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The Ten Most Important Lines From Pope Francis' Address To Congress?

September 29, 2015, 10:10 am
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Full Video Of Pope Francis' Congressional Address Plus Annotated Text

The 10 Most Important Lines From Pope Francis' Historic Speech to Congress

Taking several progressive stances, the pope did not shy away from the politically divisive issues of the day.

—By 
| Thu Sep. 24, 2015
In a powerful speech to a joint session of Congress Thursday morning, Pope Francis pushed the United States to confront several political issues that tend to divide Republicans and Democrats, including immigration, climate change, the Iran deal, Cuba, poverty, and the death penalty. His speech noted that politics "cannot be a slave to the economy and finance." He didn't chastise any political party, and he, not surprisingly, had a clear but brief reference to opposing abortion. But overall, his address had a progressive cast.
Here are the most powerful quotes, according to the prepared text:

On climate change: "I call for a courageous and responsible effort to redirect our steps and to avert the most serious effects of the environmental deterioration caused by human activity. I am convinced that we can make a difference and I have no doubt that the United States—and this Congress—have an important role to play. Now is the time for courageous actions and strategies, aimed at implementing a culture of care and an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature." (Democrats stood to applaud the pope's remarks on climate change, while many Republicans remained seated. The pope's message was more muted than his remarks on the issue Wednesday when he spoke at the White House."
On abolishing the death penalty: "I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation."
On abortion: "The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development." (This was his only direct reference to abortion in the speech.)
On same-sex marriage: The closest he came to addressing same-sex marriage was in a passage about the importance of family. "I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without. "Fundamental relationships are being called into question, as is the very basis of marriage and the family. I can only reiterate the importance and, above all, the richness and the beauty of family life." (This did not appear to be an explicit denouncement of marriage equality.)
On Iran and Cuba: "When countries which have been at odds resume the path of dialogue—a dialogue which may have been interrupted for the most legitimate of reasons—new opportunities open up for all. This has required, and requires, courage and daring, which is not the same as irresponsibility. A good political leader is one who, with the interests of all in mind, seizes the moment in a spirit of openness and pragmatism. A good political leader always opts to initiate processes rather than possessing spaces."
On the refugee crisis: "Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. On this continent, too, thousands of persons are led to travel north in search of a better life for themselves and for their loved ones, in search of greater opportunities. Is this not what we want for our own children? We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation."
On immigration: "We, the people of this continent, are not fearful of foreigners, because most of us were once foreigners. I say this to you as the son of immigrants, knowing that so many of you are also descended from immigrants...Nonetheless, when the stranger in our midst appeals to us, we must not repeat the sins and the errors of the past. We must resolve now to live as nobly and as justly as possible, as we educate new generations not to turn their back on our 'neighbors' and everything around us. Building a nation calls us to recognize that we must constantly relate to others, rejecting a mindset of hostility in order to adopt one of reciprocal solidarity, in a constant effort to do our best. I am confident that we can do this."
On poverty: "I would encourage you to keep in mind all those people around us who are trapped in a cycle of poverty. They too need to be given hope. The fight against poverty and hunger must be fought constantly and on many fronts, especially in its causes. I know that many Americans today, as in the past, are working to deal with this problem."
On the arms trade: "Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world. Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade."
On religious fundamentalism: "We know that no religion is immune from forms of individual delusion or ideological extremism. This means that we must be especially attentive to every type of fundamentalism, whether religious or of any other kind. A delicate balance is required to combat violence perpetrated in the name of a religion, an ideology or an economic system, while also safeguarding religious freedom, intellectual freedom and individual freedoms. But there is another temptation which we must especially guard against: the simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners."


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Top Ten Quotes From Pope Francis' Trip To The United States?

September 29, 2015, 10:14 am
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1.   Religious Freedom – A Precious Possession:
American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty. That freedom remains one of America’s most precious possessions.” Address at the White House
2.   The Scandal of Petty Love:
Would that we could all be prophets! Would that all of us could be open to miracles of love for the sake of all the families of the world, and thus overcome the scandal of a narrow, petty love, closed in on itself, impatient of others! Homily at World Meeting of Families
3.   The Danger of Imbalanced Christianity:
A Christianity which “does” little in practice, while incessantly “explaining” its teachings, is dangerously unbalanced. I would even say that it is stuck in a vicious circle. A pastor must show that the “Gospel of the family” is truly “good news” in a world where self-concern seems to reign supreme! Meeting with Bishops at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia
4.   Wounded Prison Systems, Wounded People:
It is painful when we see prison systems which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities. It is painful when we see people who think that only others need to be cleansed, purified, and do not recognize that their weariness, pain and wounds are also the weariness, pain and wounds of society. Remarks to Detainees of Correctional Facility in Philadelphia
5.   The Environment is a Fundamental Good:
We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all religions, the environment is a fundamental good. Address to the United Nations
6.   United in the Care of the Poor, Defenseless:
I take this opportunity to thank all those, of whatever religion, who have sought to serve the God of peace by building cities of brotherly love, by caring for our neighbors in need, by defending the dignity of God’s gift of life in all its stages, by defending the cause of the poor and the immigrant. All too often, those most in need of our help are unable to be heard. You are their voice, and many of you have faithfully made their cry heard. Speech at Independence Mall, Philadelphia
7.   Jesus Knocks On Our Doors:
Jesus keeps knocking on our doors, the doors of our lives. He doesn’t do this by magic, with special effects, with flashing lights and fireworks. Jesus keeps knocking on our door in the faces of our brothers and sisters, in the faces of our neighbors, in the faces of those at our side. Speech at Charitable Center of St. Patrick Parish, Washington, D.C.
8.   Avoid Polarization, Division:
The contemporary world, with its open wounds which affect so many of our brothers and sisters, demands that we confront every form of polarization which would divide it into these two camps. We know that in the attempt to be freed of the enemy without, we can be tempted to feed the enemy within. To imitate the hatred and violence of tyrants and murderers is the best way to take their place. Address to the United States Congress
9.  “_________” Pope Francis didn’t say anything public when he went on an impromptu visit to the Little Sisters of the Poor, but he still said a lot with his silent witness of solidarity, so I included that visit in my top ten.
10.   All That is Good, True, and Beautiful:
All that is good, all that is true, all that is beautiful brings us to God. Because God is good, God is beautiful, God is the truth. Address to World Meeting of Families (Watchvideo of this speech, the best one Pope Francis gave, in my humble and true opinion)
A journalist: Holy Father, you have become a star in the United States. Is it good for the Church if the Pope is a star?
Pope Francis: The Pope must… Do you know what the title was of the Pope that ought to be used? Servant of the servants of God. It’s a little different from the stars. Stars are beautiful to look at. I like to look at them in the summer when the sky is clear. But the Pope must be, must be the servant of the servants of God. Yes, in the media this is happening but there’s another truth. How many stars have we seen that go out and fall. It is a fleeting thing. On the other hand, being servant of the servants of God is something that doesn’t pass.

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"A Brief History Of Populism," The Week Staff

September 29, 2015, 10:29 am
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Maverick candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are carrying on a long-standing American tradition. Here, a brief primer on populism.

What is populism?
Broadly speaking, it's the belief that the will of ordinary citizens should prevail over that of a privileged elite. Throughout American history, movements based on anti-elitism have repeatedly sprung up on both the left and right, often stoked by charismatic firebrands who harnessed the resentment of marginalized people. Today, both the Democratic and Republican parties have been splintered by populist movements. Bernie Sanders, a self-described "democratic socialist" who rails against income inequality and the billionaire class, is mounting a serious challenge to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton. The Republican race, meanwhile, has been roiled by the right-wing populist campaign of real estate mogul Donald Trump, who vows to deport all 11.5 million illegal immigrants and build a massive wall at the Mexican border. Neither Sanders' nor Trump's message is really new. Sanders has picked up where the late-19th-century Populist Party left off, and as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently observed, "Donald Trump is the modern-day incarnation of the Know-Nothing movement."

Who were the Know-Nothings?
They were a xenophobic political movement that arose in the 1840s, in reaction to a huge influx of Irish Catholic and German immigrants. Native-born Protestants saw these immigrants as job-stealing threats to America's cultural and religious identity. The Know-Nothings began as secret societies — asked about their ties to these groups, members were instructed to say they "knew nothing." But they came out of the closet in 1855 to form the American Party, demanding immigration restrictions and a 21-year residency requirement for citizenship. In 1856, the Know-Nothings chose former President Millard Fillmore as their nominee, and he won 21.6 percent of the vote. Later, a rift between anti-slavery and pro-slavery factions fatally splintered their movement, but nativism has flared anew with every successive wave of immigration.

