Echo

Why are you looking at me bird on Flickr.

Retail therapy on Flickr.

"America is two countries now—the country of its narrative and the country of its numbers, with the latter sitting in judgment of the former. In the stories we tell ourselves, we are nearly always too good: too soft on criminals, too easy on terrorists, too lenient with immigrants, too kind to animals. In the stories told by our numbers, we imprison, we drone, we deport, and we euthanize with an easy conscience and an avenging zeal."

"We are not a pure country or a country that values purity. We are a country of adoption, a country of rescues, a country of mutts. At least that's how we like to think of ourselves. But we are also a country that likes to create idylls of its own good intentions and then penalize what doesn't fit."

Nanda Blue Hole Luganville, Vanuatu

In a historical first, the Church of England has voted to allow women to serve as bishops. An overwhelming 351 members voted in favor of the measure, 72 voted against it, and 10 abstained. Before the vote by the national assembly known as the General Synod, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the public would view it as “almost incomprehensible” if the measure were to fail. Just two years ago, a similar piece of legislation failed to get two-thirds of the vote. Women can already serve as bishops in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.