Today's Cultural Warfare Update
Aug. 1st, 2005 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solarbirdWal-Mart regional manager bans newspaper from Wal-Mart stores - tells editor to fire a critiical columnist if they want back in;
Influential Washington, DC attacks working women and GBLT-folk in speech, claims that women making more money than men creates lesbianism;
FotF on "Plan B," the emergency contraceptive, and whether it should be available OTC in the United States as in other countries - includes action item against (ACTION ITEM);
FotF attacks Democratic legislative attack on internet porn because they can't see how "another bill" is going to "solve" the problem;
FotF newsbrief: CDA upheld in art photography case;
FotF newsbrief: Bipartisan effort underway to protect property owners from local government seizure to benefit private companies, an effort I support;
FotF mocks ABC drama for casting a female president, implies it's part of an effort to elect Hillary Clinton in 2008;
FotF very upset with Senator Bill Frist for endorsing a bill to allow existing research funds to be used more broadly for stem-cell research - includes multiple action items (ACTION ITEM);
FotF promotes bipartisan bill to require photo ID, logbook signing for any OTC drug sale including psudoephedrine hydrochloride, because it's a useful ingredient in making meth - this is Sudafed and a big personal issue for me, because it's the only decongestant I've found that doesn't knock me unconscious, and it's important for me as someone with serious seasonal allergies;
FotF yet again - states seeing lots of anti-abortion legislation; "'The evangelical right is no longer just a fringe part of the Republican Party that can be mollified through symbolic and rhetorical gestures,' Seery said cheekily. 'They want results. It's payback time. Quid pro quo.'"
FotF: Maine anti-gay group gets enough signatures to put an anti-gay rights initiative on the ballot in November;
FotF, other fundamentalist groups draw up shortlist of bills for action in the fall; number one continues to be a Federal Marriage Amendment, but there are several others such as bans on stem-cell research;
FotF reports fundamentalist groups are upset that the malpractice award limitation bill includes doctors performing abortion, call it "pro-abortion" as a result since it doesn't specifically exempt "abortion doctors" - watching them spin on this is amazing;
This, on the other hand, is just full-bore _amazing_: FotF says malpractice award limits are good and important, _except_ when they apply to abortion-providing doctors, in which case they are "compromises on the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person." In other words: ONLY FETUSES ARE PEOPLE;
Oklahoma Cherokee Tribal Council passes measure against marriage rights;
Concerned Women for America attacks birth control, "Are 'reproductive rights' replacing sound medicine?" - sure, go ahead, tell me they won't move against birth control as soon as they've managed to win against abortion, tell me that again;
CWA expresses its displeasure with Senator Frist's endorsement of stem-cell research funding;
CWA demand: RU-486 must be taken off the market immediately;
San Diego declines issue Pride Week proclamation - had done so for previous several years. CWA congratulates fundamentalist anti-gay-pride effort on getting it withdrawn this year;
Anti-gay "Article 8" alliance in Massachusetts mocks letting people with Gender Identity Disorder change their listed gender on driver's licenses;
Blogger report: Wisconsin legislature bans all forms of emergency birth control from being prescribed via student health services;
Washington, DC preacher above "apologises" for earlier comments, rants more about lesbianism in the apology; confusion abounds;
George Stephanopoulos interviews Rick Santorum, watch Santorum try to avoid any specifics on anything.
----- 1 -----
Here's why you can't buy the News Journal at Wal-Mart
Randy Hammer
July 24, 2005
Link to original editorial
You can't buy the Pensacola News Journal at Wal-Mart anymore.
The store ordered us off their property, told us to come pick up our newspaper racks and clear out.
So we did.
A few people called last week, some even wrote letters to the editor, and wanted to know why they couldn't buy the newspaper at Wal-Mart in the days after Hurricane Dennis.
Some managers at Wal-Mart didn't appreciate a column Mark O'Brien wrote last month about the downside of the cheap prices that Sam Walton's empire has brought to America. We all pay a little less, and sometimes a lot less, at the grocery store and department store because of Mr. Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.
Mr. Walton developed a brilliant business model that allowed him to undercut the prices of his competitors. He made sure that the blue jeans his store sold were cheaper than the jeans the store down the road sold. And if some store had a two-for-one special on boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Wal-Mart would have a three-for-one special.
Leave it to old Mark, whose column runs four days a week in this newspaper, to find a downside to this. Actually, it wasn't Mark, but Thomas Friedman, who wrote "The World is Flat," which happens to be a best seller right now.
A downside
I don't mean to rub salt in a wound, but here's what Mark wrote:
"I like Wal-Mart prices the same as the next shopper, but there's a downside, too. Many Wal-Mart employees lack the fringe benefits and insurance that makes the difference between existence and a good quality of life. Yet, we customers pay a surcharge from a different pocket — subsidizing health care for Wal-Mart employees who can't afford it."
Mark then described how Friedman's book pointed out that more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees are in a Georgia health-care program, which costs the state's taxpayers nearly $10 million a year. Mark also pointed out that a New York Times report found that 31 percent of the patients at a North Carolina hospital were Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid.
[...]
Bob Hart, one of the upper managers for the Wal-Marts in the area, called me and said he didn't like Mark's column, didn't like a lot of Mark's columns.
[...]
But Mark speaks his mind. And the truth be told, that's what he gets paid to do, even though it kind of hurt me when nearly 70 percent of the voters sided with Mark and rejected charter government.
Mr. Hart, however, said he and his stores couldn't tolerate a newspaper that would print the opinions of someone who was as mean and negative as Mark O'Brien. But, you know, Mark's not nearly as ornery as that left-wing rabble-rouser Molly Ivins, whose column the newspaper also publishes. At any rate, Mr. Hart said he wanted the newspaper to get its racks off his lots. But he also said that if I fired Mark, we could talk about continuing to sell the newspaper at his stores.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Minister’s fiery anti-gay sermon riles activists
Influential Rev. Wilson leads Millions More Movement
Washington Blade
By KATHERINE VOLIN and LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, July 15, 2005
http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-15/news/localnews/minister.cfm
An influential D.C. minister is under fire by local gay activists following an anti-gay sermon in which he claimed that, “lesbianism is about to take over our community.”
Rev. Willie Wilson delivered the remarks at Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast D.C., where he is pastor. Wilson is a former mayoral candidate and serves as executive director of the Millions More Movement march, an effort to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March.
Efforts by gay civil rights advocates to secure a visible role at the march stalled again this week when excerpts from Wilson’s anti-gay sermon came to light. One lesbian march organizer quickly resigned in protest.
“Sisters making more money than brothers and it’s creating problems in families … that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians,” Wilson said.
[... to sermon excerpt; audio file and transcript also at URL:]
“…We live in a time when our brothers have been so put down, can’t get a job, lot of the sisters making more money than brothers. And it’s creating problems in families. That’s one of the reasons our families’ breaking up. And that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians. You got to be careful when you say you don’t need no man. I can make it by myself. Well, if you don’t need a man, what’s left? Lesbianism is about to take over our community. I’m talking about young girls. My son in high school last year, trying to go to the prom, he said, ‘Dad, I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom because all the girls in my class are gay. There ain’t but two of them straight and both of them are ugly. I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom.’ Now, can I talk here? I ain’t homophobic, because everybody in here got something wrong with him. Whoever you point at, you can point at your own self. You got something wrong with your life. But when you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural. Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that. [Audience shouts and yells its approval in the background.] You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding. It’s destroying us. Can’t make no connection with a screw and another screw. The Bible says God made them male and female. The Hebrew word "neged," which means complementary nature — there is something unique to man and unique to woman and it takes those two things to complement each other. You can’t make a connection with two screws. It takes a screw and a nut! (shouting).”
