Conservative scholar Christopher Rufo reported
he has uncovered alleged evidence which purports that new National Public Radio
(NPR) CEO Katherine Maher had connections to radical revolutionaries in the
Middle East. “Katherine Maher helped advance Color Revolutions in the Middle
East and North Africa, arguing that regime-change operatives could ‘govern a
country’ by capturing radio stations,” Rufo wrote in an X post announcing his
report Wednesday. READ
Friday, April 26, 2024
Report: new NPR CEO has ties to middle east revolutionaries
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Why Are Leftists So Miserable?
By Bill Donohue, Catholic
League president
It was the day after Ronald Reagan
beat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. I was smiling (I had run
Reagan’s campaign in the North Hills of Pittsburgh), but most of the other
professors at La Roche College (now a university) were sulking, and many
appeared depressed. However, their mood was not uncharacteristic of the way
they were most of the time: There are a lot of unhappy campers in the
professoriate, especially in the liberal arts.
Nothing has changed.
In a new study by psychologists in
Finland assessing the state of mind of radical social justice devotees, it was
found that those who bought into progressive ideas are profoundly unhappy.
Published in the Scandinavian Journal
of Psychology, the
researchers started with a sample of 851 persons, mostly students and
professors at the University of Turku, and then expanded it to 5,030 adults.
They distinguished between those who hold to a traditional liberal perspective
and those who identify with a radical one. They focused on the latter.
The researchers devised a Critical
Social Justice Attitude Scale (CSJAS) that measured seven aspects of what they
deemed as representative of “woke” politics. Most of the items dealt with race,
though one tapped transgenderism (the idea that the sexes are interchangeable).
For example, “University reading lists should include fewer white or European
authors” was deemed reflective of the “woke” view.
Social justice attitudes, the
study’s authors said, “perceive people foremost as members of identity groups
and as being, witting or unwitting, perpetrators or victims of oppression based
on the groups’ perceived power differentials; and advocate regulating how or
how much people speak and how they act if there is a perceived power
differential between speakers, and intervening in action or speech deemed
oppressive.”
The conclusions were riveting.
Regarding the initial small sample,
it was determined that high CSJAS scores were “linked to anxiety, depression,
and a lack of happiness.” On the larger sample, “this lower mental well-being
was mostly associated with being on the political left and not specifically
with having a high CSJAS score.” Women were more likely than men to have high
CSJAS scores, which explains why their happiness quotient was smaller.
The researchers noted that their
findings were consistent with that of other studies on this subject. They are
right about that.
“Liberals, especially liberal
women, are significantly less likely to be happy with their lives and satisfied
with their ‘mental health,’ compared to their conservative peers aged 18-55.”
According to University of Virginia sociologist W. Brad Wilcox, this was “the
big takeaway from the 2022 American Family Survey, a striking new poll from
YouGov and the Deseret
News.”
In 2023, Musa al-Gharbi, a
sociologist at Columbia University, examined data from many studies on this
subject and concluded that conservatives are indeed happier than liberals. He
said this finding “is consistent across countries and extends back in time.”
The question remains: Why are those
on the left so miserable?
For starters, consider this.
Imagine waking up each day thinking the world is made up of oppressors,
racists, sexists, homophobes and their victims. Is that likely to put a smile
on your dial?
It’s actually worse than this.
Left-wing professors, which is to say most of them in the social sciences and
humanities, love to bask in their negativity. Smug as can be, they love
thinking that those who don’t share their views are ignorant buffoons; they, of
course, are the only really bright ones. Their darkness is their defining
characteristic.
But why do these malcontents think
this way?
It has much to do with what
Catholicism calls the sin of pride, the belief that we are self-sufficient
human beings and have no need for God. The big thinkers believe they are too
smart to believe in God. Too bad they aren’t smart enough to know that boys who
claim to be girls should not be allowed to compete against girls in sports and
shower with them. There must be a cavity in their brain when it comes to sex.
It must be said that while those on
the left are the most likely to be unhappy, it has been my experience that
extremists on the right are just as likely to be despondent.
