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Conservative Defense Of Slander

December 15, 2014, 1:08 pm
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When slander is the only tool in your kit, 
it must be protected at any cost.

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What if the tables are turned?

"The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Christianity."

Taken at face value, Jesus recommends industrial strength self-mutiliation:


Matthew 5:27-30
27 “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Alan: If scripture is to be taken literally, why do ANY Christian men still have eyes in their heads and hands on their wrists? 

Just curious.

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BTW: Here's how Matthew 5 continues

Divorce

31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[f] 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Eye for Eye

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[h] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Love for Enemies

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
"Who Were The Tax Collectors And Shepherds In Jesus' Time"




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Beautiful Christmas Song From Late 1400s: "Ecce, Quod Natura"

December 15, 2014, 1:17 pm
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Ecce Quod Natura
Anonymous 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dka15T31zjY

Anonymous 4
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_4
Note Anonymous 4's collaboration with The Mountain Goats

***

  • Other settings:

  • ECCE QUOD NATURA - YouTube

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j5XdIULqAU
    Dec 27, 2012 - Uploaded by Roberto Tofi
    ECCE QUOD NATURA I CANTORI DEL BORGO Roberto Tofi Sansepolcro - Cattedrale - 7 dicembre 2012.

  • World of Medieval Music - Ecce Quod Natura, XIVc ...

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU4NLdylbNI
    Sep 2, 2014 - Uploaded by World of Medieval Music
    World of Medieval Music presents: "Ecce Quod Natura", Anonymous English, 14-15th c. https://www ...

  • Ecce quod natura (15th C.) - YouTube

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u6-JuHH9bU

    Dec 23, 2009 - Uploaded by megansspark
    Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas ~~~ Music-- Anonymous 4 images -- wikimedia commons translation ...
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    New California For Humane Treatment Of Chickens Bodes Egg Shortage

    December 15, 2014, 2:01 pm
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    Eggspensive

    California could be on the verge of a severe egg shortage, and it will affect the whole country

    Breakfast lovers, be warned.
    A new regulation is set to take effect in California at the beginning of next year that will force hen houses to allocate significantly more room to each egg-laying chicken.
    Birds, long afforded a minimum of only 67 square inches a piece, will now need roughly 116 square inches—a more than 70 percent increase—if eggs are to be sold in the state. That extra space won't come free of charge, a cost that will almost certainly fall on consumers.
    Egg prices could jump by as much as 20 percent in California as a result of the the new rules, Dermot J. Hayes, an agribusiness professor at Iowa State University in Ames, told Bloomberg.
    The mere anticipation of the change has already driven prices up by more than $0.25 over the past month in California. And that increase comes on the heels of what has already been a pretty unkind year for omelette prices across the country: wholesale egg prices are averaging nearly $2.30 per dozen, up almost 35 percent since the start of the 2014.
    But California's new regulations could lead to more expensive eggs nationally, too.
    Nearly a third of the eggs Californians consume are laid elsewhere. And Californians consume a lot of eggs—the state is home to more than 10 percent of the country's population, and, as a result, a sizable chunk of U.S. egg consumption. The state's inability to meet that demand is only expected to grow more severe as a result of the new regulation.
    "There aren't enough birds in California to meet the state's egg demands," said Brian Moscogiuri, an egg market reporter at commodity market news and analysis firm Urner Barry. "This could reduce the already short supply, and create an egg shortage locally."
    It could also lead chicken farmers elsewhere—primarily those in big egg producing states, like Iowa—to adjust and comply with California's new rule, either by increasing the amount of land designated for raising chickens, or decreasing the number of chickens they raise.
    "Iowa has way more birds than it needs to produce the eggs consumed locally," said Moscogiuri. "There's an incentive to meet California's regulations, especially if eggs sold in California are that much more expensive. If that's the case, that's going to compel a lot of egg producers to comply."
    The result could mean the loss of some 10 million egg laying chickens (or roughly 3.3 percent of all egg laying chickens in the country), according to Scott Ramsdell, who owns Dakota Layers LLP, an egg farm in Flandreau, South Dakota. Meanwhile, this isa time of particularly high egg demand—egg consumption is up by about five to seven eggs per person this year, after increasing by roughly three eggs per person last year, according to Moscogiuri. The consequence of that duality—the decrease in egg laying chickens and increase in egg demand—could mean a much broader egg shortage that extends well beyond California.
    "I think we’re going to have a shortage starting January 1, and it’s going to get worse until production meets the needs of demand," Ramsdell told Bloomberg on Friday.
    But there's another possible scenario. If egg producers outside of California instead decide to shun the state because of its new rule, the result could be quite different. Farmers would then flood the rest of the national market with eggs that were once being delivered to California, creating a surplus around the country, and deepening the shortage in California.
    "That would likely lead to cheaper eggs nationally," Moscogiuri said. "But that's assuming the price gap doesn't compel farmers to sell eggs in California at a higher price."
    A similar episode unfolded in Europe in 2012, when almost identical regulations first took effect. Egg prices rose quickly in response—by more than 40 percent that year. The following year they fell by 20 percent, to the chagrin of some farmers, including many in France, who claimed that the decrease was so significant that egg prices no longer covered egg production costs. A few farmers, particularly outraged by the gap, publicly smashed hundreds of thousands of eggs in protest.
    California's new legislation, which was first approved in 2008 and applies to all eggs sold in shell, is part of what appears to be a growing effort to move away from industry practices that have been accused of valuing production efficiency over animal welfare. An effort to pass a similar law nationally was proposed in 2013, but failed.
    Roberto A. Ferdman is a reporter for Wonkblog covering food, economics, immigration and other things. He was previously a staff writer at Quartz.


