Nutter News

A Kentucky nutter group has filed a lawsuit after being denied a request to create a specialty license plate bearing the motto, In God We Trust.

Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) says it first applied for a Kentucky In God We Trust speciality license plate in 2007.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet creates specialty plates to spotlight various non-profit organizations. Motorists can purchase the plates in the process and may choose to make an additional donation to the non-profit in question.

ROCK said it planned to use those donations for education regarding the dangers of pornography and to provide help for women and children victimized by pornography and the sex industry.

But even though ROCK claimed the application met all statutory requirements, the Transportation Cabinet denied it in 2008, saying the plate was designed to promote Christianity, Fox41.com reported.

They stated that our primary purpose was the advancement of a particular religion because there is one bible verse that appears on the ROCK website, MaryAnn Gramig, director of policy and operations for ROCK, told FoxNews.com.

Kentucky law says in order to be eligible to create specialty license plates, a group must, among other things, be a non-profit based in Kentucky, contain no discrimination against any race, color, religion, sex or national origin, not be affiliated with any political party, and not be created by a group that, has as its primary purpose the promotion of any specific faith, religion or antireligion.

It was the judgment of the special plate committee in this cabinet that it just did not meet the statutory criteria that this panel laid out, Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the Transportation Cabinet told Fox41.com, saying the group violated the last tenet.

Gramig says ROCK does meet the religion clause. Even though ROCK is a faith-based organization, that's not our primary purpose…we focus on areas of decency, she said.

ROCK has now filed a motion for summary judgment in Franklin Circuit Court last week requesting the court overturn the Transportation Cabinet's decision.

Oral arguments in the case have been set for December 13.

Update: Meanwhile in Vermont

11th October 2010. Based on article from christianpost.com

A federal appeals court has ruled that faith-based lettering on vehicle license plates is allowed under the First Amendment, but emphasized that its ruling is limited to Vermont's ban on religious messages.

In ruling in favor of Shawn Byrne, the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York reversed the decision of a federal judge who rejected Byrne's 2005 claim that the state discriminated against him when it rejected his application for a license plate that would read JN36TN – a reference to the popular Bible verse John 3:16.

The appeals court noted how Vermont allows its residents to request vanity plates that convey messages on a variety of topics, including statements of personal philosophy and taste, inspirational messages, and statements of affiliation with or affirmation of entities, causes, and people. The state does not, however, permit any combination of letters or numbers that refer, in any language, to a ... religion or deity.

The state (Vermont) rejected Byrne's message only because it addressed ... areas of otherwise permissible expression from a religious perspective, wrote the appeals court. This the state cannot do.

Update: Nutters Foiled

20th April 2011 See article from business.avn.com

The Louisville nutter group called Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) had the idea that it could promote the 'glory of God', make some money and fight the 'devil's work', porn, all at the same time, by sponsoring a specialty Kentucky license plate adorned with the words, In God We Trust.

Great idea, except for the fact that a judge just nixed the plan, siding with the state's Transportation Cabinet, which rejected ROCK's 2008 application on the grounds that the group promotes religion.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd found the group's claim that the plate was intended only to oppose porn and not to promote religion farfetched, writing, in his ruling, The phrase 'In God We Trust' does not indicate to anyone who views the plate that the holder of the specialty plate supports the goal of abolishing pornography and the sex industry in the commonwealth.

A Dutch nutter group, Bond Tegen Het Vloeken or The League Against Blasphemy and Swearing has launched a new poster campaign at bus stops and in railway stations across the country to to combat profanity in general, and blasphemy in particular.

One poster depicts two beautiful swans showing fondness for each other, accompanied by the caption: Talk to each other. Cursing is not necessary!

Earlier posters have become collectors' items thanks to their originality. For the last soccer World Cup, the organisation chose an image of a striker with an angry face who had just missed a goal. The motto was: A curse always shoots wide of the mark.

Last autumn the poster showed a colourful parrot and the words: Cursing must be learned. Don't repeat them in parrot-fashion!

Every year the organisation publishes its Cursing Monitor, which shows that the use of profanity has risen considerably in radio and television.

The organisation has not only tasked itself with highlighting profanity, it also makes suggestions on how to lessen it. It has strung together a list of piss poor alternative words to use in moments of stress. Many of them are botanical in origin: instead of Shit! why not try Moss! suggests the organisation.

Australia's nutter MP, Fred Nile, is red-faced after Parliament's IT audit suggests he checked porn sites – clicking them up to 200,000 times.

The Daily Telegraph has the scoop, but Nile today claims his staff were using his log-in to conduct research purposes. Particularly researching the Sex Party according to his staff.

The Christian Democrat adds that a huge 200,000 hit-count on the suspect' NSFW sites is surely impossible.

Nile is holding on, though another NSW politician's career is over after he was similarly discovered having accessed porn at work. Ports Minister Paul McLeay resigned following his net history revelation.

In a teary media conference, McLeay said he had apologised to the Premier. The audit, by the Department of Parliamentary Services, is understood to have found more than 60,000 suspect hits on McLeay's log-on. I am quite embarrassed to be standing here before you. This behaviour is not the standard expected of Government ministers, he said.

A firewall was installed in July for Legislative Assembly MPs so they could not view pornography, but Legislative Council President Amanda Fazio elected not to install a firewall for the Upper House. Before news of McLeay's resignation broke, Ms Fazio yesterday said she was refusing to implement a similar ban in the Upper House saying she was against internet censorship. She said MPs should be able to research pornography.

Nile's comeuppance follows a long line of attacks against LGBT communities from from the early 80s right up to this week. Wading unhelpfully into the NSW debate on same-sex couples adopting children, he bizarrely claimed at a rally on Tuesday that some women would abort their children rather than risk them being raised by gay couples.

The Bible-thumper's hatred towards homosexuality is well-documented through his long political career. He used to frequently state that being gay was an "immoral and unnatural lifestyle choice" and described Mardi Gras as a "public parade of immorality and blasphemy." He has labels his Green Party rivals as "anti-family."

