Church vs Clergy
Recently the Anglican Church of Canada voted to reject an amendment to bless same-sex mirage in the Anglican Church. That's good. Except Archbishop Fred Hiltz, the Primate of Canada, decided they had to leave room "for individual dioceses and jurisdictions of our church to proceed with same-sex marriage." Some 15 years ago the denomination passed a measure to "affirm the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships." So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a 15-round bout with the Anglican Church versus Anglican clergy where, apparently, there are no winners.
Unclear on the Concept
It seems like younger generations don't really know where things come from anymore. Take, for instance, the caller who declared, "To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed." Unclear on the concept. Another is area of mystery is economics. Where does money come from? Apparently from rich people ... and we want it. The House passed that $15/hr minimum wage bill last week, but Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib isn't happy. She thought it should be $20 per hour. Why? Because the cost of "a lot of things has gone up." Unclear on the concept. A study from Gettysburg College (2015) concluded that increasing the minimum wage can help decrease income inequity up to a point. Beyond a particular level, increasing the minimum wage would make income inequity worse. The report said that raising the minimum wage to $11.77 would provide the lowest level of income inequality. Going higher from there would start to reduce the effect. Beyond that, increasing the minimum wage will decrease job opportunities and increase consumer costs to pay for the minimum wage (and the ripple effect of that wage hike). Oh, wait ... could that be a factor as to why the cost of "a lot of things" has gone up? Naw! I only want to know why Congress and Tlaib are being so stingy. Wouldn't it be better if the minimum wage went to $50/hr? I mean, we'd all have a lot more money then, right?
Sanity Slide in BC
A guy who claims to be a girl has been making the rounds in British Columbia. He identifies as female but still has male "equipment." So he went to multiple female aestheticians and asked them to wax his genitals. (How do they even say "her male genitalia" with a straight face?) He is suing the 15 that refused. The government tribunal is reviewing some of the cases and forcing others out of business. Some who have dared to comment have been banned from Twitter and face possible charges from the British Columbia Human Rights tribunal. Ricky Gervais, atheist, progressive liberal, and strong supporter of gay rights, defended a woman's right to refuse to touch male genitalia and was accused of being transphobic. Meanwhile, this guy who claims to be a girl is organizing a topless swimming session for girls as young as 12, no parents allowed. At some point you'd think sanity would kick in. So far, it's not looking too good, at least not for British Columbia.
Women's (Non-)Reproductive Rights
Authorities in northern India are investigating why not one girl was born in the last three months out of 216 newborns in 132 villages. While abortion for gender is illegal in India, they're still doing it (obviously). Girls are too expensive (think dowries) and boys are the breadwinners. It's a no-brainer. And I'm sure that women the world over would stand up and defend these women's right to murder their girl children, right?
No-Justice Warriors
Warren Kanders, CEO of a company called The Safariland Group which provides gear (including tear gas) for law enforcement, has stepped down from his role as co-chair of the board of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Why? There has been a call for artists and visitors to boycott the museum because he is the co-chair and "I do not wish to play a role, however inadvvertent, in its demise." It's not clear whether the board asked him to resign. What is clear is the insanity that brought about the boycott. A lesser known news outlet released a story about U.S. border agents using tear gas made by Safariland at the Mexican border. "The man has got to go. The museum will pay if he doesn't. No, this isn't pure, hateful extortion. We really hate art." Now, Obama's administration used tear gas on migrants on multiple occasions and no boycotts were called for, but, hey, we're a fair group of people and we will only be outraged if it's "them" and not "us." This is justice far removed. Presidents (not just Trump) have ordered the use of tear gas on occasion on the border. They have to get it from somewhere. Safariland sells it. The border patrol bought it. They used it when crowds at the border became unruly. The CEO of the company didn't use it or order the use of it or have any say in its use. The museum is even farther removed. So the boycott of a museum to get to a CEO to get to a company to get to the border patrol to get to a president is not justice, especially when the same activity (use of tear gas) caused no disturbance when it was "their guy."
Not News News
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there is a rise in cyberbullying nationwide, and girls are 3x more likely to be harassed than boys.
It is sad, indeed, but it's not news. As our culture moves away from face-to-face interaction with its inherent immediate accountability toward electronic, buffered, uncontrolled interaction and away from an ethic of "others over me" to a "I should be able to do whatever I want" kind of approach, you cannot expect anything else. And even though there are plenty of voices that tell us that men are the problem, it doesn't take a man to point out that girls can be cutthroats with other girls. So it would seem like this story, while unfortunate, is not really news.
Irony
I think it's ironic that the people deeply outraged over the potential pain and suffering inflicted when trying to eradicate an invasive species of lizard are likely completely unconcerned about the tested and verified pain and suffering inflicted on a human child when killed by abortion and actually outraged that someone might be concerned about those poor babies.
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