Kim Davis Just Officially Won Her Final Court Case

/0 Comments/in , , /by

A federal judge has dismissed all lawsuits against Kim Davis, the Rowan County, Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same sex marriage.

Davis was briefly jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples, asserting participation in same-sex marriages violated her religious beliefs. Davis is Pentecostal, a branch of low church Protestantism. After her release, same-sex couples in Rowan County brought claims against Davis, alleging she was violating their civil rights.

U.S. District Court Judge David Bunning dismissed the cases Thursday, ruling that the controversy was now moot.

According to the Courier Journal, the Kentucky General Assembly recently adopted legislation creating new state marriage licenses that do not require the signature of a county clerk. The move came after Governor Matt Bevin issued an executive order to the same effect. Since she, nor any member of her staff, will no longer be required to sign the forms, Davis feels her religious practice is no longer compromised. Her office has already begun issuing the licenses.

“In light of these proceedings, and in view of the fact that the marriage licenses continue to be issued without incident, there no longer remains a case or controversy before the Court,” Bunning wrote. (Read more from “Kim Davis Just Officially Won Her Final Court Case” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Boycotters Say New Target Transgender Policy Still Allows Predators ‘Easier Access to Their Victims’

/0 Comments/in , /by

Target plans to spend $20 million adding single-stall, lockable bathrooms to all store locations after a controversy over a new policy that allows transgender people to use the restroom and fitting room that correspond with the gender they self-identify with.

“Across the board, our goal is to make sure that everyone feels welcome at Target,” Katie Boylan, Target’s vice president of communications, told The Daily Signal.

In April, Target announced the new transgender policy. Boylan said Target has openly listened to guest feedback since then.

“The feedback has been mixed,” Boylan said. Some guests have been very supportive of the bathroom policy, while others “less so,” she said.

In response to the bathroom policy, over 1.4 million people signed a pledge to boycott Target.

“We committed in the spring to making sure that every store across the country has a single-stall, lockable restroom for those who would like to use it,” Boylan said. The remodels in Target’s 1,800 store locations across the country have been under way since then, she said, and will cost $20 million.

The American Family Association, a nonprofit that supports Christian values, started the pledge in April to boycott Target.

“Target’s announcement that it is installing unisex bathrooms does nothing to address the objections of more than 1.4 million customers who are boycotting the retail giant,” Ed Vitagliano, executive vice president of the American Family Association, said in a statement to The Daily Signal. He added:

While AFA did suggest single-occupancy, unisex bathrooms as a way to help the retailer’s transgender customers, our major concern was that Target’s policy would grant voyeurs and sexual predators easier access to their victims by allowing men in women’s restrooms and changing areas, which puts women and girls in danger.

In July, a man who identifies as a woman videotaped an 18-year-old girl in an Idaho Target dressing room. Authorities arrested and charged the man, age 43, who told police that he previously made other videos of women undressing, Time reported.

“Unisex bathrooms are fine, but Target must maintain the gender-specific bathrooms as well—if the company is interested in guaranteeing the safety and privacy of women and girls who patronize the retailer’s stores,” Vitagliano said.

The $20 million investment does not change Target’s fitting room policy and accommodations.

“This partial backtracking proves what everyone already knew, that Target lost customers in droves after it announced that men would be allowed full access to women’s intimate facilities at its stores,” Roger Severino, director of the Devos Center for Religion and Civil Society at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal.

In the immediate two weeks following Target’s announcement of the policy, Target’s stock declined by 4.2 percent.

Target announced its second quarter earnings on Wednesday. Sales decreased by 7.2 percent from last year.

“We have no evidence that says the bathroom policy has had a material impact on our business at this time,” Boylan said.

The policy has had no impact on business in both the last financial quarter and this quarter, Boylan added.

