Free to shut up
Link here.
If you have any doubts that the campaign by homosexuals and the government to destroy Christian businesses is not a bigoted attack on religious people, read this article.
Tag: policy
Hawaii officials vote to limit access to Mauna Kea
Hawaii’s Board of Land and Natural Resources voted 5 to 2 on Friday to restrict access to Mauna Kea.
The rule restricts being within a mile (1.6 kilometres) of the mountain’s access road during certain nighttime hours, unless in a moving vehicle, and prohibits camping gear. It would allow construction to resume on the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope, the subject of months of protests. Many Native Hawaiians consider the mountain sacred. Camping was already prohibited on the mountain. “We need the tools to keep order on the mountain,” said board member Chris Yuen. “It’s sad that it has come to this point.”
Not surprisingly, the leader of the protesters said they would ignore the rule and continue their overnight protests.
Oregon threatens to take home of Christian bakers
Fascists: Oregon is now threatening to place a lien on the home of the Christian bakers who refused to participate in a same-sex wedding for religious reasons.
The BOLI ruling ordered the mom-and-pop bakers to pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple. They were also slapped with a gag order that prohibits them from speaking publicly about their refusal to participate in or bake wedding cakes for same-sex unions.
And now – they have until July 13 to pay the damages or else face additional fines and a possible lien on their home. “This is intimidation and bullying – that’s exactly what it is,” Klein told me in a telephone interview.“ They are trying to strong-arm me into handing over $135,000 to the two girls and if I win on appeal – they will never pay me back.”
A BOLI spokesman confirmed they sent a standard payment letter to the Kleins’ attorney. “The letter informs them that if we do not hear from them, we may turn the matter over to the Department of Revenue, which can place a lien on real property,” the spokesman told me. BOLI said they would also be willing to accept either a full payment or payment arrangements. “Of course, they can also ask for a stay of enforcement while they pursue their appeal,” the spokesman said.
But there’s a catch. The person who will determine whether or not to stay the order — is BOLI Commissioner Brad Avakian — a vocal supporter of the LGBTQIA movement.
Avakian is the same man who ruled against the bakers and imposed the fines and gag order. Anyone think he will issue a stay of his own order?
I must repeat the obvious: No one is preventing any homosexuals from living their lives as they wish. All these Christians want is the same liberty of conscience.
The incivility and hostility of the Mauna Kea protesters
The management of Mauna Kea has released event logs by both their rangers [pdf] and the visitor center [pdf], outlining the generally hostile and illegal behavior of the TMT protesters during the past four months, including threats of violence against visiters and workers to the mountain.
The news story above does not really give the full flavor of the protesters’ generally rude and hostile behavior. They repeatedly threatened workers and visitors, damaged both existing facilities as well as the natural environment on which they camped illegally, and interfered with others who had come to the mountain to star-gaze or work. The logs also include numerous examples of the protesters exhibiting incredible ignorance about the astronomy on the mountain as well as the Thirty Meter Telescope itself. If you get the chance, read these logs yourself. They clarify for everyone which side stands on the side of civilization and which does not.
Finally there is this important tidbit:
From March 24, 2015 through present, groups of protesters, some up to nearly 200 persons, have sporadically been onsite on the University of Hawaii management lands and DLNR lands on Maunakea. A group of about 10 protesters has maintained a continuous presence day and night. [emphasis mine]
As is usual for protests like this, the actual numbers are miniscule, and are magnified by a press that wants to promote the protesters’ agenda, even though a very large majority does not agree with that agenda.
India puts five satellites in orbit with one rocket launch
The competition heats up: India today successfully launched five British satellites on a single launch of its PSLV rocket.
A Democratic senator admits she doesn’t believe in free speech
In a television interview Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) insisted that the first amendment does not apply to individuals, and that the government thus has the right to limit both their speech and religious freedoms.
Her position is that the first amendment only protects institutions. This despite the clear wording of the amendment itself, which simply says
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
I don’t see any distinction made between institutions or individuals. Moreover, the courts have repeatedly ruled that these freedoms apply to everyone, individuals, institutions, everyone. Someone with even the slightest knowledge of history, both American, British, and that of all of western civilization, should also know that the battle for liberty of conscience was a battle to expressly give individuals that freedom, not institutions.
Interestingly, the article notes that in another context Baldwin has also said that she doesn’t believe it right that the first amendment protects institutions. She was part of the Democratic Party effort in the Senate in 2013 to repeal the first amendment to allow Congress the right to limit the speech of corporations.
