Scrolling around...February 4, 2013

Study: 22 Military Veterans Commit Suicide Every Day
The results of a new study indicate that suicide rates among veterans in the United States are increasing.
An estimated 22 military veterans take their lives every day in America, according to the study helmed by Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist and researcher who works with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“While the percentage of all suicides reported as Veterans has decreased, the number of suicides has increased,” the conclusion of the study stated...

IRS: Parents Must Pay Federal Fine for Uninsured Kids
...In its final regulations, the IRS states that parents will be made to pay the penalty (called a "shared responsibility payment") if they can claim an uninsured child or spouse as a dependent, regardless of whether they actually claim them or not...

Ex-’gay’ Warns Scouts: ‘boys Imitate Leaders’
Just as details emerged of growing financial and political pressure on the Boy Scouts to reverse a century-old and Supreme Court-approved policy barring homosexuals, the president of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays issued a plea to the Scouts to seriously consider the dangers of giving in... 

Ontario’s new lesbian Premier promises to bring back explicit lower grades sex-ed curriculum

New York Governor Wants Law for More Late-Term Abortions
...In a recent press conference, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, voiced his support for a new “reproductive health” law. New York currently bans abortion after 24 weeks, except to save the life of the mother. Cuomo wants to eliminate that restriction and allow abortion throughout pregnancy – up until birth – if the abortion is done for “health” reasons...

Religious Liberty Remains Under Attack in Latest HHS Guidance
The latest administration proposal does nothing whatsoever to help businesses like Hobby Lobby or Dominos Farms. All for-profit companies are subject to the contraception/abortion mandate, just as before. They will have to seek legal protection from the courts, and in some cases (at least) will likely receive it from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act...

Nuns Must Have Birth Control Coverage
...So, let’s say that the Sisters of Mercy have 150 employees. They must receive birth control coverage. They just don’t pay for it. But simply by being covered with health insurance, their carrier will be required to automatically enroll all employees for birth control under a separate policy on the corporate dime.

Thus, nuns will have birth control coverage whether they like it or not, and a private company will be forced to provide the coverage to religious organizations for free, coverage they can charge for in other contexts. A double dose of authoritarianism...

Albert Mohler: So What if Abortion Ends a Life? Rare Candor from the Culture of Death
...Then, in chilling candor, Williams proceeds to affirm that every single unborn child is a human life. But, her argument is not pro-life. Far from it.

In her words:
“When we on the pro-choice side get cagey around the life question, it makes us illogically contradictory. I have friends who have referred to their abortions in terms of “scraping out a bunch of cells” and then a few years later were exultant over the pregnancies that they unhesitatingly described in terms of “the baby” and “this kid.” I know women who have been relieved at their abortions and grieved over their miscarriages. Why can’t we agree that how they felt about their pregnancies was vastly different, but that it’s pretty silly to pretend that what was growing inside of them wasn’t the same? Fetuses aren’t selective like that. They don’t qualify as human life only if they’re intended to be born.”

Williams skewers the “pro-choice” evasion. The fetus is a human life, she asserts — every fetus, wanted or unwanted by its mother, planned or unplanned as a pregnancy. She even affirms that life begins at conception. But, she quickly argues, the fact that the unborn child is a human life doesn’t mean that it should not be aborted...

Richard Dawkins Loses Debate Against Former Anglican Head Rowan Williams at Cambridge University-VIDEO
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, defeated prominent atheist professor, Richard Dawkins, in a debate at the University of Cambridge in England on Thursday night, as a vote taken at the conclusion of the debate ruled that religion does have a place in the 21st century.

The debate motion that "religion has no place in the 21st Century" was well-defeated at the event held in front of an audience of about 800 people, mostly students, at the Cambridge Union Society's chambers, according to the U.K.'s Independent newspaper.

Dawkins lost the debate by 324 votes to 136, as he failed to convince the house that religion has no place...

Cultural Pandering No Boon for Shriveling United Church of Christ
Advocates for churches and Christian institutions reconsidering biblical teaching on sexual morality frequently claim that such cultural accomodationism is “needed” if Christian communities are to have any hope of surviving in an America whose secular culture is increasingly intolerant of moral boundaries for sexual expression (beyond consent)...
...So how has such pandering worked out for the UCC?
As of this writing, the UCC stands poised to finally dip below the benchmark of one million members, which is less than half the size it had when it was founded (by merger) in 1962....

Pope Benedict Takes To Social Media To Spread The Faith
...The Pontiff encourages the use of social media as a new forum for Agora, an ancient Greek term for an open public square where people can share ideas...



Dodge Paul Harvey Spot Best Super Bowl Ad of 2013