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Author on Inquisition Book Discusses Findings

2012-01-23T22:22:00.000-08:00

When author Cullen Murphy discusses new book, "God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World," he gets a lot of the same questions. Here are some of his answers.

1. What does "Inquisition" actually mean and refer to?

It was a means used by the Catholic Church to enforce orthodoxy. Inquisitors would go out into troublesome regions, question people intensively, conduct tribunals and mete out punishments, sometimes harsh ones, like burning at the stake. Depending on the time and place, the targets were heretics, Jews, Muslims, Protestants, rationalists and sometimes people who held superstitious beliefs. The Inquisition everyone has heard of is the Spanish Inquisition, but there was more than one Inquisition, and the earliest, at the start of the 13th century, wasn't in Spain. And although Jews were sometimes the focus of that first Inquisition, as they primarily were in Spain, the more urgent targets were Christian heretics in the south of France and northern Italy.

2. How many people were burned at the stake?

No one really knows. The inquisitors were excellent record-keepers -- at times truly superb. One surviving document gives the expenses for an execution down to the price of the rope used to tie the victims' hands. But a lot of the records have been lost. An estimate that has wide credibility among historians is that about 2 percent of those who came before Inquisition tribunals were burned at the stake, which would mean several tens of thousands of people. The rest suffered lesser punishments.

3. Over what period of time are we talking about?

Roughly 700 years. The official start is usually given as 1231 A.D., when the pope appoints the first "inquisitors of heretical depravity." The Spanish Inquisition, which begins under Ferdinand and Isabella, doesn't end until the 19th century -- the last execution was in 1826. At the outset, the main focus was on Jews and "judaizers" -- Christian converts of Jewish ancestry who were accused of secretly adhering to Judaism. The Roman Inquisition, created to fight the Reformation, and run from the Vatican, doesn't come to an end until the 20th century.

4. Does it survive in any form? I sometimes hear about theologians today getting into trouble.

The Vatican's Congregation of the Inquisition was formally abolished in 1908 -- but it may be more correct to say it was renamed. It was turned into the Holy Office, which in the 1960s became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is the department that Cardinal Josef Ratzinger ran before he became Pope Benedict XVI. It occupies the palazzo built for the Inquisition in the middle of the 16th century. And it's still the department that keeps an eye on what theologians write, sometimes calling them on the carpet.

5. When I think "Inquisition," I think "torture" -- is that real or is it a myth?

Torture was an integral part of the inquisitorial process, mainly to extract confessions -- just as it was part of the systems used by secular courts of the time. Modern historians explain that the Church tried to regulate torture, establishing clear guidelines for its use. Unfortunately, limitations on torture never really work -- that's one lesson from the Inquisition, and from the recent American experience. It's never hard to justify applying a little more physical coercion once you've decided that physical coercion is fine to begin with. Medieval inquisitors, limited to one session of torture per person, sometimes conducted a second or third or fourth, arguing that it was just a "continuance" of the first.

6. How does the Index of Forbidden Books fit into the picture?

It was created by the Roman Inquisition to deal with the onslaught of books -- many of them advancing ideas the Church didn't like -- made possible by the printing press, and over the centuries the Index grew and grew. It existed for a very long time -- it wasn't abolished until 1966. The impulse to criticize still has some life. A decade ago Josef Ratzinger expressed concern over the "subtle seductions" of Harry Potter.

See Chick's KISS THE PROTESTANTS GOODBYE.

Student Dies After Thanking God for Life

2012-01-23T22:13:00.000-08:00

It was Ariane Noelle Patterson's 21st birthday, and she was grateful to be alive.

The Gardner-Webb University student took to her Twitter account on Jan. 17 and posted the message: "Thank you God for another year of life."

Hours later, she collapsed during a religion class and was rushed to nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the Associated Press reports.

The senior at the North Carolina Christian college was originally from Delaware and majored in religious studies, the Shelby Star reports. She had recently obtained a work-study position managing multimedia for campus ministries.

The cause of her death is still under investigation. See Chick's THIS IS YOUR LIFE.

Gays Petition and Get Christian Nurse Fired

2012-01-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

A nurse practitioner whose alleged harassment of a lesbian Marine veteran sparked an online backlash campaign has been removed from her job.

A Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center spokesperson confirmed that nurse practitioner Lincy Pandithurai would "retire from federal service" effective Jan. 21. Pandithurai reportedly told Esther Garatie, a honorably discharged Marine Lance Corporal who was seeking treatment for severe depression and possible post-traumatic stress disorder, that the reason she was depressed and contemplating suicide was because she was a lesbian and needed Christ.

“The board was able to substantiate material portions of the veteran’s claims,” the spokesperson said in a statement as quoted by the Dallas Observer. "Our commitment to equal rights remains strong as we practice our core values of integrity, commitment, advocacy, respect and excellence."

Upon learning of Pandithurai's removal, the 28-year-old Garatie also issued a statement. "I really want to thank all of the people that have come together to support me and other veterans," she said "Thank you for standing up against anything like this ever happening -- to any veteran -- ever again."

As the Dallas Voice reports, Garatie initially sought treatment for severe depression and possible post-traumatic stress disorder in October, upon which Pandithurai inquired about her sexual orientation.

“She sat down and looked at me, and her first question was, ‘Are you a lesbian?’” Garatie wrote in a statement. “Her second question to me was, ‘Have you asked God into your heart? Have you been saved by Jesus Christ?’"

Following the incident, Garatie and a friend launched an online petition at Change.org calling for Pandithurai to be fired, which drew over 19,500 signatures. As The Advocate is reporting, the hospital launched an investigation in November in response to the petition, taking Pandithurai away from patients in the interim. See Chick's SIN CITY.

Man Marries Dead Girl Friend

2012-01-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

A man recently married his deceased girlfriend in a combination funeral and wedding ceremony.

Chadil Deffy, also known as Deff Yingyuen, placed a ring on the finger of Sarinya "Anne" Kamsook, his girlfriend of 10 years, during the ceremony in Thailand's Surin province.

The couple had planned to get married in the future, but Yingyuen wanted to focus on his studies before tying the knot, the Thai-Asean News (TAN) Network reported.

Unfortunately, Kamsook unexpectedly died in an accident before the couple could set a date.

According to the Pattaya Daily News, the couple met at Thailand's Eastern Asia University nearly a decade ago, and wreaths were placed around campus in memory of Kamsook following her death.

And while some thought the service a bit strange, others expressed their sympathy for the groom.

"...I didn't know her, but in your photos, she looks young and full of life. I can't image the impact her death has caused in the lives of her loved ones. It was a very moving gesture of love, very moving. It makes you rethink a lot of things in life, things you take for granted," Facebook user Alejandra Yanez wrote in Spanish on Yingyuen's page. See Chick's THE TYCOON.

UK Convicts Three For Distributing Anti-Gay Tracts

2012-01-21T05:51:00.000-08:00

Three men were convicted Friday of distributing anti-gay leaflets, and prosecutors called it a landmark case regarding the prosecution of hate crimes regarding sexual orientation.

A jury found the men to have distributed leaflets calling for homosexuals to face the death penalty. Two others were acquitted of the same charge.

"Everyone has a right to be protected by the law and we regard homophobic crimes, along with all hate crimes, as particularly serious because they undermine people's right to feel safe," said Sue Hemming, chief of the Crown Prosecution Service special crime division. No mention of the rights of citizens to hold controversial views and express them in public was acknowledged, nor did any human rights organizations criticize the draconian censorship measures.

Hemming said in a statement that the leaflet showed a mannequin hanging from a noose and said gay people were destined to go to hell.

One witness testified he felt he was being targeted and feared he would be "burned", Hemming said.

Ihjaz Ali, 42, Kabir Ahmed, 28, and Razwan Javed, 27, were found guilty in Derby Crown Court. Sentencing is set for Feb. 10.

The men were prosecuted under a relatively new law that took effect in 2010. It makes it a crime to promote hatred based on sexual orientation.

No details were publicized about whether the "speech criminals" were motivated by religious convictions or not (their names suggest they may have been Islamic.) Nor were there details if the leaflet contained scripture. This event is very troubling for British users of Chick tracts, however, since several tracts warn of the "death" of one's soul if they engage in unrepentant homosexual behavior.

MA Gives Special Status to Transvestites

2012-01-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

Massachusetts officially became the 16th state to treat transgender citizens as a protected class today as Democrat Governor Deval Patrick hosted a ceremonial signing of the groundbreaking rights bill.

The law legally protects transgender individuals from discrimination in housing, education, employment and credit, in addition to providing additional civil rights and protections from hate crimes. (The new law mandates that the state punish criminals who hurt transvestites more than it would punish criminals who hurt average victims.)

"I sign this bill as a matter of conscience; people should be able to come before their government as equals," Patrick is quoted as having said as he signed "An Act Relative to Gender Identity" into law. Though Patrick had actually signed the bill in his office in late November, Thursday's event was a ceremonial start-of-the-year one that drew an overflowing crowd from the local transgender community, local network WWLP is reporting.

"This law is about affirming rights," Gunner Scott, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC), is quoted by Bay Windows as saying. "This law is for people who think they can deny us those rights... This piece of paper is not magic, but for many of us it is the result of hard work that will change our lives."

Still, many transgender rights activists found fault with the new legislation, drawing attention to its lack of public accommodation protections. Last fall's removal of such a protection, which would have required all "sex-segregated facilities" such as rest rooms or locker rooms to grant admission to people based on gender identity was heavily criticized by many who considered it a key component.

“Just because it’s such a basic right for people and the fact that it’s not protected is kind of atrocious,” said Kaylin MacNeil of Holyoke.

According to the Associated Press, an estimated 33,000 transgender citizens reside in Massachusetts.

Obama Offers Carrot and Stick to Iran in Secret Letter

2012-01-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

An Iranian lawmaker claimed Wednesday that President Barack Obama called for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic's supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Obama administration officials denied there was such a letter.

Iran has threatened to close the waterway, the route for about one-sixth of the global oil flow, because of new U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program.

Conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari revealed the content of the letter days after the Obama administration said it was warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf.

"In the letter, Obama called for direct talks with Iran," the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Motahari as saying Wednesday. "The letter also said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is (Washington's) red line."

"The first part of the letter contains threats and the second part contains an offer for dialogue," he added.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast confirmed that Tehran received the letter and was considering a possible response.

In Washington, an Obama administration official denied that Obama sent a letter to Khamanei, saying communication of U.S. views were being delivered through other diplomatic messages. The official would give no further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor pointed to earlier comments from the Obama administration that noted the U.S. had a number of ways to communicate its views to the Iranian government. He said the U.S. remained committed to engaging with Tehran and finding a diplomatic solution to its larger issues with Iran's nuclear program.

Spokesmen have been vague on what the United States would do about Iran's threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but military officials have been clear that the U.S. is readying for a possible naval clash.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard, the country's most powerful military force, says Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the oil route if Iran's oil exports are blocked. A senior Guard officer said earlier this month that the decision has been made by Iran's top authorities.

Iranian politicians have made the threat in the past, but this was the strongest statement yet that a closure of the strait is official policy.

Iran's regular army recently held naval war games near the vital waterway that were described by hard-liners as part of preparations to close the strait if sanctions are imposed. The Guard is planning major naval military exercises next month in the same region.

The U.S. last month enacted new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad over Tehran's nuclear program. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.

Closing the strait would have immense world economic impact. Iran is OPEC's second largest oil producer, and oil exports account for 80 percent of Iran's foreign currency income. To Tehran, an oil embargo would be tantamount to a declaration of war that could provoke the Iranian leadership to block the Hormuz strait.

At issue is Iran's nuclear program. The U.S., Israel and others charge that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Their case was bolstered by a report from the International Atomic Energy late last year, citing evidence that Iran was employing methods and equipment used in making bombs.

Iran has consistently denied that, saying its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electric power and isotopes for cancer treatment.

Perry Urges Restraint Against Soldiers Who Desecrated Dead

2012-01-15T14:30:00.000-08:00

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of "over-the-top rhetoric" and "disdain for the military" in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.

Perry's comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the images could damage the war effort.

"The Marine Corps prides itself that we don't lower ourselves to the level of the enemy," McCain said when asked about Perry's position. "So it makes me sad more than anything else, because ... I can't tell you how wonderful these people (Marines) are. And it hurts their reputation and their image."

No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week that he worried the video could be used by the Taliban to undermine peace talks.

A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.

Texas Gov. Perry said the Marines involved should be reprimanded but not prosecuted on criminal charges.

"Obviously, 18-, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often. And that's what's occurred here," Perry told CNN's "State of the Union."

He later added: "What's really disturbing to me is the kind of over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military."

Later appearing on the same show, McCain said he disagreed.

"We're trying to win the hearts and minds" of the Afghanistan population, he said. "And when something like that comes up, it obviously harms that ability." See Chick's WHERE DID THE GO?

Baptist Endorse Catholic Conservative Santorum over Moderate Mormon Romney

2012-01-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

A week before the South Carolina primaries, more than 150 conservative evangelical leaders met in Texas and voted to throw their weight behind former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. The endorsement, which will likely come with grassroots support and fundraising assistance, marks a last-minute effort to help a socially conservative candidate dethrone current frontrunner Mitt Romney.

"Rick Santorum has consistently articulated the issues that are of concern to conservatives, both economic and social," said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, speaking on behalf of the attendees. "He has woven those into a very solid platform. And he has a record of stability."

Added Perkins: "He obviously is not up to some of the other candidates in terms of fundraising, but those issues can be corrected. With this strong consensus coming behind him, that can aid in the fundraising that he needs to be successful in the primary."

The group of religious conservative leaders met on Friday and Saturday at the Brenham ranch of former judge and Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler. The assemblage did not release a full list of its members, although radio host James Dobson, Don Wildmon of the American Family Association and pastor Jon Hagee were among the invited.

Santorum emerged as the winner after three rounds of balloting, with the final vote between him and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Santorum eventually received the support of more than two-thirds of those voting. Texas Gov. Rick Perry also received strong support.

Romney sent a surrogate to address the group, but the former Massachusetts governor received very little backing. Yet his poor showing did not follow some wave of attacks from participants, Perkins said -- they simply did not spend much time thinking about him.

"It was not a bash-Mitt Romney weekend," Perkins said. "This was more of a discussion of the positives of the conservative candidates and their vision for the future, and we focused more on how to get America back on the right road and make America great again."

Perkins added that Romney's Mormon religion was not a factor in the lack of endorsement. "That was not even discussed. If it was, it was a sidenote," he said. Still, he did not mince words in discussing the former Massachusetts governor.

"[I]t's not news that there is not a strong support among conservatives for Mitt Romney," Perkins said. "You've seen that across the country, and that was reflected here."

Perkins said many of the leaders at the Texas gathering were involved in get-out-the-vote efforts in Iowa, where Rick Santorum secured a late endorsement from conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats. A late surge in Iowa put Santorum in a close second place there, just eight votes behind Romney.

Santorum's campaign did not return a request for comment on Saturday's announcement.

The evangelicals who gathered in Texas this weekend included leaders with networks in both South Carolina and Florida, which is holding its primary contest on Jan. 31.

Even though many of the members felt strongly about other candidates, Perkins said, the desire to oust President Barack Obama moved them toward a consensus -- a lesson they learned after splintering four years ago.

"Part of the backdrop of this meeting was not to see what happened in 2008 repeated again, where conservatives either stayed on the sidelines or were fragmented among the several conservative candidates, allowing a moderate candidate to emerge -- John McCain -- who was not successful in securing the presidency," he said.

However, he said, there was no discussion at the meeting about urging other candidates to drop out of the race.

Transgender Girl Scout Causes Cookie Boycott

2012-01-11T13:37:00.001-08:00

A California-based teen is hoping to spearhead a national boycott of Girl Scout cookies after the organization's controversial decision to admit a 7-year-old transgender child to a Colorado troop this past fall.

The girl, which World News Daily has identified only as Taylor from Ventura County, Calif., appears in a YouTube video in which she claims her organization is using proceeds from sales of the popular cookies to "[promote] the desires of a small handful of people."

"Right now, Girl Scouts of the U.S.A...is not being honest with us girls, its troops, its leaders, its parents or the American public," Taylor, who claims to have been a Girl Scout for eight years, says in the clip. "Girl Scouts describes itself as an all-girl experience. With that label, families trust that the girls will be in an environment that is not only nurturing and sensitive to girls' needs, but also safe for girls."

She goes on to note, "I am asking you to take action with me and boycott Girl Scout Cookies." The video eventually concludes with a tagline for the Honest Girl Scouts site, which describes itself as a group "concerned with the alarming choices GSUSA has been making," and "advocating for a change back to simply building girls of good character."

Last fall's decision to admit Bobby Montoya after initially excluding her has already been met with considerable controversy. In December, three Louisiana-based leaders resigned and dissolved their troops in the wake of the incident, with one calling it "an almost dangerous situation" for children, according to The Baptist Press.

At the time, the Girl Scouts of Colorado released a statement through the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), noting, "If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout."

After confessing to having difficulty switching from male to female pronouns when discussing her child, Montoya's mother Felisha Archuleta defended her daughter to ABC, saying, "I believe he was born in the wrong body...no one would know he's a boy unless they pulled his pants down."

What would happen if someone did that and others saw it? Well, they would probably lose their cookies (unless they already boycotted them). See Chick's THE TRIAL.

Tebow Gets Last Laugh Against Critics

2012-01-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

You'd think that the Tim Tebow story couldn't get any more bananas. You'd be wrong. See, it's not just that Tebow transformed himself into a legitimate passer in the playoffs. Or that Tebow is about to go against the guy who drafted him, Josh

McDaniels. How about the fact that the guy who's renowned for writing John 3:16 on his eye black just happened to throw for 316 yards on Sunday in the Broncos win?

Because that actually happened.

The result, as with anything relating to Tim Tebow was predictable, is a Google-splosion:

Timothy is fairly popular. Especially when his passing yards = Bible verses.

Think about this: Beyonce and Jay-Z, arguably two of the 10 most famous people on the planet, had a baby -- TOGETHER! -- and they rank third on the things that

the world is searching about, behind two things relating to Timothy J.C. Tebow. (Not to mention the other two searches out-pacing everything else but the new Fusion and baby Beyonce.) It's pretty insane.

And for those that are curious about the further weirdness of statistical anomalies, before last night there were 46 quarterbacks who had thrown for 316 yards in either a playoff or regular season game in NFL history. This morning? There are 47. If only that had any significance to Mr. Tebow ...

And one more, just for kicks: there's only one other playoff game in NFL history

featuring someone who passed for 316 yards. Sadly, the other person's name isn't

"John." (But Tebow's boss is John Elway, so, yeah.)

We'll just have to settle for someone named Daunte.

UPDATE 2:50 p.m. ET: OK, so we're not quite done yet. As our brilliant commenters point out below, Tebow completed 10 passes. That means he averaged 31.6 yards per pass. His final pass was to Thomas who just happens to have been born on Christmas Day. (!)

Oh and this: the Steelers-Broncos game was the most-watched wild-card game since 1988. In the final quarter-hour, the overnight rating was 31.6. Strange indeed!

As it turns out, the lone interception thrown in the game on Sunday night came from Ben Roethlisberger. What down and distance were involved when he threw it? Third and 16. Of course.

Pope Condemns Gay Marriage

2012-01-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

Pope Benedict said on Monday that gay marriage was one of several threats to the traditional family that undermined "the future of humanity itself".

The pope made some of his strongest comments against gay marriage in a new year address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican in which he touched on some economic and social issues facing the world today.

He told diplomats from nearly 180 countries that the education of children needed proper "settings" and that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman."

"This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself," he said.

The Vatican and Catholic officials around the world have protested against moves to legalise gay marriage in Europe and other developed parts of the world.

One leading opponent of gay marriage in the United States is New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, whom the pope will elevate to cardinal next month.

Dolan fought against gay marriage before it became legal in New York state last June, and in September he sent a letter to President Barack Obama criticising his administration's decision not to support a federal ban on gay marriage.

In that letter Dolan, who holds the powerful post of president of the U.S. Bishops Conference, said such a policy could "precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions."

The Roman Catholic Church, which has some 1.3 billion members worldwide, teaches that while homosexual tendencies are not sinful, homosexual acts are, and that children should grow up in a traditional family with a mother and a father.

"The family unit is fundamental for the educational process and for the development both of individuals and states; hence there is a need for policies which promote the family and aid social cohesion and dialogue," Benedict told the diplomats.

Gay marriage is legal in few European countries, including Spain and the Netherlands.

Many Churches that have allowed gay marriage, women priests, gay clergy and gay bishops have been losing members, and some of those have become Catholic. The Vatican has taken steps to facilitate their conversion.

In 2009, Benedict decreed that Anglicans who leave their Church, many because they feel it has become too liberal and secular, can find a home in Catholicism in a parallel hierarchy that allows them to keep some of their traditions and honor scripture.

The Vatican has since set up "ordinariates," structures similar to dioceses, in Britain and the United States to oversee ex-Anglicans who have converted and be a point of contact for those wishing to do so. See Chick's SIN CITY.

Osteen Says Gays Sin to Oprah

2012-01-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

Pastor Joel Osteen reaches millions through his sermons, and he tries to preach in a more positive way than some of his notable contemporaries. But because he doesn't focus on sin in his sermons doesn't mean that he doesn't believe in it. He clarified his stance on sin and homosexuality on "Oprah's Next Chapter" (Sun., 9 p.m. EST on OWN).

Although he was clearly uncomfortable saying he was against homosexuality to a host who is in favor of it, he didn't dodge Oprah's question and answered it directly: "Sometimes we look at gay being a bigger sin than being proud or not telling the truth," Osteen said. "I don't think God categorizes sins." While he squirmed before a frowning Oprah Winfrey, Osteen did confirm that he sees homosexualty as a sin, based on what he's read in scripture.

He also said that he believes homosexuals can get into Heaven, just as other people with sin in them can. Forgiveness is a big part, but "To think that we're all going to be without one sin?" Osteen mused. "I hope that's true, but I don't think any of us would make it to Heaven.

"It's a hard thing in a sense because I'm for everybody. I'm not against anybody. I don't think anybody's second class," Osteen said. He'll be showing this in his reality television endeavor with Mark Burnett, spotlighting mission trips undertaken by his Lakewood Mega Church. See Chick's REVEREND WONDERFUL.

God Hinted the Next President to Robinson?

2012-01-05T16:25:00.000-08:00

Christian conservative leader Pat Robertson says he has a secret straight from God: He knows who the next president of the United States will be.

"I think He showed me about the next president, but I'm not supposed to talk about that so I'll leave you in the dark -- probably just as well -- but I think I know who it's gonna be," Robertson said Tuesday on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."

Robertson then went on to recite the message he claimed to have been told by God. According to Robertson, God doesn't support President Barack Obama's agenda and says that only "overwhelming prayer" can bring a new leader who will stop the country from "disintegrating":

Your country will be torn apart by internal stress. A house divided cannot stand. Your president holds a radical view of the direction of your country which is at odds with the majority. Expect chaos and paralysis. Your president holds a view which is at the odds with the majority -- it's a radical view of the future of this country, and so that's why we're having this division. This is a spiritual battle which can only be won by overwhelming prayer. The future of the world is at stake because if America falls, there's no longer a strong champion of freedom and a champion of the oppressed of the world. There must be an urgent call to prayer.

Robertson frequently delves into the political realm with his evangelism.

He earlier counseled the GOP presidential candidates to avoid stepping into radical territory with their campaigns.

"Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off of this stuff," he exclaimed in October. "If they want to lose, this is the game for losers."

Despite this warning, he's been especially vocal on social issues such as gay rights, which have proven to be quite visible in Iowa. The entire GOP field opposes gay marriage rights, drawing a number of gay activist protests along the campaign trail in Iowa, a state where such unions have been legalized (but without a public vote).

Robertson has been more controversial with his comments, recently saying that gays can "un-acquire" their sexuality. It's just the latest in a string of comments that gay activists seek to silence.

On Tuesday, however, Robertson said that God told him the nation's downfall would be triggered by an economic collapse. He suggested that God told him this would come about if Obama was elected to another term.

"And God said, this is not my judgment, they are bringing it upon themselves," Robertson explained. See Chick's SIN CITY.

Late Term Abortion Doctors Charged With Murder

2012-01-03T11:55:00.003-08:00

A murder case against two doctors who allegedly completed late-term abortions in Maryland after starting them in New Jersey could be the first to test a state law tied to the "viability" of an unborn fetus.

Steven Chase Brigham, 55, the owner of American Women's Services clinics, and his employee, Nicola Irene Riley, 46, were arrested last week after a 16-month criminal investigation by Maryland authorities.

Officers who searched the Elkton, Maryland clinic during the investigation found 35 fetuses in a freezer, a source with knowledge of the case told Reuters.

A series of earlier investigations by state medical boards revealed that Brigham illegally initiated abortions at a clinic he owns in Voorhees, New Jersey, and then allegedly completed the procedures at a clinic in Maryland, where he was not licensed.

In New Jersey, late-term abortions can be performed only in a hospital or licensed ambulatory facility; there is no such restriction in Maryland.

Brigham faces multiple charges including five counts of first-degree murder. Riley also faces multiple charges, including one count of first-degree murder.

Brigham is awaiting extradition from Voorhees, New Jersey. His attorney, C. Thomas Brown, could not be reached for comment.

A hearing for Riley is scheduled for Tuesday morning in Salt Lake City, her attorney, Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum said.

"I can tell you we strongly believe the charges are without legal basis," Krevor-Weisbaum said, adding that she had not yet seen the indictment, which was filed under seal.

She said the fetal homicide statute in Maryland does not apply to her client because that law provides exceptions for licensed doctors, like Riley.

