Eideard

More female priests are joining the Church of England than male ones for the first time ever, it can be disclosed as it takes another step towards the introduction of women bishops.

Official figures show that 290 women were ordained in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available. By contrast, just 273 men entered the priesthood.

The watershed moment comes less than 20 years since the Church first allowed women to be priests, in the face of opposition from Anglo-Catholics and conservative evangelicals who believe that only men can be church leaders…

Sally Barnes, spokesman for the campaign group Women And The Church, said: “The figures are very good news. They show the increasing numbers of women whose vocations are being recognised, accepted and valued by the Church.”

But detailed breakdown of the figures, published in The Church of England Yearbook 2012, shows that most of the new women priests are “self-supporting” rather than having full-time clergy jobs…

The figures on ordination come on the eve of another critical meeting of the Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod.

The week-long gathering in Church House, Westminster, will hear four debates on the draft legislation to introduce women bishops…

Meanwhile new divisions are opening in the Church over whether or not clergy should be able to bless civil partnerships or support full gay marriage.

Anyone send a copy of the memo to the Pope?

Australia’s national broadcaster faced calls for a review of funding on Tuesday over a television comedy scene with a fictional Prime Minister Julia Gillard draped in a national flag after having sex on her office floor.

Conservative opposition lawmakers said the Australian Broadcasting Corporation had overstepped good taste with a scene in which actors playing Gillard and her partner Tim Mathieson cuddled naked and used the flag — with its historic ties to Britain and Australia’s Queen Elizabeth — as a sheet.

“Having sex in the prime minister’s office under the Australian flag is the last straw for me. It is sick. I’m offended and we should take a stand,” one lawmaker who could not be named told a closed door meeting of MPs, a conservative spokesman told a press briefing.

Another MP called for a rethink of taxpayer funding for the ABC, saying the program degraded the office of prime minister, currently held by center-left Labor rival Gillard, while monarchists said the use of the flag was disrespectful…

Gillard herself has laughed off controversy over the satire…Good for you, Julia!

An ABC spokesman for the program said Gillard had only been shown in a “very gentle, tender scene.”

“If it’s okay for others to drape themselves in our flag for all manner of occasions, I really don’t see why it can’t be draped over our prime minister as a symbol of love,” the spokesman said.

And the answer from reasonable adults, hopefully sophisticated, certainly couched in free speech is — “tell the stiffs to stuff it where the sun don’t shine!”

Cowardly reactionaries of every land wrap themselves in the national flag every time they feel threatened by present or future freedom. Letting people speak, letting people laugh, is no longer a choice governed by monarchists and conservative fops.

Why are these men smiling?

Four Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives have voiced opposition to a network neutrality proposal offered by Google and Verizon Communications last week, with the lawmakers saying the two companies shouldn’t set the rules for how U.S. residents access the Internet.

The four lawmakers — Representatives Jay Inslee of Washington, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Anna Eshoo of California and Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania — said they opposed several pieces of the Verizon/Google plan in a letter sent to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission Monday.

“Americans’ online experience shouldn’t be dictated by corporate CEOs,” Inslee said in a statement. “Innovation and creativity online have given rise to millions of jobs and tremendous economic growth, in large part because individual consumers have been free to access what they want. Net neutrality is not about imposing a new set of rules, net neutrality is about preserving the open Internet and empowering consumers and small businesses to bring the next generation of entrepreneurial drive to the World Wide Web…”

The four lawmakers, all members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called for the FCC to set the same net neutrality rules for wireless broadband as it does for wired broadband. The proposal by Google and Verizon would exempt wireless broadband from net neutrality regulations. The committee has jurisdiction over most Internet-related law…

The lawmakers also raised concerns about the Verizon/Google proposal’s exemption from net neutrality rules for managed services, separate from the public Internet. “An overbroad definition of the proposed ‘managed services’ category would sap the vitality and stunt the growth of the Internet,” the lawmakers’ letter said. “In fact, an overly broad interpretation of managed services would create an exception that swallows the rule. Managed services might be rebranded or repackaged services and applications — only with priority treatment not available to competitors.”

