Category Archives: News

Did Starbucks’ Howard Schultz really say, “We don’t want your business”?

In response to a question at the recent Starbucks corporation shareholders meeting, CEO Howard Schultz reiterated his and the company’s support for workplace diversity. This includes support for same-sex marriage.

As sure as night follows day a blatantly false meme began circulating on Facebook. The primary one is from Joe Miller’s Liberty Watch. His opening sentence reads:

At the Starbucks annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, CEO Howard Schultz sent a clear message to anyone who supports traditional marriage over gay marriage: we don’t want your business.

Not to put too fine a point on it, that information is a complete fabrication.

Miller sourced his story through Examiner.com’s also deceptively entitled article, Starbucks CEO: No tolerance for traditional marriage supporters. The author, Victor Medina, opens with this:

At the Starbucks annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday, CEO Howard Schultz sent a clear message to anyone who supports traditional marriage over gay marriage: we don’t want your business.

Look familiar?

What did Howard Schultz say about traditional marriage

Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz [Image credit]

Medina’s article points to yet another article, this one from Forbes. Finally arriving at the truth, we see Schultz was never speaking to customers of Starbucks, but in response to a shareholder’s question. The article, Howard Schultz to Anti-Gay-Marriage Starbucks Shareholder: ‘You Can Sell Your Shares'” accurately reflects the context and statement.

In response to a shareholder’s question, Starbucks’ CEO responded:

If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38% you got last year, it’s a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much.

This was the statement, and the only statement. Schultz never said or implied people who support traditional marriage should take their business elsewhere.

The fact is Starbucks and Schultz are, unsurprisingly, supporting of same-sex marriage. It is also a fact that you can boycott, or get your caffeine fix elsewhere as many have chosen to do. You can also oppose same-sex marriage and continue to buy coffee from Starbucks…I do.

To be fair, each of the first two articles includes the shareholder further into the story, but the erroneous early statements are more than enough to mislead the average reader.

What Christians should avoid, however, is sloppiness. Disagreement is fine. Strong disagreement is fine. But, at least, let us strive for accuracy.

C’mon, followers of Jesus. We can do better.

(Less than HD video of Howard Schultz responding to shareholder question on gay marriage.)

To kill Americans

Let’s make this short and sweet.

senator rand paul

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul [Image credit]

For around 13 hours yesterday and into this morning, Kentucky senator Rand Paul (R) conducted a filibuster in the United States senate chamber. Ostensibly a delay to the probable confirmation of John Brennan as CIA chief, Paul allowed numerous times his main purpose was to draw attention to the targeted killing program operated by the Obama administration. Said program is primarily carried out by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, commonly known as “drones.”

While some may argue the necessity of drones in wartime, even considering the differences of the “War on Terror” (I do not), Paul’s argument with the administration was different. Currently, the Obama administration, via Attorney General Eric Holder, holds to the position of possible killing of American citizens on American soil without due process, without charge, without trial.

The 5th Amendment to the U.S. constitution reads:

In ALL criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to BE INFORMED OF THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF THE ACCUSATION; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. [EMPHASIS ADDED.]

All of these rights are set aside in each and every case of targeted killing. The nature of targeted killing is secrecy, not openness. It’s a secret list, a secret process, secret decision making, secret rules, secret records, and secret secrecy.

To put it another way: There is no due process when the charge is on the business end of a missile in your morning latte.

The Constitution must protect the worst of us if it is to protect the rest of us. No matter how strong the evidence against a person, a “day in court” is a constitutional guarantee. It is this guarantee that has historically separated the Republic from banana republics. Violation of this right by any president or administration is not only unconstitutional, it is uncivilized.

I take issue with Bush, Rice, Obama and Brennan that drone warfare is legitimate or the “collateral damage” acceptable. I also take issue with Holder that Americans may be killed by the government based on little more than circumstantial evidence. Murder by suspicion is not a comforting thought.

