[Active-l] (NEWS) Today's Cultural Warfare Update

[Dara (R'ykandar Korra'ti)]

MSNBC's coverage of the "conservatives angry at gay and lesbian-headed  
families for signing up at White House easter egg roll" story; note  
that it's currently 100 families out of 16,000(!); they're hoping for  
all of 400 out of 16,000(!);

The Stranger covers the Hutcherson "national boycott" of Microsoft; I  
was confused after he didn't appear (as promised) on Thursday's Focus  
on the Family; turns out that was _just a lie_;

Focus on the Family coverage of anti-abortion demonstrations on  
"Sanctity of Life Sunday" and the anniversary of Roe v. Wade; Bush  
shifts position slightly, talking about changing culture by passing  
laws - c.f. Alito, if confirmed; includes two ACTION ITEMS for  
anti-abortion legislation;

Focus on the Family unhappy with Google not turning over search  
records, focuses on porn issues;

National Review author condemns feminism, says it has made women's  
lives worse; Focus on the Family praises author for "serious points  
about the threat feminism poses to the nation";

FotF: teens want abstinence-only education;

FotF beats dead horse, runs story on Michael Schiavo's remarriage -  
their line hasn't changed one bit since the postmortem showed she had  
effectively no brain left;

Washington Times: "Pro-life groups see brighter days" - specifically  
sites shifting Supreme Court;

Baptist Press article on Maryland marriage ruling promotes two  
anti-marriage-rights campaigns;

American Family Association plugs Creationist fossil hunts;

AFA has new anti-abortion pamphlet: "Partial-Birth Abortion on Trial";

Family Research Council article on the need to load the courts to  
overturn abortion and marriage rights (where applicable) in "Justice  
Sunday From the Inside";

Institute for Canadian Values calls for Tory government to take on  
moral agenda - overturn marriage rights for lesbian and gay citizens,  
step up the drug war and stop toying with decriminalisation, same for  
prostitution; also start enacting anti-abortion legislation around the  
edges (ala the US approach);

National Review: Abortion rights activists _should_ be alarmed, new  
Supreme Court _will_ attack Roe;

Faith and Freedom Network blasts pro-GBLT-rights Republicans, accusing  
them of "failing their constituents";


----- 1 -----
Gay families to join White House Easter event
Conservatives angry that annual egg roll will be ‘crashed’ by activists
Associated Press
Updated: 4:47 p.m. ET Jan. 20, 2006

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10946948/

NEW YORK - Three months before the annual Easter egg roll at the White  
House, the usually festive event is already taking on a divisive edge  
because of plans by gay- and lesbian-led families to turn out en masse  
in hopes of raising their public profile.

[...]

“It’s important for our families to be seen participating in all  
aspects of American life,” said Family Pride executive director  
Jennifer Chrisler

Yet some conservatives, alerted to the plans this week, accuse gay  
activists of trying to “crash” an event for children and turn it into a  
forum for ideological politicking. Some groups are discussing ways to  
respond.

“It’s improper to use the egg roll for political purposes,” said Mark  
Tooley of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy. Tooley  
wrote a critical article this week in the Weekly Standard magazine  
about the planned event that has circulated widely on conservative Web  
sites.

Since the article appeared Tuesday, Chrisler said Family Pride has  
received “a flood of hate-filled, venomous messages telling us that our  
families aren’t welcome.”

“It’s not surprising that the right would be against it,” Chrisler  
said. “They are very clear about wanting to make our families  
invisible.”

[...]

On conservative chat rooms, some critics of Family Pride suggested the  
White House could make the egg roll an invitation-only event, as it did  
in 2003 when attendance was limited to military families. Other critics  
said conservatives should mobilize to outnumber gay families at the egg  
roll.

Chrisler, who raises twin boys with a spouse she married in  
Massachusetts in 2004, intends to bring her family to the egg roll. She  
said organizers were intent on proceeding despite any criticism, but  
that plans might change if, closer to Easter, confrontations seemed  
possible.

“I’m a parent first — I would never want to put my child, or anyone  
else’s child, in harm’s way,” she said. “If we get any intelligence  
about that happening, we’ll make a decision.”

