Wednesday, November 6, 2013
CONTACT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com

News Clips Of The Day:


Pope Francis' latest surprise: a survey on the modern family – NBC

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Pope Francis is shaking things up again.

The pontiff with a penchant for surprises is making new waves by launching a survey of his flock on issues facing modern families — from gay marriage to divorce.
Very specific questions are being sent to parishes around the globe in preparation for next year's synod of bishops, a grassroots effort that experts say is unprecedented.
"It's fascinating," said Thomas Groome, a professor of theology at Boston College.
"It's pretty astonishing," agreed Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the gay Catholic organization DignityUSA.
Vatican watchers say Francis' polling attempt is extraordinary on two levels: first, because it seeks input from rank-and-file Roman Catholics and second, because it touches on issues that might have been considered off-limits in past papacies.
The document sent to every nation's conference of bishops notes that the ancient church and its members are grappling with "concerns which were unheard of until a few years ago."
Same-sex unions, mixed marriages, single-parent families and surrogate mothers are all mentioned in the prelude to a list of questions that get into the nitty-gritty of 21st century life:
"What pastoral attention can be given to people who live in these types of [same-sex] union?"
"In the case of unions of persons of the same sex who have adopted children, what can be done pastorally in light of transmitting the faith?"
"Do [the divorced and remarried] feel marginalized or suffer from the impossibility of receiving the sacraments?"
"In cases where non-practicing Catholics or declared non-believers request the celebration of marriage, describe how this pastoral challenge is dealt with."
The survey is the latest sign of Francis' willingness to engage ordinary Catholics and promote a less judgmental approach to hot-button social issues.
The Argentine Jesuit elected to the throne of St. Peter in March has drawn widespread praise — and some scattered criticism from conservatives — for his comments about gays, women, atheists and priestly celibacy.
There is nothing in the questionnaire that says he is planning any big changes, and a senior Vatican official said Tuesday that the church remains "loyal to the vision of the family where a man and a woman join together and procreate children."
But Fordham University theology chair Terrence Tilley said the questionnaire does suggest the church might tweak some policies that don't involve doctrine — such as denying the sacraments to Catholics who have divorced and remarried or opening the church to gay couples that want to raise adopted children Catholic.
"I think it demonstrates a grounding in the practical realities of the world," Duddy-Burke said, though she cautioned that the real test is if the Vatican agrees to hear from a diverse range of families at the actual synod.
Groome said it "remains to be seen" if the polling will translate into any action, but he's impressed nonetheless.
"To my knowledge, it's the first time in the history of the magisterium have genuinely attempted to consult the laity," he said.
"At least he's started the conversation," Groome said.
"All of these things have been closed issues and you could be fired for even talking about them. Raising these questions and polling people — it at least signals something other than a closed mind. You have to thank God for small mercies."




Vatican says talk of female cardinals 'not remotely realistic' – NBC

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
The announcement that Pope Francis will name new cardinals next year sparked some fevered speculation that he could bestow one of the red birettas on a woman.
But the Vatican is doing its best to dispel the rumors, saying that while it's "theologically and theoretically" possible, there won't be a princess joining the princes of the church anytime soon.
"This is just nonsense," Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told the Irish Times.
"Being a cardinal is one of those roles in the church for which, theoretically, you do not have to be ordained, but to move from there to suggesting the pope will name women cardinals for the next consistory is not remotely realistic.”
Pope Francis has made it clear he's not averse to breaking with tradition, and he has spoken about promoting the role of women in the male-dominated church.
That fueled talk that he might be open to a female cardinal, and some commentators started circulating candidate wish-lists last week with names like former Irish President Mary McAlese and Congo-born Italian minister Cecile Kyenge.
Current canon law dictates that cardinals must be a priest or a bishop — of which there are no women — but in theory that's a rule that could be changed without violating church teachings.
Based on Lombardi's comments, however, it appears that won't happen — at least not before Francis' first consistory (formal meeting of Cardinals) in February.



March 13, 2013
‘Strong’ Catholic Identity at a Four-Decade Low in U.S. – from Pewforum.org
The percentage of U.S. Catholics who consider themselves “strong” members of the Roman Catholic Church has never been lower than it was in 2012, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the General Social Survey (GSS). About a quarter (27%) of American Catholics called themselves “strong” Catholics last year, down more than 15 points since the mid-1980s and among the lowest levels seen in the 38 years since strength of religious identity was first measured in the GSS, a long-running national survey carried out by the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.
The decline among U.S. Catholics is even starker when they are compared with Protestants, whose strength of religious identification has been rising in recent years. About half (54%) of American Protestants – double the Catholic share (27%) – described their particular religious identity as strong last year, among the highest levels since the GSS began asking the question in 1974.
However, over the past four decades, self-reported church attendance has declined among “strong” Catholics as well as among Catholics overall. The share of all Catholics who say they attend Mass at least once a week has dropped from 47% in 1974 to 24% in 2012; among “strong” Catholics, it has fallen more than 30 points, from 85% in 1974 to 53% last year.


