CA Assembly Considers Jury Duty For Non-Citizens

Every now and then, the mask slips, and the absolute imperial nature of the American government system is revealed.

For instance:

California would allow noncitizens to serve on juries under a proposal being considered by state lawmakers, potentially expanding a fundamental obligation of American life to millions more people.

The measure, which would apply only to legal residents, would make California the only state to open the jury box to noncitizens who meet all other requirements of service, according to legal experts. The proposal raises the question of what it means to be judged by peers in a state where more than one in seven residents is not a citizen. One of the bill’s authors, Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), said the proposal would help ensure an adequate pool of jurors, help immigrants integrate into American society and make juries more representative of California.

Juries “should reflect our community, and our community is always changing,” Wieckowski said. “It’s time for California to be a leader on this.” The Assembly passed the bill this week on a party-line vote, with most Democrats lining up in favor and Republicans standing in opposition.

[...]

Legal and trial experts had mixed reactions to the measure, which would open a distinctly American institution to non-Americans. Legal proceedings, particularly civil cases, in many parts of the world are not decided by a jury.

“The real goal is to have people in the community make a determination about guilt or innocence. There could be a value in adding different perspectives into the deliberation process,” said Matthew McCusker, president of the American Society of Trial Consultants. But noncitizens may not have the same understanding of the judicial system, he said.

“Jury instructions are remarkably complex,” McCusker said. “If you add in further barriers, whether it’s language or cultural, you’re adding more difficulties in following the rule of law.”

Niels Frenzen, a professor of immigration law at USC, said he doubted immigrants would have any more trouble handling jury duty than citizens would. “There is not often that great a divide of knowledge between immigrants and …citizens.”

If Frenzen is right, that’s hardly encouraging; it’s more a damning indictment of Americans’ profound ignorance about their own history and their judicial and legal system, today.

Feminist Professor Says Polygamy is the Next Marriage ‘Civil Right’

Just what America needs (not).

A college professor in Vermont has released a book in support of polygamy, explaining why she believes it is the next civil right in America.

Janet Bennion is a professor of anthropology and sociology at Lyndon State College in Lyndonville. Earlier this year, she released a book entitled Polygamy in Primetime: Media, Gender and Politics in Mormon Fundamentalism, outlining her research on the topic and why she supports the idea of a woman or man having two or more spouses.

Recently, Bennion sat down with the Vermont publication Seven Days to further explain her views on polygamy, as she has been studying the lifestyle for over 20 years, and even spent time herself among a polygamist group. Bennion, who said that she does not wish to be a polygamist as she is happily married to one man, outlined that much of her book is based on talks with Mormon women or those involved with the Apostolic United Brethren.

“The groups vary, and some women find that working with other women in the home is beneficial to them,” she told the publication. “One woman described her co-wives as ‘second mothers’ [who do the childcare], so she can go find a job in the community. They have this economical and social network that provides a little bit more freedom than you might see in a monogamous pair bond.”

Bennion said that while most modern Mormons no longer follow polygamist doctrine, there are a number of them who still do.

“[T]he mainstream is made up of people with ancestors who were polygamists,” she added. “You can see that there are some sensitivities there, especially in an election year. Half of my family was for Romney, the other half for Obama. The Romney half was saying, ‘You shouldn’t have that book out there.’”

The professor advised that lesbianism even exists within polygamist relationships. She said that she received “love letters” once from a married woman, and was also invited to dinner by another who wanted to see if she was marriage material.

“There are women in the Utah pioneer days who formed a sisterhood network and allowed for lesbian connections,” Bennion stated. “I talked to at least three women who had formed sexual connections to their sister wives or to another woman in the community.”

She said that she feels that those who oppose polygamous marriages are bigots.

“We need to just step back, get off our high horse, and look at this from a civil liberties perspective. If we’re going to pave the way for alternative sexuality, why not provide liberties for those who choose the polygamy form?” Bennion asked. “As a feminist, I say, ‘Bring it on; let’s legalize it.’”