[More at URL]


----- 2 -----
False Prophecy
Rev. Ken Hutcherson Told the Associated Press he was Launching a  
National Boycott of Microsoft, Boeing, and Others. Does This Boycott  
Actually Exist?
BY ELI SANDERS
The Stranger

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=27106

Earlier this week, in a story picked up by local television stations  
and both major Seattle dailies, eastside Rev. Ken Hutcherson announced  
he was launching a nation-wide boycott of Microsoft, Boeing,  
Hewlett-Packard, and other companies that are supporting Washington's  
gay civil rights bill. Here's an excerpt from the Associated Press  
story that ran all over the nation:

The Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in the Seattle  
suburb of Redmond, said he would formally issue the boycott Thursday on  
the conservative radio show Focus on the Family.

It would have been a big deal for Rev. Hutcherson to appear on James  
Dobson's Focus on the Family radio show, which is part of the powerful  
religious right media machine and reaches nearly 9 million people  
across the country each week. Well, Thursday came and went with no sign  
of Rev. Hutcherson on Dobson's national broadcast, which instead  
explored the hot tactic of "Confronting Abortion Through Prayer." What  
happened?

[More at URL]


----- 3 ----
MARCH FOR LIFE '06: THE STATE OF THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT
Where does the movement find itself in 2006?
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
By Pete Winn, associate editor
January 23, 2006

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039282.cfm

SUMMARY: The coming year may be a bright one for advancing the cause.

Today the 33rd annual March for Life was held in
Washington, marking the years since the Jan. 22, 1973, Roe
v. Wade decision -- and the pro-life movement is alive and
well, and scoring successes.

Tens of thousands came to the nation's capital for the
march. Other pro-life marches took place on Sanctity of
Life Sunday.

Carrie Gordon Earll, senior analyst for bioethics for
Focus on the Family Action, said the fact that so many
people turned out was welcome -- the fact that they needed
to do so, was a cause for regret.

"These marches testify to the faithfulness of the pro-life
movement," she said. "Pro-life people in this country are
not going to go away. This is the perfect opportunity to
remind the nation that there is a conscience at work
here."

President Bush, as he has in the past, addressed the crowd
in D.C. by phone.

"I want to thank you all for getting that ban on
partial-birth abortion to my desk, a bill I was proud to
sign," the president told marchers, "and a law which we
are going to defend -- and are defending -- vigorously in
our courts. Because we acted, infants who are born despite
an attempted abortion are now protected by law."

Bush said thanks to passage of Laci and Conner's Law
prosecutors "can now charge those who harm or kill a
pregnant woman with harming or killing her unborn child as
well."

He also said his administration is vigorously promoting
parental-notification laws, adoption, teen abstinence,
crisis pregnancy programs "and the vital work of our
faith-based groups."

Earll said she was struck by one of Bush's statements --
which the president has never uttered before: "By changing
laws, we can change our culture."

"What I have heard from the president in the past is the
push towards establishing a culture of life," Earll said.
"But in this speech, at least, he has put forth the idea
that changing laws changes behavior -- because the law
does inform how we view the morality of the circumstances.
I'm very encouraged by that."

[...]

TAKE ACTION: Please contact your senators and ask them to
support the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (H.R. 356/S.
51) and the Child Custody Protection Act (S.8).

For help in contacting your lawmakers, please see the
CitizenLink Action Center.

http://www.family.org/cforum/action_center.cfm?capwizurl=http:// 
www3.capwiz.com/fof/dbq/officials/

[More at URL]


----- 4 -----
GOOGLE RESISTS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUEST FOR DATA
The government is building a case to restrict children's access to  
Internet pornography.
Focus on the Family
Family News in Focus
January 23, 2006
from staff reports

http://www.family.org/cforum/news/a0039279.cfm

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to defend the
Child Online Protection Act (COPA) in court, and is asking
Internet search engines to help by sharing one week's
worth of search queries. Most have complied, but Google,
the largest search engine on the Web, is resisting,
claiming, among other things, that it might infringe on
the privacy of its users.

COPA requires commercial pornographers to use
age-verification systems before allowing anyone to visit
their sites.

The Justice Department confirmed that MSN, Yahoo and AOL
have all cooperated. A judge is expected to rule by March
whether Google can hold back the records.

But Parry Aftab of WiredSafety told Family News in Focus
that Google was right to balk at the request.

"I really think it's a good idea to have the courts review
this," she said, "to make sure that the privacy of
individuals is protected and balanced against the need for
the Department of Justice to know."

[...]

Daniel Weiss, media and sexuality analyst for Focus on the
Family Action, said without Google the government's case
is much weaker.

"The ACLU can claim that the information the Justice
Department collected is invalid," he said, "because it's
not complete."

