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Author
and National Review editor at large Jonah Goldberg uses the recent Supreme
Court opinion regarding the death penalty to highlight the brazenness
and danger of activist judges who totally disregard the plain meaning of
the Constitution and ignore the intent of its framers. Excerpt:
What is staggering, or at least should be,
is that Stevens freely admits that he no longer considers "objective
evidence" or even the plain text of the Constitution determinative of what
is or isn't constitutional: "I have relied on my own experience in
reaching the conclusion that the imposition of the death penalty" is
unconstitutional.
Justice Antonin Scalia, in a blistering
response, justifiably exclaimed that, "Purer expression cannot be found of
the principle of rule by judicial fiat."
Mr.
Goldberg continues by drawing our attention to the statements and promises the
major presidential candidates regarding the kind of judges they will appoint to
federal courts. He convincingly makes
the case that, when considering the future of the Supreme Court, “this is one
of the most important elections in a very long time.”
Janice
Shaw Crouse explains how recent encouraging trends in teen pregnancy rates shows
the value of abstinence education despite what proponents of so-called “comprehensive
sex education” would have us believe.
Excerpt:
There is still much to be done in changing
attitudes and promoting the well-being of America’s young people, but teen
sexual activity is down, teen pregnancies are down and teen abortions are down.
That is great news from the cultural battle fields.
Over the past decade, we have offered our
nation’s teens a bright future and expected the best from them. Not
surprisingly, they have met the challenge and are seizing the opportunities to
grasp all the possibilities available to their generation. Our national
leadership needs to continue to keep faith with them by supporting abstinence education
as clearly the best choice for their current and future well-being.
Her
insight is very timely and relevant as Congress will soon hold hearings on
whether to maintain abstinence education funding in the budget as LifeNews
reports. Excerpt:
The House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform plans the hearing for April 23 to supposedly review the
effectiveness of abstinence education.
However, leading abstinence critic Henry
Waxman will chair the panel.
He has repeatedly gone after abstinence
programs with wild-eyed claims that they are rife with inaccurate medical data
and unrealistic expectations.
Waxman has invited five witnesses to take
the anti-abstinence side in support of comprehensive sex education and just one
abstinence proponent.
All
those wishing to institute same-sex marriage in the United States should read Michael
Coren’s article in the National Post.
The disastrous results in Canada he mentions should give our nation
pause before giving into politically correct intimidation tactics that label
any opposition to “gay marriage” as intolerant and evil.
Unfortunately,
it appears that appeals by pro-cloning forces in Missouri may not allow
signature gatherers enough time to get the proposed
cloning ban on Missouri’s 2008 ballot.
It is still possible the feat could be accomplished with determined
grassroots effort, but the fight to fully and completely ban human cloning in
Missouri will continue regardless.
CitizenLink reports. This is a crucially important case not only
for parental rights but for opposing the imposition of gay marriage by
unelected judges. Excerpt:
The Virginia Supreme Court will move a step
closer on Thursday to deciding whether a lesbian woman will win custody of her
ex-partner’s child, a decision that could undermine the state’s marriage
amendment.
Janet Jenkins, who has no biological or
adoptive ties to Lisa Miller’s 6-year-old daughter, Isabella, is seeking
parental rights because she was in a relationship with Miller when the child
was born. Miller got pregnant through artificial insemination from an anonymous
donor, and the couple eventually ended the relationship.
UPDATE: One News Now
offers helpful information about the crucial custody case before the
Virginia Supreme Court.
The
AP has a story today trying to encourage sympathy for members of “gay marriages”
who are seeking to get divorced in other states. This is really
a tactic to spread “gay marriage” from states like Massachusetts to states where
traditional marriage is currently protected.
Homosexual activists are hoping that unelected judges will overturn
marriage amendments or defense of marriage acts as a result of recognizing “gay
divorces.”
 AdvanceUSA is encouraged to learn that a good faith deal has been struck in the Senate which would result in three more of the president’s circuit court nominees being confirmed before the Memorial Day recess. This appears to be an important step toward progress on the crucial issue of judicial appointments, and we hope this will result in the Senate achieving the historical precedent of 15-17 circuit court judges being confirmed in a president’s last two years in office.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) statement:
I was encouraged by the Majority Leader’s commitment to confirming three more circuit court nominees by Memorial Day. That will bring the total for the 110th Congress to 10, and it is a good step toward reaching the goal that we outlined at the beginning of this Congress of reaching the historical average.
Because of the Majority Leader’s good faith commitment, I’m confident that we’ll have these three additional nominees confirmed by Memorial Day.
