Indecent Commercials During NFL Games

What's a parent to do when you can't even watch a football game with your children without worrying about inappropriate content?

From "IFI E-Alert: Sign the Petition -- Ask the NFL to Prohibit Indecent Commercials During Games" posted 11/29/07 at Illinois Family Institute

A few months ago, I wrote an open letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, asking him to please help "raise the standard and do what [he] can to eliminate the indecent content aired during NFL games."

As you may remember, my original letter pointed to the sad fact that a number of advertisements and network promotional spots that are aired during NFL game breaks are completely inappropriate -- especially for the younger members of the viewing audience. The fact is, far too many of these ads are indecent and/or sexually suggestive.

With more than half the season behind us now, I am again openly appealing to Commissioner Goodell: please consider your entire fan base when licensing your programs to television networks.

Here are just a few examples of indecent commercials that have aired on the FOX and CBS networks during NFL game broadcasts:

On September 9th, FOX broadcast the season opener of the Chicago Bears vs. San Diego Chargers. During the game, FOX aired a promo for the season premier of their program "'Til Death." The discussion in this promo centered on a woman's cleavage. Ironically, the clip used to promote this program has the husband complaining about his wife's exposure saying, "I've noticed that it is hard for people to focus when having a conversation with you, what with the two bald-headed gentlemen struggling to get out of your chest." He also points directly at her breasts and says, "Let's talk about Mt. Inappropriate.

[Click HERE to view actual footage of the latter two examples. **Not recommended**]

Read the rest of this article and please consider taking some action.

Scholastic Publishing Encouraging Teachers to Promote 'Golden Compass'

From "Eyebrows raised over 'Golden Compass' curriculum" by Peter Chagnon, posted 11/27/07 at OneNewsNow.com

A well-known publishing company is encouraging teachers to promote the controversial movie The Golden Compass in the classroom through specially designed curriculum -- which has raised concern with some public school teachers.

Scholastic, Inc., has launched its "Golden Compass Student Sweepstakes" in anticipation of the December 7 movie release. Among the sweepstakes prizes are box sets of "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman, author of The Golden Compass -- the first book in the trilogy. The publishing company is also launching a line of curriculum for students grade 8-12, based on the "His Dark Materials" book series. According to Pullman, he authored the series out of disdain for the popular allegory "The Lord of the Rings." (See earlier article)

Read the whole article.

We just aren't used to the honesty of authors like Pullman. In reality, our public schools already teach children to interpret the world as if God does not exist. Therefore these books will fit right in.

YWCA Workder Fired After Inviting Pro-Life Speaker

From "YWCA Worker Fired after Inviting Pro-Life Speaker"
Staff Reports at CitizenLink.org

Shannon Nixson, a case manager and graduate student, was fired this month from the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati after she invited a pro-life speaker to address pregnant women at the club. Nixson said she was allowed to recruit speakers on both sides of several other issues, but only one view of the abortion debate was welcomed.

Nixson asked a representative of Life Issues Institute to present a pro-life perspective during a seminar on employment and literacy.

“Within the next couple of days, I was told that I was terminated, and when I was asked why I was terminated, the only issue that I brought up was this occurrence of this pro-life speaker coming.”

YWCA President and CEO Charlene Ventura said Nixson was not fired for her personal beliefs.

The speaker in question was Arnold Culbreath, urban outreach director for Life Issues Institute. He said he knew the YWCA was pro-abortion.

“That’s why I was phenomenally excited about God having opened that door of opportunity to come in," he told Family News in Focus.

You've come a long way baby!

GREAT NEWS! An Ethical Solution Found to the Stem Cell Problem

From "Brave New Future" an NRO Symposium, posted 11/21/07

A week ago, two scientific journals announced news of a breakthrough that could put an end to our dead-end political debates about stem-cell research. Scientists for the first time have turned ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells -- without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process.

In response to the news, National Review Online asked a group of experts: How big is Tuesday’s new somatic-cell reprogramming news? Where does the stem-cell/cloning debate go from here? How should politics respond? Here’s what they had to say:

Peter Augustine Lawler
We’re clearly on the verge of developing one or more ways of readily acquiring pluripotent stem cells without having to destroy embryos. We can marvel that there is a technical solution to a moral problem, until we remember that the problem was the product of a very specific stage in scientific or technological progress. Even before the most recent breakthroughs, there was no reason not to expect such a solution.