I have often said that when I
encounter a highly educated person, or an activist, for the first time, I know
within minutes if I am dealing with an extremist. The individual could be on
the right or the left—it doesn’t matter. The common denominator is humorlessness.
They rarely smile and their bouts of laughter usually come at someone else’s
expense.
Smiling is important. Laughter is
important. They are staples of mental health. Hanging around those who are
habitually unhappy—for reasons wholly due to their cast of mind and their
inflated idea of who they are—is a chore. It’s also a bore.
The Finnish psychologists learned that left-wing “woke” mavens find it hard to be happy. The deeper problem is that they actually like it that way.
Ilhan Omar’s daughter banned from Barnard facilities
Barnard College reportedly suspended the adult daughter of controversial far-left Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-MN, following the student’s participation in a massive pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University, where Jewish students were threatened with violence. Isra Hirsi, 21, claims that the school banned her from her dorm and its dining hall. Barnard is an elite and prestigious women’s college partnered with adjacent Columbia. READ
Migrant crime abounds in NYC
A Home Depot store in a New York City suburb reportedly hired guards equipped with bulletproof vests and a German Shepherd to ward off surging migrant crime. The story broke the same weekend a youth soccer game was canceled at a nearby park in East Harlem after dozens of migrants stormed the field. New York Police Department (NYPD) officers were called to the scene, yet even after this, the migrants still refused to leave. READ
Catholic Bishops Slam Biden for Trying to Force Christian Employers to Fund Abortions
By Hannah Hiester, CatholicVote
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has denounced the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for violating religious freedom and forcing all employers to provide accommodations for employees to have an abortion.
CatholicVote previously reported that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a new rule on April 15 that requires employers “to provide reasonable accommodations,” such as leave time, to employees if they wish to have an abortion. The rule falls under the implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA).
Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend,
chairman of the USCCB’s Committee for Religious Liberty, said in a news release that “No employer should be forced to
participate in an employee’s decision to end the life of their child.”
“The bipartisan Pregnant Workers Fairness Act,
as written, is a pro-life law that protects the security and physical health of
pregnant mothers and their preborn children,” he added. “It is indefensible for
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to twist the law in a way that
violates the consciences of pro-life employers by making them facilitate
abortions.”
CatholicVote reported in August 2023 that in addition to being
supported by pro-life organizations, the PWFA was approved by pro-abortion
groups, as the language left room for facilitating abortion access.
“The original act required employers to
reasonably accommodate a worker’s pregnancy, childbirth, and ‘related medical
conditions,’ but left the interpretation of those terms to the Biden
administration’s EEOC, the federal agency responsible for regulating workplace
discrimination laws,” CatholicVote reported at the time.
Monday, April 22, 2024
News from the Iowa Catholic Conference
The 2024 session of the 90th General Assembly adjourned for the year “sine die” (without a day) early on Saturday morning. Here’s what happened on the legislative front last week from the Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC) perspective:
The “standing” appropriations bill is generally
the last one of the session. As
it has for many years, SF 2443 limits the amount of money going to public
schools to provide transportation services for nonpublic school students. The
total appropriation is about $9 million. If this limitation was not present,
the funding would be about 25% higher.
SF 2443 also allocates $2 million in new money
for the Department of Public Safety for 12 jobs “to address the rise in illegal
immigration and related criminal conduct such as drug trafficking and human
trafficking, or as assigned by the commissioner of public safety."
SJR 2004 passed the House. It is a
constitutional amendment proposal that passed both chambers this year and will be eligible for
consideration next session before it would go to a vote of the people. SJR 2004
would require a flat income tax. HJR 2006, passed earlier in the session, is a
constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote of the legislature to
raise the income or corporate tax. The ICC has opposed both proposals.
A new part of SF 2435, the education
appropriations bill, allocates $2.1 million in new money to the
Department of Education for providing professional development for
teachers in public and nonpublic schools. The legislation also includes funding
for a person at the department to help nonpublic schools with special education
issues. These are positive developments.
