Nick Hallett reports at Breitbart.com:

Feminist commentator Germaine Greer has criticised Elton John for calling his partner David Furnish "mother" of their two sons.

Speaking at the Hay Literary Festival, Greer accused the men of "deconstructing motherhood," criticising them for the fact that Furnish was listed as mother on their children’s birth certificates.

"Sir Elton John and his 'wife' David Furnish have entered on the birth certificate of their two sons that David Furnish is the mother. I’m sorry," Greer is quoted as saying. "That will give you an idea of how the concept of motherhood has emptied out. It’s gone, it’s been deconstructed."

Related
The Revolt of Intelligence Against "Marriage Equality," by J. Richard Pearcey
Memo to the Supreme Court: Who Respects the Human Body? Not Homosexuals, by Nancy Pearcey  

Ken McIntyre writes at the Daily Signal:

The Internal Revenue Service seized $107,702 in company profits from Lyndon McLellan just because agents didn’t like the size of the convenience store owner’s bank deposits.

If a bipartisan proposal before Congress had been the law of the land, though, the IRS could not have justified the money grab.

Countless Americans like McLellan, who never intended to commit a crime, will avoid his heartache -- and that of thousands of others -- if Congress acts to curb the ability of law enforcement agencies to seize individuals’ money and property without even filing a charge.

"I’m no politician, but I hope people say they need to change this," North Carolina resident McLellan says, according the Daily Signal.

"Changing that is the intent of lawmakers who propose to reform the process known in legal circles as civil asset forfeiture," McIntyre writes.

Stoyan Zaimov reports at Christian Post:

The Rev. Yat Michael and the Rev. Peter Yen Reith of the South Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church have been charged with espionage and blasphemy, though the church says they're being persecuted for their Christian faith, like other pastors in the Muslim-dominated country.

Related
Christian Extermination in the Middle East
Christians Fleeing Marauding Muslims in Africa's "Forgotten Crisis"

"A day after actress Rose McGowan posted to her Twitter account a damning, made-up quote attributed to Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, the former Charmed star issued an apology -- sort of," Dave Urbanski writes at The Blaze.

As reprinted in The Blaze, McGowan's interactions are profane and stereotypical. I suppose that passes for coolness in some subcultures.

Have you noticed? "Revolution" and "pushing boundaries" is fine with some in Hollywood, so long as your "revolution" is their "revolution" and your "outside the box" is their "outside the box."

But is that revolution? Or is it group think?

And is that really freedom of thought? Or is it fear of thinking for yourself?

It seems more like a recipe for being utterly, boringly "conservative."

I am one of those who pushes for creativity and excellence in all of life, including life in Tinseltown.

But that's the thing about rebellious excellence. It doesn't give in to peer pressure. Even if it comes out of Hollywood.

Meanwhile, Rose McGowan is a human being, and underneath her hatred and anger is probably a lot of hurt. That is understandable, but so is the love that challenges and corrects false information.    

Also of Interest
Fireproof: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes, by J. Richard Pearcey

Michael W. Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

The president of the Boy Scouts of America, Robert Gates, [May 21] essentially called for the organization to drop its ban against openly homosexual adult troop leaders, a move that evangelical leader Franklin Graham said would prove the group "is bending to LGBT activist groups" and which would put "young, innocent boys at risk."

"Robert Gates, shame on you for not having the moral courage to do what is right," said Rev. Graham in a May 22 post on Facebook. "Yesterday Gates, the president of Boy Scouts of America, called for an end to the group’s ban on gay troop leaders. What are you thinking?"

"We shouldn’t shift as the winds of cultural change blow through society; we need to stand for God’s truth and things that are morally right," CNS quotes Rev. Graham as saying.

"This move is bending to LGBT activist groups and would put young, innocent boys at risk," Graham said, according to CNSNews. 

Graham also used his Facebook page to issue a call to action: "I encourage every former Boy Scout and every parent involved in the Boy Scouts to let Robert Gates know how displeased you are and that if he leads the organization down this road, they may lose your support, your participation -- and your sons."

To contact Public Relations at the Boy Scouts, email PR@scouting.org.

Here's another email: myscouting@scouting.org.

Here is the "National Leadership" page.

Related
Memo to the Supreme Court: Who Respects the Human Body? Not Homosexuals, by Nancy Pearcey
Coulter on "Faggot" Easy to Defend, by J. Richard Pearcey

"David Letterman’s departure isn’t the end of an era," Daniel Greenfield writes at Frontpagemag.com. "The era of late night talk shows ended a while back. In Johnny Carson’s final week in the nineties, he played to an audience of twenty million. Lately, Letterman has been lucky to get 2 million. His final shows have played to around 5 million viewers."