This solution should be welcome news to all Americans. Fair-minded Americans see the nobility in both sides of our moral division over the destruction of embryos. Those who defend the embryo and those who promoted the unlimited progress of medical science both mean to serve human life, and it serves no one to believe that science — especially medical science — and morality are fundamentally opposed to each other. For our scientists, the moral resistance to the destruction of embryos — which they usually regard as nonsense-has gotten in the way of public funding for their research, not to mention grateful public acceptance of the beneficial results of their work.

Those who have resolutely defended the moral status of even early-term embryos have the most reason to cheer this latest episode of scientific progress. Their position would have probably become politically untenable had it turned out that the destruction of embryos is indispensable for the progress of regenerative medicine. But it turns out that it wasn’t only right — it was prudent — for them to hold out.

— Peter Augustine Lawler is Dana Professor of Government at Berry College and a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics.

Read other opinions.

Bioethicist Wes Smith isn't nearly as optimistic about the reception of this fantastic news by embryonic stem cell advocates. Here's what he has to say:

If anyone thought that the pro human cloners would fold up their tents and steal away after the news was released that patient-specific, pluripotent stem cells had been derived from normal skin cells, they just didn't understand how fervently some scientists and their camp followers want to clone human life--and how hopeful some are that the stem cell issue can be the vehicle that wins the culture war. Case in point: Science Live's Christopher Wanjek. who bemoans the breakthrough because it could "stifle" science.

Read the rest of "Lead Into Gold:" Stem cell Counter Attack"

Given what God tells us about human nature, I suspect Wes is right.

Dear President Bush, Please Veto Enda...

Guy Adams of ValuesUSA.net has written an excellent letter to President Bush regarding ENDA. Check it out:

Dear President Bush,

ValuesUSA calls on you to veto ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. This bill will basically criminalize employers who do not wish to hire certain people because their deeply held faith-based beliefs tell them that in good conscience, they cannot hire.

The Civil Rights struggle was based on leveling the playing field based on immutable characteristics such as skin color and the actual gender that one was born with.

However, definitions of misperceived sexuality, homosexuality, and other perversions, have been begun to replace traditionally accepted models of morality. The outcome on society will be terrible, as businesses are forced to hire people whose chosen lifestyles violate their deepest held faith beliefs.

Read the rest of this letter.

1 in 22 Gay, Bisexual Men in Florida Has HIV, Study Says

By comparison, in the least affected group, 1 in 1,625 white women had the virus. It is "universally agreed that the virus is not declining among gays as hoped."

From "1 in 22 gay, bisexual men in Florida has HIV, study says" by Bob LaMendola, posted 11/14/07 in SunSentinal.com

Hoping to call attention to the extent of HIV/AIDS among gay men, state health officials said Tuesday that an estimated 1 in 22 gay and bisexual men in Florida had the virus last year, an infection rate that dwarfs any other group.

HIV has struck some areas of the gay community even harder, with rates as high as 1 in 11 among gay white men in Broward County, 1 in 13 gay black men in Palm Beach County and 1 in 12 gay Hispanic men in Miami-Dade County, officials said. By comparison, in the least affected group, 1 in 1,625 white women had the virus.

AIDS activists who gathered in Wilton Manors to hear the new report challenged the methods behind the new estimate, but universally agreed the virus is not declining among gays as hoped. They called on officials and one another to find new ways to stress the message of safe sex.

One wonders how much more obvious it has to get. There is no such thing as 'safe' homosexual sex. It is devastation, not only in the next world, but in this world too.

...men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error --Romans 1:27

All indications are the Bible is right. Our Creator knows better than we do. The 'rules' are not meant to repress but to protect. The only safe place for sex is between a married, faithful man and woman.

Related Coverage:
U.S. Sets Record in Sexual Disease Cases

U.S. Sets Record in Sexual Disease Cases

God's Law is good. Obeying it protects us from just this sort of devastation...

