Western Wildfires’ Size, Iintensity and Impact are Increasing

Three victims of the Yarnell, Arizona, wild fires

The congressional Republicans and their knuckle dragging Christofascist supporters continue to deny that climate change is real and that government action is needed to deal with the new reality facing not only America, but the entire world.  Hurricanes and tropical storms are increasing in number and intensity, seal levels are rising, and weather patterns are becoming more severe.  And western state fires are becoming more frequent and more intense as climate change alters rainfall patterns.  The latest horrific fires in the area of Prescott, Arizona, which killed 19 young firefighters (three are pictured above) are but the most recent example of this phenomenon.  Yet the Christofascists and the GOP refuse to face reality.  Here are excerpts from the New York Times:

Volatile weather patterns marked by shortened winters, stifling heat waves and prolonged droughts. New housing developments encroaching on fire-prone lands. Shrinking budgets for fire-prevention measures.

That dangerous combination of factors helps explain the increasingly voracious wildfires that have ripped through the western United States in recent years, say scientists, lawmakers and historians.

While the deaths of 19 firefighters Sunday in Arizona marked the most lethal firefighting incident in generations, the 8,400-acre blaze that led to the tragedy has become more the norm than the exception. 

“On average, wildfires burn twice as many acres each year as compared to 40 years ago. Last year, the fires were massive in size, coinciding with increased temperatures and early snow melt in the West,” U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwelltold lawmakers on Capitol Hill last month, adding, “The last two decades have seen fires that are extraordinary in their size, intensity and impacts.”

[B]road agreement exists that climate change, coupled with economic development and state and federal policies on fire prevention, has played a significant role in shaping the fires raging across Western landscapes. 

The Quadrennial Fire Review, a wildfire crystal ball of sorts that comes out every four years, predicted in 2009 that the effects of climate change would lead to “greater probability of longer and bigger fire seasons, in more regions in the nation” — in particular, shorter, wetter winters coupled with warmer, drier summers. The report also foresaw strained fire agency budget resources at all levels – federal, tribal, state and local.

[I]in other ways, the Yarnell fire might be further evidence of a new normal. The National Interagency Coordination Center, comprised of representatives from various federal agencies, said that nearly two dozen other uncontained wildfires are burning throughout the country this week. Experts say fire seasons are starting earlier and ending later than in the past.

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Ft. Lauderdale July 2013 - Day One

The boyfriend and I arrived at our friends' home (pictured above) in Lighthouse Point, Florida, just north of Ft. Lauderdale this afternoon and have so far had a relaxing afternoon and evening: drinks near the pool and a great dinner.  The flight out of Richmond on Jet Blue was smooth and seamless. Tomorrow we going out on our friends' boat;

For dinner tomorrow, we are taking our hosts to dinner at the Lauderdale Yacht Club (pictured below) via out membership in the Hampton Yacht Club.  I am looking forward to some down time, but will - as is the norm - being working on documents and communication with clients via e-mail.

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We plan a number of outings to the beach and visits to gay venues in the area, including Wilton Manor, while in town over the 4th of July and the coming week.

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Barna Research Group: Atheists Divorce Less, Commit Fewer Crimes Than Christians

Today's posts may seem disproportionately rough on "godly Christians," but there just seems to be a plethora of stories that underscore the hypocrisy and batshit craziness of the so-called Christian Right.  As a number of previous posts have set forth, states with gay marriage have lower divorce rates than anti-gay Bible Belt states.  Likewise, studies have shown that evangelical Christians have the highest divorce rates of any religious groups/denomination.  Now, a new study by the Barna Research Group - a conservative Christian organization - confirms that atheists have a lower divorce rate than the "godly Christian" crowd.   Here are highlights via The New Civil Rights Movement:

An Evangelical Christian pollster finds that atheists commit less crimes, divorce less, and are better educated than their fellow Christians. “It is obvious that you do not have to believe in a higher power in order to live a moral and successful life. Quite the opposite,” the Knoxville News‘ Al Westerfield writes of the study, adding that “the groups with the highest crime rate, the poorest marriages and the lowest education continually strive to force their beliefs on the nonreligious. And the politicians pander to them. Why else would they pass laws to put religion in the schools and on courthouse facades? And then they wonder why the godless could possibly be upset.”

“According to a Barna Research Group report, fundamentalist Christians have the highest divorce rate, followed by Jews and Baptists,” Westerfield writes:

The godless are tied with Catholics and Lutherans for the lowest divorce rate. It seems that some groups that claim to follow the Bible most strictly are not putting their money where their mouths are. The godless who are thought to be without morals seem to take their vows more seriously.

Some groups seem to like their flocks ignorant so that pastors’ interpretations of God’s edicts are not questioned. Other groups prize scholarship and achieve more in their lives here on Earth.

In fact, a review of worldwide studies found that criminality and religion go hand in hand. The countries with the most religious people have the highest crime rates, highest sexually transmitted diseases and the highest teen pregnancy rates.

This is also true in the United States. The more religious a state’s population, the higher the crime, STD and teen pregnancy rates.

The hypocrisy is mind numbing.  Why do politicians give a damn about what these ignorant, promiscuous and  obviously unfaithful folks have to say about anything?  Oh, I forgot.  These folks are today' Republican Party.