Intensely Political Mennonites Should Pay for Their Free Speech

Damn straight; free speech doesn’t require government subsidy…

You can write pretty much whatever you want, but if you do so you cannot hide behind the financial largesse of the taxpayer.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s; or, don’t be hypocrites! Leading to various fellow travellers and tiresome anti-Tory types to moan on about censorship and free speech.

In fact, the Mennonites themselves can be a little fuzzy about free speech, as I found out when I was lecturer-in-residence at the Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

For a week I delivered a number of speeches on various theological and social issues, and was stunned how secular and even mocking of Christianity some of the students and especially staff were.

Many were also outraged and wanted me silenced for daring to say at a Christian college that Jesus was God, marriage was the union of a man and a woman, and life begins at conception. Perhaps I should have asked for a tax-break.

You see, while the Mennonites are divided and do contain many fine people, their left wing is powerful and, if you’ll forgive the phrase, aggressively pacifist.

This alleged pacifism — itself a misunderstanding of Christ’s teaching — translates less to deploring violence than to opposing the United States, capitalism, the West, and more recently Israel.

They’re intensely political and they detest the Conservative government.

And all that is being said here by the authorities is that nobody is above the law or the tax code, and that while you have a right to speak your mind, you need to do so with an honest heart and clean hands.

B.C. Man Who Botched Son’s Home-circumcision Guilty of Criminal Negligence, Top Court Rules

Good; some procedures are best left to medical professionals (if undertaken at all)…

The Supreme Court has ruled that a British Columbia man who tried to circumcise his 4-year-old son on the kitchen floor of his house is guilty of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

The top court was asked to hear whether his attempt was allowed under freedom of religion provisions.

The botched surgery happened in April 2007. He used a carpet blade that he purchased at Home Depot earlier that day and sterilized. He didn’t give his son any anesthetic, just four ounces of homemade honey wine.

According to the Crown, the father lacked the medical skills to perform a circumcision. He tried to circumcise himself in 2005 using a Zhenxi ring, or circumcision ring. It wasn’t successful and the father had to be rushed to a hospital.

The circumcision he performed on his son two years later wasn’t successful either and there was significant bleeding, which the father stopped with the help of a veterinary blood-stopping agent and paper towels. “The result,” according to court documents submitted by the Crown, was “the foreskin on D.J.’s penis stuck out like two arms. D.J. was not circumcised. He was disfigured.”

The pair cannot be named.

In 2009 the man was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm, aggravated assault and assault with a weapon. He was convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm but acquitted of the other two charges. The B.C. Court of Appeal found him guilty on all counts, and he appealed to the Supreme Court.

The father, as a Jehovah’s Witness, said he believes circumcision is necessary to “make things right with God.”

The Jehovah’s Witness church does not condone or forbid circumcision.

The man also argues he didn’t intend to hurt his son and took many safety precautions including consulting doctors (who advised him against it) and reading about circumcision online.

So, he claimed he did it for religious reasons, but his ‘church’ doesn’t even take a stand on the matter…

Lock him up and throw away the key.

A Victory Against Educrats

Still, I don’t know why he doesn’t homeschool his kid(s)…

A Vermont judge has denied an attempt by the Addison Rutland school system to refuse to turn over documents requested by Marcel Cyr under the state’s open records law. Cyr, the parent of a student in the system and a frequent critic of the schools, had filed a request for a letter from a mental health professional that the school relied on to issue a “no trespassing” order against him. Cyr says the order was issued because of his criticism, not because he has threatened anyone.

Pissed Off

Should everyone be who reads this, at the dumbass, tyrannical police officer.

A Piedmont, Oklahoma, police officer gave Ashley Warden a $2,500 ticket for public urination after he spotted her 3-year-old son start to urinate in the family’s front yard. Police Chief Alex Oblein says the officer should have handled the incident differently, but he adds he’ll wait for prosecutors to decide whether to drop the charge.

Sweden ‘Self-Sufficient’ on Marijuana: Police

Great!  Now they should legalize it, and reap the benefits in decreased criminal activity and lower law-enforcement budgets; win-win!