From "U.S. Sets Record in Sexual Disease Cases" by Mike Stobbe, posted 11/13/07

ATLANTA (AP) - More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year—the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease, federal health officials said Tuesday.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they think better and more intensive screening accounts for much of the increase, but added that chlamydia was not the only sexually transmitted disease on the rise.

Gonorrhea rates are jumping again after hitting a record low, and an increasing number of cases are caused by a "superbug" version resistant to common antibiotics.

Syphilis is rising, too. The rate of congenital syphilis—which can deform or kill babies—rose for the first time in 15 years

Read the rest of this story.

Related coverage:
1 in 22 Gay, Bisexual Men in FL has HIV, Study Shows

Lesbian Couple Uses Legal System to Force Club to Give Them Family Membership

A small business cannot afford to get sued like this. It results in tens of thousands of dollars in cost to a business man, zero cost for a homosexual to drive him out of business.

From "Lesbian Couple Appeals Minnesota Club Ruling" by by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff, posted 11/12/07

A lesbian couple will appeal a ruling by a lower court that said a Rochester Minnesota gym did not discriminate against the women when it denied them a family membership.

Amy and Sarah Monson went to court when the the Rochester Athletic Club refused to sell them a family membership because they are not legally married.

The Monsons are in a committed relationship and are raising a child.

The club argued that the couple's sexuality was not an issue, saying the gym's rules state only that to be eligible for a family membership applicants "must be legally married under Minnesota law. “

The women are represented by OutFront Minnesota, the state's largest gay rights group which argued that since same-sex marriage is illegal in the state the club's rule was discriminatory and violated Minnesota's human rights law.

Judge Kevin Lund dismissed the case in a narrowly based ruling.

Lund said that the decision should not be seen as either a victory for opponents of gay rights or as a defeat for LGBT civil rights. Lund's ruling said that his decision only reflects that the Human Rights Act does not specifically grant protections for people who are same-sex domestic partners.

But he was critical of the club's definition of what can qualify for a family membership.

"This morally and legally defensible yet unrealistically narrow definition of family fails to recognize the underlying stability and commitment of the Monsons' relationship," the judge said in his written ruling.

"Other, arguably more enlightened organizations, such as the Rochester Area Family Y, have chosen not to reduce the definition of family in such an anachronistic fashion," he wrote.

A few frightening observations from Priscilla Jael:

• A small business cannot afford to get sued like this — this case should have been thrown out before trial, but here it’s been to trial, decided, and now appealed — tens (hundreds) of thousands of dollars in cost to the business man, zero cost for a homosexual to drive him out of business.
• Look at what the judge said. Who is he to redefine family? Who does he think he is to tell these business owners that they are narrow minded? He’s there to protect their constitutional rights, which include their freedom of religion, freedom of association, etc. But instead he pompously states that while their position is morally and legally defensible, it’s not enlightened. (Can you foresee the day when the defendant will lose this case and be ordered to undergo enlightenment training?)
• The judge himself notes that another business offers the discount this pair wants — but it’s not enough for them to get the YMCA to accommodate them, it’s not enough to boycott RAC — no, they insist that EVERYONE give them exactly what they want or pay dearly. They are the bullies.

Red and Green Holiday Lights to be Banned?

A special task force for Fort Collins, CO has recommended banning colored lights in public places because they send a message to some residents that "their traditions are not valued and not wanted."

From "Red, green lights to be banned?" posted 11/6/07 at worldnetdaily.com

A special task force in a Colorado city has recommended banning red and green lights at the Christmas holiday because they fall among the items that are too religious for the city to sponsor.

"Some symbols, even though the Supreme Court has declared that in many contexts they are secular symbols, often still send a message to some members of the community that they and their traditions are not valued and not wanted. We don't want to send that message," Seth Anthony, a spokesman for the committee, told the Fort Collins, Colo., Coloradoan.

He said the recommended language does not specifically address Christmas trees by name, but the consensus was that they would not fall within acceptable decorations.

What will be allowed are white lights and "secular" symbols not associated "with any particular holiday" such as icicles, unadorned greenery and snowflakes, the task force said.

