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Compiled by Steve Jalsevac
MARRIAGE, FAMILY
Co-Habitator’s Vows – Video
The Defense of Marriage Act: A Measure for Children and Families by Chuck Donovan
‘Why do we let them dress like that?’ – One News Now
How do 12- and 13-year-old girls dress for a party? In “mini-dresses, perilously high heels, and glittery, dangling earrings, their eyes heavily shadowed in black-pearl and jade,” says Mrs. Jennifer Moses in a recent Wall Street Journal article. “They look like a flock of tropical birds.” Then she asked the question many are asking: “Why do so many of us not only permit our teenage daughters to dress like this—like prostitutes, if we’re being honest with ourselves—but pay for them to do it with our AmEx cards?”
Federally-Mandated ‘Bully-Proofing’ Programs Coming to a School Near You – American Thinker
At a recent Washington, D.C. conference on bullying, President Obama declared his desire to “dispel the myth that bullying is just a harmless rite of passage or an inevitable part of growing up.” Obama’s statement typifies the liberal take on the dark side of human behavior. Feel-good ideologues imagine an ability to engineer away life’s nasty bits.
Liberals refuse to accept that reaching functional adulthood requires learning to deal with harmful experiences. Anti-bullying programs under the umbrella of restorative justice will accustom students to rely on third party interventions to settle conflicts. The approach will teach children to expect the world to work in a Pollyannaish manner.
HOMOSEXUALITY
Is the West’s decline caused by ‘contagion of homosexuality’? – Benjamin Harnwell
The recent Radio Maria interview with Prof. Roberto de Mattei, Vice President of Italy’s National Research Council, has attracted considerable attention for his comments on homosexuality and the fall of Ancient Rome. For Edward Gibbon and (Nobel Laureate) Theodore Mommsen, Rome’s collapse was largely due to moral decadence. But is his basic argument really so different in essence from that given by Cicero?
Governor’s lesbian nominee to Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court comes with disturbing baggage
Same-sex attraction: a therapist’s view – Mercator
Not everyone attracted to the same sex is happy about it. What help is there for those who want to change? We hear a lot from people who claim they are happy with their homosexual or lesbian orientation and want social recognition for it. But what of people who are unhappy with their attraction to others of the same sex?
Dutch gays don’t take advantage of opportunity to marry
10 years since The Netherlands legalized same-sex marriage, gay couples marry at a much lower rate than heterosexual couples.
Citizen confronts liberal Mass. town over gay-themed anti-Semitic play in high school
Forcing vote at Town Meeting this Monday. See videos.
TECH NEWS
Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops
ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists. ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.
A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.
Apple: We ‘must have’ comprehensive user location data on you – IB Times
IPhone tracking prompts privacy fears – Guardian
“Apple has made it possible for almost anybody – a jealous spouse, a private detective – with access to your phone or computer to get detailed information about where you’ve been,” said Pete Warden, one of the researchers. Apple declined to comment on why the file is created or whether it can be disabled.
Apple’s iOS Location-Tracking Headaches: 5 Questions – PC World
Apple appears to be headed for a Google-size privacy snafu over its iOS location-tracking database after lawmakers in Europe and Washington recently started asking questions.
OTHER
Seven reasons for optimism about the state of the world by Carolyn Moynihan – Mercator
1. Young people around the world are becoming more pro-life.
2. Birth rates in the developed world are ticking up after a long decline.
3. Poverty is declining,
4. The poor are taking their own destinies in hand.
5. Philanthropy is growing in poorer countries.
6. Religion continues its resurgence.
the British are throwing their weight behind the happiness movement.
The Disappearing Dollar by Mark Steyn
After hearing the president’s plan, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. sovereign-debt outlook to “negative.” Ah, the fine art of understatement.