gabriele Kuby outlining his agreement with her opposition to J.K. Rowling's offerings. (See below for links to scanned copies of the letters signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.)
As the sixth issue of Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about the novels is now finally being revealed to the English-speaking world still under the impression the Vatican approves the Potter novels.
In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.
"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
'SEXUAL ORIENTATION' LEGISLATION INTRODUCED, OPPOSED
Pro-gay legislation makes a return to Capitol Hill, albeit in a different form.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
SUMMARY: Pro-gay legislation makes a return to Capitol
Hill, albeit in a different form.
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037170.cfm
Gay advocacy has returned to Capitol Hill this summer in
the form of a bill that would add sexual orientation to
federal law.
Eleven pro-homosexual congressmen, including openly gay
Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Tammy
Baldwin, D-Wis., are sponsoring H.R. 3128, the
Clarification of Federal Employment Protection Act.
Bob Knight, the director of the Culture and Family
Institute in Washington, D.C., said the bill would add
sexual orientation to federal workplace law, and would
elevate homosexuality to "protected" status -- alongside
race, creed, ethnicity and sex.
"It would open the door for homosexual activists to claim
that the federal government now approves of
homosexuality," Knight said, "and views it as a 'class,'
like race, and that therefore, the entire civil rights
agenda should move right in behind."
Knight said the proposed bill would simply codify
something that was done by executive order in the Clinton
administration.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Please call your representative and senators
and ask them to oppose this bill. More importantly, ask
them to oppose any legislation which would try to advance
the homosexual agenda.
Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
For help in contacting your lawmakers by e-mail or to
write them, please see the CitizenLink Action Center.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
JOHNSON & JOHNSON AD APPEARS IN GAY MAGAZINE
Ad for Tylenol PM features two men in bed.
by Josh Montez, correspondent
SUMMARY: Ad for Tylenol PM features two men in bed.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0037164.cfm
Johnson & Johnson will be advertising its brand, Tylenol
PM, in the July 19 issue of The Advocate, a leading gay
magazine.
The ad shows two shirtless men in bed side by side. The
text over one reads: "His backache is keeping him up."
Over the other: "His boyfriend's backache is keeping him
up."
Johnson & Johnson has been advertising in gay media since
1996. Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family
Institute, said people need to take notice.
"A lot of corporate America has bought into the idea that
they can secretly promote homosexuality without their
consumers noticing out there," he said.
Mike Haley, director of the gender issues department at
Focus on the Family, said the gay and lesbian community
has a lot of expendable income, so they are targeting big
corporations who are caving to their pressure.
"I think it's a critical issue," he said, "because it's
one more way that the issue of homosexuality is being
normalized and sent out as though it's not harmful -- as
though it's not against what God originally intended."
TAKE ACTION: If you'd like to let Johnson & Johnson know
what you think, you can send a comment to the company
here:
http://www.tylenol.com/vcrc/email/tyemailform.jhtml?id=email
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the
Family is for informational purposes only and does not
necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites'
content.)
----- 7 -----
PRESIDENT TAKES BEATING FROM MAJOR TV NETWORKS
Majority of news stories are negative.
by Steve Jordahl, correspondent
SUMMARY: Majority of news stories are negative.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0037161.cfm
Two thirds of the stories on the "Big Three" networks were
critical of President Bush in the first 100 days of his
second term, according to a report from the Center for
Media and Public Affairs.
ABC was the most critical, with 78 percent of the comments
aired being negative. CBS came in second with 71 percent.
NBC scored 57 percent.
Rich Noyes, director of media analysis for the Media
Research Center, said not even the elder President Bush
was treated so poorly.
"The typical honeymoon that normally comes with winning an
election or in this case a re-election, just hasn't been a
gift that the liberal networks have bestowed upon George
W. Bush," he said. "This president has taken policy
positions that have sharpened the difference between
conservatives and liberals, and that's something that
liberals just can't stand."
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
PBS Boss Defends Attempt to Bring Balance
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Kenneth Tomlinson, head of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, the parent company of the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS), told a Senate subcommittee
Monday that his effort to balance the company's political
programming is not an attempt to silence liberals, the
Associated Press reported.
Sixteen Democratic senators wrote a letter to President
Bush asking to have Tomlinson fired, accusing him of using
his position to advance a conservative agenda.
Tomlinson has publicly stated that the television show
"Now: with Bill Moyers" had a "left-wing bias" and hired a
Republican consultant to track the political leanings of
guests on the show.
Now Tomlinson is backing the creation of a new program --
"Journal Editorial Report" -- to be hosted by the Wall
Street Journal's editorial page editor.
"If you have a liberal show, have a conservative show. If
you have a conservative show, have a liberal show,"
Tomlinson. "This is, to me, common sense and it's good for
public broadcasting."
----- 9 -----
Key Players Chosen for Nomination Battle
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
BusinessWeek, a national business magazine, is reporting
that Democrats may call on George Mitchell, the former
Democratic senator from Maine who rose to lead the Senate
in the 1990s, to direct their "war" against President
Bush's nomination to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the
Supreme Court, the magazine's Web site is reporting.
Mitchell, who left the Senate in 1995, is a former Maine
judge and lawmaker, and currently serves as board chairman
at Walt Disney Company. As Senate Majority Leader,
Mitchell challenged then-President George H. W. Bush over
a number of issues.
The White House last week appointed former Tennessee Sen.
Fred Thompson, a movie and TV actor who first came to
prominence in the 1970s as Republican counsel for the
Senate Watergate Committee, to the task of guiding the
president's nominee -- whoever it may be -- through
confirmation.
Bush also named former Republican National Committee
Chairman Ed Gillespie to serve as "campaign manager" for
the nomination fight.
----- 10 -----
New Jersey Senators Won't Support a Pro-life Nominee
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The Garden State's two Democratic U.S. senators -- backed
by Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates
-- announced at a Monday press conference they would
refuse to back any Supreme Court nominee who was not a
supporter of abortion rights, the Gloucester County Times
reported.
"A judicial nominee should be operating outside of an
ideological agenda," said Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., who
served as head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
before announcing he was running for the governorship of
New Jersey.
With the threat of a Democratic filibuster over any
conservative nominees looming, Bush has been meeting this
week with Senators in order to get input into the process.
The president has not yet announced his nominee to replace
the outgoing Sandra Day O'Connor on the nation's high
court.
----- 11 -----
Angry Specter Behind Push for Embryonic Stem-cell Research
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, announced Monday that he plans
to wage a battle to end restrictions on the federal
funding of embryonic stem-cell research, The Associated
Press reported.
President Bush enacted a policy in August of 2001 that
limits federal funding of such research -- which involves
the destruction of human embryos -- to use of stem-cell
"lines" already in existence, preventing any new from
development.
Specter, who suffers from cancer, admits anger surrounding
his own health issues has fueled his drive to see
restrictions on the federal funding of this type of
research lifted.
