One of 2 Million Reasons Why I Despise the American Bar Association

And will never become a member of this organization as long as they keep doing garbage like this.

Judges are on the front line of battles over legal rights for same-sex couples and should never belong to an organization that discriminates against gays, supporters of a proposed change to American Bar Association ethics rules argued Friday.

Judges are already prohibited from joining clubs that discriminate based on race or sex. An ABA panel is debating whether to make groups that discriminate against gays off limits as well.

The ABA, the nation's largest lawyers' group with more than 400,000 members, writes conduct rules for judges and lawyers. States and federal courts generally adopt them, with some changes.

It is not known how many judges participate in groups such as the Boy Scouts that have policies against hiring gays or having homosexual leaders, or some veterans groups that restrict membership to heterosexuals.

The ABA held an all-day public hearing Friday on proposed judicial ethics changes during the association's summer meeting, which runs through Tuesday. Rules on gifts judges may accept and judges' involvement in fund-raisers may also be changed. The ABA is not expected to vote on any changes until next year. It would be the first overhaul of the rules in more than a decade, and any changes eventually could affect thousands of judges.

Update: Yet more ABA shenanigans. Now they want to support government sponsored discrimination against religious (i.e., Catholic) hospitals. Jerks.

What's in a (Last) Name?

So observes Rich Lowry on the declining number of women who retain their maiden name after getting married. I for one would be interested in seeing what the divorce rate is among couples where the wife chose not to take her husband's last name. To some extent, I would understand if my (hopfully) future wife didn't want to take my last name, especially if her first name was Heidi.

The number of women in the New York Times's wedding announcements keeping their surnames was 2 percent in 1975 and had reached 20 percent by the mid-1980s, according to the Journal study. Then the trend stalled. Among women in the Harvard class of 1980, 44 percent retained their surname, but in the class of 1990, only 32 percent did. According to Massachusetts records, the percentage of surname keepers among college graduates in that state was 23 percent in 1990, 20 percent in 1995 and 17 percent in 2000.

Why? The study's authors write: "Perhaps some women who 'kept' their surnames in the 1980s, during the rapid increase in 'keeping,' did so because of peer pressure, and their counterparts today are freer to make their own choices. Perhaps surname-keeping seems less salient as a way of publicly supporting equality for women than it did in the late 1970s and 1980s. Perhaps a general drift to more conservative social values has made surname-keeping less attractive."

White House Promises Support to Maine Catholic Charities

Seems kind of ironic how a non-Catholic President seems to be much more open to defending the religious liberties of a Catholic institution from Secularist Fundamentalism than a certain alleged Catholic presidential candidate would probably be. (BTW, I don't believe the Catholic Charities CEO is the same John Kerry who is running for President. At least I hope not.)

President Bush's top adviser on faith-based programs assured Catholic Charities Maine Thursday that the White House is ready to battle local government when it comes to funding religious groups. Catholic Charities, the social-service arm of the Roman Catholic Church and one of Maine's largest such organizations, is barred from receiving certain federal funds from the city of Portland unless it provides some benefits to same-sex or unmarried partners of employees.

(...)

"We don't have to be concerned about the fairness with which we treat religious and religiously sponsored organizations. That's because we have one rule that applies to everybody: You can't practice discrimination," said Cloutier, who was mayor when Catholic Charities sued the city in March 2003, charging religious discrimination.

Sigh...we are inching ever closer to having government run churches, a-la-Communist China.

Don't All Property Sellers Carry Them?

Remember: We will not racially profile Middle Eastern Muslim males carrying handguns, knives and syringes, even though they're the only ones who have committed acts of terrorism on airplanes. It just wouldn't be right to do so...

A man pleaded not guilty Monday to knowingly attempting to board a plane with a loaded handgun, folding knife, and 10 syringes in his carry-on bag.

Ali Reza Khatami, 65, was arrested June 24 when the .38-caliber pistol and 3.5-inch knife were found during a security screening, Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Staples said. He had been preparing to board a United Airlines flight to Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Defense attorney Ben Wasserman said at Khatami's bail hearing last month that his client had forgotten he was carrying the weapons. He said his client was on his way to Virginia to sell some property.

Khatami told authorities he had planned to put the gun and knife in his bag to take them to a safe in his garage, but didn't remember. Then he planned to leave them at his son's house, he said, but he was in such a rush that he forgot again.

(...)

Magistrate Judge Marc Goldman agreed to release Khatami on $100,000 bail, saying he was not convinced that Khatami intended to take the weapons on the plane.

Thou Shall Not Eat The Other White Meat

Even though she should win, I've got the strangest feeling that she isn't.

A Central Florida woman was fired from her job after eating "unclean" meat and violating a reported company policy that pork and pork products are not permissible on company premises, according to Local 6 News.

Lina Morales was hired as an administrative assistant at Rising Star -- a Central Florida telecommunications company with strong Muslim ties, Local 6 News reported.
However, 10 months after being hired by Rising Star, religious differences led to her termination.

Morales, who is Catholic, was warned about eating pizza with meat the Muslim faith considered "unclean," Local 6 News reported. She was then fired for eating a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, according to the report.

"Are you telling me they fired you because you had something with ham on it?" Local 6 News reporter Mike Holfeld asked.

"Yes," Morales said.

Holfeld asked, "A pizza and a BLT sandwich?"

"Yes," Morales said.

Local 6 News obtained the termination letter that states she was fired for refusing to comply with company policy that pork and pork products are not permissible on company premises.
However, by the company's own admission to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that policy is not written, Local 6 News reported.

"Did you ever sign to or agree to anything that said I will not eat pork?" Holfeld asked Morales.

"Never," Morales said. "When I got hired there, they said we don't care what religion you are."

Boob Gets Bounced Off Plane

Leave it to the ACLU, of course, to argue that people have a "right" to wear obnoxious clothing on commercial flights.

A couple returning home from a Costa Rican vacation was ejected from an American Airlines flight because the man was wearing a T-shirt depicting a bare breast.

Oscar Arela and his girlfriend, Tala Tow, were removed from Flight 952 on Saturday after he refused to change the shirt or turn it inside out at Miami International Airport. The flight left 90 minutes late without them.

The couple, making a connecting flight from Costa Rica, said nobody on the earlier flight objected to the shirt and claimed the airline violated their constitutional right to free speech.
"It's a picture of a man and woman, and the woman's breast is showing," Tow said. "The flight attendant basically walked up to us and yelled, 'You have to take off that shirt right now.'"

American spokesman Tim Wagner said Sunday that crew members acted properly.

"The description I heard was a picture of a graphic of a naked man and woman performing a sexual act," he said. "We as an airline are in the service business, and we have the same latitude as a restaurant that says proper attire is required."

Tuh-rayza Wants to Be Andrew Sullivan's Mommie

Borrowing from Mark Shea, 'Rats affirm their belief that there is nothing more glorious and holy in this world than homosexuality. Plus, the actor formerly known as Bennifer confirms he has the intellectual capacity of a door knob.

"If nothing else, you will have a mom in the White House," Teresa Heinz Kerry said before the packed hotel room of homosexual delegates and advocates.

"You're pushing the envelope, and we, as a country, have to respond with policies and cultural acceptance," said Mrs. Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry.

Dignity and respect are paramount qualities, she said. If any of the Kerry children were to say they were homosexual and wanted to marry their partner, she said, "I would ... share my joy and my pride with all my friends," just as if they were marrying someone of the opposite sex.

One of her better-known qualities, Mrs. Kerry added, is "that I like to nurture" people, and family members and friends sometimes call her "Dr. T" or "Momma T." As she departed, the crowd chanted, "Momma T, Momma T!"

Boston-born Mr. Affleck joked about his famous marriage woes, but quickly attacked political efforts to block same-sex "marriage." "As somebody, to be perfectly frank, who has enough trouble figuring out who to get married [to], I don't need the state or federal government telling me who I can or can't marry," said the star of "Good Will Hunting" and "Armageddon."

No Pets, Food or Christians Allowed in the Library

I'd like to believe that this incident in the Bay Area is an aberration, but quite frankly, it's about par for the course here.

A Christian ministry filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after being barred from meeting at a library due to the facility's policy of forbidding use for "religious purposes."

"The library flagrantly violated the ministry's constitutional rights," said Joshua Carden, counsel with the Alliance Defense Fund, which brought the suit against the Contra Costa County, Calif., Board of Supervisors and several library officials on behalf of Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries.

