OK, austerity has always been about the causality. The people who are trying their best to get us to cut more and more spending, somewhat less than their best to get us to raise taxes, and who are doing nothing to fix our fraud-laden financial system, or the worst period of dis-employment we’ve experienced since the Great Depression, have been making other people (never themselves) suffer, because they believe the theory that excessive public debt hurts economic growth, and that to get rid of it we must follow a plan of long-term deficit reduction. And I’m being very charitable when I opine that they believe in this theory, because the alternative is that they don’t believe it, but are just using it as an excuse to make other people suffer, and widen the wealth gap between themselves and the rest of the population.

Either way it’s important for the rest of us to demand that before we do anything more based on that theory, they should be forced to prove that it is the best theory out there about the causal relationship between public debt and economy growth.

A suspicious building is being constructed in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, along the southern bank of the Missouri River in Berkley Riverfront Park, near the Kansas City River Market. The purpose of the building, a massive hydroponic greenhouse, is ostensibly legitimate: “The 100,000-square-foot greenhouse would grow mostly lettuce, tomatoes and herbs with local consumers in mind.”

Hydroponic, you say? Herbs, you say?

Cue the Missouri Highway Patrol, because to them, those two words can mean only one thing: marijuana. And no, I’m not kidding . . .

Another week, another court-ordered document dump of records that detail the abuses covered up by bishops of the Roman Catholic Church. This time, it’s Joliet, Illinois.

While the bishop that comes off worst in these files is retired, another former bishop of Joliet is not only still active, but has been promoted and currently serves in several powerful roles with the USCCB: J. Peter Sartain of Portland.

For victims, this isn’t about simply getting their own abuse to stop anymore. It’s not about money for counseling, treatment, and other things. It’s about making visible the behavior of not only the priests but the bishops who protected them.

With the release of the “perversion files” compiled by the Boy Scouts of America, one of the talking points of the Catholic hierarchy and their defenders has gained more support. “See, child sexual abuse isn’t just a Catholic problem.” As Archbishop Timothy Dolan correctly noted last year, abusers are found in the ranks of not only priests but also teachers, coaches, family members, and yes, boy scout troop leaders. But the release of the Boy Scout files also undercuts those same talking points, too. As Archbishop Dolan incorrectly noted, the attention — and the lawsuits — aren’t restricted to the Catholic church.

Both organizations were clearly worried about institutional reputation, and the records in both the church and the scouts show how they worked to cover up, hide, and otherwise keep things out of the media and the courtroom. Both groups need to be, and increasingly are being, held accountable for this failure. But there is a significant difference between the two groups. One tried to weed these abusers out of their leadership; the other shifted these abusers around.

Meet the (formerly) Rev. William Cramer . . .

Todd Akin has three nightmares. First, Claire McCaskill has a devastating trio of ads featuring women who have been raped, including a conservative who says she’s never voted for Claire before, but she will now. Second, conservative men who are turned off by Akin’s views on women are starting to be heard.

Akin isn’t taking this sitting down. He’s launched a four-city tour to push back against this called “Missouri Women Stand With Todd Akin,” but it has a rather large problem from the standpoint of optics. None of the women that Akin’s campaign listed as headliners for the tour are from Missouri. Ooops.

And then there’s that third nightmare-inducing commercial, with all the naked women.

Don’t believe me? Click on through . . .

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Kansas City – St. Joseph, Robert Finn, was convicted nine days ago of failing to report suspicions of child abuse, but the diocesan website is silent with regard to the trial, let alone the verdict. Maybe that’s because of some other documents on the website, published with Finn’s signature, seem to imply that Finn ought to be removed from his position as bishop.

But there are only two people who can remove him — Finn himself and Pope Benedict. I’m not holding my breath waiting for either to act.

In 1976, Jack Danforth was running for the US Senate in Missouri; in 2012, Todd Akin is running for Danforth’s old seat. In 1976, the GOP platform noted a wide diversity of opinion about abortion and the wisdom of Roe v. Wade; in 2012, the GOP platform demands adherence to One Right Answer. In 1976, the GOP platform pushed for adoption of the Equal Rights Amendment; in 2012, it pushes for a human life amendment.

In 2006, as this religiously-motivated shift in GOP politics unfolded, Danforth lamented it, much to the amusement of conservatives like the SBC’s Richard Land. But Danforth also predicted “The more people think about it, the more people will resist it.” Today, people are realizing that Todd Akin is the embodiment of the GOP platform, not the exception to it. The reaction to him and his comments makes it appear that Danforth may have been right.

I sure hope so.

In which Theodore Worthington Ichabod Tumblington (known as “Twit” to his chums at The Club”) has sherry on the veranda with his son and grandson, and explains to the the Facts of Life.

No, not *those* facts. The facts of life that matter most to the Twits and their neighbors, the Romneys.

Emiel Cleaver, son of Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri, reveals an important part of Kansas City’s–and our nation’s–history in his film Freedom is Now: A Documentary, which tells the story of Freedom, Inc., the groundbreaking political organization which empowered the city’s black community for both social and political change.

Catholic Bishops who want the government to do what their own preaching cannot, Lutherans and Episcopalians who disagree with the Catholic bishops, and Virginia Republicans who give new meaning to the term “statutory rape.”

And you thought birth control was a settled issue.