Scrolling around...July 26th, 2012

Rep. Schakowsky ‘Unaware’ Obamacare Reg Requires Offering Free Sterilizations to Teens
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-Ill.) said she was “unaware” that the preventive services regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued under the Obamacare law requires health care plans to offer free sterilizations to girls as young as their teens...

Scots Govt ignores public, gives gay marriage go-ahead
...Two thirds of the 80,000 consultation responses were opposed to the move, but the Scottish Government says it will redefine marriage regardless...

Obama’s Sunshine Policy: Transparency for thee, secrecy for me
...In other words, the administration’s message is clear: Private citizens, in order to participate in public debate, must identify themselves to their government.

Now let’s contrast these transparency demands with the administration’s commitment to secrecy...

Gaza Christians fear for future of tiny community
Christians in overwhelmingly Muslim Gaza have long fretted in private about the survival of their tiny community.

But their fears exploded publicly when two members of the flock recently converted to Islam. Christians staged a rare public protest, accusing Muslims of pulling followers from their faith...

Egypt: Fatwa Bans Christian Priests from Public Transportation to Church
Dr. Yassir al-Burhami, a prominent figure in Egypt's Salafi movement and vice president of the Salafi Call—the same sheikh who seeks to punish Muslim apostates, condemns Mother's Day, and advocates deceiving Israel—has just issued a fatwa, published in the "Voice of the Righteous Salaf," forbidding Muslim taxi-drivers and bus-drivers from transporting Coptic Christian priests to their churches, which he depicted as "more forbidden than taking someone to a liquor bar."...

Rising violence against Christian churches in Indonesian province
Christian leaders in Indonesia's Aceh province are expressing grave concern over a wave of violent attacks against churches. The attacks have apparently been carried out by Muslim extremists...

Obama Admin Sends Another $426K to Planned Parenthood
For the third time this month and the fifth time overall, the Obama administration has override the decision of a state to revoke taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business...

Illegal Organ Markets in Europe
A recent New York Times article laments the spread of illegal organ markets in Europe, in which mostly poor people try to sell kidneys and other organs to people who need transplants...

248 Human Fetuses Found in Russian Forest
Villagers in Russia’s south Urals have stumbled upon a gruesome discovery — four barrels containing 248 human fetuses left in a forest...

The Economist: Mapping Judaism
JUDAISM is enjoying an unexpected revival, according to a special report to be published in this week’s Economist. The map and chart below show where the biggest Jewish populations live and how this has changed over the past century...

Assam, India: Bodo tribe, Muslim clashes kill at least 35, displace 170,000
Four days of violent clashes between India's native Bodo tribespeople and Muslim immigrants has taken at least 35 lives, officials said today, while another 170,000 are estimated to have fled their homes in the facing of rising violence in India's northwestern Assam region...

San Francisco Public Library Installs Plastic Privacy Screens So Patrons Can Watch Porno…
How progressive...

Poll: Democratic enthusiasm falls sharply
...A Gallup/USA Today poll found that only 39 percent of Democrats now say they are “more enthusiastic than usual” about the 2012 election. That’s down from 68 percent in 2004 and 61 in 2008....

Obama’s Ethics Lesson: Don’t Pay Your College Loan.
...Instead of curbing the artificial demand caused by the government intervention in lending markets, the Obama administration wants to stiff the very lenders that relied on the 1977 law forbidding bankruptcy on student loans as well as the government subsidies that caused them to conduct that high-risk lending in the first place. That could wipe out a large amount of capital on the books at the moment, further destabilizing private lending markets overall and possibly risking bank health in the bargain. Not every one of those borrowers would declare bankruptcy, but the temptation that this regulatory change presents would probably have a significant percentage ready to do so...