February 5-9, 2016::End of the day round-up

Iran’s hypocrisy exposed as scores of juvenile offenders condemned to gallows

Scores of youths in Iran are languishing on death row for crimes committed under the age of 18, said Amnesty International in a damning new report published today. The report debunks recent attempts by Iran’s authorities to whitewash their continuing violations of children’s rights and deflect criticism of their appalling record as one of the world’s last executioners of juvenile offenders.

Growing up on death row: The death penalty and juvenile offenders in Iran reveals that Iran has continued to consign juvenile offenders to the gallows, while trumpeting as major advances, piecemeal reforms that fail to abolish the death penalty against juvenile offenders.

“This report sheds light on Iran’s shameful disregard for the rights of children. Iran is one of the few countries that continues to execute juvenile offenders in blatant violation of the absolute legal prohibition on the use of the death penalty against people under the age of 18 years at the time of the crime,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“Despite some juvenile justice reforms, Iran continues to lag behind the rest of the world, maintaining laws that permit girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to be sentenced to death.”

Iran: Growing up on death row: The death penalty and juvenile offenders in Iran

Iran Still a Leading Executioner of Minors, Report Says

Dan Arel has followed this debacle since day one and provides a very good run down of what has transpired since. Here is another "view" as to what Ham is attempting to pull with the Ark Encounter.

I will have a second, separate, POV from Peter J. Reilly as well!!  Makes for some interesting thinking,,,

Kentucky won't fight tax break ruling for Noah's Ark project
[Please note the original article seems to have poofed but am leaving this as such]

Kentucky officials won't fight a federal court ruling that supports giving a tax incentive to a Christian theme park featuring a 510-foot-long Noah's Ark.

A spokeswoman for Kentucky Republican Gov. Matt Bevin said Tuesday that the state has no plans to appeal and that the new governor's administration is pleased with U.S. District Judge Greg Van Tatenhove's ruling.

A little more than a year ago, state tourism officials under former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear told the Christian group building the ark that it would be blocked from seeking the incentive because of the park's religious themes.

The group, Answers in Genesis, hailed the ruling Monday as a victory for religious freedom. And the tax rebate, which could be worth up to $18 million for the ark, seems likely since its opposition was washed away by Bevin's election win.

The Latest Anti-Gay Oklahoma Bills Are Almost Too Crazy to Believe

Outrageous anti-LGBTQ bills are now a fixture of the American legislative landscape. At the start of each year, extremist legislators come forward with a slew of discriminatory proposals, ranging from cleverly underhanded to openly deranged. Oklahoma’s latest bills fall on the latter side of that spectrum. In addition to some typical “religious liberty” legislation that would let businesses refuse service to gays—par for the course at this point—Oklahoma Republicans have cooked up some fascinatingly cruel bills.

1. HB 1598: Protecting ex-gay conversion therapy.
2. HB 3044: Preventing depressed and suicidal queer youth from seeing a gay-affirmative therapist.
3. SB 733: Forbidding HIV-positive people from getting married.