Maryland criminal law states that people can be charged with murder if they "intend to cause the death of the viable fetus." The law does not define "personhood" and states it is not intended to infringe on a woman's right to have an abortion.

But state law also defines a fetus as "viable" if "there is a reasonable likelihood of the fetus' sustained survival outside the womb."

Brigham provided abortions to five patients ranging from 18 to 33 weeks pregnant, according to a report by the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners.

The determination of whether those fetuses were "viable" could occur in court.

"This is probably the first case that Maryland has ever seen with this factual scenario using this statute. It's a unique situation," Cecil County State's Attorney Ellis Rollins told Reuters when the case emerged on Friday. He declined further comment on Monday.

The Maryland Department of Mental Health and Hygiene has proposed a draft law to better define when an abortion can be performed legally, and specifically cites Brigham and Riley's case.

The New Jersey medical report said Brigham started the five late-term abortion cases in his New Jersey clinic, giving patients injections that either softened the cervix or caused "fetal demise." The patients then traveled to Maryland where the abortions were completed, the report said.

Brigham completed some himself and Riley completed others under Brigham's supervision, the report said. Brigham's New Jersey license was suspended in October 2010 and he received a cease-and-desist warning in Maryland a month earlier.

Brigham argued to the board that the procedures in New Jersey are only preliminary to an abortion and that he only consulted doctors at the Maryland clinic.

The criminal investigation began in August 2010 when a woman nearly six months pregnant sought an abortion at Brigham's New Jersey clinic, where she received the preliminary injections.

She then drove to the Maryland clinic, where Riley performed the abortion procedure with Brigham present, the New Jersey report said.

At the time, Riley held medical licenses in Maryland, Utah and Wyoming. Her Maryland license has since been suspended.

During the procedure, the woman suffered an injured uterus and bowels. Riley took her to a nearby hospital and she survived, police said.

As part of the criminal investigation that followed, police found 35 fetuses in a freezer at the Maryland abortion clinic.

Freezing fetuses is "normal practice," Krevor-Weisbaum said, noting doctors preserve the fetuses until proper medical waste procedures can be conducted. She did not know if the murder charges were connected to the frozen fetuses. See Chick's WHO MURDERED CLARICE?

Israel Outraged Jews Play Holocast Card On Them

2012-01-01T16:12:00.001-08:00

Images of ultra-Orthodox Jews dressing up as Nazi concentration camp inmates during a protest drew widespread condemnation Sunday and added a new twist to a simmering battle over growing extremism inside Israel's insular ultra-Orthodox community.

Orthodox Jews are facing increasing criticism for their efforts to separate men and women in public spaces, and Saturday's protest, in which a child mimicked an iconic photo of a terrified Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto, added to the outrage.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered Saturday night in Jerusalem to protest what they say is a nationwide campaign directed against their lifestyle. The protesters called Israeli policemen Nazis, wore yellow Star of David patches with the word "Jude" – German for Jew – dressed their children in striped black-and-white uniforms associated with Nazi concentration camps and transported them in the back of a truck.

Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial denounced the use of Nazi imagery as "disgraceful," and several other survivors' groups and politicians condemned the acts.

"We must leave the Holocaust and its symbols outside the arguments in Israeli society," said Moshe Zanbar, chairman of the main umbrella group for Holocaust survivors in Israel. "This harms the memory of the Holocaust."

Six million Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. About 200,000 aging survivors of the Holocaust live in Israel.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up 10 percent of Israel's population. In the past, they have generally confined their strict lifestyle to their own neighborhoods. But they have become increasingly aggressive in trying to impose their ways on others, as their population has grown and spread to new areas.

Extremist sects within the ultra-Orthodox community have been under fire of late for their attempts to ban mixing of the sexes on buses, sidewalks and other public spaces.

In one city, extremists have jeered and spit at girls walking to school, saying they were dressed immodestly. They've also battled with police over street signs calling for segregation and attacked journalists who have covered their neighborhoods. In recent weeks, a few young Israeli women have caused nationwide uproars for refusing the orders of religious men to move to the back of public buses.

These practices, albeit by a fringe sect, have unleashed a backlash against the ultra-Orthodox in general, the climax of which came last week in a large demonstration where protesters held signs reading, "Free Israel from religious coercion," and "Stop Israel from becoming Iran."

Rabbi Yitzhak Weiss, one of the organizers of Saturday's protest, said the use of Nazi symbols was intentional and aimed at highlighting what he said was a campaign by the secular media against his community.

"The idea was to convey a clear and simple message: that wild incitement against the ultra-Orthodox community will not be tolerated," he told The Associated Press. "The Israeli media's incitement is reminiscent of the German media's before World War II."

One of the protesters, Yaakov Israel, told Channel 2 TV that his community feels "persecuted" by the Israeli establishment. "We feel what is being done to us here is a spiritual Holocaust," he said.

It's not the first time ultra-Orthodox zealots have referred to the Holocaust in their political struggles. But the sight of children dressed in garb that conjures up images of the darkest period in Jewish history was unprecedented. It sparked angry rebuttals that only exacerbated Israel's brewing religious war.

Israeli leaders condemned the display and called on the ultra-Orthodox leadership to speak out against it.

"This is a terrible offense against the memory of the Holocaust victims who were forced, secular and Ultra-Orthodox alike, to wear the yellow star in the ghetto on their way to extermination, and there is no demonstration in the world that can justify this," said opposition leader Tzipi Livni.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the display "shocking and horrifying" and a "crossing of a red line."

The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, an umbrella organization of U.S. survivors, expressed its "utter contempt at this disgraceful exploitation" of the Nazi symbols.

"We who survived and witnessed these Nazi crimes are particularly offended that demonstrators so blithely used children in this public outrage. They have insulted the memory of all the Jewish victims, including those who were ultra-Orthodox," the organization's vice president, Elan Steinberg, said in a statement.

"The Nazis made no distinction in their murderous treatment of our people – whether one was ultra-Orthodox, traditional, or nonbeliever, you were marked for cruelty and death." See Chick's HOLOCAUST.

President Orders Non-Enforcement of Border Restrictions

2011-12-31T14:55:00.000-08:00

An administration Dec. 29 memo declares that illegal immigrants may have to be held until they’re convicted in local courts before the federal government will begin deportation proceedings.

The declaration “means lots of criminal aliens will be released if the locals don’t have the resources or inclination to prosecute, or if the [suspect] is found not guilty because of a technicality,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

Many absconders already settle in other states, and some commit additional crimes against Americans. In October, for example, an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was convicted or murdering a nun in a drunk-driving crash in Virginia.

Under long-standing laws, state officials are allowed to hold illegal immigrants for an extra 48 hours if federal immigration officers offer to take them into custody for subsequent deportation.

The new rule shows “the administration wants to give up one of the most important tools in preserving public safety,” said Krikorian. “We’ll have more and more instances of illegals released by police because [federal immigration officials] wouldn’t take them [and] who then go on to commit some heinous crime,” he said.

The U.S. hosts perhaps 9 million illegal immigrants, of which roughly 1.5 million illegals have committed major or minor crimes while staying in the country, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the CIS.

The new rule complements administration efforts to spur Hispanic support for the 2012 election by relaxing enforcement of immigration laws.

President Barack Obama’s campaign aides frequently say they’re seeking Hispanic support to win crucial states, such as North Carolina and Arizona. On Dec. 19, for example, Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina released a video in which he said Arizona was winnable because “hundreds of thousands” of people in the state have not registered to vote.

The campaign is using Hispanic ethnic lobbies, such as La Raza, to help register Hispanics and to persuade them to vote in November.

But the ethnic lobbies have their own demands.

They want easier immigration for their ethnic or religious groups, including Hispanics, Asians, Arabs, Irish and Muslims.

The public and Congress oppose amnesty bills, so the lobbies’ demands have prompted administration officials to roll back enforcement of immigration laws.

In recent months, Eric Holder, the scandal-plagued Attorney General, has launched lawsuits against successful reforms implemented by several states — including Arizona — and has sued Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s police department in Arizona.

Janet Napolitano, who heads the Department of Homeland Security which oversees immigration enforcement, has also let her political deputies end routine checks of travelers in bus depots and has stopped legal proceedings against many illegals. Her department has also ordered immigration officials to largely ignore illegals who have not been convicted major crimes, and released the new memo Dec. 29.

These rollback policies are also being adopted despite the immigration reforms in Arizona and Alabama that have reduced the local unemployment rates.

The Dec. 29 memo announced a new 24-hour legal-aid hotline for illegal immigrants, but it also introduced a revised checklist for federal immigration officers.

The checklist is dubbed a “detainer” form, which federal officers have long used to request their state or local counterparts hold an illegal immigrant for an extra 48 hours beyond that allowed by local courts.

The new form includes a new box that federal officials can tick to make the detainer request conditional “upon the subject’s conviction.” The Dec. 29 memo says officials can “make the detainer operative only upon the individual’s conviction of the offense for which he or she was arrested.”

Translated, that new rule means Obama’s appointees say they may not allow federal immigration officers to accept illegal immigrants for deportation until after state and local officials detain, arraign, try and convict the suspects for the crimes they were initially arrested, said Vaughan.

But that trial process can take many months, and it is often abandoned once illegal-immigrant defendants — whom federal officers have declined to detain — skip bail or overburden local courts, she said. The new rule also increases the incentive for illegal-immigrant suspects to contest every legal step.

The new rule “is almost an obstruction of justice,” because it reduces the chance that the families of people victimized by illegal immigrants will ever see justice, said Vaughan.

Already, administration officials require local police to ignore likely illegal immigrants unless they have courtroom-ready evidence of illegality, she said. This month, for example, Arizona sheriff Arpaio announced that ICE officials have stopped accepting suspected illegals detained by his deputies in Arizona.

This new rule would allow the federal agencies to avoid detaining and deporting illegals even when police have courtroom-ready evidence of crimes, she said.

Political appointees in the ICE agency will use the new rule to pressure subordinate officers to refuse custody of illegals until they’ve been convicted by local courts, Vaughan said. The appointees have to pressure the immigration officers because those officers are already working to enforce the laws despite the other enforcement-rollback directives, she said.

That additional pressure is being applied already, because translated versions of the detainer form — including information about the new conviction rule and the hotline number — will be provided to apprehended suspects who can’t speak English, says the new memo.

The form will be translated for Spanish-speaking Hispanics, French-speaking Haitians, for Portuguese-speaking Africans and Brazilians, as well as Chinese speakers and Vietnamese, according to ICE.

Still, the political impact of the rollback policy is unclear because most Hispanics voters tell pollsters that their top political priorities are the economy and education, not immigration.

Those priorities give GOP candidates the opportunity to win perhaps 40 percent of votes from Hispanic communities. These communities include distinctly different groups, such as GOP-leaning Cubans and Democratic-dominated Puerto Ricans in Florida, Mexicans in California and El Salvadorian business-owners on the East Coast.

But pollsters also say Hispanics’ voting is also heavily influenced by candidates’ apparent insults or compliments of their community. That respect factor works to the Democrats’ advantage because many GOP candidates’ support for the enforcement of immigration law is portrayed by established media and Spanish-language media as personal animus towards Hispanics.

Obama’s approval among Hispanics is down from its 2008 level, but remains above 60 percent.

However, Obama’s campaign officials are worried that Hispanics who are disappointed with the stalled economy won’t turn out to vote in 2012 unless they also see a GOP presidential candidate as hostile to their ethnic group.

The effort to rollback enforcement of immigration law follows the refusal by the White House to push for an amnesty bill.

The White House balked, in part, because the public and Congress oppose any amnesty that would bring more low-skilled workers into an economy where unemployment is above 10 percent among low-skilled workers, Hispanics and African-Americans.

Unemployment is so high that fewer than 50 percent of African-American males aged between 20 and 30 have a full-time job.

See Chick's WHY NO REVIVAL.

AIDS Spreader Arrested

2011-12-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

A health alert warning residents of northern Michigan's Kent County that "possibly hundreds of people have been exposed to HIV" was issued Tuesday after the arrest of David Dean Smith, a 51-year-old HIV-positive man who told police he was on a mission to infect as many people as possible, MSNBC reports.

Smith allegedly told Grand Rapids police last week that over the past three years, he had engaged in unprotected sex with as many partners as he could -- a number he estimated to be in the "thousands" -- in an effort to infect them with HIV and kill them.

Police arrested Smith Friday on sexual offense charges and he is currently in Kent County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bond with preliminary hearings scheduled for Jan. 4 and Jan. 9. When asked to comment on the case, Smith's attorney Richard E. Zambon told MSBNC that he is "concerned about his mental health" and is planning on "exploring all options" for defending Smith.

According to documents filed with Grand Rapids 61st District Court, Smith targeted Michigan residents as well as those living many states away, whom he contacted via Yahoo! Personals.

That was the method Smith used to contact one of the two victims that have already come forward. This woman agreed to be interviewed by Grand Rapids news station WOOD-TV on the condition of anonymity, telling reporters that she contracted HIV in 2008 and knew immediately that Smith was the person who had infected her.

Right before his arrest, she said, he allegedly sent her a text message that read "Turning myself into the law, my life is over. Take care. Always love you."

It's unclear why Smith chose to alert authorities of his behavior at this time, but court documents suggest he has a history of mental illness which includes a recent admission to Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services for threatening suicide. According to Michigan Live, hospital records say that Smith is "sexually aroused by causing pain to females."

How many people Smith directly infected over the past three years is difficult to determine, but the victim who spoke to WOOD-TV said Smith claimed to have had sex with as many as 3,000 people of both genders.

The Kent County Health Department is encouraging anyone who believes they may have been infected by Smith to come forward.
Anyone concerned that they may have been infected can call the Kent County Health Department Personal Health Services Clinic at 616.632.7171. All calls and HIV testing is confidential. See Chick's THAT CRAZY GUY.

Ron Paul Back Peddles on Israel

2011-12-29T15:15:00.001-08:00

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, battling allegations he is anti-Israel, praised it as one of the United States's most important allies in an Israeli newspaper interview published on Thursday.

Paul's emailed comments appeared in the left-wing Haaretz daily after a former aide said the Texas congressman favored abolishing the Jewish state and a leading U.S. Jewish group urged him to clarify his position.

"I believe that Israel is one of our most important friends in the world. And the views that I hold have many adherents in Israel today," Paul was quoted as saying by Haaretz.

Although a longshot to win the Republican presidential race, Paul is a leading contender for next Tuesday's Republican caucus vote in Iowa - the first nominating contest in the nation.

But his record on Israel has raised concerns among U.S. Jewish organizations. The Republican Jewish Coalition declined to invite him to its December 7 candidates forum, citing what it called his extreme views after a November debate in which Paul said Washington should be less involved in Israeli affairs.

"They can take care of themselves," Paul, who has called for reduced U.S. foreign aid generally, said at the time. "Why do we have this automatic commitment that we're going to send our kids and send our money endlessly to Israel?" See Chick's LOVE THE JEWISH PEOPLE.

Demented Christian H.S. Teacher Arrested for Exposure in Class

2011-12-29T10:27:00.001-08:00

The Schamburg Christian High School teacher accused by students of touching himself inappropriately during class denied those allegations Wednesday, and his attorneys say statements he reportedly made to police that contradict that plea were a product of his struggles with dementia.

Paul A. LaDuke, 75, pleaded not guilty to nine counts of felony exploitation of a child Wednesday, ABC 7 Chicago reports.

LaDuke was fired from the school on Nov. 11, the same day students complained about his behavior. Police say Laduke confessed to "masturbating while fantasizing about various students for the past 10 years," and investigators believe this incident was not isolated.

Irv Seidler, an attorney representing LaDuke, attributed the former teacher's admissions to his ongoing struggle with dementia, and noted that no additional charges have been filed for previous incidents, he told CBS Chicago. LaDuke had been a teacher at the Schamburg school for 26 years.

LaDuke is out on bond and has been ordered to avoid contact with minors, his victims and their families, the Daily Herald reports. He is next scheduled to appear in court Jan. 26, and faces one to three years in jail if found guilty of felony exploitation. See Chick's LISA.

Black Muslim Woman Shot by Police During Attack

2011-12-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

An Atlanta woman who allegedly mailed threats to lawmakers was shot and killed by police during an altercation on Christmas Day.

Jameela Barnette, 53, was indicted earlier this year for her supposed involvement in the sending of malicious packages to two New York lawmakers.

Barnette was accused of mailing a pig's foot to the office of Rep. Peter King (R) in April. A note included in the package read "Kiss my black Muslim ass," and referred to King as a "Jew," even though he is Catholic. The incident came in the wake of King's hearings on Muslim "radicalization."

Barnette was also indicted for allegedly sending a fake weapon of mass destruction to the office of New York State Sen. Greg Ball in the form of a bottled liquid labeled "Zyklon B." The substance was eventually identified as perfume oil. The package also included a screed against Jews and Christians and a stuffed toy monkey with Stars of David fastened to it.

Barnette pleaded not guilty to both charges in November in a U.S. District Court in Atlanta, and was later released on $20,000 bond on the condition that she send no more threatening messages and undergo a psychiatric evaluation, Georgia's WSBTV reports. According to CNN, a woman claiming to be Barnette had earlier told New York's WXXA that "she was a grandmother and a Muslim upset with Ball for holding hearings earlier this year on New York City's vulnerability to terrorism."

On Sunday, Cobb County police responded to multiple panic alarms activated at Barnette's residence.

A statement from the Cobb County police claimed that an aggressive Barnette met the responding officer.

"Moments after knocking on the door, a female (who was armed with a knife and handgun) opened it and began assaulting the officer with the weapons," the statement read. "Despite receiving injuries to his arm, the officer was able to use his service weapon to stop the assault."

Barnette died at the scene, while the injured officer was treated on site and released. He has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of the incident. See Chick's SKYLIGHTER.

Ice Church Opens in Germany

2011-12-29T10:16:00.001-08:00

A church built entirely of ice and snow has opened in Bavaria – a century after villagers first built a snow church in an act of protest.

The church at Mitterfirmiansreut, near the Czech border, is more than 20 meters (65 feet) in length and boasts a tower. It's made up of some 1,400 cubic meters (49,000 cubic feet) of snow.

The structure was bathed in blue light as it opened Wednesday evening with a blessing from Dean Kajetan Steinbeisser.

But when the ancestors of today's villagers built the first snow church in 1911, they weren't thinking just of architectural achievement.

Steinbeisser says: "It was meant as an act of provocation – believers from the village got together and built a snow church because they didn't have a church here."

Catholic School Official Busted for Filming Boys

2011-12-28T22:37:00.000-08:00

Patrick Lott, Bernardsville Middle School assistant principal, has been arrested for allegedly recording boys showering at Immaculata High School in Somerset County, N.J., where he was a volunteer, the New Jersey Journal reports.

Lott was arrested last week after authorities used a Superior Court search warrant to find videos of the nude teenagers in his home.

Somerset County Prosecutor Geoffrey Soriano told the Journal that nine of the boys videotaped were under 16 years old. According to the report, authorities have notified a total of 22 victims.

Based on the results of the search warrant, CBS New York reports the videos were recorded over a span of nearly three years, beginning in 2008.

A high-ranking and respected educator at the middle school and in the community, Lott recently ran for the Somerville Borough Council on the Republican ticket, NBC New York Reports. His bid was unsuccessful.

Lott now faces charges including child endangerment. He is currently being held in the Somerset County Jail on $500,000 bail. See Chick's ALBERTO comic.

Maher Attacks Tebow's Religion

2011-12-27T22:16:00.000-08:00

Twitter continues to swell with a flood of complaints against comedian Bill Maher in response to a particularly scathing Tweet the outspoken television host made about Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow during Christmas Eve's Broncos-Bills showdown, NBC Sports reports.

Tebow had just thrown his fourth interception of the game (the Broncos eventually lost 14-41) when Bill Maher Tweeted to his roughly 872,000 followers:

Bill Maher ✔@billmaher Wow, Jesus just fucked #TimTebow bad! And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing, saying to Hitler "Hey, Buffalo's killing them"
24 Dec 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Choosing not to respond to the crack, or perhaps unaware of it, Tebow's post-game Tweet made no mention of Maher:

Tim Tebow ✔@TimTebow Tough game today but what's most important is being able to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas everyone GB²
24 Dec 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Others however decided to take Maher head-on. The Tweet spurred a huge reaction on Twitter from the many conservatives and Tebow fans who were outraged by Maher. Eric Bolling of Fox News shot back at Maher with the Tweet:

ericbolling ✔@ericbolling Bill Maher is disgusting vile trash. I can't even repeat what he just tweeted about Tebow..on Christam Eve. #straighttohellBill
24 Dec 11 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Some fans are even calling to boycott Maher by canceling their subscriptions to HBO, the channel which airs Maher's show "Real Time with Bill Maher," Fox News reports.

It remains to be seen whether the Maher backlash will stem the recent tide of Tebow-lampooning, which often pokes fun at the quarterback's religious ardor. Tebow has been vocal about his Christian values, famously starring in a controversial pro-life Superbowl commercial while he was still in college. Upon entering the NFL, his in-game ritual of kneeling on the field and praying to God inspired the popular Internet meme "Tebowing." The past few months have seen both a sketch on Saturday Night Live and an article in The Onion.

Will Maher reprise his controversial tweet during next week's Broncos game? Either way he plays it, and whether the Broncos win or lose, they'll still win the AFC West title and earn the No. 4 seed. See Chick's HOLY JOE.

Former SNL Writer And Activist Kills Self

2011-12-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

Former "Saturday Night Live" writer Joe Bodolai has died in an apparent suicide. His body was found in a Los Angeles hotel room by a cleaning crew, with a mix of anti-freeze and Gatorade nearby.

Bodolai, a writer on "SNL" for the 1981-1982 season and a producer on the Canadian hit sketch show "Kids in the Hall," kept a blog called "Say It Ain't So, Joe," where he posted a long final note on December 23rd. In his short section of "Things I Regret," he included, "My inability to conquer my alcoholism" and "That I am no longer able to withstand any more of life's pain."

His suicide post also claims he was proud of his two grown sons ("graceful, intelligent, strong, handsome, creative and loving young men"), and his wife Bianca ("If there is a loving god, she was my blessing"). Bodolai also listed his liberal activism as an achievement, including resistance to the Vietnam War and campaigning for Robert Kennedy. See Chick's NO FEAR.

Professionally, he was most proud

Former SNL Attacks Pro-Muslim PC Power

2011-12-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

Former "Saturday Night Live" actress Victoria Jackson, working on confidential information she as a web talk show host has special clearance to obtain, has claimed that the United States is being overtaken by radical Muslims bent on bringing the nation under Sharia law.

"I just went to a briefing in Washington DC, across the street from the Capitol, at the Longworth building at 8:30 am two days ago and it changed my life," Jackson said last week on her web show, "Politichicks." "For six hours, I saw pictures and names and dates and facts and Islamic law books and Korans, Surahs for six hours and they proved to me... that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated our highest positions in government and this is serious."

Jackson also detailed the meeting in an earlier blog post this December. In that post, she details testimony given by John Guandolo, a former FBI agent who worked on the case against former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson. Guandolo resigned from the FBI in 2008 after he was caught trying to score a $75,000 donation for an anti-terrorism group from a wealthy Jefferson case witness with whom he was having an affair. Guandolo now gives speeches on the existential threat of Islam, claiming that Muslim groups are using political correctness and political insurgency to stop FBI and police officers from stopping their spread of Sharia law.

The actress-turned-pundit also reported testimony from Maj. Stephen Coughlin, who in 2008 was effectively fired from his post at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because, many conservatives believe, he was a staunch anti-Islamic extremist advocate. Wired reports that his contract was not renewed after a staffer for Gordon England, then the deputy secretary of defense, raised questions about his work. Last January, Coughlin gave a maligned speech during an FBI presentation on Muslim extremism.

Claiming that it was strongly hinted that President Obama was a Muslim -- his policies all favor Muslims and are against Israel, she claims to have been told -- Jackson says in the video that the ultimatum pushed by terrorist groups in America is "You have to convert or be killed."

While she says that the meeting forever changed her, Jackson has already long claimed that Muslims -- led by secret Muslim and terrorist sympathizer President Obama -- are quietly taking over the United States government. She also has famously taken umbrage with gays and "Glee," including a highly publicized string of attacks last March.

"This new al-Qaida magazine for women has beauty tips and suicide-bomber tips! Gimme a break!" she wrote in a blog post for World Net Daily. "That is as ridiculous as two men kissing on the mouth! And I don't care what is politically correct. Everyone knows that two men on a wedding cake is a comedy skit, not an 'alternate lifestyle'! There I said it! Ridiculous!"

This fall, Jackson visited the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park to challenge protestors, though it did not work out so well for her.

"Michelle [sic] Bachmann and Rick Santorum are the only GOP candidates so far to acknowledge the above facts and warn against the present threat of Islamic Law replacing our Constitution," Jackson concluded in her blog post on the ex-FBI briefing. See Chick's MEN OF PEACE?

Less Births, More Lesbian Sex Linked?

2011-12-23T22:08:00.000-08:00

A new analysis of the U.S. National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) has revealed some surprising shifts in the sexual activity of teenage girls over the past decade, including a significant spike among those who claim to have had same-sex contact.

A comparison of 2002 NSFG data to figures from 2006-2008 showed that 11 percent of 17-year-old girls in the latter pool had engaged in contact with other girls, compared with just five percent in 2002. Furthermore, those same girls also claim to have been significantly less heterosexually active, at just 46 percent in 2006-2008, whereas the 2002 survey found 63 percent of girls in the same age group had been active.

