By Shelia M. Poole and Craig Schneider. Alveda King is certain of two things: She’ll always oppose same-sex marriage, and people will always get mad when she says so.
How could the niece of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. oppose gay marriage? they demand to know. At times the social media jabs, angry emails or tense phone calls are threatening, she said, although recent Twitter comments were merely critical.
Tennis great Martina Navratilova, who married partner Julia Lemigova in 2014, tweeted:
“@AlvedaCKing really tired of you guys telling me and my family we are ‘wrong’ in about every way imaginable. Shame on you.”
In an unexpected turnabout, many opponents of gay marriage will not speak publicly in 2015 because of the backlash that will follow: the charges of bigotry, intolerance or worse. Not too many years ago, it was the proponents of same-sex marriage who were publicly condemned — by some of the very folks who won’t speak out today. (Read more from “Foes of Gay Marriage Say Speaking out Can Make Them a Target” HERE)
Obama, Who Opposed Gay Marriage When Elected, Takes Credit for LGBT Progress
By Daniel Halper. Speaking at an LGBT event tonight at the White House, President Obama took credit for liberal LGBT progress since he took office six-and-a-half years ago.
Obama said, according to a White House transcript: “Together, we ended ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ (Applause.) We passed a historic hate crimes bill named in part after Matthew Shepard. (Applause.) We lifted the HIV entry ban, and this summer, we’re going to be updating our national HIV/AIDS strategy which will focus on eliminating disparities that gay and bisexual men and transgender women face. (Applause.) We strengthened the Violence Against Women Act to protect LGBT victims. (Applause.) Hospitals that accept Medicare and Medicaid are now required to treat LGBT patients the same as everybody else. (Applause.) The pillar of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. (Applause.) Just yesterday, we announced that insurance companies that cover federal workers will no longer be able to prohibit gender transition services. (Applause.)”
He added, “When I became President, same-sex marriage was legal in only two states. Today, it’s legal in 37 states — (applause) — and the District of Columbia. A decade ago, politicians ran against LGBT rights. Today, they’re running towards them. (Applause.) Because they’ve learned what the rest of the country knows — that marriage equality is about our civil rights, and our firm belief that every citizen should be treated equally under the law.” (Read more from this story HERE)
____________________________________________________________
Obama Heckled at LGBT Event
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-25 02:24:222016-04-11 10:59:38Foes of Gay Marriage Say Speaking out Can Make Them a Target; Obama Also the Target of Heckling at LGBT Event
When a paramedic handed police officer Nick Struck a weeping toddler soaked in gasoline at the scene of a deadly car crash in Brighton, Colorado, his fatherly instincts kicked in.
Struck did the same thing he does when his own 2-year-old daughter is upset. He began to softly sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Somewhere in one of the lullaby’s verses, a bystander snapped a photograph of Struck and the child. Her family’s white SUV lies upside down in the grassy field behind the two. A paramedic is seen treating another passenger in the background.
Struck, holding the barefoot girl on his hip, points at something outside the frame. The child holds the fingers of one hand in her mouth, and clings to Struck’s shoulder with the other . . .
That image whipped through online social networks, rendering Struck a heartfelt hero. (Read more from “Police Officer Soothes Toddler With Lullaby After Deadly Car Crash” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-25 02:21:332016-04-11 10:59:40Police Officer Soothes Toddler With Lullaby After Deadly Car Crash
Children are creating their own black markets to trade and sell salt due to First Lady Michelle Obama’s school lunch rules.
During a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, chaired by Rep. Todd Rokita (R., Ind.), a school administrator told Congress of the “unintended consequences” of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.
“Perhaps the most colorful example in my district is that students have been caught bringing–and even selling–salt, pepper, and sugar in school to add taste to perceived bland and tasteless cafeteria food,” said John S. Payne, the president of Blackford County School Board of Trustees in Hartford City, Indiana . . .
Payne noted other problems with the “one-size-fits-all” approach to providing healthier meals to students, including fewer kids participating in the program and higher food waste. The trend started in 2012, when the school lunch law, which was championed by Mrs. Obama, went into effect.
