Lynn Squance

Squatch’s Open Thread 30/11/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 1:30 am Open Thread

Nov 302015

I am taking time to work on the monthly reports for October and November for Politics Plus. I have never done them before so this should be interesting. Fortunately, TC is around to answer questions. As a result, I have this modified Open Thread today. Depending on the news and my time, this might be the case for much of this week. It is definitely a busy week ahead.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:35 (average 4:26). To do it, click here. How did you do?

From the 'Give Your Head A Shake' File

The Daily Beast has an article "Should We Ban Yoga?" that clearly, in my mind at least, pushes the envelope of incredulity.

Should We Ban Yoga?

One would think such a class—a free class, administered to students with special needs—doesn’t deserve the ire of an activist movement. And yet a student—a lone “social justice warrior” with “fainting heart ideologies,” according to Scharf—complained that the class was a slight against yoga’s ancient Indian inventors.

If this is to be believed, then where are the complaints against Roman/Greco wrestling often seen at varsity sporting events? Or those against judo or other martial arts which were not developed here but are routinely taught. How about lacrosse which is a sport of First Nations people and is also Canada's national sport. Or a favourite, meditation. And then there are Tai Chi and Qi Gong (I practice Qi Gong).

The cultures from which yoga originate “have experienced oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and western supremacy… we need to be mindful of this and how we express ourselves while practicing yoga.”

That statement, translated into English, reads thus: Doing yoga is racist because, uh, colonialism.

In my examples, substitute Roman/Greco wrestling, or martial arts, or lacrosse, or meditation, or Tai Chi and Qi Gong for yoga, and what do you have? Well according to the complaint, a whole lot of cultural appropriation. But isn't that flattery to a society when some of its ways are imitated with all respect?

In their zeal to prohibit all potential offense, yoga’s campus naysayers are aligning themselves with totalitarians who imposed cultural isolation on their people in order to keep them enslaved. If they want to encourage respect for other cultures, fine—but imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.

Besides, yoga has many physical and mental health benefits for all ages. What do you think?

My Universe —

Squatch’s Open Thread 29/11/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 9:09 am Open Thread, Politics

Nov 292015

Although in one sense not a lot happened yesterday, with December looming, my calendar is quickly filling up. My Open Threads may be fewer this week (the first time since I began) as I will be attempting to do the monthly reports for October and November under the master's guidance of course. Just know I won't be far away. And now, I am off to church.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:59 (average 4:07). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

Foreign Policy — Donald Trump could not do more to aid the terrorists of the Islamic State were he to put on a suicide vest and detonate himself in the lobby of one of his apartment buildings. His demagoguery and hate-mongering in suggesting that we create a national database of Muslims — or promoting the sick fantasy that on 9/11 crowds of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the destruction of the Twin Towers — is precisely the kind of reaction on which the extremists were counting to compound the impact of their depravity. It stokes the fears of Americans and alienates Islamic audiences worldwide. And having the leading candidate of one of America’s two principal political parties promoting such ideas suggests that they are not his alone but representative of the view of a great cross-section of the American people.

God help us if they do. Trump’s words are the most vile and ignorant sort of pandering. They test the bounds of free speech because they are, in fact, a kind of hate speech designed to turn one portion of the populace against another. They are also profoundly un-American, ignoring the values of openness and tolerance that are fundamental foundations of our national greatness. …

Nonetheless, Trump’s actions are even more unsettling because they are symptomatic of a broader, deeper, and much more profound problem. Terrorism has, since 9/11, mushroomed into a greater global threat than it has ever been before — and it has been a problem in one form or another since the dawn of history. But as bad as terrorism is, our reactions to it have triggered a kind of worsening risk spiral that has made the world a much more dangerous place. Not only are we playing into the terrorists’ hands, and thus giving them needed momentum, the countries of the world are reacting in such an uncoordinated and even conflicting fashion that new geopolitical fissures are emerging that are far more worrisome than any strike or campaign extremists could orchestrate.

Click through for the rest of this longer piece. I think the author is correct in that the world needs to come together in unity of purpose and leadership. As the expression goes, "too many chefs and not enough cooks" are spoiling the broth. Of course, this is easier said than done. National leaders in general tend to be myopic and unilateral.

