I Don't Care If It Rains or Freezes, Long As I Got My ... Oops!

Touchdown Jebus

Well, darn! Looks like gawd's sending somebody a little message. Apparently, this ol' honkin' thing you see in the photo up there is a fucking six-storey statue of jeebus calling a touchdown on the side of some freeway in Ohio. Gawd must not have been happy about the morons who built this fucking thing spending a quarter of a million dollars on shit like this while her children starve and suffer, because just today, she laid a touchdown on this fricking statue (thank you, gawd).

Yup, she burned the gawd-damned thing right down to the ground, leaving only the twisted steel skeleton and some bits and pieces of foam, or so says the news.

Now, who the fuck would put up some bullshit like this, instead of doing what Jeebus taught?

These bozos, that's who:

The 4,000-member, nondenominational church was founded by Bishop and her husband, former horse trader Lawrence Bishop.

Lawrence Bishop said in 2004 he was trying to help people, not impress them, with the statue. He said his wife proposed the Jesus figure as a beacon of hope and salvation.

Horse trader? I mean - is that fitting, or what?

They're actually going to rebuild the fucking thing, idiots that they are. Listen up, Bishops. If you claim to be following this weird hippie guy supposedly born a couple of thousand years ago, you know, one of them Ay-rab types with a big hooked nose, I'll bet, some real dark skin, beady black eyes, a big ol' beard and a Jewfro that made him look a foot taller, well, here's some things he said that you might prefer to do rather than spending all that money on something else that gawd might zap a couple years (or weeks, hopefully) down the line:

"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?'

And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"
(Matthew 25.35-40 ESV)

See, I don't remember that jeebus dude ever saying anything about making big ol' statues and idols to worship. In fact, I think he was pretty much against that kinda shit. So take that money and do one of two things with it: Feed some hungry people, visit some sick people, or jailed people, clothe some naked people — or convert it all into metal coins and shove them individually up your lardy asses.

ICHC

Stumble It!

Politics: Republicans

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina

By now you've heard the whole nine yards of this guy's story, right? RIGHT? I waited for the explosion before touching it, but now that all the dirt's out, I can indulge in that delightful frisson of schadenfreude I experienced when I first heard the news.

So, I know what you're thinking: PC, how can you be so LOW, enjoying this shit so much, and YOU are so MEAN, and MEAN PEOPLE SUCK! and all that bwa-ha-ha. Hey, lookit, friends and other people: this motherfucker was slated for a prime post in the 2012 elections, you get my drift? This Mr. "MyPantsAreSoHotIGottaDrop'EmNOW" dude was gonna be a con-TEN-dah for the Republican Run For The White House. After what the Republicans have done to this fine nation for the past eight years, and to me, personally, for about that long (we won't talk old history heah), I say I have every right to bwa-ha-haaa! all over this unseemly piece of personal douchebaggery.

Excuse me, those sumbitches have seriously shit all over the nation's sandwich for over a decade now, while whipping up the nutcases, racists, Religious Right, panty-sniffing scandalmongers, greedy douchebags stealing and robbing us blind, corporate whores exporting our jobs by the hundred thousand while awarding themselves bigger and bigger salaries and bonuses each year. How does that make you feel, snookums? Git yer mad on and get in line to give this guy, and any other Republican aiming at higher office, a thwack or twenty with the trademarked Casa de Los Gatos Golden Bat o'Clue. They deserve it, goddammit, and I'm gonna be happy about it.

So, to cut to the chase. Governor Stanford decided sometime last week that he was going away. He didn't tell his office where he was going. He didn't leave any way for them to contact him. He didn't even tell his WIFE where he was going. This is a man with FOUR children, he takes off over the Father's Day weekend, and his family don't know where he is? Does that sound like coolth to you? To me, it sounds like the epitome of douchebaggery.

