E-mailer Shaun comes seeking assistance:
I have a request. Do you have any commenters/members etc who are really good at tracking stuff down?
That depends. If you're trying to dig up dirt on left-wing, peace activists' gynecological problems, then Steve's your man. If not, we'll see what we can do.
A bit of a spot of bother with a comment made that calls an anti-gay lobbying group well...anti-gay. I'm trying to see if a group called "concerned citizens of bc" is tied in any way with fundie groups with words in it like "focus", "family", "values", "concerned" etc etc. I don't have the internet skills needed to track down registries etc.
A quick Google shows a number of hits for "concerned citizens of bc" but no actual home page. Readers?
7 comments:
Well, that didn't take too long:
First reference:
B.C. Parents and Teachers For Life
Leads to:
LifeSite.net article {slightly more intelligent than WingNut Daily (WND)
Googling the name "Brian Roodnik" turns up the following:
Public Eye Online
Canadian Christianity.com
...and a second article here which points to Concerned Parents of BC website, and just for chuckles, we also find Brian's nomination campaign website in the mix.
Have I found "direct ties"? No. But looking at the verbage used it's more or less the usual claptrap about "family values" and other standard wingnut talking points. The fact that they are lobbying heavily about curriculum for an optional course that is gay friendly is a clue as to their alignment, and I did notice the "religious discrimination" argument get raised as well.
I ran a whois check on concernedparentsbc.org and turned up the following:
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Domain ID:D126911567-LROR
Domain Name:CONCERNEDPARENTSBC.ORG
Created On:07-Aug-2006 20:15:24 UTC
Last Updated On:07-Oct-2006 03:48:10 UTC
Expiration Date:07-Aug-2007 20:15:24 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Tucows Inc. (R11-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:tubb7xx1TDD07O44
Registrant Name:Concerned Parents
Registrant Organization:Concerned Parents BC
Registrant Street1:131 Main Street
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:San Francisco
Registrant State/Province:CA
Registrant Postal Code:94133
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.4154739990
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant email address guarded from harvesters
Admin ID:tubb7xx1TDD07O44
Admin Name:Concerned Parents
Admin Organization:Concerned Parents BC
Admin Street1:131 Main Street
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:San Francisco
Admin State/Province:CA
Admin Postal Code:94133
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.4154739990
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin email address guarded from harvesters
Tech ID:tu3UMHaQ1lhPzDFX
Tech Name:Domains Manager
Tech Organization:Netfirms, Inc.
Tech Street1:5160 Yonge St
Tech Street2:1800
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Toronto
Tech State/Province:ON
Tech Postal Code:M2N6L9
Tech Country:CA
Tech Phone:+1.4166612100
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:+1.4166610700
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech email address guarded from harvesters
Name Server:NS1.NETFIRMS.COM
Name Server:NS2.NETFIRMS.COM
Note that the registrant appears to be an address in California, but so far I haven't been able to track that back to anything legitimate. (It looks vaguely bogus - does San Francisco even have a "Main St." ?
Minor update: a reverse lookup of the registrant phone number shows it as a land line in San Rafael, but no listing details are available.
Hi everyone, thanks for all your help. The info you guys gave is the same as what I found, though. I was looking more for direct links like monetary support, advice etc from groups that are openly 'same-sex marriage' or 'anti-gay'. Support would also include the professional protesters that glom onto protests that align with their own. I did find a site that linked to the story about the Vancouver protest that also linked to James Dobson's outfit but I don't think that is weighty enough. Oh well, sigh, I'm just really, really bothered by the increase in influence that the american christian whackos may be starting to assert here in Canada. I guess slander is slander and the group has the right to object to being "named" (for what they are cough cough).
Again, thanks for all your help anyway.
I think we have to recognize that the TheoCons are in many cases deliberately obfuscating their presence in a number of different fronts.
Disavowal is only meaningful when their actions are consistent with that disavowal. The fact that the only substantive references appear on religious conservative news sources is significant.
Their own website is amazingly evasive about what they actually are lobbying for and why. That lack of clarity, combined with the actions of their leadership obliges the rest of us to draw our own conclusions.
The fact that they have no office, and only a "virtual" e-mail address (in gmail) as a contact is deeply fishy as well - who's hiding what?
grog,
you know what? I think you may be right - I just have such a strong feeling that they are tied somehow into the focus on the family crew and "the men over at Concerned Women for America". I believe this Roodnick feller is alot more scary than he projects. Anyway, I'm probably fixating somewhat but won't be letting this go.
Shaun,
Get yourself a copy of the October, 2006 issue of "The Walrus". There's a long article in it describing the interrelationships between the TheoCons and Harper's CPoC. After you've read that, I think you'll find it's truly necessary to look behind the veil a lot with this lot.
"Concerned Parents BC" is a front for something else - too many pieces are missing.
Wow...a conspiracy theory is always entertaining. No such luck in this case. CPBC is a group of parents from BC with no funding from anyone. CPBC raises its own funds, mainly donations from members and has no paid staff...all volunteers. The web site is on rented space that happens to be hosted in the USA.
CPBC has no formal alliances with any other organization but has had discussions with a number of organizations.
The web site is www.concernedparentsBC.org and the e-mail is cpbc2006@gmail.com.
Please note that the CPBC is NOT apposed to the optional course: Social Justice 12 in fact they support the course.
The main issue of the CPBC is that parents should have equal access to curriculum review. Is that a 'wingnut' idea?
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