Reports of home-grown marijuana in Sweden have quadrupled in the last decade, according to police, who claim there is now enough domestically-grown weed to supply the needs of Sweden’s pot-smokers.

The Swedish National Bureau of Investigation (Rikskriminalpolisen) has said police currently receive more than 600 reports annually about illegal pot growing operations.

”We’re finding medium sized cultivations scattered across the country,” said Andreas Gårdlund, an analyst at the agency, to the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

In 2000, the most common type of marijuana farm was a large-scale operation in an isolated house tucked away in the heart of the countryside, but now police find and expose mainly mid-sized marijuana farms.

And according to police intelligence, the operations are generally well-organized, though not in the traditional way, where a drug lord makes investments and lets his underlings do the cultivation of the plants, which was the norm some ten years ago.

Today it is more often a case of individuals growing their own weed from imported seeds in any spare area such as a cellar or in their flat, which have been fitted with good ventilation so that unsuspecting neighbours won’t catch a whiff of anything.

“And what they don’t need for themselves they sell on to organized criminal gangs that have already established distribution channels to the street,” said Gårdlund to the paper.

And according to Swedish Customs (Tullverket) the illegal smuggling of marijuana into Sweden has diminished drastically, especially in Skåne County where it is suspected that the domestic production of the illegal plants is particularly strong.

Police in Skåne say that they seize very little marijuana smuggled in from countries from where the smugglers are otherwise very active.

“And that is another indication that Sweden is self-sufficient when it comes to marijuana,” said Gårdlund to Sydsvenskan.

Vatican Says It Will Never Condone Gay Marriage

Same-sex marriage gains abroad strengthen Catholic church’s opposition.

The Vatican says it will never stop insisting that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, after gay marriage initiatives scored big wins this week in the U.S. and Europe.

In a front-page article in Saturday’s Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, the Holy See sought to frame itself as the lone voice of courage in opposing initiatives to give same-sex couples legal recognition.

Catholic teaching holds that homosexuals should be respected and treated with dignity but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The Vatican also opposes same-sex marriage, insisting on the sanctity of marriage between a man and woman as the foundation for society.

The Vatican’s anti-gay marriage media blitz came after three U.S. states approved same-sex marriage by popular vote in the election that returned Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, Spain upheld its gay marriage law and France pushed ahead with legislation that could see gay marriage legalized early next year.

“One might say the church, at least on this front, has been defeated,” L’Osservatore Romano wrote. “But that’s not the case.”

The article insisted that Catholics were putting up a valiant fight to uphold church teaching in the face of “politically correct ideologies invading every culture of the world” that are backed by institutions like the United Nations, which last year passed a non-binding resolution condemning anti-gay discrimination.

“The church is called to present itself as the lone critic of modernity, the only check … to the breakup of the anthropological structures on which human society was founded,” it said.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, for his part, said gays can have their rights protected by means other than through legal marital recognition.

He stressed that children should have a right to say they have a father and a mother.

“If not, then why not contemplate freely chosen polygamy, and naturally so as to not discriminate, polyandry?” he asked sarcastically. Polyandry is when a woman has two or more husbands.

The Papists are not the sole critics of modernity, much as they may wish to ‘present’ themselves as such (according to this); we confessional Protestants also are there, too, as are evangelicals, and Eastern Orthodox, too; and outside of orthodox Christianity, there are others such as Mormons and Muslims who also are alongside in terms of being critics of modernity.

France to Become 12th Country to Legalize Gay Marriage

I’m only surprised they hadn’t already…

France is next in line to legalize same-sex marriage, according  to a disputed bill pushed by President Francois Hollande on Wednesday, which  would defy opposition from the country’s Roman Catholic and conservative  leadership.

Currently, less than a dozen countries in the world have legalized gay  marriage, although most of them are in Europe. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain,  Portugal, Netherlands, Iceland and Belgium have all moved away from the  traditional definition of marriage between one man and one woman, and with  Hollande’s bill, France is set to join them early next year.

