June 26, 2013
The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that legally married same-sex couples should get the same federal benefits as heterosexual couples.
The court invalidated a provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act that has prevented married gay couples from receiving a range of tax, health and retirement benefits that are generally available to married people. The vote was 5-4.
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion... the rest
The Aggrandizing Court-First Things
Albert Mohler: “Waiting for the Other Shoe”—The Supreme Court Rules on Same-Sex Marriage
Excerpt:
The Court’s majority did not want to pay the political price that a decision as immediately sweeping as Roe v. Wade would have cost. Instead, the majority decided to send a clear signal that such a case will now be well received. It struck down DOMA by employing a logic that, as Scalia noted, cannot stop with the striking down of DOMA. It can only stop with the full legalization of same-sex marriage in all fifty states by judicial fiat.
But wait, for there are more shoes to drop. In his opinion today, remember that Justice Kennedy wrote these crucial words: ”The history of DOMA’s enactment and its own text demonstrate that interference with the equal dignity of same-sex marriages, a dignity conferred by the States in the exercise of their sovereign power, was more than an incidental effect of the federal statute. It was its essence.”
What about laws against polygamy? Was Justice Kennedy even aware of just how sweeping this statement would be? Laws against polygamy were explicitly passed in order to “interfere” with the “equal dignity” of multiple-spousal marriages. Justice Kennedy’s opinion, now the Court’s decision, destroys any legal argument against polygamy.
Scalia: 'High-Handed' Kennedy Has Declared Us 'Enemies of the Human Race'
...But to defend traditional marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other arrangements, any more than to defend the Constitution of the United States is to condemn, demean, or humiliate other constitutions. To hurl such accusations so casually demeans this institution. In the majority's judgment, any resistance to its holding is beyond the pale of reasoned disagreement. To question its high-handed invalidation of a presumptively valid statute is to act (the majority is sure) with the purpose to "disparage," "injure," "degrade," "demean," and "humiliate" our fellow human beings, our fellow citizens, who are homo- sexual. All that, simply for supporting an Act that did no more than codify an aspect of marriage that had been unquestioned in our society for most of its existence— indeed, had been unquestioned in virtually all societies for virtually all of human history. It is one thing for a society to elect change; it is another for a court of law to impose change by adjudging those who oppose it hostes humani generis, enemies of the human race....
Press Statement: Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop welcomes Supreme Court marriage decision Of course...
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Nothing delights Him more...
Comet ISON Approaches
by John Bortle
June 13, 2013Newly discovered comets are always a bit mysterious and confounding in how they develop. That’s especially true for new comets that become active early, promising great things while they’re still far from the Sun. In these cases, predictions of future glory often fall flat.
So what can we expect from Comet ISON (C/2012), now approaching amid great expectations? It will swing close by the Sun at the end of November and climb up the dawn sky in December. Some of the media have been billing ISON as “the comet of the century.” Is there a chance that this won’t be an embarrassment?
The excitement arises from the remarkably close Sun graze that the comet will perform at its perihelion on November 28th. It will fly less than one solar diameter past the Sun’s surface, with the dusty ice of its nucleus broiling violently. Despite the unknowns, past performances by sungrazing and sun-skirting comets allow us to make a reasonable estimate of what’s in store... the rest/image
Bishop Mouneer Anis on the Crisis Facing Egyptian Christians
June 24, 2013
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is this week embarking on his first visit abroad since his enthronement earlier this year. Lambeth Palace says the Anglican official chose the Holy Land because of the region’s importance to global stability.
Welby is “deeply concerned for justice and for the security of all the peoples of the region, and the pressures on its Christian communities,” according to a statement from Lambeth Palace. “In particular he wants to support and honour the work of the President-Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, the Most Revd Mouneer Anis in Cairo; and the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem, the Right Revd Suheil Dawani, with whom he will be staying in Jerusalem and who will accompany him on all his visits.”
This spring I met Bishop Anis in North Carolina at the New Wineskins for Global Mission Conference. Bishop Anis spoke on the difficult situation his fellow Egyptian Christians face, especially in the aftermath of the “Arab Spring” uprising that toppled former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
“It was like the honeymoon,” Anis described of Egyptian Christians and Muslims joining together to protest corruption, low quality of life, high food prices and unemployment. Women and Christians began to participate in political life, and one man openly proclaimed “I am a convert from Islam, I am a Christian, that is my right.” the rest
Scrolling around...June 24, 2013
Woman Writes of Abortion in NYTimes: "He died in a warm and loving place, inside me."
A Seattle politician who was pregnant with twins but had her son aborted because he would suffer in his life from a number of maladies writes of her abortion in The New York Times.