What about left-wing populism?
The first movement of this kind was started in the 1880s, by farmers who were suffering because of plummeting cotton prices in the South and a drought in the Great Plains. As farmers sank deeper into debt, their simmering resentments of Eastern elites were ignited, especially by bankers charging exorbitant lending rates and railroad barons charging high prices. The farmers, labor unions, and their sympathizers formed what they officially called the People's Party but was commonly known as the Populists. The Populists felt "squeezed by the unfettered capitalism of the Gilded Age," says Rutgers University historian David Greenberg. The Populists wanted to nationalize railroads, break up big trusts, and get rid of the gold standard, which restricted the money supply. They also advocated an eight-hour workday, women's suffrage, and a progressive income tax. In 1892 Populist presidential candidate James B. Weaver won 8.5 percent of the vote. But it was downhill from there.

What happened?
The Populists split into two factions: "fusionists," who thought the party should merge with the Democrats, and Populists, who preferred independence. The fusionists prevailed, rallying behind 1896 Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, whose convention address decrying the gold standard — "You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold"— remains one of American history's most famous speeches. He lost the election to Republican William McKinley, however — and went on to lose two more. But Bryan left a lasting Populist legacy. He "was the first leader of a major party to argue for permanently expanding the power of the federal government to serve the welfare of ordinary Americans," says biographer Michael Kazin.

What became of the Populists?
Many of their core ideas were absorbed by the Democratic Party and became the foundation of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. More radical versions also sprang up during the Depression, which saw the meteoric rise of Huey P. Long. But during the Cold War, anti-elitism "began to slip its liberal moorings," Kazin says. After controlling federal power for a generation, liberals were the elite — and populism took a hard right turn. The anti-Communist crusade of Sen. Joseph McCarthy trained its rhetoric mostly on left-leaning academics, Ivy League–educated officials, and Hollywood actors and producers. In the 1960s, segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace played the working-class hero, snarling at "pointy-headed bureaucrats" and liberals. His third-party presidential bid in 1968 drew 13.6 percent of the vote. Conservatism has had a strain of anti-elitist populism ever since, most recently and effectively in the Tea Party.

Why has populism returned?
The 2008 financial crisis sparked an explosion of anger against Wall Street and Washington. In Sanders, left-wing populism comes full circle — his stump speeches would have played well in the 1890s. Trump has taken the old nativist message, added a big dose of narcissism, and turned his movement into a cult of personality. But throughout history, populists from left to right have had something in common besides anti-elitism. While they often influence mainstream parties, they don't win national elections. The majority of voters reject "their Us versus Them mentality," says columnist David Brooks, making the history of populism "generally a history of defeat."

The Kingfish
"Every man a king." That was the slogan of Huey Pierce Long Jr., the Louisiana governor and senator of the 1930s who was arguably the most flamboyant populist in American history. The pugnacious country boy called himself The Kingfish, and was a sworn enemy of oligarchs and corporate interests and boasted of buying legislators "like sacks of potatoes." In the depths of the Depression, Long's "Share Our Wealth" plan called for the federal government to confiscate the fortunes of anyone with more than $8 million in wealth to provide a $5,000 annual income ($71,450 in 2015 dollars) and health care for all American families. As governor, Long built thousands of miles of roads and improved education, but was also notoriously corrupt and dictatorial. Franklin Roosevelt called him one of the most dangerous men in America, with good reason: The Kingfish was widely considered a viable dark-horse candidate to defeat FDR in 1936. But he was assassinated by the relative of a political foe.

Long's last words: "I wonder why he shot me."


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Poll Says Biden Most Popular Candidate In Either Party

September 29, 2015, 10:39 am
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The VP would be the most popular candidate for President if he gets the nomination

In the poll 40 percent of Americans say they have a positive impression of the Vice President and former Senator from Delaware, while just 28 percent have a negative impression—an enviable differential of +12 points. That outperforms Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders (+10) and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (-8), as well as leading GOP candidates Ben Carson (+8), Carly Florin (+7) and Donald Trump (-33).

If Vice President Joe Biden does decide to make a run for the presidency in 2016 he’ll start off the race as the most popular candidate in either party,according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Tuesday.
Were the election held today, Biden would outperform both leading Democrats in head to head matches with leading Republicans. The Vice President loses, however, in hypothetical matches with both leading Democrats, winning 17 percent to Sanders’ 35 percent and Clinton’s 42 percent.
Biden’s popularity is likely attributable in part to the fact that he hasn’t announced a run for president and thus hasn’t been subjected to the harsh public scrutiny of the campaign trail, which tends to take some of the luster of new candidates after awhile. “History has shown that the public has a much harsher filter when people become candidates,” pollster Bill McInturff told NBC News.
The poll of 1,000 U.S. adults—400 of whom were reached by cell phone—was conducted between September 20 and September 24.
[NBC News]

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Joe Biden's "Stupid Liberal Quote" Is A Direct Measure Of Conservative Stupidity

September 29, 2015, 10:42 am
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Joe Biden On Real Conservative Values

September 29, 2015, 10:42 am
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Why Is Water So Essential For Life?

September 29, 2015, 7:32 pm
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Properties Of Water
Wikipedia

Why Is Water So Essential for Life?

by Tia Ghose, Senior Writer, Live Science  
September 29, 2015
Water. It's found everywhere on Earth, from the polar ice caps to steamy geysers. 

And wherever water flows on this planet, you can be sure to find life.











"When we find water here on Earth — whether it be ice-covered lakes, whether it be deep-sea hydrothermal vents, whether it be arid deserts — if there's any water, we've found microbes that have found a way to make a living there," said Brian Glazer, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who has studied astrobiology.
That's why NASA's motto in the hunt for extraterrestrial life has been "follow the water."

Yesterday (Sept. 28), NASA scientists announced they'd found it on Mars: Dark streaks that scientists have spotted seasonally for more than a decade in images of the Red Planet are evidence of flowing water, new research suggests. While the briny flows may be too full of chlorine-based salts to support life, they do raise the odds that Mars could have life right now, the researchers said. [In Photos: Is Water Flowing on Mars?]
But just why is water such a crucial molecule for life? And could there be other ingredients that also provide the perfect recipe for life on other planets?

It turns out that several chemical properties of water make it indispensable for living creatures. Not only can water dissolve nearly anything, but it is also one of only a few materials that can exist as solid, liquid and gas within a relatively narrow range of temperatures.

Flowing life
At heart, all life on Earth uses a membrane that separates the organism from its environment. To stay alive, the organism takes in important materials for making energy, while shuttling out toxic substances such as waste products.

In this regard, water is essential simply because it's a liquid at Earth-like temperatures. Because it flows, water provides an efficient way to transfer substances from a cell to the cell's environment. By contrast, deriving energy from a solid is a much tougher prospect (though there are microbes that eat rock), Glazer said.

But the other part of the equation — that water can carry things into and out of the cell — has to do with water's unique chemical configuration.

The humble water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom.

"The way they're bonded together makes water this wonderful universal solvent," meaning that almost every substance can dissolve in water, Glazer told Live Science.
That's because the molecule has polarity, meaning the hydrogen atoms tend to bunch on one side of the molecule, creating a positive region, while the oxygen end has a negative charge. The positive hydrogen end tends to attract negative ions (or atoms with an extra electron in the outer shell), while the negative region lures in positive ions (which have had one of their electrons stripped off).

Water, with its amazing dissolving properties, is the perfect medium for transmitting substances, such as phosphates or calcium ions, into and out of a cell.

Phases of water
Another feature of water is that it can act as a solid, liquid and gas within the range of temperatures that occur on Earth. Other molecules that have been identified as good candidates for supporting life tend to be liquid at temperatures or pressures that would be inhospitable for most known life-forms, Glazer said. [5 Mars Myths and Misconceptions]

"Water really is at that sweet spot," Glazer said.

The fact that water can be in all three phases in a relatively tight range of pressures creates many opportunities for life to flourish, he added.

"All three [states of water] available on our planet creates this really neat variety of habitats and microclimates," Glazer said.

For instance, frozen ice can be found in glaciers that carve through mountains, whereas water vapor helps warm the atmosphere, Glazer said.

Watery cradle of life
Water may be more than a fluid to help facilitate life's essential processes — it may also have been the protective cradle that carried the building blocks of life to Earth, said Ralf Kaiser, a physical experimental chemist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who has research experience in astrochemistry.

One theory for how life on Earth emerged, called panspermia, posits that icy comets smashed into Earth, bearing tiny organic molecules that formed the precursors to life. But traveling through space is a harsh journey, with punishing levels of radiation that would normally degrade those delicate molecules, Kaiser said.

However, in its solid form, water could have provided a way to shield those molecules from radiation, Kasier speculated.

"One possibility is that because the building blocks are frozen within the water, it has this protective mantle around it that could be delivered," Kaiser told Live Science.


