From Our Mail: School Choice Comes to Indiana

In South Carolina approximately half of all students who enter high school, graduate. Let us hope that Indiana's example, and that of other states, might eventually persuade South Carolina legislators to free students held hostage to schools that do not work and will not change.

From: Andrew Campanella, The Alliance for School Choice

Re: School Choice Breakthrough in Indiana

I am happy to report some great news tonight. As of this evening, Indiana has passed a private school choice program.

This evening, the Indiana General Assembly passed a corporate and individual scholarship tax credit program, providing hope and opportunity to thousands of Hoosier state children. Governor Mitch Daniels signed the program into law just after 8 p.m. tonight.

The $2.5 million corporate and individual scholarship tax credit program was included in the state’s budget. This new program rewards generous companies and individuals who donate money to nonprofit organizations that help low-income children attend private schools. In return for their donations, the individuals and/or corporations receive a 50 percent tax credit.

My coworker, Lori Drummer—who is our director of state projects—had this to say:

"In an incredibly challenging year for school choice, the passage of this program provides clear and convincing evidence that the people of Indiana want and need school choice now more than ever,” she said. “We congratulate School Choice Indiana and a host of other state and national allies who were instrumental in this victory.”

Indiana is now the 11th state to offer private school choice program. There are 18 programs available, currently serving 171,000 children.

In other important news today, Rhode Island Governor Don Carcieri signed the Ocean State’s budget—effectively protecting the state’s $1 million corporate scholarship tax credit program. This program had come under heavy fire this year, but thanks to the hard work of the folks at Rhode Island Scholarship Advocates and other local groups—educational opportunities for hundreds of children were saved.

School choice is on the march, Daniel! Despite one of the most difficult climates for school choice we've faced in years, local allies this year may very well have protected every single student scholarship in existence right now, and even created more.

Thank you for everything you do to support educational freedom!

Interview: Mike Huckabee at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation

Mike Huckabee visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation yesterday and was interviewed on the Reagan presidency and its legacy.

Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex

" ... we have to eliminate discrimination against LGBT families ... [and] we have to extend equal treatment in our family and adoption laws."

Barack Hussein Obama

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

An openly homosexual Duke University official has been charged with delivering up his 5-year-old adopted African American son to sexual predators online.

Frank Lombard, the 42-year-old associate director of the Center for Health Policy and a licensed clinical social worker, was arrested Wednesday after he invited an undercover police officer to take advantage of one of his two sons, whom he had adopted with his male partner.

The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI conducted the sting operation.

Investigators were tipped off to Lombard's criminal activity by an informant who said he had seen Lombard molest an African-American child four times over an Internet video chat service called ICUii. The informant said Lombardi described himself on his profile as "perv dad for fun."

According to the arrest warrant filed by D.C. Metropolitan Det. Timothy Palchak, Lombard told the undercover detective that he had raped his son on several occasions since infancy, and that "the abuse of the child was easier when the child was too young to talk or know what was happening, but that he had drugged the child with Benadryl during the molestation."

The FBI stated that two children have been taken from Lombard's home and put into protective custody by the North Carolina Department of Social Services.

Lombard will be transferred to Washington, D.C. this week to face federal charges, and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Duke University spokesman Michael Schoenfeld told ABC News that Lombard, a Duke employee since 1999, has been placed on unpaid leave.

Family Research Institute Chairman Dr. Paul Cameron has said that the case appears to coincide with a pattern of abuse established in a recent review of the literature describing the impact of homosexual fathers on their children. The review by Dr. Cameron, published in the peer-reviewed Psychological Reports, noted that such children were more frequently exposed to parental molestation.

"While every gay parent does not molest his child, the scientific literature records a much higher incidence of molestation by gay parents or foster parents," said Cameron. Cameron, an expert in homosexual foster parenting and adoption, also said it is likely the child victim "developed interest in gay sex through these activities."

Cameron cited a 1978 Kinsey Institute study that found 23% of surveyed homosexual men admitting to having had sex with boys.

"The cant that 'gay parents are no more likely to molest' is not based on evidence but liberal ideology," said Cameron.

"By endorsing gay adoption, President Obama, the state of North Carolina, and Duke University share blame for this tragedy. These policy makers let dogma blind them to evidence that has been in the literature for years."

Obama Hopes to Persuade All Americans to Accept Sodomy

From OneNewsNow

President Barack Obama says that while he's dedicated to expanding homosexual rights, many Americans still cling to what he calls "worn arguments and old attitudes."

At a White House celebration of Gay Pride Month, Obama said he hopes to persuade all Americans to accept homosexuality. ""There are good and decent people in this country who don't yet fully embrace their gay brothers and sisters -- not yet," said the president. "That's why I've spoken about these issues -- not just in front of you -- but in front of unlikely audiences, in front of African-American church members."

Obama acknowledged that many Americans still disapprove of homosexuality. "There are still fellow citizens, perhaps neighbors or even family members and loved ones, who still hold fast to worn arguments and old attitudes," he stated.

He added that Congress should repeal what Obama referred to as "the so-called Defense of Marriage Act" -- and that his administration is working to pass a hate crimes bill and to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuals in the military.

The audience at the White House ceremony included Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson and other homosexual clergy. Obama introduced Robinson as a "special friend."

Russia, Poland and U.S. Strategy

In the latest installment of the STRATFOR Insights video series, CEO George Friedman analyzes the upcoming summit July 6-8 between Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama from a geopolitical perspective. Likely topics on the agenda include Iran, Afghanistan, U.S. ballistic missile defense installations in Poland and Russia's sphere of influence.

United Church of Christ Urges LGBT Indoctrination in Public Elementary Schools; Confessing Movement Protests

From Christian Newswire
By David Runnion Bareford

A Resolution of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ concluding today in Grand Rapids, Michigan, calls for "diversity/multi-cultural education" in public elementary schools that includes, "the experience of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, bi-sexual, transgender), individuals and families." The resolution also calls for aggressive opposition to efforts by parents whose moral convictions are violated by such teaching to protect their children from LGBT indoctrination. The resolution mixes the LGBT agenda with a call for public school diversity teaching on racism and the acceptance of immigrant minorities.

In protest, the confessing movement within the United Church of Christ known as Biblical Witness Fellowship has issued a statement of protest. "Teaching that behavior and relationships which are morally wrong to most Christian families, as well as families of the Islamic, Hindu and other religious traditions is normative, makes the public school an unsafe environment for our children. Mixing such a message with the legitimate concerns of racism and the acceptance of immigrating families and children is offensive, intellectually dishonest, and inappropriate. Diversity demands that public education respect the morality of all and protects the innocence of children."

We Need Governor Sanford to Finish His Term

We strongly concur with Governor Sanford's decision to remain in office and finish out his term. As much as we regret what has transpired in recent weeks, it would only compound the evil were our political process distorted by the Governor's resignation.

South Carolinians deserve the opportunity to get to know all the candidates vying to succeed Governor Sanford. The Governor's mistakes should not provide one of those candidates with an enormous leg up in free publicity and fund raising, particularly when that candidate and his supporters represent the very big government, big spending, catering to special interests that Governor Sanford was elected to oppose.

The Governor has not been as successful as we would like in defeating the over-fed agents of pork and special interest in the State House, but his resignation would hand them an enormous, undeserved victory.

There are plenty of pots calling the kettle black right now. The best thing that Governor Sanford can do for our state is to continue standing up for the taxpayers, and educating the electorate on the need for constitutional reform. By defying those who would like to see him gone, he blocks the way for those eager to move South Carolina in the wrong direction.

A message
from Mark

	Dear Friends, I write to apologize and ask for your forgiveness. Well beyond the personal consequences within my own family, I know that at so many different levels my actions have upset, offended and disappointed friends and supporters and for this I am most sorry. As I mentioned in last week's press conference, I've always believed God's laws were there to protect us from ourselves, and what has transpired over this last week vividly illustrates the damage that comes personally, and to those you love and respect, in doing otherwise. So in the aftermath of this failure I want to not only apologize, but to commit to growing personally and spiritually. Immediately after all this unfolded last week I had thought I would resign - as I believe in the military model of leadership and when trust of any form is broken one lays down the sword. A long list of close friends have suggested otherwise - that for God to really work in my life I shouldn't be getting off so lightly. While it would be personally easier to exit stage left, their point has been that my larger sin was the sin of pride. They contended that in many instances I may well have held the right position on limited government, spending or taxes - but that if my spirit wasn't right in the presentation of those ideas to people in the General Assembly, or elsewhere, I could elicit the response that I had at many times indeed gotten from other state leaders. Their belief was that if I walked in with a real spirit of humility then this last legislative term could well be our most productive one - and that outside this term, I would ultimately be a better person and of more service in whatever doors God opened next in life if I stuck around to learn lessons rather than running and hiding down at the farm. They have also made the point that a good part of life is about scripts - that the idea of redemption isn't something that Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake should just read about, it's something they should see. Accordingly, they suggested that there was a very different life script that would be lived and learned by our boys, and thousands like them, if this story simply ended with scandal and then the end of office - versus a fall from grace and then renewal and rebuilding and growth in its aftermath. I won't belabor all these points, but I did want to write as expressed earlier to say that I'm sorry and that more than anything I personally ask for your prayers for me, Jenny, the boys and so many others who have been impacted by what I have done. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Take care. Mark Mark

High Court Overrules Sotomayor Decision Against White Firefighters

Today's decision affirming that yes, racism directed at white people is in fact racism, and is wrong in a society that is supposed to be colorblind, is even more reason to delay hearings on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

From OneNewsNow
By Mark Sherman

The Supreme Court has ruled that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.

The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.

"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."

Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.

Kennedy's opinion made only passing reference to the work of Sotomayor and the other two judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven.

But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.

"This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.

Monday's decision has its origins in New Haven's need to fill vacancies for lieutenants and captains in its fire department. It hired an outside firm to design a test, which was given to 77 candidates for lieutenant and 41 candidates for captain.

Fifty six firefighters passed the exams, including 41 whites, 22 blacks and 18 Hispanics. But of those, only 17 whites and two Hispanics could expect promotion.

The city eventually decided not to use the exam to determine promotions. It said it acted because it might have been vulnerable to claims that the exam had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The white firefighters said the decision violated the same law's prohibition on intentional discrimination.

Kennedy said an employer needs a "strong basis in evidence" to believe it will be held liable in a disparate impact lawsuit. New Haven had no such evidence, he said.

The city declined to validate the test after it was given, a step that could have identified flaws or determined that there were no serious problems with it. In addition, city officials could not say what was wrong with the test, other than the racially skewed results.

Lombard Demonstrates Why Gays Should Not be Allowed to Adopt

From Christian Newswire

The on-line rape of his 5-year-old adopted son by Duke University's openly-gay, Frank Lombard, is no anomaly. Instead, Lombard's molestation fits the pattern that emerged in the latest review of the scientific literature about gay fathers.

Lombard lives with his gay partner, another Duke University employee. The Arrest Warrant documents that Lombard sodomized one of his two adopted African-American sons and made the boy give him oral sex on-line. He offered other gays the same opportunity. Although the boy was drugged, "it is likely he developed interest in gay sex through these activities," said Dr. Paul Cameron, an expert in gay fostering/gay adoption and author of the latest review.

Published in the peer-reviewed Psychological Reports, the review(1) noted that gays' children were more frequently exposed to parental molestation and more apt to adopt homosexual interests and activities. "The Lombard case fits the pattern," said Dr. Cameron. "While every gay parent does not molest his child, the scientific literature records a much higher incidence of molestation by gay parents or foster parents."

Dr. Cameron, Chairman of the Family Research Institute, a Colorado Springs think-tank, noted that the review documented that gays' children were also:

1) more apt to report sexual confusion;

2) more apt to be socially disturbed;

3) more apt to abuse substances;

4) less apt to get married;

5) more apt to have difficulty in attachment and loving relationships; and

6) more apt to have emotional difficulties.

"The cant that 'gay parents are no more likely to molest' is not based on evidence but liberal ideology," said Cameron. "By endorsing gay adoption, President Obama, the state of North Carolina, and Duke University share blame for this tragedy. These policy makers let dogma blind them to evidence that has been in the literature for years. Why would anyone who cared about children endorse adoption by members of a group which had 23% of its members admit to sex with boys(2) or had 19% say they felt 'positive' about sex with them?(3)"

1. Cameron P. Gay Fathers' Effects On Children: A Review Psychological Reports, 2009:104;649-639

2. Bell AP, Weinberg MS Homosexualities: a study of diversity among men and women. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1978.

3. Jay K & Young A. The Gay report. NY: Summit, 1979.

The Release of Demographic Winter Part II -- 'The Demographic Bomb'

A sequel to the 2008 documentary "Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family" has been released by SRB Documentaries.

The first segment of this chilling film predicted the financial crisis of 2008 to within 12 months.

Barry McLerren, producer of both films, states that "'Demographic Winter" shows what happens when countries comprising 80% of the world's economy have plummeting numbers of workers, consumers and innovators -- leading to falling consumer spending, and too few workers to support the elderly.

The film's trailer follows:

Remains of Saint Paul Confirmed

Bones dated to first century

From The Washington Times
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

The first-ever scientific tests on what are believed to be the remains of the Apostle Paul "seem to conclude" that they do indeed belong to the Roman Catholic saint, Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday.

Archaeologists recently unearthed and opened the white marble sarcophagus located under the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls in Rome, which for about 2,000 years has been believed by the faithful to be the tomb of St. Paul.

The pope said scientists had conducted carbon dating tests on bone fragments found inside the sarcophagus and confirmed that they date from the first or second century.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Same-Sex 'Marriage' Loses Support Among Americans

A recent poll indicates that Americans are not as supportive of homosexual "marriage" as they once were.

From OneNewsNow
By Charlie Butts

A CBS-New York Times survey shows that support for redefining marriage to include same-gender couples has declined. Jenny Tyree of Focus on the Family Action tells OneNewsNow that, according to The New York Times, the figure dropped slightly -- but she believes nine percentage points is more than slightly.

"I think that this really digs into what Americans really feel about marriage -- that they like that [marriage is] defined between a man and a woman," she contends. "And also it's a bit of a backlash against the five states whose legislative bodies have redefined marriage very recently within the last several months."

Part of the drop may also relate to the continuing battle to defeat California's Proposition 8, she says, in which voters defined marriage as between a man and a woman.

"I think Americans really saw the intolerance that occurred after the Proposition 8 vote back in November," she recalls. "They saw that many who want to redefine marriage were not happy with really what the people decide, and what the people decided in California was to continue to define marriage the way it has been defined."

After the election, several lawsuits were filed to try to overturn the voters' decision. Another federal lawsuit challenging it was filed just last week. Tyree believes the poll also sends a strong message to the White House, which has stated as a goal to repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Chicago Elementary School to March in Gay Pride Parade

It must warm the heart of every perverted Chicago Obamunist to know that young children will be walking among this.

From the Illinois Family Institute
By Laurie Higgins

I am so angry I could scream -- but instead I'll write.

Nettelhorst Elementary School, a public school located in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, has the dubious honor of being the first Chicago public school to march in Chicago's "gay pride" parade on Sunday.

According to an article in the Windy City Times, and not surprisingly, "Brad Rossi, a gay parent of a first-grade girl, and Marcia Festen, a lesbian parent of two daughters, one of whom is in kindergarten, were both crucial in bringing the idea to the school. The two worked together in the 1980s, and Rossi says that the idea came from California."

I have asked before and I will ask again, how depraved does the behavior have to become to which our public schools expose children and how young do the children have to be before conservatives and faith communities rise up in righteous indignation?

According to the Chicago Tribune, "The black metal fence in front of Nettelhorst Elementary School is obscured by thousands of strips of dyed fabric-yellows giving way to greens, then blues, purples and reds-each one tied on by the small hands of a student." How special.

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Troops Arrest Honduran President

Sometimes there are aspects to the third-world for which one yearns. And this president was actually born in his country.

From the BBC

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has been arrested by troops ahead of a controversial constitutional referendum.

Mr Zelaya's secretary said that the president had been taken to an airbase outside the capital, Tegucigalpa.

The move comes days after the president sacked the armed forces chief, who had refused to back the referendum plan.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Obama's Deadly Hand Revealed

From the Jewish Chronicle
By Melanie Phillips

Among American Jews, a degree of ‘buyers’ remorse’ has been detected recently.

Almost 80 per cent of American Jews voted for Barack Obama as President. Those of us who warned that this man would endanger Israel were scorned.

How could that possibly be, said the secular, liberal American Jews. He’s a Democrat, he’s black and he’s pro-abortion. With this triple-lock of unassailable virtue, how can he be bad for Israel? Now some of them are getting an awful feeling that they may have made the biggest misjudgment of their lives.

As the world watched events unfold in Iran, Obama’s double standard over Israel was illuminated in flashing neon lights. How come he’s saying it is wrong for him to tell the Iranians what to do, people asked themselves, when he is dictating to Israel its policy on settlements?

Why was he so concerned not to antagonise the Iranian regime? Was it because he hopes to reach a Grand Bargain which would allow Iran to develop nuclear capability, provided it promises him ever so nicely it would never turn this into weapons — in exchange for which, Israel would be offered up on a plate?

For the past six months, while Obama has been holding out the hand of friendship to Iran, he has been showing Israel a mailed fist.

Why, people asked themselves, was he singling out Iran’s putative victim for the heavy treatment while soft-soaping Tehran? Why had he torn up the Road Map which requires the Palestinians to dismantle their infrastructure of terror before anything else can happen, telling Israel instead that its stubbornness over the settlements was the main impediment to a Palestinian state?

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The Lutheran Youth Choir of North America - "Hope for Resolution"

The Lutheran Youth Choir of North America, a new Christian music ministry for high school youth, sings the goodness of God through the finest sacred choral music for audiences around the world; here LYCNA performs "Hope for Resolution," a composition by Paul Caldwell and Sean Ivory which incorporates the chant "Of the Father's Love Begotten" with a South African freedom song.

The Climate Change Climate Change

The number of skeptics is swelling everywhere.