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    Jesus Wins War On Christmas. 73% Of Americans Believe In Virgin Birth

    December 15, 2014, 2:04 pm
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    Kirk Cameron can breathe easy: the War on Christmas is over. Jesus won.
    That's the implication of a new Pew Research Center survey that finds nearly three-quarters of Americans -- 73 percent -- believe that Jesus was literally born to a virgin. This is especially surprising when you consider that only one third of Americans say that the Bible is the word of God and should be understood literally.
    In other words, about 40 percent of Americans say the Bible should, in general, not be taken literally, but they nevertheless believe in the virgin birth. In addition, 81 percent say Jesus was laid in a manger, 75 percent say that the three wise men brought him gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh, and 74 percent say that his birth was announced by an angel to the shepherds.
    Pew Research Center
    Pew Research Center
    In all, Pew reports that 65 percent of Americans believe all four key elements of the Christmas story are to be taken literally. This is more than the percentage who express confidence in evolution, global warming, or the efficacy of vaccines.
    Interestingly, women are considerably more likely than men to believe in all four elements of the Christmas story.
    Another sign that the War on Christmas is over: 72 percent of Americans say nativity scenes should be allowed on government property. 44 percent say nativity scenes should be allowed even if symbols from other religious faiths are prohibited. Only one in five Americans say nativity scenes shouldn't be allowed on government property at all.
    Or take this datapoint, from 2012: when asked whether they prefer "Merry Christmas" or a generic holiday greeting, a plurality said it didn't matter. Among those with a preference, Americans preferred "Merry Christmas" by a 4-to-1 margin. Even non-religious Americans prefer "Merry Christmas"by nearly 3-to-1.
    So, looking at this data, it's hard to find a true War on Christmas.
    Christopher Ingraham writes about politics, drug policy and all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center.


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    As I Predicted Before The Election, Republican States Now Approve Medicaid Expansion

    December 15, 2014, 2:09 pm
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    After rejecting the Medicaid expansion in March 2013, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Monday offered a new plan for accepting Obamacare funding for the program insuring low-income adults. 
    Liberalism And Conservatism: Why Is It Still A Contest?
    Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee on Monday morning became the latest Republican governor to announce support of Obamacare's Medicaid expansion —and the third in the nation since Republicans gained more power at the state and federal levels in the November midterm elections.
    Like most other Republican governors who want to take the health-care law's generous federal funding, Haslam is now offering a plan that deviates from the Medicaid expansion envisioned under the Affordable Care Act. Haslam, who made the announcement almost a month after his re-election, said the Obama administration has verbally approved the approach.
    "We think we have a plan in Tennessee that fits our citizens and also is an answer to budget challenges we'd face in the future," Haslam said during a press conference Monday morning.
    The Tennessee plan, which Haslam said will be debated by a special session of the state legislature, is a two-year wavier program with two tracks. It will offer vouchers to people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — or about $16,100 for an individual — to help purchase employer coverage they would otherwise struggle to afford. Other newly eligible individuals can sign up in health plans modeled after health reimbursement accounts, with people earning above the poverty level required to pay premiums and copays. Haslam's administration didn't immediately offer details about how those payments are structured.
    In Tennessee, about 142,000 low-income adults fall into what's known as the coverage gap — people who earn too much to qualify for the existing Medicaid program but not enough to qualify for subsidies to purchase private coverage on the Obamacare health insurance marketplaces. That's according to a November estimate from the Kaiser Family Foundation, which finds that 3.8 million poor adults across the country fall into this gap.
    Haslam's announcement comes after almost a year-and-a-half of discussions with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over an acceptable Medicaid expansion alternative. That may have been the easiest part for Haslam, who joins Matt Mead of Wyoming and Gary Herbert of Utah in offering a Medicaid expansion plan in the month since the midterms passed.
    These moves have somewhat been telegraphed over the past year. These governors had said they wouldn't accept the Obamacare Medicaid expansion as written, but they were exploring other ways to take federal funds while crafting a plan that worked best for their states.
    "Even though I have serious disagreements with the law, this is the current law," Mead said last week at a forum hosted by the Western Governors Association, which was moderated by a Washington Post reporter. "How do we as a state make the best of it?”
    But these most recent elections saw Republicans solidify their power in state legislatures, which were already resistant to the idea of Medicaid expansion. The more conservative statehouses in 2015, coupled with the uncertainty of what the Supreme Court and a Republican-controlled Congress will do to the health-care law, could make expansion an even tougher sales job for Republican governors who want to take advantage of the ACA's federal funding.
    Nine Republican governors have expanded Medicaid so far, while Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is still negotiating with the feds on leveraging an existing state program to expand coverage.
    The prospect of expanding Medicaid faces another unique challenge in Tennessee — the memory of a previous ambitious state-funded effort to expand coverage to low-income adults that was abandoned about a decade ago. In 1993, the state greatly expanded program eligibility to become one of the nation's most generous programs, anticipating that a shift to managed care would produce the savings to pay for additional beneficiaries. Enrollment in the Tennesseee program grew from about 750,000 people to roughly 1.5 million in less than a decade, while Medicaid's portion of the state budget quickly swelled and got wrapped up into a fight over a state income tax. By 2005, the state had pared back benefits and kicked about 170,000 people off the Medicaid rolls under a Democratic governor.
    "Unfortunately, that memory is fresh in everyone's mind," Tennessee Medicaid director Darin Gordon said during a health-care conference in Washington this October.
    At the time, he described the challenge Haslam's administration faced as it crafted an alternative plan: "We're trying to figure out how can we learn from that history and design an approach that will put us in a better position and give other folks comfort that we won't be repeating the same experience."Reid Wilson contributed to this report.
    Jason Millman covers all things health policy, with a focus on Obamacare implementation. He previously covered health policy for Politico.

