Scrolling around...June 22, 2013

41% percent of businesses freeze hiring due to Obamacare, 19% reduce jobs
Small business owners' fear of the effect of the new health-care reform law on their bottom line is prompting many to hold off on hiring and even to shed jobs in some cases, a recent poll found.

"We were startled because we know that employers were concerned about the Affordable Care Act and the effects it would have on their business, but we didn't realize the extent they were concerned, or that the businesses were being proactive to make sure the effects of the ACA actually were minimized," said attorney Steven Friedman of Littler Mendelson. His firm, which specializes in employment law, commissioned the Gallup poll...

Cash-Only Doctors Abandon the Insurance System
Fed up with declining payments and rising red tape, a small but growing number of doctors are opting out of the insurance system completely. They're expecting patients to pony up with cash. Some doctors who have gone this route love it, saying they can spend more time with and provide higher quality care to their patients. Health advocates are skeptical, worrying that only the wealthy will benefit from this system, says CNN Money...

UK: Faithfulness not necessary in a marriage, says Govt
...Lady Stowell – who used to be Head of Corporate Affairs at the BBC – replied for the Government: “In terms of the law, marriage does not require the fidelity of couples.

“It is open to each couple to decide for themselves on the importance of fidelity within their own relationship.”

But Tory MP David Burrowes, a critic of the same-sex marriage Bill, said: “This goes against everything the PM has said about his desire to try and strengthen marriage by extending marriage to same sex couples....

Christendom’s Greatest Cathedral to Become a Mosque
The desire to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque is not about Muslims wanting a place to pray — as of 2010, there were 3,000 active mosques in Istanbul alone. Rather, it's about their reveling, and trying to revivify, the glory days of Islamic jihad and conquest: Reuters added that Muslims "staged the prayers ahead of celebrations next week marking the 559th anniversary of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet's conquest of Byzantine Constantinople." According to Salih Turhan, a spokesman quoted by Reuters, "As the grandchildren of Mehmet the Conqueror, seeking the re-opening Hagia Sophia as a mosque is our legitimate right."...

Disney’s Good Luck Charlie to Feature Family with Same-Sex Parents
TV Guide reports that in the new season of the Disney Channel hit Good Luck Charlie will have an episode in which the Duncans meet a family with two moms.

Government could use metadata to map your every move
If you tweet a picture from your living room using your smartphone, you’re sharing far more than your new hairdo or the color of the wallpaper. You’re potentially revealing the exact coordinates of your house to anyone on the Internet.
          
The GPS location information embedded in a digital photo is an example of so-called metadata, a once-obscure technical term that’s become one of Washington’s hottest new buzzwords...

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/06/20/194505/government-could-use-metadata.html#.UcRvUWT70zE#storylink=cpy

What Really Happened at the Komen Foundation
The clean sweep at the Komen Foundation is finally complete. A few days ago Komen founder Nancy Brinker finally lost her job as CEO. It took a while but they finally got rid of her, the woman who watched her sister suffer and die from breast cancer, who dedicated her life to eradicating the disease, who created one of the most successful global health charities in the world. They removed her for the crime of trying to defund Planned Parenthood. She’s being replaced by a woman some say had a hand in developing Obamacare and who has never run a non-profit.

She was the last of the triumvirate who had the audacity to try and get Susan G. Komen for the Cure out of the culture wars around abortion...

Girl Scouts of Britain Replace 'God' with 'Myself' in Oath
On Wednesday, Great Britain’s Girl Guides (their equivalent of U.S. Girl Scouts) and Brownies removed God from their 103-year-old oath.

Instead of the passage where they used to promise to “love God,” they will now vow to be true to "myself" and develop "my beliefs." The organization said the move is intended to attract girls from secular families.

Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, condemned the move, saying, "These values have their roots in a Christian outlook. Taking ‘God’ out of the promise denies the history and foundations of the movement without offering anything in its place, with the result that the organization will lose its distinctive ethos and end up meaning nothing."...

Reformed Church in America (RCA) removes conscience clauses
The clauses provided for conscientious objection to women's ordination

Removing High School Student from Class for Saying “I Don’t Accept Gays” Violates First Amendment

The ordinary president
...Simply stated, the remarkable charisma of Barack Obama has fled. Fled, mainly because it was in large measure artificial from the beginning, embedded in external circumstances and fuelled in large measure by the media hyperdrive that attended his campaign...