Anonymous bishops take potshots at pope
Not publishing one's sources in some academic papers is certainly acceptable. More importantly, the fact that they wish to remain anonymous means they are finally afraid of Francis and "certain cardinal(s)" having a say in the selection process. This is a good thing - because of course it is true. Told ya.
Links: Praise for the bishops' conference; a pro-life/voter suppression connection
Shhhh. Don't tell the other bishops about the Jubilee letter.. Some will think he is cooperating with evil.
The term pro-life is meaningless because everyone uses it to describe themselves. Say pro-life Republicans, which is redundant but true. I do not know why anyone who is not Republican wants to use the term pro-life. It confuses the issue. Pro-life Dems should use the term Pro-Child. It provides just the right spin.
State Secretaries of State should be appointed. They are always straight ticket voted anyway. Few insiders even care - and with good reason. If they are hyper-partisan, it does not matter how they got there. No governor would dream of firing one due to election complications. It would look bad.
The Texas problem is direct payments. Anyone who is savvy enough to set it ups should be able to cancel it. Corruption withers when the spotlight is on. It's on in Texas.
Kos is hyper-partisan. They don't even like Greens. I have been ignoring them for years.
Syria proves the aphorism "Never wound a king." The entire Arab Spring was folly. It was a movement started by an Egyptian expat billionaire with good intentions. We all know where road the paved with good intentions goes, Syria went there.
Reclaiming veracity in a post-Trump world
Scalise and Paul prove the truth of the aphorism "ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies." Everyone knows the answer except those who are fooling themselves. Let it go and even the fools will not remember the lie.
Voting suppression will stop once the John Lewis Act passes to restore pre-clearance. Might I suggest that any state with documented attempts at voter suppression make the list, including Pennsylvania and North Dakota.
Some lies politicians tell are personal and some are political. The personal ones are a way of saying "stay out of my business." The professional ones might actually be a good thing. What is not said becomes the biggest lie of all.
For instance, the pro-life side ignoring the fact that there is no constitutional way to recognize the humanity of the unborn without having to register every pregnancy and investigate any losses. That is the only question for public policy. Anything else is emotionalism, including tidbits about DNA. BTW, until gastrulation, and even after, the Chorion and Placenta are part of the woman's body.
Another lie people get away with is calling Wall Street investment the same thing as investment in plant and equipment. IT IS NOT! It is saving (actually, gambling) and therefore not part of GDP.
The problem with Democrats is not that they over promise, but that they spend too much time doing electoral politics rather than governing. At least we know the GOP is trying to steal everything it can.
Believing in science is shorthand for believing in scientists, which shuts out real science in service of cultural issues. The meme that Trump killed people in the pandemic is a similar meme. The reality is that the medical community are covering their asses on opening things up and blind to how the virus really spreads. They are so wed to masking that they don't tell people that their "seasonal allergy" symptoms that went away after a week were COVID. I say were, because we are at vector saturation (herd immunity).
The "free speech movement" was a reaction to Catholic hubris in regulating culture. Anti-Catholicism in the founding was a reaction to papal opposition to republicanism - sparked by America - which fueled the hopes and victories of Garibaldi and his revolution against the papal state.
The Church still needs to grapple with their desire for religious power - which they claim to be a right of religious freedom. Power over employees and consumers of birth control or gay weddings is not a desire for liberty in anyone's world but their own warped minds.
Their minds are warped, by the way, because they conflate their undistinguished asexuality with holiness. They are as LGBTQIA as the gay priests in their midsts (and the gays are not the ones who are dangerous to children).
Links: Stigma against tradespeople, Supreme Court campaigning and papal synodality
The way to get more people into the trades is to pay them to go to school. $18 per hour sounds like a good number, and to enlarge broad based employee-ownership so that all work has equal dignity.
An $18 minimum wage will get people wanting to both work and find training or education. As for the pandemic, if there is no fourth wave the economy will quickly come back - at least until bitcoin and housing finance bubbles burst again. All the more reason for a higher minimum wage. Workers with incomes spend money to get us out of recessions.
Employee-ownership will change the union movement from opposition to board representation. Before the Church stands up for unions, it should let its teachers unionize first, even the pro-choice ones.
The grids worked in Texas. It was the generating companies that fell apart. The problem with the grid is that it is not linked up to the rest of the country. Dumb Republican idea that the voters must live with until they vote the GOP out.
I know of a former Harvard Law Review President who would make a great Supreme Court Justice.
