Right Wing Christians, Gun Control And 2nd Amendment Evangelism

October 7, 2014, 9:07 am

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Jesus open carries!

***
"Why Black Men Don't Open Carry"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-black-men-dont-open-carry.html

***

Dear Fred,

Sometimes Elaine drives me round the twist... most recently her "Gun Control" comment: "Making good people helpless will not make bad people harmless."

It is clinically delusional (and verging paranoia) to allege that "gun control" advocacy contrives to make "good people""helpless." 

There is NO significant political movement that seeks to stifle gun evangelists' psycho-socially destructive urge to arm themselves, Rambo-like, as prelude to "packing" in church.

To "Open Carry" In Church Now Has Its Own Name: To "Church Carry"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/to-open-carry-in-church-now-has-its-own.html

Aquinas was right. "Sin" (from the Greek words for "missing the mark,") is always accompanied by loss of perspective/proportion. 

In light of this rubric, contemporary conservatives -- particularly Christian conservatives -- devote themselves, round the clock, to the continual commission of sin. 

"Thomas Aquinas On American Conservatives' Continual Commission Of Sin"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/thomas-aquinas-on-american.html

***

"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/gun-cartoons-and-gun-violence.html

Pax tecum

Alan

PS Ironically, "helping" people arm themselves without rigorous regulation in place harms otherwise good people by polluting their psyches, simultaneously contributing to the culture's generalized normalization of Violence-as-Solution. 

"The NRA: A Quasi-Caliphate Terrorizing The Nation Into Normalization Of Lawlessness"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-nra-is-quasi-caliphate-terrorizing.html

PPS Last night after Spanish class, friend Byron quoted the second sentence of the following comment by conservative pundit P. J. O'Rourke: 

Notably, O'Rourke's analysis of his own party is spot-on 

although his analysis of The Democratic Party is a reductio ad absurdum missing the mark by a country mile.

Good Christian Presidential Candidate, Rick Perry
Yahoo!

More Evidence That Governor Rick Perry Executed An Innocent Man. "Oops!"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/more-evidence-that-governor-rick-perry.html

***

Gun Cartoons And Photos Used In Previous "Pax On Both Houses" Blog Posts

https://www.google.com/search?q=pax+on+both+houses,+gun+cartoons&biw=1600&bih=799&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mvwzVMixG4ePsQSApoDwDA&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAw#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=g9YBdL0bshyMpM%253A%3BLayRnRC3xCJppM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgregfallisdotcom.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F01%252Fjesus-child-and-glock-001.jpg%253Fw%253D584%2526h%253D345%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fpaxonbothhouses.blogspot.com%252F2012%252F07%252Fgun-cartoons-and-gun-violence.html%3B584%3B346 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Elaine K

Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 8:12 AM

Subject: Thought for the Day: Gun Control?

To: Thought for the Day

Making good people helpless will not make bad people harmless.

— (THX, Jerry H.)

Have a Great Day! Pray …

Elaine K.

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Wilson County News 

WC News    LV News

---

Man Infected with Ebola Misinformation Through Casual Contact With Cable News

October 7, 2014, 2:14 pm

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CANTON, OH (The Borowitz Report)—An Ohio man has become infected with misinformation about the Ebola virus through casual contact with cable news, the Centers for Disease Control has confirmed.

Tracy Klugian, thirty-one, briefly came into contact with alarmist Ebola hearsay during a visit to the Akron-Canton airport, where a CNN report about Ebola was showing on one of the televisions in the airport bar. “Mr. Klugian is believed to have been exposed to cable news for no more than ten minutes, but long enough to become infected,” a spokesman for the C.D.C. said. “Within an hour, he was showing signs of believing that an Ebola outbreak in the United States was inevitable and unstoppable.”

Once Klugian’s condition was apparent, the Ohio man was rushed to a public library and given a seventh-grade biology textbook, at which point he “started to stabilize,” the spokesman said.

But others exposed to the widening epidemic of Ebola misinformation may not be so lucky. “A man in Oklahoma was exposed to Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Fox for over three minutes,” the C.D.C. spokesman said gravely. “We hope we’re not too late.”

"Hand To Mouth," A Memoir That Counters Every Kneejerk Reaction About The Poor

October 7, 2014, 2:23 pm

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Linda Tirado's new book busts myths about American poverty.

Alan: A brilliant Frank Stasio interview with brassy, bright Linda Tirado who once lived in poverty and, like her fellows, suffered ceaseless opprobrium for the mere fact of being poor. This interview is strong enough to change petrified minds, assuming that those whose minds are "made up" will quit the cocoon long enough to undertake activity not designed to confirm bigotry and bias.

By ANITA RAO & FRANK STASIO

Author Linda Tirado talks about her novel 'Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America'

AUDIO FILE: HTTP://WUNC.ORG/POST/BUSTING-POVERTY-MYTHS

When Linda Tirado responded to an online forum question: "Why do poor people do things that seem so self destructive?" she had no idea her response would go viral. 

Her essay, Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or poverty thoughts sparked national conversation and backlash. At the time, Tirado was a young mother of two, working two part-time jobs. She had recently returned to college. The essay detailed what her life was like, and how she and her family had reacted to the pressures of being poor.

Here is an excerpt from the essay:

Rest is a luxury for the rich. I get up at 6AM, go to school (I have a full courseload, but I only have to go to two in-person classes) then work, then I get the kids, then I pick up my husband, then I have half an hour to change and go to Job 2. I get home from that at around 1230AM, then I have the rest of my classes and work to tend to. I'm in bed by 3. This isn't every day, I have two days off a week from each of my obligations. I use that time to clean the house and soothe Mr. Martini and see the kids for longer than an hour and catch up on schoolwork. Those nights I'm in bed by midnight, but if I go to bed too early I won't be able to stay up the other nights because I'll f*** my pattern up, and I drive an hour home from Job 2 so I can't afford to be sleepy. I never get a day off from work unless I am fairly sick. It doesn't leave you much room to think about what you are doing, only to attend to the next thing and the next. Planning isn't in the mix.

This essay later inspired a book challenging preconceptions about the lives of the millions of Americans living below the poverty level. 

Host Frank Stasio talks to Linda Tirado about her book Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America (G.P. Putnam Sons/2014). She speaks tonight at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham at 7 p.m.  

Tirado talked about her battle with her teeth during the interview. Watch the video where she took out her teeth to prove a point:

***

"G.K. Chesterton: On Bigotry And Why It Leads To Violence"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/gk-chesterton-anarchy-of-rich.html

Italian Scientist Creates "Gluten-Friendly" Wheat. Gluten-Free Industry Running Scared

October 7, 2014, 9:07 pm

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Carmen Lamacchia handles modified, gluten-friendly wheat in her laboratory in Southern Italy.

I’m standing in the doorway of a kitchen in southern Italy, where scientist Carmen Lamacchia is about to dish out her best recipe ever. It’s one that took her years to master.

