The Nines

- "Am I God?"
- "No, God is a ten. You're more like a nine."
- "What are you?"
- "Humans are seven."
(pause)
- "Who's eight?"
- "Koalas. They're telepathic. And they control the weather."

The life of men depends on God and your collaboration

It seems Father Christián von Wernich lent a bit more than just a helping hand in the Argentine dirty war. The Father actually went to the homes of seven young political prisoners to collect $1,500 each, for their release. It was thought that sending a priest to collect the dough would be the sensible thing to do -- after all, who is more honest, decent, compassionate and trustworthy than a priest? Once the money was collected, the prisoners were tortured and murdered. One of them was pregnant. The Father witnessed at least three of the killings.

On another occasion, a prisoner begged for mercy, while being tortured -- the Father's response was that "the life of men depends on God and your collaboration." (From NYTimes)

This quote came to mind: "In every country and in every age the priest has been hostile to liberty, he is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own." -- Thomas Jefferson.

World's Largest Pedophilia Ring

Theology is tricky. "Suffer the little children to come unto me," the Gospel says, so I guess it's only natural that the odd priest gets it all confused and decides to come onto the children. Oh well, according to this story, the Archdiocese of LA has agreed to fork over $660 Million to their victims... What really gets me though, is that about a third of this will be covered by insurance.

What kinda crazy organization has insurance coverage for pedophilia? I mean, what the holy hell is that?!

To get an insight into this monstrous business, I recommend the amazing documentary Deliver Us From Evil -- which incidentally happens to make the point that Cardinal Mahony just might have known a lot more about what went on, than he claims...

RIP, Funnyman

Barra Barra

Good Riddance, Attention Whore!

Woo hoo!

So, it turns out there's a state law in Pennsylvania that prohibits fortune telling. And Philadelphia officials decided to try enforce it.

Amazingly, the psychics never saw it coming.

But now, they're back in business.

Meh. One step forward, and two back.

Terrorists for Falwell

Diary of a Terrorist. Mark David "Mighty Warrior" Uhl wanted to napalm the Westborough Baptist Church protests of Jerry Falwell's funeral...

How come it has taken so long for anyone to go after Fred Phelps? It would seem that his self-hating, poorly closeted homosexuality and accompanying homophobia should be enough for someone to take a swing at him by now, but it never happened. His ghoulish funeral protests always seemed like a pretty potent catalyst for violent counter-reactions -- if not from the gay community (as accustomed as they are, to being hounded by religious nutcases), at least from the military community and their supporters.

President Bush has responded with the Respect for America's Fallen Heroes Act, to prevent the latter from happening. Pretty predictable.

The gays and the military never came after Phelps and his ilk. It wasn't until they dared go up against OTHER religious nutcases, that this happened. That says a lot...