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solarbirdNorthwest Airlines won't let a gay employee use the second ticket he won at the company Christmas party for his partner; they would for an opposite-gender spouse;
Italian embassy in Libya torched over Mohammed cartoons;
Focus on the Family story on anti-marriage votes coming up in 2006;
Nebraska A.G. talks optimistically about keeping queers from being married, and the case before the Federal appeals court;
FotF slams Fox News's Geraldo Rivera for making any connection whatsoever between Cheney shooting his friend in the face and not reporting it for a day or so and Kennedy's deadly car crash at Chappaquiddick; I include it mostly because it's interesting watching FotF play defense for the Republican party on an issue totally unrelated to any of their normal concerns; includes ACTION ITEM to complain to Fox News and Rivera himself; the best part is where they call Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor" an example of liberal bias;
Bush wants Supreme Court to hear so-called "partial birth abortion" ban case;
In case you still think Focus on the Family is somehow a fringe group, here's a reminder that they aren't: their daily radio show wins the National Religious Broadcasters annual award for best radio talk show;
"Illinois is not the Massachusetts of the midwest;" fundamentalist group starts signature gathering for an anti-marriage amendment there; I don't know whether it includes civil unions, but almost all of them do;
Andrew Longman of Alan Keyes's "Renew America" kneels beforeZOD James Dobson, apologises abjectly for criticising him;
Moscow's Gay Pride parade is vetoed by the city government in the face of united violence promises from local Muslim and Russian Orthodox leadership; Russian Orthodox Church compares homosexuality to leprosy; Muslim leaders say gay men should be killed and have no human rights; 43% of Russians polled last year say gay men should be jailed; city government blames the queers, of course. Link swiped from Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish;
Alliance Defense Fund's "Day of Truth" anti-gay counter-action to the "Day of Silence" campaign starts getting early plugs from WorldNetDaily; some fundamentalist groups are linking to it; this ADF is a legal organisation that fights abortion rights, GBLT rights, and for Christian religious instruction in schools;
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who I have historically liked, personally disappoints me by introducing a bill to prevent Federal courts from "issuing rulings on religious freedom, reproduction, and marriage" - in other words, to except various rights from Federal court protection; this is one of those things the fundamentalists badly want, and, quite frankly, if it's Constitutional, I'm Arnold fucking Palmer;
In an earlier Cultural Warfare Update special edition, I quoted fundamentalist leaders talking about how everything would have to be reconsidered from a perspective of "Intelligent Design"; one example is apparently oil exploration; World Net Daily gives friendly coverage to a religious group doing oil exploration in Israel based on their interpretation of the Old Testament; now, this is the Middle East, so they probably will find some oil, but, well, this is what they want to call science, in action; geology isn't important, interpretations of Bible verses are, and "and then a miracle occurs" is a valid process step. I can't wait to see the first patent for that kind of process, can you?
----- 1 -----
Gay airline employee told he cannot use his free tickets
Mother Jones Online
February 15, 2006
Long URL elided
Rob Anders of La Mirada, California, is a long-time airline industry employee. At his company's Christmas party, Anders won a pair of round-trip airline tickets from Northwest Airlines, to be used by him and a companion. He chose his partner of fifteen years, and they decided to use the free trip to visit Anders' mother and attend a family reunion in Florida. The airline, however, refused to accept Anders' partner as the other passenger. A Northwest representative said that the airline would recognize only a spouse, another airline employee, or a dependent child as a "companion."
[...]
Anders and his partner registered as domestic partners in 2004, but the airline representative specifically stated that Northwest would not accept a domestic partner in lieu of a spouse.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Rioters torch Italian consulate, Libyan officials say
11 reported dead or wounded
Friday, February 17, 2006; Posted: 6:09 p.m. EST (23:09 GMT)
CNN
Long URL elided
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libyans protesting the Prophet Mohammed cartoons set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi on Friday in a riot that left 11 people dead or wounded, Libyan security officials said.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
STATES PREPARE TO VOTE ON PROTECTING MARRIAGE
Efforts are under way nationwide to constitutionally define marriage.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
February 17, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039579.cfm
When Idaho's Legislature passed a measure earlier this
week to place a constitutional amendment to protect
marriage on the ballot in November, it joined the growing
trend among states to put the issue before the people.
Julie Lynde, spokeswoman for the Cornerstone Institute of
Idaho, said she's happy her state will be among those
voting on whether to define marriage as between one man
and one woman.
"This is the first time that the people of Idaho will get
to vote on this issue," she said. "Marriage is so
foundational, and the people of Idaho have wanted to be
able vote on this for four years now."
