The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Thursday
Feb182016
The Commentariat -- Feb. 19, 2016
Tea Leaves. Michael Grunwald of Politico: "In the wide-ranging interview that often turned provocative, especially when he complained about the Democratic presidential race he decided to skip, the vice president flatly said an Obama nominee in the outspoken progressive mold of former Justice William Brennan is 'not going to happen.' Biden, who fiercely defended legislative prerogatives as the longtime chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also volunteered that 'it was never intended for the president to pick whoever he wants and that's it.' And he suggested the Senate has the right to consider not only a nominee's philosophy, but how much the nomination would change the court, a common GOP talking point these days.... He said Obama also intends to nominate 'someone who has demonstrated they have an open mind, someone who doesn't have a specific agenda,' even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he shouldn't bother nominating anyone in his last year." ...
... Mitch McConnell & Chuck Grassley in a Washington Post op-ed: "We don't think the American people should be robbed of this unique opportunity [to allow the next president to nominate a Supreme Court justice to replace Antonin Scalia]. Democrats beg to differ. They'd rather the Senate simply push through yet another lifetime appointment by a president on his way out the door.... The Senate has not confirmed a nominee to fill a vacancy arising in such circumstances for the better part of a century." ...
... CW: Here's a "circumstance" for you fellas: New York Times: "The Senate has never taken more than 125 days to vote on a successor from the time of nomination; on average, a nominee has been confirmed, rejected or withdrawn within 25 days. When Justice Antonin Scalia died, 342 days remained in President Obama's term." ...
... Erica Martinson & Nathaniel Herz of Alaska Dispatch News: "Whomever President Barack Obama nominates to replace U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R] thinks the nominee deserves to be vetted by the Senate." ...
... Garrett Epps of the Atlantic: "... the actuarial tables offer a somber prospect over the next four years. Scalia's departure is the opening act, not the conclusion, of a historic generational shift. If President Obama's pick is confirmed, the Court's moderate liberals will have a slight advantage in the head count. That's true for at least the next term, but not much longer. The new shape of the Court is much more likely to be determined by the next four years than by the next four months. The 'partisan balance' of the Court may shift more than once.... I suspect that [Chief Justice Roberts] does not believe that 'the American people' should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice' -- at least not a direct one.... The current Republican tantrum may change minds inside the marble palace; it may do more to break a Republican 'bloc' than Barack Obama ever could." ...
... Max Ehrenfreund of the Washington Post: "The number of white dudes becoming federal judges has plummeted under Obama.... Just 38 percent of district judges appointed by Obama have been white men. Under Bush, the figure was 67 percent, and under Clinton, it was 52 percent. By contrast, under President Reagan, fully 85 percent of judges appointed to district courts were white men." ...
... Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly: "Of course this is exactly the kind of change that terrifies the conservative insurgency. But for the rest of us, it is a victory to keep in mind as we tally the legacy of our 44th President and consider the wealth of talent he has to chose from in a Supreme Court nominee."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Antonin Scalia's body will lie in repose on Friday in the Supreme Court's majestic Great Hall, not far from the courtroom where he dominated the court's arguments for three decades and helped shape American law. His body will be placed on the same catafalque, on loan from Congress, that once held President Abraham Lincoln's coffin." CW: Seems appropriate. Lincoln proposed to free slaves & Scalia tried to enslave free Americans again. Roll over, Abe Lincoln. ...
... Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "The White House on Thursday defended President Barack Obama's decision not to attend Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's funeral.... 'There's so much rancor in politics and partisanship that we allow ourselves to get drawn into different corners to the extent that some people actually want to use the funeral of a Supreme Court justice as some sort of political cudgel,' White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday. 'The president doesn't think that that's appropriate, and, in fact, what the president thinks is appropriate is respectfully paying tribute to high-profile patriotic American citizens, even when you don't agree on all the issues. And that's what he's going to do.'"
John Eligon of the New York Times: "In a test of Kansas' wide-ranging voter registration law, a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday challenged a provision that required residents to provide proof of citizenship when they register to vote. The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, takes aim at a measure that was pushed through the Republican-led Legislature five years ago by Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach.... The A.C.L.U., saying that fraud claims were unfounded, brought the class-action suit on behalf of six Kansas residents who said they were left off the voter rolls after registering at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles."