Audio File: http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-07/gluten-friendly-wheat-could-let-celiac-sufferers-enjoy-pasta-and-become-big-money

She pulls some wet grains of wheat from a microwave oven. To the naked eye, the grains look just like ... well, wheat grains. But inside the grains, something has changed — the amount of gluten, a crucial protein.

“After modification with microwave treatment, we get an amount of gluten of about 80 parts per million,” Lamacchia says. That’s about 10 times less than regular wheat.

Gluten is what creates that chewy texture in your bread, that tenderness in your pizza. We’ve heard a lot lately about how gluten is unhealthy and makes you fat. But Lamacchia, who teaches food chemistry at the University of Foggia, says that’s bunk.

Instead, she’s concerned about people with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder. For them, gluten istoxic. It destroys their intestines, blocks the absorption of nutrients and fiddles with the immune system. But Lamacchia says it won’t stay that way for long.

“Oh, it will be a revolution," she says of her treatment. "The part which is toxic, it’s, like, hidden. The enzyme in the celiac patient’s intestine won’t recognize this protein, and won’t activate the inflammatory process typical of the celiac patient.”

Lamacchia’s method is now patented. She calls it “gluten-friendly” — but some experts say it’s not friendly enough.

"I don’t think that this approach will be useful for people with celiac disease,” says Dr. Alessio Fasano, who directs the Center for Celiac Research at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A prominent expert in celiac disease, Fasano is impressed but not convinced. He says celiac sufferers simply won’t trust 80 parts per million.

“They want zero. I mean, zero is something not attainable in biology,” he says. “We had to really fight and fight hard with the celiac community here in the United States — and it took nine years of debates — to convince the celiac community in the United States that 20 parts per million, it’s OK, because the immune system doesn’t see it.”

Lamacchia says the immune system doesn’t see her modified gluten either. Twenty or 80 parts per million don’t matter if the quality of the gluten has changed, she says — and she also says there's proof.

“We did [an] experiment on t-cells [white cells from the immune system] coming from the intestine of celiac patients. And on those cells, we tested extract from the modified flour. These cells didn’t produce the inflammatory cytokine," she says.

In other words: no damage, no autoimmune response. The next step is to prove that this works on a larger scale, with clinical trials on humans. Industrial flour companies around Europe aren't even waiting that long. Lamacchia's detoxified wheat could rock the $10 billion gluten-free industry, so manufacturers are already banging on her door.

Susanna Neuhuold, a food safety manager at the ever-active Italian Celiac Association, is cautious but curious about the gluten-friendly wheat. “We have to avoid a specific ingredient that is so present in Italian cooking, pasta, pizza, bread — is not easy,” she says. “If this gluten-friendly … could help people eat more tasty, more safe, more quality food, it’s a good thing."

And of course, there's the huge market of people — 100 million people in America alone — who have embraced gluten-free eating as a choice. Dr. Fasano from Massachusetts General Hospital points out that the term “gluten-free” had become so ubiquitous — and such a joke — that at one point, mineral water and bananas had been labelled “gluten-free.”

“The industry had a tremendous role in pushing the gluten-free frenzy out there, no question in my mind,” he says. “And now, they are focused on how long this is going to be, how sustainable this is.”

It’s looking good so far. Eight million people in the US have celiac disease, gluten sensitivity or gluten allergies, along with their health-conscious friends. Given the reality of American culture right now, Fasano says it’s possible that gluten-friendly could become a hit. 

• GLUTEN06.jpg

  
  

  Credit: Angelica Marin

  A field of wheat in the south of Italy. The grains will be modified in a lab to contain less gluten.

• GLUTEN03.jpg

  
  

  Credit: Angelica Marin

  Carmen Lamacchia in her laboratory, where she's currently developing a modified wheat that has 10 times less gluten than standard wheat. 

Mexican Violence Has Skyrocketed But Remains 10 Times Lower Than Mid 20th Century

October 7, 2014, 10:17 pm

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Relatives hold pictures of missing students during a demonstration demanding their safe return on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, Mexico, on October 7, 2014.

Mistrust and confusion surround the disappearance of 43 Mexican students

PRI's The World

Producer David Leveille

October 07, 2014

Hasta Encontrarlos means “until they are found.” And in southern Mexico, you'll see this message scrawled on the sides of buildings and written across bumper stickers.

This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview. http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-07/mistrust-and-confusion-surround-disappearance-43-mexican-students In the second half of this interview, Harvard Professor Stephen Pinker provides an enlightening exercise in contextualization by showing that Mexico's current chaos takes a trivial toll relative to the carnage wrought by Mexican violence in the mid 20th century.

It refers to 43 student who went missing from the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training College in the city of Iguala. The students were allegedly kidnapped by local police, then turned over to a criminal gang. That's happened before, but the scope of this kidnapping goes beyond previous incidents.

"These were students from a rural Mexico teaching college. ... They had come to Iguala to solicit public donations for an upcoming march they were planning," says Randal Archibold, who wrote about the missing students for the New York Times.

"They also have a habit of stealing microbuses [to transport people to their demonstrations,]" Archibold explains. "So there was a confrontation with the police, there were a couple rounds of shooting, three students were killed and three innocent bystanders as well. The really disturbing chapter occurred when the police rounded up some of the students. It's not clear how many were taken away but a video camera captured some of it, and they've been missing since.”

The fear is that they were executed and dumped in a mass grave that has now been discovered in Iguala. It held 28 bodies, and two witnesses in the investigation told authorities that 17 of the students were killed there.

Against that confusing backdrop, Archibold says investigators are still trying to track down the rest of the missing students. "There is some hope that they might be alive and hiding somewhere, but as time goes on, those hopes are dimming," he says.

There's also a team of investigators from Argentina on the scene in Iguala. Archibold says they'll begin an independent investigation because "the students and the family members don't entirely trust the state authorities to carry out an honest investigation."

Many parents have been gathering at the school to meet with the Argentines, Archibold says. "Part of the big pain in Mexico is never really knowing for sure. People go missing all the time, and families often don't know what happened," he says. "Clearly a lot of them are abducted and killed, but there isn't really much investigation done. There's tremendous international attention focussed on this case and Mexico's throwing everything but the kitchen sink at it, so perhaps they'll get some answers."

As the investigation continues, the signs and stickers that read "Hasta Encontrarlos" capture the defiant mood of many of the victims' families — and their lingering hopes that the students are still alive.

American Explains Why He's Fighting Against ISIS

October 6, 2014, 10:56 pm

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The Facebook page of Jordan Matson, a former U.S. soldier who now fights with the Kurds against Islamic State militants in Syria. (Photo: Facebook)

Sophie Cousins, Special for USA TODAYOctober 7, 2014

DERIKE, Syria — Like many Americans, Jordan Matson is outraged by the brutality of the Islamic State. But unlike virtually every other American, he decided to take on the militants head-on.