“For too long big businesses like Target have put the interests of loud gender identity activists over the legitimate safety and privacy concerns of its everyday customers,” Heritage’s Severino said. “Target is of course free to do what it wants, but so are its customers, and it is an open question as to whether they will return given that men are still allowed into women’s spaces at Target even under the new policies.” (For more from the author of “Boycotters Say New Target Transgender Policy Still Allows Predators ‘Easier Access to Their Victims'” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Christian US Gymnastics Team Wins Gold, but Chooses To “Give All the Glory to God”

/0 Comments/in , , /by

“The Final Five” as they’ve nicknamed themselves, have done it! They edged out Russia and China by a few tenths of a point, leading the team to a tremendous Olympic victory. But with athletic success of such heights comes immense pressure. The athletes have talked about how God has remained central to their competing, reports CBN.

“I take my Bible with me, sometimes two of them, when I travel…I always pray at every competition, when the judge’s hand goes up I am praying, and there are little Scriptures I like to quote,” said star gymnast Gabby Douglas in her memoir “Grace, Gold and Glory: My Leap of Faith.” Another of the team, Simone Biles, talks openly about her Christian faith on twitter.

“God put you there. Be confident. Be humble,” she tweeted. As well as “If you’re praying about it, God is working on it.” Another of the team, Laurie Hernandez, uploaded this image to Instagram earlier this year.

Hernandez says that prayer often quells the pressure she feels before a performance. “Usually, before I salute the judge I’m able to just grab the event and I pray on it and that really grounds me. For some reason, once I do that, I am able to think clearly and I’m able to calm down right before I compete,” she said. (Read more from “Christian US Gymnastics Team Wins Gold, but Chooses To “Give All the Glory to God” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

College Professors Admit Affirmative Action Is Failing Students, Get Called Racist

/0 Comments/in , /by

Professors at Smith College in Northampton, Mass. are being denounced as white supremacists after private messages were leaked in which they claim affirmative action sets up students for academic failure at the school.

The controversy in question concerns two letters sent by faculty in Smith’s School for Social Work to school administrators. Although the letters were initially private, they were leaked to students at the school by an unknown person, who said they wished to reveal the “violent, racist rhetoric directed toward students of color on the Smith campus.”

The first letter, sent by professor Dennis Miehls, warns that the school was failing in its “gatekeeper” function by admitting too many academically unprepared applicants.

“Why do you, as administrators, continue to offer differential outcomes to students of color, in spite of overwhelming data that demonstrates that many of our students, including white-identified students, cannot offer clients a social work intervention that is based upon competence, skills and ethics,” Miehls said in his letter. Miehls went so far as to call the admissions process “tainted” because of how willing it was to admit unprepared non-white students.

A separate letter, signed only “Concerned Adjuncts,” isn’t as explicit about race, but voices similar concerns that lowered standards for certain groups were setting them up for failure. (Read more from “College Professors Admit Affirmative Action Is Failing Students, Get Called Racist” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

New Planned Parenthood Ad Attempts to Downplay Its Abortion Involvement

/0 Comments/in , /by

Planned Parenthood is trying to distract the public from the fact that it is the largest abortion provider in the United States with a slick new TV ad.

Adweek reports:

A new ad by the Seattle agency Wexley School of Girls for the org’s Great Northwest and Hawaiian Islands branch reminds viewers of those other services while playing on the assumption that anything involving the name Planned Parenthood will eventually turn into a heated all-or-nothing debate over birth control.

The 30-second video spot shows a group of people doing normal, everyday things like drinking coffee, painting, and clothes shopping. After rattling off typical reasons that people choose to get abortions such as career aspirations and the perceived inconvenience of pregnancy and childbirth, each one of the actors gives a different reason for going to Planned Parenthood, none of them to receive an abortion.

Planned Parenthood – :30 from Wexley School for Girls on Vimeo.

“A flu shot,” says one actor. “Controlling asthma,” says another.

“There are just a lot more reasons than you think,” claims a voiceover in the final frame.

“The ad will almost certainly not end the frequently contentious debates surrounding the Planned Parenthood organization,” reads the Adweek story. “But it does provide a somewhat restrained pushback against those who would reduce the organization to a single word.”

It’s clever marketing, but it’s also a huge red herring.