New York Times Editors: "... Apple is doing the right thing in challenging the federal court ruling requiring that it comply [with a court ruling].... In a 1977 case involving the New York Telephone Company, the Supreme Court said the government could not compel a third party that is not involved in a crime to assist law enforcement if doing so would place 'unreasonable burdens' on it. Judge Pym's order requiring Apple to create software to subvert the security features of an iPhone places just such a burden on the company." ...
... Libertarian presidential candidate & anti-virus software guru John McAfee rips the government for demanding Apple provide a "back door" to encrypted messages on a dead San Diego terrorist's iPhone, then offers his team to decrypt the phone free of charge.
Emily Crockett of Vox: "'Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil,' [Pope] Francis said. "In certain cases, as in this one [-- the Zika virus --]..., it was clear. I would also urge doctors to do their utmost to find vaccines against these mosquitoes that carry this disease.' If Pope Francis actually granted an exception for women in Zika-afflicted areas, it would be a huge deal. He has suggested before that the church should focus less on contraception and abortion issues -- but he hasn't actually proposed any policy changes. The church bans contraception and abortion outright. This has major public health consequences, especially for developing countries that are heavily Catholic, like in Latin America."
Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "New data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggest that January of 2016 was, for the globe, a truly extraordinary month. Coming off the hottest year ever recorded (2015), January saw the greatest departure from average of any month on record, according to data provided by NASA." CW: Oh yeah? The other day, it was 14 below where I live & it's 7 degrees right now, so these data couldn't be true.
Presidential Race
Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "When it comes to labor powerhouses in Nevada, few organizations quite match the Culinary Workers Union: 57,000 strong, more than 50 percent Latino.... But to the increasing distress of the two Democratic presidential contenders, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary Clinton, the union has decided to sit out the Democratic presidential caucuses [in Nevada] on Saturday, setting off a free-for-all for its members and adding to the increasingly tense and unsettled political atmosphere here.... Union leaders said they were staying on the sidelines because the demands of mobilizing behind either Mr. Sanders or Mrs. Clinton would divert resources, distract members and potentially polarize the union just as they are entering critical contract negotiations. The Culinary Workers will instead focus its resources on the general election, in which Nevada is almost certain to be pivotal." ...
... Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Nevada was once supposed to be a firewall for Mrs. Clinton, its large minority population primed to accelerate her drive to the Democratic nomination. But after her narrow victory in Iowa and crushing defeat in New Hampshire, it has turned into yet another tight and unpredictable contest, in which Mr. Sanders stands to gain more from a victory, and Mrs. Clinton stands to lose more from a defeat.... Mrs. Clinton's aides have appeared to brace for the worst here, playing down expectations and shifting their attention to the South Carolina primary the following weekend and on the 11 states that hold contests on Super Tuesday, March 1." ...
... Jamie Self of the (South Carolina) State: "U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn will endorse Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the state's presidential primary, a Clinton campaign aide told The State Thursday night. The endorsement will come at 11 a.m. Friday at Columbia's Allen University, a source close to Clyburn also confirmed." ...
... Hope Yen & Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP: "So much for Bernie Sanders' big win in New Hampshire. Since then, Hillary Clinton has picked up endorsements from 87 more superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention, dwarfing Sanders' gain from the New Hampshire primary, according to a new Associated Press survey. Sanders has added just 11 superdelegate endorsements. If these party insiders continue to back Clinton overwhelmingly -- and they can change their minds -- Sanders would have to win the remaining primaries by a landslide just to catch up.... After the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sanders has a small 36-32 lead among delegates won in primaries and caucuses. But when superdelegates are included, Clinton leads 481-55, according to the AP count." ...
... Paul Krugman turns up the anti-Sanders volume, this time devoting his column to excoriating the fantastical economic projections made by an economist who is not associated with Sanders' campaign but whom Sanders' top campaign aides have praised. CW: Krugman's criticism of crazy projections is well-taken, but he should have mentioned that the economist he associates with Sanders is a Hillary Clinton supporter. ...
... Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post is similarly derisive of the numbers associated with the Sanders' plan, but at least she acknowledges the the economist who came up with the phony numbers is a Clinton supporter.