"It's unbelievable that, after years of equal access litigation in this country, a library would exclude Christians from a public forum," Carden said.

Hattie Hopkins, leader of Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, a Christian outreach ministry based in Sacramento, asked her coordinator to reserve a free public meeting room at the library branch in Antioch for May 29 and July 31.

Passing Thought

There are just some people in this world who can't avoid being condescending even when their intent is to only provide you with some feedback.  Lawyers seem to be especially adept at this.  

Irregular Updates
 
At least for the next two weeks as my soon to be ex-boss, in abscentia, is squeezing every last ounce of work out of me before I leave.  Right now he's got me drafting an ex parte application that feels like the intellectual equivalent of trying to put square pegs into round holes.      

Three More Weeks

Until my brief tour with the firm from Hell is finally over. On the bright side, my soon to be ex-boss will be gone on vacation for two of my final three weeks. Seeing as how I'm probably not going to have much to do, this might actually be one of those rare times in life where someone will be paying me to find another job. At the very least, I should be able to start writing more 'blog entries on a consistent daily basis.

Counting the Days

Well, I've made a decision. In roughly three, maybe four, weeks I will be giving notice of my resignation at the law firm I have been an associate at for the last couple of months. If this was a job that I sort of liked, I wouldn't mind that I'm struggling learning how to do it or that my boss tends to be incomprehensible and somewhat of a condescending a-hole. The fact of the matter, though, is that I'm not well suited for the advesarial nature of civil litigation and all the petty games that seem to go hand and foot with it. Of course, if the firm I am currently at only did litigation in matters related to religious liberty or defense of the unborn, things would probably be different. But, that's not what it does (not even close) and frankly I'm tired of physically being sick every morning because I don't want to go to the office. Fortunately, I'm not in a position where I absolutely need a paying job, and can actually afford to look for other opportunities. Such is the benefit of having a supportive family.

I Hate Civil Litigation

You know what? Maritime law firms are basically personal injury/civil litiation firms. The only substantive difference is that a lot of slip and fall cases that happen out on the water or on boats will often fall under the jurisdiction of federal law (i.e., the Jones Act). Anyway, I'm one month into my new job and I already want to quit. The attorney who hired me is ridiculous. He likes making what I think to be needless motions on cases, and he's making me do all these last minute document drafts with little or no guidance. (It'd be nice to have some details about the situation you want to make an objection or motion to. I'm not a freakin' mind reader). And then to top it off, the guy makes these irritatingly condescending remarks whenever I give him something that might have a slight mistake on it that he had a hand in putting there. (Boss: "Why'd you put the wrong case number on these pleadings? This isn't the case we want to dismiss? Why didn't you know it was the wrong case number?" Me in my head: Because the effin' drafts you wrote and gave me to clean up had it on there already!)

If it weren't for the fact that I'm looking for some practical litigation experience (it seems the bulk of civil litigation deals with discovery and motions) I tell ya I'd quit tomorrow. As it stands, I'm giving myself a two month window to see how much more I can stand, and also to teach myself how to write wills and trusts. I'm still looking to have my own practice, and although I'd like try to take on a some employment discrimination cases, I think estate planning may be better for my overall health and mental well being.

Requiescat In Pace

He has slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.

Hiatus

Given the demands of my new job, I'm going to be taking a little bit of a break from blogging; maybe two weeks, and I'll probably get going again well before Molly. (Chortle)

Employment Found

Well, after some miscommunications and playing a round of phone tag, I will be starting my new job as an associate attorney for a small downtown San Francisco maritime law firm on Monday. Although I'll only be starting out on a two-week try out basis, I have fairly high hopes that there will be a good match between myself and the firm, and that I will be employed there for a while. But if not, I just scheduled an interview with a firm out in Napa on the 21st of this month.

Lazy Reporting or Intentionally Misleading?

Here's an "interesting" sentence that appears in the middle of a news report about the ACLU threatening to sue a city council over the practice of legislative invocations:

The U.S. Supreme Court banned sectarian invocations prior to legislative meetings in 1989.

You'll notice when you read the report that no Supreme Court case is referenced to support the above assertion. Want to know why? Because there is none. Just one more example of why you should never trust what the lame stream media says.

Charitably Speaking, the Man is an Idiot

Lest he actually be given some credit for abstaining from Communion while remaining in support of abortion, New Joisey Gov. McGreevey preserves his public contemptuousness by utterging this asinine remark:

"I believe it's a false choice in America between one's faith and constitutional obligation."

First of all gub'ner, you are only required to enforce the law. There is no constitutional obligation for any publicly elected official to be in favor of abortion rights. Secondly, the Church is not telling you how to do your job. Rather, she is dictating what you must believe and uphold within the context of a self-identified Catholic. If you don't want to believe in or uphold the Church's teachings, then stop calling yourself Catholic, and become a member of a religious community that is more in tune with your own warped beliefs on the sanctity of human life.

Hedging Their Bets

With the pending implosion of the Democrat Party (see Blog from the Core's collection of "Democrats in Self Destruct Mode" stories) is it really any wonder that the trial lawyers are starting to give more campaign money to Republicans?

Trial lawyers have one of the best records on Capitol Hill when it comes to killing legislation their members find objectionable. The group has thrived by pouring money into Democratic campaigns at every level of government and opposing legislation that would limit the rights of plaintiffs to seek redress through the court system.

But behind the scenes, ATLA has been surprisingly generous toward GOP organizations, provoking a rebuke from a top Senate Democrat.

?Not based on merit ? that?s for sure,? said Minority Whip Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) when asked about the contributions.

ATLA gave $30,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and another $30,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) this cycle ? just as congressional Republicans are pushing the tort-reform measures through Congress. That is the maximum amount ($15,000 per year) that a political action committee can donate to a party organization.

So Wrong Yet So Funny

Here kitty kitty...Pow! (link via The Corner)

Stop Calling Yourself Catholic!

Mamas, don't let your kids grow up and go to a Jesuit college.

In February of 2004, the University of San Francisco formally ratified an amendment to employee contracts that provides benefits for "legally domiciled adults." An e-mail that was sent to faculty boasted that the University of San Francisco was "the first Jesuit university to do so" and invited staff to a celebration that included, among others, university president Father Stephen Privett, S.J. Father Privett was identified as one of the "administration members most responsible for the successful conclusion of this agreement."

Kirk and Conservatism

A new book by W. Wesley McDonald is coming out about Russell Kirk, the man who essentially established the word "conservative" as a political term. Although I don't believe Kirk ever wrote anything about Catholicism (of which he was a convert to) one gets the distinct feeling from reading a few of his works that he would have made a fine apologist for the faith.

What Kirk extracted from Burke's thought -- and found embodied in the work of British and American figures as diverse as John Adams, Benjamin Disraeli, and T.S. Eliot -- was a strong sense that tradition and order were the bedrock of any political system able to provide a real measure of freedom. Reformers and revolutionaries might appeal to disembodied, universal concepts to justify changing the world, or to draw up blueprints for a new society. But for Kirk, what must be cultivated was not reason but "the moral imagination" -- a resonant, if ambiguous notion that Mr. McDonald devotes much of his book to elucidating.

The "reason" that Kirk found so objectionable, writes Mr. McDonald, caused liberals to define themselves "as enemies of authority, prejudice, tradition, custom, and habit." For liberal rationality, the social order was a contract among individuals "bound together ... not by love or duty, but rational, enlightened self-interest."

By contrast, Kirk's "moral imagination" enabled people to see their lives as part of, in Burke's words, "a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born." The obligation to preserve old institutions and ways of life -- and to change them, if at all, only very slowly -- was not a matter of nostalgia. "The individual is foolish," wrote Kirk in The Conservative Mind, "but the species is wise." We have inherited from the past "the instruments which the wisdom of the species employs to safeguard man against his own passions and appetites."

Federal Court Affirms Demjanjuk was a Nazi Camp Guard

Over at the Catholic singles site I've been hanging out at lately, there are some "hard" conservatives who have been trying to convince people to write in Pat Buchanan in the upcoming presidential election. Buchanan, of course, has been a long time and outspoken defender of John Demjanjuk. I can't imagine that this ruling will be helpful for the ad hoc Buchanan 2004 campaign.