The years since 9/11 bear witness to the hurricane force erosion of the 4th Amendment. It appears the shores of the 5th will be the next to wash away.

Meteor over Russia, with shockwave [VIDEO]

meteor over russia

Meteor as shot from a dashcam

Overnight in the U.S. was daytime in parts of Russia. The first video below, from Chelyabinsk, Russia, shows a meteor shooting an arc across the sky. The second shows the resulting shockwave beginning at about 12 seconds into the video. It is quite a marvel. Reports are that hundreds of people have been hospitalized. It is not hard to see–and hear–why.

Have Megan Phelps-Roper and her sister Grace left the Westboro cult?

It appears two granddaughters of Westboro patriarch Fred Phelps have left the fold. Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper, daughters of Shirley Phelps-Roper, have reportedly posted the following on Medium.com under a title borrowed from The Avett Brothers, Head Full of Doubt / Road Full of Promise:

“There’s no fresh start in today’s world. Any twelve-year-old with a cell phone could find out what you did. Everything we do is collated and quantified. Everything sticks.”

Don’t act surprised that I’m quoting Batman. At WBC, reciting lines from pop culture is par for the course. And why not? The sentiments they express are readily identifiable by the masses – and shifting their meaning is as easy as giving them new context. So put Selina Kyle’s words in a different framework:

Megan Phelps [Image Credit]

Megan Phelps [Image Credit]

In a city in a state in the center of a country lives a group of people who believe they are the center of the universe; they know Right and Wrong, and they are Right. They work hard and go to school and get married and have kids who they take to church and teach that continually protesting the lives, deaths, and daily activities of The World is the only genuine statement of compassion that a God-loving human can sincerely make. As parents, they are attentive and engaged, and the children learn their lessons well.

This is my framework.

Until very recently, this is what I lived, breathed, studied, believed, preached – loudly, daily, and for nearly 27 years.

I never thought it would change. I never wanted it to.

Then suddenly: it did.

And I left.

Where do you go from there?

I don’t know, exactly. My sister Grace is with me, though. We’re trying to figure it out together.

There are some things we do know.

We know that we’ve done and said things that hurt people. Inflicting pain on others wasn’t the goal, but it was one of the outcomes. We wish it weren’t so, and regret that hurt.

We know that we dearly love our family. They now consider us betrayers, and we are cut off from their lives, but we know they are well-intentioned. We will never not love them.

We know that we can’t undo our whole lives. We can’t even say we’d want to if we could; we are who we are because of all the experiences that brought us to this point. What we can do is try to find a better way to live from here on. That’s our focus.

Up until now, our names have been synonymous with “God Hates Fags.” Any twelve-year-old with a cell phone could find out what we did. We hope Ms. Kyle was right about the other part, too, though – that everything sticks – and that the changes we make in our lives will speak for themselves.

Megan and Grace

Sometimes these types of reports are little more than hopeful urban legends, but the link to this story came from Megan’s well known Twitter account:


The next day, Grace tweeted simply:


I hope this report is true. We should pray both of these young ladies come to know God in a way they never before have, but into a relationship into which He invites them.

Previous Westboro articles:
A plea to all media outlets re: the Westboro cult

Is Westboro Baptist Church a cult? Yes, it is

‘The most hated family in America,’ documentary on the Westboro Cult [VIDEO]

Click below to order (pre-order before March 5, 2013) Banished, by former Westboro member Lauren Drain.


Newsnippets, February 9, 2013: Drone edition

newspaper newsnippets articles
From The Atlantic: Obama unaccountable when drones kill innocents

Set aside the question of whether President Obama should be empowered to order the killing of Americans. Instead, let’s ask, “What happens after he orders an extrajudicial assassination?” So long as drone strikes happen in secret, nothing happens. A kill order is given, a Hellfire missile fired, and it doesn’t matter if the human blown limb-from-limb is an Al Qaeda terrorist, an innocent Muslim man, or a five-year-old girl. Even if the target is killed far from any battlefield, in a place where he might easily have been be captured, and the kill order could’ve been postponed without putting national security at risk, the president won’t be investigated or arrested or tried in court or punished.