Now, the 28-year-old Racine, Wis., man is recovering in a hospital here in northeastern Syria from a shrapnel wound in his foot, the result of a mortar attack by Islamic State fighters in Jazaa, along the Iraqi border.

Tall with slightly graying hair, Matson conceded that people back home might call him crazy for joining Kurdish forces three weeks ago to help end the Islamic State's reign of terror.

"I couldn't just sit and watch Christians being slaughtered anymore," he said in an interview with USA TODAY. "I got sick of giving online sympathy. Five minutes of lip service does nothing. These people are fighting for their homes, for everything they have."

Matson was critical of the United States for being slow to launch air attacks on the Islamic State militants, who have been fighting in Syria for three years and seized large portions of Iraq earlier this year.

USA TODAY

U.S. teen arrested on charges of trying to join ISIS

"It wasn't until an American was beheaded did we do anything," he said of the execution of journalist James Foley in August. "We just let the monster grow and grow.

"For the U.S. government, it's not about human life. It's about how they look in the opinion polls," added Matson, who was wearing a military uniform and a traditional Kurdish black and white scarf across his shoulders.

Matson, who now goes by the name Sadar, served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman from May 2006 until November 2007, attaining the rank of private first class, according to Army Human Resources Command.

His record does not indicate why he left the Army after less than two years, but he said in the interview that he was discharged because of an injury and did not deploy overseas.

Matson said he knows one other American who has joined the fight against the militants, but did not give his name. "We met one hour before we were attacked and we were joking how funny it would be if we were attacked when we'd just met one another," he said.

To get to the battlefield here, Matson said he worked as a delivery driver for a food service company for six months to save enough money for a flight and to support himself for the three years that he expects to be here.

"I was Googling the Syrian civil war looking for a military force fighting ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIL) that wasn't a terrorist organization. I found the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Unit) on Facebook and saw it wasn't a terrorist organization so I contacted them," he said.

"They asked me a few questions to make sure I wasn't pro ISIS and then they told me I could come. I just flew by the seat of my pants."

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to discuss Matson for privacy reasons, and said she was unaware of any law barring a U.S. citizen fighting with the Kurds.

Matson flew from Chicago to Warsaw to Istanbul, and then drove to Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey. There he was picked up by a YPG member who drove him to Iraq, where he crossed the border into Syria pretending to be a doctor.

"They don't pay me, but they treat me like family. If I need anything, they look after me," he said.

Able to speak a few words of Kurdish and with the help of sign language, he manages to get his point across to his comrades and the doctors at the rundown hospital filled with wounded fighters in this largely desolate city.

Matson said the Kurdish forces are very young with no heavy weapons or body armor "Sometimes it's just kids. That's the way it is. I have a Kalashnikov (automatic rifle), that's it."

"In the dark, with no night vision goggles, we can't see ISIS," he said. "The other night 12 black figures walked towards our base and just starting shooting at us."

He laughed as he recalled a young YPG fighter whose aim was so bad he wasn't able to shoot a chicken for dinner one evening.

Despite his comrades' shortcomings, he remains committed to the battle. "Once I can put a boot back on," he said, "I'm back there."

Contributing: The Army Times

Tom Toles Cartoon: Same Sex Marriage

October 8, 2014, 6:15 am

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Obamacare demonstrates that capitalism has been irreversibly socialized.

Same sex marriage demonstrates that Christianity's supposedly immutable beliefs are not written in stone and that believers change their minds no matter how emphatically Christendom's formal organizations boast immutability.

These essential changes in religion and economics 

make Obama's presidency the most momentous in history.

Persistent Attempts To Punish Bankers Who Provoked The Great Recession

October 8, 2014, 6:38 am

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Eric Schneiderman, attorney general for New York, speaks at a news conference in Buffalo, New York, U.S., on Tuesday, June 4, 2013. 

Eric Schneiderman is still seeking justice for the financial crisis

By Katrina vanden Heuvel  October 7, 2014

After six years in office, departing Attorney General Eric Holder will leave behind a strong legacy of defending civil rights. As the first black American to lead the Justice Department, Holder fought to stop voter suppression, to change unfair sentencing policies, and — by refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act — to end discrimination against LGBT couples. Holder’s resignation announcement last month, understandably, has prompted a wave of speculation about who will replace him. That’s an important conversation, but we should be paying equal attention to the states, where attorneys general are elected and have significant influence over the application of the law.

For instance, while progressives were rightly disappointed by Holder’s failure to punish Wall Street for financial crimes leading up to the economic crisis, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has been almost single-handedly fighting an uphill battle to hold the banks accountable. Now running for reelection, Schneiderman has devoted much of the past four years to delivering some measure of justice to millions of Americans, in New York and across the country, who suffered as a result of Wall Street’s destructive behavior.

Upon taking office in 2011, Schneiderman took a principled stand in the negotiations between 50 state attorneys general and the banks over their illegal use of “robo-signing,” a loathsome practice that accelerated the foreclosure process by falsifying signatures on paperwork that bank employees had not read. With the parties nearing a settlement that would have cost the banks a paltry $20 billion, Schneiderman refused to give his consent to any deal that released the banks from liability for their misdeeds prior to the 2008 crash. Resisting pressure from his fellow attorneys general and the Obama administration, Schneiderman held firm, while also demanding a sweeping investigation of the banks’ actions. “I said you can’t release the banks from claims that haven’t been investigated,” he later explained.

Schneiderman’s efforts paid off; in the 2012 State of the Union Address, President Obama announced the creation of a new task force, co-chaired by Schneiderman, charged with investigating Wall Street for unlawful activities that contributed to the housing crisis. Under Schneiderman’s leadership, the Residential Mortgage Backed Securities Working Group has secured billions in relief for homeowners, including a record-breaking $16.65 billion settlement with Bank of America in August. He also fought to ensure that money from a previous settlement with JPMorgan Chase would be used to assist New York homeowners, instead of filling the state’s coffers. Beyond his pursuit of justice in the financial sector, Schneiderman has been committed to protecting the rights of working New Yorkers, most notably by fighting to compensate fast-food and car wash employees who were victims of wage theft.

Despite these successes, some critics on the left remain disappointed — justifiably so — about the lack of criminal cases against Wall Street officials. For his part, Schneiderman is not satisfied, either. “I’ve seen evidence that indicates that criminal cases might have been brought if some investigations had begun earlier than they did,” he told me in a recent interview. He also kept the door open to future prosecutions, saying, “There has been no release of any criminal liability. None of the civil settlements negotiated by the working group I co-chaired have released any individual or institution from criminal liability.”

If he is reelected, Schneiderman will have an opportunity to build on the accomplishments of his first term. But what he has already done serves as a reminder of the importance of statewide elections — the impact of which can also be seen in places like Ohio, for example, where a Republican attorney general and secretary of state just successfully fought to restrict early voting. And what he has not yet achieved serves as a reminder that it’s not enough to elect the right people; we also have to build a movement that applies genuine pressure on political leaders to advance our long-term goals.

