It took 30+ years...and it may be short-term

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow -

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against indecency on television -- but it may only be temporary. Tuesday's 5-4 decision upheld the Federal Communications Commission's right to charge Fox Television for filthy language -- even a one-word utterance -- that occurs in live broadcasts. But the high court refused to pass judgment on whether the FCC's "fleeting expletives" policy, which was at issue in the case, is in line with First Amendment guarantees of free speech.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=507714

'Hate crimes' bill likely to pass House, thanks to Dems

Chad Groening - OneNews

NowA Republican Congressman who attempted to derail the controversial "hate crimes" bill with numerous amendments says, in the end, the Democrats simply had the votes to ram it through the Judiciary Committee. The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act would add gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability to the list of protected categories under federal hate crimes law.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=507246

Heading off Facebook, MySpace child predators

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A new partnership is being launched in the area of Internet security. Focus on the Family is involved in the effort.

YouDiligence is a web-based company headquartered in Montpelier, Vermont, and provides parents with a useful monitoring tool for popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. Company president Kevin Long explains how YouDiligence works.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=506124

In the Fray: The Battle for Marriage

by Harry R. Jackson, Jr.

Anderson Cooper is one of the class acts on cable news. He is bright, personable, and very thorough as a journalist. Therefore, on occasion I will compare the coverage of major stories on CNN with both the network news outlets and Fox News. Although I have always liked Cooper’s personal style, I often disagree with his slant on the news.

As I flipped through the channels last Friday night, I was offended by the content of the show. It seemed to me that overt propaganda was masquerading as news on Cooper’s “360” show. As I have already stated, typically my concerns with Cooper are minor and I hardly ever resort to “fussing” at the screen. Well, this segment got me riled up.

http://townhall.com/columnists/HarryRJacksonJr/2009/04/20/in_the_fray_the_battle_for_marriage

Refuse to Be Bullied

by Harry R. Jackson, Jr.

Last week’s public relations “Victim of the Week” award should go to Carrie Prejean. Her ordeal has gone both viral and global. Made to feel like a twelve-year-old during the Miss California competition, she has now been vilified or immortalized by the press and cable news industry. Whether you believe she should have won the pageant or not, the caustic remarks of Hilton Perez about Prejean on his video blog were obviously uncalled for. Hilton’s statements mark the beginning of a new era of gay marriage activist boldness. To add insult to injury Keith Lewis, co-director of the Miss California USA and who runs the Miss California competition, attempted to moralize about the “right to marry.” I found it ironic that a man who runs a competition that parades women around in scanty clothing could attempt to speak out about gender prejudice and stereotypes.

http://townhall.com/columnists/HarryRJacksonJr/2009/04/27/refuse_to_be_bullied

Law, Feelings, and Religion at the Bar in Iowa

by Matthew J. Franck The Supreme Court of Iowa’s decision to redefine marriage abandons reason and replaces it with feelings as the standard of public consensus.

What happens when judicial arrogance becomes so habitual as to become second nature? This past Friday, April 3, the Supreme Court of Iowa provided an answer: judicial arrogance transforms into smug self-deception. This is not the question the court thought it was answering. It claimed to be addressing the question of whether “exclusion of a class of Iowans from civil marriage”—namely the “class” of “gay and lesbian people” who wish to marry others of the same sex—can be justified by the state. But the opinion for a unanimous court in Varnum v. Brien, written by Justice Mark Cady, actually says very little about matters of such justification. By contrast, it speaks volumes about the extent to which American judicial power, having burst free of all constraints, is now in the grip of a banal routinization of tyranny so complete that the tyrants do not recognize their own character as they blandly overturn many centuries of civilization in a day’s work.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.04.07.001.pdart

Notre Dame Loses $8.2 Million in Withheld Donations over Obama Scandal

DEARBORN, MI, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On the same day that former Vatican ambassador Mary Ann Glendon announced that she has decided to refuse Notre Dame's Laetare Medal due to the university's invitation of Obama to receive an honorary degree at this year's commencement ceremony, a group protesting the decision has announced that the university has also lost millions in donations because of the scandal. (See: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042702.html)

Organizers of ReplaceJenkins.com, an online effort urging alumni and donors to the University of Notre Dame to withhold donations, announced Monday that they have personally confirmed over $8.2 million in withheld donations. The URL of the website - ReplaceJenkins.com - is a reference to the main demand of the group - that Notre Dame president Fr. John Jenkins, who has firmly stood by the university's decision to honor Obama, be replaced with someone who will uphold the Catholic identity of the university.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042704

The Profitable Nonprofit

By David N. Bass

Left-wing activists are indignant at obscene oil company profits, hefty CEO bonuses, and sweet golden parachutes -- but what about expansion of the No. 1 violator of human rights in the United States?

No, it's not Dick Cheney and the CIA. It's Planned Parenthood. The abortion giant took home $85 million in "excess of revenue over expenses" (a nifty way of saying profits) and had an operating budget of over $1 billion for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, according to its latest annual report. Included in that budget was $350 million in "government grants and contracts" (an equally nifty way of saying your tax dollars). An increase in the number of abortions performed helped fuel the profits.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/27/the-profitable-nonprofit

Glendon Declines ND Honor

Mary Ann Glendon has declined Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal over the plans to honor pro-abortion president Barack Obama.

by Father Raymond J. de SouzaFather John Jenkins likely thought himself very clever. Professor Mary Ann Glendon just took him to school.

In declining to receive the Laetare Medal alongside President Barack Obama’s honorary doctorate of laws at next month’s commencement, Glendon has refused to participate in the shabby manipulation Father Jenkins attempted to engineer. It is a rare personage who could ennoble an award by refusing to receive it, but Glendon has done just that. The Laetare Medal will now be known best for the year in which it was declined. Glendon chose, to use the apt words of Bishop John D’Arcy in this regard, truth over prestige.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/glendon_declines_nd_honor

“Rhode Island, Most Catholic State, Welcomes Gay Marriage”

BY BISHOP THOMAS J. TOBIN

That’s a headline we haven’t seen yet, dear readers, but probably will in the next couple of years. And, make no mistake about it – that’s exactly what the headline will say as the story makes its way around the state and across the nation.

The march toward gay marriage across our nation is relentless, and liberal New England is leading the way. The supporters of gay marriage in Rhode Island are well-organized and well-funded. They’re fiercely determined to impose their politically correct agenda on all the citizens of the state – human history, culture and moral principles not-withstanding. Anyone who opposes them is quickly labeled a bigot.

http://thericatholic.com/stories/2089.html

Former U.S. Ambassador to Vatican Says No to Prestigious Notre Dame Award...and President Obama

David Brody

You know the famous saying, “Houston. We have a problem.” Well, how about a new slogan: “Notre Dame. We have a problem.” The speech by pro-choice President Obama at the Catholic Notre Dame has caused all sorts of trouble.

It now turns out that Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican, will NOT speak at the Notre dame Graduation because of the controversy. The pro-life, Harvard professor was set to receive the Laetare Medal which is the annual award given in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic church and society. She was to speak to the students on the same day as President Obama. But President Obama’s appearance was just too much. She just posted the following letter to the university here.

http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/589636.aspx

Openly "Pro-Choice" Priest Asks Catholics to Stop Funding LifeSiteNews Over Development and Peace

By John-Henry Westen

MONTREAL, April 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - An article in the Quebec daily Le Devoir, covering the LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) exposé on the fact that the official international development arm of the Canadian bishops is supporting numerous abortion advocacy groups has caused Quebec's most controversial priest to defend the agency.

Fr. Raymond Gravel, who was forced out of federal politics by the Vatican and has frequently criticized the Catholic Church's stands against abortion and homosexuality, called on Catholics to quit funding LSN over the issue.

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042101.html

"We are at War!": Bishop Finn Delivers Rousing Clarion Call to the "Fight for Life" in America

By Kathleen Gilbert

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas, April 21, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bishop Robert Finn of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph issued a powerful call to action to pro-lifers at the 2009 Gospel of Life Convention on Saturday. In his speech, Finn heavily criticized pro-abortion Catholic politicians who claim a "personal opposition" to abortion, stating that such persons are "warriors of death" who "have abandoned their place in the citizenship of the Church."

"As I speak a word of encouragement today I also want to tell you soberly, dear friends, 'We are at war!'" began Finn, who said that today's issues bring "an intensity and urgency to our efforts that may rival any time in the past."

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042113.html

A Provocative Work About the Christian Right

By PETER STEINFELS

In “The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right,” Jon A. Shields posits that the movement has fostered deliberative dialogue and careful moral reasoning.

If you wanted a book title to speed the pulse of liberal academics, journalists and politicians, you couldn’t do much better than “The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right.” For many people that’s a title akin to “The Winning Ways of Serial Killers.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/us/25beliefs.html

Great sites for those who care about marriage

Check out helpgetmarried.com and boundless.org

NH committee recommends killing gay marriage bill

CONCORD, N.H.—The state Senate's Judiciary Committee has recommended that the Legislature reject legalizing gay marriage in New Hampshire.

The committee voted 3-2 Thursday against a bill that passed the House last month. Committee Chairwoman Deborah Reynolds, a Democrat, said she doesn't think New Hampshire is ready for gay marriage. Republicans who voted against it said marriage is an institution created and defined by God as between one man and one woman.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2009/04/23/nh_committee_recommends_killing_gay_marriage_bill/?comments=all

READERS: I encourage you to go to the site above and post your comments on this article!

Pro-Marriage Group Thanks Stephen Colbert

By Exception Staff

Stephen Colbert, star of the Comedy Central satire, the Colbert Report, has a new set of fans -- pro-marriage groups.The National Organization for Marriage sent out a public thank-you note to the comedian after he aired their "Gathering Storm" ad on his program.

http://exceptionmag.com/entertainment/celebreality/000768/pro-marriage-group-thanks-stephen-colbert

Gay marriage opponents cheer change

ANDY BARR

"It's a gesture of respect," National Organization for Marriage President Maggie Gallagher told POLITICO. "Even people who want same-sex marriage see that groups that want marriage to remain between husband and wife have a point."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21636.html

National Organization for Marriage Urges Connecticut General Assembly to Defeat SB 899

"Presented under the guise of conforming state statutes to the Connecticut Supreme Court's ruling legalizing gay marriage, SB 899 would undermine existing legal protections for religious organizations and repeal statutes that help ensure that gay marriage is not taught to children in public schools." -- Brian Brown, Executive Director, NOM

http://www.dfwcatholic.org/national-organization-for-marriage-urges-connecticut-general-assembly-to-defeat-sb-899-bill-threatens-religious-liberty-and-crosses-line-into-promotion-of-gay-marriage-in-schools3803/.html

Gay Marriage Spreads Without Backlash

Maggie Gallagher, the National Organization for Marriage's president and a conservative commentator, said there's no shortage of grassroots conservative anger over the recent moves expanding gay marriage. That outrage may not be getting much national press attention, but it remains a potent political force, she said. "It's manufactured moment, this idea that people are ready to give up on the gay-marriage fight," Gallagher said. "In Connecticut, in New Hampshire, in Iowa, the legislators are being flooded with phone calls on this issue. People are not happy with gay marriage."