In a covalent bond, the atoms are bound by shared electrons.  A good example of a covalent bond is that which occurs between two hydrogen atoms. Atoms of hydrogen (H) have one valence electron in their outer (and only) electron shell. Since the capacity of this shell is two electrons, each hydrogen atom will "want" to pick up a second electron. In an effort to pick up a second electron, hydrogen atoms will react with nearby hydrogen (H) atoms to form the compound H2. Both atoms now share their 2 common electrons and achieve the stability of a full valence shell.
If the electron is shared equally between the atoms forming a covalent bond, like in the case of H2 , then the bond is said to be non-polar. Electrons are not always shared equally between two bonding atoms: one atom might exert more of a force on the electron than the other. This "pull" is termed electronegativity and measures the attraction for electrons a particular atom has. Atoms with high electronegativities — such as fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen — exert a greater pull on electrons than atoms with lower electronegativities. In a bonding situation this can lead to unequal sharing of electrons between atoms, as electrons will spend more time closer to the atom with the higher electronegativity. When an electron is more attracted to one atom than to another, forming a polar covalent bond. A great example for a polar covalent bond is water:

In an ionic bond, the atoms first transfer electrons between each other, change into ions that then are bound together by the attraction between the oppositely-charged ions. For example, sodium and chloride form an ionic bond, to make NaCl, or table salt. Chlorine (Cl)  has seven valence electrons in its outer orbit, but to be in a more stable condition, it needs eight electrons in its outer orbit. On the other hand, Sodium has one valence electron and it would need eight electrons to fill up its outer electron level. A more energetically efficient way to achieve a full outer electron shell for Sodium is to "shed" the single electron in its outer shell instead. Sodium "donates" its single valence electron to Chlorine so that both have 8 electrons in their outer shell. The attraction between the resulting ions, Na+ and Cl-, forms theionic bond.

Accept some substitutes
Of course, while water is crucial to life on our home planet, there could be life-forms that don't conform to the Earthling playbook.

Scientists are also looking at other liquids that could play a similar role as universal solvent and transport medium. Some of the top contenders are ammonia and methane, said Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Ammonia, like water, is a polar molecule that is relatively abundant in the universe, but scientists haven't found any large bodies of ammonia anywhere in the solar system, McKay said.

Methane isn't polar, but it can dissolve many other substances. Unlike water, however, methane becomes liquid only at very cold temperatures — at a frigid minus 296 degreesvFahrenheit (minus 182 degrees Celsius).

"We know that there are large lakes of liquid methane and ethane on Titan," one of the moons of Saturn, McKay told Live Science in an email. "Thus there is keen interest is the question of whether life can use liquid methane/ethane."


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Jeb Bush's Energy Plan Doubles Down On Fossil Fuels? Perverse? Stupid? Both?

September 29, 2015, 7:56 pm
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Dirty Oil
For sheer wit and wisdom, dirty oil rivals 
the genius of American middle schools.

The Detroit Bailout Has Produced 400 Times More Permanent Jobs Than The Keystone Pipeline Will

Each Senator Who Voted For Keystone XL Got $250,000.00 From "Big Oil"

Bloomberg News: Keystone Pipeline's Policy Significance Now Close To Nil




Jeb Bush goes heavy on fossil fuels

His energy plan dodges his climate change sympathies.
Jeb Bush released an energy plan Tuesday that was filled with Republican standards: Drill more oil, cut regulations and build the Keystone XL pipeline.

But it's more notable for what it dodges: Bush is one of the greenest candidates in the Republican presidential field.
He’s also battling accusations that he’s soft on the issues that are firing up the Republican base right now, and his big energy rollout didn’t mention the term “climate change.” And while he promises to stop President Barack Obama’s climate regulations “in their tracks,” he didn't repeat his previous concerns that the climate is changing "and humans are contributing to it,“ or that Republicans who deny global warming risk being viewed as “anti-science.”


“It’s pretty standard stuff that people want to hear from the horse’s mouth,” said Andrew Sabin, a longtime major GOP donor and environmentalist who has given Bush’s campaign advice on developing his energy and environmental agenda. “Jeb is playing it very conservative and very smart.”

Climate change is an important issue to Republicans like Sabin, and it appeals to independents and other swing voters that Bush would need to court if he wins the GOP primary. And his pro-drilling positions put a wider gulf between him and Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, who has come out against Arctic drilling and Keystone XL.

Bush’s plan “reads like a Big Oil wish list, while apparently omitting clean energy and renewables entirely,” Clinton campaign director John Podesta said in a statement to POLITICO. “Given Bush's long record of climate defeatism and his history of taking campaign contributions from oil interests, I guess we shouldn't be surprised.”

Bush also threw his support to lifting the 1970s crude oil export ban, a GOP cause célèbre that may replace even Keystone XL as the top energy fight in the political arena.

“There’s no reason why this can’t be an effective tool for us to re-engage in the world,” Bush told the crowd Tuesday at a Pittsburgh-area facility run by natural gas company Rice Energy. “I can’t think of a better deal than what we’re going through right now, we’re just not exploiting it to the fullest extent possible.”

But while Bush’s plan says Washington should “defer” to states that are pressing to allow oil and gas drilling off their coasts — specifically mentioning Alaska and Virginia — it’s silent on whether he continues to oppose oil rigs in federal waters off Florida, a stance he championed fiercely as governor of the historically anti-drilling Sunshine State.

His fuzziness on climate science and his states-rights position on drilling serves two purposes for Bush, allowing him to run with the GOP pack during the primaries while leaving him room to embrace a more environmentally friendly position during the general election. And the initial reaction from greens might only help with that strategy.

Solar Energy
As cheap as fossil fuel
and getting cheaper all the time.

Deutsche Bank's 2015 Report On Grid Parity

“This plan is meet the new driller, same as the old driller,” said Daniel J. Weiss, senior vice president for campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters. “Jeb Bush’s plan is a giant carbon bomb that will accelerate climate change, sea-level rise, smog and health impacts.”
Bush has long separated his support for expanding oil production, including opening up federal lands “in a thoughtful way,” from his opposition to offshore drilling near Florida, a position that created a rift with George W. Bush’s administration in 2001. He touted his fight to keep oil rigs far away from the state’s coast in a March 2000 email, where he listed “maintaining Florida’s position against offshore drilling” as No. 2 on his roster of environmental accomplishments, ahead of even his multibillion-dollar efforts to restore the Everglades.

And some Bush-backers are hoping he may outline an energy platform in the coming months that could distinguish him from others in the GOP field and give green-minded Republicans something to rally behind.

“I think that’s going to come down the road,” Sabin said. “This is where he needs to be right now.”
Bush is looking to add policy heft to his campaign and hold steady in the upper tiers of the GOP presidential field by supporting fossil fuels to primary voters as part of his pledge to raise annual economic growth to 4 percent.

“What he’s outlined is much more comprehensive than anything any candidate in either party has said,” said C. Boyden Gray, a former ambassador and energy diplomat who worked in the administrations of Bush’s father and brother, and who has also advised Jeb Bush’s presidential campaign.

But Gray also acknowledged Bush will need to talk more about climate change. “He’s going to have to address it in a more detailed way,” he said.

Grey did equate Bush’s push for increasing the use of natural gas with a climate policy. "Natural gas is very climate-friendly," he said.

The former Florida governor said shipping U.S. liquefied natural gas to Europe would also be cheaper and cleaner than the Russian natural gas that dominates the market there. “We’re much more committed to protecting the environment,” Bush said.

Bush is currently sitting in polls behind a trio of conservative outsiders — Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina — with fellow Floridian Marco Rubio, who outlined a similar pro-fossil fuel strategy to Oklahoma oil and gas producers in early September. Rubio is promising to release a broader proposal later this fall.

And a memo from Bush distributed by his campaign late Monday teased proposals that it plans to release in the coming months that will “complement our status as an energy superpower by revitalizing our position as the superpower of energy innovation.”

That memo also emphasized using federal research to “further accelerate the discovery of game-changing technologies" by hiking high-priority basic research and increasing the effectiveness of our national labs. “The private sector often underfunds energy research that could greatly benefit society,” it said. “Government can correct that.”

Energy producers and consumers, Bush said, “must have better access to new technologies such as ‘intelligent’ electricity-management devices, unconventional transportation fuels, advanced nuclear power designs, and cutting-edge energy-conservation methods.”

His memo also offers at hint at a possible proposal to overhaul the energy tax structure.
“We must create a level playing field for all energy sources including, but not limited to, nuclear, renewables, coal, natural gas, oil and alternative fuels,” Bush noted in the memo. “We unnecessarily drive up energy costs on Americans when we play favorites and suppress the dynamism of free markets.”




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Pope Francis Met With Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis, Her Lawyers Say

September 29, 2015, 8:33 pm
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PHOTO: Pictured from left, Pope Francis and Kim Davis.

