The last few days before Christmas I had a hard time finding stories that interested me in either The Star or The New York Times. That’s unusual, but, of course, we’re talking about the one time each year when many of us both speed up (to get ready for Christmas) and slow down, as we withdraw from the day-to-day routine.
But today…bam!…the news is back. Time to fire up and roll forward.
Consider three of the more interesting subjects I found in this morning’s Star.
Women priests
A 67-year-old Kansas City woman named Georgia Walker will soon be ordained as a Catholic priest.
“How’s that?” you might be saying.
Well, the ordination will not be recognized by the Catholic Church, which, in fact, will excommunicate Walker. But nevertheless she is getting ordained. Her ordination will be performed next month by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, who, according to reporter Matt Campbell’s story, “travels the country ordaining women priests and deacons — 25 of them in 2014.” The ordination will take place at St. Mark Hope and Peace Lutheran Church, 38th and Troost.
To this, I say Hoo-Ray! The Catholic Church’s insistence that only men can be priests is one of the main reasons that Patty and I left the “One True Church” (ho-ho-ho) about eight years ago. (That, along with the priest sexual-abuse scandal, the church’s insistence that priests cannot marry and the arrival in Kansas City of Bishop Robert Finn.)
The “only-men-can-be-priests” rule makes no sense historically or logically.
Listen to what Donna Simon, pastor at St. Mark’s, said in Campbell’s story.
“The logic for male (only) ordination is spurious. Nowhere in the Bible does it say you may not ordain women. But because Jesus only called men, the church has leaned into this tradition that you can only call men. It hasn’t leaned into a tradition that you can only call Jewish men because all the men that Jesus called were Jewish. They just picked that one thing.”
And why did the church “just pick that one thing”?
Because, in my opinion, it sounded good and insured the men folk their decisions wouldn’t be challenged by female logic, which, as we enlightened men understand, far exceeds our own.
Bravo for Georgia Walker. She could hear my confession any day…
Dead man signing
I was sorry to read that some people operating under the banner of my Democratic Party had phonied up signatures on a petition seeking a statewide vote on an early-voting initiative.
Certainly an aberration, right? Because we Democrats do things the right way at least 99.9 percent of the time.
But not this time. A law firm commissioned by local political consultant Jeff Roe, a Republican, found more than 2,200 fraudulent signatures that were submitted to Secretary of State Jason Kander’s office. Some of the signatures were in the names of people who were, uh, dead…They didn’t sign and then die; they died and then signed…or, you know, somebody signed for them.
More than half of the fraudulent signatures came from Boone County, home to the very liberal-leaning city of Columbia.
Even with the phonied-up signatures, the petitioners did not have enough valid signatures to get the proposal on the ballot.
The way these petition drives usually go, the organizers hire people to gather signatures, with the petition carriers getting a certain amount for each signature — say 20 cents. So, there is an incentive to cheat.
With well-organized, well-run and well-policed petition drives, the chances of a lot of fraudulent signatures getting affixed to petitions are small…I suspect this was a fast and loose petition drive.
…If an early-voting measure sounds familiar to you, in November we voted on one that the Republican-dominated legislature placed on the ballot. Like most of the stuff that the General Assembly comes up with these days, it wasn’t a legitimate early-voting proposal. It was a mishmash under which Missouri residents could have cast ballots on six business days — but not consecutive days and not weekend days — before a scheduled election. Fortunately, Missouri voters defeated that proposal by a wide margin.
This latest caper — with the fraudulent signatures — could set back the cause of early voting in Missouri. Too bad, because even Kansas has had early voting for many years.
Hurtling down the road
Reporter Brad Cooper had an excellent story citing statistics that show highway fatalities and injuries have jumped significantly since the Kansas Legislature raised the speed limit from 70 to 75 miles an hour on some roads three years ago. Cooper wrote:
“The overall number of crashes is flat, but highway deaths jumped 54 percent since 2012 on the seven highways where the speed limit was raised.”
This is another one of those urban-rural deals, where, in general, the outstate legislators want higher speed limits and urban legislators (who comprise the vast minority in Kansas) understand that the higher the speed limit, the more dangerous the highways.
Cooper got to the root of the problem when he quoted a retired bus driver named Michael Walker who said 75 wouldn’t bother him if police would enforce 75. As Walker said, however, “when they say 75…they mean 85. If you have a wreck at 85 miles an hour, you’re going to tear up a whole lot of stuff.”
Yes, like your head, your legs and your torso.
When we go out on the road, I usually drive about 65. When Patty takes over, we go 75, and I close my eyes and try to nap.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
If anyone has wanted to leave a comment on this but wasn’t offered the option, I’m sorry. WordPress has recently changed its format, and on some posts the “allow comments” box, which is supposed to be automatically checked, has come unchecked, somehow. I’ve checked it now…and my New Year’s resolution is to make sure the “allow comments” box is checked in the future!