Update: Crap filter definitions make for false accusations

4th September.  Based on article from news.com.au

An audit of politicians' internet use that claimed the scalp of a state minister ranked the newspaper site news.com.au as the most visited adult website.

The audit supposedly showed whether NSW MPs had been visiting adult links such as gambling and pornography sites. However Legislative Council president Amanda Fazio yesterday revealed the audit had incorrectly classified news sites as adult because they contained links to or advertisements for adult dating sites.

Both news.com.au and smh.com.au (Sydney Morning Herald) were classified as adult sites in the audit.

The definition of what has been classed as an adult site is something we're reviewing, she said: What surprised us... the biggest (site) of what is classed as an adult site being hit by the parliament is the news.com.au site. Because there are adult matchmaking links or ads on their site, every time someone accesses news.com.au and they go from one article to another, that's counted as an individual hit on an adult site.

The bungle is one of the most embarrassing examples to date of the problems that can occur when governments and organisations try to regulate internet use.

The revelation could also absolve some MPs tangled in the web porn scandal at NSW parliamentary offices that erupted this week.

Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said every politician had been tainted by the scandal and asked for the matter to be settled quickly.

Update: Democratically elected representatives have to ask permission to access more adult areas of the internet such as news websites

6th September.  Based on article from sify.com

Politicians at New South Wales Parliament House will now be able to access porn sites (including mainstream news sites with links to porn sites) with prior permission and only if it's for research.

Upper House President Amanda Fazio has reviewed the policies over Internet use. The new guidelines will allow staffers to seek an exemption to view adult sites if they need to research, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Fazio said a memo will be issued to MPs this week of the new arrangements, with the permission slip already available on the parliament intranet.

Update: Parliamentary (Dis)Services

7th September.  Based on article from smh.com.au

The parliamentary staff member who commissioned an unauthorised audit of internet use which forced the sudden resignation of a minister last week has herself resigned.

Lisa Vineburg, a human resources executive in the NSW Department of Parliamentary (Dis)Services, left her position after it emerged she had asked the IT department to trawl through the computers of all ministers and MPs, their staffers and all non-political employees.

The raw data, which suggested about five people had recorded an usually high level of activity or hits from adult or gaming websites, was subsequently leaked to the media.

Ms Vineburg took it upon herself to audit everyone in the building, a senior parliamentary source said.

Update: Government inquiry finds crap internet filter definitions

30th September 2010.  Based on article from aolnews.com

A state government investigation into Internet use among Australian politicians has been revealed as an embarrassing bungle after mainstream news websites were classified as adult sites.

The audit, conducted by the Australian state government of New South Wales, labeled Fred Nile, president of Australia's right-wing Christian Democratic Party, as one of the most prolific visitors to adult websites in the Aussie parliament.

Paul McLeay, the minister for the state's ports and waterways, resigned after admitting he looked at adult and gambling websites on his parliamentary computer.

However, further investigation revealed that McLeay -- guilt aside -- possibly resigned prematurely, while Nile probably was using the Internet for research purposes.

Analysis of the audit left investigators red-faced when it was discovered that mainstream news websites had been classified as adult because of advertisements or links to matchmaking and dating sites.

The definition of what has been classed as an adult site is something we're reviewing, said Amanda Fazio, president of the New South Wales state Legislative Counci.

Critics of the hotly debated Australian proposal believe the latest episode demonstrates exactly why Web censorship is unworkable. The [Australian government] audit shows how a system that automatically classifies Web pages is going to be flawed, Colin Jacobs, of the Internet civil liberties lobby group Electronic Frontiers Australia, told AOL News.

Nutters have accused accused of embarking on an obnoxious product promotion scheme, using clothes with logos emblazoned on the backsides of female college students.

The fast food chain KFC has recruited female college students to hand out customer coupons while wearing tracksuit bottoms emblazoned with a popular product's logo emblazoned on their backside.

For their trouble, the students from Spalding University, in Louisville, are paid $500 (£320) to promote the new Double Down sandwiches. The 540-calorie sandwiches contain bacon and cheese between two pieces of chicken.

Although Spalding, a Catholic institution, is currently the only first college to agree to the scheme, the company hopes to expand it to other universities. Other colleges and the women will be picked from promotion on Facebook, the social networking site.

America's largest women's group criticised the human billboard scheme. It's so obnoxious to once again be using women's bodies to sell fundamentally unhealthy products, Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organisation for Women, told USA Today.

But John Cywinski, KFC's chief marketing and food innovation officer, defended the scheme. He said it was an effective way to attract the attention of young men, which he said were the company's key customers and the biggest fans of the hamburger. In an effort to reach consumers coast-to-coast, and especially our key target of young men, we've established … another advertising first – one that's fitting of the Double Down's head-turning history, he said in a statement.

Matt McCormack Evans, co-founder of the Anti Porn Men Project, said that the campaign aimed to raise awareness of the harms of pornography and encourage more men to speak out against it: Coming at a time when the UK feminist movement is experiencing a resurgence, the project is unique in its targeting of men.

Between 2000 and 2006 the number of men in Britain using internet porn increased by more than 400% to around 40% of the entire male population, according to the group.

But picking a fight with an industry estimated to be worth around £63 billion worldwide is not an easy task.

A new generation is being raised on porn - an industry whose product is overwhelmingly violent and degrading towards women, said McCormack Evans, who is just 22: This must be seen in the context of our society where one in five teenage girls have been hit by a boyfriend. To date, there has been little room for men to speak out against pornography. The Anti Porn Men Project is here to change that.

The Men of Jesus Christ reported on their website:

On 18th September about 40 people came out to protest against Family Video and the fact that they distribute pornography in the town of Tonawanda in New York State.

There were many people that we spoke to that were totally unaware of this and immediately turned around.

Of course there was the flip side as well, where people were so desensitized to pornography that they just did not care. And there were those that came out and told us that they were OK with it and it should be there. There was even a situation in which a woman and her 12 and 6 year old, just to spite the protest, said to the manager, in front of her children, Can you point me to the dirtiest movie you have in here?.

This is the problem that this country faces, the fact that pornography is legal, but just because it is legal does not make it right.