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7393903

Choosing Truth Over a Tiara

Maggie Gallagher is president for the National Organization for Marriage.

Miss California’s answer to the political question asked of her by a judge was moving to the audience and the millions of new fans she now has for a simple reason: Her words were marked by genuineness, decency, a clear effort at civility, and great personal courage. The ugly response of her critics, especially Perez Hilton, is demeaning — but not to Carrie Prejean.

If politics and religion are inappropriate in a pageant, as Keith Lewis suggests, judges should not ask questions about hot-button political and moral issues. Carrie Prejean is a heroine to many because in that split second she had to decide, she chose truth over the tiara. It was an extraordinary moment.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/new-battle-lines-on-gay-marriage/?scp=2&sq=gay&st=cse#maggie

Miss California's Courage

from Brian Brown of National Organization for Marriage

It was, as a San Diego pastor friend of mine put it, a real "Queen Esther"
moment for Carrie [Prejean, Miss California]. Her faith was tested and she
passed with flying colors--she showed the whole world the crown that she is
really seeking, didn't she? How many others are taking inspiration from that
moment--taking renewed courage to show our convictions--to act to support
marriage?

Thanks to Carrie, 20 million or more young adults who support marriage have
a new voice for their views, and a new platform to reach out to their friends,
neighbors, peers. If Miss California has the courage of her convictions, how can
they--or any of us-- stay silent any more?

By the way, far more young adults are on our side on this issue than the
media would have you believe. In California, one of the most liberal states in
the nation, 45 percent of young adults voted for Prop 8. Is it so hard to
imagine persuading another 5 to 10 percent of young people about the importance
of marriage as the union of husband and wife? Thank you, Carrie, for launching a
youth counter-revolution on marriage!

Perez Hilton, the "celebrity blogger" who asked the question, clearly
thought he would manufacture yet another gay marriage moment. Well he did, but
not in the way he thinks. Thank you Perez Hilton for giving us
Carrie Prejean.

Population Control Group Says Australia Must Adopt One-Child Policy

LifeSite News reported last week that Sustainable Population Australia (SPA), a population control pressure group, has issued a call for the Australian government to adopt a one-child policy to ensure Australia's economic and environmental sustainability. SPA said that the 22 million people currently living in Australia must be reduced to 7 million and that restricting families to one child, just as China does, is "one way of assisting to reduce the population" and avoiding "environmental suicide."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=505850

In an obese world, children obsessed with thinness

Carolyn Moynihan

A new acronym to add to the growing list of childhood disorders: EOED, which stands for “early onset eating disorder” and generally refers to anorexia among pre-adolescent children. Australian research shows that the condition, commonly linked to teenage girls, is showing up more and more among girls and boys aged 10 to 12, and even younger.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/in_an_obese_world_children_obsessed_with_thinness/

'Sexting' prosecutions in limbo

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Questions are being raised over court jurisdiction in cases involving teens who are "sexting" -- sending nude and semi-nude pictures of themselves via cell phones. A Pennsylvania district attorney planned to charge the teens under child pornography statutes, but the American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued in federal court to block the prosecutions. Pat Trueman, special counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), believes the judge was out of order.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=502786

US targets population growth, urges women's power

EDITH M. LEDERER

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The new U.S. ambassador for global women's issues pledged Thursday the Obama administration's "deep commitment" to a U.N. blueprint aimed at slowing the world's population explosion and empowering women.
At the heart of the action plan adopted at a U.N. population conference in Cairo 15 years ago is a demand for women's equality through education, economic development, access to modern birth control and the right to choose if and when to become pregnant.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_EMPOWERING_WOMEN?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

A crisis of morals, not just of finance

Richard Bastien

The meltdown in the world economy calls into question the idea that economics and ethics belong in two different pigeonholes.

What I propose to show is that the current economic and financial crisis results not only from faulty policies, but more importantly, from serious moral deficiencies. I will also argue that attempts to counter the crisis should, in addition to tackling major policy issues, call into question the widespread notion that economics and ethics belong to entirely separate worlds.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/a_crisis_of_morals_not_just_of_finance/

Rep. Fortenberry challenges Hillary Clinton on taxpayer supported abortions internationally

Watch video: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=500996

Forbidding to Marry?

There's an excellent post at Hot Air today concerning the marriage crisis in this country today, written by R.S. McCain. McCain is responding to a comment which basically said that Christians have relinquished our claim to marriage because of what we've done to the institution, and that we haven't got a moral leg to stand on at this point.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=501242

Pro-Abortion Joe Biden Says There’s ‘No Excuse’ For Violence Against a Child

Josh Friedeman, the Millennial Perspective

From CNSNews: Appearing at the Georgetown University Law Center yesterday to receive an award from a self-described “pro-choice” non-profit group, pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden said that there is “no excuse” for violence against a child....At the event, Biden received the Legal Momentum Hero Award for his sponsorship of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which passed Congress 15 years ago....In his speech accepting the Legal Momentum Hero Award, Biden said: “You know there is no excuse for violence against a woman or child. There is no excuse.”

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=501854

Skepticism over announced embryonic stem-cell 'cure'

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

British scientists want to begin experiments using stem cells from human embryos who are then killed to treat a serious eye problem. The process would be used to treat macular degeneration, a common cause of blindness among older people. According to a Times report in London, the team of British researchers have demonstrated that stem cells can prevent blindness in rats with a similar disease, and also successfully tested elements of the technology in pigs.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=501262

Parents protest 'sexpresso' shop next to daycare center

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A group of parents is protesting a drive-through espresso stand in Everett, Washington, that features scantily clad hostesses. Bunny Baristas is located at the only entrance to the parking lot at a daycare center. The female shop attendant wears a revealing bikini top and skimpy shorts, as well as bunny ears and tail. Allison Alexander, one of the parents interviewed by KING-TV, has a two-year-old daughter who attends the daycare, which is located next to the espresso shop and another daycare center.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=500370

Protect your unborn baby - okay in OK

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Oklahoma has become the first state to give a pregnant woman the right to use force to defend her unborn child. Under the "Use of Force for the Protection of the Unborn Act" -- signed into law by Governor Brad Henry -- a mom-to-be is legally justified in using deadly force if she "reasonably believes" an attacker is "threatening her unborn child" and "use of force or deadly force are immediately necessary to protect" that child.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=501268

Perez Hilton: The foul face of 'gay' activism

You may have heard. During Sunday's Miss USA pageant openly "gay" activist and pageant judge Perez Hilton – the self-styled "Queen of Media" – ambushed Carrie Prejean – the openly Christian Miss California – with a politically loaded question on so-called "same-sex marriage." Prejean's candid answer – as both Hilton and Miss USA organizer Donald Trump later admitted – likely cost her the crown.

From the moment she opened her mouth, Prejean has given liberals a clinic in class. Hilton, on the other hand (a.k.a. Mario Armando Lavandeira), has provided the world a sneak peek into the soul of homosexual activism.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=502680

Plan B - over the counter and off the deep end

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Parents should be furious that a federal agency is putting their minor daughters at great health risk. That's one reaction to a recent ruling on the "morning-after" pill. The "morning-after" pill is to be sold, without prescription, to minors as young as 17. The Food and Drug Administration issued the order after one New York federal judge ruled along the same line. Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, is livid.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=501516

Concerned about offensive language on TV?

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

The Federal Communications Commission is being deluged with complaints about profanity on network television. The complaints prompted Congress to ask the FCC to look for advanced blocking technologies, including those that can filter language based upon information in closed captioning.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=500184

Teen pregnancy still a growing trend

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Out-of-wedlock births have reached a record high. Bill Albert of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy says roughly four out of ten births now occur outside of marriage. He believes the more it becomes normative behavior, the more teens will not see it as out of the ordinary. Plus, he points out that teens see other teenagers, relatives, and celebrities doing so, so they believe it is okay for them.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=499896

Hillary Clinton clarifies what ‘reproductive health’ includes

Just like “family planning”, “reproductive health” is an innocent sounding term fraught with (deliberate) ambiguity. The things it includes tend to be in the fine print of NGO and UN documents where “maternal mortality” and “unsafe abortion” are juxtaposed to imply a need to legalise abortion. Those who do not see abortion as a health or family planning measure are left to ask the hard questions about the meaning of draft UN documents and the like. Does “reproductive health/services/rights” include abortion, or doesn’t it?

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/hillary_clinton_clarifies_what_reproductive_health_includes/

Say Yes: What are you Waiting for?

Spring is here, that glorious season when young men's fancies lightly turn to thoughts of love, as the poet Tennyson once suggested. "Lightly" is right.

The average age of American men marrying for the first time is now 28. That's up five full years since 1970 and the oldest average since the Census Bureau started keeping track. If men weren't pulling women along with them on this upward swing, I wouldn't be complaining. But women are now taking that first plunge into matrimony at an older age as well. The age gap between spouses is narrowing: Marrying men and women were separated by an average of more than four years in 1890 and about 2.5 years in 1960. Now that figure stands at less than two years. I used to think that only young men -- and a minority at that -- lamented marriage as the death of youth, freedom and their ability to do as they pleased. Now this idea is attracting women, too.

In my research on young adults' romantic relationships, many women report feeling peer pressure to avoid giving serious thought to marriage until they're at least in their late 20s. If you're seeking a mate in college, you're considered a pariah, someone after her "MRS degree." Actively considering marriage when you're 20 or 21 seems so sappy, so unsexy, so anachronistic. Those who do fear to admit it -- it's that scandalous.

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042402122.html

'I do'..... for now

Legistlation in other countries is considering making the institution of marriage a 7 year contract, where at the end you will have to prove you are still able to stay in the marriage!

WATCH THE NEWS CLIP HERE.

Loaded question

Sheila Liaugminas

They’ve always said the Miss America and Miss Universe pageants were about more than beauty.
In recent years, several contestants from the states have taken considerable heat for their principles or stated values on social issues, usually related to abortion and even chastity education.
Suddenly, this year’s pageant has erupted into a news story because of a ‘controversial answer one of the contestants gave to a question about homosexuals and marriage, said a news tease on one of the networks.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/loaded_question/

Toppling the last taboo

Margaret Somerville

The words of Pierre-Elliot Trudeau, former prime minister of Canada, that “the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation”, are frequently being trotted out lately. They’ve been used to argue for legalizing same-sex marriage and polygamy; to argue against any restrictions on new reproductive technologies; and to argue that the criminal law should not be employed to prosecute knowingly placing a sexual partner at risk of the transmission of HIV. Most recently, they were used in a discussion, on "The Current", a show on the CBC network, about decriminalizing incest.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/toppling_the_last_taboo/

Miss California Speaks Out

Miss California Carrie Prejean appeared on Neal Cavuto's show on FOX News to talk with him about the pageant and if she believes that her comments on gay marriage cost her the Miss USA crown. Prejean says that she feels sorry for Perez Hilton, that she prays for Hilton, and that she was "blessed" to be asked the question that probably cost her the title in the first place.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=499704

'Hate crimes' legislation = ex-'gay' hate

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

A Christian activist who runs a ministry that supports families of former homosexuals is troubled about proposed "hate crimes" legislation now before Congress. Regina Griggs is executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays, or PFOX. The organization lobbies for the ex-homosexual community and educates the public on sexual orientation.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=498310

ACLU demands LGBT website access for TN students

Pete Chagnon and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow

The ACLU is threatening the Knox County, Tennessee, school system with a lawsuit if it does not meet their web demands. The American Civil Liberties Union is demanding that the school system unblock "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" websites by April 29, 2009, or face a lawsuit. The ACLU claims the filtering software employed by Knox County -- which is provided by Education Networks of America -- blocks students from viewing nonsexual websites that host content they consider protected free speech.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=498342

Beauty contestant chooses 'biblically correct' over PC

Allie Martin and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow

The first runner-up for Miss USA tells Fox News Channel that she may have lost her chance at the crown because of her answer to a question about same-sex "marriage." However, she says she had to stand on biblical truth.

