Replies to post #214975 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Sarah Palin Can’t Tear Down The Wall Between Church And State


[ hateful, duplicitous, demagogic cherry picker ]

To hear Palin tell it, there’s a veritable army of “angry atheists armed with an attorney” who “want to try to abort Christ from Christmas” by filing lawsuits “when they see a plastic Jewish family on somebody’s lawn—a nativity scene, that’s basically what it is, right?”

Actually, no.

But never mind theology, here’s the deal: If Palin or anybody else can provide a single, verifiable instance of somebody being successfully sued for exhibiting a crèche, a cross or any religious symbol on private property anywhere in the U.S., they’d have something to complain about.

They’d also have the certain support of the American Civil Liberties Union in defense of their First Amendment rights.

But of course that’s not what these (to my mind overblown) fights over nativity scenes at courthouses, city halls and state capitols around the country are about. Instead, they’re about an “establishment of religion” which the same First Amendment categorically forbids.

In typical scattershot fashion, Palin even invoked Virginia’s own Thomas Jefferson, a conventionally pious Founding Father in her mind, who would, like, totally object to the persecution of people like her who can’t make everybody admit that their God is America’s God:

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“I think Thomas Jefferson would certainly recognize it and stand up and he wouldn’t let anybody tell him to sit down and shut up.”
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Now it’s definitely true that Jefferson was rarely shy about his religious views. Courtesy of Martin Longman in Washington Monthly .. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2013_12/history_palinized048099.php , here’s his opinion about what Palin calls “the reason for the season” from an 1823 letter to John Adams: “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter.”

Like Swift, Jefferson recognized the dangers of religious strife. That’s precisely why, he assured Connecticut Baptists in 1802, the First Amendment decreed “a wall of separation between church and State.”

A wall that protects us still.

Photo: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

page 2 of 2 - http://www.nationalmemo.com/sarah-palin-cant-tear-down-the-wall-between-church-and-state/2/

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Sarah Palin – Shit-Stirrer And Hypocrite .. bit ..

I think there have been four instances over the years when the old hooah has attended a church.

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb965NZRdTo ]

Uploaded on 23 Sep 2008

In a frantic speech at the Wasilla Assembly of God on June 8 this year, Mrs Palin described how Thomas Muthee had laid his hands on her when he visited the church as a guest preacher in late 2005, prior to her successful gubernatorial bid.

In video footage of the speech, she is seen saying: As I was mayor and Pastor Muthee was here and he was praying over me, and you know how he speaks and hes so bold. And he was praying Lord make a way, Lord make a way! — Lord make a way!

Subsequently an ecumenical cook preacher talks about the
“Alaskan Armageddon.”

This is the Pastor Muthee video…

[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIOD5X68lIs

that video, i think, was the one gone black here ..
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=50289489 ]



At Ted Steven’s funeral



At Wally Hickel’s funeral

Apart from these rare sightings, Palin has never been seen attending church. If the religious center of Christmas means so much to her, then why doesn’t the old bag get off her bony arse and go preying praying at her local place of worship?

Palin is only interested in religion and Christmas for what it has to offer her. Her false gods are MONEY and FAME. That is idolatry .. http://www.gotquestions.org/idolatry-definition.html .

[...]

More on her drivel at Liberty…

http://austinisafecker.wordpress.com/2013/12/05/sarah-palin-shit-stirrer-and-hypocrite/

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Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., uni. spokesman Johnnie Moore and Palin all lied by omission when, while lauding the role of Christian abolitionists, they omitted to mention there were as many, if not more, Christian evangelists stridently anti-abolitionist ..

Lecture 8, The Convenient Sin, by Dr. Terry Matthews

A House Divided

This chapter may have been part of a course on Religion in America taught in 1995, by Dr. Matthews, who was a United Methodist clergyman and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Religion at Duke and / or Wake Forest University]. I got it from the W F U web site, but it was no longer there as of 05 / 26 / 12.

As the anti-slavery movement in the South was being displaced by a rising tide of sentiment that held slavery to be a positive good, one should be sensitive to the religious dynamic at work in this shift. The growing assault on slavery from outside the region and the extreme defensiveness that it produced were both rooted in the revivals of the Second Great Awakening.

The attack on Slavery, for instance, was financed in large part by Arthur and Lewis Tappan, two prosperous merchants converted in the revivals of the Second Great Awakening. They poured their fortune into the effort to end slavery through "immediate emancipation, to be accomplished gradually." They financed the issuing of countless tracts, as well as the forming of societies and state conventions to advance the cause of abolition. Many of those drawn to the abolition movement by their efforts were also converts from the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, and were attracted to this effort to purge the nation of the sinful stain of slavery.

The attacks on slavery mounted by the Abolitionists stung Southern evangelicals, and denominational authorities from both North and South reacted strongly to the abolitionist campaign. One example of this reactivity was the effort made by Methodists to gag abolitionists in the church, who were deemed to be a threat to the order of the church. The Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church ordered their preachers "to abstain from all abolition movements and associations, and to refrain from patronizing any of their publications." They were willing to take this step because they feared that such advocacy might hurt the patronage of the church in the South. Nor were the Methodists alone in this. Roman Catholic bishops did something very similar, when they refused to pronounce slavery an evil.

Another response to the growing campaign of the abolitionists was the effort on the part of Southern religious leaders to ground the institution of slavery in ultimate reality. Slavery was part of the divine plan, they argued. Not only did God's Word make it clear that slavery was not evil, it was, in fact, a part of the divinely established social order.

At the same time they sought to ground slavery in ultimate reality, Southern religious leaders also sought to defend the Bible from attack. Already questions were being raised about whether the Bible was literally true. It had already been noticed, for instance that while the Bible attributes its first five books to the authorship of Moses, these books include the story of his death. Now, the South felt it necessary to defend the Bible as inerrant truth, with no mixture of error because Southerners came to believe that anything that threatened to undermine the authority of scripture also undermined one of their best defenses of slavery. Robert Lewis Dabney clearly described the deliberate nature of this strategy when he wrote in 1851: "Here is our policy then...to push the Bible argument continually, to drive Abolitionism to the wall, to compel it to assume an anti-Christian position." Like other Southerners, he felt if the abolitionists could be made out to be attacking God's Word as well as slavery, their influence among the public could be limited. Another leading Southerner, James Henley Thornwell went so far as to say that calling Slavery sinful was to reject the Bible in favor of a rationalistic mode of thought. And some Southern religious leaders who went so far as to attack the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Bill of Rights, as having sprung from the same infidel philosophy which bred abolitionism.

Within a generation, the evangelicalism of the Second Great Awakening was profoundly divided, and at odds with itself. On the one hand were the Christian abolitionists who saw slavery as a violation of the Christian gospel. They focused on the spirit and teachings of Jesus, and believed that the Golden Rule had superseded the ethic of the Old Testament. They saw scripture as a progressive revelation, and therefore gave greater weight to the New Testament teaching concerning the law of love. On the other hand was the South, with its claim that slavery was divinely ordained. Southern clergy cited scriptural texts to prove their point, and insisted that those who differed from them were denying the truthfulness of God's Word. Where evangelicals in the North came to see the struggle against slavery as a crusade to wipe out the sin of human bondage, the South saw itself engaged in a battle to defend the cause of God and religion from the infidelity of scripture-denying abolitionists.

http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/slavery&southernchurches.html

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[ Christian ] Opposition to abolitionism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_views_on_slavery#Opposition_to_abolitionism

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.. and re your link about an inch down

But the trustees at Brewton-Parker College see something else in Caner. Trustee Bucky Kennedy said in the school's press release that Caner’s “character and love for God are admirable and inspirational.” - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/disgraced-former-liberty-dean-ergun-caner-gets-new-job-seeks-silence-critics#sthash.PAetmy7a.dpuf

When "love for God" is more highly valued than the simple human value as basic, that has dangerous portent.

[F6]

CUFI Speech - Glenn Beck

Published on Jul 23, 2013 by Glenn Beck

No description available.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz3bMG6c9SA [with comments]

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Christians United for Israel
http://www.cufi.org/


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Glenn Beck & John Hagee End Time Bible Prophecies

Published on Apr 3, 2013 by MrEleutheromania

No description available.

[apparently dates from late '07 or early '08 -- Hagee's (revised) "In Defense of Israel" came out 9/7/07 ( http://www.amazon.com/In-Defense-Israel-Revised-Edition/dp/1599792109 ); the show is Beck's pre-Fox Headline Prime on CNN ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck#Television )]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl9ju4M57gg [with comments]


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IS OBAMA THE ANTI-CHRIST? | Biblical Analysis by John Hagee

Published on Apr 3, 2013 by thejimmyzshow

http://www.jhm.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjVpB6kC2nY [with comments]


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The Real God: An Epiphany

Uploaded on Aug 11, 2011 by DarkMatter2525 [ http://www.youtube.com/user/DarkMatter2525 ]

Because I was constantly being told that I'm rejecting God, and I knew that wasn't true, I decided to research rejection, which made me aware of its effects. My studies took me in a completely unexpected direction. The epiphany (pun intended) was rather shocking. The evidence indicates that the personal god is a manifestation of the ego, which explains a plethora of theistic tendencies, including their typical dislike of atheists, who theists subconsciously perceive to be rejecting a part of themselves. God is Tyler Durden; and the first rule of Jesus Club is you have to talk about Jesus Club. The second rule of Jesus Club is you have to talk about Jesus Club.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8ZMMuu7MU [with (approaching 29,000) comments] [(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following]

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After The Rapture

Uploaded on May 21, 2011 by TheThinkingAtheist

It happened before the expected time of 6pm, but Harold Camping's May 21, 2011 prediction has come true. Everything has changed. It is now a world without Christians.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9KlMWzKj4s [with (over 15,000) comments]


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Judge says giant cross must be removed from San Diego mountain


Visitors gather at the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in San Diego in July of 2006.

By Lateef Mungin and Mayra Cuevas, CNN
updated 1:52 AM EST, Fri December 13, 2013

(CNN) -- A giant cross that has stood on a Southern California mountain for decades must be removed because it violates the constitutional separation of church and state, a judge ordered this week.

The order Thursday by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns continues a long legal battle about the 43-foot cross atop Mt. Soledad in San Diego.

Burns ordered that the cross would have to be removed within 90 days. But the cross may be able to stay if the case is appealed, the judge ordered.

"Of course we are disappointed in what the ruling is -- that is to take the cross down," Bruce Bailey, president of the Mount Soledad Memorial Association told CNN affiliate KGTV.

Bailey said his organization plans to appeal, which would mean the cross would stay as the decades-long legal battle continued.

Long legal battle

The cross was erected in 1954 in honor of Korean War veterans and has been the subject of near constant judicial back and forth since 1989, when two Vietnam War veterans filed suit saying it violated the California Constitution's "No Preference" clause.

Since the first lawsuit in 1989, the city of San Diego twice tried selling the property beneath the cross to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association, only to be stopped by the courts.

In 2004, the parties involved reached an agreement that would have moved the cross to a nearby church, but two congressmen intervened and inserted a rider into the 2005 omnibus budget bill that designated the property a national veterans memorial and authorized the federal government to accept the donation of the property.

This led to more fights and more court filings.

In 2006, three congressmen pushed through a bill calling for the government to seize the property by eminent domain -- calling it "a historically significant war memorial." The federal government took possession in August of that year.

A lawsuit was filed challenging that transfer almost immediately and that has led to Thursday's ruling.

© 2013 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/13/justice/california-cross-battle/ [with (over 13,000) comments]

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Mt. Soledad Cross Ruled Unconstitutional, Again

Proponents of the cross said they might again petition the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
December 12, 2013
A federal judge in San Diego issued an order from the bench Thursday declaring that the government's display of a 43-foot cross atop Mount Soledad in La Jolla violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The federal display was challenged in a 2006 lawsuit by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America and several local residents, all of whom were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties.
"We support the government paying tribute to those who served bravely in our country's armed forces," said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. "But we should honor all of our heroes under one flag, not just one particular religious symbol."
The cross was erected in 1954 and was dedicated at an Easter Sunday ceremony describing the monument as a "gleaming white symbol of Christianity."
[...]
http://lajolla.patch.com/groups/politics-and-elections/p/judge-rules-mt-soledad-cross-violates-us-constitution [with comment]

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Giant cross ordered removed in San Diego; supporters hope for appeal
December 13, 2013
[...]
One of the strongest supporters of keeping the cross has been Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine), a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. His spokesman, Joe Kasper, said Burns' ruling was not unexpected and "the true test will come if and when the U.S. Supreme Court decides to take the case."
"Without the cross, the memorial loses its identity as an unforgettable symbol of appreciation to generations of sacrifice," Kasper said. "It's still too soon to say that the cross won't stay right where it is."
[...]
The decision on whether to appeal Burns' ruling will be made by the Department of Justice.
Built in 1954, the 43-foot cross is one of the most visible landmarks in San Diego. Starting in the early 1990s, plaques honoring military veterans have been placed on walls surrounding the base of the cross.
Jewish war veterans and the ACLU have argued that having the cross on public property is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.
Defenders of the cross have argued that it is a war memorial, not exclusively a religious symbol.
In 2011, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the cross violated the 1st Amendment. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the issue, sending the case back to the trial court in San Diego.
"In spite of many secular changes to the memorial, its long sectarian history, as found by the 9th Circuit, effectively prevents the government from purging the religious connotation in any other way," Burns wrote in removal order.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-giant-cross-ordered-removed-in-san-diego-supporters-hope-for-appeal-20131213,0,4438509.story [with embedded video report, and comments]

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Judge Rules Against Cross on U.S. Land
December 12, 2013
[...]
After a previous cross at the site was knocked down in a windstorm, the current cross was erected on city property in 1954 by the Mount Soledad Memorial Association, a veterans’ group, who called it a monument to Korean War veterans. In 1989, Philip K. Paulson, a Vietnam War veteran and an atheist, sued the City of San Diego to have the cross removed, and the case has remained in court ever since.
Supporters of the cross have argued that it remains a war memorial, not a religious symbol, even though few if any commemorations of war victims were at the site until after Mr. Paulson’s lawsuit.
The federal government seized the land on which the cross sits through eminent domain in 2006 as part of an effort to save the cross.
But in 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled the cross violated the First Amendment ban. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case last year, sending it back to the trial court.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs celebrated Thursday’s ruling. They said no one wanted the cross destroyed, and hoped the federal government would now negotiate to move it elsewhere.
“This is a win for religious liberty,” said Daniel Mach, who argued the case for the American Civil Liberties Union. “The government can and should honor those who served and died for this country, but not by playing favorites with faiths.”
Supporters of the cross indicated they planned to appeal.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/us/judge-rules-against-cross-on-us-land.html


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'Kidnapped For Christ,' Planned Documentary, Aims To Expose 'Ex-Gay' Experiences In Christian Reform Schools

By James Nichols
Posted: 12/12/2013 10:52 am EST

"Kidnapped for Christ [ http://www.kidnappedforchrist.com/ ]" is a compelling new documentary that follows the experiences of several American teenagers after they were kidnapped from their homes and shipped to Evangelical Reform schools located in the Dominican Republic. Many of these teenagers' parents discover their children are either gay or experience same-sex attraction, and are sent to “therapeutic Christian boarding school[s]” in order to "transform into healthy Christian adults [ http://www.kidnappedforchrist.com/#!about ]" in an environment outside of U.S. law.

Directed Kate S. Logan with Lance Bass cited as an executive producer, the film is currently engaged in a Kickstarter campaign in order to be fully funded. The Huffington Post sat down with Logan this week in order to better understand the function of these reform camps, the experiences of kidnapped youth go through while there, and why this film is important.

The Huffington Post: Why did you feel this documentary was necessary?

Actually, when I originally got the idea to make the film, I had no idea that there was anything controversial about this school. I was under the impression that it was just an alternative therapy program with a cultural exchange element. It wasn't until I got permission to film and started investigating that I realized what I had gotten myself into. Once I saw what was really going on at Escuela Caribe, I felt I needed to help expose the truth of what this school was doing in the name of "therapy."

Why do you think the majority of the public knows so little about these reform institutions?

I think it's because the victims of these programs are teens and children and they are often so traumatized by their experiences that they don't speak about it for years -- if at all. Also, a lot of times former students of reform schools get labeled "bad" simply because they were sent to a place for "bad" kids, so no one believes their stories. Some of the things that go on in these places are, quite frankly, so bizarre and horrible that it's hard to believe if you aren't there to see it yourself. With the Internet it's easier for teens who have been sent to these places to speak out and connect with others who've gone through the same thing, but it's still a relatively small group who are talking about it.

What do people undergo in these camps?

I mean, how much time have you got? The "treatment" was called "Culture Shock Therapy" by the administrators. So their actual methods involved jarring kids enough that they were more malleable emotionally and mentally. That was Step One, and it involved strenuous and intense physical labor and exercise, constant repetition of religious and program-written texts, and severe punishments for students who "acted out." Those punishments could be hours of manual labor, exercising, or actual physical beatings, which they called "swats."

That was the program. All of that stuff is in their handbook. Then there was so much physical and emotional abuse that went on besides that, combined with a generally oppressive atmosphere of conformity and helplessness. These kids were afraid to speak out, afraid to tell their parents about was was going on, and as a result a lot of them just felt helpless and alone, like they were stuck in this horrible place with no one to talk to and no one to help them.

What can viewers expect from the film?

Viewers can expect to be consistently shocked. Shocked at the fact that these camps exist, shocked that they are making money from the systematic abuse of teens, and shocked that nobody is doing a thing about it. But it's also a story about a community rallying around a friend and neighbor to help him out of the camp when he's at his most helpless and alone.

What are you hoping to accomplish with the film/what do you want viewers to take away?

We hope viewers will come out of the film outraged and ready to fight for these teens, knowing that it can be done from the story in our film. There's almost no regulation for these programs -- even for ones that are based in the U.S.; teens have died and continue to die in these camps, and the ones that don't are traumatized. We want viewers to come out set on making sure none of that happens to any teens ever again, and ready to engage with their senators or representatives to make sure legislation is passed to regulate this industry.