    "American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

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

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


    "The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"

    "Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism

    Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"

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    It Now Costs 1.7 Cents To Make A Penny And 8 Cents To Make A Nickel

    December 15, 2014, 2:13 pm
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    It Now Costs 1.7 Cents To Make A Penny And 8 Cents To Make A Nickel
    The U.S. Mint has some good news and bad news in its latest biennial report to Congress. The good news is that we're wasting less money on pennies and nickels. The bad news is we're still wasting money on pennies and nickels. Production costs for all four major coin types fell in fiscal year 2014 … [continued]



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    Americans Are Trading Sleep For Work And It's Literally Killing Us

    December 15, 2014, 2:14 pm
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    You need more of this in your life.

    Did you try to catch up on sleep this weekend? You're not alone. More than one third of American adults report getting less than 7 hours of sleep on weekdays, and many of them try to sleep extra-long on weekends to make up for it.
    This isn't a particularly healthy way to live -- insufficient sleep is associated with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and a host of other physical ailments. Drowsy driving causes around 80,000 automobile accidents every year, 1,000 of which are typically fatal.
    The simple reason for shortchanging sleep on the weekdays? Work. A team of researchers examined nearly 125,000 responses to the American Time Use Survey to calculate two things: first, how much sleep we're getting, and second, what we're doing instead of sleeping.
    Compared to normal sleepers, so-called "short sleepers" -- those who are getting 6 hours or less on weeknights -- worked 1.5 more hours on weekdays and nearly 2 hours more on weekends and holidays. Perhaps not surprisingly, "the highest odds of being a short sleeper were found among adults working multiple jobs, who were 61 percent more likely than others to report sleeping 6 hours or less on weekdays," according to a press release about the study.
    To put it another way: to the extent that we're trading sleep for work, our jobs are literally killing us.
    Aside from work, commuting was the activity most likely to compete with sleep for time, followed by socializing, sleeplessness (e.g., lying in bed unable to sleep), and personal grooming. That latter finding led to this dry observation from the authors: "Although a certain level of body hygiene is important for social and physical well-being, excessive time spent in these activities may reduce sleep time at both ends of the sleep period."
    TV-watching was ranked only 9th in the list of activities exchanged for less sleep.
    The researchers found no difference in sleep time between private sector and government workers. But interestingly, the self-employed had significantly lower odds of being a short sleeper. This finding led to the researchers prescribing greater flexibility in work schedules, particularly in work start time, as one policy change that could help people sleep more: "making the work start time more flexible may help increase sleep time; even if total time spent working is kept constant," they conclude.
    They also found that for every hour work or class started later in the morning, respondents' reported getting 20 minutes more sleep. More flexibility in work start times would thus help people naturally disposed to night-owl hours (are you a night-owl? We've got a quiz for that). Research suggests that this would lead not only to more productivity in the workplace, but also fewer instances of ethical lapses while on the clock.
    Beyond that, the more sleep we get the healthier we are. To the extent that healthier employees are more productive employees, policy changes that let workers get more sleep could have benefits for businesses' bottom lines.


    Christopher Ingraham writes about politics, drug policy and all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center.

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    Benjamin Franklin On Poverty, Wealth And Happiness

    December 16, 2014, 7:43 am
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    "El pobre es rico cuando esta feliz con lo que tiene...
    Y el rico es pobre cuando nada de lo que tiene lo hace feliz" 
    Benjamin Franklin



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    "Red Letter Christian" View Of Torture. What Would Jesus Do?

    December 16, 2014, 9:28 am
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    CIA Torture Report: Best Pax Posts

    ***
    Alan: So... What do you think?
    Does Jesus support torture?

    ***
    From "Red Letter Christians" - http://www.redletterchristians.org/start/

    Jesus Was Tortured to End All Torture

    DEC 15 2014 by CRAIG M. WATTS with 16 COMMENTS
    I grieve over torture. I grieve not only for those subjected to abuse no human being should be forced to endure. I grieve not primarily as an American citizen who feels ashamed of the morally bankrupt national leadership that authorized and promoted the practice. I grieve not just as an individual who is personally appalled that supposedly civilized people could bring themselves to deliberately inflict prolonged and terrifying pain on helpless captives.