From The Wall Street Journal
By Kimberley A. Strassel

Steve Fielding recently asked the Obama administration to reassure him on the science of man-made global warming. When the administration proved unhelpful, Mr. Fielding decided to vote against climate-change legislation.

If you haven't heard of this politician, it's because he's a member of the Australian Senate. As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to pass a climate-change bill, the Australian Parliament is preparing to kill its own country's carbon-emissions scheme. Why? A growing number of Australian politicians, scientists and citizens once again doubt the science of human-caused global warming.

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

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Dr. Randy Pausch and "The Last Lecture"

Recent celebrity deaths are occasion for some to reflect on how, for better or for worse, their lives influenced the world. Here is a lesser known celebrity who became famous for the way he left this life. Dr. Randy Pausch is remembered for a lecture he gave at Carnegie Mellon University, which has become known as "The Last Lecture."

Dr. Pausch died a year ago, but his passing and his great, final lecture are reminders to us that one's soul is the only thing one possesses, and its condition is the only thing that really matters.

The following is a shortened version of Dr. Pausch's lecture. The full lecture delivered at Carnegie Mellon University is here.

Obama, the African Colonial

From American Thinker
By L. E. Ikenga

Had Americans been able to stop obsessing over the color of Barack Obama's skin and instead paid more attention to his cultural identity, maybe he would not be in the White House today. The key to understanding him lies with his identification with his father, and his adoption of a cultural and political mindset rooted in postcolonial Africa.

Like many educated intellectuals in postcolonial Africa, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. was enraged at the transformation of his native land by its colonial conqueror. But instead of embracing the traditional values of his own tribal cultural past, he embraced an imported Western ideology, Marxism. I call such frustrated and angry modern Africans who embrace various foreign "isms", instead of looking homeward for repair of societies that are broken, African Colonials. They are Africans who serve foreign ideas.

The tropes of America's racial history as a way of understanding all things black are useless in understanding the man who got his dreams from his father, a Kenyan exemplar of the African Colonial.

Before I continue, I need to say this: I am a first generation born West African-American woman whose parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1970's from the country now called Nigeria. I travel to Nigeria frequently. I see myself as both a proud American and as a proud Igbo (the tribe that we come from -- also sometimes spelled Ibo). Politically, I have always been conservative (though it took this past election for me to commit to this once and for all!); my conservative values come from my Igbo heritage and my place of birth. Of course, none of this qualifies me to say what I am about to -- but at the same time it does.

My friends, despite what CNN and the rest are telling you, Barack Obama is nothing more than an old school African Colonial who is on his way to turning this country into one of the developing nations that you learn about on the National Geographic Channel. Many conservative (East, West, South, North) African-Americans like myself -- those of us who know our history -- have seen this movie before. Here are two main reasons why many Americans allowed Obama to slip through the cracks despite all of his glaring inconsistencies:

First, Obama has been living on American soil for most of his adult life. Therefore, he has been able to masquerade as one who understands and believes in American democratic ideals. But he does not. Barack Obama is intrinsically undemocratic and as his presidency plays out, this will become more obvious. Second, and most importantly, too many Americans know very little about Africa. The one-size-fits-all understanding that many Americans (both black and white) continue to have of Africa might end up bringing dire consequences for this country.

Contrary to the way it continues to be portrayed in mainstream Western culture, Africa is not a continent that can be solely defined by AIDS, ethnic rivalries, poverty and safaris. Africa, like any other continent, has an immense history defined by much diversity and complexity. Africa's long-standing relationship with Europe speaks especially to some of these complexities -- particularly the relationship that has existed between the two continents over the past two centuries. Europe's complete colonization of Africa during the nineteenth century, also known as the Scramble for Africa, produced many unfortunate consequences, the African colonial being one of them.

The African colonial (AC) is a person who by means of their birth or lineage has a direct connection with Africa. However, unlike Africans like me, their worldviews have been largely shaped not by the indigenous beliefs of a specific African tribe but by the ideals of the European imperialism that overwhelmed and dominated Africa during the colonial period. AC's have no real regard for their specific African traditions or histories. AC's use aspects of their African culture as one would use pieces of costume jewelry: things of little or no value that can be thoughtlessly discarded when they become a negative distraction, or used on a whim to decorate oneself in order to seem exotic. (Hint: Obama's Muslim heritage).

On the other hand, AC's strive to be the best at the culture that they inherited from Europe. Throughout the West, they are tops in their professions as lawyers, doctors, engineers, Ivy League professors and business moguls; this is all well and good. It's when they decide to engage us as politicians that things become messy and convoluted.

The African colonial politician (ACP) feigns repulsion towards the hegemonic paradigms of Western civilization. But at the same time, he is completely enamored of the trappings of its aristocracy or elite culture. The ACP blames and caricatures whitey to no end for all that has gone wrong in the world. He convinces the masses that various forms of African socialism are the best way for redressing the problems that European colonialism motivated in Africa. However, as opposed to really being a hard-core African Leftist who actually believes in something, the ACP uses socialist themes as a way to disguise his true ambitions: a complete power grab whereby the "will of the people" becomes completely irrelevant.

Barack Obama is all of the above. The only difference is that he is here playing (colonial) African politics as usual.

In his 1995 memoir, Dreams From My Father -- an eloquent piece of political propaganda -- Obama styles himself as a misunderstood intellectual who is deeply affected by the sufferings of black people, especially in America and Africa. In the book, Obama clearly sees himself as an African, not as a black American. And to prove this, he goes on a quest to understand his Kenyan roots. He is extremely thoughtful of his deceased father's legacy; this provides the main clue for understanding Barack Obama.

Barack Obama Sr. was an African colonial to the core; in his case, the apple did not fall far from the tree. All of the telltale signs of Obama's African colonialist attitudes are on full display in the book -- from his feigned antipathy towards Europeans to his view of African tribal associations as distracting elements that get in the way of "progress". (On p. 308 of Dreams From My Father, Obama says that African tribes should be viewed as an "ancient loyalties".)

Like imperialists of Old World Europe, the ACP sees their constituents not as free thinking individuals who best know how to go about achieving and creating their own means for success. Instead, the ACP sees his constituents as a flock of ignorant sheep that need to be led -- oftentimes to their own slaughter.

Like the European imperialist who spawned him, the ACP is a destroyer of all forms of democracy.

Here are a few examples of what the British did in order to create (in 1914) what is now called Nigeria and what Obama is doing to you:

1. Convince the people that "clinging" to any aspect of their cultural (tribal) identity or history is bad and regresses the process of "unity". British Imperialists deeply feared people who were loyal to anything other than the state. "Tribalism" made the imperialists have to work harder to get people to just fall in line. Imperialists pitted tribes against each other in order to create chaos that they then blamed on ethnic rivalry. Today many "educated" Nigerians, having believed that their traditions were irrelevant, remain completely ignorant of their ancestry and the history of their own tribes.
2. Confiscate the wealth and resources of the area that you govern by any means necessary in order to redistribute wealth. The British used this tactic to present themselves as empathetic and benevolent leaders who wanted everyone to have a "fair shake". Imperialists are not interested in equality for all. They are interested in controlling all.
3. Convince the masses that your upper-crust university education naturally puts you on an intellectual plane from which to understand everything even when you understand nothing. Imperialists were able to convince the people that their elite university educations allowed them to understand what Africa needed. Many of today's Nigerians-having followed that lead-hold all sorts of degrees and certificates-but what good are they if you can't find a job?
4. Lie to the people and tell them that progress is being made even though things are clearly becoming worse. One thing that the British forgot to mention to their Nigerian constituents was that one day, the resources that were being used to engineer "progress" (which the British had confiscated from the Africans to begin with!) would eventually run out. After WWII, Western Europe could no longer afford to hold on to their African colonies. So all of the counterfeit countries that the Europeans created were then left high-and-dry to fend for themselves. This was the main reason behind the African independence movements of the1950 and 60's. What will a post-Obama America look like?
5. Use every available media outlet to perpetuate the belief that you and your followers are the enlightened ones-and that those who refuse to support you are just barbaric, uncivilized, ignorant curmudgeons. This speaks for itself.
   

America, don't be fooled. The Igbos were once made up of a confederacy of clans that ascribed to various forms of democratic government. They took their eyes off the ball and before they knew it, the British were upon them. Also, understand this: the African colonial who is given too much political power can only become one thing: a despot.

L.E. Ikenga can be reached at leikenga@gmail.com.

African Hospitals Funded by U.S. PEPFAR Program Accused of Forcibly Sterilizing HIV-Positive Women

From LifeSiteNews
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

African AIDS patients say they are being forcibly sterilized in hospitals funded by the United States' international AIDS program PEPFAR, LifeSiteNews has learned.

Dozens of women in Namibia claim that personnel in the PEPFAR-funded public hospital system used various methods to force or coerce them into receiving tubal ligations because of their HIV-positive status. Women's activists in the country believe the total number of victims is far greater.

Amon Mgazateme, an attorney representing several of the women, told LifeSiteNews (LSN) that all of the victims who have approached him are HIV positive, and believe that they were sterilized because of it. All were sterilized in the government's public health system.

Out of the 20 women who have approached him so far, "we have so far been able to have concrete evidence ... for about 15 women," Mgazateme told LSN in a telephone interview. "We are beginning to institute legal action against the government for about 6 cases only, so far."

In some cases, the women say they were tricked into signing papers authorizing the procedure at delicate moments during their treatment. In others, they were told that they would not receive medical care if they did not agree to be sterilized.

Namibia's Ministry of Health receives tens of millions of dollars a year from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), according to a U.S. government source.

In 2007, the last year for which data is available, PEPFAR gave over $16.6 million to the Namibian agency, which oversees the nation's public hospital system and implements PEPFAR-funded AIDS programs within the hospitals.

LSN has also learned that a group of U.S. House and Senate committee staff visited Namibia as late as 2008 to discuss the PEPFAR-funded AIDS program at Katatura State Hospital, one of the institutions accused of carrying out the sterilizations.

PEPFAR was also a sponsor of a global meeting on AIDS in the Namibian capital of Windhoek, from June 11 to 14 of this year, hosted by the Namibian government, which also included UN organizations such as the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and others.

However, PEPFAR media spokeswoman Jennifer Peterson told LSN she was not aware of the allegations, and could not make an official comment about them, referring this news agency to the PEPFAR representative in the U.S. Embassy in Namibia. As of press time LSN has not been able to reach him for comment.

The accusations of forced sterilizations were first brought to light by the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), a human rights group for AIDS patients active in Namibia.

The ICW says that it suspects the cases it has detected are "the tip of the iceberg." Out of 230 HIV-positive women they interviewed for a recent study on the issue, 40 said they had been sterilized by force or coercion in public hospitals in Namibia, or about 17 percent.

"They were in pain, they were told to sign, they didn't know what it was," Jennifer Gatsi-Mallet, an ICW official, told Britain's Guardian newspaper. "They thought that it was part of their HIV treatment. None of them knew what sterilization was, including those from urban areas, because it was never explained to them."

Hilma Nendongo, a victim who spoke to Britain's Globe and Mail newspaper about her experience, said she was devastated by the news that she would no longer be able to have children.

"It's because you are poor and you cannot demand your rights. You can't question a doctor. The doctor knows you can't report him -- he is protected by the government," she said. "My doctor did it to me because I was HIV positive and he thought I shouldn't have more children."

The women say the sterilizations were performed in three public hospitals overseen by the Ministry of Health: Katatura State Hospital, Central State Hospital, and Oshakati State Hospital, ICW reports.

"The reality of HIV-positive women's experiences in the health sector is drastically different from the standards that the Namibian government articulates in the National HIV/AIDS policy," the group states in its study on the abuses.

"Cases of forced sterilization have demonstrated that the Namibian government has failed to realize these rights or create an environment in which such rights could be realized," the organization writes, adding that its report "demonstrates that the government of Namibia is complicit in the unethical practice of sterilizing positive women."

Obama to Celebrate "Birthday" of Homosexual Movement - Stonewall Riots

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

The White House has confirmed that President Obama has invited leaders of the homosexual lobby to the East Room of the White House on Monday to celebrate the “birthday” of the homosexualist movement. Obama is expected to make an appearance at the event.

The goodwill gesture, which the White House has not publicized, follows growing dissatisfaction from the homosexual lobby towards Obama's handling of various issues.

Activists have decried Obama's failure to aggressively attack the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the military’s "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy banning open homosexuals, both of which Obama promised to overturn.

Following reports that several homosexualist leaders had received invitations, the White House confirmed the event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

The riots of June 1969 at Stonewall Inn in New York City, where a group of homosexuals fought back against a police crackdown of a homosexual bar, is considered by many to be the formal beginning of the homosexualist movement.

“Next Monday’s event is a chance for the White House to recognize the accomplishments of LGBT Americans," White House spokesman Shin Inouye said. "This event was long planned as a way to applaud these individuals during Pride month.”

Obama had also issued a proclamation on June 1 declaring June "LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Pride Month."

“Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before," read the proclamation.

“The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done.

"Tim Goeglein, Focus on the Family's vice president of external relations, pointed out the irony of Obama celebrating the Stonewall Riots after refusing to participate in the National Day of Prayer.

"It's disappointing that after several years of celebrating the National Day of Prayer in the East Room at the White House, the day unfortunately in this instance does not get equal billing," said Goeglein.

"It's a mistake not to be able to commemorate the National Day of Prayer at the highest possible levels, and we're very hopeful that this will be rectified next year."

Momentum Builds for Pro-Life Prayer-&-Picket of NEA Teacher Union Convention in San Diego & NEA State HQs on July 2

From Christian Newswire

Bob Pawson of Pro-Life Educators And Students (PLEAS), announces, "Our growing team of pro-life coordinators now includes Jeff White from Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, Rev. Patrick Mahoney of Christian Defense Coalition, and Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, for the July 2 prayer-and-picket demonstrations during the NEA teacher union convention at the San Diego Convention Center and NEA-State-Affiliate offices across America.

"These esteemed pro-life leaders are promoting and recruiting for our peaceful, prayerful demonstrations regarding the NEA leadership's pro-abortion track record. They are speaking at the Rally for Life at New Beginnings Church in Norco, CA, this Tuesday evening alongside Rev. Walter B. Hoye II, president of Issues4Life Foundation."

Pro-Life citizens, teachers, parents, and children are urged to picket the National Education Association leadership's pro-abortion policies, actions, and agenda in San Diego between 10:00AM and 2:00PM and NEA-State-Affiliate-HQs in cities across America from 11:00AM through 1:00PM.

"During these final days before July 2nd, pro-life leaders, pastors, groups, and individuals are encouraged to organize demonstrations of a dozen or two picketers at NEA offices in their state's capitals and hometowns. Promote at worship services this Sunday. Gather together your family members and a few pro-life friends and just go to your state's NEA-affiliate offices with pro-life posters. Pray and picket for an hour. Children are especially effective messengers highlighting the hypocrisy of teacher-union leaders supporting abortion," said Pawson.

"The number of locations nationwide is more important than the number of picketers at any location. We don't necessarily need hundreds of picketers at each state's NEA-HQ. A dozen or two would be sufficient -- multiplied by many sites across 50 states. Pro-Lifers far from state capitals can picket their county or town's local NEA-affiliate listed in telephone book white pages."

Survivors founder, Jeff White, said, "It seems bizarre and surreal that teachers, people whose love for children is supposedly second only to that of their parents, would support the mass killing of babies. The Abortion Holocaust has also eliminated multitudes of jobs and careers for teachers and school workers. Why do NEA members tolerate this from their so-called leaders?"

"Apparently this event will be the first highly visible pro-life event since the murder of George Tiller," said Pawson. "Pro-abortion militants and hostile media pundits have exploited the killing of Tiller, by a madman not associated with our movement, to intimidate pro-lifers into silence and surrender. Our peaceful, prayerfully pickets should inspire millions of pro-life Americans to reaffirm that we express our concern, compassion, and desire for true justice through lawful, constitutional means using reason, rational discourse, and our right to assemble in the public square."

Pro-Life Opinion editor, Gingi Edmonds, says, "An overwhelming majority of NEA members, 82%, believe their union leaders should take no official position on abortion. Regardless of their personal political views, NEA members expect the leadership to fight for things like better teacher pay and higher standards in school; not to support pro-abortion candidates and justices who argue for killing the next generation of students."

State and local organizers should e-mail PLEAS detailing locations and leadership contact info. Also, send digital photos or video to PLEAS later that afternoon.

Mary Kuper reports that she and local San Diegan pro-life volunteers "will be located inside the NEA convention, in a booth, helping to educate the delegates on life issues."

An Infinitely Better Plan and Future Available to Governor Sanford

We have nothing to add to the many words of disappointment and regret expressed by so many South Carolinians who have admired the principled service of Governor Mark Sanford. We had high hopes for his future. Much is being heard from partisans who have forgotten the likes of Bill Clinton, John Edwards, and Governor Eliot Spitzer. But people of faith are not surprised that good men succumb to their fallen nature. Indeed, those who strive most valiantly to live in accord with God's laws usually face the greatest challenges and temptations from the enemy. But we also believe that God's forgiveness is readily and abundantly available to those who seek it. God's ineffable mercy allows one to climb from the deepest pit to a new life, forgiven, cleansed, and whole.

The Governor's press conference was a striking contrast to the carefully staged press conferences that have been held by other public officials in similar circumstances. There was no spin, no justification, just a man who stood and bared something rare in public life -- a profound sorrow, regret and humiliation for hurting his family, friends and supporters. Most of all, he seemed profoundly sorrowful for falling short of his own core convictions.

The Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers illustrates that God often permits evil and adversity to enter our lives, that the evil we devise may become the good that God bestows. Were we sinless, we would have no need of a Savior. The future awaiting our good but flawed Governor may not be the future Mark Sanford dreamed of, but it can be infinitely greater if he yields to the plan that God has for his life and that of his family. For that far greater good and future, people of faith will stand by our Governor and pray for him and for his family.

'Ark of the Covenant' About to be Unveiled?

Ethiopian patriarch tells pope he will show artifact to world

From WorldNetDaily

The patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia says he will announce to the world Friday the unveiling of the Ark of the Covenant, perhaps the world's most prized archaeological and spiritual artifact, which he says has been hidden away in a church in his country for millennia, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.