So while he's gone some enterprising journalist(s) in his fair state decide to find out just where he went. His office says, "We don't know." His wife says, "I don't know." When you're holding a position of public fucking responsibility, you don't just take off like that. Shit, even when you're selling your labour to a fucking bunch of greedy corporate shills, if you go on vacation, you're supposed to check your email and call in once in a while unless you're just a faceless grub in the organization. You're a manager? Even if you have Teh Shittiest Job In The World, you gotta check in. Teleconference with your reports, call your boss, email the admins. Everybody has to know how to get hold of you if they need to.

And this guy just takes off. That is SO not OK. Corporate whores are mostly not responsible for the life and well-being of anyone else in the company. A governor of a State is, theoretically at least, responsible for the fucking lives and well-being of everybody in their state. And what's the deal with the wife? What kind of guy takes off on a vacation without the wife and kids, especially over Father's Day? And doesn't even tell his wife where he's going to be? Or call the family over the weekend?

So for a few days, the InnerTubes were rife with theories about the guv. Best of all, the guv had apparently taken off WITHOUT his security detail. Huh? Rightwingnuttia, as is their usual wont, was speculating (among other things) that the CIA had kidnapped him (just like they did with Jesse Ventura, 'cos he opposed the stimulus package, and everything). Oh, yeah, dipshits. Don't let your conspiracy theories hit ya where the good lord split ya. Dumbfucks.

Meanwhile, some enterprising individual had recognized the guv at an airport. Whereupon his car was traced there. Even more meanwhile, his office, weaseling like crazy, had told journalists that the guv was hiking the Appalachian Trail. Well, didn't that just put the shit in the rotary motor, anaconda that weekend was National Hiking Naked Day, and all the responsible speculators were speculating that the guv was running around getting poison ivy on his schlong out there where the poison ivy was rife. The best part of this story is, the person responsible for alerting us all to the existence of National Hiking Naked Day is one Woody Lipps. Srsly. You can't make this shit up.

Unfortunately, the stupid sumbitch put paid to my fantasies about him and Woody Lipps today by admitting to an affair with some hot Argentinian. Damn! I do want to say, however, that the Republican Party fell to its collective knees to thank the LAWD that, at least this once, the Republican at the heart of this scandal wasn't porking an underage boy. Or getting his rocks off on, um, diapers.

OTOH, after reading some of Teh Guv's ltrs, let me just say that the guy could have a future as a romance writer. Pity he wasn't saying these things to his lawfully wedded wife. Oh, and adultery is a CRIME in South Carolina. Bet yer wishing you'd changed THOSE laws, huh, Sanford? Also, the papers have had these letters since last year. No wonder the guv is crying in public. And more also, he claimed he was giving his hot mistress "marital advice." Sure thing, honey. And finally, he's all, "God is forgiving me, oh yeah, I R Xtian, fambly values."

BLEEEAAARRGGGH! Sick, stupid puppy! Smack, smack, smack!

Stumble It!

Religion: Why Godbags Are Dangerous

Well, it's probably good riddance to bad rubbish - Father Philip Magaldi, the HIV-positive and sexually abusive priest, is dead.

We discussed this eminent worthy before. Yeah, yeah, yeah, don't speak ill of the dead and all that. But you know what? That doesn't apply to people who sexually (or otherwise) abuse children.

Not only was the bastard victimizing the children in his care, he was doing it knowing quite well that it might be a death sentence for some or all of them. So if you had any contact with this pig, you ought to know that he's gone. It's a pity at times like these that, being an atheist, we can't feel as if he's gone to his just reward. He's just dead, unpunished but dead as all of us eventually will be.

Pertinent snip from the article:

[Father Magaldi served at] St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in North Richland Hills. [Parishioners] learned – through a letter read by current clergy [that] their former priest had been HIV positive since 2003.

Magaldi served at St. Johns from 1993 to 1999. He was dismissed amid the sexual abuse allegations.

If you, or anyone you know, was victimized by this evil man, hie thee to an AIDS-testing facility right quick. The church is, meanwhile, praying for "the repose of his soul." Perhaps they'll be praying for a smaller payout for his erstwhile victims if enough of them file a suit.