For more information on "Kidnapped for Christ" or to contribute to the project, visit the film's Kickstarter campaign [ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kateslogan/kidnapped-for-christ ].

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/kidnapped-for-christ_n_4427968.html [with a non-YouTube version of the above YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOR77tWVxKc (with comments), of the trailer embedded, and comments]


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Ryan Loskarn in court on child pornography charges



By JOHN BRESNAHAN and RACHEL VAN DONGEN | 12/12/13 2:11 PM EST Updated: 12/13/13 3:08 PM EST

Ryan Loskarn, the now ex-chief of staff for GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), appeared in federal court on Thursday after being arrested and charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.

A nervous Loskarn, whose hands were visibly shaking, was detained as a flight risk and because he is a threat given his alleged crimes involving children. Loskarn said nothing in court except his name and was wearing the same gray sweatshirt and jeans that he had on when he was arrested on Wednesday.

Possession of child pornography carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, while distribution of it carries a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years behind bars.

Loskarn’s next court hearing, when bail will be considered, is 9:30 a.m. on Monday. Loskarn’s lawer, Pamela Satterfield of Schertler & Onorato, LLP, would not comment on the charges against her client.

A “Statement of Facts” released by the Justice Department on Thursday alleged that Loskarn had been viewing and sharing child pornography with others for several years, a claim that stunned Alexander and Loskarn’s many friends and colleagues on Capitol Hill.

“The courts will determine his guilt or innocence, but the information in the complaint is repugnant and disturbing,” Alexander said in a statement. Other Loskarn friends were equally appalled, and the allegations set off a fresh round of e-mails and phone calls among congressional staffers and K Street operatives.

Alexander announced on Wednesday morning — apparently at the same time that agents were searching Loskarn’s home — that Loskarn was taken off his Senate payroll.

According to the complaint, Loskarn, 35, made “several purchases” between November 2010 and March 2011 from a Toronto-based movie production company operating a website that offered DVDs via mail and streaming video. The court documents said “the majority of these films featured young nude boys.”

Starting in October 2010, the U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service and the Toronto Police began investigating the company. A “review of the customer invoices and purchase summary” revealed Loskarn billing and shipping address in Washington, D.C., according to the document.

In October 2013, the postal service also found Loskarn’s residential IP address on the “Gnutella peer-to-peer network offering files with names that are consistent with child pornography broadcasting as a download candidate.”

Several extremely graphic files that appeared on the Gnutella network were downloaded and viewed by the Postal Service as part of the investigation into Loskarn’s alleged activities. They included a 28-minute portion of a file of a young girl who was raped in the woods by her “father.” The court document states the video had the “exact same hash value as a file offered for download on Oct. 5, 2013 from Loskarn’s IP address.”

It is unclear why it took federal agents almost three years to question or detains Loskarn after his name and address first emerged in a child pornography probe.

On Wednesday afternoon, Loskarn was arrested at his home. Agents from the Postal Service used a battering ram to break down the door after they weren’t allowed to enter.

Before agents entered his home in the quiet Hill East neighborhood, the court document states that Loskarn was observed “leaning outside the middle second window” and “appeared to be in a nervous state looking right and left.”

“After approximately three to five seconds, Loskarn made a motion as if he were placing something down outside the window and closed the window,” the document states.

When Postal Service agents entered the home, they examined that area and discovered a computer hard drive. The agents noted there was snow on the roof and ledge where the drive was found from a storm the day before, but no snow on the hard drive.

Loskarn was read his Miranda rights but waived them and spoke with the agents. Loskarn confirmed that he had a hard drive but “did not admit” discarding it.

The hard drive was later examined by the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity section, and a computer forensic examiner found digital videos depicting child pornography, the document states.

One graphic scene on the hard drive contained a prepubescent girl standing next to an “erect penis” and then being directed to pull down her pants and underwear. “In addition, hundreds of videos depicting underage boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct were located on the same external hard drive,” the document states.

The hard drive also contained Gnutella peer-to-peer sharing software.

Loskarn is one of the most well-known Hill staffers and an influential policy aide. He is also very well-liked in the Senate, and the small community of those who work on the Hill was shocked by the news.

After graduating from Tulane University in 2000, Loskarn got a job working as a lowly staff assistant for former Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.).

Funny, smart and a good networker — all important qualities for a Capitol Hill aide — Loskarn was then hired as a deputy press secretary for the House Rules Committee, at that time chaired by ex-Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.). Loskarn moved on to become communications director for Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Loskarn got a big break in 2007, when he moved over to handle press for the Senate Republican Conference, run at that time by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). When Alexander took over as conference chairman, Loskarn stayed on as chief of staff, a senior post in Senate GOP leadership.

Alexander later stepped down from that post, but Loskarn remained with the Tennessee Republican, being named his chief of staff in Alexander’s personal office in 2012.

© 2013 POLITICO LLC

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/ryan-loskarn-court-child-pornography-charges-101088.html [with comments]

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Ryan Loskarn, Lamar Alexander's Former Chief Of Staff, Seeks Release As He Faces Child Porn Charges

In this image taken from video and released by WJLA TV, U.S. Postal police walk with Ryan Loskarn, center, chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, in Washington D.C.
12/14/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/14/ryan-loskarn-lamar-alexander_n_4446309.html [with comments]

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Tenn. Sen.'s fired chief of staff ordered freed
December 16, 2013
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Tenn-Sen-s-fired-chief-of-staff-ordered-freed-5068141.php [no comments yet]


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The Salvation Army's History of Anti-LGBT Discrimination
12/11/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zinnia-jones/the-salvation-armys-histo_b_4422938.html [with comments]

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A Transgender Volunteer for the Salvation Army

December 16, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/17/opinion/boylan-a-transgender-volunteer-for-the-salvation-army.html [with comments]


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Pope Francis is the Catholic Church’s Obama – God help us


Nov. 30, 2013: Pope Francis arrives in St. Peter's Basilica to lead a Vesper prayer at the Vatican.
(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

By Adam Shaw
Published December 04, 2013
FoxNews.com

Pope Francis is undergoing a popularity surge comparable to the way Barack Obama was greeted by the world in 2008. And just as President Obama has been a disappointment for America, Pope Francis will prove a disaster for the Catholic Church.

My fellow Catholics should be suspicious when bastions of anti-Catholicism in the left-wing media are in love with him.

Much is being made of his ‘compassion’ and ‘humility,’ but kissing babies and hugging the sick is nothing new. Every pope in recent memory has done the same, yet only now are the media paying attention. Benedict XVI and John Paul II refused to kowtow to the liberal agenda, and so such displays of tenderness were under-covered.

But Francis is beating a retreat for the Catholic Church, and making sure its controversial doctrines are whispered, not yelled – no wonder the New York Times is in love.

Just like President Obama loved apologizing for America, Pope Francis likes to apologize for the Catholic Church, thinking that the Church is at its best when it is passive and not offending anyone’s sensibilities.

In his interviews with those in the left-wing media he seeks to impress, Francis has said that the Church needs to stop being ‘obsessed’ with abortion and gay marriage, and instead of seeking to convert people, “we need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.”

This softly-softly approach of not making a fuss has been tried before, and failed. The Second Vatican Council of the 1960’s aimed to “open the windows” of the Church to the modern world by doing just this.

The result was the Catholic version of New Coke. Across the West where the effects were felt, seminaries and convents emptied, church attendance plummeted, and adherence to Church doctrine diminished.

John Paul II and Benedict XVI worked hard to turn this trend around, but now Pope Francis wants the bad old days to resume.

Proof of this is Francis’ aforementioned statement of the Church being obsessed with controversial issues and the need to rebalance by talking about it less.

That Francis didn’t see that this would be translated into headlines of “Pope tells Catholics to shut up about things that offend Sandra Fluke” by every left-wing media outlet shows a terrifying naivety.

Nor do his comments reflect reality.

For years, the majority of priests didn't dare cover controversial topics in their homilies in fear of getting angry letters from pick-and-choose Catholics outraged that their pastor dared to say something out of line with the Democratic Party.

Most parishioners therefore haven’t heard the Church’s argument on controversial topics. Consequently, usage of contraception is only slightly lower in Catholics than in the general population, and support of gay marriage is actually higher in Catholics than the general population. Perhaps talking about it even less isn’t the answer?

In trying to please the media and the modern world, Francis mistakes their glee for respect. Just like Obama thought he’d won over Putin by promising a reset, Francis thinks by talking vacuously about the poor, he will be respected. And it is vacuous -- the pontiff recently asked why it’s news that the stock market drops but not when an old person dies. When your leader is asking, “Why isn’t the newspaper a laundry list of obituaries?” you know you elected the wrong guy.

What effect is this having? For all we’re being told about how ‘disenfranchised’ Catholics are being brought back by Francis ‘reaching out,’ a recent Pew Research study showed that in America, the number of people who identify as Catholic has actually decreased. Lesson: rubbing the egos of Church-hating left-wingers doesn’t make more Catholics, it just makes the Church less respected.

Francis not only panders to enemies and professional grievance mongers, but also attacks his allies. Just as Obama snubs Britain and Israel, Pope Francis swipes at practicing Catholics.

So not only has he insulted, and severely damaged the work of, pro-life and pro-marriage groups with his comments, he has also gone on the attack, dismissing Catholics who attend the older rites in Latin as ‘ideologizing’ and being guilty of ‘exploitation.’ Apparently “Who am I to judge?” doesn’t apply here.

On world matters, Francis’ statements are embarrassing. About communism, a destructive ideology that slaughtered millions of Catholics, he said:

“Learning about it through a courageous and honest person was helpful. I realized…an aspect of the social, which I then found in the social doctrine of the Church."

Not such kind words for the free market, however. In his recent apostolic exhortation he slammed unfettered capitalism, calling it ‘a new tyranny.’

Apart from the fact that there is no major nation practicing unfettered capitalism (like Obama, Francis loves attacking straw men) there is more real tyranny in socialist cesspools like Francis’ home of Argentina than in places where capitalism is predominant.

In the document he rejects the free market and calls for governments to overhaul financial systems so they attack inequality. In doing so he shows himself painfully misguided on economics, failing to see that free markets have consistently lifted the poor out of poverty, while socialism merely entrenches them in it, or kills them outright.

Like Obama, Francis is unable to see the problems that are really endangering his people. Like Obama he mistakes the faithful for the enemy, the enemy for his friend, condescension for respect, socialism for justice and capitalism for tyranny.

As a Catholic, I do hope Francis’ papacy is a successful one, but from his first months he seems hell-bent on a path to undo the great work of Benedict XVI and John Paul II, and to repeat critical mistakes of the past.

Adam Shaw is a News Editor for FoxNews.com and writes about Anglo-American and Catholic issues.

©2013 FOX News Network, LLC

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/04/pope-francis-is-catholic-churchs-obama-god-help-us/ [with comments]

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Fox News columnist rips Pope Francis, loses Catholic News Service gig
Dec 6, 2013
http://davidgibson.religionnews.com/2013/12/06/fox-news-columnist-ripped-pope-francis-loses-catholic-news-service-gig/ [with comments]


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Gay teacher fired after applying for marriage license


A gay marriage supporter holds up a flag during a rally for gay marriage, on June 26, 2013, on Independence Mall in Philadelphia.
Matt Slocum/AP

By Clare Kim
12/09/13 02:15 PM—Updated 12/10/13 12:13 AM

A high-school teacher at a suburban Philadelphia Catholic high school has been fired after applying for a marriage license in New Jersey with his partner of 12 years.

Michael Griffin, who taught Spanish and French at Holy Ghost Preparatory Schol in Bensalem, PA. and is also an alumnus of the high school, was told his marriage license “contradicts the terms of his teaching contract,” as stated in a statement from the school.

“I applied for a marriage license since NJ now has marriage equality,” the 35-year-old educator wrote in a Facebook post [ https://www.facebook.com/michael.griffin.33865854/posts/10100301830995309 ]. “After 12 years together I was excited to finally be able to marry my partner. Because of that, I was fired from Holy Ghost Preparatory School today. I am an alumnus of the school and have taught there for 12 years. I feel hurt, saddened, betrayed and except for this post, am at a loss for words.”

In an email sent on Dec. 3, Griffin informed Principal Jeffrey Danilak of his decision to apply for a marriage license in their home state of New Jersey after a state judge ruled to legalize same-sex marriage in New Jersey [ http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/09/nj_superior_court_gay_marriage_ruling.html ] in late September. The judge ordered state officials to begin officiating same-sex marriages on Oct. 21.

On Friday, President Fr. James McCloskey and Danilak terminated Griffin’s contract and told him the decision was effective immediately.

The school’s 87-page handbook includes the Teacher’s Code of Conduct which Griffin believes was the clause used for Griffin’s termination.

“Although the school welcomes teachers from other denominations and recognizes their rights to religious freedom, as employees of a Catholic institution, all teachers are expected to uphold lifestyles compatible with the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic Church,” the handbook states.

Griffin told msnbc.com he was aware of the provision but he was still shocked by the school’s decision. “My partner came to school functions with me and a school administrator attended the ceremony after our civil union in 2008,” Griffin said in a phone conversation. “I even asked the president if it’d be ok to bring him to a holiday party at his home very early on in my teaching career.”

“There were plenty of opportunities for the school to know about my relationship,” he said.

“I don’t think I did anything brave. I had a domestic partnership, a civil union and the marriage license was a formality. We’ve done this twice before and I just went to fill out some paperwork.”

Holy Ghost’s decision is currently legal under Pennsylvania state law as the state has not passed anti-discrimination laws for sexual orientation. While Democrats have proposed a House bill that would include clauses protecting sexual orientation, Republican leaders have stalled the bill, arguing that Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, a Catholic himself, would not sign it.

“What the school thinks they did was legal. It certainly doesn’t feel legal,” said Griffin.

But Griffin said he is focused on moving forward and wants his students to know that he will continue to live his life as a moral person.

“Holy Ghost helped form me to be the person that I am today,” he wrote on Facebook Saturday. “Even though I am no longer employed there, I wanted to share their mission and philosophy, because I feel like I have tried to make it my life’s philosophy as best I can, even now. I am trying to move forward with a peaceful heart and wish nothing but the best to my colleagues and students who mean the world to me.”

Video [embedded]

The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, 12/9/13, 11:18 PM ET
Teacher fired over gay marriage tells his story

©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL

http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/gay-teacher-fired-marriage-license [with comments]

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Rights group defends fired gay New Jersey teacher

Catholic school fired man after he announced plans to marry gay partner.
December 10, 2013
[...]
Sharon Groves, director of the HRC's Religion and Faith Program, called Griffin's firing "part of a disturbing trend."
She said 15 teachers have been fired from Catholic schools because of their sexual orientation in the past two years.
[...]
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/10/rights-group-defends-fired-gay-nj-teacher/3949551/ [with comments]

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Students, alumni rally around fired gay teacher at Catholic school

Participants gather during a rally celebrating the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling at Ilus W. Davis Park in Kansas City, Mo. on June 26, 2013.
Dec 13, 2013
(RNS) Gay and lesbian Catholic students in Pennsylvania are joining alumni and others in pushing a Catholic high school near Philadelphia to reinstate a teacher who was fired after he applied for a marriage license with his partner.
The effort is one of several in support of Michael Griffin, who was dismissed [ http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/09/catholic-high-school-fires-teacher-applied-gay-marriage-license/ ] by Holy Ghost Preparatory School, and they include a petition at Change.org that had drawn nearly 4,000 signatures [ https://www.change.org/petitions/the-administration-of-holy-ghost-preparatory-school-reinstate-michael-griffin ] as of Friday (Dec. 13).
“Michael Griffin did not deserve to be treated in a way that does not clearly reflect Christ and His teachings,” says the letter sponsored [ http://keystonestudentvoice.com/2013/12/catholic-students-across-pa-unite-to-support-michael-griffin/ ] by the Pennsylvania Student Equality Coalition. “He has dedicated his life to the Holy Ghost Community. He is just as much a part of the Holy Ghost family as any other member.”
[...]
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/13/students-alumni-rally-around-fired-gay-teacher-catholic-school/ [with comments [also at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/students-alumni-rally-around-fired-gay-teacher-at-catholic-school/2013/12/13/69f31258-643f-11e3-af0d-4bb80d704888_story.html (with comments)]

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When Catholic schools fire gay teachers, laity push back

Ken Bencomo, 45, right, and his partner of 10 years, Christopher Persky, 32, left, both of Rancho Cucamonga, get married at the San Bernardino County Hall of Records in San Bernardino on July 1, 2013. Bencomo was fired from his teaching position at a St. Lucy’s Catholic School days after he married his fiance in this San Bernardino civil ceremony.
Oct 7, 2013
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/10/07/laity-push-back-catholic-schools-fire-gay-teachers/ [with comments]

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Piero Pazzi's Calendario Romano Showcases Hot Roman Catholic Priests



12/13/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/calendario-romano-priest-calendar_n_4433489.html [with comments]


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Pope Francis displays St Peter's bone for the very first time

HOLY: St Peter was the Church's first pope
THE POPE is to put the sacred bone of St Peter on public display for the first time today.
November 24, 2013
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/444808/Pope-Francis-displays-St-Peter-s-bones-for-the-very-first-time [with comments]

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Saint Peter's Bone on Display as Pope Francis Marks 'Year of Faith'

Holy: Pope Francis kisses the relic of St. Peter the apostle - which he then held in his arms for several minutes
[ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512836/St-Peters-bones-unveiled-public-Vatican-time.html ]
24 Nov 2013
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/saint-peter-bones-pope/2013/11/24/id/538313 [with comment]

*

Is that really St. Peter’s bone on display at the Vatican?