Abuna Pauolos, in Italy for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI this week, told the news agency, "Soon the world will be able to admire the Ark of the Covenant described in the Bible as the container of the tablets of the law that God delivered to Moses and the center of searches and studies for centuries."

Read the rest of this entry >>

Obama Advisor Won’t Guarantee Americans Will Keep Their Health Plan

Here's Christina Romer, Obama's Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, unable to answer a basic question about the Democrat health care plan, and unwilling to state that Americans will be able to continue coverage they currently enjoy, although that had been one of their promises until recently. The concept of choice has very limited application for socialists.

Mike Huckabee: "Proud to Endorse Marco Rubio"

Former Gitmo Detainee Accused of Killing 3 Missionaries

And if Obama has his way, thugs like this will be resettled in your neighborhood.

From OneNewsNow
By Chad Groening

A best-selling author and critic of Islam says he can't understand why U.S. President Barack Obama and the United Nations are not expressing more outrage over the execution-style murder of three Christian missionaries in Yemen, apparently by al Qaeda.

According to a spokesman from the Yemeni Embassy in Washington, nine foreign nationals -- four German adults, three small German children, a British man, and a South Korean woman -- were abducted on June 12 after they ventured outside the city of Saada without their required police escorts.

Days later the bodies of German nurses Rita Stumpp and Anita Gruenwald, and Eom Young-sun of South Korea were found shot execution style in an area known to be a hotbed of Al Qaeda activity. The fate of the remaining six abducted people remains a mystery.

Terrorism experts say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's number two man in the Arabian Peninsula -- Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic terrorist who once was in American custody but who was released from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Robert Spencer is, director of Jihad Watch, says this illustrates the folly of Obama's plan to close GITMO and release potentially dangerous prisoners.

"Freeing some of them is unconscionable, and essentially criminal. Barack Obama had begun to pursue a course based on the assumption that all the conflicts between the West and Islamic world are all our fault. Well what happened in Yemen indicates that that's a bankrupt and inaccurate point of view," he contends. "The President of the United States and the United Nations, if they were really doing their jobs, would be protesting."

Spencer points out that Christians are not allowed to proselytize in the Muslim world, and he believes that is likely why the three were murdered.

Obama Seeks Politically Correct Science, Sacks Bio-Ethics Panel

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

The White House has dismissed the members of the President’s US Council on Bioethics just a few months before their mandate expires, indicating their services are no longer required by the President and that he is looking for a more “practical” advisory board.

The New York Times reported that Reid Cherlin, a White House press officer, told the paper that President Barack Obama saw them as "a philosophically leaning advisory group" designed by the previous Bush administration, and he wanted to appoint a new bioethics commission which instead "offers practical policy options."

Dr. Alta Charo, an ethicist at the University of Wisconsin, told the Times that a new bioethics commission should form an ethically defensible public policy for the government instead of being what she said “seemed more like a public debating society.”

The presidential council’s mandate was set to expire in September. The group still had one last meeting and some reports to finish, including one on organ markets, before they were abruptly dissolved with one day’s notice.

The move has prompted speculation that the advisory committee’s public dissent from the President’s executive order to fund new lines of embryonic stem-cells and begin cloning human embryos for scientific research may have precipitated their dismissal.

Earlier in March, 10 out of 18 members of the council had issued a public letter to President Obama expressing their dismay, calling the decision to devote taxpayer dollars to such embryo-destroying research “a step backward,” because it did not respect the moral and ethical reservations that still exist among the American public.

Obama’s executive order overturned restrictions put in place by the Bush Administration, and instructed the National Institute of Health to develop new guidelines and put them in place by July 7.

Dr. David Prentice, a Senior Fellow for Life Sciences at the Family Research Council noted in an article on the FRC blog that Obama likely dismissed them before the expiration of their work since, “It would be embarrassing to have another round of criticism from an existing ‘President’s Council.’”

President Bush had created the President's Council on Bioethics in November 2001 as an advisory board on bio-ethical issues after he decided to allow federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research, but limited the research to 21 stem-cell lines already in existence. That council replaced an earlier advisory bioethics committee to President Clinton, which had expired by then.

"We have to ask why the President has disbanded this effective and well-regarded council,” protested Daniel McConchie, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Americans United for Life (AUL). “Is this a move toward a council that is more of a rubber stamp of his administration's priorities, rather than a group that actively debates current issues with all perspectives having a seat at the table?"

Dr. Peter Lawler, a member of the terminated bio-ethics council, states that President Bush had convened a council not for the sake of giving his policies an imprimatur, but had given them “the additional mandate of public education, of developing a national dialogue on controversial bioethical issues.”

“The truth is that the Kass Council was full of experts who disagreed on what the science says about who we are,” writes Dr. Peter Lawler, a member of the disbanded council, in a reflection written for the Weekly Standard.

Lawler points out that the council’s experts, such as Robert George of Princeton, leading neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, Francis Fukuyama, all had profoundly differing views on the status of human embryos.

“I want to emphasize that this was a scientific dispute on the moral implications of what the studies show conducted at the highest level,” wrote Lawler. “Socratic dialogue illuminated the disagreement and allowed those involved to remain friends in common pursuit of the truth, but no expert consensus emerged.

“No Council member was ideological in the sense of having anything but the highest respect for and full openness to what we can learn from science. And if expert means being a genuine scientific authority, they were all clearly among our nation's most formidable experts,” he said.

“There's no substitute, in a democracy, for thinking together about who we are before deciding what to do, and it's not ‘anti-science’ to sometimes conclude that science alone doesn't resolve every dilemma we face about human freedom and dignity.”

A view of the reports by the US Bioethics Council and previous commissions can be obtained here

Obama, Iran, and the Rising of the Sun

The Wolf Howling blog provides evidence that blocked signals and a government's refusal to broadcast The One's speeches, do not prevent the masses from hearing the master's voice.

From Wolf Howling

The White House, along with the assistance of the NYT, is now taking credit for the revolt in Iran, tying the motivation of rank and file Iranians to risk life and limb in protest of their government to Obama's Cairo speech occurring two weeks before the election. This becomes truly an act of divine intervention when one realizes that the "speech was not broadcast in Iran, where the goverment jammed signals to block satellite owners from watching." But Obama and his many Obamaphiles in the MSM are not about to let facts get in their way. It is impossible to imagine a more aggrandizing and arrogant spin of fantasy.ngton Post reported today:

. . . Since taking office, Obama has argued that reclaiming America's moral authority by ending torture and closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay provides essential diplomatic leverage to influence events in such strategic parts of the world as the Middle East and Central Asia. The speech he delivered to the Islamic world in Cairo eights days before the June 12 Iranian election sought to do that by providing what the president saw as an unvarnished accounting of U.S. policy in Iran, Iraq, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Yesterday, the NYT attempted to make essentially the same argument. The claims of the White House and their NYT sycophants to the contrary, Obama contributed nothing to the cause of this rebellion. There is not a single fact to suggest that this rebellion in Iran occurred because of an "Obama effect," nor that "the mere election of Barack Obama in the United States had galvanized reformers in Iran to demand change." In his prior acts of outreach to the mad mullahs, Obama only bestowed legitimacy on Iran's theocracy.

The Washington Post reported today:

. . . Since taking office, Obama has argued that reclaiming America's moral authority by ending torture and closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay provides essential diplomatic leverage to influence events in such strategic parts of the world as the Middle East and Central Asia. The speech he delivered to the Islamic world in Cairo eights days before the June 12 Iranian election sought to do that by providing what the president saw as an unvarnished accounting of U.S. policy in Iran, Iraq, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We're trying to promote a foreign policy that advances our interests, not that makes us feel good about ourselves," said a senior administration official who, like others, declined to be identified, citing the sensitivity of the issue.

Obama's approach to Iran, including his assertion that the unrest there represents a debate among Iranians unrelated to the United States, is an acknowledgment that a U.S. president's words have a limited ability to alter foreign events in real time and could do more harm than good. But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic's Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

Yesterday, the NYT attempted to make essentially the same argument. The claims of the White House and their NYT sycophants to the contrary, Obama contributed nothing to the cause of this rebellion. There is not a single fact to suggest that this rebellion in Iran occurred because of an "Obama effect," nor that "the mere election of Barack Obama in the United States had galvanized reformers in Iran to demand change." In his prior acts of outreach to the mad mullahs, Obama only bestowed legitimacy on Iran's theocracy.

The fact that Obama's Cairo speech never made it into Iran kind of puts the kibosh on the White House claims that the speech played a role in motivating the protests. Further, even if Obama's Cairo speech was not jammed throughout Iran, nothing Obama said in Cairo could possibly be construed as giving impetus to Iran's rank and file to risk their very lives for democracy. Indeed, Obama clearly signalled in the speech that he had no intention of continuing to promote democracy in the Middle East. And lest there be any question about that, Obama "zeroed out funding for pro-democracy programs inside Iran from the State Department budget for fiscal 2010."

A viable argument can be made that we are seeing the wages of Bush's decision to invade Iraq. As I wrote last year:

The greatest threat to Iran today comes from a democratic Iraq on its border that honors the traditional Shia practice of quietism - i.e., maintaining a wall between mosque and state. Iran is a deeply troubled country of 60 million people held under the rule of a medieval theocracy by ever greater repression. The theocracy itself is illegitimate when looked at in terms of a millenium of apolitical Shia tradition - a tradition shredded in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini and his velyat-e-faqi, a new philosophy justifying and requiring theocratic rule. And indeed, the most popular religious figure in both Iraq and Iran is now Grand Ayatolah Ali Sistani, an adherent to the quietist school.

And if you want to see how that was having an impact on Iranians, do see this 2007 Boston Globe article, "Shi'ite Cleric Gains Sway Across The Border."

That said, even if Iraq plays some role in Iran's uprising, it is beyond challenge that the major causes of Iran's rebellion have been present for years. Brutal repression, a mysoginist culture that legally treats women as second class citizens, a thoroughly corrupt theocracy, unemployment above 20% and inflation at equal numbers. All of that is multiplied in importance by the fact that a majority of Iranians are under thirty years old and who have little opportunities open to them under Iran's theocracy. Most of these causes were present in Iran a decade ago and gave life to the "Tehran Spring" uprisings. The final straw giving rise to those uprisings was a belief that conservatives were keeping the reformist President Khatami from enacting reforms. In the instant case, what has caused today's revolt is the perception that mid level cleric cum Supreme Guide Khameini committed massive election fraud in order to keep a reformer out of office.

For Obama or his sychophants to claim credit for this uprising leaves one near speechless. It follows the same logic as saying that, because Obama said the sun will rise yesterday, the fact that it rose today is proof that Obama is the cause of it. That this tripe is being peddled by the NYT yesterday and reported without the scorn it deserves from the Washinton Post today - apparently without either even checking to see whether the speech was broadcast in Iran - establishes possibly the high water mark of the MSM's unquestioning love for the One. They are not a questioning press. They are instead unfiltered conduits for raw spin from the White House. To go any further than this in order to show their love for the One requries a hotel room.

Catholic Survivors of Auschwitz Lament Politicization of Holocaust

From Catholic World News

Polish Catholic survivors of Auschwitz recently commemorated the 59th anniversary of the opening of the infamous concentration camp. Commenting on “repeated refusals to acknowledge the Polish and Catholic victims,” Michael Preisler of the Holocaust Documentation Committee of the Polish American Congress said, “Unfortunately, there’s an ugly anti-Polish and anti-Catholic bias that keeps on showing up among a lot of Holocaust writers and people in the media. They twist the Holocaust as a way to express their prejudice.”

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Polish Catholic Survivors Recall Day Auschwitz Began (Polish American Congress)

From Our Mail: Urgent Action Needed on ‘Jail-a-Pastor/Protect-a-Pedophile’ Bill

From: Traditional Values Coalition

Re: Urgent Action Needed

Your immediate help is needed!!! -- The Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on the so-called hate crimes bill (S. 909), the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, this coming Thursday at 10 a.m.

Take Action Immediately To Defeat This Bill!

• S. 909 is a “jail-a-pastor/protect-a-pedophile,” bill. It will add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected minority groups under federal law. Neither of these terms are defined in the bill.
  
  
• S. 909, the so-called hate crimes bill will protect a multitude of bizarre sexual orientations – including pedophiles and sexual sadists – but will threaten pastors who may give a Biblical teaching on the gay agenda. It ensures that crimes against a transgender, drag queen, gay man or lesbian are treated more harshly than a sexual assault on a child. Under this measure, pedophiles are a protected class. As a result, if a parent assaults a pedophile for molesting a child, the parent can be convicted of a hate crime and receive an enhanced sentence.
  
  
• The Senate version is based on fake “Findings” to justify federal intrusion into local law enforcement.
  
  
• The Senate version has no religious protection at all. The House version contained fake protections. A pastor’s sermon could be considered ‘hate speech’ under this legislation if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on ‘sexual orientation.’ The pastor could be prosecuted for “conspiracy to commit a hate crime.”
  
  
• During debate over the House version of this bill (H.R. 1913), Democrat Alcee Hastings (FL) admitted that this bill will protect a multitude of bizarre sexual orientations!

Don’t be misled. Representatives and Senators are sending out misinformation about this legislation and what it will do or not do. Claims that it protects religious freedom are false; claims that it doesn’t protect a multitude of bizarre sexual orientations are also false.

(Watch the webcast of this hearing on Thursday morning.)

TAKE ACTION: Action is needed immediately to defeat the so-called hate crimes bill, S. 909.

• If your Senator is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee call him/her immediately to urge a NO vote out of committee. Click here for list of Senate Judiciary Committee members.
  
  
• You should also email both your Senators.
  
  
• If your Senator is not on the committee, email him/her to vote NO when it comes to the floor for a vote.
  
  
• It is very important to alert others. Please forward this email to 10 friends/relatives/co-workers.
  
  
• Donate to TVC. We have worked hard and long to defeat this bill giving information to Senators and House Members and alerting the grassroots. We do need your financial help.

S. 909 is a very dangerous bill. It will threaten religious freedom, is built on lies and will protect bizarre sexual attractions. Following are articles based on the House version, which is virtually the same as the Senate version.

• Pastor’s Threatened By Hate Crime Legislation
• So-Called hate crime bill threatens religious freedom
• Here We Go Again: Ridiculous ‘Hate Crime’ Legislation
• Protecting 30 Bizarre “Sexual Orientations” And “Gender Identity” -- Ever-Expanding Definitions
• Democrats Refuse To Exclude Pedophiles In ‘Hate Crimes’ Bill
• Is Your Minister a ‘Hate Crime’ Peddler?
• Misleading ‘Hate Crime’ Statistics
• Democrat Admits ‘Hate Crime’ Bill Will Protect 30 Sexual Orientations

Hundreds of Conservative Ex-Episcopalian Parishes Form New Anglican Body

From Catholic World News

Hundreds of conservative parishes formerly associated with the Episcopal Church are forming the Anglican Church in North America. The new denomination seeks “to ensure an orthodox Anglican Province in North America that remains connected to a faithful global Communion.” The church professes adherence to Sacred Scripture, the first four ecumenical councils, parts of the fifth, sixth, and seventh ecumenical councils, the Thirty-Nine Articles “in their literal and grammatical sense,” and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Anglican Church in North America
• U.S. Anglican Church launches, will ban female, gay bishops (USA Today)

Farah's $10,000 Birth Certificate Challenge

Editor encourages readers to help him up the ante

From WorldNetDaily

WND Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah is offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can prove he or she was present at the birth of Barack Obama – and he's asking Americans to donate to the cause in hopes of raising the bounty to an irresistible amount.

"Barack Obama claims to have been born in Honolulu Aug. 4, 1961," explains Farah. "His entire constitutional claim to the presidency rests on this premise. Yet, he refuses to release a copy of his long-form birth certificate – the only document that could possibly corroborate his claim. Therefore, in the interest of truth, justice and the Constitution, I am making the extraordinary offer to entice someone to come forward with the facts of his birth – whether it took place in Hawaii or elsewhere."

Obama has steadfastly refused to release evidence of that Hawaiian birth – a valid, long-form birth certificate that would show details of the birth, such as the hospital and the attending physician. Because the short-form "certification of live birth" he released to select news organization was at least sometimes issued for foreign births on the basis of an affidavit by one parent, it proves nothing as far as constitutional eligibility – and, in fact, raises suspicions about a foreign birth.

To date, no hospital in Hawaii has come forward to claim this historic birth.

No doctor or nurse has come forward to say they were present for that historic birth.

No witness of any kind has come forward to say they have first-hand knowledge or involvement in that historic birth – at least in Hawaii.

Obama's paternal grandmother, Sarah Obama, claims to have been present for the birth in Mombassa, Kenya.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Mike Huckabee on the Election in Iran

Senator DeMint Introduces Parental Rights Amendment

Senator Jim DeMint's star in the political firmament burns brighter with every passing day.

We were delighted to read today that South Carolina's great United States Senator is the chief sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 16, a Parental Rights Amendment that will explicity protect the rights of parents in the Constitution as a fundamental right and not just an implied right. The companion legislation in the House is House Joint Resolution 42, and was introduced by Representative Pete Hoekstra of Michigan. The legislation seeks to protect states' rights from international law and treaties. DeMint explains:

"As we look at where this country is going, particularly [regarding] more association with the United Nations and [consideration of] the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, these treaties would supersede all the laws in 50 states."

Additional information about Senator DeMint's legislation and the parental rights movement is available here.

OneNationUnderGod.org Launches Prayer Campaign for Conversion of Catholic Politicians

In a spirit of hope and Christian charity, OneNationUnderGod is launching a prayer campaign specifically focused on the conversion of Catholic politicians to further foster a Culture of Life in our country.

This effort will commence today, June 22, 2009--the feast day of St. Thomas More, whom Pope John Paul II proclaimed the patron saint of statesmen and politicians. A 16th-century English chancellor who refused to accept King Henry VIII as the head of the Church of England, St. Thomas More held a passion for the truth that enlightened his conscience and led him to know that, just as man must be one with God, so politics must be with morality.

