Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood

SNAP PSYCHIATRIST SENT TO PRISON

OH SNAP!

Dr. Steve Taylor, a Louisiana psychiatrist who has worked with the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP), has been sentenced to two years in prison for possession of child pornography.

The news drew the following response from Catholic League president Bill Donohue:

How many more morally debased psychiatrists are working with SNAP? Did SNAP leaders know about the leisure-time activities of Dr. Taylor? When did they know and what did they do about it? It's time we learned the truth. What we know already is nauseating.

In 2008, Dr. Taylor's computer was seized by the authorities after they learned that he was downloading child pornography. He was jailed on 107 counts at the time, and in September of last year a grand jury indicted him. The court accepted a plea bargain from him this week.

Dr. Taylor got off easy, at least according to his own standards. In 2003, speaking for SNAP clients, he argued that the confidentiality of the confessional seal should not be respected by the law. In a contemptuous statement against the Catholic Church, he voiced his objections to a unanimous decision by the Louisiana House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice protecting the confidential communication of priests, ministers, rabbis and other clergy members. He said at the time that the seal has to be broken because "We have faces now."

Well, SNAP, we now have the faces of the children your colleague downloaded to feed his sick habits. If breaking the priest-penitent privilege is something you support, will you now support turning over the patient records of Dr. Taylor? Will you support a probe of this matter? What if there is more evidence against him? What if there are more victims? You're always looking for new victims, aren't you? Strike when the iron is hot—who cares about psychiatrist-patient privilege?


Brantigny

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Controversial pro-Obama priest would leave Church rather than take position at high school

The first words that children learn in Catholic school Kindergarten is "Obediance." Well they did when I was in Sister Mary Rategunde's Kindergarten class.

LifeSiteNews.com) – Controversial Catholic priest, Father Michael Pfleger of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has said publicly that he would leave the Church rather than submit to his appointment by Archbishop Francis George to the position of principal at Leo Catholic High School.

Fr. Pfleger has become notorious in recent years for his controversial views, including his highly public support for pro-abortion politicians, including President Barack Obama, and views on women’s ordination.

Over this past weekend, Fr. Pfleger announced on the public radio program, “Smiley & West,” that if he were given no alternative to his post at the Catholic high school, he would look for a position outside the Catholic Church.

“I want to try to stay in the Catholic Church,” Pfleger told show hosts Smiley and West. “If they say ‘You either take this principalship of [Leo High School] or pastorship there or leave,’ then I’ll have to look outside the church.”

Pfleger added, “I believe my calling is to be a pastor. I believe my calling is to be a voice for justice. I believe my calling is to preach the Gospel. In or out of the church, I’m going to continue to do that.”

Fr. Pfleger has been pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Church for some 30 years. Pfleger insisted he believed preaching and advancing the cause of social justice in a Catholic framework is his real calling.

A full-time position at Leo High School was out of the question, he said. “I’ve always said I could not do something that I don’t feel called or equipped to do,” he told the Chicago Tribune. “A full-time position at Leo is not something I’m equipped to do. I think Leo has made it clear they don’t see any need for me to come there. For both sides, it would be a lose-lose.”

Pfleger also said publicly on radio that he believes conservative Catholics and the National Rifle Association (NRA) are to blame for his proposed move. The priest says he is worried many Catholics of a more conservative vein have complained to the archbishop about his more controversial views, for example his support for women’s ordination and pro-abortion candidates.

Parishioners at St. Sabina’s also worry that if a more traditional priest were transferred to the parish, they would lose the “different kind of worship service” they enjoy with Fr. Pfleger.

“[Conservative Catholic and NRA complaints] combined and I guess the cardinal didn’t have anything to do one morning and decided he wanted to get rid of me again,” said Pfleger.

Pfleger told his parishioners that he wrote Archbishop George expressing his objections to a high school post. “It would be wrong to say what was in the letter without the cardinal’s response,” Pfleger told the packed church, according to Chicago Sun Times. “I have sent my suggestions and thoughts to the cardinal. I have also said to the cardinal that my desire is to remain at St. Sabina’s.”


Brings to mind this book about Marvin K Mooney

Brantigny

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Why the 9/11 conspirators will not face the death penalty

WASHINGTON -- President Obama will have to personally sign the death warrant for 9/11mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed if the military tribunal he's going to face sentences him to the ultimate penalty.

Mohammed would likely have faced the death penalty in a civilian proceeding -- an avenue the Obama administration rejected yesterday after confronting withering pressure from lawmakers and families of Sept. 11 victims.

They did not want the trial held in lower Manhattan, only blocks from the scene of the monstrous crime.

The rules governing special military commissions, updated by a 2009 law, are entirely different.

The lives of the defendants would be in the hands of a jury of military officers in Guantanamo Bay who would follow special rules for evidence and witnesses.

Among the rules buried in a 2010 procedural manual is a provision that gives Obama ultimate authority over the man prosecutors will charge led the conspiracy to plan the deadly attacks.

"A punishment of death may be ordered executed only by the President," according to the manual.

The president would also have the authority to "commute, remit, or suspend the sentence, or any part thereof, as he sees fit."

But such a reprieve would be highly unlikely.

Obama has written that he backs the "ultimate punishment" in cases that are "heinous" and "beyond the pale."

A Senate staffer told The Post, "there are going to be all kinds of charges brought up on these [defendants] so they'll [Mohammed and his four co-conspirators] certainly be eligible for the death penalty."

But Joanne Mariner, who directs the human-rights program at Hunter College, said, "It's likely to be a really unpredictable trial.

"I've seen KSM in court. He basically tries to plead guilty every time he comes into the courtroom," she said.

That, strangely, could cause difficulty for prosecutors, because military-commission rules are ambiguous on whether a guilty plea is sufficient to get a defendant to the penalty phase.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) have proposed legislation to clarify that defendants like Mohammed could still be executed if they choose to plead guilty and avoid trial.

Meanwhile, the White House and Attorney General Eric Holder backed the decision to try to Mohammed and his four co-conspirators at Guantanamo -- after realizing there was so much opposition to trying them in New York.
Read more:

If they are sentenced to death, Obama will lose a voting base.

Brantigny

Monday, April 4, 2011