Archive for May, 2006

Petition Drive Seeks to Undo South Dakota Abortion Ban

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

This should be interesting to watch. Quite honestly, I’d love to see Roe v. Wade overturned.

(CNSNews.com) - South Dakota’s abortion ban, which liberals and conservatives expect will serve as the basis for the next Supreme Court debate on abortion rights, should have been decided by the state’s voters instead of its politicians, according to the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families.
The group submitted a petition Tuesday to the South Dakota secretary of state’s office asking that the abortion ban, which was signed into law by South Dakota’s Republican Gov. Mike Rounds in March, be placed on the ballot as a referendum in November.
“We have very strong feelings that this would not represent the people of South Dakota,” said former South Dakota Republican State Rep. Jan Nicolay on a conference call Tuesday.
In order for the abortion ban to be placed on the ballot, 16,700 certified signatures are needed. The petition drive has attracted 37,846 signatures so far, Nicolay said, which will be examined over the next two to three weeks.
State Rep. Roger Hunt, the Republican who sponsored the abortion ban, said it was the right time for the legislation. “Every year that goes by, there are more and more unborn children, whose lives are being terminated,” Hunt said on March 7, 2006, according to USA Today.

Read the rest here.

Palestinian Rockets Rain on Southern Israel

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

So much for disengagement helping security.

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Islamic Jihad reportedly is claiming responsibility for Wednesday morning’s rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot.
The early-morning barrage came just one day after Israel publicized for the first time that it was sending commando units deep into the northern Gaza Strip to ambush and intercept the rocket-firing squads.
The forays more than a mile into the Gaza Strip mark a tactical change in the way Israel is dealing with the terror cells that moved into the area after Israel pulled out eight months ago.
“We’re doing everything we can to stop [the rocket fire],” said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s advisor Dr. Ra’anan Gissin. “We’re using different tactics. There is a marked reduction in the number of rockets.”
(Press reports on Wednesday quoted one military officer as saying that “new technology” also would help Israel pinpoint the rocket launchers.)
Since Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip last September, more than 440 rockets have landed inside Israel, some doing extensive damage but none - so far - causing any deaths.

Read the rest of the article here.

Modified Image on School Yearbook Cover Upsets Some Parents

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

I wish this society would get over this “we must not offend anyone” mentality. You people who preach tolerance are the most intolerant people of all.

(AgapePress) - Parents in suburban Fort Worth, Texas, are expressing anger over an elementary school’s decision to remove the phrase “In God We Trust” from its yearbook cover.
Officials at Liberty Elementary School in Colleyville deliberately omitted the words “In God We Trust” from a large image of the new “Liberty” nickel appearing on the cover of the school’s inaugural yearbook. The coin features a portrait of Thomas Jefferson, the cursive “Liberty” inscription in Jefferson’s own handwriting, and the national motto along the right edge — except, that is, along the edge of the coin’s image on this elementary school’s yearbook.
Janet Travis, principal of Liberty Elementary School, explains that in making the determination, she wanted to avoid offending students of different religions. But for those who preferred, the yearbook came with a sticker that allowed students to put the phrase “In God We Trust” back on the Liberty nickel.
An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union told the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram that the move by the school and the district was appropriate, sensitive, and constitutional. “Sometimes administrators and schools are really caught trying to make appropriate decisions with respect to people’s views. Someone is always going to complain,” said Dallas attorney Michael Linz. “I think that the school administrators were drawing the appropriate line by trying not to offend others.”
But Debi Ackerman, whose ten-year-old daughter attends Liberty Elementary, says despite the school’s intentions, it succeeded in offending “people who believe in our country and what it stands for.”
Ackerman says she had a “huge problem” with the way it was handled. “Instead of printing ‘In God We Trust’ on the coin image, they didn’t print it, and instead sent it home in sticker form in a concealed envelope,” she says. The mom says it was explained to the young students that “there are some people who don’t believe in God and that this might not be appropriate for some beliefs — and when you get home, go ahead if you wish to and affix [the sticker] to the yearbook.”
The decision to remove the motto from the coin’s image, says Ackerman, is another example of political correctness run amok.
“For me it kind of stemmed from like, Christmas trees aren’t being referred to as Christmas trees; they’re being referred to as holiday trees,” she says. “And instead of Christmas decorations, it’s holiday decorations — and Easter break isn’t Easter break anymore, it’s Spring break. Then this happened, and for me it was just like they seem to be worried about stepping on the wrong people’s toes.”
Interestingly, one of the parent leaders in the school turned the same phrase in an interview with Star-Telegram. “We are a public school,” said Tom Gardner, Liberty PTA president. “We sure do not want to step on anybody’s toes. I don’t think any harm was intended.”
In an effort to address and perhaps defuse the situation, the school district has issued what it calls an “apology letter” to parents. But Ackerman says it reads more like a “regret letter” than an apology