Excerpt from Roll Call article (subscription):
Dangling the popular highway funding bill as his hostage, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck a deal Tuesday night with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to dislodge a handful of President Bush’s stalled appellate court nominees.
In
our continuing series of interviews for our weekly online newsletter, we recently
interviewed Jim Pfaff of the Colorado Family
Institute.
DH: It’s finally beginning to
look like spring here in the Midwest.
Are you still snow-bound out there in Colorado?
JP:
Here on the Front Range just below the mountains we go back and forth from Spring
to Winter all the way until May, but up in the mountains, they’ll have winter
and skiing for some time to come due thanks to heavy snow all winter. They’re not talking Global Warming at the
resorts this year.
DH: What is the mission of the
Colorado Family Institute?
JP: Colorado
Family Institute (CFI) is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 research and educational
organization committed to strengthening the family. Our goal is to restore and defend traditional
moral principles in the culture by advocating for sound public policy. We are part of a nationwide network of family
policy councils associated with Focus on the Family® and Dr. James Dobson. We
educate and equip churches and citizens on important public policy issues that
affect marriage, life and the family—and ultimately to shape public opinion on
these issues.
DH: How did it get started? How long has it been around?
LifeNews reports.
Basically,
even if iPSC did allow for easier cloning or easier creation of hybrid embryos,
it does not change the fact that iPSC is an excellent and ethical source of
pluripotent stem cells. As in many
instances, just because a scientific procedure (i.e. induced pluripotent stem
cell research) can be abused (i.e. human cloning, human-animal hybrid embryos,
etc.) does not mean that procedure is inherently unethical.
AdvanceUSA
contacted Dr. David Prentice and he concurs that recent “concerns” over iPSC
are probably attempts to create hype which undermines the significance of
ethically derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) which make human cloning and embryonic stem cell research unecessary.
 Homosexual activists gathered in our nation’s capital from a few days ago until Tax Day (today) lobbying for what they call “family values.” Their agenda includes supposed anti-discrimination legislation like ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) and instituting laws which provide what substantively amount to marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
Concerned citizens must be careful to clearly state that we do not hate homosexuals or wish to persecute them, but that we strongly object to creating special rights and privileges based on sexual behavior and we believe that organizations and companies should have the right to deem certain behavior unacceptable for their employees.
If these legislative goals proceed they will likely include some sort of “religious exemptions” which only protect churches and other explicitly religious organizations, but which do not cover individual employers such as private companies and certain non-profits. For example, while a Catholic church might be exempted from being forced to hire or accommodate homosexuals or same-sex couples, a Catholic businessman or leader of a faith-based charity would not be protected. The religious freedoms of individuals should be protected, not just the religious freedom of large organizations.
The bottom line is that sexual behavior should not be given preferential treatment under law under the guise of anti-discrimination. Also, the crucial institution of marriage should not be undermined by offering special marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
ACTION: We do not yet know when Congress will consider such legislation, but we encourage you to contact your representative and both your senators to urge them to oppose ENDA and other attempts to give substantive marriage benefits to same-sex couples.
William
J. Federer provides some important historical
context to the oft-quoted but seldom understood phrase “separation of
church and state.”
Here
are some helpful resources on the recent Senate dust-up over judges.
Thanks
to the leadership and courage of many senators one more appellate court nominee
has been approved (Catharina Haynes, 5th Circuit). The Senate still has a long, long way to go
to do justice to President Bush’s nominees so we encourage senators to keep up
the pressure on judges.
As
our newly updated
graphic shows, the Senate has been acting at a “snail’s pace” on judges and
needs to step it up.
The
Metro (UK) reports. Excerpt:
Paralysed [sic.] people could gain the use
of their limbs again after scientists found a 'messaging system' that could be
used to control adult stem cells.
Researchers found the cells respond to
chemical signals which instruct them to help repair tissue.
The work, funded by the Medical Research
Council, could eventually lead to the development of techniques to tell adult
stem cells to mend the body.
Scenta
(UK) also reports. Excerpt:
Avoiding many of the ethical issues
associated with embryonic stem cells, ASCs could have many therapeutic uses and
could potentially be controlled by the chemical signalling [sic.] systems
within the body that instruct cells to contribute to tissue repair.
Senate
Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke out
on the slow pace of judges this morning in the Senate. Excerpt:
It’s been 108 days since this Senate
confirmed a federal judge of any kind. It last did so the week before
Christmas, on December 18, 2007.
Since then, the Senate has made precious
little progress on judicial nominations.
It has not confirmed any federal judicial
nominees this year, and the Judiciary Committee has held only one hearing on
one circuit court nominee since last September.
