May 18, 2001
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

COURT WATCH CALLS FOR PERIOD OF NATIONAL PRAYER FOR AMERICA'S COURTS.
Eagle Forum's Court Watch has posted on its webpage an urgent plea for God's
people to focus
their fervent prayer on the federal courts and the Bush judicial nomination
process just now getting
underway. The National Day of Prayer in early May set the tone for this
unprecedented judicial
prayer campaign, and Court Watch urges you to continue that spirit by
consulting our webpage and
joining with us.

STEM CELL RESEARCH ORDERED STOPPED.  A suit filed by Human Life Advocates
asking a
federal court to "declare unlawful" National Institutes of Health (NIH)
guidelines which provided
taxpayer funding of research that "requires and depends upon the destruction
of living human
embryos."  U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled May 4 that "the
defendants [the
Department of Health and Human Services and NIH] will continue their present
policy of not funding
any research involving use of pluripotent stem cells derived from human
embryos" until a current
review of the regulations has been completed.

Congress passed a law forbidding such federally funded research in 1985; but
last August NIH,
encouraged by the Clinton administration,  issued guidelines declaring that
the cells were not
embryos, and allowing the research to resume. Pro-life Senate leader Sen.
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
said, "I am pleased with the court's decision and look forward to action by
the [Bush] administration
to stop destructive embryo research." Washington Times, 5-11-01

TRADITIONAL FAMILY LOSING GROUND.  Figures released from the 2000 Census
indicate that
the number of  households with single Americans living alone has now
exceeded the number of
married couples with children.  In 1990 there were just over 22.5 million
single householders, and
by 2000 the number had risen to over 27.2 million. The number of single
mother-headed families
also rose in that decade from 6.02 million to about  7.5 million. One of the
fastest growing
categories was unmarried partners, including shack-up heterosexuals and
same-sex couples. This
group rose a staggering  72% in the past decade. Johns Hopkins sociology
professor Andrew J.
Cherlin commented, "The central place of marriage in our family system is
eroding."  Washington
Post, 5-15-01.

TEENS STILL FAVORABLE TOWARD MARRIAGE.  Some hope can be seen in a recent
study
of American high school seniors done by Brett V. Brown of Child Trends for
the Urban Institute's
Assessing New Federalism project.  He reviewed and analyzed 15 years of data
on youth attitudes
gathered by monitoring several thousand students between 1985 and 1999.
Their acceptance of
marriage is "remarkably stable," with 81 % saying they are likely to marry
some day, although a
lower percentage of black students than whites  (71% vs. 85%) gave that
answer.  However, the
percentage of teens who approved of cohabiting rose from 23% in 1985 to 37%
in 1999.
Washington Times, 5-6-01.

MILLIONS FAIL TO MARCH ON MOTHER'S DAY. The planned "Million Mom March"
against gun
violence in Washington D.C.'s  Freedom Plaza on Mother's Day weekend
attracted around 200
people , which the Washington Times  (5-15-01)  describes as "mostly
professional gun control
agitators, not 'moms'." A pro-gun control protest nearby attracted some real
moms, including a
mother of two young children, who said she sees the gun-control agitators as
members of the
liberal elite, who can afford alarm and security systems; she asks what a
single working mom like
her is supposed to do for protection.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONTINUES TO FLOW.  The Supreme Court ruled 8 to 0 on May
14 that
federal anti-drug law allows no "medical necessity" exception to the general
prohibition of sale or
cultivation of marijuana.  The ruling allows the nine states with "medical
marijuana" laws to continue
to choose not to prosecute individuals claiming they use marijuana for
medical purposes; but large,
public distribution centers will likely close.  The court said that federal
law "reflects a determination
that marijuana has no medical benefits worthy of an exception." However, the
Washington Times
reported May 15 that the day after the decision was announced, it was
business as usual at the
Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center.  California Attorney General Bill
Lockyer would not say
how his office will respond to the decision.

SUDAN ATROCITIES ATTRACT MEDIA ATTENTION.  Although Christian and
conservative
organizations have been warning for several years about the genocide and
slavery in Sudan, the
mainstream media have been strangely silent on the subject.  The victims are
primarily Christians
from the southern region of the country. It seems that it took the startling
cooperation of celebrity
lawyers Ken Starr and Johnny Cochran to gain the attention of ABC's "Good
Morning America."
On May 15, the program carried an interview with the two attorneys, who are
defending  three well-
known figures charged with trespassing for chaining themselves to the fence
of the Sudanese
Embassy in Washington, D.C. on April 13 to protest that nation's atrocities.
Former D.C. Delegate
Walter Fauntroy, author and former Reagan adviser Michael Horowitz, and
radio talk show host
Joe Madison will go on trial June 27 in D.C. Superior Court.

The Washington Post (5-16-01) reports that Cochran commented, "It's not
going to be these three
gentlemen on trial; it's going to be the Sudanese government."

CONSERVATIVES ANGRY OVER EDUCATION BILL.  While generally pleased with many
of the
early  actions and the tenor of the George W. Bush administration,
conservatives are disappointed
and angry at his willingness to abandon the positive aspects of his
education plan (i.e., school
choice)  under pressure from members of Congress, while moving forward with
its worst features
  giving massive new federal funding to a failing system (and into the hands
of conservatives'
worst enemies) with little accountability.  Furthermore, a nationally
mandated test  (ensuring a
national curriculum) is a likely outcome.  Eagle Forum's education expert
Donna Hearne calls the
bill that has resulted "a 900-pound gorilla trying to pass for a pet
monkey."