For additional perspective on Letterman, you may want to turn to my comments on "O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War."

Here are the first few paragraphs:

America today is fighting a two-front war for survival.

On the one hand, there is the war on terror -- or the war against Islamofascism, as some call it. This aspect of the war is brought home daily via news from Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and so on. We also see it inside our borders, after 9/11, played out in tactical give and take between political parties and talking heads debating issues such as homeland security, NSA wiretaps, civil liberties, and so on. In an age of nuclear and biological mass destruction, losing the war -- or even being less than vigilant -- can mean the deaths of millions of men, women, and children.

On the other hand, Americans are in the midst of a culture war. As the recent Christmas-Winter Solstice Season shows, there is even a war about whether there is a culture war.

On one side of the culture war are people who understand that this nation is founded upon the governing principle of independence under God. This position is clearly set forth in the Declaration of Independence, which is based on a framework in which there is a Creator from whom all human beings, by virtue of creation, are endowed with inalienable rights.

This particular worldview orientation is what dramatically sets the American experiment apart from ancient Greece, classical Rome, the French Revolution, National Socialism, Marxism, and the anti-Christian secularism that rose up in America in the 1960s.

On the other side of the culture war are people who reject this founding framework in favor of a concept of independence apart from God. This view emerged on the Western political landscape during the French Revolution.

Instead of a Creator God as the basis for human rights, people on this side of the struggle have come to see humanity as the product of an impersonal nature that has produced autonomous human beings who look to themselves (their choice, power, genes) or their groups (race, class, gender, party) or the impersonal natural order itself as the final reference point for human rights and identity.

Observers such as Bill O’Reilly, who was recently challenged by David Letterman on the Late Show, see the struggle as one between traditionalists and secular progressives. In O'Reilly's lexicon, traditionalists are people "who believe the country was well founded, does mostly good things, and has become the most powerful nation on earth by adhering to Judeo-Christian principles like generosity, justice, and self-sacrifice."

O’Reilly defines "secular progressives" as people who "believe that the USA is fundamentally a flawed country, which has caused considerable misery both within and outside our borders.The S-P's want drastic change and a new direction for America."

It is tempting to see these two fronts as separate struggles -- the war on terror over there, and the culture war over here.

But there is a unity: Ultimately the war on terror and the culture war are struggles against Western Civilization as rooted in the Judeo-Christian worldview.

Thinking of the struggle in this way, neither secularism nor Islamofascism can win without liquidating the Judeo-Christian worldview -- or, at a minimum, removing it as a legitimate voice in public life.

From the final paragraph:

". . . America is divided along cultural lines. But underneath the cultural lines are antithetical worldview divisions that we would do well to attend to.

Islamofascism is not secularism is not the Judeo-Christian worldview.

The more Americans understand the thoughtforms upon which their historic freedoms are founded, a verifiable worldview with the Creator at the center as opposed to an inadequate secularism or a kind of religio-fascism, the better prepared all will be to meet the challenges that already confront America early in the 21st century.

Chances of survival seem better if Americans remember who they are and how they got that way.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Todd Starnes writes:

Louisiana Republican lawmakers sided with Democrats, big business, and LGBT activists to kill a bill that would have protected individuals and religious institutions opposed to same-sex marriage.

In doing so, lawmakers defied the objections of an overwhelmingly majority of voters and handed Gov. Bobby Jindal a significant defeat for his legislative agenda.

But Gov. Jindal responded by issuing an "Executive Order late Tuesday to protect religious liberty and prevent the state from discriminating against those with deeply held religious beliefs," Starnes writes in a story update.

"In Louisiana, the state should not be able to take adverse action against a person for their belief in traditional marriage," Jindal is quoted as saying.

"That’s why I’m issuing an Executive Order to prevent the state from discriminating against people, charities and family-owned businesses with deeply held religious beliefs that marriage is between one man and one woman," Jindal said, according to Starnes.

Comment: Jindal is right to protect the people of Louisiana from attempts by homosexualists to impose a counterfeit concept of marriage upon the body politic.

Such an imposition is profoundly hateful, inhumane, intolerant, and discriminatory.

And unwise.

For in both business and society, rejecting counterfeits is a sign of health, sanity, and common sense.

And just as it is right and humane to ethically discriminate against racism and slavery, even so it is right and humane to ethically discriminate against phony marriage and the authoritarianism that attends its fevered imposition.

All people, whether Christian or otherwise, ought to have the freedom to say no to counterfeits and to LGBT oppression, and to say yes to marriage and liberty in community with the verifiable Creator who is the source of both marriage and unalienable rights (for more, see the U.S. Declaration of Independence).

