Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Texas women using $2 miscarriage pill to get around new anti-abortion laws

Anti-abortion theocrats have passed new copycat laws anti-abortion laws in Texas designed to restrict womens' access to abortions.  As critics have pointed out, this will not stop women from seeking to end unwanted pregnancies.  Instead, they will probably use a pill that is available in Mexico and Latin America for about $2 called cytotec or "star pills".  Its technical name is misoprostol, and it's usually used in combination with mifeprestone, which together is commonly known as RU486.  By itself Cytotec is only 30% effective at inducing abortions, but it is cheap and easily available.  More importantly, it can be used to make it look like a miscarriage took place, in which case the woman can go to the emergency room and get taken care of, most likely on the taxpayer's dime.  It's popular in Latin America where abortion is largely illegal due to sharia-style restrictions demanded by the Roman Catholic Church.  However, even the RCC can't put every woman in jail who has a miscarriage.  While insurance will not pay for abortions, even under Obamacare, insurance will pay for "miscarriages".  So all Rick Perry and Co have effectively done is forced women to game the system and potentially created even more expense, and more big government than ever before.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Zimmerman Acquitted! Prayer Fails Again. Trayvon no Angel Either.

The Zimmerman trial was a ridiculous farce from start to finish, but news reports finally say the farce is over and that Zimmerman has been acquitted of all charges, including manslaughter.  Every clear-thinking person could see that he never should have been charged with murder of any kind.  Everyone could see that the influences of the media circus, and racial political agendas were distorting and exaggerating a fairly clear cut case of self-defense.  We all knew it was Zimmerman's voice on the 911 call too.  Even Trayvon Martin's mother knew it, but she refused to admit it, because it would require that she accept the obvious fact that her son was the aggressor, and unfortunately ended up paying for his poor decision with his life.

But this case had an even more absurd element, which was the over-the-top, in-your-face, holier-than-thou religious histrionics of Trayvon Martin's mother Sybrina Fulton, "pleading the blood of Jesus" on the witness stand.  She almost certainly does not recognize how self-righteous and phony she comes across, but delusional true-believers seldom are capable of seeing themselves as the rest of the world does.   The facts, of course, speak for themselves.  All her praying and invoking of Jesus could not convince anyone (including herself) that Trayvon was an "angel" or that Zimmerman acted any differently than anyone else would have if someone jumped you in the middle of the night.

I know that, if anyone tried to jump me in the middle of the night, like Trayvon Martin jumped George Zimmerman, and I had a gun that I would have emptied my magazine into that stupid punk before he could take a second swing.  Most of you all would have done the exact same thing, regardless of your skin color.  Trayvon Martin picked the wrong person to attack, thinking that this person couldn't defend himself.  If course he was a teenager, and teenagers don't always make smart decisions, especially when they are rich, spoiled jocks, and pot heads with a history of such things.  Trayvon is hardly the only teenager pay for his poor decision-making skills with his life.  It happens to teens all the time, who think they are invincible until reality suddenly reminds them that they are not.

Of course, we all hope it wouldn't come to that.  Presumably when Trayvon first jumped out and yelled "what's your problem", Zimmerman should have shouted, "I have a gun and I'll defend myself!", followed by drawing it in rapid order.  That too is perfectly legal according to several retired cops that I know.  It is not "brandishing" a firearm, because you are not making an illegal threat when you draw it in self-defense.  It is possible, that, at that stage, pulling the gun would have prevented further escalation.  But it may not have, because some teens, like Trayvon, from the sound of things, probably still would have acted in a menacing manner, and unfortunately for Trayvon, he lived in Florida, the redneck capital of "stand your ground" laws.  It wasn't because of the skittles.  It wasn't because of his hoodie, and it wasn't because of his skin color.  It was because he believed that he could physically assault someone with impunity.  Most of the time such confrontations don't lead to death, but you have to consider the worst case scenario.  It's the same thing that we tell people about road rage.  You never know if the other person might be crazy, or might be armed.  It's just not worth it to find out.  Your best bet is to get away as quickly as possible, get to a public place, and call 911 yourself.  Of course, that's what an adult would do.  Kids usually don't think that way.  Because they think they are invincible, sometimes right up to that moment where they discover they're not.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Proof that John 9 and other blind/deaf Jesus "miracle" cures were frauds

