So, the Vatican claims there's no link between sexual repression, sexual abuse and sexual violence

ya, right...

The Vatican on Sunday denied that its celibacy requirement for priests was the root cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal convulsing the church in Europe and again defended the pope's handling of the crisis.

Suggestions that the celibacy rule was in part responsible for the "deviant behavior" of sexually abusive priests have swirled in recent days, with opinion pieces in German newspapers blaming it for fueling abuse and even Italian commentators questioning the rule.

Much of the furor was spurred by comments from one of the pope's closest advisers, Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, who called this week for an honest examination of issues like celibacy and priestly education to root out the origins of sex abuse.

"Part of it is the question of celibacy, as well as the subject of character development. And part of it is a large portion of honesty, in the church but also in society," he wrote in the online edition of his diocesan newsletter.

[...]

In the days following Schoenborn's editorial this week, several prominent prelates in Germany and at the Vatican shot down any suggestion that the celibacy rule had anything to do with the scandal, a point echoed Sunday by the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"It's been established that there's no link," said the article by Bishop Giuseppe Versaldi, an emeritus professor of canon law and psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

"First off, it's known that sexual abuse of minors is more widespread among lay people and those who are married than in the celibate priesthood," he wrote. "Secondly, research has shown that priests guilty of abuse had long before stopped observing celibacy."

sexual repression and sexual control have always been a hallmark of religions and nation states... it's the way to keep the population in line... why do you think the catholic church insisted on celibacy for priests in the first place...? why do you think the church is against birth control...? why do you think the church is against homosexuality...? simple... they and they alone have the right and authority to tell you how you can express your sexuality...

commenter mettle...

Rest assured, censoring sexuality in the media, causes sex to be supplanted with escalating violence. That then feeds on itself into a vicious circle and the violence ultimately spreads into war and the end game is accomplished: complete authoritarian control and wholesale population reduction through the violence.

Make no mistake about it: sexual repression breeds violence and ultimately war.

the vatican can protest all it wants... the truth will out...

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Gay and pedophile-ridden Catholic church woos homophobic Anglicans

i read this story last week but, for some reason, the stunning irony and jaw-dropping hypocrisy didn't sink in until late last night as i was tossing and turning, trying to get back to sleep...

The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism -- a surprise move designed to entice traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.

The decision, reached in secret by a small cadre of Vatican officials, was sure to add to the problems of the 77-million-strong Anglican Communion as it seeks to deal with deep doctrinal divisions that threaten a permanent schism among its faithful.

nobody could make this shit up...

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Attack of the gays - OH, NO-O-O-O-O-OOOOO...!

oh, my freakin' lord...

the american family association has lost the last wheels on its little red wagon...



i hope lewis black has checked out this latest addition to afa's screaming insanity... i'm sure he could do something with it, maybe even better than than this hysterical and dead-on rant...



i've said it before and i'll say it again... i have NEVER run across a comedian who is able to speak the truth so intelligently, so honestly, so succinctly, and, yes, so crudely, as lewis black... you laugh from the bottom of your gut AND you come away enlightened...

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Yes, I'm listening too

this kind of incredibly narrow-minded bullshit is what's REALLY destroying our country...



here's one way you can stand against hate...

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A brief pause in our regular programming

watch it...




A photo of Lawrence King lays at a memorial in his honor.
(courtesy of the LA Times)

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Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure - "I am Not GAY"

Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure

do ya suppose THIS'll do him in...?

Four gay men, willing to put their names in print and whose allegations can't be disproved, have come forward since news of U.S. Sen. Larry Craig's guilty plea. They say they had sex with Craig or that he made a sexual advance or that he paid them unusual attention.

They are telling their stories now because they are offended by Craig's denials, including his famous statement, "I am not gay, I never have been gay." Those words, spoken on live national TV on Aug. 28, are now memorialized on a just-released-for-Christmas Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.

the article comes complete with audio clips of David Phillips, Mike Jones, Greg Ruth, and Tom Russell, talking about their sexual encounters with the senator, AND this disclaimer...

Audio clip disclaimer: Some of the audio interview excerpts contain explicit descriptions of sex not appropriate for children and listeners who find such content offensive. The Statesman provides the excerpts so Idahoans can hear these accounts and decide for themselves about accusations against Sen. Craig.

c'mon, larry... 'fess up... you'll feel SO much better about yourself...

(thanks to john at americablog...)

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Two fathers

very sweet and very cool... thanks to john at americablog...