----- 3 -----
DECISION ON PLAN B EXPECTED IN AUGUST
Focus on the Family
July 28, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037369.cfm
SUMMARY: The FDA will decide whether the "emergency
contraceptive" will be sold over the counter.
Newly confirmed FDA head Lester Crawford said the decision
whether to allow Plan B to be sold without a prescription
will come before September 1st. Pro-lifers have opposed
the drug because it can sometimes cause an early abortion.
Amber Dolle of the American Life League (ALL) said that
goes far beyond just being a contraceptive.
"They say that it prevents pregnancy, but we know that
life begins at conception and therefore it does a lot more
than 'just prevent pregnancy,' " she said. "It can take
the life of a tiny, pre-born child."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: You can e-mail the FDA commissioner through
our CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/mail/?agencyid=4370&type=AN
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
PORN BILL AIMED AT KEEPING KIDS SAFE
Porn Bill Aimed at Keeping Kids Safe
Focus on the Family
July 28, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037368.cfm
SUMMARY: Proposal would require more stringent age
verification.
A 25 percent federal tax on Internet porn, with the stated
purpose of keeping kids safe from internet pornography,
was introduced in Congress this week by Sens. Blanche
Lincoln, D-Ark., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act would also
require all Web sites that feature pornography to put
their material behind an age verification system.
An earlier attempt at reining in Internet porn, the Child
Online Protection Act, has been bouncing through the
courts without success for the last seven years. Joe
Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, can't see
how another bill is the answer.
"This may be well-intentioned legislation," he said. "But
you have to wonder why is a U.S. congressman proposing
legislation that clearly doesn't have a chance in the
courts?"
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Decency Act Upheld
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 28, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) and "fine
art photographer" Barbara Nitke lost their case
challenging the Communications Decency Act (CDA) Monday.
The act makes it illegal to knowingly publish obscene
material on the Internet where it is available to minors.
NCSF and Nitke argued the global reach of the Internet
made it impossible to determine if material was legally
obscene because what's obscene in one culture may not be
in another.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of N.Y.
wrote that there's a reasonable likelihood that some
juries "applying a national standard for artistic value,
would not agree that Nitke's work has serious artistic
value. Nitke's fear that the CDA will be enforced against
her is actual and well-founded. She has submitted
objective evidence to substantiate the claim that she has
been deterred from exercising her free-speech rights, and
this fear is based on a reasonable interpretation of the
CDA."
----- 6 -----
House Considers Protection for Property Owners
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 28, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Congress is moving to counter a Supreme Court decision
giving the right of eminent domain to city governments and
allowing them to obtain private property for development,
Fox News reported.
At issue is the 5th Amendment's protection of private
property and whether it allows the government to take land
for public use. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said the
Supreme Court misinterpreted the 5th Amendment.
"The Constitution is very clear," Pombo said. "It
specifically says you can't do this and somehow they found
. . . that it was okay to do it."
Democrats and Republicans alike have united in order to
protect private property owners.
"Cities may now bulldoze private citizens' homes to make
way for shopping malls or other developments," pointed out
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said the decision turns
local government into a carnival of real estate bargains
and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., compared the law to Alice
in Wonderland.
"We've now stepped through a looking glass with this
Supreme Court decision that private is public," DeFazio
said.
Lawmakers are considering several bills designed to block
the ruling.
----- 7 -----
ABC Drama to Feature Female President
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 28, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
"Commander-in-Chief," a new TV show starring Geena Davis
as a vice president bound for the Oval Office, has some
critics rolling their eyes, The Washington Post reported.
At a question and answer session for the ABC drama,
members of the press asked the show's cast and production
team if any Republicans were among them. The answer, not
surprisingly, was no. Not even one.
The show's creator, Rod Lurie, said political affinity was
not a question asked at casting calls.
"We come from a community that happens to be mostly
Democratic," Lurie said. "With all due respect, your
question is loaded; you had to know the answer before you
asked."
Thought the name of the lead character, "Mackenzie Allen,"
sounds remarkably, poetically like "Hillary Clinton,"
Davis is cast as an "independent" in the drama. Lurie said
that gives the character the ability to resonate with both
parties.
He doesn't think we'll see a female president anytime
soon, but added, "If Hillary does win the nomination,
we're going to take credit."
----- 8 -----
FRIST BACKS EMBRYONIC STEM-CELL BILL
Focus on the Family
July 29, 2005
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037397.cfm
SUMMARY: The leader of the U.S. Senate throws his weight
behind embryonic stem-cell research, breaking with
President Bush and upsetting pro-family conservatives.
The pro-life community reacted harshly today to news that
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist came out strongly in
favor of increased federal funding for embryonic stem-cell
research -- research which always requires the destruction
of human embryos.
"I am pro-life," Frist maintained. "I believe life begins
at conception. It is at this moment that the organism is
complete -- yes, immature -- but complete. An embryo is
nascent human life."
But in spite of that, he went on: "I also believe that
embryonic stem-cell research should be encouraged and
supported."
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the
Family Action, said it is an "understatement" to say he is
personally disappointed with the Tennessee Republican's
stand.
"Most distressing is that, in making his announcement,
Senator Frist calls himself a defender of the sanctity of
human life -- even though the research he now advocates
results, without exception, in the destruction of human
life," he said.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: If you would like to let Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist know what you think of his support for
embryonic stem-cell research, you may reach him through
the CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=540&lvl=C&chamber=S
In addition, please contact your senators and ask them to
oppose SB 471 -- sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,
and HR 810, sponsored by Reps. Castle and DeGette, which
would gut the president's funding restrictions for
embryonic stem-cell research.
http://www.family.org/cforum/action_center.cfm?capwizurl=http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
'Combat Meth' Bill Introduced in Senate Judiciary Committee
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 29, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill
that would regulate the way pseudoephedrine -- a common
ingredient in cold medicine used to manufacture the street
drug, methamphetamine -- is sold to consumers, Reuters
reported.
Methamphetamine or "meth" is an extremely addictive drug
manufactured from common household products such as cold
medicine and agricultural chemicals, a process that leaves
behind toxic waste difficult and expensive to clean up.
The addictive behavior associated with the drug has
devastated families and communities.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently said meth poses
the greatest drug danger to America's youth.
The Combat Meth bill, introduced by Sens. Diane Feinstein,
D-Calif. and Jim Talent, R-Mo., would force products
containing the ingredient pseudoephedrine to be sold from
behind pharmacy counters and limit the amount available
for purchase to 7.5 grams, about a quarter ounce, a month.
It would also require customers to show a photo ID and
sign a log book with each purchase of a product containing
the ingredient, using a computer tracking system to stop
people from making purchases at multiple stores.
"Today is a good day in the fight against
methamphetamines," said Feinstein. "We're one step closer
to enacting a national meth bill that would put thousands
of meth labs out of business."
The bill must now go before the full Senate. A similar
bill in the House has been referred to a subcommittee for
consideration.
----- 10 -----
Pro-Life Legislation Sees State-Level Progress
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 29, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
There is an encouraging advance of state level efforts to
restrict abortion, through laws regarding parental
notification, right-to-know and emergency contraception.
According an article in Infozine.com, more than 500
individual pieces of legislation aimed at restricting
access to abortion were introduced in state legislatures
this year, including what is called first-of-a-kind laws
that require women who want an abortion to be told about
the pain experienced by the unborn child or to be offered
anesthesia to help decrease the pain felt by the baby
during the abortion. Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota saw
those laws come about.