... Simon Maloy of Salon: "... pretty much every one of Trump's rivals ... also wants to throw up some sort of wall-like structure on our frontier with Mexico. At the Reagan Library debate last September, Marco Rubio said the first step towards immigration reform is 'we must secure our border, the physical border, with -- with a wall, absolutely.' Ted Cruz says all the time that 'we're going to build a wall' and jokes that he's going to get Trump to build it for him. Ben Carson thinks 'the border wall is a good start' but is also open to other security measures, like drone strikes along the border.... If we're going to go with the 'Pope questioned Trump's Christianity' interpretation, then we have to expand that out to pretty much every Christian in the Republican Party, which is a lot of people. That's why you're seeing Republicans like Rubio and Jeb Bush -- Catholics both -- pushing back against the pope's statement, even though it's being widely interpreted as an attack on their chief rival for the GOP nomination. The way they see it, the pope didn't attack Trump, he attacked a key policy platform of the party." ... ... More Christian Than the Pope. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump said it was 'disgraceful' that Pope Francis questioned his faith on Thursday and suggested that his presidency would be the answer to the Vatican's prayers because he would protect it from terrorists if elected." Trump said in a statement, "No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith. They [the Mexican government] are using the pope as a pawn and they should be ashamed of themselves for doing so, especially when so many lives are involved and when illegal immigration is so rampant." (Emphasis added.) Trump's full statement is here. ... ... CW: The most hilarious part of Trump's statement is the highlighted bit, inasmuch as Trump has a long history of questioning President Obama's faith. I seriously doubt faithful Roman Catholics will be amused at Trump's criticizing the Pope. ... ... Nick Gass of Politico: "The White House weighed in on Thursday afternoon, with press secretary Josh Earnest delivering a cutting comment during the daily briefing. 'I will, however, though, extend to Mr. Trump the courtesy that he has not extended to the president and not use this opportunity to call into question the kind of private, personal conversations that he's having with his god,' Earnest said." ... ... Jenna Johnson & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "... Pope Francis added the strongest voice yet to a growing chorus of world leaders taking a stand against the celebrity candidate -- condemning Trump's hard-line immigration agenda and suggesting he was not a Christian because of it.... First was the British prime minister, who called Donald Trump 'divisive, stupid and wrong.' Then came Britain's Parliament, which denounced him with colorful language. The French prime minister, the Turkish president and a Saudi prince also weighed in: The Republican presidential front-runner, they agreed, was a demagogue disgracing the United States." CW: Don't worry, Donald. Vladimir Putin & Kim-Jong Un probably find you likable enough. ... ... "Pope Francis, Tear Down That Wall." Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Supporters of Donald J. Trump were quick to suggest on Thursday that Pope Francis was being hypocritical to criticize as un-Christian Mr. Trump's proposal to build a wall between the United States and Mexico because the pontiff himself lives in Vatican City, a small state with sturdy walls of its own.... But scholars who study Medieval Italy and the history of the Roman Catholic Church dismissed those criticisms as the product of a basic misunderstanding of both the geography and the history of Vatican City. There are, to be sure, formidable walls in Vatican City, and much of of the site, including the gardens and the modest guesthouse that is home to Francis, is set behind them. But the walls do not entirely enclose the city-state, and in the modern era they are not meant to, historians said." ... ... Nick Gass: "During a taped telephone interview aired during ABC's 'Good Morning America,' co-anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Trump if he thought his statement slamming the pope's remark would hurt him going forward, including in Saturday's South Carolina primary.... Repeating his usual rhetoric about building a wall to keep out drugs and undocumented immigrants, Trump commented that Francis' remarks were 'a little bit lighter ... than the press portrayed after I read a transcript.' The pope's precise words do not specifically mention Trump but rather speak in general religious terms about anyone who constructs a wall instead of building bridges. During Thursday night's town hall event on CNN, the businessman had already begun dialing back his rhetoric, calling Francis 'a wonderful guy.' In an interview on MSNBC, Jeb Bush said he thought 'it was probably inappropriate for the pope to intervene at the -- in the height of a contested primary in that way.'" ... ... Steve M. reminds us that right-wingers have been attacking Pope Francis for some time. So don't expect this to be the downfall of the Donald." ... ... Also too, as digby points out, "He hasn't ruled out beheading either." ... ... Andrew Kaczynski & Nathan McDermott of BuzzFeed: "For months, Donald Trump has claimed that he opposed the Iraq War before the invasion began -- as an example of his great judgment on foreign policy issues. But in a 2002 interview with Howard Stern, Donald Trump said he supported an Iraq invasion. In the interview, which took place on Sept. 11, 2002, Stern asked Trump directly if he was for invading Iraq. 'Yeah I guess so,' Trump responded. 'I wish the first time it was done correctly.'