[More at URL]


----- 5 -----
A WOMAN WHO MAKES THE WORLD BETTER
The National Review's Kate O'Beirne offers an eye-opening
look at the perils of radical feminism in her new book,
"Women Who Make the World Worse."
http://www.family.org/cforum/feature/a0039281.cfm

by Gary Schneeberger, editor

SUMMARY: The National Review's Kate O'Beirne offers an
eye-opening look at the perils of radical feminism in her
new book, "Women Who Make the World Worse."

When 2006 comes to a close 11 months from now, and
newspapers and magazines survey famous people about their
favorite books of the year, you can bet there will be at
least one thing in common about the lists of Hillary
Clinton, Gloria Steinem, Maureen Dowd, Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Jane Fonda and Kate Michelman:

Kate O'Beirne's "Women Who Make the World Worse" won't be
on them.

That's because every one of those women -- and a whole lot
more -- are on O'Beirne's list of radical feminists whose
gender politicking has led to a denigration of motherhood,
the belittlement of fatherhood and the defamation of
marriage in American culture. By continuing to peddle
tired myths like "women are denied equal pay for equal
work" or "women are victims of rampant sexism on college
campuses," feminists are harder at work than ever at
trying to re-engineer society.

[...]

Q. The cover of your book doesn't really do it justice.
Those cartoony depictions of Hillary Clinton and Jane
Fonda and Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggest it's about making
sarcastic, biting comments about them and their
peccadilloes, but that's not at all what you deliver.
There's humor and wit, yes, but also a lot of research
that makes serious points about the threat feminism poses
to the nation -- and shows how that threat comes from a
lot more people than just the women on the cover.

A. I'm no expert on selling books, and the title, of
course, is deliberately provocative. But, you're right, I
could have cherry-picked odd quotes from people who are
clearly marginalized, in a very unfair way that wouldn't
fairly represent the kind of mainstream feminists I'm
talking about. But I consciously didn't do that. It
wouldn't be helpful; it wouldn't be revealing; it wouldn't
make the point I want to make, that the women I quote --
who they are, what they do, what they say -- are
influential mainstream feminists, not marginalized
characters.

[Much more at URL]


----- 6 -----
Youth Want Abstinence Education
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
January 23, 2006

A new poll shows young people think abstinence programs
are effective in reducing sexually transmitted diseases
and unwanted pregnancies, The Washington Times reported.

A Harris poll found that 56 percent of people age 18 to 24
said teaching abstinence is an effective way to prevent
HIV/AIDS. Forty-nine percent of the same group said
abstinence programs are effective in reducing the number
of unwanted pregnancies.

Of those 25 to 29, 60 percent agreed that teaching
abstinence is an effective way to both prevent HIV/AIDS
and unwanted pregnancies.

The poll also found that older adults viewed abstinence
education less favorably.

Linda Klepacki, analyst for sexual health at Focus on the
Family Action, said young people see the realities of
sexual activity outside of marriage.

"Teens and young adults know the suffering their
generation has had to endure being sexually active outside
of marriage," she said. "When they hear the truth about
the consequences of sex outside of marriage and the
benefits of waiting, they want to change their behavior.
And abstinence education teaches them the skills to wait
until marriage for sex."


----- 7 -----
Michael Schiavo Marries
Focus on the Family
Newsbriefs
January 23, 2006

Michael Schiavo -- the man who fought for years to end the
life of his brain-damaged wife Terri Schindler Schiavo --
remarried Saturday 10 months after her court-ordered
death, The Associated Press reported.

While Schiavo argued that his wife would want to be
allowed to die, her parents and siblings disagreed and
fought to keep her alive and to be responsible for her
care. But Michael Schiavo would not divorce her and give
up guardianship.

During his fight to have his wife starved and dehydrated
to death by court order, he began a relationship with Jodi
Centonze, ultimately fathering two children with her. He
referred to her as his fiancee for several years prior to
the death of Terri Schiavo.


----- 8 -----
Pro-life groups see brighter days
By Joyce Howard Price
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 23, 2006

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060123-123256-9833r.htm

As tens of thousands of abortion foes prepare for today's 33rd annual  
March for Life, they are buoyed by developments they see as promising  
for their cause, both at the state and federal levels.

"The pro-life movement is in the best position it has ever been in,"  
said Wendy Wright, executive vice president of Concerned Women for  
America (CWA).

Pro-life advocates are excited about broad abortion bans proposed by  
lawmakers in two states, Ohio and Indiana.