We have all heard the stories of the gospel claiming that Jesus could cure people who were blind or deaf since birth.  But science has yet again demonstrated that these stories are nonsense.  Here is the problem.  Now that we really can fix the problems that cause many people to be born blind or deaf, as in the case of this article in _Scientific American_ about Project Prakesh, we are confirming that a person who is born blind can't just start "seeing" right away and be as good as new, like the blindness never happened.  That is, just causing the "scales to fall away" from one's eyes, as the Bible frequently depicts the cure for blindness, would not result in  a person with functional vision.  Indeed, research reveals that when we do remove the "scales" (or cataracts in actual fact) from some of these Indian children, and allow them to see for the first time, that they lack the ability to make sense of the shapes and colors all around them.  In other words, they have never learned how to see, and the longer they have gone through life without learning how to recognize shapes and patterns, the more difficulty they will have being able to function, if ever, in a normal way.  They have missed a critical period of brain development and learning, and it is a similar phenomena when it comes to hearing.  Indeed, now that we have cochlear implants, we can let adults hear for the first time, when they have been deaf for their whole lives.  However, cochlear implants are generally not indicated for adults who were born deaf, because again, the outcomes are often not good.  Just as with the congenitally blind whose brains have never learned to make sense of visual patterns, the congentially deaf adult has never had an opportunity to learn how to recognize and make sense out of auditory patterns.  As a consequence, even though the cochlear implants allow these individuals to "hear", they often find it difficult to understand the world around them through sound or even to master normal speaking.  They too have missed a critical period of development.

Now, of course, we can invoke yet more miracles and say that, behind the scenes, without telling anyone, Jesus also magically altered the brains of these individuals so that they could instantly learn how to understand the sights and sounds around them. But if Jesus was just going to magically alter people's brains then he wouldn't have needed to do any preaching in the first place.  He could have just magically altered everyone's brain so that they agreed with him.  No, sorry, it doesn't pass the smell test.

What seems more likely is that Jesus never cured anyone of blindness or deafness, especially those born with the condition, since the gospels seem unaware that these secondary difficulties might develop as the result of restored vision or hearing.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA lets Prop. 8 Stand

In what is being called two big wins for gay rights, the Supreme Court has struck down key provisions of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and also let stand a lower court's decision invalidating California Proposition 8 that defined marriage as between a man and woman only.  Gay marriage is something of a barometer that measures the social progressiveness of a culture, which is why  religious bigots and so-called "social conservatives" actually fight so hard against it.  The reality is that gay people have always been present in every culture in history, regardless of attempts to repress it.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Born in the wrong time

We live in a time of high technology, and this inherently means that rapid changes will occur.  Yet some people, primarily motivated  by mental laziness, have adopted a worldview that almost automatically rejects change.  Every time something  changes we have to listen to these people endlessly bitch about how they don't like it and think things would be better if this or that technology were banned or never invented.  But realistic people know that you can't uninvent things.  You can't even hope to regulate most technologies, except on the roughest levels.  So people who are philosophically opposed to change and who want to return to the past are not just living in a world of fantasy--they have unfortunately also been born at the wrong time in history.  There has never been another era of such rapid change.  Therefore opponents of  change, generally know as conservatives, have one of the most maladaptive outlooks that it is possible to hold at present.  Of course it would be different if the rest of us didn't have to hear their constant' deusional BS, pretending that it is possible to turn back the clocks and calendars to some mythical yesteryear that is gone forever.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

God's grace or chance in oklahoma tornado tragedy

I here people in Oklahoma City unwittingly indicting God of murder by saying "but for the grace of God I was spared from the tornado".  It sounds pious, but if God intentionally spared these people then he also intentionally refused to spare all those school children crushed in the rubble.  I think what these people mean is "there but for fortune" it could have been them instead.  But substituting the word "fortune" with "God's grace" is not an equivalent cut-and-paste replacement.  Fortune means it's an accident, but if God was pulling the puppet strings then it happened on purpose.  It makes a huge difference if something is merely bad luck, as opposed to a psychopath intentionally plotting an act of mass murder. And if we wouldn't accept such behavior from a human psychopath, why would God be held to a lower standard? Think about it.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Why would God murder oklahoma elementary school kids?