The major response I received from people who were pro-porn was that I may not agree with it, but what you do in your home is your business and if you don't like it, then don't rent it.

A magazine ad for Antonio Federici ice cream showed a heavily pregnant woman dressed as a nun standing in a church holding a tub of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. Text stated Immaculately Conceived ... ICE CREAM IS OUR RELIGION.

Ten readers challenged whether the ad was offensive to Christians, particularly to those who practised Catholicism.

Antonio Federici said the idea of conception represented the development of their ice cream. They said their decision to use religious imagery stemmed from their strong feelings towards their product (they cited the text ICE CREAM IS OUR RELIGION) and also from their wish to comment on and question, using satire and gentle humour, the relevance and hypocrisy of religion and the attitudes of the church to social issues. They believed the small number of complaints the ASA had received represented a very small proportion of the readership of the publications. They did not believe offence had been so deeply felt as to affect their right, as marketers, to free expression and that offence caused to a small minority should not affect the ability of the wider public to see their ad. They believed that, as a form of art and self-expression, advertising should be challenging and often iconoclastic.

The publishers of The Lady magazine had received eight complaints made direct to them. They said that, in hindsight, it had been a misjudgement on their part to publish the ad. They regretted the offence that had been caused to their readers and said they would not publish the ad or anything similar to it in future.

Grazia said they considered the statement ICE CREAM IS OUR RELIGION suggested that the ad was intended to be lighthearted and not mocking of any religious groups. They said the editorial content of Grazia encouraged debate and questioning. As such, they believed the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence to their readers.

ASA Assessment: Upheld

The ASA noted that the CAP Code stated that ads should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care should be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability. Compliance with the Code will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards of decency. We considered the use of a nun pregnant through immaculate conception was likely to be seen as a distortion and mockery of the beliefs of Roman Catholics. We concluded that to use such an image in a light hearted way to advertise ice cream was likely to cause serious offence to readers, particularly those who practised the Roman Catholic faith.

We noted that the number of complaints was relatively small but that the ad had been placed in a small number of publications only.

The ad breached CAP Code clause 5.1 (Decency).

Comment: ASA should pay penance

16th September 2010. Thanks to Tom who commented:

Please explain what the big deal is here. I am a practicing christian and I personally found the add to be extremely funny. I see no reason that it should be banned after a few nutters got upset.

If we allow a few complaints to derail an advert like this, what next? All I can say is thank God I live in Canada. Things are not perfect here, but at least they make sense.

Comment: Bringing blasphemy back from the dead

17th September 2010. See article from spiked-online.com by Tim Black

The big beef we have with the Advertising Standards Authority is: who the fuck are they? Who is this shady cabal of people making moral judgements about our advertising? What authority do they have?

This defiant message comes not from any well-known defender of people's freedom, but from a spokesman for a UK-based ice-cream company, who was talking exclusively to spiked.

...Read the full article

A magazine ad for Antonio Federici ice cream showed a heavily pregnant woman dressed as a nun standing in a church holding a tub of ice cream in one hand and a spoon in the other. Text stated Immaculately Conceived ... ICE CREAM IS OUR RELIGION.

Ten readers challenged whether the ad was offensive to Christians, particularly to those who practised Catholicism.

Antonio Federici said the idea of conception represented the development of their ice cream. They said their decision to use religious imagery stemmed from their strong feelings towards their product (they cited the text ICE CREAM IS OUR RELIGION) and also from their wish to comment on and question, using satire and gentle humour, the relevance and hypocrisy of religion and the attitudes of the church to social issues. They believed the small number of complaints the ASA had received represented a very small proportion of the readership of the publications. They did not believe offence had been so deeply felt as to affect their right, as marketers, to free expression and that offence caused to a small minority should not affect the ability of the wider public to see their ad. They believed that, as a form of art and self-expression, advertising should be challenging and often iconoclastic.

The publishers of The Lady magazine had received eight complaints made direct to them. They said that, in hindsight, it had been a misjudgement on their part to publish the ad. They regretted the offence that had been caused to their readers and said they would not publish the ad or anything similar to it in future.

Grazia said they considered the statement ICE CREAM IS OUR RELIGION suggested that the ad was intended to be lighthearted and not mocking of any religious groups. They said the editorial content of Grazia encouraged debate and questioning. As such, they believed the ad was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence to their readers.

ASA Assessment: Upheld

The ASA noted that the CAP Code stated that ads should contain nothing that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care should be taken to avoid causing offence on the grounds of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability. Compliance with the Code will be judged on the context, medium, audience, product and prevailing standards of decency. We considered the use of a nun pregnant through immaculate conception was likely to be seen as a distortion and mockery of the beliefs of Roman Catholics. We concluded that to use such an image in a light hearted way to advertise ice cream was likely to cause serious offence to readers, particularly those who practised the Roman Catholic faith.

We noted that the number of complaints was relatively small but that the ad had been placed in a small number of publications only.

The ad breached CAP Code clause 5.1 (Decency).

The christian campaign organisation writes:

Mothers' Union believes children should be valued as children, not consumers. However, childhood has become a marketing opportunity worth £99 billion in the UK. Marketers target children's natural inexperience, through methods such as celebrity endorsement, in order to reach not only children's pocket money but also the household purse. These commercial pressures encourage materialism which negatively affects children's wellbeing, family life and peer relationships, and can encourage values that Jesus taught against. The use of sexualised content and the imposition of sexuality on children to market and sell goods is particularly concerning. Families can feel overwhelmed by this commercialisation of childhood and unsure how to challenge powerful marketing initiatives.

In response to this, Mothers' Union is launching a major campaign to:

• Raise awareness of the commercialisation of childhood
• Empower families to address the influences of the commercial world within the home
• Hold the UK Government accountable to its pledge to address the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood; and through Mothers' Union members lobby political representatives in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

From the report:

Regulatory bodies responsible for rating films and video games do not do enough to protect children

Agree: 52%

Disagree: 29%

Don't know: 19%

TV programmes that are inappropriate for children are often shown before the 9pm watershed

Agree: 67%

Disagree: 25%

Don't know: 8%

Source: ComRes for Mothers' Union

A Malaysian TV station said it has withdrawn an advertisement marking the Muslim festival of Eid al Fitr after the ad's Christmas-like theme was criticized for being un-Islamic.