EAGLE FORUM UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES ITS NEW FREE ON-LINE COURSES! EFU's
premiere course  "Evolution Fallacies," began on May 15th and the current
enrollment has far
exceeded our expectations.  If you haven't enrolled yet, it's still not too
late to register. Simply go
to www.EagleForumU.org and sign-up.  A new lesson will be posted every week.
You'll learn
information that you probably weren't taught in school.  "Evolution
Fallacies" instructor, Andy
Schlafly, would like to hear from more of his students on the Discussion
Board.  This is the
equivalent of the traditional "class discussion" after a lecture...a great
way to share your thoughts
with fellow students.  The Discussion Board is also the method students can
use to ask any
questions of the instructor about the course.  Andy Schlafly, our current
course instructor, is
available online through the Discussion Board, and he welcomes your
questions and comments.

BUSH TO ADD 3 CONSERVATIVES TO LIST OF JUDICIAL NOMINEES. When he announced
his first batch of federal judicial appointees May 9,  President Bush held
back the three most
conservative candidates he had been expected to appoint, since they were
openly opposed by both
senators from their respective states.  However, the Washington Times
reports May 16 that he has
not abandoned Rep. Chris Cox of California, Peter Keisler of Maryland and
Carolyn B. Kuhl, but
has "embarked upon an ambitious effort to assuage these Democrats, who had
complained they
were not sufficiently consulted the first time around."  It seems that, in
addition to their opposition
to the conservatives'  philosophical stance, the senators were miffed that
they learned about the
candidates from the media, rather than having been informed first by the
White House; and
President Bush is working hard to soothe the ruffled feathers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Better Research About Drugs Needed

April 11, 2001 by:  Phyllis Schlafly

A report just released by the National Research Council concludes that,
although
federal, state and local governments spent $30 billion in 1999 on illegal drug
enforcement and treatment, the research is woefully inadequate to draw any
conclusion about how to reduce demand or supply. In addition, U.S. taxpayers
have spent $6.3 billion on drug education over the last ten years without any
measurable effect.

Our fight against illegal drugs is severely weakened by the common claim that
marijuana (also called pot) is relatively harmless. Research on marijuana
in the
1970s, supported by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), proved
that pot is highly dangerous.

Friends of Andy Williams, the 15-year-old who killed two students and wounded
13 in a California high school last month, reported that he smoked marijuana
regularly before going to class in the mornings, including the morning of the
shootings.

In 1970, typical marijuana contained 1 percent THC, the intoxicating
chemical in
pot, and the best had 3 percent. New varieties of marijuana have been
developed that are much more potent and dangerous; typical street pot today
has 12 percent THC and some has 25 percent.

Not all pot smoking leads to heroin or cocaine, but practically no one uses
cocaine or heroin who has not smoked pot extensively. The reason is apparent
when we understand the very slow action of THC in the body.

THC is strongly fat soluble, which means that THC dissolves readily in fat but
cannot dissolve in water or in blood. It is well known that fat-soluble drugs
operate slowly.

THC is highly potent, but appears to be mild because very little reaches the
brain at the time of the "high." Most of the THC entering the body is
stored in fat,
which releases it slowly over many weeks.

When a person smokes pot regularly, a large supply of THC builds up in the
body's fat, and its slow release into the blood produces continual sedation.
Since THC is continually in the body, the "high" from pot gradually diminishes
and pot smokers often take other drugs to get a kick.

Nevertheless, they continue to smoke pot as they use other drugs because pot
appears to make them "feel good all the time." Most pot smokers also drink
alcohol heavily and, because THC inhibits nausea, a pot smoker can consume a
lethal dose of alcohol without getting sick and vomiting.

Teens often play around with pot, thinking it is harmless fun and no
different from
alcohol. They don't realize that THC is building up in their bodies and keeping
them sedated all the time.

With their minds confused by marijuana, it is difficult to escape from the
trap. It
takes over a month of abstinence before a regular pot smoker can think clearly
again, and THC can be detected more than two months after a person quits pot.

Because marijuana operates so slowly, its harm is obscured and the damage is
often attributed to other drugs used by the pot smokers. Nevertheless, medical
evidence has proven that marijuana itself severely damages the brain, the
chromosomes, the hormones, the lungs, the immune system, and the sex and
reproductive organs. Teenagers are particularly vulnerable because pot
smoking can delay and even halt the process of sexual development.

Some people support the legalization of marijuana in the naive belief that this
will take profits out of illegal drug sales and thereby reduce crime. But
pot is
cheap to grow and is not the source of the big drug profits.

The drug lords would be glad to give away marijuana free if they could. That
would vastly increase the number of cocaine and heroin addicts who use those
highly profitable drugs.

It is obvious that plenty of money is flowing from somewhere for the
legalization
of marijuana in general, as well as specifically for medical use. Expensive
campaigns have successfully passed referenda in eight states and carried this
issue to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments last week.

The legalization of marijuana for medicine is an indirect means of
legalizing pot
for recreational use and legitimizing it in the public's mind. THC is already
available in pill form with a physician's prescription, and there is no
legitimate
need for raw marijuana as medicine.

THC as medicine can be dangerous. While THC reduces the nausea from
chemotherapy, THC severely weakens the body's immune system and makes
the patients more susceptible to infectious diseases.

An excellent reference to marijuana research is Nahas and Paton, eds.,
"Marijuana, Biological Effects" (Pergammon Press, 1979), the proceedings
from the 1978 Congress of the International Union of Pharmacological
Sciences. An article by Dr. Robert Heath showed that marijuana severely
damaged the brain waves and brain cells of monkeys.

The 1988 White House Conference for a Drug-Free America strongly
recommended an independent evaluation of the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, which cancelled research about marijuana in 1980 and since then has
not supported any marijuana study of significance.

We urgently need that long overdue evaluation plus more research on the
harmful effects of marijuana, the drug that creates the market for the
other illegal
drugs.
 

                                      Phyllis Schlafly column 4-11-01