More praise for blushing

Recently, I posted about the social value of blushing. There are similar echoes today in an article on physorg. Here's an excerpt:

Embarrassment is one emotional signature of a person to whom you can entrust valuable resources. It's part of the social glue that fosters trust and cooperation in everyday life.

See? Blushing is a good thing.

Even worse than we imagined

From HuffPo today:

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A new report by the Irish branch of Amnesty International says the sexual abuse of children by Ireland's Roman Catholic priests "included acts that amounted to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment."

The 430-page report, released Monday (Sept. 26), "reminds us that Irish children were subjected to treatment that would be horrifying if it were done to prisoners of war, never mind little boys and girls," said Ireland's Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, in Dublin.

The Roman Catholic Church is a child-raping, criminal enterprise. Never forget this.

Great post today by thereisnospoon

David Atkins, who goes by the screen name "thereisnospoon", has been posting eloquently and cogently on the Hullabaloo web site ever since Digby let him get at the keyboard. The guy is so smart.

In "Faith-based policy and American exceptionalism", Atkins makes a great point about the obvious insanity of GOP policies. Go read this one. And then haul this argument out whenever you find yourself talking to a wingnut. Great stuff!

OMD! It's the last day of the baseball season.

It's actually here. It's not just a bad dream, like I'd hoped. It's real. The baseball season has come and gone. Sob. Seems like it was only yesterday that Spring training was starting up.

I'll never survive. My secret plan will help -- but I still don't know if I'll make it all the way to Spring. When all the major MLB players visit me this winter, and Jason Varitek moves in for a month or so, I'll probably feel better. But right now it's so hard.

There won't be a baseball game tomorrow night (barring any ties at the end of tonight's games). The season has ended. How could this have happened? And what can we do so it never happens again? Those are my questions.

Oy, I can't believe it. I'm going to go lie down and have a sick headache. How will you cope with this tremendous, gut-wrenching loss?

Bloomberg's sudden change of heart

The Mayor of Money, Michael Bloomberg, actually did something constructive this week. This article may explain why. I've said it here before: Bloomberg has been a monster toward young people of color.

Here's an excerpt from another article that explains the problem:

Just over 50,000 people were arrested on marijuana possession charges last year, a vast majority of them members of minorities and male. Critics say that as part of the Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy, officers routinely tell suspects to empty their pockets and then, if marijuana is displayed, arrest them for having the drugs in public view, thereby pushing thousands of people toward criminality and into criminal justice system.

Bloomberg duped young people of color so he could arrest them. That's the simple, verifiable truth. He sees New York City as a place for rich people and only rich people. And you know what color rich people are. So he gets his police to yank the people of color off the streets and thinks this makes the city more welcoming for rich, white people. It's that stark.

The "good news" is that he's finally directed the police commissioner to have officers, you know, follow the law. They can no longer trick young people of color into showing the (decriminalized small amount of) marijuana, and then arrest them for following an order. This has been going on for years. I hope a class action brings tons of money to the young people whose lives were derailed by this white man's "justice".

A third way?

So let's see. The split in opinion seems to be between a universe that's many billions of years old, and one that cropped up a mere 6,000 years ago. But what if there's a third possibility?

Digital Cuttlefish wrote a smart, funny poem that suggests an alternative theory. It's in a post called Never got the hang of Tuesdays. Go read it.

They enjoy putting women down

Here's the lead paragraph in an AP story about Amanda Knox, the young woman who has been confined in an Italian prison since 2009, when she was convicted of the murder of her roommate:

Italian lawyers described Amanda Knox, the American student convicted of killing her British roommate, as a "she-devil" and a "witch" in an appeals court Monday while calling her alleged victim a "beautiful girl in the prime of her life."