SARAH PULLIAM BAILEY, - Religion News Service
Stephan: There has been an rash of stories concerning Theocratic Rightists caught for some kind of sexual dysfunction. I don't think it is a coincidence that most of these accounts are as much about power as they are about sex. I didn't want to run a whole bunch of them, polluting the day's edition, so let this report -- notably written by a conservative news service -- stand for all. I picked this one because this story is not just about a sexually dysfunctional clergy, but a man who was the head of a major Theocratic Right propaganda operation, pushing "conservative-value" sexuality.
At this point it is hard to tell whether Rightist leaders are just more out of control than usual, or whether the culture has shifted and this behavior is no longer being tolerated, even in conservative circles. Either way this is a growing trend.
Bill Gothard, an Illinois-based advocate for home schooling and conservative dress who warned against rock music and debt, has been placed on administrative leave after allegations of sexually harassing women who worked at his ministry and failing to report child abuse cases.
Gothard’s Institute in Basic Life Principles was once a popular gathering spot for thousands of Christian families, including the Duggar family from TLC’s ’19 Kids and Counting.” Gothard’s Advanced Training Institute conferences were also popular among devotees of the Quiverfull movement, who promote large families and eschew birth control.
He’s also rubbed shoulders with Republican luminaries. He and former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee were photographed at a campaign lunch together; former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue spoke at one of Gothard’s conferences; and Sarah Palin, when she was a small town mayor in Alaska, attended his International Association of Character Cities conferences and declared Wasilla among Gothard’s ‘Cities of Character.”
In a statement posted Thursday (Feb. 27), board chairman Billy Boring told World magazine: ‘After completion of the review, the board will respond at an appropriate time, and in a biblical manner.” Until then, the statement said, Gothard ‘will not be involved in the operations of the ministry. The board of directors […]
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Stephan: Here is what I think is the truth. We could make the conversion to non-carbon energy within a generation if we could muster the political and social will to do so. Sadly, I am afraid the secret government within the government that is controlled in large measure by carbon energy interests, combined with the almost grotesque ignorance of the American electorate will not allow it to happen. But it could be done, and it would be significantly cheaper for customers, would create tens of thousands of jobs, as weel as improving the economy.
Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment Senior Fellow Mark Jacobson says the United States has the technology and logistical ability to convert to all-renewable energy sources by 2050-if we can manage to exercise the social and political will to do so. He’s the guy who told David Letterman we already have enough wind to power the entire world ‘seven times over.” Now he has proven his point with a groundbreaking roadmap to clean energy for all 50 U.S. states.
With colleagues from academia and industry, Jacobson-a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford and a senior fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy-recently developed detailed plans that three states (New York, 2/18/13; Washington, 1/14/14; and California, yesterday-2/22/14) could use to switch over their energy infrastructures from conventional fuels to 100% renewable resources by 2050. As Jacobson uses the term, ‘infrastructure” includes electric power, transportation, heating/cooling, and industry uses. ‘Renewable power” is derived primarily from wind, water, and sunlight (WWS), generating electricity and electrolytic hydrogen.
Some findings of research behind the plans:
Powering the U.S. with only wind, water, and solar energy sources would save the average consumer $3,400 per year.
Over 15 years, driving […]
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Saturday, March 1st, 2014
BEN ARMBRUSTER, - Think Progress
Stephan: This is truly despicable. The same people that sent these young people to war don't want to support them.
Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill that sought to provide veterans with greater access to health care and education over an amendment aimed at increasing sanctions on Iran.
Democrats failed to reach the 60 votes necessary to overcome the GOP obstruction.
Republicans have been trying to get a vote on an Iran sanctions measure, which has stalled after experts and Obama administration officials convinced most members of the Democratic caucus that it would derail talks with Iran over its nuclear program and could lead to war.
After numerous attempts failed, the Senate GOP used Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) veterans’ benefits bill to bring the issue up again but Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) refused to go along. ‘Republicans say they want to help veterans. They have a strange way of showing it. We introduced a bill that would do just that. Republicans immediately inject partisan politics into the mix, insisting on amendments that have nothing to do with helping veterans,” Reid said on Wednesday.
One of the nation’s largest veterans groups, the American Legion, agreed. ‘Iran is a serious issue that Congress needs to address, but it cannot be tied to S. 1982, which is extremely important as our nation prepares to welcome […]
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Saturday, March 1st, 2014
DAVID CAY JOHNSTON, Pulitzer Prize Winner and Professor of Law Syracuse University - Aljazeera America
Stephan: An SR reader who has been a notably successful businessman wrote me after reading yesterday's story about the $63 billion in corporate subsidies to tell me it was much worse than that, and sending me this story. I find all of this disgusting, particularly because today the Republican Party filibustered to death a bill to help veterans and their families, claiming we didn't have the money to do it. But these same people have no trouble shoveling billions to the rich and the corporations they control. Once again I must say I do not think it is possible to consider oneself an ethical person and to vote Republican.
Note that this story is not a lead in any American corporate media.
State and local governments have awarded at least $110 billion in taxpayer subsidies to business, with 3 of every 4 dollars going to fewer than 1,000 big corporations, the most thorough analysis to date of corporate welfare revealed today.
Boeing ranks first, with 137 subsidies totaling $13.2 billion, followed by Alcoa at $5.6 billion, Intel at $3.9 billion, General Motors at $3.5 billion and Ford Motor at $2.5 billion, the new report by the nonprofit research organization Good Jobs First shows.
Dow Chemical had the most subsidies, 410 totaling $1.4 billion, followed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway holding company, with 310 valued at $1.1 billion.
The figures were compiled from disclosures made by state and local government agencies that subsidize companies in all sorts of ways, including cash giveaways, building and land transfers, tax abatements and steep discounts on electric and water bills.
In fact, the numbers significantly understate the true value of taxpayer subsidies to businesses, for reasons explained below.
A fight for transparency
On a shoestring budget – roughly $1 million a year – Good Jobs First has for years dug through disclosure statements in all 50 states to compile reports on subsidies. Many of these subsidies exist despite strong provisions in many state […]
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Saturday, March 1st, 2014
MATT MCGRATH, - BBC News (U.K.)
Stephan: This is a fascinating story about the interconnected nature of the Earth's biosphere. There is so much we don't know, but one thing becomes clearer and clearer: The only way we are going to save ourselves is by working with nature, not trying to dominate nature. Frankly, though, I think the greed and stupidity greed creates are still too powerful to allow us to save ourselves. From everything I can see the rest of this century is going to be a debacle with hundreds of millions of people dying. All completely unnecessary but, when profit is the only social priority, inevitable.
New research suggests a strong link between the powerful smell of pine trees and climate change.
Scientists say they’ve found a mechanism by which these scented vapours turn into aerosols above boreal forests.
These particles promote cooling by reflecting sunlight back into space and helping clouds to form.
The research, published in the journal Nature, fills in a major gap in our understanding, researchers say.
One of the biggest holes in scientific knowledge about climate change relates to the scale of the impact of atmospheric aerosols on temperatures.
Perfumed air
These particles form clouds that block sunlight as well as reflecting rays back into space.
They can be formed in a number of ways, including volcanic activity and by humans, through the burning of coal and oil.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), they “continue to contribute the largest uncertainty to estimates and interpretations of the Earth’s changing energy budget.”
Continue reading the main story
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If you go into a pine forest and notice that pine forest smell, that could be the smell that actually limits climate change”
Dr Mikael Ehn University of Helsinki
One of the most significant but least understood sources of aerosols are the sweet-smelling vapours found in pine […]
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