Stumble It!

World: Natural Disasters

No, we're not referring to the Bush-Cheney Misadministration, for once.

An earthquake measuring 7.9 has killed some 9,000 or more in China and injured thousands of others. The epicenter of the earthquake was in Wenchuan county of Sichuan province. The total number of casualties will undoubtedly increase as relief workers gain access to the stricken areas, a task currently made difficult by damage to roads linking outlying areas to the provincial capital in Chengdu.

The Chinese government has released millions in emergency aid and is rushing food, emergency shelter, and supplies to the affected areas. The earthquake was also felt in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taiwan, and as far away as Hanoi, Vietnam, and Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Hong Kong-based Mandarin-language channel Phoenix TV.

Will Mother Gaia succeed in shaking off this irritating plague of humans that is drowning her lands, blackening her skies, and destroying the sweet green peace of her light and comely garment of life?

The last serious earthquake in China occurred in the 1970s and the death toll was 255,000. Our sympathies to the Chinese people in their hour of grief.


Meanwhile, in Burma, the death toll from from Cyclone Nargis is expected to rise to 1.5 million. The Guardian has some excellent coverage available here, some of it &mdash be warned &mdash quite upsetting.

The Burmese government has decided to respond to the cyclone by refusing to permit international disaster agencies and workers access to stricken areas; insisting to the rest of the world that timely warning was provided to the people regarding the cyclone (those of us who saw what happened to the city of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina know quite well that warnings are worth shit when the people have no way of implementing an escape. Heckuva job, Georgie!); and asking its citizens to report any person who complains or "spreads rumours" about the slowness of rescue operations to the proper authorities. No doubt they're planning to cosh such unfortunates, or, as we have it in the common parlance, whup them upside the head and toss the bodies in the already corpse-burdened waters now covering much of the country. Heckuva job, Generals.

If our armed forces were not already bogged down in the twin quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan inflicting unwonted (and unwanted) distress upon millions, we could be using them to implement the functions required by peace and humanity: bringing aid to the suffering. But we're too busy bombing and murdering women, children, the elderly and the disabled.

In other news, tornadoes have killed 23 people in Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Georgia. While that may seem like small potatoes to some, and we are not of the school of belief in the sanctity of human life, still, every person who dies so is somebody's son or daughter, or sister or brother, mother, father, husband or wife, and there is no comparing pain. Is it worse to lose your entire family, or one member thereof? It's all bad. Our sympathies to all the suffering people and beasts, to the whole suffering planet.

Now do you see why we swear and curse and rant and rave? It's all bad, there is so little we can do to help and comfort the living, and the suffering of every creature merits our compassion.


Today we reflect on the Avalokitesvara Boddhisatva, that divine being who gazes down on the world with compassion; who is known to the Chinese as Guan Yin, to the Tibetans as Chenrezig; whose Sanskrit name is Padmapani, holder of the lotus. One of the legends of Guan Yin/Avalokitesvara is that she, through her countless merits, attained enlightenment, but as she reached the threshold of the Realm of the Pure, she heard the cry of the suffering masses and turned back, vowing not to enjoy the fruits of her merit till she had saved the peoples of the world.

No, we're still not a theist or deist or any kind of godbag. As we remarked over lunch today, if there is a god, it is a very stupid one indeed, and guilty of bad aim. It could have taken out the entire military junta of Burma in one fell swoop. Instead, it landed a cyclone on the heads of the weak, the bereft, the poor, the already suffering. The junta is well-ensconced in power, and appears to fear no threat other than the depradations of the high life and old age. A thousand curses on their bones and may their families wither and die as the families of the poor wither and die and may their names be utterly erased from history.