To be human is to be free. Not just in a church or prayer closet, but on campus, in business, in the boardroom, in the voting booth, whether civilian or military, and "to end of the earth," as the pro-human leader of the resistance once put it.

The scope of this calling even includes the State of Louisiana. If you want real "love without limits," this is it.

Related
The Revolt of Intelligence Against "Marriage Equality," by J. Richard Pearcey
Memo to Conservatives: Accepting Homosex "Marriage" Opens Door to Unlimited Statism, by Nancy Pearcey
Jindal on Hillary's Vision: "It Sounds Like Re-education Camps," by J. Richard Pearcey

John Nolte writes at Breitbart: 

The American mainstream media is filled to the brim with liars, frauds, partisans, cheats, plagiarists, and those who tolerate, defend and enable all of them. There is no American institution -- not the NFL, not the tobacco companies, not any corporation or enterprise regularly targeted by the media -- that engages in anywhere near the amount of fraud and dishonesty that serially oozes from Our Media Overlords.

Has Nolte forgotten about the politicians? But I digress.

Read here to see Nolte's 48 reasons.

Craig Milward reports at CNSNews:

Republican Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal told Fox News' "America's News Headquarters" on Sunday that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sounded like she was pushing for "re-education camps" when she said "deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed" on abortion.

"The reality is first of all you listen to her language -- 'our religious beliefs need to be changed.' It sounds like reeducation camps," CNS quotes Jindal as saying. Clinton "didn't say specifically how she wants us to change our beliefs. My religious beliefs aren't between me and Hillary Clinton. They're between me and God."

According to CNSNews, Jindal also assessed Clinton and the left's "dangerous view" on the meaning of religious expression.

"You hear Hillary Clinton, President Obama, when they say you've got freedom of religious expression," Jindal is quoted as saying.

"For them what that really means is you're allowed to go to church and say whatever you want for an hour or two a week. That doesn't mean you've got the real religious liberty rights our Founding Fathers intended. They intended we should be able to live our lives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, according to our beliefs," Jindal said, according to CNS.

"Our Founding Fathers would never recognize what the left is trying to do," Jindal also said.

In contrast to the the founding ethos, the left is "trying to take God out of the public square. They're trying to make America a much more secular country. They're trying to make faith something that is private, circumscribed, something you've got to put into a corner," Jindal said, according to CNS.

"That's not the America our Founding Fathers would've recognized, not an America our parents would've recognized. It's not an America I hope our children recognize."

Jindal is correct, as should be clearly evident, for example, that the Declaration of Independence publicly actualizes the proposition that human beings are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights."

This is public truth, not private religion.

The Judeo-Christian worldview has been and always will be publicly actionable. And thus it liberates from not just from privatized "faith" but also from inhumane worldviews which themselves seek self-actualization and war against human emancipation.

Elsewhere, I have noted the "reality orientation" that characterizes the Christian mindset and practice. In the Foreword to Nancy's new book, Finding Truth, I write:

Paul argued that argued that the events grounding the Christian worldview were not "done in a corner" (Acts 26:25–26). Shepherds, kings, doctors, and tax collectors could all check out the facts that are central to the Christian message.

What is being communicated is an accurate description of reality, not a belief system about it.

This reality orientation is the positive intellectual climate in which the core propositions and events of the gospel live and breathe. It is a mentality in which people are liberated by verifiable truth to challenge tradition, question power, and fight for life and healing against death and decay.

Despite this auspicious heritage, many of our contemporaries find solace in what Francis Schaeffer describes as an "escape from reason." They accept polite society’s dumbed-down redefinition of faith as something totally privatized -- that is, a commitment so private and so personal that evaluation and evidence are irrelevant.

This is a far cry from the holistic respect for information that characterizes a biblical worldview. Scripture nowhere encourages the notion that "faith" equals commitment quarantined from evidence or isolated from the mind -- the "will to avoid knowing what is true," as the philosopher Nietzsche put it his work The Antichrist.

Instead, the Biblical information challenges people to think more deeply about the basic questions of life, and in fact to "test everything" (1 Thess. 5:21).

In this regard, to carefully examine the basic notions of vocal secularists in our day -- be they a Hillary Clinton, a Barack Obama, a Richard Dawkins, or their disciples on Twitter, Facebook, in Hollywood, on campus, or on the evening news -- is to encounter ideologies that "undercut mind and reasoning, choice and freedom, truth and moral ideals.

"Inevitably, then," I further explain in the Foreword to Finding Truth, "people who place their trust in such solutions begin to order their lives in ways that are less than humane.