The decrease in heterosexual activity could, at least in part, account for another one of the survey's findings: a slight drop (18 percent to 12 percent) in the number of 17-year-girls who have been pregnant. "Factors that may account for this drop include our findings that more were waiting until later in adolescence to become heterosexually involved, more were using emergency contraception if they were heterosexually active, and perhaps even that more were engaging in same-sex behavior," Dr. Nanette Gartrell, NSFG lead author, is quoted as saying by the Windy City Times. "It will be interesting to see if the next cycle of NSFG data collection reveals whether these changes are a long-term trend."

The findings were published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, in a letter to the editor titled "New Trends in Same-Sex Contact for American Adolescents?" You can read the full analysis here.

The new analysis follows an October study conducted by Boise State University, which found that 60 percent of women who identify themselves as heterosexual have been sexually attracted to other women, while 50 percent confessed to having had same-sex fantasies. "Women are encouraged to be emotionally close to each other," Boise State University professor Elizabeth Morgan told LGBT Weekly at the time. "That provides an opportunity for intimacy and romantic feelings to develop." See Chick's THE GAY BLADE.

Mom Offers 8-Year-Old For Sex

2011-12-23T22:07:00.001-08:00

It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when you hear a mother in your community allegedly offered up her 8-year-old daughter for prostitution, but that's exactly what concerned citizens along Florida's Emerald Coast are trying to do.

"We have received a lot of phone calls from people asking how they can help the child -- how can they make sure she has a nice Christmas," Panama City Police Sgt. Jeff Becker told The Huffington Post.

The little girl, who is not being identified due to her age, is the daughter of 33-year-old Sue Ellen Mims. On Wednesday, authorities arrested Mims and charged her with one count of selling a minor for prostitution.

According to Becker, Mims was at a Panama City business when she approached a random male stranger and offered her daughter to him for $100. Mims allegedly told the man her daughter "would do anything the male wanted and would not tell anyone about it," police said.

The man, who has not been identified, immediately reported the incident to police.

"In the 12 years I have been here -- and I was a detective for some of those years -- I cannot recollect a case where someone has tried to sell their child," Becker said.

"We are continuing to investigate [the case] because if she has done it once [she may have] done it previously," he added.

The Department of Children and Families took custody of the girl, who police say had only the clothes on her back. The Gulf Coast Children's Advocacy Center -- an organization that provides necessary services for child abuse cases -- has been assisting.

"It just breaks your heart that this happens to little children," said Renee Willoughby, executive board president of the advocacy center. "Everyone is horrified that this happened in our community, but, unfortunately, it is something that happens somewhere every day. It is just beyond words."

The Gulf Coast Children's Advocacy Center is accepting donations of clothing (the little girl wears size 7 or 8), along with toys, blankets and other items. Willoughby said concerned community members are already reaching out.

"People want to help this girl in any way possible, especially with it being the Christmas season," she added.

Becker said that citizens have also contacted the police department to ask about donating items to the little girl.

"People do care, and it is a nice time of year for them to show they care," he said.

Anyone interested in donating an item for the little girl can send it to the Gulf Coast Children's Advocacy Center, 210 East Eleventh Street, Panama City, FL 32401. Monetary donations for the girl and/or the agency itself, which helps countless victims every year, can be made via their web site. See Chick's THE OUTCAST.

Transexual 7 Year Old Joins Girl Scouts, Parents Pull Out

2011-12-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

A Colorado-based Girl Scouts troop's decision to admit a 7-year-old transgender child this fall has prompted three leaders to resign and dissolve their troops.

As The Christian Post is reporting, all three of the troop leaders were affiliated with the Northlake Christian School in Covington, Louisiana.

Susan Bryant-Snure, one of the leaders who resigned, told The Baptist Press that the Girl Scouts' action is "extremely confusing" and an "almost dangerous situation" for children. "This goes against what we [Northlake Christian School] believe," said Bryant-Snure, who has three daughters among the 25 girls who had been active scouts there.

The controversy began when Felisha Archuleta protested against a Denver troop's decision to not initially allow her transgender daughter, Bobby Montoya, to join the group. "I believe he was born in the wrong body," Archuleta, who also confessed to having difficulty switching from male to female pronouns when discussing her child, told ABC. "But the Girl Scout leader told us he can't join because he has 'boy parts.'... But no one would know he's a boy unless they pulled his pants down."

The Girl Scouts of Colorado subsequently released a statement through the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in support of Archuleta and her excluded daughter, noting, "If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout."

Added Rachelle Trujillo, vice president for communications of the Colorado Girl Scouts: "If a child is living as a girl, that's good enough for us. We don't require any proof of gender."

Bryant-Snure and her fellow leaders are now expected to align themselves with the American Heritage Girls, a Christian organization that was founded in 1995 in response to the Girl Scouts' decision to let scouts use a word other than "God" in their pledge, according to She Wired. See Chick's THE TRIAL.

Pope Reaches Out to Leftists on "World Peace Day"

2011-12-17T10:57:00.000-08:00

VATICAN CITY- Noting a "rising sense of frustration" at the worldwide economic recession, Pope Benedict XVI said that a more just and peaceful world requires "adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth." He didn't mention that the money should be earned or worked for, but just "redistributed". He also didn't specify if the churches should redistribute the money, or if the government should. (The Vatican has one of the largest bank accounts and land ownership of any organized religion.)

The pope's words appeared in his message for the World Day of Peace 2012, released on Friday (Dec. 16) at the Vatican.

The message laments that "some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity."

Authentic education, Benedict writes, teaches the proper use of freedom with "respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one's own."

Peace-making requires education not only in the values of compassion and solidarity, but in the importance of wealth redistribution, the "promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution," Benedict writes.

The pope also calls on political leaders to "ensure that no one is ever denied access to education." It is unclear, but it sounds like he is referring to publicly funded education, rather than just access. Most countries (except Islamic nations that deny women access) provide equal access to anyone for education if they pay for it, but many activists want that education paid for by others as well.

The message was presented on Friday by officials of the Vatican's Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace. The same body published a controversial document in October blaming the world's economic and financial crisis on an "economic liberalism that spurns rules and controls," and calling for global regulation of the financial industry and the international money supply. See Chick's FAT CATS.

2011-12-15T16:09:00.000-08:00

Elizabeth Smart, who was raped repeatedly while held captive for nine months when she was 14, made a rare public appearance to tell her story of survival.

Now 24 years old and a commentator for ABC News, Smart told a Salt Lake City audience the harrowing details about the night Brian David Mitchell abducted her at knifepoint from her childhood home in Utah and the subsequent months of torture as his sex prisoner.

"I started talking to him I started begging him to let me go," Smart told the Salt Lake City Rotary Club on Tuesday, KTVX reports. "He just laughed at me."

Mitchell -- a mentally deranged homeless person who talked to himself and told others he was a Mormon preacher -- performed a hasty wedding ceremony with Smart, according to ABC News.

"He went straight from marrying me to raping me," said Smart as she occasionally cried before the audience. "And after that moment I couldn't feel more worthless and more degraded. It was the worse feeling I could have ever felt."

To keep her from escaping his dungeon, Mitchell bound Smart with a cable wrapped between her legs. Mitchell often raped her several times a day and forced her to consume alcohol and drugs.

In May, a federal judge gave Mitchell a life sentence. His wife Wanda Barzee is serving 15 years in a federal prison hospital for her role in the kidnapping.

In addition to her periodic work covering missing persons cases for ABC, Smart has a charity called the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. Her speaking engagement on Tuesday was an opportunity to promote the group and RadKIDS, an organization that teaches children and parents about safety, especially when dealing with strangers. See Chick's LISA.

Christian Murdered, Asked Killer To Pray With Her

2011-12-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

A witness testifying in the murder trial of Laurence Alvin Lovette Jr. has made a startling claim about the victim's last moments.

Raleigh local station WRAL reports that Jayson McNeil testified Lovette told him that University of North Carolina student Eve Carson asked him to pray with her before she was murdered.

"Before (Lovette) even shot her, he explained, she was saying, 'Let's pray,'" McNeil said, according to WRAL. "She wanted them to pray together."

In March 2008, prosecutors say that Lovette and Demario Atwater kidnapped Carson, drove her to various ATMs to withdraw money and then shot her five times, killing the former student body president, according to WRAL.

Atwater pleaded guilty last year to crimes connected to the killing and is currently serving two life sentences.

ABC reports that Carson's body was found in the middle of a Chapel Hill street the same day she was murdered.

Lovette is also accused of killing Abhijit Mahato, a Duke University student whose body was found in his apartment, according to CBS News. A judge has ruled that evidence from that case can be used in the Carson trial, according to the Herald Sun.

See Chick's THE THIEF.

Home Invaders Religious?

2011-12-12T22:40:00.000-08:00

Police investigating a Mississippi home invasion have broken up what they say is a paramilitary group that trained its members in "hand to hand combat skills, paramilitary training and scriptures."

Officers with the Gautier Police department were already familiar with the self-styled vigilante group, dubbed "The Savior Unit" or "Tactical Search Unit," when they took a call about a home invasion and kidnapping on Dec. 6.

Minutes after receiving the alert, police apprehended the group's alleged "commander," 32-year-old Michael Shaun Schaffran, and its "captain," 18-year-old Cody Jacob Rogers. The pair are accused of kicking in the door of a residence while wearing bullet-proof vests and military clothing, dragging out three victims including a 70-year-old man, and assaulting them, according to police press release published on the department's Facebook page.

Shaffran and Rogers were each hit with three charges of kidnapping and burglary of an occupied residence.

Officers became aware of "The Savior Unit" as they investigated a recent surge in burglaries in south Gautier, though the group has not been formally linked to the crimes, police told The Sun Herald.

The two suspects are believed to have lead a group of four teens. They allegedly trained them in combat skills and religion in a wooded area for the past six weeks.

An operation manual recovered by police describes the group as more of a community service organization than a criminal organization, at least according to an excerpt published by The Mississippi Press:

T.S.U. is a tactical search team that is faith based. Our purpose is to promote Christ. Obtain offenders who are a danger to society, do community service work for churches and halfway houses, and do security for different functions. Our training is a recon and infiltration, apprehension and retrieval. All team members are taught hand to hand combat skills, para military training and scriptures. [SIC]

Local investigators have reportedly contacted the FBI to determine whether the group is a larger threat.

"You can use your imagination and speculate where was this headed, what could have happened, what might have happened," Gautier Police Captain Kenny McMellon told The Mississippi Press.

But Schaffran's wife, Tisha Schaffran, told The Hattiesburg American that her husband was merely helping neighborhood youth.

"He's not this monster they're making him out to be," she told the paper.

Tisha Schaffran says her husband -- who has previous convictions for theft, aggravated assault and forgery-- might have entered the residence. But he wouldn't have gone there to harm anyone.

"It's just a bunch of kids, mostly," she said. "It was just to get together and give them something to do other than get in trouble. They would have exercises out in the yard in the woods on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Sometimes they go out into the woods. It might have been military style, but it wasn't like they were trying to be the military or the police, either." See Chick's HOLY JOE.

Bible Teacher Arrested for Sex with her Student

2011-12-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

Police in Louisiana arrested a 28-year-old woman who they say had sex with a young teenage boy on multiple occasions after meeting at a summer Bible camp.

Heath Daughdrill, of Westlake, is accused of initiating the relationship while acting as a teacher and aide at a June religious retreat. She allegedly continued seeing the 13-year-old boy until her arrest in October, according to a press release from the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Department.

"The investigation revealed Daughdrill would engage in inappropriate sexual contact with the boy after picking him up from school without the parents' knowledge," the press release explains.

Authorities also say that they discovered "explicit text messages" between Daughdrill and the boy, whose identity remains anonymous.

Following her Nov. 28 arrest, Daughdrill now faces 17 criminal charges including sexual battery, carnal knowledge of a juvenile, kidnapping, indecent behavior with a juvenile and contributing to delinquency. Her bond in Calcasiue Parish is set at $47,000.

The following video uncovered by the HoustonPress shows Daughdrill promoting a Lake Charles arts event two years ago.

ADL Demands Sarandon Take Back Nazi Quip

2011-12-07T15:49:00.000-08:00

The Anti-Defamation League is demanding an apology from Susan Sarandon for calling Pope Benedict XVI a "Nazi" at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor Saturday during a Hamptons International Film Festival event.

Sarandon, being interviewed by Bob Balaban on the Bay Street stage in front of an audience for the festival's "A Conversation With" series, was discussing "Dead Man Walking." She starred as Sister Helen Prejean, who penned the book the film is based on, and won an Academy Award.

"She gave a copy of the film to the pope," Sarandon said of Sister Helen. "The last one, not this Nazi one, the one before." The audience broke out in laughter at the shock of how candidly Sarandon spoke, then clapped.

"It's a shame you're so afraid to say what you really think," Balaban joked.

"He was a Nazi Youth, I'm not talking, or making it up," Sarandon replied.

She did, however, get the name of the group wrong: Benedict XVI was a member of the Hitler Youth, a paramilitary Nazi group, but membership was mandatory for German teens during the Nazi regime.

She quickly got back on topic: "She showed the pope that his lack of being clear was being used to rationalize the death penalty and after that he issued a statement that was much more definitive before he died."

The ADL, citing news reports that quoted Sarandon, called on her to apologize to Catholics and others she may have offended.

"We hope that Susan Sarandon will have the good sense to apologize to the Catholic community and all those she may have offended with this disturbing, deeply offensive and completely uncalled for attack on the good name of Pope Benedict XVI," National Director Abraham H. Foxman was quoted as saying in an ADL statement. "Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies. Such words are hateful, vindictive and only serve to diminish the true history and meaning of the Holocaust."

The Catholic League also put out a statement condemning Sarandon's words.

President Bill Donohue said she was being willfully ignorant of the fact that Pope Benedict, then called Joseph Ratzinger, was conscripted through no fault of his own. "Unlike most of the other teenagers, Ratzinger refused to go to meetings, bringing economic hardship to his family," Donohue said. "Moreover, unlike most of the others, he deserted at the first opportunity."

"Sarandon’s comment is obscene," Donohue added. "Sadly, it’s what we’ve come to expect from her."

Sarandon has yet to offer a public response to the criticism. See Chick's HOLOCAUST.

Pro Israel Ad Removed to Appease Liberal US Jews

2011-12-07T15:44:00.000-08:00

Israel's prime minister suspended a television ad campaign aimed at luring home Israelis living in North America after it sparked an uproar among American Jews, his spokesman said Sunday.

The government-sponsored advertisements, which were broadcast on Israeli TV and in large American markets, tried to warn Israelis that their children could lose their Israeli and Jewish identities if they were raised in the United States and not in Israel. That set off virulent opposition among American Jews, who complained that the commercials were demeaning to their Jewish identity.

The campaign touched on the sensitive relations between Israeli and American Jews, and the growing rift between them. Israel depends heavily on the political and financial support of American Jews, but the two sides are often at odds regarding politics and religion.

Israel's Orthodox-run rabbinate, for instance, doesn't always recognize marriages and conversions performed by Conservative and Reform rabbis abroad. And American Jews, who are largely politically liberal, are often ill at ease with hawkish Israeli policies and legislation.

In one of the advertisements, Israeli grandparents sit in front of the traditional Hanukkah candelabra while speaking to their granddaughter on Skype. When they ask the child to name the holiday they're celebrating, she says "Christmas."

In another, a napping father can't hear his son's calls of "daddy" and only stirs awake when he hears the word "abba" – Hebrew for father. A third, shows an emotional Israeli woman marking Israel's Memorial Day and her non-Israeli partner unable to relate. The adds are all capped by the slogan: "They will remain Israeli, their children won't. Help them come home."

Israel's embassy in Washington and consulates in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco were inundated with protests from offended American Jews. The Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups condemned the ads.

Abraham Foxman, the national director for the Anti-Defamation League, called the ads "unsubtle, crude and heavy-handed."

Faced with an uproar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly reversed course and suspended the ads Friday.

"We are obviously very sensitive to concerns raised by the American Jewish community and the minute we understood that Jewish Americans saw a problem, the prime minister immediately acted and suspended the program," said Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev.

It's not the first time an Israeli government project has upset Jewish Americans.

In 2009, it yanked an ad campaign against Jewish assimilation after it outraged Jews abroad who saw the campaign as an attack on intermarriage – the common phenomenon of Jews marrying non-Jews.

Statistics show that in the U.S. – home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel – about half the marriages of Jews over the past 25 years have been mixed.

Jewish leaders have long warned that the Diaspora's identity is eroding as more Jews marry out of faith and blend into the non-Jewish mainstream. Meanwhile, Israel has established its own, unique persona, foreign to that of Jews overseas.

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled in the United States for financial and professional advancement. See Chick's LOVE THE JEWISH PEOPLE.

Priest Robbed in Church

2011-12-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

A veteran Chicago priest was beaten and robbed inside the Far South Side church where he has served as a pastor since 1977.

Rev. Daniel Mallette, pastor emeritus at St. Margaret of Scotland Church, located in the 9800 block of South Throop Street, awoke around 12:30 a.m. in the church's rectory to two male intruders standing over him, demanding he give them money, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The intruders proceeded to beat and rob the Rev. Mallette, 80, when he apparently did not move fast enough to their liking.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, a close friend of Mallette's and long-time parishioner at the church, described the incident as "a very vicious attack. ... It just reinforces to you that we have evil in our society," according to the Chicago Tribune.

Mallette was taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn for treatment after he sustained broken ribs and a swollen face. NBC Chicago reports he was treated and released.

Mallette's church is well known for its diverse congregation, according to ABC Chicago. The pastor has also been recognized for his work addressing poverty and racial injustice in the community.

No arrests have been made. See Chick's THE THIEF.

Obama Ties Foreign Aid to Support of Gays

2011-12-06T21:56:00.000-08:00

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that the United States would use all the tools of American diplomacy, including the potent enticement of foreign aid, to promote gay rights around the world.

In a memorandum issued by President Obama in Washington and in a speech by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton here, the administration vowed to actively combat efforts by other nations to discourage homosexual conduct, discriminate against them, or ignore abuse against them.

“Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct,” Mrs. Clinton said at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, “but in fact they are one and the same.”

Neither Mr. Obama nor Mrs. Clinton specified how to give the initiative teeth. Caitlin Hayden, the National Security Council’s deputy spokeswoman, said the administration was “not cutting or tying” foreign aid to changes in other nation’s practices.

With campaigning already under way in the 2012 presidential contest, Mr. Obama’s announcement should bolster support and campaign contributions among gay voters and donors, who have questioned the depth of his commitment. He chose the Rev. Rick Warren, a pastor who opposes same-sex marriage, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Mr. Obama himself has not come out officially in favor of same-sex marriage. But he successfully pushed for repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that prevented gays from serving openly in the military. And the Justice Department has said it will no longer defend in court the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The initiative also invites attacks from Republicans trying to appeal to a voters in the primary and caucus states.

One Republican candidate, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, said: “President Obama has again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.”

It could also irritate some American allies, including countries like Turkey, where there have been reports of harassment, and Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is banned and sex between people of the same sex is punishable by death or flogging. Homosexuality is disdained by most the world's religions, and embracing it can alienate many religious nations, as well as be seen as another example of the West's cultural decadence.

Mrs. Clinton’s aides so worried about the reaction of some countries at the Human Rights Council that they did not advertise the theme of her remarks before she delivered them. In the end, no representatives from the council’s 47 member nations walked out.

The administration’s announcement formalizes several steps that Mrs. Clinton has already ordered. She has asked American diplomats to raise the issue wherever harassment or abuse arises and required a record of them in the State Department’s annual report on human rights. On Tuesday, she also announced a $3 million US taxpayer paid program to finance foreign gay-rights organizations to combat what they consider discrimination.

A senior administration official said that the money could be used, for example, to finance a lawyers’ group that is defending gays or to pay for the training of journalists who cover the persecution of gays. It could also provide relocation aid to refugees fleeing violence or persecution.

In Afghanistan, where the United States overthrew the Taliban in 2001 and installed a nominally democratic government, the law “criminalizes homosexual activity.” In Pakistan, too, it is a crime, though rarely prosecuted, the report said.

Homosexuality is accepted in most of Europe, and an increasing number of countries have taken steps to end legal prohibitions. In China, the government decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it from an official list of psychological disorders in 2001. Mrs. Clinton credited South Africa, Colombia, Argentina, Nepal and Mongolia for taking steps to liberalize their laws.

In countries where gays are discriminated against, she called on leaders to leap ahead of their constituents cultural or social mores, if necessary. See Chick's THE GAY BLADE.

KY Church Reverses Ban on Bi-racial Membership

2011-12-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church in Pike County, Kentucky, voted 9-6 to ban couples in interracial marriages from attending or participating in the church.

But on Sunday, the small church reversed its course.

Pastor Stacy Stepp told CNN affiliate WLEX on Sunday that the church voted unanimously to "accept all people regardless of race, creed, or color and to accept everyone into the fellowship of Christ."

"I tried everything in my power to try to resolve the matter before it got to where it did," Stepp told WLEX.

The problem began in June when Stella Harville, who grew up going to the church, brought her fiance, Ticha Chikuni, who is black, to the small church, where on average about 40 people meet for Sunday worship.

Harville, who goes by the nickname Susie, played the piano, and Chikuni sang a song during the service.

Her father, Dean Harville, a decades-long member of the church, told CNN affiliate WSAZ he was counting the offering when the pastor at the time, Melvin Thompson, came up to him and said, "Susie and her boyfriend are not allowed to sing in this church anymore."

"It's racist, that's all you can call it," Harville told WSAZ. "I treat him like he's my own son. You won't find a nicer person," he said about his daughter's fiance, who is originally from Zimbabwe.

Stella Harville told CNN's Erin Burnett on Friday, before the church reversed the policy, "I still don't know how to process all this."

Harville grew up in the church but left Pike County to attend college. She told CNN she had known all nine church members who voted to ban interracial couples "since I was a little kid."

The ban led to a massive controversy.

The National Association of Free Will Baptists in Tennessee released a lengthy statement condemning the church policy.

"The National Association of Free Will Baptists does not have an official policy regarding interracial couples because it has not been an issue in the denomination. The Free Will Baptist Treatise neither condemns nor disallows marriage between a man and woman of different races," the statement read in part.

"Free Will Baptists have historically championed the rights and dignity of all people, regardless of race," it continued. It said that national and state officials from the denomination were working with the local church to overturn the policy.

On Saturday, the Sandy Valley Conference of Free Will Baptists, the regional body of the denomination, released a statement saying the church policy was "Null and Void," because the vote was not held in accordance with proper parliamentary procedure.

"Furthermore, Pastor Stepp has advised the conference that he and his church will hold a vote of solidarity for the purpose of welcoming believers into their fellowship regardless of race, creed or color. The Sandy Valley Conference will continue to work with the Gulnare Church to rebuild what has been damaged by this tragic error," the statement continued.

“We will be working with the church if they accept our help,” Keith Burden, the executive secretary of the National Association of Free Will Baptists, told CNN on Monday.

Burden said churches within the denomination govern themselves autonomously and the national denomination cannot impose rules or sanctions on the church, but can only remove a church from the national group.

Burden said he spoke with Stepp before the vote on Sunday and told him the denomination would provide educational materials to “better equip their leaders.” He also encouraged Stepp to take the corrective measures that the church eventually did, with the new vote on Sunday.

“We are genuinely sorrowful and repentant for what happened,” Burden said. “We hope to continue to work to try to prevent this from ever happening again.” See Chick's THE CRUSADERS.

Bachmann Promises to Reverse Judicial Activism in Iowa

2011-12-04T20:07:00.000-08:00

GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann would turn back the clock on gay marriage in Iowa if she was elected - because that's what the people of Iowa want, she said.

The Minnesota congresswoman appeared on FOX News Sunday and said that Iowa's ruling to overturn a ban on gay marriage did not reflect the will of voters:

"Marriage, historically, for all human history has been between a man and a woman. It hasn't been the same-sex marriage. And remember that in Iowa, it was judges that made the decision -- not the legislature, which are the people's representatives, and certainly, not the people. That's why the people of Iowa threw out three of those Supreme Court judges. That's something that should give pause to all judges. The people of Iowa are sick and tired of the judges tell them what their laws are. They are not a super legislator. They are judges. And they need to act like judges. As president of the United States, I will only appoint judges that will apply the strict construction or the original intent of the Constitution of the United States."

Last year Iowa voters ousted three of the seven state Supreme Court justices who unanimously decided that an Iowa law restricting marriage to a man and a woman violated the state's constitution. (Only three were on the ballot, the other four get there turn in 2012.) The unprecedented move followed a nearly three-month long campaign waged by activists angry over gay marriage being legalized from the bench and beyond the ballot box or legislature of Iowa.

Bachmann has previously criticized the Iowa judges as "black robed masters" and praised voters for getting rid of them.

"You said enough is enough and sent them packing, and I'm very proud of what you’ve done," she told a Des Moines group of home school advocates in March. "It’s very rare that a judge does not go back to office."

Bachmann's opposition to gay marriage got her into a heated exchange with Iowa high school students last week, when she claimed that gay people have the same civil rights as all Americans.

"They can get married," Bachmann said. "But they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they're a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they're a man." See Chick's THE GAY BLADE.

Islamic Parties Winning in Egypt

2011-12-04T07:22:00.000-08:00

Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.

Final results, expected Friday, will be the clearest indication in decades of Egyptians' true political views and give the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood a major role in the country's first freely elected parliament. An Islamist majority could also herald a greater role for conservative Islam in Egyptian social life and shifts in foreign policy, especially toward Israel and the Palestinians.

The showing in Egypt – long considered a linchpin of regional stability – would be the clearest signal yet that parties and candidates connected to political Islam will emerge as the main beneficiaries of this year's Arab Spring uprisings. Domestically, such a change would be bad news for President Obama. The White House encouraged the demonstrations and overthrow of Egypt's secular government, but the replacement regime could be more like Iran than Iraq.