The unanimous ruling from the three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit said the government had provided ''clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence" of Demjanjuk's guard service.

Although it years ago abandoned an assertion that he was the notorious Ivan the Terrible at the Treblinka death camp in Poland, the Justice Department maintained that Demjanjuk had persecuted civilians during World War II at five Nazi concentration camps, including Trawniki, Sobibor, and Flossenburg.

''The court's decision sends a powerful message to every participant in the ghastly Nazi campaign of genocide who is still living in this country: The government will not waver in its determination to find you, prosecute you, and remove you from the United States," said Eli M. Rosenbaum, director of the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations.

"Officially" Blown Off

The small firm I had an interview with on Monday has not returned my calls regarding its Wednesday offer to give me a two-week try out. I suppose I should regard the non-response as a blow off. I also wonder if I should have taken the offer immediately rather than ask for a day to think about accepting a job I could have possibly lost after only 10 days. Ah well. Live and learn.

Musings of a Lavender Mafioso

Proof positive that their agenda is to destroy marriage by seeking to "broaden" its meaning.

The head of a national homosexual organization is vowing to politically "punish," "terrify" and "torture" activists who oppose his organization's agenda on "gay" rights – which he says would give him "endless satisfaction."

Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force in Washington, D.C., made the comments in yesterday's edition of Between the Lines, a Detroit area homosexual newsmagazine, the American Family Association of Michigan points out.

(...)

Foreman was asked: "Is getting the right to marriage for same-sex couples something the Task Force is interested in?"

He responded: "We want full equality under the law, which, right now, means the freedom to marry. But we're also hopeful that we create different ways in which people can form relationships and families that don't come with all the baggage and the downsides of marriage. One of the great things about where we're going is that we are creating new ways for people to relate, new ways for people to obtain rights and benefits."

Time to Write Archbishop Levada

Congresswoman Nanci Pelosi publicly distorts Catholic teachings and expresses her intent to receive Communion despite her pro-abortion record.

Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat who was raised in a devout Italian Catholic home, told reporters, "I believe that my position on choice is one that is consistent with my Catholic upbringing, which said that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live their lives in a way that they would have to account for in the end."

"I'm certainly concerned when the church comes together and says it's going to sanction people in public office for speaking their conscience and what they believe," she said

Bork: Legal Justification for Same Sex "Marriages" is a Judicial Sin

For the umpteenth time, America really lost out by not having this guy on the Supreme Court. Now that Bork is Catholic, maybe he'll come around to seeing the Ninth Amendment as something more than an ink blot.

Job Wanted

Since the solo practice isn't going too well, I've decided to "hit the pavement" and look for a job with a small firm in San Francisco. I sent out over 600 (yes, 600+) resumes to various solo practitioners and small firms in the City last Thursday, and so far I've gotten a few "not hiring at this time" letters and one request for an interview yesterday with a firm that I didn't know mostly did maritime law until I arrived for the interview (I thought it was just a general civil litigation firm).

Overall, I don't think my interview went too well. It lasted for only about thirty minutes, which is never a good sign. Furthermore, while it was hard enough trying to put a positive spin on my general lack of litigation experience and exposure to maritime law, I had to deal with these issues while sitting in a hot office with no air conditioning (it hit a record 91 degrees in San Francisco yesterday). Needless to say, I wasn't very impressive, and I think it's probably safe to presume that I won't be tendered an offer to work with this firm. So while I anxiously and hopefully wait by my phone for other attorneys to call me in for a job interview, I would ask you to please keep me in your prayers during this somewhat personally difficult time.

Update: Got a call from the above law firm's owner today (Wednesday), and he said he'd like to hire me on a two-week (10 days) trial basis to "see if there's a good fit." Not wanting to seem desperate or that no other firms have been in contact with me about possible employment, I responded that I'd need the day to think about it, and that I would call him back Thursday morning. After some discussion with friends and colleagues, chances are pretty good that I'm going to accept the offer.

Sad

As most of you are probably aware by now, it was reported over the weekend that Pat Tilley, who gave up a lucrative career in the NFL to serve his country in the Army, died in combat in Afghanistan. This weekend also saw Eli Manning, son of legendary NFL quarterback Archie and brother to probable NFL legend Peyton, throw a subdued tantrum about being drafted by the San Diego Chargers. Fortunately, San Diego traded Eli to New York, where hopefully he will take the opportunity to go by the area where the World Trade Center buildings once stood and reflect upon the sacrifices that have been made for him by brave souls like the late Pat Tilley.

Errata: Pat's last name was Tillman. I must have been thinking about Meg Tilley or something.

When Did the Vatican Become Communist China?

According to the lame stream media, Rome "cracks down" on liturgical abuse.

One of the main points of the Vatican document commissioned by Pope John Paul II warned against lay people delivering sermons or preaching the Gospel.

The document uses terse language to discourage the misconduct, saying some practices were "not infrequently" plaguing Masses and that in some places "the perpetration of liturgical abuses has become almost habitual, a fact which obviously cannot be allowed and must cease."

It also said anyone conscious of being in grave sin shouldn’t receive Communion without going to confession -- a regulation that prompted questions about whether priests should deny politicians, such as Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Communion because of their support for abortion rights.

Cardinal Francis Arinze, whose Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued the document, said the majority of priests celebrate Mass correctly and stressed the directive was not intended to be "repressive" but merely to remind Catholics of church teaching.

The directive restated church teaching on all aspects of the liturgy, from the type of vestments a priest should wear, to the timing of his prayers and the types of bread and wine used at Communion.

Teachers' Union Co-Sponsors Pro-Abortion March

If you're a faithful Catholic and a public school teacher, opt-out of the union now and ask to have any mandatory agency fees you are required to pay the union (i.e., Moloch) be diverted to an unobjectionable charity.

Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions on how to do this.

GOP Vets Rip Kerry in Congress

And the best that the Dems could do to counter was to have uber-liberal Baghdad Jim McDermott question Dubya's honorable service in the National Guard.

Big Fat Hypocrite

Self proclaimed champion of the working class and Hollywood limousine liberal Michael Moore outsources his website design and servers to a foreign country.

Calling All Muslims!

A Michigan city approves a local mosque's request to air prayer calls to Muslims over public loudspeakers -- 5 times a day!

Somehow I get the feeling that the same courtesy would not be extended to a local parish wishing to expressly exhort Catholics to pray the Rosary.

Race Whoring

It's still a thriving area of practice in the legal/political profession.

The usual suspects -- plus one holier-than-thou world power -- are calling on the U.S. military to repent for its treatment of Muslim chaplain James Yee (a.k.a. "Yousef" or "Yousif" Yee).

Refresher: Yee's the Army captain who ministered to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Seven months ago, Yee was arrested on suspicion of espionage. He spent 76 days in solitary confinement; the case didn't materialize; he was convicted on lesser charges of adultery and downloading pornography. Last week, the Army Southern Command chief who oversees military operations at Guantanamo dismissed those convictions.

What more do Yee and his sympathy circle want? They want the government to grovel and beg forgiveness for being too aggressive in defending against potential terrorist sympathizers and abettors. In a letter to President Bush, Yee's lawyer complained of guards who "refused to provide him with a liturgical calendar or prayer rug and refused to tell him the time of day or the direction of Mecca." Comparing it to the victimization of gay soldiers, commentator Andrew Sullivan condemned the military's enforcement of the Uniform Code of Military Justice against Yee as "disgraceful, foul and malicious." And now, along with Arab-American and Asian-American activists trying to turn Yee into an international human rights poster boy, comes the Communist government of China.

According to the Zhongguo Xinwen She news agency, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Sha Zukang, blasted the U.S. for "racial discrimination" and cited "the recent case against Chinese American Yousef Yee" as an example of America's "domestic human rights situation." The absurdity of turning this into a racial issue is topped only by the sanctimony of Ambassador Sha, representative of the Falun Gong-torturing, political dissent-steamrolling, one-child-policy pioneers in Beijing, who fulminated that "the United States should look at itself in a mirror." Captain Yee's stateside defenders, such as Cecilia Chang of the San Francisco Bay Area-based grievance group Justice for New Americans, likewise pretend he was viciously singled out for being the child of "immigrant minorities." Chang complained, "Many people who don't look very 'American' are being targeted."

The Slippary Slope

Distort the definition of marriage by officially recognizing homogamous unions, then you better be able to come up with a good reason for why polygamous, or even incestuous, unions should continued to be universally outlawed.

