more news later April, 2014

A more random than usual bunch of news stories filtered to the top this month. Again, the news is terrible - all month - and as more & more of it piles on there continues that 'blurred' effect. Like the common slush and mud in the roads, this time of year in northern climes, the news gets you mired if you look at it too long. Lots of spinning wheels out there. Here it's been dry, until this week. Plenty of storms this April drift across the US: seasonal, political, economic. I was expecting a call for work but, because of the rains, I haven't received one. I mention all this becasue it speaks to, shows another side to, even reflects on, the transitions that many of the posts that this blog highlights.
Across the country: Guns are allowed everywhere in Georgia now, personal security issues flared, building to building takeovers continued in E Ukraine, the war in Syria stepped up, bombings all over Iraq continued, more drone attacks in Yemen killed scores, the FOXnews standoff in Nevada came and went, killings by law enforcement in Albuquerque, NM outraged: all were like cyclones sucking in anyone who got near, increasing tempers and fueling more divisions.

I said slushy, muddy, blurry, but this also reflects the feeling I get with reading the news of the last several weeks. It's harder to disentangle and lay out into clear neat rows when so much of it is so interconnected. But it's also depressing so I want to turn away from it. I find little time or patience to want to write any down.

There were a couple good news items in there.

President Obama put off deciding about the Keystone XL pipeline which would connect Canada's tarsands oilfields with Texas refineries. Republicans have been pushing it for years while environmentalists have also been saying for years that it would be an ecological disaster. Republicans say it would create 60-80,000 jobs, sceptics say as few as 35 new jobs. You would think in this day and age you could find definitive answers to bridge this ridiculous gap in understanding or presentation. Not these days, not in Washington. Not on twitter either. So that's a maddening thing. However it broughts Cowboys & Indians into Washington, on horsebcak to protest the proposed pipe.

Cowboys & Indians Ride Through DC to Protest Keystone XL Pipeline http://t.co/a0k1ONTDsv @EdShow @cspanwj #KeystoneXL pic.twitter.com/DCCK0M8Ozd
— Maverick™ (@spooney35) April 23, 2014

Princeton Study found the US was most like a growing plutocracy in years 1981-2000. And since then, is there any wonder? But while this is not good news, it is good that it got reported. Harder for those many who would deny it to try. But in this day when any can say anything and act like it's so, what used to pass as accepted wisdom, is just some opinion, nowadays. Hence the blurriness. It becomes very important who the author is and why they tell it like they do.

Marketplace on the US Supreme Court hearing Aereo case  4 min audio. And here is the transcript of the Supreme Court oral arguments.

Is it the end of the internet-as-we-know-it? Another case involving Comcast looks to dispense with Net Neutrality. More on that from the NYT a few days ago.

Harith al-Dari, a leading Sunni cleric in Iraq tells on April 19, why they are battling with Shi'a government. Elections occurred April 29.

April 20 was St Agnes' Day of Montepulciano's fame. The old place of the convent is an address in Abruzzo, near Siena, Italy.

April 21 was St Anselm's Day. He spent  years as Benedictine monk at the monastery in Bec, Normandy, before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury.

April 27 was St Zita's Day. She was a serving maid to the Fatinelli household in Lucca, Italy in the thirteenth century. She became popular as patron saint of servants, bakers and women throughout Europe. Even as far as Lincolnshire, UK where she is called St Sithes. In our time, pope Francis canonized prior popes John XXIII and John Paul II on this day. Here is the text of Francis' homily on this important occasion.

April 29 was Catherine of Siena's Day. She is one of two patron saints of Italy, the other being St Francis of Assisi. Born the spring that the black plague ravaged Italy in 1347, she became a healer, an ambassador to Florence to plead before the pope in France, and may have induced pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome. She's also considered a Catholic mystic today and pope John Paul II made her one of six patron saints of Europe.