This pope is an innovator, to such a degree that he may incur great opposition from within his own church. The Vatican spokesman Lombardi, above, is speaking up to assure the conservative Catholics that there won't be any women cardinals. As pope, can he be ousted? I hope nothing like that happens, because his efforts so far would bring about good changes, in my eyes.

Of course, I am not a Catholic, but I doubt that I would make a very happy Catholic under the oppressive atmosphere of the Church rules and dogmas. With this questionnaire, I think Pope Francis wants to find out what the true personal beliefs of the church members are. Having a large number of unbelievers in the membership can only weaken the Church and thin its ranks.

I would like to see priests being able to marry, women priests, abortion rights at least under certain conditions, the use of birth control, and suicide as being forgivable, come to pass. Also, the whole emphasis on strict obedience without the right to think for oneself and discuss contentious issues openly keeps the Catholic faith separate from American society. It's really hard to be a Catholic in modern society. No wonder young people are falling away from their ranks.




Girl, 3, walks more than a mile to grandma's house after mom is killed – NBC

By Reuters
A 3-year-old girl walked more than a mile down a busy road in Florida to her grandmother's house to seek help after her father allegedly murdered her mother, officials said on Tuesday. 
Sgt. Kristin Thompson of the Lake County Sheriff's Department described the little girl as "kind of heroic." 
"That's quite a distance for a 3-year-old," Thompson said. 
The little girl knew the route to her grandmother's house because she had walked it with her mother, Thompson said. 
The sheriff's department named Johnny Lashawn Shipman, 36, as the suspect and issued a warrant for his arrest in the death of Kristi Lynne Delaney, 26, of Mascotte, 40 miles west of Orlando. 
Delaney filed child support and paternity claims against Shipman in 2011 and a petition for protection from him in 2012, according to Lake County court records. 
Thompson said Shipman did not live in the home with Delaney and her daughter. Thompson would not disclose exactly what the girl saw or told investigators, or whether she identified the assailant as her father. 
"She went down to her grandmother's and said she couldn't get her mom to wake up," Thompson said. 
Shipman has an arrest record that includes battery, burglary and drug charges since 1995, according to court records. 


The human spirit can be very strong, and this little girl showed great intelligence. In one article I read several years ago, a really young child dialed 911 and brought the ambulance to take care of her mother who was in a diabetic coma. Of course, in a village in Africa, the four year old will be helping with the livestock or dropping seeds into the ground behind their father's plow. We tend to look at our very young children as little more than dolls, but they are actually rapidly developing mentally, and can take on some responsibilities. This would make them better citizens as they grow up, and some of the behavior problems that parents encounter would not happen or be as extreme. Some three year old kids in the US are already out of control, to the extent that I hate to think of them as teenagers. Maybe this young girl won't be one of those.




First Thoughts: The GOP establishment strikes back - but with an asterisk – NBC

By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Jessica Taylor

GOP establishment strikes back and Tea Party takes it on the chin… But there’s a big asterisk in Virginia: Did the establishment abandon Cuccinelli?... What Virginia tells us about where the nation is right now (Obama and health-care law are underwater, but 61% want abortion to be legal and just 28% support Tea Party)… A Dem sweep in Virginia? All eyes on the thisclose Herring-Obenshain contest… On Christie’s win and 2016… And breaking down last night’s other races.

The GOP establishment strikes back -- but with an asterisk: If you’re an establishment Republican who wants to regain control of the GOP from the Tea Party, last night was a good night. In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie (R) cruised to re-election, getting impressive scores with Democrats (getting 32% of that vote), Latinos (51%), and even African Americans (21%). In Alabama’s congressional GOP runoff, the establishment-backed Bradley Byrne beat Tea Party candidate Dean Young. And in Virginia’s high-profile gubernatorial race, Democrat Terry McAuliffe narrowly beat Republican Ken Cuccinelli. Why was that result bad news for the Tea Party? Because it’s not hard to believe that another Republican running for the office -- term-limited Gov. Bob McDonnell (who had a 52% approval rating in the exit polls) or Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (who took a pass on the race given that the party’s nomination was going to be decided via a convention instead of a primary) -- probably would have won last night’s race. From the start, the joke about Virginia’s gubernatorial contest was that the only person whom Cuccinelli could beat was McAuliffe, and the only person McAuliffe could beat was Cuccinelli. And who ended up being the more flawed candidate in the purple state President Obama carried in both 2008 and 2012? Answer: Cuccinelli. Establishment Republicans will add last night’s Virginia race to the list of races the Tea Party has thrown away -- Colorado, Delaware, and Nevada in 2010; Indiana and Missouri in 2012.