Tunisia and Morocco have both elected Islamist majorities to parliament, and while Libya has yet to announce dates for its first elections, Islamist groups have emerged as a strong force there since rebels overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in August. They also play a strong opposition role in Yemen.

Judges overseeing the Egyptian vote count said Thursday that near-complete results show the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest and best organized political group, could take as many as 45 percent of the contested seats.

In addition to the Muslim Brotherhood wins, parties backed by ultraconservative Salafist Muslims looked poised to take 20 percent, giving Islamist parties a striking majority in the first round of voting in key districts, including Cairo and Alexandria.

Similar results in the remaining rounds would give Islamist parties a majority in parliament, which many believe they will use to steer the long-secular U.S. ally in a more religiously conservative direction.

The Islamist victories came at the expense of a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian block, the group most closely linked to the youth activists who launched the anti-Mubarak uprising – and which is expected to win only about 20 percent of seats.

In Egypt, the Brotherhood was officially banned and suppressed for decades, but built a nationwide network of activists who focused on providing services to the poor. After Mubarak's fall, the group campaigned as the Freedom and Justice Party, their organization and the Brotherhood's name-recognition giving them a big advantage over newly formed liberal parties.

The election also provided an opening for the Salafist Muslims whose strict Islamic practice is similar to that in Saudi Arabia. While the Muslim Brotherhood has said it will preserve individual rights, Salafi groups are not shy about their ambition to turn Egypt into a state where women must dress modestly and TV content deemed offensive will be banned.

Critics worry that once in power, the Muslim Brotherhood will band together with its Islamist allies to impose stricter social codes. Many in Egypt's Coptic Christian minority fear they'll face new restrictions on building churches.

The Obama administration has lauded the elections, saying it will cooperate with the victors, no matter what their persuasion.

Israel, which has long considered its peace treaty with Egypt a buffer against regional war, worries Islamists will be less cooperative than Mubarak was. Israel is highly unpopular in most of Egyptian society, and Brotherhood leaders have suggested they'll review Egypt's relationship with the Jewish state. They may also deepen ties to Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip.

See Chick's SKY LIGHTER.

Saudi Report Discourages Female Driving

2011-12-04T07:19:00.000-08:00

A report given to a high-level advisory group in Saudi Arabia claims that allowing women in the kingdom to drive could encourage premarital sex, a rights activist said Saturday.

The ultraconservative Islamic stance suggests increasing pressure on King Abdullah to retain the kingdom's male-only driving rules despite international criticism.

Rights activist Waleed Abu Alkhair said the document by a well-known academic was sent to the all-male Shura Council, which advises the monarchy. The report by Kamal Subhi claims that allowing women to drive will threaten the country's traditions of virgin brides, he said. The suggestion is that driving will allow greater mixing of genders and could promote sex.

Saudi women have staged several protests defying the driving ban. The king has already promised some reforms, including allowing women to vote in municipal elections in 2015.

There was no official criticism or commentary on the scholar's views, and it was unclear whether they were solicited by the Shura Council or submitted independently. But social media sites were flooded with speculation that Saudi's traditional-minded clerics and others will fight hard against social changes suggested by the 87-year-old Abdullah.

Saudi's ruling family, which oversees Islam's holiest sites, draws its legitimacy from the backing of the kingdom's religious establishment, which follows a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism. While Abdullah has pushed for some changes on women's rights, he is cautious not to push too hard against the clerics.

In October, Saudi Arabia named a new heir to the throne, Prince Nayef, who is a former interior minister and considered to hold traditionalist views, although he had led crackdowns against suspected Islamic extremists. His selection appeared to embolden the ultraconservative clerics to challenge any sweeping social reforms.

See Chick's MEN OF PEACE.

Bachman Defends Gays Could Marry... Just Not The Same Sex

2011-12-03T22:17:00.000-08:00

GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says gay people do have the right to get married -- so long as they're planning on tying the knot with a member of the opposite sex.

The Minnesota congresswoman was campaigning in Iowa Wednesday addressing a group of high school students when Jane Schmidt, president of Waverly High School's Gay-Straight Alliance, confronted her on same-sex marriage rights.

(Video of the exchange above, via CNN iReporter Anelia Dimitrova)

Bachmann had just finished explaining that the purpose of government was to ensure that the civil rights of all Americans are protected.

"We all have the same civil rights," Bachmann said, according to the Des Moines Register, providing an opportunity for Schmidt to press her.

"Then, why can't same-sex couples get married?" Schmidt asked.

"They can get married," Bachmann responded. "But they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they're a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they're a man."

Bachmann later went on to clarify her belief that "there are no special rights for people based upon your sex practices. There's no special rights based upon what you do in your sex life."

While Bachmann's comments are unlikely to prove helpful to gay marriage advocates, they are consistent with her record on the broader issue of gay rights.

Bachmann has referred to homosexuality as a condition or disorder. She was also a vocal opponent of repealing "don't ask, don't tell," and said earlier this year that she would reinstate the military policy if elected. See Chick's SIN CITY.

Teacher Fired after Living With Young Male Student

2011-12-02T08:58:00.001-08:00

A suburban Chicago high school teacher has resigned after school officials found out that she had been living with a male student.

Leonore Ulaszek, 36, was removed from her Hoffman Estates High School classroom in September and submitted her resignation in November, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Ulaszek reportedly began tutoring a minor male student last year, NBC Chicago reports. The tutoring began in the classroom, eventually moving to a restaurant and then at Ulaszek's apartment. When the student's mother discussed plans to move out of the district, Ulaszek allegedly suggested that the student live with her, as to not disrupt his academic progress.

Though Ulaszek was not charged with a crime, Hoffman Estates police told the Tribune they were investigating the incident. The Department of Children and Family Services also investigated the case, and reportedly uncovered "substantiated claims of abuse and neglect." See Chick's HOME ALONE.

Imprisoned Rape Victim Freed if she Marries Rapist

2011-12-02T08:51:00.001-08:00

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday pardoned an Afghan woman serving a 12-year prison sentence for having sex out of wedlock after she was raped by a relative.

Karzai's office said in a statement that the woman and her attacker have agreed to marry. That would reverse an earlier decision by the 19-year-old woman, who had previously refused a judge's offer of freedom if she agreed to marry the rapist.

Her plight was highlighted in a documentary that the European Union blocked because it feared the women featured in the film would be in danger if it were shown.

More than 5,000 people recently signed a petition urging Karzai to release the woman. She had the man's child while in prison and raised her daughter behind bars, which is common among women imprisoned in Afghanistan.

A statement released by Karzai's office says that after hearing from judicial officials, the decision was made to forgive the rest of the sentence she received for having sex out of wedlock, a crime in Afghanistan. The presidential statement did not say when the woman was to be released or how much prison time had been pardoned.

The woman told The Associated Press in an interview last month that she had hoped that attention generated by the EU film might help her get released. With the film blocked, she said that she was losing hope and considering marrying her rapist as a way out. She said her attacker was pressuring her to stop giving interviews.

About half of the 300 to 400 women jailed in Afghanistan are imprisoned for so-called "moral crimes" such as sex outside marriage, or running away from their husbands, according to reports by the United Nations and research organizations. Fleeing husbands isn't considered a crime in Afghanistan.

The EU welcomed the woman's release.

"Her case has served to highlight the plight of Afghan women, who 10 years after the overthrow of the Taliban regime often continue to suffer in unimaginable conditions, deprived of even the most basic human rights," the European Union's Ambassador and Special Representative to Afghanistan, Vygaudas Usackas, said.

He said the EU hoped the same mercy would be extended to other women serving similar terms. Usackas said he planned to raise the issue of Afghan women's rights at an international conference on Afghanistan Dec. 5 in Bonn, Germany.

Some of the most severe restrictions women faced under the Taliban, like a ban on attending schools and having to have a male escort to venture outside the home, were done away with when the radical Islamic movement was driven from power in 2001. But Afghanistan remains a deeply Islamic and male-dominated society, meaning women are still sold to husbands and rights enshrined in law are often ignored in practice. See Chick's ALLAH HAD NO SON.

Small Church Bans Mixed Marriage, Buck's National Trend

2011-12-01T07:24:00.001-08:00

In a move to "promote greater unity" among its body and the Pike County community it serves, a small Kentucky church voted to ban interracial couples from membership and from participating in certain worship activities, Kentucky.com reports.

Though reminiscent of some Jim Crow-era mandate, the Gulnare Freewill Baptist Church actually made the decision earlier this month, following a visit from 24-year-old Stella Harville, daughter of the church's secretary and clerk, and her 29-year-old fiance, Ticha Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe.

According to Harville's father, Dean Harville, Stella brought Chikuni to the church in June where they performed a song for the congregation.

Following the visit, pastor Melvin Thompson told Harville that his daughter and her fiance could not sing at the church again. Thompson later proposed that the church go on record saying that while all people were welcome to attend public worship services there, the church did not condone interracial marriage.

His proposal, which was accepted by a 9-6 vote last week, also suggested that married interracial couples be prohibited from becoming members and used in worship activities, except for funerals.

"It's not the spirit of the community in any way, shape or form," said Randy Johnson, president of the Pike County Ministerial Association, according to Kentucky.com.

While Pike County and the surrounding community come to grips with the church's decision, researchers at Ohio State University and Cornell University say black-white marriages in the United States are soaring, increasing threefold, from 3 percent in 1980 to 10.7 percent in 2008. See Chick's THE CRUSADERS.

Mega Church Preacher to Star in Reality Show

2011-11-30T20:32:00.000-08:00

Houston megachurch leader Joel Osteen will soon be coming to a television near you -- this time as the star of his own reality show.

The preacher and his family have partnered with "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett for a show about Lakewood Church's mission trips, the Associated Press reports. The show, which will focus on "people helping people," is expected to air some time in 2012.

Osteen has reportedly been approached for several reality shows in the past, but this one caught his attention, according to the Houston Chronicle.

"We have great respect for Mark and we know that the finished product will not only entertain but will illustrate the generosity and selflessness that is a hallmark of the American people," Osteen told "Entertainment Tonight".

Don Iloff, Lakewood spokesperson, told the Chronicle that the program will have a feel-good premise similar to that of reality shows such as "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

At least one expert says he's not surprised by the pastor's new endeavor.

"In an era where media exposure is the Holy Grail, this is to be expected," Richard Flory, an expert at the American Christianity at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at USC told the Chronicle.

Osteen currently hosts weekly religious broadcasts that reach around 200 million homes.

Gov. Shumlin Increases HIs Judicial Influence With New Gay Judge

2011-11-29T10:22:00.000-08:00

Often considered a pioneer in terms of its legislative approach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights, Vermont made gay history yet again yesterday by swearing in a renowned marriage equality activist as the state's first openly gay Supreme Court justice. Gov. Shumlin (a Democrat) appointed liberal lesbian Beth Robinson to his state's highest court. As with the decision to allow gay marriage in the state, the appointment prevents any public vote on the issue.

Robinson has no experience as judge but is a trusted political ally of the governor, who she served as legal council. She is known to support the Governor's liberal vision for the state.

Beth Robinson replaces Justice Denise Johnson, who is retiring, according to a press release. Robinson, 46, is a civil rights advocate who helped represent three couples in a landmark 1999 state Supreme Court decision that prompted the Legislature in 2000 to make Vermont the first state to offer marriage-like benefits to same-sex couples, the Associated Press reports. In addition, she worked actively to promote Vermont's marriage equality law, which the legislature passed (with no public vote) in 2009. See Chick's THE TRIAL.

Barney Frank Quits For 2012

2011-11-29T10:03:00.000-08:00

Openly gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) will not seek reelection in 2012.

CNN has confirmed the news with the Democratic congressman's office. Frank addressed his decision to forgo running for another term at a press conference at a press conference in his hometown of Newton, Mass.

Frank said he originally intended to run for one more term, but that his decision was partially due to the fact that the state's new redistricting map will include many people he has never represented before. For nearly three decades, Frank had been protected from moderate and conservative election threats by a district drawn up by Democrats.

Frank said he has had a "busy and stressful" four years dealing with financial reform after the recession. He is credited with passing the reforms, but critics point out it was his direct involvement with Fanny Mae that led to the crisis in the first place. His boyfriend was put on the board of Fanny Mae, and Frank actively prevented lawmakers from reigning in the government insured bank from making risky loans in red-lined areas. Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac were the two most expensive bank bail outs in 2008, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Frank, however, denies the sweat-heart deal had any effect on his campaigning to prevent earlier reforms.

Now Frank says he plans to write and stay involved in public policy decisions.

Sixteen other Democrats have announced plans not to seek new House terms in 2012, compared with six Republicans.

The Boston Globe reported earlier that according to a close adviser to Frank, the new congressional district in which the Massachusetts Democrat would have run to represent was a big factor in his decision to retire.

While it retained his Newton stronghold, it was revised to encompass more conservative towns while Frank also lost New Bedford, a blue-collar city where he had invested a lot of time and become a leading figure in the region’s fisheries debate.

Frank was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980. He was one of the first lawmakers to announce publicly that he is gay. He is considered one of the most controversial lawmakers in Congress, and leading voice of gay activism there.

More than two decades ago, Frank was reprimanded by the House for using his congressional status on behalf of his boyfriend, a male prostitute whom he had employed as a personal aide, including seeking dismissal of 33 parking tickets.

"I should have known better. I do now, but it's a little too late," Frank said at the time.

Democrats rebuffed Republican calls for Frank's expulsion, and instead, the Massachusetts Democrat resumed a career that far outlasted many of those who had sought his ouster. His "safe" district all but guaranteed he would return year after year. Once the lines to that district were changed, however, Frank saw an uphill battle that he could not win.

See Chick's SIN CITY.

Nigeria Passes Anti-Same Sex Marriage Bill

2011-11-29T09:56:00.000-08:00

Nigeria's Senate voted Tuesday to criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection, the latest African legislation reacting to pro-gay legislation in white countries.

The bill, now much more wide-ranging than its initial draft, must be passed by Nigeria's House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before becoming law. However, public opinion and lawmakers' calls Tuesday for even harsher penalties show the widespread support for the measure in the deeply religious nation.

"Such elements in society should be killed," said Sen. Baba-Ahmed Yusuf Datti of the opposition party Congress for Progressive Change, drawing some murmurs of support from the gallery.

Gay sex has been banned in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people, since colonial rule by the British. Gays and lesbians face open discrimination in a country divided by Christians and Muslims who almost uniformly oppose homosexuality. In the areas in Nigeria's north where Islamic Shariah law has been enforced for about a decade, open gays and lesbians can face death by stoning.

Under the proposed law, couples who marry could face up to 14 years each in prison. Witnesses or anyone who helps couples marry could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars. That's an increase over the bill's initial penalties, which lawmakers proposed during a debate Tuesday televised live from the National Assembly in Nigeria's capital Abuja.

Other additions to the bill include making it illegal to register gay clubs or organizations, as well as criminalizing the "public show of same-sex amorous relationships directly or indirectly." Those who violate those laws would face 10-year imprisonment as well.

The increased penalties immediately drew criticism from liberal human rights observers.

"The bill will expand Nigeria's already draconian punishments for consensual same-sex conduct and set a precedent that would threaten all Nigerians' rights to privacy, equality, free expression, association and to be free from discrimination," said Erwin van der Borght, the director of Amnesty International's Africa program.

Yet across the African continent, many countries already have made homosexuality punishable by jail sentences. Ugandan legislators introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty for some gays and lesbians, though it has not been passed into law two years later.

Nigeria's proposed law has drawn the interest of European Union countries, some of which already offer Nigeria's sexual minorities asylum based on gender identity. The British government recently threatened to cut aid to African countries that violate the rights of gay and lesbian citizens. However, British aid remains quite small in oil-rich Nigeria, one of the top crude suppliers to the U.S.

A spokesman for the British High Commission in Nigeria declined to comment Tuesday, saying officials wanted to study the new version of the bill first.

The opinion of gay activists didn't seem to trouble lawmakers, who at times laughed at each other during the debate. One senator worried the bill would hinder the tradition of Nigeria's Igbo ethnic group in the southeast to have infertile wives "marry" other women to carry their husbands' children. Another said gays suffer from a "mental illness."

Senate President David Mark at one point started laughing when a senator proposed 40-year prison sentences for gay couples who marry.

"Forty years, that is just too much," he said. "He won't come out alive now."

Before the vote, Mark did acknowledge the nation likely would face criticism. However, the lawmaker said Nigeria would not bow to activist pressure on any legislation.

"Anybody can write to us, but our values are our values," Mark said. "If there is any country that does not want to give us aid or assistance, just because we hold on very firmly to our values, that country can (keep) their assistance. No country has a right to interfere in the way we make our own laws."

Pope Sued For Seatbelts

2011-11-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

It turns out not even the Pope is infallible when it comes to seat belt safety.

A German citizen has filed a lawsuit against Pope Benedict XVI after spotting the leader traveling in the Popemobile without a safety belt during his September visit to the German town of Freiburg, according to the International Business Times. The man from Dortmund is urging the Pope be fined 2,500 euros (about $3,307) for disobeying the rules requiring safety belts.

An English translation of a report in the Westfalischen Rundschau newspaper reveals the suit states the Catholic figurehead, identified as Joseph Ratzinger, did not wear his seat belt on several occasions for an extended period of time, according to The Local.

Freiburg has confirmed that a lawsuit had been filed, the Dogan News Agency reports. Attorney Johannes Christian Sundermann placed the complaint on behalf of the citizen.

The lawsuit calls Baden-Wurttemberg Minister-President Winfried Kretschmann and Archbishop Robert Zolltisch as witnesses to the incident, the International Business Times reports.

However, it remains unclear whether the Pope would be held accountable to the law because of his German citizenship or if "he enjoys diplomatic immunity as the head of a foreign state," according to the Religious News Service.

The Popemobile, which travels at an average speed of about 6 mph, contains seat belts, Sky News points out. The person who filed the suit is reportedly not Catholic.

NBC Apologizes for Trashing Bachmann (Sorta)

2011-11-27T09:52:00.001-08:00

Born Again Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) apparently isn't happy with the apology she received from NBC after a vulgar song was played during her recent appearance on "Late Night" with Jimmy Fallon.

As Bachmann walked onstage, the show's band, The Roots, played a 1985 Fishbone song titled "Lyin Ass B----."

Before the show, Roots drummer Questlove tweeted, "aight late night walkon song devotees: you love it when we snark: this next one takes the cake. ask around cause i aint tweeting title."

Bachmann called the incident "inappropriate, outrageous and disrespectful," and accused NBC of liberal bias. "This wouldn't be tolerated if this was Michelle Obama. It shouldn't be tolerated if it's a conservative woman either," she said on Fox.

According to the AP, the day after she appeared on the show, Bachmann received a letter of apology from NBC's vice president for late night programming, Doug Vaughan, who wrote that the song choice was "not only unfortunate but also unacceptable."

Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart told the AP that Vaughn offered his sincerest apologies and said the band had been "severely reprimanded."

Fallon also apologized to Bachmann via Twitter.

In an interview with KLIF radio in Dallas on Friday, however, Bachmann said that she felt the apology should have come from higher up.

"Of course I accept the apology but my guess is that it would have been the president of the NBC that would have been apologizing not a senior vice president," had the song been directed at a liberal woman like Michelle Obama, she said.

Another Tibetan Monk Burns Himself to Protest China

2011-11-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

A man wearing the robes of a Tibetan Buddhist monk set himself on fire in the Nepalese capital to protest Chinese policy in Tibet before the flames were extinguished by people nearby.

The incident was the latest in a rash of such protests by Tibetans in recent months to protest China. (A total of 12 have burned themselves to protest the continued occupation of their country by Chinese Communists.)

Chodon Lama said the protest took place at the holy Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath, in an area of eastern Katmandu where most of the local Tibetan exiles live.

Police official Shyam Gyawali said the man fled after the incident and police were searching the surrounding neighborhood to locate him.

Lama said the man was standing next to the stupa, one of Katmandu's most popular tourist sites, when he poured kerosene on himself. He tried in vain to light a match, and when that didn't work, he used one of the nearby devotional lamps to set himself ablaze as he chanted slogans against China, she said.

Police said the man's friends put out the flames, but Lama said that she and other strangers raced to him to extinguish the flames quickly. He didn't appear hurt badly and he quickly fled, she said.

At least 11 people in Tibet have set themselves on fire since March to protest Chinese rule. At least five have died.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei accused Tibetan activists of glorifying and inciting the self immolations.

"In China, the vast majority of religious believers believe such self-immolation cases should be condemned and the majority of the people in the religious field believe that life is precious and should be cherished," Hong said.

The Dalai Lama has said that China's "ruthless policy" was behind the self-immolations. China accuses the Dalai Lama and his supporters of stirring up trouble in ethnic Tibetan areas and encouraging followers to set themselves on fire.

The Karmapa, Tibetan Buddhism's third-ranking leader, asked China on Wednesday to review its policies toward Tibet in the wake of the protests against Chinese restrictions on their religion and culture.

"These desperate acts, carried out by people with pure motivation, are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live," he said. See Chick's KINGS OF THE EAST.

Vatican Changes Prayers

2011-11-27T09:40:00.001-08:00

English-speaking Roman Catholics who haven't been paying close attention to their church bulletins might notice something a little different during services this Sunday.

For decades at the very beginning of Mass, the priest has greeted the congregation by saying "The Lord be with you" and congregants responded: "And also with you." Starting this Saturday and Sunday in the English-speaking world, the response will be: "And with your spirit."

And that's not all: Familiar prayers, both spoken and chanted, have changed and new words like "consubstantial" and "incarnate" now appear. In the Nicene Creed, the affirmation "We believe" has been replaced with "I believe."

The changes are the result of a years-long process to produce an English translation that is closer to the original Latin of the Roman Missal, which the text of prayers and instructions for celebrating Mass. It's the most significant change to the regular worship for Anglophone believers since the upheavals that followed the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

"It's human nature that we're resistant to change," said Monsignor Michael Clay, pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church in Clayton, about 40 miles southeast of Raleigh. "I'm old enough to remember when we went from Latin to English, and that was just a huge change."

Clay likes the new translation, finding it closer to the Latin text that is still the church's official language. But some priests and parishioners have been less enthusiastic, criticizing the new version as too ponderous or distant, and in some cases circulating petitions asking for a delay in introducing the new missal.

The roots of the new translation go back to that epochal council held at the Vatican in the 1960s, which allowed Mass in languages other than Latin. An English-language missal was produced by 1973, but that was intended to be temporary while improvements were made.

In 2001, the Vatican office that oversees worship issued a directive requiring translation of the English missal that would be closer to the Latin rather than to more familiar vernacular speech. Numerous revisions and bishops' meetings eventually produced agreement on the translation being used Sunday. See Chick's ARE ROMAN CATHOLICS CHRISTIAN?

Liberal Governor Stays Execution, Killer Criticizes

2011-11-27T06:20:00.000-08:00

A condemned inmate who was scheduled to be executed next month is slamming Democrat Gov. John Kitzhaber for giving him a reprieve, saying the governor didn't have the guts to carry out the execution.

Two-time murderer Gary Haugen had voluntarily given up his legal challenges, saying he wants to be executed in protest of a criminal justice system he views as broken. But Kitzhaber on Tuesday said he won't allow anyone to be executed while he is in office, calling Oregon's death penalty scheme "compromised and inequitable."

"I feel he's a paper cowboy," he said. "He couldn't pull the trigger."

Haugen's criticism reverses his earlier praise of Kitzhaber's decision during an interview with The Oregonian. He told the Portland newspaper that Kitzhaber cited some of the same criticism of the death penalty that Haugen has raised.

After further reflection, Haugen said he came to the conclusion that the governor "basically pulled a coward's move" by acting on his personal beliefs instead of carrying out the will of Oregon voters, who reinstated the death penalty in 1984.

Haugen said he learned of the reprieve when he was summoned from an outdoor exercise break at the state penitentiary and allowed to read the governor's statement.

Kitzhaber called Oregon's death penalty system "a perversion of justice," saying the state only executes people who volunteer. Since capital punishment was legalized 27 years ago, only two people have been executed. Both of them, like Haugen, waived their legal challenges.

Kitzhaber encouraged "all Oregonians to engage in the long overdue debate that this important issue deserves" and said he would ask lawmakers to consider potential reforms during the 2013 legislative session.

The 49-year-old inmate said he plans to ask lawyers about possible legal action to fight Kitzhaber's temporary reprieve, which lasts until the governor leaves office. A Marion County judge had twice signed a death warrant ordering Haugen's execution. The first was reversed when the state Supreme Court intervened; the second was overruled by Kitzhaber two weeks before the Dec. 6 execution.

"I'm going to have to get with some serious legal experts and figure out really if he can do this," Haugen said. "I think there's got to be some constitutional violations. Man, this is definitely cruel and unusual punishment. You don't bring a guy to the table twice and then just stop it."

See Chick's FRAME UP

7 Amish Arrested for Cutting Beards

2011-11-23T21:29:00.001-08:00

MILLERSBURG, Ohio — The leader of a breakaway Amish group allowed the beatings of those who disobeyed him, made some members sleep in a chicken coop and had sexual relations with married women to "cleanse them," federal authorities said Wednesday as they charged him and six others with hate crimes in hair-cutting attacks against other Amish.

Authorities raided the group's compound in eastern Ohio earlier in the day and arrested seven men, including group leader Sam Mullet and three of his sons.

Several members of the group carried out the attacks in September, October and November by forcibly cutting the beards and hair of Amish men and women and then taking photos of them, authorities said.

