Freedom to be Christian but banned from acting Christian
By Robert Knight, The Washington Times:
Christians, Orthodox Jews or anyone with traditional views of sex and marriage should be barred from state university counseling programs unless they agree to violate their beliefs. That’s the gist of theamicus brief the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed Feb. 11 in a case in which a Christian student is challenging her dismissal from a graduate counseling program at Eastern Michigan University in 2009.
Julea Ward had asked that another student take the case of a homosexual suffering from depression because, being a Christian, she could not affirm the person’s sexual relationships. Miss Ward was dismissed and filed a lawsuit charging unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, religious discrimination and compelled speech. On July 26, 2010, a U.S. district court denied her claim, and she appealed to the 6th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ACLU‘s brief to the appeals court contends that compelling someone to act against her beliefs does not violate her freedoms of religion or speech. The ACLU quotes the university’s response to Miss Ward saying she had a “conflict between your values that motivate your behavior and those behaviors expected of your profession.” In other words, you’re a conscientious Christian, so get lost.
This is one of several cases in which Christians have been told to conform to “diversity” requirements or leave counseling programs.
[...]
The Religious Left Goes Truthing
By Mark Tooley:
Blogging recently for Jim Wallis’s Sojourners, former CIA staffer Ray McGovern described how he was ostensibly roughed up by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s security detail during a recent speech at George Washington University. A few years ago, he had a less violent scofflaw during a Donald Rumsfeld speech. “I wonder if this show of brutality may be a signpost on a path to even wider and more brutal repression,” he darkly suggested for Sojourners. McGovern is with a leftist group called “Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity” and is often aligned with 9/11 conspiracy theorists.
Why Wallis’s Religious Left group, which aspires to be mainstream, would uncritically publish a 9/11 “truther” is unclear. Wallis is a prominent Obama supporter and boasts of access to the White House. In his Sojourners article, McGovern complained his treatment possibly foreshadows an impending “fascist” state in America. Such rhetoric recalls Wallis’s own angry and radical anti-Vietnam War years but not his last decade of more soothing appeals to suburban evangelicals.
[...]
Egypt crisis leaves Obama diminished
Rex Murphy:
Singular or great events have been the prism through which some politicians find the measure of themselves.
The dynamic is familiar from history. Great challenges or crises sometimes call out the extrordinary personalities or leaders that alone can deal with such challenges or crises. The time, so to speak, evokes its redeemer. Not invariably. We are not always lucky. Not every crisis finds its manager. But then, lucky we sometimes are: we have but to think of Lincoln and Churchill — two men whose extraordinary abilities and capacity were only to be revealed in their full scope and exercise, stimulated into existence by (in their case) — the near apocalpytic challenges they had to face.
[...]
Susan Rice’s Illegitimate U.N. Folly
William A. Jacobson:
To call the performance of the Obama administration at the UN, through Ambassador Susan Rice, “folly” would be far, far too kind.
Mahmoud Abbas, despite repeated U.S. requests, insisted on pressing for a U.N. Security Council resolution declaring Israeli settlement construction “illegal.” The U.S. vetoed the resolution.
Standing in isolation, all was good.
But the fact is that the U.S. was all too happy to sign onto a Presidential Statement from the President of the Security Council denouncing the “illegitimacy” of Israeli settlements. This proposed compromise was rejected by Abbas, despite a phone call from Obama. The U.S. was willing to throw Israel under the bus, but not all the way; throwing our friends only half-way under the bus is what passes for standing by our friends these days.
But it was far worse. The statement made by Susan Rice immediately after the vote was outrageously one-sided, the type of pandering to the worst elements in the world which has become a pattern for Obama’s foreign policy (emphasis mine):
[...]
What do Climate Data Really Show? The Berkeley Climate Data Project
By S. Fred Singer:
However, the most serious revelation from the e-mails is that they tried to “hide the decline” in temperatures, using various “tricks” in order to keep alive a myth of rising temperatures in support of the dogma of anthropogenic global warming. There have now been a number of investigations of the activities of this group, mainly in the UK. These have all turned out to be complete whitewashes, aimed to exonerate the scientists involved. None of these investigations has even attempted to learn how and in what way the data might have been manipulated.