Kim Davis Keeps $8o K Job As Head Of Office That Issues Same Sex Marriage Licenses

Except for the elective office she currently occupies, Ms. Davis' preparation for more-than-minimum-wage work is non-existent.
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/kim-davis-keeps-8o-k-job-as-head-of.html

Pope Francis Met With Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis, Her Lawyers Say

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Sep 29, 2015
Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, privately met with Pope Francis during his historic trip to the U.S., according to her legal team.
Davis and her husband Joe met with the pope at the Vatican Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, according to a statement from the Liberty Counsel.
Neither the Vatican nor the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, D.C., have commented on the statement from Davis' legal team.
ABC News' Terry Moran asked Francis Sunday night if he supports individuals, including government officials, who claim religious liberty as a reason to disobey the law.
Francis responded, "I can't have in mind all the cases that can exist about conscientious objection, but, yes, I can say that conscientious objection is a right that is a part of every human right. It is a right. And if a person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a right."
When asked if that includes government officials, Francis said, "It is a human right and if a government official is a human person, he has that right. It is a human right."
Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Denied Marriage Licenses for Her Friends
Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Released From Jail
Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis Tells ABC News She's Been Called 'Hitler' and 'Homophobe'
Earlier this month Davis was jailed for nearly one week after she refused a judge's order to issue marriage licenses in Rowan County, Kentucky, to same-sex and heterosexual couples. When Davis returned to work, she said she wanted her name and title removed from the licenses being issued by her office.
Last week Davis told ABC News' Paula Faris that she feels her Christian beliefs trump her day-to-day responsibilities.
"My constituents elected me. But the main authority that rules my life is the Lord," she said.
Davis' stance has drawn intrigue, reverence, scrutiny and scorn. She has been called Hitler and a homophobe, she said.
"What people say about me does not define who I am. That's everybody's opinion and that's everybody's right," Davis said.
"I've been called things and names that I didn't even say when I was in the world. Those names don't hurt me," Davis added. "What probably hurt me the worst is when someone tells me that my God does not love me or that my God is not happy with me, that I am a hypocrite of a Christian."

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Pope Francis Tries To Stop Richard Glossip's Oklahoma Execution. New Evidence In Case

September 30, 2015, 9:01 am
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Pope Francis Calls For Abolishing The Death Penalty And Life Imprisonment

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/pope-francis-calls-for-abolishing-death.html

Pope Francis Tries to Stop Richard Glossip's Oklahoma Execution

Tracy Connor

Pope Francis, who was not able to stop a Georgia woman's execution, has asked for a reprieve for an Oklahoma man headed for death chamber Wednesday afternoon.
Richard Glossip, whose supporters include "Dead Man Walking" nun Helen Prejean and actress Susan Sarandon, is due to be put to death at 3 p.m. CT if his appeals are rejected. He insists that he is innocent in the 1997 murder of his boss.
In a letter to Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin dated Sept. 21, the pope's representative asked her to commute Glossip's death sentence, saying that would "give clearer witness to the value and dignity of every person's life."

Georgia Woman Slated For Execution At 7 p.m. Today
A spokeswoman for Fallin said she does not have the authority to commute the sentence. The letter was also sent to the state parole board.


Image: Pope Francis, Left, and Richard Glossip







Pope Francis, who failed to stop the execution of a Georgia woman, is now trying to win a reprieve for an Oklahoma man, Richard Glossip, who is hours away from the death chamber. JONATHAN ERNST / Reuters

On Tuesday, the pope tried to convince Georgia's parole board to halt another execution, the lethal injection of Kelly Anne Gissendaner, who was put to death hours later while singing "Amazing Grace." 
That intervention came just days after he wrapped up his first visit to the United States, where called for a global ban on the death penalty in a speech to Congress.
It was unclear if the pontiff's request would have any effect on Glossip's situation. He had an appeal pending with the U.S. Supreme Court as the clock ticked down.
Glossip's execution has been stayed three times before, including last winter when the Supreme Court agreed to hear his challenge to Oklahoma's lethal-injection drugs. The justice's upheld the state's protocol.
Two weeks ago, Glossip was hours away from being escorted to the execution chamber when a state appeals court halted the process so it could consider his claim that new evidence show he is innocent.
Glossip's conviction hinged largely on the testimony of the man who actually carried out the 1997 murder of his boss, motel owner Barry Van Treese. That man, Justin Sneed, is serving a life sentence.
The defense says it has witnesses who back up their claim that Sneed acted alone, and that the state has tried to intimidate those witnesses by hitting them with probation violations.
What's a Death Row Inmate's Final Day Like? 0:42
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/pope-francis-tries-stop-richard-glossips-oklahoma-execution-n436166
Van Treese's family says they have no doubt that Glossip was involved in the murder to cover up a $10,000 embezzlement.
There are four more inmates scheduled for execution nationwide in the next week.

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Democrat Gerry Connolly Slams Republicans For Misogynistic Treatment Of PP Head

September 30, 2015, 9:12 am
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Diane Rehm Shines Bright Light On Planned-Parenthood-Fetal-Tissue Debate

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/diane-rehm-shines-bright-light-on.html

Democrat Gerry Connolly SLAM Republicans for their "misogyny" in their treatment of PP Head

Lefty Coaster

57 Comments / 57 New

I applaud Democrat Gerry Connolly outspoken response to the disrespectful condescending way Republicans on the committee treated Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards as she appeared as a witness before their house committee.    

Dem accuses GOP of 'misogyny' at hearing on Planned Parenthood
The Virginia Democrat's remarks offered a brief respite from the heated exchanges between Richards and other GOP members of the committee.
Several members, including Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wy.), spoke over Richards as she tried to respond to questions, preventing her from answering before her time elapsed.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) also sharply criticized Richards for her annual salary of more than $500,000.
Connolly accused of hypocrisy those who question Planned Parenthood’s motives.
 “This is not about some bogus video,” Connolly said. “This is about a conservative philosophy that says … we believe in individualism and personal liberty. There’s an asterisk in that assertion … when it comes to women and controlling their own bodies and making their own health decisions.
The Republicans treatment of Richards was absolutely appalling and disgraceful.



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Diane Rehm Shines Bright Light On Planned-Parenthood-Fetal-Tissue Debate

September 30, 2015, 9:27 am
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Opponents and supporters of Planned Parenthood demonstrate July 28 in Philadelphia.
Opponents and supporters of Planned Parenthood demonstrate July 28 in Philadelphia. 
Wednesday, Sep 30 2015 

Planned Parenthood And The Debate Over Fetal Tissue Research

Listen
    Many first heard about fetal tissue research when the Center for Medical Progress released a series of videos about Planned Parenthood. But scientists have used fetal tissue since the middle of the 20th century. It has contributed to the development of many vaccines, including the vaccine for polio, and today some scientists say these cells – from aborted fetuses – are the key to more groundbreaking discoveries. Others are less optimistic, pointing to the advancement of new stem cell technologies and the complicated issue of abortion tied into research. We look at how the political fight over funding for Planned Parenthood is drawing attention to the medical uses of fetal tissue.

    Guests

    • Julie Rovner senior correspondent, Kaiser Health News; author of "Health Care Policy and Politics A-Z"
    • Dr. David Prentice vice president and research director, Charlotte Lozier Institute
    • Dr. Akhilesh Pandey professor at the Institute of Genetic Medicine and the Departments of Biological Chemistry, Oncology and Pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
    • Insoo Hyun associate professor in the Department of Bioethics and Director of the Case Western Reserve University Stem Cell Ethics Center.
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    A Mediterranean Diet With Extra Olive Oil Cut Incidence Of Breast Cancer By 68%. Study

    September 30, 2015, 9:36 am
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    The group of women in a new study with the lowest rate of breast cancer consumed about four tablespoons of olive oil each day.
    The group of women in a new study with the lowest rate of breast cancer consumed about four tablespoons of olive oil each day.

    The Roseto Effect: "People Are Nourished By Other People" 
    And A Mediterranean Diet Doesn't Hurt
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-roseto-effect-people-are-nourished.html

    Alan: A pathologist friend offers this appraisal: "If humankind adopted a Mediterranean diet, the health benefits would be greater than every drug in the pharmacopoeia with the exception of insulin and antibiotics."

