Friday, April 08, 2005
Culture of Bullshit
Those of you with functional auditory or visual sensory organs are no doubt aware that Pope John Paul II died last week. I'm somewhat ambivalent on the matter in that I'm sorry he got sick and died but I feel no particular grief now that he's gone. It'll only be a few weeks before a new Pope is chosen who will do everything the old pope might have done.
What I'm not OK with is the rush of American politicians (fuck it, neo-con Republicans) to bond the late Pope's opinions with their own political rhetoric, especially their buzzwords du jour "the culture of life." While JPII may have coined that phrase, it doesn't take much analysis to realize that when he said it, he also meant standing against capital punishment and war. Indeed, before he died the JPII was quite vocal in his rebuking of our little Iraqi invasion. Naturally, the ghouls who seek the Papal rub simply ignore these trivial little details and talk over anyone who says otherwise.
What's my point? I'll never ever understand how religious people support these psychos. If I were a cynic I might suggest that deeply religious people are, by definition, easily mislead to blindly following authority no matter how much evidence suggests that their authority figures are not acting in their best interest. But I would never say that.
What I'm not OK with is the rush of American politicians (fuck it, neo-con Republicans) to bond the late Pope's opinions with their own political rhetoric, especially their buzzwords du jour "the culture of life." While JPII may have coined that phrase, it doesn't take much analysis to realize that when he said it, he also meant standing against capital punishment and war. Indeed, before he died the JPII was quite vocal in his rebuking of our little Iraqi invasion. Naturally, the ghouls who seek the Papal rub simply ignore these trivial little details and talk over anyone who says otherwise.
What's my point? I'll never ever understand how religious people support these psychos. If I were a cynic I might suggest that deeply religious people are, by definition, easily mislead to blindly following authority no matter how much evidence suggests that their authority figures are not acting in their best interest. But I would never say that.
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Dan,
I had a dream last night that I stole the Pope's ashes and ran off with them. A very angry Cardinal chased after me to make me give them back. I accidentally spilled them on my shoes and had to shake the Pope off my shoes so the Cardinal could return the ashes.
The Pope will be buried, not burned so my dream is inaccurate.
I heard that the custom in the Vatican is for a Cardinal to hit the dead Pope in the head three times with a special silver hammer to make sure he's dead. However they are going to forgo the custom this time and simply ask the body his name...if he doesn't answer they will assume he's dead and bury him.
So much for modern medical science.
I had a dream last night that I stole the Pope's ashes and ran off with them. A very angry Cardinal chased after me to make me give them back. I accidentally spilled them on my shoes and had to shake the Pope off my shoes so the Cardinal could return the ashes.
The Pope will be buried, not burned so my dream is inaccurate.
I heard that the custom in the Vatican is for a Cardinal to hit the dead Pope in the head three times with a special silver hammer to make sure he's dead. However they are going to forgo the custom this time and simply ask the body his name...if he doesn't answer they will assume he's dead and bury him.
So much for modern medical science.
I've heard the story about the silver hammer thing before. Check out what Wikipedia and Snopes.com have to say about it.
And to the anonymous user who posted a porn link, thanks but no thanks.
コメントがあります？ Type something, please. It's less work for me.And to the anonymous user who posted a porn link, thanks but no thanks.
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