Month: September 2015

The so-called ‘religious liberty’ aka ‘a license to discriminate’ legal fight

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Screenshot from 2015-09-01 15:48:10A self-anointed “Right Hand of God” Christian who deems herself to speak on behalf of God and to be the judge of God’s divine wisdom, Rowan County (KY) Clerk Kim Davis (right in photo, h/t NY Times), has got her self-righteous Bible thumping butt in big trouble with her refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Rowan County, Kentucky.

Clerk Kim Davis is determined to be the Religious Right’s test case to redefine “religious liberty” broadly as an exception to anti-discrimination laws, i.e., a “license to discriminate” against gays, or anyone else, based upon her individualized deeply held religious beliefs.

Clerk Davis is represented in this lawsuit by Liberty Counsel (SourceWatch), affiliated with the Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University School of Law. It is “a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.”

Clerk Davis is an elected public servant sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Section_228 – Kentucky Legislature, and 30A.020 Oath of clerk and deputies. Clerk Davis, however, insists that she answers to a “higher authority.”

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Environmental Briefs

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With President Obama in Alaska this week talking about the effects of climate change on the Arctic, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, it is a good time to try to catch up on the environmental and climate science news reported over the past month.

WeathermanBelow is just a sampling from the Washington Post’s “Energy and Environment” reporting, and Think Progress “Climate” reporting. There has been much more environment and climate science reporting over the past month.

You should ask yourself why the media in Arizona does not report environmental and climate science news, especially those bobble-head “meteorologists” on your local TV news who repeat the same damn weather report at least four times every half hour. If they really are “meteorologists,” shouldn’t they be using some of their time to educate and inform their viewers about the environment and climate science?

Perhaps the lack of quality science reporting by the media is why Americans, and Arizonans in particular, are so damn ignorant about the environment and climate science (you know who you are). It’s not like quality science reporting is not available. It is a conscience editorial decision to not report on the environment and climate science — unless it is to provide an echo chamber for Republican attacks on the EPA, or to promote their major advertiser, a utility company from the Carbon Monopoly.

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Matt Salmon maybe thinks American kids are too soft to do Jihad

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Some inveterate internet snarkster (I wish I could remember who) devised the concept of “Jihad Envy” – also known as “Fatwa Envy” – to describe the uniquely they-doth-protest-too-much type of obsession many right wingers have for Islam. It often veers into looking decidedly as if they wished U.S. Christian reactionaries enjoyed the same institutional support for committing violence that their jihadist counterparts in the Middle East do.

It appears that might be what’s going on with Congressman Matt Salmon (R-East Valley), as this disturbing report from Channel 5 News suggests:

Matt SalmonLink

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