... Trump's comments on Stern are more in line with what he wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, where he advocated for a 'principled and tough' policy toward 'outlaw' states like Iraq.'... Trump, asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper at a town hall on Thursday about the Stern interview, said, 'I could have said that.'" ... ... Katie Glueck of Politico: "Trump on Thursday night again claimed he had opposed the war in 2002-2003, and then he additionally said that George H.W. Bush had handled Iraq correctly in 1992's Operation Desert Storm--statements which are both at odds with his 2002 claims." ... ... Erik Wemple of the Washington Post also was disgusted by MSNBC's Morning Joe & Mika Trump Fan Club Revue: "Any hour-long session with Donald Trump that doesn't ask him about [his shameful racism & bigotry] is a puff session. Allowing this fellow to pronounce on entitlement reform, strategies on the Islamic State, campaign tactics, Iraq, Jeb Bush, health-care reform, gun rights, Supreme Court nominations and other such topics without grinding through an extensive accounting of his racism and bigotry is an outrage only sightly less egregious than the candidate's own." ... ... Charles Pierce calls the "town hall" a "one-hour infomercial that Joe Scarborough ran on behalf of Donald Trump.... Roll over, Eric Sevareid and tell Ed Murrow the news." Aamer Madhani, et al., of USA Today: "A judge will hear arguments on Friday from an Illinois voter alleging that Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz is not a 'natural-born citizen' and should be disqualified for the party's nomination. Lawrence Joyce, an Illinois voter who has objected to Cruz's placement on the Illinois primary ballot next month, will have his case heard in the Circuit Court of Cook County in Chicago. Joyce's previous objection, made to the state's Board of Elections, was dismissed on February 1. He appealed the decision and was granted a hearing for Friday before Judge Maureen Ward Kirby." ... ... Breaking: Ted Cruz Is Still Ted Cruz. Alex Griswold of Mediaite: "The Marco Rubio campaign is livid Thursday after the Ted Cruz campaign released a website that includes a photoshopped image of their candidate shaking hands with President Barack Obama.... Among the red flags that the image is fake... who shakes with their left hand? Certainly not the right-handed Rubio.... The Cruz campaign doubled down, telling CNN that they believe the image is authentic." ... ... Understanding Marco. He has a history of flipflopping & shirking his duties. Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post reports on Marco Rubio's practices in Tallahassee. ... ... He's Still at the Flipflopping. Greg Sargent: "In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Rubio clarified that on Day One of his presidency, he will end President Obama's executive action protecting the DREAMers -- people brought here illegally as children -- from deportation.... Here's what he said in February 2015, according to Politifact: 'What I'm not advocating is that we cancel it right now at this moment, because you already have people that have signed up for it. They're working, they're going to school. It would be deeply disruptive. But at some point, it has to come to an end.'" ... ... He's Still at the Shirking. Katie Glueck of Politico: "Marco Rubio's last-minute cancellation at a conservative confab Thursday night instantly became fodder for rival candidate Ted Cruz, with the event's pro-Cruz organizer [confederate nut Mark Levin] calling it 'pretty damn rude.'... Rubio communications director Alex Conant said in an email that following scheduling issues, the candidate was 'running super late.' The team sent surrogates Rep. Trey Gowdy and Sen. Tim Scott in Rubio's place," but Levin didn't allow them to speak. Beyond the Beltway Beyond Belief. Scott Thistle of the Maine Sun Journal: "Maine Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday added his voice to the ongoing debate regarding the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created with the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia last Saturday. LePage sided with former governor and U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, saying President Barack Obama should nominate a replacement for Scalia. 'I'm a big constitutionalist,' LePage said. 'If it's in the Constitution, I think it means something.'" Senate Race Steven Dennis of Bloomberg: "Last year, [Alan] Grayson [D-Fla.], who was first elected to Congress in 2008, made a passionate speech denouncing trade with dictatorships or countries that employ forced labor. But weeks earlier, his family cashed in a long-held investment in a mining company that derives its revenue almost entirely from Eritrea, an east African country labeled 'a pariah state' by Human Rights Watch in part for its system of forced labor in service of a government that hasn't held an election since 1991. Grayson said he wasn't aware of the 2013 report criticizing the company." Way Beyond "We'll Always Have Paris." Tim Egan presents a picture of Paris apres the terrorist attacks. It's still Paris, according to Egan, albeit a Paris with armed soldiers around every corner. News Ledes New York Times: "Harper Lee, whose first novel, 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' about racial injustice in a small Alabama town, sold more than 10 million copies and became one of the most beloved and most taught works of fiction ever written by an American, has died. She was 89." New York Times: "American warplanes struck an Islamic State camp in Libya early Friday, targeting a senior Tunisian operative linked to two major terrorist attacks in Tunisia last year. The airstrikes, on a camp outside Sabratha, about 50 miles west of Tripoli, killed at least 30 Islamic State recruits at the site, many of whom were believed to be from Tunisia, according to a Western official...."
