Suicide

Interesting, the spin someone will use to coerce others and defame someone for their own gain and glory

Right wing ideology is to deceive and to use scare tactics to coerse the uninformed with lies they are told to promote for ??? I suggest greed, position, stature in a corporate take over of the USA, unseen since the days of Prescot Bush, Joesph Kennedy, many others that got corporations rights over the people rights.

Please subscribe to the Liberal Viewer, he does pwn’age like no other

This is Sean Faircloths putting to words so eloquently my feelings on why the religiosity of the candidates is so important to secularists today
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WASHINGTON — Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the nation’s leading anti-breast-cancer charity, has insisted that its since-reversed decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood arose from a routine change in criteria for grant eligibility that had nothing to do with abortion politics.

But a Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen’s staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical.

"Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria," the source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, told HuffPost. "She said, ‘If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.’"

via Karen Handel, Susan G. Komen's Anti-Abortion VP, Drove Decision To Defund Planned Parenthood.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=bb2_1328400517

The Senate passed the bill on a 28-22 vote even though some senators raised questions about the measure’s constitutionality. It now goes to the House for consideration. The bill permits local school boards to offer classes that include origin theories from religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Scientology.

Democratic Sen. Tim Skinner, of Terre Haute, a former high school teacher, said he believed few teachers would be qualified to teach a class covering multiple religions and worried about the lack of specifics on what such a class would include.

“I think you are just asking schools — and I think you’re asking teachers — to do something that is going to open up a door that is probably going to result in a lawsuit which is going to be costly,” Skinner said.

Critics argue that the proposal is unconstitutional because federal courts repeatedly have found teaching creationism violates church-state separation because of its reliance on the Bible’s book of Genesis.

The original bill simply called for allowing schools to teach creationism, but the Senate revised it Monday to include references to multiple faiths.

Republican Sen. Dennis Kruse, of Auburn, the bill’s sponsor, said the U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on the teaching of creationism since the 1980s and that the court could rule differently now than it did then. Kruse said he believed the broader religious reference in the bill would improve its chances of being ruled constitutional.

The proposal doesn’t require any school district to teach creationism and allows them to continue with their current science classes, Kruse said.

“This does not do away with the teaching of evolution,” he said. “This provides another alternative to evolution so our children are being exposed to more than one view, which I think is healthy for them.”

Ten Republican senators joined all but one of the 13 Democratic senators in voting against the bill.

Source

SEATTLE – A Christian pastor is calling for a nationwide boycott of Starbucks for the company’s support of same-sex marriage in Washington.

In a message published online a day before Washington’s Senate passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, Pastor Steven Andrew of USA Christian Ministries predicted that the Seattle-based coffee giant could lose 80 percent of its customers if Christians get their coffee somewhere else — a number he bases on his contention that 80 percent of Americans are Christian while just 1-to-2 percent of the population is homosexual..

Starbucks is one of more than 100 companies that pledged support for legalizing gay marriage in Washington.

“Starbucks is no longer fashionable,” writes Andrew in the post, which is headlined “Christians Boycott Starbucks – Because Romans 1 Explains Starbucks Hates God .”

“If your church still uses Starbucks, then your pastor is a friend of the world,” Andrews argues. “God calls those who oppose Him ‘haters of God.’”

Echoing the sentiment of “hate the sin, love the sinner,” Andrew also writes, “Jesus loves homosexuals.”

Andrew calls on Christians to share the boycott with their church congregations, adding, “Starbucks can follow Satan if they want to.”

Washington’s state House is expected to pass the same-sex marriage legislation next week, and Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) has said she will sign it. Opponents have vowed to put the measure before voters in a referendum this November.

In a non-scientific poll on KING5.com, 12 percent of people said they would never buy products again from a company that supported same-sex marriage, while 51 percent said they were more likely to buy products from those companies. Thirty-three percent said it would make no difference in their buying habits.