    Mediterranean Diet: Live Longer, 
    Live Better, Live In Community
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-mediterranean-diet-live-longer-live.html

    Mediterranean Diet With Extra Olive 

    Oil May Lower Breast Cancer Risk

    NPR


    By now, surely you've heard of the Mediterranean diet.
    It's a pattern of eating that emphasizes fish, nuts, legumes, fruits, vegetables and olive oil — lots of olive oil.
    The evidence of its benefits has been piling up. For instance, a 2013 study in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that the diet can protect against heart disease. Another study published earlier this year revealed it can help fend off memory loss.
    Now, researchers say that eating a Mediterranean diet supplemented with four tablespoons per day of extra-virgin olive oil reduces the risk of breast cancer.
    "We found a strong reduction in the risk of breast cancer," says Miguel Martinez Gonzalez, an author of the study and a leading researcher on the preventive health effects of the Mediterranean diet at the University of Navarra in Spain.
    For his latest study, which appears Monday in JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, Martinez Gonzales assigned about 4,000 women between the ages of 60 and 80 to follow either the Mediterranean-plus-olive-oil diet or a low-fat diet.
    He found that the women following the Mediterranean diet had a 68 percent lower relative risk of developing breast cancer during a five-year follow-up period compared with women on the low-fat diet.
    Experts say lots of factors determine how quickly an oil deteriorates — from the variety of the olives, to how the oil is produced and stored.

    THE SALT

    To Get The Benefits Of Olive Oil, Fresh May Be Best

    One of JAMA's editors, Mitchell Katz, weighed in on the study in a separate editor's note.
    "Of course, no study is perfect," he wrote. And there are certainly limitations to this one, including the fact that this was a homogeneous group of white women.
    But, Katz points out, the Mediterranean diet is known to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and "may also prevent breast cancer."
    In conclusion, he wrote, "we hope to see more emphasis on Mediterranean diet to reduce cancer and cardiovascular disease and improve health and well-being."
    What's tricky about the findings, Katz tells The Salt in an interview, is that it's hard to know which compound, or compounds, in the Mediterranean diet could be most beneficial.
    But given that the group of women with the lowest rate of breast cancer consumed about four tablespoons of olive oil in their diet each day, "it makes you wonder whether it's something in the extra-virgin olive oil."
    As we've reported, extra-virgin olive oil is, in essence, the fresh-squeezed juice of an olive. "It's a fruit juice," Tom Mueller, author of a book on olive oil, Extra Virginity,told us a few years back.
    And inside are a whole range of potentially beneficial compounds known as polyphenols. One of them is oleocanthal, which "possesses similar anti-inflammatory properties to ibuprofen [pain reliever]," according to a study published in 2011.
    And, as we've told you before: When it comes to choosing extra virgin olive oil, fresh is best, so look for a harvest date on the bottle.

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    The Roseto Effect: "People Are Nourished By Other People"& A Mediterranean Diet Doesn't Hurt

    September 30, 2015, 9:56 am
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    A New `Roseto Effect'

    `People Are Nourished By Other People'

    October 11, 1996|By Ron Grossman and Charles Leroux, Chicago Tribune Staff Writers.

    ROSETO, Pa. — Imitating its namesake in the Appenine Mountains of southern Italy, this village of 1,500 clings to a forested ridge in the Poconos.
    Not many outsiders wind their way up here, and those who do may first think they have stumbled upon a ghost town. During the day, the children all are in school while nearly every adult is away at work in nearby towns. Vegetable plots and grape arbors adjoining modest frame houses await the return of their gardeners. On front porches, which often are built right up to the sidewalks, chairs are lined up ready for the evening's passeggiata.
    That Old World reanimates Roseto's streets in a leisurely promenade punctuated with frequent stops to share news of the day and gossip about the great strings of extended Italian-American families who live here.
    "You go down the street, and everybody says, `Hello, hello'," said Anita Renna, 43. "You feel like you're the mayor."


    Roseto Effect
    Wikipedia

    The Roseto Effect: A 50 Year Comparison Of Mortality Rates

    The Roseto Effect
    American Journal Of Public Health 

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    Modern Conservatism's Absurd Epistemology Derives From Mendacious Defense Of Slavery

    September 30, 2015, 11:04 am
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    A slave named Peter sits for his photo: “Overseer Artayou Carr
    A slave named Peter, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, April 2, 1863

    Alan: Southerners have been too eager to absolve themselves of centuries of slavery.
    In the context of traditional Christian absolution, most southerners have neither confessed their sin nor performed penance.

    Slavery Myths Debunked

    By  and 

    The Irish were slaves too; slaves had it better than Northern factory workers; black people fought for the Confederacy; and other lies, half-truths, and irrelevancies. 

    Acertain resistance to discussion about the toll of American slavery isn’t confined to the least savory corners of the Internet. Last year, in an unsigned (and now withdrawn) review of historian Ed Baptist’s book The Half Has Never Been Told, the Economist took issue with Baptist’s “overstated” treatment of the topic, arguing that the increase in the country’s economic output in the 19th century shouldn’t be chalked up to black workers’ innovations in the cotton field but rather to masters treating their slaves well out of economic self-interest—a bit of seemingly rational counterargument that ignores the moral force of Baptist’s narrative, while making space for the fantasy of kindly slavery. In a June column on the legacy of Robert E. Lee that was otherwise largely critical of the Confederate general, New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks wrote that, though Lee owned slaves, he didn’t like owning slaves—a biographical detail whose inclusion seemed to imply that Lee’s ambivalence somehow made his slaveholding less objectionable. And in an August obituary of civil rights leader Julian Bond, the Times called his great-grandmother Jane Bond “the slave mistress of a Kentucky farmer”—a term that accords far too much agency to Bond’s ancestor and too little blame to the “farmer” who enslaved her.
    While working on our Slate Academy podcast, The History of American Slavery, we encountered many types of slavery denial—frequently disguised as historical correctives and advanced by those who want to change (or end) conversation about the deep impact of slavery on American history. We’d like to offer counterarguments—some historical, some ethical—to the most common misdirections that surface in conversations about slavery.
    “The Irish Were Slaves Too”
    Is it true?: If we’re talking about slavery as it was practiced on Africans in the United States—that is, hereditary chattel slavery—then the answer is a clear no. As historian and public librarian Liam Hogan writes in a paper titled “The Myth of ‘Irish Slaves’ in the Colonies,” “Persons from Ireland have been held in various forms of human bondage throughout history, but they have never been chattel slaves in the West Indies.” Nor is there any evidence of Irish chattel slavery in the North American colonies. There were a large number of Irish indentured servants, and there were cases in which Irish men and women were sentenced to indentured servitude in the “new world” and forcibly shipped across the Atlantic. But even involuntary laborers had more autonomy than enslaved Africans, and the large majority of Irish indentured servants came here voluntarily.
    Which raises a question: Where did the myth of Irish slavery come from? A few places. The term “white slaves” emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, first as a derogatory term for Irish laborers—equating their social position to that of slaves—later as political rhetoric in Ireland itself, and later still as Southern pro-slavery propaganda against an industrialized North. More recently, Hogan notes, several sources have conflated indentured servitude with chattel slavery in order to argue for a particular Irish disadvantage in the Americas, when compared to other white immigrant groups. Hogan cites several writers—Sean O’Callaghan in To Hell or Barbados and Don Jordan and Michael Walsh in White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America—who exaggerate poor treatment of Irish indentured servants and intentionally conflate their status with African slaves. Neither of the authors “bother to inform the reader, in a coherent manner, what the differences are between chattel slavery and indentured servitude or forced labor,” writes Hogan.




    A SLATE PLUS SPECIAL FEATURE:
    Runaway Railroad

    History of American Slavery, Episode 8: Our sometimes mythical memory of the Underground Railroad, and why the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 propelled the country toward war.
    This is an important point. Indentured servitude was difficult, deadly work, and many indentured servants died before their terms were over. But indentured servitude was temporary, with a beginning and an end. Those who survived their terms received their freedom. Servants could even petition for early release due to mistreatment, and colonial lawmakers established different, often lesser, punishments for disobedient servants compared to disobedient slaves. Above all, indentured servitude wasn’t hereditary. The children of servants were free; the children of slaves were property. To elide this is to diminish the realities of chattel slavery, which—perhaps—is one reason the most vocal purveyors of the myth are neo-Confederate and white supremacist groups.
    Bottom line: Even if many Irish immigrants faced discrimination and hard lives on these shores, it doesn’t change the fact that American slavery—hereditary and race-based—was a massive institution that shaped and defined the political economy of colonial America, and later, the United States. Nor does it change the fact that this institution left a profound legacy for the descendants of enslaved Africans, who even after emancipation were subject to almost a century of violence, disenfranchisement, and pervasive oppression, with social, economic, and cultural effects that persist to the present.