In the 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae, John Paul II reiterates what the Catholic Church has always taught: that lawmakers have a grave and clear obligation to oppose any law that contradicts humanity's fundamental right to life.

Months ago, we discovered that 50 percent of Catholic politicians serving in the 111th Congress have accepted large donations from pro-abortion lobby groups while reinforcing their support for abortion rights legislation. These elected officials are deeply confused about Catholic teaching on the morality of abortion.

Catholic legislators who support abortion rights fail to recognize that legitimate social policy must be guided by absolute truth. Many of these legislators cite "primacy of conscience" to justify their support for abortion rights, embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia. However, a properly formed conscience recognizes the essential truth of Catholic teaching--that human life is sacred and inviolable from the moment of conception until natural death.

Over the past few months, we contacted the bishops of these Catholic members of Congress, to shed light on their abortion rights voting records and the money they accepted from abortion lobbyists. We respectfully asked that they continue to minister to these lawmakers. Their spiritual direction gives invaluable insight to our Catholic legislators, reaffirming "that life is entrusted to man's responsibility."

Through the spiritual gifts of our Catholic faith we invite you to join our Prayer Campaign for the Conversion of our Catholic Politicians who hold such great influence over the lives of the innocent. Specifically, we ask that you adopt a Catholic member of Congress and pledge a daily spiritual devotion for their enlightenment and for the continued inspiration of their bishop.

To support this effort, please go to this website.

Religious Freedom or 'Silly Prejudice'?

From The Christian Post
By Chuck Colson

One government official fumed that Catholic doctors were refusing to perform abortions - abortions that were perfectly legal. He wrote in a memo: “After all, these scruples are in most cases nothing but ridiculous prejudices . . . One is tempted to ask: where does state authority come in these cases, or else, is the state, perhaps, not anxious to assert its authority in this particular instance?”

Well, Nazi Germany was seldom hesitant to assert its authority, even over religion and individual conscience. As described in the June/July issue of First Things, the government official I just quoted was a Nazi bureaucrat who was none-too-happy that doctors in Italy’s Lake District-a heavily Catholic region-wouldn’t perform abortions. The Nazis, you see, had legalized abortions “in countries occupied by the Germany army.” Refusal to participate in government-sanctioned procedures drew his ire.

Fast forward to today, where there is heavy debate over whether medical professionals can be exempted from performing services that violate their religious beliefs.

The comparison is fair. And disturbing. But the problem isn’t restricted to medical practice.

Just last month, the New Hampshire legislature voted down a gay “marriage” bill because the governor had the audacity to insert language that would protect clergy and religious organizations from being forced to participate in gay “marriage” ceremonies or from providing marriage-related services.

As reported in the Concord Monitor, one New Hampshire legislator opposed what he called the “totally unnecessary and harmful amendment” because it “entrenches homophobia in statute.”

So, one man’s religious freedom, it seems, is another man’s homophobia-or silly prejudice, as the Nazi official called it.

Another legislator was quoted as saying, "It is puzzling to me, why we would allow some to discriminate and others not."

Maybe he is wondering, as the Nazi official did, “where state authority comes in this case.”

As I write in the upcoming June issue of Christianity Today-which I urge you to read-totalitarianism thrives when the state succeeds in what Hannah Arendt called the “atomization of society.” Arendt, a political theorist who fled Nazi Germany, described how totalitarian states seek to create a mass of individuals isolated from the very structures that have held civilized societies together for eons. Once individuals are alienated from families or from their faith communities or civic groups, they stand alone before the power of the state.

Is the United States teetering on the edge of totalitarianism? No.

But, should we Christians be concerned when the government seeks to strip health care workers of their right of conscience? Should we sniff out danger when a state fails to protect the religious rights of clergy, or wedding planners, or photographers who choose not to participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies? Or when a new administration considers whether or not to force faith-based groups to cease what it considers “discriminatory” hiring practices?

Should we be concerned? Yes, we should.

America's Betrayal of the Iranian Freedom Fighters

President Obama has been handed a huge opportunity to contrast the ideals of American freedom, democracy and self-determination, with the fascist terror regime ruling Iran. The freedom fighters bleeding and dying in Iran would welcome America's leadership in galvanizing world opinion and supporting an end to that tyranny. Such leadership would also make reparation for the policies of Jimmy Carter that did so much to bring the current regime to power.

Unfortunately, when Obama finally spoke, his statement was so ambivalent it was not clear whether he was condemning the violence of the government, the freedom fighters, or in his usual way, seeing moral equivalence between the mullahs and those risking their lives in the streets.

We should not be surprised. We can hardly expect one who is embarrassed by, and apologetic for America's role in the world, to understand the aspirations of young freedom fighters in Tehran. Obama's indifference to their struggle was even too much for members of his own party in Congress, which has passed a resolution supporting the freedom fighters.

In the following article, Paul Kengor contrasts the ambivalence of the current administration with President Reagan's support for freedom-loving insurgents around the world.

From American Thinker
By Paul Kengor

I frequently get asked how Ronald Reagan would react to certain situations. I've gotten those questions a lot lately given the penchant for central planning by the new team Americans elected in Washington.

But nowhere is there a Reagan lesson that needs heeded as desperately as in Iran right now. The desperation is more apparent daily as President Obama doesn't seem to recognize -- or doesn't know how to support -- the huge historical opportunity before his eyes, and quickly slipping through his fingers.

What would be Reagan's reaction to what's happening in Iran? That's a slam-dunk: He would have responded as he did to every cry for freedom suffocating under the last global scourge America battled -- Soviet communism. Wherever those resisting the despots resided and raised their voices, in Afghanistan, in Nicaragua, in Poland, Reagan was consistent, never missing the opportunity, always staying on theme. He called these people "freedom fighters."

He did so unequivocally, boldly, proudly, loudly, with the left often trashing him and undermining him, contesting whether this or that group met their criteria as legitimate "freedom" fighters. Reagan was undeterred. He recognized the historical imperative, what he called the March of Freedom. The freedom marchers needed America and its president to urge them on.

The total Reagan statements promoting these freedom fighters are literally uncountable. I know this well, as I collected them for research purposes. Reagan didn't simply step to the microphone to encourage these people at certain crisis moments; he called them out routinely, regularly, including in special, newly created ceremonies with names like Afghan Freedom Day, Solidarity Day, Captive Nations Week, and honoring things like "Observance of the Afghan New Year" or speaking at the annual Pulaski Day Banquet in New York City. In these statements, the president of the United States and unapologetic leader of the free world -- Reagan took that task to heart -- mercilessly blasted the tyrants with just about every name in the book.

Reagan didn't play footsies with dictators. He knew human nature. He knew evil. He knew who was wrong. He knew the dictators were bad regardless of whether we were nice. Not condemning them wouldn't make them behave better.

Read the rest of this entry >>

Katherine Jenkins - "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"

Father's Love Letter

Today Everyone is an Iranian

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." John F. Kennedy

From American Thinker
By Amil Imani

Today, all Iranian expatriates are united in solidarity with the Iranian people in Iran. Today, we are all standing tall to let the world hear our continuous aspiration for a free and democratic Iran. Today, we pledge ourselves, under the divine inspiration, to stand beside the Iranians in Iran and echo their voices around the globe. Today, we make history, yet again.

It is critical that freedom-loving people, governments and media, rally behind the Iranian people and end the tyrannical mullahcracy that is a scourge on Iran as well as the world. The Iranian people themselves are fully capable and are determined to remove the cancer of Islamism from their country. The United States and Israel and other democracies have a huge stake in the success of the Iranian people to rid themselves of the Islamic oppression and tyranny.

The situation in Iran is dire indeed. Anyone who believes that sane rational people on both sides are engaged in brinkmanship to secure the best advantage, but would eventually work out a compromise, is deluding himself. In some cases, time works as a healer and even as a solution of thorny problems. Yet, this problem will not go away, and time would only make the cataclysmic clash more likely and deadly. The best chance for resolving the impasse is regime change in Iran.

For the past thirty years, the intrepid Iranians have been paying with their blood for liberty, independence and human dignity while the world looked the other way and did business with the Islamist rulers in Iran. Thirty years ago, a fanatic Shi'a Muslim by the name of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, with the assistance of western governments (with Jimmy Carter on top of the list), succeeded in overthrowing the Shah of Iran during Iran's 1979 revolution.

Read the rest of this entry >>

A Two-Country Freedom Fighter

This blog's first post on July 3, 2007, paid tribute to the role Poland has played in defending freedom and western civilization at times of maximum danger. That subject was chosen because, in our view, no people have fought for freedom more valiantly and persistently than the Polish. The following book review profiles one of those great freedom fighters.

A Book Review From The Wall Street Journal
By Aram Bakshian Jr.

The Peasant Prince
By Alex Storozynski
Thomas Dunne, 370 pages, $29.95

When the great African-American educator and ­human-rights pioneer Booker T. Washington visited Krakow, Poland, in 1910, he made a ­special point of paying tribute to a dead white male with the nigh-unpronounceable name of ­Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko.

“I knew from my school ­history what Kosciuszko had done for America in its early struggle for independence,” Washington would later write. “I did not know, however, until my attention was called to it in Krakow, what Kosciuszko had done for the freedom and ­education of my own people. . . . When I visited the tomb of ­Kosciuszko, I placed a rose on it in the name of my race.”

In his views on race, as in so many other matters, Tadeusz (Thaddeus in English) ­Kosciuszko (1746-1811) was a man ahead of his time. A ­freedom fighter on two continents, he did not hesitate to denounce the evils of slavery while ­playing a crucial role as chief engineer in America’s fledgling Continental Army. In his native Poland, he appealed to the ­patriotism of the privileged classes as he championed full civil rights for the dis­enfranchised majority of ­Poland’s peasants, Jews and city-dwelling commoners. But he also upheld the rule of law and opposed mob violence. He was, in the words of French historian Jules Michelet, “the last knight, but the first citizen in Slavic lands with a modern understanding of brotherhood and equality.”

Despite his heroic efforts, Kosciuszko’s fatherland had to wait a century after his death before regaining independence from Russia. The world would have to wait even longer for an accessible, soundly researched, English-language biography. With “The Peasant Prince,” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Storozynski has filled the void.

Read the rest of this entry >>

President Reagan's 1982 Commencement Address at Eureka College

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library has been releasing superb videos of their ongoing Reagan Forum, as well as historical videos of the late President.

In the following video, President Reagan gives the 1982 commencement address at his alma mater, Eureka College, fifty years after his own graduation. The speech, given early in his presidency and with all its references to the world situation of that day, is a testament to how dramatically Ronald Reagan changed the world.

Friends With Benefits

"Are we witnessing the quiet spread of heterophobia?"

From The American Spectator
By George Neumayr

Thursday's Washington Post contained comprehensive coverage, three stories no less, of Barack Obama's presidential memorandum that decrees in these dark days of recession new "benefits to partners of federal workers." But don't worry, your scarce hard-earned tax dollars won't go to all domestic lovers. Just homosexual ones.

The memorandum "does not cover domestic heterosexual partners," reports the Post. And who largely drafted the memorandum? John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, who is "the highest-ranking openly gay person in the administration."

Heterosexual sinners need to hire better lobbyists, or hope that Obama soon finds in his impressively massive heart a new and richer understanding of their attempts at semi-committed love.

Again I ask: Are we witnessing the quiet spread of heterophobia? Why should a Carrie Prejean not enjoy the ample protections of Obama's hate-crime laws? Why should the girlfriends of fornicating federal workers not receive, as homosexuals now do, "long-term-care insurance benefits" for their short-term relationships?

As I don't need to tell you, this president is deeply committed to "competitiveness" and released his memorandum with the efficiency of the federal government at the very top of his mind: "Extending available benefits will help the Federal Government compete with the private sector to recruit and retain the best and the brightest employees." But doesn't he see that by denying benefits to the heterosexually shacked-up he is risking the loss of their abundant talents too?

This nation cannot afford to lose a single one of the federal government's 2 million civil servants. Remember how impossible life became after Bill Clinton shut the federal government down due to Newt Gingrich's recalcitrance and sent, I'm sorry to use this cruel term but it was the state-of-the-art phrase at the time, "unessential workers" home? No one wants to go through that again.

What, you may be wondering, are the benefits in Wednesday's memorandum that will make the federal government a little more brisk? One apparently is that gay federal workers can now take time off to care for "children not related by blood or adoption."

Say a child is struggling with "LGBT" issues of one kind or another; that federal worker could now take the afternoon off and sooth the youngster by reading with him or her President Obama's proclamation, addressed in part to "LGBT" youth, that declared June "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month."

Gay activists seemed a little surly after Obama went to the trouble of signing an order that elevates them and snubs heterosexuals. What gives? Unlike Republican pols, who find the pro-lifers to whom they have to hurl bones from time to time very boring and tiresome, Obama actually likes and agrees with his ideological base. He has made it clear to gay activists, via his wife, that his nominal opposition to gay marriage is political, not philosophical, and that once the coast is clear he will endorse it in every state.

Why the impatience? Well, at least Candy Holmes has things in perspective. A veteran of the Government Accountability Office, she told the Post that the words "hopeful" and "excited" describe her mood. She wants "to believe this is the beginning of equality."

Holmes and her lesbian partner, by the way, "are both ordained clergy with the Metropolitan Community Church," so perhaps in the near future they will have a little more time for troubled youth and some freed-up money, otherwise used on niggling insurance plans, for more affirming purchases, such as the memoirs of Milwaukee Archbishop Emeritus Rembert Weakland.


George Neumayr is editor of Catholic World Report and press critic for California Political Review.

Minnesota Congresswoman Vows Not to Complete US Census

According to today's Washington Times, Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is worried that personal questions in the 2010 Census will be abused by the Obama administration and their ACORN census takers. Bachmann states:

"I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home. We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Bachmann's resolution may be a good first step for the Tea Party Movement in resisting intrusive, big government and restoring the United States Constitution.

Solemnity of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

Federal Civil Rights Commission Warns Hate Crimes Bill Poses “Menace” to Civil Liberties

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

The US Commission on Civil Rights has now weighed in the hate crimes debate, imploring the Senate to vote against the measure, which would not only make homosexuals a protected group, but more importantly would allow the federal government to have an individual prosecuted a second time under its rules for the same crime.

The federal commission sent the communiqué, dated June 16, to sixteen leaders in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which was then posted by National Review’s blog, the Corner, by Peter Kirsanow.

The letter comes just as leading Senate Democrats have confirmed that a vote on Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (MSHCPA - S. 909) will come sometime before the end of the August recess, but not this week, contradicting an earlier report based on information provided by an unnamed source to the Washington Blade. The letter is a reiteration of the commissioners concerns, which were delivered to House leaders back in April.

“We believe that MSHCPA will do little good and a great deal of harm,” states the commissioners’ letter, warning that, “Its most important effect will be to allow federal authorities to re-prosecute a broad category of defendants who have already been acquitted by state juries — as in the Rodney King and Crown Heights cases more than a decade ago.”

The commissioners’ letter stated that although the US Constitution forbids an individual from “double jeopardy” – being tried by the government twice for the same offense – there are no protections in place under the Constitution for prosecution by “dual sovereigns” - indicating that the “hate crimes” bill opens up an individual to a double prosecution by state and federal government, violating the spirit of the law, but technically not the letter.

“We regard the broad federalization of crime as a menace to civil liberties,” stated the commissioners. They pointed out that the loophole to “double jeopardy” exists because the authors of the Bill of Rights “never dreamed that federal criminal jurisdiction would be expanded to the point where an astonishing proportion of crimes are now both state and federal offenses.”

They continue that the law as written does not merely require “the defendant be inspired by hatred or ill will in order to convict.” Instead, “It is sufficient if he acts ‘because of’ someone’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.”

The letter indicates that “prosecutors will have ‘two bites at the apple’ for a very large number of crimes,” because the objective language of the law opens up the possibility that individuals accused of a crime that is perceived to fill any one of the “hate crimes” criteria could face trial twice. The letter gives the example that those accused with rape or robbing a disabled victim, could face trial twice for the same crime, because the victims in these circumstances “literally … are chosen ‘because of’ their gender or disability.”

“DOJ [Department of Justice] officials have argued that MSHCPA is needed because state procedures sometimes make it difficult to obtain convictions,” continued the letter.

“Such an argument should send up red flags. It is just an end-run around state procedures designed to ensure a fair trial.”

The Senate bill (S. 909), along with its companion legislation in the House (H.R. 1913), adds "sexual orientation" and “gender identity” as well as race, religion, class, gender, and disability to categories that are protected as "hate crimes.” Under this legislation, crimes against individuals who belong to the protected classes receive stiffer penalties than crimes against other groups not mentioned by the bill, a fact that critics charge makes “second class citizens” out of those not covered by the law.

Christian leaders have expressed particular concern that attempts to secure the right to speak against the homosexual lifestyle and its normalization have failed. Among many rejected proposals for the bill was one offered by Rep. Louis Gohmert, R-Texas, which would have included a clause ensuring ministers could not be prosecuted for abetting a "hate crime" simply because they preached the Christian perspective on homosexuality.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the Congressman who introduced H.R. 1913, claimed the bill posed no danger to Christian free speech, saying that it "only applies to bias-motivated violent crimes and does not impinge public speech or writing in any way." Section 10 of H.R. 1913 states: "Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."

Yet free speech advocates have pointed out that under current U.S. law, any action that "abets, counsels, commands, [or] induces" a perceived "hate crime" shares in the guilt of that crime, and is therefore punishable.

Legislators opposed to the measure have also called it the "pedophile protection act," after House members refused to approve an amendment specifying that the bill define “sexual orientation,” an oversight that some legislators charge could lead to a too broad interpretation – since the term is used by the American Psychiatric Association to encompass over 547 sexual deviancies (including pedophilia), and not just homosexuality.

WorldNetDaily reports that sources in the Senate tell them the campaign protesting the passage of “hate crimes” – which has generated at least 625,000 letters sent to Senators – has altered the dynamics in the Senate, where they had expected the vote on the bill to proceed smoothly.

Why a Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity “Hate Crimes” Law Is Bad for You

A reader has asked why it is important to oppose the "hate crimes" legislation now before the United States Senate, since it applies to violent crime involving a weapon. The following article explains why this "Trojan horse" legislation is so insidious and threatens American freedoms.