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ENDA passes

and aravosis is thrilled... and, yeah, me too... discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation is absurd and has always been absurd, every bit as much as discrimination based on LOVING somebody is absurd... love is what it's all about, so let's be damn grateful that there are people out there who love each other, and who gives a goddam what flavor of genitals are rubbing up against each other...

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The WaPo notes Obama's "spiritual reawakening" in another virtuoso display of context-free journalism [w/UPDATE]

the entire story builds on this opening paragraph... (pay no attention to that throw-away little 12th paragraph...)

[T]he Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois -- hoping his campaign can recapture some of that old-time religious fervor -- launched a three-city gospel concert series over the weekend across the state, in North Charleston, Greenwood and Columbia.

i kept reading, becoming more and more astonished at how a major news outlet could completely ignore the homophobic element that aravosis at americablog (here, among many other posts) has been all over like flies on shit - until, that is, the sole mention appeared, 12 paragraphs down, inserted between parentheses, almost as an afterthought...

(The gospel series also draws attention because of the inclusion of the Grammy-winning gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who has publicly said he overcame his homosexual thoughts and desires through prayer.)

no mention of WHY mcclurkin and his "getting over being gay through prayer" stance was drawing attention, WHERE it had been exposed, and the veritable firestorm that has ensued since... what a pathetic excuse for journalism... what a pathetic excuse for a newspaper...

[UPDATE]

my sincere apologies to the wapo... i have since read a lead story on obama in the la times which doesn't mention the homophobia flap AT ALL... i simply failed to appreciate the fact that the wapo isn't alone in its race to the bottom of context-free reporting...

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Where do YOU fit in on the anti-gay continuum?

mark fiore, too long absent from this blog...


Click image to play

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A Thursday evening larf *

never - i repeat, NEVER - let facts get in the way of your strongly-held beliefs...

A British comedian tells the following story:

"I was in a taxi early on a Sunday and the cab-driver started talking about how homosexuality was immoral. I was fed up with this and so I said I didn't know how useful hard and fast concepts of morality were in discussing this kind of issue. I then elaborated on societies, such as the ancient Greeks or the Zunis, where, far from being subhuman, homosexuality was actually viewed as a higher, more profound form of love, so all our ideas about its degeneracy may actually be bound-up in our own cultural context. The cab driver then said: ‘Well, you can prove anything with facts, can't you?'"

fortunately, most of the cab drivers i speak with don't have their heads quite so far up...

* from the urban dictionary...

1. Larf

a good time, or a good idea

Sounds like a larf.

2. Larf

to laugh in olden times

Let's go to the comedy pub and have ourselves a larf.

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As hateful as these people are, I will not respond in kind

my wish for them is that, despite their resistance, some light will eventually leak into their dark souls...


(click image for larger version)

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Radical Christian activist terrorism

this is what happens when you have fundamentalist christian ideologues attempting to impose their religious beliefs on an entire nation, beliefs fueled by rigid dogmatism, bigotry, homophobia, and intolerance of other religious beliefs, all implicitly sanctioned by the presidential administration and the republican party... even though it's been overused and abused, the correct term here is indeed the "american taliban..."

Three Burleson men who belong to a "radical Christian activist group" were in the Johnson County Jail on Friday night after a church deacon caught two of them attempting to ignite an explosive device on Independence Day at a church under construction in north Burleson [Texas], authorities said Friday.

[...]

Cmdr. Chris Havens, the Police Department spokesman, said the suspects boasted about belonging to a leaderless group of 10 or 15 who share a belief that society has become too focused on self-improvement and self-gratification and has lost focus on the glorification of God.

"They admit to being Christian and being brought up Christian, but they believe there should be one denomination and one church, not multiple denominations," Havens said.

at least they're putting these twisted young men into the proper category...

"We put them in the category of a domestic terrorist group," Havens said. "We hope to discover the names of other individuals involved and if other devices have been prepared along with any plans they may be talking about to further their cause."

needless to say, had these been muslim young men, there would have been 24/7 national news coverage for at least the next three days...

(thanks to atrios...)

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From Air Force One today, two for one

there's two "OH, REALLYs" here, one in the first paragraph and the other in the second... can you pick 'em out...?

President Bush said yesterday he fears that the backlash against immigration being incited by opponents of his legalization proposal could result in the nation losing its soul.