Nobody knows this better than Schneiderman, who has called for a commitment to “transformational politics,” which he defines as “the work we do today to ensure that the deal we can get . . . in a year — or five years, or twenty years — will be better than the deal we can get today.” As he wrote in The Nation in 2008, “History teaches that the overwhelming majority of elected officials follow movement builders outside government when it comes to the new and risky. . . . Once you recognize it, demand it and reward it, it will happen.”

Read more from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s archive

Read more about this topic:

Katrina vanden Heuvel: New Deal liberalism lives on

Harold Meyerson: In blue states, Democrats want more than social liberalism

***

Banks face another round of charges. "With evidence mounting that a number of foreign and American banks colluded to alter the price of foreign currencies, the largest and least regulated financial market, prosecutors are aiming to file charges against at least one bank by the end of the year, according to interviews with lawyers briefed on the matter. Ultimately, several banks are expected to plead guilty....While cases stemming from the financial crisis were aimed at institutions, prosecutors are planning to eventually indict individual bank employees over currency manipulation, using their instant messages as incriminating evidence. The charges will most likely focus on traders and their bosses rather than chief executives." Ben Protess and Jessica Silver-Greenberg in The New York Times.

---

Lawrence Summers Encourages Infrastructure Investment That Will Pay For Itself

October 8, 2014, 7:32 am

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Alan: Widespread lunacy on "the right side of the aisle" recalls the maxim: "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." 

"Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat." 

Australian friend Al C. is a globe-trotting businessman. Recently, when I asked how American infrastructure compares globally, he laughed out loud. 

Most Republicans strike a seemingly serious pose, claiming austerity and budget cuts as transcendentally great goods. The flip side of such foolishness is that they simultaneously block development of world-class infrastructure while other industrial countries pursue its improvement full throttle.

The "small politics" that characterize our purportedly "democratic process" purges our characteristic bravery and boldness, transforming America into the land of the cautious, the hopeless, the unimaginative. 

Even the self-terrorized. 

"Self-Terrorization Is The National Pastime"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/04/americas-national-pastime-is-self.html

Conservatives have lost all vision and content themselves with winning fatuous battles while risking loss of every important "war."

"Are Republicans Insane?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-republicans-insane.html

"American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/09/arrested-development-american.html

"The Reign of Morons Is Here," Charles P. Pierce, The Atlantic

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-reign-of-morons-is-here-atlantic.html

"People Who Watch Only Fox News 

Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/watching-only-fox-news-makes-you-less.html

***

Invest in infrastructure that pays for itself. "In its flagship publication, the IMF advocates substantially increased public infrastructure investment, and not just in the United States but in much of the world....Stated boldly: Public infrastructure investments can pay for themselves....What is crucial everywhere is the recognition that in a time of economic shortfall and inadequate public investment, there is a free lunch to be had — a way that government can strengthen the economy and its own financial position. The IMF, a bastion of 'tough love' austerity, has come to this important realization. Countries with the wisdom to follow its lead will benefit." Lawrence Summers in The Washington Post.

Laboratory-Grown Penises Will Be Available In 5 Years, Say Wake Forest Researchers

October 8, 2014, 11:25 am

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Laboratory-grown penises will be available in five years, say researchers

by Dana Wollman | @danawollman 

No snark here, dear readers: We sincerely hope you never lose a body part, especially not a reproductive organ. In the event that do you suffer a terrible accident, or if you were born with some kind of abnormality, there's a team of researchers dedicated to making sure patients not only recover these organs, but go on to live normal lives. That group comes from Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where scientists are not only working on lab-grown vaginas, but also testing laboratory-made penises. If all goes according to plan, they should be ready for use in about five years.

That's an optimistic claim, that it could take just five years for this technique to reach real-world patients. Incredibly enough, too, the scientists' research is based on studies of rabbits, of all things. In their trials, the researchers cleansed the donor penis in detergent to remove all the living cells, leaving behind a collagen frame where scientists then seed penile cells harvested from the patient himself. These include smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells, which are necessary for erectile function. The entire process took several weeks, but in tests, the rabbits who received transplants were later able to mate and even reproduce. Now, after years of testing, the team is ready to try this procedure on humans.

If successful, this would mean a higher quality of life for men unfortunate to be born with an abnormal penis, or to suffer a catastrophic injury. As Vice notes, penile replacement surgeries currently involve encasing a prosthetic with skin taken from the patient's arm or thigh. Only with this new procedure would men be able to regain erectile function. It's worth noting, however, that precisely because this method requires the use of the patient's own penile cells, it won't be of use to transgender female-to-male patients hoping to undergo sex reassignment surgery.

Octopus

October 8, 2014, 1:58 pm

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A Pacific giant octopus scavenges the carcass of a spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias) off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. (Watch an octopus wrestle a live shark into submission.)

***

Octopus

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus

***

"Octopus's Garden"

The Beatles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDYJkXktIg4

Whites Think Discrimination Against Whites Is A Bigger Problem Than Bias Against Black

October 8, 2014, 2:02 pm

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Protesters perform a "hands up, don't shoot" chant at a memorial in Ferguson, Missouri 

"Bad Black People." Why Bill O'Reilly Is Wrong Even When He's Right"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/bad-black-people-why-bill-oreilly-is.html

***

Alan: I am accustomed to believing most anything about "The Land of The Pithed and The Home of The Self-Terrorized." Even so, I confess considerable surprise upon learning that white people consider themselves victims of greater discrimination than blacks. 

Rest assured. 

We will not hear Faux News refer to this fact in any context of "victimization." 

White supremacists (and their sundry pseudo-fascist offspring) live in hermetically-sealed bubbles populated by themselves and self-reflective "others" who faithfully represent ideas and attitudes selected from extraordinarily narrow bands of the human spectrum. 

***

"The Death of Epistemology"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-polls-skewed-death-of-epistemology.html

"The Reign of Morons Is Here," Charles P. Pierce, The Atlantic

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-reign-of-morons-is-here-atlantic.html

"A Southerner Explains Tea Party Radicalism: The Civil War Is Not Over"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-southerner-explains-tea-party.html

"People Who Watch Only Fox News 

Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/watching-only-fox-news-makes-you-less.html

"Are Republicans Insane?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-republicans-insane.html

"The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-republican-party-is-satanic-cult.html

***

White people think racial discrimination in America is basically over

Whites think discrimination against whites is a bigger problem than bias against blacks

Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post
Nearly two decades ago, when retired football star O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his white wife and her friend, a sobering reality of the nation’s racial divide was laid bare: blacks and whites often look at the same set of facts and see different truths. Surveys found that the vast majority of African Americans agreed with the O.J. verdict; most whites did not. The ongoing reaction to the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. two months ago, makes clear that the divide continues.