CBC — If you're going to sponsor one family of Syrian refugees, why not sponsor 50? That's the logic behind Jim Estill's decision. The Guelph, Ont. businessman, and CEO of appliance company Danby, plans to help bring 50 families to the Guelph area and he's personally footing the bill of over $1 million.

Jim Estill, CEO of Danby appliance company, is sponsoring 50 families of Syrian refugees, and is footing the $1 million-plus price tag personally.

Q and A with Jim Estill

Why are you going to do this?

In short, it's the right thing to do. You see what's going on, it's a crisis and we're Canadian. We should do the right thing.

Click through for the rest of the Q and A. Here is a new Syrian refugee story from Guelph, Ontario. Some may be tired of reading these stories, but they are likely people embarrassed by the generosity of others.

Raw Story — On a day when the skies were ashen from the smoke of distant wildfires, Chase Hurley kept his eyes trained on the slower-moving disaster at ground level: collapsing levees, buckling irrigation canals, water rising up over bridges and sloshing over roads.

This is the hidden disaster of California’s drought. So much water has been pumped out of the ground that vast areas of the Central Valley are sinking, destroying millions of dollars in infrastructure in the gradual collapse.

Four years of drought – and the last two years of record-smashing heat – have put water in extremely short supply.

Such climate-charged scenarios form the backdrop to the United Nations negotiations starting in Paris on 30 November, which are seeking to agree on collective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

And still there are those that continue to deny that global warming and human caused climate change exist. As water from aquifers is used up, other areas will also show the effects of climate change.

My Universe — Reminiscent of this past week's full moon.

Squatch’s Open Thread 28/11/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 4:17 pm Open Thread, Politics

Nov 282015

I slept in today and did it ever feel good. Saturdays should be like that from time to time. I'm off to pick up some tastey buns that look like cinnamon rolls but instead have pesto and cheese. They are oh so good!

Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:52). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

The New Yorker — On Saturday, at 2:08 A.M. local time, an American AC-130 began to bomb a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), in Kunduz, Afghanistan. According to accounts from doctors and nurses, the air strike continued for more than an hour, in fifteen-minute waves. The hospital burned for hours afterward; photos and videos from the scene show the structures illuminated by flames from within. “We tried to take a look into one of the burning buildings,” a nurse named Lajos Zoltan Jecssaid, in a statement distributed by M.S.F. “In the Intensive Care Unit, six patients were burning in their beds.” At least twenty-two people, ten patients and a dozen staff members, were killed by the strike or by the fires that the bombs started.

Click through for some of the questions that still need answering, even almost 2 months later.

Common Dreams — Doctors Without Borders is challenging the Pentagon over the findings of internal probes into the bombing of a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3, saying the military's conclusions offer "more questions than answers" and that claims of "human error" simply don't correspond to the available facts. …

"The frightening catalogue of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of U.S. forces and violations of the rules of war," said MSF director general Christopher Stokes. (Photo: Andrew Quilty/Foreign Policy)

Pentagon spokesman Gen. Wilson Shoffner said "some individuals have been suspended from their duty positions" for failing to follow "rules of engagement" and are awaiting disciplinary action.

Sorry, but not good enough General Shoffner. Click through to see the log of calls made by MSF Kabul to the OCHA Civil Military liaison in Afghanistan, among others.

Foreign Policy — As the powerful American gunship circled over the densely packed Afghan city of Kunduz on the night of Oct. 3, the crew was flying blind, with little prior intelligence as to where potential Taliban targets were located and without access to key video or electronic communications systems, which were down for much of the mission. …

‘Human Error’: U.S. Troops Suspended Over Kunduz Hospital Strike

The exterior of the bombed out Kunduz hospital that was staffed by MSF.

Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, spokesman for the NATO command in Kabul, said members of the crew of the AC-130 gunship “did not follow the rules of engagement” in launching the 29-minute attack, and have been suspended from their duties pending possible disciplinary action. …

The mistakes on Oct. 3 began even before the plane took off from base. An investigation by the U.S. military has found that the gunship launched without being briefed on “crucial mission materials, including no-strike info that would have determined the coordinates of the hospital,” Campbell said. The investigation also found that the crew relied almost entirely on a physical description of the building, as opposed to grid coordinates, which led to the strike on the wrong building.