The irrelevant and inaccurate claim that this bill will not abridge your freedom of speech

By Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

Proponents of the current “hate crimes” bill before the U.S. Senate argue that it is a lie that this bill will abridge in any way free speech protections for those who publicly express opposition to homosexual practice without causing, or attempting to cause, bodily harm. This claim is both irrelevant and inaccurate.

The first step of getting “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” in federal law

It is irrelevant because, as noted in Part 1, this bill does most of its damage in creating, for the first time in federal law, the special legal-protective categories of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The first hurdle is the biggest: getting the categories of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” on the books. A “hate crimes” bill functions as—no double entendre intended—the Trojan horse of an aggressive gay/transgender lobby, offering to the public the “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” law least likely to meet with massive public resistance.

Once the Trojan Horse is within the city walls, the rest of the task is relatively easy. If “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” are special civil rights categories in federal law, then many other “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” laws must be passed if society is going to turn back the “homophobic hate” and “discrimination” that makes bodily crimes against homosexual and transgendered persons possible in the first place. President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress have already indicated their eagerness to advance this agenda.

Removing the explicit free-speech protection in the bill

The claim that this bill will not lead to an abridgement of free speech is not only irrelevant but also inaccurate. It is inaccurate, first, because the bill itself does not provide much in the way of protection of free speech rights. When it was first introduced into the House the bill contained this provision:

Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Democrats in committee removed the material in boldface so that what was voted on by the full House no longer contained the explicit mention of free speech and free exercise. The remaining phrase “expressive conduct protected …by the Constitution” begs the question about what “expressive conduct” is protected. No piece of legislation could abridge the Constitution anyway so the phrase is useless. The issue is what constitutes abridgement and that is not spelled out in this bill.

U.S. Code stipulating that inducement is as liable as commission

Second, it is inaccurate to claim that free speech will not be abridged inasmuch as other existing legislation requires an extension beyond actual physical violence.

United States Code Title 18, Section 2, stipulates that “whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.” Statements that “abet,” “counsel,” or “induce the commission” of bodily injury are thus not protected by the Constitution.

The omission of “any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses” makes it that much easier to prosecute strong statements against homosexual practice as abetting or counseling violence or as inducing its commission. There is nothing in this bill that explicitly prevents any homosexualist-activist judge, of which there are many, from ruling that calling homosexual acts a grave “abomination” by appeal to Levitical prohibitions constitutes an inducement to violence.

The existence of state and local “hate crimes” law that include mere disturbance

Third, this “hate crimes” bill puts free speech in jeopardy because some state and local “hate crime” laws already make simple assault or intimidation prosecutable offenses.

For example, the Illinois Hate Crime Law permits prosecution for mere assault (i.e., a threat or action that puts a person in apprehension of bodily harm prior to any actual harm), property trespass, “disorderly conduct,” or “harassment by telephone” or “electronic communications.” “Disorderly conduct” is defined in Illinois law as a person who “does any act in such unreasonable manner as to alarm or disturb another and to provoke a breach of the peace.”

In 2007 two 16-year old girls from Crystal Lake South High School (Ill.) were arrested on felony hate crime charges for distributing about 40 fliers on cars in the student parking lot of their high school. The fliers contained an anti-homosex slur (the media have not reported what precisely the slur was) and a photo of two boys kissing, one of whom was identified as a classmate. The fliers contained no threats of violence. One of the girls was apparently getting back at a boy with whom she had once been best friend.

Assistant state’s attorney for McHenry County, Thomas Carroll, commented: “You can be charged with a hate crime if you make a statement or take an action that inflicts injury or incites a breach of the peace based on a person's race, creed, gender, or perceived sexual orientation.” Another assistant state’s attorney, Robert Windon, said: “We do not feel this type of behavior is what the First Amendment protects.” State’s attorney Lou Bianchi insisted: “This is a classic case of the kind of conduct that the state legislature was directing the law against. This is what the legislators wanted to stop, this kind of activity.”

The girls spent 18 days in jail (a juvenile detention center) and appeared in court for their hearing with shackles on their ankles. They were ordered by the judge to remain in home detention on electronic monitoring until the court sentenced them some months later. Relieved that they would be allowed to return home for the time being, the girls sobbed uncontrollably in court. Prosecutors eventually dropped the felony hate-crime charge in exchange for a plea bargain, in which the girls pleaded guilty to lesser misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest (the girls fled the scene when a police officer arrived; they did not strike an officer).

The girls were sentenced to one year of probation, ordered to write letters of apology for distributing anti-gay fliers to the boy and the arresting officer, required to do 40 hours of community service, and given a two-week suspended sentence in the McHenry County Jail (to be implemented if the girls violated probation). The girls told the court that the whole matter was a joke that they took too far. State Attorney Louis Bianchi told the press that he still felt the hate crime charge was justified, while acknowledging that the plea bargain was fair for juveniles.

Conclusion

Claims that the homosexual and transsexual “hate crimes” bill soon to be voted on by the U.S. Senate will not lead to an abridgement of free speech rights and other liberties are both irrelevant and inaccurate.

They are irrelevant because the primary purpose of this bill is not to reduce “hate crimes” against homosexual and transgendered persons (laws against violent acts are already in place) but rather to establish “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as specially protected classifications in federal law. This establishment will make possible—indeed, inevitable—an avalanche of other “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” laws that in turn make “hateful bigots” of anyone who opposes homosexual and transsexual behavior.

They are inaccurate because (1) the bill has already had stripped from it explicit free-speech protection; (2) the U.S. legal code already stipulates that verbal “inducement” of a crime makes the inducer “punishable as a principal”; and (3) the federal “hate crimes” law will work in tandem with state and local “hate crime” laws, some of which already make prosecutable any “alarming” or “disturbing” of another.

After Obama Fails

No American President has ever died under the flag of his birth. The composition of the United States has changed routinely throughout its history. But a constantly expanding nation can also contract, and no less than the Governor of Texas has acknowledged the fissures created by big government, socialist, totalitarians. The growing Tea Party Movement, that will be seen again during the July 4 weekend, portends that either Americans will reclaim the old republic and its Constitution, or they will reassert the rights and prerogatives of the states that preceded it.

The following essay from American Thinker considers the consequences of an "extreme backlash" to a national government that no longer reflects core American values that are still very much alive in many states.

From American Thinker
By George Joyce

A failed presidency for Barack Obama could turn into liberalism's worst nightmare. Barely six months into his term, the 44th president has succeeded in generating the most widespread and serious discussion of secession since the Civil War. Despite what Newsweek's Evan Thomas may claim, Obama is not the "God" who will bring us together but the autocratic sponsor of an overbearing, oppressive leviathan from which a growing number of Americans are seeking refuge.

That refuge, according to author Paul Starobin, will come in the form of several regional republics that reflect the diverse character of Americans no longer bound in any meaningful way by our unrecognizable Federal government. In a riveting exploration of America 's coming breakup, Starobin writes in a recent Wall Street Journal article:

"Picture an America that is run not, as now, by a top-heavy Washington autocracy but, in freewheeling style, by an assemblage of largely autonomous regional republics reflecting the eclectic economic and cultural character of the society."

Starobin chronicles in fascinating detail the historical basis for America 's future balkanization. He provides a snapshot of today's most viable and vocal secessionist organizations. Starobin goes on to argue that the overbearing and stifling "Obama planners and their ilk" will probably be doomed to fail in a land replete with the Jeffersonian impulse of radical self-determination. Obama's extreme power grab, in other words, will cause a correspondingly extreme backlash:

"All of this adds up to a federal power grab that might make even FDR's New Dealers blush. But that's just the point: Not surprisingly, a lot of folks in the land of Jefferson are taking a stand against an approach that stands to make an indebted citizenry yet more dependent on an already immense federal power. The backlash, already under way, is a prime stimulus for a neo-secessionist movement, the most extreme manifestation of a broader push for some form of devolution."

By focusing most of his attention on how big unwieldy entities devolve into creative little ones, Starobin's analysis misses however the more direct personal role Barack Obama himself has played in fracturing America.

Back in March of last year for example New York Times columnist Roger Cohen told his audience he could "understand the rage" of Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Without missing a beat Cohen then concluded in his essay that the "clamoring now in the United States for a presidency that uplifts rather than demeans is a reflection of the intellectual desert of the Bush years."

Has Barack Obama's been an "uplifting" presidency? Mr. Obama knew full well that his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, dismissed the test results of white firefighters in New Haven, Connecticut, entitled to promotion but denied because they were of the wrong race. Surely her decision is demeaning to both white males and to those who study diligently for exams. Did the black firefighters feel uplifted or demeaned when Sotomayor ruled in their favor? Was the New Haven firehouse more unified or more divided after Sotomayor's ruling? Was Obama's Sotomayor choice uplifting or demeaning?

Indeed, from the Sotomayor pick and anti-business rhetoric to the endless lecturing about America 's sins, Mr. Obama is starting to sound a lot like his former pastor. To be sure Obama is not as grating and shrill as Mr. Wright but closer to something more like Jeremiah-lite. In other words, Mr. Obama's strategy seems to be to convince Americans to drink his socialist tonic out of sheer guilt. I'm not sure what is so inspiring about all of this.

Maybe this is why Starobin claims to be witnessing a lot of neo-secessionist activity. Wouldn't a new American devolution however be a liberal's worst nightmare? Beyond the psychosis most liberals would have to endure at the thought of losing any kind of control, the prospect of vibrant, happy, and successful conservative republics in places like Texas, South Carolina or Utah would be an inescapable spotlight forever exposing the failure of liberal ideology in a Republic of California.

But this brings up another problem. When the framers of the American Constitution favored a multi-state solution to the problem of centralized tyranny they argued that an additional benefit would be that each state could become a unique laboratory displaying the policy successes and failures to its neighbors. If the Republic of Texas chooses a classics curriculum for its youngsters, celebrates the family and tradition in its media, encourages personal responsibility in lieu of a nanny state, rewards citizens on the basis of merit, is tough on criminals, sends its politicians home after brief excursions to the capitol, is business friendly and generally leaves its citizens alone, how are those controlling the politically liberal Republics like California going to react?

What most liberals fail to understand is that their leisurely dabbling in progressive politics and moral equivalency is made possible by the existence of accumulated conservative moral capital. Remove the conservative anchor and progressive societies become dangerously seasick. I guess the lesson here is that liberals need conservatives more than conservatives need liberals (although society needs them on occasion). There is much in progressive ideology that simply seeks to undermine -- a strange method of establishing an identity.

While reading "A Little History of the World" to my kids the other day I came across an interesting observation by the author, E.H. Gombrich:

"Because the Egyptians were so wise and so powerful their empire lasted for a very long time. Longer than any empire the world has ever known: nearly three thousand years. And they took just as much care of their corpses, when they preserved them from rotting away, in preserving all their ancient traditions over the centuries. Their priests made quite sure that no son did anything his father had not done before him. To them, everything old was sacred."

When Obama fails it will be because he's convinced enough Americans to tire, as he has, of what used to be known as "America." Imagine what would have happened in Egypt had their priests adopted "liberation theology" rather than the standard of their fathers. A mere footnote in the pages of history.

Not Here, Not Now: Lithuania Says No to Same-Sex Propaganda in Schools

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith

Lithuania’s Parliament has given final approval to a law designed to prohibit young people from being indoctrinated in homosexual propaganda in school or through the media.

The Seimas, Lithuania’s parliamentary body, has given final approval to a law which bans schools and media outlets from disseminating information that "agitates for homosexual, bisexual relations or polygamy."

Lawmakers had debated and narrowly rejected on June 11 an amendment to the law, which would have fined or imprisoned proponents of the homosexual lifestyle up to three years.

The final version of the law was passed with 67 parliamentarians voting in favor, three against, and four abstaining.

The ruling conservative coalition has backed the law as part of its continued efforts to strengthen and encourage the natural family.

The Baltic Times reports that the law must still have the approval of the President, who has ten days to authorize a veto after the bill is signed by Seimas Speaker Arunas Valinskas. Homosexualist lobby groups are expected to request such a veto.

The law amends the “Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information” by adding the encouragement of homosexual behaviors alongside other prohibited information, such as “the portrayal of physical or psychological violence, displaying a dead or mutilated body, [and] information that arouses fear or horror or that encourages self abuse or suicide.”

MP Aleknaite-Abramkiene told the Baltic Times that lawmakers were not intent upon discrimination against homosexuals, but instead wanted to ensure peace in the community and respect for Lithuania’s family values.

“The public opinion is quite clear – they don’t want a demonstration of sexuality,” she said. “People want to live under their rules and let one another be himself, but not to intervene in public life and influence youth.”

“This law will create a democratic balance between the majority and the minority – we want peace.”

Lithuania and its neighbor Latvia have in the last several years become major targets of propaganda and demonstrations from European homosexualists, who have staged or attempted to stage sexually provocative gay Pride parades in the capitals of Baltic nations.

Where Does Single-Payer Health Care Work?

From The National Center for Policy Analysis

Two days after President Barack Obama told the American Medical Association that in some countries a single-payer health care system "works pretty well," the White House reaffirmed that people in those countries liked their health care, but also said it did not know to which countries the president was referring.

The criticism of single-payer health care -- primarily as practiced in Canada and Europe -- has been that operations and procedures are long-delayed or denied and health care is rationed to control costs. For example:

• In Canada, the average wait for a 65-year-old man to get a hip replacement is six months, according to the Freedom Works Foundation.
  

• The average wait time in a Canadian emergency room is 16 hours and 18 minutes.
  

• Also, the average cancer test and radiation treatment cycles vary between 6 to 8 weeks, according to the foundation.

Meanwhile:

• In Great Britain, at any one time, there are about a million people waiting to get into hospitals, according to John C. Goodman, president, CEO and Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis.
  

• Almost 900,000 Canadian patients are on the waiting list at any point in time, according to the Fraser Institute.
  

• In New Zealand, 90,000 people are on the waiting lists, according to government figures.

"Those people constitute only about 1 to 2 percent of the population in those countries, but keep in mind that only about 15 percent of the population actually enters a hospital each year," says Goodman. "Many of the people waiting are waiting in pain. Many are risking their lives by waiting. And there is no market mechanism in these countries to get care to people who need it first."

Earlier this year, the Obama administration signed an economic recovery act into law that established a comparative effectiveness council to determine the most cost-effective medical procedures. This economic stimulus bill also included the establishment of a centrally linked electronic infrastructure that would include the medical information of every American by 2014.

Obama and most Democrats in Congress are pushing for a "public option," or government-run health insurance program that would compete with private health care companies.

Many analysts agree that the private, market-driven companies would be unable to compete with a government-run insurance program, which would have nearly unlimited resources.

Source: Fred Lucas, "White House Stands by Obama's Claim That Single-Payer Health Care Works In Other Countries -- It's Just Not Sure Which Countries Obama Meant," CNSNews.com, June 18, 2009.

For text: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49743

For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=16

Grassroots Need to Defuse 'Hate Crimes' Ploy

From OneNewsNow
By Jim Brown

A leading conservative lawmaker says the only way "hate crimes" legislation can be stopped in the U.S. Senate is if senators believe that when they return home there will be some "pain" associated with a vote in favor of the controversial measure.

Flanked by representatives of liberal groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the Anti-Defamation League, and La Raza, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) announced Monday at a Capitol Hill press conference that he is committed to holding a vote on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act before the August recess. The bill would add gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity to the list of protected categories under federal hate crimes law.

Conservative groups anticipate Reid will try to attach that legislation as an amendment to another measure -- possibly the Defense Authorization bill -- sometime in the next few weeks.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) has pledged to do everything in his power to stop the hate crimes bill. He says his colleagues, especially red-state Democrats, need to be bombarded with at least 1,000 calls or emails from constituents who oppose the legislation.

DeMint argues the hate crimes bill violates free speech and the free practice of religion in America. He suggests that comments by pastors condemning a certain kind of lifestyle or behavior could be classified as hate speech under hate crimes legislation.

"And that's where we're headed, [that's] where we're losing our right to say that things are wrong," says the senator. "And in a society where you can't say things are wrong, you no longer have a moral society -- you no longer have minimum standards and high aspirations."

DeMint says people of faith cannot wait until a cloture motion is filed two days before a vote, or it will be too late to stop the effort by Harry Reid and other Democrats to "extort" votes by attaching the hate crimes measure as an amendment to another bill.

Dutch Religious Schools May Refuse to Hire Active Homosexuals: Leaked Government Doc

From LifeSiteNews
By Hilary White

Nederlands Dagblad reports that Christian schools will be allowed to refuse to hire active homosexuals as teachers, according to a leaked government document.

The Dutch Council of State advisory body said in a confidential report to the Cabinet that it is not a matter of “discrimination” to require employees to conform to a specific kind of behaviour based on the “religion / philosophy of life which form the basis of the institution.”

The report said that while schools may not discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation” alone, it is not illegal to dismiss or refuse to hire a teacher based on “additional circumstances” such as the person living a homosexual lifestyle.

Religious and philosophical institutions may, under “strict conditions,” fire or refuse to hire homosexuals who behave contrary to the school’s moral values. These conditions need to be “substantial, legitimate and justified” and combined with “an attitude of good faith and loyalty” to the institution’s religious or philosophical basis.

Nederlads Dagblad reported that under Article 5 of the General Law on Equal Treatment, Christian schools and institutions have “a great freedom,” but the decisive factor is the consistency with which the rules are applied.

A small number of private Christian schools in the Netherlands operate independently, but still receive public funding. The leaked report comes following a letter to Christian schools circulated by Ronald Plasterk, the minister for education, that said Christian beliefs are not legitimate grounds to exclude homosexual staff.

Abortionist Killed: National News -- Abortionist Kills Woman: Ignored

From ChristianNewsWire
By Valerie Mosher Pfeil

Abortionist George Tiller's death brought an outpouring of national media headlines and Congressional condolences to his family by a resolution approved by the US House. Laura Hope Smith's death at the hands of an abortionist was and continues to be ignored and her mother's effort to bring it to the attention of her senator was stonewalled.