An insightful story by our Post colleague Robert Samuels this morning showed that whites in Ferguson were often surprised by the racial fault lines exposed by the shooting and the sometimes angry protests that followed. They said they had no idea of the simmering tensions between African Americans and police. They did not know that many black residents felt unfairly targeted by the police and unrepresented by city government. And they bristled when protesters portrayed their town as racist.

It turns out that whites' limited awareness about racial problems in Ferguson goes well beyond the St. Louis suburb.  A series of surveys in recent years about Americans’ perceptions of the very existence of racism and racial disparities in our society shows that white people believe the problem of racial bias against blacks has effectively faded as a national issue.

Work by Harvard University professor Michael I. Norton, who examined data from a series of polls through the years, found in 2011 that although both blacks and whites believe anti-black racism has diminished through the decades, whites tend to think it has been all but eliminated.

In many cases, he found, white perceptions of racial disparities diverge far from reality.

For instance, two-thirds of blacks think that African Americans earn make less money than whites, a view in line with official statistics. But just 37 percent of whites believe that blacks make less money than whites, and a narrow majority think black and white’ incomes are about the same. Also, although many objective health measures suggest blacks are in worse overall health than whites, a majority of whites think blacks and whites are equally healthy.

So it is no surprise that just 16 percent of whites believe that there is “a lot” of discrimination in America today, a view held by 56 percent of blacks. What may be surprising is that the polls found that white perceptions of anti-black bias have diminished to the point where they are more now likely to think anti-white discrimination is a bigger problem than bias against blacks. The chart below is from Norton's work.

“It seems to be the case that people take markers of progress differently,” Norton said. “If you are searching around for evidence of continued racism, or you are searching for proof of evidence of a lack of racism, there are always ambiguous findings. “

He explained that the election of a black president to many whites symbolized a culmination of a long march of racial progress, whereas many blacks viewed it as one more step toward a goal that has not yet been achieved.

These differing perceptions were especially vivid in recent polling int he wake of the shooting in Ferguson. A Pew Poll found that overwhelming numbers of blacks believe the events in Ferguson raise important issues about race. They also said the police response went too far, and they lacked confidence in the ongoing shooting investigation.

By contrast, nearly half of whites thought race was getting too much attention in the case, and they were ambivalent about the police response. They also said they had more confidence in the investigation than blacks.

Michael A. Fletcher is a national economics correspondent, writing about unemployment, state and municipal debt, the evolving job market and the auto industry.

Ebola Is Bad But The Flu Is Worse

October 8, 2014, 6:16 pm

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"Shark Attacks Rise Worldwide: Risk Assessment and Aquinas' Criteria For Sin"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/02/shark-attacks-rise-worldwide-risk.html

***

Ebola is bad. But the flu is worse. "Ebola is no joke: The Centers for Disease Control project 1.4 million cases of the disease worldwide by January in a worst-case scenario. But by comparison, the 1918 pandemic killed an estimated 50 to 100 million worldwide. The United States simply cannot afford to be complacent about flu preparedness. Getting ready for the flu is a complex endeavor, relying on surveillance, detection, communication and detailed response plans. The United States has been fine-tuning its response plans since it first released a national flu pandemic strategy in 2005. The linchpin of the strategy is timely access to an effective flu vaccine. And that’s where the trouble lies." Kendall Hoyt in Politico Magazine.

Flu?

Or God creating the Universe?

Homosexuality In The GOP And Homosexuality In The Rest Of The World

October 8, 2014, 6:17 pm

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It is revealing to note the 15 countries where homosexuality is least approved and the 15 countries where homosexuality is most approved.

Two and a half times as many Americans as Canadians think homosexuality is "wrong."

(Per capita, Canada is home to almost twice as many Catholics as the United States.)

***

Chart: How does the rest of the world view homosexuality? Zack Beauchamp in Vox.

Gay marriage poses a dilemma for many Republican 2016 candidates. "The GOP presidential candidates face a particularly delicate dance in early primary states such as Iowa and South Carolina: They must appease the conservative foot soldiers who control those early contests while not alienating middle-of-the-road and younger voters key to their general election hopes...There was no evidence that conservative groups were backing away from the fight, even if few candidates in November's closely contested races and beyond were looking to jump into the middle of it. Leaders...insisted that the decision would serve as a rallying cry for conservatives in November." Maeve Reston in the Los Angeles Times

Austerity Results In Even Bigger Disasters Than Previously Thought

October 8, 2014, 6:35 pm

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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback Implemented A "Red State Model" 

That Was Disastrous

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/kansas-gov-sam-brownback-implemented.html

***

Austerity has been an even bigger disaster than we thought. "That's not quite a free lunch, but, economically-speaking, it's a free mid-morning snack. This leaves us in an upside-down world where smaller deficits might actually make our debt problems worse. When interest rates are zero, spending cuts can cripple the economy so much that GDP falls more than the government saves. And that means the debt-to-GDP ratio might increase even though government spending is decreasing — like it has in Greece. That's why the IMF thinks infrastructure spending would almost pay for itself right now, and why Larry Summers and Brad DeLong have been saying the same for years now. We can't afford austerity right now." Matt O'Brien in The Washington Post

***

"Austerity, Economic Anorexia And The Advisability of Vigorous Infrastructure Spending"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/austerity-economic-anorexia-and.html

"Lawrence Summers Encourages Infrastructure Investment That Will Pay For Itself"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/10/lawrence-summers-encourages.html

***

---

Time For Islamics To Own Their Civil War And Time For Uncle Sam To Step Aside

October 8, 2014, 6:42 pm

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Turkish soldiers are silhouetted atop armored vehicles near the Mursitpinar border crossing on the Turkish-Syrian border on Oct. 3, 2014.

Alan: Islamic "Arabee" is in a state of frank Civil War. 

For too long Uncle Sam has been the Middle East's whipping boy, partly because he has done his share of whipping. 

It is time for Arab nations to put their own boots on the ground, starting with Turkey which currently has the most at stake. 

Consider.

Uncle Sam occupation of Iraq lasted three times longer than World War II. 

While in Iraq, Uncle Sam spent $25 billion dollars trying to develop Iraq's army only to have 50,000 of the chicken shit bastards turn tail when when no more than 5000 ISIS operatives showed up. 

Just as the United States should never have gotten involved in Vietnam's Civil War, so too will our involvement in the Middle East's pan-Islamic Civil War defy our ability to control the outcome. 

To the extent that American air power can provide humanitarian relief, often by covering escaping refugees, Uncle Sam's warriors have a useful role. 

But beyond these limited capabilities, The Law of Unintended Consequences has run amuck and it is anyone's guess what "the best laid plans" will actually accomplish.

What we know for sure is that the civil war between Sunnis and Shiites will continue until they settle into their own regional war and, like most wars, call it quits only after long suffering and bootless bloodshed. 

***

Excerpt:"The Syrian Sunnis want America to save them, the Assad regime wants America, in a sense, to save them. The Kurds are begging on their hands and knees for America to come and save them," he says. "Everybody is facing a very bleak future of perpetual war, unless the United States takes Syria in hand."