SF 2368, supported by the ICC, requires public schools to give charter
and nonpublic schools the right to match the top offer when selling public
school buildings. SF 2368 was passed by both chambers and goes to the governor
for her signature.
Opposed by the ICC, HF 2319 was passed by the
Senate and heads to the governor for her signature. It forbids local governments from
participating in projects where individuals are provided with periodic cash
payments that are unearned and that may be used for any purpose. The concern
among legislators supporting the bill is that people will not work if they
receive money with few obligations attached to it. In a Polk County UBI program
being tested, more than two-thirds of the people have a job. About 30% are
unpaid caregivers.
HF 2672, eliminating the tax credit for forests, was not taken up by the Senate for debate. A
Senate amendment would have significantly improved HF 2672 by requiring local
landowners to only pay a little bit. The ICC opposed the bill as drafted, and
we’ll likely see a new version next year.
The Iowa House did not take up HF 2690, which
was supported by the ICC. It
related to the "Medicaid for employed people with disabilities"
(MEPD) program and would allow employed people with disabilities who are
married to retain more monetary resources (up to $21,000) before going over the
limit and losing coverage.
In other news, HF 2586 was signed by the
governor last week. It allows school staff
to get a professional permit to carry guns at school. HF 2652 also passed the
chambers and will go to the governor. It provides funding for public schools
for weapons detection systems, weapons and stipends for personnel who get one
of the professional permits. It also requires all schools to have access to a
public safety answering point (radio), which will be paid for by pandemic
funds. These proposals were a top priority of the legislature.
Education Savings Account applications are open
for Fall 2024
The application period for Iowa’s
Education Savings Account program is open until June 30. If
your family received an ESA this school year, you still must reapply. For this
fall, Students First ESAs are awarded based on the following eligibility:
- A student that was approved and
used an ESA in the 2023-24 school year
- A student entering kindergarten
at an Iowa accredited nonpublic school
- A student that attended an Iowa
public school in the prior year
- A student enrolled in an
accredited nonpublic school with a household income at or below 400% of
the 2024 Federal Poverty Guidelines, $124,800 for a family of four
For the fall of 2025, all students will be
eligible.
Pope Francis meets with pro-abortion Dem senator
Pope Francis met with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-GA, during a private audience at the Vatican Saturday. Warnock is the senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church and “has come under fire for using Sacred Scripture to justify the practice of abortion,” Catholic theologian Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D., wrote for Breitbart. “Warnock, who was endorsed by abortion giant Planned Parenthood, has publicly stated that abortion is consistent with his role as “a Christian minister,’” Williams added. READ
Friday, April 19, 2024
FBI Probe Of Catholics Still Unresolved
By Bill Donohue, Catholic League president
On Thursday, April 18, 2024, the Department of
Justice's (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) Michael E. Horowitz released his report
on the FBI's leaked memo targeting Catholics, and once again the loyal sons and
daughters of the Catholic Church have been slapped in the face.
While the IG's report notes that the memo
"improperly conflated religious beliefs of activists with the likelihood
they would engage in domestic terrorism," it goes on to say that there was
no evidence that "anyone ordered or directed" an investigation of
Catholics because of their religious beliefs.
To say that no one ordered an investigation of
Catholics because of their religion is about as persuasive as saying no one
ordered an investigation of blacks because of their race.
Frankly, the IG's report does little to bring
this issue to a close. It is overly vague, ambiguous, and littered with
contradictions. Catholics deserve a better accounting of the FBI's and DOJ's
actions.
The IG insists that the memo grew out of the
FBI's investigation of alleged domestic terrorists. But if the intent of this
investigation was to focus on right-wing nationalists, how did Catholics become
the focus of the leaked FBI memo last year? Why did the FBI look into
establishing sources and other contacts in the Church, instead of focusing on
the stomping grounds unique to right-wing nationalists? The IG's report has
nothing to clarify these questions.
Further, the IG's report admits that one of the
woman authors of the leaked memo says she was "really interested in this
resurgence of interest in the Catholic Church" by what the FBI claim are
domestic terrorists. This statement alone contradicts the claim in the IG's
report that Catholics were just tangentially connected to the FBI's
investigation of genuine targets. From the jump, the authors clearly were
"interested" in the Catholic Church.