Original Link.

Indonesia quake death toll at 5,427

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

Continue to pray for the victims of this terrible earthquake.

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - International relief efforts picked up on Tuesday for survivors of a weekend earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people on Indonesia’s Java island, with over a score of countries now involved.
Planes carrying vital supplies from abroad reached the stricken region, while the airport at the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta re-opened to commercial traffic despite a heavily damaged terminal.
A plane carrying a 40-member Chinese medical team as well as five tonnes of medical supplies landed early on Tuesday at Solo, some 60 km (40 miles) north of Yogyakarta province, Xinhua news agency reported.
The quake’s official death toll had reached 5,427 as of Tuesday morning, according to the government’s Social Affairs Department.
The 6.3 magnitude quake left more than 130,000 homeless by one estimate, many without shelter and short of food.
Many survivors who were injured or whose homes were destroyed have been staying on the grounds of hospitals and mosques or in makeshift shelters beside the rubble of their houses.
The tremor early on Saturday was centred just off the Indian Ocean coast near Yogyakarta, the former Javanese royal capital.

Read the rest here.

Happy Memorial Day from Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian’s Blog

Monday, May 29th, 2006

Memorial Day

We’d like to wish everyone a very Happy and Safe Memorial Day.
-Steve, Missi and Family
Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian Family

John 11:25-26 (New International Version)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Latest on Illegal Immigration

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

There are several articles I want to summarize here.

National Guard units to be armed, close to border.
Chief says rules of engagement allow troops to fire weapons.

The head of the U.S. National Guard surprised Border Patrol officials, declaring some of the troops he will send to assist them will work in close proximity to the border, be armed and allowed to fire their weapons if necessary.

Feds Crack Down On Illegal Immigrants In MN
(AP) Bloomington, Minn. Federal agents are aggressively tracking down and deporting illegal immigrants in Minnesota as part of a national crackdown on aliens who have disobeyed their deportation orders.

Agents are now showing up each day on the doorsteps of immigrant families, in contrast with the past, when the nearly 600,000 people nationwide under deportation orders had little to fear as long as they weren’t charged with other offenses.

Arizona passes border law criminalizing illegal aliens
Arizona lawmakers have approved legislation that would criminalize the presence of illegal aliens and seeks to cut off job opportunities that attract illegal border crossers.

“The House and Senate may not get anything done. So we have an obligation to respond, since this is not just a national border [that’s being compromised], it’s the Arizona border,” said state Rep. Russell Pearce, lead sponsor of the bill that passed the Legislature Thursday.

U.N. making homeschooling illegal?

Saturday, May 27th, 2006

And we need the U.N. why? Time to give them an eviction notice.

