It’s not enough to have women dressed in suffocating black shower curtains, or to have them be submissive, silent and obedient towards men. Now, the Iranian government wants to enforce a stricter dress code, and has threatened to arrest any women who tan their bodies or try and make themselves look more attractive. The government has been trying to scare its population into thinking the very fabric of their society is falling apart due to the evil influence of the West. No doubt this tactic is designed to make everyone in the country forget they are living in a corrupt, tyrannical theocracy.
Category Archives: Blog
Calamities of Nature
A fan of the site (they exist apparently) sent me a link to this webcomic, Calamities of Nature, and I thought some of them had some pretty genuinely funny and interesting points to make about religion, the Pope, and creationism. I feel as though the character of Aaron has a lot in common with little old me. I just have to ask one question though: where the fuck are his eyes?
Vatican’s financial woes have only just begun
If you were wondering why the Church worked so diligently to cover up the abuse of pederast priests, you can bet a big part of the motivation is money (like so much in this world). The Guardian is reporting tithing is expected to drop significantly in Italy and other countries. Ever year, the Church makes about €900m in donations, but faced with the growing reality the head of their organization was helping protect known pedophiles from prosecution, the number is expected to drop significantly.
With many Catholics across Europe saying the scandals have robbed them of their faith, there is a risk that this year’s income could be much lower. In Germany, where church membership is registered and has a direct impact on church funds, pollsters for Focus magazine this month found that 26% of Catholics were reconsidering their religious allegiance.
Only 26% had their faith shaken by the systematic cover-up of child rape? Why is anyone still giving money to these monsters? There still hasn’t been any action taken against those responsible for raping kids, and the Vatican continues to affirm all of this is “petty gossip”, even as the evidence continues to mount. It’s like the captain of the Titanic assuring everyone the rumors circulating around of a collision with a gigantic iceberg are “petty gossip”, even as water is rushing into the cabins.
Bring the Pope to Justice
The Hitch is back with more on the Pope, this time with a well thought out article in Newsweek entitled ‘Bring the Pope to Justice’. I feel like a lot of the writing out there regarding this whole scandal haven’t done a great job of pinning down just how shamefully complicit the Vatican has been in all this. Well, it doesn’t get more obvious or well laid out than this:
In 2002, I happened to be on Hardball With Chris Matthews, discussing what the then attorney general of Massachusetts, Thomas Reilly, had termed a massive cover-up by the church of crimes against children by more than a thousand priests. I asked, why is the man who is prima facie responsible, Cardinal Bernard Law, not being questioned by the forces of law and order?
This point must have hung in the air a bit, and perhaps lodged in Cardinal Law’s own mind, because in December of that year he left Boston just hours before state troopers arrived with a subpoena seeking his grand-jury testimony. Where did he go? To Rome, where he later voted in the election of Pope Benedict XVI and now presides over the beautiful church of Santa Maria Maggiore, as well as several Vatican subcommittees.
In my submission, the current scandal passed the point of no return when the Vatican officially became a hideout for a man who was little better than a fugitive from justice. By sheltering such a salient offender at its very heart, the Vatican had invited the metastasis of the horror into its bosom and thence to its very head. It is obvious that Cardinal Law could not have made his escape or been given asylum without the approval of the then pontiff and of his most trusted deputy in the matter of child-rape damage control, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
At every single turn they have made denials, withheld information, covered up, and obfuscated the truth. We all know countless people in power within the church have had many, many, many opportunities to do the right thing and bring these child rapists to justice. But they never did. In fact, they did the exact opposite.
Airport blasphemer sentenced
Remember Harry Taylor, the British man who was tried and found guilty of ‘religiously aggravated harassment’ for leaving some flyers making fun of religion in the prayer room at an airport? He was just sentenced today and got an Anti-Social Behavior Order along with a six month suspended sentence. The ABSO – a creepy little UK legal order basically allowing courts to make legal things illegal – means Taylor is no longer allowed to carry around anti-religion material in public.
Now on one hand I’m happy Taylor didn’t get the potential 7 years jail time his charges could have resulted in. But on the other, much larger pulsing neon hand of WTF, I’m still shocked: a) he was ever charged in the first place, b) he was found guilty of this retarded ‘crime’, and c) barely anyone seemed to care about this story, especially since the Ireland blasphemy thing became such a big deal. But here’s a guy charged, found guilty, and given a criminal record over offending some religious people and barely anyone has said boo.
Victim of abuse files lawsuit against Pope Benedict XVI
One of the many victims of Fr. Lawrence Murphy (the guy who molested over 200 deaf kids) has filed a lawsuit against the Pope in the hopes to uncover how much the Vatican did know about the abuse, and how they went about covering it up. The plaintiff, whose identity has been concealed, doesn’t want any money; he just wants justice for his life having been ruined by the sexual torture he had to endure.