Yes, we're well aware of the irony of sympathizing with the suffering of the poor while simultaneously calling down curses upon the heads of their exploiters. However, irony adds a delicious flavour to life, and since superstition is not our bag any more than god is, we venture to opine that our curses are merely a safety valve to relieve our rage rather than any viable threat to the many worthless scumbags who prey on the weak and the meek. Otherwise those types would already be extinct, given how many curses we have rained upon their heads lo, these many years.

Our meditation upon Guan Yin is simply a hope that the world will respond with compassion to the suffering. And a search for some way of looking at these horrors that inspires internal peace instead of furious rants. It's hard being a cynical yet compassionate curmudgeon.

Stumble It!

Religion: It's Making Someone Crazy

Photo from The Daily Mail

We here at Casa de Los Gatos are leaning towards the theory that the Deity, if there is one, is getting pretty pissed off that stoopid hoomans are spending billions of dollars making big statues and guns and bombs to kill each other with, but failing to derive a single iota of moral or ethical value from their supposed Scriptures everywhere.

So the Deity decides to, shall we say, get humanity's attention.

Either that, or there's like some really major freaky lightnin' happenin.

The Daily Mail tells us that the world's biggest statue of Jesus, situated in Brazil (aren't there a lot of poor people there who could have better used the money?) just got hit with a major bolt of lightning.

Straighten out your act, people. The Day of Reckoning might be coming sooner than you think!

Tee hee.

Stumble It!

Women's Rights: The Right Not To Be Abused

That's a basic human right, correct? The right not to be beaten? That's not asking for "special rights," is it? Everybody has a right to be secure in their body and know they're not going to be beaten and killed just because they're female. Right?

What kind of monster beats his own child to death because she's a girl and not a boy?



This one. That's what this guy did. He beat a 4-month old baby - his own flesh and blood, his own daughter - to death because he wanted a son and got a daughter.

We do understand people who kill their stepchildren. It's instinctive in most animals to refuse care for those not biologically related. But to murder your own children? That's incomprehensible to us. And a baby! We have no special love for babies, regarding them as a loud noise at one end with no sense of social responsibility at the other, to quote someone more famous. But to beat a tiny, defenseless baby - your own baby - until she dies - that, we hope, sends this guy straight to the death penalty. Pertinent quote:

Gomez-Romero told deputies that he would slap his daughter on the ribs while she was sleeping, and the Medical Examiner's Office said the girl had dozens of rib fractures, a bruised liver and a hemorrhage in her left eye, according to the Polk County sheriff's report.

Is this not the best argument against the existence of a just and loving Deity?

This man must never ever be allowed to inflict something like this on society again. Take away his freedom forever, in fact, take away his life.

Stumble It!

Religion: There's Hope

We at Casa de Los Gatos are, and mostly have been, of the opinion that organized religion is A Bad Thing. Some of us believe that there is a deep need - possibly hardwired - for spiritual nourishment, and how people choose to satisfy that need is their own business.

It's when people purport to have The Only Truth and try to ram it down everyone else's throat that they get on the bad side of Los Gatos. So it's a relief to us to hear that more people are beginning to feel that way.

Admittedly, the survey is of the "unchurched," whatever THAT means. Unmosqued? Untempled? Pah. We larf at your labels.

We would also like to take this opportunity to say that nobody needs god-botherers to intercede between them and whatever great mystery lies outside our ken. It is up to each of us to search for something that gives meaning to life, or not, as we choose.

As for religion, per se - it makes you insane.

Stumble It!

Religion: Just One More

for the "Religion: It Makes You Insane" files.

What is it with pedophilia running rampant among religious leaders? Admittedly, to date, the Roman Catholic church has led the pack in scandals, but let's not forget the Children of God scandals, the ABC story on pedophilia in Protestant churches, the huge amounts the Mormons have paid to victims of sexual abuse in their communities (and the strange version of polygamy that causes them to keep marrying younger, never older, women). In fact any time one person has such an inequitable relationship with another person, as a spiritual leader and a member of their flock, one can safely predict some level of abuse, whether the forced drinking of poisoned KoolAid or the signing over of worldly possessions or the seduction and abuse of the young.