Pretext for Homo-Indoctrination

"G@y" rights activists exploit a tran$exual murder victim in order to justify forcing public school children to accept their disordered lifestyle. That's right. If you believe tran$exual or homo$exual conduct is perverse or immoral, you are a potential murderer.

Give Me a Break

Big wig lawyers unite to oppose any splitting of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The "bipartisan" group cites potential injustices as a reason for their opposition.

Yeah, Heaven forbid that we should ever have a Federal Circuit Court of Appeal that doesn't consistently get overturned by the SCOTUS, or has a backlog of unresolved cases that arises from a willingness to entertain and affirm the delusions of left-wing anti-Christians like the ACLU and Michael Newdow.

Happy Your Taxes Are Due by Midnight Tonight Day!

Unless, of course, you're filing for an extension. Take heart. There's only about another month or two to go until the money you earn is actually yours and not the governments.

Religious Liberty Case to Keep and Eye On

The SCOTUS will be reviewing an employment case that focuses on the question of whether state law enforcement agencies are exempt from having to comply with the religious accommodation provisions of Title VII (a.k.a. the Federal Civil Rights Act).

The Indiana State Police in South Bend assigned Benjamin Endres Jr. as a full-time gaming commission agent at the Blue Chips Casino in Michigan City, Ind. His job description listed gambling-related responsibilities, such as verifying gambling profits, investigating public complaints about the gaming system and performing license investigations for the casinos and their employees.

Endres claimed these duties would force him to violate his Baptist beliefs, which bar him from participating in or facilitating gambling. Endres asked his employer to reassign him. His request was denied, and when Endres failed to report to work he was fired.

After Endres filed a suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, the police agency sought to have the case dismissed, arguing that Indiana officials were protected from the Title VII claim by the state's sovereign immunity. But in December 2001, U.S. District Judge Robert Miller Jr. ruled against the state, saying that Endres could go ahead with his Title VII claim.

On appeal, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals saw the case differently. In an opinion last year by Judge Frank Easterbrook, the 7th Circuit reversed Miller, ruling that Endres had not made a valid Title VII claim. Judges Richard Posner and William Bauer joined in the opinion, which did not touch on the state immunity question.

Easterbrook said the law could not be interpreted to allow police or firefighters to pick and choose which laws to enforce or which fires to extinguish. Noting religious preferences such as Catholics' opposition to abortions and Jewish and Muslim bans on eating pork, Easterbrook asked rhetorically whether the law requires the state police "to assign Unitarians to guard the abortion clinic, Catholics to prevent thefts from liquor stores, and Baptists to investigate claims that supermarkets misweigh bacon and shellfish?"

Easterbrook continued: "Juggling assignments to make each compatible with the varying religious beliefs of a heterogeneous police force would be daunting to managers and difficult for other officers who would be called on to fill in for the objectors."

OK, I've never read the full decision by the 7th Circuit, but the quoted comments by Easterbrook are incredibly asinine if only because he ignores that part of Title VII which states that employers do not have to accommodate the religious beliefs of an employee if doing so would impose an "undue hardship" on them (the employers). Certainly, not having enough people to put out a fire would give rise to an undue hardship, but for Easterbrook to effectively compare firefighting to something like verifying the gambling profits of a casino is out there, and seems to be reflective of a personal hostility to people of religious faith.

Update: The SCOTUS has declined to review the case. Speculation is that the Court has "religion fatigue."

Catholic Politician Scorecard

Brought to you by the Democrat Party, and coming soon to a political campaign near you. Look for the scorecards to show that pro-abortion and pro-homogamy Catholic Democrats are legislatively "more faithful" to the Church than pro-life and pro-family Catholic Republicans. In the meantime, the USCCB continues to collectively show it's lack of backbone in dealing with blatantly disobedient Catholic politicians.

A preliminary copy of the scorecard obtained by The Hill, which a Lampson aide emphasized is still unfinished, shows that the 67 Catholic House Democrats received an average score of 76 percent, while the 49 Catholic Republican members averaged 64 percent.

Republican Catholic members were quick to criticize the scorecard.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) said both the bishops and the Democrats are confusing means with motives. “Many of the issues they’re talking about really have nothing to do with actual Catholic teaching or religion,” he said. “It is interpretation of economic policy.”

(...)

Meanwhile, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington, told “Fox News Sunday” that he is reluctant to deprive a Catholic politician who deviates from Catholic teaching of Communion and would only do so as a last resort.

Monahan said a task force in the conference has been assembled to develop a policy for dealing with Catholic politicians whose positions do not reflect Catholic teaching.

But in a report published in March, the conference stated that Catholics should not become single-issue voters: “The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine.”

The task force “is looking at everything,” said Monahan, adding, “It’s not formed around Senator Kerry or members of Congress. It’s dealing with Catholic politicians at all levels. Everything is on the table. They haven’t got too far down the line in their work yet. You’re dealing with a lot of bishops and a lot of points of view.”

Liberal and Deadbeats?

The new liberal talk radio network featuring "Stuart Smalley" has been suddenly yanked off the air in L.A. and Chicago. The shutdown is being attributed to a bounced check that the network apparently issued to the radio station owner. (news link via Drudge)

(Snicker...)

Forget Nader

Vader 2004!

Had enough of traditional politicians? Even the best of them can be intimidated by the likes of Tom Daschle. The kind of tough, uncompromising leadership that the Free World requires likely only exists in the land of fictional characters.

Enter Lord Vader. It is impossible to imagine Lord Vader bending over backwards to a pipsqueak like Daschle. Rather if Daschle got out of line at a meeting, Lord Vader would simply use the Force to constrict his windpipe and achieve what had hitherto been considered impossible: he'd shut him up.

For Once, It's Not A Jesuit School

Not that it makes it any better, of course. From LifeSite:

Catholic Seton Hall University to Award Pro-Abortion Judge

SOUTH ORANGE, NJ, April 12, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Friday, April 16, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a notoriously pro-abortion judge who voted to strike down the partial-birth abortion laws of more than 30 states, is presenting the annual "Sandra Day O'Connor Medal of Honor" to Judge Maryanne Trump Barry (Sister of Donald Trump) of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Trump Barry is the pro-abortion author of the opinion striking down the New Jersey partial-birth abortion statute.

Seton Hall is a Catholic arm of the Archdiocese of Newark. The Seton Hall website states that it is "the oldest diocesan university in the United States" and testifies that "Seton Hall is Catholic not only by its charter and mission, but also by its ongoing spirit and activity."

Despite this lip service to its Catholic tradition, Seton Hall Law School -- which has a faculty riddled with pro-abortion professors and has no record of honoring any pro-life heroes -- is once again creating a major scandal by honoring prominent pro-abortion figures.

Critics are encouraging concerned citizens to contact the Archbishop of Newark, the President of the University and the Dean of the Law School to protest the awards and to demand that the award ceremony be canceled and that the Law School's sponsorship of this annual award be terminated.

Contact information
Archbishop John Myers
973-497-4190
goodneja@rcan.org

Msgr. Robert Sheeran
973-761-9620
sheeraro@shu.edu

Dean Patrick Hobbs
973-642-8750
hobbspat@shu.edu

http://law.shu.edu/
http://law.shu.edu/administration/office.html
http://www.spc.edu/
http://www.spc.edu/about/contact.shtml

Cynical Old Fart

Did somebody forget to take his pills?

Andy Rooney: U.S. soldiers in Iraq aren't heroes. (link via Drudge)

Treating soldiers fighting their war as brave heroes is an old civilian trick designed to keep the soldiers at it. But you can be sure our soldiers in Iraq are not all brave heroes gladly risking their lives for us sitting comfortably back here at home.

Our soldiers in Iraq are people, young men and women, and they behave like people - sometimes good and sometimes bad, sometimes brave, sometimes fearful. It's disingenuous of the rest of us to encourage them to fight this war by idolizing them.

We pin medals on their chests to keep them going. We speak of them as if they volunteered to risk their lives to save ours, but there isn't much voluntary about what most of them have done. A relatively small number are professional soldiers. During the last few years, when millions of jobs disappeared, many young people, desperate for some income, enlisted in the Army. About 40 percent of our soldiers in Iraq enlisted in the National Guard or the Army Reserve to pick up some extra money and never thought they'd be called on to fight. They want to come home.

