Tag: Conservative Values

Charlotte Observer:

The father of the 10-year-old Kannapolis [N.C.] boy arrested Friday for trying to take a glass of water to Terri Schiavo said the religious beliefs that led him and his son to Florida took root in him more than a decade ago. Specifically, he said, they came to him when he was 19, as he spent several months in an Ohio jail while awaiting trial on rape and kidnapping charges.

Howard Scott Heldreth, now 32, was in jail for parts of 1992 and 1993, court records show; he eventually pleaded guilty to sexual battery and served time on probation. Until jail, he said from his Kannapolis home Saturday, he believed strongly in evolution, especially the idea that the strong naturally ruled over the weak…

Heldreth on Saturday declined to discuss the specifics of the incident that led to his jail time. But he has written on a Web site that it happened at a college party and involved a young woman there.

The former Naperville, Fla., resident remains listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s sex offender registry, but he’s not registered on North Carolina’s; the N.C. equivalent applies to offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 1996.

Over the five years that Pinellas County, Fl., Circuit Judge George Greer has had the Terri Shiavo matter on his docket, he has consistently ruled in favor of ending the young woman’s suffering. It isn’t surprising that these rulings have enraged fantasists on the right who believe Terri’s liquified brain parts might be healed one day. Judge Greer is now under the protection of armed guards, and friends say his family also is protected.

What is surprising is that Judge Greer is hardly the liberal activist judge often described by corrupt conservative pundits and pols on cable news shows. In fact, Greer is a rockribbed Republican, a former county commissioner, and Southern Baptist by faith. Or rather he was a Southern Baptist until last week when antipathy toward Greer in his home church forced him to quit the congregation, reportedly with the assent of his pastor. Sounds like very un-Christlike behavior at the Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida.

From the Los Angeles Times: Turns out Tom DeLay “murdered” his own father in the same way his supporters say Michael Schiavo and his henchmen on Florida bench are “murdering” Michael’s permanently incapcitated wife, Terri.

Sixteen years ago, as a result of household accident, Charles Ray DeLay lay in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment. Faced with the prospect of his father living in a vegetative state for who knew how long, Tom DeLay, who was in his third term in Congress, faced a difficult decision.

[Today] DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping [Terri Schiavo], who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo’s husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls “an act of barbarism” in removing the tube. In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die.

“His father wouldn’t have wanted to live that way,” says Tom DeLay’s 81-year-old mother today. DeLay’s aunt says doctors advised that he would “basically be a vegetable.”

When his father’s kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. “Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated,” said his medical report, citing “agreement with the family’s wishes.” His bedside chart carried the instruction: “Do not resuscitate.”

On Dec. 14, 1988, the DeLay patriarch “expired with his family in attendance.”

And there’s more. The DeLays sued the manufacturer of the equipment that they said had caused Charles Ray’s accident. DeLay is a noted critic of “frivolous lawsuits” and “predatory, self-serving litigation.”

Asian Week:

When a branch of the Young Conservatives of Texas held “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day” at the University of North Texas, it predictably upset many students of color. The game involved “catching” other members posing as illegal immigrants and winning candy-bar prizes for their efforts.

Students at the University of Texas, Austin wanted to make sure that the same thing would not happen on their campus, said Stephen Torres, student director of the university’s Multicultural Information Center. “We wanted to be preventative,” he said. “We didn’t want the YCTs to get away with this again.”

Torres and company were successful. Learning of the massive protest against an “Immigrant Hunt,” the Young Conservatives at UT Austin called off an event planned for March 2. About 350 Latino, Asian American, black American and white American students went ahead with the protest at UT Austin’s main mall. Holding up signs reading “Hate is not Activism” in multiple languages, the protesters included 30 Latino groups, one South Asian American sorority, and many individual students and community members.

CNN reports that a western “North Carolina man was arrested Friday by FBI agents on charges of soliciting the murder of a judge and the husband of Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged woman at the center of a legal and moral tug of war.” Richard Alan Meywes of Fairview, North Carolina, offered a $250,000 bounty for the killing of Michael Schiavo and a $50,000 for executing Circuit Court Judge George Greer, who ordered Schiavo’s feeding tube removed a week ago.

Notice that the librul media never refers to nutcases like this as “violent religious extremists” or similar. I guess you have to be Muslim to wear that label.

(Fairview is just a few miles from the old homeplace. Hope we’re not related to this guy!)

Sam Kimery is the proud inventor of a device that rids your television of Fox News infestations. “Fox Blocker” is a small silver device that attaches to the back of the TV. Once installed – poof! – no more Hannity, O’Reilly, Shep or those three yokels in the morning who look like they’re doing a local news in Des Moines.