His comments came in an intense interview aboard Air Force One with McClatchy Newspapers. "I'm deeply concerned about America losing its soul," Bush said. "Immigration has been the lifeblood of a lot of our country's history." He added: "If we don't solve the problem it's going to affect America. It will affect our economy and it will affect our soul."

the first one is the easiest... bush is worrying about the nation "losing its soul...?" oh, c'mon, or, should i say, "OH, REALLY...!" the president who has presided over the most debasing, hate-filled, homophobic, religiously intolerant, race-baiting, accusatory, polarizing six and one-half years in the nation's history is worried about the nation losing its soul... < sigh > george bush must be the least self-examined man on the face of the earth...

didja catch the second one...? here's a hint...

Staffers at McClatchy's Washington, D.C., Bureau -- one of the few major news outlets skeptical of intelligence reports during the run-up to the war in Iraq -- claims it is now being punished for that coverage.

Bureau Chief John Walcott and current and former McClatchy Pentagon correspondents say they have not been allowed on the Defense Secretary's plane for at least three years, claiming the news company is being retaliated against for its reporting.

"It is because our coverage of Iraq policy has been quite critical," Walcott told E&P. He added, "I think the idea of public officials barring coverage by people they've decided they don't like is at best unprofessional, at worst undemocratic and petty."

i find it extremely ironic (or, should i say, "OH, REALLY!") that mcclatchy just happens to be the featured press outlet for this story... you can't tell me it's a coincidence...

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Damn straight...!

mike gravel...

"If a couple of lesbians or gay men want to get married, and they love each other, they should have the right to do that and enjoy all the legalities in our society that go along with that. I have no problem with that at all."

"I think that people who create these problems of homophobia and the likes of that do us a disservice," Gravel continues. "We are all human beings and one of the things that should motivate us, most of all, is love."

He blasts President Bush's "faith-based leadership," saying, "You can't legislate morality."

ok, ok... it's a bad pun... so sue me...

p.s. the most refreshing honesty and the clearest statement of truth on the issue yet... gravel's stock keeps rising in my book...

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Reasons to not ignore Ann Coulter

last week i begged for a respite from the ceaseless barrage of posts on the evil, extremist, bigoted cyborg, ann coulter...

no more about ann coulter... the amount of bandwidth that woman has sucked up in the last 24 hours is unconscionable... we complain over the media's obsession with anna nicole and then we go and do the same thing with someone who, in her own twisted way, is equally unworthy of any attention, much less the time spent blogging...

jamison foser at media matters smacks me down, and quite rightly...

All of which brings us to the first of two reasons why it is actually important that we don't ignore Ann Coulter.

If Coulter's seething hatred was hers alone, she might best be ignored. But that ugly and unthinking hatred isn't unique to Coulter.

Instead, Coulter's anger and venom are illustrative of the modern conservative movement. Her vitriol is embraced and rewarded by right-wing audiences far and wide. Her intellectual and rhetorical peers -- Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck, among others -- are, like Coulter, anything but "marginalized." They unleash vicious tirades against gays, women, minorities, and liberals -- and are paid handsomely for it. And they are paid not only in cash, but in respect: Vice President Dick Cheney, for example, sometimes seems to be auditioning to be Limbaugh's co-host, while President Bush opens the Oval Office to the likes of Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity.

[...]

But the most interesting -- and important -- thing about Coulter's hate speech isn't that it is representative the of attitudes of her ideological fellow travelers.

It is the similarity between what Ann Coulter was trying to do by calling John Edwards a "faggot" and what countless "respectable" members of the "MSM" do every day.

Coulter's comments, of course, weren't about convincing people that John Edwards is gay. They were about trying to strip him of his masculinity, to feminize him -- and in doing so take advantage of the cultural stereotypes that equate strength with men and weakness with women to portray Edwards as "wussy" (her word).

[...]

But the most interesting -- and important -- thing about Coulter's hate speech isn't that it is representative the of attitudes of her ideological fellow travelers.

It is the similarity between what Ann Coulter was trying to do by calling John Edwards a "faggot" and what countless "respectable" members of the "MSM" do every day.

Coulter's comments, of course, weren't about convincing people that John Edwards is gay. They were about trying to strip him of his masculinity, to feminize him -- and in doing so take advantage of the cultural stereotypes that equate strength with men and weakness with women to portray Edwards as "wussy" (her word).

excellent points, all... even so, i refuse to devote my limited resources of time and energy to paying attention to such bile... i may chuckle and shake my head from time to time... i may occasionally have to supress a gag reflex, but those creatures of the underworld will just have to figure out how to go on without me...

(thanks to atrios...)

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