White Fright

Glenn Beck's rally was large, vague, moist, and undirected—the Waterworld of white self-pity.

One crucial element of the American subconscious is about to become salient and explicit and highly volatile. It is the realization that white America is within thinkable distance of a moment when it will no longer be the majority. This awareness already exists in places like New York and Texas and California, and there have even been projections of the time(s) at which it will occur and when different nonwhite populations will collectively outnumber the former white majority. But it also exerts a strong subliminal effect in states like Alaska that have an overwhelming white preponderance.

Until recently, the tendency has been to think of this rather than to speak of it—or to speak of it very delicately, lest the hard-won ideal of diversity be imperiled. But nobody with any feeling for the zeitgeist can avoid noticing the symptoms of white unease and the additionally uneasy forms that its expression is beginning to take.

This summer, then, has been the perfect register of the new anxiety, beginning with the fracas over Arizona's immigration law, gaining in intensity with the proposal by some Republicans to amend the 14th Amendment so as to de-naturalize "anchor babies," cresting with the continuing row over the so-called "Ground Zero" mosque, and culminating, at least symbolically, with a quasi-educated Mormon broadcaster calling for a Christian religious revival from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

At the last "Tea Party" rally I attended, earlier this year at the Washington Monument, some in the crowd made at least an attempt to look fierce and minatory. I stood behind signs that read: "We left our guns at home—this time" and "We invoke the First Amendment today—the Second Amendment tomorrow." But Beck's event was tepid by comparison: a call to sink to the knees rather than rise from them. It was clever of him not to overbill it as a "Million"-type march (though Rep. Michele Bachmann was tempted to claim that magic figure). The numbers were impressive enough on their own, but the overall effect was large, vague, moist, and undirected: the Waterworld of white self-pity.

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Catholic Government

This remarkable film is posted on Pharyngula, where most of the commenters are understandably debating whether it can possibly be genuine. My first thought, too, was that it must be a hoax. Surely nobody could be quite so blatantly arrogant, saying more or less explicitly that 'Nobody should be allowed to vote unless they agree with me!' But this bulletin seems to provide corroborating evidence that Michael Voris is a bona fide Catholic activist, not a satirist lampooning Catholic idiocy and arrogance. -Richard Dawkins.

WOW!

UK government axes its sustainability watchdog

The UK government is to stop funding the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), its independent environmental watchdog and advisory body.

Set up by the Labour government in 2000, the SDC is among a number of green bodies to be abolished.

The news comes on the day the SDC, with a budget of £3m, published a report saying Whitehall had saved £60-70m as a result of introducing green measures.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman announced the details in a statement.

"This government is committed to being the greenest government ever, and the Structural Reform Plan published last week sets out how Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) will play its part in achieving this," she said.

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Leicester strikes a blow for secularism

An interesting Article by Theo Hobson of the Guardian newspaper.

If a secularist revolution were to emerge in Britain, where would it start? London is too pragmatic to care about such an earnest cause – you can't imagine Boris picking a fight with a bishop. What about the Oxford of Dawkins and Pullman? No: the whiff of royalism and incense lingers in that brainy city. What about more Whiggish Cambridge? No, secularism never grew roots there, despite Francis Crick's best efforts.

Look north – a bit north anyway. Look to Leicester. It's an unlikely choice on the surface: its huge Muslim minority makes it more religious than most cities. But it also has an old secularist tradition - it was here that the first secular society was formed. And this tradition has suddenly flared into life.

The new Lord Mayor is picking a fight with the local Anglican establishment.

Councillor Colin Hall's first move was to appoint fellow secularist campaigners as his Lady Mayoress and his chaplain. The former post went to Eleanor Davidson, who conducts humanist celebrations, and the latter to Allan Hayes, president of Leicester's secular society. Last week Hall refused to attend the traditional cathedral service that welcomes new Lord Mayors. He had asked for the service to be more inclusive of other faiths, and of humanism; he wanted the Lady Mayoress to read a humanist text, and his chaplain to give an address. When the bishop asked to see the sermon in advance, the mayor and his secularist sidekicks pulled out.

Hall has also announced the banning of prayers before monthly council meetings, calling the practice "outdated, unnecessary and intrusive". He added: "I consider that religion, in whatever shape or form, has no role to play at all in the conduct of council business. This particularly applies in Leicester, where the majority of council members, myself included, do not regularly attend any particular faith service." His chaplain has backed the move: "I think it's a good move because saying Christian prayers picks out one particular stance of people in the city. It's rather divisive, in my view."

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Mormon Church to be fined by state political commission over Proposition 8

The state Fair Political Practices Commission is expected to fine the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for not properly reporting about $37,000 worth of contributions to pass California's ban on same-sex marriages.

The commission will fine the Salt Lake City-based church $5,538 for failing to report the numerous contributions. The fine comes in response to a complaint filed in November 2008 by Fred Karger, a gay-rights activist and co-founder of Californians Against Hate, who accused the Mormon Church of failing to report the value of the work it did to support Proposition 8.

"The investigation revealed that the church unintentionally failed to file daily reports detailing approximately $37,000 in non-monetary contributions," a statement on the church's website read. "The amount of contributions not reported represented the cost of staff time spent by church employees on activities to help the Yes on 8 committee during the final two weeks of the election."

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UK 'will push EU on CO2 targets'

The UK government will push the EU to move to a higher target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It will urge the EU to cut emissions by 30% from 1990 levels by 2020, rather than the current 20% target, partly through more support for renewables.

A higher proportion of tax revenues will come from environmental taxes.

In 2009, EU leaders endorsed two targets for greenhouse gas emissions - 20%, rising to 30% in the event of a global deal on climate change.

That failed to materialise at December's Copenhagen summit.

But the recession has lowered emissions across the continent, making the higher target more easily achievable.

Environment groups have been lobbying governments to move to 30% immediately, to re-stake the EU's claim for global leadership on climate change - a call that the coalition has now endorsed.

Only problem is the conservative-Lib Dem coalition also confirmed there would be a free vote on fox-hunting and that badger culling was back on the agenda for England