The group was made up of members of the city's business and religious communities as well as representatives from some community groups. Members met for months to review the existing holiday display policy, which allowed white as well as multi-colored lights and wreaths and garlands.

In previous years, there also was a Christmas tree at the city's Oak Street Plaza.

A vote on the proposal will be coming up before the city council on Nov. 20, officials said.

Our friend Clive thinks they are going to have to ban penguins too:

"...allowing penguins in a holiday display is one step closer to the treacherous descent into theocracy. Penguins live near snow; snow is found at the North Pole; the North Pole is associated with Saint Nicholas; Saint Nicholas was a bishop who celebrated Christmas; Christmas decorations in the public square make some feel left out; feeling left out may lead to a desire to participate in Christmas festivities; this desire to participate in Christmas festivities points to government complicity in the establishment of a state religion. That's it -- penguins are out. In fact, snow is out too. "

Read more about this nonsense.

Death-mobiles - Swiss Right-To-Die Group Offers Suicide In A Parked Car

From "Death-mobiles - Swiss Right-To-Die Group Offers Suicide In A Parked Car" by Thaddeus M. Baklinski, posted 11/09/07 at lifesite.org

The Swiss suicide charity Dignitas has been forced to reinvent its assisted death operation after losing its lease on the apartment in a Zurich suburb where hundreds of people had gone to die.

Other residents in the building had complained about having to use the same elevator as "customers" going up to the third floor flat, and dead bodies being taken down to ambulances or hearses parked below.

Dignitas had hoped to book a suite of hotel rooms to carry out the assisted deaths but withdrew when the Association of Zurich Hoteliers threatened legal action if clients checked in to die. Use of their former premises in an industrial area was also denied them by local authorities.

With nowhere to turn, the group has been reduced to offering its killing service in rental vans where clients are given a concoction of chemicals which they voluntarily drank - which means there is no possibility of prosecution under Swiss law.

Assisted suicide, where the patient carries out the final act himself, is legal in Switzerland while active euthanasia, or deliberate killing to end suffering, is not.

The organization intends to continue offering mobile suicide services until it finds a permanent base.

Read the whole article.

Access to Porn Decreases Sex Crime?

In a recent commentary, Chicago Tribune writer, Steve Chapman suggested that internet pornography may actually "provide a harmless way for potential predators to satisfy those desires." In other words, internet porn may help prevent sex crime.

If the supporters of censorship were right, we should be seeing an unparalleled epidemic of sexual assault. But all the evidence indicates they were wrong. As raunch has waxed, rape has waned.

This is part of a broad decrease in criminal mayhem. Since 1993, violent crime in America has dropped by 58 percent. But the progress in this one realm has been especially dramatic. Rape is down 72 percent and other sexual assaults have fallen by 68 percent. Even in the last two years, when the FBI reported upticks in violent crime, the number of rapes continued to fall.

If you think this all sounds a little bit too convenient, you are probably right. According to scientist and author Dr. Judith Reisman, the problem may actually be blatant dishonesty on the part of our law enforcement officials:

U.S. News and World Report (April 24, 2000) said, ''facing political heat to cut crime in the city, investigators in the New York PPD's Sex Crime Unit sat on (thousands of) reports of rapes and other sexual assaults.'' One officer stated; ''The way crime was solved was with an eraser.''

In 2000 even the FBI admitted that one district ''failed to report between 13,000 and 37,000 major crimes.'' ''A 2000 Philadelphia Inquirer report found from 1997-1999, of 300,000 sex crime reports, thousands of rapes got relabeled ''investigation of persons'' or ''investigation, protection, and medical examination'' – non-crime codes.''

''This puts one in four rapes in a non-crime category.'' Lying always reduces rape! Other real men confirm additional cover-ups. Lt. Col. Dave Grossman , U.S. Army (Ret.) a renowned expert in human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime, and a West Point psychology professor says:

''The downturn in violent crime in the U.S. in the 1990s is very deceptive. Violent crime … is still about 5 times greater today, per capita, than it was in 1957.'' ''Plus, a five-fold increase in per capita incarceration is holding down violent crime – we'd have to let 1.5 million convicted offenders go to get down to a 1970's-level incarceration rate.''

