Thursday, May 08, 2008

Loyalty oath is outdated

I fail to see what a compulsory oath achieves. A dishonest person would rattle it off without a qualm. And under the 1st Amendment it is probably unconstitutional anyway -- denying freedom of religion.

Some Sacramentans might remember the plight of Zari Wigfall, a college student at Sacramento City College in 1994. She had gotten a campus job as a peer counselor assistant but, as a Jehovah's Witness, she refused to sign California's Cold War-era "Oath of Allegiance" required of all public employees. She was fired after a week. Later, when she signed on as a theater house manager, the same thing happened. Because of her religious beliefs, she lost two public jobs.

A decade later, a California State University, East Bay, math teacher and practicing Quaker was fired over the oath of allegiance. She said she would support and defend the constitution, but only nonviolently. After public outcry over her dismissal, she was reinstated to her job. But the oath remains, a remnant of anti-communist Cold War hysteria in the late 1940s and 1950s. Now the Los Angeles Times reports that yet another Quaker teacher has been fired over the oath, this time at California State University, Fullerton.

The Fullerton firing is one more reason to get rid of the 1952 oath of allegiance that assumes California "faces a clear and present danger" that communists will "infiltrate" public jobs with the aim of establishing a "totalitarian dictatorship."

Senate Bill 1322 by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, would eliminate that archaic language and delete membership in the Communist Party as a reason for dismissing a public employee. California is the only state that allows public employees to be dismissed for membership in a political party. Those who act to overthrow the government by force or violence could still be dismissed. SB 1322 is expected to come up for a Senate vote Thursday. It's time to get past the era of "red-baiting," where mere membership in an organization - without any action to incite or commit a crime - forces public employees to surrender basic constitutional rights (including freedom of speech and freedom of association).

The Legislature should pass this bill and then work on getting the 1952 loyalty oath out of the California Constitution.

Source



Eminent Psychiatrist Says Homosexuality is a Disorder that Can be Cured

The eminent Spanish psychiatrist Enrique Rojas gave a speech yesterday in Buenos Aires declaring that homosexuality is "a clinical process that has an etiology, pathogeny, treatment, and cure". Speaking at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair about his book "Goodbye, Depression", Rojas characterized homosexual orientation as a "disorder" rather than an illness, and stated his opinion that 95% of cases are caused by environmental factors, according to the Spanish news service Terra. The disorder, according to Rojas, is the result of an absent father, overweening mother, or sexual abuse in childhood.

Rojas blasted the homosexual movement for promoting the development of homosexual tendencies in young people, and particularly condemned the practice of allowing homosexual couples to adopt children. The child is deprived of a right to grow up "in a normal environment, heterosexual, which is the standard" he said. "Heterosexuality is what is normal, the natural condition of human bengs."

According to studies from the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, there is a 70-80 percent chance that a child adopted by homosexuals will develop the same tendencies, Rojas said. Rojas is the author of various books on psychology, including "Who Are You?", "The Light Man" and "Remedies for Coldness".

Source



Peacenik violence to be investigated

Move America Forward has received a response through our lawyers that the Department of Justice is taking on the case of defending military recruiters from attacks by far-left anti-war groups, anarchist groups and socialist organizations that have undertaken to hurl rocks, smash windows, splatter paint, deface, graffiti, plant bombs, slash tires, harass, and otherwise make life hell for recruiters.

The letter, received last week by MAF's lawyers, advises that the concerns that MAF brought to the desk of the US Attorney's offices, have been passed on to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for further "review and appropriate action".

Move America Forward's Executive Director Catherine Moy said, "We were very pleased to hear that the Department of Justice is taking our findings seriously, and we will make ourselves available to the FBI in full cooperation, to share with them all the evidence and reports we have collected so that federal investigators can conduct a full and thorough investigation into the anti-American wrongdoings of certain groups and individuals."

When Move America Forward began researching and putting together "The Sedition Report" earlier this year, it quickly became clear that not only were attacks on recruiting centers are increasingly violent and continue to escalate, but that the attacks seemed to be orchestrated by a number of groups acting in consortium. MAF also produced this ad exposing the concerted effort to target recruiters.

Then we staged a press conference in Washington DC to spread awareness about what we had found. While often times you hear about a recruiting center being attacked here and there, it was easy to dismiss them as isolated incidents. However, when put together in a single document, one can see the disturbing trends and coordination apparent.

After our press conference in DC was invaded by members of Code Pink -who did their best to make a scene-because they were obviously afraid of having their seditious actions exposed to the world, MAF had lawyers draft a letter to US Attorneys asking them to investigate and take action and held another press conference in San Francisco.

Melanie Morgan, Catherine Moy, and MAF supporters were able to meet with and speak with Justice Department officials who were very interested to hear some of the information we had collected.

Now that the FBI is getting involved, Move America Forward expects that investigators will indeed find incidences of wrongdoing and that the organizers of many of these organizations may be brought up on charges of sedition, treason, or conspiracy to commit. We will continue to encourage the Justice Department to pursue anti-war criminals with full vigor to ensure that no laws have been broken in the exercise of the free speech rights of those groups.

This should also serve as a warning message to Code Pink, World Can't Wait, MoveOn and others, to watch what they say and do, and to stop supporting America's enemies, because groups like Gathering of Eagles, MAF and Free Republic ARE watching!!

Source



The Fascist instinct is never far beneath the surface with the Left

Freedom of the press? Who cares about that? Certainly not the Leftist government of the State of Western Australia

Believe it or not, Perth has become the toughest environment in the country in which to practise the public service of journalism. The boom state has become the goon state, where standover and intimidation against the media is the Labor Government's weapon of choice. Police raids by armed officers on busy newsrooms, secret telephone tapping, grilling of reporters by Corruption and Crime Commission investigators that can't be reported - or even whispered to wives, husbands or, incredibly, bosses and employers - are becoming commonplace.

The days of the cabinet leak are over. Clarification: the days of the leak not organised by the Government Media Office are over, particularly those that have the potential to cause electoral pain to a Government led, ironically, by the former journalist Alan Carpenter. It is a sign of the times that many senior working journalists in WA take it as a given that their mobile phones are being, or have been, bugged. Evidence given to the CCC over the past two years confirms that what would have been a silly, paranoid suggestion only a matter of years ago is now an undeniable possibility.

Wednesday's raid on The Sunday Times newsroom by armed officers was overkill bordering on the ridiculous. The Department of Premier and Cabinet wants the CCC and police to catch those responsible for leaking a relatively innocuous yarn about Treasurer Eric Ripper wanting more taxpayers' money for advertising should the Government go to the polls early.

Several other senior journalists at the paper - and at least three at The West Australian, two at commercial television stations and one at the ABC - have over the past two years been dragged into the CCC's St George's Terrace HQ or confronted at home and told to answer questions under the 2003 CCC Act. If they refuse, they can be arrested.

Source

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of other countries. The only real difference, however, is how much power they have. In America, their power is limited by democracy. To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges. They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did: None. So look to the colleges to see what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way. It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there are mirrors of this site here and here.

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