Both Arkansas and Idaho were added to the list of states
that require parental notification if a minor child is
seeking abortion services, bringing the total to 35. Nine
states struck down such laws and California voters will
decide in 2006.
Why the sudden rush of pro-life laws? According to John
Seery, a professor at Pomona College, pro-lifers are
trying to change abortion laws at the state level while
waiting for the legal landscape to change at the federal
level.
"The evangelical right is no longer just a fringe part of
the Republican Party that can be mollified through
symbolic and rhetorical gestures," Seery said cheekily.
"They want results. It's payback time. Quid pro quo."
----- 11 -----
Maine Referendum Question will be on the November Ballot
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 29, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Pro-family organizations in Maine had 90 days to collect
more than 50,000 signatures in order to allow the people
the opportunity to veto a sexual-orientation bill that
passed the Legislature and was signed by the governor this
session.
The final count of valid signatures was 56,650 -- far
surpassing the required number to get it on the ballot.
The Christian Civic League of Maine cheered the result:
"These high numbers are all the more remarkable given the
fact that the citizens of Maine were given only half the
usual time to collect the signatures. Such high numbers
are a reflection of the broad support which the Peoples
Veto enjoys among the public, and is a promising sign for
the vote in November."
----- 12 -----
CONGRESS LEAVES BEHIND PRO-FAMILY LEGISLATION
Focus on the Family
August 1, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037406.cfm
SUMMARY: Many important bills put on hold until at least
September.
Capitol Hill was abuzz last week with last minute
politicking on several pieces of legislation just prior to
the annual August recess. But in the rush, many
family-friendly bills were left behind -- tabled until the
fall session begins in September.
[...]
Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family
Institute said there was also some good news in the list
of left-behind bills.
"We didn't see a hate crimes bill emerge or the Employment
Non-discrimination Act," he told Family News in Focus.
"These are two key pieces of the homosexual political
agenda."
He said pro-family groups will step up their efforts when
lawmakers return in September and they've already made a
list of their favorite proposals.
"Number one on the plate would be a Federal Marriage
Amendment," he said. "Number two would be a stem-cell bill
gotten through the Senate to ban embryonic stem-cell
research. We also need legislation protecting pastors'
freedom of speech to discuss political matters and finally
cable choice."
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
HEALTH ACT MAY INADVERTENTLY PROTECT ABORTION PROVIDERS
Focus on the Family
August 1, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037405.cfm
SUMMARY: Cap on malpractice insurance would also apply to
botched abortions.
The House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill last
week that would limit the amount of medical malpractice
awards. Supporters said it would make medical insurance
more affordable, but a pro-family group points out: It
would also limit the amount awarded for botched abortions.
[...]
If a companion bill passes the Senate, malpractice awards
would be capped at $250,000. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.,
said that would especially help obstetricians, many of
whom are leaving the practice.
[...]
But Ken Connor, chairman of the Center for a Just Society,
told Family News in Focus that part of the impact of the
health act is pro-abortion.
"If you have a young girl who goes in and dies as a
consequence of neglect during the course of the abortion,
the most her parents can recover for her death is $250,000
dollars," he said. "This bill absolutely compromises on
the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person."
He said it will be hard to cripple the abortion industry
$250,000 thousand dollars at a time.
[More at URL]
----- 14 -----
Tribal Government Opposes Same-Sex Marriage
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
August 1, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Efforts by a lesbian couple in Oklahoma to leverage
Cherokee Indian sovereignty rights to gain a foothold in
the fight for homosexual marriage have, to date, failed,
The Washington Post reported.
Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley received a marriage
application from the Cherokee tribal government last year.
After a wedding ceremony was performed by a licensed
minister, the women attempted to file the application with
the tribal courts to have the marriage legally recognized
-- but a tribal judge had issued an injunction prohibiting
the two from becoming the first same-sex couple to be
married under Cherokee law.
Soon after that, Todd Hembree, lawyer for the Cherokee
Tribal Council, went before the Cherokee Tribal Council to
request the marriage be nullified based on current tribal
law.
"I took action because I feel strongly that our laws have
to stand for something," Hambree said. "The Cherokee
statute is not gender-neutral. It is meant to be between
a man and a woman. I my view, they are trying to
circumvent Oklahoma law."
The issue prompted the Cherokee Tribal Council to pass a
measure specifically defining marriage as a union between
one man and one woman to ensure no confusion about the
tribal law.
The Indian law echoes the opinion of 75 percent of Sooner
State residents, who voted to ban same-sex marriage in the
2004 election.
"This is rural Oklahoma," said one tribal official, "and
our citizens' views reflect the rest of the state.
Cherokees are opposed to this marriage taking place."
----- 15 -----
Deaths Attributed to Birth-Control Patch Increase
Concerned Women for America
8/1/2005
By Kristen Martin
Are “reproductive rights” replacing sound medicine?
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8635/CWA/life/index.htm
“On your body, off your mind”—this clever catch phrase is associated with the birth-control patch, Ortho Evra, which has advertisements spotlighting supermodel Naomi Campbell and the Norwegian Olympic beach volleyball team.
Despite appealing advertising, though, Ortho Evra—which went on the market in 2002—is causing serious concerns. It is being pinpointed as the cause of death of 23 women, including 17 in the past two years due to blood clots. Blood clots are seen as a high risk for hormonal birth control because estrogen promotes blood coagulation.
The other deaths resulted from heart attacks and strokes.
The patch’s manufacturer, Ortho-McNeil, said that the deaths and side effects caused by the patch are consistent with the health risks of the pill. However, the Associated Press (AP) analyzed 16,000 reports of adverse events filed with the Food and Drug Administration and found that the risk of death from a blood clot is three times higher for women using the patch. Since 2004, more than 800,000 women have used it.
According to the AP article, women under 35 who don’t smoke and use the pill have a 1 to 3 in 10,000 chance of having a nonfatal blood clot and a 1 in 200,000 risk of dying from a blood clot. If these same women use the patch, the rate of nonfatal blood clots was about 12 out of 10,000 during clinical trials, with the apparent death rate of 3 in 200,000.
[More at URL]
----- 16 -----
CWA Severely Disappointed By Sen. Frist’s Decision to Support Funding for Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
Concerned Women for America
7/29/2005
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8632/MEDIA/life/index.htm
Frist’s Flip-Flop
Washington, D.C.—Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed disappointment in Majority Leader William Frist’s (R-Tennessee) recent decision to go public with his support of embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR). While he had previously claimed to support the President’s policy, today Sen. Frist flip-flopped on federal funding of ESCR. He spoke at length on the Senate floor this morning about his concerns with the current policy that restricts the federal funding of ESCR, a failed science that is structured around the destruction of human life.
“It is mystery to us how the senator could claim that he believes life begins at conception and then immediately contradict that statement by adding, ‘I also believe embryonic stem-cell research should be encouraged and supported.’ It certainly gives one pause in trusting his commitment to the sanctity of life,” said Lanier Swann, CWA’s director of government relations.
“While we respect the senator’s desire to support a science that offers hope to ailing patients, we want to respectfully remind him that that hope already exists through the numerous advancements in adult stem-cell research (ASCR). While ESCR has yet to yield one result, more than 65 diseases have already been successfully treated through the safe and morally unquestionable research of adult stem cells. Adult stem-cell research offers the promise of cures, not the mere ‘dream’ Frist spoke of today. A ‘dream’ of cures through ESCR is a nightmare for the unborn.
[More at URL]
----- 17 -----
CWA Says New RU-486 Study Proves Need for Drug’s Suspension
Concerned Women for America
7/28/2005
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=8626&department=MEDIA&categoryid=life
Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women for America (CWA) called “insufficient” the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to strengthen the language on RU-486’s warning label after reports that two more women have died after taking the abortion pill. Five women in the United States and Canada have died from septic shock after taking RU-486, or mifepristone.