    I also grieve as a Christian minister who hears brothers and sisters in Christ voicing support for torture, torturers and those in authority who sanctioned torture. And these are not just an isolated few. Polls show that at least half of Americans support torture at least in some circumstances.

    The distribution of torture supporters among the population is not even. Considerably more Republicans support torture than Democrats, but the percentage of both groups is high. White people are more likely to be torture supporters than people of color. Religious people are more likely to support torture than the religiously non-affiliated. Those who are the very most likely to support torture are people who go to church the most, particularly white evangelicals, according to a Pew poll taken a few years ago.

    I grieve. And I’m disgusted. It is enough to make you want to quit church. It seems that going to church exposes people to bad moral influences. But I know that the influences that leads Christians in America to support torture have nothing to do with Jesus and everything to do with the propaganda absorbed from politicians and partisan pundits that have a greater impact on a lot of church-goers that the Gospel of love.

    Unfortunately, too many Christians in American listen more carefully to people like Bill O’Reilly than they do to Jesus. O’Reilly, who often announces that he is a Christian, boldly asserted that torture is “morally correct.” Why? “It is morally correct to protect innocent lives from barbarians.” No one disputes that innocent lives should be protected. At issue is how people are to be protected. A good end does not justify every means possible, at least not if Jesus matters.

    But it seems that lifting up the ominous images of 9/11 and repeating warnings about the threatening nature of radical Islamists is a sufficient argument for torture. “We have to protect ourselves and do whatever it takes.” Forget Jesus. Forget, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil” (Romans 12:17-18; 1 Peter 3:9). Torture is acceptable because, as O’Reilly has said, “Bad things happen in war.” And in the war on terror, whatever bad is done by the U.S. is small potatoes compared to the evil of them.

    Cross

    "Red Letter Christians" prioritize the spoken teachings of Jesus 
    as represented in the four canonical gospels.

    Of course, among torture supporters the concern for protecting the innocent doesn’t extend to the many innocent ones who are caged in Guantanamo Bay (a majority of the detainees, by any credible account). Instead of Gitmo being filled with “the worst of the worst,” as President Bush once claimed, Army Major General Antonio Taguba’s investigation found otherwise. Years before the Senate report released this week, he discovered, “Numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees . . . systemic and illegal abuse.” His investigations led him to conclude that most who were locked away were innocent, picked up in sweeps.

    But I have heard Christians heartlessly disregard any concern for these innocent people. Instead many of my brothers and sister in Christ have echoed the politicians’ and pundits’ weasle-worded quibbling over the definition of torture. Minimizing the suffering of others by those who have had no similar experience is shameful, utterly unworthy of those who claim to follow Jesus. It is noteworthy that one politician who has not indulged in this self-serving callousness of his colleagues is someone who actually has some personal experience, Senator John McCain.

    I’m not interested in arguments about whether torture resulted in information that “made us safer.” There are good reasons to doubt those claims, claims mostly made by people who have vested. Regardless, as someone who is unwilling to put Jesus on the curb when the rubber hits the road, I believe torture must be condemned without qualification as unambiguously evil and utterly incompatible with following Jesus.

    American Christians need to remember who we call Lord. I grieve because it seems many have forgotten. With Jesus, “whatever it takes” never meant whatever suffering and destruction inflicted on others. Rather “whatever it takes” meant suffering for the sake of others. Our Lord was a victim of torture. His torture was done to him in the name of “national security” (John 11:50). Security was not among the values Jesus extolled. Supporters of torture –then and now–deceive themselves about the nobility of the ends they seek and the effectiveness of the violent means they use.

    Jesus was never one who pressed the point of nails into anyone else’s flesh. Jesus was on the receiving end of the nails. And we can’t legitimately claim to follow him if we insist on doing “whatever it takes” to someone else in order to avoid finding ourselves on the sharp end of the nails. As Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).
    - See more at: http://www.redletterchristians.org/jesus-torture/#sthash.SfoRjsWg.dpuf



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    "Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts

    December 16, 2014, 9:45 am
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    Guess which network they're watching.

    The Psychiatric Diagnosis Of American Conservatives: Folie a Plusieurs 

    "American Conservatives And Oppositional-Defiant Disorder"

    "Are Republicans Insane?"

    "The Republican Party Is A Satanic Cult"

    Jindal Criticizes The Stupid Party: "Simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys"

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

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

    "People Who Watch Only Fox News 
    Know Less Than People Who Watch No News"

    Bill Maher: The Zombie Life Cycle Of Republican Lies. They Never - Ever - Die

    "Bank On It: The South Is Always Wrong"

    "Why The Bible Belt Is Its Own Worst Enemy"
    1. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-bible-belt-is-christianitys-enemy.html
    2. "Republicans For Revolution," A Study In Anarchic Apocalypticism

    The Guardian: John Olivers' Viral Video Is The Best Climate Debate You'll Ever See

      George McGovern: "The Case For Liberalism, A Defense Of The Future Against The Past"

      Conservative Norm Ornstein: The Media Ignore Republican Lunacy

      "Let's Just Say It. The Republicans Are The Problem"
      Conservative Norm Ornstein and Liberal Thomas Mann

      "Just How Far Out Is The Republican Fringe?" Norm Ornstein (And Is It The Fringe?)