Cutting the hair is a highly offensive act to the Amish, who believe the Bible instructs women to let their hair grow long and men to grow beards and stop shaving once they marry. One victim told the FBI he would rather have been "beaten black and blue than to suffer the disfigurement and humiliation of having his hair removed," according to court papers.

The attacks struck at the core of the Amish identity and tested their principles. They are pacifists and strongly believe that they must be forgiving in order for God to forgive them, which often means handing out their own punishment and not reporting crimes to law enforcement.

The attacks had terrorized Amish communities, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said at a news conference Wednesday.

"You've got Amish all over the state of Ohio and Pennsylvania and Indiana that are concerned. We've received hundreds and hundreds of calls from people living in fear," he said. "They are buying Mace, some are sitting with shotguns, getting locks on their doors because of Sam Mullet."

The sheriff added, "Sam Mullet is evil."

A defense attorney for Sam Mullet said his client would fight the federal charges.

Mullet told The Associated Press in October that he didn't order the hair-cutting but didn't stop his sons and others from carrying it out. He said the goal was to send a message to other Amish that they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they were treating Mullet and his community.

"They changed the rulings of our church here, and they're trying to force their way down our throat, make us do like they want us to do, and we're not going to do that," Mullet said.

U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said Wednesday that religious differences should be a matter of theological debate, not disputes "resolved by late night visits to people's homes with weapons and violent attacks." He said he did not know how often hate crimes involve intradenominational disputes.

Those arrested include Mullet; his sons Johnny, Lester and Daniel; Levi Miller; Eli Miller; and Emanuel Schrock. The charges carry a penalty of up 10 years in prison.

The men appeared in U.S. District Court in Youngstown on Wednesday afternoon, and Magistrate Judge George Limbert ordered them detained by the U.S. Marshals Service pending hearings next week.

Attorneys for Johnny and Lester Mullet and Levi and Eli Miller said they could not comment Wednesday on the details of the case. Messages seeking comment were left for attorneys representing Daniel Mullet and Emanuel Schrock.

Lawyer Andy Hyde, who represents Sam Mullet in the state case, said Mullet would contest the federal charges but said he didn't know if he would represent Mullet in federal court.

Holmes County Prosecutor Steve Knowling, who filed state charges against five of the same defendants last month, said he would dismiss those counts and let federal prosecutors take the lead in the case.

In the state case, an Amish bishop and his son said they were held down while men used scissors and a clipper to cut their beards.

The seven men were sleeping when the FBI and local police showed up at their homes before dawn Wednesday, the sheriff said. Three men initially refused to come out of their rooms, but all seven were arrested without incident, he said.

An FBI affidavit said Johnny, Lester and Daniel Mullet and Levi and Eli Miller all confessed in early October to taking part in at least a couple of the attacks.

Johnny Mullet told detectives that it was his idea to cut the hair and beards and that he discussed the idea with his father, who gave him the addresses of two victims, the affidavit said.

Lester Mullet told detectives that after two attacks in late September, the men went home and told Sam Mullet what happened. He said his father laughed and called them nuts, the court document said.

Abdalla, the sheriff, said he didn't know the specifics of the religious disagreements that prompted Mullet to form his own community in 1995.

But the heart of his recent dispute with Amish bishops stemmed from his desire to excommunicate several members, the FBI said. Other bishops concluded the excommunications weren't consistent with Amish teachings and scripture and decided not to recognize the penalties, the FBI said.

One of Mullet's daughters-in-law and a former brother-in-law told investigators that Mullet controls everything that happens within the community outside Bergholz and that he allowed others to beat members of the group who disobeyed him, according to the affidavit filed in federal court Wednesday.

Mullet punished some by making them sleep in a chicken coop for days and was sexually intimate with married women in the community so that he could "cleanse them of the devil," the two said in the affidavit.

Both said they left the community because they did not want to live under Mullet's control.

The FBI affidavit detailed four hair-cutting attacks. The attacks occurred against a couple in Trumbull County on Sept. 6; on Oct. 4 against a man and his son in Holmes County; later on Oct. 4 against a man in Carroll County; and on Nov. 9 against a man allegedly lured to the Mullet complex in Jefferson County.

Authorities said previously that some Amish refused to press charges, following their practice of avoiding involvement of the courts.

Dettelbach alluded to the issue, saying: "It is not the victim's job to decide or to bring charges. I think that's a message I would like people to understand. These charges in this case are the result of our independent determination that crimes occurred."

Stephen Anthony, head of the FBI in northern Ohio, said hate crimes are a priority for the agency.

"The message we'd like to send should be clear that the FBI and all of our law enforcement partners represented here today take civil rights violations very, very seriously," he said.

Ohio has an estimated Amish population of just under 61,000 – second only to Pennsylvania – with most living in rural counties south and east of Cleveland.

They have a modest lifestyle and are deeply religious. Their traditions of traveling by horse and buggy and forgoing most modern conveniences distance themselves from the outside world and symbolize a yielding to a collective order.

School Promoted Gay Behavior is Victim Killed

2011-11-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

Only a few hours had passed after 17-year-old Brandon McInerney had pled guilty to the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Lawrence "Larry" King at E.O. Green Junior High School when the media started pointing fingers.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story the same day, November 21, which said that the assistant principal at the school, who is openly gay, had been criticized for being "more intent on protecting King's civil rights" than "acknowledging that his dress and behavior were causing problems."

In a separate piece, also published Monday, the LA Times reported that the murdered teen's mother, Dawn King, had sought the help of school officials in "toning down her son's behavior" just a few days before the shooting. But she was allegedly told by the administration that King had "a civil right to explore his sexual identity."

During his live radio show on November 22, Rush Limbaugh claimed the school's progressive attitude was at fault for King's murder. "He was showing up in school dressed as a woman," Limbaugh said. "So now a confused 17-year-old is dead because the school [said] 'Ah, there's nothing we can do.'"

But Limbaugh had his facts wrong, according to Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg, who told The Huffington Post over the phone on Tuesday that King had not broken the rules of the middle school's dress code, which forbid a male student to wear dresses to school. It's true that Larry King wore heels, makeup, and jewelry to class. But none of these things were against the school's dress policy, said Dannenberg.

Dannenberg also told The Huffington Post that he did not know "for a fact" that King's mother had been rebuffed by school officials when she came to them for help before the shooting occurred.

Brandon McInerney, King's killer, was a Hitler enthusiast who was born to a meth-addicted mother and was beaten by his drug-addicted father.

McInerney was friends with neo-Nazis in the Oxnard area, according to testimony from an investigator. When law-enforcement officials searched his room, they found seven of Hitler's speeches along with a notebook full of "elaborate drawings of Nazi symbols and regalia."

On February 12, 2008, after days of conflict between the two students, McInerney, who was 14 at the time, sat down behind King in computer class around 8:00 a.m. McInerney pulled a .22 caliber handgun from his bag and shot King twice in the head, before dropping the weapon and leaving school grounds.

Neither Limbaugh nor the LA Times stories went into great detail about McInerney's background or his actions. But Limbaugh quoted freely from a Newsweek cover story on Larry King's murder, which was written in the summer of 2008, a few months after the shooting occurred. The Newsweek article described the teen as someone who liked to "slick up his curly hair" into a "Prince-like bouffant," and as someone who "acted out from an early age" and "pushed his rights as far as he could."

But was the school's tolerance of King's flamboyant gay behavior to blame for the fatal shooting on that tragic morning in February of 2008?

There are many who think E.O. Green Junior High, which is located roughly 60 miles west of Los Angeles, in Oxnard, California, isn't progressive enough--that the school should be teaching students to be understanding of a variety of sexual orientations.

"A more inclusive and holistic sex education is needed in our current school system," Luis Guerra told The Huffington Post in an email. Guerra is a Program Manager at the Health Initiative For Youth, a San Francisco-based organization founded in 1992 to educate young people about HIV prevention.

"This is something that sex education could have prevented," he said.

Guerra explained that implementing comprehensive sex education in middle schools can be extremely difficult, because the term "sex education" makes people think of sexual activity among children. But that's not what sex ed is, he said. Good sex ed teaches students about sexual orientation, gender identity and tolerance.

"Middle school is a good time to start addressing gender issues," said Sandi Goldstein, the project director for the California Adolescent Health Collaborative, a statewide coalition of organizations devoted to promoting adolescent health. "Schools can be a safe place to reinforce the fact that not all boys need to conform to the images of men we see in the media."

Dannenberg, the district superintendent, said that E.O. Green does offer sex ed classes, which teach students about "all the FDA-approved kinds of contraception." But the classes are optional, he said, and "don't include anything about gay rights or homosexuality in the curriculum."

In July, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill that requires California's public schools to include lessons on the history of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender figures in its social studies classes. The bill does not say at which grade level the lessons should start.

Still, the state of California does not require schools to teach sex ed. It only mandates that HIV/AIDS education be taught to students at least once in middle school and once in high school. See Chick's WOUNDED CHILDREN.

Baptist Teacher Arrested for Sex Abuse

2011-11-23T20:19:00.000-08:00

In a case that may lend itself to comparison with the current sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed the Penn State football program, a teacher, two pastors, and a former principal were all arrested Thursday in El Paso County. A grand jury has indicted the teacher for having sexually assaulted a 15-year-old male student at Hilltop Baptist School beginning in 2007, and the other three for covering it up.

According to the indictment, the teacher, 32-year-old Terah Allyn Rawlings, has been charged with eight counts in all: four counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust-pattern of abuse (a class 3 felony), four counts of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust (a class 4 felony), and obscenity promotion (a class 2 misdemeanor).

KRDO reports the teacher allegedly had a relationship with the boy for two and a half years, beginning when he was 15. Anonymous sources told the station the school covered up the relationship until a staff member called the sheriff against the school's permission.

Hilltop Baptist School's senior pastor, 63-year-old Franklin "Wayne" Knight, was also arrested. Knight is Rawlings's uncle.

Rawlings's father, 57-year-old Raymond "Alan" Knight, the school's former athletic director and associate pastor, has been arrested as well and charge with failure to report child abuse or neglect. The school's Facebook page boasts Alan was the 2011 Division 1A coach of the year.

Jan Ocvirk, the school's former principal, was also arrested. She faces two counts of failure to report child abuse or neglect.

Hilltop Baptist School closed in 2011 due to declining enrollment. See Chick's HOME ALONE.

Vampiress Arrested for Biting Clerk

2011-11-23T20:13:00.000-08:00

Denver Police have arrested Emi Leyonia Coleman, 30, in connection to the biting of two people at a convenience store last week.

UPDATE:

According to a press release from the Denver District attorney's office, Coleman has been charged with two misdemeanor counts: unlawful sexual contact and third-degree assault. She is scheduled to appear in court on December 16.

EARLIER:

Police said that on Monday, Nov. 7 around 10:30 p.m. the vampire-style attack occurred when a woman entered the Barn Store on 4650 Tower Rd. She approached a male customer, took the man's drink and started to drink it, according to Fox31, then backed him up against a counter. Police say, the woman then allegedly committed an act of unlawful sexual contact before biting the man on the neck.

Police say the woman then approached the clerk and asked her for a hug, but when she leaned over the counter, the woman bit her on the neck too before leaving with a white male in a dark-colored sedan.

Alice Gonzalez, the store clerk spoke to 9News about the incident:

I was in shock! Did she really just bite me? I could feel her teeth!

"She latched onto it. She was shaking like a pitbull that just got a piece of steak," Gonzalez described how the woman's teeth felt on her neck to Fox31.

Police spokesman Sonny Jackson jokingly told 9News, "We have no pattern of vampires in the area. This is highly unusual, highly bizarre." See Chick's FIRST BITE.

Happy Chick Tract Day (Nov. 22)

2011-11-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

Chick Tract day (Nov. 22nd) went off without a hitch. The Jack Chick Museum of Fine Art celebrated by sending a half a dozen tracts, two Alberto comics, and a Battlecry to the New York Times (who ordered them the day before). Chick tracts get read!

Muslim Mom "Doesn't Know" (Terrorist)

2011-11-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

The mother of Jose Pimentel, the alleged al-Qaida sympathizer arrested for plotting to kill US military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan as well as blow up government buildings, is devastated by her son's behavior.

The New York Post reports that Carmen Sosa, speaking through tears to reporters outside her apartment, said, "I don't know what's going on. I just want peace. I just want to say I love him. I didn't raise him that way. He changed."

"I cannot sleep, it's hard for you to know what I've been through," she said, adding, "I don't know him.

"He dropped out of school," she said. "He's had a lot of jobs, but he's not working now."

Pimentel, 27, was arrested by the NYPD Saturday for making explosives.

"We had to act quickly yesterday because he was in fact putting this bomb together," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at a press conference Sunday night. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."

And according to Mayor Bloomberg, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad."

Kelly described Pimentel as a Muslim convert who talked about changing his name to Osama Hussein to celebrate his fallen heroes, Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

A Dominican-born US citizen, Pimentel frequently read Inspire, al Qaeda's English-language propaganda magazine, but was not affiliated with the group, and was plotting the terrorist acts as a "lone wolf" according to Bloomberg.

He was a fan of Anwar al-Awlaki, and wrote letters to the American-born radical cleric. When Awlaki was killed by US forces this September in Yemen, Pimentel became more motivated to attack Americans.

"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.

Pimentel partially learned how to make explosives from a manual in Inspire called, "How to Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," and did in fact live with his mother for a period before she kicked him out due to his extremism.

"The only changes I noticed over the past two years was that he converted to the Muslim faith, "his uncle Luis Serviano, who Pimentel was living with at the time of his arrest, told The Post, adding that his nephew “used to be [a good kid]. But not now."

Relatives say Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, converted to Islam two years ago.

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) said Sunday evening that radicalized Muslim converts like Pimentel are a "growing issue" among counterterrorism officials. King said converts who become radicalized are "sometimes the most dedicated, if you will" to carrying out violent attacks against Western targets.

Pimentel has been denied bail and remains in police custody. He is charged with first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act. See Chick's THE SKYLIGHTER.

Another U.S. Muslim Arrested For Plotting Terror

2011-11-20T19:10:00.000-08:00

An "al-Qaida sympathizer" who plotted to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home has been arrested on numerous terrorism-related charges, city officials said Sunday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced at a news conference the Saturday arrest of Jose Pimentel of Manhattan, "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who the mayor said was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The mayor said Pimentel, a U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad."

He was under surveillance by New York police who were working with a confidential informant and was in the process of building a bomb; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

Instead, Bloomberg said, Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.

Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, is accused of having an explosive substance Saturday when he was arrested that he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public.

The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act. He was to be arraigned later Sunday.

"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.

Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.

Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.

Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."

The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady.

Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."

See Chick's MEN OF PEACE?

Kid's Store Sells Sex Underwear?

2011-11-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

Crotchless panties at a children's store? Nope, we're not kidding:

Erin French, a mom in Greeley, Colo., and her children entered a store this week called Kids N Teen, where French discovered several pairs of crotchless thongs displayed near the selections of kids' merchandise, Colorado's 9 News first reported.

"[The store has] cuddly little backpacks, and pretty little princess dresses," French told the station, after she made the discovery. She captured video of the panties with a cellphone camera.

The owner told the station that the store sells mostly kids' products, but that a small portion of the merchandise is geared toward teens. The shop has since pulled the panties from shelves, 9 News reports.

But it's too late, because news of the kiddie lingerie has already hit the Internet. The Heckler Spray blog wonders: "The owner of Kids N Teen says that 25% of her merchandise is actually for teens, which explains the whole crotchless knickers thing, right? Wait. Are they saying that it is okay for minors to buy crotchless knickers? Is that what's going on here?"

Jezebel points out that the panties looked small in the footage, but "If the underwear that's obviously meant to be used during sex was intended for a 14-year-old's wardrobe, that's a different story." It's hard to argue that adult products like this should be displayed on the counter for teens to purchase at the mall.

This isn't the first time underwear for kids has come under fire for being too provocative. This summer, a French line called Jours Apres Lunes controversially hawked bras and panties for girls ages four to twelve ("filles" and "femmes") and a "loungerie" line for girls ages three months to 36 months ("bebes"). See Chick's BABY TALK.

Catholics Predict a US Hostile to Christians

2011-11-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

The mood among many U.S. Roman Catholic bishops was captured in a recent speech by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. His talk, called "Catholics in the Next America," painted a bleak picture of a nation increasingly intolerant of Christianity.

"The America emerging in the next several decades is likely to be much less friendly to Christian faith than anything in our country's past," Chaput told students last week at Assumption College, an Augustinian school in Worcester, Mass. "It's not a question of when or if it might happen. It's happening today."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets Monday in Baltimore for its national meeting feeling under siege: from a broader culture moving toward accepting gay marriage; a White House they often condemn as hostile to Catholic teaching; and state legislatures that church leaders say are chipping away at religious liberty.

Many Catholic academics, activists and parishioners say the bishops are overreacting. John Gehring of Faith in Public Life, an advocacy network for more liberal religious voters, has argued that in a pluralistic society, government officials can choose policies that differ from church teaching without prejudice being a factor.

"Some perspective is needed here," Gehring, a Catholic, wrote on his organization's blog.

Still, the bishops see themselves as more and more on the losing side of these disagreements, and they are taking steps they hope will protect the church.

In September, the conference formed a new committee on religious liberty that will meet for the first time this week in Baltimore. Anthony Picarello, general counsel for the conference, will oversee that work, which will include hiring a lobbyist. Picarello had worked for seven years at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm based in Washington, and also served on an advisory committee for President Barack Obama's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Among the bishops' top concerns are religious exemptions in states that legalize same-sex marriage. In Illinois, government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements after 40 years because the agency refused to recognize a new civil union law. Illinois bishops are suing the state. In New York, the bishops, along with Orthodox Jewish leaders and others, have complained that the religious exception in this year's law allowing gay marriage is too weak to be effective.

On health care, the bishops have been pressing the Health and Human Services Department during its public comment period for a broader religious exception to the provision in Obama's health care overhaul that mandates private insurers pay for contraception. Sister Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, which broke with the bishops to support the administration's health care plan, said a proposed exemption is so narrowly written it would only apply to "the parish housekeeper."

The conference is also battling the agency on another front: The Health and Human Services Department recently decided not to renew a contract held since 2006 by the bishops' refugee services office to help victims of human trafficking. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently suing to stop the agency from making grants to groups who "impose religiously based restrictions on reproductive health services" for human trafficking victims. The women are often raped and forced into prostitution by their captors.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the bishops, has called the decision discriminatory and a case of "ABC," meaning anyone but Catholics. Agency officials vehemently deny any bias and say the sole criteria for evaluating potential grantees was which group could best serve the victims. Administration officials note that the vast network of Catholic social service nonprofits, including the bishops' conference, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in government funding in amounts that have increased in the last couple of years.

Last week, Obama met with New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the bishops' conference, an administration official said. The independent National Catholic Reporter said the two men discussed issues that have created tension between the administration and the Catholic hierarchy.

The closer focus on religious liberty comes as bishops are becoming more outspoken on preserving the religious identity of Catholic colleges and other institutions, and publicly calling out Catholic politicians and voters who don't follow church teaching on abortion.

Scott Appleby, a prominent religious historian at the University of Notre Dame, says many church leaders have recently adopted "a more pugnacious style, much more of a kind of culture-wars attitude." At the same time, the bishops' have been stung by their loss of public influence from the sex abuse crisis and the years of bruising revelations that many dioceses moved guilty clergy among parishes without alerting parents or police.

"The church no longer receives deference or the hands-off attitude that it once had for many years. That's gone," Appleby said.

Critics of the bishops view the closer focus on religious liberty as another sign that church leaders are turning inward and away from promoting the church's teaching on social justice.

Steven Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, pointed to the agenda released ahead of this week's meeting, which included no public discussion of poverty despite the state of the economy. In the 1980s, the bishops issued an influential pastoral letter on Catholic principles and the economy, which church leaders reaffirmed in statements and education programs over the next decade.

"I think this certainly will represent to a vast majority of Catholics a tone-deafness on the part of many, many bishops," Krueger said.

Penn State Scandal Mirrors Chick Tract

2011-11-11T21:17:00.000-08:00

The mother of one of Jerry Sandusky's accusers breaks her silence to ABC's George Stephanopoulos, telling how she learned of the former Penn State coach's alleged sexual abuse of her son, his visits to the boy at school and her rage toward school officials for their lackadaisical response to the boy’s serious allegations.

The mother, who did not identify herself, was the first whistleblower on the 67-year-old defensive coach after her son (identified in the Grand Jury's report as Victim 1) told her Sandusky had been inappropriate in his conduct with him; she said her son emphasized how Sandusky used his tremendous influence and status to persuade his alleged child sex conquests.

"I had said, 'You ... should have told me,'" the mother told Stephanopoulos. "He was like, 'Well, I didn't know what to do … you just can't tell Jerry no.'"

The boy said he was just 11 when he met Sandusky in 2005 through Sandusky’s Second Mile program, and the alleged molestation gradually kicked in.

Sandusky, the Grand Jury reported, "indecently fondled Victim 1 on a number of occasions, performed oral sex on Victim 1 on a number of occasions and had Victim 1 perform oral sex on him on at least one occasion."

The mother said when her son told her in detail about the accused pedophile's actions, she "was horrified.

"I was absolutely horrified: I knew some details but I didn't know that it was that, I didn't know it was that bad. It's caused a lot of nightmares, for him and I both."

Sandusky is accused of molesting eight boys over 15 years, from 1994 to 2009. He was arraigned on 40 criminal counts in connection with the accusations, including multiple counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of a child, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor, along with single counts of aggravated indecent assault and attempted indecent assault.

Sandusky was "a sexual predator who used his position within the university and community to repeatedly prey on young boys,” Attorney General Linda Kelly said on Saturday when the one-time heir apparent to Joe Paterno was taken into custody and released on $100,000 bail.

In court papers, Victim 1 claims that Sandusky would visit the boy at his school, Clinton County High, and take him out of his classes.

"[I] proceeded to ask him if there was something he needed to tell me, if there was something going on … it wasn't 'till a month later when he indicated he was uncomfortable with leaving the school with him, and [Sandusky] pulling him out of classes at school," she said.

The mother said she was "infuriated" with the school's response, or lack thereof, when she reported her son’s experience with the coach.

"Even if they had the slightest inclination that anything inappropriate was going on it should have been reported, or at least brought to my attention," she said. "I didn't even know he was leaving the school with my child, taking him out of classes -- they never told me that.

The scandal has shaken Penn State to its' very foundation, provoking the mass exodus of a number of officials for their purported inaction when allegations of Sandusky's gay pedophilic tendencies began sprouting up.

Among the firings include head coach Joe Paterno and Penn State president Graham Spanier. Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz both resigned this week after they were charged with perjury, accused of covering up a 2002 assault reported to them in which a witness claimed to see Sandusky raping a 10-year-old boy in the showers of the team's football compound.

The mother said she supports the university’s decision to eliminate those who might have helped cover-up, or turn a blind eye, to Sandusky’s alleged indiscretions.

“They all needed to be gone,” she said, adding Sandusky “needs to be put away -- he needs to be put away for a long time.”

Certain aspects of this scandal mirror one of Chick's controversial tracts, HOME ALONE (where a homosexual coach sexually abuses a boy he is trusted with).

Two Woman Stab Man in Satanic Ritual

2011-11-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

Sex, stabbing and satan are all you need for a bizarre crime story.

This one, as reported by WISN, involves a man who traveled from Phoenix to Milwaukee to visit a woman he met online. Once at her apartment, he told police he was tied up and repeatedly stabbed over the course of two days, according to a search warrant.

An affidavit said that police found the unidentified victim bleeding from his neck, arms and back.

The man was taken to a local hospital where medical staff estimated he had been stabbed in excess of 300 times. Police also found bloody duct tape "which was fashioned in a manner that appeared to be a restraint," according to the affidavit.

Rebecca Chandler said she had been having sex with the victim and that the stabbing was consensual, but "got out of hand" according to the affidavit.

Chandler told police that her roommate, later identified by cops as Raven "Scarlett" Larrabee, was responsible for most of the stabbing. Chandler added that Larrabee may be involved in satanic or occult activities, the affidavit said.

WISN reports that the two women have been arrested and are awaiting charges. See Chick's DARK DUNGEONS.

Change in Mass Approaching

2011-11-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

Each Sunday for decades, Roman Catholic priests have offered the blessing – "Lord be with you." And each Sunday, parishioners would respond, "And also with you."

Until this month.

Come Nov. 27, the response will be, "And with your spirit." And so will begin a small revolution in a tradition-rich faith.

At the end of the month, parishes in English-speaking countries will begin to use a new translation of the Roman Missal, the ritual text of prayers and instructions for celebrating Mass. International committees of specialists worked under a Vatican directive to hew close to the Latin, sparking often bitter protests by English speakers over phrasing and readability. After years of revisions negotiated by bishops' conferences and the Holy See, dioceses are preparing anxious clergy and parishioners for the rollout, one of the biggest changes in Catholic worship in generations.

"We're tinkering with a very intimate and personal moment," said the Rev. Richard Hilgartner, executive director of the worship office for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "It's public worship, it's the church's official public prayer, but for the individual faithful, it's one of the primary means of their encounter with the Lord."

The biggest challenge will be for priests, who must learn intricate new speaking parts – often late in their years of service to the church. At an Archdiocese of Newark training at St. Peter the Apostle Church in River Edge, many clergy had just received a final published copy of the Missal, a thick hardcover bound in red, accompanied by an equally dense study guide. Earlier drafts had been available for orientation sessions that have been ongoing for months nationwide.

Many clergy are upset by the new language, calling it awkward and hard to understand. The Rev. Tom Iwanowski, pastor of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Oradell and New Milford, N.J., turned to the section of the new missal that calls funeral rites, "the fraternal offices of burial."

