400-408 – Lindsay Rajt, Associate Director of PETA Campaigns and Outreach (peta.org) responds to the Daily Caller piece below. Do you value human life over animal life? If a child you didn't know was in a pool with your favorite pet, say a dog or cat, and both of them were in distress, who would you attempt to save? Lindsay answered, "I'd save both." When I pressed, but who would you save first, she answered, "I don't know." Note to self – You don't want PETA members caring for your children.
• Daily Caller (2/24/2012) Documents: PETA kills more than 95 percent of pets in its care.
413-423 – Shooter T. J. Lane, 17, did not attend Chardon High School where the shooting took place, but Lake Academy, an alternative school for students with academic or behavioral problems. He apparently targeted a boy who was dating an old girlfriend. He fired 10 shots from a .22, killing three and wounding at least three. He lives with his grandparents.
• Rachel Dissell (The Plain Dealer, 2/28/2012) Parents of teen accused of shootings faced charges.
// The teen had one prior case in Geauga County Juvenile court two years ago. Officials would not release information on the case. But several at the court said the family's troubles were known to social workers in the county.
The father, Thomas Lane Jr., was known to county authorities because of a series of arrests for abusing women in his life, court records show. It's not clear how much contact the father and son had.
But between 1995 and 1997, the boy's father and mother, Sara A. Nolan, were each charged with domestic violence against each other.
The father was later charged with assaulting a police officer and served time in prison after trying to suffocate another woman he married several years after his son was born, according to court records.
He held the woman's head under running water and bashed it into a wall, leaving a dent in the drywall, court records show.
But soon after he went to prison, the woman wrote a letter asking that he be released early.
She had divorced Thomas Lane but said in the letter that he was always a good father to their twin daughters and a son she had before they married.
Some youths who attended a vigil at a church on Chardon's square Monday evening said that the teen lived with his grandparents and had multiple step- and half-siblings. His grandmother declined to comment.
One young woman said he attended a church youth group several years ago while he was dating a girl. Many students said he was heartbroken when she broke up with him and later began dating one of the boys who was shot.
• Daily Mail (2/28/2012) 'Die all of you': The rantings of 'Ohio school gunman posted weeks before brutal cafeteria spree' as second classmate dies.
First victim in Monday's shooting in Cleveland was Daniel Parmertor, 16
Another shot, Russell King Jr, had started dating shooter's ex-girlfriend
Police said gunman, allegedly TJ Lane, 17, was student at the school
Suspect 'tweeted he would bring gun to school' but not taken seriously
Also 'posted threatening letter on Facebook two months before'
Authorities used K-9 unit to track down Lane, who was found by his car
Suspect chased out of school by two brave teachers, students said
// News of the letter comes as more details emerged about how Lane specifically targeted one group of students in the cafeteria, including one who had started dating Lane's ex-girlfriend. Local reports identified one of the victims as Russell, a sociable 17-year-old who had started dating an ex-girlfriend of Lane. After being shot in the back while sitting at a table in the cafeteria, Russell was airlifted to MetroHealth Medical Center. He was declared on Tuesday morning as the second dead victim.
// Freshman Danny Komertz, 15, said he was just about to leave for his first-period health class when he heard a loud popping sound and then saw the gunman open fire. The freshman said that the person who died was trying to get under a cafeteria table to protect himself and shield his face. Danny said that there were at least 100 students in the cafeteria at the time and that most fled immediately as shots were fired. 'He was aiming right at them as he was two feet away ... He wasn't shooting around the cafeteria at all. He was directly aiming at the four of them,' Danny said.
// The shooting ended when the school's assistant football coach Frank Hall chased Lane out of the building, with many saying that the heroic move is just in keeping with the coach's nature. 'Coach Hall, he always talks about how much he cares about us students, his team and everyone. 'And I think today he really went out and he proved how much he cared about us. He would take a bullet for us,' said student Neil Thomas.
// He was joined by fellow teacher Joseph Ricci, according to reports tweeted by students. The shooter apparently tried to aim his gun at Mr Hall, but they kept charging him.