"Yeah, well, I am (angry) as a matter of fact," Specter
said. "Try a few chemotherapy treatments and see how you
feel."
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who is an outspoken opponent
of embryonic stem-cell research, said the procedure
requires a fertilized human embryo in the beginning stages
of life to be destroyed in order to harvest stem-cells.
"I don't want to see us destroy additional human lives
with taxpayer dollars," he said.
Brownback will join other experts this week who will
testify on alternatives to using embryonic stem cells --
namely adult and cord-blood stem cells.
----- 12 -----
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Family_News_in_Focus/
* Important upcoming vote in Senate on embryonic stem-cell research produces some Senatorial misdirection
1. "A hearing yesterday advertised as considering alternatives to destroying embryos appeared to be a PR promotion for destructive stem-cell research." Committee was "stacked" with "senators having already made up their minds." Specter says it's not destroying people. Harkin says he sees no moral issue, says people shouldn't impose their particular morals upon others.
* Man to be in charge of UN's Millennium program goals looks to fully support abortion for world
3. Dr. Sachs supports abortion rights and family planning. Fundamentalists oppose both. "We're denying ourselves the human resources that could help solve these problems." (Hunger, mostly.) "The UN believes population control means fewer poor people," FotF claims that it is typically coerced abortion, claims it will lead to China-style forced population control.
* Florida judge ruled Holy Land Experience theme park near Orlando can retain tax-exempt status, despite similarity to other for-profit parks in area
6. "Attourney for the park sees [it] as an important step in giving churches the right to be more flexible in how they deliver their messages." "His goal isn't to entertain, it's to minister." Sued because it charged $30 for admission and had a souvenir shop, and therefore the state alleged it was a theme park and accordingly non-religious. "I think we're going to see more and more challenges" to tax exemption status as such efforts multiply.
Theme park's organisation is part of "Zion's Hope," which sends missionaries to Israel.
* United Methodist annual conferences have wrapped up and there's a rift about confronting homosexuality
4. Talk about opposing expansion of gambling; some of the regional conferences (particularly California) decline to condemn homosexuality. "Leadership of the Untied method Church is more prone to the people in the pew." "There's a liberal slant to what they're trying to achieve." "Any changes to how the Methodist church defines homosexuality will take place at the 2008 conference."
* Department of Human Services reports allegations of shady research are so common, office investigating charges can't keep up - Complaints about studies and reports include ignoring data or just making it up
2. "Office of Research Integrity" received 274 complaints last year.
* Fashion world is apparently going to design more modesty into styles - Parents of teenaged girls will be especially delighted
5. "Girls around the world are also celebrating that... they're tired of being pressured to have to look like people in the media. Teen girls really do want to be more modest than fashion allows them to do at this point." "A real relief for parents."
----- 13 -----
Will the President Nominate Gonzales to the Supreme Court? 7/13/2005
CWA's Chief Counsel Jan LaRue responds.
MEMO
TO: CWA Constituents
FROM: Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
RE: Alberto Gonzales as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court
DATE: July 13, 2005
Despite attempts by media to bait us into criticizing Alberto Gonzales as a potential Supreme Court nominee, CWA hasn’t done so. We praised Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel for his role in providing the President with the excellent slate of nominees to the circuit courts of appeal. We supported his nomination as Attorney General, and praised his commitment to make obscenity enforcement a priority of the Department of Justice.
We don’t think it's likely that President Bush will nominate him. It has nothing to do with Gonzales personally, and these concerns are shared by others.
First, as White House counsel, Gonzales has given the President legal advice and, as Attorney General, he is most likely directing the litigation strategy in the Department of Justice on several crucial cases that are or will likely be heard by the Supreme Court. This raises the issue of recusal if Gonzales is appointed to the Court. Recusal means having to remove himself from deciding a case if his impartiality is reasonably questioned. This creates the serious potential problem of a 4-4 split on the Court in each case, which would leave the ruling of the lower court in place. Some of the cases involve the President’s agenda and core issues for CWA, such as:
* Physician-assisted suicide: Gonzales v. Oregon (9th Circuit ruled that state law trumps federal Controlled Substance Act). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Abortion: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (State is challenging a lower court decision striking down its law requiring parental notice for abortion). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Religious liberty: Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (Can the federal government ban the use of hallucinogenic tea in a religious ceremony?). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Department of Defense’s “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy: Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic Rights (Lower court held that the Solomon Amendment, denying funds to law schools that discriminate against military recruiters, is unconstitutional). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Abortion: Scheidler v. NOW (7th Circuit held that federal extortion law applies to pro-life protesters). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Federal ban on partial-birth abortion: Stenberg v. Carhart (Supreme Court, including Justice O’Connor, voted 5-4 to strike down Nebraska’s ban in 2000. The 8th Circuit just affirmed a district court ruling striking down the federal ban based on Stenberg rationale.) Similar challenges are pending in the 2nd and 9th Circuits and will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Second, the President is unlikely to change the Attorney General in a time of war. Nor does he need or want another contentious confirmation hearing for Gonzales’ replacement.
----- 14 -----
Liberals Introduce Bill Adding ‘Sexual Orientation’ to Federal Law 7/12/2005
By Robert Knight
Measure is response to Office of Special Counsel’s refusal to give homosexuality protected status.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8518/CFI/family/index.htm
Eleven pro-homosexual congressmen have introduced a bill that would add “sexual orientation” to the list of protected categories for federal employees.
The action comes during an aggressive liberal campaign against Scott Bloch, who heads the federal Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which handles cases involving the federal merit system.
The agency is empowered to prosecute federal managers who violate the rights of employees under the Civil Service Reform Act. This includes whistleblowers – employees who seek shelter for reporting wrongdoing in their agencies. One section of the law incorporates protection based on traditional civil-rights categories such as race, color, creed and religion. Another protects conduct outside the job.
During the Clinton administration, Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan, an out lesbian, incorporated “sexual orientation” under the “conduct unrelated to the job” portion, thus elevating homosexuality to a protected status even in the absence of any issue over conduct. Bloch last year removed the words “sexual orientation” from that portion of the OSC’s Web site, noting that Congress had never authorized the addition.
In recent testimony before a Senate panel, Bloch reiterated why he believes the law is clear, and that Congress’ listing of categories necessarily limits his jurisdiction.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
District Settles Suit Alleging Gay-Bashing
The ACLU had sued L.A. Unified over purported harassment at Washington Prep. Teachers, students must take anti-bias training.
By Rachana Rathi, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-washprep1jul01,1,960162.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
The ACLU of Southern California settled a federal lawsuit this week alleging that administrators, teachers and security guards at Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles harassed gay and lesbian students.
The settlement, reached Tuesday, requires the Los Angeles Unified School District to pay attorney fees and $2,000 to a campus club, as well as provide anti-bias training for Washington Prep teachers, staff and students, and for middle school students who will attend the high school.