Dec 5, 2013
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/05/really-st-peters-bones-display-vatican/ [with comments] [also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/st-peters-bones-fake_n_4393739.html (with comments)]

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Is it a relic of St Peter? The Vatican says it doesn’t matter

Pope Francis blesses the bronze reliquary containing the disputed bone as a photographer catches the moment
Bone discovered under basilica in 1939 exhibited in public for first time
24 November 2013
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/are-they-relics-of-st-peter-the-vatican-says-it-doesnt-matter-8960451.html [with embedded video report; no comments yet]


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In State Of The Nation Address, Putin Defends Anti-Gay Law


Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers an annual speech to the nation and members of State Duma and Council of the Federation in the Grand Kremlin Palace on December 12, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
(Photo by Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images)

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA
12/12/13 06:15 AM ET EST

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin used his state-of-the-nation address on Thursday to defend conservative values, referring obliquely to his government's anti-gay stance as he chided the West for treating "good and evil" equally.

Russia has faced Western criticism over a law banning "propaganda of non-traditional relations," which gay rights groups say has given a green light to harassment and intimidation. The law has prompted activists across the world to demand a boycott of the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February.

In his 70-minute televised speech from an ornate Kremlin hall, Putin pledged to defend traditional family values, which he said were the foundation of Russia's greatness and a bulwark against "so-called tolerance — genderless and infertile."

He lamented the "review of norms of morality" going on in many other countries.

"This destruction of traditional values from above not only entails negative consequences for society, but is also inherently anti-democratic because it is based on an abstract notion and runs counter to the will of the majority of people," Putin said.

Quoting early 20th-century Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, the president said conservatism does not stop society from progressing but "prevents it from falling backward into chaotic darkness and the state of primitive man."

This statement was met with enthusiastic applause from the audience, which was comprised of lawmakers, judges, religious leaders and federal and regional officials.

Putin is believed to be a devout Christian, but it is only in recent years that he has taken a stand to promote conservative values and the Russian Orthodox Church as he seeks to consolidate his support base.

© 2013 Associated Press

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/putin-state-of-the-nation_n_4432001.html [with comments]

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Ivan Okhlobystin, Russian Actor [and Russian Orthodox priest], Says He Would Burn Gays Alive In Ovens


Ohlobyistin in 2012
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Okhlobystin ]

By Cavan Sieczkowski
Posted: 12/17/2013 10:30 am EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 10:51 am EST

A Russian actor recently spewed inflammatory comments about gays in Russia, saying he wants to burn them all alive in ovens.

Ivan Okhlobystin is a priest and actor who stars in Russia's version of "Scrubs" [ http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131213/185522052/Star-of-Russian-Scrubs-Urges-Burning-Gays-Alive.html ] and voiced a character in 2012's "Snow Queen." On Sunday, he made homophobic statements during a "spiritual talk" [ http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/russian-actor-ivan-okhlobystin-i-665554 ] in Siberia's Novosibirsk, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"I would have them all stuffed alive inside an oven [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/12/ivan-okhlobystin-russian-scrubs-gay-people-burn-alive-ovens ]. This is Sodom and Gomorrah, as a believer, I can not remain indifferent to this, it is a living danger to my children!" he said, according to a Huffington Post translation of a local news report from NGS.Novosti.

"I don't want my children thinking that being a faggot is normal," he continued. "This is gay fascism! If a man can not choose an appropriate person of the opposite sex for reproduction -- that is a clear sign of mental abnormality, then he needs to be deprived of that right to choose."

After news of his vitriolic anti-gay comments made headlines [ http://www.advocate.com/news/world-news/2013/12/14/russian-actor-gays-should-be-burned-alive-ovens ] around the world, Okhlobystin took to Twitter to defend himself [ http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/16/russian-actor-ivan-okhlobystin-oven-homosexuals-burned-alive ]. The 47-year-old, who previously discussed becoming president, showed no remorse.

"The meaning was rendered correctly," he said, per The Guardian. "Everyone has the right to express their opinions."

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists spoke out against Okhlobystin. Nikolay Alexeyev, the leader of Moscow's gay community, told radio station RSN the actor was "inciting hatred and enmity toward a social group," according to The Hollywood Reporter. He said the actor could be denied visas to "civilized countries" because of this.

Russia has become a hotbed for anti-gay sentiment since the nation's "homosexual propaganda" law [ http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/27/19699629-homosexual-propaganda-law-signals-latest-russian-crackdown ] passed over the summer. The regulation makes it "illegal to spread information about non-traditional sexual behavior" to minors, and is punishable with fines and jail time. The law has led to an increase in anti-gay violence in Russia [ http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/01/russia-rise-homophobic-violence ].

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/ivan-okhlobystin-gays-oven_n_4456165.html [with embedded video report, and comments]

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Orthodox Calendar 2014: 'Romanian Priests' Get Sexy (And Gay) For Steamy Spread

11/07/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/05/orthodox-calendar-priests-gay_n_4214872.html [with the YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W8xNgH531o (with comments), embedded, and comments]

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Obama Jabs Putin, Picks Openly Gay Delegates For Winter Olympics In Russia

12/17/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/obama-putin-olympics-gay-delegates_n_4462283.html [with comments]


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India’s Reversal on Gay Rights

Editorial
Published: December 11, 2013

India’s Supreme Court issued a disgraceful ruling [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/world/asia/court-restores-indias-ban-on-gay-sex.html ] against human rights in reinstating a law that bans gay sex. On Wednesday, the court reversed a landmark 2009 decision [ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/asia/03india.html ] by the Delhi High Court that decriminalized sex between consenting adults regardless of their gender.

At issue is Section 377 of India’s Penal Code barring “carnal intercourse against the order of nature,” a holdover from British colonial law dating back to 1861. In practice, this law had largely been used by police to threaten and blackmail gays, lesbians and transgender people.

Following the ruling, India’s crimes bureau stated ominously that it will begin compiling crime statistics under Section 377 as early as next year. Violation of the law is punishable by a fine and up to 10 years imprisonment.

Gay-rights supporters took to the streets in New Delhi in protest, vowing to continue their fight for equal rights and dignity under the law. Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, roundly condemned the Supreme Court decision.

In its 2009 ruling, the Delhi High Court said Section 377 violated the guarantees of equality and privacy in the country’s Constitution. The Supreme Court disagreed. Writing for the court, Justice Ganpat Singh Singhvi threw the issue to lawmakers, stating that Parliament was “free to consider the desirability and propriety of deleting Section 377 I.P.C. from the statute book or amend the same as per the suggestion made by the attorney general.”

The court’s statement inviting the Legislature to amend the law is disingenuous. Given the fractious nature of India’s Parliament, the conservative views of many of its members, and the political stakes in the run-up to general elections next spring, the Legislature is unlikely to take up this issue on its own.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh now has an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy of progress before his government steps down next spring. His cabinet should act immediately to seek a repeal of Section 377. This 1861 law has no place in a 21st-century democracy.

© 2013 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/opinion/indias-reversal-on-gay-rights.html

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Fox's Favorite Right-Wing Legal Group Applauds India's Ban On Gay Sex



LUKE BRINKER
December 12, 2013 3:17 PM EST

A senior attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a far-right legal organization beloved by Fox News personalities, cheered India's Supreme Court for reinstating that country's ban on gay sex, calling the decision a model for the United States. ADF's support for the decision came a week after Fox host Bill O'Reilly praised the group on-air.

On December 11, India's Supreme Court restored [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/world/asia/court-restores-indias-ban-on-gay-sex.html ] a colonial-era law banning "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." The ruling overturned a 2009 ruling by the Delhi High Court finding the law unconstitutional. Under the 1861 statute, gay sex is punishable [ http://rt.com/news/india-bans-gay-sex-042/ ] by a fine and up to 10 years in prison.

Benjamin Bull, executive director of ADF Global, gave a December 12 interview [ http://onenewsnow.com/legal-courts/2013/12/12/attorney-india-got-it-right-on-homosexual-rights ] with the news service of the anti-gay hate group [ http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/american-family-association ] the American Family Association and applauded the decision. Bull contrasted the Indian ruling with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling overturning anti-sodomy laws:

"When given the same choice the Supreme Court of the United States had in Lawrence vs. Texas, the Indian Court did the right thing," says Bull, which was choose to "protect society at large rather than give in to a vocal minority of homosexual advocates."

The net effect is to protect the integrity of the family and by extension to protect traditional marriage.

In the Texas case, the state's high court struck down sodomy laws in a 6-3 decision that affected similar laws in other states.

The Texas case "laid the groundwork for the invalidation of traditional marriage by a number of courts subsequent to that," the attorney explains.

The Indian Supreme Court saw what had happened there "and was wise enough not to want to go down that road."

"America needs to take note that a country of 1.2 billion people has rejected the road towards same-sex marriage, and understood that these kinds of bad decisions in the long run will harm society," he adds.

The language of the Indian statute is identical to that found in many other current and former colonies of the British Empire, including Belize. In that country, ADF has supplied lawyers [ http://www.splcenter.org/get%20informed/publications/Dangerous%20Liaisons/Dangerous%20Liaisons%3A%20Outlawing%20Homosexuality%20in%20Belize ] to defend the criminalization of gay sex.

Undisturbed by the group's rabidly anti-LGBT positions, Fox News has long maintained a cozy relationship with [ http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201312040001 ] ADF. In an interview on his December 2 show [YouTube of the segment in the item below titled "The war on Christmas centralizes"], Bill O'Reilly effusively thanked ADF senior vice president Doug Napier for his group's efforts to combat the manufactured "War on Christmas." "God bless you, each and every one," O'Reilly gushed. Before O'Reilly's sycophantic interview, Fox News contributor Erick Erickson solicited donations for the group [ http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201308230002 ]. Meanwhile, Fox reporters Shannon Bream [ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/08/25/foxs-shannon-bream-suggests-businesses-have-a-r/195581 ], Megyn Kelly [ http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201311130001 ], and Elisabeth Hasselbeck [ http://equalitymatters.org/blog/201312100002 ] have hosted ADF lawyers for one-sided interviews on the imagined dangers of anti-discrimination laws protecting LGBT people.

With the ADF giving its full-throated backing to the Indian court ruling and urging the U.S. to "take note" of the development, the organization has again demonstrated that its claims of "defending freedom" are little more than an Orwellian fraud. The question is whether Fox will continue to play along; and based on its track record, it seems the answer is yes.

© 2013 Media Matters for America

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/12/foxs-favorite-right-wing-legal-group-applauds-i/197249 [with comments]


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Kathy Svenson, Colo. School Board Member, Says She Doesn't Believe In Homosexuality Or Transgender Identity

By Matt Ferner
Posted: 12/06/2013 3:48 pm EST

A Colorado school board member who found herself in hot water when she said that transgender students would need to be castrated [ http://www.krextv.com/news/School-Official-Sparks-Controversy-Over-Transgender-Comments-232958221.html ] before the student could use the school bathrooms that fit their gender identity is not backing down from that statement.

According to The Denver Post [ http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_24666157/delta-school-board-member-faces-backlash-about-transgender ], Delta County School Board member Kathy Svenson said that she has no regrets and went further to say she doesn't believe in homosexuality or people that are transgender; rather, she believes they are simply confused.

"I was a tomboy growing up. I did a lot of boy things," Svenson said. "I'm lucky someone didn't try to tell me I should be a boy."

Svenson went on to say that she would like to start her own school where laws protecting the rights of gay, lesbian and transgender students wouldn't apply, The Denver Post reports.

On her district bio page, Svenson describes herself [ http://www.deltaschools.com/school-board-biographies.php ] as the founder of an evangelical Christian ministry in northern India and volunteer teaches at a local Sunday School and Bible camp:

Kathy Svenson (2015)

Kathy Svenson was elected to the Board in 2011 from Delta District 1 for a 4-year term. Kathy has been widowed twice (both from cancer) and feels that she has perhaps acquired enough wisdom in her 71 years to help guide the community. After three years at the University of Colorado, she was excused after having lost interest when an Education professor agreed with her that the course he was teaching - Psychology of Education - "went against all common sense!"

From that time on, she let life educate her. She had already entered the workforce at age 16 as a trained Nurse Aide. After university, she learned several other technical skills - welding, care for mentally challenged, billboard sign painting and horsemanship. But it was during waitressing where she met her husband (a WWII P-40 pilot, self-taught from 5th Grade). He taught her to fly and build light aircraft. In 40 years together, they designed and built several experimental aircrafts, eight homes and an Olympic-sized covered riding arena with their own hands. They incorporated both solar and wind power, animal husbandry, gardening, etc., while living off-the-land.

At the same time, Kathy home-schooled their only daughter seven of her first eight years. Leanna became an acclaimed artist, horse riding/training champion and has gone on to be awarded both Master's and Doctorate degrees. Fifteen years ago, she founded and now directs an ongoing Christian ministry in North India (TellASIA) where she established a 30-child children's home while also teaching leadership skills to indigenous Christians who have planted thousands of village churches! She is currently funding education to 23,000 children and has purchased acreage to build 100-child children’s home and a school for 400!

Kathy enjoys volunteer teaching in the Delta community - Basic Plumbing to House of Promise girls, Royal Rangers at church, Reality Ranch Bible Camp, Vacation Liberty School, a substitute for Sunday School classes, helped at the Dream Catchers Handicapped Riding facility, Vision approved for Beginning Riding and now also teaches sewing.

Kathy is proud of the influence that she had on her daughter's life and education, and looks forward to begin enabling other children to become leaders.

Messages left for Svenson about her statements were not immediately returned.

"One Colorado supports all transgender and gender non-conforming students being honest about who they are," said Jon Monteith, Communications Director of the state's leading LGBT advocacy group One Colorado, to The Huffington Post, "and that’s why we are committed to serving as a resource for educators, school staff and administrators across our state as they work to make our schools safer for all Colorado youth."

KREX-TV in Grand Junction, Colo. was the first to report on Svenson's remarks about transgender students during an October school board meeting (Listen to audio of Svenson's comments [embedded] above or watch KREX-TV's interview with her [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M66LoC4bApM (embedded; next)] below):

"I would like to pass out something that shows people what is going on in the rest of the country," Svenson said at the school board meeting. "Massachusetts and California have passed laws relating to calling a student, irrespective of his biological gender, letting him perform as the gender he thinks he is, or she is. I just want to emphasize: not in this district. Not until the plumbing's changed. There would have to be castration in order to pass something like that around here."

Svenson was referring to a groundbreaking bill [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/12/california-transgender-students-bill-_n_3745337.html ] recently signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown that allows transgender youth to use whatever bathroom and participate in whichever sports team they believe matches their gender identity.

Other Delta County school officials have said that they do not agree with Svenson's point of view on the issue and that the school district would never discriminate against any students.

Back in June, Colorado's Civil Rights Division ruled in favor of a transgender students having the right to use the restroom for the gender that they identify as [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/24/coy-mathis_n_3488306.html ]. The ruling involved the case of 6-year-old Coy Mathis, a suburban Colorado Springs girl who was prevented from using the girls' restroom at her school by school district officials.

Last year Vice President Joe Biden said that transgender discrimination is the "civil rights issue of our time [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/joe-biden-transgender-rights_n_2047275.html ]," and transgender rights continues to be a new issue for school boards across the nation.

Seventeen states, including Colorado and the District of Columbia, now outlaw discrimination against transgender people [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-set-to-approve-gay-rights-bill/2013/11/07/05717e4a-47c1-11e3-a196-3544a03c2351_story.html ].

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/kathy-svenson-transgender_n_4399324.html [with (separate) embedded video report "Transgender Students Need 'Castration' Before Using Bathrooms", and comments]


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Anti-Gay RNC Member Says His Words Were Twisted, But They Weren't

By Ashley Alman
Posted: 12/11/2013 8:41 pm EST | Updated: 12/12/2013 10:14 am EST

Republican National Committee member Dave Agema's claim that a Michigan newspaper manipulated his anti-gay speech at a GOP Christmas party [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/dave-agema-anti-gay_n_4415489.html ] fizzled Wednesday when the paper released a recording of the event [ http://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/gay-republican-slams-agema/article_bad05da7-59d5-58c1-b9c0-558ac7d2711b.html ].

Agema, a Michigan member of the RNC, stood by remarks attributed to him at the Republican event last week, chastising a Herald-Palladium reporter for "twisting my speech far out of context."

Below, a transcript of the remarks, in which Agema denounces gay marriage, and suggests that his former gay colleagues at American Airlines took advantage of their health care coverage:

I stand for traditional marriage, not homosexual ones. The family unit is the basic unit in society. When you tear the family apart, you tear the country apart.

I worked with these individuals for almost 30 years at American. I know what they do. I know [inaudible] American Airlines with San Francisco said, "We could not land in San Francisco and do business with American Airlines unless we paid same-sex unmarried benefits."

...

I'm a flight attendant, you have AIDS, you come to me and say, "Tell them I'm your lover for the last six months." You get on the health care. American Airlines spends $400,000 before you die of AIDS. And he goes on to the next, and the next, and that's what was happening.

Folks, they want free medical because they're dying between 38 and 44 years old ... So to me, it's a moral issue. It's a Biblical issue. Traditional marriage is where it should be and that is in our platform. So people that are opposed to me that issue within our party are wrong.

In an email to supporters after the newspaper's original article, Agema called out Herald-Palladium reporter Louise Wrege.

"A journalist was in the audience and wrote a news article that twisted my speech far out of context," Agema said in the email.

In her original report [ http://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/agema-urges-unity-between-gop-tea-party/article_01d5737c-730a-5749-a487-6c9f2c449f88.html ], Wrege wrote that Agema "said American Airlines workers would say a person with AIDS was their lover so that person could get medical benefits," and directly quoted his remarks in opposition of gay marriage.

