ARTICLES - HOT OFF THE FAGGOT

LaBarbera: EEOC should keep an eye on new appointee

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LaBarbera: EEOC should keep an eye on new appointee
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Chai Feldblum (Obama EEOC appointee)The Senate has confirmed another controversial appointee to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and one conservative leader is warning that her new position could present a problem.

Chai R. Feldblum, an open homosexual, was one of President Obama's four nominations to the commission. Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH) president Peter LaBarbera points out why her long-pending selection could be a problem.


"I don't think the typical American has any clue who Chai Feldblum is, but they need to know because she is a leading homosexual advocate, and she admits that homosexual rights, so-called, will come at the expense of religious freedom," LaBarbera explains.

Peter LaBarberaHe says the appointee taught law at Georgetown University and "was one of the authors of ENDA, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which is a bill which would federalize homosexual activist rights." But the AFTAH president adds that Feldblum "is honest enough to admit that there is a zero-sum game battle between gay rights, so-called, and people's religious freedom to disagree with homosexuality."



Feldblum believes homosexuals should win that battle, so LaBarbera feels her appointment should show others why homosexual activism is at the vanguard of threatening freedoms for religious Americans. He also thinks her work at the federal agency should be watched closely, especially considering it is a government organization that watches over discrimination complaints.

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New military policy compromising careers

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New military policy compromising careers
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow

Army soldiersAn advocate for America's fighting men and women says the repeal of the ban on homosexuals serving in the military will effectively create a new type of "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military.

In the months leading up to President Barack Obama signing the bill and fulfilling his campaign pledge to activist homosexual groups, many service members said they would not remain in uniform if that lifestyle was foisted upon the military. In fact, an Army National Guard lieutenant colonel recently told WorldNetDaily that he has already sent a letter asking to be relieved of his command so that he will not have to subject his troops to pro-homosexual indoctrination. He has also threatened to resign his commission, rather than undergo "behavior modification" training.

Elaine Donnelly"The lesbian, gay, bisexual [and] transgender access to the armed forces with zero tolerance of dissent will be a major reason why some decisions will be made, especially in the mid-career ranks, by families and by individuals to just not re-enlist," warns Center for Military Readiness (CMR) president Elaine Donnelly.


She says a new type of "don't ask, don't tell" policy is now in effect, "because anyone who has a problem with what is portrayed to them and taught to them as a good thing -- homosexuality -- they will have to keep their views to themselves. And that principle may very well apply to chaplains and certainly people of faith in a way that's far beyond what anyone understands at this moment."



Donnelly adds that any service member's career could be put at risk if he or she says anything in opposition to homosexuals in the military.

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Politically correct phrase legally incorrect

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Politically correct phrase legally incorrect
Chad Groening - OneNewsNow

Illegal alien road signA "classic effort in propaganda" is how an immigration reform activist views a journalism society's push for the use of politically correct language in news stories concerning illegal immigration.

In its organization's magazine, Quill, the diversity committee of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) lambasts the use of the phrase "illegal immigrant" or "illegal alien" and calls on journalists to use the more politically correct "undocumented immigrants" or "undocumented workers" when reporting on the issue.


The article, written by a longtime member of the SPJ Diversity Committee, claims the descriptor "illegal alien" originated with "fiery, anti-immigrant groups" along the U.S.-Mexico border, such as the Minutemen, and is offensive to Latinos, "especially Mexicans." [Editor's note: Most border enforcement groups speak against illegal immigration, not immigration in general.]

Ira MehlmanDespite the SPJ's campaign, many mainstream journalists employ the word "illegal," and even Associated Press prefers the phrase "illegal immigrant" to "undocumented worker" in its official stylebook.


"This is a classic effort in propaganda. The people who control language often control the agenda, and if you go back and you look through history movements that have looked to control the terms of a debate, they often start with trying to control the language that's used," notes Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).

"There's nothing pejorative about using the term 'illegal alien.' An alien, according to the law, is the legal definition of somebody who is not a citizen of the United States. Somebody who is not a citizen of the United States and is here in violation of the law, that legal term is 'illegal alien.'"



So Mehlman does not think the SPJ's effort to "inform and sensitize" reporters will have much of an effect one way or another.

A disclaimer on the op-ed says it does not reflect the views of the Society of Professional Journalists, its members, or the committee -- and that the committee has taken no official initiative on use of the phrase "illegal immigrant."

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Texas-based Planned Parenthood affiliate is leaving federation because it doesn't want to perform abortions

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Abortion mindset drives affiliate away
Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

Planned Parenthood signA Texas-based Planned Parenthood affiliate is leaving the national federation because it doesn't want to perform abortions.