[...]
Communist Protester in Wis.: ‘People Are Open’ to a ‘Revolutionary Movement’
by Jonathon M. Seidl:
Yesterday we brought you video of socialists openly rallying in Madison, WI and trying to recruit new members. Today, we show you that the communists are joining the fray too.
Once again, the MacIver Institute was down at the Capitol capturing video of those flocking to the protests in Wisconsin. This time, videographer Bill Osmuski caught up with some admitted revolutionaries from Chicago who came up to try and spread their message, and told Osmuski they definitely think “people are open to the possibilities of building a revolutionary movement.”
What did the communists cite as evidence? If you said “Egypt” and the unrest “around the world,” you’re right:
[...]
President’s campaign forces seize Wisconsin statehouse
The Washington Times:
Message to Wisconsin taxpayers: President Obama and the Democratic National Committee have declared war on you. Message to other states: You’re next.
The political unrest in Wisconsin, billed as some kind of grass-roots uprising, is being organized and directed by Barack Obama‘s Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee. This development is consistent with Mr. Obama‘s instructions for supporters to “get in the face” of those who oppose them, but in this case, they are seeking to derail a lawful legislative process.
[...]
Is the taboo on reporting about the ineffectiveness of MAD and Iran beginning to crack?
Mladen Andrijasevic:
After years of silence finally we see Iran’s intentions exposed to the American audience. The movie Iranium is now being shown all around the US.
Two days in a row Fox News had broadcasted programs about Iran. On Thursday there was Glenn Beck with Who Is the 12th Imam? and last night Sean Hannity with Iran’s Ticking Time Bomb on the documentary Iranium.
[...]
Levin furious at weak Republican leadership
by The Right Scoop:
Today an amendment to cut an additional 22 billion across-the-board failed with Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy siding with Democrats, along with 97 other Republicans. Levin says that this was a huge vote and can’t figure out why Republicans who say they are all about cutting can’t follow through. The excuses ranged from “across-the-board cuts are lazy members way to achieve something” to “this goes too far!”
Levin is furious:
[...]
Netanyahu: Change isn’t always a good thing
by The Right Scoop:
Netanyahu demonstrates in this excerpt what we have lost with the election of Obama – true leadership. Netanyahu points out that while change can be a good thing, it doesn’t always end up that way. He talks about Russia, Iran, and Lebanon to demonstrate that true cries for freedom are often vanquished by those who have a malicious agenda of their own. While he doesn’t mention Egypt in this excerpt, I’m sure they are at least one of the countries he is talking about. This is the kind of wisdom that so desperately needs to be in the White House.
2012 can’t get here fast enough.
[...]
A fired NASA employee says he was let go because of his belief in intelligent design
Edward Lee Pitts:
On Christmas Eve, 1968, as a Super Bowl-sized viewing audience watched on television, the crew of moon-orbiting Apollo 8 took turns reading from the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis.
David Coppedge remembers that moment. He also remembers astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s quoting of Psalm 8 as the Apollo 11 mission returned in July 1969: “‘When I consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the Moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man that Thou art mindful of him?’”
But it seems that times have changed. Coppedge, a longtime computer administrator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), lost his job on Jan. 24, nearly two years after he was demoted for his support of intelligent design.
[...]
The case against public sector unionism
Stephen M. Bainbridge:
[...]
In sum, public sector unionism lacks the economic justifications for private sector unionism. It results in significant distortions of the political process, which have real adverse consequences for the taxpayers. What’s happening in Wisconsin (as ably monitored by University of Wisconsin law professor/blogger Ann Althouse) thus is quite heartening. The efforts by the Governor and the republican legislative caucus to reform public sector collective bargaining rights is an essential step towards fiscal sanity and political democracy.
Lara Logan and media rules
By CAROLINE B. GLICK:
The media’s treatment of Logan’s victimization specifically and its treatment of the widescale mob violence against foreign reporters in Cairo generally tells us a great deal about the nature of today’s media discourse.