The Herald-Palladium did admit to one "distortion" in the original story. Wrege reported Agema said gay individuals are dying between the ages of 30 and 44, when he actually said they're dying between ages 38 and 44.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/dave-agema-audio_n_4428801.html [with embedded video report, and comments]

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RNC rebranding takes another step backwards

Two women who are married to each other react to the news that a case that could possibly have overturned Michigan's ban on same-sex marriages will go to trial instead of an immediate ruling, at the U.S. Courthouse October 16, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan.
12/11/13
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/rnc-rebranding-takes-another-step-backwards [with comments]

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Michigan Religious Freedom Bill Would 'Give' Students Rights They Already Have
12/12/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/michigan-religious-freedom_n_4428595.html [with comments]


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Kat Cooper, LGBT Advocate, Receives Threatening Letter

By James Nichols
Posted: 12/04/2013 1:25 pm EST

Earlier this year, we brought you the heartbreaking story of police detective Kat Cooper, whose family was asked to leave their Tennessee church after 60 years [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/23/tennessee-church-lesbian-daughter_n_3795012.html ] because Cooper fought to pass legislation that provided benefits to same-sex couples in the town where she worked.

And, sadly, it doesn't seem like things are getting better for Cooper.

According to Cooper's Facebook page [ https://www.facebook.com/Sherlock612?fref=ts ( https://www.facebook.com/Sherlock612 ) (presently, "This content is currently unavailable")], the police detective, who married her wife Krista in Maryland earlier this year, is continuing to fight tirelessly for the rights of lesbian and gay couples through the TEP Hamilton & Bradley Counties Committee [ https://www.facebook.com/groups/465787276773226/?directed_target=0 ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/465787276773226/ )]. However, because of her dedication, she is reportedly receiving shocking letters such as this one [ http://imgur.com/TmCfKxY (next below)] in the mail:



"I think the individual who wrote the letter is pitiful, and it is very sad for countless reasons," Cooper posted on her Facebook. "It's not even necessary for me to state more. Nonetheless, it is a clear depiction of how hate and ignorance fuels violence and discrimination. Something we all need to be highly aware of at this time."

Keep your chin up Kat -- we're proud of and grateful for the work you're doing!

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/04/kat-cooper-anti-gay-letter_n_4385226.html [with comments]


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Planting Peace Launches 'Uganda Underground' Safe-Housing Initiative For LGBT Community


Planting Peace

By James Nichols
Posted: 12/12/2013 5:13 pm EST | Updated: 12/13/2013 10:15 am EST

Planting Peace, the organization that brought you the Equality House [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/drag-down-bigotry_n_4170499.html ] across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church compound, has embarked on a new initiative that aims to ensure the safety of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals in Uganda.

Called "Uganda Underground [ http://plantingpeace.org/our-work/uganda-underground/ ]," the project is a safe-housing initiative that seeks to provide shelter and refuge for those attempting to protect themselves from the nation's pervasive anti-LGBT sentiment. The organization's goal is to "create safe places that serve as starting places for those who have been robbed of their dignity and are seeking to start their lives again in Uganda."

Uganda is not a safe place for members of the LGBT community. As the AP recently noted, "homosexuality is already punishable by heavy jail sentences, and the Ugandan parliament has been for years considering a bill that could see repeat homosexuals executed [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/bernard-randall-pastor-solomon-male-_n_4423199.html ]." A 2010 tabloid published the names of 100 "top homos [ http://gawker.com/5667825/ugandan-tabloid-publishes-list-of-100-top-homos-calls-for-their-hanging ]," calling for their hanging.

"While in Uganda I became friends with one of the individuals outed in the papers," Planting Peace Director of Operations Davis Hammet told The Huffington Post. "He told me how people immediately began recognizing him and he had to rush into hiding, and for several months he had to remain completely cut off from society in fear for his life. Even though this was a few years ago, many parts of Kampala are still too dangerous for him to be."

Interested in helping Planting Peace assist the victims of extreme homophobia in Uganda through the "Uganda Underground" safe-housing project? Click here [ http://www.plantingpeace.org/ ] to visit their website and make a donation.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/12/underground-uganda-planting-peace_n_4435195.html [with comments]


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Pentecostal pastors in Africa push prayer, not drugs, for people with HIV


Some church pastors have invited infected people to prayers such as this one and pronounced healing for them, only for the HIV-positive person to get worse or even die.
RNS photo by Fredrick Nzwili


HIV-positive clergy for Christian and Muslim faiths who are members of the INERELA+ Kenya chapter share a light moment at one of their meetings. The clergy believe that HIV drugs are God’s miracles to the people.
RNS photo by Fredrick Nzwili

Fredrick Nzwili | Dec 4, 2013

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) At prayer healing services in some Pentecostal churches, pastors invite people infected with HIV to come forward for a public healing, after which they burn the person’s anti-retroviral medications and declare the person cured.

The “cure” is not free, and some people say they shell out their life savings to receive a miracle blessing and quit taking the drugs.

“I believe people can be healed of all kinds of sickness, including HIV, through prayers,” said Pastor Joseph Maina of Agmo Prayer Mountain, a Pentecostal church on the outskirts of Nairobi. “We usually guide them. We don’t ask for money, but we ask them to leave some seed money that they please.”

But the controversial ceremonies are raising red flags as believers’ conditions worsen, and a debate has opened over whether science or religion should take the lead in the fight against the AIDS epidemic.

The issue is not new for African societies that have grappled with similar matters, such as whether condoms can prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.

Some 6.3 million people are receiving anti-retroviral drugs in hospitals and clinics across eastern and southern Africa. The prayer healings are especially worrisome because people who quit treatment may become resistant to the drugs.

“We (clergy) must demonstrate leadership in this area,” said Jane Ng’ang’a, who coordinates the Kenya chapter of INERELA+, an interfaith network of religious leaders living with HIV. “We should be in the forefront, encouraging adherence to the medicines, as we offer psychological and mental support to those infected and affected.”

Officials with INERELA+, an international organization, said that in Nairobi alone, an average of 10 people a month fall victim to such pastors. Countrywide, the organization has recorded 2,000 such cases. When their health worsens, people seek help restarting the medicines.

Margaret Lavonga attended a healing prayer service several years ago. She said she paid money for a prayer cure and nearly ended up dead after the pastor told her and others to stop taking their medicines.

“We were very desperate after realizing we had been infected as young women,” she said.

At the church, she was asked to pay the equivalent of $12 to be accepted for the healing ceremony and $24 at the end of the ceremony. The pastor then confiscated her drugs and those of four others and set them ablaze. The group was asked to undergo a test at a certain clinic in Nairobi, where they were all declared cured.

“We had joined him for crusades around Nairobi slums, telling the people how wonderful the pastor’s miracles were,” she added. “I was upbeat, but after two weeks I started falling sick. When I was tested, the virus was still in me and had multiplied since I was not taking the drugs.”

Four of those who had received the alleged prayer cure died within a month, according to Lavonga, who remains bitter that the government has not taken any action to stop the practice.

“The pastors should be in jail,” she said.

Roserita Nyawera, another victim in western Kenya, said the desperation among people living with HIV and their fear of stigma and family rejection make it easy for them to accept offers for a cure.

“When you are told there is an easier option, you want them (drugs) out of your life,” said Nyawera.

In Uganda, Gabriel Amori, coordinator of that country’s INERELA+ chapter, said Pentecostal church pastors often tell people that a lack of faith is the reason the prayer healing isn’t working.

“The patients do not actually get healed, but they try to believe they are to prove they have faith, even if there is no clinical proof,” he said.

The Rev. Adama Faye of the Lutheran Church in Senegal said prayers for miracle healing inflict serious damage not only on those who are victimized.

“We are concerned it is negating achievements against HIV and AIDS,” he said. “Governments should also keep close watch on those pastors who cheat people through the miracles.”

© 2013 Religion News LLC

http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/04/pentecostal-pastors-africa-push-prayer-drugs-people-hiv/ [with comments]


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When Bishops Direct Medical Care

Editorial
Published: December 8, 2013

Beyond new state efforts to restrict women’s access to proper reproductive health care, another, if quieter, threat is posed by mergers between secular hospitals and Catholic hospitals operating under religious directives from the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops. These directives, which oppose abortions, inevitably collide with a hospital’s duty to provide care to pregnant women in medical distress. This tension lies at the heart of a federal lawsuit filed last week [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/us/lawsuit-challenges-anti-abortion-policies-at-catholic-hospitals.html ] by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The suit [ https://www.aclu.org/religion-belief-womens-rights/aclu-sues-bishops-behalf-pregnant-woman-denied-care-catholic-hospital ] was brought on behalf of a Michigan woman, Tamesha Means, who says she was subjected to substandard care at a Catholic hospital — the only hospital in her county — after her water broke at 18 weeks of pregnancy. Doctors in such circumstances typically induce labor or surgically remove the fetus to reduce the woman’s chances of infection. But according to the complaint, doctors acting in accordance with the bishops’ directives did not inform Ms. Means that her fetus had virtually no chance of surviving or that terminating her pregnancy was the safest treatment option.

Despite acute pain and bleeding, Ms. Means was sent home twice, and when she returned a third time with a fever from her untreated infection, she miscarried even as the paperwork was being prepared to discharge her again. The fetus died soon after.

The case has gained attention because Ms. Means is not suing the hospital for medical negligence but the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The A.C.L.U. is arguing, on her behalf, that having issued the mandates and made them conditions of hospital affiliation, the conference is responsible for “the unnecessary trauma and harm” that Ms. Means and “other pregnant women in similar situations have experienced at Catholic-sponsored hospitals.”

How the suit will play out is unclear, but it showcases an important issue. Catholic hospitals account for about 15 percent of the nation’s hospital beds and, in many communities, are the only hospital facilities available. Allowing religious doctrine to prevail over the need for competent emergency care and a woman’s right to complete and accurate information about her condition and treatment choices violates medical ethics and existing law.

The problem Ms. Means encountered is not unique or limited to her particular medical needs. In 2010, the Diocese of Phoenix punished a nun and stripped a hospital of its affiliation after doctors there performed an abortion to save a mother’s life.

In a statement last Friday, the president of the bishops’ group, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, said that the religious directives did not encourage or require substandard medical treatment. He also portrayed the case as an attack on religious freedom — the same unpersuasive argument the bishops are making against the new federal health care law’s requirement that all plans include contraception coverage.

The bishops are free to worship as they choose and advocate for their beliefs. But those beliefs should not shield the bishops from legal accountability when church-affiliated hospitals following their rules cause patients harm.

© 2013 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/opinion/when-bishops-direct-medical-care.html

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Image of God and the Little Pink Pill

By Carol Howard Merritt
Author, Pastor, Co-Host of God Complex Radio
Posted: 12/17/2013 5:40 pm

I grew up along the beaches of Florida and couldn't get enough of that pounding on the sand. I swam against the tide and rolled with the force of the water. I loved the feeling of getting caught up in the turmoil of the waves until I didn't know which way was up.

But there was something I had to do before I could get to that shore. I often had to walk by a row of surfers, who would grade me. Standing with their lean, tan bodies, they looked me over and assigned me a number from one to ten, based on a few cuts of meat.

I went to school with most of them, so I could give them a big eye-rolling, undergirded with a sigh and a "seriously?" But the dreaded experience stuck with me. To this day, I wear a massive cover-up (it can also be used as a tent), until I get to the very edge of the water to shed it.

The sad thing is that women are not only reduced to their sexuality when they're on the shoreline. Even in our Christian theology, we have a terrible tendency to distill the complicated facets of a woman -- her intelligence, creativity, energy, talents, and fortitude -- into one aspect. We can make it all about sex.

When the early Christian theologian, St. Augustine, wrote On the Trinity [ http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130112.htm ], he tried to work out a conundrum. He wanted to figure out how women could be the image of God. He solved the puzzle by writing that when a woman is alone, then she is not in the image of God. It is only when she is joined with a man, when she is one flesh with him, she can be considered the image of God.

Of course, we cannot take our ideas of gender equality and try to compare them to a different time and culture. Augustine was born in 354 and we shouldn't judge him by our liberated standards. But, it is important to ask if we let Augustine's ideas seep into our current debates. Do we still do this? Do we reduce a woman's worth to her sexuality or her fertility?

It seems when we determine a woman's value based on whether she is sexually "pure," we do. In youth group, I was often told that if I went "too far" on a date, I would become "damaged goods." Like those surfers on the beach, the Christians around me were judging my worth solely on my sexuality.

Our current debates on birth control have the ability to reduce a woman to her sexuality as well. We know that contraception is good for the health of women. Birth control allows women to finish their education and be productive in the workforce. It keeps women and children out of poverty. Yet, Christians want to fight for a corporation's right to practice its faith by refusing to provide insurance coverage for contraception. The voices of politicians tell us that birth control is tearing at the moral fabric of our society and religious writers point to contraception as the reason for decline of Christianity.

When the only religious voice is fighting against contraception, we have the hazard of communicating to a generation of women that Christians don't care about their education, productivity, or empowerment. We highlight the brooding sense that Christians don't want women to be intelligent, working beings, but we want a woman's worth to be solely based on her sexuality.

Where is the other faith narrative about birth control? Where are the voices that remind us that women are made in the image of God, whether they are joined with a man or not? Can we loudly proclaim that the moral fabric of our society will be stronger if women are educated and productive? Can Christians affirm contraception's ability to lift women and children out of poverty? Can we begin to understand that access to birth control is a social justice issue?

As the Supreme Court gears up to hear whether for-profit corporations can act as individuals [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/27/us/justices-take-companies-cases-challenging-contraception-rule.html ], extending their personal rights to the practice of religion, the voices of Christians who affirm a woman's rights to full health care and contraception have been drowned out. May we stand up with women, with the loud proclamation that we care about women's health and empowerment, because women are fully made in the image of God.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carol-howard-merritt/image-of-god-and-the-litt_b_4452128.html [no comments yet]


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Bill O'Reilly Freaks Out About Denver Post Pot Editor

Posted: 12/10/2013 8:14 am EST

"This is promoting the use of an intoxicant by the Denver Post!!! Why don't you just set it up like, 'here's a bar in Denver where you can get the cheapest chasers and the most gin for your money'?!?!"

--Bill O'Reilly [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhDj8qFyXF0 (next below, as embedded)] on the Denver Post's new pot critic [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/09/business/media/quips-follow-denver-posts-naming-of-marijuana-editor-but-its-intent-is-serious.html ], probably not aware that bars are reviewed all the time.

(h/t Mediaite [ http://www.mediaite.com/tv/o%E2%80%99reilly-goes-ballistic-over-denver-post-hiring-pot-editor-theyre-promoting-intoxication/ ])

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/bill-oreilly-denver-post-pot_n_4417972.html [with comments]

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Woman's Christian Temperance Union Targeting Marijuana
12/08/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/womans-christian-temperance-union_n_4408568.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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The war on Christmas centralizes


[ http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/12/foxs-favorite-right-wing-legal-group-applauds-i/197249 (the item titled "Fox's Favorite Right-Wing Legal Group Applauds India's Ban On Gay Sex", above)]

Published on Dec 13, 2013 by FFRForg [ http://www.youtube.com/user/FFRForg ; http://www.youtube.com/user/FFRForg/videos ; http://ffrf.org/ ]

Fox News
Bill O'Reilly
December 2, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qosxsim0j5o [with comments]

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O'Reilly: War On Christmas Is Part Of "Secular Progressives'" Desire For "Unfettered Abortion" And Gay Marriage

MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
December 4, 2013 8:44 PM EST

From the December 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

[video embedded]

Previously:

O'Reilly Agrees With Guest That The "War On Christmas" Has To Do With "Abortion And The Gay Rights Agenda"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/12/06/oreilly-agrees-with-guest-that-the-war-on-chris/191725

O'Reilly Praises Anti-Gay Group In His Fake War On Christmas
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/02/oreilly-praises-anti-gay-group-in-his-fake-war/197101

Bill O'Reilly Promises To Hype War On Christmas "Once Again This Year"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/02/bill-oreilly-promises-to-hype-war-on-christmas/197100

© 2013 Media Matters for America

http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/04/oreilly-war-on-christmas-is-part-of-secular-pro/197150 [with comments]

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Bill O'Reilly: Santa Is White

By Andrew Hart
Posted: 12/16/2013 10:14 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 11:17 am EST

Fanning the controversy that has been batted around cable news this holiday season, Bill O’Reilly agreed with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly that Santa Claus is, in fact, white.

Citing the "historical truth" of Santa, O’Reilly concluded "Ms. Kelly is correct. Santa was a white person."

O'Reilly then asked "Does that matter? No, that doesn't matter. The 'Spirit Of Santa' transcends all racial boundaries."

Last week, Kelly said "Santa is just white [ http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/11/megyn-kelly-wants-kids-at-home-to-know-that-jes/197238 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as8YEY6JQ7c (next below)],"

in response to a Slate article by Aisha Harris [ http://www.slate.com/articles/life/holidays/2013/12/santa_claus_an_old_white_man_not_anymore_meet_santa_the_penguin_a_new_christmas.html ] on how having a "white Santa" can be confusing for non-whites.

The "Santa Debate" became the butt of many jokes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/santa-claus-is-black_n_4449345.html ], a returning topic for newscasts [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/don-lemon-megyn-kelly_n_4441700.html ], and the latest front in "The War On Christmas [ http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/war%20on%20Christmas ]." Critics argue that the entire controversy is nonsensical, a scholar telling Politico [ http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/santa-claus-race-claim-megyn-kelly-101152.html ] "Santa doesn’t exist - but don’t tell my three kids."

O’Reilly sent the debate back to the other end of the political spectrum, saying that the whole "white Santa" controversy was an attempt by the far left to "demonize Fox News."