A U.N. treaty conferring rights to children could make homeschooling illegal in the U.S. even though the Senate has not ratified it, a homeschooling association warns.
Michael Farris, chairman and general counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, believes the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child could be binding on U.S. citizens because of activist judges, reports LifeSite News.
Farris said that according to a new interpretation of “customary international law,” some U.S. judges have ruled the convention applies to American parents.
“In the 2002 case of Beharry v. Reno, one federal court said that even though the convention was never ratified, it still has an impact on American law,” Farris explained, according to LifeSiteNews. “The fact that virtually every other nation in the world has adopted it has made it part of customary international law, and it means that it should be considered part of American jurisprudence.”
The convention places severe limitations on a parent’s right to direct and train their children, Farris contends.
The HSLDA produced a report in 1993 showing that under Article 13, parents could be subject to prosecution for any attempt to prevent their children from interacting with material they deem unacceptable.
Under Article 14, children are guaranteed “freedom of thought, conscience and religion,” which suggests they have a legal right to object to all religious training. Further, under Article 15, the child has a right to “freedom of association.”
“If this measure were to be taken seriously, parents could be prevented from forbidding their child to associate with people deemed to be objectionable companions,” the HSLDA report explained.
Farris pointed out that in 1995 the United Kingdom was deemed out of compliance with the convention “because it allowed parents to remove their children from public school sex-education classes without consulting the child.”
Farris argues, according to LifeSiteNews, that “by the same reasoning, parents would be denied the ability to homeschool their children unless the government first talked with their children and the government decided what was best. This committee would even have the right to determine what religious teaching, if any, served the child’s best interest.”
Offering solutions, Farris suggests Congress use its power to define customary law and modify the jurisdiction of federal courts.
“Congress needs to address this issue of judicial tyranny by enacting legislation that limits the definition of customary international law to include only provisions of treaties that Congress has ratified,” he said.
Farris also suggested Congress could pass a constitutional amendment stating explicitly that no provision of any international agreement can supersede the constitutional rights of an American citizen.
He pointed out two such amendments have been proposed in Congress.
Finally, he says specific threats to parental rights can be solved by “putting a clear parents’ rights amendment into the black and white text of the United States Constitution.”

Original Link.

Re-Post: The ‘Da Vinci’ libel by Joseph Farah

Friday, May 26th, 2006

I don’t like writing about Hollywood, because, generally, it bores me to tears.

Sometimes I feel like I’ve said everything there is to say about the entertainment industry during a period 20-some years ago when I wrote about it full-time.

But then comes “The Da Vinci Code.”

Should I ignore it?

I had hoped I could get away with that approach. A national boycott of the film had been organized by several Christian groups. Maybe, I thought, Americans were too smart to fall for this insult to Jesus, His Apostles, His Word, His church and the Truth.

The first question some will ask me is: “Did you see the film?”

No, I wouldn’t torture myself so. Nor would I do anything that could potentially line the pockets of those involved with this lie from the pit of hell.

“But how do you know, Farah? If you don’t see the film, how can you criticize it?”

I know because it is a film based on a best-selling work of fiction – one that has been the subject of much scrutiny and discussion.

All you really need to know about Dan Brown’s fanciful novel and the movie upon which it is based is that the Bible is a great deception, rather than the inspired Word of God. There are some things we just didn’t know about the most well-chronicled life lived 2,000 years ago – like that he married Mary Magdalene and wanted to leave her in charge of the church rather than the Apostles he trained for more than three years before His crucifixion.

(If you want to know the specifics of the fraud of “The Da Vinci Code,” I would recommend a book, “Breaking the Da Vinci Code,” and a documentary of the same name.)

Unfortunately, after last weekend’s opening in theaters across the country and the resultant box-office success of the movie, it appears I cannot continue just to ignore it.

The film grossed $77 million its first weekend. While that’s no record, and may have even been disappointing to those who made it, it suggests there are plenty of lost Americans out there – lots and lots of people who are probably being led astray by this movie.

I remember back in the old days when Oliver Stone made “JFK,” a fictionalized movie about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, that many saw it and believed they were watching history. I have no doubt many believe they are viewing truth when they watch “The Da Vinci Code.”

“But it’s just entertainment, Farah. Why are you getting so upset?”

I’m upset because so many Americans supported it. It reminds me of the Romans going to the Coliseum to watch Christians torn apart by wild animals. That’s what you are doing when you pay to buy the book or see the movie. You might as well be hammering nails into Jesus’ hands and feet all over again. That Americans would do this in such numbers in 2006 is disturbing.