"Where was the press when my daughter Laura died at the hands of an abortionist?" asks Eileen Smith, Laura's mother. A media search shows mostly news reports from nonprofit organizations, religious news and other alternative media.

Laura's death was mentioned 10 months later in one major publication, The Boston Globe, when the abortionist was indicted for manslaughter. It was 6 weeks before her local paper, The Cape Cod Times, mentioned Laura's death, although it sought out her mother for a two-hour interview just 2 days after Laura's death. Smith says the local newspaper rationalized delaying a report on Laura's death so it could corroborate it with an autopsy report.

"Since when has news been postponed in lieu of reporting facts except in the abortion deaths of the mothers?" asks Smith. "I have to believe that it is only because the media's bias toward abortion determines what makes news," she said.

"If Laura had died falling off a bike or in a car accident it would have been in the paper the next day," she said. "My daughter walked into that abortion facility healthy and she left dead," Smith said.

Smith believes Tiller's death is another senseless killing in the history of abortion, adding to the 50 million untimely deaths of unborn babies, including the 60,000 viable babies aborted by Tiller. "His death is a tragedy, but so are all the lives that were taken by him and the lives of over 400 women who have died as a result of an abortion," said Smith.

The abortionist was indicted by a grand jury for manslaughter in the death of Laura, following an investigation by local police and the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. The District Attorney found the abortionist's conduct to be "willful, wanton, and reckless" because he sedated Laura with level three drugs without any means of cardiac monitoring or blood pressure cuff; had no assistant who could administer sedation, monitor the patient, or assist in resuscitating her; and, "failed to timely initiate a call to 911." The board also alleged that the abortionist made false statements.

"I call on the media to report deaths like Laura's," said Smith. "If Tiller's death merits national news, so does a death at the hands of an abortionist," she added.

AP Source: Same-Sex Partners to Get Fed Benefits

From OneNewsNow
By Philip Elliott - Associated Press Writer

President Barack Obama, whose homosexual supporters have grown frustrated with his slow movement on their priorities, is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees, a White House official said.

Obama plans to announce his decision Wednesday in the Oval Office, the official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president hadn't yet signed the presidential memorandum. The official said Obama would release more details Wednesday.

The decision is a political nod to a reliably Democratic voting bloc that has become impatient with the White House in recent weeks.

Several powerful homosexual fundraisers withdrew their support from a June 25 Democratic National Committee event where Vice President Joe Biden is expected to speak. Their exit came in response to a June 12 Justice Department brief that defended the Defense of Marriage Act, a prime target for homosexual criticism.

Read the rest of this entry >>

European Left Is More Dangerous for Jews than the European Right

From The Brussels Journal
By Soeren Kern

Jewish groups in Europe and the United States have reacted with alarm to the gains made by far-right political parties in the recent elections for European Parliament. Right-wing and nationalist parties posted significant victories in Austria, Britain, Denmark, Hungary, Romania and the Netherlands in four days of voting that ended on June 7.

The Paris-based European Jewish Congress (EJC), an umbrella organization for Jewish communities in Europe, said: “As we assess the results of this week’s elections, one disturbing trend has already crystallized; the gains made by extreme-right groups is a Europe-wide phenomenon. The success of the far-right and nationalistic parties that won seats in the elections on the basis of racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic platforms points to a clear erosion of tolerance and a clarion call to European officials to immediately engage in intercultural dialogue. The success of such rabid groups as The Freedom Party in the Netherlands, the Freedom Party in Austria (FPO), the Danish People’s Party, the British National Party, and Jobbik in Hungary, among others, will sadly only serve to embolden those who espouse the dangerous concepts of extreme nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.”

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said it was “deeply distressing that the blatantly anti-Semitic parties received so many votes,” and called on European leaders to “ensure that anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry never again gain a foothold in Europe…. It is imperative that European leaders do not remain silent, but speak out and reject the hateful and bigoted worldview of parties of the far-right and their supporters.”

The Geneva-based World Jewish Congress (WJC) said: “Far-right parties and extremists have made gains across Europe amid protest votes and low turnout for the European Parliament (EP) elections. The elections were held in all 27 EU member states from Thursday to Sunday last week. Support for centre-Left parties and governments collapsed across the EU as fringe parties, picked up protest votes.”

Although these and other Jewish groups are not alone in their concerns about rising anti-Semitism in Europe, their fear of the far right often obscures the indisputable fact that some of the greatest threats to Jews (and Israel) in contemporary Europe stem from the left side of the political aisle. Indeed, it is no big secret that all across the European continent, left-wing intellectuals are playing a crucial role in making anti-Semitism seem respectable. Of course, they are (usually) careful to promote their hatred of Jews only indirectly. Instead, modern anti-Semitism is typically disguised as anti-Zionism and an obsession with Palestinian victimhood.

European Judeophobia often takes on new life forms such as anti-Semitic boycott campaigns and anti-Israel demonstrations, the growing intensity of which the European left not only overlooks or obscures but often actively supports. It is transmitted by Europe’s left-leaning mass media, which not only believes that the systematic demonization of Israel promotes the postmodern and postnational ideological worldview of Europe’s governing class, but also appeases the wrath of Europe’s Muslim immigrants, lest they expose the myth of European socialist multicultural utopia.

As the European left intensifies its common cause with the Palestinian movement, Islam itself has emerged as a major threat to Jewish life in Europe. Although definitive statistics are scarce, most of the acts of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions in Europe in recent years seem to be perpetrated by Muslim extremists. Indeed, a 2003 report published by European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC) attributed the increase in anti-Semitic violence in Europe mainly to Muslims and pro-Palestinian groups. But those findings were so embarrassing that European left-wing elites quashed the report and commissioned another one. A subsequent EUMC report, which used a more politically correct research methodology, concluded that the “noticeable rise in reported anti-Semitic incidents” was the fault of “young, white Europeans incited by traditional right-wing extremist groups.”

In any case, right-wing groups such as Geert Wilder’s Party for Freedom in the Netherlands and the Danish People’s Party, far from being the purveyors of “rabid” racism and anti-Semitism that the EJC claims, are some of the best allies that Jews (and Israel) will find in Europe today. In fact, the Danish People’s Party is a strong supporter of Israel as well as the US-led War on Terrorism, of which Israel is a major beneficiary. It has called for stronger sanctions against totalitarian regimes and dictatorships, especially those in the Islamic world. It has also supported academic grants for specific research into terrorism and Islamism. For his part, Wilders calls himself a true friend of Israel. During a recent visit to Jerusalem, Wilders said: “We see Christians and Jews as part of one culture. When I’m here I’m with my people, my country, my values. I feel more at home here than in many other European countries. Israel’s a democracy – it’s everything we stand for.”

Wilders and a growing number of other Europeans understand the threat that Islam poses to Europe and to the Western world. They are also taking a stand against an European leftwing political class that despises its Judeo-Christian heritage so much that it has become an undiscerning apologist for Islam. Unfortunately, the Islamization of Europe, which is being promoted by an intolerant leftwing multicultural dogma that gives immigrants more rights than natives, is one of the main factors contributing to the alarming rise of truly troublesome extremist groups like the Hungarian Jobbik party.

The European political right is far more nuanced and complex than catch-all labels such as “far right” or “extreme right” imply. Whereas right-wing groups in Denmark and Holland, animated by common sense, are pushing back against a European multicultural movement that has run amok and has pushed Western Civilization to the edge of the abyss, other groups like those in Austria, Hungary and Romania, animated by ignorance, are promoting hatred against any and all immigrants just for the sake of it. It is a world of difference.

The knee-jerk tendency to stereotype the European right-wing as anti-Semitic obscures the fact that, with few exceptions, the only genuine European supporters of Jews and Israel are on the political right-wing. Indeed, in the bigger scheme of things, Jews have much more to fear from the European left than they do from the European far right.

Soeren Kern is Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group

Late-Term Abortionist LeRoy Carhart “One Sick Individual”: Nebraska Attorney General

From LifeSiteNews
By John Jalsevac

In the wake of the murder of his close friend and colleague George Tiller, Nebraska late-term abortionist LeRoy Carhart has stated that he will continue offering third-trimester abortions.

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press last week Carhart said, "there will be a place in Kansas for the later second- and the medically indicated third-trimester patients very soon."

Carhart said that he has never performed third-trimester abortions at his facility in Nebraska, but that he has done so at Tiller’s facility in Wichita. Carhart would occasionally perform late-term abortions at Tiller’s facility to avoid Nebraska’s more restrictive laws, which forbid abortions on babies that are viable.

With Tiller dead, however, the number of doctors willing to kill unborn babies in advanced stages of pregnancy, especially when they are capable of surviving outside the womb, has been reduced. Carhart says that he will step up to the plate to continue the practice.

Nebraska’s Attorney General Jon Bruning, however, is not a fan of Carhart’s plan.

“I'm disgusted and I'm saddened and I hate it that he's here in Nebraska, and I hate it that he's in America,” Bruning told KETV7. “I mean, this guy is one sick individual.”

During a preliminary injunction hearing in a US District Court in 1997 on the issue of late-term abortions, Carhart testified that he would sometimes dismember advanced-stage unborn babies during abortions, while the babies were still alive (read the testimony here). Carhart described in detail the process of grasping the limb of the baby to be removed, and then twisting it off. When asked if the babies usually die during the process of dismemberment, Carhart responded, "I don't really know. I know that the fetus is alive during the process most of the time because I can see the fetal heartbeat on the ultrasound."

Operation Rescue has responded to Carhart’s recent statements by saying that it will formally ask the Nebraska Attorney General for an investigation of Carhart’s facility and practices.

“We believe this decision creates a clear and present danger to the public and puts the lives of women at grave risk,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

“Conditions at Carhart’s run-down abortion mill are gross and appalling. I wouldn’t let my dog be treated in a dump like that. His incompetency has cost at least one mother’s life, and has seriously injured others.”

Operation Rescue has documented Carhart’s participation in a half-dozen abortions that resulted in life-threatening complications that required emergency hospitalization, including the third-trimester death of Christin Gilbert.

Earlier this year, Operation Rescue’s complaints that Carhart was operating his abortion mill, the Abortion and Contraception clinic of Nebraska, illegally and under dangerous conditions prompted the City of Bellevue to temporarily close him down. OR released photos showing Carhart’s abortion business taking abortion patients while running on only an extension cord and a generator.

Carhart recently drew the ire of Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Alveda King, for comparing the late abortionist George Tiller to her uncle. Tiller’s death was the "equivalent of Martin Luther King being assassinated ... the equivalent of Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the Lusitania and any other major historic event where we've tolerated the intolerable for too long," said the abortionist.

“For LeRoy Carhart to mention the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who worked through peaceful and non-violent means, in the same breath with that of George Tiller, whose work ended peace and brought violence to babies in the womb, is offensive beyond belief,” she said. “The analogy is just wrong.”

And the Sodomite Troll Is...?

The TimesOnline reports today that the British High Court has ruled that "thousands of bloggers who operate behind the cloak of anonymity have no right to keep their identities secret."

We can't wait for such a ruling or legislation in this country. We wonder if the sodomite trolls of the South Carolina blogosphere would have quite so much to say about all the rest of us if they were forced to disclose their real names. It is hard for some not to look at what they write, just as it is hard for some not to look at train wrecks or collisions by the side of the road. One in particular is a living witness to how spiritually and mentally damaging his disordered lifestyle can be. But given that these bottom feeders purport to have such "pride" in their chosen lifestyle, why are they too ashamed to associate their real names with their daily spew of hate?

Iran Election: The Beginning of the End

The following article from American Thinker is a clear and cogent explanation of the extraordinary events taking place in Iran. It was an incompetent American President that brought the current Islamofascist regime to power. Jimmy Carter's misguided and impotent policies were made plain, for all the world to see, during the 444 days Americans were held hostage by thugs like Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad's regime, and the mullahs that ultimately control it, have now demonstrated that they are willing to do what the Shah would not -- fire on and kill peaceful demonstrators. As with Jimmy Carter, how this crisis between freedom loving Iranian citizens and their brutal regime plays out will reveal as much about America's leadership as Iran's. As a great American poet, James Russell Lowell, wrote:

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;

From American Thinker
By Amil Imani & Dr. Arash Irandoost

Iran's President Ahmadinejad, a veteran of the Islamic Republic's repressive Revolutionary Guard, took office on August 3, 2005, after unexpected win in a sham presidential election -- there are no democratic elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran. All candidates are prescreened by the Guardian Council before they are allowed to run for office. In practice, a president of Iran is already chosen through a farce process of giving the voters a chance to elect one of the men hand-picked from the regime's functionaries, as was the case with President Ahmadinejad.

During the previous "election," only a small percentage of the voters bothered to vote, since voting under the pre-screening and undemocratic system of the mullahs is more like selection than election. The result of staying away from the polls materialized in the person of the fascist Ahmadinejad.

The great majority of the people of Iran are disillusioned and even disgusted by the mediaeval incompetent, oppressive, and corrupt rule of the mullahs, irrespective of which mafia gang is in power. The votes, more than anything else, are protest ballots cast against the entire system, rather than indications of support for the so-called conservative-moderate coalition.

It took less than 4 years for Iranians to realize that boycotting the so-called elections in the Islamic Republic of Iran can only bring to power even a worse bunch of Islamofascists. This time around the people turned out to vote for the lesser of two camps of evil -- the mullah dominated gang of conservatives and "moderates."

After a fiery month long campaign and unprecedented passions and tensions, the mass rallies, polished campaign slogans, savvy Internet outreach and worldwide televised debates, which revealed rampant corruption, ineptitude, and illegal and criminal activities of all four candidates, on June 12, 2009, the Iranian people went to the polls, challenging not only the incumbent president Ahmadinejad, but the entire establishment of the Islamic regime.

Iran's elections are considered extremely unfair and the Islamist government does not allow international monitors to be present. The ruling clerics put their stamp on the elections from the very beginning by deciding who can run. It is really a joke. More than 470 people sought to join the presidential race, but only Ahmadinejad and three rivals were cleared.

However, the turnout was massive, a near record high 85 percent of Iran's 49.2 million eligible voters. Based on the information from Mousavi's website , a group of Interior Ministry employees have leaked out the following results which seem to be closer to reality than the one released by the establishment:

Total eligible: 49.2 Million

Participated in the election: 75% to 85%
Mir Hussein Mousavi: 45%
Mehdi Karoobi: 33%
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: 13%
Mohsen Rezai: 9%

Cancelled votes: 3%

It is clear that Mr. Mir Hussein Mousavi won the election by a large margin. Ahmadinejad came out third. But on Friday June 12, 2009, in the Islamic election (selection) something happened. Something beyond what anyone could have ever imagined. Something huge. A daylight coup d'état by the elements of the establishment, particularly, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which the Senate designated as a terrorist organization (with Senator Obama not voting). The clerical leadership in Iran has grown increasingly reliant on the IRGC to help it stave off internal pressure for political and economic reform and external pressure resulting from international concern over Iran's nuclear program.

An Iranian journalist said, "The important event that took place in Iran is that it wasn't an election; it was a coup d'état. [They] stole 24 million votes of the nation and took them away for themselves. If there were really a winner, they would have to celebrate, but instead they beat people. They performed a coup, but they don't call it a coup."

He continued, "Please don't use the word "fraud" because it is mitigation of what has happened in Iran. Fraud is what was happening in the past 30 years. This is not fraud. They haven't [counted] people's votes. Using the word fraud is like calling a deep cut a small scratch. There was no fraud; it was a coup."

What the so called reformists call a coup was described today as a great achievement by the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who has the final say in all affairs of the country. It was no secret by that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was Khamenei's favorite choice. If an electoral fraud, tantamount to a coup, had indeed happened, everyone believes that it certainly had Khamenei's blessing.

Demonstrators, on Saturday, were shocked and angry by Ali Khamenei's disregard for their vote and apparent coup. "If Mr. Khamenei cannot tolerate even a mild-mannered president like Mousavi, then I really don't know what to do," said a demonstrator, who was among thousands of students on Pahlavi Avenue before she started to chant "Death to the dictator". The day after the election, Khamenei urged the nation to unite behind Ahmadinejad and called the result a "divine assessment."

The political chief of the powerful Revolutionary Guard warned it would crush any "revolution" against the Islamic system by Mousavi's "green movement" -- the signature color of his campaign. However, on Saturday and Sunday, hundreds of thousands of opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clashed with Hizbollah thugs dressed in police uniforms in the heart of Iran's capital, pelting them with rocks and setting fires in the worst unrest in Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. They accused the hard-line president of using fraud to steal the election victory from his reformist rival.

The ever-conniving mullahs dread the Iranian people. Granted that a small percentage of Iranians, known as the 3Fs -- fools, fanatics and frauds -- support the mullahs. No totalitarian rule can ever survive without a segment of the population, for one reason or another, supporting it. Yet, time is not on the side of the mullahs. By their mismanagement, thievery and oppression of the masses, they have created explosive internal conditions. As I have said over and over, the Mullahs need to have the N- bomb to create a fake sense of security so they can prolong their survival.

It was reported and verified by a Spiegel German reporter in Iran that the regime has brought many Arab speaking Hizbollah factions from Lebanon to attack the Iranian people. Overnight Sunday, police reportedly raided student dormitories at Tehran University where some 3,000 students had earlier held an anti-Ahmadinejad rally. Rooms were damaged, computers smashed, and hard drives taken, and students beaten and arrested, according to the Associated Press (AP). It is that reported 5 students have died in the attack.

The vicious attacks on people by the hired thugs of the regime are failing more and more as the mullahs' instrument of rule by terror. The police and official security apparatus are less and less willing to exercise brute force to suppress the people. That's exactly why the regime has imported Arab speaking terrorist groups such as Lebanese Hizbollah and Palestinian thugs.

In short, Iran is in a state of serious upheaval. Replacing Ahmadinejad with the already tried and proven wanton gang of Rafsanjani-Khatami-Mousavi is not going to change matters much.

As for the West, it is prudent that it does not embark on a trigger-happy, self interested policy. The mullahs' lease on life, [short of brutal massacre of the Iranian people in the absence of any foreign media] is just about over. A concerted political, economic, and moral support for the long-suffering and valiant Iranian people and the secular opposition can put an end to the shameful and hate-driven Islamofascists of any and all stripes.