      "It's Even Worse Than It Looks"
      Conservaive Norm Ornstein and Liberal Thomas Mann

      "When Extremism Goes Mainstream"
      Conservative Norm Ornstein

      "The Real Death Panels," Conservative Norm Ornstein

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      "The Best Is Not The Ideal. The Best, Imposed As A Norm, Becomes Evil." T. Merton

      December 16, 2014, 10:38 am
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      Dear Maria,


      Although the following improvement in chicken husbandry is far from ideal, in the real world, political change almost always occurs by increments.

      New California For Humane Treatment Of Chickens Bodes Egg Shortage

      http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-california-for-humane-treatment-of.html

      Once, when I was "hot under the collar" about some current event, Arthur Clark said to me: "Alan, the world which you and I would like to see may take a hundred thousand years to become reality."

      In similar vein, Grampa used to say that humans are "imperfect creatures" and that we must work within -- and make allowance for -- homo sapiens' limitations. 

      (Here are a couple of interesting facts about Grampa: I once asked what his favorite animal was and without hesitation he replied: "The human animal." 20 years later, when Grampa died at age 86, he was carrying his recently updated Greenpeace membership card in his wallet.)

      Mediterranean Diet: Live Longer, Live Better, Live In Community

      http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-mediterranean-diet-live-longer-live.html
      Excerpt: "The problem with perfection is that its innate unattainability (under most circumstances) prevents us 
      -- out of frustration with our inability to be perfect -- 
      from actually achieving the good that IS within our grasp."

      Priest-monk Thomas Merton made this same point about "the paralysis of perfection," which reminds me of this truth: By trying to be like the angels, humankind falls lower than the beasts. Or as Shakespeare put it: "This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man." (From memory, I recalled this line as "To thine own self be true and it then must follow as night the day that thou canst be false to no man.")



      "The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice.  The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization.  We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  
      "Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton

      The last bit begs repetition:
      "Liberty is bound up with imperfection... Limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal.  Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good.  The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”  

      More Merton Quotes
      http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html


      "Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"





      The New Testamental verse, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" is more accurately rendered as "Be complete, whole and entire as your heavenly Father is complete, whole and entire."

      Law of love

      43 “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you 45 so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don't even the Gentiles do the same? 48Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.

      Translation: Common English Bible
      http://www.biblestudytools.com/ceb/matthew/5.html


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      The Beatitude That Separates Pope Francis From Prissy, Bitchy "Christians"

      December 16, 2014, 10:54 am
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      "More Carbon Dioxide Is A Good Thing." GOP Speciousness Is An Art Form

      December 16, 2014, 10:56 am
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      Alan: When China's "Three Gorges Dam" project threatened to flood the homes of 3 million Chinese citizens, the national government argued that the project was an act of ecological restoration, returning the land to its underwater status during "The Cenozoic" (or one of the geological eras). 
      This argument was incontrovertibly accurate. 
      It was also a specious travesty.


      Manipulative de-contextualization -- and re-contextualization -- are the meat and potatoes of American "conservatism."


      What is it, exactly, that American conservatives think they're conserving?

      The new climate denialism: 