The private TV3 channel began airing the one-minute commercial marking the end of the Ramadan fasting month. The ad showed a man wearing an Islamic skullcap taking children on a magical rickshaw for a ride through the sky.

But some viewers in Malaysia said the character was reminiscent of Santa Claus, and several groups demanded that the ad be retracted. There was also criticism that the ad featured a lotus flower, which is linked to Buddhism.

TV3 apologizes on the airing of the advertisement ... which has offended many people, the station said in a statement, adding that it had been taken off the air. We will be more cautious to avoid similar incidents ... in the future.

How should we as Baptists regard the growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)?

Simply put, we should hate it.

Psalm 11:5 says, The LORD examines the righteous and the wicked. He hates the lover of violence. This is a hard verse for at least two reasons. First, it does not say that God simply hates violence, but rather, that God hates those who love violence. Second, it confronts our culture's lust for violence, a lust which many Christians indulge rather than reject.

UFC and MMA comprise a lucrative mainstream business of entertainment violence. Gate revenue for UFC fights in 2007 totaled $2.8 million and $200 million for pay-per-view. An international phenomenon, one UFC fight in Dublin sold all 10,000 seats in two weeks. Surprisingly, an estimated one-third of fans are female. UFC and MMA fighters have been featured on mainstream shows such as 60 Minutes and Dr. Phil, and on ESPN.

What exactly are people paying to see? MMA and UFC offer a simple formula. Two people are put in an enclosed or confined space, usually an octagon cage, and fight until one of them is deemed (by the referee) too injured to continue or taps out, meaning he just can't take any more beating. Fighters wear minimally padded gloves which lead to more blood, and those bloody images are then used to market the sport.

Those who pay to see the fights also pay to see octagon girls, scantily clad eye-candy between bouts. MMA and UFC are far from a harmless sport. They are a sinful amalgam of blood lust and female objectification that reflects our cultures growing desensitization to the inherent value of human life.

UFC and MMA amounts to violence porn, a term which has been applied to movies with wanton violence such as SAW, where violence is not part of the plot, it is the attraction. Violence for violence's sake, as opposed to instrumental or redeeming violence, desensitizes the viewer to the graphic horror of watching two people pummel each other for the sake of entertainment. UFC and MMA offer exactly the kind of violence condemned in Psalm 11:5. Ezekiel 7:23 decries, the city is full of violence. Why are Christians supporting violence in the city?

Early Christians were objects of violent persecution, being thrown into Roman coliseums for the amusement of the masses. Two-thousand years later, some Christians are now in the stands, cheering and supporting the blood and violence. Christians must avoid any support or association with the entertainment violence of MMA and UFC. We must not envy the men of violence or choose any of their ways (Proverbs 3:31).

Or have we forgotten the words of Christ? Blessed are the peacemakers.

A leading catholic has blamed abortion and gay rights for turning Britain into a selfish, hedonistic wasteland which has become the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death.

Edmund Adamus, director of pastoral affairs at the diocese of Westminster and an adviser to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, said Parliament had turned Britain into a country which is more culturally anti-Catholic than nations where Christians are violently persecuted such as Saudi Arabia, China and Pakistan.

His comments, made with only weeks to go before Pope Benedict XVI's historic state visit to Britain, will cause embarrassment between organisers of the visit and government officials, because they reveal how some members of the Church's hierarchy believe that the pontiff is travelling to a hostile and anti-Catholic country.

In an interview with Zenit, a Catholic news agency, Adamus railed against five decades of equality legislation and the availability of abortion services in modern Britain: Whether we like it or not, as British citizens and residents of this country – and whether we are even prepared as Catholics to accept this reality and all it implies – the fact is that historically, and continuing right now, Britain, and in particular London, has been and is the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death. Our laws and lawmakers for over 50 years have been the most permissively anti-life and progressively anti-family and marriage, in essence one of the most anti-Catholic landscapes, culturally speaking – more than even those places where Catholics suffer open persecution.

The expression culture of death was first coined by John Paul II and is frequently used by Catholic traditionalists as a catch-all phrase covering the practice of abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.

In the same interview, he spoke at length about marriage and the role of men and women, pleading with Catholics to exhibit counter-cultural signals against the selfish, hedonistic wasteland that is the objectification of women for sexual gratification. Britain in particular, with its ever-increasing commercialisation of sex, not to mention its permissive laws advancing the 'gay' agenda, is such a wasteland.

Adamus's comments, however, drew widespread criticism from gay rights groups and secularists. Peter Tatchell, a leading figure behind the Protest the Pope coalition, said: The suggestion that gay equality laws make Britain a moral wasteland is insulting but not unexpected. The Pope supports legal discrimination against gay people. He says we are not entitled to equal human rights. [But] to claim that Britain is the centre of a culture of death is absurd. We are a world leader in scientific research to develop new medical treatments to save lives and we make a significant contribution to helping combat hunger and poverty in developing countries.

One of Poland's leading pop stars faces trial for suggesting that the Bible was written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks. Dorota Rabczewska, aka Doda, could face two years in jail over her youthful remarks.

A Warsaw court has cleared the way for criminal proceedings after it rejected an appeal by Doda against attempts to prosecute her for insulting religious feeling.

Doda's troubles relates to comments she made during a television interview in 2009 when she said that she had little faith in the Bible because it is hard to believe in something written by people who liked herbal cigarettes and were drunks.

Rabczewska has argued that her remarks were youthful and off-the-cuff, and that she had never intended to insult religious feelings. She also attempted to argue that she meant medicinal cigarettes.

But the comments riled conservative Catholics in Poland already angered by the singer's willingness to bare all in Playboy, and her raunchy videos.

One of her critics, Stanislaw Kogut, a senator in the Poland's upper house of parliament, called Doda's comments an insult to Christians and Jews, while Ryszard Nowak, the chairman of the Committee for the Defence Against Sects, an ultra-conservative organisation dedicated to upholding Catholic values, appealed against an initial decision by prosecutors to drop the case. His argument that Doda had broken Polish law protecting religious sensibilities and, therefore, her actions merited official investigation triggered legal proceedings against her.

