Thanks to Atheist Cartoons.Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
If you don't matter to God...
I found this at Friendly Atheist...Hemant Mehta notes that it derives from the same group responsible for the Creation Museum.
It's about as sick a piece as I've ever seen. All in the name of Jesus, of course!
It's about as sick a piece as I've ever seen. All in the name of Jesus, of course!
Rev. Mel White & Tony Perkins
The Rev. Mel White takes Tony Perkins to task for being the anti-gay bigot he is, and doesn't let him get by with this "love the sinner, hate the sin" crap!
Is Sarah Palin dumb as a pile of bricks or smart like a fox?
She must be dumber than a pile of bricks! Or not.
Last month she nominated one Wayne Anthony Ross to be the attorney general of Alaska.
Bad move. Ross is, according to Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast, "a colorful far-right lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R. on his Hummer's vanity plates..."
But he more's than that. It appears, from what he has said, that he has problems understanding things like human rights, human dignity, fairness, and it also appears that maybe his brain is wired weirdly.
"...his nomination was thrown into grave peril when his opponents presented evidence that he called homosexuals 'degenerates,' hailed the 'courage' of a student who lionized the Ku Klux Klan, vowed to undermine the sovereignty of Native American tribes, and allegedly defended men who rape their wives."
Here are a few quotations and other miscellany from Mr. Ross:
1. "If a guy can't rape his wife, who's he gonna rape?" (Ross denied saying this.)
2. "If a woman would keep her mouth shut, there wouldn't be an issue with domestic violence."
3. He wrote "several manifestos attacking [Martin Luther] King as a communist subversive.
4. He has "routinely appeared at public events beside his friend, Don Tanner, a while nationalist who moved to South Africa for a period during the 1980s to support is apartheid government, and who reveled crowds of conservatives with anti-black 'South African jokes' upon his return to Alaska."
Well, there's much more. But here's Blumenthal's take:
"If Palin withdraws Ross' nomination, she could end another embarrassing political spectacle before it registers on the national press corps' radar. Alternatively, if she manages to ram his appointment through, Palin can begin implementing a hard-right legal agenda that will appeal to the elements she is cultivating as the base of her likely 2012 presidential campaign..."
I think a major question arises with this appointment that should become fodder for a national conversation (just in case Palin the prevaricator should become convinced she needs to be president in 2012): Why would anyone with a modicum of common sense and common decency be involved with someone like Ross?
What the hell is wrong with Sarah Palin? Is she dumb as a pile of bricks or smart like a fox?
There's more here.
Last month she nominated one Wayne Anthony Ross to be the attorney general of Alaska.
Bad move. Ross is, according to Max Blumenthal at The Daily Beast, "a colorful far-right lawyer and longtime Palin ally who sports his initials, W.A.R. on his Hummer's vanity plates..."
But he more's than that. It appears, from what he has said, that he has problems understanding things like human rights, human dignity, fairness, and it also appears that maybe his brain is wired weirdly.
"...his nomination was thrown into grave peril when his opponents presented evidence that he called homosexuals 'degenerates,' hailed the 'courage' of a student who lionized the Ku Klux Klan, vowed to undermine the sovereignty of Native American tribes, and allegedly defended men who rape their wives."
Here are a few quotations and other miscellany from Mr. Ross:
1. "If a guy can't rape his wife, who's he gonna rape?" (Ross denied saying this.)
2. "If a woman would keep her mouth shut, there wouldn't be an issue with domestic violence."
3. He wrote "several manifestos attacking [Martin Luther] King as a communist subversive.
4. He has "routinely appeared at public events beside his friend, Don Tanner, a while nationalist who moved to South Africa for a period during the 1980s to support is apartheid government, and who reveled crowds of conservatives with anti-black 'South African jokes' upon his return to Alaska."
Well, there's much more. But here's Blumenthal's take:
"If Palin withdraws Ross' nomination, she could end another embarrassing political spectacle before it registers on the national press corps' radar. Alternatively, if she manages to ram his appointment through, Palin can begin implementing a hard-right legal agenda that will appeal to the elements she is cultivating as the base of her likely 2012 presidential campaign..."
I think a major question arises with this appointment that should become fodder for a national conversation (just in case Palin the prevaricator should become convinced she needs to be president in 2012): Why would anyone with a modicum of common sense and common decency be involved with someone like Ross?