*** On Christie’s win and 2016: As for Christie’s victory in New Jersey, it’s easy to see how it was a presidential kickoff of sorts. The backdrop of his victory looked presidential, and so did much of his message (hitting Washington’s dysfunction). But there are two sets of numbers that could trouble Christie. The first was that despite Christie’s 20-point-plus win, voters by a 48%-44% margin said they’d vote for Hillary Clinton over their governor, suggesting that Democrats will come home for Hillary. (That said, a majority -- 51% -- said Christie would make a good president.) The second troubling number? Christie lost voters ages 18-29 to Democrat Barbara Buono, 51%-49%. This is less a Christie issue than a larger problem for the GOP. The GOP’s age gap is growing, and the fact that younger voters are becoming so loyal to the Dem Party is something that is a long-term issue.
*** The other races: And in the other notable contests last night, Bill de Blasio (D) won New York City’s mayoral contest… Martin Walsh (D) will be Boston’s next mayor… And Mike Duggan (D) will be Detroit’s first white mayor in decades.


This whole article from today's NBC web site was not included because of its length and the fact that some of it was largely statistics. I'm simply glad to see that there is still a mainstream Republican voting base after the rise of the Tea Party and their attempts to control other Republicans. There are too many true extremists among the Tea Party, and their role in the recent government shutdown is fresh in my mind. Christie is a breath of fresh air.




Report: Coaches wanted Incognito to toughen up Martin
Posted by Mike Florio on November 5, 2013,

When Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald visited PFT Live on Tuesday and we discussed the possibility that Dolphins guard Richie Incognito’s treatment of tackle Jonathan Martin came at the behest of a coaching staff hoping to make Martin tougher, Salguero predicted that, if that ends up being the case, a lot of people will be fired.
A lot of people apparently will be fired.

According to Omar Kelly of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Dolphins coaches asked Incognito “to toughen up” Martin after he missed a voluntary workout during the 2013 offseason.  Kelly cites “at least two” unnamed sources.
Per the unnamed sources, Incognito may have taken his orders too far.  Specifically, the sources tell Kelly that the racially-charged voice message from Incognito to Martin came after skipped two days of the team’s voluntary OTA program.
“Incognito was encouraged by his coaches to make a call that would ‘get [Martin] into the fold,’” Kelly reports.
Regardless of whether Incognito took his orders too far, those who gave the orders will be facing serious consequences, if the report is accurate.  Management-level employees can’t pull the rip cord on a reputed nut job and then throw their hands in the air and say “that was an overreaction” when the local enforcer is overly zealous with his methods of enforcement.
Apart from the fact that the report suggests a violation of the rules regarding voluntary workouts, the report indicates that the coaches set in motion the events that resulted in Martin leaving the team due to ongoing harassment by Incognito.  Even though Kelly’s report focuses specifically on communications occurring in the offseason, it’s quite possible that the effort to toughen up Martin was as extensive as the cinematic effort to “train” PFC William Santiago.
To summarize, one of the biggest messes in recent years is about to get a lot messier.  And if Kelly’s report is accurate, more people than Incognito will soon be former employees of the Dolphins.


I must say, I really don't like football. To me it isn't a sport – it's a war. Touch football is a sport. Basketball, baseball, tennis and golf are sports. I can enjoy a little bit of any of those. I like to see people run around and chase balls, or steal a base before the pitcher catches them, and watching Tiger Woods perform is appealing. I especially like to see fire-breathing tennis pros keep the ball in the air heroically until it finally is impossible. The problem with football players getting brain damage from hitting their heads together is like the brain-damaged boxers that we used to hear so much about. Boxing isn't as popular as it used to be, thank goodness. Football is clearly here to stay, however. I'll just continue to ignore it.