“The FDA allows the death toll to mount and confesses to being ‘baffled’ by the deaths,” said Wendy Wright, CWA’s senior policy director. “Thanks to the hard work of Brown University professor Ralph P. Miech, MD, PhD, we may have the answer to why RU-486 causes harm to women as well as their babies.”
The Annals of Pharmacotherapy will publish Dr. Miech’s study in the September issue, which shows:
[More at URL]
----- 18 ------
San Diego Council Rejects Pride Week Proclamation
Concerned Women for America
7/28/2005
By Robert Knight
Christian campaign succeeds in stopping city’s endorsement of homosexual celebration.
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=8628&department=CFI&categoryid=family
For the first time in 10 years, the San Diego City Council failed to approve a proclamation declaring “Gay Pride Week.”
Former homosexual James Hartline, who publishes an e-mail newsletter, The James Hartline Report, led a Christian campaign against the measure, which had been sponsored by out lesbian Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who is serving as acting mayor.
Atkins withdrew the bill following a council meeting on Monday night attended by several dozen Christians and homosexual activists. Hartline spoke against the measure, along with Pastor Leo Giovinnetti of the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship.
“This is a victory for families in San Diego,” said Cindy Moles, San Diego/Imperial Counties Area Director for Concerned Women for America (CWA). “We are grateful to our members who responded to our request to pray, to contact their council members, and to attend this important meeting. They certainly helped make a difference. Common sense prevailed. We can only hope that corporate sponsors exercise similar common sense in the future and distance themselves from this immoral event.”
[More at URL]
----- 19 -----
Drivers License renewal in Massachusetts now includes "transsexual" checkoff.
http://www.article8.org/docs/issues/license_renewal/license_renewal.htm
[Linked to by Traditional Values Coalition]
Since same-sex marriage ruling, homosexual agenda railroads through government, institutions. 'Transgenderism / transsexual' is latest depravity being pushed in schools & companies by gay movement.
Notice that they don't have a checkoff for your height being changed? That actually happens as people get older. But there's not a well-funded lobby for that one!
[More at URL]
----- 20 -----
Wisconsin lawmakers ban talk and dispensing of post-sex hormonal birth control on UW campuses
Posted by Pseudo-Adrienne
August 1st, 2005
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/08/01/wisconsin-bans-contraception-on-its-campuses/
Huh, so they were just after emergency contraception (see *update* below post). Well I would have never applied to a university or college in Wisconsin anyway for weather related issues (too_bloody_cold). But this via Egalia of Tennessee Guerilla Women adds on another reason as to why for a whole different issue–definitely for the University of Wisconsin schools. The state's lawmakers have passed a law banning University of Wisconsin campuses from prescribing, dispensing and advertising postcoital hormonal medical forms of birth control, and education and counseling (even post-rape victim counseling) on the subject. Especially since, you know, birth control–certainly emergency contraception such as Plan B–transforms young 'pure-soul' college women into shameless 'Spring-Break Daytona Beach' harlots.
[More at URL]
----- 21 -----
Pastor's 'Apology' For Gay Slurs Filled With New Homophobia
by Doreen Brandt 365Gay.com Washington Bureau
Posted: July 31, 2005 4:00 pm ET
http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/07/073105dcSlur.htm
(Washington) A leading black leader in the nation's capital has "apologized" for a tirade against lesbians that delivered from his pulpit, but it has failed to quell the anger among LGBT activists.
[...]
"In retrospect I admit that some of the language I used in my sermon was intemperate and offended some of my brothers and sisters," Wilson said in the statement.
"To any and all whom I offended because of this language I sincerely and most profusely apologize. But I do not apologize for bringing to the forefront a very critical and crucial issue facing our young girls as well as the survival of the black family."
Wilson then went on to say: "All of us should be aware that there is a severe crisis in the Black community concerning our young girls. The situation is so grave that it should be declared a national emergency.
"The very survival of the Black family is being threatened by this crisis. For the last 10 years or so the Black community has been lamenting the fact that so many of our young black men are in jail that there will be few men for our daughters to marry.
"The incarceration rate is not getting any better, only worse. Over 1/3 of our Black men are now involved in the criminal justice system. Now we add to the equation the fact that our girls, some as young as 10 and 11 years of age are engaging in same sex relations. This is occurring at an alarming rate all over the nation. At a recent local school, I am told that girls were asked to report to the gymnasium. A survey was conducted to decipher how many girls were involved in same-sex relations, the number indicating that they were outnumbered those who had not by a 10 to 1 count."
----- 22 -----
George Stephanopoulos Interviews Sen. Rick Santorum
July 31, 2005
http://thinkprogress.org/santorum-this-week/
[...]
SANTORUM: I would support a constitutional amendment, sure.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How come you’ve never co-sponsored one or introduced one in the Senate?
SANTORUM: Well, because we’re so far away from any potential of doing a constitutional amendment. The bottom line is, what we want is the people to speak on this issue. And I think the most logical way, given the state of play in the American mores, if you will, is having each state legislature, and the Congress potentially, although I would really try to reserve it to the state legislature, have them decide what the collective morality is.
This is an issue important enough for the people of America to make a decision, instead of having nine people take that moral judgment away from us as a people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s talk about something else in the book, radical feminists. A second quote from the book, you say, Respect for stay-at-home mothers has been poisoned by a toxic combination of the village elders’ war on the traditional family and radical feminism’s mysogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect.
Let’s get specific here. Name one or two of these radical feminists who are on this crusade.
SANTORUM: Well, I mean, you know, you have — you go back to, what’s her name, well, Gloria Steinem, but I’m trying to remember — I can’t remember the woman’s name. It’s terrible. Anyway…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it’s kind of an important point. Because you paint this broad brush: radical feminists, village elders. Name one.
SANTORUM: There’s lots of — no, there’s lot’s of — well, Gloria Steinem. There’s one. I mean, there’s lots of writings out there…
STEPHANOPOULOS: She’s been on a crusade against stay-at-home moms?
SANTORUM: There’s lots of writings out there, and there is an opinion by the elite in this country across academia, across the media, that stay-at-home motherhood is not adequately affirmed and respected by our society.
SANTORUM: And if you don’t believe that, get a panel of stay-at- home moms here on your show, and you ask them whether they feel affirmed by society, whether they feel affirmed by the culture.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Listen, I can go home. My wife Wendy both works and stays at home at various times. And sometimes, when she’s not working, you know, she gets upset, but it’s not some message that’s being driven by…
SANTORUM: Isn’t it?
STEPHANOPOULOS: … specific people.
[More at URL]
Influential Washington, DC attacks working women and GBLT-folk in speech, claims that women making more money than men creates lesbianism;
FotF on "Plan B," the emergency contraceptive, and whether it should be available OTC in the United States as in other countries - includes action item against (ACTION ITEM);
FotF attacks Democratic legislative attack on internet porn because they can't see how "another bill" is going to "solve" the problem;
FotF newsbrief: CDA upheld in art photography case;
FotF newsbrief: Bipartisan effort underway to protect property owners from local government seizure to benefit private companies, an effort I support;
FotF mocks ABC drama for casting a female president, implies it's part of an effort to elect Hillary Clinton in 2008;
FotF very upset with Senator Bill Frist for endorsing a bill to allow existing research funds to be used more broadly for stem-cell research - includes multiple action items (ACTION ITEM);
FotF promotes bipartisan bill to require photo ID, logbook signing for any OTC drug sale including psudoephedrine hydrochloride, because it's a useful ingredient in making meth - this is Sudafed and a big personal issue for me, because it's the only decongestant I've found that doesn't knock me unconscious, and it's important for me as someone with serious seasonal allergies;
FotF yet again - states seeing lots of anti-abortion legislation; "'The evangelical right is no longer just a fringe part of the Republican Party that can be mollified through symbolic and rhetorical gestures,' Seery said cheekily. 'They want results. It's payback time. Quid pro quo.'"