What the hell is wrong with Sarah Palin? Is she dumb as a pile of bricks or smart like a fox?
There's more here.
Paraguayan President and the Pope's godlessness
[Photo by BBC News]Pope Benedict XVI warned us against "godlessness" and "secularism" on Good Friday [see post below].
Perhaps he was thinking about his former bishop, Fernando Lugo, who is now the president of Paraguay.
Seems the president, when he was a bishop, had an affair with a 16-year old girl which resulted in the birth of a boy child.
The president, at first, denied any such shenanigans, but doggone it all, the girl, Viviana Carrillo, filed a paternity suit.
So, finally, he confessed and said he is going to "assume all responsibilities."
That's nice.
This is no big deal, of course; happens all the time; and not infrequently, it seems, of bishops in the Roman Catholic Church.
The problem is that such behavior, which I'm sure Pope Benedict would classify as "mocking" Christ, or a "desert of godlessness," does not appear to be caused by "secularism" or "the faith ... being trivialised." The man was a bishop, for Christ's sake!
Nor it is caused, I think, by the fact that "Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard."
A bishop wouldn't do that.
In fact, the bishop was horny and his church said he could not do what was normal -- get married and have children -- so he was caught between a rock and a hard place...or hard something.
I don't think the bishop is a bad person; in fact, it seems he was a good bishop in many ways and that he's been a good president for Paraguay in other ways.
I do think the Pope and his so-called "values and norms" which insist that Catholic clergy be men and be celibate are, in fact, creating the rise in what he bemoans as "secularism."
I also think the Roman church is filled with hypocrites of the highest magnitude.
There's more here.
McCain admits Palin a mistake
[Image from TVGuide]While I don't agree with his list of "good" Repugnicans, which included Mitt Romney and Bobby Jindal, I think it's not only funny that he left off Palin, but is an admission that his choice of Palin as a running mate was ill-advised, or in more direct terms, stupid.
And this repartee between McCain and Leno shows once again how fortunate we are that McCain and Palin did not win the election!
A link to the video is here.
Good Friday Godlessness
It was on Good Friday, April 10, that Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against what he called "the rise of aggressive secularism in Western societies, warning them [the people?] that they risked drifting into a 'desert of godlessness.'"Some of us think that a "desert of godlessness" would be like a dessert, when we consider the so-called "godliness" of the Pope and his minions in the Vatican and his other menials spread, like a cancer, around the world.
The Daily Mail tells us all about it: To remove religion from public life, said the pontiff, is the same as "the mockery of Christ by the mob as he was led out to be crucified."
Benedict said that "'Religious sentiments' were increasingly ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and 'held up to scorn and ridicule.'"
That sounds about right.
And all of this "humiliates" Jesus. The "sense of the sacred is allowed to erode."
"Values and norms that held societies together and drew people to higher ideals are laughed at and thrown overboard. Jesus continues to be ridiculed."
And then, [this is so riddled with irony and hypocrisy it's a wonder he could keep a straight face] Benedict "condemned the oppression of women, saying there were 'many societies in the world where women fail to receive a fair deal.'
"'Christ must be weeping for them,'" said Bennie.
Pope Benedict is quite careful to threaten the faithful by implying that the adoption of secularism [which has something to do with rejecting the Catholic church's doctrines] is to break the heart of Jesus, is to betray Jesus once again, is to join the mob [read "damn Jews] in the courtyard, is to crucify the Lord anew.
But what he doesn't get is that many "religious sentiments" should be "ranked among the 'unwelcome leftovers of antiquity' and [be] 'held up to scorn an ridicule.'"
And those "values" and "norms" which used to hold society together are nothing more than threats of purgatory/excommunication or fear of hell. Who needs them?
Finally, if there is any place in the world where women "fail to receive a fair deal" it is the Vatican, ridden with hidebound misogynists and celibate (or not so celibate) bigots and bishops!
The Daily Mail article is here.
Strip searching for ibuprofen
Ibuprofen is one thing. Crack cocaine is another. School authorities in Safford, Arizona didn't seem to understand the difference, or that a person suspecting of carrying ibuprofen should be treated less harshly than one suspected of carrying crack cocaine.