A TV show featuring CCTV footage showing two teenage killers leading a little boy to his death has upset the family of James Bulger.

The fictional footage appears in an upcoming episode of Law and Order: UK and bears a similarity to the horrific killing of James at the hands of ten-year-old boys Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.

The programme features CCTV footage of two girls aged 13 and ten leading a boy by the hand, before strangling him to death and leaving their initials on his chest.

James' mother Denise Fergus demanded the programme be taken off air and said it was too similar to the 1993 murder of her son: It's virtually a direct copy-cat of what happened to James, she told The Sun: I'm certain they knew it would rub salt in the wounds for me and my family. They seem to think they can treat James as public property.

ITV denied the drama was in any way linked to the Bulger case, and a spokesman said it was in fact 'loosely based on the sory of Mary Bell, who killed two boys in 1968.

Two authors are campaigning for a change in the law to stop the pornification of society which they claim promotes violence against women.

Kat Banyard, who wrote The Equality Illusion, told the Edinburgh International Book Festival mass pornography will have a corrosive impact for years to come.

She said: All the research shows that watching pornography leads to - as you would expect - an increase of attitudes which support violence against women and aggressive behaviour.

Huge numbers of young boys and men are sitting watching, and getting positive powerful experiences of watching women being physically abused.

There is a massive problem - we are nowhere near tackling it.

She said an internet search using the term porn brings up 193 million results, most of which link to sites with aggressive and violent images: We have never had pornography or sexual exploitation on this scale. The effects are untold but we are likely to see them played out over the next few decades, she said.

Natasha Walter, whose most recent book is Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism, told the festival even primary school children are being damaged by our hypersexual society. Up to 90% of teenage boys admit to watching hardcore porn, according to surveys. Walter said, if boys did not, they were regarded as odd.

Women and girls are also psychologically harmed by these degrading images, she continued: Women believe that to be successful they have to fit into a very narrow view of what female sexuality should look like.

Family First which made a splash in Australian politics six years ago, grabbing a key Senate seat and direct access to the Prime Minister's office, appears to be on the brink of political collapse.

Its federal campaign is in chaos with a dumped candidate who supports gay marriage, a Twitter scandal and an alleged flirtation with the Australian Sex Party threatening the standing of the standard bearer of the religious right and its backing by well-financed evangelical churches.

Family First is struggling to repeat its success of 2004. That year, the party's federal branch raked in more than $1.6 million in donations and loans, but by June last year it was mired in more than $200,000 of debt, according to its financial statements.

South Australian church figure Peter Harris, Family First's one-time figurehead and financial backer, is facing financial woes after the collapse of his private company  last year.

The deep pockets and political ambition of chairman and South Australian Senate candidate Bob Day, a residential property tycoon, may yet save Family First from financial collapse though.

But Family First is set to lose its one Victorian Senate seat , with Labor declining to repeat its 2004 tactic of preferencing Family First ahead of the Greens, a move which gifted Steve Fielding the state's final Senate spot.

Day is rated only a slim chance to win a seat in South Australia. In other seats, Family First candidates have reportedly refused to campaign at all, but will turn out on election day to man the booths.

The American Family Association (AFA), a far-right-wing Christian association that promulgates an intolerant attitude to adult sexual freedom, is accusing venerable retailer Sears of using pornography to market items on its website. The offending content in this instance can be found in the In the Home section of the website, in the Wall décor/Art category.There are, in fact, nude art posters for sale in that section.

A blog post by AFA president Tim Wildmon titled You Won't Believe What Sears is Selling, AFA tried more than a half-dozen times to reach out to Sears quietly and professionally, to no avail. Sears' public relations department has refused to return our calls and emails

The blog post continues with a tone of incredulity. Sears is currently offering giant posters of total nud**y on its website, writes Wildmon. Sears knows they are selling smut. Technology allows Sears to remove and stop selling these posters within minutes, so why won't they?

These aren't just posters of scantily-clad women, adds Wildmon. Some of them depict groups of people, lesbians and others engaged in ***ual activities. Very little is left to the imagination. Except the actual ***, that is.

Needless to say, AFA wants its readers to complain to Sears, and they provided a link to its publicity department for that purpose. Unless Sears hears from you, they will continue to sell offensive posters, Wildmon says.

According to The Consumerist, A Sears employee has responded to the group's concerns by saying that they 'have reviewed the products in question and found that they do not fall outside our marketplace guidelines.'

Songwriter Mike Stock has condemned Britney Spears and Lady GaGa for their raunchy music videos, insisting modern pop stars are bad role models for young children.

The British producer, who helped launch the career of Aussie singer Kylie Minogue in the 1980s, believes acts such as Spears need to tone down their overtly sexual performances - because so many kids look up to them.

He says: The music industry has gone too far. It's not about me being old fashioned. It's about keeping values that are important in the modern world. These days you can't watch modern stars like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga with a two-year-old. 99 per cent of the charts is R&B and 99 per cent of that is soft pornography.

Kids are being forced to grow up too young. Look at the videos. I wouldn't necessarily want my young kids to watch them. I would certainly be embarrassed to sit there with my mum.

And Stock has also singled out pop superstar Madonna, admitting he's concerned about the teen fashion line she has recently launched with her daughter, Lourdes which features short skirts and slashed tops: I'm being told by mothers of young kids they're worried by the pressure on them for their children to wear clothes and make-up at a young age. Lourdes is a 13-year-old girl. Madonna may have been happy but I bet about 90 per cent of parents wouldn't be happy with that.

Offsite Comment: Lady Gaga IS poisoning children's minds

Thanks to Dan
14th August 2010. See article from dailymail.co.uk by Bel Mooney

The fact that my father detested Cliff Richard for his ‘jungle music’ made it all the more thrilling for me.

Why then do I sympathise with music mogul Mike Stock’s condemnation of the pornification of pop?