Ultimately, the IG's report does not put this
matter to rest. Certain elements within the FBI and DOJ went rogue and have not
been held accountable for their actions. For a year, they could have taken
proactive steps to assure Catholics across the country that these renegades
faced serious consequences; however, they have admitted they were
"aghast" and even "appalled" by the leaked memo but took no
substantive actions to resolve the matter.
Therefore, I call upon the Congress, a co-equal
branch of government, to exercise its oversight authority to get to the bottom
of this once and for all. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has rightfully pointed
out that the IG's report glosses over the fact that critical files associated
with the memo were deleted. This is a serious breach. These files are federal
records and bureaucrats cannot just destroy them on a whim.
Additionally, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH)
has shown great tenacity in taking on the FBI. I would encourage him in the
strongest terms possible to call for new hearings on this matter so we can hear
directly from IG Horowitz to clear up the vagueness and ambiguities in his
written report.
Last year, I sent several letters to Rep.
Jordan with direct questions that would help allay the fears of Catholics
regarding the FBI's memo. Many of them remain unanswered. It is paramount we
get the answers to these questions:
Was it
someone from outside the FBI that crafted this egregious abuse of power?
Has there
been a broader internal investigation of the FBI seeking to learn if other
agents have also been spying on Catholics?
How common
is it for FBI agents to infiltrate houses of worship—of any religion—employing
"tripwire sources"?
What did
they intend to do with the information once they completed their probe?
Without new hearings and concrete efforts not only to resolve the lingering questions but also to hold these rogue agents accountable, Catholics will rightly remain skeptical of the FBI and DOJ. We are not walking away from this, and I will have more to say on this in the future.
Investigation: border crisis sparked spike in child labor
The Biden administration’s Department of Labor “filed a lawsuit in late March against a California poultry processor and its affiliated entities, accusing the firms of using ‘oppressive child labor,’” Blaze Media reported. According to the complaint, minor workers were hired to use “sharp knives” to remove bones from raw poultry. Blaze Media investigates. READ
Special Edition of Faith On Trial: Garabendal!
Special edition of Faith On Trial: The alleged apparition
of Mary at Garabandal, Spain. Listen to the podcast now:
Thursday, April 18, 2024
State threats to our religious freedom
By Deacon Mike Manno
(The Wanderer) –
Recently, the Iowa Catholic Radio Network carried two individual segments – one
from Minnesota, the other from Indiana – that shed a glaring spotlight on how
anti-Catholic and anti-religious elements in society are attempting to
undermine our traditional values and beliefs, as well as our ability to follow
the tenets of our faith and to apply them to our daily travails.
Our program,
Faith On Trial, has been on the air at Catholic Radio since May of 2013 and
focuses on how law and society affect people of faith. During that time we’ve
covered hundreds of religious based lawsuits, had guests from the major
religious liberty law firms, experts from institutions such as the Heritage
Foundation, pro-Christian and pro-family organizations, such as the Family Research
Council, as well as a host of other guests, including an FBI whistleblower and
an expert Catholic ethicists.
While we’ve
under gone changes in our days and times, the program now airs each weekend for
one hour and is podcast on our web site. It consists of two interview segments
with guests usually on related topics. But recently we had two back-to-back
programs that I think highlighted the lurking problem we face in our society
today.
During the
weekend of March 20 we had an attorney from the Becket Fund for Religious
Liberty, Joe Davis, who detailed a case from Indiana that Becket lost which
involved a state investigation against two loving Catholic parents who were
accused of neglecting and verbally abusing their son who was suffering from
gender dysphoria.
The
investigation, which was prompted by an anonymous complaint, included a charge
that the parents refused to call their son by his preferred pronouns and female
name. The result of the investigation found that there was no neglect or verbal
abuse, and that the parents had sought mental health counseling for their son
for observable mental irregularities as well as for an eating disorder.
