Category Archives: News

Canada’s Justice Minister calls for two-year prison sentence for critics of transgenderism

Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau
Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party, marching in a gay pride parade

Bill Muehlenberg documents a few headlines from just the last week about the transgender movement’s latest concerns: (H/T Dr. Michael Brown)

Canada Prepares Nationwide Ban on Anti-Transgender Propaganda
May 18, 2016
Citing the need to make transgender people “feel safe and secure in who they are,” Canada’s Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould introduced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” or “gender expression” and make anti-transgender “hate propaganda” punishable by up to two years in prison.

New York City imposes fines up to $250,000 for refusing to call trans person ‘ze’ or ‘hir’
May 19, 2016
New York City’s human rights commission says it will fine New York employers and landlords up to $250,000 for using the wrong pronoun to refer to a transgender person.

Female security guard arrested, faces hate charge for removing man from women’s restroom in D.C.
May 19, 2016

Girls must get over their ‘discomfort’ at seeing male genitals in locker room: Charlotte Observer
May 20, 2016
Girls need to get over the “discomfort” they may feel at seeing male genitalia in the locker room, the editorial board of one of North Carolina’s largest newspapers wrote in a piece supporting the Obama administration’s transgender school facilities edict.

The most dangerous, and underreported, part of Obama’s transgender edict
May 20, 2016
School districts must allow biological males and females to spend the night together in the same hotel room on field trips; Colleges must let men who say they are transgender be roommates with one or more women; and School officials cannot even tell those young women or their parents in advance that their new roommate is a man, without risking a federal lawsuit.

Bill is in Australia, so he has a few cases listed in his post that I hadn’t heard of. To be honest, their stories seemed tame compared to the Canadian story.

Let’s look at the Canadian story more closely (Daily Caller):

Citing the need to make transgender people “feel safe and secure in who they are,” Canada’s Minister of Justice Jody Wilson-Raybould introduced legislation Tuesday that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” or “gender expression” and make anti-transgender “hate propaganda” punishable by up to two years in prison.

The proposed legislation — which was unveiled on the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia — would amend the Canadian Criminal Code to expand existing “hate speech” prohibitions to include any public speech or communication that “promotes hatred” on the basis of “gender identity” or “gender expression.”

An identical ban on anti-gay “hate propaganda” has been in place for several years and has caused problems for Christians who oppose gay marriage. In 2013, the Canadian Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a Christian street preacher for distributing fliers denouncing homosexual behavior.

The court justified the preacher’s conviction on the grounds that he used “vilifying and derogatory representations to create a tone of hatred” against homosexuals. The court held that the pastor’s religious freedom did not excuse him from violating “hate propaganda” laws.

[…]Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who ideologically leans far to the left — championed the bill as a much-needed step for transgender rights in Canada. “We must continue to demand true equality,” he said at a news conference.

Wilson-Raybould was similarly enthusiastic about the bill. “We live in a time when discrimination in any form is completely unacceptable,” she said.

Two years in prison, under the Criminal Code, for speech that offends the government’s favored group. That’s what Canadian taxpayers are paying their Liberal Party government to do. They elected them in a majority, so this is going to happen. No one can stop them.

You might remember that the Justice Minister is the same woman who introduced the euthanasia bill. Euthanasia is Canada’s preferred method of reducing costs in their single-payer health care system. After all, they need to save money for the abortions, IVF and sex changes they cover. Canada represents the triumph of compassion over moral boundaries. “Let’s not make judgments that make people feel bad” won out over “let’s have moral rules that protect the weak and innocent, preserve our liberties and conscience rights, and reduce the costs to taxpayers of expensive choices made by individuals”. They wanted to let everyone do what they wanted and pass the costs to taxpayers. Anyone who dissents has to be silenced or imprisoned, because dissent is judgment, and and judgment makes people feel bad.

Why is this push on transgender priorities happening? For those who have a sense of history, it’s very clear that the sex-differences denying of the gay activists is nothing more than an extension of the sex-differences denying of the radical feminists. Those who looked favorably on the demands of the radical feminists in order to appear chivalrous (to the wrong kinds of women) should have expected this. It turns out that if you really believe that a woman is identical to a man, and all differences between them are cultural, then… a woman really is identical to a man, and all differences between them really are cultural. I know many pastors who were unwilling to take on radical feminism, because they wanted to appear chivalrous. Sometimes, it is more important to say “no” than it is to be liked.

Alliance Defending Freedom files brief to defend pro-marriage Wyoming judge

Gay activist vandalizes pro-marriage sign
Gay activist vandalizes pro-marriage sign

Although you might think that Wyoming is conservative, it’s actually quite socially liberal. Check out this story from The Stream.

It says:

A beloved judge in a whisper of a town in Wyoming faces being thrown off the bench for stating she wouldn’t be able to perform same-sex weddings due to her religious beliefs.

The Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics is recommending the removal of Municipal Judge and Circuit Court Magistrate Ruth Neely. The Commission also wants her to pay up to $40,000 in fines.  This despite the fact Judge Neely is neither required to perform weddings, nor has even been asked to perform a same-sex wedding. Still, in the Commission’s view, by stating her commitment to natural marriage, she has “manifested a bias” and is permanently unfit to serve as a judge.

The troubles for Judge Neely of Pinedale, Wyoming (pop. 2030) began in 2014 after a Federal judge struck down Wyoming’s ban on same-sex marriage. When asked about the decision by a reporter for the local Pinedale Roundup, Judge Neely responded that she wouldn’t be able to perform a same-sex marriage. “When law and religion conflict, choices have to be made,” she said.

The Commission launched a formal investigation in 2015, and according to the Casper Star Tribune, accused Judge Neely of violating six rules of judicial conduct, including prejudice based on sexual orientation, acting improperly and refusing to uphold the rule of law.

According to a brief filed by her attorneys, the Commission first told Judge Neely it wouldn’t prosecute if she would agree to resign, admit wrongdoing and never again seek judicial office in Wyoming. Judge Neely refused.

Then this February, reports the Casper Star Tribune, the Commission told Judge Neely she could stay on the bench if she publicly apologized and agreed to perform same-sex marriages. The judge responded that doing so would violate her religious convictions.

The Commission then filed its recommendation to the Wyoming Supreme Court that Ruth Neely be ousted. According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which today filed a brief on her behalf, “This would be the first time in the country that a judge was removed from office because of her religious beliefs about marriage.”

The heroic Alliance Defending Freedom has filed a brief in defense of the judge:

In a recently filed brief Judge Neely’s attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) asked the state Supreme Court to reject the Commission’s recommendation. Among the points argued by the ADF:

  • The Commission’s actions violate Judge Neely’s constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of religion.

  • Judge Neely has discretion when exercising her authority to perform marriages and could refuse to do so for any number of reasons.

  • Judge Neely has been suspended from her role as magistrate and is not currently performing any marriages.

  • Any question over her authority to perform marriages has no bearing on her ability to perform her duties as a municipal court judge, of which there is no accusation she has violated any judicial rules.

You would think that at least in Wyoming, that a Christian would be allowed to serve in public office, but actually no. If you are a Christian or a Torah-believing Jew, then you are not allowed to be a judge in Wyoming. It’s not a good place to live for conservatives.

The Democrat war on clean coal makes us all pay more for electricity

National Electricity Price Index vs CPI
National Electricity Price Index vs CPI

This is from Investors Business Daily.

Excerpt:

Another coal giant in America, Peabody Energy Corp., declared bankruptcy this week. This bankruptcy filing follows similar actions by Arch Coal Inc., Alpha Natural Resources Inc., and other coal producers that have filed for Ch. 11 protection from creditors.

The ideologues in the White House must be uncorking the champagne. They wanted this to happen. It was the intended result of lawsuits and burdensome regulations by the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency, which declared war on coal from the day Obama entered office.  This was a key component of the anti-carbon agenda of the climate change fanaticism that pervades this White House.

Ideas have consequences. Obama has succeeded in decimating whole towns across America — from Wyoming to Virginia to Pennsylvania — dependent on coal. An estimated 31,000 coal miners, truckers, engineers, construction workers and others have lost their jobs since 2009 as a result of this global warming jihad. Another 5,000 or so could be given pink slips at Peabody. To the left, these lives ruined is acceptable collateral damage for their utopian dream of saving the planet.

The victims here aren’t rich fat cats. They are middle class workers whose lives have been turned upside down by the Big Green Machine.

Investors have gotten crushed too as a result of coal’s demise. The ‎coal industry has lost more than $30 billion in stock value since 2009 — with many of these losses in pension funds and 401(k) plans.

What is maddening about these developments is that coal is much, much cleaner than ever before. EPA statistics show that emissions of sulfur, lead, carbon monoxide, and smog  from coal plants have been reduced by more than 50% in the last 40 years. Clean coal is a reality — but that never slowed the greens down.   The Natural Resources Defense Council now wants the EPA to slap $700 million in environmental fines on Peabody. These people just never stop.

America is the Saudi Arabia of coal. We have an estimated 500 years supply of that energy source. Our coal is cleaner and our environmental laws are much stricter than in other nations.  So for economic and ecological reasons, we should want American coal to dominate the world market.

The demise of coal could lead to major disruptions in America’s electric power supply. Before Obama entered office in 2009, America got half its electric power from coal.  Coal still supplies more than one-third of our electricity, because it is cheap and highly reliable, but that percentage continues to shrink.

Higher energy prices is no problem for Democrats:

They are pretty bold about wanting to bankrupt the coal industry, and push us all onto more expensive forms of energy like wind and solar:

Cost of renewable wind and solar energy
Cost of renewable wind and solar energy

Do you need to be paying more for electricity? Could you find something else to spend it on? How much is there left over for charity if you have to pay more for electricity?

And do you know who else pays for higher electricity prices? Your employer. Attacking cheap, clean energy puts more economic stress on the person who employs you. Think about that.