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/oreilly-white-santa-megyn_n_4456439.html [with embedded video report including a portion of O'Really's remarks in the YouTube above, and comments]; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHLC8visXAI [with comments], also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46kSg1zICug [with comment] [source http://www.mediaite.com/tv/oreilly-defends-megyn-kelly-shes-correct-santa-is-a-white-person/ (with comments)]

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Jon Stewart Hits Back At Megyn Kelly's 'White Santa' Defense

By Ross Luippold
Posted: 12/17/2013 9:50 am EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 9:50 am EST

Jon Stewart spoke for plenty last week with his response [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/jon-stewart-megyn-kelly-s_n_4440054.html ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN8c4L6RsSY (next below), also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKC_8KO3RDo (source http://www.mediaite.com/tv/stewart-demolishes-megyn-kelly-and-fox-for-freaking-out-over-santas-race-and-the-war-on-christmas%e2%84%a2/ , original segments http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-12-2013/war-on-christmas---s--t-s-getting-weird-edition and http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-12-2013/war-on-christmas---s--t-s-getting-weird-edition---black-santa )]

to Megyn Kelly's assertion that Santa and Jesus are and were white men. And when she tried to explain that her critics were "humorless" [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyyAHfV6S_4 (next below) (at/see {linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94976984 and preceding and following)]

by missing out on her supposed comedic banter, Stewart doubled down on his criticism.

He saw no comedy, but instead "what appeared to me to be another example of a Fox News segment expressing anger and victimization over the loss of absolute power and reframing that as persecution of Real America by minorities, freeloaders and socialists."

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/jon-stewart-megyn-kelly_n_4459151.html [with Hulu version ( http://www.hulu.com/watch/573342 ) of the segment embedded (original segment http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-december-16-2013/white-santa---megyn-kelly-s-apology ), and comments; the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gri5rwJMB_s (with comments)]

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Bill O'Reilly: It's Not a Traditional America Anymore

Published on Nov 6, 2012 by jim hoft

Bill O'Relly offered this analysis of the 2016 election tonight before the votes were even counted in any of the swing states. O'Reilly says, "It's not a traditional America anymore. People want stuff. They want things. And who is going to give them things? President Obama. He knows it and he ran on it. Whereby twenty years ago President Obama would be roundly defeated by an establishment candidate like Mitt Romney. The white establishment is now the minority. The voters, many of them, feel like the economic system is stacked against them. And they want stuff. You're going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. Overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama's way. People feel they are entitled to things. And which candidate between the two is going to give them things?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uqy5CBWjKw [with comments]


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That Time The House Of Representatives Actually Had A Vote About The 'War On Christmas'


The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is seen outside the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington on Dec. 9, 2013.
(Photo by Basri Sahin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

By Arthur Delaney and Sam Stein
Posted: 12/17/2013 4:58 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- In 2005 the House of Representatives struck a mighty blow against those insidious secular busybodies when lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to affirm the right of Americans to enjoy the trappings of Christmas.

A resolution by Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.) stated [ http://beta.congress.gov/crec/2005/12/14/CREC-2005-12-14-pt1-PgH11596.pdf ] that the House "strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas" and supports Christmas symbols and traditions.

"Christmas has been declared politically incorrect," Davis lamented that December on the House floor, pointing to retailers with "Season's Greetings" signs instead of Christmas ones. "America's favorite holiday is being twisted being recognition. The push towards a neutered 'holiday' season is stronger than ever so that no one can be even the slightest bit offended."

In the end, few stuck up for the "neutered holiday season." Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) mocked the resolution with a riff on "The Night Before Christmas." "We will pretend Christmas is under attack, hold a vote to save it, then pat ourselves on the back," Dingell said. "'Silent Night,' 'First Noel,' 'Away in the Manger' -- wake up, Congress, they're in no danger."

Then-Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) pointed out that many more people had died in the Iraq War than in the War on Christmas.

But the Davis measure passed overwhelmingly, 401-22, before the Senate ignored it.

It was the apex of the so-called War On Christmas -- the politi-cultural, made-for-cable-news back-and-forth that commences every holiday season, including the current one. The best 2013 has come up with so far is a book by former half-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and the declaration by Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee (D) [ http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/lincoln-chafee-christmas-tree-100532.html ] that the ceremonial tree in the State House would be a "Christmas Tree."

That the "war" has de-escalated so much since that 2005 vote suggests the political culture has more or less moved on. At its peak, it was a dominant seasonal thread that ensnared, encouraged and frustrated Republicans, Democrats and future presidential candidates alike.

The War on Christmas -- whose history is well documented, most notably in 2005 by Salon's Michelle Goldberg [ http://www.salon.com/2005/11/21/christmas_6/ ]--
was first waged, ironically, by Puritans who considered the merrymaking to be a pagan tradition. The Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony actually canceled Christmas in the 17th Century.

"From 1659 to 1681, anyone caught celebrating Christmas in the colony would be fined five shillings," Rachel N. Schnepper of Washington and Lee University wrote in The New York Times last year [ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/opinion/the-puritan-war-on-christmas.html ] on the seventh anniversary of the Davis resolution.

"So the next time someone maintains that they are defending traditional American values by denouncing the War on Christmas," Schnepper wrote, "remind them of our 17th-century Puritan forefathers who refused to condone any celebration or even observance of the holiday."

The latest skirmish in the war, however, took place primarily during the '00s. According to a Lexis-Nexis search, the first mention of a "War on Christmas" or "War Against Christmas" came in 2001, when conservative columnist Michael Medved warned that "busy bureaucrats across the country can find nothing better to do with their time than make war on Christmas."

It was a rabbi, of all people, who gave the concept a big, early boost. Writing for Human Events [ http://www.humanevents.com/2002/12/23/this-american-rabbi-values-christmas/ ] in 2002, Rabbi Aryeh Spero pledged his appreciation for the Christian holiday while warning that the civil liberties group ACLU had waged a "war against Christmas."

"I remember writing that piece, and that was at a time when I think it was the beginning of department stores notifying their employees that they shouldn't say 'Merry Christmas' because it was offensive to people, but should rather say 'Happy Holidays.' I thought that was rather trite," Spero told HuffPost recently. "A lot of people who do shop in December are doing it because it is Christmas. Why not wish them Happy Christmas? People wish me 'Happy Chanukah,' I don't find it offensive ... I thought it was important coming from a Jewish person, especially a rabbi, to say that."

Soon enough, the war was in its "shock and awe" phase. Conservative commentator John Gibson wrote the book The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought [ http://www.amazon.com/The-War-Christmas-Liberal-Christian/dp/B001G8WXF0 ], which was promoted heavily on Fox News. (Spero said that Gibson called him for input on the book.) The network's mainstay, Bill O'Reilly, pushed [and, obviously, continues to push] the cause relentlessly, too.

"All over the country, Christmas is taking flak," O'Reilly said in his earliest episode devoted to the issue, in 2004. "In Denver this past weekend, no religious floats were permitted in the holiday parade there. In New York City, Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg unveiled the 'holiday tree,' and no Christian Christmas symbols are allowed in the public schools. Federated Department Stores -- that's Macy's -- have done away with the Christmas greeting 'Merry Christmas.'"

Rival cable outlets tried to counter-balance the coverage by portraying the concept as a political ploy designed to boost sales and ratings. But few politicians wanted their Christmas bonafides questioned. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) suggested that the U.S. Capitol architect use the label "Christmas Tree" rather than "Holiday Tree" for that year's festivities. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) sent out a press statement touting her willingness to stand up "to the grinches trying to steal Christmas."

"It is tragic that many individuals and institutions are trying to secularize Christmas into an overly-commercialized and generic holiday that represents nothing at all," the Foxx said.

Rep. Tom Delay (R-Texas) decried a political culture that "all but treats Christianity like some second-rate superstition."

Democrats weren't content to sit on the sidelines. At the time of the resolution vote, they gathered before the Capitol Christmas tree to push for a hike of the minimum wage.

"Democrats believe that Congress should act on the true meaning of Christmas -- hope, generosity and goodwill toward others," said Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.). "Unfortunately, our Republican friends seem to have forgotten the meaning of Christmas."

By 2006, the fever hadn't worn off. That year, a young senator named Barack Obama angered liberals by explaining how he thought religion played an important role in the public square [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/30/BL2006063000383.html ]. His comments, critics argued, gave credence to the idea that Democrats were somehow hostile to the holiday and religious people.

Seven years and two presidential elections later, the fever seems to have faded, and the passion of those who fought the early battles has diminished.

"I think it is better today," said Spero. "I think people are not as uptight. If you say 'Merry Christmas,' that's fine. I just wish people would be a little less uptight about this. A nativity scene is not offensive. It won't destroy our Constitution."

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/war-on-christmas_n_4461407.html [with comments]


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Arizona Woman Gets Punched for Saying ‘Happy Holidays’ Instead of ‘Merry Christmas’


[photo via screengrab]

by Josh Feldman | 5:50 pm, December 17th, 2013

There might not be a War on Christmas™, but there’s at least a brawl or two. Case in point, one Salvation Army volunteer was ringing a bell outside an Arizona Walmart and said, “Happy holidays!” As a result, one woman did what any good Christian would do: punch her in the arm.

Kristina Vindiola told KNXV [ http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_phoenix_metro/central_phoenix/the-december-debate-merry-christmas-vs-happy-holidays ] that she was minding her business, ringing a bell, and wishing people happy holidays, when a woman nearby decided to confront her and that’s when the sh*t went down. She explained, “She came up to me and she said, ‘Do you believe in God?’… She said, ‘You’re supposed to say Merry Christmas,’ and that’s when she hit me.”

Because as the saying goes, committing acts of physical aggression truly is the reason for the season.

Watch the video below, via KNXV [video embedded; same segment as in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fWRk23l7kw (next below); also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEB0ccdj5gE ]:

[h/t Raw Story [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/16/salvation-army-bell-ringer-punched-for-saying-happy-holidays-instead-of-merry-christmas/ ]]

© 2013 Mediaite, LLC

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/arizona-woman-gets-punched-for-saying-happy-holidays-instead-of-merry-christmas/ [with comments]


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In War On Christmas Segment, Tucker Carlson Warns Not Believing In A Power Higher Than Government Leads To "Killing A Ton Of People"

MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
December 14, 2013 3:07 PM EST

From the December 14 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends Saturday:

[video embedded]

© 2013 Media Matters for America

http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/14/in-war-on-christmas-segment-tucker-carlson-warn/197270 [with comments]


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Austin-based pastor killed in Libya


Photo from Smith's Twitter account

By: YNN Staff
Updated 12/05/2013 02:57 PM

An Austin-based pastor and graduate of the University of Texas was shot and killed by unknown assailants as he was exercising Thursday in Benghazi, Libya.

According security official Ibrahim al-Sharaa, 33-year-old Ronnie Smith was jogging near the U.S. Consulate, where the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed by Islamic militants in September 2012, when he was attacked.

The security official said the 33-year-old taught chemistry at the city's International School, a Libyan-owned institute that follows an American curriculum.

Smith had previously worked as a teaching pastor at Austin Stone Community Church. While working at the church, he provided spiritual mentoring to students at the University of Texas, according to a member of the church’s missionary network. How long he worked at the local church is still unclear.

“Before moving to Benghazi, Ronnie was a member of the church staff at the Austin Stone. Ronnie, his wife Anita, and his son are dearly loved by our church family,” church spokesman Dave Barrett said. “Ronnie loved Libya and was dedicated to his students to help them aspire to their dreams. Ronnie’s greatest desire was for peace and prosperity in Libya and for the people of Libya to have the joy of knowing God through Christ.”

Smith was one of four people killed in Benghazi Thursday and whose bodies were taken to the Al-Galaa hospital, showing the dangers of a city that is home to numerous armed groups resisting the central government's authority. The other three killed were military personnel.

Early Thursday afternoon, the University of Texas released a statement on Smith's death, saying, "The university community is shocked and saddened by the death of Ronnie Smith in Benghazi. Ronnie was a proud Texas Ex who earned a master's degree in chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin in 2006. He was an enthusiastic and outgoing student. His death is a tragedy for the campus and our nation."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2013 TWEAN d/b/a Your News Now (YNN) Austin

http://austin.twcnews.com/content/news/296488/austin-based-pastor-killed-in-libya

*

Austin church honors life of teacher killed in Benghazi

by JADE MINGUS / KVUE NEWS and Photojournalist J.P. HARRINGTON
Posted on December 9, 2013 at 7:36 AM
Updated Monday, Dec 9 at 11:02 AM

AUSTIN -- Sunday was an emotional day at Austin Stone Community Church as the congregation reflected on the life of Ronnie Smith, a former staff member who died while living overseas in Benghazi, Libya.

Smith moved there with his wife, Anita, and their young son to teach chemistry at the International School of Benghazi and make a difference in the lives of students. He graduated from the University of Texas with a masters degree in chemistry.

"People at the Austin Stone missed him from the day he left and knew he was following a dream and a passion," said Dave Barrett, executive pastor of operations at Austin Stone.

Barrett said Smith overcame any fear of living in a dangerous place because he was so passionate about education.

"Everyone who sat under his teaching were moved, and instructed, and inspired by what he had to say," said Barrett.

At service Sunday, Austin Stone played video from a sermon Smith gave in November 2010. In it he taught various scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death and no longer be any mourning, crying or pain," said Smith during the sermon, quoting from Revelation.

Austin Stone Community Church is supporting Smith's wife and son financially. If you want to help, you can make a donation here or purchase a book Smith was part of called, "The History of Redemption." All of the proceeds benefit his family.

Related:

Teacher from Austin killed in Benghazi
http://www.kvue.com/news/International-Libyan-Officials-Say-US-Teacher-Killed-in-Benghazi-234595531.html

Libyan officials: American chemistry teacher shot to death while jogging in Benghazi
http://www.kvue.com/news/world/234628321.html

Students in Libya say slain teacher from Austin inspired them
http://www.kvue.com/home/Students-in-Libya-say-slain-teacher-inspired-them-234730781.html

© 2013 KVUE Television, Inc., a subsidiary of Belo Corp.

http://www.kvue.com/news/editors-pick/Austin-church-honors-the-life-of-slain-teacher-in-Benghazi-234989561.html


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Syrian Government In Negotiations To Free Kidnapped Nuns As Christians Become Target

12/14/13
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/syrian-nuns-negotiations-_n_4449347.html [with comments]


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Atheists face death in 13 countries, global discrimination: study

By Robert Evans
Mon Dec 9, 2013 7:16pm EST

GENEVA (Reuters) - In 13 countries around the world, all of them Muslim, people who openly espouse atheism or reject the official state religion of Islam face execution under the law, according to a detailed study issued on Tuesday.

And beyond the Islamic nations, even some of the West's apparently most democratic governments at best discriminate against citizens who have no belief in a god and at worst can jail them for offences dubbed blasphemy, it said.

The study, Freedom of Thought 2013 [ http://freethoughtreport.com/ ; http://freethoughtreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/FOTReport2013.pdf ], was issued by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) [ http://iheu.org/ ], a global body uniting atheists, agnostics and other religious skeptics, to mark United Nations' Human Rights Day on Tuesday.

"This report shows that the overwhelming majority of countries fail to respect the rights of atheists and freethinkers although they have signed U.N agreements to treat all citizens equally," said IHEU President Sonja Eggerickx.

The study covered all 192 member states in the world body and involved lawyers and human rights experts looking at statute books, court records and media accounts to establish the global situation.

A first survey of 60 countries last year showed just seven where death, often by public beheading, is the punishment for either blasphemy or apostasy - renouncing belief or switching to another religion which is also protected under U.N. accords.

But this year's more comprehensive study showed six more, bringing the full list to Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

In others, like India in a recent case involving a leading critic of religion, humanists say police are often reluctant or unwilling to investigate murders of atheists carried out by religious fundamentalists.

Across the world, the report said, "there are laws that deny atheists' right to exist, revoke their citizenship, restrict their right to marry, obstruct their access to public education, prevent them working for the state...."

Criticism of religious faith or even academic study of the origins of religions is frequently treated as a crime and can be equated to the capital offence of blasphemy, it asserted.

EU STATES OFFEND

The IHEU, which has member bodies in some 50 countries and supporters in many more where such organizations are banned, said there was systematic or severe discrimination against atheists across the 27-nation European Union.

The situation was severe in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta and Poland where blasphemy laws allow for jail sentences up to three years on charges of offending a religion or believers.

In these and all other EU countries, with the exception of the Netherlands and Belgium which the report classed as "free and equal," there was systemic discrimination across society favoring religions and religious believers.

In the United States, it said, although the situation was "mostly satisfactory" in terms of legal respect for atheists' rights, there were a range of laws and practices "that equate being religious with being American."

In Latin America and the Caribbean, atheists faced systemic discrimination in most countries except Brazil, where the situation was "mostly satisfactory," and Jamaica and Uruguay which the report judged as "free and equal."

Across Africa, atheists faced severe or systemic violations of their rights to freedom of conscience but also grave violations in several countries, including Egypt, Libya and Morocco, and nominally Christian Zimbabwe and Eritrea.

(Reported by Robert Evans; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/10/us-religion-atheists-idUSBRE9B900G20131210 [with comments] [also at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/atheists-death-penalty-_n_4417994.html (with embedded video report, and comments)]


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Sheriffs Refuse to Enforce Laws on Gun Control


John Cooke is among the Colorado sheriffs who are resisting enforcement of new state gun laws.
Michael Ciaglo/The Colorado Springs Gazette, via Associated Press

Interactive Graphic

State Gun Laws Enacted in the Year Since Newtown
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/10/us/state-gun-laws-enacted-in-the-year-since-newtown.html

By ERICA GOODE
Published: December 15, 2013

GREELEY, Colo. — When Sheriff John Cooke of Weld County explains in speeches why he is not enforcing the state’s new gun laws, he holds up two 30-round magazines. One, he says, he had before July 1, when the law banning the possession, sale or transfer of the large-capacity magazines went into effect. The other, he “maybe” obtained afterward.

He shuffles the magazines, which look identical, and then challenges the audience to tell the difference.

“How is a deputy or an officer supposed to know which is which?” he asks.

Colorado’s package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Sheriff Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws — which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines over 15 rounds — may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the state’s rural regions.

Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be “a very low priority,” as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.

The resistance of sheriffs in Colorado is playing out in other states, raising questions about whether tougher rules passed since Newtown will have a muted effect in parts of the American heartland, where gun ownership is common and grass-roots opposition to tighter restrictions is high.