Yes, both women and men can get vaccinations at a Planned Parenthood, as well as other services that don’t involve terminating the life of a pre-born child, but that doesn’t make the abortion giant any less of an abortion giant.

Firstly, the organization’s own reports show that a vast majority of its revenue comes, in some degree, from abortions, with some estimates as high as 86 percent. When asked about this at a Congressional hearing last year, CEO Cecile Richards was unable to give a straight answer about the revenue percentage when pressed about it under oath.

Additionally, according to statistics from the Guttmacher Institute — which was founded by Planned Parenthood — the organization is responsible for nearly a third of abortions performed in the United States, at over 300,000 per year.

Finally, let’s not forget the Center for Medical Progress’ undercover videos from last summer which show Planned Parenthood employees and executives in multiple states engaging in what appears to be a fetal tissue trade.

Put simply, the fact that someone can obtain an asthma inhaler at a Planned Parenthood shouldn’t distract from the organization’s involvement in abortion at all.

Similarly, you may be able to cash a check, get a flu shot, or buy a pack of cigarettes and a lottery ticket at your local grocery store, but it is still a place where people primarily go to buy food.

The Department of Defense may provide meals and housing to active duty personnel, but only a fool would ever think that that the primary purpose of the United States military was anything other than national defense because of this.

Attempts like the video ad above are nothing new. Planned Parenthood has long tried to distract from the reality of its bloody business whether by attempting to normalize abortion by draping it the seemingly innocuous mantle of “reproductive health,” endlessly repeating the widely-debunked talking point that only ‘3 percent’ of its services are abortions, or even producing a “virtual reality experience” that maligns the work of pro-life sidewalk counselors.

None of these, however, change the facts about abortion, its current place in American public discourse, or the fact that Planned Parenthood performs a plurality of the procedures done in the United States.

Neither will 30 seconds of pretty people talking about flu shots. (For more from the author of “New Planned Parenthood Ad Attempts to Downplay Its Abortion Involvement” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Marriage Reduces Child Poverty, but Our Welfare System Penalizes Marriage

/0 Comments/in , /by

According to a recently released study from the American Enterprise Institute, 82 percent of lower-middle-class families with young children face “marriage penalties” in the welfare system.

Couples who marry would lose all or some of their welfare benefits because their combined income is often greater than each of their independent incomes.

The study found that couples with young children are less likely to marry if they face a significant marriage penalty. Furthermore, nearly a third of Americans between the ages of 18 and 60 reported that they personally know someone who has chosen not to marry because of the marriage penalty.

And this study only examines welfare marriage penalties for a few means-tested welfare programs: food stamps, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. There are over 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide other food, medical, and cash assistance, as well as housing assistance and social services to poor and lower-income Americans. Marriage penalties exist throughout the welfare system.

Marriage is one of the greatest protectors against child poverty. It is counterintuitive to have a welfare system that penalizes this institution.

Children in married-parent homes are more than 80 percent less likely to be poor, compared to their peers in single-parent families. Tragically, far too many American children live in single-parent homes. One in four children is born to an unwed mother, and more than half of U.S. teenagers aged 15 to 17 live without married parents.

Not only are these children at greater risk of poverty, but they are at greater risk of social conditions that would hinder their ability to thrive.

Children who grow up with their married parents have better life outcomes compared to children who grow up in single-parent homes. For example, children raised by their married mothers and fathers generally obtain more education and have better emotional health. They also have lower rates of delinquency and teen pregnancy.

How can we reform our welfare system so that it does not penalize marriage?

First, policymakers must avoid policy changes that would increase marriage penalties. This would include preventing increases in the earned income tax credit for childless adults. Such an increase would only further incentivize parents to remain single.

Second, we should implement stronger work requirements to decrease the appeal of welfare as a long-term substitution for both work and marriage. Fostering a sense of self-reliance and pride in one’s work encourages parents to move away from welfare and toward the kind of financial independence found in marriage. This, in turn, results in greater economic opportunities for both parent and child.