The US has lots at stake in the Syrian border town of Kobane

PRI's The World

Producer Joyce Hackel

October 07, 2014 ·

For the past two days, US-led airstrikes have pummelled ISIS targets near the Turkish border town of Kobane. The once-obscure town has become a key battleground not only for local Kurds, who are under assault from ISIS, but for American goals in the war.

This story is based on a radio interview. Listen to the full interview. http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-07/us-has-lots-stake-syrian-border-town-kobane

"This is the first time that our overall strategy is Syria is being challenged," says Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Oklahoma University. After years of trying to avoid involvement in Syria, he argues, events may have outstripped the US's ability to hold back.

More than 200,000 of Kobane's residents have already fled into Turkey. According to Landis, Turkey has refused to come up with a strategy for dealing with the border town until Washington and Ankara agree on an overall plan for toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 

But Ankara has also refused to allow Kurdish rebels in Turkey to reinforce their counterparts in Syria, not wanting to give them legitimacy. This leaves the White House with few options. Landis says: it can protect the predominantly Kurdish town, or step back and allow it to be "ethnically cleansed" by ISIS, which also calls itself the Islamic State.

"The United States is going to continue to help as much as they can from the air and keep on negotiating with the Turks and hope that Kobane doesn't fall," he says. 

Landis draws parallels between what's happening in Kobane now and events in 1990 during the Gulf War, when Saddam Hussein began to retake Kurdish areas of Iraq. 

"There was a giant flood of refugees out — it was of biblical proportions," he says. "President Bush, the father, panicked. He said, 'We've got to do something about this,' and he drew a line on the 36th parallel and he said, 'No Iraqi jets over that border.'"

The creation of that no-fly zone allowed Kurds to start building a quasi-independent state in Iraq, Landis says. And he thinks events in Kobane could be the beginning of a similar effort to protect the Kurds by creating a quasi-autonomous Kurdish state in Syria that America would be responsible for defending. 

But that's a step Washington does not seem anxious to take. President Barack Obama, Landis says, "has done everything in his power in the last three-and-a-half years not to get sucked into the Syrian swamp. But by not moving in and not taking charge of Syria, in a sense the place has deteriorated and now he's sucked in." 

A key moment, Landis argues, came this past summer, when it looked as though ISIS was within striking distance of Baghdad. "That would have destroyed Obama's presidency," Landis says. "He had to respond and he responded in a big way." 

Yet the the US military campaign in Syria has done little to unite opposition forces behind a unified leadership. According to the CIA, more than 1,500 distinct militias are fighting in Syria, most organized by town or clan. That means there's no one the US can lean on to take its place.

"We're left with these little bits," Landis says. And many of them are still waiting for what he calls the "US cavalry to come over the horizon and save them." 

"The Syrian Sunnis want America to save them, the Assad regime wants America, in a sense, to save them. The Kurds are begging on their hands and knees for America to come and save them," he says. "Everybody is facing a very bleak future of perpetual war, unless the United States takes Syria in hand."

***

"Western fear of angering Turkey leaves besieged Kurdish town at mercy of Islamic State"

Excerpt:"Turkish hostility to the embryonic Kurdish autonomous zones in northern Syria is the key to understanding Western and regional indifference to the fate of Kobani. Turkish armor is currently waiting on the border, facing Kobani, but no effort is being made to assist the Kurdish fighters. Indeed, the Turks have acted to prevent Kurdish volunteers from reaching the combat zone in recent days."
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Western-fear-of-angering-Turkey-leaves-besieged-Kurdish-town-at-mercy-of-Islamic-State-378395

Education And Instruction: Near Antipodes Cut Out For Cross-Fertilization

October 8, 2014, 6:52 pm

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Frost reminds me that "The first duty of a Christian is to listen."

***

Alan: Readers who are baffled by this post's title -- "The Value Of College Is Not Just Economic But Educational" -- might be better off quarantined in some off-campus instructional process. 

Why?

Most putatively "educated" people confuse education with instruction. 

"Education" - deriving from the Latin "ex ducare" - "leads out of" preemptive concern with individual good, re-focusing attention on The Common Good. 

In a word, "education" is social. 

On the other hand, "instruction" - from the Latin "in struire" meaning to "pile up upon" -- loads facts and practical skills "upon" atomistic individuals who are then prepared to make their own way in private worlds. 

In a word, "instruction" is essentially monadic and isolating. 

Without education, instruction (which is the planet's default learning method) undermines The Common Good by teaching people to treat the world as a gold mine to be exploited like 49-ers staking claims to private land tracts for personal advantage. 

The goals charted by "education" and "instruction" are essentially antipodal although the latter can -- and should -- be used in service to the former.

***

"How We Think" By John Dewey. Assertion, Guess, Opinion And Belief-Testing

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/how-we-think-by-john-dewey-assertion.html

"Security Moms" And "Belligerent Dads" - Flip Sides Of The Same Compulsive Coin

October 8, 2014, 6:57 pm

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Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican challenger Scott Brown are in a tight race in New Hampshire, where women voters will likely choose the victor. 

Editor’s note: In many closely-watched U.S. Senate races this fall, women are being courted as a key voting block. Traditionally, Democrats have exploited the gender gap, by appealing to so-called “soccer moms” on social and economic issues. But this year, Republicans think they have a chance of narrowing that gap by appealing to “security moms” — women who are concerned about national security issues in the face of escalating conflicts and terrorism abroad. Fred Bever of New Hampshire Public Radio reports on how that’s playing out in the race between Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen and Republican challenger Scott Brown.

---

Alan: 

Men must move beyond instinctual chest-thumping. 

And women must move beyond instinctual "family protection." 

Each has its place but both are unusually prone to abuse.

These gender-linked urges evolved to deal with "bumps in the night" --- hungry lions or hostile warriors. 

We no longer have lions and most hostile warriors are imagined figments trumped up for political advantage, not "Indian braves" determined to scalp you as a rite of passage. 

Without security-oriented soccer moms, there might not have been an Iraq War 

And without that war there would have been no ISIS. 

***
"Bush's Toxic Legacy In Iraq"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/bushs-toxic-legacy-in-iraq.html

***

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen is making a big push for the women’s vote, which for three decades has tilted toward her party. But this year, GOP challenger Scott Brown is trying to exploit what may be a new vulnerability for Democratic candidates – women’s disenchantment with the way President Obama is handling the threat of the so-called Islamic State.

The race could come down to what’s highest on women’s minds come election day – social and economic issues such as abortion and pay equity, or… national security.

At what was billed, somewhat generically, as a “women’s event” in Exeter last week, Jeanne Shaheen made clear who she believes will make the difference in what is shaping up to be a tightening race.

“This race is going to be won by those of us who turn out, and if women turn out, I’m going to win,” Shaheen said.“This race is going to be won by those of us who turn out, and if women turn out, I’m going to win,” Shaheen said.