 Source

Now, the school faces legal action after attorney Harry Mihet of the Liberty Counsel is taking on the incident.

“He did nothing more than to express his opinion on a particular topic,” Mihet told the station. “An opinion in which with some are free to agree and some to disagree but an opinion which is absolutely protected with the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

According to the report, Mihet says that the Shawano Community High School superintendant Todd Carlson pulled Wegner out of class, called the student ignorant, and made him feel “ashamed” of the piece.

“In a Christian society, allowing homosexual couples to adopt is an abomination,” Wegner reportedly wrote in his piece.

Carlson sent the station a statement, noting that the incident has lead to threats to school staff. Carlson also denies accusations from Wegner that he called the student defamatory names.

American conservative blogger Rod Dreher has spoken out about the incident, saying that while he doesn’t agree with what Wegner wrote, he believes the school’s actions were hypocritical .

“Unbelievable. Granted, Wegner’s editorial is a thoroughly lame piece of rhetoric, but remember, he was asked by a teacher to take the opposing side of a controversial public issue. For this, the kid gets punished? And not only punished, but his exercise of free speech in a school paper op-ed is ‘bullying’?!”

A blog post by Fox Nation reports that Mathew Staver , founder of the Liberty Counsel, sent Carlson a letter demanding an apology for the school’s “unconsitutional and irrational censorship and humiliation.”

If the school does not comply, the firm is reportedly threatening legal action.

Clarification at Friday, January 27, 9:57pm: In the original article, The Huffington Post failed to identify that not only did Wegner state, “allowing homosexual couples to adopt is an abomination,” but he also quoted several Bible passages including Leviticus 20:13 which calls for the death of a “man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman”:

From Wegner’s opinion piece according to Towleroad.com :
“…if one is a practicing Christian, Jesus states in the Bible that homosexuality is (a) detestable act and sin which makes adopting wrong for homosexuals because you would be raising the child in a sin-filled environment. Leviticus 20:13 states “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them.”

Source and Video

When American businesswoman Ruth Handler first launched Barbie back in 1959, she probably didn’t expect the dolls to become as controversial as they are popular.

In an apparent effort to shut out Western culture,Iranian authorities have closed toy stores in Tehran for selling Barbie dolls, according to Associated Press.

The dolls first attracted criticism from Iran’s strict religious leaders back in 1996, but have been openly on display in toy stores since then, notes Slate.

But earlier this week the country’s “morality police” began instructing shop owners to refrain from selling the dolls.

Islam For Today writes that the country does have Islamic alternatives to Barbie, known as Sara and Dara, but the dolls are reportedly not as popular as their blonde counterparts.

Iran is not the only country in the Middle East to outlaw Barbie. In 2003, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Saudi Arabia banned the dolls after declaring them a threat to Islam due to their revealing clothes.

Nevertheless, according to TIME, two-thirds of Barbie sales come from 150 different foreign markets.

Source

Ginger Strivelli

“We were there to deliver the materials that she was assured would be “made available” in the same way the Gideon material was, right before the winter break. No surprise to find that, in consultation with the system’s superintendent Dr. Baldwin, the principal Jackie Byerly and asst principal Danny Fusco couldn’t do that at all because the central office was reviewing its policy regarding religious materials in schools. They suggested that they would “hold onto” the books, in case the school system needed to review them for appropriate content, once the policy was vetted.”

The school is now officially “reviewing” their policy on distributing religious materials. Since then, Strivelli’s story has been covered by a number of mainstream media outlets, including Fox News, CBC News,the Houston Chronicle, and several others. Due to the intense level of coverage for this issue, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised thatGinger Strivelli recently received an anonymous death threat.

“Buncombe County investigators are looking into a threatening phone call made to a local woman who made headlines when she criticized a county school for making Bibles available to students. [...] Strivelli believes that the threat is related to her speaking out. “It’s definitely related. He (the caller) said he saw me on the news,” she said. “I’m hoping it’s just some idiot trying to scare me into shutting up.” The man called Thursday night, claiming he was calling from Moscow, according to Strivelli. He told Strivelli that he had 20 or 30 people working in this area, and “I was done for. I was dead,” Strivelli said Friday.”