No one is about to kick the Bard off of campus and any teacher who won't teach him in high schools won't last long. Tweeting teachers are best ignored.
Synodality does not necessary ignore democratization. Indeed, it must not. Religion is no longer a cultural requirement, so it must make itself culturally relevant. If the past four years have taught us anything, it is that authoritarianism works badly in government, in business and in church.
The Tristar is looking pretty good 777 engines explode and shed parts in flight.
Limbaugh: The indispensable man in the forging of Trumpism
Rush blended what was base with moral self-righteousness. More than anyone else, he led the pro-life movement to the dark side. He played on the good intentions of his audience and their belief that the world of their youth and early adulthood was somehow blessed. Clinton was his first, and most effective foil. A usurper who came to prominence before paying his dues. This trope was repeated with the young Obama. His audience longed for a golden age, not new ideas, even those that would benefit them. In essence, he was a symptom, not a cause. A reflection of the ugly American grown old. Where he goes, the Invictus Generation will soon follow.
US bishops stand down while Biden stands up
It is good that Biden kept his promise to faithful institutions. Let us hope that his Justice Department does not take this as an excuse not to consider the question of what the Bishops call religious freedom is actually an attempt to assert religious power, especially over people on the LGBTQIA spectrum. Their vehemence shows their personal denial of the number of G, Q and A people in the clergy (where Q is not Questioning and A is not Accepting). Some priests are not out, especially not to themselves. Asexuality is neither a curse nor a blessing - it just is.
Rhode Island was a haven for Quakers who were not welcome in Massachusetts. Baptists were - the real kind, not the racists in the South. My people come from the leadership of both sects. We had no problem both separating church and state, but in also seeking justice. Indeed, the Society of Friends is preeminent in doing so, including for LGBTQIA people.
Biden has two choices on abortion. One is to let the Old Guard of the Church age out and hope the new guard knows enough constitutional law to quit stocking conservative voters on abortion. The other option is to publicly explain why abortion can never be banned, but that it can be reduced through the economic proposals that he and the Democrats in Congress have put forward.
At the very least, the Church must not only go along, but insist that the pro-life movement get on board as well. There will be objections in the movement and some will leave rather than accepting "socialism, although Biden is merely doubling down on existing law. Their exit validates the opinion of feminists, who insist that for many in the pro-life movement, the motivation really is controlling female sexuality. This is especially true of some of the bishops.
Links: Truthfulness, minimum wage effects and the Olympics
How do you know Tucker is both lying and grandstanding? I will let others provide the obvious answer.
Minimum wages lead to everyone else's wages going up. Eventually, franchise fees will be adjusted as well. Executives, especially executives who hold shares, will bear the brunt. Customers may pay more, but only if competitors do not follow suit. The reason minimum wage laws are necessary, rather than individual firms doing the right thing, is to prevent any one firm from gaining competitive advantage by not increasing wages and doing the right thing. In general, low wage workers will spend more on products and rent, so profits - even those going to Executives, will not suffer nor will prices increase.
Ford will follow suit in the U.S. because GM has already committed to full electrification. Driverless cars also enter the mix. The battery issues are easily dealt with using overhead decks, which makes central computer control a reasonable option for self-driving, even without a license. Public self-driving cars will replace cabs and probably delivery and the system that powers and controls cars could also provide electric power and communication to homes. A roof deck could be planted with grass and have retracting walls extending from tall permanent structures, making snow days and pedestrian deaths a thing of the past. Time for some public-private partnerships, preferably with an employee and customer owner function so that retirees can ride for free.
Kudos to religious for raising this issue, giving it a place in the cue of Trump lawsuits to be withdrawn. This should not take long (nor will the cases against Trump and his enablers).
2022 could be preceded by revolution in China. Athletes may boycott anyway unless something is done about air pollution. Between Hong Kong and SARS-CoV-19, the Party may not be able to hold on much longer. I've always thought Austria was one of the better sites for the games, should they be made stable. Also, there should be fewer team. Little countries and big countries should not compete together. I could see China, the Kazakhs from Turkey to Mongolia and the Uyghurs, ethnic Russians, the EU, the Commonwealth, Brazil, the Caribbean, Latin America and the U.S. could be the teams for winter and/or summer. It would be easier to watch.
It is time to dial back on the security front. We are always trying to protect against the last threat, from Anthrax to shoe bombers. That will move things along.
There is a great piece on the Smithsonian Channel about how the 747 was developed. What they learned led to the current crop of airplanes - although the 737 max shows what happens if we try to get too clever in replacing pilots.
