30 Questions The White House Doesn’t Want To Answer

The Article: Here are the 30 questions the White House doesn’t seem to want to answer by Andrea Peterson in The Washington Post.

The Text: The White House launched the We The People petition site in 2011 as a way for Americans to get their government to respond to their calls for action. On the digital platform, people can create and sign petitions seeking specific action on an issue from the federal government. In theory, once a petition has garnered a certain number of signatures within a certain time frame, it is reviewed by White House staff and receives an official response.
But that’s not always what happens.

Now a new site, www.whpetitions.info, takes its own tally and highlights petitions that have received enough signatures but have not received responses. By its count, the White House has responded to 87 percent of petitions that have met their signature thresholds with an average response time of 61 days. But the average waiting time so far for the 30 unanswered petitions is 240 days. And six of them have been waiting for over a year.

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The Best Pro-Weed Legalization Commercial In Existence

Unmentioned in the video is that sticking to weed greatly reduces your risk of dancing too hard to Daft Punk and crashing into a glass table. Something else to think about.

The War Room — Photoshopped

Only one Obama? Why not thirteen Obamas? If more politicians actually Reddited, though, the world would be a better place.

The Church’s Quiet Gay Rights Movement

The Article: The Quiet Gay-Rights Revolution in America’s Churches by Molly Ball in The Atlantic.

The Text: For most gay Americans in the 20th century, the church was a place of pain. It cast them out and called them evil. It cleaved them from their families. It condemned their love and denied their souls. In 2004, a president was elected when religious voters surged from their pews to vote against the legal recognition of gay relationships. When it came to gay rights, religion was the enemy.

A decade later, the story is very different. Congregations across the country increasingly accept, nurture, and even marry their gay brethren. Polls show majorities of major Christian denominations — including American Catholics, despite their church’s staunch opposition — support legal gay marriage. Leaders of some of the most conservative sects, like the Southern Baptists, have moved away from the vitriolic rhetoric of yesteryear and toward a more compassionate tone. Mormons march in gay-pride parades. A sitting Republican senator, a Methodist from the heartland state of Ohio, says the question was settled for him by “the Bible’s overarching themes of love and compassion and my belief that we are all children of God.” A new pope says, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

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3 Of The Biggest Immigration Myths Debunked In 3 Minutes

No, they won’t take our jobs; they’ll create them. No, they won’t place a burden on the safety net; they’ll strengthen it. No, they won’t hurt our economy; they’ll provide growth. In fact, the only thing they will do is force you to check your stereotypes and learn to live, interact and grow with people lacking lily-white complexions. Thank you, Robert Reich.