The suit alleged that the school and the district allowed a climate "rife with hostility" toward gay students to exist on campus. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in October in U.S. District Court on behalf of two Washington Prep students and the campus' Gay-Straight Alliance Network club.
Faculty and student training sessions on diversity, discrimination and harassment related to actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity began in the spring — before the lawsuit was settled.
"All parties were in agreement that it was necessary to intervene on that campus right away because of the severity of the harassment," said Catherine Lhamon, co-counsel in the case for the ACLU of Southern California. "At this point, we're very enthusiastic the school and district are both taking serious steps to make Washington Prep a more welcoming place for all of its students and staff."
The lawsuit also alleged that administrators, teachers and staff called students pejorative names and told them that being gay is "wrong" and "unholy." Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that deans and other administrators suspended students for being gay or for complaining about harassment. Further, the suit alleged that teachers threatened to "out" students to their families as punishment for students' sexual orientation.
Under terms of the settlement, neither the school nor the district admitted fault.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
ACLU asks to reopen Boyd schools gay- rights suit
By Alan Maimon
amaimon@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050707/NEWS0104/507070442/1008/NEWS01
The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge yesterday to reopen its gay-rights lawsuit against Boyd County schools, claiming that they failed to give students adequate anti-harassment training.
In a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Covington, the ACLU argued that school officials have failed to comply with a settlement reached last year that allowed the Boyd County High School Gay-Straight Alliance to use school facilities.
The settlement required the school district to provide students and teachers with anti-harassment training focused on "sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination."
"To end up in front of the judge again is very disappointing, but the district's efforts fell so far short of the mark," said Sharon McGowan, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
Mickey Rice, interim superintendent of Boyd County schools, and high school principal Rhonda Salisbury did not return calls yesterday seeking comment. Winter Huff, the school board's lawyer, also did not return calls.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
Family as foundation
By Amy Doolittle
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 8, 2005
http://www.washingtontimes.com/culture/20050708-011743-2134r.htm
Politics and election speculation can work together to create the perfect atmosphere for a book release by a public figure -- Bill Clinton pulled it off with "My Life" and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton attempted the same with "Living History."
Enter Sen. Rick Santorum. The Pennsylvania Republican's bid for re-election in 2006 is already the most closely watched race in Washington, and his "never say never" answer to whether he'll run for president in 2008 only keeps those rumors flying.
So, not long after his first book, "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good," hit Washington bookstores during the Fourth of July weekend, his opponents were sifting through the 430 pages at warp speed -- culling passages in which the Republican criticizes public schools and America's "divorce culture" and argues that more families should consider whether both parents really need to work.
Washington-area conservative women's organizations are ecstatic that an official with Mr. Santorum's public stature is giving a voice to their pro-family agenda.
[...]
Many conversations on the Internet about the book focus on a section in which Mr. Santorum advocates parents spending more time at home with their children. Part of the book's central theme is that fostering the traditional family headed by a married man and woman can solve many of society's ills.
"In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don't both need to," Mr. Santorum writes. Many women, he says, have told him that it is more "socially affirming to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children."
That ideology, he says, has been shaped by feminists who demean the work of women who stay at home as primary caregivers.
"What happened in America so that mothers and fathers who leave their children in the care of someone else -- or worse yet, home alone after school between three and six in the afternoon -- find themselves more affirmed by society? Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism," Mr. Santorum writes.
"Sadly, the propaganda campaign launched in the 1960s has taken root," Mr. Santorum says. "The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness."
Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Rep. T.J. Rooney said such statements would alienate female voters. He described the excerpts he had seen as a "mind-bending read" sure to create fodder for the campaign against Mr. Santorum in 2006, when he is expected to face off against state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., a socially conservative Democrat.
"References to how families are compromised when both parents work outside the home, how it takes a societal toll on Pennsylvania families or American families, it just shows a complete lack of understanding of the real world in which the vast majority of Pennsylvanians reside," Mr. Rooney said.
[More at URL]
----- 18 -----
Women's groups speak out on SC nominee
Chris Graham
Augusta Free Press
chris@augustafreepress.com
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$35611
It's not important that the replacement to Sandra Day O'Connor be a woman - but it is important that the next Supreme Court justice be fair.
This is one thing that women's groups from across the political spectrum can agree on - almost.
"I would rather have someone in there who is going to be fair and a moderate more so than just putting a woman in there," said Elizabeth Gehl, the director of public policy at the nonpartisan Business and Professional Women/USA.
"From our perspective, the most important factor is someone who will interpret the Constitution as a strict constructionist. We're not looking to fill a quota of a certain number of women on the court. We're looking at the judicial philosophy of the nominee," said Jessica Echard, the executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum.
"We're not as concerned with identity as we are with his or her ability to rule with a fair and just hand. We, above all else, want a nominee who is a strict constitutionalist, someone who interprets law rather than creates law, and most significantly, someone who doesn't attempt to legislate from the bench," said Lanier Swann, the director of governmental relations at the conservative Concerned Women for America.
Even Eleanor Smeal, the president of the liberal Feminist Majority, isn't calling on President Bush to replace O'Connor with another female justice - she told The New York Times that the court should have at least four.
"Let there be no mistake about it, the feminist movement today is declaring a state of emergency to save the court for women's rights," Smeal said in a statement.
"Twenty-four years ago, as president of the National Organization for Women, I testified for Sandra Day O'Connor before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I knew then that O'Connor, although a conservative voice, would be one who would not permit the elimination of women's fundamental rights, including the right to privacy," Smeal said.
"One of the reasons she was nominated is that NOW stood outside the White House with thousands of people demanding that President Reagan nominate a woman, and a woman who would not turn her back on the women of the nation. Even a very conservative president heard our voices. And we must make our voices so loud today another ultraconservative president will hear our voices," Smeal said.
Gehl said she feels it is more important that President Bush "find someone with a moderate stance that Democrats and Republicans can agree on."
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
Email USAID to Dismiss Anti-Family Groups from Taxpayer Funding!
July 12, 2005 - Tuesday
Family Research Council
https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL05G04&track=0
The U.S. government is spending tens of millions of taxpayers' funds on groups that promote prostitution, dismiss official U.S. family planning policy and generally promote policies that are offensive to people of faith. The Communities Responding to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (CORE) is a $50 million global program supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to their web site "the CORE Initiative partners with community and faith-based groups to advance multi-sectoral responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic through grants, capacity building, and networking." Four of the five groups involved in running CORE have agendas that differ greatly from what is acceptable to established American policy. The four groups include CARE International, the International Center for Research on Women the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the World Council of Churches (WCC). All of these groups are hostile to the current administration's family planning policy yet are now in charge of promoting that policy throughout the world. The head of the U.S. branch of CARE International, Peter Bell, has attacked President Bush's pro-life policies as both "undemocratic" and "unethical." The India branch of CARE has called for legalized prostitution and believes that HIV-infected prostitutes have a "right" to have sex without a condom. Last year CARE, WCC and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance produced a document promoting condoms while dismissing abstinence and fidelity.
