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December 2000 Sightings SJC Rebukes
DSS; Commissioner Is Defiant SJC Rebukes DSS; Commissioner Is Defiant After the SJC rebuked the DSS for its holding that a father-minister was guilty of child abuse for spanking his son, its Commissioner is defiant. He does not appear to care about the many children in DSS custody who have bruises and other scars that are much worse than anything that was caused by Rev. Cobble. The Boston Globe reports that the Commissioner "remains convinced that [the minister’s] actions justified the agency’s reaction." And the Commissioner, Atty. Jeffrey A. Locke, promised, "No one should be surprised, because we will be at their doorstep." Why doesn’t he spend his valuable time and resources investigating the cruelty to children that are in his custody? Did Barney Frank Blackmail Newt Gingrich? Many people are now saying that the Democrats were able to keep their scandals quiet by blackmailing Newt Gingrich over his affair with a congressional staffer. Barney Frank is now being named by former Congressman Bob Dornan as one of those involved in the blackmail. Boston Globe Calls It An ‘Unborn Baby’ In the tragic story about the 14-year-old, pregnant girl who was murdered in Mattapan, the Boston Globe headline and story used the words "unborn baby." Additional stories in following issues by reporter Francie Latour continued to refer to the mother and "unborn baby." However, the Globe apparently heard complaints from their constituents because after the funeral was over, another reporter wrote a story with the headline, "Misgivings raised over fetus case." In that story, they said "abortion rights activists" are "deeply nervous about the threat ‘fetal rights’ could pose for legal abortion." We hope that reporter Francie Latour does not suffer a setback to her career at the Globe for her writing. Librarians Continue to Recommend Pedophilia The 34 public libraries in Metro-west Boston are continuing to recommend a site to teenagers that is run by pedophiles in Chicago. Even though the site is strongly attacked by the schools in Chicago, the libraries in the Minuteman Library Network continue to promote it to the teenagers of suburban Boston. They appear to have the misguided notion that they are protecting "freedom of speech." They don’t appear to understand that "free speech" and censorship are not impacted when you stop recommending a book or a website. Is that a difficult concept? Religion Editor of Globe Misleads Again It was back in September that the religion editor of the Boston Globe wrote the "ultimate smear" against a Christian by writing a headline, "Interfaith group assails ‘inflammatory view of homosexuality,’" without revealing that the "Interfaith group" was actually the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. He did it again last month. This time he ran a headline across the top of the Metro section, "Retired United Methodist clergy challenge same-sex rule." He obviously doesn’t like for the Methodists to be forbidding same-sex marriage. But he did not reveal the names of any of these twenty clergy who say they are willing to perform such marriages. We must ask the religion editor, Diego Ribadeneira, if this was another Press Release from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Awful easy way to write a column. Mass. Gets $1,000,000 Memorial to Dr. Seuss; $760 Million Total In Pork Massachusetts will receive $760 million in pork from the federal government next year. It will include a $1 million dollar bronze monument to Dr. Seuss in Springfield ($400,000 this year and the balance next year). Who’s Paying For ‘Paid Maternity Leave?’ The ubiquitous Ellen Goodman tells us from the pages of the Globe that we must have paid maternity leave to help those new mothers who must work. But she doesn’t tell us that we wouldn’t need to worry if our taxes weren’t so high. Back in 1950 a typical family was paying about 5% of its income in taxes. Now it pays about 40%. The average mother is working only to pay the family’s share of the tax load. Why not reduce the taxes and let her stay home again? This proposal of Goodman’s will just raise the mothers’ taxes even more. It’s a vicious cycle. Over 80% of mothers say they would like to stay home. But Ellen wouldn’t be happy with that. As a feminist, she wants every woman working. Avoid Ritalin by Eliminating Junk Foods? "Attention Deficit Disorder" can be triggered by some foods and food additives, according to a review of 23 studies by the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The establishment is ignoring this evidence, it says. The federal government "should withdraw its printed and internet documents that largely dismiss the effect of