Because what was once rebellious is now mainstream and inescapable; what was once suggestive is now graphically explicit — and, most worryingly of all, it’s being aimed at a fan base that is getting younger and younger.

...Read the full nonsense article

Members of the Cardiff Feminist Network gathered outside Cardiff Central Library for the Say no to Hooters in Cardiff campaign, collecting signatures for a petition which will be presented to Cardiff Council.

A licensing application was submitted to Cardiff Council to open the chain in the St David's shopping centre.

Cardiff Feminist Network was set up by organisers of the Breaking the Waves Cardiff Feminist Festival 2011 earlier this year, and the group have been against the application for Hooters from the outset. Sally Hughes, who heads up the network, claimed:

We want to say 'no' to Hooters and sexism in our city. We believe that Hooters would objectify woman and we're concerned that a Hooters in this area of Cardiff will contribute to sexual harassment of women in the city.

We know Cardiff Council and the Welsh Assembly Government are looking at this issue. There are big groups which come to the city for stag parties and other events, and we want to make sure the rights of women in the city and women working at Hooters are protected.

The campaign has gathered support via Facebook, with 230 people joining the Say no to Hooters group. But a counter group has also been set up on the social networking site. Say HELL YEAH to Hooters in Cardiff currently has 400 members and there is an online petition here in support of the restaurant chain coming to Cardiff.

The application will be considered at licensing committee on 3 September.

Songwriter Mike Stock has condemned Britney Spears and Lady GaGa for their raunchy music videos, insisting modern pop stars are bad role models for young children.

The British producer, who helped launch the career of Aussie singer Kylie Minogue in the 1980s, believes acts such as Spears need to tone down their overtly sexual performances - because so many kids look up to them.

He says: The music industry has gone too far. It's not about me being old fashioned. It's about keeping values that are important in the modern world. These days you can't watch modern stars like Britney Spears or Lady Gaga with a two-year-old. 99 per cent of the charts is R&B and 99 per cent of that is soft pornography.

Kids are being forced to grow up too young. Look at the videos. I wouldn't necessarily want my young kids to watch them. I would certainly be embarrassed to sit there with my mum.

And Stock has also singled out pop superstar Madonna, admitting he's concerned about the teen fashion line she has recently launched with her daughter, Lourdes which features short skirts and slashed tops: I'm being told by mothers of young kids they're worried by the pressure on them for their children to wear clothes and make-up at a young age. Lourdes is a 13-year-old girl. Madonna may have been happy but I bet about 90 per cent of parents wouldn't be happy with that.

The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has targeted the Marvel figures provided with McDonalds Happy Meals.

The Thing and The Human Torch, two of The Fantastic Four's main members seem to have particularly offended the CCFC who note: One action figure, The Thing, menacingly roars 'It's clobberin' time!' each time a child presses a button on its back. Another, The Human Torch, is a man on fire.

CCFC Director Dr. Susan Linn shows how little she understands boys by adding, But now, for preschool boys, a so-called happy meal at McDonald's features the horrifying spectacle of a man engulfed in flames ...

Linn further demonstrates a certain amount of short-sightedness by stating, It's awful that this giveaway continues the troubling trend of fast food restaurants promoting toys linked to violent PG-13 movies.

The CCFC also argue that putting toys in junk food meals to entice kids to eat McDonalds is a terrible practice.

British parents are having a whinge at retail chain Tesco for selling a school skirt that is less than 30 cm long and a third shorter than normal school skirts.

The school skirt called a Hitch and Stitch is 29.5 cm and parts of it are hitched up and stitched in place to keep the hemline high.

Parents observed that the skirts overly sexualises girls.

The Sun quoted Siobhan Freegard, of parenting website Netmums, as saying: It looks like it should be sold in a sex shop.

Shy Keenan, a child protection 'expert', said that the skirts, priced at 8 pounds, could invite very unwelcome attention.

A Tesco spokesperson said: Ultimately it's for parents to decide what is appropriate for their child.

Scantily clad pop stars, TV shows such as Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, and the popularity of glamour models are legitimising prostitution in the eyes of men, and endangering women, a campaigner has claimed.

Ann Hamilton, head of the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA), believes reducing the demand among Scottish men to purchase sex is the best way of tackling the root cause of trafficking and prostitution.

But she believes that popular culture portraying it as sexy, empowering and enjoyable to women, allow men to believe that prostitution is harmless, when that is far from the truth.

Hamilton claimed: People tend to think that prostitution is dead sexy, very liberating and that there is nothing harmful about it. It's portrayed as very attractive women having lots of sex and enjoying it, when in actual fact that's about 0.005 per cent of women.

Shows like Secret Diary Of A Call Girl have been very damaging in the public's awareness. Even music stars like to look like a stereotypical call girl because they think there's something sexy and empowering about it. The women's outfits might be very sexy but the reality of prostitution is not.

We now have girls saying they want to be glamour models and lap dancers and it's all part of that culture making it more acceptable.

Indonesia's highest Islamic authority has forbidden Muslims from viewing gossipy content in the country's media after a celebrity sex clip scandal dominated television news in the past month.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued the edict this week because of concerns that some media programs were not meant to educate but went beyond the barriers of decency toward pornography, said the MUI's Ma'ruf Amin: The problem is not about infotainment but its content which contain slander, rumors.. also the shows lead to pornography, Amin said.

He said the organization had recommended the government follow up the edict through regulations to control such infotainment content.

In the face of supposed new evidence of the increasing levels of children sexually abusing other children the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has called for both major political parties to immediately commit to a comprehensive review of the classification system across all media.

ACL Managing Director Jim Wallace said the classification system is broken and that the lack of effective regulation of what is being viewed and read in the community must be acknowledged as at least part of the reason behind the appalling growth in sexualised and sexually abusive behaviour in children.

Revelations by the Australian Crime Commission's National Indigenous Task Force that between 40 and 90% of sexual offending against children was committed by other children – and that the problem is not confined to indigenous communities – should deeply concern all Australians and demand an urgent response from our political leaders, Wallace said.

There has been widespread acknowledgement of the role of the media environment in sexualising children but despite inquiries and talkfests, nothing gets done.