FotF: Maine anti-gay group gets enough signatures to put an anti-gay rights initiative on the ballot in November;
FotF, other fundamentalist groups draw up shortlist of bills for action in the fall; number one continues to be a Federal Marriage Amendment, but there are several others such as bans on stem-cell research;
FotF reports fundamentalist groups are upset that the malpractice award limitation bill includes doctors performing abortion, call it "pro-abortion" as a result since it doesn't specifically exempt "abortion doctors" - watching them spin on this is amazing;
This, on the other hand, is just full-bore _amazing_: FotF says malpractice award limits are good and important, _except_ when they apply to abortion-providing doctors, in which case they are "compromises on the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person." In other words: ONLY FETUSES ARE PEOPLE;
Oklahoma Cherokee Tribal Council passes measure against marriage rights;
Concerned Women for America attacks birth control, "Are 'reproductive rights' replacing sound medicine?" - sure, go ahead, tell me they won't move against birth control as soon as they've managed to win against abortion, tell me that again;
CWA expresses its displeasure with Senator Frist's endorsement of stem-cell research funding;
CWA demand: RU-486 must be taken off the market immediately;
San Diego declines issue Pride Week proclamation - had done so for previous several years. CWA congratulates fundamentalist anti-gay-pride effort on getting it withdrawn this year;
Anti-gay "Article 8" alliance in Massachusetts mocks letting people with Gender Identity Disorder change their listed gender on driver's licenses;
Blogger report: Wisconsin legislature bans all forms of emergency birth control from being prescribed via student health services;
Washington, DC preacher above "apologises" for earlier comments, rants more about lesbianism in the apology; confusion abounds;
George Stephanopoulos interviews Rick Santorum, watch Santorum try to avoid any specifics on anything.
----- 1 -----
Here's why you can't buy the News Journal at Wal-Mart
Randy Hammer
July 24, 2005
Link to original editorial
You can't buy the Pensacola News Journal at Wal-Mart anymore.
The store ordered us off their property, told us to come pick up our newspaper racks and clear out.
So we did.
A few people called last week, some even wrote letters to the editor, and wanted to know why they couldn't buy the newspaper at Wal-Mart in the days after Hurricane Dennis.
Some managers at Wal-Mart didn't appreciate a column Mark O'Brien wrote last month about the downside of the cheap prices that Sam Walton's empire has brought to America. We all pay a little less, and sometimes a lot less, at the grocery store and department store because of Mr. Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart.
Mr. Walton developed a brilliant business model that allowed him to undercut the prices of his competitors. He made sure that the blue jeans his store sold were cheaper than the jeans the store down the road sold. And if some store had a two-for-one special on boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Wal-Mart would have a three-for-one special.
Leave it to old Mark, whose column runs four days a week in this newspaper, to find a downside to this. Actually, it wasn't Mark, but Thomas Friedman, who wrote "The World is Flat," which happens to be a best seller right now.
A downside
I don't mean to rub salt in a wound, but here's what Mark wrote:
"I like Wal-Mart prices the same as the next shopper, but there's a downside, too. Many Wal-Mart employees lack the fringe benefits and insurance that makes the difference between existence and a good quality of life. Yet, we customers pay a surcharge from a different pocket — subsidizing health care for Wal-Mart employees who can't afford it."
Mark then described how Friedman's book pointed out that more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees are in a Georgia health-care program, which costs the state's taxpayers nearly $10 million a year. Mark also pointed out that a New York Times report found that 31 percent of the patients at a North Carolina hospital were Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid.
[...]
Bob Hart, one of the upper managers for the Wal-Marts in the area, called me and said he didn't like Mark's column, didn't like a lot of Mark's columns.
[...]
But Mark speaks his mind. And the truth be told, that's what he gets paid to do, even though it kind of hurt me when nearly 70 percent of the voters sided with Mark and rejected charter government.
Mr. Hart, however, said he and his stores couldn't tolerate a newspaper that would print the opinions of someone who was as mean and negative as Mark O'Brien. But, you know, Mark's not nearly as ornery as that left-wing rabble-rouser Molly Ivins, whose column the newspaper also publishes. At any rate, Mr. Hart said he wanted the newspaper to get its racks off his lots. But he also said that if I fired Mark, we could talk about continuing to sell the newspaper at his stores.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Minister’s fiery anti-gay sermon riles activists
Influential Rev. Wilson leads Millions More Movement
Washington Blade
By KATHERINE VOLIN and LOU CHIBBARO JR.
Friday, July 15, 2005
http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-15/news/localnews/minister.cfm
An influential D.C. minister is under fire by local gay activists following an anti-gay sermon in which he claimed that, “lesbianism is about to take over our community.”
Rev. Willie Wilson delivered the remarks at Union Temple Baptist Church in Southeast D.C., where he is pastor. Wilson is a former mayoral candidate and serves as executive director of the Millions More Movement march, an effort to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March.
Efforts by gay civil rights advocates to secure a visible role at the march stalled again this week when excerpts from Wilson’s anti-gay sermon came to light. One lesbian march organizer quickly resigned in protest.
“Sisters making more money than brothers and it’s creating problems in families … that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians,” Wilson said.
[... to sermon excerpt; audio file and transcript also at URL:]
“…We live in a time when our brothers have been so put down, can’t get a job, lot of the sisters making more money than brothers. And it’s creating problems in families. That’s one of the reasons our families’ breaking up. And that’s one of the reasons many of our women are becoming lesbians. You got to be careful when you say you don’t need no man. I can make it by myself. Well, if you don’t need a man, what’s left? Lesbianism is about to take over our community. I’m talking about young girls. My son in high school last year, trying to go to the prom, he said, ‘Dad, I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom because all the girls in my class are gay. There ain’t but two of them straight and both of them are ugly. I ain’t got nobody to take to the prom.’ Now, can I talk here? I ain’t homophobic, because everybody in here got something wrong with him. Whoever you point at, you can point at your own self. You got something wrong with your life. But when you get down to this thing, women falling down on another woman, strapping yourself up with something, it ain’t real. That thing ain’t got no feeling in it. It ain’t natural. Any time somebody got to slap some grease on your behind, and stick something in you, it’s something wrong with that. Your butt ain’t made for that. [Audience shouts and yells its approval in the background.] You got blood vessels and membranes in your behind. And if you put something unnatural in there, it breaks them all up. No wonder your behind is bleeding. It’s destroying us. Can’t make no connection with a screw and another screw. The Bible says God made them male and female. The Hebrew word "neged," which means complementary nature — there is something unique to man and unique to woman and it takes those two things to complement each other. You can’t make a connection with two screws. It takes a screw and a nut! (shouting).”
----- 3 -----
DECISION ON PLAN B EXPECTED IN AUGUST
Focus on the Family
July 28, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037369.cfm
SUMMARY: The FDA will decide whether the "emergency
contraceptive" will be sold over the counter.
Newly confirmed FDA head Lester Crawford said the decision
whether to allow Plan B to be sold without a prescription
will come before September 1st. Pro-lifers have opposed
the drug because it can sometimes cause an early abortion.
Amber Dolle of the American Life League (ALL) said that
goes far beyond just being a contraceptive.
