blacksundae

The great pious Catholic Pope stands before this man, and what does he say? Does he mention that Jesus asked that we do to others as we would have them do to us? Does he remind him that they call their religious figurehead the “Prince of Peace”, and that he asked us to turn the other cheek when we were struck, or that he asked that we protect the poor and weak? Does he point out that the central event in their shared faith was the torture and execution of their prophet and god, and that the New Testament isn’t about emulating the heroic Romans?

No, of course not. An obscenely wealthy old man heading an organization that protects child abusers and advocates horrendous and ignorant social practices that harm the poor all around the world would look utterly hypocritical even trying to rebuke a war-monger and apologist for torture. So instead he stands there and tells him that they share common principles founded in fear of a nebulous god. Those are ‘principles’ I reject — they seem to be nothing but labile excuses for doing as you will to anyone who falls under your thumb.

There’s an evil tableau for you: the callous torturer stands up with blood on his hands and a lie in his teeth, while the priest draped in gilt reassures him of his righteousness. How often has that scene played out in history, I wonder?

Read on.

I thought it was bad back in the 1980s when the Reagan Republicans sold weapons to the enemy. Now the Bush Republicans have given innovative warcraft another twist by bribing the enemy into not attacking.

The so-called Surge of 2007 was billed as an increase in troops in Iraq designed to reduce the out-of-control violence. But the biggest part of the plan involves bribing Sunni Muslim insurgents into not attacking. Approximately 70,000 of them are being paid $10 per day to hang around, armed, keeping the peace.

So in addition to the bizarrely ginormous cost of the war, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people killed, now we’re spending over a quarter billion more per year to create another militia that, no doubt, will eventually turn around and bite us, just like militias (excuse me - freedom fighters) we’ve created elsewhere.