Please contact Andrew Natsios, the Administrator of USAID, to ask for the dismissal of all groups that promote stances counter to the Administration's policies. Either call 202-712-4040 or use the below form to send an email.
[Ed. note: the FRC, unlike some of the other fundamentalist groups, make sure you can't go off-message. The standard letter appears to be editable, but isn't - the fields are marked READONLY. Cool, huh? The email address hidden inside the HTML is pinquiries@usaid.gov if you want to send email yourself.]
----- 20 -----
Santorum resolute on Boston rebuke
Insists liberalism set stage for abuse
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | July 13, 2005
The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/13/santorum_resolute_on_boston_rebuke?mode=PF
WASHINGTON -- Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.
''The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people's behavior," Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.
''If you have a world view that I'm describing [about Boston] . . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way," Santorum said.
Santorum, a leader among Christian conservatives, was responding to questions about remarks he made three years ago on a website called Catholic Online. In those comments, Santorum said, ''It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
The junior senator is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and is considered a possible candidate for his party's presidential nomination in 2008, if he wins reelection to a third Senate term next year.
''I was just saying that there's an attitude that is very open to sexual freedom that is more predominant" in Boston, Santorum said yesterday. Reminded that the sexual abuse occurred across the country, Santorum said that ''at the time [in 2002], there was an indication that there was more of a problem there" in Boston.
The senator's words sparked instant reaction from Massachusetts political leaders, who ridiculed Santorum's suggestion that priests were driven to abuse children by the city's liberal culture.
US Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, called Santorum ''a jerk" and pointed out that the senator tried to use the levers of the federal government to block the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, an act that Santorum likened to ''execution." An autopsy found that Schiavo's brain was half the normal size and that she could not see anything.
[More at URL]
A reasonably interesting blog post that I include mostly because the writer has thoughts similar to mind w.r.t. dealing with an opponent with orthogonal rules sets - "Violence and Agency"; read the whole thing if you read any of it;
Not normally in the scope of this bulletin: the new spin that Karl Rove exposing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent was _good_ (even though he didn't do it, of course) and that he should get a medal for it (even though he didn't do it) is so audacious that even in an era where words mean nothing and expediency rules everything, I find it breathtaking;
I saw this before, but the version I saw then didn't have the raw letter texts - now that there's a version that does, I'll post it: Pope Benedict, when still Cardinal, agreed with assertions that Harry Potter novels are spiritually corrupting;
Focus on the Family, other fundamentalist groups oppose effort to ban Federal Government workplace discrimination against gayfolk - it's an attempt to put the Clinton-era rules back into place by Congress - includes action item (ACTION ITEM);
Focus on the Family action item urging letters against Johnson & Johnson ad targeting gay consumers (ACTION ITEM);
FotF whinging about news coverage not being positive enough forwards President Bush;
FotF newsbrief supportive of Kenneth Tomlinson's political interference at PBS;
FotF newsbrief on the Supreme Court nomination fight;
FotF newsbrief - New Jersey senators won't support anti-abortion nominee;
FotF newsbrief - "angry" Arlen Specter behind push to open more lines of stem cells for research;
Concerned Women for America doesn't want Gonzales to be nominee to replace O'Connor;
CWFA condemns bill that would project Federal employees from on-the-job discrimination based on sexual orientation;
California school district settles anti-gay student harassment lawsuit;
Kentucky school district facing lawsuit over failure to comply with previous settlement over anti-gay harassment of students;
Washington Times on Santorum's book, which criticises working women, claming women staying home and not working would solve many of society's ills;
Augusta Free Press report on the importance of a woman as nominee;
Family Research Council demands USAID dismiss all groups which support birth control in international family planning (ACTION ITEM);
Rick Santorum again blames Boston "liberal" culture for the Catholic church's pedophiliac priests and accordant scandal. Whatever happened to blaming the criminal?
----- 1 -----
"Christians love; cowards hate"
Sunday, July 10, 2005
http://chuckcurrie.blogs.com/chuck_currie/2005/07/christians_love.html
The following editorial ran this morning in The News Leader in response to the fire set at St. John's Reformed United Church of Christ in Virginia. The words are strong and are a gift to all that have been touched by this story:
It was a small fire, but a loud message. A 225-year-old church in rural Middlebrook was damaged when someone set hymnals ablaze. The choir loft and a pew were burned, and smoke damaged the sanctuary.
The apparent motive was left in graffiti.
The congregation of St. John's Reformed United Church of Christ was left angry and in tears.
What was their crime to receive such punishment? Their denomination last week voted to consider opening its doors to gay couples who want to marry. The UCC's general synod decision to endorse gay and lesbian marriages is not binding on local congregations. It is beyond the ability of words to convey the nightmarish irony of such hatred.
[Much more at URL]
----- 2 -----
Easily Distracted
Culture, Politics, Academia and Other Shiny Objects
Violence and Agency
http://weblogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/?p=55
Caleb McDaniel makes some important observations here and at his own blog, and I’ve been thinking a lot about how to respond.
These are certainly not the kinds of discussions I had in mind when I asked that we put aside the little extremist hobgoblins for just a bit. Mostly I’d just rather we all stay clear of the kind of whiny and banal partisanship where the challenge of terrorism is just more fuel for the spin-meisters, more occasion for subpar blogger imitations of the punditocracy.
Caleb’s thoughts are quite the opposite, deep and challenging.
To begin, I simply disagree with his elevation of peace as a social aspiration equivalent to justice or freedom, or the proposition that peace is the necessary precondition of either justice or freedom.
It may be true that civility is intrinsically a peaceful state, that to practice it constrains us from not just physical violence but even from totalizing verbal or cultural aggression against an opponent. The ideal democratic civil society is a game, which for me is anything but a trivializing or dismissive metaphor. This is a utilitarian claim that political conflict produces the most generative results for the whole of a society within constraints or rules. A game is a topography of conflict, a map. You can’t go off the edge of the map: there you will find monsters, or the edge of the world.
To play a game, both parties consent to play by the rules. Yes, sometimes one party cheats, but there is a big difference between the kind of cheating that preserves the game’s essential terms and the kind of systematic contempt for the game that ultimately destroys it–or the spoiler who throws the board across the room when they’re going to lose. If one party sits down at the table to play, and obeys the rules, and the other person won’t even acknowledge the game at all, then there are no constraints on either player. There is no game.
A democratic civil society cannot incorporate someone who will not even acknowledge its existence. Some acts of refusal can simply be ignored: they do not challenge or contest civility, merely stand apart from it. A game is not threatened by someone who will not play but does not contend. Some acts of refusal cannot be ignored. You cannot have peace with those who will not make peace. You cannot make peace if the price of peace is to give up the purpose of peace. You cannot make peace if it means an end to justice or freedom.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
Karl Rove Should Get a Medal
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By John Gibson
Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162335,00.html
I say give Karl Rove (search) a medal, even if Bush has to fire him.