There is no mechanism for it to happen.

From John W. Whitehead: How a Nobel Peace Prize Winner Became the Head of a Worldwide Assassination Program

The President of the United States of America believes he has the absolute right to kill you based upon secret “evidence” that you might be a terrorist. Not only does he think he can kill you, but he believes he has the right to do so in secret, without formally charging you of any crime and providing you with an opportunity to defend yourself in a court of law. To top it all off, the memo asserts that these decisions about whom to kill are not subject to any judicial review whatsoever.

From Salon: Fact checking Brennan and Feinstein on civilian drone deaths

[A]s WaPo [Washington Post] points out, with U.S. drone bases maintained in West And East Africa (not to mention the recently revealed base in Saudi) as well as strikes in Afghanistan and Somalia, “it’s plausible that the civilian casualties would be even higher than the Long War Journal and New America Foundation stats reflect.” The BIJ’s most up to date statistics, looking at strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, suggest that up to 1,128 civilians have been killed in drone strikes. But as Brennan’s hearing made clear yesterday, evidence of trauma and civilian casualties caused by U.S. drones will continue to be a counter-narrative to the prevailing, drone-loving sentiment in Washington.

From The Guardian: Obama’s ‘extreme’ anti-terror tactics face liberal backlash

“If Bush had done the same things as Obama, then more people would have been upset about it. He is a Democrat though, and to an extent can get away with it,” said Daniel Ellsberg, who as a government official leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and helped to expose the truth about the Vietnam war. Ellsberg is now one of the plaintiffs in the case against the NDAA and insists that the administration has used the law to give itself widespread and unconstitutional new powers: “We have been losing our guaranteed freedoms one by one.”

From RT: Brennan the perfect director to increase hostility against Americans

Brennan assured that any actions the CIA would take “will be legally grounded, will be thoroughly anchored in intelligence, will have the appropriate review process, approval process before any action is contemplated, including those actions that might involve the use of lethal force.”

One of those skeptical of Brennan’s words is Jayel Aheram, an Iraq War and Marine Corps veteran, activist and writer who, in an interview with RT, expressed his doubt over the possibility and the commitment of the CIA thoroughly to review the situation on the ground from somewhere far away from the United States.

He also questioned the criteria which might be used for such a review, suggesting that “basically anyone over the age of 18 or 16 in a strike zone constitutes a militant. So I could be going to school somewhere in Yemen, going about my day, and if I get obliterated by one of these drone strikes, am I to be considered a militant?”

From Politico: Drones: Tough talk, little scrutiny

Congress’ public oversight of targeted killings has been almost nonexistent. The last hearings on the drone strikes — held by a House national security subcommittee — faded away after the early months of 2010.

And until Thursday’s Brennan hearing, the two committees with jurisdiction over the CIA drone program — the Senate and House Intelligence Committees — have never held a public inquiry on the program. The Senate and House Armed Services Committees, which oversee the military drone program in war zones, haven’t held hearings, either.

The Boy Scouts of America and a few questions

For the first time in its history the Boy Scouts of America is considering allowing gay scout masters and members. This comes on the heels of a doubling down on the issue just a few months ago.

Attempts to break the Scouts’ no-gay policy are not new, nor were they waning. If anything they were gaining steam as corporate sponsors like Merck and UPS had begun to bail. WND’s David Kupelian believes concern over finances is the driving factor in the decision.

My involvement with the Scouts is limited. I was in Cub Scouts for about a year. We met at Tony Wingate’s house down the street. He had a room full of styrofoam building blocks which were used to pummel one poor cub at the end of each meeting. Our “den mothers” were hopelessly outmatched.

I have known a few Eagle Scouts over the years including my uncle and a young man for whom I was honored to write a recommendation. Without question the Scouts have helped to create good citizens, teach skills, and allow older men to influence younger men. In many instances churches have been able to influence scout troops with believers involved at leadership levels.

