Pursue any recourse you believe is available

Back in January I told about a United Methodist Church in Alexandria, Indiana that ousted its gay choir director. In response 80% of the church left. That particular church will close at the end of this year due to falling attendance, membership and financing problems. The pastor, who did the ousting, says the closure "is not due to that situation whatsoever." Rather it is due to a general "downward spiral" across the whole United Methodist denomination. Commenters think the pastor has a bad case of denial. Even with falling membership not many churches lose 80% of their membership in a year.



Back in October Gov. Matt Mead of Wyoming conceded the legal landscape in states in the 10th Circuit and declined to appeal when the state's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down. Who was he going to appeal to? The 10th Circuit that had already struck down bans in Utah and Oklahoma? The Supremes, who refused to hear those two cases?

No matter. GOP leaders in Wyoming are still in a snit. They wrote a letter to the Gov. slamming him for not filing an appeal.

Mead, who was re-elected last month, said this group of leaders is "free to pursue any recourse they believe is available. Interestingly, when I was fighting the case in Wyoming federal district court and a separate case in Wyoming state court, I did not hear from this group."



OutSports lists 109 sports people who came out in 2014. This sets a record, topping the count of 77 last year. The list includes athletes, coaches, officials, administrators, and media people at the high school, college, and professional levels. Most of those on the list are Americans, though there are many from other countries. The sports at the top of the list are swimming, football, and track & field, though 34 sports are in the list.



A new analysis from the Pew Research shows the wealth gap between the rich and the middle class has set a new record. The rich have 6.6 times the wealth of the middle class. Back in 2010 the multiple was 6.2 and in 2007 was 4.5. The ratio between the rich and poor is now 70.

The background question is what defines rich or upper-income. That appears to depend on the number of people in the family, similar to the federal definition of poverty. A single person is upper-income at $66K a year and a family of four is upper-income at $132K.

Melissa McEwen of the blog Shakesville wrote:

This is not justice. The people who keep collecting more and more, hoarding vast amounts of wealth, cannot keep pretending that they "deserve" it on the basis of "hard work." They can't keep pretending that they're just generating more wealth, instead of stealing it from the lower classes.

Well, they can, but the situation is untenable. This system can't be sustained; it will collapse under the weight of need or revolution.