One indication that not all soldiers in Iraq are happy warriors is the report recently released by the Army showing that 23 of them committed suicide there last year. This is a dismaying figure. If 22 young men and one woman killed themselves because they couldn't take it, think how many more are desperately unhappy but unwilling to die.

Renewed Debate Over the Shroud of Turin

Recent findings appear to undermine 15 year old proclamations that the Shroud is fake.

Raymond Rogers is a retired physical chemist and former leader of the explosives research and development group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He proposes that the samples used to date the shroud in 1988 were flawed and the experiment should be repeated. His conclusion is based on a recent chemical analysis of the shroud and previous observations made during a 1978 examination.

Rogers was one of two dozen American scientists who participated in the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project (STURP)—an intense five-day scientific investigation of the shroud in Turin, Italy.

(...)

The 1988 carbon dating results satisfied many skeptics that the Shroud of Turin was a clever hoax, and the findings stymied further research.

But some scientists have persisted. In 1999 Avinoam Danin, a botanist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stated at the 16th International Botanical Congress that he found pollen grains on the shroud from plants that could only be found in and around Jerusalem, placing its origins in the Middle East.

Further comparison of the shroud with another ancient cloth, the Sudarium of Oviedo (thought to be the burial face cloth of Jesus), revealed it was embedded with pollen grains from the same species of plant as found on the Shroud of Turin.

The Sudarium even carries the same AB blood type, with bloodstains in a similar pattern. Since the Sudarium has been stored in a cathedral in Spain since the eighth century, the evidence suggests that the Shroud of Turin is at least as old.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

In the case of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, it's almost been impossible. However, efforts to break up the most left-leaning and reversed federal appeals court in the country have started up again, and it looks as though it may end up going somewhere.

CNN = Credibility Not Necessary

It's not been a good two weeks for the all "news" network. First, CNN attributed a comment to the White House that it never made about a David Letterman bit, and this past Sunday it wrongly reported that the state of Missouri was considering a bill that would fire any public school teacher who refused to teach alternatives to evolution.

And Yet, Voluntary Abortion is Still Legal

The California State Supreme Court declares that murdering a pregnant woman counts as two homicides even if the accused didn't know the victim was pregnant. Just goes to further prove that recognition of the unborn as legally protected persons ultimately comes down to a matter of will.

New Catholic University in San Diego!

Oddly enough, it's called New Catholic University.

It's Not Like They Were Encouraged to Watch American Pie

A Catholic middle school teacher up near Sacto is terminated for telling students they can earn extra credit by watching the R-rated TPOTC with their parents.

Officially, the school would not comment on why Hathorn was fired from the North Highlands school, saying his termination was a personnel matter. However, Principal Marilyn Fleming said assigning students to watch R-rated movies at the kindergarten through eighth-grade school was against school policy.

Hathorn, 50, who has taught at the school for five years, said the movie "is 100 percent true to the Gospel" and he has seen it with his son, a seventh-grader.

"For some children it is too much," he said. "But for others, in this age with all the violence we see, the violence is not too much."

Check With Us First Before Doing Your Little Religious Thingy

Enviro-wackos proclaim Palm Sunday services to be environmentally risky. I wonder if anyone has ever told these yayhoos that their own breathing adversely impacts the environment.

Chantal Line Carpentier of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation recommends "environmental certification," or "eco-labeling," which tells buyers the palms were harvested in a way that environmentalists accept.

Both the CEC and Rainforest Alliance described themselves as "pioneers in forest certification," and they said they are now working on a pilot project to "link [approved] chamaedorea suppliers in Mexico and Guatemala with Canadian and US churches."

High School "Honor" Student Threatens President

Why did he do it? In order to "get back" at a fellow student he had a dispute with. Just goes to show you that good grades do not equate with intelligence. Dan Quayle is yet again vindicated.

Catholic Rad Trads

Or as some Catholic bloggers refer to them, the Lidless Eye crowd. I've recently had my first, and hopefully last, direct encounter with some on a Catholic singles website I recently joined. (Why the heck not?) Except for the fact that they reject sola scriptura and call themselves Catholic, I'm readily convinced that they are intellectually indistingiushable from most Protestant Fundamentalists. First of all, Rad Trads absolutely reject almost any semblance of logic or reasoning. To give you an example, someone on the aforementioned website had posted a favorable review of Rad Trad leaning Michael Davies' book "Liturgical Timebombs in Vatican II," published by TAN Books and Publishing (whose founder I have since discovered is a member of a schismatic traditionalist group called the Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem). I responded to this favorable review by noting that because Davies has been known to consort with and share the views of known Rad Trad groups and publications like The Remnant, anyone who reads this book should exercise extreme caution. Right off the bat, one Rad Trad replies to my post by essentially accusing me of wanting to engage in censorship and book burning. When I asked where did I ever say that no one should read Davies' book, the Rad Trad said I didn't, but that such a conclusion was nevertheless a logical outcome of my insidious warning. After writing a couple of posts where I tried to explain that the conclusion of book burning only makes some inkling of sense if I had actually told people not to read Davies, the Rad Trad comes back and says that, contrary to what he first wrote, he now believes that I did in fact originally try to tell people not to read the book. Cuckooo!

Needless to say, after telling the Rad Trad and some of his sympathizers that I thought they were being illogical, I just let the whole dialogue go as it was evident I wasn't going to change their "minds," and my purpose of simply warning the unsuspecting had been accomplished.

Oh, and another thing that Rad Trads have in common with most Fundies is their heavy reliance on private interpretation. Whereas most Fundies do it with the Bible, Rad Trads will employ private interpretation with Tradition. A weird lot these Lidless Eye folks.

Proposed Curb to Federal Court Jurisdiction

If signed into law, two bills in Congress would prohibit the Federal courts from making rulings on "acknowledgment of God" cases. (One of the bills also prohibits Federal courts from relying on foreign law and rulings when interpreting the Costitution). So, for example, if Michael Newdow wanted to make another kind of Pledge of Allegiance type challenge, he wouldn't, as the saying goes, be able to take his case to the Supreme Court, and would have to try and seek a remedy in the courts of each individual state. Viva la Tenth Amendment (and Article III Section 2)!

Religious Law Schools and Their Commitment to Religion

Should religious law schools be religious? Some interesting insights by St. John's Law School prof. Rob Vischer over at Mirror of Justice.

To the extent law schools can help students elevate internal over external motivations, I have no doubt that students would be better off. But I wonder how realistic it is to expect law schools to do so. After all, in an environment where institutional decisions seem driven in significant part by US News rankings, law schools themselves are motivated primarily by extrinsic considerations, most notably reputation. Law schools don't seem concerned as much with helping students "find themselves" as in enabling students to plug into the best (i.e., most prestigious) job possible, whether private practice, government, or public interest. I have no doubt that a student at the top of the class who turns down a federal clerkship or big firm job is perceived as a disappointment to the school, regardless of the compatibility of such career paths with the student's own priorities. A school's reputation is not enhanced by students who take the road less travelled.

The tradeoff of building reputation at the cost of religious identity seems to be empirically supportable. I myself graduated from a law school (Trinity Law School) that is expressly committed to integrating its Christian perspective with the teaching of law. Because of this commitment, the school's reputation in the secular legal community is almost nonexistent. Indeed, if it does have a reputation, it probably isn't very positive to the extent that the school is seen as more of a theological center than a serious law school. Without a reputation, of course, graduates of my law school (including yours truly) have generally been hard pressed to find jobs, thus perpetuating the school's obscurity.

Personally, I'm glad there are some (though very few) religious law schools out there that are committed to helping students elevate their internal motivations (i.e., faith) in addition to trying to expand its external institutional interests. Unfortunately, though, the reality of the legal environment simply won't allow such a formula to work, and so religious schools must sadly choose between maintaining their religious identity or discarding it so as not to be cast into perpetual obscurity.

Pay Attention NFL Football Fans

JPII says subordinating God to sports and beer commericals on Sundays is not good. So stop worrying about getting home on time to watch a game when you're at Mass! Yeah, you know who you are.

"When Sunday loses its fundamental meaning and becomes subordinate to a secular concept of 'weekend' dominated by such things as entertainment and sport, people stay locked within a horizon so narrow that they can no longer see the heavens," the pope said in a speech today to Australian bishops, according to Reuters.