Jim Yardley of the New York Times: "'A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian,' [Pope] Francis said when a reporter asked him about Mr. Trump on the papal airliner as he returned to Rome after his six-day visit to Mexico. The pope ... also waded into the question of
... Sarah Posner of Rolling Stone: "It's almost as if Trump sees himself as the Henry VIII of reality TV (though he didn't need any permission for his divorces). He's hinting, not too subtly, that allowing immigration would tie the country closely to Rome, an ugly insinuation given the history of anti-Catholicism in American politics. He wants to divide -- Catholics from each other, Americans from Catholics, immigrants from 'real' Americans -- and create a new American church, one in which he is the divinely ordained King, and reading the Bible is optional." ...
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Reader Comments (23)
Scalia's glorification is something I'm really interested in for a variety of reasons, but namely how position seems to beget respect, "http://www.salon.com/2016/02/18/scalia_was_an_intellectual_phony_can_we_please_stop_calling_him_a_brilliant_jurist/?google_editors_picks=true". I've got a Bio test tomorrow so I can't linger, but....Ok, Nino was good in schools; and he was obviously, at one time, was emotionally intelligent enough to position himself to get one of the USA's most fantastic jobs. But what did he do with it? He fucked over the disadvantaged, had zero empathy for black or any minorities, or gays, or single unwed mothers or soon to be single unwed mothers, and he voted to give democracy to the highest bidders in Citzen's United. And he didn't give a shit about unjustly convicted people being executed by the country he so called loved and represented at the highest level. People like him encourage me to study science.
Marie,
This is the perfect article to tie in with your information about 'clicks' and headlines. It is an interview with Robert Caro, his newspaper career, and spends a little time on "The Power Broker" - one great history book.
http://gothamist.com/2016/02/17/robert_caro_author_interview.php?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%202/18/15&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All
I have no talent for selling an article but I hope many of you will read the Caro article. I think there is a lot there that you will enjoy. I read The Power Broker years and years ago and I remember some of those stories about how Moses shaped New York still. Caro retells two of my favorites in this article. You've got to read how Moses kept the blacks out of Long Island Jones Beach. You've got to read how he kept light rail from reaching Long Island and dooming NYC to car gridlock forever. I'm a lousy judge of many things, but I don't think you'll be disappointed in this.
"No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith." The Donald
"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" Jesus Christ, according to Matthew's account of the Sermon on the Mount, when He spoke of false prophets and the patent connection between one's faith and one's deeds.
But then, Jesus Christ apparently had no right to talk about Christianity. What did he know about it?
@Ken Winkes: The Synoptic Gospels -- Mark, Matthew & Luke -- present Jesus as a pure communist who eschews worldly goods. He orders his disciples to give their belongings to the poor & follow him. The Jesus group is not irresponsible, tho; it has a treasury (Judas was the treasurer), & altho Jesus accepts the hospitality of rich people, he uses these opportunities to try to reform their ways.
Most Christians pick & choose among the attributes & sayings the gospel writers ascribe to Jesus, just as the original compilers of the canon did. (The books [or the fragments of these books that have survived] of the era that didn't make it into the New Testament are pretty interesting.)
I don't know what kind of Presbyterian Trump claims he is -- and I doubt he knows, either -- but he would certainly appear to be of the kind that goes for the Calvinist belief in predestination -- that God picks winners & the best evidence of their being among the chosen ones is their worldly success. That ain't exactly the kind of Christian Francis is, & the Roman Catholic Church doesn't accept the doctrine of predestination. Francis would have been better to describe Trump -- & the GOP field, including Rubio & Bush -- as not-Catholic rather than as not-Christian.
