I gave the backgrounder on the case back in November. It concerned a parental notification law in New Hampshire, a statute which required notification of parents (or a court order, in the alternative, under certain circumstances) before a teenage girl is allowed to have an abortion. The ruling was somewhat surprising, but the bottom line is that it didn’t alter … Read More
Scalia’s Idea of Morality
I don’t want to get all legal-wonkish here, but Publius notes an interesting comment in Scalia’s dissent in today’s "physician-assisted suicide" case. Scalia wrote: From an early time in our national history, the Federal Government has used its enumerated powers, such as its power to regulate interstate commerce, for the purpose of protecting public morality–for example, by banning the interstate … Read More
Breaking News: SCOTUS Upholds Physician Suicide Law
With all this talk about Alito, people seem to forget that the U.S. Supreme Court is actually in session. CNN is reporting that it just upheld Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide law. Here’s the blurb from SCOTUSBlog: The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the U.S. attorney general does not have the power to bar doctors from prescribing lethal drugs for use … Read More
Pornography Assignment Canned
Probably a good idea, too: A high school research assignment on Internet pornography was canceled after parents in this Cleveland suburb complained. Superintendent Jeff Lampert said that although the teacher’s apparent goal to discuss the harmful effects of pornography was well-intentioned, he agreed with parents that the assignment was inappropriate for 14- and 15-year-old freshmen at Brooklyn High. The assignment … Read More
University Won’t Let Divorcees Teach
Only in Iran. It seems that a university in an Iranian provence is establishing a policy in which teachers who divorce their spouses will get fired. This shows how blind devotion to fundamentalist tenets can lead to absurd and offensive results. Ooops? Did I say Iran? I meant Oklahoma: EDMOND, Okla. — An Oklahoma university has proposed a policy that … Read More
Lead Paragraphs We Love
From CNN: OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (AP) — A pastor who has spoken out against homosexuality was arrested after propositioning a male undercover police officer outside a hotel, authorities said. UPDATE: Big Brass Blog has more. Apparently, the pastor offered up oral sex, but told reporters later that he was "pastoring to the police". Oh, is that what they call it … Read More
I’m Not a Marriage Counselor
…but I play one on my blog. Conservative columnist and radio host Dennis Prager, a frequent commentator on marriage and family values, announced this to his listeners this week: I have a sad personal announcement to make. After seventeen years of marriage, my wife Fran and I are divorcing. This is sad first and foremost for Fran and for me. … Read More
Barbie Promotes Gayness
The religious right, having ruined nobody’s Christmas but their own by complaining about how everybody is ruining Christmas, is not content to fade away now that the holidays are over. Via Americablog, we learn their next target (and no, it’s not Target). It’s Barbie. Yup. The Concerned Women For America are all upset because Barbie, the Mattel doll, promotes "gender … Read More
John Avarosis Is Thinking Today
You can read his post here, or my summary below. John points out that proponents of intelligent design argue that, even if ID is flawed, schools should "teach the controversy". And to do that, they argue, schools need to inform students as to what intelligent design actually is. "Give the students all the arguments for Darwinism and intelligent design, and … Read More
Gay Kisses = Terrorist Threat
I recently reported that the Pentagon was spying on domestic anti-war protest groups — groups which the Pentagon believed posed a threat to national security. NBC broke the story last week when it obtained the Pentagon’s secret database of "suspicious groups" which it had spied upon. You may have heard about some of these groups. Like a group of elderly … Read More
Barbarism And Barbie
I don’t have much patience for scientists who insist that violent video games lead to violence in children. Yesm, I know — there are plenty of those studies, so it must be true. And politicians — including Hillary Clinton — are happy to jump on the "family values" bandwagon, as evidenced by her bill to protect children from violent video … Read More
A Success Story
The American Family Association, a James Dobson group, is fond of instigating boycotts against companies for, well, anything that gets their panties in a bunch. And they usually lose. As the Carpetbagger Report explains: The AFA launched a nine-year boycott of Disney, for example, during which time none of the group’s demands were met and the company enjoyed a surge … Read More
Stupid Quote Of The Day
Via Shakespeare’s Sister: "The lifestyles depicted in this movie [Rent] are not the majority, not the lifestyles of 99.9 percent of the kids that live in these two towns," School Committee cochair Donna Mansolillo told a meeting of the committee this week. That’s a school board member from Glocester, Rhode Island, talking about a controversy involving a high school field … Read More
George Mason University Dean Is Stupid
From an unrelated post at Powerline, I came across this quote. It is contained within a message from George Mason University Law School Dean Daniel Polsby to a student reporter at the Harvard Crimson: I do hope that next time the Crimson covers the gay marriage issue, you will see fit to point out that gays are demanding an exception … Read More
Red State News In Brief
Tennessee: Ex-preacher forces his wife into prostitution so they can have Christmas money. Arkansas: Baptist minister’s wife, a schoolteacher, tells the black children in her class that they are descended from the devil. But she’s not racist, she says. But all kidding aside, this is one of the saddest news stories I’ve ever read.