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Q&A: NEBRASKA ATTORNEY GENERAL JON BRUNING
Official explains how the marriage amendment arguments went at the 8th Circuit.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
February 17, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0039578.cfm
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in St. Louis recently heard a challenge to
Nebraska's constitutional amendment defining marriage as
between one man and one woman.
The amendment, which passed in 2004 with 70 percent
support of the voters, was defended in court by the
Nebraska attorney general's office. CitizenLink recently
spoke with Attorney General Jon Bruning about the case.
A former Nebraska lawmaker, after the 2002 election,
Bruning became the youngest attorney general in the
state's history as well as the youngest attorney general
in the United States.
Q. How do you think the arguments went?
A. I think arguments went very, very well. Chief Deputy
Attorney General Matt McNair argued the case for the state
of Nebraska. I thought he did a beautiful job. I was there
with him, of course, at counsel table.
I was very pleased with the three-judge panel, and their
questions. It seemed to indicate they had a deep
understanding of the case and of our particular side of
the case. So, I feel very, very good about the way things
went.
Q. It would appear this amendment had a great deal of
support among the people. The position of Nebraskans on
marriage seems to be very clear.
A. It is. Nebraskans have always had a very
straightforward conservative understanding of this type of
relationship. Marriage is the union between a man and a
woman by the definition of the amendment, and Nebraskans
overwhelmingly supported that.
That isn't to insinuate that there was any animus on the
part of Nebraskans. I think to imply that 70 percent of
Nebraskans are angry at gay people is a misstatement. That
simply is not the case. It simply is an incentive that the
people of Nebraska wanted to put into the constitution.
[Much more at URL]
----- 5 -----
GERALDO GOES TOO FAR
Rivera equates Dick Cheney's hunting accident to Chappaquiddick.
by Gary Schneeberger, editor
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
February 17, 2006
SUMMARY: Rivera's equating of Dick Cheney's hunting
accident to Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick scandal
spotlights the depth of mainstream journalism's liberal
bias.
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0039580.cfm
Considering the beating Vice President Dick Cheney has
been taking in the media for the last several days, you'd
think he was the first person in history to be on the
more-fortunate end of a "friendly fire" hunting accident.
He's not, of course, although he is the first person to be
on the more-fortunate end of a "friendly fire" hunting
accident who serves as the No. 2 guy in a presidential
administration that many in the mainstream media hate with
as much crazed vigor as the Joker hates Batman.
The sensationalism of the coverage -- preoccupied mostly
with why Cheney didn't speak out sooner about the
accidental shooting of his hunting buddy Harry Whittington
-- reached its apex the other night on the Fox News
Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," when correspondent Geraldo
Rivera equated Cheney's mishap with the infamous
Chappaquiddick incident that forever doomed Ted Kennedy's
White House aspirations.
[...]
Lumping Cheney's accident in with Chappaquiddick, though,
is beyond the pale even for a guy with Geraldo's resume.
As a refresher, "Chappaquiddick" is the shorthand used for
the 1969 scandal in which already-Sen. Kennedy drove a car
off a bridge in the middle of the night after a party on
Martha's Vineyard, swimming to safety himself but leaving
a passenger, a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne, inside
the car to drown. Kennedy did not report the incident to
authorities until the next morning, about nine hours
later.
How does Geraldo sum up that scandal? He told O'Reilly on
Wednesday, twice, that it was just "a driving accident."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Let Geraldo Rivera know what you think of his
equating Dick Cheney's hunting accident with Ted Kennedy's
Chappaquiddick scandal. You can find contact information,
including an easy-to-use e-mail form, in the CitizenLink
Action Center.
Long URL elided
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Bush Wants High Court to Hear Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Case
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The Bush administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court
to place a case about the federal partial-birth abortion
ban on the list of cases it will hear this year,
LifeNews.com reported.
Partial-birth abortion is a procedure in which a physician
delivers a preborn child feet first, until only the head
remains inside the mother. A sharp instrument is inserted
into the base of the skull and the brains are extracted,
then the doctor finishes delivering the dead baby.
While experts have testified over and over that the
procedure is never necessary to protect a woman's life or
health, three separate appellate courts have ruled the
federal ban on the procedure unconstitutional because of a
lack of health exception.
The Bush administration supports a ban on the procedure.
The high court is expected to announce which cases will be
heard next week.
----- 7 -----
“Focus on the Family” Broadcast Named Best Radio Talk Show
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Dr. James Dobson's “Focus on the Family” radio broadcast
will receive the “Best Radio Talk Show” award from the
National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) organization on Feb.