The exchange between Francis & Trump/Republicans is a throwback to the Reformation. Posner describes Trump as a Henry VIII-type figure, but he's also similar to other non-Catholics like Martin Luther, who lost all sympathy for non-Christians when his reform ideas came into acceptance; in fact, the Nazis used Luther's later writings against Jews as a theological basis for their own horrifying abuse of Jews. Martin Luther would likely have approved.
If Francis were as ecumenical as he says he is, he would accept Trump's beliefs & proposals as falling within the realm of "reform" Christianity at its nastiest.
Marie
"If Pope Francis actually granted an exception for women in Zika-afflicted areas, it would be a huge deal."
I'm not really convinced...
Why would Latin American anti-abortionists be more willing to accept abortion practices just because the Pope says so. I'm willing to agree that they're more "practicing" Catholics because if you've ever been to Latin America then you know just how much God's "will" is infused in everyday life and language. Yet, after growing up being fed anti-abortion fundamentalism, how many are going to just up and change their positions because the Pope indirectly said it's sometimes ok?
Do we somehow imagine that it wouldn't be used as a political football, a practice so well-perfected in the US of A. Heaven forbid they look up North to find inspiration and leadership on the issue...
Can you imagine a whirlwind regional tour of bug-eyed Carly Fiornia, feet-stomping and arms a-waving, screaming, "veniendo partes de sus cuerpos!!! cerebros!!!!"
I'll leave you with that. Happy Friday!
TRUMP'S LAST SONG
Don't like fighting with the Pope
Nope––not at all, not at all
But hells, bells, Frannie baby
I just gotta, now more than evea,
build that UUGGE damn wall!
And all the people go yeah, yeah, yeah, hands clapping, feet stomping and pictures of the Pope with a mustache are waving in the air.
Ah yes, his holiness makes another appearance to remind us of the true source of immorality. So the comment "The church bans contraception and abortion outright. This has major public health consequences, especially for developing countries that are heavily Catholic" doesn't deal with reality. The Church (and most religions to be fair) is a major supporter of mosquitoes. It is called global warming.
Another reminder of the delusional state of humanity. The primary cause of global warming is not fossil fuels. It is the number of humans who use them. I admit that it drives me crazy that no one stands up and says that we cannot have another 7 billion humans. So billions will die simply because religion will never admit they got it wrong.
And BTW your holiness, the vaccine attacks the virus, not the mosquito.
@ Haley: After I finished reading Caro's books on LBJ, I took up the Robert Moses. Gore Vidal called him the Emperor of Concrete. A good companion that you may want to dip into is Jane Jacobs' "The Death and Life of Great American Cities"––a classic now. This extraordinary woman stopped Moses from completely ruining parts of the city and her fierce fighting with Moses is legendary. She, by the way, warned in 2004, and at that time she was in her late eighties, that sooner or later, there would be a housing bubble bursting––no one took heed.
@Ken: YES! I get so furious about religion's edicts–-specifically the Catholic bans on contraception and abortion––along with their stance on gays––Francis presents as a compassionate, sensible kind of person, but will do nothing to change these things––it's Catholic doctrine writ large and if they nibble away at these edicts, perhaps redemption might be next and without that the whole plays of plays will close––it's what keeps their motor running and the coffers filled.
Pope Francis on Trump: "A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian."
Trump on Pope Francis: "No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another man's religion or faith."
Trump on Ted Cruz: "How can Ted Cruz be an Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?"
From this morning's Doonesbury homepage.
The fact that Pope Francis is willing to make an exception for contraception due to extraordinary circumstances is laudable, but it also puts in high relief the whole paternalistic attitude of the Church as well as people in general who think they "know best" until they are willing to make an exception. Why is THIS particular peril any more concerning to an individual woman than many others: she's too poor, too young, uninterested in motherhood, in poor health....and on, and on? In fact, as we have discussed here before, even rabid "pro-lifers" have been known to quietly sneak their own family members (or themselves) in for an abortion because their situation is "different;" in other words, presuming to judge everyone else. All this paternalism and subjugation should just stop already; it's 2016.
It is true that the Vatican, a city-state, has walls. But it does not really have gates. You can walk in from many directions, and no one will ask you for a passport, visa or ID card.
So Donald, Marco, et al, when you say that the Pope is calling the kettle black, do as they say in Latin -- "Ite, flock, off!"
Victoria D - Holy Mother Church is not paternalistic. Her clergy is, but She is not.
@Victoria D.: One of the theories of good government -- and not necessarily a theory to which I subscribe -- is that change should happen slowly so as not to be too disruptive. This is the theory that many judges hold to; ergo, the doctrine of stare decisis.
The arguments/evidence against this theory are obvious. Look at the backlash to the Affordable Care Act, which is not radical at all; it simply builds on a system already in place (and one that was becoming less & less stable) & actually created minimal disruption; all those people whining that "Obama cancelled my insurance" were silly; employers change insurance companies & insurance companies cancel & change policies all the time. No matter how minor or incremental a change, reactionaries are always going to wail, & cries of "slippery slope!" will drown out reason.
I'm hoping -- with no real evidence to back up my hope -- that Francis's remarks & actions are part of this incrementalist view of the Roman Catholic Church -- that its outmoded views on women & sexuality should change, but not suddenly. Maybe he figures if he keeps hinting around at inclusiveness, starts making "exceptions" to doctrine, etc., it won't come as such a shock when he -- or some future pope -- says, hey, safe sex is great, enjoy! And you priests can get married, too. To other priests, if you want. P.S. Girls, you too can grow up to be priests. Or the pope.
Marie
Off the Wagon.
Since we're on a religion kick this morning I feel compelled to share probably the weirdest and creepiest religio-inspired nuttiness surrounding He Who Lies in Repose Following a Lifetime of Fucking People Over (sage nod to Citizen625).
It appears Glenn Beck is on the hooch again, and jumping Jesus, a couple of days off the wagon and the guy is delusional already (not suggesting here that he was the soul of critical thinking prior to this...).
According to Weepy Glenn, god whacked Scalia so that Ted Cruz could be president. Yowza!
Well, okay, let's say there is a god. And let's say he or she is not entirely dim and actually does care about humans. I'm gonna have to say that there were a boatload of reasons for offing Scalia far more compelling than letting that idiot Cruz take over.
Just sayin'.
But Beck. Woof. End Times must be near. He's really hitting it hard. Are there any questions from the back of the room about the ineluctable fate of Confederates as a sentient group? I mean we're talking about one of the shining lights of the Confederacy, a guy who regularly introduces Cruz at campaign stops. You'd be hard pressed to trust this guy to tell you whether it was day or night without you look out the window yourself.
@Akhilleus: There will always be dimwits like Glenn Beck who, like our prehistoric ancestors, look to random acts of nature as "signs" of something that's a'comin'. Look at it as a search -- in the wrong direction -- for the meaning of life.
Marie
Re: Francis' incrementalist ways.
I have to agree with Marie on this score. I grew up Catholic and had the orthodoxy drilled into me until my skull rang like a Chinese gong, but I've been able to escape the more dire regions of the dogma dungeons.
When I read about the pope's reconsideration regarding the potential for deformed babies because of the Zika virus situation, I had pretty much the same reaction. There is no way Francis is going to change the Church in a few years. No way. The crazy has been in place since the marble on the walls of the Roman Forum was being carted off for use in Visigoth bathroom renovations. No one can tell what his inner thoughts are, but for the first time in a couple of generations, we have a pope who at least talks about doing something for the poor and has a sense of the real world. Back in the 60's Paul VI authorized use of birth control for nuns working in the Belgian Congo (rape was an everyday occurrence) so it isn't a completely unique thing for a pope to overlook the Church's stance on this subject.
Women being ordained as priests, gays and lesbians welcomed openly in all churches and receiving all sacraments, including marriage, these things may come to pass but it starts slowly.
And who knows, maybe god will whack a few of the other idiots standing in the way of progress to speed things up. Hey, it could happen. Ask Glenn Beck.
Marvin,
So right, and I would add that this whole border thing, which is causing so much angst here and abroad and will only get worse also has a little (a lot, heck almost everything) to do with too many people on land whose resources cannot support them.
Walls, no matter how constructed, between the sperm and the egg, are a much more practical solution to the problem than any wall the Trumpeter or his European counterparts want to build.
Though they think they disagree, both the Trump and the Pope, though they wear different blinders, are looking at the wrong border.
Let the winnowing begin (continue?).
Whatever. In any event, after tomorrow's bloodletting in SC, birthplace of secession as Charlie Pierce likes to refer to it, there's a chance the Confederate field will look like General Pickett's brigade by the time it got to the bloody angle at Gettysburg. Or would, if it weren't for the beneficence of Citizen's Unhinged. Let's have a big round of applause for Little Johnny and the Dwarfs, folks! Those guys are somethin' else.
So where was I...oh...so barring some kind of three or four way tie, the normal course of events should follow and bodies should start piling up along the wayside. Even if that doesn't happen and say, Jeb(!) sticks around for ANOTHER beating or two (maybe he'll bring his daddy out next time, and a few cousins. Hell, he might decide to give a speech with a giant picture of Prescott Bush--or better yet, Prescott Bush's gun--behind him on stage), he's been properly and rightly toasted.
This means that the press can start ignoring the also-rans and perhaps we can finally get to some serious investigation on what these jamokes have been saying besides "I know you are, but what am I?"
I'm afraid that if I decided to hold my breath waiting for such a salubrious payoff to the expected winnowing I would either be dead or made an instant member of those guys who dive for pearls and stay down for half an hour at a time, neither of which strike me as desirable outcomes.
Really, all I want after tomorrow is for the MSM to cut the shit and start asking good questions. Not "Aren't you concerned the pope will take you off his Christmas card list?" or "Jesus really seems to like you! Do you agree?" I won't be so bold as to say that none of these candidates have any ideas. They do. Plenty of 'em. They're just nearly all horrible. How about trying to pin people down? How about focusing the spotlight on these very, very bad ideas and ask about who they'll hurt, who they'll help, and how they'll be paid for? (Answers: the poor, middle class, immigrants, minorities, women, students, the elderly; the one percent, gigantic corporations, TBTF banks, military industrial complex; they have no rational answer for that last question and "Mexico" is not a real answer.)
So as the clown bus is traded for a clown car there is a chance we--and the voting public, especially those who've been wrapping their considerable brain power around vital questions like which bobble-headed Bachelor the latest air-headed contestant will choose--might finally get to see the exact state of the clothing lines these would-be emperors are parading about in, along with, perhaps, some clarity and truth at last.
Then again, great beasts extinct for millions of years might show up at the 7-11 asking for their sugar water drinks to be super-sized, please, because, ya know....dinosaurs.
I'm guessing the second option is more likely.
Bead Jigglers and Birth Control:
Many years ago I had a conversation with a Russian Orthodox priest, who told me that in the Eastern Church the morality of birth control depended on the motive. If one had sound moral reasons for not wanting to birth and raise a child -- health, poverty, fear for the child's safety -- then the mechanism employed to prevent conception was irrelevant. Whether you let sperm cells die because the woman was not ovulating, or bounce the little buggers off a piece of rubber, didn't matter.
He went on to say that this applied to most questions. An act is a sin if the motive for that act is sinful.
Seemed sensible to me.
@D.C. Clark: The problem with that system is that it is apt to leave contraceptive decisions up to women, possibly without the advice & consent of their gentlemen friends, & you know we can't be trusted to make our own decisions.
Next you'll be saying a woman could be POTUS.
Marie
Marie,
Or Pope. Habemus Maman!
D.C.,
Get your point but even the Orthodox version of morality is a little too Catholic for comfort to this long-lapsed altar boy.
While it does make sense to take motive into account on the few occasions when it can be clearly determined (our courts do try to make motive-dependent distinctions), for good reason only a god could do it well enough in a world where people don't always tell the truth and lie even to themselves. When considerations of motive are preeminent, it's hard to judge, let alone police, much of what we do, because motive is hidden from public view and something we can only guess at.
(The Malheur mobsters likely thought and still think their motives were pure.)
Many years ago, when I refereed soccer, I was disturbed by what I called soccer's Catholic quality. I was told to treat similar situations on the field differently depending on both result and perceived intent so that some collisions could result in a yellow card and other similar player-to-player contact in a shrug and a signal to "play on."
For me the issue was not just a leftover from my lapsed Catholicism. It was the position it put me in, playing a little soccer god, dispensing justice left and right, who still worried too much about getting it wrong and not being "fair."
That's why in the public sphere the right to contraception (and abortion) must be absolute and why our behavior, not its motive, must determine good and bad this side of the grave.
But then such thoughts are likely leading me straight to hell.