STATE REPRESENTATIVE DELISI’S AMENDMENT MAY HAVE IMPACT ON CITY POLICIES An amendment to the Employee Retirement System Omnibus Bill by State Rep. Dianne White Delisi (R-Temple) may have far reaching effects on city policies regarding homosexual partner benefits. During the recently completed session, Rep. Delisi, along with the help of Rep. Jerry Madden (R-Richardson), amended SB 292 with the following language:
“For the purposes of this title, the state may not give effect to a public act, record, or judicial proceeding that recognizes or validates a marriage or civil union between persons of the same sex; or right or claim asserted as a result of the purported marriage or civil union.”
The amendment also defines civil union as a relationship status that grants to the parties the same legal protections and benefits granted to the spouses of a marriage.
The amendment is significant because it puts in place a legislative marker instructing municipalities to grant retirement benefits only to legitimately married spouses (read “opposite sex”) of public employees. Homosexual activists have long argued that public denial of “marriage rights” precludes them from collecting public benefits reserved exclusively to married public employees. By defining homosexual couples out of the benefit equation, this amendment knocks one more leg out from under their argument. Kudos to Reps. Delisi and Madden for their quick thinking at the end of a long session.
SUCKERFISH ENDANGERS OREGON FARMER’S PROPERTY RIGHTS Farmers in Klamath Falls, OR have found themselves locked in battle with the federal government over use of irrigation water in the Klamath Basin Project. The basin is a watershed straddling the California and Oregon border that has provided water to over 2,000 farm families in the region for decades. The irrigation water was recently diverted after a court order came down ruling that two types of rare suckerfish were being endangered by the farmer’s use of the basin. The court found that the Endangered Species Act provided the necessary authority for taking such drastic action. After the ruling came down and further negotiations were stifled, farmers opened the basin’s headgates in protest, only to be thwarted by federal officials who promptly closed the gates down. The standoff over the water has now stretched on for over two weeks.
The current situation in Klamath Falls demonstrates the underlying hostility toward private property rights present in the Endangered Species Act. It is simply unconscionable that hard working American farmers are being deprived of their livelihood by the federal government because of concerns over two species of suckerfish.
Local authorities should be allowed to work with the farmers in the region to identify a strategy that would allow for both the conservation of the suckerfish, and the preservation of the farmer’s fundamental property rights and way of living. As it stands now, the Endangered Species Act is nothing more than a hammer used by radical environmentalists to stamp out development, commerce, and common sense.
ALLIANCE FOR MARRIAGE GROUP PROPOSES A DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE AMENDMENT TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION While activists in Texas have been circulating petitions asking Governor Perry to call a special legislative session to pass the Defense of Marriage Act, a group at the federal level has indicated its intention to press for a Defense of Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Alliance for Marriage is calling for Congress to pass an amendment which states that “Marriage in the United States shall consist only of a union of a man and a woman," and prohibits any constitutions or laws from requiring "that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." If passed, the amendment would supersede any state law of court decision granting marital status to homosexual couples.
The business of proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution is heady stuff, and is usually accomplished over a period of years, even decades, during which time public sentiment is shaped by the debate surrounding the process. In addition, amendment efforts are not always successful, and may change direction midstream as opinion shifts and new coalitions are formed. While Alliance for Marriage’s effort may prove successful over time, the best course of action at this point for activists wishing to make an impact now is to press for a Defense of Marriage Act at the state level. Once the research is in, the wording is finalized, the legal ramifications are hashed out, and the strategy is set, a large national campaign for the amendment will undoubtedly be in order. Until that time, we need to encourage our state leaders to enact a Texas DOMA as soon as possible.
While a good case could be made to say we are on the verge of being overrun by an avalanche of academic ignorance, it would not be accurate to say our kids are graduating empty headed. Perhaps it's time for another updated review of some of the important things our children are learning in government school classrooms.