Read the rest of this article.

GOOD NEWS! Prisons Reverse Policy, Allow Christian Books

In an effort to prevent prisons from being used as breeding grounds for radical Islam, the BOP had planned to remove Christian books from federal prisons

From "On The Hill: Restricted Reading" by Pat Nolan, posted 10/30/07, at breakpoint.org

In a move that might have been taken straight from Alice in Wonderland, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) recently announced a new policy that would severely limit prisoners’ access to religious books. That’s right. At a time when two out of three prisoners are arrested within three years of their release, the BOP wanted to restrict access to the one thing that consistently changes prisoners’ lives: faith.

The “Standardized Chapel Library Project” restricted each faith to materials from a list of 150 books selected by the BOP. The policy called for chaplains to remove all materials not on the list without any determination as to whether the content was harmful or dangerous. This policy forced the removal of many excellent books that have been donated over the years and that many inmates find helpful as they prepare to return home.

Fortunately, an outcry from faith groups from across the theological spectrum caused the BOP to halt this process and return the books to the chapel libraries. However, it is not clear whether this reprieve for religious books is temporary or permanent.

Read the whole article.

Women in Combat and Cultural Cowardice

From "Co-ed Combat and Cultural Cowardice" by John Piper, posted 11/2/07 at desiringgod.org

If I were the last man on the planet to think so, I would want the honor of saying no woman should go before me into combat to defend my country. A man who endorses women in combat is not pro-woman; he’s a wimp. He should be ashamed. For most of history, in most cultures, he would have been utterly scorned as a coward to promote such an idea. Part of the meaning of manhood as God created us is the sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of our women.

Back in the seventies, when I taught in college, feminism was new and cool. So my ideas on manhood were viewed as the social construct of a dying chauvinistic era. I had not yet been enlightened that competencies, not divine wiring, governed the roles we assume. Unfazed, I said no.

Suppose, I said, a couple of you students, Jason and Sarah, were walking to McDonald’s after dark. And suppose a man with a knife jumped out of the bushes and threatened you. And suppose Jason knows that Sarah has a black belt in karate and could probably disarm the assailant better than he could. Should he step back and tell her to do it? No. He should step in front of her and be ready to lay down his life to protect her, irrespective of competency. It is written on his soul. That is what manhood does.

And collectively that is what society does—unless the men have all been emasculated by the suicidal songs of egalitarian folly...

Read the whole commentary.

Homosexual Activists Target Special-needs Student, Daughter of Pro-Family Activist

Persuaded vulnerable girl to "come out" as a lesbian on homosexual website -- for their propaganda advantage

From "Homosexual activists violate special-needs student, daughter of MassResistance staffer" posted 11/07/07 at massresistance.org

Homosexual activists - possibly in cooperation with school staff -- have viciously targeted a 17-year-old special-needs student, the daughter of Amy Contrada, a MassResistance staffer. (It's outrageous that a parent is now forced to reveal once-private information in order to stop this assault.)

Claudia Contrada was born in Korea and was adopted by Amy and her husband as an infant. Claudia's special needs include psychological/emotional issues and learning disabilities. Amy and her husband had Claudia enrolled in private parochial schools until her special needs exceeded those schools' abilities to deal with them. Thus, in seventh grade, they had no choice but to enroll Claudia in the Acton-Boxborough public school system.

But Claudia is talented in singing and especially acting. She has a beautiful voice and a fantastic memory for lines and lyrics. She has won awards for her acting. Her therapists said that Claudia's participation in the school's drama program is directly related to treatment of her special needs.

Pro-homosexual, violent play

This year the high school decided to have the drama club perform "The Laramie Project", a very objectionable pro-homosexual, anti-Christian play filled with profanity and extreme violence. Last summer, Amy met with school officials and also the drama board and begged them to choose a different play, citing Claudia's vulnerabilities. They responded very coldly, and refused to consider it. (We will be posting the audio recording of one of the meetings.)

Given her educational and social needs, it was extremely important for Claudia to be in the drama program this fall. Although it was distressing and painful to the family, it was decided to let her be in the play. The school had placed the family in a no-win situation.