Why? Because Valerie Plame (search) should have been outed by somebody. And if nobody else had the cojones to do it, I'm glad Rove did — if he did do it, and he still says he didn't.
Why should she have been outed? Well despite her husband's repeated denials, even in the face of a pile of evidence and conclusions from a Senate investigation, it appears all evidence points to Joe Wilson's wife, spy Valerie Plame, as the one who recommended him for the job of going to Niger to discover is Saddam was trying to buy nuke bomb materials.
Why is this important? Because Wilson was opposed to the war in Iraq, opposed to Bush policy, and pointedly and loudly said so.
[More at URL; also, the Wall Street Journal is floating the same spin; speaking personally, this, more than anything else I've heard, tells me that Karl Rove actually did it.]
----- 4 -----
Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online
LifeSiteNews.com
Wednesday July 13, 2005
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jul/05071301.html
RIMSTING, Germany, July 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - LifeSiteNews.com has obtained and made available online copies of two letters sent by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was recently elected Pope, to a German critic of the Harry Potter novels. In March 2003, a month after the English press throughout the world falsely proclaimed that Pope John Paul II approved of Harry Potter, the man who was to become his successor sent a letter to a Gabriele Kuby outlining his agreement with her opposition to J.K. Rowling's offerings. (See below for links to scanned copies of the letters signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.)
As the sixth issue of Rowling's Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - is about to be released, the news that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger expressed serious reservations about the novels is now finally being revealed to the English-speaking world still under the impression the Vatican approves the Potter novels.
In a letter dated March 7, 2003 Cardinal Ratzinger thanked Kuby for her "instructive" book Harry Potter - gut oder böse (Harry Potter- good or evil?), in which Kuby says the Potter books corrupt the hearts of the young, preventing them from developing a properly ordered sense of good and evil, thus harming their relationship with God while that relationship is still in its infancy.
"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and by this deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly," wrote Cardinal Ratzinger.
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
'SEXUAL ORIENTATION' LEGISLATION INTRODUCED, OPPOSED
Pro-gay legislation makes a return to Capitol Hill, albeit in a different form.
by Pete Winn, associate editor
SUMMARY: Pro-gay legislation makes a return to Capitol
Hill, albeit in a different form.
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037170.cfm
Gay advocacy has returned to Capitol Hill this summer in
the form of a bill that would add sexual orientation to
federal law.
Eleven pro-homosexual congressmen, including openly gay
Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., and Tammy
Baldwin, D-Wis., are sponsoring H.R. 3128, the
Clarification of Federal Employment Protection Act.
Bob Knight, the director of the Culture and Family
Institute in Washington, D.C., said the bill would add
sexual orientation to federal workplace law, and would
elevate homosexuality to "protected" status -- alongside
race, creed, ethnicity and sex.
"It would open the door for homosexual activists to claim
that the federal government now approves of
homosexuality," Knight said, "and views it as a 'class,'
like race, and that therefore, the entire civil rights
agenda should move right in behind."
Knight said the proposed bill would simply codify
something that was done by executive order in the Clinton
administration.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Please call your representative and senators
and ask them to oppose this bill. More importantly, ask
them to oppose any legislation which would try to advance
the homosexual agenda.
Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
For help in contacting your lawmakers by e-mail or to
write them, please see the CitizenLink Action Center.
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
JOHNSON & JOHNSON AD APPEARS IN GAY MAGAZINE
Ad for Tylenol PM features two men in bed.
by Josh Montez, correspondent
SUMMARY: Ad for Tylenol PM features two men in bed.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0037164.cfm
Johnson & Johnson will be advertising its brand, Tylenol
PM, in the July 19 issue of The Advocate, a leading gay
magazine.
The ad shows two shirtless men in bed side by side. The
text over one reads: "His backache is keeping him up."
Over the other: "His boyfriend's backache is keeping him
up."
Johnson & Johnson has been advertising in gay media since
1996. Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family
Institute, said people need to take notice.
"A lot of corporate America has bought into the idea that
they can secretly promote homosexuality without their
consumers noticing out there," he said.
Mike Haley, director of the gender issues department at
Focus on the Family, said the gay and lesbian community
has a lot of expendable income, so they are targeting big
corporations who are caving to their pressure.
"I think it's a critical issue," he said, "because it's
one more way that the issue of homosexuality is being
normalized and sent out as though it's not harmful -- as
though it's not against what God originally intended."
TAKE ACTION: If you'd like to let Johnson & Johnson know
what you think, you can send a comment to the company
here:
http://www.tylenol.com/vcrc/email/tyemailform.jhtml?id=email
(NOTE: Referral to Web sites not produced by Focus on the
Family is for informational purposes only and does not
necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites'
content.)
----- 7 -----
PRESIDENT TAKES BEATING FROM MAJOR TV NETWORKS
Majority of news stories are negative.
by Steve Jordahl, correspondent
SUMMARY: Majority of news stories are negative.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0037161.cfm
Two thirds of the stories on the "Big Three" networks were
critical of President Bush in the first 100 days of his
second term, according to a report from the Center for
Media and Public Affairs.
ABC was the most critical, with 78 percent of the comments
aired being negative. CBS came in second with 71 percent.
NBC scored 57 percent.
Rich Noyes, director of media analysis for the Media
Research Center, said not even the elder President Bush
was treated so poorly.
"The typical honeymoon that normally comes with winning an
election or in this case a re-election, just hasn't been a
gift that the liberal networks have bestowed upon George
W. Bush," he said. "This president has taken policy
positions that have sharpened the difference between
conservatives and liberals, and that's something that
liberals just can't stand."
[More at URL]
----- 8 -----
PBS Boss Defends Attempt to Bring Balance
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Kenneth Tomlinson, head of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, the parent company of the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS), told a Senate subcommittee
Monday that his effort to balance the company's political
programming is not an attempt to silence liberals, the
Associated Press reported.
Sixteen Democratic senators wrote a letter to President
Bush asking to have Tomlinson fired, accusing him of using
his position to advance a conservative agenda.
Tomlinson has publicly stated that the television show
"Now: with Bill Moyers" had a "left-wing bias" and hired a
Republican consultant to track the political leanings of
guests on the show.
Now Tomlinson is backing the creation of a new program --
"Journal Editorial Report" -- to be hosted by the Wall
Street Journal's editorial page editor.
"If you have a liberal show, have a conservative show. If
you have a conservative show, have a liberal show,"
Tomlinson. "This is, to me, common sense and it's good for
public broadcasting."