    “Black people enslaved each other in Africa, and black people worked with slave traders, so …”
    In a piece published in Vice magazine in 2005 (and still available on the Vicewebsite), comedian Jim Goad offers a series of “feel better about your history, white kids” arguments. One of his salvos: “Slavery was common throughout Africa, with entire tribes becoming enslaved after losing battles. Tribal chieftains often sold their defeated foes to white slave-traders.”
    Is it true?: This is certainly true. But, as historian Marcus Rediker writes, the “ancient and widely accepted institution” of enslavement in Africa was exacerbated by the European presence. Yes, European slave traders entered “preexisting circuits of exchange” when they arrived in the 16th century. But European demand changed the shape of this market, strengthening enslavers and ensuring that more and more people would be carried away. “[European] slave-ship captains wanted to deal with ruling groups and strong leaders, people who could command labor resources and deliver the ‘goods,’ ” Rediker writes, and European money and technology further empowered those who were already dominant, encouraging them to enslave greater numbers. Both the social structures and infrastructure that enabled African systems of enslavement were strengthened by the transatlantic slave trade.
    Bottom line: Why should this matter? This is a classic “two wrongs make a right” ethical proposition. Even if Africans (or Arabs, or Jews) colluded in the slave trade, should white Americans be entitled to do whatever they pleased with the people who were unlucky enough to fall victim?




    150929_HIST_SlaveryMyths_1stslave
    Image via mythdebunk.com
    “The first slave owner in America was black.”
    Is it true?: It depends on how you parse the timeline. Anthony Johnson, the black ex–indentured servant whose bio opened the first episode of our podcast, did sue to hold John Casor for life in 1653, and the resulting civil court decision remanding Casor to Johnson’s ownership was (as historian R. Halliburton Jr. writes) “one of the first known legal sanctions of slavery” in the colonies. That phrase—“one of”—is crucial. The ship Desire brought a cargo of Africans from Barbados to Boston in 1634; these people were sold as slaves. In 1640 John Punch, a runaway servant of African descent, was sentenced to lifelong slavery in Virginia, while the two European-born companions who fled with him had their indentures extended. In 1641, the passage of the Body of Liberties provided legal sanction for the slave trade in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (N.B.: The image in the meme above isn’t of Anthony Johnson. There were no photographers in 17th-century Virginia.)
    Whether or not Anthony Johnson was the first American slaveholder, he was certainly not the last black person to own slaves. “It is a very sad aspect of African-American history that slavery sometimes could be a colorblind affair,” writes Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the Root, in a fascinating piece about the history of black slaveholders in the United States. Some black slaveholders bought family members, though this humanitarian arrangement doesn’t account for all of the history of black slaveholding, as Gates points out.
    Bottom line: Even if Anthony Johnson was the first person in the North American colonies to hold a slave—even if many black people across the years held slaves—that doesn’t erase the fact that it was the racially based system of hereditary slavery that harmed the vast majority of black people living within it. The fact that some members of an oppressed class participate in oppression doesn’t excuse that oppression.
    “Slaves were better off than some poor people working in Northern or English factories. At least they were given food and a place to stay.”
    Is it true?: It was undeniably hard to be a factory worker in the 19th century. White adults (and children) labored in dangerous environments and were often hungry. But slaves were hardly in a better position.
    While it makes some intuitive sense that a person would be rationally motivated to take care of his or her “property,” as the Economist’s reviewer suggested, historians have found that American slaveholders were apt to provide minimum levels of food and shelter for enslaved people. They considered black people’s palates to be less refined than white people’s, and this justified serving a monotonous diet of pork and cornmeal. Enslaved workers were expected to supplement their diets when they could, by tending their own vegetable gardens and hunting or trapping—more work to be added to their already heavy loads. Evidence shows that many enslaved people suffered from diseases associated with malnutrition, including pellagra, rickets, scurvy, and anemia.
    Even if an enslaved person in the United States landed in a relatively “good” position—owned by a slaveholder who was inclined to feed workers well and be lenient in punishment—he was always subject to sale, which could happen because of death, debt, arguments in the family, or whim. Since very few laws regulated slaveholders’ treatment of enslaved people, there would be no guarantee that the next place the enslaved person landed would be equally comfortable—and the enslaved had limited opportunity, short of running away or resisting, to control the situation.
    Bottom line: This is another case of the “two wrongs” fallacy. We could compare levels of mistreatment of Northern factory workers and Southern enslaved laborers and find that each group lived with hunger and injury; both findings are dismaying. But this is a distraction from the real issue: Slavery, as a system, legalized and codified the slaveholder’s control over the enslaved person’s body. 
    “Only a small percentage of Southerners owned slaves.”
    “The vast majority of soldiers in the Confederate Army were simple men of meager income,” rather than wealthy slaveholders, writes the anonymous author of a widely-circulated Confederate History “fact sheet.”
    Is it true?: According to the 1860 census, taken just before the Civil War, more than 32 percent of white families in the soon-to-be Confederate states owned slaves. Of course, this is an average, and different states had different levels of slaveholding. In Arkansas, just 20 percent of families owned slaves; in South Carolina, it was 46 percent; in Mississippi, it was 49 percent.
    By most measures, this isn’t “small”—it’s roughly the same percentage of Americans who, today, hold a college degree. The large majority of slaveholding families were small farmers and not the major planters who dominate our image of “slavery.”
    Typically, this fact is used to suggest that the Civil War was not about slavery. If so few Southerners owned slaves, goes the argument, then the war had to be about something else (namely, the sanctity of states’ rights). But, as historian Ira Berlinwrites, the slave South was a slave society, not just a society with slaves. Slavery was at the foundation of economic and social relations, and slave-ownership was aspirational—a symbol of wealth and prosperity. Whites who couldn’t afford slaves wanted them in the same way that, today, most Americans want to own a home.
    Bottom line: Slavery was the basis of white supremacy, which united all whites in a racist hierarchy. “[T]he existing relation between the two races in the South,” arguedSouth Carolina Sen. John C. Calhoun in 1837, “forms the most solid and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable political institutions.” Many whites couldn’t imagine Southern society without slavery. And when it was threatened, those whites—whether they owned slaves or not—took up arms to defend their “way of life.”




    “The North benefited from slavery, too.”
    Is it true?: There’s no question that this is true. As historians Ed Baptist and Sven Beckert show in their respective books, American slavery was an economic engine for the global economy. The South’s production of cotton drove industrialization and fueled a massive commodities market that transformed the world. Naturally, this meant that slavery was vital to Northern financial and industrial interests. It’s no coincidence, for instance, that New York City was among the most pro-Southern cities in the North during the Civil War; slavery was key to its economic success. In any honest conversation about American slavery, we have to look at the tight economic links between North and South and the degree to which the entire country was complicit in the enterprise.
    Bottom line: Often, this line comes from Southern defenders, who want to emphasize Northern complicity. But the two types of historical guilt aren’t mutually exclusive. It’s true that the North played a major role in sustaining the slave economy. It’s also true that slavery was based in the American South; that it formed the basis of Southern society; that white Southerners were its most fervent defenders; and that those Southerners would eventually fight a war to preserve and expand the institution.
    “Black people fought for the Confederacy.”
     “Historical fact shows there were Black Confederate soldiers. These brave men fought in the trenches beside their White brothers, all under the Confederate Battle Flag,” reads a statement from the South Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
    Is it true?: Here is a case where rhetorical precision is key. Did blacks serve in the Confederacy? Absolutely: As enslaved people, countless black Americans cooked, cleaned, and worked for Confederate regiments and their officers. But they didn’t fight; there’s no evidence that black Americans—enslaved or free—fought Union soldiers under Confederate banners.




    Slate Academy: The History of American Slavery

    America's defining institution, as told through the lives of nine enslaved people. Enroll in the college course you wish you'd taken, learning from acclaimed historians and writers, alongside Slate's Jamelle Bouie and Rebecca Onion. Included in your Slate Plus membership!
    Toward the end of the war, a desperate Confederate Congress allowed its army to enlist enslaved Africans who had been freed by their masters. A small number of black soldiers were trained, but there’s no evidence they saw action. And even this measure was divisive: Opponents attacked it as a betrayal of the Confederacy’s aim and purpose. “You cannot make soldiers of slaves, or slaves of soldiers,” declaredHowell Cobb, president of the Provisional Confederate State Congress that drafted the Confederate States of America constitution. “The day you make a soldier of them is the beginning of the end of the Revolution. And if slaves seem good soldiers, then our whole theory of slavery is wrong.”





    The myth is a product of the post-war period, when former Confederate leaders worked to retroactively redefine secession from a movement to preserve slavery to a fight for abstract “state’s rights” and a hazy “Southern way of life.”
    Bottom line: Even if there were black soldiers in the Confederate army, it doesn’t change the truth of the Confederacy: Its goal was the protection and expansion of slavery. The institution was protected in the Confederate constitution. “Our new government is founded upon … the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition,” said Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens in his “Cornerstone Speech.” “This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”
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    Georgia Woman Kelly Gissendaner Sings 'Amazing Grace' During Execution

    September 30, 2015, 11:43 am
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    Pope Francis Tries To Stop Richard Glossip's Oklahoma Execution. New Evidence In Case
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/pope-francis-tries-to-stop-richard.html

    Georgia Woman Kelly Gissendaner Sings 'Amazing Grace' During Execution

    by ,  and 

    A Georgia woman who was executed despite a plea for mercy from Pope Francis sang "Amazing Grace" until she was given a lethal injection, witnesses said.
    Kelly Renee Gissendaner, who graduated from a theology program in prison, was put to death at 12:21 a.m. Wednesday after a flurry of last-minute appeals failed.
    Gissendaner, who was sentenced to death for the 1997 stabbing murder of her husband at the hands of her lover, sobbed as she called the victim an "amazing man who died because of me."
    She was the first woman executed in Georgia in 70 years and one of a handful of death-row inmates who were executed even though they did not physically partake in a murder.