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Tuesday Morning Male Beauty

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Cardinal Dolan Sought to Hide Church Assets

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has begun a huge file dump in connection with the huge sex abuse scandal that rocked the archdiocese and some of the newly released documents indicate that as long suspected, Cardinal Timothy Dolan - a major loud mouthed homophobe - tried to hide archdiocese assets so as to screw over sex-abuse victims seeking compensation for the criminal actions done against them.  The man is a disgusting pig and obviously a huge liar.  Note too that the Vatican was in on the move to hide assets. The New York Times has details:

Files released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee on Monday reveal that in 2007, Cardinal Timothy F. Dolan, then the archbishop there, requested permission from the Vatican to move nearly $57 million into a cemetery trust fund to protect the assets from victims of clergy sexual abuse who were demanding compensation. 

Cardinal Dolan, now the archbishop of New York, has emphatically denied seeking to shield church funds as the archbishop of Milwaukee from 2002 to 2009. He reiterated in a statement Monday that these were “old and discredited attacks.” 

However, the files contain a 2007 letter to the Vatican in which he explains that by transferring the assets, “I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican approved the request in five weeks, the files show. 

The release of more than 6,000 pages of documents on Monday was hailed by victims and their advocates as a vindication and a historic step toward transparency and accountability. They were well aware that the archives would bring unusually intense scrutiny to the country’s most high-profile prelate, Cardinal Dolan, who as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the archbishop of New York has sought to help the church turn the corner on the era of scandal. 

[T]he documents lift the curtain on his role as a workaday church functionary concerned with safeguarding assets, persuading abusive priests to leave voluntarily in exchange for continued stipends and benefits, and complying with Rome’s sluggish canonical procedures for dismissing uncooperative priests who he had long concluded were remorseless and a serious risk to children. In one case, the Vatican took five years to remove a convicted sex offender from the priesthood. 

Victims on Monday called for a federal investigation into the actions of Cardinal Dolan and his predecessors, but the cardinal sought to deflect criticism by saying in a statement Monday that he welcomed the release of the documents. 

The current archbishop of Milwaukee, Jerome E. Listecki, had announced his decision to release the documents in April, one day before a judicial hearing. Lawyers for abuse victims had asked a judge to compel their release. 

There is more in the article that deserves a read.  I have long maintained that Dolan is a liar and needs to be criminally prosecuted.

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Good Christians in Action

I saw this photo on Facebook and it was too good to pass up.  It illustrates the backbone that the mainstream denominations need to find to successfully challenge the hate filled messages of the Christofascists and their puppets in the Republican Party.

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Poll: Gay Bashing by Churches Fuels Americans' Flight from Religion

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One of the ironies is that in their effort to deny LGBT individuals equality not to mention freedom from state sponsored discrimination as exists here in Virginia, the Christofascists claim that gays will destroy civilization and society.   A new poll suggests that the only thing being destroyed is the Christofascists' and religion in general's grip on American society.  And what is hastening religion's decline is the Christofascists and their constant bashing of gays (I'd also add blacks and minorities in the case of hate groups like FRC and The Family Foundation).  That's right, it is the pious folks themselves who are destroying the Christian brand.   Here are highlights from a piece in Huffington Post that looks at the poll findings:

A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals that a record number of Americans (19.3 percent) have abandoned faith and now consider themselves unaffiliated with any particular religion.

If you want to understand the reasons behind this trend, take a moment to read a disturbing letter that Twin Cities Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt sent to the mother of a gay son. In it, the holy man told the mother that her "eternal salvation" might depend on whether or not she embraced the anti-gay teachings of the Catholic Church, thus rejecting her own child. Talk about family values!

Such a callous admonition might have worked in the past, when people had little education. It might have resonated in bygone eras, when gays and lesbians were invisible and easy to demonize as the "other." It might have held sway had the Catholic Church's credibility not been left in tatters after the church spent more than $2.5 billion to clean up the wreckage wrought by pedophile priests and their enablers.

While Nienstedt's arrogance and cruelty stands out as particularly odious, it isn't just Catholicism that is in decline. In a world that is increasingly more complicated, with infinite possibilities and pitfalls, as well as seemingly unlimited access to information, the idea that one faith owns absolute truth is a notion that is slowly becoming obsolete.

Religious extremists have long claimed that the acceptance of homosexuality would bring down the fundamentalist church -- and they have been proven correct, albeit not for the reasons they proffered. The downfall occurred not because gay people stopped heterosexuals from reproducing or recruited their children. It didn't happen because LGBT individuals hate families, which they have always been part of. And it didn't happen because homosexuals despised faith; the abundance of deeply religious gay people proves that this is not true.

The fundamentalists undermined their legitimacy by worshiping anti-gay bigotry long after it had been exposed as a false God. In this unholy obsession the sacrifices left bleeding at the altar were truth and justice. When people see their own sons and daughters and friends and co-workers coming out, it creates a crisis of credibility for religious institutions. It leads to countless situations where mean-spirited men like Nienstedt demand blind, irrational obedience and say "take it or leave it" -- and more people are now following their consciences and walking away.

The political coalition of the future is non-dogmatic, mainstream people of faith and the Nones. In the coming decade these two groups will forge bonds and create a dynamic force that rivals the holy-book literalists who presently hold power disproportionate to their numbers. This will be a much-needed correction to the outmoded ideas and celebration of ignorance that is holding back our nation's promise and progress.

Yes, there are many good and decent Christians.  I lease space to the ELCA Bishop of Virginia and I see daily the quiet good works that denomination undertakes.  Sadly, the hate and bigotry of their fundamentalist brethren is what is seen by the younger generations in particular.  To survive, the decent denominations need to stand up and challenge the hate merchants and they need to be more visible in their good works if Christianity is to survive.

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