It’s almost a surprise – having waited as long as we have to see political and economic alliances like this preparing to confront the future. Not only the future of the US [and North American] Internet market; but, the larger growth potential within the developing world. The latter relying even more upon wireless access to the Web.

If you care enough about Net Neutrality to make it an up or down vote in your life, I’d suggest getting hold of your elected representatives and telling them to get off their rusty dusty.

Another fight over spending is breaking out between Republicans in Washington and GOP governors across the country. The battle echoes last year’s fight over the stimulus bill, which was backed by some Republican governors and opposed by nearly all GOP members of Congress.

This year’s dispute is over a program created in last year’s massive stimulus bill that increased the federal aid for states’ Medicaid obligations.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Republican governors want to extend the program. Along with some Democratic governors, they say the extra federal Medicaid funding is still needed to help close state deficits…

Senate Democrats have included a six-month extension of the program, now set to expire at the end of this year, in a tax bill expected to be voted on this week. Senate Republicans oppose the measure unless its $24 billion cost is fully offset with other spending cuts…

Schwarzenegger, Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas (R-Vt.) and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (Fla.) — have publicly praised the state aid in the stimulus as helpful in retaining jobs and keeping the economy from sinking further, a sentiment that has put them at odds with the congressional GOP’s anti-spending message…

Douglas, the chairman of the National Governors Association, has argued that lawmakers must pass the extension of the enhanced federal Medicaid match money soon because state legislatures are readying their budgets for next year…

A total of 16 GOP governors plus Crist joined Democratic governors in sending another letter in February to congressional leaders urging passage of the extension in February.

Congressional Republicans hope to achieve beatification by teabaggers – and reelection, they hope – with their dedication to ideology over the needs of ordinary citizens of the United States.

RTFA. Enjoy the unintentional humor when the author recalls opportunist sluggos like Rick Perry declaiming again how he opposes any stimulus funds – before he accepts them. The dicho bears repeating: “Republicans would have invented hypocrisy if Christians hadn’t beaten them to it!”

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Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

There was US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the man deciding the fate of the controversial wind farm, sitting on the bridge of a Coast Guard vessel and peering out across the Sound with binoculars a few hours after meeting with Native Americans opposed to the Cape Wind project.

“Very meaningful,’’ said Salazar about his visit that included a private sunrise meeting with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe on a Cape Cod beach, and a later discussion with the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe on Martha’s Vineyard…

Salazar announced no conclusions yesterday about the advisability of locating the wind farm in the scenic Sound, but his visit to the Wampanoag and the area underscores just how high-stakes the Cape Wind farm has become to the Obama administration, which is hoping to accelerate renewable energy efforts and show the world it is serious about fighting manmade climate change. If completed, the project’s developers say it will supply, on average, the equivalent of 75 percent of the energy needs of Cape Cod and the Islands…

Salazar’s visit appeared to ease the Wampanoag tribes’ longstanding complaint that the federal government never took them seriously when they said the wind farm would interfere with their spiritual sun greetings and be built on ancestral grounds that were dry land thousands of years ago…

Speaking to the reporters, Salazar reiterated that a final decision on Cape Wind would be made by April.

He said he was not “holding my breath for a consensus’’ among Native Americans and the project’s developer…

I don’t think it matters to the future of energy and environmental costs whether or not the folks concerned about their view are Native American priests or Kennedy-level brahmins of Massachusetts politics. They’re standing in the way of clean energy for the whole region strictly on selfishness.

Iranian opposition supporters have launched an online campaign to free a student activist accused of dressing as a woman to try to avoid arrest.

Hundreds of men have posted photos of themselves wearing Islamic headscarves as part of the “Be a man” campaign to show solidarity with Majid Tavakoli. He was arrested during protests in Tehran on Monday and state media showed images of him in headscarf and robes.

The opposition say the pictures were staged in a bid to discredit him. They say he was not wearing the headscarf and robes when he was arrested.

Iranian state media say Mr Tavakoli was arrested as he sought to leave Tehran’s Amir Kabir university “disguised as a woman” after Student Day protests.

One US-based website for Iranian expatriates, iranian.com, has posted scores of photos submitted by readers.