18.
Jim Daly, Focus on the Family's president and CEO, will
accept the award at the 2006 NRB Annual Convention &
Exposition in Dallas.
In a letter to NRB President Dr. Frank Wright, Dr. Dobson
wrote: “I believe we’re producing some of our best
programming ever these days, and we’ve been especially
heartened that our evangelistically oriented broadcasts
have been so well-received. NRB’s gracious recognition of
our efforts affirms that the Lord is using our radio
outreach to impact lives, and I hope you’re aware that we
don’t take this tribute lightly.”
Heard on more than 2,000 U.S. radio facilities by more
than 1.5 million listeners each day, the “Focus on the
Family” broadcast has been dedicated to informing,
supporting, and encouraging parents and families for more
than 25 years.
For more information: To learn more about the “Focus on
the Family” radio program or to find a local affiliate,
visit this Web site.
http://www.family.org
----- 8 -----
Illinois Gears Up For Marriage Signature Drive
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
More than 7,000 people in Illinois have volunteered to
gather signatures in order to ensure a constitutional
amendment protecting marriage makes it onto the November
ballot.
Protect Marriage Illinois needs to gather the signatures
of 283,111 registered voters by May 8 to qualify for the
November election.
The amendment states: "To secure and preserve the benefits
of marriage for our society and for future generations of
children, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only
legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this
state."
Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family
Institute, said the momentum of the signature drive is
beyond expectations.
"From African-American evangelicals in Chicago to Muslims
in Villa Park to Catholics in Carbondale," he said, "this
is truly a diverse movement of people who are uniting to
defend marriage in Illinois."
The people of Illinois, he said, believe activist judges
do not have the right to redefine marriage.
"Marriage and family are the bedrock institutions of
society for the raising of children," he said. "Illinois
is not the Massachusetts of the Midwest."
----- 9 -----
Editorial Writer Critical of Dobson Apologizes
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Andrew Longman, a writer who contributes to Alan Keyes'
Web site Renew America, has posted an apology on the site
-- expressing regret over his recent editorial that was
filled with scathing criticism of Focus on the Family and
its founder Dr. James Dobson.
Longman originally disparaged Dobson for his support of
Colorado's SB 166, accusing him of helping homosexuals on
the path to gay marriage.
"I apologize most profusely to Dr. Dobson, to Dr. Keyes,
and to the community of believers at large for allowing
angry passion to motivate personal remarks, rather than
keeping a discussion firmly based in ideas," he posted
Thursday. "The ideas are very important, and I have drawn
focus away from them through poor sportsmanship, and I am
sorry."
Longman said Keyes had come down hard on him for his
sarcastic and derogatory explanation of the issue and made
clear his words were not a reflection of Keyes' thoughts.
"I must state forthrightly that my remarks in a recent
column regarding a Colorado Senate bill and Dr. James
Dobson are fully and completely my own imagination and
rendering," he wrote. "It would be impossible for me to
represent the particular thoughts of Dr. Alan Keyes in
that I have not exchanged any substantial dialog with Dr.
Keyes ever."
----- 10 -----
Russia's first gay parade vetoed by 'outraged' city
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 17 February 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article345947.ece
Plans to stage Russia's first gay pride parade have been vetoed by Moscow's city government on the grounds that the idea has caused "outrage" in society.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's administration said yesterday it would not even consider an application for a parade, prompting Russia's gay community to threaten legal action in the European Court of Human Rights.
[...]
Earlier this week Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin warned that Russia's Muslims would stage violent protests if the march went ahead. "If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that - Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike ... [The protests] might be even more intense than protests abroad against those controversial cartoons."
The cleric said the Koran taught that homosexuals should be killed because their lifestyle spells the extinction of the human race and said that gays had no human rights.
The Russian Orthodox Church has called it "the propaganda of sin". Bishop Daniil of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk yesterday condemned the plans as a "cynical mockery" and likened homosexuality to leprosy.
The mayor's spokesman, Sergei Tsoi, said a parade would not be allowed. "[The plans] have caused outrage in society, particularly among religious leaders," he said.
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Christians counter homosexual 'Day of Silence'
'Truth' event at high schools nationwide responds boldly but 'in love'
Posted: February 17, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48869
High-school students nationwide will take part in a "Day of Truth" to counter homosexual activism and peacefully express a Christian perspective.
During school hours, students will wear "Day of Truth" T-shirts and pass out cards, said the Arizona-based public-interest group Alliance Defense Fund, which is sponsoring the April 27 event.
[...]