My critique, it should be noted, is not toward the BSA’s decision as much as toward how followers of Christ might understand it.

One evangelical leader expressed concern the organization which “has always stood for biblical principles” was being forced to abandon them by political correctness.
boy scouts
The health of the BSA was already being challenged via lawsuits, and as revelations of pedophiles in the Scouts have become more broadly known. From WND again

In fact, the examination of sex abuse in Scouting reveals a long-standing paradox for the nation’s most revered youth group: For 80 years the Boy Scouts of America have given boys some of the best experiences of their lives, but for 80 years some men have used the Boy Scouts of America to have sexual relations with those boys.

“That’s been an issue since the Boy Scouts began,” said James Tarr, the nation’s chief Scout executive from 1979 through 1984.

More than 1,100 Scouts reported being molested by Scout workers over a single 19 year period.

Reflecting on these facts raises a few questions:

Where were the “end-of-the-world” pronouncements when the Boy Scouts of America’s “perversion files” were made public last year?

Why is it morally problematic for the Scouts to welcome gays, but not problematic for them to hide a multi-decade history of keeping molestation out of the public eye?

If the two are equally problematic, why not equally speedy and earnest responses to each?

Why is it problematic for churches to host a gay-friendly organization, but not problematic when the organization was “only” hiding child abuse for nearly a century?

Are we seeing the reaction of people for whom gay-rights is the last domino standing, after which there are no more culture wars to fight?

Is their sense of loss greater than their sense of truth?

Why have Scout leaders not been called to repentance by evangelical leaders, especially those who are decrying the recent announcement?

Why do we not emphasize that the Boy Scouts are now–and always have been–a moral organization focused on good citizenship not a gospel organization focused on discipleship?

Do we even recognize the two are not the same?

Why are some fighting to save moralism, rather than drawing a distinction between moralism and the saving grace of God?

Why do evangelical leaders not acknowledge the words “morally straight” are ambiguous, open to interpretation, malleable, and not scripturally moored?

Are some evangelical leaders not blurring the truth when they gloss over this reality: the Scouts’ generic “God” is not necessarily the God of the Bible?

Which God is it that both evangelicals and Mormons can affirm without qualification?

How is one God the same for Buddhists, followers of Native American religions, Muslims, Jews, Christians, those who define their own spirituality, Baha’i, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and more all of whom are included in the BSA’s definition of “God”?

If the Scouts are a Judeo-Christian organization why are more troops hosted by the Mormons than any other other single group?

Does our reaction to this announcement reveal confusion over biblical Christianity and civil religion?

Why would most Christians have no problem with this statement, “We have all the American values: the values of hard work, the values of integrity, the values of fairness and respect,” even though uttered by Bill Marriott explaining why his faith (Mormonism) does not interfere with his business?

Are we more concerned about the loss of Americanism than finding an authentic expression of a Christ-bought church?

If we are more concerned with an authentic expression of the church, why are we so afraid of a faltering culture since the church has usually shone brightest in the rubble?

Will we ever grasp that “reclaiming America” is not the same as “revival”?

Will we ever grasp there is no biblical mandate–or even a suggestion–that “reclaiming America” is a call on God’s people?

Have we misinterpreted the fall of Christendom as the work of Satan, rather than considering it could be God destroying our most grand, safe, and preferred idol?

Newsnippets, January 26, 2013

Newsnippets, January 26, 2013
newspaper newsnippets articles
From Reuters: Obama appointments unconstitutional, Executive recess appointment power limited

In a surprisingly broad ruling, the three-judge panel rejected not only the NLRB appointments but any made while the Senate is in session but on a break. That could limit recess appointments to only a few weeks a year.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit also ruled that recess appointments could only be used for positions that become vacant while the Senate is in recess.
“If the decision stands, it would be a significant reduction of the president’s recess power,” said John Elwood, a Washington lawyer who was deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel from 2005 through 2009.