“Students are avoiding cafeteria food,” Payne said. “More students bring their lunch, and a few parents even ‘check out’ their child from campus, taking them to a local fast-food restaurant or home for lunch.” (Read more from “Kids Create Salt Black Markets in Cafeterias Due to Michelle Obama’s Lunch Rules” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-25 02:21:112016-04-11 10:59:40Little Kids Create Salt Black Markets in Cafeterias Due to Michelle Obama’s Lunch Rules
Pro-choice doesn’t mean “anti-life,” but “improves life,” according to one abortionist amplified by The Guardian. That is, if you don’t count the unborn baby’s life.
The Guardian recently published a piece by an anonymous abortionist arguing that, “Being an abortion doctor has taught me a lot about life.” In it, the female “doctor” wrote that her work makes her feel “elated” – work that includes removing a 23-week-old unborn baby “part by part” and searching for the “jelly-fish-like gestation sac” surrounding a five-week-old.
To begin her story, the abortionist described how, at 17-years-old, she was, “full of idealism and pride to be applying for such a noble profession.”
Today, she still boasts that pride. Now, “nearing the end of my abortion-care training,” she insisted, “I’d never go back and change that decision” . . .
“I have carefully sieved through aspirate to identify the tiny translucent jelly-fish-like gestation sac at five weeks,” she wrote. “I have painstakingly removed a foetus part by part at 23 weeks and watched the ultrasound image of the uterus shrink back to size.” (Read more from “Abortionist Describes Her Joy at Pulling 23-Week-Old Unborn Babies Apart “Piece by Piece”” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-24 03:24:592016-04-11 10:59:43Abortionist Describes Her Joy at Pulling 23-Week-Old Unborn Babies Apart “Piece by Piece”
By Kara Pendleton. Morgan Wheeler was getting ready to leave the store parking lot when a wheelchair-bound man crossed her path. Struggling, he waved at her in an apologetic way for delaying her car from backing out.
She could have impatiently waited for him to pass and then been on her way. Instead, she did something that’s inspiring people who read her story:
I walked out of Wal Mart today and got in my car. As I began to pull out, I had to wait for a man in a wheelchair to pass by. As I watched him, I noticed that he was missing his right leg from the knee down and was wearing, what appeared to be, old, government issued, combat boots. He was (from my guess) in his late sixties/early seventies and seemed to be stopping to take a break. He had not realized that I had started my car and was attempting to pull out, so when he saw me, he waved in an apologetic manner and rolled forward three more times and took another break. I backed up my car the inches I had previously pulled forward, put it in park, turned off the engine, and got out. I walked up to him and introduced myself. I asked him if I could assist him with his shopping today, and he, quite grumpily, said that he was doing just fine and was not getting much anyways. Me, being as stubborn as I am, insisted and proceeded to push him and tell him a little about myself. He interrupted me and said that he only needed help to the door, to which I picked up where I had left off before he interrupted me. I told him about Fayetteville, and my horses, and my nephews (I had parked a good ways away from the doors). And when I reached the doors, I continued to push him and talk. We reached the produce area and I asked him to tell me about himself. He reluctantly looked at me and began telling me that he lived in Sod- Lincoln County, and that he just recently lost his wife. I asked him if he was a veteran, to which he replied that he was- but with pain on his face, so I changed the subject and asked if he had made a shopping list. He handed me a list with only four things on it: peanut butter, soup, bread, and bananas. So we began shopping and I continued to talk… hard to believe- I know. Once we had gotten the items he needed, I asked if he needed the essentials: milk, eggs, butter. He told me that he might not make it home, without them going bad. So I questioned how he got to the store. He told me that he did what he was doing in the parking lot until he got to 119 and then hitch hiked with a trucker to the parking lot. So I called a taxi for him and grabbed the essentials plus a few other things and put them in the cart. After placing a gallon of milk in his cart he was crying. People were passing by us, looking sideways at him. I knelt down and asked him what was wrong and he replied, that I “was doing far too much for an old man that I barely knew.” I told him that where I am from, and from the family I was raised in, we help one another, no matter the task and that I had never met a stranger. I also told him that he deserved everything I was doing for him because he fought for my freedom and sacrificed so much. We made it to the check out line and I paid for his groceries, against his request. When we got outside, we waited for the taxi together. He thanked me over and over again and appeared- to me- to have been in a much better mood than when I found him. When the taxi arrived, I helped him load his groceries and wheelchair into the taxi and asked the driver to take him home and help him into his house with his groceries. I gave him the only cash I had on me- $44, also against his will. I told him thank you for his service before closing the door. Tears formed again and he thanked me one last time and said, “God bless you.” I returned to my car, and could not help but cry. This is the world we live in today. How many people passed him and would have continued to pass him while he struggled? How many people are willing to give their money to Vanity Fair to read all about Bruce Jenner and not help a veteran pay for his groceries? Today was a truly humbling experience for me, and I consider myself extremely blessed to have the capability of understanding what is truly important in this world. THAT man was a HERO, and far too many will say otherwise. I am sorry that this post was so long, and if you have read it to this point, I hope you are as humbled as I was. God bless the men and women who have fought for our right to view the wrong people as heroes, and thank God for the people who know better.