• Yahoo (2/27/2012) Chardon High School Shooting: Second Student Dies as Alleged Gunman Is Identified.
// Nate Mueller, a junior at the school, was having breakfast with three friends when he heard a loud pop like a firecracker about 7:45 a.m., he told ABC News.
// Mueller described Lane as "a quiet kid. Freshman year he got into a 'goth' phase and didn't talk to that many people anymore. He never egged anybody on. He just went about his business."
But Lane's family life had been disrupted by divorce and violence, WEWS reported. His parents divorced in 2002, and his father later served time in jail on assault and other charges, according to the station.
Classmates described Lane as a outcast who'd been bullied.
• Blaze (2/28/2012) FACE OF A KILLER? SUSPECT IDENTIFIED IN OHIO SHOOTING AS SECOND STUDENT DECLARED DEAD.
// A student who saw the attack up close said it appeared that the gunman targeted a group of students — one who may have been dating Lane's ex-girlfriend — sitting together and that the one who was killed was gunned down while trying to duck under the cafeteria table.
// Fifteen-year-old Danny Komertz, who witnessed the shooting, said Lane was known as an outcast who had apparently been bullied. But others disputed that.
"Even though he was quiet, he still had friends," said Tyler Lillash, 16. "He was not bullied."
423 – Don't miss our upcoming KKLA Faith Night at Staples on Thursday March 15th to watch Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and the Clippers take on the Phoenix Suns. Tickets are only $18 through kkla.com, keyword "Clippers."
428-438 – • Blaze (2/28/2012) FACE OF A KILLER? SUSPECT IDENTIFIED IN OHIO SHOOTING AS SECOND STUDENT DECLARED DEAD.
// [Here's T.J. Lane's message on Facebook posted on December 20, 2011.
In a time long since, a time of repent, The Renaissance. In a quaint lonely town, sits a man with a frown. No job. No family. No crown. His luck had run out. Lost and alone.
The streets were his home. His thoughts would solely consist of "why do we exist?" His only company to confide in was the vermin in the street. He longed for only one thing, the world to bow at his feet.
They too should feel his secret fear. The dismal drear. His pain had made him sincere.
He was better than the rest, all those ones he detests, within their castles, so vain. Selfish and conceited.
They couldn't care less about the peasants they mistreated. They were in their own world, it was a joyous one too. That castle, she stood just to do all she could to keep the peasants at bay, not the enemy away.
They had no enemies in their filthy orgy. And in her, the castles every story, was just another chamber of Lucifer's Laboratory. The world is a sandbox for all the wretched sinners.
They simply create what they want and make themselves the winners. But the true winner, he has nothing at all. Enduring the pain of waiting for that castle to fall. Through his good deeds, the rats and the fleas.
He will have for what he pleads, through the eradication of disease. So, to the castle he proceeds, like an ominous breeze through the trees. "Stay back!" The Guards screamed as they were thrown to their knees. "Oh God, have mercy, please!"
The castle, she gasped and then so imprisoned her breath, to the shallow confines of her fragile chest. I'm on the lamb but I ain't no sheep. I am Death. And you have always been the sod. So repulsive and so odd.
You never even deserved the presence of God, and yet, I am here. Around your cradle I plod. Came on foot, without shod. How improper, how rude. However, they shall not mind the mud on my feet if there is blood on your sheet.
Now! Feel death, not just mocking you. Not just stalking you but inside of you. Wriggle and writhe. Feel smaller beneath my might. Seizure in the Pestilence that is my scythe. Die, all of you.
• (1:10) Mike Gallagher, on the Chardon High School shooter, XX, this morning (2/28/2012). Gallagher—who is the father of four boys himself—condemned in the strongest possible terms those who attempt to rationalize the shooter's actions because he was 'bullied' at school.