Today it's the Jesuits' turn - which makes us a little sad, for the Jesuits have long had a reputation as fearless thinkers. To compromise one's reputation for the sad little pleasure of a forced sexual liaison seems foolish. But we do what we do and we pay what we must.

Raw Story reports that the Jesuits are implicated in sexual abuse of Native American youth and are paying a settlement to the victims who filed the suit. How cruel to victimize such helpless individuals - children of a conquered people.

But that's how it is. Pedophiles rarely attack the children of the rich and powerful. It's the easy victim they're looking for, the helpless child, the orphan, the abandoned, the runaway, the emotionally and mentally troubled. Sick.

From the article:

The Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuit Order of priests, will pay $4.8 million in cash to the abuse victims and raise another $200,000 for the homeless in the area, the Jesuits and lawyers for the accusers said.

The most foul and insidious thing about child sexual abuse is that the effects last for generations. The betrayal by a trusted authority figure causes a deep hurt in the victim that often leads to alcoholism, drug abuse, promiscuity, a negative self-image, failure to trust and form meaningful relationships in later life, difficulties with the law ... and no abuser stops at one child.

Very often, victims of child abuse themselves turn into abusers, spreading the hurt.


Religion. It really does make you crazy.

Stumble It!

Social Justice: Thanks A Lot, Bill O'Lielly

Thanks to you and your moronic mouth-breathing myrmidons, your fellow Christains now feel it's OK to hate and beat up on anyone who doesn't look or sound like a white Christain.

Jesus is spinning in his grave.

Raw Story reports that a group of Jewish subway riders in New York City who had the temerity to respond to the Xmas greetings of a bunch of racist Christains with "Happy Hanukkah" were attacked with vile anti-Jewish epithets and beaten. Police arrested the ten offenders, who all pleaded not guilty despite the fact that the two men and two women attacked had bruises and welts on their faces and heads.

One of the men involved in the attack, Joseph Jirovec, yelled racial epithets at and beat two black youths last year. He pleaded guilty to a hate crime as a result.

Jirovec's lawyer had the gall to insist his client would never do what he did, because his mother was Jewish. I believe his mother is currently dead. No doubt she is rotating in her grave like a corkscrew too.

Throw his punk ass in jail. Maybe a steady diet of dick will calm him down for a while.

Stumble It!

Politics: Fundies In Retreat

The (most un-)Christian Coalition has announced that it plans to bypass the presidential primaries, in favour of congressional elections. Not because they've lost some of their power as sleazy preacher after sleazy preacher was exposed for lives of sin, prostitution, hypocrisy, homosexuality, corruption, nepotism, lavish spending, and so forth. No, no. It's because:

"We're going to be focusing on congressional races," president Roberta Combs told the Associated Press by telephone. "I think it's more important that we focus on the congressional races and getting more conservatives in office because that's who makes the laws that govern our land."

You heard it right here, folks and fellow voters. Get your butts out there and vote in the congressional elections unless you want a bunch of sleazy hypocritical godbags like Tom "I Support Abortion In The Marianas Islands" DeLay, Bill "I Tortured Shelter Cats For A Living" Frist, Rick "It's Natural For Men To Want Sex With Dogs" Santorum, John "Men Must Not Be Allowed To Marry Box-Turtles" Cronyn, David "Diapers Are Not Just For Kids" Vitter, Newt "She's Dying, I Want A Divorce" Gingrich, and Mark "He Was Old Enough" Foley making the laws that govern your life and your kids' lives.

These sanctimonious godbags seem to be fine with the fact that the people they elect are the worst hypocrites, liars, cheats, and thieves. It's all OK as long as you believe in the Guy In The Sky. It's OK to bomb children, kill pregnant women (but not their fetuses~!), murder sick people in hospitals, kill old people by refusing them decent health care, figuratively spit on the troops by running sleazy "charities" that pay you half a million for throwing a few bucks their way ... it's all OK. As long as you hate gay people, brown people, and people of different religions.