It's their hope that these bills become law and that the statutes are  
eventually considered and upheld by a more conservative U.S. Supreme  
Court in a challenge to the Jan. 22, 1973, ruling in Roe v. Wade that  
abortion was a constitutional right.

"We're seeing, after many years of education and work, that people are  
beginning to understand the pro-life movement. The culture is shifting  
to a more pro-life perspective," said Tony Perkins, president of the  
Family Research Council, which opposes abortion.

[More at URL]


----- 9 -----
Md. judge orders 'gay marriage' to be legalized; state appeals
Jan 20, 2006
By Michael Foust
Baptist Press
Updated Jan. 23, 11:41 a.m. ET

http://www.sbcbaptistpress.org/bpnews.asp?ID=22491

BALTIMORE (BP)--A Maryland judge Jan. 20 struck down that state's  
33-year-old marriage law and ruled that "gay marriage" must be  
legalized. The ruling is being appealed.

The decision by Judge M. Brooke Murdock is only the latest victory on  
the state level for homosexual activists, joining recent wins in  
Massachusetts, California, New York and Washington state.  
Massachusetts' highest court in 2003 ordered the state to legalize "gay  
marriage." Judges in California, New York and Washington also have  
issued pro-"gay marriage" rulings, although all of them have been  
appealed.

In her 20-page ruling, Murdock said that a 1973 law defining marriage  
as being between one man and one woman violates the Maryland  
constitution's Equal Rights Amendment. The marriage law was passed in  
the early 1970s shortly after a question arose concerning the legality  
of "gay marriage" in the state.

"Having concluded that preventing same-sex marriage has no rational  
relationship to any other legitimate state interest, this court  
concludes that tradition and social values alone cannot support  
adequately a discriminatory classification," Murdock wrote.

[...]

Conservatives criticized the ruling and vowed to fight for a marriage  
amendment to the state constitution.

“This is one more outrageous, illogical ruling by a judge with an  
agenda,” Jan LaRue, an attorney with Concerned Women for America, said  
in a release. “The law applies equally to two men or two women  
regardless of their so-called ‘sexual orientation.’ There is no  
discriminatory classification. It's bogus.”

One Maryland pro-family group, calling itself VoteMarriage.org, is  
promoting a marriage amendment. A second group,  
www.DefendMarylandMarriage.com, is doing the same.

[More at URL]


----- 10 -----
Creationist Family Digs Fossils -- and Helps Others Learn to Dig Them,  
Too
By Mary Rettig
American Family Association
January 23, 2006

http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/1/afa/232006c.asp

(AgapePress) - A Florida ministry is allowing Christians to experience  
God's creation while studying the intricacies of its design. Creation  
Expeditions was founded four years ago by Peter DeRosa and his family  
as a way for believers to get a better understanding of biblical  
creation through first-hand experiences.

Creation Expeditions takes vacationing families and individuals on  
fossil-digging trips to Colorado, the South Dakota Badlands, the Peace  
River region in Florida, and other parts of the U.S. to dig for fossil  
remains. Visitors can also go to the ministry's headquarters, which  
lies about 80 miles north of Tampa, to help clean and put together  
fossilized bones and to take part in other educational, fun and  
interesting activities.

"We do hands-on excavating with these families," DeRosa says, "and they  
have an opportunity to come out in the field to see the evidences right  
before them of the Great Flood. We give them foundations in creation  
science, and also, the opportunity to have the Book of Genesis come  
alive for them."

[More at URL]


----- 11 -----
Partial-Birth Abortion on Trial
by: Mrs. Cathleen Cleaver Ruse, Esq.
Family Research Council

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=BC05K02

This pamphlet presents excerpts from the testimony given by  
abortionists in one of the federal trials on the Partial-Birth Abortion  
Ban Act of 2003.

Family Research Council's attorneys Cathy Ruse and Bill Saunders take  
their words, their admissions and put them together in this striking  
pamphlet. It is nothing less than a collection of admissions by the  
abortion industry, under oath, about the reality of abortion.

Every citizen should have a copy.

Every citizen needs to be armed with the facts on this odious procedure  
and what is happening in our courts today.

[Pamphlet costs $1.50]


----- 12 -----
Justice Sunday From the Inside
by: Cathy Ruse
Family Research Council

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PV06A02

Let's start with a Civics quiz: Who voted to approve the current law of  
unlimited abortion in the United States, the people or the courts? Who  
sanctioned homosexual marriage, the people or the courts? Who  
authorized the government to take your private property for someone  
else's private use, the people or the courts?