...As the play rehearsals continued, Claudia started coming home with stories about how her mother was considered crazy, a "homophobe" and even "scary" by her fellow students. "Everybody in the cast knows I have a crazy, bigoted, homophobic mother," she said to Amy. And it seemed to intensify over time. Claudia's language around the home became more and more aggressive and vulgar (as it is in the play).

...On Sept. 26, after the cast of the play was announced, Mark Snyder, a 24-year-old homosexual activist from Boston, posted a "news item" on his website titled "Anti-gay zealot's daughter to star in Laramie Project." It was long vicious tirade against Amy, which he sent far and wide.

...Several months before, in May 2007, after Amy documented Youth Pride in Boston, Snyder announced on his website that he was going after her daughter: "Rumor has it that Amy's daughter is supportive of GSA's! We're on it!", wrote Snyder. (Just who was he in contact with at the school to find this out?)

...And there was more. A few days after Snyder's September posting, the Boston homosexual newspaper Bay Windows published an article about Claudia (which they're now denying they published, but which you can find here).

About this time, we've now found out, Mark Snyder started befriending Claudia -- first via email, then by telephone. He offered to be her "ally" in her struggles against her mother. He got her to admit him as a "friend" on her Facebook account. (We now have emails and telephone records of much of this.)

Judging from her emails at that time, Claudia was very confused but was relishing the positive attention, which she had rarely gotten among her peers at school. Besides her communication with Snyder, Claudia's name was turning up on various homosexual websites. Her drama club now started to consider her "cool". Claudia clearly felt special. But her behavior also became noticeably more erratic.

Then, in October, Acton-Boxborough High held a school-wide "coming-out day". The message to kids was that "coming out" as a homosexual or transgender was very progressive. Right after that, the entire following week was homosexual/transgender "ally" week, which the school tied to "The Laramie Project" play. Claudia was riding high. She suddenly decided to tell everyone that she's "really a lesbian".

What an outrageous, despicable thing to do to a vulnerable young woman. These people ought to be ashamed...

Read the whole account here.

To hear a Sandy Rios interview about this incident please click here and move the dial to about the middle of the show.

Proposed Maryland Gender Identity Bill Would Legalized 'Indecent Exposure' to Minors

"What parents want their daughter to use the public pool’s locker room with a naked man who cross-dresses full-time or part-time?"

From "PFOX: Proposed MD Gender Identity Bill Would Have the Effect of Legalizing 'Indecent Exposure' to Minors, PFOX News advisory posted at Americans for Truth

Montgomery County, MD — A bill before the Montgomery County, Maryland Council puts girls and women at risk by opening women’s restrooms and locker rooms to men who dress as women, warns Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX). The bill virtually eliminates gender distinctions by allowing Montgomery County residents to choose if they are male or female even when the choice conflicts with their biological sex.

The bill, slated for a vote on Tuesday, Nov. 13, would add ‘gender identity’ as a protected class for ‘transgenders.’ It would guarantee the right to use public facilities consistent with the person’s gender identity “publicly and exclusively expressed or asserted.” No sex change is necessary.

As an organization that aids former transgenders, PFOX can attest that many transgenders prefer to dress and act publicly and exclusively as a woman or man on weekends and then as their birth gender during the work week. These are known as “weekend transgenders.” Pedophiles could also put on a dress and assert they are exclusively female in order to get near naked children in swimming pool locker rooms.

When asked if the proposed law would apply to weekend transgenders, Council member Duchy Trachtenberg refused to answer, instead insisting that “transgender people face serious discrimination … in public accommodations.”

“There’s a good reason why transgenders face ‘serious discrimination’ when using shower rooms and toilets that don’t apply to their gender,” said Regina Griggs, executive director of PFOX. “It’s because they don’t belong there. What parents want their daughter to use the public pool’s locker room with a naked man who cross-dresses full-time or part-time? This bill in effect legalizes indecent exposure to minors in these kinds of situations.”

Reponding to the concerned mother of a ten-year-old girl, councilmember George Levanthal admitted that he “cannot absolutely put to rest your concern that girls might find themselves in a locker or dressing room in the presence of a person who expresses or asserts herself as a woman but who still has male genitals.”