Alan Sears, the ADF's president, CEO and general counsel, said the event provides an opportunity to express a different perspective than the "Day of Silence," a campus activity, he contended, that promotes a radical homosexual agenda.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Congress Must Pass ‘We, The People Act’
Traditional Values Coalition
February 16, 2006
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2616
February 16, 2006 – Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul has introduced the “We, The People Act,” H.R. 4379, a bill that will restrict federal courts (including the Supreme Court) from issuing rulings on religious freedom, reproduction, and marriage.
The bill was crafted by Rep. Paul with constitutional attorney Herb Titus. It is designed to prohibit renegade federal liberal judges from violating the will of the American people and state legislatures on important moral issues.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Will Bible lead to oil reserve under Israel?
Company using verses to map out drill sites in Holy Land
Posted: February 18, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48881
JERUSALEM – Does Israel have beneath its surface an enormous oil reserve mapped out in the Old Testament that when found will immediately change the geopolitical structure of the Middle East and confirm the validity of the Bible to people around the world?
So believe the officers of Zion Oil, a company using updated scientific methods alongside biblical text to explore for oil north of Tel Aviv. The company, which recently filed for an initial public offering on the American Stock Exchange, says it is making headway – including locating areas conducive to oil storage – and expects interesting finds in the very near future.
[More at URL]
Italian embassy in Libya torched over Mohammed cartoons;
Focus on the Family story on anti-marriage votes coming up in 2006;
Nebraska A.G. talks optimistically about keeping queers from being married, and the case before the Federal appeals court;
FotF slams Fox News's Geraldo Rivera for making any connection whatsoever between Cheney shooting his friend in the face and not reporting it for a day or so and Kennedy's deadly car crash at Chappaquiddick; I include it mostly because it's interesting watching FotF play defense for the Republican party on an issue totally unrelated to any of their normal concerns; includes ACTION ITEM to complain to Fox News and Rivera himself; the best part is where they call Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor" an example of liberal bias;
Bush wants Supreme Court to hear so-called "partial birth abortion" ban case;
In case you still think Focus on the Family is somehow a fringe group, here's a reminder that they aren't: their daily radio show wins the National Religious Broadcasters annual award for best radio talk show;
"Illinois is not the Massachusetts of the midwest;" fundamentalist group starts signature gathering for an anti-marriage amendment there; I don't know whether it includes civil unions, but almost all of them do;
Andrew Longman of Alan Keyes's "Renew America" kneels before
Moscow's Gay Pride parade is vetoed by the city government in the face of united violence promises from local Muslim and Russian Orthodox leadership; Russian Orthodox Church compares homosexuality to leprosy; Muslim leaders say gay men should be killed and have no human rights; 43% of Russians polled last year say gay men should be jailed; city government blames the queers, of course. Link swiped from Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish;
Alliance Defense Fund's "Day of Truth" anti-gay counter-action to the "Day of Silence" campaign starts getting early plugs from WorldNetDaily; some fundamentalist groups are linking to it; this ADF is a legal organisation that fights abortion rights, GBLT rights, and for Christian religious instruction in schools;
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who I have historically liked, personally disappoints me by introducing a bill to prevent Federal courts from "issuing rulings on religious freedom, reproduction, and marriage" - in other words, to except various rights from Federal court protection; this is one of those things the fundamentalists badly want, and, quite frankly, if it's Constitutional, I'm Arnold fucking Palmer;
In an earlier Cultural Warfare Update special edition, I quoted fundamentalist leaders talking about how everything would have to be reconsidered from a perspective of "Intelligent Design"; one example is apparently oil exploration; World Net Daily gives friendly coverage to a religious group doing oil exploration in Israel based on their interpretation of the Old Testament; now, this is the Middle East, so they probably will find some oil, but, well, this is what they want to call science, in action; geology isn't important, interpretations of Bible verses are, and "and then a miracle occurs" is a valid process step. I can't wait to see the first patent for that kind of process, can you?
----- 1 -----
Gay airline employee told he cannot use his free tickets
Mother Jones Online
February 15, 2006
Long URL elided
Rob Anders of La Mirada, California, is a long-time airline industry employee. At his company's Christmas party, Anders won a pair of round-trip airline tickets from Northwest Airlines, to be used by him and a companion. He chose his partner of fifteen years, and they decided to use the free trip to visit Anders' mother and attend a family reunion in Florida. The airline, however, refused to accept Anders' partner as the other passenger. A Northwest representative said that the airline would recognize only a spouse, another airline employee, or a dependent child as a "companion."
[...]