"How can I say those words? It doesn't make sense," said Iwanowski, who has been a priest for 36 years. "It separates religion from real life."

In the new translation, in the Nicene Creed, the phrase "one in Being with the Father," will change to "consubstantial with the Father." When a priest prays over the Holy Communion bread and wine, he will ask God for blessings "by sending down your spirit upon them like the dewfall."

The new missal grew out of changes in liturgy that started with the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings on modernizing the church that permitted Mass in local languages instead of Latin. Bishops in English-speaking countries created the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to undertake the translation. The panel produced a missal by 1973, but that version was considered temporary until better texts could be completed. As the commission worked to make the Mass more familiar in idiomatic English, some of the language strayed from the Latin. Also in some cases, the commission sought to use language that would be gender neutral.

The work took a new direction in 2001, when the Vatican office in charge of worship issued the directive Liturgiam Authenticam, or Authentic Liturgy, which required translations closer to the Latin. The Vatican also appointed another committee, Vox Clara, or Clear Voice, to oversee the English translation, drawing complaints from some clergy and liturgists that the Vatican was controlling what should be a more consultative process. (Cardinal George Pell, the Sydney, Australia, archbishop and chairman of Vox Clara, has called the complaints baseless and ideologically driven.)

The Rev. Anthony Ruff, a Benedictine monk and theology professor at St. John's University in Minnesota, said he was removed last year as head of the music panel of the international translating commission because of criticisms he posted on his blog. In an open letter to U.S. bishops published in the Jesuit magazine America, Ruff cancelled his plans to speak on the text to diocesan priests because, "I cannot promote the new missal translation with integrity."

In South Africa, church officials accidentally introduced much of the new text in parishes ahead of schedule in late 2008, generating similar complaints about ponderous language, although church officials now say most parishioners have adapted.

Jeffrey Tucker, a lay musician at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church in Auburn, Ala., said he also had concerns about how the translation was handled. Still, he said he found the new missal "extraordinary." The text and music are truly integrated for the first time since the changes from the Second Vatican Council, Tucker said. He has been introducing the new text to lay people and church leaders in recent months, and has found the reaction to mostly be, "Oh, wow.'"

"The language is more accurate, but that is the most boring thing you can say about it. The more important thing about the language is that it's beautiful," said Tucker who is managing editor of Sacred Music, the journal of the Church Music Association of America. "Hardly anything ever good comes out of a committee. This time it did."

Parishes around the United States have spent the summer trying to prepare church members for what's ahead. Priests have been discussing the changes in homilies, in notices in parish bulletins, and in workshops and webinars. Many clergy plan to use poster-sized laminated cue cards for parishioners as the new text is introduced. The introduction of the new text comes on the first Sunday of Advent, just ahead of the Christmas season – a time when infrequent churchgoers attend services.

The Catholic Community at Pleasanton, Calif., which serves 5,000 families in the Diocese of Oakland, has been organizing ministry training sessions and town hall meetings for parishioners to ask questions and express concerns. Mark J. Sullivan, the church music director, said he has seen reactions range from people fully embracing the change to others asking, "Why now?"

"They say, `I've got everything memorized. Why are you messing with it?'" Sullivan said. "If people do get a little nervous, it because things are in a different place, and it is more content, but it's more for great reasons. We've got more to work with."

The Rev. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral in Seattle, started an online petition called, "What If We Just Said Wait," that drew more than 22,000 signatures from clergy, lay people, liturgists and others around the world, who urged a limited, one-year introduction of the new translation followed by an evaluation before the text was adopted across the country.

Despite the protest, Ryan said he has been preparing parishioners for the change and he will be ready to recite the new text on Nov. 27.

"I'm not going to stand apart from the church," Ryan said.

See Chick's ARE ROMAN CATHOLICS CHRISTIAN?

Demons Made Him Do It

2011-11-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

A man who stormed into a Carson City IHOP restaurant with an assault rifle was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as a teenager and feared demons were after him in the months before he killed four people before ending his own life, according to newly released police information.

Eduardo Sencion, 32, was diagnosed in 1999 and declared permanently disabled two years later.

The Carson City sheriff's office detailed the deterioration of his mental state and the law enforcement agency's handling of the Sept. 6 chaos following 85 seconds of terror that left five dead - including three National Guard members - seven injured and a community traumatized.

The new information was first reported by the Nevada Appeal. A presentation was given during a meeting Tuesday in Las Vegas of the Nevada Sheriffs and Chiefs Association, and a copy of the PowerPoint presentation was obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press.

Sencion, 32, was born in Mexico and moved to the United States in 1993. He spoke fluent English, graduated from high school, had no criminal history and was a devout Catholic, authorities said.

Investigators said his family first became aware of mental health issues when Sencion complained about being harassed by co-workers. He sought treatment when his employer told the family he was becoming increasing paranoid.

Family members said Sencion took his medication, and all but one of his mental health commitments were voluntary. The report did not say how many times Sencion was hospitalized.

But Sencion told his family he avoided intimate relationships because he feared "he would father a child and pass along his illness."

He immersed himself in the Bible, and gave his mother keys to his gun safe, warning her he was "getting sick."

He thought people were demons trying to hurt him, and began hearing voices telling him to do "bad things" to people.

Sencion's medications were changed this summer. About a month later, he approached a priest in the street and asked him for help, telling the priest, "They're telling me to do bad things."

The night before the shootings, Sencion, who lived with family members, took his medication at 10 p.m. Everything appeared normal the next morning. His last comment to his family - "I should have gone to work today."

Less than an hour later, a witness saw him in front of a beauty supply store near the IHOP restaurant. At 8:57 a.m., he parked his minivan in the IHOP parking lot and took out a Norinco MAK-90 assault rifle. He fired two shots, then a full automatic burst of bullets.

The 911 calls began streaming in to emergency dispatchers.

Sencion walked into the IHOP and fired 30 rounds. Florence Donovan-Gunderson, a 67-year-old resident of South Lake Tahoe, was eating with her husband, Wally that morning. They were the first to be shot. Florence Donovan-Gunderson died instantly, the report said.

Sencion then began shooting at five Nevada National Guard members sitting in a booth. Sgt. 1st Class Miranda McElhiney, 31; Sgt. 1st Class Christian Riege, 38; and Major Heath Kelly, 35, were killed. Their comrades - Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Mock, 32, and Sgt. Cait Kelley, 25, were wounded.

Two other diners were shot and wounded.

Sencion then went out to the parking lot, where he shot a woman in the head as she tried to escape on her motorcycle. Her helmet saved her life, investigators said.

He went back to his vehicle, picked up a handgun and shot himself in the head.

In all, he fired 79 rounds. Investigators said he brought two assault rifles, two handguns, 20, 30-round loaded magazines and 595 rounds of ammunition to the scene. See Chick's NO FEAR.

UK Law Allows Gays Civil Unions in Churches

2011-11-03T07:50:00.000-07:00

The British government said Wednesday (Nov. 2) that same-sex couples will be allowed for the first time to use churches to seal their civil partnership vows, starting in December.

But the directive added that no religious group will be forced to conduct or host such a ceremony, and the Church of England quickly announced it would permit no such rites on its premises.

In a statement, the church said it "has no intention of allowing civil partnerships to be registered" in its churches.

The government's equalities minister, Lynne Featherstone, used a written statement to Parliament to announce that same-sex couples will be allowed to seal their vows in churches and other places of worship in England and Wales starting on Dec. 5.

Civil partnership registrations have been entirely secular in Britain.

"The government is advancing equality for LGB (lesbian, gay and bisexual) people and ensuring freedom of religion for people of all faiths," Featherstone said. But she added that "no religious group will be forced to host a civil partnership registration."

Same-sex marriages are banned in Britain, but same-sex civil partnerships have been allowed since 2005. The partnerships give gay and lesbian couples the same legal protections accorded to heterosexual married couples.

Partnership ceremonies will most certainly be banned in Catholic churches, as well as mosques and Orthodox synagogues. The BBC reported that "leaders of Liberal Judaism, the Quakers and the Unitarians have in the past expressed interest" in hosting same-sex ceremonies. See Chick's SIN CITY.

Atheists At It Again, But Goof Big Time

2011-10-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

A billboard in Costa Mesa, Calif., is getting some attention, but it's certainly not the kind its sponsors were hoping for.

The sign, paid for by atheist group Backyard Skeptics, includes a quote about Christianity attributed to Thomas Jefferson. But further research reveals there's no solid evidence that Jefferson ever uttered or wrote the words, the Orange County Register first reported.

The billboard includes a picture of Jefferson with the quote: "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature. It is founded on fables and mythology."

Experts at the Jefferson Library Collection at Monticello are constantly asked about the quote, the Orange County Register reports. Some say the former president wrote the words in a letter to a Dr. Wood, but officials cannot find trace of any correspondence to a person by that name.

Bruce Gleason, a member of the group, told the Orange County Register that he should have done a bit more research before putting the words on the sign. The billboard was unveiled on Wednesday, the newspaper reports. Gleason explained that purpose of this sign and others around the city was to "expunge the myth that this is a Christian nation," as well as to "share the idea that you can be good and do good without a religion or god."

UPDATE: 6:24 p.m. --

Jefferson kept a personal book containing certain verses from the New Testament and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Los Angeles Times points out. He arranged the snippets into a small "scrapbook," which left out mentions of the virgin birth, Jesus' resurrection, and other forms of divinity and miracles. He called it, "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth," but it later came to be known as the "Jefferson Bible."

The founding father identified himself as a Christian, despite his questions, the Christian Post explains. Scholars have debated the issue, and some have posited that "without acknowledging Jesus' divinity and resurrection, Christianity [is] baseless."

Author Lori Ann Ferrel, who's written about the "Jefferson Bible," told the Los Angeles Times that Jefferson "was more skeptical about religion than the other Founding Fathers."

Scientolists "Investigated" South Park Team

2011-10-26T09:14:00.000-07:00

For Matt Stone and Trey Parker, nothing is holy or immune to satire. And since the launch of their groundbreaking animated TV series "South Park," they've skewered a multitude of world religions, pointing out hypocrisies, inanities or just playing with ridiculous stereotypes. One of their most famous religious satires, 2005's Scientology-targeting "Trapped In The Closet" episode, allegedly struck such a nerve with the church's leaders that the group responded by targeting Stone, Parker and their friends in a long-term covert investigation.

Marty Rathbun, a former Church of Scientology executive-turned-critic and independent worshipper, revealed to the Village Voice a number of documents that detailed the religious sect's detailed surveillance of the Emmy-winning TV moguls. Through the help of informants, public records and various other means, they searched for "vulnerabilities" in the pair's personal lives, and after exploring their personal and business connections, widened their focus to investigating actors such as John Stamos, as well.

"Phone records. Bank records. Personal letters that expose some kind of vulnerability," Rathbun told the Voice. "They'll read stuff into the kind of alcohol you're drinking and how much. Prescriptions. They'll figure out your diet. They can find out a lot about you through your trash."

Rathbun's personal site leads with a post that includes more information, including this summary: "In ’06 the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, became targets of Corporate Scientology’s OSA. Operations were run in an attempt to silence Parker and Stone. While Corporate Scientology was ultimately unsuccessful, left behind an instructive data trail during their efforts."

"Trapped in the Closet" featured a storyline that had Stan, one of the four children that make up the show's core, take a "personality test" after being encountered on the street by a group of Scientologists. The vague test reveals that he is miserable, which leads him to agree to pay the church to make him happy again. An "E-meter" reading reveals that he is housing the soul of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and various Hollywood celebrities who are members of the church flock to his home to help convince him to become their new leader.

One of those celebrities included Tom Cruise, who locks himself in a closet, which was a clear allusion to various rumors about his sexuality. John Travolta, another member of the church, soon joined him in the closet. Stan's friends tell him that the religion is actually a cult, pointing out that Hubbard was a science fiction writer, though he at first refuses to believe it. Eventually, the Scientology elders reveal that the church is a for-profit con, calling their own religion "crap."

Cruise was so incensed by the episode that he allegedly threatened to not participate in promotion for "Mission: Impossible III" junket if a re-run of the episode was aired; Viacom owns both Comedy Central and Paramount, the studio that put out the film. Cruise's reps denied this, though the episode was indeed pulled. Stone and Parker, for their part, put out a satirical statement on the matter:

"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"
"Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu."

Rathbun teased more documents, which reveal major advances in their investigations, would come soon. He was arrested in September, allegedly at the behest of the Church of Scientology, though charges were later dropped; the Voice reported then that the Church of Scientology was harassing him, in part because he practices the faith outside of the official Church.

"South Park" satirizes religion in just about every episode (click here for a slide show of ten of their most memorable). The show has cast Satan as the cowardly lover of Saddam Hussein, while Kyle, another of the four core children, comes from a very stereotypical Jewish family. Parker and Stone also created the Broadway show, "Book of Mormon," which pokes fun at that religion.

Actress Calls Pope a Nazi

2011-10-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

Susan Sarandon has called Pope Benedict XVI, who like most German youngsters at
the time, served in the Hitler Youth as a child, a Nazi - outraging Catholics.
Catholic and Jewish groups blasted Susan Sarandon after the Oscar-winning
actress twice described Pope Benedict XVI as a Nazi.

"Susan Sarandon's ignorance is willful: Those who have hatred in their veins are
not interested in the truth," said William Donohue, spokesman for the Catholic
League.

"Sarandon's comment is obscene. Sadly, it's what we've come to expect of her."

The flap started when Sarandon, who won an Academy Award for her role as a Roman
Catholic nun in "Dead Man Walking," appeared at the Hamptons Film Festival this
past weekend.

Sarandon, during an interview, said she sent a copy of the book that provided
the basis for her film to the pope - and then qualified her answer, Newsday
reported.

"The last one," she said. "Not this Nazi one we have now."

The social activist/actress than repeated the comment.

The German-born pope, born Joseph Ratzinger, was briefly a member of the Hitler
Youth when membership was mandatory.

"Unlike most of the other teenagers, Ratzinger refused to go to meetings,
bringing economic hardship to his family," Donohue said. "Moreover ... he
deserted at the first opportunity."

The Anti-Defamation League, a group battling anti-Semitism, called on Sarandon
to apologize for her remarks.

"Ms. Sarandon may have her differences with the Catholic Church, but that is no
excuse for throwing around Nazi analogies," the ADL said in a statement.

"Such words are hateful, vindictive and only serve to diminish the true history
and meaning of the Holocaust."

Sarandon, 65, has yet to comment on the controversy, and a Tuesday e-mail to her
agent went unanswered. See Chick's THE HOLOCAUST.

Ground Zero Mosque May Close

2011-10-17T15:41:00.001-07:00

The infamous Ground Zero mosque, which quietly opened in September, faces a new
dilemma. This time, the difficulties are unrelated to religious freedom.

According to the New York Post, Park51, the development company behind the
mosque project, owes Con Ed $1.7 million in back rent. They have been given an
ultimatum by the utility: settle up or forfeit their claim to the property.

Currently, there are two buildings on the site. The one on the eastern half, a
former wholesale clothing outlet, is owned outright by Park51. The one on the
western half is a former substation owned by Con Ed, which has been leasing the
space out to Park51. Currently, the ground floor is being used for prayer
services, though eventually both structures are to be razed in preparation for
the construction of a new $100 million, 15-story community center and mosque.

Things seemed to be moving swimmingly for Park51. That was until August, when
Con Ed raised the rent from $2,750 a month—the rate set in 1972—to $47,437 a
month, retroactive to July 31, 2008.
Park51 was given a deadline of October 4 to come up with the $1.7 million owed
or face the eviction.

Park51 principals sued for injunctive relief, calling the rent demands
“outrageous.” Lead developer Sharif El-Gamal is quoted by the Post as saying:

"Whether it is bowing to political pressure or seeking to retain the valuable
premises for itself, Con Ed appears intent on proceeding with its wrongful
termination."

Gamal further moaned that Con Ed’s move puts the kibosh on his company’s ability
eventually to buy the substation building.

A hearing date of November 17 has been set for the case. See Chick's WHO CARES?

Teacher Attacked for Gay Criticisms on Facebook

2011-10-17T15:36:00.001-07:00

A New Jersey high school teacher became the center of a Facebook controversy on
Thursday after writing on the site that “homosexuality is a perverted spirit
that has existed from the beginning of creation” and complaining about a school
display recognizing October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History
month.

The teacher, Viki Knox, posted a photo of a display from the school, Union High
School in Union Township, on her personal Facebook page last week. It included
photos of Virginia Woolf, Harvey Milk and Neil Patrick Harris. When a friend
asked if the school had really put it up, Ms. Knox wrote that it had, and “I’m
pitching a fit!”

In subsequent posts, Ms. Knox, who teaches special education classes, defended
her views in lengthy exchanges with other Facebook users, referring at times to
God and her Christian beliefs. A copy of the comments was provided to The New
York Times; her Facebook page was removed from public view. News of Ms. Knox’s
comments was first reported on Thursday morning by The Star-Ledger in Newark.

“The district is taking the matter very seriously,” said Union’s superintendent
of schools, Patrick Martin. “We are running a thorough investigation. We will
take all appropriate actions.”

Dr. Martin declined to comment further on the investigation, or Ms. Knox’s
background, citing laws that protect the privacy of public employees.

The state’s teacher database showed that Ms. Knox had 12 years of experience in
the district and that she earned $72,109 in 2010. Some residents and parents
said that she also advised a student prayer group, and that, until now, she had
not been involved in any controversies.

Ms. Knox did not respond to messages left at the school.

In her Facebook posts, Ms. Knox wrote that while she had friends and loved ones
who were gay, she believed that the way they lived was “against the nature and
character of God” and that the high school was “not the setting to promote,
encourage, support and foster homosexuality.”

Edward Barocas, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in New
Jersey, said in a statement, “Although we do not agree with the sentiments
expressed on Ms. Knox’s personal Facebook page, her beliefs and comments are
protected by the First Amendment.”

But Mr. Barocas added, “Because her postings raised questions about her conduct
within school, the school district can and should investigate whether she is
performing her job in accordance with school policies and the state’s Law
Against Discrimination.”

Members of Garden State Equality, a statewide civil rights organization that
advocates gay rights, sent hundreds of e-mails and made phone calls to the
district on Thursday demanding that Ms. Knox be dismissed because of her
comments.

Steven Goldstein, chairman of the group, said, “If these Facebook posts are from
Ms. Knox, she should not be teaching our children in public schools.”

See Chick's SIN CITY.

Witch Doctor's Terrorize Uganda Children

2011-10-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

A BBC investigation into human sacrifice in Uganda has heard first-hand accounts which suggest ritual killings of children may be more common than authorities have acknowledged.

One witch-doctor led us to his secret shrine and said he had clients who regularly captured children and brought their blood and body parts to be consumed by spirits.

Meanwhile, a former witch-doctor who now campaigns to end child sacrifice confessed for the first time to having murdered about 70 people, including his own son.

The Ugandan government told us that human sacrifice is on the increase, and according to the head of the country's Anti-Human Sacrifice Taskforce the crime is directly linked to rising levels of development and prosperity, and an increasing belief that witchcraft can help people get rich quickly.

In the course of our investigation we witnessed the ritual torching of the shrine of a particularly active witch-doctor in northern Uganda by anti-sacrifice campaigners.

The witch-doctor allowed ceremonial items including conch shells and animal skins to be burned in his sacred grove after agreeing to give up sacrifice.

He told us that clients had come to him in search of wealth.
"They capture other people's children. They bring the heart and the blood directly here to take to the spirits… They bring them in small tins and they place these objects under the tree from which the voices of the spirits are coming," he said.
Asked how often clients brought blood and body parts, the witch-doctor said they came "on average three times a week - with all that the spirits demand from them."

We saw a beaker of blood and what appeared to be a large, raw liver in the shrine before it was destroyed, although it was not possible to determine whether they were human remains.

The witch-doctor denied any direct involvement in murder or incitement to murder, saying his spirits spoke directly to his clients. He told us he was paid 500,000 Ugandan shillings (£160 or $260) for a consultation, but that most of that money was handed over to his "boss" in a nationwide network of witch-doctors.

Head of the Anti-Human Sacrifice and Trafficking Task Force, assistant commissioner Moses Binoga of the Ugandan police, said he knew of the boss referred to - involved in one of five or six witch-doctor protection rackets operating in the country.
"The senior ones extort money from lower people because they deal in illegal things," he told us.

Mr Binoga said police had opened 26 murder cases in 2009, in which the victim appeared to have been ritually sacrificed, compared with just three cases in 2007.

"We also have about 120 children and adults reported missing whose fate we have not traced. We cannot rule out that they may be victims of human sacrifice," he said.

But child protection campaigners believe the real number is much higher, as some disappearances are not reported to police.
Activism

Mr Angela told us he had first been initiated as a witch-doctor at a ceremony in neighbouring Kenya, where a boy of about 13 was sacrificed.

"The child was cut with a knife on the neck and the entire length from the neck down was ripped open, and then the open part was put on me," he said.

When he returned to Uganda he says he was told by those who had initiated him to kill his own son, aged 10.
"I deceived my wife and made sure that everyone else had gone away and I was with my child alone. Once he was placed down on the ground, I used a big knife and brought it down like a guillotine."

Asked if he was afraid he might now be prosecuted as a result of confessing to killing 70 people, he said:
"I have been to all the churches… and they know me as a warrior in the drive to end witchcraft that involves human sacrifice, so I think that alone should indemnify me and have me exonerated."

Uganda's Minister of Ethics and Integrity James Nsaba Buturo believes that "to punish retrospectively would cause a problem... if we can persuade Ugandans to change, that is much better than going back into the past."

Child protection activists in organisations such as FAPAD (Facilitation for Peace and Development) and ANPPCAN (African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect) have highlighted recent cases of ritual killing and called for new legislation to regulate so-called "traditional healers".

In some cases against alleged witch-doctors due to come to trial later this year, police will use the testimony of children who managed to survive abduction.

One such witness is a three-year-old boy called Mukisa, who was left for dead after his penis was hacked off by an assailant.
He survived thanks to quick work by surgeons, and later told police he had been mutilated by a neighbour who is known to keep a shrine.

Mukisa's mother told us: "Every time I look at him, I ask myself how his future is going to be - a man without a penis - and how the rest of the community will look at him, with private parts that can neither be attributed to a man or a woman. Every time I recall the normal birth that I had and the way Mukisa is now, it is like the end of the world."

See Chick's THE TRAITOR.

He Fooled Them

2011-10-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

Convicted cop killer, Troy Davis was celebrated as "martyr and foot soldier" Saturday by more than 1,000 people who packed the pews at his funeral and pledged to keep fighting the death penalty.

Family, activists and supporters who spent years trying to persuade judges and Georgia prison officials that Davis was innocent were unable to prevent his execution Sept. 21. But the crowd that filled Savannah's Jonesville Baptist Church on Saturday seemed less interested in pausing in remorse than showing a resolve to capitalize on the worldwide attention Davis' case brought to capital punishment in the U.S.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, national president of the NAACP, brought the crowd to its feet in a chant of "I am Troy Davis" – the slogan supporters used to paint Davis as an everyman forced to face the executioner by a faulty justice system. Jealous noted that Davis professed his innocence even in his final words.

"Troy's last words that night were he told us to keep fighting until his name is cleared in Georgia," Jealous said. "But most important, keep fighting until the death penalty is abolished and this can never be done to anyone else."

After four years of extraordinary appeals, every court that examined Davis' case ultimately upheld his conviction and death sentence for the 1989 slaying of Savannah police officer Mark MacPhail, who was shot twice while trying to help a homeless man being attacked outside a bus station. MacPhail's family and prosecutors say they're still confident Davis was guilty. Davis supporters argued that he was convicted without any physical evidence (which is true-- he was convicted on eye witnesses testify, some of which were convinced to recant their testimony in later years.) But few activists are aware of the physical evidence that was collected but withheld by the courts, including blood stained shorts that Davis gave his mother to wash in an attempt to destroy MacPhail's DNA. The evidence was suppressed because of questions whether the mother really gave permission for her house to be searched, but it should give pause to those who continue to insist he was innocent.

Regardless, questions raised by Davis and his lawyers garnered support from thousands worldwide, including dignitaries such as former President Jimmy Carter and Pope Benedict XVI. The night Davis was executed, protests were held from Georgia to Washington, from Paris to Ghana.

During a call-and-response litany at the funeral, the congregation chanted in unison: "We pray to the Lord for our souls and the soul of Troy Davis, martyr and foot soldier."

"He transformed a prison sentence into a pulpit," the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, said in his eulogy Saturday. "He turned death row into a sanctuary."

Other than expressions of outrage at Davis' execution, there was little doom and gloom at his funeral. Warnock's congregation at Ebenezer, the church where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, helped raise money for the 3 1/2 hour service, which carried more than a hint of celebrity sheen. See Chick's FRAMED.

Terrorist Cleric Killed

2011-09-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

SANAA, Yemen -- In a significant new blow to al-Qaida, U.S. airstrikes in Yemen on Friday killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American militant cleric who became a prominent figure in the terror network's most dangerous branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits for attacks in the United States.

The strike was the biggest U.S. success in hitting al-Qaida's leadership since the May killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But it raises questions that other strikes did not: Al-Awlaki was an American citizen who has not been charged with any crime. Some liberal groups have questioned the government's authority to kill an American without trial.

The 40-year-old al-Awlaki was for years an influential mouthpiece for al-Qaida's ideology of holy war, and his English-language sermons urging attacks on the United States were widely circulated among militants in the West.

But U.S. officials say he moved into a direct operational role in organizing such attacks as he hid alongside al-Qaida militants in the rugged mountains of Yemen. Most notably, they believe he was involved in recruiting and preparing a young Nigerian who on Christmas Day 2009 tried to blow up a U.S. airliner heading to Detroit, failing only because he botched the detonation of explosives sewn into his underpants.