    Image: Kelly Gissendaner hugging daughter
    Kelly Gissendaner hugs her daughter Kayla as she celebrates her graduation from a prison theology program in 2011. Ann Borden / Emory University

    The mother of three was nearly executed in February, but the lethal injection was abruptly called off because the chemicals appeared cloudy.
    After a new execution date was set, Gissendaner, 47, convinced the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to reconsider her application for clemency.
    In an extraordinary turn, Pope Francis — who called for a global ban on the death penalty during his U.S. visit last week — urged the board to spare her life. 

    Georgia woman Kelly Gissendaner executed despite pope's plea 0:58
    Video: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/pope-urges-halt-execution-georgia-woman-kelly-gissendaner-n435566
    "While not wishing to minimize the gravity of the crime for which Ms. Gissendander has been convicted, and while sympathizing with the victims, I nonetheless implore you, in consideration of the reasons that have been expressed to your board, to commute the sentence to one that would better express both justice and mercy," Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano wrote on the pontiff's behalf.
    Shortly thereafter, the board announced that it would not stop the execution.
    The victim's family was split on whether Gissendaner should live or die: Her children appeared before the parole board to ask that their mom be spared the death chamber, but her husband's relatives said she did not deserve clemency. 

    Kelly Gissendaner's Daughter Speaks Out 0:42
    Video: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/pope-urges-halt-execution-georgia-woman-kelly-gissendaner-n435566
    "Kelly planned and executed Doug's murder. She targeted him and his death was intentional," Douglas Gissendaner's loved ones said in a written statement.
    "In the last 18 years, our mission has been to seek justice for Doug's murder and to keep his memory alive. We have faith in our legal system and do believe that Kelly has been afforded every right that our legal system affords.
    "As the murderer, she's been given more rights and opportunity over the last 18 years than she ever afforded to Doug who, again, is the victim here. She had no mercy, gave him no rights, no choices, nor the opportunity to live his life. His life was not hers to take."


    Doug Gissendaner Family photo via WXIA

    In the hours before her death, Gissendaner pressed a number of appeals, arguing that it was not fair she got death while the lover who killed her husband got a life sentence. She also said the execution drugs might be defective, and that she had turned her life around and found religion while in prison.
    She requested her final meal last week: cheese dip with chips, Texas fajita nachos and a diet frosted lemonade.
    Jeff Hullinger, a journalist with NBC station WXIA who witnessed the execution, later told reporters that Gissendaner appeared "very, very emotional, I was struck by that."
    He added: "She was crying and then she was sobbing and then broke into song as well as into a number of apologies ... When she was not singing, she was praying."

     Who Watches Inmate Executions in the U.S.? 0:42
    Video: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/lethal-injection/pope-urges-halt-execution-georgia-woman-kelly-gissendaner-n435566


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    The Religious Right Has No Idea What to Do Now

    September 30, 2015, 12:13 pm
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    The Religious Right Has No Idea What to Do Now

    The Values Voter Summit revealed a movement in disarray after the Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage ruling

    By 
    It’s been a rough stretch lately for Christian social conservatives, whose nightmare came to life this past summer with the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage in Obergefell vs. Hodges. But the annual Values Voter Summit kicked off this past weekend in Washington with shouts of jubilation, as activists celebrated the unexpected news that House Speaker John Boehner would be resigningamid the fight over social conservatives’ effort to defund Planned Parenthood or force a government shutdown. “Yes!” one man shouted above the deafening cheers and applause on Friday morning after Senator Marco Rubio interrupted his address to announce Boehner’s exit from the podium. “Amen!” shouted another.
    Later, on Friday evening, another packed room at the Omni Shoreham would erupt once again when Kim Davis, the defiant country clerk from Kentucky, took the stage to accept an award for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. “I am only one,” Davis told the crowd in her brief remarks, her voice rising to a shout. “But we are many!”
    It was a pent-up primal scream that these Christian culture-warriors have long been waiting to unleash. While these triumphal moments may have been fleeting—Boehner almost surely won’t be replaced as speaker by a hardcore social conservative, and Davis’s stand has done nothing concrete to advance the cause of religious liberties—the urge to cheer forsomething was easy to understand; right about now, evangelicals will take whatever victories they can get. Ever since the religious right’s political power arguably peaked in 2004, when President George W. Bush and Karl Rove made gay-marriage bans a centerpiece of their re-election strategy, social conservatives have watched helplessly as their “family values” agenda fizzled, as the tide increasingly swam against them on gay marriage, and as Tea Partiers replaced them as the most coveted constituency for Republican candidates to court. While they've had great success in enacting abortion restrictions in many states, they’ve seen popular support for much of their once-ambitious policy agenda erode.
    Despite the hallelujahs, what this year’s summit ended up highlighting was not the resurgent power of Christian conservatives in the Republican Party, but how much their influence on the policy debate has diminished outside of the issue of abortion. As usual, most of the major GOP presidential contenders—even the unlikely figure of Donald Trump—came courting thecrowd of 2,700 who'd registered for the event. But they offered little besides effusive praise for Kim Davis and utterly vague—if not utterly unrealistic—promises to champion religious liberties in the White House. When the summit-goers left Washington to scatter back to their hometowns across America, they left with no clear idea of what to fight for next on gay marriage—or how.
     
    The very fact that religious liberty was this year’s marquee issue at Values Voters was itself a sign that social conservatives are largely, if understandably, at sea—unsure of what, exactly, to rally around, or what to demand from the candidates clamoring for their affections.Where social conservatives, not long ago, had hopes of repelling the “gay agenda" and turning back the trend toward normalizing homosexuality in America, they’re now reduced to rallying around an alleged campaign of persecution against outlying religious dissenters like Davis.
    On Friday, in between speeches by the presidential candidates, I asked several activists about their strategy for preserving religious liberties. These folks expressed plenty of sympathy and respect for Davis, but had only the faintest idea of what to demand from Congress, state legislatures, or the presidential candidates to solve the problem. Like many, Ron Goss, a 69-year-old activist from Virginia, said he wanted the next president to obey the principles of a “Judeo-Christian nation.” Asked exactly what that would look like, Goss replied: “I would hope that people like Kim Davis wouldn’t be put in jail. We have the First Amendment.”
    “You have to adhere to the Constitution—they’re not doing that,” saidMarty Moore, a 73-year-old activist from North Carolina. “They just need to protect the Constitution at all costs,” agreed Judith Neal, an activist from San Dimas, California. “They need to leave the first Amendment alone.”
    The drift in the social-conservative agenda has been a gift to conservative Republicans: They're increasingly free to court the religious right with little more than toothless appeals to tribalism. This year, they had little to do but practice affinity politics, competing to see who could come off as the most ardent supporter of Davis and “religious liberties” rhetorically. And if there’s one thing that Republican candidates have learned, particularly in the Obama era, it’s how to tap into their base’s fear and anger without offering anything concrete.
    Senator Ted Cruz, who is betting heavily that Christian conservatives will be moved to turn out for him in droves, had volunteers blanketing the summit with campaign stickers and signs. In his address on Friday, Cruz went on at length about his visit to Davis in jail. “Kim and I—we embraced, and I told her, ‘Thank you,’” he said, inspiring an emotional round of applause and affirmative shouts from the crowd. But Cruz’s call for action on the issue boiled down to a mere blanket promise, if he’s elected, “to instruct the Department of Justice and the IRS and every other federal agency that the persecution of religious liberty ends today!”
    Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee—who was so eager to own the issue, and revive his flagging campaign, that he refused to let Cruz speak at a rally when Davis was released last month—offered even less by way offeasible remedies. “The courts cannot make a law,” Huckabee declared, echoing his stance in the September GOP debate. “Kim Davis and people like her will never, ever go to jail if I am president of the United States!”
    But even the most ardent faithful know that Huckabee’s prescription has already been leading nowhere: Davis, after all, defied federal authority by ignoring the law, arguing that “God’s authority” should take precedence over the Court’s ruling. And predictably enough, given the thinness of Davis’s constitutional challenge, it didn’t work. She was released from jail only after agreeing to a court order that she would allow the deputy clerks in her office to issue same-sex marriage licenses. An appeals court has rejected her attempt to appeal the court's demand.