Super-snake ahead! Warming makes mammals smaller, reptiles bigger
Alan Boyle, Science Editor NBC News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Tens of millions of years ago, snakes were as big as horses. Horses were almost as small as snakes. And in a warmer world, it could get that way again.
That's the implication of research showing that warmer temperatures generally favor smaller mammals and larger reptiles.
"You see the size of these animals dancing with the climate," said Jonathan Bloch, a paleontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Bloch delved into the connection between body size and global temperatures, particularly during a hot time known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, on Monday during the ScienceWriters2013 conference here in Gainesville. Like so many facets of global change, the lessons from the distant past don't make the far future look all that sunny. Super-snakes, anyone?
Some like it hot
For years, Bloch and his colleagues have traced the ups and downs of the Paleocene Epoch, which lasted from the downfall of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the start of the Eocene about 56 million years ago. One of the key sites for fossils from that age is the Cerrejon Mine in Colombia, where the coal seams are so active they can spontaneously combust.
"It really is like hell, but it's heaven for fossils," Bloch said.
That's where Bloch found evidence of 60 million-year-old turtles as big as breakfast tables, and a snake called Titanoboa that was as long as a bus. Pointing toward the entryway at the back of the hall, Bloch said, "Imagine that the snake would have to squeeze through the door, and come up to your waist."
Snakes, turtles and other reptiles tend to depend on the environment to regulate their heat — putting them in a category known as ectotherms. ("Cold-blooded" is a commonly used term, though it's a bit of a misnomer.) The only way ancient ectotherms could get as big as they did would be for them to live in a hot climate, and the world was indeed much hotter during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Experts estimate that global temperatures jumped somewhere in the range of 9 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 8 degrees Celsius), due to a massive but mysterious release of greenhouse gases. Titanoboa, for example, thrived amid temperatures as hot as 93 degrees F (34 degrees C).
A modern-day horse looms like a monster over the earliest known horse, Sifrhippus (at right), in this illustration.
Mini-mammals
Paleontologists have also studied how mammals fared back in the Paleocene-Eocene. Last year, Bloch and other researchers said the ancestors of modern-day horses shrunk to the size of housecats when temperatures spiked 55 million years ago. This month, a different team reported that another episode of mammalian dwarfism occurred during a second warming event 2 million years later.
"The fact that it happened twice significantly increases our confidence that we're seeing cause and effect, that one interesting response to global warming in the past was a substantial decrease in body size in mammalian species," the University of Michigan's Philip Gingerich, one of the paleontologists behind the latest study, said in a news release.
Several factors have been proposed for the mammalian downsizing: Research suggests that when temperatures rise into the mid-90s (35 degrees C) for an extended period, mammals have a harder time regulating body heat, and less nutrition is available from plant sources. Under those conditions, smaller mammals would fare better than bigger ones.
What lies ahead?
Here's the scary part: If it's happened before, it could happen again — and perhaps sooner than we think. Bloch noted that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are approaching what they were during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
"You have to go back tens of millions of years before you get close to or higher than what we're talking about for the next couple of hundred years," Bloch said.
Bloch hinted that he and his colleagues may soon be filling out the picture for the rise of mammals with more fossil finds. In any case, learning more about the hot times of the ancient past — and how they cooled off — could provide the key for coping with future climate change.
Somehow, our planet found a way to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide and its global warming effect. Perhaps humanity can take advantage of those same strategies — and if so, the record of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and its aftermath could serve as a "user's manual for Earth," Bloch said.



This is just one more reason to reduce the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Can modern humans change their patterns enough to make that happen? I doubt it. We can't even get people to stop killing rhinos for their horns or gorillas for their hands. Bullying incidents still appear regularly in the news. The human being is still pretty primitive. We just have lots of expensive toys so we don't notice it. Our wealth makes us think we are advanced.