After the Corpus Christi chapter was told that national Planned Parenthood officials were working to standardize their operations, which included a requirement for all affiliates to offer abortions, CEO Amanda Stukenberg told them her chapter focused solely on contraception and birth control, and she has notified the national office that it will change its name to Family Planning of the Coastal Bend. Dr. Joe Pojman of the Texas Alliance for Life is delighted with the news.

Joe Pojman"What we're seeing in Corpus Christi is a local Planned Parenthood affiliate which has disaffiliated itself from the national organization because of the national organization's commitment to force them to provide abortions -- something they don't want to do," he explains.


He goes on to point out that this is not the first time evidence has surfaced to reveal that Planned Parenthood's main focus is abortion, as it is the most lucrative part of the clinic's operations.


"This is very consistent with what Abby Johnson, the former director of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Bryan, Texas, has been telling us -- that Planned Parenthood has a national campaign to force every local organization that's affiliated with Planned Parenthood to provide abortion on demand," Pojman adds.



When Johnson resigned from her position at Planned Parenthood, she confirmed that abortion is a cash cow, and Pojman says the organization is promoting the practice as a way to pump up revenue. In fact, according to Planned Parenthood's own figures from 2007, prenatal care and adoption referrals only composed five percent of the clinic's total services, while abortions accounted for 95 percent.

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Op-ed piece on warming a 'bundle' of lies

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Op-ed piece on warming a 'bundle' of lies
Chris Woodward - OneNewsNow

global warming questionA climatologist and former NASA scientist says a recent op-ed claiming global warming is responsible for cold weather isn't true.

Dr. Roy Spencer is disputing Judah Cohen's claim made in his New York Times op-ed, "Bundle Up, It's Global Warming," that global warming is responsible for the winters of recent years and for this year's extreme winter weather experienced by parts of the U.S, Europe, and Asia.


"The consensus of opinion, even amongst those who believe that man-made global warming is going to be a serious problem, is that winters will be warmer with less snow," Dr. Spencer notes. "In reference to this New York Times op-ed that was written by this fellow, while he said it was consistent with climate change, he then talked only about natural climate cycles, which is curious."


In other words, he decides the article is "a non-sequitur."


"While [Cohen] said this is consistent with climate change, the rest of his article talked about natural climate variability -- not man-made global warming," the climatologist points out.

Dr. Roy SpencerWhile Spencer believes the globe has warmed, he also believes the question of how much and why remains up for debate. And he says that even if warming has continued over the last 50 to 100 years, "we have evidence from temperature data that suggests that almost every century in the last 2,000 years has experienced significant global warming or global cooling."


As for the recent cold weather, Spencer says the U.K.'s cold December has been caused by the persistent influx of eastern air, which he acknowledges as a "very unusual" weather pattern.


"When there is unusually cold air moving from Siberia to the U.K., for instance, that means there is unusually warm air someplace else that is replacing that cold air in portions of Siberia," he explains. "It's just air masses moving around."


The climatologist recently appeared at a U.N. Climate Conference to challenge so-called "climate orthodoxy" on behalf of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), where he says his group was successful in swaying the opinions of delegates from African nations, who seemed "interested in what we were promoting, which is free market economics and smart use of natural resources."


Despite the positive impact, the former NASA scientist does not see a complete change in opinion on global warming in the near future.


"There seems to be a very interesting dynamic forming in this whole global warming belief system. The public is getting more and more skeptical, but the ruling class, I'll call them the 'elites' -- the politicians [and] the scientists who do all this research as part of their careers -- they're continuing on with their belief that warming is man-made, that it's going to be even worse in the future, and they are totally impervious to what's going on in public opinion."



So he concludes "the elites" will continue working to gain support for that opinion as long as they continue getting funding.

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Remember the Sabbath! It is a Delight!

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Remember the Sabbath! It is a Delight!

Remember the Sabbath. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man, that people were never created to serve the Sabbath. It is and was and always will be a precious thing of delight, something given to you, and me, and all of us, a Sabbath rest for the people of God. It is not a burden, though the false teachers attempt to make it so, they claim you have been "liberated from Sabbath keeping" -- the next thing? Possibly that you have been "liberated" from Grace!
Think about it, if someone who knew nothing about the Bible was stranded on a deserted island with only the Bible to read, he'd never know a thing about the thousands of years of man's traditions that have grown up to obscure the Truth in the Bible. This castaway would learn about the Sabbath of God, and He would be happy to have such a blessing in such a lonely world. He would do his very best to figure out exactly WHEN was the seventh day, the Sabbath!

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Happy Sabbath p.s. Happy New Year, too!

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Happy Sabbath

p.s. Happy New Year, too! ,
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Hillary Clinton to gay teens: "Tomorrow Will Be Better"

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Hillary Clinton to gay teens: "Tomorrow Will Be Better"

By Ed O'Keefe
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks directly to gay and lesbian teenagers in a new video produced at the urging of State Department employees.