The top ministers in France have already approved the measure, marking  another successful agenda for Hollande’s liberal campaign, The New York Times reported. The president has called  the bill “progress for all society.” The new law will redefine marriage as  “contracted between two persons of different sex or of the same sex,” while the  words for “father” and “mother” in French will be replaced by “parents” – allowing them also to start adopting children.

Christiane Taubira, France’s justice minister, has also described the bill as  “marriage for all” and has said that it comes as response to a “demand for  equality.”

While supported by the majority of the French population, it stands in stark  contrast to the wishes of the conservative opposition in France, who have warned  that such a breakaway from traditional values will signal the end of the  traditional family unit.

“It’s the end of the family, the end of children’s development, the end of  education. It’s an enormous danger to the nation,” said UMP Senator Serge  Dassault on the radio show “France Culture.”

Mexican Governor Wants To Legalize Pot Exports to the U.S.

Hey, why not?

Mexico should legalize the export of marijuana after voters in two U.S. states opted to allow possession and sale of the drug for recreational use, an ally of incoming Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said.

Cesar Duarte, governor of Chihuahua, one of the Mexican states worst hit by drugs violence, said the decision on Tuesday by voters in the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington offered a “very clear” hint for Mexico on how to approach marijuana.

“It seems to me that we should move to authorize exports,” Duarte told Reuters in an interview. “We would therefore propose organizing production for export, and with it no longer being illegal, we would have control over a business which today is run by criminals. And which finances criminals.”

Source: Yahoo! News. Read full article. (link)

College Protects ‘Civil Right’ of Male Crossdresser to Strip Naked in Girl’s Locker Room

Don’t let your kids go to Evergreen State College, parents.

Parents whose swim team daughters use the locker room at a Washington college are expressing concern following the continued refusal of school officials to stop a crossdressing man from stripping naked along with the girls — many of whom are young children.

According to reports, because of the non-discrimination policy of Evergreen State College, the educational institution feels that it must protect the “civil rights” of the man to use the female locker room. Children from a variety of schools and swim teams are said to use the facility, such as the Aquatics Academy, the Evergreen Swim Club, and the Capital High School and Olympia High School swim teams. The youth range from ages 6-18.

The 45-year-old man, who goes by the name “Colleen Francis,” was recently reported to the police following complaints from parents whose daughters have witnessed the man exposing his body parts by sitting naked in the sauna. One report states that police were contacted by a mother whose 17-year-old daughter was “upset because she observed a person in the women’s locker room naked and displaying male genitalia.”

“[She] felt that her daughter shouldn’t have been a victim to this type of situation and wanted something done about it,” the report, written by Chief Ed Sorger, stated.

Sorger then continued to explain that the previous day, another complaint had been lodged by swim team officials.

“Officers Brewster and Koppenhaver responded to the Campus Recreation Center on a report of a man in the women’s locker room,” he wrote. “Apparently Colleen Francis’ friend … had a conversation with someone at the CRC and was upset that Colleen’s identity was being questioned.”

Sorger outlined that after a teenage girl told her instructors that she had seen a man in the girl’s sauna, the coach for the Evergreen Swim Club confronted the naked man.

“[S]he observed Colleen sitting with her legs open with her male genitalia showing, and Tiffany said to ‘her’, ‘You need to leave,”” he explained.

Texas Pastor Jailed for Preaching at Pride Event Awaits Court Date

No more freedom of religion or speech in America…

A pastor in Texas is awaiting his day in court following his arrest this month while preaching at a homosexual pride event.

Pastor Joey Faust says that he and other members of his church, Kingdom Baptist Church in Venus, Texas, were physically blocked by police while attempting to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with attendees of the Fort Worth “Ride the Rainbow” pride parade.

In 2011, Mayor Betsy Price served as co-grand marshal in the parade. Following complaints from homosexuals about the preaching and witnessing of Christians adjacent to a picnic that was a part of the festivities, according to reports, the Fort Worth Police Department resolved to step up its presence at the event.

