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News
Commonwealth Update - 6.10.10
Thursday June 10, 2010 - 12:50 PM
Inside this issue: Predatory gambling gets hearing in Boston; "Values Surge" gaining power - June 14, 2010; Younger children finding porn online; Transgender woman goes topless in Delaware; Sen. Brown to support limiting EPA power; Save-the-Date: Call-2-Fall in July. Be sure to subscribe to receive Kris Mineau's Commonwealth Update in your Inbox every Wednesday.
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Predatory gambling gets hearing in Boston
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On Tuesday, the leaders from both sides of the predatory gambling debate made their case before the Senate Ways and Means Committee on why casinos should or should not be built in Massachusetts. Labor unions were there to say its all about jobs, while the gambling industry itself promoted not only jobs, but the money the state will collect through tax revenue.
However, opponents reminded the members of the committee about the dark side of predatory gambling. “We’re destroying families,” said Matthew C. Patrick, a state representative from Falmouth whose father was addicted to gambling. “Don’t forget that.” Casinos are “a fancy way of putting a tax on the poor,” said Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D-Jamaica Plain). “I just don’t believe that’s the way we should be going as a state.”
The Boston Globe reported on the hearing. Some of the most important testimony came from Dr. Natasha Dow Schüll and Dr. Hans C. Breiter, two experts on the addictiveness of predatory gambling, especially slot machines. Schüll, a cultural anthropologist at MIT, told the panel that slot machines are designed to maximize profits by getting people to gamble quickly, up to 1,200 times an hour, so they enter “the zone” in which they care not about winning but about continuing to gamble. Dr. Breiter, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a specialist in brain imaging, pointed out that brain scans of slot machine users “look like they’re high on cocaine.”
In April, the House passed a bill to legalize two casinos as well as slot machines at the state’s two horse tracks and two former dog tracks, but the state Senate plan supports three casinos with no racetrack slots. The hearing on Tuesday marked the one and only time the public has been heard on the new legislation, and it will likely be the last public hearing before the Senate votes later this month.
"Introducing casino gambling with thousands of slot machines to our state is a significant step - and no matter which side you are on, it shouldn't be done without real input from taxpayers across the Commonwealth," said state Sen. James Eldridge, D-Acton. "This is too big an issue for just one hearing held within days of the bill's release and days before a floor vote."
Members of the Massachusetts Senate and concerned citizens today recommended regional hearings in the evening, particularly for those in the regions most likely to be impacted by the arrival of casinos - the South Coast, Western Massachusetts and the North Shore. These sessions would give a far better sense of public sentiment on casinos and are customary for similar large public policy proposals.
Massachusetts Family Institute is part of a broad coalition of groups and individuals opposed to expanded predatory gambling. We encourage you to visit United to Stop Slots website, www.uss-mass.org, for more information on the costs of gambling, and to join the movement to stop casinos from coming to Massachusetts.
If you haven’t already, please email your state Senator today and ask them to oppose expanded gambling. Click Here to send your email.
Source: Boston Globe
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"Values Surge" gaining power - June 14, 2010
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If you are on our email list, you understand the cultural battles that are going on in Massachusetts right now. You know that families and traditional values are constantly under attack by Governor Patrick, the liberals in the Legislature and the special interest groups on the Sexual Left.
For 20 years, Massachusetts Family Institute has been the leading group standing up for parents, children and Judeo-Christian values on Beacon Hill. From marriage to abstinence education to Internet safety, MFI has led the charge.
Many of you have already signed up to participate in the “Values Surge” on Monday, June 14th because you recognize the important role that MFI plays in the shaping of policy both in government and in the public square. Please consider investing in MFI and the future of Massachusetts by signing up to donate on Monday, June 14th.
The additional resources that you contribute to MFI on Monday, duplicated by hundreds of other donors, will help MFI to maintain its level of excellence throughout the summer months and into the fall election season.
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Younger children finding porn online
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According to a British survey, one-third of children age 10 and younger have accessed online pornography, while more than 8 in 10 teenagers regularly view hardcore pictures on their home computers. Beyond that, three-quarters of the children interviewed said their families don’t discuss online sexual imagery with them.