On Sunday, Miss California Carrie Prejean, 21, was asked by blogger Perez Hilton, an open homosexual and one of the pageant's judges, about her stance on same-sex marriage. Responding, Prejean said she personally believed marriage should be between a man and a woman.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=499580

Amendment Gives Religious Organizations Exemption To Same-Sex Ruling

By DANIELA ALTIMARI

State legislators on Wednesday approved a measure that strives to strike a balance between the rights of gay couples and the rights of religious institutions that object to same-sex marriage.

http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-same-sex-marriage-0423.artapr23,0,3521923.story

The Institution Formerly Known As Marriage

by Jennifer Roback Morse

The Iowa court’s recent decision does not simply broaden marriage, it radically changes its nature. While marriage previously served public purposes of attaching mothers and fathers to their children and one another, now marriage merely serves as affirmation of adult feelings.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.04.24.001.pdart

For Whom The Clock Ticks

Daniel Heimpel

A growing body of research supports the idea that there are biological disadvantages to late-in-life fatherhood. But will society's view of male fertility ever change?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/194871

Impulsive in kindergarten, prone to gambling later

Carolyn Moynihan

The importance of the early years in shaping a child’s personality is borne out by much research. A Canadian longitudinal study has found that the more impulsive a kindergarten child is, the more likely they are to indulge in games of chance by sixth grade (age 11-12).

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/view/impulsive_in_kindergarten_prone_to_gambling_later/

Homo Sapiens, Get Lost

Anti-humanism comes to Hollywood.
By Wesley J. Smith
When Aldous Huxley wrote his prophetic 1932 novel, Brave New World, he envisioned a dystopian future in which mankind would become, in the words of bioethicist Leon Kass, “so dehumanized that he doesn’t even realize what has been lost.”

Huxley believed we would evolve into a society steeped in radical hedonism — where drugs would be used to erase every negative emotion and promiscuity would be not just common but the norm. He also saw us as becoming profoundly utilitarian and eugenic, depicted in his novel by genetically engineered babies being decanted through a cloning-type process rather than being born, and then propagandized rather than educated, so as never to question the existing order. Huxley’s Brave New World is a society without families, without the old and sick — who are done away with rather than cared for — and without real purpose other than experiencing transitory pleasure.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTZkZmFmMGU4MzAzYThjOTBhMjNmZmQyNGMxZTM4Zjc=&w=MA

Aging Canadians: Preparing for an older Canada

By Derek Miedema, Researcher, Institute of Marriage and Family Canada

The numbers are in, and they’re crystal clear: Canada is growing older. We know that as the baby boomers are already turning 65, that generation will swell the ranks of seniors. Add to that the fact that each generation since the boomers has had fewer children and we end up with fewer family caregivers and many more aging parents in need of care.

http://www.imfcanada.org/article_files/E-Review-April%2022,%202009-for_print.pdf

How Iowa Happened

How Marriage Lost in Iowa

By Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.
From an upcoming issue of the National Catholic Register.

By now, everyone knows that the Supreme Court of Iowa has imposed same-sex “marriage” on the heartland of America, a mere 10 years after the people of that state had expressly voted against it. What very few people know is exactly how unfair this fight really was. Not only was the lineup within the courtroom imbalanced, but the trial court refused to hear relevant evidence. When the case made its way to the Iowa Supreme Court, they didn’t behave much better.

This case, known as Varnum v. Brien, began with a half dozen same-sex couples applying for marriage licenses in Polk County, Iowa. The county clerk, acting in accordance with the law, refused. Mind you, the state of Iowa did not go bothering unassuming people who were minding their own business. This was a staged case. These couples went to the clerk’s office intending to be refused. They sued Timothy Brien, Polk County recorder and registrar, an ordinary county employee.

http://www.ncregister.com/daily/how_iowa_happened

UMass-Amherst abandons free-speech rights

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

An organization that defends individual liberty in education is taking issue with the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Last month UMass-Amherst came under fire for its treatment of conservative columnist Don Feder. Feder was invited by a conservative school club to give a presentation, but was unable to do so after student protestors heckled him off stage while university officials stood by. Now another censorship issue is brewing on the campus after student protestors stole copies of a conservative newspaper and blocked its distribution on campus.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=496692

How to save your family

Marcia Segelstein - Guest Columnist

Trying to raise innocent, decent, Christian children in today's world is challenging, to say the least. Young people are bombarded with sexual messages and images everywhere they turn. They're easy prey for marketers who encourage materialism and promote self-absorption and greed. And with God removed from the public square, maintaining faith means going against the crowd, something most teenagers find difficult to do. It's a tough time to be a kid.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=497866

Memphis abortion clinic exposed for hiding statutory rape

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Live Action has completed a fifth undercover investigation of a Planned Parenthood abortion facility. Twenty-year-old Live Action president Lila Rose entered a Memphis Planned Parenthood abortion clinic posing as a 14-year-old girl impregnated by a 31-year-old boyfriend. All of the conversation was captured on video. "Planned Parenthood had told that vulnerable young girl that, first of all, she wasn't going to tell anyone even though that she was supposed to, to lie about the age of the 31-year-old supposed boyfriend and say he was only 17 years old to a judge so that little girl could qualify for a parental consent waiver," Rose recounts.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=496928

'Unbelievable victory' for families in Mass.

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A pro-family advocate in Massachusetts says the latest state budget proposal includes some good news. In the past, Brian Camenker of MassResistance took issue with the state budget because it included $850,000 for homosexual activism in public schools. Now because of the recession and the efforts of MassResistance and concerned citizens, Camenker says those funds have been slashed from the 2010 state budget.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=496908

'Poor science' undergirds new stem-cell regs

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The Obama administration has announced new guidelines for government-sponsored embryonic stem-cell research. The guidelines, issued by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), stop short of permitting scientists to create human embryos for research or pursuing techniques for cloning, but they do open the door for greatly expanding research involving human embryos. Critics argue the proposed regulations ignore gains made in adult stem-cell research, and create an incentive to "cannibalize" embryos from couples who do not wish to have any more children.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=496888

Separate but unequal protection

Matt Barber - Guest Columnist

Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) and Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) have quietly re-introduced the federal thought crimes bill, H.R. 1913, the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009. As has proved to be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling "hate speech" laws. It represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law – morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. The bill is expected to be marked up Wednesday before the full House Judiciary Committee.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=498106

Sebelius has 'integrity issue'

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

BREAKING NEWS... Kansas Gov. Kathleen Seblelius has won approval from a divided Senate panel to become secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama administration ... The head of the Family Research Council says he hopes the latest revelation about the "blood money" Health and Human Services secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius received from Kansas abortionist George Tiller will cause senators like Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts to reconsider their support for her appointment.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=496614

2009 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning

We're proud that Steve Breen, a good friend of the Ruth Institute won this, his second Pulitzer Prize. Steve is pro-life, even though none of his pro-life cartoons are in this portfolio.

http://googlemail.com/attachment?ui=2&ik=d2efd4ae4b&view=att&th=120c97520638943c&attid=0.1&disp=safe&realattid=0.1&zw&saduie=1egnamapddgklq3u2u6v0tksk7spd93&sadet=1240351393127&sads=c09eabed1b8569f6ef9c6cb46bab558b

Holy Matrimony, Holy Trinity

James Tonkowich

Last week was a tough one for proponents of traditional marriage. Iowa and Vermont were added to the list of states legalizing same-sex marriages. Vermont—where those who favored same-sex marriage were estimated to have outspent the opponents by twenty to one—is the first state to legalize these relationships by a vote of the legislature rather than the actions of a court.
These decisions from a Christian point of view misunderstand not only marriage, but what it means to be human.

http://www.theird.org/Page.aspx?pid=1003

Did Same-Sex Marriage Question Cost Miss California the Title?

The Miss USA Pageant was held yesterday and Miss Northa Carolina Kristen Dalton won the crown edging out Miss California, Carrie Prejean. However, the big story coming out of the telecast was Miss California's comments regarding gay marriage. See FOX News.

When asked by judge Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip blogger, whether she believed in gay marriage, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, said "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=496668

Homeschoolers release 'Roe v. Wade' movie

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A new movie is highlighting an important aspect of a conservative liberal arts college based in the Washington, DC, area. Come What May was recently released on DVD and follows two students at Patrick Henry College who seek to overturn Roe v. Wade in the school's moot court competition. Mike Farris, chancellor at PHC, says the movie is based on an actual event.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=496434

Wisc. governor ignoring voters on marriage issue

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

More than two years ago, voters in Wisconsin chose to defend the one-man/one-woman definition of marriage. Now their governor has proposed in his newest budget to have a statewide same-gender domestic-partner registration. Julaine Appling of Wisconsin Family Action tells OneNewsNow that under Governor Jim Doyle's plan, same-gender pairs would have to meet the same requirements of heterosexual couples wishing to get married.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=494812

Day of Silence evokes opposition, death threats

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

Not all schools remained silent on Friday during the "Day of Silence" protest -- and certainly neither did homosexual activists who left death threats in the voice mailbox of a pro-family group in California.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=493916

'Hate crimes' bill - bad news for believers

Jim Brown and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow

A vote is looming this week in Congress on a bill that one conservative activist warns would not only silence Christian opposition to homosexuality, but also would legitimize deviant forms of "sexual orientation."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=494798

DOMA at risk in District of Columbia

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

In a preliminary vote, the District of Columbia city council has approved recognition of legal, same-gender "marriages" from other states. If it is approved on a second vote, the measure moves to Congress. Congress would than have 30 days to act -- and if it reaches that stage, it would be in direct opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel does not believe that will be permitted in light of nationwide sentiment over homosexual marriage.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=493778

Texas takes aim at Planned Parenthood

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The state of Texas has shut down four Planned Parenthood abortion facilities in San Antonio that were operating without licenses. Clinic officials say it is a matter of miscommunication, claiming that they were told no licenses were needed because they do not conduct surgical abortions. Jonathon Saenz of Free Market Foundation does not accept that.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=493780

Notre Dame Announces Homosexual-Themed Events for Easter Week

This is why students need to come to the Ruth Institute Summer Conference!

Cardinal Newman Society (www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/)
The announced agenda for the week indicates no effort to teach students about Catholic teaching on homosexual activity as gravely sinful.