"They say that it prevents pregnancy, but we know that
life begins at conception and therefore it does a lot more
than 'just prevent pregnancy,' " she said. "It can take
the life of a tiny, pre-born child."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: You can e-mail the FDA commissioner through
our CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/mail/?agencyid=4370&type=AN
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
PORN BILL AIMED AT KEEPING KIDS SAFE
Porn Bill Aimed at Keeping Kids Safe
Focus on the Family
July 28, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037368.cfm
SUMMARY: Proposal would require more stringent age
verification.
A 25 percent federal tax on Internet porn, with the stated
purpose of keeping kids safe from internet pornography,
was introduced in Congress this week by Sens. Blanche
Lincoln, D-Ark., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo.
The Internet Safety and Child Protection Act would also
require all Web sites that feature pornography to put
their material behind an age verification system.
An earlier attempt at reining in Internet porn, the Child
Online Protection Act, has been bouncing through the
courts without success for the last seven years. Joe
Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, can't see
how another bill is the answer.
"This may be well-intentioned legislation," he said. "But
you have to wonder why is a U.S. congressman proposing
legislation that clearly doesn't have a chance in the
courts?"
[More at URL]
----- 5 -----
Decency Act Upheld
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 28, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) and "fine
art photographer" Barbara Nitke lost their case
challenging the Communications Decency Act (CDA) Monday.
The act makes it illegal to knowingly publish obscene
material on the Internet where it is available to minors.
NCSF and Nitke argued the global reach of the Internet
made it impossible to determine if material was legally
obscene because what's obscene in one culture may not be
in another.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of N.Y.
wrote that there's a reasonable likelihood that some
juries "applying a national standard for artistic value,
would not agree that Nitke's work has serious artistic
value. Nitke's fear that the CDA will be enforced against
her is actual and well-founded. She has submitted
objective evidence to substantiate the claim that she has
been deterred from exercising her free-speech rights, and
this fear is based on a reasonable interpretation of the
CDA."
----- 6 -----
House Considers Protection for Property Owners
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 28, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Congress is moving to counter a Supreme Court decision
giving the right of eminent domain to city governments and
allowing them to obtain private property for development,
Fox News reported.
At issue is the 5th Amendment's protection of private
property and whether it allows the government to take land
for public use. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., said the
Supreme Court misinterpreted the 5th Amendment.
"The Constitution is very clear," Pombo said. "It
specifically says you can't do this and somehow they found
. . . that it was okay to do it."
Democrats and Republicans alike have united in order to
protect private property owners.
"Cities may now bulldoze private citizens' homes to make
way for shopping malls or other developments," pointed out
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said the decision turns
local government into a carnival of real estate bargains
and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., compared the law to Alice
in Wonderland.
"We've now stepped through a looking glass with this
Supreme Court decision that private is public," DeFazio
said.
Lawmakers are considering several bills designed to block
the ruling.
----- 7 -----
ABC Drama to Feature Female President
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 28, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
"Commander-in-Chief," a new TV show starring Geena Davis
as a vice president bound for the Oval Office, has some
critics rolling their eyes, The Washington Post reported.
At a question and answer session for the ABC drama,
members of the press asked the show's cast and production
team if any Republicans were among them. The answer, not
surprisingly, was no. Not even one.
The show's creator, Rod Lurie, said political affinity was
not a question asked at casting calls.
"We come from a community that happens to be mostly
Democratic," Lurie said. "With all due respect, your
question is loaded; you had to know the answer before you
asked."
Thought the name of the lead character, "Mackenzie Allen,"
sounds remarkably, poetically like "Hillary Clinton,"
Davis is cast as an "independent" in the drama. Lurie said
that gives the character the ability to resonate with both
parties.
He doesn't think we'll see a female president anytime
soon, but added, "If Hillary does win the nomination,
we're going to take credit."
----- 8 -----
FRIST BACKS EMBRYONIC STEM-CELL BILL
Focus on the Family
July 29, 2005
by Pete Winn, associate editor
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0037397.cfm
SUMMARY: The leader of the U.S. Senate throws his weight
behind embryonic stem-cell research, breaking with
President Bush and upsetting pro-family conservatives.
The pro-life community reacted harshly today to news that
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist came out strongly in
favor of increased federal funding for embryonic stem-cell
research -- research which always requires the destruction
of human embryos.
"I am pro-life," Frist maintained. "I believe life begins
at conception. It is at this moment that the organism is
complete -- yes, immature -- but complete. An embryo is
nascent human life."
But in spite of that, he went on: "I also believe that
embryonic stem-cell research should be encouraged and
supported."
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the
Family Action, said it is an "understatement" to say he is
personally disappointed with the Tennessee Republican's
stand.
"Most distressing is that, in making his announcement,
Senator Frist calls himself a defender of the sanctity of
human life -- even though the research he now advocates
results, without exception, in the destruction of human
life," he said.
[...]
TAKE ACTION: If you would like to let Senate Majority
Leader Bill Frist know what you think of his support for
embryonic stem-cell research, you may reach him through
the CitizenLink Action Center:
http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/bio/?id=540&lvl=C&chamber=S
In addition, please contact your senators and ask them to
oppose SB 471 -- sponsored by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,
and HR 810, sponsored by Reps. Castle and DeGette, which
would gut the president's funding restrictions for
embryonic stem-cell research.
http://www.family.org/cforum/action_center.cfm?capwizurl=http://www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/
[More at URL]
----- 9 -----
'Combat Meth' Bill Introduced in Senate Judiciary Committee
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 29, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill
that would regulate the way pseudoephedrine -- a common
ingredient in cold medicine used to manufacture the street
drug, methamphetamine -- is sold to consumers, Reuters
reported.
Methamphetamine or "meth" is an extremely addictive drug
manufactured from common household products such as cold
medicine and agricultural chemicals, a process that leaves
behind toxic waste difficult and expensive to clean up.
The addictive behavior associated with the drug has
devastated families and communities.
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently said meth poses
the greatest drug danger to America's youth.
The Combat Meth bill, introduced by Sens. Diane Feinstein,
D-Calif. and Jim Talent, R-Mo., would force products
containing the ingredient pseudoephedrine to be sold from
behind pharmacy counters and limit the amount available
for purchase to 7.5 grams, about a quarter ounce, a month.
It would also require customers to show a photo ID and
sign a log book with each purchase of a product containing
the ingredient, using a computer tracking system to stop
people from making purchases at multiple stores.
"Today is a good day in the fight against
methamphetamines," said Feinstein. "We're one step closer
to enacting a national meth bill that would put thousands
of meth labs out of business."
The bill must now go before the full Senate. A similar
bill in the House has been referred to a subcommittee for
consideration.
----- 10 -----
Pro-Life Legislation Sees State-Level Progress
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 29, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
There is an encouraging advance of state level efforts to
restrict abortion, through laws regarding parental
notification, right-to-know and emergency contraception.
According an article in Infozine.com, more than 500
individual pieces of legislation aimed at restricting
access to abortion were introduced in state legislatures
this year, including what is called first-of-a-kind laws
that require women who want an abortion to be told about
the pain experienced by the unborn child or to be offered
anesthesia to help decrease the pain felt by the baby
during the abortion. Arkansas, Georgia and Minnesota saw
those laws come about.
Both Arkansas and Idaho were added to the list of states
that require parental notification if a minor child is
seeking abortion services, bringing the total to 35. Nine
states struck down such laws and California voters will
decide in 2006.
Why the sudden rush of pro-life laws? According to John
Seery, a professor at Pomona College, pro-lifers are
trying to change abortion laws at the state level while
waiting for the legal landscape to change at the federal
level.