Anders and his partner registered as domestic partners in 2004, but the airline representative specifically stated that Northwest would not accept a domestic partner in lieu of a spouse.
[More at URL]
----- 2 -----
Rioters torch Italian consulate, Libyan officials say
11 reported dead or wounded
Friday, February 17, 2006; Posted: 6:09 p.m. EST (23:09 GMT)
CNN
Long URL elided
TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) -- Libyans protesting the Prophet Mohammed cartoons set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi on Friday in a riot that left 11 people dead or wounded, Libyan security officials said.
[More at URL]
----- 3 -----
STATES PREPARE TO VOTE ON PROTECTING MARRIAGE
Efforts are under way nationwide to constitutionally define marriage.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
February 17, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039579.cfm
When Idaho's Legislature passed a measure earlier this
week to place a constitutional amendment to protect
marriage on the ballot in November, it joined the growing
trend among states to put the issue before the people.
Julie Lynde, spokeswoman for the Cornerstone Institute of
Idaho, said she's happy her state will be among those
voting on whether to define marriage as between one man
and one woman.
"This is the first time that the people of Idaho will get
to vote on this issue," she said. "Marriage is so
foundational, and the people of Idaho have wanted to be
able vote on this for four years now."
[More at URL]
----- 4 -----
Q&A: NEBRASKA ATTORNEY GENERAL JON BRUNING
Official explains how the marriage amendment arguments went at the 8th Circuit.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
February 17, 2006
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0039578.cfm
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in St. Louis recently heard a challenge to
Nebraska's constitutional amendment defining marriage as
between one man and one woman.
The amendment, which passed in 2004 with 70 percent
support of the voters, was defended in court by the
Nebraska attorney general's office. CitizenLink recently
spoke with Attorney General Jon Bruning about the case.
A former Nebraska lawmaker, after the 2002 election,
Bruning became the youngest attorney general in the
state's history as well as the youngest attorney general
in the United States.
Q. How do you think the arguments went?
A. I think arguments went very, very well. Chief Deputy
Attorney General Matt McNair argued the case for the state
of Nebraska. I thought he did a beautiful job. I was there
with him, of course, at counsel table.
I was very pleased with the three-judge panel, and their
questions. It seemed to indicate they had a deep
understanding of the case and of our particular side of
the case. So, I feel very, very good about the way things
went.
Q. It would appear this amendment had a great deal of
support among the people. The position of Nebraskans on
marriage seems to be very clear.
A. It is. Nebraskans have always had a very
straightforward conservative understanding of this type of
relationship. Marriage is the union between a man and a
woman by the definition of the amendment, and Nebraskans
overwhelmingly supported that.
That isn't to insinuate that there was any animus on the
part of Nebraskans. I think to imply that 70 percent of
Nebraskans are angry at gay people is a misstatement. That
simply is not the case. It simply is an incentive that the
people of Nebraska wanted to put into the constitution.
[Much more at URL]
----- 5 -----
GERALDO GOES TOO FAR
Rivera equates Dick Cheney's hunting accident to Chappaquiddick.
by Gary Schneeberger, editor
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
February 17, 2006
SUMMARY: Rivera's equating of Dick Cheney's hunting
accident to Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick scandal
spotlights the depth of mainstream journalism's liberal
bias.
http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0039580.cfm
Considering the beating Vice President Dick Cheney has
been taking in the media for the last several days, you'd
think he was the first person in history to be on the
more-fortunate end of a "friendly fire" hunting accident.
He's not, of course, although he is the first person to be
on the more-fortunate end of a "friendly fire" hunting
accident who serves as the No. 2 guy in a presidential
administration that many in the mainstream media hate with
as much crazed vigor as the Joker hates Batman.
The sensationalism of the coverage -- preoccupied mostly
with why Cheney didn't speak out sooner about the
accidental shooting of his hunting buddy Harry Whittington
-- reached its apex the other night on the Fox News
Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," when correspondent Geraldo
Rivera equated Cheney's mishap with the infamous
Chappaquiddick incident that forever doomed Ted Kennedy's
White House aspirations.
[...]
Lumping Cheney's accident in with Chappaquiddick, though,
is beyond the pale even for a guy with Geraldo's resume.
As a refresher, "Chappaquiddick" is the shorthand used for
the 1969 scandal in which already-Sen. Kennedy drove a car
off a bridge in the middle of the night after a party on
Martha's Vineyard, swimming to safety himself but leaving
a passenger, a young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne, inside
the car to drown. Kennedy did not report the incident to
authorities until the next morning, about nine hours
later.