"That's ridiculous, in my view, to go down this path, of suggesting that bullying is somehow to blame. It might be part of the story, it might be part of the narrative. It might be factual. This kid's some freak, who's a goth who acts weird and is anti-social and he's gonna get picked on. Well, welcome to the real world....please don't pretend that the kids who can't handle it, who say they're bullied, and therefore have to go get a gun and blow kids brains out somehow aren't evil. That IS evil. E-v-i-l. They are evil monsters who frankly ought to be executed for what they've done. This kid ought to face the death penalty for his cold-blooded acts of violence."
443-452 – Calls – Are you getting the impression, from the way this story is being covered, that the reports that T.J. Lane may have been bullied somehow justifies what he did? Or, that because of his troubled home life we should be more understanding? Or, that during his goth phase, though he himself was alienating himself from others, we should by sympathetic?
458-508 – Calls –
512-523 – Calls –
528-539 – Ron Stoddart, Executive Director of Nightlight Christian Adoptions (nightlight.org), a nonprofit that provides traditional national and international adoptions, as well as embryo adoption services to families across the country and internationally through their Snowflakes Frozen Embryo Adoption and Donation Program.
544-554 – Ron Stoddart,
558-608 – Fred Sanders, Associate Professor at the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola since 1999, is a systematic theologian with specific interest in the doctrine of the Trinity, and today we talk about his latest book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything (Amazon). He and his wife Susan have two children, Freddy and Phoebe, and they're members of Grace Evangelical Free Church.
612-623 – Fred Sanders,
628-639 – • LifeSiteNews (2/23/2012) Homeschooling families can't teach homosexual acts sinful in class says Alberta gvmt.
Under Alberta's new Education Act, homeschoolers and faith-based schools will not be permitted to teach that homosexual acts are sinful as part of their academic program, says the spokesperson for Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.
"Whatever the nature of schooling – homeschool, private school, Catholic school – we do not tolerate disrespect for differences," Donna McColl, Lukaszuk's assistant director of communications, told LifeSiteNews on Wednesday evening.
// According to McColl, Christian homeschooling families can continue to impart Biblical teachings on homosexuality in their homes, "as long as it's not part of their academic program of studies and instructional materials."
"What they want to do about their ideology elsewhere, that's their family business. But a fundamental nature of our society is to respect diversity," she added.
// [McColl] justified the government's position by pointing to Friday's Supreme Court ruling upholding the Quebec government's refusal to exempt families from its controversial ethics and religious culture program. That program, which aims to present the spectrum of world religions and lifestyle choices from a "neutral" stance, is required of all students, including homeschoolers.
// Patty Marler, government liaison for the Alberta Home Education Association, said she was surprised at the Ministry's straightforwardness, and questioned how they are going to be able to draw the line between school time and family time.
"We educate our children all the time, and that's just the way we live. It's a lifestyle," she said. "Making that distinction between the times when we're homeschooling and when we're just living is really hard to do."
"Throw in the fact that I do use the Bible as part of my curriculum and now I'm very blatantly going to be teaching stuff that will be against [the human rights act]," she said.
// [T]he issue with McColl's statements "isn't about sexuality or anything else on the gay issue, it's about the government trying to control how we teach our own children in our own homes."
644-654 – • Politico (2/28/2012) Obama faith council's quiet fade-out.
His faith under attack, his contraception decision savaged on all sides, President Barack Obama could use backup in the religious community right now.
But three years into his presidency, Obama's marquee council of faith advisers has gone dark — a little-noticed postscript for a panel that he rolled out with fanfare and high expectations during his first weeks in office but ended up playing only a limited role in West Wing deliberations.
The president's first Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships delivered a 163-page report in March 2010 and then disbanded. The second council has waited more than a year for a full slate of appointees and has yet to meet. And the hottest issue — whether religious groups that receive public money can discriminate in hiring — remains unresolved more than three years after Obama promised to address it.
"It's the mysterious, disappearing faith-based council," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who advised the first council.
// The Rev. Joel Hunter, a former council member and spiritual adviser to Obama, added: "Whenever there is a huge blowback on any move, there is a hesitancy and a questioning of are we still taken into consideration before something is put out."