But before we consider the significance of the coverage, a word must be said about Logan and her colleagues in Tahrir Square. For some time, the common wisdom about journalists has been that they are cowards. Multiple instances of journalistic malpractice led many to conclude that reporters are prisoners of their fears.
For instance, recall the story of the Palestinian lynching of IDF reservists Vadim Nozhitz and Yosef Avrahami at the Palestinian Authority police station in Ramallah on October 1, 2000.
There were dozens of reporters on the scene that day as the Palestinian police-led mob murdered and dismembered Nozhitz and Avrahami.
But only one camera crew – from Italy’s privately owned Mediaset television network – risked life and limb to film the event.
[...]
Barack Obama’s Louis XV Budget
Charles Krauthammer:
Five days before his inauguration, President-elect Barack Obama told the Washington Post that entitlement reform could no longer be kicked down the road. He then spent the next two years kicking — racking up $3 trillion in new debt along the way — on the grounds that massive temporary deficit spending was necessary to prevent another Great Depression.
To prove his bona fides, he later appointed a deficit-reduction commission. It made its report last December, when the economy was well past recession, solemnly declaring that “the era of debt denial is over.”
That lasted all of two months. The president’s first post-commission budget, submitted Monday, marks a return to obliviousness. Even Erskine Bowles, Obama’s Democratic debt-commission co-chair, says it goes “nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare.”
The budget touts a deficit reduction of $1.1 trillion over the next decade.
Where to begin? Even if you buy this number, Obama’s budget adds $7.2 trillion in new debt over that same decade.
But there’s a catch. The administration assumes economic-growth levels higher than private economists and the Congressional Budget Office predict. Without this rosy scenario — using CBO growth estimates — $1.7 trillion of revenue disappears and U.S. debt increases $9 trillion over the next decade. This is almost $1 trillion every year.
[...]
WSJ: Unions about power, not democracy
by Ed Morrissey:
If anyone thought that unions were paragons of democracy, the display in Madison this week has been instructive. Their protests have given their Democratic allies in the Wisconsin state senate an excuse to abandon representative democracy rather than abide by the results of an election less than four months earlier, and protesters hold signs comparing newly-elected Republican Scott Walker to dictators such as Hosni Mubarak and Adolf Hitler for the crime of proposing changes in the law which he promised during the election campaign. The Wall Street Journal argues today that the spectacle in Wisconsin shows that unions are interested in only one thing — power:
[...]
Union Fascism on Full Display
by Rich Trzupek:
The hypocrisy of the American left is on full display in the heart of America, as the teachers’ union in Wisconsin continues to show how it will use any tactic, no matter how reprehensible, to try and get its way. Threats, intimidation, violent imagery and inflammatory rhetoric – all of the sorts of tactics that the left and the mainstream media routinely accuse conservatives of using – are on full display in Madison. But, rather than condemning such behavior, left wing champions from Barack Obama to Michael Moore are falling over themselves to show solidarity with the teachers’ union.
Protesters carried signs likening Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to Adolf Hitler and Hosni Mubarak. One protester carried a placard that posed the question “why do Republicans hate people?” while others likened Walker’s budget cutting efforts to rape. He was called a dictator by some and an image of the governor was overlaid with crosshairs by at least one protestor. A rent-a-mob marched on the governor’s home. None of this behavior seems to bother leaders on the left, no more than the same kind of extremist rhetoric and actions concerned them when the left directed it towards George W. Bush for the better part of eight years.
[...]
Wis. Gov. Fires Back at Obama: He Should Focus on Balancing His Own Budget
by Jonathon M. Seidl:
Appearing on “Fox & Friends” this morning, Wis. Gov. Scott Walker responded to President Obama’s recent comments that Walker’s budget proposal was an “assault on unions.” Walker’s response was a sort of stay-out-of-our-business quip.
“We’re focused on balancing our budget, it would be wise for the president and others in Washington to focus on balancing their budget, which they’re a long way from doing.”
