|
Tuesday, November 25, 2003 |
|
gay legal pad
WEBLOG: http://homepage.mac.com/duanewilliams/GLP/index.html
I have revived my old "gay legal pad" newsletter as a weblog. See the links above. The original purpose of "gay legal pad" was to highlight the activities in Congress that were of interest to the GLBT community; that will also be the aim of the new weblog. |
|
|
Tuesday, October 7, 2003 |
|
Southern Baptists Violate Their Own Principles The Southern Baptist Convention adopted the following statement in 1999 as part of its official position on religious liberty: "The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends."
One might reasonably wonder how resorting to politics and participating in a political campaign to prohibit same-sex marriage by means of a Constitutional amendment is consistent with that statement in the "Baptist Faith & Message". I don't think amending the U.S. Constitution counts as a "spiritual means". |
|
|
Sunday, October 5, 2003 |
|
My New iBlog Weblog My new iBlog weblog is located at http://homepage.mac.com/duanewilliams/iblog/.
You can subscribe to the xml/rss news feed using the URL http://homepage.mac.com/duanewilliams/iblog/rss.xml |
|
|
Saturday, October 4, 2003 |
|
Religious Groups Opposing Same-Sex Marriage The Associated Press reported that "The Christian Coalition, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Eagle Forum are among more than two-dozen organizations campaigning for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in the United States." They intend to supply literature about same-sex marriage to over 70,000 churches and to make this a major issue in the up-coming presidential election. The rhetoric these groups use shows how extremist, and irrational, they are. Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women for America, told the AP "This is the very underpinning of civilization. If we remove those foundations, our entire civilization will come crumbling down." I guess she expects to see civilization crumbling in Canada, since same-sex marriages are now legal there. Does any sane person really believe that? The Federal Marriage Amendment is designed not only to outlaw gay marriages, but also to prohibit the recognition of any civil rights for same-sex or unmarried heterosexual couples, including civil unions or domestic partnerships. It is a broad attack on fair and equal treatment of gay people. It is also, in a real sense, anti-family and anti-marriage. The same groups that are pressing the marriage amendment worry about the rising divorce rate and the increasing number of people who are choosing never to get married. But if they were really concerned about the loss of respect for marriage as an institution, they should welcome the fact that same-sex couples want to join the ranks of the married. Increasing the number of people who are allowed to be married would increase the size of the population that has a stake in the institution; and that would be good for marriage as an institution. The groups that are pressing the marriage amendment also say they are concerned about protecting families. But if that were really true, they should welcome same-sex marriages. Same-sex couples are raising children in increasing numbers. Allowing same-sex marriage would greatly increase the security of those families and of the children that are part of them. It is obvious that the extremist groups, like the Southern Baptist Convention, that are pressing for the Federal Marriage Amendment are not really concerned about marriage or the security of families in general. They are only concerned with pushing a narrow-minded view of how people should live and with trying to force their view on everyone else. They have very little respect for individual rights.
The Southern Baptist Convention used to be basically a support organization for the large number of loosely connected, but independent, Southern Baptist churches. Now the Southern Baptist Convention has been taken over by people who are using it to further a radically conservative political agenda--one that is not good for the country. Moderate Southern Baptists should oppose it. |
|
|
Tuesday, August 26, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 277 US, 43 British
Reuters reported that "U.S. Central Command said a U.S. soldier was killed on Tuesday in an attack with an improvised bomb on a military convoy near the town of Hamariyah." See: Postwar U.S. Iraq Deaths Exceed Toll During War |
|
|
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 261 US, 43 British, 14 Journalists, 1 US Civilian Contractor The Associated Press reported that "A U.S. soldier was killed and another was wounded when their convoy hit a roadside bomb 15 miles south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday." Also, "A U.S. soldier was killed while riding in a Humvee in Ramadi Tuesday, a site of frequent attacks on American troops 60 miles west of Baghdad. A U.S. military spokesman said the convoy was hit by three roadside bombs wired to explode in succession. Two other soldiers were wounded. " Also, "Another American soldier was found dead in his bunk Tuesday morning at a base in Ramadi. In Mosul, in the far north of the country, the U.S. military reported a soldier died when his Humvee collided with a taxi." See: Roadside bomb kills U.S. soldier in Iraq
9:30:22 AM  comment [] |
|
|
Friday, August 8, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 257 US, 43 British, 14 Journalists, 1 US Civilian Contractor
Reuters reported that "A U.S. soldier died after suffering a gunshot wound while on guard duty in Baghdad." |
|
Official Death Count: 256 US, 43 British
The Associated Press reported that "As of Thursday, Aug. 7, 256 U.S. soldiers have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, according to the military. The British government has reported 43 deaths." |
|
|
Tuesday, August 5, 2003 |
|
Episcopal Church Ratifies Gay Bishop The New York Times reports that "the Episcopal Church approved the election of its first openly gay bishop" by an affirmative vote of 62 of 107 diocesan bishops. This historic event was accompanied by predictions of opponents that it will split the church. Similar dire predictions were made at the time of the ratification of the first woman bishop. "I remember well the dire predictions made at the time of my election consent process," Barbara Harris said. "The communion, such as it is, a loose federation of autonomous provinces, has held." Opponents tried to derail the ratification at the last minute by attempting to connect Bishop-elect Robinson with a web site that had a link to a site with a link to a site ... with a link to a porn site. But Robinson was in no way involved with any of the web sites.