Any kind of formal action by the full council wouldn't have been likely, given its narrow mandate to focus solely on how government can improve its partnerships with faith-based and nonprofit groups — controversial issues such as abortion and religious hiring were deemed off-limits from the start, irking some members. But individual appeals to the West Wing were always welcome, administration officials said.
The president remains committed to seating a second council, senior White House officials said, but it takes time to find the right mix of appointees.
// "President Obama continues to expand and strengthen faith-based initiatives and the faith-based advisory council is an important part of that effort," Joshua DuBois, director of the faith-based office, said in a written statement. "Advising the president on our ongoing partnership with faith-based groups and other nonprofits around the country is critical and we are committed to ensuring they have as much impact as possible. It is a big country with significant religious diversity, and we are very thoughtful about our approach."
// Obama envisioned the council as the conduit for bringing a broader spectrum of ideological and religious voices into an overhauled Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which had been criticized in the Bush administration as too focused on directing money to conservative groups that could turn out voters. Obama's initial appointees — a former Southern Baptist Convention leader, a Hindu, an Indian-American Muslim, progressive Jewish leaders and an openly gay nonprofit head, among others — gave it the feel of an unusual Washington experiment worth watching.
// But after years of progress, Obama's supporters say, they worry that the Republican attacks in the past month will cement the narrative of a president hostile to religion when, in their view, the work of the faith-based office shows exactly the opposite.
The concern grew to such a degree last week that a group of clergy and nonprofit leaders organized a conference call to offer testimonials to reporters.
The administration's relationship with faith-based groups is stronger than ever, said the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, president emeritus of the National Council of Churches and an original council member. Common ground is sought and found, religious freedom is respected and government partnerships with faith organizations are reaching record numbers, she said.
"This part of the administration is really an expression of who he is as a Christian," said Hunter, senior pastor at the evangelical Northland Church in Orlando. "All of this work that is being done is not simply good government, it is also a genuine part of how he understands his own responsibilities and his own faith."
But during the hourlong call, there was no mention of the lapsed council.
• LifeSiteNews (2/27/2012) Cardinal George: All Catholic hospitals will close in two years under HHS mandate.
Chicago's Francis Cardinal George is warning the HHS contraception/abortifacient mandate will close Catholic hospitals and universities or force them to secularize, a process he calls "a form of theft."
If the regulation is not rescinded, the Catholic Church will be "despoiled of her institutions," he said in a column printed on CatholicNewWorld, likening the proposed policies to the restrictive "freedom of worship" allowed in the Soviet Union.
"What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded?" he asked. A faithful ministry must choose between selling itself to a non-Catholic group, paying "exorbitant annual fines" until going bankrupt, breaking its ties to the Church's "moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop," or closing down.
He urged people to purchase a copy of the Archdiocesan directory "as a souvenir," pointing to the page containing a list of Catholic hospitals and health care institutions.
"Two Lents from now, unless something changes, that page will be blank."
The Obama administration's rhetorical shift from supporting "freedom of religion" to "freedom of worship" paralleled an earlier shift in Russia, he said.
"Freedom of worship was guaranteed in the Constitution of the former Soviet Union," Cardinal George said. "You could go to church, if you could find one. The church, however, could do nothing except conduct religious rites in places of worship—no schools, religious publications, health care institutions, organized charity, ministry for justice and the works of mercy that flow naturally from a living faith. All of these were co-opted by the government. We fought a long Cold War to defeat that vision of society."
"The State is making itself into a church," he stated.
// Because of increasing state intrusion into Christian affairs, he forecast in 2010, "I expect to die in bed. My successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square."
657-700 – [Reprise] Lindsay Rajt, Associate Director of PETA Campaigns and Outreach (peta.org) responds to the Daily Caller piece below. Do you value human life over animal life? If a child you didn't know was in a pool with your favorite pet, say a dog or cat, and both of them were in distress, who would you attempt to save? Lindsay answered, "I'd save both." When I pressed, but who would you save first, she answered, "I don't know." Note to self – You don't want PETA members caring for your children.