Guess Who's Supporting Sotomayor?

. . . Communist Party backs confirmation for Supreme Court

Fellow Travelers

No surprise here! Just as they were giddy over the election of Barack Hussein Obama, the Communist Party USA is enthusiastically backing Sonia Sotomayor's nomination for a seat on the United States Supreme Court.

From WorldNetDaily

The way to end "right-wing" terrorism in the U.S. is to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as a Supreme Court justice, boycott Fox News and support Barack Obama's plan for nationalizing health care, the Communist Party USA said in an editorial in its newspaper, the People's Weekly World today.

The organization blamed the murders of late-term abortionist George Tiller in Kansas and Holocaust Museum security guard Stephen T. Johns on the "extreme right," explaining that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's much-criticized report warning about the threat of violence by "right-wing extremists" was in fact prophetic.

Read the rest of this entry >>

'Gay' Family Kids 7 Times More Likely to be Homosexual

. . . But report shows researchers concealing information

From WorldNetDaily
By Bob Unruh

A licensed psychologist with both clinical and forensic practice outreaches is warning that it appears children of homosexual couples are seven times more likely to develop "non-heterosexual preferences" than other children, but lawmakers establishing policy often don't know that because the researchers

have concealed their discoveries.

"Research … although not definitive, suggests that children reared by openly homosexual parents are far more likely to engage in homosexual behavior than children raised by others," said the online report by Trayce L. Hansen.

Studies she reviewed suggest children raised by homosexual or bisexual parents "are approximately seven times more likely than the general population to develop a non-heterosexual sexual preference."

Read the rest of this entry >>

Gaffney: America's First Muslim President?

Obama aligns with the policies of Shariah-adherents

From The Washington Times
By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.


During his White House years, William Jefferson Clinton -- someone Judge Sonia Sotomayor might call a "white male" -- was dubbed "America's first black president" by a black admirer. Applying the standard of identity politics and pandering to a special interest that earned Mr. Clinton that distinction, Barack Hussein Obama would have to be considered America's first Muslim president.

This is not to say, necessarily, that Mr. Obama actually is a Muslim any more than Mr. Clinton actually is black. After his five months in office, and most especially after his just-concluded visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, however, a stunning conclusion seems increasingly plausible: The man now happy to have his Islamic-rooted middle name featured prominently has engaged in the most consequential bait-and-switch since Adolf Hitler duped Neville Chamberlain over Czechoslovakia at Munich.

What little we know about Mr. Obama's youth certainly suggests that he not only had a Kenyan father who was Muslim, but spent his early, formative years as one in Indonesia. As the president likes to say, "much has been made" -- in this case by him and his campaign handlers -- of the fact that he became a Christian as an adult in Chicago, under the now-notorious Pastor Jeremiah A. Wright.

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Saudi Intellectual: “If it were not for the accomplishments of the West, our lives would have been barren”

From Averroes Press
By Tarek Fatah

It is rare today to read of Saudi intellectuals or Arab thinkers who are willing to reflect on Western civilization and its contribution to all of humankind. Dr. Ibrahim Al-Bulehi is one such individual. In an interview with the Saudi newspaper Okaz, Al-Bulehi states without reservation that “Western Civilization Has Liberated Mankind.”

When asked by the reporter about the Muslim contribution to Western Civilization, Dr. Al-Bulehi responds with a clarity that is almost unheard of in the Arab world. He says:

“When we review the names of Muslim philosophers and scholars whose contribution to the West is pointed out by Western writers, such as Ibn Rushd, Ibn Al-Haitham, Ibn Sina, Al-Farbi, Al-Razi, Al-Khwarizmi, and their likes, we find that all of them were disciples of the Greek culture and they were individuals who were outside the [Islamic] mainstream. They were and continue to be unrecognized in our culture. We even burned their books, harassed them, [and] warned against them, and we continue to look at them with suspicion and aversion. How can we then take pride in people from whom we kept our distance and whose thought we rejected?”

In the interview published April 23, 2009 Dr. Ibrahim Al-Buleihi calls on the Arabs to acknowledge the greatness of Western civilization, and to admit the deficiencies of their own culture. He states that such self-criticism is a precondition to any change for the better.

Ibrahim Al-Buleihi is a member of the Saudi Shura Council, the national consultative body whose members are appointed to advice the Saudi King and his government.

Following are excerpts from the Okaz interview as reproduced in the Arab web magazine, Elaph

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Introducing "Sunlit News"

Sunlit Uplands is pleased to unveil "Sunlit News," a news feed that is the first of a number of planned upgrades to our site. We hope readers will find these news links, relating to our themes of faith, freedom, and culture, to be helpful and interesting. Your constructive feedback is always welcome and appreciated.

Christians, Here Come the Lions

From WorldNetDaily
By Pat Boone

WARNING: This column is written for, and addressed to, America's Christians only. Well, maybe devout Jews as well, but no one else. People of other faiths, or no particular faith at all, probably won't comprehend the looming danger or see anything to be concerned about.

But this is a three alarm, red alert wake-up call for people who are serious about their Judeo-Christian religion. The end of our religious freedom in America could be at hand.

Can you believe it? In "the land of the free, the home of the brave," the one country in human history whose original purpose was to create and preserve absolute religious freedom for all? The nation whose foundational documents, its Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and its subsequent Bill of Rights, specifically guaranteed that government would absolutely keep its grubby hands off its citizens' freedom to exercise their faith however, whenever and wherever they choose?

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"Ave Verum Corpus" - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

A sublime and historic performance. Leonard Bernstein conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir in "Ave Verum Corpus," by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The text in Latin reads:

Ave verum corpus, natum
de Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine,
cuius latus perforatum
fluxit aqua et sanguine:
esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

A translation into English is:

Hail, true Body,
born of the Virgin Mary,
who has truly suffered, and was sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
whose side was pierced,
whence flowed water and blood,
Be for us a foretaste of heaven,
during our final trial.

Christian Murdered for Drinking Tea from a Muslim Cup

"Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality."

Barack Hussein Obama

From ChristianNewsWire

International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org) has learned that radical Muslims running a tea stall beat a Christian man to death for using a cup designated for Muslims on May 9. The young man, Ishtiaq Masih, had ordered tea at a roadside stall in Machharkay village, Punjab, Pakistan, after his bus made a rest stop.

When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning non-Muslims to declare their religion before being served. Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea.

The owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.

The other bus passengers and other passers-by finally intervened and took Ishtiaq to the Rural Health Center in the village. The doctor who took Ishtiaq's case told ICC that Ishtiaq had died due to excessive internal and external bleeding, a fractured skull, and brain injuries.

Makah Tea Stall is located on the Sukheki-Lahore highway and is owned by Mubarak Ali, a 42-year-old radical Muslim. ICC's correspondent visited the tea stall and observed that a large red warning sign with a death's head symbol was posted which read, "All non-Muslims should introduce their faith prior to ordering tea. This tea stall serves Muslims only." The warning also threatened anyone who violated the rule with "dire consequences."

A neighboring shopkeeper told ICC on condition of anonymity that all Ali's employees are former students of radical Muslim madrassas (seminaries).

Ishtiaq's family said that they immediately reported the incident to the police and filed a case against Ali. However, the murderers are still freely operating the tea stall.

When ICC asked the Pindi Bhatian Saddar police station about the murder, the police chief said that investigations were underway and they are treating it as a faith-based murder by biased Muslims. When asked about Ali's warning sign, police chief Muhammad Iftikhar Bajwa claimed that he could not take it down. However, the constitution of Pakistan explicitly prohibits such discrimination.

The public is encouraged to call the Pakistani embassy of their country to protest this heinous crime?

Pakistan Embassies:

USA: (202) 243-6500, info@embassyofpakistanusa.org
Canada: (613) 238-7881, parepottawa@rogers.com
UK: 0870-005-6967, hoc@phclondon.org

Magna Carta: 'To have but not to hold' by the Very Reverend Philip Buckler

One of the four original copies of Magna Carta is on display in the Reagan Presidential Library until June 20th, when it will return to its permanent home, Lincoln Cathedral, where it has resided since its promulgation at Runnymede in 1215.

In the following reflection given in January at the Reagan Library, the Dean of Lincoln Cathedral, Very Reverend Philip Buckler, shares the history, significance, and meaning today of the document that President Reagan called "one of the springs from which the great river of human freedom rises."

Huckabee Warns Republicans Against 'Mushy Middle'

From OneNewsNow
By Mike Glover

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned Republicans Wednesday against moving to the "mushy middle," arguing that only clearly stated conservative policies can bring the party back to power.

Huckabee spoke during his second trip to Iowa since he won the 2008 Republican caucuses. That win was the high point of his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, which ultimately went to Arizona Sen. John McCain.

"I hear people who give advice that the Republicans need to moderate. They need to be a little more to the left," Huckabee said in an interview with The Associated Press. "It sounds like advice that Democrats would give to us so that we'd never win another election ever."

Some argue that Republicans have lost Congress and the White House because they've turned the party over to social and religious conservatives, driving away moderates and independents. Huckabee made precisely the opposite argument.

"It's when they move to the mushy middle and get squishy that they get beat," he said.

Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, argued that the U.S. is a conservative country receptive to Republican ideals.

"Historically, the way we've found our way back to winning, having clear convictions that are conservative and then when elected, act like it," he said. "In every election, when Republicans have had clarity of convictions and those convictions were conservative, they win."

He warned that many Republicans have gone astray by buying into President Barack Obama's big-spending effort to stimulate the economy, a move he called "a big, colossal, utterly disastrous mistake.

"Our Republicans have culpability in that," Huckabee said. "There were some people who questioned whether I was really conservative. I don't want to hear, ever, people ever again talk about how conservative they are if they supported that."

Huckabee spoke later Wednesday at a business convention and planned to appear at a fundraiser for Sioux City businessman Bob Vander Plaats, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor of Iowa. Vander Plaats was a top leader of Huckabee's caucus bid.

His return to Iowa, where presidential campaigns usually start, has caused speculation that he's laying the foundation for another run. Now a commentator for the Fox television network, Huckabee downplayed such thoughts, saying Republicans should be focused on next year's midterm election.

"Anybody who already has decided right now they are definitely running for president doesn't need to be, because they think it's all about them," Huckabee said. "We don't know what our country is going to be like in two years. I can't make that determination right now."

Senator DeMint: Sotomayor Says She "Never Thought About" Rights of Unborn

From LifeSiteNews
By Kathleen Gilbert

Republican Senator Jim DeMint says that he is troubled by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor after she told him she had "never thought about" the rights of the unborn child.

"When I asked if an unborn child has any rights whatsoever, I was surprised that she said she had never thought about it," said DeMint in a statement. "This is not just a question about abortion, but about the respect due to human life at all stages, and I hope this is cleared up in her hearings."

The South Carolina senator also expressed concern that Sotomayor "was unwilling to say the Second Amendment protects a fundamental right that applies to all Americans," which he says "raises serious questions about her view of the Bill of Rights."

“Those who serve on the highest court in America must have an unwavering commitment to the Constitution and equal justice for all Americans," DeMint concluded. "I will continue to review Judge Sotomayor’s decisions and public statements and will watch her hearings closely.”

Although lacking in abortion-related opinions in her 17 years as a judge, senators probing Sotomayor's thoughts in recent weeks have said that the liberal judge is solidly in favor of upholding Roe v. Wade.

Pro-abortion senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) say that Sotomayor assured them she would not tamper with the precedent set by Roe.

Also, a recently-unearthed amicus curiae brief signed by an interest group where Sotomayor served on the board of directors urged the Supreme Court in 1989 to uphold the "fundamental right" to abortion.

Capitol Hill Republicans, who have expressed a desire to slow the confirmation process to examine Sotomayor's record more closely, expressed anger after Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy announced confirmation hearings would start July 13.

Britain to America: ‘Don’t Let This Happen to You!’

From Big Hollywood
By Charles Winecoff

When I was a kid, American Idol wasn’t even a twinkle in Simon Cowell’s eye. No, instead of Adam Lambert’s girly warbling, we listened to wrinkled pacifist Walter Cronkite rattle off the US body count as we ate our TV dinners. (Thank God for I Love Lucy re-runs.)

But Vietnam wasn’t the only war raging. There was a culture clash going on too, right in the privacy of our own home: the ’60s counterculture - seen in everything from Easy Rider to The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour - versus our deeply ingrained Anglophilia. In other words, a tug of war between “social justice” and the Social Register.
Decades before it became cool to diss the Queen with an iPod, the Royals represented everything Americans were not, and never could be: educated, sophisticated, multi-lingual, above carrying cash - and worldly enough to know one doesn’t clean one’s antiques (think no housework). Growing up in our comfy, middle class, anti-war household, I never knew if I was supposed to say “burn, baby, burn!” or “sod off, yank.”

This dichotomy took a psychic toll, which came to a head when I did my part for the revolution by proudly shoplifting a ballpoint pen from our local Lamston’s (”the establishment”). To my amazement, my parents were not pleased. Instead of a gold star, I received a verbal barrage of uncharacteristic cliches (”Do you think we send you to the best schools so you can steal?” ) that left me even more confused.

As I came of age, I often felt like an unsocialized, feral child who had been raised by animals, left to learn civilized human behavior on my own, from scratch - a nice, white casualty of the rootless, rudderless, barbaric peace movement.

A few years later, when I was old enough to know better, President Bill Clinton was caught with his pants down; it never even occurred to me that the public outcry might have something to do with the fact he had lied about his abuse of power. I believed as I was taught, that it was “just about sex” - those evil Republicans again, trying to stop ”the first black President” from, as one friend put it, “being himself.”

I assumed the Clinton scandal was a purely American phenomenon, just another sleazy export of our junk culture that was (I was told) the cause of so much violence and hatred around the world (from the innocent peasants who chose to import it). We had always been, and would always be, the proverbial “ugly Americans.” How our classy progenitors over there on the British isles must be shaking their heads. In 200 quickie years, America had amounted to little more than a wasteland of cheeseburgers and fat asses.

But after I entered the work force, I began to see, little by little, chinks in the mythic armor. British tabloids, for instance, were far more salacious than our National Enquirer (which, at this point, boasts a higher record for accuracy than The New York Times). And wasn’t it the UK that unleashed frumpy, passive-aggressive Neely O’Hara wannabe Susan Boyle on us? This was a far cry from the days of Noel and Gertie - or even Tom Jones and Petula Clark!

No, my fellow Americans, the British Empire ain’t what it used to be. The tables have turned. As British film critic Cosmo Landesman puts it in Peter Whittle’s new book, Private Views: Voices from the Front Line of British Culture, ”In the old days the Americans would export rubbish to us, now it’s the British who export rubbish to the Americans.”

Citing “the whole Pop Idol thing” that brought American Idol to our shores - insensitively (to Muslims, that is) right after 9/11 - Landesman blames the herd mentality of today’s reality TV generation on ”an attempt to democratise culture that began in the 1960s, generated by people of the Left. And many of those people on the Left are now horrified. Big Brother is their child….” (But I thought Leftists were supposed to be so “smart.” Janeane Garofalo, are you listening?)

Rest assured: Private Views is about cultural decline in England, not the USA. The book offers 17 refreshingly articulate interviews with writers, artists, and even a politician - but, thankfully, no actors or singers - that prove you’re not dreaming. All conducted by Whittle, the founder and director of a London think tank called The New Culture Forum, these lively chats explore the current crisis of British national identity, which has been gradually undermined by multiculturalism, and examine the UK’s own rift between Left and Right, particularly in the arts. (BIll O’Reilly, eat your heart out.)

Private Views gives a much-needed morale boost to Americans struggling with their own national inferiority complex. As North Carolina-born, expatriate novelist Lionel Shriver points out, “Europeans use the United States to feel morally superior. They’re under the illusion that what drives European politics is virtue, and what drives American politics is self-interest.” That’s a lie our own media drives home every chance it gets - capitalism has failed! - in the ongoing effort to bludgeon us into national healthcare submission.

But is it true? Shriver thinks not. “Europeans are great on talk,” she says, ”but they don’t put their money where their mouth is. They don’t put their troops where their mouths are. They’re big on diplomacy, because diplomacy is cheap.” Ouch.

Meanwhile, even in erudite England, it’s not the trailer trash who are turning into pod people; it’s the privileged spawn of the Orwellian university system. Leftwing groupthink is just as prevalent and palpable in the rarefied art galleries and theatres of London as it is in New York or Hollywood. Just like us, Britain’s lads and laddettes are media-driven lambs, addicted to texting, Twitter and “telly.”

According to Landesman, “the dumbing down isn’t among the masses: the dumbing down is among the smart people, the cultural people, who should know better.” Standards? Don’t kid yourself. Says Landesman, “the new criterion is no longer good or bad: it’s what’s hot and what’s not.”

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Rabbi: Obama Breeds Climate of Hate Against Jews

From Cleveland Indy Media Center
By Rabbi Dr. Morton H. Pomerantz

It is no coincidence that we are witnessing this level of hatred toward Jews as President Barack Obama positions America against thre Jewish state.

Just days ago Obama traveled to Cairo, Egypt. It was his second trip in a short time to visit Muslim countries. He sent a clear message by not visiting Israel.

But this was code.

In Cairo, Obama said things that pose a grave danger to Jews in Israel, in America and everywhere.

And if his views are not vigorously opposed they will help create a danger as great as that posed by the Nazis to the Jewish people.

Just last week, Obama told his worldwide audience — more than 100 million people — that the killing of six million Jews during the Holocaust was the equivalent of Israel’s actions in dealing with the Palestinians.

This remark is incredible on its face, an insult to the six million Jews who died as a result of Hitler’s genocide — and it is a form of revisionism that will bode evil for Jews for years to come.

While Obama acknowledged that “six million Jews were killed — more than the entire Jewish population of Israel today” — his discussion about the Holocaust was followed by this statement: “On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people — Muslims and Christians — have suffered in pursuit of a homeland.”

“On the other hand . . . ”?

