Scrolling around...November 14, 2012

The new poverty measure is out, and it’s grim
...The official poverty threshold is the amount of money a family of three would have to make to spend less than one-third of their income on food in 1963 and 1964. Seriously. The only changes from a half-century ago have been adjustments for inflation. At no point was the measure changed to account for other costs, like health insurance, transportation, or housing, or to factor in income from transfer programs like food stamps or WIC.

In recent years the Census Bureau has begun developing a “supplemental poverty measure” that lacks these shortcomings. Today, it released the supplemental figure for 2011. Overall, it’s higher than the official measure, at 16.1 percent, but for some groups, such as children under 18 and blacks, it’s actually lower. By contrast , it’s much higher for the elderly (15.1 percent in the supplemental measure, 8.7 percent in the official one) and Asian-Americans (16.9 percent supplemental, 12.3 percent official), and slightly higher for those 18-64, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites...

Obama Secession: Citizens From 18 States Ask President to Secede From the Union
To date, citizens of 18 states have petitioned the White House for consideration of a peaceful withdrawal from the United States. That's right, thousands of Americans have already signed petitions at whitehouse.gov asking President Obama to allow them to peacefully secede from the union.

The states and their updated totals are: Louisiana, 10,296; Texas, 9196; Florida, 2392; Alabama, 2492; North Carolina, 2434; Kentucky, 1934; Mississippi, 1935; Indiana, 1951; North Dakota, 881; Montana, 1538; Colorado, 1805Oregon, 1594; New Jersey, 1492; New York, 1727; South Carolina, 117; Arkansas, 86; Georgia, 131; Missouri, 149...

Christian Church Vandalized in Jerusalem
In the latest in a string of vandalism incidents to hit Christian holy sites in Israel this year, Calvary Baptist Church was defaced yesterday. “The sign pointing people to the church was defaced with white paint with “Justice” written on the wall next to the sign,” said Pastor Steven Khoury, the head of Calvary Baptist Church.

In September, vandals burned a door of the Trappist Monastery in Latrun and spray-painted anti-Christian graffiti with the words “Jesus is a monkey.” Last month, the Church of the Dormition Abbey on Mt. Zion, near Jerusalem’s Old City, was defaced with graffiti that included the words “price tag.”...

Judge Rules Against Forcing Mentally Disabled Woman’s Abortion
Nevada District Court Judge Egan Walker has agreed that a pregnant 32-year-old mentally disabled woman will not be forced to have an abortion against her will.

Judge Walker has taken the potential abortion off the table and will hold a medical evidentiary hearing with experts to determine the best way to safely help the woman carry her pregnancy to term and have the baby. Nothing has been decided at this point about contraception for the woman, long-term.

The decision will become official later this afternoon or tomorrow morning when Judge Walker officially hands down the ruling...


MOJAVE DESERT: Cross stands again
After more than a decade of First Amendment court battles, a cross stands again in the Mojave National Preserve, for the first time with the legal blessing of the U.S. Supreme Court.

More than 100 people Sunday, Nov. 11, watched as the seven-foot-tall iron cross was hoisted onto and then bolted into Sunrise Rock, which is 12 miles off Interstate 15 about halfway between Barstow and Las Vegas. Then, the commander of the California Veterans of Foreign Wars, Earl Fulk, formally rededicated it...

Eugenics Still Alive and Well in 2012
...For example, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg actually did say what she believes about life-ending abortions in July 2009. Justice Ginsburg said:

Frankly I had thought that, at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don't want to have too many of.

What the good justice is talking about is called "eugenics." Eugenics is not a happy thought -- it is a movement of extremists who claim that humankind can be improved through selective breeding and sterilization. It is what Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany practiced in the extermination of millions of Jews as they sought to create the "perfect human being."...