April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

General

Friends don’t let friends get married

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A 13 year old Bangladeshi was saved from a forced marriage by her schoolmates.

BBC News~
Around 50 pupils in the town of Satkhira took to the streets to demand that Habiba Sultana’s wedding be called off, they say.

Pupils even submitted a petition to police urging them to take action.

Police summoned Habiba’s father and ordered him to stop the girl’s marriage, which they said was illegal.

Her father was told to sign a bond in which he promised not marry off his daughter while she is still a child, the Bangladesh Daily Star reported.

The BBC story doesn’t mention all the pupils were girls.
What a beautiful thing to see these girls claiming their power and helping each other.

VIVE MARC LEPINE

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This was the subject line of an email I received on my YouTube account today.

Now normally I’m not one to shine the spotlight on slimy creatures. I generally believe that most of these idiots are in it for the shock value and I imagine them to be semi pubescent boys jostling each other in front of the computer daring each other to go even further.

Every so often though I think it is important to show just what sort of people the right would have us support.

This is how Mr Happy Tube describes himself [actually considering the Happy Tube and John Long maybe he is an overcompensating prepubescent!]
[Read more…] about VIVE MARC LEPINE

I’m ok..you’re gay

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Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. ~James Baldwin

NEW YORK (AP) — The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians, a step that gay-rights activists hope will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation.

Such efforts — often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy — are considered futile and harmful by many gay-rights activists. Conservative groups defend the right to offer such treatment, and say people with their viewpoint have been excluded from the review panel.

A six-member task force set up by the APA has its first meeting beginning next Tuesday.

Already, scores of conservative religious leaders and counselors, representing such groups as the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family, have written a joint letter to the APA, expressing concern that the task force’s proposals would not properly accommodate gays and lesbians whose religious beliefs condemn gay sex.

“We believe that psychologists should assist clients to develop lives that they value, even if that means they decline to identify as homosexual,” said the letter, which requested a meeting between APA leaders and some of the signatories.

It is incredible to think that in 2007 there is anyone who still believes that homosexuality is a disease or an abomination. Sadder still that such people rather than keeping to dark dank diseased corners of bigotry feel quite safe spewing their prejudice like toxic rain upon anyone who will listen. [Read more…] about I’m ok..you’re gay

“Working Girls” and the Media

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One might have hoped that after the Ipswich murders the media would have learned a thing or two about treating sex workers as different, disposable, and authors of their own misfortune.

Sadly reading the CTV report on the death of an Edmonton sex worker it would seem no lesson has been learned at all.

We begin by reading;

Police have identified a missing woman as a dead Edmonton sex trade worker and have launched a homicide investigation.

Really?! So if we were all to get together and purchase a head stone it should say dead Edmonton sex trade worker?

At least in the next paragraph they deign to identify Leanne Lori Benwell, by name. [Read more…] about “Working Girls” and the Media

Baby Mammoth found

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The 40,000 year old remains of a baby mammoth have been found in Russia.

It’s a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition,” said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science’s Zoological Institute, which has been taking care of the mammoth since it was uncovered in May.

“This specimen may provide unique material allowing us to ultimately decipher the genetic makeup of the mammoth,” he told Reuters by telephone.

Video footage here

Separation of church and state?

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… no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

* Separation of State Authority VII: political leaders should not express religious preferences in the course of their duties

* Separation of Religious Authority I: no church should prescribe, proscribe, or amend civil or common law.

* Separation of Religious Authority II: the church should not interfere in civil political processes or relations between the state and other nations.

* Separation of Religious Authority III: no church should actively endorse any political figure, and should confine itself to moral, ethical, and religious teaching.

* Separation of Religious Authority IV: no church should actively endorse any civil institution by providing religious services or religious expressions at that institution, nor favor one civil institution over another.

It seems quite a sensible and laudable approach, so how did America go from that thought to this?

July 6, 2007 — JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Governor Matt Blunt today made the Alternatives to Abortion Program permanent and took action that will keep abortion providers like Planned Parenthood out of Missouri’s classrooms. Gov. Blunt signed legislation at Concord Baptist Church that enacts the provisions to further “protect the sanctity of human life”.

“All life is precious and needs to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect,” Gov. Blunt said. “I commend Rep. Therese Sander and Sen. Delbert Scott on their work to protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of our society. I will continue working with the Missouri General Assembly to pass strong pro-life legislation that respects the sanctity and dignity of all human life.”

“We here at Concord Baptist Church have prayed, preached, worked, and gone to the polls so that the lives of precious little ones may be saved. This is legislation that we can celebrate. House Bill 1055 will result in fewer abortions in Missouri. It is a good fair law that makes sense. I am excited to host Governor Blunt as he signs this progressive piece of legislation,” said Dr. Monte Shinkle, senior pastor at Concord Baptist Church.