The flip side of the standard evangelical assertion that "god is in control" of everything is that he would have to be responsible when things go wrong, like when tornados rip through oklahoma city and kill dozens of children at their elementary school.  See, it doesn't work to say that it's just a natural disaster that is out of God's hands if he created the universe and everything in it, and constantly pulls strings to influence other minute details, like whether you get a parking space at the mall.  Furthermore, the standard "free will" excuse doesn't work too well with children in an elementary school in the suburbs of "God-fearing" Oklahoma City.  And the notion that god purposely created the tragedy to allow "greater good" to come through the rescue efforts, etc would be like excusing a mass-murderer like Adam Lanza, on the grounds that good things might ultimately result from his act of evil.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Sylvia Brown Wrong As Usual

Browne had a 50% chance of being right, when she wrongly claimed Amanda Berry was dead, and was clearly playing the odds that someone who hadn't been heard from in 10 years is already considered "legally dead" for purposes like insurance.  But, she was wrong, as usual.  It's hardly the first time that her coin flips have been wrong.  She also predicted that Obama wouldn't be re-elected.  In fact, as CSICOP notes, of 115 cases in which she has offered her "psychic detective services", 90 have been unsolved and in the other 25 that have been solved, she has been wrong in her predictions.   Thus, so far she is batting zero in terms of her crime solving services.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Terrorist Mom Says Boston Bombing Staged With Red Paint

Zubeidat Tsarnaev, the mother of Boston bombers Tamarlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev, is as dumb as they come.  It's one thing to be deluded, but this woman thinks that everyone in the Boston Marathon was in the conspiracy to make HER kids look bad.  That's right, 180 people just pretended to be injured and intentionally smeared "red paint" on themselves, she insists, so that they could claim they were injured by her kids.  Gosh, one would think that self-respecting conspiracists would have at least gotten to animal blood from the butcher shop, or maybe even from the blood bank, if they are part of some grand governmental conspiracy
She also complains that police shouldn't have shot her son, who stopped his car and opened fire on the police first.  But apparently he has her own problems with the law, having fled the country after being accused of felony shoplifting.  
It just shows you the kind of delusions that these kids likely grew up with on a daily basis.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Tamarlan Tsarnaev said 9-11 was plot to make muslims look bad

It turns out that the terrorist Tamarlan Tsarnaev was a 9-11 conspiracy theorist too.  Unlike fringe whackos such as Alex Jones, however, he didn't believe it was done by the Illuminati, or the New World Order.  He believed that it was done by the US government, according to friends and relatives, to make Islam look bad and to make Americans hate or distrust Muslims.  So what did he do?  He went out and actually performed terrorism himself, that even by his own conspiratorial thinking, would have the effect of making Islam look bad, and making Americans hate or distrust Muslims.  Mission Accomplished.  I mean, what did he THINK the effect was going to be?  Did he think his actions would make us respect raving jihadi murderers like himself?  Did he think that his actions would accomplish anything other than to make Americans distrustful of Muslims?  I'm sure that Muslims in the US are feeling frustrated by all of this, because it puts them back to square one again, in terms of bad publicity, and public mistrust.  It makes it harder for them to practice their religion in peace and carry on with their lives as usual, which were probably just getting back to normal.  This seems to be something that terrorists seldom ever consider.  That their actions will actually be more harmful and counterproductive for the very group of people they claim to champion.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Muslim Terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Captured Alive...But For How Long

Wannabe Muslim terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured alive, hiding in a boat in the backyard of a Watertown residence.  Dzhokhar has to be one of the stupidest terrorists since the Shoe Bomber and the Underwear bomber, since the dumb pot-head, jacka$$ didn't even attempt to conceal his face behind sunglasses like his brother did.  What kind of a dip$hit thinks that he could get away with an attack like this when he doesn't even hide his identity?  I would certainly have to agree with his uncle Ruslan who described both brothers as "losers" and ungrateful haters, "who don't deserve to live on this Earth", and who lashed out at the very country that took them in and gave them opportunities after they fled Chechnya.  Maybe their own dumb asses would have been blown apart with bombs if they had stayed in Chechnya.  And this is how they thank the people who were nothing but kind to them?  It truly is amazing some times to see this level of ingratitude.  I highly doubt that Dzhokhar is going to make it prison, given his expressed antipathy for the US in general.  In some ways it truly is too bad that he didn't have the courage to at least try to shoot it out with cops, like his older brother, and then we could have been spared from dealing with him further.

religious extremists bombed Boston as predicted.