While Johnny and Jill may not be learning how to read, they are learning that: teachers are underpaid, God is irrelevant, big business is ruining the environment, the Bible says driving an SUV is a sin, rewards should be based on need rather than performance, bisexual individuals are under the command of unstable genes, the Alamo was a great Mexican victory, society rather than the individual is responsible for crime, saving the sucker fish is more important than saving farmers, teachers' pay should be doubled, a diversity of cultures and languages is America's strength, Thomas Jefferson was a racist, two plus two equals whatever, competition is destructive, the right to be wrong makes wrong right, the Boy Scouts are a hate group, Ronald Reagan is responsible for the disappearance of the dinosaurs, the Catholic Church is a hate group, defending yourself promotes violence, the government is the source from which all blessings flow, Southern Baptists are a hate group, high taxes are good for America, equality is more important than excellence, carbon dioxide is poisoning the world, cops hate black people, putting a condom on a cucumber is child's play, the Salvation Army is a hate group, the Constitution is obsolete, God is a homophobe, porpoises are smarter than people, the Constitution requires the government to censor religious speech, taxes are the same as charitable contributions, boys and girls are exactly the same except girls are better, the toleration of evil is a virtue, moral discernment is a hate crime, cutting taxes is like stealing from poor people, American Indians would not have polluted the environment even if they had known how, George Washington was a racist, rich people enjoy stomping on poor people, the condom is mightier than the conscience, Christopher Columbus infected the natives with syphilis, one person's opinion is as good as any other, the American Constitution was written by racists and sexists, Ronald Reagan is responsible for the spread of AIDS, teachers should be paid as much as NFL quarterbacks, sex between consenting children is inevitable, all sexual orientations are created equal, religious people are bigots, in the beginning there was a big explosion, a family is any collection of oddballs living under one roof, the right to kill babies is in the Constitution, it is un-American to have more than someone else does, the only hope of the world is for workers everywhere to unite, and it is the constitutional responsibility of government to provide jobs, housing, clothing, condoms, hot lunches, living wages, family leave, child care and band-aids to all citizens.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you want to learn how to deal with these and other problems in your child’s public school, you won’t want to miss
Texas Eagle Forum’s 2001 Education Round-Up to be held September 8 in the Ft. Worth Stockyards at the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. For more information on the Education Round-up, please click on the following link:
http://www.texaseagle.org/roundup/index.html
Eagle
Eye on the World
FRENCH COURT UPHOLDS “RIGHT NOT TO BE BORN” PARIS, JULY 15, 2001 (Article taken from www.Zenit.org)
This country’s highest court of appeal has ruled that disabled children are entitled to compensation if their mothers were not given the chance to abort them, Agence France-Presse reported.
The ruling follows a case brought by three families with physically deformed children, who argued that if doctors had detected the unborn children’s disabilities they would have had abortions instead.
Physicians, activists for the disabled, and pro-life groups have reacted with outrage, describing the decision by the Cour de Cassation as an incentive toward eugenics, news reports said.
The ruling last week upheld a landmark decision which awarded a mentally retarded boy damages last year because he had not been aborted. The case was widely described as establishing in law a disabled child’s “right not to be born.”
The Collective to Stop Discrimination against the Disabled responded angrily. “This is a real act of phobia,” it said. “Now parents are going to be attacked and seen as irresponsible because they gave birth to a handicapped child.”
Doctors say the fear of being sued for a misdiagnoses would encourage them to recommend abortions at the slightest hint of a disability.
“The ruling means that the handicapped have no place in our society,” said Yves Richard, a lawyer representing the medical profession.
Commentary:
Global Warming and the Kyoto Protocol
Americans have heard a great deal of hype about the noxious effects of global warming and the saving grace of the Kyoto Protocol, but have been given very few specifics on these issues. The reason for this is simple: the Kyoto Protocol is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt by eco-radicals, starry-eyed socialists, and third world dictators to bleed industrialized nations of their economic wealth in the name of environmental preservation. Americans don’t like to hear such things, and our liberal national media would prefer to keep these unpleasant truths out of the public forum of discussion.
Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams, however, thinks that all Americans should be given the facts on what could prove to be the most disastrous treaty our nation ever signs. That is why Cathie is in Bonn, Germany at the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting live on world leader’s efforts to rob us blind.
Please be sure to tune in to this web site every day for her conference
updates!
If you would like some background information on the UNFCCC, visit some of the web sites listed below.
The following are three outstanding analyses of the true nature of the Kyoto Protocol debate:
