Thursday, July 12th, 2012
SUSAN GUYETT, - The Christian Science Monitor
Stephan: The Episcopal Church, once the denomination of aristocracy, has transformed itself into a genuinely socially progressive institution, and Bravo! to them. I think this will probably be the final brick on the scale leading to the American Episcopal Church severing its connection with the world Anglican community. Many national communions are bitterly anti-gay and the U.S. Church's decision a few years back to create women bishops almost caused the schism. This may well do it.
NDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. Episcopal Church on Tuesday approved a liturgy for clergy to use in blessing same-sex unions, including gay marriages in states where they are legal, becoming the largest U.S. religious denomination to approve such a ritual.
Delegates to its triennial convention voted 171-50 to approve the liturgy, titled ‘the Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant.’ Episcopal bishops had voted overwhelmingly on Monday in favor of the text.
The U.S. Episcopal Church, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, is the 14th largest U.S. religious denomination, with about 2 million members, according to the National Council of Churches.
The proposed blessing will be introduced in early December and will be evaluated over the next three years, according to a church spokeswoman, Nancy Davidge.
The resolution does not mention the word ‘marriage’ and it does not alter the church’s standard liturgy for a marriage between a man and a woman, but offers an alternative liturgy for blessing same-sex couples.
The measure also gives bishops of the church discretion in the use of the liturgy and says no one should be punished for choosing not to use it.
Reverend Bonnie Perry of Chicago, who supports marriage between same-sex couples, said she was pleased by the decision. […]
No Comments
Thursday, July 12th, 2012
MATT ROUSH, - CBS (Detroit)
Stephan: In the midst of the rising denierism concerning science, researchers continue to pull back the veil revealing how the world actually works. It is both wonderful and sad.
The paper is titled 'A filament of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies.
ANN ARBOR — Scientists have, for the first time, directly detected part of the invisible dark matter skeleton of the universe, where more than half of all matter is believed to reside.
The discovery, led by a University of Michigan physics researcher, confirms a key prediction in the prevailing theory of how the universe’s current web-like structure evolved.
The map of the known universe shows that most galaxies are organized into clusters, but some galaxies are situated along filaments that connect the clusters. Cosmologists have theorized that dark matter undergirds those filaments, which serve as highways of sorts, guiding galaxies toward the gravitational pull of the massive clusters. Dark matter’s contribution had been predicted with computer simulations, and its shape had been roughed out based on the distribution of the galaxies. But no one had directly detected it until now.
‘We found the dark matter filaments. For the first time, we can see them,
No Comments
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
CINDY CHANG, - The Times-Picayune (New Oreleans)
Stephan: Texas has the worst healthcare, Mississippi is the most violent. Now we have this about Louisiana. Do you see a pattern here? Red value states enact policies which produce notably inferior social outcomes. Forget about politics, this is about facts. And the privatization of the American Gulag is the most morally corrupt manifestation of these policies. It constitutes a new American slavery, and it is already larger in absolute numbers than the slave population at the time of the Civil War.
Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. First among Americans means first in the world. Louisiana’s incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran’s, 13 times China’s and 20 times Germany’s.
The hidden engine behind the state’s well-oiled prison machine is cold, hard cash. A majority of Louisiana inmates are housed in for-profit facilities, which must be supplied with a constant influx of human beings or a $182 million industry will go bankrupt.
Several homegrown private prison companies command a slice of the market. But in a uniquely Louisiana twist, most prison entrepreneurs are rural sheriffs, who hold tremendous sway in remote parishes like Madison, Avoyelles, East Carroll and Concordia. A good portion of Louisiana law enforcement is financed with dollars legally skimmed off the top of prison operations.
If the inmate count dips, sheriffs bleed money. Their constituents lose jobs. The prison lobby ensures this does not happen by thwarting nearly every reform that could result in fewer people behind bars.
Meanwhile, inmates subsist in bare-bones conditions with few programs to give them a better shot at becoming productive citizens. Each inmate is worth $24.39 a day in state money, […]
No Comments
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
TREVOR TIMM, - Electronic Frontier Foundation
Stephan: Here is further evidence of what I have been warning my readers about for the past decade: Assume everything you say or write, and every place you go, is being recorded somewhere. The Fourth Amendment was the price of the digital revolution:
'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'
Yesterday, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) revealed that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have made an astounding 1.3 million demands for user cell phone data in the last year, ‘seeking text messages, caller locations and other information.
No Comments
Wednesday, July 11th, 2012
, - The Raw Story/Agence France-Presse
Stephan: Here is the truth about the modern financial culture. Think about this: Nearly one quarter of those in this culture believe that corruption and criminal behavior are essential to success.
If you are a non-Caucasian teenager caught stealing a cellphone, or found selling a handful of joints you stand a good chance of going to jail for years. But if you are a Caucasian with a Harvard MBA, and manipulate a deal illegally so you end up with $300 million you're a master of the universe.
This social hypocrisy has produced a trend whose manifestations are destabilizing our society.
A quarter of Wall Street and British financial executives think unethical or illegal conduct is needed to succeed, according to a survey by law firm Labaton Sucharow released Tuesday.
A full 24 percent of senior managers polled by the New York-based firm said they ‘may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct in order to be successful.
No Comments