Yemen's Defense Ministry said another American militant was killed in the same strike alongside al-Awlaki – Samir Khan, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani heritage who produced "Inspire," an English-language al-Qaida Web magazine that spread the word on ways to carry out attacks inside the United States. U.S. officials said they believed Khan was in the convoy carrying al-Awlaki that was struck but that they were still trying to confirm his death. U.S. and Yemeni officials said two other militants were also killed in the strike but did not immediately identify them.

Washington has called al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch in Yemen is called, the most direct threat to the United States after it plotted that attack and a foiled attempt to mail explosives to synagogues in Chicago.

In July, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said al-Awlaki was a priority target alongside Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's successor as the terror network's leader.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said American forces targeted a convoy in which al-Awlaki was traveling with a drone and jet attack and believe he's been killed. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Al-Awlaki, born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents, began as a mosque preacher as he conducted his university studies in the United States, and he was not seen by his congregations as radical. While preaching in San Diego, he came to know two of the men who would eventually become suicide-hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The FBI questioned al-Awlaki at the time but found no cause to detain him.

In 2004, al-Awlaki returned to Yemen, and in the years that followed, his English-language sermons – distributed on the Internet – increasingly turned to denunciations of the United States and calls for jihad, or holy war. The sermons turned up in the possession of a number of militants in the U.S. and Europe arrested for plotting attacks.

Al-Awlaki exchanged up to 20 emails with U.S. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, alleged killer of 13 people in the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at Fort Hood. Hasan initiated the contacts, drawn by al-Awlaki's Internet sermons, and approached him for religious advice.

After the Fort Hood attack, al-Awlaki moved from Yemen's capital, Sanaa, into the mountains where his Awalik tribe is based and – it appears – grew to build direct ties with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, if he had not developed them already. The branch is led by a Yemeni militant named Nasser al-Wahishi.

Yemeni officials have said al-Awlaki had contacts with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the accused would-be Christmas plane bomber, who was in Yemen in 2009. They say the believe al-Awlaki met with the 23-year-old Nigerian, along with other al-Qaida leaders, in al-Qaida strongholds in the country in the weeks before the failed bombing.

The cleric is also believed to have been an important middleman between al-Qaida militants and the multiple tribes that dominate large parts of Yemen, particular in the mountains of Jawf, Marib and Shabwa province where the terror group's fighters are believed to be holed up.

Yemeni security officials said the U.S. was conducting multiple airstrikes a day in the south since May and that U.S. officials were finally allowed to interrogate al-Qaida suspects, something Saleh had long resisted, and still does so in public. The officials spokes on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence issues.

See Chick's THE SKYLIGHTER.

Obama Crowd Boos Pro-Jesus Shouts, Cheers Marijuana Shout

2011-09-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

A heckler shouting about Jesus Christ interrupted President Barack Obama at a fundraiser before security dragged him out.

It happened at the House of Blues in Los Angeles Monday night.

The man positioned himself up in front of the stage and started shouting loudly right after Obama started talking. The heckler proclaimed that "Jesus Christ is God" and a Christian God. According to Real Clear Politics, the outburst was met with boos from the crowd at the event.

Obama stopped talking. Then after a moment the crowd started chanting "Four more years! Four more years!" and drowned out the heckler.

As he was taken out by security the man called out that Obama is an antichrist.

Later, another, more-friendly heckler shouted out, "Don't forget medical marijuana!" Obama responded: "Thank you for that."

See Chick's SIN CITY.

Bristol Palin Confronts Obscene Heckler

2011-09-24T05:22:00.000-07:00

Bristol Palin got mighty chapped Thursday night when a heckler called her mom a "wh--e" at the Saddle Ranch bar in West Hollywood.

The former first daughter of Alaska had just finished a mechanical bull ride when a man yelled obscenities and spurred a bizarre caught-on-tape exchange over Sarah Palin's record and the man's sexual orientation.

"Did you ride Levi like that?" the heckler yelled, referring to Bristol's estranged babydaddy Levi Johnston. "Your mother's a wh--e."

Bristol Palin, 20, quickly made her way through the crowd to confront the unidentified 47-year-old man.

"What did you say?" she asked as a camera from Hollywood.TV kept rolling. "Your mother's the f---ing devil, dude," the man replied.

"Oh is she? What did she do wrong?" Bristol Palin asked.

The man then called Sarah Palin "evil" and said she'll end up in hell if such a place exists.

"Is it because you're a homosexual?" Bristol Palin asked. "And that's why you hate her?"

The man said he was gay but wanted to know why she called him a homosexual.

"Because I can tell you are. That's your big boyfriend right there," she said.

A bystander tried to break up the heated exchange, to no avail.

"She lies about what, sir? She lies about what, seriously? I'd love to hear. Can you give me one example, because you haven't yet?" Bristol Palin continued.

"Everything about Obama. She lies," he replied.

"Really? Sir, sir listen. You haven't given me one example. So if you're going to call my mother a whore, I'd love to hear one example," the former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant said.

The man refused to back down and made a crack about the recent rumor that Sarah Palin had a fling with former NBA player Glen Rice just months before her marriage to Todd Palin.

The alleged one-night stand took place in 1987 when the former Alaska governor was a sports reporter fresh out of college, according to Joe McGinniss' book "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin."

"You know what, you don't look anything like Glen Rice. I thought you would," the heckler said, escalating the dispute even further.

"You're right, I'm half African American. You caught me. You caught me sir," Bristol said as she threw up her hands.

The dust-up seemed to be over, but footage then cut to Bristol Palin approaching the man one more time.

She's seen snapping her fingers in the air and saying "Let's go" as the man gets even more agitated.

"You're f---ing white trash from Wasilla. Your mother ran that city into the f---ing grave," he screamed as Bristol Palin and a crew purportedly filming her new reality TV show made their way outside.

See Chick's DOOM TOWN.

Texas Ends Final Meal Feasts

2011-09-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

Texas inmates who are set to be executed will no longer get their choice of last meals, a change prison officials made Thursday after a prominent state senator became miffed over an expansive request from a man condemned for a notorious dragging death.

Lawrence Russell Brewer, who was executed Wednesday for the hate crime slaying of James Byrd Jr. more than a decade ago, asked for two chicken fried steaks, a triple-meat bacon cheeseburger, fried okra, a pound of barbecue, three fajitas, a meat lover's pizza, a pint of ice cream and a slab of peanut butter fudge with crushed peanuts. Prison officials said Brewer didn't eat any of it.

"It is extremely inappropriate to give a person sentenced to death such a privilege," Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, wrote in a letter Thursday to Brad Livingston, the executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Within hours, Livingston said the senator's concerns were valid and the practice of allowing death row offenders to choose their final meal was history.

"Effective immediately, no such accommodations will be made," Livingston said. "They will receive the same meal served to other offenders on the unit."

That had been the suggestion from Whitmire, who called the traditional request "ridiculous."

"It's long overdue," the Houston Democrat told The Associated Press. "This old boy last night, enough is enough. We're fixing to execute the guy and maybe it makes the system feel good about what they're fixing to do. Kind of hypocritical, you reckon?

"Mr. Byrd didn't get to choose his last meal. The whole deal is so illogical."

Brewer, a white supremacist gang member, was convicted of chaining Byrd, 49, to the back of a pickup truck and dragging him to his death along a bumpy road in a case that shocked the nation for its brutality.

Whitmire warned in his letter that if the "last meal of choice" practice wasn't stopped immediately, he'd seek a state statute to end it when lawmakers convene in the next legislative session.

It was not immediately clear whether other states have made similar moves. Some limit the final meal cost - Florida's ceiling is $40, according to the Department of Corrections website, with food to be purchased locally. Others, like Texas, which never had a designated dollar limit, mandate meals be prison-made. Some states don't acknowledge final meals, and others will disclose the information only if the inmate agrees, said K. William Hayes, a Florida-based death penalty historian.

Some states require the meal within a specific time period, allow multiple "final" meals, restrict it to one or impose "a vast number of conditions," he said.

Historical references to a condemned person's last meal go as far back as ancient Greece, China and Rome, Hayes said. Some of it is apparently rooted in superstition about meals warding off possible haunting by condemned people once they are put to death.

The Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based anti-capital punishment organization that collects execution statistics, said it had no data on final meals.

Since Texas resumed carrying out executions in 1982, the state correction agency's practice has been to fill a condemned inmate's request as long as the items, or food similar to what was requested, were readily available from the prison kitchen supplies.

While extensive, Brewer's request was far from the largest or most bizarre among the 475 Texas inmates put to death.

On Tuesday, prisoner Cleve Foster's request included two fried chickens, French fries and a five-gallon bucket of peaches. He received a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court but none of his requested meal. He was on his way back to death row, at a prison about 45 miles east of Huntsville, at the time when his feast would have been served.

Last week, inmate Steven Woods' request included two pounds of bacon, a large four-meat pizza, four fried chicken breasts, two drinks each of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, root beer and sweet tea, two pints of ice cream, five chicken fried steaks, two hamburgers with bacon, fries and a dozen garlic bread sticks with marinara on the side. Two hours later, he was executed.

Years ago, a Texas inmate even requested dirt for his final meal.

Until 2003, the Texas prison system listed final meals of each prisoner as part of its death row website. That stopped at 313 final meals after officials said they received complaints from people who found it offensive.

A former inmate cook who made the last meals for prisoners at the Huntsville Unit, where Texas executions are carried out, wrote a cookbook several years ago after he was released. Among his recipes were Gallows Gravy, Rice Rigor Mortis and Old Sparky's Genuine Convict Chili, a nod to the electric chair that once served as the execution method. The book was called "Meals to Die For."

See Chick's THE FRAME UP.

Peta To Launch Porn Site

2011-09-22T12:58:00.000-07:00

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is planning to launch a pornographic
website to promote its animal rights and vegan diet message, a move that critics
say will backfire and ostracize them from mainstream society.

PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles on
Tuesday that the group has applied with ICM Registry to launch the website
peta.xxx.

Rajt says the site will feature "tantalizing" videos and photographs, which will
lead viewers into animal rights messages. She noted that Norfolk-based PETA has
used porn stars and nudity to get its message across in the past, including an
annual speech online in which a PETA representative undresses. That video later
shares a message about slaughterhouses.

She says a pornographic site will allow PETA to reach a broader audience and
that publicity about the site is just as important.

"I think the bottom line is we live a in a 24-hour news cycle where over the
years we've found our racier actions are kind of a fast track way to get people
to stand up and pay attention about the plight of animals," she said.

Rajt says November is the earliest that PETA could receive approval for the
site. Critics say that by resorting to pornography, PETA is alienating itself
from a large swath of the population that might otherwise be sympathetic to its
cause.

"I just don't want to understand why they want to offend people who would
potentially support at least part of their cause. There have got to be other
ways to draw attention to their cause," said Robert Peters, general counsel for
the New York-based anti-pornography group Morality in Media. "Metaphorically
speaking, they're getting in bed with hard core pornographers to prevent cruelty
to animals. That borders on insanity."

Rajt said PETA officials would track the website to determine if people are
viewing the animal rights messages and not just the nudity. Past experience has
shown that they will, she said.

J. Justin Wilson, senior research analyst for the food-industry backed Center
for Consumer Freedom, said moves like this by PETA make them increasingly
irrelevant in mainstream society.

"They don't seem to be changing the debate anymore, I think in large part
because people are writing them off as whack jobs," he said from Washington.
"This is one more example of them being their own worst enemy. If they're trying
to win the hearts and minds of people considering being vegetarians, this is
probably the wrong way to do it." See Chick's WOUNDED CHILDREN.

Ground Zero Mosque Opens

2011-09-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

The so-called Ground Zero mosque, where proponents of religious freedom clashed with angry New Yorkers and especially families of 9/11 victims for nearly two years, opened Wednesday.

Instead of protesters, who tried to shut down the Park51 center several times, spectators milled about the center before entering to view a photographic exhibition.

NYChildren, as the exhibit was titled, was as much a tribute to New York City's diversity as a display of mere photographs. It includes snapshots of a city children representative of 160 ethnicities from around the world. The controversial Mosque part of the center wasn't showcased at all (for now).

The photographs were compiled by a 44-year-old Jewish shutterbug from Brooklyn, Danny Goldfield.

Meanwhile, the developer behind the cultural center conceded he was partly to blame for the virulent opposition the project has encountered.

"We made incredible mistakes," Sharif El-Gamal told The Associated Press in an interview in his Manhattan office. "The biggest mistake we made was not to include 9/11 families."

See Chick's WHO CARES?

Pat Robinson Advises Divorce for Husband of Wife With Alzhimer's

2011-09-19T19:48:00.000-07:00

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson told his "700 Club" viewers that divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer's is justifiable because the disease is "a kind of death."

During the portion of the show where the one-time Republican presidential candidate takes questions from viewers, Robertson was asked what advice a man should give to a friend who began seeing another woman after his wife started suffering from the incurable neurological disorder.

"I know it sounds cruel, but if he's going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her," Robertson said.

The chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which airs the "700 Club," said he wouldn't "put a guilt trip" on anyone who divorces a spouse who suffers from the illness, but added, "Get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer."

Most Christian denominations at least discourage divorce, citing Jesus' words in the Gospel of Mark that equate divorce and remarriage with adultery.

Terry Meeuwsen, Robertson's co-host, asked him about couples' marriage vows to take care of each other "for better or for worse" and "in sickness and in health."

"If you respect that vow, you say `til death do us part,'" Robertson said during the Tuesday broadcast. "This is a kind of death."

A network spokesman said Wednesday that Robertson had no further statement.

Divorce is uncommon among couples where one partner is suffering from Alzheimer's, said Beth Kallmyer, director of constituent services for the Alzheimer's Association, which provides resources to sufferers and their families.

"We don't hear a lot of people saying `I'm going to get divorced,'" she told The Associated Press. "Families typically respond the way they do to any other fatal disease."

The stress can be significant in marriages though, Kallmyer said, because it results in the gradual loss of a person's mental faculties.

"The caregiving can be really stressful on a couple of levels," she said. "There's the physical level. There's also the emotional level of feeling like you're losing that person you love."

As a result, she said, it's important for couples to make decisions about care together in the early stages of the illness, when its effects aren't as prominent.

Major Upset in NY Seat Due to Weiner, Obama, and Gay Marriage

2011-09-14T09:31:00.001-07:00

It sounded improbable on the surface that a New York City congressional district where Democrats have a 3-1 registration edge and have held office for nearly a century could even come close to electing a Republican to the U.S. House.

But voter frustration over the sour economy and President Barack Obama's policies made the improbable a reality, as a Republican political novice, Bob Turner, scored an upset victory in a special election Tuesday over David Weprin, a Democratic assemblyman from a prominent local political family. The surprising results in the Brooklyn and Queens-area district portend a perilous national environment for Obama as he prepares to seek re-election next year.

Turner said as much when he stepped before cameras to claim victory Tuesday night.

"This message will resound for a full year. It will resound into 2012," said Turner, a retired broadcasting executive. "I only hope our voices are heard, and we can start putting things right again."

Weprin called Turner to concede Wednesday morning. With Turner's win, Republicans now hold 242 seats in the House to 192 for Democrats. There is one vacancy.

Weprin not only suffered baggage from Obama's low popularity, but also the bad taste left over by former Congressman Weiner who resigned in disgrace, plus Weprin's controversial support for gay marriage. His vote to support the same sex marriages in New York (which passed earlier in the year) was suppose to boost campaign contributions from well off but childless gays, but instead, infuriated many of the socially conservative Jews in the 9th district.

Also Tuesday, Republican Mark Amodei won a landslide victory in a U.S. House special election in Nevada, an important presidential swing state.

The national mood has darkened since May, when Democrats scored their own unexpected win in another New York special election. Then, Democrat Kathy Hochul won an upset victory in a heavily Republican district by stressing her commitment to protecting Medicare, the government health plan for seniors.

Weprin tried to adopt that strategy, warning that Turner would try to cut programs like Medicare and Social Security. But with unemployment still stubbornly high and voters upset with Washington over the debt ceiling negotiations and continued bad economic news, the pledge to protect entitlements was less resonant this time.

Democratic leaders trying to explain their bad night blamed it on the quirkiness of low-turnout special elections.

"The results in NY-09 are not reflective of what will happen in November 2012 when Democratic challengers run against Republican incumbents who voted to end Medicare and cut Social Security while protecting tax loopholes for big corporations and the ultra wealthy," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel of New York.

Republicans, for their part, seized on Turner's win as reason to push back on Obama's proposed $447 billion jobs program, which he has been promoting at stops across the country.

"Tonight New Yorkers have delivered a strong warning to the Democrats who control the levers of power in our federal government," House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement. "It's time to scrap the failed `stimulus' agenda."

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus added: "Tonight's election proves yet again that President Obama is failing our country. Not only are the President's policies not working, but his non-stop campaigning is no longer winning over voters."

Weprin, a 56-year-old Orthodox Jew and member of a prominent Queens political family, initially seemed a good fit for the largely white, working-class district, which is nearly 40 percent Jewish.

But voter frustration with Obama put Weprin in the unlikely spot of playing defense.

While Obama won the district by 11 points in 2008 against Republican John McCain, a Siena Poll released Friday found just 43 percent of likely voters approved of the president's job performance, while 54 percent said they disapproved. Among independents, just 29 percent said they approved of Obama's job performance.

Turner, a 70-year-old Catholic, vowed to push back on Obama's policies if elected. He received help from prominent Republicans including former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose much-praised stewardship of the city after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks was recalled during the 10th anniversary of the attacks last weekend.

Weprin also became embroiled in New York-centric disputes over Israel and gay marriage, which cost him some support among Jewish voters.

Orthodox Jews, who tend to be conservative on social issues, expressed anger over Weprin's vote in the Assembly to legalize gay marriage. In July, New York became one of six states to recognize same-sex nuptials.

Former Mayor Ed Koch, a Democrat, endorsed Turner in July as a way to "send a message" to Obama on his policies toward Israel. And Weprin was challenged on his support of a proposed Islamic center and mosque near the World Trade Center site, in lower Manhattan.

The House seat opened up when Weiner was pushed by party leaders to resign after sending sexually provocative tweets and text messages to women he met online.

The trouble for Weiner, who served seven terms, began when a photo of a man's crotch surfaced on his Twitter feed. He initially denied the photo was of him but later admitted it was.

Weiner, who's married, resigned June 16 after two weeks of fighting off pressure to step aside. He apologized for "the embarrassment that I have caused" and said he hoped to continue to fight for the causes dear to his constituents.

Pagen Church Busted For Sex Crimes

2011-09-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

Arizona Police on Wednesday raided a Phoenix Goddess Temple by accusing it as a prostitution house and accused more than 30 people that are related to the Phoenix Goddess Temple, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said on Thursday.

Phoenix police after a six-month investigation arrested 18 individual affiliated with the temple, a suspected house of prostitution operating under the pretence of providing "religious" services.

"They were committing crimes under the guise of religious freedom," Phoenix police spokesman Steve Martos told ABC news. "It's a sad situation when people are trying to hide behind religion and church to commit a crime."

Search warrants were implemented on late Wednesday on locations in Sedona and Phoenix with the cooperation and support of law enforcement officials from the Sedona Police Department and Yavapai County.

Search is going on for more 17 more people who are also charged in connection with the prostitution enterprise, Martos said.

The 20 individual arrested till now have been charged with prostitution or other offenses, police said.

"Although it is not uncommon for criminals to hide their criminal acts from law enforcement, it is particularly disheartening that some would attempt to disguise their crimes as religious freedom," acting Phoenix Police Chief, Joseph Yahner said.

"The First Amendment protection of the free exercise of religion does not allow individuals to trade sex for money, no matter how the transaction is portrayed," said Maricopa County Bill Montgomery. "Thanks to the cooperative efforts of our law enforcement partners here in Phoenix and in Yavapai County, we are now in a position to hold these so-called healers accountable for allegedly running brothels in residential neighborhoods," he added.

Montgomery concluded by stating, "We will protect our community from the impact of criminal enterprises no matter how they may be characterized."

Police during the investigation of the Phoenix temple and two other church-related sites in nearby Sedonas seized evidence which showed that "male and female 'practitioners' at the temple were performing sexual acts in exchange for monetary 'donations', all under the guise of providing 'Neo Tantric' healing therapies," police said.

The "temple" generated tens of thousands of dollars a month, Martos told CNN.

The Goddess Temple founder Tracy Elise was also arrested. She was involved in a similar suspected brothel in Seattle that was shut down by law enforcement in 2009. She faces charges of prostitution, illegal control of an enterprise, pandering, and operating a house of prostitution.

The other individual accused face charges, including conspiracy, working in a house of prostitution and massaging without a license, police said.

The prostitution work has been going in Phoenix since 2009. The matter came to light when residents complained about the temple to the authorities.

A local Phoenix newspaper then visited the place and published an article about the happenings that were going inside the temple in the name of the God.

After the tri-state "Desert Divas" ring in 2008 the Phoenix temple prostitution became the largest bust.

"What's unusual is that they were trying to hide behind religion or church, and under the guise of religious freedom, they were committing acts of prostitution," Martos said.

"We certainly respect First Amendment rights. However, religious freedom does not allow for criminal acts," Martos said.

The temple Web site is not available online. The teachings of the Web site said that "Sex is a holy, sacred and divine healing force at the core (of) our beings. Once we embrace this force instead of deny it, we become successful, happy and powerful manifestos," CNN reported.

Naked women, listed as residing in several states, under a "Goddesses" section were also featured in the Web site.

Out of the 20 people arrested four are men, and two of the four are alleged prostitutes, Martos said. The other 16 individuals are women, he added.

The Phoenix Goddess Temple was founded in 2008 and has been operating at 2728 North 24th Street in Phoenix since July 2009.

See Chick's THE OUTCAST.

Vampire Attacks Homeless Man

2011-09-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

"I am a vampire, I am going to eat you," was the last thing Josephine Smith allegedly said before she viciously assaulted a homeless senior citizen sleeping on the porch of a vacant Hooters, according to Florida police.

Smith, 22, attacked 69-year-old Milton Ellis early Thursday morning, biting chunks of flesh from the victim's face, lips, and arms police said.

Ellis managed to escape and call 911, but not before the so-called vampire removed "the top layer of skin" on his arm. He later received stitches for his wounds.

Ellis had invited his soon-to-be attacker to join him at the abandoned restaurant while she waited for a relative from Pensacola to pick her up, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

"He was staying near an overhang near the vacant Hooter's restaurant so he thought it might be a good place for her to stay," Mike Puetz of the St. Petersburg Police Department said.

Smith told authorities that she had no recollection of the attack and could not explain why she was naked and covered in blood, according to local 13-News.

Smith is charged with felony aggravated battery on an elderly person, and is currently being held at the Pinellas County Jail on $50,000 bond.

See Chick's CRUSADERS comic #2.

KY Runs First Lesbian Ad On TV

2011-09-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

On September 5th, K-Y -- which promises to make that "big moment even bigger" -- will air its first ever ad campaign to feature a lesbian couple on national television.

In the ad, partners Alex and Emma explain that what's kept them together through the years has been good communication ... and K-Y INTENSE, Emma interjects. (Because a couple in possession of good lube must be in relationship bliss.) Cue the fireworks (literally) followed by a shot of Alex and Emma collapsed in a bed.

As blogger Pam Spaulding wrote, "fundies, bigots and closet cases that will need a fainting couch" after the ad airs, but gay activists will be delighted that their sexual orientation is being mainstreamed by Madison Avenue.

The brand won a 2010 GLAAD Media Award for Advertising for its print campaign: "America's Top Couple" (featuring the ever-lovable Geoffrey and Rusty), is a regular presence sponsor pride events and sponsored the 2010 and 2011 Dinah Shore Weekend, which claims to be the "largest lesbian event in the world." (K-Y even provided the product used in Dinah Shore's 2008 lube wrestling event).

But when it comes to commercials, lesbians had been left out of the mix. According to a K-Y INTENSE press release, however, the times are changing:

Gay male couples have been featured in print advertising since 2008 and now the brand is continuing its tradition of support and visibility with advertising that is inclusive of lesbian couples.

While television ads featuring any gay couple are few and far between -- the LGBT-themed cable channel Logo aired the first featuring a gay male couple -- a Levi's spot -- in 2008. McDonald's made waves in 2010 when its first ad featuring a gay male couple aired in France -- commercials featuring lesbians are rarer.

If the campaign achieves an increase in sales without igniting boycotts of corporate subsidiaries, expect more homosexual ads on television and cable soon. See Chick's THE GAY BLADE.

Mormon Molester Sick From Fasting

2011-09-02T06:44:00.000-07:00

The condition of convicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs
was upgraded from critical to serious following his move Tuesday to a Texas
prison hospital for additional treatment after he became sick while fasting, a
state corrections official said.

Jeffs was described by Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle
Lyons as "awake and alert" as he was flown to a Texas prison hospital at
Galveston.

Jeffs, 55, last week was assigned to the Powledge Unit outside Dallas to serve
his life sentence for sexually assaulting underage girls. On Sunday, he told
corrections officers he'd been fasting since his conviction and was ill. He then
was taken to the Tyler hospital, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) from his prison.

"Whenever possible, we send inmates needing medical attention to Hospital
Galveston because it is a secure prison facility," Lyons said.

The prison hospital shares quarters with the University of Texas Medical Branch,
the Texas prison system's chief medical provider.

"This is opposed to conditions at a 'free world' hospital where we must station
correctional officers as security," she said. "Basically, once he was stabilized
at East Texas Medical Center, we then were able to transport him to a more
secure setting where he still will have access to hospital care."