Savana Redding was 13 years old at the time. For some reason she was suspected of being a dangerous druggie, perhaps having "prescription-strength" ibuprofen somewhere on her person, maybe hidden in her genitals. Thus she was strip-searched in the school nurse's office.
Joshua Holland writes: "She was made to expose her breasts and pubic area to prove she was not hiding pills."
That was six years ago. Savana's mother didn't take kindly to this action and sued, beginning a legal battle which is now headed to the United States Supreme Court!
One cannot help but wonder how such morons get to be in charge of a public school in this country or how they stay in positions of authority. Actually, in my experience in the education system, I found there are many morons in charge of our public schools. I'm not sure why that's the case, except that quite often people who can't teach or don't like kids end up being administrators; and not a few of the people elected to school boards are dumber than doorknobs with political agendas that do not include the welfare of the children for which they are responsible.
Holland refers to a 1985 Supreme Court decision which held that school poohbahs can search a student if they have "reasonable suspicion" of some dirty deed, but warned that a search should not be "exessively intrusive" and take into account "the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction."
Holland concludes:
"Aside from the fact that this case certainly appears to be 'excessively intrusive' -- remember we're talking about ibuprofen, not smack -- it's also in keeping with the slow erosions [sic] of our liberties. The 5th Amendment to the Constitution doesn't say 'persons who aren't students in a school' shall not be 'deprived of life, liberty or process without due process of law,' is just says 'persons.' Last I checked, school kids are persons too."
I agree. But I would add the caveat that when one person in our country is deprived of his/her constitutional rights by some blowhard moron in a position of authority, all of us are at risk.
Read the entire article here.
Savana Redding was 13 years old at the time. For some reason she was suspected of being a dangerous druggie, perhaps having "prescription-strength" ibuprofen somewhere on her person, maybe hidden in her genitals. Thus she was strip-searched in the school nurse's office.
Joshua Holland writes: "She was made to expose her breasts and pubic area to prove she was not hiding pills."
That was six years ago. Savana's mother didn't take kindly to this action and sued, beginning a legal battle which is now headed to the United States Supreme Court!
One cannot help but wonder how such morons get to be in charge of a public school in this country or how they stay in positions of authority. Actually, in my experience in the education system, I found there are many morons in charge of our public schools. I'm not sure why that's the case, except that quite often people who can't teach or don't like kids end up being administrators; and not a few of the people elected to school boards are dumber than doorknobs with political agendas that do not include the welfare of the children for which they are responsible.
Holland refers to a 1985 Supreme Court decision which held that school poohbahs can search a student if they have "reasonable suspicion" of some dirty deed, but warned that a search should not be "exessively intrusive" and take into account "the age and sex of the student and the nature of the infraction."
Holland concludes:
"Aside from the fact that this case certainly appears to be 'excessively intrusive' -- remember we're talking about ibuprofen, not smack -- it's also in keeping with the slow erosions [sic] of our liberties. The 5th Amendment to the Constitution doesn't say 'persons who aren't students in a school' shall not be 'deprived of life, liberty or process without due process of law,' is just says 'persons.' Last I checked, school kids are persons too."
I agree. But I would add the caveat that when one person in our country is deprived of his/her constitutional rights by some blowhard moron in a position of authority, all of us are at risk.
Read the entire article here.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Italian Prime Minister emulates G. W. Bush
[Image from BBC News]On April 6, just before the break of dawn, about 60 miles east of Rome, the Italian city of L'Aquila was rocked by an earthquake.
At least 260 people died, and 28,000 or more were left homeless. Some 10,000 buildings were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable.
It was very, very cold. Many of the homeless had to try to survive in hastily constructed tent camps.
A tragedy of enormous proportions.
The Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, said of the people huddled and freezing in their tents:
"They should see it like a weekend of camping."
George W. Bush didn't use those words after Hurricane Katrina hit, but he might as well have. Hurricane Katrina showed clearly that the Bush administration simply didn't give a damn about the people of the United States - unless, of course, they were very rich.
Maybe Berlusconi, who is said to be the richest man in Italy, took a lesson from Bush as to how to respond to his constituents in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
Spencer Bachus (R-Ala) discovers socialists in Congress
Shades of Joseph McCarthy!Spencer Bachus, a Republican Representative in Congress from Alabama, has discovered there are at least 17 "socialists" in Congress. Actually, there are 17 "socialists" in the House of Representatives! God only knows how many are hiding in the Senate! Yup!