Stumble It!

Religion - The Last Resort Of Hypocrites

Okay, I do know that there are people in the world who lead exemplary lives and do good in the name of their religion. But the hypocrites who invoke "faith" to excuse their multitude of sins are legion. And one of them is none other than our dear old friend Ted "I'm 140% straight!" Haggard. The meth-snorting, manwhore-renting former head of New Life church. Go visit their website. Nary a one of those boys looks straight to me. In fact they look gayer than most of the screamingest nancy queens I know.

Ol' Ted, who owns a house worth $751k, walked away after being busted out of the closet with a $138K severance package. In addition to the $200K salary plus bonus for the year. He also continues to collect royalties for books he's authored. So we're looking at a minimum of $1M in assets.

How comes this worthy fellow to our attention? Why, he's just written a very cheeky letter asking people to empty their pockets to send him and his wife through grad school. He's getting a masters' in counselling, and his wife plans to study psychology. The Guardian has some of the less sordid details.

Over at his SLOG, Dan Savage has the juicier meat. For example, Ted advises the gullible among you to send money to:

two addresses .... Checks can be sent to Haggard’s mailing address in Phoenix or, if a supporter needs a tax deduction, checks can be sent to Families With a Mission, a charity based in Colorado Springs.

In return for your generosity, Ted promises you first crack (cut that out, you low-minded lout) at HEAVEN! Yes, Ted, despite his fall from grace, gets to decide who goes and who does not. However, Ted apparently neglects to tell his tax-deduction-seeking rubes that the "charity" in question is headed by a registered sex offender. Who has dissolved the charity. Is this an invitation to fraud? Colorado Confidential has details, including a copy of the infamous letter. This is the same Ted Haggard who starred in this little ep:



Now that he's been busted for sodomy and drug use, that clip does seem ironic, dunnit?

Ted, a word of advice. Sell the house, and either you or your wife get a job and support the other partner through school. Take loans, if you need to. Work two, or three, jobs, if you need to. After all, your personal friend and supporter, George Dub sez it's "uniquely American." Don't you want to be uniquely American, Ted? Instead of being the lying, hypocritical sack of shit that you are?

Stumble It!

Smokey's Corner

Smokey read one of my posts about godbags getting their underroos in an unholy bunch about the very idea that godbags can have fun, and acusing anyone having fun of "unnatural godbaggery." The preceding photo was the response. Yay! Smoke!

Stumble It!

Politics - Godbags Whine About McCain

Apparently, McCain was kissing Fallwell's tuchus for the votes. He doesn't care about the Lesser Godbags:

Two former aides hired to spearhead religious outreach for presidential candidate John McCain say that they were virtually ignored by the campaign and that McCain's top campaign strategists are intent on winning votes of religious voters without having to develop serious ties to faith communities. The aides, who were fired in early April after roughly three months on the job, said the campaign staff declined to return scores of their phone calls and E-mail messages, denied them access to leaders of the McCain campaign, and pressed them to collect church directories—a controversial tactic—as the centerpiece of a strategy to woo "values" voters.

"In the end, you came away with the strong sense that they had contempt for the faith-based community," says Marlene Elwell, one of those fired staffers. Elwell, a prominent Christian-right activist, was hired by McCain in December 2005 to be national director of his "Americans of Faith" coalition. "The way we were being treated it was as if we had leprosy."

The McCain campaign said the aides' dismissals were performance-related and were part of a broader staff reshuffling earlier this spring that grew from weaker-than-expected fundraising.

I can't decide whether to laugh out loud at the "success" of Crazy Walnuts McCain, or at the self-pitying, self-righteous whining of the godbags he hired, then fired. Hey, godbags - aren't your Republican leaders always telling us, the working stiffs, to "be glad you have a job?" So, you had a job, man. And I bet you made good money too. Maybe it's been outsourced! You know, economizing and all that. Bring out the tiny violins and lace handkerchiefs. I'm verklempt.

