[Catholic] Church denies disabled kids’ sex abuse cover-up

New evidence has emerged indicating that the Catholic Church in Adelaide sought to cover up a police investigation into abuse of intellectually disabled children at one of its schools . . .

The documents undermine church claims – then and now – that there had been no cover-up . . .

The Sunday after the report was delivered, parish priests across the archdiocese were instructed to read a statement saying there had been no deliberate cover-up of the abuse.
Read more, and watch two videos here . . . 

Real Class War Is Working to Keep Those Below You Down

Taking pot-shots at another class isn’t war, nor is imposing a modest tax increase on those who have been showered with tax cuts for the last decade. Genuine class warfare is those at the very top working to keep everyone else far beneath them . . . 

Conservative discourse about the “undeserving” poor being where they are because of some inherent personal faults might make some sense if we were all born with the same opportunities to get ahead. Tragically, however, in today’s economy, the single greatest predictor of how much an American child will earn in the future is how much his or her parents take home . . .

In reality, the United States’ much-ballyhooed upward mobility is a myth, and it appears to be getting worse with each new generation.

The U.S. education system is largely funded through state and local property taxes, which means that the quality of a kid’s education depends on the wealth of the community in which he or she grows up. This, too, helps replicate parents’ economic status in their kids. Read more . . . 

Poem: A Humanist Manifesto

By Curt Systma

In every age, the bigot’s rage
Requires another focus,
Another devil forced on stage
By hatred’s hocus-pocus:
The devil used to be the Jew
And then it was the witches;
And then it was the Negroes who
Were digging in the ditches.
The devil once was colored pink
And labeled Communistic;
Now, all at once, in just a blink,
The devil’s humanistic.

Why Does the South Execute More People?

The regional disparity is striking. Since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on death sentences in 1976, 1,264 people have been executed in the U.S. And 921 of those executions — or 73 percent of the total — took place in 13 Southern states . . . 

But less discussed is the racial divide in how people view the death penalty. For example, underneath the polls showing widespread support is one of the most well-documented facts in death penalty research: that it enjoys much higher support among whites than other racial groups, especially African-Americans. Read more . . . 

Dominion Denial: Methinks Chuck Colson Doth Protest Too Much

Do Religious Right zealots want to take “dominion” in America and govern according to their version of biblical law?

Of course they do. But all of a sudden, leaders of the movement say they don’t. Stung by a series of articles exposing the dominionist agenda, they are desperately trying to rebrand themselves as moderates . . .

I do think they want to tear down the wall of separation between church and state so they can fund religious schools and other ministries with taxpayer dollars, pervade public schools with their religious perspective, ban all abortions, deny basic civil rights to the LGBT community and festoon courthouses and other public buildings with the symbols of their faith . . .

Sorry, Chuck. We aren’t mischaracterizing your agenda. We’re exposing it. Read more . . . 

Should Atheists Have Lots of Kids?

If we have lots of kids just so we can breed the next generation of atheists… then how are we any better than the Quiverful families, having lots of kids just so they can breed the next generation of fundamentalist Christians? If we don’t behave better than the religious extremists we’re fighting, then what on earth is the point? Yes, it’s true — religious believers do, on average, have more kids than atheists. And yes, people do tend to stay with the religion they were brought up with. And you know what? Atheists are still winning. Rates of non-belief are going up at a dramatic rate, all over the U.S. and all over the world. The only religious demographic that’s growing in every single state is “None.” Read more . . .