With this election of a gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain the argument that being a non-celebate gay man is sinful. It is increasingly more difficult to maintain that the Bible is unequivocal about the sinfulness of homosexual sex when yet another major Christian church doesn't see it that way. |
|
Death Count: 247 US, 38 British, 14 Journalists, 1 US Civilian Contractor The Associated Press reported that "An American civilian contractor was killed Tuesday when a remote-control bomb exploded under the truck he was driving north of Tikrit." See: U.S. civilian contractor killed in Iraq
Also, "Two 1st Armored Division soldiers were killed Wednesday evening in a small arms firefight in Baghdad. One soldier died at the scene; the other died later from wounds received." See A Look at U.S. Daily Casualties in Iraq |
|
|
Saturday, August 2, 2003 |
|
Vatican Wants the Government to Promote Religion It is insane that Christianity in the Third Millennium is still obsessed with sex as if it were the worst problem of mankind and the greatest of evils--so great that the Church feels the need to try to control it in considerable detail. The Vatican has lately published a document on same-sex marriage: "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons." The motive of this paper is to persuade governments to not legalize same-sex marriage. It is ironic that the long time defenders of pedophiles think they have the moral authority to tell the rest of us what is right and wrong about sexuality and family life. The introduction states that "the arguments that follow are addressed not only to those who believe in Christ, but to all persons committed to promoting and defending the common good of society." Thus, this document pretends to give reasons and arguments that appeal to both Christians and non-Christians alike, but it does no such thing. In every case its reasons beg the question at issue and its arguments are blatantly circular. Section I discusses the nature of marriage, according to the Church. It states "No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman." If this were true, why don't we all believe it? It is not the certainty to pure reason that the Church pretends it to be. Moreover, it has not always been a certainty in the Church. Otherwise, how could the historian John Boswell have discovered Catholic and Orthodox liturgies for same-sex unions dating from medieval Europe? [see Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe, New York: Villard Books, 1994] In the United States, it is a violation of the Constitutional principle of separation of church and state for the government to adopt religious arguments or use religious motives as the basis for law. It is also illegitimate for the government to disguise religious motives under the rubric of morality. There is no secular reason to withhold civil marriage from same-sex couples who wish to marry.