There was no estimate on how long he would remain at the Galveston hospital but
Lyons said the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints was expected to make a full recovery. It also was not immediately clear
how long Jeffs had gone without food before being hospitalized.

An official familiar with Jeffs' condition but not authorized to discuss it
publicly said Monday Jeffs had been in a medically induced coma. Lyons Tuesday
disagreed with that description, but said federal regulations covering release
of medical information prohibited her from disclosing more.

Jeffs was convicted this month after prosecutors used DNA evidence to show he
fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl — one of 24 underage girls whom
prosecutors say he took as his spiritual wives.

He received a life sentence, plus another 20-year term, and isn't eligible for
parole until he is at least 100 years old. He had been in a Huntsville prison
immediately after his trial, then was moved last week to the Powledge Unit.

This isn't the first time Jeffs has required hospitalization in the years since
he first was locked up.

He tried to hang himself in January 2007 while awaiting trial on rape charges in
Washington County, Utah, according to court documents. He also threw himself
against the walls of his cell and banged his head, although he later told a
mental health expert he really wasn't trying to kill himself. In the same time
period, he was hospitalized for dehydration and depression.

In 2009, he was temporarily force-fed while in an Arizona jail.

Former church members have said Jeffs likely would continue to lead his
Utah-based church from inside prison and that his followers likely still revere
him as a prophet despite the considerable evidence at his trial showing he
sexually assaulted girls as young as 12. Prosecutors played an audio recording
at his trial of what they said was him sexually assaulting a 12-year-old.

The basic principles of Jeffs' fundamentalist sect are rooted in polygamy, a
legacy of early Mormon church teachings that held plural marriage brought
exaltation in heaven. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
mainstream Mormon church, abandoned the practice in 1890 as a condition of
Utah's statehood and excommunicates members who engage in the practice.

Muslims in NY Riot over Head Scarf Safety Ban

2011-09-02T06:43:00.001-07:00

15 arrested in N.Y. Playland melee over head scarves

Two people were charged with felony assault and two police rangers were injured
during a melee that broke out Tuesday at Playland Amusement Park when Muslim
visitors became angry that the park was enforcing its ban on headgear by
prohibiting the women from wearing their traditional head coverings on some
rides.

Westchester County police and other departments respond to an altercation at Rye
Playland on Tuesday.

The park was crowded with Muslims celebrating Eid-ul-Fitr, one of Islam's two
major holidays.

Police from at least nine agencies converged on the park after county police
sought assistance in responding to the disturbance, which involved 30 to 40
people.

Another 13 people were arrested, most charged with disorderly conduct. All those
charged were released by Tuesday night.

"It's unfortunate because everybody just wants to be home with their families
today," said Zead Ramadan of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Parks officials "painstakingly" told the organizer about the headgear ban, said
Tartaglia. But he said that the rules might not have been communicated by the
organizer to some attendees.

Three accidents on Playland rides that killed two children and a park worker
between 2004 and 2007 were unrelated to clothing the victims were wearing. But
the headgear ban was among safety rules that went into effect after those
deaths.

"It's a safety issue on rides. If it's a scarf, you could choke," Tartaglia
said.

Accounts of what happened varied, but everyone agreed the dispute began after
parkgoers were told the headgear ban applied to women wearing traditional Muslim
head coverings, known as hijabs.

Tartaglia said once word of that got out there were "a lot of unhappy people."

Tartaglia said park officials were in the process of arranging refunds when
members of the Muslim group got into a scuffle with each other.

Ramadan said he could see both sides.

"The people feel like victims, and the police feel like they were just doing
their jobs," Ramadan said. "Personally I think things got a little out of
control on both sides."

Lola Ali, 16, of Astoria said she witnessed a group of girls and women wearing
hijabs go to park security to confront them about the headgear issue.

She said the women were upset and yelling. She said the security officers
started pushing them away and the girls stood their ground, at which point the
security officers grabbed them, pushed them to the ground and handcuffed them.

Men within the park saw this and tried to intervene, Ali said, and the situation
went downhill from there.

"They were beating down the girls, then they started beating down the guys," she
said of the security officers.

Earlier, a park cashier told a Journal News reporter that a woman wearing a
hijab either pushed or hit a ride operator who forbade her from going on the
ride. She said a police officer tried to restrain the woman and the woman's
husband took offense, at which point a multiple-person fight broke out.

Brooklyn resident Amr Khater, who had come to the park about noon with his
family, said his family was told about the hijab rule by park employees when
they arrived.

"Everybody got mad, everybody got upset," he said. "It's our holiday. Why would
you do this to us?"

Eid-ul-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. It is a three-day period
during which Muslims give to charity and celebrate their completion of Ramadan's
requirements with family and their community.

Sex Offenders Baby Sit for Ill. State

2011-08-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

The screening methods used to qualify babysitters for a state-run childcare subsidy program in Illinois were so inadequate that in several instances children were placed with registered sex offenders or individuals previously convicted of assault, drug and weapon possession crimes, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Child Care Assistance Program, a $750 million-a-year service that provides babysitting services for more than 150,000 Illinois families, first came under scrutiny in 2008 after trends emerged in Cook County courtrooms where repeat offenders increasingly mentioned their babysitting jobs, according to the Associated Press. An investigation by the division’s policy analyst found that unlicensed babysitters--some 60,000 of the 70,000 care providers on the program’s payroll not required to be licensed if they are watching three or fewer unrelated children--were approved without full background checks, the Tribune reports.

These findings prompted legislation enacted in 2009 requiring stricter background checks for non-relative babysitters. But the scrutiny the new law required didn’t become practice for nearly 18 months, according to the Tribune. Meanwhile, 83 state-paid baby sitters were living at addresses where sex offenders were registered, including one registered sex offender who had already received almost $5,000 for child care services from the state, the Tribune reports.

Faults in the 14-year-old program's screening process stem from its reliance on applicants to self-report their criminal history accurately, the use of an incomplete database to screen applicants, and infrequent comparisons of registered baby sitters' addresses to sex offender lists, according to the Tribune. Information about parolees and other ex-offenders is even less readily available.

The state's Human Services department said it will explore how to do real-time checks of prison databases in response to the investigation's finding, the Tribune reports, though cross-referencing multiple data systems could be a challenge.

See Chick's HOME ALONE

Illegal Relative of Obama Arrested for DUI

2011-08-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

Onyango Obama, President Obama's uncle, was arrested on August 24 in Massachusetts for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol, CBS News reports.

According to CNN, Onyango Obama was arrested in Framingham, a Boston suburb, after not stopping his SUV at an intersection.

The Metro West Daily News reports that he had a blood alcohol level of .14 when tested with a Breathalyzer at the police station. The legal limit in Massachusetts is .08, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Police said that when asked if he wanted to make a phone call, Obama said: "I think I will call the White House."
A spokesman for Cleveland immigration attorney Margaret Wong, who is representing him, confirmed that the 67-year-old is the president's uncle.

Police say the president's uncle is originally from Kenya and is being held without bail on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Wong was one of the attorneys who represented Zeituni Onyango, President Obama's aunt, who last year was granted political asylum after spending ten years as an undocumented immigrant in Boston. Obama's Uncle appears to also be an illegal alien. It is unclear if he will also be granted citizenship through back channels, or if he will receive it along with millions of others as a blanket amnesty under the "comprehensive immigration reform" that the president pushes. Currently, Obama has ordered homeland security to stop deporting illegals unless they have committed felonies, and to consider giving work permits to those who are arrested but have no other crimes on record (a defacto amnesty). The controversial end run around Congressional law has received little attention from the mainstream press.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from The Boston Herald, the paper reports. See Chick's WHO IS ALLAH?

Strauss-Kahn Free Again

2011-08-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, returned to the IMF's Washington headquarters Monday to say goodbye to staffers and meet briefly with his successor. The visit came five days after New York prosecutors formally dismissed the criminal charges against him.

In a statement, the 187-nation lending agency said its current managing director, Christine Lagarde, met with Strauss-Kahn before he met with IMF staffers.

"These were private meetings, arranged at his request," the IMF said in a statement. "We have no further comment to offer."

After a state appeals court judge declined to appoint a special prosecutor, a lower court judge formally dismissed the charges against Strauss-Kahn last Wednesday. An assistant district attorney for Manhattan said the prosecutor's office no longer found credible all the testimony from the hotel maid who accused him (because she had lied on her immigration application). However, DNA evidence proves he did have sex with the maid, and other credible witnesses have stepped forward and said that he had tried to force them to have sex as well. One such accuser was the daughter of a high ranking official in Strauss-Kahn's own Socialist party.

Strauss-Kahn, who at one time had been considered a top contender to become president of France, has said he wants to return to France, where he will face an uncertain future that includes another investigation into an alleged sexual assault.

In the United States, Strauss-Kahn still faces a civil lawsuit that hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo has filed against him. Her attorneys have said they will aggressively litigate the civil case. Strauss-Kahn's lawyers have called her account "imaginary." See Chick's ROYAL AFFAIR.

Jewish Torah Hunter Hoax Exposed

2011-08-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

A Jewish charity co-founder who claimed he crisscrossed the globe rescuing Torahs as a "Jewish Indiana Jones" surrendered Wednesday to face mail and wire fraud charges after authorities said he duped benefactors by fabricating dramatic stories about sometimes dangerous trips, including to concentration camp sites in Poland and Germany.

Menachem Youlus, who owns the Jewish Bookstore in Wheaton, Md., where he resides, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan and was released Wednesday on $100,000 bail. His attorney, Paul Rooney, said, "We deny this accusation, and anything else we have to say will be said in court."

Court papers said the 50-year-old Youlus carried out the fraud from at least 2004 through last year, pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars through the "Save a Torah" charity he co-founded in 2004 as a nonprofit organization. A criminal complaint said he passed off Torahs he bought from U.S. dealers to synagogues and congregations nationwide, sometimes at inflated rates.

It said he put nearly a third of $1.2 million collected by the group into his personal accounts, spending some of it on private school tuition for his children and on personal expenses, including meals and health care. More than $1 million was forwarded by the charity to Youlus' bookstore account, it said.

The publicly stated mission of the charity was to locate and acquire Torahs that survived the Holocaust or had been taken from Jewish communities worldwide and repair them so they could be used in communities that need them. In reality, Youlus rarely traveled abroad during the years he was claiming to go Torah hunting, it said.

"Menachem Youlus called himself the `Jewish Indiana Jones,' but his alleged exploits were no more real than those of the movie character he claimed to resemble," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a release. "He chose poorly in allegedly exploiting an excruciating chapter in Jewish and international history to perpetrate a brazen fraud that played on the heartstrings of the people for whom the painful memories of that period will never die."

According to a criminal complaint prepared by U.S. Postal Inspector Greg Ghiozzi, an application by "Save a Torah" to become a charity listed on the federal government's campaign to encourage donations by federal employees boasted that Youlus had "been beaten up, thrown in jail, and gone $175,000 into debt, to bring these holy scrolls out of less-than-friendly places, back to safety and a new life."

At a 2004 Torah dedication, Youlus wrote: "I guess you could call me the Jewish Indiana Jones," the complaint said, referencing the action-adventure hero played by Harrison Ford in the 1981 Stephen Spielberg classic "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

But Ghiozzi wrote that his investigation of Youlus' globe-trotting found no facts to support claims that Youlus rescued the "Auschwitz Torah" in Poland from inside a metal box that he located and unearthed in 2004 using a metal detector. There was also no evidence that he discovered a Torah in 2002 that had been hidden during World War II under the floor of a barracks at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany, Ghiozzi wrote.

A review of travel records showed that Youlus never traveled to Poland in 2004, making only a two-week trip to Israel, and that he didn't travel internationally from early 2001 to August 2004, when he claimed to have made the trip to Germany, Ghiozzi said. He said a historian at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Museum told him Youlus' claims were impossible because the barracks was completely destroyed by the British Army several weeks after the camp was liberated at the end of World War II.

Based on some of Youlus' false claims, a contributor paid about $32,000 directly to Youlus' book store to buy the Auschwitz Torah and then donated it to a Manhattan synagogue, which staged a large ceremony to honor the resettlement of the Torah, Ghiozzi said.

He said Youlus sent letters after the ceremony to the contributor, seeking a donation of at least $250,000 to "Save a Torah" on the grounds that Youlus had suffered significant personal debt rescuing items for the charity. At the time, in 2007, Ghiozzi wrote, Youlus' home had been paid off since 1992, and he had nearly $900,000 in savings accounts, checking accounts and other financial instruments that he held jointly with family members and more than $1.1 million held in the name of the Jewish Bookstore.

Youlus was also telling the charity's president that he had borrowed more than $150,000 on his credit cards and against his home at a high interest rate to acquire and repair 15 Torahs that were facing rapid deterioration or destruction, including 10 Torahs from an unspecified Russian general and five from a monastery in Kiev, Ukraine, Ghiozzi said.

The postal inspector said Youlus had complained before of going broke, saying he had borrowed more than $150,000 in 2004 to rescue Torahs that were well over 100 years old in Hungary, Poland and Ukraine when he had more than $150,000 in his personal bank accounts and $652,733 invested in certificates of deposit in the name of the Jewish Bookstore.

Meanwhile, Youlus benefited personally from donations, receiving more than $344,000, the complaint said. He spent $90,000 of that on tuition payments to a private school for his children and a relative's children and more than $200,000 on personal expenses including retail goods, meals and health care, the complaint said.

If convicted of single counts of mail and wire fraud, Youlus could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.

See Chick's Love the Jewish People

Teacher Suspended After Porn Past Revealed

2011-08-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

Sean Loftis, a Florida substitute teacher who starred in gay porn films, under the psudeoname Collin O'Neal, has lost his teaching job after his X-Rated antics came to light.

Loftis, who also found fame as a CNN iReporter, was suspended from his Florida teaching post, after claims that he had violated a regulation requiring faculty members to act in a manner "that will reflect credit upon themselves".

Loftis filed a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), but thus far has failed to get back in the classroom. See Chick's HOME ALONE.

Teacher Suspended for Denouncing Gay Marriage on His Facebook

2011-08-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

A former “Teacher of the Year” in Mount Dora, Fla. has been suspended and could lose his job after he voiced his objection to gay marriage on his personal Facebook page.

Jerry Buell, a veteran American history teacher at Mount Dora High School, was removed from his teaching duties this week as school officials in Lake County investigate allegations that what he posted was biased towards homosexuals.

“We took the allegations seriously,” said Chris Patton, a communication officer with Lake County Schools. “All teachers are bound by a code of special ethics (and) this is a code ethics violation investigation.”

Patton said the school system received a complaint on Tuesday about something Buell had written last July when New York legalized same sex unions. On Wednesday, he was temporarily suspended from the classroom and reassigned.

Patton said Buell has taught in the school system for 22 years and has a spotless record. Last year, he was selected as the high school’s “Teacher of the Year.”

But now his job is on the line because of what some have called anti-gay and homophobic comments.

Buell told Fox News Radio that he was stunned by the accusations. “It was my own personal comment on my own personal time on my own personal computer in my own personal house, exercising what I believed as a social studies teacher to be my First Amendment rights,” he said.

The school system declined to comment on the specific Facebook messages that led to their investigation, but Buell provided Fox News Radio with a copy of the two Facebook messages that he said landed him in trouble.

The first was posted on July 25 at 5:43 p.m. as he was eating dinner and watching the evening news.

“I’m watching the news, eating dinner when the story about New York okaying same-sex unions came on and I almost threw up,” he wrote. “And now they showed two guys kissing after their announcement. If they want to call it a union, go ahead. But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool of whatever. God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable?”

Three minutes later, Buell posted another comment: “By the way, if one doesn’t like the most recently posted opinion based on biblical principles and God’s laws, then go ahead and unfriend me. I’ll miss you like I miss my kidney stone from 1994. And I will never accept it because God will never accept it. Romans chapter one.”

According to the school system, what Buell wrote on his private account was disturbing. They were especially concerned that gay students at the school might be frightened or intimidated walking into his classroom. However, none of his students have complained.

Buell’s attorney accused the school system of violating his First Amendment rights.

“The school district is being anti-straight, anti-First Amendment and anti-personal liberty,” said Horatio Mihet, an attorney with the Liberty Counsel. “The idea that public servants have to whole-heartedly endorse homosexual marriage is repugnant to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Mihet told Fox News Radio.

“All he did was speak out on an issue of national importance and because his comments did not fit a particular mold, he is now being investigated and could possibly lose his job. What have we come to?”

Buell said he does not know the individual or organization (ACLU?) who filed the complaint, but the past week has caused his family “heartache.”

“To try and say you could lose your job over speaking about something in the venue that I did in the manner that I did is not just a knee-jerk reaction,” he said. “It’s a violent reaction to one person making a complaint.”

But Patton said the school system has an obligation to take the comments seriously. He said Buell will not be allowed back in the classroom “until we do all the interviews and do a thorough job of looking at everything – past or previous writings.”

To accomplish that, he said people have been sending the school system screenshots of Buell’s Facebook page.

“Just because you think it’s private, other people are viewing it,” Patton said, noting that the teacher’s Facebook page also contained numerous Bible passages.

Mihet said he was livid.

“These are not fringe ideas that Mr. Buell espoused on his personal Facebook page,” he told Fox News Radio. “They are mainstream textbook opposition to homosexual unions – and now he’s been deemed unfit to teach children because he opposes gay marriage? My goodness.” Buell believes the school system is trying to send a message to Christian teachers.

“There is an intimidation factor if you are a Christian or if you make a statement against it (gay marriage) you are a bigot, a homophobe, you’re a creep, you’re intolerant,” he said. “We should have the right to express our opinions and talk about things.”

But some legal experts believe that school teachers could be held to a different standard when it comes to using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

“It’s a little bit more complicated with a school teacher,” said Brad Jacob, a law professor at Regent University. “The first question you have to ask, did this context communicate that the teacher was speaking on behalf of the government?”

But what about on social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter? “School teachers generally have free speech rights, and the government may not censor the private speech on public school teachers,” he said.

However, if Buell had communicated his opinion on gay marriage in the classroom, Jacob said the teacher would have been on shaky legal ground. “If he communicated those views in the classroom, I think the state could have grounds to punish or fire him,” he said.

Ironically, many public school teachers provide pro-gay comments in the classroom all the time. In fact, the gay lifestyle has been mainstreamed in many of the school textbooks, especially sex education. Parents were never asked about making this change, and their complaints after the fact fell on deaf ears.

Reaction in Central Florida has been mixed, but most seem to support Buell.

Michael Slaymaker, president of the Orlando Youth Alliance, told the newspaper that gay students might feel uncomfortable in Buell’s class.

“I would hope a teacher would be there to help them and not hurt them,” he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people have joined at least two Facebook groups calling for the school system to reinstate the popular teacher. “He’s developed a reputation as being one of the most caring teachers in the school,” Mihet said.

Buell said the most disappointing part of the investigation is that he may not be in his classroom on Monday – the first day of the school year.

“This is the place where you will receive the most respect out of any place you’ll be all day. I love my kids. I take my job very seriously.” See Chick's HOME ALONE.

Obama Honors Gay Illegal's Marriage

2011-08-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration has dropped its deportation case against Alex Benshimol, a 47-year-old Venezuelan man who is married to an American citizen, Doug Gentry.

Though Benshimol and Gentry were legally married in Massachusetts in 2008, the Defense of Marriage Act prevents Gentry from sponsoring Benshimol for a green card. The federal government launched a deportation case against Benshimol after he overstayed his visa.

"The constant fear of exile or separation is over, and for that we're very grateful," the couple said in a statement.
Immigration judge Marilyn Teeter ruled in July that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had 60 days to pursue the deportation or drop it. The judge gave Benshimol a two-year stay on his deportation even if immigration officials decided they wanted to pursue the case, citing a June memo from immigration chief John Morton that said the agency should use "prosecutorial discretion" to focus on deporting criminals.

Immigration officials decided Friday to drop the case.

This is the second time the Obama Administration has used discretion to avoid separating a same-sex married couple, according to Benshimol's lawyer, Lavi Soloway. The first was in June. Soloway said in a statement that he's "cautiously optimistic" about the news that the government will review all 300,000 deportation cases to stop prosecutions against illegal immigrants. The agency said it will try not to separate families, including gay and transgender families. See Chick's SIN CITY.

Less Educated Attend Church Less

2011-08-21T17:39:00.000-07:00

The belief that most people find refuge in religion in
tough times is being contested by a study released
Sunday showing that less-educated Americans are staying
away from the church in large numbers.

The paper says while religious service attendance has
decreased for all white Americans since the early 1970s,
the rate of decline has been more than twice as high for
those without college degrees compared to college
graduates.

The study focuses on whites because attendance rates at
religious services among minority groups such as blacks
and Latinos is less likely to be linked to education and
income.

"Our study suggests that the less educated are dropping
out of the American religious sector, similarly to the
way in which they have dropped out of the American
labour market," said lead researcher W. Bradford Wilcox,
a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia.

Using decades of data from the General Social Survey and
the National Survey of Family Growth, the study found
that whites who have a high school degree but who did
not graduate from a four-year college attended religious
services in the 1970s at about the same rate as those
who graduated from college.

"The least educated have been consistently less
religiously engaged than even the moderately educated,
meaning the gap between the least educated and most
educated is even larger than the one between the
moderately educated and most educated," Wilcox said.

Wilcox views this trend as troubling because religious
institutions typically provide their members with
benefits such as improved physical and psychological
health, social networks, and civic skills that may be
particularly important for the less educated.

"While we recognize that not everyone wishes to worship,
and that religious diversity can be valuable, we also
think that the existence of a large group of less
educated Americans that is increasingly disconnected
from religious institutions is troubling for our
society," said Andrew Cherlin, co-author of the study
and a professor of sociology and public policy at the
Johns Hopkins University. "It reinforces the social
marginalization of less educated Americans who are also
increasingly disconnected from the institutions of
marriage and work."

See Chick's THE GREAT ONE.

Lesbo Country Singer Weds

2011-08-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

Country singer Chely Wright married her gay-activist partner in NYC.

Following a highly public four-month engagement, the openly gay country singer tied the knot today in Connecticut, saying "I do" to GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) activist Lauren Blitzer.

Throughout Friday, the eve of her big day, Chely took to Twitter to thank fans for their support. She also posted a picture of a Scrabble-style rug Lauren's aunt Debbie had made for the couple as a wedding gift. Words spelled out across the fuzzy board include "Connecticut," "authors," "music" and "marriage."

Chely is a Christian vegetarian from Kansas, while Lauren is a Jewish meat eater from New York City.

Obama Allows Amnesty To Illegals Through "Back Door"

2011-08-19T14:15:00.001-07:00

White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Munoz announced a change to the Department of Homeland Security's deportation policy. Going forward, DHS will review deportation cases on a case-by-case basis and focus future deportations only on criminal illegal aliens, allowing non-criminal illegal aliens to stay in the country.

Making matters worse, the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that illegal aliens who receive deferred action or parole from deportation can apply for work permits allowing them to compete with 22 million Americans looking for full-time work. That's 300,000 illegal aliens who could potentially receive work permits!

So, while Pres. Obama spent much of the week on a bus tour promoting a future plan to get unemployed Americans back to work, his Administration was working behind the scenes to help illegal aliens become eligible for jobs in the United States.

With millions of Americans looking for work, and 7 million illegal aliens already holding non-agricultural jobs, Washington needs to find ways to get unemployed Americans back to work, and not find ways to add more competition to the labor market.

See Chick's TINY SHOES.

New Noah's Ark Built

2011-08-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Building has commenced to construct a true-to-live Noah's Ark on 800 acres of
park in northern Kentucky, reports have said.

Spearheaded by Answers in Genesis ministries, a Christian ministry devoted to a
literal telling of the Old Testament, the ark is planned to stand 500 feet long,
80 feet wide and 45 feet tall and will be the centerpiece of a faith-themed,
theme park called Ark Encounter.

Project manager Mike Zovath says the ark and theme park are being built in order
solidify the authority of the Bible.

“The message here is, God’s word is true,” he said. “There’s a lot of doubt:
‘Could Noah have built a boat this big, could he have put all the animals on the
boat?’ Those are questions people all over the country ask.”

Answers in Genesis are also the group behind the Creation Museum, a
controversial public attraction, which goes against the grain of conventional
science museums and presents the Bible as a historical timeline, beginning 6,000
years ago.

Instead of attempting to discredit evolution and promote creationism, the theme
park aims to allow visitors to experience the ark and the time in which it was
constructed.

“When you get to walk through the boat and see how big this thing really was,
and how many cages were there, and how much room there was for food and water
... our hope is people start seeing that this is plausible, that the account
could be believed,” Zovath said.

Among many attractions, the park will feature a replica of the Tower of Babel
and an old world-style village as can be found in the Old Testament.

In May, Ark Encounter LLC announced that they had raised $3 million towards the
construction of the ark and theme park. Donations are still being accepted and
anyone wanting to participate can donate $100 for a peg, $1,000 for a plank, or
$5,000 for a beam toward construction of the ark.

Answers in Genesis projects that the park, estimated to open in April 2014, will
be a great source of revenue for the state of Kentucky, creating 900 jobs and
bringing $119 million into the state over the course of 10 years, according to a
study done by Hunden Strategic Partners. The park is estimated to attract 1.2
million visitors in the first year alone.

However, those opposed to the ark and park believe it is simply a ploy to trick
people into believing in creationism.

“Many think that since creationism is so irrational and so unscientific that
nobody really could believe it, but that’s not so,” said Edwin Kagin, a lawyer
in northern Kentucky who is president of a nationwide atheist group. The new
park will be “so slick and so well done, you can get people to believe in
anything. Creationism, when you’re ready to believe anything.”

See Chick's IN THE BEGINNING.