How does Geraldo sum up that scandal? He told O'Reilly on
Wednesday, twice, that it was just "a driving accident."
[...]
TAKE ACTION: Let Geraldo Rivera know what you think of his
equating Dick Cheney's hunting accident with Ted Kennedy's
Chappaquiddick scandal. You can find contact information,
including an easy-to-use e-mail form, in the CitizenLink
Action Center.
Long URL elided
[More at URL]
----- 6 -----
Bush Wants High Court to Hear Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Case
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
The Bush administration is asking the U.S. Supreme Court
to place a case about the federal partial-birth abortion
ban on the list of cases it will hear this year,
LifeNews.com reported.
Partial-birth abortion is a procedure in which a physician
delivers a preborn child feet first, until only the head
remains inside the mother. A sharp instrument is inserted
into the base of the skull and the brains are extracted,
then the doctor finishes delivering the dead baby.
While experts have testified over and over that the
procedure is never necessary to protect a woman's life or
health, three separate appellate courts have ruled the
federal ban on the procedure unconstitutional because of a
lack of health exception.
The Bush administration supports a ban on the procedure.
The high court is expected to announce which cases will be
heard next week.
----- 7 -----
“Focus on the Family” Broadcast Named Best Radio Talk Show
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Dr. James Dobson's “Focus on the Family” radio broadcast
will receive the “Best Radio Talk Show” award from the
National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) organization on Feb.
18.
Jim Daly, Focus on the Family's president and CEO, will
accept the award at the 2006 NRB Annual Convention &
Exposition in Dallas.
In a letter to NRB President Dr. Frank Wright, Dr. Dobson
wrote: “I believe we’re producing some of our best
programming ever these days, and we’ve been especially
heartened that our evangelistically oriented broadcasts
have been so well-received. NRB’s gracious recognition of
our efforts affirms that the Lord is using our radio
outreach to impact lives, and I hope you’re aware that we
don’t take this tribute lightly.”
Heard on more than 2,000 U.S. radio facilities by more
than 1.5 million listeners each day, the “Focus on the
Family” broadcast has been dedicated to informing,
supporting, and encouraging parents and families for more
than 25 years.
For more information: To learn more about the “Focus on
the Family” radio program or to find a local affiliate,
visit this Web site.
http://www.family.org
----- 8 -----
Illinois Gears Up For Marriage Signature Drive
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
More than 7,000 people in Illinois have volunteered to
gather signatures in order to ensure a constitutional
amendment protecting marriage makes it onto the November
ballot.
Protect Marriage Illinois needs to gather the signatures
of 283,111 registered voters by May 8 to qualify for the
November election.
The amendment states: "To secure and preserve the benefits
of marriage for our society and for future generations of
children, a marriage between a man and a woman is the only
legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this
state."
Peter LaBarbera, executive director of the Illinois Family
Institute, said the momentum of the signature drive is
beyond expectations.
"From African-American evangelicals in Chicago to Muslims
in Villa Park to Catholics in Carbondale," he said, "this
is truly a diverse movement of people who are uniting to
defend marriage in Illinois."
The people of Illinois, he said, believe activist judges
do not have the right to redefine marriage.
"Marriage and family are the bedrock institutions of
society for the raising of children," he said. "Illinois
is not the Massachusetts of the Midwest."
----- 9 -----
Editorial Writer Critical of Dobson Apologizes
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
February 17, 2006
[Received in email; no URL]
Andrew Longman, a writer who contributes to Alan Keyes'
Web site Renew America, has posted an apology on the site
-- expressing regret over his recent editorial that was
filled with scathing criticism of Focus on the Family and
its founder Dr. James Dobson.
Longman originally disparaged Dobson for his support of
Colorado's SB 166, accusing him of helping homosexuals on
the path to gay marriage.
"I apologize most profusely to Dr. Dobson, to Dr. Keyes,
and to the community of believers at large for allowing
angry passion to motivate personal remarks, rather than
keeping a discussion firmly based in ideas," he posted
Thursday. "The ideas are very important, and I have drawn
focus away from them through poor sportsmanship, and I am
sorry."
Longman said Keyes had come down hard on him for his
sarcastic and derogatory explanation of the issue and made
clear his words were not a reflection of Keyes' thoughts.
"I must state forthrightly that my remarks in a recent
column regarding a Colorado Senate bill and Dr. James
Dobson are fully and completely my own imagination and
rendering," he wrote. "It would be impossible for me to
represent the particular thoughts of Dr. Alan Keyes in
that I have not exchanged any substantial dialog with Dr.
Keyes ever."