And when all is said and done, will anyone truly be held accountable for this tragedy? The MSF is calling for an independent investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC). I was reading that the MSF has called this a war crime.

When all is said and done, there should be no wrist slaps or suspensions. There should be real accountabilty including an international trial at The Hague, substantial prison time right up the line (not just those flying the mission that should not have been), reparations and fines.

There is a petition at Change.org signed by 542,102 supporters with a goal of 1 million signatures, asking Obama to consent to "an independent international investigation into the events of October 3 by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), the only permanent body set up specifically to investigate violations of international humanitarian law."

YouTube — Pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkeys

My Universe — Simon has a sister and she has a dog! This should be a PSA!

The Myth of America’s Golden Age

Posted by Lynn Squance at 9:33 am Politics

Nov 272015

Picketers playing ball outside closed mill during steel srike. (Photo by Francis Miller//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Politico — The reason critics like Sheila Bair, Elizabeth Warren, Neil Barofsky, Simon Johnson, Paul Krugman and others (left, right and center) won the day—at least the intellectual debate and the war over public perceptions—was not that they were better communicators. It was that they had a more convincing message: There were alternative ways of rescuing the economy that were fairer and that would have resulted in a stronger economy. Instead, our politics and economics are now locked into a vicious circle: Economic inequality leads to political inequality, and this political inequality then leads to rewriting the rules to increase the level of economic inequality even further, and so on. The result? Ever greater disillusionment with our democracy.

Matters may well get worse. Recent research has uncovered a variety of other vicious cycles. Poverty traps mean those in the bottom remain there. The fortunes of a child of poor parents who does well in school are far bleaker than those of a child of rich parents who does much more poorly in school. About a quarter of U.S. college freshmen from the bottom income half finish college by age 24, compared with 90 percent of the upper quartile. And with wages of those who have only a high school diploma at 62 percent of the typical college grad’s earnings—compared with 81 percent in 1965—the prospects are they will be poorer than their parents.

Taken from Wikipedia, Joseph E Stiglitz is "…an American economist and a professor atColumbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979). He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers. He is known for his critical view of the management of globalization, laissez-faire economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists"), and some international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. …

Based on academic citations, Stiglitz is the 4th most influential economist in the world today, and in 2011 he was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Stiglitz's work focuses on income distribution, asset risk management, corporate governance, and international trade. He is the author of several books, the latest being The Great Divide: Unequal Societies and What We Can Do About Them (2015)."

From Alternet, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviews Joseph Stiglitz.

AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now! Talk about these candidates [Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders] and what they’re saying and what they actually do, what they support.

JOSEPH STIGLITZ: Well, I think we’re in a new moment in America, because I think we’ve had a third of a century of a—you might call, an experiment, a grand experiment, where, beginning with Reagan, we said, "Let’s lower the tax rates on the top. Let’s rip away the regulations. We’re going to free up the American economy. We’re going to incentivize it. The result will be the economy will grow so much—yes, the top will get a larger share, but everybody is going to get a bigger piece, and so everybody is going to be better off." Well, we’ve had a third of a century of this experiment, and it has failed. It has failed miserably. The fact is, the bottom 90 percent have seen their incomes stagnate. Median income today is as low as it was a quarter-century ago. Talking about the minimum wage, minimum wage is the level, adjusted for inflation, it was 45, 50 years ago. You know, if an economy can’t deliver for most of its citizens, it’s a failed economy. What’s so striking is, we’ve had technological change, we’ve had globalization—all the things that were supposed the economy perform better—and in fact it’s performed worse. …

Click through to read the rest of these two articles. In the second, Stiglitz says "…I think the point is the American people have figured out that this model hasn’t worked, you know, the model that began a third of a century ago. So, they’re angry, and they want a change." If Stiglitz's point is true, then what are the American people going to do to effect the necessary change? It is, to my mind, imperative that the American people lead with their vote, shake up the establishment.

I also posted The Pitchforks Are Coming … For Us Plutocrats on 31/10/2015 in which Nick Hanauer, billionaire, echoes Stiglitz.