Marriage is a strong tool against poverty and also provides the best setting for children to thrive. Policymakers have an opportunity to improve conditions for the American family. They must work toward reducing and eliminating the anti-marriage policies of the current welfare system. (For more from the author of “Marriage Reduces Child Poverty, but Our Welfare System Penalizes Marriage” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Obama to Force Women’s Shelter to Admit ‘Transgender’ Men

/0 Comments/in , /by

Barack Obama is set to finalize a federal rule requiring many women’s shelters to admit men who identify as “transgender,” potentially placing abused women and children at risk of being victimized again.

If enacted, all homeless shelters – including battered women’s shelters – that receive federal funding would have to allow people to use the homeless shelter of the sex with which they identify, regardless of their appearance, anatomy, or the “complaints of other shelter residents.”

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro proposed the so-called “Equal Access Rule” last October. Media outlets say it will become final next month.

“[T]he provider may not ask questions or otherwise seek information or documentation concerning the person’s anatomy,” nor refuse to allow anyone a bed “because the client’s appearance or behavior does not conform with gender stereotypes,” it reads.

Although the shelter “may consider…whether a particular housing assignment would ensure health and safety” on a “case-by-case basis,” it may not base its decisions solely on the “complaints of other shelter residents.” (Read more from “Obama to Force Women’s Shelter to Admit ‘Transgender’ Men” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Germany Now Has More Than 1,000 Documented Child Marriages

/0 Comments/in , /by

Germany is struggling to prevent and keep track of the over 1,000 child marriages taking place in the country.

Child marriages have not been an issue in Germany until recent years. The practice is illegal in Germany, but since the country doesn’t recognize “religious marriages,” authorities can’t do anything to stop it in most cases.

German television channel N24 claims the number of child marriages in the country now exceeds 1,000, and that the actual number is believed to be significantly higher.

An anonymous teacher told newspaper Welt am Sonntag that young girls often suddenly stop showing up to school after getting married . . .

“Many observers are afraid this will be a ‘lost generation,’” Alia Al Dalli, SOS Children’s Villages’ international director for the Middle East and North Africa Region, said in June. “Another concern is psychological trauma, as children in war situations often face a very unstable environment of displacement, abuse, trafficking, exploitation and other risks.” (Read more from “Germany Now Has More Than 1,000 Documented Child Marriages” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Michelle Obama’s ‘Healthy’ Lunch Program Is Actually Worsening Childhood Obesity

/0 Comments/in , /by

First lady Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch program is putting financially vulnerable children at risk of being overweight, according to new government-funded research.

Every day, millions of kids eat government-funded breakfasts or lunches at public schools. Virginia Tech researchers found that kids who get these free school meals are more likely to become overweight or obese.

According to the study, published in the journal Health Economics, kids who live in the Northeast, South and rural America, who consume one-third to one-half of their meals at school, are most susceptible to the rising obesity epidemic . . .

Wen You, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said that while well-intentioned, these government-funded school meal programs which aim to make students healthier, are in fact doing just the opposite.

You and her team used a survey of 21,260 students who were followed from kindergarten to eighth grade. They found that children who didn’t participate in school lunch programs supported by Michelle Obama were less likely to end up with some extra padding. (Read more from “Michelle Obama’s ‘Healthy’ Lunch Program Is Actually Worsening Childhood Obesity” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Bill Clinton’s Pay at For-Profit Education Company Topped $17.5 Million

/0 Comments/in , /by

Bill Clinton was paid more than $1 million in 2015 by Laureate Education, a global operator of for-profit colleges, according to tax returns released today by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

The new figure brings the former president’s total compensation from Laureate to more than $17.5 million for his five-year role as an “honorary chancellor.” His role consisted of advising the company on educational matters and traveling to campuses across the world to speak to young people. Clinton ended his position at Laureate in April 2015 after Hillary Clinton launched her bid for the White House.

Laureate International Universities, the company’s international arm for which Clinton worked, has donated $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, with a new contribution made as recently as the second quarter of this year, according to records posted on the foundation’s website. (Read more from “Bill Clinton’s Pay at For-Profit Education Company Topped $17.5 Million” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.