In New York State, where Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed one of the toughest gun law packages in the nation last January, two sheriffs have said publicly they would not enforce the laws — inaction that Mr. Cuomo said would set “a dangerous and frightening precedent.” The sheriffs’ refusal is unlikely to have much effect in the state: According to the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, since 2010 sheriffs have filed less than 2 percent of the two most common felony gun charges. The vast majority of charges are filed by the state or local police.

In Liberty County, Fla., a jury in October acquitted a sheriff [ http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/31/us-usa-florida-guns-idUSBRE99U13320131031 ] who had been suspended and charged with misconduct after he released a man arrested by a deputy on charges of carrying a concealed firearm [ http://www.cljnews.com/20130604liberty-co-sheriff-nick-finch-arrested-fdle-special-agent-to-be-interim-sheriff ]. The sheriff, who was immediately reinstated by the governor, said he was protecting the man’s Second Amendment rights.

And in California, a delegation of sheriffs met with Gov. Jerry Brown this fall to try to persuade him to veto gun bills passed by the Legislature, including measures banning semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines and lead ammunition for hunting (Mr. Brown signed the ammunition bill but vetoed the bill outlawing the rifles).

“Our way of life means nothing to these politicians, and our interests are not being promoted in the legislative halls of Sacramento or Washington, D.C.,” said Jon E. Lopey, the sheriff of Siskiyou County, Calif., one of those who met with Governor Brown. He said enforcing gun laws was not a priority for him, and he added that residents of his rural region near the Oregon border are equally frustrated by regulations imposed by the federal Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.

This year, the new gun laws in Colorado have become political flash points. Two state senators who supported the legislation were recalled in elections [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/us/colorado-lawmaker-concedes-defeat-in-recall-over-gun-law.html ] in September; a third resigned last month rather than face a recall. Efforts to repeal the statutes are already in the works.

Countering the elected sheriffs are some police chiefs, especially in urban areas, and state officials who say that the laws are not only enforceable but that they are already having an effect. Most gun stores have stopped selling the high-capacity magazines for personal use, although one sheriff acknowledged that some stores continued to sell them illegally. Some people who are selling or otherwise transferring guns privately are seeking background checks.

Eric Brown, a spokesman for Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado, said, “Particularly on background checks, the numbers show the law is working.” The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has run 3,445 checks on private sales since the law went into effect, he said, and has denied gun sales to 70 people.

A Federal District Court judge last month ruled against a claim in the sheriffs’ lawsuit that one part of the magazine law was unconstitutionally vague. The judge also ruled that while the sheriffs could sue as individuals, they had no standing to sue in their official capacity.

Still, the state’s top law enforcement officials acknowledged that sheriffs had wide discretion in enforcing state laws.

“We’re not in the position of telling sheriffs and chiefs what to do or not to do,” said Lance Clem, a spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. “We have people calling us all the time, thinking they’ve got an issue with their sheriff, and we tell them we don’t have the authority to intervene.”

Sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws around the country are in the minority, though no statistics exist. In Colorado, though, sheriffs like Joe Pelle of Boulder County, who support the laws and have more liberal constituencies that back them, are outnumbered.

“A lot of sheriffs are claiming the Constitution, saying that they’re not going to enforce this because they personally believe it violates the Second Amendment,” Sheriff Pelle said. “But that stance in and of itself violates the Constitution.”

Even Sheriff W. Pete Palmer of Chaffee County, one of the seven sheriffs who declined to join the federal lawsuit because he felt duty-bound to carry out the laws, said he was unlikely to aggressively enforce them. He said enforcement poses “huge practical difficulties,” and besides, he has neither the resources nor the pressure from his constituents to make active enforcement a high priority. Violations of the laws are misdemeanors.

“All law enforcement agencies consider the community standards — what is it that our community wishes us to focus on — and I can tell you our community is not worried one whit about background checks or high-capacity magazines,” he said.

At their extreme, the views of sheriffs who refuse to enforce gun laws echo the stand of Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff and the author of “The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope.” Mr. Mack has argued that county sheriffs are the ultimate arbiters of what is constitutional and what is not. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded by Mr. Mack, is an organization of sheriffs and other officers who support his views.

“The Supreme Court does not run my office,” Mr. Mack said in an interview. “Just because they allow something doesn’t mean that a good constitutional sheriff is going to do it.” He said that 250 sheriffs from around the country attended the association’s recent convention.

Matthew J. Parlow, a law professor at Marquette University, said that some states, including New York, had laws that allowed the governor in some circumstances to investigate and remove public officials who engaged in egregious misconduct — laws that in theory might allow the removal of sheriffs who failed to enforce state statutes.

But, he said, many governors could be reluctant to use such powers. And in most cases, any penalty for a sheriff who chose not to enforce state law would have to come from voters.

Sheriff Cooke, for his part, said that he was entitled to use discretion in enforcement, especially when he believed the laws were wrong or unenforceable.

“In my oath it says I’ll uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Constitution of the State of Colorado,” he said, as he posed for campaign photos in his office — he is running for the State Senate in 2014. “It doesn’t say I have to uphold every law passed by the Legislature.”

Jack Healy contributed reporting from Denver.

© 2013 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/us/sheriffs-refuse-to-enforce-laws-on-gun-control.html?pagewanted=all ] [with comments]

*

Gun safety laws draw attacks from outsiders

The Rachel Maddow Show
December 16, 2013

State Rep. Rhonda Fields, (D) Colorado, talks with Rachel Maddow about the intrusion of national gun groups to punish local politicians working for gun safety.

©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/53849542 / http://video.msnbc.msn.com/rachel-maddow/53849542/#53849542 [with transcript; show links at http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/links-the-1216-trms-0 (with comments)]

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Buy This for Someone You Hate: an $100,000 Original Painting by George Zimmerman



By Juli Weiner
9:07 AM, December 17 2013

A very conspicuous omission from VF.com’s first-annual Gift Guide for People You Hate [ http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/gifts-people-you-hate ]: this painting, pictured just above. It is not merely a hideous piece of art that looks like a Lana Del Rey album cover or “creative” A.P. Government project hastily crayoned on the bus ride to school: its true wretchedness derives from its creator, national villain George Zimmerman.

“Florida’s infamous neighborhood watchman is trying to pull himself out of debt by selling his original artwork online,” The New York Post reports [ http://nypost.com/2013/12/17/bidding-for-george-zimmerman-painting-nears-100g/ ]. Because if there’s a surefire way to make heaps of cash in no time at all, it’s painting. Per an actual artist statement on the eBay page [ http://www.ebay.com/itm/George-Zimmerman-original-painting-/111239922810?pt=Art_Paintings&hash=item19e66a847a ]: “My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors :-).” America is a safer place when George Zimmerman is indoors.

Vanity Fair © Condé Nast Digital

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2013/12/george-zimmerman-painting-ebay [no comments yet]

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Did Zimmerman Copy a Stock Photo for His ‘Original’ $100k Painting?



December 17th, 2013
http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-zimmerman-copy-a-stock-photo-for-his-original-100k-painting/ [with comments]


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The Rush Limbaugh Guide To Sexual Harassment

Rush: "Walk Up To The Woman And Say, 'Will You Please Ask Your Breasts To Stop Staring At My Eyes?'"

MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
December 9, 2013

From the December 9 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIGHqdJRbHg (next below, as a non-YouTube version of same embedded]:

LIMBAUGH: I know a lot of you, you hear this thing -- a bunch of leftists want to try to stop men from looking at women and you think, 'they can't do that.' That's not the point. Whether they can or can't, it will gain momentum. And it may not be for years, but this is who they are. This is -- this is how inane and inviolate they are of basic human nature. It's one of the biggest ways to understand liberals. They just despise human nature and try to alter it and change it and create it. Because many of them just don't fit in with it in many ways.

But there's a way around this, guys. You got to have fun with this kind of stuff, as you know. So let me offer a first suggestion, the first way to deal with this that came into my mind. You find yourself staring, looking at, casually glancing at a woman, but you know that it's now socially taboo. You shouldn't be doing it. And you think everybody is noticing you doing it and condemning you in their minds. You shouldn't -- so you walk up to the woman and say, "Will you please ask your breasts to stop staring at my eyes?"

Try that. Might help. And you don't know 'til you try it.

Previously:

Limbaugh: Feminism Rooted In "Sexual Perversion"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/08/27/limbaugh-feminism-rooted-in-sexual-perversion/195624

Limbaugh: Sandra Fluke Is "Having So Much Sex, It's Amazing She Can Still Walk"
http://mediamatters.org/video/2012/03/01/limbaugh-sandra-fluke-is-having-so-much-sex-its/155137

"Slut": The Voice Of A Right-Wing Bully
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/03/01/slut-the-voice-of-a-right-wing-bully/186625

© 2013 Media Matters for America

http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/12/09/the-rush-limbaugh-guide-to-sexual-harassment/197197 [with comments] [via/more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rush-limbaugh-breasts-eyes-woman_n_4414157.html (with embedded video, and comments)]

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Nicki Minaj's Big Boobie Birthday Cake

December 9, 2013
http://www.celebuzz.com/2013-12-09/nicki-minajs-birthday-was-filled-with-a-big-boobie-cake-and-stripper-pole/ [with comments]

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Miley Cyrus Supports Free The Nipple Campaign

12/13/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/miley-cyrus-free-the-nipple_n_4439241.html [with embedded video report, and comments]

*

If Only All Moms Could Breastfeed Like Gisele

[ http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/gisele-bundchen-breastfeeding-photo-sparks-controversy-190808425.html ]
12/11/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/gisele-breastfeeding-instagram_n_4421101.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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Pope Francis Rebukes "Marxist" Attack From Rush Limbaugh & Conservative Media



OLIVER WILLIS
December 15, 2013 10:59 AM EST

Pope Francis pushed back on attacks from conservative media figures who described him as a "Marxist" after he commented on wealth inequality.

Pope Francis recently released [ http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/2748/pope_francis_and_the_gospel_of_joy.aspx ] Evangelii Gaudium [ http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html#A_JOY_EVER_NEW,_A_JOY_WHICH_IS_SHARED ], which included criticisms of the "idolatry of money" and wealth inequality around the world. In response, numerous conservative media figures attacked him.

Rush Limbaugh described the Pope's writings having "gone beyond Catholicism" and into "pure Marxism [ http://mediamatters.org/video/2013/11/27/rush-lashes-out-at-the-pope-over-critique-of-in/197083 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg977VrdFlY (next below)]."

Other conservative media figures soon followed [ http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/12/05/conservatives-attack-the-pope/197170 ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dzxg2KQIdI (next below)] suit.

Fox Business host Stuart Varney said the Pope was engaging in "neo-socialism" while Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said the document "reveals a disturbing ignorance" by the Pope. FoxNews.com called him "the Catholic Church's Obama," adding, "God help us."

In an interview [ http://lastampa.it/2013/12/14/esteri/vatican-insider/en/never-be-afraid-of-tenderness-5BqUfVs9r7W1CJIMuHqNeI/pagina.html ] with Italy's La Stampa newspaper, Pope Francis defended his remarks: "Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don't feel offended." He added, "There is nothing in the exhortation that cannot be found in the social doctrine of the church."

The Pope expanded on his critique of "trickle-down" economics, noting that "The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefitting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor."

© 2013 Media Matters for America

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/15/pope-francis-rebukes-marxist-attack-from-rush-l/197273 [with comments]

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Don't Call Us Marxist Because We Critique Capitalism -- Call Us Christian
12/15/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/pope-francis-unfettered-capitalism_b_4449643.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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Mormon Church Explains Past Racism, Ban On Black Priests

By BRADY McCOMBS
12/10/13 12:06 AM ET EST

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — After Mormon church leaders lifted the ban on blacks in the priesthood in 1978, church leaders offered little official explanation for the reasons behind the ban, saying only they received a revelation it was time for the change.

In the three decades since, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled to understand the roots of the old ban and grappled with how best to respond to questions about the touchy historical topic.

Even as recently as 2012 — when the issue flared up during Mitt Romney's run for president — the church said it has always welcomed people of all races into the church but that was not known precisely why, how or when the restriction on the priesthood began.

Now, finally, Mormons can point to a new 2,000-word statement posted on the church's website that offers the most comprehensive explanation of why the church previously had barred men of African descent from the lay clergy, and for the first time disavows the ban.

The statement, posted Friday, says the ban was put into place during an era of great racial divide that influenced early teachings of the church. It pins the prohibition on an announcement from church president Brigham Young in 1852. Perhaps most importantly, it addresses the once widely held notion that blacks were spiritually inferior.

"The Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else," the statement read. "Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."

Mormon scholars and church members who have followed the issue closely called it a landmark moment.

"History and changes all happen due to time. This is way past due," said Don Harwell, a 67-year-old president of a black Mormon support group in Utah. "These are the statements they should have made in 1978, but better late than never."

Margaret Blair Young, an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University who made a documentary about the untold stories of black Mormons, called the new article a miracle. She said she'll carry printouts with her to hand out and that she plans to call missionaries in Africa who are often asked about the reasons behind the old ban.

"I'm thrilled," Young said. "It went so much further than anything before has done."

Mormon church officials declined comment on the article but said it is part of a series of new online postings to explain or expand on certain gospel topics for its members. Other topics include, "Are Mormons Christian?" and one about founder Joseph Smith's first visions.

Armand Mauss, a retired professor of sociology and religious studies at Washington State University, said the article is the most comprehensive explanation yet about the past exclusion of blacks from the priesthood and marks the first time the church has explicitly disavowed its previous teachings on the topic.

Mormon scholars over the years have written much of what is in the posting, but it is noteworthy coming from church headquarters in Salt Lake City, he said. He and other scholars were interviewed several months ago by staff from LDS Public Affairs in preparation for the new article, Mauss said, adding that it reflects a "new Church commitment to greater transparency about its history, doctrines, and policies."

The LDS church has come a long way since the Genesis Group was founded in 1971, said Harwell, who converted to Mormonism in 1983. While he noted that he doesn't speak for the church, he said he believes the next step is getting more black Mormons into church leadership positions. He serves as counselor to the bishop in his local congregation and can see how that is helping young church members change their perceptions. He didn't question the timing of the explanation.

"Maybe the Lord just determined this is the time for it to happen," Harwell said, "that this is when people are going to be able to accept it for what it is."

Matthew Bowman, an author and assistant professor of religion at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, said the posting is being widely circulated in the Mormon blogosphere.

"They were a lot of people really hoping for this," Bowman said. "Among the Mormon chattering classes, the statement is being taken as a pretty big deal."

Online: Church's statement:
Race and the Priesthood
http://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng

© 2013 Associated Press

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/mormon-church-black-racism-_n_4418703.html [with embedded video report, and comments]

*

Mormon Church: Justifications for black priesthood ban rooted in racism

LDS Church President Brigham Young
Dec 10, 2013
http://www.religionnews.com/2013/12/10/mormon-church-justifications-black-priesthood-ban-rooted-racism/ [with comments]


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School Named For Klu Klux Klan Leader Nathan Bedford Forrest To Be Rebranded

Posted: 12/17/2013 5:03 am EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 11:17 am EST

(Reuters) - A Florida high school whose name commemorates a leader of a white supremacist group known for lynchings and other violent acts against blacks is to be renamed, officials said on Monday.

The Nathan Bedford Forrest High School in Jacksonville, Florida, founded 54 years ago, will change its name from that of the Ku Klux Clan's first grand wizard from the start of the next school year in August.

A new name will be proposed in January.

"We recognize that we cannot and are not seeking to erase history," said Constance Hall, a board member for the Duval County school, where more than half the students are black.

"For too long and too many, this name has represented the opposite of unity, respect, and equality," Hall said in a statement.

With its roots in the U.S. Civil War era, the Ku Klux Klan has long been associated with hooded, white-robed night riders who menaced blacks with cross burnings, lynchings and other acts of violence.

The honoring of Confederate heroes and emblems has been a divisive issue in the United States, with proponents saying it pays homage to regional history and opponents saying it amounts to racism.

Memphis, Tennessee in February this year dropped Confederate names from three city parks - one was named after Forrest, a slaveholder before the Civil War and a general during it.

The Florida name change comes after incidents that sparked racial tension in the southern U.S. state.

In July, white former community patrol guard George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder charges in the 2012 killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in central Florida.

Also last year, a federal lawsuit alleged civil rights violations in a west-central Florida school district after two black women who scored well on an adult skills test were accused of cheating.

Omotayo Richmond, who moved to Jacksonville from New York, wrote in a Change.org petition that garnered more than 160,000 signatures in support of changing the school's name that doing so would go toward healing "so much racial division" in Florida.

"African American Jacksonville students shouldn't have to attend a high school named for someone who slaughtered and terrorized their ancestors one more school year," Richmond wrote.

The 1,300-student public school, which became racially integrated in 1971, had voted some five years ago to keep the name, but those officials had been replaced, the petition said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson, editing by Elizabeth Piper)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/nathan-bedford-forrest-school-named-for-kkk-leader-renamed_n_4457849.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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Iowa Republican Spent $150,000 To Expose Voter Fraud, Instead Found Nothing Significant

By Shadee Ashtari
Posted: 12/16/2013 6:15 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 2:02 am EST

Eighteen months and $150,000 later, a rigorous voter fraud investigation commissioned by Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz (R) has failed to produce [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012 ] any statistically significant evidence of voter fraud in Iowa, according to The Des Moines Register.

Since taking office in 2011, Schultz has made safeguarding the ballot box [ http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/10/iowa-voter-fraud ] from fraud a top state priority, striking a two-year deal with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation in 2012 that directed $280,000 of federal funds toward voter fraud inquiries. Additionally, a full-time agent was hired and assigned to pursue voter fraud cases.