This is, after all, the country birthed by freedom fighters declaring their independence from tyranny and marching into battle chanting “No king but Jesus!”

Years ago, when I was covering Hollywood, a movie called “The Last Temptation of Christ” was released. It, too, was based on a work of fiction. It, too, was blasphemous and offensive to all sincere followers of Jesus. But it died a quick death at the box office. There were mass marches in the street by Christians and Jews to protest its opening.

It suggests Christianity has lost ground in the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans in the last two decades. It suggests Christian clergy are not providing the salt and the light needed to keep this culture from rotting in darkness. It suggests biblical illiteracy is on the rise. It suggests moral relativism is the dogma of our day. It suggests our nation is in desperate need of a moral and spiritual revival if it is to avoid judgment.

Original Article.

Term-limits proposals for judges pondered

Friday, May 26th, 2006

We need to watch how this goes in Colorado. I have a feeling that as more people see and experience the current out of control judiciary, more states and even the federal government will consider this move.
I have always been for term limits. We do not need “professional politicians”. Think about it. Laws would have to simpler and more straight forward. We would have fewer laws. Is there really a downside to term limits?
I agree that getting this sort of thing passed by the very people who would be affected by it is a long shot, but maybe, just maybe…

A proposed judicial term-limits measure would throw state Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey and six appellate court judges off the bench, several lawyers said Wednesday.
Former state Senate President John Andrews, who is leading the effort to curtail the length of judicial terms, is pushing two measures.
The first, Initiative 75, was approved for the ballot by the state Supreme Court on Monday. The second, Initiative 90, is pending before the high court.
Andrews said the tendency of sitting judges to go beyond the limits of judicial authority cuts across party lines.
“When they put those black robes on, there is this disturbing tendency to overstep the constitutionality of the judicial branch,” he said.
“It’s simple logic that you don’t term-limit two branches of your government (the executive and the legislative) and give a de facto life tenure to the third,” he added.
Andrews said Initiative 90 is worded so that it is retroactive, meaning it would require any sitting Supreme Court justice or appellate court judge with more that 12 years of service to step down by the 2008 general election.
Thus Mullarkey, with 18 years of service, and Appellate Court Judges Jose D.L. Marquez, Janice Davidson, Sandra Rothenberg, Daniel Taubman, James Casebolt and Arthur Roy would be forced to step down.
Initiative 75, however, would not affect the existing terms of sitting judges, he said.
The same group is behind both initiatives, Andrews said. If the Supreme Court also clears Initiative 90 for the ballot, the group will decide which one to pursue by gathering signatures, according to Andrews.
“We’re still evaluating which one would accomplish the judicial reform goals and which would find the greatest favor among voters,” he said.
The Denver Bar Association opposes both measures. (of course they do. -ed)
And while the Supreme Court has ruled that Initiative 75 would be “prospective,” meaning it would not curtail the terms of sitting judges, bar association officials contend the language is unclear.

Original Link.

Immigration Bill Is Worse Than You Think

Friday, May 26th, 2006

This article is a must read.

I am going to take some time tonight to inform my colleagues about some of the problems with the legislation before us. It is worse than you think, colleagues.

The legislation has an incredible number of problems with it. Some, as I will point out tonight, can only be considered deliberate. Whereas on the one hand it has nice words with good sounding phrases in it to do good things, on the second hand it completely eviscerates that, oftentimes in a way that only the most careful reading by a good lawyer would discover. So I feel like I have to fulfill my duty. I was on the Judiciary Committee. We went into this. We tried to monitor it and study it and actually read this 614-page bill, and I have a responsibility and I am going to fulfill my responsibility.

I think the things I am saying tonight ought to disturb people. They ought to be unhappy about it. It ought to make them consider whether they want to vote for this piece of legislation that, in my opinion, should never, ever become law.

Read the rest here.


Copyright © 2005 - 2007 Jesus is Lord, A Worshipping Christian Family, All Rights Reserved