Another entrant appears in the Jesus-based pantheon of law schools.  Louisiana College has announced plans to establish a new law school that will, in their words, "train and equip young men and women to view the practice of law through a biblical worldview."  (That would sound innocuous if we hadn't heard this kind of thing before.)  

The local paper reports on the press conference, where LC President Joe Aguillard spoke of future graduates who "will be Christian advocates in life and their law practice, protect Christian liberties and be Christian advocates in politics."  The school will be named for Judge Paul Pressler, the leader of the ultraconservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Yes.  Christian liberties are in such danger.  Frightening.

It's long after the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo stories broke.  You'd think this diary would be unnecessary.  But inspired by a question from dKos user brahma, I felt it would be helpful to break down the definitions of torture, according to the Geneva Conventions and others.  It is my contention that the United States has broken international law by torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and any other location where torture has taken place.

A bill severely curtailing access to emergency contraception has passed the Wisconsin Assembly, and is expected to be taken up by the Senate next month.  Among the cited reasons are that "dispensing birth control and emergency contraceptives leads to promiscuity."  (Note that the linked opinion piece says that Wisconsin has passed this into law.  It has not.)

LeMahieu [author of the bill] says that medical claims that pregnancy starts at implantation are meaningless in his world view.

"My definition of human life begins when egg and sperm unite," he says. "They can define a pregnancy differently, but they can't deny that life begins when egg and sperm unite."

Too much empathy?  Maybe so.

I read of Arar's torture in Syria.  How he heard babies crying, prisoners screaming.  

I read that our country sent people to Uzbekistan to be tortured, that Uzbekistan boils people alive.

I read that the Cabinet is filled with people who advocate torture, that the CIA is being purged of all those who disagree with this, and that the ghost detainees may well be executed.

I'm sitting here in tears.  I've written to everyone I know.  I've written my representatives.  I've written the White House.  I've written on my LJ, I've sent emails to everyone I know begging them to write their representatives.

I forwarded Putting the Christ Back in Christianity to a bunch of people I know, including my right-wing (although still very nice) mother.  She forwarded it to her pastor.  

Guess what was read on Christmas day, in its entirety, at two packed services?

This is at a Seventh-Day Adventist church.  This isn't a Unitarian "hey, whatever you believe is okay" kind of church.  (No offense meant to Unitarians.)  This is an organization with serious dogma, y'all. Membership in the SDA church is largely conservative.  And hundreds of Adventists heard Kid O's words on Christmas Day.

Thank you for your diary entry, Kid O.  You were credited in the sermon, and the words reached hundreds who would never have heard it otherwise.

So, according to this MSNBC article, thousands of homeless people in Ohio are having their registrations challenged.

Earlier this year, I worked on a report for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty on just this issue.  The report is available here, and is free.

It includes a state-by-state breakdown of the laws on voting for the homeless.  It also contains summaries of state law on ID requirements and on provisional ballots, which make it useful for anyone guarding democracy at the polls.  I'm bringing it with me tonight when I volunteer at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, and it'll be with me when I go to Ohio.  I hope other people find it useful too.