Showing posts with label Eric W. Dolan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eric W. Dolan. Show all posts

An atheist student in Oklahoma has faced a backlash after contacting the Freedom From Religion Foundation about Ten Commandments displays posted in his high school’s classrooms.


Gage Pulliam of Muldrow told Patheos on Saturday that he wanted to remain anonymous, but decided to reveal his identity after other students were blamed for alerting the organization. He said his younger sister had faced verbal harassment over the issue and some students had threatened violence against him.


“I want people to know this isn’t me trying to attack religion,” he explained. “This is me trying to create an environment for kids where they can feel equal.”


After contacting the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the organization send a letter to Muldrow High School administrators warning that religious displays in public schools violated the U.S. Constitution.


“If the facts are as presented to us, and the Ten Commandments are on display throughout Muldrow Public Schools, the displays must be removed immediately,” FFRF attorney Patrick Elliott said.


A number of students responded by organizing a petition in favor of the Ten Commandments displays. As many as 250 students signed the petition.


“It’s a pretty big deal,” student Chase Howard told television station KHOG. “One person kind of put it out there on Twitter. A couple of us hash tagged it and asked people to get it trending. After that it just caught on.”


The Muldrow First Assembly of God also stepped into the controversy, offering free Ten Commandment T-shirts to any student.


The school board plans to address the complaint on Monday. Muldrow First Assembly of God senior pastor Shawn Money said he expects hundreds of Christians to show up.


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[Gage Pulliam photo via Facebook]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/12/oklahoma-high-school-student-seeks-removal-of-ten-commandment-displays/
10:35

Fox News host Jeanine Pirro attacked the video game industry and privacy rights while defending the Second Amendment at the 2013 NRA Annual Meetings in Texas on Friday.


She began her speech by claiming that terrorists like the Boston bombing suspects had more rights in the United States than law-abiding citizens. Pirro blasted Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick for not releasing confidential tax and financial information about the bombing suspects, claiming it was contrary to the “fundamental values of our founding fathers.”


“Privacy? What privacy?” she remarked. “It was our hard earned money.”


Pirro recalled that she had been included in a controversial database of gun owners published by a New York newspaper in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings.


“How dare you compare me to a nutjob on the lunatic fringe in desperate need of medication doing nothing but watching Hollywood’s blood-soaked movies and playing the liberal Hollywood’s violent video games for days at a time,” she said.


Pirro told the NRA members that disarming lawful gun owners would not reduce crime or violence.


“It’s not the legal gun owners you have to worry about. It’s the illegal gun owners that are killing us,” she remarked to loud applause.


Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below:





via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/05/fox-news-host-blames-mass-shootings-on-liberal-hollywoods-violent-video-games/
10:08

A cartoon depicting Texas Gov. Rick Perry touting his state’s economy whilst a fertilizer plant besides him explodes has unsurprisingly stirred up controversy.


The cartoon by Jack Ohman, which appeared in The Sacramento Bee on Thursday, added fuel to the already fierce rivalry between California and Texas. Supporters of the cartoon described it as gutsy and poignant, while detractors considered it tasteless and disrespectful. Perry, his Lt. Gov David Dewhurst, and a legion on angry Internet commenters were in the latter camp.


“While I will always welcome healthy policy debate, I won’t stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans,” Perry wrote Friday in a letter to the newspaper. “Additionally, publishing this on the very day our state and nation paused to honor and mourn those who died only compounds the pain and suffering of the many Texans who lost family and friends in this disaster. The Bee owes the community of West, Texas an immediate apology for your detestable attempt at satire.”


Dewhurst has called for Ohman to be fired, saying his cartoon mocked the victims of the West fertilizer plant explosion.


But the California newspaper appears to have no plans to apologize or fire their cartoonist.


Stuart Leavenworth, the editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee, said the cartoon illustrated Perry’s “disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas as a place where industries can thrive with few regulations.”


Earlier this year, California Gov. Jerry Brown chided Texas for having a high percentage of workers earning minimum wage. Perry responded about a month later by running radio ads in California that encouraged business owners to move to his state. Perry claimed building a business in California was “next to impossible” because of regulations and taxes — regulations and taxes that his state lacked.


“I’m defending this one because I think that when you have a politician traveling across the country selling a state with low regulatory capacity, that politician also has to be accountable for what happens when that lack of regulation proves to be fatal,” Ohman explained Thursday.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/28/gov-rick-perry-disgusted-by-cartoon-mocking-lack-of-regulations-in-texas/
09:06

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on Friday reiterated that the “culture of life” often cited by Republican politicians included gun control.


In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Bishop Stephen E. Blaire expressed his disappointment that legislation to expand criminal background checks on gun purchases was killed by a filibuster.


“The USCCB has been working with other faith leaders and organizations urging Congress to support legislation that builds a culture of life by promoting policies that reduce gun violence and save people’s lives in homes and communities throughout our nation,” he said. “In the wake of tragic events such as the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, the failure to support even modest regulations on firearms is a failure in moral leadership to promote policies which protect and defend the common good.”


Last week, the Senate voted 54-46 in favor of a bipartisan amendment to a larger gun bill that would require background checks on firearm sales at gun shows and on the Internet. The Senate failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster.


Blaire praised the senators who “demonstrated the virtues of courage and leadership” by voting for the amendment and said the Church would continue to “support legislation that promotes a culture of life by reducing gun violence.”


Though the “culture of life” is a term often used by opponents of abortion, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has frequently used the phrase when calling for stricter gun laws. The Conference, which represents all Catholic bishops in the United States, has been calling for stricter gun laws since 2000, including a complete ban on handguns.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/21/catholic-bishops-background-check-vote-shows-a-failure-in-moral-leadership/
09:20

The American Civil Liberties Union has warned a southwest Kansas school district against holding mandatory student assemblies that feature a creationist group.


“Teaching or otherwise promoting creationism is, simply put, unlawful,” the ACLU wrote in a letter to Hugoton Public Schools superintendent Mark Crawford on Friday. “As the District is surely aware, the federal courts have been unequivocally clear that efforts to inject religious beliefs regarding the origin of life into public school science curricula are constitutionally impermissible, no matter what form they take.”


Hugoton Public Schools invited Creation Truth Foundation’s founder Dr. G. Thomas Sharp to teach the “Truth about Dinosaurs” at two assemblies next week. At least one of the assemblies will be mandatory for all students and teachers.


The group has created teaching materials “explaining the origins, extinction and possible existence of dinosaurs” from a Biblical view and believes the dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex walked the Earth as early as 100,000 years ago rather more than 65 million years ago. In a lecture uploaded to YouTube last year, Sharp criticized scientists for ignoring the great flood of the Bible.


“We respectfully request the District take immediate and concrete steps to remedy these problem,” the ACLU concluded. “The first step would be to cancel the planned mandatory school assemblies now set for next week.”


However, superintendent Crawford has said he will not call off the assemblies. He told The Kansas City Star the assemblies will not promote creationism, despite the beliefs and mission of the Creation Truth Foundation.


“I agree with the ACLU, in that, if a mandatory all-school assembly where creationist truths or creationist beliefs were expressed, that would be inappropriate public-school content, and that is not the case,” Crawford said. “It’s completely and totally school appropriate.”


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[Tyrannosaurus rex fossil via Shutterstock]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/21/aclu-to-kansas-school-district-cancel-creationist-assemblies-about-dinosaurs/
08:20

Saturday Night Live this weekend mocked the unwillingness of lawmakers to seriously address gun laws following the tragic elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.


The skit began with President Barack Obama hailing the Senate for agreeing to consider debate on a gun control bill.


“Good evening my fellow Americans,” he remarked. “As you know, over the past few months I have made gun control legislation a top priority for my administration, which is why I am so excited to announce that this week the Senate voted 68-31 to begin debating the idea of discussing gun control. Let me say that again, they’ve agreed to think about talking about gun control. Amazing.”


Obama then introduced Sens. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), who recently drafted legislation regarding background checks. The two men timidly explained their bipartisan agreement would require those purchasing a handgun from a private dealer to be asked, “Are you a good person?”


Toomey and Manchin have also proposed limiting the amount of guns an individual could legally fire at the same time to two, but admitted those caught firing three guns at once would be punished by receiving a fourth gun. The punishment was a “compromise thing.”


Toomey and Manchin disclosed that none of the gun restrictions would apply to the state of Florida, which was mysteriously exempted despite the senators wishes.


“Look. Is this bill what we wanted? No. Is it what the NRA wanted? No. But does it at least help in some small way?” Manchin wondered, before both men admitted the answer was no.


“So, in summary, you’re welcome,” Toomey concluded.


Watch video, courtesy of NBC, below:





via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/14/saturday-night-live-mocks-congressional-cowardice-on-gun-laws/
08:50

A Florida police sergeant was fired for offering Trayvon Martin shooting targets to his colleagues, authorities said Saturday.


Sgt. Ron King of Port Canaveral Police Department was fired Friday after two officer allegedly refused to use the targets for firearm training. One of those officers filed a complaint against him, which prompted an internal review.


In a response posted to YouTube late Saturday, King denied the accusations against him. King said the allegation that he offered the targets to others to shoot at was a “complete fabrication.”


The politically-charged shooting targets were meant “to use a bad situation as a learning tool,” he claimed.


Seventeen-year-old Martin was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman in February 2012. Zimmerman said he shot the unarmed teen in self-defense.


Following the incident, shooting targets designed to resemble Martin began appearing on the Internet. The black targets show a figure wearing a hoodie with skittles in his pocket and crosshairs over his chest.


“It is absolutely reprehensible that a high-ranking member of the Port Canaveral Police, sworn to protect and serve Floridians, would use the image of a dead child as target practice,” Martin family attorney Ben Crump said in a statement. “Such a deliberate and depraved indifference to this grieving family is unacceptable.”






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/14/florida-police-sergeant-fired-over-use-of-trayvon-martin-shooting-target/
08:06

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin attacked the start-up company Tesla Motors on Friday, describing the California-based car manufacturer as “losers.”


Palin was commenting on Fisker Automotive in a Facebook post. The “green” automaker was launched after receiving a loan from the Department of Energy, but has since been plagued with problems and laid off 75 percent of its workforce on Friday.


“This losing tax-subsidized venture joins other past losers like the Obama-subsidized Volt that gets 40 miles per battery charge, or like the Obama-subsidized Tesla that turns into a ‘brick’ when the battery completely discharges and then costs $40,000 to repair,” Palin wrote.


“This is really just the latest manifestation of the administration’s crony capitalism as their green energy buddies benefit from this atrocious waste of taxpayer money. Americans really need to get outraged by these wasteful ventures. As we’ve seen time and time again, We the People are always stuck subsidizing the left’s ‘losers.’”


Like Fisker, Tesla Motors received a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy. The automaker plans to repay the loan five years early due to the expected success of its all-electric Model S Sedan. The car was unanimously voted Motor Trend’s Car of the Year in 2012.


Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the first major figure to describe Tesla Motors as “losers.” Following the 2012 election, Tesla CEO and space entrepreneur Elon Musk commented that Romney got “the object, but not the subject” of his remark right.


Republicans have frequently attacked the Energy Department’s clean-energy loan program following the bankruptcy of Solyndra, a solar cell manufacture that received a $535 million loan from the agency. An independent review of the program by a former Bush Administration official found the risk to taxpayers was much less than planned for.






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/07/sarah-palin-echoes-romney-tesla-motors-losers-who-build-bricks/
08:05

Conservatives reacted with outrage on Easter Sunday after seeing that the search engine Google had honored labor activist and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, who died 20 years ago.


“I thought the Chavez-google thing was a hoax or an early April Fool’s Day prank…are they just going to leave that up there all day?” Fox News host Dana Perino wrote on Twitter.


Other conservatives also expressed their disapproval of the “doodle” via Twitter. Some of the reactions were compiled by the conservative website Twitchy, showing conservatives announce their astonishment that the search engine didn’t recognize the religious holiday.


One man declared that Google had alienated “all Christians in America today.” Others promised to switch to Microsoft’s search engine Bing, which featured Easter Eggs on its website.


Radio host Glenn Beck also joined the chorus of conservative outrage on Twitter, writing, “Cool for Google to not celebrate Easter but really?!!? Go to http://google.com . HAPPY Caesar Chavez day everybody! #HELIVES!”


The “doodle” placed a portrait of Chavez in the middle of Google’s logo to commemorated his birthday on March 31. The date is celebrated as a state holiday in California, Colorado and Texas.


The Chicano labor leader gained iconic status after co-founding the United Farm Workers to fight against unfair labor conditions. The conservative publication Breitbart.com described Chavez as a “cult figure in California” and complained it was “not the first time that Google has chosen to honor leftists over tradition.”


[Woman yells at her computer via Shutterstock]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/31/conservatives-freak-out-after-google-honors-cesar-chavez-on-easter/
09:20

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) vetoed a controversial religious freedom bill on Friday that endangered anti-discrimination laws.