Children don't learn sexualised behaviour in a vacuum and we know that viewing pornography is often associated with this problem. However it goes much further than this, with children continually being bombarded with overtly sexual messages by everything from billboards to films to music videos. When the problem is getting this bad it is time for real action to be taken.

Wallace said a comprehensive review is needed because Australia's classification system has not kept pace with technology and is effectively a toothless tiger even when standards are breached – with no real penalties for those involved.

Growth in technology has meant that Australia's classification system doesn't even apply to a range of new media content, such as mobile phone applications. And where the classification system does apply it is completely ineffective – with standards rarely being enforced and the penalties being laughable even when they are.

Comic fans beware: The man who believes that god hates...well...everyone but his family is headed to San Diego Comic-Con on July 22.

Fred Phelps on the official Westboro Baptist Church site, wrote:

If these people would spend even some of the energy that they spend on these comic books, reading the Bible, well no high hopes here. They have turned comic book characters into idols, and worship them they do! Isaiah 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: 9 And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not. It is time to put away the silly vanities and turn to God like you mean it.

The destruction of this nation is imminent - so start calling on Batman and Superman now, see if they can pull you from the mess that you have created with all your silly idolatry.

Hopefully the creative guys at Comic-Con can come up with an amusing counter action.

Update: Bite my shiny metal ass

26th July 2010. Based on article from inewp.com

Fortunately, those at Comic-Con knew about Westboro's plans and prepared to meet them head on in a counter-demonstration. Obviously, Phelp's followers were massacred.

Led by an individual in a Bender costume from the cartoon Futurama, Comic-Con nerds dressed in various outfits held humorous signs that effectively counter-demonstrated.

Memorable moments include Bender megaphoning Bite my shiny metal ass to the Westboro congregation while holding a sign that read Kill All Humans and a person in a Buddy Jesus getup holding up a God Loves Everybody sign contradicting Westboro's signs that read God Hates Fags, God is Your Enemy, You're Going To Hell. Signs like God Hates Kittens and God Hates Jedi also accompanied the counter-protest.

A tabloid journalist working for the UK's Daily Star 'newspaper' has been caught out by a spoof Photoshopped image claiming to be of a Grand Theft Auto game based on gunman Raoul Moat.

It wouldn't have taken hack Jerry Lawton long to work out the amateurishly edited image was a fake before reporting news that a book, Hollywood movie and computer game were all in development - but then, where's the fun in that?

The article started:

FURY erupted last night over plans for a Raoul Moat book, movie and game… before the man he killed has even been laid to rest.

A book on the crazed killer is due out in weeks and film companies are lining up bids for the rights.

And last night gaming websites showed the cover of Grand Theft Auto Rothbury – a version of the XBox hit Grand Theft Auto.

Lawton's article berated the gaming industry for supposedly immortalising a killer with the improbably titled GTA Rothbury, a game based on his week-long shooting spree.

In the piece, Lawton quotes the grandmother of Moat's ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, whose partner was killed by the gunman, saying of the non-existent game: It is sick - it's blood money. The game is beyond belief.

The article has since been pulled from the Daily Star website, but you can take a peek at a cached snapshot of the page.

Update: Daily Star Apologises

25th July 2010. Based on article from guardian.co.uk

The Daily Star has been forced to apologise for its false story, carried about the creation of a video game entitled Grand Theft Auto Rothbury.

The paper has also had to admit that the publication of its article was due to its own journalistic failings.

It has now published a complete retraction of its claim in a lengthy apology. Here is the full statement:

On 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled Grand Theft Auto Rothbury.

We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.

We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best-selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.

It is now accepted that there were never any plans by Rockstar Games to publish such a game and that the story was false. We apologise for publishing the story using a mock-up of the game cover, our own comments on the matter and soliciting critical comments from a grieving family member.

We unreservedly apologise to Rockstar Games and we have undertaken not to repeat the claims again. We have also agreed to pay them a substantial amount in damages which they are donating to charity.

The BBC have defended an episode of EastEnders following complaints from viewers who said they were upset by a scene in which a Muslim character slammed down a copy of the Qur'an.

The gay character of Syed Masood, played by Marc Elliott had been struggling with his love for Christian Clarke (John Partridge) in the face of disapproval from his devout family. He dropped the religious text in frustration during the episode, screened earlier this week,

The BBC said yesterday that it had not intended to cause offence, but merely to demonstrate Syed's utter confusion.

The pastor of the Italian city of Pietrasanta, together with local Catholic associations, have lodged a complaint with city officials over a picture of the Virgin Mary holding a child-like Adolph Hitler in her arms.

The picture titled, The Virgin of the Third Reich belongs to the collection of Italian artist Giuseppe Veneziano, known in the region for his works mocking various historical figures including Jesus Christ and Pope Benedict XVI.

The picture was used on a poster promoting the Zeitgeist Expo, which will feature various works by Veneziano at the Panichi Palace in Pietrasanta starting this weekend.

The mayor of Pietrasanta, Domenico Lombardi, has publicly apologized to Catholics for the picture and organizers of the expo have pulled the controversial piece from the Zeitegeist program: I assume all responsibility for the publication of this picture, but I had not seen it beforehand, and had I, I would have selected another one. I apologize if the painting offends anyone's religious sensibilities.

Veneziano also has complained to reporters about the decision to pull the piece and said he was a victim of censorship.

Odd bedfellows are standing side by side with Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church in a demonstration of First Amendment fundamentalism. They've filed a friend of the court brief in favor of the right to infuriate families of the fallen with those vicious funeral protests.

The list includes the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the E.W. Scripps Company, the Hearst Corporation, NPR, The New York Times, and the Tribune Company (parent of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times).

Jeff Schogol of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported these companies joined other free-press advocates in supporting these hateful incitements:

The media organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in favor of the Westboro Baptist Church, which protests near service members' funerals because it believes that troops' deaths and other national tragedies are divine revenge for America's tolerance of gays and lesbians.

The father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who died in Iraq in 2006, sued the church for picketing near his son's funeral with signs that said God hates you, You're in hell and Semper Fi fags. They also distributed a flier with Snyder's picture on it that read Burial of an Ass.