Now, I don't know how Bachus defines "socialist." But it's a convenient term to throw around and get the hoi polloi all roiled up. Bachmann, the dimwit from Minnesota has done it; Sarah Palin has done it; and it's getting to be quite common among the rabid rightwing TV and radio hate mongers.
According to a blog article in the Washington Post by Mary Ann Akers, when the Birmingham Post asked Bachus to name the 17 socialists in Congress, he could think of none in the House, and only one in the Senate, Bernie Sanders, who's an Independent from Vermont.
Akers notes that his naming of Sanders is of particular interest, because back in 2003 Bachus "co-sponsored a measure with then congressman Sanders and Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), which Sanders called a 'tripartisan amendment.' It sought to prevent credit card companies from jacking up interest rates on cardholders who have bad credit reports because of late payments and loans and such."
All of which makes me wonder again if Bachus knows what a "socialist" is. Doesn't governmental interference with the right of credit card companies to do whatever the hell they want, constitute a socialistic slap at capitalistic greed?
Repugnicans don't seem to know whether they're coming or going. But, hey, if it will get them votes, they'll say anything, even if it's quite obvious they don't know what they're talking about!
Akers article is here.
GOP should own another TV Station besides FOX says GOP "Talking Head"
We're indebted to a couple of folks for what follows, including FairWinds at Daily KOS, and Heather at Video Cafe; so we thank both of them.
It's delicious. Some guy by the name of Robert G. Kaufman wrote a book a couple years ago entitled In Defense of the Bush Doctrine: Moral Democratic Realism and American Grand Strategy [the title tells you where Kaufman's coming from!].
Anyone who uses the name Bush in the same sentence with "moral" has probably come unmoored from the pier.
So, seems that Kaufman appeared at the 61st Annual Conference on World Affairs, held April 6 at the University of Colorado. He was a member of the panel involved in a presentation called "Rebranding Republicans: Don't Misunderestimate Us."
Kaufman gave a ten-minute "lecture" in which he spoke of five "core principles" that Repugnicans have to make their own if they're gonna be able to take over "when Obama fails."
[Just reading that makes me sick to my stomach. WHEN Obama fails???? These goddamn sons-of-bitches don't give a rat's ass about our country! It's all about power. And they are willing to see people suffer and die in order to gain and maintain their power. And many of them do it in God's name! They are rotting turds dressed in human clothes!]
Okay, I'll continue now.
According to Mr. Kaufman, the #5 thing that Repugnicans must do is figure out how to get their message across even though they're facing a "hostile" media.
Heh. Heh. What the hell's he talking about? The MSM is bought and paid for by the corporations who buy and sell Repugnicans in Congress and is constantly kissing the asses of Repugnican nogoodniks in and out of Congress!
Okay, I'm back.
So, Kaufman says "If I had to recommend one single thing that the Republicans should be doing to help articulate the message, it is to acquire another television network so that there is not just FOX, but multiple sources of alternative information"...blah, blah, blah!
Read that again and let it sink in. The Republicans should get their hands on ANOTHER TV NETWORK BECAUSE THE ONE THEY ALREADY OWN, FAUX NEWS, ISN'T ENOUGH TO GET THEIR MESSAGE OUT TO THE HOI POLLOI!
[That begs the question, of course, "What message?" The one that promises unending war, global hostility, the threat of Armaggedon, financial collapse, moral rot, lies and more lies, incompetent fools, the shredding of the Constitution, etc., etc.? That must be the "message" as I've not heard of any other Repugnican message!]
I'm alright. I'm alright!
Here's what Heather at Video Cafe says:
"Kaufman is not a spokesperson for the GOP but this slip is one that probably deserves some notice as the diarist writes. Heaven forbid that any of them ... don't have enough control over our airways as it is already. Right now there are about six media companies that control almost everything we watch on television, at the movies and listen to on the radio. How could the GOP survive without one more Fox News channel to promote their agenda? It just boggles the mind."
Read more here.
It's delicious. Some guy by the name of Robert G. Kaufman wrote a book a couple years ago entitled In Defense of the Bush Doctrine: Moral Democratic Realism and American Grand Strategy [the title tells you where Kaufman's coming from!].