----- 9 -----
Key Players Chosen for Nomination Battle
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
BusinessWeek, a national business magazine, is reporting
that Democrats may call on George Mitchell, the former
Democratic senator from Maine who rose to lead the Senate
in the 1990s, to direct their "war" against President
Bush's nomination to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the
Supreme Court, the magazine's Web site is reporting.
Mitchell, who left the Senate in 1995, is a former Maine
judge and lawmaker, and currently serves as board chairman
at Walt Disney Company. As Senate Majority Leader,
Mitchell challenged then-President George H. W. Bush over
a number of issues.
The White House last week appointed former Tennessee Sen.
Fred Thompson, a movie and TV actor who first came to
prominence in the 1970s as Republican counsel for the
Senate Watergate Committee, to the task of guiding the
president's nominee -- whoever it may be -- through
confirmation.
Bush also named former Republican National Committee
Chairman Ed Gillespie to serve as "campaign manager" for
the nomination fight.
----- 10 -----
New Jersey Senators Won't Support a Pro-life Nominee
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The Garden State's two Democratic U.S. senators -- backed
by Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights advocates
-- announced at a Monday press conference they would
refuse to back any Supreme Court nominee who was not a
supporter of abortion rights, the Gloucester County Times
reported.
"A judicial nominee should be operating outside of an
ideological agenda," said Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., who
served as head of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
before announcing he was running for the governorship of
New Jersey.
With the threat of a Democratic filibuster over any
conservative nominees looming, Bush has been meeting this
week with Senators in order to get input into the process.
The president has not yet announced his nominee to replace
the outgoing Sandra Day O'Connor on the nation's high
court.
----- 11 -----
Angry Specter Behind Push for Embryonic Stem-cell Research
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 12, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, announced Monday that he plans
to wage a battle to end restrictions on the federal
funding of embryonic stem-cell research, The Associated
Press reported.
President Bush enacted a policy in August of 2001 that
limits federal funding of such research -- which involves
the destruction of human embryos -- to use of stem-cell
"lines" already in existence, preventing any new from
development.
Specter, who suffers from cancer, admits anger surrounding
his own health issues has fueled his drive to see
restrictions on the federal funding of this type of
research lifted.
"Yeah, well, I am (angry) as a matter of fact," Specter
said. "Try a few chemotherapy treatments and see how you
feel."
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who is an outspoken opponent
of embryonic stem-cell research, said the procedure
requires a fertilized human embryo in the beginning stages
of life to be destroyed in order to harvest stem-cells.
"I don't want to see us destroy additional human lives
with taxpayer dollars," he said.
Brownback will join other experts this week who will
testify on alternatives to using embryonic stem cells --
namely adult and cord-blood stem cells.
----- 12 -----
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
http://www.oneplace.com/Ministries/Family_News_in_Focus/
* Important upcoming vote in Senate on embryonic stem-cell research produces some Senatorial misdirection
1. "A hearing yesterday advertised as considering alternatives to destroying embryos appeared to be a PR promotion for destructive stem-cell research." Committee was "stacked" with "senators having already made up their minds." Specter says it's not destroying people. Harkin says he sees no moral issue, says people shouldn't impose their particular morals upon others.
* Man to be in charge of UN's Millennium program goals looks to fully support abortion for world
3. Dr. Sachs supports abortion rights and family planning. Fundamentalists oppose both. "We're denying ourselves the human resources that could help solve these problems." (Hunger, mostly.) "The UN believes population control means fewer poor people," FotF claims that it is typically coerced abortion, claims it will lead to China-style forced population control.
* Florida judge ruled Holy Land Experience theme park near Orlando can retain tax-exempt status, despite similarity to other for-profit parks in area
6. "Attourney for the park sees [it] as an important step in giving churches the right to be more flexible in how they deliver their messages." "His goal isn't to entertain, it's to minister." Sued because it charged $30 for admission and had a souvenir shop, and therefore the state alleged it was a theme park and accordingly non-religious. "I think we're going to see more and more challenges" to tax exemption status as such efforts multiply.
Theme park's organisation is part of "Zion's Hope," which sends missionaries to Israel.
* United Methodist annual conferences have wrapped up and there's a rift about confronting homosexuality
4. Talk about opposing expansion of gambling; some of the regional conferences (particularly California) decline to condemn homosexuality. "Leadership of the Untied method Church is more prone to the people in the pew." "There's a liberal slant to what they're trying to achieve." "Any changes to how the Methodist church defines homosexuality will take place at the 2008 conference."
* Department of Human Services reports allegations of shady research are so common, office investigating charges can't keep up - Complaints about studies and reports include ignoring data or just making it up
2. "Office of Research Integrity" received 274 complaints last year.
* Fashion world is apparently going to design more modesty into styles - Parents of teenaged girls will be especially delighted
5. "Girls around the world are also celebrating that... they're tired of being pressured to have to look like people in the media. Teen girls really do want to be more modest than fashion allows them to do at this point." "A real relief for parents."
----- 13 -----
Will the President Nominate Gonzales to the Supreme Court? 7/13/2005
CWA's Chief Counsel Jan LaRue responds.
MEMO
TO: CWA Constituents
FROM: Jan LaRue, Chief Counsel
RE: Alberto Gonzales as a potential nominee to the Supreme Court
DATE: July 13, 2005
Despite attempts by media to bait us into criticizing Alberto Gonzales as a potential Supreme Court nominee, CWA hasn’t done so. We praised Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel for his role in providing the President with the excellent slate of nominees to the circuit courts of appeal. We supported his nomination as Attorney General, and praised his commitment to make obscenity enforcement a priority of the Department of Justice.
We don’t think it's likely that President Bush will nominate him. It has nothing to do with Gonzales personally, and these concerns are shared by others.
First, as White House counsel, Gonzales has given the President legal advice and, as Attorney General, he is most likely directing the litigation strategy in the Department of Justice on several crucial cases that are or will likely be heard by the Supreme Court. This raises the issue of recusal if Gonzales is appointed to the Court. Recusal means having to remove himself from deciding a case if his impartiality is reasonably questioned. This creates the serious potential problem of a 4-4 split on the Court in each case, which would leave the ruling of the lower court in place. Some of the cases involve the President’s agenda and core issues for CWA, such as:
* Physician-assisted suicide: Gonzales v. Oregon (9th Circuit ruled that state law trumps federal Controlled Substance Act). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Abortion: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (State is challenging a lower court decision striking down its law requiring parental notice for abortion). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Religious liberty: Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (Can the federal government ban the use of hallucinogenic tea in a religious ceremony?). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Department of Defense’s “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy: Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic Rights (Lower court held that the Solomon Amendment, denying funds to law schools that discriminate against military recruiters, is unconstitutional). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Abortion: Scheidler v. NOW (7th Circuit held that federal extortion law applies to pro-life protesters). Case will be heard in the coming term.
