High sticking

The Economist's briefing on The Anthropocene includes discussion of potential sudden disastrous environmental changes from human actvity.

"On the other hand, the invocation of poorly defined tipping points is a well worn rhetorical trick for stirring the fears of people unperturbed by current, relatively modest, changes."

Those who have ears, too, here

The suburban weekly Now newspaper reported on the Greendale Tall Corn Contest.

"For those looking for some divine intervention in their favor, [Anne Marie] Pelkofer has this 'tidbit' to add to the mix, courtesy of St. Alphonsus Catholic Church in Greendale.

"'Father Alan (Jurkus), who is the pastor at St. Alphonsus, stopped by today with holy water in a little Tupperware container, and he said if you plant (the corn) and then sprinkle holy water on it, it'll grow even bigger,' she said."

Very direct democracy

"The additional transparency added by the Internet is a good thing, limiting insider back scratching and deals done at the expense of constituents. On the other hand, the pressure toward direct democracy, or something very close to it, is likely to build. Is that a good thing? Probably not, unless you think America would do better if it were run more like your condo association." --Glenn Reynolds, An Army of Davids (2006), page 241

That's a less idealistic view of who's likely to show up for meetings.

What they've been up to in the old country

Even the Gentiles do as much; more, actually.

Intimations of a persisting streak of petty vindictiveness in the chancery of our Archbankrupt Archdiocese of Milwaukee run through an article by Annysa Johnson in this morning's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Church abuse victims criticize mediation efforts. For example,

"The woman, who repeatedly was molested between the ages of 6 and 11, said she settled in 2004 for $125,000 because the archdiocese insisted it had limited resources to pay victims.

"When she challenged that assertion years later, after learning the archdiocese was selling its Cousins Center to pay abuse claims, she said she was scolded by archdiocese Chancellor Barbara Anne Cusack.

"She told me, 'It's people like you that put the archdiocese in that situation,' the woman said."

If the Chancellor needed a squelch, it's odd she didn't use the recently-featured claim by our Archdiocese that it did not actually own the Cousins Center.

Our Archdiocese is asking the Bankruptcy Court for permission to pay out mediated settlements from its assets. Other creditors are objecting. "The woman and two other victims were called by creditors' attorneys, who hoped to block a request by the archdiocese for permission to pay $711,000 owed to 22 victims who had reached mediated settlements, and to begin mediation with two others." The court permitted limited payments, subject to later repayment into the bankruptcy if needed for its overall resolution.

"Frank LoCoco, attorney for the archdiocese, argued that none of the victims had ever complained about the mediation process previously, and that Marquette law professor Eva Soeka, who designed the mediation process, testified that she'd never had complaints about it."

Not too surprising, given this entire mediation process was created by our Archdiocese, including the selection of Ms. Soeka. It was entirely dependent on our Archdiocese, which then described it as "independent".* Once victims accepted this "take or or leave it" procedure, I don't know why they would have bothered to complain at that time. That's particularly the case since one motive for victims to settle would be to put the matter behind them.

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*Here on the secular side, the mediation process and choice of mediator are subjects of negotiation between the parties.