Bridges for Animals Across Freeways

In Holland they build natural bridges for animals to cross the highway without risking their lives. Great example of how the hierarchy between humans and animals is breaking down in many places around the world.

                                    

Best States for Women - How Does Yours Rank?

Using eleven maps and charts, the Institute for Women's Policy Research published the final two reports in a seven-part series exploring how women are faring in the states. The report, entitled "Status of Women in the States," is updated from 2004.

Minnesota rose to the top, followed by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Maryland. Bringing up the rear are Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, and Texas.

Some states are getting it, and some aren't. As the gender hierarchy continues to fall, perhaps the South is clinging more to the good ole boys club of males who want to conserve hierarchies. Of course hierarchical religions keep women down too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/05/20/the-best-states-for-women-in-america-in-10-maps-and-charts/?tid=sm_fb

Blind Pole Vaulter - Third at Texas State Meet

Think back to the days before hierarchies began to fall, specifically the hierarchy that keep disabled people with little rights and few opportunities.

Charlotte Brown, who will attend Purdue on an academic scholarship in the fall and walk on to the track and field team, placed third in the Texas state high school championships in pole vaulting. When she was on the podium and her bronze medal was draped around her neck, next to her was her service dog Vador.

But of course, before Title IX, with or without a disability, she would not be able to compete in such a meet.

http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/12898646/blind-pole-vaulter-charlotte-brown-places-third-texas-state-high-school-championships

Teenagers in Palo Alto, and Suicide

Attempts to climb hierarchies usually do not bring the glory they seem to offer. The pressure can be unhealthy and even deadly. Trying to stay at the top is not what it appears.

In Palo Alto, Californita, a man in a blaring orange vest, the kind that road crews and public-safety workers wear, patrols the railroad tracks. He wasn’t carrying any equipment. Hours later at the same crossing, an orange-vested woman stood.

They are on the lookout for Palo Alto teenage suicide attempts. Between May 2009 and January 2010, five Palo Alto teenagers stepped in front of trains ending their lives. And since October of last year, another three Palo Alto teenagers have killed themselves that way, prompting longer hours by more sentries along the tracks.

These are to some extent problems of affluence and privilege, and underscore an economic trepidation that is sadly widespread and is seemingly intensified by the gaping divide between the haves and have-nots in the United States.

Adam Strassberg, a psychiatrist and the father of two Palo Alto teenagers, wrote that while many Palo Alto parents are “wealthy and secure beyond imagining,” they’re consumed by fear of losing that perch or failing to bequeath it to their kids. “Maintaining and advancing insidiously high educational standards in our children is a way to soothe this anxiety,” he said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-best-brightest-and-saddest.html?WT.mc_id=2015-MAY-WCAS

Hierarchical Religions Losing Followers

According to the Los Angeles Times, the percentage of people who identify as religious is decreasing in the United States.

We speculate that a major reason for the decline is that so many religions in this country are holding on to the hierarchy that is in their base, and are unwilling to move past the dictates of men who are on top of hierarchies and building hierarchies in the name of religion and of a deity they proclaim to be supporting hierarchies.

Of course most prominent recently is the insistence of some Christians that they can claim religious freedom allows them to build and maintain the sexual orientation hierarchy when it comes to being involved in same-sex marriage ceremonies. Also, when a religion claims it has the only ticket to heaven, a hierarchy is formed between those willing to follow that the religion and everyone else.

See the Religion section of this website for more explanation of how in hierarchical religions, "Man" is not made in the image of "God," but "God" is made in the image of a man on top of a hierarchy.

http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83520403/

Richest Congressman - US Poor are the Envy of the World

According to our richest Congressman, the poor of the United States are the envy of the world. That's a new excuse among those on top to ignore how their policies keep the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican, has a net worth of at least $350 million - which places him with a comfortable lead over his next closest rivals for wealth. He doesn't seem to care that economic mobility has been stagnant over the last half-century, except for people like him.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/nations-richest-congressman-us-poor-are-envy-the-world?cid=sm_fb_maddow