Drug Test Welfare Recips AND Lawmakers

A Republican member of the Indiana General Assembly withdrew his bill to create a pilot program for drug testing welfare applicants Friday after one of his Democratic colleagues amended the measure to require drug testing for lawmakers.

"There was an amendment offered today that required drug testing for legislators as well and it passed, which led me to have to then withdraw the bill," said Rep. Jud McMillin (R-Brookville), sponsor of the original welfare drug testing bill.

The Supreme Court ruled drug testing for political candidates unconstitutional in 1997, striking down a Georgia law. McMillin said he withdrew his bill so he could reintroduce it on Monday with a lawmaker drug testing provision that would pass constitutional muster.


Read it all here.


 
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. 

Judge Harms' Abortion, Sterilization Order Overruled

It is difficult to imagine a case better scripted for a discussion of informed consent than Mary Moe's Massachusetts abortion.

When Mary Moe, a pseudonym for a 32-year-old woman with schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder, visited a hospital emergency room in October, it was discovered that she was pregnant. This meant that she could not take her psychiatric medication as it would harm the foetus. So the state Department of Mental Health applied to have the woman's parents named as guardians so they could give consent for an abortion.

However, Mary did not want to have an abortion. Unsurprisingly, she was not completely coherent, but she insisted that she was "very Catholic" and would never do such a thing. She knew what abortions were, as her first pregnancy had been aborted. (She subsequently gave birth to a son, whom her parents are caring for.)

The case went before Judge Christina Harms, a Harvard Law School graduate and a former lawyer in the State's welfare services. Judge Harms ordered Mary Moe to have an abortion. If she were intransigent, she could be "coaxed, bribed, or even enticed'' into the hospital. Furthermore, the judge wanted to put an end to these distressing pregnancies. She ordered Mary Moe to be sterilized "to avoid this painful situation from recurring in the future.'' Harms reasoned that Mary Moe was not competent to make a decision about an abortion, because of her "substantial delusional beliefs." But if she were competent, she would choose to abort the child.

In the event, Judge Harms was overruled. "The personal decision whether to bear or beget a child is a right so fundamental that it must be extended to all persons, including those who are incompetent,'' said the state appeals court. As for the sterilization, said one of the appeals judges, "The judge appears to have simply produced the requirement out of thin air."

The publicity given to this unusual case has led mental health advocates to wonder how often women are forcibly aborted and sterilised. "I didn't realize that forced sterilizations were going on anywhere," said Howard Trachtman of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe. "If a precedent were set for that, then you could see a whole slew of people filing for it, or trying to get judges to order it." "Simply having a diagnosis of schizophrenia or any other mental illness is not a basis for sterilization in and of itself. It's just sheer prejudice," Elyn Saks, of the University of Southern California, told the Boston Herald. ~ Boston Globe, Jan 18

Army Reduction about 100,000

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 27, 2012) -- The Army will draw down in size by as many as 80,000 Soldiers over the next six years. That reduction includes the elimination of at least eight brigade combat teams.

The Army expects an active force end strength reduction from 570,000 to 490,000, said Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, during a press briefing, Jan. 27, at the Pentagon.

The general said the time is "strategically right" to reduce the Army's force structure, but stressed that it would be done the right way.

"Even given a fiscally constrained environment our Army will accomplish our reductions in a responsible and controlled manner," Odierno said. "Secretary McHugh and I are committed to ensuring we walk down this hill at the ready, rather than running our nation's Army off a cliff."

Odierno said the Army would execute force reduction measures by following a "drawdown ramp that allows us to take care of Soldiers and families, while maintaining a ready and capable force to meet any requirements, including our current operations in Afghanistan."

Most of that force reduction, Odierno said, would come from attrition.

Read more here.

Hungary's Constitution Defends Marriage and Life

By Susan Yoshihara, Ph.D.


New York, January 27 (C-FAM) Hungarian leaders have passed a law protecting the traditional family, defying ongoing criticism that their new constitution would curtail abortion and homosexuality.