The comments come at about 3:00 minutes below, but the entire interview is worth watching:
[...]
UNDER PERSECUTION
Yang Caizhen
Location: China
Arrested: November 2009
Days Imprisoned: 450
On Nov. 25, 2009, Yang Caizhen and four other Linfen-Fushan church leaders from Shanxi Province were sentenced to criminal detention for two to seven years, according to China Aid Association. The five church leaders were accused of “gathering people to disturb the public order,” because they organized a prayer rally on Sept. 14, the day after 400 military police raided the church’s grounds. During the raid, more than 30 believers were seriously wounded and 17 buildings were destroyed.
Yang Caizhen in the Hospital
Yang Caizhen’s daughter Esther received word last week that her mother was in the hospital. This is the second time she has been in the hospital since she was arrested. The first time, her family was not informed, so this time they think her condition is more serious. Yang Caizhen is due to be released in July or August, but her family hopes she can be released early on medical parole. Esther also said the prison recently changed its visitor policy. Previously, almost anyone could visit Yang Caizhen. Now, only close family members can visit.
The UN and the Obama Administration on the Wrong Side of History
by Anne Bayefsky:
To understand just how evil the scene is, it is necessary to talk about what happened to Lara Logan. The CBS reporter was in Cairo last week covering the aftermath of the overthrow of Mubarak, when she was brutally sexually assaulted by democracy-celebrating Egyptians heard yelling “Jew, Jew.” It does not matter that she wasn’t Jewish. It does matter that the hatred and anti-Semitism which runs so deep among the masses screaming for tolerance, for everybody but Jews, is precisely what is driving the diplomatic mobs at the UN. Ganging up on Israel at the UN Security Council is an ugly and contemptible scene.
[...]
Democratic Senator on UN Vote: Obama Admin “encouraged anti-Israeli sentiment”
by UN Watch:
(Following is a press release just issued by US Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey)
Menendez: US Must Veto Flawed UN Resolution that Fuels Anti-Israeli Sentiment, Threatens Israel-Palestine Negotiations from Moving Forward
[...]
Gulf of Mexico drilling companies push back on Obama’s ‘de facto moratorium’
By Amanda Carey:
“Our education campaign will call him out on the facts: The Obama administration is not issuing deepwater drilling permits, and the results have been devastating. It’s hurting tens of thousands of workers, increasing prices for gasoline and heating oil, and making America even more dependent on foreign oil,” said Hornbeck.
Jim Adams, the president of OMSA added that Obama’s response to the oil spill over the summer was “unreasonable, unwarranted, unfair and unlawful.”
The Daily Caller reported that Texas-based Seahawk Drilling last week became the first company in the Gulf to go bankrupt as a result of the government-imposed shortage of shallow-water permits.
[...]
Public-Sector Union Bosses Fight to Stay in Control: What are YOU going to do about it?
by LaborUnionReport
At this very moment, the battle for America’s future is happening in states all around the country as newly-elected governors try to wrest control from tax-eating unions. Today’s battle is just the beginning of what America will be facing through 2012 and beyond. It is a battle that, if lost, will likely have catastrophic consequences on the fiscal well being of many of the states and, as a result, the nation as a whole.
Nowhere is the fight the loudest than in Wisconsin, where over 10,000 union supporters protested Madison’s Capitol Square on Tuesday and about 1,000 protesters demonstrated outside Governor Scott Walker’s private home Tuesday night.
[...]
Greedy, selfish Marxist revolutionaries.
The world’s most dangerous broadcaster
Melanie Phillips:
I have only just caught up with the BBC1 documentary on the Dutch politician Geert Wilders that was transmitted on Tuesday evening. Did I say documentary? ‘Europe’s Most Dangerous Man’ was a vicious hatchet job that was a disgrace to journalism. More than that, it could be argued that by presenting Wilders as a latter-day Nazi who was likely to foment war in Europe between Muslims and non-Muslims, it was in effect inciting violence or the murder of a politician who is already under armed guard 24/7.
There were several aspects of this programme that should have caused any responsible broadcaster to sling it straight into the trash.
[...]
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