Note: Most transgendered men are heterosexual. So these people are proposing to allow deviant heterosexual men in restrooms and locker rooms with young girls and women.
This is insanity...

Read the whole article.

AP Distorts Poll Results On Birth Control In Public Schools

From "AP Distorts Poll Results On Birth Control In Public Schools" posted 11/07/07 at azpolicyblog.org

Last week an Associated Press article claimed that a new, AP-commissioned poll shows that "people decisively favor letting their public schools provide birth control to students. . . ." The AP is "summarizing" the responses to this question:

Which would you prefer for the public schools in your community?
Provide birth control only to those students who have the consent of their parents 37%
Provide birth control to all students who want it 30%
Not provide birth control to any student 30%
DK/NS [don't know / not sure] 3%

There you have it. 67 percent either do not favor birth control being provided to any student, or only would favor making it available if their parents consent. Only 30 percent favor making birth control generally available.

Yet the AP's misleading "summary" is reverberating throughout the media. Take for example this story, which includes this mention of the poll: "[Senator Clinton] spoke a day after an Associated Press poll said 67 percent of Americans support giving out contraceptives to middle schoolers."

Read the whole post.

Gay Candidates Victorious Across the U.S.

From "Gay Candidates Victorious Across the U.S." posted 11/07/07 at PRNewswire.com

Dozens of openly gay and lesbian candidates running in municipal and state legislative races across the country won their elections Tuesday, according to the Gay & Lesbian
Victory Fund. Of the record 71 candidates endorsed by the group in 2007, at
least 31 won their races on Tuesday, while 10 were elected earlier this
year. At least three more endorsed candidates received enough votes to
advance to runoff elections.

Victory Fund president and CEO Chuck Wolfe said the growing number of
out candidates demonstrates the gay community's increasing involvement in
electoral politics. "This is the path to change. We are not content to sit
on the sidelines and hope that others do the right thing for our community.
We will step up and lead the fight for a more equal and fair America, and
we will win," Wolfe said.

Among the highlights Tuesday:

-- Joel Burns, a candidate for the Fort Worth, Tex., City Council
advanced to a December runoff election as the top vote-getter after being
subject to anti-gay smears from an opponent.

-- Craig Covey won his race for mayor of Ferndale, Mich., becoming the
first openly gay mayor elected in the state of Michigan.

-- Michelle Bruce, an openly transgender incumbent on the Riverdale,
Ga., City Council was the top vote-getter in her race and advances to a
runoff election.

-- New Jersey State Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, who became the state's
first openly LGBT state legislator when he came out publicly during his
current term, won re-election to his seat.

-- Jeffrey Anderson was elected to the Duluth City Council, becoming
the first openly gay elected official in northern Minnesota.

-- Tim Eustace won his race for mayor of Maywood, N.J.

-- Brian Bates, won a seat on the Doraville, Ga., City Council,
becoming the first openly gay Republican ever to win office in the state.

-- Lydia Lavelle won a seat on the Carrboro, N.C., Board of Aldermen,
becoming the seventh openly LGBT candidate ever elected in the state.

Read the whole report.

Surgeon Enters Third Not-Guilty Plea in Case of Failed Organ Harvest

Doctor allegedly violated state law when he took control of dying patient's care and ordered a nurse to administer abnormally high doses of morphine and Ativan to hasten death

From "Surgeon enters third not-guilty plea in case of failed organ harvest" by Nick Wilson, posted 10/03/07 at sanluisobispo.com

The San Francisco transplant surgeon accused of prescribing excessive painkillers and sedatives last year to hasten a disabled San Luis Obispo man’s death during a failed organ harvest pleaded not guilty Monday to an amended felony charge.

Dr. Hootan Roozrokh was in San Luis Obispo Superior Court for another hearing in his case. He faces three charges in connection with the attempt to harvest 25-year-old Ruben Navarro’s organs at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center.

...Prosecutors say the criminal charges are unprecedented in the United States.

They allege that Roozrokh violated state law and Sierra Vista protocol Feb. 3, 2006, when he took control of Navarro’s care and ordered a nurse to administer abnormally high doses of morphine and Ativan to hasten death. They also say Roozrokh injected Betadine, a topical antiseptic, into Navarro’s feeding tube.