“I value and cherish our rights to religious freedom and I appreciate the good intentions of House Bill 279 and the members of the General Assembly who supported this bill to protect our constitutional rights to practice our religion,” Beshear said in a statement. “However, I have significant concerns that this bill will cause serious unintentional consequences that could threaten public safety, health care, and individuals’ civil rights.”


The Religious Freedom Act would allow someone with a “sincerely held religious belief” to defy state law and require courts to apply the highest level of judicial review, known as “strict scrutiny,” when considering any law that “burdened” religious freedom. The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights warned “it could make discrimination legal” because it was vaguely written.


“As written, the bill will undoubtedly lead to costly litigation,” Beshear added. “I have heard from many organizations and government entities that share those same concerns. Therefore, after giving this measure thoughtful analysis and consideration, today I vetoed the bill.”


Kentucky state Rep. Bob Damron (D), who introduced the bill, said he expected the legislature to override the governor’s veto, a task that only requires a majority vote in each chamber.


“The House will override the veto,” he told WFPL News. “The only way they won’t is if we’re not given the opportunity to vote on Monday.”


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[Image via Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons licensed]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/24/kentucky-governor-vetoes-bill-that-would-make-discrimination-legal/
08:20

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Friday introduced so-called “fetal personhood” legislation that would completely outlaw abortion in the United States.


The Life at Conception Act would declare that human life began at conception, providing fertilized eggs with the same legal status as born persons.


“The Life at Conception Act legislatively declares what most Americans believe and what science has long known – that human life begins at the moment of conception, and therefore is entitled to legal protection from that point forward,” Paul said in a statement. “ The right to life is guaranteed to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence and ensuring this is upheld is the Constitutional duty of all Members of Congress.”


In a fundraising video for the National Pro-Life Alliance last year, the Republican senator explained that the bill would outlaw abortion without contradicting the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Citing the ruling, Paul claimed Congress had the power to define when human life began under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.


“The Court then admitted that if the personhood of an unborn baby is established, the right to abort ‘collapses, for the fetus’ right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14] Amendment,’” he said.


Pro-life activists have pushed to amend the constitutions of several states with “fetal personhood” language, but have so far been rejected by voters.


Paul introduced similar legislation last year along with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS).






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/17/sen-rand-paul-introduces-fetal-personhood-bill-to-outlaw-abortion/
08:50

Two Steubenville high school football players accused of raping a 16-year-old girl have been found guilty by Ohio judge, according to multiple media reports.


Judge Thomas Lipps ruled Sunday that 17-year-old Trent Mays and 16-year-old Ma’lik Richmond were guilty of attacking the girl while she was unconscious.


The girl testified on Saturday that she woke up naked in August 2012 after attending a party and was not immediately aware of what had happened to her. She began to piece together what occurred after seeing pictures and videos from that night, which were posted online.


“They kept telling me I was a hassle and they took care of me,” she testified. “I thought I could trust him (Mays) until I saw the pictures and video.”


The case gained national attention after hackers publicized details of the incident and claimed the crime was being covered up by the football-loving town.


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[Gavel via Shutterstock]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/17/teens-found-guilty-in-steubenville-rape-case/
07:35

A group of protesters banished their guns at the Washington State Capitol on Saturday to defend their right to bear arms.


Though the armed protesters shocked some onlookers, the demonstration was legal. Washington’s “Open Carry” law does not prohibit carrying firearms on the capitol grounds.


“Usually, we’re up here debating issues. To see people walking through with guns is a bit odd,” lobbyist Jim Richards told local media.


About 200 people, including one person carrying an upside-down American flag, participated in the “Firearm Freedom Rally,” according to KING 5 News. The event was organized by the group 2nd Enforcers, which warned many of the 30 gun-related bills to be considered by the state legislature were a threat to people’s Second Amendment rights.


“If they don’t stand up for their rights, they’re going to lose them,” one protester explained.


The bills would expand background checks to cover all gun purchases in the state, make leaving a loaded gun in a location accessible to children a crime of reckless endangerment, allow cities to prohibit guns at parks or recreational facilities, and ban guns from school campuses, among other things.


The 2nd Enforcers have called for another piece of legislation, the Firearms Freedom Act of 2013, to be signed into law. The bill states that firearms in Washington are “not subject to federal law or federal regulation” and would make attempting to enforce federal gun laws a felony crime.


Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below:



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[Man holding rifle via Shutterstock]






via The Raw Story http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/10/armed-protesters-rally-at-washington-state-capitol/
08:36
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