This year, a homosexual female sergeant from the Fort Worth Police Department served as one of the marshals. It is believed that the sergeant was responsible for coordinating police efforts at the parade.

Faust states that as he and others from his church were preaching and distributing tracts to those in the parade, suddenly, the police formed a human blockade across the public walkway.

“The police lined up [across the street] and said, ‘You can go no further,” he told Christian News Network. “We were forbidden to cross the street and they wouldn’t tell us if we were being detained.”

Faust said that as he stood for some time watching others being allowed to pass by the human blockade, except for anyone that was present to witness to attendees, it became obvious that the police had an agenda.

“Christians who were in support of homosexuals were allowed to cross the street,” he stated. “A Christian walked by me right in front of the officers, and said, ‘I’m here with my family and some of them are homosexuals.’”

Faust then asked police why they were specifically restricting those that oppose homosexuality.

“I asked, ‘Why are they allowed to pass?’” he said. “They were just quiet.”

“At that point, I took a step and attempted to cross,” Faust outlined. “Once I stepped into the street, [the officer] put my hands behind my back.”

Faust and a second church member were then charged with “interfering with public duties,” a class B misdemeanor. He was jailed for 20 hours and held on $1,500 bail. Faust said that the conditions while incarcerated were deplorable.

“They did everything they could to make it as miserable and as difficult as possible,” he remarked. “Everyone was getting [released] far earlier than we were.”

Faust is now required to report to a bail bondsman each week up until his trial, for which he does not yet have a date. He explained that in Fort Worth, the process generally takes 7 to 9 months, and that being held by a bondsman includes abiding by specific terms.

“I can’t leave town,” Faust outlined. “I have to report every Wednesday with a phone call and let them know that I’m here and I didn’t run away.”

If convicted, Faust faces up to 6 months in prison and a $2,000 fine.

May God lay His curse upon the police who take sides and enforce anti-Christian laws and/or interpret laws in anti-Christian manners.

NZ Mother Admits Giving Baby Cannabis in Breast Milk

Did she intend to?  Not likely.

A woman in New Zealand has been found guilty of giving her three-month-old baby cannabis through her breast milk.

The 29-year-old mother had pleaded guilty in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the country.

She was charged with giving a controlled drug to a person under 18, after a police drugs raid on her house.

The Whanganui District Court said the actions of the woman, who has not been named, amounted to child abuse and gave her to a six month supervision order.

“Child abuse is family violence in these circumstances, and it is clear this baby and its mother needed help,” senior court official Andrew McDonald told the Wanganui Chronicle.

“People often believe drug-related activities are victimless, but it affects the people around them.”

The woman’s partner faced other charges relating to the police raid, said the paper.

I realize that ingestion of cannabis by very young children can no doubt be potentially harmful (a potential correlation between heavy pot use in males’ early teens and the onset of schizophrenia has been discovered), but is it really helpful to criminalize prenatal marijuana usage by an expectant or nursing mother?

Rookie Lawyer Mike Lickver Raps His Way to Bay St. Law Firm Job

Whatever works, I guess…

Mike Lickver capped his odyssey from law school to articling to being hired at a big downtown law firm by making a rap video about the journey.

The Toronto native penned “Law School Husslin 3,” in which he boasts “money taller than Big Bird” and “big Cohibas like Castro.” He also shot a glossy, six-minute short featuring a Lamborghini, Bridle Path mansion and bikini babes.

Earlier this month, the 28-year-old premiered the flick and performed the track at the legal community’s annual AIDS fundraiser at KoolHaus, wearing camouflage pants and a hoodie.

The video was shot in New York, Miami and Toronto during Lickver’s three-month break before starting work at Bennett Jones as a securities, mergers and acquisitions specialist.

It cost less than $5,000, thanks to corporate sponsors and pro bono work on the tune, which is available on iTunes and Amazon, with proceeds going to Canfar, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research.