Merry Christmas. Both stories are a waste of time.
The fact that someone who is not authorized to ordain anyone “ordains” someone who will no longer even be considered part of the church makes no sense. It’s like me picking who the local Rabbi is, or who the Democrats should run for office. We know The Star is hostile to conservatives in the faith community so who needs this reinforcement.
As for the speed limit story, prior to the 75 limit the state troopers would give you to 79 before they would ticket. When the legislature changed the limit the state patrol said their policy would remain that ticketing would begin at 79. The story would be if they’ve changed their policy. I know a trooper, I’ll ask.
Sounds like some bah humbug to me, but then we at jimmycsays count on you, John, to temper our irrational exuberance.
I’d be interested to hear what the trooper has to say…
As for the female priests, I like their spunk and think it is at least symbolically significant. I’m sure it sticks in Francis’ craw. He has said “that door is closed,” referring to the possibility of women becoming priests…I think the women priets are demonstrating that even the good Francis’ enlightenment is relatively limited.
Still waiting for an answer. It is possible that even if the top speed is still constrained to 79, that the new speed limit is somewhat forcing people who are uncomfortable at higher speeds and vehicles that are not as substantial, to go that fast.
For instance, there would be a vast difference between a rancher in a Suburban, or Ford F250 who’s used to driving 80 getting in an accident, and Grandma in her Smartcar, or Prius. In the latter case the speed would not increase but neither the driver, or vehicle would be as prepared for the consequences of driving that speed and hence fatalities could rise.
I didn’t read the article, how many years of data did he use? If he just compared a couple of years minor variations could occur simply as a function of a small N..
Heard back from both the trooper and a couple of city cops. All said the same thing, officer’s discretion. That may be constrained by location, For instance, Mission cops write three times the tickets as any other city in JOCO (according to the Star) and I’ve found that some of the JOCO cities are hostile to WYCO plates in the late evening hours, but bottom line, no explicite policy, officer’s discretion as far as the Highway Patrol goes you could get away with 15 over, or get nailed at 5.
As I recall, the thinking in the Kansas legislature a few years ago was that the speed limit needed to be increased because if it remained even 5 mph below the speed limit for an adjacent state, motorists would actually drive around Kansas to get where they were going in order to be able to consistently travel at a fast rate. I don’t think the legislators had any hard evidence to support this position, however. It certainly doesn’t surprise me that highway deaths are up in the wake of the move to adopt the higher speed limit. Past studies have generally confirmed the relationship between the two.
Cooper’s reporting is flawed, see below.
I thought so, as usual with Cooper’s stuff, his reporting is highly flawed.
According to his piece “Overall, 48 people were killed in 38 wrecks on those seven highways in the two years before the speed limit was raised in mid-2011. In the two years after the speed limit was raised, 74 people were killed in 59 wrecks.”
So, indeed, there was an increase of 54% of fatalities, but the number of accidents did not remain flat,
if you do the math, there was a 55% increase in the number of accidents. So the ratio of deaths/accident remains virtually identical and the increase in deaths is a direct function of the increased number of accidents. if anything, standardized the number of deaths per accident *decreased*, minutely.
Thanks for the reporting, John.
The editor who wrote the headline was accurate.
“Fatal crashes spike on Kansas highways after speed limit climbs to 75 mph”
That’s true, and so the evidence certainly appears, at first blush, to indicate that the increase in speed may be related to an increase in fatal accidents.
In a related story, I became President of the United States yesterday…because I said so. LOL
Seriously though, John is right. This story is absolutely meaningless. On the other hand, if the guy with the funny hat would have approved the ordination, that would have been newsworthy. This is just another “I’m liberal, so I can break the rules as long as the media views it as PC” story.
As for the speed limit story, you can believe me when I say most accidents in Rural Kansas, have to be caused by highway hypnosis. Admittedly, while I have no scientific proof to back that up, I once viewed a hill with a tree on top, from I-70 between Topeka and Junction City. The change of scenery startled me enough to nearly cause a one car accident!
And finally, who didn’t know that this kind of phony petitioning goes on? I’m just glad that someone actually caught it and didn’t just say “OK” to a bunch of names written on a piece of paper, regardless of whether or not there were enough signatures. Of course it’s okay to break the rules if it’s for a good cause, isn’t it?
Now, for some off-topic. If you see a police officer and can spare a few seconds of your day, take the time to let them know you appreciate their service. Last Monday, I did just that and expressed my condolences for the two NYPD officers who were assassinated last weekend. I also paid for his lunch. Of course he refused my offer to buy his lunch, but I was insistent and he finally gave in, but assured me that my thanks was more than enough and that he really appreciated my words more than anything. He also admitted that not every cop is a good cop, but there are a lot more good cops than bad cops, and that it’s been a pretty rough time for a lot of good cops lately.
Remember, these cops are not robots, they’re humans just like you and I.