StaND Against Hate Week to occur April 14 through 17 is co-sponsored by Notre Dame’s Gender Relations Center, student government and University Counseling Center.

MANASSAS, VA (Cardinal Newman Society) - “Christianity is under attack from within our own Catholic universities,” said Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society. “The bad news continues, perhaps appropriately on the day when we recall Christ’s terrible agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We need Catholics worldwide to draw the line, here and now, by joining more than 255,000 witnesses for the Faith at NotreDameScandal.com.”

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33147

Harvard Aids expert supports Pope's stance on contraception

by Anne Thomas

A leading Aids expert from Harvard University has come out in support of comments made by the Pope Benedict XVI suggesting that the distribution of contraception actually spreads rather than prevents Aids.
Edward C Green, the director of the Aids Prevention Research Project at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, said that research into the spread of AIDS actually supports the position of the Catholic Church and the Pope.

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/harvard.aids.expert.supports.popes.stance.on.contraception/22827.htm

Demographics & Depression

by David P. Goldman

Three generations of economists immersed themselves in study of the Great Depression, determined to prevent a recurrence of the awful events of the 1930s. And as our current financial crisis began to unfold in 2008, policymakers did everything that those economists prescribed. Following John Maynard Keynes, President Bush and President Obama each offered a fiscal stimulus. The Federal Reserve maintained confidence in the financial system, increased the money supply, and lowered interest rates. The major industrial nations worked together, rather than at cross purposes as they had in the early 1930s.

http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=6564

The Politics of Condoms

When it comes to AIDS prevention, science stoops to narrow ideology

By CHRISTOPHER B. LACARIA

“The Pope may be right,” suggested Dr. Edward C. Green to The Harvard Crimson, “The marketing and distribution of condoms won’t solve the problem. Partner fidelity has a much better chance.”

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=527691

Alliance Defense Fund Fact Sheet

http://www.alliancedefensefund.org/UserDocs/ManiaciFactSheet.pdf

"The fundamental rights of parents to raise children the way they see fit should not be threatened by the wishes and desires of a stranger."

Palin says deciding when life begins 'isn't above her pay grade'

Ken Kusmer - Associated Press Writer

EVANSVILLE, IN - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking at a pro-lfe group's dinner, criticized President Barack Obama for supporting abortion rights and challenged the idea that unplanned pregnancies are a nuisance that can be solved by abortion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=493472

Hastening death to 'harvest' organs

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Ethics questions are being raised concerning a Canadian baby and the possibility of her organs being "harvested." It involves two-month-old Kaylee Wallace who has Joubert Syndrome, a disease which Dr. David Prentice of the Family Research Council says is treatable and not fatal. LifeSiteNews.com reports the media has portrayed Kaylee as dying, as she has been in the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=490866

Chinese policies at root of gender imbalance

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

China now has 32 million more males than females. There are reasons for the gender disparity. One of the reasons, according to Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute (PRI), is due to sex-selection abortion. "[T]he parents will go in at 18-weeks gestation and have an ultrasound done -- and if the ultrasound reveals that they're carrying a little boy, they'll continue the pregnancy," Mosher remarks. "If it reveals they're carrying a little girl, they'll schedule an abortion."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Business/Default.aspx?id=493640

Texas promotes transgender 're-education' legislation

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Texas is considering a measure to stiffen penalties for harming transgendered people. The addition is to the state's hate crimes law and does more than just provide stiffer penalties, according to attorney Jonathan Saenz of the Free Market Foundation. "The judge could order that someone who commits one of these crimes has to go to an education program and really re-learn how to think and agree that they accept the other side and the view of the other side in this particular case," he notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=489712

TCU nixes plans for 'gay' student housing

Associated Press

Texas Christian University won't provide on-campus housing for homosexual students this fall as previously planned. But in a statement, TCU's chancellor says the Fort Worth school "will maintain its long-standing commitment to the inclusiveness of all people."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=493664

Religious freedom for non-believers

Sheila Liaugminas

When courts and lawmakers can drive morally informed voices from the public square, it’s not just religious believers whose rights are eroded.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/religious_freedom_for_non_believers/

Wish you weren’t here

Brian Lilley

Some top environmentalists say the way to a greener planet is to have fewer people. Is an environmentalism without humanity the answer?

I would have thought that Jonathon Porritt might not be invited to many parties, what with calling for half of Britain’s population to be done away with in the name of sustainability. Instead, Porritt, an English environmental activist and population control champion, is asked to give advice to Prince Charles, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the executives at Marks and Spencers. Perhaps they all want to keep Porritt close to ensure they don’t become targets of the great human cull?

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/wish_you_werent_here1/

Homosexual minority carries weight in Alamo City

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Focus on the Family's Love Won Out conference heads to San Antonio Saturday, but organizers hit a snag in promoting it. The conferences are designed to help homosexual men and women who want to leave the lifestyle. Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger tells OneNewsNow that conference organizers tried to buy an ad in the San Antonio News-Express. "And the ad was rejected as being 'offensive,' even though all the ad really does is recount the personal story of a man on our team who used to struggle with same-sex attractions and found freedom from that through events like Love Won Out," he notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=490970

Obama's 'common ground' on abortion nowhere to be found

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

A member of President Obama's faith-based advisory council says President Obama has yet to show any signs that he plans to follow through on his pledge to find "common ground" on the issue of abortion. Dr. Frank Page, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, says he is disturbed that President Barack Obama is "moving quickly" to remove the few pro-life protections that remain in the U.S. He notes the president has done more than just rescind the "Mexico City policy" and President Bush's restrictions on federal funding of human embryonic stem-cell research.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=492556

Virginia pro-lifers labeled 'potential terrorists'

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A Virginia pro-life group reports it has been listed as an "extremist" organization in a state report. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a report last week that created quite a storm, claiming certain groups of people are at risk for being or becoming "extremists" as members of "right-wing" organizations. That report identified no specific groups. But Dennis Green of Life & Liberty Ministries received a call from a friend who found his group's name listed on a state report.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=492528

That’s Rich: an expert explains why parents don’t matter much

Carolyn Moynihan

Many professionals act as though parents were of little importance to the development of their children, but child development theorist Judith Rich Harris has actually written whole books about why that is the case. That would not matter very much except that, as she points out in an interview with Scientific American, “My work is now cited in many psychology textbooks and assigned in college courses.” The fact that most developmental psychologists don’t agree with her does not stop her from being influential.

http://www.mercatornet.com/new_family_edge/view/thats_rich_an_expert_explains_why_parents_dont_matter_much/

Child advocates urged to investigate abortion chain

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Undercover investigations of Planned Parenthood still haven't produced action by prosecutors in most states. Three pro-life groups -- Live Action, Students for Life, and Life Dynamics, Inc. -- have conducted undercover probes of Planned Parenthood facilities around the country, proving that staff members have offered underage children abortions and given advice on how to avoid getting their impregnator -- sometimes 10 years older than the girls -- in trouble with the law.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=489512

Strong same-sex 'marriage' push in Minn.

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A move is under way to legalize same-gender "marriage" in Minnesota. Chuck Darrell of the Minnesota Family Council says homosexual activists are promoting four bills in the legislature that would legalize it in one form or another.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=489350

Anorexic girls increasingly arrive in hospital

Carolyn Moynihan

Hospital admissions for girls aged 16 and under with anorexia rose by 80 per cent over the decade to mid-2007, new statistics from the UK show. The figures for 2006-2007 range from141 admissions for 15 year olds to five admissions for under-10s. Relatively few boys suffer from anorexia: there were 306 hospital admissions among boys under 16 during the decade.

http://www.mercatornet.com/new_family_edge/view/anorexic_girls_increasingly_arrive_in_hospital/

'Safe sexting' - permission over principle

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

The special counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund is outraged over a Vermont state bill he says effectively legalizes production of child porn. Vermont Senate Bill 125 will make "sexting" legal for teens ages 13 to 18. Sexting refers to the sending of nude photographs via cell phone -- a growing phenomenon among teenagers. Some teens who have been caught sexting have faced penalties ranging from expulsion from school, to child pornography charges, to having to register as sex offenders.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=489510

Memo to the President

David Blankenhorn

"You wrote your first book about your father, and about fatherhood, and by all accounts you are a loving father and good husband. Our nation desperately needs more such men. There are plenty of worrisome statistics about the current state of our civil society, but to me here is by far the most worrisome: More than half of all U.S. children today are likely to spend at least a significant portion of their childhoods living apart from their fathers. For African American children, tragically, that figure is at least 80 percent."

http://www.americanvalues.org/html/obama_memo.html

Iowa’s earthquake

Robert R. Reilly

No matter what the judges say, they changed the meaning of marriage in Iowa when they ruled that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right.

In a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Why Gay Marriage Matters”, Michael Judge, a Iowa freelance journalist and a contributing editor of The Far Eastern Economic Review, celebrates the Iowa Supreme Court’s decision to overturn state law in order to make same-sex marriage legal. He confesses that it does not occur to him as to how anyone could oppose this enlightened decision – even if those opposing it include the majority of the people of Iowa, who supported the law against such “marriages” in the first place. “Why,” he asks, would anyone now wish to sponsor an amendment to the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman?

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/iowas_earthquake/

Dear editor: there is a life after palooza

Michelle Martin

Newspapers may be killing themselves by capitulating to porn.

There is something reassuring about the ritual of fetching the Hamilton Spectator from our doorstep each morning and having a quick browse through the local news. And we really want to support our local paper-- but Sexapalooza has made it tough.

Yep, after running banner ads all last week for the consumer show, there is an article this morning on Sexapalooza complete with photograph. Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it, but we find this sort of thing hard to laugh off. We'd be sorry to drop the Spec, but it's tiresome childproofing it every day. We stopped subscribing to home delivery of the Globe and Mail years ago for that reason.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/dear_editor_there_is_a_life_after_palooza/

Tough times spawn 'good neighbor' mind-set

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

An increase in Christian volunteering has been linked to the sour economy. ChristianVolunteering.org is the largest Christian online volunteer matching website. The free service works similar to job-matching sites, except that it matches volunteers to various opportunities for volunteer work. During the past year, the site has seen a 300-percent increase in traffic. Andrew Sears is executive director of TechMission.org, which runs the website. He says the jump in traffic was surprising.

"I think the tendency...during hard times is that everyone tries to keep things for themselves," Sears observes. "But what we're finding is [that] the people who are looking for jobs...are going out and spending their time volunteering to help others who even may be more down and out than they are."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=487962

Doctor-assisted suicide legalized, ignored

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

More than four months after a Montana judge legalized doctor-assisted suicide, no one in "Big Sky Country" has used it for end-of-life issues. Jeff Laszloffy with the Montana Family Foundation believes Montana doctors want nothing to do with it.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=487796

Georgia comes to German home schoolers' defense

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

Lawmakers in one U.S. state have passed a resolution in favor of home schoolers in Germany. The Georgia House of Representatives has adopted House Resolution 850, which calls for Germany to recognize the rights of parents and to allow parents to have the final say in their child's education. Mike Donnelly of the Home School Legal Defense Association explains that the effort was led by home-schooler Tina Liedle, who is leading a home-school folk dance group to Germany in May as part of an exchange program.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=488044

In Vermont gay marriage law, a hidden victory for religious freedom

David Benkof

A little-noticed clause in the gay marriage bill recently passed in Vermont offers hope that the gay marriage trend may finally be starting to incorporate some of the concerns and needs of traditionally religious Americans as it spreads across the country.