While Lickver’s previous university-era videos lauded husslin’ — hip-hop parlance for overcoming obstacles — in the context of tuition, studying and professors, the trilogy finale crows about making it to the major leagues.

“We made it through the struggle of law school, through the struggle of articling and now we’re here and we’re kind of blowing the glamorous lawyer lifestyle out of proportion and saying ‘We did it, its time to celebrate,’” said Lickver of the video, which co-stars law school buddy Jesse Mighton, who landed in the corporate restructuring group at Goodmans.

Republican Homosexual Group Endorses Romney, Campaign ‘Pleased to Have the Support’

Winning is all that matters to Mitt Romney; principles be damned…

A well-known homosexual group within the Republican establishment has officially endorsed Mitt Romney for president.

Log Cabin Republicans made the announcement Tuesday, stating that it was supporting the candidate for his economic and national security policies. The group said that it communicated with Romney and his campaign before making the decision, and also discussed the matter with other members of the organization.

“We are Republicans, and we agree with Governor Romney’s vision for America in which success is a virtue, equal opportunity is ensured, and leaders recognize that it is the American people, not government, that build our nation and fuel its prosperity,” said executive director R. Clarke Cooper.

Although Romney has stated that be believes a homosexual relationship cannot be defined as a “marriage,” but feels that homosexuals have the right to be “in a loving relationship and to even adopt children,” the group says they think Romney will be sympathetic to their cause.

“On issues of particular concern to the LGBT community, we believe Governor Romney will move the ball forward compared to past Republican presidents,” Cooper continued. “No matter who is in the White House, it is crucial our community always has a credible voice speaking out on behalf of LGBT Americans. Log Cabin Republicans will be that voice to President Mitt Romney.”

“Mitt Romney is not Rick Santorum, and Paul Ryan is not Michele Bachmann,” he said. “Otherwise, our decision would have been different.”

While a number of homosexual organizations have been angered over the endorsement, claiming that the Log Cabin Republicans are betraying their cause, Cooper said he disagrees.

“Those who point fearfully to potential vacancies on the United States Supreme Court, we offer a reminder: five of the eight federal court rulings against DOMA were written by Republican-appointed judges,” he stated.

Following the announcement, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul told reporters that the Romney-Ryan ticket is thankful for the endorsement.

“Governor Romney is pleased to have the support of the Log Cabin Republicans and looks forward to working together for the future of our country,” she said.

Lesbians File Discrimination Complaint Against Owners of Private Farm for Not Hosting ‘Wedding’

The pink fascists strike again…

Two homosexual women have filed a discrimination complaint with the New York Division of Human Rights after a rural farm declined to host their “wedding” on the premises.

Jennie McCarthy and Melisa Erwin, both 29, of Albany, state that they contacted the 50-acre Liberty Ridge Farms in nearby Schaghticoke to schedule the event, as the venue regularly hosts weddings and other outings.

However, when the owners, Robert and Cynthia Gifford, realized that the two were homosexuals, they informed the women that they do not host such gatherings.

“That’s when [Cynthia] said, ‘Now we have a problem,’” Erwin explained. “This is a decision that my husband and I have made. …. [Y]ou can’t do it here.”

McCarthy and Erwin then filed a complaint with the New York Division of Human Rights, alleging discrimination. Others began to write angry messages on the farm’s Facebook page, such as “Gay dollars are just as green as straight dollars.”

However, owner Robert Gifford told reporters that he believes he has a right to decide how he will operate his business, and that it’s not about the money — it’s about morality.

“I think it’s our right to choose who we market to, like any business,” Robert Gifford told WYNT-TV. “We are a family business and we feel we ought to stay down the family path.”

His spokesperson, Jason McGuire of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms, added that he felt that the real discrimination was against the Giffords and their religious beliefs.

“They still have children at home, and they feel that their rights are being violated and they’re being discriminated against because of their position on the issue of gay marriage,” he said. “If religious freedom doesn’t extend beyond the four walls of a church, then you really don’t have religious freedom at all.”