Although Schultz had expected to unveil “a lot [ http://qctimes.com/news/local/schultz-expect-a-lot-of-voter-fraud-cases/article_53f73833-e6f5-5e46-a333-147cb54effe6.html ]” of voter fraud cases, the investigation so far has yielded just five guilty pleas and five dismissals, The Des Moines Register reported late Sunday.

Of the five guilty pleas [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160042/Guilty-pleas-resolve-all-five-voter-fraud-convictions-in-Iowa ], three of them involved felons who had completed their prison terms but whose voting rights had not yet been restored when they went to vote.

In another case, a woman cast an absentee ballot for her daughter, who had recently moved to Minnesota and told her mother that she had missed the registration deadline there. After learning her daughter ultimately did vote in Minnesota, the mother self-reported the double-voting incident to the local county auditor’s office, resulting in a $147.75 fine, according to The Des Moines Register [id.].

In the fifth guilty plea, a man was incidentally charged with voter fraud after a drunk driving arrest revealed that he had stolen his dead brother’s identity to obtain a driver’s license.

Schultz’s critics have attacked his efforts to ferret out voter fraud as a waste of state money and time.

“Secretary Schultz’s actions not only waste a tremendous amount of money that should be used to increase access to voting in Iowa,” Ben Stone, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, told The Des Moines Register [ http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20131216/NEWS09/312160041/Iowa-voter-fraud-probe-nets-few-cases-no-trials-since-July-2012 ]. “Ultimately, they make it demonstrably harder for eligible people to vote.”

Schultz told the newspaper that voter fraud has been incorrectly viewed as a non-issue and that the results of the investigation will lead to changes in thinking, especially with six months remaining in the investigation.

"[B]efore, the narrative was that there’s no such thing as voter fraud. That’s obviously changed," Schultz said [id.]. "I don’t think you can judge the initiative until it’s over."

Other studies have found little evidence of in-person voter fraud [ http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/11/13236464-new-database-of-us-voter-fraud-finds-no-evidence-that-photo-id-laws-are-needed ] being a significant problem. Despite that, numerous Republican-led states, including Texas [ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/07/us/politics/texas-stringent-voter-id-law-makes-a-dent-at-polls.html ] and North Carolina, have implemented stricter voting laws in a purported effort to curtail such crimes [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/05/republican-imaginary-enemies_n_3832142.html ].

In August, former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized [ http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/22/colin-powell-to-north-carolina-governor-there-is-no-voter-fraud/ ] the argument of North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) that his approval of a more restrictive voting bill would combat voter fraud.

“You can say what you like, but there is no voter fraud,” Powell said [ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/23/colin-powell-lashes-out-at-the-gop-s-bogus-claims-on-voter-fraud.html ] at the CEO Forum in Raleigh, N.C. “How can it be widespread and undetected?”

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/iowa-voter-fraud_n_4455110.html [with embedded video report, and comments]


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John McCain Admits Castro-Hitler Comparison Was 'Gross Exaggeration'
12/15/2013
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Sunday that his comparison [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/12/10/mccain-compares-obama-castro-handshake-to-chamberlain-hitler/ ] of President Barack Obama's handshake [ http://www.msnbc.com/thomas-roberts/mandela-memorial-obama-castro-handshake ] with Cuban President Raul Castro to one between Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain was a "gross exaggeration [ http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/12/15/exp-sotu-mccain-castro-handshake.cnn.html ]."
[...]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/john-mccain-castro-hitler_n_4449821.html [with embedded video clip, and comments]


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Mitch McConnell Predicts Debt Ceiling Won't Be Raised Without A Hostage


Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Dec. 17 that he doubts the Senate "is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase."
Alex Wong via Getty Images

By Michael McAuliff
Posted: 12/17/2013 4:09 pm EST | Updated: 12/17/2013 4:19 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that the nation's debt limit won't be raised unless Republicans can extract concessions from Democrats and President Barack Obama.

The borrowing limit, which was suspended until Feb. 7, 2014, as part of the deal to end the government shutdown in the fall, stands at about $17.2 trillion. The Treasury Department estimates that without a hike, it can keep paying the nation's bills only until sometime in March.

The budget agreement that passed the House overwhelmingly last week and is set for passage in the Senate -- likely on Wednesday -- would also require a boost in the debt ceiling in order to carry out the spending that it mandates. But McConnell said Republicans would not allow that.

"I doubt if the House or, for that matter, the Senate is willing to give the president a clean debt ceiling increase," McConnell told reporters on Capitol Hill. "Every time the president asks us to raise the debt ceiling is a good time to try to achieve something important for the country."

He added that holding the borrowing cap hostage is the only way the GOP can get Obama to negotiate.

"I think the debt ceiling legislation is a time that brings us all together and gets the president's attention, which with this president, particularly when it comes to reducing spending, has been a bit of a challenge," McConnell said.

He did not lay out what demands the GOP would make. "We'll have to see what the House insists on adding to it as a condition of passage," McConnell said.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) made similar remarks on Sunday [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/paul-ryan-debt-ceiling_n_4449213.html ], saying, "We don’t want nothing out of this debt limit."

For his part, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he didn't see Republicans being up for another damaging showdown over something that's essential to keeping the government and economy moving after they were so battered over the October shutdown.

"I can't imagine the Republicans want another fight on debt ceiling," Reid told reporters. "We've passed two debt ceilings in the very recent past, and we should do another one."

Still, Republican lawmakers are taking criticism from right-wing groups over the current budget deal, and those same groups oppose hiking the debt limit. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) suggested last week that such organizations would no longer have much influence in Congress [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/14/john-boehner-right-wing-groups_n_4445626.html ], but they have sway with GOP lawmakers facing primaries next year, such as McConnell.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-debt-ceiling_n_4461484.html [with comments]


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Largely White Audience Turns Out To Hear Rand Paul Speak At African-American Outreach Event


Bill Pugliano via Getty Images

By Amanda Terkel
Posted: 12/09/2013 9:43 am EST | Updated: 12/09/2013 4:02 pm EST

WASHINGTON -- The Michigan Republican Party is seeking to increase its visibility in Democratic- and minority-heavy Detroit, and last week, it brought Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to the city [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/rand-paul-minority-outreach_n_4319239.html ] to open the party's African-American Engagement Office. But if anything, the launch event put into stark relief just how much work the GOP has to do, when a largely white audience turned out to hear the senator speak.

Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus has said that attracting more minorities to the GOP is crucial for the party's future [ http://www.usatoday.com/story/onpolitics/2013/08/16/rnc-hispanic-outreach-boston/2663993/ ]. He visited Michigan last month, hired radio personality Wayne Bradley to head [ http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/11/12/rnc-rolls-out-african-american-outreach-effort-in-detroit/comment-page-1/ ] the African-American Engagement effort in the state and launched the Michigan Black Advisory Council.

In the 2012 election, President Barack Obama earned the support of 90 percent [ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204755404578103210057244462 ] of the black voters who turned out at the polls.

Paul initially spoke at the new African-American Engagement Office on Livernois Avenue in Detroit for about four minutes on Friday. According to the progressive site Eclectablog, "The seats in the tiny space were filled with well-dressed supporters, most of whom were African-American [ http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/12/photos-audio-video-white-libertarian-rand-paul-from-kentucky-opens-republican-black-outreach-office-in-detroit.html ]."

“Today’s opening of this office is the beginning of a new Republican Party [ http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-rand-paul-detroit-minorities-gop-20131206,0,5668979.story ],” Paul said. “This is going to be a Republican Party that is in big cities and small cities, in the countryside, in the city. It’s going to be about bringing a message that is popular no matter where you’re from, whether you're rich or poor, whether you’re black, white or brown.”

Paul then went [ http://www.freep.com/article/20131206/NEWS/312060015/GOP-comes-Detroit-trying-win-over-African-American-voters ] to a larger grassroots event [ http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131206/METRO01/312060086/Paul-Economic-plan-would-1-3B-stimulus-Detroit- ] at the Grace Bible Chapel, where there were protesters from the civil rights group National Action Network outside. The online invitation [no longer available] said the event was intended to "celebrate the opening of our African-American Engagement Office in Detroit."

Tracking footage from the Democratic super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, however, shows an overwhelmingly white audience ended up turning out [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GVOPMLcf-Y (next below)]:

Detroit is approximately 83 percent [ http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2622000.html ] African-American.

Paul also spoke Friday at the Detroit Economic Club, where he proposed a plan to revitalize U.S. cities through the creation of "economic freedom zones [ http://www.freep.com/article/20131206/NEWS06/312060079/Rand-Paul-Detroit-economic-club-presidential-hopeful ]," which would cut federal taxes in communities that have an unemployment rate of 12 percent or higher.

The Michigan Democratic Party rejected Paul's advice for Detroit.

"Sen. Paul was a vocal opponent of the auto rescue, which saved over a million jobs, and led the Republican effort to shut down the government, costing Michigan's economy hundreds of millions," said party spokesman Joshua Pugh. "His special interest tax handout plan is nothing new. Here in Michigan, Rick Snyder gave $1.8 billion to wealthy special interests, and paid for it with billions in devastating cuts to our local communities and public schools. It's time for our elected leaders to stop the tax giveaways, invest in communities and improve education."

Paul has been trying to do more minority outreach in recent months. In April, Paul spoke [id.; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crDfHfIc2Co (next below, source http://www.mediaite.com/tv/maddow-tears-into-rand-paul-for-denying-he-questioned-civil-rights-act-you-did-question-it-on-my-show/ , also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_mGiVTcX3w )]

at the historically black Howard University, becoming the first Republican elected official to speak on campus in years.

Still, he continues to generate skepticism, in part due to his criticism of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 2010, he said, "I think it’s a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant, but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership [ http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2010/05/19/98217/paul-civil-rights/ ]."

On Sunday, Paul said he opposed extending long-term unemployment benefits, because doing so would be a "disservice [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/08/rand-paul-unemployment-benefits_n_4408046.html ]" to workers. African-Americans have consistently had a significantly higher unemployment rate [ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/08/21/through-good-times-and-bad-black-unemployment-is-consistently-double-that-of-whites/ ] than whites.

Neither Paul nor the Michigan GOP returned a request for comment.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/rand-paul-african-american_n_4409356.html [with (separate) embedded video report, and (over 12,000) comments]

*

Rand Paul: GOP ambassador to black America

All In with Chris Hayes
12/09/13

Chris Hayes looks at Rand Paul’s outreach to African American voters.

©2013 NBC UNIVERSAL

http://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/rand-paul-gop-ambassador-to-black-america-85902915512 [with comment; the above YouTube of the segment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zqlq7hkL_k (with comments)]


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The Return of the Welfare Queen

Republicans see class warfare as a winning message, but they risk hurting the blue-collar whites the party depends on.
Dec 14 2013
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/12/the-return-of-the-welfare-queen/282337/ [with comments]


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Oklahoma Plan For School Storm Shelters Thwarted By Tax Cut


Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma speaks at the second day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, Tuesday, August 28, 2012.
(Harry Walker/MCT via Getty Images)

BY SEAN MURPHY
Posted: 12/16/2013 1:56 pm EST

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — After a huge tornado ripped through the Oklahoma City suburbs this spring and demolished two elementary schools, killing seven children, a longtime legislator thought the time was ripe for the state to act on a well-known problem.

Although Oklahoma averages more than 50 tornadoes a year, and sometimes gets more than 100, about 60 percent of public schools have no shelters. Cash-strapped districts can't afford to build them.

Rep. Joe Dorman, who represents the small farming town of Rush Springs, proposed a bond issue, taking advantage of the state's rebounding economy and revenue from a business tax that was already on the books.

But the response to his proposal has made clear that there's something more ominous than tornadoes these days in one of the nation's most conservative states: taxes and borrowing.

The idea has been snubbed by Oklahoma's political leadership, including Gov. Mary Fallin, triggering a debate over the current push by some GOP-controlled states to cut taxes to improve their business climate instead of using available revenue for longstanding problems.

"It would be nice if every kid in Oklahoma had a safe room to go to," said Bill Pingleton, the superintendent in the rural town of Tushka, where the school and much of the town were destroyed by a tornado in 2011.

But top officials said the schools shouldn't expect state help for shelters.

"Just adding on a new tax burden on Oklahomans is not the answer," said Republican State Superintendent Janet Barresi, Oklahoma's highest ranking education official.

Republican leaders want to eliminate the franchise tax, a $1.25 levy on every $1,000 a corporation invests in Oklahoma, to help fund the shelter plan. The tax, which has existed since 1963, generates about $40 million annually, but was recently suspended. Since 2010, the Republican-controlled Legislature has cut the personal income tax and several taxes on businesses as part of an aggressive fiscal agenda.

Supporters of the shelter proposal, including teachers and families of children killed in the suburban Moore tornado, are trying to collect 155,000 signatures to put the question on the 2014 ballot.

Oklahoma is dead center in the Great Plains corridor known as tornado alley. Every spring when twister season arrives, school children follow a familiar ritual of filing to interior hallways, gymnasiums or — in the more affluent districts — reinforced shelters for state-mandated storm drills.

At the new Ronald Reagan Elementary School in Norman, a fast-growing college town in one of the wealthiest counties, every fourth classroom has been outfitted as a shelter with steel-reinforced concrete walls, no windows and a solid steel door.

Parents say the rooms ease their fears.

"I love the idea of having safe rooms in the schools. I wish all schools were like that," said Alicia McBane, 35, who was selling T-shirts at a recent PTA benefit at the elementary school, where her son is in kindergarten.

At another elementary school in Norman, Truman Primary, children take shelter in a gymnasium with concrete walls designed to withstand winds of 250 mph.

But many more schools in Oklahoma, where median income ranks 36th in the nation, are in WPA-era buildings in rural districts.

"Safe rooms are a tremendous cost when you don't have the support and the growth for bond issues," said Robert Trammell, the superintendent in Snyder, a ranching town with 1,400 people, about the same size it was in 1940. The town has three schools built in the 1930s and one in the 1950s. A twister killed 97 people in Snyder in 1905.

After budget cuts during the recession, the district is still retrenching. It dropped the wrestling program this year.

"There's no meat left on the bone," said Trammell, who said students will use hallways and bathrooms for storm protection though they don't meet federal standards.

In Norman, reinforcing the gym added $200,000 to the cost.

Students in Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore were also following the traditional procedure when they clustered in hallways at about 3 p.m. May 20 when an EF-5 tornado swept into the community. Winds measured at more than 200 mph collapsed a concrete wall on the children, ages 8 and 9.

Dorman, a Democrat, said he wasn't trying to put Republicans in a difficult political position with his proposal. He said he chose the franchise tax because the Legislature had temporarily suspended it so the money wasn't spoken for. The revenue would be used for the bond payments.

"That just seemed like the best place to draw the money without hurting the budget," he said.

But Republican leaders maintain that eliminating taxes, especially those on businesses, will encourage more investment in the state, generating more money for communities to pay for their own needs.

Since the rebuff, supporters of the shelter initiative, organized as Take Shelter Oklahoma, have become embroiled in a dispute with Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt and the state Chamber of Commerce over Pruitt's use of wording in the ballot initiative that emphasizes the funding mechanism.

Some fear the issue is becoming hopelessly entangled in politics.

"When people are holding press conferences in front of the attorney general's office attacking the state chamber, we have gone far afield from the issue of our children's safety," said Republican Sen. David Holt of Oklahoma City.

© 2013 Associated Press

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/oklahoma-school-storm-shelters_n_4454451.html [with comments]


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Victims of Misclassification

By MARJORIE ELIZABETH WOOD
Published: December 15, 2013

WASHINGTON — LAST month, a Michigan construction worker named Matt Anderson testified in a Senate hearing about being a victim of employee misclassification. Mr. Anderson said that his employer forced him, after six years as an employee, to switch to “independent contractor” status. Though the move stripped Mr. Anderson of basic employee rights and protections, he went along with the change, he said, because “my fellow workers and I had families to support and we saw how bad the economy was.”

Today, millions of American workers in a wide variety of sectors, from construction and trucking to I.T. and professional services, are victims of misclassification, a tactic employers use to avoid paying taxes and providing benefits that are guaranteed to employees, such as workers’ compensation, overtime pay, minimum wage and unemployment insurance.

In 2000, a United States Department of Labor study estimated that up to 30 percent of employers misclassify workers. This year, the Treasury Department’s inspector general concluded that the problem had worsened. Fifteen states have now teamed up with the Department of Labor and the Internal Revenue Service to reduce misclassification through information sharing and joint investigations.

By federal law, employee status is determined by the degree of an employer’s control over the manner and means of work, not any written agreement. As Mr. Anderson testified, though his employer changed his status from employee to independent contractor, the conditions of his work stayed the same.

The costs of misclassification are considerable. The Department of Labor estimates that the lost revenue for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation is in the billions of dollars. States are also bearing the burden. A 2007 Cornell University study estimated that New York State’s unemployment insurance fund lost $176 million annually to misclassification. Workers suffer financial losses as well. This past May, the Department of Labor recovered more than $1 million in back wages and damages for misclassified employees of a Kentucky-based cable company.

What is to be done? To start, Congress should pass the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act of 2013, introduced by Senator Robert P. Casey Jr., Democrat of Pennsylvania, which would make employee misclassification a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The bill would impose stiff penalties on offending employers.

But combating this abuse will require more than Senator Casey’s bill. Being denied their status as employees strips workers not only of basic employment protections but also of the collective bargaining rights that enabled workers to secure these protections in the first place. The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, which established modern employment law, resulted from decades of labor organizing. Without the right to unionize, workers will lose hard-won protections. The right to bargain collectively should thus be guaranteed by adding it to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

As the widespread practice of misclassification suggests, employers today are engaged in organized tactics to disempower workers. Workers must therefore be empowered under the law to fight back.

Marjorie Elizabeth Wood is a historian and labor rights advocate.

© 2013 The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/16/opinion/victims-of-misclassification.html


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AP survey: U.S. income gap is holding back economy

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The growing gap between the richest Americans and everyone else isn’t bad just for individuals.

It’s hurting the U.S. economy.