However, the
parents explained that as devout Catholics they believed that the immutable
characteristics of sex could not be changed and they tried to discuss that with
their son. They did not call him by a female pronoun but agreed to call him by
a mutually agreed upon nick name. That did not matter to the state who removed
the boy from his parents’ home claiming that their actions contributed to his
eating disorder and placed him in an LGBT-friendly foster home, where his
eating disorder became worse. The parents were allowed to visit with their son
as long as they did not mention their religious beliefs.
The parents
appealed through the state courts and were denied a return of custody. An
appeals court upheld the removal ruling that the parents’ First Amendment
rights did not apply to private speech in the home. In March the United States
Supreme Court refused to review the matter. The boy has now aged-out of the
juvenile system without returning home.
The parents
now live in fear that the state might try to remove their other children over
their religious beliefs.
Anonymous
complaints? Resisting the LGBT gospel? No free speech in the home? No religious
conversations? Who was the boy’s rightful parents and what happens to their
beliefs and values?
At the same
time we were airing this story another came across the wire: Washington State
denied the renewal of a foster care license because the foster parents were
unwilling to promote the state’s gender ideology.
The other radio
interview came from Minnesota where this paper is published. It was aired the
weekend of April 4 and the guest was Jason Adkins, executive director and
general counsel for the Minnesota Catholic Conference.
Minnesota
has a Human Rights Act which prohibits discrimination against persons based on
traits such as race, disability, religion, and sex. In 1993 it was amended to
include sexual orientation. As is the normal practice in these matters, there
was an exception protecting religious organizations from being forced to act against
their beliefs.
Last year
the legislature amended the Act again this time adding protection for gender
identity. Unknown at the time was that in an apparent oversight the religious
exemption was omitted leaving religious institutions unprotected. When that
discrepancy was uncovered it seemed only a simple matter to add language to the
new law that would restore the religious exemption.
But what
appeared to be a simple oversight which needed only a few words of correction
became much more.
As the Catholic
Conference explained, when the bill to amend the law was introduced, the
Democrat controlled legislative leaders made it clear that the omission of the
exemption was no oversight and they had no interest in amending the law. The
“oversight” was intended to persecute some faith communities because of their
“bigoted” beliefs over the concept of gender identity. They saw the attempt to
add the exemption as “disturbing, appalling, and infuriating” and that the
proposed amendment is just an “excuse for hatred.”
Unfortunately
for the state’s religious communities, neither the legislative leadership nor
the Democrat governor have the exemption on their to-do lists for this session,
leaving churches to the perils of a law without a religious exemption. In addition,
there is now at least one church forced to defend itself from legal action due
to the omission of the exemption.
Now what
does this mean for the religious communities in Minnesota if the law is allowed
to stand as written? Christian schools could be forced to hire gay-friendly
teachers and administrators, school curriculums could be forced to acknowledge that
gender is fluid and can be changed, churches and other religious organizations
could be denied state benefits due to their bigotry and hatred. Depending on
how far the enemies of Christ want to take this, some such communities could be
forced out of business and outlawed.
Fortunately
the Catholic Conference has the support from the leaders of several other
religious communities: Missouri Synod Lutheran Church, the Islamic Center of
Minnesota, and the Association of Christian Schools International. But will
that be enough to turn the governor, the legislature, and the Democratic Party
around or will they still view conservative religious beliefs as hateful. All
this, of course, coming from the party of tolerance.
These are
only two stories from amongst the many that we broadcast every week, but they
tend to demonstrate the depth to which religious animas will dive in an attempt
to strike at people whose only crime is their religious faith and their desire
to live that faith. Of course I could go on about some of the more appalling
stories, such as Covid church closings, pastors being fined for holding
services, surveillance of traditional Catholics by the FBI, government imposed
transgender ideologies in schools, and the like. But these are two that should
hit home with any believing person.
We need
prayer, but we can’t forgo political and legal action. If we fail now, then
what? The possibilities are endless, and none are good.
#
(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com, and listen to
him every week on Faith On Trial on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network, or the
podcast at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/ the programs mentioned in this article are Episodes 405 and 406).