----- 10 -----
Russia's first gay parade vetoed by 'outraged' city
By Andrew Osborn in Moscow
Published: 17 February 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article345947.ece
Plans to stage Russia's first gay pride parade have been vetoed by Moscow's city government on the grounds that the idea has caused "outrage" in society.
Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's administration said yesterday it would not even consider an application for a parade, prompting Russia's gay community to threaten legal action in the European Court of Human Rights.
[...]
Earlier this week Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin warned that Russia's Muslims would stage violent protests if the march went ahead. "If they come out on to the streets anyway they should be flogged. Any normal person would do that - Muslims and Orthodox Christians alike ... [The protests] might be even more intense than protests abroad against those controversial cartoons."
The cleric said the Koran taught that homosexuals should be killed because their lifestyle spells the extinction of the human race and said that gays had no human rights.
The Russian Orthodox Church has called it "the propaganda of sin". Bishop Daniil of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk yesterday condemned the plans as a "cynical mockery" and likened homosexuality to leprosy.
The mayor's spokesman, Sergei Tsoi, said a parade would not be allowed. "[The plans] have caused outrage in society, particularly among religious leaders," he said.
[More at URL]
----- 11 -----
Christians counter homosexual 'Day of Silence'
'Truth' event at high schools nationwide responds boldly but 'in love'
Posted: February 17, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48869
High-school students nationwide will take part in a "Day of Truth" to counter homosexual activism and peacefully express a Christian perspective.
During school hours, students will wear "Day of Truth" T-shirts and pass out cards, said the Arizona-based public-interest group Alliance Defense Fund, which is sponsoring the April 27 event.
[...]
Alan Sears, the ADF's president, CEO and general counsel, said the event provides an opportunity to express a different perspective than the "Day of Silence," a campus activity, he contended, that promotes a radical homosexual agenda.
[More at URL]
----- 12 -----
Congress Must Pass ‘We, The People Act’
Traditional Values Coalition
February 16, 2006
http://www.traditionalvalues.org/modules.php?sid=2616
February 16, 2006 – Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul has introduced the “We, The People Act,” H.R. 4379, a bill that will restrict federal courts (including the Supreme Court) from issuing rulings on religious freedom, reproduction, and marriage.
The bill was crafted by Rep. Paul with constitutional attorney Herb Titus. It is designed to prohibit renegade federal liberal judges from violating the will of the American people and state legislatures on important moral issues.
[More at URL]
----- 13 -----
FROM WND'S JERUSALEM BUREAU
Will Bible lead to oil reserve under Israel?
Company using verses to map out drill sites in Holy Land
Posted: February 18, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48881
JERUSALEM – Does Israel have beneath its surface an enormous oil reserve mapped out in the Old Testament that when found will immediately change the geopolitical structure of the Middle East and confirm the validity of the Bible to people around the world?
So believe the officers of Zion Oil, a company using updated scientific methods alongside biblical text to explore for oil north of Tel Aviv. The company, which recently filed for an initial public offering on the American Stock Exchange, says it is making headway – including locating areas conducive to oil storage – and expects interesting finds in the very near future.
[More at URL]
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 07:49 am (UTC)It really makes me wonder about some people's sanity, all this "cartoon violence" ridiculousness. What kind of freakboat reads a comic in the newspaper and responds with "MUST! BURN! SOMETHING!" ???
*kookoo* *kookoo*
Fundamentalists of every stripe should be medicated for the good of general society.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 04:45 pm (UTC)Muslim's are a whole different ball of wax however and look at the laws they want us all to live under. And remember they're willing to die (aggressively so!) to make it happen. Also their religion encourages them to do it. No where in the Koran does it ban likenesses of Mohammed, that's from Shia law which they are working to impose on us all (and which darn few people seem to be opposing).
no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 04:57 pm (UTC)Do that every day for several hundred years and this is entirely where you end up. You assume "fundamentalists" only means "Christian fundamentalists." I don't.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 08:05 pm (UTC)Heck the publisher in Norway who apologized did so because the 'moderate' imam leader there was blatently threatening to kill his family. Check out the press conference sometime, read the translations of what was said. That's what is known as a 'veiled threat'. The guy was obviously worried about this imam having his kids wacked. After all, it's what imams do.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 11:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 01:59 am (UTC)Ah, so. The Sunni and Shi'a would both disagree with you on the whole about whether it is part of Sharia law. The Wahhabi would, on the other hand, agree.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 10:59 am (UTC)Tell that to the gay and TG people beaten and bashed by people who say the bible says they should be.
Tell that to the people who they are spending as much money as they can get, to pass legislation making them second class citizens.