Clinton calls recent suicides by gay teenagers "a reminder that all Americans have to work harder to overcome bigotry and hatred."

"Hang in there and ask for help," she says to teens being bullied because of their sexuality. "Your life is so important -- to your family, your friends, and to your country. And there is so much waiting for you, both personally and professionally -- there are so many opportunities for you to develop your talents and make your contributions."

"Here at the State Department, I am grateful every day for the work of our LGBT employees who are serving the United States as foreign service officers and civil servants here and around the world," she says later. "It wasn't long ago that these men and women would not have been able to serve openly, but today they can -- because it has gotten better. And it will get better for you.

"So take heart, and have hope, and please remember that your life is valuable, and that you are not alone. Many people are standing with you and sending you their thoughts, their prayers and their strength. Count me among them. Take care of yourself."

The video was shot and produced quickly after members of the group Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies contacted State Department Counselor Cheryl Mills asking for the secretary to speak out, said Michelle Schohn, a spokeswoman for the group.

Schohn noted that Clinton was one of the first public figures to speak publicly about gay teen suicides, raising the issue during a Gay Pride Month speech at the State Department in June:


I think that each and every one of you not only professionally, particularly from State and USAID in every bureau and every embassy and every part of our government, have to do what you can to create that safe space, but also personally to really look for those who might need a helping hand, particularly young people, particularly teenagers who still, today, have such a difficult time and who still, in numbers far beyond what should ever happen, take their own lives rather than live that life. So I would ask you to please think of ways you can be there for everyone who is making this journey to defend not only human rights globally, but to truly defend themselves and their rights. The struggle for equality is never, ever finished. And it is rarely easy, despite how self-evident it should be.

A State Department spokesman did not return requests for comment on the video.


By Ed O'Keefe October 20, 2010; 8:00 AM ET
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Source
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Playing Catholic politics with US healthcare

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Playing Catholic politics with US healthcare

A nun who authorised an abortion to save a mother's life was excommunicated. How will Catholic hospitals act in future?

Becky Garrison

Even though the Catholic hierarchy can take years to issue a reprimand against priests found to be guilty of sexual abuse, Sister Margaret McBride, a member of the ethics board at St Joseph's hospital in Phoenix, Arizona was reassigned and excommunicated in November 2009 after authorising an abortion in order to save the life of a 27-year-old mother of four. Bishop Thomas J Olmsted justified his actions by stating: "An unborn child is not a disease … the end does not justify the means." In December 2010, he stripped the hospital of its Catholic status, an ecclesiastical decision that renders the chapel unable to administer the eucharist.

St Joseph's hospital released a statement in support of McBride: "In this tragic case, the treatment necessary to save the mother's life required the termination of an 11-week pregnancy." A statement issued by Sr Carol Keehan, DC, president and chief executive office of the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) concurred with this assessment: "They carefully evaluated the patient's situation and correctly applied the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services to it, saving the only life that was possible to save." Along those lines, America magazine, a national weekly Catholic magazine published by the Jesuits, ran two articles by a leading Catholic moral theologian, Kevin O'Rourke, a Dominican priest, which concluded that, according to church law, excommunication was not justified in this case.

However, the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) noted that this case "represents a significant step by a bishop to exercise his legitimate role as teacher and defender of the faith in his diocese as well as an unfortunate refusal of hospital officials to respect the bishop's role as a teacher and pastor". These contradictory statements need to be viewed in light of the fact that the CMA advances the doctrinal positions held by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) whereas the CHA, a trade organisation representing the business interests of Catholic hospitals, advocates to ensure that their member hospitals provide patient care for the entire community.

While this story may on the surface appear to be a specific diocesan dispute, currently there are 600 Catholic hospitals in the United States, comprising about one-fifth of all hospital beds. Also, about 45 Catholic hospitals in the US are sole providers, meaning they're the only hospital serving a community. As reported by The Revealer, a daily review of religion in the news and the news about religion, "these hospitals are governed by 72 ethical and religious directives that are written by the USCCB and enforced by the local bishop".

While Catholic hospitals receive about half of their funding from the Federal government via Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, Catholic hospitals can claim exemption from federal laws through a web of "conscience" clauses. Ann Neumann, editor of the Revealer, observes: "In most Catholic health care facilities, the conscience of the church supersedes the rights of patients and individual doctors by limiting care services according to Catholic doctrine. Men, women, the elderly, the poor and the victimised – effectively, entire communities served by Catholic hospitals – suffer a drastic and often traumatic loss of patients' rights when information or services are denied, particularly when a Catholic hospital is the only game in town."

Bryan Cones, managing editor of US Catholic, a lay-edited national Catholic monthly magazine, places this debate within the larger framework of the ongoing discussion surrounding the intersection of Catholic faith and public healthcare in the United States. "The bishops in general and Olmsted in particular are insisting that their prudential judgment must be followed; that was the US bishops' position on the healthcare reform bill. I think it is unprecedented in the US Catholic church that the personal judgment of a bishop on a particular ethical situation has to be affirmed by a Catholic organisation or individual."

