The individual mandate requring citizens to purchase something was challenged from the beginning in state and appellate courts, and opening argument were just heard before the US Supreme Court. The HHS mandate requiring citizens to purchase something that violates their conscience is being challenged in a first round of lawsuits with more joining by the week.
One of the new games in town during last week’s Supreme Court hearing of arguments on Obamacare has been handicapping the justices likely ruling on this case, when one comes.
But ‘the best defense is a good offense’ strategy returns as the president takes a shot at the Supreme Court, actually using the term “judicial activism” as a warning.
And President Obama is pressing the ‘activist court’ charge.
There is already too much hyperbolic coverage of the very sad case of a shooting that ended the life of a teenager in Florida, and dangerously escalating reaction to it, without restraint or recourse to facts.
So I’ve stayed out of the fray, hoping truth and goodness prevail, naive as that may sound. But there are a couple of articles that particularly caught my attention, both of them disturbing. Yes, it’s all disturbing. But these stood out.
This one shows the carnival like atmosphere that has sprung up around a human tragedy.
From the T-shirt and hoodie sales to trademarking slogans like “Justice for Trayvon” to the pass-the-hat rallies that bring in thousands, the case of an unarmed black teenager killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer is quickly turning into an Internet-fueled brand.
On the morning of the religious freedom rallies across America last Friday, organizer Eric Scheidler was questioned by a network television news anchor about the goal of the event. “Since the administraiton already provided an ‘accommodation’ for religious objection” said the newsman, ”are you looking for another accommodation?” It was a fundamentally flawed premise, widely held by major media still.
One of the more revealing aspects of the mandate’s mass marketing has been how startling it is to so many people when they hear that there was no accommodation. Let’s clarify.
Kathryn Lopez takes it on directly at NRO’s Corner.
Can we all get one fact straight? As the president was announcing an “accommodation” in a press conference with Kathleen Sebelius on February 10 concerning the HHS contraceptive mandate, a rule was filed in the Federal Register that was unchanged (the word “unchanged” even appears four times in the final…
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Organizers hope it was only the beginning. They are indeed resourceful.
Take Chicago, for example, where a long summer-like streak ended that morning with a heavy downpour and chilly temperatures and adverse conditions. The crowd swelled to about 2,500 anyway. The sound system went out moments before the noon start time. The message was amplified anyway.
Trouble is, it had to be amplified by bullhorn. And I was the first speaker. I detested having to shout into a bullhorn mouthpiece so the crowd could hear. But was slightly horrified to hear the back of the crowd calling ‘louder, we can’t hear,’ having to crank it up to a higher pitch and force every word as loudly as possible. That’s not the way to deliver a message, in my book.
The Nationwide Rally for Religious Freedom is being held Friday, March 23 at noon, local time, outside federal buildings, Congressional offices and historic sites across the country. The theme for the Rally is “Stand Up for Religious Freedom—Stop the HHS Mandate!”
Thousands of Americans of all faiths will be participating in these peaceful rallies, organized by the Pro-Life Action League and Citizens for a Pro-Life Society to oppose the new mandate from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that requires all employers provide free contraceptives, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs through their health plans, even in violation of their consciences.
Challenging the establishment is as old as history. Sometimes going out directly to the public is the avenue needed to have one’s voice truly heard. The collapse of the former Soviet Union was sparked by the Polish human-rights activist Lech Walesa who stood up in a shipyard and spoke. With the support of a handful of political and religious leaders, the Communist State eventually crumbled.
When leaders and governments fail to address justice, people mobilize. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” wrote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Is “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs” just the beginning of a movement for those within the financial industry to speak up directly to the public, about “There Were Once…
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Morten Wetland made an extremely strong statement condemning any religion, morality or tradition that stands in the way of the human rights of women.
For Norway, this essentially means that any group that does not consider abortion (or “sexual and reproductive rights”) to be a human right, is getting in the way of the human rights of women.
Hold on. Human rights cover human beings. One gender doesn’t trump another. And human beings young enough to be pre-born are not only not covered at all (sorry for the double negative, but it is), they’re actually the casualty, the collateral damage, of this trumped up “reproductive right” at the core of “the human rights of women.” As oddly dehumanized as all this sounds.
Late last Friday when many Americans and certainly church leaders and were preparing for St. Patrick’s Day ceremonies and the fourth Sunday of Lent, the White House dropped a surprise announcement. As if no one would notice.
Itt said, essentially, the president has doubled-down on his already controversial HHS mandate. Instead of broadening the so-called exemption for religious institutions and individuals with moral objections, he broadened the demand for compliance with the mandate.
In a move that is likely to reignite the ire of religious leaders, late Friday afternoon the Obama administration announced a proposal that would require universities, including religious universities, to provide contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs to their students, as well as their employees, without a co-pay. This appears to significantly widen the originally-announced HHS mandate, which had only applied to employees.
Since the administration keeps insisting it made an “exemption” or “accommodation” for religious objection to the Obama contraceptive mandate, let’s take a closer look at what exactly that is.
In the words of Adma Uddin, a Becket Fund for Religious Liberty attorney who specializes in domestic and international religious liberty cases. In her testimony before a House Judiciary Committee, which walked legislators clearly through a well-reasoned argument. A snip:
Many religious individuals and organizations that have conscientious objections to abortion object to the use of Plan B and ella because they believe, and scientific evidence supports their belief, that these drugs constitute abortifacents. That is, Plan B and ella can prevent a human embryo, which these religious groups understand to include a fertilized egg before it implants in the uterus, from implanting in the wall of the uterus thereby causing teh death of the embryo.
How oddly sci-fi that perceived connection has become.
There’s both science and fiction in the rendering of HHS policy by the Obama administration and its complicit media allies.
The ‘where are the women?‘ cry that resounded when a House oversight committee heard testimony from the first panel, which happened to cover religious leaders of various professions, was one dramatic moment. Fortunately, it’s been answered.
Then there’s the fact that the Obama adminstration and HHS Secretary Sebelius mandated the particular contraceptive drugs and sterilization procedures they did in the first place. Let’s take a look at that.
This column by Jenn Giroux is loaded with facts and resources, refuting pop culture notions that evolved into widely accepted truth without anyone ever proving or being asked to prove that they’re true.
A thought experiment about marriage
24 May 2012
A world in which sexual intimacy could not produce children would never have come up with the idea of marriage.
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4:37:37 PM
The individual mandate requring citizens to purchase something was challenged from the beginning in state and appellate courts, and opening argument were just heard before the US Supreme Court. The HHS mandate requiring citizens to purchase something that violates their conscience is being challenged in a first round of lawsuits with more joining by the week.
There is already too much hyperbolic coverage of the very sad case of a shooting that ended the life of a teenager in Florida, and dangerously escalating reaction to it, without restraint or recourse to facts.
They launched big, in 140 cities, coast to coast.
Friday at noon, in many major cities throughout the country, coast to coast.
How about a movement of moral reform?
As declared, or addressed, by the 56th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Late last Friday when many Americans and certainly church leaders and were preparing for St. Patrick’s Day ceremonies and the fourth Sunday of Lent, the White House dropped a surprise announcement. As if no one would notice.
Since the administration keeps insisting it made an “exemption” or “accommodation” for religious objection to the Obama contraceptive mandate, let’s take a closer look at what exactly that is.
How oddly sci-fi that perceived connection has become.