So says a majority of more than three dozen economists surveyed last week by the Associated Press. Their concerns tap into a debate that’s intensified as middle-class pay has stagnated while wealthier households have thrived.

A key source of the economists’ concern: Higher pay and outsize stock market gains are flowing mainly to affluent Americans. Yet these households spend less of their money than do low- and middle-income consumers who make up most of the population but whose pay is barely rising.

“What you want is a broader spending base,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. “You want more people spending money.”

Spending by wealthier Americans, given the weight of their dollars, does help drive the economy. But analysts said the economy would be better able to sustain its growth if the riches were more evenly dispersed. For one thing, a plunge in stock prices typically leads wealthier Americans to cut sharply back on their spending.

“The broader the improvement, the more likely it will be sustained,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.

A wide gap in pay limits the ability of poorer and middle-income Americans to improve their living standards, the economists said. About 80 percent of stock market wealth is held by the richest 10 percent of Americans. That means the stock market’s outsize gains this year have mostly benefited the already affluent.

Those trends have fueled an escalating political debate. In a speech this month, President Obama called income inequality “the defining challenge of our time.”

Obama also called for an increase in the federal minimum wage, now $7.25. Republican leaders in the House oppose an increase, arguing that it would slow hiring.

Several states are acting on their own. California, Connecticut and Rhode Island raised their minimum wages this year. Last month, voters in New Jersey approved an increase in the minimum to $8.25 an hour from $7.25.

Income inequality has steadily worsened in recent decades, according to government data and academic studies. The most recent census figures show that the average income for the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. households, adjusted for inflation, has surged 17 percent in the past 20 years. By contrast, average income for the middle 20 percent of households has risen less than 5 percent.

The AP survey collected the views of private, corporate and academic economists on a range of issues. Among the topics were what policy decisions, if any, the Federal Reserve might announce after it ends a policy meeting today.

Three-quarters of the economists surveyed don’t think the Fed is ready to announce a pullback in its economic stimulus. Speculation has been rising that the Fed will soon scale back its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases because of the economy’s steady gains. The bond purchases have been intended to keep long-term loan rates low to induce people to borrow and spend.

Most of the economists think the Fed will begin slowing its bond buying in January or March.

And most don’t think the economy needs the Fed’s help. Just over half say they believe growth could reach a healthy 3 percent annual pace even without the Fed’s extraordinary help.

As Janet Yellen prepares to succeed Ben Bernanke as chairman early next year, most of the economists expect the Fed to become more “dovish” — that is, more focused on fighting unemployment than on worrying about higher inflation that might result from the Fed’s actions. The Senate could confirm Yellen as soon as this week.

The economists are also confident that U.S. growth is picking up. Three-quarters said the recovery, which officially began 4½ years ago, has yet to reach its peak. And nearly all think the next recession is at least three years away; half think it’s at least five years away.

The economists forecast that growth will average 2.9 percent in 2014. That would be the healthiest annual pace since 2005.

One reason they expect healthier growth is that the effects of tax increases and government spending cuts that kicked in early this year should fade.

A budget bill that passed a pivotal test in the Senate on Tuesday will reverse some of those spending cuts. That should add slightly to economic growth. The bill also removes the threat of another government shutdown next year.

Among the economists’ other views:

— The Obama administration’s health care law will make little or no difference to the job market. About two-fifths said the law would cost jobs. None said it would increase hiring. The law has drawn fierce opposition from many small business owners, who say it will raise hiring costs by requiring companies with 50 or more employees to provide coverage starting in 2015.

— The stock market isn’t in a bubble. While the Dow Jones industrial average reached record highs earlier this year, most economists said that higher profits largely justified the gains.

— Europe will keep growing and avoid a recession in 2014. But growth will remain so tepid that inflation will be nearly non-existent. Nearly two-thirds of the economists forecast that inflation won’t consistently reach the European Central Bank’s inflation target of 2 percent until 2016.

— Inflation in the United States will remain low for the long run. A majority of economists think consumer inflation won’t consistently meet or exceed the Fed’s 2 percent target level until 2015 or later.

Economists appear to be increasingly concerned about the effects of inequality on growth. Brown, the Raymond James economist, says that marks a shift from a few years ago, when many analysts were divided over whether pay inequality was worsening.

Now, he says, “there’s not much denial of that ... and you’re starting to see some research saying, yes, it does slow the economy.”

© 2013 Associated Press

http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/work/business/9841267-95/ap-survey-us-income-gap-is-holding-back-economy


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The Twelve Days of Wall Street

By ERIC OWLES
December 13, 2013

On the first day of bonus season
my supervisor sent to me:

12 Dwarves for Tossing
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/wolf-of-wall-street-boiler-room-antics-on-the-big-screen/ ]

11 Padded Bills
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/suit-offers-a-peek-at-the-practice-of-padding-a-legal-bill/ ]

10 Leads a Left
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/twitters-i-p-o-and-the-league-table-fight/ ]

9 Bailout Lawsuits
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/01/07/rescued-by-a-bailout-a-i-g-may-sue-its-savior/ ]

8 ‘Issues With Bloomberg’
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/05/31/hunch-about-bloomberg-brought-rivals-together/ ]

7 Hedge Fund Hot Dogs
[ http://pagesix.com/2013/10/21/he-paid-100k-to-become-guy-fieris-friend-for-a-day/ ]

6 “Sons and Daughters”
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/jpmorgan-hiring-put-chinas-elite-on-an-easy-track/ ]

5 Tommy John’s
[ http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/yes-please-ode-to-the-undergarment/ ]

4 Housing Booms
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/06/03/behind-the-rise-in-house-prices-wall-street-buyers/ ]

3 Twitter #Fails
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/13/after-twitter-fail-jpmorgan-calls-off-q-and-a/ ]

2 Bitcoin Moguls
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/as-big-investors-emerge-bitcoin-gets-ready-for-its-close-up/ ]

and a $13 billion settlement.
[ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/13-billion-settlement-with-jpmorgan-is-announced/ ]

Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company

[from] http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/12/13/weekend-reading-the-twelve-days-of-wall-street/ [no comments yet]


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Carl Sagan's [second] last interview, with Charlie Rose (Full Interview)

Carl Sagan's [second] last interview, with Charlie Rose on May 27, 1996.

Carl gave one other television interview before his death. It was aired on ABC's Nightline on December 4th 1996. A short clip from that interview can be seen below. Please ask ABC to make the entire interview available.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JX_-jaJOrU#t=79s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8HEwO-2L4w [with comments] [also, in 3 parts respectively, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jod7v-m573k (with comments), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDKSZO-aACk (with comments), and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxeN6Wf7mbU (with comments)]


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An urgent message from Santa

Published on Nov 30, 2013 by GreenpeaceUK

Could this be Santa's final broadcast? To help, go to http://www.savesantashome.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr2LCTdIzd4 [with comments]

*

The Right-Wing Santa Fantasy

Fox News: White Santa's Home Isn't Melting
December 12, 2013


http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/12/12/the-right-wing-santa-fantasy/197245 [with the Greenpeace ad just above and two Fox clips embedded, and comments]


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A Christmas gift for atheists -- five reasons why God exists


The Vatican Christmas tree is lit up after a ceremony in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican December 14, 2012.
(Reuters)

By William Lane Craig
Published December 13, 2013
FoxNews.com

For atheists, Christmas is a religious sham. For if God does not exist, then obviously Jesus’ birth cannot represent the incarnation of God in human history, which Christians celebrate at this time of year.

However, most atheists, in my experience, have no good reasons for their disbelief. Rather they’ve learned to simply repeat the slogan, “There’s no good evidence for God’s existence!”

In the case of a Christian who has no good reasons for what he believes, this slogan serves as an effective conversation-stopper. But if we have good reasons for our beliefs, then this slogan serves rather as a conversation-starter.

The atheist who merely repeats this slogan after having been presented with arguments for God’s existence makes an empty assertion.

So what reasons might be given in defense of Christian theism? In my publications and oral debates with some of the world’s most notable atheists, I’ve defended the following five reasons why God exists:

1. God provides the best explanation of the origin of the universe. Given the scientific evidence we have about our universe and its origins, and bolstered by arguments presented by philosophers for centuries, it is highly probable that the universe had an absolute beginning. Since the universe, like everything else, could not have merely popped into being without a cause, there must exist a transcendent reality beyond time and space that brought the universe into existence. This entity must therefore be enormously powerful. Only a transcendent, unembodied mind suitably fits that description.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jClyinERY [with {over 5,000} comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_a6RjR_AHY [with {over 32,000} comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEE2L2l3PAo [with comments] [{linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following])

2. God provides the best explanation for the fine-tuning of the universe. Contemporary physics has established that the universe is fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent, interactive life. That is to say, in order for intelligent, interactive life to exist, the fundamental constants and quantities of nature must fall into an incomprehensibly narrow life-permitting range. There are three competing explanations of this remarkable fine-tuning: physical necessity, chance, or design. The first two are highly implausible, given the independence of the fundamental constants and quantities from nature's laws and the desperate maneuvers needed to save the hypothesis of chance. That leaves design as the best explanation.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMYIl5b-paY [with comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6AdEDm2mLQ [with comments] [{linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following])

3. God provides the best explanation of objective moral values and duties. Even atheists recognize that some things, for example, the Holocaust, are objectively evil. But if atheism is true, what basis is there for the objectivity of the moral values we affirm? Evolution? Social conditioning? These factors may at best produce in us the subjective feeling that there are objective moral values and duties, but they do nothing to provide a basis for them. If human evolution had taken a different path, a very different set of moral feelings might have evolved. By contrast, God Himself serves as the paradigm of goodness, and His commandments constitute our moral duties. Thus, theism provides a better explanation of objective moral values and duties.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjhFlI6-ZBI [with comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIwiU7thK54 [with comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP0bLdOplyk [with comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6-zi25GgVE [with {over 9,000} comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgZqnsytJI [with {over 8,000} comments] [{linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following])

4. God provides the best explanation of the historical facts concerning Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Historians have reached something of consensus that the historical Jesus thought that in himself God’s Kingdom had broken into human history, and he carried out a ministry of miracle-working and exorcisms as evidence of that fact. Moreover, most historical scholars agree that after his crucifixion Jesus’ tomb was discovered empty by a group of female disciples, that various individuals and groups saw appearances of Jesus alive after his death, and that the original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to believe in Jesus’ resurrection despite their every predisposition to the contrary. I can think of no better explanation of these facts than the one the original disciples gave: God raised Jesus from the dead.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdxeqEoDXco [with {over 8,000} comments], http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wyt8gCIZHA [with comments] [{linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following])

5. God can be personally known and experienced. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Down through history Christians have found through Jesus a personal acquaintance with God that has transformed their lives.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYkxWO4Op6c [with {over 5,000} comments])

The good thing is that atheists tend to be very passionate people and want to believe in something. If they would only put aside the slogans for a moment and reexamine their worldview in light of the best philosophical, scientific, and historical evidence we have today, then they, too, would find Christmas worth celebrating!

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNtBkOXItqw [with {over 6,000} comments] [{linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following])

Related Video

How can I be sure God exists?

William Lane Craig explains his mission to defend Christianity from skeptics and nonbelievers
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2893567384001/how-can-be-sure-god-exists

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODetOE6cbbc [with {over 19,000} comments] [{linked in} http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=94631972 and preceding and following])

William Lane Craig is a philosopher, author, and founder of ReasonableFaith.org [ http://www.reasonablefaith.org/ ], a web-based ministry whose purpose is to provide an intelligent and articulate perspective about the existence of God in the public arena.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFOTnBz-PCk [with comments])

©2013 FOX News Network, LLC (emphasis in original)

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/12/13/christmas-gift-for-atheists-five-reasons-why-god-exists/ [with comments]


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Was Noah's Ark round? Scholar says 3,700-year-old clay tablet reveals boat was a coracle made out of reeds and bitumen

New revelation: According to an ancient Babylonian tablet, Noah's Ark was a 220-ft wide coracle - the equivalent of six London buses - with walls 20-ft high

Dr Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper of the Department of the Middle East at the British Museum, translated the cuneiform script on the tablet

Noah's Ark is typically portrayed at a traditional ship, such as in this Italian mid-16th century painting
Dr Irving Finkel has translated cuneiform text on an 3,700-old clay tablet
The ancient script details the Mesopotamian story of Noah's Ark
The text also contains instructions on how to build an ark to escape a flood
But its describes the craft as being a round 220-ft diameter coracle
The design is very different to the popular imagining of a traditional ship
15 December 2013
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2524056/Noahs-Ark-coracle-reeds-bitumen-reveals-Babylonian-text.html [with comments]


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Reza Aslan On The Birth Of Jesus: 'Zealot' Author Relates Historical Nativity Narrative



Posted: 12/14/2013 9:02 am EST | Updated: 12/14/2013 1:03 pm EST

Reza Aslan, a Biblical scholar and author of "Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth [ http://www.amazon.com/Zealot-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/140006922X ]," spoke to The Huffington Post to give a historical perspective on the birth of Jesus, an event which the Gospels recount in different ways.

"The stories themselves are not and were never meant to be read as a literal historical account of Jesus' birth," Aslan explained. "They are, instead, a theological argument about who Jesus was."

Though the historical facts surrounding the birth of Jesus are very thin, by examining the cultural and religious practices of time it's possible to make some assumptions about what the nativity would probably have been like.

Aslan told The Huffington Post, "If the Gospels are correct that he was from a village called Nazareth, and that he came from a family of tekton (woodworkers or builders), what that means is that he was the poorest of the poor. The word tekton was actually a term of abuse among the Romans, who used it as slang for an uncouth or illiterate peasant."

Ancient Nazareth was a small village of perhaps one hundred Jewish families or less, located on a hilltop in lower Galilee. Aslan described it as a tiny hamlet of mud and brick homes, "a place so small and inconsequential that it appears on no maps prior to the 1st century."

Despite the Nativity narrative of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, Aslan explained that it's far more likely that he was actually born in Nazareth. Though the Gospels of Matthew and Luke offer different explanations for why Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Aslan argues that their goal was to express truths about the identity of The Christ, rather than to be historically accurate. Furthermore, those Gospels were written at least 60 years after Jesus' death.

So what would his birth in Nazareth have been like?

"He would have been born at home, with extended family around him" Aslan said to The Huffington Post. That family included at least four brothers [ http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-26/opinions/42421357_1_nazareth-david-s-jesus-s ] and an unknown number of sisters. "Probably, members of the village would have helped with the birthing process."

"He would have been circumcised on the 8th day, but not at the Temple, which was a 3 day walk away. Galileans did not frequently make the journey to the Temple in Judea because it was a long and extensive trip, which would have been out of the question for a newborn."

Aslan said that the circumcision ceremony was also when his family would have named him. "They would have called him Yesu, the diminutive form of Yeshua, an incredibly common name."

With regards to the magi that come to give gifts to the newborn king in the traditional Nativity narrative, Aslan explained that magi were Persian or Zoroastrian priests. Some Greeks believed that Zoroastrians were astrologers, which is why the magi would have noticed the appearance of a new star in the east. Aslan said, "Most scholars would say that the appearance of the magi was an attempt to connect the Jesus movement with eastern spiritual movements."

After his birth, his life would have resembled that of any other resident of Nazareth. "He was the child of a poor, illiterate, pious, uneducated peasant family from the backwoods of Galilee," Aslan said. "That's the childhood that Jesus would have had."

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. (emphasis in original)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/14/reza-aslan-birth-of-jesus_n_4441762.html [with comments]


--


Det Cord Christmas Tree

Published on Dec 16, 2013 by RatedRR

Det Cord Christmas Tree

This is where I giveaway brass from shoots and other cool random perks:
http://fullmag.com

Big Special Thanks to Tripwire Operations Group for donating the explosives for this video: https://www.facebook.com/TripwireOperationsGroup

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8CBXHzLssc [with comments]


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The 12 Days of Conservative Movement Christmas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvVkJ_KSqgw [with comments] [(linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=81169932 and preceding and following]


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[F6]

Head Troll Of GOP Jokes About Using 'Liberal Tears' As Gun Lubricant


Steve Stockman headshot, as US Representative of Texas, undated photo.
AP

By Paige Lavender
Posted: 12/30/2013 3:21 pm EST | Updated: 12/31/2013 10:26 am EST

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), an expert [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/12/steve-stockman-bumper-sticker_n_3070199.html ] troll [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/steve-stockman-ar-15_n_3241218.html ] in the GOP, is back at it again.

Stockman, who once said [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/steve-stockman-guns-god_n_3365213.html ] "the right to keep and bear arms is granted by God," tweeted [

The best gun lubricant around. (HT @LolaGOP) pic.twitter.com/CkjOpBsWfl

— Rep. Steve Stockman (@StockmanSenate) December 30, 2013

] a photo Monday of "the best gun lubricant around" -- "liberal tears":


Rep. Steve Stockman
@StockmanSenate
The best gun lubricant around. (HT @LolaGOP)
1:58 PM - 30 Dec 2013

Stockman is challenging Sen. John Cornyn [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/steve-stockman-john-cornyn_n_4415772.html ] (R-Texas) in the 2014 Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.

Copyright © 2013 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/30/steve-stockman-gun-tweet_n_4520273.html [with embedded video report, and comments]

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[F6]

Sarah Palin at Liberty University: An Atheist Strikes Back

Published on Dec 12, 2013 by Atheism-is-Unstoppable [ http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6MuFVugHwWCp1YDQDAy1w ]

Come into the rat's nest of insanity with me, won't you? This was a real doozie of an event, filled with so many impressive statements of stupidity that it was hard to whittle it down to 14 minutes. A truly scary and obnoxious look at the current state of mental illness and retardation existing in the US.

As usual, if you like my videos, please send me 10% percent of your income for the rest of your life. Thank you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhsCilfxY4M [with comments] [the original "Sarah Palin - Liberty University Convocation" YouTube from Liberty University, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtRinkNUNuI , is in the post to which this is a reply]

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