"Likewise, cultures in the grip of inadequate worldviews begin to actualize societies that are less than humane.

"Ideologues may advance their idols under politically correct banners of tolerance, diversity, and fairness, but the actual impact is regress, not progress, fragmentation, not wholeness. People are crushed.

"The human being necessarily revolts against gods that fail." This includes human beings who are citizens of the United States of America.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War, by J. Richard Pearcey

"Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters on Thursday that ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos is a 'partisan Democrat' who is 'actively supporting' former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign," Matthew Boyle reports for Breitbart news.

"Of course not," Cruz said Thursday when he was "asked if Stephanopoulos should be hosting any debates in 2016," Boyle reports.

"Debates should not be moderated by partisan Democrats who are actively supporting one of the candidates," Cruz said, according to Boyle.

Andrew Stiles reports at the Washington Free Beacon:

ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos donated $50,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, records show.

The contribution is publicly available information, but the host had not previously disclosed it to ABC viewers, despite taking part in on-air discussions about the Clinton Foundation and its controversial relationship with foreign donors.

"Stephanopoulos’s recent coverage of the topic has been challenged by critics who question his objectivity as a longtime Clinton aide," according to Stiles.

"The host’s April 26 interview with Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer, for example, elicited partisan reactions after Stephanopoulos repeatedly pressed the Schweizer to acknowledge the lack of a 'smoking gun' among the allegations in his book," Stiles reports.

Related
First Hillary Clinton's Finances, Next Jeb Bush's
Sharyl Attkisson: Journalism, Media Manipulation, and "Outright Propaganda"
Albert Camus on Politicians and the Purpose of Journalism

Melanie Batley reports at Newsmax:

A conservative group is launching an ad against former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, tying him to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and branding him "unelectable."

According to The Hill, ForAmerica will launch the one-minute Web ad Wednesday in early voting states, where the group says it has a "massive digital and social media network."

The five-figure ad will appear in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada as well as Florida, Maine, Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri.

"Almost all Republicans understand Hillary Clinton would make a terrible president," the text from the ad states, "All except one," according to Newsmax.

"The ad then cuts to Bush presenting an award to Clinton in 2013 and thanking her for her public service," Newsmax reports.

"Mr. Bush is unelectable, and there are several better options for conservatives and Republicans if they want to win in 2016. Period," The Hill quotes ForAmerica chairman Brent Bozell as stating.

"By heaping praise on Hillary Clinton, Mr. Bush has handed her the ammo to bury him . . . and she will," Bozell said, according to The Hill. "No other potential GOP nominee has that fatal disadvantage."

5/14/2015 update: You can view the ad here.

Related   
First Hillary's Finances, Next Jeb Bush's
Jeb Bush 2016 Fail: Let 11 Million Illegals "Receive Earned Legal Status"
Brad Thor: "If Jeb Bush Is the Nominee, I Will Never Vote Republican Again"

Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

In delivering the commencement speech at Dillard University on Sunday, Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington told the college graduates to "put God first" in everything they do, adding that everything he has accomplished in this life was due to "the grace of God."

Related
Denzel Washington: The Bible Is the Answer People Are Looking For
Film: The Book of Eli and Sissified Christians  
Fireproof: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes

Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze:

Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro used the opening segment of her show on Saturday to issue a fiery rebuke of the "politically correct class" that she says is bent on restricting the First Amendment, and expressed fears that some will try to align free speech with "Shariah requirements." 

"Free speech in America is nonnegotiable -- no matter what the perceived consequences, no matter the worry about retribution from Islamic extremists," Pirro said. "Period. The end of the story." 

"She went on to defend Pamela Geller, the head of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, the group that organized the draw Muhammad cartoon contest at the center of a shooting in Garland, Texas, last week, noting that she -- and every other American -- has the right to utter comments that both offend and insult."

"She has the right to say whatever she wants,” Hallowell quotes Pirro as stating, although Pirro "added that she disagreed with Geller’s tactics and said that the contest was 'probably a dumb move'," according to Hallowell.

"That aside, Pirro believes that Geller has forced people to look at the issue of free speech to assess whether Americans are truly willing to uphold it, proceeding to deliver a tough message to those on the left whom she believes want to restrict the First Amendment," Hallowell reports.

"Was anyone drawing a cartoon of Muhammad when they hit us at the World Trade Center? They hate us," Pirro is quoted as saying of Islamic terrorists. "They don’t need a reason to kill us. . . . We need to stop blaming the victim and start killing the murderers . . . political correctness be d-----. We are at war,” Pirro said, according to Hallowell.