Christianity is no cleaner, and has no better a track record, in my opinion. Extremists of both faiths do terrible, terrible things, and hide behind their religion as to why they do it.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 11:22 pm (UTC)Look, all the christian religions and religious leaders I know, as well as the -vast majority of the right to life movement- abhor violence and those who attack or firebomb clinic's. None of them say 'its okay'. Yes every movement and religion has some wacko's in it. Christian and Jewish religions do not support theirs and do turn them into the police.
The people Bashing Gay and Transgender aren't doing it because the 'bible tells them so', and saying so is a complete crock.
No one is spending money to make them 'second class citizens' that is just pure unadulterated BS. Some people feel that sexual preference should NOT be the cause for minority status. Because no one knows what your sexual preference is unless you tell them. Also no one is out there pushing laws that will punish you for being gay. So please don't say they are, again, it's a lie.
Then you have a pretty closeminded and stupid opinion. Muslims KILL homosexuals! The penalty for it is DEATH, understand? It's outlawed? Show me any christians pushing for the death penalty for gays in this country - you can't. Muslims kill children, enslave people, rape women (who have NO RIGHTS and are PROPERTY under Sharia law!) I don't see any Christian countryies doing this.
Yes in the past, hundreds of years ago, Christianity did some bad shit. But they grew up and stopped doing it. Muslims did a lot worse shit and are still doing it! So in short, your comment is complete and utter bull, and if you can't tell the difference, you an a complete idiot, and a fool. I would suggest pulling your head out of your ass and getting aquainted with reality, you might learn something.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-19 11:52 pm (UTC)Let's see, from Feb 14:
Concerned Women for America article by Lee Duigon - yes, that's another
man writing for cWa - saying that homophobia isn't a problem, queers
are a problem; also, he's with the Chalcedon Institute, an explicit
Christian Reconstructionist group, the movement founded by Rushdooney
that wants to implement old testament religious law as universal law;
Where do you think that will lead? What do you think the Old Testamant laws call for for GLBT people?
Feb 12:
New (to me) group, "Catholic Citizens of Illinois," wants DePaul
University to drop its queer studies programme, sites GBLT people as
"objectively disordered" and same-sex relationships as "intrinsically
evil," quoting Pope Benedict; article continues AFA/fundamentalist line
of equating homosexuality and pedophilia;
Nope, no desire to make GLBT people second-class citizens there, not at all calling them evil... No, wait, that's exactly what they said.
There is plenty more in there. If you honestly think that the religious fundamentalists, of ALL sects, do not want to ban or harm GLBT people, then you just haven't been reading lately, because it's almost all they talk about. They link everything they are doing back to 'we need to keep the gays in their place, or better yet, make it a crime again and beat/bash/jail them for it'.
I notice you also completely ignored the other things I mentioned, such as the fact that many of the "abortion clinic" bombings and beatings were done with both religious approval, and usually, praise, by the fundamentalists.
Are all Christians like that? No. I would say most aren't. But then, most Muslims are just as peaceful and benign. It's the extremists in both groups that worry me, because really, I don't want to have to go back to worrying, when I walk down the street, who is going to jump out and beat the shit out of me just because of who they think I might be.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-20 12:25 am (UTC)Wow, people talking about something they don't like. A minority of people. Wow that's BAD. But Muslims murdering, raping, rioting, suppressing women's rights, enslaving people. That's on the same page huh?
You know you're really living in la-la land. You equate a few fringe groups, who are pursued and punished by the law, and who very people listen too, and who most abhor (or laugh at), engaging in isolated incidences with a religion with hundreds of millions of followers, ALL of whom practice violence and slavery (or if not practicing it, quietly condone it) and everything else you claim to be against!
You're an idiot saying they're equal. You'll be protesting Christianity right up until the moment some muslim rapes you and then puts a bullet in your head to shut you up. Because that's fine in THEIR religion, but it's SIN in any other one I can think of. Equating the words of a hysterical few , who are losing traction in society, with the actions of millions who are getting more violent every day is really the mark of someone who needs medical help.
I'm done speaking with you, you're just too stupid to understand what's at stake.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-18 04:54 pm (UTC)I do find the comparision between the two incident's strange though. Someone died in Ted Kennedy's car, and he not only did not try to help them, he left them there to die and never called the police. In Cheney's case they gave the person first aid, took them to the hospital, and talked to the police. The only people they didn't tell was the press (immediately). Ted didn't tell anyone, ever. They had to come to him and ask why his car was at the bottom of the channel with a dead woman in it.