What is the definition of insaniTEA? Voting the same way time after time yet expecting a different and better economic outcome.

Squatch’s Open Thread 27/11/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 9:32 am Open Thread, Politics

Nov 272015

Today is busy for me. I'll be off teaching before too long and won't be back til late afternoon. At least it will be sunny for those out doing Christmas shopping.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:20 (average 5:30). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

CBC — A Muslim group in Peterborough, Ont., will kneel and pray today at a local synagogue, where they will be welcomed after their own mosque was damaged in an arson attack earlier this month that police are investigating as a hate crime.

"As Canadians we have to stick together," said Larry Gillman, president of the Beth Israel Synagogue, in an interview on CBC's Metro Morning today. "It's not about religion, it's not about race. Canadians do this."

Click through for the rest. In a post Paris tragedy, the Masjid al-Salaam mosque in Peterborough, Ont was burned. But the Beth Israel synagogue extended a hand in friendship and now, both Muslims and Jews are using the same space for worship. Kenzu Abdella of the Masjid al-Salaam mosque said "At the end of the day, it's a house of God." Amen!

Alternet — And he said quite clearly that he believes,

“we’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule… And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago…”

Does that add up to fascism? Yeah, pretty much. In his book, “Rush, Newspeak and Fascism” David Neiwert explained that the dictionary definition of the word often leaves out the most important characteristics of the philosophy, which are “its claims to represent the “true character” of the respective national identities among which it arises; and its mythic core of national rebirth — not to mention its corporatist component, its anti-liberalism, its glorification of violence and its contempt for weakness.” If that’s not Donald Trump I don’t know what is.

Facism is like a contagious disease . . . it keeps on infecting. It's not new, but the current crop of Republicans and Tea Partiers sure seem into ensuring its survival. Dump Trump.

The Nation — China Labor Watch’s (CLW) report on China’s toy industry is a seasonal reminder of how American families’ appetite for cheap toys is fed by not-so-fun factory jobs, in which workers struggle to sustain their own families on pennies an hour. The advocacy group reports:

In workshops that are hazardous to their health, millions of workers toil under cruel management, 11 hours a day, six days per week. Over the course of a year, a toy worker may only be able to see her parents and children one time.

In low-wage factories that bring Star Wars andFrozen toys to big-box shelves, field researchers reported observing up to 80-hour workweeks, widespread wage theft, and apparent violations of both corporate ethical sourcing codes and Chinese labor law—including age-discriminatory hiring, nonpayment of mandatory social insurance, and inadequate safety training. For example, at two suppliers, Winson and Jetta, employers reportedly “diverted” overtime hours to discount weekend work. As a result, CLW claims, “employing up to 11,000 workers, the two companies may be cheating workers out of $1 to 2 million a year.”

Click through fore more. How willing are consumers willing to finance the oppression of workers in other countries? If these were American workers, would consumers still finance the oppression? Given what happens with Walmart employees and with the media, the conditions would be more noticeable. But overseas, out of sight, out of mind.

My Universe — TGIF!!! Getting ready for the weekend!

Squatch’s Open Thread 26/11/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 5:50 pm Open Thread, Politics

Nov 262015

I have been out for a good part of the day and am back now. A wonderful sunny day. I hope my American friends are enjoying a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Puzzle — Today’s took me 3:33 (average 5:29). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

The Nation — After 9/11, French President Jacques Chirac rejected the “war on terror” proposed by George W. Bush, urging the United States to treat terrorism as a form of criminality. His refusal to go along with Bush adviser Karl Rove’s Orwellian use of language is perhaps the only thing that Chirac  will be remembered for, but in some ways it’s legacy enough. In contrast, after the November terrorist attacks on Paris, President François Hollande, a Socialist, made the grave error of announcing that France is now at war. Actual states should not grant such legitimacy to small bands of violent criminals, and the deployment of the language and techniques of war is the best way to lose a campaign against them.

The language of war elevates terrorists to the very status to which they aspire: that of legitimate combatants. The fevered hothouses of extremism, whether in Belgian slums or Saudi Wahhabi mosques, generate a narrative that serves as the pretext for violent action. A country like France is depicted as engaging in monstrous acts, killing defenseless children and women from the air. Gullible teenagers are challenged by a jihadi recruiter with the need to do something to halt the atrocities. They are groomed as heroes, as soldiers saving their people. War is, after all, the one social context in which heinous actions are permitted.