“This is a big, big decision for executive power,” Elwood said. “It is one of the most important decisions in decades.”

From TED: Model Cameron Russell talks about the dangers of image at TED

“I always just say I was scouted, but that means nothing,” Russell says in her talk. “The real way I became a model is that I won a genetic lottery, and I am a recipient of a legacy. For the past few centuries, we have defined beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that we’re biologically programmed to admire, but also as tall, slender figures with femininity and white skin. This is a legacy that was built for me, and that I’ve been cashing in on.”

From The Art of War: Has traditional Islam lost the war for Muslim youth? (Use Google translator for article)

Everything that is happening in the Islamic community in Russia makes us think that we really are on the edge of the cliff. Russia’s geopolitical enemies are trying to use the Muslim factor as a method to destabilize the situation in the Russian regions.

From The Atlantic: Jaw dropping photos from a fire in Chicago

From The Guardian: Hacker group Anonymous takes down US Sentencing Commission website

Hacking collective threatens to make public classified material and that when Aaron Swartz killed himself ‘a line was crossed’

Hacktivist group Anonymous said Saturday it had hijacked the website of the US Sentencing Commission in a brazen act of cyber-revenge for the death of internet freedom advocate Aaron Swartz.

Swartz killed himself just over two weeks ago as he faced trial for hacking an online collection of academic journals linked to MIT with the intent of releasing millions of research papers on to the internet.

From Relevant Magazine: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg to throw party for NJ governor Chris Christie

Well, here’s an unexpected collision of worlds. Republican governor, headstrong firebrand and national treasure Chris Christie is going to have a fundraiser hosted by none other than Mark Zuckerberg, the world’s most powerful bro.

Female Marine captain speaks out on equality [VIDEO]

female in combat

Photo by Captain Katie Petronio

Captain Katie Petronio is a Marine Corps officer with years of experience including tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. She is against women serving in infantry positions in the Marines, saying, “As a combat-experienced Marine officer, and a female, I am here to tell you that we are not all created equal, and attempting to place females in the infantry will not improve the Marine Corps as the Nation’s force-in-readiness or improve our national security.” [Emphasis added.]

Writing in the Marine Corps Gazette (the Professional Journal of the U.S. Marines) Petronio questions the source of this call to equality since, “I am not personally hearing female Marines, enlisted or officer, pounding on the doors of Congress claiming that their inability to serve in the infantry violates their right to equality.”

She provides some perspective:

Shockingly, this isn’t even a congressional agenda. This issue is being pushed by several groups, one of which is a small committee of civilians appointed by the Secretary of Defense called the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service (DACOWITS). Their mission is to advise the Department of Defense (DoD) on recommendations, as well as matters of policy, pertaining to the well-being of women in the Armed Services from recruiting to employment. Members are selected based on their prior military experience or experience with women’s workforce issues. I certainly applaud and appreciate DACOWITS’ mission; however, as it pertains to the issue of women in the infantry, it’s very surprising to see that none of the committee members are on active duty or have any recent combat or relevant operational experience relating to the issue they are attempting to change. I say this because, at the end of the day, it’s the active duty servicemember who will ultimately deal with the results of their initiatives, not those on the outside looking in. [Emphasis added.]

In other words, this is a political agenda having neither the best interests of women, the Marine Corps or the country in view.

Read Petronio’s full article, “Get Over It! We Are Not All Created Equal.” Read my related post Women given better odds of dying in the military.

Women given better odds of dying in the military

It seems all the government has to do to make some people happy is ensure that more women will be given better chances to die.

From the NYT:

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is lifting the military’s ban on women in combat, which will open up hundreds of thousands of additional front-line jobs to them, senior defense officials said on Wednesday.

The groundbreaking decision overturns a 1994 Pentagon rule that restricts women from artillery, armor, infantry and other such combat roles, even though in reality women have found themselves in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, where more than 20,000 have served. As of last year, more than 800 women had been wounded in the two wars and more than 130 had died.