The 83-year-old pontiff recognizes sports as having an important role in life, however.

In his younger days, he was known as an excellent athlete, and in an October 2000 speech at Rome's Olympic Stadium he gave "thanks to God for the gift of sport, in which the human person exercises his body, intellect and will, recognizing these abilities as so many gifts of his Creator."

I'm Gonna Try to Make This

The Archdiocese of San Francisco will be sponsoring a prayer rally in support of traditional marriage and families on April 3. Hopefully, no trouble will brew, but I may bring along my nun-chuks, for self-defense purposes of course, just in case.

The event begins at 8 P.M. April 2 at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, with all-night Eucharistic Adoration. San Francisco Archbishop William Levada will celebrate 9 A.M. Mass on April 3, followed by a 10 A.M. prayer rally. A procession through the neighborhood of North Beach concludes the event.

“Archbishop Levada set a great example by standing up and publicly witnessing the truth on marriage,” said XXXX, a volunteer from St. Dominic’s Parish. “It is part of our baptismal promise to stand with him.”

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s unilateral decision February 12 to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in violation of state and federal law sparked the rally. The California Supreme Court halted the practice March 11, pending its ruling. Newsom’s action came on the heels of the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that the same-gender couples are entitled to marry.

Newbie Lawyer Stuff

As a relatively new lawyer, licensed for two years and out of law school for two and a half, I had my first experience yesterday with The Barristers, a group of "young" attorneys that just about every county bar association in the State of California has. Now even though I'm located in San Francisco County (which basically only comprises of the City of San Francisco), I've chosen to be a member of the San Mateo County Bar Association simply because it doesn't seem to be as hellbent as the San Francisco Bar on promoting disordered lifestyles and attacking the Boy Scouts.

Anyway, The Barristers "Meet & Greet" I went to included a tour of the County Court House and meeting a few of the staff and judges. As far as state courthouses go, San Mateo County Superior seemed pretty nice, although I did find it interesting that the most aesthetically pleasing floor in the building happened to be where the District Attorney's office was located. And in case you're wondering, no I didn't see Scott Peterson.

All in all, The San Mateo County Barristers seem like a pretty cool bunch. Somewhat noteworthy about the meeting I went to, however, is that there seemed to be an inordinate number of women in attendance. In fact, except for the president, all of the officers of this local group are women. The possibilities for personal social prosperity are looking pret-tee good. Now if I can just tell how many of these ladies are single and Catholic...

It's Bigotry if Directed at Jews, But "Educational" if Directed at Catholics

SF Archdiocese lodges protest against planned anti-Catholic Brownshirt homo event on Easter Sunday; Brownshirt homos say Catholics aren't Jews.

Losers. All of Them.

Baby-boomers (and wannabes) who have nothing better to do with their time on a beautiful sunny day than act like obnoxious morons.

A guy in a gorilla suit, a bevy of Raging Grannies and a massive papier-mache Gandhi joined tens of thousands of protesters in San Francisco on Saturday for a two-mile march and anti-war rally to mark the first anniversary of the war in Iraq.

Either 25,000 or 50,000 people attended the event -- based on early estimates from police and organizers, respectively.

With temperatures hovering in the high 70s and a cloudless sky overhead, a mellow mood seemed to permeate the crowd, with countless marchers basking in the sun on their backs, their eyes closed as an amplified call of "Long live Cuba" filled the air.

An Odd Name for a Church

St. Mary's Baptist Church. Guess they try to offer the best of both worlds.

McNewspaper Accuses Former Employee of Making Things Up

Hard to imagine that a five time Pulitzer Prize nominee would do such a thing, but who knows.

USA Today said Friday that an examination of the work of journalist Jack Kelley found strong evidence that the newspaper's former star foreign correspondent had fabricated substantial portions of at least eight major stories.

"As an institution, we failed our readers by not recognizing Jack Kelley's problems. For that I apologize," publisher Craig Moon said.

After spending seven weeks closely examining Kelley's work, a team of journalists also found that Kelley had lifted quotes or other material from competing publications, lied in speeches he delivered for USA Today and conspired to mislead the investigation into his work.

Speaking of Recusal Requests

Because of her affiliation with NOW, Justice Ruth "Buzzie" Ginsberg is formally asked by thirteen GOP members of Congress to recuse herself from any future cases dealing with abortion. (news link via Amy Welborn)

Scalia to Sierra Club: Up Yours!

From Peter Robinson at The Corner:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has denied the Sierra Club's ridiculous motion that he recuse himself in the Club's case against Vice President Cheney. To wit:

"The question, simply put, is whether someone who thought I could decide this case impartially despite my friendship with the Vice President would reasonably believe that I cannot decide it impartially because I went hunting with that friend and accepted an invitation to fly there with him on a Government plane. If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court Justice can be bought so cheap, the Nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined."

Speaking of Beating Up on the Boy Scouts

The Federal government has been prohibited from submitting a "friend of the Court" brief in support of the Boy Scouts in a case involving the Boy Scouts' loss of a park lease in the City of San Diego.

Going Against the Currnet or Political Correctness Forerunner?

I attended my first San Francisco Catholic Professional and Business Club breakfast meeting today, and the featured speaker was a Franciscan brother who had previously spent over 30 years as a succesful Bay Area executive with Bank of America. His talk mostly centered on the joy he has experienced in doing community service and volunteer work (e.g., assisting Bay Area AIDS patients and manning suicide hotlines), and how that joy eventually led him into joining a religious order within the Church.

In general, the talk was ok. It would have been a lot better for me, though, if this former executive hadn't felt the need to briefly disclose how proud he had been of Bank of America when it decided several years ago to stop giving charitable contributions to the Boy Scouts over its policy of discriminating against inidviduals who openly practice homosexuality. "Going against the current" was how he described B of A's decision. I tell you, I almost lost it. Given the number of beatings that the Boy Scouts incur today in both the media and courts over their upholding of traditional moral values, I felt like standing up and rhetorically asking Mr. Franciscan brother, who by the way is also a divorcee, if he was sure he didn't mean B of A was a forerunner of secular political correctness. But since doing so would have been rude, and calling him out on his apparent okayness with homosexual behavior during the Q&A session probably would have resulted in me getting into arguments with every other person in the room (this IS San Francisco) I refrained.

Hopefully, next month's speaker won't say anything that's, well, stupid. Otherwise, my membership in this club is going to be one excruciating experience.

Academics Making Things Up. This is a Surprise?

A professor at Claremont McKenna College is seen vandalizing her own car before falsely reporting the damage as a hate crime.

The incident prompted all five of the Claremont Colleges to cancel classes March 10 for teach-ins and rallies against hate crimes. More than 1,000 people attended an evening rally at Claremont McKenna, where students pushed for racial and ethnic tolerance and Dunn was one of the speakers.

"Very admirably, the college community came together," Claremont McKenna President Pamela Gann said. "But to have within the community someone who is part of the investigation and questioned is repulsive to the values of the community."

Along with the vandalism, Dunn reported $1,700 in property missing from her car. The epithets on Dunn's car included derogatory remarks about blacks and Jews.

Police said Wednesday that Dunn could be charged with filing a false police report but said it was unlikely that she would be charged herself with a hate crime.

Chronicle Reporters Biased? Naaaa, Really?!

Two lesbian SF Chronicle journalists who "married" each other are taken off the same-sex "marriage" story at City Hall in order to avoid a "potential" conflict of interest. And if you actually believe the Chronicle is objective in its news commentary reporting, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

Cold Feet

South Dakota's proposed banning of nearly all abortions fails by 1 vote.

The defeat of the bill, after the governor's recommended changes had passed the House 52-16, left several abortion opponents in the Senate gallery shaking their heads and an advocate of abortion rights smiling as the 17-18 vote tally was read.

A count of 18 was necessary to agree with the style-and-form veto.

"This just hurts; it's terrible," said Leslee Unruh, founder of the Alpha Center in Sioux Falls and an abortion opponent. "Women from across the country have called for this bill to be passed."

Newsflash: Kerry Hates Children

Although, his opposition to the Unborn Victims Act is consistent with his position that women should have the right to kill their children in the womb. BTW, anyone know if Kerry is "personally" against abortion?

Too Bad He Isn't a Catholic Priest

Another SoCal faith community files a lawsuit against a city for allgedly violating its rights under RLUIPA.