I’m curious to see how the Vatican is going to react to this lawsuit. My guess is the standard “deny everything and hope everything blows over” response they’ve been so forthcoming with recently. If that fails, they’ll probably try to blame gays, or better yet, the secularization of society for creating an environment of depravity or something (even their mindless attacks don’t always make much sense). What a bunch of swell guys!
Skepticism shuts off during sermons
If you ever wondered why some of your friends or family members seem to lack a certain degree of skepticism concerning their own beliefs, you might be interested in a study conducted by the Aarhus University of Denmark. Using magnetic resonance imaging, they studied 20 Pentecostals and found when they listened to prayers recited by someone they were told was a Christian, the part of the brain normally associated with skepticism and vigilance (yes, there are parts of the brain responsible for this) shuts down.
The study found the most important factor wasn’t what the prayer was about, but rather the perceived authority of the person reading the sermons. In other words, they’ve identified the mechanism that allows charismatic religious leaders to gain influence over other people, and all that’s required is for a part of their followers brain to shut down.
This is exactly WHY I’m so fearful of religion; perfectly logical and rational people can be convinced of any absurdity once they surrender their skepticism to some silver tongued preacher. It’s scary when you think about how easy it is for some people to just shut off a part of their brain with such ease. Could there also be other parts of the brain that are affected as well? This could go a long way to explain why generally peaceful individuals can be convinced to kill in the name of their religious beliefs. The more we understand about religious belief, the more it scares the shit out of me.
Oklahoma continues fight against pregnant women
The abortion issue simply will not go away in the US. Every fucking day there’s some piece of legislation intended to severely limit the availability of abortions, or perhaps just make the process so humiliating and disheartening that women chose to keep their pregnancies. Take Oklahoma, where a proposed bill would withhold tests showing fetal defects, and would require women to answer private questions about their sexuality that would then be posted online. In other words, the intent of this bill is to prevent women from realizing their babies might have serious birth defects (which would encourage them to potentially terminate the pregnancy), and to make the process humiliating by threatening to expose their sexual history to the public. Let it be said the public flogging has not gone out of style!
These obviously unconstitutional and grossly irresponsible bills are popping up everywhere. Since the religious right can’t seem to accept the fact the law has decreed a woman has the right to control her body, they’ve been working diligently to make the process as painful, horrible, or difficult as possible. This kind of nonsense will only subside when religions stop trying to be involved in the political process, something I can’t foresee happening in the US within my lifetime. To my American fans, might I suggest moving to a country that doesn’t treat pregnant women like criminals?
More priestly abuse surfaces in Brazil
Slowly but surely, it looks as though the real scope of abuse by Catholic priests around the world is only slowly surfacing. Every other day, it seems as though a new pedophile is being exposed. The latest scandal comes from Brazil, which has more Roman Catholics than any other country in the world. The man in question, Luiz Marques Barbosa, was exposed when a TV station showed a sex tape of him with a 19 year old boy who has been under his employ for over 4 years, and he’s just one of many Latin American religious leaders currently under investigation.
Barbosa (who sounds like a villain in a cheesy Mario Van Peebles action romp) and two other priests are accused of abusing boys as young as 12 years of age. Barbosa continues to deny the fact he’s a pederast, although his only “defense” so far is a confusing jumble of inconsistencies; first, he claimed no abuse is going on, then he isn’t gay, followed immediately by accusing homosexuals of being the real cause of pedophilia, and finally ending by saying he would talk about this in confession only. Fuck I hate that garbage; this has become their hateful de-facto statement the Church makes every time someone mentions the fact that people who work for them are raping children. Even if there was a link between homosexuality and pedophilia (and trust me, there isn’t), the real question on everyone’s mind right now is why the head of the organization systematically sheltered known child rapists from prosecution, and why no one is doing anything about it. This whole business of blaming gays for the problem is nothing more than the typical Church M.O.: blame a scapegoat. If this was the 16th century, they would have just blamed the Jews for casting evil spells on them, and ordered a good old fashion massacre to get everyone’s mind off the real offenders.
It’s nice to see these pedophiles being exposed in religiously orthodox countries; it shows the power of the Church to silence these acts is seriously waning. It’s too early to tell how many more of these pieces of shit are going to be exposed, but it’s encouraging to think perhaps some measure of justice can be had here. To date, no one has actually been arrested, but my hope is the Brazilian government will grow some fucking balls and put abusers where they belong: behind heavy metal bars.
South Park creators threatened over depiction of Mohammed
There are few certainties in life, but you can always count on: 1) death is inevitable, 2) you will always have to pay taxes, and 3) Muslims will always flip the fuck out if you depict their prophet, no matter how innocent it is. Case in point: Matt Stone and Trey Parker are again the subject of controversy for their 200th episode, which featured Mohammed in a Bear suit to hide his identity. As you might have guessed, Muslim groups are up in arms over the depiction, and have issued (as is customary) threats of violence against the animators.