Echoing the names of gay marriage bills in other states, the Vermont law is entitled "An Act to Protect Religious Freedom and Recognize Equality in Civil Marriage." Such titles in other states are Orwellian - those acts only purport to protect churches from having to marry same-sex couples, which is unconstitutional anyway. So far, same-sex marriage has had no regard for actual religious freedom.

Until Vermont.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/04/14/2009-04-14_a_hidden_victory_for_religious_freedom.html

ND Students ask us to join them

Pro-life students at Notre Dame have met to determine a plan of action. They are choosing peaceful activities that will not jeopardize the status of their pro-life groups on campus. One of their activities is to pray the rosary together for 40 days prior to graduation. They are trying to get a million rosaries for the conversion of President Obama with a secondary intention for the University of ND and all Catholic colleges. They ask us to join them in this effort. http://ndresponse.com/million-rosaries.html

Extramarital sex wrong?

Extramarital sex wrong? Gays and supporters of same sex marriage less likely to think so

One of the arguments against same sex marriage is that it will fundamentally weaken the institution by opening it up to groups who do not take the vows as seriously as they should, thus cheapening the whole enterprise and leading more people to forgo it entirely. Stanley Kurtz is probably the most widely known advocate of this view. Of specific interest to this post is the following excerpt:

Many thoughtful gay activists see same-sex marriage as a chance to redefine marriage itself — stripping marriage of what they see as its outdated and constricting connection to monogamy. And of course, even more powerfully than openly non-monogamous gay marriages, legalized group marriage would destroy the taboo against adultery.

http://anepigone.blogspot.com/2009/04/extramarital-sex-wrong-gays-and.html

To Have, to Hold, For a While

W. BRADFORD WILCOX Brad Wilcox will be one of the faculty at the Ruth Institute Conference in San Diego, CA, August 6-9, 2009.

Amid divorce, remarriage and co-habitation, children do not do well.

Last week, Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage, setting off yet another round of celebration and hand-wringing in different quarters of American life. The debate over same-sex marriage -- showing so much intensity on both sides -- is but one sign that Americans take marriage very seriously indeed. From television specials featuring over-the-top Bridezilla weddings to the federal Healthy Marriage Initiative, which spends $150 million annually on marriage-related programs, no other Western nation devotes as much cultural energy, public policy or religious attention to matrimony as the U.S. And with approximately 90% of Americans marrying over the course of their lifetimes, the U.S. has the highest marriage rate of any Western country.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123958524728412435.html

Pro-lifers target of hate crime in Illinois town

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A hate crimes lawsuit has been filed against the owner of an abortion clinic in Rockford, Illinois. Wayne Webster's abortion clinic -- located in a community about 90 miles northeast of Chicago -- has gained some notoriety, according to Tom Brechja, president and senior counsel at the Thomas More Society.

"The proprietor of this abortion clinic has been a rather bizarre personality with -- believe it or not -- rubber chickens hanging in the window from nooses," Brechja relates. "He's got religious symbols in the window. They are sacrilegiously defamed." In addition, he says, there is a doll of a nun lying in a coffin with a needle stuck in its heart.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=484194

Tiller's legal troubles not over yet

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The Kansas State Board of Healing Arts is continuing to consider charges against late-term Wichita abortionist George Tiller. In late March, Tiller was acquitted on 19 misdemeanor charges involving his practice, but the state board can still strip him of his medical license. Troy Newman of Operation Rescue tells of one charge involving an undercover probe.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=484274

We’re in the fast lane to polygamy

Mark Steyn

Remember same-sex-marriage proponents rolling their eyes at talk of what might be next?

What’s my line on legalized polygamy? Oh, I pretty much said it all back in 2004, in a column for Ezra Levant’s Western Standard. Headline: “It’s Closer Than They Think.”Well, a mere half-decade down the slippery slope and here we are, with the marrying kind of Bountiful, B.C., headed for the Supreme Court of Canada. Five years ago, proponents of same-sex marriage went into full you-cannot-be-serious eye-rolling mode when naysayers warned that polygamy would be next. As I wrote in that Western Standard piece:“Gay marriage, they assure us, is the merest amendment to traditional marriage, and once we’ve done that we’ll pull up the drawbridge.”

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/04/09/we%e2%80%99re-in-the-fast-lane-to-polygamy/

Until the last second…

Sheila Liaugminas

Effectively, until midnight April 9, all citizens have the opportunity to voice their concerns about HHS’s proposal to rescind conscience protection laws for health care providers. And while the clock’s ticking, those who understand what’s happening might want to let others know that false claims are being made to assure people the language in the proposal still protects the medical field.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/until_the_last_second/

Keeping my face off of Facebook has my girls all a Twitter

Erin Manning

Social networking sites may not offer children the type of "socialisation" the experts call for.

“Mom, can we check our email?” I get that question quite a bit these days. With three daughters, one an actual teen, and the other two hovering on the brink of their teenage years, I probably should have seen this coming.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/keeping_my_face_off_of_facebook_has_my_girls_all_a_twitter/

A step for 'rights of conscience' in healthcare

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The American Center for Law & Justice is claiming victory in proving that pharmacists have a right to a conscience. The litigation in the case has quite a history, according to ACLJ attorney Francis Manion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=482666

Christian student refuses 'remediation,' gets the boot

Charlie Butts and Marty Cooper - OneNewsNow

A college student in Michigan has been formally dismissed from a graduate program based on political correctness gone awry. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) senior counsel Jeremy Tedesco explains that Julea Ward encountered resistance from Eastern Michigan University when she refused to affirm a counseling client's homosexual behavior.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=482418

Pro-lifers rally in Illinois to fight FOCA legislation

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Pro-lifers in Illinois have successfully defeated Freedom of Choice Act legislation. The Pro-Life Action League had a major victory last week in the Illinois legislature where pro-abortion forces were trying to foist an Illinois version of the Freedom of Choice Act, or FOCA, onto the state. Eric Scheidler is a spokesman for the League.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=482476

Warren's 'backsliding' on marriage damages church

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

A Washington, DC, pastor and outspoken opponent of same-sex "marriage" says California mega-church pastor Rick Warren has done "tremendous damage" by apologizing for his support last fall of California's marriage protection amendment. Rick Warren said Monday on CNN's Larry King Live that he has "never been and never will be" an "anti-gay marriage activist," and made a point to inform the program's host that he apologized to his homosexual friends for comments he made in October to his church in support of Proposition 8 in California.

Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr., with the High Impact Leadership Coalition says he was very disappointed with Warren's statements on CNN. "This man who's been called the next Billy Graham, who I really respect with all my heart and love what he's doing in Africa, is falling into a trap that is emblematic of the problem that the entire church is facing in this generation," Jackson states. "And that is that we love the applause of men more than we love the work of God and the gospel."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=483576

Falsely arrested KS pastor wins lawsuit

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A Wichita, Kansas, pastor has won a battle over free speech. In June 2007, Mark Holick, pastor of Spirit One Christian Center, and 30 members of his congregation traveled to a downtown park where a homosexual festival was under way. They hoped to spread the message of salvation and the power to leave the 'gay' lifestyle through Christ. They were accosted by police who told them they could not conduct their business, even outside the park.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=480822

Minority-targeted abortion a 'grotesque' trend in America

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

A bill recently introduced in Congress would criminalize sex-and race-selection abortion. Congressman Trent Franks (R-Arizona) and colleague Jeff Fortenberry (R-Nebraska) are co-sponsoring the Susan B. Anthony/Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act. The bill would ban people from performing or soliciting funding for race- or sex-selected abortion.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=480696

Congress to vote on 'Day of Silence'

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A pro-family advocate is urging people to voice their concern over a resolution sitting before Congress.

Congressional Resolution 92 will receive an up-or-down vote on or before April 17, which is the National Day of Silence -- a day when students across America are encouraged to show their support for the homosexual community by refusing to speak.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=481090

A ‘deficit of ethics’

Sheila Liaugminas

One of the main causes for the global financial crisis, Pope Benedict told G20 leaders. The pope sent a letter to Britain’s Gordon Brown at the start of the summit last week, and it got little attention in the pop media circus around the events and especially, the Obamas. But Benedict’s letter made incisive points. He told the leaders he appreciated…

"the meeting’s noble objectives based on the conviction, shared by all the participating Governments and international organizations, that the way out of the current global crisis can only be reached together, avoiding solutions marked by any nationalistic selfishness or protectionism."

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/a_deficit_of_ethics/

Wrong way to relieve pain

Sheila Liaugminas

Disguised as compassion, the euthanasia movement is trying to invade the health care system to help end suffering. By ending lives. We know this, but Wesley Smith explains more in this article from my bioethics file. It’s getting more and more timely.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/wrong_way_to_relieve_pain/

Censorship grounded - FAA settles religious speech case

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The Federal Aviation Administration has settled a lawsuit over disciplining an employee for his stance on homosexual conduct. Attorneys for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed suit after the FAA took issue with Larry Dombrowski, who was employed in Louisville, Kentucky, for engaging in conversation a co-worker who felt homosexuals could serve as priests in the Episcopal Church. According to ADF, there were no heated exchanges, and both parties respected each other's comments.

But attorney Kevin Theriot tells OneNewsNow that action was taken by the FAA, which accused Dombrowski of engaging in "unbecoming conduct" as a supervisor for conversations he had with fellow workers regarding his Christian beliefs.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=479596

'Parental rights' - Congress in a race against the U.N.

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A parental rights advocate is thrilled that Congress has introduced a bill that would protect the rights of parents. Michael Farris, president of ParentalRights.org, is offering thanks to Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-Michigan), and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) for standing up for parental rights. He says Congressman Hoekstra and more than 70 members of the House introduced House Joint Resolution 42, also known as the Parental Rights Amendment.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=479658

Iowa marriage ruling 'infects wholesome heartland'

Charlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow

A Christian attorney and pro-family activist is ripping the Hawkeye State's highest court for manufacturing new law from thin air -- and in the process bringing West Coast immorality to the nation's heartland. Iowa residents are waking up to the reality of court-imposed same-gender "marriage." On Friday, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that the state's ban on homosexual marriage violates the constitutional rights of homosexual couples. That decision makes Iowa the third state where such unions are legal.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=479424

Vermont legalizes same-sex 'marriage' with veto override

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The way has been paved for Vermont homosexuals to legally "marry" -- another indication, says one Christian activist, of the current political climate in Washington, DC. Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize homosexual marriage -- and the first to do so with a legislature's vote. The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing homosexuals to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override. The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=480808

Obama appoints open homosexual to faith-based office

Jim Brown and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow

The head of a conservative activist group says President Obama's appointment of a leading homosexual activist to his faith-based council is an ominous sign that he may enforce a "pro-homosexuality orthodoxy" on religious groups receiving federal funds, which is itself a form of bigotry.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=479808

What about those octuplets?