* Federal ban on partial-birth abortion: Stenberg v. Carhart (Supreme Court, including Justice O’Connor, voted 5-4 to strike down Nebraska’s ban in 2000. The 8th Circuit just affirmed a district court ruling striking down the federal ban based on Stenberg rationale.) Similar challenges are pending in the 2nd and 9th Circuits and will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Second, the President is unlikely to change the Attorney General in a time of war. Nor does he need or want another contentious confirmation hearing for Gonzales’ replacement.
----- 14 -----
Liberals Introduce Bill Adding ‘Sexual Orientation’ to Federal Law 7/12/2005
By Robert Knight
Measure is response to Office of Special Counsel’s refusal to give homosexuality protected status.
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8518/CFI/family/index.htm
Eleven pro-homosexual congressmen have introduced a bill that would add “sexual orientation” to the list of protected categories for federal employees.
The action comes during an aggressive liberal campaign against Scott Bloch, who heads the federal Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which handles cases involving the federal merit system.
The agency is empowered to prosecute federal managers who violate the rights of employees under the Civil Service Reform Act. This includes whistleblowers – employees who seek shelter for reporting wrongdoing in their agencies. One section of the law incorporates protection based on traditional civil-rights categories such as race, color, creed and religion. Another protects conduct outside the job.
During the Clinton administration, Special Counsel Elaine Kaplan, an out lesbian, incorporated “sexual orientation” under the “conduct unrelated to the job” portion, thus elevating homosexuality to a protected status even in the absence of any issue over conduct. Bloch last year removed the words “sexual orientation” from that portion of the OSC’s Web site, noting that Congress had never authorized the addition.
In recent testimony before a Senate panel, Bloch reiterated why he believes the law is clear, and that Congress’ listing of categories necessarily limits his jurisdiction.
[More at URL]
----- 15 -----
District Settles Suit Alleging Gay-Bashing
The ACLU had sued L.A. Unified over purported harassment at Washington Prep. Teachers, students must take anti-bias training.
By Rachana Rathi, Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-washprep1jul01,1,960162.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
The ACLU of Southern California settled a federal lawsuit this week alleging that administrators, teachers and security guards at Washington Preparatory High School in South Los Angeles harassed gay and lesbian students.
The settlement, reached Tuesday, requires the Los Angeles Unified School District to pay attorney fees and $2,000 to a campus club, as well as provide anti-bias training for Washington Prep teachers, staff and students, and for middle school students who will attend the high school.
The suit alleged that the school and the district allowed a climate "rife with hostility" toward gay students to exist on campus. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in October in U.S. District Court on behalf of two Washington Prep students and the campus' Gay-Straight Alliance Network club.
Faculty and student training sessions on diversity, discrimination and harassment related to actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity began in the spring — before the lawsuit was settled.
"All parties were in agreement that it was necessary to intervene on that campus right away because of the severity of the harassment," said Catherine Lhamon, co-counsel in the case for the ACLU of Southern California. "At this point, we're very enthusiastic the school and district are both taking serious steps to make Washington Prep a more welcoming place for all of its students and staff."
The lawsuit also alleged that administrators, teachers and staff called students pejorative names and told them that being gay is "wrong" and "unholy." Additionally, the lawsuit alleged that deans and other administrators suspended students for being gay or for complaining about harassment. Further, the suit alleged that teachers threatened to "out" students to their families as punishment for students' sexual orientation.
Under terms of the settlement, neither the school nor the district admitted fault.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
ACLU asks to reopen Boyd schools gay- rights suit
By Alan Maimon
amaimon@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050707/NEWS0104/507070442/1008/NEWS01
The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge yesterday to reopen its gay-rights lawsuit against Boyd County schools, claiming that they failed to give students adequate anti-harassment training.
In a motion filed in U.S. District Court in Covington, the ACLU argued that school officials have failed to comply with a settlement reached last year that allowed the Boyd County High School Gay-Straight Alliance to use school facilities.
The settlement required the school district to provide students and teachers with anti-harassment training focused on "sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination."
"To end up in front of the judge again is very disappointing, but the district's efforts fell so far short of the mark," said Sharon McGowan, a staff attorney with the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project.
Mickey Rice, interim superintendent of Boyd County schools, and high school principal Rhonda Salisbury did not return calls yesterday seeking comment. Winter Huff, the school board's lawyer, also did not return calls.
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Family as foundation
By Amy Doolittle
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
July 8, 2005
http://www.washingtontimes.com/culture/20050708-011743-2134r.htm
Politics and election speculation can work together to create the perfect atmosphere for a book release by a public figure -- Bill Clinton pulled it off with "My Life" and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton attempted the same with "Living History."
Enter Sen. Rick Santorum. The Pennsylvania Republican's bid for re-election in 2006 is already the most closely watched race in Washington, and his "never say never" answer to whether he'll run for president in 2008 only keeps those rumors flying.
So, not long after his first book, "It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good," hit Washington bookstores during the Fourth of July weekend, his opponents were sifting through the 430 pages at warp speed -- culling passages in which the Republican criticizes public schools and America's "divorce culture" and argues that more families should consider whether both parents really need to work.
Washington-area conservative women's organizations are ecstatic that an official with Mr. Santorum's public stature is giving a voice to their pro-family agenda.
[...]
Many conversations on the Internet about the book focus on a section in which Mr. Santorum advocates parents spending more time at home with their children. Part of the book's central theme is that fostering the traditional family headed by a married man and woman can solve many of society's ills.
"In far too many families with young children, both parents are working, when, if they really took an honest look at the budget, they might find they don't both need to," Mr. Santorum writes. Many women, he says, have told him that it is more "socially affirming to work outside the home than to give up their careers to take care of their children."
That ideology, he says, has been shaped by feminists who demean the work of women who stay at home as primary caregivers.
"What happened in America so that mothers and fathers who leave their children in the care of someone else -- or worse yet, home alone after school between three and six in the afternoon -- find themselves more affirmed by society? Here, we can thank the influence of radical feminism," Mr. Santorum writes.
"Sadly, the propaganda campaign launched in the 1960s has taken root," Mr. Santorum says. "The radical feminists succeeded in undermining the traditional family and convincing women that professional accomplishments are the key to happiness."
Pennsylvania Democratic Party Chairman Rep. T.J. Rooney said such statements would alienate female voters. He described the excerpts he had seen as a "mind-bending read" sure to create fodder for the campaign against Mr. Santorum in 2006, when he is expected to face off against state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., a socially conservative Democrat.
"References to how families are compromised when both parents work outside the home, how it takes a societal toll on Pennsylvania families or American families, it just shows a complete lack of understanding of the real world in which the vast majority of Pennsylvanians reside," Mr. Rooney said.
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Women's groups speak out on SC nominee
Chris Graham
Augusta Free Press
chris@augustafreepress.com
http://www.augustafreepress.com/stories/storyReader$35611
It's not important that the replacement to Sandra Day O'Connor be a woman - but it is important that the next Supreme Court justice be fair.
