| . | . | |
Morality and Decency Conference Speakers
|
||
Newsletter Updates
May 14, 2008
year-old dominatrix on the Internet for about two years. The mother is charged with encouraging and participating in th e venture, the indictment says. Prosecutors will seek $80,000 the couple is accused of having made through sex trafficking, Wood conveyed. |
 |
|||
|
|
||||
While many families were celebrating Mother's Day with their loved ones Sunday, thousands of women were miles away from home, serving their country on active duty. While the life of any deployed soldier is tough, the growing number of female recruits means even greater sacrifices on the home front, as many cope with long tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The physical demands are high, and it appears that the chance of being put in combat situations is even higher. In 1994, the Clinton-era Defense Department scrapped a rule that protected women from being assigned to front-line positions. By law of Congress, women are supposedly still protected from being assigned to combat roles. Unfortunately, the law protecting female soldiers has gradually been chipped away by Pentagon bureaucrats who are engaging in social experiments on a massive scale. As an editorial in USA Today suggests, the reality of the risks women are facing in Iraq does not match the restrictive policy in the law. Unfortunately, the paper wants to scrap the law rather than reform the reality. This exposes women to unacceptable dangers. As our friend Allan Carlson has said, "We've let an ideological drive to achieve perfect equality get in the way of common sense. No other nation has ever put. so many women in or near combat, and children are paying |
 |
|||
the price." Women have historically played a vital role in America's military, and they should continue to serve where appropriate--but not in combat. We encourage the Bush administration to revise these guidelines to better protect our nation's daughters, wives, and mothers. Reported Tony Perkins |
||||
|
John Hagee, an influential Texas televangelist who endorsed John McCain, apologized to Catholics Tuesday for his stinging criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and for having "emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relations with the Jews." Hagee's support for Senator McCain (R-Arizona) has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee's endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments, but did not reject his support. In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for an y comments that Catholics have found hurtful." Donohue, one of Hagee's sharpest critics, said he accepted the apology and planned to meet with Hagee Thursday in New York. "I got what I wanted," Donohue said in an interview. "He's seen the light, as they like to say. So for me it's over." Hagee apologizes to Roman Catholics |
 |
|||
|
Centers for Decency is apart of a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization which encourages, motivates, educates, and equips the family and community in promoting reasonable values and attitudes relating to morality and decency -- in understanding the harmful effects of pornography and obscenity on the family and community in a cultural war against family values. Centers for Decency, 1415 South Voss Road, Suite 110393, Houston, Texas 77057 or call 713.266.2715. |
||||
Federal prosecutors have unsealed an indictment accusing a man and woman of training the woman's child to be a dominatrix, selling her sexual services and photographing some of the acts. U.S. Attorney John Wood said the case is unusual in that a parent has been charged with the commercial sex trafficking of his or her own minor child.Todd B. Barkau, 35, of New York state, and the 44-year-old mother were charged in the seven-count indictment. They once lived together in Blue Springs, Missouri, where the sex business was said to have been run. "Barkau obtained control of a 12-year-old girl and he groomed, trained and forced her to become a sexual dominatrix," Wood said in Kansas City on Monday. Barkau was arrested near Niagara Falls and had a court appearance Saturday in Buffalo, New York, Wood reported. The mother was arrested Friday in Dallas, Texas. Messages left at the Northern District of Texas court late Monday were not immediately returned. Don Ledford, a spokesman for Wood, shared that as far as he knew, neither defendant had been assigned attorneys. The mother's name is not being published to protect the identity of the daughter, who is now 20. Federal prosecutors, who investigated the case for nearly two years, have filed a motion to detain both suspects in federal custody without bail. The indictment says Barkau began training the girl in 2000, when she was 12, and forced her to engage in sex acts with him and with other men. According to the indictment, he also had the girl watch pornography on the Internet as a teaching tool. Barkau is accused of creating a business out of the couple's Missouri home when the girl was 14 and marketing her as a 19- to 20-