She's arguing against limiting the time a mother can abort her child. I am horrified by what she wrote. Just horrified. I know she believes that what she did she did out of love but I can't begin to fathom the kind of love that says things like this:
...The students attend some of several hundred “classical” schools around the country - institutions designed to reflect the scholarship from the past three millennia of Western civilization, rather than the latest classroom trends.
Classical schools are less concerned about whether students can handle iPads than if they grasp Plato. They generally aim to cultivate wisdom and virtue through teaching students Latin, exposing them to great books of Western civilization and focusing on appreciation of "truth, goodness and beauty." Students are typically held to strict behavioral standards in terms of conduct and politeness, and given examples of characters from history to copy, ranging from the Roman nobleman Cincinnatus to St. Augustine of Hippo.
Parents like them, too; the number of classical schools - public and private - is growing. The curriculum has helped to boost enrollment at religious schools and inspired new public schools...The schools don’t just add a few Latin or Greek classes to a modern curriculum. Classical education methods are a revamp of what it means to be educated. Many modern classical schools divide learning into the trivium of medieval institutions: Grammar, logic and rhetoric....
First Things: Many Studies Link Religious Education to Tolerance
Abortion in Ireland
...Meanwhile, Ireland has maintained one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. It is safer to be an expectant mother in pro-life Ireland than pro-choice America or Britain.
Ireland’s experience contradicts the “legal abortion makes pregnancy safer” logic, which perhaps explains why the pro-abortion movement has had its eyes trained on Ireland for so long. Ireland is an example of a healthcare system where the rights of both the baby and the mother are upheld equally—to the detriment of no one...
Anglican Dean of King’s College wins Ratzinger Prize
The 2013 Ratzinger Prize for Theology will be given to an Anglican minister and to the lay German theology professor who is helping publish the complete works of Joseph Ratzinger-Pope Benedict XVI.
The Rev Richard Burridge, an Anglican professor of New Testament studies at King’s College, London, is the first non-Catholic to receive the prize. The other winner, Christian Schaller, is vice director of the Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany, which is publishing critical editions of the pope’s writings...
Planned Parenthood sues to block Kansas law telling mothers baby is ‘separate, unique, living human’ An abortionist and his local Planned Parenthood affiliate sued in federal court Thursday to stop a law that would tell women considering abortion that an unborn child is not a part of her own body and that unborn children can feel pain by the third trimester of pregnancy...
NYTimes works mightly to support the struggling Dr. Schori
One secular newspaper's "provocative" is an orthodox Christian's "preposterous"
Staten Island Sandy Victims Charged for Unused Water
Staten Island residents whose homes were damaged by Sandy say the city is charging them hundreds of dollars for water they haven't used since the storm...
IRS Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds to 23,994 ‘Unauthorized’ Aliens at Atlanta Address The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to “unauthorized” alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)...
Yes, IRS harassment blunted the Tea Party ground game
...The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 - 8.5 million votes compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million...
Did the IRS Win the Election for Obama?
PA: Muslim man allegedly threatened to kill his mom because she served him pork
Loophole in Gang of 8 bill gives Napolitano wide discretion to allow almost anyone to stay in U.S. One of the things I learned from Obamacare was that each section of the law could take many hours to understand because of cross-references to other sections and other laws. Amendments make the problem even greater.
Put that problem into a 1000+ page bill, and it is almost impossible to uncover all the mischief — intentional and unintentional — buried in the language, something we are learning after the fact with Obamacare.
The rush to pass the Gang of 8 1000+ page bill is another example. As if that weren’t bad enough to start, Sen. Bob Corker last night unveiled his 1190-page amendment, and Harry Reid is rushing the first test vote to Monday. We have seen this movie before.
There is one provision which has not received a lot of press...
A Seattle politician who was pregnant with twins but had her son aborted because he would suffer in his life from a number of maladies writes of her abortion in The New York Times.
She's arguing against limiting the time a mother can abort her child. I am horrified by what she wrote. Just horrified. I know she believes that what she did she did out of love but I can't begin to fathom the kind of love that says things like this:
I felt my son’s budding life end as a doctor inserted a needle through my belly into his tiny heart. She had trouble finding it because of its abnormal position. As horrible as that moment was — it will live with me forever — I am grateful. We made sure our son was not born only to suffer. He died in a warm and loving place, inside me.Julia Duin: Classical schools put Plato over iPad
...The students attend some of several hundred “classical” schools around the country - institutions designed to reflect the scholarship from the past three millennia of Western civilization, rather than the latest classroom trends.
Classical schools are less concerned about whether students can handle iPads than if they grasp Plato. They generally aim to cultivate wisdom and virtue through teaching students Latin, exposing them to great books of Western civilization and focusing on appreciation of "truth, goodness and beauty." Students are typically held to strict behavioral standards in terms of conduct and politeness, and given examples of characters from history to copy, ranging from the Roman nobleman Cincinnatus to St. Augustine of Hippo.
