National - links
WA Post: Crackdown on Child Pornography
Crackdown on Child Pornography
Federal Action, Focused on Internet, Sets Off a Debate
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 15, 2007; Page A01
Lewd photographs of children were disappearing from adult bookstores. Child porn magazines in plain brown envelopes were no longer reaching customers through the mail. It was the early 1990s, and experts believed that federal law enforcement efforts were ending child pornography.
“We thought this was one of those rare forms of social deviance, of criminal behavior, that had been eradicated,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “Except for a fixated group of hard-core pedophiles, we thought it was gone.”
Dec 15, 2007 - topic(s): Family, Addictions, Sexual Purity, Homosexuality, Citizenship, Human Rights, National
House approves Christmas resolution
By Tom Strode – Dec 13, 2007
The House of Representatives approved a resolution Dec. 11 acknowledging the significance of Christmas and Christianity.
The roll call was 372-9 for passage. The resolution’s sponsor expressed astonishment over the “no” votes. Rep. Steve King, R.-Iowa, said he could not understand how members of Congress could vote against the measure after the House approved without opposition similar resolutions honoring observances of Islam and Hinduism.
Dec 13, 2007 - topic(s): Citizenship, Christian Citizenship, Legislation, National, Religious Liberty
Richard Land: A Hope List for Romney’s Speech (Beliefnet)
Richard Land: A Hope List for Romney’s Speech
Nov 5, 2007
Former Massachusetts Governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is going to give a speech on “Religion in America” tomorrow in Texas.
I have been encouraging Governor Romney to give such a speech for over a year now, since I first met with him at his home in Massachusetts. He had invited approximately a dozen evangelical leaders to meet with him to have a free-wheeling discussion about his presidential candidacy and to allow us to ask him questions—and to allow him to ask us questions as well.
Dec 5, 2007 - topic(s): Faith, Citizenship, Church and State, National, Religious Liberty
TV: Land discusses Romney on Hannity & Colmes
Dr. Richard Land was featured on Fox News Channel’s program Hannity & Colmes on Monday Dec 3, 2007.
Dec 3, 2007 - topic(s): Faith, Citizenship, Church and State, National, Religious Liberty
Podhoretz: ‘America the Ugly’
BY NORMAN PODHORETZ
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on us that took place on this very day six years ago, several younger commentators proclaimed the birth of an entirely new era in American history. What Dec. 7, 1941, had done to the old isolationism, they announced, Sept. 11, 2001, had done to the Vietnam syndrome. It was politically dead, and the cultural fallout of that war—all the damaging changes wrought by the 1960s and ’70s—would now follow it into the grave.
Sep 11, 2007 - topic(s): Citizenship, Human Rights, National, War
WSJ - Race and the Roberts Court
Liberals were already wailing about a radical turn in Supreme Court jurisprudence, and yesterday’s decisions really brought out the sackcloth and outrage. But the end of this first full term of the John Roberts-Samuel Alito Court presented no sweeping departures, instead hewing to the incremental conservative judging that was its hallmark this year.
The most contentious opinion determined that programs engineering the racial composition of school districts in Seattle and Louisville were unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the 5-4 majority, expressed the bedrock principle in a single sentence: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” But the majority was in effect only a plurality. Anthony Kennedy concurred but wrote his own, more narrow opinion that said schools can be “race-conscious,” though race can’t be the only or controlling factor.
Jul 2, 2007 - topic(s): Citizenship, National, Racial Reconciliation, Social Issues
New Coalition of Christians Seeks Changes at Borders
A new coalition of more than 100 largely evangelical Christian leaders and organizations asked Congress on Monday to pass bills to strengthen border controls but also give illegal immigrants ways to gain legal residency. In late March, Dr. Richard Land, the conservative president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, stood with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, in supporting routes to legalization for illegal immigrants.
May 8, 2007 - topic(s): Faith, Citizenship, Immigration, Legislation, National
’08 Republicans Differ on Defining Party’s Future
The 10 declared Republican presidential candidates met together for the first time here Thursday night in what amounted to a tentative but occasionally vibrant competition to define the party’s ideology and agenda in a post-Bush era. The leading candidates offered sharply contrasting views of Mr. Bush himself. But they also differed on an array of social issues — abortion, stem cell research, immigration and evolution — in a debate that highlighted a party in flux as it struggles to figure out how to retain the White House for a third consecutive term.
May 4, 2007 - topic(s): Citizenship, National
USAToday: Court takes harder stance on abortion
Analysis by Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s abortion ruling Wednesday revealed the new court’s approach to one of the most difficult social issues and was a reminder of its rightward turn since the addition of Bush appointee Samuel Alito.
The 5-4 decision, reinstating a ban on the procedure opponents call “partial-birth abortion,” departed from past rulings by giving legislatures more latitude to restrict abortion, particularly when there is debate among physicians over the safety of a procedure. The decision will make it harder for abortion rights advocates to challenge new restrictions on abortion.
Apr 25, 2007 - topic(s): Life, Abortion, Citizenship, Legislation, National, Science, Bioethics
WSJ - Environmentalist Perpetuates Malaria
Suffering in Silence
Rachel Carson’s ideas are still popular, with deadly effect.
BY KATHERINE MANGU-WARD
Friday, April 20, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
When the Christian Science Monitor recently declared Al Gore “the Rachel Carson of global warming,” the former vice president must have bubbled over with pride. There is, it seems, no higher compliment one can bestow on an environmentalist.
Next month marks what would have been Carson’s 100th birthday, and festivities abound. The author of “Silent Spring”—the 1962 book that birthed modern environmentalism and made “DDT” a dirty word—Carson is the subject of an exhibit at the National Archives and the star of its Environmental Film Festival this year.
Apr 25, 2007 - topic(s): Citizenship, National, Science, Environment