food ingredients on behavior," according to the group. It found that 17 of 23 studies uncovered evidence that "some children’s behavior significantly worsens after they consume artificial colors or certain foods, such as milk or wheat." They also questioned the widespread use of Ritalin. Phony ‘Consumer Group’ Is Still Pushing Ritalin We reported in our last issue that the drug company that makes Ritalin, Novartis, has secretly given almost a million dollars to a "consumer group" that is promoting the use of the drug for children. The group showed up at a legislative conference in Denver and was reported in the Denver Post as expressing its "outrage" and "strong opposition" to "any proposal that would ban the use of psychotropic drugs among public school students." There was no indication in the paper that the "consumer group" is funded by the drug company. The name of the group is Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD). Law Students Help In Frozen Embryo Case Students at Southern New England School of Law in Dartmouth are helping
a professor write a brief for the SJC in which they say that a divorced
woman should be allowed to use frozen embryos. They argue that the interest
of the embryos must be taken into account and that the court must choose
"potential life" over the alternative. They are working with
Feminist Professor at UMASS Says Peers Have Fears of Men A longtime feminist, Prof. Daphne Patai at UMASS, says that her peers have "heterophobia," which she defines as "fear and antagonism" toward men and heterosexuality. She says this is the driving force behind "some truly dreadful" sexual-harassment laws and policies she says are sweeping the nation, both on college campuses and in the workplace. Janine Graf Is Back On The Radio The popular, talk-show host, Janine Graf is back on the radio at WTKK, FM 96.9. Because the station is still new, she is bouncing back and forth from night to daytime. If you can catch her, many people say she is worth the search. The voters in Newton were very apathetic at last month’s election with only 16% of the citizens voting. The political machine performed well in getting out their voters and they easily re-elected all of their candidates for the School Committee. It was the lowest turnout of voters in years. Catholic Action League Hails Bishops’ Vote The call by Catholic Bishops for their colleges to reaffirm their Catholic identity was hailed by the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts. They said, "For three decades now, the trend toward secularization, driven by greed for government funds, has dispossessed Catholics of their own institutions." Democrats Remain In Control at WGBH Even though the recent scandal at WGBH demonstrated that the station is not neutral in the content of its programming, it obviously believes it is so powerful that it will never have to answer for its actions. It continues to have an important fundraiser for the Democratic Party, Alan Solomont of Weston, as a member of the Board of Directors. Some Newton Teachers Continue to ‘Butter-Up’ Superintendent After refusing to talk with parents about pedophilia in a rally they held last summer, the far-left establishment in Newton became so embarrassed about the rally that they wouldn’t talk about it or allow anyone to obtain a copy of the video they made. We finally obtained a video after threatening to sue and we then wrote a factual account of the event. Many teachers had attended the rally and told the superintendent how wonderful he is. Now, a teacher has sent an e-mail to all the teachers on the school computers with a copy of his e-mail to the "super" saying, "It is important to take the time and show him that you support him." At least the teacher wrote that we at Massachusetts News are "very talented." Christian Students Harassed In Northboro When Christian students gathered at the flagpole of Northboro Middle School to pray at the beginning of the year, they became the subject of verbal abuse from both students and teachers. One student told Massachusetts News, "The other students called us ‘psychos’ and were swearing at us. Teachers saw what was going on, but they didn’t do anything. Some of the teachers were staring and laughing." Senator Says Restraining Orders Are Not Fair Fairness is not possible for men in Restraining Orders because the women’s rights groups are so well organized, says Sen. Edward "Chip" Clancy (D-Lynn). He says that any reasonable legislation would not stand a chance of passing at this time. "You’d probably come out worse than you started," he told "Fathers and Families." What is needed, he said, is a widespread education campaign to let the legislature hear about the injustices. Clancy is on the Judiciary Committee. |