IT'S NOT THE GUNS - PART 4

A Texas girl died on Tuesday night after being accidentally shot with an AK-47 assault-style rifle while her stepbrother was “making the weapon safe by pulling the trigger,” authorities said.

In a press release on Wednesday, Johnson County Sheriff Bob Alford explained that deputies responded to a call Tuesday night about 8 p.m to find 13-year-old Emilee Bates shot in the stomach.
....

Bates was taken to a Fort Worth hospital, where she died at around 10 p.m. Tuesday night. Officials said that the incident was considered an accident and no charges would be filed.

According to KXAS, this was the fourth fatal accidental shooting of a child in North Texas in less than one month.

What every household needs: a loaded AK-47.  Four fatal accidental shootings of children just in north Texas in one month, but it's not about guns.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!  How many children's deaths will it take to bring us to our senses?

ABOUT FEEDLY

When Google announced that Google Reader, which I had used for many years, would be no more, I was quite disappointed.  I chose Feedly as my replacement reader, and a while back I complained on Facebook that I was not all that happy with my choice.  For the last couple of weeks, I have been using Feedly exclusively to follow the blogs on my list, and, as I've learned my way around, I'm pleased to say that I'm now much more comfortable with with my new reader.

The folks at Feedly are trying hard to please the new subscribers to their service, so I thought I owed it to them to amend my previous opinion from negative to positive. So.  If you are looking for a new reader, I recommend Feedly.

Image from Wikipedia.

PUFFINS ARE DYING OF STARVATION

The Atlantic puffin population is at risk in the United States, and there are signs the seabirds are in distress in other parts of the world.

In the Gulf of Maine, the comical-looking seabirds have been dying of starvation and losing body weight, possibly because of shifting fish populations as ocean temperatures rise, according to scientists.

The survival rates of fledglings on Maine’s two largest puffin colonies plunged last summer, and puffins are in declining health at the largest puffin colony in the Gulf, on a Canadian island about 10 miles off eastern Maine. Dozens of emaciated birds were found washed ashore in Massachusetts and Bermuda this past winter, likely victims of starvation.

One day, I hope to see puffins.  When I was in Scotland three years ago, we did not see the birds, as the timing was wrong, but I find puffins with their colorful bills fascinating, and I'm so sad that their habitat is affected by climate change.  A good many people in this country still believe that warnings about the detrimental effects of climate change caused by burning fossil fuels and chemicals dumped into the water and released into the air are conspiracies cooked up by bleeding-heart liberals, but there can be no doubt that the effects on the food chain in the sea, in streams and rivers, and on land, beginning with the tiniest of organisms and moving upward to affect larger animals and birds, is devastating.  The numbers of butterflies and bees are greatly reduced, mainly due to insecticides and destruction of habitats.  Polar bears are drowning, because of melting ice floes caused by warmer temperatures in Arctic waters, and as humans encroach on the the habitats of elephants, lions, and tigers and continue to hunt them down, their numbers have fallen greatly.  The creatures I mention off the top of my head in addition to the puffins, are only a very few of the many species under threat, the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, and the icebergs are melting at a rapid rate and will cause the sea waters to rise and eventually flood out coastal areas all over the world.

What will it take to convince the doubters that it may already be too late to reverse the detrimental effects?  I don't know, but we'd sure as hell better start trying.  

ABOUT ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN'S SPEECH TO THE HOUSE OF LORDS

Earlier I had thought of commenting on at least parts of  Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby's speech yesterday in Parliament's House of Lords, in which he announces that he cannot support the bill that would allow civil marriage for couples of the same sex in England and Northern Ireland.  Since Colin Coward, in his post at "Changing Attitude", covers what I would say and more, only in far better words, I decided to let him have the floor. Colin is, after all, over there in England, and he is gay, so his response carries more weight than would mine.

Before I move out of the way, there is one point I'd like to make.  (Are you truly surprised that I could not maintain complete silence on the matter?) Justin says he is sorry about the church's treatment of the gay community:

...it is also absolutely true that the church has often not served the LGBT communities in the way it should. I must express my sadness and sorrow for that considerable failure.

Then he proceeds to insist that discriminatory treatment must continue with regard to marriage equality.  Does his apology for past actions inoculate the church from charges that it is still not serving the LGBT community as it should at the present time?  I don't think so.  Does Justin give a thought to the people he serves who will be most affected by the vote?  I am not gay, and I can only imagine the pain his words cause LGTB persons. 

On to a snippet from Colin, but please read his entire post.

Archbishop Justin’s solution to the intractable problems that introducing same-sex marriage would create is to add a new and valued institution alongside marriage for same gender relationships. Dear Archbishop, have you thought this through – have you asked those of us who are gay and represent many LGB&T Anglicans? How would you create a new and valued institution that is the equivalent of marriage but isn’t marriage.