"The evangelical right is no longer just a fringe part of
the Republican Party that can be mollified through
symbolic and rhetorical gestures," Seery said cheekily.
"They want results. It's payback time. Quid pro quo."
----- 11 -----
Maine Referendum Question will be on the November Ballot
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
July 29, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Pro-family organizations in Maine had 90 days to collect
more than 50,000 signatures in order to allow the people
the opportunity to veto a sexual-orientation bill that
passed the Legislature and was signed by the governor this
session.
The final count of valid signatures was 56,650 -- far
surpassing the required number to get it on the ballot.
The Christian Civic League of Maine cheered the result:
"These high numbers are all the more remarkable given the
fact that the citizens of Maine were given only half the
usual time to collect the signatures. Such high numbers
are a reflection of the broad support which the Peoples
Veto enjoys among the public, and is a promising sign for
the vote in November."
----- 12 -----
CONGRESS LEAVES BEHIND PRO-FAMILY LEGISLATION
Focus on the Family
August 1, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037406.cfm
SUMMARY: Many important bills put on hold until at least
September.
Capitol Hill was abuzz last week with last minute
politicking on several pieces of legislation just prior to
the annual August recess. But in the rush, many
family-friendly bills were left behind -- tabled until the
fall session begins in September.
[...]
Robert Knight, director of the Culture and Family
Institute said there was also some good news in the list
of left-behind bills.
"We didn't see a hate crimes bill emerge or the Employment
Non-discrimination Act," he told Family News in Focus.
"These are two key pieces of the homosexual political
agenda."
He said pro-family groups will step up their efforts when
lawmakers return in September and they've already made a
list of their favorite proposals.
"Number one on the plate would be a Federal Marriage
Amendment," he said. "Number two would be a stem-cell bill
gotten through the Senate to ban embryonic stem-cell
research. We also need legislation protecting pastors'
freedom of speech to discuss political matters and finally
cable choice."
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
HEALTH ACT MAY INADVERTENTLY PROTECT ABORTION PROVIDERS
Focus on the Family
August 1, 2005
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0037405.cfm
SUMMARY: Cap on malpractice insurance would also apply to
botched abortions.
The House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill last
week that would limit the amount of medical malpractice
awards. Supporters said it would make medical insurance
more affordable, but a pro-family group points out: It
would also limit the amount awarded for botched abortions.
[...]
If a companion bill passes the Senate, malpractice awards
would be capped at $250,000. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.,
said that would especially help obstetricians, many of
whom are leaving the practice.
[...]
But Ken Connor, chairman of the Center for a Just Society,
told Family News in Focus that part of the impact of the
health act is pro-abortion.
"If you have a young girl who goes in and dies as a
consequence of neglect during the course of the abortion,
the most her parents can recover for her death is $250,000
dollars," he said. "This bill absolutely compromises on
the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person."
He said it will be hard to cripple the abortion industry
$250,000 thousand dollars at a time.
[More at URL]
----- 14 -----
Tribal Government Opposes Same-Sex Marriage
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
August 1, 2005
[Received in email; no URL]
Efforts by a lesbian couple in Oklahoma to leverage
Cherokee Indian sovereignty rights to gain a foothold in
the fight for homosexual marriage have, to date, failed,
The Washington Post reported.
Kathy Reynolds and Dawn McKinley received a marriage
application from the Cherokee tribal government last year.
After a wedding ceremony was performed by a licensed
minister, the women attempted to file the application with
the tribal courts to have the marriage legally recognized
-- but a tribal judge had issued an injunction prohibiting
the two from becoming the first same-sex couple to be
married under Cherokee law.
Soon after that, Todd Hembree, lawyer for the Cherokee
Tribal Council, went before the Cherokee Tribal Council to
request the marriage be nullified based on current tribal
law.
"I took action because I feel strongly that our laws have
to stand for something," Hambree said. "The Cherokee
statute is not gender-neutral. It is meant to be between
a man and a woman. I my view, they are trying to
circumvent Oklahoma law."
The issue prompted the Cherokee Tribal Council to pass a
measure specifically defining marriage as a union between
one man and one woman to ensure no confusion about the
tribal law.
The Indian law echoes the opinion of 75 percent of Sooner
State residents, who voted to ban same-sex marriage in the
2004 election.
"This is rural Oklahoma," said one tribal official, "and
our citizens' views reflect the rest of the state.
Cherokees are opposed to this marriage taking place."
----- 15 -----
Deaths Attributed to Birth-Control Patch Increase
Concerned Women for America
8/1/2005
By Kristen Martin
Are “reproductive rights” replacing sound medicine?
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8635/CWA/life/index.htm
“On your body, off your mind”—this clever catch phrase is associated with the birth-control patch, Ortho Evra, which has advertisements spotlighting supermodel Naomi Campbell and the Norwegian Olympic beach volleyball team.
Despite appealing advertising, though, Ortho Evra—which went on the market in 2002—is causing serious concerns. It is being pinpointed as the cause of death of 23 women, including 17 in the past two years due to blood clots. Blood clots are seen as a high risk for hormonal birth control because estrogen promotes blood coagulation.
The other deaths resulted from heart attacks and strokes.
The patch’s manufacturer, Ortho-McNeil, said that the deaths and side effects caused by the patch are consistent with the health risks of the pill. However, the Associated Press (AP) analyzed 16,000 reports of adverse events filed with the Food and Drug Administration and found that the risk of death from a blood clot is three times higher for women using the patch. Since 2004, more than 800,000 women have used it.
According to the AP article, women under 35 who don’t smoke and use the pill have a 1 to 3 in 10,000 chance of having a nonfatal blood clot and a 1 in 200,000 risk of dying from a blood clot. If these same women use the patch, the rate of nonfatal blood clots was about 12 out of 10,000 during clinical trials, with the apparent death rate of 3 in 200,000.
[More at URL]
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CWA Severely Disappointed By Sen. Frist’s Decision to Support Funding for Embryonic Stem-Cell Research
Concerned Women for America
7/29/2005
http://www.cwfa.org/articles/8632/MEDIA/life/index.htm
Frist’s Flip-Flop
Washington, D.C.—Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed disappointment in Majority Leader William Frist’s (R-Tennessee) recent decision to go public with his support of embryonic stem-cell research (ESCR). While he had previously claimed to support the President’s policy, today Sen. Frist flip-flopped on federal funding of ESCR. He spoke at length on the Senate floor this morning about his concerns with the current policy that restricts the federal funding of ESCR, a failed science that is structured around the destruction of human life.
“It is mystery to us how the senator could claim that he believes life begins at conception and then immediately contradict that statement by adding, ‘I also believe embryonic stem-cell research should be encouraged and supported.’ It certainly gives one pause in trusting his commitment to the sanctity of life,” said Lanier Swann, CWA’s director of government relations.
“While we respect the senator’s desire to support a science that offers hope to ailing patients, we want to respectfully remind him that that hope already exists through the numerous advancements in adult stem-cell research (ASCR). While ESCR has yet to yield one result, more than 65 diseases have already been successfully treated through the safe and morally unquestionable research of adult stem cells. Adult stem-cell research offers the promise of cures, not the mere ‘dream’ Frist spoke of today. A ‘dream’ of cures through ESCR is a nightmare for the unborn.
[More at URL]
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CWA Says New RU-486 Study Proves Need for Drug’s Suspension
Concerned Women for America
7/28/2005
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=8626&department=MEDIA&categoryid=life
Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women for America (CWA) called “insufficient” the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) recent decision to strengthen the language on RU-486’s warning label after reports that two more women have died after taking the abortion pill. Five women in the United States and Canada have died from septic shock after taking RU-486, or mifepristone.