Office smackdown: Workers with kids vs. workers without
Allison Linn Special to TODAY
In the career complaints category, few things can get people more worked up than the debate over who works harder, has it better or is given more preferential treatment: Workers with kids, or those without.
Parents will tell you that juggling work trips and presentations to the CEO with field trips and an unexpected vomiting episode is hard work, but they can make it work with a little co-worker understanding and a few nontraditional work hours. 
But increasingly, some childless workers are countering with a similar lament: They say they deserve a life, too.
Workers without children often have been coveted by employers precisely because the assumption is that they have nothing better to do than to put in long hours, said Trina Jones, a professor at Duke University of Law whose research looks at whether efforts to produce family-friendly workplaces have had an adverse effect on single people without children.
She said family-friendly policies that help parents spend more time with their kids can be unfriendly to those without kids if the childless co-workers are left handling all the weekend shifts or the last-minute business trips that moms and dads couldn't do. 
In addition, some childless colleagues worry that they’ll face backlash if they ask for flexibility to pursue something outside of work, such as a part-time schedule to train for a marathon or flexible days off so they can volunteer at the local pet shelter.
“What happens is the justifications are not viewed the same, and therefore the single person’s commitment to the workplace is questioned,” she said.
No one is suggesting that family-friendly policies should be rolled back.
“I do think it’s important to support families, but I also think it’s part of supporting people,” said Ellen Ernst Kossek, a professor management at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management.
Experts note that many people — parents or not — fear that asking for a flexible schedule will hurt their careers, and that fear is justified. When parents leave work to coach their child’s soccer team or choose a position that makes it easier to pick up the kids from school on time, they can easily pay a price.
“Men get a lot of flak for mixing work and family, and women often get a lot of flak for pursuing work to the exclusion of family,” said Kenneth Matos, senior director of employment research and practice for the Families and Work Institute.
He pointed to research showing that both moms and dads can face a “flexibility stigma” if they take advantage of corporate policies such as working part-time to have more time with their children.
Other research has shown that there is a “motherhood penalty” for working mothers, who tend to earn less than female workers without children.
“Women who are utilizing these policies are paying the price,” Jones said.
For working dads, on the other hand, Jones noted that researchers have found there can be a “daddy bonus,” particularly for highly educated white men who are fathers, leading to higher earnings.
Nevertheless, in many workplaces experts say there is the risk that managers will naturally show a bias to the parents when divvying up who is going to work a holiday or take a night shift. That, in turn, leaves the childless co-workers feeling annoyed with the parents, adding to the potential stigma working parents can face.
“What often happens is we get caught up in what I call the hierarchy of needs, where we start arguing (about) whose off-work activities are more important,” said Matos, of Families and Work Institute.
Matos thinks the better system is to give everyone the same amount of flexibility, with the understanding that people have different non-work priorities. For example, if Joe needs to leave early for his child’s ballet recital, he can make sure to cover for Bob when Bob has to take his dog to the vet.
Kossek, at Purdue, said her research has shown that businesses that promote a culture of flexibility have a higher worker commitment and lower turnover, not to mention workers who are better off.
“We see links to health and well-being, regardless of whether you have kids or not,” Kossek said.
But, she said, too often workers worry that if they ask for flexibility, they’ll be penalized.
“We need different forms of flexibility that don’t stigmatize,” Kossek said. “We have this idea of ideal workers that have to work 150 percent. We’re kind of losing talent by making (them) feel they have to choose one.”
It may seem easy for employers to dismiss these concerns, especially in the current weak job market in which millions of people are still desperate for work. But Jones, the law professor, said that would be a mistake since the percentage of single people in America is on the rise, making them a more important part of the work force.
For some of these childless workers, flexibility is key.
When Darlene Handley, 43, landed her most recent job as a business requirements analyst for a branch of the federal government, one of the big perks was that she could work from home and on a flexible schedule.
At first, that allowed Handley more time to get to the gym so she could train for fitness competitions, and take care of her pets.
Now, the Glendale, Ariz., resident says the schedule helps her pursue her goal of writing a screenplay, fix up her house and help with an organization that neuters feral cats.
The ability to work from home is so important to her that when she was interviewing for a promotion recently, she had to really consider whether the bump up would be worth adding a hefty commute time to and from downtown Phoenix.
Handley said most of her colleagues with the same flexibility have kids, and that can occasionally create some tension.
For example, when she has to travel for work, she flies her mother from Colorado to Arizona to take care of her four cats and a dog, because some of her pets have health problems and a pet sitter would also be costly. She’s not sure everyone sees her travel complications as being as troublesome as a parent arranging for child care because of a trip.
“I think there’s still a little bit of a stereotype of people who either don’t have kids or have pets for kids,” Handley said.
Handley is not alone. Jones said that when she talks about her research single people often mention how hard it can be to arrange for their beloved animals to be taken care of when they are away.
“The cats come up a lot,” Jones said.


I was lucky enough to work in a company that had flex time, medical savings plans, good pension choices, and other employee friendly things. That wasn't just for people with kids, but for all the employees. It was a pleasure to work for them, and my loyalty to the company was complete. That was The Calvert Group in Bethesda, MD. They expected hard work in exchange. We had to process thousand of dollars worth of investments a day, and we fairly frequently worked to midnight – I was on the data entry team. That and my library jobs were my favorite workplace experiences. Most US businesses are not so liberal, and some of them are “sweat shops.” I am relieved that I don't have to work anymore. Now all I have to do is present six or seven interesting news articles a day. It's a breeze!