Exactly, Archbishop.  Have you asked?

UPDATE: The Bill has now had its second Reading in the House of Lords. The Bill will now get to Committee stage where it will be scrutinised in detail and amendments may be proposed. The proposed amendments will then be discussed in a Third Reading. If the Bill passes that too, the next stage will be Royal Assent (a formality) before it becomes law.

Thanks to my friend Erika on Facebook.

CONNECTION

there came a moment in the middle of the song when 
he suddenly felt every heartbeat in the room & after 
that he never forgot he was part of something much 
bigger

From StoryPeople.

JUSTIN WELBY WANTS MORE PROTECTIONS AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE

THE Archbishop of Canterbury will call on the government this week to make further concessions in the same-sex marriage bill to protect those with moral objections to gay and lesbian weddings.

In a significant intervention during a debate in the House of Lords, Justin Welby is expected to urge ministers to ensure that faith schools and teachers who do not wish to promote gay marriage in class will be able to refuse to do so without penalty.

Welby, the head of the Church of England, is likely to reiterate the objections of the church to gays and lesbians being allowed to marry and his support for traditional marriage.

What about Justin Welby's pastoral duty to all the members of the Church of England?  What about Justin's earlier words of praise for gay relationships?  "You see gay relationships that are just stunning in the quality of the relationship."  And yet, he will say that the people in England "with moral objections" need to be protected from same-sex couples in "stunning" relationships being allowed to marry.  How likely is it that teachers in faith schools will be forced to promote gay marriage?  Such fear as is demonstrated in the concerns of Christian opponents of same-sex marriage, including Justin Welby, is quite troubling.   For heaven's sake, if you want protection against same-sex marriage, then don't marry a person of the same sex.

The link is to a teaser, as only subscribers to the Sunday Times are able to read the entire article.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

LITTLE DYINGS

Little Dyings

Thinking today of the
Hundreds of little dyings
In my long life.

Little dyings, little risings
So the path winds the
Way to the end,

The end that is a new
Beginning with no more
Dyings, large or small.

(June Butler - May 2013)

JINDAL'S TENURE LAW DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL - ON TO THE LOUISIANA SUPREME COURT

One of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature laws that makes it harder for teachers to earn and retain a form of job protection, called tenure, was declared unconstitutional Monday.

State District Judge R. Michael Caldwell, of the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, who in December upheld the tenure part of a sweeping education law, reversed himself after hearing new arguments from both sides.

The ruling was a victory for the Louisiana Federation of Teachers. The LFT filed the lawsuit and said that the 2012 measure would essentially end teacher tenure in Louisiana.

The decision also could throw a wrench into sweeping new teacher evaluations, which are under way in public schools for the first time.

Of course, Jindal will file an appeal, so we'll wait to see how the Louisiana Supreme Court rules.  I'm not against educational reform, but I don't want reform in the hands of Jindal and the present legislature. Apparently, they do not do not overly concern themselves with following laws already in the Louisiana Constitution when they write new legislation, and the experiment with vouchers to private schools is not going well.  Who advises the governor and the legislators on constitutional issues and apparently tells them what they want to hear, rather than what will pass the constitutional test?  I assume Jimmy Faircloth, the lawyer for the state who will lead the appeal, is one of the advisers.  Perhaps, if the advisers stepped into the real world and left behind the Republican fantasy world, they'd give wiser advice about legislation.  Ah, but then they might be dismissed from their positions by the governor, who brooks little or no dissent within his inner circle.

State Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite and an opponent of the tenure law, said Monday that, during House debate on the measure, he and other opponents warned that it was legally flawed but that Jindal and his legislative allies “ramrodded it through.”

Jindal is good at ramrodding legislation through.  His policy: Pass the legislation quickly before too many people have a chance to examine it closely and find the flaws.  

LARYNGOSPASMS - "ANOTHER CASE YOU WANT TO DO"

Out(sic) latest video will resonate with anyone who has ever worked in an operating room. It's well into the night, you've already done a boatload of cases and you just want to get done and go home. And then the surgeon tells you he's found another one...

Doctor, doctor, say it's not true
You've gotta, 'nother case you wanna do
Already worked halfway through the night
You've gotta, 'nother case you wanna do

Never have I worked in an operating room, but I have been a patient in the operating room. For more reasons than one, I guess it's a good thing we patients are mostly knocked out during the procedures. :-)

INTEGRITY USA MAPS & LISTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH DIOCESAN POLICIES ON SAME-SEX BLESSINGS

 

Integrity USA posted a map of dioceses in the Episcopal Church with their policies on same-sex blessings.  The link below takes you to the map and the list.  Scroll down below the map to see the list.

Map of Diocesan Blessings Policies Released!

The Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana offers same-sex blessings.  The Episcopal Diocese of Western Louisiana does not.