Navarro did not die within 30 minutes of being removed from life support — the period in which his organs remained viable for transplant. He died the following morning, eight hours after Roozrokh left the hospital, Schwartzbach has said.

Navarro had a rare, degenerative disease and suffered irreversible brain damage before being taken to the hospital Jan. 29, 2006.

Read the whole article.

Non-Profit Churches

"The prophetic voice of the Church is almost silent. It is the pastors who have silenced it...Today the Church’s door is shut to the prophets. We have traded the prophets for profits.”

From "Non-Profit Churches" by Coach Dave Daubenmire, posted 11/8/07 at newswithviews.com

Isaiah 56:10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

No I didn’t spell prophet wrong. A prophet is “a person gifted with profound moral insight and exceptional powers of expression.” Today the Church’s door is shut to the prophets. We have traded the prophets for profits.

I saw it again this weekend. Every time I go I pray it will be different; it is my nature, to believe for the best. But I have to admit, it is very discouraging.

I travel the country standing up for Truth. I’m not sure how this mantle fell on me but I do my best to be faithful to the call. I believe that the Lord is using me to awaken the Church. My message is hard and penetrating. It is a sin-hating, God-fearing exhortation to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded.”

I am a missionary to America, an alarm clock to the Church, which has punched the snooze button far too many times. Like a teenager on Saturday morning most of our church leaders do not want to hear the sound of the alarm. They “love to slumber.”

...Let me offer you a challenge. Do an internet-search of the great preachers/prophets of the past. From Luther (1500) to Knox (1550), Bunyan (1600) to Wesley (1700), Moody (1800) to Sunday (1900), you will be hard-pressed to find one sermon on the prosperity/life-enhancement Gospel. They preached on sin and repentance. What a disgrace the sissified voices of today are to the memory of these Christian-prophets

Read the rest of Coach's commentary.

ENDA PASSES! Ask President Bush to Veto

It is fairly certain that Senator Kennedy will steamroll the bill through the Senate where it will be broadened to add the provision that failed in the House preventing discrimination against transsexuals and cross-dressers. Please E-mail President Bush and urge him to VETO this bill.

From "First Amendment Trampled with ENDA Passage" posted 11/7/07 at LibertyCounsel.org

On Wednesday, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives passed -- largely along party lines -- H.R. 3685, the so-called Employment Non-discrimination Act (ENDA), by a vote of 235–184.

Matt Barber, CWA's Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, "By passing this Orwellian piece of legislation, the Democrat-controlled House has displayed exceptional arrogance. Congress apparently believes it has carte blanche authority to nullify any constitutional provision which it finds bothersome. In this case, they've drawn a black line through the free exercise clause of the First Amendment."

ENDA contains an extremely weak religious exemption which might partially protect some religious organizations but would leave many others -- such as Bible bookstores and many Christian schools -- entirely unprotected. It would additionally crush individual business owners' guaranteed First Amendment rights.

"For any religious exemption to pass constitutional muster," said Barber, "it would have to apply to the individual business owner. The First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion. This applies to all individual citizens, not just to a church, religious organization or corporation. ENDA would unconstitutionally force business owners to abandon their faith at the workplace door and adopt a view of sexual morality which runs directly counter to central tenets of every major world religion and thousands of years of history.

..."This bill represents the goose that laid the golden egg for homosexual activist attorneys and, if signed into law, will open the floodgates for lawsuits against employers who wish to live out their faith," concluded Barber. Read the rest.

This from Liberty Counsel:

In 2003, the Senate version of the bill had 35 cosponsors. We cannot give up on the Senate, but it is time to make sure that President Bush stands firm! You can track the bill's progress at the Library of Congress website.

...Sen. Kennedy, Sen. Frank and others are unconcerned that this bill endangers Christian Americans. The religious freedom of Christian employees and business owners is in jeopardy! Read more about the dangers of ENDA.

President Bush has said that he will veto the bill. A veto override would require 270 votes (2/3 of the House).

Read the the whole alert.

Please E-mail President Bush and urge him to VETO this bill.