The Church would have the government of the United States promote and defend the Church's religious conception of marriage "as an institution essential to the common good." What the Church views as "the common good" includes people's "perception and evaluation of forms of behavior"--in other words, people's beliefs, in the present instant, about homosexuality. The Church is afraid that legalizing same-sex marriage will "obscure certain basic moral values." What it means by "basic moral values," of course, is the Catholic religious teachings about homosexuality. What the Church wants the government of the United States, and other governments, to do is to help promote Catholic teachings, something that is illegitimate for a secular government to do. |
|
|
Tuesday, July 29, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 245 US, 38 British, 14 Journalists The Associated Press reported that "In downtown Baghdad, one U.S. soldier was killed and three were injured Monday when an attacker dropped a grenade from an overpass onto a convoy." Also, "In a separate incident, a U.S. soldier was killed in a vehicle accident near the southern city of Nasiriyah. Another soldier was injured in the accident." See: Two more U.S. soldiers die in Iraq The New York Times reported that "An explosion today [Thursday] on a road near the Baghdad airport and a shooting attack 50 miles northeast of the capital late Wednesday killed two American soldiers and wounded five." See: 2 G.I.'s Killed and 5 Wounded After Lull in Iraq Attacks
The Associated Press reported that "a U.S. soldier was killed and three were wounded Friday in a rocket-propelled grenade attack on their convoy east of Baghdad." See: Soldiers attacked as Saddam's sons buried |
|
|
Thursday, July 24, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 240 US, 38 British, 14 Journalists Reuters reported that "Three U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division operating in northern Iraq were killed in a rifle and grenade attack Thursday." See: U.S. Soldiers Killed in Area where Saddam Sons Died On Saturday, Reuters reported that "Three U.S. soldiers were killed while guarding a children's hospital near Baghdad...four other soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were wounded in the grenade attack in Baquba." See: Three U.S. Troops Killed at Iraq Children's Hospital
The New York Times reported that "Another American soldier was killed this afternoon [Saturday] and two others were wounded in an attack on an Army convoy in Abu Ghraib, just west of Baghdad." "[E]arly Sunday, a soldier from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in a grenade attack." See: 5 G.I.'s Killed in Iraq in 24 Hours |
|
|
Wednesday, July 23, 2003 |
|
ACLU Uses Lawrence vs Texas to Bolster Its Case Against Florida Adoption Ban The ACLU has filed a supplemental brief to support its argument that Florida's ban on gay adoption is unconstitutional. The brief argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence vs Texas completely undermines Florida's arguments for banning gay adoption because those arguments are based on nothing more than moral disapproval of gay people, which the Supreme Court has said cannot be the sole basis for such a law. Further, the ACLU argues that laws that discriminate against gay people are now subject to heightened scrutiny. If the ACLU is right about this, states will henceforth have a very hard time justifying laws that discriminate against gay people.
The ACLU supplemental brief is well worth reading, and it's not very long. It can be downloaded from the ACLU web site at APPELLANTS SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF |
|
Death Count: 232 US, 38 British, 14 Journalists
Reuters reported that "one soldier was killed and seven wounded when two vehicles hit a mine near the northern town of Mosul." "In a separate ambush, another soldier was killed and two wounded when their convoy was attacked near the restive town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad." See: Two U.S. Soldiers Killed After Death of Saddam Sons |
|
Incompetent Aide Said Responsible for State of the Union The Bush administration couldn't get the public to swallow the story that George Tenet was to blame for the lies in the President's State of the Union Address. So now they are trying to get us to believe it was all the fault of Stephen Hadley, deputy national security adviser. According to this new story, Tenet made Hadley remove the statement about Saddam seeking uranium from Africa from a presidential speech in early October. The controversy about that statement was explained to Hadley in two memos and a phone call. But when it came time for Hadley to work on the State of the Union Address, just 3 months later, he had completely forgotten about the controversy! Even more remarkable, White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Bush retained confidence in Hadley. How can he have confidence in someone with such poor short term memory! Unless, of course, Hadley doesn't really have any memory problems at all, and this entire story was just made up to keep Bush from having to admit that he is responsible for what he says.
Do they really expect us to believe that the State of the Union Address was written by a lackey whose memory of his own actions doesn't extend beyond 3 months, and that no one else checked what he wrote before the president read it before congress? |
|
|
Tuesday, July 22, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 230 US, 38 British, 14 Journalists Reuters reported that "A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded Tuesday when their convoy was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire northwest of Baghdad." See: American Soldier Killed in Latest Attack in Iraq
The Associated Press reported that "A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded Tuesday in an ambush along a dangerous road north of Baghdad in the ``Sunni Triangle." See: Ambush Kills U.S. Soldier Near Baghdad |
|
|
Sunday, July 20, 2003 |
|
Death Count: 228 US, 38 British, 14 Journalists
The Associated Press reported that "Two soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division were killed and another wounded early Sunday when their convoy came under rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire in northern Iraq." See: Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Northern Iraq |
Last update: 11/25/03; 5:43:05 AM .