Shaheen listed the issues which she says will win the women’s vote: her support for pay equity, for abortion rights, even, from back when she was governor, funding she pushed for kindergarten. And in response to a question from her mostly female audience, she focused on one particular group that reliably votes Democratic… yet isn’t so reliable about actually showing up at the polls in years, such as this one, that do not feature a presidential election.

“It’s those unmarried women, those non-college educated women who we need to make sure come out and vote. And we need to let them know what’s at stake in this election,” she said.

Recent voter surveys demonstrate why Shaheen might be anxious to reach such voters. They put Brown even with her – or within striking distance among voters in general. But they also found that women favored Shaheen by better than 10 percentage points – one poll released today giver her an edge of more than 20 points among women.

That’s “the gender gap.” First observed at the national level in the 1980s, the gender gap tends to favor Democrats, and it could be pretty hard for Brown to overcome.

Concord resident Joellen Isabelle is a Shaheen supporter, and a supporter of abortion rights. She provides a pithy sum-up of why the gender gap could be hard for Brown to overcome.

“I’m not impressed (by Brown),” she said. “He doesn’t have a uterus: he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”“I’m not impressed (by Brown),” she said. “He doesn’t have a uterus: he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Isabelle’s support for Shaheen does go beyond simple anatomy. She says Shaheen will do a better job protecting women’s access to contraception, to health care, and funding for mental health treatment. And she doesn’t trust Republicans with a budget, either.

But with a race that conceivably could be decided by a percentage point or two – fewer than 10,000 votes — it’s worth Brown’s time to try to narrow the gender gap. Last week he released an online ad, titled “Women for Brown”.

Kelly Ayotte, New Hampshire’s Republican Senator appears in the ad and says, “You know I’m the mother of a nine-year-old and a six year old and I support Scott Brown…”

Ayotte obliterated the gender gap four years ago, when she handily beat her male Democratic opponent, Paul Hodes. She was favored by 55 percent of women. (Although it is worth noting that women with no children at home were one of the few groups that stuck with the Democrat – the kind of voter Shaheen wants to make sure turns out this year.)

And while Ayotte may help Brown bridge the gap, he appears to be working another angle too: women’s unhappiness with President Obama’s foreign policy, unhappiness that’s beginning to show up in national surveys.

“We saw this phenomenon back in 2004, with what was known as the security moms,” said Patrick Murray, who directs the Polling Institute at Monmouth University

Murray says what happened to John Kerry in 2004 is hurting President Obama now: The president’s getting increasingly negative reviews from women who are concerned about the threat posed by Islamic radicals abroad. Murray’s watching three close Senate races, including New Hampshire’s, which pit a Democratic woman against a Republican man.

“The Republican is looking at a fairly close race, the ability to catch up, but the Democratic nominee has a double-digit lead among women,” Murray said. “And the question is how do you cut into that lead and it appears that they are going to use this terrorism scar.”

Here’s a salvo from Brown – one of many he’s launched in personal appearances and through advertising. His ad begins: “Radical Islamic terrorists are threatening to cause the collapse of our country. President Obama and Senator Shaheen seem confused about the nature of this threat. Not me.”

“They are using a language that has subtle gender clues – ‘confused, soft, turning a blind eye.’…It’s all about turning these women voters against their fellow-women who are running for Senate.”Pollster Patrick Murray says ads like that here and in other battleground states, such as North Carolina and Georgia, feature words and phrases specifically tailored to undermine the Democratic candidates’ credibility, based on their gender.

“They are using a language that has subtle gender clues – ‘confused, soft, turning a blind eye.’ Things that they hope will play into prejudices about a woman not being able to be a strong leader or take decisive action,” Murray said. “It’s all about turning these women voters against their fellow-women who are running for Senate.”

And whether it’s a reflection of national trends, a response to Brown’s campaigning, or a direct response to Shaheen’s senate record, there are women in New Hampshire, women like Amie Lupabngo, who voted for her in the past, who are voting for Brown this time.

“I voted for her, but I’m changing my mind about that,” Lupango said. She says she agrees with Brown on the need to secure the country’s borders. And she’s worried about the way Obama is handling the Islamic State.

“He’s dilly-dallying on his response to them, and he’s just not responding aggressively,” Lupango said.

The tug-of-war over women’s votes continues this week. Jeanne Shaheen on Monday named her women’s PR campaign “A Senator New Hampshire Women Can Trust.” And on the other side, a super PAC headed by national security hawk John Bolton, the former U.N. Ambassador, has filed papers showing he is buying some quarter million dollars’ worth of ads to support Scott Brown.

After Lost Year, Pope Francis' Sex Abuse Commission Finally Making Progress

October 8, 2014, 7:46 pm

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• Pope Francis gives a bag to Cardinal Angelo Sodano as he arrives for the afternoon session of a two-week synod on family issues at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 6, 2014. Francis has urged bishops to speak their minds about contentious issues like contraception, gays, marriage and divorce at the start of the meeting aimed at making the church's teaching on family matters relevant to today's Catholics. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Excerpt:"Francis has quoted a former archbishop of Buenos Aires as saying half the marriages celebrated in the church are invalid, primarily because the bride and groom didn't fully know what they were getting into or appreciate that marriage is a life-long commitment."

VATICAN CITY (AP) –  Pope Francis' sex abuse commission has made new progress after languishing for much of the past year. It approved its legal statutes, proposed new members and divided up work to focus on reaching out to survivors, holding bishops accountable and keeping pedophiles out of the priesthood, the Associated Press has learned.

The commission met over the past weekend for the third time since it was announced last December.

While Francis' other expert commissions looking into Vatican finance and administration worked at a frenzied pace through 2014 and finished their projects in recent months, the sex abuse commission never seemed to get off the ground. It lacked organization, a clear mission statement, office space, funding and a full membership roster.

But commission member Marie Collins, herself a sex abuse survivor, told AP on Monday that much progress was made this weekend. It was the first meeting since Francis put the Vatican's sex crimes prosecutor, Monsignor Robert Oliver, on the job full-time as the commission's secretary, or No. 2.

Headed by Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the nine commission members - four of whom are women - approved their provisional statutes laying out the scope of their work that will now be put to Francis for approval, Collins said. They also finalized a list of other member candidates whom Francis must approve: There will be fewer than 20 commissioners altogether, adding experts from other fields and geographic locations and including another survivor of abuse.

The commission will soon have permanent office space and members have divided themselves into working groups focusing on a laundry list of issues, including training of priests, education outreach, accountability, guidelines and policy issues and reaching out to survivors so their input to the commission can be heard, Collins said.

"Listening to their views on what is wrong and what needs to be put right has to feed into the overall learning," Collins said.

Francis named the initial members in March after coming under criticism from victims groups for having ignored and underestimated the sex abuse issue. The aim of the commission is to provide the church with the best advice and practices on how to keep children safe, how to keep the priesthood free of abusers and how to care for victims.