It's hard being right so much, as when I predicted that the bombing in Boston was probably done by religious extremists or right-winger, or both.  It turns out that it was both.  Tamarlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokar Tsarnaev were radicalized Muslim Chechens making them religious extremists.  As religious extremists of the Islamic variety, they are necessarily right-wing conservatives, because they oppose most things in the modern world and want us to go back to the way things were in the 7th  century.  That's pretty conservative. Those who predicted it would turn out to be Occupy Wall Streeters, atheists, progressives, etc are wrong as usual.  Tamarlan has already thankfully died and discovered that there ain't no 70 virgins waiting for him. His brother is likely to join him shortly.  And good riddance to them.  If they hated free society so much, its not clear why they couldn't have gone back to Chechnia.  What did the people of Boston ever do except to help and shelter these ungrateful jerks?

Boston Bombing Suspects: One Dead, One Trapped

Fortunately, the brothers who committed the Boston Marathon bombing appear to have been positively identified.  One is believed dead, in a shootout with police last night, and the other appears to be trapped in a house in Watertown.  Both men, Tamarlan Tsarnaev, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are Russian immigrants from Khazakstan, though it is not known if they are radicalized due to Chechen origins, or if they had some other grievances. 
I long noted that this act has the stamps of amateurism all over it, and it that would likely turn out to be either foreign terrorists or right-wing extremists.  It will remain to be seen what political philosophy these inidividuals follow, but it doesn't particularly matter.  The important thing is that the situation will be resolved soon.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Massive Explosion at Fertilizer Plant in West, Texas

A fire at the West Fertilizer Company has resulted in a massive explosion that virtually flattened homes and commercial buildings in a five to six block radius, throwing up a mushroom cloud, and causing evacuation.  Currently, about 200 people have been hospitalized and between 5 and 15 fatalities are believed likely.  There is no indication of what may have caused the fire, or whether foul play may have been involved.

In all likelihood this is just the kind of industrial accident that periodically happens at facilities like this.  It is amazing though that a middle school and nursing home were close enough to be significantly damaged and require evacuation.  I don't know who would think it was a desirable thing to build in close proximity to a fertilizer plant to begin with.  In many small Texas towns, however, there is perhaps just one industry that dominates, and fertilizer appears to be the thing in West.

I am sure there will be lots of praying and soul searching in the aftermath, but it's doubtful than any answers will come of it. Was it really necessary to God's Divine Master Plan that this fertilizer plant blow up? Of course, good can often come out of tragedies, but any good that results from this most likely could have resulted without the need for these injuries and calamities in the first place.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Boston Bombing is Modern Day Boston Massacre. No Obama did NOT do it.

Right-wing blowhards don't seem to get this, so I'll spell it out for them.  The Boston Massacre was a *bad thing* that turned people *against* the *perpetrators*.  The original perpetrators were the British, but the current perpetrators are most likely right-wing, anti-tax TEA Party traitors.  There is no conceivable way that this incident will generate sympathy *for* their cause.  Some are claiming that it will be another "shot heard round the world", but it's more like "you guys just shot yourself in the head". 

Of course, after realizing this, then they will insist that OBAMA did it to make them LOOK BAD/STUPID.  Oh, that dirty dog.  If he wanted them to LOOK BAD/STUPID he could just stand back and DO NOTHING. 

As far as Obama orchestrating a low rent incident like this, no this one has rank amateur attention seeker written all over it.  Given all the other things Obama has been accused of, he would have to be anything but an amateur, and the Leader of the Free World can get people's attention whenever he pleases without having to pull some crazy stunt like this. 

Boston Bomb Massacre Update. 132 injured.

As the rest of the world continues to process the insanity of the April 15th terrorist bomb attack on the Boston Marathon that has left 2 dead, and 132 injured, the Boston Marathon has now become a modern day Boston Massacre.  While it is too early to known anything definitely, the likelihood that this date was picked coincidentially, given that every American knows it is the deadline for filing federal taxes, is so remote as to non-existent.  Instead, it seems very likely that this was the work of right-winger "tax protesters", who have staged many "tax protests" in the past, albeit mainly non-violent.  However, IRS and federal buildings have been targetted by right-wing extremists in the past.  The notion that this would be the work of a left-wing group like Occupy Wall Street, is extremely out of character for that organization who would probably put a bomb on ....you know....Wall Street, not a race course in Boston.  Of course, this could still be the work of foreign terrorists, but again, they seem obsessed with New York City, not Boston.  On the other hand the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party fanatics are very much associated with Boston.  Time will tell, but the odds make it an easy prediction that right-wing conspiratorial nutjobs were behind this one.

Boston Marathon Bomber. Guess the Lunatic.

An explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon has killed two people and injured around 28 more.  We are now left to wonder what precise type of lunatic is responsible.  It goes without saying that people who think that setting off a bomb in a public area like this have some sort of serious mental defect, or some equally defective political agenda.  Naturally, everyone picks opponents of their own political, religious, and ethnic agendas as the "usual suspects".  Still, if history is any guide, it is much more likely than not that these individuals will be either religious fanatics and/or political right-wingers, since they are the ones who have most commonly resorted to these actions in the past and seem to still advocate for them right now.  For example, the usual militant, anti-government, IRS-hating, anti-tax, TEA party types would likely pick April 15th, being the deadline for federal taxes.  Of course the right-wingers are insisting that it must be Occupy Walstreet, but it's unlikely that Occupy people particularly care about taxes, since they probably don't pay any, or the Boston Marathon.

Monday, April 8, 2013

Pint-sized Antichrist Kim Jung Un

Is it just me, or does Kim Jung Un just need to shave his head, and get a white cat in order to be Dr. Evil?  He's certainly short enough.  Heck he's short-enough to be the mini-me version of Dr. Evil. And he comes up with plots that are every bit as silly.  I'm sure that he has already been working feverishly at putting lasers on sharks to aid in his amphibious invasion of South Korea.
So what are the odds that Kim Jung Un is the antichrist?   Well he clearly has set himself up as a false idol for his people to worship as a bite-sized Buddha on Earth.  The only question is whether he has the ability to pull off the whole Armageddeon thing.  Sure he talks tough about "smashing the imperialists", etc.  However, the only thing this porky little potentate seems capable of smashing is the floor if he falls out of his overstuffed chair.  He would probably more accurately be classified as an antichrist wannabe.

Should Rick Warren Kill Himself to be with his son?

Rick Warren has had a good life.  That's an understatement.  He is the quintessential fat, extremely dumb, and extremely happy person.  He has made a fortune out of selling simple-minded nostrums to people.  But now he claims to be "overwhelmed" with grief about the death of his son, and both he and his son believe in the Christian afterlife.  Therefore, I have the perfect solution.  Since he still thinks his son will go to heaven after committing suicide, I am sure that god will allow Rick Warren the same largesse.  Apparently his son spoke to his dad specifically about this issue and argued that there is no reason that people should have to wait around on earth when they "know they are saved" and can go straight to heaven.  Anyone who is truly a christian and truly believes that heaven waits in the afterlife must agree.  After all this is basically what the founder of their religion did.  Of course, he committed suicide by centurion, provoking others to kill him, but the aim was the same.  In fact, many early christians reportedly did similar things, picking fights with others to get themselves killed, so that they could go their eternal reward.   If the only thing you have to do is mouth the words, "I wuv you jebus" to get eternal bliss why would anyone want to pass up this sweet deal.  If Warren is against killing himself then I am sure he can find some gang banger to do the deed for him for a couple hits of crack.

Rick Warren's Son finally escapes dad's "Purpose-driven Life"

Rick Warren can wear his goofy Hawaiian shirts, and blather childishly about how the purpose of life is for God to love you, but apparently his son saw through the ridiculous charade.  Matthew Warren realized that it's not 100% about what God wants, as his father, god's self-appointed representative on Earth, would have you believe.  Therefore he escaped from his torments the only way he ultimately could, by taking his own life.
The purpose of my life is not for some other being to determine.  The purpose of Matthew was not be a tool for mythical god figure, or a tool for his earthly father figure.  Of course, I am sure that Matthew was a constant source of vexation for his father's simple-minded philosophy and his simple-minded creed.  Why would god intentionally make matthew's brain in such a way that he would constantly experience depression?  The go-to explanation for everything bad in the world for Christian is to blame "free will", but one cannot claim, with a straight face these days, that mental illness is all a result of free will.  Even Rick Warren acknowledges that his son seems to have been afflicted since birth with these issues.  So what are we to make of this purpose drivel that Warren has peddled like snake oil to so many millions.  What was the purpose of Matthew's life?  Did god really need Matthew to suffer for 27 years just so that he could allegedly "love" him, but not lift a finger to cure the maladies that he could effortlessly fix?
Oh many will insist that this is unfair and that I am exploiting death. But his father is in the ultimate business of exploiting death.  Religion was invented, in large part, to exploit people's fear of death and it's what his father does as a full time profession.  So I am not the one exploiting his son's death, nor am I crowing about it.  I think it's better for Matthew that he be released from his agony. I don't think for a minute that he is really in heaven, but even the oblivion of death means a laying down of all burdens.  Even that is better than the hell on earth of his apparently uncurable depression, which Warren acknowledges all the religion, and the best doctors in the world were unable to dent.
Rick Warren claims that is son told him over a decade ago that he knew he was saved, so he didn't see why he shouldn't be able to end his suffering and kill himself.  Apparently the pastor had no adequate answer for his son, and indeed Christianity has no answer for it either, since would seem like a great idea to get to heaven as soon as possible.  Their only attempt at an answer thus far has been to claim that "God said not to...that's why", like a frustrated parent to a toddler.  Such answers never satisfy even toddlers, and apparently don't satisfy the sons of pastors either.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Its 3/13/13. Will new pope be elected at 13:13 pm