“There is compelling evidence that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities,” sociologist Michael Flood, who spoke with hundreds of young people for the survey, told Psychologies magazine. “Porn shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. “
Too often, parents are far behind their children in their computer literacy and cannot police their children’s activities online. Parents are unsure how to find out what sites their kids are visiting, and teenagers wishing to hide their online doings are far more adept at doing so than their parents are at finding them.
Massachusetts Family Institute recently released an online “Guide to Internet & Cell Phone Safety” on our website. This publication helps educate parents on the threats posed to their children by the Internet, and how they can help to protect them. We encourage parents to read this guide cover-to-cover, and share it with their circle of friends. This information is extremely important for protecting the next generation from the corruption of pornography.
Click Here to download the “Guide to Internet & Cell Phone Safety.”
Source: New York Daily News
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Transgender woman goes topless in Delaware
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Though Rehoboth Beach in Delaware isn’t a topless beach, a few “transgender women” caused a stir by treating it like one. Casual beachgoers complained to police after the “women” removed their tops and revealed their surgically enhanced breasts over Memorial Day weekend. The “women” initially refused to cover after being asked to by a lifeguard, but complied before police arrived.
In a scary thought as the “Bathroom Bill” remains pending in the Judiciary Committee, Police Chief Keith Banks noted that they were doing nothing illegal. Since they have male genitalia, they can’t be charged with indecent exposure for showing their breasts.
Source: LA Times
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Sen. Brown to support limiting EPA power
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President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is doing an end-run around Congress and the Constitution by classifying and regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act despite the crippling effects it will have on our economy. CO2 is not a pollutant, but rather plant food. It is odorless, tasteless and completely non-toxic in the levels that are found in our atmosphere. This is EPA’s Plan B to force a radical environmental agenda on America because the votes aren’t there in Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has sponsored S.J. Res. 26, a “resolution of disapproval,” that will forbid the EPA from imposing its onerous bureaucratic CO2 regulations, and has already secured 41 senators as co-sponsors, but they need 10 more votes for passage.
The EPA's policy, if not stopped by S.J.Res. 26, will do the following:
- Give the EPA regulatory authority over every vehicle in America.
- Give the EPA regulatory control over millions of "stationary sources" of CO2, including power plants, factories, farms, offices and apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and churches. (Yes, churches!) The cost of applying for a permit (to emit plant food!) could run as high as $100,000.
- Cause, as President Obama promised, the cost of electricity for American families to "necessarily skyrocket."
- Hit the poor the hardest. Households with annual incomes of less than $50,000 already have an energy cost burden of 19% of their income. (The average household energy cost burden is between 5% and 10%.) Two-thirds of black families and 60% of Hispanic families make less than $50,000 per year. As Dr. E. Calvin Beisner of the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation says, "Since the poor will be hurt more than others by rising energy costs, the astronomical increases that would follow...amount to a regressive tax -- hurting most of all the people who can least afford it."
Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) has come out in support of Sen. Murkowski’s resolution. “Groups trying to politicize this issue will say that this resolution is an attack on the Clean Air Act. But the EPA is looking to dramatically expand its powers into new areas,” writes Sen. Brown in an op/ed published today. “The bottom line is that we cannot have every restaurant owner or small farmer worried about the costs of complying with new carbon dioxide emissions restrictions.”
“This is not a political issue. It is our responsibility to find an approach that promotes economic growth and sustains environmental stewardship for future generations. What we must not do is open the door to unnecessary regulation that makes it harder for businesses to compete,” Sen. Brown concludes.
Click Here to read his full op/ed.
Source: American Family Association
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Save-the-Date: Call-2-Fall in July
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Family Research Council, in partnership with churches around the nation, is inviting Christians around the country to fall to their knees on Sunday, July 4 during their second annual “Call 2 Fall” event. FRC is asking congregations to spend at least five minutes of Independence Day expressing our dependence on God. Last year a million people joined this special event. FRC ‘s Church Ministries department has prepared a wide selection of free resources like sermon starters, bulletin inserts, videos, blogs, etc. Please visit www.Call2Fall.com for more information, and to sign your church up to participate.
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