Parents like them, too; the number of classical schools - public and private - is growing. The curriculum has helped to boost enrollment at religious schools and inspired new public schools...The schools don’t just add a few Latin or Greek classes to a modern curriculum. Classical education methods are a revamp of what it means to be educated. Many modern classical schools divide learning into the trivium of medieval institutions: Grammar, logic and rhetoric....
First Things: Many Studies Link Religious Education to Tolerance
Abortion in Ireland
...Meanwhile, Ireland has maintained one of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world. It is safer to be an expectant mother in pro-life Ireland than pro-choice America or Britain.
Ireland’s experience contradicts the “legal abortion makes pregnancy safer” logic, which perhaps explains why the pro-abortion movement has had its eyes trained on Ireland for so long. Ireland is an example of a healthcare system where the rights of both the baby and the mother are upheld equally—to the detriment of no one...
Anglican Dean of King’s College wins Ratzinger Prize
The 2013 Ratzinger Prize for Theology will be given to an Anglican minister and to the lay German theology professor who is helping publish the complete works of Joseph Ratzinger-Pope Benedict XVI.
The Rev Richard Burridge, an Anglican professor of New Testament studies at King’s College, London, is the first non-Catholic to receive the prize. The other winner, Christian Schaller, is vice director of the Benedict XVI Institute in Regensburg, Germany, which is publishing critical editions of the pope’s writings...
Planned Parenthood sues to block Kansas law telling mothers baby is ‘separate, unique, living human’ An abortionist and his local Planned Parenthood affiliate sued in federal court Thursday to stop a law that would tell women considering abortion that an unborn child is not a part of her own body and that unborn children can feel pain by the third trimester of pregnancy...
NYTimes works mightly to support the struggling Dr. Schori
One secular newspaper's "provocative" is an orthodox Christian's "preposterous"
Staten Island Sandy Victims Charged for Unused Water
Staten Island residents whose homes were damaged by Sandy say the city is charging them hundreds of dollars for water they haven't used since the storm...
IRS Sent $46,378,040 in Refunds to 23,994 ‘Unauthorized’ Aliens at Atlanta Address The Internal Revenue Service sent 23,994 tax refunds worth a combined $46,378,040 to “unauthorized” alien workers who all used the same address in Atlanta, Ga., in 2011, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA)...
Yes, IRS harassment blunted the Tea Party ground game
...The bottom line is that the Tea Party movement, when properly activated, can generate a huge number of votes-more votes in 2010, in fact, than the vote advantage Obama held over Romney in 2012. The data show that had the Tea Party groups continued to grow at the pace seen in 2009 and 2010, and had their effect on the 2012 vote been similar to that seen in 2010, they would have brought the Republican Party as many as 5 - 8.5 million votes compared to Obama's victory margin of 5 million...
Did the IRS Win the Election for Obama?
PA: Muslim man allegedly threatened to kill his mom because she served him pork
Loophole in Gang of 8 bill gives Napolitano wide discretion to allow almost anyone to stay in U.S. One of the things I learned from Obamacare was that each section of the law could take many hours to understand because of cross-references to other sections and other laws. Amendments make the problem even greater.
Put that problem into a 1000+ page bill, and it is almost impossible to uncover all the mischief — intentional and unintentional — buried in the language, something we are learning after the fact with Obamacare.
The rush to pass the Gang of 8 1000+ page bill is another example. As if that weren’t bad enough to start, Sen. Bob Corker last night unveiled his 1190-page amendment, and Harry Reid is rushing the first test vote to Monday. We have seen this movie before.
There is one provision which has not received a lot of press...
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Anglican Unscripted Episode 75
Jun 23, 2013
Anglican Unscripted is the only videos news program of the Anglican Communion.
This week your hosts discuss last weeks ACNA Provincial Counsel meeting at Nashotah House. Specifically, Kevin and George discuss Archbishop Duncan's 'State of the Church' address and breaking news about his secret meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
AS Haley brings the latest legal news regarding Virginia, Quincy, South Carolina, and California. Virginia suffered a horrible court decision recently, but other dioceses seem to be resilient to the legal money and stalling tactics of the Episcopal Church.
Last week the Archbishop of Canterbury went to Rome allowing Kevin and George an opportunity to contrast the newest leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. How have they been treated by the press? How are they like and unlike there predecessors? What does an Italian from Venezuela and a Brit from London discuss?
AU75 Index
00:00:01 ACNA Four Years In
00:12:07 Legal Updates
00:21:45 ABC News
00:32:03 Conscience? Leave at Door
00:37:26 Spring of Death
00:42:45 Closing
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Nothing but fire kindles fire...
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