KYLE SERAPHIN: FBI’S TARGETING OF CATHOLICS THREATENS ALL CHRISTIANS
FBI whistleblower and CatholicVote’s 2023 Hero of the Year Kyle Seraphin tells his powerful story as he warns that the Bureau will not stop at targeting Catholics. “Slowly but surely, the FBI is probing its way into all religious communities. All Christians are in the crosshairs,” he wrote. “[T]he idea of [the FBI] targeting a so-called ‘radical Baptist’ or ‘radical Lutheran’ in the near future is certainly on the table.” READ
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
SCOTUS Lets Idaho Protect Children From Medical Mutilation
WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an emergency order allowing Idaho to enforce its statewide ban on harmful puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and irreversible mutilating surgeries for minors. With Chief Justice John Roberts abstaining from any opinion, the High Court ruled 5-3 to largely vacate a lower court’s decision to fully block Idaho’s law. However, the High Court allowed puberty blockers and hormone treatments to continue for the two anonymous teenagers whose families sued to block the law.
In 2023, Idaho enacted the “Vulnerable Child Protection Act,” which criminalizes the act of mutilating children through “gender-related procedures” as a felony. According to the law’s text, violators can face substantial prison time for a term “of not more than life.” While the law was set to take effect January 1, 2024, a federal district court temporarily blocked it citing the law “likely” violates parents’ equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment. U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that parents have the right to seek “specific medical treatment” and approve “gender procedures” for their children. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined Idaho’s appeal and kept the law from being enforced.
While the case regarding the two families is still under litigation in the lower courts to determine a permanent decision, Idaho’s attorney general filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court claiming the injunction was too broad asking it to be limited to just the two plaintiffs seeking access to drugs. Idaho is seeking to enforce the law statewide in all other circumstances.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who authored on of the High Court’s majority opinions, sided with Idaho and stated the district court chose to impose a “universal injunction” that prevented the state from enforcing all aspects of the law instead of a “narrower” injunction that just allowed access to the drugs the two plaintiffs sought. He noted that mutilating surgeries were not at issue in the case and questioned the need to block the entire law.
“In this case…the district court went much further, prohibiting a State from enforcing any aspect of its duly enacted law against anyone,” wrote Justice Gorsuch. “Among other things, this meant Idaho could not enforce its prohibition against surgeries to remove or alter children’s genitals, even though no party before the court had sought access to those surgeries….”
Justice Gorsuch stated that even the district court admitted the plaintiffs had no contention with the surgical bans under the law. Due to this admission, Justice Gorsuch noted the district court’s universal injunction was an “extraordinary remedy” that “defied” the “foundational principles” of an injunction, which should be tailored based on how likely it is to succeed on the merits and how it must not be “more burdensome” on the state than necessary.
Justice Gorsuch further stated that when a state is prevented from enforcing a law enacted by its people’s representatives, “it suffers a form of irreparable injury.” He concluded that “prompt execution” of a law, “absent a showing of unconstitutionality,” is always in the public interest.
Justice Gorsuch concluded that “prohibiting the surgical removal of children’s genitals” has never been specifically held as “offensive to federal law” and the lower court’s ruling “clearly strayed” from “traditional bounds.”
At least 23 states have passed legislation banning medically mutilating procedures on children. Similar laws in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma have been upheld by federal courts, while laws in Alabama, Florida, Indiana, and Montana are temporarily blocked as legal challenges are adjudicated. In Arkansas, a federal judge declared in June 2023 that the state’s “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act” was unconstitutional holding that restricting health care professionals from making referrals for “gender-related procedures” was content and viewpoint discrimination. However, Arkansas has appealed the ruling, and the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals approved the state’s request for all 11 judges on the Court, rather than a three-judge panel, to hear its appeal.
Liberty
Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Medical mutilation has
devastating consequences on children and is never the answer to gender
confusion. No one has the right to harm a child. More laws like that in Idaho
are needed to protect children from being irreversibly harmed.”
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