When his congregation withered to only 12 and the collection plate returned nearly empty, Pastor Andrew Derek Anunciation figured it was time for action.

For more than two years, his tiny congregation at Praise Christian Center has held services outdoors in a Huntington Beach industrial lot amid an ongoing dispute with City Hall.

Anunciation believes the city has been standing squarely in the way of moving the church into a converted warehouse by requiring numerous — and expensive — permits and upgrades.

"People have called me a radical and other names. But we feel like what we've been going through is a storm," Anunciation said.

"And we're not doing this just for our tiny church, but for other religious groups too."

The church filed a federal lawsuit in October, alleging, among other things, that the city was violating its religious freedom. This tack makes tiny Praise Christian part of a growing legal battle between church and state.

More than three dozen mega-churches, colleges and synagogues in the state are fighting government regulations and zoning laws that they feel violate the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.

The act is designed to give churches a tool for clearing away onerous government restrictions.

Rumor Mill: Gibson May Make a Movie About the Maccabees

Since neither Maccabees books are in Protestant bibles, I'd be interested to see how Gibson, if he makes the movie, would market it to Evangelicals. And I wish Abe Foxman would just shut his liberal anti-Christian pie hole. (news link via Relapsed Catholic)

"The way he treats history, with a cherry picker of that which fits his ideology or view, is not the way I would like the world to learn about the heroism of the Maccabees or Bar Kochba. So, thanks but no thanks."

Yeah Abe. Mel Gibson is a real historical revisionist for failing to express your apparent belief that there were absolutely no Jews involved in Christ's crucifixion. Oh look, the Easter Bunny!

Mel Who?

Coming to a high school gym near you "Mormonism: The Movie." (news link via Relapsed Catholic)

About 400 people gathered in the Torrance High School auditorium Tuesday night to see the new film based on the Book of Mormon and to hear its director, Gary Rogers, discuss the movie's creation and how he is showing it in one-night or weeklong stints around the country.

That, of course, is a far cry from the hoopla and huge box office grosses for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." But Mormon audience members say Rogers' movie, "The Book of Mormon Movie, Volume 1: The Journey," has special significance to them, even if ticket sales are a tiny fraction of those of "The Passion."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not endorse the movie — as a voice-over says before it starts. However, members of the Los Angeles Temple who went to the Torrance screening said it would be an educational experience for anyone unfamiliar with the Mormon Church.

"It's a good introduction to the Book of Mormon," said Carolyn Allen, who works for the Church's Southern California Public Affairs Council.

"I think it makes people think about their own beliefs," said her husband, Jack.

Rogers, who is Mormon, said his dream to create the film started when, as a boy, he saw Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments."

"So many people have produced stories from the Bible — wonderful stories," said Rogers, who grew up in Salt Lake City. "The Book of Mormon is a similar book of Scripture … and nobody had attempted to make a movie."

Public Schools and Sexual Abuse

School boards are elected by popular vote and pulbic school employees are allowed to be married, right?

Millions of children might be victims of sexual misconduct by teachers or other public school employees, according to a draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education.

Despite the lack of sufficient data, the scope of the problem appears to far exceed the priest-abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, according to the report's author, Charol Shakeshaft, professor of educational administration at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

The report, required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, concludes the issue "is woefully understudied," reports Education Week.

Nearly 10 percent of students have been targeted with unwanted sexual attention by school employees, the best available data indicates, according to Shakeshaft.

Sigh...


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It may only be a footnote in reference books and the Vatican has not planned any celebration or festivity, but Pope John Paul II will reach another milestone in his papacy Sunday.

John Paul, who marked the 25th anniversary of his election as pope on Oct. 16, will surpass Pope Leo XIII to become the third-longest-serving pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

"It's a beautiful thing, because it's a gift of our Lord," said Cardinal Paul Poupard, a Frenchman who has worked alongside the 83-year-old pope at the Vatican for several decades.

But even in an institution where life at the top often begins when prelates reach their 60s, some are asking whether term limits should be imposed for future popes.

One of the Vatican's most powerful officials, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, gave an indication of the thinking in an interview last month with an Italian religious affairs magazine.

Asked whether future popes may be elected to a fixed term, he said:

"The pope is selected for life because he is a father and his paternity comes before his role. Perhaps in the future, with life being prolonged, one also would consider new norms, but it doesn't seem to me to be a current issue."

At Least They Got This Right

Fresh off of its supremely stupid decision in the Catholic Charities case, the California Supremes order a halt to Emperor Newsom's unlawful decree to have gay "marriages" recognized by the City of San Francisco. The 3800 unholy unions that have thus far been sanctified are now in limbo.

I Don't Know What to Make of This

It isn't unusual that a Christian-based organization would vehemently protest the perpetuation of a long established p*rn/strip club. What is unusual is that such an organization is only now protesting the club after moving next door to it a few years ago.

Is Gonzaga Catholic?

The Jesuit college's law school student government won't recognize a local chapter of the Christian Legal Society because it believes CLS' requirement that club officers be Christian is improperly discriminatory. Religious liberty means nothing to these yayhoos.

"Gonzaga owes its very existence to the constitutionally guaranteed right to organize around its religious identity, but it is allowing the SBA to deny these same fundamental rights to its students," said Greg Lukianoff, FIRE's director of legal and public advocacy.

Christian Legal Society leaders said the university's vice president for student affairs, Sue Weitz, assured the group in an e-mail message it had "university recognition." But the group argues this is not the same as SBA recognition, which would have conferred a set of important benefits, including university funding.

Even the one benefit conferred by "university recognition" was lost in February, according to CLS leaders, when the group's SBA account was closed.

If Asked, He Would Consider being the Goose to Kerry's Maverick

Rather than denying he would accept an invitation to be John F'n Kerry's running mate, Sen. John McCain merely doubts any possibility that he would even be asked.

"John Kerry is a close friend of mine. We have been friends for years," McCain said Wednesday when pressed to squelch speculation about a Kerry-McCain ticket. "Obviously I would entertain it."

Within hours, the Arizona senator's chief of staff, Mark Salter, closed the door on that idea. "Senator McCain will not be a candidate for vice president in 2004," Salter told The Associated Press, saying he spoke for the senator.

McCain had emphasized how unlikely the whole idea was.

"It's impossible to imagine the Democratic Party seeking a pro-life, free-trading, non-protectionist, deficit hawk," the senator told ABC's "Good Morning America" during an interview about illegal steroid use. "They'd have to be taking some steroids, I think, in order to let that happen."

Note: Or Botox.

Misplaced Passion

Given the lack of calls for pogroms against Jews by Christians, and the growing popularity of the film, why exactly did organizations like the ADL make such a fuss over Mel Gibson's TPOTC?

Sadly, the answer is as simple as it is straightforward: What is good for the ADL is not necessarily good for the Jewish people.

Because while The Passion was getting all that free publicity, so too was the ADL, sharing the limelight with Mel Gibson and co-starring along with him at your local neighborhood news outlet.

ADL leaders were giving interviews, being quoted by national news organizations, and raising the profile of their organization. And that, apparently, is far more important than the larger interests of the Jewish community.

But the story does not end there. It actually gets worse.

FIGHTING anti-Semitism, after all, is good business. According to its 2001 annual report, the ADL's total operating expenses were $51,535,000. And that is just for one year alone.

Then there is the American Jewish Committee (AJC), which is currently running a "Centennial Campaign" that seeks to raise $100 million by 2006. According to the campaign's promotional literature: "Since 1989, AJC's net assets have grown steadily to more than $65 million."

And there are other American Jewish groups as well, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the American Jewish Congress, all of whom claim to be in the forefront of the battle against anti-Semitism, and all of whom are vying for their part of the shrinking pie of Jewish philanthropy.

Pouncing on an issue such as a Mel Gibson flick, getting your name in the paper nearly every day, is one sure-fire way to attract more donors and outdo competing organizations. It may not actually help the Jewish people, but it sure does help the bottom line.

Why Not?

PS Bradley posts a circulating e-mail on the logical next step of recognizing gay "marriages" in cities like San Francisco. Marrying myself. Hmmmm...

America: Holocaust Central

I have no way to directly prove it, but this has got to be the reason why pro-aborts have been hell-bent on keeping Bill Pryor off of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. (newslink via The Mighty Barrister)

An appeals court ruled earlier this year an expectant mother can be aborted by force if the physician argues it is necessary to "protect the health of the mother."