So, to sum up, she thinks individuals aren’t given first amendment rights by the first amendment, and that the institutions that do should be denied those first amendment right as well. Sadly, her position appears to becoming more popular both with Democratic elected officials as well as the public that votes for them.
Oregon bakers raise $200K from supporters
The bakers that the state of Oregon is attempting to bankrupt and gag for opposing same-sex marriage have raised $200K from supporters.
The State of Oregon has failed in its attempt to bankrupt Aaron and Melissa Klein for the crime of declining to bake a cake – as the preposterous $135,000 fine it levied was no match for the willingness of good people to help out the Kleins and their now exclusively online business, Sweet Cakes by Melissa. Through a campaign via Continue to Give, people who still respect both faith and freedom have responded to the following appeal by contributing more than $200,000.
There are two aspects of this story that are important. First, the bakers are defying the state’s order. Though their physical business has closed, they now have an online business. Second, though Go Fund Me decided recently to ban fund-raising drives that try to help Christians under attack by the homosexual fascist community, another on-line funding-raising site has appeared to replace it.
Both suggest that the rule of the leftwing state religion is going to be challenged.
New Horizons team proposes cool names for Charon and Pluto features
In anticipation of their discovering many previously unseen features on both Pluto and Charon, the New Horizons science team released today a proposed list of names, including “Kirk”, “Spock”, and many other fictional science fiction characters.
Many of these suggestions were proposed by the public. Personally, I prefer the part of their proposal where they suggest naming features after real people, like Lewis Carroll and Arthur Clarke.
IRS defies judge’s court order in Lerner email scandal
Contempt for the law: The IRS and the Obama administration today directly defied the ruling of a federal judge, who — faced with their stonewalling — had ordered them to release 1800 Lois Lerner emails to the court each Monday.
It appears to me that the IRS and the Obama administration are doing whatever they can to obstruct this investigation and to prevent these emails from ever being seen by the public. This also strongly suggests that there are some real bombshells in those emails, including evidence that there was a blatent effort by the White House, the IRS, and Democratic members of Congress to use the IRS to harass and destroy their political opponents.
I am waiting for this judge to finally show some real backbone and declare several Obama and IRS officials in direct contempt of the court and then have them arrested and imprisoned. Until he does, the Obama administration is going to continue to thumb its nose at him, and the law.
The IRS and Obama administration planned to criminally prosecute its opponents
Working for the Democratic Party: New Justice Department documents released today show that in 2010 the Obama administration and the IRS were conspiring to criminally prosecute opponents of the Obama administration.
Judicial Watch today released new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents that include an official “DOJ Recap” report detailing an October 2010 meeting between Lois Lerner, DOJ officials and the FBI to plan for the possible criminal prosecution of targeted nonprofit organizations for alleged illegal political activity.
The newly obtained records also reveal that the Obama DOJ wanted IRS employees who were going to testify to Congress to turn over documents to the DOJ before giving them to Congress. Records also detail how the Obama IRS gave the FBI 21 computer disks, containing 1.25 million pages of confidential IRS returns from 113,000 nonprofit social 501(c)(4) welfare groups – or nearly every 501(c)(4) in the United States – as part of its prosecution effort. According to a letter from then-House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, “This revelation likely means that the IRS – including possibly Lois Lerner – violated federal tax law by transmitting this information to the Justice Department.”
This bears repeating: It is illegal for the IRS to give the confidential tax returns of citizens to anyone, including the Justice Department. Worse, having done so the IRS has given the very partisan Obama administration a giant treasure-trove of data it can use to smear and destroy its opponents.
The fascist academic community
A conservative considers getting a masters degree in sociology, and discovers the hatred of the right that permeates the academic community.
Read it. The story makes it quite clear what I have known since the 1990s when I got my masters at New York University: The left is aggressively blackballing conservatives from any jobs or degrees in academia.
Great Britain space agency calls for an increased space effort
The competition heats up: The United Kingdom’s space agency has issued its proposed future strategy, focusing on a renewed involvement with ISS and the European Space Agency.
Following a public consultation and lengthy discussions across government, the new strategy, published today, concludes that continued involvement in the ISS and other programs via ESA membership is the best way to involve U.K. scientists and industry in human spaceflight. The document says the government will consider bilateral projects with other space agencies but fears always being the junior partner since the United Kingdom has no launchers or space stations. It does not think that the commercial launch industry is sufficiently mature for the United Kingdom to buy services commercially. The report also states: “The Agency will also consider its role in human exploration missions beyond Earth orbit, especially where this complements science and technology goals for robotic exploration.”
I wonder if the newly elected conservative British government agrees with this strategy. It appears to me that it was researched and written prior to the election.