The new law says the family, based upon marriage of a man and a woman whose mission is fulfilled by raising children, is an "autonomous community...established before the emergence of law and the State" and that the State must respect it as a matter of national survival. It says "Embryonic and foetal life shall be entitled to protection and respect from the moment of conception," and the state should encourage "homely circumstances" for child care. It obliges the media to respect marriage and parenting and assigns parents, rather than the State, primary responsibility for protecting the rights of the child. The law enumerates responsibilities for minors, including respect and care for elderly parents.

The purpose of the law is "to create a predictable and safe regulatory environment for family protection and the promotion of family welfare, and to enforce the Fundamental Law," the nation's new constitution, which came into force on January 1st and was passed by a vote of 262-44 last April.

The Fundamental Law nullified Hungary's communist-era constitution and dates its democracy from the revolution against the Soviet Union in 1956 and Soviet collapse in 1990. Hungary is the last Central European nation to pass a post-communist constitution.

The constitution calls for the protection of life from conception and bans torture, human trafficking, eugenics, and human cloning. It recognizes marriage as the "conjugal union of a man and a woman."

Amnesty International said the article protecting life from conception could "undermine the rights of women and girls" that are "enshrined in several treaties signed and ratified by the Republic of Hungary such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)." The group said the article defining marriage "may pave the way to the introduction of an explicit ban on same-sex marriages which contravenes international and European anti-discrimination standards...enshrined by Article 23 of the ICCPR [the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]."

Human Rights Watch likewise invoked UN human rights treaties in a letter urging Hungary's president to "amend the constitution to ensure respect for women's reproductive rights." The human rights goliath expressed concern that the non-discrimination clause for "race, color, sex, disability, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, wealth, birth or any other circumstance whatsoever" excludes reference to sexual orientation or gender identity which they said was guaranteed in the ICCPR.

International legal experts have dismissed the claims of the human rights groups saying Hungary has the right to pass a constitution without interference. They point out that no UN treaty even mentions abortion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and that the UN General Assembly has never accepted such redefinitions.

European legal expert Roger Kiska sees the new Hungarian laws as part of a growing trend among European states to push back at such interpretations and protect human life and the family. Former US ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer said the expulsion of Hungary from the EU is "now no longer unthinkable," but Hungarian analyst Julia Lakatos downplayed the controversy, telling CSMonitor, "Much of the criticism from abroad is exaggerated."

Obama and US influence abroad

In his State of the Union address, President Obama claimed that the influence of the United States of America is greater now than in many years.  He said:

“Anyone who tells you otherwise, anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn’t know what they’re talking about. That’s not the message we get from leaders around the world, all of whom are eager to work with us. That’s not how people feel from Tokyo to Berlin; from Cape Town to Rio; where opinions of America are higher than they’ve been in years.”

Glenn Kessler made this observation: "Obama’s self-congratulatory tone aside, the most striking thing about this list is that it does not include any cities in the Islamic world. Obama had made a high-profile speech in Cairo in 2009 designed to bolster the U.S. image; judging by recent polling, his effort has been a failure."

Czech Grave Robbers Apprehended

The Prague Daily Monitor website reports that Czech police have arrested two men suspected of robbing more than 70 graves in northern Bohemia.

The two men -- aged 48 and 38 -- mainly targeted older tombs in the region in search of gold teeth, medals, jewelry, and other relics.

They were arrested last Saturday night at a cemetery in Usti nad Labem in the north of the country, where they were raiding tombs.

Police also took the equipment the men used, including face masks, crowbars and other tools, as well as a short folding ladder that they used to descend into the tombs.
 
 
Source:  Theology and Society

Jessica Buchanan Rescued by Navy Seals

The same Navy SEAL team responsible for killing Osama Bin Laden roughly seven months ago pulled off another successful mission Tuesday, rescuing two aid workers taken hostage in Somalia late last year. The mission reportedly occurred shortly before President Obama took to the podium to deliver his State of the Union address.

According to the BBC, neither the U.S. troops nor the hostages were injured in the rescue, but nine captors were killed. The captors were not identified as al-Shabab militants (al-Shabab is an Islamist group controlling much of southern Somalia), but rather as "criminals" by U.S. officials.

The two aid workers are Jessica Buchanan, an American, and Poul Hagen Thisted, from Denmark. They were taken captive at gunpoint by Somali pirates in October.


Read the full report here.