      More carbon dioxide is a good thing

      By Dana Milbank Opinion writer December 15, 2014
      For years, the fossil-fuel industries have been telling us that global warming is a hoax based on junk science.
      But now these industries are floating an intriguing new argument: They’re admitting that human use of coal, oil and gas is causing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to rise — but they’re saying this is a good thing. We need more CO2 in our lives, not less.
      The session, at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, was devoted to demonstrating that “CO2 benefits clearly outweigh any hypothesized costs.” And though Bezdek is an economist, not a scientist, he played one on Monday — showing a PowerPoint presentation that documented a tree growing faster when exposed to more carbon dioxide.“CO2 is basically plant food, and the more CO2 in the environment the better plants do,” proclaimed Roger Bezdek, a consultant to energy companies, at an event hosted Monday by the United States Energy Association, an industry trade group.
      “CO2 increases over the past several decades have increased global greening by about 11 percent,” the consultant said. Higher carbon levels in the atmosphere will boost worldwide agricultural productivity by $10 trillion over the next 35 years, he added.
      And this doesn’t include the indirect benefits of good-ol’ CO2. “Over the past two centuries, global life expectancy has more than doubled, population has increased eight-fold, incomes have increased 11-fold. At the same time, CO2 concentrations increased from 320 ppm to about 400 ppm,” Bezdek said, using the abbreviation for parts per million. The benefits of CO2, he said, exceed its costs by ratios of between 100-1 and 900-1. A chart helpfully illustrated this “Close Link Between CO2 & GDP.”
      I’m neither a scientist nor an economist, but I’ve heard that correlation is not the same as causation. I pointed out to Bezdek that increasing energy use fueled the economic growth, and CO2 was just a byproduct. So wouldn’t it make more sense to use cleaner energy?
      “Fossil fuels will continue to provide 75, 80, 85 percent of the world’s energy for at least the next four or five decades,” he asserted. And even if we could reduce CO2, we shouldn’t. “If these benefits are real — and there have been five decades and thousands of studies and major conferences that pretty much have proven they are — then maybe we shouldn’t be too eager to get rid of CO2 in the atmosphere.”
      This was some creative thinking, and it took a page from the gun lobby, which argues that the way to curb firearm violence is for more people to be armed.
      Another questioner at the event asked Bezdek if he had considered ocean acidification, the release of methane gases, pollution and other side effects of rising CO2. This did not trouble him. “As you develop and you become wealthier,” he explained, “you have the wealth to clean up the mess.” He went on to point out that “35,000 people every year in the United States die in automobile accidents, but the solution is not to ban automobiles. You try to make them safer.”
      And the solution to climate change is not to ban energy but to make it cleaner.
      The U.S. Energy Association membership comes from various sectors but includes big petroleum companies and utilities. Bezdek seemed to have a special place in his heart for coal, “the major world energy source of the past, present and future . . . lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.”
      The presentation began as a standard recitation of the climate-change denial position, that “there’s been no global warming for almost two decades” and that forecasts are “based on flawed science.”
      But then Bezdek pivoted into a robust defense of carbon dioxide’s benefits. “These days, CO2 seems to be blamed for everything,” he lamented, but the much-maligned gas is what’s keeping the world from an economic collapse so deep “you’d look upon North Korea as an economic consumer’s paradise, literally.” He mocked European efforts to use renewable fuels (“You can’t check your e-mail today because the wind isn’t blowing”) and he said that in the United States, “inability to pay utility bills is the second-leading cause of homelessness.”
      Clearly, more CO2 would make us all breathe easier. “Controlled studies indicated that twice today’s levels would be very good for agriculture,” he said, “and below certain levels . . . plants wouldn’t grow and we wouldn’t live.”
      Luckily, we need not worry about that, because Bezdek is confident fossil fuels will continue to prevail. In “2070 will we have a new and different energy source?” he asked. “Maybe, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
      Definitely don’t hold your breath, sir. We need all the CO2 we can get.
      Twitter: @Milbank
      Read more on this topic:

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      Pope Francis Does A 180 On American Nuns Targeted By Pope Benedict

      December 16, 2014, 12:07 pm
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      "Sisters: Catholic Nuns And The Making Of America"
      John J. Fialka
      From the dust jacket:"Nuns were the first feminists. They became the nation's first cadre of independent, professional women. Some nursed, some taught, and many created and managed new charitable organizations, including large hospitals and colleges. In the 1800s, nuns moved west with the frontier, often starting the first hospitals and schools in immigrant communities. They provided aid and service during the Chicago fire, cared for orphans and prostitutes during the California Gold Rush, and brought professional nursing skills to field hospitals run by both armies during the Civil War. Their work was often done in the face of intimidation from such groups as the Ku Klux Klan and others. In the 1900s, nuns built the nation's largest private school and hospital systems, and brought the Catholic Church into the Civil Rights movement. As their numbers began to decline in the 1970s, many sisters were forced to take professional jobs as lawyers, probation workers, managers, and hospital executives because their salaries were needed to support older nuns, many of whom lacked a pension system. Cur-rently there are 75,129 sisters in America, down from 204,000 in 1968. Their median age is sixty-nine. Sweeping in its scope and insight, Sisters reveals the treasure of spiritual capital that religious women have invested in America."
      Alan - Personal Reflection: "The good Mercy Sisters who formed me from kindergarten through 8th grade taught that Hell exists as a construct but there is no persuasive reason to believe any human being "ends up" there. The merciful sisters went on to emphasize our Christian obligation to remain ever hopeful, and -- in service of that hope -- we must pray for mercy and the salvation of all souls - even Hitler's. (Notably, Hitler was a cradle Catholic, heir to a "Christian" tradition of rabid anti-Semitism so deeply ingrained that it was taught to my youngest brother as part of his "Catholic upbringing." Eventually, I suspect all of us must throw ourselves on "the mercy of the court." As Jesus says in The Beatitudes, “Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy.")"
      Christianity's Bedrock Commitment To Torture: Remaking Themselves In God's Image
      http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/christianitys-bedrock-commitment-to.html

