Scrolling around...August 7th, 2012

Today's gay-marriage movement seems far more eager to silence its critics than debate them.
...How times have changed. In just a few short years, a movement once known for championing tolerance has become the epitome of intolerance. Using their culturally sanctioned victim status as cover, America's gay-rights leaders have become the iron-fisted enforcers of a strict new speech code in which anyone who questions same-sex marriage is denounced as a hateful, homophobic bigot. Erstwhile pleas for "dialogue" about the best way to protect both the institution of marriage and gay and lesbian interests have been replaced by blatant bullying and vicious personal attacks. Its 'silence = death" slogan notwithstanding, today's gay-marriage movement seems far more eager to silence its critics than debate them...

Chick-fil-A kiss-in protesters show their colors
Leftists, when they get angry and let themselves be themselves, tend to behave in repellant ways. That certainly seems to be the case with the gay marriage movement's anger at Chick-fil-A, as a former CFO now understands. Captured on video (embedded below) by Legal Insurrection blogger Anne Sorock, participants in the kiss-in at the sole Chick-fil-A in Chicago mocked, one might even say harassed, an elderly African-American gentleman seated nearby reading his bible...(video)

Abortion Activist Sandra Fluke to Join Obama on Campaign Trail
Pro-abortion activist Sandra Fluke, the campaigner for the HHS birth control mandate to force religious groups to pay for and refer women for abortion-causing drug and birth control that violate their consciences, will join President Barack Obama on the campaign trail...

Pope cites 'unprecedented gravity' of threat to religious freedom in US
Pope Benedict XVI has warned of the "unprecedented gravity" of threats to religious freedom of Catholics in the US...

Internet Tax Likely Coming Whether You Like it or Not
The days of tax-free shopping on the Internet may be coming to an end. Congress seems poised to pass an Internet tax law, the Marketplace Fairness Act, that allows states to force online companies to tax their customers.
While the Internet tax law is being touted as a "new" tax, legally speaking, it should have zero impact on the amount of taxes customers pay for online purchased goods. However, from a practical standpoint, small business owners just lost a huge advantage they had on traditional brick-and-mortar stores...

Eliminating People to Help People?
...Sebelius testified at a congressional hearing that her mandate is justified as a way to reduce costs. (I’m sure her number-crunching analysis forgot to factor in that fewer people also means fewer taxpayers.)

She stated, “The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception.”

“By not having babies born, we’re saving money,” asked the astonished congressman. “Not having babies born is a critical health benefit?”

“Providing contraception as a critical preventive health benefit for women and for their children reduces health care costs,” Sebelius stated.

So, contraception/abortion is a health benefit for children? Surely not the ones that were prevented from being born alive....

Homeschoolers, Christian Schools Concerned About 'Race to the Top' Standards
...In an interview with The Christian Post, Maureen Van Den Berg, legislative director for the American Association of Christian Schools, expressed concern over the potential that the CCSSI could develop into a national curriculum that even private schools would be pushed into adopting...