“Iranian men are showing their solidarity with Tavakoli by wearing a hijab and posting their photo on the web,” reads its appeal to send in photos.

Some of the website’s readers argue that the campaign is also a gesture of solidarity with Iranian women, who are obliged by the authorities to wear the hijab in public.

Har! There must be some useful parallels for folks in the GOUSA.

We could wear hockey skates and pretend to be Canadians during debates on healthcare reform.

The Republican fratricide in the Nov. 3 special election in upstate New York may prove just an opening round of an even more spectacular bloodbath in Florida in 2010.

In New York, Republican feuding lost the party a seat in the House of Representatives. At stake in Florida is not only a senatorship — but very possibly Republican hopes for 2012 as well.

The battle in Florida pits Gov. Charlie Crist against former Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio. Both men claim to be conservative, pro-life, tax cutters. On the issues, they would seem to agree far more than they disagree.

But on one issue they have disagreed passionately: President Obama’s fiscal stimulus. Squeezed by his state’s desperate fiscal condition, Crist endorsed and campaigned for the Obama stimulus. Inspired by his conservative ideology, Rubio opposed stimulus.

Now Rubio is the darling of conservatives nationwide. Just this week it was announced that he would give the keynote address at next year’s annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. He has been profiled on the cover of National Review, endorsed by the Club for Growth, and feted by radio talk show hosts.

Crist — who as recently as 2008 topped the libertarian Cato Institute’s list of favorite governors — has been consigned to pariah status…

Read the rest of this entry »

The Senate voted Thursday to extend new federal protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their sex or sexual orientation, bringing the measure close to reality after years of fierce debate.

The 68-to-29 vote sends the legislation to President Obama, who has said he supports it.

The measure, attached to an essential military-spending bill, broadens the definition of federal hate crimes to include those committed because of a victim’s gender or gender identity, or sexual orientation. It gives victims the same federal safeguards already afforded to people who are victims of violent crimes because of their race, color, religion or national origin.

“Hate crimes instill fear in those who have no connection to the victim other than a shared characteristic such as race or sexual orientation,” Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said afterward. “For nearly 150 years, we have responded as a nation to deter and to punish violent denials of civil rights by enacting federal laws to protect the civil rights of all of our citizens.”

Ten Republicans voted for the hate-crimes measure.

A fitting memorial to Matthew Shepard – beaten and murdered by bigots.

From the early 1930′s, Republicans had a better voting record on civil rights than did the Dems. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 wouldn’t have made it through Congress without the participation of Everett Dirksen. There is no Republican in Congress, today, with that commitment to justice and the American people.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The fight to end hunger is being hurt by environmentalists who insist that genetically modified crops cannot be used in Africa, says Bill Gates.

Gates said GMO crops, fertilizer and chemicals are important tools — although not the only tools — to help small farms in Africa boost production.

“This global effort to help small farmers is endangered by an ideological wedge that threatens to split the movement in two,” Gates said in his first address on agriculture made during the annual World Food Prize forum.

“Some people insist on an ideal vision of the environment,” Gates said. “They have tried to restrict the spread of biotechnology into sub-Saharan Africa without regard to how much hunger and poverty might be reduced by it.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in recent years has turned its focus to helping poor, small-holder farmers grow and sell more crops as a way to reduce hunger and poverty…

“The next Green Revolution has to be greener than the first,” Gates said. “It must be guided by small-holder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and the environment.”

The Gates Foundation is working with research partners on drought-tolerant maize using both conventional crop-breeding techniques and biotechnology, Gates said, noting he hopes seeds will be available in two or three years.

The impact of those new varieties could help convince skeptics of the benefits of biotechnology, he said.

“The technologies will be licensed royalty free to seed distributors so that the new seeds can be sold to African farmers without extra charge,” Gates said.

He’s right, you know.

I’ll take science over religion – or skeptics whose religion is fear of science – any day. I’ve been an activist for science-based ecology for about 40 years, now. The kind of farming and animal husbandry my family has practiced for centuries has always been natural – which also means frugal – and absolutely willing to learn from sound science.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

So, you think being a Blue Dog Democrat exempts you from attacks by nutball Nazis?