“The FDA allows the death toll to mount and confesses to being ‘baffled’ by the deaths,” said Wendy Wright, CWA’s senior policy director. “Thanks to the hard work of Brown University professor Ralph P. Miech, MD, PhD, we may have the answer to why RU-486 causes harm to women as well as their babies.”
The Annals of Pharmacotherapy will publish Dr. Miech’s study in the September issue, which shows:
During an abortion, mifepristone works by blocking the effects of progesterone, shutting off nutrition to the placenta and fetus. However, Miech points out, the anti-progesterone effects of mifepristone also cause changes in the cervix that allow C. sordellii, a common vaginal bacteria, to enter the cervical canal. C. sordellii thrives in this low-oxygen environment and derives nutrition from the decaying fetal tissue. [Emphasis added.]Mifepristone also disrupts the immune system, which “impairs the body’s ability to fight off C. sordellii and may help spread the bacteria’s toxic by-products, a combination that sometimes results in widespread septic shock.” The women don’t exhibit the usual warning signs of an infection, mainly, a fever.
[More at URL]
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San Diego Council Rejects Pride Week Proclamation
Concerned Women for America
7/28/2005
By Robert Knight
Christian campaign succeeds in stopping city’s endorsement of homosexual celebration.
http://www.cwfa.org/articledisplay.asp?id=8628&department=CFI&categoryid=family
For the first time in 10 years, the San Diego City Council failed to approve a proclamation declaring “Gay Pride Week.”
Former homosexual James Hartline, who publishes an e-mail newsletter, The James Hartline Report, led a Christian campaign against the measure, which had been sponsored by out lesbian Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who is serving as acting mayor.
Atkins withdrew the bill following a council meeting on Monday night attended by several dozen Christians and homosexual activists. Hartline spoke against the measure, along with Pastor Leo Giovinnetti of the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship.
“This is a victory for families in San Diego,” said Cindy Moles, San Diego/Imperial Counties Area Director for Concerned Women for America (CWA). “We are grateful to our members who responded to our request to pray, to contact their council members, and to attend this important meeting. They certainly helped make a difference. Common sense prevailed. We can only hope that corporate sponsors exercise similar common sense in the future and distance themselves from this immoral event.”
[More at URL]
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Drivers License renewal in Massachusetts now includes "transsexual" checkoff.
http://www.article8.org/docs/issues/license_renewal/license_renewal.htm
[Linked to by Traditional Values Coalition]
Since same-sex marriage ruling, homosexual agenda railroads through government, institutions. 'Transgenderism / transsexual' is latest depravity being pushed in schools & companies by gay movement.
Notice that they don't have a checkoff for your height being changed? That actually happens as people get older. But there's not a well-funded lobby for that one!
[More at URL]
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Wisconsin lawmakers ban talk and dispensing of post-sex hormonal birth control on UW campuses
Posted by Pseudo-Adrienne
August 1st, 2005
http://www.amptoons.com/blog/archives/2005/08/01/wisconsin-bans-contraception-on-its-campuses/
Huh, so they were just after emergency contraception (see *update* below post). Well I would have never applied to a university or college in Wisconsin anyway for weather related issues (too_bloody_cold). But this via Egalia of Tennessee Guerilla Women adds on another reason as to why for a whole different issue–definitely for the University of Wisconsin schools. The state's lawmakers have passed a law banning University of Wisconsin campuses from prescribing, dispensing and advertising postcoital hormonal medical forms of birth control, and education and counseling (even post-rape victim counseling) on the subject. Especially since, you know, birth control–certainly emergency contraception such as Plan B–transforms young 'pure-soul' college women into shameless 'Spring-Break Daytona Beach' harlots.
[More at URL]
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Pastor's 'Apology' For Gay Slurs Filled With New Homophobia
by Doreen Brandt 365Gay.com Washington Bureau
Posted: July 31, 2005 4:00 pm ET
http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/07/073105dcSlur.htm
(Washington) A leading black leader in the nation's capital has "apologized" for a tirade against lesbians that delivered from his pulpit, but it has failed to quell the anger among LGBT activists.
[...]
"In retrospect I admit that some of the language I used in my sermon was intemperate and offended some of my brothers and sisters," Wilson said in the statement.
"To any and all whom I offended because of this language I sincerely and most profusely apologize. But I do not apologize for bringing to the forefront a very critical and crucial issue facing our young girls as well as the survival of the black family."
Wilson then went on to say: "All of us should be aware that there is a severe crisis in the Black community concerning our young girls. The situation is so grave that it should be declared a national emergency.
"The very survival of the Black family is being threatened by this crisis. For the last 10 years or so the Black community has been lamenting the fact that so many of our young black men are in jail that there will be few men for our daughters to marry.
"The incarceration rate is not getting any better, only worse. Over 1/3 of our Black men are now involved in the criminal justice system. Now we add to the equation the fact that our girls, some as young as 10 and 11 years of age are engaging in same sex relations. This is occurring at an alarming rate all over the nation. At a recent local school, I am told that girls were asked to report to the gymnasium. A survey was conducted to decipher how many girls were involved in same-sex relations, the number indicating that they were outnumbered those who had not by a 10 to 1 count."
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George Stephanopoulos Interviews Sen. Rick Santorum
July 31, 2005
http://thinkprogress.org/santorum-this-week/
[...]
SANTORUM: I would support a constitutional amendment, sure.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How come you’ve never co-sponsored one or introduced one in the Senate?
SANTORUM: Well, because we’re so far away from any potential of doing a constitutional amendment. The bottom line is, what we want is the people to speak on this issue. And I think the most logical way, given the state of play in the American mores, if you will, is having each state legislature, and the Congress potentially, although I would really try to reserve it to the state legislature, have them decide what the collective morality is.
This is an issue important enough for the people of America to make a decision, instead of having nine people take that moral judgment away from us as a people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s talk about something else in the book, radical feminists. A second quote from the book, you say, Respect for stay-at-home mothers has been poisoned by a toxic combination of the village elders’ war on the traditional family and radical feminism’s mysogynistic crusade to make working outside the home the only marker of social value and self-respect.
Let’s get specific here. Name one or two of these radical feminists who are on this crusade.
SANTORUM: Well, I mean, you know, you have — you go back to, what’s her name, well, Gloria Steinem, but I’m trying to remember — I can’t remember the woman’s name. It’s terrible. Anyway…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But it’s kind of an important point. Because you paint this broad brush: radical feminists, village elders. Name one.
SANTORUM: There’s lots of — no, there’s lot’s of — well, Gloria Steinem. There’s one. I mean, there’s lots of writings out there…
STEPHANOPOULOS: She’s been on a crusade against stay-at-home moms?
SANTORUM: There’s lots of writings out there, and there is an opinion by the elite in this country across academia, across the media, that stay-at-home motherhood is not adequately affirmed and respected by our society.
SANTORUM: And if you don’t believe that, get a panel of stay-at- home moms here on your show, and you ask them whether they feel affirmed by society, whether they feel affirmed by the culture.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Listen, I can go home. My wife Wendy both works and stays at home at various times. And sometimes, when she’s not working, you know, she gets upset, but it’s not some message that’s being driven by…
SANTORUM: Isn’t it?
STEPHANOPOULOS: … specific people.
[More at URL]
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Date: 2005-08-02 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-02 08:24 am (UTC)I have to go out during the day to get my (store brand) Claritin-D now when the pharmacies are open, instead of picking them up on the way to work at night like I used to. And I can only get two 10-dose packs at a time. I tried getting 3 boxes at once so I'd have a month's supply, but the register wouldn't ring up the third one.