Toward the end of her post, the West Virginia woman shares her thoughts on the significance of the experience:
“I returned to my car, and could not help but cry. This is the world we live in today. How many people passed him and would have continued to pass him while he struggled? How many people are willing to give their money to Vanity Fair to read all about Bruce Jenner and not help a veteran pay for his groceries?”
(Read more from “A Disabled Vet Was Struggling Through the Parking Lot When a Woman Stopped and Brought Him to Tears” HERE)
Veterans Face Complications in Getting Medical Care
By Melissa Blasius. From a secret patient waiting list to a piles of prescription pills, KUSA exposes the Veterans Affairs Department’s casualties of care.
This 30-minute news special culminates a year of investigation, including discussions with current and former VA employees and dozens of veterans who rely on the VA for care.
KUSA found:
The former director of the Denver VA hospital knew about an unauthorized patient list in the sleep clinic in 2011. More recently, hospital administrators were aware of other scheduling improprieties involving specialty doctor referrals, according to emails sent to scheduling staff.
Mental health patients say they’ve had to wait months to see a therapist. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-23 03:58:362016-04-11 10:59:44A Disabled Vet Was Struggling Through the Parking Lot When a Woman Stopped and Brought Him to Tears [+video]
American evangelical theologian and preacher Russell Moore contended that the “religious right” will eventually win the heated culture war issue of same-sex marriage. Regardless of how the U.S. Supreme Court rules, he plans to stand by the definition of traditional marriage between a man and a woman.
In a phone interview conducted by Lila Shapiro of the Huffington Post, Moore elaborated on why he hasn’t thrown in the towel on standing up against same-sex marriage. He is currently president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
“I’ve been predicting for years that the court is hell-bent on imposing same-sex marriage on all 50 states, so that’s what I’m expecting the court to do,” Moore said. . .I didn’t want evangelicals caught flat-footed the way that evangelicals were by Roe v. Wade, not anticipating that any such thing could happen”. . .
“If the court rules as I anticipate, evangelicals will still stand where we’ve always stood on marriage — as a union of one man and one woman,” Moore said. “We have no option to capitulate on that, because marriage in a Christian vision of reality isn’t just a social contract. Marriage points to something beyond the natural order — the union of Christ and his church.”
Moore highlighted that Christians previously had to define traditional marriages throughout history. “That’s not a new situation for Christians — that’s what’s happening in the context of the New Testament, defining Christian marriage over and against a Greco-Roman sexual culture,” Moore said. “But it’s a new situation for American evangelicals.” (Read more from “Evangelical Theologian Russell Moore: Religious Right Has ‘No Option to Capitulate on’ Traditional Marriage” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-23 03:57:562016-04-11 10:59:45Evangelical Theologian Russell Moore: Religious Right Cannot Capitulate on Traditional Marriage, Will Eventually Win
Despite a letter sent to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd in protest to his preaching in uniform, Judd will speak at another church on Sunday, reports The Tampa Tribune.