Jennifer Roback Morse

Government indifference to responsible fatherhood is what made the tragedy of OctoMom possible.

What are we to make of the case of Nadya Suleman, the California woman who gave birth to octuplets through IVF? The case has inspired lots of internet chatter and water cooler talk. I maintain that insurance and government funding are the least of the worries of this case. The case illustrates two deep problems with our current attitudes toward artificial reproductive technology (ART). First, no one has a right to have a baby. Second, the state should not be in the business of deliberately separating father from their children.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/what_about_those_octuplets/

Lawmakers declare fetuses to be people, too

Drew Zahn

Legislative bodies in two states voted this month to define the beginning of human life – and human rights – at conception.

On Feb. 17, North Dakota's House of Representatives voted 51-41 to approve a bill that declares "any organism with the genome of homo sapiens" – even one not yet born – is a person protected by rights under the state's constitution.

Yesterday, the Montana Senate voted 26-24 to approve S.B. 406, a constitutional Personhood Amendment that states, "All persons are born free and have certain inalienable rights. ... Person means a human being at all stages of human development of life, including the state of fertilization or conception, regardless of age, health, level of functioning or condition of dependency."

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=90241

"Day of Silence" for Gay Awareness in Schools April 17

from AFA (American Family Association)

If your child's school allows "Day of Silence" propaganda, keep your child at home April 17.

The Day of Silence, which is sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), fast approaches. This year it will take place in most public schools on April 17. On this day, thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day-even during instructional time-to promote GLSEN's socio-political goals and its controversial, unproven, and destructive theories on the nature and morality of homosexuality.

Parents must actively oppose this hijacking of the classroom for political purposes. Please join the national effort to restore to public education a proper understanding of the role of government-subsidized schools. You can help de-politicize the learning environment by calling your child out of school if your child's school allows students to remain silent during instructional time on the Day of Silence.

http://www.illinoisfamily.org/doswalkout/

Tolkien's Dark Lord at the UN; a Blessed Painter

Elizabeth Lev

Although the Christian community and Iran find themselves opposed on many issues, it was a heartening vision to see the diverse nations cooperating in defense of alliance and dialogue through the culture of life. But as in Tolkien's great adventure of the fellowship of the nine, it was the smallest of all that saved the day. Like the four indomitable hobbits of Tolkien's epic, the Holy See (a tiny 104-acre state), Comoros (which I had to look up on Googlemaps -- it's in the Indian Ocean near Madagascar) Santa Lucia and Malta all joined the fellowship to break the stranglehold of the forces of evil.

These four hobbit-like states, whose collective national products probably don't equal the operating budget for Planned Parenthood, spoke loudly and convincingly. Malta decried the consistent attempts by the commission to expand "reproductive health" to include abortion. The delegate from Santa Lucia saw to the heart of the proposed wording and stressed that her delegation understood that this provision did not threaten the right of health care providers to refuse to perform or be complicit in abortions as a matter of conscience.

As Galadrial said to the wavering Frodo, "even the smallest person can change the course of the future."At the last moment at the close of the meeting, the ring of power was thrown back into the fires of Mount Doom from whence it came. "Sexual and reproductive health and rights" was struck from the text.

In these days of imminent conscience coercion, massive government funding of abortion and other gloomy signs on the horizon, this little fellowship at the United Nations demonstrated what Tolkien's characters whisper during the darkest hours and Pope Benedict XVI exclaims from nation to nation: "There is still hope."

http://www.zenit.org/article-25617?l=english

More on Embryonic Stem Cells (For the not-so-dummies)

E. Christian Brugger, Ph.D., Senior Fellow in Ethics

Because of heightened interest in my last piece, Stem Cells for Dummies, I decided to pursue further questions pertaining to scientific interest in embryonic stem cells (ESCs).

Pluripotent stem cells: elixirs of lifeRecall we said that ESCs possess the quality of pluripotency, that is, the ability to develop themselves from an undifferentiated cellular state into most any differentiated cell type in the human body. This wide-ranging capacity for differentiation—this pluripotency—is the coveted property of ESCs. Defenders of the research dream of a day when the powers of ES cell pluripotency have been fully harnessed. They reason: since degenerative diseases (such as Parkinson’s, Leukemia, Alzheimer’s, cardiac, liver and kidney disease, Lou Gering’s Disease … you name it) are caused by various kinds of tissue failure; if we can just control the regeneration of tissue by controlling the differentiation mechanisms of ESCs, we can definitively conquer degenerative disease! The lame shall walk, the blind shall see, and all sick persons know the good news. But we need embryos, lots of embryos.

http://culture-of-life.org//content/view/554/1/

Terms hint at stances in gay marriage debate

By Dave Gram, Associated Press Writer

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Is it gay marriage or same-sex marriage? Genderless marriage or marriage equality?In the ongoing push to let gays and lesbians marry, the choice of terms provides a good clue of where the speaker stands.Assisted suicide vs. death with dignity. Estate tax vs. death tax. As with other hot-button social issues, the main course in the gay marriage debate comes with a side: a discussion of which words properly describe it."I think language is critical to any debate," says Vermont lobbyist Tim Meehan, who's not involved in the issue. "How you say it drives the train."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/states/vermont/2009-04-01-2338847866_x.htm

George on SSM and body-self dualism

Robert George responds to our conversation on same-sex marriage as follows:

I profoundly agree that [the SSM question] is not so simple or, at least, it is not simple in the way that people on the two sides seem to think it is simple. I say this for a particular reason. The debate is "simple" in this sense: If one, whether formally or merely implicitly, believes that persons are (whatever else we are) our bodies, and that we are not non-bodily persons (minds, consciousnesses, spirits) who inhabit and use nonpersonal bodies as extrinsic instruments, then one is likely to agree that the sexual intercourse of man and woman, inasmuch as it fulfills the behavioral conditions of procreation (whether or not the non-behavioral conditions happen to obtain), is capable of uniting them interpersonally and that bodily union, qua personal, is the indispensable foundation and matrix of the comprehensive (bioloogical, emotional, dispositional, rational, spiritual) union that marriage is. In other words, one will affirm marriage as a one-flesh union. (And the Biblical teaching that in marriage a man and woman become one flesh will make sense to you. And the law's historic concern with consummation as an essential element of marriage will also make sense to you.)

http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.com/mirrorofjustice/2009/04/george-on-ssm-and-bodyself-dualism.html

Fiction and Faction

Iowa judges have imposed gay marriage on a state that voted against it.
By Andrew C. McCarthy

Faction is the eternal condition of mankind. “As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed,” wrote James Madison in Federalist No. 10. “As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDJmY2FmODQ2ZDE5Mzc2NDYzNDljZDUyYzVhZDdhOGI=&w=MA

Married to Liberty?

Vermont and Rick Warren.
By Maggie Gallagher

Last week, the Iowa supreme court found a constitutional right to gay marriage, rejecting the arguments for marriage accepted by the state supreme courts of New York, Maryland, and Washington.Thus did the Iowa court, as my colleague at the National Organization for Marriage Brian Brown said, “misuse the law to impose an untruth on unwilling Iowans: Same-sex unions are not marriages and Iowans should not be forced to treat them as such by law.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2I2YTIwNDg5Y2Y5NjgxN2I3MDhlYmIyNjYzNzE3Njc

The Future of Marriage

One of the great coups of the movement for same-sex marriage has been to plant the premise that it represents the inevitable future. This sense has inhibited even some who know perfectly well that marriage is by nature the union of a man and a woman. They fear that throwing themselves into the cause of opposing it is futile — worse, that it will call down the judgment of history that they were bigots.

Contrary to common perception, however, the public is not becoming markedly more favorable toward same-sex marriage. Support for same-sex marriage rose during the 1990s but seems to have frozen in place (at least according to Gallup) since the high court of Massachusetts invented a right to same-sex marriage earlier this decade.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTkyYThkODRiODg1MGI4OTI2NThkNGRiZjIzMDU0OGQ

Planned Parenthood Annual Report: Abortion Totals, Government Funding Increase

by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor April 8, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has released its annual report for fiscal year 2007-2008. The document shows the nation's largest abortion business is getting bigger as it showed an increase of five percent more abortions and increased taxpayer funding.According to Planned Parenthood's latest report, abortions increased to 305,310 abortions up from 289,750 in 2006.That 5.3 percent increase came at a time when the Alan Guttmacher Institute, it's former research arm, showed abortions were at near-historic lows.

http://www.lifenews.com/nat4978.html

Notre Dame, Obama and the Catholic Brand

By Helen M. Alvaré

How Honoring the President Could Weaken the Catholic Voice

Supporters of Notre Dame University's decision to honor Barack Obama at its commencement employ elevated and even aspirational language in their attempt to characterize the meaning of the event. They invoke the language of "engagement" and "common ground" and "dialogue." But no matter their intentions or even their hopes, the very contents and structures of their argumentation ultimately denigrate the Catholic "brand" of speaking in the public square.

http://www.zenit.org/article-25616?l=english

Three Strikes at Vatican

James Morrison

The Vatican has quietly rejected at least three of President Obama's candidates to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See because they support abortion, and the White House might be running out of time to find an acceptable envoy before Mr. Obama travels to Rome in July, when he hopes to meet Pope Benedict XVI. Italian journalist Massimo Franco, who broke the story about the White House attempts to find a suitable ambassador to the Vatican, said papal advisers told Mr. Obama's aides privately that the candidates failed to meet the Vatican's most basic qualification on the abortion issue.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/apr/07/embassy-row-7410554/

University of Maryland statement on screening of porn film

The University of Maryland is a diverse learning environment that respects the right of a free society to offer opinion, including opinions that may differ dramatically from the larger community.Last week, following cancellation of this movie as a university-sponsored event, we pointed out that we would explore other ways to return to the topics of responsible decision-making and effects of pornography in our society.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/college/bal-umdstatement0406,0,5604320.story

Law, Feelings, and Religion at the Bar in Iowa

by Matthew J. Franck
April 07, 2009

The Supreme Court of Iowa’s decision to redefine marriage abandons reason and replaces it with feelings as the standard of public consensus.

What happens when judicial arrogance becomes so habitual as to become second nature? This past Friday, April 3, the Supreme Court of Iowa provided an answer: judicial arrogance transforms into smug self-deception. This is not the question the court thought it was answering. It claimed to be addressing the question of whether “exclusion of a class of Iowans from civil marriage”—namely the “class” of “gay and lesbian people” who wish to marry others of the same sex—can be justified by the state. But the opinion for a unanimous court in Varnum v. Brien, written by Justice Mark Cady, actually says very little about matters of such justification. By contrast, it speaks volumes about the extent to which American judicial power, having burst free of all constraints, is now in the grip of a banal routinization of tyranny so complete that the tyrants do not recognize their own character as they blandly overturn many centuries of civilization in a day’s work.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.04.07.001.pdart

Mercatornet.com's new blog

I'm certain that readers of the Ruth blog will find Mercator's blog equally as interesting:
http://www.mercatornet.com/demography/

New Book Gives Ways to Save Your Family

Tasha Easterling

Just in case you're looking for some new idea in overcoming today's culture war against your children, there's a new book out entitled 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family written by Rebecca Hagelin. My fellow blogger Marcia Segelstein told me about this book, and it certainly sounds like a great resource to pick up.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=479318

Trickery alleged among ESCR proponents

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The National Right to Life Committee is warning members of the House that they believe there's a bait-and-switch operation in the works. Douglas Johnson, spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee, tells OneNewsNow that for years the advocates of embryonic stem-cell research have been giving assurances to the public that they only want to use the so-called "leftover" human embryos for infertile couples that are no longer needed. However, he disagrees.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=477038

Conservative Iowans fight to preserve traditional marriage

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Traditional values groups are pressing the Iowa legislature to let the people decide the issue of homosexual "marriage."