Anyone who uses the name Bush in the same sentence with "moral" has probably come unmoored from the pier.
So, seems that Kaufman appeared at the 61st Annual Conference on World Affairs, held April 6 at the University of Colorado. He was a member of the panel involved in a presentation called "Rebranding Republicans: Don't Misunderestimate Us."
Kaufman gave a ten-minute "lecture" in which he spoke of five "core principles" that Repugnicans have to make their own if they're gonna be able to take over "when Obama fails."
[Just reading that makes me sick to my stomach. WHEN Obama fails???? These goddamn sons-of-bitches don't give a rat's ass about our country! It's all about power. And they are willing to see people suffer and die in order to gain and maintain their power. And many of them do it in God's name! They are rotting turds dressed in human clothes!]
Okay, I'll continue now.
According to Mr. Kaufman, the #5 thing that Repugnicans must do is figure out how to get their message across even though they're facing a "hostile" media.
Heh. Heh. What the hell's he talking about? The MSM is bought and paid for by the corporations who buy and sell Repugnicans in Congress and is constantly kissing the asses of Repugnican nogoodniks in and out of Congress!
Okay, I'm back.
So, Kaufman says "If I had to recommend one single thing that the Republicans should be doing to help articulate the message, it is to acquire another television network so that there is not just FOX, but multiple sources of alternative information"...blah, blah, blah!
Read that again and let it sink in. The Republicans should get their hands on ANOTHER TV NETWORK BECAUSE THE ONE THEY ALREADY OWN, FAUX NEWS, ISN'T ENOUGH TO GET THEIR MESSAGE OUT TO THE HOI POLLOI!
[That begs the question, of course, "What message?" The one that promises unending war, global hostility, the threat of Armaggedon, financial collapse, moral rot, lies and more lies, incompetent fools, the shredding of the Constitution, etc., etc.? That must be the "message" as I've not heard of any other Repugnican message!]
I'm alright. I'm alright!
Here's what Heather at Video Cafe says:
"Kaufman is not a spokesperson for the GOP but this slip is one that probably deserves some notice as the diarist writes. Heaven forbid that any of them ... don't have enough control over our airways as it is already. Right now there are about six media companies that control almost everything we watch on television, at the movies and listen to on the radio. How could the GOP survive without one more Fox News channel to promote their agenda? It just boggles the mind."
Read more here.
Christian conference center burns - where was God?
Easter Sunday, which according to many Christians, is the "holiest" day of the year, was the day a huge conflagration roared through the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center on Lake Winnipesaukee, in Alton Bay, New Hampshire.The fire took out a number of summer cottages at the 146-year old center, which has as its purpose the changing of lives by "encouraging commitment to Jesus," and thus is engaged in evangelism and training of Christian leaders.
This is an unhappy occurrence, and I am not in any way making light of what happened. But, one cannot help wonder why such a thing should occur on the "holiest" day of the Christian calendar, and the other question, of course, forever unanswered, is "Where was God?"
Consider: If God is omniscient as asserted in Christian theology, he/she knew this fire was going to happen. Why didn't he/she take steps to ensure it didn't happen, if, indeed, he/she considered this conference center important to the evangelizing of souls to keep them out of hell?
Secondly, if God is omnipotent as asserted in Christian theology - well, the same question arises.
I've heard all the rationalizations. I've used them. But, ultimately they fail. Either God is neither omniscient nor omnipotent, or he/she just doesn't give a damn.
Clean your dirty, rotten souls with SOULWOW!
The Roman Church shouldn't do stuff like this...it's too easy to mock.
From AP: "In a YouTube parody of the popular ads for ShamWow absorbent towels, a priestly pitchman named Father Vic calls on Roman Catholics in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island to partake. As Father Vic says, 'Nothing soothes the soul like a true confession.'"
It must be working. The number of folks wanting to clean their dirty, rotten souls has increased.
Heh. Heh.
Check it out: http://www.soulwow.com/
From AP: "In a YouTube parody of the popular ads for ShamWow absorbent towels, a priestly pitchman named Father Vic calls on Roman Catholics in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island to partake. As Father Vic says, 'Nothing soothes the soul like a true confession.'"
It must be working. The number of folks wanting to clean their dirty, rotten souls has increased.
Heh. Heh.