The letter, sent by the Freedom From Religion Foundation on June 15, criticized Judd’s use of his sheriff position to promote his religion.
The FFRF points out an April 19 sermon at Lakeland’s First Baptist Church at the Mall, where a uniformed Judd advocated faith-based jailing and said that law-breaking individuals can best be reformed through Jesus.
In his sermon, Judd also told the Christian audience that they “are the majority.”
“In your personal capacity you can freely exercise your religion as you see fit,” reads part of the letter to Judd. “In your official capacity as an officer of the government, you are bound by the Establishment Clause and cannot abuse that office to promote your personal religious choices.” (Read more from “Florida Sheriff Will Continue to Preach in Uniform Amidst Complaint” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-22 03:56:512016-04-11 10:59:47Florida Sheriff Will Continue to Preach in Uniform Amidst Complaint
A top recruit for the Harvard University women’s swim team has swapped her gender and decided to swim for the men’s team instead.
As reported by Swimming World, Schuyler Bailar was a top female swimmer in the country in high school, helping to set a high school record in the girls’ 400-meter medley relay. But after graduating in 2014, she took a gap year, during which she came out as transgender and underwent surgery to transition to living as a man. The switch reportedly means Bailar will be the first openly transgender swimmer to compete at the collegiate level.
While the transition took place back in 2014, it was only in the spring that Bailar fully committed to joining the men’s team instead of the women’s one. Since going public with her new identity in May, Bailar has taken to Instagram to chronicle her journey through a series of pictures and encourage other young people coping with gender identity issues:
Bailar’s ability to contribute to the men’s team as a competitor will be substantially curtailed. As a woman, she was a record-breaker, but men are substantially faster swimmers, and even with hormone therapy Bailar is unlikely to be as elite as she once was . . .
“I want Schuyler on my team for the same reasons I want all of my athletes,” Harvard men’s coach Kevin Tyrrell told Swimming World. “I believe he wants to push himself academically and athletically. When all of our swimmers and divers have this mindset everyone improves daily in every aspect of their lives. This process will contribute to them being outstanding members of society.” (Read more from “Harvard Will Field First Openly Transsexual Swimmer” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-22 03:55:592016-04-11 10:59:47Harvard Will Field First Openly Transsexual Swimmer
A Pennsylvania school district is scanning students’ thumbprints, tracking all of their lunch purchases, and turning the data over to the federal government.
The Hazleton Area School District recently announced it would be providing free meals to all students, regardless of need.
The move comes after the federal government began incentivizing school districts to provide more meals to more students.
As The Citizens’ Voice reports:
While it would seem that providing all children with lunch would cost districts more, the pilot federal initiative turns that assumption on its ear. The initiative encourages school districts to move toward full participation by providing districts with reimbursements that will in fact absorb the cost of providing lunch to students of all income levels, whether they walk to school — or if a chauffeur drives them.
(Read more from “School Lunch Program Scans Student Thumbprints for ‘Tracking Purposes'” HERE)
With Father’s Day around the corner, don’t look to television for an accurate portrayal of the typical American father. TV thinks dads are dumb.
An in-depth study of recent programming concludes that working-class fathers featured in American sitcoms are routinely portrayed as aimless morons.
“This follows the kind of pattern seen, wherein TV working-class fathers are typified as ‘kind of bumbling’ and ‘incapable,’ compared to middle-class fathers,” Jessica Troilo, author of the study, and assistant professor of child development and family studies at West Virginia University told the Washington Times.
The study, titled “Stay Tuned: Portrayals of Fatherhood to Come,” found significant differences between what it calls, middle- and working-class dads. It studied 13 fathers in 12 sitcoms and their 699 interactions with minor children.
The study’s abstract concludes that father-child interactions do not differ based on race or ethnicity, but they do depend on a family’s economic class, marital status, and the TV network airing the show. (Read more from “Study Shows TY Portrays American Dads as Bumbling Morons Not ‘Patriotic’ or ‘Heroic'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2015-06-20 03:57:182016-04-11 10:59:50Hollywood Portrays American Dads as Bumbling Morons Not ‘Patriotic’ or ‘Heroic’
