Update... Pondering... Serious Business... Stay tuned.

Photo (by NS) of the Emblem on a T-Shirt

(T-Shirt by "anvil")

UPDATE:  It is my understanding that most of the people that were without heat due to the problem addressed in the post below have since had thier gas services and heat restored.

CURRENTLY:  I am struggling with whether or not to construct a post about something that I feel is very important - but may also be (for some) very (emotionally) stressful.

Bear with me and know that anything posted here reflects my interests, research wise... and/or my opinions; and that I believe that I generally have the common welfare of the people (the majority of the populus) in mind. 

I am simply a blogger and as such, insignificant --- but not.

It is cold.  Times are tough for many of us.

I wish I had just happy things to post.

But that is not the case.

Gas Line Repairs - Affected Areas - Red Cross Shelter - Links

Detour on Broadway 1/20/2011

There is a gas line problem in the City of Kingston and repairs are underway.  I am simply passing on some information.  Please call the appropriate people for more details.

"NEWS ALERT American Red Cross Opens Shelter in Response to Gas Emergency in City of Kingston":

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/NEWS-ALERT---American-Red-Cross-Opens-Shelter-in-Response-to-Gas-Emergency-in-City-of-Kingston.html?soid=1102928001613&aid=Aq_tZGUfa2g

"Map of affected areas in Kingston#sourcefacebook":

http://www.scribd.com/doc/47268846/Map-of-affected-areas-in-Kingston#source:facebook

From FB - As Posted by the Neighborhood Watch [See links in sidebar >]:

"For those who are in the affected area, the Red Cross is opening a shelter at the Midtown Neighborhood Center, corner of Broadway and Hoffman...they ask you bring your own bedding, food will be served...Central Hudson has set up a temporary headquarters near the police station on Garraghan Drive."

Pretty but dangerous...

Please seek shelter if you need to!

Unpleasant but Necessary News Coverage... A Call for Change....

["Church Sex Abuse Survivors to March on Vatican; AssociatedPress; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AmpgJQ6NwM ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Vatican Letter to Irish Bishops on Sex Abuse: A 'Smoking Gun' in Conspiracy?"

"The Vatican is scrambling to tamp down yet another crisis in the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal, this time over the revelation of a 1997 letter from a senior Vatican official telling the bishops of Ireland not to implement their new policy of reporting abusive priests to law enforcement authorities...

Advocates for victims and other critics say the letter from the Vatican's envoy to Ireland at the time is a "smoking gun" proving their claims that the Vatican helped direct an effort to conceal abuses for years.

"The letter is of huge international significance, because it shows that the Vatican's intention is to prevent reporting of abuse to criminal authorities. And if that instruction applied here, it applied everywhere," said Colm O'Gorman, director of the Irish chapter of the human rights watchdog Amnesty International..."


David Gibson; Religion Reporter; Politics Daily; http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/19/vatican-letter-to-irish-bishops-on-sex-abuse-a-smoking-gun-in/

Emphasis - Bold/Red - MINE

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

"DUBLIN — A 1997 letter from the Vatican warned Ireland's Catholic bishops not to report all suspected child-abuse cases to police – a disclosure that victims' groups described as "the smoking gun" needed to show that the church enforced a worldwide culture of covering up crimes by pedophile priests.

The newly revealed letter, obtained by Irish broadcasters RTE and provided to The Associated Press, documents the Vatican's rejection of a 1996 Irish church initiative to begin helping police identify pedophile priests following Ireland's first wave of publicly disclosed lawsuits.

The letter undermines persistent Vatican claims, particularly when seeking to defend itself in U.S. lawsuits, that Rome never instructed local bishops to withhold evidence or suspicion of crimes from police. It instead emphasizes the church's right to handle all child-abuse allegations and determine punishments in house rather than give that power to civil authorities..." ["Vatican Warned Irish Bishops Not To Report Abuse"; The Huffington Post; 1/19/2011; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/18/vatican-irish-bishops_n_810535.html ]

-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Pope Benedict XVI today called on Vatican officials to examine why the Catholic Church allowed the sexual abuse of children by priests to continue unchallenged for so long, and to push through reforms to ensure such scandals never happen again...