Check it out: http://www.soulwow.com/
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Military analyst shills on FAUX News
It's what we've come to expect, of course, but that still doesn't make it any easier to swallow - the knowledge that many of our leaders have sold their souls in order to increase their wealth and status. We've known for some time that certain "military analysts" appearing on the networks are tied directly to military contractors, but that information was not disclosed to viewers..
Ali Frick, writing at Think Progress, gives us a prime example, noting that on April 9 "Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney appeared on Fox News to discuss the Somali pirates situation, and managed to use it as an opportunity to shill for the F-22:
"McINERNEY: I'd put F-22s and combat air patrol out there, two of them, with tankers. ... The reason I'd put the F-22s is because they can go 1.6 to mach 2, and they have a very quick reaction time and 20 millimeter canon."
Turns out the McInerney "worked as a consultant to Northrop Grumman, a major contractor for the F-22."
FAUX News didn't feel it necessary to disclose that connection.
More here.
Ali Frick, writing at Think Progress, gives us a prime example, noting that on April 9 "Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney appeared on Fox News to discuss the Somali pirates situation, and managed to use it as an opportunity to shill for the F-22:
"McINERNEY: I'd put F-22s and combat air patrol out there, two of them, with tankers. ... The reason I'd put the F-22s is because they can go 1.6 to mach 2, and they have a very quick reaction time and 20 millimeter canon."
Turns out the McInerney "worked as a consultant to Northrop Grumman, a major contractor for the F-22."
FAUX News didn't feel it necessary to disclose that connection.
More here.
Jesus "boyfriend" music
[Image, "Jesus Love," from Lost Seed]I was reading one of my favorite blogs, An Apostate's Chapel, yesterday and came across the following, which is part of a longer article describing the kind of weird sexuality expressed in many of the old fundamentalist hymns.
The article references Fanny Crosby, for example, a 19th century hymnist,, who wrote innumerable love songs to Jesus, one of which contained these lines:
Safe in the arms of Jesus,
Safe on His gentle breast,
There by His love o-ershadowed,
Sweetly my soul shall rest.
And then there's Charles Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who penned this kind of stuff:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
But this song really brought back memories, for I recall singing this many times in my youth, never thinking about how truly sick the lyrics were. It was written by C. Austin Miles, also in the 19th century (Could it be the 19th century was sexually repressive?):
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and he talks with me,
And he tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
Yikes! An Apostate's Chapel reponds:
"How romantic! A garden, evening dew, walking and talking together, enjoying an exclusive relationship - and a prefiguring of Burt Bacharach:
"Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you."
If you came out of an "evangelical/fundamentalist" background, you will no doubt appreciate this more than one without that background...
And you can read the entire article here.
The thing that made the things for which there is no known maker
This gem speaks for itself. A bit long, but worth watching!
Vatican is afraid of Caroline Kennedy
It matters not that Caroline Kennedy is a lifelong Roman Catholic and comes from a family that has knelt before the Pope for many years; she is, according to the Vatican, unqualified to be the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.President Obama has not appointed an ambassador to the Holy See as yet, but word was that Ms. Kennedy was a likely choice.
Enter the pious prelates from Rome's heavenly realm. No, no, no, they said. She's pro-choice. We can't have anyone here who believes women should have the right to choose with regard to what they can do with their bodies! Furthermore, we can't have anyone within these holy precincts who favors stem cell research (even if those stem cells come from fetuses tossed in the garbage).
Now, the Roman Catholic Church is free to believe and promote whatever religious nonsense it so desires. Ironically, however, the majority of Catholics in the U.S. do not agree with nor follow the lead of the Vatican when it comes to issues such as abortion and contraception.
Nevertheless, it wouldn't make sense to appoint someone to the Holy See who is not wanted by the pompous papists in Vatican City.
So, if President Obama is restricted to persons who are anti-choice and anti-stem cell research, then perhaps he should consider not appointing an ambassador to the Vatican at all. The Vatican is like an appendix...at one time it was a political power...now it's a useless appendage.
That's right. As crazy as it sounds, the Vatican is not only a religious institution but a political entity, a political state.
Who needs it? And we do not need to send an ambassador to this pitiful little political realm in Italy.
Obama and his aides can send the Pope an e-mail if and when the need arises to communicate with the old guy.
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