Sales have been slow, so far. Kimery, a former GOP precinct captain from Tulsa, has only sold about 100 units. This doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a lot of interest in Fox Blocker, however. Kimery says he has received “thousands of e-mails, both angry and complimentary — as well as a few death threats.

“‘Apparently the making of terroristic threats against those who don’t share your views is a high art form among a certain core audience,’ said Kimery, 45.”

The reaction of the Fox official who commented on the story is classic: “The channel’s [high] ratings speak for themselves.” Meaning: We’re popular. So that fact that we’re no better than Tass, the Kremlin’s propaganda channel back in the Soviet days, is irrelevant.

Order yours today – www.foxblocker.com

The folks who proudly faced down the “culture of death” that would have allowed someone in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years to pass into the next world are at it again. This time, they’re protecting your right to kill anyone you feel threatens you.

The Daytona News-Journal reports on a new law that passed the Florida Senate yesterday that says Floridians no longer have to get all bowed up, arm themselves, and then not shoot anybody. Now they can blast away.

The Florida Senate passed a bill 38-0 Wednesday that removes the legal expectation that a person should back down or run away in face of a serious threat. They can open fire without fear of criminal charges or civil liability.

The bill also enshrines the castle doctrine, or the right to defend a home against an intruder, in state law. It extends the castle doctrine to the automobile so drivers can shoot carjackers.

And don’t you just hate it when you want to shoot somebody but you’re in a crowd and you know some do-gooder lawyer will sue you if you miss? In Florida, your worries are over.

The only debate about the bill was whether to continue to require a person to retreat if attacked in public. It is a principle that’s taught in the classes required for carrying a concealed gun permit.

Because it sounded too much like the Wild West, Sen. Steven Geller, D-Hallandale Beach, tried to amend the bill so people still had to retreat. But his amendment was killed on voice vote Tuesday.

The bill does have its limits. While the police will now have to show probable cause before arresting anyone who claims it was self-defense, it’s still not O.K. to shoot the cop who comes to your door with an arrest warrant. And don’t any of you hip-hop looking people go getting any big ideas.

Marion Hammer, a lobbyist with the NRA and United Sportsmen of Florida, said some opponents are exaggerating the possible consequences of the bill. It would not allow gangs to engage in street warfare, she said, nor does it protect “mutual combatants.” A duel in the street is still a crime, she said.

The Republican sponsor of the bill says it’s all about life.

“People who lawfully own firearms don’t shoot to kill,” Baxley said. “They shoot to live.”

One House Democrat wasn’t entirely sold.

During a debate in House Justice Council meeting on Wednesday, State Rep. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, said she fears people will overreact in such tense situations and make bad decisions.

“We’re getting away from the culture of life,” she said.

Ya think?

Apparently someone reported Nashville Christian radio personality Chris Ruleman to the authorities, claiming he possessed child porn. According to WSMV- Nashville Channel 4 News, Ruleman was arrested after the FBI received information that he was in possession of the contraband materials.

Ironically, the station where Ruleman works – 94FM The Fish – bills itself as ” Safe for the Whole Family.”

John Aravosis at AmericaBlog checked websites for leading religious organizations on the right and the left to see how they were handling appeals for aid for victims of the Christmas tsunami. Here’s what he found when he check rightwing sites:

A quick review of the home pages of the top sites of the religious right:

– American Family Association has one small news story up, not even something they themselves wrote, and no appeal for money. The only “action alert” is about the Ten Commandments. I guess AFA is only truly concerned about the American family: http://www.afa.net/

– The Family Research Council has nothing about the Tsunami. Their headline is about “activist judges.” http://www.frc.org/

– Traditional Values Coalition has a very small link or two from WorldNetDaily about the Tsunami, but the link is BURIED on their page. No apparent appeal for money for the victims. But lots of news about the homosexual agenda, which apparently is a bigger calamity than 150,000 dead in Asia. http://www.traditionalvalues.org/

– Concerned Women for America, not a thing. Though they do have an essay about how the media has lost is sense of morality. Apparently the CWFA is only concerned about American women. http://www.cwfa.org/main.asp

– Pat Robertson’s Web site. Nothing. www.patrobertson.com

– Jerry Falwell’s Web site has nothing, even though he did post an updated letter from himself dated December 30, days after the Tsunami hit. http://www.falwell.com/?a=

– National Association of Evangelicals, nothing. http://www.nae.net/

– Focus on the Family to its credit does have a prominent link to give money. I wonder how long that’s been up. http://www.family.org/

Conversely, sites operated by politically liberal religious groups – The Interfaith Alliance, Soulforce, Metropolitan Community Church, United Church of Christ and the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism – had appeals for aid up front and center on their sites.