Adam Liptak at the Times previews the big Supreme Court battle over the Bladensburg Cross this week, for which CFI has provided a humdinger of an amicus brief. (Did I really just type “humdinger”? God, I’m old.) From the article:
“When you’re driving at night, you don’t see devotion and valor and all that stuff; you just see a giant cross floating in the darkness,” [plaintiff Fred Edwords] said. “And that leaves the impression that the city of Bladensburg is a Christian enclave.”
So, that big bishops’ summit at the Vatican. You know, the one where they’re gonna fix the child sex-abuse problem. Yesterday, Pope Francis told the assembled clergy, “We are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth.” How would they do this? Well, they didn’t say. But the Vatican is going to publish a guidebook. And they’re going to clarify some regulations. So, you know, this is just about solved.
Oh but before you send out those guidebooks, maybe make sure this guy doesn’t have them all burned. Turns out this German cardinal, Reinhard Marx, has admitted that the Vatican had destroyed files “that could have documented the terrible deeds and named those responsible.”
Thomas Reese points out the absurd paradox of bishops policing and investigating other bishops, which church doctrine actually says they’re not even supposed to do:
The church needs to have a robust discussion of how to hold bishops accountable for their misdeeds and negligence in office. But this discussion cannot go on forever. Even an imperfect system is better than what we have now.
So this should make you feel even worse: The Trump administration is putting together a panel of specially selected scientists to contradict the government’s own analysis of the existential death spiral of climate change. Retired Rear Adm. David Titley said to the Post:
I never thought I would live to see the day in the United States where our own White House is attacking the very science agencies that can help the president understand and manage the climate risks to security of today and tomorrow. Such attacks are un-American.
(Note to Howard Schultz, if you’re going to call something un-American, speeding up the end of the world is a better option than tax policy.)
Also, Trump has nominated the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Kelly Knight Craft, to be the next UN Ambassador, and guess what, she’s a climate science denier too. CNN reports:
Shortly after arriving in Ottawa, Craft earned some ridicule for telling the CBC she understood “both sides” of the debate on climate change. Both, she said, “have their own results, from their studies, and I appreciate and I respect both sides of the science.”
Also also, the Trump administration has barred taxpayer-funded clinics from referring patients for abortion services, even if the clinic and the abortion services are in the same building. We’re getting really close to a domestic gag rule.
Back to Canada, where a bunch of homeopaths have secured $350,000 in government aid to bring homeopathy to Honduras so they can stop a horrible epidemic, which of course they can’t. Pediatrician Srinivas Murthy tells the CBC:
Homeopathy is not treating anything. … It’s offering really nothing outside of people getting to travel to different places and feel better about themselves.
YouTube says it will no longer allow antivax misinformation videos to monetize with ads.
We have strict policies that govern what videos we allow ads to appear on, and videos that promote anti-vaccination content are a violation of those policies. We enforce these policies vigorously, and if we find a video that violates them, we immediately take action and remove ads.
The perpetually pleasant and T-shirted Herb Silverman debates Liberty University professor Karen Swallow Prior on the question of whether society would be better off without religion in January at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and the full 90-minute video is online.
I wish I had gone to Polaris Expeditionary Learning School when I was a kid, because they teach a lot of practical skills through simulated zombie attacks. Nerf is also involved.
Quote of the Day
The Washington Post‘s James Downie on society’s fatally slow approach to addressing climate change:
Fundamentally, many members of the political and media establishments do not seem to understand that saying “I believe in climate change” is no longer good enough, that a gradual plan lowering emissions is no longer fast enough, or that half-measures and gestures are no strong enough. The further along cancer is, the more extreme its treatment must be. …
… In 1967, one year before he was assassinated, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an address at Manhattan’s Riverside Church. He spoke against the Vietnam War, but his words apply equally well to the fight against climate change: “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. … We must move past indecision to action.”
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Linking to a story or webpage does not imply endorsement by Paul or CFI. Not every use of quotation marks is ironic or sarcastic, but it often is.