Snyder's father, Al, won at trial, but he lost an appeal and was ordered to pay more than $16,000 in court costs. The latest case will be heard by the Supreme Court in the fall.

While not defending the Westboro Baptist Church's actions, the 22 media organizations argued that the church is protected by the First Amendment. They also contend that the case could have a chilling effect on news gathering if Al Snyder prevails.

In the brief, the media groups argue that speech cannot be deemed too offensive to be protected by the First Amendment.

A California public library has come under nutter fire for displaying anti-religious paintings as part of its current art show.

The most controversial of the paintings on display at the Sacramento County Public Law Library is called Moral Values by San Francisco attorney-artist Jeri Wyrick. The painting depicts a large Bible with a label reading: Warning: May Impair Judgment.

The painting is part of the library's art show called A Creative Merger II: Justice and Peace. Wyrick has three paintings on display in the art show.

On the library's website for the art show, Wyrick describes her paintings as anti-religious. She said Moral Values was inspired by the 2004 presidential election when George W. Bush won his second term. She said that exit polls of those who voted for Bush show their main concern for America's future was not terrorism or the war in Iraq, but moral values, such as gay marriage.

I came to the conclusion that there must be something about religious faith which renders people stupid, Wyrick explained in the painting's description.

Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute is calling on the law library to remove the painting and its description that says religion makes people stupid. The legal group – which specializes in defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties – has sent a letter to the Board of the Sacramento County Law Library to ask that Moral Values be immediately removed.

It is outrageous that our local public law library is actively promoting anti-religious paintings by an artist who calls people of faith stupid, said Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, in a statement Thursday. We are demanding that the library remove this blatant violation of the Constitution's Establishment Clause, which forbids government sponsored hostility towards religion.

A muslim cleric has placed the Seattle cartoonist who launched Everybody Draw Mohammed Day on an execution hitlist.

The Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki  singled out artist Molly Norris as a prime target: A soul that is so debased, as to enjoy the ridicule of the Messenger of Allah, the mercy to mankind; a soul that is so ungrateful towards its lord that it defames the Prophet of the religion Allah has chosen for his creation does not deserve life, does not deserve to breathe the air created by Allah and enjoy a life provided for by Allah. Their proper abode is Hellfire.

In Inspire, an English language Al Qaeda terrorist mag, Awlaki damns Norris and eight others for blasphemous caricatures of Muhammed. The 67-page magazine is seen by terrorism experts as a new attempt to reach and recruit Muslim youth in the West. The other cartoonists, authors and journalists in Awlaki's crosshairs are Swedish, Dutch and British citizens.

Norris initially grabbed headlines in April when she published a satirical cartoon on her Web site that declared May 20th Everybody Draw Mohammed Day as a way to mock Viacom and Comedy Central's decision to censor an episode of South Park that showed Mohammed dressed in a bear suit.

David Gomez, the FBI's assistant special agent in charge of counter-terrorism in Seattle, said Norris and others were warned of the very serious threat. We understand the absolute seriousness of a threat from an Al Qaeda inspired magazine and are attempting to do everything in our power to assist the individuals on that list to effectively protect themselves and change their behavior to make themselves less of a target.

Dozens of people have protested in front of the Craigslist headquarters, calling on the popular website to close its Adult Services section and set a sex industry-free standard which would eliminate human trafficking on the Internet.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, Prostitution Research and Education and over 75 Co-Sponsors said technology should never be used to prostitute women and girls.

Protesters said a large portion of Craigslist profits come from the sale of commercial sex. They say Craigslist normalizes and facilitates online pimping.

They become another channel. They become cyber pimps. The owners of Craigslist need to regulate their website, said Alfonso Faustino, a Filipino-America candidate for California Assembly.

Members of the US Prostitutes Collective, who held a counter protest this afternoon, said stopping sex workers from advertising in Craigslist will do more harm than good.

Rachel West of US PROS said, Stopping sex workers from advertising in Craigslist will prevent women from being able to work more safely from premises. It is ten times safer to work indoors than on the street. When sex workers are forced out of premises, many end up working on the street and are more vulnerable to rape, violence and arrest as a result.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is at the top of the box office, but as teenage heroine Bella Swan moves inevitably toward marriage with a vampire, some wonder if she's such an exemplary role model for the girls who follow her adventures in the hugely popular books and movies.

It's a rerun of an old debate: Can pop culture — books, movies, music — influence the behavior of impressionable teenagers, and in the case of Bella, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

And, for that matter, are teens really all that impressionable? After all, they've been reading Romeo and Juliet for 400 years.

Bella, for the few who have avoided the Twilight tidal wave, is a teenager who's so in love with an undead guy that she's ready to give up everything to be turned into a vampire so they can spend eternity together. Adding some urgency to the situation is the fact that Edward Cullen, her vampire love, is reluctant to have sex outside the bonds of matrimony.

Christine Seifert, a communications professor at Westminster College in Salt Lake City who has studied Twilight online message boards and fan fiction sites, says that the saga is strongly Mormon in tone and that a subset of Mormon culture prefers that girls marry young and start families. She says the abstinence message is so strong it could be labeled abstinence porn, designed to convince teens that sexual self-denial is actually sexy. Will it work?

...Read the full article

Nutters of the Parents Television Council (PTC) are calling on US cable company, Comcast, to reveal exactly how much revenue it makes from adult content.

The PTC's tactic is supported by other nutter organisations: American Family Association, Focus on the Family, Citizens for Community Values, Reclaim our Culture Kentuckiana and the Coalition for Marriage and Family.

They believe that by calling attention to the fact that Comcast provides adult content on a pay-per-basis to adults in their own homes, the ensuing controversy could derail the company's planned merger with NBC-Universal. Comcast, of course, is hardly alone in providing those services—TimeWarner, Dish Network and DIRECTV do, as well.

Comcast is one of the most far-reaching distributors of pornography in the communities it serves, raising serious questions about whether the company meets the character and public interest obligations required of each company that holds a broadcast license, said PTC President Tim Winter.