Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa parish, said it was his experience that most interracial marriages did not last long.

“I’m not a racist. I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell said. “I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else.”

Bardwell said he asked everyone who called about marriage if they were a mixed race couple. If they were, he did not marry them.

Bardwell said he had discussed the topic with black and white people, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society did not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and nor did white society.

“There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage. I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”

If he did an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

“I try to treat everyone equally.”

Bardwell estimates that he has refused to marry about four couples during his career.

Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, both of Hammond, said they would consult the US justice department about a discrimination complaint.

Humphrey, an account manager for a marketing firm, said she and McKay, a welder, had just returned to Louisiana. She is white and he is black. She plans to enrol in the University of New Orleans to pursue a masters degree in minority politics.

“That was one thing that made this so unbelievable,” she said. “It’s not something you expect in this day and age.”

Humphrey said that when she called Bardwell on 6 October to inquire about getting a marriage licence signed his wife told her he would not sign marriage licences for interracial couples. Bardwell suggested the couple go to another justice of the peace in the parish who agreed to marry them.

“We are looking forward to having children,” Humphrey said. “And all our friends and co-workers have been very supportive. Except for this, we’re typical happy newlyweds.”

Katie Schwartzmann, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, said it was “really astonishing and disappointing” to see such a case in 2009. “The supreme court ruled as far back as 1963 that the government cannot tell people who they can and cannot marry.”

The ACLU has asked the Louisiana judiciary committee, which oversees state justices of the peace, to investigate Bardwell and recommended “the most severe sanctions available, because such blatant bigotry poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the administration of justice”.

“He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it,” Schwartzmann said.

Bardwell said: “I’ve been a justice of the peace for 34 years and I don’t think I’ve mistreated anybody. I’ve made some mistakes, but you have to. I didn’t tell this couple they couldn’t get married. I just told them I wouldn’t do it.”

via US mixed race couple denied marriage licence | World news | guardian.co.uk.

PHC students are an isolated group who come from close-knit communities where everyone prays together and shares moral certainties. Most have been educated at home and have had no contact with either the social diversity or the political and intellectual cut and thrust of mainstream schools. Derek Archer, a prospective PHC student believes home – schooling has protected him from the ‘moral decay of the world’.

Once at the college, the students ceremonially sign a covenant which commits them to a strict behaviour code: no alcohol, drugs or obscene literature; sex will be reserved for marriage; personal conflicts will be resolved biblically; the students will be above reproach, will uphold the tenets of evangelical Christianity and lead the nation for Christ. (Excerpt from channel4.com)

Movie Starts At 2:30 mins.

via God’s Next Army | Watch Free Documentary Online.

This is just another way to slip religion into schools.

via YouTube – Texas required to teach Bible in schools.

via Conservapedia – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ever since Roe v. Wade, the United States has been deeply divided on the issue of abortion. In that landmark case, an unmarried pregnant woman was refused an abortion in Texas and, with the ensuing judicial challenge, won American women the right to safe, legal abortions. Ever since, proponents and opponents have lined up on either side of the issue, launching verbal abuse — and worse — at each other. As the religious right has increased in size and power in the past decade, the issue has become even more divisive — and violent.

This is the brand new ad from the Yes on 1 campaign in Maine:

And, this is a Prop 8 ad from last fall in California:

The same consultants behind Prop 8 were hired for exactly this, drive up fear about marriage equality using lies about kids and churches. It goes without saying that Maine does not force school to talk about marriage equality, in fact they don’t have to talk about marriage at all. Dirigo Blue got a comment from the Maine Department of Education Comunications Director David Connerty-Marin:

I cannot comment on Massachusetts education law or decisions made by local school districts in Massachusetts. Here in Maine, our Learning Results standards and education regulations make no reference to the teaching of marriage in any way. So a change in Maine’s laws or definition of marriage places no requirements on local districts regarding whether or how they teach about marriage. Such curriculum decisions are strictly local. Before or after passage of the gay marriage law a district could choose to teach about marriage or not, and to teach about it in any way it deemed appropriate. It simply is not governed by state education law.

But Schubert/Flint seems to be phoning it in a bit. They don’t seem to realize what a far right wacko they picked to be in their ad.