Iowa Family Policy Council is lobbying lawmakers to pass a resolution to put the issue on the ballot. Spokesman Bryan English tells OneNewsNow that is after the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in favor of homosexual marriage on Friday.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=476914

Here we go again

Sheila Liaugminas

Another challenge to the Mt. Soledad cross by the ACLU. Or….the one already won is being argued again. Of course, it involves the Ninth Circuit. Arguing that removing the memorial would cause “real, irreparable harm” to war heroes and their families, the Thomas More Law Center has filed a brief opposing a legal challenge to the constitutionality of California’s historic Mt. Soledad cross which honors veterans of the U.S. armed forces. Over 2,100 plaques honoring individuals or groups of veterans are displayed near the Mt. Soledad cross, which is the centerpiece of the veterans’ memorial. Some of the plaques display Stars of David in honor of Jewish veterans. A large American flag flies at the memorial’s base.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/here_we_go_again/

Bleak stories behind failed condom campaigns

Chinwuba Iyizoba

Before blanketing the continent with condoms to stop AIDS, why don't you live in rural Africa for a while?

Sub-Saharan Africa has two-thirds of the world’s HIV/AIDS cases. So you would think that Western journalists and politicians might condescend to ask us what we think about how to fight AIDS. But they haven’t. A pity, because they would have found that many of us support Pope Benedict XVI’s scepticism about the effectiveness of distributing condoms.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/bleak_stories_behind_failed_condom_campaigns/

ACLU defends teens charged in 'sexting' scandal

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

A temporary restraining order has been issued by a federal judge, who found that the three girls accused of sending child pornography via text message would likely win in a civil rights lawsuit against George Skumanick, the attorney who threatened them with felony charges. He had hoped the girls would be forced to participate in a five-week educational program to learn about the negative effects of their actions. The ACLU is representing the girls and their parents who allege the photos were not child pornography.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=472172

Holy See proposes alternative to new U.S. population policy

New York City, N.Y., Apr 2, 2009 / 09:22 am (CNA).- Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, delivered a strongly worded speech yesterday, sharply criticizing the “population reduction” mentality defended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a Planned Parenthood gala last Friday.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=15568

Notre Dame students stick up for pro-life principles

Watch the video here: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=12842828&ch=4226716&src=news

Rumors of overpopulation: True or false?

Allie Martin - OneNewsNowAllie Martin - OneNewsNow

A seminary president says Christians must be highly skeptical when it comes to claims of world overpopulation. A recent article in USA Today said the world population is expected to hit seven billion within three years. However, as Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says, globally, the population of older persons has been on the rise, while the numbers of young persons has fallen.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=471912

Virginia To Teach Students Benefits of Marriage

It seems that the state of Virginia is on a roll this week. See The Christian Post. First Governor Tim Kaine approves the "Choose Life" specialty license plate, and now he has signed legislation which requires local schools to teach the benefits of marriage as part of Virginia's Family Life Education program.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=476522

Abortion based on race, gender labeled 'barbaric'

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona has introduced the "Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act." If passed, the bill would ban race- or gender-selection abortions. Attorney Steven Aden of the Alliance Defense Fund tells OneNewsNow his organization helped write the bill that is being referred to as "PreNDA."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=475450

Prop. 8 supporters persecuted for donations

Charlie Butts and Marty Cooper - OneNewsNow

Proposition 8 supporters continue to face harassment from same-sex "marriage" proponents...

The Washington Times reports attorney Charles LiMandri received hateful emails and phone calls after he gave $10,000 in support of traditional marriage. He says was called a homophobe, a bigot, and a Nazi. Even when he tried to explain that he was simply hoping to preserve traditional marriage, his opponents would not listen. So LiMandri collected the emails and filed a lawsuit on behalf of Prop. 8 supporters.

"We feel that the laws that require disclosure of contributors to a ballot initiative are being abused here because the opposition is basically targeting people to get this type of abuse, in some cases even getting their businesses boycotted and in some cases getting death threats," he notes.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=475012

Campus porn nipped in the bud

Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow

A questionable alternative to a night of binge drinking has been canceled at the University of Maryland. The student union at the University of Maryland-College Park planned to show a triple-X film starting at midnight Saturday. According to an article in The Baltimore Sun, university officials say the film was offered as an alternative to late-night binge drinking and other dangerous activities.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=475366

Iowa court: Ban on same-sex 'marriage' unconstitutional

Associated Press and Charlie Butts

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court says the state's same-sex "marriage" ban violates the constitutional rights of homosexual couples, making it the third state where same-sex marriage is legal. In a unanimous ruling issued Friday, the court upheld a 2007 Polk County District Court judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutional.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=476460

Shades of Gay: The heterogeneity of homosexuality.

William Saletan

Guy walks into a shrink's office. Says he's gay and wants to be straight. Shrink says, "OK, I'll help."Don't wait for the punch line. There isn't one, because this isn't a joke. It's a true story. And it's a common one, according to a British study just published in BMC Psychiatry. Researchers contacted more than 1,800 mental health professionals to find out whether they would ever try to change a client's sexual orientation. Of the 1,328 practitioners who responded, one in six admitted to having helped at least one patient attempt to alter homosexual feelings. The total number of such cases reported by the respondents was 413. That's nearly one case for every three therapists.

http://www.slate.com/id/2215123/

Schools and the rise of parent power

Carolyn Moynihan

The likelihood of a surge of parent power in British schooling under a future Conservative-led government has met with an ambivalent response in the current affairs magazine, Prospect. The possible adoption of the “Swedish model” allowing businesses, charities and parents to open schools funded by the government makes Prospect deputy editor James Crabtree slightly nervous. In an essay entitled, “They run your school, your mum and dad”, Crabtree accepts the trend of greater parental involvement in schools but finds the idea of parents “actually starting schools” and “oddly challenging vision” because “we don’t, after all, imagine patients starting hospitals, or commuters building roads.” (A comparison that fails to appreciate the role of parents as the first educators of their children.)

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/schools_and_the_rise_of_parent_power/

Dignitas to expand suicide service from the ill to the well

In the first broadcast interview he has given in five years, the Swiss founder of the controversial assisted suicide service Dignitas has defended suicide as a "marvellous possibility". In an interview with the BBC, Luigi Minelli said that "Suicide is a very good possibility to escape a situation which you can't alter." And he dismissed the notion that his service should only be available to the terminally ill: "It is not a condition to have a terminal illness. Terminal illness is a British obsession. We are not a clinic. As a human rights lawyer I am opposed to the idea of paternalism. We do not make decisions for other people."

http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/8542/

Stem cells may help hearing loss

Stem cells may help deaf people hear again, according to early stage research by British scientists reported in the journal Stem Cell. A team at the University of Sheffield has discovered how to turn stem cells into ones that behave like sensory hair cells or auditory neurons. It may be possible to surgically insert these into the ear to restore lost hearing.

http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/8543/

Another pregnant man, this time in Spain

Another thrilling chapter in the annals of artificial reproductive technology is being written in Spain. A 25-year-old transsexual woman who has had her breasts removed and was taking hormone therapy to become a man is pregnant. “Man to become first in world to give birth to twins” was the headline in the London Telegraph. The Spanish media has been full of images of a lean, balding, bespectacled man with a three-day growth rubbing his baby bump.

http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/8544/

African AIDS: the facts that demolish the myths

Michael Cook

The mystery of why AIDS has been so devastating in Africa has been solved. And it’s not lack of condoms.

Benedict XVI’s recent comment on the African AIDS crisis -- "the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem" – provoked an international sensation all out of proportion to its half-sentence length.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/african_aids_the_facts_that_demolish_the_myths/?view

The spanking wars: anti group rolls out a meta-analysis

Carolyn Moynihan

The latest shot in the spanking wars has been fired by the US anti-spanking group End Physical Punishment of Children, through a review of existing research on the subject. The national lobby group suggested the idea of the meta-analysis to Elizabeth Gershoff of the University of Michigan (but did not fund the study) and she found that corporal punishment is not a good way to improve a child's behaviour...

However, the Family Research Council points out:Ironically, though, the research did not focus on spanking at all, but on "physical punishment." The study explicitly lumps together words like "spank," "slap," "beat," "punch," and "whip," treating them as if they are all the same thing...

Dr Gershoff, a mother of two, affirms the importance of discipline and suggests parents raise their voice or immediately take something away from the child to get their attention. Hmmm. But what if a toddler throws a tantrum precisely because you took something away from them, and what if they can make more noise than you? Isn't that the time for a short, sharp smack to snap them out of it? That's what 70 per cent of US adults still think, despite the campaign against such correction. ~ Arizona Republic, Mar 19

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/the_spanking_wars_anti_group_rolls_out_a_meta_analysis/#comments

Should NY Discriminate Against Sex Abuse Victims?

Maggie Gallagher

Michael O'Herlihy used to be a Catholic priest.He was accused of abusing one of his students around 1980, at a time when he taught at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx. In 1993 he was defrocked. In 2002 his name was included on a list of priests accused of sexual abuse that the Archdiocese of New York gave to Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.And, yet, where is Michael O'Herlihy today?

http://townhall.com/Columnists/MaggieGallagher/2009/04/01/should_ny_discriminate_against_sex_abuse_victims

Good video clip on Stem Cells with Oprah, Dr. Oz, Michael J Fox

http://www.oprah.com/media/20090319-tows-dr-oz-brain

Are Men Are The 'Weaker' Sex? Pregnancy With Male Fetus Riskier, Study Claims

ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) — Nurses in the maternity ward often say that a difficult labor is a sign of a baby boy. Now, researchers at Tel Aviv University claim that a new study provides scientific evidence that a male baby comes with a bigger package of associated risks than his female counterparts.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331112729.htm

Notre Dame Students Organize Prayer Rally Protest

Holy Cross Superior Makes Pro-Life Appeal to Obama

By Genevieve Pollock

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, APRIL 1, 2009 (Zenit.org).-
A coalition of student groups at the University of Notre Dame will hold a prayer rally to protest the school's choice to honor President Barack Obama at this year's commencement. The rally, to take place on Palm Sunday, is sponsored by Notre Dame Response, a coalition that formed to speak out against the Catholic university's decision to invite the U.S. president to give its commencement speech, and to receive an honorary law degree.

http://www.zenit.org/article-25542?l=english

What an image

Sheila Liaugminas Monday, 30 March 2009

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City over the weekend. She admired the image, and asked who painted it.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay. So Msgr. Diego Monroy, who escorted Clinton at the shrine, explained the origin, and that it wasn’t painted by human hand.