Today we will finally be able to confirm
some judicial nominees. That is obviously good news. But after we confirm the
judicial nominees on the calendar that may be it for a while, due to the
glacial pace at which the Judiciary Committee is proceeding.
We
have been informed that the Senate will today consider the following judicial
nominees.
Brian
Miller (Arkansas)
James
Randal Hall (GA)
John
Mendez (CA)
Stanley
Anderson (TN)
Catharina
Haynes (Fifth Circuit)
We
are glad to see Catharina Haynes on this list and look forward to adding
another number to our circuit
court chart comparison, bringing the number of Bush appellate court nominees
confirmed in his last two years to a whopping 7 (compared to 15 in Clinton’s
last two years).
Former Judiciary Chairman Sen. Orin Hatch
(R-UT) also
spoke out on judges. Here is an
excerpt from his speech:
…one of my colleagues was recently quoted
as saying that facts are stubborn things.
The facts are that the majority has
virtually shut down the judicial confirmation process.
 The Washington Times reported in
February on the case of Elaine Huguenin, a Christian photographer in New Mexico,
who refused
to take pictures of a lesbian civil ceremony. Elaine is being prosecuted under
anti-discrimination laws and the Alliance
Defense Fund is now coming to her assistance. This case is a chilling reminder of why
anti-discrimination laws based on “sexual orientation or gender identity”
should be opposed, especially on the federal level (i.e. ENDA). Here’s an excerpt from the Times:
An evangelical Christian photographer was
brought before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission after she declined for
religious reasons to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony.
When Elaine Huguenin of Albuquerque, N.M.,
declined in September 2006 an e-mail request from a lesbian couple to
photograph their ceremony, one of the lesbians responded by lodging a human
rights complaint with the New Mexico Human Rights Division, the state agency
charged with enforcing state anti-discrimination laws and sending cases to the
commission to be adjudicated.
LifeSiteNews
also reported
on this case.
CNN
Money reports.
Our
friend Dr. David Prentice was quoted in the piece. Excerpt:
Dave
Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Christian organization Family
Research Council, opposes the use of human embryos in research. "You
shouldn't be destroying human embryos at the earlier stage of human life to
harvest cells," said Prentice, who has a PhD. in biochemistry from the University
of Kansas.
Other stem cell options are available, he said, such as harvesting them from
umbilical cord blood or adult tissue, or "reprogramming"
adult cells to behave like stem cells, as demonstrated in recently-released
but early-stage studies.
LifeNews reports. Let’s hope other states follow suit with this
important legislation which seeks to give women complete information of what
abortion involves.
Daniel Herbster
reporting
The Lighted Candle Society is on the
cutting edge of the fight against pornography.
They marshal the latest scientific research on the dangerous effects of
pornography (on the individual and on society) to fight the porn industry in
the courts. I was able to interview my
fellow blogger and facebook friend Justin Hart, who is the Vice President of
Communications for the Lighted Candle Society, and the following is the text of
that interview.
DH: I’ve been
familiar with Justin’s work online for several months, and after communicating
with him online from time to time it was a real treat to meet him in person at
a bloggers meeting in Washington, DC recently.
He’s also one of my “facebook friends.”
I’m so grateful Justin was willing to answer my questions and let our
readers know about the great work the Lighted Candle Society is doing.
Justin, what is the Lighted Candle Society and
how did it get started?
JH: The Lighted
Candle Society was founded in 2001 by Ed Meese (former Attorney General under
Ronald Reagan) and John Harmer (former Lt. Governor of California under Reagan
in the 60s). Both John and Ed are
veterans of the culture wars, having fought for decency issues over the last
four decades.
John Harmer is the driving force behind the Lighted Candle
Society. He started the non-profit
organization to fight pornography is a very unique and unprecedented way.
DH: How long have
you been with LCS and what kind of things do you do for them?
JH: I've been
with the Lighted Candle Society for almost a year now. They really felt the need to ramp things into
high gear. I came on as Vice President
of Communications to make that happen. I
help develop the multiple websites which we maintain, organize our online
fundraising efforts, and create our action alerts to our members.
DH: How can our
readers take a stand against pornography and sexually oriented businesses in
their communities?
 There is more encouraging news in the potential power of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) which are obtained ethically by inducing ordinary skin cells into an embryonic-like state without actually creating or destroying embryos. News of treating Parkinson’s with iPSC is especially important in light of the recent misleading media reports that cloning (SCNT) had been used to treat mice with Parkinson’s. Unlike SCNT, which would be completely unethical in humans, induced pluripotent stem cells offer an exciting and ethical alternative source of pluripotent (can become any type of tissue) stem cells for research and potential treatments.
For more information on stem cells check the stem cell page.
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