Free Republic

Just as its loudest opponents feared, granting same-sex couples access to marriage has further aligned the hoary institution with sexual choice, helping sever the link between sex and diapers—at just the moment when abortion rights face their greatest test in a generation. If you want to understand the sexual revolution in a nutshell, read Nathaniel Frank’s Washington Post column from a few days ago. He argues that the gay rights movement has been at the forefront of decoupling sex from procreation and of establishing sexual liberation as a driving norm. Frank writes:

If you haven’t been following Barronelle Stutzman’s case in Washington State, you need to be. She is the florist being sued by the state attorney general for refusing to participate in a gay wedding. The attorney general is trying to compel her to ignore her Christian faith and to participate in gay weddings. If she refuses, he is threatening the full coercive power of the state to force her to do it. She stands to lose everything—her home, her savings, her business, her livelihood—if she does not comply. I have an article today at CNN.com explaining the situation. The conclusion...

AUBURN, Ala. — An Auburn University student was murdered Tuesday night near campus. The victim, identified by Auburn police as 18-year-old Lauren A. Burk of Marietta, Ga., was shot to death. She was a freshman pledge with the school's Delta Gamma sorority, sources told FOX News.

The mother of the man charged with killing Auburn University student Lauren Burk said her son was an Iraq war veteran who was changed after his service, and she offered an apology to the freshman's family. Burk, an 18-year-old from Marietta, was found shot on the side of an off-campus road Tuesday night outside Auburn, and her car was found burning in a campus parking lot. Williams told the television station that her son hasn't been the same after serving 16 months in Iraq. She says her son had been living with her in Smiths, Ala., since returning from the...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Martha Burk is taking aim at the NHL's newest television advertisement. Burk, who led an unsuccessful effort to allow female members at Augusta National three years ago, called the ad "gratuitous" because it shows a scantily clad woman dressing a hockey player before he heads onto the ice.

Title IX for Jihadi Chicks By Debbie Schlussel FrontPageMagazine.com | April 13, 2005 The strange new equality of the Islamic jihad has arrived on our shores. Yet, feminist Martha Burk is complaining about women wearing pink. Thursday, The New York Times reported that two 16-year-old girls from New York City were arrested in March because they planned homicide bombings. Saying they are “from New York City” is kind of a stretch. The girls were actually from Bangladesh and Guinea and are in the U.S. illegally, as are their families. Both families have overstayed their visas—and welcomes—by more than a decade....

Title IX for Jihadi Chicks and Billionatrix Golfers April 12, 2005 By Debbie Schlussel The strange new equality of the Islamic jihad has arrived on our shores. Yet, feminist Martha Burk is complaining about women wearing pink. Thursday, The New York Times reported that two 16-year-old girls from New York City were arrested in March because they planned homicide bombings. Saying they are “from New York City” is kind of a stretch. The girls were actually from Bangladesh and Guinea and are in the U.S. illegally, as are their families. Both families have overstayed their visas—and welcomes—by more than a...

<p>ATLANTA (AP) -- An attempt to govern protests at the Masters golf tournament last year violated First Amendment rights to free speech, a federal court in Atlanta ruled Thursday.</p> <p>The U.S. Court of Appeals decided the city of Augusta illegally tried to hamper a protest planned by the National Council of Womens' Organizations, led by Martha Burk.</p>

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Martha Burk regrets that she did not allow herself to get arrested by picketing outside the gates of Augusta National last year, but said Saturday there is no point returning to protest the club's all-male membership in April. "Our plans are basically pretty set - we're not going to do it," said Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organziations. "There's no point repeating last year if we're going to be stuck in a hole." Burk had threatened a demonstration on Saturday of the 2003 Masters, but a local ordinance denied her access to the intersection...

ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO BURYRemember Jo Moore? She was the British civil servant who on September 11th 2001, as she watched the twin towers burn, sent a memo round the Department of Transport saying, “It’s now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury.”Victory in war is also a very good time to get out anything you want to bury, so before they’re lost in the passing parade I would like to mention a couple of hasty interrments. If you’re a devoted New York Times reader, you may recall that, at the end of...

AUGUSTA, GA—Martha Burk is targeting corporate America in her guilt by association campaign against Augusta National. But all of America should be targeting her National Council of Women’s Organizations and its supporters of terrorism. The feminist protester of the men-only Augusta National Golf Club, site of today’s Masters Golf Tournament, announced yesterday that she will now attack corporations whose CEOs and top executives are among Augusta National’s approximately 300 members. Burk said she will examine the companies’ employment records and other data for reasons to boycott them. Calling it her “consumer education campaign,” Burk linked corporate CEO’s trips to Augusta...