The Lady Liberty League, along with a coalition of local and national Pagan organizations, are coordinating to support Strivelli during this time of trial, and have started a Facebook page for those looking to give aid and support. Here are the Lady Liberty League’s recommendations for those seeking to help.

• Do prayers, meditations, rituals of Protection, Healing, & Well-being to Ginger Strivelli & her family.
• Learn more & Post words of support for Ginger & her family ontheir support page on Facebook.
• Speak out in support of separation of church & state in comments sections of media sites carrying news and editorials about this issue.
• Those with interfaith and/or law enforcement contacts in North Carolina interested in working with Lady Liberty League in providing support to the family and this situation should contact: liberty@circlesanctuary.org as soon as possible.
• Share this email & support page link with others – by email, through social networking sites, on blogs & websites.

Prominent Pagan mom-blogger Mrs. B, from Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom,  who dealt with Christian death threats over a blog ranking contest, says that “there is nothing more frightening than thinking that some nutball is threatening your family.” These threats are part and parcel of any who have the temerity to challenge Christian norms or traditions that intersect with government-funded institutions, and represent a time when their cultural dominance when unquestioned. This is the reactionary shadow side of a religion who feels its dominance fading, the anxiety over changes they can’t control. The hope is always that these threats will amount to nothing, that they are ravings of powerless individuals wanting to inspire fear, but we must practice vigilance and solidarity in the off chance that this is no idle threat.

Our prayers and best wishes go out to the Strivelli family, may they remain safe and free of fear. The Wild Hunt will be keeping an eye open for future developments. In the meantime, you can get the latest from their support page on Facebook, and from Byron Ballard’s blog at The Citizen-Times.

Via http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/us/rhode-island-city-enraged-over-school-prayer-lawsuit.html?_r=2 and http://ffrf.org/news/releases/hooray-for-jessica/

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI  says Roman Catholics in the U.S.  need to understand the “grave threats” to their faith posed by what he calls radical secularism in the political and cultural arenas.

He addressed visiting U.S. bishops Thursday and used the same language in warning that attempts are being made to erode their religious freedom.

Benedict did not explicitly mention it, but the bishops have complained their religious freedom is eroding in the face of growing acceptance of gay marriage and attempts to marginalize faith. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops  has recently formed a committee on protecting religious liberty and hired attorneys and a lobbyist to work on the issue.

The pope said many of the bishops have complained about attempts to deny conscientious objection with regard to cooperation in “intrinsically evil practices.” U.S. church leaders have been pressing for a broader religious exception to part of President Obama ’s health care overhaul that mandates private insurers pay for contraception. The Obama administration has not yet made a decision on the policy and the timing is uncertain.

Bishops also are pressing for broader religious exemptions in U.S. states that have legalized same-gender civil unions or marriage. The vast network of Catholic social services in the United States  includes adoption and foster-care placement. Bishops in some states have either shut down adoption programs or have lost their government contracts after refusing to place children with same-gender couples.

Benedict also expressed appreciation that bishops have been more outspoken about American Catholic politicians who don’t follow church teaching on abortion and other issues.

The pope said Catholics in political life have a “personal responsibility to offer public witness to their faith, especially with regard to the great moral issues of our time.”

American Catholics have bitterly debated the obligations of Catholic lawmakers to oppose government policies that go against core Catholic teaching. In recent years, a small but growing number of local bishops have publicly told Catholic lawmakers who support abortion rights not to present themselves for Holy Communion  because of their stance on the issue.

The White House  had no response to the pope’s remarks.

Officials of Catholic-affiliated institutions that have asked for a broader conscience exception to the birth control coverage requirement are frustrated that the administration has yet to make its ruling.