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction. Somehow, the story of this centuries-old devotion and its origin must have escaped her in that visit. But at least now she knows. After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!” Actually, we. She may like to know that the Virgin of Guadalupe is also the patroness of the Americas, which includes the US. She’s also known as the ‘patroness of the unborn’. So what’s wrong with this picture? This evening Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America — the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization’s founder, a noted eugenicist.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/what_an_image/

Terri’s day

Sheila Liaugminas 31 March 2009

Her legacy is only growing stronger. Four years ago today, Terri Schiavo succumbed after being starved and dehydrated to death by court order. The final days of her ordeal and her family’s ripped into American consciousness when the media no longer had any choice but to cover the story in her last days that some of us had been covering for months in ‘alternative’ media, both print and radio. But the mainstream media never got the story right, and to this day they continue to refer to Terri, but with lies and distortions to advance an agenda that promotes abortion to euthanasia. Because the other thing that was ripped was the fabric of this culture that is now accepting the recently unacceptable, all under the language of ‘rights’.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/terris_day/

The incoherence of ND’s position

Sheila Liaugminas

Actually, you can’t refer to Notre Dame as one entity with one position, even with regards to the controversial commencement invitation to President Obama and the plan to confer on him the honorary doctorate of laws. Because plenty of people somehow affiliated with the university strongly disagree with it.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_incoherence_of_nds_position/

Notre Dame controversy is still growing

And more bishops are speaking out.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/notre_dame_controversy_is_still_growing/

Demographic winter heralds same-sex marriage spring

Jennifer Roback Morse

The New England region is a sitting duck for the further de-construction of marriage.

I would not like to be the governor of Vermont right now. But I must say the man who has the job is showing a lot of backbone in the face of a legislature on the brink of legalizing same-sex marriage. Vermont has had civil unions since 2000. This legal status for same sex couples is now deemed to be inadequate, which supposedly accounts for the decline in the number of civil unions. In 2001, the state granted 1,876 civil unions, compared with only 262 last year. The Vermont Senate has already approved the Freedom to Marry bill and Democrats in the House say they will vote for it on Friday. But Gov Jim Douglas says he will veto the measure if passed.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/demographic_winter_heralds_same_sex_marriage_spring/

Virginia Governor Approves Choose Life Plates

Blog: http://www.onenewsnow.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=471698

Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a Democrat and Obama's hand-picked choice as the Democratic National Committee head, approved new legislation that has upset pro-abortion groups. The legislation approves a new option for license plates in that state - the plates will display the phrase "Choose Life."

Pro-abortion Sebelius signs ultrasound bill

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

In advance of a confirmation hearing before a Senate panel on Tuesday, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius has signed a bill to provide sonograms to women considering abortion. Associated Press reports that the bill, which was signed on Friday, requires abortion providers who use ultrasound or monitor an unborn baby's heartbeat to give their patients access to the images or sound at least 30 minutes before an abortion. The measure takes effect July 1.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=470724

German family seeks U.S. asylum to homeschool kids

Rose French - Associated Press Writer

MORRISTOWN, Tenn. - Homeschooling is so important to Uwe Romeike that the classically trained pianist sold his beloved grand pianos to pay for moving his wife and five children from Germany to the Smoky Mountain foothills of Tennessee.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=471714

Condom distribution at church - UCC likes the idea

Allie Martin - OneNewsNow

The Institute on Religion & Democracy is blasting the religious denomination of President Barack Obama for its recent stance on condom distribution inside houses of worship. Recently, the HIV and AIDS Network of the United Church of Christ (UCC) said condoms should be handed out at places of worship. The statement was issued during a presentation to the denomination's Wider Church Ministries Board and also advocated making condoms available at faith-based educational settings.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=468294

The Nazis did this

Sheila Liaugminas

So did slave owners. De-personalize a certain class of human beings, and you can use, abuse or eliminate them however you choose. That’s exactly what’s happening in the new civil rights movement that covers the pre-born to the not-yet-dead. One of the strategies is to change the language, including “diagnoses” like “persistent vegetative state”. No one wants to think of a human being as a vegetable. Good. Don’t. Because no one is. Tell that to Jane Brody.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/the_nazis_did_this/

Instinct to protect

Sheila Liaugminas

This sounds like science fiction. Only I can’t imagine making it up. It was jarring the day I read it. But even more so after considering the case of Baby OT (see post below). A couple is suing a hospital for keeping their baby alive.

http://www.mercatornet.com/sheila_liaugminas/view/instinct_to_protect/

The last great act of living

Margaret Somerville

Legalising euthanasia would deny the full potential of the human spirit.

An extraordinary public exchange of letters between two Canadians over the past six months has illuminated in a very personal way the profound issues posed by death and all that leads to it. Ian Brown, who writes for the Globe and Mail, has a disabled son, Walker. Jean Vanier is the founder of L’Arche, a world-wide organization that provides a refuge and life-long home for intellectually disabled people. In their latest exchange of letters Brown asked Vanier, “Are you fearful of death?” Vanier replied, “No, I cannot say I am”.

http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/the_last_great_act_of_living/

Pro-lifers plan protest for Obama's visit to Notre Dame

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

The outrage over Notre Dame inviting President Obama as commencement speaker has not abated. Last week, pro-lifers strongly voiced their anger about a pro-abortion president being invited to speak at a prominent Catholic university, which supposedly upholds church doctrines such as the sanctity of life. But they also are objecting to the school's plan to give Obama an honorary Doctor of Law degree. Notre Dame has been flooded with complaints, but university President John Jenkins will not be deterred.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=468006

Hillary in 'inter-generational partnership' with eugenicist Sanger

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accepted an award from Planned Parenthood named after the pro-abortion group's founder, who once referred to blacks as "human weeds." Secretary of State Clinton was presented on Friday evening with the Margaret Sanger Award at a Planned Parenthood event in Houston (see earlier story). The award, says Planned Parenthood, is presented annually to recognize "leadership, excellence, and outstanding contributions to the reproductive health and rights movement."

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=470262

Utah defends pro-life proposals

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Alliance Defense Fund is ready to defend pro-life measures approved in Utah. One of the laws prohibits abortions after the baby becomes viable, except when the physical health of the mother is in danger or to save the mother's life. The second measure would require that full information on abortion be given to a woman seeking one, including the fact that the unborn child will feel pain after 20 weeks gestation. Steven Aden is with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF).

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=467872

Planned Parenthood honors Hillary Clinton

Associated Press

HOUSTON - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told a Planned Parenthood convention that reproductive rights, as well as women's rights and empowerment, are key issues in President Barack Obama's foreign policy. Clinton vowed her support for these issues during a speech Friday evening at the Planned Parenthood's national conference in Houston.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=469608

Tiller found not guilty: Pro-life forces vow to continue fight

OneNewsNow and the Associated Press

A Kansas jury has found notorious abortionist, George Tiller, not guilty on all counts. Tiller faced 19 misdemeanor charges that accused him of violating state laws involving late-term abortions. Cheryl Sullinger of Operation Rescue tells OneNewsNow they were disappointed with the verdict.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=468430

Pro-life pastor spends week in jail

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Pastor Walter Hoye has spent a week in a California jail on charges related to his ministry at a Berkeley abortion clinic.

Hoye was ordered to serve 30 days in jail and pay a $1,000 fine after refusing the court's offer of probation. Catie Short of the Life Legal Defense Foundation explains that Hoye declined probation because the court ordered him not to help women.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=467038

Confronting the Hook-Up Culture

by Robert P. George and John B. Londregan

A new approach is needed to support students in the hostile hook-up culture on college campuses.
In Tom Wolfe’s best-selling novel, the beautiful 18-year-old Charlotte Simmons leaves her home in the South to attend prestigious “DuPont University.” There she finds brilliant professors, gifted fellow students, extraordinary athletes, impressive gothic towers, impeccable lawns—and, of course, flowing kegs and plenty of utterly meaningless sex.

http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2009.03.17.001.pdart

Newlyweds’ arguments can predict divorce

Carolyn Moynihan

What are the odds of a lasting marriage for newly-weds who argue angrily over money or other issues? Not very good, according to British mathematician James Murray, who has devised a formula that he claims can predict divorce 94 per cent of the time. “Some couples might as well get divorced right away,” he says after conducting a study with 700 newly married couples.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/newlyweds_arguments_can_predict_divorce/

Is abortion a remedy for abuse of minors?

Carolyn Moynihan

After watching the story of the nine-year-old Brazilian girl pregnant with twins who were aborted unfold for several weeks, the New York Times has run an on-the-spot piece -- the spot being a Sao Paulo women’s health clinic specializing in treating victims of sexual violence. One of the “treatments” offered by the Perola Byington Hospital is abortion, which the doctors there say is often necessary to protect the lives of sexual-violence victims. Of the 47 abortions carried out in the hospital last year, 13 were on girls under 18, all victims of rape.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/is_abortion_a_remedy_for_abuse_of_minors/

'Plan B for girls' court decision hailed as triumph of science over politics

Carolyn Moynihan

With new bosses about to take over at the US Food and Drug Administration, a New York judge has ordered the federal drug regulator to make the morning after pill available to 17-year-olds and to review whether to make the emergency contraceptive available to all ages without a doctor’s order. Judge Edward R Korman’s 52-page decision is the outcome of a lawsuit by the Centre for Reproductive Rights against the FDA’s 2006 decision to deny girls younger than 18 access to the Plan B pill without a prescription.

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/plan_b_for_girls_court_decision_hailed_as_triumph_of_science_over_politics/

Self-esteem fad has gone too far, psychologist tells teachers

Carolyn Moynihan

The lingering obsession with boosting children’s self esteem has been given the thumbs down by a Scottish psychologist, who says the idea has gone too far. “We are wrong in thinking we have to get the ‘I’ bigger,” said Dr Carol Craig, speaking at a British school and college leaders conference. “If we say to people the most important thing is how you feel about yourself, then if a child fails maths and feels bad, it is very tempting for them to blame it on others like teachers and parents. Parents no longer want to hear if their children have done anything wrong. This is the downside of the self esteem agenda.”

http://www.mercatornet.com/family_edge/self_esteem_fad_has_gone_too_far_psychologist_tells_teachers/#comments

NC's 'Healthy Youth Act' healthy in name only

Charlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow

The vast majority of North Carolina school districts teach abstinence until marriage -- but one family advocate in the Tar Heel State says a backdoor approach is under way in the legislature to push an agenda that promotes promiscuity.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=466794

Ariz. authorities noncommittal on abortion clinic sting

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

It's unclear how prosecutors will proceed with evidence from an undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood of Arizona that alleges abortions on minors without reporting the alleged statutory crime to authorities.

Live Action did the taped undercover probes of a Tucson abortuary and submitted DVD copies to the Pima County Attorney and Arizona Attorney General offices, asking for an investigation. Spokesperson Lila Rose says her organization received a response by mail.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=466290

'Bisexual' teacher invites students to same-sex ceremony

Charlie Butts and Marty Cooper - OneNewsNow

A self-proclaimed bisexual male teacher in New York has invited his seventh-grade students and their parents to witness his commitment ceremony to another man.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=464964