It's double 13 day today, since the day and the year end in 13.  I'm not a superstitious person, but 13 is considered an unlucky number.  Judas was the 13th apostle.  Add to this the fact that medieval prophecies attributed to Saint Malachy say that there will be 112 popes before "doomsday" and Ratzinger was number 111.  Like I say, I don't believe in superstitions, but it would be a numerologically unlucky coincidence for the pope to be elected today, especially if the hour or minute includes a 13.  That would be doubly true if the Catholic church elects their first ever black pope, since cardinal Turkson, is a well-liked and viable candidate for pope this time.   As some people have heard it is now popular to claim that the Anti-christ will be a dark-skinned man.  This pretty  preposterous interpretation was heavily used against Barack Obama during both elections in the US, and we can expect that some will use it against Turkson as well in the papal elections.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Last Pope Prophecy Another Doomsday Prediction

With the previous pope now stepping down (sort of) and the cardinals meeting to pick his replacement, the usual suspects have emerged to claim that all of this silliness is part of vague and strange prophecies dating back to the middle ages.  Of course there is the go to prophet of Dumbassery, NostraDumbass himself, who can always be counted on to furnish something vague and undated.  But there is also the alleged writings of Saint Malachy, which many believe are a late forgery.  The text attributed to him names 112 popes from his day in the 1100's up to judgment day.  Benedict XVI is supposedly the 111th.  But most of the one line descriptions of the popes are very vague after the late 1500's, when the forgery was written.  But what's one more failed prophecy and one more holy forgery in a religion chock full of them?  After the Mayan prophecy,  I noted that this would have no effect on the superstitious, who will keep churning out new nonsense as though the previous nonsense didn't even exist.

Besides, if this next pope (allegedly named peter) is the last pope, we don't know how long he will be pope before doomsday.  He could live a very long time, or he could have a heart attack five minutes after being elected.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Hugo Chavez Dead. God Couldn't Save Him

Unlike other Marxists, like his atheist buddy Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez insisted that he remained devoutly Christian, in keeping with his Roman Catholic upbringing.  His religiosity seems only to have intensified since his battle with cancer began.  However, apparently all that praying couldn't cure his disease.  Indeed the 87-year-old atheist Fidel Castro is still around and kicking and Chavez is not.  So much for the power of prayer.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Former Pope Benny No Longer Infallible?

So, now that Pope Benedict has resigned and returned to just being plain old Joseph Ratzinger, what of his former Papal Infallibility.  He used to have a direct line to God, or so we have been told, on important matters of faith.  Has his long-distance account been terminated now?  Has told Benny that he no longer has any minutes left on his plan, and changed the access code?  Maybe without the papal decoder ring and staff and funny hat he can't receive the proper transmissions any more.
What if the new pope does say things that Benny disagrees with.  I know that right now the former Pope Benedict claims that he will be "obedient" to his new successor.  But why should he even need to say that unless there is a possibility that they will disagree?  Don't they talk to the same God?  Oh, right the new pope has the decoder ring now.  But don't you think that Pope Benny already downloaded God's answers on all the important issues of the day when he was pope all the way up to yesterday?  Are we really to believe that,  if the new pope is installed next month, and he then proceeds to abolish some policy that Ratzinger set up, that the Almighty changed his mind?
In short, isn't it time to admit that Popes are nothing but normal men (except in the alleged case of Pope Joan)?  Isn't it time to admit that they have no special access to God and that they are anything but infallible?

Pope Benny is Pope No More

Well Pope Benny is finally no longer the pope again, and they are not even sure when a new one will be selected, despite initial promises that it would be before Easter.  So Benny will go back to just being Ratty old Ratzinger.  He was a cardinal, but presumably he is retired from that as well.  I wonder if he will still dress up like a pimp or not.  I bet he will still wear a cross dress in the little man-skirts that Catholic priests and monks are wont to wear.