Some feminists cannot wait for for women to die in the name of equality:

“This is an historic step for

US solider

How long and how would a 125 lb. woman would last with such a load? [Image Credit]

equality and for recognizing the role women have, and will continue to play, in the defense of our nation,” said Democratic Senator Patty Murray from Washington, the outgoing head of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

I am sorry. The purpose of the military is to demonstrate equality? I thought it is to provide for the national defense.

Another is content for women to swim–or sink–so long as no one keeps them from it:

Susan Farrell, who served on a Department of Defense advisory committee that recommended that more jobs be opened to women, lauded the decision as representing “a chance for women to sink or swim on their own merits. That’s all women have ever asked for: a chance to be as patriotic, as giving of themselves, as the men are.”

It sounds like Susan is ready for more women to die.

WSJ notes this is merely the last in an ongoing progression:

Twenty years ago, Congress lifted the ban on women flying in attack aircraft, and now the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force all have women pilots—although women don’t serve as special-operations pilots.

Female officers now serve on large submarines, and the Navy has plans to add female enlisted personnel on those vessels. The Navy also will allow women to serve on smaller classes of submarines.

I am not of the opinion women cannot serve or serve with distinction in the military. It is clear they have and can.

I do, however, question the wisdom of putting females, who are, in almost all cases physically weaker than men, in hand-to-hand combat situations. One struggles to fathom repeated instances in which a platoon of females, each carrying 40 pounds of equipment and facing an equal number of enemy males in close combat, emerging victorious time and again.

Certainly my egalitarian friends may cry foul; some may even call me “sexist” or “chauvinistic.” That is fine. I, however, do not consider it a remnant of faltering patriarchy that I am moved, even called, to protect my family, especially my wife and daughters. If we meet a gun or knife wielding mugger on the street I will put myself between them and the attacker until my lifeless body is prone on the sidewalk.

Contrariwise, if I happen to be walking down the sidewalk with a female who, owing to a need to demonstrate equality, inserts herself between the mugger and me, I might consider myself freed and run to live another day. Hey, equality is equality is it not? If she wants to be dead is that not “giving of herself”? Should I also be lifeless so “equality” is clearly demonstrated?

Yes, I delve into hyperbole. A little. Perhaps the logical, non-exaggerated conclusion should, in the end, be considered by those who want to be “equal.” Equal must be equal in the glory and the blood, in the show and the shame.

As the military considers sweeping changes for women in combat, the ongoing epidemic of rape in all branches of the service continues almost unabated. Repeated promises of “zero tolerance” are decreasingly believable with each new scandal. Reports the L.A. Times:

As of this week, 32 basic training instructors at Lackland are under investigation stemming from sexual misconduct allegations and 59 alleged victims have been identified by the base.

woman soldier

Maybe some of those idiots should be in her sights.


A report in mid-November found that a fractured command culture and “leadership gap” at Lackland helped fuel the scandal. Six basic training instructors at the base have been convicted of sexual misconduct dating to 2008 and nine trials are scheduled. Staff Sgt. Eddy C. Soto faces a possible life sentence at trial next week for the alleged rape of a female trainee.

Gen. Mark Welsh III, the Air Force chief of staff, told the House Armed Services Committee, Obscene images, songs and stories “will not be accepted as part of our culture.” Uh, huh. Tell us more, General.

The truth is only by devious intent or a full scale ground war could more women die in combat than currently are raped in the United States military. Estimates place the total number of female rape victims from all branches of the military at half-a-million. As in civilian life, many rapes are not reported and many that are reported are not prosecuted. Until early last year a significant number of victims had to report their attack to the very person who had raped them. That is not so much like civilian life. (Oh, and by the way, what better way to get rid of a potential witness to rape than to re-assign her to the front lines. Bible students might remember a guy named Uriah.)

Although some men are raped as well–usually by heterosexuals–women bear the brunt. If you have not yet seen The Invisible War you simply must take the time to watch it. There are several places to rent or buy it online. It may be available on Netflix now. The trailer is below.