Salon.com News | Eroding equality

The Bush administration was accused Monday of trying to roll back efforts to improve the status of the world’s women by demanding that the United Nations publicly renounce abortion rights.

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The stand left America almost entirely isolated at the pre-conference sessions. According to officials who were at the meetings, only the Vatican observer supported Washington’s hard line.

CNN.com - Pope: Gay marriage is ‘evil’ - Feb 23, 2005

Homosexual marriages are part of “a new ideology of evil” that is insidiously threatening society, Pope John Paul says in his newly published book.

In “Memory and Identity,” the Pope also calls abortion a “legal extermination” comparable to attempts to wipe out Jews and other groups in the 20th century.

People are often judged by the friends they keep. On so many issues, it’s the US and Syria, the US and Somalia, the US and Cuba, the US and Iran, now the US and the Vatican. My country is turning into a laughingstock. Well, I guess it has been one for a while, but things are getting worse, not better.

NPR : Electronic Anklets Track Asylum Seekers in U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security has a pilot program where immigrants in the US who are applying to remain there must wear electronic monitors (ankle bracelets) at all times. They are not allowed to leave their homes from 6 PM until 6 AM, no exceptions. Three times a week, during the middle of the day, they must meet with a security officer to report in, no exceptions. These are the same kind of monitors being used on some convicted rapists and parolees; the immigrants in the pilot program, however, are not criminals–just immigrants.

If the DHS is pleased with the outcome of this test run, they may require all non-citizens in the US who are applying for permission to stay there to wear the monitors. Apply for your visa before you go, I guess. Jesus christ.