Blog Heap o'Links for April 2014

The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America

The headlines coming out of the Episcopal Church’s annual U.S. convention are stunning — endorsement of cross-dressing clergy, blessing same-sex marriage, the sale of their headquarters since they can’t afford to maintain it.

…the denomination has been deserted in droves by an angry or ambivalent membership. Six prominent bishops are ready to take their large dioceses out of the American church and align with conservative Anglican groups in Africa and South America. …

U.S. Catholics out-number the Episcopal Church 33-to-1. There are more Jews than Episcopalians. Twice as many Mormons as Episcopalians. Even the little African Methodist Episcopal denomination -- founded in in 1787 -- has passed the Episcopalians. …

A few years ago, the annual national Episcopal convention overwhelmingly refused even to consider a resolution affirming that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Upon returning home from that meeting, Bishop Peter H. Beckwith, leader of the Springfield, Illinois, diocese, wrote in a pastoral letter that the Episcopal church was “in meltdown.” &hellip

The Citizens Commission on Benghazi, a self-selected group of former top military officers, CIA insiders and think-tankers, declared Tuesday in Washington that a seven-month review of the deadly 2012 terrorist attack has determined that it could have been prevented – if the U.S. hadn't been helping to arm al-Qaeda militias throughout Libya a year earlier.

Asteroids caused 26 nuclear-scale explosions in the Earth's atmosphere between 2000 and 2013, a new report reveals. … Some were more powerful – in one case, dozens of times stronger – than the atom bomb blast that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 with an energy yield equivalent to 16 kilotons of TNT. … None of the asteroids were picked up or tracked in advance by any space- or Earth-based observatory….

Making it, as I at sixty look back at them now, was probably defined as talking bluntly, gaining a reputation for “straight shooting,” paying all your bills on time, never making excuses for failure, and in general being loyal to friends and of some worry to enemies. To understand Bundy’s fatalism is to appreciate the rural way and its polite contempt for the softer world of the city and the mush that now passes for making it. Losing nobly was preferable to winning badly — Old Ajax to the core.

So we are not threatened by the likes of Cliven Bundy. Instead, the scary lawlessness extends to the bureaucracy itself, given that under Obama the government is becoming tainted and an ideological tool of social transformation.

Pterodaustro guinazui… lived about 100 million years ago… had about 1,000 teeth… had a diet similar to that of flamingos: small crustaceans like brine shrimp… flamingos do get their pink color from what they eat…

“I recognize that their party is going through the stages of grief — anger and denial and all that stuff — and we’re not at acceptance yet,” Obama told reporters, where he announced that his Obamacare network had claimed 8 million subscribers.

Obama coupled his passive-voice diatribe with his more-in-sorrow-than-anger promise that he “would much prefer a constructive conversation with the Republicans about how do we get some stuff done.”

The conciliatory pitch was sandwiched between Obama’s diverse attacks on the GOP’s sincerity, solidarity and sanity.

Six decades ago - April 12th 1954 - a chubby-faced kiss-curled man pushing 30 with a backing group named after a theory published in Synopsis Astronomia Cometicae in 1705 went into the recording studio at the Pythian Temple on West 70th Street in New York and sang a song written by a man born in the 19th century:

One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock!

Obama has nominated another pro-abort activist to replace Sebelius. Sylvia Mathews Burwell headed up the Gates Foundation, which has given Planned Parenthood of America $12.5 million and International Planned Parenthood $21 million.

She also campaigned for pro-abort candidates and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to pro-abortion President Bill Clinton from 1997 to 1998.

The Devil does not want people to follow Christ, so he tempts them, and this is not old-fashioned rhetoric because “the Devil is here, even in the 21st century” and we must learn “how to fight against Satan,” said Pope Francis during his homily at Mass on Friday in Rome….

“The Devil tempted Jesus many times and Jesus experienced temptation and persecution throughout his lifetime… Maybe some of you might say: ‘But Father, how old fashioned you are to speak about the Devil in the 21st century!’ But look out because the devil is present! The devil is here, even in the 21st century! And we mustn’t be naïve, right? We must learn from the Gospel how to fight against Satan.”

"I feel reborn…. When I was admitted everyone was saying there's no cure, there's no vaccine, and I was frightened. That alone could kill you. I'm out — I've totally recovered, and I thank God and the doctors for helping me," she says.

"Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public," BLM Director Neil Kornze said. "We ask that all parties in the area remain peaceful and law-abiding as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service work to end the operation in an orderly manner…"

a Columbus family visiting the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force when four police officers in three cruisers drew guns and forced a grandmother and a mother to the ground as two young children screamed in fear from what authorities thought was a “stolen” vehicle. …

“My grandchildren are screaming,” Alice Hill recalled. “I mean they are hysterical, they saw the gun."

"My 5-year-old daughter is asking, ‘Is grandma going to get shot?’”

"Forget about me [specifically]. Look at the way the attorney general of the United States was treated yesterday by a House committee," Holder told the crowd. "What attorney general has ever had to deal withl that kind of treatment? What president has ever had to deal with that kind of treatment?"

H5N1 avian influenza has killed 60% of the 650 humans known to be infected since it was identified in Hong Kong 17 years ago… Dutch researchers have found that the virus needs only five favorable gene mutations to become transmissible through coughing or sneezing… The altered virus was much less deadly than the natural version. Only two of the ferrets in the study died, but neither death was caused by the flu….

The U.S. Interior Department announced Wednesday it was approving two large solar projects in the Mojave Desert that may displace or harm more than 2,000 desert tortoises.

[Middle school student] suspended for twirling a pencil in math class. He says that a student (who had been allegedly bullying him) yelled to the teacher that "He’s making gun motions, send him to juvie." …would have to be evaluated by a therapist and cleared as a threat before being able to be around students….

[As] Good Morning America's Linzie Janis… reported on Brendan Eich… video footage of Westboro Baptist protesters with "God hates fags" and "soldiers die 4 fag marriage" signs appeared on-screen…. On the December 07, 2012 World News, ABC reporter Terry Moran used the same hateful Westboro Baptist footage for a story on the Supreme Court ruling over gay marriage.

It appears that news media and some pro-environmental organizations have the tendency to accentuate or even exaggerate the damage caused by climate change. This article provides a rationale for this tendency…. We find that the information manipulation has an instrumental value, as it ex post induces more countries to participate…

Mozilla recently forced its CEO, Brendan Eich, to resign over his personal support for traditional marriage. The firing followed a vicious smear campaign against Eich by dating website OKCupid, in which OKCupid blocked Mozilla users from visiting their website….

Patrick Air Force Base in Florida… officials confirmed… that the entire [POW/MIA] Missing Man Table display had been removed from a dining hall because of the Bible. A press statement said the inclusion of the Bible ignited “controversy and division.” … After consultation with several relevant organizations… [Note that in modern MilSpeak, "inclusion" means "exclusion."]

The online-only vote will take place Oct. 27 in Canada, when Leamington, Ontario, will become the first Canadian municipality to cast all ballots via an Internet-only voting process. … The municipality’s website says “this sole method of voting follows Council’s strategic plan to be environmentally friendly and to embrace technology.”

On April 5 Kansas lawmakers passed a bill nullifying city and county gun restrictions to "ensure that it's legal across the state to openly carry firearms." … only leaves room for cities and counties to ban "openly carried [firearms] inside public buildings."