However, Susan Sommer of LAMBDA, a homosexual legal organization, states that because Liberty Ridge Farm is open to members of the public, even though it is a family-owned farm on private land, the Giffords must accommodate the women.

“If it opens its venue for weddings by the general public, it can’t then shut its doors on a same-sex couple,” she said. “You can’t open a business — a public accommodation — advertise it as a wedding venue and then in violation of state non-discrimination laws turn some people away at the door.”

Widow Ordered Not to Discuss God or Pray at Government-Funded Housing Complex

Incredible!

A widow in Minnesota was recently informed that she could not engage in religious discussion in the commons area of the apartment complex at which she resides.

Ruth Sweats, an elderly woman that lives at Osborne Apartments in Spring Lake Park near Minneapolis, says that she was engaged in a private discussion with another resident in the commons when she was approached by social worker Rachelle Henkle. Henkle told Sweats that because the apartment complex was funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, she was not allowed to speak about religious matters in the public areas of the property.

However, not only was Sweats told that she could not engage in faith-based discussion, but Henkle stated that she could not pray or read her Bible in the commons either.

Therefore, Sweats contacted the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to express her concerns about the matter. Last Friday, ADF sent a letter to Osborne Apartments to demand that they cease and desist their restrictions on religious freedom.

Oregon Evangelist Arrested for Asserting Right to Preach at Rural Harvest Festival to Face Trial

Once again, police interfering with freedom of speech and freedom of religion – in the ‘land of the free’…

An evangelist from Oregon is scheduled to plead not guilty today in a case involving his arrest last month for asserting his right to preach on the public sidewalk to attendees of a rural harvest festival.

[...]

He stated that Officer Aaron Gilbert of the Myrtle Point Police Department, and minutes later, a sergeant in plain clothes, approached him and claimed that the city-wide event was a private festival and that he could not engage in evangelistic activity. Schmelzer had been standing on a public street corner in an area that had been blocked off to vehicular traffic.

“They said that there were people that were upset with the message, and that I could have possibly started fights,” he explained.

The promoter of the harvest festival also began to talk to Schmelzer and likewise stated that he had to leave.

“He said that he had leased the area and had a permit, so he could state what can and can’t go on,” Schmelzer said.

“You can’t tell me what I can’t talk about,” he recalled replying.

Schmelzer said that he was advised that the matter would be resolved “as long as you put this stuff away and stop.”

He then began to explain his constitutional rights to the police as laid out by the 9th Circuit, which included the right to engage in free speech on public property that has been reserved for an event under a permit.

“I wasn’t going to argue with the guy, but I was like, ‘Hey, this is what the laws on the books state,” Schmelzer said. “That’s when the officer told me to shut up about that, and that he wasn’t going to talk about it anymore.”

Minutes later, when he continued to engage in private discussion with the promoter about his rights under the law, he was placed under arrest.

“That’s when the police said, ‘That’s it. You’ve been warned,’” Schmelzer outlined. “Just because they heard me talking about it.”

He states that he was then transported to the local police station, where officers took his mugshot and fingerprints, and advised that they “did not want to see him again” that weekend. Schmelzer was charged with disorderly conduct, but his citation did not list a specific reason for the charge.

“They just knew that they wanted to appease their buddies and their groups,” he said. “I obviously struck a nerve [by explaining my rights].”

Canadian High Court Upholds Pastor’s Right to Oppose Homosexuality, Criticizes ‘Hate Crimes’ Law

Good news!

In ending a decade-long battle, a high court in Canada has ruled in favor of a local pastor in dismissing an appeal that sought to overturn a lower court decision upholding his right to oppose homosexuality.

Pastor Stephen Boissoin had written a letter to the editor of the Red Deer Advocate in 2002, expressing his Biblical beliefs about the homosexual lifestyle. After reading the letter as published in the Advocate, Dr. Darren Lund, a professor at the University of Calgary, filed a complaint with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, accusing Boissoin of violating Canada’s hate crimes law, which prohibits “hate propaganda.”