But pro-life attorney Chris Sapp is prepared to challenge the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling Jan. 23 in Roe II v. Aware Women Center for Choice, Inc., says the Virginia-based Population Research Institute. PRI is "dedicated to ending human rights abuses committed in the name of 'family planning,' and to ending counter-productive social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of 'overpopulation.'"

Sapp is asking the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiori acknowledging a woman's right to say "no" to an abortion at any point in time.

The Hypostatic Union Between Jesus and Swine

PETA aims to offend and distort Scripture once again with their new ad campaign.

The Left Drew First Blood

PJB on the real instigators of the culture war in America.

Who is in your face here? Who started this? Who is on the offensive? Who is pushing the envelope? The answer is obvious. A radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity and finds Christian moral tenets reactionary and repressive is hell-bent on pushing its amoral values and imposing its ideology on our nation.

The unwisdom of what the Hollywood and the Left are about should be transparent to all. But if this assault on the sensibilities of the majority continues, the candidate of Hollywood and the Left, John Kerry, will pay a price in November.

John F'n Kerry Really Loves the F-Word

Go to his official campaign website, type "f--k" and "s--t" in the search engine, and see all the articles where he regails America with those lovely words.

I Just Knew It!

Right Wing News reports that almost all of the family members of 9/11 victims who publicly criticized President Bush in the media for making an unspoken reference to 9/11 in a television campaign ad have political axes to grind.

Not Exculpating Jews From Christ's Crucifixion and Death is Anti-Semitic...

...but it's still A-OK to directly slam Catholics in the name of "art".

A federal judge in Kansas ruled a university's prominent display of a sculpture that mocks the Catholic faith did not violate the Constitution.

Washburn University's sculpture, entitled "Holier than Thou," depicts a Roman Catholic bishop with a grotesque facial expression wearing a miter that resembles a phallus. The Topeka school's Campus Beautification Committee selected the display to help fulfill its goal of having "one of the most beautiful campuses in Kansas."

Roe Almost Overturned in Casey Decision

According to the unsealed records of the late Justice Harry Blackmun, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is Catholic by the way, literally changed his mind at the last minute.

The case was argued in April and Rehnquist was at work on his majority ruling, when Kennedy sent a note to Blackmun, NPR reported.

"I need to see you as soon as you have a few moments," the note read. "I want to tell you about a new development in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. It should come as welcome news."

Blackmun picked up a pink memo pad and scribbled, "Roe Sound," The New York Times reported Thursday.

It's Criminal Fraud, Stupid!

Candidate for a PA Attorney General says he would arrest anyone associated with same-sex weddings. ACLU feigns concern over the "meanspiritedness" of his position.

"Should you, as clerk of the Orphan's Court, permit to be issued a marriage license to a gay or lesbian couple, you and your office would potentially face criminal liability," Castor wrote.

He also stated homosexual couples "holding themselves out to be married ... are possibly committing frauds actionable by criminal prosecution," the paper reported.

Castor noted those issuing or seeking same-sex marriage certificates could face a misdemeanor charge of obstructing administration of law or other governmental function.

The director of legal affairs for the American Civil Liberties Union says he's disturbed the issue of same-sex marriages is moving into the criminal arena.

"The real question is why he needs to throw out a threat of criminal prosecution," Larry Frankel told the Inquirer. "Let's have a civil debate about whether we should have gay marriages, rather than involving the heavy hand of the criminal-justice system."

Larry Frankel, of course, is probably just as concerned with the heavy handed legal tactics that are used against public school students who desire to share and express their religious beliefs, Ten Commandments displays and Judge Roy Moore. (Crickets chirping).

The Fresnan Wins

Although, technically, I suppose California Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Bill Jones is a Coalingan. PS Bradley must be proud.

(BTW, is it me or does Jones physically look like Al Gore?)

Compare and Contrast


I haven't had the patience to do this yet, but if anyone is up to it, read Catholic Charities of Sacramento v. Superior Court and Silo v. Catholic Health West (registration required), and try to reconcile how the California Supreme Court can say that Catholic Health West is an exempt religious institution but Catholic Charities isn't.

Many Blacks Not on the "Gay Marriage" Bus

Including, it seems, Mr. Shakedown himself, Jesse Jackson.

"We find the gay community's attempt to tie their pursuit of special rights based on their behavior to the civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s abhorrent," Bishop Andrew Merritt of Straight Gate Ministries and several other Detroit pastors said recently in a statement supporting traditional marriage. "Being black is not a lifestyle choice."

Ahnold Not Against Gurly-Mon "Marriages"

I say we recall him and replace him with Mel.

Throughout his public life, Schwarzenegger's views on gays and lesbians usually have been more libertarian than conservative. He once told an interviewer, "When it comes to sex, I don't care what your (thing) is" and compared discrimination against gays to discrimination against bodybuilders.

Primary Day

If you're a California registered voter, don't forget to go out and vote today. As a Republican, I'll be voting for Howard Kaloogian to run against the evil U.S. Senator from Marin County Barbara Boxer. Except for Prop. 58, vote "no" on everything.

Pot Calling Kettle Black

Chappaquiddick Boy expresses his belief that Bush may have acted unconstitutionally in his recess appointment of Bill Pryor. This coming from a guy who has conspired to unconstitutionally require 60 votes to confirm a judicial appointment.

At issue is whether the 10-day period when Congress was away constituted a “recess” in which such appointments are provided for in the Constitution.

Some constitutional scholars believe that the Founding Fathers may have been referring to the far lengthier recess periods that occur between sessions and Congresses. Recesses lasting many months were common in the early days of the Republic, before the advent of mid-session breaks.

Cali Supremes Slam Catholic Charities

The state high court rules that religious affiliated non-profit groups must include contraception with employee health benefits.

The 6-1 decision by the California Supreme Court, the highest such ruling to date nationwide, could reach far beyond the 183 full-time charity employees. It also could affect thousands of workers at Catholic hospitals and other church-backed institutes throughout the state.

The high court said Catholic Charities is no different than other businesses in California, which is one of 20 states that require company-provided health plans to include contraception coverage. In California, "religious employers" such as churches are exempt from the requirement.

As I see it, there are good and bad things to this decision. The good part is that in order to fall under the religious exemption, it might force Church affiliated organizations to be more observant of Catholic teachings. (It's my understanding, for instance, that there are many Catholic Charities in the state that make contraception available to the general public and are resistent to criticizing sexually immoral behavior). The bad part, of course, is that religious affiliated charities must not only compromise their stated beliefs in order to do business in the state, the effect pf the Court's decision will probably deter new charitable organizations from even forming.

Christ Crucified: A Stumbling Block for Jews and an Absurdity to Gentiles

Such appears to be the common reasons for most of the negative media reviews on The Passion.

How one sees the movie the Passion, depends on whether one has the light of faith or not. Someone of one mind and heart would see something as white, and someone of another mind and heart would see the same thing as black. Take the Catholic Church as example. Many people see it as the most despicable thing on earth. For the heart in the state of God's favor, on the other hand, the Catholic Church is the most beautiful thing on earth.

Pope Can't Say Christianity is a Superior Religion

So says an Italian Muslim activist who has filed a civil lawsuit against the Holy Father.

In his latest legal bid, Smith said comments by Pope John Paul II and other church officials over the years have violated the Italian constitution, which proclaims all religions are equal under the law. Italy is officially secular, but largely Roman Catholic.

In the lawsuit, Smith cited a passage of John Paul's 1994 book Crossing the Threshold of Hope in which the pope writes that the "richness of God's self-revelation" in the Bible's Old and New Testament's has been "set aside" in Islam.

The suit also cites comments by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican's orthodoxy watchdog, who in a 2000 document said the faithful of other religions were in a "gravely deficient situation" concerning their salvation, compared to Catholics.

And he cited comments by the retired archbishop of Bologna, Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, who in 2000 urged Italy to favour Catholic immigrants over Muslims to "save the nation's identity" against "Islam's ideological attack."

"All of this constitutes offence, injury and insult for all those who peacefully practice the Islamic religion, in addition to defamation and incitation to racial and religious hatred," according to a copy of the lawsuit Smith sent to news organisations.

Hey, if our courts can seriously consider some crank's objection to including the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, the odds that the Italian courts will entertain this goofball's lawsuit have to be pretty good.