Wayne Laugesen - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Wayne Laugesen is an American columnist, video producer, gun rights activist and editorial page editor of the Colorado Springs Gazette
The Gazette (Colorado Springs)
The Gazette is a newspaper based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States. It is published daily by Irvine, California-based Freedom Communications...

. His editorials also appear in other newspapers from Gazette owner Freedom Communications

Freedom Communications

Freedom Communications, Inc. is a media conglomerate in the United States. It owns approximately 100 daily and weekly newspapers in the US, with a combined daily circulation of nearly one million subscribers, and also operates over seventy local news websites...

, the tenth largest media company in the United States. Laugesen writes for the National Catholic Register
National Catholic Register
Not to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter or the Catholic RegisterThe National Catholic Register is the oldest national Catholic newspaper in the United States. It was founded on 8 November 1927 by Msgr. Matthew J...

, Faith & Family magazine, and is a former editor of Soldier of Fortune
Soldier of Fortune (magazine)
Soldier of Fortune , The Journal of Professional Adventurers, is a periodical monthly magazine devoted to world-wide reporting of wars, including conventional warfare, low-intensity warfare, counter insurgency, and counter-terrorism...

, the international magazine of war, and Boulder Weekly
Boulder Weekly
Boulder Weekly is an alternative newsweekly that publishes every Thursday in Boulder, Colorado. The paper is a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and is owned and published by Stewart Sallo.-Overview:...

.

Laugesen, who considers himself a conservative libertarian, has criticized ambitious urban planners for creating elite environments that exclude minorities and the poor http://archive.boulderweekly.com/011305/waynesword.html. His work became the topic of a journalistic ethics debate http://www.poynter.org/article_feedback/article_feedback_list.asp?user=125667&DGPCrSrt=&DGPCrPg=1 in 2004, when he smashed historic windows from a Boulder, Colo., home in protest of historic preservation orders by the Boulder City Council—an act that led media critic Michael Roberts to coin the phrase "commando journalism". http://www.westword.com/2004-09-23/news/the-message/

As assistant editor of Soldier of Fortune in the 1990s, Laugesen helped obtain guns and training for women in a Boulder neighborhood that was stalked by a serial rapist. http://archive.boulderweekly.com/050505/bob2005.html#news He brought an obscure vice principal to the forefront by giving him Soldier of Fortune's annual Humanitarian Award for using a handgun to stop a school massacre in Pearl, Miss. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Making+our+schools+safe%3A+the+Virginia+Tech+shooting+rampage...-a0164255784

Laugesen stirred controversy among Soldier of Fortune's conservative readership with a cover story that sharply criticized modern police for exceeding their authority and violating the rights of citizens. Timothy McVeigh

Timothy McVeigh

Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...

sent the 1999 article to Fox News in response to a request to "describe his motivations" for his lethal actions. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,17515,00.html

As the National Catholic Register's

National Catholic Register

Not to be confused with the National Catholic Reporter or the Catholic RegisterThe National Catholic Register is the oldest national Catholic newspaper in the United States. It was founded on 8 November 1927 by Msgr. Matthew J...

correspondent covering the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...

when the Catholic sexual abuse scandal emerged, Laugesen is often cited for research that has put the problem in context by comparing abuse statistics of Catholic institutions with those of other religious and secular organizations. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/24/opinion/main1933687.shtml

Though preferring to be seen as a social conservative, Laugesen defends illegal immigrants and has been critical of the war on drugs. His drug war research often appears on web sites hosted by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/981204.html and other organizations devoted to drug legalization. Laugesen's research into the DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) has led to articles http://www.fcda.org/droppingDARE.htm that have been used in campaigns to get DARE out of public and private schools.

Though Laugesen often defends Israel and Judaism, he was accused of anti-semitism in a 2008 article in the Independent, an alternative newsweekly that intercepted an e-mail conversation between Laugesen and an official of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation

Military Religious Freedom Foundation

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is a watchdog / advocacy group and civil rights organization whose stated goals are to ensure that members of the United States Armed Forces receive the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they are entitled by virtue of the Establishment...

, an organization that fights against military efforts to establish religion. http://www.csindy.com/colorado/gazettes-un-funny-editorialist/Content?oid=1143383. Other media reported on the controversy http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2008/06/wayne_laugesen_vs_rich_tosches.php and the allegations were quickly refuted. http://www.csindy.com/colorado/my-friend-wayne-laugesen/Content?oid=1143453

A defender of religious liberty, Laugesen has become a frequent topic of criticism by atheist leader PZ Myers

PZ Myers

Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/09/i_think_wayne_laugesen_believe.php who is best known for desecrating the Catholic Eucharist. Dozens of other well-known atheist activists have come out against Laugesen http://richarddawkins.net/articles/511835-our-view-atheist-preachers-prophets-and-killers-vote-in-poll, including the atheist expert of About.com.

Laugesen has stirred controversy in Colorado and the mostly-conservative Christian city of Colorado Springs by advocating for Mosques, inviting them to build in Colorado. Conversely, Laugesen has defended the controversial Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Tim Tebow against attacks from the secular media. http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/09/tim_tebow_rolling_stone_piece_praising_him_attacked_for_implying_co_springs_hates_gays.php

Laugesen has won numerous national and regional journalism awards, including Top 100 Investigations from Investigative Reporters and Editors, for exposing police brutality against minorities, and the Society for Professional Journalists' top award for commentary in Colorado.

Video producer

Laugesen and his wife, Dede, http://www.catholicmom.com/videohb.htm are co-producers of Holy Baby! and Holy Baby! 2, a popular set of multilingual prayer videos for Catholic children that have been referred to as the Catholic Baby Einstein http://news.spirithit.com/index/culture_art/more/colorado_couple_teaching_young_children_to_fall_in_love_with_prayer/. The videos are broadcast internationally on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), and on New Evangelization Television (NET) in New York. Three cartoon characters from the videos—Baby Scholastica, Baby Bosco and his puppy Gregio—are sold internationally as plush toys in Catholic and non-Catholic Christian bookstores.

Personal

Laugesen, a Philadelphia native, explains that his philosophy was heavily influenced by his "hippie" mother http://www.gazette.com/common/printer/view.php?db=colgazette&id=36201, the sudden death of his father, and his conservative stepfather.

External links

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