Jacques Chirac has a point. Daesh is nothing more than a criminal syndicate, so why are the US, the French and their allies giving Daesh legitimacy by calling it a 'state' and declaring war? Continue reading.

Truthout — Instead of following the White House tradition and "pardoning" a turkey destined for a holiday dinner table, Obama should extend that courtesy to some of the thousands of human beings caged up in America's federal prisons.

Leonard Peltier should be one of them.

Peltier was a Native American activist on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1970s. On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents went to Pine Ridge to look for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for robbery. Soon after they spotted his car, a shootout ensued.

Presidents have been pardoning turkeys yearly . . . it's a longstanding tradition. So why can't POTUS pardon Leonard Pelltier? Despite new evidence, Pelltier still sits in Florida, incarcerated for murders he did not commit. Click through for the remainder.

CBC — Canada has so far issued 928 permanent resident visas to Syrian refugees — but there is still no timeline for when they could start arriving.

Immigration Minister John McCallum blames red tape overseas for the delays.

"Not all of them yet have exit visas from Lebanon, and we are working really, really hard to expedite that so they can get those exit visas as soon as possible," McCallum said an interview with Chris Hall, host of CBC Radio's The House.

Canada is contributing an additional $100 million to help the UN care for refugees in their camps, it was announced Thursday in Ottawa.

McCallum also said the first group of new refugees will be flown to Canada on a military plane — although the date for that flight has yet to be set because of the lack of exit visas.

Click through for the rest of the story. It has started. The Metro Vancouver South Asian community is lining up its ducks — 1 year free tuition at the Khalsa school for Syrian refugee children with the availability of Islamic teaching as well; clothing; household items; and many more things. Teachers in the provincial school districts are taking courses to assist with integration and how to recognise and deal with potential mental health issues. Here is another piece about a Syrian refugee family told Canada is next destination. The trauma that the refugee families endure, the choices they have to make. This is huge and we must ensure that we are prepared.

The Daily Beast — Long before Syrians fled ISIS and Jews fled the Nazis and Irish fled the famine, the Puritans fled persecution to become the original refugees to alight on our shores.

In gratitude for having found refuge and for the assistance they received from the Native Americans after landing at Plymouth Rock, the Puritans we call Pilgrims held what we know as the first Thanksgiving.

Just a thought on Thanksgiving from a modern refugee. Click through.

My Universe — h/t John Gray, Care2

I'm not buying one of these! It does not pick up the cat hair, it just moves it about!

5 Right-Wing Conspiracy Theories as Crazy as Donald Trump’s Lie About Muslims Cheering 9/11

Posted by Lynn Squance at 3:27 am Politics

Nov 252015

The right wing have more conspiracy theories than a junkyard dog has fleas . . . and the number keeps growing. No wonder we call it insaniTEA!

Donald Trump claims thousands of Muslims in New Jersey rejoiced as the Twin Towers fell during the 9/11 attacks. He says he knows this because he saw it in the news, a magical news that no one else but Ben Carson saw, although Ben Carson now says oh wait, no he didn’t. So Trump is alone on this one, and I have a theory as to why: It never happened. Like 99 percent of the crap that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth (and Donald Trump’s garbage Twitter feed!), it’s just something he made up as he went along. Trump knows his followers love red meat almost as much as they love attacking black and Latino people (though not quite that much), so he throws it to them with regularity. The truth be damned.

These kinds of conspiracy theories are par for the course in the GOP these days. Muslim no-go zones, Benghazi, gun confiscations, FEMA concentration camps, yadda, yadda, yadda, the list goes on and on. Just throw Trump’s totally fabricated cheering jihadist Muslims on top of the pile, right between a million “false flags” and unopened boxes of Manchurian candidates.

While we’re talking conservative conspiracy theories let’s, well, talk conservative conspiracy theories. A roundup is below. And it’s just the teeniest, tiniest tip of the iceberg.

Click through for just 5 of these conservative conspiracy theories. I know I am posting this, but I think I'm going to be ill!