In May 2008, the Commission ruled against the pastor, and ordered him to cease and desist from further expressing any views regarding the homosexual lifestyle. He was also ordered to pay Dr. Lund the sum of $5,000, and to compose a written apology to the professor, although Lund was not the subject of Boissoin’s writings, nor did the two know each other.

In December 2009, the Court of Queen’s Bench in Alberta reversed the order, stating that Boissoin’s letter to the editor did not constitute hate speech.

“In my view, the panel erred in its finding that the impugned letter was hateful and contemptuous of homosexuals,” wrote Justice Earl C. Wilson on behalf of the court. “Had the Panel been alive to all [the] evidence, she could not have come to the conclusions that she did.”

However, the ruling was then appealed to Alberta’s highest court in an attempt to force the pastor to face punishment for his writings.

Last week, the Alberta Court of Appeals upheld the opinion of the Court of Queen’s Bench, stating that Boissoin has a right to express his beliefs on matters such as homosexuality as long as they are focused on a behavior and not a specific person.

“I acknowledge that drawing the distinction between expressions of opinion, and statements of another kind, may sometimes be difficult to draw, and may depend upon the context of the statement,” wrote the panel, which consisted of Justices Carole Conrad, Clifton O’Brien and Brian O’Ferrall.

“Matters of morality, including the perceived morality of certain types of sexual behavior, are topics for discussion in the public forum. Frequently, expression on these topics arises from deep seated religious conviction, and is not always temperate,” the court continued. “Boissoin and others have the freedom to think, whether stemming from their religious convictions or not, that  homosexuality is sinful and morally wrong. In my view, it follows that they have the right to express that thought to others.”

However, the court, while noting that Boissoin is entitled to the right to speak his mind, stated that he may not treat homosexuals unequally in society.

A Look inside Jordan’s Elaborate, and Mostly Legitimate, Vote Buying Industry

Fascinating and appalling.

Subhi Khatib is not an activist, nor does he have a political preference. But the 45-year old Palestinian refugee nevertheless works around the clock during Jordan’s election period, brokering votes for candidates.

Khatib’s job is to locate voters from some of the 13 Palestinian refugee camps spread throughout the kingdom and sell their votes to office-seekers running in large cities.

Jordanian law allows votes to be transferred from one location to another under strict conditions, but vote-brokering is prohibited and punishable by up to two years in prison. Nevertheless, no one has ever been convicted of the practice since the law was passed and circumventing the permitted procedures is not at all uncommon.

Khatib explained that his clients are typically businessmen or individuals from the security apparatus linked to authorities who are seeking to support their favored candidates or oust those candidates’ unwanted opponents in some hotly contested districts.

“Palestinian refugee camps are seen as gold mines for votes. There are tens of thousands of votes up for grab,” said Khatib, as he sifted through a list of telephone contacts. “There are middlemen in various camps who can bring me votes whenever I need them. Some of them do not even buy the votes, but herd relatives to me – most of whom are women who are poor and uneducated,” he told The Media Line.

Jordan is scheduled to hold elections for parliament on January 23, under an amended law. The revised legislation empowers tribes loyal to the royal family and affords only minimal representation to Jordanians of Palestinian origin who have full Jordanian citizenship.

In the squalid Baqaa refugee camp, home to nearly 300,000 refugees, residents show little interest in reform protests that swept through the main cities across Jordan. Residents of refugee camps opted to maintain a low profile ever since the “Arab Spring” reached Jordan, as leaders of the Palestinian community worry their camps are not politically protected.

“We have no role in this political drama. We worry about a tough response by the security forces if we take to the streets to demand reforms,” said Helmi Samer, a camp activist who has been lobbying for an elections boycott.

“We are considered Jordanians only on election day. For rest of the year, we are treated like [the] Palestinian refugees [we are] who have no political rights,” he says, noting that Palestinian camps housing nearly one million residents are represented by only four seats in the parliament, while a small town like Ma’an, with a population of merely 50,000 people, has five representatives in the 122-seat parliament.