April 12, 2003 Masters Telecast Shuns Talk of Protest By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 7:23 p.m. ET AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- They talked birdies and bogeys, Tiger and Phil, dogwoods and azaleas. They ran long, sappy montages about caddies and past champions, the whispering Georgia pines and the mystery of the Masters. What CBS announcers didn't do Saturday was talk about the protests taking place down the street from Augusta National, a front-burner topic here for much of the last nine months. ``The focus of CBS Sports is on golf,'' network spokeswoman Leslie Anne Wade explained. Goodness knows, the...

About half of Americans oppose the Augusta National Golf Club's policy excluding women from membership, while one-fifth support the policy, according to a new ESPN.com SportsNation poll. In a scientific poll of 715 American adults commissioned by ESPN.com's SportsNation and conducted by Markitecture of Norwalk, Conn., 48 percent said they oppose the policy and 21 percent said they favor the policy. Another 31 percent indicated neither support for nor opposition to the policy. Almost three in five Americans said they were aware of the policy. Support for Augusta National's policy is stronger among men: only 34 percent of men oppose...

Maintaining his stance on behalf of Augusta National that the club will invite a female member at a time of the club's own choosing, Hootie Johnson today underscored that the club's position is the club's, and not just Hootie's: "If I drop dead this second, our position will not change." Good for Hootie! The mindless egalitarian leftists on Martha Burk's side present Augusta's all-male membership as discrimination – as though there is any such thing as a "right" to partake of private property that is not yours, on which you could associate with people who don't want you there –...

Judge upholds protest limits at The Masters April 7, 2003 GolfWeb Wire Services AUGUSTA, Ga. -- A federal judge has upheld the law that allows Augusta's sheriff to regulate protests outside this week's Masters. Monday's ruling was only a partial victory for city officials, however. U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. hasn't decided if Sheriff Ronald Strength violated his discretion by denying Martha Burk's group the right to protest at the front gates of Augusta National. Burk is planning to protest Augusta National's all-male membership on Saturday. Aware of the time constraints of the case, Bowen said he would...

Judge upholds Augusta protest law, promises later ruling on Burk permit By PAUL NEWBERRY, AP Sports Writer April 7, 2003 AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) -- A federal judge upheld a law that allows the sheriff to regulate protests like the one planned by Martha Burk at Augusta National Golf Club. Monday's ruling was only a partial victory for city officials, however. U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. hasn't decided if Sheriff Ronald Strength violated his discretion by denying Burk the right to protest at the front gates of the exclusive club, where the Masters begins Thursday. Burk is planning...

<p>Martha Burk thinks war with Iraq would ''alter the tone and possibly the size'' of her planned protest during the Masters.</p> <p>But Burk, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, said Wednesday she still intends to protest April 12 at Augusta National unless the all-male club allows female members or postpones the tournament.</p>

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition plans to reduce its numbers and demands during next month's Masters because of the imminent possibility of war with Iraq. The coalition probably will avoid acts of civil disobedience and accept the two protest locations approved by local officials, Janice Mathis, the group's vice president, said Tuesday. Rainbow/PUSH, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and the National Council of Women's Organization have spearheaded protests against Augusta National Golf Club and its all-male membership."We have had a change of mind-set," Mathis said. "There is some feeling that we would have a more muted position if the country is...

The group pushing for female members at Augusta National took its battle into cyberspace Tuesday with a Web site that vilifies corporations whose chief executives belong to the golf club. ``We think it is important for women to know that some of America's largest corporations maintain a double standard when it comes to sex discrimination,'' said Martha Burk, head of the National Council of Women's Organizations. The site -- www.augustadiscriminates.org -- officially was to go online Tuesday night to coincide with Burk's appearance on HBO's ``Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.'' The main page, headlined ``Hall of Hypocrisy,'' will display logos...

<p>All-male brouhaha at Georgia golf club reaches S.F.</p> <p>Brian Murphy, Chronicle Staff Writer The controversy surrounding the all-male Augusta National Golf Club reached the Bay Area Wednesday when women's activist Martha Burk called for former Secretary of State and San Francisco resident George Shultz to re- evaluate his membership in the elite and private club.</p>