Squatch’s Open Thread 25/11/2015

Posted by Lynn Squance at 3:23 am Open Thread, Politics

Nov 252015

Hmmmmmmmmmmm . . . it was an ordinary day with nothing untoward happening. Something must be wrong! Even the weather was great and no sibling rivalries from the feline side of the family! I'll celebrate while I can!

Puzzle — Today’s took me 2:42 (average 4:41). To do it, click here. How did you do?

Short Takes

Daily Kos — While Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning and John Kiriakou are vilified for revealing vital information about spying and bombing and torture, a man who conspired with Goldman Sachs to make billions of dollars on the planned failure of subprime mortgages was honored by New York University for his "Outstanding Contributions to Society."

This is one example of the distorted thinking leading to the demise of a once-vibrant American society. There are other signs of decay:

1. A House Bill Would View Corporate Crimes as 'Honest Mistakes'

Wealthy conservatives are pushing a bill that would excuse corporate leaders from financial fraud, environmental pollution, and other crimes that America's greatest criminals deem simply reckless or negligent. The Heritage Foundation attempts to rationalize, saying "someone who simply has an accident by being slightly careless can hardly be said to have acted with a 'guilty mind.'"

One must wonder, then, what extremes of evil, in the minds of conservatives, led to criminal charges against people apparently aware of their actions: the Ohio woman who took coins from a fountain to buy food; the California man who broke into a church kitchen to find something to eat; and the 90-year-old Florida activist who boldly tried to feed the homeless.

Of course, even without the explicit protection of Congress, CEOs are rarely charged for their crimes. Not a single Wall Street executive faced prosecution for the fraud-ridden 2008 financial crisis.

Click through for 4 more signs of a decaying society. These bring to mind scenes in Detroit where water and sanitation was cut off to thousands because they couldn't pay for water etc, bills usually being a couple hundred dollars. But some golf courses etc owned and used by the wealthy, with arrears in the thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, had no water cut offs. It isn't hard to see who has their priorities screwed up.

Politicususa — Now, it appears that Fox News, the religious right, and conservative pundits have another “war on Christmas” enemy to add to their growing list of atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Wiccans, Heathens, and Muslims who they say hate Christmas. The newest combatant joining the fake war on Christmas went beyond opposing saying Merry Christmas or protesting against Christian Christmas displays on government property and actually assailed the holiday celebration as a farce; likely because he is the supreme leader of the Catholic Church and not involved in conservative America’s silly Christmas outrage.

Pope On War

During a Mass at Casa Santa Maria, Pope Francis quietly committed one of the most heinous sins to American conservatives and religious right fanatics. There have been a world of things this “progressive” Pope has said to incite Republicans, conservatives, and evangelicals to abject anger and outrage, and each and every time it is because he talks like the Christian bible’s humanitarian Jesus. This latest incident is no different and is another signal that on a couple of important issues, Francis is a progressive pope; and an honest-to-dog humanitarian.

Click through for the rest. I can hear Bill O'Reilly now, totally apoplectic, screaming that the Pope has no idea what he's talking about! I am not a catholic, but I can definitely get behind him on some issues, and this is one. I have felt for years that Christmas is about excessive and conspicuous consumption. The real Christmas comes every day wrapped in plain, unadorned paper. It is the extended hand to refugees, a kind word, volunteering in a soup kitchen or a food bank so others might have food, holding the hand of someone who is afraid, and many more.

Talking Points Memo — Writing for the 7th Circuit majority, Judge Richard Posner called the contention that the law would protect women's health "nonexistent." He said the law would put more women in danger by increasing the waiting times for abortions, which could push some procedures into the second trimester.

"What makes no sense is to abridge the constitutional right to abortion on the basis of spurious contentions regarding women's health — and the abridgement challenged in this case would actually endanger women's health," he wrote.

He also said that a woman who experiences complications from an abortion will go to the nearest hospital, which will treat her regardless of whether her abortion doctor has admitting privileges there.

Click through to read the rest. Of course the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a Texas case come spring which will affect all states.

My Universe — h/t John Gray, Care2

At least this young lady got the kitten's bumb and not claws as was my misfortune when I was the trampoline 7 yearrs ago!

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