      "Mercy makes the world... more just."
      Pope Francis

      ***

      The Vatican thanked American nuns for their selfless work Tuesday, in a long-awaited report of its three-year investigation into women's religious orders in the United States.
      The investigation, known as an apostolic visitation, was initially seen by many as a punitive measure, the Catholic News Service reported.
      The report gave a radically different message to another investigation conducted by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, another Vatican office. (Alan: The Congregation Of The Doctrine Of The Faith is the direct lineal heir of The Inquisition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquisition)
      That inquiry resulted in a 2012 Vatican takeover of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, which represents the leaders of more than 80% of the United States' nuns. The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith said that the LCWR took positions that undermined church teaching and promoted "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
      "Sorry, folks, this is not a controversial document," Mother M. Clare Millea, the American nun who directed the investigation told the Vatican news conference to announce the results of the new report Tuesday, the New York Times reported. She told the audience it was "a challenge for all of us."
      Some 50,000 sisters live and work in the U.S., a fraction of the 125,000 that did so in the mid-1960s — a high the report noted was an atypical spike in the history of the U.S. church. The average age of current U.S. nuns is mid-to-late 70s.
      USA TODAY
      Jesuit pope offers hope to some U.S. nuns
      "The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is sincerely grateful for the presence of women religious in the United States and for all that they contribute to the Church's evangelizing mission," the report says.
      "Since the early days of the Catholic Church in their country, women religious have courageously been in the forefront of her evangelizing mission, selflessly tending to the spiritual, moral, educational, physical and social needs of countless individuals, especially the poor and marginalized."
      USATODAY
      Catholic nuns group and Vatican remain at odds
      There was no criticism of American nuns, or demands that they shift their focus from social justice issues to emphasize Catholic teaching on abortion in the report. There was also no condemnation that a feminist, secular mentality had taken hold in their ranks.
      The overwhelmingly positive report, which saw the Vatican promise to value the nuns'"feminine genius" more, was cheered by the sisters, dozens of whom swarmed the news conference in a rare moment of women outnumbering men at the Vatican.
      USA TODAY
      Vatican waters down translation of report on gays
      Sister Sharon Holland, who heads the LCWR, said the investigation was initially met with apprehension and distrust, particularly among elderly sisters who "felt that their whole lives had been judged and found wanting."
      She said the results showed that the Vatican had listened and heard what the sisters had to say.
      "There is an encouraging and realistic tone in this report," she told the news conference. "Challenges are understood, but it is not a document of blame, or of simplistic solutions. One can read the text and feel appreciated and trusted to carry on."
      The report noted that Pope Francis, who has pledged to bring more women into decision-making positions in the church, recently asked the Vatican to update a key document outlining the relationship between bishops and religious orders — male and female — amid tensions that sometimes exist.
      Contributing: Associated Press


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      Borowitz Report: Warren’s Display Of Backbone Threatens Career As Democrat

      December 16, 2014, 12:17 pm
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      Teen Marijuana Use Falls As More States Legalize

      December 16, 2014, 2:02 pm
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      These kids are too busy singing to do drugs. 
      Alan: Is the following data quirky/inaccurate, or might it indicate that the re-definition "forbidden fruit" as permissible is a good way to diminish temptation?
      Teen alcohol and drug use -- including marijuana use -- was down across the board in 2014.
      That's the big take-home from the 2014 Monitoring the Future study by the University of Michigan and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse, which was released Tuesday morning. The MTF is an annual survey of 40,000 8th-graders, 10th-graders and 12th-graders. It's notable both for its size and for the fact that it was conducted this past spring, in the midst of a nationwide conversation about drug reform in the run-up to the midterm elections. Here's what the survey found:
       
       
       
      Marijuana use? Down. Alcohol use? Way down. Cigarettes? Waaay down. Fewer than 15 percent of 12th-graders reported using cigarettes any time in the past month, down from well over 35 percent in the late 1990s. Monthly alcohol use dropped from nearly 55 percent of 12th-graders in 1992 to less than 40 percent in 2014. Even weed, which has been on a flatter trajectory since the 1990s than the other substances, is down year over year.
      These numbers comport with findings earlier this year from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the government's other major substance use barometer.
      Even better news is that frequent, daily use -- which experts agree is the most harmful to developing young minds -- is also down considerably. Cigarettes posted the sharpest drop in daily use, falling from nearly 25 percent of 12th graders in 1997 to about 7 percent in 2014. Frequent alcohol use has declined, although less dramatically. Frequent marijuana use had been on a slight rise for roughly the second half of the 2000s, but since about 2011 it's either held steady or fallen.
      "Both alcohol and cigarette use in 2014 are at their lowest points since the study began in 1975," the study's authors conclude in a press release. The National Institutes of Drug Abuse agrees: “with marijuana use appearing to level off, and rates of many other drugs decreasing, it is possible that prevention efforts are having an effect,” said director Nora D. Volkow in a release.
      The marijuana findings are particularly noteworthy given that Colorado and Washington state implemented full-scale retail marijuana markets this year, and Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., voters opted to do the same. A central tenet of legalization opponents, from present-day prohibitionists like Andy Harris all the way back to Richard Nixon, has been that loosening restrictions on marijuana will "send the wrong" message to youngsters and lead to an explosion in teen use.
      Harris sums up the mindset best in a recent appearance at the Heritage Foundation: "Relaxing [marijuana] laws clearly leads to more teenage drug use. It should be intuitively obvious to everyone that if you legalize marijuana for adults, more children will use marijuana because the message that it's dangerous will be blunted."
      While it's a politically potent message -- nobody wants to see more kids doing drugs -- there's a substantial body of research showing that teen pot use hasn't risen in the states that have legalized medical marijuana. In 2014, a year when marijuana was all over the news and national attitudes toward the drug are relaxing, teen use actually trended downward.
      Or, look at it from the other side: In the early 1990s the federal drug war was in full swing. But teen marijuana use spiked sharply during that period. It didn't start falling until the late '90s, when the first states began implementing medical marijuana laws.
      This isn't to say that repealing harsh marijuana laws will necessarily causeteen use to trend downward. But it does at the very least illustrate that it's impossible to draw a straight line from "relaxing marijuana laws" to "increased teen use," as Harris and other prohibition enthusiasts do. And there are compelling arguments to be made that taking the marijuana trade off the black market, and letting government and law enforcement agencies, rather than criminals, control the marijuana market, will lead tobetter overall drug use outcomes among teens.
      Regardless of where you come down on the drug war, there's something in here for everyone to be cheerful about. The kids, broadly speaking, are alright.
      Christopher Ingraham writes about politics, drug policy and all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center.