Eep, my bad. More here.

Stumble It!

Religion - It Makes You Insane Files

Okay, he's a Mormon, which means he probably believes that God punishes evildoers by making their skin dark, which would kinda tend to sorta explain why he thinks this, but:

Utah County GOP delegate links illegal immigration to Satan

By Deborah Bulkeley
Deseret Morning News

The devil is sticking his pitchfork into the nation's immigration politics.

At least that's what one of Utah County's Republican delegates thinks.

Don Larsen, a district chairman, has submitted a resolution equating illegal immigration to "Satan's plan to destroy the U.S. by stealth invasion" for debate at Saturday's Utah County Republican Party Convention.

Referring to a plan by the devil for a "New World Order ... as predicted in the Scriptures," the resolution calls for the Utah County Republican Party to support "closing the national borders to illegal immigration to prevent the destruction of the U.S. by stealth invasion."

In part, the resolution states, "There are ways to destroy a nation other than with bombs or bullets. The mostly quiet and unspectacular invasion of illegal immigrants does not focus the attention of the nation the way open warfare does but is all the more insidious for its stealth and innocuousness."

Isn't any sane person willing to run for this twit's seat? Surely there's a better caliber of potential leaders around - sane people, for example?

Stumble It!

Religion

I didn't know anything about the Hussites before today, and I'm not sure I wanted to know this. Why is a married leader of a religious movement propositioning a young man?

I've been paying increased attention to religious follies of late, in part because of that shining paragon of virtue, Ted Haggard. It seems religion provides a cloak behind which much that is dark and dirty flourishes in peace. It's time to stop cutting these godbags so much slack. (Term "godbag" courtesy of Twisty Faster.)

Stumble It!

Apparently, Some Kinds of Suffering Are More Important

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters


The Pope decries the suffering of the world:

"How much suffering there is in the world!" Pope Benedict XVI lamented in his Easter sermon yesterday, naming Darfur, Iraq, Somalia, the Congo, Lebanon and other trouble spots around the globe.

But not, apparently, the suffering of women sexually abused by priests.

Confronted by their testimony, the church authorities first transferred the priest to another parish, and then out of the diocese. But he remains a priest, and has received only token punishment. In the United States, failure to take firm action against abusive priests left the Church in Boston with a legacy of bitter mistrust and legal bills totalling more than $150m (£76m). In Italy, however, it would appear that the lessons have not been learnt.

What have I got against the Church? Actually, I've got it in for all religions on this one point: they all treat women like shit.

Stumble It!

More Funny

Mr. Deity and The Top Ten.

Yes, I am making up for all the light posting. Plus, it was too icky to be in the garden today. Plus, we didn't cook after all. Tomorra.

Stumble It!

War Kills

There is something so very sad about this picture. Found over on Tentmaker in a post titled "War Kills Children." I titled my post, simply, "War Kills." I think the childcentricity of our world as it currently is obscures many important political facts, the two most important being:

• The world is very severely overpopulated, which is the main contributor to global warming, and
• Deifying children means never having to address the real issues children face, such as their complete powerlessness and maltreatment on a global scale.

That said, the image is very poignant and causes an odd pain in my innards. The hand caressing that small dead face, eyes upturned in astonishment. Someone who loved that child dearly is burying it.

War kills. And it is not indiscriminate in its choice of victims. It kills the elderly and the disabled, the very young, the sick, women, the weak, animals, plant life. Why are we still in Iraq? And why, today, do I pick up the Daily BirdcageLiner to read that bombs are being dropped on the city of Diwaniyah?

I wish I believed in a deity so I could ask it to stop this horrible war.

Stumble It!

YouTube benefits the masses

If you haven't already seen these, you must:

Parts 1 through 6 of Mister Deity are available. Just excellent.

And you KNOW you've always wanted to see Condi rap.

Updated with live links.

Stumble It!