Catholics for Choice (CFC), an independent organisation that challenges the Catholic hierarchy on issues of human sexuality and reproduction, has been tracking healthcare in US-based Catholic hospitals since the early 1990s. According to the CFC president, Jon O'Brien: "Even though Olmsted is on the extreme end of how bishops enforce the 72 directives, it's significant that a Catholic hospital turned Olmsted down and are no longer considered to be Catholic. This hospital made a step in the right direction by showing that the bishop's stamp on their letterhead isn't as critical as providing services to the community."

Despite the fact that St Joseph's hospital is no longer considered Catholic, the staff continues to provide medical care following their interpretation of the directives. The question remains how other Catholic hospitals will respond when faced with a traditionalist bishop who overrides judgments made by trained medical personnel.

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Why are 'witches' still being burned alive in Ghana?

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Why are 'witches' still being burned alive in Ghana?

Elderly women are used as scapegoats for all ills in large parts of Ghanaian society – leading to exile, and sometimes murder

Cameron Duodu
ghana witches
Women accused of being witches in Ghana are often ostracised from society and sent to live in special camps. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

Ghanaians are waiting for their normally slow court system to deliver a verdict in a shocking case that illuminates resurgent beliefs in witchcraft.

Six people are currently appearing before a magistrate at Tema, near Accra, for allegedly burning a 72-year-old woman to death, in the belief that she was a witch. Earlier, the media had made fun of an elderly woman who, it was claimed, was "arrested" by villagers who claimed that she had "fallen out of the sky" after running out of "witches' gas" on a flying expedition with her coven, and fallen under a tree.

In both cases, anyone with the slightest knowledge of dementia would recognise symptoms of the disease from the accounts given of the behaviour of the women. They were where they were not supposed to be, and when they were asked what they were doing there, they could not explain themselves. This is because dementia sometimes robs its victims of the ability to speak coherently.

The woman who was burnt to death, Madam Ama Ahima, hailed from Ajumako Assasan in the Central Region. She was found in a bedroom of a house in which she knew no one. She had alighted from a lorry at the wrong place and got lost. But she could not explain this and a mob soon gathered around her and subjected her to angry questioning. One of the questioners happened to be an "evangelist", and the suggestion soon gained ground that she was a witch.

A member of the mob asked for kerosene and matches, poured the kerosene on the woman and set her ablaze. A nurse who lived next door heard of the commotion and took the victim to a police station, where she lodged a complaint. The police rushed her to a hospital but within 24 hours, she was dead.

Because belief in witchcraft forms part of Ghanaian mythology, elderly women are often subjected to cruel treatment and mental torture. A lack of scientific knowledge of the natural physical and mental degenerations that can occur during old age – including Alzheimer's disease, but not excluding hysterical dissociation and schizophrenia – means that witchcraft is blamed for a lot of "strange" happenings.

At the same time, a lot of Ghanaians have studied the Bible in a patchy sort of way, and swallow in a literal manner stories about the "casting out of devils". An evangelist who wants to be feared as one who casts out devils cannot lose if he or she picks on an elderly lady. Such women are vulnerable, and where the congregation is itself predisposed towards believing she is a witch, she has no chance. Cruel, brutal acts of "exorcism" are often used to "cure" her.

Many of the latter-day evangelists are ruthless religious mercenaries, who implant the idea in people's minds that nothing bad can happen to them without malign intervention by witches in their families.

So, a marriage breaks down, due to infidelity or pecuniary hardship, and the older woman in the household is responsible. A young, unemployed man becomes listless and shows signs of depression: an elderly lady wants to destroy him. A lorry driver gets drunk and crashes his vehicle at night: an elderly woman shone a torch into his eyes and blinded him, running his vehicle into a ditch. Even simple things such as pupils failing exams, or crops failing, or an inability to save money, are laid at the doors of "witches".

Swaths of Ghanaian society absolve themselves of personal responsibility in almost all things, and, with the aid of both traditional superstitions and the modern equivalent preached in the "charismatic churches", embark on acts of brutality against helpless scapegoats, such as occurred at Tema.

As many as three "witches' camps" have been established in the northern region of Ghana – the Gambaga camp in the East Mamprusi district, Tindanzie camp in the Gushegu district and the Tindang camp in the Yendi district – where elderly women alleged to be witches have been dumped by members of their families. They would probably have lost their lives had they not been placed in the care of government officials and non-governmental organisations. A 55-minute film, called The Witches of Gambaga, co-produced and directed by a Ghanaian-British filmmaker, Yaba Badoe, tells the story of one of the camps. It won the 2010 Black International Film Festival best documentary award.

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