Charla Bansley is a high school teacher at a private Christian school, not an elementary public school teacher as they are implying in the ad. And the leader of the Maine Chapter of Concerned Women of America, which is a hard-right nut-job org (anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-religion in schools, anti-porn, and anti-UN, yes they hate the United Nations). And she is a teabagger. And tried to get a student expelled for writing a pro-marriage equality letter to the editor as part of a class project.

And she thinks gays are psychotic and deviants. From a speech she gave at a Stand for Marriage Maine rally recently. Louise has much more over at the Blend.

Public display of psychosis and we have dealt with it by redefining decency down so as to explain away and make normal what a more civilized, and ordered, and healthy society would label deviant and the result has been a stunning failure.

This woman is a walking opportunity for opposition research and should be fodder for a while. Her values are not Maine values.

Fight back against this nasty. Fight back against fundie lies. Fight for love and marriage.

Give till it hurts, because if they win, there will be pain for Maine LGBT families.

http://crooksandliars.com/julia-rosen/recycled-lies-yes-1-campaign-maine

The amendment seeks to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Also criminalized: the morning-after pill and oral contraceptives taken by women, known as the pill. “There are some (birth control) methods that kill a child,” said Pat McEwan, who is leading the Personhood Florida group.

The amendment faces extremely long odds. First, supporters must gather 676,811 signatures to make the ballot — by Feb. 1, to go before voters in 2010.

They’re pushing this in a dozen other states, but only in Colorado has it ever appeared on a ballot. It was rejected there by a 3-1 margin.

At a press conference in Tallahassee, speakers blamed abortion for the financial insolvency of Social Security and the bankruptcy of American auto manufacturers, citing the millions of terminated pregnancies since Roe. v. Wade as costing the nation citizens and customers. They also said that a fetus is a person and should be given protections of law.

“It is obvious in our ultrasounds that that little baby, even at just eight weeks old, is a person,” said Brenda MacMenamin, a Personhood Florida organizer. “Their rights our self-evident and they are inalienable. We want to give the voters of the state of Florida the right to vote on personhood.”

Florida Anti-Abortion Group Wants To Ban Birth Control
September 14th, 2009, 4:47 PM EDT
http://www.alan.com/2009/09/14/florida-anti-abortion-group-wants-to-ban-birth-control/

Why is this on Stop The American Taliban?

Erik Prince, Founder and Owner of Blackwater, has been quoted as saying that he went to Iraq in order to (paraphrasing): “Rid the world of Muslims to allow the Christian faith to rise”  He thinks of himself as a Holy Warrior For God.  Yeah, Erik Prince just might be a member of The American Taliban.  Check out Jeremy’s book.

In this video Bill interviews Jeremy Scahill author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

The Republicans sheltered the Neocons: the Taliban sheltered al quaeda.

The Republicans defended the Neocons: the Taliban defended al quaeda.

The Republicans bought and pursued the Neocon agenda: the Taliban bought
and pursued the agenda of al quaeda.

The Republicans have become a religious movement: the Taliban are a
religious movement.

The Republicans want to implement biblical law: the Taliban have Sharia.

The Republicans want to dictate a womans rights: the Taliban give no
rights to women.

The Republicans torture: so do the Taliban.

The Republicans are brainwashed daily by Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter:
the Taliban are brainwashed by Mullahs.

The Republicans speak of a “Crusade” against Moslems: The taliban
practice genocide.

The Republicans bribe the ignorant into a military: the Taliban
conscripts.

The Republicans and the Taliban are indistinguishable.

—————————–
Originally Posted by Curly Surmudgeon on September 1, 2009, 4:46 pm

http://www.rittercnc.com/cnc/Republicans-The-American-Taliban-43834-.htm

Jesus Camp is a 2006 documentary directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about a pentecostal summer camp for children who spend their summers learning and practicing their “prophetic gifts” and being taught that they can “take back America for Christ.”

FINDLAY, Ohio – A student at a fundamentalist Baptist school that forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing will be suspended if he takes his girlfriend to her public high school prom, his principal said.

Despite the warning, 17-year-old Tyler Frost, who has never been to a dance before, said he plans to attend Findlay High School’s prom Saturday.

Frost, a senior at Heritage Christian School in northwest Ohio, agreed to the school’s rules when he signed a statement of cooperation at the beginning of the year, principal Tim England said.

via Christian school to teen: Skip prom – Faith- msnbc.com.

An in-depth look at the Westboro Baptist Church.

A documentary film from BBC2 tv and Loui Theroux.