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      David Brooks: Elizabeth Warren Could Win The Democratic Nomination

      December 16, 2014, 2:07 pm
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      Obama's Stock Has Gone From "Hold" To "Buy"

      December 16, 2014, 2:09 pm
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      Obama's stock has gone from "hold" to "buy." The economy is improving. Republicans are learning to live with the executive action on deportations. And the contrast with Hillary Clinton will remind journalists of Obama's charisma. All of these factors will contribute to positive coverage of the president in the next two years. The Atlantic



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      Surgeon General Nominee Vivek Murthy M.D. Overcomes Gun Lobby In Senate

      December 16, 2014, 2:13 pm
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      The Handgun
      Designed for no purpose but killing human beings.
      Americans can't get enough.

      "Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"


      Vivek Murthy cleared the Senate over the opposition of the gun lobby. The National Rifle Association objected forcefully to Murthy, who has described gun violence as a public-health problem. Ed O'Keefe and Brady Dennis in The Washington Post.

      Murthy won confirmation the day after the second anniversary of the Newtown, Conn. massacre. He was opposed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who sponsored legislation to restrict gun sales after the shooting and has since come in for criticism from gun-rights advocates. Sarah Mimms in National Journal.

      Public opinion now favors gun rights. For the first time in two decades, a Pew poll found that a majority of Americans think gun rights are more important than gun control. Emily Badger in The Washington Post.



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      Caravaggio: Judith Decapitates Holofernes

      December 16, 2014, 3:39 pm
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      Michelangel Merisi, best known for his town of origin, Caravaggio, east of Milano.
      http://besidetheeasel.blogspot.com/2012/10/caravaggio.html

      Caravaggio's Wikipedia Entry
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio

      He burst upon the Rome art scene in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death warrant issued for him by the Pope.[5]
      An early published notice on him, dating from 1604 and describing his lifestyle three years previously, recounts that "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him."[6] In 1606 he killed a young man in a brawl and fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609, possibly a deliberate attempt on his life by unidentified enemies. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon...
      Caravaggio led a tumultuous life. He was notorious for brawling, even in a time and place when such behavior was commonplace, and the transcripts of his police records and trial proceedings fill several pages. On 29 May 1606, he killed, possibly unintentionally, a young man named Ranuccio Tomassoni from Terni (Umbria). The circumstances of the brawl and the death of Ranuccio Tomassoni remain mysterious. Several contemporary avvisi referred to a quarrel over a gambling debt and a tennis game, and this explanation has become established in the popular imagination.[24] But recent scholarship has made it clear that more was involved. Good modern accounts are to be found in Peter Robb's "M" and Helen Langdon's "Caravaggio: A Life". An interesting theory relating the death to Renaissance notions of honour and symbolic wounding has been advanced by art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon.[25] Previously his high-placed patrons had protected him from the consequences of his escapades, but this time they could do nothing. Caravaggio, outlawed, fled to Naples. There, outside the jurisdiction of the Roman authorities and protected by the Colonna family, the most famous painter in Rome became the most famous in Naples. His connections with the Colonnas led to a stream of important church commissions, including the Madonna of the Rosary, and The Seven Works of Mercy.[26]
      Some scholars argue that Caravaggio was murdered by the same "enemies" that had been pursuing him since he fled Malta, possibly Wignacourt and/or factions in the Order of St. John.[36] Caravaggio might have died of lead poisoning. Bones with high lead levels were recently found in a grave likely to be Caravaggio's.[37] Paints used at the time contained high amounts of lead salts. Caravaggio is known to have indulged in violent behavior, as caused by lead poisoning.
      Caravaggio never married and had no known children, and Howard Hibbard notes the absence of erotic female figures from the artist's oeuvre: "In his entire career he did not paint a single female nude."[38] On the other hand, the cabinet-pieces from the Del Monte period are replete with "full-lipped, languorous boys ... who seem to solicit the onlooker with their offers of fruit, wine, flowers - and themselves."[39] Nevertheless, a connection with a certain Lena is mentioned in a 1605 court deposition by Pasqualone, where she is described as "Michelangelo's girl".[40] According to G.B.Passeri this 'Lena' was Caravaggio's model for theMadonna di Loreto. According to Catherine Puglisi 'Lena' may have been the same as the courtesan Maddalena di Paolo Antognetti, who named Caravaggio as an intimate friend by her own testimony in 1604.[41][42] Caravaggio also probably enjoyed close relationships with other "whores and courtesans" such as Fillide Melandroni, of whom he painted a portrait.[43]
      Bild-Ottavio Leoni, Caravaggio.jpg
      Chalk portrait of Caravaggio by Ottavio Leoni, circa 1621.



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