O'Malley has pledged that the commission will develop "clear and effective protocols" to hold accountable bishops who covered up for abusive priests.

Collins said she had been frustrated earlier in the year with the slow pace of work on the commission, but was now more hopeful after the weekend's progress.

"I want to see change as fast as possible. But on the other hand if we're going to bring in change, it has to be the right change and it has to be well thought out and it has to be something that will last," she said. "There's no point in rushing something into place and then finding it has flaws."

In July, Francis had his first encounter with victims of abuse, meeting individually with a half-dozen men and women for more than three hours. Collins helped organize the meeting, attended one of the encounters and said she hopes Francis would meet with other survivors in the future.

"No matter how much you read, or learn or know about abuse, nothing brings it home to you like speaking to someone who has actually experienced it, and hearing what it has done to their lives and their family," Collins said.

Collins said that after witnessing Francis with the survivors, she is confident that he now "gets it."

The commission met just as Francis convened bishops from around the world to tackle a related issue: church teaching and Catholic family life. Francis opened the two-week meeting by urging the bishops to speak their minds without fear about contentious issues like contraception, gays, marriage and divorce.

The run-up to the meeting has been marked by mudslinging between conservative and progressive churchmen over issues such as whether Catholics who divorce and remarry without an annulment can receive Communion. Church teaching says such Catholics are living in sin and cannot receive the sacraments.

A top synod official, Cardinal Peter Erdo of Hungary, said one answer to the problem was to simplify the annulment process, suggesting that the Vatican might actually endorse the previously taboo call to make it easier to get one.

Divorcing couples should better know how marriages can be annulled since "it does not seem hazardous ... to believe that many marriages celebrated in the church may be invalid," Erdo said in the keynote speech.

Francis has quoted a former archbishop of Buenos Aires as saying half the marriages celebrated in the church are invalid, primarily because the bride and groom didn't fully know what they were getting into or appreciate that marriage is a life-long commitment.

Erdo said doctrine was not up for debate but that the church must better discern pastoral responses on a case by case basis.

EJ Dionne: A North Carolina Rebellion Against The Ultra-Conservatives?

October 9, 2014, 5:35 am

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"North Carolina Outlaws Climate Change And Sea Level Rise"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/north-carolina-outlaws-climate-change.html

"The Reign of Morons Is Here," Charles P. Pierce, The Atlantic

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-reign-of-morons-is-here-atlantic.html

"Are Republicans Insane?"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/are-republicans-insane.html

"People Who Watch Only Fox News 

Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/watching-only-fox-news-makes-you-less.html

"The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-republican-party-is-satanic-cult.html

A Southerner Explains Tea Party Radicalism: "The Civil War Is Not Over"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-southerner-explains-tea-party.html

***

EJ Dionne: A North Carolina RebellionAgainst The Ultra-Conservatives? 

By E.J. Dionne Jr. October 8, 2014 

BURLINGTON, N.C.

The clergy gathered in the ­second-floor conference room at the First Baptist Church here were pondering whether this midterm election might be different from other midterm elections.

E.J. Dionne writes about politics in a twice-weekly column and on the PostPartisan blog. He is also a senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, a government professor at Georgetown University and a frequent commentator on politics for National Public Radio, ABC’s “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the Press.”View Archive

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The five African American pastors and bishops represented diverse theological traditions, but all were profoundly unhappy over what North Carolina’s ultra-conservative state government in Raleigh had done to reduce access to the ballot box, cut education spending and turn back money to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The irony, said the Rev. Dray Bland, pastor of First Baptist on Apple — the street location distinguishes it from the predominantly white First Baptist Church downtown — is that measures designed to make it harder for voters to cast ballots may actually inspire a larger number to do so.

“While many in Raleigh thought they could suppress the vote through these new voter laws, they may increase turnout by rallying the vote,” Bland said. “The apathy we might have had has turned into action.”

In the struggle for control of the Senate, the reaction against reaction has allowed Sen. Kay Hagan, so far at least, to defy the punditocracy. Once seen as one of this year’s most vulnerable Democratic incumbents, Hagan has been maintaining a small but steady lead over state House Speaker Thom Tillis.

Tillis’s problem is the sharp right turn in the governance of one of the South’s traditionally moderate states, which he helped engineer along with Gov. Pat McCrory. The governor doesn’t face the voters this year, so Tillis is reaping the whirlwind — particularly in a state that has been a pioneer in using good schools and world-class universities to build its economy.

“The edge that Kay Hagan has in this race, I believe, is attributable to the direction the state has taken and Thom Tillis’s role in that,” said Rep. David Price (D), whose district includes the Research Triangle area that typifies North Carolina’s road to growth. “There are many things to be outraged about, but the most powerful is what the Republicans have done to public education, and to our teachers.”

Rarely has a debate offered a better look at how two candidates view the political landscape than the encounter Tuesday night between Tillis and Hagan at the studios of UNC-TV.

Tillis had one person on his mind. No matter what question moderator George Stephanopoulos asked, Tillis found a way to mention that Hagan had voted “96 percent” of the time with President Obama. He made 10 references to that number and, in case anybody missed it, mentioned it twice more at a news conference after the debate. Tillis is betting his campaign on disaffection with the president.

For her part, Hagan pointed out that, while Obama is not on the ballot, Tillis is. Her calling card was Tillis’s “extremism.” She stayed on him for having “gutted education” and at times forced the speaker on the defensive. She also criticized Tillis for blocking the Medicaid expansion and for opposing, among other measures, the minimum wage, new equal-pay laws and student loan refinancing, even as he had favored “tax cuts for the wealthy.”

Yet there is no way Hagan will let Tillis tag her as a liberal. In the battle of statistics, she loves nothing better than to cite National Journal’s 2013 Senate ratings that position her “smack dab in the middle, just like North Carolina,” a phrase she used to open an interview on Wednesday. Indeed, the magazine’s numbers had her at 49.3 percent liberal, 50.7 percent conservative.

Tillis’s record and Hagan’s own have allowed her to make the argument that Democrats would like to press nationwide: that today’s Republican Party is far to the right of the country in its attitudes toward government’s role, even on basic matters such as education.

And the very effort to make it harder for people to vote signals the importance of the franchise in a way that no amount of direct mail could. The Rev. William Barber II, whose “Moral Mondays” movement has mobilized opposition to the parade of right-wing policies out of Raleigh, said in an interview that voters in the state are ready to rise up against an approach designed to “make sure that it’s easier to get a gun than to vote.”

Should they do so, you wonder if Republicans will get the message: that even voters disappointed with President Obama are not ready to embrace a radical conservatism as the alternative.

Read more from E.J. Dionne’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.

Read more:

Dana Milbank: North Carolina Republicans put ideology above lives

George F. Will: Thom Tillis and Kay Hagan have a showdown in Tar Heel country