This is one thing that women's groups from across the political spectrum can agree on - almost.
"I would rather have someone in there who is going to be fair and a moderate more so than just putting a woman in there," said Elizabeth Gehl, the director of public policy at the nonpartisan Business and Professional Women/USA.
"From our perspective, the most important factor is someone who will interpret the Constitution as a strict constructionist. We're not looking to fill a quota of a certain number of women on the court. We're looking at the judicial philosophy of the nominee," said Jessica Echard, the executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum.
"We're not as concerned with identity as we are with his or her ability to rule with a fair and just hand. We, above all else, want a nominee who is a strict constitutionalist, someone who interprets law rather than creates law, and most significantly, someone who doesn't attempt to legislate from the bench," said Lanier Swann, the director of governmental relations at the conservative Concerned Women for America.
Even Eleanor Smeal, the president of the liberal Feminist Majority, isn't calling on President Bush to replace O'Connor with another female justice - she told The New York Times that the court should have at least four.
"Let there be no mistake about it, the feminist movement today is declaring a state of emergency to save the court for women's rights," Smeal said in a statement.
"Twenty-four years ago, as president of the National Organization for Women, I testified for Sandra Day O'Connor before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I knew then that O'Connor, although a conservative voice, would be one who would not permit the elimination of women's fundamental rights, including the right to privacy," Smeal said.
"One of the reasons she was nominated is that NOW stood outside the White House with thousands of people demanding that President Reagan nominate a woman, and a woman who would not turn her back on the women of the nation. Even a very conservative president heard our voices. And we must make our voices so loud today another ultraconservative president will hear our voices," Smeal said.
Gehl said she feels it is more important that President Bush "find someone with a moderate stance that Democrats and Republicans can agree on."
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Email USAID to Dismiss Anti-Family Groups from Taxpayer Funding!
July 12, 2005 - Tuesday
Family Research Council
https://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=AL05G04&track=0
The U.S. government is spending tens of millions of taxpayers' funds on groups that promote prostitution, dismiss official U.S. family planning policy and generally promote policies that are offensive to people of faith. The Communities Responding to the HIV/AIDS Epidemic (CORE) is a $50 million global program supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). According to their web site "the CORE Initiative partners with community and faith-based groups to advance multi-sectoral responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic through grants, capacity building, and networking." Four of the five groups involved in running CORE have agendas that differ greatly from what is acceptable to established American policy. The four groups include CARE International, the International Center for Research on Women the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the World Council of Churches (WCC). All of these groups are hostile to the current administration's family planning policy yet are now in charge of promoting that policy throughout the world. The head of the U.S. branch of CARE International, Peter Bell, has attacked President Bush's pro-life policies as both "undemocratic" and "unethical." The India branch of CARE has called for legalized prostitution and believes that HIV-infected prostitutes have a "right" to have sex without a condom. Last year CARE, WCC and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance produced a document promoting condoms while dismissing abstinence and fidelity.
Please contact Andrew Natsios, the Administrator of USAID, to ask for the dismissal of all groups that promote stances counter to the Administration's policies. Either call 202-712-4040 or use the below form to send an email.
[Ed. note: the FRC, unlike some of the other fundamentalist groups, make sure you can't go off-message. The standard letter appears to be editable, but isn't - the fields are marked READONLY. Cool, huh? The email address hidden inside the HTML is pinquiries@usaid.gov if you want to send email yourself.]
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Santorum resolute on Boston rebuke
Insists liberalism set stage for abuse
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | July 13, 2005
The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/13/santorum_resolute_on_boston_rebuke?mode=PF
WASHINGTON -- Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate, refused yesterday to back off on his earlier statements connecting Boston's ''liberalism" with the Roman Catholic Church pedophile scandal, saying that the city's ''sexual license" and ''sexual freedom" nurtured an environment where sexual abuse would occur.
''The basic liberal attitude in that area . . . has an impact on people's behavior," Santorum said in an interview yesterday at the Capitol.
''If you have a world view that I'm describing [about Boston] . . . that affirms alternative views of sexuality, that can lead to a lot of people taking it the wrong way," Santorum said.
Santorum, a leader among Christian conservatives, was responding to questions about remarks he made three years ago on a website called Catholic Online. In those comments, Santorum said, ''It is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political, and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm" of the clergy sexual abuse scandal.
The junior senator is chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and is considered a possible candidate for his party's presidential nomination in 2008, if he wins reelection to a third Senate term next year.
''I was just saying that there's an attitude that is very open to sexual freedom that is more predominant" in Boston, Santorum said yesterday. Reminded that the sexual abuse occurred across the country, Santorum said that ''at the time [in 2002], there was an indication that there was more of a problem there" in Boston.
The senator's words sparked instant reaction from Massachusetts political leaders, who ridiculed Santorum's suggestion that priests were driven to abuse children by the city's liberal culture.
US Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, called Santorum ''a jerk" and pointed out that the senator tried to use the levers of the federal government to block the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, an act that Santorum likened to ''execution." An autopsy found that Schiavo's brain was half the normal size and that she could not see anything.
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no subject
Date: 2005-07-14 12:53 am (UTC)On the whole FRC wanting birth-control coverage yanked:
Three reasons that dominionist groups typically push for this...
a) Many dominionists (much like their Catholic bretheren) only support the Rhythym Method, or no family planning at *all* (claiming it interferes with "God's Plan")
b) There has been a consistent canard in the dominionist community since at least the 80's and probably before then (I remember seeing it in the early 80's in antiabortion literature) claiming that both the Pill and IUDs are a "kind of abortion" because they prevent implantation of fertilised eggs.
c) There is a similar canard, again in dominionist communities, that the Pill somehow also makes one more likely to be promiscuous on grounds it makes one hornier.
d) Many dominionists claim funding for "birth control" will go straight to abortions (even though in countries where the same groups provide abortion and family planning services, there is little of the former and much more so of the latter; in this country they've worked for almost thirty or more years to shut down Planned Parenthood "because they run abortion clinics", even though the vast majority of Planned Parenthood facilities do *not* offer abortion services).
Dominionist groups are extreme enough in this that they have actually told their followers *not* to contribute to either the United Way *or* the March of Dimes because "both groups support abortion and your money will go to fund abortionists" (this apparently because in some areas Planned Parenthood is a United Way partner, and March of Dimes supports research into congenital birth defects--the dominionists I walked away from actually claimed March of Dimes supported aborting deformed babies).
Not coincidentially, dominionists also encourage their members instead to donate to dominionist-operated charities (the group I walked away from operates its own soup kitchen and "halfway house" for teenage mothers; the former requires prosyletisation, the latter essentially forces girls to stay in a dominionist environment (we're talking "Love In Action" type stuff) for the length of the pregnancy and either to keep the kid or to adopt it out to a dominionist family through "Christian adoption agencies"; yes, teenage mothers have been sent involuntarily to that facility).