    Some prominent social conservatives worry that the Kim Davis mania is a sign the movement has become directionless, wasting valuable energy by looking in vain for political saviors and lionizing dissenters like Davis. “They’re always looking for a hero (or heroine), while the party’s other factions focus on staffing decisions and policy commitments, where the real work of politics takes place,” The New York Times' Ross Douthat wrote last week, in a column criticizing evangelicals' embrace of Dr. Ben Carson. But concrete policy demands, Douthat argues, are more important than ever, given the ground that conservative Christians have been losing: “With same-sex marriage established nationwide and social liberalism ascendant, religious conservatives have a clear policy ‘ask’ they should be pressing every major Republican contender to embrace.”
    But what is the ask? Douthat recommends uniting behind Senator Mike Lee’s First Amendment Defense Act, which would prevent the federal government from denying tax exemptions, grants, contracts, or school accreditation based on opposition to gay marriage. But neither candidates nor activists were talking up Lee's bill at the summit. Embracing an incremental policy change would mean recognizing just how little room the religious right has left to maneuver on the issue; the rhetoric of persecution feels so much more empowering.
    Rod Dreher, a popular Christian conservative commentator best known forCrunchy Cons, a book about environmentally minded social conservatives,told me by phone during the conference that he agrees that “the Kim Davis thing was such an enormous distraction—a waste of time and our rapidly diminishing political capital for a battle that we weren’t going to win.” Efforts to carve out accommodations for individual businesses that don’t want LGBT customers—another much-cheered talking point for activists at the summit—are similarly doomed, he believes. But there, Dreher parts with Douthat, and with the political activists who came to Washington over the weekend: He’s among those calling for evangelicals to admit defeat in the culture wars and choose the “Benedict Option,” focusing on strengthening one's own faith, family, and community, rather than continuing to fight unwinnable battles in the political arena. 
    He knows it’ll be a while before the political activists who flock to Values Voters will come around to that argument, if ever. “Evangelicals want the hero,” Dreher said, echoing Douthat; they want both martyrs to the cause, like Davis, and a presidential candidate who promises to turn their vague wishes into action. But there’s no consensus candidate to rally around in 2016, so far, any more than there is clear agreement on how to pursue religious liberties in practice. While Cruz easily topped the Values Voter straw poll, evangelicals have also flocked to Donald Trump, who’s successfully channeled their discontent despite his now-discarded pro-choice views, and Carson, who’s also benefitted from the rise of symbolism over policy, running as a devout Christian with few real policy proposals. At the summit, Trump's support for religious liberties amounted to a call for stores to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” Carson was even more vague, simply calling “to stop letting the progressives drive God out of our land.”
    The summit also revealed a generational split that is making a unified policy agenda harder for the religious right to find. Younger activists tended to favor putting same-sex marriage to the side, and wanted their fellow conservatives to focus on a more winnable fight: enacting abortion restrictions at the state level and fighting federal support for Planned Parenthood. For them, the highlight of the weekend was Friday afternoon's speech by David Daleiden, the 26-year-old activist behind the undercover Planned Parenthood videos. “Our foremost right is the right to life,” Ashley Traficant told me, a 25-year Liberty University student and Cruz volunteer. 
    But many of the Values Voters attendees were old-school social conservatives, still determined to keep fighting same-sex marriage and LGBT rights—somehow, someway. “Just because the Court put out an opinion doesn’t mean that it’s the law of the land,” said Mark Roepke, a 44-year-old activist from Arlington, Virginia. Roepke was one of the few I interviewed who brought up Lee’s First Amendment bill as a priority, and he wants state legislatures and Congress to “step up” and stop same-sex marriage from becoming legal everywhere. But he admitted that he wasn’t sure exactly how. “That’s for much smarter people than me,” Roepke said with a laugh. “Give me a path, and I’ll follow that path.” 
    Suzy Khimm is a senior editor at The New Republic.

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    The Bush Administration And Torture

    September 30, 2015, 12:25 pm
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    The lesser angels of our nature.

    Christianity's Bedrock Commitment To Torture: Remaking "The Faithful" In God's Image

    "Good Romans" Considered Jesus' Torture Necessary For Imperial Safety
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/when-jesus-was-tortured-good-romans.html

    Americans, Especially Catholics, Approve Of Inquisitorial Torture

    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/americans-especially-catholics-approve.html

    "The Catholic Voice In The Torture Debate," John A. Coleman S.J.

    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-catholic-voice-in-torture-debate-by.html

    On Balance, Torture Is Massively Counter-Productive And Self-Destructive

    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/on-balance-torture-is-massively.html

    Pope Benedict XVI's Question: 'Can Modern Warfare Ever Be Just?'

    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/pope-benedict-xvi-questions-if-modern.html


    Why Torture Doesn't Work

    Torture: The CIA's First Detainee Spent 266 Days In A Box The Size Of A Coffin

    George Will: "The Torture Of Solitary Confinement"

    "The Catholic Voice In The Torture Debate," John A. Coleman S.J.

    "The Christian Paradox: How A Faithful Nations Gets Jesus Wrong"
    Bill McKibben

    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/06/bill-mckibben-christian-paradox-how.html

    The Last Time Christians Had Balls They Believed In Martyrdom
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-last-time-christians-had-balls-they.html

    "The Rapture" And The Enforcement Of Happiness
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-yorker-cartoon-rapture-and.html

    Bin Laden's Stated Goal: To Bankrupt The United States
    (He knows he cannot take us out. But with Uncle Sam's spendthrift help, he can make us collapse)
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/05/bin-ladens-goal-to-bankrupt-united.html

    "The Torture-Free True Story Of The Best USMC Interrogator In WWII"
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-torture-free-true-story-of-best.html

    Give Conservatives The Small Stuff In Exchange For Single Payer Healthcare
    (Single Payer - or some government supervised system much like it - is the only way to make enough healthcare cost cuts to prevent "the bank" from breaking.)

    Federal Reserve Bank Investigator Carmen Segarra Fired For Holding Banks Responsible

    On Balance, Torture Is Massively Counter-Productive And Self-Destructive

    Dick Cheney On Torturing Prisoners: "I'd Do It Again In A Minute"

    On Balance, Torture Is Massively Counter-Productive And Self-Destructive

    Dick Cheney On Torturing Prisoners: "I'd Do It Again In A Minute"

    "My Client, A Torture Victim"

    Even If Torture Doesn't Work In The Real World, TV Convinces Us It Does

    The Ethics Of Torture Explored In E.M.Coetzee's Painful Novel

    Black Hawk Down Author: "Torture Has Yielded Few Intelligence Gains"

    Torture Doesn't Work. Here's What Does

    "CIA Torture Report A Travesty," Charles Krauthammer

    The Torture-Free True Story Of The Best USMC Interrogator In WWII

    The CIA Torture Report Presents A Real Challenge To American Exceptionalism

    Torture Is Who We Are: A Country, Like A Person, Is What It Does

    The Only CIA Officer In Prison For The Torture Program...
    The United States Tortures War Prisoners. Why The CIA Destroyed 92 Torture Videos

    The CIA Torture Manual Was Written By A Pair Of Charlatans

    CIA Director, Michael Hayden, Insists On Due Process.... For Himself!

    "Is The United States Still A Nation Of Law? 
    Bad Cops And Bad Politicians Walk"

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    Most Christians Hold The Law In Contempt

    September 30, 2015, 12:33 pm
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    Disobedience is like jumping off Everest to prove the law of gravity can be ignored.

    Repercussions exist.

    We are free get with the program... or not.

    Yeshua Excoriates Fellow Pharisees: "The Woe Passages"

    "Love Your Enemies. Do Good To Those Who Hate You," Luke 6: 27-42

    "Do You Know What You're Doing To Me?"
    Jesus of Nazareth
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/12/do-you-know-what-youre-doing-to-me.html

    "Pope Francis Links"




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    Borowitz Report: Pope Met with People Who Refuse to Do Jobs. Sorry He Couldn't Meet Them All

    September 30, 2015, 12:38 pm
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    Kim Davis: Anything Wrong With This Picture?
    http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/09/kim-davis-anything-wrong-with-this.html

    Alan: When asked how many people work in the Vatican, Pope John XXIII answered: "About half."

    VATICAN CITY (The Borowitz Report)—The Vatican has confirmed that while Pope Francis was in Washington, he had meetings with people who refuse to do their jobs.
    The Pope met privately with the Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, and also met at the U.S. Capitol with several hundred other people who have chosen not to perform their duties, the Vatican said.
    “Reporting every day to a job that one has no intention of doing can only fill one with anguish,” the official Vatican statement read. “The Pope wanted to show these people compassion.”

    While in Washington, the Pope had hoped to meet with thousands of additional people who do not do their jobs, but there “wasn’t enough time,” the Vatican said.



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