MadFan

Can't get over all this - so many people and animals displaced.

In some smaller communities here, parents leave their children outside the supermarket in their pushchairs. Americans would be mortified.

You can't pass a TV screen here without seeing it - it's really awful and sadly will continue to happen (and worse) if climate change keeps being ignored. I hope your citizens are less docile than Canadians are...

Church officials can now share information with secular law enforcement authorities. Critics said the confidentiality rule led to the concealment of abuse. ROME — The Vatican on Tuesday said it would abolish the high level of secrecy it has applied to sexual-abuse accusations against clerics, ending a policy that critics said had often shielded priests from criminal punishment by the secular authorities. Removing that cloak of confidentiality, the Roman Catholic Church is changing its stance to make it acceptable — but not required — to turn information about abuse claims over to the police, prosecutors and judges. In recent years, church officials in the United States and some other countries have shared with civil authorities information about some sexual abuse allegations. But that cooperation, in theory, defied a decree adopted in 2001 that made the information a “pontifical secret” — the church’s most classified knowledge. Victims and their advocates said the restrictions hampered civil authorities and helped conceal crimes, and they greeted Francis’ new instructions as a step forward. “Things are decidedly changing,” said Francesco Zanardi, an Italian survivor of clerical abuse and the president of Rete l’Abuso, an Italian anti-abuse group. Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a group that tracks abuse in the church, said the pope had taken “an overdue and desperately needed step.” “For decades, pontifical secrecy has been an obstruction to civil justice, spurring bishops worldwide to thwart prosecutions of abusive priests,” Ms. Barrett Doyle said in a statement. She called changing the policy “a first step toward decreasing the anti-victim bias of canon law.” On Tuesday, the pope also made the canon law against child pornography more stringent, a change that victims’ groups had pushed for. Previously, possession or dissemination of pornographic images of children under 14 was considered a “most grave crime.” That category that will now apply to images of children under 18. The secrecy change is the latest step in the church’s attempts to tackle the sexual abuse crisis that has dogged it for decades. Growing global pressure for greater accountability forced the issue to the front of Pope Francis’ agenda. In response to the demands for change, Francis convened a summit meeting of church leaders in February to address the crisis. It ended with a call “for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors” and insistence that the church needed to protect children “from ravenous wolves.” Weeks after that meeting, the pope issued a new canon law, requiring for the first time that church officials report abuse charges to Vatican prosecutors. Francis then issued a rule requiring that all church officials report to their superiors either abuse allegations or attempts to cover them up. The rule announced on Tuesday was also a product of the February meeting, the Vatican said. “This is a sign of openness, transparency and the willingness to collaborate with the civil authorities,” Andrea Tornielli, the editorial director of the Vatican’s communications office, wrote in a commentary. Under the new norms, “any reporting, testimony and documents” related to sexual abuse “can now be handed over when requested to lawful authorities in their respective countries,” Mr. Tornielli wrote.

I think karbatal means would you be willing to bend, and see "both sides". Whenever I hear that kind of rhetoric I think that that's what they said about us "regular gays" 25 years ago, and still do in many parts of the world today. Is there a "both sides" to passing anti-discrimination laws for gay people in employment, housing, education, public accommodations? How about black people using the same water fountains, movie theatres, schools, bus seats? What's up for discussion? I'm glad that human biology was brought up - imagine the discussion was segregating black athletes from certain sports because on average they have greater lean body mass than non-black athletes. Or Dutch women because they tend to be taller. That would be absurd, right? And yes, when gay men flirt with transphobia (and it happens often) it's particularly egregious. Just because we have it better than we ever have does not mean we should turn our backs on the group that is by far the most marginalized, and who has gone to bat for us many, many times.

(NEW YORK) — J.K. Rowling is facing widespread criticism from the transgender community and other activists after tweeting support for a researcher who lost her job for stating that people cannot change their biological sex. The researcher, Maya Forstater, had been a visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development, which in March declined to renew her contract. A London judge this week upheld her dismissal, finding that her views of sexual identity were “absolutist,” even if they violate someone’s “dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.” On Thursday morning, Rowling tweeted a response that said: The Harry Potter author is otherwise known for her liberal political views and many on Twitter labeled her a TERF (Trans Exclusive Radical Feminist). Among those criticizing her was the Human Rights Campaign, which tweeted: A spokeswoman for Rowling said that the author would not have any further comment.

She didn't buy a first class seat. She sat on the floor and then one became available, and she took it. I really don't get what your point is here...

Karby honey, who isn't simplistic at 16? Her role is as public figurehead to inspire people and raise awareness across the world, hence the 'spectacles' like boating across the ocean etc. It makes people take pause and notice. A video conference would be like every other video conference about climate change: ignored. The planning and policy should come from our governments, but they're doing fuck all.

I agree with all of those things. My point was that it's funny that we tend to want to find the flaw in those who do mostly good, rather than in those who blatantly do bad. Greta rode a train first class - shock horror - I mean really...does this supersede the massive urgency she's brought to climate change in the past year? No. It's a part of human psychology though, but I'd leave it someone more knowledgeable than me to explain why. It's the same reason people picked apart Hillary when Donald was much worse. The same reason people who make $50K a year cry about refugees and strong social welfare systems but not Jeff Bezos, the Panama Papers revealing how the incredibly wealthy are part of an enormous criminal conspiracy to dodge taxes and hoard their wealth in offshore accounts, or Budweiser spending $5 million on a commercial to brag about how they donated $100K worth of water.

Why are you more concerned with her than the conglomerates who are actively anti-environment?

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/massive-backwards-step-australia-to-no-longer-have-a-federal-arts-department The same department as roads and rail?

Wonderfully said.

It's just another non issue they engender to distract everyone from the real problems at hand. They do it every time; for the last election it was undocumented Mexican immigrants. Who honestly cares? The way I see it, the two elephants in the room are climate change, and the obscenely wealthy continuing to fuck over the middle and lower classes through healthcare, education, and jobs. If I could waive a magic wand every American would vote with this top of mind.