"Pirro added that she believes no Americans should fear living under any requirements that curtail religious critiques. 'I don’t have to live under any religious rule, especially one that tells me not to criticize someone else’s prophet'," Hallowell quotes the judge as saying. 

Related
"Religion Very Harmful to People," by Udo Middelmann
"Shut Up or Die," They Explained: Islamic State Calls for "Slaughter" of Pam Geller, at Pro-Existence

The Money, the Power, the Oppression, and the Corruption: Fairfax County Public Schools in northern Virginia say "they were mandated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to add 'gender identity' to [its nondiscrimination] policy — or else risk losing federal funding," Todd Starnes writes at Fox News.

Read this story. In it, you see community leaders such as pastor Martin Baker of Burke Community Church take a stand, saying, "The damage and destruction to our children, teens and impacted adults will be incalculable.”

Baker warned in an email to his 3,000-member church that “everything from locker rooms to bathrooms will be potentially open for people who simply feel that their inner sexuality does not match their outer, physical sexuality."

School board member Elizabeth Schultz is outraged, according to Starnes. "While the underlying issue is somewhat sensational, it is the gravitas in overreach of the federal government and the implications thereof that is so very chilling,” she is quoted as telling Starnes.

"It could have implications for every public school district in the nation. If they’re going to come for us, they’re going to come to them next," Schultz said.

This story, and so many others like it, ought to send chills up the spine of any person who cares about education, who cares about students, and who cares about reasserting and sustaining a humane society in the United States.

We must realize that the attacks of secularists in government, and in other centers of cultural power, upon the freedom and dignity of Americans of all ages and in every sphere of society will continue for ever and ever, creating evermore havoc and hell on earth, until "We the People" rise up and throw the oppressor into the deep blue sea.

To see a framework for mobilizing a humane, peaceful, and strategic counterbalance to secular and federal oppression, please consider "How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War."

The Valley Church of Christ in Harrisonburg, Va., and its legal representation the Rutherford Institute said no. And won.

"Zoning officials . . . backed away from demanding that the signs be taken down after attorneys with the Rutherford Institute stepped in and argued that the First Amendment bars content-based discrimination when it comes to signage, according to a press release," Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze.

Related
Anti-Freedom Extremists Force City to Remove Sculpture of Soldier Kneeling Before Cross
Ben Stein: America's Cross -- The ACLU at It Again

Cheryl Chumley reports at WND:

Pam Geller was among those targeted for murder last Sunday in Garland, Texas, by Islamists who objected to a Mohammad cartoon contest sponsored by her organization.

Her point is to promote freedom, including freedom of speech, a Creator-sourced human right (see the Declaration of Independence) that was protected by a security team that included a police officer with a handgun and very good aim.

In a follow-up story titled, "Victim-Blaming CNN Attacks Pam Geller," John Nolte of Breitbart.com writes:

CNN’s fury against Geller started first thing morning at the hands of New Day co-anchor Alisyn Camerota.

Forget all the good memories you have of Camerota at Fox News.

She went the full-CNN against Geller, attacking the activist as a bigot who is unnecessarily provocative.

Camerota’s victim-blaming was disgraceful, and Geller ran circles around her.

Would Camerota ask a rape victim if her clothes were too provocative?

Of course not.

But Camerota insisted the Geller’s speech-skirt was cut too high, that she provoked her attackers.

"Not to be outdone," Nolte continues, "hideous mean girl Carol Costello grabbed the anchor baton from Camerota and brought on guest after guest to repeat CNN’s belief that Geller was begging for it."

Human freedom did not emerge out of a vacuum, and it cannot be protected in a vacuum. Many people and many worldviews, religions, and philosophies despise it. Others may appreciate it but lack a basis for sustaining it.

Thus it must be protected and advanced, not only against foes from without but also against foes from within. And people who lack understanding need to gain wisdom, lest their liberty is taken while they sleep.

Therefore, bravo Pam Geller and bravo well-trained, courageous police officers. But not so much for CNN.

Related
"What Is Killing the Western World?," by J. Richard Pearcey

At the Washington Free Beacon:

Emergency-room visits continue to rise in the second year of Obamacare, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The visits are up despite claims by President Obama that the law would reduce emergency-room visits because Obamacare would increase access to other kinds of care.

"There was a grand theory the law would reduce ER visits," Dr. Howard Mell of the American College of Emergency Physicians was quoted as telling the Journal. "Well, guess what, it hasn’t happened. Visits are going up despite the ACA, and in a lot of cases because of it."

These crimes in Houston did not pay. Chuck Ross reports at The Daily Caller.