We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.
Actually, that sounds like a pretty serious threat, especially when the site entices people to actually show up at their house to “voice” their displeasure (or featuring audio clips of a mullah advocating the killing of blasphemers). How about you chill the fuck out instead, assholes? So sorry you can’t stand the idea of people making fun of your religion, but unfortunately for you, no one has the right to not be offended. If you don’t like it, might I suggest moving back to a country where blasphemy is punished as barbarically as it was 300 years ago (perhaps Saudi Arabia is more to your liking)?
Religion of peace my ass.
Islamic cleric says women are to blame for earthquakes
Don’t you just love it when religious morons try and explain geological events under the umbrella of their religious beliefs? As far as men like Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi are concerned, women in tight, revealing “coats” (I’m getting all hot just talking about it) are causing all kinds of natural disasters with their “sinning”. By tempting men with their shape, which apparently no normal Muslim is able to resist, the world has become more unstable as God tries to lay down his displeasure.
Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes
Really, how is this different than thinking the Earth quakes because ancient Titans are trapped deep underground, or believing lightning is produced when Zeus is angry? Are these idiots not aware we know why earthquakes occur, and it has nothing to do with the displeasure of an anthropomorphic bearded deity? I feel embarrassed for the human race every time one of these religious douchebags has the audacity to blame disasters on their cause celebre’ (in this case, a masochistic mullah wants women to remain enslaved by social decorum).
Here’s a surprising fact; no, women revealing their shape doesn’t cause earthquakes, and rain isn’t God crying either. Stop trying to blame women for every little problem you have, Islam, and stop treating them like property or cattle.
Spanish Bishop says children at fault for seducing priests
Looks like some priests aren’t content to just blame homosexuality for the rampant abuse of children; Bernardo Álvarez, the Bishop of Tenerife in Spain, had this to say about the recent scandals:
There are 13 year old adolescents who are under age and who are perfectly in agreement with, and what’s more wanting it, and if you are careless they will even provoke you
I think this is called the “Lolita” defense, and it sounds about as convincing as you might imagine. All those kids who were sodomized against their will were really just asking for it, shaking their prepubescent little booties around, wearing tight t-shirts with the Transformer logo, and smelling of bubble gum and candy. The whores! How dare they tempt these poor Holy men of the cloth with their sexy, completely underdeveloped bodies?
So to recap, the people to blame are homosexuals (for spreading their sin around town) and overly sexed kids, who continually tempt priests with their erotic use of the word “dude”. You wouldn’t want to place the blame on pederast pieces of shit who have ruined the lives of thousands of innocent children; why, that would just be wrong and an insult to the memory those poor, downtrodden priests who did nothing more than “give” those horny kids what they were begging for!
Jesus penis abs causes controversy
It’s hard to draw the human body; take it from me, I should know. If you’re not completely familiar with all the muscles and what they look like, your design might end up looking a little bit off. Take this crucifix, for instance: The artist is clearly drawing on older versions of depictions of Jesus, and at first glance, it would appear rather than having normal abdominal muscles, this skinny Jesus is sporting a massive hard-on. Hey, I’m not the only one who sees an erect penis; lots of people in this Oklahoma church have left the parish because of the design.
Sure, the Bible says not to worship false idols, but where is the fun in that? Surely if there was a God, he would be cool with being depicted as having a massive shlong, am I right?
Pope Benedict XVI’s Pedobear greeting
Two things about Pope Benedict’s planned visit to Malta have me smiling a bit; (1) the mayor of a small town has asked that a statue which looks like a dick be removed at the local airport for fear of offending the pontiff, and (2) a graffiti artist stenciled a few “pedobears” on the billboard marking his arrival, and the local news people have no idea what it implies. In case you’re hopelessly out of the loop, it’s a classic internet meme that was birthed in the often vile and twisted world of 4chan, and it’s a comedic reference to pedophilia (sometimes you have to laugh in order not to cry). The artist has succeeded in both confusing mainstream news sources while delighting us “hip” internet folks with his civil disobedience.
Thailand Busts Buddhist Monk child sex ring
If you’re a pedophile on the prowl, you’ll find no better haven for your sick and twisted desires than Thailand, where abject poverty and corrupt police allow foreign pederasts to take advantage of abandoned children. The latest scandal involves Buddhist monks who would lure young boys to their lair where his partner would farm them out to sex tourists. The group has been arrested, but this is only one bit of good news in a country that struggles to properly deal with child sex trafficking.
Thailand is trying to take a hard stance against the sexual trafficking of minors, offering up chemical castration and even the death penalty for repeated offenders. Still, the fact that people in places of high authority abuse their positions makes this kind of crime hard to fight; Buddhist monks are among the most trusted members of society, and you have to wonder how many more are using that trust to further the abuse of little children. Congratulations religion for proving once again you have no special monopoly on morality.