Obama’s clever construct comparing the mass genocide of six million Jews to the Palestinian struggle will not be lost on the estimated 100 million Muslims who tuned into to hear him.

Perhaps it was not lost on James W. von Brunn, the 88-year-old white supremacist identified as the alleged attacker Wednesday at the Holocaust Museum. He apparently felt that he could easily take retribution against the Jews for the atrocities Obama implies they are guilty of.

At first blush Mr. Obama’s speech seemed rosy, optimistic — one that espoused tolerance and understanding.

If you scratch the surface it is a dangerous document that history will view as a turning point for America and Israel — one that will lead to dangerous times ahead for both Jews and believing Christians.

The immediate danger posed by Obama’s speech is in its incredible re-writing of the history of Jews, Christians and Muslims from Medieval times to the present.

Obama, continually throughout his speech, talks of Islam’s peaceful intent. And while there are certainly Koranic verses that support this interpretation, Islam has a long and bloody history of violence against fellow Muslims, Jews and Christians.

Has Obama not heard about the Muslim’s violent conquest of the Middle East, Spain and half of Western Europe? Was he never taught that the Crusades sought to turn back this Muslim onslaught that demanded subjugated populations convert or die?

In his almost hour-long speech, there is not a single word about Islam’s well known and checkered past.

Ironically, the American president offered plenty of references to what he sees are America’s evils, such as its “colonialism” and history of slavery.

“For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation,” Obama told his audience, citing a litany of American shortcomings. He failed to mention that Arab Muslims were the greatest slave traders in the history of humanity.

According to Obama, Israelis, too, are guilty of wrongdoing, especially when it comes to their supposed maltreatment of the Palestinians.

Isn’t it odd an American president would go to a foreign country and slander his own country and its long-time ally?

At the same time he praises — unconditionally — a religion and culture that has a long history of being antithetical to the very values that have made America a great nation?

Mr. Obama even has the unbelievable gall, when talking about the treatment of Muslim women, to condemn Western countries for attempting to stop Muslim women from using the full facial cover, or hijab. This is a symbol of Muslim subjugation of women.

Listen to what Obama said: “Likewise, it is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit - for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear.”

And Obama not only ignores the gross subjugation of women in many Arab societies — he does not mention even once the almost total religious intolerance throughout the Muslim world against Christians and Jews.

In his speech, Obama’s only plea for Muslim women living in Muslim countries is that they should be afforded an education.

How about a discussion of the beheading of Arab women for “crimes” such as adultery? How about the malicious treatment of women in Muslim countries who choose not to wear the hijab?

Obama insists that Islam has promoted tolerance and that in Islamic societies such ideals have flourished.

Obama claimed that “as a student of history” he understands more than most the truth about “civilization's debt to Islam.”

He added, “And throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.”

Does he not know that a Jew or Christian would be beheaded in Saudi Arabia for practicing their religion today, now, this minute?

Of course, Obama offers not one example of where religious freedom is truly tolerated in the Muslim world. Yet, he proudly told his audience that in every state of the union and throughout the U.S. there exist more than 1,200 mosques.

But why, Mr. President, is there no Christian Church or Jewish synagogue operating within the borders of Saudi Arabia? Not even one.

Why in many countries, including your host Egypt, Christian churches have suffered vicious and continual persecution? Why is a once vibrant Cairo Jewish community — a home for the likes of Maimonides — today practically extinct?

Why, dear president, has the ancient Christian community in the West Bank and places like Bethlehem been almost completely wiped out by the modern Muslim onslaught?

“On the other hand,” to quote you Mr. President, you avoided mentioning some other truths.

Let’s start with the Israeli Arabs who can claim one of the highest standards of living in the Arab world. Indeed, they have more rights than Arabs in any Muslim country, their religious freedom is completely protected, and they even vote in free elections.

Tell me what Muslim country matches Israel’s record in protecting its minorities?

Even Arabs in the West Bank, during the time of Israeli control, saw their standard of living rise dramatically. Today, Arabs there are among the best educated in the world, thanks to Israel.

In your revisionist view, Israel has acted to harm these people. But it was not Israel that could not abide by United Nations resolutions clearly setting borders for both the state of Israel and an entity that had never existed before named Palestine.

You cleverly omitted any discussion of these facts, or the continual attacks against the state of Israel over six decades by its Muslim neighbors. Nor is it the Israelis who persecute from time to time the Coptic Christians of Egypt.

No, Mr. President, I do not accept your assertion that you are seeking religious tolerance or that you are seeking to protect Jews. I do not accept it because you are inventing a false history to fit your own agenda.

Mr. President, I am deeply disturbed that you would offer such a distortion of truth in the hopes of creating a lasting peace. A lasting peace cannot be created out of lies, distortions and half truths.

You profess to be a Christian. But you seem more intent on protecting Muslims. In your speech you talked openly of your Muslim heritage, your admiration of their way of life, and so forth. You said in your speech that you have made one of your chief aims of your presidency repairing the image of Islam.

Why did you hide these views from the American public during the recent presidential campaign?

Why, as president, did you fully bow to the Saudi king, who refuses to allow any religious freedom for any Christian or Jew?

You have made clear, by your words and assertions, that you are re-positioning the United States away from Israel, America’s lone democratic ally in the Mid-East.

You have made clear through your statements and those of your minions that Israel should, under no circumstances, prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

And yes, you have promised to retaliate against Iran if it ever attacks Israel with nuclear weapons.

But you know full well that if Iran succeeds in its admitted goal of “wiping the Jewish state off the map” — and hits this tiny nation with nuclear warheads — there will be no Israel for the U.S. to retaliate on behalf of.

Some Jews may be naïve, but we are not stupid.


Rabbi Dr. Morton H. Pomerantz is a member of the Reform movement of Judaism and serves as a chaplain for the State of New York. A former Navy and Marine Corps officer and chaplain, he has also served as deputy national chaplain for the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.

Holocaust Museum Shooter Was a Christian-Hating Socialist

From OpposingViews
By Ben Johnson

On June 10, the nation tragically witnessed a memorial dedicated to commemorating an atrocity become the site of yet more death. Just before 1 p.m., longtime neo-Nazi James Wenneker Von Brunn entered the Holocaust Museum on the National Mall and opened fire in an attempt to complete the Final Solution his hero had left tentative, an omission Von Brunn dubbed “Hitler’s biggest mistake.” As former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen wandered the museum grounds, Von Brunn killed Stephen T. Johns, a black security officer, then was shot himself. As of this writing, the 88-year-old is in critical condition.

The white-wing fringe greeted the news with predictable joy. Its most popular website, Stormfront.org, saluted “White Racialist Treasure: James Von Brunn” in 2004; a thoughtful reader, seeing Von Brunn had backed up his recent threats with deadly action, wrote yesterday, “Definitely needs a bump today.” Another hoped the shooting would cause Americans to believe taking their children to Holocaust memorials is now “an insurance risk.”

Yet racists are not alone in their glee. Leftists have decided to exploit Von Brunn’s madness to engender fear of rampant conservative terrorism. They overlook one point: the shooter was not a conservative.

A review of his lengthy associations reveals Von Brunn hardly fits the stereotype of a Religious Right, GOP precinct captain. He denounced the Christian faith as a dastardly Jewish conspiracy, a “HOAX” invented by the Apostle Paul to “DESTROY ROMAN CULTURE” from within by undermining its pagan virility. (All screaming capitalization and grammatical errors in this piece appear in the original.) Like others on the racist fringe, the shooter proclaimed clearly: “SOCIALISM, represents the future of the West.”

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British Ambassador to Poland Blasted for Promoting "Gay Rights" in Strongly Pro-Family Nation

From LifeSiteNews
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski


Poland's civil rights ombudsman, Janusz Kochanowski, said British ambassador Ric Todd was "being improper and doesn't understand the role of a diplomat" following the disclosure that Todd gave homosexual activist leaders a copy of the "UK Guide To Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender People And Their Rights," translated into Polish, earlier this week.

The booklet is an adaptation of a political correctness manual for UK civil servants produced by the British Foreign Office, and the act was seen as a promotion by the ambassador of the planned "gay pride" march due to take place in Warsaw on Saturday.

"Ambassador Todd has exceeded his authority," Mr. Kochanowski told The Daily Mail. "He represents the UK, he is not meant to intervene here in the way that he chooses."

Slawomir Skiba, editor of Polonia Christiana, a Catholic newspaper published by the Polish Association of Christian Culture, agreed. "The ambassador has demonstrated an extreme lack of diplomacy and absolute ignorance of the values by which the vast majority of our society lives."

He added that Todd should confine himself to represent the interests of Britain, not the "homosexual lobby."

Last year Todd was criticized for flying the rainbow flag of the "gay rights" movement beside the Union Jack flag in front of the British embassy in Warsaw.

Asked at the time whether he would raise the rainbow flag at the British embassies in Saudi Arabia or Iran, Mr Todd said, "I have made a judgment about what I should do in Poland, and in my opinion this is the appropriate thing to do in this country. I am not interfering in Polish politics or society nor am I criticizing it."

"The UK remains committed to promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people overseas," Todd said. "This small gesture is a symbol of the British embassy's commitment to equality and acceptance for all."

A British foreign office spokesman said that it "does have a policy of promoting LGBT rights abroad."

Poland is considered to be one of the most Catholic societies in Europe, with relatively low rates of abortion, divorce and teenage pregnancy. The country has constantly resisted pressure from the EU to acquiesce to the acceptance of the homosexual agenda.

President Lech Kazcynski has said that indiscriminate approval of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights would "affect the accepted moral order in Poland."

33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age.

The Heritage Foundation has a new documentary that details the length of time it could take ballistic missiles from rogue nations to reach U-S territory. The following is a two-minute trailer for the new film.

Mike Huckabee Responds to Obama's Middle East Speech

America's Public School System: Brutal and Spartan

"Education in Sparta" by Luigi Mussini

From NewsWithViews
By Joel Turtel

The public school system in America has become a dismal failure. But education in many other times and cultures has been quite successful. The ancient Greeks, whose civilization was at its height around 550 B.C., founded Western civilization as we know it. The Athenian Greeks invented or perfected logic, drama, science, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, literature, and much more. Yet ancient Greece had no compulsory schools.

Other than requiring two years of military training for young men that began at age eighteen, Athens let parents educate their children as they saw fit. Parents either taught their children at home or sent them to voluntary schools where teachers and philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle gave lectures to all who wanted to learn. These great teacher-philosophers did not need a license to teach, nor did they have tenure. The ancient Athenians had a free-market education system. The thought of compulsory, state-run schools and compulsory teacher licensing would have been repulsive to them. The Athenians respected a parent's natural right to direct the education of their children.

In contrast, Sparta, Athens's mortal enemy, created the first truly state-run, compulsory education system on record. Individual Spartans lived and died for the State, and had to serve the State from birth until sixty years of age. Their society was a brutal military dictatorship in which male children literally belonged to the city rulers, not to their parents.

The Spartan military government took boys from their homes and parents at the age of seven and forced them to live in military-style barracks for the rest of their lives. Spartan men were life-long soldiers whose highest duty was to obey the commands of their leaders. It is no coincidence that Sparta had compulsory, state-run education. If a society believes that children belong not to parents, but to the State, then the State must control children's education by compulsion.

Are our public schools any different than the brutal Spartan society in the way they treat parents and children? Today, school compulsory-attendance laws force parents to hand over their children to government employees called teachers for eight to twelve years. In effect, our local and state governments claim that they, like the Spartans, own our children's minds and bodies for twelve years. Parents who refuse to hand over their children to the public schools can be, and have been, locked in jail for disobeying the compulsory-attendance laws.

In this respect, our public schools today are just as brutal as the Spartans. The difference is only in degree. Where the Spartans stole children from their parents to serve a lifetime in their military, our local governments create laws that let them, in effect, legally kidnap our children to serve twelve years in their education boot camps called public schools. The brutality of the principal is the same.

Both the Spartans and our public-school officials think they own our children, and have utter contempt for parents' rights.

The Feast of Corpus Christi

Andrea Bocelli - "Panis Angelicus" - Cesar Franck

Sotomayor's Double Standard

Membership in exclusionary clubs has been an issue in federal nominations for decades, and in New York City liberal feminists succeeded in banning venerable, old "gentlemen only" clubs a half century ago. But apparently political correctness and laws don't apply to the feminists themselves. The Washington Times editorializes about the double standard that permits Sonia Sotomayor to belong to an elite club for women only.

EDITORIAL: Sotomayor's Club for Women Only

The Democrats' double standard on gender

It was revealed Friday that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor belongs to the Belizean Grove, a highly selective club for women only. Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont announced Tuesday that her confirmation hearings will begin on July 13. If this judge were a man, the nomination would never make it to the Senate for hearings.

The Belizean Grove, founded in 1999, is modeled on the Bohemian Grove, a secretive, elite club for men only. The 125 members of the Belizean Grove include Army generals, Wall Street executives and former ambassadors. Ms. Sotomayor joined after becoming a circuit court judge.

We don't care if nominees belong to all-male or all-female clubs, but a double standard is in play. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s supposed membership in an all-male eating club while an undergraduate at Princeton became an issue during his 2006 Supreme Court confirmation hearing. When Judge D. Brooks Smith was nominated to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001, his confirmation was held up for almost a year in part because he belonged to an all-male fishing and gun club.

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Cardinal Dziwisz Recalls Papal Journey that Brought Down Communism

From Catholic World News

Thirty years to the day after Pope John Paul II (bio - news) concluded his first apostolic journey to Poland-- a journey that marked the beginning of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe-- the June 10 edition of L’Osservatore Romano published a translation of a recent Polish interview with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow, the Pontiff’s personal secretary, who called the pilgrimage Pope John Paul’s most important trip.

The Polish authorities, Cardinal Dziwisz recounted, had blocked a visit of Pope Paul VI to Poland. When the anti-clerical Mexican government invited Pope John Paul to visit Mexico, the Pope “intuitively” realized that the Polish Communist authorities could not prevent a papal pilgrimage, which would be timed to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the death of St. Stanislaus in 1979. In negotiations conducted through the late Archbishop Bronislaw Dabrowski, the Pontiff accepted the government’s restrictions on the areas he could visit, as well as the government’s demand that his visit not take place in May-- the month in which the 900th anniversary took place.

Pope John Paul quickly wrote all of the speeches and homilies by himself, with the Polish section of the Secretariat of State limited to the role of providing citations. Cardinal Dziwisz added that Pope John Paul decisively reversed the previous Vatican policy of Ostpolitik, for he was “convinced that the future did not belong either to Marxism or to the class struggle.” Thus the Pontiff opposed liberation theology’s attempts “to include Marxist analysis in the social doctrine of the Church.”

Cardinal Dziwisz traced the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe to June 3, 1979, during the Pope’s homily in the Cathedral of Gniezno, in which he emphasized the “spiritual unity of Christian Europe,” West and East. After the papal visit, Poland was never the same: freed from fear, the Polish people founded the Solidarity movement.

The road from the 1979 papal visit to the historic events of 1989 was not a smooth one. Following the 1981 imposition of martial law in Poland, President Ronald Reagan personally called Pope John Paul to tell him that the Soviets would not invade Poland.

As the interview drew to close, Cardinal Dziwisz said that the late Pontiff’s canonization process is going “very well.” He concluded by recounting Pope John Paul’s exorcism of a young woman following a general audience. Recalling that he “felt the voice with which it [the demon] screamed,” Cardinal Dziwisz emphasized, “Satan exists.”

Nasty, Unhappy, Liberal Bloggers

Followers of the South Carolina blogosphere might well wonder what is it about liberal bloggers that makes them so angry, vicious and hateful, not content to offer their own perspective, but determined to belittle and offend anyone who might disagree with them. The phenomenon is larger than a local psychopath or two. This rant from the Daily Kos about the Palmetto State may sound familiar:

Warning: Offensive language

By rogereaton

I mean really, what the fuck is wrong with the people of South Carolina? You want us to overlook the fact that you started a civil war, you elected this prick to the United States Senate for 47 years, you elected this ass hat Governor, you put this slimy bastard into the U S Senate after that prick, and that you still want to fly this above your state capitol building. Any of these 5 things would force most people of sound thinking to avoid your mostly backward ass state; but for some reason people have been willing to overlook these. Maybe it's because of your golf courses or maybe your very nice beaches. BUT NO MORE! I am telling the state of South Carolina to go to hell until you remove that slimy, two faced, double talkin, lie with a straight face, partisan hack, Lindsey Graham from the United States Senate.

Vulgar as this may be, I think we should be encouraged that South Carolina's ethos may actually be keeping rogereaton and his ilk away. Who knows, it may even encourage similar visitors to go back to Seattle or to whatever rock they crawled out from under.

Obama Extols Koran; Press Missed It

From OneNewsNow
By Jim Brown

A Christian writer says President Obama's recent speech in Cairo praising Islam is further evidence the American president has a "low view" of biblical Christianity.

Robert Knight, a senior writer for Coral Ridge Ministries, has written a column titled "Obama Nation's Low View of Christianity." Knight says he wrote the column as a service to everyone who wants thorough documentation -- not just bits and pieces -- of President Obama's statements distorting Christianity.

Knight argues that the most disturbing thing President Obama said in his Cairo speech was that the Middle East was the first place where Islam was "revealed."

"That word 'revealed' is very important," Knight explains. "It means an unveiling, and it means a divinely-inspired unveiling -- which would indicate that the president is saying the Koran is a holy book. In fact, he referred to the Koran several times as the 'Holy Koran.'"

Such a perspective from their elected chief executive, says Knight, should concern Bible-believing Christians.

"If you're a Christian, you don't regard the Koran as a holy book of any sort," he states. "You regard it as springing out of the Old Testament, because it incorporates a lot of the Torah, as does the Christian Bible -- but then it goes off into a false religion."

Knight says to call the Koran a holy book goes beyond diplomacy, yet Obama understood the significance of what he was saying because "of all people, he knows the power of words." However, Knight points out that most of the press in the United States missed or ignored the remark.

Activist Announces Plans for Homosexual “Marriage” March on Nation’s Capitol

From LifeSiteNews
By Peter J. Smith