For decades our right to self-government has been slowly eroding at the  
hands of activist judges. What Alexander Hamilton called the "least  
dangerous branch" has, in fact, evolved into a freewheeling  
"super-legislature" at times, issuing edicts in the name of the  
Constitution that often have little or no resemblance to its text.

The typical American, who respects the law and loves his country,  
bristles at the notion that a measure of tyranny could have seeped into  
the workings of his government. But the nation has finally awakened to  
the threat of judicial usurpation of our freedom and our right to  
self-government.

The third national "Justice Sunday" simulcast took place last weekend  
at Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia to raise the  
consciousness of Americans about the role of the courts on issues they  
hold dear. Sponsored by the Family Research Council, Justice Sunday III  
featured Dr. Alveda King, the Reverend Herbert Lusk, Senator Rick  
Santorum, Dr. James Dobson, Bishop Wellington Boone, Dr. Jerry Falwell  
and others speaking on the threat to freedom posed by an unrestrained  
judiciary.


----- 13 -----
Author: Joseph C. Ben-Ami
Institute for Canadian Values
Date: Jan 22, 2006

Choose your Canada? We have - and it's not theirs

http://www.canadianvalues.ca/commentary.aspx

As the election campaign winds down and voters prepare to go to the  
polls, pundits are beginning to prepare their post-mortem reports.  
There will be many opinions published in the coming days and weeks  
analyzing what the Martin Liberals did wrong in contrast to what the  
Harper Conservatives did right. Each commentator will identify what  
was, in his or her view, the turning point in the campaign. One thing  
sure to be ignored by the mainstream media though, is the impact that  
social policy has played in this election.

[...]

Martin’s fear-mongering may have succeeded in arresting the free fall  
his party was in after Christmas by shifting the attention of voters  
away from the long years of Liberal corruption, but as a strategy to  
win, it has been an abysmal failure.

Why? The plain truth is that when it comes to values, it is Paul Martin  
and the Liberal Party he leads that are out of touch with mainstream  
Canada.

Let’s examine the evidence.

[More at URL]


----- 14 -----
The Crumbling Castle
National Review Online
January 23, 2006

http://www.nationalreview.com/editorial/editors200601230854.asp

In the thirty-third anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the decision seems  
simultaneously to have become more sacrosanct than ever, and more  
imperiled than ever. It is supposedly well-settled as a matter of law.  
Even some former opponents of the decision believe that it has survived  
for so long that it should not be overruled. The op-ed pages are full  
of liberals who allow that Roe was never a well-reasoned inference from  
the Constitution, but say it's too late to let it go.

[...]

There are ways of resolving the apparent contradiction. Maybe the  
explanation is that conservative Republicans are radicals, attempting  
to unsettle what's settled and zealous enough that they might just  
succeed. Or it could be that pro-abortion groups are crying wolf about  
the danger to Roe: Surely each nominee to the Supreme Court can't be  
the deciding vote against it. (Given the mercy an end to Roe would show  
to the unborn, perhaps "crying lamb" would be a more appropriate  
phrase?)

But we think that the best explanation is that Roe's apparent strength  
is largely illusory. Take those polls. Do they really mean that 66  
percent of the public (to use the figure from a December NBC/Wall  
Street Journal poll) don't want the Supreme Court to allow state  
legislatures to be able to prohibit third-trimester abortions? Surely  
not: Polls find that even larger majorities want such prohibitions.  
Many people believe, wrongly, that Roe protects only first-trimester  
abortions, a misimpression that most polls (including the NBC/Journal  
poll) go out of their way to foster. Many people also believe, wrongly,  
that overturning Roe would automatically lead to a national ban on all  
abortions. What polls on Roe really measure is public opposition to an  
immediate national ban.

[More at URL]


----- 15 -----
Six Republicans Fail Their Constituents
Faith and Freedom Network
Saturday, January 21, 2006

http://www.faithandfreedom.us/weblog/2006/01/six-republicans-fail- 
their.html

HB 2661 was passed by the Washington State House of Representatives  
late Friday afternoon.

The measure passed on a 60-37 vote with 6 Republicans joining 54  
Democrats to pass it.

Republicans voting for the gay rights bill are: Rodney Tom (District  
48), Maureen Walsh (District 16), Fred Jarrett (District 41), Shirley  
Hankins (District 8), Skip Priest (District 30), Jan Shabro (District  
31). Click here to contact your local Washington Representatives.

[More at URL]