"We must ask ourselves what we can do to repair as much as possible the injustice that has occurred," the pope said in his traditional end-of-year speech to Vatican cardinals and bishops. "We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen."

Over the past year, the Catholic Church has been rocked by a series of child sex-abuse scandals in Ireland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. In many of these cases, it was discovered that high-up members of the clergy had covered up for pedophile priests and that for decades Vatican officials turned a blind eye to the crimes.

Pope Benedict XVI pauses as he delivers his message during the traditional exchange of Christmas greetings with the Curia, in the Regia Hall at the Vatican today. The pope called for the Catholic Church to scrutinize itself and root out the truth about mistakes made so it can prevent the pedophile abuse crisis from ever happening again.

The pope accepted the church's culpability, but he argued that the scandal had to be seen in its correct social "context," one in which many people see child pornography, drug use and human trafficking as perfectly acceptable...."

"Pope Benedict: Church Must Reflect on Sex Abuse Scandals"; AOL.News; Dec 20, 2010; http://www.aolnews.com/2010/12/20/pope-benedict-church-must-reflect-on-sex-abuse-scandals/

Emphasis - In bold / red - MINE.  Say WHAT ?????
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related News:

"Seizure of Vatican Assets Upheld"

"ROME (AP) — A judge has upheld the seizure of $30.2 million in Vatican assets in a money-laundering investigation involving the Vatican’s bank... Italian authorities seized the money in September as part of an investigation into whether Vatican transactions had violated Italian banking transparency laws, a key weapon against organized crime and corruption... News reports quoted the judge, Maria Teresa Covatta, as saying that the intended beneficiaries of the transactions from the Vatican bank account at a Rome bank were still unclear... Prosecutors have said that clergy members might have acted as frontmen for corrupt businessmen and mobsters. The Vatican has blamed the seizure on a “misunderstanding” and has said it can clear up the matter..."

"Pope Says Sex Scandal Has Hit Unimaginable Dimension"; RACHEL DONADIO; The New York Times; December 20, 2010; http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/world/europe/21pope.html?_r=1&hp

1/17 Senator Gillibrand On The View

Social Security: Keep The Promise

In Honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day... This is a 2011 (Humanistic) Wake Up Call...

When does rank economic inequality - in terms of those at the top ($$$) - become the systematic neglect and abuse of the children (not having thier basic needs met; not feeling safe; not able to gain a foothold..) at the bottom?

["Crazy Graphs: Rich Vs Middle Class & Poor" [Stats from Bush Jr. era / through 2007];  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnVJAkhGyjQ&feature=related]

What is it that really "trickles down" when impovershed families are stressed to the max; can't find or afford decent childcare; can't get the car (if they have one) to start; can't afford a bus token; can't afford to take a break; lose thier home and/or housing; have no food in the refrigerator; live in crime infested ghetto areas; live in dank rural poverty; can't afford medical and dental care; can't find a way up and out...

["Investing in our Children:  Child Abuse and Neglect (video 1); as submitted to You Tube by extra2010; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sgh5FbsrD8]

Where does the United States of America stand - right now - today - in terms of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"?

["The Universal Declaration of Human Rights"; as submitted to You Tube by the HumanRightsActionCtr; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlrSYbCbHE&feature=related]

When does rank economic inequality - in terms of those at the top ($$$) - become the systematic neglect and abuse of the children (not having thier basic needs met; not feeling safe; not able to gain a foothold..) at the bottom?

As has been said before [This has been said, in one form or another, by a number of people...]: 

"Have we no conscience?"

A Message from Senator Franken... You Tube Video... Pertinent Link

http://www.alfranken.com/index.php/splash/fccopenletter